“Time—Maximizing Minutes for the Master,” Colossians 4.3, 5–6, Oct. ’18, Stewardship Emphasis

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word as we conclude our Stewardship Series, “Bringing Out the Best,” is taken from Colossians 4:3-6 (READ TEXT).  It’s entitled, “Time—Maximizing Minutes for the Master,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                  If a genie popped out of a vase this morning and could grant you one wish, would you wish for more treasure, more talent, or more time? Let’s do a quick survey to find out our answers. The three choices are more treasure (or money), more talent (or abilities), or more time. Think about the one you’d like more of. More treasure? More talent? More time?  The past two weeks the focus has been “bringing out the best” as God’s stewards, or managers, of treasure and talents. Yet some of us consider time even more valuable. Why? Because when you spend or lose money, you will usually earn more. When it comes to talents, often you may be able to work hard to develop a new ability or skill. But each of us receives the same amount of time every day—24 hours. For some of us, that makes it the most valuable of the three.

3.                The hard truth is this: the time we waste is gone forever. Does that mean “wasting time” is a sin? It depends on what you mean by “wasting.” Our text helps us understand by talking about the opposite. St. Paul writes in Colossians 4:5, “Make the most of every opportunity.” If I turn on the television this afternoon to watch the NFL game, it could be that I am just relaxing after a strenuous morning here at church. That’s not a sin. But it could be that I am wasting time by being a couch potato, instead of going out for a walk to get some needed exercise. It may even be—as it is for many wives and husbands—that my wife Roxanne and I will disagree on whether or not I am wasting my time. If I function better after I relax, that’s good. If I’m just sitting there because I have nothing better to do, that could be wasting time. And when we waste time, it’s gone.

4.                It’s not always easy for us to know if we or someone else is wasting time. We’re not called to watch our loved ones and friends to scold them when we think they may be wasting time. Usually we have our hands full ensuring that we’re not wasting time. So if that time could be used for God’s purposes, and we selfishly use it for ourselves, that’s sin. And if that time could be spent sharing Christian love or witness with someone else and we find something else to fill up our time so that we can excuse ourselves, that’s also sin.

5.                Yet there’s hope when you and I are not “bringing out the best” with how we spend the time God gives us for this life. That is because Jesus came at the right time to redeem us. The apostle Paul writes in Gal 4:4–5: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” To redeem means to “buy back,” like buying slaves from an evil master to set them free. That is the intent in Galatians.

6.                Jesus came from eternity—and entered our time through his birth; in fact, he came at exactly the right time. He kept the Law of Moses perfectly which we, by our sinful natures, couldn’t. Then our Lord went to the cross to pay the price of our sinfulness. We deserved not only earthly death, but also eternal death in hell. But we have been set free from that judgment because, by his substitutionary and meritorious life, death, and resurrection, Jesus made it possible for us to become God’s children. We are forgiven, even of those times when we waste time or use it selfishly. We are freed from guilt, given a fresh start as God’s children to spend our time for God’s purposes.

7.                Thus, like the apostle Paul, we can “make the most” of (redeem) our time by pointing others to Christ the King. That is why he writes in Colossians 4:5-6, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (vv 5–6).

8.                We are called to stand up for Jesus as our King, to use what we say to show others how beautiful it is that Jesus is our Savior from sin and Lord of our lives. When persons ask you about your faith in Jesus Christ, they want to talk to you about your faith in Jesus Christ. They want an answer in your words, not mine. We can make the most of the time when we tell “what Jesus means to me” because of “what he has done for me,” but each in our own words.

9.                Then we are “bringing out the best” by being faithful stewards. Paul writes in Colossians 4:3, “Pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.” Even with chains on his hands and feet, Paul wanted to share the mystery, God’s secret plan, of salvation through Jesus Christ. If Paul thought that God could help him make the most of his time in jail, we can look at our own lives too.

10.             Ask yourself, “Does the way I invest my time show that my priorities are in sync with the acronym JOY, that is, Jesus first, others second, yourself third? How do I put Jesus first in how I use my time? It starts here in church with the time I spend in worship, receiving God’s gifts and responding with praise and thanksgiving. But I can give God more than one hour of the 168 hours in a week. I can come closer to him by reading my Bible regularly, by myself or in a Bible study class; by praying for the needs of others, for the church, and for myself; by praising God for all that he has done for me; and by thanking God for the blessings he daily gives to me.

11.             Second, my relationship with others, especially my family and others whom I love, are of high priority as well. That may involve giving others in my life not just quality time (good time), but quantity time (enough time). As a wise person once said, “No one ever said on his deathbed, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.’”

12.             Third, I may also use God’s gift of time for myself, including time to relax, to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation, to learn a new ability or skill as I continue to grow as part of God’s creation.  When I use time in these and other ways, empowered by the Holy Spirit, I am “maximizing minutes for the Master, bringing out the best in the time God gives to me.”

13.             I am not the Christ. My ordination sermon 11 years ago was preached by my father in law, Pastor Bill Wurm.  He reminded me about John the Baptist’s words from the New Testament, “I freely confess I am not the Christ.” Pastor Wurm’s message to me was simple: “You may be part of the bridal party, but you are not the groom. You are not the Messiah, so don’t try to be. Along with the Apostles’ Creed, make sure you confess John the Baptist’s creed: I am not the Christ.” Our Messianic sense of obligation would be greatly relieved if we confessed more regularly what we are not.

14.             Remember the Church. The only work that absolutely must be done in the world is Christ’s work. And Christ’s work is accomplished through Christ’s body. The Church—gathered in worship on Sunday and scattered through its members throughout the week—is able to do exponentially more than any of us alone. I can respond to Christ’s call in one or two ways, but I am a part of an organism and organization that can respond and serve in a million ways.

15.             I can always pray right now. Prayer can feel like the biggest burden of all. We can always pray more, and we can’t possibly pray for every need in the world. Even if we are extremely organized, we won’t be able to consistently pray for more than a handful of people and problems. But that doesn’t mean our prayers are limited to the items we can write on a 3 × 5 card. If your aunt’s cousin has upcoming heart surgery, pray immediately after you hear about it. When a missionary shares her requests, pray right on the spot for them. Don’t let the moment pass you by. Pray a short prayer. Trust God for the results and, in many cases, move on.

16.             Jesus didn’t do it all. Jesus didn’t meet every need. He left people waiting in line to be healed. He left one town to preach to another. He hid away to pray. He got tired. He never interacted with the vast majority of people on the planet. He spent thirty years in training and only three years in ministry. He did not try to do it all. And yet, he did everything God asked him to do. [1]

17.             Paul wrote our text from prison, but Paul didn’t feel he was just “doing time.” It was, after all, “the mystery of Christ for which [he was] in chains.” Paul knew that every minute, even the minutes spent in prison, were minutes redeemed by Christ—who had redeemed him by his timely death. And while each one was precious, each one, Paul knew, was still a foretaste of the eternity he, and we, will share with our Redeemer.  Amen.  Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.