a lack of understanding. We talked about that when we were dealing with fasting, okay? By the way, just since we're in a bit of a review here, if in fact you had an occasion and a desire to fast for a specific reason, there are some guidelines that I said, just practical things that are out on one of the tables out there. So you can take that and if you need to go back and listen to the messages, you can do that. But as we talk about this area of time this morning, We're gonna be specifically talking about managing our time and and and we're gonna build toward that but The last couple of weeks we tackled the highly personal and sensitive subject of money and it really wasn't as far as like, you know a lot about what you're doing with your money as much as just how we're supposed to view it and things like that and what's interesting is sometimes some of the passages or whatever, they kind of intersect a little bit. And so, yeah, we can put those things together in our minds if you want to, but I'm going to try to just stick with time today. But specifically, I want to talk about just how time affects us. Time is a sort of commodity in and of itself. It's kind of like money. You have so much and you can invest it or you can waste it, right? And so what I want to begin with this morning are the truths of time. And we're going to be dealing with a lot of scripture, but we're going through fairly rapidly, much of which is going to be on the screen for you. But what I want to do is I want to kind of lay the basic realities of time for us. And the first one is that God created time. I don't think it's a shocker for anybody, but it's still something that we need to use as kind of a bedrock thing here. God created it. Scriptures tell us in Genesis 1, 3 through 5, then God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. We know that there were subsequently more days. We celebrate seven of them every week, right? And then in Genesis 1, I'm sorry, 822, it says this, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. Right? So time is going to move on. Time is going to be measured. These are all from the Lord, and it's not going to stop. We also need to acknowledge that the creator of time is not bound by what he created, and that includes time. Time is, again, a created thing. God works beyond and outside of it. He can't stop being eternal. All right? So he is everywhere at all times, which includes all times. All right? He is infinite. However, we are created in time, and we are bound by the limits of time. We're bound by a lot more limits than that, but that's one of them, all right? Secondly, God determines our days. One of the things that Job said as he was going back and forth with his friends in Job 14.5 is this. Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with you. You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass. So bottom line is God determines the number of our days. What fills our time is uncertain. I think we can all relate to that in different ways. Proverbs 27.1 and James 4, I'm sorry, James 4, that's supposed to be 4. 13 to 14 tell us this, it says, do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth. 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, whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. So we really, and by the way, this is not saying that we shouldn't make plans. There's plenty of places in the scriptures talking about making plans. It's not just, you know, let's have a free for all life here. But at the same time, what this is talking about is making plans without the idea that God is a part of that. Okay? So what he may choose to bring into our life can be completely different than what we are planning. In Proverbs 16, it says this, a man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. From a human perspective, we simply have no guarantees of what will happen in our lives. We don't. Another thing is our time is short. Psalm 89 47 says this, Lord remember how short my time is for what futility have you created all the children of men. And then in Psalm 39 4 and 5, Lord make me to know my end and what is the measure of my days that I may know how frail I am. Indeed you have made my days as hand breaths and my age is as nothing before you. Certainly every man at his best state is but a vapor. Wow. I relate that vapor idea. And this is a great time of year to do it. When you're outside and you got that nice cup of hot cocoa, right? It's that little wisp that comes off of that. That's the picture of your life. It's there and it's gone. All right. So that's a reality. Our time is short. We are to trust God with our time. All right? Not only does God, frankly, do what He wants, but we have to trust Him with that. And this brings us back full circle to the one who created time to begin with, right? And so the scriptures here in Psalm 31 tell us this in verses 14 to 15, As for me, I trust in you, O Lord. I say, you are my God. My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. David is speaking here during a time of adversity, but the principle of trusting God with our times still applies. How easy is it to slip in and out of trusting God with what we're experiencing, with the time frames that he gives to us? And yet what does David do? He gives his complete trust over to the Lord. He has faith in him. So those are some of the basics that we can see regarding time itself. Now what I want to do is move over to investing our time wisely. 1 Thessalonians 4 verses 1 and 2 talk about pleasing God. Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more, for you know what instructions I gave you through the Lord Jesus." Now, this is the instructions that they were given to please God, right? Well, that takes effort. That takes some time to do that. But look at what it says here, and I don't want to miss this part. He says, we asked and we urged you in the Lord Jesus and their instructions were through the Lord Jesus. So everything we are instructed to do in the scriptures to please God is by the authority of Jesus Christ. Let that sink in a little bit. There are times, I shouldn't say it like that, I'll say it like this. People are trying to drive a wedge today, some, false theologians, who are trying to drive a wedge between what Jesus said and what Paul said. And what they're saying is, Paul kind of, he was a free-for-all. He was some kind of, you know, ramrod, and he was just doing what he pleased, and he was saying things. No. If you actually compare what Paul says to what the Gospels say, what Paul says to what Peter says there's really not any appreciable difference as far as their theology was concerned. And so as Paul is speaking to the Thessalonians he is saying what I am instructing you and we can apply what we are instructed with in the New Testament is coming from Christ. It's interesting if you think about it, if you go even to the book of Revelation, what's the picture there? That Christ is walking among the churches. His involvement with us is active. How do we invest our time? We please God. We also need to invest in marriage and family. And I realize that all of us are going to have a little different perspective on this, and some of us aren't married, and that's all fine. Now, I don't necessarily have a specific verse or passage of scripture that explains time devoted to marriage and family. And my purpose today is not to get super specific as far as the roles of marriage and all those kinds of things. My purpose is to basically say, hey, the closest relationships that we have are going to require some time investment, all right? And we can't overlook that with many of the other responsibilities and other pursuits that we might have, all right? This is an important one. I just don't necessarily have a specific text that's going to direct you to that. I think it's just inferred in Scripture, all right? Then there's the time that we have in serving others. 12, four through six tell us, for as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we being many are one body in Christ. We're individuals, but we're unified in the church. We all have different things to do, but it ultimately helps the body itself, right? And so it says, and individually members of one another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. And then 1 Peter 4.10 in the NIV says this, each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. I love that. And I really believe that the NIV brings it out the best, which is why I used it. God's grace in various forms. Back in that Romans passage, that various forms is also the amount of grace that God gives to us, okay? What does that mean? That means that even people that have the same abilities don't necessarily have the same capacities. But that's how God has fit us together to work with one another, all right? In these general areas of pleasing God and serving others we can sometimes stop at the cognitive understanding and even the agreement with needing to do this. Paul told the Thessalonians, you know this I have informed you. Now again I'm kind of bunching what we've gone through so far right? And I'm sure that many of us are about the Lord's business, but I want to ask some questions when it's related to time. Are each and every one of you doing the basics to please God and serve others? And we can include family in that too. Next, we have to ask ourselves, are we actually growing or increasing in these vital matters of spiritual health and growth? Now right now you might be thinking to yourself, wait a minute, you're kind of off. I mean, this is good information, but aren't we kind of veering off the skids here a little bit? Pleasing God, family, and serving others all require time. And that's what I'm focusing on, where we're investing our time. These are primary. These are primary, but there's some others. Take time to rest. That's really nice, right, after we say marriage and family and pleasing God and serving one another. Oh, and by the way, and when we haven't talked about work, right, like I say, we're not getting too, you know, crazy here, that's including other things, but you still have to take some time to rest. Look at what Jesus told His disciples, Mark 6, verses 30 to 32. Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all the things that they had done and what they had taught, okay? This is when He had sent them out. They come back, they're reporting, and He said to them, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while. Now, I know some of you, and we have moms in here, we have grandparents in here, right, who maybe watch kids. You would love to have a deserted place. to rest a while, right? Okay. It says, for there were many coming and going and they did not even have time to eat. And so they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. So what's the lesson here? You need a boat. No, just kidding. The point is this, each and every one of us do need a time. And by the way, I'm including young people here too. You need a time sometimes to get away, realistically speaking, right? Some nine-year-old's not going to go buy a plane ticket and go to Bermuda for a week, okay? This is not what we're talking about. But it's a matter of taking some time for yourself to rest. You know what's also important here? Communicating with other people around you the need to rest, right? We're not telling wives and husbands and kids to just check out of the family for a while, right? There's a communication there. But in all of this, this is important. We're saving this for last. Prioritize your time. Now, there's not a lot of, you know, direct scripture that speaks to this. There are certainly passages that we could go through and show. But again, I'm just going through the basics right now. Proverbs 24, 27 says this, though. Prepare your outside work, make it fit for yourself in the field, and afterward, build your house. As I've stated, time is a commodity. It's something that we kind of own and have to do something with and we only have so much of it. With anything of value we need to use it wisely which often requires us to focus on what is most important. Now, most of us don't plant our own crops. I'm not saying you don't have a garden, but you're not dependent on what is in your backyard or your back 40 or whatever, right? I don't know that most of you, you know, are looking to build your own home. Maybe some of you are able to do that. That's fantastic, right? That's all right. This still applies because the general principle is to make priorities. First things first is the idea here. What's the point of this passage? You can't eat your house. That's what it's saying. You need to do the first things first. Make sure that you have your field planted, get your crops ready, then build your permanent shelter. So how can we apply that to different areas of life? There's all different ways we can. But part of it is prioritizing. The principle here is prioritizing our time. We cannot increase or diminish our time. So the key to time is prioritizing and maximizing what we do with it. Making correct priorities is aligning our own priorities with God's priorities. And by the way we already said that included rest. So here are some principles of how we can use our time but how about how we can avoid wasting time. Now there's ways that we can apply this right away but I want to stick with the principles of scripture here. One time waster is just flat out laziness. He who is slothful, Proverbs 18, 9 says, in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer. Wow, that's pretty strong language. And then 6 verses 9 through 11 says this, how long will you slumber, O sluggard? That means lazy person. When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall your poverty come to you like a prowler and your need like an armed man. All right? So laziness is a way that we can just simply waste our time. Have you ever known somebody that seems to spend more time getting out of their work than actually just doing their work? You know, sometimes that's hard to learn. Now, in defense of what sometimes I think we can come down on teenagers about is this. There is, and this is for kids in general, there is a certain point where their bodies are just going to shut down regardless. all right, they're growing at a majorly rapid pace. And sometimes, truly, they can't even control it. Now, there's a difference between just letting your responsibilities slide as a kid, right, and just saying, I gotta take a nap, or I need to take a rest, or whatever. And I would just encourage parents or grandparents to consider that, all right? But at the same time, I think we all know what laziness looks like. And let's face it, to one degree or another, we probably have been guilty of it. It's something that we need to avoid. And here's what's crazy. As I was studying this, check this out. We're all supposed to avoid wasting time and overwork. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he gives his beloved sleep." That's Psalm 127. Again, we go back to this idea that rest is important. But here is somebody who is just working at it, working at it, working at it for no good reason. Ecclesiastes. I messed that one up. We'll go to the next one. Leisure. Leisure is another area that is something that we can waste our time in. Luke 12, 19 says this, and I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry. All right. Some would call this the perfect retirement. I have everything I need. I'm going to kick back and do nothing. Right? Now, we're going to look at this story a little more closely, but this is considered a waste of time. Complete and total leisure. Now, this isn't technically laziness, is it? Because, man, they worked for that. They deserve that. And there's another one and that's worry. I want you to turn with me to Mark chapter 6. We could spend two weeks on worry, we're not going to, but we do need to see how this can be a time waster. Mark chapter 6 beginning in verse 25. That's not right, I'm sorry about that folks, I have the wrong passage here. I'll bet you my passage person, my wife Maggie is working on it right now so it might be Matthew chapter 6. If you can believe it I double checked these things. Well, we'll find that. Yeah, I think it's Matthew chapter six. Yeah. All right. Mark's a good guy too, but we don't need him right now. Okay. Matthew chapter six. I'm sorry about that folks. Starting in verse 25. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" One example. You can add an inch to your height, right? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these. Now if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Do you see what's associated with worry? little faith. Therefore do not worry what you shall eat or what you shall drink or what you shall wear or how are the bills going to get paid or are my kids going to grow up right. For after all these things the Gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knows that you need all of these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things." Beautiful, folks. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble, right? A popular saying is, don't borrow tomorrow's trouble for today, right? That's the whole idea here. 85% of our worries never happen. Never happen. Not one bit of it. A large part of our worries that actually do take place have better outcomes than we expect. Jesus listed all these things that can cause us worry, but worry isn't our subject. It's the time that we waste worrying. The time and the energy that we burn being concerned about things that many times never even take place is a time waster. So it's interesting that we go from laziness to overwork, from leisure, taking it easy, and getting all churned up about stuff. Isn't it wild? And what we're told is we're not to be concerned about all this stuff. We're supposed to do it right. These are time wasters. Now, our conclusion this morning is going to be actually a longer part of our message because I want this application that we're going to have to really sink in and, you know, blame the fact that I had this message pretty much ready two weeks or a week ago, and I got another whole week on it. But I really wanted to think through, OK, let's make some sense of this because, OK, we've got our principles of time. We've got how we need to invest our time. What are the primaries? exclusively, but what are the primaries? And then how we can waste our time. But let's put it into something that we can, you know, relate to and use, right? I want to contrast a couple of people. Rethinking how we spend our time. The first contrast is Anna and the rich man. Now, what I'm going to first do is just give you both their stories. One, obviously being a parable. And just let that sit for a minute, and then we're going to kind of contrast those two lives. So here we go. This is Anna's story, Luke 2, verses 36-38. A lot of people believe that Anna was waiting for the Messiah, right? Now there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. And that's significant, by the way, because Asher was one of those tribes that was taken away and they did not, as a tribe, return back to the children of Israel. They did not return back to the land. but she did, and she actually has a lineage to prove it, okay? She was of a great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity, and this woman was a widow of about 84 years. And there's back and forth. We looked at her at Christmastime, folks, because she was one of those figures there, but what it really comes down to is is that she either is 84 years old or she's 84 plus the time before she was married, but that's not that important. But what does it say here? who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in an instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem." That coming to Him was when Jesus was presented at the temple after eight days. Okay? So that's her story. We stay in the book of Luke, but we go to Luke 12, verses 16-18, and we look at this rich man that Jesus is contrasting here. So we're just going to give you this part of the parable. And he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops? So he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. OK, sounds good so far. And I will say to my soul, soul? I kind of like that part. You have many goods laid up for you for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, Fool, foolish person, this night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and not rich toward God." Now again, we're talking about time, but time equals what also we do, right? So although the rich man isn't necessarily real, we can relate to the type of person that Jesus is describing. So as we go back and think about this contrast between Anna and the rich man, we're going to do some comparing and contrasting of the two. Anna is an example of selfless and wise use of time. Her time was devoted to prayer and worshiping the Lord. By contrast, the rich man determined all his time would be devoted to himself. Jesus described this as a complete waste of his time because it produced nothing of lasting value. He couldn't enjoy it. It was gone. Why? Because his time was up. In Jesus' parable, despite all of his efforts in planting, the rich man had no time to enjoy what he had worked so hard to gain. Now, I'm pretty sure that most of us are going to fall somewhere in between these two extremes. This doesn't mean that if your life doesn't look like Anna's, then you are living a sinful life. that is all about you. That's not what I'm saying. That's not the scale that I'm using. I'm simply saying that you can't get any farther from her being completely devoted to God to where she was at the temple consistently. Kind of like whenever the church doors were open idea, and they happen to be open a lot more than ours, just based upon the temple schedule. And then when you go over here to this man, everything was all about him. I want to be careful and deliberate to point out that although their circumstances seem to be polar opposites and to a degree are, they shared something in common, they had a