A Careful Look in a Critical Time - Ephesians 5:15-17

J .R .R. Tolkien, in his book on The Hobbit, Gollum gives

Bilbo Baggins this riddle. This thing all things devours, birds, beasts, trees, flowers.

Gnaws iron, bites steel, grinds hard stones to mill.

Slays king, ruins town, and beats mountain down.

Well, the answer to this riddle is time. It's time. It's a good riddle, it's accurate in many ways, but one thing about the riddle,

I think, is it seems to make time out to be sovereign. And yet, we know, the

Christian understands that time is under the sovereignty of God.

God stands outside of time. Our eternal God is not constrained by time, and indeed, is the creator of time.

In fact, we need to look at time this way. Time is a gift, and time is actually moving in a direction, isn't it?

It's moving toward a goal, it's moving toward a consummation. It's why we say things about Jesus' return as it will be at the end of time.

The end of time doesn't mean that we stop existing in conscious and sequential moments.

Rather, it means that the goal of time itself, the very end of time, is the exaltation of Christ.

He's coming again to judge the living and the dead. His bride will reign with Him for eternity, and His enemies will be under His just punishment for eternity.

Will you turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 5? Lookie there, mine just kind of falls open.

Ephesians 5. Now, from a human perspective, our eternity is determined by use of our time.

That is, in the words of Jonathan Edwards, a happy or miserable eternity depends on the good or ill improvement of time.

Paul commands a church at Ephesus in our passage to redeem the time, to make good use of the time, to buy it back as it were.

For what purpose? For the glory of Christ. At one time, we were children of darkness.

At one time, we followed the will of the flesh and the power of the air and the worlds, but not anymore.

So this morning, we consider a careful look in a critical time, and we cover Ephesians 5, verses 15 through 17.

Would you stand with me as we take up and read the Scriptures this morning? Ephesians chapter five, a careful look in a critical time, verse 15.

Paul says, He says, Fathers, we approach your word this morning.

I pray that we would do it in humility and trepidation. Lord, your word says that the one you look to is the one who trembles at your word.

May we humbly tremble under the preaching of your word today. May we hear what it says, and may we adjust our lives.

May we not be arrogant or prideful to just come in here and then hear your word and then continue out the doors just like we came in.

Oh, may we be humble and receive your grace. Speak to us this morning in your word and let us be people of the book.

Let us adjust our lives according to your sovereign and holy will. We pray, God, that we would be the church that you would have us to be, that we would lift the banner of Christ in Perry County and point people to him.

Show his excellencies, his greatness, his glory, his wonder, his beauty, his holiness, his splendor.

Father, we pray that we would be a people who redeem the time, both individually and corporately. Teach us to number our days, oh

God. May we make good use of this precious gift you've given us.

And we pray it all in Jesus' name, amen. You be seated. Believers must take a careful look in a critical time.

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

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Who here? Raise your hand if you want to leave this place and you want to be considered foolish in the eyes of the

Lord. Good, no one raised their hand, right? We don't want to be foolish. We want to be wise.

So the first thing I want to talk about this morning then, number one is the preciousness of time. Number one, the preciousness of time.

Paul gives a command in verse 15, doesn't he? Look carefully how you walk.

Paul has used the idea of the Christian walk over and over again in Ephesians 4 and 5. Christians are to have a worthy walk.

Ephesians 4 and 1, we'll walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we've been called. We're to have a worthy walk. We're to walk of love.

We're to walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. We're to have a holy walk. We're to walk in light, to walk as children of light.

And now here in our text, we're to have a wise walk. Look carefully then how you walk.

Not as unwise, but as wise. Ephesians 2, 5 says that Christians, that of Christians, God has made us alive.

He has given us life in Christ. He has resurrected us from the realm of darkness and spiritual death.

And now this is how we walk. We love our brothers and sisters. We love the church.

We walk a holy life in the light. And we walk wisely with the time that God has given us.

And so Paul commands us in verse 15, commands us by the Holy Spirit to look carefully.

Look carefully how we walk. The word for carefully is appropriate to this time of year because it's the same word.

It's the same word that Matthew uses in Matthew 2, 8. Do you remember when the magi come to Herod?

You remember how Herod tries to trick them? So this is what he says in Matthew 2, 8. Herod to the wise men.

He says, go and search diligently. That's the word. The same word used in our text.

Go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

In other words, Herod wanted the wise men to make a diligent search for Jesus. And Paul commands the church here to be wise men making a diligent search of our lives.

We're to look carefully so that we will live wisely before God and others. In other words, this isn't haphazard.

This isn't just a glance. This isn't like the wife tells the husband when the husband says, where's the milk?

And she says, look in the fridge. And he says, I don't see it. And then she comes to the fridge and says, it's right there.

