Living a Purposeful Life: Don't Waste Your Days

Illustration: Imagine this rope goes on for ever and never ends. Now imagine that this rope is a timeline of your life. You see this part right here? This part is the time that you have on earth. This is the part that most people focus on. This is small part in eternity. While most people only focus on this part of life they ignore the rest of it. Most people are so wrapped up in making money so they can spend it on the last little bit of their life doing what they want. That is what is called wasting your life. Our life is more than this little piece right here. It goes on and on and on. We need to focus not just on the here and now, but also focus on the future. What can you do now that will make an impact on the future?

I. God's Purpose for Your Life

As Christians, we believe that our lives have a divine purpose, designed by the Creator Himself. Psalm 139:13-16 reminds us that God knitted us together in our mother's womb, and our days were ordained by Him even before one of them came to be. This truth reveals that every life has a purpose, and we must be intentional in discovering and fulfilling it.

Psalm 139:13–16 (CSB)

For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

We were not an accident. We didn’t come from a blob, you are not a clump of cells, you were crafted, you were designed, you matter, you have a purpose. Every single person on this planet has a purpose. This is why it is important to be pro-life because each person was designed by God. It doesn’t matter if you have a deformity, it doesn’t matter if you are not the smartest person in the room, it doesn’t matter if you can’t speak well. God has a purpose for each person. If you look in Scripture and see the people that God used to accomplish great things, He used people who were flawed. Moses couldn’t speak well, David was a runt, Rahab was a prostitute, the Disciples were poor and fishermen, many of the healings Jesus did were to those who had ailments and they were used by God. You have a purpose. It seems that God likes to use people who may be considered outcasts to show His mighty power. You just have to be willing to be used by God.

If we aren’t willing to be used by God for His purpose we are in great danger of wasting our lives for nothing.

II. The Danger of Wasting Our Lives

A. Misplaced Priorities

In our modern world, it's easy to become consumed by the pursuit of wealth, success, or temporary pleasures. These worldly priorities can lead us down a path of emptiness and disappointment, distracting us from what truly matters in eternity. These worldly pleasures only satisfy us for a short period of time. The pursuit of money may lead us to working around the clock, losing precious time with our kids and family. I’m guilty of this, but smart phones can consume us to and distract us from those who are around us. You name it, Rodeo, Sports, Games, Work, School, Cars, everything are all trying to get our time, and money. While all these things are good they can be mis-prioritized leading us to live a wasted life.

I learned this while doing Youth ministry. A parent only has 936 weeks with a child from birth until they are 18. That’s only 6, 552 days until they are an adult and hopefully on their own. Texas requires a minimum of 180 days of school per year, or 1,260 hours. For Pewitt, since we are on a 4 day school week, they go to school for 8 1/2 hours a day. In a 24 hour a day, that leaves 15.5 hours your kids are not in school. A teenager should be getting 8 hours of sleep, but we know that doesn’t happen, so that leaves 7.5 hours left. Let’s say they have to ride the bus to and from school so take away another hour, leaving 6 hours with your kids a day. This is not including any extra curricular activities. Say they play sports, and have 2 hours of practice afterschool. That leaves you with 4 hours with your kids. Now if they want good grades they at least spend 1 hour a day doing homework. Leaving only 3 hours. 4 days at 24 hours is 96 hours, and in those 96 hours you only get 12 hours with your kid.

I’m not done yet. Out of those 936 weeks, 260 of those weeks were when they were born until they start school at age 5, leaving 676 weeks that they are at school and you only get 42 hours a week with your kid. Thats 12 hours during the school week, 10 hours on Friday (if you don’t work), 10 Hours on Saturday (if you don’t have ball games), and 10 hours on Sunday. That’s not a lot of time you have left with your children. So we have to prioritize our time if we don’t want to live a wasted life.

I’m still not done. According to the NCAA only 1% of athletes receive a full-ride scholarship to school. 1%! So parents, spend thousands of dollars, thousands of hours away from their children, and hundreds of hours traveling chasing a 1% chance at a full-ride scholarship for their kids. So there is a 99% chance that they will not get a full-ride, and even a way lesser chance that they will go professional.

I’m not saying sports are bad, in fact they do teach a lot on character and teamwork which are valuable skills. But it becomes bad when we prioritize those activities instead of developing them to become who God wants them to be.

You may be saying well I don’t have kids anymore, well then watch this video.

SHOW VIDEO

III. Living a Purposeful Life

A. Seek God's Will

Proverbs 3:5–6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.”

teaches us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. When we seek God's will and direction, we align our lives with His divine purpose. Prayer, reading Scripture, and seeking counsel from wise Christian mentors are essential in this process.

B. Use Your Gifts

God has given each of us unique talents and spiritual gifts. 1 Peter 4:10 “Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God.” encourages us to use these gifts to serve one another. By doing so, we not only fulfill our purpose but also contribute to the growth and unity of the Body of Christ.

C. Love and Serve Others

Jesus' life was a perfect example of purposeful living. He came not to be served but to serve, and His love for others was evident in His actions. Matthew 22:39 “The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” instructs us to love our neighbors as ourselves. By serving others with love and compassion, we find purpose and reflect Christ to the world.

D. Make the Most of Your Time

Ephesians 5:15–16 “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” reminds us to make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Time is a precious gift from God, and wasting it is akin to squandering a valuable resource. To live purposefully, we must wisely manage our time, focusing on what truly matters.

IV. Conclusion

Pastor John Piper spoke to over 40,000 students at a conference in 1995. During this sermon Piper told the story, that after hearing it, still resonates with me, and I would like to share it with you.

Three weeks ago, we got word at our church that Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards had both been killed in Cameroon. Ruby was over eighty. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing eighty years old, and serving at Ruby’s side in Cameroon.

The brakes give way, over the cliff they go, and they’re gone — killed instantly.

And I asked my people: was that a tragedy? Two lives, driven by one great vision, spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ — two decades after almost all their American counterparts have retired to throw their lives away on trifles in Florida or New Mexico. No. That is not a tragedy. That is a glory.

I’ll tell you what a tragedy is. I’ll read to you from Reader’s Digest what a tragedy is. “Bob and Penny . . . took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their thirty-foot trawler, playing softball and collecting shells.”

That’s a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. And I get forty minutes to plead with you: don’t buy it. With all my heart I plead with you: don’t buy that dream. The American Dream: a nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells as the last chapter before you stand before the Creator of the universe to give an account of what you did: “Here it is Lord — my shell collection! And I’ve got a nice swing and look at my boat!”

Don’t waste your life; don’t waste it.