Let me begin this morning’s message by asking, “How many more days do you expect to live? If you expect to live another 60 years, you will have 21,900 days. If you expect to live another 20 years, you will have 7,300 days. If you expect to live another 1 year, you will have 365 days.
Let me ask you a second question: “If you could accomplish just one more thing in the days remaining, what would that one thing be?”
This morning, we’ll be looking at how each one of us can more wisely use the time of our life. I’m not talking about time management. As Paul J. Meyer noted, we really cannot manage time. The sun comes up, then the moon comes out, and another day passes. Furthermore, time is perishable. We cannot save or store up time for later use.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus, “So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do. (Ephesians 5:15-17, NLT).”
This means that we are not given time on earth to do as we please. Whether we are living wisely or foolishly depends on whether we are doing what God wants us to do. In addition to God’s purposes for mankind or God’s specific instruction about our relationship to God, to our spouse, to our children, to our coworkers and employers and to our material possessions, the Bible also identifies God’s specific calling for individuals. Sometimes, the Bible presents God’s call on a person’s life as a vision or the one thing that God marks out for the person to do in his or her lifetime.
I think it’s important for each one of us to know what God calls us to do within our lifetime and to do it. Don’t you think? Not only is knowing and doing what God wants us to do important and wise, but knowing and doing what God wants us to do within our lifetime give us focus, motivation and direction for life.
The Apostle Paul is just one of many in the Bible who successfully lived out God’s calling for his life. So when we study his life, we have the opportunity to learn what enabled Paul to live out God’s vision for his life. This morning’s text is Ephesians 3:1-13.
In 2 Timothy 4:6-8, Paul wrote in his final letter, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
How could Paul so confidently state that he did what God wanted him to do within his lifetime? Maybe we can make some observation from Paul’s life for our own application. Let me share five observations from this morning’s passage in Ephesians.
First, Paul assimilated God’s vision into his life. Verses 1-5.
Before Paul met Jesus Christ, he was known as Saul. He was a Jew who studied under one of the leading Jewish teachers, Gamaliel. He was a Roman citizen, a highly prized status of his time. He also possessed formal Greek education. Everything thing Saul needed to succeed in this world he had.
And then Jesus Christ entered Saul’s life in a vision. God’s vision for Paul was to use Paul to carry the name of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. And the journey would involve suffering.
Paul assimilated this call or the vision from God into his life. This vision of bringing the good news to the Gentiles and the Jews became his life’s preoccupation. He eventually brought the testimony of Christ to the Roman Emperor.
God calls each one of us to leave our mark for Him in this world. He may not call us to a new occupation, but he calls us to a new preoccupation. I was preoccupied with helping Asian come to a right and healthy relationship with God and with one another even when I was working at Chiron Corporation.
God’s vision comes to us in different ways, and His vision for each one of us is unique. Maybe God came with His vision to you sometime ago. Rarely does His vision fit our initial life ambitions. So assimilating God’s vision into our life requires our adjustment and our conscious choice.
In many instances, people ignore God’s vision as a passing dream. Or others resist God’s vision for their lives because it differs too much from their personal agenda or their abilities. If you’ve resisted God’s vision for your life because you didn’t understand before, ask God again for His vision. No matter how many more days you have remain, it’s worth doing what God intended for us to do.
Second, Paul allowed God’s vision to mature. Verses 6-7
God’s vision for Paul had to mature, and Paul had to mature as well. Paul spent significant time alone with God, and he served in different roles inside and outside the church before he understood that he was to do more than proclaim Christ to the Gentiles and the Jews, but to show how Christ unites both Jew and Gentiles to God.
God’s vision for my life is still maturing. And I’m still maturing. I’m still learning what having a right and healthy relationship with God and with one another through Jesus Christ looks like. I’m learning to turn the conceptual understanding into daily application in my own marriage, in my own family, in my own working relationships, and with every individual God brings into my life.
Allowing God’s vision to mature in your life may require that you give up certain activities in order to concentrate your effort. Allowing God’s vision to mature in your life may require you to tread a new path in life, to return to school, to change career, or to stay in your current occupation but change your preoccupation. Many Christians see their work as the place to make money for Christ rather than to make disciples for Christ. That change in preoccupation alone will bring maturity to God’s vision in your life.
Third, Paul acknowledged God’s vision as a gift. Verses 8-10.
Paul didn’t see God’s vision for his life as a result of his religious prowess, social status or esteemed education. Paul understood that God’s vision for his life was an undeserved gift. Paul was not proud but humbled by the vision that God gave for his life.
Many people want to leave their mark on earth. They want to be remembered when they are gone. But God’s vision for our life is not to leave our mark but His mark on earth. Unless we can win over the temptation to create a name for ourselves, we will get in the way of fulfilling God’s vision for our lives.
Other times, the temptation is to believe that I came up with the idea, the strength, the courage or the abilities to carry out the vision. I was wise enough to see the need and resourceful enough to fill it. Such pride and deception will sidetrack and spoil God’s vision for our lives.
What little or great achievements you have in this world, you could be so much more if you would do what God wants you to do. But if you are already living out God’s vision for your life, remember God is the one who gave you the vision.
Fourth, Paul appreciated the vision in completed form. Verses 11-12.
By definition, God’s vision for our life is a picture of the future God wants us to bring about. In Paul’s life, God wanted him to help both Jews and Gentiles to confidently come to God through Jesus Christ. God’s vision for Paul’s life was not yet a reality, but Paul knew the great joy this vision would bring to mankind and to God. He appreciated the completed form of God’s vision for his life.
Appreciate the completed form of God’s vision for our life helps us persevere to fulfill God’s vision for our life. We cannot wait until the vision is entirely fulfilled. We must appreciate God’s vision in completed form currently and frequently.
Maybe you are a mother whose children are not yet believers. And maybe certain of their behaviors drive you crazy. They lie to avoid getting caught when they do wrong.
But God’s vision for your life is to raise your children into men who love God passionately, live life with integrity and leave a godly legacy through their future family. Unless you appreciate God’s vision in completed form, the future picture, you will be discouraged by the current immaturity of your children and by your unmet expectations.
Fifth, Paul accepted God’s vision regardless of cost. Verse 13.
Paul trusted God’s vision for his life. Paul was imprisoned for his faith. He didn’t bargain with God. Paul saw how his suffering was benefiting others. He was willing to pay the bill for others to be encouraged.
I sometimes wonder if God made a mistake calling me to help others to grow in a right and healthy relationship with God and with one another through Jesus Christ, when I have so many unhealthy relational defects in my own life with God and with others? Most of the time, I can hardly bear the weight of my failures in light of what God wants me to teach about having a right and healthy relationship with God and with one another.
Maybe you are paying a high emotional and financial cost as a stay home Mom, but that’s the vision God has for you. Maybe you are paying a high relational cost for being an honest and helpful student in your school. You aren’t trying to be a teacher’s pet, but teachers value honest and helpful students, and God calls you to be an honest and helpful student. Be willing to pay the price, even though the only benefit you see is going to someone else.
Sometime ago, a member of the Billy Graham team became ill during a crusade and was hospitalized. He was put into a room with a very obnoxious unbeliever. He tried hard to love this unbelieving roommate. On the day of his discharge, he voiced how it was a mystery to him why he ended up in the hospital.
His obnoxious roommate chimed in, “If for no other reason, God brought you into the hospital so that I might see authentic Christian love.”
Our life on earth is not given to us to do as we please. We are given time on earth to do what God wants us to do.
