What Would Jesus Do? Part 4: How Would He Spend His Time in this Life

Ephesians five fourteen, wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Dear Lord, we thank you again for your word and pray that the lesson you have for us tonight would be clearly understood. And Lord, that as we look to our savior for the example that he has set, that we would be challenged to be more like him. Lord, to use the time wisely that you have given to us.

That you might be honored and glorified in our lives. That we would have treasure in heaven We might lay at your feet. In Jesus precious name, we pray. Amen. The word redeeming there, the word redeem is used in several places and several different context throughout scripture.

Most often when we read the word redeem, we associate it with salvation. We are redeemed but not with silver. He is our redeemer. The word redeem means to purchase back and we have been purchased back from sin and hell and the devil by the blood of Jesus Christ who has redeemed us. Here, the word is used not in reference to salvation itself but the need of every child of God to use wisely, to purchase up wisely.

The time that we have been given. It is as I mentioned this morning, limited. Time is a gift from God which unfortunately, we too often take for granted. We sometimes seem to just go throughout our life as though the time we have here on Earth will just go on and on and on and on. And never come to an end.

But whether we meet the Lord in the air as we who are alive and remain are caught up together or whether we meet the Lord first absent from our body, to be absent from the body is to be what? Present with the Lord. Whichever the case may be, our time indeed is limited. We only have so much of it. I calculated a few years ago the average lifespan of seventy years into days and hours and minutes and so forth and so on.

It comes out to this, seventy years is twenty five thousand five hundred and sixty seven days. June. Now, that's a that's a pretty big number. Six hundred and thirteen thousand six hundred and eight But it is a limited number. Thirty six thousand eight hundred and sixteen four eighty minutes.

Just think of how long a minute is. I've already been talking for more than a minute and we only have thirty six million eight hundred and sixteen of those minutes in our life And when one is gone, it cannot be retrieved thereabouts. Two billion two hundred eight nine hundred and eighty eight thousand eight hundred seconds. Three thousand six hundred and fifty two weeks, eight forty months. That's an average lifespan of seventy years which in our day and age is I think maybe climbed a little above that number today.

But our days are truly numbered. And for many of us, us quite a few of those days, months, weeks, minutes have already passed. James four, if you'll turn there, please, James four. James four reminds us that life is like a what? Anybody know?

It's like a paper. James four thirteen. I remember watching my mom's pot boil when I was a kid and playing with the vapor that came off the pot and it was there and then, it only took a couple feet, second or two, and it was it was gone. You couldn't see it anymore. In James four thirteen, it says, go to now, you that say today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain.

Whereas, know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. For that he ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.

Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. We assume too much. We assume that we have seventy years or eighty or ninety or sixty when we don't really know that, do we? There are people whose lives end very briefly. There are friends and relatives we know whose lives have ended very suddenly and unexpectedly.

Like a vapor, it's there and then in a moment, it's gone. Our time on Earth is not under our control. Now, we live in a world today that seems all concerned about our health. Tells us if we live this way and if we eat this and we do this and we do that, that we will live to the ripe old age of 85. Life doesn't work that way.

You may be the healthiest person alive and get in a car and drive out in the intersection and life may end. Though it is wise to be healthy, We're not in control of everything. So, God reminds us here, warns us not to assume too much rather than to say, hey, I'm going to go in the city and over the next year, I'm going to do this. You ought to to say, well, if the Lord will, I'll do that. Because all this can be taken away in a heartbeat.

Our time is limited. How are we using our time? The Bible tells us of a judgment. We read about this morning that all Christians will stand at one day. Second Corinthians five ten, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and that everyone may receive the things done in his body according that he hath done whether it be good or bad.

And I don't think God's going to ask, did you get the amount of time that you expected? You say, well, Lord, I'd have done more but, you know, plans changed. And the Lord's not going to ask what we would have done. So, he's going ask what we did with what we have and what we had on this earth and we will give an account. How will we measure up?

