Don’t Waste Your Life Part 1

One of the smartest things a life coach will tell you is that everyone has the same twenty-four hours in a day. While you may not have full control over what you do with the time you have in any given day, there are probably ways you can be just a bit wiser in the way you spend it. Well, Dr. Timothy is here today to remind you that your time on this Earth is limited as well! Don’t wait until Jesus calls you home to start living for Him!

Transcript

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Welcome to Truth for Transformation with Dr. Timothy Brown. You're about to hear a message from God's Word filled with biblical wisdom, practical insights, and life-changing truths. A message designed to inspire your faith and give encouragement.

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What would it be like if you lived your life like Jesus was coming back tomorrow at 5 p.m.? Now we don't know the day or the hour, but my point is living as though it could come. When we read this parable, he's teaching us to be ready. The man that went away on a journey represents Christ going back to the Father. And Jesus is giving this message: live your life like I could come back at any time. Jesus could return at any time. So we need to live prepared. We need to live like he could return at any moment.

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One of the smartest things a life coach will tell you is that everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. While you may not have full control over what you do with the time you have in any given day, there are probably ways you can be just a bit wiser in the way you spend it. Well, Dr. Timothy is here today to remind you that your time on this earth is limited as well. Don't wait until Jesus calls you home to start living for him. Prepare your heart, open your mind, and get ready to embark on a journey of faith with Dr. Timothy in the book of Matthew, chapter 25, as he begins his message: don't waste your life.

