Living by the Compass

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Well, if you're our guest tonight, let me just tell you that you've come on a night when it's a little bit different. We normally are studying through the books of the Bible together. In fact, Lord willing, next Sunday night we will resume our study of the Book of Revelation. But as we begin this new year, I've been encouraged by several to step away from that study for just tonight and to really consider how to order and structure our lives in a way that honors Christ. I want to share with you just, in a practical way, some things that through the years I have learned from others and that have influenced my life. The things that I'll share with you tonight have really set the course for my own life and, starting many years ago now, have continued to impact and influence me up to this day.

Now, let me begin tonight with two very important, caveats. First of all, not everything that I'm going share with you tonight has Biblical authority. Often, in fact always, that's what I'm doing. It's the scripture and the scripture alone that has the authority of God behind it. Some of what I'll share with you tonight that will be true of as we look at the scripture, but I'm also going to share with you just some practical ideas, and thoughts, and plans that you can consider. They're not inspired. They're not of equal authority with the scriptures. So, I need to say that so you understand that I know that and you need to know that. Also, I need to say that not everything I'm going to share with you is original with me. In fact, we all stand on the shoulders of others. We have all learned and come to understand things from the wisdom of those God has put in our lives who have invested in us. And so, that's what you're going to get tonight, all right? So, just be aware of that. Some of what we'll look at is the scripture and bears the weight of God's authority behind it. Others will just be some ideas for you to consider as you plan your life and structure your life in the days ahead.

I want us to begin by turning to the Book of Proverbs. Turn with me to Proverbs 14:8. "The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way, but the foolishness of fools is deceit." Now, let's take that apart just a little bit. You'll notice the first half of the verse, the word "understand" means to give thought to, to consider. In fact, it's one of the Hebrew words for meditate and, as we have seen often in the Psalms, the word "way" means, literally, well-worn path. When it's used metaphorically, as it is here, it refers to one's habits or patterns of life. So, the wisdom of the wise, of the sensible, is to contemplate to, consider, to meditate on his way, his well-worn path, his habits and patterns of life. Verse 8, goes on to say, "but the foolishness of fools is deceit." Now, because of the nature of Hebrew poetry, the word "deceit" in the second line is intended here to be the opposite of "to understand." So, in other words, the fool refuses to meditate about his patterns of life. Instead, there's deception. Instead of understanding, there's deception. And in this case, the deception is probably not deceiving others, but rather self-deception. You see, part of what makes a person wise, this proverb is saying, is that he contemplates or meditates on his own patterns of life. And part of what makes a fool foolish is that he doesn't. He deceives himself, as a result. Because he doesn't think about, he doesn't contemplate, he doesn't consider his way. He really deceives himself and lives in that self-deception. Now, obviously in Proverbs, including in this section, wisdom and foolishness have moral overtones. The wise is the one who is Biblically wise, the one who knows God. And the fool is the one who doesn't. But this proverb is intentionally broad enough to be true beyond those strict moral overtones. It's true even for those of us who know and love Christ, who know God, that to be wise is to understand your way and to fail to do so is to be foolish. And so, what I want us to do tonight is to give careful thought and consideration to our habits, to our daily patterns of life.

Now, why is this important? Well, let me call one more text to your mind, a familiar one, it's Psalm 90. It's the oldest Psalm in the Psalter. Psalm 90 was written by Moses, the only Psalm penned by him. So, it was written some 1,400 years before Christ and in that Psalm, Psalm 90:10, says this, "as for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or, if due to strength, eighty years." It's interesting, isn't it, that 1,400 years before Christ, life expectancy for most people - Moses, of course, beat the averages but for most people life - was seventy to eighty years. That was 1,400 years before Christ. The same is true today. Moses goes on to say, "yet their pride," the pride of those years that we live, "is but labor and sorrow for soon it is gone and we fly away." And then he says, this in Psalm 90:12, "teach us," God, "to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." Now, clearly, he doesn't mean to count the days we have left because none of us knows how many that is. Instead, he means we are to consider our use of time in light of the brevity of life. That's what he says. "LORD, teach us to think about, to consider, how we use the time You've given us here - those seventy to eighty years - how we use them in light of how fast they pass. These texts, both Proverbs and particularly Psalm 90, call on us to carefully meditate on and to consider our lives, to evaluate how we're living and how we use our time because of how short life is. And then - and here's the key - to intentionally order our lives based on what's important, to live our lives - if I could put it this way - to live by the compass and not the clock. Most people are driven by the urgent, by their schedule, their calendar, their task list, by their phone, the clock on their phone. What is it I need to do next? What is crying out at me? But life should be lived with a larger picture in view, a compass. That is, I know where I'm going. I know the direction I want to head and I'm living intentionally in that light.

