Focus
Tom Shrader concludes a five-part series on life management by examining how Jesus maintained focus throughout His earthly ministry. Drawing from passages like Luke 2 and John 6, he demonstrates how Jesus exhibited limited loyalties, knew His audience, delivered a concise message, and operated within a clear time frame. Shrader challenges believers to identify their God-given purpose and eliminate good things that distract from great things, emphasizing that God is process-oriented rather than results-oriented.
“God is not a results oriented God, he's a process oriented God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Life Management (2013)
Recorded: October 24, 2013
Duration: 40 min
Themes: focus, purpose, priorities, boundaries, discipline, stewardship, calling, excellence, career transition, mid-life evaluation, busy professional, overwhelmed parent, struggling with priorities, seeking life direction, established believer, ministry leader
Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:4, Luke 2:46-49, Matthew 15, Mark 1, John 6, John 17
Theological Themes: sanctification, spiritual maturity, divine calling, biblical stewardship, christian living, discipleship, spiritual discipline, providence
Full Transcript
We are in session five, and this is the last session. CDs are available of sessions three and four, and I hope it's been a good series for you. It's different. It's much more life skill than just pure Bible study, and I think you know that.
I'll give you my trepidation coming into it. Many of you have reached an age where you're thinking, this would have been helpful 30 years ago or 20 years ago, but I'm not sure I need this now. My personal experience comes from somebody whose life took a big turn in the last year especially, in terms of trying to have a certain amount of free time, a certain amount of a second or third adulthood for me, to have freedom. I found that those principles that I needed as a young entrepreneur or as a young dad or a young husband or a young man are the same principles that I need now even more. So I've become a bit of an advocate here, maybe more so than I would have anticipated, for how important these things are.
The Budget Analogy
We talk about budget all the time. If you're making $30,000 a year, there's a sense in which God's got you on a budget. Now you need to be strategic, but there's not a lot of disposable income. When I need a budget is when I'm making $300,000 a year. Now my disposable income's much more of an issue.
Jamie Rasmussen and I were talking the other day and he was saying, I need to crank margins into my life. I'm so busy and there are so many things, I need to crank margins into them. I said, I'm on the other end of that. I need boundaries.
Why You're Here Doesn't Change
I'm making a pitch here, and I think it's well founded, for this idea of purpose and excellence and control and freedom. You need to be reminded why you're here. Why you're here didn't end at a specific period in time. That why doesn't change, but the outgrowth of it might change.
I had a long discussion with a group of seven or eight guys who are on the front end of career, and they presented something that was really interesting. They said, we assume that our career track is front loaded, meaning we're spending more hours now for probably less money, but then we're going to spend less hours and make more money. Now we can pick a flaw out of that, but I agree with the thought process of that.
What typically happens is you're viewing life as a season, and that season becomes a lifestyle. So you work really hard, and then all you know is work really hard. You've convinced your wife and your kids, we work really hard because we're at the front end of a career, and you got to work hard. But then you kind of got to work hard to stay on top. And then it's competitive. And then you've developed a lifestyle.
The Foundation We've Built
These things that we talk about - when we talked about, listen, why does God have you here? What's the best? What's your responsibility with that? We talked about slavery, meaning the things that will distract you from that.
Last week, the big verse - I did this yesterday morning, and I said at the time, this is going to deflate me so much. I said, what was the big verse from last week that we said we should memorize? Not one person got it, which makes you drive home and wonder why you do what you do. But let's just drive. I mean, it might as well - I'm down, kick me. What was the one verse from last week?
Second Timothy 2:4: "No soldier in active duty entangles themselves in the affairs of everyday life, so He may please the one who enlisted Him."
Staying Focused
Along comes life. And here it is. It's all around you. Today is the idea of focus. It's doing the right thing for the right reason. It's figuring out who you are in the right way. It's figuring out who you are, what you're doing, how you do it, but then it's staying focused.
It can be as simple as I get up. This is the day where I get up first. So I get up first, make my little coffee, turn on my little TV, get my little book, pick up my phone. One text left indiscriminately through the night, or one email can take a day that's planned.
Dr. Grudem, any of you know Dr. Grudem? He is the expert at this. He gets up every morning. Margaret has his muffins that she's made - his little health muffins. He has his little tea. He does His Bible study. He then takes His day and His calendar and prays over every entry and what God would have Him do. Should I meet with that person? What should I say? No one plans that day. Nobody that I know is more disciplined with this time than Grudem. But still things come into that.
