Ephesians 5:15-17
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HEAR THE MESSAGE
As I sought the Lord as to what he wanted me to encourage you about for the New Year, he caused me to think about time. About 2 weeks ago I performed the wedding ceremony for the person who was this fellowship's youngest member when we began. When this fellowship began, Stephanie Rapp, now Stephanie Temples, was only 5 months old. And now she is married. How in the world did she get old enough to get married?
Instead of buying each other any Christmas presents this year, Carol & I went to visit our son and his family in Richmond. I knew that we only had a limited amount of time, so I did everything humanly possible to make the most of it. I kept the spirit, instead of the letter, of the speed laws. Thus I was able to make it there in record time. Of course I had to ask God to forgive me for my right foot reverting back to its sinful ways.
But despite everything I did to save time, those 3 days flew by. And on the way home, I wondered where in the world did the time go? So while I was driving home, the one thing I thought about was how I could have worked it out to have spent more time with my family. I thought that maybe next year we will fly, this time in an airplane, just so we can have a few more hours with them.
If you think about it, the subject we deal with the most often in any given day is the subject of time. Have you ever been running a little late and it seemed as though the red lights were conspiring against you? Have you ever wondered at the end of the day why you didn't have enough time to finish your tasks? Have you ever had your spouse call you and ask you what time you're coming home?
My sermons average about 40 minutes, and most of you have become accustomed to that length. I don't even have to look at my watch to know when I've preached too long. That's because your body language lets me know that I've gone over my allotted time. The reason you get anise when I've preached longer than usual is not because you're bored with what I'm saying, but it's because we're all sensitive to time.
Everybody in this room has a microwave oven just so you can eat right in a matter of a few minutes. We use e-mail so we can get a message to someone right away. We are a "now" generation who are always looking for ways to save time. Despite all the time saving devices that we have, how many of you have any spare time?
I can't find any of it. I don't know about you but it's just nowhere to be found. Even though time is a very, very valuable commodity to us, in reality, it's simply a measurable period in which circumstances or events take place. And God has a great deal to say about time because time plays such a major role in our life.
In these verses Paul makes it very clear that all of us have been given a period of time in which to live. So Paul is telling you that in the span of time that God has given to you, make the most of it by making it count for eternal purposes. All of us need to be reminded of this because it is easy to waste time. It is easy to drift along life, doing nothing of eternal significance. It is easy to waste not only minutes and hours doing nothing, but if we're not careful those hours will turn into days, and weeks, and months, and even years. Then one day, you look back and ask yourself, "What happened, not only to yesterday, but what happened to last week? What happened to last year? Or even what has happened to my life?"
Now the way we use our time reveals where our values and priorities are in life. For example, have you ever asked someone what they were doing and got the reply: "Oh, I'm just killing time." I don't know of anything any more horrendous than to kill time. That's because you're killing the precious commodity in all this world. Time is even more valuable to us than money because nobody can give you their time. The only thing other people can do is take away your time.
So let me ask you if you are you wisely using your time? Do you live merely to go to work, come home and watch TV, videos, or surf the Internet for 4/5 hours a day? Are you just sort of existing?
Unfortunately, there are far too many people who are doing just that. They are just drifting along through life, letting people & circumstances govern the use of their time. I believe it goes against the scriptural teaching of the Word of God to waste time, to drift through life, and not to make your life count.
There's not one single verse in the Bible that says you & I are to live that way. Instead the Bible teaches that there is a purpose and direction for your life. The Bible teaches that you are to use your God-given gifts & talents in such a way that your life brings glory & honor to God.
Think about this for a minute, if God had wanted to, he could have wiped out your life 30 seconds after you were born. But instead he has graciously given you a span of time to do his will. Remember that Paul says that we are not to be unwise, but we are to walk as wise men and women. Wise men and women live by making the most of their time.
So the question I want you to answer this morning is, how are you going to make the best use of this span of time that God has given to you? I think that all of us need to learn how to become more wiser in order that we can save time, which will give us more time to use for worshiping, and serving the Lord.
Do you realize that the greatest time saver in the world is prayer? I came to this conclusion after studying the life of Jesus. All through the gospels we see Jesus spending time alone with God in prayer. For instance, there was a time when Jesus had to make one of the biggest decisions of his life: who he would chose to be his 12 disciples.