So, let me ask you a question tonight and, as I said, this is kind of a classroom, it's kind of a seminar as opposed to a normal message. So, let me just ask you to ask yourself this question: do I order my life so that I am truly living in keeping with those things that I say are important to me? Let me say it again. Am I truly ordering and structuring my life so that I am living in keeping with the things that I say are important to me? Are you? Well, consider some of the important categories: your relationship with the Lord, your marriage - if you're married - your family, your relationships and service within the context of the church, and your worker career. Those aren't all the categories, but those are major categories in all of our lives. So, let me just ask you, just take a moment and rate your effectiveness. Those are very important things. So, one being ineffective and five being extremely effective, how would you say you're doing on your relationship with the Lord? You say that's important. How is it? What about your marriage? What about being intentional with your children and your family? What about your relationships and service within the context of the church? How are you doing with that, are you effective or ineffective? What about your work career - the gifts God has given you that you're using day in and day out? How are you doing? If you're like most people, if you're honest, you have to score yourself pretty badly in some of those categories. You say it's important, but somehow it just never gets done. Psalm 90:12. Lord, teach us to number our days. Teach us to evaluate our use of time in light of the brevity of life. That's what I want to ask you to do tonight. Jay Oswald Sanders writes this, he says, "after making a generous allowance of eight hours a day for sleep and rest, and few really need more than that, three hours a day for meals and social interaction, ten hours a day for work and travel on five days, there still remain no fewer than thirty-five hours unaccounted for in each week." What happens to those hours? How are the extra two days in the week invested? And then he says this, listen carefully. "The whole of man's contribution to the kingdom of God might well turn upon how those crucial hours are employed. They will determine whether his life will be commonplace or extraordinary." So, what are you doing with those hours when you don't have to be doing something else? That's what he's asking. And that's the key, that's the difference between an ordinary and an extraordinary life.

Let me tell you how most people are using those hours. I was shocked this week to discover that the average American spends eleven hours a day with media. Now, depending on your age, I read the different categories of how that breaks down by age and the older you get different media are involved. You know, some of those things that your kids wouldn't be caught dead on now, some of the older people are on there. But, nevertheless, the average media use for an adult in the US today is eleven hours a day. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled for the tools we have. I'm not here, you know, as some prophet against it, you know, and electronic advances and the tools that we now have, I enjoy them. I use them. I benefit from them. The problem is most people are ruled by them rather than intentionally using them as tools. And that's how life for many believers is being lost. It's just slipping through people's fingers. Wasted on what? The only way to change that is to determine by God's grace to live on purpose. We have to determine what's truly important and then we have to doggedly pursue those things, by God's grace, every day. Only then do we live what I would call an ordered life. And that's the expression I'm going to use tonight. An ordered life. By "ordered," I mean two things: I mean organized, yes, but I mean more than that - by those things that are truly, compellingly important to us and ought to be important to us. An ordered life.

So, here's an overview of what we're going to do in the time we have remaining. We're going to begin with the arguments for an ordered life. Then, we're going to look at the foundation of an order life -where do you begin? Then, the priorities of an ordered life. And then, finally, we'll considered some tools that that will help you try to order and structure your life in a way that's meaningful.

So, let's begin then, briefly, with the Biblical arguments for an ordered life. Is it really that important? Does scripture have anything to say about this? Well, let me give you a couple of Biblical arguments. I'm not going to belabor these, but I do want you to see them.

