WEBVTT

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James chapter 4, verse 14. We're just going to

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look at the last half of that one verse. For

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those of you who didn't get a present last week,

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I apologize. I would have loved to have got everybody

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something, but I could only get the three of

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you something. But I wanted to give all of y

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'all something today, and I really was thinking,

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like, what? what would people really, what can

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I get people that they would really like, that

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everybody in here would really like? And I said,

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you know what I think everybody would really

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like would be a short sermon. So Merry Christmas

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to y 'all today. It's the gift that keeps on

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giving. But I do hope that you'll re -gift this.

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God's Word is one thing that is good to re -gift,

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to give to other people. So we're going to look

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at the... Just the last few words of James chapter

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4, verse 14. I'm going to read it, and then we'll

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pray, and we'll get started. For what is your

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life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little

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time and then vanishes away. Let's pray. God,

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we come to you. We thank you for... given us

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the freedom and the privilege to come and to

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study your word. And God, I pray that today we

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would know just how precious our life is, dear

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Lord, that every minute of our life matters.

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The choices we make, the things we do, dear Lord,

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they matter to us. They matter to other people,

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dear Lord. They matter to you. And so, God, I

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pray today that we would... Come to that realization

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and that truth that our time here is limited.

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God, help us to make the most of the time that

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we have on this earth. I pray, God, that you

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free us of the worries and the distractions and

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the fears and the thoughts of this world. And

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I pray that for just a couple of minutes this

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morning, dear Lord, that your Holy Spirit would

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help us to take a look at our lives. that you'd

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shake us up, dear Lord. Let us see the areas

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where we need to seek you and trust you and grow

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in you all the more. I pray that everything that

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is said and done today will be for your glory.

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In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. That was one

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minute. That was one minute. You know, a minute,

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I think a minute used to be longer than it is

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now. Used to a minute was a long time. But it

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is hard to sit still and quiet for one minute.

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I mean, we can't do it. You can try. You don't

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spend many minutes, whole minutes, sitting quiet

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and still, especially if you're younger and maybe

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even if you're older. Because that smartphone's

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real close, ain't it, right? Man, those things

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are so handy. They are so handy at wasting our

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time is what they're handy at. I'm guilty. I'm

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preaching to me here. Because the great thing

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about a smartphone is that you can learn anything

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you want to know in an instant. But that's also

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the bad thing. Because every time we think of

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something, guess what? We're always thinking

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of something. Well, I wonder how you make blackening

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season. I had to do that last night. My wife

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made me a great meal, blackened chicken. Open

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the cabinet, no blackening season. Hey, no problem.

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I'll look on the smartphone. Minute later, bloop,

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here's all the ingredients. She made it. It was

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delicious. But minutes come and minutes go, and

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there are a lot of things competing for our minutes

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these days. A lot of things. The average attention

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span, I think the last I read, it was something

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crazy like eight seconds. Like eight seconds

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is our attention span. Like if we sit for more

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than eight seconds, we are just, we got to get

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up and do something. We got to look, we got to

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go, we got to do. And our world moves so fast

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that it seems like our minutes move so fast.

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And part of that is all the technology and all

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the things we have in this world that are competing

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for our time. And there was a time where things

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were much slower. There was a time where people

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would sit on their porch and visit. There was

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a time when people would go and see their neighbors.

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There was a time where you would just sit and

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think and enjoy life and rest. And because of

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all of our modern conveniences, some of that

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has been taken from us. But nonetheless, there's

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still a lot of minutes in a day. There's 60 minutes

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in an hour. There's 1 ,440 minutes in a day.

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525 ,600 minutes in a year. And 42 ,048 ,000

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minutes in 80 years. In a lifetime. 42 million

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minutes. If you live to be 80 years old, if you

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live past that, praise the Lord, you get some

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extra minutes. 42 million minutes you have in

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your life. The question that I want to ask you

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today is what have you done with them? What have

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you done with the minutes that you've been given?

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Even the youngest of you in here, you've lived

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thousands of minutes in your life up to this

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point, praise the Lord. But what are you going

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to do with those minutes? What have you done

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with those minutes? Some of you may not have

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many minutes left. And so have you made them

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count? There's a lot of stuff you can do in a

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minute. Maybe you need to pick up the phone and

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make a phone call. It doesn't take but a minute

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to call a neighbor, to call a friend, to call

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a family member. Say, hey, how you doing today?

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I was thinking about you. Do you and your family

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have a good Christmas? Maybe it's reaching out

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to a family member that you got a bad relationship

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with. Maybe it's reaching out to somebody that

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you just want to tell them you love them. It

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only takes a minute. When's the last time you've

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stopped and just listened to the Lord? Just stop.

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Just for a minute. Just a minute. Just stop and

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listen. To put the phone down. Turn off the TV.

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Maybe just take a walk through the woods. Just

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one minute. It only takes a minute to stop and

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seek the Lord. We may find that one minute seeking

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the Lord is greater than all the other minutes

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we spend in the day doing the things that we

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want to do. But can we even give the Lord a minute?

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Do we have a minute to spare? We don't have a

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minute to spare. We've got to go. We've got to

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do. I've got to do this. I've got to do that.

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There's work. There's church. There's Christmas.

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There's all this stuff. I don't have a minute.

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You've got a minute. You've got a minute. I'll

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tell you what. You can take one of your minutes

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from Facebook and you can just pause and think

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about the Lord. The fact of the matter is this.

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We all have a minute. And we all spend our minutes

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on what we want to. It's just like our money.

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Oh, I ain't got the money for that. I can't buy

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that. I ain't got the money for that. Oh, they

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got that. I ain't got that kind of money. Oh,

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yeah, you do. We all spend our money on what

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we want to. We always find a way. We always find

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the time to do the things we want to do. But

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what I want you to consider today is what do

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you want to do? What have you spent your time

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on and what do you need to be spending your time

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on? It only takes a minute. It only takes a minute

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to do the wrong thing. It only takes a minute

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to do the right thing. It only takes a minute.

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What are you spending your minutes on? Is it

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something that matters or is it something that

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don't amount to a hill of beans? And I'll confess,

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I have wasted a lot of minutes in my life. And

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I know that I'm going to waste some more. We're

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about to start a new year, praise the Lord. 2026,

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that is unbelievable. 2026. There's going to

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be a lot of minutes in 2026. How are you going

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to spend them? They are going to come, and as

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the scripture says, our lifetime is but a vapor.

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And if our lifetime is but a vapor, what is a

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minute? It goes quickly. How quickly does a vapor

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go? I'll tell you how quickly a vapor goes. If

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you ever go to the grocery store and you take

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a $100 bill and you go buy groceries, how fast

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does that $100 bill go? Boom! A vapor is quicker

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than that, and you know that that goes quick.

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A $100 bill at a grocery store, and you might

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be lucky if you get an Eggo and two gallons of

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milk and a pack of sausage, and it's gone. And

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a vapor is that much quicker. Boom! Our life

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is gone. Some of you sitting here today, you've

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lived in this world 50, 60, 70, 80 years. And

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you look back and you might say, man, it's gone

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quickly. It goes quickly. When you're young,

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you don't realize it. Boy, when you're young,

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those minutes just seem like 10 minutes. And

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by the time we begin to get a little older, we

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just realize, boom, our life is gone. And what

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have you done with it? What have you done with

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it? Some of you look back at your life and say,

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I hadn't done a whole lot. There's some young

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people in here and you need to listen and you

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need to know that you need to make good decisions

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with the minutes you have. You need to listen

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a little bit more to your parents and to your

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grandparents. And you parents and grandparents

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need to take an extra minute to invest in your

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kid here and there. Boy, that might make all

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the difference in a child's life. Do you got

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a minute you'd take out to spend with them? There's

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a lot of children that long for their parents'

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attention. A lot of times parents don't have

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a minute. Would you make a minute for your family?

