Ask it 3 Time Over Time

ME: ORIENTATION: FIND COMMON GROUND WITH THE AUDIENCE

This series is about a single question that will clarify your best option for 90 percent of the decisions you make in life. We call it Ask It: The question that answers just about everything.

1. A question that has the potential to foolproof your relationships, marriage, finances, calendar, pace, and health. It reduces complexity.

2. The reason we are going to spend six weeks is that I would like to convince you to make this a lifelong habit. It will save you money, time, tears, and regret.

3. If you aren’t a Jesus follower, this is optional. If you are a Christian, however, this question should be a staple: What’s the wise thing to do?

4. We fleshed it out a bit: In light of my past experience, current circumstances, and future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing for me to do?

5. Your homework last week was to: Ask it!

For the next two weeks, we are going to apply this question to two specific areas. Next week, make sure . . . your teenagers are on the front row.

WE: IDENTIFICATION (MAKE IT CLEAR THAT YOU STRUGGLE)

Today, we are going to ask this question related to our time.

Job 14:5

5 A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.

We can overeat, over spend, overachieve, but we can’t over live.

· You can make more money and new friends, but not time.

You can count your money and count your friends, but you can’t count your time

Job actually believed that, and other Old Testament writers especially believed, that God sort of set a time limit on everybody's life. Now you may or may not believe that, but here's what we all know for sure. Your time's running out, right? I mean, somebody turned the hour glass over. The hour's glass, the week's glass, the year's glass over. And our time is running out. We all have a limited amount of time.

Which means, we can overeat, we can overspend, we can overachieve. But you can't over-live, right?

More important than knowing what time it is is knowing what to do with your time. It really doesn’t matter what time it is if you aren’t using your time wisely.

Let’s begin with four things we all know about time, but choose to ignore.

A. Four things we all know about time, but choose to ignore and will one day wish we hadn’t.

B. I need to remind you of something we learned last week: a person who knows what he ought to do and chooses not to do it to his own detriment is a FOOL.

Just thought I would cheer you up before we get started. Four insights that help us determine how to use time wisely .

But four quick observations about time that underscore the importance of asking this question as it relates to your time. Now here's the thing. If you're not a Christian or you're not a religious person or again, maybe you're here based on a blind date.

If your not religious, this is still very good information. In truth you don’t have to be a Christian to believe in the importance of wisdom. If you are a Christian then you must begin to as the question

What is the wisest thing for me to do?

But if you are a Christian, okay, if you are a Jesus follower, if you really believe that God somehow has something to do with your life and you consider God your Heavenly father, if it's personal for you, then this is mandatory.

Because here's what Christians believe, Christians believe that every good and perfect thing comes from the Father, and Christians believe that our time, our opportunity is a stewardship.

That everything comes from God, everything belongs to God, and we manage it, and one of the things that you've been given the opportunity to manage and to handle is your time, which is... Which equals to your life. Your time, is your life.

GOD: ILLUMINATION (THE GOAL IS TO RESOLVE THE TENSION

four observations to kind of move us all in the same direction

I. Investing small amounts of time over time is cumulative.

A. Snowball. Summative. Accumulative.

Investing small amounts of time over time is cumulative or maybe let me give you a new word, a new vocabulary word. It's summative, which means the same thing as cumulative. Investing small amounts of time over time is cumulative. Let me give you some illustration.

B. Example: DEEP ( Devotions, eating right, exercise , practice)

If you exercise 30 minutes a day, three or four days a week, week after week after week, year after year after year, it's cumulative. It's summative. It adds up to something, right?

If you have a family and you eat dinner at home with your kids three or four nights a week, week after week, year after year, it's summative. It's cumulative. It builds up.

If you eat right week after week, year after year, it's summative. It's cumulative.

If you have a quiet time, if you open God's word and pray day after day after day, that becomes a habit. It's summative. It's cumulative. Just a few minutes every single day.

If you're in a small group, and you're in the habit of on a weekly basis or three or four times a month opening up your life to other people, pouring your life into them, allowing them to pour their life into you. Over time, it's cumulative.

One week in a small group isn't generally life changing. Attending one church service isn't generally life changing. It's cumulative. Over time, these things build up.

Exercise, eating right, practicing something, dinner with the family, devotions, group, etc.

Problem is . . .

C. There’s no benefit to one installment and no immediate consequence for neglect.

Exercise: No one has ever walked up after you’ve exercised one time and said, “Wow . . .”