First of all, scripture is clear that our God makes plans, and executes those plans, and orders human history and eternity by those plans. If you're theologically minded, if you've done any reading, you understand this is what theologians call the eternal decree. Here's how the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it: "the decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby, for His own glory, He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass." In other words, let me put it to you this way: in eternity past, God planned. He made decisions about everything and that plan is being worked out moment by moment. Psalm 33:11 says, "the counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation." God made a plan in eternity past, in the councils of His own triune being, and human history is merely the outworking of that plan. And folks, it's working exactly as God planned. Ephesians 1:11 says we have been, "predestined according to His purpose" - listen to this – the One who, "works all things after the counsel of His will." I love Ephesians 3:10-11. It says, "the manifold wisdom of God is now being made known through the church to heavenly creatures and rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." And then he says this, this idea of the church being the display for God's glory in the world, "this was in accordance with the eternal purpose" – literally, the purpose of the ages – "which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord." So, make no mistake. God does this. God has a plan and He executes those plans and He orders all of human history and eternity by those plans. That should be enough for us.

Secondly, scripture calls for human planning while acknowledging God's sovereignty over our plans. Let me just show you a couple of passages in Proverbs. Turn to Proverbs 16:1, "the plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD." Again, the assumption is that the wise person is going to make plans. God, however, is in the place to sovereignly overrule and direct those plans according to His own will because His plan trumps your plan. That's what it comes down to. Verse 3, "commit your works to the LORD." The idea here is roll on to the Lord or, or submit to Him your works, "and your plans will be established." Again, the implication is wise people plan. God expects and encourages this among His people. Even as He reminds us that we are ultimately not in charge of those plans, we submit them to Him. Verse 9, "the mind of the man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps." Literally, the Hebrew text says step, singular. We plan our overarching life, our way or the sweep of our lives, but the Lord directs each and every step. Look at Proverbs 20:18, "prepare plans by consultation, and make war by wise guidance." Plan. And as you're planning, seek counsel, wise counsel from others. But again, the implication always is this is what people should do. This is what wise people do. Proverbs 21:5 - this isn't a paragraph, by the way, about ill-gotten gain but notice – "the plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty come surely to poverty." When it comes to making a way in the world, when it comes to providing for ourselves and our families, "the plans of the diligent lead to advantage." So, scripture calls, then, for human planning while acknowledging God's sovereignty over those plans.

A third Biblical argument, as Paul establishes, living an ordered, purposeful life as one of the qualifications for an elder. Look at 1 Timothy 3:2 says, "an overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent" – notice this word – "respectable." Respectable is the Greek word, "kosmios." You recognize it. It comes from the Greek word "kosmos." Although it's normally translated "world," the primary meaning of this word that's used here in this text is an apt and harmonious arrangement or order. It's the opposite of chaos. Kosmion means well-arranged or orderly. In other words, to be an elder, you have to have a life that is well-arranged and orderly. That makes you respectable because that's true. Homer Kent, in his commentary on the pastoral epistles, puts this explanation to this word respectable. He says, "the ministry is no place for the man whose life is a continual confusion of unaccomplished plans and unorganized activities." John MacArthur says in his commentary on 1 Timothy, "if he can't order his own life, how can he bring order to the church?" Now, I get it. This passage is about elders. But let me remind you that the character qualifications for elders in this passage are goals for us all, whether you aspire or can be an elder or not. These character qualifications are ones you and I all should pursue - an orderly, well-arranged life. So, I'm not going to belabor it, but let me just let me just sort of summarize it this way: scripture is clear that an intentioned, planned, ordered life reflects the nature of God, is encouraged for the wise, and should be the goal of every Christian.

Now, that brings us, secondly, to the essential foundation of an ordered life. How do you start? How do you go from where you are to an ordered, structure life? Well, think about an airplane for a moment. Our lives, I think - and I told my girls this many times - our lives, in many ways, are like an airplane. Experts tell us that airplanes are slightly off course some 90% of the time. Because the prevailing winds and everything else, they're just always slightly off course and the pilot is there and all the equipment's there to keep bringing them back on course. That's why you eventually arrive, hopefully, where you're supposed to arrive. We're like that. We spend most of our lives slightly off course in one or more of those priorities I mentioned earlier. You have to acknowledge that. I acknowledge that this is a reality. I don't care who you are. We're always slightly off course somewhere. But what is the most essential thing to ensure that a plane arrives at its destination? There are a lot of smart aleck answers out there right now, I'm sure, but let me say, this is a kind of trick question because the most important thing for a plane to arrive at its destination is an identifiable destination. If a plane takes off, and everything else is as it should be, and it has no destination, guess what's going to happen. It's not going to get there. This is true in life. We will always be slightly off course but we must have a destination to get anywhere. We must have a destination to be able to assess if the things that we're doing right now are going to get us to that destination.

