This Is Your Time | Get Back To Better

00:00:02

- Welcome. I'm Kyle and this is Crossroads.

00:00:04

We exist to equip you to live

00:00:06

the adventurous life that God made you for.

00:00:08

And I want to tell you right off the bat,

00:00:10

we value your time.

00:00:11

In fact, we value your time so much

00:00:14

that we want to help you with it.

00:00:16

Today on Crossroads, Alli is going

00:00:17

to talk to us about our time,

00:00:19

specifically how we spend it.

00:00:21

You know, we spend a lot of time,

00:00:22

no pun intended, getting distracted

00:00:24

with calendars and clocks, and it constantly

00:00:26

keeps space between us and God.

00:00:29

That's normal.

00:00:30

But we believe God doesn't want you

00:00:31

to get back to normal.

00:00:33

He wants you to get back to better.

00:00:35

Hopefully today the word she has will help you

00:00:37

rethink how you schedule your time.

00:00:42

- Hey, I'm Alli, and this is your time.

00:00:46

Time is constantly running out on us,

00:00:50

and I'm willing to guess that you wish

00:00:52

your calendar included more time

00:00:54

for the things that matter to you most.

00:00:56

I did too, so I remade my entire calendar.

00:01:01

Now, this is my actual calendar

00:01:04

and I consider this a reflection of the time

00:01:08

that God has given me to invest right here

00:01:11

and right now.

00:01:13

And the way that I did it focuses my time

00:01:15

on what matters to me more than anything else.

00:01:19

And that is the secret from going to

00:01:21

whatever's been normal for your calendar,

00:01:23

your schedule, and your time to something better.

00:01:27

My calendar is driven by 10 words

00:01:30

that I wrote in 10 minutes.

00:01:32

And those 10 words actually say

00:01:34

the direction of my entire life.

00:01:36

And today I want to help you write your 10 words

00:01:40

and set up your calendar to match them.

00:01:43

And we're going to start by asking and actually

00:01:45

we're going to ask this question a lot today.

00:01:47

We're going to start by asking one question

00:01:49

about everything that you do with your time.

00:01:52

And that question is:

00:01:53

is it distraction or is it direction?

00:01:58

If you write your 10 words today

00:02:00

and you use them to answer that question,

00:02:03

then you are going to move from

00:02:04

whatever was in the past to something better.

00:02:08

Paul, he was a guy that wrote most of our New Testament.

00:02:12

He was an early follower of Jesus

00:02:14

that planted a bunch of churches.

00:02:16

And he had 10 words and I want you to hear his.

00:02:20

He says:

00:02:35

That was Acts Chapter 20, Paul knows his words.

00:02:40

He says that his words are testifying

00:02:42

to the good news of God's grace.

00:02:45

And guess what? We may not have his iPhone calendar,

00:02:49

but we've got something pretty close.

00:02:51

We actually have his letters and we have a record

00:02:55

of an entire portion of his life in the Book of Acts.

00:02:59

And sure enough, this guy was living his direction.

00:03:03

His calendar reflected his words that he

00:03:06

was committed to testifying to God's grace.

00:03:11

When he would testify, of course, that's the I-N-G,

00:03:14

that's the movement, that's the verb in his words.

00:03:18

And he would do that all the time.

00:03:20

What we see of Paul's life is that he gave speeches.

00:03:23

He went where crowds were.

00:03:25

He talked to people all the time.

00:03:27

And the subject was grace.

00:03:30

Paul was all about grace.

00:03:32

It was his main thing.

00:03:33

Grace, grace, grace. He prayed for grace.

00:03:36

He wrote letters about Grace.

00:03:38

He wrote a theology of grace.

00:03:40

He corrected other believers when they were preaching

00:03:43

anything but the grace of God.

00:03:47

Paul's calendar and his time were focused on

00:03:51

living, breathing, explaining, testifying about grace.

00:03:55

That wasn't all he did, actually.

00:03:57

What you would also see on his calendar,

00:03:59

if we could take a look at it, is things

00:04:02

that I would call like direction maintenance.

00:04:05

He was living in a direction that God had given him,

00:04:07

but he also had to have things

00:04:09

that helped him maintain that.

00:04:10

So you might see things on his calendar

00:04:13

like travel, planning travel,

00:04:15

holding down a day job to support his travel.

00:04:18

You would see communication with people

00:04:20

he met on his travels.

00:04:21

Paul did all kinds of things

00:04:23

that supported the direction of his life.

00:04:26

And if we had his calendar, I know

00:04:28

you would see those on there as well.

00:04:31

If I take Paul's like as an example for mine,

00:04:35

what I would tell you is my 10 words

00:04:37

are something close to equipping others

00:04:41

to know, love, and live the truth starting at home.

00:04:46

Now, I have probably written about,

00:04:49

I don't know, 50 versions of that.

00:04:52

But the first time I wrote it, I'll bet you

00:04:54

I had 90% of that right in five minutes or less.

