The Family Schedule

Good morning, CCW.

I want you to turn your Bibles this morning to Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

And uh Pastor Dave gave me a good intro there.

We're gonna be looking today at the family schedule.

And so, as you're turning to Ephesians chapter 5, I want to tell you a couple of things.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Uh number one, we celebrate in the month of August the anniversary of the church at Chelsea Westover and its beginnings.

And so next week I want to invite everybody here.

You can't say I never invited you out to lunch.

Everybody here is invited to a luncheon after church.

We're celebrating the 10th year of CCW.

Can we give God a clap offering for 10 years of what he's done here and uh awesome, awesome things in store for CCW.

This week was, man, it was cool.

We kicked off a couple of things getting back to school.

And I know that's a bad word over here, but y'all bear with me.

Uh one week through, all of you, most of you, look pretty good.

Not too worse for the wear, but anyhow, a wana kicked off, and then we had the back-to-school bash with the teens and our adult small groups go on Wednesday.

I'm gonna tell you, our campus was crawling with people.

If you if you haven't made it out on a Wednesday and you can come out and see about what's going on.

So I know that you see what happens at 10 o'clock on Sundays, but one of the things that we sort of uh, I want to say pride, that's a bad word, one of the things we get excited about here is that ministry happens at this church all week long.

And so uh you gotta come out.

There was over 150 people on campus on Wednesday, and uh it was a really good time.

So thank you all that worked on that.

Now, Ephesians chapter 5 continuing, and we started last week Family Matters, and uh hope that you'll be challenged as we step through this the next several weeks.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Harry Chapin was born in 1942, singer and songwriter, became really famous for singing stories, was blessed with talent, came from a family of talent, and uh, but became best known not for a song that he wrote, but a song that his wife Sandy penned.

And I want you to listen to a line, maybe it'll bring you back.

So they're gonna play a line from this song, and I want you to see if you if you know it.

My son turned ten just the other day.

He said, Thanks for the ball there.

Come on, let's play.

Can you teach me how to throw?

I said, Not today, I got a lot to do.

He said, That's okay.

And walked away by a smile never did and said, I hear some of you saying it.

Cats in the cradle.

Now, growing up, I heard people reference that song, and I'm gonna be honest, I had no idea what it meant.

I heard people use it in other terms outside of music.

They say cats in the cradle.

Okay, and I had heard that growing up, but it wasn't until about three years ago the song came on, and I was familiar with the sound and the song, but I had never until three years ago listened to the words of the song.

And about a minute through the song, I felt my eyes getting sweaty.

Y'all ever get like that?

My eyes were sweating.

And I'm listening to the words of the song, I said, Why am I crying to this song?

What is going on?

The kid just wants to play ball with his dad.

Come on, dad, throw with the kid.

And then the kid grows up in the song and he says, his dad calls and said, I want to spend some time with you, son.

And he says, I'm sorry, dad, I can't.

I'm too busy.

And it says, it turns out I'm just like you, dad.

Man, and I'm crying through this sad song.

And through studying this, I found out that the phrase cats in the cradle is synonymous with neglecting time and relationships.

So we're gonna look in Ephesians chapter 4 today, and I want to tell you first of all that time is a treasure.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

I've got an acrostic for you today.

I don't do a lot of these, but this one was something God gave me, and time is a treasure.

Letter T, treasure.

Um, and through this study, I want to tell you the way it's hitting me, it's been beating me up.

I got kids, I got a wife, I got family, and it listen, literally yesterday, so I'm studying through this all week.

And yesterday, uh my son says to me, Hey dad, can we go to a movie?

It's about three o'clock.

And on Saturdays, I try to kind of guard my time because I'm trying to prepare myself mentally for Sunday, and I don't want to be tired.

Last thing I really want to do is be tired Sunday.

He says, Can we go to the movies?

And I go, Absolutely not.

That's gonna put me out to this time, and I've got it all worked out, and I'm like, no, I'm not gonna do that.

That's gonna be, we'll do it another time.

And uh then the message is marinating in my heart and soul.

And I found myself at five o'clock at the summit with a boy on either side of me in their glory, eating up the popcorn and candy, right?

I'm like, how did I get here?

Well, I want you to understand before I dig any further that it is hitting me.

So if it hits you, trust me, it's happened here.

But time is a treasure.

To realize the value, I found this reading this week and I want you to hear it.

To realize the value of one year, ask a student who has failed a grade.

To realize the value of one month, ask a couple who was a month late on a car payment and lost a car.

How valuable is one hour?

