Giving God Our Time

Text: Ephesians 5:15-16 (NKJV) See then that you walk circumspectly (carefully,) not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Introduction:

Over the next few weeks we are going to go thorough a series on giving.

Three things God calls us to give:

· Time

· Talent

· Tithe

In a lifetime the average North American will spend: Six months sitting at stoplights Eight months opening junk mail One year looking for misplaced objects 2 years unsuccessfully returning phone calls 5 years waiting in line 6 years eating 21 years watching television An article was once published entitled, “If You Are 35, You Have 500 Days To Live.” The article went on to contend that when you subtract the time you spend sleeping, working, tending to personal matters, eating, traveling, doing chores, attending to personal hygiene, and add in the miscellaneous time stealers, in the next 36 years you will have only 500 days to spend as you wish. Think about how you spend your time. When all of the necessary things are done, how much time is left? God did not give all of us the same amount of talent, nor the same amount of wealth, but He has given each of us the same amount of time.

Imagine that a bank credits your account each morning with $86,400. No balance is carried over from day to day. Any balance is deleted each evening. What would you do when you knew that you would not use all your daily balance? Why, withdraw every penny, of course! You have such a bank and so have I. The name of our bank is TIME. Every day we are credited with 86,400 seconds. Every night, that which we have not used is debited from our account. TIME bank allows no overdraft, there is no going back for a second chance. TIME bank does not allow borrowing from tomorrow and of course, and there are no leftovers. The clock ticks away, never waiting for anyone to catch up.

Time is money we say. But, in reality, time is not money. If you lose money, you can always make it some other way. Time is not a renewable resource. Whatever time we have lost is gone forever, never to be returned to us again. Time is infinitely more valuable than money will ever be. All of us realize the value of time. How do we value ONE YEAR? Ask a student who failed a grade. What is the value of ONE MONTH? Ask a Mother whose baby arrived prematurely. How much do we value ONE WEEK? For the sailors trapped in a submarine on the ocean floor it was the difference between life and death. How much do we value ONE HOUR? Ask someone who missed a connecting flight because the first flight was delayed by an hour. How much do we value ONE MINUTE? Ask someone who had a heart attack in a restaurant with a paramedic sitting at the next table. How much do we value ONE SECOND? Ask an Olympic swimmer, who just missed qualifying by 3 one-thousandths of a second! Because we value time so much, we usually try to SAVE it & MANAGE it. We save time by using microwaves and automatic dishwashers. We save time by taking non-stop flights, paying others to do our yard work, housecleaning or snow removal, going to the bank or the grocery store at non-peak hours, taking shortcuts, ordering through catalogues, shopping online rather than standing in line, and in a host of other ways.

Some people take time-saving to ridiculous extremes. I am told that an American funeral company has come up with a plan for those who are too busy to come inside the funeral chapel to either view the deceased or to attend the funeral service. Their proposal is to install a drive-through viewing window “for people who don’t have the time to bid farewell inside.” The funeral director said: “People are too busy these days with work. This is just one way of making it easier for them.” It is interesting that when we look at the Bible, we do not find a lot of emphasis on saving time or managing time.

Thesis: We are called to be good “stewards” of all that God has given us, and that includes time. But, more than that, in the words of the apostle Paul, in today’s reading from Ephesians 5, we are called to REDEEM the time.

Transition: What does it mean to redeem the time? The word “redeeming” can be translated buying up or purchasing. The word “time” is not the Greek word "chronos" which means clock time that is measured in hours, minutes and seconds, but it is the Greek word "kairos" which means time as regarded in its strategic, epoch-making, seasonable, opportune seasons.

In other words, rather than being called to be good time managers, we are called to be good opportunity managers.

It is not just the time, but also the timing.

It is not just counting the minutes, hours, days, months and years, but making the minutes, hours, day, months and years count.

Tomorrow we will be given more hours, but we may never have the same opportunity again.

In the days before modern harbors, a ship had to wait for the flood tide before it could make it to port. The term for this situation in Latin was ob portu, that is, a ship standing over off a port, waiting for the moment when it could ride the turn of the tide to harbor. The English word opportunity is derived from this original meaning. The captain and the crew were ready and waiting for that one moment for they knew that if they missed it, they would have to wait for another tide to come in.

Author Terry Muck tells of a letter he received from a man who used to have absolutely no interest in spiritual things. He lived next door to a Christian, and they had a casual relation-ship like neighbours often do. Then the non-Christian’s wife was stricken with cancer, and died three months later.

Here’s the letter: “I was in total despair. I went through the funeral preparations and the service like I was in a trance. And after the service I went to the path along the river and walked all night. But I did not walk alone. My neighbor - afraid for me, I guess - stayed with me all night. He did not speak; he did not even walk beside me. He just followed me. When the sun finally came up over the river he came over to me and said,

"Let’s go get some breakfast." I go to church now. My neighbor’s church. A religion that can produce the kind of caring and love my neighbor showed me is something I want to find out more about. I want to be like that. I want to love and be loved like that for the rest of my life.”

What made the difference in this man’s life? It was that one Christian dared to make the most of the opportunity he had to reveal Christ to his friend. There were few words . . . but the message came through. He had learned how to REDEEM THE TIME.

How about you and me? How are we handling this precious gift of time that God has given us? Are we still hung up on saving and managing it? Or have we moved towards redeeming it?

Are you blinded by the problems you have with lack of time, or do you focus on the opportunities God is opening up before you every day?

No one on their death-bed ever said: “Shucks! I wish I’d spent more time at the office,” or “I wish I’d spent more time playing Playstation,” or “I wish I’d spent more time listening to the latest Flo Rida CD.”

God desires for us to make the most of our time by:

· Spending Time with Him, loving Him, and Serving Him.

· Spending time with his people, loving them, and serving them.

I believe our true worship is represented by what we give our time to.

If we spend our time serving God and his people, then our worship is directed toward God. We have redeemed the time and made the most of the opportunities presented to us.

But if we spend our time on selfish indulgences, than our worship actions do not match our words.

We can’t take anything with us. It will fly off on the way up or burn off on the way down.

How will you use every gift the father has given you, including your time? Conclusion: One day, our time on earth will come to an end. And we will be asked to give an account of how we invested the gift of time that was given to us. We will not be asked how well we did in SAVING TIME. We will not be asked to prove how well we did in MANAGING TIME. We will be asked how well we did in REDEEMING THE TIME, in making the most of the opportunities that God sent our way.

The apostle Paul said: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

What will you say?