So, maybe you're in your Bible at 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Gonna read some very familiar words from verse 15. 2 Corinthians 12 verse 15. Paul writes to the Corinthians and said, I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. And that's what we want to consider today. Being spent. for other people. And I entitled the message, Up to Your Eyeballs. And you can understand that in just a moment. But let's just consider for a second what we learned last week. Last week when we were together, we talked about the hard work of rest. And I hope that this last week you did well when it comes to resting. I hope for that because God designed us as finite creatures to rest. And He designed one day in seven for man's rest, for man's benefit. And He gives man sleep as a gift. So we have to depend on Him and then we get rest knowing that we've done what He wants us to do in the day and that He'll keep everything running as we sleep at night. God's always in control. So we should be able to rest calmly without anxiety and being anxious. And when we were studying the idea of rest, we studied its counter, which is hard work and rest. And the Bible values both of those, both hard work and rest. Of the two, rest is often the one that is devalued. Many Christians perhaps think that there are a lot more spiritual activities that you can partake in than getting a good night of rest. Therefore, they get up too early and they cut themselves short in the rest column because they think they ought to be doing a lot more spiritual things. And they think of that because of all the biographies that they read of all the Christians who got up early in the morning and read and prayed for hours, right? But they probably slept more than we sleep today. Or we can be of the mentality that there are so many pleasures in this life that we are so busy pursuing our pleasures that we don't take the sleep that we need. and that's not good. Perhaps one of the greatest culprits that keeps us from good rest is technology because technology blurs the line between work and home between work and rest. So it means this, that because of technology, you're not always all there at work, and you're not always all there at home, because you take your work home, and you take your pleasures, your pursuits, even to work. You check Facebook at work, that kind of thing. And God doesn't intend things to be all one big mush. He expects life to have rhythm, for there to be on, for there to be off, for us to be all here, for us to be all there. And that takes a lot of work for us to do. And I hope that you've been making some strides in that regard. Now that was last time. This time, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, let's consider being up to our eyeballs in relationships. Let's pray. Father, thank you for our time. Encourage us as we study now, and I ask, Lord, that you would challenge our hearts and allow this time to be profitable. We ask for that in Jesus' name. Amen. No one likes getting shots at the doctor's office, but everyone appreciates the fact that the doctor warns you before he gives you a shot. Because if he were to give you a shot without warning you, it would probably hurt a lot, because you wouldn't be prepared for what was coming. So we can all appreciate the fact that the doctor warns us and tells us about the shot before we get it. Of course, we know that shots are going to hurt, and we ought to know that life is going to be busy, and it actually should be busy. Now, considering everything that we've been studying for over a month now, that sounds really strange. Because the book we've been studying is about how we shouldn't be crazy busy. And the truth is that life is going to be busy. God does not want us to go through life and just pass on everything that seems difficult. And everything that, well, that sounds demanding. I don't know if I want to get involved in that. I may get crazy busy. God doesn't want us just to pass because of things that come up. Some things in life are necessary, and many of those necessary things are very difficult. And beyond that, just as Christians who are supposed to give ourselves to obeying God's law, loving God and loving others, if you're zealous about loving God and loving other people, you're going to be busy. Kevin DeYoung says, we're supposed to discipline the nations. We're supposed to work with our hands. We're supposed to have babies and take care of them. It's not a sin to be busy. It's not wrong to be active. So it's okay to be busy like that. Now there is a busyness that is bad, a busyness that is not good, where we are busy with the wrong things. That's where crazy busy is bad busy, when we're too entangled in the things that are not right, like people pleasing, striving for position and control, seeking what we haven't been called to do, giving ourselves to things that don't matter. That's bad busy. But there is such a thing as good busy, and that's doing what God wants us to do. And with that kind of busyness, we're supposed to be busy. Having said all that, I would say that most Americans have a very low threshold when it comes to this idea of being busy because of difficulty in their life. They have a very low threshold with difficulty. Most Americans think that difficulty really shouldn't be a part of life. I mean, no one can stop someone else from having cancer. No one can stop another person from dying. No one can stop that situation from, you know, you lose your job