Getting Control of Your Schedule
Tom Shrader examines biblical principles for managing time and schedule from Proverbs, emphasizing that time is our greatest asset requiring careful investment rather than squandering. He identifies people who are out of control in their scheduling - those who work too much or too little, relax too much or too little, over-schedule or under-schedule their lives. Drawing from Proverbs, he teaches that wise time management requires the fear of the Lord, outside counsel, and submission to God's sovereign control over our days.
“If you lose money, you can just go make more, but if you lose today, July 8th, 2004, there's no place to go to ever redeem it, to ever get it back ever again.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Getting Control (2004)
Recorded: 2004
Duration: 43 min
Themes: time, schedule, wisdom, priorities, stewardship, discipline, control, planning, overworked, busy parent, time management struggles, overwhelmed adult, procrastinator, workaholic, new professional, stressed believer
Scripture: Proverbs 10:26, Proverbs 15:22, Proverbs 9:10-11, Proverbs 14:15, Proverbs 14:8, Proverbs 14:12, Proverbs 16:9, Proverbs 19:21, Proverbs 16:3, Psalm 37:4, Mark 8:34
Theological Themes: providence, god's sovereignty, biblical wisdom, proverbs, fear of the lord, divine control, stewardship, wise living
Full Transcript
This is session two—halfway done after today. Today I'll get us through these four weeks. You have the outline: getting control of your life.
I got this email yesterday from ChristianityToday.com, their weekly newsletter. What they're trying to do here is promote an interview they have coming up with an Olympic diver in today's Christian woman. Here's the opening sentence or two: "In a world full of war, terrorism, and seemingly never-ending conflicts, the Olympic Games serve as a bright spot amidst darkness. While they won't cure the universal ills of hate and violence, they certainly promote peace and unity that's so desperately needed."
Those two sentences and that kind of mindset is what prompted this series, because I look around and I see all this stuff, and in my mind I'm thinking, man, things are out of control. Now, you know what's the other side of that phrase. Things are not out of control, but they're beyond—many of them are beyond your control. There's certain things that appear to be out of control. Consequently, I can even respond to them like they're out of control, but they aren't out of control. They're beyond your control, some of them, but they're not out of God's sphere of control. There's no maverick molecule loose in the universe that could in some way abolish or destroy God's plan.
The Danger of Resignation
Here's the deal. When I look around and I get this mindset, and now I see these—what Christianity Today calls—the universal ills of hate and violence, a world full of war and terrorism, sometimes my mind can move quickly to this idea of almost resignation and even fatalism. No, I don't want to go there. So that's what prompted this series: you get control of your life.
Now, we understand there's got to be some caveats along the way, but what we're saying is there's areas in your life that you can control, so let's address them. Today we're going to talk about getting control of your schedule, or another way, getting control of your time.
Regardless of age or gender or economic status or education or occupation, every person in this room has exactly 168 hours this week as a resource to use, and it's the great equalizer. There's no discrepancy there.
The Unique Value of Time
I think, in some ways—and maybe I'm trying to hype the lesson—this lesson is the most important of them, because, and we'll say this a couple times to you today, if you lose money, and some of you in here, by the way, are exhibit A of this, if you lose money, you can just go make more. But if you lose today, whatever it is, July 8th, is it? July 8th? You lose July 8th, 2004. You lose that day. There's no place to go to ever redeem it, to ever get it back ever again.
When I was younger, you would think, as a young man, you would think long range. But I found myself thinking in blocks of time, like month, year, couple of years. Very strange. And now that I'm a little bit older—not old to some of you, but older to others of you—54, I find myself now thinking in terms of decade, which is a weird thing, because you wouldn't think you'd do that as you get older.
But as I stop and I think, well, what's causing that? My conclusion is that I understand that I don't have a lot of—take career, for example. I don't have a lot of career bullets left in the gun. I mean, there aren't a lot. It's not like I've got five or six more career moves going. This is probably it. And I really do take this seriously. And therefore, I really want to make it count.
People Who Are Out of Control
So that's the tension. Grab your outline, would you please? And let's work our way through it. The outline form should look familiar, because this is the form we'll use all through these four sessions. We'll look at, first of all, people who are out of control in whatever area we're in. Then secondly, we'll look at principles for getting control. And then thirdly, we will look and ask the question, how do you know you're in control?
