Now Is The Hour
01/01/06 AM
Reading: Ephesians 5:15-17
Introduction
Happy New Year! This morning we stand in the threshold of a brand new year. At this time of year it is not uncommon for people to reflect on the year just past. I’m sure you’ve noticed the many magazines and newspapers with special sections recalling people and events that made news during the past year. And it’s not unusual for some to make predictions for the New Year and Years to come. Some even go so far as to make predictions covering 10, 20, or more years in the future. Some few of these predictions have proven accurate, others not so accurate.
ILL.
• “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”
Western Union internal memo, 1876.
• “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
• “Despite the trend to compactness and lower costs, it is unlikely everyone will have his own computer any time soon,”
Reporter Stanley Penn, The Wall Street Journal, 1966
• “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
• “By the turn of this century, we will live in a paperless society,”
Roger Smith, chairman of General Motors, 1986.
Many scholars of the past believed that the advances in technology would make life easier, and that by 2000, most adults would work only a few hours every week. Most daily tasks would be automated and computers or robots would be intelligent enough to complete them. As a result, one of our biggest problems would be in deciding what to do with all our leisure time. How’s that working out for you?
In fact, most of us seem to be very busy people. We’re always in a hurry. We walk fast, and talk fast, and eat fast.
So here we are, at the first day of 2006. I wonder how we’ll do this year? Will we be as busy? Will we make any better use of our time? In 364 days, when the year is over, will we be looking back with joy, or with regret? Will we be looking at the future with anticipation, or with dread?
There is a passage of Scripture that I believe can be of help to us as we look forward to the rest of 2006 - if we’ll listen to it. The passage is Ephesians 5:15-17 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
PROP. I think that in this passage the Apostle Paul presents some important lessons that we need to consider.
I. Make the Most of Your Time
A. First of all, we must be very careful how we live because our time on this earth is limited.
1) Psalm 39:4 “LORD, make me to know my end; And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. 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.”
2) Psalm 90:10 “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.”
3) Now, I realize that for some of you younger folk, 70 or 80 years sounds like a long, long time. In fact, I can remember when I thought anyone over 40 was ancient. But no longer. It is all rather relative, isn’t it?
4) James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”
B. Psalm 90:12 “So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”
ILL. Countdown clocks: You can find them for any occasion; Wedding day, retirement, New Years, etc. There is even one you can buy to calculate how much time you have left to live, based on lifetime averages.
1) So if I live to be 75 years old, I have about 10,585 days left to live. It seems like quite a bit, 10,585 days left to live. But wait a minute. I don’t have a guarantee of even one day more to live.
C. In fact the Bible tells us not to count on tomorrow because tomorrow may not come for you or for me. Luke 12:16
1) All we have is right now. So our time on this earth is valuable because it is very limited.
Secondly, Paul tells us that we must make “the most of every opportunity.” and he gives a reason, “because the days are evil.”
II. Make The Most Of Every Opportunity
A. Jesus said that Satan is a robber and a thief, and one of the things he will try to rob from us is our time because time is a very precious possession.
1) There is no doubt that time spent in sin is time wasted but we can also get caught up worrying about the consequences of the sins we have committed.
2) 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
B. But it is not just sin that makes demands on our time. Sometimes even good things can make demands.
ILL: Luke 10:38-42 Mary and Martha
C. Now was Martha committing a sin by fixing a meal in the kitchen? No, of course not! But here’s the problem. She was so preoccupied with what she was doing that she didn’t realize that God was in her living room.
That’s the same mistake that you and I make every day. We get so caught up in the here and now that we fail to deal with the eternal, the things that will last forever and ever.
ILL: Busyness. Stress. Overload. Anyone living in today’s society knows the struggle of trying to handle the load of life in this new millennium. You don’t have enough time to do the things you have to—let alone those things you’d like to do. You feel tired, worn out, and burned out. These symptoms are real and identified by Richard Swenson, MD as signs that you’re suffering from a virulent new disease that afflicts millions of people—The Overload Syndrome.