Learning to Say No
It's that plan your work, work your plan - all those little bumper stickers. One guy writes this: "The man who has not learned to say no will be a weak, if not a wretched man, as long as He lives." The ability to say no - that was my favorite.
Larry and I talked years about life. I always felt one of the great blessings He had, though now I experience a small fraction - one of His ten - one of the great blessings He had was the arthritis and the pain and the hurt because it automatically limited Him. So if somebody called Larry and said, do you want to go to the game tonight? It's not even an option. Just the exercise of getting there. So He has that ability to say no.
It's the same thing in business. If somebody brings you five opportunities, there's a sense in which you're only as good as the ones you say no to.
Triaging Your Life
The word that I would use that I find that most people don't do well is to triage their life. In comes somebody and they got a cut on their hand and another guy's got a gouge in His forehead and the other guy's got His arm broken and the bone hanging out. This guy's treating them all the same.
I've got to learn to stay focused in the midst of all of this. Doesn't take long if I get my day off course, that my week's off course, that my month's off course.
Limited Loyalties
Jesus exhibited a focus to limited loyalties. He wasn't just available to everybody all the time. There was a day, after three days, they found Him. This is a story early in Jesus' life, in Luke chapter 2. Mary and Joseph are making a journey home after being in Jerusalem, and they've lost the Christ child, which is a big deal. This would be, at some point, I went, boy, we screwed up. The plan of salvation is over. We've lost Him.
Look at this. It's Luke 2:46. Now, after three days, they found Him in the temple, and He was sitting in the midst of the leaders. This is not the point, but it struck me as I read - He was sitting with the leaders, and look what He was doing. He was listening and asking questions. And all who heard Him, so He's talking too, were astounded by His understanding and His answers.
So when they saw Him, they were amazed, and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously." And He said to them, "Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I would be about my Father's business?" There's that focus. There's that mission. This is where God put me. This is what I'm about. He's put me in this place, in this time, for this reason.
Learning What Matters
My girls had this great capacity when they were in school to go through a class and then they would ask their teacher a question. So somebody's teaching them history and they say, "Any questions?" And my girls would ask this question: "What's going to be on the test?" Now we tend to dismiss that and go "lazy." I'm going, that's a pretty good use of time. If there's this much stuff, why do I want to learn all this stuff if it's never going to matter?
I tended to be, when I was my first freshman year of college - Sandy just found the other day a poster I made. I ran for freshman class president and then ran for re-election. I was the only guy that could campaign that had experience in the job. I stayed for the debate, ridiculed everything and then left. It was not - I'm not proud of it.
But I was sitting in the library. It was the only time I think I ever had been to the library. It's where you had to sign up. And I had my advisor who said, "Do you have any questions?" And I said, "What grade point do you need to get out of here?" And she said "2.0." And it was the first time in my life I had a goal. I mean, I'm embarrassed by it. Steve and I, I think Steve and I were talking about it the other day. Among all my regrets is the way I did not maximize education.
So I got, "Is it gonna be on the test?" I think that's a pretty good question. But I think having the bare minimum as your goal is not good.
God Has You Where He Wants You
Years ago, I was invited to Boston to do a Friday, Saturday, Sunday deal for a group of people. Deal meaning teaching. And I said, "You know, I don't know." They said, "You can come in a week early, stay a week late if you want. We'll cover the cost of everything." And I said, "Okay."
So we flew into Boston, and we're gonna take the week before and just drive all through kind of New England. No reservations, not a hotel, not a bed-and-breakfast, nothing. We end up in Sturbridge Village, which is a cool little area, great place. We spent a day there, and we end up in Stowe, Vermont.
We're driving down the main drag, and I said to Susan, "Are you hungry?" And she said, "I'm hungry." I said, "I am too. What do you want?" She said, "It doesn't matter." And I said, "Well, I know what matters." "No, it doesn't matter." I said, "Well, here's the steakhouse." "Well, I don't want steak." Okay. I know how many times we've been through this drill.
Well, at the same time, we both see a Chinese restaurant, which somehow doesn't sound like Stowe, Vermont to me. I don't know what I'm thinking. I'm gonna have fire and - I don't know, stew or something. And so we go in. This guy comes up, this waiter, very nice guy. And I can't figure out what nationality he is. He doesn't look Asian to me. I thought he maybe was Filipino.
And so we left. I said, "What do you think his nationality is?" And Susan said, "I don't know." I said, "Well, I'm gonna ask him." She said, "Leave the guy alone. Leave him alone." So I said, "I'm puzzled here. You don't look Asian and you don't look Filipino. What are you?" And he said, "I'm Hawaiian."
