Truth in Love... Eph 4:15 (Redeeming the Time)

I don't even know if the video started last time. My laptop just decided it wanted to disconnect from the internet. So if it happens again, we'll try to get back on here. Good morning to you. Hope you're doing well.

Truth in Love Through Scripture and Prayer

Ephesians 4 .15, I'm gonna read it to you again. But speaking of the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. This is truth in love.

Welcome.

Ask questions, chat with me. If you would like prayer, type me. Love to be able to pray for you and with you. I'm thankful that I can join your community. I wanna be a part of your family. I wanna pray for you.

And I'm so thankful that I'm able to do that. I'm able to, that we can discuss scripture, we can discuss church and what's going on in our community. And I'm thankful that you joined me in that and I appreciate it.

Let me know that you're there. Wave, say hi, ask questions. I was thinking about as the approach to scripture. This morning, I thought about Kelly and she has migraine headaches. I can say that I do not think that I've ever had a migraine headache.

And I hope I never have. I think I've had a sinus headache, had other headaches, but I don't think I've ever had a migraine headache. But she seems to suffer with them sometimes frequently. Sometimes she has a decent break between headaches.

But I'm proud of what she does. She seems to investigate what triggers those headaches. Good morning.

Hey mom, dad.

She, food could trigger the headaches. Different thing, the change of the seasons, the barometric pressure. And the reason why I thought about it, she just got a device that will indicate what the barometric pressure is.

And she wanted to investigate that to see if that has anything to do with her headaches. And the other thing that I thought about was the job that I do, we have to dig ditches so we can get down to water lines.

And as someone is digging with the machine, there always has to be someone watching him do that. And when there's someone in the ditch and the hole, there always has to be someone up watching what's going on in the hole.

And what are they looking for?

They're looking for what we would call fissures. We're looking at the sides of the bank for cracks, for loose dirt that may collapse and fall in on the person working in the hole so we can warn them and say, get out of the way.

And I thought about those two things in connection to how we approach scripture. We say that we try to emphasize things that aren't emphasized as much in our day and time. And one of those things is scripture isn't about us.

There's so many things on TV, so many things on the internet where sermons, sermons, programs that twist scripture and so many ministries that are just focused on us and put us in scripture when they read verses and everything's about us.

So it is a true statement. And it should be emphasized more that scripture is not about us, it's about God, it's about Christ. But when we look at scripture, our first thought is it's for God's glory.

But then he does indicate to us that scripture and other things are for his glory, but our good. Because it's for his glory, it ends up being for our good. So we should approach scripture with the attention and the precision and the investigation, like Kelly with her headaches or like the attendant standing outside the hole, watching for the person inside the hole to warn him about things to come.

With that focus, with that attention, how is this work for God's glory and for my good? I thought that was good for me to think about and approach to scripture to refocus my thought and approach to scripture, being focused, being accurate on what I'm looking at.

Hey James and Karen, good to see you. Got my coffee and I hope it wakes me up a little bit more than it has already. It seems like we had a good time Thursday night and I want to get a little more coffee in me to give me a little more energy.

If I can pray for you, let me know that I can pray for you like me. Morning Josh, love to pray for you. I'm glad that I can come into your home and be part of your family, be part of your community. And let me pray for you and with you, whatever your need might be.

If you have any questions,.

You want to talk about anything, chat, let me know that you're there. I'd love to hear from you. Just let me know what's going on and that I can pray for you. Today what I want to talk about, and I don't think today I'm gonna be going as long, but what was on my mind was the subject of redeeming, redeeming the time or redeeming your time.

Redeeming the Time as Precious and Unrepeatable

And I got this in the mail the other day and so I don't know if you can see it, if you can read it, but I wanted to show this to you. It's called Free Grace Broadcaster. And if you like devotionals, if you like good Christian material to read, this is an excellent resource and it's even better because it's free.

And if you've not heard of it, I'd like to introduce you to it. If you like free stuff, you can get it for yourself, you can give it to somebody else, but they send you one of these every quarter. So you get one for a year.

And each time there's a theme, like this quarter's theme is redeem the time. And inside this booklet, there are a bunch of different articles by folks from years ago. Some of the authors of these articles are Octavius Winslow, Jonathan Edwards, Archibald Hodge, Richard Baxter, Martin Lloyd-Jones, Richard Baxter, Charles Spurgeon, Jeremiah Burroughs,.

And another one from Charles Spurgeon.

So some good authors and they're free. And where do you go to get them? You can go to chapellibrary .org. If you go to chapellibrary .org, you can sign up and you can get one of these a quarter and each quarter there's a different theme and a whole bunch of different articles in the booklet and it's free.

And the other good thing about that website is that there's a ton of other stuff, not just these quarterly booklets, but there's a ton of other stuff that are free. Things that they've put together, different themes, different studying resources, and they're free.

And you can order them, get them shipped to your house, give them away, use them for yourself. And it's a really, really, really good ministry. And I encourage you to check it out.

Free Grace Broadcaster. It's a quarterly booklet.

And you go to chapellibrary .org to get those. And this quarter's theme was Redeeming the Time. And the article that I wanted to specifically look at was the one by Jonathan Edwards. It was by Jonathan Edwards.

And the title of it is Time is Exceedingly Precious. And if you're anything like me, when you read over articles like this, it's giving you information that we have head knowledge about already. But I think we have the same problem as we get frustrated with our kids sometimes with they have the head knowledge or we've told them a hundred times about this certain thing that we want them to know or to get or to understand.

We tell them a hundred times and isn't the same thing true for us when God seems to tell us the same thing a hundred times and we have the head knowledge about it, but it hasn't registered to where it is applied to our lives in such a way that it becomes a habit, it becomes a focus.

And so we can't condemn our children too hard because we are the exact same way in our relationship with God. He informs us and he has to keep informing us. I know, I think it was Peter who did the same thing in scripture.

He said, he was writing and he said, I'm reminding you, I've already told you these things and I'm reminding you. So it's something about our fallen nature that we have to be reminded, we have to be told over and over and over again.

So a lot of this is going to be common knowledge, things that you and I already know, but the Lord just, he wants it to stick. He wants us to get it. He wants us to apply to our lives. He wants it to register so that we, our eyes are open and we begin to refocus our lives in such a way that we do it for his glory and our good.

And that's what this information helps us to do. But time is exceedingly precious, which we know because if we know it was the scripture reference that they give is Ephesians 5, 16. And the shortened section of that verse reads redeeming the time because the days are evil.

And what does redeeming mean?

Redeeming is a word that means to purchase, to buy something. So we're in the store, we're looking on the shelves, we see something we want, we take it off the shelf and we purchase it. We make it our own and we do something with it.

And it reminded me of the very first video that I did. And I talked about how Kelly and I just, we went and we came, we just came back recently from a store where we were purchasing some home decor, some signage for our house.

And I talked about how my desire was to be intentional on the signage, the decor we have in our house. And I talked about the sign that we have in our dining room right now, and that it's a Bible verse and it is God's word.

And for me, when I read it, for those who come in and read it, that it would be a blessing and encouragement and it would speak to us who are here, that the God would speak to us and encourage us about how we relate it for his glory and our good.

So I want it to be intentional about the things that we have, the things that we purchase. And so that's what redeeming means, to purchase something for use. And the product here that is being talked about, if you want to call it that, is time.

The product of time. So we want to purchase that time and redeem it, put it to proper use and not set it on a shelf. Sometimes we buy items that we've never used. How many times have you been at Goodwill?

Maybe never, maybe a lot. But I've heard stories and seen it myself where you go into a thrift store or Goodwill and you see items, clothing items that still have the tag on them. Or folks have purchased an item and then just decided they didn't want it.

So they toss it out, give it away. And things are left in the trash or just disposed of, given away. And they didn't value that item as precious. And that's the focus Paul was giving and Edwards and this booklet is trying to draw out is that this item of time should be viewed as something precious, not to be tossed out disposed of, put in the trash, put on the shelf to collect dust, but it is something that is to be redeemed and used properly and seen as properly.

