Help! Series: Trapping Time | Dr. John Ewart

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church here in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you for tuning into the podcast today.

Today we're going to continue in our series called Help Searching

for God's peace with him, with one another, and with ourselves.

Listen closely to what God has to say to you today.

Welcome everyone to this session together.

Those of you who are listening online, thank you so much for

joining that way. And for those of you who are

alive, I appreciate very much your presence here in this

series. I have appreciated the feedback

that you all have shared, been very, very gracious, and just

want God to be glorified in that.

And just just to let you know, the next episode that we'll be

doing the next session together, I'm actually going to be talking

about work and how do how do we actually approach the subject of

work? Now, some of you may be retired,

but don't let that stop you to talk about work in the way not

only from a career or vocational standpoint, but also service.

Just how do we deal with this subject matter of work?

It was created as a good thing. During the fall, it became a

different thing and we've struggled against it and with it

ever since. So that'll be our next time

together. But tonight, we're going to talk

about trapping time in this series.

We've been talking about anger and stress and fear and guilt.

We exist in a fallen creation, and because of that, we struggle

and we need help. We deal with evil, we deal with

sin, we deal with problems. We deal with choices that

sometimes are not good ones. And we've addressed several

emotional reactions that we might face in this particular

session. I want to actually address a

part of the creation that might tempt us towards some of these

reactions. This is actually something that

we deal with constantly and it actually might put us into a

place of stress or cause us to be angry or allow us to somehow

experience fear. So, so this could be positive or

negative, this aspect of creation.

And I want us to think about that.

As I share in every session, I am very thankful for biblical

counselors and, and also for our churches ministries that we have

in recovery and pastoral care and things like that.

For some of you, you might need to call the church office and,

and, and get some special help. For others, you might need a

long term, larger network of support in your life.

The primary audience that I'm sharing with is, is those of us

who deal with levels of, of stress and anger and these

emotional responses that fall within what we might consider a

fairly normal ranges. But but then at times we do go

beyond that. And all of us need to know what

God's word says about these things.

And we all need the Lord's help. Some of you in extreme cases

might even need the help of medical expertise and or law

enforcement in cases of abuse. I'm going to say that every

single session because I want that to be a part of of your

option if you need that, but we all need help.

So let's walk together through God's word and just think

through the fact that our goal is very simple, where after that

word, Shalom, that word, peace, that word for completeness, that

word for satisfaction. No, no person who's walked the

earth has ever achieved perfect Shalom since before Genesis 3 in

the garden. And Jesus Christ Christ himself

is the only one who was able to achieve that.

And so that's something that we're looking to how can we grow

in that? And tonight we're going to talk

about what, frankly, has become probably the currency of the

21st century time. It used to be that we would

spend time to make money, and certain generations still think

that way, but a lot of the younger generations today will

actually spend money to save time.

And so we have fast everything, instant everything if we can.

And if it's not as instant as we want it to be, we're frustrated

with a a fast food drive through that takes more than more than

10 minutes. And so we'll actually try to

spend money to save time. In one Harvard survey, the US

wage earners actually log the equivalent of an extra month of

time on the job each year compared with workers 2 decades

ago. We're working longer hours, we

work more. And we'll talk more about that

some next time. But it's interesting because 50%

of these people also said that they would willingly take less

pay for more time. Time is precious in our culture.

Time is precious in our century, which is also affects the

church. Frankly, you've got to think

about, this is something that your pastors and I talk about

often in the fact that in today's world, think about what

an active church member is. You know, how many hours a week

do you actually have the opportunity to pour into a quote

UN quote, active church member anymore?

We used to have more services than we do now.

Most churches have stopped many of them.

Many churches don't have this these extra times like this one

even anymore. In fact, I've known from some

folks from some other churches who are coming to these sessions

because their church doesn't offer anything.

And so we have fewer and fewer minutes that we can pour into

people in terms of discipleship and ministry.

And so time's a very precious thing for all of us.

It's also very fleeting. Time seems to run away from us.

As you grow older, you'll learn that all of the old cliches

about time are true, that time seems to speed up, that time

seems to fly by even faster. In fact, there's an old an old

poem that goes something like this.

Didn't say it was a good one. I said it was an old one.

It said when as a child I laughed and wept.

Time crept when as a youth I dreamed and talked.

Time walked when I became a full grown man, time ran.

Soon I shall find in passing on time gone.

And so time is very fleeting. So we need to make the most of

what we have. They say that time flies when

you're having fun. A frog once said time's fun when

you're having flies. But we're not frogs.

And so we have to approach that a little, a little differently

perhaps. And So what we recognize is that

time itself is a, a very fleeting thing.

And the reality is that time flies by whether you frankly,

you're having fun or you're not having fun.

It's relentless. It never, ever, ever stops.

And in the midst of it, the problem is time isn't really

flying. We find that we are, that we're

flying through life trying to get through the To Do List,

trying to, to deal with the stresses and the anger and the

guilt and the fear and all the emotional reactions that we've

been talking about. And we're going to talk about

some more of those down the road.

And so we need to learn how to take time to make time.

It's not just going to happen accidentally.

And so we need to learn to trap it.

How can we trap time before it frankly traps us?

And that's going to be our subject matter.

So turn to James 4 if you have a Bible or, or just listen along

and, and we'll, we'll walk through some James 4 here.

We each get 24 hours a day. What are we going to do with

them? James 4 is going to give us some

insight. And so we have a few things, few

simple things that we're going to talk about tonight and then

some not so simple things that we're going to talk about

tonight as well. Some of you are here because I

made a theological promise to some of you about about time,

and we'll get to that here in a bit.

Those who know what I'm talking about know what I'm talking

about. Those of you who don't know what

I'm talking about, don't worry about it.

You'll be exposed to it and wonder what it was.

All right, here we go. In order to trap time, first of

all, let's just recognize that we need to recognize the

limitations of time. There are certain limitations

when it comes to time. James 413 says this, Come now.

You who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a

town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

Yet you don't know what tomorrow will bring.

What is your life? For you are a mist that appears

for a little time and then vanishes.

James starts off by saying come now or or now.

Listen. Another translation might say

you need to pay attention to this.

You need, you need to look at here and focus for a minute

because he's trying to tell you something important.

And the, and, and the, the moral of the story, the bottom line of

this, this story is that man wants to be in charge.

Man's trying to be in control. And yet there are certain things

that are not controllable. And so we need to be careful

about how much energy and how much focus, how much weight we

are trying to place upon controlling certain things when

in fact you can't control those things, which is difficult for

this world because this world likes to box things up, control

it, define it, redefine it, distort it, et cetera.

So in this story, in this passage, they want to choose

their time for this and that. They want to pick the spot

according to their own pleasure. They want to stay as long as

they wish. They want to arrange their time

for their own benefit and pleasure.

And they want then about boast about their profits.

They got it all planned out. Now, don't take this as a

passage against planning. That's not the point here.

