Renewing Your Priorities 2

Live For Eternity While You Can!

Text: Ephesians 5:1, 15-17

Introduction

Someone once calculated how a typical lifespan of seventy years is spent:

Sleep— 23 years— 32.9%

Work— 16 years— 22.8%

Television— 8 years—11.4%

Eating— 6 years— 8.6%

Travel—6 years—8.6%

Leisure—4.5 years—6.5%

Illness—4 years—5.7%

Dressing—2 years—2.8%

Religion—0.5 years—0.7%

Illustration: Imagine your bank calls to ask you to help them pilot a new program. The plan is both lavish and simple: Each morning, the bank will credit your account with $86,000, which you will be free to spend or invest as you please. But every night, your account will close with a balance of zero. It will carry no balance from day to day, meaning that you must spend or invest the deposit each day or it will be wasted. I think if most of us had such an opportunity, we would manage to find good use for the $86,000 every day! The truth is, you do have a bank that credits your account each morning. Its name is Time, and it generously gives you 86,000 seconds daily. But like the bank we described above, every morning the non-refundable deposit is cancelled by evening. Whatever you don’t spend or invest is results in irreplaceable loss. A wise steward of time learns to redeem his or her moments from the Bank of Today and invest them into the Bank of Eternity. Eternity knows nothing about the fleeting nature of time, and anything deposited there will be forever preserved. Chappell, Paul. Stewarding Life: One Lifetime, Limited Resources, Eternal Priorities (p. 29). Striving Together Publications. Kindle Edition.

Quote: Benjamin Franklin once said, “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.”

How does one go about living with eternity in mind? (thesis)

1) Live With An Understanding Of Your Purpose

Verse 1-2

A. Your existence came from God

The fact that you even exist is a gracious gift of God’s sovereignty.

God had a supernatural understanding of you before any of you existed!

Psalm 139:13–16 “13 For thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Marvellous are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, When I was made in secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; And in thy book all my members were written, Which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”

Notice God’s unique plan for Jeremiah’s life — Jeremiah 1:5 “5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

Even though humanity fell from God’s original purpose, Jesus came to reclaim us back into the purpose.

Upon trusting Jesus as Savior, you can then step back into knowing God’s big picture plan he has for you to glorify Him.

Romans 10:9–10 “9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

B. Jesus has brought us back into the Father’s family

(v3-11) Even though Jesus has brought back all who have trusted Christ as Savior into the Father’s original purposes, Paul points out that they will be tempted to drift into pointless, wasteful, and sinful living.

Quote: (Paul Chappell) “Obedience to God is a choice, but it is the choice that determines the quality of our lives.”

If you want to accomplished what you were made for…then you must live dependently on God.

“follower of God as dear children”

“dear” = dearly loved and cherished

Living as a child of God who understands the depth of God’s forgiveness (4:32)

C. Paul presents to forms of living: Spending or Stewarding

Who are spenders?

It can be someone who is passive to the quality of investment they surrender their time too.

It can be those who are willing to freely give their time to the demands of others.

It can be someone who only gives regard to their exhaustion only after they are completely depleted.

Who are stewards?

Understands the God created life to function at an optimal level with natural rhythms of work and rest.

They live with the understanding that their pace of life must flow at the rate of God’s enabling resources.

Quote: (Dr. Paul Chappell) “Wise stewards look beyond the choices of today to the outcomes of tomorrow.”

Quote: (Dr. Howard Hendricks) “Sometimes we think we’re in the land of the living on our way to the dying; when in fact, we’re in the land of the dying on our way to the land of the living.”

A steward believes their value and definition of one’s self is not in what they do, but in the one that do it for!

Q — Who desires the praise of God over your life tomorrow? Then plan and live for Him today!

2) Live With An Understanding Of Evil’s Pursuit

A. “walk circumspectly”

Meaning — to be cautious and vigilant, to keep the entire circumference in view.

1 Peter 5:8 “8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

Whether it be through activities with no eternal value or just plain sinful living, Satan is coming after your life!

Quote: (Unknown Author) “More time is wasted not in hours but in minutes. A bucket with a small hole in the bottom gets just as empty as a bucket that is deliberately kicked over.”

Walking with “circumspect” is walking with balance.

You must give God your all! But, we have failed to let God define what the “all” should look like.

The amount, the frequency, etc.

Q — How many of you have had this feeling of imbalance? That is God’s goodness telling you to renew your priorities.

B. Walk with wisdom

Were does both God’s will and wisdom come from ? GOD!

Therefore, you can’t understand the first without living in light of the second.

Proverbs 2:2–6 “2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thine heart to understanding; 3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, And liftest up thy voice for understanding; 4 If thou seekest her as silver, And searchest for her as for hid treasures; 5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord giveth wisdom: Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.”

James 1:5 “5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

I want to share some important truths that were shared with me:

Are my current priorities sustainable?

Would give us a pattern of living to deplete us for living for Him tomorrow?

God would be foolish to give us more to get done than the time He has provided would allow for.

Should everything I have prioritized be considered an obligation?

Wisdom alone will determine the opportunity from the obligation.

Illustration: Farmers build fences to keep their cattle in, not to keep the cattle of others out. So, If you don’t build your fences, others will build them for you.

You have to learn the power of saying “no.” Just make sure it isn’t God you are saying no too.

C. Yield yourself to the Holy Spirit

To be controlled by the Spirit will lead to be joyful in God’s priorities.

You will not be ashamed to express God’s glory.

You will delight in renewing your priorities in order to be a witness for Christ.

D. Yield yourself to private worship

You are going to face moments when the Devil will press you hard to neglect Heaven’s priorities!

Take time to life your heart up in praise to unsure you remember where your focus should remain.

E. Yield yourself to cheerfully embracing one another

Listen…every believer is facing this battle!

Every believer needs help from other believers!

Romans 12:10 “10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;”