It’s About Time!
A young man who was also an avid golfer found himself with a few hours to spare one afternoon. He figured if he hurried and played very fast, he could get in 9 holes before he had to head home. Just as he was about to tee off an old gentleman shuffled onto the tee and asked if he could accompany the young man as he was
golfing alone. Not being able to say no, he allowed the old gent to join him. To his surprise the old man played fairly quickly. He didn’t hit the ball far, but plodded along consistently and didn’t waste much time. Finally, they reached the 9th fairway and the young man found himself with a tough shot. There was a large pine tree right in front of his ball and it was directly between his ball and the green. After several minutes of debating how to hit the shot the old man finally said, "You know, when I was your age I’d hit the ball right over that tree." With that challenge placed before him, the youngster swung hard, hit the ball up, right smack into the top of the tree trunk and it thudded back on the ground not a foot from where it had originally lay. The old man offered one more comment, "Of course, when I was your age that pine tree was only 3 feet tall."
Ephes. 5:15-17 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, [16] making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. [17] Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Wisdom is viewing life from God’s perspective.
• Time is a very curious element.
• Man’s days are marked and controlled by time.
• God on the other hand, is not at all limited by time. In fact,
• Peter wrote that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
• While God is not bound by time, we Christians are.
Yesterday is like a cancelled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is like ready cash. Use it wisely, for today is the most precious possession you can have.
• And since it is such a precious commodity in such short supply, IT’S ABOUT TIME we started making the most use of it.
I. WAKE UP - REDEEM THE TIME
Long before the invention of mechanical timepieces the Chinese developed a unique way of determining the hour of the day. A small rope was tied in knots evenly spaced and then set on fire. It took the equivalent of 60 minutes for the cord to burn from one knot to another. Each morning a new "string of the hours" would be inserted in the holder. As the people viewed the charred remains of yesterday’s rope, they were reminded that "time past is ashes" and can never be reclaimed. Detours from God’s will can be very time consuming. It will take great diligence to stay on course with God.
a. VERSE 15 tells us…Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise.
b. We are told to walk “circumspectly (diligently, accurately) not as fools but as wise (skilled, experts, learned, cultivated).”
c. Circumspectly in the Latin comes from two words meaning, “looking around.”
d. The idea is that we are not to walk around looking like bumbling idiots who don’t know what they are doing or where they are going.
e. Nor should we be sleepwalking! Too many Christians today are walking around with their eyes wide shut, and not seeing, or choosing to see the urgency that is about.
f. It is time for us to WAKE UP!
g. Romans 13:11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
h. 1 John 2:18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
i. Let us look in depth at VERSE 16.
i. First, we are told to “make the most of every opportunity” which means to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good.
ii. Time is a precious commodity—one that we will receive in an allotted amount
1. ”It is appointed unto men once to die.”
iii. Many times we act like we have all the time in the world, when we really do not know if we have tomorrow to count on—”Know ye not that your life is as a vapor?”
iv. It so urgent for us to make good use of time because “the days are evil.”
v. Luke 17:26-29 “And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”
vi. 1 Corinthians 7:29 “But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none.”
j. What investment have you made with the time you have been given?
k. What will last when your days end??
I have only just a minute, Only sixty seconds in it, Thrust upon me, can’t refuse it, Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it, But it’s up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it, Give account if I abuse it, Just a tiny little minute, But eternity is in it.
II. SHAPE UP - UNDERSTAND THE WILL OF GOD FOR YOU
Every morning you are handed 24 golden hours. They are one of the few things in this world that you get free of charge. If you had all the money in the world, you couldn’t buy an extra hour. What will you do with this priceless treasure? Remember, you must use it, as it is given only once. Once wasted you cannot get it back.
a. SAVED
i. His First Step is for you to begin a relationship with Him…
It is God’s will that you fall deeply, madly, head over heels in love with Him. People give their lives in the name of love, one for another. How much more should we love our heavenly Father? Where in God’s Word do we get the notion that we can be lackadaisical about displaying our love for Him?
ii. John 3:14-18 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, [15] that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. [16] "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
b. SENSITIVE
i. Ephesians 5:18 “…be filled with the Spirit.”
ii. Pray the Holy Spirit will lead you to those who need to know Christ! …Right Now!!
c. SANCTIFIED
i. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.”