At this time there were a lot of people following Jesus, so this decision was not an easy one for him to make. But we don't see Jesus interviewing each candidate. We don't see him spending hours reading over their resumes. Instead, Luke tells us that "Jesus went off to a mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when the day came, He called His disciples to Him and He chose twelve of them." (Luke 6:12-13)
When you wake up, do you know exactly how your day is going to turn out? But God does. Hopefully everyone of you prays before your day begins. And probably you pray for God to protect you & your family. You probably pray for God to provide for your daily needs. But how many of you ask God to show you how to make the best use of your time? Since he already knows what's going to happen every single second of that day, why not ask for help in avoiding those things that steal away our time. Why not ask him to help you be at the right place at the right time for what James Kennedy calls those divine appointments. Why not ask him to intervene in your schedule to ensure that you can do what he's got planned for you to do that day. Remember that you're in a spiritual battle with the thief whose sole purpose is to kill, steal, and destroy you. And that includes killing, stealing, and destroying your time.
I discovered a long time ago in preparing a message, that the greatest time saver is to spend time on my face before God asking him to speak to me through the passage. You may think that when I preach that I'm preaching to you. But in reality, I'm only preaching what the Lord has convicted me about. And God's Spirit has used this message more than any other to convict me about how much time I waste.
Next I ask the Spirit to help me correctly interpret the particular passage I am going to teach from. After all, he is the one who inspired the men to write down the words in the first place. So who better to ask what the passage means? Then after I discover what the Spirit means in the verses, I ask him for help in finding the right illustrations, to help you apply the truths to your life. And finally, I ask him to show me how to say want he has shown me in a way that's crystal clear and simple enough that nobody can miss it.
What difference does it make to God whether or not we find ways to save time? Well, let me ask you this, what is the one thing in your life that brings the greatest sense of satisfaction to God? The answer is the time you spend with him.
Do you know that God doesn't need any of us? There is nothing in his creation that is dependent upon you and me. In fact, this world would run much smoother if it wasn't for people like you & me.
So why did He create us? He created us so he could spend time with us. He created us to show us how much he loves us. And he created us so we could love Him back, and discover how absolutely fantastic and wonderful he is. But let me ask you what might be an embarrassing question. How much time did you spend loving God this past year? How much time did you spend learning about him and about what he wants you to do? Listen to me: Nothing can substitute for spending time with God.
I can't tell God that I didn't have time for him because I was too busy studying to preach! I can't tell God that I didn't have time for him because I was too busy taking care of his sheep. If I spend little or no time with God, what I'm telling him is there are a lot of important things in my life, but one of them is not spending time with God. If I don't spend time with God, I am saying that he is not my top priority in life. Because if he was, I would spend time with him.
I don't ever want to get to the point in my Christian walk that the only time during the week I talk to God is when I need something. Or when I need God to help or protect me. I don't want my prayer life to be made up of only throwing up little prayers to God. Now sometimes we have no choice but to pray these kind of prayer.
Often we find ourselves in situations like Nehemiah was in as he approached the king to ask him to let him start rebuilding Jerusalem. But we can never be satisfied merely using prayer like it is our 911 to heaven. Instead we need to want to spend extended periods of time in our prayer closets talking to God. I want to develop such a close relationship with God that I actually enjoy his Spirit waking me in the middle of the night just so I can spend the rest of the night in prayer.
My only New Year resolution is to spend time concentrating on God. For I am convinced that this will cause me to love him more. I want to value the time I spend with God so much that I won't allow anyone or any circumstance to rob me of that time.
In verse 16 Paul says that you are to redeem or make the most of your time. One of the meanings for the Greek word for redeem means to grasp an opportunity and take advantage of it. In those days the word was used of going to the market to look for bargains. And if you found a bargain you would buy up all the items you could. It was like going to the store and buying all the items you can when they are on sale.
Paul says that you and I are to make the most of our time by buying up every spare second we can. We are not to let opportunities to witness for Jesus, or to serve his body, or to be alone with God, to get away from us. Paul is commanding us not to waste our lives, but make our lives count by filling it up with those things that are not only pleasing to God, but also that are the best for us.
If you think about the life of Jesus you will realize that he was very sensitive about time. Remember he only lived for 33 years. And 30 of those years he spent in a carpenter's shop. So when it came time for him to fulfill the purpose for what he was sent to earth, he only had three years to do it in. And what do you think his top priority was? Jesus' top priority was spending time with the Father.
Here's a man who couldn't go anywhere without the people crowding him, wanting to be healed, or wanting to be taught about God's kingdom. So what do we see Jesus doing on regular occasions? In the morning we see him praying. At night we see him praying.
We see him going out to the wilderness or to the mountains just to get away from the crowds in order to spend time alone with the Father. Why did he do this? Jesus, spent time with his Father because he knew that was the most valuable thing in life was his relationship with his Father. Jesus knew that in order to make the most of his span of life, he needed to spend valuable time alone with his Father. So he reserved time in the mornings and the evenings for the sole purpose of being with his Father.
