"It Is About Time"

Romans 13: 8 - 14; II Corinthians 6: 1 & 2; Psalm 90: 1- 12 (Sermon)

Last week we looked at The Parable of The Stewards. We saw that we are stewards and that we are to invest and manage all of the gifts that God has given to us. One of the greatest areas of stewardship that is overlooked by most Christians is the stewardship of our time.

People live by the clock, because time is important to all of us. In our text from Psalms we read that the length of our days on this earth is 70 to 80 years. Even with the modern gifts of medicine we still have not been able to extend the average life span beyond what God declared thousands of years ago.

As we study Jesus’ life we see that He never seemed to be in a hurry. Although Jesus was doing the most important job in history, that of redeeming the world, and although Jesus knew He only had a few years to do it, we do not find that Jesus ever ran. Jesus made time to consider the flowers and the birds of the air. Jesus had time to put his hands on the little children and bless them. We find that time was Jesus friend.

The Bible gives us some great insight into how time can become our friend rather than our enemy. Basically, God exists in a realm that is not bound by time or space. God doesn’t wear a Rolex or even a Timex. God doesn’t have a Day-Timer or a Hand Held computer. God is the creator of time, and He is greater than time. So, if we are serious about making time our friend and making the most of our time we need to turn to the creator of time, the one who gives us time.

This morning I want to focus in on verse 12 of Psalm 90. "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." I want to use the four letters in the word TIME to help us to learn the importance of time and to "gain a heart of wisdom."

The first letter is "T" and that stands for TREASURE

God says we should treasure time as a valuable commodity. Most of us number our years although some of you have quit counting. But God says every day is so precious, we should treasure each day and we are to number our days.

We are to treasure every moment that we have! Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the "present!"

We should treasure time as the most valuable asset we have been given in this world. Because we cannot buy more time and we cannot really find more time. We speak of making time, but that is impossible too. We all have 24 hours per day; no more – no less. We cannot save time - we can only invest it.

Invest is for the next letter in TIME. Again last week in The Parable of The Stewards we saw that God gave us time to invest. How we invest the time that God has given us reveals what is most important to us.

There are 168 hours in each week. I have been told that the average person will spend about 56 of those hours sleeping, about 24 of those hours in eating and on personal hygiene, and about 50 of those hours working or traveling to work. That means there are only about 35 hours a week of discretionary" time left over. That is 5 hours per day. If we are to treasure our time and if we are to invest our time we need to ask ourselves "where am I investing those discretionary hours each day?

You see the most important thing on earth is our relationships; our relationship with our Lord, our relationship with our families, and our relationship with other people. How much of that discretionary time are we devoting to our Lord? How much time are we investing in building The Kingdom? How much time are we investing in our family? How much time are we investing in other people?

The next letter in TIME is M and that stands for MANAGE

Last week we said that all of the money and possessions that we have belong to God. They were entrusted to us to manage and to be used in building His kingdom. The same is true about time. All the time we have is a gift from God. We only manage the time He has given to us. Every moment is a gift from God and He expects us to manage our time wisely.

There is an entire field of study called "time management." In almost every business in America, consultants are hired to teach busy executives how to better manage their time. Time management is a hot topic. In his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey writes: "Time management is a misleading concept. You can’t really manage time. You can’t delay it, speed it up, save it, or lose it. No matter what you do time keeps moving forward at the same rate. The challenge is not to manage time, but rather the challenge is for us to manage ourselves."

In the 5^th Chapter of Ephesians Paul warned us to "Be careful how we live; make the most of every opportunity." When an opportunity passes, that opportunity cannot be reclaimed, that opportunity is gone forever. We are not to waste our time but rather Paul tells use to us every opportunity that is put before us to live for our Lord! If we don’t manage the way we use our time; someone or something will manage it for us.

You can’t save time, or even waste time–you are going to spend it somewhere and invest it in someone. If we do not control our schedules time will slip away from us. We should not complain that we do not have enough time. We all have the exact same amount of time each day as everyone else does. We need to ask ourselves are we managing the way we use our time wisely. Are we investing our time in The Kingdom of Heaven? Are the tasks that we did yesterday going to make a difference in eternity?

The final letter in TIME is "E" and that stands for ENJOY

If you think about it, the most enjoyable times that we have are the times we spend with people that we love and that love us. When we don’t make relationships a priority and make time for each other, our relationships suffer. The truth is relationships take time. We need to take the time talk, to listen, to comfort, encourage, and to enjoy one another. We all need to strengthen our relationships.

The first question in the catechism is "What is the chief end of man" and the answer is "To love God and to enjoy Him forever"

If we do not enjoy our time with God that is a tell tale sign that we do not have a good relationship with The Lord. The time we spend with our Lord and our families should be enjoyable. These times should be the best times in our lives.

If we have a heart of wisdom we will agree that everything is a by-product of our relationship with God. That’s why Jesus says Seek God First. That’s why the Greatest Commandment is Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Martin Luther said," I have so much to do that I cannot get along without spending three hours daily in prayer." Our minds rebel against an idea like that; saying: I don’t have three hours to pray" "I can’t afford to take three hours for prayer every day." Luther says: I cannot afford not to take three hours every day for prayer.

The point is this; Without God’s guidance, God’s daily direction, there is no way we can possibly accomplish all He sets before us. Clay Sterrett said: "Prayer is first and foremost communion with God, and most answers to prayer will be a by-product of our relationship to Him."

It all comes down to priorities. We always find time for what is important to us. We all need to learn to say, "NO" to some of the things that take us away from investing our time with our Lord and with our families. There will always be something else to do. There will always be somewhere else you can be. We need to invest our time in things that will make a difference throughout eternity. A thousand years from now, what is going to be more important, a good relationship with our boss at work or a good relationship with Jesus? What is going to be more important spending time with your family, or watching some television show? I am not aware of anybody on their deathbed saying, "I wish I had spent more time at the office." We all need to invest more time in building relationships.

We need to be on guard so that the urgent things do not crowd out the most important thing on earth – Our relationship with Jesus! Can you honestly say with the Psalmist "I was glad when they said let us go into the house of the Lord"? Can you honestly sing "Sweet Hour of Prayer"?

Have you ever noticed that the most active chicken is the one with its head cut off? That is where we get the expression that someone is running around like a chicken with its head cut off? Our best efforts do not come from frantic activities but they come from concentrating on what is really important!

In our lesson from Romans that John read the Apostle Paul confronts us with the proper use of time. He challenges us to stop and to think how we are spending our time. The first thing Paul reminds us is that our time is short. When Paul says that our salvation nearer now than when we first believed, he is referring to the time when Jesus returns to earth. Remember, the first century Church lived with the expectation that Jesus would return at any time. We must also have that same expectation. We should live every minute of our lives in such a way that we would not be embarrassed if Jesus came back today. What do you want to be doing when Jesus comes back?

Next Paul tells us that it is Time for a change. We may need to evaluate how we spend our time. Then we may have to make some changes.

In the last verse of that passage Paul says "Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ." Paul says, it is time to put Jesus in control of our time.

We all need to learn from Jesus’ example because Jesus was able to accomplish everything God set before Him. If we are to accomplish all of the task that God has given us to do we need to prioritize our time so we can spend more time with our Lord. We need to set aside time for praying, listening as well as speaking. We need to schedule time for studying our Bibles so we can know God more intimately and in strengthening our relationship with Him. And we need to invest our time in worshiping God. Not just at 11:00 am on Sunday morning but in everything that we do. Always giving God our very best

Secondly we need to prioritize our time so we can spend more time with other people – showing the love of Christ them, telling them the difference that Jesus makes in our lives, and ministering to their needs.

The greatest gift we can give to God or to anyone else is our time.

We are to Treasure the time God has given us,

We are to Invest the time God has given us in building God’s Kingdom,

We are accountable to God for the way we Manage the time He has given us, and

We are Enjoy the time God has given us by building a close personal relationship with our Lord and relationships with other people.

We each need to ask ourselves "Why we are so busy" & What Needs To Change on our Calendar?

How many of the 86,400 seconds that I have everyday am I willing to commit to living for Jesus?

Time is God’s precious gift to us. Thanks for taking the time for this message. May God use it to change our lives so that they will be more pleasing to Him! AMEN