Always On Never Present | Cornerstone Church | Pastor Linn Winters

and today we're gonna talk about busyness. And the reality is busyness isn't of itself a sin. It's it's not. Matter of fact, all of us have had seasons of our life when we were busy and that wasn't sinful. But here's what you need to know. When we live our lives in perpetual busyness,

when we have no margin, we have no room in our life, we become highly susceptible to sin. There's a really good chance that our perpetual busyness will actually lead us into sin and the other is, it almost surely will lead us into a disappointing life.

And so we're just gonna have a conversation about, hey, do I really, really, really wanna live a life of busyness? Now here's what you need to know, there's there's two types of busyness. The first type of busyness is busyness that gets forced on us. Think about a single mom.

She would just say, hey, this this isn't what I chose, this isn't what I wanted, but now I find myself having to take care of three kids on my own.

I'm having to work extra hours to provide. I'm I'm trying to keep my kids in sports because that's what other families do and and she would say, look, I I I am literally to my eyeballs in busyness because I'm doing this alone.

Can I tell you that one of the most powerful moments in my life, because my mom was a single mom raising four kids on her own, that there was a church down the street that literally leaned into our lives? Men came over and helped fix our cars.

They'd come to our house and fix some of the things that were broken and not working right. Women came over, helped my mom clean the house, they helped her get ahead on laundry. There were families that literally took us four kids for the night so my mom could have a night to rest.

And guys, you know, scripture says this, bear ye one another's burdens. And I just I'm just gonna encourage you, if you know a single mom, you have a single, what would it mean to carry just a little bit of that burden because busyness was forced on her.

But then there's another type of business, it's the busyness that we allow.

In other words, we we've been going along and something else came up and someone said that was important and it was critical that we do it and so we added that thing to our life, we allowed it to become part of our schedule and guys, here's what you need to hear. What we allow is a choice. We got there by making decisions

to be busy. So let's talk about this for a moment. You realize there are a thousand voices telling you what you should do. If you're gonna be a good parent, if you're gonna be a good employee, if you're gonna be a good son or a daughter, then then here's the things you have to do

if you're gonna be a good person. There's a thousand voices. So so for instance, hey, if you're gonna be a good parent, then then your kids ought to be in sports. Right? So the problem you got three kids and and when you when you do sports, there's there's not only the practice,

then there's the game and God forbid that you choose club sports because then you're traveling all over the place and there's all sorts of other things that come up along the way. If if you're a good family, you shouldn't be eating every meal at

McDonald's. Right? You you ought to at least every once in while have a home cooked meal if you're gonna be a healthy family. If you're if you're a husband, then you're you're supposed to spend time with your spouse.

He he apparently is a good husband and she apparently is an amazing spouse. So there we go. And, you know, if if you're you need to be healthy. Right? So you've got to somehow incorporate exercise in into your life and then you gotta like maintain and clean your house and

of course, then you you've got to somehow figure out how work fits into your schedule in life and and then there's the time we spend on our cell phone.

How many of you recognize this? You're old. You're old. And for all the young'uns in the room, let me just tell you, this this is what the first cell phone looked like. And the honest truth is, it wasn't much smaller than this. We we were having like hold our phone with two hands to talk about. We called them bricks.

And and and there's a time we, you know, we spend on our phone watching cat videos. Right? And and then of course, you know, there's television because you gotta stay up to date on everything that's going on and then you need to have like some sort of a hobby going on in your life

And then if that's not bad enough, the church comes along, this is as close as we could get to a church.

So if you'll just squint your eyes, you can imagine a cross on the top, okay. So the church comes along and says, hey, you ought to be faithful in church and then some pastor says, well hey, that's not even enough, you ought to come back and like do do another bible study on top of all that and guys, truth is, you can't

fit it all in. That that that if you allow yourself to be seduced by busyness, even if you try this, there will always be other things left that you haven't done, you'll live perpetually in guilt. And then the moment you find like even the tiniest bit of margin, you'll go oh okay, so I need to need to add another thing

to my busyness. It's the trap of busyness. And you say well Lynn, I mean that's just kind of the way the world is now and that's what happened. There's a cost to that. There's a cost to living my life that way. So let's talk about that. What's the cost of allowing myself, which is what it is,

to be busy? And guys here's the thing you need hear me say out loud. You have never met the person who said, man, my life really stank until I was busy. And then when I got busy, everything fell into place and my life was amazing and everything was wonderful. You've never met that person, and yet that person

is an awful lot of us who would say man my life, it's so busy. I know I'm missing important things. So let's talk about the cost.

