Parenting With A Purpose: Session 5

It is a great delight for me to introduce to you, those of you who haven't been here yesterday, Pastor Randy Patton, the speaker we've had for our 23rd Annual Bible Conference. He's come with his help meet Cindy. Cindy's been a real vital part of the ministry and a very significant part of that ministry. Randy served as pastor in Fort Wayne, Indiana for 12 years, and then he served as an association of churches in Indiana for another 12 years as he worked with congregations and helped pastors out.

And then he spent 16 years as the executive director of the National Association of New Thetak Counselors, of which you are all, I am sure, very familiar. and then two years for association certified biblical counselors as the director of advanced training he's the founder and president of team focus ministries and we've got some information in your bulletin about that so you can understand a little bit more about where randy's headed now over the years we have served together quite often in weekend training events called Counseling and Discipleship Training. And Cindy was a very vital part of that. When I would leave to go somewhere, Jacksonville or Portland or something, Cindy was the one who got all the tickets and made this incredible itinerary so you knew where you were supposed to be every minute of the day.

And that was really helpful. And I've always appreciated that. Cindy, I don't know if I've ever told you that, but I've always appreciated those itineraries. But let me say this. If it were not for Randy, I don't think I'd be here today. I don't think I'd have been at LaRue for 30 years.

I met Randy in June of 1986. I was a desperate young pastor looking for answers. I enrolled in the biblical counseling course at Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette. Indiana. And there, for several weeks, I was mentored by four men in biblical counseling. Pastor Tim Turner Dr Bob Smith Dr Bill Good who was the pastor there and Randy Patton And that involved listening to lectures doing case studies and then for several hours we would sit in the counseling sessions with them and watch how they did it And I spent a number of hours with Randy in the counseling room.

But Randy was pastor in Fort Wayne at the time and would make the trip down to Fort Wayne or down to Lafayette every Monday for most of the year to do that training. And I was really struggling and I was discouraged that my ministry didn't seem effective or even successful. And I asked Randy if he'd meet with me for breakfast and he came an hour earlier just to meet with me.

I remember sitting at the table and just talking about what was going on. You know I write these things down so I don't do this. But I remember the passage he shared with me was 1 Corinthians 11, 19. There must be divisions among you to see who's genuine. And he said these words to me. He said, Tim, a successful ministry is not a ministry without problems.

It is a ministry that solves problems God's way. That has stuck with me since that day in 1980, summer of 1986. That was a life changer for me. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that. If it hadn't been for that breakfast, I wonder what would have happened. But I really appreciate Randy, as you can tell.

So, Randy's had a significant impact on this body, I think. And so it's a real privilege to introduce him. And I want you to give yourself to the ministry of the Word of God as his servant brings you the message God has given him. Randy? Well, good morning, everybody. I'm greatly humbled by that wonderful introduction.

I am just amazed at God grace and how he uses us at times when we have a desire to be used but we have no idea how the impact it going to have on others And so praise the Lord for his grace and for the fact that he uses people that are struggling in life and ministry to help other people who are struggling in life and ministry to get answers, right? And so that he gets the glory. I want to welcome all of you this morning and just tell you how pleased I am to see.

I recognize many of your faces from the conference yesterday, and I want to issue a very special welcome to those of you who attended the conference yesterday. It's always encouraging to a preacher when people show up the second time. So thanks for coming back. I really appreciate that. Cindy and I had a very, very gracious time, and I just appreciate that.

And we mentioned Cindy a couple times. Honey, would you stand so people can know who you are? And I just want to thank God for her and my partner in life and ministry. I also want to just say a word about your pastor, Tim. He's been so kind and gracious to me. We've had the privilege of serving together in conferences around the nation, and I always love it when he comes.

We just have such good, warm fellowship. And he ministers and help equips people in such very, very effective ways. And your church has had a national ministry through your pastor and through your freeing him to travel. And I know on some occasions that means he can't be back here on Sundays. A lot of times he can get back, but not always. And if I had to summarize my impression of your pastor, there would be three things that stand out.

