Bring It On By Maximizing Your Time - Bring it On

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

So, we're using a theme of bring it on.

That's our theme for 2024 for the road.

And as I prayed over that theme, I felt like I needed to start with this issue of maximizing your time.

How do we maximize our time?

So I'm I'm calling it bring it on by maximizing your time.

So we're gonna need a new mindset for the new year, which is gonna be about maximizing our time, but I love this time of year.

I love it because it's new.

Who doesn't like a new car?

You know?

Who doesn't like new clothes?

Who doesn't like new shoes?

I mean, the stuff that was all spread around the Christmas tree in our great room and near the fireplace was all new stuff.

Nobody had gone to goodwill and wrapped stuff up and given it to that has happened.

Um my mom, oh, I love my mom.

Bless her heart, she's with the Lord right now.

Um but there's some things she wrapped up to save money.

But I was on a my mom was on a pastor salary, right?

And dad worked and mom stayed home.

So you did what you have.

But most of us get new stuff, right?

I like a new mindset, I like a new year.

So this is an exciting time of the year.

And so I want to talk about how we maximize our time because that is the most common gift of all humankind.

So one commodity that everybody has, whether you're a beggar or a billionaire, is you still only have 24 hours in a day.

You only have seven days a week, you only have a little sort of leapier, 365 days out of the year, but we all have the same amount of time.

Now here's the thing: time doesn't stop.

Okay, so it was Albert Einstein who said we live in the three-dimensional world, but there's a fourth dimension called time.

So time marches on, but listen, it's important.

Time is controllable.

You can't stop time, you can't even make time, but you can control time.

So people who live defeated, demoralized, drifting lives have one thing in common.

They're wasting much of their time.

And people who live successful, joyful, victorious lives have one thing in common.

They are taking control of the use of their time.

They've harnessed time to do things that build, strengthen, and mold.

Now listen, their character.

So what do you do to maximize your time?

Write this down.

Time determines your destiny.

Time determines your destiny.

The new year is an opportunity to reevaluate your life, reassess your relationships, reprioritize your future, redefine your spiritual and vocational purpose, and refresh your physical, emotional, and mental health.

So for some of you, 2023 was an awful year.

Now you wouldn't say that because you're a Christian and everything, and you don't say stuff like that.

That was a terrible year, but it was a terrible year.

You lost a spouse, you lost your health, you lost your job.

A lot of losing went in in 2023.

But men and women, this is what's great about a new year.

That's old stuff.

That's last year.

And now we get to start a new year and we can reassess our lives.

And so it was Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3 who said, I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.

He has made everything beautiful in his time.

Also, he has put eternity in their hearts.

Now, here's what's interesting, men and women.

In Ecclesiastes 3, the word beautiful is the root word for mature.

And what Solomon is saying is that when you're maturing in your time here on earth, it's a beautiful thing.

It's a beautiful thing as you mature.

Now, this hard part is that so many of us have grown old but never grown up.

And so we've never matured.

That's you, right, brother?

Okay, now there's a man that's going places.

I like that.

But the reality is, is that beauty is defined by maturity.

In other words, we're maturing emotionally.

We're maturing relationally, we're maturing spiritually, we're maturing in prayer, we're maturing in Bible study, we're maturing in know how to pray for the sick, we're maturing in how to discern visions and dreams.

That, according to Solomon, is a beautiful thing.

And then he says that God has put eternity in our hearts.

Now here's what I think he's saying.

He's saying that when we're maturing in eternal things, our lives become a thing of beauty.

Okay?

Okay, that's really important because God wants your life to be a beautiful thing.

And sometimes you look at it, and maybe you look at it the financial way, or you look at it from a job perspective, or you look at it because of failures that you've had in your life, whatever.

And yet, if you're maturing through that, if you're growing more perfected in Christ, if you're becoming more loving, more kind, then that beauty is coming forth in you and you're living eternity right now.

