May 27, 2001

November 25, 2001

Romans 13:11-14

How to Escape the Tyranny of the Season

Introduction

Illustration – I want to start this morning’s message with a couple of quotes. Martin Helldorfer in The Work Trap (Winona, Minn.: Saint Mary's Press, 1981) argues that "we need to be slowed by involvement." By this he means that "We do not praise the value of being at the expense of the value of doing, or vice versa. What we are speaking about is leisure as a way of living and as a component of all involvement whether the activity is a job, game, prayer, or sleep. If there is an observation that we wish to accent, it is this: that despite all our activity, the reality seems to be that we are under- rather than over-involved. Our busyness reflects a condition of being scattered.... We need to be slowed by involvement." Eric Hoffer, the American longshoreman philosopher, observed that "the feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is, on the contrary, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else - we are the busiest people in the world."

Context – Helldorfer and Hoffer are basically saying the same thing – that we need to be increasingly involved in those things that are truly important and decreasingly involved in those things that are not. Paul has a lot to say about what is and isn’t eternally important in Romans 13:11-14, and this passage can help us to finally overcome the tyranny of the season this year.

Scripture Passage

Romans 13:11-14, from The Message – But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-to-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

One of the problems we face during the Christmas season is that we get so busy taking care of the day-to-day things that we forget the eternal. Let’s take a closer look at what Paul has to say about our problem and its solution.

Prayer is the Key

Martin Luther was asked one day how he could spend so much time in prayer when he had so much to do. Luther replied, "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer." Luther had his priorities straight. He believed that all else was secondary compared to his relationship with Jesus Christ. He figured out something that we haven’t yet – if you take care of your relationship with Christ, everything else will fall into place as God intends it to. The really interesting aspect of that thought is that everything will fall into place the way that God intends it to regardless of what we do, but if we are in tune with God, we get to go along for the ride. We get to be a part of God’s purposes instead of fighting against them. The only way we can be part of God’s purposes is if we recognize what He is doing when we see it, and the only way we can recognize what He is doing is if we are walking close to Him. Prayer, Bible study, and reflection are the only ways we are going to get close to God, and walking obedience will keep us close as long as we spend quality time in prayer, Bible study, and reflection. Kathleen Norris, in her book Amazing Grace, writes, Prayer is not doing, but being. It is not words but the beyond-words experience of coming into the presence of something much greater than oneself. It is an invitation to recognize holiness, and to utter simple words - "Holy, Holy, Holy" - in response. If you and I are going to enjoy this kind of intimate relationship with God, we’ve got to put in the time necessary to ensure we can experience Who God is. We’ve got to invest quality time into our relationship with God.
That brings us to a fairly major question – what is quality time? Henry and Richard Blackaby, in their book Spiritual Leadership, write, While all Christians have the Holy Spirit’s presence in their lives, the condition of being filled with the Holy Spirit comes through concentrated, fervent, sanctified prayer. God’s promise is: "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). Quality time with God then is the amount time on a regular basis that it takes to search for God with all of our hearts and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. One way to think of quality time is that it is the amount of time it takes God to move us from our own agendas to His agenda, from where we are to where He wants us to be. E.M. Bounds, in his excellent book Power Through Prayer, writes, …in our private communions with God time is a feature essential to its value. Much time spent with God is the secret of all successful praying. Prayer which is felt as a mighty force is the mediate or immediate product of much time spent with God. Our short prayers owe their point and efficiency to the long ones that have preceded them. The short prevailing prayer cannot be prayed by one who has not prevailed with God in a mightier struggle of long continuance… Much with God alone is the secret of knowing and of influence with Him. In a nutshell, Bounds is saying that short prayers don’t work if we haven’t figured out where God is going by spending long times in prayer with Him. That’s a hard one in our culture. Our timesaving devices make us feel like we have to work harder, not smarter. Working smart means taking care of business with God before we take care of any other kind of business.
Illustration – Os Guinness, in The Call, wrote, The deepest knowledge can never be put into words – or spelled out in sermons, books, lectures, and seminars. It must be learned from the Master, under his authority, in experience. Guinness spells it out pretty clearly – we will never grow spiritually beyond the time we invest in our relationship with the Master.

