Okay, this morning, we are into message number two. Redeeming the time. Okay, redeeming the time. So let us turn our Bible to Ephesians chapter 5:15–17. Ephesians chapter 5:15–17, the last 12 week together, these 3 verses. But it will be our main consideration for this morning. There will also be other passages we will turn to, but this will be the main one.
Okay, it's good to turn to God's word. We will give some time for those who are still turning to it. Ephesians in Old Testament or New Testament? You know, New Testament. So, New Testament is close to the back, the second half of the Bible. Okay, I hope we are all on the same page. If it isn't chapter 5, verses 15 to 17. So let us all read together these 3 verses.
"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."
May God bless us in the reading of his holy and precious word.
Here, let us begin this time with a word of prayer. Let us pray.
Almighty God, our loving heavenly Father, we thank thee for this new day. What a blessing thou has given to us. We will thank you for watching over us, and also for a good night's sleep, and we are so timely for this morning devotion to remind us how we ought to hold highly thy name, and even in our prayers, that we will always pray according to thy will, to know whom we are praying to. For our Father in heaven.
My Lord, we thank thee for sustaining us thus far even to the 2nd day of the youth camp, and thou will continue to be with us and be in our midst, so that our time here will be most profitable, and that not only we learn from thy word, we will also be able to apply, divert, and be a blessing to one another.
And Lord, we commit message number 2 unto thy loving hand and how we may learn to redeem the time. Cleanse us of our sins, and we give thanks and pray all this in the blessed name of our Lord and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now, among all the resources that God has entrusted to man, think about time. Time is evenly distributed to every man. Do you have more time than me? Let's say for today. How many hours in a day? 24 hours. How many minutes? Maybe a test or math, your math? So it's 24 times 60. 60 minutes. 60 minutes per hour. Am I right? So how many minutes? So 60 times 24? 1440 minutes.
So, well, we have such a long time now, 24 hours. But you convert this, instead of 24 hours, 1440 minutes into money. Wow. $1,440 OG dollars. Wow, in your hand. Per day. How are you gonna spend this much of money? And the thing is, you cannot carry over to the next day. Everything must be spent within the day. 24 hour. Can you carry forward the time to the next day? You can't. Every day is fixed. You know, number of times, the amount of time that you have.
So, if you have $1440 in your pocket right now, how are you gonna spend this money? Yeah, of course, in a camp, I don't need to spend any money. Okay, let's say you're not in the camp. You are outside. How are you gonna spend? Wow. Not that McDonald's, I just walk into some high class restaurant. Because $1,450, $40. No, you don't have to... Think of saving. Go there. You can't save anyway. Yeah, they spend it. I told you, you would spend as much as you can.
Such you only spend $100? Okay, on just food. What are remaining? $1,340 left. Are you gonna leave it $1,340 because you cannot carry over to the next day? Will you waste it? No, you will think harder. Know how are you gonna spend this $1,340? Maybe on things, no, no more food, food. I think $100 is more than enough. You're going to think of, oh, maybe I'm going to get myself nice clothes. A nice jacket. Or maybe I'll go for my hairdo. I want to look like so and so, you know? Maybe you need, it cost some, some money to, in order to do that. Or maybe I train a pair of glasses. A new spectacles.
You spend this money somewhere, somehow. You know that you're not gonna waste it. Am I right? Right, you're gonna buy your, maybe if you have enough money. I'm gonna buy a new phone. That money can buy a new phone in the name. Maybe you're gonna spend all of it just on the phone. But you will spend it.
But time, time is even more precious than money. But it seems that we take our time for granted. Oh, we don't see that as valuable as money. Money? Wah, because now you can buy the thing that you like. So you will think very carefully. You will not waste it. You not waste money away. But time? Easily wasted.
Now how much time have you been spending on social media? Gaming? Well, in the brink of an eye, hours pass. Just like this. But when it comes to God's word, when it comes to fellowship, wow, time is seem to be so slow. I just can't wait to get out. Huh? This is art, isn't it? Time, redeeming the time.
