There were a lot of people that were hoping they would be living to face another year, but their time on earth came to an end.
This is a very special time in our life. As we look at another year, some of us may not be here for the next 365 days. Who might these be:
• It could be the healthiest looking person here
• It could be the unhealthiest looking person here
• It could be the oldest or the youngest person here
• It could be the poorest person here
• It could be the richest person here
• It could be the most industrious person here
• It could be the laziest person here
We don’t know who will live to see the end of the year, but most likely with a crowd this size, some of us will not be here to finish this year.
At this very special time, when we are entering a New Year in our life, we need to make sure that we use every day God gives us for His glory. We really can not afford to waste one of them.
Many start the year off with the best of intentions, by making New Years resolutions. But many made those same resolutions last year and they did not keep them. Here are some resolutions that you can actually accomplish without much effort!
• I am going to read less this year
• I want to gain at least 130 pounds
• I am going to stop exercising
• I am going to be unkind to someone every day this year
• I am going to watch more TV this year
• I am going to procrastinate more this year
• I am going to take up a new habit: maybe smoking!
These are the things that will not take much effort to do.
But if you are really serious about making the New Year a great year, it is going to require more than good intentions.
Illus: Jonathan Edwards was a great Christian man. As a young man, he RESOLVED to do five things:
• HE RESOLVED: To live with all my might while I do live
• HE RESOLVED: Never to lose a moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I can
• HE RESOLVED: Never to do anything which I should despise or think unkind of in another
• HE RESOLVED: Never to do anything out of revenge
• HE RESOLVED: Never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life
These RESOLUTIONS will take more than GOOD INTENTIONS!
Illus: Someone said, “Resolutions are like babies in church; they MUST BE CARRIED OUT!”
The Word of God tells us what we must do to make this a successful year for the Lord.
Look at Eph. 5:16-21, we read, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”
In these verses, the Apostle Paul presents some important lessons that we need to consider as we enter this New Year.
I. MAKE THE MOST OF EACH DAY
Look again at verse 16, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
This verse of scripture is telling us to MAKE THE MOST OF EACH DAY. WHY? Because the times in which we live are very evil.
We mortals measure our life out in years! For example, when someone asks us how old we are, we do not tell them how many days, weeks or months we have lived, we tell them how many years we have lived.
Illus: One of my favorite birthday cards shows an elderly lady blowing out all the birthday candles on her birthday cake.
The writing on the card says this:
• ON THE OUTSIDE: We don’t feel sorry for you blowing out all those candles
• ON THE INSIDE: What about us? We had to stay up all night lighting them!
We go to a lot of trouble to take care of these bodies so we can live for many years on earth. But no matter how much care we give them, it seems to be a losing battle.
When we get to heaven, we are not going to have to worry about these bodies. We will have our glorified bodies and we will enjoy them immensely!
Illus: An 85 year old couple, having been married almost 60 years, died in a car crash. They had been in good health the last ten years, mainly due to her interest in health food, and exercise.
• When they reached the pearly gates, St. Peter took them to their mansion which was decked out with a beautiful kitchen and master bath suite and Jacuzzi. As they "oohed and aahed" the old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost. "It's free," Peter replied, "this is Heaven."
• Next they went out back to survey the championship golf course that the home backed up to. They would have golfing privileges every day, and each week the course changed to a new one representing the great golf courses on earth. The old man asked, "What are the green fees?" Peter replied, "This is heaven, you play for free."
• Next they went to the club house and saw the lavish buffet lunch with the cuisine's of the world laid out. "How much to eat?" asked the old man. "Don't you understand yet? This is heaven, it is free!" Peter replied with some exasperation.
• "Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol tables?" the old man asked timidly. Peter lectured, "That's the best part...you can eat as much as you like of whatever you like and you never get fat and you never get sick. This is Heaven."
With that, the old man went into a fit of anger, throwing down his hat and stomping on it, and shrieking wildly. Peter and his wife both tried to calm him down, asking him what was wrong.
• The old man looked at his wife and said, "This is all your fault. If it weren't for your miserable bran muffins, I could have been here ten years ago enjoying all of this!"
We do everything we can to stretch out life so we can have as many days on earth as possible. We measure life in years, but God’s Word tells us to measure life in days.
Look at Psalm 90:12, we read, “So teach us to number our days…”
We make plans weeks, months and years in advance, as if we know we are going to be here to carry out those plans. But the fact is, we never know when we will see our last sunset.
The Psalmist said, in Psalm 90:10, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
Listen, the average life span of mankind is 70 years, however, some will never live to be that age. If you are living beyond seventy, you are living on borrowed time, you are living on blessed time.
Young people have a different approach to age than adults.
Illus: A woman said, “Recently I realized I'd never shown my four-and-a-half-year-old son, Cameron, my baby pictures. After seeing them one day, he said, ‘If these are your baby pictures, where are the dinosaurs?’" (Nazanin Tooyserkani, California. Today's Christian Woman, "Small Talk.")
