Tim Challies: Productivity in a Digital World - YouTube

"I am not afraid of failure. I am  afraid of succeeding at things that  

don't matter. I am not afraid of failure. I am  afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter."  

You might recognize those words from the great  missionary, William Carey. I think he was just  

giving voice to thoughts that we've all had at one  time or another. We know there are a lot of things  

in life we could do, a lot of things in life we  could succeed at, but we know intuitively there  

are very, very few things in life that really  actually matter. There's only a few things in life  

that will make a difference to the world, that  will make a long-term difference to the people we  

really care about. And we know it would be tragic  if at the end of our lives we looked back and  

saw that we had succeeded at all kinds of lesser  things, all the while failing at the much greater  

things. Just think how many people have gone to  the grave with extravagant wealth and with all  

kinds of possessions, but with a broken marriage  or with children who barely even know them.

Just a little while ago, I stayed with a family  down south, and their next-door neighbor had  

built this huge, huge home. He and his wife had  built it together and then they had doubled it  

in size so they could host great parties, and  then their marriage had fallen apart and she had  

left and taken the children, and now he was living  alone in this ten thousand square foot house. So,  

by one measure, he had succeeded. He had a  giant home and a beautiful car and the wealth  

to support it all, but then by a more important  measure he had failed. By those measures, he had  

nothing at all. He was wealthy, but destitute.  He was an object of envy and an object of pity.

Don't we all live with this fear that we'll  succeed at the lesser things while failing  

at the greater things? You know, it's not like  those lesser things in life are bad things. Some  

of those lesser things are actually very good  things. It's just that they are lesser. They're  

not those matters of first importance. There's  an order to life, and we know that sometimes  

those lesser things can look so attractive.  They can be so distracting, and they can  

keep us from giving attention to those  few things that matter so, so much. See,  

succeeding at the lesser things at the cost of  the greater things is its own form of failure.

What does it matter if you become CEO but  lose your family along the way? What does  

it matter if you win the gold medal but  you lose your spouse? Or like Jesus said,  

"What does it matter if you gain the whole  world but lose your soul?" And we are really,  

really bad at making these assessments.  We're so tempted at times to throw away  

all those big things at the cost of the  lesser things. Really, succeeding at lesser  

things at the cost of the greater things  is the worst form of failure of them all.

But there's a solution, there is an antidote. And  the solution is productivity, productivity that's  

rightly defined according to the Word of God, a  kind of Bible-based productivity, a Bible-defined  

productivity that helps us identify what are  those things that matter most, then helps us  

pursue them and succeed at them. That kind of  productivity helps us identify and pursue those  

few things that God means for us to succeed at  and it helps us avoid the million and one lesser  

things that really just matter so much less. I  wonder if it would surprise you to know that the  

Bible speaks about productivity, that the Bible  tells us, it calls us to live productive lives?

It might not use the word "productivity," but it's  full of these calls for us to understand it and  

pursue it, full of calls for us to steer away from  those lesser things so we can give our attention,  

our focus to the greater things. The art of  productivity is the art of succeeding at things  

that matter. At its best, productivity is ensuring  that you're succeeding at those things that matter  

the most. It's meant to ensure that you don't have  that moment where you look back on your life and  

realize that you've succeeded just at the fleeting  things, at the minor things, those things that  

don't matter. Maybe you've got more followers on  Facebook or Pinterest than anyone else you know,  

but it's been years and years since you've shared  the gospel with someone and encouraged them to  

become a follower of Jesus. You got the raise  and you got the company car and you got the  

corner office. Well done! But your family can  barely even remember what you look like. Shame!

See, productivity defined by the Word of  God keeps you from focusing on those lesser  

things and ensures that you are focusing  on the things of the greatest value. So,  

I believe if we read God's Word  and we see what God has to say,  

we would come up with a definition of  productivity that goes something like this:  

"Productivity is effectively stewarding your  gifts, your talents, your time, your energy,  

and your enthusiasm for the good of others and  the glory of God." It's effectively stewarding  

your gifts, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm  for the good of others and for the glory of God.