What do I mean? Obviously, I'm using a metaphor. What we have to have, I believe, is a defined set of goals and priorities. You have to have a destination, a concise written statement of what's important to you and what's going to be your life's priorities. Organizations have this and they call it, what? A purpose statement or something like that. It's currently trendy for individuals to call this a mission statement. I don't really care what you call it. It's a destination. It's a purpose statement. It's a brief written statement of the goals for which and by which you live. It is a compass for your daily decisions and how you spend your time. It's a way to fulfill that prayer, "LORD, teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom."

Let me give you a case study of Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest theologians the 18th century. He did exactly this. He wrote his 70 Resolutions. Now, in the 18th century, compiling a written list of your life's resolutions was a common custom. So, he wasn't alone in this. Edwards began writing his resolutions in 1722. It was less than a year after his conversion. He was only 18 years old when he did this. Some of you who are younger, take note. He wrote 21 of them at one sitting but he refined them and continued to add into right for about a year. He completed them in August of 1723. Here are some excerpts from his finished set of 70 Resolutions. This is as recorded in "Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography" by Ian Murray, which I would recommend to you. Here's one of those resolutions: "Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat Him by His grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to His will, for Christ's sake." "Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God's glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence." I'm going to do what's good for me and my soul and what's best for God's glory. "Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general." "Resolved, never to lose one moment of time" - Wow, here's one you could put on the face of your phone- "resolved never to lose one moment of time, but improve it, the most profitable way I possibly can." "Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life." "Endeavoring to find out fit objects of charity and liberality." In other words, always looking for ways to give and to help others. "Resolve never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings." This is when he had to ride on a horse. We could say with irrational computers. "Resolved, to study the scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same." I love this one. He says - I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live if they were to live their lives over again – "resolved, I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age." In other words, I'm going to live so that I never say, "if I had to do over again, I would do it differently." "Resolved" - I love this one – "never to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be." In other words, just keep fighting foot by bloody foot.

Now, those were his resolutions. I would argue that there is great benefit and value. This isn't inspired not sharing that with you. This isn't the Bible but I would argue that history would say, if you do any reading in history, that it is very beneficial to have some sort of a destination, something you're shooting at for your life. Something that marks the priorities of your life.

How do you get there? Well, let me just give you a brief resolutions workshop. This is how I did it many years ago now. So, again, not inspired but hopefully some helpful ideas. Schedule an uninterrupted day away. In other words, just say, put on the calendar, "I'm going to take an entire day (or half a day or whatever you can contribute) to devoting myself to this process." Secondly, create a simple list of what's important to you. You'll find that there are large categories, like the ones I listed before: God, spouse, children, ministry, spiritual gifts, people in general, family, finances, health, enjoyment of life. Just list all of the categories that you have responsibilities and commitments. Thirdly, prioritize that list and assess. So, in other words, which ones are the ones that get the most importance and then measure how effectively you're doing in carrying out those priorities. Use the results of that to write a brief statement of your priorities and goals. That's it. It's not complicated, but this will help you get there.

And, by the way, let me just say this doesn't have to be perfectly refined or complete the first time you work on it. It took Jonathan Edwards more than a year to write his complete resolutions. My own have been continuing to gradually be refined over time. I'm not going to read you all of this - there's two pages in fine print here - but I'll read you the major categories. Under each of the major categories I've written a series of specific ways to accomplish them. I'm not going to share all of those with you. I'll just give you the big categories. Here's my own personal resolutions: "to glorify, God, and enjoy him forever. To know and understand God's word. To love Sheila as Christ loved the church. To raise children who love God, love Sheila and me, and who are prepared to live productive lives. To use the gifts God has given me, teaching and administration, in a way that brings Him glory and helps people grow in their love for Him and in their spiritual maturity. To show genuine love and concern for others. To have at least one Jonathan kind of friend. To enjoy life as a gift from God. And to take time weekly and yearly to think about those things that are truly important, to check my current life against my compass." Those are mine. Yours might be similar or look entirely different, but I can tell you that that list has served as a great destination point for me. I review it almost every week and it sets the course for my life. That's what I'm urging you to consider.

