The Gospel & Time

This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parquay Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grant Parkway, visit Grantparquay.org.

Oh church, lift up your eyes.

Lift up your eyes and declare his mighty works.

Shout to God with a voice of triumph.

Lord, we thank you for what you've done for us.

We thank you that you have redeemed us.

Lord, we were slaves to sin.

But in the fullness of time, you sent your son to pay the price for us.

God, we thank you for what you've done for us.

Lord, help us to number our days.

Lord, speak to us through the gift of your word.

Speak to us through the gift of your spirit.

It's in your name that we pray.

Amen.

Please stay standing for the reading of God's Word.

If you have your Bible, open up to Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

If you have a pew Bible near you, it's on page 978.

We're going to look at two main passages this morning.

Again, that's Ephesians 5.

We're going to look at verses eleven through 21.

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.

For anything that becomes visible is light.

Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

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

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.

But be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God, the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Again, we're also going to look at Colossians 4, and that'll be page 985 in your Bible.

We'll look at verses 2 through 6.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

The word of the Lord, you may be seated.

Well, well, well.

Yes, that's right.

Neil is out speaking to a bunch of teenagers.

I think he's doing a preach fest.

That's what I'm calling it.

He said he's gonna be preaching like 18 times in six days.

I don't know.

I think he's trying to beat Charles Spurgeon somehow.

Uh but but he's out there and he's doing it.

And so he had asked me if I would uh come and and and and speak about the gospel and time and how the gospel and time intersect.

Uh he came and he he told me about this a couple of months ago.

He gave me enough time to back out, which I appreciated.

Yeah.

Um, but but uh you know he said, you know, you might want to talk about the part where it's you know making the most of every opportunity.

Uh and I'm like, hmm, how am I supposed to say no to that?

You know what I mean?

Uh so yeah, so you're you're in for it today.

Um if you're live tweeting, it's hashtag pirate preacher.

Uh just keep that going throughout the service.

Uh but yeah.

Um so so we're talking about the gospel and time, how the gospel intersects with time.

And and and you know, we're gonna be leaning heavy on the gospel side of that, the gospel and time, right?

Because the you know, the thing that I want us to understand is the gospel trumps time.

Okay, you understand that?

Um and so we're not gonna be talking about you know 10 time management tips for you to try today, okay?

That would be a great blog post maybe, uh, but not necessarily a sermon on the gospel and time.

Okay?

So here's the deal.

We're talking about the gospel.

The gospel, you know, I think a lot of times we throw out this word, the gospel.

We've been talking about it uh for this whole series, the gospel and series, right?

And I want to make it, I want to make it clear what the gospel is.

Because I think sometimes uh we use words in church uh or in life, and we don't even necessarily think about the meaning of it or what it what it's about, right?

So the gospel, uh the gospel is is not simply the the first four books of the New Testament.

Okay?

No, no, those are referred to as the gospels, right?

We refer to those those books as the gospels.

But but each of those books are telling one story, right?

It's telling one gospel.

Uh it says in Galatians 1, verse 8, but if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one that we preach, let him be accursed.

Galatians 1:8

So Paul's making it clear, hey, this is one gospel that we're talking about.

And if anybody tries to change this, add to this, supplement this, then no, let him be accursed.

Okay?

So that so the first four books of the Bible, while they're referred to as the gospels, it's still the gospel, one gospel, right?

Uh but even beyond that, the gospel isn't solely contained in those four books.

It's not even not even compressed into the New Testament, although it spills over into these things.

But the bot the gospel reaches, far reaches through the whole word of God.

It's the gospel is the culminating concept of the entire Bible.

It's the one story that God is telling us.

It's it's it's God giving us glimpses of who he is, who we are, and what he's done for us.

Okay?

So the gospel is much bigger than just uh a couple of pages or or or or anything else.

It's the entire scope of what uh God is telling us.

And if we look in Acts 10, 43, it says, to him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

That is the gospel.

Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness through his name.

But notice the first part.

