Ephesians 5:15-17

 

 

Next to the family and personal health, time is the greatest concern of most Americans.

George Barna

 

 

Why Should We Manage Our Time?                                                                                              v. 15

Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise,

 

1.         Wasted opportunity .                                                                    1 Peter 4:3

For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.

 

2.         Uncertain future .                                                                 James 4:13-14

Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

 

3.         Satanic oppression .                                                           2 Timothy 3:1-5

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self‑control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

 

4.         Limited availability .                                                                Psalm 90:10

The length of our days is seventy years or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

 

 

How Should We Manage Our Time?                                                                                              v. 16

making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

 

1.         Personal audit .                                                                    Luke 15:11-13

Jesus continued: There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them.

13 Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

 

2.         Efficient implementation .                                            Ecclesiastes 9:10

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

 

3.         Good planning .                                                                Luke 14:28-30

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.

 

 

 

What Is the Purpose of Time Management?                                                                                  v. 17

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

 

1.         Conformity .                                                                           Romans 8:29

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

 

2.         Sanctification .                                                       1 Thessalonians 4:13

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.

 

3.         Thanksgiving .                                                        1 Thessalonians 5:18

give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.