Isn't that exciting?

So eternity is not something we go to when we pass out of this life, it's something we experience as we pass through life.

It's as we pass through life that we have eternity in our hearts because we have the kingdom of God within, because we've given our heart to Christ.

And so, in giving our heart to Christ, you're now, men and women, this is not, your time's not up, you're here.

You're here to make your life a beautiful thing by maximizing your time.

Job said it this way since his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, you have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass.

In other words, men and women, God has a time frame for your life.

God has a limit to your life that you're not gonna go past.

And so he wants us to maximize that point from birth until that point where the boundary ends, because God wants us in heaven at that point to maximize our lives.

Psalm 39, 4.

Show me, O Lord, my life's end.

And then to number my days, let me know how fleeting my life is.

And so even the psalmist here is saying that I've got to number my days, I've got to think through my days.

I know there's a limit, I know there's gonna come, I'm gonna get, things are gonna come to an end.

And I think it was Stephen Covey and Seven Habits of Highly Affected People, years ago, back in the 80s when he wrote that book, he said you should go to funerals and think about your epitaph.

Think about now what your epitaph will be when that day comes, because it's a coming.

All the surveys show 100% mortality.

You're all gonna go, you know, unless the Lord comes back.

Um, but I always like to think in terms of planning and strategizing like the Lord's not coming back.

I want that anticipation in my heart, but I want my planning to be that which maximizes the time that we have here on earth.

So time is a currency.

Time is used to buy life.

And so we could say time really, how you use your time determines everything.

Benjamin Franklin said time is money.

I would say time is more important than money.

Time is the most important currency you have.

Nobody, I'll just say this for us as Americans, in most cases, no one dictates our time.

Unless we've been in prison or something, we we we can dictate our own time.

So time is the most important currency we have.

We don't spend time, we invest it.

We don't spend time, we invest it.

Time gives you time to change.

How do you like that?

I took notes on myself when I wrote that.

Okay.

Time gives you time to change.

Five questions.

Can I give you five questions for the new year?

Number one, what kind of a relationship with God do you want to have this time next year?

What kind of a relationship with God do you want to have this time next year?

Number two, what do you want to look and feel like this time next year?

What do you want to look and feel like this time next year?

Number three, what kind of marriage, if you're married, what kind of marriage do you want to have this time next year?

If you're single, but you hope to be married, what kind of people do you need to be hanging out with in 2024?

Most of your best-looking men and women are not in the bar.

Even though the beer commercials would cause you to think otherwise.

They're at church, they're on mission, they're serving, they're helping others, they're blessing others.

That's the kind of people you want to be hanging out with.

Number five, for all of us, what kind of friendships do you want to have this time next year?

Time is the currency of your destiny.

How you spend your time will determine your character and future.

People are willing and anxious to improve their circumstances, but unwilling to improve themselves.

Thus, most people remain bound.

In other words, men and women, I want to challenge us today that maximizing your time is about your character.

James 1, which we're going to talk more about next week, when I talk about bring it on through trials and tribulations and hardships, is that God causes us to start having us a count it all joy or a bring it on mentality when we understand the purpose of our trials, when we understand the reason that we're in bad circumstances.

A lot of times our circumstances are because of our character.

So might we start asking the question this year, instead of improving our circumstances, Lord, would you improve me?

Would you work in my character?

And it's almost like Paul is challenging the Ephesians to a New Year's Eve message here in Ephesians 5.

So would you turn to Ephesians 5, where he's challenging the Ephesians, I think, with maximizing their time.

How do they maximize their time?

So Ephesians 5, verse 14, therefore he says, awake you who sleep.

Ephesians 5:14

Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

Men and women, we have to do the awakening.

We have to do the arising, and then his light will shine on us.

So God speaks to us and causes us to awake up out of those sleepy areas of our life, those places where we've been in slumber, that God wants to speak to us.