To him all the prophets bear witness.

He said, all the prophets.

So the prophets of the Old Testament are bearing witness to the fact that as we believe in him, we receive forgiveness through his name.

It all points to Christ.

The gospel starts with Christ, the gospel is Christ, the gospel ends with Christ.

It all points to Christ.

Christ on the cross and Christ in the clouds.

You see, Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.

Revelation 1 7 says, Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those with one eye, even those who pierced him, all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him, even so.

Amen.

Hebrews 9 28 says, So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time.

Not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Are you eagerly waiting for him this morning?

Teresa is?

Anyone else?

Amen.

The good news is that the gospel has been God's plan the whole time.

The gospel has been God's plan the whole time.

You see, the gospel envelops time.

The gospel overshadows time.

The gospel outweighs time, the gospel outranks and outlasts time.

And you may be thinking, well, wait a minute, I think I thought that time was infinite.

Ah you're closer to the kingdom than you might think.

The gospel tells time what time it is.

Okay?

So time is not the master, time is not the ruler.

We're not bound, we're not slaves to time.

Although on Monday morning we'll punch in and we're kind of a slave to that, right?

But the gospel trumps time.

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a nonlinear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.

Or so the doctor would say.

Where's my Doctor Who fans?

Clint Black would say that he's killing time.

Right?

You know, I was talking with Wade Collier earlier last week, and he said, you know, when I was a kid, I thought that that Clint Black was singing, it's killing time.

In other words, it's killing time.

Let's get our gun ready and it's killing time, right?

That's so morbid, Wade.

Steve Miller will tell us that time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.

Yeah.

DC talk says, time is ticking away.

Tick, tick, tick, ticking away.

You know, one of the things that we say a lot, a phrase that we commonly use about time, uh, is time is running out.

Right?

We have this concept uh that time is running out, right?

Whatever, whatever we're in, time is running out.

But the Bible talks about time in a little bit of a different way.

It talks about the fullness of time.

Ephesians 1, if you want to turn back a few a few pages and go to chapter 1 and verse 7, it says, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time.

To unite all things to him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In Galatians 4 it says, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son.

Isn't that a great phrase?

When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law so that they might receive adoption as sons.

So we have this really misconception of time.

The time is running out, time is is is counting down, right?

But the Bible talks about the fullness of time.

It's almost like, is anybody watching the World Cup?

One, two, come on.

Give me some noise.

World Cup noise, right?

Uh what happens in the World Cup?

You you've been watching it, you know, they have the little timer up on the screen.

What is the timer doing?

What was it?

It's counting up.

What?

All of our American proper games, right?

The timer is counting down, right?

But for some reason, and some of you sports nerds would probably know, the timer is counting up.

We can take a page from that and understand that time is getting full.

So our key verses that we're going to be looking at this morning, the two, and I paired these two passages because I kind of see them as what I like to call companion passages, right?

To pull from a page from the doctor as well.

So we have Ephesians 5, 15 and 16.

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

Because the days are evil.

And our companion verse, if you just want to kind of keep your finger in Ephesians and also keep your finger in Colossians, our companion verse, Colossians 4, 5, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of time.

So that that phrase, making the best use of time, or redeeming the time as King James has it, or making the most of every opportunity.

That phrase there is a Greek word, exaggerazo.

That word is used four times in the New Testament.

We've looked at three of them already.

Ephesians 5.16, where it says, make the best use of the time because the days of are evil.

Colossians 4.5, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of time.

We also looked at Colossians 4.5 where it says, so that he might redeem those who are under the law.

And then in Colossians, I'm sorry, Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.

So these other two verses kind of give us a picture of what it means to make the best use of time or make the most of every opportunity, or as King James says, redeem the time.

Because I think sometimes we read these passages, we read these phrases, and it's like, okay, but what does that mean to redeem the time?

If we look at those other two verses, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.

That's the same word, redeemed.

He redeemed us from the curse of the law.

So that he might redeem those who are under the law.

