[0:00] as we've been studying this passage, and come and see a place that people come alive. Lord willing, next Sunday night, it'll be a time of celebration for us as we will celebrate people that came from dead to alive, from darkness into light, as that's what we see pictured in the baptism service.
[0:18] And we're going to actually go outside. It's certainly warm enough to have a baptism outside. And we'll take our baptistry out there, the evening service, start out in here. And you just won't want to miss that.
[0:28] It will be a special time together. First thing I want you to see is that time is precious. And we're going to talk about time. I printed some time today. It's a shame it doesn't work like that, isn't it?
[0:40] You can counterfeit money, but you can't counterfeit time. And I wish I could as I was printing these off and looking at it. I have some time, and I really want to make sure that you see this. A story that I often think about is a story where a young boy, imagine a five-year-old kid, asked his dad.
[0:59] He says, Dad, can I ask you a question? And he says, yeah, sure. What is it? He says, Daddy, how much do you make an hour? And the dad said, well, that's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing? He said, I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?
[1:11] If you must know, son, I make $50 an hour. Oh, the son said with his head down. And then he said, Daddy, could I borrow $25? The father was furious.
[1:25] The dad said, if the only reason you've asked is so that you can borrow some money to buy some silly toy or some other nonsense, then march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you're being so selfish.
[1:35] I work hard every day for such this childish behavior. The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's question.
[1:46] How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down and started to think, maybe there's something you really need to buy with that money.
[1:57] He really does ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door. The dad said, are you asleep, son? The son said, no, daddy, I'm awake. The dad said, I've been thinking.
[2:09] Maybe I was too hard on you earlier. It's about a long day. I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the money that you asked for. The little boy sat up straight up smiling. Oh, thank you, daddy. Then reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some crumbled up bills.
[2:23] The man saw that the boy already had some money. He started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money and he looked up at his father. And he says, why do you want more money if I already have some? The son said, because I didn't have enough, but now I do.
[2:37] Daddy, I have $50 now. Can I borrow an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner. With you. The father was crushed.
[2:48] He put his arm around his little son and he begged for forgiveness. I've read that story a dozen times and I still get choked up at the thought of it. Before I open the word of God, which is our authority for faith and practice, we know from our human experience, we know in life, we would be in agreement that people recognize that time is valuable and it's precious.
[3:13] When wisely invested, we realize that there are just incredible moments in our life. But as Christians, we have more than just the common understanding that life's precious.
[3:24] We have a deep-rooted conviction about time that is given to us through our worldview, from our Christian worldview, that we find from God's Word. I want to remind you of a few ways that we agree together in here today, that we affirm that time is precious.
[3:40] The first one, which has to be the highest one that we would say here, is that time is precious because eternity depends on it. Hebrews tells us, 927, that it's appointed on the man once to die, but after this, the judgment.
[3:57] There's life and then there is eternity. There's life here on earth, there is judgment, and there's all the eternity. We put our highest value on things that have the most interest to us.
[4:09] You read books, and you should read books. I read books about productivity, but all the secular productivity gurus, they can't answer the ultimate question, what should we give our time to and why?
[4:22] You've helped me save time. I have more time, but what should I do with it ultimately? And they would leave that to you to figure out for yourself. We often say that time is money.
[4:33] That's a pretty high definition of it, but it's so much more than money. Time is eternity. Time is a decision in which you will determine your fate for all eternity.
[4:44] Time is precious. The time that you've been given on earth, you have a decision to make about Jesus Christ, and it will determine all of your eternity. So it's very precious.
[4:55] Second, we say that here, that time is precious because it is so very short. James 4.14 tells us that we know what shall be on tomorrow.
[5:08] Life is even a vapor. It appears for a little time, and then it vanisheth away. If you've ever faced death in your own life, or you've lost a loved one unexpectedly, then you know why Job says in Job 16.22, when a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
[5:28] It's this realization that life is short and eternity long. I can think of the time that I realized that I was not going to live forever. I can think about realizing that 16-year-olds do die as I lost a friend as a teenager, and thinking about life is short.
[5:46] If I get 75 years, or if I get 20 years, or if I get 15, and compared to eternity, that is so very short. Time is precious because it is so short.
[6:00] Time is precious because we do not know how much of it we have. When we were in the book of Luke, chapter number 12, there was a parable that was told about a certain rich man who had many things coming into his life.
[6:13] He was just winning on all accounts. He was bringing in fruit. He was bringing in all the things from his harvest, and he was building more barns, and they were getting bigger, and build them. And then he said, I will say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.
[6:28] You can take ease. You can drink, and you can be merry. He's having a conversation with himself. Stack up everything that you can because someday you'll have retirement, and you can just live off of that, and you can enjoy it.
[6:39] But God said, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who the things they shall be which thou hast provided.
[6:50] You don't know when life is going to end. We know that life is short, but we don't know exactly how short that it is. That's why the advice that we live every day as if it was our last has stood the test of time because we realize that time is precious.
[7:07] Time is short. And then the last thing I'd like to show you as we speak about how precious time is from a distinctly Bible view. Time is precious because once it's gone, it's gone.
[7:22] Psalms 90 verse 12, teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. We don't know how many days that we have, and once it's gone, it is gone.
[7:34] It is a one-time use commodity. I do not get a redo of last Tuesday. I do not get a redo of age 22. Once it's used, it is gone.
[7:47] Jonathan Edwards, and some of the messages that had a great awakening were often messages that spoke about how people would spend their time. One of the things that he said on this topic, he emphasizes the sobering reality by calling us to look back on years wasted.
[8:02] He said, If we have lived 50 or 60 or even 70 years and have not improved our time, now it cannot be helped. It is eternally gone from us.
[8:14] All that we can do is to improve the little that remains. That was one of his resolutions in life is that every day he would work to improve the time in which he was given.
[8:25] That understanding, that counting of his days. Another way we would talk about that improving is redeeming the time. It's taking it from things that are temporal, that are meaningless, that will not mean anything in a hundred years or in a thousand years and bringing them back and putting them underneath, submitting ourselves to the Lord and remembering them.
[8:47] So how should we spend time that we have been given? That's a big question. How are we the steward of life and the time that which God has given us? That question is a wonderful place for us to start.
[9:00] I know some of you in here as parents. I'm a parent myself and some of you haven't moved past that story that I told you about a little kid and a jar and you're thinking I have to do something with my kids this week and I think that is a very natural response.
[9:15] I think that is a very Christian response is to realize something that John often tells Miss Sandy he has. He says, when was it that time that we were raising kids? Because he says it just happened so very quickly.
[9:26] It just passed. My oldest son's 15 and he went from 0 to 15 in about two months and I expect he'll go from 15 to 30 in the same amount of time.
[9:36] I will say raising three teenagers sometimes time doesn't move very quick though. There are moments when I realize that I'm in the midst of it. All right? Love you guys but it's so true.
[9:46] All right? And so I was at Kroger the other day. I've had this happen especially when I was first married. This happened just it doesn't happen as much anymore but I got to the end of the line and I bought some groceries to take home and I pulled out my wallet and I realized I didn't have any money at all.
[10:05] I didn't have any cash. That's another thing about having three teenagers but I didn't have my debit card. I had somehow left my debit card at home so I had that awkward conversation where I'm like hey I picked up a bunch of random things throughout the store and I brought them to you.
[10:19] Would you mind putting them back for me? You know? Like what am I going to do? And it was so awkward and I'm thinking well I had my card when I paid my bills. I had my card when I went to that gas station and realized they were selling tamales.
[10:32] All right? But now here I am and I don't have any form of payment. You know it's very possible David spoke about this where my financial desires and responsibilities could exceed my income.
[10:47] I am not only I am making decisions like that that I can be writing checks that God has never promised that he is going to pay for me that I could overextend myself financially.
[10:59] I'm going to say this to you and you may have to think about it for a moment. I believe it's true. I believe I can defend that it's true. That unlike money I do not have more God-given responsibilities than I have time.
[11:12] I do not have more God-given responsibilities than I have time. Do I have more responsibilities than I have time? Sure. Because I overcommit myself.
[11:23] Do I have more things that I want to do than I have time for? Certainly. But do I have more God-given responsibilities than I have time? The answer is no. I would never ascribe that to God.
[11:34] God is much better at math than I am. He knows what to assign me and he knows how much time that I have. And so here I have this time given to me. And then I have so much and I'm limited and so I hold it so very tightly.
[11:51] God has determined the length of our days and the length of all of our days. He knows that there's seven days in a week. He knows how many hours are in a day. He also knows how many of those days and weeks he has given me in my life.
[12:05] But my life is an appointed time. Stephen, I think about Dave Childers, good friend of ours in college. He's 21 years old maybe. He's about to travel for the summer.
[12:18] And I say, Dave, what is it you're going to do with your life? I mean, why don't you, let's make some decisions. I try and get Dave to be a missionary, right? And I said, Dave, why don't you just make a decision about what you're going to do down the road? Dave said, Trent, I don't know what I'm supposed to do down the road.
[12:31] He said, I know I'm supposed to get on that van and I'm supposed to travel this summer and sing about Jesus and encourage churches. What Dave and I didn't know is that Dave had just a matter of days after that where he would go and meet Jesus.
[12:45] But he was living his days out as unto the Lord and he had a limited amount, but they were going to be spent in a way that was honoring the hymn. And so we hold on to our time.
[12:58] You know, the offering devotion is a hard job around here and I think they do a fantastic job. But you know what we hold on to as tight as our wallet? It's our calendar. It's our time. And so many times I feel like I'm arguing with you and trying to fight and say, do you think maybe I could just get a little bit more time?
[13:13] I know you could. I just get a little bit here. I know there's so many things competing with your time. There's so many good things you need to do, but could we just get a little bit more time? And that's what my commercials are, right?
[13:23] Missions Conference. Can I have a little bit more of your time? It's me again, all right? I know we have church on Thursday night and we're going to have a meal on Saturday, but would you just come on Friday night? I really think it's going to matter.
[13:34] Can I just get a little bit of your time? But we hold on to it so tightly because we know it's so precious. That's wonderful. Know time is precious. Don't be careless with it, but know that Jesus is more precious and know that your time can be spent in a way that lets other people know that as well.
[13:53] And could I encourage you here to stop saying, I don't have enough time and start saying this, I have just enough time. I have just enough time to do all that God has called me to do.
[14:06] I do not have more God-given responsibilities than I have time. I don't do this often, so I only do it if it's important. Look to the person besides you and say this with me, okay?
[14:18] I have enough time to fulfill my God-given responsibilities. Yeah, that was weird.
[14:29] I won't be doing that one again anytime soon. It doesn't change the fact that it's true and you need to say it, all right? And if we're going to know how to live, we must know when we live. If we're going to know how we live, we must know when we live.
[14:42] I have so many decisions. I only have so many of these cards to give out, all right? I wanted to make 168 for the hours in the week, but my props budget wouldn't allow for that, all right? And so I have so much time I can give out and I always have people trying to take it and sometimes in worthy ways and sometimes in silly ways and sometimes it's driving home to get your debit card because you left it there and you now got to come back to the grocery store and that was time that was just not well spent because I wasn't planning and there's so many decisions to make about how to spend your time and I want to give some practical application at the end and give some suggestions but that's the work of the Holy Spirit in your unique situation to know how to spend your days.
[15:21] But before I even talk about that, to know how to live, you must know when we live. Ephesians 5, 15 says, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.
[15:38] See then, watch closely, take inventory, consider, walk circumspectly, how you live, where you place your feet, where you step, where you go, not as fools but as wise, listening, obeying, and navigating life, heeding God's voice through His Word and redeeming the time, buying it back from idleness and sin and lack of purpose and from Satan and from the evil of this world.
[16:04] We live in a time where it is hard to manage the time that we are given because there's so many things that are pulling on us that are not pleasing to Him. So redeeming the time is going to require wise, intentional planning of our lives.
[16:20] Matthew 6, 33, It's easy to memorize and want them that we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you but living it out.
[16:33] You see, this extreme, prolonged type of busyness is often in our lives a lack of planning. It's often a lack of not seeking first the kingdom of God. See, there's a lack of preparation in our lives that is kind of subtle.
[16:46] It's more frenzied than lazy. It isn't just laying around and not making any kind of plans but it's being busy and frantic. It's refusing but we refuse the work of preparation.
[16:58] You see, a busy life, it causes us to live reactionary as opposed to led by the Spirit. A busy life causes us to live reactionary as opposed to being led by the Spirit.
[17:12] Another wonderful thing that we think busyness does for us is it provides a convenient way to opt out of wrestling through difficult decisions.
[17:23] I'm so busy I don't even have time to prioritize what I should be doing. I'm so busy I don't even have the ability to consider should I be involved in that? Should I stop doing this?
[17:34] I don't have any time. I'm just constantly on this treadmill and I can't get off of it and I'm running and busyness causes us to believe that we don't have the time to wrestle with difficult decisions.
[17:49] God, would you order my life? Would you order my days? Planning is necessary if we're going to manage well the time in which God has given us.
[18:00] It's been several weeks ago. In 1 Thessalonians, we talked about studying to be quiet and doing our own business and working with our hands and how the gospel, the love that's spread in our heart overflows to one another but it makes its way out into this world into the workplace by you taking that message but you have to be somebody that's intentional about it.
[18:20] You have to be intentional in your planning. You must set priorities because if you don't nobody else is going to do that for you. You must set priorities because if you don't you won't serve effectively and you must allow other people to set their own priorities in life.
[18:36] And so knowing it's wise to plan ahead and to prepare for tomorrow we need to anchor our plans in a purpose. So we look to God's word. Proverbs tells us that we trust in the Lord with all of our heart.
[18:48] We lean not into our own understandings and all of our ways we acknowledge Him and He shall direct our paths. That was at the heart of what David said today in our offering to the devotional is that all of it isn't a math issue.
[19:01] It really comes down to a matter of trust. We see that financially. We also see that with our calendar. It's to say God if this is a God given responsibility that you have given me then apparently there is time for it and I must make time for it.
[19:16] Plans that leave us with less time for God will prove themselves to be ineffective. If you think in this season I'm going to give God and the things of God less time and I'm going to be able to make up for it with my activity let me draw your attention to Proverbs 15, 16 which says better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.
[19:43] A little bit of time can go a lot farther when it is dedicated to the Lord than it can when you just hold on to it so tightly to yourself.
[19:54] Have you ever considered that the time and planning could lead to worship? Reflecting upon the priority of your day considering who and what should be included asking God for wisdom recognizing that we're unable to move the most important parts of this world and asking Him what it is that we can be involved in and I'm not recommending that you replace our Bibles here with a day planner but I do believe that it would be appropriate for you to lay it before God when you pray and say God my whole life is in your hands and that includes the way that I spend my time and the decisions that I make.
[20:35] Our time is precious we agree because of our time is precious we must redeem it we must bring it underneath the Lordship of Christ we must make sure that it is submitted to the Lord and lastly here I just want to remind you our time belongs to Jesus that Jesus when two men come to Him and they say are you the Messiah and He says come and see He gave His time it was an expression of love come and see it's demonstrating the love of God had for lost humanity that He would spend time with them so there's a story of two brothers in Luke chapter number 10 we had a story of two sisters Martha and Mary just to remind you of that story Jesus comes to the house that day Mary sits down at the feet of Jesus and she is listening but Martha is too busy Martha says I can't not have a meal prepared for Jesus I can't have the house like it is and she stays so busy and in that short little passage
[21:38] Jesus does a few things one He shatters the myth that busyness is faithfulness He shatters the myth that busyness is faithfulness because Martha was busy but she wasn't faithful because faithfulness is an activity faithfulness is given to a person and so Mary's faithfulness was to sit at the feet of Jesus and that teaches us something about time Jesus also does something He confronts her fears Mary says He's filled with anxiety that's another way to say she is fearful for something that is out of her control and this fear was that she wasn't going to get everything done her fear was what would people think of me if I do not have everything set out what if I miss out on an opportunity that fear of missing out in life Jesus confronts that fear but thankfully He provides a way forward and this is the way forward He says Martha Martha
[22:39] He allows He calls her to Himself isn't it better to listen to that call to sit down to let Him be God and all sufficient and trust Him for what shall be the priority of our day before I speak to the believers in this room those of you who had a brother call and say I've met Jesus and I need you to hear this gospel story and you put your faith and trust in Him to those of you in here that have never responded to Jesus in that way that have never committed the following Jesus I want to urge you to take a moment and not to delay again run to Jesus today repent of your sin repent of how you spent God's time in seeking self-pleasure and worthless pursuits or sinful disobedience or repent of spending your life trying to please Him in a way in which He never asked you to do every moment of your life and every breath that you've ever taken was a precious gift from God where He was being patient and long-suffering to you as He has waited for you to worship Him in the way that He deserves you were created for a purpose and it's to glorify
[23:58] Him and so don't allow another day don't allow another moment where you do not surrender yourself and say to Him Jesus I put my faith and trust in you I thank you for this many years you have given me I thank you for being patient with me but for the rest of my life my breath my every heartbeat it belongs to you and I want to give it to you today as an act of worship and pray to Him receive forgiveness of your sins and I'll pray for that group of people that may be here the day or watching online but believers in recognizing that time is precious I know some of you would just love to steal some of these from me right if I could give this out today you'd be lined up all of Alpharetta would be lined up if we said we have found a way to gain 10 hours in our week Vision Baptist Church is cheating the system and they are giving out time at that church you all know that it's precious I don't have to belabor that point but also do you know that it's your choice how you will redeem it you must be intentional in redeeming it and if life is precious and it's short then don't you believe that the best thing that we could do with it is to give it to the one that's secured our eternity is that I have been giving abundant eternal life from Jesus and He has given me
[25:21] I don't know how much time He's given me 50 years He's given me 60 years He's given me 45 years He's given me 41 years I don't know what the Lord has given me and I want to say I believe this belongs to you and He's already shared with us what He wants us to do with that time and so I want to encourage you in here believer first of all acknowledge that you have been given enough time by stewarding the time it's a task that we've been given that we've been given enough time in whatever method in which you want to share the gospel the phone call or giving something like this or sharing a book or whatever it is and all those things that you know that you should be obedient in and you say I don't have enough time I remind you and you said with me earlier you have enough time for your God-given responsibilities sharing the gospel with this world is your God-given responsibility it doesn't just belong to me it belongs to every believer in this room first of all acknowledge you have enough time for your God-given responsibilities second why don't we take seriously the prayer request that was given to us by Jesus today in our life group and in your life group they were taking prayer requests and if Jesus was to give a prayer request as he did in the scriptures in Matthew chapter number 9 what he says he says would you pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers to the harvest he's saying would you pray that more people would take this message to the ends of the world that ought to be on our lips that should be on our heart that should be on our prayer list every time we get together is that God would send messengers of the gospel out into this world and then I want to encourage you is to talk about what matters minimize conversations about temporary things and maximize conversations about eternal things minimize our conversations about temporary things and maximize conversations about eternal things
[27:27] Stephanie and I talk about temporary things and our kids all the time it's necessary the parenting but those kids we are raising are eternal souls that will spend eternity with our heavenly father if they'll put their faith and trust in him and we should teach them to think about eternity and then fourth maybe a little bit more specific here and this may not be the answer for you but may the Holy Spirit give it to you as I've been spending a lot of time in football I think I know most of the rules now alright but we have Friday night lights alright may I encourage you to consider Friday night light that you would pray that you and your family would give one Friday night a month inviting other people into your home to build a relationship for the cause of Jesus maybe it's not a Friday night but would you pray husbands and wives that are in here would you pray and say when we look at our calendar where is the time in which we are given to our God given responsibility of sharing the gospel there's time that's set aside for it as God knows your days he also knows the time that he wants you to give towards that being intentional in doing that also be organized to care make a commitment having a conversation about the purpose of decluttering your life of the temporary things so there's more room for the things that are eternal have those hard conversations stop saying
[28:54] I'm busy and I don't have enough time and say I have just enough time and I'm going to be about my father's business and then lastly here before we pray is take responsibility don't be a victim of your schedule God has given you the dignity of real responsibility as these kids grow up in our church and if God allows me to be an old man I pray that's one thing that they say our pastor always said that God has given us the dignity of real responsibility he has given us something to do that really matters and you need to take that responsibility as from the Lord to whom has God given you to share the gospel that may look like a prayer list where you have real names on it and that name you know belongs to you you know that God has given you that responsibility to share that gospel with that person or that community or that group of people is to take responsibility we know that our time is precious but we know that Jesus is more precious and we should give what is precious to us to the one who is most precious to us which is our God and Savior we have decisions to make this week and every week what are we going to do with our time what are we going to do with our God given responsibilities in regards to sharing the most wonderful news in all of the world would you pray with me with every head bowed and every eye closed and believer you begin to speak to your father about his word and what he said to you you know how to respond and you know that you should respond to his word
[30:38] I would like to speak to you in here today if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus he loves you he sent his son to die in your place he's the one who knows you the most and he's the one who loves you the most deeply how incredible is that what a life changing truth what a life changing love today I want to encourage you with everything in me plead with you trust him today what he has said from his word is true your breath belongs to him your heartbeat belongs to him don't withhold it he loves you he created you and he knows he has something wonderful planned for you and that you put your faith and trust he has created you unto good works at that moment of salvation and I want to encourage you today right now in this moment don't allow another moment to pass pray to him receive the forgiveness of sins put your faith and trust in him and then you give us that opportunity to rejoice with you stop by the next steps table come and see me today share with a friend put your faith and trust in the all loving gracious
[31:49] God that's extended this polite gracious invitation to come and see and to know him believer I want to pray for you as you've been praying he has gifted us with time more than many people in history we have more discretionary time I know it doesn't feel like it but so much of our lives have been automated so much of our lives could be easier and if we're going to be honest we are the ones that have made it complicated we are the ones that have filled it up we have filled it up because of our anxiety and our fear that we're going to miss out on something and in our fear of missing out we have missed out on some God-given responsibilities and trying to give our kids everything we may not be giving them what he wants them to have and so today we repent of that today we turn to him and say all that I am and all that I have is given to you I want you to direct my steps for this week Heavenly Father I thank you for the gift of time and I thank you for your word that shows us why it's precious
[32:52] I pray for those in here today Lord who have this moment to make a decision about eternity that they will I pray for my brothers and sisters in here that are now wrestling with decisions where the Holy Spirit is going to work in their heart and they have decisions this week about redeeming their time may it be said of all of us that we took our God-given responsibilities in a way that was pleasing unto you in Jesus name I pray Amen I pray for you for the best