Rev. David Holwick U Proverbs series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
July 16, 2006
Proverbs 20:4
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I. How accurately are you telling time?
I am the most accurate in this church because I own a Casio Wave
Captor atomic wristwatch.
Every night it receives a radio signal from Ft. Collins, Colorado.
It is accurate to 1/10 of a second.
I have verified it with the official government computer time.
However, when you have to change the battery it takes a couple
of days to get up to speed.
Until then it reads [time right now] or 9:55 p.m., March 3, 2000.
It did that three times last week...
A. Is time cyclical?
1) Eastern societies take this approach.
a) Reincarnation and never-ending cycles in life.
2) Clocks cycle around, whether they have hands or
digital readouts.
You go through a day, but the next morning you
wake up and it is the same time again.
It seems like the movie "Groundhog Day."
Every day, time repeats itself.
B. Time actually moves on in a straight line.
1) Western societies realize nothing ever repeats exactly.
a) Time may seem to twist and turn, but it always
moves to the future. It never truly cycles.
b) In the Bible, time has a beginning, a middle - and an
end.
2) Time is a lot like an hourglass.
a) You only have so much, then it's gone.
b) We must learn to use it wisely.
C. Time causes anxiety.
1) Our schedules are out of control.
a) Holwick refrigerator calendar with constant revisions.
I type it on a computer program.
Penciled appointments are added on.
I revise the computer version, and always leave out
one of Celeste's critical appointments...
b) We often feel victimized by time.
2) How can we get a handle on it?
II. Line up your priorities.
A. Time presents us with limited choices.
1) Choices aren't always welcome.
Today we have all kinds of options and choices about how to
spend our time.
I think the greatest little image for that is from the movie,
"Moscow on the Hudson."
It is a movie about a guy who emigrates from Russia.
In fact, he was a defector from Russia.
He grew up in Russia in the 60's and 70's.
It was a difficult era to be living there then, a lot of
suffering in a lot of ways: deprivation, people would stand
in line for hours and hours just to get the basic
necessities of life.
And so he comes from that environment of want and scarcity and
defects to the United States.
He tries to adjust to the new life here in this country with
all this stuff.
One day, he wants to buy coffee, so he goes to a grocery store
and says, "Where's the coffee?"
The clerk just sort of points to an aisle.
He goes there and the whole aisle is filled with all kinds
of different coffees.
And as he stands there, he's repeating, "Coffee, coffee,
coffee..."
He gets overwhelmed and actually has a panic attack and faints
because he's so overwhelmed by all the choices.
Well, that's our dilemma today.
Not just buying coffee, not just the choices of things we can
have, but the choices of things we can do, the choices of
things we can be.
And we feel overwhelmed by all these options.
And we are sometimes maybe even paralyzed or limited because
we feel like if I choose this, then I have to reject that
and how do you know what's the right way?
How do you know how to spend your time, how to focus those
priorities?
#32761
2) Life is like that, but we cannot freeze up.
a) We can't do everything - there's not enough time.
b) We must make decisions.
c) We must choose the BEST things.
B. Time forces us to make priorities. 17:24
17:24 A discerning man keeps wisdom in view, but a fool's eyes
wander to the ends of the earth.
1) Wisest person in regard to time: not Solomon, but Jesus.
It is evening, and tons of people are descending on him.
These are needy people - the sick, the possessed.
He heals them late into the night.
His ministry was overwhelming, yet what does he do early
in the morning?
He is out in the hills, praying to his Father.
Jesus knew his priorities. Mark 1:32-35
2) What are your priorities?
Some of your pastor's options:
a) Cleaning my messy office, vs. building a database of
illustrations to enhance my sermons and share with
other pastors around the world.
The database wins every time.
b) More difficult: spend time with wife, or visit a
church member?
I like this one because I end up a hero no matter what.
c) More realistic: spend time with wife, or putter around
on my computer for hours and hours?
My wife doesn't win, at least often.
Very few people are realistic about personal time management.
Partly, it is to save face.
When I talk to people about volunteering for a church program,
they never say, "I don't really want to do that. It would
be a waste of my time."
Instead, they'll say, "That sounds great, and I 'd like to do
it, but I'm just too busy."
Are we really too busy?
Much of the research done on this subject is terribly flawed
and contradictory.
It's usually based on surveys, asking people for answers based
on their memory of a "typical week."
What happens is that "selective memory" kicks in -- we remember
working longer hours, exercising more, and watching TV less
than really was the case.
Several time management experts have studied the issue from a
different angle by using time diaries.
People write down on a sheet of paper -- in real time, not
from memory -- what they're doing on the job each day.
These authors report that when their clients keep diaries, and
analyze their actual time usage, without exception they have
the same reaction: SHOCK.
They're surprised because the actual results are so different
from "what they remembered."
Keep in mind that these experts are focused on helping people
deal with time management when they're at work.
If people are delusional about their use of time when they're
on the job, imagine how inaccurate their accounting of
PERSONAL time is! #30651
3) Saying and doing are two different things.
a) Lisa Mino, Sam's daughter-in-law, runs every other day.
I told her I really admired that and knew I should do
it, but never get around to it.
Her advice - make an appointment with yourself to do it.
b) Paul Farmer, medical missionary to Haiti.
He is rich, smart and devotes his life to the poor of
the world, especially in a clinic in Haiti.
People in many countries ask him to speak or set up
medical programs.
How does he handle all these demands?
Each day he makes an extensive to-do list.
He organizes them in the order of importance.
Then he does them.
At each completion, he checks it off.
If he didn't do this, he would be buried in 48 hours.
C. Understand the harvest principle.
20:4 A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time
he looks but finds nothing.
1) Several principles can be gained from this verse:
a) If you don't plow at all, you don't harvest.
b) If you plow at the wrong time, you don't harvest.
c) So if you want a harvest, do the work at the right time.
Example of Holwick garden this year.
I purchased seeds in January.
I planted them in little pots indoors in April.
I put them in the ground on July 14. (no exaggeration)
I cannot wait to see my harvest...
2) Since we cannot do everything, do the things that bear
fruit.
a) Do now, what needs to be done now.
b) Choose the best over the merely good.
1> But the perfect can be the enemy of the good.
2> Be realistic in your expectations.
3) One of the most important areas of decision: spirituality.
a) Paul's advice: the time of salvation is NOW. 2 Cor 6:2
b) Don't put off a spiritual decision or commitment.
III. Lighten up your attitude.
A. Stress is an attitude more than an event.
12:25 An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word
cheers him up.
14:30 A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy
rots the bones.
1) Anxiety can affect us physically.
2) So can contentedness.
a) Which would you rather have?
B. Put your stress in perspective.
1) Journaling - you'll find that things you used to stress
over aren't that big a deal now.
2) Don't say: one day I'll laugh about this. Laugh about
it now.
IV. Look up to God.
A. Trust in God to handle your anxiety. 10:27; 12:28
10:27 The fear of the LORD adds length to life, but the
years of the wicked are cut short.
1) Many scientific studies establish the health benefits of
believing in God.
2) It helps not only in this life, but the life to come.
12:28 In the way of righteousness there is life; along
that path is immortality.
B. We have something from God that gets us through thick and thin.
10:25 When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone,
but the righteous stand firm forever.
In 1714, the people of England were anxious.
Queen Anne lay dying, and she had no son or daughter to
succeed her.
Who would be the new monarch, and what changes would that make?
Isaac Watts had reason to worry.
His father had been imprisoned under the previous regime because
his views did not please the ruling family.
As a young child, Isaac has been carried by his mother to visit
his father in jail.
But Queen Anne had brought a new tolerance, and the elder Watts
had been released from prison.
Now that she was dying, what would happen?
Isaac Watts turned to Psalm 90 on this occasion and penned what
may be the greatest of his more than six hundred hymns.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home!
"O God, Our Help In Ages Past," Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Our confidence in not in a queen or political leader, but in
God alone.
In essence, it is a poem about time.
God stands above human time, and in Him all our anxieties can
be laid to rest.
When the events of the day bring worry, the God of all ages
remains our eternal home.
#30785
C. Make time for God a priority.
1) Devotions and meditation.
a) Celeste does hers each morning in our patio.
2) Get involved in church activities that build you up.
(you are excused from the other ones...)
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
This sermon is adapted from a message by Rev. Mark Brouwer titled
"Surviving My Schedule," Bridgewood Church (Christian Reformed) of Savage,
Minnesota.
#30651 "Where Does The Time Go?" by Rev. Mark Brouwer, Bridgewood Church
(Christian Reformed) of Savage, Minnesota.
http://www.bridgewood.org
#30785 "Our Help In Ages Past," by Mark Norton and Robert Brown,
Godsdailypromises@leftbehindprophecy.com, March 16, 2006.
#32761 "Coffee, Coffee, Coffee..." by Rev. Mark Brouwer, Bridgewood Church
(Christian Reformed) of Savage, Minnesota.
http://www.bridgewood.org
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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