Is that just me? Maybe it just happens. Maybe it's just me. You know why? No husbands, you say amen.

You know why? Because we're not looking carefully. We're not looking diligently.

Don't look for the milk in the fridge here with the way that we walk. Paul says, look diligently.

Look carefully. And part of this careful look of our lives is understanding the preciousness of time.

If you're going to take a careful look at your life, you must see the preciousness of time.

Verse 16, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Now, if I were to say to you, now listen here, I have an offer for you. Let's say I was able to give you both of these options and you could only choose one.

Option one is you could be the richest person who's ever lived for one hour.

And you could live one hour. You get one hour of life, but you get to be the richest person who's ever lived.

Or you're the poorest person who's ever lived and you get to live 100 years.

What would you choose? Well, we would pick the years over the money because we understand something whether we are always consistent with it or not.

And that is this, time is invaluable. Time cannot be retrieved.

If you were to be in the ocean and drop your wedding ring and it sank in the ocean all the way to the deepest parts of the

Mariana Trench, yeah, there would still be the faintest hope that maybe somehow one day technology would improve and maybe somehow one day you could retrieve that which was valuable even though it sank to the bottom of the ocean floor.

And yet, once a minute escapes you, you'll never get it back. Once a minute passes, you can't retrieve it.

You can't go back in time. Time is moving in a direction and that direction is only one way.

And I don't care how long we live, we won't be able to invent a time machine really because time is heading toward a direction, a conclusion.

That conclusion is the exaltation of our king. And in one sense, you might think that time is in abundance.

Human history is some 6 ,000 years old and that may make us think that time is very long.

But from our perspective, we know that time is very short. When you're five years old, when you're five years old, time seems endless, doesn't it?

When you're 35 years old, you sort of begin to understand just how quickly time goes by.

And then when you're 75, you try to warn those in their 20s just how fast time flies and too often, your wisdom is not heeded.

Edward says time is very short which renders it very precious, very precious.

Christian, will you acknowledge with me this morning the preciousness of time? This is a reality that must not just, you just agree with, oh yeah, time is fast.

Even unbelievers agree with that. Yep, time is fast. No, no, no, I'm saying don't just acknowledge it but also let it affect our lives.

Benjamin Keech notes traders ought to know the worth of those commodities put into their hands.

That is, and entrusted to trade with. That is, if you're gonna sell watches, you need to know what watches do and what their value is.

So he continues, so every man ought to know the worth of his own soul and the worth and preciousness of their time.

Friends, you only get one life. The seconds are rolling by.

The days and the years are rolling by and soon, we will all stand before Christ.

So Paul says make the best use, the best use of the time because the days are evil.

You know, the Christmas season really reminds us of all this because every December, my wife and I were driving around like a week or two ago and we're like, how is it

December already? Like, it was just last December, wasn't it? Like, I just woke up and it was

December 2021 and now I'm up today and it's December 2022. What happened? Well, here we are again.

Christmas is coming around again. Why? Because it goes by fast. This is the preciousness of time.

This moves us to our second point, the purpose of time. First, the preciousness of time. Secondly, the purpose of time.

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

Therefore, do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. I said in the introduction that time is a gift.

Time is a gift from our sovereign and good God and it's a gift given to mankind for a purpose.

Why has God given you the gift of time? For his own glory.

The purpose of your time is the glory of God. Of course, the majority of mankind is chasing after the world, the flesh, and the devil.

This is what Christians in Ephesus used to be like. If you remember, I'm gonna flip back to Ephesians 2.

Paul says to the Ephesians, to the church, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power there, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

This is what the church at Ephesus used to be like. This is how they used to spend their days. They used to spend their days on the sin and idolatry and frivolousness of the world around them.

This is how they lived. This is what they used to be like. But God saved them by grace through faith, not so that they could now just waste their time, but he saved them so now they want to use their time to the glory and honor of God.

This is Paul's command. Look carefully, thus the

Holy Spirit's command. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

So this applies not just to the church at Ephesus, it applies to us too. Time is for the glory of God.

Are you using it for God's glory? Friends, this is God's will for your life, that you would use the time that God has given you for his glory.

You understand that we say my time and your, my time, your time. You understand those are misnomers.

You don't own a second. You don't own an hour. You don't own a minute.

It's all God's time and it's a gift to you. Are you stewarding

God's time for God's glory? We talk about that with money. Sometimes we say, oh yeah, none of this is my money, this is

God's money. So when we talk about offering and gifts and stuff, we say, it's not about my money, it's

God's money and I wanna steward it well. Friends, it's not just God's money, it's also God's time.

Now Paul gives us a metaphor here in verse 16. The ESV already translates it to, in other words,

ESV gives us what the metaphor means in verse 16, making the best use of the time.

But the point is, Paul literally says, the word here in verse 16 is the word for redemption.

Paul literally says that we are to be redeeming, redeeming the time.

The word for redemption here in our text, it's the same word used of Christ in Galatians 3 .13

which says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

Christ redeemed his church from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, curse is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

Remember the Christmas story. King Jesus entered into time to redeem us.

The idea of redemption is that Christ bought us back. Christ paid the penalty, paid the price due for lawbreakers.

He purchased us, as it were, by paying our debt on our behalf. So the word that Paul uses in verse 16 is the word of redemption.

Now what is, how does redemption, how does that work with time? What Paul is saying in verse 16, the metaphor he's using, he is telling the church at Ephesus to purchase time, to buy time.

Let me explain it this way. Lock in here because this is very important.

Paul does not tell the church to find time to do

God's will. He does not tell the Christians, find time to do things for the glory of God, though this is how many professing

Christians seem to operate. I'll evangelize if I find the time.

I'll go to church if I can find the time. I'll read my Bible more if I can find the time.

I'll disciple my children when I find the time. Beloved, Paul does not tell the church to find the time, but to redeem the time.

Make the best use of the time for the days because the days are evil. You must not find time in your life to live for the glory of God.

You must redeem time. You must purchase the time. Redemption implies cost. Christ redeemed us at the cost of his life, and when we redeem the time, when we buy time for the glory of God, it does mean, it is a cost.

It means giving up on other things. It costs to redeem time for God's glory.

Here's a, I'm just fixing to drop some such profound wisdom upon you right now.

You ready? A day's length is the same for everyone. Whoa.

God, in his sovereign wisdom and goodness, determined before the foundation of the world that each day should consist of 24 hours.

By the way, that's also true in Genesis 1, right? Each day. God, in his goodness and his wisdom, has gifted mankind a day in the length of 24 hours.

A day's length is the same for everyone. The kindergartner who spends his time in his day picking his nose has the same time in his day as the wealthiest

CEO. And what Christians are called to do in our text is to use our time for its purpose, which is the glory of God.

This means that we are to look carefully, diligently at our lives. We are to take assessment.

There are things that we must cut out. There are things, I'm pleading with you. There are things in your life that you must cut out so that you can redeem the time for the glory of God.

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

Let me give you a real practical example. I hand you a theology book.

By the way, don't let me forget, before service, before you leave today,

I will hand you a theology book. I hand you a theology book. And I say to you, will you read this book?

And you say to me, man, I just don't have time to read that.

But the survey says you spend 10 minutes a day on your phone playing games, which this is way low, way low, way low.

Average, it's way more than that. But let's just say you spend 10 minutes a day playing games on your phone.

That's 70 minutes a week. Some of you, maybe you spend 70 minutes a day on your phone. 70 minutes a week playing games on your phone.

You hear this sermon, you say, okay, I'm gonna give that up, fine. I'll give up the games and I'll read.

I'll read eight minutes a day. But what is that gonna do? I'll read a theology book for eight minutes a day.

Is that even gonna do anything? But did you know that if you were to read a theology book for eight minutes a day, and you're an average or below average reader, you actually have time in your year to read six theology books on average, depending on page length and all that.

Now look back at 2022 and let me ask yourself, you ask yourself, have

I read six theology books in the year of our Lord, 2022? No, have you had the time?

Yes, but maybe it's, maybe you need to give up Bejeweled, right?

Right, you see what I'm saying? It's not fine time, it's not fine time. I was like, my life is full, don't you understand?

My life is full and you're telling me I need to add these other things. No, no, no, I'm saying your life is full, that's right.

But there are some things in your life that need to be cut out for the purpose of redeeming time. Quit thinking in terms of, okay,

I'll give five hours every month to this or that. No, no, no, think first in minutes.

You hear me? Don't think in every month

I'll give five hours to this thing, I'll do this, I'll do that. No, no, first let us think in minutes.

Think of habits every day. Start changing your day, that'll change your week, that'll change your month, that'll change your year, that'll change your life.

Make the best use of the time because the days are evil. Quit wanting to do better.

Instead, repent and make the changes that you need to make in your habits.

Think of it this way. Suppose someone offers you a large quantity of gold.

But here's what you gotta do to get the gold, you ready? Woo. If you want to get the gold offered you, you have to give up all your dirty socks.

Would you do it, would you make that trade? My wife's like, burn all the socks, yes.

Would you give up the dirty socks for the gold? Yes, give up the dirty socks for the gold, redeem the time, we all have the same time each day and how will you use it?

Let me ask you something. Is God wise in giving you 24 hours? Or did he not know, did he not realize that you, you were the person in the history of the world, you were the person that needed 25 hours in your day.

