The Conquest of Canaan and the Kingdom of God (7)Take off Your Shoes (3) Right to Time

“The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.” (Jos 5:15)
 
We've talked about the importance of giving up our rights as people of the kingdom of God. Last Sunday, we talked about giving up the right to money.
 
The Bible talks a lot about money because it is so intimately connected to our faith and our lives. The Bible doesn't say we don't need to have money at all, and it doesn't describe money itself as evil. It's not a sin for us to have money and own things, and it's not evil for us to use what we have for our needs.
 
What the Bible teaches us to be wary of is not money itself but the love of money. Paul says it’s the root of all kinds of evil because it causes Christians to stray from their faith. Because we can do a lot of things with money, it can easily replace God when we love it. The more we love and rely on money, the weaker our faith and trust in God become.
 
That’s the reason Jesus said, “Either you will hate [God] and love [money] or you will be devoted to [God] and despise [money]. You cannot serve both God and money” (Mt 6:24)
 
So we talked about how we should think about and use money as Christians.
 
The most important thing to remember when talking about the right to money is that we are not the masters of our finances. We may think we are the owners of our money because we have used our time, energy, and ability to make it. But if we truly confess that everything we have—our time, health, and abilities—comes from God, then we can’t help but also confess that God is the true Owner of our finances.
 
Deuteronomy 8:17-18 says, “You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth...” (Dt 8:17-18)
 
Then, if we believe that He is the true Master, we should also be able to use our money for His glory and His will.
 
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9, “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work…  You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God… others will praise God…  for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.” (2 Cor. 9:8, 11, 13)
 
We need to remember that the reason God has blessed us abundantly with earthly possessions is so that we may abound in every good work and be generous on every occasion.
 
God has not given us money so that we can use it to live comfortable and enjoyable lives for ourselves, but because He wants us to share with those who are in need so that they may give thanks to God and praise Him through our generosity. That’s how we build and expand the kingdom of God by using our money according to His will.
 
If we really acknowledge that God is the true Owner of our money, then we must choose either to be a good steward of what He has allowed us to have, or to be a thief and steal from Him. The real battle we have to fight as Christians is not how much to give to the Lord. It's how much we don’t steal from Him.
 
So we must always keep a good balance between what we use for ourselves and what we use for the kingdom of God. And, in order for us to give up our right to our money and use it according to God’s will, we should have an eternal, kingdom perspective.
 
Whatever we use for God's will in this world is not lost; it is actually laid up as treasure in heaven. If we can use our earthly, perishable possessions to gain treasure in the eternal kingdom of God, it is actually highly profitable.
 
We love money because it gives us security, pleasure, comfort, and satisfaction, but God is the one who can give us eternal security, pleasure, and contentment that money cannot provide.
 
So the real battle is not where we spend our money but where we try to get our satisfaction. If we love the joy that God puts in our hearts when we use our money for a person who is starving more than the satisfaction that comes from eating delicious food ourselves, then we will be willing to use what we have for God's will and not our own.
 
2. The Right to Time
All right. Let's continue to talk about the rights we have to give up in order to live as people of the kingdom of God. The second right I want us to think about is time.
 
Unlike money, the same amount of time is given to everyone every day. We have 24 hours every day and 365 days in a year.
 
How we use this time as Christians is very important because everything we do is done with our time. We can use the time given to us every day to get to know God better, and we can use it to do the work He's given us. But we can also use that same time to entertain ourselves without any purpose.
 
Then, how should we use our time as Christians? What does the Bible say about it? The principles for how we should spend our time are similar to those for money.
 
The reason we should give up our rights to money as people of God's kingdom and use the money we have for God's will is because it is God who gave it to us and thus He is the true Owner. The same applies to our time. The reason we should give up our rights to the time we have and use it for God's will is because it is God who gives it to us and therefore He is the true owner of our time.
 
One of the many lies that Satan tells us is that we are the owners of our time and that we can use our time as we please.
 
Last year I read a book called The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. The book consists of 31 letters from a high-ranking demon named Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, who is a junior tempter. In the 31 letters, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of corrupting the soul of his patient, an unnamed Christian man.
 
And, in the 21st letter, Screwtape said this.
“Now you will have noticed that nothing throws him into a passion so easily as to find a tract of time which he reckoned on having at his own disposal unexpectedly taken from him… They anger him because he regards his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen… You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption “My time is my own”. Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours.”
 
Screwtape's premise here is this: humans are angry when they think their rights have been taken away from them. So if someone thinks they have a right to use the 24 hours they have each day as they please, they will be angry when they think that right is being taken away from them. So Screwtape advises Wormwood to make sure that his patient always has the idea in mind that his time is his own.
 
