The Priority of Stewarding Our Time

Sep 25, 2024 • John Cole

In this series of teaching on stewardship, John Cole revised and taught from a published course made available without copyright by local church pastors shared for churches like ours. Read the handout notes here...

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INTRODUCTION

Psalm 90:10

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

First is the hedonist: Time is about fun.

Second: Time is about accomplishment.

Third: Time is simply about survival.

THE MASTER

1 Corinthians 10:31

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 4:7

For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

Time is not really a commodity or thing to manage. Rather, time seems to be a linear, sequential dimension in which we exist and manage things.

What time we have is a gift. And like space, matter, and the universe, it is a gift that only God can give.

Hebrews 4:13

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

God owns time. God has entrusted you with your time. You will one day give account to Him for how you have stewarded it .

THE MISSION

1 Corinthians 10:31

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Matthew 5:16

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Your job for your time is to drum up as much delight in the goodness of the Creator as you possibly can.

Discover and display the goodness and glory of God.

THE GROUND RULES

Ephesians 5:15–16

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Every command in Scripture is a step forward in helping us know what is the best use of the time.

1. Obey the Master in each area of responsibility throughout your life.

The freeing nature of God’s commands show us how He wants us to spend our time.

2. The Master is in control of how much time you have.

Q: In light of that, how might we change the way we communicate about time availability? Why would this matter?

3. Time is short, so we must be urgent about our stewardship.

Psalm 39:4–5

Lord, Make me to know mine end, And the measure of my days, what it is; That I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; And mine age is as nothing before thee: Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

Psalm 90:12

So teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Christians must consider it as urgent priority to use our time to show off the goodness and glory of God, trusting the wisdom and constraints of His commands and providence.

PRAYER

1.For you to use your time wisely.

2.For our church to use our time wisely.

3.For a Christian you know to use his/her time wisely.

4.For an unbeliever you know to be saved and start using his/her time wisely.

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INTRODUCTION

Time is a precious thing, isn’t it? The ultimate non-renewable resource. If you misuse your money, you can always earn it back. If you mess up your health, you can often seek treatment. If you squander your skills, you can always go back to school.

But time? Time rolls on. It stops for no one. As Benjamin Franklin said,

“Lost time is never found again.” - Benjamin Franklin

What that means for us in this study is that stewardship of time is something to take very seriously. To quote Moses in Psalm 90,

Psalm 90:10

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

What will you have to show for your years when you “fly away?”

We live in a culture that has a pretty messed up sense of what time is worth. If I can oversimplify, I think there are three basic views as to what time is for.

First is the hedonist: Time is about fun .

Malcom Forbes wrote a book called “The Four Hour Work Week.” Sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t it? The hedonist is about bending time to maximize pleasure. “He who dies with the most toys, wins.”

I am not condemning creativity or efficiency. I am just emphasizing the mindset some have regarding time.

Second: Time is about accomplishment .

Productivity is everything. As Henry Ford wrote,

“Work is the salvation of the human race, morally, physically, socially.”

There’s certainly a Christianized version of that: you evaluate your time by how much you do for God. But as we saw in our study on rest, that purpose statement doesn’t quite square with the Bible. Starting with the Bible’s teaching on rest.

We weren’t created merely to do, merely to accomplish. We were created to show off how amazing God is by imaging him. Part of imaging God is working to order this world and to fill it.

But the main value is not the work product. The main point is the statement our work makes about who God is.

So, as we discussed before, rest is ultimately about enjoying God and not merely about recharging to get more done for him. God is not dependent on you to accomplish his purposes.

Of course, for so many in this world, there’s a third purpose statement.

Third: Time is simply about survival .

No luxury to sit back and consider what the point is; it’s just about making it to the next day, and the next, and on and on if we can.

So that’s the water we swim in. And to those assumptions the Bible has some important words to speak to us about what our time is for, who our time is for, and how we can steward it well.

Let me give you a quick preview of where we’re going. We’ll start with who: who owns your time? The Master.

