Wake Up Now and Redeem the Time

Well, brethren, if Jesus Christ, by some miraculous means, sent word to His church that He was returning to the earth one year from today, what would the next year of your life look like? If on December 6, 2015, Jesus Christ set foot on the Mount of Olives along with His faithful servants, what would your life be like over the next year?

What would your focus be? If we think back on our life over the past year, and then if we were to consider moving forward under the circumstances that I've lined out, what would be different about this next year of our life? Would we maybe find ourselves more focused in prayer? Maybe spending double or triple the amount of time on our knees before God? Maybe we'd spend two or three times the amount of time in Bible study, meditation, doing those things that draw us closer in a relationship with our Heavenly Father. If you knew that Jesus Christ was returning one year from today, would you more actively serve in the congregation?

Would you more actively strengthen the relationships between yourself and your fellow brethren? Would there be more unity and fewer offenses in the body of Jesus Christ if the Church of God thought that Jesus Christ was coming one year from today? I was discussing this topic with my wife as I was putting the message together, and my daughter, Tabitha, who's 12, was sitting in the room. She said, you know, I think if people thought Jesus Christ was coming back in one year, there'd be fewer divorces in the Church of God.

I said, you know, you're probably right. I think people would be more inclined to work out their differences and be reconciled in that way. If you know for certain that Jesus Christ was returning one year from today, don't you think there'd be an intensity to your spiritual focus? Wouldn't there be a zeal? We'd probably all be wide awake and alert and on guard, ready for action, ready for service with Jesus Christ. I think we all would be. Well, brethren, as we know, the Scripture doesn't reveal the exact time of the return of Christ, nor will the circumstances line out in the way in which I've projected, but that doesn't negate the fact that we must be living our spiritual lives today as if the return of Jesus Christ was right around the corner.

In fact, that's the instruction that we see in the Word of God. So the title for my message today is, Wake Up Now and Redeem the Time. Wake up now and redeem the time. The message comes to you in the form of a warning, as well as an admonition, but it's not a warning and an admonition that's originated with me personally, but it comes very much directly from the pages of Scripture.

1 Thessalonians 5 will begin there this afternoon, because it describes the level of alertness that we must have in our life each and every day as we prepare for the return of Jesus Christ. So if you follow me there, please, 1 Thessalonians 5. We're going to begin in verse 1. See the instructions here of the Apostle Paul. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 1, Paul says, But concerning the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. So this is describing the condition of this world at the end of the age. And it's saying that when the day of the Lord comes upon them, it will be a surprise.

Because you see, the focus of their life is not according to the understanding of Scripture. They're doing their regular routines. They're looking to whatever it is they're doing to make their way in this world. And so when the day of the Lord appears, it's going to be a surprise. It says it'll be like a thief in the night. So when that event happens, the time for them to forsake their evil ways, the time for them to turn into relationship with God, will be over, and it very much will be a surprise.

And just like labor pains come upon a pregnant woman who's ready to deliver, so will the day of the Lord come upon this world. And when a woman goes into labor, when her time comes and it begins, there's no stopping the process.

You know, the labor pains just continue to intensify and intensify until all is fulfilled. And such will be the case at the coming of the Lord. Now if we carry on in verse 4, it says, But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You know, a thief, as we know, has his greatest advantage when he catches people by surprise. When they're not looking, when they're not expecting for him to come through the window or come to the door.

That's when he has his advantage. But you see, we're not to be taken by surprise. That's because we do have an understanding. We have an understanding of what the Scripture says. We have an understanding through our relationship with God of what he's working out in our life. We also have an understanding as to what God's plan and purpose is for the rest of humanity.

And so when that day comes, it should not take us unexpected. It should not be an event that is a surprise to us. As long as we heed the warning of Scripture to wake up, to be spiritually awake, to be watching, to be preparing ourselves for that day. Again, verse 4 said, but you brethren are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief.

You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. And Paul says, therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. And therein lies the key, because again, the vast majority of this world is asleep, spiritually. It's not in a direct one-on-one relationship with God and Jesus Christ, such as you and I are. This world is going about conducting affairs, just as this world's always done.

