Sermon
Time: Our Time vs. God’s Time
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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What a powerful name it is.
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The name of Jesus.
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What a powerful name it is.
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The name of Jesus.
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What a powerful name it is.
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The name of Jesus.
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Well, Father, we are very thankful for the opportunity to come and to lift high the name
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of Jesus in our lives and in this building, in this moment, Lord, to just to be reminded
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of the simple fact of calling on the name of Jesus to receive salvation, to receive forgiveness
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of sins, to be reborn into new creations. Father, to be filled with your Holy Spirit,
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to be healed both physically and spiritually in the name of Jesus, there is nothing that is impossible.
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And, Father, I'm thankful this morning and I hope that everyone else here is thankful
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this morning that we can come simply in the name of Jesus to seek your face, to grow with you,
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and Lord, maybe to just shed some things this morning that just doesn't need to be a part of
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our life, that in your name, the name of Jesus Christ, we can be healed, we can be made new,
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we can be forgiven of sins, we can be saved, we can be made into new creations even right now
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in this moment. Thank you for that. Thank you for giving us access to the most powerful force
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in all of creation. Father, as we gather this morning and we sing songs and we pray and we're
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ready for you. Lord, we believe your spirit is already here. I believe your spirit is already
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within every single one of us, Lord. But, Lord, I pray that you would open up our eyes and help
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us to see you and feel you in a powerful way. Lord, as we gather and we ask that you would be
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here, we pray for the churches in our community. Lord, we pray for our sister churches this morning.
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God, we pray for the people who are at Table Rock who are having their morning services at
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family camp. Lord, we pray that you would work and move in a powerful way. Lord, that you would
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touch hearts and you would do the work within us that we cannot do ourselves. Father, we thank
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you for this day and this time together. We pray for everyone who's in this place and we pray for
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our brothers and sisters who are traveling on vacation, the ones who are homebound and
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aren't able to be here. Lord, touch us all. For it's in Jesus' precious and holy name that we pray
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and all God's people said, Amen. You may be seated.
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Well, I've said it many times. Whatever the Lord puts on your heart is just as special,
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if not more powerful than what I have to say because there will be people in this room
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who will look at me as, well, I'm the pastor. That's just what I'm supposed to do.
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But for one of you to speak up on behalf of the Lord rings a different bell inside people's hearts.
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So I appreciate you guys sharing this morning. We've been talking about time and really how
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time is our most valuable resource. It is the most valuable thing that we have.
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And for many of us in this room, even though we love the Lord and we are looking forward to
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the opportunity to go to heaven one day and spend eternity with Him, I think it would be fair to say
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that most of us are not really in a hurry to get there. You know, we value our time on this earth.
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We value our time as people. And I believe that God has instilled that within every single one
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of our hearts to understand how special these moments are, not just this morning in this
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setting, but every single day that we wake up and we get to breathe air and we get to see the sun and
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we get to see nighttime and we get to hear the bugs make just relentless racket at nighttime and
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and all the wonderful things that we get to experience. There's something special about that
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that God put in our heart to appreciate it. Time is our most valuable resource.
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And last week we talked about how there's a time for everything. You know, for everything,
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there's a time under the sun. And we have to be really careful that as we live our lives,
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we only have so much time. You can't store it up. You can't keep it. You can't save it.
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It is constantly being spent as we move throughout this day. When we leave here today
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and we wake up tomorrow, we're one day closer to our death, whether we want to be or not.
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You can't save it. It's literally moving out of the account of your life, for the amount of time
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that you've been given. And so we have to ask ourselves this question, what do we do with the
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most valuable thing that we have? What do we do with our time? And there's a time for everything.
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We talked about that last week and today we're talking about this relentless temptation that
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we have to take this time, this most valuable resource that we've been given
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and cling to it and call it ours. Because we battle this whole mindset of our time versus
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God's time. And as you live throughout this world, there's going to be this great temptation
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in our lives to take the amount of time, the day that we have, the free time that we have,
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the family time that we have. And we're going to cling to this thing and grasp at it and say,
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this is mine. And we're going to guard it because it is a very precious and valuable resource.
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And we're not going to want other people to take our time from us, right? We don't want to waste
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our time. We laugh. We were even still talking about it this morning. We had to go to a
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meeting last week and we felt like we were just held hostage all day long at that meeting.