So those are the areas we're going to look at. Here you go. Who's out of control? And what you're going to see are two kind of counter statements. So if you want to fill these in, now's the time to start writing.
Who's out of control? People who work too much or people who don't work enough. So we have four statements for you, and they're going to be kind of counterbalance statements. In fact, there's that word. I happen to be one of the people who use the word periodically, but I really don't like the word balance, because so often it becomes nothing more than an excuse for mediocrity. So you've got to guard against that. But there are areas where you've got to say, OK, there's this balance. I don't want to be somebody who works too much. I don't want to be somebody who doesn't work enough.
The Revolutionary Concept of Work
Last week, we introduced in our discussion on finances, last week we introduced the concept that one of the things that you could do to earn money is work. It's revolutionary. It catches some people, in fact, generations off guard. But it's a concept: work. And maybe they'll pay you.
Here's the second group of people who are out of control. People who relax too much, people who don't relax enough. There's the balance. So you've got people who relax too much. If I call you and I get your answering machine because you are sitting by the pool and you've taken a sick day so that you can plan your next vacation, you may be relaxing too much.
On the other side of the coin, and it happened to me again last week, you would think people at some point who've been around and have heard these lessons, you'd think they would think before they talked. But I'm doing my normal work around the room that I love this time of year. What are you doing? You're going to get out of town. Where are you going? When are you going? I love it. And I had a guy say to me, I haven't had a vacation in five years. It's the classic statement. And I said to him exactly what I said last week. You've got to be kidding me. Something's
You ought to take a vacation, this is what we said last week, if for no other reason than to give the people around you a break. I mean, get out of town. Get away.
So you've got these people who are go, go, go. Usually that's driven by pride and ego. So you've got people who relax too much, people who don't relax enough.
Here's the third group. People who have too many things on their schedule. People who don't have enough things on their schedule. So you've got people who are calling Outlook and they're saying, can you take these divisions that I have because my day timer is broken into five-minute segments, can you break those down more for me? Because I need to be able to get more. I have to be able to break this down to the second. They've got so much stuff going on in their schedule.
And then you've got guys and you say, would you like to have coffee? Absolutely. When? I don't know. It doesn't really matter. Today? What time today? I don't care. I don't have anything going on. So you've got the balance there.
The Four Categories of Time Management Problems
Here's the last group. You've got people that plan all of their time. And by now you've got the rhythm here. And people who don't plan things at all.
So as you look at that, you've got people who are working too much, not enough. People who relax too much. People who don't relax enough. People who have too many things on their schedule. People who don't have anything. And people who plan everything and people who don't plan anything.
This Isn't a Time Management Seminar
Here's what I want. And I just want you to understand this. This is not a time management class. This is not a goal setting class. You've got a direct mail piece. And it said, come to this seminar. $2,500. And we'll tell you how to do goal setting. Well, that's where you go. You go. Give them the $2,500. And at least they've achieved their short-term goal. And you're happy. And so they learn to set their goals. Goal, goal, goal, goal.
This is just about thinking about time. And all we're trying to do in this session is to get you thinking. And here's what I want to do. And it's about every issue is, is there a God? Has He communicated with us? How does He communicate?
Our Biblical Foundation
I'm leaving. Susan and I are leaving this afternoon. And we're going to Houston. And we're teaching Sunday in a church in Houston. So I'm really looking forward to it. And they appear very orderly. I called them. And I said, listen, I want you to know, because I know you guys are a little different than I am. And I want you to know that I'll wear a sport coat and a tie. And they said, you do not need to wear a sport coat. You need to wear a suit. I said, ooh, wow. I'm going to have to go buy one of those because I don't have a lot of suits.
But they sent me the little thing. And they send me down the break in the attendance. And there'll be like 12,000 people there. So this is a big deal. And I'm looking forward to it. And I love the people in Houston that we've dealt with. So this will be fun.
One of the hard things is I'm coming into a room with ultimately in three sessions 12,000 people who don't know me. And I don't know them. And then I'm going to try to say to them, here's what I want you to do. And so I'm going to have to start and say, look, we've got to get an agreement on these three things. And we need them in here, too.