Number one, he loves God and loves the scriptures. That's really important. Number two, he is continually seeking to grow both spiritually and in his professional ministry skills, even after 30 years of successful ministry. and the third thing is in all my conversations with Tim all I hear is about good things about LaRue and LaRue Baptist Church and the people that are here he loves you and I want to say to you as a guy who gets to travel and interact with people across the nation there are a lot of congregations who cannot say about their pastor what I just told you about yours you need to be really thankful that you have a pastor so committed to Christ and the scriptures, who's committed to growing and changing and modeling spiritual growth before you, and who genuinely loves you And I hope you commend him for that and bless he and Becca and treat them as kindly and generously as you can because you have been wonderfully blessed through this couple And I joked with him that I heard so many good things about LaRue that I couldn't wait to get here.

I was just thrilled when I finally got an invitation to come for the Bible conference. And I've told Tim, he knows this, that prior to my getting, after I got acquainted with Tim, but later, your church has impacted Cindy and me years ago, because for many, many years, Kimber Kaufman was our pastor. We were part of College Park Church in Indianapolis, and Kimber and Connie were friends, and Dale and Sarah Shaw, who at one time, of course, served here, and we're just thankful for that.

And again, so thankful that you've made it easy for Tim to travel and speak on behalf of NANC, or now the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. We just really appreciate that. Well, if you'll find your sermon notes, as I thought about the ministry with you today, I wanted to speak on a subject that is very dear to my heart right now. I want to speak to you on the subject of making the most of your time.

And our text is Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 to 17. And I'm going to ask if you would turn in that scripture. We'll be thinking about some other verses, but I'd like you to be thinking about these verses in particular. Let me read the word of God to you. Ephesians 5 verse 15 says, Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

So then, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. But understand what the will of the Lord is. Now, my desire in speaking on this subject this morning is really to be a particular benefit and encouragement to three categories of people. One would be people that I would call counselors, and that would probably include all of you who are junior high, excuse me, sixth graders and up. because the fact is we all give counsel.

Some of us do it in formal settings where people schedule meetings with us, but we all do it informally. Let me just prove that. How many of you are parents? Did you ever tell anybody how to think or act? How many of you happen to have a friend? Did you ever tell anybody how to think or act?

Well, that's what I mean about we're giving counsel. You know, we're giving advice on issues And I'm hoping that through the comments that we'll seek today, that it will help you as you advise people, whether formally or informally, to help them make wise decisions about the use of their time going forward. Second, I want to speak to those of you who would identify yourself as feeling overwhelmed in life.

It seems like maybe for some of you that you've got so much to do and so little time, and you would describe yourself as overwhelmed. and I'm hoping that the message today will give you a criteria by which you can evaluate your commitments and you can consider and evaluate potential changes. Third, I'm hoping that the message today will be of particular help to some of you who are what I would call transitioning in life. That is, you realize that your life in the future is going to be significantly different in the past than it has been in the past.

Now, this may be due to the fact that some of you are approaching the point in life where you're going to become an empty nester, where you've had children in the home for decades, but now you're approaching that period where there's a transition, and these things are going to be different in the future. Some of you may be facing transitions because of job changes. Some may be facing transitions because of divorce or because of remarriage.

Some of you may be facing transitions because of a diagnosis that you've received. And some of you may be facing transitions simply because of your age and where you are in life. So that's why this particular passage of scripture is so significant. Verse 15 saying to us, be careful how you walk. When the Bible talks about our walk, it's talking about our way of life.

Be careful how you live your life. Not as unwise men, but as wise. And then the scripture exhorts us, making the most of your time. because our days are evil. So then, it says, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. That is our goal this morning, to gain insight into understanding the will of the Lord and how we use our time. Let's pray as we start.

Father, would you, as the psalmist prayed, open thou our eyes that we may behold wonderful things from thy law. Help me to communicate your truth, Lord, in a way that's clear and precise, that's accurate, and that is truly edifying and helpful to these dear brothers and sisters in Christ In his name I pray amen I think it wise for us to give some thoughts to why does the scripture speak so pointedly about being careful about how you walk? Why does the scripture speak so pointedly about making the most of the use of our time?

Why the need for caution about time? Let me suggest two reasons. One reason why we need to consider how we use our time is because of the general pace of society. The general pace of society. Do you realize that in the last 20 years, we have added 158 hours to our annual working time? That is, a person who is employed full-time today, particularly men who are employed full-time today, are working an average of 158 hours more per year than a man who was employed full-time 20 years ago.

We're all familiar with the phrase leaner and meaner as our economies have gone through change and where the demands on employees has significantly increased. Second, a reason why there's the need for caution in the general pace of society, studies indicate that at least 50% of the American adult population is chronically sleep deprived. If that's true, that means half of the adults here didn't get enough sleep last night and last week.

All right, think about this statement. Before Thomas Edison's invention of the electric light in 1879, most people slept 10 hours each night. A duration we've just recently discovered is ideal for optimal performance. When activity was no longer limited by the day's natural light, sleep habits changed. Over the next century, we gradually reduced our total nightly sleep time by 20% to 8 hours per night.

But that's not nearly the end of the story. Recent studies indicate that Americans now average 7 hours per night, approximately 2.5 hours less than ideal. Amazingly and foolishly, one-third of our population is sleeping less than 6 hours each night. Are we losing our minds? that problem is part of what leads to advertising like this. You know we sleep deprived and yet we can get to sleep We so upset Here's one that I think is particularly revealing.

Well, another reason why we need to pay attention to our time is because of the implications of living in a 2 Timothy 3, 1 to 5 society. let me just show you that scripture and i think this scripture has significance for us second timothy 3 verse 1 says realize this then the last days difficult times will come now we started the parenting conference with this yesterday because i think that living in the last days and whether you think we're in the last days or not we all have to agree we're at least 2,000 years closer to the last days than when Paul wrote this to Timothy, all right? And 2 Timothy 1 to 5 describes what I would call last days culture. And I would suggest to you that living in a culture like is described in this passage makes it harder for us to live.

It makes it harder for us to manage our time and to carry out our responsibilities. The Word of God says, realize this that in the last days difficult times will come and what makes life difficult is living with people like this men will be lovers of self lovers of money boastful arrogant revilers disobedient to god just be disobedient to parents ungrateful unholy unloving irreconcilable malicious gossips without self-control brutal haters of good treacherous reckless conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although if they have denied its power, avoid such men as these. Now most, a lot of Bible scholars think that last phrase, avoid such men as these, really it should be the beginning of the next verse, but the way it is in most of our Bibles, it's the last part of them.

The challenge is you can't avoid men like that because that is our culture today. And my point is living in a culture marked by this kind of thinking, this kind of conduct makes life harder. Here's some of the implications of living in what I would call a 2 Timothy 3 last days culture. First of all, I think living in our kind of culture today makes it harder to keep our own lives progressing spiritually I had multiple people tell me it harder for me to read my Bible in a regular systematic way today than it was 15 or 25 years ago Just because of the increased responsibilities in life and the pace of life and so forth It's harder, it seems like, to just settle down mentally and have a meaningful prayer time with God.

I have to work at that hard. I have to work at getting myself to quiet down so that I can really cry out to God in a meaningful way. It's harder to keep our lives progressing spiritually. Further, another implication of living in a last days culture is that our major relationships are more difficult to maintain. I would suggest that while it has always been a challenge in husband-wife relationships and parent-child relationships to have the kind of relationships that are pleasing and honoring to God, living in our kind of culture sets up particular challenges that make it more difficult.

It's not impossible, but it's just that it takes more time, makes it harder. A third implication of living in a 2 Timothy 3 culture is that sin complicates life and sin complicates relationships. Proverbs 5.22 says, His own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held with the cords of his own sin. And many of us can look at our personal lives, we can look at our personal families, some of the relationships that used to be meaningful in the past that have been fractured by sin and things not being handled in a proper way, and it just makes life difficult.

And one of the illustrations of that is the holiday season beginning in November. And for many, many families, due to the impact of sinful thinking and sinful behavior in the past, Thanksgiving isn't necessarily a happy time, and Christmas isn't necessarily a happy time either, and the New Year. A lot of times people are happy about the New Year because finally the holidays are behind us and we can get back to normal. and where I have seen this particularly as a counselor is where people are dealing with the results of divorce, whether the divorces were biblical or not, when you have to decide between your kids, my kids, and our kids and who's going where over the holidays and all the negotiations that sometimes goes with that.

It just points out the fact that sinful thinking, sinful behavior that leads to a breakup in relationships complicates life and makes it harder to live and it impacts our schedules in our lives. So this subject, how to make the most of your time, is one that is worthy of each of our careful consideration. I want to give you six suggestions, Six strategies that have been helpful to me as I've tried to wrestle with this subject in an ongoing way in my own efforts to be a better steward of the time that God has given me.

Six strategies to help you make the most of your time. Number one, I would exhort you to determine to please God with your hours. Determine to please God with your hours. I want to draw you to a passage of scripture that is my particular life verse. 2 Corinthians 5.9 says, Therefore also we have as our ambition that whether at home or absent to be pleasing to him.