Ask the businessman whose flight was delayed by one hour and missed an important meeting.

How valuable is one minute?

Ask the man that was sitting in a restaurant and happened to be sitting next to an EMT and he was able to perform CPR, saving his life in one minute's time.

How valuable is one second?

Ask the person who was driving in traffic and swerved, just missing an oncoming car collision.

How valuable is a millisecond?

Ask the Olympic swimmer who missed qualifying by six-tenths of a second.

Time is a treasure.

Christmas Eve of 2019.

It's about nine o'clock, and we start going through the presents that we have for the kids.

And we realize that I'm not gonna say who, but one of the groupings of presents had a little bit less than the others.

So 9 o'clock, 9.30, we get through this, and we're thinking, what do we need to do?

And I start looking up quickly.

What stores are open?

Target was open till 10 o'clock.

I leave Chelsea Park at 9:30.

I think I make it to Target in about eight and a half minutes, which isn't legal.

And so I get there, but along the way, Heather is texting me, get this person something, and if you see something else, the store closes at 10.

I get in there maybe 9.45, and I'm rushing around through the store.

I think if Sadaka's here, I think I ran into Sadaka and he was in the same boat.

And I'm looking, I didn't have time to talk to him.

Like, hey, brother, I know what you're doing, you know what I'm doing.

Okay.

I'm trucking through looking for something.

Everybody has bought everything, and I can't find I come home empty-handed.

I think I had a gift card more to add to what we had, and I'm like, it was, but this is what I learned.

Time was so valuable, and I ran out.

I'm so glad that Christmas morning things went okay, and one of the children weren't sadder than the other two, because then I would have really felt bad.

But I realized time, time is a treasure.

Let me pray.

Father, we love you this morning.

I pray that you would uh be with us this morning and help the Word of God to open our hearts, help us to see uh the value of this treasure you've given us and help us, God.

I pray for every person here to be more impactful.

Uh Lord, just speak.

Get us out of the way, and you speak in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The first thing about time being a treasure is this is a heart treasure.

Paul says in Ephesians 5 14, therefore he says, awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

He says, It's time to awake.

The Greek there is the word egero, and it literally means to rise up from obscurity, to rear up from non-existence.

He's saying, you have this chance not to be elevator music to life.

You have this time.

The great philosopher Marshall Mathers.

No?

AKA M N M said this: that you have, if you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you've ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it?

Life, the Bible says, if it's good, is three score and ten years, and you have one family.

The great tragedy of our society today is the schedule is making all the demands.

Paul said, awake! Come out of this stupor.

Don't walk around through life like you're some zombie controlled by something other than what you determine.

He says, awake here.

That means to be present.

Be present.

And Christ, he says, will give you light.

I want you to know the previous verses, verse 8 through 13, Christ is giving, or Paul is giving an admonition.

Don't waste time walking in darkness.

That's the world.

Don't listen to me.

Don't waste time walking about like a zombie where the schedule is the one that makes your demands in this world, but walk as somebody rather that's guided by light.

If you're walking in darkness, you can't see and you're hapless, you're listless, you're just walking around with no real purpose.

He says, walk as someone guided by light.

I want you to understand there's a philosophy today that you hear everywhere.

Live the dream.

And that's fine, that's good.

I don't want to crush your dreams today, but I want you to hear this.

If you're saved one day, you're going to live the dream in heaven.

Now is your opportunity to live the purpose.

Live with impact.

In the dark, you're lost.

And in the light you have purpose.

Are you walking in the light?

And purpose.

What you do with your time reveals what you treasure.

Matthew 6, 19 says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust does corrupt, where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure instead in heaven.

Well, how do we do that, Pastor?

In effect, Jesus is saying there in Matthew, time is a treasure.

And he says, Don't treasure treasure.

Treasure time instead.

Treasure eternal matters.

Letter B is this a heavenly treasure.

You have a heart treasure and then a heavenly treasure.

How can we use our time to build up treasure in heaven?

Well, we don't have time to go through each one individually and all the scripture, but I want you to know scripture mentions five crowns that will one day be in heaven.

A place where we can lay down crowns from the way that we spent our time here on earth.

Crowns are to be given out, and I'll just list the five crowns.

The Bible says there's an incorruptible crown, and this crown is given out for those living a disciplined Christian life, never compromising.

That means I continue to stand no matter what happens in culture, no matter how they try to change the truth, I stand firm.

And the Bible says, one day in heaven I'll be given an incorruptible crown.

So how do I spend my time?

I stand on the truth.

