James 4:13-17 (NKJV) 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow [h]we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
So if you are new or visiting CLC this morning, we preach through the books of the bible. Currently we are going through the book of Genesis. We are about a year and a half into Genesis, but as we just read, I’m not preaching from Genesis today. If that bums you out, I’m sorry. PC has some important messages coming up that he wanted to handle personally and asked me to preach on whatever I felt like the Lord was leading me to preach on, and this is where He’s planted me lately
So a few months ago, I gave a message to the youth that was called “The Time Is Now”
It’s weird that I once again asked the Lord to tell me what to speak on and it’s about the brevity of time – I think as Americans it usually pretty easy to plan things – If you looked at my schedule – you would probably say – “that guy has a lot going on” and you would be correct
But having a lot going on isn’t always a good thing – We all need rest, God doesn’t command it because He wants to add just another thing for us to schedule, He commands it because it’s for our good
So I have a very fine line of responsibilities at my work, I work full time. I have responsibilities at home, and responsibilities here at the church
I think this is pretty normal for a lot of people who minister in the body of Christ – Not everyone can be supported solely by the church – Most of us work full- or part-time jobs and then come and minister outside of those hours
I don’t say that as a pride thing, just a glimpse of what that looks like for a lot of ministers in this body
But I’m not going to dive into that today. Today I have some very specific points that I want to talk about and I feel like it will be beneficial to believers and unbelievers if there is anyone in here who needs to be born again you will have an opportunity later once this message is concluded
I just want to read these verses in James 4 again
James 4:13-17 (NKJV) 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Let’s talk about the first point
Point One: How you spend your time reveals your heart
Every morning you have 86,400 seconds to spend and to invest. Each day the bank named “time” opens a new account with you.
It doesn’t matter if you are a newborn Christian or a seasoned Christian – The fruit of your time reflects what’s in your heart of hearts – it reflects your desires – your dreams, your consequences, your passions, your priorities
It paints a thorough picture of what your life consists of
Just a side point to point one – how you spend your money also reveals your heart
Time is a commodity that we get to spend with choices – We can choose to go to work and provide for our families – Sometimes, people work too much. In 20 years, the only people who will remember that you worked late are your kids or your spouse
We can choose to serve at church in various positions, which also has it’s downfalls – we say yes too much, we take on too many things and get burnt out and tired
We can choose to put our hobbies or passions over our relationships, God and our families
Well Billy really loves going hunting, it’s all he talks about – he takes time off of work to make sure he doesn’t miss bow season, shotgun season, musket season, second shotgun season, rifle season, anything goes season, it there was a bare hand season, he would do that too!
We only have so much time in our days, but they seem to come and go so fast – we just let time get away from us
What we spend our time on really tells us what we’re all about.
If someone who was unsaved spent a day with you, shadowing you and taking an inventory of your daily routine other than a Sunday – would they come to the conclusion that you are close to God?
That you have a relationship with God? That God is part of your daily schedule?
Cause the enemy is – He’s spending time with you to see if you are a real threat or if you are just a talker and not a doer.
Ok, he woke up at 5:30am, got his coffee and got into prayer and the word for an hour, then got his son up and got breakfast made, lunches packed and took his son to school. Prayed over his son on his way to school, dropped his son off at school and prayed on his way to work, got to work, worked diligently, didn’t swear, didn’t talk like the other people there, went home, prayed over his lunch and went back to work and finished his day out diligently, left work, picked up his son, poured into his son on his way home asking about his day, encouraging him in the Lord and answering 5000 questions, got home, took care of dinner options, poured into his family, prayed over his son and wife, put his son to bed, cared for some of his wife’s needs, did some cleaning playing worship music and worshiping the lord as he cleaned the kitchen, read some of the Word or videos on God and went to sleep – That’s a typical night without serving at the church – the enemy looks at that and it’s a threat
The enemy will do whatever he can to disrupt that life – what can I do to distract this person so they get so bogged down with busyness that can’t balance their lives and maintain a healthy relationship with the Lord?