It's a passage against pride. And so it's not that we're we're

we're not supposed to plan, but it's a dangerous thing to leave

the divine out of your planning. You got a plan, as one friend of

mine who passed away not too long ago once said, you, you've

got a plan within the hand of God.

You know, you're resting in his hands, recognizing his

sovereignty and making plans within that framework.

So, so this passage doesn't condemn honest work.

It's not doing that. We'll talk more about that next

time together. It's again, it's not condemning

careful planning. It does condemn time spent

outside of the will of God, where I'm trying to control my

time. I'm trying to control my

destiny, so to speak. I'm trying to, you know, I've

got my dream board all mapped out.

Either know what one of those are are are not.

And if you don't, you're better off.

But, but I got my dream board all planned out, got my path all

figured out. And I'm in complete control.

If, if I, if I dream hard enough, if I think about it hard

enough, if I want it hard enough, I can achieve it.

And all of that's just not true. The world likes us to think it

is, but it's not. We're not in control of that.

I've said to you before in stories and illustration that,

that you don't know what's going to happen to you 10 seconds from

now. You have no idea what's going to

happen an hour from now. We're, we're, we're not in

control of this. So they, it condemns these

people for playing God and that, that's the point.

So we need to recognize the limitations that time brings.

They were oblivious to the presumption, the presumptiveness

of predicting their own future. There was no thought of, of, of

God in Arabic. Muslim would say Inshallah or if

Allah wills and it's a, it's the end of a lot of, a lot of

statements. If God wills, I'll do this.

If God wills, I'll do that. And, and there's even a thought

within that religion, perhaps more than what these folks were

thinking about, but they spoke here as if they could control

their own destinies. And they already knew the

outcome of their destinies and their days.

If you dream it, you can, you can live it.

They viewed themselves as the final authority as they omit

God. So James is reminding them of,

of their, their ignorance and their arrogance about tomorrow.

And remember, remember, we, we don't, we don't get to see

tomorrow. You know, we can.

The irony of boasting about time is dramatic here in the sense of

they, they didn't know anything about their future experience.

No matter what they said about it.

They were deceiving themselves. Life is quite fragile.

Life is frankly quite short comparatively.

We're nothing but a mist. The Bible says we're, we're

vapors that come and go and, and, and like the puff of a tea

kettle, they, they evaporate and, and no one knows the time

of, of his or, or her own life. And so we, we need to be

careful. So it's like a, it's like the

man who went to a doctor for a checkup.

Some of you spend time doing that.

And the next day he came back for the results and the doctor

said he had some some very bad news for him and he had bad news

and some, some worse news. And the bad news was is that he

only had 24 hours to live. And so the man was distraught.

You know, 24 hours. There's there's no way I can get

my affairs in order in 24 hours. I can't believe this.

What news could possibly be worse than this?

And the doctor said, well, the worst news is that I was

supposed to tell you this yesterday.

So, so we need to define the limitations of time properly.

So I've shared a few of them, just three of them.

There could be 30 of them, but there's, there's, there's just

three of them here. First of all, we just recognize

we've been talking about the fact that time cannot be

controlled. We, we can't control it.

You can't stop it. And normally now there are

passages in Scripture where prophets can make the sun stand

still and, and, and miracles can happen with time.

But that's not Normandy. That's not something we can

expect and and depend upon. So in our normal life and our

normal existence, we can't control time.

Time also can't be predicted. We don't know what's going to

happen in the future. No matter how hard we try, no

matter how hard you focus, no matter how hard you plan you, we

can't comprehend the complexities of life and what

can happen around us to accurately predict what's going

to happen in the future. Most of us are not Nostradamus,

and he was wrong most of the time too.

So we can't really predict it. And then time can't be extended.

That's the third limitation. There's a time that you have

listened to the psalmist, Psalm 39, verse 5.

Psalms 39:5

Behold, you have made my days, a few hand breaths, and my

lifetime is as nothing before you.

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath, and that's how God

sees our existence. So it's, it's actually quite

amazing, quite gracious. We'll mention this more later,

but it's actually quite gracious that God actually works within

the mist that is our life. The fact that he cares so much

about that mist, that he cares so much about that vapor and

that he does work within the the few decades that we have here on

this planet in a way that can actually bring him glory.

That's quite grace. It's quite amazing when you

recognize and we'll talk more about his perspective of time

later. And so to think about the

graciousness of God and the fact that even though we can't extend

time, there are stories right now and I won't go into detail

about it, but there there's a billionaire guy who's working

with every aspect of science and health and diet and everything

he can to do to be. And he's also now affecting his

son, who's also participating in it to try to, to live forever.

He's doing every scientific possible possible thing you can

do. And he's he's healthier than

most. He's also not living life at

all. He basically lives in a

hyperbolic chamber most of the time, doesn't have any kind of

existence whatsoever. You know, he might be a little

younger than us, but my prediction is he's going to die

right on time. And it's always amazing to see

people. My grandfather, who I've

mentioned to you multiple times, you know, he worked five days a

week at 96 and died at 97. And I don't know if I'm destined

for that. Not sure I want to be, frankly.

You know, really, I'd like to go see Jesus.

But anyway, if he keeps me here, he'll do that.

And we'll work as hard as we can.

But we need to recognize the limitations of time.

But perhaps more importantly, let's recognize the Lord

overtime. In verse 15, he says this.

This is really the the punch of the story in James 4.

Instead of acting this way, instead of instead of acting

like you get to go predict and you get to go plan and you get

to get to lay it all out perfectly the way you want it to

turn out. Instead of doing that, what you

ought to say is if the Lord wills, we will live and do this

or do that. In other words, there's an

umbrella of sovereignty. There's a submission to God's

lordship over creation that we're submitting to.

And so these people were, in a sense, playing God.

And that's the point that James is trying to make.

They were substituting themselves for that sovereignty.

They were substituting themselves for that authority.

And so life is unpredictable and, and frankly, we're foolish

and the world is full of that. We're foolish if we rely on

anything other than God to map out our lives and to think about

what's next. God is the one who holds that in

his, in his divine plan, and we need to be close to him so that

we can learn it. So, so presumption, as these

people were demonstrating it, it denies who we are.

It also denies who God is and the difference between the two

and how much we need him. So time and space belong only to

God and and thus all we do is dependent upon him.

And we're going to hit that even harder as we walk through this.

A man once asked, this is an old one.

A man once asked God how long a million years was to him.

And God said, it's, it's just like a single second of, of your

time, my child. And so the man said, well, what

about $1,000,000? And God says, well, to me, it's,

it's just like a single penny And so, well, Lord, could I have

one of your pennies? And, and the Lord answered,

certainly, my child, just a second.

I appreciate you. Thank you.

I was worried that was going to take more thought than it than

it did, especially with the delivery.

But but but there's one norm which the life of faith lives

out seriously. And that that really is if God

wills Deus Valente in in Latin, which you may hear again some

other time, but it's it was used for over 100 years.

