Living a Balanced Life
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Opening
Opening
How many hours do we have each week?
My 168 hours a week is exactly equal to your 168 hours a week
Have you watch the movie of Justin Timberlake in 2011 entitled “In Time”?
In that movie, people are killing each other to gain more of “time”
I don’t believe that any of you here will dare to kill in exchange for “time”, but, many of us here are dying to have more time
As your alarm clock wakes you up in the morning, you start keeping watch of time through out the day
In most days we are on our toes trying to beat time | trying to beat our schedules
BREATHE!
Did you know that most Americans only have 8 hours or less per week on leisure?
No one in this room are living a balanced life, though, it’s everyone’s goal to live a balanced life
People are working very hard to keep things balanced
BREATHE!
God loves BALANCE
The entire universe is in perfect balance
The planet earth is in perfect balance, if our planet is tilted even just by 1 degree on either side, we will either be toasted or frosted
Our human body itself, created by God is in perfect balance
We have 11 systems in our body and they are in perfect balance with each other when created by God
Circulatory
Digestive
Mascular
Respiratory
Skeletal
Reproductive
Nervous
Nervous
Urinary
Urinary
Immune
Endocrine
Exocrine
Engineering is also about balance
If a bridge or a building is not balanced, it will collapse
So with our lives, if we are not “LIVING A BALANCED LIFE”, we will collapse
BREATHE!
Pericopes:
Pericopes:
Jesus loves BALANCE
When He was anointed by a sinful woman with an alabaster jar of perfume, the Pharisee once more incited doubts about His divinity being the true Son of God for not knowing that this lady who anointed Him was a sinful woman (Luke 7:36-50)
So Jesus answered Simon (a pharisee, not His disciple) using another parable (parable of two debtor)
One person owing a money lender 500 denarii, and the other 50 denarii, and they both do not have the money to payback, so the money lender forgave the debts of both
Jesus asked, who among these two will love the money lender more?
Simon, the Pharisee answered, “I suppose the one who had bigger debt forgiven”
You are right, Jesus said
Jesus loves balance, He equates debt, forgiveness and love
BREATHE!
Again, at the house of Martha and Mary ()
Mary sat down at the Lord’s feet listening to everything He said, while Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made
Then Martha started complaining, Lord tell Mary to help me out
But Jesus said
But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things. Only one thing is important. Mary has chosen the better thing, and it will never be taken away from her.”
Luke 10
Jesus loves balance, He equates work & rest in His presence
BREATHE!
God is concerned about your balance in life
If you live unbalanced life, you’re out of God’s will
How do you balance your time?
Text: Living a Balanced Life
Text: Living a Balanced Life
It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, fearing you will starve to death; for God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest.
Jesus said in , My yoke is easy and my burden is light
If our burden is heavy, it’s not from God
Wear my yoke—for it fits perfectly—and let me teach you; for I am gentle and humble, and you shall find rest for your souls; for I give you only light burdens.”
Even though our problems are heavy, they become light if we are with God
We don’t say... “God, I have a very big problem”, but instead we say, “Problem, I have a very big God”
It is not God’s will if things are difficult for us
On the contrary, it is God’s will for us to live a balanced life
BREATHE!
There was a lot of mixed emotions when we bought our house early this year
As responsible stewards of God’s blessings, we went over our finances, we’ve gone through our numbers
Knowing God’s will is like understanding a constellation up in the universe, we have to connect the stars
God’s will is revealed to us through prayers, time spent in the Word, listening to sermons, attending Life Group meetings and simply being silent in His presence
God speaks to us using TCP:
Timing
Circumstances
People
I personally believed that it was God’s will for us to purchase that house, however, for a couple of months (March & April), I was thrown out of my balance
I am guilty and I confess, that in those two months, I was kinda thrown off balance | off course
I deviated from my healthy balanced routine
Some of my time serving the Lord was snatched by the process
The process also stole my time to workout, that’s why everyone noticed me dragging my bulging belly all over the place
I got sick multiple times within a short period, and I was even rushed to ER stealing my wonderful time with the church family during the summer camp
I was guilty, and I was convicted by the Spirit
By God’s Blessings, I Bounced Back to Balance
and I’ve learned 7 Biblical Principles in Living a Balanced Life
And I want to share half of these principles to you today, and the other half on next Sunday
BREATHE!
