Seize the Moment
YOLO Part 3
Luke 9:59-62
We are currently going through the message series: YOLO.
“You only live once.”
It is true that we only live once.
However, what does this imply?
The Bible is very clear on this.
We only live once, therefore, we must live our one and only life meaningfully.
In order to do that, two weeks ago, we thought about having a clear mission in life.
Last week, we thought about using our time wisely.
And today, we will think about seizing the moment.
A scholar once surveyed the Bible to discover the most significant words in the Bible.
He wanted to find the saddest word, the happiest word, the most emotional word, and so on.
When he came around to the Bible’s most dangerous word, he identified it as “later.”
This word keeps us from coming to Jesus and discovering the abundant life that God wants us to have.
It is a thief that robs us of opportunity and chance to make eternal differences.
Can you imagine what your life could have been if you did not delay when the opportunity was given?
What if you studied before the exam?
What if you bought that stock before it went up?
What if you received Jesus as your Savior when you were younger?
We all have the tendency to postpone.
Students do their homework at the last minute.
Workers stay up all night to finish the project at the last moment.
Pastors write Sunday sermons on Saturday nights.
We have a theological term for that: Saturday Night Express.
Therefore, what does the Bible say about our tendency to postpone?
What are some dangers of not seizing the moment when the opportunity is given?
In the passage that we read today, Jesus taught us these dangers of not seizing the moment when the opportunities are given.
I. We must not lose opportunities to be successful (vv. 59-62).
Verses 59-60 say this.
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Jesus met a man and He told this person to follow Him.
However, the man wanted to go and bury his father and then follow Jesus.
He did not seize the moment when the opportunity was given.
Verses 61-62 say this.
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus met another person.
This time the person volunteered to follow Jesus.
However, he wanted to say ‘goodbye’ to his family first and then follow Jesus.
Both of these people failed to seize the moment when the opportunities were given to follow Jesus.
By doing that, they missed the chance to become Jesus’ disciples.
We must realize this.
There is no successful person, who does not seize the moment when the opportunity is given.
Of course, I am not just talking about being successful in the monetary sense.
Rather I am ultimately talking about success in terms of God’s perspective.
In order to be successful from God’s perspective, we must seize the moment when the opportunity is given to us by God.
There was a management consultant some years ago, named Ivy Lee.
Charles Schwab, chairman of Bethlehem Steel, hired him to come in and help him become more productive.
Lee smiled and gave him a plan of underwhelming simplicity.
He said this.
“Each evening, write down the six most important things you should do on the following day. List them in order of importance. The following morning, come into work and do whatever is at the top of the list. When you’ve finished with that one, move to the next one down.”
Schwab asked Lee how much he was going to charge for such advice.
Lee replied, “Use the plan strictly for several months. Then you decide on the value of my plan and send me a check.”
Eventually Lee received a check for $25,000 from Schwab for that simple piece of advice—a good bit of money at the beginning of the twentieth century.
When God gives us the opportunity to do big things in our lives, we must seize the moment.
We must not try to do unimportant things in our lives and miss the chance to do eternal significant things in our lives.
Let’s say that you made a “to-do” list and someone followed you all day and recorded the actual use of your time.
When presented with the list, would you be pleased with it?
Would it show the enjoyable things at the top, and the important activities always at the bottom?
In order to be successful in our marriage, family, work, and ministry, we must learn to take advantage of opportunities when they are given.
We must seize the moment to be successful in these areas.
We do not know what happened to these two people in the story.
Perhaps they worked, married, had families, and died.
They lived normal lives like everyone else.
However, they failed to live for things that are eternal.
From an eternal perspective, they lived insignificant, unsuccessful lives.
We must not lose opportunities to be successful.
II. We must not lose opportunities to witness (vv. 59-62).
Verses 59-60 say this.
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Some of us might think that this is too much.
Is it wrong to have a funeral to bury a deceased parent?
Of course not!
But Jesus was talking about priority.
This man said that he will follow Jesus after he buried his father.
However, his father had not just passed away that he would have to bury him right at that moment.
Rather, what he said was this.
His father was old; therefore, he did not want to follow Jesus right away.