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Alright, so we're going to be in Matthew 25. As you turn there, I want to tell you of a true story. There is a man by the name of Demas. You may have read about him in Scripture. He had so much potential. He served along the Apostle Paul, and he's mentioned with different people like Mark and Luke. And so he's a ministry associate of Paul. He shows so much potential. And then we read these words in the scripture. Paul says, But Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, in 2 Timothy 4.10. And when you read the scripture, like what happened to Demas? Demas didn't lose his life to persecution. Demas, it doesn't tell about a public scandal. It seems that Demas drifted. It seems that Demas chose comfort over calling, safety over sacrifice, this present world over eternal rewards. Demas forsook Paul. Why? Because Demas decided to coast. Demas decided to take the easy road. And I wanted to set that up because in Matthew 25, we are told what the kingdom of God is like. And the context, we're going to be in verse 14. You read the first few verses of Matthew, it talks about the parable of the ten virgins. Five were wise, five were not wise, five were prepared, but the oil in their oil lamps, the other five weren't. And so Jesus picks up with this theme of being ready for the king's return. Jesus was getting ready to go away back to the Father, and he was letting his servants know, you gotta be ready, because I could come back at any time. So we're in Matthew chapter 25, and we're gonna be reading the full passage, verses 14 through 30. So if you have your Bibles, follow along. If not, it's gonna be on your screen. This is talking about the kingdom of heaven. For it'll be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, to another one, each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and received five talents more. So he who also had the two talents made two talents more. But he received the one, went and dug it in the ground, and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here I have made five talents more. His master said, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And also he who had the two talents came forward, saying, Master, you delivered to me the two talents. Here, I have made two talents more. His master said, Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Also he who had received the one talent came forward, saying, Master, I know you're a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours. But the master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gathered where I have scattered no seed, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and am I coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents, for to every one who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away, and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness, into the place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. May God bless his word. Today's message title is this Don't Waste Your Life. Can you say that out loud with me? Don't waste your life. This is the cost of playing it safe. And I want to give you just a message from my heart that this passage is so important for today's generation of Christians in America and around the world. Why? Because we're tempted to play it safe. We're tempted to go after comfort instead of conviction. We're tempted to go after the road of least resistance instead of risking it all, risking all of it for the sake of the gospel. So today I want to give you four necessities of not wasting your life. Because my heart for you is I don't want you to waste your life. When you stand before our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I want him to say, Well done, good and faithful servant. I don't want you to get the saying of, Why did you not invest what I gave you? What did you do with what I gave you? And you have no response. So I want to give you four necessities. Number one is this live like Jesus could return today. So when we read this parable, this is an earthly story teaching a heavenly meaning. That's what a parable is. And so what we see is Jesus is basically given this statement, this big idea that I'm going to be going back to the Father. And while I'm in heaven, while I'm at the Father's right hand, I'm giving you an investment. And I want you to live with a sense of urgency that I could come at any time. Theologians have called this the immincy of Christ's return, that Jesus could come back at any moment. So can I can I tell a little story? And please don't tell my wife this. But every time she gets a little break, which she needs more of those, watching six kids, I have this little secret. The secret is I kind of let the house get a little messy. And when I find out she's coming home 30 minutes, I'm like, kids, mommy's coming home, let's let's clean up. So we we we gather all the toys, we stack the magnet blocks, we we put the stuff away, we take out the trash, and so it normally goes well, but I'll never forget, and it still haunts me to this day, that Lori showed up a lot sooner than we anticipated. And the house was a lot messier than expected. And so when she came and the house was in shambles, I kind of felt ashamed. I wish I would have been more prepared. I wish I would have been more productive. I wish I would have been proactive instead of reactive. And I tell that story to say that Jesus could come back today. And so I just want to ask you the question: are you living your life as though Jesus could come back today? And here's a little application. What would it be like if you lived your life like Jesus was coming back tomorrow at 5 p.m.? Now we don't know the day or the hour, but my point is living as though he could come. When we read this parable, he's teaching us to be ready. The man that went away on a journey represents Christ going back to the Father. And Jesus is giving this message. Live your life like I could come back at any time. Jesus could return at any time. So we need to live prepared. We need to live like he could return at any moment. I want you to write this down if you're taking notes. Live like Jesus could return today, because one day he will. Alright, that brings us to the second thing that we need to think about. If you don't want to waste your life, and how many of you, write in the comment section, how many of you don't want to waste your life? That's me. I don't want to waste my life. Here's the second necessity you need to do. Invest your life to multiply God's investment in you. So look at in your Bibles at verses 14 and 15. We see the master gave three servants three different talents. Now, when we think of talent, we're thinking of a skill, an ability. I can sing, I can, you know, do whatever, and it's not talking about that. This is a sum of money. So if you're taking notes, write this down. A talent in this day and time was equivalent, one talent was equivalent of about 20 years' wages. So let's say the average person makes 50,000 a year. If you multiply that by 20, that's about like a million dollars. So the first servant, five talent, think of about five million. Two talents would be how much? Yeah, two million. And the one talent servant, we often think, man, he wasn't given much. He was given about a million dollars. How many of you would like to be given a million dollars to invest? Sign me up, right? Sign me up. So the one talent guy was given a huge amount, 20 years worth of wages to invest. And so they were entrusted with investment, and the goal from the master to the servants was to grow this, to invest it, and in hopes to multiply it. So here's seven things you can do with money. I want you to write these things down. Seven things you and I can do with money. Number one, you can spend it. How many of you like spending it? All right. Number two, you can save it. Number three, you can give it. Some of you are very generous. You like giving. Number four, you can invest it. This is where we think of the stock market. This is where we think of buying a house and flipping it.

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You've been listening to Pastor Timothy Brown. We'll be right back with the message. But first, we'd like to share some exciting news with you. We're releasing Dr. Timothy's new book called Go After Jesus. This book is a fresh approach to discipleship and focuses on your identity in Christ as the launching pad for Christian growth. In Go After Jesus, Pastor Timothy paints the picture of the six identities for every follower of Christ. You are a seeker, a disciple, a friend, a fisherman, a warrior, and a lover. We're currently offering two free chapters of this book as a digital download. To get your free chapters, go to Dr. Timothy's website at drtimothybrown.org. Now let's get back to the rest of the message with Pastor Timothy.

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Number five, you can multiply it. Multiplying it's very hard. That means to double it, to triple it, etc. Number six, you can bury it. All right. Have you heard about people putting money under a mattress or in a hole that's burying it? Number seven, you can lose it. How many of you have ever lost money? I'll never forget a high school trip. I think I had like $435 for my spending money that week for this school trip, and I lost it all. So I had to like bum money off people the whole week. I don't like losing money. That's not that's not very not very fun to lose money. So I just want to encourage you that God has gifted you. So this sum of money represents a greater reality. That you have not only money that God blesses you with as you work and etc., but this is also symbolic of the gifts God has given you, the entrusting, the endowment. The Bible says that you and I are stewards. So I want to encourage you, don't waste your life. Don't play it easy, don't play it safe. Invest. And so what we see is that the first guy, we're gonna see what he did, and the second guy, and the third guy, it's it's not a good outcome. So I'm gonna ask you this question: how has God gifted you? Are you gifted as a singer? Are you singing for God? Are you using it for his glory? Um, some of you are gifted at teaching. Are you teaching? The way not to bury the gift is to use it. And uh Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called Outliers. And he quotes another social psychologist that basically says that to be really gifted at something, you have to spend about 10,000 hours. And the idea is not just the amount, but it's the quality of the work. And he calls it the 10,000 hour rule. So I want to ask you, are you growing the gift God's given you? So some of you have the gift of mercy. So if you have the gift of mercy, are you using it? Are you calling people that need care? Are you visiting the hospitals? And some of you are like, well, I'm not. Well, you have a gift. Use it. If God's given you that gift, use it. I find it fascinating that some of you have the gift of hospitality, but you're not inviting anyone over your house. And you're like, well, it takes time. Yes, but it's a gift. And the Bible says, don't be forgetful to entertain strangers. Why? Some of you have entertained angels unawares. So use the gift that God has given you. So we see, I want you to write this down, what God entrusts to you, it's meant to grow through you. I'll say that again. What God has entrusted to you is meant to grow through you. And that brings us to the third necessity. Somebody say, Don't waste your life. I can't hear it. One more time. Don't waste your life. If you don't want to let waste your life, number three is really important. Trade your excuses for faithful service to God and to others. We're in verses 24 through 27. Look at the parable. What happened? The first servant, what did he do? He buried it, right? He buried it and he made excuses. Now I want you to listen to his excuses. Now keep in mind, this is not what God is like. This is what the servant mistakenly thought God was like. And let's see if you know people that think God's like this. The servant thought the master's too strict, too rigid. He uses the word hard. I had to look that up in Greek. It basically means rigid. Is God too rigid? No, he's not. We'll explain that. The master expects too much from his servants. Notice the scripture: you reap where you do not sow. So he's saying, you expect too much of us. You're too harsh. You expect too much out of your servants. Sounds like he's on a complaining trip. The third thing he mistake had mistaken notions about God is he was so fearful he was paralyzed. This is an unhealthy fear of God. Now the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, but he had an unhealthy fear where he's like, I don't want to, I don't want to know what it's going to be like when he comes back. So I'm just going to hide what he's given me. I'm not going to use it. I'm just going to hold on until Jesus returns. Theology. Survey says, not a good idea. So I want to debunk what his excuses were. But before that, I want you to write this down. A wrong view of God always leads to wasted obedience. A wrong view of God always leads to wasted obedience. So here's the debunking of his excuses. God does have standards, but he's not rigid. So if your view of God is rigid, like God's going to strike me down if I don't do X, Y, and Z, I want you to listen to the words of Jesus. And Matthew 11, excuse me, Matthew 28. Actually, it's Matthew 11, verses 28 through 30. Jesus said, Come to me. Hear the beautiful words of Christ. Come to me, all you who are weary and burden. And he says, I will give you what? Rest. You're so burdened down, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. A yoke is what an oxen, two oxen would carry, a burden, a load. And he said, Listen, what you're carrying, he said, I want you to take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy. So you're carrying all these burdens, but if you'll just carry my yoke, he says, It's easy. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. And you're like, that doesn't sound like the God I learned about, but listen, if you think about Jesus in the New Testament, when the lawyer came to him and said, Which is the greatest commandments? They had 613 of them. Jesus said, Love God, love others. He summarized 613 laws into two. And Paul tells us in Romans that love fulfills the law. And by the way, Jesus fulfilled the law for us. We're now under this beautiful new covenant of loving God and loving others. In John 15, Jesus says, to abide in him. And if you abide in him, guess what? He's going to abide in you. And you're going to produce what? Fruit. So abiding is not struggling, it's not some bondage. It's it's simply being with Jesus. And the spirit-filled life is as you're with Jesus, the Holy Spirit flows through you. His yoke is easy, his burden is light. So I want to encourage you to lay aside your excuses. And I say this with all the love in my heart. Some of us have some pretty lame excuses. And what the servant that was lazy did, he made excuses. So I want to give you the top five excuses modern Christians have today. Are you ready? And if you are one of these excuses, I say this in love, but you've got to get rid of the excuses. Because if it's keeping you from faithfulness, if it's keeping you from investing what God has given you, if it's an excuse not to be faithful, not to be obedient, you just got to get rid of it. All right? First excuse, I'm not gifted enough. That's the excuse of the one talent servant. Listen, I've only got a million dollars, that guy's got five. I'm like, that's crazy, right? No, you are gifted. And the church needs a revival of one gifted servants. You don't need to have gift envy comparing yourself to the five gifted individual. There's so much more gifted than me. No, no, no. Use the gift that God has given you. And when you look at the value of what a talent was, 20 years of wages, about a million dollars, that's valuable. And I want to look at every person that says I'm not gifted and say, listen, if God's given you one gift, that is amazing. Use your gift to build up the body. And all God's people said, Amen. All right, number two, I'm not disciplined enough. Well, if you're not disciplined enough, what are you gonna do to change that? I know that's hard, right? It's hard to be disciplined. Number three, I don't have the right connections. Well, if you don't have the right connections, it means you need to get connected. Don't use that as an excuse. Get connected to the body. I've heard people say, well, I just don't know the right people. Well, be friendly, get connected. Number four, I don't have enough time. How many of you have used that excuse? Listen, how many years was Jesus' earthly ministry? It was three, three and a half years. If he changed the world in three, three and a half years, and the spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, lives in you, what's your excuse? You don't need a lot of time to make a big impact. It's not about longevity, it's about legacy. All right, fifth excuse. I have done too much wrong in the past. And I just want to ask you, if you have, have you asked for forgiveness? If you've asked for forgiveness, what does the Bible say? Jesus has forgiven you. The Bible says your sins are remembered no more. It's separated as far as the East is from the West, and those two don't meet. The Bible says if you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you and to what? Cleanse you. So listen, if God has forgiven you, never use the past as an excuse why you can't be faithful in the present. All right? So here's the thing. The one talent servant didn't just fail. He froze. He just became lazy. He became just a pew sitter, right? I'm just gonna sit and watch others invest and do ministry. And I'm just gonna I'm just gonna cheer them on, right? And Jesus would encourage all of us to be faithful. And it's not because you have to, it's not out of unhealthy fear, it's because you love God. Jesus says, if you love me, you'll want to keep my commandments. Not only that, but if you love me, you'll serve me. You'll serve him with passion. So I this is a side note. We got some people in the economic world, we got some investors there, we got people bankers in our church. So I did a little research and you can Google this. Let's just say that if this is modern if notice the master in the parable was going to be gone a long time. So I just said, what if someone was gone for 20 years and a million dollars was invested at 4% rate, which is very conservative? Do you know how much return that would that would bring? It would bring a lot of return. It would bring your money would go from 1 million to 2.1 million plus.

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We'd like to thank you for joining us for today's edition of Truth for Transformation with Dr. Timothy Brown. Dr. Timothy has been teaching from God's Word with a message meant to encourage you and build you up to face the challenges of today's complicated world. Did you know that the Bible has wisdom that is applicable to any situation that you may find yourself in today? Well, the Holy Spirit wants to help you make wise decisions in this life. But that discernment only comes by spending time in God's Word. If you would like to hear more teachings from Dr. Timothy, we invite you to visit his website at drtimothybrown.org. There you'll find links to previous sermons as well as other resources to help you in your walk with Christ. If you'd like to speak with someone about the Ministry of Truth for Transformation, you can give us a call at 828-684-6780. One more time, that number is 828-684-6780. If you've been blessed by the ministry of this radio program, we would also ask you to consider making a financial gift to support this ministry. We believe that giving fuels the mission of ministry that has been placed on Dr. Timothy's heart. You can make a gift by clicking the Give tab at the top right of our website. Well, that's all the time we have for today. Join us again next time for another timely message from Dr. Timothy Brown here on Truth for Transformation.