So we're getting a picture of what it is that we're to do with these opportunities of time that we've been given.

And the word time in these verses is karas.

Everybody say karas.

You gotta roll your R there.

Yeah.

And that implies the idea of not necessarily, you know, 12.15 p.m.

Central Standard Time, 6.7 Central.

It doesn't, it's not that.

It's more of like the right time or the appointed time.

It's like it's that slice of time where you have uh an opportunity.

But that karass is eventually going to slip away.

So redeeming the time is i i i i is is is the idea of purchasing out of slavery, right?

Uh these fleeting opportunities that we're presented with.

Just as Christ has has redeemed us, purchased us purchased us out of slavery, we were once slaves to sin, weren't we?

But Christ redeemed us from that.

He pulled us out of that.

He he he he he made the best use of that.

He redeemed us in that.

Because the fact of the matter is, you can't relive that second.

Right?

You can't, right?

You can't relive that second that I just pointed to.

It's gone.

That second is gone.

Now we can try to we can try to recreate a moment, we can try to recreate an opportunity, but the original one has passed.

Any Seinfeld fans out there?

Yeah.

You remember the episode of Seinfeld when George Costanza um uh failed to have a comeback uh to uh to a certain phrase, and he wanted to have a good comeback.

And so what he did what he did is he he recreated it.

So what happened was is he's in a meeting uh with various people at his job, the New York Yankees, and and he has some shrimp, and he's eating all these shrimp.

And the and the guy looks at it uh from across the table, looks at him and says, Hey, you know, George, the ocean called and they're running out of shrimp.

And everyone laughs.

And and slow-witted George has no comeback.

Days later, he figures out a comeback.

Right?

And so what can he do?

Well, he's gonna go do this meeting again.

Well, lo and behold, this guy has moved to Firestone and he's in Ohio.

So George gets on a plane, flies to Ohio, gets in a meeting at Firestone, brings a tray of shrimp, and starts eating.

Because he's ready for this guy.

He's he's recreating that moment for this guy to say his phrase.

And sure enough, he says, You know, George, the ocean called, and they're running out of shrimp.

And everyone laughs.

And he stands up and he's so proud of himself, and he says, Yeah, well, the jerk store called and they're running out of you.

What kind of comeback, George, is that?

You know what I mean?

George, uh, you know, and so everyone laughs, and so he thinks he's won, but then the guy comes back again.

He says, Well, what's the difference?

You're their all-time bestseller.

And everyone laughs again, and George doesn't have a comeback again.

So these moments, these opportunities that we have, Christ presents us.

We we in our daily lives, in everything that we do, in our jobs, with our family, with our neighbors, we have opportunities that are presented to us.

And the word of God is telling us to make the best use of that time.

Redeem that time.

So I have three points that we're gonna look at this morning.

Uh wake up, pray up, speak up.

Everybody say, wake up.

Yeah, pray up.

Speak up.

Yes.

So I'm talking about wake up.

And and wake up, not in the in the physical sense, uh, but but more in this in the spiritual sense, right?

Not in the physical sense.

I I think sleeping is good.

Does anybody agree with me that sleeping is good?

Uh yes, I love sleep.

I, you know, I kind of depend on it in a lot of ways.

Isn't it interesting that God designed us to sleep a third of our life?

Um it's interesting.

You know, I was in a growth group with with Lance and some other guys, and we went through this book, and the and the first uh chapter of the book, uh, and the whole book was about developing spiritual disciplines.

And the first chapter of the book was on rest.

It was about sleep.

And I'm like, yes, this is what I'm talking about, okay?

Especially because the growth group was at 6 a.m.

on Friday mornings.

You know what I mean?

Well, let's talk about rest, okay?

So so the challenge, the spiritual discipline or the spiritual exercise that the book offered to us was, you know, for the next seven days, try to go every day with getting eight hours of sleep.

And for me, that was no problem.

I enjoy that.

Only eight, right?

Uh but for some people, that's that's a that's a challenge, right?