Illus: When Dr. Odell Belger was in his early 60’s a lady started attending his church. Years early her children used to attend his church, and now 30 years later, their mother is attending. She was trying to get her children to attend church with her and she told them they knew the pastor. She told them it was Dr. Odell Belger, and he was only sixty two. They said, with disbelief on their face, “HE IS STILL PREACHING?”
We measure life in YEARS, but God’s Word teaches us to measure it in DAYS!
Illus: A few years ago, People Magazine advertised a new clock on the market. It calculates an average life span of 75 years for men and 80 years for women. So you program your sex and age into the clock, and from then on, it will tell you how much time you have left. It sold for $99.95.
We all should buy such a clock.
• Some of us have only a few thousand days to live on this earth
• Some have only a few hundred days to live
• Some have even less
No wonder God tells us to NUMBER OUR DAYS, only a fool will go through life thinking they are going to live for ever. In fact, the Bible tells us not to count on tomorrow because tomorrow may not come for you or for me. All we have is now. Our time on this earth is valuable because it is very limited.
We must MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY DAY and -
II. MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY
Paul tells us that we must MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY DAY, but he also tells us why we should do this. He said, "Because the days are evil."
We live in a very evil society. There was a time in this country when people went to sleep at night without their doors being locked! Today, they lock them, put dead bolts on their doors and have security systems to protect them from all the evil out there.
God’s Word teaches us that Satan is a robber and a thief, and one of the things he wants to do is steal the opportunities we have for serving the Lord this coming year.
Satan is the biggest thief to ever walk on this earth. Every day of our life he is looking for ways to rob us.
We are aware that often he tries to rob us of God’s blessings by putting evil things in our life, but many times we are not aware that he also uses GOOD THINGS! He use evil things that make demands on our time, but he also use GOOD THINGS that make demands on our time.
Illus: Remember when Jesus went to the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus? He sat down to teach, and Mary was sitting at His feet just soaking in every word he said. Meanwhile, Martha was out in the kitchen preparing dinner.
Now, you know the story. Martha gets upset because Mary is not in the kitchen helping her. She complains to Jesus. In Luke 10:40, we read, "But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me!"
Look what the Lord says to her, in Luke 10:42, “But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Now was Martha committing a sin by fixing a meal in the kitchen? No, of course not! But here’s WHAT SHE WAS DOING…She had her priorities so messed up that she was preoccupied with what she was doing, and she didn’t realize that God was in her living room.
• A lot of folks today are so preoccupied with making money, they do not realize what they are missing.
• A lot of folks today are so preoccupied with the gods of this world, they do not know what they are missing.
• A lot of folks today are so preoccupied with sports, they do not have time to attend the house of God for worship.
That is a common mistake that we 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.
Illus: Richard Swenson, a medical doctor, wrote a book in which he discusses one of the major maladies of our time - anxiety and stress.
He calls it "overload," and says that people are just plain overloaded.
1. WE’RE OVERLOADED WITH COMMITMENTS
Satan would love to overload us with evil things so we won’t have time for God in our life. If he can not do that, he will overload our lives with GOOD THINGS so we won’t have time for God.
2. WE’RE ALSO OVERLOADED WITH POSSESSIONS
Illus: A young couple attended church every Sunday. Then summer time came, and they bought a nice swimming pool for the back yard.
• The first Sunday it was installed, they had to stay home and make sure it was filled.
• The second Sunday, their parents were coming over for a bar-b-que in the back yard and a swim.
• The third week they had some friends come over for a swim.
• The whole summer went by, and the devil filled every weekend.
That family never got back in church.
The devil knows that one of the best ways to get us to waste our life, is to take something GOOD and use it to keep us from serving the Lord. Sometimes it is a boat, camper, mountain home, lake home, or a beach home. He knows how to take GOOD things and load us down with them, so we will not have time to worship and serve the God who created us and put us here.
3. WE HAVE AN OVERLOAD IN THE AREA OF WORK
To have all these material things means we have to work many long hours. Is there anything wrong with work? Of course not! But Satan knows how to take a good thing and get us so involved in it that we will not have time for God in our life.
I could go on and on, but you get the picture. There are so many demands on our time. But there are just 8,760 hours in a year, so we need to make the most of every opportunity.
Conclusion:
Before we close let me make a couple of suggestions for you to consider for the new year, because we need to establish our priorities.
1. You need to schedule some definite time each day to pray and to read His Word.
2. You must spend time with your family.
Every husband here ought to have a date night with his wife. I’m serious. You ought to have a date night with your wife, a time when just the two of you get away and don’t let anything interfere with that time.
Spend time with your children, They’re growing up quickly. These are precious moments. Don’t let them get away. Make sure that you spend quality time with your children. Make sure that your family is very high on the list.
3. BE GOOD WORKERS
When someone hires a Christian, they ought to know they’re getting someone who will give them an honest days work, and not cheat them. Christians have a responsibility to the Lord to honor Him even in the marketplace.
Illus: Gary Freeman 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.
I. MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY DAY
II. MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY
