Do you feel like you just don’t have enough time to do the things you want to do for God? For your family? Learn how to 'redeem the time' and make the most of every opportunity God gives you.
00:00 Introduction
1:17 Redeem the Time for the Days are Evil
2:38 Be careful how you live
4:03 Make the Most of every opportunity
4:37 Do Not Be Overcome by Evil, but Overcome Evil With Good
7:06 Action Steps
One day, your money, your car, and your home will be given to someone else. Someone else will have your job. The prestige, power, and fame you worked hard to get will vanish like a morning mist after the sun comes out. Those you love and others may remember you warmly. But they will each go on living their own lives without you.
When it's all said and done, the only thing that will truly matter is how you chose to steward the time you were given on this earth.
*Redeem the Time for the Days are Evil
Ephesians 5:17-19 WEB
15 Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Redeem means: mean to exchange (like grocery coupons), to buy back, or to recover
How do we redeem time? Instead of using it on the things of this world, we buy back our time by using our time for God’s purposes. We invest it in things that have eternal value.
The cost is we don’t do what we want to do when we want to. We live with an awareness that life is short and we make the most of every opportunity we have to share the Gospel, heal the sick, feed the poor, and love others with Jesus’ unconditional love.
*Be careful how you live.
Psalm 144:4 AMP
Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a shadow that passes away.
How many times have you come to the end of a day and wondered “Where did the time go, today?” We often live in the urgent, not the important things in our lives.
* Ephesians 5:15 “Don’t live like fools but like those who are wise.” The foolish people described here have strategies to use time wisely. So they miss opportunities God gives them to do things with eternal value. They caught up doing something that won’t matter tomorrow and miss the chance to do something that will matter forever!
*Make the Most of every opportunity.
Ephesians 5:16 “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.”
We’re surrounded by evil. Poverty, injustice, and sin, and self-centered living. God will give us opportunities to do something about that. But we need to make time for them. And we need to say “yes” when God asks. He often doesn’t ask twice.
Easy to Read Translation of verse 16: I mean that you should use every opportunity you have for doing good, because these are evil times.
Do Not Be Overcome by Evil, but Overcome Evil With Good
We make the most of every opportunity by overcoming evil with good.
In John 10:10 Jesus tells us that satan came to “steal, kill, and destroy” but Jesus came that we “may have life, and have it to the full.”
1 John 3:8
The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
That’s our mandate too.
Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
1 Peter 3:9
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing…
Galatians 6:10
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
We have the privilege of defeating Satan’s evil schemes by doing good as Holy Spirit leads and directs us into the specific works God has prepared for us to do. Wherever there is evil, God will call us to overcome evil with good through prayer, sharing the Gospel, and specific works.
This is how we redeem the time in our daily lives. It may be praying for a colleague whose marriage is falling apart, buying dinner for the homeless man outside Walmart, loving the most unlovable person in your family, forgiving someone who
Action Steps (15s):
1. Commit Each Day to the Lord
Billy Graham:
“Do you number your days? Do you realize how important every single day is?
Psalm 90:12 AMP says, “So teach us to number our days [rightly] that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Wisdom comes from knowing how precious each day is and living that way.
Psalm 31:15 Moses said, "My times are in your hands."
Begin each day with a prayer giving your time to God and ask Him to use your day to do something of eternal significance.
2. Begin Each Day With God
James 6:33 NKJV
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Put God first in your life and He will enable you to redeem your time – to live with purpose and with great effect each day.
3. Overcome Evil With Good
Create margin (time) in your life and always be looking for opportunities to overcome evil with good. Ask Holy Spirit to lead you into these divine encounters and he will. Finally, develop a habit of immediate obedience.