Latest / Bayside Davis Podcast / Ephesians 5:15-17 | Stewarding Your Time

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Ephesians 5:15-17 | Stewarding Your Time · Bayside Davis Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bayside Davis Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to our current teaching series, Ephesians.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 5 talks about wisdom and how we utilize our time.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say that each one of us is able to live to 80 years old.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: That'd be a good life, right?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: 80 years old, that's past the average.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: If someone lives to 80 years old and sleeps on average of eight hours per night, which is wise, they will sleep approximately 233,760 hours in their lifetime.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: If someone lives to 80 years old and they work from age 22 through age 67, 8 hours per day, five days a week, they will work approximately 93,600 hours in their lifetime.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: If someone lives to 80 years old, sleeps eight hours per night, and works eight hours per day from 22 through 67, they will have approximately 373,920 hours of miscellaneous time.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: That is a lot of time to figure out what you're gonna do and how you're gonna spend your life.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the question that surfaces out of this passage today is how are we as followers of Jesus, how are we as individuals stewarding the hours, the minutes, the days, the months, the years, the decades that God has given us?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's really one point or one theme that I want to delve into this morning in verses 15 through 17, and it's this walk in wisdom.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Walk in wisdom.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the essential idea here is stewarding our time.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: How do we steward our time wisely as followers of Jesus?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says in verse 15, as you follow along with me.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, somebody last week said, What version of the Bible do you use at Bayside?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: All Bayside campuses use NIV.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So you can get on your phone right now, type in Ephesians 5.15, NIV, and follow along with us.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, it says, Be careful, be very careful then, how you live.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice a couple words and phrases here as we begin this text and we talk about stewarding our time.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, the term then is really important.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's connecting the previous idea where he's talking about a spiritual awakening in Jesus.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: How we can be made alive in Christ.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: How once we were wandering and doing whatever we wanted to do, and now, because of faith in Jesus, we are spiritually awakened or alive.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he says at the end of verse 15, wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Be very careful then, as you've been awakened spiritually, how you live as a follower of Jesus.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: The idea here is that you and I would be spiritually aware or spiritually vigilant of how we are living our life.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people in our time, in our current nomenclature, are talking about self-awareness, which is really important for personal growth and relational growth.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that we need to also talk about spiritual awareness.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Not that we counter the other or lessen the other, but spiritual awareness is the center of our life.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is vital for growth in Jesus Christ.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: To understand how you and I are living in relationship to Jesus.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, be very careful, be spiritually aware, be vigilant, how you are living.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Circle the term live.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen it over and over.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of Paul's favorite metaphors in the book of Ephesians.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's peripateo.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: It means to walk, to conduct your life, it's how you're living.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say something really foundational and important.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Your walk with Jesus is the most important part of your life.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Be very careful.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Be very vigilant.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Be very spiritually aware of how you are walking with Jesus.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: The most important part of your life.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says next.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: He qualifies this.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not as unwise, but as wise.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Don't walk as unwise, don't live as unwise, but walk and live as wise people.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: What is the difference between the two?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: The first term, unwise, means foolish, one who lacks proper discernment.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's a description of unwise in the book of Psalms and Proverbs.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Psalms chapter 14, verse 1.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: The fool, the unwise, says in his heart, there is no God.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is unwise to live your life saying there is no God.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is God.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says the unwise person says in his heart, says in her heart, there is no God.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 12, verse 15, again, describing the unwise, says, the way of fools, the way of the unwise, seems right to them.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, the unwise person says, I know what's right.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to listen to anybody.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to listen to God.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do my own thing.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: But, verse 15, Proverbs chapter 12, the wise listens to advice.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: The foolish person says, I don't need to listen to God.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to listen to people.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do my own thing.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: But the wise person listens to God and listens to wise community.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to listen to everybody.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some people want to be your counselor without being invited in to be your counselor.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some people want to interject themselves and impose themselves on your life that you would never go to wisdom in the first place.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Go to wise people.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Go to people that you invite into your life to seek out discernment and wisdom as a wise person.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And don't be unwise, the Bible says.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Unwise or foolishness is the antithesis to wisdom in the book of Proverbs.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: A foolish life, according to Proverbs, is a life that rejects God's design and rejects, pardon me, rejects God and rejects God's design for life and human flourishing.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a contrast here between two words, unwise and wise.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Wise is knowing how to do something in a skillful manner.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's living with divinely given insight.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's understanding that results in wise living.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to a description of wisdom or wise people according to Proverbs.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: But fools or unwise despise wisdom and destruction and instruction.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: So the fear of the Lord, being awe of God, worshiping God, acknowledging God is the beginning of true knowledge.