On Purpose with Our Time

Well, last Sunday we started a series called Life on Purpose.

Normally what we're doing, if you're new to his hands, is we're usually going through a book of Scripture.

We we do that all the time.

Sometimes it's a section of Scripture.

We're just going kind of verse by verse through it.

But then we'll pause and in between those, we'll do sort of a topical study.

And right now, we're doing a topical study on living intentionally, living life on purpose.

I don't think most people who know me well would describe me as someone who is constantly on purpose.

I'm a little scattered.

You know, I'm one of those people that if I'm in a meeting, even if I'm the one leading the meeting, I need someone sitting next to me to be like, hey Justin, back on top of mine.

Oh, thanks.

Okay, cool.

Because I can just, you know, I can side quest a little bit.

And so it's really important for me to be reminded what it looks like to live life intentionally.

Because sometimes life gets away from me a little bit.

Whether it's busyness or it's pressure or it's just emotions, or it's sometimes it's just like a season where you're like, blah.

Sometimes life happens to me instead of me living my life.

There's a difference.

And Jesus calls us to live on purpose.

In fact, the foundation scripture that we're using for this comes from Ephesians.

And this is what God challenges us in terms of how we're meant to live.

Ephesians 5, 15 through 17.

Be careful how you live.

Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise.

Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

Live on purpose.

And so last week we began by talking about the fact that everything that Jesus did, he did on purpose.

Everything.

Even the things that you would typically see someone do, and if this happened, it's completely an accident.

That person would be like, My bad, I messed up, oops.

Even those things Jesus did on purpose.

For example, when Jesus offended people, it was on purpose.

When Jesus said something that was offensive and hard, it wasn't like afterwards his disciples said, Hey man, that really hit.

And he goes, Oh, it did?

I am so sorry.

I did not mean to offend anyone.

No, when Jesus offended people, he he meant to.

When Jesus confused people, we talked about that last week, he meant to.

If you end up confused at the end of the message today, I've messed up.

And you don't have to come back next week.

You're free not to.

But seriously, if you if you walk out confused, chances are I didn't do a great job delivering the message or creating the message, crafting the message, listening to God on the message, whatever.

But when Jesus confused people, he did it on purpose.

Like his disciples came to him, like, why do you teach the way you teach?

You tell all these stories, no one knows what you're talking about.

He's like, Oh, I know.

Yeah, I know, I love that.

Because what I really want, he said, was for people to have a hunger to know more.

I don't want to spoon feed them, I'm paraphrasing, but he basically says, I want to teach in a way that only those who are truly curious, who have a deep desire to know the Lord, to know God, that they're gonna stay engaged, they're gonna ask questions.

I don't just want to give the people what they think they want.

It's an interesting choice.

And Jesus did that on purpose.

When he got arrested, he got arrested on purpose.

He didn't get caught.

He walked right up to the people that were there to arrest him.

And he's like, I know why you're here, let's do this.

When Jesus died, he died on purpose, with a purpose, for a purpose.

That purpose was us.

He paid the price for our sin.

He restored our relationship with God the Father.

Now we can have a close relationship with the God who created us.

We're not separated by sin, by guilt.

Jesus provided access to us to have the Holy Spirit, God's actual spirit in our lives.

That's what his death accomplished.

So when he died, he died on purpose for a purpose with a purpose.

And we want to live like that.

We want to be like Jesus.

I want to be like Jesus.

I want to live life on purpose.

Because, like I said, you can be someone who lives intentionally, or you can be someone that life is happening to.

It's like if you ever see someone walking a dog, but they're not walking the dog, the dog is walking them.

Have you ever seen that?

That can be life sometimes, right?

Where you're not in control, it is just pulling you along.

And yes, there can be circumstances that are so extreme that there's really no way around that, sure.

But for the most part in life, that's not the way life is meant to be.

We are meant to live life, not have life lead us around.

So we're exploring what it would look like to do what Ephesians 5 says, to be thoughtful and careful and intentional with how we live our lives, to live life on purpose.

And today we're going to talk about how to be on purpose with our time.

This is not a message about time management.

You can go buy a ton of books on time management, and there's apps and all that kind of stuff.

It's not about time management, it's about discerning the time that you are in and making the most of it.

There's a difference.

Okay?

It's about time discernment, if anything.

Quick question, I think I know the answer to this one.

