What we wouldn t give to have just one day of COMPLETE, TOTAL RELAXATION WITHOUT ONE SOLITARY CARE IN THE WORLD.

Transcription

1 Message for Sunday Night, July 11, 2010 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister LESSONS LEARNED FROM A BUSY MAN Scripture Text: M A T T H E W 14:13-36 P R A Y E R *********************************************************** Introduction BUSY...now there s a word we can all relate to can t we? Perhaps one of the most frequent complaints many of has is we WISH WE WEREN T SO BUSY ALL THE TIME!!!! Boy...what any of us wouldn t give for JUST ONE DAY......without any ALARM CLOCK...without any RINGING TELEPHONE....without any APPOINTMENTS or RESPONSIBILITIES...without any KIDS OR GRANDKIDS to look after....without any GRASS TO MOW or DISHES TO WASH or MEALS TO FIX or TRASH TO TAKE OUT. What we wouldn t give to have just one day of COMPLETE, TOTAL RELAXATION WITHOUT ONE SOLITARY CARE IN THE WORLD.

2 But while we often view our BUSY, HECTIC SCHEDULES as a liability that prevents us from enjoying life as much as we would like, the TRUTH is we often use our BUSYNESS as an excuse to get out of doing things we don t want to do and from going places we really don t want to go. Oh, I would love to help you out, but I m just too busy. Oh, I m sorry I can t make it, I ve just got too many things going on. Maybe some day I can, but right now I m just too busy. I believe if we were completely honest we would have to admit that much of our BUSYNESS is the result of over-extending ourselves and perhaps some mis-management of our time, some procrastination and maybe some misplaced priorities. ************************ Perhaps its hard for you to believe that anyone could possibly be BUSIER than you...but believe it or not, JESUS was probably the BUSIEST MAN WHO EVER LIVED and yet we never find Him hiding behind His busyness. In Luke 2:49...Jesus said, I must be about my Father s Business. Every day, JESUS kept Himself busy with His Father s business. It is hard to imagine when we read the FOUR GOSPELS that we are actually reading the record of only 52 DAYS of Christ s thirty three years of life on earth...!!!!!

3 John tells us at the very end of HIS GOSPEL that the events of Christ s earthly life we read about in the GOSPELS are actually only a tiny fraction of everything Jesus did in his thirty three years. John said, Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. *************** Here in MATTHEW 14...we find the record of what was probably one of the busiest days in Jesus earthly life. It is very important to note how this day started. VERSE 13 tells us Jesus day started with the TRAGIC NEWS that His cousin, John the Baptist, had been beheaded by King Herod. Think what you would do if the first thing tomorrow morning you received a telephone call informing you that one of your close relatives had died. In all likelihood, whatever you had planned to do tomorrow would be put on hold. For all intents and purpose your life would probably come to a screeching hault so you could focus all your attention and emotions on dealing with your loss. Jesus did not afford HIMSELF such a luxury. He didn t have His apostles deflect people away from Him that day. He didn t hang a sign on His office door that read: Due to a death in the family the office of Jesus Christ will be closed this week.

4 VERSE 13...Tells us he did get in a BOAT and go off to a solitary place...no doubt to spend some time alone in mourning John s death. But then in the very next verse, VERSE 14, we see that this private time of mourning was very short-lived, because soon a large crowd of sick people gathered around Jesus. Now its interesting to note what JESUS DID NOT DO WHEN HE SAW THIS CROWD OF PEOPLE. He didn t tell them to leave...he didn t tell them what had happened to John the Baptist to gain their sympathy for himself...verse 14 tells us... When Jesus saw the large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Even in the midst of His own sorrow, Jesus continued to be about His Father s business. In verse 15, we see he disciples doing what you and I probably would have done. Knowing that Jesus had lost his dear cousin cousin and that he was very tired...they became very protective of Jesus and were ready to send the huge crowd of people away.. But Jesus wouldn t hear to it! Instead he wanted to feed everyone there. Now we commonly refer to this as the Feeding of the 5,000...but in VERSE 21 we discover that the 5,000 was actually just the number of MEN present. There were also women and children present who were not included in that number. So on this day when Jesus is heart-broken, griefstricken and emotionally and physically drained, he miraculously provides enough food to feed perhaps as many as 10,000 to 15,000 people.

5 The CONCLUSION of that meal...did not bring JESUS LONG, BUSY DAY to an end. Late that evening, JESUS sent his disciples across the Sea of Galilee toward Gennesaret on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus stayed behind to spend time alone in PRAYER in a solitary place. Around 4:00 o clock the next morning a great storm blew up on the Sea of Galilee and JESUS left the remote place where He had been praying and walked on water to meet His disciples. When the disciples saw Jesus coming toward the boat they were afraid they were seeing a ghost. That was when Peter said, Lord, if it s You, tell me to come to You on the water. Of course we remember how Peter s success soon turned to failure when He lost faith and began to sink, only to be saved by JESUS. Well by DAWN the next morning, JESUS and HIS DISCIPLES landed at Gennesaret and word quickly spread throughout the whole region and soon JESUS found Himself surrounded by multitudes of people wanting healing for themselves or for their sick loved ones. Now I don t know about you, but I feel exhausted just following the account of everything JESUS did in that one 24 hour period. Jesus was a BUSY...BUSY... MAN! From the EVENTS of this ONE DAY in Matthew 14...as well as other references in the GOSPELS...Let me make some important observations ABOUT THE BUSY LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST.