It's conducting its affairs and its business as usual. But in the midst of all that, spiritually, they are asleep. Verse 7 carries on. It says, for those who sleep, sleep at night, those who get drunk get drunk at night. But let us who are of the day, that's you and I, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

And Paul says, therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

And so the message here is, don't flumber. Don't sleep. Don't be in spiritual darkness like the rest of the world. Paul says, you need to wake up now. We need to engage in our relationship very directly with God and Jesus Christ now. Again, those who dwell in darkness will be taken by surprise. But if you and I are alert, if we're awake, if we're watching our spiritual condition, then brethren, it should not be so with us. The message is, wake up now. Redeem the time that we have. Now Paul continues this thread in the book of Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13, beginning in verse 11. Romans 13, 11, he says, and do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. And so you can tell there's a real sense of urgency to a statement. It says, we need to wake up now. Verse 12, continuing on, it says, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. And so to wake up out of sleep means that we're going to be alert and we're going to be doing something with our life. It means we're going to be focused on putting off the ways of the old man, the carnal nature, and putting on the stature and the fullness of Jesus Christ. And you know what? That takes time. It's not something that you can say, well, I'll just put it off and put it off and wait till the last minute right before the deadline arrives and I'll get it done. Now putting on the stature and the fullness of Jesus Christ in our life is a lifelong process. It requires repentance, it requires overcoming, requires a change in simply the way that we operate on a daily basis. And again, that's not going to be done at the last minute. Frankly, waking up out of sleep is not always an easy thing to do because we live in this world. And again, we function largely according to, I would say, the routine of this world in many ways. We get up in the morning, we get the kids off to school, we get in the car, we go to our job, we're maybe going to the grocery store on the way home. Our day, we function is very much in accordance to how this world operates in so many ways. And as we're going along with the world in those ways, we can almost be sensed in a way lulled into complacency. We can, in a sense, think that things are okay.

We look around, things are still functioning, we have a roof over our head, food on the table, things can be seen like they're going around just fine. We can say to ourselves, well, I have time.

I have time. Now, the danger in believing that we have all the time that we could want is that we begin to lose the level of intensity of seeking after God. We can become complacent. We can, again, if we don't have that immediate deadline before us, we can think, oh, well, you know, I see the world's conditions. Jesus Christ isn't returning tomorrow, and at some point I will have my relationship right with Him, but I have time. We start to say things like, someday, someday when I'm not so busy, I'll do more Bible study. Someday, when I don't have to get up so early for work, I'll be able to spend time on my knees before God. Someday, I'll take care of the other obligations I need to do, like visiting the widows or those who are infirmed or, you know, simply helping my brother and sister in need. And we say, someday, I'll have the time.

But the problem is, someday, time will be up. There'll come a time when there is no more time.

And again, preparing to become like Jesus Christ takes time. So when time is up and there is no more time, you do not have the time then to go back and do it again. We need to be preparing along the way. You and I can never afford to put off until tomorrow the spiritual development that we should be pursuing today. We can never afford to say, it's okay, life's good, I have more time.

Again, you never know, rather than what the future holds.

One of the blessings to me of being self-employed, I have a landscape business in Spokane. It keeps me very busy, spring through fall, and wintertime is my slower time, which has freed me up to visit you. So that's a blessing. But one of the advantages to being self-employed is I can employ my son to work with me in the summertime when he's off of school. And this year we were out driving the work route one afternoon. We were heading down East Sprague in the Spokane Valley, which is one of the main routes. And I was coming up to a side street that we needed to turn down to get to one of my jobs. And sitting at that side street was an SUV waiting to pull out into traffic. I put my blinker on and started to make the turn. And as I was turning, he pulled out. But what he didn't realize was that there was another car off the sort of the back corner of my trailer moving along in traffic. To him it was a blind spot. He didn't see it. So he pulled out.

About five feet outside my window as I'm turning, there's a collision. There's the sound of screeching tires and breaking glass and what sounded like gunshots as the airbags deploy.