00:04:58

And it didn't take me long to get in the right ballpark.

00:05:01

Whatever I'm doing with my life, it is going to be

00:05:03

standing on the platform of God's truth.

00:05:06

That's what God has wired me to do.

00:05:09

And I added the phrase starting at home,

00:05:12

because I am inextricably linked to my family.

00:05:17

I am a wife. I am a mother.

00:05:19

I'm never going to go away from those things.

00:05:22

So somehow my life direction

00:05:23

has to somehow encompass those.

00:05:27

So if those are my 10 words, then what's on my calendar?

00:05:30

Because your 10 words should help you determine

00:05:33

the direction of your time.

00:05:35

So on mine, with that direction, you would find

00:05:39

probably -- you will find things like

00:05:41

daily time in the Bible,

00:05:44

maybe more than other people would do.

00:05:46

You might find me reading things that

00:05:47

maybe you don't want to read.

00:05:49

I had a coworker that joked with me

00:05:50

about liking to read Bible commentaries, and I went,

00:05:54

"How is that funny? I do. I do like to read them."

00:05:58

You would also find on my calendar less than you expect,

00:06:01

because I need long periods of uninterrupted time

00:06:04

where I get to research my little curiosities

00:06:07

about what's in scripture and think about them

00:06:09

and maybe write about them.

00:06:10

And as I plan things like like teachings

00:06:13

and writing and things like that,

00:06:15

I can't be interrupted every 30 minutes.

00:06:17

As a matter of fact, I've even turned down roles

00:06:20

here at Crossroads over the years

00:06:21

that I've been here because of this.

00:06:23

I can't spend my days in meetings

00:06:26

or I won't live my direction.

00:06:28

The other thing that you will see on my calendar

00:06:31

is you'll see runs and workouts.

00:06:34

I do like to run, but actually I strategically

00:06:37

place them on my calendar because of my direction.

00:06:40

I've got to get out of my head,

00:06:41

like enough is enough sometimes and I just need to run.

00:06:44

So I put them where I put them on purpose

00:06:48

because of my direction.

00:06:49

And my 10 words also say others, right?

00:06:53

I want to equip other people to find God

00:06:56

and love God through His Word,

00:06:58

then I've got to be around others.

00:06:59

So if you looked at my calendar a few months back,

00:07:02

you would have seen for weeks in a row

00:07:04

teach Katie's small group, or you would have seen

00:07:08

lead online study of Colossians.

00:07:12

You would see me regularly interacting

00:07:14

and taking time, even sometimes early morning

00:07:16

or later at night time to lead and equip

00:07:19

and help other people to get in there

00:07:22

and figure out what the truth is.

00:07:25

That's my ten words,

00:07:27

so I have to arrange my time around them.

00:07:29

My latest one is a new podcast I've been doing.

00:07:32

I actually employed my tech savvy teenage son

00:07:36

to help me with this project.

00:07:37

And we're making a podcast

00:07:39

literally out of my basement called Dig,

00:07:42

and it's going through books of the Bible,

00:07:44

figuring out how to look at our life somehow

00:07:47

through the lens of that piece of scripture.

00:07:50

What a great thing to do with my son

00:07:52

when my direction says I want to do what I do

00:07:55

starting at home.

00:07:58

Living with direction is actually just knowing

00:08:01

why you're doing the things

00:08:02

that you're doing with your time.

00:08:05

Because remember, it's passing away.

00:08:07

So you've got to ask yourself as you scroll

00:08:10

through your calendar on your phone

00:08:11

or write it on the refrigerator

00:08:13

or just keep it up here, whatever you do,

00:08:16

your direction in your life

00:08:19

should be somehow obvious with your time.

00:08:22

People should be able to guess it

00:08:24

if they looked at your calendar.

00:08:25

Direction is orienting ourselves

00:08:29

in a particular direction.

00:08:31

And for me, and probably for most of you,

00:08:35

that orientation and that direction

00:08:38

needs to be toward God,

00:08:41

because there is a God who designed you.

00:08:44

There is a God who has a purpose for you

00:08:46

and for your life.

00:08:48

Ephesians 2:10 says this:

00:09:03

This verse tells me that there is good work

00:09:05

for you to do and that good work

00:09:07

needs to be on your calendar.

00:09:09

And when you come to Jesus, you get equipped

00:09:12

to kind of live out that direction in your life

00:09:16

and you're a masterpiece.

00:09:17

You've been designed, you were made for something,

00:09:21

but I hate the word purpose.

00:09:22

I'll tell you why I hate that.

00:09:23

I hate the word purpose right now, because

00:09:25

I feel like our culture is caught up in this,

00:09:28

like really heady, lofty conversation around purpose.

00:09:32

And it makes me feel like I should go climb a mountain

00:09:37

or look for the purpose pot of gold

00:09:39

at the end of a rainbow.

00:09:40

And I actually don't think it's that hard.

00:09:42

I think you can write 10 words in 10 minutes

00:09:45

and get pretty darn close.

00:09:47

I prefer the word direction because

00:09:50

you can and should be moving toward God,

00:09:53

who is the one that knows your purpose?

00:09:56

If you head in His direction, you're going

00:09:58

to get clearer and clearer and clearer

00:10:01

about your purpose.

00:10:03

And God knows what that is.

00:10:04

Your job is to head His way.

00:10:08

I believe that you know a lot more about

00:10:11

your 10 words than you might think right now.

00:10:14

And I think it's specifically because

00:10:16

we have just lived through like two years

00:10:18

of incredible difficulty.

00:10:21

All of our calendars got messed with.

00:10:23

All of our time got wiped out at one point.

00:10:25

Some of us ended up with way too much

00:10:27

or way too little, and the things that happened

00:10:30

to you during that time and how you felt about them,

00:10:33

they are some massive clues to your direction.

00:10:37

I went through something I call COVID Calendar Relief.

00:10:40

Anybody else?

00:10:41

Like there was stuff on my calendar

00:10:43

that COVID wiped out and I was like,

00:10:46

"I'm so happy about that.

00:10:48

I'm totally delighted that's gone.

00:10:49

I hope it never comes back."

00:10:52

Could it be if you felt like that, too, that

00:10:55

those things are somehow in tension with

00:10:58

the direction that your life should really be going?

00:11:02

Do you know that I looked at a bunch of research,

00:11:04

like a bunch of numbers about what happened to us

00:11:06

with our time and with our work during the era of COVID

00:11:10

and after as we continue to sort of open up

00:11:15

and live our lives again, about 30% of people

00:11:18

would say, "Pay me less so I can be at home more.

00:11:22

I'd rather take less money so I can be at home."

00:11:24

Maybe some of you left off the phrase

00:11:27

like I did at first, starting at home.

00:11:32

40% or more of people who have lived through

00:11:37

this COVID era with us say they want a job change,

00:11:40

not just a job change, researchers have found that

00:11:45

most of those are occupation changes,

00:11:47

like a whole new direction.

00:11:50

Could it be that we're sitting on insight,

00:11:53

insight that maybe God is going to use

00:11:56

to do what researchers call the pandemic pivot?

00:11:59

Whenever I say the word pivot, I can't not think

00:12:01

about the old friends episode

00:12:03

where Ross is trying to move the couch.

00:12:04

Anybody else? OK, maybe just me, pivot, whatever.

00:12:09

33% of people who were unemployed because of

00:12:13

the COVID era have actually started taking courses

00:12:16

or job retraining.

00:12:18

Friends, this is telling me that this era

00:12:20

we've lived through is not all bad.

00:12:22

There's something about it where we've gained

00:12:24

some insight on the direction of our lives

00:12:27

and maybe the way that God designed us.

00:12:31

And I want to say a special word to

00:12:33

the women out there, some of us,

00:12:35

we didn't pivot on purpose.

00:12:37

We were forced to pivot.

00:12:38

That's not just for women.

00:12:39

But if you look at the numbers, COVID would say --

00:12:42

I'm sorry, research would say that COVID

00:12:44

was especially brutal to women, most especially mothers.

00:12:48

4.2 million women dropped out of the workforce

00:12:53

in like a 7 week period in 2020,

00:12:56

and half of them have not come back.

00:12:59

If that's you today, I want to say to you,

00:13:03

none of that surprised God.

00:13:05

He is ahead of you.

00:13:06

He knows exactly what your life needs to be like.

00:13:09

And I want you to have the courage to ask Him,

00:13:12

"How does this mean I need to refine my direction?"

00:13:16

My guess is that we have clues,

00:13:19

maybe for a long time in our life

00:13:21

about our general direction.

00:13:23

And it's time to think about writing that down.

00:13:26

The reason that I want you to write it down

00:13:28

on a piece of paper is not because

00:13:30

I want you to get it perfect.

00:13:31

It's not because the exact words matter so much.

00:13:35

It's just that when you write down 10 words,

00:13:38

you can start to evaluate your time.

00:13:41

You can get those gut instincts out

00:13:43

and actually use them to point your life

00:13:46

in a better direction, to go from

00:13:47

whatever was normal in the past

00:13:50

to something better in the future.

00:13:53

And I don't want you to spend 10 years

00:13:55

or even 10 weeks writing them down.

00:13:57

I have two tips for you,

00:13:59

two tips for you as you do this.

00:14:01

Start your 10 words with an I-N-G verb.

00:14:06

You want to start actively doing something

00:14:09

and whatever the rest of your phrase is,

00:14:12

I want you to answer: Where is God?

00:14:14

How am I heading His way?

00:14:16

I want to give you a few examples

00:14:17

from people in my own life, OK? People I know.

00:14:21

Here's what they said.

00:14:22

Just ideas for you as you consider your own.

00:14:24

Blending two families into one

00:14:29

who follows God together.

00:14:31

Caring for the poor in Nicaragua

00:14:33

to display Christ's love.

