POSSIBLE IMPOSSIBILITIES
Lesson 5: Thursday, July 14, 9:45-10:15
Stewardship of Time in a Facebook World
Open with a demonstration. Ask forgiveness for having a cell phone when theirs have been taken away. Sorry. Demo: Walk while texting, walk into one of the poles in the shelter. Next, demo carrying on a conversation about Jesus while texting to one of your friends. Not a real effective witness. Talk about the tragedy of lives lost on the road every day when someone is texting and driving. Talk about what people share on line (“sexting?”).
Nov 2015 report by CNN says, “On any given day, teens in the United States spend about nine hours using media for their enjoyment. That's more time than teens typically spend sleeping, and more time than they spend with their parents and teachers. And the nine hours does not include time spent using media at school or for their homework. It just shows you that these kids live in this massive 24/7 digital media technology world, and it's shaping every aspect of their life. They spend far more time with media technology than any other thing in their life. This is the dominant intermediary in their life."
1 Chron 29:15 “Our days on earth are as a shadow, and without hope.”
Job 9:25 “My days are swifter than a runner; the flee away”
James 45:14 “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while then vanishes.”
Ps 90:12 “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Eph 5:15-16 “Walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time...”
Col 4:5 “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time...”
Matt 6:21 and Luke 12:34 “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
1. Christians should be the leaders in the world for “redeeming the time.” We should be the ones who lead the world in effectiveness, showing that we know how precious time is. We should not be ones who show up late....ever. That shows a disrespect, not only for those we are meeting with, but also for how importantly we feel the time we spend is.
I met with the Lt Governor of Indiana for lunch one time. She wanted my support in a future race she planned to run. In the middle of our lunch, however, someone called me on my cell phone. I absent mindedly answered the phone, partially so I could brag to the person on the other end about having lunch with the Lt. Governor. My wife later suggested that this was probably not very respectful and that she didn’t appreciate it. I had wasted her time talking to someone else while I should have give her my total attention. I wonder if we ever do that with Jesus? Have you ever cut short a time of prayer or Bible reading so you could take a call? More important, have you dismissed time with Him so you could text someone or check your email?
More than all others, we should have a healthy respect for how important our use of time is. Just like you can be “living life” at what feels like a normal pace, only to find out the day has gone by very quickly, many of us can testify to the fact that days, months and years go by the same way. You got to school, work a job, raise a family and just “days later” you are 50! “When all of life is gone and past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” How often have I been convicted of what I should have done with the days and years of my life instead of what I did. There is a popular southern gospel song that says, “Lord, help me to live like I wish I had lived in the past.”
Time is always shorter than you think Christians. Live a life for Jesus. Use time wisely. Invest time in meaningful, significant things and resist the temptation to let your life ride along on autopilot. Redeem the time!
2. Time is SHORT. Ask anyone who is over 40 how much time they think they have spent in life and how much they think they have left and you will get a better perspective on how quickly it flies. And, teens, you will be 40 before you know it. Ever see a professional athlete that is the son or daughter of a famous athlete you knew and grew up watching? You think, how in the world can Michael Jordan have a kid playing basketball already? We talk about Kennedy’s assassination like it was yesterday. You talk about 9/11 as if it was yesterday. That was 15 years ago! The shortness of time is relative to our perspective. But the one consistent feature of it is that it is short! The other constant is that the longer you live, the shorter life seems and the more significant becomes how you spend it. When James refers to life like a vapor or a mist, it is from a perspective not only of its indefinite quality, but in how quickly it comes and then goes.
Think of some of the best moments of your life. Now think about how quickly it passed, how much you would like to relive those moments and how seldom they come. Time is a trap sometimes. We sleep a third of our lives. We work maybe a third or more. And when we examine what we do with “our time”, the time we have available to do whatever we want to, it seems like we have so little. That is why it is important to be good “stewards” with that time. We all have the same amount...24 hours a day. Yet some of us seem to do a better job getting the most out of that time, the best return for the investment of that time. That is because it requires a purposeful, intentioned, wise use of every minute, hour and day....because you only get so much of it and when it goes by, it is gone. We can never get back time that is past to do better or something else.
3. Treat time as a treasure. If you examine what you spend most of your time doing that will reveal what is most important to you. When Jesus said these words, I’m sure He had the treasure of time on His mind at least equally as He did material pleasures, if not more. While the disciples slept, He prayed. When they fretted about the waves around them, He came walking on the water. Martha was running around fixing the house, preparing the dinner, greeting the guests. Mary, meanwhile was sitting at the feet of Jesus, just loving Him. Which one did Jesus praise as finding a “better” way? Hey, if someone doesn’t prepare the food, no one eats. But sometimes, it is more important to use those moments of time at Jesus feet as treasurers and spend time there instead. No one knew how short time was than Jesus. He knew that He had only three years to do what the Father had sent Him to do to change the world. Jesus’ example shows us the ultimate way to redeem time!
No one is telling you to throw away your cell phones. No one is saying to live a life without the convenience and efficiency that multi-tasking can bring to your life. But just like the world (and government) is telling you to be responsible enough to not drive at the same time you text or check your emails or gab to your friends, maybe the Lord is telling a lot of us that it would be wise to examine whether or not the massive amounts of time we give to social networking would be better invested in time with Him and leading others to Him.
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