So that's odd. I don't think of Hawaiians in Stowe, Vermont. And so I have all sorts of prejudice probably pouring out of me. And it's not prejudice bad. It's just presumption. And he said, "Well, I used to" - and he said it's what I would do every day. I would surf. And then I'd read books about snow and mountains. And all I fantasized about was being in Vermont.
Which the irony of it is everybody in Vermont is reading books about surfing in Hawaii and can't wait to get there. And the point is, God's got you where He wants you. And don't be so focused on what isn't yet that you miss what is.
The Danger of Daydreaming
I just read - I'm into something new. Probably not time for revelation of this yet, but I'm studying something new. And this guy the other day said, "After periods of daydreaming generally follow long periods of unhappiness." Pining for those things that I want that will never be.
Knowing Your Audience and Message
Let me take point two and three on your outline and combine them. Jesus knew His audience. Notice He knew who He was talking to. And He had a concise message for them. Jesus is leaving the place. The daughter is suffering a demon possession. And Jesus says in Luke chapter...
of Matthew 15, "I was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel. It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but I've come to call the sinners to repentance." Jesus says, here's my focus. It's not everybody everywhere. It's people in this case, it's a pretty broad audience. It's everybody who's sick. But He said this is what I'm all about. I'm not necessarily going to spend time in this other group. This is my group.
And here's my message from Mark chapter 1. After John was in prison, Jesus went to Galilee proclaiming the good news. And Jesus proclaimed three things: The kingdom of God is near - there's an urgency. Repent - there's an opportunity. And believe the good news - what are you going to do with what you hear?
Staying on Message
When Bill Clinton was running against Bob Dole, you could ask Bill Clinton any question. What do you think about Jerusalem? He would say, "We need to save Social Security, Medicare, education, and the environment." It didn't matter. The term they used was staying on message.
As God begins to bring people into your life and you begin to talk about faith, it's important that you understand who you're talking to and what's the message. Because these conversations will take you all over the place. It doesn't take five minutes to sit down with somebody and you begin to talk about Jesus and they want to talk about Hurricane Sandy. What about babies? What about people who never heard? What about Adam and Eve? What about Noah? What about suffering? Where did evil come from?
And they ask these questions like you've never thought about them. But pretty soon, I regularly meet with people who, once we talk about Jesus is the only way, want to talk to me about people who've never heard, to which I'll go, "We can get to them, but now you have heard - what about you?"
Two Illustrations from Canada
So I'll give you two illustrations. I was at the Chateau at Lake Louise. How many of you have ever been to the Chateau at Lake Louise? This is a good gig. This was a guy who came down - he was a Canadian, came down to the US, went to a marriage conference and he said, "In all of Canada we don't have anything like this." He was a physician as I remember it. He went back to Canada and said, "I'm going to do this."
So he got two dozen rooms at the Chateau and a conference room and did a marriage conference. Within five years he was doing two weekends with 750 couples at each weekend. So the deal was, he called and said, "Here's the deal, Tom: you come into Calgary, we'll get a car for you, we'll get you to the Chateau, do the weekend, then you got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday at the Chateau. We'll get the penthouse up on the top, you stay there, do whatever you want to do, do another weekend."
So it was an incredible gig. And it was right this time of year. The lake was not frozen, but there was nobody there. It was too early for the skiers, too late for the guys that wanted to see leaves.
The Peter Illustration
So I'm doing this weekend, and I came back with two illustrations of how I screwed up both of these. The first is sitting with a guy. There were 750 couples, and they really was made up of maybe 200 or 300 who were followers of Christ. And 450 or 500, whatever the number is, that weren't, that came from all sorts of backgrounds - demographically, but spiritually.
I'm sitting with this guy, and he asked me a question. And I launched into this discussion on Peter, the apostle. And I'm all done with what was just a powerful presentation. When he said to me, "Who's Peter?" So I said, "Peter," and he's looking for Paul and Mary. And he had no grid for this.
You have to understand, when you're talking to people about life, and in this case about faith, that you cannot assume anything. If there's one thing that I'm stunned by, it's how little people either think about or know. And the older they get, the more you think about it - you would think they'd think about it - how little they think about these things.
The Oil Executive
The next week, I'm with a guy, and the new couples come in. And I noticed this guy coming in. He just had that cool look - you just looked at him and said, "He's cool." So we end up in line the next day for coffee, and I'd done a session or two. So he knew that I was part of this.