1. Build my life around Christ
1. Build my life around Christ
Your life is build around something
It could be your work, assets, career
The center of your life is very important
Solid center means solid life
If you feel that you’re life is falling apart. it is because you have a faulty center
Just like balancing your car wheel
The hub holds the pieces together
Whatever you put in the center of your life will influence your life
It all starts from inside out, outward not inward
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
2. Accept my Humanity
2. Accept my Humanity
Stop trying to pretend that you’re God
That you can meet every need
That you can solve everyone’s problem
We have to recognize that we have limitations and we are human beings
When you play God, you always end up overworking
2 Corinthians
Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
You are not the general manager of the universe
We care too much about he opinion of other people, we cannot please everybody
If you try to, you’re asking for trouble, you’re asking to be imbalance
WE Pastors are not exempted from this, this sermon is not only for you, but also for myself
In my desire to equip you, the saints of our church, I tend to over work, I praise God for this very timely message
People say that Satan doesn’t have a day off, all the more that I should have one, because I don’t want to be like Satan!
3. Limit my Labor
3. Limit my Labor
We should make a conscious decision to stick to work schedules, specially those who are self-employed who are very likely to bring their work even at home
Hold yourself accountable to someone else to check that you’re not overworking
This is not some pop psychology
As a matter of fact this is a very important matter to God that He put this to be at par with the rest of the 10 commandments
4th in God’s commandement in
“Remember to keep the Sabbath holy. Work and get everything done during six days each week, but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work: not you, your son or daughter, your male or female slaves, your animals, or the foreigners living in your cities.
After God created the universe and everything in it, He rested
Not because He needs it, but because He wants us to have a Balanced Life
Sabbath is not necessarily Sunday
My Sabbath is obviously not Sunday, my sabbath is Monday, yours could be any other day as well
Remember when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when His hungry disciples picked some heads of grains during sabbath?
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)
Every week take a full day off
3 Things you should do on your Sabbath:
Rest my Body
Recharge my Emotions
Refocus my Spirit
We are not wired to work without rest
If you don’t take a time off, your body will make it for you
4. Adjust my Values
4. Adjust my Values
I realized the reason people work hard and try to succeed: They are jealous of each other. This, too, is useless, like chasing the wind.
Keeping up with the Jones’s
We buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t even like
If you stay in the rat race, you will still be a “rat”
The Bible said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
In other words, “What good it is for a man to be president of his company if he looses his own kids, or his wife?”
“What good it is for a woman to get her promotion at work, but looses her own children, or her husband?”
The reason why people of this country have problems with relaxing is because, “we are possessed by our possessions”
We confuse our work with our worth
We think that our net worth is our self worth
We think that what we do, is what we are
Our identity has nothing to do with our career
But, our identity is what God made us to be
Some say it is foolish to fold your hands and do nothing, because you will starve to death. Maybe so, but I say it is better to be content with what little you have. Otherwise, you will always be struggling for more, and that is like chasing the wind.
Maybe so, but I say it is better to be content with what little you have. Otherwise, you will always be struggling for more, and that is like chasing the wind.
Ecclesiasites 4:6
Those of you who had experienced to be on the bedside of a dying person, could you please raise your hand
Did you ever hear a dying person, with his breaking up breath saying… “I wish I could have another day at the office?”
It is very unlikely that you will hear a dying person to say those words
Instead, they say, “I wish I spent more time with my family”
Better yet some say, “I wish I could bring one more soul for Christ”
Prayer
Prayer
Let us lay down our rights before God
Lay down our lives for Him
Let us abandon our pride
Focus our eyes away from ourselves
Allow God to become greater, as we become less
Let’s lift Him high
We belong to Him
For without Him, we are nothing