And verse 10 says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that we may each one be recompensed for our deeds in the body according to what we've done, whether good or bad. Focus your thinking on verse 9. in the context of 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 the Apostle Paul is talking about his desire to die and go to heaven and be with the Lord Jesus Christ but also he's talking about his desire to stay and minister to the Corinthians and other people that he has influence with and he's going back and forth on that and if you'll think about it that's kind of where a lot of us are in fact let me just ask you let me ask you this question how many of you want are eager to go to heaven this afternoon. Well, see, that's it.

I mean, we'd all say, yeah, I want to go to heaven. I mean, my hand's up on that. But this afternoon, well, I'm hoping to see some grad kids before I get home tonight, you know. Yeah, I want to go to heaven, but, I mean, we're torn like that, right? That's what Paul was wrestling with. And as he wrestled with it, verse 9 is his conclusion to that.

Paul concludes this dual wrestling. Yeah, I want to be with Jesus in heaven. Yes, but I want to see the gospel going forward. I want to influence my children, my grandchildren, other opportunities I have to advance the cause of Christ. I've got these tugs on my life and energy as well. And so his conclusion is, therefore, also I make it my ambition.

It's what I go for in life, that whether I am at home in the body, alive, or absent from the body, dead, my goal in life is to just please the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to encourage you, one of the keys to making the most of your time is to say, I'm going to please Christ with this hour. I'm talking about this 60 minutes. And I have found that this can be very very helpful because as we go through life trying to live a godly Christian life that pleases and honors God we are going to fail And the tendency of many of us is to wallow in our failures And one of the things that can be so helpful in that is say, look, I'm just trying to please Christ in this hour.

And if you mess up in this hour, confess it, ask God to forgive you and get back on track and please God in the next hour. And pleasing Christ in the hours leads to pleasing Christ in the days, the weeks, the months, and the years, but it starts with the hours. And I would exhort you to make that your policy in life. I'm going to please Jesus in this hour.

And when the next hour comes, I'm going to try to please Jesus in that hour. This is significant because seeking to please people is our natural tendency. By nature, we don't seek to please God. We seek to please people. We're people pleasers. Paul addressed this in Galatians chapter 1 verse 10 when he asked these probing questions.

If you don't have these verses underlined in your Bible, why be sure to do that later. Galatians 1.10, Paul asked the question, am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? That is a great question for everybody that's trying to make the most of how you use your time. Who are you trying to please? Who are you trying to please in this hour, this day, this week?

Am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I seeking to please men? And he says, if I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. That's our goal, is to please Christ first and foremost. Seeking to please people is our natural tendency. We've got to resist that, and one way of doing it is to determine that I live my life seeking to please Christ in each hour.

Here's another thought about that. The fear of man leads to feeling trapped. In other words, if you live your life to please your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your spouse, or to please your parents, or your child trying to, or a parent trying to please your children, the fear of man, doing what you think is going to keep everybody happy with you, will lead to you feeling trapped.

Proverbs speaks about this in Proverbs 29 verse 25 when it says, the fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted. Notice that first phrase, the fear of man brings a snare. And if you order your life around what your boyfriend's going to think about you, your girlfriend, or your spouse, or your employer, or your neighbors, or the pastor, or whoever.

If you focus your life around how can I make other people happy with me it will lead to you having a sense of being trapped So the way you start by making the most of your time is purposing that you going to please Christ in how you use your hours Second, I would recommend that you anticipate the Bema, that you anticipate the Bema. Now, if my first suggestion focused on the short term, focusing on the hours, then this suggestion focuses on the long term, focusing on pleasing Christ and being able to give a good account to him when you stand before him at the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.10 says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Those words, judgment seat of Christ, are a translation of one Greek word, bima. And it's the time at which Christians will stand before Christ and give an account for how we've used our time, our talent, our treasure since we've become Christians. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he's done, whether good or bad.

In fact, 1 Corinthians 4, 5, another verse that speaks about this says, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of each man's heart. And then each man's praise will come to him from God. what the Bible is teaching in 2 Corinthians 5 10 is that we need to live this day in light of that day in other words it's the long range view that I'm living my life today and what I'm headed toward long term is I want to stand before Jesus and give up a good account of myself and to hear him say well done thou good and faithful service servant anticipate the bema back in uh new testament times the bima was not a court of law like when you think of the judgment seat of christ don't think about a you know a formal courthouse scene with a judge in a big black robe sitting up on a lofty place and where he makes rulings about uh punishment for people who've committed crimes back in new testament times the bima was the award stands at the olympics So think about it. We're running a race for Christ, and our goal is that we finish strong in such a way that brings honor and glory for him.