You see, time is like money. This really doesn't work as well in today's society as an illustration as it maybe once did because now my wallet has credit cards in it and I go out and I spend money I don't have. Unfortunately, a lot of people do that without even thought of paying it off at the end of the month. But let's just assume for a moment you don't have credit cards And let's just assume for a moment that you get a certain amount of paycheck each week. And that's how much money you have to spend.

And you can't spend more money than the money that you get from your paycheck. And when you get to the end of that money, are you going to have any more to spend? And the answer would be no because you don't have credit cards, okay? So, you start spending the money. What do you spend it on?

Well, you know, as a kid and sometimes and as an adult, I I still things catch my eye that aren't really necessities and I see this little gadget here and that little gadget there and I'm driving from here to there and I get hungry. Now, I spend a little here and I spend a little there and it's Wednesday and it's Thursday and it's Friday and I look in my wallet and there's something I really need to buy. And there's nothing there. Time is like money. We have a limited amount.

We need to be wise with how we spend it. Because when the day comes, when we run out of it, we don't get anymore. There's no there's no credit card for time. We will have what we have spent it on. That's what we will have to show to our Lord in heaven.

That's why it tells us in Matthew six nineteen Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break through and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. What you spend your time and energy on is where your heart will be. And how sad to lay up treasure on Earth with the time that we have and not to lay up any treasure in heaven. For the day when that money runs out, And we stand before the Lord.

That's why further down in that passage, Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters. You need to choose. Will you serve God? Or will you serve mammon? How we spend our time is truly just as much important as how indeed we do spend our money And though we talk a lot about money and think a lot about money, and money is important and how we spend it is.

Time is just as important if not more so. So, we ask the question this evening, what would Jesus do? How would he spend the time allotted us here in this life? After all, we are bought with a price. The precious blood of Jesus.

We must therefore glorify God in our body and in our spirit which are his and we do that by using up the time that he has given us. To bring glory to him. So how did Jesus spend his time? Well, we'll start in Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two.

This, sermon could be very lengthy this evening. There's obviously many passages we could look at as to how Jesus spent his time. There's much recorded in the gospels about what Jesus did with his time. But we're going to hit just some of the highlights this evening. Luke chapter two verse 46.

Jesus had traveled at the age of 12 with his parents to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. They had picked back up after the feast was over and was headed with the caravan from Jerusalem back up to Galilee when they realized that Jesus was not with them. And so they turned back to find him. Verse 46, it says and it came to pass that after three days, they searched in Jerusalem for three days. Now, Jerusalem was a pretty good sized city as cities went in that day.

There there was only word-of-mouth to try to find somebody and didn't make phone calls and you didn't have cars to run around in. So, it could take a while to find somebody especially as it was the end of the Passover and there were still a lot more people in town than there were normally. Quite a crowd still most likely. So, three days of searching and finally, they found him. Where'd they find him?

They found him in the temple, says in verse 46. Sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. When they saw him, they were amazed and his mother said unto him, son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy father, then I have sought thee sorrowing.

And he said unto them, how is it that you sought me? Wished you not that I must be about my father's business? And they understood not the same which he spake unto them and he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. This is Jesus as a 12 year old, as a a very young man and when he had time on his hands, at least three days, probably a little bit more. Where where was he?

You know, he was in the temple, the courtyard, speaking with the the teachers. And the scribes and the lawyers that that knew the law. Both hearing them and asking them questions. He spent the time that he had learning and discussing the word of God. With those around him that knew it best.

Three days, he spent with these teachers discussing the words of the Bible, of the scriptures. Learning, studying, debating. This is what a young man chose to do with his time. I don't think many of us probably would have chosen. That but that's what Jesus chose to do.

For that's what his interest was in. The things of the word of God, the things concerning his father. As a 12 year old man, he found it odd that his parents didn't understand where to find him. You know, you spent three days looking for me? Why why did it take so long to find me?

I was right here. Didn't you know I'd be right here? That's where Jesus wanted to be and that's where he spent his time. His free time as a youth. How did we spend our time as a youth or how does most of our youth spend their free time today?

