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Thank you, John and Meridy.

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David prayed, Lord, make me to know my end.

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And what is the extent of my days?

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Let me know how transient I am.

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I want to talk to you today about the most precious thing in the world.

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Being precious is of great value.

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And usually only a few people have that which is precious.

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And yet there is something that everyone has which is truly precious, and that is time.

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Time is precious.

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Time is what life is made of.

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Time is precious for four reasons that I want to discuss with you this morning.

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In the first place, time is precious because opportunity is given in its passage.

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Would you turn with me please to Ephesians chapter 5.

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And notice something that the apostle Paul exhorts us to.

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Ephesians 5 beginning in verse 15.

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He says, Therefore be careful how you walk, that is, how you conduct yourselves, not as

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unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil.

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So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

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I think four of life's saddest words are, If only I had.

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If only I had sent that letter.

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If only I had told him how much I loved him.

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If only I had taken time to go by.

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If only I had witnessed to that friend.

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If only I had, when I was a ninth grader, I had a friend whose name was Ron.

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Now when I was in the ninth grade, I was a part of a booming, bustling high school of

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150 people.

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And during the noon hour, the customary thing was for people to go to a car sitting on the

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north side of the building where the cars were all lined up in the parking lot, and

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to sit in the car and eat lunch perhaps and then listen to music and talk.

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The only problem was ninth graders couldn't drive cars.

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It's tough being in the ninth grade, do you know that?

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Someone called junior highers a pre-human life form.

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I don't know if that's true, but I do know it's tough being in the ninth grade.

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I mean after all, you've got it all together but nobody will believe you.

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And I needed somebody to be my friend, so Ron took me under his wing.

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And as an upperclassman, a junior, he invited me to come to his car and sit in his car during

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the lunch hour.

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Man, that was neat.

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And all year we would spend a few minutes during the lunch hour together.

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Summer came, we went our ways, I didn't see Ron all summer.

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And I remember well the Sunday evening before school was to start the next Monday.

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It was late August.

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One of my friends at church came into that Sunday evening service and said, Gerhan, did

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you hear about Ron?

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I said, no, what happened?

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She said he was swimming today in a pond north of town.

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He was out in the boat and he dived into the water thinking the water was deep but it was

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only about two feet deep.

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And his head went into the mud and he swallowed and breathed in mud and drowned.

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Two days later I went to Ron's funeral.

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And the four words that went through my mind were, if only I had witnessed to him.

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I had not taken the opportunity to witness to him.

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He was an upperclassman, I was a lowly freshman.

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But if only I had.

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As far as I know, on that summer day back in 1961, my friend Ron died and went to hell.

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A junior in high school.

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My friend, time is precious because opportunity is given in its passage.

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The advertising firm of J. Walter Thompson in Chicago placed an ad in the paper which

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said in big bold letters, you only have 24 hours to live.

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Then in small print it said, today that is, and then delivered its message.

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But the point was made, you see we all have 24 hours every day.

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How can we use time, life, wisely?

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How can we manage it to make the most of it?

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Let me give you five quick suggestions.

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There are whole seminars that are put together around time management.

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But just five ideas for you to consider.

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If you want to make time mean the most to you.

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If you want to make the most out of every opportunity, the number one, let me encourage

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you to set your goals for the following day and the night before.

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Take time before you go to bed at night and say, now here's what I want to accomplish

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tomorrow and be realistic about it.

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Don't set your goals so high that you can't possibly achieve them.

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Secondly, prioritize your goals for the next day.

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That is most important.

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And then second in importance and so on.

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And then avoid the temptation to make a change in your priorities.

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Third, eliminate time wasters.

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We all have those, don't we?

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Those things take five minutes here or 15 minutes there.

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So eliminate your time wasters.

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How do you know what they are?

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They really differ for all of us.

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But let me encourage you to map out a day or two or seven.

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And then to go back after that period of time and to see where you might have conserved

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time.

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What things you might have cut out that really weren't important, that didn't benefit you,

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that didn't build your life.

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Eliminate time wasters.

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Fourthly, use a daily, weekly, and monthly calendar.

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In that way you remain balanced between close range planning and long range planning.

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Everything's not just tomorrow.

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You keep in mind what has to be done in this week as well as tomorrow and also what has

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to be done this month.

