Redeeming the Time

Introduction

God is eternal.

He exists outside of time.

He is the creator of time.

Time is something that God is doing in eternity.

Time is something that we are to use to prepare for eternity.

This is the idea behind “redeeming the time” or “making the most of every opportunity”.

[READING - Ephesian 5:15-16]

Ephesians 5:15–16 NASB95

15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

[PRAYER]

Wisdom isn’t just knowing the right thing; wisdom is doing the right thing. It’s applying the right knowledge to the right situation at the right time.

Ephesians 5:15-21 us to walk or live wisely.

Because we are imitators of God, loved by and saved by Christ through the cross, and because we are Light in the Lord we are to walk not as unwise but as wise.

We are to live out the knowledge of who we are in Christ Jesus in our everyday lives.

Or to put it another, we are to walk in our new identity in Christ Jesus every day.

This is what it means to walk wisely.

But walking wisely everyday might be done in different ways, and Paul gives us many examples of walking wisely in these verses.

Walk wisely by redeeming the time.

Walk wisely by understanding the will of the Lord.

Walk wisely by being filled with the Spirit.

Walk wisely by making melody with your heart to the Lord.

Walk wisely by always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord.

Walk wisely by being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

This morning we want to talk about walking wisely by redeeming the time.

[INTER] What does that mean? How do we do that?

[TS] Well, notice first…

Major Ideas

The Command: Redeem the Time (v. 16a)

Ephesians 5:16 KJV 1900

16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

"Redeeming the time” is not the phrase used by the NASB, which says, “making the most of your time,” but the more literal translation is “redeeming the time.”

As followers of Jesus, we are to walk wisely by redeeming the time.

“Redeeming” is a monetary term meaning to “buy back.” Of course, we cannot buy back the time we’ve wasted, but Ephesians 5:16 is calling us to buy back or redeem the time we have remaining.

Time is like money. We have a limited amount of it, and wasting some of it is no cause to waste even more of it. In fact, if we’ve wasted some of it, we should be extra careful to redeem what we have remaining.

Life is short. Psalm 144:4 says…

Psalm 144:4 NASB95

4 Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a passing shadow.

James 4:14 says…

James 4:14 NASB95

14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Because life is short we ought to be redeeming the time by using time to prepare for eternity.

You know how to do this. Jesus has told you how to do this. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about being worried about earth or invested in Heaven. He said…

Matthew 6:31–33 NASB95

31 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness is how we redeem the time.

We’ll talk more about redeeming the time in specific ways in a moment but right now I want you to know two things if you’re a Christian.

One, if you’re a Christian, there is no condemnation for you when don’t redeem the time.

Jesus was perfect. He never wasted time, and He died as the perfect sacrifice for our all our sins—including our sin of wasting time.

So if you’ve been saved by trusting in Jesus, there’s no condemnation or wrath or even anger from God when you waste time.

There will certainly be loving discipline but no condemnation.

This means that if you wake up tomorrow, Christian, and blow the entire day playing a game on your phone, God doesn’t love you any less because you have been saved by Christ Jesus.

However, if you are a Christian, I don’t think you’ll be in the practice of wasting time like that.

I think you’ll want to redeem the time God has given you and that’s the other thing I want you to know right now.

{Two} Christian, you can redeem the time because you have been redeemed by Christ! Galatians 4:4-5 says…

Galatians 4:4–5 NASB95

4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

If we are redeemed by Jesus… if we are sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus… then as Ephesians 2:10 says…

Ephesians 2:10 NASB95

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

This is why we were made new!

This is why we were redeemed!

So we could redeem the time by walking in the good works that God prepared for us beforehand!

[TS] Now, I’m tempted to go into specifics on walking in those good works but before we do that, let’s talk about why we should redeem the time.

The Reason: Because the days are evil (v. 16b)

Ephesians 5:16 NASB95

16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

What does it mean that the days are evil?

It means that the days in which we live will not encourage us to redeem the time. Instead, these evil days will encourage us to be most concerned about earthly matters and to fritter away our time on things that will mean nothing in eternity.

But here’s something else about these evil days: Our flesh wants to operate according to the customs of these evil days.

Our spirit may be willing to redeem the time but our flesh wants squander it.

Our flesh wants to spend the day binge watching.

Our flesh wants to spend the week social media scrolling.

Our flesh wants to squander what precious time we have left on stuff that means nothing!

I’ll tell you how this temptation usually comes to us—it comes to us in the words, “I don’t feel like it,” but borrowing some biblical analogies I’ll also tell you how we should think of ourselves when it comes to redeeming the time.

The Bible says we should think of ourselves as soldiers.

A soldier is under command, and He doesn’t get to tell his commanding officer, “I don’t feel like it.”

Jesus is our commanding officer, and we are His soldiers. Through His word, He is telling us to redeem the time in these evil days. We don’t get to tell Him, “I don’t feel like it.”

Our feelings don’t play into it.

The Bible says we should think of ourselves as athletes.

An athlete trains to win the prize, but if he only trains when he feels like it, that athlete will never win. The alarm clock goes off and the athlete gets up to train.

His feeling don’t play into it.

The Bible says we should think of ourselves as farmers.

The farmer plants when its time to plant. If he only planted when he felt like it, he might plant too early or too late.

Likewise, the farmer harvests when its time to harvest. If he only gathered the crop when he felt like it, the crop may never come in at all.

No, the farmer doesn’t ask, “How do I feel?”

He asks, “Is it the right time to plant? Is it the right time to harvest?”