It's Latin. But then it was a it was a

statement between Christians for over 100 years as as kind of

whenever they would write to one another.

That was the postscript. That was the PS they would

always say Deos Valente, which is simply means if the Lord

wills or God willing. So that's how they would close

their letters to one another as they wrote because there was a

recognition. Everything I'm saying to you,

all these plans, all these wonderful things we're saying,

talking about, all is submitted under the authority of the

creation, your creator of time and the manager of time.

So, so there's nothing wrong with doing business.

There's nothing wrong with planning with what God entrusts

us. In fact, you can, we can read

many other passages where we've got to count the cost of the

tower we've got. He wants us to invest, He wants

us to, to to build. He wants us to grow.

So that's all, all according to scripture.

The whole idea is, is that for him to bless us.

With those things that he puts at our disposal, those those

resources that he gives us, kind of like we talked about with,

with our act series, we just recognize that God himself is

not at our disposal. We have to recognize that he is

the one who is truly Lord. So if if as life is lived, it's

only if God wills. And so the purpose of time and

history, this might seem a little deep to you, but the but

the entire purpose of time, the entire purpose of history is not

for us to live according to our schedules and timetables.

That's not why we were created. That's not why time was created.

The purpose of time and history is for the revelation and glory

of God and to live out his plan and his will as he orchestrates

it. So, so time is an instrument of

God, and we're going to talk more about what time really is

in a minute. I've mentioned this to some of

you before loosely, but we're going to get into it a little

more. Time is an instrument of God as

he seeks to reveal Himself and his planned man.

So time is not accidental. Time is not incidental.

It is his possession and, and, and it can be approached with

anticipation. The Bible says we can expect, we

can hope, we can wait upon the Lord, but but it also is

something that we recognize belongs to him.

So I want to give you the proper perspective of time and this

might help you understand issues such as election and

predestination and God's foreknowledge.

Now I am just going to say out loud that I am not going to

satisfy any of you with what I'm about to say.

Volumes have been written for thousands of years on these

subject matters. Some of you already have

preconceived ideas and you are not, you won't agree with me

perhaps. And so I, I appreciate that

everybody has the right to be wrong, but at the same time, I

want to simplify this. I don't mean that.

Well, maybe I do, but I do want to simplify this.

I don't want to oversimplify it. It may sound like I'm doing

this, but I'm not. What I'm talking about is

extremely deep, but I want to simplify this because I also

know that they're just people who don't even know what those

words mean. They have no idea what what

that's all about. And, and later on we're going to

get into conversations about, about election and, and

predestination on a, on a, just hang with me for a minute.

On a soteriological level, how does salvation actually work?

We're going to do, I'll do a whole series on some doctrinal

things later. I'm going to talk about

eschatology. That'll be the day everybody

wants to show up to hear what I think about the second coming,

because there's some of you that that's all you want to talk

about. Probably.

I don't know you. So I'm not pointing fingers, but

I just know there always is. All right.

And, and, but, but what I really want to talk about here is the

fact that we really need to remember that time is a part of

the creation and that that's that's crucial to all this

theological understanding. I don't care how many volumes

are written. I don't how many Theo I know

these theologians, I've worked with them for years.

I don't care how much they're debating on this, but the idea

is that time is a part of the creation, and we've got to

recognize that. So time, as I've shared with

some of you before, is defined by the relationship of the

Earth's rotation and the sun. You get to stick out to think

about what time is. See, so time was all created in

Genesis chapter 1. So a day is how long?

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

It's 24 hours, but why is it 24 hours?

What's going on? Yeah.

The earth is rotating on its axis.

A year is 300 and more or less 65 days because it's that's how

long it takes to go around the sun.

When did all that happen? Genesis chapter one.

Time did not exist before Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Now, this is a basic premise. Did God exist before Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1? Yes.

So God is not a part of time. You got me.

God transcends the concept of time.

Now. It's almost impossible for our

human brains to comprehend this. It's like the word eternal.

It's a very hard thing to comprehend.

As simple as that word might be. It's hard for us to comprehend

forever because we are trapped in what time we live in time

because we are part of the creation.

God is not. So don't try to box God up.

That's my frustration with some of my theological friends is

they're trying to box God up. They, they want to figure God

completely out. They want to be able to define

God. Quit trying to figure God out.

That's a complete he'll, he'll make sure you can't do that.

Read stories about, I don't know, Babel, etcetera.

God's going to make sure you can't quite figure him out.

He only reveals to us what we've got to know about him.

There's a whole lot more about him we don't know and so don't

try to box him up in some human form and in some human equation.

It becomes a mathematical trap. And that's where some theology

ends up. Same thing with some

soteriological conclusions. They find themselves in a in a

mathematical trap. So we are, we are limited, but

what we can see next down the line, but God is not because he

transcends all this. Now, here's the simplest way,

and I'm not the first one to say this, and I'm going to quote CS

Lewis in a minute, who has a very profound way of expressing

this. But the easiest way for me to

define this for you, and I'm sure this was some of you

before, this is the two-minute part is is in geometry, the

distance between two points is called what a line.

Thank you, math people. Appreciate you.

Some of us didn't do so well in that class, but thank you.

It's a line. Now, if you really know your

geometry, when you turn that line on its end, it becomes

what? A point?

That's the difference in our perspectives.

We are in the line. God sees the point.

So one of the things you have to wrap your heads around is that

that's how God sees time. He sees past, present, and

future all together. There's no limit to his ability

to see it. And that is how we can actually

explain things like predestination and election.

God sees time differently. CS Lewis has a cool term for it.

He refers to it as God's unbounded.

Now you Google that sometime with CS Lewis and you can read a

whole lot of stuff about what he says about is it?

There's 22 terms for it. God's unbounded now, or

sometimes he'll refer to it as his eternal now.

And so God sees all at once. And that's the issue and that's

the problem we have. And so there are two kinds of

time in the Bible. There's actually more, but 2

words that are important. There's Kronos, Kronos time.

That's, that's, that's the earth moving through space, spinning

the created time right? That we talk about, that we live

in and we can, we can chart it maybe imperfectly, but we

charted the other kind of time is chaos.

That's God's time. It's a different, it's a

different quality of time. It's a whole different

substance. It's not the same time that we

live in. So CS Lewis will talk about

God's unbounded now, where now is both this moment right now

and also what stretches into eternity.

And so According to him, for for everything is happening now.

This is part of God's omnipresence and omniscience.

God knows all things. God is present at all times and

all places. And so for him, this is a very

different experience than for us.

And it's hard. I, I'm not expecting you to

understand him. I don't, I, I don't understand

that perspective. I can't, my, my football sized

cranial cavity is not capable of that.

But that's what's going on. So here's a great quote from

Lewis. He says God doesn't foresee the

humans making their free contributions in the future, but

sees them doing so in his unbounded now.

And obviously to watch a man doing something is not the same

as to make him do it. And so there's this, this

balance of we're living in this freedom on the line.