6 I. JESUS WAS NEVER TOO BUSY TO PRAY 1. Look again at V E R S E Here we find JESUS on one of the busiest days of His earthly life and yet He still MADE time to PRAY. Notice I said, Made time! 3. How many times have you and I neglected to spend time alone in prayer because we thought we were too busy to pray? We ought to be ashamed of ourselves, shouldn t we? 4. If you are too busy to pray...you are busier than God ever intended for you to be. If you are too busy to pray...are you also too busy to FISH? If you are too busy to pray...are you also too busy to GOLF? If you are too busy to pray...are you too busy to GO SHOPPING? If you are too busy to pray...are you also too busy to WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW...or...GO TO A MOVIE...or READ THE NEWSPAPER? 5. NO MATTER HOW BUSY A DAY JESUS HAD...HE WAS NEVER TOO BUSY TO PRAY

7 II. JESUS WAS NEVER TOO BUSY TO RESPOND TO SOMEONE IN NEED 1. Here in our text in Matthew 14...we find Jesus responding to the needs of perhaps as many as 15,000 to 20,000 people on a day when He was grieving the loss of His cousin?...can you imagine a blind man coming to Jesus wanting to see...or a crippled man wanting to walk......or a Deaf man wanting to hear...or a paralized man wanting to just be able to feed himself again... AND JESUS SAYING... I m sorry, I can t help you...i m on such a tight schedule...that if I don t leave right now I ll never make it to Jerusalem on time. 2. JESUS WAS NEVER TOO BUSY TO RESPOND TO SOMEONE IN NEED. 3. Have you ever noticed when someone calls for our help in the time of need, it NEVER COMES AT A CONVENIENT TIME! More often than not, the cry of someone in need will come at the most inopportune, most inconvenient time possible....right when you ve sat down to eat....right when you ve just got home after a long hard day....right when your favorite TV show has just come on....right as you are getting ready for bed or have already gone to bed....right as you are getting in the shower.

8 4. When that cry for help comes...we have a very important choice to make. Do we put THE OTHER PERSON S NEED AHEAD OF OUR CONVENIENCE...Or...DO WE PUT OUR CONVENIENCE AHEAD OF THE OTHER PERSON S NEED? 5. Jesus said in MATTHEW On that day I will say to those on my right, inasmuch as you did it for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. 6. May we learn from JESUS example by never being so busy we excuse ourselves from helping someone in need III. JESUS WAS NEVER TOO BUSY TO GO TO CHURCH 1. L U K E 4: 16 says... He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day, He went into the synagogue AS WAS HIS CUSTOM, and He stood up to read. 2. All week long, JESUS helped people...he HEALED people He TAUGHT people...and HE ministered to people. One might think after DOING ALL THOSE GOOD DEEDS and ALL THOSE RIGHTEOUS THINGS all week long, Jesus would have every right to excuse himself from being in His Father s House. But he didn t! LUKE says He went into the Synagogue as was his custom. JESUS WAS NEVER TOO BUSY TO GO TO CHURCH!

9 3. Are we better than JESUS? I realize you aren t the ones that need to hear this, but I am going to say it any way. When someone who is a child of God is so busy that they can t even give him one hour of their time by being in His House on the Lord s day, that brother or sister needs to do some very serious soul-searching. When someone who is a child of God is so busy with their JOB..or so busy with their FAMILY or so busy with their RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES and HOBBIES that they can t even obey the Lord s command to be in Church on Sunday, something is seriously wrong. It s amazing how some Christians think its OK to use any extra time they gave to the Lord or the Church during the week as a Trade Off for being in the Lord s House on the Lord s Day.... Well, we didn t make it last Sunday, but we were at Vacation Bible School every night last week.... Well, we were so worn out from going to the Revival every night we just couldn t make it Sunday.... Well I don t think God will mind me skipping church one Sunday, after all I had meetings three nights last week at the church.... I don t think God will hold it against me for not being in church this Sunday, after all I did fix food for those two families in the community who lost loved ones. 4. Folks, No Person Who Ever Lived Did More Good Between Sundays than Jesus...YET HE WAS NEVER TOO BUSY TO GO TO CHURCH!

10 CONCLUSION Just How Busy Are You?????? Are you TOO BUSY...to PRAY? Are you TOO BUSY...to RESPOND TO SOMEONE IN NEED? Are you TOO BUSY...to GO TO CHURCH? SLOW ME DOWN, LORD Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried pace. Give me, amidst the day's confusion, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of singing streams that live in my memory. Help me to know the magical, restoring power of sleep. Teach me the art of taking "minute vacations"...slowing down to look at a flower, to chat with a friend, to read a few lines from a good book. Remind me of the fable of the hare and the tortoise; that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than measuring its speed. Let me look up at the branches of the towering oak and know that it grew slowly and well. Inspire me to send my own roots down deep into the soil of life's endearing values...that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny. Slow me down, Lord, Slow me down! ~~Wilferd Arlan Peterson~~

11 SLOW ME DOWN, LORD Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried pace. Give me, amidst the day's confusion, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of singing streams that live in my memory. Help me to know the magical, restoring power of sleep. Teach me the art of taking "minute vacations"...slowing down to look at a flower, to chat with a friend, to read a few lines from a good book.