- Welcome to Saddleback, everybody. I'm glad you're here today. If you'll take out your message notes, we're in part two of a new
series on living with a margin. Now, before we look at
God's word, let me give you a personal update on my health,
'cause I wanna thank you for all your prayers
for me this past week. I told you last week that
some doctors are trying some new approaches to a lifelong brain and movement disorder
that I've had all my life. It's not life-threatening in any way. If you've been around Saddleback, you've heard me talk about it. It's just been a handicap
I've had to live with. And like so many of you do,
you live with a handicap. Well, this week, I had two
major tests at two different hospitals, and I think
they're making some progress, but the doctors have asked me to take off as much time as they need
to get it sorted out. So, I postponed our Doors
series until they give me the okay, and I launched this new series called Living on a Margin last week. Now, our preaching team's
gonna help me teach this important series that's
gonna lower your stress and all the tension in your life if you'll do what God tells you to do. So, welcome to part two of this series. Now, remember, in part one,
I explained what I mean by the phrase living on a margin. I put a definition there
on your message notes. Margin is the space between
my load and my limits, what I have to do and
how much energy I've got. Margin is having some
breathing room in your life. It's having some reserve so you're not running
on empty all the time. Now, you need margin in
every area of your life. You need physical margin so
you don't wear out physically. You need spiritual
margin so you don't give into the temptations, you
can defeat temptation. You can help other people in ministry. You need emotional
margin for relationships. You need financial margin to
avoid the pressures of debt, and you need time margin
in your schedule so you're not always rushed, you're
not always in a hurry, you're not always worn out. We're gonna look at each
of these kinds of margin in this series, but
today, I want us to look at learning to slow down
the pace of your life. You know, if you wanna
make a lot of money today, just figure out a way
to save people some time by speeding up something,
because time-saving devices are popular, because time
is a crunch in our lives. The pace of life keeps
getting faster and faster. Now, all you have to do
to get on, to understand how fast life is is get
on the freeway and realize how many people are willing
to risk life and limb just to save a few precious seconds. (Rick laughs) Today everybody's in a hurry,
and everybody's multitasking. You know that. You know, I read recently
that the sale of frozen juice has declined, because people can't wait that long anymore for it to thaw out, so they're not buying
frozen juice anymore. And I recently received an ad
for home delivery groceries, and it was address warmly
to time-pressed family. How clever. And I read this quote in
an article just recently. It says this. Today, people are souped up, stressed out, and over-scheduled. And in this brave new world, boundaries between work
and family life are gone. Everybody is mobile, and
every moment is scheduled with daycare and school
and after-school activities and 10- to 12-hour workdays
and more possible events than anybody could possibly keep up with. Now, this pressure cooker lifestyle, this fast pace, is so
pervasive that anthropologists are now studying how it is
damaging the human race. They're actually studying
its effect on humanity. Well, they can do their studies,
but the Bible's very clear about how hurried and how busy
lifestyles affect our lives. Let me just start by giving
you five of what the Bible says are the many damaging effects
of a life without margin, how living in a hurry all your life, how being in a hurry, hurts you. You might write these down. Five things. Number one, always being in
a hurry affects me this way. Hurry increases my stress. Can you become so busy you don't
have any time for yourself? Of course, you can. Songs of Solomon says in
chapter one, verse six, I have no time to care for myself. Some of you need to put that
verse on your refrigerator this week, because you're
not taking care of yourself. You have no self care,
because you're in such a hurry meeting everybody else's needs. You can't take care of yourself. When you have no margin,
you're always a day late, and you're always a dollar
short, and that creates stress. When you're always in a
hurry, your personal reserves get depleted, so it's
gonna increase stress. Number two, hurry decreases my joy. Hurry decreases my joy. The faster you move, it's been shown, the less time you have to enjoy life. You don't enjoy life. You know, if you fly across
America, you're going at such a speed, you don't
enjoy any of America. You just look down and it's a blur. And the faster you go, the less you enjoy. Now, if you drove across
America, you'd see more, and you enjoy more. If you biked across
America, went even slower, you'd enjoy even more and see more. If you slowly walked
it at a leisurely pace, you'd enjoy a lot of things
you'd miss at a faster pace. The faster you go, the less
you have joy in your life. Job 9:25, look at this verse. My days go by faster than a runner, and they fly away without
my seeing any joy. Number three, hurry not
only increases my stress and reduces my joy; hurry