Uh so I'm not talking about waking up, although if you're asleep, please wake up.

But I'm not talking about waking up in the physical sense, but more in the spiritual sense.

Let's look in our passage in Ephesians chapter 5, starting in verse 11.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

But anything, but when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.

For anything that becomes visible there uh is light.

Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

It says, Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

I have a question for you today.

When when was the last time you exposed sin?

Uh-oh.

Pirate preacher on the loose.

Father, forgive me, it's been three years since my last confession.

We might could take a page from our Catholic friends and exercise the spiritual discipline of confession, exposing sin.

It says, take no take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness.

It's unfruitful.

But instead, expose them.

You know, since it's Father's Day, I'll tell a little story about my father.

Um for those of you who don't know, my dad was a little bit uh, let's say, un unorthodox.

He was a little bit uh, well, he was crazy.

And um, you know, he had this phrase that he would use quite a lot.

Uh boy, you're burning daylight.

Yeah.

See, he had this he had this idea, this concept that that if if it's daylight, uh you can't burn it, um, which I wasn't ever sure how exactly I.

Burning it.

But especially when I was a teenager, I was even more in love with sleep than I am now.

I don't know if it was hormones or what, but I just slept all the time.

I mean, that drove my dad crazy.

Okay.

Especially in the summer, which is when I should be sleeping, right?

Come on.

No, I had to get up, up at the bottom, right?

You're burning it, my boy, right?

And so he would come into my room in the morning and he would try to wake me up if I was a sound sleeper.

Still in for the most part.

And so what he would do is he would take the blanket and he would throw it on the floor.

And so I would just and then curl up in the fetal position, right?

And he says, Boy, boy, you're burning daylight, right?

Then what he would do is he would take his cigarette lighter and he would light my toes on fire.

Yeah?

How's that for parenting, right?

I'm like, I'm burning daylight, you're burning my toes, okay?

Uh which one of these is, you know, okay.

But what he was saying to me is he's saying, Wake up.

Wake up.

What the Lord's saying to us is, awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.

In Romans 13, it says, Besides this, you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.

For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

The night is far gone, the day is at hand.

So let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

You know, a lot of ways what Paul's saying here in Romans, he echoes in Ephesians, and we when we look at putting on the armor of light, you know, in chapter six is when he's talking about putting on the full armor of God, right?

Uh in Ephesians, he's doing a whole lot of put off and put on, right?

Uh and that's what he's doing here as well.

And what I feel like he's saying, and what I feel like the Lord is telling us, is when he says in verse 14, make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

And in light of the gospel and time, I feel like the Lord is saying to us, stop wasting time with sin.

How much time do you think do we waste with sin?

How much time do we wake do we waste, as it says in Romans, making provision for it?

Right?

He says, awake, O sleeper.

Wake up.

Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

You know, I think of I think of Jesus in the garden with the disciples, and he's praying, and and he looks at them and he says, Can you can you not stay awake and pray for one hour?

And we've seen from from Psalm 90 earlier in the service how you know our life is short.

Our life is so short.

And the Lord is just saying, Can you not stay awake and pray for one hour?

Wake up.

That brings us to our second point, to pray up.

Let's look in verse 17 of Ephesians 5.

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

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord in your heart, giving thanks always, and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

You know what we're what we're looking at here is really developing spiritual disciplines.

And these these habits that we would form out of our love for Christ.

In the same way, gospel isn't behavioral modification.

Okay?

It's much deeper than that, it's much bigger than that, it's much more real than that.

But spiritual disciplines are what we do out of our love for Him.

And we've looked at some of them confessing sin, thanksgiving, not the holiday, but actually giving thanks to the Lord, right?

Giving, period, uh Bible memorization, Bible study, acts of service, prayer.

These are all spiritual disciplines that we could we could uh implement into our lives.

You know, I I definitely have a strong prayer life.

Um I have a 15-year-old daughter.

Uh amen to that, right?