Second one is called the crown of righteousness.

And in this crown, 2 Timothy 4, 8, you can look it up.

For those who wait and look longingly for his coming.

What does that mean?

This side of heaven, we have a closeness to God, so close that we can't wait for his appearing.

The crown of righteousness.

The third one is the crown of glory.

And that crown is listed as for being faithful in the ministry, in the purpose that God has given you for your life.

God's given everybody here a spiritual gift that knows the Lord.

The Holy Spirit gives you a gift, and are you using that gift?

And so we're given the crown of glory by obeying and daily living out your calling.

And you can do it if you're a plumber, a carpenter, electrician, pastor, it doesn't matter.

The gift that you've been given, are you living it out in a way that ministers for the kingdom of God?

There's some people here right now.

You went to school or you had this passion and you're not doing it.

And what I'm telling you is you need to get back to that passion, that giftedness that God's given you.

And live for that.

One day, if we do that well, the Bible says in heaven there will be treasure.

The crown of rejoicing in 1 Thessalonians 2.19.

This crown is given for those who win souls for Christ.

It's always another reason to invite.

Invite people.

And listen, you whatever part of the process you have, I believe that a person would be given that crown.

If you were the inviter and somebody got the gospel, if you were planting seeds at work and they got the gospel, I think that we are a part of that.

It says for winning souls.

So share your testimony.

Look for opportunities and lead people.

If somebody's ready and God sends you that gift basket, be ready to share with them the Romans.

How do you be saved?

And here's how to be saved.

If you are saved, tell them how you did it.

That's what you tell them.

It doesn't have to be a seminary class.

Okay?

The blind man that got saved, he says, I met Jesus, I was blind, but now I see.

That was his testimony.

Just like that.

And so the crown of rejoicing, and the last one is the crown of life for those who persevere under trials.

For those who love him and keep persevering in the faith, despite difficulty, despite setbacks, despite disease, despite what you've been through on this earth.

And I think about all the stories that you hear about the disciples, the martyrs, and the book of the Bible, Jeremiah, he's called the weeping prophet.

He's a prophet who was called to be faithful to a city who was never going to repent.

But he was called to be faithful.

And so I know that Jeremiah was able to lay down this crown.

Secondly, this morning, letter I is this time is an investment.

I want you to turn over to Psalms chapter 90.

Psalms 90 · chapter mention

I want you to look with me.

Time is an investment.

Keep your place in Ephesians.

Psalms 90, verse 10 through 12, we're going to look at.

Psalms 90:10–12

There is mana, which means to weigh out your time, to weigh it like a scale.

And it says, so weigh and prioritize and look at your time.

You are the one and only investor in that investment.

Your time is only yours.

According to Psalms, it says there's 70 or 80 years of it.

I then am just shy of about 11,000 more days on this planet.

Okay?

So how am I going to use the time that I've been given?

He says, teach us to number our days.

Military leaders have long used a phrase, carpa diem, and that phrase means seize the day.

I've got 11,000 more chances to do it.

And if I don't begin to do it, the question I have to ask myself is, will I?

So I want to ask you this morning, is there a step you need to take towards purpose?

Is there something that you've longed to fulfill that God has put on your heart?

Listen to me, you have to begin that.

Your days have a time frame stamped on them.

And so there's things you need to do.

Take that class.

If you've put something off, if you have awe with somebody, go get it right.

Don't wait.

Bitterness does not get better over time.

So go get that thing right.

Listen, guys, hear me.

Young men, single men, if you like her, get the ring.

Don't wait.

Time.

Listen to me.

Don't put off.

At home, I kind of live in this motto most of the time.

I don't like to put something off to tomorrow.

If my car needs gasoline, I don't want it to get gasoline tomorrow.

If it's 10 o'clock at night, Heather's heard me.

I'm like, do I need to go get gas?

And that's just because who knows what happens tomorrow.

And I don't like that situation.

So I want it done.

And you know, the trash has to be out on Wednesday morning, but if you live in my mind, the trash has to be out on Tuesday night.

Because I've missed the trash before.

And you know what that does?

It makes for a stinky porch.

I don't want to live a week with a stinky porch.

And so my investment is this.

What do we do with our time?

I want you to hear this, church, right now.

You are investing exactly what you intend to.

Nobody's taken your life and made the wrong investment for you.

You are investing exactly what you intend to.

And life is a life of brevity.

It's short.

It's here.

The Bible calls it a vapor.

It's here.

And then it's gone.

You have this moment and time to make your investment.

You've got this family and this circle that you have to make your investment.