Time is more precious than anything else. You know, because if money is gone, we can still earn it back. But money that is lost, no, we can save money, we can accumulate for days ahead, but for time, we can't. The one the time is up, it's up. If we will not use it or use it well, it will be gone forever.
So what we can learn from Christian stewardship, it's not limited to things, right? It's not limited to money. Okay, the soccer here can be a talent, can be a coin. That can be something that is valuable. But time is much more precious than that.
So to redeem time is not merely to manage it efficiently. But to use it wisely, in such a manner, they will honour God. Why? Because of last night message. Because God is the owner of time. We can't run away from this. All our time is in God's hand.
Not anyone who say, "I am the master of my destiny. I control my time." Yeah, no doubt you are controlling your time, but the ultimate controller, the one who determines when you are going to be born, and when you are going to die, is none other than God himself.
So he decides, he decides that you are to be born in your family, with your sister, with your brother. He decide. Time is also the thing. Okay, time total thing. So time must be managed in a manner according to God's will.
So must always remember our foundation. And we must always remember to acknowledge that God is the owner of all things, including time.
So in other words, how are we going to spend our time? There are implications. And these are profound implications. Yeah, I say profound because something that we have not thought about it before.
In other words, number one, okay, number one, we are not free to use time however we please. When we talked about this before, because we thought that we have the time.
Okay? Perhaps we are not talking about 24 hours because we spend at least 8 hours sleeping. Okay, we will talk about general, generally. We spend about 8 hours sleeping. What about the rest of the time? We manage it. The bulk of it will be study. And then sometime will be a time of relaxation. And then other time will be your eating, your cleaning up. So that's our time. Okay, that's our time.
But if you were to spend your time in light of God in the picture, all these things that you are doing, spending your time, you will spend it carefully with God in mind.
He's not saying that you can only pray, you can only read the Bible. Then that is redeeming the time. Well, we must be practical. We are not to neglect all other duties, aspects. It's cleaning up or even preparing a meal. Is this a way to redeem the time? Yes. Why? Because you're doing it for the Lord.
You're not wasting your time away when it is time to clean up. You purposely go and enjoy yourself. You try to escape. That is not redeeming the time.
When it is time to prepare the breakfast together, then one of you decided how to hide somewhere, playing hide and seek. But actually nobody is taking you, but you just want to hide yourself. You want to escape, doing your duties. That is not redeeming the time. That is wasting your time.
Okay, so, redeeming the time is something that is very profound. We are not free to use time, however, we please. It must always be for God's will to be done. The Apostle gave us the principle in 1 Corinthians 10:31. So what did 1 Corinthians 10:31 say? "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
Even eating, even drinking, eating a snack, having a sweet in your mouth. Do all to the glory of God. Wow, how, how, how to think of this, that by eating and drinking can actually give glory to God? Can you tell me how to do it? Well, when you eat, what are you doing? You eat with thanksgiving. No, of course, nowadays, when we eat, we are on social media at the same time. We forgot what we eat, because we are so engrossed in the social media. But thank God that this time, we, we, we eat with one another around the table, we were able to fellowship. And the meal that I prepared, well, is not catered about if catered, we will have a different idea behind, that God is the one who provided, you know. But we have our, you know, some of your parents, parents who prepare the meal, and then we eat of them. Wow. So we warm our heart. We eat with thanksgiving.
Okay, we eat with such mindset, okay, including drinking as well. So that will bring glory to God. You know, when we have such God-centred attitude and mindset. So not to even mention about other, any other things. So eating and drinking is more basic. Okay, more piecing. So the time that you spend on other things, make sure that you are doing all to the glory of God.
Okay, so we are not free to use our time anyway we like. Anyway, we please, it must be used according to God's will, that will bring glory to him.
Now second, our schedules, that must reflect God's priorities. So you look at your timetable, not the camp timetable. The camp timetable will definitely put priority to God's food, to the devotion, to messages, to all the activities that will help us work towards building the Christian stewardship in our life.
So the youth camp is a good example. It's something that you can perhaps learn from, maybe for your life. Although when you look at your life, how do you manage your timetable? What are your priorities? So you need to reflect.