Uh I've got two teenagers.

What?

I'm on my knees all the time.

And you know, Ellie has started driving.

She's got her learner's permit, and so she can she can drive, and we're supposed to take her out and get her used to the roads and experience various uh you know conditions and scenarios, right?

Uh and Amy has been taking her out most of the time and and really doing great, which I was uh surprised by.

Um I'm just being honest, right?

Uh but surprisingly enough, I it when I'm in the car and she's driving, oh, I'm a nervous wreck.

I mean, I'm literally shaking, okay?

And I'm just praying the whole time, developing this spiritual discipline of prayer.

Oh, you know, it's like, man, when will this when will I get over this?

When will I be at peace with this, right?

Um prayer is a good spiritual discipline.

You know, as a family, we have a spiritual discipline that we call family Bible time.

Um and it's affectionately known as that.

And at one time it wasn't so affectionately known as that.

Uh when my kids were really small, I think uh this particular occasion, Cody was four or five, uh probably four, I think.

Um and he was going through his kind of, he was still at the end of his terrible twos, you know what I mean?

He just wanted to keep hang on to those, right?

And and so it was it was time for family Bible time.

And so I said, Cody, you know, Ellie, it's time for family Bible time.

Come on in and let's you know, let's do this.

And and you know, Cody was playing and he didn't want to be distracted with family Bible time.

And so um, you know, he's he's like, No.

And when your son tells you no, you know, it's you grab a hold of your belt and you put on your dad hat and you're like, boy, you're burning daylight, right?

Or whatever, right?

Um and and so I said, Cody, get in here.

It's time for family Bible time.

And he says, from the other room, I don't want to do family book time.

And I said, Bible time, whatever.

He since learned to appreciate Bible, family Bible time.

It may be for what I did after that, but I'm not sure.

Um and then just this past week, we were we were doing a family Bible time, and and and and and I decided normally what we would do is just kind of look at different passages of scripture, take a passage, read through it, talk about it, ask questions about it, go back and forth, and then we would pray.

Not not not real, you know, uh fancy or anything, just pretty straightforward.

Uh but I thought, you know, it might be good if we had like some sort of you know systematic thing through the Bible to kind of help guide us and shape us, and I don't I don't want always to be going back to the same familiar verses.

Let's get out, let's, let's, let's go a little further out in the deep end, you know?

And so I found this devotional for that was specifically geared for families with parents and students, uh, which I was excited about because most of the family devotionals, I'll be honest, are really geared for small children, which is unfortunate.

Uh so if anyone uh wants to write a family devotional for older kids, that would be great.

Um so so I found this one and I and I and I go through it you know real quick.

I I you know download the sheets and I give it to give the kids one.

I we have one, and I I preface it by saying, hey, you know, a lot of these family devotionals, you know, I'll be honest with you, they're kind of cheesy.

Okay.

Uh so let's just kind of go through these, and maybe it won't be, hopefully it won't be, but let's just make it our own.

You know, we don't have to do it verbatim.

Come on, right?

Let's do this our own.

And so we start going through, and you know, number one, uh parents lead, and the parents say this, and then number two, the kids say this.

And then Ellie's like, this is already cheesy.

And I'm like, sorry, okay, look, it's fine.

What we're gonna adapt this, we're just gonna kind of go through this first couple and figure out how to make it make it you know ewing style, right?

Um and and and we get to the end, and and really it went by too quick, I feel like, and and it was just like, man, what what did we just do?

I I I I just felt like we were just getting into it kind of, and then it's over, okay?

And and the last thing was the students uh student will pray.

And so I was like, okay, well, that didn't go how I wanted it to.

Um, you know, we'll we'll revisit this, we'll go back through and we'll figure out how to make it our own and make it uh meaningful to us.

And and Cody's just over there, I uh what I don't know what uh and so I said, well, you know, why don't one of you guys pray and you know we'll figure this out?

And Cody's like, but I I don't want to I want to pray.

And I'm like, okay.

