THE CLOCK IS TICKING

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15, 16 ESV)

When we hear 10, 9, 8,7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, when we get to zero, we all expect something to happen. It might be an explosion of a bomb going off, or it might be the final seconds of a game before we burst out in joy over our victory. There is the end of something and the beginning of something else. From the moment we are born, we are assigned a clock which is ticking. We like to think the clock is ticking in our favor. When we see a little child, we think, that child has seventy or eighty years ahead of him or her. The reality is, the child is losing time at the rate of 86,400 seconds each and every day.

By the time the child reaches 35, the child will have 500 days left to live. This 500 days is based on subtracting the time spent sleeping, working, tending to personal matters, hygiene, odd chores, medical matters, eating, traveling and miscellaneous time stealers from the next 35 years. 

When we think of stewardship, we often think of money, but time is something God expects us to be good stewards of as well. How we spend our time is going to be of tremendous importance when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Have you ever heard someone say, "I would like to read the Bible but I just do not have the time." If you were to read the bible from Genesis to Revelation at the speed of someone doing the Scripture reading it would take seventy one hours. If you broke that down into minutes and divided it into one year, that means in only twelve minutes a day, you could read the Bible from cover to cover. 

When we provide a stewardship of how we spend our time, it will be based on what we have actually done, not what we intended to do. Nobody is going to be rewarded for good intentions. The psalmist prayed, "Lord teach us to number our days." 

Our problem stems from us overestimating the time we have left. What do John the Baptist, good King Josiah, and Jonathan the son of King Saul all have in common with Jesus. All of them had an appointment with death before they reached their fortieth birthday. Yet each one of them found the time to do the will of God for their lives.

When we truly number our days, we have a different outlook on life. For instance if you knew you only had 24 hours left to live. What book written last year would you want to read? What soap opera would you desperately want to see? What football game would you not want to miss that night? What amount of that time would you want to rush back and spend at the office on your job? What hairstyle would you feel you had to get? What movie would you just have to see? What outfit would you be dying to buy? What car would you just have to ride in? 

Most of us would not be interested in calling our favorite secular artists to come and sit with us. We would not be calling for the bartender to come be by our side. If we had our own business, we would not be calling for all our clients and customers to come be with us. No must of us would be calling for our family and close friends. Some of us would even want to have a worship service remembering the goodness and promises of God. 

The reality is, we do not know how much time we have left to give in service to God and to each other. What would you say to your child, if you knew today is the last time you will get to see them? What would you say to your parent, if tomorrow was your last time together? What would you do differently toward your husband or wife this week, if you knew this week was your last one together? My friends, it should not take a crisis in life for us to love another as Jesus told us to do. 

A good stewardship of our time, recognizes all of our time belongs to the glory of God. Whatever we do, which cannot be done to the glory of God, needs to be eliminated from our lives. Every day the clock is ticking. Each time you look at your watch, look at your spiritual watch and ask, "Am I doing what I’m doing to the glory of God.  Am I making the best use of my time?"

Each of us here determines each day, just how much of Jesus we are going to let into our lives. You have got as much of God in you right now as you want to have. I guarantee you, a large part is based on your stewardship of your time. If you do not have time for God in your schedule, you do not have much of God in your life.   

Yes, the clock is ticking.  Are you using your time wisely today?