WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.400 You cannot stop time, but you can control it. 2 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:14.320 Men and women, time determines your destiny. 3 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:16.920 Everybody has 24 hours in a day. 4 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:24.680 Everybody has the same amount of time, whether you're a billionaire or a beggar, you still only have 24 hours in a day. 5 00:00:24.680 --> 00:00:27.000 And everybody has the same amount of time. 6 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:35.120 And I think we could argue that the most common gift given to all of humankind is time. 7 00:00:35.120 --> 00:00:38.400 Everybody's given the same amount of time. 8 00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:49.480 It doesn't matter what your height is, doesn't matter the color of your skin, what your ethnicity is, what kind of family background you have, how talented you are, how smart you are. 9 00:00:49.480 --> 00:00:52.520 Everybody has the same amount of time. 10 00:00:52.520 --> 00:01:02.520 And so I want to challenge you in this series on maximizing your time that your future and your destiny is determined by how you use your time. 11 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.920 What you do with your time changes everything. 12 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:12.000 And when you look at life, life is built around time, capsules of time. 13 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:14.720 So we come to the end of a year. 14 00:01:14.720 --> 00:01:17.720 The end of a year, we call it a new year. 15 00:01:17.720 --> 00:01:23.840 And I love the word new because the old is passed away and the new has come. 16 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:33.600 And so whatever time frame you look at life, some people look at life and make changes in their life based on the new year. 17 00:01:33.600 --> 00:01:35.280 Sometimes it's a birthday. 18 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:42.480 A birthday changes your age from what it was to what it now is. 19 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:46.760 And you can never regain that year again. 20 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:48.960 You can never be 12 years old again. 21 00:01:48.960 --> 00:01:51.000 You can never be 35 years old again. 22 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.600 You can never be 65 years old again. 23 00:01:53.600 --> 00:01:57.000 So time is limited. 24 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:58.960 It's constantly moving. 25 00:01:58.960 --> 00:02:06.720 As a matter of fact, you cannot stop time, but you can control it. 26 00:02:06.720 --> 00:02:15.880 And so when you go through different phases of your life, oftentimes we find ourselves asking, you know, what kind of changes do I need to make? 27 00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:17.040 It could be a birthday. 28 00:02:17.040 --> 00:02:19.640 It could be an anniversary. 29 00:02:19.640 --> 00:02:21.920 It could be a new year in your life. 30 00:02:21.920 --> 00:02:25.520 And so we begin to ask these questions about our lives. 31 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:30.760 And so I think time and some of these, I'm going to call them markers in time. 32 00:02:30.760 --> 00:02:33.840 Let's say it's a birthday and let's say it's an anniversary. 33 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:38.120 Let's say it's the end of a year and the beginning of a new year. 34 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:46.880 It might be a graduation from college or graduation from high school or a promotion that you get at your job. 35 00:02:46.880 --> 00:02:51.040 These are markers in your life for you to do a few things. 36 00:02:51.040 --> 00:02:52.600 Let me give you a few, six thoughts. 37 00:02:52.600 --> 00:02:55.280 Re-evaluate your life. 38 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:58.480 Re-assess your relationships. 39 00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:02.000 Re-prioritize your future. 40 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.000 Redefine your spiritual and vocational purpose. 41 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:12.400 Re-establish worthwhile goals and refresh your physical, emotional, and mental health. 42 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:13.160 Let me give you those again. 43 00:03:13.160 --> 00:03:17.960 Number one, re-evaluate your life. 44 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:25.600 So I want to challenge you to take time at different times in your life this year to re-evaluate your life. 45 00:03:25.600 --> 00:03:28.200 Are you happy with who you are? 46 00:03:28.200 --> 00:03:30.680 Are you happy with the person that you are? 47 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:36.120 If you're not, you need to be starting to ask the question, how do I re-evaluate my life? 48 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:40.120 Number two, re-assess your relationships. 49 00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:45.440 This is really important because some relationships you're in are not helpful. 50 00:03:45.440 --> 00:03:47.480 Everybody look at the screen. 51 00:03:47.480 --> 00:03:56.640 Some of the relationships you're in are not helpful and you need to re-evaluate and re-assess some of the relationships that you're in. 52 00:03:56.680 --> 00:04:00.960 Number three, re-prioritize your future. 53 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:10.480 Are you living in, are you being organized by with your time, with the priorities that are going to give you a better future? 54 00:04:10.480 --> 00:04:12.360 So re-prioritize your future. 55 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:17.760 Number four, redefine your spiritual and vocational purpose. 56 00:04:17.760 --> 00:04:20.519 Do you have a spiritual purpose? 57 00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:24.680 Do you have a vocation that has a purpose to it? 58 00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:27.200 Well, if you don't, redefine it. 59 00:04:27.200 --> 00:04:30.240 You can always redefine your life. 60 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:39.560 Like I said, time can't be stopped, but time can be controlled and that's up to us. 61 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:42.720 Number five, re-establish worthwhile goals. 62 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:48.240 Are you, have you got goals that you've established that are worthwhile? 63 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:52.560 Or do you have some goals in your life that are just really, really taking you down? 64 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:56.800 Or maybe, like many people, you don't even have any goals. 65 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:00.040 Number six, refresh your physical, emotional, and mental health. 66 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.520 and mental health. I want to challenge you to maximize your time emotionally, 67 00:05:05.520 --> 00:05:12.040 mentally, even physically with the kind of use of time that you have. So we 68 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:18.280 measure life by time. We tell people our age, people ask how old you are, you give 69 00:05:18.280 --> 00:05:23.320 them an age. That's measuring life by time. Life is the passing of time and 70 00:05:23.320 --> 00:05:28.280 what you become, this is so important, write this down, what you become is 71 00:05:28.280 --> 00:05:34.920 totally dependent, not partial, be totally dependent on how you use your 72 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:43.560 time. So that little infant that's born who becomes one who is mighty in 73 00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:48.680 leadership, one who has a great family, one who has a great marriage, one who has 74 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:54.680 other kids that they raise that are great kids, is someone who assessed his 75 00:05:54.680 --> 00:06:01.520 time at some point and made priorities, the priorities, the purpose of his life, 76 00:06:01.520 --> 00:06:07.000 how he defined his use of time, and that's somebody who used their time very 77 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:15.240 wisely. Ecclesiastes 3 says, I've seen the God-given task which God gives the 78 00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:23.520 sons of men to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also he 79 00:06:23.520 --> 00:06:28.440 has put eternity in their hearts. The word beautiful is the same word for 80 00:06:28.440 --> 00:06:35.280 mature. In other words, time is given to us to do something beautiful with our 81 00:06:35.280 --> 00:06:42.680 lives, to grow into maturity in our lives. I sometimes say to people, grow up before 82 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:50.400 you grow old. So that's about maturity. So Solomon, considered the wisest man in 83 00:06:50.440 --> 00:06:57.120 the world at that time, was saying that God has given us all a task to do. He has 84 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:05.280 given us life to live in. He's given us time. And there's beauty. There's beauty 85 00:07:05.280 --> 00:07:10.960 in our time when we're growing in maturity. That does not mean that life is 86 00:07:10.960 --> 00:07:16.160 easy. That does not mean that our time is easy on this earth. I've been amazed in 87 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:21.680 my journey of all these years to be around people who have had really, really 88 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:25.720 hard lives. And then I've been around people who've had very, very easy lives. 89 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:29.680 And I can tell you that the people who have had the most difficulties in their 90 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:35.520 lives, but they harnessed their time, and they made their time something beautiful. 