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Genesis 1, 3 to 5, I'm gonna read three opening scriptures and then you can take

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your places in the first scripture is found in Genesis 1, 3 to 5, says,

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Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the

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light was good. You know isn't it something when God speaks something it's

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always good. When he speaks it's good. I don't know about your neighbor you can

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tell him I don't know when you speak with said good but when God speaks it's

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good and when God confirms it in himself it's gotta be good. He said that he said

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God saw it and he said it's good. Amen. Then he separated the light from the

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darkness and called the light day and the darkness night. And evening passed

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and morning came making the first day. Somebody say the clock started. Genesis

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1, 14 it says, Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens

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to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and seasons and for

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days and years. And then finally Genesis 1, 31 it says, God said all that he had

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made he saw all that he had made and it was very good. And I want to leave this

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thought if I may with you it's about time. It's about time. Somebody tell your

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neighbor it's about time. Amen. You may take your places thank you.

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Praise God. It's about time. Did anybody has anybody ever told you that? It's

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about time. Amen. And yeah whether we're late to something or whatever we're we

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show up. It's about time you showed up. Praise God. Anyway time began when God

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brought order to the universe that existed in chaos. Out of nowhere God

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speaks to the chaos and the lightest clips the darkness which became night

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and day. When God speaks it doesn't matter if there's chaos. It doesn't matter

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what's taking place in your life or in the world. God can put things back in

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order. Amen. And for the first time ever and by this miraculous act of God we now

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have time. Time did not exist prior to this. The universe operates and it comes

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and it's under consistent laws of nature. A divine design that maintains order

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and it maintains balance. God's creation is in balance. Everything he does he

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doesn't just speak it and you know and there's there's still chaos. No

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everything has balance. Praise God and God is and God is a God of order. He's a

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God of order. Everything he made and makes it's orderly and it's also

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consistent as well as complex and very detailed. In Genesis 2 and 7 it says

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that the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his

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nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Amen. A living being

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and this is who we are today. God made us from the dust. We're a miracle. You are a

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miracle here today. Adam was created after God's image and had established a

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man before Adam was born there was already time. God had already separated.

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God had already established the night and the day the days and the months and

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the years. He had already established then but time was already ticking when

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Adam was created. In the garden where God placed Adam it had two trees that were

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very familiar with and that and both of those trees made a difference in Adam's

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life. One tree was a tree of life and the other was the forbidden tree of

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knowledge of good and evil. As long as Adam would eat from the tree of life he

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would never see death. Time was his friend. Amen. And so but since the moment

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he ate from the forbidden tree he was expelled from the garden and the

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cherubines began to protect not the garden not not his possessions not

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whatever he may have made out of wood or whatever he made his own furniture or

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whatever in the garden. We don't know what is what his household looked like

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if he lived on a tree if he lived on the ground we don't know that but the one

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thing that the cherubines did was protect and guard the tree of life. You

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can have everything else in fact Adam you can take your stuff with you but

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you're not gonna come back and eat from the tree of life. Once Adam was expelled

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from the garden he faced a new reality and his new reality was time. Time became

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a factor for Adam because he now began to experience what a lot of us wish we

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would could avoid and it's called aging.

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Aging I'm sure that everybody in here is aging. You can't escape that right? Tell

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your neighbor you can't escape time it's all over you man. And time leads to death.

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Listen to what I'm saying it's important for us to understand this because for

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the first time Adam had to see Eve get wrinkles on her face. Oh what happened to

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you Eve? I'm not gonna tell you to say that to your wife so don't go there we

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won't have peace today. Although Adam was created from the dust of the earth while

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he ate from the tree of life he would not age. Time did not affect Adam while

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he ate from the tree of life but it was in his disobedience. Somebody say

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disobedience. That began to age him. All that to say that time does not age us.

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Time doesn't age you. What ages us is disobedience. Hello, praise the Lord.