00:14:37

Staying sober and faithful to my job for one year.

00:14:43

Strengthening other believers through

00:14:45

prayer, encouragement, and prophecy.

00:14:50

Saving for a house

00:14:52

to love others with my hospitality.

00:14:57

These are phrases, 10 words-ish.

00:15:01

Some are eight, some are 11, but you get the idea.

00:15:04

You could actually use those to evaluate

00:15:07

what you're doing with your time.

00:15:09

If you're saving for something,

00:15:10

I expect you to be at work earning money. Right?

00:15:13

If you're going to lead others somehow,

00:15:17

I expect to see groups and people

00:15:19

on your calendar on a regular basis.

00:15:22

Your direction should inform your time.

00:15:26

It's the step before all the time management tactics.

00:15:29

I love this stuff. Right?

00:15:31

Like I'm a bullet point kind of gal. I love it.

00:15:33

I love a good chart, good management tactic,

00:15:36

a good calendar.

00:15:37

The only problem is you can't plan, prioritize,

00:15:40

prep, win the day, sharpen the saw,

00:15:42

whatever else they tell you to do,

00:15:45

if you don't have a direction.

00:15:47

Because what are you doing all of those things toward?

00:15:49

Remember you're a masterpiece.

00:15:53

You were designed for good works

00:15:55

and we need to start moving in the direction of a God

00:15:59

who knows exactly what our calendar should look like.

00:16:04

- More from Alli in just a minute, but first,

00:16:07

you need to know that this episode

00:16:08

and everything at Crossroads is only possible

00:16:10

because of the generosity of everyday people

00:16:12

just like you and like me.

00:16:14

If you want to join that community of generous people,

00:16:17

you can go to Crossroads.net/give.

00:16:19

Hey, this week we'd also love to connect with you live

00:16:21

and we have two ways for you to do that.

00:16:23

The first is our World Changing Seminar.

00:16:26

Change the world is one of those phrases

00:16:28

that we say a lot around here.

00:16:29

You might be like, what does that mean

00:16:31

and who changes the world, and how do I change the world?

00:16:33

And how did you even get started?"

00:16:34

If you have any questions, we would love to see you

00:16:37

at the World Changing Seminar.

00:16:38

Two, we have a Zoom Welcome Session

00:16:41

I'd love to see you at.

00:16:42

I'll be there with a chance for you to ask questions

00:16:45

and us just to get to know you a little bit, and vice versa.

00:16:48

Now you can find details for both of those things

00:16:50

at Crossroads.net/live.

00:16:52

You know, we recently had our 25th anniversary

00:16:55

and as a way of celebration we decided

00:16:57

to invest 2.5 million dollars in people

00:17:01

and projects that are changing the world.

00:17:03

Because the truth is,

00:17:04

Crossroads doesn't change the world,

00:17:06

we change the world, you change the world.

00:17:09

We've actually invested some of that money

00:17:11

with one of our online communities

00:17:13

who's working to reach students. Check this out.

00:17:22

- My involvement with Young Life started

00:17:24

when I was in high school and someone showed up

00:17:28

at the YMCA, played pickup basketball with me

00:17:30

and just kept showing up over and over.

00:17:33

And finally invited me to this thing called Young Life.

00:17:36

And I went and I heard about God in a way

00:17:40

that I had never heard about Him before

00:17:42

at that week at camp

00:17:43

and it completely transformed my life.

00:17:45

- He talked about this thing called Young Life.

00:17:47

I said I had no idea what that is.

00:17:49

He said, come check it out in Batesville.

00:17:51

I'm like, I don't even know where that is.

00:17:53

And so it was through some game nights

00:17:55

that they all had that I really started to come out

00:17:58

and see what they were doing with the local teenagers

00:18:00

and just how they were investing in them

00:18:02

and the adults that cared.

00:18:03

And it was really cool to see this community

00:18:05

of people that was actually doing something

00:18:08

to improve the kids' lives.

00:18:10

He actually convinced me to move to Batesville.

00:18:14

And I think there was this huge pro and con list,

00:18:17

there was a really long list

00:18:18

of why I would not move to Batesville.

00:18:20

And then there was this really short list

00:18:22

of why I would, and in looking at that list

00:18:25

and just having conversations and seeing

00:18:27

just the way they love kids and the things

00:18:30

that they did, I noticed that my list

00:18:32

of why I would not move was all selfish.

00:18:34

It was 100% things that would

00:18:35

make my life more comfortable.

00:18:37

And then the reason that were were really life-giving,

00:18:39

but we've cost something.

00:18:40

- And I've watched leaders like Scott,

00:18:44

kid after kid after kid who is dealing

00:18:45

with some really difficult stuff, you know,

00:18:49

over and over again,

00:18:51

the first place they go to his house.

00:18:53

They show up and they're trying

00:18:55

to put their life back together

00:18:57

and they have questions about God,

00:18:58

they have questions about everything.

