WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.280 Well, last week we as Jared mentioned, we looked at Psalm 90 and we also considered the background of Psalm 90, which I believe to be in Numbers chapter 20. 2 00:00:15.280 --> 00:00:22.880 It’s those incidents that took place in Moses’ life when his sister Miriam died. 3 00:00:22.880 --> 00:00:33.140 He sinned against the Lord and striking the rock when God told him to speak to the rock, which meant that Moses wouldn’t be allowed to enter into the promised land. 4 00:00:33.140 --> 00:00:45.700 Then later in that same year, Aaron dies and then actually at the very end of that year, Moses himself dies and God buries him. 5 00:00:45.700 --> 00:00:50.960 And Moses is looking that part of the lot of his history. 6 00:00:50.960 --> 00:01:10.220 He writes the psalm the song Psalm 90 which deals with us with the with the shortness of our life faith that talks about how we are to number our days that we may present to God a heart of wisdom. 7 00:01:10.220 --> 00:01:13.100 But the whole psalm is a prayer to God. 8 00:01:13.100 --> 00:01:16.340 It’s a song and it’s a prayer to God. 9 00:01:16.340 --> 00:01:25.940 And among that verse 12 is teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. 10 00:01:25.940 --> 00:01:29.880 That math of numbering our days. 11 00:01:29.880 --> 00:01:38.500 James Boice, the preacher James Boice years ago said that that’s the hardest math there is, the math of numbering our days. 12 00:01:38.500 --> 00:01:49.260 And you know, the point of that isn’t that we figure how many how many days we have left, counting each day that we might have left. 13 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:58.360 The point is is that of the days we have left, we make each day count for something worthwhile. 14 00:01:58.360 --> 00:02:01.940 And that’s not an easy thing to do in this world. 15 00:02:01.940 --> 00:02:03.860 It’s not easy at all. 16 00:02:03.860 --> 00:02:10.860 It is probably as Boice said the most difficult math in the world. 17 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:15.240 And it’s not something that we naturally know how to do. 18 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:30.060 That’s why in the prayer that Moses prayed, he asked God to teach us this math, to teach us how to number our days, that we may present to God a heart of wisdom. 19 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:39.360 Well, today, this morning, our purpose is to think more deeply about this difficult math of numbering our days. 20 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:46.840 And to do that, I want us to consider a passage in the New Testament from Ephesians. 21 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:50.040 And we’re going to focus on verse 16 this morning. 22 00:02:50.040 --> 00:02:52.900 And particularly the word redeem . 23 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:56.940 It’s the word redeem in the King James. 24 00:02:56.940 --> 00:03:19.100 But I want to read this passage in context and we’ll consider it within the context of the book of Ephesians and help us to think a little more deeply about what it is, how we’re to be living our life and what it means to number our days to to make our time count. 25 00:03:19.100 --> 00:03:35.220 So, I’m going to I’m going to jump in and read beginning in verse 11, and I’ll read through read into the context of verse 16. 26 00:03:35.220 --> 00:03:38.100 Ephesians chapter 5:11. 27 00:03:38.100 --> 00:03:43.040 This is God’s holy inerrant word. 28 00:03:43.040 --> 00:03:54.760 “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them, for it’s disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 29 00:03:54.760 --> 00:03:59.280 But all things become visible when they’re exposed by the light. 30 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:02.580 For everything that becomes visible is light. 31 00:04:02.580 --> 00:04:11.600 For this reason, it says, ‘Awake sleeper and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ 32 00:04:11.600 --> 00:04:23.020 Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 33 00:04:23.020 --> 00:04:31.700 So then, don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is…” and I’ll stop reading there. 34 00:04:31.700 --> 00:04:38.660 It comes within the context of the whole book, but our focus this morning is on verse 16. 35 00:04:38.660 --> 00:04:43.500 Redeem the time because the days are evil. 36 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:48.100 Let me ask God to bless his holy word to us. 37 00:04:48.100 --> 00:05:01.200 Father, we thank you again for your kindness and grace and allowing us to gather, to worship, to read from your word, to hear it read, to meditate on the pages of your scripture. 38 00:05:01.200 --> 00:05:09.620 And Lord, again, we miss all those who are not here this morning, who are away because of sicknesses and illnesses. 39 00:05:09.620 --> 00:05:20.740 We ask, Father, for your grace again for them that their day, though they are not well, Father, strengthen their bodies and bless them. 40 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:29.060 And may even this time of testing be a time where they are a means of grace and sanctification for them. 41 00:05:29.060 --> 00:05:34.620 Thank you, Lord, for your kindness and giving us this word this morning. 