So first, try to please Christ with your hours. That the short goal today The long goal is I trying to run the long race of the marathon Christian life so that I can give a great commendation to Christ at the judgment seat anticipate the Bema Now, a third suggestion, and one that has been encouraging to me personally, is that we should take hope from the fact that Christ does not expect you to be perfect, but he does expect you to be growing in this area. In other words, when it comes to the use of our time, I'm going to assume that you, like me, can look back on your life and you can see multiple times when you made lousy decisions about the use of your time.

And I'm going to assume that most of us, if we could roll time back, we would do a lot of things differently. Can I get an amen on that? All right. And a lot of us can look at how we've used our time, where we've squandered it. We made bad decisions that just led to consequences that some of us are reaping today. What encourages me is that the Bible talks about Christians, followers of Christ, growing and changing.

And I want to just encourage you. I think growing and changing, progressive sanctification, relates to the use of our time as well. Some verses that talk about this matter of growing and changing that are undoubtedly familiar to many of you is Ephesians 4, 22 to 24, where it says that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which has been corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Now you notice the scripture talks to us about both putting off and putting on, and it's not enough that we stop doing what's wrong on wrong uses of our time. We've got to start doing what's right or proper uses of our time. And the key to putting off and putting on, to growing and changing, even in the area of our use of time, the key to that is in that middle verse, verse 23, being renewed in the spirit of your mind.

And when the Bible talks about the mind, it's talking about the inner man. In the New Testament, the terms heart, soul, mind, spirit, all of those are just synonyms that refer to the inner man. And God is saying that the key to us growing and changing, including in how we use our time, is being renewed in the inner man and gaining a more godly, a more holy perspective on this matter of time.

In fact, my prayer is God will use this message for many of you to lead to a renewing in the inner man about how you think about time. and the desires in your heart for the use of time. That's what he's talking about. And growth will lead to laying aside, making some decisions and some priorities the way you used to, but it's not enough that you stop doing what's wrong or unwise, but it will lead to laying on or putting on some right priorities or wiser priorities that will lead to greater living.

And personally, I take great hope when it comes to managing my own schedule in my time and my life that God isn't expecting me to be perfect, but he does expect me to be growing. And my prayer is God help me to grow in the use of my time today, this week, this month. Here's another area that has been particularly significant to me, and I hope it will be helpful to you as you think about how to make the most of your time, and that is to recognize that time use is a wisdom issue. it's not a moral and it's not a guidance issue.

Recognize that time use is a wisdom issue not a moral or a guidance issue. Let me define those terms. Moral issues deal with right and wrong and on moral issues we have chapter and verse in the Bible that tells us something is right or something is wrong. Okay and the scriptures are clear. We can say this is right or this is wrong. When it comes to the use of your time, I'm arguing time use is not a moral issue.

Neither is it a guidance issue. Guidance issues deal with God telling me what to do when I don't know what to do. I would suggest to you that the scriptures are God's final and complete revelation to us today. So, for an illustration, on a guidance issue, some of you may think, okay, I've got several things I need to get done today in preparation for next week, and some of you may have been taught you should pray, Lord, should I stay for the church dinner which is going to follow?

Now, from what I've heard about these dinners, you really don't need to pray about that much. but uh but the point i want to make is listen if you got a bunch of stuff to do today i mean don't ask god to tell you what to do whether to come to the dinner or not he's not going to tell you i mean that a guidance issue and the use of time is not a guidance issue i mean god going to give us principles and I think some of which we talking about right now to help you make decisions about the use of your time but you don need to pray do I need to go get gas tonight or tomorrow morning? I mean, those are guidance issues and time use is not in that arena. Instead, time use is a wisdom issue.

Wisdom is insight and discernment into how to apply biblical principles in my situation. And I'm arguing that wisdom, or excuse me, the use of our time is a wisdom issue. It's insight and discernment into how to apply biblical principles to my circumstances. Now let me show you. The Bible talks about time use as a wisdom issue. Ephesians 5, 15 to 17, verses we've looked at now before.