God wants to mold us, but he shines his light on us only if we get up and get out of bed.

If we get up out of the dead corners of our life, and we all have them, 2 Corinthians 4 speaks of the dark places of the heart.

Isn't it interesting that in the dark place of our heart, Jesus says, love me with all your heart?

So Jesus says to us, love me with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, knowing, knowing that you have dark places in your heart.

Nobody here is consistently all the time with the light of Christ in their heart.

We all have dark places.

We have those areas of our life.

So the key to maturity, the key to beauty is maximizing our time by revealing and surrendering the dark places of our heart to the Lord.

So he's saying, wake up, wake up, church, and my light will shine on you.

And in my light there is light.

He continues.

See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.

So it's not just the walk that we have, but it's how we walk.

It's walking out our lives with a circumspection or an examination of how the use of our time and the decisions we make will produce the consequences that we have to live with.

I think that's maturity because immaturity tends to look at the actions themselves in the present, and a lot of times we make our decisions defining the pleasure that we receive from the actions that we take versus the circumstances that lead to the consequences that happen because of either wise or foolish decisions.

And so he's saying, Look, I'm building a people here.

Wake up, I will give you light, and if you'll let my light guide you, by you living and walking circumspectly, examining your life, and that word circumspect has the idea of examination or diligence or perfection, you'll fall either in the category of greater wisdom, or you'll fall in that category of greater foolishness.

So God wants wise people.

Now he gets to the main point.

He's leading up to this, and he says this, verse 16 Redeeming the time, underline, circle, highlight, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

How many know the days are evil today?

I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on.

Out of our control.

The days are evil.

They were out of Paul's control.

They're out of our control in many cases.

The days are evil.

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

Boy, if there's one thing that I've heard so many times through the years, is I want to know God's will.

What is God's will?

Well, here's God's will.

God's will is that we're redeeming the time because we're learning to walk circumspectly, examining our life carefully, knowing the consequence of our action, because we're waking up.

We wake up to new living, and no time of the year is that more important and valued, at least in this culture, than the new year.

To begin to say, okay, the old year has passed.

And I want to challenge you, men and women, that tomorrow, New Year's Day, that you take an hour or two.

Take an hour or two, take the Word of God, go back to this passage, mark it up, you know, read verses 14 through probably all the way down to say 21.

They all go together, okay?

Because it talks about what the fruit of the spirit-filled life is.

But what he's saying is, wake up, and then maybe with your journal, take that journal of yours and write in there what is it I need to wake up in?

What are the areas where I've been in slumber?

What are the areas where I'm in darkness?

God, I'm gonna give you these areas.

Make a list.

And for some of us a long list, some of it's a short list, but the point is not the list itself.

The point is that you're recognizing and then surrender that to the Lord.

Say, God, redeem my time.

Help me to maximize my time in a kingdom way in these areas.

Because some of us in our lives we've we've grown accustomed to hiding out.

And it's easy to do.

You know, the biggest posers are in the church.

I mean, uh in the world, I mean, it's okay to actually almost be honest to a fault almost.

But in the church, we become posers, right, and pretenders.

Because we've got this image that we want to project.

And I think God's challenging us.

Break the image, man.

Just cast that religious image down and start becoming mature.

And as you grow mature, you're gonna become a beautiful person.

It's a beautiful life.

I love this biography of Mother Teresa that came out years ago, and it was called a beautiful life.

And you know, theologically, um Mother Teresa and I will probably have a lot of differences, but I like I can tell you one thing: she was a kingdom lady.

She was a kingdom person that loved people, and she loved God with all of her heart, soul, mind, and strength as much as she knew how, and her neighbors are said way more than me.

That's a beautiful life.

Who am I to judge anybody living that way?

And so, men and women, God wants your life to be a beautiful expression of Christ to the world.

And He's made every one of you in this room very, very unique.

Some of you express beauty through your writing.

Some of you express beauty by working on an engine of a car.