I said, "How you doing?" "Great." I said, "Can I join you?" He said, "Sure." Tell me a little - so I learned from Peter the week before - tell me a little bit about yourself. I'm a developer, business, oil guy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I said, "How'd you get here?" "Some friends brought me." I've prospected him.
I said, "What do you think of this?" He said, "I don't get it. And I don't get my friends, because all they talk to me about is joy, and happiness, and peace." I said, "Well, tell me about that." He said, "Okay, I'm going to leave here. So it's getting cold. I'm going to go back to Calgary. I've got my plane there. I'm going to Marco Island for the winter, basically. And I've got more money and less care than you can imagine. That's my wife, that one - what do you think of that? Sandy considers me a trophy husband. So she's like..." I said, "I don't know. I mean, you know, she looks good."
He said, "They keep telling me about joy and peace. I got all the joy and peace I can buy. I don't need joy and peace."
The Real Message
The message of the Christian life isn't joy and peace. It's redemption. Man's fundamental problem is not economic. If you sit down with a guy who's living in this zip code and basically everything's going well, and they're still healthy and young enough, they're going to say to you...
If you come with peace and joy, they're going to tell you, "I either got it, can rent it, can smoke it or feel it somewhere. I'll get it. I'll find peace." The Christian message isn't about peace and happiness. The Christian message is we're separated from God and we can't fix that. That's the message.
When Jesus says, "Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand," that's what you're all about. They don't do them anymore. It's funny how things cycle, but God saved me in 1980. And in 1980, it was popular to do breakfast events where you'd get a guy who either has to be famous or infamous. He either has to save lives or take them. And he's going to be the speaker, but he's found Jesus. The last ten of those that I went to, nine of them, the guy never mentioned sin.
The Real Message to the World
That's the fundamental—that's our message to the world. The message to the world is not that the Christian life in and of itself is a life of peace and love and joy, because that's going to break down real fast. The message is our sin has separated us from God, and that's what's missing in your life.
I've been doing some reading, and this guy said after a really bad experience or a really good experience, in most cases on the individual, it's never as good as it seemed or as bad as it seemed. And within about four or five months, that experience and the benefit one way or the other is passed.
So World Series starts last night, got a good game one going, looks good. Like the Cardinals, but I mean two great baseball towns, but I want to see the Sox win. But they're gonna win, and then they're gonna go away, they're gonna be on the break, and those young guys who are winning for the first time are gonna go, "Was that, is that all there is? Is that it?"
The last time I did a Major League Baseball conference, I don't know if this is true or not—it works, the stat works for me, so I use it—but he said the divorce rate on the World Series team, ultimately as they play it out over two, three years, is the highest in Major League Baseball. Now I don't know if that's true or not, I don't know if it's an aberration or one year.
Here's what you're saying, and you all can go "yes": closing the deal has this momentary high, but it's not long-lasting, because what's missing was not more of the stuff. It's your sin problem, and you're alienated from God, and no person, place, or thing is going to satisfy that.
Engaging Others Like Jesus Did
So as you're sitting with your friends, you're sitting and you're having a steak, or you're having a drink, or you're having a coffee, or you're at the gym, and you want to get serious about your faith, and you want to begin to talk about it—or maybe you don't even want to get serious about it, they just ask you, and now you're going, "I got to come up with an answer."
Model Jesus: listen and ask questions. "Why, what do you believe? It's interesting, you're thinking about... what makes you think about that? Why are you thinking about that?" "Well, my brother-in-law, he's dying." Something causes that. "Why are you thinking that? What do you believe? Where'd you get that?"
And then, it's not talking about what you think or feel—it's what the Bible teaches. Here you go, right there, what is it, number four: we know this, you have a limited time frame.
Jesus' Limited Time Frame
Jesus was about 30 years old when He began His ministry. So Jesus is sitting for a long time in a carpenter. To me, that's the ultimate—that would be the ultimate antique roadshow, is to be in Jerusalem and go, "I got this table, and it says Jesus on the bottom." I think that would be awesome if that happened.
And He's making tables, and He's doing His deal, and now it's public, but the public has three years to it. And Jesus says in John 17, "Father, the time has come to glorify Your Son."
I have three points here. The first one, I know I didn't write this, but it said: we have an unwarranted sense of mortality. We know the empirical, that is we'll die, but oftentimes, especially in this stuff, living this out in a proactive way becomes the ultimate mañana.