42 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:42.900 Help us, Lord, to understand what it means to redeem the time because the days are evil. 43 00:05:42.900 --> 00:05:50.380 I pray, Father, that every one of us will understand what those phrases mean as we leave this morning. 44 00:05:50.380 --> 00:05:55.760 We ask your kind grace and blessing in Jesus name. 45 00:05:55.760 --> 00:05:59.880 Amen. 46 00:05:59.880 --> 00:06:04.900 Well, the single verse that I want to focus our attention on is verse 16. 47 00:06:04.900 --> 00:06:07.600 Redeem the time because the days are evil. 48 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:12.900 And if there’s a single word I would like for us to think about, it’s that word redeem . 49 00:06:12.900 --> 00:06:14.180 It’s the word redeem. 50 00:06:14.180 --> 00:06:21.960 It’s a word that you I like it better than in my in the translation that I normally use. 51 00:06:21.960 --> 00:06:27.260 It explains the meaning and it’s absolutely accurate. 52 00:06:27.260 --> 00:06:31.080 But it’s not as good in my opinion. 53 00:06:31.080 --> 00:06:37.280 Verse 16 in my my translation is “make the most of your time because the days are evil.” 54 00:06:37.280 --> 00:06:38.800 Well, that’s exactly what it means. 55 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:40.700 It means make the most of your time. 56 00:06:40.700 --> 00:06:47.120 But the King James translates it more literally by using the word redeem. 57 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:59.820 And that word redeem causes us to think about it a little more deeply and come to an understanding of it a little better when we think of it in that way. 58 00:06:59.820 --> 00:07:02.760 Because the word redeem, you know what the word redeem means? 59 00:07:02.760 --> 00:07:17.880 Every every every one of us probably certainly most of you ladies when you go shopping, don’t you sometimes occasionally clip coupons and when you get there, don’t you redeem those coupons for something? 60 00:07:17.880 --> 00:07:28.280 Or you might remember the old green stamps and the things and going to the redemption center and redeeming all those things that you collected. 61 00:07:28.280 --> 00:07:40.360 Well, you you redeem a dollar when you spend it and it’s not worth much in itself but it’s a symbol of something and it’s something that you can use to purchase something. 62 00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:40.990 That’s the idea. 63 00:07:40.990 --> 00:07:44.540 It’s a the term comes right out of the marketplace. 64 00:07:44.540 --> 00:07:49.520 And it’s describing making transactions in a marketplace. 65 00:07:49.520 --> 00:08:02.240 It’s a very important word biblically and it’s the word that Paul chose to use when he’s the idea when when he when he used when he wrote these words. 66 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:08.500 The Greek word is the word of redemption, the idea of redeeming time. 67 00:08:08.500 --> 00:08:10.500 And so that’s a that’s an interesting thing. 68 00:08:10.500 --> 00:08:13.420 So what I want to do now is something that I’ve done before. 69 00:08:13.420 --> 00:08:23.620 I’ve preached on this topic probably three or four times in the past 10 years. 70 00:08:23.620 --> 00:08:27.060 And at least two of those times I’ve used an illustration. 71 00:08:27.060 --> 00:08:29.680 I don’t like repeating illustrations as a rule. 72 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:33.080 But this one’s important and I think it’s worth repeating. 73 00:08:33.080 --> 00:08:39.260 So if you’ve heard this before, well, I think we’ll all benefit from hearing it again. 74 00:08:39.260 --> 00:08:43.420 So I’m I’m just going to go ahead and do it. 75 00:08:43.420 --> 00:08:54.680 It’s kind of a fanciful story in a way, but imagine that it’s a Saturday and you’ve just drove out of town. 76 00:08:54.680 --> 00:09:04.720 You had an errand that just took you just out of town and Saturday afternoon and your on your way back and you’ve got some time on your hands. 77 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:13.420 So as you drive along, you notice a sign that says Flea Market and you’ve seen the sign before. 78 00:09:13.420 --> 00:09:14.820 You’ve seen that sign. 79 00:09:14.820 --> 00:09:19.060 And so you turn in there this time because you know you have some time. 80 00:09:19.060 --> 00:09:20.500 You curious about it. 81 00:09:20.500 --> 00:09:21.620 You didn’t know what it was about. 82 00:09:21.620 --> 00:09:27.200 So you’re going to pull up there and see what’s what’s what’s for sale at this flea market. 83 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:33.520 And so you as you you walk up to this place, you know, it’s a little different. 84 00:09:33.520 --> 00:09:35.300 There’s a lot of people there. 85 00:09:35.300 --> 00:09:39.900 It’s a very popular place and it’s a pretty big market. 86 00:09:39.900 --> 00:09:41.380 They have all kinds of things. 87 00:09:41.380 --> 00:09:55.240 And there’s a large sign there as you walk up and the sign says, “Every item $1, cash only, all sales final.” 88 00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:57.620 You think, “Well, that’s interesting.” 89 00:09:57.620 --> 00:10:00.580 And you assume, “Well, a dollar. 90 00:10:00.580 --> 00:10:01.740 That’s not much. 91 00:10:01.740 --> 00:10:04.600 And you think, well, that must be the junk tables, of course. 92 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:15.840 And so you you ask the as you go in, you’re greeted by the the proprietors running the place, and you say, “So so that’s just for these tables, the dollar.” 93 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:17.060 He says, “No. 94 00:10:17.060 --> 00:10:17.760 Oh, no. 95 00:10:17.760 --> 00:10:22.580 Everything everything that’s here, the price is a dollar. 96 00:10:22.580 --> 00:10:24.500 It doesn’t matter what it is. 97 00:10:24.500 --> 00:10:26.740 Cost you a dollar.” 98 00:10:26.740 --> 00:10:29.220 So, okay, you don’t you’re kind of skeptical. 99 00:10:29.220 --> 00:10:38.800 You don’t know, but you start looking around and you look at the first table and it’s the usual things that you would expect to see there. 100 00:10:38.800 --> 00:10:53.740 You know, the plastic yard gnomes and the pink flamingos and the chipped coffee cups and a stack of those fuzzy velvet Elvis paintings and all all of these kinds of things there. 101 00:10:53.740 --> 00:10:56.820 And you notice a lot of people around that table. 102 00:10:56.820 --> 00:11:13.840 They’re very interested in the stuff and you’re, you know, you’ve always kind of admired those velvet Elvis paintings and so you’re looking at one of them, but then your eye catches something off on another table and you you walk over there and behind a stack of old magazines is a violin case. 103 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:19.520 And so you open it up and you look at that violin. 104 00:11:19.520 --> 00:11:25.220 It’s beautiful aged wood, obviously handmade. 105 00:11:25.220 --> 00:11:37.640 And you look inside it and it says Cremona 1720 and you think, could that be could could that actually be a Stradivarius? 106 00:11:37.640 --> 00:11:43.180 And so you look at the violin case box and you say, “What what’s the price of this?” 107 00:11:43.180 --> 00:11:45.040 It’s a dollar. 108 00:11:45.040 --> 00:11:46.000 It’s a dollar. 109 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:52.080 And so, you know, you you keep looking around. 110 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:57.840 And so, next to a a pile of fidget spinners, you notice a little book. 111 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:32.720 And you pull out that book and you open it up and it’s a first edition C.S. Lewis signed by the author and again price is a dollar and next to a broken toaster there’s a diamond ring there’s all sorts of things and suddenly you begin to think wonder if I have any money and you open your pocketbook up and you you have a few dollars you don’t keep cash with you normally So then you have a problem. 112 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:35.680 What what are you going to spend your money on? 113 00:12:35.680 --> 00:12:37.340 You have all these choices. 114 00:12:37.340 --> 00:12:38.380 So many things. 115 00:12:38.380 --> 00:12:44.420 You look around and you notice that that stack of velvet Elvises are beginning to disappear. 116 00:12:44.420 --> 00:12:46.300 Lots of people are grabbing those. 117 00:12:46.300 --> 00:12:50.790 Maybe you should take one of those. 118 00:12:50.790 --> 00:12:54.490 And so you have to make some choices. 119 00:12:54.490 --> 00:12:56.040 Yeah. 120 00:12:56.040 --> 00:12:59.300 The costs are identical. 121 00:12:59.300 --> 00:13:04.300 And yet the values are so different. 122 00:13:04.300 --> 00:13:17.800 You know, if you were if you were there, let’s say you’re there at that marketplace and you have $24 to spend, what would you spend your money on? 123 00:13:17.800 --> 00:13:24.540 Would you buy the pink flamingo or the Stradivarius that will sing for centuries? 124 00:13:24.540 --> 00:13:29.000 You know, would you buy the fidget spinner or the diamond ring? 125 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:34.860 The velvet Elvis or an original Vermeer, what would you spend your money on? 126 00:13:34.860 --> 00:13:37.740 It’s an interesting problem, isn’t it? 127 00:13:37.740 --> 00:13:41.050 It’s interesting and it’s fanciful, isn’t it? 128 00:13:41.050 --> 00:13:44.080 That’s that’s a scene from the Twilight Zone. 129 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:46.600 We don’t live in that world, do we? 130 00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:48.760 And yet we do. 131 00:13:48.760 --> 00:13:53.780 Every day of our life, we shop at that marketplace. 132 00:13:53.780 --> 00:14:06.740 Every day of our life, we make those kinds of choices with the resources we have and the resource isn’t $24, it’s 24 hours. 