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You can take that theology with you and study it later. The wisest man in the

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world wrote one time in Ecclesiastes 3 and 1 he said to everything there is a

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season, a time for every purpose under heaven. And truly there is. Wisdom tells

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us there is enough time in a day, days in a month, and months in a year to fulfill

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God's purpose in our lives. Many people habitually fight the clock as a way of

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life. Everyone, how many people can say do you know how many clocks you have in

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your house? I know you're probably starting to count them now. One, two,

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three, four, five. You got a clock in the shower. Then I have one

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outside the shower. I have one by my bedside. I've got clocks everywhere.

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Everywhere you turn is a clock, clock, clock, clock by the ironing board. Clock

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everywhere. Why? Because the clock controls us, right? Everything we do is

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hinge on that little tick tick tick tick tock. I was in the garage the other day

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trying to by myself and I was trying to listen for something and I was like what

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is that? And I looked at it and it was a clock. It makes a lot of noise. I don't

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know why. It's just tick tick tick. Everywhere you go there is that tick

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tick tick. You're not going to avoid it. Considering the life of Christ, he became

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amazed. It became amazed. Amen. And it was an amazing thing what he did

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because he came and I'm telling you he came and changed everything about life.

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He never seemed to be in a hurry. Do you read somewhere where Jesus ran? No, he

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didn't run. He took his time. If anything, he would just appear like he did to the

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disciples out in the sea. Praise God. And so he never was in a hurry although he

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was doing the most important job in history which was redeeming the world

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and although he knew he only had a few years to do it, a short time to do it, he

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never appeared rushed nor did he run to make up time as we perceive that we can

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do. He had time for everyone and stopped many times to minister to someone even

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unexpectedly people would show up and he would tell it's gonna be all right.

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Don't worry, amen. She's not gonna die. It's gonna be all right. We're

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gonna get there. Praise God. And I want somebody to know this. Don't worry about

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if the clock is ticking. Know that the Lord is always on time. He's gonna get to

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where we need. He's gonna get to your situation. He's not subject to your Timex

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watch. Praise God. I have a little story about a Timex watch. You remember back

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in the day before, you know, I mean now you got these other real nice watches

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and everything, but I had a Timex watch and I loved that watch. In fact, I

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still have it. It doesn't work. It doesn't have a band but it's there as a

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reminder. One day I had my, I didn't have an air conditioner under my cars. They

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never did at that time and I had my arm out in the freeway and my, and the

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wind busted the band of my watch and my Timex one. I just seen it. There goes my

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watch. Then I looked in the mirror and my watch was bouncing on the freeway.

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I says, oh my watch. And then I seen a semi truck coming and the semi truck goes right

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over it. And then I had to think about it. I pulled over. I mean I was, I was, I was

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in tears man. My watch. And so, so I, I said should I go back and get it or not?

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I says, I hate myself for the rest of my life if I didn't at least try to go get

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it. So with all the traffic, I put it in reverse man on the side and I went back.

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I went all the way back where I figured it might be. I get out of my car and I

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started looking around and there it was. It was on the first lane of the freeway

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and I was just waiting for cars not to run over it no more. And then when a

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good opportunity came I ran out and I grabbed my watch and I went in the car

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and I looked at it and guess what? It was still ticking. It was still ticking. I

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says this can't be. It's still ticking man. God. And back then you know they

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used to have a saying you know about timex. They said timex it can take a

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licking but it keeps on ticking. Praise God. That's timex man. That's why it was

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so important to me and it was. The only thing is that I couldn't wind it up no

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more so it stopped. Well but at least it was still ticking. Praise God. I don't

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know if you can go through life like that. There's people say, brother I've

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been ticking a licking but I'm still ticking. I'm gonna call you timex. He had

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time for everything Jesus did and stopped many times to minister to people.

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Once again by the second Adam time became his friend. The first Adam lost it.

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The second Adam gained it back. So time became his friend again. The Bible gives

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us some great insight into how time can become your friend and my friend rather

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than our enemies. God exists in the realm that is not bound by time or space. God

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is not subject to the day planners. He doesn't pay attention to the Sun dials.

