And then well, thanks for coming apparently I brought the Northwest weather with me so but actually the Northwest weather
Was a hundred and fifteen degrees when we left so I don't know how that works out
But anyway, I appreciate being invited out to preach and I appreciate pastor Anderson
it's a good friend of mine brother Corbin and I thank you all for coming and
I'm preaching about redeeming the time
Redeeming the time. Let's look at
Ephesians chapter 5 verse 14 it says
Wherefore he saith awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ
Shall give thee light see then that you walk circumspectly
Not as fools, but as wise
Redeeming the time because the days are evil wherefore
Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is let's pray or we thank you so much
For this great camp and all these people who come and hear your word
And I just pray Lord you fill me with your spirit and help me to preach the message you put on my heart tonight
Jesus never pray. Amen
okay, so
When the Bible says that we walk we should walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise that word circumspectly
it's basically like the the nearest synonym would be like prudent or cautious and
Circumspect actually implies though a careful consideration for
Of all circumstances and a desire to avoid mistakes and bad consequences
So God's saying hey, we need to look around and see and perceive
Mistakes that we might make and try to avoid those things and God wants us to look
circumspectly he wants us to not be as fools, but as wise and part of that is
Redeeming the time because the days are evil now a lot of people are probably most people would say that they're saved in this
Audience here and I would just submit to you that some of you are saved at an early age
So this message is for everybody and we need to understand that our time on earth is not
Very long and kids you don't really see things the way adults do when you turn 46
You'll understand when when you start to get older you get started start to get the aches and pains and things like that
You'll understand that
Time is a fleeting thing and we only have so much time to work for the Lord and do things for the Lord
And then it's just gone. You know, you know, we don't we don't attain to the age of
People in the beginning like Adam, you know to live to be 912 years old and you know, we don't live that long
We're actually only promised we're not even promised that three score and ten
that's the average age or what, you know that we would live but
God wants us to not be unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is
he wants us to redeem the time and so Christ has redeemed us as saved people and
That means he bought us back, right? So we need to buy back some time and you're like, well, I'm young
I got all my life to serve the Lord or maybe you're thinking hey I can
Make my riches now and then later on I'm gonna serve the Lord, but see we don't always understand that
Our lot we're we're uh, we can be damaged
We could be sick and not be able to serve the Lord that could happen next week. We don't know
What our life's gonna be like from day to day and I think sometimes people get the idea that we can we're just gonna be
Serving the Lord tell we're 99 years old and you're gonna knock that last door and then die or something
That's just not how it works. You know, we don't know and so we should serve the Lord now while we have the strength
We should serve the Lord with all of our might
Tell the day tell the day we die if we can but as you'll see in a sermon
That's not always gonna be the case. So
so turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 7 verse 29 and
The Bible has this theme
Multiple times throughout the scriptures
I'm going to show you several different places where God's telling us
Hey
We need to focus on things
Like thinking about what we're gonna do with our time what we do with our time is very important because I'll tell you what
I'm 46 years old and I've been saved for 20 years 21 years and
There's some times I wish some time
I wish I could buy back even as a saved person
And not everybody gets saved at the same time if you're a child you got a lot of serving the Lord you can do a
Lot of great things you can do for God because it's not just about rewards. It's about serving the Lord and
Pleasing him. So the rewards are are just something to the cherry on top that we get in heaven
And I'm not saying we shouldn't try to get rewards. We should try to get rewards
But who are we ultimately trying to please we're trying to please the Lord, right 1st Corinthians chapter 7 verse 29 says
But this I say brethren the time is short
It remaineth that both they that has wives that have wives be as though they had none. So
Paul saying here that you know, we need to realize that the time is short
We don't have a lot of time to do the things that we want to do for the Lord
We think we do but in reality, we just don't know
Day-to-day, we don't know how much time we have on this planet
We don't know how much time we have to serve the Lord
So we need to redeem the time and think circumspectly turn to Psalm chapter 90 verse 1
Psalm chapter 90 in verse number 1
Now this psalm is actually written by Moses it's attributed to Moses
Psalm chapter 90 verse 1 and
Moses had a long life that he lived and he had a good life. He was a great man of God
But listen to what he says in Psalm chapter 90 verse 1
It says Lord has been our dwelling place in all generations
Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting
To everlasting thou art God see God is from everlasting everlasting
He has ultimate time to do whatever he wants
But we don't it says thou turnest man to destruction and say us return you children of men
For a thousand years is in thy sight or but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night
so God to God time is
It it goes by way differently than it does for us
It said and it says in verse 5 thou carriest them away as with the flood
There as asleep in the morning
They're like grass which groweth up in the morning it flourishes and groweth up in the evening. It is cut down and wither it
For we are consumed by thine anger and by thy wrath are we troubled thou hast set our iniquities before thee
Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath
We are spent we excuse me
We spend our years as a tale that is told the days of our years are three score
Years and ten and if by reason of strength they be four score years
Yet is their strength labor and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away
And this is what I'm trying to to get you to understand here is that are you know?
