Focusing Your Life II, Develop A Devotional Habit

A little informal poll here. How many of you are relieved that I got my stress back and put my suit back on? You feel better? How many of you like you last week's better? Okay. Okay, well Dave missed that though. We've been commiserating about that. We don't know folks. Well, I make it with cutoffs in a t-shirt, you know, we've definitely become California here. All right, get your outlines out because you will need those and open up your your Bibles, please and we're going to be making some important observations here. You know, last evening I arrived in the church campus as is my habit about 7 p.m. Knowing that there was five to six hundred high school kids here to finish this weekend famine. Now you got to know in my mind I'm thinking what what's been happening here with five or six hundred high school kids, not from this church, from all over the city. And by the way, I'm glad that we can give our facility to the city from time to time and it's been a great testimony. But you know, I had an image of, you know, pulling over the crest of the hill and seeing the place in flames or something and not to be disappointed, I drove on the campus into the back where I used to entry back here by the offices and I'm getting out of my car and I hear this incredibly loud ah, ah, you know, it's this it's the fire siren and then the strobe lights blinking throughout the building. I'm thinking, you know, and people running around and I'm thinking, you know, they did it and they lit the stage on fire. High school kids, you know, I All these thoughts are going through my mind for just just a little while and I get inside it turns out that one of the little ones, like a three-year-old, of one of the parent chaperones walked out and pulled that one, you know, the one right there in the front pole as you're walking, the one that says pull me on it. It's about that high for the third or fourth time that's happened. The fire marshal made us put that there and but just when I was kind of starting to get just a little bit relaxed, the Lord reminded me of something. He said, what happened in your house on Tuesday? And you know what? The same thing happened. Our fire alarms went off in all three levels of our house, the basement, first, second floor and God said your family and your home aren't perfectly in order either and neither is mine. So just chill out a little bit. And you know, he was right. Our dryer thing had fallen out and it was causing stuff to go up and it set off the fire alarm. It just reminded me, we're a family here and how many of those stuff happens in families? Things you can't predict. I mean, so if your chair is a little bit sticky, you know, someone was eating a Twizzler there. I don't know. It's just just part of what happens when you invite people in. Now today, we're looking at just the second part of this little mini two-part series I'm doing as a follow-up to the Sermon on the Mount and we're looking at a dimension of growth that you've got to experience if you're serious about moving ahead with God. And I know that most of you are, you wouldn't be here if you weren't somewhat serious about this. Last week we looked at the process of dealing with stress and the stress that comes into our lives when we get serious about following the Lord. If you missed last week, you may want to get the tape. We decided that the best way to deal with stress was to take this little sheet and put on a desktop and said bang head here. How many of you had a chance to use that this week? It helps. It's actually almost as good as Scripture, I find. But this week we want to look at something else and it's caught up in a simple little word. And when I started preparing this week, I had a different direction in mind, you know. I have given God permission to always mess up my plans and I told you I was gonna talk about devotional life. And I got into the week's preparation and the Holy Spirit of God really clearly led me in this direction. Because he said to my heart, he said, it's not that the people don't have the knowledge, they need the will to press forward. And so I want to say to you today, I want to talk not about that mechanics, you know, the how-to's of having a quiet time or a devotional habit with God. And in fact, if you need some encouragement in that area, I've assembled a couple of resources. As I note this, I'm not gonna say it again, I'll forget probably, but we have a victory Bible plan which I use every day and a Lord's Prayer outline. We've made up hundreds of these for you out in the information center. You can pick one up on your way out. This is what I use to have my time with God on a daily basis. But that's not the issue today. The issue has to do with what does it take for us to get committed to moving ahead with God? You know, the entire baby boomer generation is commitment phobic. And that's most of us in this room. I'll throw in the baby busters, too. You know, the 19 to 30 year olds as well. I mean, just look at our culture. We are moving into an era when one word predominates the attitude of this culture, and it's the word option. Give me choices, man. Give me choices. How many channels do you get in your TV? When I was growing up, we get three. How many do you get now? Well, if you just have rabbit ears, you get about 12. If you've got cable, you get about 50. You know, if you have one of those little satellite dishes, you know, you have 180. And soon we'll all have, you know, options of 500 channels. You know, you used to go in and ask for a cup of coffee in a restaurant. Now what do you have to say? Oh, well, you know, I want it to have this certain flavor, and I want a decaf, you know, and then I want it to be in a little glass cup, a little cream on the top, espresso, you know, all these choices. That's the baby boomer generation. I mean, I've heard baby boomers say all the time, you know, I want my, I'm keeping my options open. I'm not real serious yet. Yeah, a lot of irons in the fire, you know. Don't fence me in. And those of you who are in your 50s and 60s and 70s, listen, you don't get this because it, in fact, it bothers you, and I'll tell you why it does. You grew up in a generation that survived two world wars and a depression only because you were committed. You don't understand it any other way. And it kind of irritates you that so many younger people just seem to be afraid to be committed. Baby boomers and baby busters, they just like, you know, well, they bounce from relationship to relationship, marriage to marriage, job to job, career to career, city to city, church to church, because they fear, literally, being committed. Even to the extent that sometimes they won't commit their lives to Jesus Christ, and they jeopardize their entire eternal destiny because they're afraid of what might happen if they limit their options about God. Well, let me give you three reasons why our commitments are important, and this is on your outline, okay? So fill it out. I'm looking for pencils to move here. Are we ready? Three reasons why, no matter what your maturity level, commitments will change your life. Wise commitments will benefit your life. Unwise ones or foolish ones or lack of commitments will derail your life. Here's the first one. My commitments are important because they reveal my values. Where you put your time, your money, and your energy will reveal what's really important in life. You can say, hey, God's number one, but let me just help you with this. I got a real simple test to prove what's really important in your life. Right here. The two-question test. What's in here? What is this? Can you see in the back? It's a calendar. And what's in here? Know what this is? Yeah, it's an empty checkbook. These two things, the ledgers of these things, will tell me, you can say whatever you want, this tells me what's really important. You can say, oh, my family, nothing like my family, but if your family is not in here, I mean, at least symbolically in here, you can say whatever you want. And you know what I see most people in my generation do? It's what I call skimming. They take from the top of what they know will always be there, i.e., the love of God, and they presume the love of their family, and they borrow against it to dump it into something that they think is urgent, which is usually their career or their job or their expectation of their boss. And ultimately, in the end, I've had many of these conversations, 10, 15 years down the road, they've been skimming against God and skimming from their family, and they walk in one day, and the wife says, I'm out of here. And they say, ah, it's really important to me. What happened? And I look, and I say, for 15 years you've been taking. You see, what you're committed to reveals your values, and it's important that you understand that, because you can't fool God, and you can't fool those who are close to you. And if you're not committed to anything, you want to know what you're really committed to? It's you. You've become the most important thing in your life. Second thing that commitments do is they shape my character. They determine what kind of person I'm going to be. Young people, listen. I made a real strong point of this when a lot of the kids are in the first service, but many of you here as well. Write this in the margin on the side of your notes, please. I will become what I am committed to. That's what you'll become. You'll become what your commitments are. You know, your life is nothing more than the sum total of your commitments and your habits. Look at Proverbs 24, 23 on your outline. Look at it. It says, guard your affections, for they influence everything else in your life. What you are passionate about, what you're committed to, will determine everything else in your life. Mark it down. You know, character is not inherited. Character isn't something that you win in a lottery. Character isn't something you just wake up with one day. It's not in your genes. Character is a function of what you're committed to and the habits that you practice. And if you spend time with God, a devotional habit with God consistently, you will become like the one you spend time with. That's an incredible thing. It doesn't happen overnight. People say, well, how did you grow to lead a church like this? I say, I don't have any clue at all. I just, every day I spend time with God. And over the years, God changes who we are, our character. I love the quote that I found in the Living Bible. I hope I can dig it up here. When the disciples had been called in to give an account for what was happening through their hands of healing and touching, and it says in Acts 4.23, when the council saw the boldness of Peter and John, and could see, and I like this Living Bible translation, that they were