He wanted to follow Jesus after his father died.
This is why Jesus said to let the dead bury their own dead.
Here Jesus meant spiritually dead.
Otherwise, how could dead people bury other dead people, unless you believe in zombies?
Jesus told this man to let the spiritually dead people do earthly things, and that he should invest his life for the eternal mission of Jesus.
Then verses 61-62 say this.
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Is it wrong to say ‘goodbye’ to our family?
Of course not!
But Jesus was talking about priority.
This was the time to plow the land, but this man was kept looking back.
It is not wrong to take care of our parents.
It is not wrong to say ‘goodbye’ to our family.
They are good deeds.
However, we cannot try to do every good deed when the moment is now.
We must set our priorities and do what is most important.
Then what is the most important thing in life?
Telling people who are spiritually lost about Jesus Christ.
This is why we must set our priority on telling others about Jesus Christ.
We all have experienced this.
God has prompted us to tell someone about Jesus.
And we’ve thought about doing it.
However, we told ourselves that we would do it later.
And we lost the chance to tell someone about Jesus.
Perhaps that was the God-given opportunity and we missed it.
This is why we must learn to listen to His still, small voice and when He prompts us to tell others about Jesus, we must do it.
Once I went out to the street to tell others about Jesus with a person who was training me.
He told me to go and talk to a high school student.
I was so scared because I felt uncomfortable talking to a stranger.
However, I decided to obey the Spirit’s prompting and went to him and told him about Jesus.
I talked to that person and tried to explain the gospel of Jesus as I was trained.
Then I was supposed to ask, “Do you understand what I said?”
I was thinking to myself, “I don’t even know what I said because I was so nervous. I bet he did not understand what I said.”
However, to my surprise, he said that he did understand.
I asked him, “Do you want to receive Jesus into your life?”
He said, “Yes!”
Then and there, we prayed together in that busy shopping mall.
I cannot forget that event.
I cannot forget that feeling.
Because I obeyed His prompting, I was used to lead a total stranger to Jesus.
However, if we do not seize the moment when the opportunity is given, we can lose the chance to witness Jesus.
We must not lose opportunities to witness.
III. We must not lose opportunities for salvation (vv. 59-62).
This is the most dangerous possibility of all.
The Bible itself does not clearly say whether or not these two men became Christians.
Perhaps they never had another chance to believe in Jesus and follow Him.
If so, then their excuses may have costed them their eternal life.
This is why we must not lose the chance to make Jesus our Savior and Lord when the opportunity is given.
However, every year, every day, delaying cuts people off from the gates of heaven.
Perhaps the greatest biblical account of it is found in Acts 24.
This passage lays out a classic model of opportunity tragically waisted.
Felix was a Roman governor, and he had a chance to hear about Jesus through Paul.
However, after Paul presented the gospel message of Jesus Christ, this was his response.
Acts 24:25 says this.
As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.”
Listen to these familiar lines.
“Can you come back later? This is not a good time. Don’t call me; I will call you.”
The words of Felix are hauntingly similar.
They are the favorite words of people who delay in following Jesus.
It is important to point out that Paul appeared before Felix at least one more time.
But it was not the same.
The moment of truth had passed.
He had grown cold in his heart toward the gospel.
We do not know what will happen tomorrow.
We can have accidents.
We can have health problems.
There is no guarantee that we will have tomorrow.
I am not trying to scare you, but it is a fact of life.
When the voice of God calls us, we must never make the mistake of counting on tomorrow.
That can be a fatal mistake.
We can be robbed of the opportunity for salvation.
This is why when an opportunity is give, we must seize the moment to make Jesus our Savior.
We must not lose opportunities for salvation.
Conclusion
Not seizing the moment can cut off our success, our service, and possibly even our salvation.
We must seize the moment when it is given.
Therefore, we must ask these questions to ourselves.
Am I seizing the moment to be successful from an eternal perspective?
I am seizing the moment to witness Jesus to others around me?
I am seizing the moment to be a Jesus follower?
We must learn to honor our God-given chances and opportunities.
This is how we can live our one and only life meaningfully.