makes me less productive. It makes me less productive. We think by being in a hurry
we're getting more done, but it's just a myth. Study after study has proven
that multitasking is a myth. It doesn't work. You might think you're
good at multitasking, but you're not. You're just kidding yourself,
and you're not working at your full capacity, because
your brain cannot multitask and be fully functional
and fully effective. It's been proven over and over again. Somebody is getting cheated by
your hurry and your pressure and your multitasking. One of the reasons we're less productive is Proverbs 19 verse two. The second half says this: a person in a hurry makes mistakes. (Rick laughs) If we took the time, every one of you could give a testimony
on that one right now. You get in a hurry, you put
the wrong stuff in the recipe, you make the wrong decision,
you make the wrong turn, and on and on and on. You know, I've studied the
secrets of long-lasting creative people, people
who've been creative over a lifetime, not
just in a short burst. One of the secrets of
long-lasting creative people is that they know how to pace themselves. The Bible says it like this
in Proverbs 21 verse five. Careful planning puts you
ahead in the long run. Hurry and scurry put you further behind. I love that in The Message paraphrase, puts you further behind. It just doesn't work. I want you to write this
down in your outline. I can't keep charging without recharging. I can't keep charging without recharging. I can't push, push, push, push without stopping to replenish my reserves. Let me give you a fourth
problem with hurry and scurry. Number four, hurry dries up my love. It dries up my love. When you get in a hurry, the
first thing you start doing is skimming relationally, and the people who pay for it most are often
those you love the most, because you're busy doing
other stuff, and you don't have time to actually have a
relationship or to show love. I Corinthians 13:2 says this
in the New Living Translation. Without love, I would
be no good to anybody. Without love, I would
be no good to anybody. The Message paraphrase says, I'm bankrupt. Other translations say I'm worthless. I'm empty. I'm nothing, nada. And when I'm in a hurry,
I don't have time to love. Relationships get a short
shift in your schedule. Number five, hurry keeps
me from hearing God. This is a big issue in the Bible, that you cannot hear God
when you're in a hurry. Hurry is the death of prayer. You have to be quiet to hear God's voice. You can't hear God in hurry. You can't say, God, I got 30 seconds. Please tell me real quick
about your plan for my life. It isn't gonna happen. The Bible says in Psalm
46:10, very famous psalm. You know this verse. Be still. Be still. And when you're still, you're quiet. Be still and know that I am God. If you don't have any still
times in your weekly schedule, any quiet times in your weekly schedule, you are not hearing from God. I can tell you that. See, too often, all the
circuits in your brain are busy. In your life, the circuits are jammed. God can't get through. God can't get your attention. If God wanted to tell you
something important today, he still couldn't get to you,
because you've got earbuds in or you're listening to the radio or you're looking at social media or you're 96 times a day
looking at your phone. These are things that
cause stress in your life. Stress and worry and hurry
cause you to lose your joy. Your love dries up. You can't hear God. These are important negative effects that you don't want in your life. So today, what I wanna do
is to give you five things that you need to learn in order to slow your life to a healthier pace. And this message is really
like an index to the rest of the series that we're going
to look at, because we're going to look at each of
these five things in detail. Today, I just wanna give you
an overview of five things you're gonna have to learn in order to have a more
manageable, sane life with margin and with a
slower, healthier pace. So, you don't wanna miss any
of these messages in this series, 'cause we're gonna
cover each of these in detail. Here's the first step. The first thing you need to learn if you're gonna get off the rat race and off the treadmill
is learn to be content. Learn to be content. This is the first step, and
Paul says in Philippians 4:11, I have learned to be content
whatever the circumstances. Now, circle that word, learned. I've learned to be content
whatever the circumstances. Now, I want you to notice two things. First, we are not naturally content. By nature, I'm naturally discontented. By nature, human nature, you
are naturally discontented. You're not happy with
everything in your life. And we are naturally discontented,
so we have to learn it. But notice the second thing
is contentment can be learned. You can unlearn discontent,
and you can learn contentment. And if you're serious about
slowing down the pace of your life, you're gonna honestly
have to deal with your motives and your values that
drive your discontent. You have to stop your
constant push for more. So let me ask you. What keeps you pushing for
more, more, and more, and more? More activities in your schedule, more achievement in your career, more money in your
account, more experiences that you've chalked up or
marked off your bucket list? Now, there's nothing wrong with ambition. It's how things get done. But ambition out of control