obviously uneducated, non-professionals, they were amazed and realized what being with Jesus had done for them. Can I tell you something? When you spend time with Jesus, it'll do something for you. It'll shape your character. Are you doing it? It'll shape who you are. And conversely, if you spend your time pouring on yourself out after money and influence and politics and all the rest, it will also shape your character. And folks, that's the very reason why there's so much corruption at higher levels of government and business. It's because it gets inside, and it consumes even good people. Third thing that your commitments will influence is to determine your destiny. You know, our daily choices have consequences, don't they? Every single day, we make choices that will kind of influence what direction life's going. And folks, it can be kind of a heavy weight if you think, well, today I may make decisions that will really impact eternity. But you know what? It's true. Every single day, commitments are put before you that you have to decide, what am I going to do with it? Wise people don't just drift through life. They choose commitments very carefully. They know the implications even in everyday kinds of things. Now, how many of you get phone calls at night, usually around dinnertime, asking for money? I can always tell when it's one of these solicitors. They'll call like right at six or so, and they'll, is John Pazzovani there? And I'll say, I'll get him for you. Hold on. And and then they have this thing, you know, and I'm sure in black and white, I'm thinking, yeah, and it probably says right next to their little, their little calling a pastor of church in Wexford. So I think I'm really nice when I'm talking on the phone. The only ones of those that we support are all the police ones, they're called. I mean, we support the retired chiefs of police, the local chiefs of police, the amalgamated brotherhood of police chiefs, the left-handed police chiefs, because I figure all the police chief badges you can have in the back of your car and when the timing is needed are helpful. Okay, well, some of you get that. But usually what I say to people when they call in, I say to them something like, well, thanks for calling, but we are committed to giving to our local church, and so therefore we won't be able to give to this cause that you're talking about. That's what I say. I've just decided that others can support public broadcasting or you name it. I'm gonna support the Kingdom of God. I've made a commitment. Nothing wrong with those other things, but I've chosen what I believe will have eternal impact. Look at Mark 8. It says there, What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet for it fit his soul? What can a man give in exchange? Circle in exchange, would you? In exchange for his soul? You ever think about this? Every day you live, you are exchanging a day of your life for something. I mean, what am I, today, this day of my life, we live an average of 25,550 days. Kind of scary to think about it that way, isn't it? Pull out your calculator. How many have you gotten into already? Maybe you have 2,000 left. Maybe you have 15. Who knows? But every day we exchange something. Maybe it's a day of TV watching for a day of my life. Maybe it's a day in the golf course. Maybe it's a day on the telephone. Maybe it's a day in North Park. Maybe it's a day just behind a computer screen. But every day you're exchanging your life. My question is, what are you getting back for it? Is it something that's really going to count? I don't want to be real heavy or morbid about this. In fact, it's actually a positive experience, a really thought-provoking exercise to help you know what you're going to get in exchange for your entire life, is to write your epitaph. Do you have that, Nona? Write your epitaph. Just do the first one. What do you hope might be written on your tombstone when you finally die? Maybe it would be this. I told you I was really sick. Um But better something like, you know, well done, good and faithful servant. I'm reading a book right now that I think is excellent and provoking my thoughts about these kinds of things. The author of the book wants to put this on his tombstone. 100 times from the parable of 30, 60, a hundredfold return on a life invested in God. I don't know. Maybe you want, you know, he gave himself or herself unreservedly to God. Whatever you want to put, but something needs, you need to think, I've got one life. What's it going to be worth? What am I exchanging my one and only life for? And if you're 15 or 20 right now, you think I got my whole life to figure out. No, you don't. The choices you're making now will influence you and will determine the course of your life. And how many of you know, the older you get, the fewer choices you have? Number two, why do we fear making commitments? Well, four reasons. Number one, four common barriers. Number one, past hurts. Bad experiences keep us from making commitments. You know, you have a bad marriage experience. I'll never get in love again like that. Bad experiences in a church, bad experiences in a partnership in business or in a friendship. Some folks were visiting North Way a year or so ago and I met them after the service and they said, oh, you're in a building program now? And I said, yeah, we're just getting going. He said, this will probably be our last visit. Well, that's