"I Don't Have Time" Is Not a Valid Excuse

Time. A useful resource. Time? Is that our objection?

Time? What is this substance made of and why? We hear these words come out of our mouth quite often. I'm busy. I cannot participate because I'm too busy.

Time resistance is readily answered by the timeless one.

He lives unencumbered by the reality of the compression of time. Does this trigger us? Is your time so precious? Compared to what?

Compared to the measure of time that God invested into your salvation? Did He give you temporary life only? How much time did Christ invest into walking these dusty trails? How many days did Christ endure hunger and thirst and loneliness in the wilderness, suffering here to demonstrate that His righteousness is superior and able to earn eternal redemption?

Time? Is that our rebuttal to the command of our King?

He's given us the Great Commission and we come back and say, "Sir, I'd like to say a word. Please, sir, I do not have one hour. I cannot squeeze in a full 60 minutes into my super busy Earth Week to participate in the eternal endeavor. There's just no time at all remaining. Here, look at my schedule. You'll see, it's full."

Is this a valid excuse for opting out of the Great Commission?

Welcome to today's episode. If you're feeling a little bit uncomfortable already, stay with us. Yes, this message will be sharp, like surgery, but healthy, necessary. We're going to challenge our excuse, myself included, particularly a most common one, which is I don't have time. We'll explore Scripture perspective on time stewardship, we'll hear some clips of wisdom from both ancient and modern voices, and ultimately we will find a practical pathway forward. "This might sting for a few minutes," said the nurse, "but healing follows truth. Smiley face. Scratch and sniff sticker."

The Real Issue: Time Management

"But sir, I just can't see how to get it all done with the limited time constraints."

What would be the commanding officer likely to say to this objection if we were genuinely as a soldier trying to please our commander-in-chief? "I cannot properly manage my time." Now that sounds a little more transparent. That's reconcilable.

Because genuinely, if you were the parent of a child who came to you and said, "I can't find time in my busy schedule to do my homework," you know the answer as a parent already. It has to do with one thing only. Time use. Typically on technology.

So we would say to our child, "The answer is in your hand. It's that smartphone device, that tablet. There are multiple hours of time that have been squandered this week, even today, on the screen. Tell me, you do not have any entertainment apps downloaded. Tell me, you don't have time for Netflix, no Hulu, no YouTube. Let's look at your screen time report. And then let's look at your soul winning time report. Compare screen time to eternal time."

Long pause, wow, Holy Spirit help us, right? Who is our small g, God replacement? In America, that answer has become entertainment, the great distraction.

So it's not a matter of time only. No one is killing you by asking you to participate in the eternal endeavor of delivering the greatest news ever for one hour. Carry the paper. Jesus pleaded with His disciples, "Could you not watch with me one hour?" So, time is not a valid excuse.

And why? Because Christ gave His time. Does He not offer us everlasting life? Time, our time is not a valid excuse for non-participation in the Gospel content distribution and preparation. Because the capital S Source, from which we have received the instructions for outreach to the world, our Source understands our feeble, limited nature.

He knows that we're made of dust, and yet He invites us to participate in a meaningful way anyway to get the good news to the world.

What Scripture Says About Time Stewardship

Let's consider a few Scriptures on stewardship. Scripture speaks clearly about our relationship with time.

Ephesians 5: "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil." Most of us know that verse, but let it light up fresh again. Let it speak new volumes today. Purchasing back time, redeeming time, seeing it as valuable. Why? Because we're looking at the evil. Evil can be a proper motivation toward the light.

Psalm 90 says, "So teach us to number our days," which means we need to go to class. We need to go to math class and science class and listen to the teacher and teach us to number our days so that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

So one of the keys that unlocks the door to efficient time use is getting the right teacher, and number two, asking for wisdom. Apply our heart unto wisdom, and then time will take care of itself. Boom, boom in the room.

Ecclesiastes three, verse one says, "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." Establish the purpose, time stretches to cover it.

The Timeless Nature of Our God

Now, let's consider the timeless nature of our one true God, smiley face. If we can't do it, certainly He can, right? I know somebody that can get the job done. What is the timeless nature of God?

Isaiah declares so clearly in chapter 40, verse 28, "Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God..." Which one? "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth. Fainteth not. Neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding." That should give you some reassurance.

Isaiah 57 says, "For thus sayeth the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity." Where's your house? One eternity loop, eternity lane everlasting.

Sorry, I edited Scripture there. Let me again, Isaiah 57:15 says, "For thus sayeth the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also, that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Notice the word "revive" multiple times on purpose, which means to give fresh energy, tastes better than cheesecake.

The Triune Nature of Resources

Here we see from these verses and from our personal experience. Indeed, this is true. Time is never alone. Time is not singular. The nature of time is very intriguing in that time is a stretchy substance, smiley face. Time is always interwoven with at least two other elements.

Indeed, inseparable are the fibers woven of time, energy, and resources. These three are one.

Because if a person says, "I don't have time," it means they also don't have energy. Or they don't want to dedicate resources. So which of these three, is it then? Is it that I'm holding on to my resources? Or am I holding on to my energy because I lack faith that God will provide His supernatural energy? Or is it that I'm guarding my precious time as mine?

