Staying Focused: Navigating Ministry with Intentionality and Rest

There is a lot of time management within all of these things. How do I fit everything I have to do within the time that I have to do? Um and on top of that the stresses that come from that. A couple weeks ago, uh, Bishop Dudenhoffer talked to us about tending the tree and read from Proverbs 4. So, above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. Uh, so I was um looking at uh Luke's notes and just kind of thinking through what to talk about today and my mind went to actually just a couple verses after this verse. Uh, let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to your paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to your the right or the left. Keep your foot from evil. [00:03:49]

And really to me, when you look at this whole section at the end of Proverbs 4, it's all one big thing. Like they're all one topic here. Like if it's we're supposed to um guard our heart, what the rest of these verses are doing are helping us. How do we guard our heart? what are the different things that we do implement what live through in order to do that and so um talking to Josiah just about today and kind of different things to talk about and just kind of things on my own heart this is going to be part two of Luke's talk and so u he gave you the really good stuff I'm going to give you the second rate more practical stuff so this is practical ways to guard your heart and I want to look at those three verses today within the time we have and I want to just tell you right now we're going talk about being focused, making a plan, and avoiding distractions. Uh because that's what these three verses I think are really pointing on. [00:04:45]

Let your eyes look straight ahead. fix your gaze directly before you. Uh Derek Ker in her his commentary on this verse he says with the steady aim minor decisions of are governed by the ultimate goal. And really the idea of that is um how what you are focused on what we're what's primary what's most important influences everything. Um yesterday as many of you know or at least I hope you do yesterday was Star Wars day and so uh quoting from the great theologian Quigon Jinn he said your focus determines your reality. Um and that's exactly what this verse is talking about though that what you are focused on influences your reality. And so what is most important influences all the small things. [00:06:50]

Everything that we do is not about New Life Community Church. Everything that we do is about Jesus. Yeah. That's not a criticism. That's not a negative. That's a reality that we have to be aligned on and focused on. It's all about Jesus. It's everything is about him. It's it's why we do communion is because we continually forget what is most important and we need to be brought back to be reminded of what is most important. Our identity is in him. Our identity is not in our position as pastors. Our identity is him. Our our identity is not based on how big or small our location is or how many people will or won't get baptized or how good or bad our kids are doing or fill in the blank with the different things that we put value on. Our identity is in the Lord. [00:08:22]

And again, there's such a basic reality to that. Um but we all wander and we all forget. And I think that when things get the busiest is when we lose sight of what's most important and because we our eyes get taken off of Jesus onto the trial, the the situation, the challenge, the annoying person or whatever it is and we start allowing that to be our focus and then we if we're focusing on the hard thing that becomes our reality and we start acting different than we ought. And so we just need that regular reminder that Jesus is everything. And again, we know that probably preached on that at some point in the last 24 hours or a few weeks. [00:09:11]

I think you again as much as we have to know our tells when we're getting off focus, we have to know the things that fill us and again and it comes back to reminding ourselves about the goodness and greatness and love of Jesus and how much we need to be reminded of that where it's not just task, it's not just sermon prep, it's not just whatever the pastoral duties are, it's he loves me as much as I tell people that he loves them. Yeah. And so we just we need to have those moments where we're reminded of that. And again, for for some it might be, you know, the just kind of going for a walk. For some it might be reading scripture. For others it might be having somebody get in your face. But we we need to do what we need to we need to give ourselves permission and we need to be responsible to remind ourselves what's most important that our identity is in the Lord and do the things that keep us focused on that. [00:21:02]

The succession of steps by which vision is turned into action demands practical planning. Um, nothing happens just automatic. Nothing good happens just automatically. U, it takes planning. It takes work. Um, my son just started taking guitar lessons this January and I keep telling him, you just have to intentionally do it. You have to stick at it. You have to put in the work and you have to figure out when you're going to do it and put in the work. You're not just going to automatically be slash um, as much as he wants. And so there's something about that intentionality. And so the the steps that we take demand planning. [00:22:00]