He's saying our years of our life are three score and ten and if by reason of strength they be four score years
So that's 80, right?
Yet is their strength labor and sorrow when you're 80 years old
You're not exactly the most spry person in the world anymore. You know you're you're not a
Gang-busting and just doing all these works for God now obviously there's an exception to the rule some people can be 80 years old and still
Serving God with all their might and and that happens
But you know as we get older we start to slow down
And we're not going to be able to do the things that we could do when we were younger
so
When is the time to redeem the time the time is right now?
The time is right now to to redeem the time if you're saved
Do all that you can for the Lord because you know what when you're 80 years old. It's not going to be as easy
And it's it's gonna
You know it says yet is their strength labor and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away
So most people don't live past this now obviously
people can live
Older than 80 my grandfather is 95 years old right now, but you know what he's not
Doing the things that he used to do he's slowed down
He's barely you know he's taking a lot of naps
And you know he's just he's not as there as he used to be so
We need to understand that we might be saved, but when we're 80 that doesn't mean that we're going to have superpowers or something
We're still going to be just like anybody else for the most part as far as physically goes
And so we need to understand that we're we don't have the time that you think you have
So it says so teach us to number our days verse 12
That
We may apply our hearts unto wisdom so we need to understand that our days are limited and so we need to apply our
Day apply our hearts unto wisdom and what's wise going out and serving the Lord redeeming the time it says return
Oh Lord how long and let it repent thee concerning thy servants
Oh satisfy us early with thy mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days
It's good to be saved when you're young you know and it says satisfy us early with thy mercy
You know it's it's good to get saved at an early age
Now I didn't get saved till I was 25 years old so I got a lot of time to make up for and so here
I am 46 years old. I didn't get into the ministry basically until I was 42
I've been a pastor for almost three years now
But I would like to go back and do things a little bit differently and have a more
You know I've been getting these people safe since I got saved
But like there's just a lot of things that I wish I could go back and redo a lot of things
I could go back and rethink
And I want to get this across to you that you don't have as much time as you think and we need to redeem
The time look at verse 17 it says my beauty
Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and established out of the work of our hands upon us yay the work
of our hands
Established thou it so we want
To have our work the work of our hands be established by the Lord and and we do that by working for him Isaiah
I'm gonna have you turn to Philippians chapter 3, but I'm gonna read for you, Isaiah 43 verse 18
Isaiah 43 verse 18 says remember you not the former things neither consider the things of old
So we're not supposed to live our life
Looking back on the former thing so now I just told you that I I wish I could go back and
Do some things differently, but I don't what I'm saying. I don't dwell on that though there is things
I wish I could do, but now is the time for me to look forward
You know as a pastor. I want to do the most I can do I want to send the most
People out to go soul winning and get people saved
I want to evangelize in all these different countries around the world, and you know I want to do I want to start churches
I want to do all these things
But to me, I just think it would have been a little easier when I was 25 years old right
But see I didn't get saved till then so you know it just it depends on what age you get saved as to
You know how you know obviously the works you can do so if you're young
You can do a lot more work than I've ever done in my life
You can do a lot of great things for God and look
Teenagers you can go out and win souls just like everybody else can you know young children can go out and get people?