You were the person that needed 32 hours in your day. You think to yourself, oh, if I just had more time, then

I could do more things. But listen, that's like the person who's not very wealthy and they say, if I had more money,

I would be generous. Generosity doesn't have to do with how much money you have.

It's a disposition of the heart. Can we also apply this to time?

Good use of your time is not about how much time you have. I know how much time you have.

You have 24 hours in a day. It's not about how much time you have, it's about a disposition of the heart.

Let me apply this in three areas for a moment. Individually, family and church. Individually, let me say this.

If we're gonna obey verse 16, making the best use of the time because the days are evil, let me remind you that productivity doesn't just happen.

Productivity doesn't just happen. No one just accidentally becomes productive one day.

You just wake up one day and you're like, what happened? Well, I just got zapped with productivity. I got the spiritual gift of productivity.

No, no, you don't accidentally become productive. Christian productivity takes a careful look.

It takes discipline. Look carefully then how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise.

It takes a wise walk. Carefully look at each day and say to each day, here is what must be done.

I must read the Bible and I must pray. And then you put those as your highest priority.

Then you apply biblical wisdom to other things. In those things, do the hard things first.

Do the things, you got a list of things that you have to get done today. Maybe at work, doesn't matter which order you do them, you just gotta pick.

Do the hardest thing first. Do the thing that you don't wanna do. Get that done first.

Apply all your effort, all your energy, knock that out. And you will find, you'll find, that the rest of your day is gonna line up more fruitfully.

Be habitual, be intentional. The purpose of time is

God's glory. Look carefully, church, you're listening, how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise.

Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. If we want to walk wisely, it requires us to think biblically and to apply biblical thinking to our day.

And remember that purchasing time costs you something. You have less time now here, so that you can give more time here.

We must use our time well for the glory of God. Delete the app, set the alarm, instill the habit, redeem the time.

Let me also encourage you in your Bible reading. Now understand, I could get real hard here, but please understand,

I'm pleading with you, I'm not trying to crush us. We have no excuse not to spend time in our

Bible every day. We live in America, and we have access to God's word, and we do have the time, and we have no excuse not to spend a portion of our time every day in God's book.

Are you not in the Bible every day? Think about 2022, seriously.

Did you spend every day thus far at least some portion reading a portion of God's word in 2022?

Now I'm gonna drop some profound gospel reality on you. If you did not, what do you need to do?

Is the call to you to come up here and let us publicly flog you, is that what we need to do?

No, do you know what you need to do? If you didn't read the Bible every day in the year of our

Lord, 2022, you know what you need to do? You need to go to God for mercy again.

You need to repent, and you say, Lord, there were days this year that I didn't steward my time well.

I repent, will you help me? Will you help me to be one who prizes your book? Let me give you some numbers.

It takes, for an average reader, it takes less than 75 hours to read the entire

Bible. Less than 75 hours. So that's 4 ,500 minutes.

If you take 4 ,500 minutes and you divide that by a year, 365 days, it comes out to about 12 minutes and 20 seconds a day.

There are dirty socks in your life that you can give up to get the gold of Bible reading.

13 minutes a day. Sleep less. Sleep 13 minutes less a day.

Eat a quicker lunch or eat no lunch at all. But honestly, the vast majority of us in this room, we can give up even less than food or sleep.

We can cancel social media. We can cancel our streaming services. We can delete the games off our phone. 12 minutes and 20 seconds a day to read all of God's word in one year.

And check my math here. But if you do all that in one year for 20 years, that's 20 times, right?

You can read the Bible for 12 minutes and 20 seconds a day and you can get through the

Bible 20 times in 20 years. But honestly, I just think about this for a moment.

What would your life look like in five years if you read the Bible five times or more in that time?

Listen, there is repentance that I've had to give God and I still give God about the misuse of my

Bible reading at times. So please don't mistake what I'm about to tell you as me trying to gloat or anything like that.

I'm not. I've got like four days left, I think, on my plan. And when

I finish that, I'll have read through the Bible 14 times since 2009.

14 times. I'm just gonna tell you from a personal testimony, nothing has changed my life more profoundly than reading

God's book. And I just wanna plead with you and encourage you, 12 minutes and 20 seconds a day.

Listen, I'm telling you, this can change your life. Like, what do

I gotta do to change my life? Do I gotta wake up an hour early? Do I gotta, what is it that I need to do? And there might be tons of things that we can talk about, but I'm just asking for you right now, 12 minutes and 20 seconds a day.

Now, I am not saying, if you don't read the Bible in a year, you're not a Christian, do not take that away from this sermon.

You might have a different plan. You might have a different strategy. That's okay. You might do it over two years.