00:19:00

And time and time again, they show up

00:19:03

on a leader's doorstep and says,

00:19:05

"I don't know what to do and how can God be good?"

00:19:07

- These kids are hurting.

00:19:09

They're experiencing a lot of stuff.

00:19:11

And life is not easy, especially in the culture right now.

00:19:14

There's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of isolation.

00:19:17

But to just show up and care and say,

00:19:19

"Hey, you matter and I'm here for you,

00:19:21

and regardless of what you're doing

00:19:23

and regardless of what you believe, I'm showing up

00:19:25

and I care about you."

00:19:27

That's what I hope other adults can come alongside

00:19:29

and just jump in the vision.

00:19:31

If we could do that and we could do that, well,

00:19:34

then we're loving our kids.

00:19:42

- I think too many of us live instead of in direction,

00:19:46

we live inside of what's probably pretty normal.

00:19:49

Normal to me is a life of distraction.

00:19:52

And I don't really mean by this like pinging phones

00:19:56

or watching the news less,

00:19:57

even though that might be great.

00:19:59

What I really mean by distraction is

00:20:01

either without direction, or more likely,

00:20:04

we have like a combo.

00:20:06

We spend our calendar heading down one direction

00:20:09

and then another direction

00:20:10

and then a different direction.

00:20:11

And we're all over the place moving our time

00:20:15

toward all kinds of different ends.

00:20:19

A distraction is really anything that takes you

00:20:23

outside of God's design for you and for your life.

00:20:29

In the Book of Acts, after Jesus was resurrected,

00:20:32

the earliest apostles were given a direction.

00:20:37

And the Bible says their direction was day after day,

00:20:40

it says they never stopped sharing the Good News

00:20:44

that Jesus is the Messiah. Nine words.

00:20:47

Sharing the Good News that Jesus is the Messiah.

00:20:51

That was their direction.

00:20:52

And boy, the apostles were totally killing it.

00:20:56

They were living with direction

00:20:58

and it was going really well, the church was growing.

00:21:01

In the first few chapters of Acts you hear about

00:21:03

thousands of people joining the church,

00:21:05

baptisms, miraculous healings.

00:21:08

Even the authorities were trying

00:21:09

to shut these guys up from their direction

00:21:11

because all they were doing was sharing

00:21:14

the Good News that Jesus is the Messiah.

00:21:17

They were doing their nine words.

00:21:19

And then we get to Acts 6

00:21:22

and in comes a potential distraction.

00:21:26

Even when you have a powerful direction,

00:21:28

even when you've been killing it,

00:21:29

even when you're fruitful in it,

00:21:31

you are always in danger of getting distracted.

00:21:34

And in Acts 6 we see this take place.

00:21:36

Here's what it says:

00:22:20

So we have an issue here, right?

00:22:22

In comes a potential distraction,

00:22:24

there's an issue like there is in most communities.

00:22:27

Issues happen.

00:22:29

Something new comes into the orbit

00:22:32

of these apostles who have a direction.

00:22:34

And did you hear it, did you hear it in there?

00:22:36

They kind of restated it: praying

00:22:38

and ministering the Word of God.

00:22:40

And wait, what was the Word of God?

00:22:42

Oh, that's right, sharing the Good News

00:22:44

that Jesus is the Messiah.

00:22:46

These guys had a direction and they knew it,

00:22:48

so they recognize this issue for exactly what it was,

00:22:52

it was a distraction.

00:22:55

We have got to learn to see these in our lives, you guys.

00:22:57

We have got to learn to see when

00:22:59

another direction comes across our path

00:23:02

it could take us off of what God has uniquely for us.

00:23:06

It was going to take time away

00:23:09

from what they were supposed to be doing.

00:23:11

But at first, we kind of read the story,

00:23:13

if you're like me, you kind of read

00:23:15

this phrase waiting on tables, and it seems like

00:23:17

they're sort of saying like, get the interns to do this,

00:23:20

you know, like this is beneath us.

00:23:22

I can't take time away from the Word of God

00:23:24

to wait on tables."

00:23:26

That's actually not at all the tone

00:23:30

of what their words were saying.

00:23:33

Actually, what they meant was:

00:23:35

I recognize the importance of this.

00:23:37

Food distribution was core to the church.

00:23:40

I know that sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it?

00:23:43

But if you read through the early chapters of Acts,

00:23:45

what you see the church do over and over

00:23:48

is teach together and eat together, teach and eat.

00:23:54

And you see those two things over and over.

00:23:56

Like it says, they devoted themselves

00:23:58

to the apostles teaching and the breaking of bread.

00:24:01

They taught and they ate.

00:24:04

So now there's an issue.

00:24:06

And there's an issue not just with any old thing,

00:24:08

not just with something the intern can handle,

00:24:10

with a core alternate direction.

00:24:15

How they were going to distribute food

00:24:16

was actually critical to the very witness

00:24:19

of what they were saying, because, guys,

00:24:22

in the body of Christ, we don't preference people

00:24:24

on nationality, on race, on family,

00:24:27

on background, on culture.

