Gracious Timekeeping

Good morning, Watermark. Just a little introduction. I'm Bernard. I'm Angie's husband.

And we've been attending Watermark here for about three and a half years.

So you're going to hear from me today. So for those that are visiting, I'm sorry, please do come back next week.

You are, you know, this is amateur night, if you like. So let me start with a little story.

There were two of these young fishes swimming along, okay? So get a picture in your head, kind of like Dory and Elmo, you know, swimming along in the sea.

And it happened to meet an older fish swimming the other way, so like this.

And the older fish nods to the younger fishes and said, morning boys, how's the water?

And the two younger fish swims along a little bit more. Then eventually one of the younger fish turns to the other and said, what the heck is water?

This illustrates my challenge today, okay? Talking to people in Hong Kong about the Sabbath and about spending too much time at work is like talking to fish about water, okay?

What's water? What's spending too much time at work, right? Everybody works these hours in Hong Kong.

Last year, you know, CNN did a survey and analyzed 71 global cities, okay?

That's about all the global cities in the world, 71 of them.

And it said, Hong Kongers work the longest hours in the world, 2,606 hours a year, 2,606 hours.

You can divide it in your head. That's over 50 hours a week, okay?

So just give you a bit of contrast.

And, you know, I know everybody says, Hong Kongers, they get so many holidays.

We get 17 paid working days of holidays a year, okay?

So that's a lot less than the rest of the world.

So just contrast, 2,606 hours for Hong Kong.

In Paris, they work 1,606 hours, okay?

This is the capital of France.

I hate to think what they work in Lyon, probably like 30% less.

But so we work 1,000 hours more in Hong Kong than the people in Paris, okay?

I'm not kind of beating up on the French.

I'm just giving you a contrast, okay?

So, you know, God has a real sense of humor, right?

If you ask my wife Angie there that what is one area in my life that I'm most incompetent in,

she would probably tell you it's my inability to allocate time to the things that are important in our lives, okay?

I'm a terrible time manager.

You know, I'm not a good steward of my time.

And so I learned about as much from preparing for this sermon as, you know, I hope you are going to.

So I have this problem.

The problem I have is not able to say no, okay?

I'm just not very good at saying no.

Somebody come and ask me to do something.

It's like, sure.

And then somebody else come and ask me to do something.

Sure.

And then I look at it.

Oh, I'm double booked.

But okay, I'll try and fit it in.

So that's my problem.

Then I spread myself too thin.

Then I have very little time left for my family.

So that's my main issue.

So, but I don't think I'm alone in this problem, right?

I mean, I think most of us feel like we kind of struggle with time management.

We feel our jobs demand too much from us.

And we feel very, we find it very difficult to disconnect from our work, right?

I mean, I'm going to talk a little bit more about that.

We struggle to make enough time for the relationships that are important in our lives.

We struggle with spending time with God.

We don't get enough sleep, okay?

Look, I mean, I see a lot of you with these fitness bands on you, okay?

Okay, you probably make the number of like target steps in a day.

But I bet you everybody here is not making a sleep quota, right?

So we struggle with enough sleep.

And we also struggle with a lack of exercise, right?

So the problem is how do we manage our time?

Well, the first verse we talked about, Ephesians 5, said,

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,

making the best use of time because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.

In verse 15 it says,

Not as unwise but as wise.

Being a good steward of time is a wisdom issue as opposed to a moral issue, okay?

The Bible doesn't say,

Thou shall not stay past 8 p.m. at work, right?

It just doesn't.

So it's much more nuanced.

It's actually a little bit more difficult.

Sometimes you kind of wish there was the 11th commandment that actually tells you,

you know, you must leave work by 8 or, you know,

Thou shall suffer the wrath.

But it doesn't, okay?

The fact is it is much more difficult to manage our time and see what the Bible says.

So how do we find out what the Bible tells us?

You know, should we be working 40, 50, 60?

Is it okay to work 70 hours a week, 80 hours?

Well, thankfully, verse 16 in the Ephesians scripture,

actually in the King James Version,

verse 16 it says,

Redeeming the time because the days are evil.

The word redeeming in Greek is actually a business term.

It's a transaction term.

It actually refers to maximizing your return, okay?

So those in the investment community out here,

you kind of understand.

That's kind of, you know, making a killing, right?

So maximizing your return is the word redeeming.

So the verse is telling us to maximize our return on our investment of time.

Don't waste it.

Don't invest it in low yield investments in time.

But how do we do that, right?

So we're going to look at it under three topics, three headings.

Firstly, own the problem, okay?

Are you a workaholic?

Okay, I'm going to ask that.

It's a rhetorical question, by the way.

You live in Hong Kong,

so you're probably, you know, some form of workaholic.

In fact, I think I noticed today's,

the title is Confession of a Workaholic.

It was the sermon title.

And then the second title is Answer the Problem.

The answer to the problem is Sabbath is the key to time stewardship.

And the third, a practical application is solve the problem.

What could Sabbath look like for us in 2016?

So, own the problem.

Here's the standard conversation.

I am assuming you probably had one of these last week in Hong Kong.

Between you and you bumping into somebody, maybe, you know, at work.

How's life?

Oh, it's busy.

Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot.

Could be travel and so forth.

So, that's a common exchange.

Asking Hong Kongers about overworking is really about fish in water.

But that's because the most obvious, the most ubiquitous,

and the important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see

and the hardest to talk about.

And I think how we manage our time and how we spend our time,

what we spend our time on,

is one of these topics that are just kind of hard to talk about.

But we need to, right?

So, I know what you're all thinking.

All you're thinking are like, well, Bernard, if you know what's on my plate,

and I just got too much on in a day, right?

Yep, you have no idea what's on my plate.

Well, I feel like that as well.

And I'm pretty sure you do.

So, basically, listen to this statement and see if you agree with it, okay?

God could not give you more to do in a day than you can do.

God could not give you more in a day than you can do.

Would you agree with that?

I would say so, right?

I mean, God wouldn't give you more in a day than you can do.

So, the problem is we all have more in a day than we can do, right?

So, what does that say?

Just logically speaking, you analyze that and you say,

well, there's some stuff in our day that is not God's will for us, right?

There's some stuff in our day that either we gave ourselves

or somebody's given us to do that is not God's will for us, okay?

Now, here's the difficulty.

The wisdom we're talking about is discerning what are those things.

We all have more in a day.

Not all of it is given by God.

Not all of it is God's will for us.

We've given some to ourselves.

We've definitely done that.

And other people have given some to us.

So, let's discern what are those things.

So, let me just analyze.

Why do we have so much in our day?

Or why do we have so much on our plate, okay?

I'm just going to say there's a few macro issues going on.

So, I'm going to talk about that.

And then a big internal issue, okay?

Let me talk about a couple of macro issues.

Firstly, globalization, okay?

Globalization, basically, we're talking about, I mean, I think about 10 years ago,

there was a guy, Thomas Freeman.

Some of you may have read his book.

Wrote a book called The World's Flat, okay?

Basically, he's talking about globalization.

And what he's talking about is basically anybody who can get online can compete for your job, okay?

So, you know, there was the dismantling of the Berlin Wall.

So, you know, the whole of the Eastern Bloc of Europe suddenly came into the marketplace.

China opened up.

India opened up.

Basically, you've got about three, three, four billion people suddenly entering into the marketplace competing for your job.

In fact, he had this saying.

He said, when he was young, his parents used to say to him,

eat up at your dinner table because there are hungry people in China and India who want your dinner, okay?

Now, he said, now what he says to his daughter is,

finish your homework because there are people in India and China who want your job, okay?

So, you know, but I'm not kind of talking about, this is not a Trump political speech.

We're not talking about moving jobs and bringing jobs back to America and all that stuff.

All I'm saying is we are in an ultra-competitive global environment, okay?

The second thing is technology and global logistics is allowed outsourcing.

Outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, outsourcing of service jobs, okay?

So, that's a couple of macro factors that are happening.

One other thing that is happening is technology, okay?

Mobile technology, smartphones, tablets, cloud technology, all that is actually causing a bit of a problem for us.

And that is we're not truly disconnected.

In very few places in the world that we are actually able to totally disconnect from our jobs.

A company, Adobe, did a survey last year and said 90% of the people check their work emails at home.

Not surprising.

42% survey said they check their emails way too much.

The other thing about technology, and I have to say I'm guilty because I'm part of that.

I work in the technology industry.

It changes the competitive landscape, okay?

Jump into a taxi anywhere in the world.

And, you know, their jobs are not getting shipped to India or Malaysia or anywhere, right?

But they will tell you immediately their business is down 25% because of Uber, okay?

Now, that's a global statistic.

Down 25% because of Uber, okay?

You go into any hotel industry, they will tell you their biggest competitor now is Airbnb.

In fact, Airbnb has got a higher market cap than the Marriott, which is the biggest hotel chain in the world.

So taxi rides, hotel rooms, these are the things that we thought were going to be immune to technological change, right?

But technology is disrupting all of that and it's causing an ultra-competitive environment, right?

So you've got both your jobs, other people, a lot more people competing for your jobs,

as well as your industry is being attacked from different directions.

So those are kind of a couple of macro issues that's making us work harder, right?

We've got to work harder just to keep our jobs.

We've got to work harder just to even stay half-competitive.

But the last and certainly not least is an internal issue.

It's a big issue.

And I think Arthur Miller, the playwright, the famous American mid-century playwright, said it best in his 1964 play, After the Fall.

The character in it, Quinton, said,

For many years, I looked at life like a court case.

It was a series of proofs.

When you were young, you prove how brave you are or how smart.

Then what a good lover.

Then a good father, a good husband.

Finally, how wise and powerful or whatever.

But underlining it all, I see now there was a presumption

that one moved on an upward path towards some elevation where I would be justified.

I think now that my disaster really began when I looked up one day and the bench was empty.

No judge in sight.

And all that remained was an endless argument with oneself.

This pointless litigation of existence before an empty bench.

Which, of course, is another way of saying despair.

What are we trying to prove?

Last month, Graham talked to us here about this concept of meritocracy.

Meritocracy is a system where you're rewarded for your merits, right?

Your value for what you can do, what you can produce.

Arthur Miller, in his play, reminds us,

one of the reasons we work so hard is we want to justify ourselves.

To prove that we are good enough.

That we should be accepted.

So there's a work underneath the work.

And that work is to prove that we have worth.

But the Bible reminds us that we are valued.

But not because of what we can produce or what potential we have to produce.

But because we are a creation of God.

We're created in the image of God.

And that is the reason we have worth.

So in summary of this section,

there are some external issues.

Globalization, technology.

That is driving hyper-competition.

But there's also an internal issue.

And that is our need to feel justified.

Our need to prove our self-worth.

And that is one of the reasons why we drive ourselves to overwork.

Now, the answer to the problem, thankfully,

thankfully, as I was reading through and studying for this,

thankfully, the Bible foresaw Uber and Airbnb.

It foresaw that we will go into this cycle of self-justification.

The key principle in the Bible to help us to be good stewards of time is the Sabbath.

In Exodus 20, it says,

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

But on the seventh is the Sabbath to the Lord your God.

So six days you shall labor and do all your work.

The verse is stressing that the key to maximizing the return from our time at work

is to observe the Sabbath.

You cannot be effective in what you do at work for the six days

unless you take a break from it, both physically and emotionally.

We need to be able to separate our identity from what we do.

And the Sabbath was designed to remind us that we are not only what we do,

but the true value in us is because we're created in God's image.

We need to be able to walk away from our work,

from our grades at university,

or from our need for approval from others,

from our bosses, or from our peers.

So what do you call somebody who can't walk away from their work?

Well, Deuteronomy 5 actually tells us,

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt,

and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand

and an outstretched arm.

Therefore, the Lord your God commands you to keep the Sabbath day.

We've talked a lot about slavery in the last month, right?

Especially the Israel slavery under Egypt.

And we're no longer under the Egyptians,

but we do have a new slave master.

The Oxford Dictionary tells us a definition of a slave

is a person who is excessively dependent upon or controlled by something.

A person who is excessively dependent upon or controlled by something.

