Don’t Waste 2020
Pastor Don Carpenter / General
A Witness; Evangelism; Testimony; Reputation / Colossians 4:5–6
Notes
First AM Message in person since COVID 19
2020 has been an awful year in many respects. The COVID fiasco, Black Lives Matter, and lost of personal drama and problems have sent many of us reeling. I have heard folks muse… they wish they could hit a fast forward button and skip the rest of 2020 and move on to better times.
I am glad that God does not allow us to literally travel in time. You see, in spite of all the problems, God has you right here, right now, in the middle of all this mess by His perfect design.
It is tempting to just check out waiting for better times. We can’t soul win like we always did, why bother. Church is just not the same… I will wait until we get back to real normal.
Our text this morning serves as a warning that we are stewards of everything we are given… even now. On this first Sunday morning back in Church since COVID drove us to the parking lot, don’t let change ruin your heart. Don’t waste 2020!
Don’t Waste Your Relationships
Colossians 4:5 KJV
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.
Guard your reputation
Ephesians 5:15–16 KJV
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
“Circumspectly” is akrib?s (???????), “exactly, accurately, carefully.” “Walk” is peripate? (?????????), “to order one’s behavior, to conduct one’s self.”
Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament: for the English reader (Vol. 4, p. 126). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Romans 14:16 KJV
Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
1 Thessalonians 5:22 KJV
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
• Be wise in order to win others to Jesus
Proverbs 11:30 KJV
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; And he that winneth souls is wise.
Bud Villers was a good man. Bud was my neighbor. I grew up beside him until he died when I was in college. Bud helped my dad put a roof on our house, he assisted my dad when they poured concrete sidewalks and porches. My dad helped him put a roof on his patio. When Bud got older he would hire me to cut his grass occasionally. He usually invited me in for a glass of Coke and a piece of pie. He was always generous. I also delivered his newspaper for a couple of years. He tipped well. He was kind. He didn’t get upset if our baseball, wiffle ball or football went into his yard.
Mr. Villers was an avid fisherman. He often brought us some of his trout catch.
I don’t remember Bud talking a lot about religion when I was a kid, but it struck me that EVERY Sunday morning I saw Bud walking up the street with his Bible in hand-—rain or shine Bud walked to church with a Bible in his hand every week.
Every year he invited my younger brother and me to attend VBS at the Nutter Fort Baptist Church. Most years we didn’t go, but some years when some of my friends were going I did go. Then when I was 15 Bud invited us to church on a Sunday. I didn’t go, but my younger brother did. And the next weekend he invited us again. Again, I didn’t go but my little brother went. The same thing happened the next Sunday and the Sunday after that. My brother started going to church two or three times a week. I caught him reading the Bible a couple of times.
Months later Bud was still inviting me and I was still not interested. Then a singing group attended my school. They were college students and the girls were really pretty. They performed several songs and they told us that they were going to be at a church that evening and they wanted us to come. When I got home from school that day, Bud came over and invited my little brother and me to come to church that evening. The singers from the school were going to be there, so I went. That night I became a Christian and my life has never been the same since.
To my knowledge, Bud Villers never taught a Sunday School class, never preached a sermon, never held a position of leadership in the church. He was an usher, a faithful usher. He simply lived a life of integrity and love for God and his family and friends. And occasionally invited people to church.
If Bud was an ice cream flavor, he would be vanilla. But he would be HÄAGEN-DAZS vanilla.
(From a sermon by Quint Pitts, Uncommonly Average, 10/17/2009)
Don’t Waste Your Time
Colossians 4:5 KJV
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.
Know your opportunities are temporary.
Psalm 90:12 KJV
So teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Know that the lost have an even more urgent time clock
1 Thessalonians 4:12 KJV
That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
The author is unknown.
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement shack with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.
I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whoever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles”.
I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. “Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital.”
He continued, “Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities.”
And that’s when he began to explain his theory of a “thousand marbles.”
“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.”
“Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I’m getting to the important part.”
“It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail”, he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.”
“So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.”
“I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”
“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday, then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.”
“It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. 73 Old Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!”
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. “C’mon honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”
“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile. “Oh, nothing special, it’s just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids.
Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”
Don’t Waste Your Words
Colossians 4:6 KJV
Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
Psalm 40:10 KJV
I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
• Full of Grace – unmerited favor
Psalm 66:16 KJV
Come and hear, all ye that fear God, And I will declare what he hath done for my soul.
Ephesians 4:29 KJV
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
“Watch your speech. A mans command of the language is most important. Next to kissing, its the most exciting form of communication mankind has evolved.”
• Salty – make those without thirsty for Jesus
1 Peter 3:15 KJV
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
• Wise
Colossians 3:16 KJV
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Deuteronomy 6:6 KJV
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 12:07 PM July 24, 2020.