Now, it's helpful, as I said, over time to add specific steps to help you achieve the larger goals. For example, one of those ones I read you, one of my goals is, "to show genuine love and concern for people." Under that, I added steps like these to help me accomplish that goal: "respond to times of trauma, such as hospitalization, deaths, etc. with my presence, calls, encouragement, and offers of specific help. Listen carefully, maintaining consistent eye contact. Try to remember specific information about the people I meet and speak with. Pray for someone when I commit to do so. Regularly write notes expressing my gratitude for a person, mentioning a specific quality that I've noticed in them. Regularly praise someone for his or her character, work, etc." So, those are specific ways to accomplish the larger objective of showing love and concern for people. I would encourage you, over time, to do something like that as well.

So, the foundation, I would argue, in ordered life is to have a destination, to have your own - whatever you want to call it - mission statement, resolutions, whatever. But how do you even go about structuring those priorities? I'm not going to spend a lot of time here because we're doing it in our study of 1 John. We did it this morning. We'll do it over the next couple of weeks. But I want to move to the Biblical priorities of an ordered life. This should be roman numeral III. J Oswald Sanders writes this: "the problem" - and listen carefully, because here's where a lot of people go – "the problem is not that of needing more time but of making better use of the time we have. Let us face the facts squarely that each of us has as much time as anyone else in the world. The president of the United States has 24 hours to his day and so have we. Others may have more ability influence or money than we but they have no more time. Time can be lost, but it can never be retrieved. It cannot be hoarded. It must be spent. In the face of that sobering fact, the leader must be meticulously careful in his selection of priorities." You have all the time you need. The question is: how are you going to spend it? My argument is: do it intentionally, for goodness sake. Don't be driven along mindlessly.

So, what are the Biblical priorities that ought to order and structure? Well, we need to adopt God's priorities and, again, I'm not going to spend a lot of time here. We've just seen it in Matthew. 22 this morning where Jesus is asked, "what are the great commandments?" And what does He say? He says you need to love the Lord your God with all your heart mind, soul, and strength. And you need to love your neighbor as yourself, Matthew 22:34 and following. Those are the great priorities: love God with your entire being and love your neighbor as yourself. Listen, you don't need help deciding what ought to be important in your life. God's already decided that and these are they. And so, your life needs to reflect these things.

So, it comes down, then, to putting God first. "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." What does it mean to love God? Well, if you go back to Deuteronomy, where Christ is quoting from - and this was a fascinating study for me - if you go back to Deuteronomy and you look at the context, every time it talks about loving God you see other words that sort of fill out our understanding of what it means to love God, words that are used as synonyms or similar phrases, words like "to fear God," "to be loyal to Him," "to serve Him," "to walk in His ways," "to keep His commandments, "to cling to Him." All of those are, in fact, ways that we express our love to God. That is our primary duty: to fear God, to be loyal to Him, to serve Him, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments, to cling to Him. By the way, "cling to Him" is used - that same Hebrew word - is used in Genesis 2:24 when it says that a husband and wife are to be joined together. Be joined to God. That's what it means to love Him, our primary duty.

How can we demonstrate this priority? Well, it begins with a life immersed in the word of God. Go back to Deuteronomy 6. And I'm not, again, I don't want to steal all my thunder here because we're going to look at this text in the future, but Deuteronomy 6 we looked this morning at the great command in verse 5 but notice what follows, "these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently," and he keeps talking about the scripture. What is the relationship to these verses to the great command to love God? Verse 6-9 record one practical consequence of loving God. It is a life immersed in God's word. Notice verse 6: "They shall be on your heart." That is, you study and meditate on God's word. Verse 7: "You shall teach them diligently to your children." That is, teach your family God's word. Verse 7 goes on to say, "talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up." In other words, saturate your daily conversation with God's word. Verse 8: bind them and write them in various places. The implication there is not literally write them like some of the Jews have done in terms of putting the scripture on the boxes on their forehead, and on their arms, and on their doors. That's not the idea. This is a metaphor saying: make sure the word of God impacts all of those things. It impacts how you think, It impacts your heart and what you love. It impacts what you do in your house. It impacts what happens at the city gates, what happens in your business. So, have a life that's immersed in God's word. True love for God always expresses itself in a willing and joyful obedience to His commands. That's the theme that's developed in verses 6-9. 1 John 5:3 puts it this way, "this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments."

