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I invite you to turn this evening
to Ephesians 5. Ephesians in the fifth chapter,
please. So over the recent months we
have looked at 11 different subjects in what we give an overarching
title, Bible Answers for Inner Battles. We have addressed things
like anxiety, depression, self-pity, bitterness, anger, and we come
this evening to the last subject. I had three others, but when
I assessed them, I thought, you know, I'm really going to be,
there's too much overlap with looking at these other subjects.
And you might have disputed that. You might have said, no, that
deserves its own space. But I figured 12 is enough. So,
this will be the twelfth and final message in this topical
series, and I trust that it will be of help. I appreciate your feedback, it's
been encouraging, and I trust that the Lord will continue to
use the messages, that you will revisit them on occasion as well. and that it might be instructive
to you as you go through seasons of, well, whatever the particular
issue might be. If you find yourself with inner
turmoil, some kind of inner battle, stress, issue, sin, you may find
within that series that which will help you. It's a way of
counseling your own soul, helping yourself. So we're in Ephesians 5. We're going to look here at a
couple of verses, but let us read from verse 1. Ephesians
5 verse 1. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children, and walk in love. as Christ also hath
loved us and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savour. But fornication and all uncleanness
or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh
saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting,
which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger
nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man
deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore
partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness,
but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is
in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Proving what is acceptable
unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even
to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But
all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light,
for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith,
Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are
evil. We'll end the reading there at
verse 16. And what you have heard is the
infallible Word of the living God, which you are to receive,
believe, and obey. And the people of God said, Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we ask for
help again around Thy Word and in the subject that is before
us for this evening. Acknowledge how much we need
Thy help. We ask that Thou wilt give grace
to us all to obtain a certain mastery over our inner being,
that every thought would become captive to Christ. Deliver us, O God, from allowing
areas of our life to remain untouched by Thy Word. Deliver us from
excusing areas. Deliver us from making allowance. Deliver us from a kind of thoughtless and unbelieving approach to the areas of our life that
still need to be governed by Thy authority. So we pray that Thou wilt bless
us here tonight in the subject that we consider, give help,
help us to hear what Thou art saying and to respond, to assess
our own souls aright, and may it please Thee to give freedom
in the delivery and carry the word to every waiting soul. So
forgive us and empower us and come by the Spirit to minister,
revive us in Thy presence, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. I wish to address you tonight
on the subject of boredom. Boredom. And even as I say that,
I have the thought that you're thinking to yourself, boredom? What kind of a subject is that
to address? In fact, I went on to sermonaudio.com and I put
in the word boredom and there was one sermon out of the two
million odd whatever sermons are on that site, titled boredom. First, then, boredom may seem
an unusual subject to close out this series. And yet, I think
you'll find that it touches on more than you may realize. Now, psychologists name varieties
of boredom. They talk about a certain kind
of indifferent boredom. It's a low-key apathy. They talk about a calibrating
boredom, where the mind is wandering and uneasy, not finding rest. There's a searching boredom that
is more of an expression of restlessness and a desperation to escape perhaps
certain circumstances or context. There is a reactant boredom as
well, where one is irritated or feeling trapped and responding
in a certain way because of that. And then there is perhaps the
most heavy form of boredom, that apathetic, where it's bleak,
marked by low energy, where the person really almost is at the
point of despair. So they distinguish these various
expressions of boredom as well as other aspects with regard
to, for example, the situational boredom. That's when you're sitting
in a meeting asking yourself, what is the point of this meeting?