The Value of Time
So we talk about it every year when we come back from Christmas break—we'll talk about how to make 2014 the best year of your life. And one of the points is to understand the value of time. That you've got whatever today is—October, what's the date? 24th. You got one of these. It's irreplaceable.
If you're trading stock today, you lose 10 grand, you can go get 10 grand tomorrow. You lose this day, you can't get this day back, and you have a finite number of them. And as I look around the room, it's a shrinking finite number of them.
College football is my deal. This year, I'm not teaching on Sunday, so I become a little bit of an NFL guy—a little bit—but I'm off basketball. I don't know, I just haven't watched a lot of it. But I know the rap on the NBA is this: what do they say? You know, NBA, all you need to see is two minutes. I mean, everybody knows it.
And if you go to the game, it's palpable—you can feel it in the arena. When that clock ticks, and you'll hear "two minutes, two minutes," everything accelerates. Not just the music, and the cheerleaders, and the elephants, and all the other stuff they got in there now, but even basketball itself seems to have an intensity to it.
Don't Wait for Two Minutes
Many of you are living your life like one day you're gonna hear somebody say, "two minutes, two minutes," and you go, "I'm gonna get after it then." And much like those young guys, what's gonna happen is that season's gonna become a lifestyle, and I'm telling you, you're not gonna crank it up with two minutes any more than now.
Martin Luther was asked, "If you knew you died tomorrow, what would you do?" Any of you remember the answer? His answer was "plant a tree," which seems odd. But what he was saying is, "I am living as though I'm gonna die tomorrow. I am living in that reality." It sheds out some of the method, but...
I'm living with that overriding intensity. It's living with that understanding of the finiteness of time, and taking that God's put you in an individual place. There was a detachment in Jesus. He feeds the 5,000 in John 6, and they come to Him to make Him king, and it said, "Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king, withdrew again to the hills by Himself."
There's this idea in your life that there has to be the focus and limitation. This is the culmination of really what we've talked about for the last three weeks, is that ability to say, "I'm engaged, but I can't be everything to everybody." Jesus saved the world.
The Philosophy of Healthy Ministry
We have, or at least we like to think we have, I think it's true, at our church, Redemption Church, a very different philosophy of ministry and ministry expansion, and the way we do it. One of the core principles that I have successfully transitioned to the guys, whether they can sustain it and pass it on, is that Christ died for the church, you don't need to. Jesus is the Savior of the world, you aren't. This is not about you, this is about Him, and this is about us staying healthy enough to be able to stay focused so that we can indeed be what God's called us to be, and in some cases I have to healthily step away.
Jesus declares in John 6, "All that the Father gives me come to me, and whoever comes to me will never, I will never drive away, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of the Father who sent me." Ultimately, the measure of your love for Christ is your obedience to Him.
God Is Process-Oriented, Not Results-Oriented
I'm a results guy, so I don't get a newspaper. I probably should, I've said it, I'm still boycotting the Republic, but I forgot why. It's something that started years ago. The only time I see a newspaper is on Thursday morning when Mike brings in the newspaper, and most days the sports will be there. I'll get the sports, I'll go to the back section this time of year to see how big an underdog we are on Saturday, and then I'll go up to check baseball. I'll go to baseball, I go to box score. Box score is the ultimate, we don't care how you got there, just that you got there. The fact that these guys are making five million dollars a year in Camp Bunt would drive me nuts, but you got that. It's like highlights, all I see are home runs and dunks, there must be nothing else that happens in sport.
I'm a results guy, isn't that what you say? I don't care how the call goes, you get the order. Well, he said, I don't care what he said, you said, did you get the order? No, you're a loser. Did you get the order? You're a winner. That's how we think. Now, this is a big shift, and for some of you, a huge point to make with four minutes left. God is not a results oriented God, He's a process oriented God. There is a marked difference in how He sees your life, we're constantly looking for an evaluation metrics by which we can say we're doing well. I'll give it to you, He gave it to you, "If you love me you'll keep my commandments."
God Blesses the Process, Not Just the Results
So let's say Mark and Chrissy are going out for breakfast after this, it's a couple that they know, they have all this stuff, they got listening audience, there's a relationship that's just naturally organically grown with this couple, they start the conversation, Chrissy's talking to the lady, Mark's talking to the guy, they get into this, "Where were you guys this morning?" "Well, it's supposed to be a Bible study, but he's rambling the last five weeks, and there'll be a Bible study again next week, and all of this, well, tell me about it, why do you go there?" And Chrissy begins to share, "Well, here's what happened in my life, and Jesus," and this gal begins to cry, "This is what I've been waiting for all my life." Mark says, "This is what I, Jesus," and the guy said, "Hey man, you know, you gonna eat all those potatoes?"