Does God already know what choice I'm going to make?

Sure he does. Does God already know who's

going to heaven and going to hell?

Yes. Does that mean that I have no

free will or no or no choice? No, because my perspective is

that's all I have. You, you don't have ES written

on your forehead. I don't know if you're the elect

or not. So I have a responsibility to

share with everybody. I have the responsibility to

share the gospel with everyone. And so we, we'll talk about

Calvinism and some of those issues later as well.

And, and how many we are and how many we're not.

If you're talking about petals off a flower, we'll do that one

day. We're not going to do that now,

but to recognize that God is experiencing everything at once

in a different way. And he, he isn't just predicting

the future, He's telling us how it happens because he already

can see it. And so we just recognize that

God sees time in a very different way and he owns it.

He's in absolute control over it.

He orchestrates it. He is Lord over it, just like

he's Lord over every other part of the created order.

And so he's the Lord of creation.

That includes time. And we can't separate those

things. So he has an intended purpose

for our moments in our timeline that we call life.

And he has things. He hopes that we will do a lot

as we're walking down the line. Because that's all I can see.

All I can see is next. All I can see is past.

That's all. All I can see is right now

because I'm, I'm, I'm on the very, very narrow part of the

line and that's all I can see, right?

And so we have no right to ignore that will.

We have to actively seek that will.

And so we have to ask ourselves, how can I know it?

And so as you start your day, you better ask him.

And so let me let me talk about spending your time this way and

just for just a minute, because he has a plan and purpose and we

need to give him time. So let me talk about this for a

minute. Let me give you a principle to

take with you. I want you to think about a

tithe of a tithe of the of your time.

I'll say that better. Sorry, a tithe of a tithe of

your time. Don't try to say that 10 times

fast. Here's what I mean.

There are 60 minutes every hour, 24 hours a day.

That's 1440 minutes every day. OK, We all have that.

I don't care how busy you are. I don't care who you are.

That's all you get. That's all you have.

We all have that 1440 minutes every day.

OK, now let's say you actually sleep 8 hours a day.

I'd like to meet you. I'd like to talk about that.

I don't do that. I know people who do.

I know some people who sleep more than that.

Bless your hearts. I don't.

But let's say you sleep 8 hours. That recommended 8 hours.

Whoever recommends things, right?

That's the same people who say I should weigh 175 lbs on a chart.

So you have 16 hours left being awake.

You with me so far, Math not too hard.

You with me. We got off the geometry.

This is simple math. Now game.

All right, that's 960 minutes. So you theoretically have about

960 minutes awake every day. If you sleep 8 hours, 10% of 960

minutes is 96 minutes. That's a tithe of your time.

A tithe of the tithe of your time would then be 9.6 minutes.

Now just bear with me for a minute.

I know this is a crowd that wants to spend more than 10

minutes a day with God, but here's my challenge.

I want to, I want to at least challenge you to begin your day

with 10 minutes with God. And some of you say, well,

that's not enough. I agree with you.

I want you to get up to the 96. But for some of you who are

doing no minutes with God every single day, let's start with the

tithe of the tithe. Let's start with 9.6 minutes a

day seeking God's will for your life in prayer and Bible study.

See what that does? You can say that's too simple,

that's too easy. Now it's not.

See what? See what?

See what happens if you spend 10 minutes a day in the Word, 10

minutes a day in prayer. See what Satan does, see what

God does. Just watch what happens, right?

And then eventually let's build up to maybe the, the 96 minutes

a day or an hour and a half a day.

What a what a time that would be if we could get to that point,

if we were practicing our spiritual disciplines and study

and prayer every day for an hour and a half, that would be pretty

tremendous for a lot of people. We know, we know people who

spend more time than that. You know, they're great stories

of people who spent three hours a day in prayer in church

history and whatnot will bless their hearts.

But for most people in today's world, with the currency of time

like it is, I would love to see you start with 10 minutes,

That's it. And then get it.

Start working toward that hour, that hour and a half.

See what you can do. Maybe you have to break that up

even and let's see what happens. So we need to, we need to seek

to expand that. I challenge that because we'll,

we'll say where has the time gone?

And the truth of the matter is time hadn't gone anywhere.

We have time is right there, 1440 minutes every single day

for every single one of us. Don't care what your job is,

don't care how busy you are. Don't care how stressed you

think you are. Don't care how little time you

have. One of the great things that

you'll think is I hope you appreciate is in seminary life,

I often teach pastors and I've done this around the world a lot

too. And we'll talk about spiritual

disciplines and practicing spiritual gifts.

And sometimes I'll have a doctoral seminar and it'll be

nothing but pastors in there. And I'll, I'll talk about

spending time doing this or spending time doing that and

leadership in the church. And, and they'll sit there and

say, well, I don't have time to do that.

You know, whatever it was I was talking about that, you know,

leadership development or something, you know, I don't

have time to do that. That's a mistake.

They used to refer to me as doctor red ink.

And there's a reason for that. I'll make you do a 5 minute a

day for a two week time period chart.

If you're one of my students, if you'll say that to me, to her, I

want you to tell me what you do every 5 minutes for the next two

weeks. And I bet I can find time in

your life. I bet you're spending a lot of

time looking at these things or social media or what the TV or

whatever it is in many of these lives.

And I bet we can carve out the hour and a half we need a week

to do whatever it was we were talking about, right?

So we better know what His will is.

We're not going to know unless we talk to Him and listen to Him

and study His Word. And so all of our planning, this

is what James is trying to say, all of our timing, all of our

planning needs to be filtered through God's Word.

We have to be defined by God's Word, not the other way around.

And that's why Matthew 633 would say what it does, but seek first

the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these

other things will be added to you.

You know, the context of that is the Sermon on the Mount.

And they're talking about all the all these things of life

and, and Jesus says, listen, if you'll focus on him, all these

other things, we'll find a way to be taken care of.

And so we're accountable for this journey along this moving

thing, this line that we call time or life.

We're accountable for that, and we need to seek what God wants,

and so I need to use my time to pursue Him and His desires.

The prophet Jeremiah said it this way.

In Jeremiah 9 he said, Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man

boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might,

Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who

boasts, boasts in this that he understands and knows me, that I

am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and

righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight

declares the Lord. Great book called knowing God

revolves around that passage to saying that our greatest desire

in life, our greatest goal in life is to know God and to spend

time with him. And if you're not spending time

with him, listening to him, studying him, studying his word

and will, praying to him, I'm not sure how you're ever going

to know how you're supposed to operate along the line, so to

speak. And so we need to trap time

before it traps us. We need to recognize the

limitations it brings. We also need to recognize the

Lord overtime. But thirdly, we need to

recognize the lessons from time. So verse 16 goes on and it says

as it is, see, there's not a guess.

We're gonna have to guess about what's going on in this story as

it is. You boast in your arrogance.

All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing

to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin.

You've often probably quoted that second part you'll quote.

A lot of people will quote verse 17 completely out of context.

The context here is the use of time, that sin of omission that

you know the right thing to do, but you're still not doing it.

And so this is an issue of how I'm how you're using your life.

This is an issue of how you're using time.

This is an issue of obedience. Are you really obeying God in

the way that he wants you to? So we have sins of what we would

call Commission these, these active proactive things we do

sins of omission where we're just not doing what we ought to

be doing. And both categories of sin

causes trouble and, and in this context, this verse that we

often quote, it's in this context, if I'm boasting about

my time, I'm boasting about my life, I'm in control of my life.

This is idolatry in this simplest form.

I, I believe I'm in charge, I believe I'm God, I believe I'm

the Lord of my life. Now you people may never

articulate it that way, but that's exactly what they're

doing. They've placed themselves on the

throne of their life, right? So boast.

This is the same word that's used in first John chapter 2,

1 John 2:16

verse 16, often translated the pride of life.

And so this is a prideful, arrogant type attitude.

It's arrogant, it's hollow, it's presumptuous.

It's a claim that can't be fulfilled.

In fact, the word in the original language finds its root

in the characteristic of a wandering quack, like an old

medicine man in the Old West. That's actually where this word

gets its, its, its meaning in, in biblical times.

It, it's like a travelling quack who offers cures which will not

cure. It's a snake oil salesman.

And that, that, you know, put that in biblical times.

So maybe a, a camel oil salesman, I don't know.

But anyway, you know, a Viper oil salesman who's promising you

a cure for your leprosy or whatever you have.

And it's just not real. It's just not true.

It's deceiving. So we're deceiving ourselves

when we think somehow we get to control and we get to be in

charge. So he boasted of things which he

was simply unable to do. He he couldn't do it.

And so this boasting refers to this proud confidence in, in, in

one's own knowledge or cleverness.

That's what the word means. It's pride, and that's what

James is talking about, that somehow we're living this way.

So they planned as if they're they were the masters of their

own lives. So I don't know if you're ever

around people who have to boast about every single thing they

ever do, you get a running record of all they have ever

done so that they can be recognized.

This happens, believe it or not, even in the church sometimes.

Don't tell anybody, but even in the church sometimes.

Some serve for their own glory, not for the glory of God.

It's obvious that the only boasting we better do is about

what God's doing. So instead of confessing our

dependence upon God, their arrogance erupts and overflows

with bragging about themselves. So boasting about the future

without recognizing the Lord overtime the the one who created

and holds time is frankly evil. It's aggressively and viciously

wicked. That's what he says he says in

this passage. He says, listen, he says in

verse 16, all such boasting is the the Greek word is poneros.

And this word means this word means in fact, it's the same

word. It's fascinating.

It's the same word Jesus uses when he prays deliver us from

evil. I mean, this is a vicious word.

This is extremely negative word that you got to take this

seriously. James is taking this extremely

seriously. This is very strong language to

say that this is just flat out satanic.

We need to act upon this and do what's right.

We need to know what, what good is before, before we can do it

though. So we have to evaluate our life

patterns to see if they conform to God's word rather than our

own. And we need, we need to plan in

those areas that are, that are obvious areas in God's word.

Sometimes people don't know what to do.

And, and I, I, I'll talk about the black and whites and the

Grays. You know, when God's word is

very clear about something, you don't have to worry about it.

You don't have to wonder about it.

Just do that. And often I find that that helps

us define the more grey, nebulous areas of life.

When we might have two good choices, we think we're not sure

which choice to make, and it's hard sometimes to discern God's

will. But we need to plan to obey in

those obvious areas 1st. And then the surprises, the

interruptions, the crisis that are often tough to plan for.

But when they happen, we we at least find our lives prioritized

in a way that will help us to focus upon the Lord and be ready

to deal with them in a biblical way.

And so many of life's most precious moments aren't planned.

And God will bring these things to us.

But if we're focused on Him and we've established a framework of

biblical decision making and reaction that's healthy and

helpful and depends upon Him, we'll be in a much better spot.

So. So for most people, their level

of knowledge sometimes far exceeds their level of

obedience. That was a better line than you

thought it was. But for a lot of people, their

level of their level of knowledge far exceeds their

level of obedience. They think they know when in

fact they just need to trust instead of trying to figure it

out. So knowledge isn't enough, we

need action. So we got to ask ourselves, is

this going to help me or someone else become a better disciple?

James says that you've been fully warned.

I've pointed the matter out to you.

You have no excuse. That's the whole point that he's

trying to make here. And so let me share 4 lessons of

time with you and take a few minutes here.

So some applications. So, so trapping time for the

Kingdom recognizes that that seeking to control or claim

credit for our time is arrogant and evil.

And we really need to think about that a little bit.

We, we have these sins of Commission and omission.

So this idea of sin is missing the mark.

But, but but not only doing wrong, but failing to do what's

right. And so the Lord gives us a

command and we either ignore it or simply fail to do it.

Don't, don't ignore James. So we recognize that seeking to

control this or, or claim credit is arrogant.

It's evil. You know, I was sharing with the

staff this morning. Every morning we gather to pray

together before the as the day begins and I try to bring up a

passage of Scripture from my own quiet time.

What did God kind of say that I thought was neat this morning as

I study various books of the Bible?

And one of the things that I've been working through, I've been,

I've been doing a double study of Exodus.

Don't worry about that. I'm not necessarily preaching a

series on Exodus. I'm just I've been caught up in

the Exodus. So I've been through it one

time. I'm back in it again and I've

been kind of doing, I've done it at home and doing it here at the

office. And I'm, I'm in the middle of

the plagues again. You got to think about this for

a minute. So plague after plague after

plague, Moses and Aaron, you know what God says, go do this,

you know, make gnats out of dust or boils are going to appear or

fire from hail from the sky. The livestock are going to drop

dead. All these different things, you

know, blood, blood, water turning to blood, all these

different plagues, right? Ten of them.

And to some degree these plagues are an attack upon the Egyptian

gods. And you got to recognize that

backdrop that one by one God is destroying the, the, the

pantheon of, of Egyptian gods. But but the other thing you've

got to and by the way, the final act of the first born dying is

an attack on on Pharaoh. Pharaoh, because Pharaoh himself

is a God. And so to recognize that his own

son would die. So he is the son of RAW, the sun

God FA FA Raoh. Pharaoh is how it should be

pronounced. So you recognize he's the son of

RAW. But anyway, those attacks are

there. But what's interesting to me is

the Moses, Aaron perspective. So here's Moses and Aaron.

OK, God. Yes, Sir.

Yes, Sir. You know, staff, rod, snakes,

blood, gnats, flies, frogs, livestock, hail, Everything

happens, right? According to what?

Goshen's fine. Egypt's decimated.

Everything's just great. Let my people go.

Pharaoh says. If you'll tell God to stop, I'll

let my people go. Then what does Pharaoh do?