kind of frank. How come? Because we've been through too many church splits over building campaigns. And I thought to myself, how sad if you let your past hurts determine your future possibilities. Listen folks, your past hurts are just that. They're past hurts and they have no power over you unless you let them. You can learn from them. You can grow from them. You can process them, but you don't need to be bound by your past hurts. In fact, I would tell you if you've gotten burned in the past and you're letting it hold you back from the future, you are falling prey to John 10 10 where the Bible says, the thief comes to steal. You're being conned. The thief is stealing what God intends for your life. Don't be burned. But bring it to the cross of Christ and get someone to help you just to process it and then get on with your life because you can. You say, you don't know how bad it was for me. I don't. I don't know. But I know this, no matter how bad it was, the cross and the blood of Christ is able to cover you and give you new hope and new possibilities. The second thing that holds people back is self-doubt. Look at James 1 8. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. If you're doubting yourself, if you're back and forth, I can tell you one thing about everyone I know that sits on a fence. If you're sitting on a fence for long, you're in pain. I mean, we fear our own ability to follow through with wise decisions. I don't know if I can do it or not. I had a little, just a little honesty check here. How many of you at some point, assuming you're married now, at some point in the engagement period, at least one time thought, I wonder if I'm making the right decision here. You know, the rest of you are just flat-out lying right now. Good, just be honest. Just confess right here in church that you were lying to me right then, okay? How many of you have fought that question walking down the aisle? I mean, I'm not really doing this. A year later, you're, oh man, don't put them up. Don't put your hands up, no. But you see, we're, we're wondering all the time. When you start to second-guess yourself, you know what you're doing? You're setting yourself up for failure, because you know what you do? You start dumping energy into asking the question, I wonder if, what if, hmm, and you start hedging all of your bets instead of pouring the energy that you're wasting on that into the situation. Just a little something, a little helpful thing, a little image. The grass isn't greener on that side of the fence, or that side of the fence. Listen, the grass is greener where you water it. So put your energy right there, and it'll begin to blossom forth with life. Once you make decisions, instead of second-guessing, just declare the Word of God over it. If you sought God and appropriately give it to him, just say, Lord, your Word says now that I can trust you in the middle of this. That's, and that's very uncommon, I have to tell you that. You want to know why every mail-order catalog and all the things, all of them have 30-day money-back guarantees? Every one of them now, you know, watch a TV ad, 30 days, they, because they know how difficult it is for you to say, I think I'm going to try this. So they, they want to assure you, hey, 30 days you can try it and send it back, and what happens most of the time? You keep it, even if it's a piece of junk, you keep it, right? And what, imagine if the important things of life came with 30-day money-back guarantees, you know, like kids, you know. Try these kids on for 30 days. How many of you would have sent your, no, don't put your hand out there. We doubt our ability to make decisions, and we doubt our ability to follow through. That's just, if that's the case, you're going to, you're going to be hesitant to make a commitment. Third thing is our, and this is a big one, my estimation, probably the biggest one in America today, independence. Christian or not, there's a constant move toward independence. I mean, all of America was built on the declaration of independence. Baby boomers, we're, we're so bought into this thing. I just, you know, I'm just kind of watching out what's best for me. Not thinking about the guy next to me all that much. We idolize it, don't we? We just, USA Today poet recently read, the number one thing Americans desire is freedom, control, in other words. The ability to self-determine one's future, be independent of others. Think of all the songs that have made it big that say this, I gotta be me. Don't fence me in. I don't care what you say, this is my life, or my all-time favorite, all respects to Frank Sinatra, I did it my way. Would you like me to sing a few of those? I could really do a number on those. That's just the American way. Independence, however, dear ones, listen, is not all that it's cracked up to be. I see lots of independent people. I meet them in the marketplace, I know them from other contacts, and you know what I know about a lot of really, really independent people, is they're also very lonely. It's sort of the flip side, you begin to isolate and pull yourself, and you soon begin to be separated, and you become lonely. And I could tell you lots of stories about people who thought being independent was the answer, and really what it was, it was just a ticket to being lonely. God doesn't want you to be independent, or dependent, or co-dependent. He wants you rather to be interdependent. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. Fourth reason why we fail to make commitments, or why we fear them, is perfectionism. Always insisting that everything be perfect before you make a commitment. Look at Ecclesiastes, flip it over, 11 verse 4. Look at this, if you wait for perfect conditions, you'll never get anything done. Isn't that true? And we have a tendency just to, I'm going to wait till it's just the way, it never works that way. I've heard every excuse that people can give for getting committed to something in the church. You know, Pastor Jay, I'm aiming to get connected just as soon as I can. I say, well, when are you going to just pull the trigger and get connected, you know? One of these days, I'm going to make a commitment, one of these days, one of these days, one of these days becomes none of these days. And one of my favorites here in the North Hills is, you know, when things just settle down a little. Now, how many of you, when is that going to happen? When is it ever going to settle down? When there's no more traffic on McKnight Road, that's when it'll settle down. You chose to live here. I mean, you know, this is going to be a hectic place and it's just the way it is, but that's okay. You need to start putting those excuses behind you. I'm going to get committed. I'm going to take some steps. Reality is that your family and your church and your relationships that you feel strongly about need your commitment. And those other excuses are just reasons to hide behind, to stay sort of self-protected. I've heard people say, I'm just kind of checking things out. I'm keeping my options open. I'm looking around. I'm not committing to Christ. I'm not committing to my local church. I'm not committing to a small group. I don't want to try a ministry just yet. And that goes on for years. Or I'll hear, oh, I committed to this and it just really disappointed me. And I'm thinking, well, that's not the only one like that. Get committed. It may not be perfect. I always tell people, if you find the perfect group or church to get committed to, don't join it because they're going to mess it up. Perfectionism is not a valid excuse. You know, I've spent 20 years now in ministry, a little over 20 years. And I've had the privilege of being with some of the same people for nearly all that time. And it's a great honor to watch lives develop and grow. It's one of the great benefits of a long-term ministry in the same general area. But I've also had the heartbreak of watching some people squander their one and only life. 20 years after I first met them, they're still kind of moving along, sort of making nothing happen in their life. And I just want to say, folks, let's be a group of people, every one of us, who are doing something that counts. Let me just end here with the three steps that you can take to make a commitment. First thing that you need to do is ask God for wisdom. As obvious as that sounds, many times we're in such a hurry, we don't pause in long enough to ask the Lord what He would have us to be committed to. And therefore, we get ahead of ourselves. The Bible says, if you lack wisdom, do what? Ask God, because He gives it freely and without reproach. He'll never make you feel stupid for asking for it. And then just stop and listen. A little recommendation I use, I take a legal pad every day. I've got, I don't know how many of them, piled up now in my office, and I write out my important requests, my important decisions. I write them out. I say, Lord, what would you have me to do about this issue? What about this relationship, this counseling session, this staff issue? And I write it down, and then I listen to God. I read Proverbs every day, and I ask for wisdom. And to do well, just to record it, because it gives you a reference point. And I can't tell you how many times I go back, and I say, boy, God, you hit that one just right. Lord, I kind of missed this one. It's a helpful way. Ask God. Number two, compare the benefits with the cost. Is the payoff greater than the price? Now, we do this when it comes to finances and material commitments, but what about our lives? You know, Jesus is very specific about the benefits of knowing Him. He'll give you purpose in life and meaning and internal peace. He'll give you power for overcoming your problems, freedom from guilt, and eternal life with Him. But can I be real candid? If you were to receive those benefits from Christ Jesus, He also says there's one very big cost involved. He said every single day you have to get up, take up your cross that day, and follow me. What does that mean? It means every day you've got to lay your life in the hands of Jesus Christ and say, God, today I'm going to follow you. I'm going to trust you. I'm going to live for you. But dear ones, how many of you would say, I've made that choice, and I believe that the benefits of following Christ far outweigh the cost? To me, folks, look at it. Is there any better thing going in all the universe? Not that I know of. Way out the cost. But be careful because, you know, sometimes we jump into things, and commitments need to be thought through. How many of you found that it's easier to get in debt than out of debt? It's easier to get into a relationship than out of one. It's easier to fill up your calendar with appointments. You ever do that? Someone says, hey, you know, six weeks from now, can we