Illus: Remember, in this country there was a time they had gas war among the gas stations.
During those days many years ago we could buy gas 29 cents a gallon and the service station owner came out and pumped the gas for us. You could fill your car up for five dollars.
But when OPEC got involved and got in control of the gas supply they began withholding their supply of gas and the price of gas sky rocketed!!!
SUUPLY AND DEMAND drove the price of gas in some parts of the country to almost four dollars a gallon.
? It was then when we no longer got our gas from just any gas station, we started looking who sold it the cheapest.
? It was then we did not just get into our cars and drove all over town, we started planning our and combing trips to save gas.
WHY? Because when it became a shortage we began to realize how valuable gas was.
However, Many in life place no value on time whatsoever!!!
? Someone said, How do we value ONE YEAR? Ask a student who failed a grade.
? How do we value ONE MONTH? Ask a Mother whose baby arrived prematurely.
? How do we value ONE WEEK? Ask the Editor of a weekly newspapers.
? How do we value ONE HOUR? Ask someone who lies terminally ill waiting for a loved one who is late.
? How do we value ONE MINUTE? Ask someone who missed a plane, a train, a very important engagement.
? How do we value ONE SECOND? Ask and Olympic Gold Medalist, who lost the race by one second.
Time is something that is given to us by God and we should consider it to be valuable.
Someone has said, “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present!”
Time is a gift from God and we have to decide what are we going to do with these 365 days each year.
As Christians, we know immediately that if we are a child of God that loves the Lord, then out of that 365 days there will be fifty-two Sundays for worship that leaves us 313 days.
There will be fifty-two Tuesdays in which we attend Bible studies. That will give us 261 days remaining in this year, and we are going to have to decide what we are going to do with these days God give us.
The most foolish among us are those who live their lives with no plans to do something with the gift of time that God gives them.
Illus: They are like a ship’s Captain who is going to take a voyage but does not have the slightest idea where HE IS or WHERE HE IS GOING.
Illus: This saying was found on a Sundial.
“Haste traveler! The Sun is sinking now.
He shall return again--but never thou.”
This is so true. The sun will return to make that circle again, but we do not have the assurance that when it returns again, we will be here to see it.
We must seize this moment and take advantage of every precious day that God gives us.
Illus: If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,000 that carried over no balance from day to day...Allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent every day, of course, and use it to your advantage! Well, you have such a bank, and its name is TIME! Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off as lost whatever of this you failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances, it allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow.
Moses, in Psalm 90, gives us some things we should do with the time God gives us.
I. RECOGNIZE THE TIME GOD GIVES US
Look at verse 10, we read, “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.”
Illus: Our lives are like the old wind up alarm clocks. We wind them up and it winds down!!!
We have people today who seem to think they are going to live forever. Some today whose lives reflect that they seem to think that death is 10, 20, or 30 years from now.
HOW DO THEY KNOW THAT?
We are all:
? Only one breathe away from dying,
? Only one heart beat away from dying,
How foolish to think we have decades yet to live.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger tells of visiting a retired gentlemen who was sick in bed. The thing that caught his attention in the conversation, was that this old, retired man, who was unsaved, was laying in the bed talking about what he planned to do in 20 or 30 years. But within six months he was dead and buried!
We mortals need to RECOGNIZE that we are not going to live forever.
Illus: According to the average life span of man today in the United States:
? Seventy - five for men.
? Eighty - for women.
(Humor)The reason women live longer than men it takes them longer get ready to meet God than men.
The reason I mention this is because the Bible statistic has proven to be true, because the average life span of mankind today is between 60 and 70 years.
We get that based on all the deaths of mankind.
In these statistical facts, we have to take into consideration…
? There are some teenagers who will never live to be adults
? There are some in their thirties who will never see their children grow up
? There are some in their forties and fifties who will never get to see retirement.
? There are some in their fifties will never live to see their first grandchild
But let me say something to those who are in their sixties; if you live to be the average age of 70, you have ten or less years to live.
That is, in ten or less years you are going to be standing before God to give account of the way you spent the TIME God gave you here on earth.
We mortals need to RECOGNIZE THE TIME GOD GIVES US.
It is A GIFT, but also we need to-
II. REDEEM THE TIME GOD GIVES US
Look at verse 12, we read, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Illus: Benjamin Franklin said, “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
That is, if I give you one hour of my time, I am giving you one hour of my life.
God wants us to be mindful of time:
? He gives us the SUNRISES to let us know that He has given us another day.
? He gives us the SUNSETS to let us know that the day He has given us is soon going to be gone forever.
? He gives us the SEASONS throughout the year to remind us that the year that He has given us is gradually sliding past us.
? Everyone should have a wrist watch, and they should wear it every day. It should be a constant reminder that every second that ticks off is one second of our life that is gone forever.
? As we feel the heart beat in our chest, it should remind us that our heart is getting closer to the time it will cease to beat.
WE NEED TO REDEEM THE TIME that God has given us!
It is important that we come to church every Lord’s day, because when we do, we are saying to God, “Time is life and I am giving you my life.”
Illus: How often have you heard these words. I would be more involved in church but, I just don’t have enough time.
When it comes to time one thing we all have in common is….we all have the same amount of time each day to live this life.