His heart is hardened over and over and over and over and over

again. And I'm sitting there thinking

this whole time that Moses and Aaron and the people of Israel

still in slavery, still making brick now without straw, they

have to wait on all this. Think about the time but God,

but God, God, you said, but God time.

And you recognize, why does God make them go through all 10

plagues? And part of it might be the

Egyptian God angle. I get that.

But I think the bigger part of it is, is that God wanted Egypt

to talk about him, that when it was done, because when you read

the passages that you might know that I am God, that you might

know I am the Lord. And he's saying that to the

Egyptians, not just but also to the people of Israel.

The people of Israel needed to know that because they were

going to need to know that to go through the wilderness and to

get into Canaan. They needed to know He was

indeed God. Remember, it had been a whole

been a long time since Joseph, It had been a long time since

the patriarchs. They hadn't had a prophet, they

hadn't had this word from God. So they needed the evidence.

The Egyptians were then going to be testifiers of God, and the

Bible's pretty clear about that. I'm going to whip these people

down to the point of they're going to tell the whole world.

The most powerful nation on the planet is going to tell the

whole world that that Hebrew God is the real God.

That's the real deal. Now, easy to read that in a few

chapters. Tough to have gone through that

if you're Moses and Aaron. I'm sure you know, the people of

the people that the Hebrew people at different times are

doubting them. They're, you know, they don't

know there's another plague. Moses doesn't know.

We're waiting for #10 The flies are going to do it.

The flies didn't do it. The frogs, frogs are going to do

it. The frogs didn't do it.

You know, think about the endurance.

Think about their perspective. It just hit me, I was probably

harping too much about that to the staff this morning.

But anyway, I just, it kind of hit me that poor old Moses and

Aaron had to endure and wait upon the Lord to do what he's

going to do, even when it didn't make sense, even when it seemed

like failure. Well, Lord, we thought we had

this and Moses as hard, as hardened, and he's still not

going to let us go. We did.

And he's still not going to let us go and he's still not going

to let us go and he's still not going to let us go.

But in the end, they learn about the Passover.

In the end, they learn about deliverance.

And years later, they celebrate the Passover again with the

final sacrifice, the final lamb, Jesus Christ.

And all of the picture fits together in a perfect way.

And that, and that's a God who's in charge of time.

Who those years for him because he has a purpose and a plan.

So be patient, wait upon the Lord, recognize that he's in

control. You don't need to seek to

control that. So #2 trapping time for the

Kingdom requires this recognition of God's

sovereignty. Psalm 139, which is a verse we

often use and for the sanctity of human life, and rightfully so

says this your eyes saw my unformed substance in the in

your book were written every one of them.

The days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of

them. So even before I was born, even

while I'm in my mother's womb, even when I'm a speck of a

cellular being, God has a plan. He has days, He has purpose for

me. He already knows because he can

see it all. He sees the point.

I'm just on the line. He knows me #3 trapping time for

the Kingdom requires the prioritization of and

participation in God's work. And I shared a little bit about

this in our Acts series in the sermon about Ananias and

Sapphira in Acts chapter 5 about stewardship in the sense that

Acts 5 · chapter mention

stewardship is, is not about money.

It just, it is, but it's not. It includes that.

But if you weren't, if you didn't hear that message, you

need to go back and listen to it because it's about life.

Stewardship is your best time. It's your best energy, it's your

best resources. It's your, it's your best focus,

it's your best skill set, it's your best experiences.

And some of the stuff that you've been through on that

timeline that you, that you hated, that were horrible, that

were difficult. Some of those experiences are

going to be tools that God uses in stewardship to minister to

somebody else who's going through it, somebody that you

can relate to that maybe nobody else could relate to.

You know, over the years, because of some of my past

experiences, I've been able to have conversations with men that

some of you would consider kind of rough and tough.

Kind of guys have been through some stuff and we can have

conversations and I'm, I can relate to what they're going

through to some degree. And, and we can talk.

Well, some of you have been through crisis, you've been

through drama, you've been through, through real things in

life. And God will use those in

ministry if you'll allow him. But it's our best, it's our best

energy. It's it's a tithe of our time.

It's a tithe of our money. It's a tithe of our talent, our

spiritual giftedness. One of the things that we're

going to have to talk about is how do we discover our spiritual

giftedness in calling? How do we do that?

We've got some practical things coming up down the line.

We're talking through those things of how we're going to

help you discover those things and put them into action and

actually and actually help you find your place in service to

where you don't have to go searching on a web board

someplace. But we're actually going to help

you match up to ministry so that you can serve and you can place

your best skills, your best experience, your best

giftedness, and calling into service.

So we're working through all that #4 trapping time for the

Kingdom requires a knowledge of God's Word and God's will for

our lives. Once again, we're we're not

going to know what to do unless we know what He wants us to do.

So Ephesians 5 says this. Look carefully then, how you

walk. Not as unwise, but as wise,

making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

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

the Lord is. I don't know a passage that's

more clear. The days that we live in here

are fallen. There's a reason why evil

exists, and we'll do a whole thing on that one day.

I know I keep talking about all the things we're going to do,

but I'm brand new. Give me a minute.

So why does the problem of evil exist?

Why does evil exist in this world?

In the 1st place? We got to talk about those

things. A big question for a lot of

people, and some people struggle with God because of that.

But we recognize that these days that we live in are fallen.

This creation is groaning, time is groaning, and so we have to

make the most of it Now. The best use of our time to not

be foolish is to understand what God's will is for your life and

to live it out. There's no way you're going to

know that unless you're engaged with Him.

You're abiding in Him and He in you, so that together you bear

that fruit. John 15-5 ish.

You've got to be in His Word. You've got to be in prayer.

This is why the church needs to exist.

The church needs to exist to help equip you to discover what

God's will is for your life and to live it out and to give you

opportunities to do that. That's why the church needs to

exist. And so we need to spend time

with Him in order to understand how He wants us to use His time,

right? And then Psalm 90 says, so teach

us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom,

right? We need to think about what that

means. Life should be a deliberate act,

not some passive response to circumstance.

When it says to wait upon the Lord, that doesn't mean you're

sitting around staring at the sky wondering if he's going to

ever show up. Waiting upon the Lord is an

active participation in abiding and connecting with Him.

It's kind of like when the disciples were told in the in

the book of Acts to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy

Spirit. They weren't just going back and

sitting around doing nothing. They were praying, they were

worshipping, they were fellowshipping, they were

encouraging, they were strengthening one another.

Remember what he said? I can just hear him.

Remember what he said? Now this makes sense.

I remember when he said he predicted.

I remember. I can just hear him.

Even Thomas. Maybe.

Maybe. Yeah.

You know, Thomas, too. Supposedly Thomas went as far as

India according to tradition. That's tradition.

There's not a lot of fact in place.

But theoretically, the apostle Thomas went as far as India to

show the gospel in the end. But it should be a deliberate

act. Life is Life is something we

need to seize. It's short.

