Time for Success - Part 1

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. If you allow your schedule to be dictated by what seems to be urgent, then you'll be tempted to neglect the things that are truly important. Here's a lesson in making time for success. If you're going to succeed in life in anything worthwhile, you're going to have to respect and honor time in your life.

And that's what I'm going to talk about in this message entitled, Time for Success. And I want you to turn, if you will, in Ephesians, Chapter 5. And if you recall in this fifteenth verse of Ephesians, Chapter 5, Paul says, And I want you to turn, if you will, in Ephesians, Chapter 5. And if you recall in this fifteenth verse of Ephesians, Chapter 5, Paul says, When he says, for example, be careful how you walk, what he's saying is, when he uses the term walk, he simply means be careful how you live.

Be careful of the lifestyle you've chosen. He says there are two kinds of people in the world, those that are foolish, those that are wise. He says, That is, they use their time wisely.

They utilize it. They don't skip the minutes and the hours and think the only thing that's important may be days or years, but they realize that moments are important. So what I'd like to do in this message in thinking about what our definition of success is, and that is success is the continuing achievement of becoming the persons God wants us to be and achieving those goals that God has helped us set for our lives. That is, God has a plan for our life. He has a purpose for our life. And He has goals that He would have us set for our life that would help us to accomplish the becoming of what He wants us to be.

So with that in mind, let's think about several things. First of all, if you and I are going to succeed in life of whatever God has called us to do, we must learn to respect time. I do not know of anyone that I would consider a real genuine success in life who is not conscious of time, who is not sensitive about their time, sensitive about their schedule, sensitive about how they fill their days or the things they remove or eliminate or refuse to have in their time schedule. And so we must recognize and respect time, value time, treasure time, because time is what life's all about. If you have no time left, you have no life left. And so therefore, we need to respect time because time is life itself. And so He says here that all of us were given a particular time. That is, God has ordained the length of time that we have. There are many people who are not here with us any longer and they thought they had many, many years left, but their span of time was short. There are times that when God will take maybe a small child in a person's life and we think, well, that was something ahead of time, not ahead of God's time. Sometimes He lets people live a very long time, 110, 15, 20, there's some people older than that out there.

And so God has an ordained time for us. Now the question is this, what are you living for? And what are you trying to accomplish in life? And what are your goals in life? And where are you going in your life? And if you keep going the same way you're going, what will you accomplish? What will you achieve?

What will you become? No matter what you are today, the way you think today is going to determine who you are tomorrow. And what you and I do with our time today will determine where we are tomorrow. Therefore, I must not be disrespectful of time. I must not ignore time. But remember that God created it.

It is a gift of God and that you and I are responsible for it. Not only do I see it as a gift from God, but also it's very clear that time is fleeting. That is, time does not stand still as we say, it's moving along. For example, Job said, life is like a weaver's shuttle. If you've ever been in a textile mill and watched those shelves, they go back so fast you can hardly see them.

Or back in those days when they were weaving, of course, they didn't go that fast, but they certainly went fast compared to their timing. And so the psalmist says, my life is like a hand's breadth. It's real short, goes by fast. And then James said, life is like a vapor.

It's sort of here and then it's gone. It's short. So none of us know how long we have to live. It is not our business to decide how long we live.

That's God's business. Our business and our responsibility is to decide how we're going to live this life. It isn't how long we live, but the quality of life that we live. We can't do anything about the length of it, but we can do a whole lot about the quality of our life. And that is the way we treat our bodies, the way we treat our thinking, the way we rest, the way we relax, the way we have our recreation, our exercise, the food we place in our body. All those things have to do with the quality of life we're going to have.

And so one very clear characteristic of time is that it's passing by rapidly. And the longer we live, and I think that's the way we ought to talk, not how old you get, because some people are older than thirty-five. Some of us are not old at sixty-six. But it just depends on your attitude about life. And so what we have to ask is this, not how old am I going to live, how old am I going to be, but how long has God ordained our lifespan? And whatever it is, how much can I accomplish, how much can I achieve? I want to find out what God's will is. I want to live in His will.

So when I stand before Him one of these days, He will be able to say, Well done, good and faithful servant, faithful of a few things, ruler over many. And so it's not how long, but it's a matter of how we live our life. And so when I think about that, I think about also the fact that time really is not only fleeting, but I think about the fact that how uncertain time is. Now when we say uncertain, one thing about time is that it is erratic, and I don't mean by the fact that it's thirty seconds in this minute and forty-five seconds in that minute, but the fact that you and I, we can't control time out there, and there are incidences and situations and circumstances that become a part of the events of our life that we can't always control those. And so time not only goes by fast, but we fill our life with things and events. Sometimes they are things of our choice, sometimes they are not things of our choice, but things that get placed upon us. And so we can't always say, Well, you know, life is so certain.

The Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this is a judgment, that much I know. Now that span between now and then doesn't always work out the way we would like for it to work out. And the Bible warns us against boasting of tomorrow what we will do.

Not only is time fleeting and not only is it uncertain, but it is irrevocable. Now, when I think about that, I think about going to the barbershop, for example, and get a haircut. Suppose I get a haircut, and then I look in the mirror and I think, I don't like that. Put it back on. Too late.

Once you get a haircut, it's done. You can't glue it back, paste it back, tape it back. It's gone.

It's gone. You know what it says? I can't pray yesterday. I can't read the Bible yesterday.

I can't go to church yesterday. In other words, time, listen, every single second and you can, I can count it. One thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three, one thousand and four, one thousand and five, five seconds of your life is gone right there and you can't ever retrieve it. It's not a thing in the world you can do about it.

It's gone. And so we think about, well, I'm going to save time. That does not mean we should not look for better ways to be more efficient. And certainly that in our thinking, quote, that saves time.

The truth is we're just being able to crowd more into the time of being more efficient and more effective in the time that we have. And so when I think about all these characteristics of time, I think the fact, I do not know of anybody who's successful in any walk of life who does not have a respect for their time. Wasting time is a sin.

You can just mark that one down, it's a sin. You think about how uncertain it is. Remember the man in the parable, the man who had all the barns and had so much and he was just planning for more barns and more wealth and all the rest and God came to him that night and said, you fool, you've forgotten something. You know, you don't control life, I control life.

And he says, I'm calling for your record tonight, now who's all this stuff going to belong to? So the truth is none of us know how long we're going to live. The issue is what am I going to do with this life God's given us?

Second thing I want you to notice here, very important, that's this. And that is not only must I respect time as a gift from God, but I also, if I'm going to succeed in whatever God has called me to do, no matter what it is, then I must not only respect this time, but I also must be willing to review my time continuously. What am I doing with my life? Am I using my time wisely? And I think so many people just go through life and they never stop to ask the question, is this the wisest use of my time? Where will I get if I keep going this way?

What will I achieve in life if I keep spending or using my time in this fashion? What is the purpose of God? That is, what are his goals for my life and am I making any progress whatsoever? Suppose, for example, can you say, well, you know, I set this goal and this is what I've done and I've made some progress and I've set this goal and I'm making progress there.

Or did you just decide to set goals and let it go at that? You don't fulfill God's purpose in your life by just having good intentions. It takes time and it takes effort and energy to fulfill God's purpose and plan and reach the goals he has for us for our life.

So when we think in terms of this whole idea of reviewing it, let's think, let's ask a question here. And that is, what drives your time? Well, one thing that drives people's time is their circumstances.

And we think about what we have to do, what our responsibilities are. So there are some circumstances, you know, we can't just say, well, you know, here are my circumstances, this is where I live my life and that's it. But there are circumstances that oftentimes drive our life. If you're a continual reactor and you don't manage your time, which we'll talk about in a few moments, then what's going to happen is you're going to waste a lot of hours going from one thing to the other, just responding and it depends on what the circumstances are. And so the issue is, are you just responding to life on the basis of circumstances?

I don't feel very good about going to work. Or this is what I'm going to do. You can't just respond to the circumstances because there are lots of demands out there. So some people's time is driven by circumstances. On the other hand, some people's time is driven by their desires.

And I think a lot of people, for example, maybe who have retired and you'll hear them say, well, you know what, I'm just so busy, I've never been so busy in my life, I have so many things I have to do. Is that true or is it the fact that you have desired to do them? God has given every single one of us an allotted time, as we've said. He has a will and plan for our life. He has allotted time enough for you and me to accomplish and achieve everything He has in mind, or God certainly will not be just in requiring of us something and then shortcut our time so we could not do it. And so therefore, whatever God's plan for you, you've got enough time to do it. Whatever the goals that you've set for your life that God has helped you set, you have enough time to achieve those goals.

And therefore, we can't blame it on God. What we have to ask is, what's driving my time? Is it circumstances, just responding and reacting? Is it the desires, the real deep desires of my life? Or is my time value driven? Now, what do you mean by values? Well, a value is something that is precious. A value is something that I treasure.

A value is something that I place a high price tag on. For example, we talk about family values. We talk about spiritual values. We talk about national values. And so if you have family values, there are just some things about family that are precious to you. And we, these are ideas that are precious to us, the whole philosophy of life.