Three Essential Agreements
Number one, that the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the infallible Word of God. So when we go to it, we know that there is a God. He's not a distant God. He's a God that's visited this planet, the form of Jesus Christ. And He's communicated to us through prophets and authors. We have in our laps, many of you, this book called the Bible. God's communicated with us.
Secondly, Jesus is the only way of salvation. You live in a world that says a whole bunch of options, a whole bunch of ways, a whole bunch of stuff going on. But we say, no, there are maybe lots of ways. But a whole bunch of them lead to destruction. One leads to life, and that's Jesus.
Thirdly, if you're a Christian, you need to understand that your beliefs based on the scripture have to affect how you behave. So I'm going to try to get that. I'm going to start with that and say, we need to agree on these three things. That being true, and then we'll just go from here.
It's the same thing we do with you. We want you to understand that the Bible is the Word of God. And so when I want to talk about something like schedule or time, it's great to understand what the latest guru has to say. And I can go to Borders and get his book. But what about the God who, in a sense, invented the concept of time? Does He speak?
God Knows What's Best for You
Let me digress a second, although time is going to get away from us. And God knows what's best for you. I'm watching CNN is running a special this week called Too Much Too Soon. And it's about teenagers and sex. And it's very convoluted. And I found most people in my generation are a little bit out of the loop on what's going on.
And there's some staggering, conflicting information. For example, the percentage of girls and boys, I guess, but girls we're talking about, who are virgins, the percentage of girls who are virgin is increasing radically. So you might sit around and go, this is terrific. The reason is these girls are saying, OK, I want to be a virgin. So you can do anything you want to me except penetration and intercourse. So they have anal sex and oral sex and group sex and any kind of sex there is.
Here's the corresponding thing. So the virginity rate is up or increased. But the increased rate of sexual transmitted disease is off the charts because you got all this going on. And here's what they're saying. And they don't date anymore. This is the new thing. The little Christian families love this. I'm not going to let Biff date. They're going out as groups. Well, that's exactly what they're saying. They're going out as groups. They interviewed this 14-year-old. She goes, we don't date. We go out as groups. That's
Too Much, Too Soon
I saw a television interview that really caught my attention. They were interviewing 14-year-old girls about how they have sex. They do stuff as a group - hooking up, that's what it is. Hooking up. It's everything but intercourse. They asked one girl at her 14th birthday party at her house - and I'm wondering, where in the world are her mom and dad? - they asked her, "To hook up, do you need to love the guy?" She said, "No, no, no. But you ought to like him. I mean, you should like him. You should like him a lot." They asked, "Can you hook up with more than one guy at a time?" She said, "Oh, absolutely. If you like him, that works."
The point of this is: too much, too soon. What really catches me is this lines up with what we just saw at summer camp. We get a lot of church kids and a lot of non-church kids at summer camp. You talk to these 16-year-olds, and they've done everything. At 12 or 13, they've done the alcohol thing. They've run that. They've done the ecstasy. They've done the dope. They've done everything. And they've done the sex thing. By 16, literally, they're where many of you were, or at least where I was, at 30. They're ready for the gospel. They're going, "You know, I've tried all this stuff. Is there anything out here like Jesus?"
Your Schedule Is Your Greatest Asset
Now, let's race through these points and make the same point a couple of times in a couple of different ways. Number one on your outline: Your schedule is your greatest asset, so how you invest it is your greatest decision.
I know we can quibble about that, and we probably grabbed for a little hyperbole here. There are certainly other areas of asset. But the point we're trying to make is this is more important than your money. Some of you have your money with managers, and if things fluctuate an eighth of a point, you're racing over there because those are real dollars. That's fine - put me down for yes. I like that. That's a good idea. It doesn't make sense to lose the money. You're managing your money down to an eighth of a point. But when it comes to your schedule of your day, it's "Well, whatever. Whatever happens." And here's your greatest asset, so it's your greatest decision.
Under that outline: Your time should be invested, not squandered. There's an interesting verse in Proverbs 10:26: "As vinegar to teeth and smoke to eyes, so is a sluggard to those who send him." A sluggard is, in the book of Proverbs, somebody who's foolish or irresponsible. You don't send a sluggard out any more than you would take vinegar to your teeth - unless you're a Listerine guy, I guess. You're not going to gargle with vinegar. You want something sweet. Or smoke to your eyes - you're not going to say, "You know what? I want clear vision," and then stick your head over an open fire. You want to invest your time, not squander it.