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He's not interested in that. He's never late. He's always on time. It don't matter.

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Don't put God on a clock. Don't bind him. Don't bind him into that. Don't

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confine him into that. Second Peter 3 and 8 says, but beloved do not forget this

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one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years

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as one day. Bless the name of the Lord. Look at that. He speaks with eternity. He

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speaks with no limitations, no boundaries. God when he is everything

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about him and that's just a small... They could have said a million years and it

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wouldn't have made no difference because God is not bound to what humans have to

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be bound to. He's not bound to that. He is the creator of time and he's not

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subject to it. The first step in making time your friend is to emerge yourself

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in God completely. Praise God. If you're a worrier and you're always worried

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about, you know, the time clock or whatever, emerge yourself in God and you

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will live a life of peace. Praise God. You will live a life of abundance. He is a

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creator of it. So emerge yourself in what he created. Psalm 90 and 12 says,

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teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. We need

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wisdom to manage our way through life. We need wisdom. When it comes to time, we

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use phrases concerning time that are not even possible. Not even possible.

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You can't buy more time. How many of you can buy more time? Tell the person on his

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taking his last breath. You can't buy more time. You can't find more time. Time

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is never lost. That we have to go find it. You can't make more time and you cannot

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save it. If you don't use it, you lose it. There is an entire field of study called

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time management. In almost every business in America, and I've been through that

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when I worked in the corporate world, consultants are hired to teach busy

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executives how to better manage their time. Well, I have a little

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caption that I pulled out of the book, Seven Habits of a Highly Effective

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People, and Stephen Covey wrote this. If you can put it up, please. He says, time

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management is a misleading concept. You can't really manage time. You can't delay

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it, speed it up, save it, or lose it. No matter what you do, time keeps moving

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forward at the same rate. The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage

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ourselves. You hear what I'm saying? You can't manage time. You can't stop it, but

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what you can do is manage this person. You can manage yourself. There's an old

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saying about those that live life without purpose, and I heard this

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years ago. People that live life without purpose and they just don't manage

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themselves. They don't care about nothing. It says it's two people in a car.

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They're going somewhere. They're in the car. They're taking a road trip, and they

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say, we may not know where we're going, but we're making good time. That doesn't

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make sense at all. If you don't have a destination, how can you measure it? But

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it says, I don't know where we're going, honey, but we're making good time. Praise

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be to God. I mean, if we can go through life like that, man, you don't have a

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worry in the world. Praise God. I dare you to do that. The Bible does not mention

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time management at all. Instead of managing time, it speaks about redeeming

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the time. The apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5 and 15 and 16, he says, see

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then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time

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because the days are evil. He mentions two things here, you know, not as a fool,

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but as a wise. And walking circumspectly, we all are required to be stewards of

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our gifts, our talents, our careers, our callings, as the series has been

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preached for this last few weeks. We're to be stewards of our resources, our

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finances, that God has bestowed upon us. We are responsible, much given, much

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required. God's gonna require of us. We accumulate or possess nothing unless it

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has been God given to us. You don't have anything, anything you have, whether it's

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in your pocket, in the bank, in your garage, it doesn't matter. Everything you

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have is because God allowed it to happen. It's there because of Him. We must be

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good stewards of them, of what God has entrusted in us, which includes time. The

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phrase walk circumspectly means to be constantly seeking for ways to make the

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most of every opportunity. To walk circumspectly requires wisdom, requires

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awareness, it requires mindfulness, prudence, and discernment. And I would

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like to talk a little bit about opportunity knocks. Opportunity must be

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welcomed. There are many times in life when people have confessed that they

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regretted a missed opportunity. Irrational and ungodly pursuit of

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opportunity is a calamity waiting to happen. I can sink into a cycle, you can

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sink into a cycle of despair, confusion, and frustration when you pursued

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something in an ungodly manner. This is why opportunity must be prayerful and

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in line with God's will to avoid unnecessary calamities. In Revelation 3

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and 20 it says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice

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and opens the door, I will come to him and dine with him and he with me.

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Everything that God permits or the way that God works is He knocks on the door.

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He never barges into our lives, He never barges into our schedules, He never

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barges into our activities, He doesn't barge into whatever you're doing. He

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knocks, He's a gentleman. He will knock on your life and He'll say, Hey, is it

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okay if I show you an opportunity, lend you an opportunity? When God knocks with

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opportunity, it is a fruitful and celebrated, amen, time with Him. The way

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that you can confirm if this is the will of God, an opportunity that comes your

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way, if you cannot have fellowship with God, then it's not of God. But if

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something comes your way and it knocks in your heart and you're able to commune

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with God as He enters into your life and to whatever opportunity it is, if you can

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fellowship with Him in a godly way, it's of the Lord. But if you can't fellowship

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with Him, it's not of God. Opportunity especially for us Christians will not

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force itself upon us. It must be welcomed. In Galatians 6, 10 it says,

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while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men and especially to those who

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are the household of faith. The word while in this verse simply means

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opportunity must be acted on quickly. Time is of essence. Have you heard that?

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And when the scripture says while the opportunity, in other words,

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it's not gonna be there forever. You know, God called me to the ministry or God

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called me to this and called company. Yeah, I'll check it out in 10 years.

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Believe me, in 10 years it may not be there. The time is now. If God puts an

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opportunity upon your life, the time is now. This is the day, the Lord says,

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of salvation. Don't put off the things that God deals with us, amen,

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with things that He puts in our hearts, opportunities He knocks on your heart.

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Don't put it off for tomorrow, amen. Like somebody said, don't put off for tomorrow

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what you can do today, praise God. And that is exactly what the scripture is

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saying. While we have opportunity, and this verse simply means opportunity must

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acted on then, time is of essence. Godly opportunities will most always

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bless the household of the faith. In layman's terms, you must bless the house

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of God, which is your church, amen, with whatever God has gifted you with,

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whatever God has given you, amen, give it to the Lord, then it will spill over to

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other areas of your life. Bless God, amen. In other words, being good stewards

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of time is founded on the same principles as any other things that God

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gives, finances and whatnot, opportunities, business, ventures or whatever that God

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gives us. If we bless and seek the house of faith first, all things will be added

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unto us. I've learned this over time, and this is a biblical truth, and it will be

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realized not necessarily, amen, that you... Believe me, I've made investments over

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time and over the years. I've made investments that some were good and some

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were not so good. And I remember an investment that my wife and I made one

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time. Well, I made it more than her, but I lost my pants, man. I almost lost my

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home. I was signing over my home, everything, man. I had to sell my boat. I

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had to sell my Lincoln. I had to sell my new pickup. I had to sell it. We ended up

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with no car. Hello. We were on foot. How can that be? Lord, help me. Well, I think

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I made a bad turn somewhere. I didn't blame God. I blame me. I made a bad

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turn. It cost me a lot. Believe me, it cost me a lot. But I told the Lord, Lord,

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I'm sorry I messed up, and then somebody gave me a few hundred bucks to buy

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an old used car. And I went and I bought an old used car, and the car was so

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terrible it'd leave us everywhere. The only thing that was good about that car

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is it had a good air conditioner. Outside of that, it would leave my wife on the

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freeway. She had to go to work for the first time. I never, she never worked. I

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provided it, and she had to go to work, man. She had this, she took this job at

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nights so that we can swap the kids, and then I would go to work, and all of

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that. But the car would leave her on the freeway, man. And another thing, too, the

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car leaked. If it rained, you have to have an umbrella in the car. I'm not

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kidding you, man, especially on my wife's side. She'd get all wet, soaked. Amen. Well,

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those are the things you learn through life, huh? One day I came out of a

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restaurant that my father-in-law treated us at, and we came out and I

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seen this beautiful car. Wow, man. I said, ooh, look at that car. Man, I started walking around it, and

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then I told my wife, God's gonna give us one of those. Don't be playing games, you

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know. We're gonna get one of those. Hey, within about a year, we were driving one.