Now, here's the question, and you know the answer, is God happier with Chrissy or Mark? And the answer is, He's pleased with both, because the issue was not whether this person responded or not, because only God does that. It's not that Chrissy's smarter than Mark, though she is, it's that God blesses this one at that point of time, not this one. God is concerned ultimately about the process.
Understanding Your Unique Purpose
So here's all of today, maybe all of this series we've been on, is that God has you here for a reason, and I think to the extent that you're willing to drill deep and put definition on that, the better off you'll be. If it's just to say, to honor Him and glorify Him forever, that's true, but I think it's worth asking, how? Why? Why did God give me this? Why did God give me this ability to do this, or lack of ability to do that? Why did He put me in that family? Why did He do whatever, why did God do this? What is it that God has me for? Yes, it's to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, but how? How do you do that that's different than this?
So important to understand that Christian faith is not one-size-fits-all, it's not everybody does everything exactly the same. Now, He's put you there and now that purpose honestly doesn't change much over a lifetime, but how you execute it does, and you have a stewardship responsibility. When we say stewardship, I typically think of cash, but He wants you to stewardship your time, your energy, your effort, your money, and what we're saying is, what are those things proactively that come into your life as you grow and mature that may even be good things, but they're not great things.
The Example of Wise Stewardship
I'll use Sandy for example. Sandy Monday morning teaches a Bible study, not far from here, for a group of ladies. Not her demographic, she doesn't really know them, they invited her in to teach, so she does. Monday night she goes to BSF, and this is for her own growth, this is for her Bible study. Tuesday morning she leads
a surge group, which is a group of about eight to ten gals. They meet at six o'clock Tuesday morning to work through a curriculum that we've developed at church. Wednesday morning she does child care at BSF, so moms can go to BSF and not be worried about their kids. This morning she's taking care of the girls. Lucy's in potty training right now - this is a tense time. Lucy was four for four yesterday, and I texted her and said, "You did one better than I did," so I try to encourage her.
My point is, that sounds scattered, but all of those revolve around the living out of God's word in a context of helping other people do it. It's a busy life, but it's not a congested life. She's so busy - no, she gets a lot done, because she understands who she is, why she's here, where she's going.
I heard her the other night say, she's on the phone, "I'll have to ask my husband," and I thought, she wants to say no, and I'm going to be the guilty guy. She came in and she said, "Here's what they want me to do," and I said, "Well what do you think?" She said, "No, what do you think?" I said, "Well, tell me what you're thinking." Not that I'm afraid to lead - I want her to say it. She said, "I don't think it's good for us for me to take a night." I said, "I agree with that."
I'm watching the power of that. If you look at her at the end of the week, you might be exhausted - she isn't, she's energized, because it's driven down this entire purpose. Good things don't interrupt the great things that God's got. They're all over the map - she's on the ground with two-year-olds yesterday, and the day before, she's sitting right over here, expounding the truth. That's a powerful way to live.
Looking Ahead to Daniel
Next week, you can see all this played out for six weeks in the life of Daniel. Great opportunity - you can read ahead every week. We'll do a chapter a week. If you've got people, as Christmas is coming and people are starting to think about spiritual stuff - people who are evaluating life, people who are trying to integrate their life and marketplace, how do they come together - Daniel's a great study for that.
I hope you enjoy that. I hope that's five weeks, I hope it's helpful, and we'll get started next week on our study in the life of Daniel.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for this awesome and amazing truth. There's a side of me that says it seems so obvious - it's almost what they taught me in time management, it's the basics - except it's driven not by some human compulsion, but by the power of Your Spirit in our life.
Father, I pray that we would understand Jesus and who He is, and as our life is transformed to the people around us, we have the opportunity to listen, to be available, to deliver message, to stay on message. God, there is a side, I confess, where I do want to know what's going to be on the test, and I don't want to waste my time learning and doing a bunch of stuff that doesn't matter. But God, don't let me fall into a "what grade do I need to get out of here" mentality.
You do that, God, in our life - that comes through the Spirit. Cause us to love You in a way, to have our mind renewed, to love You. God, thanks for the people that are here - some are new, and some have been here for literally decades. I pray that You use this study to make a difference in our life, and we pray it in Christ's name, amen.