Regardless of how time was used before, becoming a follower of Jesus means we use our time differently.  We are probably used to spending time on ourselves, but we now want to now make time for two new activities:

First, Christians are called to devote Time for God

Yes, God is present everywhere, all the time, but we want to have specific time laid aside for God.  Jesus did this himself:

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone…   (Matthew 14:22-23 ESV)

This isn’t the only example, there are many examples like it. Today, people focus time on God by reading his Word, the Bible. A key part of our community is that we base all our teaching on the Bible, and encourage you to read daily.  Secondly, focus on God in prayer.  We encouraged you to start this in our Becoming like Family series, but don’t forget!

Second, Christians are called to devote Time for others

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:36-38 ESV)

Jesus dedicated enormous amounts of time to serving the needs of hurting people around him.  Following Jesus means we are meant to focus our lives outward as well.

If all this sounds really busy, you are probably thinking we have to add these to our schedules.  These are not additions, but are meant to replace, refresh, renew, or as we have named this series, reset our use of time.  Some of the things we used to do were wasting time, and now we are invited to redeem that lost time.

What will you let go?  Budget your time.  Think of it as a limited resource, sine we can’t create time, and can only manage it.

Challenge: Watch your schedule next week.  Write down how much time you spent on each activity, then categorize it as me, God or others.  What’s out of balance?

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - November 6, 2013

Wednesday - Change It - Groups - in Community

This week we’re exploring the importance of meeting regularly with other Christians, as part of a church community, like Redeemer Church, the one we are forming through Redeem the Commute. The Bible passage we’re exploring this week suggests two purposes to gathering: Encouragement and Worship. We’ll focus on worship next week, and for this week we’ll focus on the encouragement part. Encouragement to what? Hebrews says community can encourage us to love and good works. First, what would it mean to be encouraged to love in a community? Think of the relationships that form through fun and fellowship. Our Movie Night is one example – we had a great time, and some online members met one another, and a neighbourhood. Our Wings & Trivia was the same, and our Christmas Event will be, too. Honestly, are churches are meant to get along. I know someone who went to a church and attended a few worship services, and decided to join. But first, they wanted to attend a business meeting of a church – and he walked away saying, “these people don’t believe what they say.” They were not charitable, loving, kind or generous at all, even though they claimed to believe in a God who is. The Church is meant to be a preview of the kingdom of God. It’s described in the Bible as a party – like we are already in heaven. The Church is meant to love one another as themselves…even though the rest of the world may not love them the same way. The Church is meant to care for one another with generosity of Christ, who died for his friends. We could go on, but it all starts with spending time together, knowing each other’s needs, hopes, dreams, routine and more. Some people like to call this, “doing life together” even though it’s a bit clichéd. Question: Go out for lunch, drinks or coffee with someone. When can you get together with your discussion group simply for fun? Or if you don’t have one yet, think of who you could share our challenges and discussion with, and start by simply inviting them to something fun. Reminder: Last week we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

Related Topics: Community, Groups | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "Becoming Like Family"

This series looks at becoming “like family” with others learning to follow Jesus. We're exploring how the church is not a building, institution or event, but a community of people. It's important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.

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