"You’d just as well go ahead, Judge, and break my neck!" The courtroom was hushed with deadly silence. Before the bench stood a youthful prisoner, under twenty. He was about to be sentenced for a terrible crime. Time and again he had been in the reformatory and each time he got out he committed another crime and was shuttled from freedom to stripes with the regularity of the tides. This time the judge tried to reason with him about being good. But the prisoner answered with a helpless look. "If," the judge began, "if we let you go, will you be a good boy?" "I’m tired of wearing stripes. I’ve tried to do better each time but I just can’t make it. There’s something inside me that won’t let me do good. I’m helpless, Judge, you’d just as well go ahead and break my neck." There is in the human heart that something which inclines toward evil, and man alone is unable to break the spell which it throws over the mental inclinations. It pulls toward evil. It lures after lust. It drags with unbreakable chains toward the pit. Bit by bit it wears away all resistance until the soul is given over to evil doing. It knows no inhibitory powers. It will not be ruled by law, nor bow to custom, nor will it surrender to the claim of right doing. It is the carnal nature in man; an inward something that bends and warps the personality beyond human repair. The only hope for its control is its complete removal by the sanctifying power of God.
d. SUBMISSIVE
i. James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
ii. What does God want from you and your life?
e. SUFFERING
i. 1 Peter 2:20-21 “...But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:.”
In his book Dare To Believe, Dan Baumann shared some thoughts about crucifixion that should deepen our gratitude for what the Savior did for us. He wrote, "The twentieth century has forgotten how cruel and hideous crucifixion really was. We have perhaps unwisely and sometimes unconsciously glamorized the cross. Jewelry and steeple alike are often ornamental and attractive but carry nothing of the real story of crucifixion. It was the most painful method of public death in the first century. The victim was placed on a wooden cross. Nails, undoubtedly wooden, were driven into the hands and feet of the victim, and then the cross was lifted and jarred into the ground, tearing the flesh of the crucified and racking his body with excruciating pain. Historians remind us that even the soldiers could not get used to the horrible sight, and often took strong drink to numb their senses."
Jesus endured 6 hours of such anguish, just for us so that we might be forgiven of all our sin!
f. SATISFIED
i. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
ii. We spend so much time worrying about what we do not have that we forget that we are called to go!
III. LIVE IT UP - GO OUT AND DO IT!
a. Matthew 28:19-20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…”
b. The Greek word for “go ye” can be further translated to go one’s way, walk, depart, or to follow another and adhere to his way.
c. Luke 5:30-32 “But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
d. The work of the church is not to be done within the confines of these walls.
e. The ultimate work to which we are divinely called is to preach and teach the gospel in our outside environments.
On one occasion when young in experience I had written my preacher-father telling him of my troubles and feeling sorry for myself. His reply was something like this: Son, by the time you take childhood off one end of your life and old age off the other end, you don’t have much time for doing good. Make the best of your time." That was a gentle yet impressive rebuke I have never forgotten. You don’t have time to complain and find fault.
I looked upon a farm one day.
That once I used to own;
The barn had fallen to the ground.
The fields were overgrown.
The house in which my children grew.
Where we had lived for years --
I turned to see it broken down.
And brushed aside the tears.
I looked upon my soul one day.
To find it too had grown
With thorns and nettles everywhere.
The seeds neglect had sown.
The years had passed while I had cared
For things of lesser worth:
The things of Heaven I let go
When minding things of Earth.
To Christ I turned with bitter tears.
And cried, "O Lord, forgive!
I haven’t much time left for Thee,
Not many years to live."
The wasted years forever gone,
The days I can’t recall;
If I could live those days again.
I’d make Him Lord of all.
-- Theodore W. Brennan
