I remember years ago when I was a
businessman and I walked by my boss's office
and I saw him standing at his desk
with a sad look on his face.
I knocked on his door and asked him
if everything was all right.
He told me that he had just returned
from being out of town where he had
dropped his daughter off at her new college.
He said that as he stood in her
dorm room and hugged her goodbye, he realized
he didn't know her and that's why he
was sad.
Now this came from a man who worked
an average 80 hours a week and he
was married to his job.
He made a ton of money but he
didn't know his adult daughter.
Now that's a sad story, isn't it friends?
It proves that if you want a relationship
with someone, you need to invest time into
that relationship.
Do you agree with me?
Now if that's the case, how in the
world can we know Jesus in an intimate
love relationship if we only give him five
minutes a day?
It's morning and you crack open your Bible
and read it a little while and say
a few prayers for a few folks and
you ask Jesus for help for your day
and you give him the leftovers of your
time and you wonder why it's so easy
to fall on our face in sin.
We cannot tip our hat to him and
have a solid walk with him.
This is what happened to the believers way
back yonder who were members of the church
at Ephesus.
Jesus commanded these Ephesian believers by acknowledging their
hard labor.
In Revelation 2-2 we read, I know
thy works and thy labor.
Jesus tells them his eyes have been upon
them.
He'd been watching them and he acknowledged that
they'd been busy for him.
But the risen Lord has a bone of
contention between them that they are completely ignorant
of.
They were good folks working hard to serve
God but in the midst of their busyness
and activity they forgot something and that something
was a certain someone who rebuked them in
verse 4 with the words, nevertheless I have
somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy
first love.
My boss thought if he slaved away and
made millions he could show his daughter his
love by buying her things like a new
Mercedes, designer handbags, and an expensive Rolex.
But in the process he never spent any
time getting to know her and now it
was too late.
That's why I had a tear in his
eye that day but it was too late
to do anything about it.
She was gone.
It's impossible to have a solid relationship with
anyone if all you do is spend five
minutes a day with them.
We have replaced Jesus with many things.
In Luke's Gospel we get a sense of
this in the story of Martha and Mary.
Mary was occupied with one thing and Martha
was occupied with many things.
Martha had a meal to prepare for over
a dozen people and she was busy in
the kitchen to a fault while her sister
Mary sat at Jesus feet and was absorbed
in the one thing needful.
You get to know someone by spending time
with them and talking to them.
The more time you spend with them and
the more time you talk to them the
better you get to know them.
Five minutes a day won't cut the mustard.
Maybe if we're guilty of this we've been
wanting some things from Jesus but all he
wanted from us was us to spend time
with us.
Maybe we need to apologize to him for
ignoring him.
If we want to have a life of
victory in Jesus then we must be absorbed
with him in a life of abiding in
him in a close intimate walk with him
for our good and for his glory.
Let us pray.