Time vs. Tyranny

Remember what Paul said? But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of day-to-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. Unfortunately, that’s what all of us do from time to time. And some folks spend almost all of their time so absorbed by day-to-day living that they totally lose sight of eternity, perhaps taking the time to mutter a quick prayer first thing in the morning and last thing at night and maybe scan through the blurb in the Daily Bread real quick. What’s the big deal about doing that? When we don’t invest time with God, we lose sight of His plan of salvation for the people around us. Then our consciences begin to go to sleep a little bit at a time and eventually become so scarred over by our sins that we can’t hear the quiet whisper of the Holy Spirit anymore. Paul’s cry, We can’t afford to waste a minute, gets drowned out by our own selfishness, and if we don’t repent, we get so hardened that sin means nothing to us. We find ourselves totally out of relationship with God – the opposite of what we really wanted to happen.
Paul gives us a solution. He says, Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about! In other words, don’t let your relationship with Christ die. The NIV puts it this way: So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light… clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. If we aren’t working to develop an intimate, fulfilling relationship with our God and Savior, then we are thinking about how to fulfill our sinful desires. We’ve got to dress ourselves with Christ by spending quality time in prayer, Bible study and reflection. That’s hard to do, but it’s only hard because our mindsets are so out of whack with where God wants them to be. We’ve drifted very, very far from the faith that our spiritual ancestors lived.
So we say to ourselves, "Great! One more thing to add to an already too busy day! How am I going to do that? Where will the time come from?" Henry and Richard Blackaby offer some huge insights about this, and they apply to more than just leaders. God has a plan for each person that is uniquely suited to that individual. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?! But there’s more. Unlike people, God never piles on more than someone can handle. God never overbooks people. God never drives his servants to the point of breakdown. God never burns people out. God never gives people tasks that are beyond the strength or ability he provides. If this is true, why do so many people struggle with too much to do? Why are Christian leaders burning out from overwork and exhaustion? Is God responsible? No. When people become overwhelmed by their commitments and responsibilities, they are operating on their own agenda… The key for overworked leaders is to examine each of their current responsibilities to determine whether they have inadvertently assumed ownership for things God has not intended them to carry. The apostle Paul instructed early Christians: "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:15-17). Nobody puts too heavy a load on you but you. Nobody puts too heavy a load on me but me. The only way we will understand what is on God’s agenda for us, what His will is, is if we spend the quality time with Him that He is calling us to. That’s what Jesus did. The Blackabys add, It was only as Jesus kept His Father’s will continually before him that he was able to stay focused on doing what was most important: obeying God’s will. Jesus’ consistent, quality time with His Father enabled Him to know God’s will and escape the tyranny of the season.
Illustration – Dave Wilkerson, in Hungry for More of Jesus, wrote, I know of one sure place where the supply of Bread never fails, and that is the secret closet of prayer. The Holy Spirit waits there to bring this precious Bread to you, to satisfy you completely and to make you strong and able to resist the world and the Devil. If you are hungry for more of Jesus, then come to the Lord's Table often. Be diligent to keep the feast. There you will find the abundant life he longs to give you. We all need the Bread of Life that comes to us through spending quality time in prayer.