singular focus. For Anna it was the Lord and for the rich man it was himself. They also chose a lifestyle based upon that singular focus. Anna chose to serve, to pray, to worship, and to fast regularly. The rich man chose to dine, relax, and have a good time. Again, one didn't quite get to enjoy what they were working toward. In addition, they were able to sustain that lifestyle. Now, I'm not saying that he enjoyed it. I'm saying that he got to that point as far as the rich man is concerned. Anna had no husband. or family to care for and probably no large household to maintain. There's speculation about what was going on with her or whatever. She may have been supported by others as a widow, including obviously her family, or she may have had flexibility in the way she made a living. There's any number of ways that would have allowed her to do what she did. But these are the only ways really that she could serve in the temple the way that she did. But clearly, Anna made many personal sacrifices to serve. The rich man had amassed enough money to retire early with enough to care for his every earthly need. And this allowed him to plan for a completely selfish lifestyle. It was the time investment that we're talking about here. Right? So let's just leave that there for right now and let's go to the next contrast, which is Solomon versus Solomon. Solomon is not schizophrenic, okay, but Ecclesiastes seems that way sometimes. Turn with me to Ecclesiastes 2. I read a portion of that for you earlier in the service that was just to share and maybe lay the groundwork a little bit for this concept of time. But let's look and see what Solomon says in chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes beginning in verse 1. By the way, vanity means emptiness, worthlessness, okay? I said of laughter, madness, and of the mirth, what does it accomplish? I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom. I don't know how that's possible, but the wisest man on earth apparently could do that. And how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made my works great. I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of all herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I required male and female singers and delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor. And this was my reward from all my labor. And then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled. Indeed, all was vanity and the grasping for the wind. There was no prophet under the sun." Wow. That's a mouthful there. Solomon gives a clear picture of life, even what we would describe as the good life, as empty and meaningless. The implication, however, is that this is all done apart from God because Solomon gives a different perspective in Ecclesiastes 2 Beginning in verse 24, nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. That sounds a lot like what we just read, doesn't it? This also I saw from the hand of God, for who can eat or who can have enjoyment more than I? For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in his sight. In whose sight? in God's sight, not in His own sight. And then we see in chapter 5, verses 18 to 20 of Ecclesiastes, here is what I have seen. It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him, for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God. For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart." Well, what is the joy of his heart? It's what God has given to him, but it's God himself. It's God himself. So as I said, this sounds an awful lot like what we just read in chapter 2, but if you think about it, what he's basically saying is all these things are worthless apart from God. The difference is, who am I living for? Because blessings, as a rule, will come if we're faithful. And there's everything right about enjoying that. So now, sorry, I almost got ahead of myself. Wait just a second. We're going to transition over here to one more concept and we're going to bring this all together. What does redeeming the time mean? Because we're told in Ephesians 5 verses 15 and 17 this, see then that you walk circumspectly. This basically just means you get circumspectly Look around while you're living. Be aware of your surroundings is what it's basically saying. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Folks, this is the crux of what we're talking about here because everything that we've been talking about to this point at some point deals with time and what we're doing with it. The activities within that time, okay, yeah, that matters, but we still have to give the time to it. Remember what I said, we can't just stop with having some cognition, having some idea of what is good and what is best. The time has to be invested in doing what we know is good and best. So as we're approaching this idea of redeeming our time, the first thing to keep in mind is that many things fill our days. They can be done from an eternal kingdom building perspective. We cannot forget what 1 Corinthians 10.31 tells us, therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. That's an oft-quoted verse. But when we're talking about our time, that's what we're talking about. When it's dedicated to God. Now, I don't want to make it sound like, I'll just say it's for the Lord, and then everything will be good. No, no. We're talking about legitimate here. So we have to understand that many of our daily tasks The things that we are called upon to do, we can dedicate as time given over to God. Again, that's going to have to require a change in mindset for some of the things that we're involved with. But next, we need to prioritize eternal kingdom-oriented activities. We still have room to refine how we carry out God's priorities and determine how we can increase what we're doing with his priorities. Every person in here has a completely full schedule. Every person. By that I mean we're all allotted a 24-hour day and 1,440 minutes in that day, no one receives any more or less. So guess what? If you live a day, your schedule was full. Every minute used, spent, invested, or wasted is used, spent, invested, or wasted in some way. Now, we may not share the same responsibilities or obligations, okay? For example, I know that we have some folks here who are retired. You don't have to go and punch a clock, so to speak, anymore, right? Does that mean that they're responsibility-free? that they have no obligations in their life? Probably not, all right? But earlier I had given the illustration, the brief illustration of, you know, a mom, particularly a mom raising a number of children, maybe even a number of younger children, okay? Some of her time is taken up whether she likes it or not. Right? So the amount of time that we can just say, okay, I'm going to cut this time out and use it for this, we may not all have the same ability to do but we still have the ability to do that at the level that God has given to us. There are two keys to redeeming and enhancing our time, the first is, and I've said this already but we're bringing this together, sanctifying everyday tasks. Repurpose your everyday tasks as kingdom work for doing them for the glory of God and service to others. Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So sanctify everyday tasks and the other one is exchange. Exchange, that means redeem by the way, wasted time for time invested in the pursuit of eternal things. Let me say it again. Exchange wasted time, the things that we illustrated earlier, for time invested in the pursuit of eternal things. Now in all of this, I would be remiss if I did not include the fact that the most important aspect of time is eternity. Your soul is eternal. You will spend eternity, you will spend forever time in either heaven or hell. Your time, your life, your eternity must be redeemed. This means that there must be an exchange of your life for Christ's, of his righteousness for your unrighteousness, or Jesus paying the price of your sins, substituting his life for yours. And there must be a point in time when you receive what Christ has done for you by faith. That is the ultimate redemption of time, folks. And that is absolutely necessary. But as we're talking about this area now on a practical basis, and by the way, I'm not saying that isn't practical, it's very practical, but on our daily living type of things, the trick to all of this is not just knowing. It's doing. It's investing the time in the right areas, and even taking the investment of time that we sometimes don't even have a choice in, and say, you know what? I'm giving this time to God. I'm going to make these sanctified practices. Now, very briefly here, how do we do that, for example, when it comes to work? Well, first, we would follow the principles of what the scriptures say about work, right? Do a faithful job. Don't steal from your employer in any way, shape, or form, right? Do what you're tasked to do, et cetera. But along with that, what about expressing not only what we do, how we do it, but even what we say that what I'm doing matters because I'm ultimately doing it for my God, for my Lord, my actual God as master. In other words, boss, I got a bigger boss than you. He's the boss of everything. Oh, by the way, including you. You don't want to say that, but it's true, right? And I'm submitting to him first. Now, even if that's not expressed to your boss, if that's the way you're living things out in your heart, you have now sanctified your workplace. And we can just go on and on and on. parenting, friending, how we're investing our time even when it comes to our rest and our recreation because we've seen scripturally here that there's nothing wrong with it. There's actually everything right with it if it's being done under the Lordship of Christ. So rather than just spending or wasting in some of these areas. Notice I didn't say in every area because I don't think that's the case. Let's invest. Let's invest for eternity for what matters most. And remember the first investment is understanding that we're broke, that we have nothing and that we need Christ. We need Christ to redeem us and our eternity. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I doubt there's a person in here that doesn't struggle with managing time. And sometimes, Lord, it really is, it's a judgment call. There aren't necessarily real easy and specific guidelines or even verses we can go to to say, oh, you ought to be doing this. And so, Lord, we pray for wisdom. But we have enough principles here to help us understand that we can use our time in ways that are maybe more productive, maybe better used than some of the things that we're doing now. Not that we're always having to be about work and accomplishments and gaining and getting. But at the same time, it's not falling into that trap of just having so much leisure and so much laziness that we miss out on some of the responsibilities that we have that you have given to us, those responsibilities that we fulfill in serving you and serving others. So God we pray for wisdom and we thank you for your patience in Jesus name, Amen.