James chapter 4, verse 14. We're just going to
look at the last half of that one verse. For
those of you who didn't get a present last week,
I apologize. I would have loved to have got everybody
something, but I could only get the three of
you something. But I wanted to give all of y
'all something today, and I really was thinking,
like, what? what would people really, what can
I get people that they would really like, that
everybody in here would really like? And I said,
you know what I think everybody would really
like would be a short sermon. So Merry Christmas
to y 'all today. It's the gift that keeps on
giving. But I do hope that you'll re -gift this.
God's Word is one thing that is good to re -gift,
to give to other people. So we're going to look
at the... Just the last few words of James chapter
4, verse 14. I'm going to read it, and then we'll
pray, and we'll get started. For what is your
life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little
time and then vanishes away. Let's pray. God,
we come to you. We thank you for... given us
the freedom and the privilege to come and to
study your word. And God, I pray that today we
would know just how precious our life is, dear
Lord, that every minute of our life matters.
The choices we make, the things we do, dear Lord,
they matter to us. They matter to other people,
dear Lord. They matter to you. And so, God, I
pray today that we would... Come to that realization
and that truth that our time here is limited.
God, help us to make the most of the time that
we have on this earth. I pray, God, that you
free us of the worries and the distractions and
the fears and the thoughts of this world. And
I pray that for just a couple of minutes this
morning, dear Lord, that your Holy Spirit would
help us to take a look at our lives. that you'd
shake us up, dear Lord. Let us see the areas
where we need to seek you and trust you and grow
in you all the more. I pray that everything that
is said and done today will be for your glory.
In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. That was one
minute. That was one minute. You know, a minute,
I think a minute used to be longer than it is
now. Used to a minute was a long time. But it
is hard to sit still and quiet for one minute.
I mean, we can't do it. You can try. You don't
spend many minutes, whole minutes, sitting quiet
and still, especially if you're younger and maybe
even if you're older. Because that smartphone's
real close, ain't it, right? Man, those things
are so handy. They are so handy at wasting our
time is what they're handy at. I'm guilty. I'm
preaching to me here. Because the great thing
about a smartphone is that you can learn anything
you want to know in an instant. But that's also
the bad thing. Because every time we think of
something, guess what? We're always thinking
of something. Well, I wonder how you make blackening
season. I had to do that last night. My wife
made me a great meal, blackened chicken. Open
the cabinet, no blackening season. Hey, no problem.
I'll look on the smartphone. Minute later, bloop,
here's all the ingredients. She made it. It was
delicious. But minutes come and minutes go, and
there are a lot of things competing for our minutes
these days. A lot of things. The average attention
span, I think the last I read, it was something
crazy like eight seconds. Like eight seconds
is our attention span. Like if we sit for more
than eight seconds, we are just, we got to get
up and do something. We got to look, we got to
go, we got to do. And our world moves so fast
that it seems like our minutes move so fast.
And part of that is all the technology and all
the things we have in this world that are competing
for our time. And there was a time where things
were much slower. There was a time where people
would sit on their porch and visit. There was
a time when people would go and see their neighbors.
There was a time where you would just sit and
think and enjoy life and rest. And because of
all of our modern conveniences, some of that
has been taken from us. But nonetheless, there's
still a lot of minutes in a day. There's 60 minutes
in an hour. There's 1 ,440 minutes in a day.
525 ,600 minutes in a year. And 42 ,048 ,000
minutes in 80 years. In a lifetime. 42 million
minutes. If you live to be 80 years old, if you
live past that, praise the Lord, you get some
extra minutes. 42 million minutes you have in
your life. The question that I want to ask you
today is what have you done with them? What have
you done with the minutes that you've been given?
Even the youngest of you in here, you've lived
thousands of minutes in your life up to this
point, praise the Lord. But what are you going
to do with those minutes? What have you done
with those minutes? Some of you may not have
many minutes left. And so have you made them
count? There's a lot of stuff you can do in a
minute. Maybe you need to pick up the phone and
make a phone call. It doesn't take but a minute
to call a neighbor, to call a friend, to call
a family member. Say, hey, how you doing today?
I was thinking about you. Do you and your family
have a good Christmas? Maybe it's reaching out
to a family member that you got a bad relationship
with. Maybe it's reaching out to somebody that
you just want to tell them you love them. It
only takes a minute. When's the last time you've
stopped and just listened to the Lord? Just stop.
Just for a minute. Just a minute. Just stop and
listen. To put the phone down. Turn off the TV.
Maybe just take a walk through the woods. Just
one minute. It only takes a minute to stop and
seek the Lord. We may find that one minute seeking
the Lord is greater than all the other minutes
we spend in the day doing the things that we
want to do. But can we even give the Lord a minute?
Do we have a minute to spare? We don't have a
minute to spare. We've got to go. We've got to
do. I've got to do this. I've got to do that.
There's work. There's church. There's Christmas.
There's all this stuff. I don't have a minute.
You've got a minute. You've got a minute. I'll
tell you what. You can take one of your minutes
from Facebook and you can just pause and think
about the Lord. The fact of the matter is this.
We all have a minute. And we all spend our minutes
on what we want to. It's just like our money.
Oh, I ain't got the money for that. I can't buy
that. I ain't got the money for that. Oh, they
got that. I ain't got that kind of money. Oh,
yeah, you do. We all spend our money on what
we want to. We always find a way. We always find
the time to do the things we want to do. But
what I want you to consider today is what do
you want to do? What have you spent your time
on and what do you need to be spending your time
on? It only takes a minute. It only takes a minute
to do the wrong thing. It only takes a minute
to do the right thing. It only takes a minute.