Saved just like anybody else can you know I didn't start getting people saved till I was 25 so think if you're 14
you know or you're 15 you can do way more things than I did before I was 25 and
So but sometimes people don't take things seriously sometimes people don't take their Christianity
Seriously, and we need to think about those things and like I said young kids don't really think about
Dying you know a lot they don't think about how fast their life is gonna go
but I've been married for 20 years also and so that has gone by really fast and
my children are all grown up and pretty much I got one child left living with me and
It goes fast so
You know and obviously kids you're you go a long ways before you have to think about that, but you know
We should be thinking about what we can do what we can accomplish in our life by the redeeming the time and doing things now
No, we can't put things off when you put things off. It's just you're you know you say well five years from now
I'm gonna start so when I'm really gonna get serious about the things of God and then five years later
You haven't you're not gonna. Do it. You know you got to start doing things right now
Right now don't put it off look at Philippians 3 verse 7 it says
But what things were gained to me those I counted loss for Christ as the Apostle Paul talking
He said yay doubtless
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my lord for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things who do count them but
Dung that I may win Christ when the Apostle Paul got saved. He was barnstorming
He just shot out of the gate and just worked till the day he died basically
Or at least till we we see him at the end of the book of Acts
you know he's he's still getting people say people are still coming to him and getting saved and
He he just he turned the world upside down for Christ, and he said you know he learned a lot of things
He he had a lot of knowledge, but he said he counted them, but dung
You know so the things the worldly things that we learned they're gonna help you in your daily life
But when he's talking about is is like the religious things that he learned before
Obviously and his status and things like that, but those things don't matter
you know what mattered to Paul getting people saved turning the world upside down for Christ and
Redeeming the time that he had so he only had you know you only have a certain amount of time to do the works that
You're gonna the great works that you're gonna do
And it says and be found in him not having mine own righteousness
Which is by the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness, which is of God by faith
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable
unto his death if by any means I might obtain unto the resurrection of the dead the Apostle Paul is very serious about
About redeeming the time and doing great works for God look at verse 12
It says not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after if that I may apprehend
Now what does that word apprehend me well when you think about being apprehended by the police he did something wrong
You're apprehended well. You know when we get saved as we're kind of after he were apprehended by Christ
You know and it says that I may apprehend for which also I am apprehended of Christ
Brethren I count myself to not myself to have
Apprehended, but this one thing I do
forgetting those things which are behind and
Reaching forth unto those things which are before so the Apostle Paul
He's like I don't care about all that stuff that I used to do. Here's what I care about now
I care about redeeming the time and
Apprehending reaching forth to those things you know not not
Reaching forth unto those things
Which were before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
You know it as a Christian
We should always be pressing towards the mark some kind of goal in our Christian life
And so you think about like pressing towards a mark for a prize
Of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus well
You know there's a lot of things that we can press toward and are in our Christianity
How about you know when you think of a mark?
It's like a goal that you're setting for yourself right so I press toward that mark
I press towards that goal that I have what about like reading your Bible once every year
You know that's a good goal to have right and you know you press toward that mark you you try to hit the goals that
You're supposed to hit every day, and you want to press towards that mark, but not just to do it one time
You know there's a high calling in Christ Jesus
It's not just read your Bible one time and put it to the side
It's read your Bible over and over and over again
So you can learn God's Word because you know obviously when we get to heaven
We're gonna have all this knowledge, and we're gonna have a lot of Bible knowledge
But what about getting through your life right now?
You know the more Bible you know the more Bible
You know you you can apply to your life the better off your life is gonna be if you apply it
To your life now you can read a lot of Bible and just not do what it says
And then it's not really gonna help you very much
But you know if you apply it and you use it to press towards that high calling of God in Christ Jesus
You're gonna be very successful in life
Now there's a lot of things that we can do to press towards a mark now
I always try to think of it in sports that things
It's it helps me because I used to be into sports so I mean you think about a full-court press
You know what is what is hat what happens in basketball in a full-court press if you don't know anything about basketball. That's okay
I'll help you out here so in a full-court press you're trying to pressure the team to make a mistake and
Steal the ball and score that's the prize you want to score points, right?