He gives a reason. The reason was because the days are evil. And of course, when it says days, it's not talking about the literal 24 hour days. It's talking about the age in which we live is evil. Because of our sinful nature, because of the curse, because of sin, the days in which we live are evil, so we must redeem the time that we have.

So I just wanted to look at a few quotes from Jonathan Edwards' article and maybe say a few things about it that will help us open our eyes, help us to reorient our focus on the time that God has given us here on this earth.

He says, to start off, because a happy or miserable eternity depends on the good or evil improvement of it. He says, things are precious in proportion to their importance or to the degree wherein they concern our welfare.

There's so much talk of equality, but we need to understand the balance of equality. There's so many things that we could talk about, but there's a discussion now, especially the Southern Baptist Convention of egalitarianism, egalitarianism versus complementarianism.

Egalitarianism basically says that all are equal. Men and women are equal, and from Scripture, we find that we are equal and that there should be no distinction or restriction for anyone who wants to be a pastor or be a deacon or hold any role in the church.

So because we're all equal, and in marriage we're all equal, and we're all the same. That's very, it's not a very deep definition, but it's a basic definition. And then complementarianism says that, no.

And I think complementarianism tries to find that balance. We are equal at the foot of the cross. We are all centers in need of salvation, but in God's created order, he created things a certain way, that he wants things to be done, the way he wants to see things here on earth.

He even says of himself that God is head of Christ and Christ is the head of the church. So there's an order there, even though there's equality amongst the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, there's also different roles that complement each other within the Trinity.

And so it is true from scripture for us that there is different roles. And then you think about the different levels of society, different positions people hold. Like for instance, I do not have armed guards or an armored car or a secret service that follows me around, but the president does.

Why is that?

His position in this country is esteemed a little bit higher than mine is. And so he has the secret service, he has armored cars, he has all the special attention for him because his position is esteemed higher than mine.

Even though we're both men, we're both people, we're both equal across, that position as president is esteemed a little bit higher than what mine is. And Jonathan Edwards is telling us, things are precious to us.

And those weren't great examples, may not even be good examples. But what he's getting at here is things are precious to us, a portion of their importance to us. Things do have value. They have innate value.

They have, come on Matthew, they have value in and of themselves. Like the position of president, it has value in and of itself, but whether people recognize that value is a different thing. Your marriage relationship, your relationship with your spouse, it has value, but whether you recognize that value or not, some people do, some people don't.

Some people don't recognize the value of the position of the president, and some people do. And what Jonathan Edwards is saying here is, things are precious to us in proportion of their importance to the degree it has a concern or effect on our welfare.

So it's all in how we view it and how we see it. And the Lord wants our eyes to be open to see the importance of time, that time is, that he gives us is precious and it has value, and it is not to be disposed of or thrown away, but we should recognize its value, and it's important, and we will redeem it and esteem it in its proper proportion when we recognize its importance.

If we don't take time to recognize its importance, then we won't esteem the time that we have. If you'd like me to pray for you, I'd love to pray for you, pray with you, just type me so that I can pray with you and for you.

If you'd like to chat, ask questions, correct me on anything that I say,.

Please do that.

If I don't have an answer for you, I'll go back and look it up and try to get an answer. But I'd love to chat with you, know how you're doing. I'd love to know that you're there watching and joining me.

Let's go on to the next one.

The Shortness and Unrecoverable Nature of Time

Men esteem gold and silver precious, but they are of no worth to any man unless by them he has an opportunity of avoiding or removing some evil or of possessing himself some good. And the first thing that popped in my mind was being on a deserted island.

That's the go-to example. And if I'm on a deserted island and I have a nugget of gold or a nugget of silver, that's gonna be of very little value to me unless I can spend it on something. We need to see time that way, that men esteem gold and silver precious, but they are of no worth to any man unless by them he has an opportunity of avoiding or removing some evil.