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And that was a valuable amount of time that we would have loved to have been doing on a Saturday,
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doing something else besides just stuck against your will sometimes. We want to guard it. We
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want to keep it. We want to claim it as ours. And in the midst of that, we have to be very careful
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as we live our lives, not to treat time like it's ours, but to treat time and remind
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ourselves over and over and over that this is God's. The time that we are given belongs
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to God. It does not belong to us. And we're just merely stewards of it.
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One of the things that we need to understand and have a mindset of in our life as Christians,
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as we follow Jesus Christ, is that there is nothing on this earth that is truly ours.
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Nothing. We are just merely stewards of everything within our lives. And even your children,
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whom are your flesh and blood that you have paid for and sacrificed for and given so much for
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for them, they are not truly yours. Because one day they will reach a point where they will say,
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I'm an adult. I'm going to move out. I'm going to make my own decisions. I'm going to do my thing.
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And then there's nothing that you can really do about it at that point. They are God's.
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And it was your responsibility to steward your leadership over them as a parent for those
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upcoming years to prepare them to be the man or woman that God has created them to be.
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Time is no different. We are stewards of the time that God has given us. And I want to read
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from a passage of the book of James, chapter four, verses 13 through 17, short little passage.
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And James writes and he says, look here, you who say today or tomorrow,
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we're going to a certain town and we'll stay there a year. We will do business there and make
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a profit. How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog.
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It is here a little while that it's gone. What you ought to say is if the Lord wants us to,
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we will live and do this or that. Otherwise, you are boasting about your own pretentious plans
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and all such boasting is evil. And the last verse, it just kind of wraps up that section and wraps up
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chapter four says, remember, it is a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
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So point number one this morning, I just want to remind us of tomorrow is unknown.
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The reminder that we do not know in terms of tomorrow is sobering and humbling.
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And that's the way that it absolutely should be. Like you can sit here today and you can
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be thinking about, okay, well, tomorrow I know that if I wake up, if everything goes as planned,
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I'm going to go to work or I'm going to do this or I have disappointment or I have
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whatever to do and we kind of have this idea of what we're going to do. But in reality,
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we've all had at least one day in our life where we woke up and we've had plans and then all of a
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sudden, boom, those plans change. And we had no idea or no foresight of what was going to happen
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that day to get us to the point to just totally wreck our day in a completely different way.
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We really don't know. And that's a very humbling thing. And it's important to be aware of tomorrow,
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but we also have to be careful in how we approach tomorrow and the next day and the next day and
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for years to come. And so if you're a young person here this morning and we'll pick on you
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young people for a second, this is not an excuse. This is not a sermon for you to use an excuse.
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Well, Pastor James said, well, tomorrow we don't even know what's going to happen. So I don't even
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have to get ready for school or I don't have to do this or have to do that. I remember when I first
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got saved, especially when I was in college and my mom would stay on me because I would have flunked
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out and I would have never went back to college if she hadn't made me. I would like put off to
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the last minute every assignment I had. She's like, have you done this? Have you done this?
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I'm like, no, hopefully the Lord will come back before then and I won't have to do it at all.
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And it didn't work. The Lord has not come back yet and I still had to do every assignment in the
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wee hours of the morning leading up to it. But we have to be really careful. So it's not an
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excuse not to do anything, but it's also one of those things that we're just simply called to be
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reminded of how important it is that we approach tomorrow with this mindset of, okay, we have
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plans and we have things that we know we kind of need to do and we kind of have a schedule
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when it's good to have schedules, but to also know that the Lord may have very different plans
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for your life tomorrow. You may not know what those plans are. Tomorrow could be extremely
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difficult for some of you. Tomorrow could be much better than you ever thought it was going to be.
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You never know. And that's okay because none of us can see the future, but God knows exactly what's
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going to happen. Sometimes God may choose to reveal certain things to you. A lot of times
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He doesn't reveal all the details, but sometimes He'll kind of give us an insight into certain
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things leading into the future. But we have to be careful about how we approach the future in
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terms of our time and to not just completely devote it to ourselves, but to be very honoring
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to the Lord with our time. So in Proverbs chapter 27 verse 1 Solomon writes about time and says,
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don't brag about tomorrow since you don't know what the day will bring.