So what are you doing?

Let me tell you what it's okay to do.

It's okay to go home and put this on the counter and be done with it for the night.

That's okay.

You hear me, students?

It's okay to put that thing up and invest in a conversation with the human.

It's okay to put that thing up.

It's okay to say no.

Listen to me, folks.

Not everything is your best yes.

What are you doing with your schedule?

Because what I know is you're doing exactly what you intend to do.

You're investing just the way that you have set out.

You say, Pastor, well, things come up.

Yes.

I know circumstances arise and things shoot out that you did not plan.

Okay, I'm not talking about that.

So I want you to think this morning about your investment.

It's okay today to reevaluate.

It's never too late to reevaluate.

Right now is the right time for that.

And so we need to understand, he said, teach us to number our days.

Why in Psalms?

What did it say at the end of it?

That we might gain a heart of wisdom.

Why do we weigh out our days and look at the things we're doing and look at our investment and weigh out what should be here and what should be there?

Because we want to be wise with our investment.

Turn back to Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

I want you to see what Paul said about that.

After he said awake, verse 15.

He says, Awake you who sleep, walk in light.

And then he says, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but there's that word again, as wise.

Paul said circumspectly.

What's that mean?

It comes from the word circumference.

And what it is, circumspectory is the boundary of a circle to walk with boundaries.

Man, there's a message I could preach.

Let's walk with boundaries.

And so he says, within the circle, there's boundaries within your circles.

How many of you love roller coasters?

Got some roller coaster people?

You're my people.

Okay, you're my people.

Now, I hate, we're gonna pull up a picture.

I want you to see this picture of this ride.

I hate rides that spin in circles.

Y'all been on it or seen this thing before?

This is the spawn of Satan.

The zipper.

It goes like this, and while it's circling, the other things are circling on it.

Look, I need you to know something about your pastor.

I cannot even watch a carousel.

I'm talking about the quarter one.

I'm like, oh, like I can't take all that.

I can ride any roller coaster.

But this is this is what it is.

Satan within your circle intends to get your head spinning in busyness and in life.

And then right when you're just as busy as can be, he wants to hit you.

And so Paul says, hold on.

He says, keep your head about you and walk circumspectly.

Keep your head about you.

What does that mean?

Peter says it this way He said, be sober.

And be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

And so we've got to invest with a right mind.

We have to be aware, watch your circle, who's in your circle.

You've got to watch your kids' circle and who's in that circle and your kids' friends.

And there's got to be a lot of prayer in your circle.

And you've got to watch your back and your circle.

So when he's talking about this circumspectly, I'm looking and I'm keeping my mind about me and I'm watching and I'm looking and I'm guarded and I'm watching my family and their time and I'm watching my kids and their time.

And I'm always, and I'm circumspectly walking through this life, looking at the investment of time.

Because the enemy's coming.

Romans 12, Paul said this about our life and our time.

He says, Be not conformed to the pattern of the world.

Romans 12, 2.

Who's in your circle?

Is the schedule running your time?

And then you get home.

And what do you have at home when the schedule makes the demands?

You have nothing.

Instead, Paul says, But be transformed by the renewal of your mind, re-evaluating.

To invest your time wisely, you have to look circumspectly and watch circumstances around you.

You better think right.

Don't think things.

I've heard this phrase for things will just work themselves out.

No, you get in there, you work things out.

Philippians 4 8 says, about your mind and your thinking.

Think on whatsoever things are good, pure, lovely.

Things that are good were pure.

You got to have a right mind to see what's going on within that circle.

He says, be circumspect.

And let me tell you something.

Husbands, leaders, sometimes you're going to have to see it for your wife.

There are times where I have to say to Heather, hey, let's go on a date.

Let's just go on a date.

Let's go on a car ride.

There's times where Heather says to me, I need a car ride.

And a lot of times what that means is we need to have a conversation and sort of like reevaluate what's going on.

There's some times where I'm looking at my kids and what's going on, and I've got to look at their circumstances and go, this is unhealthy as a leader.

Let me give you an example.

At teen camp, for 17 years at teen camps, we take kids, and the first night what they would love to do is have zero rules because anarchy is awesome.

And so if we can just stay up and never go to sleep, we know that that is the epitome of fun.

And I'm like, when you've lived long enough, you realize that you know what?

Staying up and being tired the whole next day isn't as fun as getting some rest and then having a full next day.

So we pump into their brains at the beginning of camp.

There is a bedtime at 11 o'clock.

