Time On Loan Series

It used to be – if you wanted to know what time it was you might look up at the sun and say “Well, it looks like it’s about 12:30” and everybody’d be happy with that. But not anymore: In Washington D.C. - on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory - there’s a concrete building that houses something called the “U.S. Directorate of Time.” Inside this Directorate of Time are a number of atomic clocks, that use vibrating atoms of hydrogen and cesium to determine what TIME it is. But not just any time… they determine the exact billionth of a second. And then the results of these atomic clocks are averaged out and fed to into America’s “Master Clock”, and the measurements of Master Clock are sent (along with the results of similar clocks around the world) to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures outside Paris – which is the ultimate timekeeping authority.

That seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to, to be able to say “It looks like it’s about 12:30.” But (in reality) time is extremely important to our modern, computerized culture. For example, without that precision knowing the exact billionth of a SECOND we couldn’t synchronize the tracking satellites in space, and thus … our GPS would become useless.

So, TIME is very valuable to our culture. And the Bible tells us TIME is also very valuable to God. Ephesians 5:15-17 says “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the TIME, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

What’s that talking about? Well, a lot of Christians compartmentalize their time. They think in terms of – this is MY time … and then there’s GOD’S time. GOD’S TIME are things like: Time for Sunday school; Time at Worship; Time attending a church function. THEN, there’s MY TIME - Time with my family; Time to spend at work; Time to clean my house; Time to go shopping; Time I spend entertaining myself… etc. etc. etc.

So, for a lot of people - TIME is divided into MY time and God’s time.

Someone (though) asked the question! “Is that how Jesus thought about HIS time on earth? Do you think that there was ever a time when Jesus just said “This is my time. I don’t want to worship/ pray/ be religious. I just want the Father to be OVER THERE for awhile, and I’ll be OVER HERE. I want my time!”

Now, do you think Jesus ever thought like that? NO!!!! Everything Jesus did was on the FATHER’S TIME. Jesus didn’t compartmentalize His life. Jesus was ALL IN all the time. And as I thought about that, something suddenly occurred to me. Now, this is my opinion… and I can be wrong. But IF I’m right this could make a big difference in how we view our Christianity. You see, I think the problem for a lot of Christians is this compartmentalizing thing: This is my time… and that’s God’s time - and never shall the twain shall meet.

ILLUS: Just to help explain what I’m thinking, I want to share the story of a man named Tex Walton (1973) who was part of a church in WV. Tex was a very conscientious young believer who got to think about tithing. Now when we think of tithing, we think of giving a tithe (10th) of what we earn each week to Jesus. And Tex was doing that (giving a 10th of his income to God). But then, he got to thinking about giving a TITHE OF HIS TIME to God as well. The way he reasoned was there were 168 hours in a week. And a 10th of that would be 16.8 hours. So he figured that after accounting for the time he spent in church each week he still had 1 hour and 20 minutes left over each day to give to God. So, he divided that up that hour and 20 minutes into two 40-minute periods every day - 40 minutes for Bible study and 40 minutes for prayer every day (Sparks)

Now I have to admire Tex - he was a dedicated believer. But I think he had it kinda backwards. He was still thinking that he had HIS TIME (9/10s of every week), and then there was GOD’S TIME (1/10th of every week). Thus, Tex invested 1/10th of his life each week FOR God. ONE 10th of his life. And that was 9/10th of a week LESS than what Jesus did during His ministry. NINE-10ths of Tex Walton’s life was still HIS, not God’s.

Like I said, I admire Tex. He wanted to give MORE of his life to Jesus. The problem was Jesus didn’t want MORE of that man’s time, Jesus wanted ALL of that man’s time. Just like He wants ALL of your time, and ALL of MY time.