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: That is a great verse in a university city.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of true knowledge.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 2, verse 6.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: For the Lord gives wisdom.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom comes from God, it emanates from the all-wise one, God Himself.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know the story of Solomon?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Solomon was the wisest person in the history of this world.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Solomon, as a young leader, I'm talking about in his 20s.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Some people in their 20s are like, I can't really do anything great.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, human history is full, replete with people in their 20s who did great things in this world.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Solomon was a king, a young ruler.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And God came to him in 1 Kings chapter 3, and at Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon, the Bible says, during the night in a dream, and God said, Ask for whatever you want me to give you.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's a young leader, probably full of anxiety and insecurity, and I don't have it all together, I don't have all the wisdom, I don't know how to navigate, leading all of these people.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what Solomon said.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Lord my God, you have made me your servant king in place of my father David.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm only a little child, I'm just a young guy and do not know how to carry out my duties.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: For who is able to govern the great people of yours?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Solomon's like, God, I'm just a kid.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what I'm doing.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I know you.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you've given me one request, and I'm not asking for billions of dollars so I can drive a G-Wagon.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking for money and fame.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you for wisdom to lead and wisdom to distinguish between right and wrong.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Here's God's reply.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Kings 3, verse 12, pardon me.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: I will give you a wise and discerning heart so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be Solomon.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Later on in 1 Kings chapter 4, we learn that Solomon became the wisest person in human history.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: A Jewish source says that Solomon wrote Song of Solomon as a young man, which makes sense if you've ever read that.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then he wrote Proverbs as he got older, and then he wrote Ecclesiastes in old age.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: He developed wisdom over time.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's important to insert that we live in an age of information and knowledge.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can Google anything, you can YouTube anything, you can AI, is that a verb?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Anything?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just make it a verb.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, whatever you use, you can AI anything and you can look really smart.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody can be intelligent with information today.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Intellect is not wisdom according to Proverbs.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Information intelligence is not the same thing as living intelligence.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can be smart and unwise.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can be academic genius and living your life foolishly and unwise.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: We used to say some people are book smart and some people are street smart.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: In modern terminology, you could say some people are book smart and some people are emotionally intelligent.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: They have high EQ.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some people understand people skills and social skills and self-awareness, and they have wisdom for living life.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, as a declarative truth, we just have to throw this out here, and this is not to bag on a very intelligent city.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can have more degrees than Fahrenheit in the city of Davis and be unwise.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: But God, God can give you the ability to have PhDs and PhDs and more PhDs and be really wise as well.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: How amazing would it be for a ton of highly brilliant people that come through this city to accompany their intellectual abilities with deep abiding spiritual wisdom, how those people could change the world.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: How those people could influence cultures and cities and institutions and labs and businesses all over the world, not simply by intellectual apprehension of knowledge, but paralleling that with the wisdom that comes from God Himself.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: That should be your aspiration.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: God, I want a couple degrees, maybe more than Fahrenheit, but I also want the wisdom that comes from you.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So what is wisdom?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let me define it.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Write this down.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'll let that car go by.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're driving really fast for that road.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is being skilled in living life according to God's design and perspective.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Write that down.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is being skilled in living life according to God's design and perspective.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: The skill is not seen in the accumulation of knowledge, and again, that's not saying don't do that, but it's in the application of the right knowledge in particular situations or context of life.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is true wisdom.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's not I know everything, and I'm going to use my perspective to navigate life.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's that God, you know everything.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I want your perspective and wisdom in skillfully navigating all that life is going to throw at me.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: A little description is really important as well.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: The starting point of wisdom according to the Bible is the knowledge of God.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: The beginning point of wisdom in your life is knowing God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is not a search inward, first and foremost.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, Lord, I want to be, you know, I'm just some average person.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be really wise, so I'm going to search deep within myself.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're not the source of wisdom.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is not a search outward.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like I'm going to look at all the things in the world and become really wise, like, oh, you know, like the world is the epitome of wisdom.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just read the news every day.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: The world is not the epitome of wisdom.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is a relationship upward.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: That is the center of wisdom.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's not I'm the source or the world's the source.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's God is the source of wisdom.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not inward, not outward, but upward.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: God, you are the epitome and source and origin of all true wisdom.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And inward and out, I'm not saying that inward and outward wisdom isn't real, but inward and outward wisdom starts with upward wisdom.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: What is your foundation?