It's fleeting, gang. I've done 300 and something

funerals in my lifetime. I had a funeral.

I see. I tell the new agent story.

So Neil would be thrilled to death if he were alive, that I

just said his name out loud. But so I had a church treasurer

who was the most prolific regional Funeral Home director

I'd ever met, Right. You may not know this.

Anybody here in the Funeral Home business?

You could testify to this? Anybody here a funeral director?

So most funeral homes in the United States of America are

actually owned by a few corporations.

They really are. And then they'll have a family

name on them. The family may have started it,

but most of them have been bought out by just a few

corporations. That's behind the scenes

knowledge. Don't tell anybody this was a

family owned and run deal. He had multiple chapels and

multiple towns in eastern Oklahoma, right?

And any time a person would come along who didn't have a church

or didn't have a pastor, and it was very evangelistic, he just

knew that I needed to do their funeral and I needed to be there

to share the gospel with them. And so Neil would do 12 funerals

a week. And so I had the opportunity

some weeks to do 12 funerals. I didn't, but I would have that

if you were on staff at that church, you had the opportunity

to preach and as many funerals as you could possibly preach.

And if I could write a funny book about funerals, I would,

but I'm not sure you can. Can you write a funny book about

funerals? I have some funny funeral

stories. But anyway, I don't know that

you're supposed to do that. I've done funerals.

Now, just bear with me for a minute and it's not more, but

hang in there. I've done funerals for

incredible believers. I mean, people who are mentors

to me, people who are role model Charlie Greer, people, just

wonderful homecoming celebrations, you know, where

everybody who knew this person believed this person was a

believer, saw the testimony of their life, saw the fruit of

their life. What a glorious, wonderful

celebration of a person who's now with Jesus, right?

But I've also done the funerals for people who didn't know Jesus

at all. I've been the only one at the

graveside. I, I've, I've been the only one

that the family had any connection with whatsoever.

And none of them were saved, right.

And to recognize the use of life and, and, and perhaps carefully,

the waste of life to say what, what did this amount to in the

end? I've done funerals for tragic

stories. Suicidal.

Babies, I won't go into any more detail.

It's going to be very sad. And so the contrast of life,

what that life meant, the impact of that life and, and I'm not

here to judge. I don't know all those details

of those people. I don't know who all they

impacted and maybe even negative impact had positive result.

You never know, you know, but I was just there and I got to

experience it week after week after week after week after week

in church life, from church members to non church members to

tragic stories and and to walk through that with people and to

think about, you know, part of what here here's a basic funeral

sermon. Aren't you excited?

You came for this? Here's a so here's a basic

funeral sermon. Here's what you're going to do

at a funeral. So if you ever have to preach a

funeral, here's here's your outline.

You're right, we're here to honor a life.

So, so you try to figure out something, anything that you

might say. I don't preach people into

heaven. I can't, I'm not going to do

that. But but is there anything nice

that you can say about that dead person you with me?

We're here to honor a life. Now, sometimes it's really easy

sometimes that, that you know that that could be that that can

be, you know, a long time, a lot of stuff.

We're, we're here to honor a life #2 we're, we're, we're,

we're here to seek help for our loss.

Because I don't care who you are, whether you're saved or

unsaved, you're going to grieve. You ought to grieve.

Christians should grieve. It's OK to grieve.

We grieve as people though, who have what?

Yeah, we have hope. It's just different.

But so, so I want to help the non Christian to know how to get

to that hope. And obviously I'm, I'm helping

the Christian to, to embrace the hope that they have.

So we're we need help for our hurt and then and then we need

hope for our lives. So that's that alliterated

honor, a life help for a hurt, hope for our lives.

So if nothing else that they didn't, I'm preaching the

gospel, right? And I sit there sometimes at

that first point and even the family can't give you anything,

you know. I mean, you know, Uncle Charlie

learned not to cuss except when he was drunk.

I mean, you know what I'm saying?

I mean, sometimes. But when you have a 15 year old

who was arrested with his father for dealing drugs and his dad

goes to the penitentiary and the 15 year old kills himself

because he didn't want to go to jail.

And you're asked to do the funeral.

And the State Highway Patrol have to circle the Chapel and

tell you to wear a bulletproof vest to preach the funeral

because there's going to be a shooting at the funeral because

of the divorce between the father and the mother.

And you literally have a Chapel with an aisle down the middle

and mom sides here and dad sides here.

And you've got this 15 year old and they want you to wear a

bulletproof vest. And there are there are armed

men circling the entire service because they'd had a fist fight

the night before in the at the viewing, even knives came out.

I didn't wear the bulletproof vest, not my style.

But then at the end of the service, after I share the

gospel in those places and that culture, people would come by

and view. It was open casket, believe it

or not. Should not have been, but it

was. And they view and they go by.

So and then the family comes by and circles back and sits down

and you'll have a prayer with the family.

That's a tradition back in those hills.

Visitors come by, they go out, the family circles around.

Soon as the mother stands up to come view her son, this entire

section gets up, turns their back and walks out.

Humanity. And I thought to myself, Teresa

remembers that story. They were relatives of church

members. They made sure the funeral was

just across the state line so that the dad couldn't get out of

the pen to come to the funeral. They wouldn't let him cross the

state line. I share that ugly story with you

on purpose. These days we live in are evil

and life can be wasted, right? Not just that 15 year old.

I mean, what a tragic way. He was not a believer, No

evidence at all whatsoever that he knew anything about Jesus.

But these people, there's a line.

What are you going to do with that?

What are you going to invest in? And that's a dramatic story.

I showed the dramatic story on purpose so that it hits you in a

dramatic way. But we are stewards of time,

which means that we are stewards of life, every part of it.

And wasted time is a wasted life.

So we have to pursue, we have to understand his will, the fact

that he's in absolute control of this.

Whether I believe that I reject that I, I, I'm an atheist, I'm

an agnostic, whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't change the fact that he's still in absolute control

over time. Because the other thing about

time, which is what some of you want me to talk about is there's

going to be an end to it. And only the Father knows.

Quit trying to figure it out because only the Father knows.

And there's going to come a moment.

Trumpets are going to blow, Things are going to happen.

One day I'll describe all those things, I promise, but it'll

end. And my perspective is it could

end today. I'm not waiting on anything,

anytime, anytime. What are you doing with the

line? God already knows, but He's

given you the freedom to make those choices.

It's amazing. It's a mystery beyond our

comprehension perhaps, but we need to focus on His mission and

pathway about it. It reminds me of an old monkey

trap. I don't know if y'all know

monkey traps. You also do them with raccoons.

We used to do them with, we used to do a lot of raccoon hunting

in, in the Ozarks. But you, you also have monkey,

monkey traps. You know exactly.

He knows exactly what you do. And one way to do this with

either a raccoon or a monkey, they'll both do this because

you're idiots. So what will happen is is you,

you cut a hole in a tree branch. There's different ways to do

this. Didn't have to be a tree branch,

but we'll just say it's a big take a big tree, cut a big hole

in there and put a shiny piece of foil down in that hole.

