Sermon Tone Analysis

An email from Anonymous

I need to take a quick survey.

How many of you are busy?

How many of you would admit to sometimes being too busy?

Good.

The rest of you can relax because because you won’t be the ones under conviction.

How many of you are busy?

I’d like to start by reading an email sent by “anonymous”:

One day satan called a worldwide convention of demons.

In his opening address he said, “We can’t keep Christians from going to church.

We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth.

We can’t even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their Saviour.

Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.

So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, but steal their time, so they don’t have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

“This is what I want you to do,” said the devil: “Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!”

“How shall we do this?” his demons shouted.

“Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds,” he answered.

“Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow.

Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 10 -12 hours a day, 6-7 days each week, so they can afford their empty lifestyles.

Keep them from spending time with their children.

As their families fragment, soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!”

“Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice.

Entice them to play the radio whenever they drive, to constantly check their Blackberry and to keep their TV, Music play list and computer on constantly in their homes.

This is jam their minds and breaks that union with Christ.”

“Pound their minds with news 24 hours a day.

Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers.

Invade their drives with billboards.

Flood their inbox with offerings of free products and false hope.

Fill their mailboxes with mail order catalogs that keep them dissatisfied with their current possessions.”

“Keep air-brushed models on magazines, mall billboards and TV so the husbands will believe that outward beauty is what’s important, and become dissatisfied with their wives.

These same images will convince the wives of the lies we’ve been telling them since they were young girls.

Keep them too tired to love their husbands at night.

Give them headaches too!

If they don’t give their husbands the love they need, it’s easy for them to begin to look elsewhere.

This will fragment their families quickly.”

“In their recreation, encourage them to be excessive.

It’s easy, they’re feeling guilty for the time they’ve taken away from themselves and their kids.

Have them return from their recreation exhausted.

Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God’s creation.

Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead.

Keep them busy, busy, busy!”

“And when they gather for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences.”

“Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus.

The same power that raised Him from the dead lives in them – don’t let them truly believe or act on that.

Keep them busy doing the ‘good’ and keep them from His ‘best’.

Soon they’ll be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause.

This never fails – make them equate busy-ness with being spiritual.

“Now to help you in your work, we’ve created an acrostic.

It’s simple for even the simplest of you.

Think of ‘busy’ as:

b eing

u nder

s atan’s

y oke

Now go out there and get busy yourselves.”

Now with what I’m going to share with you today, that is the worst possible way to start.

But before I tell you why, I want to share a little bit about my journey through busyness.

This has been one of the most difficult topics to teach on.

I know I need to teach about simplicity because it is so lacking in the church today.

Moving to what Jesus called the “unforced rhythms of grace” (Matthew 11:28 MSG) is so essential for us to keep in step with the Spirit.

More importantly, I know I need to live in simplicity.

There’s angst to teach on something you’re not living.

Don’t Have Time to be Busy

Years ago, as I rushed to drop off the kids at school to make a meeting that had to be squeezed in before my sermon prep time which I had left far too late in the week, a friend ask me, “Are you busy today?”

My unconsidered immediate response was “I don’t have time to be busy.”

Those words became an epiphany for me.

The Father began to show me that I -and any follower of Christ – can’t give away our time to busy-ness.

Our Time

Every morning we are given 1,440 minutes – or if you prefer, 86,400 seconds.

You can’t carry over time to the next day that you didn’t use today, and you can’t borrow time from the future.

Each day has all the time it can contain.

I tried to borrow time.

In University I pushed off daylights savings time for a week because I needed the extra hour to study the following week.

It was great, showing up an hour late to everything and being right on time.

Everywhere I went I took my own personal time zone.

Karen doesn’t have the same memories of that week.

What she recalls is me asking her “What time is it in your time zone?” every hour or so.

Instead of wishing we had more time, we need to realize we have enough minutes in the day to do everything the Father wants us to do.

This is the first secret to a life of simplicity.

Jesus’ Example

Jesus had enough minutes every day.

He wasn’t rushed (John 11:6) or influenced by other people’s schedules (John 7:3-6).

He was never in a hurry and showed compassion with people’s intrusions (Mark 10:49).

He took time with the Father (Mark 1:35) and time to recreate (John 2:2).

He took time for meals, even after He died and rose again (John 21:13 ) He accomplished the work He was given to do (John 17:4).

Why is He so different than us?

What did He have that we don’t?

Maybe a better question is “What do we have that He didn’t?”

Busy-ness Doesn’t Equal Accomplishment

I’ve never equated busy-ness with getting a lot done.

Some of my most productive times are when I have a lot to do.

I’m not overwhelmed by it, in fact it’s like I come alive doing it.

I came across this statement that made me ponder it’s truth:

“Busyness doesn’t come from what there is it do, but from what is left undone.”

At first glance, this statement seems redundant.

But upon reflect, it confirmed what I already knew.

If you talk to a Mom who takes care of her kids, and goes to works, and takes care of her family, and is there for her friends, and participates in church, and volunteers on the side... there’s a good chance she’ll say she’s busy.

If you talk to someone whose been retired for about six to nine months, they can say they’re busy because they need to go to the bank sometime this week.

What’s the difference?

Why do people who are used to working long hours, feel busier after they retire?