The SUV goes spinning around about, I guess, two to three lanes of traffic and sits out in the middle median. And then Buick, the car which was heading up Sprague, who t-boned the SUV as it pulled out in front of it, ended up veering off the side of the road and across and sort of into the ditch over five, six lanes of traffic. Well, I get out of the vehicle. I check the occupants of the SUV. They seem to be doing fine. I go over to the vehicle that's on the other end of the street there and there's an elderly gentleman inside, probably in his mid-80s, and he's pretty shaken up and he has pain in his hip and his leg and he's trying to get out of the car. And so I stay there with him. I calm him down and just keep him company and keep him in the car until the paramedics arrive. They eventually took him away on a gurney in an ambulance to the hospital.

A couple weeks later, I got a phone call from the insurance company of the SUV driver and they're trying to find out for me what was my perspective. What did I see happen? And in the course of the conversation, they told me that the elderly man had died.

He went to the hospital and it was a short time later he died. And the insurance company was trying to figure out, well, what's our scopal liability in this? How much was the result of the accident? How much was perhaps this pre-existing condition that he already had? But the point was, he died. And when the accident happened, instantly I said to my son, see, that's how quickly it happens. I mean, just in the snap of the fingers, life changes. And for this man, as I said, he died.

Brother, life is fleeting. Life is temporary. And you and I never know exactly when our time could run out if God allowed it. Nothing will happen outside of God's will. But the point is, we must wake up now and redeem the time because we really never know exactly how much time we each have.

When I was a student at Ambassador College, I attended in Big Sandy for two years from 1991 through 93. And actually Rachel's sister, Sarah, was in my class at Ambassador College. And I had a friend who, at a sophomore year, got a new roommate. And this roommate worked in the kitchen, which meant every morning he had to be up very early because the kitchen opened at seven o'clock when the students arrived. So he would have to get up in order to be there, have the kitchen open, food prepared for the students to come in at seven o'clock. And so he would like to set his alarm for 4.30 in the morning. He was thinking, I'll get up early, I'll do prayer and Bible study before I go into work. And my friend, who just picked up this roommate, says, okay, that's fine, set your alarm for when you need to get up. But just make sure you shut it off and you get up when it goes off because I stay up late, I study, and I don't have to be up until about seven o'clock. I need my sleep, but set your alarm. Well, as it happened, this new roommate set his alarm for 4.30 in the morning. The alarm would ring. He'd reach over, hit the snooze button. Ten minutes later, the alarm would go off again. He'd hit the snooze button. Ten minutes later, he'd hit the snooze button. And this went on for a couple of weeks, and finally my friend said, look, you're killing me. You know, I'm staying up late, I'm studying, I'm trying to get my sleep. I don't mind the alarm, but when it goes off, turn it off and get up. He said, this is your last warning because you've been warning him for a while. Well, next morning, the alarm goes off. 4.30 in the morning, the young man reaches over, hits the snooze button. Ten minutes later, it goes off again. My friend got out of bed, picked up his baseball bat, stepped up to the plate, and knocked the clock out of the park. Now, I'm not praising his actions. I'm not celebrating what he did. But, brethren, can we sometimes be like that sleeper? We know we need to get up. We know we need to get engaged. We've read the Word of God. We see the conditions of the world, and we know the alarm is going off, but we reach over and hit the snooze button. Sleep a little while longer. A little later, maybe something happens. It jogs our memory. We hear the alarm going off, but we look around and say, okay, it's okay. I have time. See, this roommate thought, I'll set my alarm early so I do the things that I need to do before I go to work. And what would happen is that alarm would ring, and he'd look and say, oh, I've got time. I've got time. And then he would just jump up at the last minute and run out the door to work. And he didn't do the spiritual things that he intended to do early on. Are we sometimes like that sleeper? Do we go through life hitting the snooze button, thinking, I have time? Again, the principle and the story is, and what we understand from Paul's warning in Scripture, is that we need to redeem the time. We need to be waking up, and we can never be hitting the spiritual snooze button in that sense with our relationship with God.