You might do it over three years. You might in the next year, instead of reading through the whole Bible, you're working to read and memorize the book of Romans or something like that.

Praise God, that's wonderful. The point that I'm trying to make is, is that if you do not have 12 minutes in your life to spend in God's word daily, then you must repent.

Now, you wanna challenge me on that? I'm okay. You come to me. You say, Quatro, this is my day.

And there is literally not 12 minutes in my day to give the Bible reading.

If you wanna come have that conversation, please come and let us have that conversation. And if you're right,

I will publicly repent. I'll say, I'm sorry, there are people that don't have 12 minutes in their day to give to the

Bible. But I don't think I'm wrong here. If you don't have 12 minutes in your life to spend in God's word daily, repent and redeem the time.

Ask the Lord. I'm not saying come up here and get publicly flogged. I'm saying, ask the Lord to give you insight into where you can redeem the time for the purpose of knowing him more deeply and using your time better for his glory.

And let me remind us this. Those you love, you love to spend time with. You know what some people love about Christmas?

Is, even lost people love this. Is it's that time of year, like I remember growing up, I loved, it was fun.

My uncle would come in or sometimes when I was younger, my aunt and uncle would come in or around the holidays, around Thanksgiving, we'd go to Texas and I'd spend time with my family.

Like, those were fun. That was fun. I like spending time. And like, we think about that and we think,

I like spending time with my family. That's wonderful. Because why? Those you love, you love to spend time with. Okay, what about the scriptures?

Do you love the scriptures? Those who love the scriptures, love to spend time in the scriptures.

And friends, we live in a Bible -ignorant age. And what I'm saying at Prairieville Second Baptist Church, let's change that.

Let us be people of the book. Let us redeem the time. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

That's individual. Let me talk about family. What I think about family is this. We need, I need, I'm pointing at myself here too, to look at time with family in a bigger picture.

That is, sometimes I set the priorities of my family based on the right here and right now.

What needs to happen today? What needs to happen tomorrow? And instead of doing that, we need to look 20 years from now.

We need to look at eternity for that matter. Because often what we do is we let our kids' schedules and homework and sports and events and even our kids' dreams and goals, we let those things dictate our family life at the expense of the glory of God.

We steal away from the glory of God so that we can buy more time for things that do not matter eternally.

That's the opposite of verse 16. That's trading in the gold for more dirty socks.

Sir, I don't know gold language. Here's a pound of gold, probably in ounces or something.

Here's a pound of gold. Can I buy three dirty socks? Well, how foolish is that?

That's the opposite of verse 16, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

I'm gonna say something radical here, but hear me out. Parents, grandparents, hear me out. If you have to choose between your kids' homework or family worship, choose family worship and take the zero.

And then, of course, appropriately discipline and instruct your child so that he or she doesn't wait to the last minute on the homework again.

But the point is this, we must quit having such a narrow focus with our children and homes, and we must look much further down the road.

A zero on an assignment is paltry 20, 30, 40, 50, 10 million years down the road.

But if we neglect to raise our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, there will be literal hell to pay.

Christ is king. But preacher, but preacher, stop. Don't you understand, preacher?

If my kid misses this practice, if they miss this game, if they miss this event, then he or she might not get a medal.

They might not get a trophy. They might not get a piece of paper. They might not get a scholarship. They might not make it to the professional level.

The theological term is whoop -dee -doo. So be it.

Friends, you know my life and you know my children. I'm not saying our children cannot be involved in extracurricular activities.

What I'm saying is if our children's extracurricular activities take away from the goals of a life armed in Christ, we're foolish, we're foolish, we're foolish.

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. I'm saying all families, whether you have children at home or not, you must look at the big picture.

If our activities and finances and goals for our homes, if that takes away from God's will for our life as revealed in the scriptures, then we've set up idols for ourselves.

And we must repent and redeem the time. Again, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to come forward and so that the church can just throw rocks at you or whatever?

No. I want you to repent and we humble ourselves before God and we say,

God, we've misused time in our family, will you help us? Obey verse 16, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Let us take the long range view and seek to applaud faithfully day in and day out to honor

Christ and our family. Now let me mention church for just a moment. A unique thing happens. Get ready for this.

In 2023, a unique thing happens. This only happens about 10 times every century.

So it's about, you know, 10 % of the time or so. It's not gonna, it'll happen in 2023.

It will not happen again until 2034. So 11 more years. In fact, there's a real reality that we might not, 2023, maybe that's the last year that we'll be alive to see this.

What am I talking about? That won't happen again until 2034. That is, 2023 is a unique year in that it is going to both begin and end on the

Lord's day. January 1st, 2023 is on a

Sunday. December 31st, 2023 is on a

Sunday. Thus there are before us not 52 Sundays in 2023, but 53.