is a destructive force, and in our society today, we don't know the meaning of slow down. We don't know the meaning of
stop, of quiet, of be calm. On top of that, ambition can be motivated by a lot of unhealthy motivations. You could be motivated to do more and more and more and
more, the Bible says, out of fear, our of
fear, out of insecurity. You can be motivated for more and more in your life out of jealousy, you see what other
people have, out of envy. You can be motivated out of
guilt or revenge or anger. You can be motivated to prove
something to your parents or somebody else. You can be motivated by
ego in your ambition. You can be motivated by rage. A lot, just because you're ambitious doesn't mean that's a good thing. I wanna know, is it
motivation out of love, or is it some of these
other personal motivations that are destructive and damaging? I think the most common
driving force that cause people to overwork, to fill up
their schedules, to do more than is really sane and
necessary, is insecurity. And what I'm talking about
is the longing for belonging and the longing for approval. People will love me more
if I accomplish more. People will love me more if I do more. And we think that we're gonna
prove our worth by our work. So we wanna work and work and work, and if we think that's
gonna make us be loved by other people, we're gonna overwork. Now, listen. As long as you confuse
your worth with your work, you're gonna be hurried and overloaded. Your worth as a woman,
your worth as a man, has nothing to do with your work. It's not what you do. It's whose you are. You were created by God. Jesus, God made you. Jesus died for you. The Holy Spirit lives in you. That's why you're priceless. That's why you're valuable. Now, the starting point, I
wanna say this real quickly, is not simply to reduce
activities, because you'll quickly find replacements
for those activities. The starting point in having
a healthier pace in life is to be content with who
you are and what you have. Become content with who
you are and what you have. That's the first thing
you're gonna have to learn. We're gonna come back
to this in this series. Ecclesiastes 4:6 says this. It's better to have only a
little with peace of mind than to be busy all the time. You know, you have to ask
yourself this simple question. Will doing more make me more happy? Will having more make me more happy? Will being more make me more happy? The answer is no, because
if you're not happy with what you've got right
now, you're not gonna be happy with what you've got
in a year or 10 years. By the way, another key to contentment, and this is really important,
we'll talk about this in detail, is to stop comparing
your life to other people. The Bible says it's stupid, it's dumb. You should never compare
your life to anybody else. Proverbs 14:30 says a relaxed attitude lengthens a man's life,
but jealous rots it away. Jealousy is like envy. In other words, I want what they have. I wanna be like them. I wanna look like him or her. I wanna sing or sound or
have notoriety like they do. Jealousy rots your life away. It's the opposite of a relaxed attitude, that when I have envy,
when I have jealousy, when I see other people
and then I start comparing, it inevitably leads to envy. And that rots your life away. Now, comparing and contentment
are enemies of each other, and so, you gotta stop this comparing. The problem is, we have
more comparison today than ever in the history of mankind because of two words: social media. Social media is a comparison trap. Every time you read it and look at it, no matter which of the services you use, you're comparing who got more likes. Did I get likes? Did I get, did anybody friend me? Did anybody like me? Did anybody pat me on the back? And when you have to
constantly check social media for how people are reacting and you see what other people are living
their so-called perfect life, which is all fake, it's all fake, they're not showing the real them. It's like when you go on a date. You look your best. You smell your best. You talk your best. You dress your best. That's not the real you. It's just what you do on a date. And that's why there's a lot of letdown after you stop dating and you get married. Social media is a trap of
Satan to get you to compare, and when he gets you to
compare, you lose contentment, and then you hurry and
hurry and you worry. You're gonna have to learn to be content. We'll come back to this. Number two. Second thing you're gonna have to learn, we'll cover this again, is
you have to learn to say no. You have to learn to say
no if you're going to have a less stressful, less hurried lifestyle. By the way, learning to say no is the single greatest time saver. You need not only a to do list. You need a don't do list. Many years ago, when Nancy Reagan started the anti-drug movement and
it was just, Just Say No, well, you know, that's a good thing in a lot of areas of life. Just say no. Some of you are not addicted
to drugs, but you're addicted to speed, and I'm not talking
about methamphetamines. I'm talking about the speed of life. You're addicted to adrenaline. You're addicted to the pace of life. You can't slow down, because
your lifestyle is a drug, and you're afraid that if you slow down, then you're gonna put
your head on the pillow, and all those fears and all
those worries and all those negative emotions and all those
memories and all that hurt will come, you know,
crashing into your life. What are you running from
that makes you run so fast? Let me ask you. I wonder, how many of you have a hard time saying no to requests? The answer is, probably, 100% of us, because we want to please. We want to help other people. We want to, to be liked and loved. But the quickest way to overload
is say yes to everything. You have to have boundaries in your life. The Bible says, if you
always are, you know, saying yes to everything, you're
just gonna get in trouble. Proverbs 20:25 says this. An impulsive vow is a trap. Would you circle that? Later, you'll wish that
you could get out of it. An impulsive vow is a trap. Later, you'll wish you
could get out of it. I love that in The Message paraphrase. What is it saying there? Don't make a promise without pondering. Yeah, I'll do that. Think about it first. Don't decide without
deliberating, deliberating. Choose your commitments
carefully and prayerfully. Don't make an impulsive vow. Yeah, I'll be there. Yeah, I'll do that. You need to stop and think about it. I get in more trouble by saying yes than I ever do in saying
no, and you do too. So, here's a life lesson. I want you to write this down. You know this is true,
but that's what the Bible just said in that verse in Proverbs, and the Bible teaches us this. It's always easier to get
in than it is to get out. (Rick laughs) That's a life lesson. It's always easier to get
in than it is to get out. In fact, let's say that aloud
together in all our campuses. Ready? It's always easier to
get in than to get out. Okay, do you agree, for instance, it's easier to get into debt
than to get out of debt? Duh, yeah, right, okay. Is it easier to get into a relationship than out of a relationship? Yes. Anybody wanna give a
testimony on that one? Yeah. Is it easier to get into
trouble than out of trouble? Yeah, sure. Is it easier to gain weight
than it is to lose it? (Rick laughs) Yeah. Is it easier to fill your schedule than to fulfill your schedule? Yes, it's always easier to
get in than it is to get out. So, the Bible says we
need to learn to say no, and we need to ponder
our pathway, and we need to think about, deliberate
before we decide. Just because you could do it doesn't mean you should do it. Now, there's a big mistake
that everybody makes. We think we can keep adding
things to our schedule without eliminating,
and you need to do this. When you start any new activity, ask, what am I gonna give up
to do this new activity? When you start something
new, before you start it, you say, what am I gonna
give up now to do it? Years ago, when Peter
Drucker was my mentor, I would drive up to Clairmont
and sit in his home, and Peter would mentor me, and
as I would walk in every day, he always had the same start with me, because I would be there to
tell him all the new things that we were doing at Saddleback Church. I'd be so excited as a young pastor, telling him about these new things. And Peter would say in
his thick Austrian accent, now, Rick, before you
tell me all the new things you're doing, tell me what
you've stopped doing first. Because you can get so many irons in the fire, you put out the fire, okay? You can't keep adding, adding
things to your schedule. If you have a to do list, you
oughta have a don't do list. That saves time. Better yet, you might need to
make a what matters most list. That one's gonna be pretty small, and that's the one you focus on. Whenever you're faced with an activity, you need to ask, is it worth it? Is it worth my time? Is it worth my energy? Is it worth my reputation? Some of you have been
on all kinds of diets. Have you ever considered an activity diet? An activity diet. What am I gonna cut out
in order to have more time for the stuff that matters
and more time for God? Now, I know what you're thinking. You say, Rick, I'd like to say no. I'm just not real good at it. How do I learn to say no? Where do I get the power to say no? Well, the Bible tells us in Titus chapter two, verse 11 and 12. It says this. The grace of God, the grace
of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people,
and it, it's talking about the grace of God,
the grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness
and to worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Where do you get the power to say no? From God's grace. We'll look at that
again in the days ahead. Number three, the third thing
you're gonna have to learn to slow the pace to a
healthier pace in life is you're gonna need to learn to take a weekly Sabbath day of rest. Learn to take a weekly
Sabbath day of rest. You know, the Bible is a
book filled with principles and commands for living,
and all of these principles and all of these commands
are for our benefit. Now of course, the most famous commands in the Bible are the Big
Ten, The Ten Commandments. Now, have you ever realized
that these Ten Commandments are not for God's benefit? The Ten Commandments are for your benefit. These Ten Commandments don't
make God's life easier. The Ten Commandments are given to you to make your life easier. God gave you these commandments
because he loves you, and if you'll follow them, your
life will be so much easier. You'll avoid so many problems. The Ten Commandments don't
make God's life easier. They make your life easier. Now, in those Ten Commandments,
right there in the Big Ten, right up there with don't commit adultery and don't murder anybody and don't lie, we have the fourth