Was the time he spent with the Father worth the time he could have spent healing sick people? The proof is in the pudding. Look at what Jesus had to say about his life, right before he was crucified: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do." (John 17:1 & 3)
Did Jesus heal everybody who was sick? No! Did everybody believe he was the Messiah? No! But in 3 short years, Jesus fulfilled all of God's will for his life, therefore, he could go to the cross to save all of us.
Isn't it strange that when you and I face big tasks in our life, we think that we don't have time to go to worship services. Or we don't have time to pray. Or we don't have time to read our Bible. It is a shame that we have become so busy that we don't have time to spend time with God. And the Bible cautions us not to get so busy that we can't spend time with God. Because it won't take long before we will forget about God altogether.
One time Jesus told a parable about a man who got so consumed with life that he forgot God. The man had been so blessed by God that he became very successful. So successful that one day he was wondering what he was going to do with all the crops he had. So he contemplated building bigger barns to hold all of his blessings. Then he started to look forward to retiring for he said to his soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry." (Luke 12:19) Little did that man know that his span of time was about to come to an end. Jesus went on to say, "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you." (Luke 12:20) This man was a fool for not realizing how short life really is.
Now the truth of the matter is that it's absolutely foolish to get so busy that we think we don't have any free time to give to God. If you don't value time your time with God, what you're saying to God is, "I don't you need your wisdom. I don't need your direction. I don't need your guidance." But what you really are saying is that you don't value your relationship with God. For if you really value your relationship with God, the more you will want to spend time with him.
Remember falling in love? All you wanted to do was to spend time with that person. You went to bed thinking about that person. You dreamt during the night about that person. You woke up thinking about that person. And all you thought about during the day was that person. That's how I knew that I was in love with Carol. Now suppose I was to tell Carol that I no longer wanted to spend time with her. Or the only time I spoke to her was when I needed her to do something for me, or to help me out of some jam. Don't you think that she would start to wonder if I loved her anymore?
And the same is true with God. How can you say that you love God and not want to spend time with him in prayer, and reading the Bible? In reality, you can't! So how do you make the most of your span of time?
First of all, make sure you have asked God to forgive you of your sins, and you have put your trust in the death of his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the sin debt for your life in full. And the moment you trust him as your Lord, you will become a child of God.
The reason that is such an important use of our time is because the Bible says, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2) The writer of Hebrews says, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." (Hebrew 3:7-8) God doesn't say that tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year is the time to get saved. He says that today, that right now is the perfect time to get saved.
The second step in making the most of my time is to do exactly what Paul says in v. 17. If you want to use your life wisely, you need to ask the One who created you for the purpose for which you were created. To discover the will of God for your life, simply ask him what's his plan for your life! Now he may not give you the big picture, but he certainly will give you the wisdom to accomplish his will for today.
For instance, if you are a homemaker, and a mother of several children, then at this point in your life God's will for you is to raise godly children, and to be a godly wife to your husband. You may think that you're merely going through the motions of life by going to work to earn a paycheck to support your family. God's will for you right now is to be a witness with your life, and to witness with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord.
We gather on Sunday mornings for the purpose edification. But we scatter Monday through Saturday for the purpose of evangelism. The moment you leave this building, you are entering your mission field. I have said many times that your mission field is the ground that is between your 2 feet. That is why Paul tells us in these verses to be careful of how we walk. Make the best use of your time, by using your time to tell others about what Jesus has done in your life.
I don't know about you, but I want to accomplish something for God in my life. I don't want to just leave my footprints in the sand of life. When I'm about to die, I don't want to wonder if my life was a waste? I want to be able to say that I lived it for the glory of God. I want to say that I existed just so God could use me as he seemed fit. I want to be able to say that I spent my life investing in those things that have eternal value! Are these your desires as well?
Let me close by saying that Jesus showed us that it isn't how long you live; but it's how you live your life. Jesus only lived for 33 and a half years, and his ministry only lasted for 3 and a half years. But during those short 33 and a half years Jesus invested every second of his life in his his relationship with his heavenly father.
If Jesus were to visit us today, I don't believe that at the end of the day that Jesus would go home and sit in front of a television, or a computer for the sole purpose of putting his mind in neutral merely to be entertained by junk that doesn't edify one's spirit. I believe that Jesus would use those 4 to 5 hours to invest in things that have eternal value. There are only 4 things in this life that will last for eternity: people, the Bible, love, and God.
So let me challenge you this year to make your relationship with God the top priority of your life! Then spend the rest of your time loving the people he brings into your life. And make sure you never get so busy that you don't have time to read the Bible. Please remember that it really isn't how long you live, it's how you live your life! It's what you do with the time God has given to you.
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