On the night before he died, Jesus made an astonishing claim. He said to the Father, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” We wonder how Jesus could have talked about a completed work. His three-year ministry seemed all too short. For every prostitute whose heart he touched, hundreds remained untouched. For every blind man enabled to see, hundreds were still blind. Yet on that last night, with many urgent human needs unmet and useful tasks undone, the Lord said he had completed the work God had given him. How did he do that? Specifically, how did he overcome life’s busyness, pushing aside the tasks that shouted to be done—to stay focused on his mission. That is the subject of today’s episode as we consider how best to be focused and effective in the mission assigned to us by King Jesus.
Kevin DeYoung, in his book Crazy Busy describes life for many of us in the twenty-first century:
You’ve got car repairs. Then your heater goes out. The kids need to see a doctor. You haven’t done your taxes yet. Your check book isn’t balanced. You promised your mother you’d come over and fix the faucet. You’re behind on wedding planning. Your boards are coming up. You have more applications to send out. Your dissertation is due. Your refrigerator is empty. Your lawn needs mowing. Your curtains don’t look right. Your washing machine keeps rattling.
This is the kind of busyness that pressures us into leading a driven life where we are like a rudderless raft caught in life’s fast-moving current, bouncing off whatever is in front of us. Unfortunately, this out-of-control, unfocused, haphazard approach to life is the opposite of the intentional approach to living that Jesus commands, when he uses the word SEEK. Listen to the intentionality in Webster’s dictionary defining the word, seek. It means, “to go to, to go in search of, to look for, to try to discover, to ask for, to request, to try to acquire or gain, to aim at, to make an attempt at.” Every one of these descriptions requires making an intentional effort.
Not only does Jesus’ word choice seek, require intentionality, he said to seek his kingdom agenda as our top priority—seek FIRST the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Jesus raises the critical issue of priorities; he requires his followers to order their lives so that they stay focused on their mission of implementing Christ’s righteous agenda in their lives. The driven, unfocused life is a massive obstacle to obeying Matthew 6:33 for numerous reasons. Here are a few.
1. Busyness can mask the erosion of our soul. When our lives are frantic and frenzied, we are more prone to surrender to the enemies of our soul, anxiety, resentment, impatience, irritability, discontent. These sinful attitudes are the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit, whom God has given to us to empower Christ to reign in our attitudes. Busyness keeps us so distracted that we don’t realize the toll it is taking on our inner, spiritual life. Gordon MacDonald, in his book, Ordering Your Private World, observes:
Our public worlds are filled with a seeming infinity of demands upon our time, our loyalties, our money, and our energies. And because these PUBLIC WORLDS of ours are so visible, so real, we have to struggle to ignore all their seductions and demands. They scream for our attention and action. The result is that our PRIVATE WORLD is often cheated, neglected because it does not shout quite so loudly. It can be effectively ignored for large periods of time before it gives way to a sinkhole-like cave-in.
2. Less important matters take center-stage and shove the most important matters to the periphery. A generation and a half ago Charles Hummel wrote an article which became a popular booklet, entitled Tyranny of the Urgent. Here are those profoundly relevant words for 2023 with just an update on the technology.
An experienced factory manager once said to me, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.” He didn’t realize how hard his advice hit. It has often returned to haunt and rebuked me by raising the critical problem of PRIORITIES. We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important. The problem is that many important tasks need NOT be done today, or even this week. Giving careful thought to how my attitudes might be wounding my family, giving spiritual power to my loved ones by praying for their spiritual battles, praying for and looking for the opportunity to share Christ with the coworker—these activities can usually wait a while longer. But often urgent, less important, tasks call for immediate response--endless demands pressure every waking hour.
A person's home is no longer a castle, a private place away from urgent tasks. The telephone breaches its walls with incessant demands. (In our culture we might say, “no matter where we are, our phone pings with the latest email, text, or social media notification.”) THE APPEAL OF THESE DEMANDS SEEMS IRRESISTIBLE & THEY DEVOUR OUR ENERGY. But in the light of eternity their momentary prominence fades. With a sense of loss, we recall the important tasks that have been shunted aside. We realize that we've become slaves to the tyranny of the urgent.
The voice of Jesus calling us to his mission for our everyday lives gets drowned out by the loud cry of life’s URGENCIES!
