Making the Most of What You Have, Part 5 (cont'd)

We'll be right back. Pastor Paul is the pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. We're glad to have you join us. In his last message, Pastor Paul offered a great suggestion. He invited us to begin setting aside 10% of our waking hours, about 12 hours a week, and offering them to God. You'll find that message, along with any recent Destined for Victory message, at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net. Today, Pastor Paul picks up where he left off as he explains what this tithe of our time may look like in our day-to-day lives.

Let's join him now for today's Destined for Victory message, Making the Most of What You Have. If your children live in your house, part of your spiritual charge is to put the Word of God in them. And if you want to teach them how to live a life that pleases God, and part of that is attending church when you are able-bodied and can do so, then you teach them to get up. We're going to church. I've heard y'all negotiate for years with your children and take their emotional temperature and see if they feel like going to church. Never in my life heard that question. Son, it's Sunday morning. Do you feel like going to church? I don't know what that sounds like.

I never heard anything like that. I heard from another room, y'all better get up. You've got 45 minutes.

I don't hear any stirring in there. 45 minutes, get in that bathroom, get yourself washed, put on your church clothes. We had church clothes growing up.

Now we can wear anything. We're free in the house of God now. And y'all don't have church clothes. We grew up with church clothes.

And your mother didn't hear you stirring in there. Get up, get in that bathroom, put on your church clothes, be out this door. I grew up in a generation, some of you did too, where even families themselves, the adults didn't go to church. They sent their kids to Sunday school because they knew if they were going to raise proper children, they needed some sort of moral foundation. And they figured the church is providing it.

And they would send them. I grew up going to Sunday school with kids whose parents didn't go to our church. And while us church kids were walking up the walk, getting ready to go into the church, we'd see cars pull up, little heathen children get out. And they would join us going into Sunday school. Heathen daddy, get on back in his car, go on back and do something else with his Sunday.

And I know those days are gone now. But we as people of faith have got to say attending church is part of why God gave me time every week. God give me all these days and you mean I'm not going to take some time and go to the house of worship and say, Lord, thank you for blessing me here on the first day of the week or whenever you worship.

Saturday, whenever it is. It doesn't matter when you worship, it matters how you worship. And you come together and say, Lord, thank you for time. Thank you for strength.

Thank you for right mind. Thank you for the ability to get out and worship you. Thank you for the ability to work and to earn a living or to work at home.

Thank you for all that you have done. I worship you. I give you the sacrifice of praise.

Thank you for saving me. Thank you for picking me up out of sin. And you show up at church and tell God thank you. So part of your spiritual development is private worship and prayer and Bible reading and devotion. Part of it is public worship. Part of that tithe of your waking hours could be getting with other believers somewhere during the course of the week.

Besides the large gathering for worship service. Find a small group where you can get in the word of God together or get into a growth group where you can apply the things that you learn from the pastor and you can apply them to your life. God has given you time.

And if you give it back to him, he'll bless you. Don't say I don't have time to be in a growth group. Don't have time to be in a small group. God gave you the time.

Yes, you do. You have to allocate it for what God gave it to you for and you get in and say, let's talk about how this word applies to my life. Let's talk about the challenges I'm facing, the struggles that I'm dealing with in my life. Part of that tithe of your waking hours could be taking some Bible courses and getting into the word of God until the word of God gets into you. In our church, we have Institute of Biblical Studies.

Other churches have Sunday school or weeknight classes, whatever it is. Find a time where you can get into the word of God. It's the most important book in the universe. And you need to get that book into you and let it change your life. Christians have got to become biblically literate.

We've got to know what we believe. And the life changing gospel is important enough for you to dedicate time to your study of it. And if you can't get into something sponsored by your church, there are community ministries and organizations that will help you in the word.

There's Bible study fellowship and other ways that you can get into the word during the week. And God has given you time to do it. And then part of that time can be dedicated to ministry.

And I'll talk more about the specifics of ministry when I get to talent. But part of your time of your tithe of your waking hours could be dedicated to making sure you're serving somebody. The kingdom is all about you.