We have to redeem the time we've been given and wake up now. Our time is now, brethren, and we have to take full advantage of the opportunities we've been given, take full advantage of the time we have to be in a close relationship with our Father while it's called today. Because today is the time that God's given us. Let's go to the book of Ephesians chapter 5, continuing this process. Ephesians chapter 5, beginning in verse 14. And Paul has so much to say about this throughout his writings that it's a theme that transfers through so many books. You know, he says we have to get engaged. We have to live this Christian life today. Ephesians chapter 5, beginning in verse 14. And I'll read through this for context, and then I'll come back and break it down a little bit. Here Paul says, therefore, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. You know, the Bible describes being dead as sleeping, and to be spiritually dead sleep here, he says, is as being dead as well. He says, arise from the dead. Christ will give you light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. He says, therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will the Lord is, and do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Again, there's so much packed in the passage. I think it's good to read through it, but let's go back and break it down just a little bit. If we look at verse 15, Paul said, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.

When you walk circumspectly, it means you're watchful. You're cautious. You're prudent.

You're aware of the circumstances and the conditions that exist around you, and you take action accordingly. It means you understand the potential consequences that the conditions around you can have on your life. Proverbs 22, verse 3, I'll just quote it for you. It says, a prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple paths on and are punished.

And so, to walk circumspectly as the wise means that we'll have an awareness of our surroundings and we'll take action accordingly. The passage goes on to tell us that our surroundings are the days of evil. That's the world we live in. It's the days of spiritual darkness, and that condition dictates actually the action that we have to take in our life. And so, verse 16 tells us the action. It says, redeeming the time because the days are evil. To redeem something means to buy it back and to rescue it from loss. And we're all aware of how the term redeem refers to and works in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We've been bought back from sin, redeemed from death in that way.

But how do you buy back time? Can you buy back time? Well, the answer is no. You can't buy back the time that has already passed, but you can redeem the time by reallocating time you have going forward to be used more productively and more properly in service to God. You can rescue from loss the time that's being spent on less important ventures and use it on the pursuit of your spiritual relationship. And that way you redeem the time. Now, what's interesting and what largely gets lost in the translation is the urgency that's being conveyed with the word time in verse 16. So, I want to get technical with you for a minute. We won't get complicated, but a little bit technical. In the Greek, the word here translated time is karos. K-A-I-R-O-S.

That may not be the perfect pronunciation, but karos. And it means a fitting season, an opportunity, and the opportune time. Karos refers to a specific period of time during which something can be accomplished that you can't necessarily go back and do it again once the time has passed. And so, it denotes a window of time. It's a different focus than the Greek word kronos, which is also translated time in Scripture. The Greek word kronos refers to the movement of time, the day in day out passage of time in the 24-hour cycle. Kronos is where we get the word chronology in our language. So, it's important when we read verse 16, we actually understand the distinction between the two words that are translated time in Scripture, so we can get the full effect of what Paul is saying. So, I'd like to give you a couple of side-by-side comparisons of kronos and karos, so you can see the difference. First, kronos. Again, kronos is spelled C-H-R-O-N-O-S.

So, here's an example of kronos, so you don't have to turn there. Luke 20. It says, Jesus began to tell the people this parable, a certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vine dressers, and went into a faraway country for a long time.

That's kronos. That's the passage of time, the movement of time. Let me give you an example of karos, Romans chapter 5 verse 6. It says, quote, for when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. The word translated karos, or the word translated due time, comes from karos. My margin also says it can be translated at the right time. So, there was a specific time, the right time, an opportune season, in which Jesus Christ then came to the earth and died. There were circumstances that were set in place. The condition of Judah was in such a circumstance then that it was the right time for Jesus Christ to come. Another example of karos is in Mark chapter 1 verse 15. It says, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Again, the word translated time is karos, and it's saying that the fitting season was upon them for Christ to come. The karos was fulfilled for Christ to walk in their midst.