commandment, which says this: every six days, you take a day off. It's called the Sabbath. Exodus 20, verses nine and 10, is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. It says this. You have six days in
which to do your work, but the seventh day is a
day of rest dedicated to me. And that is called a Sabbath. You're gonna have to learn to take a Sabbath day off every week. Now, think about this. Rest is so important. Rest and relaxation are
so important in your life that God put it in the Big Ten, right up there with don't murder. He says every six days, every
week, you take a day off. That's called the Sabbath. It means a day of rest. Now, it doesn't matter
which day you take off, as long as it is weekly. In fact, Jesus said in the New
Testament, man was not made for the Sabbath; the
Sabbath was made for man. God gave us the Sabbath and
gave us this rule that you take a weekly day off for rest
every week for our benefit. It was made for us. Now, this is especially important
if you are self-employed, or if you're in management,
because you're not an hourly worker, and so you
will tend to just add 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 hours a week in
work, unless you take a Sabbath. You say, okay, I get it. I should take a day off every week. And by the way, don't
call it your day off, 'cause you'll cheat on
your day off, and you'll do all the work that you didn't
get done the rest of the week. Call it your Sabbath. Don't call it a day off. Call it your Sabbath, because then, if you're not taking a day off every week, you're breaking one of
the Ten Commandments. Let me say that again. If you're not taking a day off every week, you're breaking one of
the Ten Commandments. Now, too often, we use
days off, as I said, to catch up on work, but you're to use the day for three things, okay? Number one, what do I do on
my day off or on my Sabbath? One, rest my body, write this down. I rest my body. You know, if you don't take time off, (Rick laughs) your body will make time off. You know, if you don't
lay down occasionally, God will make you lay
down in green pastures. He will force you to. Our best requires rest. Our best requires rest. Did you know that during
the French Revolution, they actually abolished
Sunday as a day of rest, because they were fighting
the church and a bunch of other things, but later,
it had to be restored because the health of
the nation collapsed, and everybody was burned out. They had to restore the Sabbath. So I rest my body. Number two, the second
thing on the Sabbath is I recharge my emotions. And how do you do that? Well, there are lots of ways. Through quietness. I mean, sitting in a place
like I'm sitting right now will recharge your emotions. Getting outside. Through relationships will
recharge your emotions. Recreation that
rejuvenates, and I'm talking about non-competitive kind, because that, if you're in a competitive sport, often you're beating your brains out. You're not really relaxing. You say, but Rick, I
feel guilty when I relax. Well, Jesus didn't. You know, I heard about a guy, a pastor, and the guy called him, one
of the members called him, and said, I wanna come see you on Monday, and the pastor said I'm
sorry, I won't be available, because Monday is my Sabbath. It's my day off, 'cause
obviously Saturday and Sunday aren't Sabbath for me as a pastor. So I'm sorry, I can't help you on Monday. It's my Sabbath. And I'll be taking a day off. And the member said to the pastor, well, you know, Satan doesn't take a day off. He works all the time. And the pastor said, yeah,
if I didn't take a day off, I'd be just like Satan. (Rick laughs) You don't want Satan
to be your model, okay? You want Jesus to be your model. God took a day off. He worked in creation six days, and on the seventh day, he
rested as a model for us. So I rest my body, I recharge my emotions, and number three, I refocus my spirit. You worship, and you get
together with other people, and you worship like
we're doing right now. Worship puts life in perspective. When you leave today, you're
gonna have a better perspective on your life than you did before you came. That's one of the things worship does. No sport can do that. Fishing can't do that. Sleeping in can't do that. Watching TV can't do that. Only worship can put
your life in perspective. And so, you need to be in worship. In group worship, in a church
setting like we're doing right now, and in private
worship in a quiet time. You need time alone with God. You know, when I'm too busy for God, then I'm too busy. Matthew 11:29, we'll look
at this verse many times, but I love this in The Message paraphrase. Jesus says, walk with me and work with me, and watch how I do it. Watch the pace of his life. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I love that phrase. Underline that phrase. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. That's one of the things
you're gonna have to learn. If you're gonna have a
healthier pace of your life, if you're gonna last as long
as God wants you to last, you learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Now, to slow your life down, you're going to have to
schedule rest and recreation. The Bible says in Psalm 127 verse two, it is useless for you to rise
up early and to go to bed late and to work your worried
fingers to the bones. Don't you know that God enjoys giving rest to those he loves? What a great verse. Now, let me warn you. If you don't slow down by choice, circumstances will eventually