You have, as it were, an extra blessing from the Lord in the coming year when it comes to Sundays.

And I'm asking you, friends, the question is, will you redeem the time? There are dirty socks lying around your life that I'm exhorting you to give up and invest them in the gold of the

Lord's day. God is so good. God is so wise. God is so kind in giving us

Sundays. Redeem the time. Extra sleep, sports, hunting, me time.

I'm saying sell them, sell them, sell them, sell them, sell them, and buy the time that you need for the worship of God with God's people.

And of course, I'm not just saying only come to church on Sunday. That's great. Don't just come to church on Sunday, though, and check it off your box.

That's important to come to church on Sunday. Obviously, I am exhorting it, but I'm saying it's more than that. Invest your life in the church.

You sell, I see it sometimes. I see some of you on Facebook Marketplace. You sell junky stuff in order to buy what?

Other stuff. You sell the things that you don't want in order to buy the things that you want.

So I'm saying sell the things taking you away from God's people. Sell them and buy, invest in the church.

I love this quote from David Miller. David, my friend David Miller. You can't do anything better in your life than to bend your knee and bow your heart with godly sorrow, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, and join up with a good Bible -believing, Bible -teaching church, and spend your life in that church serving

Jesus in a local, visible congregation. What I'm saying is make the best use of your time.

Redeem time in the church. Make Sunday a priority for you and your family. Invest in the lives of one another for fellowship and discipleship and edification and accountability and encouragement.

Buy time for evangelizing with other church members. Pass out tracts, share Christ together.

I'm saying a life given to a biblical church is a life well spent. Let your, this is radical.

Listen to this. A lot of people in the Bible Belt are not gonna agree with this statement, but you come show me where I'm wrong.

Let your entire schedule revolve around the church. And let, instead of,

I wish I had some sort of, something to illustrate. Instead of trying to squeeze the church into your inflated schedule.

You know the illustration with the marbles and the rice and all that, I probably did it wrong, and the golf balls and all that.

That is, a lot of people, if you have a jar and you try to pour the rice in first, that's all the little things stressing you out.

And then you try to fit the big things that are important in there. You can't fit it, right? Can't fit it all in there. But when you do the important things, when you prioritize and put the important things first, then the rice fits in or whatever, whatever.

The point is though, some of the rice needs to get out, like throw it away, right? But you prioritize your time in the church.

Let your life revolve around the church instead of the other way around. There are 53

Sundays before us in the coming year. Let us start there, let us commit to the Lord to make them a priority, and then beyond that, let us commit to the growth and fellowship and life of this body for the glory of God.

Okay, last point. We've seen the preciousness of time, the purpose of time. Finally, let us consider the priority of time.

Now, verse 16, here's what I mean by priority of time. Making the best use of the time, and then here it is at the end, why?

Why does Paul tell us to make the best use of the time? Because the days are what?

Evil. This is true in first century Ephesus, and it's true in 21st century

America. I'm not just saying prioritize your time. I've already said that, amen, prioritize your time.

But I'm also saying that time itself must be a priority. This idea of redeeming time, it ought to be at the top of your list.

You ought to go home this afternoon, you ought to pray about it, you ought to think about it with your spouse, you ought to talk about it. It ought to be a priority of redeeming the time, why?

Because of the evil of the day that we live in. The evil of the day demands us to prioritize this text.

Making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Now, I don't want to undermine the evil of any period that's gone before us, but can

I just tell you this morning that we live in an evil day. We live in a day where FedEx drivers will run over a little girl and then take her, and then they don't want to get caught, they don't want to get in trouble for hitting the girl, so they just kill the girl.

What an evil day. The murder of unborn children, the exploitation of children for trafficking, the lying,

I don't know what to trust, I don't care what news channel it is, I have a hard time trusting anything coming out of someone's mouth on the television anymore.

I can't trust what the doctors are saying. It's like everything people are saying, what is your motive?

What is your political stance here? It's like everything people are saying, it's so tainted.

There's lies, there's thieves, there's immorality, sexual immorality, there's homosexuality.

We live in an evil day. So what are we gonna do about it, church?

Well, I guess we'll just plod along until Jesus comes back. Well, you know, the Bible says it's just gonna get worse and worse, so I'll just...

That's not what the text tells us to do, though. The text tells us because the days are evil, we must redeem the time.

And the word that Paul uses for time in verse 16, it can have the idea of moment or opportunity.

In the Greek version of the Old Testament, the word is used in Esther 4 .14, and you know this passage, when

Mordecai tells Esther that God has brought her up for what, for such a time as this.

The days are evil. It's around us like we are fish in an ocean.

How much more important than today is the gift of time? What will we do with the opportunity in a moment before it's like this?