So if you think about it like this like in our Christianity we want to press you know it
indicates pressure
You know put some pressure on yourself every once in a while. We shouldn't just be like
lackadaisical and just like yeah if I learn it I learn it if I you know if I go soul and I go soul
And if I learn the verses I learn the verses we shouldn't be like that when it comes
You know what are we talking about here redeeming the time you know start doing things while you have the time to do it right now
You know you maybe you you get older, and you go blind. Can you read the Bible then you know?
That's what I'm saying is like you don't know what a day is gonna bring for it
You don't know what's gonna happen in your life
You don't know if you're gonna be able to walk to go soul anymore
There was a time when we're doing the mega marathon and a guy had had surgery
And I had to wheel him in a wheelchair literally to every single door
He wanted to go so winning he wanted a partner. I was like all right. Well. I'll just wheel you around
But think about if you had some kind of terrible accident happen
And you can never go so winning again without someone pushing you around
I mean we should go so any while we can go right now
Amen turn to James chapter 4 verse 13
James chapter 4 verse 13 and the Bible warns us about having this kind of a an
Attitude where we just think we know what's gonna happen the next day
We think we know what's gonna be like two two days from now four days from now two months from now two years from now
Three you know whatever 20 years from now. We don't know what it's gonna be like even the next day
So we shouldn't be thinking well, hey, you know I'll serve God in my later years
I'm gonna serve God you know after I get married and I get the good job and all this stuff
You just don't know what's gonna happen look at James 4 13 it says go to now you didn't say
Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get game
Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow
Or what is your life it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanish away to vanish it away
What is your life? It's a vapor? What is it? What's a vapor? It's just like a little bit of smoke
You know so think about this. You know you're you're cooking food, and you see that vapor go up
That's what God's a he's making he's trying to help you understand your life is so short in
The grand scheme of things it is like a vapor
I mean God is outside of time and time is is different for him, but for us our life is like a vapor
Okay, and a vapor. You know you can even have like a campfire right you got the campfire right here
The smoke goes up for a certain amount of time, but when that smoke goes out or when that fire goes out
There's no more smoke, and how long does it take for a campfire to burn out right? I'm representing the you know
Too late reprobate tonight, so it's my favorite camping trip, but anyway
so
But think about that. I mean what whereas you you know you know not what shall be on the morrow
What's that? I was saying you don't know what it's gonna be like tomorrow
You have no idea and so what should our attitude be about
Or what should it be like verse 15?
It says for that you ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that
But now you rejoice in your boastings all such rejoicing is evil
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin if you know that you're supposed to be
Serving God now if you know you're supposed to be going so any now if you know you should be reading your Bible now
If you know that you should be praying every day now
Then that's what you need to do if you're not doing it. It's sin. Isn't that what it says?
so
If you're rejoicing in your boastings and saying well, I'm gonna go I'm gonna make this money. I'm gonna do all this
I'm gonna get the wife. I'm gonna do all this stuff
I'm gonna have kids, and then I'm gonna serve the Lord more than
The Bible is saying don't have that attitude the Bible is saying that your life is a vapor
You don't know what's gonna happen from one day to the next so the time to serve the Lord is now
Turn to Genesis chapter 27 Genesis chapter number 27. I'll show you a
Very spirit. I believe he's a spiritual man. He's one of the patriarchs
Genesis 27
And I'll just prove to you that not everybody at the end of their life
Is always gonna be spiritual even the most some of the most spiritual people in the Bible
Aren't necessarily doing something spiritual at the end of their lives look at Genesis chapter 27
Verse number one it says and it came to pass
That when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see
He called Esau his eldest son and said unto him my son, and he said unto him behold here
And he said behold now, I'm old I know not the day of my death
Now therefore take I pray thee thy weapons thy quiver and thy bow and go out to a field and take me some venison
So it's pretty spiritual thing that he was thinking about that right. I'm about to die
Hey, why don't you just go out and get me some of this savory meat?
It says it make me savory meat such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat
That my soul may bless thee before I die
So here's Isaac saying I don't know when I'm gonna die
But hey go out and get me some of this meat before I die right and so I said do you think Isaac was a spiritual?
guy
Does anybody think Isaac was a spiritual guy, but look in the end of his life?
What's he what's he doing?