force you to slow down. If you don't know what's
good for you, your body does, and it will slow you down,
one way or the other. Let me give you a couple
more things you're gonna have to learn in order to
have a healthy schedule. Number four, learn to trust
in God's perfect timing. Learn to trust in God's perfect timing. You know, if discontent is
one of the causes of hurry, then impatience is the other big cause. And we get in a hurry,
and we get impatient, and impatience is caused,
listen, by a lack of trust. When we don't really believe
that God has our best interest at heart, we get in a
hurry, and we've asked God for something, and we're
praying for something, and when it isn't delivered in our timing, we just move right ahead, as Abraham did trying to have a son through
Hagar instead of waiting for the miracle baby through Sarah. So often, we struggle and we strive for what God already intends to give us. We're just in a hurry. We're impatient. You need to ask yourself,
is faster always better? No, not always. You know, most things actually grow better or mature better slowly. It's kind of like that old advertisement, we will serve no wine before its time. Who wants fast aged cheese, okay? You know, something that
takes time to savor, like, I like, you know,
the balsamic vinegar that's been aged for 12 years. Well, I don't want five-minute
aged balsamic vinegar. I want something that's
aged for a long time. It has a richer flavor. You've heard me say
this before many times, that when God wants to make a mushroom, he takes six hours. When God wants to make an
oak tree, he takes 60 years. What do you want your life to be, a mushroom or an oak tree? I can show you how to grow
to maturity spiritually, but I can't tell you how to do it quickly. It takes time. Now, the Bible says that God
has a plan for your life, but did you know, he also has
a timetable for that plan? And his timing's perfect. And here's the rub. God never explains his timetable. (Rick laughs) We would like to know the
timetable, but he doesn't tell us. He reveals it a little bit at a time. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says this: God does everything
just right and on time. But people can never completely
understand what he's doing. Isn't that the truth? The Bible's so accurate about our lives. God does it perfectly; we
just don't understand it. Why not? Because he, why doesn't God tell us? He wants us to trust him. He wants us to trust that
his timing is perfect. Now, if you want to slow
the pace of your life, you need to trust that God
is gonna fulfill his plan for your life at just the right time, and don't get in a hurry. And hold onto this promise, another verse that's very familiar here
at Saddleback Church, Habakkuk 2:3, where God says, the things that I plan
won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely,
the time approaches when the vision, that's
the vision for your life, will be fulfilled. Now, if it seems slow,
God says wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. What a great promise to hold onto. You've gotta learn to trust God's timing and not get impatient and push through on that dream when it
doesn't happen immediately. You know, sometimes, God has to take us through a different time
to teach us to trust him. That was Paul's testimony. II Corinthians chapter one
verse nine, he says this. It's there on your outline. Paul says, we suffered
so that we would stop trusting ourselves and learn to trust God, who brings the dead back to life. So that tough time you're
doing through right now, that suffering you're going,
maybe it's just happening to teach you to learn to trust
God, and one of the things he wants you to learn
to trust is his timing. All right, let me wrap this
up by giving you one more. If you're gonna learn
to live a healthy life and a healthy pace,
you're gonna have to learn to use love as your filter. Learn to use love as my filter, for everything I choose to
use, my time and my money, my energy, and everything else. Now, I'm just mentioning this, 'cause I'm gonna teach an
entire session on this point, learning to use love as my filter. Love is your number-one
time management filter. The Bible says this, Ephesians two in The Message paraphrase. Mostly what God does is love you. Did you get that? What God does, most of the things he does, most of the time, he's just loving you. So keep company with him
and learn a life of love. Learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not
cautious, but extravagant, and he didn't love in order
to get something from us, but he did love to give us
everything of himself to us. Love like that. Now, what do you mean,
use love as a filter? I'm saying that when you have to decide between two competing priorities, am I gonna do this or am I gonna do this, you should always choose
the most loving option. That's the qualifier. Which of these two things to do is the more loving thing to do? Not the selfish thing to
do, the loving thing to do. I Corinthians 16:14,
do everything in love. Do everything in love. And the Bible says you have to
love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; love
your neighbor as yourself. So there's three loves there. Love God, love your
neighbor, and love yourself. Now, you wanna ask, write this down. Here's a question to always
ask when you're trying to decide what to do and prioritization. What is the loving thing