00:24:28

We are one, that's the whole essence of the church.

00:24:32

So what's going on here is there's a group of widows,

00:24:35

one, that has a really good pedigree,

00:24:37

the Hebraic widows, and they're being favored

00:24:42

over those who came out of the Greek culture,

00:24:44

the Hellenistic widows.

00:24:46

And the apostles recognize this for what it was.

00:24:49

This is not just a quick problem for us to solve.

00:24:52

This is going to take our attention

00:24:54

off of our direction and someone else actually

00:24:58

needs to step in and take this on as theirs.

00:25:01

So if I was going to restate this whole food issue

00:25:05

in 10 words or less as someone else's direction,

00:25:08

I might say, "Distributing food in a way

00:25:13

that reflects the heart of God."

00:25:17

All right, I got it in 11. You'll forgive me.

00:25:20

Distributing food was not just a quick problem

00:25:22

for the apostles to solve.

00:25:24

It was somebody else's direction.

00:25:27

It just wasn't theirs.

00:25:29

So we actually know what happened.

00:25:31

They stuck to their direction.

00:25:32

They chose others to lead this other one.

00:25:35

And Acts 6:7 is the conclusion to the whole matter

00:25:39

and listen to what it says:

00:25:52

Guys, when when we live in a direction

00:25:55

that's orientated to God and we let other people

00:25:58

live in their direction, then the kingdom of God grows.

00:26:02

The impact of your days, your minutes, your hours,

00:26:05

it's spent in the direction of an eternal God.

00:26:11

And we face these choices

00:26:12

in our calendars every single day. Right?

00:26:15

Like, how do you know? How do you recognize it?

00:26:18

We have to get better at seeing

00:26:20

what's coming into our calendar

00:26:23

and how to manage that so that

00:26:25

it doesn't take us off course.

00:26:28

And sometimes, believe me, I know this,

00:26:31

distractions come in hard to see packages.

00:26:34

As a matter of fact, one of mine

00:26:36

came in a super cute package.

00:26:38

A couple of years ago I volunteered

00:26:41

in my daughter's kindergarten classroom.

00:26:43

And those kids are adorable.

00:26:45

But every time I would go,

00:26:47

I would enjoy my time in the room.

00:26:49

But coming and going, I would have this sort of,

00:26:51

I don't know, this drag inside,

00:26:54

like I was forcing it in or it didn't feel quite right.

00:26:57

It wasn't jiving with other things

00:26:59

that I felt like I was supposed to be doing.

00:27:02

But I couldn't -- I mean, I really thought it was

00:27:06

the right thing for me to do at the time.

00:27:08

And eventually I started asking God,

00:27:10

"OK, so why do I feel this way?

00:27:13

How come I feel like I'm just shoving this in

00:27:15

and something's not right here?"

00:27:17

Just sort of a gut instinct sort of thing.

00:27:19

And I eventually came to the conclusion

00:27:21

that I was doing this because it's what good moms do.

00:27:26

I have a checklist in my head.

00:27:28

I don't mean to, but I do.

00:27:29

I have a checklist.

00:27:30

If I was a good mom, I would do these five things.

00:27:33

Maybe you have a checklist

00:27:35

and maybe it's taking up a lot of your time.

00:27:38

You have a checklist about

00:27:39

what a good finance manager does

00:27:41

or what a good athlete does

00:27:42

or what a good parent does

00:27:44

that is taking up valuable time

00:27:48

where you could be orienting your life

00:27:50

in the real direction that God has for you.

00:27:53

Guys, two people can do exactly the same thing

00:27:56

for two radically different reasons.

00:28:00

Believe me when I say I am so very thankful

00:28:02

for the parents whose direction includes

00:28:05

getting into the classrooms during the day with my kids.

00:28:09

I love it.

00:28:10

In some ways I wish it was consistent

00:28:13

with my direction sometimes.

00:28:14

But maybe theirs is something like

00:28:17

supporting education for the least of these

00:28:19

or role modeling the servanthood of Christ.

00:28:22

Whatever it is, I love that some parents' directions

00:28:27

takes them into the schools.

00:28:28

But I had to stop and say, "What am I doing here?"

00:28:33

And it's really hard to admit to yourself

00:28:36

when some of your time that looks like

00:28:38

it's being spent in a good way

00:28:40

is just not being spent in your unique direction.

00:28:46

It was hard for me to say,

00:28:48

"I'm not going to come help your sweet class anymore."

00:28:51

It was hard for me to admit that

00:28:54

I want to prop myself up as a mom.

00:28:56

I want to feel good about myself in that role

00:28:58

and so I want to check off all the things

00:29:00

that make me feel like a better mom.

00:29:02

But guys, you could live your whole life doing that

00:29:05

and still be off of the direction that God has for you.

00:29:09

Sometimes our pride is involved

00:29:11

or our fears involved or our self-image.

00:29:14

And there's like a whole other message in here

00:29:16

about that kind of stuff.

00:29:18

But if we can get honest enough and brave enough

00:29:21

to admit some of those things are not our direction.

00:29:25

And I guarantee you, if you are brave enough to do that

00:29:28

and pull back some of that time,

00:29:30

you're going to be criticized for it.

00:29:32

Your reward is going to be, um, criticized for it.

00:29:35

Jesus got criticized for His direction

00:29:39

and He answered His critics every single time

00:29:43

with His 10 words.

00:29:45

Listen to this in Matthew 9:

00:30:19

Did you hear his 10 words buried in there?

00:30:22

Giving mercy to the sick and the sinner.

00:30:25

All right, it was seven or maybe eight, 10-ish.

00:30:29

Jesus came for sinners, for the sick.

00:30:33

That's where He spent His time.

00:30:36

Those people were on His calendar

00:30:39

because He knew His direction.

00:30:41

He knew who He was supposed to be with,

00:30:42

where He was supposed to be and why.

00:30:47

Jesus knew the Cross was coming.

00:30:50

He knew that His time was going to run out

00:30:55

just like this did.

00:30:58

And we've got to see the same is true for us.

00:31:01

We've got to see the distractions in our life

00:31:03

and how they are impacting our ability

00:31:06

to live with eternity in mind.

00:31:10

It's time to move in the direction that God has for you

00:31:12

because you only have so much time.

00:31:17

If anything reminds me of the truth of that,

00:31:19

it's got to be first day of school pictures.

00:31:21

It's got to be first day.

00:31:22

I'm only a few weeks off of that and every year

00:31:26

every self respecting parent takes pictures

00:31:28

of their kids on the first day of school.

00:31:30

And I've got to tell you, nothing says

00:31:32

time is passing away like those pictures.

00:31:35

I'm the one who looks at them and goes,

00:31:37

but that's not what they look like two years ago.

00:31:40

I took the picture in the same spot.

00:31:42

I actually stood on the treadmill with a friend

00:31:45

the other day and cried with her

00:31:48

about her taking her son, who's starting college

00:31:51

this week and dropping him off.

00:31:54

Guys, time is passing away,

00:31:57

whether we want it to or not.

00:31:59

The hourglass is going to be empty.

00:32:03

And I wonder what would happen if we knew

00:32:06

when that was going to go down.

00:32:08

I read the blog and part of the book of a nurse

00:32:12

who works only with patients

00:32:13

who have less than 12 weeks to live.

00:32:16

She's actually written a book about

00:32:18

the top five regrets of people who are dying.

00:32:21

It's like part of her life's work

00:32:23

and she's gained a lot of wisdom from people

00:32:27

whose time is running out.

00:32:29

And she said their number one regret,

00:32:31

this is the number one regret that she would name.

00:32:36

She says that it is:

00:32:46

Wow. The number one regret

00:32:50

when people are facing the clock running out

00:32:53

is I wish I'd had the courage to live

00:32:55

in my direction, not your direction,

00:32:59

not what my parents wanted for me,

00:33:01

not what I thought my life was going to be about

00:33:03

or should be about, but my direction.

00:33:05

I'll tell you what, if you want to follow God,

00:33:09

if you are interested in being equipped

00:33:12

for that direction, then you need Jesus in your life,

00:33:15

because that is where your real direction is.

00:33:20

It's the one toward the God who made you

00:33:23

and who planned for you and who has good things

00:33:26

that should be on your calendar this week.

00:33:29

But this takes courage, you all, it takes courage.

00:33:33

That's what that regret says, "I wish I had the courage."

00:33:37

That regret did not say, "I wish I'd known."

00:33:40

That did not say, "I wish I had the knowledge."

00:33:43

You know your 10 words or pretty darn close anyway.

00:33:47

And I don't want you to overthink it.

00:33:48

I don't think this is about not knowing.

00:33:51

I think it's about courage,

00:33:53

the courage to write them down,

00:33:55

the courage to force your time in that direction,

00:33:57

the courage to get rid of the distractions in your life

00:34:01

that are constantly trying to take you

00:34:03

off the direction that God intended you for,

00:34:06

whatever that direction is.

00:34:09

What that book tells me is that you're still going

00:34:12

to be thinking about it the last 12 weeks of your life.

00:34:17

And that actually makes some sense to me

00:34:19

because you'll be awfully close to coming face to face

00:34:23

with God at that point, the God who created you,

00:34:26

the God who had a purpose for you,

00:34:28

the God who's design is supposed to be taking place

00:34:30

in the minutes and days and hours of your life.

00:34:33

The God who holds time right in His hands.

00:34:41

He existed before it.

00:34:43

He knows where it's headed.

00:34:46

And when we live directed at that God,

00:34:49

the God of all time, then the hours

00:34:52

that we put on our calendar, they mean even more

00:34:55

than just what's in front of us right now.

00:34:57

They mean eternal things,

00:35:00

that the impact of our life is multiplied

00:35:02

when we point it at the God of time.