Learning and talking about God, or in this day and age playing video games. There is time and place for little bit of video games, I think, or television or some things like that especially when you're young, going out, playing games. I think kids ought to be kids. But I also think that we have taught them in many cases to waste their time and not to use it wisely and in our society that is often the case particularly with our young people and even with Christian young people. Jesus certainly did many of the things that young people his age did.

He probably learned to play four square or whatever the game was they played in Jesus' day when he was a kid. But taking time to learn the word of God, to study, to spend time with those who could teach. And discuss the things that were important. Is what Jesus chose Even as a young man and as a result, in verse 52, it says, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. He grew and he matured.

Yes, he did so because he was not only man but he was God but he did so in a manner consistent with that of a young man. For while he was God, he was also man. And he grew and matured and he learned and one of the reasons was even as a young man, he spent his time wisely. We just get a a small window into that here but one that God chose to record for a purpose and a reason. Certainly, we who are adults can also learn from the actions of a 12 year old.

Second of all, We also see how Jesus spent his time at the beginning of his earthly ministry. In the record of the gospels, we jump ahead from Jesus being 12 years old to Jesus being 30 years old. In the account that God has recorded for us. Jesus came to Jerusalem and was baptized of John the Baptist in the River Jordan and began his earthly ministry. The first thing that we read and we pointed this out last week, the first thing he did after he was baptized was to go out into the desert for forty days and forty nights and fast and pray.

As led by the spirit to be tempted and tested by his enemy, the devil. That's what he did. He went into the desert. He he went away alone. He he went time of fasting and the time of of testing.

Because it was his father's will. It was his father's will. For him to spend this this forty days, not out preaching. This forty days, not out healing, not doing miracles but this forty days, being tested. This is a time also for learning and a time of testing which is important.

I remember when God called me into the ministry that I I wanted to be busy in the ministry. I wanted to get out in the ministry. However, I still had three years of college to go. And even though there were ministry things I could be doing while I was studying in college, I felt the Lord the Lord's will was for me to finish my studies. Before jumping into whatever ministry God had called me to do.

Sometimes, there is a time of waiting A time of learning. Time of growing. A time of testing. The Bible says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles.

They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. The disciples that Jesus called to himself, the 12, he didn't call them and immediately send them out. No, for three years, he trained them. When it came to a particular time in their training, he'd send them out for a little while and bring em back in and then he'd train them some more.

The the idea of waiting on the Lord doesn't mean to sit around and do nothing and just wait for God to to strike us or pick us up and make us to know. To wait means to look to the Lord for guidance and direction and strength and be preparing our heart and our mind for the time when God will show us the next step to take and when we're waiting on the Lord and prepared and yielded to him, he'll do that. He will lead us. He will pick us up. He will strengthen us.

He will show us what he has for us to do with the time. That is upcoming. But there is a time for study. There is a time for waiting. There is a time to be tested.

There's also a time for spiritual renewal. For forty days, Jesus was in the wilderness. For forty years, Moses was a shepherd on the backside of the desert while Jesus taught while God taught him. How to be a servant? First forty years, he spent learning how to be a prince and God taught him the next forty how to be a servant.

He needed that time with God and he was 80 years old when God called him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. God gave him forty more years to do that job. When Elijah was discouraged, God took him out into the desert. And there he fasted for forty days and forty nights until God spoke to him in a still, small voice. And strengthen him for the service he had.

You know, there are times that we need to drop all this other busy work we're doing. And we need to spend time with who? We spend time with God. The Sabbath that Jesus observed his whole life on this Earth. The Sabbath for the Israel was not just a time of rest.

That it was a time of focusing on God and family. It was time to set aside those that business stuff and commune with the Lord. That's why they built synagogues in their communities because the synagogue was a place that was nearby. They could only walk so far on the Sabbath day or else it was considered work. So, they had to build the synagogue close enough that everybody could get there.

On the Sabbath day. And they could discuss and focus on the word of God. On that day, Is that something which we are sensitive to in our life? Or does it often get tossed to the side while other more pressing things from work to family to recreation to amusement Take its place. David and Daniel, clearly took time out of every day.

