10,000 Hours

SERMON: “10,000 Hours”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 July 18, 2010
Dr. Dennis Ginoza

To a graduating class at a university, Bill Gates said,
“Be kind to nerds, they might be your boss someday.”
I’ll came back to Gates later.

In 1979, when I came to this church, right away, we were in the building
project. The general contractor was Don Siegert. I really
enjoyed working with Don, but he didn’t mess around.
He said to me, “Dennis, time is money.” If I am correct,
the general contract was for $135,000. We had several
sub-contracts: plumbing $10,000, electrical $10,000,
finished carpentry $10,000. The street improvements and
parking $55,000. You know, that concrete alley cost $10,000..
But we saved a lot of money by doing the work ourselves,
the landscaping, painting the building; we even swept the sand
off the parking to save $60. My sermon this morning is: 10,000 Hours.

How many of you have your watches with you?
Will you raise them up, please?

The Greeks tell us that there are two kinds of time – chronos and
kairos. Chronos is based on the movement of
planets. It is called sidereal time. That’s where we get
our seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years.
Kairos is God’s time. The book of Ecclesiastes says, there is
time to be born and a time to die. The is a time to laugh and
a time to cry. There is a time for everything.

The trouble with most of us is,
first, we don’t try.
Second, we don’t listen.
Third, we are non-believers and we say, “No way!”

In the east there is a saying, “You can learn one thing from every
person you meet.” Today scientists and psychologists
believe that your brain will add neurons if you keep using
it. It’s like a muscle: work it and it gets stronger.

When Jesus was teaching his disciples, he
said, “But for God, all things are possible.”

In every church, I have learned something from the people.
When we were improving the landscaping, I was
helping Russ Stuhmer install the sprinkler system. He had
a pvc cutter, he would clean the tubes, then apply
the glue. I decided, Ah! I can do that. So at our house
I installed our irrigation system in the backyard of our
home at El Nopal.

We used to own a 1973 Toyota Corona. It was a good car, a work
horse. We were having trouble with the automatic choke.
I had trouble starting the car when the engine was cold.
Jack Roessler said to me, “Bring your car over.” I watched
him recondition the carburetor. I decided, “I can do that.”
I rebuilt that carburetor twice, all by myself. (I was proud!)

God has given to all of us,
the gift of the mind,
the gift of the heart,
the gift of the hands,
and the gift of soul.
Everything God gave us is to bring life.
Everything in us is for renewal, for health, and wholeness.
In each of us, God has placed properties for healing.

The prophet Ezekiel tells about God’s promise to us:
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.
I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you
the heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26) Then Jesus gave us the heart of love.

In his book, “The Eagle’s Secret,” David McNally, says, a Harvard
professor Howard Gardner identified eight types of intelligences.
Every teacher and every parents should know this.
If you have children, listen!
If you are a teenager or a student, listen!
If you are twenty or over, listen!
If you think you’re over the hill, listen!

-- Linguistic intelligence, allows one to communicate
in languages. Examples: T.S. Elliot,
William Shakespeare. poets.

--Logical intelligence, enables a person to use and
appreciate abstract relationships. Examples
Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, scientists.

--Musical Intelligence, allows a person to to create and
understand meanings in sounds. Johann Sebastian
Bach, Igor Stravinsky.

--Spatial Intelligence, to perceive images, transform them,
and recreate them from memory. Pablo Picasso,
Leonardo Da Vinci.

--Kinesthetic Intelligence, allows a person to use all or part
of the body in highly skilled ways. Martha Graham,
dancer, Kristi Yamaguchi skater and champ, Dancing
With the Stars.

--Intrapersonal Intelligence, helps people distinguish among
feelings, build accurate models for themselves.
Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, psychoanalysts

--Interpersonal Intelligence, enables a person to recognize
and distinguish among other people’s feelings and
intentions. Mahatma Ghandi, leader.

--Naturalist Intelligence, provides for a person to classify
and map the environment. Charles Darwin

I would add a ninth type of intelligence, Religious Intelligence,
Martin Luther, John Wesley, reformers.

If you think you’re dumb, it means, you’re dumb just on some
things. But…if you work hard at some thing, you
will be amazed. If you apply yourself, if you work hard,
and if you believe you can do it, you can. Jesus teaches us that
the kingdom of God is at our finger tips. The kingdom
of God is in the midst of us. So he said, “Learn from me.”
Everything works according to God’s time.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book entitled, “Outliers.” He comes
the conclusion that just having a high IQ will not bring you
success. It requires opportunity; It takes hard work – 10,000 hours.

In Liverpool England, there were four guys that were struggling musicians:
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr-- the
Beatles. But in 1960, they were invited to play in Hamburg, Germany
at a night club. Normally, they played only for two, maybe
three hours. They would play just their best music. In Hamburg,
they played for 8 hours a shot
seven nights a week. The first trip they played 106 nights.
The second trip, they played 92 nights. On the third trip they
played 42 nights. In 1962 they had another 90 nights. The
Beatles became successful because of their 10,000 hours.

Bill Gates. Remember the nerd. He was intelligent, but he was also
lucky. We call that opportunity. He went to a private school in Seattle and
his mother and the mother’s group spent $3,000 for a computer
center. When he was still in high school, he had access to the
computer center at the University of Washington. By his senior
year, he was consulting with a company, because he and his
friend, Paul Allen knew about software. Bill Gates says, I skipped
athletics.” Computers, “It was my obsession” By the time Gates
quit Harvard he had – 10,000 hours. PC, Windows, Microsoft,
digital, that’s Bill Gates.

And there was Mozart. Michael Howe says Mozart’s
early works are not outstanding. His work was not seen as
a masterpiece until he was 21. His greatest works appeared
after he had been composing for 20 years. –10,000 hours.
Mozart today is seen as one of our greatest composers.

For three years, the disciples walked with Jesus, they saw him feed
the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, they saw
him still the storm, they saw him heal the blind man Bartimaeus,
they saw him raise Lazarus from the dead. They thought
all their hopes came to an at the Crucifixion. Then on Easter,
their eyes were opened. Jesus was resurrected. After
the Resurrection every one of the disciples was willing
to die for Jesus. Three and 10,000 hours – they learned
Jesus is Lord!

Listen to the words of Paul. “Let love be genuine; hate what is
is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with
with mutual affection; out do one another in showing
honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the
Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere
in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend
hospitality to strangers.” ….And I say, work 10,000 hours!
(Romans 12:9-13 Marks of the True Christian)