But that doesn't mean that the chronos stopped. Does that make sense to you? The time was fulfilled, the season had come, but time itself, the chronology of time, continued on. So, with that perspective laid, we look again at Ephesians chapter 5 verse 16. It says, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Karos. Paul's saying that we need to rescue from loss the opportune time that God's given us to draw near to him before the season passes, before it's too late to do so.

Because, rather than in reality, there will come a chronos when there is no more karos.

There'll come a time when there is no more time, and the opportunity in the season has passed, and it's too late to necessarily go back and do it again. When the trumpet sounds and Christ is returning, isn't the time to say, I've got to get my life in order and establish this relationship.

Now is the time. Scripture tells us to wake up now, redeem the time. Now, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, we can find this same thread within Paul's writing, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning in verse 1.

Paul writes, he says, we then, as workers together with him, also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. You know, you and I need to be actively doing something with the knowledge and the mercy and the understanding that we've received from God.

His grace and his calling and his blessing in our life shouldn't just fall on on deaf ears.

It shouldn't fall on people who aren't motivated to do something with it. So don't take the grace of God in vain. Verse 2, it says, and it's quoting here, and it says, in an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.

Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. In the word here, time, now is the accepted time, is karos. Now is the time to respond to God's calling. Now is the time to develop that relationship with him and to grow in closeness and in relationship with God, the Father and Jesus Christ. Out of the billions of people on this earth that have existed down since the beginning of humanity, out of the billions of people, God has called very few.

Very few that will be first fruits in the first resurrection.

But you and I have been called by God. We've received a personal limitation, and sometimes I wonder if we forget just how precious the calling is.

It's so easy sometimes, brethren, we get caught up in the world and busy with this world's ways. It's easy to take for granted the calling that we have and the time that we've been given.

Again, it's not a mistake that we've been called by God. And as the Scripture says, this is our day of salvation. This is our acceptable time.

So now is the day that God has given us, in a way that's very different from the rest of the world around us. The world will enter into judgment at the return of Jesus Christ, but it's not judgment unto salvation. It's judgment for their actions and the way they've conducted themselves, separate from God's calling. But you and I are under judgment now. Judgment has begun at the Church of God in our day today. If we allow ourselves to sleep through the carousel, then the season will be lost. We won't have the opportunity to go back and do this again.

So the question is, brethren, how are we doing? How is our spiritual condition? Are we wide awake? Are we active in our Christian lives? Are we engaged in our spiritual relationship with God?

Or are we sort of drifting through life, you know, half asleep? We're dreaming of the age to come, dreaming of the kingdom of God, and yet our focus is distracted by this world.

Salvation is an exciting concept, and yet it is also a sobering concept at the same time.

Salvation means, once again, that we are under judgment for the way we live this life today, unto salvation. Our eternal life hinges, brethren, on how we live today. Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 4. We'll see that expounded upon. 1 Peter chapter 4, beginning in verse 16. It says, If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this manner, for the time hath come for judgment to begin at the house of God.

It says, And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Verse 18, it says, Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good as to a faithful creator.

Peter said, the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.

I don't know about you, but to me that is somewhat of a fearful concept.

Fearful in the right way, the type of respect that we're to give to God in the fear of the awesomeness of our calling. For you and me, this life is a proving ground, and it's an evaluation process, and God is watching us in order to make a decision. And the decision is, will you or I, will we or will we not be granted eternal life as members of the family of God and the kingdom of God for all eternity? Again, this isn't the world's time of judgment unto salvation, but it is ours.

The question is, how will we use our time? What will our focus be, and what things will we allow to become our priority as we walk through this time? Because whatever our priorities are, that's what will get our focus and our attention and our zeal. What are our priorities in this life?