He's sending his son that it's not exactly a super spiritual guy to go get him some meat right and he's blind so
Here's what I'm saying is that you don't know what position your life is gonna be at the time that you're you're older
I mean don't you think going soul-winding blind is a lot harder than going when you can see?
Don't you think going soul-winding when you can walk is a lot better than when you can't walk don't I mean?
So what I'm saying is that when you're older you just don't know
What condition you're gonna be in you don't know what condition you're gonna be when you're younger
You know things happen to people all the time that take them out of commission to being able to do
things to the best of their ability
So like you think about like an athlete that gets hurt
You know sometimes athletes get hurt, and they're never the same again
They blow a knee out or they injure themselves to the point where they can't play or do whatever sport that they're doing anymore
You know and and they can't they don't think about things
You know everybody thinks that they're always just gonna be this young and this spry and all you kids sitting here
You know you you don't think about those things
But all it takes is one time you fall down and hurt your knee and you might not be able to walk right again
so but look what look what happens here with
Isaac it says and Rebecca heard that Isaac
Isaac spake to Esau his son and Esau went to the field to hunt for venison to bring it in and Rebecca
Spake unto Jacob her son saying behold. I heard thy father speak unto Isaac or excuse me
I saw my brother saying bring me venison and make me savory meat that I may die and bless thee before the Lord
before the Lord before my death
So what is Isaac trying to do? He's trying to bless the son that really
Isn't supposed to be the blessed one, so is that really super spiritual my point is that you don't know how?
Spiritual you're gonna be at those certain times when you people you know a lot of times when people get older they get
soft and they get
Backslidden you know and I'm hoping that I never get to that point
But you know I'm not a spring chicken anymore
But you know I I do want to take what the Bible says and apply it to myself and just be like hey
I can't slow down. You know I'm gonna slow down eventually, but I want to speed up until I can't go anymore
You know I want I want to still be able to go so many
I still want to be able to read the Bible while I can you know because you don't know you're gonna
You know you lose your sight. I don't know how fast I can learn Braille, but if I lost my eyesight tomorrow
I'm glad that I've read the Bible multiple times
You know, but there's some people that are Christians that grow up, and they never read the Bible not even one time when they can see
So look at Genesis chapter 47
Look at Genesis chapter 47
The Bible says in Genesis 47 and Pharaoh said unto Jacob. How old art thou?
Very interesting question right and Jacob said unto Pharaoh. This is after Jacob has already had his children
He's come back to he's come to Egypt because of this big famine and Jacob said unto Pharaoh the days of the years of my
pilgrimage are in
130 years
So he he's a pretty old guy, right?
Most of us. I don't think any of us here brought probably live to be 137 years old look what he says few and
Evil have the days of my years of my life been
It's not a weird thing to say for someone that's 137 years old
Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been and have not attained unto the days
Of the years of the life of my father's in the days of their pilgrimage
What's he saying my father's lived to be a lot older than I do and look we're here at the end of time
And we're not living as long as even Jacob even wanted to
Here's the thing that's really important for you to understand and this comes from a poem from a guy named CT stud
It says only one life will soon be passed only what's done for Christ
Will last and when I'm dying how happy I'll be if the lamp of my life
has been burned out for thee and
You know, like I said flames burn out and we only have a certain lifespan on
This planet and you know if you think about Jacob, here's a here's an interesting fact about Jacob, too
Is that he wrestled with the angel of the Lord all night and then for the rest of his life?
He had what he had a limp didn't he?