91 00:07:35.520 --> 00:07:41.160 They were matured through their hardship. They were matured through their trials 92 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:45.880 and troubles, are the kind of people that make a great life. They have a 93 00:07:45.880 --> 00:07:50.800 wonderful life. They have a joyful life. And so many people I've seen who've had 94 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:55.760 it kind of easy. It's been financially easy. Maybe they grew up in a home where 95 00:07:55.760 --> 00:08:00.720 everything was provided for them. They don't do well. And I've heard the phrase 96 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:07.280 that hard men make life easy, and easy men make life hard. And I think that's 97 00:08:07.280 --> 00:08:13.760 really true. And I want to be a hard man. I want to be a man that's found maturity 98 00:08:13.760 --> 00:08:19.280 through beauty, and can handle difficulties well so that I can have an 99 00:08:19.280 --> 00:08:25.000 easier life. And I can make life easier for others because I bring beauty to the 100 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:30.720 lives of others because I'm a hardworking guy. And so seek first the 101 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:34.880 kingdom of God. And when you seek first the kingdom of God, God makes your life 102 00:08:34.880 --> 00:08:39.679 beautiful. God also says in this passage, He has made everything beautiful in its 103 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:47.640 time. He's put eternity in their hearts. So sometimes people we think in terms of 104 00:08:47.640 --> 00:08:52.040 eternity as being the afterlife, like something that we're going to experience 105 00:08:52.040 --> 00:08:56.880 after we die. And yet I believe we experience eternity in our lives the day 106 00:08:56.880 --> 00:09:01.600 we give our hearts to Christ. So we give our hearts to Christ, and when we do so 107 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:06.160 what begins to happen in our lives is we begin to experience eternity in our 108 00:09:06.160 --> 00:09:10.240 hearts right now. We experience the kingdom of God in our hearts right now. 109 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:17.000 That's where our lives become a thing of great beauty. Job said this, Job 14 5, 110 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:23.360 Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, you have 111 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:29.560 appointed limits so that we cannot pass. In other words, God has a limit to our 112 00:09:29.560 --> 00:09:35.960 lives. He has a beginning and an end for our lives, and we can try to change that, 113 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:41.560 but we can't. God knows the limits of our lives, and He's given us a limited amount 114 00:09:41.560 --> 00:09:47.560 of time to make an impact on this earth. And so again, let's make something 115 00:09:47.560 --> 00:09:54.040 beautiful of our lives with the use of our time. Psalm 39 4, Show me, Lord, my 116 00:09:54.040 --> 00:10:01.480 life's end, and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. 117 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:07.200 So, this psalmist is saying that he wants to number his days, he wants to think through 118 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:12.520 the goals and the destiny of his lives, and he wants to build something beautiful in a 119 00:10:12.520 --> 00:10:18.880 way that brings benefit to others and to the kingdom of God. 120 00:10:18.880 --> 00:10:26.320 Ecclesiastes 8.6, For there is a proper time and a procedure for every matter, though a 121 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:31.080 person may be weighed down by misery. 122 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:36.120 You know, this past year might have been a really hard year for you, or maybe you're 123 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:41.480 coming up on a birthday, or maybe you're coming up on an anniversary or graduation. 124 00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:46.160 Maybe you've been fired from your job, and your life, you feel like the last year or 125 00:10:46.160 --> 00:10:50.880 two, or maybe even longer, has been one of misery. 126 00:10:50.880 --> 00:10:53.600 Well, change that. 127 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:56.200 As I said earlier, let me repeat these again. 128 00:10:56.200 --> 00:11:05.160 How about you re-evaluate your life, re-assess your relationships, re-prioritize your future, 129 00:11:05.160 --> 00:11:12.440 re-define your spiritual and vocational purpose, re-establish worthwhile goals, and refresh 130 00:11:12.440 --> 00:11:16.440 yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. 131 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:21.640 So I challenge you that you need to maximize your time to become the person and find the 132 00:11:21.640 --> 00:11:23.880 destiny that God has for you. 133 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:30.000 In my next message, I want to talk about how time has been given to us to change. 134 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:32.920 We do not have to remain the same. 135 00:11:32.920 --> 00:11:34.880 We can make changes in our life. 136 00:11:34.880 --> 00:11:35.380 God bless you.