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Would you make a minute for the Lord? Now, I'm

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not going to count all these last 10 minutes

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that I've been talking as part of my sermon,

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but I am going to preach to you guys today a

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one -minute sermon, praise the Lord, which is

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pretty good. We'll say 11 minutes, but we're

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just going to call it one minute. But I thought

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about it, and I said, well, what can you say

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in a minute? Well, this is what I'd like to say

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to you with my minute this morning. It only takes

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a minute. A minute to make a bad decision that

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will change your life. A minute to make a good

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decision that will change someone else's. In

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a minute, we can lift our voice in prayer or

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raise our voice in anger. In a minute, we can

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build someone up or tear them down. Some of our

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minutes we use wisely, others foolishly. What

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have you spent your minutes on? In James chapter

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4 verse 14 it says, For what is your life? It

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is even a vapor that appears for a little time

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and then vanishes away. Our minutes go as quickly

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as they come. They vanish like a vapor. What

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we do in those minutes matter. Lifetime of minutes

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are behind us. But Lord willing, maybe we have

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a few more minutes in front of us. What will

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we do with those? Approximately 360 of the last

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minutes of Jesus' life were spent on the cross.

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Minute after minute, he suffered, bled, and died.

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Those minutes were mingled with great pain and

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even greater love. It is that love that has the

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power to forgive our sins today if we would only

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trust in Jesus. Jesus gave his last minutes to

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give you eternity. What will you do with the

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minutes that you have left? Let's pray. God,

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we come to you today and we thank you for the

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time you have given us. And dear Lord, I pray

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that you forgive us of the minutes that we have

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used foolishly. God, I pray that you would just

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help us to stop. for a moment today and that

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your Holy Spirit would speak to us and work on

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our hearts. God, maybe we spend way too many

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minutes thinking about and focusing on the things

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of the world. We spend too many minutes with

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evil and wicked thoughts on our mind. We spend

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too many minutes tearing people down. So God,

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I pray. That you would help us to examine ourselves

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today. That you'd convict us of those things,

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dear Lord. And I pray that today, that even now,

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that we would take just a minute to repent of

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our sins, dear Lord. To seek you. Maybe this

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week, dear Lord, you just put somebody in our

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path. Somebody on our mind, God. That we would

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stop and take a minute just to love on them.

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Just to share your love with them. Dear Lord,

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maybe we just, we don't spend any time seeking

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you. Or we don't spend enough time seeking you.

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God, maybe this week, maybe tomorrow, we could

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take just a minute to look at your word. Dear

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Lord, just one or two verses, God. That we would

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take just a minute to pray to you. to just praise

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you for who you are, to thank you for what you've

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done, to thank you for Jesus Christ, to just

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rejoice in you, to lift our request up to you,

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dear Lord. God, maybe there are some today that

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are just struggling and pain and sorrow and just

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sickness and all the stuff that's in this world,

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dear Lord. I pray that today that maybe they

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would just take A minute to seek you, dear Lord.

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Just to call out to you for help in their time

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of need that they would seek you and long for

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you and just cry out to you, dear Lord, for just

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a minute today. God, maybe it's been a minute

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since we've called out to you and trusted you

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and lived for you and read your word in the way

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that we should. And I pray that today that you

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would help us just to refocus. refocus our mind

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and our heart, dear Lord, that we can know that

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our time matters. It's up to us to choose if

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we want to use it for good or for evil. It's

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up for us to choose if we want to use our minutes

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to do what is right or to do what is wrong. God,

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it only takes a minute today for us to decide

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whether or not we're going to follow Jesus or

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not. Maybe there are some in this room that do

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not know Jesus. God, I pray that in this next

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minute that they would repent and ask for forgiveness

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of their sins and know that Jesus gave his life

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on the cross so that they could be forgiven.

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Dear Lord, hopefully we all have a few more minutes

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left in our life, and I pray that you would help

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us to make the most of them. And I ask these

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things in Jesus' name. Amen.