There is an insidious tool that our world uses to keep us from becoming a disciple of Christ.     It creates the illusion of progress and commitment without actually making progress.  It creates a sense of “energy and accomplishment” without having any real accomplishment.   It affects our marriages, our parenting, our careers, and our faith.  It sounds like this:

• I am planning on starting a read through the Bible plan to cover the whole Bible…   Later.

• I am planning on a monthly date night with my spouse… We’ll start it Later this year.

• I am planning on a new work out and diet where I lose 20 pounds… I haven’t started yet, but I will get to it soon.

• I heard a message about memorizing Scripture and I want to take my top three weaknesses and arm myself with specific Scriptures about… I haven’t got to it yet, but I will later.

Isn’t that true. I see that in myself. I set goals for myself and the idea of setting the goal makes me feel like I’ve done something… And I have, but it tricks me into thinking I’ve done something about that goal.   I had a goal last semester to take my son and daughter out on a date once a month. The goal looked great, but Christmas came and I hadn’t actually done it.    I had a goal of going into my kids room at night once a week before bedtime to check in with them on how they are doing.  It was a great goal… but I was going to put it in practice next week. Soon 3 months went by.  I had plans for going into the birds and bees talk with my son, stage 2.0, last semester, we got two chapters in, and I put it off to LATER.   The Bible offers a lens to think about our time.

Cater to Something Greater

By Rejecting Sooner or Later

God calls his disciples and followers to Cater to Something GReater.  And doing that, will require us to reject the lie that says, “Sooner or Later, I’ll get to it.”

Paul begins in Ephesians chapter 5:15

I. Cater to Something Greater…by Walking Wisely

Eph 5:15-21  15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Catering to something greater begins as we stop walking as fools.  We begin to walk wisely. We redeem the time by walking circumspectly.  Walking circumspectly means to “notice in advance,” and “See dangers before they occur” and Watch Out where you put your feet.   Not as fools.  How do we know if we are walking wisely, vs like fools.

 LAst Sunday was an exciting day for me.  Over the last three years, I have tried to invest time and redeem time, by writing a book.   I’ve made small deposits of time over the past three years to this project.  In comes out in July, but we’ll let you know some ways you can order it and use it in advance in the next month.    I bring this up for two reasons:  First, it was SOOOO exciting to go to my box last Sunday and Random House sent me my first copy of Horizon’s first book.  I walked into the tech  booth and a volunteer  took a picture of it and posted it on FB. Here it is.  As I think back, one of the verses that motivated me to write this was this verse in Ephesians.  How do we redeem the time and speak to the culture we are in.    The second part of the verse that struck me was the part about “not as fools” In godonomics, I address a lot of what the Proverbs say about foolishness.

1. Fools  spend all they have  Pr 21:20

2. Fools don’t take feedback  Pr 15:5, 23:9

3. Fools don’t see danger coming  Pr 22:3

4. Fools thinking saying whatever they think is healthy.   Pr 29:20

5. Fools don’t listen Prov 18:13

6. Fools don’t learn their lesson, repeat their mistakes Pr 26:11

7. Fools Gossip Prov 26:17

8. Fools Don’t Promote Their Books in Blogs  2 Opinions 4:8

Notice how the fool never Caters to Something Greater.  He lives for gossip, ego, blurting out his comments, speaking before listening, and making strife.     There is something within the fool that he lives for.  Almost always pride.  Ego.  That is the Fool’s identity and center.  And Paul is telling Christ-followers that we have a new identity in Christ that is Greater.  There is a wisdom, access, love, security, honor, and power from God that can drive us to “Cater to Something Greater”  We live out this new identity by walking wisely, not as fools.

For more information, check out www.godonomics.com