How many of you hate, and I mean like hate with a passion, when someone wastes your time?

Anyone like if your time is wasted, oh okay.

So I was thinking about it this week.

I was asking Megan, like, help me think of situations in life where something wasted significant time.

And a bunch came to my mind.

One actually kind of goes along with this upcoming week, because we are in Thanksgiving week, but that also means Black Friday.

And and some of you guys, this is gonna blow you away.

Back in the day, online shopping was kind of like not a thing.

I mean, it was, I'm talking 20 years ago, it was, but you remember back when online shopping was sort of sketchy?

You're like, how do I know?

How can I be sure?

Like it took Amazon a few years to convince us, okay, okay, if it says two-day delivery, it means two days-ish.

But but there was a time where you'd want to get something, you're like, I just ordered online, and you're like, I don't know, I just don't know.

We gotta go to the store.

And so some of you, maybe you didn't engage in this back in the day, and that's still kind of a thing, but not like it used to be.

But some of you, Black Friday, like you might as well have been on a Navy, SEAL, military mission.

You had a plan, you divided your family into different units with different missions, you know.

How many of you were like that, by the way?

Like you went out, you waited in lines, oh my gosh.

About 20 years ago, about 20 years ago, Megan and I had been married for we've been married for a couple years, so it was almost 20 years ago.

And it was the first time I think that we we actually we both had jobs, and so we could get gifts for our family members that weren't what broke college students get, their family members.

We weren't just exchanging$20 gift cards anymore.

Um, and so we found this thing uh in in an in a newspaper ad.

I mean, guys, some of you are like, I'll just later, we'll talk about it later.

Um and so, and it was this whole set of pots and pans, and her sister, my wife's sister, had just moved into her first apartment, and my wife was like, Oh my gosh, look at this, and it was huge, it was very expensive, at least for us at the time, but it was one of those doorbuster deals where it's like basically free.

And so it was at JC Penny at the mall, right?

I actually took my kids to the mall this last week, and man, is that a sad place.

Um it's like it's like the mall in Party City.

If you've ever been in a party city, it's like, why am I so sad in Party City?

It's a sad place.

I don't know why.

But I took our kids to the mall because we needed to get something, like, let's go to the mall, and I felt like I was taking them through an interactive museum.

I was like walking around with them and going, like, kids, down this hallway, there used to be a place called Sears.

And people would go there and there would be thousands of people.

And we walked by one, and it was like this used to be what was called the Disney store.

And now it's like some weird garage sale store.

It like looks like a garage sale.

And uh, and it was like, yeah, and parents would hide their child's eyes because it was all expensive on their way to get a pretzel or something like that, you know?

But now half the stores are closed, and it's just, it's just, I don't know, it's sad.

So we were at the mall, thinking of previous years.

Well, 20 years ago, I went to go get pots and pans on Black Friday at the mall, and it opened at like seven.

But I got there at 3:15 in the morning.

And I was 10th in line.

Guys, you gotta understand these pots and pans were basically free, okay?

And we wanted to get this deal.

And and again, some of you who are younger, there's no smartphones at this point in time, so you had there's no access to the internet.

So you're standing outside for four hours outside of a JCPenney at the town center mall, being forced to talk to the other strange people who get to a JCPenney at 3 15 in the morning.

Like it's a unique crowd.

And so I'm there four hours outside.

It's cold, and then it opens and I make a beeline for one of the like the store associates because I don't know where to go.

And I'm like, hey, pots and pants.

And I show them the ad and they're like, oh, that's at the JCPenney Home Store, which uh was a separate store down Barrett Parkway by what is now Dick Sporting Goods.

And so I was like, I was freaking out a little bit because I was like, well, I didn't wait in that line.

I'm gonna go there, they're all gonna be gone.

I drive to the JCPenney Home Store open, but no one in there.

No one whatsoever.

There was zero people waiting in line.

It had just opened.

Basically, like me, no one else knew it existed.

And so I walk up, there's an entire display of all of these pots and pans.

I could have arrived there at opening at seven o'clock.

I was out of there in three minutes.

And it was like one of those moments where I was driving back home, like thankful but angry.

You know what I mean?

You ever have that?

Like, God, I'm so glad I got this.

But also, what the heck?

You know, like I that's how I felt.

Because I could have been asleep.