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you go for wisdom?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: It has to begin with God.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: It can't begin with yourself, it can't be begin with the world, it has to begin with God.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when it begins with God, then we know how to assess ourselves and our world and gain and accumulate wisdom from all sources.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to have a foundational source.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And your foundational source, according to the Bible, as a follower of Jesus, is God Himself.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Say amen if I'm making sense.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I'm making sense.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says next in verse 16: making the most of every opportunity.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, God, we're gonna be spiritually aware of how we live, not as unwise people, but as wise people.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: We want to have your perspective in navigating life skillfully over a lifetime.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, okay, here's an aspect of wisdom that is so important for your life.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Making the most of every opportunity.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: A more literal translation from the original language, Koine Greek, that the New Testament was written in is this write this down.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Redeeming the time.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Redeeming the time.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Wise people understand how to make the most of the time they have in life.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: They live as stewards of the life that God gave them.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is Genesis one picture, motif, metaphor.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, and he gave them the opportunity to be rulers, co-rulers over his creation, and create from the raw materials that God put in creation to create a beautiful world as stewards, harnessing all of the resources that God instilled within his creation as stewards of this world.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not as owners, not as the designer, but as stewards, managing it well, caring for it well, using wisdom to harness all that God created for the flourishing of all life on this earth.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so stewards think about their time.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: You could think about each day of your life as having three blocks of time.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get really practical.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you're young, you should think this through.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that if you're old, you should think this through.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you're in between, you should think this through.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Every day, you've been given three blocks of time.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Block number one, eight hours of sleep.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you're wise.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Current science says that every person needs seven to nine hours of sleep per night to thrive.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: This has a profound effect on your mind, on your emotions, on your relationships, on your decision making, on your memory, on your long-term health.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: That you would be disciplined.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a few people, it's a very small percentage, that need hardly any sleep.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: They can manage on four to five hours a night, but it's probably not any of us.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna do your best in life, if you're gonna steward your life well, you have to be disciplined with your sleep, which is so important for all the aspects of human life and flourishing.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: The second block of time is most of us, for most of our lifetime, will have eight hours of work every single day.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And some of us a little more, but let's say on average.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And your work is stewardship.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is time.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Some people go to work just to get by to get a paycheck.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is the wrong way to do your work.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: We should passionately pursue purpose and flourishing in our workplace.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: If we're spending 96,000, 93,600 hours of our lifetime working, we should steward that time well.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: We should work hard.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: We should work with integrity.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: We should work collaboratively with the team.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be the person that nobody can work with.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Be the person that everybody wants to work with.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be the outlier, be a teammate and a great teammate.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Always learning, always.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Growing, this is how we should pursue our work as followers of Jesus.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then the Bible says something interesting in the book of Colossians: it says, whatever you do, whatever your work is, do it wholeheartedly as unto the Lord.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: You imagine if you woke up every day from a great sleep, seven to nine hours, and you got some good breakfast in you to fuel the day, and you took a shower so you don't smell bad, put on deodorant, all the things.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you said, God, every day I wake up and go through my morning routine, I want to work as though I'm working for you.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm giving my best.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing everything that I can do to honor you, to steward that time in my life with integrity and diligence and collaboration and learning and growth and humility and all the things that we do as great workers, as followers of Jesus.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you have one block, eight hours of sleep, another block, eight hours of work, and then you have your third block of time, every day, eight hours of miscellaneous time.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing with that?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is time that you can read scripture, that you can pray, that you can go to church, that you can take care of your kids, that you can cook, that you can clean, that you can exercise, that you can read, that you can serve, that you can cultivate relationships.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is the time that you have hobbies in life because fun is a part of life.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not all of life.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you spend most of your time having fun and you're not doing other things that might be very important.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: These eight hours, stewarded well, can produce amazing results in your life.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: They can produce results spiritually, they can produce results relationally, they can produce results mentally and emotionally, they can produce results physically, and can I just say all of this is spiritual?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: How you listen, if God created us with bodies, with souls, with time, with talents, with treasures, with all these things we can steward, all of it is spiritual.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: The church in times past has done a poor job of framing and explaining what is spiritual and what is not.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: As though this is the only thing in your week that is spiritual, or the only thing in your week is when you open up your Bible, that is the only thing that is spiritual.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, all of life that is lived within the realm and design of God is spiritual.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Even your math classes and science classes, even your law firm and doctor's office, all of life is spiritual.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Unwise people don't steward their time well, according to Ephesians.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: But wise people intentionally steward their time well.