3. Investing our lives in what doesn’t really matter. Socrates famous statement, “The unexamined life is not worth living” is true. Someone has said, “If we are going to hear, ‘Well done good and faithful servant’ from The Master, we need to well do.” If we want to hear the Lord’s commendation for accomplishing the mission he gave us, we need to stay focused on that mission. The problem is that the pressures of life take us everywhere BUT to the Master’s feet to talk to him about our mission. Comparing our private world, where we talk with our God, to going to the bridge of a ship to talk to the ship’s captain, MacDonald writes:
“Why is it that for so many, the answer to personal tension and pressure lies not in going to the bridge of life but rather in attempting to run faster, protest more vigorously, accumulate more, collect more data, and gain more expertise. We are of an age in which it seems instinctive to give attention to every cubic inch of life other than our inner world—the only place from which we can gain the strength to brave, or even beat any turbulence.”
So, how did Jesus overcome the crazy busy life? Let’s look. Mark 1:32-39 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
That is a CRAZY BUSY LIFE. And talk about OPPORTUNITIES, Jesus had the power to heal everyone everywhere and remove so much pain, not to mention the power to change hearts by the preaching of His Word. So, what does Jesus do? He gets alone with his Commander-in-chief, the Father, to talk about his mission.
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may PREACH there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, PREACHING in their synagogues and casting out demons.
We are not told what Jesus talked to the Father about, but it had to be about his mission. The whole town wanted healing. Overnight the word about Jesus’ miraculous healing power would have gotten out to the surrounding countryside. No doubt many precious human beings with broken bodies, had traveled in the wee morning hours to Capernaum to be healed. Yet, Jesus’ decision about his mission is to leave Capernaum and the opportunities to HEAL and go to other towns primarily to PREACH.
I believe Jesus was meditating on his mission statement: The mission of the Messiah is revealed in Isaiah 61, which Jesus had quoted in the synagogue at Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (vs1-2a).
This passage foresees the ministry of the Messiah. It pictures his DEED ministry, binding up the broken hearted (perhaps by healing horrible diseases), and bringing liberty to the captives (which could well be foreseeing about Jesus’ exorcism of demons). It also pictures his ministry of the WORD, “proclaiming good news, proclaiming liberty to those held captive by sin, proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.” I believe Jesus was talking with his CO, The Father, about how to balance his WORD and DEED ministries. Jesus guarded his time like the treasure that it is. He did not spend it carelessly or haphazardly. Let’s look at Jesus’ example and consider two requirements to live OUT OF OUR CALLING—i.e.to stay focused, as Jesus did, on our mission.
REQUIREMENT # 1 FOR LIVING OUT OF OUR CALLING: A PLAN
I. To complete the mission assigned by Jesus to us we need a plan with two parts. First, a concrete MISSION STATEMENT, like Jesus had. The past two weeks we have labored in our blog articles to give the biblical background behind Jesus’ Mission Statement for Us revealed in Matthew 6:33: Seek as our top priority the spreading of his agenda of righteousness over every sphere of earth. But even with this background, can we get a little more specific about what Jesus is calling us to?
About forty years ago after attending a time management seminar taught by Charles Hobbs, I became convinced that I wanted to shape my life and time management in accordance with Christ’s mission for me. I spent hours writing down everything I could find that defined our mission as Christ-followers. I discovered then, as I still believe, that those biblical summaries of our mission fall into three categories.
Seeking first Christ’s kingdom of righteousness 1) begins with King Jesus ruling my heart loyalties—with supreme allegiance to my King. I am called TO Christ, to enjoy a love relationship with him. Commands that fall into this category are “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, & strength, “Delight in the Lord,” and “Abide in my love, as I abide in my Father’s love.”
Seeking first the Christ’s kingdom of righteousness means 2) second seeking the reign of King Jesus over my heart attitudes. It means making my king my example, wanting to be like Jesus on the inside. This is the calling TO BE LIKE CHRIST to Christ-like character. Texts that point to this aspect of our mission are Romans 8:29, which says God’s purpose in our redemption is that we be conformed to the image of his Son and Paul’s description of the Holy Spirit’s work in us producing the fruit of the Spirit.
Seeking first Christ’s kingdom of righteousness means 3) third promoting King Jesus’ agenda of righteousness over every sphere of my life and wherever I have influence over earth. I am called to EXERCISE DOMINION over kingdom “Earth” to cause it to be a kingdom of righteousness. So, these three facets of our calling form a general overall mission statement. We are called TO Christ, TO BE LIKE Christ, and TO EXERCISE DOMINION FOR CHRIST.