Every day. To spend with the Lord Daniel six ten says, now, when Daniel knew the writing was signed, he went into his house and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees How often? Remember? Three times three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four time. In other words, this is a regular custom for Daniel.

Do you think that Daniel had anything else important going on in his day? I'm sure he did. He was a adviser to the king but yet he took time out three times every day to spend with God in prayer. Because that time is important the time we take to have devotion with our God and the Bible isn't saying it has to be three times a day or two times a day. It has to be in the morning.

It has to be in the evening. But we need to take out time to spend with God. You know who you're going to spend eternity with? You're going to spend it with God. Is wouldn't it be wise to spend some of the time we have here with the one we will spend eternity with?

We allow that to get pushed to the side often so easily and I'm just as guilty as many of you. Say, pastor, you you study you know, the Bible, you prepare several messages a week. Yes, I do. But it's different. Than spending personal time each day with God.

To focus on my walk and my relationship with the Lord. Jesus took time out to do that as did David and as did Daniel and as many others. Certainly, we can learn from their example. About how we should be spending our time. Jesus also spent time with family and at family events.

Turn if you would in in John chapter two. John chapter two. So, we read about Jesus being baptized and his first encounter with the disciples in John chapter one. And then in John chapter two, it says, and the third day, there was a marriage in Cana Of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. So, Jesus has started his earthly ministry and the next thing we read in John two is Jesus is in Galilee at a what?

He's at a wedding. He's not out, you know, beating down doors. He's not studying. He's not healing. He is at a wedding.

He is at a family function. This was likely a family member, a friend of the family that was getting married. And Jesus and his disciples went to the wedding. Family events and such occasions as weddings and religious feasts and festivals in Israel were very important events. And in many cases, they were important events to Jesus.

He took time out to go to a wedding. Now, if you take time out to go to a wedding, you probably taking out two or three hours of your day. Not so in Israel. This was a week long feast. You went to the wedding.

There were activities and events that took several days and so, anytime there was a wedding and people went to it, it often time took several days. You had to, you know, close-up the shop for a few days in order to go out of town. Or across town to the wedding But it was important enough to Jesus to take time out to show up at the wedding. In Israel, these events, weddings, and particularly religious feasts and festivals served as religious gatherings also served as as family gatherings. The family would gather to travel to the Passover, Pentecost, family would gather to go to the to the wedding feast.

Jesus never missed the Passover feast in Jerusalem during his earthly ministry. Even when his life was in danger, Jesus never missed the Passover feast. He was there. He was there either with his family or he was there with his chosen family, his disciples. But he was there.

He was there to honor the Lord. He was there to celebrate He was there to spend time with his family. Every Thanksgiving you will probably find me absent one Sunday from the pulpit and somebody filling my spot. I thank the Lord that there's always been somebody who could fill my spot. It's the one week of the year that I am consistently gone.

It's my family reunion. I have only missed three of them in forty six years. It's the reunion of my mom's side of the family. And of course, being that they are in Virginia, it takes a few days to go to that to that reunion. But it is important to me.

And I believe it's a wise use of my time. If family, friends, such things as wedding feasts and Passover feasts were important to the Lord. I don't think it's wrong for them to be important to us. To spend time. Particularly with family.

Meal times were important family time in Hebrew society. Christ often spent meal time with family and friends whenever he could. In Luke chapter 10, we read about Jesus spending time having a meal with Mary and Martha. Evidently, when he was in Jerusalem, he regularly would leave Jerusalem in the afternoon and make the trip a couple miles over to Bethany where Mary and Martha lived and that was his home away from home, his family there in the area that he would have a meal with in the evenings. When Jesus was up in Galilee, it would seem that it wasn't odd for him to spend his evenings at Peter's house.

One occasion, he was having a meal there and Peter's mother-in-law was ill and so he he healed her so that and immediately she got up and prepared the food and they had the meal. Because the evening meal was family time. I'm afraid we've lost that. In our society. Today, it's not family time like it it once was.

Family time was important to the Lord. I feel it probably should be important to us. To spend time around the table. With our family. Talking.