I know it sounds exciting to stay up all night and have the conversation, but the conversation is not as fun as the lake tomorrow.

And you're gonna be dragging to the lake like this if you don't go to sleep.

And so wisdom says you need to go to bed.

And so I'm looking at their time.

Listen, how are we spending our time?

How are we investing wisely?

You know, I'm playing a lot of basketball lately.

I know that's funny to some of y'all.

It's funny to me.

I know I don't look like somebody who needs to be playing a lot of basketball.

And I don't like it really.

Um in fact, the other night my son, who's shorter than me, beat me in a game of 101, which is hard for a person like me to take.

I would much rather be playing ping pong.

And I know that makes me a nerd.

But I can be look, I'll take any one of y'all.

If y'all come on, we got one over there.

Listen, I'm serious.

I'll play you in ping pong.

But listen, right now, both my sons are ate up with basketball.

So here, look, in my driveway, oh my soul.

So if you play in my driveway, there's there's a patch of concrete to the basketball rim.

And listen, every time we play, you miss a shot, it's going down into the it's going down into the street.

You make a shot, it's probably gonna go down the street.

So I'm just chasing the ball, chasing the ball.

And every time we play for five minutes or ten minutes, I gotta take a shower.

I'm like, this is not fun.

But it's fun spending time with my boys.

I like to spend time with my kids.

And so you know what?

I gotta take a lot of showers right now.

And I gotta, I gotta, my pride has to be crushed, and I gotta get beat by a 14-year-old in a game.

Look, look, y'all don't know.

I was look, I was all conference, y'all.

At a small Christian school where if you had legs, you could play.

So listen.

Still hurts.

I forgive you, Wyatt, but listen to me.

It's about investing wisely.

James 1, 5 says this if you lack wisdom, then cry out.

Cry out to God.

And there's the point that you apply what you have learned so that you help your family to walk circumspectly.

Here's what Satan knows.

Mark 3.25, the scripture says that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

And so what Satan wants to do is get you divided, becomes divisive in your house, it becomes tired in your house.

Your schedule makes you weary, and everyone's aggravated, and then he can get you.

And if he can steal your time, he'll steal.

Listen to me, Lear's parents, he'll steal your investment.

He wants to get in.

I want you to read verse 16 and 17 with me.

What it says.

It says, walk circumspectly in 15.

He says, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

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

The third thing, letter M, is this time needs to be managed.

Needs to be managed.

And this is what it is, letter A.

It's a management of busyness.

If you live in this culture today, you're going to be busy in some way.

Most people are living in some realm of busyness, but how are you busy?

What are you doing with your busyness?

I'm not telling you that you should go home and take your time.

Everybody just have a siesta all the time.

I'm telling you, take your time and figure out how it needs to be managed.

He says, Redeeming the time.

One of the great deceptions I think Satan is using today is this phrase I don't have the time.

You can't save time or even waste time.

You're going to spend it somewhere.

Some people say, I don't have enough time to get back with my family.

I just don't have enough time.

There's not enough of me, and there's not enough time.

You and I have the exact same amount of time as everyone else has.

You're doing exactly what you intend.

Now, if that's making yourself something in your business and you don't have time because of it, well, that's because that's what you're intending to do.

You say, well, hold on, Pastor.

I've got to provide.

Yes, you do, but you've got to provide more than money.

You got to provide soul and spirit as well.

And so there's more than just time that provides money.

I don't have the time.

Grown people have said to me before, I just can't wake up for church that early, Pastor.

10 o'clock.

I'm like, what?

Like, grown people with degrees, I'm like, I know how you had to work to get to that point.

What are you saying that you just can't?

No, you can do exactly what you intend to do.

Three years ago, as I was studying, I was thinking back, um, I was full-time with the youth ministry.

At that time, I was working as serve pros chaplain.

I was side hustling, mowing some lawns.

Um, my wife was working for shipped grocery delivery, and all three of my kids played soccer at the same time.

Um and so the practices every night of the week almost, and and then we had church on Wednesday, on Sunday, and visitation on Monday, and and I think we had Fridays sometimes, was what it looked like for a few months, and I was thinking back about that, and then my son kept pushing me.

Dad, I want to play baseball too.

I want to play baseball.

I'm like, dude, we can't do soccer and baseball same season.

Dad, I want to play baseball.

I want to play.

Okay.

So three sports, let's just add one more.

I mismanaged my whole family's structure.

I walked them into a season, knowing it wasn't gonna be good.

And let me tell you, it wasn't.

It wasn't good.

I mismanaged time.

And you know what happened in my house?