at some point in your life. No one can stop those kind of difficulties, but those in our minds are all exceptional cases. They're not supposed to be the norm. We don't expect to suffer outside of all those big events. The problem is that daily life has more difficulty than we expect. That's why me and Americans struggle with difficulty and stress and busyness so much, because we don't expect it. So to use the doctor's illustration again, if we're told that something is going to hurt a little bit, but then it hurts more than that, the suffering in that case is devastating to us because we had the false expectation that this is only going to hurt a little bit, but then it hurts so much more. And when something hurts more than we anticipate, it seems like so much more than it is. And I'd say that's what many Americans struggle with. They struggle to cope with the difficulty that really should be expected because of the inevitable difficulties of life. So for example, people may think that parenting is supposed to be easy. People may think That pastoring is supposed to be easy, or you fill in your vocation, whatever that is. Or people may think that being a good Christian friend won't take any time, it won't be a burden, and it's always going to work out in the end. That's what people may think, but that's not reality. The reality is that all those things are demanding and difficult, and those daily responsibilities are actually very busy burdens upon us. And according to Scripture, That's how it's supposed to be. I say that because very godly saints had daily difficulties because of worthwhile, committed relationships. Very godly saints had daily difficulty because of worthwhile, committed relationships. That's what the Apostle Paul said. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, you can turn back a page, Paul details for us just an array of difficult experiences that he went through because of the gospel ministry he had. Let's read through those difficulties beginning in verse 23. This is Paul speaking, chapter 11, verse 23. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. I'm talking like a madman, with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea. on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, dangers from my own people, danger from Gentiles, dangers in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure." I mean, you read a list like that, You read about Paul's imprisonments and lashes and stonings and shipwrecks and it just amazes us. But then perhaps we're a little bit secretly not wanting anyone to know that if we were in that same boat that would unnerve us. We would never want to be in Paul's shoes. I'm so glad that that is not my lot in life. And it is true that Probably the case that none of us have ever experienced persecution like that before. But the thing is, when we read it, we think that's just amazing. I can't imagine that level of difficulty. But the truth is that Paul hasn't even listed the greatest difficulty yet. Because he's about to list the daily burden, the daily difficulty that I faced. And it's that difficulty that he experienced every day is the difficulty that you and I actually can identify with Paul. Verse 28. And apart from the other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. That's how he tops off his list. My relationship with all those churches. You see, all the other difficulties that Paul faced were exceptional days. Not every day you're getting shipwrecked. Not every day you're getting stoned. But daily, the everyday busyness that he gave himself to was the business of the people. And every earnest minister feels that burden for the church. What Paul is talking about is the pain of relationships. Let's think about what Paul did. Paul was someone who made visits. He wrote letters. He prayed. He sent people here and there. He responded to lots of critical emails. Some people thought he was too harsh. Some people thought he was too weak. Some people thought he was too straight-laced. Other people thought he was too worldly. People complained about his credentials. They belittled him. They compared him with other people. And you realize after reading through the New Testament that a lot of people didn't like Paul. Yet the people who didn't like him so often benefited from him spiritually. Paul went to those towns where those people were and preached the gospel. And those people got saved and then they turned on him. So when we look at early Christianity, we see there was a whole lot of infighting and backbiting. There was false teaching, legalism and lawlessness. People made mountains out of molehills and they would other times compromise the things that were essential in the faith. Those were the burdens to Paul, not so much the close calls that make up the huge list of the things that he considered, that he went through. Those were the things that weighed him down. So Paul would affirm, there is no weight like the weight of caring for God's people. There is no weight like caring for the weight of God's people. But even in that, Paul is busy in all the right ways. He's doing exactly what he ought to do. He wrote to the Corinthians in chapter 12, verse 15, that he was willing to spend and be spent for your souls. That was his mantra. I'm happy to give myself to that kind of busyness. The question is, well, what about us? Paul was willing. What about us? How do we spend ourselves? Well, we often spend ourselves at our work. We can work overtime. Or