Sermon Title: Redeeming the Time

Redeeming the Time (11.12.17) 1

Sermon title: Redeeming the Time

First Reading Colossians 4:2-6

2Devote yourselves to prayer,being watchful and thankful.3And pray for us, too, that God may open a doorfor our message, so that we may proclaim the mysteryof Christ, for which I am in chains.4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.5Be wisein the way you act toward outsiders;make the most of every opportunity.6Let your conversation be always full of grace,seasoned with salt,so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Second Reading Ephesians 5:8-20

8For you were oncedarkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light9(for the fruitof the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)10and find out what pleases the Lord.11Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness,but rather expose them.12It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.13But everything exposed by the lightbecomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.14This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,16making the most of every opportunity,because the days are evil.17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.18Do not get drunk on wine,which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,19speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,20always giving thanksto God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There was a church bulletin that had an announcement in it about a group that was going to get together to work on how they can procrastinate less in order to use the time God had given them in a wiser way. The announcement read, "The procrastinators group was going to start meeting the first Sunday of every month, but they decided to put it off."
Getting a hold of our schedules seems to be an impossible task sometimes. Who here has said, or thought, "I am too busy with things that do not matter and never have enough time for the things that are most important?" This morning we are launching a sermon series entitled "Giving Thanks." In this series we will consider how we can give thanks to God for the time, treasure, and talents He has given us. To kick off the series we are concentrating on redeeming the time we have been given.
One of the greatest resources that God has given us is time. He has given us time to enjoy fellowship with Him, each other, and to make His great love known to others. Yet we never seem to have enough of it to get what we want accomplished, let alone what God wants us to accomplish. What if that is problem? Are we trying to accomplish all we want to do, and squeeze God into our left over time?What if, God has given us time on this earth to redeem it? What if He has given us the time in order to use us, and the time, for His good purposes?
To answer these questions we will consider this passage out of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. In it we find at least three ways in which we can surrender our time to God for Him to redeem. They begin with "W" to help us all with memory.
In verse 15 of Ephesians 4, Paul writes that in order for the time we have been given to be redeemed we must have wisdom, our first 'w,' in how we live.
So what is wisdom and how will God use it in order to redeem the time we have been given? The best definition of wisdom I have ever heard is that it is knowledge applied. Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing that you do not put tomatoes in a fruit salad. Or perhaps closer to what Paul had in mind, knowledge is knowing that gossiping is harmful and sinful, wisdom is knowing when we are getting sucked into it and being able to be a part of the solution to it. Big difference!
God redeems the time we have been given when we allow time to reflect on what His will is and how to apply that to our lives. Instead of just running through life at a break neck pace it is important that we take time to reflect and open ourselves to God's wisdom. When we read the gospels, for example, Jesus is not just doing, doing, and doing. Instead He, from time to time, retreated to be with His Father in Heaven. In part, He retreated to seek His will, to gain wisdom. A simple and practical way this has worked itself out in my life is that I pray over my daily schedule, before I decide what to do. I do not do that every day, and I have never heard an audible voice. However,it does remind me that ultimately God is the one who has given me this day and it helps to open me to the leading of the Holy Spirit in my daily duties and activities.
Paul points toward two specific areas where wisdom becomes knowledge of God's will applied. They are the areas of what we do and what we say.
Paul writes that we should not have anything to do with fruitless deeds of darkness but rather expose them to the light. Think about all the things we do to waste time. From Candy Crush, to TV, to aimlessly wandering the internet there are a lot of things that suck up our time. Also, think about the activities that take up our time. Things like different clubs, sporting events, and charitable organizations are all vying for our time.
Obviously, none of these things are bad in and of themselves. However, if we do not recognize that we only have 24 hours in a day and God wants to work through each one of them, things will eat up our time before we know it. I once heard someone say, "If the devil cannot make you bad, he will make you busy!" Wisdom enables us to discern how God wants us to spend our time and how He does not want us to spend our time. A Christian song writer named Jonny Diaz wrote a song entitled "Breathe" in which he says that we have to "lay down what is good to pick up what is best." If God is calling us to something, He will give us the time we need. When we feel too busy to accomplish what God is calling us to, what are those good things He wants us to lay down so we can pick up what is best!