What are you spending your minutes on? Is it
something that matters or is it something that
don't amount to a hill of beans? And I'll confess,
I have wasted a lot of minutes in my life. And
I know that I'm going to waste some more. We're
about to start a new year, praise the Lord. 2026,
that is unbelievable. 2026. There's going to
be a lot of minutes in 2026. How are you going
to spend them? They are going to come, and as
the scripture says, our lifetime is but a vapor.
And if our lifetime is but a vapor, what is a
minute? It goes quickly. How quickly does a vapor
go? I'll tell you how quickly a vapor goes. If
you ever go to the grocery store and you take
a $100 bill and you go buy groceries, how fast
does that $100 bill go? Boom! A vapor is quicker
than that, and you know that that goes quick.
A $100 bill at a grocery store, and you might
be lucky if you get an Eggo and two gallons of
milk and a pack of sausage, and it's gone. And
a vapor is that much quicker. Boom! Our life
is gone. Some of you sitting here today, you've
lived in this world 50, 60, 70, 80 years. And
you look back and you might say, man, it's gone
quickly. It goes quickly. When you're young,
you don't realize it. Boy, when you're young,
those minutes just seem like 10 minutes. And
by the time we begin to get a little older, we
just realize, boom, our life is gone. And what
have you done with it? What have you done with
it? Some of you look back at your life and say,
I hadn't done a whole lot. There's some young
people in here and you need to listen and you
need to know that you need to make good decisions
with the minutes you have. You need to listen
a little bit more to your parents and to your
grandparents. And you parents and grandparents
need to take an extra minute to invest in your
kid here and there. Boy, that might make all
the difference in a child's life. Do you got
a minute you'd take out to spend with them? There's
a lot of children that long for their parents'
attention. A lot of times parents don't have
a minute. Would you make a minute for your family?
Would you make a minute for the Lord? Now, I'm
not going to count all these last 10 minutes
that I've been talking as part of my sermon,
but I am going to preach to you guys today a
one -minute sermon, praise the Lord, which is
pretty good. We'll say 11 minutes, but we're
just going to call it one minute. But I thought
about it, and I said, well, what can you say
in a minute? Well, this is what I'd like to say
to you with my minute this morning. It only takes
a minute. A minute to make a bad decision that
will change your life. A minute to make a good
decision that will change someone else's. In
a minute, we can lift our voice in prayer or
raise our voice in anger. In a minute, we can
build someone up or tear them down. Some of our
minutes we use wisely, others foolishly. What
have you spent your minutes on? In James chapter
4 verse 14 it says, For what is your life? It
is even a vapor that appears for a little time
and then vanishes away. Our minutes go as quickly
as they come. They vanish like a vapor. What
we do in those minutes matter. Lifetime of minutes
are behind us. But Lord willing, maybe we have
a few more minutes in front of us. What will
we do with those? Approximately 360 of the last
minutes of Jesus' life were spent on the cross.
Minute after minute, he suffered, bled, and died.
Those minutes were mingled with great pain and
even greater love. It is that love that has the
power to forgive our sins today if we would only
trust in Jesus. Jesus gave his last minutes to
give you eternity. What will you do with the
minutes that you have left? Let's pray. God,
we come to you today and we thank you for the
time you have given us. And dear Lord, I pray
that you forgive us of the minutes that we have
used foolishly. God, I pray that you would just
help us to stop. for a moment today and that
your Holy Spirit would speak to us and work on
our hearts. God, maybe we spend way too many
minutes thinking about and focusing on the things
of the world. We spend too many minutes with
evil and wicked thoughts on our mind. We spend
too many minutes tearing people down. So God,
I pray. That you would help us to examine ourselves
today. That you'd convict us of those things,
dear Lord. And I pray that today, that even now,
that we would take just a minute to repent of
our sins, dear Lord. To seek you. Maybe this
week, dear Lord, you just put somebody in our
path. Somebody on our mind, God. That we would
stop and take a minute just to love on them.
Just to share your love with them. Dear Lord,
maybe we just, we don't spend any time seeking
you. Or we don't spend enough time seeking you.
God, maybe this week, maybe tomorrow, we could
take just a minute to look at your word. Dear
Lord, just one or two verses, God. That we would
take just a minute to pray to you. to just praise
you for who you are, to thank you for what you've
done, to thank you for Jesus Christ, to just
rejoice in you, to lift our request up to you,
dear Lord. God, maybe there are some today that
are just struggling and pain and sorrow and just
sickness and all the stuff that's in this world,
dear Lord. I pray that today that maybe they
would just take A minute to seek you, dear Lord.
Just to call out to you for help in their time
of need that they would seek you and long for
you and just cry out to you, dear Lord, for just
a minute today. God, maybe it's been a minute
since we've called out to you and trusted you
and lived for you and read your word in the way
that we should. And I pray that today that you
would help us just to refocus. refocus our mind
and our heart, dear Lord, that we can know that
our time matters. It's up to us to choose if
we want to use it for good or for evil. It's
up for us to choose if we want to use our minutes
to do what is right or to do what is wrong. God,
it only takes a minute today for us to decide
whether or not we're going to follow Jesus or
not. Maybe there are some in this room that do
not know Jesus. God, I pray that in this next
minute that they would repent and ask for forgiveness
of their sins and know that Jesus gave his life
on the cross so that they could be forgiven.
Dear Lord, hopefully we all have a few more minutes
left in our life, and I pray that you would help
us to make the most of them. And I ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen.