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[00:00:24] Speaker B: I'm glad to see all of you. And I'm glad, as Chima said, God will not fail. I don't care what you're going through, who you are, from where you've come, the problems of your life, the difficulties of life. He will not fail. You know why? Cause he can't fail. It's his nature. He cannot fail you. He won't fail you now. And in this series, Reset, we're talking about reestablishing some priorities, putting the emphasis on the right things. Last weekend, we talked about the significance of resetting our Sundays. And I'm glad I'm in church today. For those of you that are watching online, I'm glad we can offer that for you. But you missed something when you're not able to be in the room and have that experience and be here and see one another. And it's just wonderful to know that we serve a God who just can't fail and to be in the room with other people that are experiencing that as well. And so I'm glad that. I'm glad that you're here this morning. I want to take the next step in this series we're calling reset. And I want to talk about the significance of resetting our schedule. Resetting our schedule. Last week, as I said, we talked about resetting Sundays. And I believe particularly for a Christian, Sunday ought to be a priority. We talked in Hebrews ten where it says, don't forsake the gathering, the assembling of yourselves as the manner of some, but so much the more as you see the day approaching. And we talked about the importance of Sunday and this weekend we're talking about the importance of schedule. The reality of it is that we all are limited resources. We all have limited resources ourselves.
We don't have a lot of resources financially. But the greatest resource that you and I have is our time.
Our time. You can make more money. You cannot make more time. And so I do believe that probably when you think about your life, and I think about mine, probably our time is probably our most valuable resource. So you have to, at some point in life, you have to evaluate how am I spending my time? Who gets the most of my time? Where is my attention going? There was a book written in 1967 by Charles Hummel. The book was entitled the tyranny of the Urgent. And in the book, the tyranny of the urgent, he speaks of the tension between the things that are urgent and the things that are important.
And we often sacrifice the important things in our life for the urgent things in our life. And when you think about it, everything you and I face is competing for our attention. Everything is competing for our attention. In fact, if you aren't intentional and purposeful in how you spend your time, the urgent will inevitably take over in your life from the important and you'll be giving more attention to the things that are urgent in your life than the things that are important in your life. For example, just being here this morning, to be in this room this morning or to be watching online this morning, you had to be intentional. There are other places you could be. There are other things you could be doing. So you had to be intentional and you had to be purposeful. You had to say, at 930, I'm going to tune in, at 930, I'm going to be there. And it took a lot for you to be here. It took a commitment. You were intentional, which is why that you are here. And what happens to us in life is that we get complicated. Life gets complicated and life gets clouded and life gets difficult. And before you know it, you got all the plates spinning in your life and you're giving so much attention to these urgent things that have to be attended to and you're not asking and evaluating. Am I neglecting some very important things while I am dealing with these urgent things? I think if I ask everybody in the room, what do you think is important, the most important thing in your life? I'd be shocked if we didn't get these responses. Most people in the room or watching would say, my family is important.
And I believe you believe that. And I believe that you would also say, my faith is important. That's obvious. Or you wouldn't be in the room this morning. I think you would say, my work is important. I have to pay my bills. I have responsibility to the employees and employers. And so I would say my career, my job is very significant to me. And I think you would say, you know, downtime, being able to relax and rest, that's important to me. I think we would all agree that we would all believe those things are important things. But when surveyed, most people would say they don't feel that they're doing a good job, giving enough attention to any of those things. Most people would throw a little guilt on themselves and say, yes, my family's important, but I feel like oftentimes I neglect the more, yes, my faith is important, but I don't feel that I'm as spiritual as I should. My friendships are important to me. It's an important part of my life. But, man, I haven't gone out to dinner with a friend. I haven't hung out with them in a while. And so you feel like you're not doing a good job, and the things that you would agree are very important.
And so what happens is it's subtle, it's the good begins to certainly and slowly overcome the best. And it's not folks that we're doing bad things, it's that we're doing good things instead of the best things. Does that make sense? It's not the bad things that we're doing, it's just that we're doing a lot of good things, but we may be neglecting the best things. And I told you last week, there's a warning in Hebrews, chapter two, where the Bible says, the things that you've heard, commit to them and don't forget them, or they will drift. I told you the term drift is a nautical term. It's the idea of giving great care to how you bring a ship to shore, because you'll miss the channel, or you'll miss the port, or you'll miss the dock, or you'll miss the opportunity. And what happens sometimes is, in our life is we pull the oars in, we drop the sails too soon, we kill the power to the motor, and we think the boat will drift in the right direction, and it never does. It drifts away. And so it's not a bad thing, but it's a good thing that took us away from doing the best thing. And so it's important, I think, that we stop long enough to evaluate our schedule. And we asked ourselves this morning, do I need to reset my schedule? Let me give you the verse for our thinking this morning. In Ephesians, chapter five, look at verse 15. He says, look carefully how you walk. Now, that's an expression to mean, look carefully how you live your life every day. He didn't say, look carefully how you run or how you jog, but how you walk. What's indicated by that is, look carefully how you live your life each and every day. How you walk. Look carefully. Stop and think about this. Not as unwise, but as wise. And most of us are either wise or otherwise. And so we have to stop every now and then and think about how am I conducting my life?
How am I spending my time?
Am I giving too much attention to good things? And maybe I'm neglecting the best things. So look carefully at how you walk, not as unwise, but wise. Look, verse 16, make the best use of the time, because days are evil. We're living in a very difficult, stressful time. And he went on to say, therefore, when you read the word therefore in the Bible, always look and see what it's there for. It connects what he's about to say with what he just said, therefore, because that's true. Don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. We don't have a lot of time. We don't have a lot of time to make memories. We don't have a lot of time to make a difference. So we have to stop and assess how we're spending our time, and we have to do better in managing the time that God has given us. And here's a truism that we talk about a lot, and that is simply this. Your life will be lived according to the priorities you establish or according to the pressures that other people put on you. Please hear that. Your life will be lived according to the priorities that you establish or according to the pressures that other people put on you. The urgent falls into the category of pressure. Now, there are some urgent things that have to be attended to, right? You gotta go to the emergency room. That's urgent. I get it. That's why they call it urgent care. I mean, there are some times you cannot neglect that which is urgent. I'm not talking about seasons when you are dealing with things that are urgent. I'm talking about cycles when everything in your life is urgent. And before you know it, you have all these plates spinning, good plates spinning, and you're neglecting the best things. And so you're living your life no longer according to the priorities that you've established, but you're living your life according to the pressures that other people are putting on you. So let me give you three things that I think are essential that we have to do if we're going to reset the schedule. Number one, you have to evaluate. You have to evaluate. You have to assess where you are and how you're doing. Look at psalm 90, verse twelve.
The Bible says, the psalmist says, so teach us to number our days. Now get the phrasing of that. Teach us to number our days. He didn't say number our years because as the days go, so the years will follow. He says, teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. So the first thing I would tell you to do is simply this. Evaluate how you appropriate your time. Who's getting most of your time, which direction does your time go? Each and every day. Again, if you're not careful, the urgent takes priority over the important. Now, here's what I found in my life. See if this checks out with you. This is not a one and done decision.
When I tell you to evaluate how you spend your time, that has to happen every day. You have to monitor this, because we develop habits and it's hard to break out of these habits. And so when I'm trying to manage my time and I'm trying to do better in giving importance, giving emphasis to the important things and the best things of my life, I have to monitor how I'm doing. I have to evaluate what I'm doing. And it's not a one and done decision. I have to estimate and evaluate this decision each and every day. Now, the biblical priorities I could give you, when I look into God's word, I can give you the top five. The first priority is God.
The Bible begins in the beginning. God's a good place to begin. In the beginning, God. Now, when I say God, I don't mean God in relation to your religion. I mean God in relation to your relationship. In the beginning, God, if you don't go to church in the beginning, God, if you never attend church again, in the beginning, God, your personal faith in God has to be the priority of your life. Jesus said, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and when you put him first, all the other things will be added unto you. So God, knowing him as your savior, knowing Jesus, inviting him into your life, that has to be first. Number two, the second priority, not only God, but will be your spouse, that important person God has placed in your life. God placed Adam and Eve in the garden together, and so he created and established a priority. In fact, you see, in the very beginning of time for this cause, in Genesis two, shall a man leave his father and mother be joined unto his wife, and they too will be one flesh. The Bible says a person leaves and then they cleave, and then they receive all the good things of God. So you have the idea that first in my life is my relationship with my heavenly Father. Second relationship in my life that's significant is a relationship I have with my spouse. The third relationship is a relationship you have with your children that is so significant. God blessed Adam and Eve with children, and that established a priority in the very beginning of the Bible, and that was significant.
I would say that the fourth priority that you have after you have the relationship to God and the relationship to your spouse and the relationship to your children is to your job, to your work. God told Adam, take care of the garden. Take care of this place. I want you to be a good steward of everything that I've created. So your job, your work has to be a priority. And then the fifth priority is your worship.