have... And I say, oh great, six weeks, why not? And then six weeks later, I look at my calendar. How in the world do I do all those things? So, you know, way out of it. Count the cost, what's going to be involved. Third thing, trust God to help you keep your commitments. Okay, look at on your outline here, Psalm 37 verse 5. Commit everything you do to the Lord, trust in Him to help you to do it. And He will. He will. And don't put your pens away. I'm not done giving you notes. Oh, well, that's all the blanks. You guys, you're being legalistic over there, all right? He will help you. But you know what? If you wait until you feel like you can do it all yourself, you're going to wait a long, long time. People say, I know, I'll get committed. I'll get serious about God when I know I can fulfill it. I'll get into a home group when I know I can deal with other people's situations. I'll launch into a ministry when I know I can fulfill it. Friend, listen, faith is all about casting yourself on God when you know you can't fulfill it. Say that again. Faith is all about casting yourself on to God in commitment when you know you can't fulfill it. I don't want to burst anyone's bubble here, but let me tell you something about this building. I hope it's not an overused analogy, but it's still so fresh. I want you to know that there never was a time in the entire project from day one when I knew that it was all going to work out, or how it was going to work out. I still don't know. But all I did was I asked God for wisdom. We counted the cost, and then we stepped off to the end of the board and jumped. And guess what? That's what makes the Christian life exciting. You never know. You just never know how he's going to do it. But you've got to get out there and trust him. For some of you, it's a very simple step of getting involved, and maybe something as simple, you know, is just learning to pray out loud. Someone said, I've never been in a place where people pray out loud. Well, what I've discovered is when you make a step of commitment, one step toward God, he leaps the entire length of the universe to take the next one with you. But you've got to take that step. You can't keep shrinking back and making excuses. It won't work that way. Some of you have struggled with just making a commitment to Christ. Some of you have struggled with getting involved in a church home with the church family. Some of you know that you need to be in a ministry, but you just keep saying, well, I just, you know, get committed. If I would walk you through this doorway here, you'd see in the music worship resources room, there's a door there. I hope you've seen it. It has about 450 names on it, front and back. You know what that is? Two and a half years ago, 450 families and singles here at North Way, long before we had a plan laid out, committed their resources to the building of this facility. And we have put their name on that door. And it's going to be there until this building goes on, or whatever happens, or the Lord comes back. Their commitment enabled the rest of us to get on board, and here we are today. And that's what God's looking for. People who will get, you know, it's very clear to me that it doesn't take a lot of committed people to make a difference. It just takes a few totally committed people. Someone's told me 2% is all it really takes to change a whole culture. Ever make you wonder why the culture seems to be slipping away from God when they're supposedly, you know, 40% born-again Christian? No way is that true. Because if we just have, God doesn't need a moral majority. He needs a committed minority. And I believe that's some of you here today. Some of you have just been sort of on the fringe, smiling halfway here, but not totally committed. It's time to be committed to the purposes of God in your life. You know, I've been so impressed by the Promise Keepers group because this was a group that just a few years ago didn't exist. And the head football coach of the University of Colorado stepped up and said, you know, we're losing our whole culture. It's time for men to step up and make some commitments. And that's where the name Promise Keepers came up. Because he wanted to raise up a group of men that would keep their promises. And they have seven commitments that they keep because they say there's no changing the future without committing to that change. Here they are. A Promise Keeper is committed to honoring Jesus Christ through worship, prayer, and obedience to God's Word and Holy Spirit. A Promise Keeper is committed to pursuing vital relationships with a few other men. A Promise Keeper is committed to practicing spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity. A Promise Keeper is committed to building strong marriages and families through love, protection, and biblical values. A Promise Keeper is committed to supporting the mission of the church by honoring and praying for their pastor and by actively giving time and resources. A Promise Keeper is committed, listen to the word, committed, committed, committed, to reaching beyond any racial and denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity. And a Promise Keeper is committed to influencing his world, being obedient to the Great Commission. How many believe if a group of men would commit to those things we'd change the face of America? I believe that in all my heart. And if men and women in