Encouraging one another getting to know each other Jesus took time to do these things, to go to the weddings, to attend the feast, to spend time with family and friends in the evening meal. Jesus also after he began his ministry, he didn't seem as it were to get a lot of time alone. Jesus' life and time was not spent on self but it was spent on others. He spent time training his disciples all the way back in in John one thirty seven. You might you might still be there.

Right after John the Baptist pointed out in verse 36 that Jesus was the lamb of God. It says in verse 37 and the two disciples, that is the students of John the Baptist heard John speak and they followed Jesus. Then, Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them, what seek you? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say being interpreted master, where dwellest thou? He say it unto them, come and see.

They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day for it was about the tenth hour. So, Jesus is walking down the street and John comes to him and and and John comes over and points out that he's the lamb of God. Behold the lamb of God and immediately, two of John the Baptist's disciples, his followers, asked Jesus where he was staying? And Jesus said, come along. I'll show you.

He spent his evening that evening teaching those two disciples. It just happened. Those two disciples were John, the son of Zebedee and Andrew and Peter's brother. It wasn't long before his group of disciples began to grow because John, of course, probably went and told James and Andrew were told in this passage, found Peter and told Peter and and then it spread to Nathaniel and Philip and and off we go. Jesus spent a lot of time with those disciples.

They became family to him and he poured his time into them. He traveled also from city to city, city to city, Ministering, not putting down roots in any particular spot for a very for very long. Matthew eight twenty, Jesus said unto a man who wanted to follow him, he said unto him, the fox es have a holes and the birds of the air have nests but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. Jesus didn't have time for a career. He had a mission.

Jesus didn't have time to work on building a retirement account or or buying a big home or having a lot of nice things. His mission did not allow for that. His mission was brief. His time was brief. He had to focus and use that time wisely.

For he knew how much time he had. I do believe. And it was not more than three years. And so, he poured himself not into things and not into bank accounts and not in the roots on this earth but he poured his time and his energy into people. For he was here for people.

And that's what he focused. His time and energy on. Now, as as Paul points out in first Corinthians seven, Jesus had a little bit of an advantage when it came to being out on the road and and ministering in the fashion he did. As Paul, he wasn't married. He didn't have a a family as in a wife and children that he had to work to provide for.

However, God makes clear in his word that for man not to provide for his family is worse than a infidel. That is an important use of our time that God holds husbands and fathers accountable for. Paul didn't have a family. He wasn't married nor was Christ. Therefore, they could spend almost all their time in the itinerant ministry that God had called them to.

Even though many of us have families and children and as we pointed out earlier, spending time with those family members is important. There are others also. That we should be spending our time with. Jesus spent his time teaching anyone who would listen to him about his father. He healed them.

At times, even fed them. He invested his life on Earth. In his family, in his neighbors, and whoever would receive his words. Those who needed him, those who would listen, those who care That's where he spent the majority of his time. He didn't spend it entertaining himself.

He didn't spend it amusing himself in recreation. He He didn't spend it in amassing wealth and fame. He spent it on people. You know something Jesus Christ in the day in which he lived was not really known outside of the borders of Israel. It was only after his death and resurrection that he sent his disciples outside of Israel.

His he wasn't there to make a name for himself. He was there to pour his life into people to die on a cross for people like you and me and it only makes sense that we should be thinking less of us and more of others and spending more of our time on them, Our family, our neighbors, our coworkers, and our fellow Christian brethren. Encouraging one another. Helping one another. Praying for one another.

For God hasn't left us here for self. God hasn't left us here to make a name for ourselves. God hasn't left us here to amass a material wealth for ourself. He has left us here to glorify him. And to invest the time we have in others.

What is more important? Our amusement, our entertainment, or others? I'm impressed by some people in our church, some that I know fairly well, some that you might call deacons that spend so much of their time on others. The generation that I am part of knows little of that. We are more privileged and have more advantage than any other generation that's lived on this earth, those my age and younger.