He established a system of worship and said, I'll be worshiped by a sacrifice. And so giving is a part of our worship. In fact, in the Bible, God is never worshipped through a sacrificial experience without the act of giving. So that becomes part of our priority grid. Now, six, you could put friendship, seven, you could. I mean, you could put it, however, where you want to go. But I'm just saying I can give you, biblically those first five priorities that we have to establish, and then you and I have to begin to evaluate how am I doing in that regard. Now, here's another thing to think about. What I'm really talking about is not time management as much as it is self management.
It's self management. And the reason I say that is because we all have the same amount of time. Somebody says, man, I could do better with my family. I just don't have enough time. Or I could do better with my career, my job, my business. If I just had more time, I could do better, really, and be a better friend if I just had more time. We all have the same amount of time. We get 168 hours every week, so we get the same amount of time. So really, when you think about it, it's not time management as much as it is self management. It is the discipline that we need to make sure we're spending our time in the right way. So we have to evaluate how we spend our time.
I would ask you this. Are you killing yourself this morning climbing a ladder that might be leaning against the wrong wall?
I mean, it very well could be that you are killing yourself to climb a ladder that may be leaning against the wrong wall. So you have to, first and foremost, if you're going to reset your schedule, you got to know where your time is going. So you have to evaluate. Okay, here's the second one. Now, not only evaluate, but number two, eliminate. Eliminate. Ephesians 516 back in our text, making the best use of time because the days are evil. This deals with the structure of our schedule. How do we spend the time that we have scheduled? Identifying the problem as how I'm, you know, managing my time is one thing, doing something about it is another thing. I mean, we all come into this room every Sunday. We hear things that will help our life. We feel impressed by the holy spirit to make changes. And we make some decisions when we sit in a room like this. But sometimes there's a disconnect between what we hear and what we do. That's why James says, for the one that knows to do good and doesn't do the good that he knows to do to that one, it becomes sin. In other words, that knowledge begins to work against you if it isn't applied. So it's one thing to know what to do, but it's a totally different thing to do the thing you know you should do. So to get in the room and go, you're right, I need to do better. I need to reset my schedule. I reset my Sundays. I'm back. I'm doing that. But I'm just suggesting it's not one and done. It's one of these things that we have to evaluate how we're doing or we won't be consistent in it. We won't follow through with it. So it's important. It's important that we learn to eliminate some things. Now, think about it this morning. Go back to what we talked about. That was important to all of us. Think about the time it takes to be a good spouse, to be an attentive spouse. The time that takes or think about the time it takes to be a good parent. Right? I mean, you got parent guilt going on. I just, boy, I don't spend enough time with the kids and all that. Think about the time it takes to be a good parent. Think about the time it takes to be a good business person. I mean, you're just giving all this time and attention to your customers and your clients, and you're trying to be there for everyone. It takes a lot of time to be a successful business person. Think about the time it takes to be a great friend. You're there every time they need you. You try to be responsive. Every time they call, you're on it. You get the text back. I'm just saying, all of these wonderful things take a lot of time. Now, listen, since there isn't enough time to do everything you have to do, someone or something will inevitably get neglected when you're trying to be a good spouse and I'm trying to be man. I'm trying to honor my faith, and I'm trying to be a good business person, and I'm trying to be a good dad and mom. I'm trying to be a good friend. I've got all these plates spinning. They're all good plates. And I could argue that these are my priorities that I have spinning. But if I'm not balanced in everything that I'm doing, then someone or something inevitably will get neglected. And part of elimination, when I evaluate, part of it has to be, what do I need to eliminate so that I can do better in the things that I feel are most important in my life? Something or someone is going to be neglected so that I can do what I do.
Here's the challenge. If you aren't careful, most of the time, the first thing that gets neglected is the family.
Most of the time, we neglect those who love us the most because they're the most forgiving in our life. And so if you aren't careful, you start neglecting the people who love you the most. And the people who do the most sacrifice in this time management thing will be your family.
You're not saying to them no, but you're not saying yes.
And so you're asking them simply, as I talked about one weekend, you're asking them to wait. Just wait. We'll have a date night. I'll establish that. We'll start going out again. I just need you to wait. I'm gonna spend time with the kids. I know that's important. I just need them to wait for a little bit. I'm going to try to do a little bit. I just need them to wait. And what happens is the waits, the weights become w e I g h t s. They become weights. And if you get too many weights on the weights, eventually something breaks. I'm a poet and I don't know it, but that rhyme there. I'm just saying that if you aren't careful, you got to evaluate who you are asking to weight because the mental willingness will eventually get heavier than the physical weariness. And all the weights that you're asking them to carry, they'll drop.