Grab your bibles, go with me to the book of Luke. If you're not familiar, if you go to back of your bible, work to the left, you're gonna find this book of Luke, Luke chapter 10 and Jesus, you ready for this? Jesus is gonna give you and me a master class on busyness.

You know, some you may go, Lynn, this feels like kind of a secular, no, no, no, no, this is a spiritual topic. How I manage my time is a spiritual discipline with Jesus is about to give you and me a master class on how we fill our shelves. Here we go. It's Luke chapter 10, it's verse 38.

Here's what it says, as Jesus and his disciples were on their way, they came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her house to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. So Jesus is having a little bible study in the house,

Mary is sitting on his feet listening to the bible study. But Martha was, next word, Oh, that was bad. That was, alright, I'm gonna give you one more shot at it because you're reading along with me, right? But Martha was distracted.

By all the preparations that had to be made, had to be made. Now understand the moment here, if you're Jewish, there is a cultural value which is simply this, you must take care of strangers and friends. You you have to have hospitality. So think about the time, there aren't restaurants.

So if somebody was traveling along, got to your town, there's there's really nowhere for them to go to get food unless they're just gonna grab some grapes. If they get there and it's starting to be night, there there are no hotels and so there was this huge value that said, hey, you extend hospitality

to those who need hospitality. It's a huge thing. And a matter of fact, you were honored by the fact that you did over the top hospitality. So Martha, in this moment, is only doing what the culture demands

And what she's doing is actually a good thing, right? She's being gracious to Jesus. She's got 12 other disciples in the room, she's trying to make dinner for them. She's doing, ready ready? She's doing a good thing and yet scripture says she's distracted. Why? Because in doing a good thing, she's missing out on the

best thing. And guys, this this is this is the thing that's gonna change our lives. How many good things am I doing? How many how many things I mean that that's a good parent that enrolls her kid in 14 sports, right? It's it's a good parent who stays and does overtime so the family has lots of good things.

Hey, got company coming over, my house can't be messy. Lots of good things that if we're not careful will cause us to miss out on best things. Back to the passage.

Let's start in verse 40 again, Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him talking about Jesus, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? How is this fair? How is this right? Aren't you gonna say something Jesus? Tell her to help me.

And Martha, Martha the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed or indeed only one. And Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her. There's only a few things

that ought to be non negotiable, there's only a few things that ought to be the highest priority of your life. Then he says actually, you think about those few things can all be boiled down to one. What's the one? My highest priorities are whatever make God happy.

That's it. If you think about the most important things in my life, the things that are non negotiable, the things that I will not let get crowded out of my life, are the things that will make God pleased with my life. Jesus said, it's as simple as that.

Here's what you need to know. Busyness, a hurried life will absolutely be a distracted life. When when you get when you get going and going and going, you you you don't have time to prioritize the right things and minimize the good things that are going on. Every voice sounds the same.

There's only a few Jesus said, really there's one. So what would be on the one list? How about being faithful in church? You think Jesus would put that on the one list? And when when I say faithful, it's not hey, I go once a month.

No. I I got a feeling Jesus would say hey, on your priority list when you start thinking about what you're gonna be busy with, going to church faithfully every single week ought to be on that list because you ought to be chasing me. How about this? How about being involved in a bible study?

Small group, a small church, the mine, women's ministry, men's ministry. Because in a car you raise you've got transmissions. Right? And you've got low gears and high gears. And even if you're faithful in church, you come every single Sunday, your walk with Jesus is gonna be low gear.

And when you finally say, you know what, I'm I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna chase Jesus with all my heart. I wanna be in high gear. Well, it's probably gonna take more of your time. You're probably gonna be in a bible study. You're gonna say look, I'm I'm I'm going after this.

How about this? Serving. What what do you think the chances are that the God who came to earth in the form of a man and lived his entire life as a servant would say, hey, one of your greatest priorities is that you would take your spiritual gifts, your capacity, your ability and you would serve in the church.

Help change people's lives. What about daily devotions? You just, at the beginning of your day, God before I make any decisions today, before I'm gonna meet with you for a few minutes. Whereas we've got we've got devotions that we provide for you as a church for like three minutes to five minutes.

Every every single morning, Lisa and I get up, we do devotions together and then we pray together. Did you know that there's a stat that couples who pray together, their divorce rate is one in a thousand. I'm thinking that fifteen minutes is pretty important.