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as, what's the next word? Unwise men, but as wise making the most of your time because the days are evil so then do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. Psalm 90 verse 12 a verse that was referred to earlier in our worship time so teach us to number our days that we may apply to thee a heart of wisdom.

Well good news the Bible talks about the use of time as a wisdom issue here's the good news you can become wise in the use of your time. I love this verse. In fact, here's one I'd encourage you to memorize. This is a verse that just gives me great hope. Proverbs chapter 8 verse 17 says, I love those who love me and those who diligently seek me will find me.

In Proverbs chapter 8, wisdom is personified. Wisdom is speaking. And wisdom says to you, wisdom says to me through the scriptures, I love those who love me and those who seek me will find me. You can become wise by God's grace if you will seek wisdom according to the scriptures. So grow in wisdom. Wisdom issues deal with good, better, best.

And we can grow in wisdom so that the use of our time, we're just not making good decisions, we're making better decisions. But by God's grace, we'll be I look back and say, by God's grace and following biblical principles, with the options that were presented me, I chose the best one on many occasions by God's help and for his glory. A fifth suggestion on how to make the most of your time, and one that has been particularly meaningful to me and helpful to me is to consider the three scriptural terms for time The Bible and the New Testament uses three different words to describe time The first one is the word chronos, and chronos denotes a space of time.

And many of us are carrying digital watches or timepieces, and if you look on them, a lot of times it'll have some word, someplace it'll have those letters C-H-R-O-N-O-S, and it comes from this Greek word. It just denotes a space of time. Here's one place where it's used in the New Testament. In Matthew chapter 2, during the account of the birth of Christ and so forth, there in that whole section of the scripture, the Bible says, Then Herod secretly called the Magi and ascertained from them the time the star appeared.

Now, you remember the context of that. King Herod, one of the things that marked kings back in that day and time is they were always looking over their shoulder, fearing who was going to try to sabotage them and take over the kingdom. And Herod has got this news that a king has been born, and he views that as a threat. And so when he asks, he wants to know the time.

He's not just wanting the general time, but he wants to know exactly the time that that child was born because he intends to execute him, defeat the one who might take over. He secretly called the magi and ascertained from them the time, the star. Kronos deals with hours. Kronos deals with minutes. Kronos in our lifetime would be what we refer to as appointments, the exact time.

Here's another place where this word shows up in the scripture. In Acts chapter 20, verse 18, the scripture says, And when they had come to him, he said to them, You yourselves know from the first day I set foot in Asia how I was with you the whole time. This is Paul giving testimony, and he's talking about specific times that I was there. So chronos is one word for time in the scriptures.

But there's another word that is helpful for us to know about, and that's the word hora. Hora is any time or period that is fixed by nature. this would refer to the seasons this would refer to the calendar here's a place it's used in the new testament in matthew 14 verse 15 the scripture says and when it was evening the disciples came to him saying the place is desolate the time is already passed so send the multitudes away that they may go into villages and buy food for themselves When he said, the time is already passed, he's talking about the day. I mean, you know, sun's gone up, going down, I mean, today's wrapping up here.

Getting dark, you need to send these people home. So, hora is any time or a period fixed by nature. If chronos refers to our watches, then hora refers to our calendars. But there's a third word, and I think in many ways this word is the one that is most significant to us this morning as we think about how to make the most of our time. And this is the Greek word kairos.

Kairos refers to a fixed or a definite period of time. Here's a couple of places where it's used. In Romans chapter 5 verse 6, the scripture says that while we were still helpless at just the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. In other words, Christ came right on schedule, right at the right time period where he should have been. He came right at the right time.

But notice this. Here's another place that this is used. This is our text for today. In Ephesians chapter 5, verse 16, when it says, making the most of your time because the days are evil, it's not the word chronos. It's not the word kora. It's the word kairos.

When God is saying to us, make the most of your time or redeem the time because the days are evil, he's talking to us about windows of opportunity, a fixed or a definite period. but it speaks about a definite period that's here for a moment and then tends to pass away. I think this is very, very instructive. Certainly, biblical principles of responsibility would lead us to be alert to Kronos.

We want to be on time for things. It would lead us to be alert to Hora. I mean, you don't want to start getting ready for Christmas, you know, on the first of February. I mean, you realize, okay, that was a couple months ago. I mean, we need to pay attention to the calendar. But brothers and sisters, the scriptures would lead us to understand that wisdom in the use of our time and being alert to our evil days is focusing on kairos, windows of opportunity.

