All in with God

Igot up Sunday morning thinking it seems like the last thing people need is another sermon. We are so busy as a culture and we have so much to do, and did I really want to stand up and give people one more thing to do, one more rule to follow?

By the way, what I shared with my church is that sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is take a nap. Rest is an important part of our spiritual health that sometimes we overlook. Jesus is our best example (John 4:6, Mark 4:38, Mark 6:31 and Psalm 46:10).

I keep thinking about how glad I am that all of our kids are grown up. Even the baby girl is all grownup and married. What I’m saying is we aren’t chasing them all over Texas as they play ball on Friday nights, or trying to remember that it’s our week to buy the soccer team snacks. Those days are over, blah, blah, blah.

No, instead we make day trips to Dallas to have lunch with my favorite barista (173 miles one way), try to connect with a busy executive (oldest daughter Brooke) who constantly flies between Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, fit ourselves into the Presbyterian pastor’s (oldest son in Waco) hectic life and coordinate that with his wife and kid’s crazy calendar. Of course, there are the constant trips to Houston to see the baby.

The empty nest might be empty but it’s full of frequent flyer road miles. My point is we are all busy, and too often busyness is a distraction (not a virtue) to what really matters. If we were honest, we would admit we worship the god of busyness, it makes us culturally cool to fill every minute of our day and week with something to do. No wonder we are all stressed out, anxious and feel overwhelmed.

Jesus told a fr iend named Martha she was distracted and needed to focus only on one thing, Him. Here’s what people need to know, it’s what Jesus said in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Mark Batterson wrote a great book on this passage entitled, All In. This is a sermon that always preaches, be all in with God. If we will be all in, we will filter out the busyness that distracts us. No, we don’t need another sermon, we need to start living the sermons that have already been preached.

He told me to tell you that.