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We were what they call a comeback people. God began to bless us again,

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bless us again, praise God. But it's, you know, you got to be careful with

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opportunities. I'm a victim of that. I'm telling you by experience, praise God.

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Amen. Don't go do what I did in that case. There was a great football

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player. His name was Emmett Smith. I know he didn't play for the 49ers. He played

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for, I think, Dallas or something like that. He was a fool. No. I'm sorry, you Texans.

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Emmett Smith was a great football running back, but his greatness was not

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attributed to his size. He wasn't a big guy or his speed because he wasn't that

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fast or his strength. His greatness was attributed to the ability of him to run

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with his eyes open. He read, if you watched him, he would, he wouldn't put his

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head down like a bull, you know, and just go. No, he would run with his head up. You

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can go back and watch some more films. He would run with his head up because he

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was looking. He was looking. He carved his way through the opposition and he

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seized every opportunity for what is called a breakthrough. And I believe

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that's what we need to do. Praise God. We need to carve our way through

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oppositions. Opportunities come our way. We need to seize that opportunity, amen,

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and have a breakthrough in our lives. That's the way we should live, looking

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for every opportunity to invest time wisely, then dart through it with

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everything you've got. When an opportunity passes, it cannot be reclaimed.

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It's over. It's gone. A missed opportunity leads to what the Apostle Paul called

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the life of regrets. And Ephesians, back to our opening scripture, redeeming the

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time. Redeeming the time is seizing the moment. The Apostle Paul exhorted the

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Ephesians to adopt, adopt an excessively careful attitude toward time when he

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wrote redeeming the time. This means that believers should be very aggressive in

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using the proper, you know, the proper and the proper intentions, amen, if

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they're attempting, amen, to do something for God. You got to be careful and knowing

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and value, amen, the time that God has given you and the opportunity that God

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has given you. Seizing the moment is being sensitive to God for that very

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second, in that very moment. Seize the moment. There's too many Monday morning

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quarterbacks that say, I should have and I could have. No, let's not live a Monday

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morning quarterback syndrome. Let's do it today. Let's step out in faith today. If

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God gives you an opportunity, get out of the boat and walk on the water today.

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Don't give up for tomorrow. Don't wait, Jesus. I know you called me out of the

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boat. I'll see you tomorrow. God's not gonna wait for you for tomorrow. This is

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the day. This is the moment where we take advantage of the opportunity. Redeem the

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opportunity. Redeem the time. Redeem this, what God has put before us. It means that

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we should be aggressive, amen, and be intentional and know that God is calling

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us to something which we know, amen, to redeem or to recoup time. It's impossible,

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amen, but the apostle made strong emphasis on the reality that we cannot

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let time pass by. It's too valuable and all our actions should be laced with a

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sense of urgency. The time is now. We need to be good stewards of the use of the

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time that God has given us. Make the most out of your life now. You don't need to

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live a hundred and fifty years, amen, to accomplish anything. You can accomplish

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something in a short time, amen. You can do something right now, this moment of

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your life. You're not too young and you're not too old. You can do something

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for God right now. Take advantage of this for right now. Do what God has asked you

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to do. We need to be good stewards of that God has given us, even through the

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duration of our life. And it seems like life is real long when we're young,

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but man, when you get to be my age, amen, you know that it's not too much more. It's

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more behind you than in front of you. So you got to really, amen, take

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advantage of the time and use it properly, amen, things that are going to

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bless God, amen. And I know this, maybe this is not in tune with anybody else,

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but I live for God. I don't live for myself. Everything that I do, whatever we

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do, my wife and I, we're just dedicated to the Lord. Whatever God wants, that's

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what we'll do, amen. I wanted to retire. I don't know how many years ago. I wanted

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to retire, I think it was like 10 years ago, and I did. But look where God has me

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now. You don't quit on God. If God says, you're going to do this, all right, Lord,