So, you want to love God? You're going to be immersed in the word of God, but you're also going to have a commitment to love and serve God's people. I'm not going to take you there because of time, but you remember in John 21:15-17, Jesus is restoring Peter. After the resurrection, Peter, of course, denied the Lord and the Lord's restoring him, and three times He says, "Peter, do you love Me? Do you love Me? Do you love Me?" And Peter responds, "Lord, You know I love You. You know I love You. You know I love You." But what is the response of Jesus in each case? "If you love Me, Peter, here's what I want you to do: I want you to tend My sheep. I want you to feed My sheep." In other words, "if you love Me, then love My people and serve and care for them." And folks, you may not be an apostle, you may not be a pastor, but that priority is yours as well. Love the Lord's people and make that a priority in your life. How does this priority affect your schedule? Well, if you're going to love God then this is really going to be number one in your life. You're going to make time with God, you're going to make time to be in His word, you're going to make time to be in prayer, you're going to make time to be alone with God. You say, "I just don't have time." Remember, you don't have any less time than any other person has ever had. It's how you're choosing to use your time. I tell young guys who are struggling to make time to do this, I say, "okay, look, I'm going to help you. I just want you to make one commitment and that is: 'Lord, I will not eat one bite of food today until I've spent time in Your word.'" Guess what happens? They make time. I don't know how it happens, but somehow, they find time. It's not a matter of time. It's a matter of priorities.

It demands that people also be our priority and that comes to the second great priority. We put God first and we put people second. Matthew 22:39, "the second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" As I mentioned this morning, in Luke 10, Jesus defines "neighbor" as those whom God providentially brings into our lives. Folks, next to loving God, loving people should be our priority.

How can we practically do that? How can we practically show love to those around us? Well, we can determine to do, first, in our lives we can determine to do first the things that benefit people in relationships. After God, this ought to be number two. The things that benefit people in our relationships. When I was in college, one of my professors made this provocative comment and I've never forgotten it. He says, "you're not ready to live until you know what you want written on your tombstone." What is it that's really important to you, that you want people to remember you for? That's the point. And that comes back, or should come back, to relationships. In fact, one of the most clarifying exercises of my life was when I challenged, or was challenged, rather, to answer the simple question: what do I want the people around me to say at my funeral? What do I want Sheila to say about me at my funeral? What do I want my girls to say about me at my funeral? What do I want you, as the people whose joy it's been for me to shepherd, what do I want you to say at my funeral? Folks, that should shape our lives. That should, the answer to those questions, should govern and shape our lives. Determine to do first what benefits people because next to God, they are your chief priority.

Each week determine what specific steps will most benefit each of those relationships. In other words, every week as you're organizing your week say, "what is the thing I can do this week that will most express my love to the key people in my life?" And it's going to look different every week. "What are the steps I can take?" If necessary, add specific tasks or activities to your calendar. If you're like me and, you know, you have a good memory, it's just short, then you might want to put it on your calendar to remind yourself to do it because it's important to you. Determine that you will never think of people as an interruption and leave time open each day to accommodate people. I once got a great piece of advice from a man who was a vice president for a very large international firm. He said leave ten to twenty percent of every day unscheduled, if you can. Why? So that people aren't an interruption when people invariably come and need you or need your help, you're not put out with them or short with them.

Now, let me ask you: if you looked, if I looked, at whatever calendar you use - electronic or, you know, a piece of paper on the wall, or whatever it is, or maybe at your mind (some people keep it there) - if I looked at your calendar and your task list, how well would it really reflect these priorities - loving God and loving people? I would argue, if it doesn't, then you're not living an ordered life. You're being driven by the urgent. You're living by the clock, not by the compass. Perhaps you've heard the very familiar illustration that's been used for centuries. In front of the classroom, a professor placed a table and, on the table, there was a large jar and that jar was half-filled with sand. Next to the jar half-filled with sand he placed large fist-sized rocks and he challenged the students to fit those rocks into the jar. The first student came up eager to give it his try and he took a few of those large rocks and as best he could he twisted and forced them down into the sand as far as he could get and then, when he finally realized he couldn't get any more down into the sand, he just piled the rest of the rocks on top. But, to his frustration, he discovered they simply didn't fit. He couldn't do it. He gave up in frustration. The second student said he could do it and he came up and he took a novel approach. He took first the jar of sand, and he poured the sand out onto the table onto a piece of paper. And then he put in the rocks. And then he poured the sand over the rocks. And, of course, you know what happened. The little sand filled in all the cracks and crevices around the rocks and by the time he was done, it all fit. That's a metaphor for life. You have to commit to doing the big things first, to putting the big things into your life - the things that matter, the priorities that God has given you - you have to put those into your life first and then let the sand fit where it fits.

