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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