And the older you get, if anything wastes your time, and what it actually wastes is time that you could have been sleeping, oh man, it is it is evil.

It is evil.

That's how I felt.

If I'm so I hate it when when my time is wasted.

We all do for the most part.

And it's weird because though we hate it when someone or something wastes our time, we all love wasting our own time.

Like we're really good at that.

There are shows that I've been watching for a few years now that aren't even good.

They're not even good.

They were good two years ago, and I'm like, I guess I'll watch the next season.

Maybe it'll get good again.

And then it doesn't.

And if you were to talk to me afterwards, like, hey, would you trade in all the hours?

If I could get, if you could get all the hours that you've invested in this show back to your life, would you like, absolutely?

It's been a huge waste of time, but I did it to myself, and I'll probably do it again next season.

That's just the way it works.

We have a funny relationship with time.

We hate it when other people or or other things waste our time, but then we we're really good at wasting our own.

Jesus didn't waste time.

That doesn't mean that he never relaxed, it doesn't mean that he didn't enjoy things.

In fact, there's lots of times where Jesus is at a party, he's hanging out with friends, but he was intentional.

Even when he was enjoying life, it was it was on purpose.

He was resting on purpose.

But Jesus didn't waste time and he didn't let people waste his.

Jesus had mastered discerning the right time to do what needs done.

And we see this in his story time and time again.

In fact, John 17, we looked at this uh several weeks ago because we went through the chapter of John 17 for like nine weeks.

That was what we did before this series.

It begins with Jesus saying this.

It says, after saying all these things, John 17, 1, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.

The hour has come.

Glorify your son so he can give glory back to you.

Jesus knew that it was his time.

It was his time to go to the cross.

He discerned that.

He knew that.

He was so purposeful with his time.

And he was like that all the time.

In fact, Luke chapter 2, verse 52 tells us what Jesus did in between him being about 12 years old until he started his ministry at 30.

Luke 2:52

It says that he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.

Jesus was being patient.

All those years, he was waiting, waiting for the right time to start his ministry, to start going public with who he is and what he came to do.

He spent all those years just waiting.

And it wasn't the right time.

One of the coolest moments in Jesus' life, one of the most interesting moments at least, is the first miracle that he ever performed that we know about.

We don't know if he performed like little miracles at home.

You kind of get the impression that his mom knows he can do stuff that normal people can't do.

So maybe we just don't have those stories.

It'd be pretty cool to have Jesus at home, though, like if you're honest.

That'd be awesome, you know.

But they're at this wedding, and the the wedding runs out of wine, which is a big deal.

The people who are hosting the wedding are gonna be really embarrassed.

And Jesus is there, and his mom, again, knows he can do something.

And so she's like, Jesus, you gotta take care of this.

And we see this in John chapter 2.

John 2 · chapter mention

It says, the next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee.

Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration.

The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus' mother told him, They have no more wine.

Dear woman, that's not our problem, Jesus replied.

My time has not yet come.

And just imagine, like you gotta picture what Jesus' mom's face must have been.

Like there had to have been this unspoken moment where they look each other in the eye, because he's like, It's not our problem, it's not my time.

This is not the right time.

And his mom just goes, To the servants, do whatever he tells you.

Like she just looks at him like, You're gonna do this.

The look moms give.

And then she turns to the servants, goes, Whatever he says, do it.

And so Jesus is stuck here, right?

Because he said, This is not my time, and yet he wants to honor his mother, and he clearly loves the people that are there, and he doesn't want the wedding host to be embarrassed.

And so, what does he what do you do if you're Jesus?

This is a dilemma, you know, because if you do the miracle, and then oh now people are gonna talk about it, but if you don't do the miracle, these poor people are gonna be embarrassed, and your mom's gonna be super mad, and you want to honor your mom.

And so, what Jesus does is he it's interesting, he improvises and he does the miracle.

He he takes water and he turns it into wine, but he does it discreetly, so that very few people know what happens.

So much so that he doesn't even receive the glory for it happening.

All of a sudden there's more wine, and everyone is like, wow, this wine is incredible.

And they they thank the hosts.

They're like, You guys are amazing, you've saved the best wine for last.

This is the best wine we've ever tasted.

And the hosts are like, Well, we just we love you guys.

You know, we we we want to displurge, you know what I mean?

That's kind of what they do.