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And we shouldn't approach tomorrow with fear or worry. So we shouldn't brag about tomorrow. We
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shouldn't be overly confident in tomorrow because we really don't know what's going to happen. But we
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also shouldn't approach tomorrow with fear and trembling like, oh my gosh, I don't know what's
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going to happen. I don't know what it's going to be. I don't know what it's going to hold.
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Because in Matthew chapter 6 verse 34 when Jesus is preaching the Sermon on the Mount,
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and He's talking to the people of Israel, and He's teaching them about certain concepts,
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He says, so don't worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's
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trouble is enough for today. There are certain things we could sit around and we could worry
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forever about everything. One of the biggest things that people talk about today for my generation and
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the generations behind us is the fact that there's probably not going to be any social security.
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Basically, retirement is one of those things that's almost like this mythical unicorn that
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we might find one day, but we're probably not going to. And so we could sit around and just
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worry about retirement every single day of our life and turn gray and bald and sick. And you might,
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I don't know if you're a stress eater, I'm a stress faster. Whenever I get stressed, I don't eat.
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But I could just sit around and worry to death about retirement.
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You do what you can do, and then you move forward. We cannot worry about certain things.
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And some of you in here is like, well, if you're not planned and prepared, you're really going to be
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struggling. And when you get to retirement age and you're not prepared, Pastor James,
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that's going to be your fault. It doesn't mean that we don't make plans.
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It doesn't mean that we don't have alternatives and we don't seek the Lord and ask His wisdom
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and guidance and say, Lord, it doesn't look good on this end. So help me to find something else
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to be prepared, help me to sacrifice in a way and invest in a way that this happens.
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But we can't sit around and worry about it and be fearful of it, but we can't approach it and
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being like, it don't matter. We'll be fine. Lord take care of us no matter what. Don't do that.
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There's a humbleness that should come with following the Lord
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that every person who claims to be a Christian should have.
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It's okay to be confident in the Lord, but we cannot be prideful.
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We can be confident that the Lord is going to take care of us tomorrow,
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but not prideful in exactly what's going to happen and what's going to be done.
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And it doesn't mean that we should just throw up our hands and say, well,
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I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to plan anything. What this passage is saying
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is that as we approach our time and tomorrow and the rest of the future of our lives,
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that we are seeking the Lord in it and consciously making a decision to say, Lord, this is yours.
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I feel like you're leading me to do this. God, this is what I'm going to do.
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But if you want to change it, I'm good with it. If you want to lead me over here tomorrow,
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I'm good with it. Whatever it is you want to do. This is my schedule,
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but it's yours to change anytime that you want to.
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And never forget this morning, when you look back at scripture and you look at the people
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that God called, they were not lazy people sitting around waiting for an assignment.
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The people that God called were busy people. Every single person that God called to follow
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him and to serve him in some way, they were busy people. They were productive people.
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When you look back, King David was tending his father's flocks. He had to be called out of the
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field to come back home so that he could be anointed as next king. Elisha was plowing a field.
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Peter, James, and John were fishing. Matthew was collecting taxes. Paul was running around
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killing every Christian that he could find when Jesus called him on the road to Damascus to come
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and follow him. It doesn't mean that they were doing the right thing. It doesn't mean that they
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were doing exactly what God wanted them to do, but they were doing something.
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So this morning as we talk and we look at our lives and we look at about preparing for tomorrow
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and preparing for the future, it is our calling as Christians to be busy and productive people.
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But we have to be careful not to make our busyness or our accomplishments our idols in those
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moments. But we're doing what God has called us to do. And then we're absolutely okay with saying,
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well, Lord, I'm fishing because this is my job and I don't know what else I'm supposed to do.
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And then God calls and say, okay, I'll leave my boats and my nets behind. I'm plowing my field.
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Okay, I'll break my plow apart. We'll burn the wood. We'll kill the oxen and sacrifice it.
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And God, I'm coming to follow you. Whatever it is that you're doing in life,
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it might mean a lot to you. It might be something that you have invested a lot of your life into,
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but it does not mean that we should not be ready at the drop of a hat to say, okay, Lord,
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I'm going to drop this. I'm going to leave this behind and God, I'm going to come and follow you
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because we don't know what tomorrow will bring. And you may be exactly where God wants you to be
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today. And tomorrow he calls you somewhere different. And that's okay. We have to be willing.
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Point number two, Lord Willing. I can remember when I first got saved and started coming to
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this church as a teenager. And I would hear some of the elderly people who would just make statements
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of, well, Lord Willing, we'll see you tomorrow. You know, something like that. And if you've ever
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been around like some really country people, they'll say, well, Lord Willing and the creek
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don't rise. We'll do this tomorrow. And I used to laugh about that as a kid. I was thinking like,
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okay, well, that's kind of weird, but sure, we'll see you tomorrow. You know, didn't really know
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what to think about it. But it's a funny thing when you look at people and you look at Christians
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and you begin to kind of see the heart of people and what they do and how they follow the Lord.
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So as a teenager, when I would hear people say that, I would think, well, that's just kind of,
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okay, cool, that you're saying cool beans. You know, we used to say weird stuff too.
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Um, so, so like you hear this weird saying that you don't really know what to think about it,
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but it's kind of amazing to see very simple, small things that people will do and can do
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to try to be faithful to the Lord in just the smallest ways to remind themselves of Scripture
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and what the Lord has said. And I didn't realize when I first got saved and I'd hear people say
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that, that that was a direct quotation coming from the passage that we read that you shouldn't say
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tomorrow, we're going to do this, but we should say, if the Lord wills it, we will do this
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tomorrow. And so the old people just start saying, Lord willing, that's what we'll do.
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And yet we can sit back and we can joke and we can laugh about it.
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But it's a simple way of just humbling ourselves and saying, Lord,
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if it's your will, tomorrow we'll do this. And if it's not, we won't and it'll be okay.
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In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 27 through 28, Paul writes, and he says, instead,
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God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.
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And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.
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And God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all,
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and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.
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And I want to challenge you guys this morning because we live in a culture, in a society
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where there is more pushback against God, against Christ, against Scripture, against holy things.
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There's more pushback against those things now than what there ever has been in our lifetime.
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And there may be things that sound foolish. I can remember as a kid, and I'd hear people say,
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Lord willing, I was like, huh, that's kind of funny. You know, I didn't think it was like dumb
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or anything, but I was like, yeah, okay, whatever. It just sounded like something silly
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that somebody said. There may be many things that people say that sound silly or sound
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foolish or sound unnecessary. But I want to remind you this morning that God has specifically
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chosen to use things and to use people to specifically shame the world and humble the
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world from what they think is important and what they think is necessary. For someone
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who is not of the Lord and does not know Scripture and may be immature in their walk with Christ,
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they would think it would not be a big deal to just make plans and say, this is what we're going
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to do tomorrow. But for somebody who really loves Jesus and who really wants to seek the Lord and
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be obedient to Scripture, they're going to say, oh, well, yeah, Lord willing, if this is what
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God wants us to do, then tomorrow, that's what we'll do. And it is just a small, easy,
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humble acknowledgement that God is in control of your time. It's just a reminder
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of the stewardship that we're called to have to say, God, this is your time.
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You haven't given me this clear schedule of what you want me to do tomorrow. So this is what we've
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planned and Lord willing, this is what we'll do. But if it's not what you will, God, I'll do
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anything that you want me to do tomorrow. It takes a lot for us to be able to say that.
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It takes a little bit of thought, hardly no effort, but a little bit of thought behind it.
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And it may sound silly to everybody else, and it may sound insignificant,
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but let me remind you, it's things like that.
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That as a 41 year old, I specifically remember people saying,
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and I didn't understand it at the time, but I appreciate it now.
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And I find myself now with a little smile on my face saying, Lord willing, we'll do that tomorrow,
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copying what they used to say, knowing that we're being obedient description,
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we're acknowledging God in our time. And it matters. The little stuff matters.
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Don't think that it doesn't. The little stuff matters in our walk with Christ.
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In 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 15, Peter writes, it is God's will that your honorable lives
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should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.
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Every little thing that you do, every little thing that you say,
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people are watching and people are listening. You don't have to open up a book of the Bible and
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start reading or start preaching a sermon to somebody to tell them about Christ.
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The way that you live your life, the way that you use your time,
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the way that you honor God, even in the smallest of ways of just simply saying Lord willing
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is giving him credit and it's living your life in a way that brings glory and honor to him.
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And in that, you will bring shame to other people who aren't doing it.
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And we're not purposefully trying to bring shame to people who aren't doing it.
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But it is what we're called to do because they need to understand
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that's what they need to be doing. And they will feel that shame and conviction in their lives,
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just like we have in moments of our life when somebody has lived it out in front of us.