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I'm ready, I'm able, let's do it. Praise God. Tell your neighbor, you can do this,

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amen. Don't say, not me, Lord, no. God wants to use your life. And John 9 and 4

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says, I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is

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coming when no man can work. Praise God. Know that the clock is ticking, amen. If

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God called you to do something, don't wait till tomorrow, amen. Do it today. We

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can learn to redeem the time by becoming conscious of the fact that we may not

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have another day to do it. Live as if this is your last day in the planet

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Earth. Live every day. This is it, Lord. This is my last Sunday. I'm going to worship

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you. I'm going to praise you. I'm going to glorify your name, Lord. This is the

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day, Lord. This might be it. I don't know. But do it with everything you've got.

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Invest your whole life and self into it. The word redeeming comes from a Greek

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word that is called exagorazo, amen, which means to make the best use of. To

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make the best use of. Redeeming the time is stewarding our time in a way that

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glorifies God. Praise God. To redeem time is to intentionally walk in wisdom and in

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submission to God seeking his will. A great enemy of redeeming time is

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procrastination, which is a deadly sting of deceit that can ultimately consume

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precious time in life. Procrastination is what we refer to as indecisiveness. The

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apostle James calls it double mindedness. They can't make up their minds and they

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waver back and forth in everything they do. They just don't stay on the railroad

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tracks, man. They're always somewhere else. Amen. If you're going to get

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committed to serve God, let's do it with everything we've got. Amen. And let's not

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look back. Let's just look forward. Somebody say, praise the Lord for that. The

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last point is because the days are evil. The days are indeed evil and this

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realization should fuel our zeal to make good use of every opportunity and every

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moment that God grants you and me. Our days are days of active evil. The world

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is getting from bad to worse. I know we just had an election and everybody's

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excited and the world's going to change. Well, biblically speaking, the world is

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going to get from bad to worse. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Because that's

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just the way that it is. Sin abounds and sin is abounding. There are great thieves

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of time to fool us, amen, into thinking that we can put off until tomorrow. We

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can procrastinate. No, there's no sin in entertainment either. But when

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entertainment becomes a priority in your life, then it robs you of your time, amen,

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and it leads to sin. Somebody say, praise the Lord for that, amen. Even a career

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which may many pursue with great intensity, praise God. God bless you, amen,

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and do the best you can. And if you're going to start a business, praise God

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that God may multiply you and bless you, amen, and bless your life, your family,

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amen. But it can become a great distraction as well, and it can derail a

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good intention for a God chaser. If you're after God, if you're chasing after

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God, those kind of things could potentially distract us, amen. We need to

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remain faithful. I work for an individual. I won't say who, amen. In fact,

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when we were here in Mountain View back in the days that I was not married yet

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and I wanted to save up a little money, and I worked for a brother that owned a

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jack-in-the-box, you know, and I says, hey, he needed somebody that he can trust.

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I said, you can trust me. So he hired me, and I had my regular job, but I got a job

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with him, and I told him, don't pay me nothing until I get close to my wedding

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day, and then you can give me a big check. And he says, okay, I won't pay you

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nothing. Well, he liked that part, but he had to pay me eventually. But I worked for

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him, you know, and I saved up money. Yeah, I did, and I made a lot of

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tacos. I ran the fryer. Don't eat those tacos, man. I'll tell you, that grease is

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bad, man. You know, when they made, they would, never mind. You go eat. Oh,

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the ghost, my God. But the Lord blessed him. He was my youth leader when I got

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converted, and then he started this business, and then from that business, he

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went to another business, a bigger business, and a bigger business, and a

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bigger business. And I had to tell him at one point, and I says, beware. I haven't

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seen you in church lately. Well, it's because right now the business and the

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business is gonna kill you, man. Well, needless to say that his kids ended up in

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drugs. His wife divorced him, left him by himself. He lost his businesses. He had

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sizzlers. He owned three, lost them all. He had a beautiful home up in the

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foothills that we used to go to all the time, and he would have those sizzler

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pies and all that, you know, and we used to fellowship with him. No more. I went to

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go visit him in a small little house at the end of his life engulfed with cancer.