And then all of a sudden, they're talking to somebody like me. They're saying something like this. I don't know. She just isn't happy and she wants to leave. I don't know why.
And the reality is she's probably been telling him for a long time, the weight is heavy, and I need you to engage, and I need help here. And he says, it just seemed like it happened overnight, when the reality is it was happening for months and months. It was just neglected because though it was important, it wasn't urgent. Or you just say, man, the kids grades just took a nosedive. It just seems like overnight their grades began to just drop and the floor just fell out suddenly. Well, again, it's adrift. It doesn't happen quickly. It doesn't happen overnight. It's a gradual thing. But you don't see it until the weights hit the floor.
I mean, if I'm standing on the stage and I'm holding a lot of weight here this morning, and I've got all this in my arms and on my back and I'm managing well, you may look at me and go, boy, that seems awfully heavy, but you seem to be doing okay.
And then you say, hey, here's one more little burden. Can I put this on you? I say, sure, yeah, I'll pop that on there right now. And you put it on my back. And I'm going, okay, I'm still good. Knees are starting to wobble a little bit. And you go, okay, he's handling it. He still has, she's still standing. So we're still good. But eventually what happens is all these weights will fall. And when they fall and hit the floor, it makes a lot of noise.
The kids hear it, sometimes the neighbors hear it and they. What just happened? Well, the weights just hit the floor. The weights got so heavy they couldn't carry them anymore in the physical weariness and the mentality, weakness all of a sudden just overcame the person. And that which was urgent just devastated the things that were important. And you have to, before you get there, you have to learn how to eliminate.
You have to say, I'm going to have to make some changes in my life if I'm going to be an effective spouse, if I'm going to be a good parent, if I'm going to be a good business person, I'm going to have to get my life back in balance, and there's no real good time to do that, and there's no perfect way to do that. I think finding balance in life, particularly in what I'm talking about, is an inexact science. You'll have to work with it to find out what works for you, because everybody's career and everybody's life is a little different.
And there's never a perfect time to do it either.
There's a verse in ecclesiastes that says, if you wait for perfect conditions, you'll never plow, you'll never plant. There's never going to be the perfect condition to begin to make these changes, to eliminate some things that are keeping you from the important things. There's never a great time to do it, and there'll never be a perfect condition under which you do it. You just start, you say, okay, honey, let's start trying to figure this out.
And when you have that discussion, try to remember one of the rules of, you know, constructive, you know, conversation with your mate is attack the problem, not each other.
Sometimes when you sit down and you start trying to evaluate how we're spending our time and we try to bring some balance back into the relationship, we get frustrated, and before we know it, we're going after each other and we're not attacking the problem. So attack the problem, not the person, and then understand it's going to be an inexact science. It may take some compromise in order to get you where you need to be. But I'm saying, eventually, if you can get healthy and balanced in your relationship, it's so well worth it.
Because I can tell you at the end of life's long day, you'll never regret the time you spent with your spouse. You'll never regret the time you spent with your kids. It's incredible how fast that all goes, doesn't it? I mean, when Cindy went to heaven after 42 years together, it hit me how quick you go from making memories to living on memories.
That's why when you have families and I hear they're gonna take some time and they're going off on vacation or what, I'm like, go, dude, go do it. Y'all have fun. Make those memories that work will always be, you can get back. You can get on that job again. You take some time and you make the memories. Spend some time with those kids, because this thing is going by so fast, you can make more money, you cannot make more time.
And I'm saying, folks, if you don't get large and in charge of your schedule and you don't make it a priority, then you're gonna live the rest of your time with pressure.
And that'll be determining what you do. And you're going to be spending your time giving your important part of your life to the people, probably who appreciate you the least and love you the least while you're neglecting those who love you the most.
So you have to eliminate.
And when you eliminate, you got to find some balance. All right, this is good right now. This is working. This is bad. But you know what? The good and the bad kind of keeps me balanced, so I can live with that. And so you began to eliminate. So if you're tracking with me, I'm saying you got to evaluate number two. I'd say you have to eliminate. Here's the third thought I want to give you, and that is you have to elevate. You have to elevate, start some new routines. One Peter, chapter four, verse two. As a result, a person does not live the rest of their time for selfish desires, but rather for the will of God. Let me give you the principle that that verse is teaching. The principle is simply this. We can't do anything about how we've lived our life, but we can do everything about how we're going to live our life.
