Lesson 16-16 Redeeming The Time

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Guidelines for our Bible studies on this website:

1. We treat the living words of the living God as spoken by the Lord Jesus and given to the Apostle Paul for the Body of Christ the same importance, as the words of the Lord Jesus recorded in red letters in the books of Matthew – Acts Chp. 8, as what should be known as the instructions to the nation Israel.      

2. We will not be wresting the scriptures against each other, we will look at the verses in their context, and will not try to make the scriptures say anything, but what they say.

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4. We do not and will not use the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, or Latin languages to prove any points, or give any indication that the Authorized Version has been incorrectly translated. 

I hope these studies are interesting enough to provoke you to study your Bible and for you to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eph.5

[15] See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, [16] Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. [17] Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. [18] And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; [19] Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; [20] Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; [21] Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Here in Ephesians chp. 5 Paul gives us, the Christians, living in the dispensation of the grace of God, instructions on how we should be living our lives on a daily basis. 

In verse 15 he says we should walk circumspectly (thinking carefully about possible risks before doing or saying something) we should consider everyday how we live our Christian lives, how we interact with our family, friends, strangers, everyone we deal with, we should be wise in our dealings. He said we should not be as fools (a person who acts unwisely) but as wise Christians.

I titled this lesson redeeming the time as Paul states in verse 16 we should be “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Years ago I lead a Bible study on this subject and thought it would be worth repeating in an online lesson.

Christians of today I believe have lost their way of how they should live their daily life, and the important actions they are responsible for. Every Christian is called to be an ambassador for the Lord Jesus.

2Cor.5

[17] Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. [18] And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. [20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

As an ambassador (an authorized representative or messenger) we are to be representing our leader to the lost sinners of this world and reconciling them to the Lord Jesus.

Now let’s look at some ways we spend our daily life and I think you will see why Paul told us to redeem the time. Redeem means to gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment.

I believe that what you are about to see is how much of our life is spent on things that have little benefit for eternal things.

Now let us look as some facts, what I am sharing are averages so not everyone will experience exactly these same times, but you will get the point.

The average American lives 74.1 years of which they sleep on average 1/3 of that time which comes in at 24.453 years.

EXERCISING

Women - one year: All those hours working up a sweat in the gym or at PE in school takes up a full 12 months of a woman's life.

Men - two years: Playing football, rugby and pool clocks up two years of a man's existence.

SHOPPING

Women - two years: Nationally, women spend an average of 22 minutes a day shopping. That's 651 days in the average lifetime, says Visa and the Future Foundation market research think tank. And surprise, surprise - it's much more than the men.

Men - one year: The survey doesn't say how much of men's time in stores - an average of 370 days - is spent shopping mostly with the women.

GETTING READY

Women - two years: Working women take an average 90 minutes to get ready. That's made up of 10 minutes showering, 30 minutes applying make-up, 24 minutes doing their hair and 26 minutes deciding what to wear and getting dressed. The research was by lastminute.com

Men - six months: A quick shower, shave and slick of hair gel takes 11 minutes: five minutes in the shower, two minutes shaving, one minute on their hair and three minutes getting dressed. That rises to 32 minutes when a man prepares for a night out or a date.

HOUSEHOLD CHORES

Women - two and a half years: Dusting, vacuuming and washing the dishes seriously eats into a woman's time. She spends 12 days a year, or five and a half hours a week, in the domestic doldrums, according to broadband supplier Bulldog.

Men - 18 months: Shocked that men spend so much less time doing household chores than women? No, neither were we.

COOKING

Women - three years: Hard-working women spend 19 days every year slaving over a hot stove, says oven firm Stoves.

Men - one and a half years: Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay aside, most British men prefer the ping of a microwave to spending hours delicately preparing dinner. They are in the kitchen for around 514 days throughout their lives.

DRIVING

Women - three years: Commuting, ferrying the children around and driving on family holidays add up to 20 hours a week behind the wheel.

Men - three years: Men clock up just as much time behind the wheel, says Lloyds TSB Insurance.

WATCHING TV

Women - 13 years: According to a poll of 30,000 people by NOP World, women spend 18 hours a week glued to the box.

OK, so Desperate Housewives and Corrie are addictive - but just think how else you could spend all that time.

Men - 10 years: The average man spends less time watching soaps and more time watching sport. But women have hold of the remote control more often.

QUEUING

Women - four years: Standing in line at the lottery kiosk, bus stop, supermarket or post office seems like a major waste of time - and is. The average adult spends 68 minutes a day standing in a queue.

Men - four years: A larger chunk of men's queuing time is spent standing in lines.

EATING

Women - four and a half years: Time spent sitting down at the table to eat is fast diminishing as many busy women eat on the go.

Men - four years: Long lunches and scoffing snacks eats up a lot of time in a man's life.

INTERNET USE

Women - four and a half years: The amount of time spent surfing the net is increasing steadily each year, and now women spend an average of 11 hours a week online.

Men - six years: Checking up on sport and emailing mates seems to be a big hobby for men. They have even grown fond of online shopping. Well, it saves time in stores, doesn't it?

ON THE PHONE

Women - five and a half years: Over a lifetime we will make or receive 283,126 calls - 155,928 work-related and 127,198 domestic phone chats.

Men - four years: It may come as no surprise that women spend 18 months longer than men nattering on the phone.

WORKING

Women - eight and a half years: Working between the ages of 16 and 60, and taking time off to raise children and at weekends and holidays, clocks up a whole lot of hard labor for women.

Men - 10 and a half years: Slaving away at work from the age of 16 to 65 notches up more than a decade of the average busy man's life.

SLEEPING

Women - 27 years: Eight hours' sleep a night may sound luxurious. But according to a survey by bed makers Silent Night that's how long most women spend dozing when the endless hours spent sleeping as a child and the amount of shut-eye you take through adulthood is averaged. Five years of this time is spent dreaming.

Men - 25 and a half years: Women may not believe that men spend less time in the pit, but in reality it has more to do with their shorter life expectancy than with laziness.

GOING TO THE TOILET

The average person spends about 3 years on the toilet.

ATTENDING CHURCH

Church 1.42 years

I calculated time spent in Church as 1 hour, three times a week, for 80 years, without missing one Sunday or Wednesday night Service!

This should make us think and look at how much time we really spend on spiritual things!

This should provoke us all to ask ourselves if we should redeem some of the time we are spending on frivolous things in our life and spend more time on eternal things?

I remember a quote given to me by a wise Christian friend years ago, “A man is not a fool to give up those things which he cannot keep to gain those things he cannot lose”.

I have never known any better feeling in this world than to have someone come up to me and tell years later after witnessing to them or giving them a gospel tract that they came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of the giving of my time to them.

What a great day that will be when Jesus Christ returns in all his glory, friend don’t let that day take you unawares. Today Jesus has his arms outstretched and open to sinners to put their trust in him. One day we will all stand before him either as our savior or our judge, don’t put it off invite Jesus to save you today!

"The crowd that will not accept one truth will decay to the point that it does not accept one God: many denominations, many translations, many gods."

All of the confusion among Christianity/Christians today can be attributed to the simple fact that the church, the Body of Christ, does not recognize the separate, distinct, and unique apostleship, ministry, and message of Paul.

If you fail to understand, or fail to learn how to rightly divide the word of truth, you can never come to the knowledge of the truth, and sound doctrine.

Romans 10 [8] But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; [9] That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. [10] For with theheart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The words of our Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles!

2Tim.2 [15] Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

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Remember most unsound Bible Doctrine, is sound Bible Doctrine misapplied to the wrong time period, or wrong group of people.

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