You know, he he wanted to make it clear that he was not excited about what happened in in this spiritual discipline, but he was he does want to pray.

And so I was like, Cody, I'm I'm fine with you being honest with me.

That's great.

Uh we can we can help make this better.

Uh and so some of these times with spiritual disciplines, it doesn't go necessarily the way you want.

You have to you have to build into this, okay?

So the question that I have is what spiritual discipline do you need to develop most?

And I mentioned a few of them, but but think about that for a moment.

What spiritual discipline do you need to develop most?

And in each one of these disciplines, again, we're doing these out of out of our love for him.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.

And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.

So everything that we do, these disciplines are not just simply behaviors that we're trying to modify the way that we act, but we're really wanting to, out of our love for him, demonstrate to him our love.

Plain and simple, spend time with the Lord.

The goal is to is to know him.

I think sometimes we we inadvertently communicate that the goal is to know about him.

And it's good to know about him, certainly it's good.

Uh but the we need to we need to actually go beyond just knowing about him and and actually knowing the Lord.

You know, I hear people a lot that say, I just don't feel like I know the scriptures enough.

I just don't think I know them well enough to actually talk to someone about it.

And this is how you do it, by developing these spiritual disciplines, by knowing Him more.

Verse 18 it says, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

In other words, don't let the drivers of your decisions or the influences of your intellect be fermented fruit.

Okay?

Whether that be uh a grape or agave or barley or whatever, right?

Don't let that be the thing that shapes your decisions.

Don't be that, don't let that be the thing that influences how you act, how you behave, how you think.

But be filled with the Spirit.

With all sobriety, be swayed, moved, directed, empowered by the Spirit.

Jesus said in Acts 1, 8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

The promise of the Holy Spirit is that we will have power to be his witnesses.

We will have power to speak the truth, to speak the truth boldly.

And then our companion verse in Colossians 4, starting in verse 2, continue steadfastly in prayer, being being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.

Continue steadfastly in prayer.

Pray up.

And at the same time, being watchful in it, being watchful in our prayer, watching for what?

Watching for these opportunities that we have to speak, to share the gospel.

So number three, speak up.

Ephesians 5, 15.

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

The days are evil, aren't they?

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Don't watch the news.

That's my advice.

Right?

The days are evil.

Because the days are evil, it's imperative.

It's even more important for us to make the most of every opportunity, to make the best use or to redeem that time, those opportunities that we have with those around us.

So I have a question for you.

Who in your life do you need to share the gospel with?

Think about that for a moment.

Who in your life needs to hear the word of truth that has been revealed to you?

It says in Colossians, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each question.

Is your speech gracious?

Seasoned with salt?

How does it get that way?

It gets that way by knowing him.

It gets that way by spending time in his word.

It gets that way by developing these spiritual disciplines, by increasing your love and your relationship with him.

You know, we hear a lot of stories about Neil speaking up, right?

Talking about speaking up, right?

Talking about speaking up.

Neil's somebody who knows how to speak up, doesn't he?

I mean, he's shy and timid, yeah, but you know, he knows how to speak up, right?

And we hear stories all the time about him saying something to a waitress at a restaurant.

Or a pastor that he's meeting with, right?

Or a friend that he has, his neighbor, right?

He's always speaking up.

And don't let your life and your experiences only be lived vicariously through him.

Don't try to justify your missed opportunities with the lie that we are not all called to speak up.

Because we are.

God has given each and every one of you a voice.

And every day we are presented with opportunities that we need to redeem.

We need to speak up to ourselves.

We need to speak up to our families, our coworkers, our neighbors.

You know, I was talking with a friend of mine last week, and he was saying, uh, you know, I wish I wish I had more time with my dad.

His father had recently passed, and he said, I wish I had had more time with my dad.

And I think many of us have people in our lives where we could look back and say, man, I wish I wish I had more time with.

Or we could look back to possibly some of the missed opportunities that we've had, and some of these kind of burn in me.

You know what I mean?