Okay, so our schedule must reflect the priority that is towards God. That will show how important God is to us and how much God is in the picture. If God is not in the picture at all, then you know that this kind of timetable, it's not edifying. It's not something that glorifies God. So you need to change your timetable.
A mandate. Well, maybe you make some changes and... They told me we must do it, we must prioritise our time for the Lord. Not for example... the lobster. Do you see yourself preparing for the Lord's day? From Monday to Saturday? Or you did only Saturday evening? Wow, then you start preparing. On Monday to Friday, you just, in your own time. And when it comes to Saturday evening, even Saturday morning, and in the afternoon, you are still doing your own thing. Having no preparation at all. Only come to the evening, just before you sleep, maybe you just say a short period. Lord, help me to worship you tomorrow, the Lord's day. A lot of Christians are like that.
Maybe some may not even bother to pray about heart preparation on Saturday evening for the Lord's day. Some maybe on the Lord's day itself, or today is a Lord's day. Then you start preparing. Do you know when preparation start? If you truly prioritise your time for the Lord. The preparation begins, the moment you end a Lord's day. That's how we prepare. That's how we encourage one another to prepare. That's how we prioritise, you know, our time.
Why is there such important need to prepare? Or to prioritise our time? Because God is the owner. We are stewards. Time is given by God. So who are we to take the time and then we decide on our own? And then we leave God out of a picture. What are we to do that? Though we do well, when we prepare our heart, our mind, our entire frame of our body, from Monday, all the way to the Lord's day, to prepare ourselves.
No, not that you cannot do anything. But while you are doing all those things, you are serving the Lord. You are preparing yourself. You are letting God work to change your thinking, your words, your heart, your mind. As you prepare, day by day, until the Lord's day. Then you will come with a prepared heart to worship the Lord.
That is how we ought to spend and redeem our time. Don't skip the preparation. If you skip the preparation, then you will become a vicious cycle. Again and again. No, because what you have learned on the Lord's day, the message. And when you leave the church, you will leave all behind. You enter the world with no preparation. Because the Lord's day is to prepare you for the new week.
Well, definitely. Why do we need to have the Lord's day on the first day of the week? I hope you know, I trust you know.
Sunday is the first day of the week. And how the Lord designed so that we may prepare ourselves for the week. In the world, we are in the world, but we are not of the world. So that what we have learned from God's word is not to remain in our knowledge, in our head. Let the heart be as big as the head. It must be heart knowledge. Okay? Heart knowledge.
So what have you learned yesterday? Maybe in your Sunday school? Or those who attended the adult worship service? So what have you learned? Apply it to the week. That's how we remember. Every Lord's day, messages are not given, not for the sake of coming to church to worship the Lord. It is to change our life. How we may conform more and more to the image of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm sure the weekly is sent over to you. Okay, you can easily open. You know what is the message, what is the passage? Do you prepare by reading it, by meditating on it? Do that when you come and you hear God's word. No, you will not, you will not be the first time you are reading, reading the passage. Because if we are reading the first time, then there will be a lot of thinking to do in your mind. And sometimes there may be distractions. Somebody walk past. Somebody bang the door. Something drop on the floor. Then you will miss certain things in the message, you know, when the preacher preaches to you.
If you are not prepared, you will easily not be able to gain much from God's word. No, we need to prepare. Okay, we need to prepare, because who is the one who wants you to be distracted? Who is the one who is always trying to draw you away from God? Is it not the devil? Don't think the devil cannot come to the youth camp. He can. He is very active. The Bible depicts him as a roaring lion, prowling around, seeking whoever he can devour. Whoever is not preparing, that is the one. I'm gonna eat that person up. Draw that person away from God. Make him waste his time away. So like he will not redeem the time.
To give God our priority is important. Do we acknowledge God as the owner of our time?
And then thirdly, we must give an account to God how we spend our time. We have the answer to him. Remember, we have 1440 minutes a day. How are we going to account to God with this amount of time that he has given us?
Well, of course, we do not want to be legalistic. Only time spent in, or reading the Bible, praying, and then in our conversation, only talk about the Bible. Nothing else. No, we don't want to talk about our study. We want to talk about our family, nothing else, only the Bible and what we ought to pray about. But that would be legalistic, isn't it? Well, other time, we will become extreme, then we will, we will, we will even fall into becoming like the Pharisees in the time of Jesus. I thought we do not want to be legalistic, okay?
We want to be very practical. And God wants us to live in this world as His witnesses. He has prepared us to be holy vessels for Him. We are all stewards. We're all stewards of God.
So don't waste your time by being idle. I think that pleases your plan. Even think, think, that it may be legal, or lawful. Would you rather play badminton? Then coming to church? Well, there are some who may not, may not like to come to church, you know, when all my friends are gathering themselves together for fun time. So they are, they are, they are going out. Maybe have some gatherings. But I have to go to church. For our people to go with my friend, then come to church. Well, that will not be redeeming the time.
And so we all have to answer to God how we are going to, how we have spent our time. So recognising God's ownership will transform our perspective in our stewardship of time. So we no longer kill time, okay? Or try to pass time.
Well, there are some people who think that they have all the time in the world. So they just watch the world go by. Every day is like that. You know, they are near my house, like this food court. In this food court, there are some elderly. They are there, enjoying the air con, have a cup of coffee, and then they look at people. Just watch the world go by. That's how they spend the time.
Because they are retired, they are not doing anything. So they have the whole, all the time that they have. But they watch the world go by, the people walk past, and then one after another. That's how they spend their time. But that would be a waste of time, isn't it? Because they don't know how to spend the time.
We don't want to come to this point whereby we are watching the world pass by. No, time is to be spent because we all have to answer to God one day. And we all know, time is short. Very short.
Not very soon, this time will be over. Very soon, you'll be back to school, when this holiday is ended. You'll be back to school, and very soon, you will graduate from your study. And very soon, you'll be out in the workforce. And very soon, you will have, now, you will found a partner, you know, if the Lord provide you one. I think you will start the family, you have children. Stages after stages in your life. Very short of time.
Okay, let us not think that what we have, a lot of time, like a lifetime of many years. Time is short. No, it's just like actually. You know, it's like yesterday. It was 15 years ago when I first came to Melbourne. Well, 15 years, it passed so fast. Time is really short, isn't it? Time passes by quickly.
So when we look at the phrase, redeeming the time, it carries the idea of buying back, or making the most of every opportunity with urgency. Oh, it's... it's like rescuing something that is going to be lost. And we know that time, one span, cannot be recovered. It is gone forever. No, what happened half an hour ago is past, yet become history. You cannot trace it back. You cannot get it back. You cannot add more to your time. You can't.
But therefore, God is calling for His children not to spend your time carelessly, but purposefully. So we must recognise the value of time as a gift from God. Then we will want to use it wisely for God's purposes. We want to seize every opportunity. Every opportunity, don't want to waste anyone. Every opportunity that you recognise that God is providing, you will use it. You will spend it.
Now, the Bible emphasises the shortness of life in James chapter 4:14. You know how the Apostle James describes our life as a vapour that appeared for a little time, and then vanishes away.
Now, this shortness of life, the shortness of time in this life, does not cause us to panic or to despair. Well, they are due to... No, of course, when the doctor told the cancer patient, you know, you have only 6 months to live. I thought they were panic. I only have 6 months left. Well, time even shorter, only two months, you know, because your organs are failing, and this is how long your heart will sustain. Some doctors will say, maybe two months. Wow. Then suddenly you, you feel everything cut short. Well, my time is, is going to be up very soon.
After we panic, but the thing is right now, none of nobody tell us our time is short, isn't it? Or nobody tell us our time is going to be up soon. So, therefore, we think we have a lot of time.
But we must view life as what the Apostle James says, as a vapour. Not to make us panic, but to make sure that we live our life with urgency.
You know, have you ever experienced what is urgent? Well, uh, I think one of the ways that we use the word urgent is when you want to pass motion. I'm sure. What would you say if you have to suddenly use the toilet? Oh, urgent. You're really urgent. Would you say, oh, take your time? I'm not urgent. But you're urgent, really, you're urgent.
I remember... I don't know whether you know this place in Malaysia called Kamaman. Okay, uh, Butterworth. We used to travel up, not together, but when we travel up to minister at the church in Kamaman. Now it took us 7 hours by bus. Okay, from Singapore, then to Malaysia. 7 hours to go to Kamaman.
But there was one on the way back. I was in this coach, together with another preacher. Suddenly there was an Indian man, one of the passengers. I think he got stomach upset, diarrhoea. So he went to the driver. Urgent. Of course, the driver understood what he meant. That meant he wanted to go to the toilet. So he wanted the bus to stop and let him go down, relieve himself. But we are on the highway, we cannot stop.
Wah, the Indian man was panicking. Urgent. Of course, he didn't say urgent. Please, I think what he got is... Please... I was just behind the driver. Oh, behind the driver. I told you what beside. Of course, the other preacher was sleeping like a, like a dog. You really slept through everything, covered, so he didn't know anything. But I was beside him. I saw everything.
This man... urgent, not urgent, not long, but to me, it's urgent. Very urgent. But driver cannot stop, okay, for the safety of the whole bus. Until, you let go. You like gold? Oh, John, it's very urgent.
That is the urgency I learned. Of course, you stayed that long, but to me, it's urgent. Do you have, have you ever felt that? Oh, I pity this man, of course. He saw himself, he had to clean up. Of course, the bus driver was very angry, but what to do? You cannot stop. And then this man is urgent. So in the end, they have to spend 30 minutes, clean up the bus.
I couldn't help because I have no nothing to do. I just sat there. Okay? And then my, the preacher beside, slept, slept through, right? He doesn't know anything. So after that I was, I chat with him.
The urgent, do you feel the urgency? Well, if only we felt this urgency, well, we will, we will call for help, isn't it? We would definitely need to call for help. But who can help us? Only God. Only God can help us. And God had provided the help that we need.
That's why we look at verse 16. The Apostle says, "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil."
That is the answer. When we see the urgency of time, because our time is short, we cannot afford to waste it away. But how are we going to spend it? See that ye walk circumspectly.
Now, the word circumspectly means to look with careful eyes. Take heed, beware. Beware to walk, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time. That is our responsibility.
But when we feel urgent, if we ourselves felt the urgency, we cannot confer this urgency to others. But God is we, okay? Can you imagine that in that man, urgent? Okay, my wife, my pastor urgent to you. Then I go and sleep. Cannot. It's ours. No, the urgency is ours. The responsibility is ours.
And let me see the word walk, huh? The word walk is a metaphor. We already described how we live this life. Our walk is our life. Our whole life of conduct and behaviour. So are we behaving as fools or as wise?
Well, a fool will anyhow walk. No, will not think too much. Have you ever heard of people that I don't think too much? Relax. Sometimes if not, we want to think too much, you know, because we have too many things to handle. But when we have the light of the Bible, we will be able to walk wisely.
Walk as wise, not as fool. Not a fool will want to, "I wanna manage it all by myself. I don't need any help. If I need help, I will call for you. I want to manage it. I wanna see because I'm an organiser. I wanna plan my time. I got one up to seek Him."
Well, without the wisdom of God, how can we plan our life? And make sure that we are redeeming the time according to His will.
So don't be a fool, because a fool will not care. It doesn't have the understanding of what you're supposed to do. We've got the picture, he doesn't know. He cares not for his soul. He will have no qualm in living in the flesh.
Not to please the flag. So he does not know the two values of life. So he doesn't care about his accountability towards God, so he doesn't care. So he live as if there is no God and no accountability. That is a fool. Remember Psalm 14:1, the fool says in his heart, "There is no God." Don't be this fool. A fool will live anyhow, anyway. Oh, I follow my feeling. I follow my thinking. Don't, because our feeling can fill up, our thinking can fill up. But God will never fail.