Some of you might be using a version in the Bible that... that says it this way, we're to redeem the time because the days are evil. The version I'm using says making the most of the time. To redeem something means to buy it, buy it up. And what the Bible is saying is the path to wisdom and the use of our time is to buy up windows of opportunity. Now think with me about that.

What does it mean to buy up or to redeem? well it means to exchange what you have for what you want when you redeem something you exchange what you have for what you want let me illustrate it this way one of my uh my wife and i's a beverage that we enjoy probably the most at starbucks is a caramel macchiato and uh maybe on the way home, if we see one, maybe we'll swing by. Maybe not, I don't know. But if we're going to go get a caramel macchiato, you know if you've done this before, that if I'm going to get one for both of us, a grande caramel macchiato, I'm going to need to pull out a $10 bill because they're about five bucks a piece.

And some of you are thinking, five bucks for a cup of coffee? You've got to be kidding. Well, if you're thinking that way, that points out a couple of things. Number one, you never had one. Makes it easier to understand when you've had one. And what you're thinking is a caramel macchiato, in my mind, is not worth five bucks.

But that's the point. If I want to redeem, if I want a caramel macchiato, I got to take what I have and give it for what I want. You understand? That's what it means. That's what it means to redeem. What we're thinking about today is we're talking about redeeming the time.

And to buy up windows of opportunity to redeem the time for you because the days are evil means that you take what you have which is your time and you exchange it for what you want. Now, how you spend your time, how you spend your discretionary time will reveal your priority system Because while we could say well we all have 24 hours in a day yes that true but then just start putting some things in there that we have to do For example, you have to sleep some, and let's say, okay, seven to eight hours a night, and most of us, we have to work, so that's, for most of us, eight hours a day at least, and you've got to get there, you've got to get home, So there's another half hour, 45 minutes, an hour, hour and 15 minutes. You've got to eat some, sometime.

And if you eat quick, I mean, that's going to be an hour and a half or so during the day. And you've got to clean up some occasionally. And, you know, that's going to take some time. You need to read your Bible some. You've got to go to church some. And you start taking all the hours that we have in a week, and you start taking away the things we've got to do to live in our culture, and what you end up with is a small amount of time that we call your discretionary time.

In other words, after you've slept, after you've eaten, taken care of yourself, and the things that have got to be done, time with your family and so forth, there's just a few hours that are left. and that's what we call the discretionary time and what i want you to think about is how you use that time really reveals your priorities further i would suggest to you that the less discretionary time you have the more important it is that you be wise in how you spend it and i would exhort those of you who feel like you man you're just really being pressed right now and some of you are at points in life where the load is heavy with responsibilities with your kids, with your families, and your responsibilities maybe with the church and others, and you're carrying a heavy load in life. And that means that you've got a smaller amount of discretionary time. Then the smaller amount of discretionary time it is, the more important it is that you cry out to God for wisdom and how I use that little bit that I have left so that I use it wisely.

Now, if kairos is windows of opportunity and to redeem them means that we take what we have and we exchange it for what we want, and if our discretionary time reveals our priorities and the less discretionary time we have the more important we need to give to it then let think about what influences windows of opportunity In my mind, windows of opportunity are influenced by three primary forces. First of all, your age and your family status really affect the windows of opportunity. Your age and your family status.

Here's what I mean by that. and let me talk to the younger people right now, okay? Young people, look at me for just a minute. For those of you that are down here in these younger ages, and let's say on up through college age and so forth, in our culture, you have wonderful windows of opportunity to experience educational opportunities, to travel, to learn things that most of us people my age, I mean, we couldn't even have dreamed about it. but those opportunities are here for just a little while.

And then in a little bit, you're going to be a little bit older, and you're going to be expected to live with a different set of priorities in many ways. And I want to say to the young people, with the opportunities that you have right now to learn, to grow, to serve Jesus Christ, to learn from your parents, to learn from your grandparents, opportunities for spiritual ministry while other people are working to pay the bills for you in life, Listen, look at me. That is a window of opportunity.

And it's here right now for some of you, for a lot of you. But you know what with windows of opportunities? Kairos, they're here for a period. And then they're gone. And they're gone forever. And you ask any adult, would you change how you made decisions when you were in sixth grade up through college?

