It Only Takes A Minute

James chapter 4, verse 14. We're just going to

James 4:14

look at the last half of that one verse. For

those of you who didn't get a present last week,

I apologize. I would have loved to have got everybody

something, but I could only get the three of

you something. But I wanted to give all of y

'all something today, and I really was thinking,

like, what? what would people really, what can

I get people that they would really like, that

everybody in here would really like? And I said,

you know what I think everybody would really

like would be a short sermon. So Merry Christmas

to y 'all today. It's the gift that keeps on

giving. But I do hope that you'll re -gift this.

God's Word is one thing that is good to re -gift,

to give to other people. So we're going to look

at the... Just the last few words of James chapter

James 4:14

4, verse 14. I'm going to read it, and then we'll

pray, and we'll get started. For what is your

life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little

time and then vanishes away. Let's pray. God,

we come to you. We thank you for... given us

the freedom and the privilege to come and to

study your word. And God, I pray that today we

would know just how precious our life is, dear

Lord, that every minute of our life matters.

The choices we make, the things we do, dear Lord,

they matter to us. They matter to other people,

dear Lord. They matter to you. And so, God, I

pray today that we would... Come to that realization

and that truth that our time here is limited.

God, help us to make the most of the time that

we have on this earth. I pray, God, that you

free us of the worries and the distractions and

the fears and the thoughts of this world. And

I pray that for just a couple of minutes this

morning, dear Lord, that your Holy Spirit would

help us to take a look at our lives. that you'd

shake us up, dear Lord. Let us see the areas

where we need to seek you and trust you and grow

in you all the more. I pray that everything that

is said and done today will be for your glory.

In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. That was one

minute. That was one minute. You know, a minute,

I think a minute used to be longer than it is

now. Used to a minute was a long time. But it

is hard to sit still and quiet for one minute.

I mean, we can't do it. You can try. You don't

spend many minutes, whole minutes, sitting quiet

and still, especially if you're younger and maybe

even if you're older. Because that smartphone's

real close, ain't it, right? Man, those things

are so handy. They are so handy at wasting our

time is what they're handy at. I'm guilty. I'm

preaching to me here. Because the great thing

about a smartphone is that you can learn anything

you want to know in an instant. But that's also

the bad thing. Because every time we think of

something, guess what? We're always thinking

of something. Well, I wonder how you make blackening

season. I had to do that last night. My wife

made me a great meal, blackened chicken. Open

the cabinet, no blackening season. Hey, no problem.

I'll look on the smartphone. Minute later, bloop,

here's all the ingredients. She made it. It was

delicious. But minutes come and minutes go, and

there are a lot of things competing for our minutes

these days. A lot of things. The average attention

span, I think the last I read, it was something

crazy like eight seconds. Like eight seconds

is our attention span. Like if we sit for more

than eight seconds, we are just, we got to get

up and do something. We got to look, we got to

go, we got to do. And our world moves so fast

that it seems like our minutes move so fast.

And part of that is all the technology and all

the things we have in this world that are competing

for our time. And there was a time where things

were much slower. There was a time where people

would sit on their porch and visit. There was

a time when people would go and see their neighbors.

There was a time where you would just sit and

think and enjoy life and rest. And because of

all of our modern conveniences, some of that

has been taken from us. But nonetheless, there's

still a lot of minutes in a day. There's 60 minutes

in an hour. There's 1 ,440 minutes in a day.

525 ,600 minutes in a year. And 42 ,048 ,000

minutes in 80 years. In a lifetime. 42 million

minutes. If you live to be 80 years old, if you

live past that, praise the Lord, you get some

extra minutes. 42 million minutes you have in

your life. The question that I want to ask you

today is what have you done with them? What have

you done with the minutes that you've been given?

Even the youngest of you in here, you've lived

thousands of minutes in your life up to this

point, praise the Lord. But what are you going

to do with those minutes? What have you done

with those minutes? Some of you may not have

many minutes left. And so have you made them

count? There's a lot of stuff you can do in a

minute. Maybe you need to pick up the phone and

make a phone call. It doesn't take but a minute

to call a neighbor, to call a friend, to call

a family member. Say, hey, how you doing today?

I was thinking about you. Do you and your family

have a good Christmas? Maybe it's reaching out

to a family member that you got a bad relationship

with. Maybe it's reaching out to somebody that

you just want to tell them you love them. It

only takes a minute. When's the last time you've

stopped and just listened to the Lord? Just stop.

Just for a minute. Just a minute. Just stop and

listen. To put the phone down. Turn off the TV.

Maybe just take a walk through the woods. Just

one minute. It only takes a minute to stop and

seek the Lord. We may find that one minute seeking

the Lord is greater than all the other minutes

we spend in the day doing the things that we

want to do. But can we even give the Lord a minute?

Do we have a minute to spare? We don't have a

minute to spare. We've got to go. We've got to

do. I've got to do this. I've got to do that.

There's work. There's church. There's Christmas.

There's all this stuff. I don't have a minute.

You've got a minute. You've got a minute. I'll

tell you what. You can take one of your minutes

from Facebook and you can just pause and think

about the Lord. The fact of the matter is this.

We all have a minute. And we all spend our minutes

on what we want to. It's just like our money.

Oh, I ain't got the money for that. I can't buy

that. I ain't got the money for that. Oh, they

got that. I ain't got that kind of money. Oh,

yeah, you do. We all spend our money on what

we want to. We always find a way. We always find

the time to do the things we want to do. But

what I want you to consider today is what do

you want to do? What have you spent your time

on and what do you need to be spending your time

on? It only takes a minute. It only takes a minute

to do the wrong thing. It only takes a minute

to do the right thing. It only takes a minute.

What are you spending your minutes on? Is it

something that matters or is it something that

don't amount to a hill of beans? And I'll confess,

I have wasted a lot of minutes in my life. And

I know that I'm going to waste some more. We're

about to start a new year, praise the Lord. 2026,

that is unbelievable. 2026. There's going to

be a lot of minutes in 2026. How are you going

to spend them? They are going to come, and as

the scripture says, our lifetime is but a vapor.

And if our lifetime is but a vapor, what is a

minute? It goes quickly. How quickly does a vapor

go? I'll tell you how quickly a vapor goes. If

you ever go to the grocery store and you take

a $100 bill and you go buy groceries, how fast

does that $100 bill go? Boom! A vapor is quicker

than that, and you know that that goes quick.

A $100 bill at a grocery store, and you might

be lucky if you get an Eggo and two gallons of

milk and a pack of sausage, and it's gone. And

a vapor is that much quicker. Boom! Our life

is gone. Some of you sitting here today, you've

lived in this world 50, 60, 70, 80 years. And

you look back and you might say, man, it's gone

quickly. It goes quickly. When you're young,

you don't realize it. Boy, when you're young,

those minutes just seem like 10 minutes. And

by the time we begin to get a little older, we

just realize, boom, our life is gone. And what

have you done with it? What have you done with

it? Some of you look back at your life and say,

I hadn't done a whole lot. There's some young

people in here and you need to listen and you

need to know that you need to make good decisions

with the minutes you have. You need to listen

a little bit more to your parents and to your

grandparents. And you parents and grandparents

need to take an extra minute to invest in your

kid here and there. Boy, that might make all

the difference in a child's life. Do you got

a minute you'd take out to spend with them? There's

a lot of children that long for their parents'

attention. A lot of times parents don't have

a minute. Would you make a minute for your family?

Would you make a minute for the Lord? Now, I'm

not going to count all these last 10 minutes

that I've been talking as part of my sermon,

but I am going to preach to you guys today a

one -minute sermon, praise the Lord, which is

pretty good. We'll say 11 minutes, but we're

just going to call it one minute. But I thought

about it, and I said, well, what can you say

in a minute? Well, this is what I'd like to say

to you with my minute this morning. It only takes

a minute. A minute to make a bad decision that

will change your life. A minute to make a good

decision that will change someone else's. In

a minute, we can lift our voice in prayer or

raise our voice in anger. In a minute, we can

build someone up or tear them down. Some of our

minutes we use wisely, others foolishly. What

have you spent your minutes on? In James chapter

James 4:14

4 verse 14 it says, For what is your life? It

is even a vapor that appears for a little time

and then vanishes away. Our minutes go as quickly

as they come. They vanish like a vapor. What

we do in those minutes matter. Lifetime of minutes

are behind us. But Lord willing, maybe we have

a few more minutes in front of us. What will

we do with those? Approximately 360 of the last

minutes of Jesus' life were spent on the cross.

Minute after minute, he suffered, bled, and died.

Those minutes were mingled with great pain and

even greater love. It is that love that has the

power to forgive our sins today if we would only

trust in Jesus. Jesus gave his last minutes to

give you eternity. What will you do with the

minutes that you have left? Let's pray. God,

we come to you today and we thank you for the

time you have given us. And dear Lord, I pray

that you forgive us of the minutes that we have

used foolishly. God, I pray that you would just

help us to stop. for a moment today and that

your Holy Spirit would speak to us and work on

our hearts. God, maybe we spend way too many

minutes thinking about and focusing on the things

of the world. We spend too many minutes with

evil and wicked thoughts on our mind. We spend

too many minutes tearing people down. So God,

I pray. That you would help us to examine ourselves

today. That you'd convict us of those things,

dear Lord. And I pray that today, that even now,

that we would take just a minute to repent of

our sins, dear Lord. To seek you. Maybe this

week, dear Lord, you just put somebody in our

path. Somebody on our mind, God. That we would

stop and take a minute just to love on them.

Just to share your love with them. Dear Lord,

maybe we just, we don't spend any time seeking

you. Or we don't spend enough time seeking you.

God, maybe this week, maybe tomorrow, we could

take just a minute to look at your word. Dear

Lord, just one or two verses, God. That we would

take just a minute to pray to you. to just praise

you for who you are, to thank you for what you've

done, to thank you for Jesus Christ, to just

rejoice in you, to lift our request up to you,

dear Lord. God, maybe there are some today that

are just struggling and pain and sorrow and just

sickness and all the stuff that's in this world,

dear Lord. I pray that today that maybe they

would just take A minute to seek you, dear Lord.

Just to call out to you for help in their time

of need that they would seek you and long for

you and just cry out to you, dear Lord, for just

a minute today. God, maybe it's been a minute

since we've called out to you and trusted you

and lived for you and read your word in the way

that we should. And I pray that today that you

would help us just to refocus. refocus our mind

and our heart, dear Lord, that we can know that

our time matters. It's up to us to choose if

we want to use it for good or for evil. It's

up for us to choose if we want to use our minutes

to do what is right or to do what is wrong. God,

it only takes a minute today for us to decide

whether or not we're going to follow Jesus or

not. Maybe there are some in this room that do

not know Jesus. God, I pray that in this next

minute that they would repent and ask for forgiveness

of their sins and know that Jesus gave his life

on the cross so that they could be forgiven.

Dear Lord, hopefully we all have a few more minutes

left in our life, and I pray that you would help

us to make the most of them. And I ask these

things in Jesus' name. Amen.