Anyone who can't put down his work,

anyone who can't walk away from his work,

anyone who overworks is a slave by this definition.

We can be our slave to our own expectations,

our own need for success, materialism.

We can be our slave to unreasonable bosses.

Some of us can be a slave, you know, in Asia especially,

to parental expectations, right?

Both Angie and I work a lot with our young adults within our congregation.

And there's a lot of pressure for young people

to meet what their parents are expecting from them.

Now, some of you are parents.

I'm going to get to you in a second to talk about,

you know, some of the...

Sometimes it's very easy for us to put a lot of expectations on our kids.

So, Deuteronomy 5 tells us that Sabbath is actually a decoration of freedom.

Sabbath was given to us by God to give us rest,

the rest that we all need.

More than physical rest, it's a rest from self-justification.

And as Arthur Miller said,

it's a rest from this pointless litigation of existence.

What we all want is we want that rest.

We long for that rest.

So, in summary, in terms of what the Bible says about Sabbath,

God knew long ago that we were going to get caught up

in this cycle of self-justification.

As a result of the fall, really,

if you can go all the way back to Genesis,

the way we want to be justified is we want to succeed in our work.

We want to get good grades.

We want to get that big bonus.

Okay?

So, let's own the problem.

The Sabbath was designed to free us from the cycle of self-justification

by setting aside a time that we can be reminded

that our worth comes from being a creation of God,

not from what we produce.

So, let's go down to this application piece.

This is the piece I like.

Okay?

What could Sabbath look like in 2016 for us?

Okay?

I mean, Sabbath is such an old word.

It's kind of an Old Testament word.

And, you know, what does that look like?

So, two natural questions that come from application is,

how much time do I need off?

Okay?

And what should I do with that time?

What activity constitutes, you know, a good Sabbath?

Right?

I mean, when you talk about Sabbath,

you automatically kind of have this vision of,

for the Jewish community,

you know, there's a whole list of,

I think, 39 things that they can't do on the Sabbath.

And, you know, you shouldn't play sports,

and you shouldn't ride in cars, and so forth.

So, let's deal with it practically in 2016.

How much time off do you need?

Well, Tim Keller, in his talk on the Sabbath,

suggests you should have one and a half days off a week.

So, if you are at church today,

and you are busy in the morning,

you could be teaching Sunday school,

or you could be helping music, and so forth.

You have the afternoon off.

You should have one entire day off.

Say, for many, it would be Saturday.

Okay?

So, 1.5 days.

If you can't get 1.5 days,

what he suggests is you should have one day off,

plus three evenings.

Okay?

Three nights off.

So, after 6 o'clock.

Now, what should you do on the Sabbath?

Okay?

We all need some veg time.

We all need some time to just chill.

In Hong Kong, we are terrible at this.

Okay?

Because as soon as we get any time off,

we go and schedule it to the last microsecond.

We're going to do this, this, this, this, this, this.

Okay?

Now, as a parent of three kids,

I have to admit,

as parents,

I'm going to speak to parents now,

we also over-schedule our kids.

Okay?

Soon as they have any time off,

they've got to go to Tudor,

they've got to have music lessons,

they've got to do tap dancing,

and then, you know,

after that,

they can, like, go and do, you know,

revision on Kumon,

and other things.

So, we totally over-schedule our kids.

Okay?

And this is just a sidebar, right,

because it's really another sermon.

But I would just say,

we spend so much time in preparing our kids

to overwork for the rest of their lives.

So, we build their resumes,

okay,

for work,

or to get into that name brand university.

Okay?

But we don't prepare them for life.

We don't help them build their character.

And character building takes time.

And it's not about activity.

It's more about experiences.

It's more about learning from failures.

We're also not very good at letting them fail.

So, sometimes we do need to let them fail.

But anyway,

I'm diverting.

That's another passionate topic of mine.

But we do need some unstructured and unplanned time.

Okay?

So, we,

it's okay to go and watch Zoolander 2.

Okay?

It's okay to go and play League of Legends.

Okay?

That's not all your Sabbath,

but it's okay to go and just get some veg time.

Okay?