When our time gets out of balance – what are we doing to right our priorities? We have to be vigilant to keep our focus – Just like Pastor Christian preached on in the last sermon series about the good and faithful servant – we must remain focused on the prize – we have to keep our focus
We have to ask for God to redeem the time we’ve lost
If satan can keep you busy with ridiculous things, he’s taking your most precious commodity and flushing it down the toilet – time is something we don’t get back, we can’t wish for it, we can’t buy it, no amount of money can keep you from a physical death –
Psalms 90:12 (NKJV) 12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
There’s wisdom in knowing what time is – If we teach our kids how precious time is – They will automatically understand what they need to do growing up – They won’t let fear, laziness, procrastination, busyness or other distractions rob them of this precious commodity
They absolutely know what quality time is – (explain how Isaac likes to spend time)
This leads me to my second point
Point Two: God desires the quality of our time, not just our time
I love how God knows what we need. I think when I’m spending time with God there’s days where it’s balanced with prayer and reading the Word and then journaling – but man, there’s days, when it’s heavy prayer, I’m just pouring out, and then there’s days where it’s a lot of the Word, or I’m just there silent and letting the Lord just talk to me, and then there’s days where I’m writing out my thoughts and testifying of God which takes the most time.
I say that to say this – Don’t be a robot. God wants you to have a routine and a custom, but there’s going to be days that He’s going to do something different with you and in you – Don’t just think “If I pray this long, and if I read this many chapters and write down this much God will be happy with me” No man, God is about the quality of your time – He doesn’t want half of our heart, He’s not looking for vain repetition – He’s looking for realness and vulnerability –
Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV) 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
And it’s ok to start off your time with God like this – God, I want you to have all my heart, please show me the places in my heart that aren’t Yours and help me to surrender them
I’ve been very convicted lately about the quality of what I’m giving to things – We preach about being an all in church and to be honest – that’s not been easy for me to walk out – Not because I believe against that, but I’ve always been very guarded with my heart and a lot of time the quality of what I produce for others has been subpar – what do I mean by that? Well I think when you go through life – you get wounded – and without realizing it, you put up boundaries and walls, and you start to diminish the quality of your relationships because you aren’t all in, you don’t want to get hurt again– for me it’s something that just happens and I have to actively shut it off so that I can truly not hold anything back – It happens when I’m stressed, overwhelmed and depressed
I’m not sure if anyone else can relate, but I have to be very aware of my weaknesses and triggers and combat them with prayer, the Word and encouragement from close friends and family
But the issue that remains is this – Am I giving God and others quality time or just time? If I can’t be real with God, then we have some issues – God sees all my junk and mess and still wants to spend time with me – Jesus specifically died on a cross so He could spend time with me
So quality matters – it matters to God, it matters to people
Talk about my work issue and how God helped me through it
I wouldn’t have gotten through that issue if I wasn’t obedient to what the Lord was telling me in the secret place
Church – Obedience is all about quality – Can I talk about obedience real quick?
The devil isn’t scared of your worship. He’s scared of your obedience.
You can cry in worship, you lift your hands, you get the chills even
But the devil doesn’t flinch at your emotions. He flees when you obey. What if Adam and Eve just obeyed God? Satan would have just left
Worship without obedience is just noise
You sing to God on Sunday, but ignore him on Monday
Luke 6:46 (NKJV) 46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
Heaven responds to obedience. Hell fears it.
The devil doesn’t mind your passion
He fears your discipline
You’re emotional in His presence but disobedient in your decisions
John 14:15 (NKJV) 15 “If you love Me, [a]keep My commandments.
Obedience is the real proof of love, not volume or tears
The enemy will let you sing…as long as you never surrender
He’ll let you dance, he’ll let you cry as long as you never change
James 1:22 (NKJV) 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Worship is a doorway. Obedience is the walk.
