Margin: Making Room For God

**James** (0:01)
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So the other day, my family went to Kings Island for the first time. We've been here eight years and still haven't gone to Kings Island. And so we went the other day. And one of the things that we noticed right off the bat was our three-year-old son, Lucas, really wasn't interested in writing all of the age-appropriate rides for that age. He really wasn't into the kiddie rides. We'd be walking in the park and he would be pointing to a roller coaster where they're like, doing a 360 in the middle of the air. And he'd be like, Dad, can I ride that? And I'm like, No, you can't. But it became very evident as we went on that a lot of these rides that he wanted to go on, he was too short. He just didn't make the height requirement. And for you parents in the room, that's a very difficult conversation to have with a three-year-old. It's difficult to explain that you're too short for a ride. And obviously, Lucas couldn't understand this. And so ride after ride after ride, he was too short and he would get so upset. And then at one point, we're walking in the park and we're coming up on this family roller coaster called Snoopy's Soapbox Racer. And my wife looks at me and she's like, you know, I actually think he can ride on this. I think he'll be able to ride on this. And so, you know, sure enough, we go up to that little measuring stick thing and we line Lucas up. And sure enough, he's able to make the height requirement. By a cowlick, he made it. Just barely. And you know, three-year-olds, when they get excited, they don't know what to do with their body. They just don't know what to do. So he just started running. He just was running straight to the roller coaster, and we were chasing after him. And in this moment, I'm excited for Lucas because he finally gets to ride a cool ride. Like, he finally gets to be in this great experience, this thrilling experience. But also, another voice in my head was asking, are we going to traumatize Lucas? Is he going to be scarred by going on this ride? Will there be one day where he's, like, talking to a counselor? And he'll be like, it all started one summer day in Kings Island on Snoopy's Soapbox Racer. Like, I don't know, like, what's going to happen here. And so we get to the roller coaster, and Lucas says he can't wait to start riding this thing. And I'm still over there, nervous, you know. And I'm kind of a nervous parent. You know, I feel like every family, they got, between the husband and the wife, there's one that's a thrill seeker, and there's one that's, like, super nervous and all about safety. I'm the safety guy. My wife is, like, a thrill seeker. She was, like, raised in the front row of a roller coaster by her family. So she's ready to go here, but I'm over there in the cart talking to Chet GPT. Hey, hey, hey, tell me about Snoopy's Soapbox Racer. Give me some reviews. And then Chet GPT is like, great question. And you've noticed any time that you send anything to Chet GPT, it tells you it's a great question. Even if it's a dumb question, you know, like, oh, I accidentally swallowed mouthwash. And the Chet GPT would be like, wonderful. Well thought out question. And so I'm over there just freaking out. Like, I don't know what's going to happen. And the ride is delayed for some reason. It's not even going. I'm like, what's going on here? Something or someone is holding up this ride. And sure enough, as the worker is walking toward me, I realize that I'm the person that's holding up this ride. So this worker comes up to me, very, very, very nice fellow. He comes up to me and he's like, sir, we're going to need you to put your bag in the bin in order for the ride to go. And he looked down at me, and sure enough, I had this big, big backpack with all of our bottled water and everything right there on the floor. And I just, I'm just chilling with my foot on top of it. Like, I'm going to like hold this thing down with my foot as we go on this roller coaster. And so it was a safety hazard. So I had to make room in my cart. I had to shed my baggage. I had to put the bag in the bin in order for the ride to go. So I place it in the bin, the ride goes the whole entire time. Lucas is absolutely loving this. He's not afraid at all. My wife was right. I was wrong. He loved this ride. And as he got off of this ride, we then rode it 10 more times, right? Because as a parent, once you find a ride that works with your family, you're going to be there for like an hour. So this was something that, again, Lucas absolutely loved. But I want you to notice the order of events that led up to this. Here's Lucas all day being turned away because he's too short, and he's finally able to step into this new experience. But the one thing that's holding that ride back from going is my baggage. I have to make room in my cart in order for that ride to actually go. And I feel like us as believers, we can actually relate to that story, can we? You know, how many times in life is God calling you to take a step of faith into something? But there's something holding you back. There's some form of baggage. It could be fear, fear of the future, fear of the unknown. Maybe this morning, you walked in and you're just completely exhausted. You're completely on E. And you want to hear God's voice, and you're trying to hear God's voice, but all you hear is just static. It's just noise. And there's so many things in your life, so many things on your plate, and you just don't have the room in your life for God to pour into your life and speak to you. And, you know, for the past few weeks during this series on making margin, we've talked about a number of key areas where we can create space for God, space for God in our busy schedule, space for God in our finances. Last week, Pastor Jason talked about making God a priority and making margin in our priorities for him to do a mighty work. And today, what I want to talk to you about is what God does with the space that we give him. And I think a beautiful story that really sort of encapsulates this is in 2 Kings. So 2 Kings 4, if you have your Bibles with you, we join the prophet Elisha, who comes across a widow, who's going through an incredibly difficult time. And here in verse 1, it says, The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, Your servant, my husband, is dead. And you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves. Elisha replied to her, How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house? Your servant has nothing there at all. She said, Except a small jar of oil. So here we have this widow who's going through an incredibly difficult time. She's lost her husband. On top of that, she's in crippling debt. And because of that debt, she's actually at risk now of losing her sons. And you have to realize that back then, in the old Mosaic law, if you found yourself in extreme poverty, and you owed a tremendous debt, the authorities could actually take your children away and sell them as indentured servants. So this is a really difficult time that the widow finds herself in. And there's a lot of things that strike me about this widow. The first one is that she's real about what she's going through. You notice that? She doesn't sugar coat it. She doesn't fake it. I think that's noteworthy, because I think a lot of times, us as believers, we feel this pressure to be fake. We feel this pressure to not be real with those around us. If we're going through something, we kind of sugar coat it a little bit, and then we kind of drop one of those famous one church liners, like, I'm too blessed to be stressed. And we're just not honest or open at all. The reality is that God wants us to go to the community that He's put us in. This widow goes to the community that she's in. And it's very important where you direct your cries for help. Notice that this widow could have gone anywhere. She could have gone to anybody, could have done all kinds of things to work back this debt, but instead she goes to Elisha, a prophet of God. And this is very important, because God doesn't want you to deny your circumstances. God doesn't want you to sit there and say, oh Lord, everything's great. I'm doing fine. No, if you're not doing fine, if you're actually experiencing a messy situation, God wants to hear about your mess. He wants you to cast your cares to Him. The Bible says for us to cast our cares to God, because He cares for us. And God cares for this widow. He hears this widow. He hears her cry. So if you find yourself in a situation today where you have no hope, maybe you feel like you're at the end of your rope, let's start there. Let's start there. Cast your cares to God, because this morning, He hears you. This morning, He sees you. And God is asking you to lay this all at His feet.