Keith Battle - Margin - Part 3

I’m in part three of a series called Margin. How do you balance your resources and your responsibilities in life? We all need margin, and to get us ready and give time for the latecomers to arrive, I want to head into the Zion music kitchen to warm up some cabbage and stuffing and put some gravy on it. You feel me? B, hit them with that theme song! «Push me, 'cause I’m close to the edge; I’m trying not to lose my head.» I can be troubled sometimes; it makes me wonder how I keep going under. Like, Ken J, sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep going. Hey, I’m going to tell you—y’all are getting too good at these little secular songs now, and y’all are supposed to be Christians. They’re playing this old heathen music real good up here, like they don’t just work for the Lord; they keep eyeing them, all right? I’m in Matthew chapter 11. If you have a Bible—whether digital or physical—you can join me in Matthew chapter 11. I’m going to focus on verses 28 to 30 again today. I’m using the Good News Translation, if you want to follow along. If you are physically able to stand without harm to yourself, please stand with me in honor and reverence of God’s word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Amen? Amen! Hey, are you glad to be here today? Just look around at two or three people, make yourself known to them, say good morning to a couple of people you don’t know. Good morning, y’all! Family, act like family! Something might break out in here; we’re going to need each other, amen? Dab your neighbor and say, «I got your back!» If something breaks out in here, I’ll be the first to call the police for you when I run out of here, amen? Let’s go to the word of God. It says, verse 28, «Come to Me,» Jesus says, «all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.» Oh, that sounds so good! «Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest.» Ooh, that’s beautiful! «For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.» Amen. You may be seated. I want to talk to you today about internal margin—how to create margin in your mind, spirit, and soul. I want to have a soul talk today. This is not going to be a traditional sermon; it’s going to seem more like a seminar or a therapy session. You okay with that? I just want to be helpful. Last year, I started going to the University of Maryland on Mondays for their football practices, and I’ve learned so much from the privilege of being around the team and seeing how things are done. I remember the last time I was at practice a few weeks ago, Coach Loxley had the guys go into the indoor facility and do something different from their usual routine. They were doing some physical workouts with the trainers. I was standing and watching them from a kind of balcony area because what used to be cold fieldhouses is now an indoor football training facility. I noticed that many, if not all, of the players were wearing these black tank top vests, and I thought they were weight vests to help with endurance. So, I asked a staff member named Kevin Glover, who used to play in the NFL, «What are those vests they have on? Is that a weight vest?» He said, «No, those are monitors.» I said, «Monitors?» He said, «Yeah, those vests actually allow the trainers and coaching staff to know exactly how an athlete is responding physiologically to the workout.» I said, «Get out of here!» He explained that those things can track your heart rate, respiratory rate, body temperature, and overall health and well-being. I remembered when I was training with the Wizards, and I would go to their practice facility. They had trainers and medical staff on the sidelines with tablets, and when I asked one of them what they were doing, they told me they were tracking players' performance. One guy showed me a specific example: «If he normally jumps 22 inches on this jump shot, and I can see he has been running a lot, I can tell his jump on the last shot was only 19 inches.» He said, «If it goes down to 17 inches, that means he’s fatigued and trending toward a fatigue-oriented injury.» I was amazed! That’s the technology we have now! Forget the days when you used to coach and had to ask players if they were tired—you could just look at the data! I’m saying that we have technology on our dashboards; your dashboard in your car will tell you when you’re low on fuel and when you need service. Your bank account statements will tell you when you’re low on funds, and your body will even tell you when you’re tired…