Investment Decisions Warrant Outside Counsel
Second point: Investment decisions warrant outside counsel. Proverbs 15:22 says, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed." If you look at virtually every corporation - and I think it's by law - they're required to have a board of directors. The assumption is these are people who are diverse, who have an interest in the corporation but also have their own personal interests, and collectively, they're going to bring wisdom to the operation of this corporation. Now, does that happen all the time? No, not really.
In your life, you need the personal equivalent of that. You need your own board of directors. I'll give you three things that are important about these board of directors - these people that come into your life. We're talking about people, not where you're going to walk by and say, "How are you doing?" "Fine." "How are you doing?" "Fine." "How about those Diamondbacks? You think they'll win ever again?" and you have this surface conversation. I'm talking about people who you're going to meet with, talk with, and you're going to talk about the intimate details of your life.
The Danger of Cross-Gender Intimacy
Here's the first thing: They should be of the same sex. Guys with guys, gals with gals. If you're going to have these discussions, there's going to be a level of intellectual intimacy. When you have intellectual intimacy and there's a connection at that level, and you've got a guy and a gal, oftentimes - many times - it spills over into the physical area.
This is the cover story of this week's Newsweek. This week's Newsweek cover story is about the new infidelity. Let me read you the first paragraph. Here's the lead - when I read it, I laugh. I wonder if people ever read these things. "With the workplace, the internet, overscheduled lives, and inattentive husbands, it's no wonder America's women are looking for comfort in the arms of another man."
Here's the first paragraph: "When groups of women meet together, especially if they're mothers, and they've been married for more than six or seven years, and especially if there's alcohol involved, the conversation is usually the same. They talk about the kids and work, how stressed they are, how busy and bone tired they are. They gripe about their husbands. And if they're to be perfectly honest, and the wine kicks in, they talk about the disappointments of their marriage."
Then the article goes on to say that more and more...
More and more of these people, these women, married women, are drifting into infidelity and relationships. There's a gal in here that estimates that currently, she said, I believe it's close to 50%. Now, you're going to sit here and go, oh, that's silly, because that doesn't match up with my experience. Well, it doesn't match up with your experience because you aren't the norm of the culture. That's the whole point.
Here's what she said. Women have suddenly begun to give themselves the same permission to step over the boundary as men have for years. One lady says this. She said she and her friends half-jokingly start a joke about starting a website for married women who want to date. Quote, "I think there's a market in it."
Well, let me tell you something. On my email, like if I go in today, I'll get 60 emails between Viagra and home mortgages, because I'm going to get a slug of those things. And then mine is pretty screened. It's pretty tight. Most of the porno stuff doesn't get through. But every once in a while, I'll get, "I'm Amber, and I have a new webcam." I got this a week ago, three days in a row. Married women looking for purely physical relationship. And when I got it, I thought, you know, that doesn't sound right. What's fascinating is these gals are joking about the website, but there it is.
The Danger of Emotional Affairs
Here's my point. You're now sitting down with somebody and you're pouring out the guts of your life. You're in an electric environment. And as you start this, if the person, if you're a gal, there you go, you're a gal, you go to work, you're miserable. You got a jerk that doesn't meet your needs. You got kids that aren't responding. You're overworked. You're tired.
You sit down with a cup of coffee. You go to Starbucks with a guy, a man. And you start the talking and say, "I'm bone tired. I'm really tired. I'm whipped. And my kids are, I'm whipped. I'm dead tired. And I'm overscheduled. And my husband's not there."
I mean, unless this guy's a total buffoon, he's going to say, "Boy, your hair looks pretty. That's a new dress, isn't it? I'll bet, I'll bet, I'll bet that's really tough, isn't it? I can't necessarily relate, but I really know how you feel. That must be really hard when he doesn't respond, huh?"
So all he's trying to do is bed you down. He's not trying to comfort you at all. He's a slug just like the guy you married because they're all the same. That's a real basic deal. So you just need to understand that. But now, you see that?
And in the article, they talk about, now, here's what happens. The women have these kids. Now, they go back into the marketplace. They go back into the marketplace, and there's the guy. And you're not cleaning up his underwear, and you're not picking up his shorts, and you're not living with his jerk. And all you have to do is talk about these. And pretty soon, here, you got this connection that takes place.