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: When people say to me, I don't have time to read my Bible, I don't have time to pray, I don't have time to exercise, I don't have time to clean my house or make a healthy meal or steward some aspect of my life, I always think of all the biographies I've read.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think of the CEO of Apple currently, who I would say might be one of the busiest people on the face of this earth, don't you think?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Being the CEO of Apple, probably carrying a heavy load.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Seven days a week, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, carves out one hour every morning to exercise.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: He has quite a disciplined routine.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you read about his routine, I love reading about people's lives and how they function.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you can read story after story of people who have done great things, who've made a mark in this world, and they somehow fit all the important things into their life.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is a really important concept.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: We make time for our priorities.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: We can let life unintentionally pass by, or we can intentionally steward our time well.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: I remember years ago, I don't know where I heard this, but it was in some sort of psychology therapy thing.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it was in a class.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: I learned that in life there are big rocks and small rocks.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're assessing your priorities in life, when you're intentionally thinking through your priorities of life, you have to decide what are my big rocks, high priorities, and what are my small rocks, lesser priorities.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the big rocks in your life should be the priorities that you choose and the lesser rocks you can fit in or for a season take out of your time and stewarding your time every day.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: You have to think through what are the highest priorities and what are the lower priorities.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the small rocks are not necessarily bad things.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: They could be great things, they could be good things, but they're not the most important things.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: And life is not the same in every season.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: So in every season, there's a priority evaluation or assessment that all of us should do as followers of Jesus, and we should pray and we should seek wisdom.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, how am I stewarding this time, which is different than a former time in my life?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I read this and I just thought, I'm gonna throw it in here.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Anne Ortland in a book she wrote said, submerge your, submerge as much of your day as you can to make it your invisible keel by eliminating less important things.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: You need time to look into the face of God.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Time to read and study his word systematically, time to think and plan for your life, time to praise, time to intercede, time to get wisdom for handling people and for making decisions.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the only way that we do that in a wise way is we decide what are God's priorities and what are the big rocks in my life.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Consider some possible time wasters, areas of life that aren't necessarily bad but eat up a lot of time in your day.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I do not say these things as bad things or legalism, I say these things as wisdom, priority, evaluation.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Consider these things.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: The average person on social media per day spends two to four hours per day on social media.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Big rock, small rock, sand.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sand.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: The average person, entertainment, spends three to four hours a day binge watching shows on television.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Big rock, no, small rock, no, maybe sand.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not a bad thing, not the highest priority in your life.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Twenty percent of the population in the US has an addiction to procrastination.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Procrastination is not helping you use your time.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's often a waste of time.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: And some of us struggle with that, right?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you got to learn some tools, maybe psychology tools, maybe brain hacks or time hacks or whatever, where you get out of the rut if you're in that 20% of chronic procrastination.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Notifications on our phone, I've turned all of them off for the last 10 years.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: They gave me anxiety every time.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Beep, beep, that's all I heard every day.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Ring, beep, beep, beep, beep.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I can't live a healthy life with this much anxiety because of all the noises that come out of this phone.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: I shut them down, all of them.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: The average person checks their phone 96 times per day.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: 90.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know how much time you're spending checking?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Notification, notification, notification, notification.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: All day long, not a bad thing.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe an anxiety-inducing thing, not a bad thing, but is it a time wisdom or a time waster?
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you turn some of them off, and maybe you're like me.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: You struggle with anxiety and you turn all of them off, and you just check your phone when you can.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Another possible area that eats up a lot of time is overthinking.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Spending hours per day worrying about the future, worrying about what people are going to think about you or me.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can I just say that I've learned this?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: People don't think about us very much.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: People think about themselves and their life.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: People don't think about me or you very much.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: This will drain you and leave you stressed and continually discouraged.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: So God would say, Wesley, how can you steward your life well?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about some areas.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to write all of these areas down.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Here's areas of stewardship for you to pray to God.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Think about each category, and this next week, spend one day at a time praying and asking for God's wisdom for each of these categories of your life.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: First, stewarding your time.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we just talked about that, elaborated on that, so I'm not going to say anything else about it.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Second, stewarding your talents.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: What are your giftings?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: What are you good at?
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: What is God giving you talent around?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: How can you steward your talents for God well?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: How can you steward your time well?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: How can you steward your talents well?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Third, steward your treasures.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: The money, the resources that God has given you.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is it all for you?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or have you stewarded it to such a degree that you're investing in other people?