133 00:14:06.740 --> 00:14:13.400 The most precious thing that you have in your life is the time that God has given you. 134 00:14:13.400 --> 00:14:15.560 And you can spend it. 135 00:14:15.560 --> 00:14:25.580 You can spend it on something that is incredibly worthwhile or you can spend it on something that is not worth anything. 136 00:14:25.580 --> 00:14:30.660 We come to this passage in Ephesians 5:16. 137 00:14:30.660 --> 00:14:36.080 And when we look at this, Paul says we are to redeem. 138 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:43.420 We’re to purchase, make the right choices with our time because the days are evil. 139 00:14:43.420 --> 00:14:59.540 I want to just take a minute to talk about the reason that we are to be so careful with the time we spend is because the days are described as evil . 140 00:14:59.540 --> 00:15:08.290 In the book of Ephesians, there’s several verses in Ephesians that talk about the evilness of our times. 141 00:15:08.290 --> 00:15:26.900 Uh it tells us for example in chapter 2 and verse two that that the Christ the the Christian life is not walking according to the course of this world. 142 00:15:26.900 --> 00:15:29.640 That’s the way you lived before. 143 00:15:29.640 --> 00:15:32.520 Living according to the course of this world. 144 00:15:32.520 --> 00:15:38.140 And it says according to the prince of the power of the air. 145 00:15:38.140 --> 00:15:45.660 There’s a spiritual dominion that controls the culture, the world around us. 146 00:15:45.660 --> 00:15:49.220 There’s spiritual entities that influence things. 147 00:15:49.220 --> 00:15:54.400 We, you know, I’m I’m I’m not much for conspiracy theories. 148 00:15:54.400 --> 00:16:02.080 There’s all sorts of people who look at conspiracies and talk about the world order and who’s controlling everything. 149 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:05.960 I I know though who’s controlling everything in this world. 150 00:16:05.960 --> 00:16:23.500 It is Satan has his world system and everything in this world works against the the tide is flowing against pleasing God, pulling us away from him. 151 00:16:23.500 --> 00:16:25.500 That’s the world we live in. 152 00:16:25.500 --> 00:16:31.560 That’s why the marketplace is broad and there’s so many things to purchase. 153 00:16:31.560 --> 00:16:35.420 We need to be careful in how we spend. 154 00:16:35.420 --> 00:16:49.740 Paul pulls the curtain back in chapter 6 and 6:12 and he says that the struggle is against world forces of this darkness, spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. 155 00:16:49.740 --> 00:17:01.100 The days are evil because the prince of the power of the air makes that spiritual air that for breathing toxic. 156 00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:02.540 So we need to be careful. 157 00:17:02.540 --> 00:17:07.370 We need to be careful in what we choose in with the time we spend. 158 00:17:07.370 --> 00:17:15.640 Um and there’s lots of other points that he makes in chapter 4 17 to 19. 159 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:18.860 He warns that we’re not to live our life. 160 00:17:18.860 --> 00:17:20.340 That is it’s the walk. 161 00:17:20.340 --> 00:17:23.840 The word walk means the way we live our life. 162 00:17:23.840 --> 00:17:31.060 Paul says don’t walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their mind. 163 00:17:31.060 --> 00:17:34.820 That’s really key passage in this regard. 164 00:17:34.820 --> 00:17:37.780 Being darkened in their understanding. 165 00:17:37.780 --> 00:17:52.400 You see in this world, everyone in our culture and in this so many people in our culture, the average person in our culture has no real purpose. 166 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:55.920 They have very little purpose in this life. 167 00:17:55.920 --> 00:18:01.720 They live pretty much for themselves and for the pleasures that they seek. 168 00:18:01.720 --> 00:18:12.740 Maybe some of them live for someone else, you know, their family or the person that they love, but they have very little purpose and not much hope beyond this life. 169 00:18:12.740 --> 00:18:16.560 And so the things that they do are futile. 170 00:18:16.560 --> 00:18:18.200 They’re pointless. 171 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:21.200 They live in the futility of their mind. 172 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:23.400 We’re not to live that way. 173 00:18:23.400 --> 00:18:28.730 We’re not to live our lives that way because we are children of light. 174 00:18:28.730 --> 00:18:31.180 We have purpose in this world. 175 00:18:31.180 --> 00:18:38.880 And as we live our lives, we’re to live according to the God-given purposes that God has given us. 176 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:41.140 We’re to live with purpose. 177 00:18:41.140 --> 00:18:50.540 What a difference purpose makes or it should make in the choices we make in a day. 178 00:18:50.540 --> 00:18:54.080 And prior to verse 16, he talks about that darkness. 179 00:18:54.080 --> 00:19:05.680 Paul talks about what makes the days evil, you know, immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness, and talk. 180 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:15.080 And then verse 12, he says it’s disgraceful even to to talk about the things that people do in secret. 