1) We’re overloaded with commitments. We’ve committed ourselves to go here and there, to take part in this activity and that social function. As a result we soon begin meeting ourselves coming and going because we have overloaded ourselves in the area of commitments.
2) We’re also overloaded with possessions, he says. Our closets are full, and our garages are overflowing. We’ve gone into debt to pay for all of these things that we “simply must have.”
3) Thirdly, we have an overload in the area of work. We get up early, fight traffic, and put up with unsatisfactory working conditions because we have to if we’re going to pay for all those possessions that we’ve accumulated.
4) There is also an information overload. He said that as a doctor he has to read 220 articles a month just to keep up with all the changes in his profession. And now with the internet there’s an information superhighway. But the problem is that we can’t possibly absorb it all. So we feel an overload in this area, too.
D. You get the picture. There are so many demands on our time, so many good things that need to be done. But there are just 525,600 minutes in this year, and we’ve already starting using them. We do want to make the most of every opportunity, so what are we to do?
III. Understand The Will Of The Lord
A. Well, to answer that, Paul tells us, “...do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
1) Now what do you think God’s will is for you in this new year? The scriptures make it clear that He does not want us to suffer from Overload Syndrome. Matthew 6:25-33
B.
Let me make a couple of suggestions for you to consider. First of all, establish your priorities.
1) Your presence here demonstrates that God means something to you but you have to decide just where He stands in your life.
Philippians 3:8-9 “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,”
2) And I’m hoping you will think as Paul and choose: “My relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, is most important to me.” Romans 14:7-8 “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
3) With that as your top priority it will positively affect every other aspect of your life. Your decisions, your scheduling, your relationship with all others, your whole outlook on life.
Commit to study, prayer, and good works. Do the will of the Father. 1 John 2:5-6 “but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
Now with your priorities set…
C. …learn how to live today. Two great enemies of time are regrets for things we did in the past, and anxiety about what will happen to us in the future. Many of us are living either in the past or in the future.
1) In fact, many of us are engaged in the little game of, “I wish it were.” “I wish it were next week,” or “I wish it were next month,” or “something.” Kids go to school and say, “Boy, I wish this day were over.”
ILL. Gary Freeman, author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven tells about a girl who went to college and she just hated it. But she told herself, “If I can ever get out of college and get married and have children, I know I’ll finally be able to enjoy life.” So she stuck with it. She went to classes every day and finally graduated from college. Then she got married and had children, and discovered that children are a lot of work. So she told herself, “If I can just get these kids raised, then I’ll be able to relax and really enjoy life.”
But about the time the kids were entering high school her husband said, “Guess what? We don’t have enough money to send our kids to college. I guess you’ll have to get a job.” Well, she didn’t want to, but she knew he was right and they needed the money, so she went to work. And she hated it. But she told herself, “If I can just get these kids out of college, and get all of the bills paid, then I can quit work and really enjoy life.” Finally, the last child graduated from college, and all the bills were paid. So she walked into her employer’s office and said, “I quit.” He said, “Oh, you don’t want to quit now. If you stay with us just another 8 years you’ll have a pension for the rest of your life.” She thought, “Well, I don’t want to work another 8 years, but there’s all that money there, and I really can’t turn down the opportunity.” So she worked for another 8 years. Finally, she and her husband retired at the same time. They sold their home and bought a little retirement cottage.
Then they sat down on the swing on their front porch and looked at the family picture album and dreamed about the good old days.
Let us learn to live each day for the Lord.
CONCLUSION
I’m hoping all of us will enjoy a happy New Year and I believe we will find ourselves off to a good start remembering these words of Paul:
Ephesians 5:15-17 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
Invitation
And during the New Year may you have enough happiness to keep you sweet - enough trials to keep you strong - enough sorrow to keep you human - enough hope to keep you happy - enough failure to keep you humble - enough success to keep you eager - enough friends to give you comfort - enough wealth to meet your needs - enough enthusiasm to make you look forward to tomorrow - and enough determination to make each day better than the day before.