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There's a certain balance there.

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You'll spend most of the time regarding tomorrow's goals.

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Some less time on this week, so maybe not very much on what you have to do this month,

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but plan ahead.

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Number five, work when it's time to work, play when it's time to play, and rest when

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it's time to rest.

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That sounds simple, doesn't it?

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But it's not so simple to carry out because some of us tend to work all the time and never

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take time to rest.

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When we do that, along the way we begin to lose efficiency in the use of our time.

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On the other hand, there are some who don't know what it is to work and only know what

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it is to play.

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So when it's time to work, put everything into it and work.

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When it's time to play, do it with all of your might.

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When it's time to rest, relax and rest.

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You say, well, if we want to make the most of our time, we shouldn't play, should we?

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Yes.

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You say, God has made us so we need some time to play, and God has made us so that we need

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to rest.

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Balance your life.

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Work, play, and rest, and do all three at the right time.

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May I encourage you to pick up a little booklet that will cost you less than a dollar, probably

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only 50 cents.

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It's entitled The Tyranny of the Urgent by Charles Hummel, published by InterVarsity

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Press.

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If you haven't read that, you owe it to yourself to read it.

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The Tyranny of the Urgent.

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You see, there are two things that battle for our attention, the important and the urgent.

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And usually the two are not the same.

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That little booklet will help you.

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Make the most of your opportunities.

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Life passes so quickly, doesn't it?

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Use that word of thanks that you've been planning to give.

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Express that love.

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Do that deed of kindness.

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Ask for forgiveness.

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Restore that relationship.

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Share the gospel.

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Make the most of your opportunities.

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Time is precious.

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Robert G. Lee was a great preacher and is now with the Lord.

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But he used to tell this little story as an illustration.

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If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400 that carried no

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balance from day to day, allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and finally every

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evening canceled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day, what

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would you do?

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You would draw out every cent, of course.

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Well, says Dr. Lee, you do have such a bank, and its name is time.

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Every morning it credits you with $86,400.

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Every night it rules off as lost whatever of this you have failed to invest to good

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purpose.

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It carries no balances.

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It allows no overdrafts.

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Each day the bank named time opens a new account with you.

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Each night it burns the records of the day.

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If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

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Time is precious, my friend, because opportunity is given in its passage.

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But there is a second reason as to why time is precious, and that is because example is

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left in its message.

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Turn over to Philippians 3 and look at verse 17.

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Every life has a message to it, every life, whether it is realized or not, whether it

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is desired or not.

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Every life is writing a message.

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The Apostle said to the Corinthians, You are our epistle, we have written upon you.

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Here he says that his own life is a message.

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In verse 17 of Philippians 3 he says, Brethren, join in following my example, and observe

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those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.

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Then in the next chapter, verse 9, he says, The things you have learned and received and

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heard and seen in me, practice these things.

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A second reason that time is precious is that example is left in its message.

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Therefore it is important to leave a message that will help others know God and live wisely.

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How important this is for those of us who are parents, that we leave a message in our

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lives that our children will see as being genuine and which they will follow.

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Our lives do leave a message for them of some kind.

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It is not sufficient for us to read them a Bible story or to take them to Sunday school

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if our lives do not complement what we try to teach them with our words.

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Sunday school teacher, have you ever considered how important you are in the life of a young

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person?

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Have you thought about the example that you leave?

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You say, I am only with them an hour a week.

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No, that may be true, but my friend, your example is with them 24 hours a day.

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Because you see, you are in a special place of authority to them.

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That is why you need to study that lesson.

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That is why you need to be on time in your class.

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That is why you need to call them on the telephone or visit them because of the example that

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you are leaving for them.

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As I look back upon some of the Sunday school teachers I have had, I thank God for them,

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for the example that they had, that they left me.

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Have you thought about that?

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You who work in the office, have you considered the example that you are leaving for your

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boss or those who work around you?

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What about you, neighbor?

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They are in the neighborhood.

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What kind of an example are you leaving as time passes?

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What kind of a message are people reading in the way that you act?

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What about you, student?

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In your school, you are leaving a message by the way that you live as time passes day

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by day.

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What kind of an example is there to bring one of your fellow students to Jesus Christ?