Same Sex Board Members
If you're going to have this board of directors, they need to be of the same sex. Secondly, I think they need to be of the same belief. They need to have the same belief system. So if we're saying we're Christians, they need to be Christians. And that's not enough because everybody says they're a Christian. They need to believe the Bible's the word of God. They need to be hanging in there. They need to believe that that's where we go for answers.
Because here's what's going to happen. You're in a marriage, and you go, and you say, "My husband's a jerk. My wife is a jerk. She doesn't meet my needs. I'm married to a jerk." Here's what the person's going to say. If this is just some guy you pick randomly, some gal you pick randomly out of the office, and again, you're sitting down having a cup of coffee, and you say, "The guy's a jerk. My wife's miserable." They're going to say, what? Thump him. Thump him. He's a jerk. What are you doing? Why would you waste your life? Look at you. You've got 40 more years. Why would you waste it with this guy?
Here's why you would. Because you said, "For better or worse." And now it's worse. That's what you said. That's what you said at the very beginning.
Biblical Counsel
So you're going to have this whole situation where you're going to have your friends who are going to say, "No, the Bible says you can't be divorced." There's an article, and I didn't bring it in. I forgot about it, frankly, until yesterday. There was an article. Remember, there was a lady who, a few years ago, along with a guy that she was dating, remember, they murdered her husband. And in the interview, she said, "I attend," and she happened to name the church. It was Scottsdale Bible. "I attend Scottsdale Bible Church, and I know as a Christian that divorce is not an option."
I mean, how do you not laugh at that? Oh, let's see. Let's think this through now. I can't divorce him. Why don't you kill him? It's a very interesting thought process, and it just tells how the mind is. That's how the mind is. Once you want to sin, you find a way to justify it.
So the person around you, you're pouring your heart out into them. You say, "I got this and this and this." They got to be coming back and say, "Here's what God said. Here's what God said."
Developing Your SWAT Team
Here's the third thing in this whole issue, and that is, I would develop kind of a SWAT team of certain areas. That's what I have in my life. So if I have a money question, I have a certain one or two guys that I'll call. If I have a theological question, I might do a subdivision on what's the question, and then I have one or two guys I call.
When the church was starting, I would call Daryl, and Daryl was absolutely magnificent. And Daryl, I'd call Daryl, and I'd just leave him, and I'd say, "I need five minutes. All I need is five minutes. I don't want to waste your time, but I need to be able to ask you a question." So if Daryl said, "How's Susan?" then I'd know, okay, he's giving me permission to at least have a little dialogue. But I wanted to honor his time, and I'd just call Daryl, and I'd say, "I've done this, I've done..."
What about this? You need to have people in your life in certain areas of specialty, and you need people in those areas around you. So it's really important to have investment decisions that warrant outside counsel.
Here's the next point. Your investment capital will increase if you do your own work. Listen to this. Proverbs 9:10-11: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through me, your days will be many, and your years will be added to your life." Now, that's not necessarily a promise. If you're Jim Elliot, and you're going down there, and the Indians kill you, not all Christians live a long life, but it's a general principle. On principle, Debbie Boone is going to live longer than Janis Joplin. It's a principle. Are there exceptions? Sure.
I saw a statistic this week, don't know if it's accurate or not, that the average life expectancy of a homosexual male in America is 42. Average life expectancy of the average male in America is 76. So there's some connection there. There's some behavioral issue there. We need to process these principles.
The Fear of the Lord as Your Baseline
Here you go. Here's your baseline: the fear of the Lord. So if you come to me and say, "I've been a Christian, but I'm not growing. I need to read. What should I read?" I would say to you, read Knowing God, Loving God, Pleasing God, Chosen by God, Pursuit of God. You start to get a theme here. God, God, God, God, God. Because when I understand who God is, I begin to understand who I am.
As J.I. Packer says in that absolute classic work, Knowing God, when you understand who God is, the issues of life start to fall in place on their own. That's what he's saying. All of a sudden, you have things that are priorities. All of a sudden, your life begins to change. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the knowledge of the Holy One, the Scripture itself.
So I look at life, and we've got government studies on family. We've got Christian books, stacks 50 feet high on family. There isn't that much in the Bible about family. Pretty simple. Husbands love your wives. Wives submit to your husbands. Kids obey your parents. Mothers, God's plan for the family. Now, if you want to mess around with that, and you want to come up with some sort of new system, then you give it a whirl, but what I'm telling you is, it doesn't work.
Government Can't Change Hearts
I think I used this illustration a couple of weeks ago. I'm watching the chief of police from the city of Birmingham. Happens to be an African-American woman. They had four officers killed in the line of duty in the first part of this year. They asked her, "What's the problem here in Birmingham?" And she said, "Well, the problem is really this. We have people with hard hearts, and until we change their hearts, we aren't going to get this fixed."
And that's the thing with government. Be involved in government. You all need to be registered to vote. You need to get registered. You need to understand the issues, understand who the candidates are. We can't endorse those. You know that, and that isn't going to take place. But we want you to be informed. We want you to understand. Having said all of that, government only deals in the temporal area. They can't change a heart.
So God's got a plan, and God's got a plan for how your life ought to function. When I know that, all of a sudden, and I'm wise, I have fear of the Lord.
Your Payoff Is Assured If You Invest Wisely
Here's the next thing. Your payoff is assured if you invest wisely. "The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways, and the good man will be rewarded."
I'm at home one night. I get a call. The guy's name was Jones, and I think he was with Dean Witter. But it goes something like this. "I'm Bill Jones from Dean Witter in Dallas. Could I speak to Mr. Schroeder?" And I said, "Well, yeah, that's me." And he said, "Mr. Schroeder, are you a reasonable man?" And I said, "Well, I think I'm a reasonable man. I like to believe I'm a reasonable man."
He said, "If I could give you an investment opportunity that had minimum to low risk and medium to high return, would you be interested?" I said, "Well, I wouldn't be interested." And he said, "Mr. Schroeder, I thought you were a reasonable man. Isn't that a reasonable proposition?" I said, "Perhaps to some, but not to me." "I don't understand, Mr. Schroeder." "Well, you see, it's contrary to my investment strategy, which is high risk and guaranteed failure. That's how I've invested all of my life. That's the only investments I've ever been in. So while this may be appealing to some people, it's not very appealing to me." And he said, "Well, this is an unusual call." And I said, "Thank you." Click.
The Cost-Benefit Principle
Here's what he did: it's cost-benefit. That's how you sell. It's cost-benefit. It's going to cost you this. It's going to benefit you this. And that's a good way to sell. When I first started selling, they taught me cost-benefit. Here's the cost to you. Here's the benefit to you.
It's the same thing we're saying here. Here's your time. That's the asset we're talking about. Here's your time. You need to steward it. You need to be obedient.
The Problem with De-Emphasizing Cost
Here's one of the problems we have. And this is why you have a Christian community that is, in many ways, so ineffective. We have de-emphasized the cost. So we take somebody, we say, "Hey, will you come to a luncheon and listen to this athlete, this businessman, listen to this person speak?"
So the guy comes in, and the person gets up and says, "You know what? I was successful. I had all the cars. I had business. I had a lot of money. I had fame. I had fortune. But I was miserable. I was miserable. I was empty. I was empty in my heart."
There was an emptiness there. I wasn't fulfilled. And then one day, somebody told me about Jesus. And I came to Jesus, and now I'm fulfilled. If you come to Jesus, you'll be fulfilled. And as an added benefit, if you respond in the next two minutes, you will escape hell as well. I mean, they don't say that, but that's kind of where it is.
So you got a guy that says, all right, that sounds good. I mean, I don't want to go to hell. Do you want to go to hell? No. And I'd like to be fulfilled. I'll check a box. Person's never heard about sin and never heard about the cost. That's not how Jesus presented the Christian faith, is it?
The True Cost of Following Christ
He didn't say, you know what? Your life is empty, and you'll want to be fulfilled. Here's what He said. He said, here's what I would do if I was you. Let me read it to you from Mark chapter 8, verse 34. He said this: "If anyone wishes to come after me... So you want to be a follower of Christ. You want to be a Christian. Anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself." And by that, He means deny all of my natural instincts, which is pride, ego, look out for number one, I don't get mad I get even. "Deny myself and take up my cross and follow me. Because everybody who wants to save their life will lose it, and everyone who wants to lose their life will save it."
That's the cost of the Christian faith. It's an expensive faith. There's a great cost to it. There's a great human cost to it, and I need to understand that. And we need to recapture that because we're talking here about investing your life. Investing your life in something that counts. Investing your life in something that matters.
The Reality of Truth
I had a guy in one of the studies, and he said to me, "I brought a friend last week. I was very disappointed." I said, "I'm sorry, what happened? Guy not show up, or he was late?" He said, "No, it was you." I said, "What did I do?" He said, "You said"—and this guy happens to be a non-Christian—"you said that if you were not a follower of Christ, if you were not a Christian, you'd go to hell. And that's very offensive to this guy."
And I said to him, "Well, why did you bring him?" And he said, "Well, because I really care for him. He's a buddy. I've known him a long time." And I said, "Well, why did you bring him here? Why wouldn't you take him to like a baseball game or something?" "Well, I brought him here because I wanted..." Now, think about this. How stupid are people? "I want them to hear the truth." Well, I told them the truth.
I mean, he said, my guy said, "If a guy is a loving God, why would He send anybody to hell?" I said, "Are you kidding me? You've been sitting in here for this many years, and you can't answer that question? You can't deal with that basic thing?" So the loving thing for me to do is to stand up here and say, "I know life is tough. Oh, I know it's hard. Oh, and we're all in this journey together. We're slugging it out. I don't have any ideas. Do you have any ideas?" How stupid is that?
Invest Your Life or Waste It
I don't have any ideas. But the Bible is really clear. And now you've got this life. You've got today. You've got this life, and you either invest it or you waste it. And you have an opportunity to invest it somewhere where the Scripture says the good man invests it, and there'll be a reward.
At the end of your life, if you're a Christian, you understand how life ends here? You die. Boom, you're done. When you're dead, you will be judged. Non-Christians are not judged. They're just condemned. They're just thrown in the fiery pit. That's it. You and I are judged. And the Bible says all of us must appear to be judged and compensated according to what we've done, whether it's good or bad.
Now, He's not talking about whether it's sin or not sin, because your sin's already judged, isn't it? Your sin's already been evaluated, hasn't it? That's already been paid for in the cross. When He talks about good and bad there, He's not talking about moral issues. He's talking about, have you done something that has eternal value, for which apparently there is a reward—don't know what it is—or have you just invested your life in stuff that doesn't really matter?
Because we've got all those things in life that don't really matter. We've got to brush our teeth, drive down here, do all those things that don't really matter. But here's the rest of this life, a large portion of our life: have I invested it in just self-pursuit, self-satisfaction, all my ego, all my gratification, or have I invested in stuff that matters? Because here's what it is—it's going to be heavy, and it's going to be costly. But you need to know it's worth it.
Investment, Not Sacrifice
Real simple. I'm watching, again, I've got three minutes here. Tim Russert's making the tour with this book, *Big Russ and Me*. And he's talking about his dad, and he talks about his dad with glowing terms: "And my dad had three jobs, my dad sacrificed, sacrificed, sacrificed." And I wanted to email Russert, and I thought, "This is a waste of time. He isn't going to read it. I'd rather talk to him." He didn't sacrifice for you. He invested in you. There's a huge difference.
I'm so sick of "sacrifice, sacrifice"—you're investing. He didn't sacrifice for you. He didn't do it because he thought it was hard, and this is arduous, and it has no point. He thought, "I'm going to work hard to provide my kid an opportunity, and who knows, maybe someday he'll host Meet the Press." It's an investment. So you're either going to invest your life or waste it. It's really that simple.
Your Greatest Assignment
We're on point now. We've moved to point number two in your outline, and we've got to fly. Your time management is your greatest assignment, so nothing deserves more careful attention. Under that: deliberate consideration should precede your commitments. In other words, you've got to think about what you're doing. Proverbs 14:8: "Wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but folly of the fools is deception." You ought to stop, and you ought to think about this.
Here's the second point: Sincerity
There is no relief or replacement for stupidity. A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps. You have something that's very overrated in our culture, especially in spiritual issues, and that is sincerity. "He's sincere. I don't agree with him on every point, but he's so sincere."