Okay, exactly.

When time is valued, when time is redeemed properly, it's when it is used to add some good or remove some evil. Just like with the silver or gold, it has no value to a person who's on a deserted island because it can't add good and it can't avoid harm or remove evil from you unless you pick it up and maybe use it as a weapon possibly.

If you have it here, gold or silver, money, here in our society, it can be used to buy things. But there, it's almost worthless. And the same thing is true for time. We have it, but we've got to use it properly.

And time is used properly and is valuable. And esteem, that is valuable when it is used to apply good or remove evil. I think that's maybe the point that he was getting at. The next one is time is very short, which is another thing that renders it very precious.

The scarcity of any commodity occasions men to set a higher value upon it, especially if it is necessary and they cannot do without it. So that made the first thing that came to my mind with that statement is the thought of supply and demand.

So if there's a lot of supply, the demand is not very high. If the supply is low, then there is a lot of demand for it. And when there's a lot of demand for it, the price of the item skyrockets and goes up.

It becomes more expensive. And so the lifting of the veil here is that time is short. The supply is low so that we value or we see time as high in demand, as valued very high because the supply of it is very low.

Time is short. So when we realize that time is short, that time is fleeting, the scarcity of the commodity. So we realize that there's a limited amount of it. We should come to the place in our heart where we begin to value the time that we have because we realize the supply of it is so short.

What is your life? It is even a vapor that appeared for a little time and then vanishes away, James 4 .14. The work that we must do to prepare for eternity must be done in time, comma, or it can never be done.

These thoughts are very sobering. The work that we must do to prepare for eternity must be done in time or it can never be done. And he's gonna make a few more statements on that a little bit later. But those thoughts are so sobering.

We also see time very precious because we are uncertain of its continuance. This is just a spillover from the last thought that time is short. It's valuable because we have so little of it. But that just leads you to the next proper thought.

We are uncertain of its continuance. What does that mean? We know that it's very short. We've realized that, we've saw that. But we know not how short, right? He says, how much more would men, how much more would many men prize their time if they knew that they had but a few months or a few days to live?

And isn't that true? We see evidence of that. When someone knows that their time is short, they begin to esteem time as more valuable. And the Lord wants to open up our eyes to that realization before that time.

Even comes in our lives.

The Ephesians, Paul says in Ephesians, to redeem the time because the days are equal. Don't wait until it's necessary that your eyes open up to this truth. Let your eyes open up to this truth now that time is short and we don't have the knowledge of how short it is.

There's an uncertainty there, an uncertainty that should drive us to redeem the time that we have now. Time is very precious because when it is passed, it cannot be recovered. And that goes back to the earlier thought, the preparation for eternity must happen now because it can never be done again.

And that makes time very precious, very valuable because when it is passed, it cannot be recovered. If a man has been overseen in a bargain and has bartered away or sold something and afterwards repent of it, he may often obtain a release and recover what he had parted with.

In other words, if you purchase an item or you give something to someone and you want that item back, that item still exists and there's a possibility out there that you could reobtain that item. You could go purchase it back, maybe for a higher price or you could ask your friend who you give it to, maybe you'd like it back.

It was a mistake, you didn't wanna give it away. That item still exists. There is a possibility that you could reobtain that item.

Here's the next sentence.

But it is not so with respect to time.

Isn't that true?

Once that item has, once time has passed, it's gone and it cannot be recovered. It's not an item that you can go repurchase, that you can trade back with. It's gone, that time is gone. Every part of it is successively ordered to us that we may choose whether we will make it our own or not.

So there's the offer. The offer of time is made to us. Here's the moment, the moment is coming up and the offer is that we can choose whether we will make it our own or not. But there is no delay, there's a sense of urgency here.

There's no delay. It will not wait upon us to see whether, to see whether or not we will comply with the offer. If we refuse, it is immediately taken away and never offered more. Time is approaching, it's coming and it's offered.