It wasn't good.

I'm supposed to be the leader of that.

And so, what did I do with time?

I mismanaged it.

I mismanaged myself and my family.

And when we think of the concept of time management, it's a little bit misleading because you really can't do anything to change time.

You can't delay it, you can't speed it up, you can't save it, you can't lose it.

No matter what you do, time keeps moving forward at the same pace.

So the challenge is this: not manage time, but manage yourself.

How are you managing you so that you're impacting the world and the circle that God's put you in best?

Think about your time, think about your days.

Well, how do I do that, Pastor?

I'm glad you asked.

Letter B is a manage meant in balance.

We have to have balance.

How do we have balance with our time?

Well, this is something I'm an expert on because short people have balance.

I'm serious.

When I play football, all the times I play football, this is what I love.

I hit people or they hit me and I bounce.

That's what I people can't knock me down.

It's too hard to get, you know, wrap me up with a tackle around the knees.

You can't get all the way down there without scraping your face.

And so I love to play football because I just bounce and I bounce off one person, the next person hits me.

I'm serious.

A lot of people, a lot bigger than me, hit me and I bounce and I land.

I'm like, this is one of the great things about being short.

I have good balance.

We go to defy the place, the jump place, and there's these people that walk across, there's a balance beam, and they walk across with a rope, and then there's one next to it with no rope.

These people can't get across with a rope, and I'm like, first thing I do every time I go, it's like I'm a show-off around kids.

I walk on the one without a rope, and I'm like, ha ha.

Don't you wish you were short.

I got balance.

But listen to me, in a seriousness.

On my best days, I'm bouncing from what I have prioritized to the next thing, and I hit it, and when I hit home, there's kids there, and I'm bouncing, and I hit that and I invest, and then I'm bouncing to the next thing, and I'm prioritized.

Let me tell you a couple of practical things that helps so that you don't fall out.

One, prioritize.

Whether you do it before you go to bed, whether you do it first thing in the morning, prioritize your day.

Don't let your day prioritize you.

Put your largest rocks in.

You've seen that example.

You got a jar.

Put your largest rocks in.

Prioritize, number one.

If it helps you like me, number two, make lists.

If you've ever been in my office, I got lists all the time.

And I mark some things, and then I start a new list, some of the old things, but I like, I just I like to write it out so that I understand what's important.

Number three, really important in our society right now, is eliminate distractions.

You'll do what you want to do.

Maybe that's you didn't intend, but what you want to do if you start learning to eliminate the distractors.

Number four, set boundaries.

What do I want to get done?

How do I do that?

Well, there's gonna have to be some boundaries in your life to make that happen.

Let me tell you, we don't have time to go there in scripture, but and Pastor Dave hit this a few weeks ago so well, but there's a story in scripture about Mary and Martha.

Martha was busy.

She was busy, she was getting the place ready, cleaning up, cooking, everything was getting right.

Martha was very busy.

Scripture says, but Mary chose that good thing.

She prioritized.

This is the thing she needed to know.

Martha needed to hear this.

It was okay, Martha, not to have a perfect house.

Hmm.

Not because Mary liked messes.

Mary didn't like Mary liked messes, but she wanted to be present for the most important thing.

And this is where she got it.

She didn't miss the most important thing, which was Jesus.

Some might say Martha had a pride problem.

She missed Jesus because she wanted people to see that she had her stuff together.

She missed time of worship because she wanted her stuff to look together.

I'm gonna tell you this, we've been saying it for weeks.

Look, we don't have our stuff together.

You got your stuff together?

All your stuff?

Well, there's five honest people here.

That's good.

Thank you for shaking your head no.

The rest of y'all, we got a conference later, and you're leading it.

Your family needs a balance manager.

How are you gonna lead in the balance of the right priorities?

And lastly, is this letter E.

Time needs to be enjoyed.

It needs to be enjoyed.

Look at what he says.

Verse 18.

And do not be drunk with wine and which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.

Say, what in the world?

How does this fit, Pastor?

He says, There's no need to be intoxicated by a substance.

Out of nowhere, it almost seems.

Paul's talking about time, send away from you.

Now he's talking about drinking out of nowhere, don't be drunk.

Why that comparison?

Possibly because it would seem that the right intoxication would be appropriate.

There's a right intoxication, Pastor.

I want to know about that.

He says, Cheers to the Spirit, not the spirits.

The Holy Spirit.

He says, be filled.

If you want your time to be enjoyed, be filled.

You have to be filled with the right things so that what comes out of you is the right thing.

And today, church, listen to me.

We're gonna have an invitation in just a few minutes.

2 Corinthians 6.2 says this about your time.

Behold, now is the acceptable time.

Now is the time for salvation.

Maybe what's a wreck in your life is you've never committed yourself to Jesus.

You cannot begin to be filled with his spirit if you don't know him as Savior.

And then when you're filled, you can make the most of the time that he gives you.

And so be all in.

He says, be filled.

Be all in.

That means be filled with the Spirit.

Be full of the Spirit.

Have all of the Spirit so that when you walk out into your day, you are full of all that God can be in you.

And look at what he says will happen.

So that your heart will be full of melody, and you'll be singing and speaking and shouting together and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

He says, You'll have a melody of your heart.

Man, have you ever walked up to a person, they just seemed joyful?

Man, every time you were around him, it just felt like it was good to be around him.

You felt like you had a pep talk, pep rally.

Look, he says, if you will be intoxicated, not drunk, intoxicated with the Holy Spirit, there will be a joy that emanates from who you are.

You won't be able to help but smile.

Jason teases that he has what's called HRF.

I'm sorry, Jason, for putting your word on the street.

He says he has hostile resting face.

Some of y'all got it.

If you ever come on this side, you'll see it.

But what I want you to understand is when you begin to open that mouth, the joy of the Lord can come out.

If you're full of it.

Now, if you've been running on a schedule that the demands are made for you and you don't get to be a part of the investment, a lot of times you run on empty.

Right?

You'd be the person that'll be posting tomorrow morning about the six cups of coffee you needed to crack a smile.

Almost ready.

Look, I'm look, Heather will say I'm guilty, knee.

It takes me a little while before I want to speak to humans.

I'll be okay to be around them, but okay, God's still working on me.

I told you this message hurt me too.

So he says, be filled so that you'll have a heart full of medit melody.

Let me give you two practical tips about that, and then we'll wrap up.

Letter A is this.

Your time needs to be enjoyed, so enjoy it with laughter.

I got a video that I need you to see.

I turned that on one place, and there was people still not laughing.

If you cannot laugh at babies, you need to go ahead and come on up at the altar now.

I'm just gonna tell you.

If that didn't bring nothing to you, there's some people I could tell them what I think is the funniest thing, and they I'm like, man, give me something.

My kids are at that stage right now.

Nothing I say is funny.

You know, I'm an uncool dad, but listen.

Melodious heart is what that verse said.

Listen to what was said about laughing.

When we laugh, this is what happens.

Just hear me.

When we laugh, we perform rhythmic, vocalized, expiratory, and voluntary actions.

Fifteen facial muscles contract, and there's electrical stimulation to the muscles, to your cheekbones in the corner of your mouth.

Your respiratory system is upset by your epiglottis, half closing, so air intake occurs in an irregular gasp, and under extreme circumstances, tear ducts are activated, and so that while the mouth is opening and closed, there's a struggle for sufficient oxygen, and your face becomes red, sometimes moist, right?

Noises are described about laughing as snickers, chortles, giggles, cackles, and snorts.

Some snorters in the crowd, right?

Look.

So just talking about laughter is fun.

Are you with me?

Proverbs 15, 13 through 15 says this.

Look, how is this biblical, Pastor?

How do I need to enjoy my time?

It says, A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance.

When this thing gets right and there's joy in it, you'll have a lot to smile on.

Your countenance will look better.

So some of y'all spend a lot of money at the makeup store.

Look, just laugh some.

This is what it says in verse 15.

He who has a merry heart, it's like a continual feast.

The happy heart is like a continual feast.

I don't know if you've ever been to a continual feast, but we went on a cruise on our honeymoon, and that was a blessing.

So at about 10 o'clock every night, I don't remember if it was a whistle or what it was.

They were like, the chocolate buffet is open.

Yes.

Are we going?

Of course, no matter what we were doing.

And listen, the great thing about a cruise, anytime you want, you can pick up your phone in your room and there's a menu.

And you can have anything on it at any time.

I'm like, pick the thing up.

We hadn't eaten in about 45 minutes.

I'm like, I need a cheeseburger.

Yep.

Cheese tray?

Yep.

You got a fruit tray?

Yep.

Bring it all.

Every time.

We had not, I don't.

If we wanted food, we had it.

It was a continuous feast, and it was awesome.

When you think about that, laughter, that merry heart is like a continual feast.

Scripture says a cheerful heart is good medicine.

And there's some of you who have said that before.

Man, I just need a good laugh.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 tells us that there is a time to laugh.

Ecclesiastes 3:4

Lastly, enjoy life with your loved ones.

I want you to turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 9.

Ecclesiastes 9 · chapter mention

Enjoy life with the ones that you love.

Enjoy it.

Has every day felt like a burden?

And you think about your days and your work, as the days felt tedious and laborsome.

What does Solomon say?

Ecclesiastes 9, verses 9 through 11, we'll look at.

Ecclesiastes 9:9–11

He says, live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life and in labor which you perform under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.

There is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you're going.

I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle strong, bread to the wise, riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill.

But time, listen, and chance happen to them all.

What can we learn here?

Solomon says, Enjoy your wife.

If you got a wife, look at her right now and say, I'm going to enjoy my wife.

Ladies, you can look at your husband, I want to enjoy my husband.

He says, Enjoy.

When is the last time that you enjoyed?

Hear me, you enjoyed what you have right now.

People misuse and abuse Philippians 4.13 more than any verse in the whole Bible, I think.

And the scripture, everybody knows, I can do all things through Christ with strength in me.

But the scripture that comes preceding that, Paul is in prison.

He says, I know both how to be abased, I know how to be low.

He says, and I know how to abound.

It's been good in my life.

I know both how to be rich and I know how to be poor.

He says, everywhere and in all things whatsoever state I am in, I can be content.

What's he saying?

I've had a lot and I've had a little.

You know what?

I can be good right where I'm at.

From prison, he says, I can do all things.

Church, let me tell you something.

We are blessed.

Have you enjoyed your blessings?

Have you enjoyed the family, the friendships that you have?

Have you looked around and seen what's in front of us to invest?

Scripture says life does not consist in the abundance of things.

Things and the drive to get more of them is not going to make that heart full.

You have things and you have the things that you need.

Are you investing and contented with those?

Paul said, I can be content.

Solomon, the wisest man, he says, Whatever you have, do it and live joyfully with it.

And then he says this, that word there, he says, do it with all your might.

That's important.

The Greek word is koak.

Kowak, and it means with firm, unwavering force.

That means whatever you got to do.

Man, don't do it half-heartedly.

If you're in a job that you don't love, it's okay.

Do it as hard as you can do it.

And if you intend to invest differently, then get out of it as quickly as you can and get into the one that you do intend to do.

But do it with all that you are.

Don't walk into anything mediocrity or apathetically or halfway.

Anybody want to say that about your?

You know what's really good about my husband?

He's really average.

He does everything with, I mean, halfway.

Be all in with all your might.

Listen, I know that sometimes life is hard.

And I get that.

And I know that circumstances pop up that we have zero control about.

But we do have a control of our response to it.

And that too is a gift.

The hard times, and this is hard to say, but I want you to hear it.

If it weren't for hard times, we would take for granted how good the good is.

We would robotically think that all the times are supposed to be like this.

Hard times allow us perspective about the good.

So give all you've got.

So that, Ephesians 5.20, the end of it there, it says, so that you can be giving thanks always for all things to God.

He says, giving thanks always for all things to God.

This is how we redeem the time and make the most of our time.

We're giving thanks to God.

How?

Because we're enjoying what we have, we're enjoying what's in front of us.

We're enjoying the best parts of life that are already here.

We're just learning to invest differently.

Cats in the cradle became synonymous with Harry Chapin's song.

Actually has roots well behind it into Dutch nursery rhyme and some uh I tried to find what does cats in the cradle mean?

What is that?

I know I still that the phrase, if you look it up, it'll take you down a hole of things.

But there's one saying that a cat could get in the cradle with a child and take its breath away.

The other one said the cat's in the cradle and he's the one watching the child.

Um and so what is cats in the cradle?

Well, actually, now it's most synonymous with the words written by Harry Chapin's wife, Sandy.

And so when people hear it now, what they really reckon it to is this song.

And here's the crazy thing about it.

He wrote this song after his son was born.

And when their son was seven years old, Harry was at the height of his career.

And Harry's a good man.

If you watch documentaries, he was a good, he was an activist, he was all over trying to do some right things, and he was moral, but at the height of his career, he was doing about 200 concerts a year, and many of them he was doing for free.

But this is what happened when his child was seven.

He promised that at the end of that summer he was gonna make some time for Josh's son.

In July 16th, 1981, Harry didn't make it another day.

At 38 years of age, a tractor trailer smashed into Harry Chapin's Volkswagen bug, and his life was instantly over.

His time and investment at that moment were finished.

What are we doing with the time we've been given away?