So far, we've seen the Biblical arguments for an ordered life, the foundation for an ordered life - a destination. We've seen the Biblical priorities of an ordered life: love God and love people. Let's consider, lastly, just some practical tools in order to life. There are three practical tools I would encourage you – again, not inspired - but I've just discovered my own life. These are very helpful.

First of all, scheduling regular review and evaluation. I would argue that weekly you should review your resolutions. Resolutions are wonderful tools but they are ineffective if you never look at them. At the beginning of his own list of 70 Resolutions, Jonathan Edwards writes this, "remember to read over these resolutions once a week." Elsewhere, he writes this, "resolved to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month, and year wherein I could possibly, in any respect, have done better." In other words, he intentionally paused to say, "let me think about my way and see what I need to change." I encourage you to do that, if possible, weekly. You know, it's interesting, God Himself underscored the weekly cycle. He did so in the in the pattern of creation. Have you ever wondered why our lives are broken into seven day weeks? it doesn't work out mathematically. Have you ever noticed that? Why? There's only one reason: because God created in seven days - in six days and on the seventh day, He rested. That's the reason our lives are ordered in weeks. I also see this pattern in the command for weekly worship. You know, we come to worship and yes, we benefit. When we worship God, we personally benefit, but we also re-center our lives. I love the fact that when I come on the Lord's day, I'm reminded of what's really important. So, there's benefit and value to that. I also encourage you to consider that. I also would encourage you to consider an annual planning day away in which you can evaluate your life and relationships against your resolutions. You can determine specific sins to address and weaknesses. You can decide, "okay, where do I need to go from here?" Sheila and I do this, not only in our own individual lives, but we do it with our marriage and our family. Somewhere around our anniversary each year, for many years, we've been married now 35 years, and for many years on or around our anniversary we'll get away and, of course, we enjoy that time, but part of what we do is to evaluate: how's our marriage and our relationship? We'll think through each child: what what do we need to do in each child's life? What do we need to do in terms of the atmosphere of our home? What adjustments do we need to make? There's really great value in taking time to do these things.

A second tool I would encourage you is using a daily or weekly planner. I know, some of you are groaning going, "I've got it. It's in my head." Well, the advantage of using some kind of a planner, written or digital - and there are a lot of great digital tools. I use digital tools. I used to use a written planner but digital tools are great because they share across your devices, they're easy to transfer items from one place to another - you don't have to remember every appointment and every task, if you have something that it's all written in. Because, if you try to remember it, it clutters your brain and it makes regular praise, and prayer, and meditation almost impossible because you're always thinking about what you need to do next whereas when I'm riding in my car and I think of something I need to do, I just tell Siri to add a task to my task list and then I can forget it and move on. So, I encourage you to seriously consider that. How do you go about using weekly planning? Well, schedule a specific time at the start of the new week. For me, it's Tuesday morning. Monday is my day off. So, Tuesday morning. This is when I plan. Whenever it works for you. What do you do? I would encourage you to re-read your resolutions, your mission statement, to schedule as your first priority that week regular time for scripture and prayer. If loving God is your number one priority and loving God is first reflected in being immersed in His word, then guess what? That's number one on your calendar. It's number one in your life. Determine what specific steps would most benefit each of the relationships in your life and plan what you're going to do. Remember, people are number two. So, what can I do to love and serve the people around me? How can I do that practically? Then, schedule your other appointments and tasks and assign those tasks to specific days. Now, all of this planning - back to Proverbs, remember – "man plans, but the Lord directs his steps." So, you submit this to the Lord and say, "Lord, it's right and wise for me to make plans, but this day is, if You have different plans, help me to submit to that." But, there is benefit and value to planning.