Emotion is powerful – But obedience is warfare
You feel closer to God during worship, but you’re stronger in God through obedience
James 4:7 (NKJV) 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you
Submission weakens hell more than a thousand hallelujahs
The devil doesn’t fear your fire – He fears your follow through
He’s not moved by your energy, he’s terrified by your consistency
Matthew 7:24 (NKJV) 24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
Your storm protection is built in the act of obedience
You want quality?
Obey when it’s hard
Follow God in private, not just in public
Build rhythms that crush rebellion in your life
Worship with your walk, not just your words
Hell isn’t scared of your volume, it’s scared of your yes
Anytime God has moved, it’s because someone obeyed God and God brought the fire
Why all this talk about obedience?
James 4:15-17 (NKJV) 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
We get so ahead of God when we barely ask Him what He wants us to do with our time – We boast that we took this job when we didn’t ask God, we boast when we started to go to this or that church without really praying about it – Side note, don’t do that – I know from experience
We talk about plans to move or do this or that, and instead of praying about it and asking God what He wants us to do with our precious time, we have it all figured out
Or we ask and we don’t like the answer God gives and we disobey
To him who knows to do good and does not do it – it’s sin
It’s this simple – If God told you to do something and you don’t do it – you’re in sin
God, what is your will for my life? What is my calling?
Ew, I don’t want that. I’m going to do my own thing – it’s an act of rebellion, and then we wonder why we are dealing with issues
This brings me to my final point
Point Three: Your time is running out
I know that sounds scary, and I’m not trying to freak you out this morning, I guess this is really want I want you to hear this morning – God’s patience will eventually run out on your life – because he’s angry with you and I? No, because there’s a real threat and it’s called time – it’s a real thing on this mortal plain.
We cant keep on preaching grace and mercy and just disobey our walks into eternity – God deserves so much more from us – For this brief vapor of a life we have here on earth, we need to wake up and start taking it seriously
James 4:14 (NKJV) 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
Why did I say “your time is running out” for point three? Because I want to make this as personal as I can for you –
I will tell you a little story about my son – There was a curtain issue my son was having and it was one of those issues where it should have been overcame at an early age but it lasted way too long – and would have the same conversation with him and I started to get more and more frustrated by the 500th time
My son would say after every instance of this particular thing that he was sorry and I started to resent that – I was getting to a point where I was starting to say – “I don’t want your sorry, I want your obedience” and then I started to get convicted about my own shortcomings and the countless conversations I’ve had with the Lord about how sorry I was and it would literally play on rewind in my head
There has to be a moment in our walks when we say enough is enough – God isn’t looking for our sorrys – He’s looking for our obedience
But we are too busy saying sorry and then running back to our vomit and the enemy doesn’t have to worry about us, because we will only walk in victory for a few days and then we are too busy saying sorry and not walking in true repentance
Time is too short on this earth to keep messing around – There has to be a moment where we realize that we are vapor on this earth – and instead of sinning and playing the false repentance game – we take our callings and being a follower of Jesus seriously!
Here’s the thing – We are not promised tomorrow!
Saved or unsaved alike! We are not promised tomorrow!
Don’t blink, cause in the vastness of eternity, our lives here on earth might as well be as a second in time
Yet we’re over here dinking around
Listen, I’m not saying you can’t have hobbies and fun, but we would spend more time in the light if we didn’t love the dark so much
Like we all love the idea of light, but there places we haven’t turned over to God that just hate the light and are perfectly fine living in the dark
We were all meant to be with God! In God there’s no room for darkness – evil has to flee
James 4:13-17 (NKJV) 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow [a]we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Conclusion
The time is now/talk about it being the time to come to Jesus
Do you have the time? – If you don’t, it’s time to make time
Gospel Call
Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God.
Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids
2808 Schaeffer DR SW
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
www.CedarRapidsChurch.com
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