Is there time that is genuinely mine? Or am I a steward? Have I been purchased? Is my life hid with Christ?

The Apostle Paul traveled much, and he went where the people were. He fed the spiritually hungry with the truth. He provided for his own travels with his own hands. In Acts 20, he's near the end. He's standing on the shore, ready to depart to head to Rome, and he says, "Ye yourselves know that these hands," right here, look at him, see him. "These hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me."

So he covered the bills for the people that traveled with him using his business of tent-making, not as his primary time use, but in balance. He did not aim for work-life balance, but he had ideal resource-ministry balance.

That's what we're aiming for here is resource ministry balance.

Indeed, time is a resource, energy likewise, a resource, and then all of our physical substance serves as resources. So those three are triune. You can weave them in your brain like a braid. Time, energy, resources cannot be unbound. There's no separation of that three-fold cord.

Wisdom Quotes on Time

A guy named Arthur Schopenhauer says, "The most common man is not concerned about the passage of time. The man of talent is driven by it." Driven by what? The passage of time.

H. Jackson Brown Jr. says, "Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller. Was she productive? Pasteur? Michelangelo? Leonardo da Vinci? Thomas Jefferson? Albert Einstein?" The list goes on. No excuse.

Jim Rohn says, "Either you run the day or the day runs you." I'm going to add a word. Either you run the day or the day runs right over you.

Closing with Love

When we consider the value of a human soul, time becomes an invalid excuse. Yes, we're all busy earning substance, food, providing a lifestyle for ourselves and our family. Automation is your friend in this year. And a teammate is your friend, meaning the way we get things done is being around people who are getting things done.

Time can be your friend. God wants you to have a peaceable arrangement with time. Obviously, God wants things done. God wants the Great Commission to carry out. He wants His Gospel delivered with regularity and sincerity, full saturation, entire world.

So let's ask God to rearrange our schedule to match His. Let's ask God sincerely for better priorities. We are all struggling with juggling, trying to keep all of our responsibilities in the air simultaneously. It's stressful, but life is an algorithm, a little bit difficult on purpose.

Yet, we all find time for groceries. We all discover and carve out time for self-care. And I would say, let's craft and carve intentionally a solid one hour somewhere in the week for Gospel distribution, Gospel content production.

And then efficiently send that raw content to someone else to do the editing. Thou shalt not edit. Only focus on production.

You can oversee the distribution, but don't personally engage in the distribution. Allow your team space to fill in the gaps. The Holy Spirit can help you understand that.

What this does is gives you back at least half of your time. If you only have 60 minutes to vote to the Great Commission, give all 60 to content production and then let your team do the other half. What half is that? The other half is editing, polishing, preparing, publishing, tracking engagement and promoting, printing, the logistics, the carryout.

Otherwise, you're cutting your effectiveness by at least 50% by not allowing a team to help you. That's a time leak. You will waste at least half of your ministry life if you learn Photoshop.

That was a joke. After a joke, you have to pause long enough for people to laugh. Like the emotions have to swell to fill in the pace of the gap.

So I'll say it again. You are wasting half of your ministry life by learning new cool tools instead of producing and then sharing with other people who can learn the tools and take the content across the finish line. Sub it out to someone who's skilled differently than you are. Stop being your own king captain. You're your own time destroyer.

We love you enough to speak the truth. This was supposed to be loving. Wow, love is painful.

We provoke one another to love and to good works. Zowie, wowie. All of us want to be more enthusiastically engaged in the work of the Lord, right? We don't want to cut each other so harshly that it takes several weeks to recuperate from verbal surgery. We can find solace, comfort, healing from Scripture.

Also, we can receive an injunction of admonition as piercing, dividing, clarifying, distinction. Sometimes surgery is healthy.

Hebrews 10: "And let us consider one another to provoke," out, provoking, "unto love. And to good works. Let's get out there. Do the work."

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" doesn't mean just sitting at a pew. Maybe it means working together, right? Cohesion, connection, teamwork. Where is your Gospel team? Well, I don't have one yet. Well, what are you waiting for?

"Not forsaking the assembling," not to stare at each other, but to do the work of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another, exhort. Why would you exhort somebody unless they were active? Like, hey, let's step it up over there. How are we doing in this department? Oh, great. This content's ready. That one's ready to go. We're doing over here, doing over there, doing over there. How's the printing? How's that website going? How's that video? How's that zoom? How's that live?

How's that Gospel tract we're going to print and put out on car windshields? Where'd that grocery? So he developed the grocery Gospel tract the other day. It's coupons for life, right? And it's got the bread of life, the water of life, the milk of the word. It's got the meat. It's all in there. You can get all these spiritual coupons, right? And it's pleasant and a little bit of comedy to distribute to people as you go through the grocery store.

Where's that? How are we doing on that? Can we get it across the line? What's the cost of print? Let's make that conversation happen anyway.

"So much the more as you see the day approaching," which means there's a day approaching. It's the end. It's the transition. It's when this life transitions into, you know, it's like the timer stops.