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I talked to a gentleman in another state on one occasion about the Lord Jesus Christ.

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In the course of our conversation, I mentioned that I was a member of a pastor of such and

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such a church.

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I knew that he was aware of our church because he worked with a man who attended our church.

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The moment I mentioned the church and the man that we both knew, he said to me, Pastor

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Call, if he is a Christian, then I don't need it.

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You see, that mutual friend of ours had left an example in the message of his life as time

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passed, and it was a negative one.

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Of course, my witness was through at that point.

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You say, Pastor Call, the example of my life is not what I wish it were.

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But my friend, you can change it.

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John R. Rice said, no matter what a man's life may have been, his future is spotless.

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And he's right.

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The periods of the rest of this day and tomorrow and this year have not been written on yet.

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You can change the example.

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You can begin today to change.

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This has been said so many times, today is the first day of the rest of your life.

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If your example is not what you wish it were, then make it what you wish it were, what God

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wants it to be.

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Time is precious because you see as you live through time, you are leaving a message in

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the example of your life.

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I remember what it says about Abel, he being dead, yet what?

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Speaketh.

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By the example that he said of a God-fearing, faithful man.

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The third reason that time is precious is that destiny is fixed in its stoppage.

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Turn back to the Gospel of Luke to chapter 16.

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Time is precious because you see our destiny is fixed when it stops.

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I do not have time to read the whole discourse, but Jesus is here speaking particularly to

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the Pharisees who loved money, according to verse 14.

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He reminds them that money is not necessarily the sign of God's blessing and of salvation,

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for he tells about a rich man who died and went to hell.

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In Luke 16 verse 25, Abraham said to this man, Child, remember that during your life

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you received your good things and likewise Lazarus' bad things, but now he is being

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comforted here and you are in agony.

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And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those

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who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none of us may cross

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from there to us.

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You see, destiny is fixed when life ends.

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I speak to anyone who may be here today without Jesus Christ.

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Beware unsaved person, because should you die, your eternal destiny is fixed beyond

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all hope at that point.

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In this passage we see that hell is a place of fire, torment, of consciousness.

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It is a place of separation, a place of regret.

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Abraham said, Son, remember?

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Ah yes, those in hell remember.

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Hell is a place of hopelessness.

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The greatest poem of the Middle Ages was written in the 14th century by Dante.

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It was later designated by the title The Divine Comedy.

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In canto three of the first division of his poem entitled Inferno, Dante and his guide

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the poet Virgil passed through the door of hell into the inferno.

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Above the lintel of the door was this statement, Through me the way is to the city of woe.

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Through me the way into the eternal pain.

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Through me the way among the lost below.

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Righteousness did my Maker on high constrain.

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Me did divine authority uproar.

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Me supreme wisdom and primal love sustain.

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Before I was, no things created were, save the eternal, and I eternal abide.

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To relinquish all hope, ye who enter here.

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You see that hell is a hopeless place.

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If you are without Jesus Christ today, may I urge you to trust him as your Savior while

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you have life and breath?

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Ah, says the scoffer, where is hell anyway?

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I've never seen it.

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In answer to the question where is hell, there is a very simple answer.

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It is at the end of a godless life.

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That's where hell is.

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Some time ago there was a man who brought forward his most strong argument against the

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Bible.

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He declared, I am seventy years of age and have never seen such a place as hell after

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all that's been said about it.

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His little seven year old grandson, who was listening to him all the while, spoke up and

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said, but grandpa, have you ever been dead yet?

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Have you ever been dead yet?

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I don't believe in hell, says someone.

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But tell me, what difference does that make?

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Does that change anything that you don't believe in it?

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You may say that you don't believe an airplane will fly either, but that doesn't keep them

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off the ground.

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They still fly.

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It makes no difference what you and I believe.

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What makes a difference is what God says, the laws of his universe, his moral laws.

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God warns about a hell that is to be shunned and can be escaped through faith in Jesus

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Christ, a hell that is real and is the eternal place of torment, not only for the devil and

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his angels for whom it was first prepared, but for all those who choose to reject Jesus

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Christ and the truth they have.

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A story is told about some soldiers on a troop ship in World War II who cried around their

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chaplain, and they said, Chaplain, do you believe in hell?

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He said, I certainly do not.