And you find yourself being overcome with boredom. This could have
been an email or whatever the case might be. You have also
other extreme forms of existential listlessness, where one is just
overwhelmed with a sense of nothing seems to matter. So that's an
extreme expression of boredom, where you, again, as I have said
earlier, you're almost coming to the point of despair. There
is the momentary boredom, and then there's the habitual boredom,
where people always, people seem to continually be bored and saying
that they are bored. So as you look at it in that
way, of course, there's a lot of things that are true about
how they consider it and even how they may categorize it. But
the Lord's Word addresses how the Christian is to live. And
while there may not be explicit expressions of boredom itself,
I think that in itself is an insight in which, though we don't
have it come to like in a clear, explicit expression of boredom,
that you realize God's Word addresses every problem of the human heart,
and so that most boredom can be seen by an individual not
thinking rightly and therefore not acting rightly. The text
that I'm using kind of as a springboard for this subject is found in
Ephesians 5 verse 15 and 16, "'See then that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are
evil.'" There's an expanse there that covers the whole Christian
walk, walking circumspectly. That circumspect walk is contrasted
with the walk of the fool. To walk circumspectly is to walk
as a wise man. And if you're to do that, you're
going to redeem the time, recognizing the days are evil. The language of walk we considered
this morning. It encompasses the whole Christian
existence. The Christian life is a walk,
and so our whole Christian life is to be lived out in a way that
can be described as being circumspect. This is careful. This is exacting. This is precision. This is intentional,
another word that we used this morning. It's the opposite of
drifting. It's the opposite of just existing. It's the opposite of just moving
along from day to day. An intentional, purposeful living
of the Christian life. What are we to do in this circumspect
walk? It is to redeem the time, verse
16. Buy the time. Endeavor to make
use of the time. What does he mean by that, redeeming
the time? It's the recognition that every
day presents opportunities, opportunities to serve, opportunities to obey,
opportunities to worship. We are to live in that way instead
of being overcome by the evil that pervades and being influenced
by that evil and living a fruitless, pointless existence. So we want to think about this
subject, boredom. As I say, it's probably not what you would first
think about. Some of the others, things I've had people ask me
about, would you address? Depression, things of that nature
are at the forefront of your mind as far as what we may term
an inner battle. But I want to close out with
this more unusual experience that I think still may be relevant
for some. So let's think first of its character.
What does boredom look like? How do we discern it? How do
we see expressions of it? Because at times when one may
say, I am bored, Right, and probably, although I don't know, I was
thinking about this. It used to be a thing that was
said, right, by kids, you know, they're bored. Now it seems like
maybe the only time that's ever said by kids is in the car, and
that's if devices haven't been thrown at them, and perhaps that's
why devices are thrown at children in the car, to stop that. But
at home, it seems that boredom almost among children has gone. Whereas it was a common thing
for a parent to hear six weeks into summer holidays, I'm bored.
I'm trying to figure out things to do. But it expresses itself
in other ways, I think. First of all, you might think
of discontent and murmuring. Again, we might not think of
discontentment or murmuring as a form of boredom, but it can
be, often is. We're seeking something better,
so we're discontent with our current circumstances, we're
seeking something better, and we murmur. And though we may
not say, I am bored, effectively that is what's going on, because
there isn't a contentment or an embrace and gratitude of the
present circumstances, so you're longing after something else,
and you're desperate to escape what it is you're currently experiencing. Idleness and time-wasting, this
also is a form of boredom as well, where people just idly
exist, passing the days without any sense of intentionality. Sometimes it may be expressed,
the idleness may be expressed as, I am bored, but not always.
If you look at someone who is in, I used this a number of weeks
ago, it was a term I was not familiar with until relatively
recently where young people talk about doom scrolling. Doom scrolling,
and so if you're wondering what doom scrolling is, if you've
ever seen someone and their thumb is just going like this constantly
and you see them sitting there in a doctor's appointment or
something, just cause, well people do that. They sit in bed and
they just scroll one thing to the next. Reel after reel after
reel after reel, there's no purpose. They're not searching for anything.
They're just living in this kind of lull, waiting for the next
thing that will excite them, or entertain them, or make them
laugh, or make them cry, or whatever it is they're looking for. And you look at a person in that,
they're really in a state of boredom, but they aren't able
to see it for what it is. In some false and mechanical
way, preventing themselves from understanding what it is that's
really going on. And so they will find themselves
binging. The person who's the channel
switcher and flicker, one of my best friends growing up. and
he was a channel switcher. He always had to have the controls.
He always wanted the control, and then he would sit, and you'd
just be getting into whatever it was, you know, three or four
minutes in, and then he'd switch. He was like, just pick something.
Like, just settle on something. He was constantly switching channels. Of course, that was a time when
you only had about four channels to choose from, so you're just
switching back and forth among the four channels, but We have
this thing expressed as well, sort of idleness. A person doesn't
really know what they're meant to be doing with their time.
There's a worldly vanity and a meaninglessness as well, more
of an existential boredom where there's this, we talked about
it, this extreme form of apathy that comes over the soul, a bleakness
that comes over the mind that may result in a sense of why
bother? It's some of the expressions
of Ecclesiastes. It's all vanity, it's empty.