So the brevity of time is the life is short. Okay, very short. And sometimes even unpredictable. When you have all these plans, maybe sometimes our plan is disrupted, you know, because something intervene, not something come in between. Then our plan is upset. But that is life, isn't it? It's life. But when we live life in life of God, not being the owner of time, and we are able to accept anything that come in between, because God is the one who allows all these to come. Maybe that will be very sensitive to his leading.
You see, I think enough to stop because there's something wrong with it. Is it asking us to persevere? Because we want us to... We want to test our faith, whether we truly follow our conviction, our belief. Although we need to be very sensitive. Very, very sanity, to the leading of the Holy Spirit. And that is a reality that we all must realise.
So our life is like that. So if we live to another day, thank God. That means our time is not up here. Our time is not up yet. We still have something to do. Don't waste your time away. God is in charge. So how much time is left? Leave it to go. But we must feel the urgency. No, as if today is the last day. Do what the Lord has called us to do.
But if you are son, be a Christian son to your parent. If you are a student, we are a good Christian student in your class. What do your classmate? Do whatever it takes to redeem the time, to do that which is purposeful, to glorify God. And we will face opposition because we are living in the reality of time. A reality of evil.
But because Paul also say, you know, the days are evil. It doesn't mean that bad things always happen. But it tells us that... What is this world that we are living in? This world is full of darkness. This world is against God. That's what it says here. The days are evil. So because the days are evil, there are a lot of destruction. There are a lot of worldliness that try to enter your life.
But for many ways, maybe 20, 30 years ago, we don't have all these social media. Well, when we come up here, we will use the physical Bible. Now, we use the electronic subcopy. It's a very different world that we are living in, isn't it? Things change. To adapt to the changes, but the principles that God has laid in His work, remain, we don't change it. Okay? So we change with the time. Do submitting ourselves to God will.
So it is a relative of evil against our time. So don't let evil days control you. Because evil days can consume our time in unprofitable ways.
Do you have any simple habits that make you waste time? Or that can destroy your soul? Or if you like online gambling, you know, that is too easily available. Online gambling. Oh, you just, because it's in a handphone, in the mobile. And you gamble online. These have affected many people. Not only into debts, but the time ought to be spent with the family, all taken away, because, well, they want to gamble. They want to gamble over anything. It can be football, you can be sports, you can be anything. The casino itself is a big part of all these online gambling.
Okay, so we need to cultivate good habits. Put away sinful habits. Put away worldliness. They don't allow worldliness to distract you from all the priorities that you ought to set toward God.
I know me either. Well, then, I, I don't, don't mind is the devil's workshop. Yeah, I'm sure you have heard of these people. So you decided to be lazy. The devil love it. The devil would love to work on you. They will open the door to temptation. Not so that you will not be firm. You forget all about God's word. All the all the important truth that you learn, all the Bible lessons. Oh, clean forgotten, you know, because you just love what you see in front of you. The world in all its attraction, seduction.
To redeeming the time requires us to pray. Requires us to walk through with God. So we need to put away all these things. Whatever that hinders you, put them all the way. And within the time and walking wise, we go together, based on verse 15. So we need to be wise in spending our time. So you prioritise, you make decisions accordingly. To while some of the practical ways to redeem our time. Well, we need discipline.
Sometimes we will not like to wake up earlier, how to to pray, and to read God's word, to have our devotion. We need discipline. We cannot let the body detect. Aiya, so tired. If you are tired, then what must you do? The night before, sleep early. So that car we help ourselves. Don't sleep late, you know? Because you will sleep late, the next morning you have to wake up early. Then you have not enough sleep, then you're going to let the body take control. So don't let this become an excuse. Or not committing to law. It's all discipline.
It can be anything discipline. And don't eat too much. Don't spend all the time eating. Not only not good for your health, it's also not a good time to spend your time in this manner. Not only you go out of shit. But... The time had been spent in the long days. So disciplined, disciplined.
So every day to begin with a sign of purpose. Instead of drifting to the day, letting the day slip by, well, we must always ask, how can I glorify God today? Not even in your in your study. Or at home, of course, we all begin from home. How can I glorify God at home? So is there anything I can do? At a son or daughter at home? So if you ask all this, you will, you will, there will be many things that you can do, really. Many things.
Sometimes it's lack of discipline, and then your laziness take control. The founder of the BP movement actually taught the student in FPBC, for example, Bible college, a very simple principle to glorify God. I still remember until now. Do something good for Jesus every day. Very simple. Do something good for Jesus every day.
Can you think of something good you can do for Jesus every day? You don't have to wait until end of camp. Even now, even in this camp, you can think of something you can do for Jesus to one another. You can pray. You can encourage, you can serve. There are great opportunities, not that we can do all these things.
So purposeful living transforms our moments, any moment into meaningful moments. Not all activities are simple, but, of course, many of them are unprofitable. Excessive entertainment, minor scoring of our mobile devices on social media, or either top worldly conversation. For all these remarks. Put away. They put away.
So you evaluate, evaluate all the time, how you are spending the time. So we eliminate that which is not helpful, that will not build up our spiritual life. Because time stewardship is a big part of our life. So we require discipline.
Perhaps you need to set boundaries, because the thing that you do may not be sinful, but excessive of it, if not good, or maybe you like to study. But because you spend too much time studying, you're not interested in political thing. But that is not good. Why do you want to study tomorrow? Oh, I want to excel. I want to be taught in the club. Why? Not so that people will see that I am a number one student, but that's not good, isn't it? That is not the right aim. That's not a goal that God want us to have.
But it's not wrong to be number one. If you study hard, and you honour the Lord, and you continue to do what is required, as a good Christian student, you know, you see others, you need struggling in the study, you help them. You don't really are, no. You, you, you don't know. You cannot do that as I'm you fail. Very good. You fail. No, you know how to do it. That's a good Christian steward, as a student. Go and help, if you can.
Okay, so service also reflects the the Lord's price in you. It's not just about study. Yes, you are a student. That is your priority, but you're not just a student. You're a Christian student. God put you there in this school, in this class, for a purpose. You study hard, no doubt about it. But don't forget that you are a Christian first. Because that's how we help one another.
Maybe you or some help. So you need to train a lot of time studying. For me, I'm not a studious person. But I need to spend a lot of time studying, really studying. Okay, but I must set my politics, my boundaries. I don't let my studies affect my spiritual life. I don't sacrifice my quiet time. I don't sacrifice worship or fellowship, all just because I have an exam on Monday.
If your parents, maybe they are seeing you struggling, or maybe out of weakness, they say, oh, no need to go to church. You stand on ground. Daddy, mommy, I still want to go to church. I will study harder. Maybe instead of sleeping, at this time, I sleep one hour later, just to study, you know, because I need the time to study, just for this time. Do whatever it takes to redeem the time.
Don't sacrifice... No, the spiritual life, you know, for the things of the world. Okay, so we need to be disciplined and be provoked to do the right thing.
So, redeeming the time, really, is something that is very profound. You don't have to be a genius to do it. All you need is the wisdom from God. When God will answer your prayer, you know, just as how God answered the prayer of Solomon.
So, Solomon, when he started up, he is the son of a king. He has everything already eaten it. But you can ask for more wealth and a greater power. Even more powerful than his father, David. But he didn't. He asked for wisdom. Wisdom to rule the kingdom of Israel, which is God's people. And God blessed him. More than wisdom, give him power. God will give him well. That's why he is the wisest man ever lived on this planet Earth, not because God has blessing with the wisdom. And he need to be careful.
Oh, God gave me the wisdom already. I have the wisdom to just live my life anyway we like. What happened to Solomon? We know at least two areas how he became a fool. He's the wisest man, no doubt. Now, he has all the wisdom that any man could ever wish for, hoped for. But he also became a fool, not because he failed to obey God in his life. Two areas.
First, we spend 13 years building his own house. And then seven years, building the temple of the Lord. So we see the priority, the poverty that Solomon put in. 13 years to build his own own house, his own palace. Do you really need that much time to build your own house? And then only seven years to build a Lord house. Very clearly, what is his priority? It's a fool, isn't it? It will be the other way. It will be... at least more, more time. That will show forth his power, too.
So that is the 1st thing that tournament make the mistake, okay? But then the other weakness is he loved many strange women. Women. How can a man have 1,000 women in his life? Because he not only married these women, he also adopted their paganistic worship. Which is, I thought, three. Because every of these different faith or religion requires a worship place. Until Solomon used his wealth and his power to build temples for all these idolatry. Each one, one by one, we don't know how many. Follow me, the fool. He is the wisest man, and yet he is the fool.
And what is the consequences? United Kingdom or Israel become divided because of Parliament. Solomon has brought Israel to the height of glory that the whole world is able to see God in Israel. Imagine the God of Israel, become magnified because of Solomon. So that is how significant are the wisdom of Solomon is for that purpose. But Solomon is not careful. So he allows his love for strange women to get the better of him, okay? In the end, you become unfaithful. But God is faithful.
You know, he did not punish Solomon in this time, in dividing the kingdom, and let Solomon see with his eye. The kingdom is only divided after his reign. How God is so gracious and merciful. Of course, we know Solomon repented. The Book of Ecclesiastes will reveal how we understood what life we ought to buy. So if you have opportunities, read the book of Ecclesiastes, but don't read it halfway, because if you read it halfway, you not get a whole picture. Because the whole life of Solomon is written in Ecclesiastes. What life is all about?
So, is there anything that can take away the place of God in your life? Is there anything that can cause you not to redeem your time? To recognise that the days are evil? So we need to help ourselves. Self-help with God's help is the best help. God has provided the help, his work, and his Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. And we need to help ourselves be disciplined. Do what is whatever it takes to help ourselves stand on the ground. Don't fall. Like if you ever fall, get up again. If you see someone fall, help the person to get up again.
So redeeming the time is important. We must reflect our heart, the recogniser God is the owner. And we must live purposefully. So don't let time pass out by. Don't waste time away. Spend it for the Lord. Spend it at the end, you will be able to take it well spent. I have redeemed the time with God's help.
Don't look back and cry for all the time that you have wasted. No use. You know, whatever is part is past. What we have now is the current time, spend it well. Well, if God were to give us future time, we do not know. But be prepared, that, you know, remember, be prepared to die. Prepared that today may be the last day. If you have lived well, you are ready to go. But if God give you another day, praise the Lord. Another day to do God's will. Another day to redeem the time.
So the 1440 minutes, let it be well spent and not waste away. So our problem is not, we do not have enough time. Our problem is the failure to redeem the time. So sometimes, have you ever heard, well, I wish God will give me 48 hours. Okay. No, as if we know better. God has given us 24 hours. That's just right. You know, it is off to mismanage or try to put in so many things, but in the end, we feel suffocated. There are too many things, not accomplished.
God gave us 24 hours to do his will. Is enough. The Lord Jesus was given three years to do his earthly ministry. And it is enough from God's perspective. I relate an eternal impact. The plan of salvation is accomplished. Do we need any more time? Well, from our perspective, we may seem to need more time. But from God's perspective, it is in control, the time he had given us, well, is sufficient.
Please, all that opposition for you and me. All we need to do is to redeem the time. So we have heard God's word speaking to us. Well, in Ephesians 5:15-17.
"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."
So let us reorganise our lives, set our poverty right. Leave to glorify God. What will the Lord say to us if we are to meet him today? Will he commend us, or will he condemn us? Well, let not the Lord condemn us because we have failed to redeem the time. We have heard his word. Let us redeem the time.
Because we are Christians to work or time that he has given us, so may the Lord help us.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we thank thee for time, thou hast given us. Most precious. And Lord, we pray that thou will help us. Redeem the time because the days are evil. Help us to remember thy word, to keep thy word in our hearts, that we might not sin against thee. But we will always make the right decision, and set our priorities right, and to be disciplined. To walk this life, which thou has blessed us, wisely, and to the glory of thy holy name.
How about our life at home, in school? And even in church, that we may know how we are to love one another, to be a blessing to one another, to redeem the time by serving one another. That we may be able to do something good for Jesus every day.
The Lord help us, that we may be found faithful until the day we meet our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, face to face.
In Jesus' name we pray.