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They said, well then, would you please resign?

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For if there is no hell, we don't need you, and if there isn't hell, we don't want to

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be misled.

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My friend, beware lest your time run out and you be lost.

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M.F.

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Rich was an atheist.

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On his deathbed, having defied God all of his life, he made this significant statement

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before he passed into eternity, I would rather lie on a stove and boil for a million years

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than go into eternity with the eternal horrors that hang over my soul.

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I have given my immortality for gold, and its weight sinks me into an endless, hopeless,

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helpless hell.

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But someone objects, do you really think that God would send a person to hell?

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Let me ask you a question, do you really think that God would send his only beloved son to

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die upon the cruel cross of Calvary for sin, and then say to the unrepentant sinner, well,

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it doesn't really make any difference, come on into heaven?

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Do you really think God would do that?

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To do so would be to betray his son.

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It would make his cross meaningless.

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My friend, God will never make that compromise.

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God is a holy God.

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And time is precious because destiny is fixed when it stops, and we do not know when it

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will stop.

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May I suggest, firstly and finally, that time is precious because reward is determined in

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its usage.

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Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

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Look with me at verse 9 where it says, Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home

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or absent, in other words, whether we are at home with the Lord or absent from the Lord,

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to be pleasing to him.

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That's our ambition, that's our aim.

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Then he says in verse 10, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,

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that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body.

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I speak now to believers in Jesus Christ.

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My friend, time is precious to you and me because reward is determined in the way that

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we use life.

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You see, life means to us the privilege of knowing and serving Jesus Christ as a steward,

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and as stewards or servants we are accountable to him.

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But please understand I am not talking here about salvation that is given by grace, but

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I am talking about rewards which are earned by faithfulness as stewards.

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You say, well, gaining rewards is a terrible motive.

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No, my friend, it's not.

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As a matter of fact, it's God's idea in the first place to give rewards.

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So let's not say that's a terrible motive.

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You see, the reason that we desire to gain reward is so that when we appear before Jesus

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Christ and receive from him our reward, we may then lay it at his feet in worship and

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thanks.

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Furthermore, our service here as stewards will determine our future level of responsibility

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in his coming kingdom.

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That's why time is precious, the time in the body, in this life as he puts it in this verse.

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William James said the greatest use of life is to spend it on something that outlasts

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it.

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Is that the way you're spending your life?

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Will what you're doing make any difference a hundred years from now?

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Stewardships vary, my friend.

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We have differing responsibilities.

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God's will for each of us is not the same.

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Remember when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we will not be examined and

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compared to each other, but only examined and judged on what we individually have done

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in light of what God's will for us individually was.

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Time is precious because my reward in heaven is determined by the way that I use it.

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The clock of life is round but once and no one has the power to say just when the hands

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will stop, at late or early hour.

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Now is the only time we own to do his precious will.

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Do not wait until tomorrow, for the clock may then be still.

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Each moment that we live is a meeting place of two eternities.

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What are you doing now that's going to affect the eternity that's to come?

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Let's bow together with our heads bowed and our eyes closed.

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My friend, what decision, what commitment will you make this morning so that you will

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stop wasting the most precious thing in the world?

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Will you today trust Jesus Christ as your Savior?

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Will you today determine your destiny by placing your faith in him, be secured in him so that

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you don't have to think about the possibility of hell?

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My friend, hell is what we deserve, but God in his grace offers you different.

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He offers you life in heaven and forgiveness.

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Will you trust Jesus Christ who died for you and rose again for you?

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Will you receive him into your heart and life as your Savior today?

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My Christian friend, what about you?

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Will you stop wasting the opportunities that come?

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What about the example you are living?

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Will you begin to change today?

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Are you using your life wisely so that when you stand before the Savior you will hear

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the word, well done, good and faithful servant?

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Father, I pray that wherever this message today finds us, that we may each one be able

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to respond in complete obedience.

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If there be a friend here today who does not know the Lord Jesus and who is headed surely

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for hell, oh God, stop that person today in his tracks.

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May turn around and flee to the cross and come to Jesus for salvation.

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May every child of yours, Father, be living in that place of faithfulness and obedience,

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making the most of the opportunities, setting the right example, earning a faithful steward's

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reward.

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And I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.