What's the point in any of it? There are forms of melancholy
and discouragement that I think boredom underpins as well. There's
a sense of affliction, a heaviness. And so the person feels, again,
you think of the Psalmist where he's a, why art thou cast down,
O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? And there's something
going on in the soul. He's wrestling with what he's
going through there. And again, it can feel like in
the midst of a certain form of a boredom or disappointment with
circumstances that is not really living life and is wasting time. And then there's this outright,
and this is perhaps the one that you want to, really be thinking
about is just a spiritual sloth and sluggardness, what I've titled. Spiritual sloth and sluggardness.
And this is real sin. This is when people are bored
even with the things that ought to excite them most. They're
bored with prayer. They're bored with the means
of grace. They're bored with the Word of God. They don't go
to prayer meetings because they're boring. They don't read the Bible
because it's boring. They don't seek God because it's
boring. And that is perhaps the most wicked expression of
boredom, at least as I have sought to assess it over recent days. We are not to look at things
that God values and not value them. If our Lord Jesus loved
prayer, we should love prayer. If He loved the Word, then we
should love the Word. If He loved being among His people,
which He does and did, then there near the end of Psalm
22 where He, after His death, comes to that point of His resurrection
and He wants to be in the midst of the congregation praising
the living God. He wants to be in the midst of
His people. And so if these things excite
at him, they ought to excite us too, and therefore if they don't,
there is a problem. What are the causes? This is
some of the characteristics of what are the causes. Why do we
experience boredom? Well, firstly because of human
sin, human sin. The sin of our nature, fallenness
of our condition means that boredom is a real thing. And we think
of it in a number of ways. Again, idleness, just the idleness
of man. When he is given a work to do
and he has a calling from God, and yet his hands are found by
his side not doing what God has called him to do. This is not,
this is not pleasing to God. Because of our sin then, we find
ourselves falling into this condition of boredom, not taking up the
calling that God has upon our life. You think of how the apostle
warned those in the Thessalonian church. He warned them of a number
of things that pertain to idleness. Some of them weren't working,
depending on the community to make ends meet for them, and
they were rebuked because they were told by Paul, this we commanded
you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. If you
see a man who has the physical ability and he's not giving himself
to what he ought to be giving himself to, to provide for himself
and his family, let him starve, I suppose it, let him starve.
It's extreme. And yet it shows you. He also talked about those who
were tattlers and warned about those who went around from house
to house carrying stories and so on and again. The lack of
finding something fruitful to do opened up more sin, and of
course it's all because of the fallen nature. Not just idleness,
but what we might term indiscipline. Laboring, recognizing the value
of labor, giving ourselves to it, giving ourselves to toil,
appreciating the value of toil. The things that cause us to sweat,
the things that are difficult, God often values. Is it hard
to pray? Is it hard to pray? I would say
it is. It's hard to pray, to really,
consistently, regularly meet with God. It is work, and yet
God values that work. Yet because of our fallen condition,
we don't value the things that require the kind of discipline
necessary to follow through. If God calls us to meditate in
His law day and night, yes. Does that require work? Yes.
So do we have, because of our human nature, a drifting away
from that, the thing that requires discipline and effort? Yes. We
have to overcome that. Peter writes in 1 Peter 1.13,
"'Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end.'"
There has to be a girding up. That's the kind of exhortation
that recognizes the tendency to not doing what we're called
to do. Of course, because of human nature,
then sloth is a real thing. We want to be coddled, we want
comfort. Lie a little longer in bed and
just pivot there. Not doing anything. Again, this
is, we have to fight, we have to fight human nature. Paul says
in Romans 13, 14, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, make not provision
for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Yes, the sluggard
gives to his lusts. He gives himself to that. He
allows himself to be soft and indulgent, to delay what's important,
to avoid what matters. Because of our nature also, we
are discontent. We have thankless hearts. We
are like Israel murmuring against God, loathing this light bread,
Numbers 21 verse 5. God making provision, a provision
that in type showed them what they needed in the Redeemer and
yet they loathed it. Instead of receiving daily mercies
with gratitude and with a song in our souls, we despise them
because now they're dull to us. Oh, you think that Christ can't
become dull to you and you become discontent with Him, think again. That's the imagery of the children
of Israel in the wilderness. Their loathing of the bread typified
man's ability because of his fallen condition to loathe the
very bread of God. We can loathe Christ Himself,
not appreciating who He is and what He has done. You think of a church in which
that congregation has the blessing of the Word given forth, of all
the aspects of the means of grace. People come together and they
sing, they pray, the Scripture's read, the Scripture's preached,
and it's the congregation faithfully doing that. And you all, every
church where they just give themselves to the ordinary means of grace,
they will find that there are these voices that start to arise
and say, why not try this? Why not do that? Why not change
the other? What are they doing? In many
cases, not all, but many cases, it's the same voice of the children
of Israel remembering the leeks and the garlic and the onions
and wanting to bring that which was tasty from the world. because
they loathe the bread. It's not enough. Christ revealed
in His Word is not enough. They come to the house of God
not expectant. They come to the house of God
without a prayer to meet with Christ. They're looking for something
to tantalize the soul. This is human nature, discontentment. Unbelief undergirds that as well. Unbelief. Sometimes boredom is
not about circumstances. It's about our souls framed before
God. We don't believe. We're not living
in a vital sense of faith. That's what happened to the Laodiceans. Unbelief. They thought, they thought, with
all of their outward prosperity, they had everything they needed.