Let's remind ourselves what it is that we agree to make the top priority at baptism. Let's go to a scripture that we go to often in baptism counseling, and that's Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14, beginning in verse 25. Again, all of us should have thought this through, pondered this concept carefully before we committed into relationship with God and Jesus Christ. Luke 14 verse 25. It says, Now great multitudes went with Jesus, and he turned and he said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and his mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and yet his own life also he cannot be my disciple. Some people read this, and they say, well, what is he saying here? Hate your father? Hate your mother? Is this the terminology that we would hear from a loving creator? Well, the term hate here is a comparative word, and it means to love less by comparison. And what Christ is saying is that there's nothing that you can love more than me. Not father, not mother, sister, brother, not your job, not your hobby. Because you see, whatever it is that you make a priority, whatever it is that you love more than your relationship with God and Christ, you will eventually compromise for that thing. And so in this life, God must be at the top in terms of priority. Family comes second, and then below God and family then fall the other priorities that we have in our life. And for each of us, they may be in different orders. And then those lower priorities actually tend to jump up and down on the scale depending on what's happening at that moment in our life. But God must remain steadfast at the top. And again, life with your family and your family relationships must be second. Now, unfortunately, what we tend to do when life gets busy is we tend to flex things in order to accommodate something else. You know, life always seems like it's throwing another obligation or another commitment our way. And so we'll flex the things that we can flex.

And I have to admit that at times when life gets really busy, I will flex the family.

And I'm not proud of that. I'm just saying that's the way it is. If I have a sermon to prepare, I come home from work, I eat dinner, and I lock myself in the bedroom, and they don't see me the rest of the night. I'm working. My family is willing to be flexed to a point.

And I'll usually take that point and, you know, just stretch it a little more. Again, I'm not proud of it. It's the reality. But if we're not careful, brethren, we can start to flex God in the same way. Life gets busy. Obligations come our way. Maybe even some crisis enters our life. And we start to flex our relationship with God and our time with God and squeeze it into a corner where it really shouldn't be. All of us have 24 hours in the day and let it seem like there's never enough time to live all the life that we're trying to live. And I tend to evaluate my life sort of like juggling. I have all these balls going, trying to keep them in the air. And each ball is an obligation. And, you know, I don't really have a firm grip on any ball. I'm just trying not to drop one. So you're juggling. And pretty soon someone comes along and they cost another ball into the mix, right? So you're juggling a little faster. Anybody else's life like that?

Probably one or two people, yeah. So that's just simply the way it is. And if we're careful, if we're not careful, pardon me, if we're not careful, we can juggle God in the mix, just like everything else. He's just one of the balls that we keep going in the air. Every once in a while we touch it. We don't really have a firm grip on that relationship. We may be trying not to drop it, but we're not expanding and growing it quite like we should. Every once in a while, brethren, we need to evaluate our life, see what we have going on, what we've made the priorities. We need to take those balls, put them in the bucket, put them in the corner, and focus ourselves fully and completely on our relationship with God. We can't be juggling God like everything else in our life. God doesn't want to be juggled in the mix along with everything else. Yes, He is walking through life with us. He's involved in these situations with us, but we can't expect to ignore our relationship with God and expect it to be strong and expect us to be spiritually strong when the time of crisis does arise. We tend to say things like, you know, but my friends are going out to the concert tonight. The Grand Ole Opry, it means, drove through Nashville. There's all these obligations. There's commitments. There's various things that we can do, and there's times in our life, brethren, when we simply need to stop, step back from the things that are important to us so that we can do the things that are important to God. I think that's an important point. There's times we need to stop, let go of the things that are important to us in order to do the things that are important to God. Focusing on that relationship. Focusing on our relationship with one another. You know, this world's always going to give us something to do. There'll always be a social event, a deadline, a responsibility, an opportunity that comes along that we can't pass up. There's always going to be something there to fill that time, but again, if God is pushed off into the corner and He's not in our direct focus, how full of a life can it really be?

How full can it really be? Physical things are good. Physical opportunities are wonderful, but they're temporary, and the primary focus of our life needs to be focused on the things that are eternal. A relationship with God, developing our spiritual strength and our bonds with one another and the body of Jesus Christ. Those are eternal attributes that you and I should develop in our life today. So how do we achieve the right balance? How do we wake up from all that this world is throwing at us? How do we get our life in order, manage our time, and move forward in a right and proper way? Well, I would say the first thing that we should do is ask God for His help to help us use our time properly. Ask God to help us use our time properly. Let's look at a Psalm of Moses in this regard. Psalm chapter 90. Psalm chapter 90, beginning in verse 8.