There's some things that you and I wouldn't compromise under any condition. That's our values. These are the things we prize and treasure. So, when you ask yourself the question, is my time filled and driven by just circumstances reacting, what I desire, or is it driven by my values? Now, the way I spend my time is going to reveal what my values are. Now, for example, let's say that I value my relationship to God.

Then I'm going to spend time with Him. If I value the Word of God, I'm going to spend time in it. If I value what God is calling me to do, I'm going to spend time doing my best at it. If I value you as a person, here's what I'm going to do, because I do. Because I place such high value on you, and because I place such high value on many of you that I will never see in this life, I place high value on you.

Why? Because you're watching, and you're listening, and you're searching, and you're seeking, and you want God to speak to you. You want to hear something that will help you, strengthen you, give you hope, encourage you, bring you to a place of forgiveness of your sin, help you to have a fresh new understanding of who God is and His love in your life. So, I value the privilege of speaking to you. So, how do I value that? The value of that is because I spend hours and hours and hours and hours studying, praying, listening to God, desiring to hear what He has to say, working at somehow being able to put it in a form that is simple and easily understood, orderly so that you can follow it. I value you enough to give my life to what God has called me to do so that you will be able to be stronger in your walk, find the will of God for your life, walk in it, reach your goals, and become the godly men and women that God wants you to be and to prosper in your life and to enjoy the goals that God will help you reach. Now, if I had no value, in other words, if my values were such, I'd sort of wobble in here on Sunday morning and maybe read something or read somebody else's sermon or something and get up here and spill off a little about twenty minutes, thirty minutes, and then that'd be the end of it. And you know what?

I couldn't live like that and you have no business living that way. You know why? Because listen, you can't spend any better time than listening to the message of the living God from His Word that is, that applies to your life, that'll help you become a better man, better woman, better young person, better student, better whatever you're doing. You can't spend time any better than that anywhere, no matter where it is. It has nothing to do with the person. It has to do with the message and the truth and the principles that'll help you and enable you to live a guided life and accomplish your goals.

You can't spend a better hour than that no matter who you are. So, so the important thing is this. If our life is value driven, what we produce is going to show where our values are. And if our life is circumstance driven, then we're going to be hopping from this and hop into that and hop into the other. If it is driven by my desires, then I am going to indulge myself with time and situations over here that's just pleasing me for the moment. The issue is this, what's the will of God? What's the purpose of God? And you say, well, I mean, should a person work 24 hours a day?

No. Six days shall thou labor, the seventh day is the day of rest. Why do you think God said we have to work six days? God knew you and I do not need too much leisure time because God wants us to progress in our life. How do you progress in life? You progress in life by studying. You progress in life by learning.

You progress in life by learning how to apply the principles of life and those principles of life come from the Word of God. Six days shall thou labor, the next day is the day of rest. Now that doesn't mean that you should work all of a given day, six days for somebody else.

There are lots of other types of work besides just working for your employer. But He says, listen, our life is to count. Our life is to be given to things that are good and profitable in life.

And therefore, if my life is value driven instead of circumstantial driven, then I'm going to use my life in a way that is going to be profitable. Now God rules over all time. He has this world going in a particular direction. And we say, well, this world is just in a mess.

Well, that's our viewpoint. And where in the world is it going? God knows exactly where it's going.

It's going in a very definite direction. God has a purpose and a plan for this world. And that is that out of this world He is going to redeem, He is going to save, listen, out of this world, people placing them into His eternal kingdom and forever and ever and ever you and I will be the treasures of God, the trophies of God that will bring Him glory forever and ever and ever.

You and I will be His sons and daughters. Listen, living in the awesome provision that God has provided for us in heaven, God is peopling His kingdom through the salvation experience that comes to the cross of Jesus Christ. God knows exactly what He's doing. He's right on time and He says, Jesus said, I'm coming back. Not even the angels in heaven know when I'm coming back, but He says the Father knows I'm coming back. It's part of the big plan.

And you know what? Time's running out on this world. Jesus is coming back one of these days and God's going to wrap it all up. So God isn't behind time, right on time.

We didn't do anything to slow it up. And somebody says, well, we've got to hurry and do thus and so so we can speed up the return of Jesus. My friends, you can't speed up the return of Jesus Christ, which was ordained before the foundation of this world. Listen, if He had you and me in mind and knew all about us before He created us, do you think He left the coming of Jesus Christ to something that's a happenstance in watching how we respond and react? Listen, because He's omniscient, knows all things past, present, future, He knows what's going to happen, when it's going to happen, how it's going to happen. He knows exactly when Jesus Christ is coming back.

You and I can't tamper with that. What we want to do is to so live our lives that when He calls us, we'll be able to stand before Him and give a good account for the life that we've lived. Thank you for listening to Time for Success. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.