D. This is why we are so deceived. “One time won’t hurt.” And we are correct. It won’t.

A.

II. Neglect is cumulative.

Doesn’t it seem like procrastination would have been weeded out of the human gene pool by now?

A. For example: If you don’t exercise 30 minutes a day, 365 days . . . dinner with the family three nights a week for 52 weeks, don’t communicate with your spouse 15 minutes a day, 365 days a year . . .

If you choose not to exercise, in other words, if you set a goal, put it up on your mirror. My goal is not to exercise 30 minutes a day, three days a week for a year. That's cumulative as well.

If your goal is to not eat healthily, not to eat healthy seven days a week, four weeks a month for 365 days, that's cumulative as well.

If you neglect your relationships, if you neglect your kid, if you neglect your spiritual life, if you neglect your quiet time, if you drop out of church.

My goal is to not go to church for 52 weeks this... That's cumulative as well. Neglect is cumulative

B. Neglect is easy. No lessons or effort necessary. Neglect is costly.

1. The price you pay to make small time deposits pales in comparison to the price you pay for neglect.

The problem is, as you know, neglect is easy, right? And neglect is costly because it's small deposits over time in the key areas of life that make all the difference, and when we choose to neglect what's important, which is easy, it's costly. And here's the thing, I don't want to pry or get you too stirred up, but if you think investing in your health is time consuming, if you think investing in your health just takes too much time even though it's not that much time, just wait til you get to the point where something happens to you physically that could've been avoided that you didn't avoid, and all the expense and all the time and all the distractions you're gonna have to deal with.

At the same time, you neglect your spiritual health, you neglect your spiritual life, you just get too busy for God,

too busy for church

too busy for group

a. I used to read my Bible, and I'm too busy

a crisis comes, and all of the sudden you're wishing you could go back, and you realize I paid a high price.

God seems very far from me.

The whole faith thing seems very far from me. In fact, this is the time when I should pray, but I'm not even sure any of that is real anymore. Neglect is easy. It's always easier to neglect, but it's always costly when it comes to those key things in which we invest small amounts of time.

2. You think marriage is expensive and time consuming? Divorce counseling, rehab . . .

Here’s the one we don’t think about . . .

III. Random has no cumulative value.

There’s no cumulative value in the random things you opt for over the important things.

If in this hand, you were to put 30 minutes a day, week after week after week, year after year of exercise, and if in this hand, you were to put all the things that you chose to do instead of exercising, this would add up to nothing. In fact, what did you do last year instead of exercise? You have no idea because it's not cumulative. You can't point anything. You say,

A. Exercise: What did you do instead of exercising last month? Random things. Adding up random = nothing. Four extra hours of sleep, two breakfasts with a friend, plus two extra hours of work = ? But 15 or 20 hours of exercise = something to show for it.

B. Dinner with family: Twelve extra hours at work, three rounds of golf, three nights out with the guys, plus one date with your wife = nothing. Fifteen dinners at home = . . .

C. Truth is, you can’t add up the random events because you can’t even remember them.

Now, this is really important. In the areas that matter most, you cannot make up for misspent time, or let me just say it more directly. In the areas that matter most you can't pull an all- nighter.

You can not make up for lost time with your kids. If you missed it you missed it.

illustration:

Pastor had a gentlemen come in lamenting that his daughter would not allow him him time with his grand daughter. Eventually he learned the following.

Father had an affair with his secretary , family saw them coming out of a hotel.

He divorced is wife and married his secretary. He then ignored his family.

As a result he missed the growing up years, the birth of his grand daughter.

He asked for time with his grand daughter.

IV.. In the areas that matter most, you can’t make up for misspent time.

In other words . . .

In the areas that matter most, you can’t pull all-­‐nighters.

A. You can’t cram: relationships, health, savings, spiritual maturity . . .

1. You can’t make up for missing dinner for six months by sitting at the dinner table for eight hours.

2. You can’t make up for neglecting your spouse for months with a weekend trip to the mountains, or worse . . . flowers.

3. You can’t make up for a year of no exercise with a MEGA-­‐WORKOUT. [How many of you are guilty of mega-­‐workouts? Remember what your body told you the next day? “You’re an idiot.”]

4. You can’t make up for a week of ignoring your spiritual life by staying for all three services.

That’s neither new nor brilliant. So, if you were God and you loved you, what advice would you give you regarding your time?