So, you know
could you see how one thing in your life can hinder you from doing the work of the Lord if you have a
Bad gimpy hip for the rest of your life, you know, it can slow you down it can make you
You know have a hard time going so and you can make you know, we the as our life gets older
we get all these aches and pains and little things that that start to bother us and
And you know, you're not gonna be as efficient as when you're young and spry
So don't you think the best time to redeem the time is now when you're when you're youthful and hey
I'm not saying just give up if you're old. Okay, I'm not saying that at all
You know, but again, we're not gonna be as productive as we get older
As far as going out and getting this work done that we need to do because let's face it
Soening is a hard job, you know, it's hold. I mean it's hard
When it's cold, it's hard when it's hot. It's hard when it's just moderate temperature
It's hard work because you know
Sometimes you can walk six city blocks or whatever and not get anybody that wants to talk to you
You know and and the times when they're good is when every every person gets saved or you know
You only have to walk a little ways
Those are good days right when you can just knock a few doors and get all those people saved
You know, if you if you want to incorporate your exercise program into your soul wanting then I guess it's good to go to unreceptive areas
but
It's not always the most fun thing, especially you folks that live in the desert when it's you're walking all these miles and it's
115 degrees outside or whatever
so
Ecclesiastes chapter 12
You know, I want to give you before I end here
I just want to give you some things that we have little bits of time to do and
things that you need to think about when it comes to redeeming the time and
So things that we have little time to do would be so turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 13
We have a little bit of time to fear the Lord and keep his commandments
And you say well, that's kind of a weird thing to say
Well, you know, that's the whole duty of man. Look what it says in Ecclesiastes 12 13
It says let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty
of man
For God shall bring every work and a judgment every secret thing whether it be good
Or whether it be evil
So we don't we only have a certain amount of time to get on God's program and do our best to fear him and keep
His commandments and let's just face it when you first get saved, you know, you don't know everything
You know, it takes time to learn the things to discern between good and evil
It takes some time and you're gonna screw up and
Even as a safe person has been saved a long time. We all screw up. We all mess up
We all fall down on the job sometimes
but we only have a certain amount of time to do that and look the more we keep God's commandments the more blessed our
Lives are gonna be and the better we're gonna be in standing with God. He wants us to keep his commandments
He wants us to fear him
We don't want to live a life where we're just getting smacked all the time
Do you because you know when God when when you know what God expects from you and you just continue to not do it
It's gonna be a rough life. Just like Moses was talking about in Psalm chapter 90, right? So we need
Another thing that we have little time to do is soul winning
You know, I've been mentioning a lot in this sermon, but we love the thought of saying that will soul win till our final breath
We love the thought of saying, you know, like I said earlier, you know
I'm gonna knock this last door
And then you just give up the ghost and like I died soul-winning
We we like to think that those things but it's just not
Reality most most of the time you see people die in the Bible that are like old saints. They're what they're in bed
They're their eyes are dim. You know, they're not knocking the last door. Okay, that's not how it works. So
We have a limited amount of time to do the things we do, you know
You get saved you learn how to go soul-winning and then you have that certain amount of time where you're kind of in the prime
Of your life when you're older when you're 80 years old, you know
How many how many 80 year olds do we have knocking doors at our churches? How many?
Would you how many would you say we have?
Thank you zero and you know why because most eighty-year-olds don't feel like going out in the 115 degree weather and knocking doors
You feel like laying around and you know taking some Advil or something, you know, so
I'm just saying like, you know, yes, we should work for the Lord for our whole lives
But you know, we need to redeem the time and do it
well
it's the best time of our lives the primes of our lives the early times in our lives because
You know you say well, I'm gonna I'm gonna serve the Lord
Later on, but you might not be you might be blind
You might not be a spiritual, you know, you might be halt on your hip, you know
Where you can't get around as much as you used to
You know, if you're in a wheelchair, you're not gonna be knocking the top doors on the triple-decker apartment buildings
Are you you're gonna have to have someone wailing you around and do it and let me tell you something
It was hard pushing that guy around all day
But it made me think about you know our mortality because God, you know
We're God gives us a shelf life
he gives us a certain amount of time then we can work in between the Bible says in
Proverbs 11 30 the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise
He that winneth souls is wise. So what does the Bible say that we're supposed to?
We're supposed to look circum we're supposed to have a circumspect wisdom
So we need to think about the fact that hey we need to win souls now while we can
We need to win souls while we're able and spry and in our in our knowledge in our mind is sharp
Because here's the other thing your mind might not work the same as it did when you were younger
you know and so we we basically have a
shelf life so
You know and the first problem is our start date for soul winning, you know, when when was your start date?
You know a lot of people like to say well, you know there well we have gravestones and they have like a date
You know the date you were born the day you died, right?
If people give it a for gravestones anymore, but that's another subject for a different time, but
You have a dash right there
But you that whole dash isn't always used to serve the Lord is it you only have a certain amount of time
To actually serve the Lord when you're not super old or when you're not too young to get saved
the dash isn't really you can't always fit a lot of good works into those that into that dash and
Sometimes people are just too lazy to do it or they're not thinking circumspectly or they're not redeeming the time
so
We need to understand that that's not the case. Here's the other thing
So thinking we have things we have little time to do we only have a little time with our children
We only have a certain amount of time with our children
And I and I brought up the fact that I have all my kids are out of my house pastor Anderson's like yeah
That sounds pretty good
But it's not you know, when you get to that point though, there's this like stage you hit and I'm just trying to help you out
There's a stage you hit and we're like man. It'd be so nice to have all my kids back in my house again
It'd be so nice to hear them crying again
And you know what?
I mean, so like what I'm trying to say is that you need to redeem the time with your children, too
Don't just put them on the back shelf. Don't just put them on the back burner and say, you know what?
I'm gonna spend time with my kids when they're when I'm older
They might they're not gonna want to spend time with you when they're older
They want to spend time with you right now
And if you want to spend time with them when they're older you better spend time with them right now
So they know that you love them and we need to redeem the time with our children
You know you you think well, I just can't wait till I can go on vacation. My kids are all out of the house
You really won't feel that way
If you love your children, you won't feel that way. And so what I'm trying to tell you is that
You know enjoy the time, you know
Does it is it hard when they're all sick at the same time and it seems like though your world's crashing around you
And I just need a break. I just need a break. There's gonna come a time when you're gonna be like man
I wish I could just have my kids all together with me again and be young again
But we only get one chance to raise our children only one chance. We only have this life and
We need to make sure that we can get him safe
And we need to make sure that we spend time with them and showing that we love them
I need to redeem the time with our children and also our marriage
My wife always gets sad about this
But we only have this life with our wives and our spouse and
So I see people struggle with their marriages. I see Christians struggle with their marriages and I just think man
You only have one life of them. Why not? Try your best to get along with them to the best of your ability
Fulfill your role as the spouse
I just it drives me nuts to see
You
Know and all spouses fight right all married couples fight to a certain extent
You know, I'm sure there's a diamond in the rough that they've never fought or whatever, but it's just not reality
But what I'm saying is that in heaven, we're not gonna be married anymore. It's till death do us part
Actually the moment one of you dies, you're no longer married. So why not redeem the time now get along with your spouse now
Don't say hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna get along with her in 20 years because you know what you might be divorced
So we need to redeem the time with our spouses now, you know when you get to heaven
You know you you're gonna want to have built the best family that you could have, you know
And the most important thing is read, you know for us is to reach the next generation
You know if your kids are just sitting there seeing you this all you do is fight
You know, it's gonna it's gonna have an effect on them
So try your best to redeem the time now with your spouse
Because you only have this life to spend with them and do you want to just have it spent in misery?
And look I I preach about this a lot and I say look
the the biggest problems I deal with our marriage problems and it's it's I hate dealing with it and
that's why I'd like to just say this that
Young young people don't just marry the first person that comes around
Don't just marry like pastor Anderson's preaching about, you know, don't just try to marry the Barbie doll guys
Because those Barbie dolls come with a price. All right, and it's called misery, right? So
and I must
I'm not saying all pretty girls are or hard cases, but
Because I got a pretty girl
But you know, look you need to go past the skin deep thing, you know
Beauty is fleeting. All right, you're not gonna be as pretty as you are
30 years from now, you're gonna start getting wrinkle. Everybody starts to get uglier as they get older. No, no offense
But it's just a truth. So we need to redeem the time with our spouses and get along with them now
You know and for your sake for your sanity sake and for your children's sake also
But I mentioned Bible reading and
pressing toward that mark
Now is the time to read your Bible and get all the Bible knowledge that you can so that you can help yourself
Have a better life
Redeem the time now for your Bible reading
Get it done. Now. Don't just wait and say, you know 20 in 20 years
I'm gonna read the Bible finally from cover to cover. I'll just learn all the stuff from Bible preaching
I guarantee you you're not gonna learn the knowledge that you need to know with just listening to Bible preaching
You need to crack this book open and read it
And you should read it every day, you know, and if you fail to read it one day
Take it up and read it tomorrow get back on the horse
Get back on your plan press towards that mark of the of the high calling of God and Christ Jesus, right?
