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Busyness

Busyness

Dec 09, 2018

Passage: Luke 2:1-18

Preacher: Michael Grigsby

Series: Check Your Heart

Category: Christmas

Detail:

Title: Busyness

Text:Luke 2:1-18 NIV

 

  • How many of you have someone in your life that desperately needs to know the forgiveness found in Jesus, raise your hand? Now you are committed to handing out one of these (hold up invitation).
  • Christmas Series Theme verse (have everyone stand to read out loud):John 1:12, “12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” NLT
  • Opening prayer
  • This time of the year is all about the “Reason for the Season,” but are you living that way?
  • Think about it for a second. What feelings do you get when someone tells you that there are only 16 days left before Christmas?
  • Some of the most common responses are: excitement, nervousness, disappointment, pain, and sadness.
  • Christmas is all about family, but I don’t want to focus on your birth or marriage family as much as I do about the family we just read about in John 1:12; where John tells us that we are children of God.
  • No matter where you come from or what you may have done in your past we are all part of God’s family, and there is a purpose and place for everyone!
  • This family (point to the congregation), we put the fun in dysfunction!
  • So, raise your hand if you feel like your life is a bit hectic right now. If you didn’t raise your hand you are living in denial.
  • Luke 2:1-7, “At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.” NIV
  • Insert photo of L.A. traffic on Thanksgiving to give an example of the “traffic” that Mary and Joseph would have had to deal with.
  • You know how your grandpa would always tell you stories of “walking uphill the whole time”? Well, the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was uphill the whole way, and you had to travel down narrow dirt roads.
  • Remember that Mary is around 8.5 months pregnant during this journey! (tell the story of Jaime being at the family reunion 8 months pregnant)
  • Luke 2:8-14, “8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” NIV
  • A quick nerd note: most scholars agree that this censes would have happened during the summer time for ease of travel. So, this was a busy time for the shepherds!
  • I don’t know about you, but I don’t like when “curve balls” get thrown at me when I am busy.
  • If you haven’t noticed yet, this is our busy season. Many of us will pick up extra shifts to help pay for the stuff under the tree.
  • We say things like “one day I will have the time.”
  • Let me be real honest with you. If you don’t make the time now you wont make the time “one day” either.
  • Its time to Check Your Heart
  • What are the 2 biggest time consumers we have in our lives? Our jobs and our kids right.
  • If you have kids in sports or other after school activities you know exactly what I am talking about. If your kids are anything like mine their schedules are out of control!
  • Hard Truth:their schedules are out of control, because YOU allow the, to be.
  • Talk about our “not on Sunday” rule.
  • I think we have the best interest of our children in mind, I really do, BUTI also feel we may be doing it at the expense and sacrifice of our children.
  • Your kids don’t need more stuff or more activities. They need more of you!
  • (write this down)The problem with busyness is the fact that being busy keeps us distracted from the things that are most important. (x2)
  • I came to a very difficult, but inevitable realization this past week. I don’t have very much time left with my girls. (talk about Carrie and college dorms)
  • Luke 2:15-18, “15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished,” NIV
  • I want y’all to go back and read those 3 verses real quick (pause).Who was spreading the news?
  • The shepherds were! The awesome part about that is the fact that the shepherds were considered 2ndclass citizens at best. That means that they had zero credibility outside of their own people, and yet we see God using them in a huge way!
  • That should give us all a great sense of hope.
  • These shepherds left what they were doing, which was their jobs by the way, to go see the baby.
  • They gave up the busyness for the best!
  • I am curious. When was the last time you were willing to give up chasing the busyness for what was best?
  • Tell the story of the kid who had to quit his job in order to be baptized.
  • He gave up the busyness for the best, and God honored that decision through a local business owner who offered him a job.
  • What about you?
  • Is your busyness keeping you from what is most important?
  • I was at breakfast with Jacqlyn on Saturday, and I was saddened by a family I saw sitting by us. The mom and dad were glued to their phones while their daughter played on her phone, and their young son did everything he could to get their attention.
  • I want to encourage everyone in the room today that the next time you are out with your family for a meal leave your cell phones in the car. The time you spend with your spouse and your kids is more important than any phone call.
  • Think about it. What can you really do by answering the phone that you couldn’t do in an hour?
  • Just to prove my point there are some of you in the room that have already thought up at least 2-3 excuses of why you should have your phones with you. How do I know that, because I am usually guilty of it.
  • This Christmas day our house will be a cellphone free zone.
  • We will make the obligatory calls to family first thing in the morning, but after that we are silent!
  • (hold up cell phone)These crazy little devices cause so much unnecessary busyness in our lives.
  • There are some of you this morning that have already checked your texts, emails, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and whatever else I missed.
  • For some of us here this morning the busyness has put a strain on our relationships, and if that is you STOP RIGHT NOW and fix the problem.
  • Put aside the busyness for what is best!
  • I am going to let you in on a little secret.
  • We allow ourselves to get busy to fill a void in our hearts. Think about it.
  • The problem is that when you fill that void with anything other than the best, Jesus, the void will only get worse.
  • If this is you its time to Check Your Heart.
  • Bill Hybels, “Busyness is the unrivaled archenemy of spiritual authenticity.”
  • Soren Kierkegaard, “Busyness, keeping up with others, hustling hither and yon, makes it almost impossible for an individual to form a heart.”
  • Kevin DeYoung, “When we are crazy busy, we put our souls at risk. The challenge is not merely to make a few bad habits go away. The challenge is to not let our spiritual lives slip away.”
  • Closing Prayer