II. But what we saw Jesus doing early in the morning in Capernaum was more than reviewing his mission statement; he was formulating his specific GAME PLAN for the week ahead. Was he going to stay in Capernaum and heal or travel to other towns to preach? Jesus WAS PLANNING how to accomplish his mission, something that Christians rarely think about. But the familiar warning, “if you fail to plan, plan to fail” is as true of completing Christ’s mission for us as it is of any other part of life. Few men I know would try to run a business without a business plan. Even if it is not written down, they still have in mind the steps they will take to succeed. Few men, however, have a LIFE plan. But which is more important, your business or your life? When God has ordained a world in which success in every other area of live requires a plan, why would we think accomplishing Christ’s mission for us would be different? I would submit that not only does Jesus model formulating a game plan to achieve his mission, but so do two of the biggest stars of the OT—Joshua and David. In Joshua 1, for example, Joshua is given his MISSION STATEMENT: Lead Israel into the Promised Land. But then he is told how to formulate his everyday game plan: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Meditating on Scripture is the process of mulling over how you plan to apply those verses in your life.
So how do we construct GAME PLANS to accomplish Christs agenda in each sphere of our lives? That was my question 40 years ago after the time management seminar I took from Charles Hobbs. I created a separate section of my Day-Timer for each part of my mission—walking closely with Jesus, building Christ-like character, loving my wife well, sharing my faith, being a good steward, etc. Each section contained two parts: 1) a collection of insights I discovered from Scripture and reading books, 2) my current game plan for that sphere. (This collection of insights and potential game plans, called the FOCUS Notebook is now available at our online bookstore). I have continued this practice, now using my phone and Evernote instead of a Daytimer. Let me illustrate.
A. Game Plan for Growing in My Relationship With Christ: Called TO Christ
- Knowing God. Hosea 6:3: “So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD”
- Delighting in God. Ps 34:1 “I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be on my lips.”
- Loving God. Deut 6:5 “Love the LORD your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
- Trusting God. Heb 11:6 “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
- Offering Ourselves to God. Rom 12:1 “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
- Abiding in God’s love. John 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.”
- Knowing Jesus delights in me. Is 62:5 “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
B. Game Plan for Christ-like character. Called TO BE LIKE Christ. This past Sunday, as I reviewed my mission with Jesus my CO, if felt led to re-focus on a passage from James 1 that I began to meditate upon. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (vs 2-4). I realized that all the little things that go wrong everyday irritate me so much because they get in the way of achieving my goals. But God convicted me that HIS goal is building patience into my character. A few times this week, as irritations angered me destroying my joy, I thought of this verse, smiled, and said to God “Okay—what I really do most want is for you to be pleased—and that is looking into my character and seeing your Son. So, help me be patient and thank you because even though frustrations are painful I really, really do thank you for the opportunity to bring you pleasure because my patience is looking more like the patience of Jesus.” (Don’t think I get this right very often!).
REQUIREMENT # 2 FOR LIVING OUT OF OUR CALLING: TIME WITH OUR CO
The second requirement for living out of our calling as Jesus did is a regular time built into our schedule to get away with our Commander-in-chief to talk about our mission. That is what Jesus modeled in Mark 1. The only thing dumber than Andy Reid forming no game plan for the Superbowl would be having a game plan and never looking at it during the game. To win, he needs to do both.
I believe the Mark 1 passage above can be a model for starting our day with the Lord—a regular quiet time. Reading Scripture daily, with prayerful anticipation of the upcoming day is essential. But Jesus is modeling more than that. All through his life and ministry, he left his disciples and escaped into the wilderness to be with his CO. Here is what Dr. Luke discovered about Jesus’ life pattern. Great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray (5:15-16). When Jesus was about to begin his ministry, after his baptism, what did he do? He withdrew to a desolate place to pray for 40 days. When Jesus had to select 12 of his followers to be apostles, what did he do? He withdrew to a desolate place to pray. After the feeding of the 5000 when the crowd was ready to forcibly make him king what did Jesus do. He withdrew to a desolate place to pray. When Jesus knew that his crucifixion was imminent, what did he do? He withdrew to a desolate place—the Garden of Gethsemane—to pray.
I have found that a very effective way to follow Jesus' example is to tru to put into my weekly schedule one hour (out of 168 given to me by God) to meet with my Commander in Chief to talk about my mission. I have long wondered if the example of God working 6 days but taking the seventh to rest and reflect on his work is a pattern of reflection and renewal that Christians are missing today. For me and other men who have started to do this, it has been life changing. Perhaps heading to bed at 9:00 Sunday evening instead of ten or taking an hour for a walk on a Sunday afternoon could work for you. But one thing that the noise of the crazy busy life in 2023 makes certain. You cannot live OUT OF YOUR CALLING from Jesus without shutting out the world and withdrawing to a desolate place where you can listen to his voice and formulate your game plan.
For further prayerful thought.
- In what ways is the term seek, the opposite of haphazard, unfocused living?
- Why do the pressures of life seem to take us everywhere but to the masters’ feet to talk with us about our mission?
- Almost everything about life, e.g just buying groceries, is more effective with a plan (a list). Why don’t we think about a game plan for growing in Christ or loving our wives well?