00:35:05

Living with this realization that our time

00:35:08

requires this kind of careful thought,

00:35:10

it's actually what the Bible calls numbering your days.

00:35:15

That's the phrase that's used in scripture

00:35:17

for living with the wisdom of knowing

00:35:19

this hourglass will be empty

00:35:22

and there's also an eternity.

00:35:25

I want to read you a couple of excerpts

00:35:27

from Psalm 90 where that phrase appears.

00:35:31

Psalm 90 was written by Moses.

00:35:32

He was a man who did have the courage

00:35:35

to live clearly in the direction of God.

00:35:40

And he struggled.

00:35:42

He struggled exactly like you and I do,

00:35:44

with the same feelings that you and I have all the time.

00:35:47

Am I good enough to do this?

00:35:48

Am I good enough to pursue

00:35:50

what I think you really made me for?

00:35:52

Moses felt that way.

00:35:54

And has some of my life been wasted time?

00:35:57

Moses questioned deeply the decades

00:35:59

that he spent wandering in the wilderness.

00:36:02

What if some of that is wasted, God?

00:36:04

What does that mean?

00:36:06

And he even faced the end of his life

00:36:08

not ever getting quite where he thought

00:36:11

his life was heading.

00:36:13

But he did get one thing in the end that was huge.

00:36:17

He got that we need to live our days here on Earth,

00:36:21

both here and now, and in light of all eternity.

00:36:26

He got that our time is limited here,

00:36:29

so we have to limit the way that we spend it.

00:36:33

Your time is going fast, and I really want you

00:36:36

to point it in the right direction.

00:36:39

So let me read you those words from Psalm 90.

00:37:13

That is for sure my prayer for myself.

00:37:15

I want a heart of wisdom,

00:37:17

wisdom that goes all the way down into my calendar.

00:37:20

I want to leave you with a final question today:

00:37:23

If you knew when this was going to run dry.

00:37:26

Not a big lofty philosophy question.

00:37:30

I'm only going to ask you one.

00:37:31

How would your calendar look different?

00:37:36

What I want you to do today is I want you

00:37:38

to write your 10 words and figure it out.

00:37:42

If you really don't know,

00:37:44

if you have no idea where to start.

00:37:46

And I know that that might be some of you.

00:37:48

If you really don't know where to start,

00:37:50

we do a thing at Crossroads called A Journey,

00:37:53

and it's coming up pretty soon.

00:37:55

And if you don't know where to begin with your 10 words,

00:37:57

then I want you to listen to Kyle

00:38:00

tell you a little bit more about The Journey,

00:38:02

because I think that would be a great place to start.

00:38:07

- You were created for greatness.

00:38:10

There's a hero hiding somewhere inside of you.

00:38:15

At some point in your life, you truly believed that,

00:38:19

that's because it's true.

00:38:21

God made you to be great and He has a plan for you

00:38:24

to be a hero on a team of heroes.

00:38:28

Come find the path to your greatness.

00:38:37

- The Journey is going to be great.

00:38:39

There's two things you need to do it.

00:38:41

The first is this book.

00:38:42

It's full of prompts and experiences

00:38:44

designed to help you go on The Journey.

00:38:46

And the best part is it's free.

00:38:48

If you go to one of our locations,

00:38:50

you can pick it up there,

00:38:51

or if you're part of our online church,

00:38:53

you can go to Crossroads.net/onlinejourney

00:38:56

and we will mail one of these to your house for free.

00:38:59

And the second thing you need to do The Journey is a group.

00:39:03

Groups are the perfect opportunity for you

00:39:06

to meet new people or invite your family and friends

00:39:10

and do this with you in person or even online.

00:39:13

Now, if that sounds exciting, we need your help

00:39:15

to host a group and make sure

00:39:16

there are enough groups for everyone.

00:39:18

If you're interested in hosting, go to Crossroads.net/connect.

00:39:22

Now, I know hosting might sound intimidating,

00:39:24

but I promise it's super easy

00:39:26

and you're definitely equipped for the job.

00:39:28

We also this week made a special worship set

00:39:31

just for you, and you can watch it

00:39:32

by clicking right here.

00:39:34

Last, I want you to go to Crossroads app.

00:39:36

It's full of experiences and content designed

00:39:39

to connect you to God throughout your entire week.

00:39:41

You can get it for free wherever you get your apps.

00:39:46

- This is the Crossroads Anywhere app.

00:39:49

It's not just any other app,

00:39:51

it's the weekend experience wherever you go.

00:39:59

It's relevant articles to you,

00:40:02

so you could be the smart guy at the party for once.

00:40:06

It's asking for prayer

00:40:08

because life can get a little tough sometimes.

00:40:17

It's spiritual growth

00:40:18

without a bunch of hoops to jump through.

00:40:21

The Crossroads Anywhere App,

00:40:23

it's you connecting with people and with God.

00:40:27

Download it now.

Recent Series