Then put 22 horseshoe nails in where the ends of the horseshoes

are pointing downward. That monkey or that raccoon will

reach in there to get that shiny little whatever.

It could be a piece of fruit or it could be a piece of foil.

He's going to reach down in there and he's going to grab

that foil or that piece of fruit, and he's going to try to

get his hand out. But when he makes the first, his

hand's too big. Those horseshoe nails are going

to dig into his hand and he can't get out.

Now all that dumb thing has to do is what?

Let go? And you know what it'll do?

It'll die sitting there before it.

Let's go before it'll let go. You can hear it screaming,

squealing, carrying on. And you can go and have you

monkey meat or raccoon for dinner.

I've had both. Yum.

Raccoon's better than monkey, just for the record.

Little greasy make you want to go out to Wendy's so, but that

thing will sit there because it doesn't want to give up control.

Now gang, sometimes that's how we're living life, isn't it?

Corey 10 Boom, who I'll quote often because I like her, was at

Chuck Swindoll's church one time.

Swindell, big old Marine this in his younger days.

And Swindell was in a tense conversation with somebody after

church and you and and he was just kind of he was tensed up

kind of making fist. You could just see they're

physically tense. You get to see the stress in his

shoulders and his arms and his hands.

And little Corey 10 Boom, about four feet tall, comes up to him

and says, Doctor Svendall, give me your hands and makes him

unclench his fist. And she says, Doctor Svendall,

you must be very careful about that to which we hold on to so

tightly. Time, life, stewardship,

calling, giftedness, skills, experience, good and horrible

experience are tools to be dedicated to God, to be used for

his glory, if we'll allow him to do that.

So it's all about control. So what time is it for you and

what is it time for you to do? Those are the questions that we

have to face to recognize that God can already see, God already

knows. But for us, we're in the middle.

We're in the middle of a of a stream, a river, a line.

And amazingly, I have a free will to make choices.

Good ones, dumb ones, bad ones. And So what I pray that

spiritual maturity does is it starts to help me make more good

ones than bad ones. That slowly but surely I make

the right choices because I'm spending time with him.

I'm in his word with him. I'm in prayer with him.

This is what you want. This isn't what I want.

This is what you want. I've shared about my testimony a

little bit. One of these days I'll share the

whole testimony with me. I've shared some of that

baseball bats and, and bouncing and boxing and things like this.

But one of the things that one of the things that had to happen

in my life, and there's still a lot of problems in my life and

there probably always will be. And, and I, I think that there

are parts of my brain that were probably burned out because of

the past, that it will affect me the rest of my life.

And that's really not a joke. But I had a real trouble problem

with alcohol and that comes from a childhood of exposure.

And, and for me, it became a real problem, especially when I

was running away during this horrible prodigal experience

that I went through. It was became a real I, I was, I

was a good boxer when I was drunk because I'm not a happy

drunk. I'm a raging drunk.

And so you become the Hulk. And in those days when I'm 285

lbs of solid muscle, that's a dangerous place to be.

And one night and I shared this at the wild game dinner, that

one, one night when I, I was in a rage after I'd lost a, a fight

and I was trying to kill somebody and God spoke to me and

God showed me, John, have a better life for you.

You got to make better choices. And I don't know how else to

explain it. It's almost Damascus roadish.

But I'm not a great Mystic, but I'm a little bit of one, I guess

because that was real. You can like it, not like it,

explain it away, whatever. For me, God spoke and I haven't

had a drop alcohol since. Now I've had the choice, I've

had the temptation, I've had the access, but spiritual maturity,

recognizing who needs to be in charge, allows me the power to

make better choices. I, I, I filter everything from

him sitting on the throne, not me sitting on the throne.

So it, it, whether it's alcohol or whatever, The thing is not

going to happen unless we recognize that he is the vine.

I'm just a branch and, and, and I'm a little short one, probably

pretty brittle. And I'm not going to last very

long. I'm not, you know, I was, I was

15 yesterday. I mean, some of you know that

the older you get, the more you know that I mean, and, and, and,

and my kids were babies last week and, and our my grandson

who's getting ready to graduate from tech school in the Air

Force was just born. Boom, boom.

Really. You going to hold that in your

hand, man? That's slippery.

You got to recognize who's on the throne.

I've got to abide in Him and He and me, and then we can bear

much fruit. But apart from Him, in time, in

life, in decisions, in choices, in control, but apart from me, I

can do what? And we got to believe that.

But in Him I can do what? Isn't that amazing?

See that? See.

See the balance. Without Him, I can do nothing.

With Him, I can do all things that He wants me to do.

It would be within His will, but that's the best way.

That's how you trap time. This is a lordship issue.

It's a stewardship issue. It's a life issue.

Father, thank you for time. It's an amazing commodity.

And Father, we're rushing around.

And Lord, my fear is, is that that many of us define success

because we woke up in the morning, we pushed the button

and the garage door opened and we took our To Do List.

And a successful day was we got to check off stuff off our To Do

List. And we didn't even stop for a

moment, not even 9.6 minutes to ask you what your To Do List was

for. Today though, we had a great

day, got a lot done, very successful.

Father, sometimes we sound just like these people in James 4.

Forgive us, Father, for taking time for granted.

It is fleeting, it cannot be controlled, it cannot be

stopped. But Father, what an investment,

what a gift of grace to be able to live, to live a full life, to

grab life by the throat and squeeze a little, to invest in

you and what you want and to watch you perform miracle after

miracle after miracle. To invest all that we are, all

of our resources, all of our time, all of our giftedness, all

of Our Calling that You gave us in the 1st place into that thing

called a timeline. Forgive us, Father, when we

think we control it. Forgive us, Father, when we

forget that creation, that creation contains time and that

you're the Creator and that it belongs to you, and you can

start it and you can stop it at any moment according to your

will. So help us, Father.

Invest in your time in your vision.

Father, Help us to think toward eternity because that's where

real time is. That's where chaos is.

And eternity, this short little period here is not life.

This is a precursor to life. This is a warm up to life.

And Father, we look forward to eternity with you.

So Father, whenever you're ready, you can end the time

here. You can come back and take us

home anytime, but Father, for now, if we're still here, if

we're still here the rest of tonight and we're here tomorrow,

that means you want investment, You want control, You want us to

wait upon You and live out Your purpose.

Thank you so much for the folks that are showing up for this.

Thank you so much for the folks who are listening to this.

I pray in the weeks to come as we talk about work and we talk

about money and we talk about hope and a few other things,

Father, that you'll just bless us.

We just want to learn from you. We just want to live for you.

And so, Father, thank you for this time together in Christ's

name, Amen. God bless you all.

Thank you all so much. Thank you so much for listening

today. And I also hope that you'll go

to [email protected]

as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless

you and your families. Thank you once again.