Do we make it our own? And if there's delay, we can choose to do nothing and it still passes. And that moment of doing nothing cannot be redeemed, cannot be repurchased, cannot be traded to get back. It's gone.

There's the idea of we've redeemed it, we've owned it, we've done something good with it, or we've done something evil with it, or we've done nothing with it. And even if we choose to do nothing with it, that moment of time has still passed and gone and we can't get it back.

But when the time of life is gone, it is impossible that we should ever obtain such a thing. Another such time. All opportunity of obtaining eternal welfare is utterly and everlastingly gone. Isn't that sobering?

That moment in time, this time that we have to make eternal choices is eternally gone, forever. We can't get it back. And then he makes a good statement here. This last statement that I wanna read kind of makes a picture, a word picture here.

How have you let the precious golden sands of your glass run? He's speaking of an hourglass and it's been turned on our lives. And that grain of sand, once it has fallen through, it's gone. It cannot be, our time cannot be flipped back over and regained.

Once it's turned over and it's started, once that grain of sand has fallen, it cannot go back up to the top and refall. It cannot be given back to us. And he says, how have you let these precious golden sands of your glass run?

First, we need to see that our time is precious. Then own it. When it's offered to us, own it. Redeem it and use it. Value it. Value your time. We were reading in Acts this week and this verse also led me to this idea of redeeming the time as Paul gives us an example.

Paul's Example of Redeeming the Time in Acts 20

In Acts 20, I'd like to just share with you the example that Paul gives that is so good. In Acts 20, in verse 17, this is a section where they're traveling, they're going from destination to destination.

He's on his way to Jerusalem. He's wanting to get back to Jerusalem. But in verse 17 he says, and from Miletus he is sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And that goes back to last week's video.

Where we talked about elders.

He makes his way to the church at Ephesus and he calls to himself the elders of the church. So this conversation here is to the group of elders here at Ephesus. And as we've discussed redeeming the time and how precious it is, we can reflect on how that comes out in this conversation that he's having with the elders here.

And I'll try to point it out as we go along. But if you go down to verse 22, and he says, and behold, behold, bound in spirit, I'm on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions, excuse me, await me.

So in reflection on our conversation about time,.

He's looking ahead.

He's looking at what's to come.

And isn't that what the Christian life is? Christian life is a life of order and discipline.

And not chaos.

If we value time, what do we do when we shop? If we're good shoppers, we look for price and we look for quality. And we don't impulse and buy something too expensive or something that is not a good value.

If we're good shoppers, we look for a price and quality of the product.

So we don't have time to do that.

And the same thing is true with time. If we value time, if we're redeeming or purchasing time, we should take that same, make that same effort in the area of time. When we look forward, because we know what's coming, it's going to be offered to us.

So we want to, when it's time to make that choice of owning it personally and what to do with that time, we want to be ready for it. We want to calculate the purchase. We know that here, he knew that his plans were to go to Jerusalem.

His plans were, or he knew that he was going to be going to different cities and there was preparation and knowledge of what was going to happen in those cities. And so he was preparing himself. And so there are times in our lives, we don't always know what's going to transpire, what's going on.

We don't always know what's going on in the future, but sometimes we know that, there are certain things that are going to come. We're going to talk to this person. We're going to see this person. This event is going to happen.

How can I redeem this time for the Lord, for his glory and my good and for others' good when I'm in this place, when I'm at this event, when I'm having this conversation? Being responsible, being disciplined and being ordered, having a disciplined Christian life is thinking about the future as time approaches and moves closer to us.

And so that when that time comes, we made the decision, I'm going to redeem that time and how I can redeem that time. So he looks to the future. Verse 24, but I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself in order that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel, of grace, of God.

And now behold, I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will see my face no more. So going back to verse 24,.

I consider my life,.

I do not consider my life of any account. So that goes back to our, what do we esteem? What do we give value? Here he gives value to the preaching of the kingdom,.

Preaching of the gospel.

He gives value to the time that he had with these folks and to be able to value that time that he had with these folks at this great level, he had to devalue his own life and his own desires.

And his own lives.

He had to set aside maybe some worldly pleasures or worldly comforts so that he could lift high the value of that time that he had with these folks so that he could preach the kingdom, preach the gospel to these folks.

And that's what we have to do in our lives is if we value our lives, our lives, our comfort, our pleasures as highest importance in our lives, then we're going to neglect the value of redeeming that time for the Lord and that opportunity that we had to do that.

And then that time has gone and it's passed. Then we get to the nuts and bolts of it. And I read verse 25, which says, and now behold, I know that. And I apologize for all the beeping. I didn't turn my volume down so I'm getting text messages.

So I apologize for that.

And now behold, I know that all of you.

Among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, we will see my face no more. So there's the context. And I want you to hold on to that. He's talking to all of you that I went preaching the kingdom to. So there's the context.

He's talking to the elders and all of you who I went about preaching the kingdom to.

And we're going to bring that back up.

In just the next verse. But there's a recognition that these people that he was with will see his face no more. This opportunity, this moment in time that he has, that he chose to redeem, to esteem high enough, to glorify God, with it, he knows that it is passing.

It can be recovered no more.

He can't get it back.

But he's making this ultimate statement here, that you will see my face no more. How sobering is that? When you can speak, when reality hits, and you can speak in those words of finality, you will see my face no more.

You who I've been spending this time with, there's coming this time, and it's coming quickly, that you will see my face no more. And that's where he's at. Verse 26, therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.

Now, here's where I wanted to go back to, as just an aside, there's a lot of verses in Scripture that are twisted, that we have to make sure that we read in its context to get its meaning and understanding.

And just an example, I'm not gonna give any examples in any other places in Scripture. We may look at that at another time. But he said, I'm innocent of the blood of all men.

Was I there?

Is he talking about me?

Is he talking about every single person in the whole world, everybody that was alive at that time,.

That existed on the earth?

All doesn't always mean all all the time. It means all within the context of that portion of Scripture. We need to remember that when we're studying Scripture. So what he means here when he says the blood of all men is what he said in the previous verse, those whom he has preached the kingdom to.

We've got to remember that when we are studying Scripture. Good morning, Glenn. So hold on to that as you study Scripture. But he says, this is his testimony to them. I'm innocent of the blood of all men.

Why is he innocent of their blood? He says in verse 27, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. When I read that verse this week, it just opened my eyes to how fitting that verse was to this idea of redeeming the time.

He is testifying to these people that he's innocent of their blood because he did not shrink from declaring to them the whole purpose of God. He didn't leave anything out. He knew that this line was coming, this line of finality, where they would see his face no more, and then he would be moving on and not coming back.

This moment of time that he had to preach to them the gospel, the whole counsel of God, the whole purpose of God, he made valuable, he saw that time as precious and he redeemed that time and he used it to preach to them the whole purpose of God, not leaving anything out.

So when that moment of finality came and they would see his face no more, he could move forward in good conscience and be innocent of their blood. Because he did all that he could do. Isn't that a good example for us about redeeming time?

That when this moment passes, I can look back at that moment and say, I did all that I could to redeem that time. For me, that was eye-opening. This example, looking at his life, knowing he was never gonna come back, he could never have it again, and he redeemed that time.

He esteemed it as valuable. One of the verse I wanted to look at was a verse in Matthew that we're studying. We're looking at Matthew chapter five right now in the men's Bible study. The next Bible study will be the first, the last, no, the third Tuesday of this year.

The third Tuesday of this month will be our next men's Bible study meeting. If you'd like more information about that, please send me a private message and I'll give you more information about that. But how are we to redeem our time?

This is just one example, one verse that we could use to help us understand how we can redeem the time that we have. Matthew chapter five, verse 16, it says, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

So the main goal of all life is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. So the main goal of whatever we do with our time.

Is to glorify the Father.

And how do we do that in this scripture? We let our light shine. And one thing that I wanna point out is that according to this verse, our good works are not the light that shines in front of men. It says, let your light shine that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.