|
MAKING THE
MOST OF YOUR TIME IN 2007 Ephesians
5:15-17 |
INTRODUCTION There
are three things that always make me think about the preciousness of time:
death, illness or injury, and the New Year. When my dear friend Matt was buried
last August I realized that someday I too would have my day of my death. When I
got in my bike accident in February, I realized how weak and vulnerable I am.
One sudden freeze of the bike chain on a downhill and there wasn’t anything I
could do but land on the pavement and observe the damage. When you’re well and
especially when you’re young, you tend to think that you’re strong and
invincible. Life is very fragile isn’t it? Death and illness reminds me of that
fact. Changing the calendar to a New Year also has a way of reminding me of how
short life is. Can you believe tomorrow is January 1 2007? I preached my first
sermon 30 years ago in 1977. I planted this church in 1987. Oh how quickly
these years have flown by! Now two of my kids are all married, I have a
granddaughter and I’m looking at my young bride Debi turning 50 this coming
year. Matt and Ron are turning 40; Gil is turning 50, and Mike and Chip are
turning 60 this coming year. The clock of life never stops to give you a time
out and stay 21 or 39 (as much as we’d like it to!); it just keeps ticking
toward the final buzzer. TIME IS VERY
PRECIOUS! Time is a taker. Once
past, it never returns. How it’s spent determines the satisfaction and
significance of a life. Time is precious. We are fragile. Life is short.
Eternity is long. Every morning God makes deposits into your bank of time-of
86,400 seconds which represent
I. WHY IS TIME SO PRECIOUS? Do you understand the preciousness of your time? The
importance of time has been summarized poetically: Time is so precious. I have only just a
minute. Just a tiny little minute only sixty seconds in it. Forced upon me.
Can't refuse it. Didn't seek it, didn't choose it, I must suffer if I loose it,
Give account if I abuse it. Just a tiny little minute, But eternity is in it. Time is precious because:
1. Time is very short “What is your life? “For you are a mist that
appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:14). A little time, says James-just a little time. Your
time is short. And keep in mind that you will disappear. You will be gone and
life will go on without you. It is but as a moment to eternity. You and I will
exist forever-either as friends of God on His terms, or enemies-on our own
terms-which will be proven in this life. And life is short, it is a vapor. Two
seconds and we will be gone. Time is so short, and the work which we have to do
in it is so great, that we have none of it to spare.
2. We are uncertain of how
much time remains for us. We know
that it is very short, but we know not how short. We do not know not how much
of it remains, whether a year, or several years, or only a month, a week, or a
day. We are every day uncertain whether that day will not be the last, or
whether we are even to have the whole day. The only sure time we have is this
moment. You don’t know whether you will be alive at this time tomorrow, let
alone on next New Year’s Day.
3. When
it is past, time cannot be recovered. There are many things which
men possess which if they part with, they can obtain them again. If a man have
parted with something which he had, not knowing the worth of it, or the need he
should have of it; he often can regain it. But it is not so with respect to
time. When once that is gone, it is gone forever; impossible to recover.
4.
Because God values time There are two
Greek words for “time” that are relevant to this passage. One is “chronos” from
which we get our word chronology, chronicles, and chronic among others. We
might define it as clock or calendar time, the continuous time that is measured
in years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. That is mans view
of time. But then there is God’s view of time. The Greek word used in our text
is “kairos” which can be translated as “time” or “opportunity”, means an
allolocated, fixed, measured, and distributed time. It literally can be
translated “the time”. It means that time is a gift from God. From God’s
perspective your time isn’t “chronos”, it is “kairos”. It is not simply a
commodity at our disposal but rather than a daily gift of grace dispensed from
God. The giver of time is God Himself and that places a far greater value on
time. It means that we are not to let time rule us, nor see ourselves as rulers
over our time; but instead, to see that we are the given time to be responsible
stewards over. “My
times are in Your hand" (Psalm 31:15). “Moreover, it is required of
stewards that they be found faithful.” (1 Cor. 4:2) Time is a talent given us by God. Our life is appointed for purpose; therefore
he will, at the end, call us to an account. Oh, to be a faithful steward of the
breath God has given me! “Only one life will
soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last”. Surely God means for our minutes on earth to count for
something significant.
5. Because the days are evil Paul doesn’t call us to action because the days are
short, but because the days are evil. I fear that the American church is
blissfully drifting downstream with many evil currents in our day. As God
chided
II. BE WISE, UNDERSTANDING, AND THOUGHTFUL
ABOUT HOW YOU SPEND YOUR TIME Paul speaks about time by first connecting us with his
previous thoughts with the word “then” or some translations say “therefore”.
Paul has made a tremendous statements in the preceding verses about our
identity- as “ dearly loved children” (v.1-2), “light
in the Lord” (v.8a) and “children of the light” (v.8b) and how we are to live in the light of that identity with
purpose- “be imitators of Christ” (v.1), “walking
as children of the light”, “trying to discern what is pleasing to the Lord”,
and “taking no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but expose them”
(v.8b, 10-11). So since God
has enlightened us and given us identity as His children and given us purpose
as His lights in the world, in verse 15 he exhorts us to conduct ourselves with
thoughtfulness, foresight, and care rather than living thoughtless, aimlessly,
and carelessly- walking wisely instead of foolishly. Than in verse 17 he admonishes again to “not
be foolish, but understanding the will of the Lord”. A fool is someone who is careless and pays no heed
to his life. He is one without
reason, stubborn, reckless and careless with his thinking. The way that we live in wisdom here is by having God’s view of
time - “understanding the will of the Lord” and living our
lives thoughtfully and wisely in light of that view- “making
the best use of our time.” How we view time will affect the way we think
and how we use our time.
1.
Be wise Our passage says that we
redeem the time by living wisely as opposed to living foolishly. Now the person
who is conscientiously earning a living or pursuing an education is certainly
making better use of his time than someone who is addicted to video games or
soap operas. Yet there is a sense in which all time is wasted unless it is
spent wisely as the Bible defines wisdom. What does it mean to live wisely? The
best definitions of wisdom as opposed to folly are found in the wisdom
literature of the Old Testament: Job 28:28 28 ...
“Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding." Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the
LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Wise living is living with a proper
regard for God, a proper respect for God. Wisdom is recognizing that God is God
and in humility that we are His creation, and then living accordingly. Because
God is God, God is the ultimate reference point. If we try to define ourselves
apart from God, we are rejecting light and choosing darkness. Apart from God,
all is foolish, vain and futile and meaningless. Because God is God, God is the
upholder of all creation. If we try to cut ourselves off from God, we are
rejecting life and choosing death. Because God is God, God is the Lord. He made
us for Himself, and we owe Him our allegiance. Because we are Christians, God
is also our Redeemer. We are not our own. He bought us with a price (2 Corinthians 5:9). Wisdom is to accept this ultimate
reality and to live in terms of it. Because God is the true and living God,
because God is our God, because God is our Redeemer, our primary purpose in
life should be to glorify and enjoy God. We glorify God in the sense of
revealing God’s glory, in the sense of making known God’s goodness and
greatness to others. We do this by proclaiming God’s goodness verbally. We do
this by loving God with all of our heart, sol, mind, and strength, and by
loving others with the love that God loves us. We go after need, not comfort.
We live a holy and righteous life of love in God’s power. We do this by working
to build up God’s kingdom on earth. And we enjoy doing this because there is no
greater privilege, no more meaningful use of time in all of reality. God
desires us to pray, think, dream, plan, live, and work with that in mind. To
take every circumstance of life and every event of life and to use them all to
glorify and enjoy God, that is seizing the day and redeeming the time. That is
wisdom as opposed to folly.
2. Understand the will of the Lord we need to “understand what the will of the Lord is.”
This is talking about God’s revealed will, God’s revelation of the moral
conduct which is pleasing to Him. For us to understand what the will of the
Lord is, we have to be students of God’s Word, the Bible. We need to read it,
to study it, to meditate upon it, to discuss it with others, to listen to it
preached. We also need to pray for the Holy Spirit to illumine us, to take away
any veil that blinds us to God’s truth, to enable us to see how God’s Word
applies to us and to the life we are living. Every year I implore you to make a
commitment to daily read the word, read good books, and devote yourself to
praying the word. Let 2007 be the year!
3. Live thoughtfully The next step is to live our daily life in terms of
that understanding. Verse 15 says, “Look carefully how you walk” or “walk
circumspectly.” The word translated “be careful” means to consider with
exactness or precision. It was an accounting term. If an accountant says, “Is
that a 10 or a 100? Oh, well, it doesn’t matter!” you wouldn’t want him keeping
your books! He needs to be exact. The idea here is that we are walking in a
hostile world intended by Satan to destroy us. Land mines, broken glass, barbed
wire, and hidden traps are everywhere. You must walk carefully, with precision,
if you want to escape harm. We are to take each step in life carefully
considering how we can avoid the broken glass of sin. We are to take each step
in life carefully considering how we can best move forward in the sense of
glorifying God.
III. HOW DO THE WISE USE THEIR TIME?-THEY
MAKE THE MOST OF IT! Verse 16 The wise and
discerning Christian life is meant to be an exciting adventure of expecting
great things from God because God is daily opening up the
circumstances and the opportunity before us to do great things for God. This is
the time for it. The decisive time, the determinative time,
the appropriate time. God gives us opportunity and time with a purpose.
Do you recognize this? Do you realize that the Lord gives you time and
opportunity with an aim, with a purpose? Our
responsibility is to make the most of the opportunities that God gives us and
attempt great things for God: to see these opportunities then to seize them.
The phrase making the most of
can also be translated as “buying back, buying out, or buying up.” It conveys
the idea of, an almost greedy attitude toward making the best of time -perhaps
in a figure of a collector who buys, say, every antique clock he can get his
hands on. "Buy up the time" for it is a most precious commodity, We are called to buy up and buy back what the thief would
take. Just as Christ redeemed us from a futile existence and gave us a new
life, so now we have been rescued from the meaninglessness and the futility of
the clock and calendar and have the privilege of using our time for the Lord’s
purposes. The world ticks to the rhythm of sin, but God wants us to reclaim
time for Him and His glory. See the very hours of our earthly lives as a
precious commodity, a resource that has eternal potential. Christians can
buy back time that otherwise would be wasted in such selfish living and use it
for eternity. One person said, “Yesterday is a cashed check; tomorrow is a promissory note.
Today is cash in hand, so use it-invest it. When we see time His way
we will begin living with expectancy and openness to the doors He is constantly
opening up for us. Suddenly life moves from the drab, uneventful, dull routine
to seeing that “Right
now counts forever.” I love the word “carpe
diem” which means seize the day. The Latin verb whose imperative form is carpe
in Carpe Diem literally refers to plucking fruit off of a tree. Fruit is ripe
for picking at a certain time. If it is not picked then, it rots and is wasted.
So it is with our lives. They are filled with opportunities which must be
seized at the appropriate time or they will be lost forever. The opportunities
of life must be plucked when they are ripe for the picking, or else they will
be wasted. I believe this is an appropriate thought as we approach the New Year.
Carpe Diem - seize the day. Carpe Annum - seize the year. Let's plan to grasp
hold of 2007 and to take full advantage of it as God enables us. “Only one life
will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”
CLOSING THOUGHTS A
sign on an Alaskan highway reads, "Choose your rut carefully, you'll be in
it for 200 miles." Are you in the rut of a wasted life? What is God saying
to you through His Word? If you could go back and change the past, how would
you change how you have used your time? The things you regret not giving more
time to are precisely the things that you should begin giving more time to.
Opportunities may have passed you by which will never be recovered. But do not
let the opportunities of today pass you by. Do not wait for tomorrow. Begin
today to seize the opportunities. We all have enough time to do what God wants
us to do in this life. LET US REDEEM
THE TIME! Let us walk in the wisdom and spirit of David Brainerd, “Oh, that I might
not loiter on my heavenly journey… O I longed to fill the remaining moments all
for God! …I want to do something for God. ..Oh, how sweet it is to be spent and
worn out for God!"