And every one of us will say, oh, yes. because what many of us think about is the regrets. If only I had that time back. If only I had been wise. Let me talk to you about another. I'm saying to you that windows of opportunity are influenced by your age and your family status. Cindy and I are here for a parenting conference weekend.

Many of you came. You stayed right up to the end. God bless you for that. a lot of you are in that period of life where you're getting started in your professions and your responsibilities are growing and the family growing and your load in life in many ways is the heaviest that it may ever be And you go to bed night after night just tired And I want to say particularly to those of you that are parents, listen.

Raising kids at times can be exhausting. It can be frustrating. It can be discouraging. But I want to say to you, that is a window of opportunity. and it's here for just a little bit, then it's going to be gone. And I'm encouraging you in the use of your time as parents, seize those opportunities. Grab those.

Because you've got the opportunity to influence the next generation right now. But it may not be there in five years. It may not be there in ten. So kairos, it's a window of opportunity, and it's gone. Let me talk about another group. Let me talk to people that are approaching my age.

I'm 67. What I'm talking to you about right now from the scriptures has had profound influence on Cindy and me in the last two or three years. Three years ago or so, I entered into a leadership transition with the National Association of Euthetic Counselors, now the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, with the intent that on December 31st just passed that I would leave ACBC after working there for 18 years and I was to retire.

I don't use that word very often because in our culture, people think that when they hear you've retired, that means you're going to sit, soak, and sour. And I didn't want to sit, soak, and sour, neither did my wife. We've been greatly influenced about what I'm teaching from the scriptures right now. And so we've talked about, on December 31st, we left employment with ACBC after 18 years, both of us.

And on January 1, we started a new chapter in life. Because we have a window of opportunity now. We're both fairly healthy. I'm real healthy. I'm 67, never been an overnight patient in a hospital since I was born. I've got energy, I've got contacts all across the nation God has given us a window of opportunity for ministry and there's no way that I can sit in a rocking chair sipping tea that's soaking sour at this point in life.

Because this window of opportunity for Randy and Cindy Patton is here for a time. Then it's going to be gone. Maybe a heart attack. Maybe a car accident. Who knows what. And we think wisdom for us is starting team-focused ministries and giving ourselves at this time of life to serving Christ in a way that we can right now that we couldn't earlier when I had other responsibilities, but now I can determine to whom I'm going to minister.

I want to say to others that are in my age group, part of wisdom for you and for us at this time period is to think about all that you've learned in past years, all the contacts you have, the wisdom you had, the opportunities for you have for ministry and the reduced load in life in many ways and just because you're older does not mean you are not accountable for living a life of wisdom and older people can make an impact for Christ if they will think in terms of Kairos who do I have an opportunity to influence now in a significant way that I maybe didn't in the future and didn't in the past so windows of opportunity are influenced by your age and your family status windows of opportunity are also influenced by your willingness to live by faith I found that people that are willing to step out and live by faith in smaller steps God seems to give them bigger windows of opportunity and if you just don't feel like you have very many windows of opportunity in your life my guess would be you haven't been faithful in past windows of opportunity and a past window of opportunity may have been when you were asked to teach the third grade Sunday school class That is a window of opportunity But maybe you turned that one down for some sorry reason and now you regret that you don't have bigger windows of opportunity. Well, here's another one. Windows of opportunity are influenced by your faithfulness in past responsibilities.

Over and over again the New Testament teaches that he's been faithful in a few things will be faithful in much. So I encourage you, be faithful where you are, be faithful in the opportunities that God gives you, and by God's grace you can make an even greater impact for him as you seek to serve, to wrap up, and seize those windows of opportunity. Well, in summary, what I've tried to speak to you about today is how to make the most of your time.

And I've suggested that you can make the most of your time if you will seek to determine to please God with your hours, beginning this hour. If you will anticipate the Bema, and you'll live this day in light of that day that's coming, and you will take hope that God expects growth, not perfection. And you're going to seek to grow in wisdom, seeking to discern between what is good, what is better, what is best.

And you're going to consider the three terms for time. And you're going to buy up windows of opportunity by not focusing primarily on Kronos, not focusing primarily on horror, not on your watch, not on your calendar, but wisdom comes when you focus primarily on the windows of opportunity that God has put before you. God help us to do that. Pray with me, please.

Heavenly Father, I pray that you would use the preaching and teaching of your word to help all of us to take steps toward growth that would lead to each of us being better stewards of the time that you have given us. And I ask this for your honor and glory. In Jesus' name, amen.