The kingdom is about other people as well. And so you take some time. People say, I don't have time to be in a ministry. Sure, you have time. God gave you 168 hours.

About 120 of them are waking hours. Part of that, you just say, this is my time that I'm going to serve the needs of other people. I'm not looking to get something directly out of this. I'm just looking to be a blessing. And God has given you time to be a blessing to other people. I want to encourage you to tithe, take at least a tithe of your waking hours and dedicate it to worship and spiritual development and ministry. And the reason why I'm asking you to make that a system by which you live your life is because I believe the same tithing promises related to treasure apply to time. I have noticed in my life and in the lives of others who put the kingdom first in terms of time use. God will give you all of the other time you need to do these other things. People who are challenged and feel like you never have enough time, I dare you to put the kingdom first in your time. I dare you to, I challenge you to tithe your time to worship and spiritual development. And then watch how God takes the 90 percent that's left and helps you to get all the other things done. Some of you who feel like you can never get ahead on your job, I dare you to honor God with your time first and let God bless you on your job.

Some of you don't understand it, but God will be with you even on your job. Look at your Bible. Joseph was a slave in a foreign country. Brothers sold him out, sent him to Egypt as a slave. He shows up at Potiphar's house on the lowest rung of being a servant in Potiphar's house in Egypt.

But the Bible says because he was a God-honoring young man, the Lord was with Joseph. And he caused him to prosper in the house of Potiphar. God will cause you to prosper on your job. And when God is with you on your job, you can get more done in less time.

And you can get more favor from your employers. God gave Joseph favor in the eyes of Potiphar. God gave him the ability to be diligent. And before long, Joseph was promoted and suddenly, instead of being on the lowest rung, he is now the chief servant in Potiphar's house.

Why? Because he honored God, so the Lord was with him. When he got up in the morning, he knew the Lord was going to bless him to get his work done and to do it well. And God will bless you. Look at those four young men in Babylon recorded in the book of Daniel. Look at Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The Bible says they rose ten times above their peers because they honored God. God will bless you on your job. God will help you to get more done. God will bless you in raising your children if you'll honor him and put him first in your use of time. God will bless you to make a difference. Many of us will see our children come to faith right while they're in our home. And even if they don't come to faith by then, you will have put so much word in them that the Bible says when they depart from your house, that word won't depart from them.

All you have to do is just keep on praying and say, Lord, I know you're going to bring them in and wait on your spiritual harvest. And God will bless you. God will bless you in your endeavors. God will bless you to be able to minister to others.

God will bless you even in the areas of sleep and relaxation. That's part of God's will. And if you will tithe your time, God will bless you. Your vacations will be better.

You have a better, sweeter vacation, nicer time because you're honoring God. And so I want to encourage you to dedicate at least a tithe of your waking hours to worship and spiritual development so that you can put kingdom things first. And that will form the foundation for a fruitful life. And the rest of the time God gives you, you will find things falling into place.

If you don't believe me, if you think I'm just blowing smoke, I dare you to try it. You will see that it's true. God will bless you. God will honor your intention to worship him and to put the kingdom first.

And so you want to do that. Dedicate. Set apart that time.

Make it sacred. This is my time of worship. This is my time in the Word. This is my time.

You can't get to me. That's why in our church we shut off cell phones when we come to worship God. That's why we do it. Lord, this is our time with you. We're not going to let folk who didn't choose to come to church interrupt our time with you. We're not going to let little raggedy friends call, what you doing? I'm doing what you ought to be doing. I'm worshiping God. This is my time with him. This is not my time with you. So we shut our cell phones off. I'm so glad that the saints have gotten that revelation.

That was a pill going down slow, but we finally got it. This is my time with God. It's not about the outside world. It's my time with the Lord. I can trust my family.

It might be an emergency. You all remember before there were cell phones, you trusted God when you left the house anyway. Tell me you can't trust God for 90 minutes.

Sure you can. Lord, I'm believing you. I'm going to put the kingdom first. Take care of everything that I would be handling while I spend this time with you. And God will honor your desire to worship him. And so set aside that time. Dedicate a tithe or more of your waking hours to worship and spiritual development. And that will set the framework for you to be able to be more fruitful in the other areas of your life. Another bullet point under how should we be stewards of the time God has given us. Next, I want to encourage you to live your life on top of time. And when I say live on top of time, I have a particular paradigm in mind.

