No time? Think again

Raise your hand if you are not busy? No one? Okay, now raise your hand if you don't have a million things to do? No one? Raise your hand if you are a hermit living in a cave? No one? See, we all have a lot to do. Everyone has something else piled onto them year after year in this crazy thing called life. First, there are chores. Then there is school. Then extracurriculars (soccer, basketball, drama, band), homework, showers, brushing teeth, getting dressed. Then there's spring cleaning, and holidays, and weekends and birthdays. Then there is college and jobs and girlfriends and boyfriends. Then there is marriage and anniversaries and holidays with 2 different families. Then there are kids and putting those kids through all of those same things all over again. Life never slows down.

Now, raise your hand if you have ever put off spending time with God because you were too busy or too tired or too dot dot dot? If you're being honest, you probably have; as have I. It's easy to put God on the back burner because there are so many things vying for our attention that are right here in front of us. Now, none of those things are bad by themselves, but it's when we put them above God that's where we go wrong.

We all know the story of how Jesus died on the cross, I'll come back to that later. But first, I want to talk about Jesus and his life. Can you imagine being so young and walking around preaching day in and day out? Can you imagine spending all of your time teaching and healing and fellowshipping with people? Would you get burnt out? I know that I would. There were even times that Jesus needed a break, he was a human after all. One of these such times is immediately following him feeding the 5000. Jesus sent the disciples on ahead of him and he went up to the hills by himself to pray. Notice that when he needed a break after all the business, where did he go? To spend time in solitude with God and pray. See, Jesus knew just how important it was to spend time with God. Your alone time with God has to come first, for this reason, your time with others. Let me explain. When we spend alone time with God, there is nothing to expect but for all that love to overflow. And when you allow that to happen it overflows to other people and allows you to serve. Think about that. Even Jesus made time to pray to God and spend time with him and he is God.

The last thing that I want to talk about is just all that Jesus did for you. We all know that he was arrested, beaten, and crucified. But I don't think that we acknowledge just how painful it was for him. Jesus went through 4 types of suffering. First, he suffered physical pain and death. Death by crucifixion was one of the most horrendous forms of execution. “A criminal who was crucified was essentially forced to inflict upon himself a very slow death by suffocation…Seneca spoke of a crucified man “Drawing the breath of life amid long-drawn-out agony”.” Second, he had the pain of bearing sin. “More awful than the pain of physical suffering Jesus endured was the psychological pain of bearing the guilt for our sin….we know something of the anguish we feel when we know we have sinned. The weight of sin is heavy on our hearts...Jesus hated sin with his entire being...Taking on himself all the evil against which his soul rebelled created deep revulsion in the center of his being. All that he hated most deeply was poured out fully upon him”

Can you imagine it? Remember the feeling of guilt you had from the most awful thing you have ever done. Now imagine that guilt and weight being put on you, multiplied by every single person who has ever lived. Imagine that pain. Can you? Because I can’t. The third type of pain that Christ suffered was abandonment. He had to go through it alone. Not only did his disciples forsake him, but he was cut off from the heavenly Father. “As Jesus bore our sins on the cross, he was abandoned by his heavenly Father… He faced the weight of the guilt of millions of sins alone.” The last type of pain that he suffered was bearing the wrath of God. “As Jesus bore the guilt of our sins alone, God the Father, the might Creator, the Lord of the universe, poured out on Jesus the fury of his wrath: Jesus became the object of the intense hatred of sin and vengeance against sin that God had patiently stored up since the beginning of the world.” Think about that. God remembered every single sin that had already been committed as well as every single sin that would be committed. He knew. And he put the anger and the wrath that he had against every single sin onto Jesus.

Jesus took on our punishment that we deserved and he gave us the grace which we don't deserve. I can't even imagine going through that kind of pain, can you? So think about that the next time you think you are too busy for God. Think about the fact that Jesus had the power to snap his fingers and fast forward through that pain BUT HE DIDN'T. He took the time to bear every single excruciating bit of it. And we are the ones who benefit from that transaction. All that God asks is for you to follow him. Spend time with him, try to obey his commands. Remember that he doesn't ask for us to be perfect, rather he asks for us to come to HIM, to depend on HIM rather than ourselves. Y'all. I am preaching to myself here. Listen to me. Let the words sink in. Spend the time with God. Please. Don't wait until there is no time left.

I love you guys so so much. I miss seeing your faces. I miss hugging you and seeing you stuff your faces with Michelle's cooking on Wednesday nights. I even miss telling you guys to pick up your trash! I miss every single part of our youth group, but especially you guys. Because without you, it wouldn't even be a youth group. It would be Jon, Sherman, and I sitting in an empty room. So know that you are loved. Know that you are missed. Please reach out to me or Jon or Sherman if you need ANYTHING. We are praying for you.