Jesus doesn't even receive the glory, so he he does the miracle to honor his mom and to love the people, but he does it discreetly because it's not his time, it's not time for him to go public.

Jesus discerned the time.

There's this other really obscure story of Jesus.

So if you're a passionate Jesus follower, maybe you're familiar with this.

You've probably read it, but at the same time, I've not heard many messages ever uh mention this story, or at least go into detail with it.

It's John chapter 7, verses 1 through 14.

John 7:1–14

It says, After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee.

He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death.

So Jesus has gone public at this point, and the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, they want him dead, and so he's he's hanging up north in Galilee instead of going south where Jerusalem is.

That's that area is called Judea.

It says, But soon it was time for the Jewish festival of shelters, and Jesus' brothers said to him, Leave here and go to Judea where your followers can see your miracles.

But they're doing this in a mocking way.

You can't become famous if you hide like this.

If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world.

For even his brothers didn't believe in him.

And Jesus replied, Now is not the right time for me to go.

But you can go anytime.

The world can't hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil.

You go on, I'm not going to this festival because my time has not yet come.

After saying these things, Jesus remained, but after his brothers left for the festival, Jesus also went, though secretly, staying out of public view.

The Jewish leaders tried to find him at the festival and kept asking if anyone had seen him.

There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowd.

Some argued he's a good man, others said he's nothing but a fraud who deceives the people.

But no one had the courage to speak favorably about him in public, for they were afraid of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders.

And then midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the temple and began to teach.

The people were surprised when they heard him.

How does he know so much when he hasn't been trained?

They asked.

So it's an interesting story because his brothers, right, they're like, hey, why don't you go to this festival and show everybody who you are?

And he's like, I'm not going.

And then they go and then he goes.

And some people have actually used this as an accusation against Jesus, that he lied.

But they're reading it completely wrong.

Because this festival, the Jewish festival of shelters, it lasts either seven days or eight days, depending on how you kind of count it in terms of what they were prescribed to do.

So let's just say it's an eight-day-long festival.

And in fact, in the manuscript copies of this, it says that Jesus says, some of the manuscript copies have him saying, It is not yet time for me to go.

We see a yet in this translation as well.

And so his brothers go, and you almost read it like as soon as they go, he goes too.

But no, no, he waits several days.

They go, they're there for the very beginning of the whole festival.

Jesus waits several days.

He gets there like at the midway point.

And it was brilliant.

It's brilliant.

Like Jesus, I love how brilliant he is and just crafty.

It's just a cool thing about him.

All of the Jewish leaders who wanted him dead were watching for him.

They had guards posted.

They're like on the lookout.

Hey, keep your eyes peeled for Jesus.

Everyone's looking for Jesus.

And then after three or so days of the festivals gone by, they've all gone like, well, I guess he's not coming here.

Whatever, forget about it.

And then Jesus shows up right when they let their guard down.

Like he is the right kind of troublemaker.

I love that about Jesus.

I really do.

But he waits for the right time.

Like he says to his brothers, No, my time is not yet come.

And what this teaches me is not that Jesus was being deceptive, it's that God's timing is specific.

Like God's timing, it's down to the day, it's down to the hour.

Jesus discerned the right time to do what needed to be done.

And I believe that we're called to grow in that discernment as well.

Like Ephesians 5 said, we're supposed to make the best of every opportunity to take advantage of the time that we have to do the things that God wants us to do.

But we're not Jesus.

Now we have the same Spirit.

We all have the Holy Spirit.

In fact, Scripture says that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us.

If you have put your faith in Jesus, if you have surrendered your life to Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit.

I say that pretty often because some of us grew up in with it, not in church at all, and maybe the concept of the Spirit of God being in you is sort of a strange concept.

It is kind of a strange concept.

Some of us grew up in churches where the Holy Spirit was not really talked about, like that was kind of looked on as crazy stuff.

And some of us grew up in churches where the Holy Spirit was talked about all the time, but it sometimes it was crazy stuff.

And so I say that because I want us to be very comfortable with this idea that Scripture is very definitive about.

Jesus Himself promised that his followers would receive the Holy Spirit, that we would have the Spirit of God in us, active in us, guiding us, teaching us, reminding us of the things that Jesus has said.

All of us can grow in our discernment of that.

We can grow in our ability to partner with the Spirit and follow what the Spirit is leading and discern and hear that.

But we all have that.

