Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction‏

Last week, we started a series called ‏ ‏Making the Most of Your Time‏

In Ephesians 5:15-17

God commands us to ‏ ‏“Make the most of every opportunity.‏

‏” Why?

So that we can understand and do what the Lord wants you and I to do do.

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So, now that we know God ‏ ‏does‏ ‏ care about how we manage our time, how do we “make the best use of our time”?

Where can we look for an example?‏

Well, like with everything else in our lives, God has provided us with the ‏ ‏perfect‏ ‏ example in Jesus Christ.

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We talked about this last week, but in case you missed it, ‏ ‏We looked at how can Jesus help me manage my time well?‏ ‏ He didn’t have a smartphone.

He didn’t have emails pinging him day in and day out.

Life was different in the first century.‏

And, you’re right.

Jesus didn’t have an Apple watch.

He didn’t have to choose between doing his quiet time or answering messages.

He didn’t spend hours scrolling on his Instagram feed.

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However, as Hebrews 4:15 reminds us,

Jesus was fully God and fully human and the Bible teaches that he understood everything that we go through, including our efforts to make the best use of our time.

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When you look at the Gospels you see Jesus was interrupted, and his attention was demanded.

Here are just a couple of examples: ‏

Jesus is going to heal Jairus’s daughter when he is distracted by the woman grasping his cloak.

Mark 5:21-34

In another instance, Jesus was teaching in a house full of people and a sick man was dropped ‏ ‏through the roof‏ ‏ so that Jesus could heal him.

Luke 5:17-26

I don’t think any of us have had someone dropped on us from the ceiling as we were teaching.

That probably caused a bit of distraction.

I’m sure it was difficult for Jesus to jump right back into teaching after that.‏

Okay, so Jesus ‏ ‏did‏ ‏ have to deal with time management issues.

Last week, we saw the first of seven principles for how Jesus managed his time.

Jesus started with the word, prioritizing time with his Father above everything else.

Today, we will see two more timeless time management principles from the life of Christ.

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2. Keep Your Commitments Matthew 5:37‏

Here’s Principle #2: ‏ ‏Keep Your Commitments: To make the best use of our time like Jesus did, we must ensure that keep our commitments from the smallest to the biggest commitments we make.

I’m going to define a new term for you - open loop commitment.‏

Open Loop Commitment

An open loop is a commitment you have made to yourself or others, big or small.

If I’m on a call with you and I say, “I’ll send you a link to that book once we hop off,” I have made a commitment to you.

That is an open loop.

You close the loop if you actually do what you said you would do.

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We all have open loops and missed commitments.

We told a friend we would come to their event, and then when the day arrived, we completely forgot.

Or you promised your boss that you would send her a draft proposal by Wednesday, but things came up and you weren’t able to get to it.

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In isolation, these don’t seem like that big of a deal.

However, failing to do the things you say you’re going to do is a much bigger deal than letting something “slip through the cracks.”

It’s a matter of trust.

And because it’s a matter of trust, the stress that open loops cause should (and in my experience, often do) affect Christ-followers in significant and negative ways.

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Why?

Because Jesus has commanded that …

Author and teacher, Jen Wilkin, states it so eloquently in her book, ‏ ‏In His Image‏ ‏:‏

Do we [Christians] do what we say we will do?

Do we let our yes be yes and our no be no?...Ultimately, every act of faithfulness toward others is an act of faithfulness toward God himself.

Though others may make commitments they have little intention of keeping, the children of God strive to prove that their word is their bond.

They do so not to win the trust or approval of others, but because they long to be like Christ.

They long to hear with their ears, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”‏

In addition to being a command of Jesus, when we fail to keep our commitments, or in other words, fail to close our open loops, we feel anxiety and stress.

This is backed by science and scripture.

First, science:

Ziegarnik Effect

There is a scientific term called the Ziegarnik Effect, which is essentially what happens when you hear a bad song on the radio, turn the radio off, and then can’t get the song out of your head for the rest of the day.

Your mind will keep replaying the song over and over again until it finally finishes it all the way through.

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Now having a song stuck in your head is annoying, but not a big deal.

However, if we apply this same principle to the open loops caused by un-externalized tasks and commitments, it incr eases your anxiety because you will focus on the open loops instead of what you are doing at that moment.

It increases anxiety and decreases your ability to focus at work and at home.

When you forget to pick up your prescription for the 4th time, you aren’t forgetful.

Well, you are - but you’re also just human.

God didn’t design our brains to hold that much information.

Your short-term memory can only hold about three or four things at a time.‏

The ‏ ‏size‏ ‏ of the commitment is irrelevant.

As the brain science makes clear, if I say I will do something and I fail to write that task down (and of course do it sometime soon) my stress and anxiety will build.

Stress comes from unkept agreements with yourself” and others.‏

There is good news:

You don’t have to close your open loops to let them go

Science shows that we don’t have to actually close our open loops in order for our brains to let them go.

We simply have to place our open loops in a trusted system outside our minds.

To reduce the Ziegarnik effect you have to put the open loops in a system outside your mind.

This can be a to-do list, a post it note, an alarm in your phone, or a sophisticated task management software.

The method doesn’t matter, it just matters that you have some sort of system to track your open loops.

So now that we are all essentially brain scientists...what does scripture say about commitments?

Surely the words “open loop” don’t appear in the Bible‏.‏

No, but Paul did address the connection between un-externalized concerns and anxiety.

Paul is saying that part of the solution to our anxiety and stress is clearing our minds of concerns and requests, in this case through prayer.

Givign God the open loops.

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We need to let our “yes” be “yes” or make the best use of every opportunity in order to follow Jesus’s command and example ‏ ‏and‏ ‏ to reduce our anxiety and stress.

Speaking of stress and anxiety, that leads me to the third principle we need to redeem our time in the model of our redeemer: ‏ ‏Silence the Kingdom of Noise: To redeem our time as Jesus did, we must fight to block out noise and create room for silence, stillness, and reflection.

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Principle #3

3. Silence the Kingdom of Noise ‏

If you have read C.S. Lewis’s book ‏ ‏Screwtape Letters‏ ‏, then you have heard this phrase, the “Kingdom of Noise” before.

We live in a time of unprecedented noise.

And I’m not just referring to the obvious increase in external noise created by nonstop news, entertainment, and the buzzing of the devices in our pockets, purses, and wrists.

I’m primarily referring to what all that external noise creates, namely internal noise.

If you have ever tried to sit down and pray or even just sit still for a minute and your mind was constantly wandering, you know what I’m talking about.

How does all of this noise relate to our issues with time management?

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All of the noise in our lives limits our ability to “make the best use of our time” in 5 ways:‏

Ways Noise Keeps us from Using Our Time Wisely

#1: Noise limits our ability to think‏

When our minds are filled with noise, there is simply no mental space to think.

And if we can’t think clearly, we can’t prioritize our to-do lists and effectively engage with the work God has given us to do.

Good work requires good thought, and good thought requires great solitude.‏

#2: Noise limits our ability to be creative ‏

Noise limits our opportunities to be bored and thus creative.