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're investing in the kingdom of God.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're stewarding your treasures well for Jesus as an act of worship.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: As an act of this is gonna change people for eternity.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in some churches, giving has like a negative connotation.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Giving should never have a negative connotation according to the Bible.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: It is part of our stewardship as a follower of Jesus.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: I like to think of it this way: we get 90%, God gets 10.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty great deal.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what the Bible teaches.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: This shouldn't be something weird that we don't talk about.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is a part of our stewardship that we give to the Lord to invest in eternal things that matter the most.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, we steward our soul.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: How am I taking care of the unseen parts of me, my thinking, my emotions, my habits, my decision-making, all of these things that make up the human soul, my capacity for relationships, hopefully healthy, my capacity to worship God, these are all encapsulating this idea of soul.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: How can we steward our body well for Jesus?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: How am I taking care of my body?
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: What am I allowing my body to do as a follower of Jesus?
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are there wise things or are there unwise things?
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: And let me just give you this caveat.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was praying this morning, and the Lord said, say this.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because as we're thinking about stewardship, by the way, I'm gonna go a little long today, just warning you.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Two verses, Wesley, and we're already at this time, of course.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, two verses.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: God wants to say something to us.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was praying this morning, I felt like God said this that each of us would pray a personal prayer.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: God, be gracious to me for the unwise decisions I've made.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: It would be easy for us to listen to this, all these areas of life, and feel a sense of just like a failure or condemnation.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I just felt like the Lord would say to each one of us, I'm not teaching you this to condemn you or to communicate to you that you're a failure.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm teaching you this today, so that this is the beginning of living a wise life.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: So don't think of the worst things you've chosen in life and meditate on those things.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Think that this is gonna be the beginning of the best, most wise days of your lifetime.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says next.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because the days are evil.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is a presence of evil in our world, and we are the light of the world and followers of Jesus.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: We should steward our time well to spend time with God and to make a difference for Jesus in this world.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: I love what Psalm 39, 4 and 5 says, show me, Lord, my life's end and the number of my days.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know how fleeting my life is.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he's saying this because God help me to understand my total days, the average lifespan I'm gonna have, because I want to live those days well and effectively and wisely.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now notice the last line, verse 17, therefore, in conclusion, as a summary, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Understand.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is a Greek verb to have intelligent grasp on something.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: It pictured the assembling of individual facts into an organized whole as collecting the pieces of a puzzle and putting them together.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Any puzzle people in here?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: You like puzzles?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: You get this metaphor.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you have all of these pieces, and wisdom is taking each of these pieces and putting them together, and over the lifetime, you begin to see life from God's perspective more and more.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Don't foolishly waste your life.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord would plead with you.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Live wisely and pursue God's will for your life.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Wise people are always pursuing God's will.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you might say, How do I find God's will?
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's encapsulated in this text.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's encapsulated in this book, the book of Ephesians.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let me, as we close, let me give you four ways to find God's will.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, by knowing God.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's the beginning of wisdom.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: To be in a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, who died on a cross to forgive you, to reconcile you, an imperfect person, with God, the perfect God.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: And to wash your sins away.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: Past, present, and future, forgiven in the sight of God.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing God is the beginning of finding God's will.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Second, by learning God's word.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: Begin to read your Bible.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now you know God, begin to read your Bible.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Begin to learn God's plan and promises and teachings and purposes for your life and this world.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people think God's will is found in like this just weird sitting around, mystical.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: God's gonna say something to me about my future person or whatever.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not God's will.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: God's will is found in God's word.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do what you know and you'll know what to do.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do what you know that you've learned in here and you'll know what to do.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is how you accumulate wisdom over life.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Bring a Bible to church.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: Start learn leaning into spiritual growth as we study the Bible in community.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: Take a Bible home if you don't have one.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: Start reading the gospel of Matthew all the way through the New Testament, and you will become wise.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Third, how do I find God's will?
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: By living God's word.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is the entire idea of what he's saying.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying it's the practice.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's stewarding your life, it's living out the word of God that makes you wise.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Start to put into practice what God teaches you day by day by day.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when you fail, he'll give you another chance.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when you stumble, he'll pick you up in his love and his grace, and he will give you another day to live out his word.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, by stewarding the whole of the life that God gave you.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Be a good steward of what it means to be a human created in the image of God.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let me close with this.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're done.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing after this.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: C.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: H.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Spurgeon, the greatest preacher in church history in London, England, at the end of a message he said this.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the ticking of the clock.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: As the pendulum swings back and forth, it says to some of you, now or never.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now or never.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now or never.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now or never.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then he posed this question: Will you trust your soul with Jesus?
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is the most important question for you to answer today.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: Will you trust your soul with God the Creator and God the Son who wants to redeem, save, forgive, and transform your life into flourishing as a child of God created in his image, living out a wise life that God has planned for you.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Today is the day to trust in Jesus.