If you've given your life to Jesus, you have the Spirit.

So Jesus had the Spirit, right?

He operated out of the Holy Spirit, sure.

We can sort of do the same.

We can.

We have the same spirit.

We can grow in that discernment.

The difference is, unlike Jesus, we have sin and we're flawed people.

So even when the Holy Spirit moves through us, sometimes, you know, it just goes through our filters and we get a little off.

We'll talk about that in a few minutes.

My point is that even though we're not Jesus, we can grow in our discernment of the time that we're in, like Jesus.

And I want to look at a few concepts from Scripture.

Number one is this idea of season.

Like your season.

We may not always be able to discern the exact moment, but we can sometimes.

We'll talk about that in a minute too.

But we we can discern the season that we're in.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

Very, very famous scripture, verses 1 through 8.

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to harvest, a time to kill, and a time to heal.

A time to tear down and a time to build up, a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to grieve, and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones, and a time to gather stones.

I honestly don't know what that means.

Um, but maybe go home today and throw some stones around and then pick them back up.

You know?

Whatever you feel like it's time for.

I'm gonna study that this week, actually.

That gets me excited.

It says that there's a time to embrace and a time to turn away, a time to search and a time to quit searching, a time to keep and a time to throw away.

I'm going to talk to my wife about that related to Christmas decorations after this holiday season because that addict of ours is nuts.

It's time to throw some stuff away, all right?

A time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be quiet and a time to speak, as you can imagine.

I'm bad at that one.

Um, a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time for peace.

There's a time.

There's a season for everything.

And we can grow in our ability to discern the season that we're in and what is most important in this season.

Like what season are you in right now?

What is the season of your life?

And sometimes we get ourselves bent out of shape because we try really hard to live out of season.

We try so hard.

And we put all this pressure on ourselves and pressure on other people to try to operate as if we're in a different season than we're in.

And life is meant to be lived in seasons.

And in certain seasons, things matter greatly.

And if you skip what you're supposed to do in one season, you don't enjoy the benefits of that in a season to come.

Sometimes we're just we're just not thinking in those terms.

We're not thinking about, Lord, what season am I in?

What season?

I have to think like that at the church here.

What is the season that our church is in?

What is most important in this season of our life together as a church?

But we can all do that in our homes, in our families, in our careers, in every aspect of life.

God, what is my season and what am I supposed to do in that?

We have so many examples of this in Scripture.

One of my favorites is a king in the Old Testament named Asa.

He's one of the good kings.

There's not many good kings in the story of the kings.

And even though he's a good king, it kind of ends poorly, but that's how life works sometimes.

But Asa, by and large, was a good king.

And we read this really interesting bit of his story in 2 Chronicles 14, verses 1 through 6.

2 Chronicles 14:1–6

It says, When Abijah died, he was buried in the city of David, and then his son Asa became the next king.

There was peace in the land for ten years.

Asa had peace for 10 years, and this was not normal.

Most of the kings were constantly dealing with opposing forces and nations that were at their door that were trying to conquer them, but Asa gets peace for a decade.

A decade of peace, unheard of.

Asa did what was pleasing and good in the sight of the Lord his God.

He removed the foreign altars and the pagan shrines, he smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the ashera poles.

He commanded the people of Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, to obey his law and commands.

Asa also removed the pagan shrines as well as the incense altars from every one of Judah's towns.

So Asa's kingdom enjoyed a period of peace.

And during those peaceful years, he was able to build up the fortified towns throughout Judah.

No one tried to make war against him at this time, for the Lord was giving him rest from his enemies.

Now think about this.

Judah has peace.

Judah, the nation, has peace.

And Asa uses that time of peace to prepare for a future time when that will no longer be.

It says that he used that decade to build up the fortified towns.

He recognized that the peace he had was a gift from God, but in that season, it was a season to prepare for when that time of peace would end.

Very often we forget to do that in life.

We forget to prepare for future seasons.

And you might be in a season right now where everything's going really well and that is awesome.

Enjoy it.

That is a gift from God.

But also ask the Lord, Lord, in this season, what do you want me to do to prepare for a time when it may not be like this?

Even in seasons of peace and rest, there are things that we can do that will matter greatly in the future.

But it's something we have to discern from the Lord.

And my encouragement to you, it's to me as well, it's an challenge.

Ask God, what is my season?

Lord, what is my season and what matters most in this season?

And what you'll find is that if if that's where your heart goes, if that's where your focus can go, if the Lord can show you that, there are a lot of things that you can just stop worrying about, stop freaking out about in this season of life.

Because it's just not the season.

And that's something that you and the Lord can do together.

If you're married, that might be something that you want to do with your spouse.

If you're a person of influence at your place of work, that might be something you want to do with the other people that you lead alongside that you have influence with to say, hey, let's let's try to discern what our season is.

Otherwise, we all just live life and we we go here, there, and everywhere, and we're just pulled along by all of our circumstances, and often we look at other people in different seasons of life and we wish that we were there, and we try to live out of season and we get all bent out of shape.

So no, no, God, what is my season?

What am I supposed to do in this season?

But it can be even more specific than just your season.

I think that that is something all of us can discern.

I said a few minutes ago that we're not Jesus, so we don't necessarily have the ability to just nail it every time when it comes to every little moment, every little minute.

Like Jesus could be like, this is the hour, this is the minute, like he was that intentional.

Maybe we can be through the Holy Spirit, sure, but we're also flawed people, we're gonna make mistakes, but at the same time, you can discern even the moments in your life.

Like what matters in this moment?

Have you ever missed a moment?

Like you missed it, could have been really great, could have been really cool.

But you just you miss the moment.

I've shared this before, but you know, might as well.

Um man, I've I've been in love with my wife for a really long time.

I actually flirted with her really hard when she was a freshman in high school and I was a sophomore, and she rejected me very clear.

She was very clear in her communication that she was not interested.

Um, but I waited.

I discerned the right time, you know.

A couple years later, we went to prom and the rest was history.

But when I mean, I fell hard.

And so when I was in college, I bought her an engagement ring, and then when I had that ring, like guys, if you've ever proposed, if you know, when you have the ring, it like burns a hole through your pocket, so to speak.

You know, you just ah, and I had this plan on how I was gonna ask her to marry me, and it was great.

It was great, and I know it was great because I didn't use that plan.

I instead uh got impatient and I asked her kind of like sporadically, and or spontaneously, sporadically.

That'd be weird to sporadically ask someone to marry you.

I don't even know what that would look like.

So I spontaneously asked her to marry me, very different.

And uh and she said yes, and it was great, and it was a sweet moment, but it was very, I wasn't planning on on proposing that morning.

It was like one of those things.

And then afterwards, I told her, you know, what my original plan was, and she was like, Yeah, that'd have been better.

You know, it was just it was very thoughtful, it was very intentional, it was very, it was very on purpose.

But she didn't get my on-purpose proposal, she got my at-random proposal, and I still mean I worked, I bought that ring, I made a minute when I asked her to marry me, and she said yes, and it was great, but it would have been better.

I just kind of missed my moment.

You can, through the the discernment of the Holy Spirit, you can discern the moments in life and what matters in that moment.

Take a story like we have in Luke chapter 10, verses 38 through 42, as Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

Luke 10:38–42

Her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he taught, but Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing.

She came to Jesus and said, Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work?

Tell her to come and help me.

But the Lord said to her, My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details.

There is only one thing worth being concerned about.

Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.

You know, Mary discerned the moment.

Like, Jesus is in my home.

Jesus is in my home.

And you you can't be mad at Martha.

I mean, Jesus is in her home, and she's like, I want to cook him a good meal, I want to be a good host, and that that all makes sense.

But but Mary's like, Jesus is in my home.

I'm going to spend every second with him, talking to him, listening to him, sitting at his feet.

And Martha gets upset, and Jesus says, No, she's she got the moment right.

And I hope that Martha just stopped at that moment.

I'd like to think that, but Martha just stopped and said, yeah, and she came and hung out with Jesus too.

Don't don't miss the moments.

And this season, by the way, that we're about to be in, if we want to look at seasons and moments, man, this season, this is a busy time of year.

And there's a lot of moments.

There's a lot of moments that we can miss.

Like many of us are gonna have time with family.

We're gonna have a lot of time with family in the next few days.

Maybe too much time with family in the next few days.

But you know the season you're in, so prepare yourself for it.

That usually, by the way, involves Megan telling me, like, remember what not to say.

And I'm grateful for that because I uh yeah, you know, I like to talk.