Moses faces question, faces circumstance, and this is the Psalm of Moses. Actually, my Bible says this is a prayer of Moses. Psalm chapter 90, beginning in verse 8.

It says, You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. For all our days have passed away in your wrath, we finish our years like a sigh. The days of our life are seventy years, and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for to soon cut off and we fly away. Now, that's a rather depressing description, I would say, of the human life cycle, but it's true. It's expressing the vanity, the temporary nature of our life. We are yet physically just a vapor, but if we look at verse 11, he says, Who knows the power of your anger? As for the fear of you, so is your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Moses asked God to teach us to number our days.

He said, Help us to understand the time that we have, you know, the brevity of life, such as you given it to us, and help us to understand how to use each day wisely into its fullest benefit in service to you. Each day has potential. Ask God to help you use it to its fullest potential in service of him. I think after prayer, we should all ask on a regular basis. As Moses said, and ask God, teach us to number our days, we should ask God to show us where it is that we can improve in our life to get the benefit out of each day to His glory. Teach us to number our days.

Dave Ramsey is a radio personality that gives financial advice. You guys heard it, you know Dave Ramsey? Is he on in Nashville? He lives in Nashville. Well, there you go. I know he has a Nashville accent. This is where he's starting. Okay, so everyone's, I asked that question up in Kelowna, British Columbia, and nobody had heard of Dave Ramsey. But Dave Ramsey's on a radio in Spokane, so I catch bits and pieces of his program often as I'm driving around during the workday.

His advice is quite good. As you know, he has a Christian perspective. He talks about tithing, and I think he has things in a proper order. Dave Ramsey advises people with limited finances to quit throwing their money away on things that, you know, depreciate wildly in value. You know, don't go out there and buy new cars, new boats, jet skis, things that depreciate very, very quickly.

The problem is you're going to spend your money, and in two or three years what you have to show for it is worth very little in terms of value. Instead, he advises people to invest their finances in things that will appreciate in value. Real estate, business ventures, growth stock mutual funds, whatever those are. But he says, you know, if you put too many of your financial eggs in the basket of depreciation, you're going to work all your life and in the end end up with very, very little. You know, you probably know people that make a paycheck, make a paycheck, make a paycheck, and yet they have virtually nothing. And so much of their financial capital is going out on things that just don't retain value and don't have even much value to begin with. Well, the same principle is true with time as well. We need to wake up and quit throwing vast amounts of our time out on things that depreciate us spiritually in value. I heard the other day when I was driving around that I think the average American still watches...

I think it was four and a half hours a day of television. And that dropped some because they weren't taking into account the fact that you have internet television. They were looking at broadcast television only. They said that number has gone down because more people are going to online streaming television. But four and a half hours a day of television. Is that investing your time in something that will appreciate you spiritually in value? I mean, compared to studying God's Word, compared to spending our time on our knees in prayer. Those things will give us value that will last for eternity. You remember, physical things are temporary. It's the spiritual things which are eternal. And the focus of our physical life needs to be on investing in eternity. Just like you invest your money in something that appreciates you in value, invest your time on things that appreciate you spiritually as well. I'd also advise that as we wake up spiritually, we learn to treat God's time like tithe. What do I mean? To treat time like tithe? Well, when somebody first comes into the church and they begin studying the Word of God and they see that there's a requirement to tithe, they say there's no way. You know, here's my budget on paper and there's no way I can take 10 percent, give it to the church, another 10 percent, put it aside for a piece of tabernacles and survive. They say the numbers just don't work. But what they find as they begin to trust God is that if you tithe faithfully, God will take the remainder of the money that you have left and he'll stretch it and he'll allow it to cover your needs. Now, it may not always cover your wants and there's a lot of things that we want, but it will cover your needs. You give God what is due to him first and he sees that you won't lack in other ways.