181 00:19:15.080 --> 00:19:24.600 We live in a dark world in so many ways and the act and it’s actually hostility to Christianity. 182 00:19:24.600 --> 00:19:38.160 That’s why in chapter six he says the days are evil and it’s found in Ephesians 6:13 and he tells us for that reason we’re to put on spiritual armor in that section. 183 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:40.960 So I thought I would just mention those things. 184 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:51.140 That’s that’s the reason why that’s what it means that phrase in the second part of this the purpose of make of redeeming a time is because these days are evil. 185 00:19:51.140 --> 00:19:57.920 We live in difficult times and a time Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. 186 00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:11.480 And he came for the purpose of redeeming us, purchasing us out of this sinful time that we’re living in, this evil day. 187 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:24.940 The purpose of Christ’s coming is because we live in such dark times and to save us out of that. 188 00:20:24.940 --> 00:20:28.480 So, we have we have all of that. 189 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:31.360 So, here’s some reasons. 190 00:20:31.360 --> 00:20:47.720 And I’m gonna in the next just few minutes I want to talk about I’m going to go back and I’m going to share with you some ideas about this verse that came from another preacher. 191 00:20:47.720 --> 00:21:09.980 He lived in the 17 the I guess he lived in the 18th century in the 1700s and his name was Jonathan Edwards and he wrote a really interesting sermon on that text and he has several thoughts that are so important that I couldn’t do better than to share some of them with you. 192 00:21:09.980 --> 00:21:15.540 And one of the things that he talked about was the reason why time is so precious. 193 00:21:15.540 --> 00:21:23.540 We need to we need to recognize that when we spend the our time, we’re spending the most precious thing that we have. 194 00:21:23.540 --> 00:21:35.540 And he says the first reason that you know that time is precious is because the time you spend right now affects your eternal destiny as a Christian. 195 00:21:35.540 --> 00:21:36.760 You’re saved. 196 00:21:36.760 --> 00:21:38.020 You’re going to heaven. 197 00:21:38.020 --> 00:21:44.920 But the time, the way you invest your time will influence your eternal outcome. 198 00:21:44.920 --> 00:21:52.520 You will have blessings because of time spent well that glorifies God and blesses his people. 199 00:21:52.520 --> 00:21:59.240 Or you will have eternal emptiness, eternal lack. 200 00:21:59.240 --> 00:21:59.870 You won’t have the blessing. 201 00:21:59.870 --> 00:22:07.280 If if that time is not invested well, your time is so precious because it has eternal consequences. 202 00:22:07.280 --> 00:22:16.440 Our eternal welfare and for people in general, well, the eternal consequences are extreme. 203 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:22.100 It means heaven or hell and simply how we and the choices that we make. 204 00:22:22.100 --> 00:22:27.520 How we spend our time and the choices that we make as we spend our time. 205 00:22:27.520 --> 00:22:30.300 Let me put it that way. 206 00:22:30.300 --> 00:22:33.500 Another reason that time is precious is because it’s limited . 207 00:22:33.500 --> 00:22:35.600 It’s very brief. 208 00:22:35.600 --> 00:22:42.200 Job said, “When a few years are passed, I shall go the way of no return.” 209 00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:46.040 That was true for Job and it’s true for every one of us. 210 00:22:46.040 --> 00:22:52.480 A few years, not too long, and we go the way we’re where we’re not coming back. 211 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:59.480 In chapter nine of Job and verses 25 and 26, he said, “Now my days are swifter than a runner. 212 00:22:59.480 --> 00:23:01.120 They flee away. 213 00:23:01.120 --> 00:23:02.560 They see no good. 214 00:23:02.560 --> 00:23:04.740 They slip away like a reedboat. 215 00:23:04.740 --> 00:23:07.620 Like an eagle that swoops on its prey.” 216 00:23:07.620 --> 00:23:08.560 Now, that’s quick. 217 00:23:08.560 --> 00:23:16.540 If you’ve ever seen an eagle come down for a fish or for some prey, you know how swiftly it drops. 218 00:23:16.540 --> 00:23:18.760 He says that’s what your life is like. 219 00:23:18.760 --> 00:23:21.720 It passes so quickly. 220 00:23:21.720 --> 00:23:23.520 Tells us the same thing in the New Testament. 221 00:23:23.520 --> 00:23:24.900 James 4:14. 222 00:23:24.900 --> 00:23:27.880 You don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. 223 00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:29.200 Life is uncertain. 224 00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:30.430 It’s brief and it’s uncertain. 225 00:23:30.430 --> 00:23:37.140 He says, “You’re just a vapor that pierce for a little while and then it vanishes away.” 226 00:23:37.140 --> 00:23:41.060 We can’t presume upon the time. 227 00:23:41.060 --> 00:23:45.880 Young people very often think that their time is unlimited. 228 00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:58.310 They think that I’ve got all this time and I can live for myself right now and I’m I’ll I’ll choose to serve the Lord later on my life, but right now I’m living for me. 229 00:23:58.310 --> 00:24:01.380 Well, life is uncertain. 230 00:24:01.380 --> 00:24:04.240 James says, “You don’t know what tomorrow will bring. 231 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:06.820 You don’t know what you’ll be capable of tomorrow. 232 00:24:06.820 --> 00:24:08.980 None of us do. 233 00:24:08.980 --> 00:24:12.960 You don’t know if you’ll have a tomorrow in this world. 234 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:14.500 It’s uncertain. 235 00:24:14.500 --> 00:24:18.540 Life is precious and it’s valuable because you can’t count on it. 236 00:24:18.540 --> 00:24:21.660 You don’t know how much you have. 237 00:24:21.660 --> 00:24:24.020 And it’s incontrovertible . 238 00:24:24.020 --> 00:24:30.440 It’s like that sign at the market that says, “All sales final.” 239 00:24:30.440 --> 00:24:36.130 You make your purchase with your time and it’s done forever. 240 00:24:36.130 --> 00:24:41.400 That that’s that time spent is gone and you’re never getting it back again. 241 00:24:41.400 --> 00:24:49.480 Whatever you purchased with it, whatever you spent it on, that’s all there is. 242 00:24:49.480 --> 00:24:51.760 We need to reflect on this. 243 00:24:51.760 --> 00:25:14.480 It’s good to examine ourselves and see how we’re spending our time to consider whether we’re wasting our lives or whether we’re making spiritual improvements with our day, whether we’re glorifying God with our time or whether we’re just using it for our own empty pleasures. 244 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:23.940 One of the things that Edwards did in his sermon was he talked about the ways time is wasted. 245 00:25:23.940 --> 00:25:25.740 I thought that was interesting. 246 00:25:25.740 --> 00:25:29.780 He says you can waste time by being idle. 247 00:25:29.780 --> 00:25:34.840 He all he reinforced everything that he said with lots of scripture. 248 00:25:34.840 --> 00:25:50.200 And when he talked about the idle, those who spend time doing nothing particularly beneficial for their soul or their family or society, he quoted Proverbs 19:15, “An idle soul shall suffer hunger.” 249 00:25:50.200 --> 00:25:55.680 In Proverbs 23:21, “Drowsiness shall clothe the man with rags.” 250 00:25:55.680 --> 00:26:04.460 In Proverbs 14:23, “All labor There’s profit, but the talk of the lips tends only to poverty.” 251 00:26:04.460 --> 00:26:09.600 A lot of us talk a pretty good talk about all the things we’re going to do and we make our plans. 252 00:26:09.600 --> 00:26:16.760 I love to plan things and sometimes I actually carry out some of them. 253 00:26:16.760 --> 00:26:20.360 The talk is nothing. 254 00:26:20.360 --> 00:26:24.080 The planning is worthless if that’s all it is. 255 00:26:24.080 --> 00:26:35.300 It’s in the carrying out in the expenditure of the time to secure the thing that there there can be value. 256 00:26:35.300 --> 00:26:38.680 So there’s the idle who waste their time. 257 00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:47.350 There’s the wicked who not only waste their time, they actually use time to work ill purpose. 258 00:26:47.350 --> 00:26:54.880 They they increase their eternal misery by the wicked things that they do. 259 00:26:54.880 --> 00:27:11.120 And then there’s the worldly people who do work who who labor but they labor in such a way as to gain for themselves and their focus is completely on themselves. 260 00:27:11.120 --> 00:27:26.880 They want they want the stuff of this world that the temporal things of this world and they’re spending their whole life to get more and more of this world than the stuff in this world. 261 00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:38.520 When he was talking about that he mentioned Ephesians 4:28 that tell it’s it’s that it’s the instruction to the thief the person who steals. 262 00:27:38.520 --> 00:27:52.160 Let the person who steals steal no more but rather that he should labor working with his hands the thing that is good so that we may have to give to him that has need. 263 00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:58.960 And he makes that application to all of us because the second part of that verse tells us what work is to be about. 264 00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:03.880 When you work, of course, you mo, we all work. 265 00:28:03.880 --> 00:28:10.480 When we work, we want to work in order to gain the necessities of life for ourselves and our family. 266 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:12.160 That’s that’s certainly true. 267 00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:16.980 But in the work we do, we bless other people. 268 00:28:16.980 --> 00:28:26.280 Work produces something that is if if you’re going to, you know, that has value and it meets a need that somebody has. 269 00:28:26.280 --> 00:28:34.460 A baker who makes his living baking , you know, answers people’s prayer when they pray for their daily bread. 