Ephesians 5:15–17

15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,

16 making the most of your time, [Lit: translated in other places as redeem] [redeem . . . I get the full value out of]

[Important things in first. Small deposits of time.]

16 because the days are evil. [The flow of culture is toward neglecting the incremental deposits in the things that matter most.]

17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

[Face up to these four realities.]

B. Where do you need to begin making consistent deposits of time?

1. In light of your past experience, where do you need to begin making consistent deposits of time?

· Last semester, last relationship, marriage . . .

· Health scare, family history . . .

2. In light of your current stage of life, where do you need to begin making consistent deposits of time?

· Single: what can you do now to set yourself up for future relational, financial, spiritual health?

· Age of your children

· Health of your marriage

· What do you need to stop doing . . . for a season?

AS: But here's what the Apostle Paul says that God says that it relates to time and this is the passage we looked at the beginning of this series and I just want to go back to it because it is the essence of what this principle's all about. He says this, he says,

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

"Therefore, be careful how you walk or be careful how you live, not as unwise men but as wise," and then look at this phrase "making the most of your time." Of all the things he could've applied as he talks about wisdom, I mean they're so many things he could've applied this to, just like we're applying it to so many areas in this series.

19:38 AS: The one thing the Apostle Paul decided to pause and reference specifically was the use of time because he understood time equals life, time is your most valuable asset, it's your most valuable commodity.

You don't get any extra, when you run out you're out. You can't save it up for the future, when it's over it's over. And he says, "If you're going to walk wisely and if you're going to be careful how you live your life then you've got to be specifically careful about how you use your time."

And look at this phrase, he says, "Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of your time," and this little phrase "making the most" literally means to redeem or to get full value out of.

He says, "I want you to redeem your time." That is, as you consider how much time you have and as you consider what you do with your time, make sure you're getting full value out of your time. Don't be unwise, be wise.

Be careful how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most, getting the most value out of your time." And then you remember what his motivation was, we looked at this the first week, he says, "Because the days are evil."

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

if I simply pick up my feet and allow myself to be taken by the stream of culture and what's happening around me, I will not only not redeem my time, we've all learned this the hard way, we will waste our time because your appetites aren't going to help you.

And for the most part, culture isn't going to help you because culture is going to focus you and is going to focus me on now, not later.

Culture will lead you in the wrong path. You will waste time feeding you current now appetite

We have to take advantage of every opportunity!

For some of you, do you know what this relates to? You're family of origin. In light of your past experience, in light of the family that you grew up in, in light of the temptations that come along with being raised in the family that you were raised in, what do you need to begin doing right now with your time? Not a big block of time. Where do you need to begin making daily deposits.

What does it look like to be wise in the use of your time? The second facet is in light of my current circumstances or in light of this current stage of life, in light of this current stage of life, what's the wise thing to do with my time

What do you need to say no to for now?

3. In light of your future hopes and dreams, where do you need to

begin making consistent deposits of time?

· Single: going back to make things right?

· Married people: you want to finish together.

· What kind of adult relationships do you want with your kids?

· HEALTH: Do you want to be alive or healthy?

· Do you want to be financially free or looking at pictures of cars you no longer own and shouldn’t have purchased?

4. In light of your past experience, current stage of life, and future hopes and dreams, where do you need to begin making consistent deposits of time? Physically, spiritually, relationally, professionally.

Conclusion

If you know the wise thing to do and you choose not to do it, it means that you don't have your own best interest in mind. It means that you don't have your own best interest at heart.

You can not change your past. God sees them warts and all! The thing you can do now is begin from here.

Ask forgiveness

Repent of your ways

Give your life to Christ.

Let me pray for you.

37:46 AS: Heavenly Father, thank you so much for preserving this ancient text. Thank you so much for preserving the story of Job. Father, thank you for preserving both old and new testaments that over and over and over remind us that we have no control on our primary, our most important asset, our time.

And Father, thank you for the stewardship of our time, thank you for giving us the opportunity to live, thank you for the talents and the gifts and the opportunities that come our way.

Father, I pray that as a result of what we just heard that we would be wise and Father, as we ask this question and as the answer becomes convictingly, penetratingly clear that we wouldn't stop at simply asking, that we would be that unique generation, that unique group of people, that do the wise thing, that go beyond what we can get by with, that go beyond simply what's right beyond what's legal; that we would be known for our wisdom. So please give us the wisdom to know what to do and the courage to do it, in

YOU: APPLICATION (TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO AND WHAT THEY HAVE HEARD)