See, what matters most in life, what matters  most in the universe, what matters most to  

God is the glory of God, and God calls us to  bring glory to Him in every way in every area  

of life. This whole world exists from God and  for God so it can display the glory of God. So,  

in Psalm 19 we read, "The heavens declare  the glory of God. The sky above proclaims  

His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and  night to night reveals knowledge." This world  

is constantly proclaiming the Word of God. Do  you hear it? Do you see the glory of God? This  

world exists for His glory. And if this world  exists for the glory of God, then so do we. If  

the stars and the planets and the animals and the  trees, if all of them exist for the glory of God,  

then how much do we who are made in the image  of God? We are meant to join in this chorus. You  

and I exist to display God, to deflect all glory  and honor away from ourselves and onto Him. So,  

Romans 11:36, "For from Him and through Him and  to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever."

We are meant to live lives that glorify  God in every way and in every moment,  

which raises the question, "How do we do this? How  can we live in such a way that we're glorifying  

God?" We bring glory to God when we do good to  others. See, there's nothing more precious that  

God has made than people, people He's made  in His own image. So, no wonder then that  

God tells us to do good to them. No wonder then  that He tells us to serve them, to live for them,  

to love them. And all through the Bible,  we see this link: We do good for others;  

that brings glory to God. So, Jesus says, "Let  your light shine before others, so that they  

may see your good works and give glory to  your Father who is in heaven." Peter says,  

"Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable,  so that when they speak against you as evildoers,  

they may see your good deeds and  glorify God on the day of visitation."

Do you see that we do good to others and God gets  the glory? God gets the glory through the good  

things we do. Well, that means that the greater  things in life are the things we do for others,  

not the things we do for ourselves. The greater  things in life are the things that we do for the  

benefit of other people. The lesser things  in life are the things we do for ourselves,  

for our own good. And so, this is why the Bible  then is full of these calls to good works,  

good works meant to serve other people. Now hear  me, these are not the kind of good works that  

merit our salvation before God, not the kind  of good works we do to draw the eye of God,  

to draw us to God. No, these are good works  that flow out of our salvation from God.  

God has freely saved us through the gospel. He  saved us by grace alone, through faith alone,  

in Christ alone. He's given us these great  gifts, the gift of peace with God, the gift  

of justification, the gift of security forever.  Best of all, He's given us the gift of Himself,  

of this real and living relationship with the  Creator of the universe. And so, of course,  

then our hearts overflow with gratitude. They  overflow with love for Him and this desire to  

do what He calls us to do, to make sure that He  gets every bit of the glory that is due His name.

So, when Paul writes to the church in  Ephesus, he says, "We are His workmanship,  

created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God  prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."  

God saved us so we could do good works. God saved  us so we could do good to others. This is God's  

purpose in saving us. So, when Paul writes to  Titus, he says, "I want you to insist on these  

things, so that those who have believed in God may  be careful to devote themselves to good works."  

He writes to the congregation in Galatia.  He says, "So then, as we have opportunity,  

let us do good to everyone, and especially  to those who are of the household of faith."

Do you want to succeed at the greater things  in life? Then, you need to direct your life at  

bringing God glory by loving other people, by  doing good to other people. This is why I can  

say productivity is effectively stewarding your  gifts, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm for  

the good of others and then the glory of God.  Productivity is taking everything you are,  

everything you've got and consecrating it to  God and to His service. It's using all of it,  

everything you are, everything you have to do  good to others. It is taking your spiritual gifts,  

your natural talents, your time, your energy,  even your enthusiasm and deliberately directing  

it to doing good to others, trusting that  as you do that, you're glorifying God.

Just pause for a moment. Isn't that the kind of  life you want to live? Doesn't this sound like  

the kind of life that really matters? Imagine  that many years from now you're looking back on  

your life. If you look back on a life that's  full of doing good to others, there's no way  

you would think, "I failed." But if you look  back and you saw a life of living for yourself,  

for your own good, for your own glory, well  then, of course, you would look back and say,  

"I succeeded at things that just don't matter.  I failed at the things that matter the most."

I think we all long to be remembered  something like this: "He gave his gifts,  

his talents. He gave it all, all he had  for the good of others and the glory of  

God." Isn’t that why the church wept for  Dorcas when she died? Isn't that why the  

church was so glad to commend Barnabas to  the service of others? Isn't that why we  

honor our Christian heroes like William Carey  and Eric Liddell and Amy Carmichael and Jim  

Elliott and on and on? They gave all they  had in service to others and they did it  

out of this desire to glorify God, to see  His name magnified. Their lives mattered.  