There's one final tool I would recommend to you and that is planning with objectives, goals, and tasks. Again, this isn't inspired, but I've just noticed so many people have these grandiose plans that never get done. "I'm going to learn the Bible." It never happens. Why? Because that's not a plan. Okay, that's an objective. It's not a plan. So, let me show you what this looks like. Here's a definition of the tools. An objective is an overarching plan. A goal is components of that larger objective. And tasks are specific steps necessary to accomplish the goal. Let me give you an example. Here's an objective. Okay, this is an objective I had: improve the knowledge of scripture content. We need to know what scripture teaches. One goal, just one goal as part of that overarching objective is: "to review the New Testament chapter content that I already knew." In other words, what's in each chapter. So, the task to help me do that. You got to break that down. Well, I need to "research a flashcard program, a digital flashcard program." I've done all this, by the way. But, research a flashcard program. Locate the chapter content notes that are already have copy the chapter content into the program and set up the review system. You see that overarching goal of improving my knowledge of scripture. Guess what? That never happens if it doesn't get broken down like this and yours won't either. You need to break it down so that you can do small tasks to get toward that goal, whatever it is. Here's another example - same objective, improve your knowledge of scripture content - another goal, a second goal: "read through the Bible in a year." That's a good goal. You want to have that goal. So, what are the tasks to get there? Research different options. Download a reading plan on your device. Decide the best time of day for reading and add it to your schedule or task list. If you don't do those things, it's not going to happen. And so, you need to work out the objectives that you have using these tools. It's very, very helpful.

Now, let me summarize everything I've said this way – back to Psalm 90 – "teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Folks, don't ever forget that your time on this earth is limited. That's a reality. Thanks to an illustration that some of you have heard me, share that's never far from me. I never go more than a few days without remembering what I'm about to share with you. It's the reality that insurance companies are gambling on how long you're going to live. You know that? You see, insurance companies work by figuring out how long the average person lives and then charging premiums that allow them to cover their expenses so when they pay out, they don't spend all the money. So, they have to basically gamble on how long we're all going to live. Now, those actuarial tables that are the result of all of that allow them to build premiums to cover their financial exposure and those actuarial tables are usually calculated by the year you were born, or your current age, or some combination of that. But roughly, if we just sort of forget insurance agents for a moment, roughly the average life expectancy for men sitting in this room today is about 75. The average age for women sitting in this room today is 79. Some of you are already living on borrowed time but let me get you to do a little math problem. If you're a woman, I want you to subtract your current age from 79. If you're a man, I want you to subtract your current age from 75. Now, let me just be Johnny Raincloud for a moment. That is how long, on average, you have left to live. Some of us will not make the average and some of us will live beyond the average. But, on average, that result from your little mathematical problem is how many years you have left on this earth. Remember Moses? "Seventy years or if by reason of strength eighty years." That's the average.

So, my question to you is: how are you going to use those years? I remember the first time this was shared with me. I was in my early 20s sitting in a classroom and I thought, "wow, a third of my life is already gone." And that never, ever leaves my thoughts for more than a few days. What are you going to do with the time you have left? I urge you to live an ordered life - not to be driven by the stuff around you - by other people's priorities, by your electronic devices. Live a life intentionally ordered on what's important to God and what you say is important to you. Live by the compass and not by the clock. The following lines are engraved on a sundial at a college up in the northeast. I like this. Listen carefully. "The shadow by my finger cast, divides the future from the past: before it stands the unborn hour, in darkness, and beyond thy power: behind its unreturning line, the vanished hour, no longer thine: one hour alone is in thy hands - the NOW on which the shadow stands." My desire for you is to be wise. "The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is self-deception." Or, in the words of Moses in Psalm 90, "teach us, o God, teach us to number our days that we may apply our heart to wisdom." Let's pray together.

Father, I pray that You would use our time together tonight for good in all of our Lives. Lord, those things that come directly and authoritatively from Your word, I pray that You would help everyone of us to embrace them and embrace them fully. And Lord, some of the ideas that I've shared that You've used in my own life that have been helpful, I pray that if those are potentially helpful in another life that You'd use them for good and, if not, that they would soon forget them. Father, I pray beyond all that I've shared, that You would help each of us who knows and loves You to live intentionally, to live purposefully, to live kingdom lives for kingdom priorities, for the things that matter. Lord, don't let us be like the lemmings on this planet who just follow each other over the cliff. Lord, help us to be Your people who live truly ordered lives - not only organized, but lives that are shaped and directed by the compass that You have shaped. And may our lives not be commonplace or wasted but may they count for the kingdom. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.