And yet, we choose to spend so much of our time on us and not on helping others and not on spending time with others. We're too busy with us. And finally, Jesus did the will of his father which he had been sent to do. Overarching principle that Jesus lived by. John six thirty eight, for I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me.

Jesus said to his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross and follow me. Let him what? Deny himself. Spending all the time and energy just on what?

Self. And take up the will of God for our life. Which involves many things. From personal time with God to studying the word of God, to spending time, and training our families, to reaching out to others around us, spending time, learning, church, other places your neighbors find it odd that you get up every Sunday morning, go to church, and that many of you load back up in the afternoon and come back to church again. A matter of fact, many of your Christian brethren have find it odd that you come back out to church on Sunday night.

But what better use of your time than in worshiping the Lord than encouraging one another than in learning from his word. And doing his will with our life. It's not our time. It's his time. We're just stewards of it.

I'd like to close with an illustration. A few of you have seen this before. Most of you probably haven't. I heard this on the radio one day. Here, I already poured some water in here.

I just kind of got ahead on my illustration, and there's more water in this pitcher. Okay? So let's pretend that this jar contains the amount of time you have in a day. Okay? That's how much time when this jar is full, you're out of what?

You're out of time. Now, let's pretend that the water is recreation, amusement, you know, things that are for self, enjoyment, but are not particularly edifying or helpful to others, okay? Now, sometimes those things dovetail with one another. For instance, I might sit down and watch a ball game with my son. Well, I do enjoy ball games but that time is not necessarily wasted time if I'm spending it with my son.

So, sometimes those things can kind of be enjoyable but also they can be useful but let's say the rocks, the big rocks are time spent with God. Time spent with family. Work. Taking care of your family. Going to church.

Talking to your neighbor about the Lord. Those are the rocks. Those are the responsibilities that God has given to us. Things that we need to do with our time. Things that are of what kind of value?

Value. Now, let's say I put a couple of these in the jar here. Okay? I put a couple of those in, and then I'll put some of these little rocks in, you know, things that are, you know, they're good, but they're not all that, you know, not all that important. Okay?

They're they're okay. They're somewhat useful, you know, maybe maybe reading a good book. Alright. And then I take and I pour this other water in all this time I spend playing video games or watching TV or, you know, whatever. And I pour in the water, and I pour in the water, and I pour water, and I pour in in the water.

Now, I got all the fun stuff in, all the entertainment, the amusement, the recreation. I still have all these rocks that go in. What's gonna happen now when I try to put the rocks in the jar? What happens? You're out of time.

The water runs out. What have you spent all your time doing? For self, for things that are of no eternal value, things that don't matter. And guess where most of the things that do matter are? They're still over here in the bowl.

They didn't get in your day. The next day, oftentimes, we do the same thing. We fill it back up with water and then, where's the room for the things that matter? What should we do first? I don't have another jar to show you but we can put all of these rocks in this jar.

And still pour in a whole pitcher of water. You see, if you put the Lord first and you do the things with your time that you ought to do, you're still going to end up with some time to do the things that that you want to do, that you enjoy. But we need to put the big rocks in first. We need to put the important things in first. We need to follow the example of our savior.

Now, the Bible doesn't tell us about the games that Christ played and the things that he did for enjoyment and recreation but you know something? I am sure there were times that he spent doing that. I'm sure he didn't spend every waking moment preaching and teaching and healing. There were days when he probably did. But there were days he sat down for a meal and he talked and I don't know what games they played back in Jesus' day.

And there's nothing wrong with spending our time doing some of those things. We need to we need to do the important things first. And follow the example of our savior. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you Lord for your word and for your example that you left us.

Our time is limited too but sometimes we don't seem to understand that and Lord, we waste so much of our time on things that are of no eternal value. Lord, you said in your word, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. And the world is passing away. And the lust thereof.

But he that doeth the will of the father. Shall remain forever. Lord, I pray that we would lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. By thinking more about how we use our time. Following the example of our savior.

Pouring our time into our relationship with the one we will spend eternity with and others that need you. And need us. Lord, that you would be glorified, that our life would be fruitful. In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen.