Your Legacy Series

Video Illustration to open series: Your Time Is Right Now

Our new theme for this next quarter centers on this question, “How are you

using your time?”

Theme: Time Management

Introduction to the new theme:

Benjamin Franklin said, “Do you love life? Then do not squander time, for

that’s the stuff that life is made of.”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity out of ones life.

The major themes arising from the many writings on time management include the following:

• Creating an environment in life conducive to being impactful

• Setting of priorities

• Carrying out activity around those priorities

• The related process of reduction of time spent on non-priorities which waste time

The important point is that time management is not necessarily about getting lots of stuff done, because much more important than that is making sure that you are working on the right things, the things that truly need to be done, the things that truly matter in life.

The big question: “What is Time Management?”

Answer: Time Management refers to managing time effectively in your life so that the right time is allocated to the right activity. Effective time management allows individuals to assign specific time slots to activities as per their importance. Time Management refers to making the best use of time because time is limited. Time Management plays a very important role not only in organizations but also in our personal and spiritual lives. Time Management is about prioritizing tasks by their importance and their urgency. Time Management must know the difference between unimportant tasks, important tasks and urgent tasks. Time Management identifies which tasks should be done within a day, which should be done within a week and a month and so on. Tasks which are most important should be done first. Adapted from http://managementstudyguide.com/time-management.htm

The world we live in knows the importance of Time Management but where they miss the mark is on what they prioritize - which usually is some of following financial success, fame and power.

The Bible also speaks about Time Management but God through His Word prioritizes things differently than our world. His big three in regards to Time Management are faith in Him, fellowship with Him and others and sharing your story with others.

God want us to use our precious time wisely and not foolishly by investing it in eternal things rather than temporal things.

So to do this we must be able to tell time accurately. Timing is everything so we must understand that we cannot waste our time. We must decide to use our lifetime to make a difference for eternity. We must learn to tell time God’s way.

Scripture Text: Ecclesiastes 3:1-3:15; 17

1 There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

Timing is a major part of life. “What time it is becomes crucial to success and to failure in life spiritually as well as physically.” Learning to tell time now becomes crucial to success and failure in our eternal life. News Flash: “Everyone in this church will die! The timing of that is in God’s hands but it’s a fact – You will die and time will never come to an end – so how will you spend eternity?” No one here knows when you will die or when your time will stop ticking. So using your time today becomes critical to your eternal future and destiny tomorrow. So how are you investing your precious time?

Timing is also vital in life. For instance if I did not show up today on time then I could not be addressing you this morning. My timing would have been off. If I showed up tomorrow night instead of today then I would have missed this wonderful opportunity to speak to you about the importance of time. Learning to be on time is important today and doing the right thing with our life time today has eternal impact on us tomorrow.