So, Leviticus 25 tells us

this analogy of letting the field

live fellow.

Okay?

So, you know,

for every time,

you should let the field

just have nothing grow on it.

That is veg time for us.

Okay?

So, the second part of Sabbath,

apart from the veg time,

so I'm not suggesting

you should veg for 1.5 days

because that would make you kind of sad.

You should have some avocational time.

Okay?

What's avocational?

So, these are more structured time.

Okay?

Okay?

Doing something you enjoy.

Okay?

And I'll break that down

into three sections.

Okay?

So, one is you need some time

for contemplation.

You need time to spend with God.

You need time to read the Word of God

or listen to the Word of God

and meditate on the Word of God

and prayer.

Okay?

Second, you do need some recreational time.

So, you should go and do some sports.

Right?

It could be dragon boat.

It could be just go for hikes.

Beautiful day this afternoon.

You know, just go for a walk.

Right?

Or go and enjoy whatever sports you play.

Okay?

And then the last is aesthetics.

You should have some time

to be exposed to the creation of God.

And that could be in Hong Kong.

I mean, there are beautiful trails.

You can go outside

and look at the nature of God.

That could be spending some time

with music,

with art.

Okay?

With theater.

You know, Hong Kong,

I mean, here's another

little advertisement.

You can go to a concert

with the Hong Kong Philharmonic

for under $200 Hong Kong.

Okay?

It's like $150.

That is the cheapest in the world.

Okay?

You cannot go to a Philharmonic

anywhere in the world

for $20 US.

Okay?

So, you can do that in Hong Kong.

But every time I go,

it's empty.

There's nobody there.

Okay?

I mean, there's like me

and the orchestra.

And it's like a private thing.

Right?

Which is kind of weird.

But I'm just saying,

there's just so many cool things

to do in Hong Kong.

You could go to a play

in Hong Kong

in a theater company

for about $150 Hong Kong dollars.

Okay?

So,

aesthetics.

It's important to be exposed

to the creation of God.

And art

is one of mankind's expression

of our dreams

and our hopes.

And sometimes with good art,

if there's a piece of music

that you love

and there's a painting you love,

by looking at that painting,

listening to that music,

you actually get a little sense,

a glimpse

of what heaven's going to be like.

I know,

I don't mean like

Belinda Carlisle's song,

Heaven on Earth.

Okay?

I just mean,

there are some times

that it touches your soul

with good art.

So,

contemplative,

recreational,

and aesthetic.

Okay?

Now,

there's a few things

to take into account

when you kind of

shape your Sabbath.

Firstly,

are you introvert

or extrovert?

Okay?

So,

the introverts,

you probably need

a little bit more time

by yourself.

Maybe reading

or listening to music.

Extroverts,

you can probably spend

more time with,

you know,

groups

and larger groups.

The problem comes

when an introvert

marries an extrovert,

which happens

all the time,

by the way,

because opposites attract,

right?

So,

at that point,

you do need to find

the right balance.

And,

you know,

I think after 22 years,

oh,

21 years of marriage,

we are finding

that balance.

Okay?

So,

introvert,

take more time

to be by yourself.

Extrovert,

it's okay,

you can,

you know,

be in group activities.

The other thing is,

we go through

different seasons

in our lives.

Okay?

So,

if you're in a new job,

you're starting

a new business,

okay,

you're parents

of little ones,

okay,

you're not going

to get a full Sabbath.

That is just the reality.

And don't feel

guilty about that,

don't feel too bad

about that,

okay?

I know there's some

doctors out there,

if you're starting

in your medical career,

you're not going

to get a full Sabbath.

Okay?

You're going to work

long hours.

You work in the

finance industry,

you're going to work

long hours.

But be careful,

that can't go on

forever.

That's a season

in your life.

Make sure you have

somebody accountable

in your life

to say,

hey,

you know,

it's been going

on for like

17 years,

maybe

the season's over,

you know?

So,

you know,

we've got to be

honest with ourselves,

right?

I mean,

they are,

and by the way,

because both Angie

and I work with

a lot of young

graduates,

when you first

come out to work,

you do have to

work hard,

you've got to

put in your hours,

you've got to

earn your stripes.

I mean,

sometimes,

I don't want to

be too harsh

on the millennials,

you know,

they come out,

and I have heard

a few of them

say to me,

you know,

six months into

their job,

my boss don't

really values me,

I'm not getting

a work-life balance.

I said,

dude,

you're six months

in,

okay?

You know,

and then they

start describing

what they're looking

for from their job,

and they say,

you know,

I want to be valued,

I want to be useful,

what I'm talented at,

and I said,

I don't know

what you're describing,

but it ain't a job,

okay?

But the fact is,

when you first

come out to work,

you do have to

put in the hours,

and it's not for

two years,

not for three years,

it's more like

ten,

okay?

Before you get

some credit,

before you get

some kind of

brand equity,

at that point,

you can start

dictating a bit

more what you can

do,

you know,

what I don't

want to do.

But you know,

don't try and do

that after six months,

oh,

I don't want to do

that.

That's,

you know,

come,

we'll get you fired,

and you will be in

fellow for a little

while.

So,

you know,

there's some

practical issues.

The other thing is,

Sabbath is very

vocation specific,

okay?

So,

it's not helpful

for a doctor

to try to advise

an accountant

how to manage

this Sabbath.

It's not helpful

for a banker

to advise a

full-time ministry

worker on how

their Sabbath

should look like.

You should look

for somebody

in your own

field,

who may be a

couple years ahead,

maybe 10 years

ahead,

and talk to them

and start working

through them what

your Sabbath

looks like.

So,

it may be worthwhile

for us in Watermark

that,

you know,

we could have

groups that are

more vocation

specific that can

get together and

talk about,

hey,

what could Sabbath

look like for,

you know,

bankers or lawyers

and doctors and,

you know,

people in full-time

ministry.

So,

I'm very careful

to say,

you know,

because of the

stress of the

different industries

that we work in,

Sabbath could look

very different

for different folks.

So,

just to sum up,

okay,

on today,

we have a tendency

to overwork.

We have a tendency

actually to enslave

ourselves.

for multiple

reasons.

There are kind

of global,

competitive reasons,

but deep down,

underneath,

there's the work

under the work.

We need to feel

justified.

And we need to feel

that we matter.

We need to feel

we're important.

But,

without the Sabbath,

we're not going

to find that rest.

So,

in summary,

Arthur Miller's

character said,

disaster really

began when I

look up one day

and the bench

was empty.

No judge

in sight.

In John 19,

30,

it tells us,

when Jesus had

received the sour

wine,

he said,

it is finished.

He bowed his head

and gave up

his spirit.

And in Deuteronomy 5,

we read,

with his mighty

hand and his

outstretched arms.

If we were

Arthur Miller's

character,

Quintin,

and we are all

in that courtroom,

we're all arguing

our own case,

we're all arguing

a case for

justification,

but we can look

up and that

bench is not

empty.

Because up on

there,

we will see

Christ,

with his

outstretched arm,

not like this,

but like this,

with our

outstretched arm,

nailed,

outstretched,

and he said,

it is finished.

Sabbath was

designed to

remind us

to look up

on that

bench and

see Christ

with his

outstretched

arms and

to remind us

that it is

finished.

We no longer

need to strive

for that

justification.

We no longer

need to strive

for that sense

of why do we

feel important.

Because of what

he's done on

the cross,

he's already

given that to

us and used

the Sabbath to

remind ourselves

that every

week.

Let us

pray.

Father God,

we just want

to give you

thanks that we

can come

together today,

Lord, to

discuss your

word, to be

reminded of

the gift,

this ultimate

gift that you've

given us.

That is the

Sabbath day.

That is a day

that we can

look up on the

cross, that we

can know that

we no longer

need to work

for our

salvation, but

our salvation is

granted to us

because of

what you've

done on the

cross.

On the

cross, we

are reminded

that we are

much worse

than that.

We believe

you we are

because it

took the

Son of God

to die on

the cross for

us.

But we are

loved much

more than we

can ever

imagine because

you were on

that cross and

you died for

us.

For all that,

we lift up to

you, Lord.

In the name of

our Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.