Years ago, I learned a time management matrix that really impacted me. And it helped me to put in perspective how Jesus lived his life. Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepherd. As always, you can hear any of Pastor Paul's recent messages on demand at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also subscribe to the podcast at Spotify or at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We'd also like to thank you who sustain Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support. Gifts that help Pastor Paul share the gospel all over the world. Destined for Victory is a listener supported ministry. So as God leads, please prayerfully consider making a gift to Destined for Victory today. You can give generously and securely online at pastorpaul.net. That's pastorpaul.net.

Or if it's easier, call 855-339-5500. Well, we can and should give God our tithes and offerings, but there's no present like our time. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message, Making the Most of What You Have. I want you to imagine, or if you have a piece of paper, you can actually draw this as I'm describing it. But have a square in your mind, a square, and then divide it into four equal parts.

Just draw a cross in the middle of the square, four equal parts, so that you have four boxes. Now, the two on the top are going to be this way. In the top left, I want you to picture, or if you're writing it, write the words important and urgent. Important and urgent, top left, important and urgent. Top right, important but not urgent, important but not urgent. Top left, important and urgent, top right important but not urgent. Bottom left, not important but urgent, not important but urgent, bottom left.

Bottom right, not important, not urgent. I learned years ago that our activities can all be placed in one of those quadrants. And what I've discovered is if you really want to please God, you've got to learn to live your life like Jesus lived His, focusing on things that are important much more than you focus on things that are unimportant. Well, how do we define importance in the kingdom of God? The kinds of things I just outlined that we know God wants us to do. What is important is doing the will of God, whether it comes to my spiritual development or my work inside or outside the home or my rest or my recreation or my ministry serving others, those are all important because they're part of God's plan for my life. And so what we have to learn to do is live our lives in the top quadrants, especially I might add, in the top right quadrant. Learn to spend a lot of time doing things that are important even when they're not urgent.

And the reason why is because if you focus on things that are important, you'll actually be preventing a lot of things from becoming urgent. That's the way Jesus lived His life. We see Him at age 12 saying, I must be about my Father's business. At age 12, He's already thinking about things that are significant.

It wasn't time for His ministry, His ministry didn't start until He was 30. But He's already focused on, I'm on earth to do the will of my Father. And as He lived His life, you see Jesus living His life with a focus on what is important.

Important. Now, some of those important things were urgent. Remember the time when Jesus was on His way to Jairus' house and along the way there was an urgent stop He had to make on His journey. There was a woman with an issue of blood who said, this is Jesus, He's my last hope and I've got to touch the hem of His garment. And she came up from behind and grabbed His garment and instantly virtue went out of His body and He stopped.

He's on His way to an important appointment. But something more urgent came up. This woman needed a miracle and He stopped and said, who touched me? Now they're walking down a crowded street, the disciples said, what do you mean who touched you?

We can hardly get down the street for these people. Jesus said, no, no, you don't understand, there's something that just happened that was important and urgent. And He stops, who touched me? And He waited till that little pitiful woman revealed herself, anemic, 12 years of bleeding.

She is financially busted, she is physically in bad shape. She is in desperate need and now God has touched her. And He wanted to know who it was, who's got the urgent and important need.

And she revealed herself. And Jesus said, I just want to let you know that your faith has made you whole. And He paused because something was urgent and important. Then He went on doing that which was important.

Jesus lived His life from the mindset of doing those things that are important. And you and I have a lot of things in our lives that we need to focus on. And what that means is you don't allow non-important things to trump important things. There'll be time for the trivial things, God will bless you to fit them in. Let me get real practical with you. When your phone rings, it's not always important.

Do you realize that? There are some folks you get to when you get to. I mean, you love me and all, but today I'm focused on doing some things or in this time of the day, I'm focused on doing some things that are in quadrant two.