His feelings don’t play into it.

The Bible also says we should think of ourselves as slaves.

The master tells the salve to do this or to do that, and how does the slave respond? Yes, master.

The slave doesn’t say, “I don’t feel like it,” because he knows his master will not accept that.

The slave knows that his feelings don’t play into it.

We are slaves of Christ Jesus. We obey Jesus, our Master.

He has told us to redeem the time in these evil days.

Even when we find the sinful wants of these evil days in our own flesh, we still know our Master has said, “Redeem the time.”

Our feelings don’t play into it.

[TS] Now, I want to be very practical in helping us to begin to redeem the time, so pull out your Redeeming the Time time sheet that you hopefully picked up on the way in this morning.

Application - Redeeming My Time

You’ll notice at the top it says, “Redeeming the time God has given me.” That’s how we should think about time—a gift from God meant to be spent on His glory.

Then you’ll notice three INSTRUCTIONS that’ll help us redeem the time.

Pray & Plan.

Redeem & Record.

Evaluate & Adjust.

Let’s talk about each of these.

Instruction #1: Pray & Plan the Time

We will not redeem the time unless we are intentional. One of our seminary professors once told us, “Have some intentionality about your lives. Don’t just let things happen to you. Make things happen.”

If we are going to redeem the time, we will have to make it happen. We will have to be intentional.

That intentionality requires a plan.

But before we make our plan to redeem the time, we need to pray and ask God how He would like us to spend the time He has given us.

I once heard a football coach named Herm Edwards say, “A goal without a plan is a wish,” but I’d say a plan without prayer is arrogant. James 4:13-16 says…

James 4:13–16 NASB95

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

So pray and plan the time God has given you accordingly.

Instruction #2: Redeem & Record the Time

Maybe you’ve prayed and planned your Sunday or your Monday or maybe you’ve planned your whole week. Well, you’ve planned the work, now work the plan! Redeem the time!

But record what you actually spend your time doing. Proverbs 16:9 says…

Proverbs 16:9 NASB95

9 The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.

Even when we pray and plan, the Lord may have different plan for our time or we may squander some time that we planned to redeem. Either way, record it.

Just like making a budget to govern your money won’t work unless you actually track your spending, so planning your time won’t work unless you keep track of how you actually spent your time.

Plus, if you don’t record how you spend your time, it makes the third instruction impossible.

Instruction #3: Audit & Adjust the Time

Once you’ve prayed and planned and then attempted to redeem and record, it’s now time to audit and adjust.

It’s time to evaluate how we spent our time and make the necessary changes.

So, you’ll notice on the front side of that sheet it has a table for you to keep track of how your spending your time hour by hour through each day of the week.

And then on the back it has a place for you to count up how many hours you’ve spent on these different categories and any others you would like to add.

For example, you already have at least an hour of discipleship because you’ve been to worship this morning. If you came to Sunday School, that adds another hour of discipleship. If you ladies come to the Of Good Things Fellowship at 5:30 this evening, that’ll add another hour or two.

Maybe tomorrow you’ll work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. as unto the Lord. You’ll take an hour lunch at 12 p.m. receiving your food with Thanksgiving.

That’s eight hours work and one hour of eating.

Or maybe this afternoon you’ll turn on some godless movie for a couple hours or you’ll browse the Internet aimlessly for 30 minutes or scroll through social media posts for an hour.

All that is squandered time.

That three-and-a-half hours goes into the Wasted Time category, which you can see I’ve described as having “no eternal value.”

Our work has eternal value when we work as unto the Lord.

Our eating has eternal value when we eat and drink to the glory of God.

Our media consumption has eternal value when it encourages us to love God and neighbor.

Our parenting has eternal value when we bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

But we squander the time God has given us when work just to have more...

…or eat and drink to satisfy our gluttony…

…or entertain ourselves with sins that Christ died to save us from…

…or exasperate our children to the point of discouragement.

We might be spending time in those areas but we won’t be redeeming the time, and the command we’ve been given is to redeem the time.

[TS] So pray & plan, redeem & record, and audit & adjust.

Let me wrap up.

Conclusion

I suppose it’s cliche for a preacher to say this, but there’s coming a day when we will wish we had redeemed the time; there’s coming a day when we will wish we had invested more time in eternity.

Brothers and sisters, we must live with that day in mind.

When we stand before Jesus, we will wish that we had redeemed the time!

Let’s not waste another moment!

Let’s trust the forgiveness of Jesus to cover the time we’ve wasted—and let’s commit ourselves to intentionally redeeming the time we have left!

I wonder if you will. I wonder if you’ll commit to it with a little accountability.

I’m going to have these time sheets with me after the service.

You’ve already picked up one but you’ll need another at some point if you’re going to make a practice of redeeming the time.

So, if your’re committing to walking wisely by redeeming the time, just come to me after the service and say, “I’ll take another sheet.” I’ll know you committing to redeeming the time.

Maybe we can encourage one another, pray for one another, help one another redeem the time.

Very last thing.

It’s not too late for you to redeem the time.

John Piper tells the story of a hard-hearted, elderly man who finally came forward to trust in Christ. The evangelist (John Piper’s father) talked with the man and prayed with him, and when the elderly man’s heart was opened to the Gospel, he cried with tears streaming down his face, “I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!”

Even if you’ve wasted every day of your life until today, Jesus will redeem you if you will trust in Him.

Then, covered in His forgiveness, you’ll waste it no more.

You too will begin to redeem the time.

[PRAYER]