Some of you express beauty by going into the legal field and having to stand up for those that can't stand up for themselves.

Some of you make money, like a lot of money, and you give it to in such beautiful ways to others.

Some of you are, you're called to expressly disciple your kids in a deep, deep way, and God's mightily using that.

Some of you are teachers.

I could go on and on down the list, but every one of you here are uniquely crafted and uniquely gifted and uniquely anointed.

Maximize that time.

The time that you have on the earth.

I mean, I did that as a kid.

I remember in high school, sophomore year, coming up in gymnastics, had finally had a good coach.

The year before I just fumbled around.

It was a track coach trying to teach us gymnastics.

Um, but I and I remember going to a gymnastics meet, and I saw this guy who was who was uh the top all-around performer in the state, and I and something in me said, I can do that.

I can be as good, if not better, than that guy.

And so for the next three years, I redeemed my time.

You know what redeem means?

Here's what I mean.

Deem, listen, deem means purpose or ownership.

Deem means purpose or ownership.

So redeem means re-own something, repurpose something.

And so, and so Paul is saying, and I had to redeem my time.

I was just a regular old high school student, but I redeemed it under a purpose of a goal that I had at that point.

And so redeeming your time is to re-own your time.

You own your time, you're in control.

Now reown it in God's power.

So let's get to five tips.

Oh, I just want to get five tips for maximizing mastering our time.

Master your time, master your destiny.

So five things.

Number one, start each day walking in the light.

Number one, start each day walking in the light.

And I know so many of you in this church, and I love you so much, and I know some of the darkness that you've had to go through, and my heart breaks for that, but I'm so pumped and excited how many of you are coming into the light in your darkness.

And 2023 was a really, really hard year.

It was it was a tough year.

And I want to say start the day.

Start the day redeeming your life through letting the light shine in your day.

Okay?

So we call it around here P, B, and J.

P, B, and J, Prayer, Bible, and Journal.

Prayer, Bible, and journal.

And we've been talking, we're sold out, by the way, with our prayer, Bible, and journal for this year, but you can get it on Amazon.

So this is available, 2024, prayer, Bible, and journal.

You just put that in on Amazon.

And if you don't have a journal and you want to use this one, it has every day, and you go through the entire Bible, and it's set up by Jay Enman when he put this together with tons of cool stuff.

Um, like I just opened it up to page 232, Nebuchadnezzar's Dream.

This is the book of Daniel.

So when you're going through the book of Daniel, he actually gives you an outline, he gives you a beautiful graphic of what the purpose of Daniel is about, and then you've got lines for each verse that you go through in Daniel.

So, PB and J, you can go on to Amazon and order that.

But starting your day with light, John 1 4, in him Christ was the life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines into the darkness.

Ephesians 5 8, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the world.

Walk as children of light.

Now, this is really interesting to me.

Write down Ephesians 5.

Look it up later, but listen to what Paul says.

You were once darkness.

He doesn't say you were in the darkness, he says your darkness.

So if you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord, your savior, your friend, your king.

Maybe you've never experienced the kingdom of God.

The word, the Bible says, you're darkness.

You say, well, wait, that's kind of a mean thing to say.

No, he's saying you're darkness, but then he says you can be light.

It doesn't say just that Christ is the light, he says you're the light.

That we are the light of the world.

In other words, you can so shine and reflect Christ that your darkness becomes light.

Isn't that cool?

That it's not just his light shining through you.

You actually have a light because you've been creating the image of God.

So you're in darkness, you are darkness, but today or tonight, whenever you want to, you can give your heart to Christ.

The light comes in, you become light.

Not just a reflection of the light, you become the light, because here's what happens: there's a resurrection of the image of God within you.

Now that's pretty exciting.

So that means you become light.

That's why we talk about a kingdom of God revolution around here.