Their lives were significant. No one accused  them of failing at those greater things.

Is this your life? Are you stewarding all that  God has given you for the good of others and  

God's glory? Would your family be able to say,  "He devotes himself to good works"? Would your  

church be able to say, "She does good to  everyone and especially to those who are  

of the household of faith"? Because that's the  life God calls us to. That's the productive life  

according to God's definition of productivity.  That's the life God created you to live,  

but it's not an easy life. It's not easy because  there are endless challenges to this kind of life,  

endless challenges to this kind of productivity,  a million ways that our productivity is hindered  

and interrupted and destroyed. Some of them are  just a natural consequence of living in a world  

that's full of sin. Some are just our own sin  rising up within us to interrupt and interfere.

Just briefly, let me highlight three challenges to  productivity that I think are especially prominent  

in a world like this one. So, just imagine  that you spent time considering your life.  

You've thought deeply about the ways God has  gifted you and the talents He has given you,  

the opportunities you got, all of that. You've  planned how you can use all of those things to  

do good to others and bring glory to God. Then you  get busy with life. You begin to live your life,  

where you'll encounter the problem of  distraction. Distraction haunts us in  

this always on digital world. Distraction  haunts us because we're surrounded by  

devices that are made equally for mindful  productivity and mindless entertainment.

So distraction, it seeks us out and finds us.  It's like every new generation of devices finds  

new ways of being distracted, creative ways  of barging into our lives to pull us away  

from what we're doing and to push us toward  something else. But distraction really just  

masks laziness. We want to be distracted because  it's hard to be productive. It's hard to live that  

life of productivity, so we want to be pulled  away from it. It's easier to be pulled away.

To be productive, we need to find ways of  shutting out distractions. We need to find  

ways of removing them so we can focus on the  things that are truly significant. Now hear me,  

entertainment is not wrong. Rest is not  wrong. Netflix isn't intrinsically evil.  

I don't want to go back to a world without  YouTube, but they've got to take their proper  

place. We can't allow them to distract  us from those things that matter most.

And then, there's the problem of procrastination.  Over the last few decades, we've seen this big  

shift in the workplace where more and more of  us have jobs that involve knowledge work. So,  

we're not on factory floors generally or  assembly lines with somebody hovering right  

over us and telling us what to do. So many  of us sit at desks and we stare at screens  

and we can choose any moment whether we'll do  our work or delay our work. Too many times,  

we put off our responsibilities until  tomorrow so instead we can feed on a  

million little digital snacks, a little form  of entertainment. How many times have we set  

out to do good to others but then be  distracted? And then procrastination  

works hand-in-hand with distraction to  become an even deeper form of laziness.

And then, there's a problem of busyness.  We measure ourselves by our busyness. We  

think that busier is better and really the  only alternative is busyness or laziness,  

and so we frantically pursue way too many  tasks, way too many responsibilities,  

and it all displaces the things  that matter most. You know,  

so much of busyness is simply not understanding  our limitations, not understanding that God  

doesn't call us to do everything, but to do  a few things and to do them very, very well.

Distraction, procrastination, busyness, somehow  they all collide in the world of laziness. We  

get busy, so busy, and the busier we get the  more we procrastinate and get distracted and  

then deadlines creep up and suddenly we're  crazy busy again. Perhaps, we need to recover  

that middle ground of diligence. I'm not busy.  I'm not lazy. I'm being diligent. I know the  

few things that God has called me to, and I'm  doing them to the best of my abilities. I am  

not afraid of failing at the things that matter  most because I'm not getting hung up on those  

things that just don't matter. I'm being  productive in the best sense of that term.

Friends, God calls us to live productive lives,  not according to our definition of the term,  

not according to anyone else's, but according  to His. God calls us to live this kind of  

productivity that involves glorifying  Him by doing good to others. He calls us  

to deal with whatever will keep us from that,  distraction and procrastination and busyness,  

every other hindrance so we can instead  effectively steward all that He has given us,  

our gifts, our talents, our time, our energy, our  enthusiasm for the good of others and the glory of  

God. That's the life He calls us to. Just like he  says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, "Whether you eat or  

drink or whatever you do," every bit of it, all  that you are, "do it all to the glory of God."

Thank you.