HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TIME Ephesians 5:16
Make the most of every opportunity . . . [NIV]
Redeem the time . . . [KJV]
Make the most of your time . . . [NAS]
Make the best use of your time . . . [JB Phillips]
Others may have more influence, power, money, etc. But kings & presidents have no more time than you & I.
1. Begin to plan your day.
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalms 90:12)
• Schedule your day.
• Get a calendar and use it.
• Celebrate small victories.
2. Learn to prioritize.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Mat 6:34)
FIRST THINGS FIRST!
*** [Big rocks illustation = do the big things first.]
3. Do it now.
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. (Proverbs 27:1)
• Procrastination is the enemy.
2 SCRIPTURES: WHAT’S INTERESTING?
The LORD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: "Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. (Numbers 1:1-2) Moses and Aaron took these men whose names had been given, and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people indicated their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name one by one (Num 1:17-18)
INTERESTING PART? - Moses implemented the plan on the same day!
4. Learn to delegate. [See Exodus 18:14-23]
You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. (Exodus 18:18)
Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest.
(Ex 40:13)
LESSONS??
1. Sometimes your father-in-law can be right!
2. DELEGATE-do only the things no one else can do.
5. The importance of evaluation.
the devil . . . is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short. (Rev. 12:12)
Satan knows the importance of time; so should we!
Not every request for your time is a request from God.
“Just one life, and soon, ‘tis past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
6. Understand the “tyranny of the urgent”.
Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. (John 11:6)
• Don’t let the urgent crowd out the important.
7. Don’t resent interruptions.
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph 2:10) [See Luke 8:41-56]
Interruptions can be “divinely interjected opportunities”. [Oswald Sanders]
The time is short.
Make the most of every opportunity.
