It's About Time

It’s About Time!

A young man who was also an avid golfer found himself with a few hours to spare one afternoon. He figured if he hurried and played very fast, he could get in 9 holes before he had to head home. Just as he was about to tee off an old gentleman shuffled onto the tee and asked if he could accompany the young man as he was

golfing alone. Not being able to say no, he allowed the old gent to join him. To his surprise the old man played fairly quickly. He didn’t hit the ball far, but plodded along consistently and didn’t waste much time. Finally, they reached the 9th fairway and the young man found himself with a tough shot. There was a large pine tree right in front of his ball and it was directly between his ball and the green. After several minutes of debating how to hit the shot the old man finally said, "You know, when I was your age I’d hit the ball right over that tree." With that challenge placed before him, the youngster swung hard, hit the ball up, right smack into the top of the tree trunk and it thudded back on the ground not a foot from where it had originally lay. The old man offered one more comment, "Of course, when I was your age that pine tree was only 3 feet tall."

Ephes. 5:15-17 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, [16] making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. [17] Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Wisdom is viewing life from God’s perspective.

• Time is a very curious element.

• Man’s days are marked and controlled by time.

• God on the other hand, is not at all limited by time. In fact,

• Peter wrote that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

• While God is not bound by time, we Christians are.

Yesterday is like a cancelled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is like ready cash. Use it wisely, for today is the most precious possession you can have.

• And since it is such a precious commodity in such short supply, IT’S ABOUT TIME we started making the most use of it.

I. WAKE UP - REDEEM THE TIME

Long before the invention of mechanical timepieces the Chinese developed a unique way of determining the hour of the day. A small rope was tied in knots evenly spaced and then set on fire. It took the equivalent of 60 minutes for the cord to burn from one knot to another. Each morning a new "string of the hours" would be inserted in the holder. As the people viewed the charred remains of yesterday’s rope, they were reminded that "time past is ashes" and can never be reclaimed. Detours from God’s will can be very time consuming. It will take great diligence to stay on course with God.

a. VERSE 15 tells us…Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise.

b. We are told to walk “circumspectly (diligently, accurately) not as fools but as wise (skilled, experts, learned, cultivated).”

c. Circumspectly in the Latin comes from two words meaning, “looking around.”

d. The idea is that we are not to walk around looking like bumbling idiots who don’t know what they are doing or where they are going.

e. Nor should we be sleepwalking! Too many Christians today are walking around with their eyes wide shut, and not seeing, or choosing to see the urgency that is about.

f. It is time for us to WAKE UP!

g. Romans 13:11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

h. 1 John 2:18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

i. Let us look in depth at VERSE 16.

i. First, we are told to “make the most of every opportunity” which means to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good.

ii. Time is a precious commodity—one that we will receive in an allotted amount

1. ”It is appointed unto men once to die.”

iii. Many times we act like we have all the time in the world, when we really do not know if we have tomorrow to count on—”Know ye not that your life is as a vapor?”

iv. It so urgent for us to make good use of time because “the days are evil.”