Feel the urgency of the text. Feel the urgency of Paul as he's writing this to the church at Ephesus.

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

Well, what will we do with the occasion before us? Will we redeem the time? The days we live in demand that we redeem the time, and Christ is worthy of our redeeming the time.

Will we buy the time for God's glory? Okay, now, some of you, hopefully, have become aware today that there's opportunities in your past that you've wasted.

Satan attempts you right now. You know what? Satan can even agree with the things I said.

He may even say, you know what? Preacher's right. You've wasted your time. Satan likes you to feel guilt.

But here's what Satan will do. He'll say, you know, he's right.

You ought to feel guilty for that. And you know what? Right after the holidays, you ought to get your life in order.

You know when a good day would be to get your life in order? Tomorrow.

That's what Satan. Do it tomorrow. Maybe when you get a little bit older.

Push it off till later. But the word of God calls us to repentance today. To repent of the past times of laziness or frivolousness or rebellion or misuse of time.

To repent of these things and rest in Christ and use the time that is before us now to live for His glory.

Are you unconverted? Are you here and you're unconverted? Are you an unbeliever? Well, what a day that God is, what a moment that God has set before you today.

Will you redeem it? Will you turn from your sins and trust Christ by faith? Will you follow Jesus today?

The days are evil. They're evil. What is more important in your life right now than assessing your time and making sure you use it all for the glory of Christ?

Paul Washer says this, very sobering. You are going to die.

And everything you've lived for outside of the will of Christ will be burned up.

I tell you in love, God's judgment is coming. And I tell you pastorally that the time is gonna be so much sooner than so many are ready for.

Death is a reality for us all. And listen to this, you and I will die and so much will be burned up.

So much that is stressing you out right now. Your child didn't brush their hair for the school picture.

And now you're stressed. The fourth grade school picture has you stressed out.

And in 30 years, you'll laugh about it. That's just an example. And what I'm saying is there are things in your life right now that are stressing you out, that are leading you into sinful anxiety, and they're draining your soul.

And they're just gonna be burned up anyway. So what do you do with those things?

You let them go. You give it to the Lord Jesus and you redeem the time. You seize the moment that you have before you.

This goes for every age of life. Let us repent of disobeying our text. Senior adults, senior adults, an honest assessment of your life.

And just as honest, I don't think this is being rude or uncharitable. If you think it is, please tell me about it. I'm not trying to be rude or uncharitable.

I'm saying if you're a senior adult, the honest assessment of your life is that the days that you have before you are not as many as the days that you have behind you.

So the question for you is, what are you gonna do with the days that you have left? As you approach the time where you will meet

Christ face to face, do you take seriously the moment you have now to spend the rest of your life on the glory of God?

You say, but I've been convicted today that I've wasted decades. What do I do? Satan says, well, you've already wasted that much.

You might as well waste the rest. And God says, no, no, no, repent and use the remaining days that you have to pour into others in the church, to make

Christ known, to glorify him in all ways. There is time to repent. There is time to repent if you'll do it now.

Those who are in the middle time of your life, do not believe the lie that you have decades to make things right.

Oh, I know, I'm busy season right now, but in the next decade, it'll be better. First of all, you don't know if you're gonna make it that long.

The Bible says, teach us. The Psalmist says, teach us to number our days. You don't know how long you will have before you will see the

Lord upon his throne. And secondly, you need to remember this. And these senior saints, you need to remind us when we think this way, you say, oh,

I've got decades. You need to come and you need to put your arm around us and you say, let me tell you something, brother or sister, you need to believe something.

Those decades that you think they have are going to go by like that. And you need to use the time now, resolve the time now to shine as lights for our

King. Set your eyes up on Jesus, run the days that you have left following him and his word in your life personally, in your family, and your commitment to the local church.

And now children, let me say this real quick. Children, I don't wanna miss anybody. Nelsons, Robinsons, Howards, Rolands, Madewells, did

I hit everybody? Did I miss any children? Osbournes, oh yeah, there are the

Osbournes. Listen to me, y 'all see the preacher up here? Listen, listen to me.

Look at me, children, look at me. I see you back there, see me?

Listen, the

Bible says this in Ecclesiastes 12 .1. You listening? I see you.

The Bible says this in Ecclesiastes 12 .1. Remember your creator in the days of your youth.

You say to me, young people, now some of you are too young to really get this. But some of you,

I won't say names, some of them are my own children, some of you are old enough to get this and to understand this, and God is going to hold you accountable for this.

The Bible says remember your creators in the day of your youth, and you say to yourself, I've got decades to get this right.

When I get older, when I get married, when I have children, then I'll be serious about the things of the

Lord. You say the world says I need to enjoy the time, my time that I have being young.