But here's what we do, right? So when the pastor says, hey, you you ought to be coming to church every single week, we go,

look, Lynn, I I can't do, I mean there's laundry, it's gotta get caught up. We didn't get that done yet. There's football games on on Sunday. I don't have the time. Hey, when we suggest and go, hey, look, really, if you wanna be serious about God, ought to be in another

bible study during the week so that your your spiritual life can go and hug you and we go they go, well, that's that's nice, I appreciate you offer that but let's just be honest, I don't have the time.

When we say, hey, you ought to be serving somewhere in the church, you ought to take the gifts God's given you and use them to move other people and bless other people and teach people who are spiritually behind where you are and we go, well, that's really great, someday maybe I'll have the time.

You ready for this? What do you think the average amount of time that the average American spends watching TV and looking at cats on their cell phone. How many hours a day do you think the average American does that? Anybody wanna guess? Five? Four? Three? Three? Four, five, seven, seven, seven hours every single day watching cats.

And I know I know I know it's a priority to be watching FBI and FBI International and FBI Most Wanted and FBI Malibu Beach. I know. But did you know, think about this, if you would take one hour out of that time that looks it's wasted. Right?

One hour a day out of that, you would have enough time to be at church every single Sunday, to be in a bible study, to serve and help other people know Jesus better and do devotions and you would have time left over one hour a day. And what you allow is a decision.

Busyness.

Busyness will give you a diminished life. Because here's the deal. Let's just be honest, when we're busy, when you're running a thousand miles an hour, you're just constantly in a hurry, then then the reality is, look, you've got no margin for things that come up. Right?

And so in the midst of that, here's what I know about me. Man, I lose my patience when I'm busy. Man, you get me really, really busy and someone comes up and says, Lynn, can you help me with this? And then my first reaction is, dude, can't you do your own job? Why are you asking me to do your job?

I would never respond that way if I had margin, but because I'm overwhelmed, because I'm busy out of my mind, I don't have patience or tolerance. Being busy out of your mind, you'll lose presence. So you'll go, hey, I'm spending my night with my spouse and your spouse will say, where are you?

I can't tell how many times I've been with Lisa and she'll go, hey, Lynn, what are you thinking about? Which is code for, hey, you're not paying any attention. And because I'm a man, sometimes the real answer is nothing.

But can I tell you that all too often the answer is, well, I'm thinking about that hard conversation I gotta have tomorrow? I'm thinking about that decision we gotta make in lead team meeting tomorrow. And so I'm with Lisa, but I'm not with Lisa. Hey, being busy all the time, it will screw up your perspective.

Think things that are actually little problems will all of a sudden seem like big problems because you don't have time for another problem.

A while back, I let my calendar just get out of control, I mean, was running myself ragged and I ended up in a meeting. And somebody in the meeting was asking questions that felt a little bit accusatory to me.

And and if I would've if I would've been in a rested place, if I would've if I would've been in a place where I was okay, I would've just said, hey, wait, wait, wait, let me help you. Here's how we made that decision.

Here's how that fits in the values and the vision of where we're going. I probably would have helped that person get in get on board with it, but because I was out of my mind, just tired, I I fumbled through the whole answer. And everybody in the room lacked clarity

in that moment. And then I walked out of the room and and suddenly that little thing that little thing where one person was asking some questions that were kind of rough, all a sudden I'm going, I wonder if the whole church feels that way. And then I start to get filled with fear.

I got angry because I'm like, hey, wait a minute, why didn't they come to me in person? Why did they do that in front of other people? Jerk.

I started getting frustrated with God. God I'm here serving you, I'm doing everything I'm doing everything you want, why would you allow that turkey to just call me out in front of people? You really, right, I lose perspective.

And what was just a tiny little thing that should have easily been, suddenly felt like this massive boulder in my life, because I was busy. And then finally, the cost of busyness is, it causes me to screw up my priorities. Because here's the thing, when my life when my life is at the max,

then then I promise you somewhere somewhere in here, there there's gonna be a problem. And now all of a sudden, I have to find room for the problem. And so now I'm taking things off the shelf and and and here's what I'm most likely to do. I'm most likely to take the things off the shelf that don't feel urgent.

And so I go, well, you know what? I need to work on this problem, but you know, me and my we're just not gonna spend time together, you know, maybe for a month, right? Because our marriage is good and things are alright and nothing's gonna fall apart in a month.

Hey, if I if I miss church a couple times, it'll be okay. I mean, my walk with Jesus is doing pretty good and I'm not gonna like deny God. I'm gonna rearrange my time a little bit. And guys, you realize then whatever that problem was, whatever that thing was,

then consumes the time that I gave it and it'll never wanna give it back. And what you thought was ignoring your spouse for a couple weeks now becomes a year. What you thought was just being out of church for a moment or two, you don't remember the last time you went.

I'm working in a church in California, I'm the youth pastor and I made this decision to do something really, really good. I decided I was gonna go to Talbot Seminary and get my master's degree. I looked at my schedule, it was fine, I could do it, I could fit it in. But then the senior pastor left and

when the senior pastor left the church, all of a sudden giving went down. And so the leaders of the church came to me and said, hey, we're having to make cuts and one of the things we're doing to make cuts is you have no more help in your youth ministry. You get to do it by yourself and don't you dare lose a kid. Okay.

And in that moment I thought, well you know, I can't I can't I can't not keep going to seminary, I can't put that on pause, that's such a good thing for me and it's gonna help me maybe advance my career and stuff. Guess where I robbed the time? From my marriage and from my son.

I I would come home from work because I was working sixty five hours a week trying to keep the youth group going. I I would start reading because seminary required literally thousands of pages of reading. I'd come down long enough to wolf down my dinner. I'd go back up to my room. I'd read until I fell asleep. I did that for two years.

To this day, when Lisa talks about the driest season of our marriage, it's those two years. To this day, when I try to look back and go, hey, what was a great moment with Josh during those I do can't think of a single great moment because I let good overrule best.

And guys, I'm just telling you that in the in the midst of your busyness, there's gonna come an unexpected thing and in that moment, you're gonna be tempted to say, hey, my marriage is okay and my my walk with Jesus is okay and I I can neglect those for a little while and it'll only be a moment until it's not

a moment. So let me ask you a question. Are you living a distracted life? You've got a life full of good things, but some of the best things aren't even on the shelf. Are you a Martha?

So what's the remedy? What's the remedy for this busyness that happens in our lives? And again, Jesus is gonna help us with the moment. So grab your Bibles again, go with me to Luke chapter five, just a few pages over in your Bibles. Luke chapter five,

if you close your Bible, go to the back, start working to the left, you're gonna find this book of Luke. Luke chapter five

starting in verse 15. Watch what Jesus does. Yet the news about him, the news about Jesus spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and be healed from their sickness. So you get the moment. Jesus' ministry is finally taking off. Word is spreading and now crowds are coming like crazy to hear his sermons,

to hear about God and hear about how they ought to change their lives, This is a great moment. And people who are sick, they've spent their entire lives and maybe struggling, they're coming to be healed. This is big time stuff.

Verse 16, but Jesus, next word often, often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. You go, well, Jesus, wait a minute, people were coming to hear us and you went, no, no sermon today. People were coming who had been sick for years and you said, no, no, no healings today, I'm going off to a lonely place,

I'm gonna go pray and rest.

You understand what he's doing? He's saying no to something that's good and think about the moment, I mean this isn't just even normal, this is like incredibly good, Healing people, doing ministry, doing some and he says, no, I will not let good invade best and what's best is that I have time with God,

that I have time for prayer, that that I can recharge my battery so that I can actually do ministry. And guys, I'm just telling you that if you're gonna figure you're gonna figure out the word no And you're gonna come to the understanding that says, you're gonna turn down good things in order to live out the best.

Remember what Jesus said, there's only a few things that really deserve priority. Actually, there's only one, do whatever it is that would make God happy with you. Which means we have to rearrange the shelf. That that suddenly we've got to decide what is it that belongs on the top shelf.

And I got a feeling that Jesus would say, man, that's being faithful in church. Ballgame, TiVo the ballgame. You can skip the commercials.

I got a feeling Jesus would say, hey, it's getting involved in Bible study. Make chasing after me crazy serious in your life. There's only a few things that really really deserve the top shelf of your life. I I got a feeling the God who was a servant to man, who took a towel and washed the disciples feet would say,

start being a servant, start getting involved in ministry. I think you'd say, hey, be a good spouse, make make that a huge priority in your life. I think you'd say, spend time with your kids.

Guys, I have had the privilege of standing at the deathbed, a whole bunch of saints. Here's what I have never heard. I wish I would have worked more. I wish I would have cleaned my house more often. I wish I would have gone hunting more. You know what they say, when life suddenly becomes clear and in perspective,

man I wish I would have chased God more. Man I wish I would have spent more time with my kids. I wish I would have worked on my marriage. And Jesus said look there's some things you need to put on the top shelf that are non negotiable. There is nothing that comes in your, there's no good thing

that can ever knock those off the top of your shelf. Jesus, in the face of a really, really good thing, ministry, said no, I have to deal with my top shelf, the thing that would please God right now.

Second thing, Jesus created margin, right? He's going off to rest. 10 commandments, which simply means it's probably important if God says these are the top 10 things I need you to work on in your life. 10 commandments and one of them is the Sabbath.