Then we’ll look at his goals for your time. We’ll examine the ground rules he’s given for goals, the obstacles we need to get over. The Mission. And next week, Lord willing, we will finish with some practical wisdom for living this way as it relates to Obstacles to stewarding time.

Let’s start with the who.

THE MASTER

If you’ve been in this series, you know the answer. Who owns your time?

[wait for answers]

That’s right, God does. 1 Corinthians 10:31,

1 Corinthians 10:31

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Or earlier in the same book,

1 Corinthians 4:7

For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

Humankind has come a long way toward making all sorts of things—but we have yet to create even one second of time. Time must be received from God.

And that is because:

Time is not really a commodity or thing to manage. Rather, time seems to be a linear, sequential dimension in which we exist and manage things.

We don’t really manage time. We manage what we do within time. We can neither manage nor create more time. We must rightly manage things within time—the time God gives us.

What time we have is a gift . And like space, matter, and the universe, it is a gift that only God can give.

Let that sink in. If God gives you time, He must have good reason for it. We can’t view time as ours.

But as with all gifts God gives, time comes with responsibility. And God sees every moment of how we manage what we do within the time He gives us.

Hebrews 4:13

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

God owns time. God has entrusted you with your time. You will one day give account to Him for how you have stewarded it .

Before we continue on, let me stop here and ask you a question. What are some implications of the fact that God owns your time?

God defines how to use our time. It is impossible to be good with “time management” without knowing God and obeying His commands. Many in our world are masterful at efficiently and creatively doing the wrong things! Good time management starts with salvation, continues with sanctification, and culminates in glorification!

God determines how long we have it. Truly trusting God with this relieves us of many burdens, anxieties, fears, doubts, and frustrations when time and related resources become less than what we anticipated. Loss of savings…. a project… a company… a loved one… your health… an opportunity… your freedom.

God is the ultimate judge of how we use it. This creates a healthy urgency and direction for how we steward our time.

We should care most about what God thinks of how we use our time. This protects us from being ruled by fear of man and filling our time with less important, unhealthy, or sinful things.

If we do, it will move us to greater obedience and worship of God. Seeing God as the good owner of our time will fill us with thanksgiving what what time we have and trust for what time we don’t.

THE MISSION

God will one day call us to account for how we’ve spent his time. What standard will he use? For that we can go back to that passage from 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 10:31

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Use your time to show off the goodness and wonder of God. How do you do that? By imaging and enjoying him. Show off how good he is by acting like him—in your productivity, in your creativity, in your husbanding, mothering, friending, rescuing. And enjoy him. Be amazed at him. Which of course is often what follows from imaging him.

Matthew 5:16

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Your job for your time is to drum up as much delight in the goodness of the Creator as you possibly can.

That purpose is what governs your work, your sleep, your leisure, your eating, your time with the church…everything you might do with your time. Said another way as an imperative,

Discover and display the goodness and glory of God.

This is vital. For it is possible to do right things with the wrong motives, countenance, or method and end up not displaying the goodness and glory of God.

That’s why showing off God’s goodness and glory must be at the forefront of our priorities. It will help us do right in the right way.

THE GROUND RULES

OK. Got that. But where do you start? Imagine that you’ve got 5, 10, 20, 40, even 60 years ahead of you or more to show off the goodness and glory of God.

An immense, blank canvas you can use to paint a portrait of Almighty God. The array of options is dazzling. Think of the gazillion ways you could spend that time. How can you possibly know what’s best?

Take Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 5:15-16

Ephesians 5:15–16

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

*Look carefully how you walk… as wise

*Buying back or making the best use of the time…

Make the best use of the time. I’d say that’s not dazzling but paralyzing. Make the best use of the time? How on earth can I know what is absolutely the best?

Well, thankfully, as it turns out God’s not actually given you a blank canvas. More like a paint by number. He’s given us all kinds of guidance for how we can make the best use of the time, and it’s important to listen to what he’s said.

Every command in Scripture is a step forward in helping us know what is the best use of the time.