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And we have known and been convicted in those moments. That's how I should be living too.
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That's how I should be talking. That's how I should be responding and loving to other people.
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Even in the smallest of ways we can honor God and silence others.
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Lord willing will be able to do that. Point number three, remember the sin.
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Last one. At the end of our focus passage is verse 17,
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which is kind of an odd little throw in. It almost feels like it doesn't fit.
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He talks about don't go here, don't say we're going to do this,
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and then say we'll do business here. You don't know what tomorrow is going to hold.
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And then verse 17 it says, remember it is a sin to know what you ought to do and to then not do it.
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You know, so many times we wake up in our lives as Christians,
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and I can remember this as a young man, and even at different times in my walk with Christ,
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where we're struggling with a sin or a temptation and we know that this is an issue and we know
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that this is something that God is not pleased with in our life and we need this removed from
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our life. And so we will wake up and a lot of times we will, first thing we'll do is bring
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attention to this thing and we're just constantly trying not to do something that we know that
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we're not supposed to do, right? Anybody else ever felt that way? Maybe I'm the only one.
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But a lot of people will talk about that type of sin is a sin of commitments. Like you are committing
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a sin. You're doing something that you know that you're not supposed to do. And for most people
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who claim to be believers in Jesus Christ, that's kind of the type of sin that we get
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stuck on. We get stuck on sins of commitments. Like we are committing sins and we need to stop
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doing that. And we spend so much time and effort and you may have like, you may find an accountability
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partner to kind of hold you accountable to keep you from committing this specific sin. You may
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try to avoid going to certain places so that you don't find yourself faced with this temptation
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to commit this sin. And all of that's great and all that's good and we should not be committing
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sin, okay? Right? But then you have this verse 17 that says, and remember it's a sin to know what
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you ought to do and to then not do it. Which totally gives us a new level of obedience that
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we should have towards Jesus Christ. Because we can all look at sins of commitments and say like,
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well we know as a believer in Jesus Christ, Scripture says we should not do these things.
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They're pretty easy to find. They're in Scripture everywhere and they repeat themselves quite often.
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We know what those things are. But the sin of knowing what you ought to do and then not doing
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it is very different. That's called a sin of omits. That we omit to do things that we know
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that we're supposed to be doing. And those are very personal. Because every single person in this
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room who truly belongs to Jesus Christ, I believe with all my heart and I believe Scripture affirms
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it over and over and over again that you as a believer have a specific calling on your life
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to serve Christ in specific ways. Now it doesn't mean that you'll be a preacher or a missionary or
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a youth pastor or evangelist or lead worship. Doesn't mean that it will be something like that.
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But there will be ways that you can witness and minister to people that I will never be able to
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because God has called me to be a pastor. He's called me to this position. It's a very different
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life. And there's people that you can reach. There's people you will interact with. There's
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people that you will have conversations with I will never have access to. But I believe with
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all my heart that God has put a special calling on each and every single Christian's
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life that in somehow some way shape and form that you are called to serve Him and honor Him
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and lift Him up and to be a witness and a minister to the people around you in very specific ways.
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And in verse 17 as James is talking about knowing the appropriate way that we should approach time
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and tomorrow and our future in the coming days and years that it's also a sin to know what you
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ought to do and then not do it. And this is where the game changes for a lot of believers because we
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will focus so hard on not committing a sin but then we just think well like we will feel the
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Lord speak to us like we'll feel this prompting of the Holy Spirit for us to do something
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or say something or to give something or whatever it may be like we'll feel it in our
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hearts because I've done this before we'll feel that and we'll say oh no that's weird I must
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just say something weird. But then it's like you kind of feel the guilt afterwards like man I should
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have done that I should have said that I should have I should have I should have went there I
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should have done this there's always always these moments where we feel like the Lord is
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speaking to us and we have to remind ourselves as people that in the time that God has given us
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on this earth that we should not just be worried about committing a sin we should be worried about
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omitting a calling in our life because refusing to do something we know we should do is also
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sinful and that's what James is saying. So chances are for us as believers this morning
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we could very much be obedient to scripture and not committing a sin but still be living in sin
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because we're omitting to do something that God is calling us to
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which is a really terrifying thing and I can't tell you how many times in my life
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where I've been guilty of sins of oh minutes rather than commitments
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and I know it and I feel it and I feel the guilt and I feel the shame and the only thing
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that we can do is repent say God forgive me forgive me for not being obedient in this moment
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and next time that you call me to do this or you want me to just help me to be ready
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and willing because many times the sins of oh minutes come up not because we're just like
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oh no Lord I ain't doing that it's not like we it's not like God just lays it out there
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and says this is exactly what I want you to do and this is exactly what I want you to say
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and people are just like nope not doing that don't care what you say
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but we don't say that you know what we will say man I don't have time
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like literally I have to be here at this amount of time and do this and like I have to get this
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done like usually it's surrounding the issue of time of of have we have we completely engulfed
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ourselves with something that has just eaten up all of our time and now we're so far into it that
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we don't feel like we can get out of it and there's no room for anything else there's no room
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to go here for the Lord or say this for the Lord or build this relationship for the Lord
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or or speak for the Lord or serve for the Lord there's no time to do that because all
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of our time has been claimed we have not been good stewards with our time and guys
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we live in a world and we live in a society where every single corporation that exists
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is fighting for your time they're fighting for your money but they're also fighting for your time
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every single social media influencer is fighting for followers fighting for screen time fighting
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for viewers every single like streaming service downloads views it's all they think about every
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every place every form of entertainment everything is just vying for your time
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they need you to give you their time so that they can have more money
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and and whether it's from hobbies or school because I think for some people school
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school's a great thing but I think for some people school can be a huge idol in their life
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just like sports can sports hobbies whatever it may be guys we only have so much time
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you're not going to get more of it and every single day you're going to get less
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I've already taken up an hour of your time today
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and I'm sorry for that but I do think it's important I think this is one of the most
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important things that we could do but everybody's fighting for your time you have to fight not for
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your time for God's time God is the only person who's going to sit back quietly and just kind of
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whisper and say hey got any time for me everybody else is going to scream and holler and kick and
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yell for it my kids scream and holler for time all the time listen they want to tell us something
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they want us to do something the world the people and God just sits back and says
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you got some time for me you got time to do what I'm calling you to do
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I know you like doing this and you enjoy doing this and this is what you'd rather be doing but
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where's my time at and he's not going to holler and yell and kick and scream because
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he gives us the free will to choose he's not going to force but he's given us time
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and he's called every single one of us to be good stewards
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as we close out today I want to read a passage of scripture to you from Isaiah 55 verses 6 through 7
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it says seek the Lord while you can find him
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call on him now while he is near
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let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong
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let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them
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yes turn to our God for he will forgive generously
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I would dare to say that most of us in this room even myself have not used our time
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wholeheartedly for the Lord the way that we should
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a lot of times when I preach and I come up with these sermons
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a lot of it has to do with what I'm struggling with in the moment
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time is hard because you only have so much of it
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you have to pick and choose you have to select you have to cut things out
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you have 24 hours in a day it's summertime we have a lot more daylight than what we're
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going to have this coming winter you only have so much time you have to carve it out
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and dedicate it for certain things there may be some things in your life that you need to shed
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so that you can have more time to use it for the Lord and the way he's called you to use it
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but that's a decision that you have to make because you are the steward of the time that
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you've been given the question is will you be a good steward or will you be a poor steward
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of the time that God has blessed you with let's pray
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father God thank you again
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for the opportunity to be here today
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and to serve you to know you Lord to give you time Lord I dare to imagine that there are people
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in this room who it was difficult to even come this morning because there's things that they
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need to do but Lord I pray that you had helped them to see and fill within their hearts this
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morning that this was the most valuable way that they could spend the hour of their day
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and father I pray that you would speak to the depths of our hearts and Lord it does
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not mean that every hobby or every single thing that we do is sinful it does not mean that
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we're necessarily doing anything that's wrong but father I pray that you would help us to be
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honest with ourselves this morning that if there's anything within our lives that is just eating up
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our time that's keeping us from growing with you and serving you the way that you were calling us to
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Lord that you would help us to shed these things off so that we can serve you
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that we can do what you are willing us to do
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because it is a sin to know what we ought to do and then not do it
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and nobody else in this world is going to be able to look into our life
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and point that out that is something that you've laid on every one of our hearts and we have to
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stand accountable to you for one day so I pray Lord that you would speak to us individually
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and show us what we need to shed off reveal to us more clearly what we should be doing
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instead we love you and ask us in Jesus name amen you're dismissed thank you