Well, if we treat our time like tithes, we'll give God the time that's due to him off the top.

Prayer, Bible study, our fasting and meditation. If we go and take some of those balls we're juggling, put a few of them down that are absorbing our time in unproductive ways, we'll see a difference in our life. We'll see the difference in terms of spiritual growth and the strengthening of that relationship with God. So treat time like tithes.

Brethren, God's called us to wake up now. He's called us to redeem the time we've been given now. Now, one final passage that tithes the importance of the whole principle together is found in Matthew chapter 25. So we'll wrap it up in Matthew chapter 25, parable of the 10 virgins. Matthew 25 beginning in verse 1.

And this is a parable of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 25. 1. It says, In the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. And so essentially you had five that were walking circumspectly, right? They were aware of the time and the situation in which they lived. Those were the wise. Five walked circumspectly, five were not. Verse 3. It says, And so all the foolish had their lamps. There was oil, in fact, in their lamp. And their lamp was burning. The wise had that as well. Plus they had an additional reserve of oil. They had that extra vessel that they brought along with them. As we know, the oil of the lamps represent God's Holy Spirit. Five had some, but five had more. In verse 5, it says, But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. They all did. All ten of them fell asleep with their lamps burning.

Verse 6, And at midnight a cry was heard, Behold, the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there should not be enough for us and you, but go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves.

The point is, brethren, we can't give someone else our measure of Holy Spirit. That which we have has been cultivated by us in our direct relationship with God. The more we draw closer to God, the more He gives to us, that Holy Spirit is for us in our use, in our relationship. And it's individual to you. You can't take it and give your spiritual strength and put that upon somebody else. That's a relationship they have to cultivate themselves. And that's the lesson. They can't take their oil and give it to somebody else. So, what's the problem? Well, you have five virgins who redeemed the time along the way, didn't they? They store up that extra spiritual reserve of oil. You had five that did not, and now the bridegroom was coming and there was no longer the carose, there's no longer the time to go and do anything about it, was there? Verse 10, it says, And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. Now afterwards the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.

Brethren, these were virgins. These were virgins who had lamps that had had oil in their lamps. They were the called, the converted. At one time they had a measure of the Holy Spirit of God. Their lamps were going out. They didn't have enough to sustain themselves. And Christ said, I do not know you. And the door was shut. And for us, that should be a sobering reminder.

What is the lesson? What is the lesson for us? Well, Jesus says in verse 13, he says, Watch therefore, for you neither know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

And so the warning from Christ is that we watch. Watch what? Watch world events.

Watch prophecy. Well, perhaps in part. But the driving force and the primary focus of his warning is that we watch ourselves. We watch our spiritual condition. We watch our relationship with God. And we cultivate that. The lesson is we wake up now and redeem the time because we don't know the time of Jesus Christ's return. And we want to be found ready. This is the five wise virgins were found ready. Rather than you and I want to be ready as well. Wake up. Watch yourself.

Watch your spiritual condition. That is the lesson.

So knowing the time of Jesus Christ's return makes a difference in how we live our life today.

Should knowing the date that he'll set foot on the Mount of Olives makes a difference?

Well, hopefully we could answer no. We can never afford to make the kingdom of God the deadline by which we decide to live this Christian way of life. This is a calling, brethren, unto a way of life that takes place from the beginning of our calling until our physical death or Jesus Christ returns. It's a process and it's not dependent on a date, a deadline, or any such thing. We need to wake up now and make this way of life the way we're living on a daily basis. Jesus told his apostles that it wasn't for them to know the times or the seasons that the Father put into his own authority and it's not for us to know either. What is for us to know is the clear and resounding warning and admonition contained in God's Word, the message that Paul wrote that solidified the message that Jesus Christ gave. It's a message that we read today in the pages of Scripture that's meant for us today as well, living to the end of the age.

The message we must have, the warning and admonition we must receive, is that we must wake up now redeem the time. It's good to be here with you. I'm grateful for the opportunity to fellowship and I look forward to being with you here and spending some time together after service.

Thank you.