He said, hey, six days you can do all the busyness you wanna do, you can do all the recreation you wanna do, you can do all the things, but there's one day you ought to set aside for me, Sabbath. And on the Sabbath, there's two things you do, you chase God, you rest because you need rest.

I wonder how many of us in the room actually have a Sabbath. And guys, it may not be in the same 24, right? You I don't get to chase God on Sunday, I'm busy doing this, right? But I've gotta find it. But do you have a day's worth of chasing God, resting? And resting is not watching cat videos.

And that you and I with just absolute intentionality would say, okay, I'm gonna create

a gap.

I'm gonna create a place of margin in my life that is just all about chasing God, having rest. And then who knows when some unexpected thing, at least you've got marching.

It's interesting. How many have ridden in an airplane before? Okay. Few of us are still terrified. Alright. So you know, airplane, they do that talk, right, the talk that we all put on our headphones and do our very best to ignore. Remember that? And part of the talk is this, you ready?

Hey, if we should have a sudden drop in air pressure, there's this little plastic mask that's gonna come down out of the ceiling. And if you're here with a child, put the mask on yourself first. Let your child choke. No, I mean, put it on your first. Right?

Because the worst thing that happen is you're trying to help your child and you pass out. So put it on yourself first, then put it on your child. Why? Because if you're not good, you're no good to anyone else. And I'm just gonna tell you, if you don't have Sabbath in your life, a time when I chase God and a time I rest,

chances are you're no good. And you're not good to the people that God's placed in your life. Sabbath.

Either you will control your schedule or your schedule will control you. And Jesus said, let the first things be first. Put them on the top shelf. Don't give them away. Fill in with the rest. So here's my challenge to us.

What's on your top shelf? Have you even made a top shelf?

And would you put the things that please God there and just commit in your life to say nothing. Nothing, no matter how good it is, intrudes on the top shelf.

Hey, we're gonna do a communion today. Communion is is just a celebration of what Jesus did for us when he went to the cross and here's what you need to know. There is nothing mystical. There is nothing magical in this little plastic doohickey.

Matter of fact, we ordered these things by the gross. I mean, probably thousands of them in a box. There's nothing magical here. The wonder of communion is what happens in our hearts. And what communion does is this, it reminds us that we needed a savior, that we couldn't be good enough to earn heaven on our own.

We couldn't go to church enough. We couldn't tithe enough. We couldn't help enough little old ladies across the street. We all needed a savior who forgave sin and that we had to receive that. There's the wonder of communion. I realized it wasn't me. I received that it was him.

There's some interesting passages in scripture that say, when you come to communion, consider your life. Don't don't take communion unworthy, it says. Make sure there's no sin in your heart. I would suggest that today in light of what we talked about, we should consider how our top shelf is doing.

So I wanna just give us a moment for us all to bow our heads and take a moment with God so that we're ready for communion.

Ask God this, God, is there anything in my life that displeases you? Would you just show it to me right now because I wanna take a minute or two and get it right.

Would you ask God this? God, have I given away best and substituted it with good? Am I a Martha?

God, am I so busy that I'm ignoring the top shelf? So busy that I'm missing you.

Would you consider praying this? God, make me a Mary. Who knew that sitting at your feet was the most important thing that day.

Dear Lord Jesus, we've all been busy. Most of us are busy. But in our busyness, we allowed good things to intrude on what should have been the top shelf. The one thing to please the heart of God. And God, would we just rearrange our lives? Would we literally take a moment and say, I'm gonna reprioritize.

I'm gonna make the things that are best unnegotiable and I'm gonna leave a lot of good things out of my life so I can be like Jesus. This is our prayer. In Jesus name. Amen. In the night in which Jesus was betrayed, scripture tells us, he took the bread.

He said, this represents my body which is about to be broken for you on a cross. Take and eat.

In that same night, Jesus took the cup. He said, this represents my blood. This is gonna be shed for you. It's gonna be the beginning of a new covenant, a new relationship between you and God. A relationship where your sins are forgiven and you could stand before God with clean hands. He said, take and drink.

Dear Lord Jesus, thank you that you did for us what we could not do for ourselves. And we acknowledge in this moment that the only reason that we are able to stand before God is because on the cross you paid for our sins. You were our savior and we had to receive that and we could have never earned it.

So our hearts simply say, thank you. Thank you for loving us that much. In Jesus name, amen. Hey guys, if you go from here, will you think about what ought to be on the top shelf? If you need prayer or talk to someone, they'll be here at the front, and we'll see you next Sunday.