So and and here what about prayer?
Prayer is another thing that we need to redeem the time with
Then I'll say this that I think that prayer is probably a very underrated thing with people
You know and acknowledging God when you wake up in the morning, that's a good thing to do
Acknowledging God and and thanking him for the things he does for you know
God does so much stuff for us that we probably don't even thank him for
And we forget to pray and you know what there's gonna be a time where we we don't pray anymore
There's gonna be a time we don't pray anymore we don't have the privilege of prayer
Because we're gonna be in heaven. We're gonna be with God
but you know God keeps our prayers in a little vial and he loves to look back on the memory of our prayers and
What how big is your prayer vial?
Is there anything in it? It's good if God opened it up, but he like oh never mind
Here's the one time they thank me for dinner
Here's the one time
You know they thank me for the birth of their child or whatever you know
think about that because
You know you know we sing that song sweet hour of prayer. You know the very last stanza
You know it says you know like I'll shout while passing through the air farewell farewell
Sweet hour of prayer he'll wave or whatever as you're going up to heaven
You know we we won't always have that time of sweet hour of prayer the time when you know we?
Believed in God, but couldn't see him you know God holds that as a high price
And you know how much are you talking to him?
We need to redeem the time if you're not if you don't have much of a prayer life right now
change
Start redeeming the time press toward that mark start praying to God now because there's gonna come a time when you're in heaven
And like we're you know I don't know. I don't think we'll be comparing prayer vials. Okay. I don't think it'll be that vain in heaven
Well like you're gonna know
How much you prayed you know right now? How much you actually prayed?
Do you actually acknowledge God every day? Do you thank him for the things you think it for your food?
You know those are just simple things in Christ gave us the example
And he would always thank God for his first food before people he'd pray and then break the bread or he'd pray
Hand out the bread or we pray he would eat and so those are things that we need
to
Redeem the time with redeem the time with prayer Bible reading our marriage our
raising our children our soul winning and
Our church attendance. You know you can't get back the attendance that you missed last week
And you know that's a pastor. I can't just miss church whenever I feel like it
You know I can't just wake up on Sunday morning and go I
Think I'll have somebody else pray or preach for me this morning
You know it's just not like that, but see other people can do that
But is that what you do?
You know we should redeem the time with our church attendance because you don't know what you're gonna miss that day
You might miss the greatest
sermon that was prepared for you that you never got to hear because you never or that you weren't there and
So we need to go to church more in
2021 than less right we need to redeem the time
So you know like I said we get those two dashes between our dates, but in reality
Once it's once we get saved is when our Christian life starts
And that's when we should start pressing toward that mark and and you know obviously
We're not always gonna be on our a-game, but we should try our best
So redeem the time that we have right now and when we walk around we look circumspectly and think hey
This might be a problem later on down the line. I need to think about this
You know hey, I know that that lady's really pretty
What if I marry her maybe she might turn into a nightmare later on?
You know I mean find someone spiritual find someone that loves the Lord like you do because if you're just like
Well, she's Catholic, but you know she says she's Christian now. That's a stupid marriage to get into
If she's going to the United Methodist Church
And you're like well, she's in a Christian church, so look I've seen that happen before and it ends up in a tragedy
You don't want that to be your life
I mean do you really want to be miserable for the rest of your life?
Because that's what happens when you marry the wrong person right so and again. We can't
Know what the state of our physicality is gonna be in
Tomorrow
Next week two weeks from now. We don't know and we don't know what our mental capacity is gonna be like
Next week 20 years from now 30 years from now. We don't know and
So that's why it's so important that we live each day
To our fullest in Christ and try to redeem that time the Bible says trust in the Lord with all thine heart
And lean not to thine own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him and
he shall direct thy paths you want God to direct your past will acknowledge him in all your ways and
Don't lean on your own understanding
And you know you want God to direct your path?
Redeem the time and you know what and acknowledge him in all of his way in all your ways, and he will do that
All right, let's pray