There is always enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Michelangelo,Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
Have you ever ask someone to do something and they said, I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO DO WHAT YOU ARE ASKING ME TO DO?
What they really mean is, I AM NOT WILLING TO MAKE TIME FOR WHAT YOU ARE ASKING ME TO DO!!!
They mean I have things in my life that I consider to be more important than what you are asking me to do and I do not have time for what you are asking me to do!!!!
They have as much time as anyone else, but they are not willing to spend their time like others.
Illus: No one can stand before the Lord and say to Him, “That’s not fair, my days were only 12 hour days and his days were 24 hour days.”
God gives us all the same amount of time each day.
Listen, people like this, instead of God giving them 24 hours in a day if God gave them 30 hours in a day most likely they still would not have time for God or church in their life.
WHY DO I SAY THAT?
We spend our TIME on the things we love. You can notice that:
? People spend so much time with ANIMALS, because they love ANIMALS.
? People spend so much time with FLOWERS, because they love FLOWERS.
? People spend so much time with SPORTS, because they love SPORTS.
People can claim to love God all day, but if you want to see what a person loves, watch how they spend their time.
And if we love God, we will spend time in the house of God.
Illus: One day a lady told a preacher that the Bible does not say you should attend church three times a week. But he could tell that she did not care what the Scriptures taught, so he tried to approach her from another angle. The wise pastor said to her, “I want to ask you something. IF YOU LOVE GOD, WHY WOULDN’T YOU WANT TO COME TO CHURCH THREE TIMES A WEEK? WHY WOULD THIS SEEM TO BE A CHORE TO YOU?”
The answer is obvious, she did not love the Lord. She was quiet content to take the DAYS God gave her, and selfishly use them on herself.
Illus: Someone said: Today men and women are overbooked, overscheduled, and overcommitted.
God has entrusted us with 24 hours each day to use as wise stewards.
God has given us enough time to carry out His plan. If we don’t have enough time it is not that God has not given us enough time, but that we have used the time He gave us for the wrong THINGS. We need to redeem time.
David said in Psalm 39:5 “Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah”
Illus: Someone said, “Only one life twill soon be past – only what’s done for Christ will last.”
? Moses said we are to “Redeem” the time that God gives us.
? We have only so many days left to do KIND DEEDS, and to help others.
? We have only so many days left to EXALT THE NAME OF THE LORD before a lost world.
? We have only so many days left to try and WIN OUR LOVED ONES TO CHRIST.
? Our life reveals that time is running out.
? The wrinkles on the face are saying time is slipping past us
? The grey hairs that we see, tell us it won’t be long now before we have to give account of this precious gift of time to our Creator.
? The aches and pains we feel in our body, let us know that this body is wearing out and life is slipping past us.
? Looking at these teenagers, who only a short time ago were in the church nursery, tells us WE ARE GROWING OLD and we do not have many days left here
Moses suggests that we allow God to, “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Moses said the reason we should NUMBER OUR DAYS is so that we will, “Apply our hearts unto wisdom”.
Paul tells how we are to live our lives in Ephesians 5:15-17, we read, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”
We must:
? RECOGNIZE THE TIME GOD GIVES US,
? REDEEM THE TIME GOD GIVES US,
and we must …
III. REJOICE IN THE TIME GOD GIVES US
Look at verse 14, we read, “O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
Notice, after Moses suggests that we
? RECOGNIZE TIME,
? REDEEM TIME
God gives us, we also should REJOICE in the time God gives us.
Something you hear many Christians testify to is this; they regret they waited so long before they gave their hearts to Christ.
Illus: Sometime back, there was a report of a woman that lived in poverty. She lived in an old dilapidated house that was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. She wore ragged clothes, and often went to bed hungry because she did not have money to buy food. She later died because she did not have money to buy the medicine that she needed. After she died, the old house she lived in sat there for years, and the spiders and the rats took possession of it. It finally got in such bad shape that the man who purchased the house after her death decided to tear it down. In the process, they discovered that someone had hidden over a million dollars in the walls of this house.
But what a shame, this poor lady lived a life of poverty when she could have lived a life of wealth. She could have had the best of everything, but she went through life without anything.
This old lady is a picture of people without Christ. They could have enjoyed the blessings of God for years, but instead they went lacking.
They could have lived their life serving God and have eternal rewards.
Conclusion:
Illus: One man recalled that his mother always kept the family clock ten minutes fast so she would not be late for anything. But whenever anyone looked at the clock, she always reminded them that it was ten minutes fast!
She deceived herself about time, as we all do sometimes.
Let’s not deceive ourselves about time. Time is a gift from God and we can waste it like anything else.
If you are going to do something for the Lord, NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT, AND NO LONGER PROCRASTINATE.
Illus: We have all watched football and basketball teams where a team could have gone down in history, but time ran out on them.
Do not let time run out on you.
James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
? When as a child I laughed and wept, time crept.
? When as a youth I dreamed and talked, time walked.
? When I became a full grown man, time ran.
? And later as I older grew, time flew.
? Soon I shall find while traveling on, time gone.
I. RECOGNIZE THE TIME GOD GIVES US
II. REDEEM THE TIME GOD GIVES US
III. REJOICE IN THE TIME GOD GIVES US