Which leads us to the first ground rule in Scripture for stewarding our time:

1. Obey the Master in each area of responsibility throughout your life.

God’s given you various responsibilities in your life by virtue of your circumstances, and each of them come with commands to obey. Commands are life-giving—because they shine light on the path God has instructed you to walk. They tell you how you can make the best use of the time.

So if you’ve got kids, there’s instruction about your responsibilities to them.

Same goes with your friendships, your church membership, your role if you have one as a boss or an employee, your responsibilities as a citizen and neighbor.

Some of these roles – like citizen and church member—will always be true. Others—like your career or your marital status—may change. And with that change comes more or less clarity with how you’re to spend your time.

So your job is not to figure out from scratch the absolute best way to spend your time. Instead, as we talked about in week 2, your job is to figure out how to be faithful to God’s commands in each area of your life.

You’re the foot soldier, not the general.

•Does it really make sense to be in church every Sunday instead of giving time to that high-profile career you’ve got? Not your job. Your job is to obey.

•Does it really make sense to spend all that time with your own kids instead of all the other kids starving for love in this world? Again—not your job to figure that one out. Love your kids. And most likely you’ll have some time left over to love on other kids as well. But your job is to obey.

That’s our first ground rule –

The freeing nature of God’s commands show us how He wants us to spend our time.

2. The Master is in control of how much time you have .

The thing about time is, there’s never enough of it, right? Actually…wrong.

There’s precisely the amount of time that God has determined is best. Precisely the amount of time for you to do exactly what he’s instructed you to do, not a moment less.

We must learn to trust God with the time He gives.

Remember, you don’t manage time. You manage what you do with the time God gives you.

The idea that there are 24 hours in a day and not 25 or 26—that’s God’s idea from before sin entered the world, and it was part of what he called “very good.”

Our limits can feel maddening, but that’s simply because we’ve not learned to trust the one who ordained those limits.

Q: In light of that, how might we change the way we communicate about time availability? Why would this matter?

Q: Can you go to ______?

A: I would love to, but I have made prior commitments that I must keep.

Q: Can you help with _______?

A: That sounds important. Would you mind if I took some time to pray about that in light of my current commitments and priorities and get back with you?

Q: I know you usually gather with your church on Sundays, but would you like to ________?

A: You are right, I gather with our church on Sundays. I miss a few times a year for family events that are outside the area, but we never take it lightly when we miss. We find this single discipline of gathered weekly worship has been one of the most profound ways we remain in worship, fellowship, and obedience to our King and Savior—Jesus.

I have to constantly fight to protect this priority with so many requests and opportunities that come up, so…

1. I must decline. Thank you for the invitation.

2. Please allow me to pray about this and get back with you.

Q: Employer: I need you to do ________.

A: Depending much on the culture and context, you might respond with, “It will be my pleasure. To help me know your priorities, would you like me to move _____ back in the pipeline? I know meeting deadlines matters to you, the company, and our customers.”

3. Time is short, so we must be urgent about our stewardship.

Now, “The Master is in control” might lead to a serious misunderstanding. God’s got it all covered, right? So why rush? But that smacks into another big theme in Scripture. Time is short. Urgency is huge.

Listen to Psalm 39:4-5,

Psalm 39:4–5

*handbreadth=short length (across your hand)

*age=lifetime

*vanity=vapor, breath that comes and goes without much notice

Thus Moses’ prayer,

Psalm 90:12

So teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

We cannot create more days, so we need to apply ourselves toward gaining wisdom to use them wisely.

If you’re much older than me, your gut probably tells you exactly what Moses is saying.

If you’re much younger, you may need to take it on faith—your time is short too.

But know this is true: we can never act as if time is on our side. Time is slipping away.

So then, put this together.

Christians must consider it as urgent priority to use our time to show off the goodness and glory of God, trusting the wisdom and constraints of His commands and providence .

Next week in Part 2, we will get into the obstacles that lie in the way of doing that.

PRAYER

1.For you to use your time wisely.

2.For our church to use our time wisely.

3.For a Christian you know to use his/her time wisely.

4.For an unbeliever you know to be saved and start using his/her time wisely.