to do here right now? What's the loving thing to do here? All right? Now, let me close with this. Have you ever been to a
race track like a car race, a NASCAR race or a Formula One race or, you know, Indy 500 race? If you have, you've probably seen a pace car at the race track. And that pace car goes out
in front of all the people that are gonna be in the
race, and it sets the pace at that point, whether it speeds people up or slows 'em down, if
there's been an accident. That's what a pace car does. You need a pace setter for your life. And may I suggest to you that
nobody can do a better job of being your pace setter
for life than Jesus. He will be the pace setter
for your life if you ask him. Let me read you this poem. It's called "Slow Me Down, Lord." Slow me down, Lord. Ease the pounding of my heart
by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried and harried pace with the vision of the
eternal reach of time. Give me, amidst the confusion in my day, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tension of my
nerves with soothing music of the singing streams
that live in my memory. Help me, Lord, to know the
restoring power of sleep. Teach me the art of
taking minute vacations, of slowing down to look at a flower, to pat a stray dog, to
chat with an old friend or make a new one. Teach me to watch a spider
build a web or to smile at a child or to read a
few lines from a good book. Remind me, Lord, that
each day that the race is not always to the
swift, and that there's more to life than just
increasing the speed. Lord, let me look upward into the branches of the towering oak and know that it grew
great and it grew strong because it grew slow and it grew well. Are you tired of an overloaded life? Are you sick and tired
of being sick and tired? I really want this journey
on living on a margin to be a journey for all of us together, to move from burnout to balance, and from, you know, harassment
and hurry to health. I'm calling this series
Large Group Recovery for Busy People, okay, so
we're all in a recovery group together for the next several weeks. And my challenge to you today is this: will you commit to being
here for every week of this series, for every
session in this series? It may save your health. It may add years to your life. It may save your marriage, your family, a relationship to your kids. It may save your sanity. It could save your life. This is an important
series in today's culture, and if you're listening
online or on Daily Hope, I want you to hear every
one of these messages, and if you're at one of our campuses, I want you to be here every
single week in this series. It's just too important. Your life matters too much to God. The second thing I wanna ask you to do is to make your prayer Psalm 51:10. I love this in The Message. It says this. God, make a fresh start in
me, and shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my mind. Would you bow your heads with me? Father, I know there are a lot of tired, overloaded people here today. We're not living with margin. We're stretched beyond capacity, and everything in our
culture says to go for more, go for better, go for faster. But we instinctively know that
that kind of insane lifestyle leads to a dead end. And so today, as a group of
people supporting each other in our church family, we wanna make a counterculture decision together. We wanna enjoy the life
that you've given to us, not just endure it. We wanna bring sanity and simplicity back into our schedules. We wanna live balanced, healthy lives, and Father, we wanna have
time for the relationships that matter the most, with you
and with those that we love, and with each other in our church family and with those who need
your love around us. Now, with our heads bowed, would you pray? Just talk to God personally, and tell him you wanna
get off the rat race. Just say Jesus Christ, you
know I need this series. I need margin and balance in my life. Thank you for bringing me here. Say, Jesus, I'm tired of living with unnecessary stress and hurry. Thank you for a church where
you can speak to me like today. Today, I wanna take these
first steps of learning these different things,
but even before that, Jesus Christ, I wanna
take the step to you. I'm asking you to take
all the pieces of my life, and in the weeks ahead, replace
my pieces with your peace. Help me to sort it out with your wisdom. I need you, Jesus
Christ, to be the manager of my life, the Savior of my
life, the rescuer of my life, and my schedule. Only you can give me the
grace to make the changes, to say no, to make the changes
that I wanna see in me. So today, once again, I
commit all of my life to you, and I commit to being
a part of this series. Help me to become more balanced
so I can be more blessed, and so I can be a blessing to others, and I humbly pray this in
your name, Jesus, amen. If you prayed that prayer,
would you let me know about it? Would you take one of
the cards in front of you and check the box, I
committed my life to Christ, or I recommitted my life to Christ? And if you're going through
a particularly tough time, write me a note about it. I pray for these prayer requests. Let me know what, how we can pray for you, and our other pastors will pray for you. And make sure you're here
every week, and bring a friend. You know this series would
help everybody in our, in our culture right
now that's stressed out. So we'll see you next
weekend for week three on Living with a Margin. God bless you.