Is that when you're when you begin to realize you're the light of the world, that when you walk into your business, when you walk into whatever arena God's called you into, you're bringing the kingdom of God.

You bring the kingdom of God with you, and a revolution can happen in and through your life.

Psalm 119, 105, your word, O God, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

So the most powerful tool for guidance in our life every day is the Word.

So it's the Word inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit working through us that we have wisdom for each day.

So to begin the day with light is to begin the day opening the light, the lamp.

It's a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

And so I challenge you to start tomorrow morning if you're not regularly doing this.

Get up early in the morning and let the light shine, man.

Open up the windows of your heart and let the light shine in.

Number two, work out your problems.

Work out your problems.

If you don't work out your problems, you'll have a lot of them.

The best way, Jordan Peterson and many others have said this, the best way to oxygenate your brain.

How many of you would like to have oxygen in your brain?

Is that a good idea?

Okay, oxygenate your brain.

How many of you would like to increase your IQ?

Raise your hand if you'd like to increase IQ.

Okay, it's through working out.

Not reading more books, even though that's gonna be my fourth point.

Reading books.

But it's not just reading books, it's not just study, it is those things.

But the number one way that consistently increases IQ as you grow older and oxygenates your brain, gives you energy, is through working out.

Now listen to what I'm gonna say next.

Okay, I'm gonna put it up on the screen.

A little done consistently is better than a lot done sporadically.

A little done consistently is better than a lot done sporadically.

Don't go and get a gym membership.

Bad idea, waste of money.

If you don't already have one, don't get one because the New Year's resolution crowd, I've been in enough gyms to know they're all gone in about a month.

Rather, what is it you love to do?

What is something physically that you enjoy that you think, you know, that only takes five minutes.

But I'll do it every day.

Do that.

Just do that.

If it's walking to the mailbox, picking up the mail, and then doing curls with it, I don't know.

But you know, grab it and then walk back, but do that every day.

That's better than this big two-hour routine you're gonna do at the gym, and then a month later you quit doing it, you feel guilty about it, and you just flab up anyway.

So it's a waste of time.

Rather, what are a few things you can do?

And you guys know, I've told you this before, how, like with air squats and some push-ups and things like that, isometric thing that I enjoy.

Now you say that's, I would never do that.

That's fine, don't do it.

But you know, it could be that when you go to your quiet time, you think I'm joking, but I'm not.

I know a guy, I told him to do this, he did it for like five years.

Remember that time five years ago?

You told us that thing you made that joke about, and I said, Yeah.

And he goes, Man, I've been doing that for five years.

I say, take your Bible, a study Bible, and do curls with it.

Whatever.

But find what you can do regularly and do it.

It's so important.

It's good mentally, it's good emotionally.

I work out in the morning before doing my sermon.

Whenever I'm on the road speaking, I always work out just immediately within two hours of when I'm gonna speak, because I know it oxygenates my brain, gets me fired up, gets me excited.

And so what I do is I have a room, you know, and not everybody can do this, but before that it was a living room.

But just someplace close by that you can go first thing in the morning, drink a glass of water.

Do not drink coffee.

Drink a glass of water, then do your workout.

Might take you five minutes, might take you 15 minutes, whatever it is, and then do an adrenal cocktail.

You didn't think you'd hear a pastor telling you to drink a cocktail.

Okay, here's an adrenal cocktail, half coconut water, half orange juice, and then pour a ton of salt in it and mix it up.

Now, if you're over 50, probably over 55 in this room, you remember Gatorade when it first came out.

That's what it tastes like.

Now, Gatorade is just full of sugar now.

It's terrible for you.

But but back in the day it was actually really good for you.

I remember we had a guy one time we were doing a, we were uh it was a softball game, and a guy fell over, he fainted, and uh one of the guys came over and said, Go to the lunchroom, which is right across the road there, and get me the salt and give me some orange juice.

And we got some orange juice, he poured salt in it, poured it into this guy's throat, man, it woke him right up and he was fine.