And they had come to a point where, because they had all the
outward things, they looked around and thought,
we have need of nothing. We have need of nothing. And
he didn't recognize that Jesus Christ was standing outside the
door, so to speak. He was outside the church, looking
admittance, seeking attention. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. Why is no one hearing my knock?
Will someone not open the door? Unbelief had come into that church.
It was enough to have all the outward Faith is satisfied with God and
nothing else. There's also, again, our tendency
through our human nature just to see vanity in everything. Ecclesiastes 2, 11, and I looked
on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labor
that I had labored to do and behold all was vanity and vexation
of spirit and there was no profit under the sun. It's all vain. It doesn't seem to amount to
anything. And we look at our work and we think, what's the
point in it all? Again, it's seeing from our human fallen
frame, seeing in that way and not seeing how we ought to see
things. There's also human frailty. I
want to give recognition to this as well. Not just human sin,
but human frailty. Sometimes boredom arises not
so much out of direct rebellion, but just the weakness of our
frame. And so when we feel, for example,
isolated, disconnected, when we're in an experience where,
for whatever reason, there is a kind of isolation in our life,
is it possible for someone to feel a sort of sense of boredom
or fed up, feeling just a lack of meaning in what they do, not
knowing what to do because they have no sense of connection?
Man was built for fellowship. It's not good that man be alone.
So if he's left alone, his frame is such that he may fall into
an experience, a kind of dullness within the soul, within the mind,
within the heart. God intends us to come together. even what you're doing here tonight.
You know, as the years pass, it never ceases to amaze me,
as the years go on, the power of gathering. The power of gathering. Just being together. If you throw
your mind back five and a bit years ago, it may have put into
sharp focus the power of gathering, because we weren't gathering.
You weren't seeing people, not being around people, and you
felt it. You felt it. Some of us, our patience wore
thin very, very quickly in that context. And it's part of the frailty
of our frame. I have not condemned the person,
and didn't when I had conversations with those who were expressing
to me their struggle, isolating. I did not condemn them. I completely
understood. We are not built for isolation. You can go and study. There's
a reason why those imprisoned, when they do certain things,
they take them away from everyone and they put them into isolation. Absolutely destroy a person,
destroy them mentally in ways that they may never recover. So there's a frame, there's a
frailty in our frame in that way. There's also again, our
tendency not to properly steward the body. And if we don't properly
steward the body, then there's forms of weakness that set in.
Our body isn't able to, again, it's not at the strength that
it ought to be, and so it can succumb to things like this.
more easily to feeling bored because, again, of the weakness
of the body. I also wonder if there cannot
be, at times, a sense in which Satan also may play on this.
Satan will actually come and elevate things in the mind or
diminish things from the mind or work before a believer in
the life of an individual in such a way to inflame a sense
of pointlessness and boredom within the soul. They play on
them in that way. I also wonder if it cannot be
at times a form of discipline from the Lord. in which He permits
our frame, instead of supporting it by His grace because of our
pride, because of sin, because of something else that He is
teaching us about, that He permits us to come into this frame where
we are, again, some form or expression of just, I'm done, I'm fed up,
I don't feel any motivation to go on, and it's not depression
necessarily, you're just bored. You think about the things that
we get bored with specifically. We get bored with our jobs. We get bored with other aspects
of our lives. Our marriage. We get bored with a conversation
or a friendship. We get bored with a hobby. There are many things that are
a part of our life, and then we get bored with it. And some
of those things don't really matter that much. It's fine if
you get bored with a video game, right? It's not the end of the
world. But if you get bored with your spouse, it's catastrophic. You'll see it come in there.