They are important for me to get the will of God done. I can't stop and shoot the breeze with you right now. It's not your season. It's not your time, I'll get to you, but not now. A lot of us think a ringing phone has to be answered. Yeah, have you ever seen people get antsy when a phone starts ringing? Just get nervous. All that means is somebody wants to talk.

Question is, what are you doing now? Is this your time where you have a space of time where you can handle a thing even if it is unimportant? And if not, God made answering machines or He blessed man to make them or voicemail. And you can check when it's time to check and see what's going on.

If you're in your home, you got it made. In fact, you can set it where you can hear the person leaving the message. And if you are doing something important, raising your kids, spending quality family time, hanging out with your spouse, building that relationship, you're doing something that is important, you may not choose to have it interrupted in this moment.

You say, well, there's some people that my spouse would understand are my kids and I'd grab it, but you need to know whether it is that case, so let them lead the message. And you check it out and you hear the voice, you say, nope, not now. And you stick with what's important. You do what's important. And let me help you. And while I'm on this point, don't lie on your answering machine.

We're people of God. I mean, lying on your answering machine isn't exactly a good witness. You know, your answering machine is just a flat out lie, hi, I'm not home, please leave a message, thank you, bye. Wait, wait, wait, there are times unless you plan to answer the phone all the time and I'm recommending that there be times when you not answer live, there are times when it's fine to answer live. But if you are focused on something important and you want to give that dedicated, concentrated attention, that's what the answering machine is there for.

And so if you plan to screen your calls, then don't have a message that says I'm not home because you may be home. I've called saints, you know, and it goes in the voicemail, hi, I'm not here, please leave a message. Oh, hey, this is Pastor Paul, I'm just returning that call. And you pick up, hey, pastor, hey, pastor, Lord, pastor, honey, pastor is on the phone. He sure did call back, hey, how you doing, how systematic, no, no, forget all that. Why you just lie to me on that machine?

You told me you weren't home as soon as you heard it was me you picked up. You call my house. Here's what you're going to hear how you've reached the shepherd residence. Please leave your name, phone number and a message. Thank you. God bless you, beep.

Everything true. Shepherd's residence, leave your name, phone number and a message. Thank you. God bless you.

That's it. You don't need to know whether I'm home or not. Could be home, could be God knows where. Leave the message, we'll get to it in the appropriate time. Sometimes you answer live.

I'm not saying it's wrong to answer the phone live. But I'm saying we have to learn to maximize doing things that are important because God gave us the amount of time we need to get His will done. And if what you're doing deserves uninterrupted time, unless it's interrupted by something that is also important and urgent, then you have to learn to relegate things. Remember Ecclesiastes 3.1, there is a time for everything. There's a season for every activity under heaven and honor what God has given you the time to do.

And you'll see that there'll be plenty of time to get these other things done. If we began offering 10% of our waking hours to God, one of the things we may very well do is share the gospel more frequently with those who have yet to come to faith in Christ. Well a great way for you to take part in this mission with Pastor Paul Shepherd and all of us at Destined for Victory is by becoming a Destined for Victory partner for as little as $20 a month. In light of some severe challenges these past two years or so, people are eager to hear about the hope we have in Christ and many are getting that message through the Destined for Victory broadcast.

Please prayerfully consider joining Pastor Paul in his mission to share the light of the gospel to all people, even to those who've grown comfortable in the dark. As our way of saying thanks for your partnership, we'll send you a few thank you gifts, including one of Pastor Paul's most popular CDs, The Best of Let My People Smile. Call 855-339-5500 and find out more about how to become a Destined for Victory partner. Or mail your gift letting us know you wish to become our partner.

The address is Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. You can also partner with us from our website, pastorpaul.net. And if you can't become a partner but would like to send a generous one-time gift to the ministry today, we'd love to share with you a gift of our own, Pastor Paul Shepard's booklet, He's Alive.

He's Alive offers several compelling reasons why Christians believe the reality of the resurrection. Request your copy today for your generous donation. If only you knew who he was and what he offered, he says to you today, you'd ask me for what I have and I'd give it to you. I will give you forgiveness for your past. I will give you strength for your present. I will give you hope for your eternal future. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepard shares his message, If You Only Knew. Until then, though, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.