So it's so it's an adrenal, it it it restores and refreshes your adrenals by taking that.

Then you can have coffee.

Only after that.

Okay, number three, build blood stained allies.

Build blood stained allies into your life.

There are some relationships you need to drop in 2024.

They didn't help you in 2023, and they're not gonna help you in 2024.

What kind of relationships should you drop?

Can I give you three thoughts?

Okay, I want to give you three criteria for relationship changes in the new year.

Number one, does this relationship encourage you to do things that are unhealthy?

Does this relationship encourage you to do things that are unhealthy?

In the new year, develop new relationships that encourage you to do things that are healthy, dynamic, and spiritually vibrant.

So develop new relationships that encourage you to do things that are healthy, dynamic, and spiritually vibrant.

Number two, does the relationship tear down other people?

Does that relationship, when you guys talk, you're tearing down other people?

That's gossip, slander, and it's based in pride.

It's gossip and slander and it's based in pride.

In other words, you're an insecure person if you need to tear down others to somehow increase your value.

A secure person can say, let's quit talking about that person.

Let's stop that conversation because this is not healthy.

So in the new year, develop new relationships that build up people and speak only good things of others.

Only speak good things of others.

So in the 12-step program, I was listening to Robert F.

Kennedy Jr.

in an interview this week when I was going up to the airport, and he came out of a drug addiction background.

Okay, so he had been uh addicted to hallucinic drugs, and he was being very honest in this interview about how he got set free.

He said something interesting.

He said that we're only as sick as our secrets.

We're as sick as our secrets, and then I I wrote this down before the service because I had a thought on it.

You're as sick as your secrets, but you're as healthy as your honesty.

And that's good stuff right there, right?

I had to write it down because I'll forget about it, but that's that really hit me.

You're as sick as your secrets, you're as healthy as your honesty.

And he talked about one time he was in a uh situation where he was uh litigating as a lawyer against this corporation, and he knew as soon as he sat down that he had exaggerated the truth, if not lied, to the jury.

And it so convicted his heart that he got back up as soon as he could and he said, The last thing that I said is not true.

And I exaggerated, I'm sorry.

He said, You could hear a pin drop.

Can you imagine a lawyer getting up and admitting that they lied?

But he did.

Because he was he was getting in touch with honesty.

And church God wants you to be a people who are honest.

Number three, does the relationship discourage your seeking of the kingdom of God first in your life?

Does this relationship discourage your seeking of the kingdom of God first in your life?

In the new year, develop new relationships that build courage in you to seek the kingdom first.

Seeking the kingdom first is not easy stuff.

We need relationships, blood-stained allies that are headed in the same direction with us.

Time gives you time to change relationships.

Come to wholehearted men on Tuesday mornings.

Guys, come to wholehearted women, don't come.

You're not welcome there.

But but come to wholehearted women.

For the women, come to wholehearted women.

For the men, come to wholehearted men.

Get involved in a community group.

Those are good people.

Those are good relationships.

Number four, read and listen.

Number four, read and listen.

All of you know that I'm a big reader and I'm always talking about reading.

Over the years, people have asked me my top book.

So go to steveholtonline.org and Anna has put up my top 20 books.

They're on the right up at the top.

You can scan it down, and it's on that orange section, the top 20 book.

If you want to, those are available.

And then fifthly and lastly, bring it on when troubles come.

Say, bring it on.

So let's practice right now.

Bring it on.

Bring it on.

When troubles come, when relationships go awry, when you lose your job, when you got a flat tire, when your plans don't work out, when your spouse doesn't look at you the right way, when you say something really dumb, let's change.

Let's grow.

When you're in a relationship where people are talking about other people and you don't want them to, and they go, let's say they go to this church, okay?

You guys say to each other, bring it on.

We're gonna bring it on.

We're not gonna talk about others, we're gonna love others.

Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.

God bless.