I only get to be young once. I need to focus on sports. I need to focus on school. I need to have a girlfriend.

I'm only young once. I need to enjoy this time, and shame on us for building a culture that says this reality.

Oh, you're young right now. You don't need to worry about missions. You don't need to worry about living your life for Christ.

You don't need to worry about reading the Bible. You're young. Just enjoy the youthfulness of life, and the

Bible says remember your creator in the days of your youth. Why? Why you must remember your creator now, today.

I'm calling you to repent and believe the gospel now. I'm calling you now, listen, to repent and trust

Christ. Give your life to Christ. You don't want to waste a second. He's worthy of every second.

I wish that when I was younger, I would have been more committed to the church, more committed to reading the

Bible, more committed to evangelizing, more committed to making Christ known, and I'm saying, young people, you have the opportunity before you today, and God in his mercy is calling you, even today, to look to Christ and be saved, and I talk to some of you.

You guys know this. I ask you questions. You can affirm. I say, are you saved? And some of you guys, you're like, no,

I'm not saved. I understand it's God's sovereign prerogative, but let me say this to you.

Don't take it as a light thing that you hear the gospel preached to you.

God in his mercy has given you a church family who loves you enough to give you the gospel, so I'm saying, young people, don't squander such an opportunity before you.

Repent and come to Christ. The time is now. The opportunity is before you now.

Read the Bible now. Commit to the church now. Honor Christ with your life now.

Trust Jesus by faith, shine his light now. Walk as children of light now. Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise now.

Make the best use of your time now because the days are evil now. Therefore, do not be foolish now, but understand now what the will of the

Lord is now. And then for all of us, listen to this, and I'm gonna lay in the plane.

Look at the opportunity before us, church. Look at the moment before us. Let us redeem the time.

The days are evil, but think about our local church. I can't tell you, starting last year, we're so silly sometimes, the way we start a year, and we're like, oh yeah, what's all before us as a year and everything, but we have no clue what a year will bring, do we?

No clue. But we have an opportunity, church, in the providence of God to consider who we are as a church, to consider what

God's word says for the church, to get rid of all the dirty socks as a church, and to buy more gold, to align ourselves with God's word for God's glory, to seek our own spiritual growth in the

Lord, and the good of our community as we bring Christ to them. I am not saying, friends, that this will be easy.

In fact, I'm telling you the opposite. It's hard. It's hard. As we assess our lives and our church, and as we seek to adjust our lives and redeem the time, it's hard.

It will be costly. In truth, church, we've already faced challenges.

Reformation of life in the church is not an easy task. I am not saying verse 16 will be easy.

Make the best use of the time because the days are evil. I'm not saying it'll be easy. I'm saying the opposite. It's not gonna be easy, but I am saying this.

It will be worth it. Listen, I love this quote from Richard Baxter.

He says, at death, it will be an unspeakable comfort to look back on a well -spent life, and to be able to say in humble sincerity, my time was not cast away on worldliness, ambition, idleness, or fleshly vanities or pleasures, but spent in the sincere and laborious service of my

God, and making my calling and election sure, and doing all the good to men's souls and bodies that I could do in the world.

It was entirely devoted to God and his church, and the good of others, and my soul.

Friends, it's this year. It's not my desire to make you unnecessarily uncomfortable, to make you mad, to make you upset, but it is my desire to lay the text before you, and put this question before us all this morning.

Will we take a careful look in a critical time? Will we assess our lives individually in our families?

Will we consider our time? Will we see its preciousness, its purpose and priority? Will we push back against the evil that is around us by making the best use of our time, by cutting out the sin, by cutting out the distraction, by cutting out the time wasters, and by buying back time for the glory and honor of Christ?

And as we move forward in the new year, will we seek to have our church be as healthy as it can be for the glory of God?

I will die on this hill. King Jesus is worthy of a healthy church in Perryville, Arkansas.

Will we redeem the time to make it so in every area?

Friends, I don't know how God would have you to respond. But I can tell you this, the

Lord takes seriously the admonitions given to us today from his word. Look carefully how you walk then, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of your time, because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the

Lord is. Let's pray. Father, would you help us to not be a foolish congregation? Help me not to be a foolish pastor.

Let us understand your will and your word. Let us redeem the time. Let us sell, as it were, the dirty socks in our lives, and buy the gold of time that you've offered us for the glory of Christ.

Let us assess the ways that we spend our days and use them for your glory. Let us hold each other accountable in this regard and encourage one another.

I pray for the young people, for the senior adults, for those in the middle of their life. I pray, God, that if there are those in any of those categories who have wasted their time and are unrepentant and not a

Christian, I pray even now you'd convict them and show them the mercy they have to come, to repent, to believe on Christ, to be saved from the wrath that is to come.