we can play over time. We can give ourselves a lot of fun and games. Question is, have we thoughtfully considered spending ourselves, spending ourselves relationally with those in our circles? I mean, we're tired because of how much we put into our relationships with the people we know. Many young parents are spent physically and emotionally because of their parenting. But even in our parenting as young parents, we realize that we have to repeatedly give ourselves to something that takes more and more work. Parenting is not like sculpting, where you have an inanimate object, you do work, and you come back the next day, and you don't have to redo something. But with living people, with children, it's line upon line, precept upon precept. It takes time and energy. And that's the same thing with adult relationships too. Because good relationships, whether it's a parent and a child or adult to an adult, they take time and energy. And I appreciated when DeYoung noted the fact that effective love for others is rarely efficient. We love efficiency. Our day is the day of efficiency. Our light bulbs have to be efficient. Our windows have to be efficient. Everything has to be efficient. Love and relationships are not efficient. People take time and they bring pain. The truth of the matter is that relationships are messy. And if you don't expect that going into relationships, you're gonna be quickly overwhelmed with what is just normal. You see, if we love other people, How can we not be busy and burden ourselves at least some of our time? If we love them, certainly we'll be busy. And if we're not busy, that's just a revelation that our relationships must be shallow. Because a good relationship is gonna make us busy. Committed Christian relationships are demanding and difficult. They're the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches, according to Paul's words. And while we're not an apostle like Paul, we do have relationships with our families, with our neighbors, with our church family, and those are the kind of relationships we need to be giving ourselves to. So let's wrap this up. What should all this mean for us? First, let's consider your expectations about difficulty from your daily relationships. What's your threshold when it comes to difficulty with other people? Is it really, really low? You can't handle much when it comes to difficulty in relationships? Or do you have a mindset like Paul where he is willing to spend and be spent for your souls? What's your threshold? Secondly, are you busy from committed relationships? I mean, you ought to be. Or are you just coasting by as if church is just a club for laughs? We come, we have coffee, have a good time, we go home. They ought to be, we ought to be busy because we have committed relationships. Third, what do you do when you're exposed to difficulty in relationships? What do you do when you're exposed to difficulty in relationships? In other words, some people are tempted to shrink away from people because that person may be draining on them or may make them feel uncomfortable. You talk to someone, they bring something up, and as soon as they bring something up, you want to leave the conversation because you know this is going to take your time. This is going to take your energy. If you are truly going to be loving, you're going to have to put yourself in the situations that take your time and your energy and make you uncomfortable at times. So expect and anticipate the difficulty that comes when you are up to your eyeballs in the mess of committed relationships. That's one of my big points there. Expect and anticipate the difficulty that comes when you're up to your eyeballs in the mess of communicated relationships. And thinking about that, you think, how can I live like that? Well, believe it or not, Paul, in the midst of all the opposition that he faced, it says in Philippians 4 that he learned in whatever state he was to be content and to be anxious for nothing. So if that's possible for Paul, by God's grace, it's possible for each one of us. And certainly that's what God would call us to. If you love God and you're going to serve other people, you're going to be busy. You're definitely going to feel tired and weak, but be encouraged by what it says in 1 Corinthians 1, that God uses the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong. His power is made perfect in weakness, 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9. So for the sake of Christ then, I'm content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Okay, Paul had pressure from these relationships that he had. And we ought to have the same kind of pressure. The good thing about all this is that God can handle the pressure. And he knows that we're gonna encounter, what does James say? Trials of various kinds. That is to say, we're gonna encounter situations of difficulty when we have committed relationships. But we have to realize that God is going to sustain us in the midst of those things. So are we committed to be up to our eyeballs in messy, committed relationships? That's the kind of busy we ought to be busy with. Let's pray. Father, encourage our hearts to be about your business. Certainly we know that Jesus Christ was busy As we read the Gospels and have studied them together, now we would examine our own hearts and consider if we're busy about what we ought to be busy with. Lord, challenge us and apply this to each one's heart as you see fit. We ask for that, in Jesus' name, amen.