But no, you're you're gonna spend time with people, and there's gonna be opportunities for moments.

Like, you know, I was thinking about this, like personally, my my oldest is not gonna be with us on Thanksgiving this year.

My wife is doing great.

Um his his basketball team has a tournament in Illinois, and so they're all going to Illinois for uh for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving.

You know, they also leave the day after Christmas for Virginia, but whatever, okay.

Um but he's not gonna be with, he'll be with us on Christmas, but Thanksgiving he won't be.

And we're excited for him because it's a cool opportunity and it's you know he's worked really hard to be in a position to do this, and that's great.

But you know, we're not having him with that.

He and I have this tradition that we do every year on Thanksgiving.

It's been me and him every year we do this one thing together, and I've been like mourning that.

Like, oh, I'm not gonna have that moment.

It's like God had to hit me between the eyes yesterday and go, how about you create a new tradition with your other kids?

And I'm like, oh you know what I mean?

Not a bad idea, God.

All right, I see where you're going with this.

But like I'm tempted, just because I'm upset or it's different or whatever it might be, I'm tempted to just to miss the moment I have because of a moment that I wish I was having.

Every day is a gift from God.

And so this week, in this season that you're in, these holidays, whatever it is, ask the Lord to show you the moments.

Be mindful.

And when you recognize you're in a moment, and maybe you're kind of like about to do the Martha thing where you're so caught up in the details and the frustrations and the stress and all that kind of stuff, ask the Holy Spirit to help you catch that and be like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

This is a moment.

And make the most of the moment you're given.

And do what is most important in that in that moment.

A couple other quick thoughts before we wrap up and worship team, you guys can can make your way up.

Um we want to discern the season and we want to discern the moments.

We want to be like Jesus and be on purpose and intentional with our time, but we also have to remember to be to be humble about this because we can get it wrong.

Like we can get it wrong.

That's why James chapter 4 says, Look here, you who say, today or tomorrow, we're gonna go to a certain town, we're gonna stay there for a year, we'll do business there, we'll make a profit.

James 4 · chapter mention

How do you know what your life's gonna be like tomorrow?

Your life is like the morning fog.

It's here a little while, then it's gone.

What you ought to say is if the Lord wants us to, we'll live and do this or that.

Otherwise, you're becoming, uh you're boasting about your own pretentious plans and all such boasting is evil.

Even if we work our best and do our best and try our best to discern from the Lord what season we're in and what moment we're in, and we try to get it right, we're gonna get it wrong sometimes.

And there's a fine line between having a heart that is discerning your season and trying to hear from the Lord on what matters in this moment.

It's a fine line between that and having a heart that just goes, I know the season, I know exactly what this season's all about, I know what needs done.

And you almost become so convinced that you're right that you start shifting from a heart longing to hear from God and you're more just trying to make your own plans and your own desires happen.

And that's it's easy to do that.

It's extremely easy to do that.

It's a fine line, right?

But we're reminded here that we can get it wrong, and so be humble.

Even if you think you've got the season right, you think you know the moment, there's a chance you could have heard wrong.

There's a chance that you messed it up.

And in that situation, just be humble and be open-handed with your season.

Be open-handed with your time and go, Lord, I thought this was what was most important right now.

That's what I've been thinking, and my bad.

I'm realizing that I may have missed that, and I just need to put that to the side and go back to you and say, help me understand what you want me to do in this season.

What you want me to do with my time, right?

So just be humble about that.

And the final thing, the last one, is just remember that your time is really precious.

Because it's limited.

Because it's limited.

That's what it said in James, right?

That our life is here for a little while, then it's gone.

It's like a morning fog.

In some ways that can be really discouraging.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Life is short, right?

So glad you came to church.

No, but it's actually a beautiful thing because things that are, things that are scarce are more valuable.

That's the way life works.

And time is actually scarce.

And we're gonna spend eternity in heaven with the Lord, so it won't be scarce, you know, on in heaven, it won't be scarce at all.

But right now, time is scarce.

And so we want to remember that.

We want to make the most of our time.

That's why Psalm chapter 90, verse 12, says to ask as we're supposed to ask the Lord to teach us to realize the brevity of life so that we may grow in wisdom.

Psalms 90:12

I love the way the ESV version puts this.

Teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Number your days.

Remember that time is precious, it is scarce.

And that shouldn't fill us with fear, but it should fill us with intentionality that I want to make the most of the time that I have.

I want to make the most of this day, I want to make the most of this week.

I want to make the most of the rest of the year that I have, I want to make the most of it because it matters.

By the way, Satan does this.

Actually says in Revelation 12, 12, Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who live in the heavens, rejoice.

But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.

Basically says that Satan knows that his days are numbered, and so he is very focused on making the most of the time that he has left.

And I don't want Satan to be more devoted to making the most of his time than I am.

Does that make sense?

Like, be better than the devil, that's just a pretty good standard to live by.

Try your best to be better than the devil, okay?

But no, if Satan knows that his time is limited, so he's like, I'm on a mission, and I'm trying to accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish in the short time that I have left, then man, how much more should I be like God?

I want to live on a mission.

Because if my time here is short, I want to make the most of it.

I want to make the most of every day that I have.

It's precious.

The time that God has given us, it is precious.

So here's what I'll say, and we'll wrap up by taking Lord's Supper.

In fact, if you want to grab the cup and the juice, if you're new, by the way, we do this every Sunday.

And when you walked in, there's tables that have bread and juice.

You can go grab one of those there and join us with this.

Jesus was intentional with his time.

He did everything on purpose, he lived on purpose, and he had this incredible ability to discern the season that he was in, the moments that were in front of him, and he made the most of them.

Just like it says in Ephesians 5.

Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

Make the most of your time.

Ask the Lord, what is my season?

Ask the Lord to make you aware of the moments right in front of you.

Be humble, you might get it wrong.

But remember that your time is precious and valuable.

Make the most of it.

Now, Jesus, like we said, he was able to discern this perfectly.

It was almost like he was constantly listening to the Father.

Like his heart was constantly yearning to know what the Father wanted him to do.

And I think that's where we all have to start too.

Like we mentioned a few minutes ago, there's a humility to this.

And the humility is that we come before God, and this meal is a great opportunity to do that every week.

We come before God and we humble ourselves and we recognize that this life that we're trying to live, this Jesus life, it's not a life that we live in our own strength, it's not a life that we can muster, it's not a life that we can master just by memorizing a list of rules or principles and just living those out day to day.

In fact, sometimes the people who live the best by the rules, like the Pharisees, can be the furthest from God.

This is about having a humble heart that bows at the feet of Jesus, that bows at the cross, so to speak, and recognizes that everything that we want, everything that we desire in life, it is all a gift from God, and it is all about our ability to receive from Him and then take what He has given us and do the best we can with it.

That has to begin by us going to Jesus and receiving, recognizing that this life that we have and the time that we have, no matter how short it is, it's a gift from him.

We want to make the most of it, just like he did.

And so, with that in mind, let's take the bread.

We're gonna pray and thank him for it.

Jesus, you said shortly before going to the cross and dying that your hour had come.

And this bread represents your body.

You were crucified on a cross.

You were killed so that we could be made whole, so that our sins could be forgiven, so that we have a restored relationship with our Creator, with God the Father, so that the Holy Spirit could come and be in us, working within us.

Lord, help us understand the hour in our lives.

Help us understand the season.

Help us discern the moments, help us understand what we need to do.

This meal that we celebrate, Lord, this moment in your life, it was a moment that you knew was necessary and you did what needed to be done.

Help us be like you, Jesus.

Help us discern what is necessary for us to do in every moment of life that we're given.

And help us have the courage, Lord, to do it.

If you had the courage to do this, help us have the courage to do whatever is in front of us.

And we pray this in your name, Lord.

Let's take the bread.

And now the juice.

Father, we thank you for this cup.

This is your blood.

It's an offering.

It cleanses us.

Blood is life, and you gave your life for us.

Now we have life.

And you describe it, Lord, as an abundant life, as a rich and satisfying life, as a life, Lord, that is eternal.

And Lord, we are so grateful that one day we will not be bound by time, we won't be worried about time, we won't feel like time is running out.

We'll just have forever with you.

But right now, Lord, it feels very often like time is of the essence and time is short, we don't have enough time, and we don't know how to make the most of our time.

And so, Lord, I just pray that you give us discernment.

And help us go to you as the source of our discernment.

Help us go to you, Jesus, to get what we need, the answers that we need, the direction that we need, and help us trust you just like you trusted the Father when you went to the cross.

And we pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Let's take the juice.