The second area in which Paul points us is in our interactions with people. He writes that rather than being foolish we should be full of the "Spirit,speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit." In Colossians Paul writes be "wisein the way you act toward outsiders;make the most of every opportunity.Let your conversation be always full of grace,seasoned with salt,so that you may know how to answer everyone."This is important because redeeming the time is not just about doing different things with our time, it is also about doing things differently.
Whether it is through text, social media, email, or face to face, we spend a lot of time communicating with other people. Part of redeeming the time is taking those things we do as every day routine and allowing the Lord to work through them. When we interact with others, do we speak life to them? Do we encourage or discourage? Are we careful to speak the truth rather than lies? Do we talk to people or about them? I think we are all guilty of not speaking life. God earnestly wants to redeem that time, and those interactions.
However, it is so hard to do this, isn't it? If we were to list out all the things we do, think, and say, asking, are these redeemed actions, words, and thoughts, many of us would have to say no they are not, I know I would! In the face of this convicting wisdom how can God redeem the time we have been given? We work at it, our second 'w,' so the Holy Spirit can work through us.
God is much less interested in us 'getting it right' and much more interested in a heart that is open to His guidance and willing to try. In Ephesians 5:10 Paul writes that we ought to 'find out' what is pleasing to the Lord. Some translations say that we should 'prove' or 'test' what is pleasing to the Lord. The word literally means to put something to the test, or to test or try something out. In other words, for God to redeem the time we have been given we need to try things out. While we should not just randomly do things, after prayerfully reflecting on how we spend our time we need to try some things out.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, took this very seriously. So much so that he experimented with how many hours of sleep would be optimum. He said I want to sleep enough for my body to be healthy, and of course it is different if you are sick, but no more. While I think this is a bit to obsessive the point is a good one. For God to redeem the time we use trial and error to figure out the best use of our time.
After we ask God for wisdom for how He wants us to use our time, we need to be courageous in trying things out. Is God calling you to engage with the poor, sign up for Love Ops, the Caring Tree, or Family Promise. Is God calling you to work with children, sign up for helping in the nursery, help with Sunday School, VBS, or Kingdom Sports Camp. Is God calling you to share your faith, invite an unsaved friend to Alpha and come yourself. It begins January 10th at 6:00pm. We will have a free meal and child care.
In theory this all sounds great. Redeem the time, seek God's wisdom, work at it so the Holy Spirit can work through you. There is, however, a problem. When we get serious about redeeming the time we have been given, God will often, if not always, move us to rock the boat. Rock the boat by calling us to stop doing things that we like, or that others expect us to do. Rock the boat by doing things and spending our time in ways that are different than before.
So what are we to do? Throw our hands up and give up? No we need to walk, our final 'w,' as children of the light. If we begin to allow the Lord to redeem the time He has given us, we will experience resistance, we will experience darkness. Whether it is resistance from within us or from without we walk as children of the light by remembering that we are children of God and people of worth regardless of what others think or say about us. Realizing that we are redeemed and God's children causes us to relate to time differently.
There are two Greek words that mean time. They are chronos and kairos. Chronos refers to the liner passage of time. So when someone checks their watch thinking "Will this sermon ever end!" that's chronos, thinking about the linear passage of time. Kairos is the word Paul uses in both Ephesians and Colossians. The NIV translates this word as opportunity. It means the right, critical, or opportune time. Think about a bride getting ready and someone opens the door and says, its time or that scary, exciting, moment when a pregnant wife looks at her husband and says, "honey its time!" Jesus began to preach saying "the time (Kairos) has come, the Kingdom of Heaven has come near."
As followers of Christ, as ones who are redeemed and are opening themselves to have their time redeemed we live, more and more, into kairos time. That our lives are not just a series of events to get through. Instead every interaction, every circumstance, every moment, is a divine appointment that God wants to use for us to know Christ and make Him known to others. We sang it this morning, "These are the days of ElijahDeclaring the word of the Lord, these are the days of Your servant, Moses, Righteousness being restored, These are the days of great trials, Of famine and darkness and sword, Still we are the voice in the desert crying, Prepare ye the way of the Lord!" Brothers and sisters in Christ, the kingdom of Heaven did not stop coming after the 'good old days' ended, it is not just coming some day in the future. The kingdom of heaven is here, right now!
Instead of putting it off like the procrastinators club let's start today. Let us open ourselves to God's wisdom, that teaches us how to apply His will to our lives. Let us work at it, trusting that the Holy Spirit will work through our efforts. Finally let us walk boldly as children of the light. Children who's souls, lives, and time are redeemed for the Lord and His good purposes!
Let us pray: Lord redeem the time you have given us so your kingdom can come to us and through us today and forevermore. Amen.
Receive this blessing and benediction: Let us go forth a not waiting but allowing God to redeem the time He has given us today so He can make an eternal difference through us!