270 00:28:34.460 --> 00:28:37.740 God uses that person and the work is a blessing. 271 00:28:37.740 --> 00:28:39.040 It’s a benefit. 272 00:28:39.040 --> 00:28:40.700 Work should be done. 273 00:28:40.700 --> 00:28:47.180 When you’re thinking about your work, you should be thinking about who is going to be blessed by the thing that I’m doing. 274 00:28:47.180 --> 00:29:00.420 And your focus really should be on the service to the other people even more than of the means of provision for your own self or family. 275 00:29:00.420 --> 00:29:04.260 we’re to we’re to be improving our time. 276 00:29:04.260 --> 00:29:11.980 And before I run out of time this morning, let me let me just look at a couple a few of those. 277 00:29:11.980 --> 00:29:21.320 You know, we’re accountable to God and we should keep that in mind. 278 00:29:21.320 --> 00:29:26.610 Everything that we do in this life, every deed we do, we’ll give an account for. 279 00:29:26.610 --> 00:29:37.880 Uh tells Jesus the Lord heard Jesus said in Matthew 12, “Every idle word which men speak, they shall give account in the day of judgment.” 280 00:29:37.880 --> 00:29:41.560 That’s an interesting thing to think about. 281 00:29:41.560 --> 00:29:48.360 So, we ought to give great consideration in what we’re doing with our day and with our minutes and with our time. 282 00:29:48.360 --> 00:29:50.780 We need to be diligent. 283 00:29:50.780 --> 00:30:08.000 We need to be have a perspective that that we need to make delivery most of each day that we have because we because so much of our time we’ve already wasted. 284 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:12.340 We need to make careful use of what we have before us. 285 00:30:12.340 --> 00:30:19.620 And then there’s some advice for improving time. 286 00:30:19.620 --> 00:30:25.200 Psalm 119 verse 60 said, “I made haste and I delayed not to keep thy commandment.” 287 00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:30.980 We need to make sure that we’re not procrastinating our time away. 288 00:30:30.980 --> 00:30:35.340 We need to not push it away to seek the Lord. 289 00:30:35.340 --> 00:30:41.740 Isaiah 55:6, while he may be found, call upon him while while he’s near. 290 00:30:41.740 --> 00:30:54.380 And 2 Corinthians 6:2, at the acceptable time I listen to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you, God says, “Behold, now’s the acceptable time. 291 00:30:54.380 --> 00:30:57.480 Behold, now is the day of salvation.” 292 00:30:57.480 --> 00:31:08.200 For many who put off their salvation or their saving work that they do, sanctification, the ministry to God. 293 00:31:08.200 --> 00:31:17.620 Today is the is the day when we act on it for ourselves and for others. 294 00:31:17.620 --> 00:31:23.960 He um he called attention to certain certain times that we should value. 295 00:31:23.960 --> 00:31:28.500 We should value our times that we can worship God. 296 00:31:28.500 --> 00:31:30.580 That should holy times together. 297 00:31:30.580 --> 00:31:43.900 Times when we spend time devoted to the Lord in private, such as our Bible reading time, which is a good thing to be doing with part of our time, and times that we spend in prayer. 298 00:31:43.900 --> 00:31:49.500 Those are times that we should would take special care with. 299 00:31:49.500 --> 00:31:55.440 And he said youth in particular should value their time. 300 00:31:55.440 --> 00:31:59.350 He called attention to the youth because they are so apt to throw so much of it away. 301 00:31:59.350 --> 00:32:02.420 Hey, they think they have going to live forever. 302 00:32:02.420 --> 00:32:11.710 And then then also he talked about leisure time being so important. 303 00:32:11.710 --> 00:32:15.770 He didn’t say don’t spend any time and leisure time. 304 00:32:15.770 --> 00:32:23.370 He said give good thought to your leisure time and make it worthwhile. 305 00:32:23.370 --> 00:32:25.640 Now that’s brilliant. 306 00:32:25.640 --> 00:32:27.380 That’s brilliant. 307 00:32:27.380 --> 00:32:31.420 What do we do when our leisure moments. 308 00:32:31.420 --> 00:32:37.180 Well, we can so easily waste hours, can’t we? 309 00:32:37.180 --> 00:32:42.700 Or we could spend that time doing something that could be constructive. 310 00:32:42.700 --> 00:32:56.960 You know, if you have any gifts at all, I mean, whatever your gifts are, and I don’t know whe they’re all varied, God gives varied gifts to people, and that it’s what makes up the beauty of the church. 311 00:32:56.960 --> 00:33:00.360 But your giftedness is something that you usually enjoy. 312 00:33:00.360 --> 00:33:15.920 If you’re gifted with music and you spend leisure time cultivating that gift, that’s a very productive means of using of your time and it’s something that you could it could be enjoyable and restful for you. 313 00:33:15.920 --> 00:33:22.420 It might be work for you, but it could be enjoyable and restful to you. 314 00:33:22.420 --> 00:33:28.720 Almost anything that you do, I I like to, you know, one of my hobbies is to do woodworking. 315 00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:36.520 Now I like to do woodworking and you how does something like that have any value? 316 00:33:36.520 --> 00:33:38.820 Well, it can have value in a couple of ways. 317 00:33:38.820 --> 00:33:57.140 One way it can have value is that if I if I study deeply for instance in the morning and I need a break, I can go do some woodworking and as I do that my mind thinks about those things that I was studying in a different way and it’s a restful thing to me. 318 00:33:57.140 --> 00:34:01.960 So I get the rest of that and Also, I like to make things for people. 319 00:34:01.960 --> 00:34:07.240 Sometimes often grandkids, the little things, toys, and various things. 320 00:34:07.240 --> 00:34:10.900 And when when you do that, you’re thinking about them real often. 321 00:34:10.900 --> 00:34:14.580 As you’re making this thing, you think about them, you pray for them. 322 00:34:14.580 --> 00:34:19.300 Uh you spend time, you know, the time is worthwhile. 323 00:34:19.300 --> 00:34:26.280 It’s it’s something that could be it’s purely it’s purely recreational for me, but it’s something that could be worthwhile. 324 00:34:26.280 --> 00:34:34.340 If you get older, like I’m older, Then doing things to keeps your mind working can be productive. 325 00:34:34.340 --> 00:34:40.260 Just doing things to keep your skills up and being able to be productive with your time. 326 00:34:40.260 --> 00:34:42.220 Or you could waste that time. 327 00:34:42.220 --> 00:34:49.840 You could you can sit down and you can absolutely wall that time away and it be absolutely worthless. 328 00:34:49.840 --> 00:34:54.580 We need to be careful how we redeem our time. 329 00:34:54.580 --> 00:35:01.280 So that’s the that’s the market of life. 330 00:35:01.280 --> 00:35:06.280 Everything costs the same. 331 00:35:06.280 --> 00:35:18.680 Spending spending an hour scrolling, you know, on X or Instagram and worrying about all the bad news that you’re looking at. 332 00:35:18.680 --> 00:35:22.620 Spending an hour there cost you 60 minutes. 333 00:35:22.620 --> 00:35:31.440 Spending an hour reading God’s word or in deep prayer cost you 60 minutes. 334 00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:35.120 Everything costs the same. 335 00:35:35.120 --> 00:35:36.680 The values are different. 336 00:35:36.680 --> 00:35:45.700 The velvet Elvis activities of life, the mindless entertainment, the worry, the trivial arguments that we get into. 337 00:35:45.700 --> 00:35:49.300 It costs the same as the Stradivarius moments. 338 00:35:49.300 --> 00:35:58.820 Building a legacy, loving your family, seeking God, leaving something worthwhile for someone else. 339 00:35:58.820 --> 00:36:01.880 cost the same. 340 00:36:01.880 --> 00:36:12.720 We need to redeem the time because the cost is fixed and the values are very different. 341 00:36:12.720 --> 00:36:30.440 We need to sp quit spending our limited currency on those plastic gnomes of the world and begin to consider the eternal glory that we can be investing in. 342 00:36:30.440 --> 00:36:40.320 1 John 2:17 says, “The world is passing away and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” 343 00:36:40.320 --> 00:36:42.600 I’m going to close with that and pray for us. 344 00:36:42.600 --> 00:36:44.880 We do have communion this morning. 345 00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:46.340 I know I went a little late. 346 00:36:46.340 --> 00:36:46.900 I’m sorry. 347 00:36:46.900 --> 00:36:52.240 I didn’t plan for that very well, did I? 348 00:36:52.240 --> 00:36:57.640 But maybe I can improve on my use of time next time. 349 00:36:57.640 --> 00:37:04.480 Let me pray for us and then we’ll share the Lord’s table. 350 00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:09.280 Father, we are so grateful that you give us time. 351 00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:22.620 You give us time in this world and yet we recognize that the time is coming when we will all face judgment with before you. 352 00:37:22.620 --> 00:37:40.640 We thank you, Lord, that you’ve made provision for that through our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who came for a purpose, for redemption, not just his time, but his very life. 353 00:37:40.640 --> 00:37:58.100 Father, he his he experienced and gave up glory in order to give his life for us on a cross to purchase us for himself. 354 00:37:58.100 --> 00:38:08.580 And father, we Thank you that faith in him and his work brings us into a perfect relationship with you. 355 00:38:08.580 --> 00:38:15.000 We ask Lord for your grace this morning as we reflect on what he has done for us. 356 00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:20.920 Bless the elements as they’re passed this morning as we receive them. 357 00:38:20.920 --> 00:38:31.600 The bread that symbolizes Jesus’ body broken, the payment for our sin, his blood which washes away our sin. 358 00:38:31.600 --> 00:38:47.260 Father, we thank you for his sacrifice and we ask Lord that as we worship with by participating in this service that you would receive our worship and that we would be edified and built up in faith. 359 00:38:47.260 --> 00:38:49.080 We ask this in Jesus name. 360 00:38:49.080 --> 00:38:51.080 Amen.