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He was dying, a lonely man. You see, you can have a great business, but it can

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take you down. It'll take you up, but it's... you can slip down. Jesus said to seek

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him first in every aspect of your life, including time, and he will add unto you

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so you will lack nothing. I'm not gonna read the scripture, but in Genesis

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27 and 28, you can point that down, it speaks about the dew of heaven. When we

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seek and we take advantage of the dew of heaven, God will give us what he says,

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the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain, which is prosperity. This is an

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interesting thing that I studied sheep, the characteristics of sheep. Sheep can

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actually live for months without drinking water from a brook, a fountain, or

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a well, because they have naturally learned to drink water from the drops of

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the dew. This is proven. During the night, the dew forms as drops of water on a

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delicate, delicate grass and vegetation. Very early in the morning, the sheep whose

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shepherd allowed them to graze would go out and drink the drops of dew. Dew is

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considered to be the most pure in crystal water. The healthiest sheep were

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and are those that get up early in the morning to take advantage of the drops of

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dew, dew drops. They signify mercy and providence. Before Noah and the

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flood, there was never rain as we know it today.

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The earth was watered with dew. It has, it's been scientifically proven, even in

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our day, that there are more dew drops in the world than there are raindrops.

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Rains always make a lot of noise. Spiritually speaking, there are many

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Christians who only wait for spiritual rains that come with much noise. Indeed,

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there is revival in the rains, but the most powerful and healthy revival is

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when the sheep get up early in the morning and drink the dew drop. Dew drops

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symbolize purity, renewal, divine blessing. Why do I use this analogy?

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Because when we give God the first fruits of our day and seek him first and

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give him the first of our everything, including our time, he will give us the

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fatness of the earth and prosper our every endeavor. You will have time to do

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what you're expected to do if you give him his part first, because he will add

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it unto you. We must carefully discipline ourselves in how we walk in

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this world, or else we become vulnerable to the deceit of conformity which will

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affect our end of the day. In Romans 12, 2, it says, and do not be conformed to this

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world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is

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that good and acceptable imperfect will of God. The use of time is important,

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because time is what makes our day. Time is valuable. As many say, time is money. In

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the parable of the talents, and I'm getting ready to close, it doesn't only

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reference money, it includes all precious gifts of God and opportunities, and there

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is no greater gift given to man than the gift of time. The parable tells us that

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God will require of us what he has put in our care. If we disregard the

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opportunity of time, we will be held accountable for every minute wasted. If

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we do not discipline our use of time for the purpose of godliness, especially in

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these evil days, these evil days will keep us from becoming godly, and we will

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waste away. It is then of extreme importance in making the most of time

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because of the pressure, the presence, and the moral challenges in the world.

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There's a great need in being spiritually alert, proactive against

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evil influences. Let us value every moment of every day and give to God what

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he has graciously given to us, time. I'm going to close with this quote from Dr.

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Martin Luther King. It has impacted me because I'm from that era. He spoke to

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the clergy and the laymen concerned about the war in Vietnam. If you can stand

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with me, please. He spoke to the clergy and the laymen

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about the war in Vietnam at a Riverside Church in the 4th of April 1967 in New

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York City. The speech was entitled, Beyond Vietnam. He said, we are now faced

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with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the

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fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is

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such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of

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time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost

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opportunity. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but

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time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled

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residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, too late.

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There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our

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neglect. And I just wondered today how it is that we manage ourselves, not the time

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we can't manage time. We manage ourselves. And I want to challenge all of us

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beginning with myself that we need

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not more quality time with God because there's all time is the same whether it's

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it's just the same. There's no time that's quality that one's quality this

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one's not. It's all quality. But what we do and how we manage ourselves within

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that clock, that sphere of time, would determine the outcome in our life by

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which one day we will be judged. And I say how then are you using your time, my

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time.