I can't do anything about how it has been, but I can do everything about how it will be. The only time I've been given according to first Peter, four two is the rest of my time.
And I can then say, I'm drawing a line in the sand. And for the rest of my life, these are my priorities and this is what I'm going to do. And then I'm going to have to be strong enough to say no to some people and be strong enough to say no to some things and just say, that's not in my priority grid right now. I'll get to it when I can, but that right now is not the priority. It's urgent and I understand that, but it's just not important. And I'll try to get to it when I can. And I am fighting desperately to find balance in my life. I'm trying to eliminate some things that are hurting me and I'm going to elevate the priority of my life and do these things because I have to do these things.
It's really looking at the significance of how I spend my time. Elevate in John, chapter 17, verse four. I love this line. Jesus said this, I have finished the work you gave me to do. Now I know you say, well, what's so profound about that? Well, what hit me in that statement was, Jesus is speaking to his heavenly father. And he's saying to his heavenly Father, in that great prayer, he's saying to his heavenly Father, I completed the job you sent me on this earth to accomplish.
I fulfilled my purpose. I did it well. He's the only one who ever did it perfectly. And I'm saying, as our great example, the Lord has established the fact that you and I have the time and we have the opportunity to do the things that are important, and we have the opportunity and the time to do the things that are essential. We really do. I don't think when your life is balanced, I don't think your faith in God should ever work against your relationship with your spouse. When your life is balanced, I don't think your job should ever interfere with your family life. When it's balanced now, there's gonna, as I said, there are gonna be seasons when it'll get out of balance. I mean, you're gonna work some shifts and you're gonna do some things that cause you to be away. Given the type jobs you do. I understand all that. That's a season.
I'm talking about cycles. We're in control of cycles. We're not necessarily in control of seasons. The cycles, the things that are in control of. I'm not in control of a military person being posted in another country away from their family or someone in a job that's requiring to be on so many days and off so many days. So that's where I'm saying you have to find the balance. That's a season, but it's a cycle. When you have a choice to be there and you choose not to be, that's the problem. When you have the choice and you have the opportunity to make the change and make the schedule change and you refuse to, that's the problem.
And so I'm saying when we're doing it right and we're really trying to communicate well with our spouse and we're trying to find that balance and we're open and honest with one another, one of these priorities won't contradict the other.
A guy in my other church, he's in heaven now, so I can share this story.
He was just Mister Johnny on the spot, always volunteering for everything. I mean, I'd get up there, you know, 637 in the morning, and he's already up there doing something. He's volunteering. He's out on the grounds, he's doing something. You're in the building, he's up there. He's sit there all the time. He had a Sunday school class, you know, he, I mean, he's mister, I mean, good night. All of our staff were like, man, he is a superhero.
As his volunteer, I mean, he is the volunteer of the month guy, you know, he was amazing. I mean, we loved him. This guy was just giving the job and he'll do it. He was awesome. And one day I had an appointment with his wife and I thought his wife is going to come in and thank me for all the opportunities I've given her husband to volunteer at our church. Listen, mama wasn't happy, and she came in and sat down with me, and that girl was not happy.
She said, you're working him. You're taking advantage of him. He's here all the time. And I went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I haven't asked him to do anything. He's volunteering to do all of this stuff. Well, long story short, he was doing it to get away from her, and she was blaming me.
And I pulled that joker in, and I said, dude, this has got to stop. She's onto you, and I'm onto you now.
So I see what we're doing here with this little volunteer for Jesus stuff.
You're getting away from that crazy woman, and you made crazy. She wasn't crazy when you married her, by the way.
So sometimes, you know, you can get unhealthy with all of this. That's why I'm saying you have to have balance and you have to eliminate some things, and then you have to begin to elevate some things. You have to be sure that you are on the same page with your spouse and how you're spending your time. You have to compromise, and sometimes to get where you want to go, you have to work together.
Now, some of you started businesses. I talked about that a little last week. Some of you business owners, and I can tell you, after we started the church, it was all in. Cindy and I made. We made commitments and we made sacrifices, but we did them together.
And you go through seasons, as you know, if you owned a business and some of you husbands and wives have built businesses together. And, you know, there are seasons in that business where it's all hands on deck and everybody is working hard because you're moving toward a goal and you're working that hard so you can get to a point where you won't have to work that hard.
It's a season you're getting to, but you don't. You have to be careful that in the season, you don't create a cycle that all of a sudden redefines the nature of your relationship and you become more business partners than you are boyfriend and girlfriend. Does that make sense?
Are you put so much attention toward the kids that when the kids finally leave the nest and start the job or they go off to college, you look at each other and you're two strangers living under the same roof because of years where you've just simply allowed important things to take the place of the best things. And you let the urgent push out the important.
So you have to learn then to reevaluate, to eliminate, to elevate.
Again. You'll be guided by the pressures or the priorities in order to elevate. Let me give you this and we'll go home. First, you have to plan your day.
Secondly, you have to prioritize your task.
Thirdly, you have to say no to non essentials.
Fourthly, you have to delegate. You have to learn to delegate. Handsome things off. Remember, there's a difference between delegating and dumping. When you delegate, you're saying, this is important, I would do it. I just don't have the time to do it. Could you help me with this? That's delegating. Dumping is when you say to someone, I'm not going to do that. I wouldn't do it. But because you work for me, you don't have a choice. That's dumping. And everybody resents that. So there's a difference between delegating and dumping. And so when you learn to delegate, you're saying, look, this is important. I can't get to it. Can you take this off of me? Nine out of ten times a person, if their heart's there, we'll do that for you. Fifth thing I tell you is consider your biological time clock. What I mean by that is, when do you do your best work? Are you morning guy? Are you night girl? I mean, figure out how you work best and when you work best. If you're a morning person, then start your morning and get those tasks done. If you're an evening person, then find out how you, how you work, how that clock works. When you do your best work, I would say the 6th thing. I would say, start with the thing you dread the most.
If you got to make a hard conversation, a hard phone call or a difficult confrontation, a bad conversation, do that. First thing. You know why? If you don't, you're going to dread it all day. It'll ruin your day. Get the worst thing you got to do out of the way first thing in the morning. That's why somebody calls and won't meet me for breakfast. I'm going, uh oh, what are we doing? What's going on? No, I'm just messing with you. But the point is, get that out of the way. It is a really good thing that will help you. And the last thing I would tell you is take care of yourself. Pace yourself, watch the gauges of your life. Make sure you're not running on empty. Make sure you're not running in the red zone. You can do that for a little while. You can't do that for a long while.
Eventually, something, just like machinery, something's going to break if you redline too long. Take care of yourself. The Bible institute is sabbaticals for a reason. The Bible says, concerning jesus, he sat down at the well because he was tired.
Don't get so hyper spiritualized that you say, well, I just got too much going and my life's too important. I can't take the vacation. I can't take the time. I can't do. I've got, you know, no, no, no. You need to do that. You need to take the time.
Somebody says, well, I'd rather burn out as rust out. Well, that sounds tough, but either way you go, you're out.
Out's out. You can burn out or you can rust out, baby, but you're out. So you gotta find balance. That's all I'm driving at. And so you have to elevate your game and you have to be able to say, I'm gonna reestablish some priorities. Now, here's what I know. Here's what I know. We can acknowledge all of this, but the hard part is when we break out of this huddle and we go try to implement this, that's where it'll get hard.
So I'm not suggesting what I've talked about this morning is easy. What I am suggesting, what I've talked about this morning is essential.
It's important.
It's essential to the happiness of your home. It's essential to the happiness and the joy that you have in your life. It is essential to your spiritual growth that you find balance and that you look at how you are spending your time and don't allow the tyranny of the urgent to dictate the things that are most important in your life. Establish priorities and say, by the grace of God, yes, I'll reset my Sunday, but, yes, I'm going to reset my schedule. I'm large and in charge of me, and starting today, I'm going to make those changes. All right. Thank you all for being here and playing along. Let's pray together and we'll go home.
Father, thank you for your word.
Never returns void. Isaiah said, it always accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent.
Thank you, Father, that in your word we find practical things, not just profound, but sometimes very practical. And this morning we've talked about some very practical principles that are biblical.
And I pray Lord, that we will truly not just be a hearer, but also be a doer.
When we break out of this room, I pray we'll be determined that we're going to make some changes that will affect our life and the lives of those we love most.
Lift the burden, give clarity.
I pray you'll reveal some things to us that we need to understand in this season of life that will make us more effective and make us more joyful.
And Father, remind us of what Chima was saying about earlier. You won't fail.
You cannot fail.
And finally, Lord, I pray for anyone here who may never have trusted you as savior, that this might be the moment when they humble their heart right where they are watching online and say, Lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. I receive you as my savior and I do this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:35:32] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