Feed that. Nourish that. Encourage that. Put before your view alternatives,
as you might see it. Other options. Contact from someone back in
your school days. Oh, how many, how many marriages
have failed because some fool sparked a fresh conversation
with someone that they knew from high school. Oh, the devil. Working against the frailty of
our human frame, playing us, moving us around like a pawn. So what's his cure? How do we
cure various expressions of boredom? I want to say from the outset,
no amount of distraction can warm a soul that God has
determined should only be warmed by himself. No amount of distraction
can warm a soul that God has determined should only be warmed
by himself. God wants you to be taken up
with Him. We were singing, sometimes I
marvel at the hymns that I have not chosen. He sang, number nine, Jesus,
thou joy of loving hearts, thou fount of life, thou light of
men, from the best bliss the earth imparts, we turn and fill
to thee again. We taste Thee, O Thy living bread,
and long to feast upon Thee still. We drink of Thee, the fountainhead,
and thirst our souls from Thee to fill." God wants to be treasured by
His people. And so there's no cure. Outside of that, if God is, in
a very particular way, addressing that as a problem, Christ is the one to satisfy
us. I mean, ultimately that's it,
isn't it? One day we'll be in glory. And we talk about the
no mores. No more death, sorrow, and so
on. No more boredom. No more boredom. Never be bored. So what are some spiritual remedies? to this. First of all, and we
have begun here in most instances, ongoing repentance. Ongoing repentance. The danger is that some expressions
of boredom might be reduced to, that's just my personality. That's
just the way I am. I need to quit constantly changing. I just need to be moving. And
you see this, people look at their resume, look how often
they have moved from place to place. Now I understand that
some people move from job to job strategically every two to
three years. And it's strategic, it's totally intentional. It's
nothing about boredom. There's a strategic aspect to
it, I get that. But some people move from job to job just because
they're bored. They're bored and they need to
move on in order to, again, give a sense of meaning to their life. And so they'll say things, it's
just the way I am. Hey, how did that relationship
go? Remember that sweet girl I saw you with last time? Yeah,
it didn't work out. What was wrong? Well, I just
got bored. And this is the way they live.
An excuse, it's just the way I am. No! No! If you do that, you will never
recover. Constantly live your life in
that way and you will be the most unfruitful person. So, we have to recognize it where
it exists. What are we to be? Not slothful
in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, Romans 12.11. And so there needs to be repentance.
Repentance where we confess the wasted hours, we confess the
murmuring that has arisen from this feeling, whether we described
it as boredom or not. The person who intentionally
listens, the person who intentionally seeks God's pardon daily will
often be too conscious of the unmerited grace he has received
from God to be afflicted with boredom. I'll say it again. person who intentionally seeks
God's pardon daily will often be too conscious of the unmerited
grace he has received from God to be afflicted with boredom.
Because every day they are coming, my sin, praise God for the cross,
and they are living in the gratitude. The unmerited favor they have
received from God and the standing they have in Christ, that person
is unlikely to be a bored person. So ongoing repentance. Intentional believing, that's
another thing. Intentional believing. So whenever
you get to that point where you have in your mind life is pointless,
what's the point in all this? I'm bored. It doesn't mean anything. Maybe you hit some point in the middle, people
talk about midlife crisis. And sometimes boredom is a part
of it. It's like, what has been the point of all of this? Where
is this all going to? I'm 10, 15 years away from retirement
and I don't know the point. What have I been doing all this
time? So you begin to assess carnally
your life. You look at the grind of the
daily existence, just turning up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, clocking in, doing your job, looking at it and saying
to yourself, what is the point in all this? And of course it's
denigrated in our day as well. Can corporate life suck the life
out of you? Sure it can, absolutely. Are
there certain careers that will drain every last ounce of energy
out of you? Yes. But at the same time, be able
to value, be able to value, though there are voices out there, and
you see the comments, and you hear the remarks of people who
are talking about making a move, making a shift, and keeping things
fresh, and all the rest of it, don't fall into the trap. We are too. come and intentionally
believe, regardless of what's going on in our life. Again,
we made mention of this psalm earlier in the series, where
David, at an end of himself, and he's feeling the despair,
he says, hope thou in God. What's he doing? He is talking
to himself. He's speaking truth into his
own soul. He is counseling. He's putting
David on the other side of the counseling table. He's putting
him over there, and he sees this despairing David over there,
and he starts addressing, David, David, hope in God. Keep hoping in God. That's intentional
believing. That's purposeful believing.