I have never seen sincerity like I saw in the lives of those hijackers who took those planes and flew them into those buildings. I don't know how you get more sincere than that. That's sincerity.
The Problem with Sincerity
At our church, we just changed our service times. Our church used to be 8, 9, 10, 11, 4, and 6. That's a lot. I'm standing by the front office, by the receptionist one day, and I hear this: "East Valley Bible Church, this is Mary. Can I help you? Uh-huh. Oh, sure. Yeah, oh, yeah. 8, 9, 10, 11, 4, and 6. No, no, we don't have any other times. I don't know what to do. Unless we're going to pick up a bagel and swing by the house and do this dog and pony in your bedroom, I don't know what else to do. I don't know how to make it any easier."
And I'll hear about the drudgery. "It's so hot. And I had to park way out there, way out there. Is it possible? Have you thought about a shuttle or a mister or something to get us in here?" I mean this. You compare that with a guy who believes the wrong faith, but he's going to fly his plane into a building and kill himself for it. Who's going to win that game? What religion conquers in that deal? It's really interesting, isn't it?
We're not sacrificing anything. I hear that all the time: "Oh, you know, we've got a parking problem. You wouldn't believe the parking problem. Oh, in fact, I quit going even. It's so bad that I quit going. I'm going to another place now. No, the teaching's no good. The worship's no good. Nothing's any good. But I can get in and out real easy and it's only an hour's service."
Self-Assurance Is No Guarantee
Sincerity doesn't replace stupidity. Self-assurance is no guarantee of success. Proverbs 14:12: "There's a way that seems right to man, but it ends in death." You have a whole world that goes around and says, "No, this seems okay to me. It seems to think there's many ways. This seems to be all right," but it leads to death.
Bottom line on those two: hell is filled with sincere, self-assured people.
Your Control Is Not Complete
Point three in your outline: Your control of your schedule is not complete. So flexibility has to be built into the planning. The future is outside your span of control. I'm going to let you read the verses there. I'm just going to work you through so you can complete your outline here.
The future's out of your span of control. Here's the second point under three: Someone else controls the intimate details of our day. "In his heart, a man plans a course, but the Lord determines his steps."
Thirdly, God alone is the final determiner of the outcome of your plans. Proverbs 19:21: "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails." And then I think this is lastly under point three: Wisdom suggests submit to the one who's in control. Proverbs 16:3: "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."
So here He is. Life is out of your control, but it's not out of His control. So I submit to Him. You just make a note of it, but look it up: Psalm 37, verse 4.
Delighting in the Lord
Psalm 37:4: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Now what that doesn't say is delight yourself in the Lord, He'll give you whatever you want. It says when you delight yourself in the Lord, He'll change your heart. And now the desires of your heart will be different, and He'll give you those things.
How to Know You're in Control
So here's the bottom line. How do you know you're in control? Number one, you plan your investment ahead of time. This is clearly not an anti-planning message. Here's what we say: You need to plan. Write your plan with a pencil, and give God the eraser.
Number two, balance your work and your rest. Number three, protect your opportunities for spontaneity. A few years ago, Susan came to me, and here's what she said. It's a direct quote: "Tom, I think we need to plan to be a little more spontaneous."
Welcome Divine Interruptions
Fourthly, welcome the divine interruptions. And that's a huge point. We could have made two weeks out of this. That's a huge point, these divine interruptions. If you look at those times where God's really done something significant in your life, I'd almost guarantee you whatever it was didn't appear on your schedule that day.
So if I've got my day planned so tight, I have no time for these divine interruptions. You walk in today, and somebody's there, and you say, "What's wrong?" You say, "My brother was killed in a motorcycle wreck yesterday," or "My wife just left me," or "My husband just left me," or "I've got a kid on drugs." Those are those divine interruptions where God gives you this great opportunity.
Here's what I'm saying: God will bring those things into your life. So your prayer is, "God, help me recognize them," and then secondly, "Give me the courage and the wisdom to do something about it."
The One Thing That Will Stop You
Great asset, your time. How are you doing with it? So here you are. I've got the plan. I'm ready to go. I'm committed to it. Nothing can stop me. Yes, there is. There's one thing that will stop you for sure: You'll stop yourself. That's next week, getting control of appetites, desires, all that.
Let's pray. Father, thank You for this truth.