I wish I had more time.

I wish I could go back to that.

You know, I think in a lot of ways this is this is a a wake-up call for us.

This is God giving us a wake-up call.

And he he does that.

He does that from time to time in our lives.

And some of these wake-up calls are gentle nudges.

Some of them are lighting our toes on fire.

And I had a little bit of a lighting your toe on fire wake-up call back in 2008 when I received the diagnosis of ocular melanoma, eye cancer.

You know, we all know that our our life is short, time is is short.

But when you're giving given a diagnosis of cancer, suddenly things are put into a little bit of a different perspective, right?

And so now every six months, for the past six and a half years, I have to go back and to the medical center and get a CT scan on my chest and abdomen.

The cancer in my eye is is dead, it's fine, my vision is gone, but there's no cancer.

But there's a chance, there's always a chance that it'll show up somewhere else.

You know, it's interesting when I tell people that, many times their response is, wow, you're a ticking time bomb.

Which I think is kind of a rude thing to say.

Um but my response is always, well, aren't we all?

What's the difference?

I have an expiration date.

So do you.

I don't know when mine will be, neither do you.

Yours may be before mine, mine may be before yours.

We saw in Psalm 90 earlier this morning where it says to teach us to number our days.

Teach us to number our days.

You know, there's nothing like a good funeral to help put to put it life in perspective, right?

Well or maybe better yet, there's nothing like a bad funeral to put life into perspective.

Life is for living.

It's a phrase that I use a lot, and what I mean by that is make the most of every opportunity.

Redeem the time.

You know, I go to I go to these uh conferences and groups for people with my same type of cancer because it's very rare.

Uh and so uh, you know, we'll get together with people from all over the country and all over the world, and we'll learn about the latest research, and we'll encourage one another and just make sure, hey, you know, you know, we're not alone in this.

Um of the things that people say in these conferences and and elsewhere is they have this phrase, and it's you know, it's cute.

Live every day like it's your last.

But when you've been given a diagnosis of cancer, you you look at that and you're like, hmm.

Because I'll be honest with you, if I knew that tomorrow was my last day on earth, would I go to work?

I mean, I love my job, but it's my last day, right?

So living every day like it's like it's your last is is is impractical.

So what I say is let's replace that phrase with live every day like he's coming.

Because Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.

This life is short, but but one thing that we know for sure is he's promised that he will come again.

And that's the hope that we have.

That's the message that we have that we should speak up about.

Time is short, or as the Bible would say, getting full.

It's almost like when you play a video game like Super Mario Brothers.

Anybody's played Super Mario Brothers?

Yeah.

You know how you're playing Super Mario and it's dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun, right?

You're going through, and then if you a little bit further in, the music all of a sudden goes double time, right?

It's crazy.

You're running out of time.

The music speeds up.

And in a lot of ways, I feel like perhaps that's where we are.

Christ is coming.

You know, I think about the Exodus.

Bear with me.

Moses is leading the children of Israel out of this, out of slavery.

He's God is redeeming them out of slavery.

Uh and and he gives them very specific instructions the night before.

He says, in this manner you shall eat it, talking about the lamb, with your belt fastened, with your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, you shall eat it in haste.

It's the Lord's Passover.

You see, when God was setting up the Passover, he says, Hey, by the way, we're in a hurry, so we're gonna get this to go, okay?

Um we're about to do something here.

I'm about to fulfill my promise here, okay?

And in fact, this is gonna be so quick, you're not gonna have time for your bread to rise.

We're just gonna have to eat it as is, okay?

So, so what's happening here is God is about to bring forth deliverance.

And we see the promise that he made.

And then we see the promise ultimately fulfilled in Christ on the cross by bringing forth the deliverance of redeeming us out of slavery.

But a day will come when he will come again.

And between now and then, we're charged with the task, the call to make the most of every opportunity, to redeem the time.

Hold out your hands and let me speak a blessing over you.

Christ has died, and Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.

Go and live like He's coming.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.