And so we take the promises of God and we have to do this sometimes,
whatever's going on in life. We can go through a crisis. We
can go through a thought of what is the point in all this? Looking
at our lives and wondering why do I get up and go to work every
day? To what end is all of this? You put the word of God in front
of you and you speak it to your own soul and you believe it. Ongoing repentance, intentional
believing, keeping your chief end in view, keeping your chief
end in view. We are not called to invent meaning
for our lives. You have meaning, you're not
searching for it, you have it. What was the chief end of man?
Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
You have meaning. You don't have to find it or
search for it. It's not found in what you do
in terms of your job title and description or the salary that
you have or your station in life. You don't have to be a young
woman who thinks to herself, no, you know, you become a mother,
and yet you look back, you start somewhere, sometime halfway through
motherhood, and the kind of monotony of motherhood, and the children,
and you start seeing maybe others who are living out their careers
who are like you, and you start thinking back, and you're valedictorian,
and you're best in class, and you succeeded in the career,
the degree that you have, and you have all these things, you
start imagining what life would be to leave the home and go out
and fulfill that. That's not your identity. You are to recognize your chief end is to
glorify God. God's Word's really plain. Speaking
particularly to mothers in that context, it says very plainly
that the young women are to be taught and encouraged to be keepers
at home. It doesn't matter what the world
thinks of it. It doesn't matter how it may be denigrated. It
doesn't matter how it might be devalued. God says, this is your
calling. If you've been called to motherhood,
oh, what a precious thing. I was just saying to someone
recently, in relation to this. You know, you think about it,
you think about it and say, oh, the man gets to go out there
and, you know, fulfill his career and do all this thing and the
woman has to stay at home and raise the children. And I think,
hang on a minute here. Hang on a minute, think about it. Think
about that for just a moment. You have these people that God
gives to you, your children, right? You're going to influence them
more than anyone else on the planet. They are more like you
than anyone else on the planet. And you get to mold them and
shape them and disciple them and encourage them and educate
them and so on and so forth. And so these are your offspring. I mean, they're the most precious
thing in your life. And mom gets to stay with them. And dad has to go out to the
end just to keep them alight, right? That's his calling. He
has to leave just to keep them alive. You ask, what is the higher
calling? When you look at it in that way,
certainly you cannot elevate the working to provide, just
when you look at it that way, the working to provide as superior
in and of itself than The home discipleship of mothers. So keep your chief end in view,
whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do
all to the glory of God. You live for God's glory. You
find purpose in living for His glory in the smallest duty. Go
and read again the passages here in Ephesians and Colossians that
are spoken to slaves. People who had no freedom, no
rights, no privileges, some of them living under ungodly masters,
and they are there to value it as what they do, not merely to
their master, but to their true master, even to Christ. So whether we wash dishes prepare people's taxes and all the rest of it,
or teaching ungrateful college students, or whatever we're called
to do, doing it to the Lord, before
the Lord, recognizing our purpose. Recognizing that we do this as
to Him, for Him, for His glory, and that the ordinary things
of our life, that though they may be seen in a cynical way
as vanity of vanities, yet, yet, the Bible's clear, whatsoever,
even eating and drinking, can be done to the glory of your
God and has immense value and eternal reward. What other spiritual remedies?
Ongoing repentance, intentional believing, keeping your chief
end in view, giving yourself to the means of grace. You must
give yourself to the means of grace. Can't underestimate again
the importance of this. The new believers in Acts 2,
42, they continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and
fellowship and in breaking of bread and in That's the mark of the church,
constantly giving itself to the means of grace. That is a spiritual
remedy. You come here to be calibrated,
to have your mind fixed, your heart tuned, your soul calibrated
aright before the Lord, and then seek to be more heavenly-minded, more heavenly-minded. Soon after
my conversion, I heard the statement said by someone who had been
a believer much longer than me, that you can be so heavily minded
that you are of no earthly use. And I thought, I get the point.
So heavily minded that you are of no earthly use. Now there
may be a sense in which that's true, in that someone may constantly
be thinking or acting like they're thinking in spiritual ways and
spiritual conversation. But true heavenly-mindedness
is more than conversation. True heavenly-mindedness, if
there's a true heavenly-mindedness, you cannot be anything but of
earthly good. Was there anyone more heavily-minded
than Jesus Christ? Was there anyone who did more
earthly good? He went about doing good is a
summary Acts gives to his life. So to be more heavily minded
is to recognize what we have read here, the need to walk circumspectly. Life can't be wasted. There has
to be an intentionality and circumspect walk. You don't have it around here,
but Albert Macaulay, an old Sunday
school teacher and mentor and open air preaching, he used to
describe what it was to walk a certain spec of Christian life,
and he would describe it as, in a way that again, you don't,
I don't know, I haven't seen this around here. but some of the walls that would
be around property in the United Kingdom, especially small homes,
terrace homes, and they try to have just a little backyard,
small little postage dump backyard, and then they'd have often walls
around. And these walls would separate all the little postage
stamp yards. But of course, on the top of
those walls, animals would come, birds would come, and so on.
And they knew that. And so to deter that, they would
put glass. They would put broken glass into
the cement at the top of the wall, just to stop anything staying
or resting there or being too long there. And so you go around
the United Kingdom, you see these terraced homes. You could see
the back. You would see these walls, and you'd see this broken
glass on top. But you would see cats. Cats would still get up
there and they would walk along. You'd see them placing their
paws very carefully, front and rear, never touching the glass,
ever. That's how you'd illustrate the
Christian walk, the way a cat moves very intentionally. Being heavily minded then is
what governs that. thinking of the brevity of life, praying, teach us to number our
days that we may apply our hearts onto wisdom, Psalm 90. That will help us then to redeem
the time because the days are evil. It's difficult to be bored when
there's a sense of urgency in your conduct. When you know that
time is God's gift, that is to be stewarded by you. It's hard
to be bored. You think of how short your life
is. So, spiritual remedies. Very
quickly, practical remedies. Practical remedies. There's some
overlap here, but let me just list a few things. First, have a sense
of vocation. Having a sense of vocation. Embracing
it. The vocation of life. the servants
and how they were encouraged by the apostle. In Colossians
3.23 he says, and whatsoever you do, do it hardly as to the
Lord and not unto men. Whatsoever you do, hardly as
to the Lord, not unto men. Don't look at men. Don't see
it as work unto men. See your vocation and fulfill
your vocation as unto God. And you're going there, you're
doing, like I say, you're marking papers. You're grading exams
and you're looking at it going, dear me, did they listen at all?
I mean, and you're exasperated. You start asking yourself, what
was the point? And these kids don't seem to get it at all.
And you're going through and asking, but don't do it as unto
men, but as unto the Lord and grade those papers. Know that
the Lord, despite your sense of purposelessness that might
flood into your soul as you look at how they are not returning
to you what you're looking for, yet the Lord sees the labor.
Embrace your calling, whether at home or on trade. Don't allow
yourself to be swallowed up with boredom. Have a sense of holy
purpose to God in your vocation. See what it is. Make the most
of it. If you really see, this is no
accident where I am. Where I am right now matters
to God. He has put me here for such a
time as this. Embrace it. Find your place in spiritual
service and fellowship. Find your place in spiritual
service and fellowship. This is a practical thing. Galatians
5.13, by love serve one another. If you're serving people, then
you'll be kept from boredom. Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as a manner of summons, but exhorting one
another. So we're coming by to one another, giving encouragement,
words of exhortation. Oh, I wish more believers understood
the value of that. Your words, your words of encouragement. Sister, it's good to see you. Expressing words of thanks and
gratitude and little words of encouragement. Boredom thrives
in loneliness, but it dies in a sense of meaningful service.
So visit people, pray for people, evangelize people. We are His
workmanship created in Christ Jesus onto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians
2.10. So we give ourselves. What are
the good works I can give myself to? Find your place in spiritual
service and fellowship. Pray that prayer that the apostle
prayed at his conversion. In Acts 9, Saul, Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do? I know men who pray that every
day. It's a good prayer. And thirdly, elevate the weekly
Sabbath and bodily stewardship. Elevate the weekly Sabbath and
bodily stewardship. God has built rhythms of work
and rest. Six days shalt thou labor and
do all thy work. The seventh is holy, distinct,
and we are to recognize that and embrace it. The Sabbath day,
the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's day, whatever title you wish
to give to it, is not purely about rest for the body. When
I hear language that seems as if people think Sabbath is about
physical rest alone, that's the primary thing. I think you don't
get it. It's unbelief. It's unbelief. Is there an element
of physical rest? Sure, that's an aspect of it.
But never forget, the priests in the tabernacle had twice the
work to do on the Sabbath. Twice the work. And sometimes
people look at me and say, well, you don't really get a Sabbath.
