Latest / Time with God with John North / Give Your Time To God Pt. 4
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Good morning. We're spending this week at this time of day,
- 0:09Speaker 1: each weekday, talking about giving our time to God. Uh,
- 0:14Speaker 1: maybe you think, oh, why would I do that?
- 0:18Speaker 1: I have so many things I want to do with
- 0:19Speaker 1: my time, so many things I want to do with
- 0:22Speaker 1: my life, and I've got a plan for my life,
- 0:25Speaker 1: and I'm organising my life around my plan for my life. Well,
- 0:30Speaker 1: I've got news for you. Your time is in God's hands,
- 0:33Speaker 1: and you don't know how long your life will last. Uh, uh,
- 0:37Speaker 1: all the time people are getting bad news from the doctor,
- 0:40Speaker 1: or they're having car accidents, or life circumstances just change
- 0:45Speaker 1: so dramatically.
- 0:47Speaker 1: And suddenly they realise I don't just have lots of
- 0:50Speaker 1: time to do whatever I want. My time is in
- 0:53Speaker 1: God's hands, and as we recognise that it's so important
- 0:58Speaker 1: to change our perspective on time and to take our time,
- 1:03Speaker 1: which is one of the most precious things in our lives,
- 1:07Speaker 1: and give it to God and say, God, I want
- 1:10Speaker 1: to do what you want me to do with my
- 1:12Speaker 1: time because I know that's what counts in life.
- 1:17Speaker 1: I want to take you to a new passage for
- 1:19Speaker 1: this week in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 in the Bible,
- 1:24Speaker 1: and in this chapter, the apostle Paul is writing to
- 1:27Speaker 1: the Corinthian Christians and talking to them about not getting
- 1:31Speaker 1: discouraged in doing the work that they do for God,
- 1:35Speaker 1: obeying God in their lives and putting Him first, thinking
- 1:39Speaker 1: about ministry to other people in their lives instead of
- 1:42Speaker 1: just what they want out of life.
- 1:44Speaker 1: And as he does that, he comes towards the end
- 1:47Speaker 1: of the chapter and starting in verse 16, this is
- 1:51Speaker 1: what he says.
- 1:53Speaker 1: He says, so we do not lose heart, talking about
- 1:58Speaker 1: losing height in that.
- 2:00Speaker 1: Mindset of ministering to others for God, we do not
- 2:04Speaker 1: lose heart, though our outer self, our physical body, is
- 2:10Speaker 1: wasting away.
- 2:12Speaker 1: Our inner self is being renewed day by day, for
- 2:20Speaker 1: this momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight
- 2:28Speaker 1: of glory far beyond all comparison. You can't even compare.
- 2:34Speaker 1: The weight of glory that is coming to what you
- 2:39Speaker 1: suffer or struggle with in this life because you've put
- 2:41Speaker 1: God first, right? There's no comparison, the glory is that
- 2:46Speaker 1: much greater.
- 2:49Speaker 1: As we look, he says, not to the things that
- 2:54Speaker 1: are seen.
- 2:55Speaker 1: But to the things that are unseen, for the things
- 3:00Speaker 1: that are seen are transient, the temporary.
- 3:05Speaker 1: But the things that are unseen are eternal.
- 3:11Speaker 1: How can you give your time to God? Really, it's
- 3:15Speaker 1: by focusing your life on the unseen things, that is,
- 3:20Speaker 1: on the spiritual things of life. In 1 John chapter
- 3:25Speaker 1: 2 in the Bible, it says, do not love the world,
- 3:31Speaker 1: nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world,
- 3:35Speaker 1: the love of the Father is not in him. God
- 3:38Speaker 1: the Father, he means.
- 3:40Speaker 1: What God wants is for you to focus not on
- 3:43Speaker 1: the physical things of this world that you want or
- 3:46Speaker 1: the physical pleasure in this world that you want to get. Yes,
- 3:51Speaker 1: God blesses us with so many things, doesn't he?
- 3:54Speaker 1: And he blesses us with so many pleasurable experiences in life.
- 3:58Speaker 1: He's good to us as our loving Father.
- 4:01Speaker 1: But those things are not to be the focus of
- 4:04Speaker 1: your life, the focus of your life.
- 4:07Speaker 1: It is to be on the things that are not seen,
- 4:11Speaker 1: the spiritual things, the things that matter for all of eternity,
- 4:15Speaker 1: your impact on the lives of the people around you,
- 4:19Speaker 1: your impact on your own family, on your friends, on
- 4:21Speaker 1: the people you work with, on the people you see
- 4:25Speaker 1: along the way. What kind of person are you in
- 4:28Speaker 1: their lives? How do they see God in your life?
- 4:32Speaker 1: And how is your life pointing them to God? These
- 4:36Speaker 1: are the things that matter in life. What can you
- 4:38Speaker 1: do with your free time that will contribute to God's
- 4:42Speaker 1: agenda in this world? I encourage you, as you think
- 4:46Speaker 1: about your life today and this week, to think about
- 4:50Speaker 1: how you can focus your life on the things of God.
- 4:54Speaker 1: I'm John North.