Someone who can't manage their time is either doing too much or isn't being intentional. Now we all have different capacities for what we can handle the different how much we can do uh different things like that and we should never compare that to one another. God has given us a capacity. God's given us the abilities. God's given us opportunities. And you know to Zach's point, we don't want to compare ourselves with other people. But regardless of what we are responsible for and what we have before us, we are responsible for how we manage that and how we go about that. And so we have to be intentional with how we manage our time and and utilize the amount of time that we do have. [00:23:24]

The number one question that I get asked probably just like lifetime things is Bobby, how in the world do you manage your time with everything that you have to do? Um, and so I'm not in any sense an expert at this. I have probably can line up people around the block for people who would tell you I've dropped the ball on things, but this I I would not be the only way that I can do the things I do is because I manage my time and I'm very intentional with it. And so to that point, I want to talk about that a little bit. So, if we're going to make a plan, you have to intentionally manage your time. The most basic level of that, you have to use a calendar and you have to use a to-do list. [00:25:05]

If you are not if you do not have a calendar and you do not have a to-do list, both of them, this is the most basic reality. So, you have to grab one. Get one. If you need suggestions on that, come and see me. If you need help picking out a notebook or something, see Lucer Paco. You need to have some type of calendar and to do things. A five year fiveyear appointment plan. That's even stop embarrassing me in front of my friends. Um, now that's about as basic as it gets. Um, for for my some of this, again, there's nothing new under the sun. Like I'm a Stephven CVY guy. So some of this, if you've never read seven habits of highly effective people, read seven habits of highly effective people. [00:27:54]

The thing that's been the one of the biggest helps to me, and I just got done talking to my college students about this, is having a scheduled weekly review and planning time. So, for me, that usually happens Sunday night. If not, if it can't happen Sunday night, then it's Monday morning before whatever meeting we're having. And the whole purpose of that is to say, okay, what's coming up? Mhm. And I look at the next week. I look at the next month. And then I look at the next quarter. I I personally don't go a whole lot beyond that because as many as you know they're I mean I'm not against fiveyear plans. I'm not against one year plans, but I've done enough of this to know that I can make all those plans and in six months they're all going to get thrown out the door anyway. [00:28:54]

If you don't have time for a date night with your wife, it's because you haven't prioritized that above everything else. If you don't have time for a Sabbath just to chill and not do stuff, it's because you haven't prioritized that. When we have that checkin, we can prioritize things. I'm putting stuff in where it's going to go and everything else is going to work around that. Does that make sense? Mhm. But then the other thing within that time is trying to break the big things up into smaller things and then scheduling when and how things get done. [00:32:28]

Typically, we only think about the goal and we don't think about how we're going to accomplish the goal. And so to me, if I you have to look this is to me it's like kind of project management. Every big thing that I have to do, how do I break that up into smaller things? So like the students like they have this big paper that I give them. I don't apologize for how hard it is. It's about 10 to 12 pages single space. You're in college. Deal with it. This is going to be great. Yeah, it's not bad, right? Thank you. Um but I said, but let's think about what this is involved. You have to do your basic observation and analytical personal work. You have to get commentaries. You have to read the commentaries. You have to write a first draft. You have to edit that draft. So there's five steps. when are you going to schedule those five steps over the next six weeks to get that paper done by that date? [00:34:28]

And I think that many and then and also with by doing that, you're able to see when you are scheduling your life when you're going to do things, what you need to do, and when you're going to do it, you're it's easier and you're empowered to then say no to somebody. Yeah, I'm not able to do that. It might be really important, but you just might not be the person to do it because you have other priorities that you've identified and you've put in your life. Yeah. Again, too often we say yes to so many things because we don't realize the important things in our life or we're not identifying and really focusing on those important things. [00:36:10]

We feel the pressure to do it all. We enjoy the praise of completed tasks. we'll complain about how much it takes to do them, but then we like the endorphins of finishing it or somebody saying, "Good job. That was awesome." Um, we have poor time management, but we've already fixed that one, so we're not going to deal with that anymore. But probably the thing we have to be honest about is we have control issues. And so, uh, I know I don't even have to ask you for hands. I know it would be unanimous. How many times have any of us I'm just going to do it because I can do it better and I know how it'll get done. And again, when we do those things, we're creating more problems for ourself. [00:46:07]

I think that if we learn more and more about the gifting in our teams and the gifting in our um locations, we will see that there are plenty of people that can do things that yes, we could do it, but they would do it better. And we rob different we rob the saints of being used by God and experiencing that by just hoarding all of the things that need to be done. So as long as well as eval and I'll give these slides up just trying to get through um as as well as evaluating ourselves I think that for delegation we also have to evaluate our congregation um for and by that some ideas I thought for that one is asking others who is capable so the people that you do knew do do know the people that you um are familiar with and have relationship with if there's something that needs to get done just asking the basic area. Who are other people that I could give this to? [00:48:58]

We got to trust him first, that he's doing the work, not us. And I always see that, you know, like we got to trust that whatever we're doing, you're given the tools to do it. Be organized, have a good plan, manage your time, and then just trust that he's going to make it work because even our failures are part of that plan. It's good. One thing that really helped me was the things that drain me. I like a year and a half ago wrote down a list. There's like five things that just drain me. I was just telling Chad like planning center putting that in. I just I don't know. But then I felt bad giving it to someone because I thought this is uh I don't want to put this on someone else because I hate this. It's like really mean of me to be like, "Hey Chad, thanks for being my office manager. Now you got to do the really sucky tasks. But a game changer for me was understanding then that my office manager loved doing that and she was really gifted at that. And so I guess it was helpful and maybe if that's helpful for someone is what drains me doesn't mean that it's going to drain someone else. They actually find life in it. And finding those people and giving them tasks is really important for delegation and not getting stuck on thinking like no one will want to do this. [00:54:23]

Do not turn to the right or the left. Keep your foot from evil. Um, just some popcorn suggestions on not being distracted because this is like the flip of being focused. Some of you have maybe even mentioned this, but you have to delete the apps that distract. Amen. Um, and so I do not have Facebook on my phone because I would it would be a time suck. You know, the things that you know you you know what it is. Yeah. And I'm not and I'm not talking I mean these need to be deleted too. I'm not talking about what's the one with the deep temptation for your life. I'm talking about what's takes up all your time. If that app is taking up more time than you should be that you should be putting into other things, delete that app. game, phone, social media, whatever that might be. [00:56:48]

Give yourself permission to have fun. Um, I think as pastors, we don't always do this enough and in ministry because we feel like we have to be winning souls 24/7. Um, we do, but there's a point where we have to recharge. Yeah. And we are um it it was the slaves in Exodus that were their value was determined by what they were producing. Yeah. and they were freed from that. Our identity is not in what we produce. Our identity is in Jesus. And so there has to be a point where we Sabbath, which means we're not trying to produce. We're just enjoying life. Um and so Mike Akenelli, some of you know who that is. He said at one point, um the most spiritual thing that some of us can do is take a nap because by doing so, we acknowledge the world will go on without us. [00:57:41]

The thing our life group just went through Ecclesiastes and the thing I loved about Ecclesiastes is it tells us work hard and do your work to the glory of God and enjoy life for the glory of God. Enjoy just don't enjoy it like an idiot but enjoy life. And we need to give ourselves permission to enjoy life. Last I last night I mean again you guys know me long enough the nerd that I am. I bought a Star Wars Lego set and at nine o'clock I put my sci-fi audio book in. I told my kids to leave me alone and I sat there for three hours and I enjoyed myself and it was beautiful. It was great. You might think that that's stupid. I don't care. That was my thing. Some of you want to know what the Lego set was. Others, whatever your thing is, you need to find that and add it to your life and just have fun for a little bit. [00:59:00]