Yes, this is my busiest day. This is my busiest day. Usually
awake 5, 5.30. Usually not asleep before midnight.
That's my Sunday, and as you see, it's jam-packed. I probably
spend 10 hours here over the course of the day. You're busy, you're talking to
people, you're trying to deliver sermons in a coherent fashion.
But I want you to understand this. I want you to understand
that the primary rest a man needs, the primary purpose of the Sabbath,
the primary work God is doing is rest to the soul. When the
soul is strong, when the soul is fed, when the soul is nourished,
when Christ visits the soul and satisfies the soul, from there
our strength truly is exhibited. Part of the problem people have
today, of course, is that they won't rest their bodies aright
on any day of the week. I struggle to get up in the morning.
I've heard that before. I struggle to get up in the morning.
No, you don't. You struggle to go to bed at the right time.
That's what you struggle to do. That's the struggle, the discipline
of getting to bed. And I am the worst at this. This is where my unbelief is,
man, I need to be quick. I am the worst. The unbelief, I was
mentioning it this week, Psalm 127. I read it this week in my
own reading, Psalm 127. It's vain for you to rise up
early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so
he giveth his beloved sleep. It's vain, why is it vain? Because
sleep's a gift from God. Some of you, even this whole
spirit of boredom and your struggle with life and that spirit that
comes over you is because you're not taking stewardship of the
body, getting to bed, rising up then with fresh energy to
actually face your tasks. And you're just existing through
the day. And the boredom is actually the
fruit of trying to drag yourself through with a body weakened
through lack of sleep, lack of rest. More could be said. Let me finish
with this. As I prepared this message, I thought to myself, Other side to this, I touched
on, I mentioned it right at the beginning, that the world in
which we are living right now has almost eliminated traditional
boredom. We don't get bored anymore. What
do you do if you're bored? You bring out your phone. You start doing something. And I wonder about the effect
of that. If we can understand that historically,
boredom would have signaled to someone something amiss in the
soul, the Christian should not be bored. How can the Christian,
redeemed by Jesus Christ, a child of God, washed in the Savior's
blood, given purpose, ever be bored. So the feeling of boredom
would signal to the soul, something's amiss. Now you don't get bored. And because of that, you aren't
seeing that there's something spiritually wrong in the soul. You're medicating. Like the person who goes through
something in life and they take medication to dull the senses
so they're less aware of their despair. The phone is functioning
in the same way. Technology is functioning in
the same way. And you're medicating yourself. And you don't know that there's
a void in your soul. Therefore, I say to you, some,
some of you need to let yourself get bored. When you're sitting
there in an environment where you'd normally take out your
device and pass away the time, you need to just sit there and
let yourself do nothing. And ask whether there's a true
contentment in your heart. Or is there some kind of restlessness? Are you fed up? Are you bored? It's signaling that the mind
and heart is not rightly walking with God. Christ is to be our true contentment. Where He lives and dwells, you
cannot be bored. Wherever He was around His disciples,
when He came in His risen power and glory in their midst in John
20, then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. And if
you live conscious of His presence, delighting in His nearness, rejoicing
in His pardon, and worshiping Him for all that He has done
and all that He means to you, You can sit in quietness, not
just not bored, but in the highest state that
can be experienced this side of eternity, taken up with Christ. That's the need. May the Lord
help us. Let's bow together in prayer. We excuse so many aspects of
our behavior. We have normalized so many things
that actually work against the strengthening of the soul of
man. Turn off the music. Set aside
the devices. Allow your mind to be drawn into
the text you read that morning. into the prayers that burden
your soul and spend frequent seasons through the day, not
bored, but in fellowship with God. Lord, help us to do this. I pray that thou will bestow
upon us an awareness of when we are neglecting. the calling to have fellowship
with the living God. Help us to do our duty as unto
Thee. Help us to embrace our calling and vocation. Help us
to delight ourselves in the Lord. And grant, O God, that we might
redeem the time, redeem the time, redeem the opportunities, worshiping
the Lord, serving our neighbor. Hear and answer our prayers,
and forgive our shortcomings in this regard, and teach us
Thy will and Thy mind. Bless our time of fellowship.
Empower us to live for Thee this week. And may the grace of our
Lord Jesus, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of
the Spirit be the portion of all the people of God now and
evermore. Amen.
Boredom
Series Answers for Inner Battles
| Sermon ID | 97252149395233 |
| Duration | 1:05:46 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 5:15-16 |
| Language | English |
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