Practical Suggestions

There are probably a lot of you who are saying to yourselves, "So what? I know all this stuff!" As Morpheus said to Neo in The Matrix, "Sooner or later you’re going to find that there is a big difference between knowing the path, and walking the path." What good is knowing what we should do if we don’t do it? For the last twenty minutes or so I’ve been trying to show you the path to walk and how important walking that path is. Whether or not you choose to walk it is up to you. But now I want to give you some practical ideas for how to walk the path. And may God by the power of the Holy Spirit convict ALL of us to walk this path and enable us to do it.
The first practical aspect is that, if we’re going to spend quality time in prayer, we need a quiet time and place. For folks who have small children at home, this can be a challenge. Maybe what God is calling you to do is get up earlier (and believe me it pains me to suggest that) to spend time in prayer and in the Word. Or maybe if you can’t get up earlier you need to stay up later, after everyone else in the house has gone to bed. The point is this: if it’s a high enough priority to you, you’ll do it.
Second, don’t try to start with an hour of prayer if you’ve only been spending five minutes. If you haven’t been having a consistent, quality quiet time, start with a ten-five split. Spend ten minutes in prayer and five in Bible study seven days a week for a couple of weeks. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but if you haven’t been doing anything it’s a start. And it will help you build this godly habit into your life. After you’ve done the ten-five split for a couple of weeks, move up to a twenty-ten split. Always try to use a two-to-one ratio for prayer over Bible study, because prayer helps most to build the relationship while Bible study makes sure it is on a solid foundation of Scripture. And allow a few minutes to reflect on what you’ve read, and journal what you’ve learned if you find that helpful. The goal most folks should shoot for is at least thirty minutes a day in prayer and fifteen minutes a day in Bible study. And if God leads you to do more, then you’d better do more.
If you’ve been struggling to find time to spend in prayer and the Word, you’re probably saying, "Wait a minute! I thought you were going to help me end the tyranny of the season that’s driving me nuts! How can I possibly add to my schedule?" There is a very simple principle involved here. It doesn’t make a lot of sense by the world’s standards, but it does make tremendous sense by God’s standards. When you take the time to invest in your relationship with God, God makes the remaining time you have more efficient and effective. Don’t ask me how this works, but every time we try to honor ourselves and what we think is important with our time, we wind up spinning our wheels. When we take the time to be with God and talk to Him and hear from Him, His guidance and direction enable us to make better use of the time we have left. We simply must connect with our God if we’re going to make the best use of the time He gives us. What the Blackabys write about leaders applies to all of us – When leaders see God’s activity and recognize it as his invitation to join him, decisions become more straightforward. It is when people do not understand God’s will that their schedules get out of control. Then, every opportunity to take on another project becomes hard to reject, because harried leaders are never sure whether they will be making a mistake if they decline to become involved. This principles applies to all of us. Connecting with God and listening for and doing His will enables us to be involved in what He wants us to be involved in, and nothing else.
Which brings us to the third practical issue - when we spend time to hear from God and learn His agenda, it will begin to replace ours. So one of the most practical things we can do is examine everything we do in light of God’s will for our lives. The Blackabys write, Leaders always begin by investing their time in the most important things. If anything must be neglected in leaders’ lives, it should always be the less critical activities. If leaders never take time to determine their priorities, however, they will invariably spend inordinate amounts of time on projects that are extraneous to their main purpose. Knowing God’s will is indispensable for spiritual leaders. Again, these truths apply to all of us. We’ve all got to spend quality time with God so we can hear His voice, discover His will for our lives, then get rid of those things that eat up our time and don’t fit into His agenda. All of us need to do that. If God’s will for your life is that you stay at home and raise a godly family, and invest time helping others grow in the faith, then you’d better do those things that accomplish God’s agenda. If God’s will for your life is that you work hard and make money that can be given to His work, then you’d better be doing it. One thing on this point – it is always God’s will for His people to use the gifts He has given them to advance His kingdom. So if you aren’t using your spiritual gifts for God’s glory in the work of the church and even in para-church ministries, you are out of God’s will in that area of your life. Spend quality time with God each and every day, listen to Him to find His agenda for your life, and get rid of those things that do not accomplish His will, take on those things that are in His will, and you will find your schedule much easier to stomach.
One important truth I have to add before I conclude – God is interested in the motives of our hearts. If we spend time with Him only because we want our lives to be easier, we’ll be sorely disappointed because He will not honor that. If, on the other hand, we spend time with Him because we love Him and want to know Him more and live our lives according to His agenda, He will honor that desire of our hearts and all the benefits we’ve talked about this morning will take place in your life. There is no simple formula for overcoming the tyranny of the season – it’s all about our relationship with the Almighty. There is nothing more important.
Illustration – Thomas a Kempis, in The Imitation of Christ, wrote, Learn to despise outward things and to give yourself to inward things, and you shall see the kingdom of God rise within you. For the kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. When we choose relationship with God and living according to His agenda, we see the kingdom of God rise within us.

Conclusion

Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Have you been struggling in your daily walk with God? Have you been spending the quality time with Him that you need and that He deserves? You probably know the answer to those questions in your heart right now. So, if you haven’t been spending the quality time with Christ that He is calling you to, now’s the time to do something about it. Now’s the time to overcome the tyranny of the season and live by His agenda.
If you haven’t been spending quality time with God, and right now you want to commit to doing that, please raise your hand as a sign of that commitment. Make your commitment in your heart to God with your hand raised, then we’ll pray together.
Let’s pray.