Making The Most Of Your Time

Making the Most of Your Time

Eph. 5:16

July 23, 2006 FBC, Chester Mike Fogerson, Pastor

Introduction:

A In a magazine article: Based upon an average 71 year old life span.

1 You will spend...

a 23 years sleeping (8 hours a day)

6 years in a car

3 years eating

11 years in leisure activities

2 years getting dressed

17 years working

b And... let’s say you come to church Sunday morning and evening and Wed. nite, an average of 3 hours a wk, you will spend a whopping total of ...

*6 months in church.*

2 Back in 1967, experts predicted that by the turn of the century technology would have taken over so much of the work we do that the average American work week would be only 22 hours long, & that we would work only 27 weeks a year.

a As a result, one of our biggest problems would be in deciding what to do with all our leisure time.

b Well, I don’t know about you, but that prediction certainly missed the mark as far as my life was concerned!

B ...making the most of your time, because the days are evil. Eph 5:16 (NASB)

1 In Scripture, time was a precious gift that was to be treasured (essence of the text in a sentence)

a Believers can honor God by using their time wisely (essence of the sermon in a sentence)

b I pray you’ll treat the time you have left as a precious gift (objective)

2 How are you making the most of your time? (Probing question)

a Let’s look at two truths about making the most of our time. (Transitional sentence)

b Pray

I Your time is precious because...

A Where you spend eternity depends on decisions you make this side of the grave.

1 To the believer, this is the time we’ve seized to embrace Jesus.

a The Holy Spirit has pointed us to the cross, we’ve admitted, believed, committed!

b For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. Luke 9:24 (NASB) Now is the time, no post-mortem evangelism.

2 No one knows this fact more than the devil!

a "It is appointed once for man to die, and then the judgment"

b When we’re young...plenty of time! Old...out of time

B Time is short

1 The Bible assures us that our time is short.

a Remember that my life is but breath ...Job 7:7a (NASB)

aa Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Psalms 39:5 (NASB)

bb Man is like a mere breath; his days are like a passing shadow. Psalms 144:4 (NASB)

b You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. James 4:14b (NASB)

2 The reason gold & diamonds are valuable is the same reason time is valuable.

a Gold/diamonds are in short supply!

b Time is a thousand times more precious than money, but when your time is up, you cannot buy it back.

C We do not know how short it is.

1 Luke 12 tells the story of the man who built his barns bigger to hold more grain only to die when they are completed.

a But God said to him, ’You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ Luke 12:20 (NASB)

b This farmer didn’t realize how short life was.

aa He assumed he had more time, years, "didn’t see it coming"

bb His journey was over!

2 300 years ago, a journey from England to the New World took months, & arrival was between June & August.

a Supplies were watched closely, guarded.

b If you run out of supplies six weeks from your destination, somebody’s going hungry.

c We know we’ve got limited days, but we don’t know exactly how many we have & when they’ll run out...

D Once time is gone, we can’t get it back.

1 There are some things in life we can regain after we’ve lost them.

a Buy them back, work them back, get them back...regain

b Once time is gone, it’s irretrievable

2 (IL) Putting toothpaste back in the tube once it’s squeezed out.

a All the money in the world can’t buy a moment of time back.

b When it’s gone, it’s gone! (Like a word)

Because time is so precious, we must treat it as such (transitional sentence)

II Your time can be treated as precious by...

A Starting to make the most of your time today.

1 They say the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, & the second best time is today.