But Screwtape calls the idea a “curious assumption” because it doesn't actually make sense at all. For the assumption that “my time is my own” to be true, time must be something I create or earn through some effort. But no one can create time, and no one can make more or less of it.
 
So Screwtape tells Wormwood not to let his patient think too deeply about the assumption that his time is his own, because the more he thinks about it, the more he will realize it's wrong. Screwtape continued,
 
“You have here a delicate task. The assumption which you want him to go on making is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we cannot find a shred of argument in its defence… The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift… Don't let his thoughts come anywhere near it. Wrap a darkness about it, and in the centre of that darkness let his sense of ownership-in-Time lie silent, uninspected, and operative.”
 
The reason Screwtape tells Wormwood to make sure his patient maintains “the curious assumption” is that when the patient realizes that the assumption is wrong, he will begin to use his time for God, whom Screwtape calls the enemy.
 
Screwtape says, “He is also, in theory, committed a total service of the Enemy; and if the Enemy appeared to him in bodily form and demanded that total service for even one day, he would not refuse… Now if he thinks about his assumption for a moment, even he is bound to realise that he is actually in this situation every day.”
 
So, what Lewis emphasizes here through this letter is that we tend to regard time as our own to use as we choose, when in fact every moment is entrusted to us as a gift by God.
 
To regard time as our possession has two virtues from Screwtape’s perspective. First, we become angry when we find demands being made on our time, demands which are quite appropriate if we are serious about discipleship. Second, it obscures the fact that because we have been entrusted with time by God, we are obligated to use it for God’s glory. We are stewards rather than owners of time.
 
Then, this is the mindset we should have as Christians. Satan deceives us into thinking that we’re the owners of our time. But from a biblical perspective, time is what God has entrusted to us to use for His kingdom and His glory. So, we should always consider how our use of time contributes to the kingdom of God each day.
 
Psalm 31:14-15 says, “But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands…” (Ps 31:14-15)
 
This is the confession we should make every morning. “Thank You for giving me a new day. My time belongs to You. You are the Owner of it. Be with me every single moment of today and give me the wisdom and strength to spend it according to Your will.”
 
If we come to the Lord daily with this confession, we will not waste the time we’re given each day. We will be more committed to using our time to love God, to know God, to make God known, and to love and serve those God has put around us. That’s how we should spend our time as the people of the kingdom of God.
 
The apostle Paul said, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Eph 5:15-17)
 
In this passage, Paul is talking about how we should use our time as Christians. If we want to live wisely, we must be very careful about how we use our time. To live wisely is to make the best use of our time. And in order for us to make the best use of our time, we must understand what the Lord’s will is so that we can use our time to carry it out in our daily lives.
 
Χρόνος and Καιρός
For us to understand the meaning of this passage, we need to understand two different concepts of time in the Bible. There are two ancient Greek words that are translated as the  English word “time” in the Bible. The first one is Chronos (Χρόνος) and the second is Kairos (Καιρός).
 
Chronos refers to quantitative, sequential, and measurable time. It refers to “clock” time that we can measure in seconds, minutes, and hours. Chronos is linear and always flows from the past to the future. It is the general meaning of time that we often use. That’s where the word “chronology” comes from.
 
Kairos, on the other hand, refers to qualitative time or an opportune or right moment. What this word emphasizes is not the duration of time, but its significance and value. While Chronos is objective time that flows equally to everyone, Kairos is a subjectively meaningful time, especially in a relationship with God.
 
When Paul encouraged Christians to “[make] the best use of the time,” he used the word kairos. It is a call to use the chronos time we have been given in a kairos way. It means that we use the time we are given each day meaningfully in our relationship with God.
 
Every day, everyone gets 24 hours. But the results of these 24 hours are very different depending on the person. Some people use them meaninglessly without producing anything, while others use them to create meaningful moments and results.
 
Life is more about how you live than how long you live. No matter how short our lives are, if we have used them according to God's will and contributed to the establishment of His kingdom on earth, we can say that our lives have been meaningful. But no matter how long we live, if we use all the time we have been given just for ourselves, it is not so meaningful from the perspective of the kingdom of God.
 
Jesus lived on earth for 33 years and only ministered for three of those years. But those three years changed the course of human history. Because Jesus dedicated all the time he had been given to building the kingdom of God, He was able to say “It is finished” in His final moment on the cross.
 
That should be the way we use our time, following the example Jesus set. Just as Jesus spent time each day with God alone in a secluded place, we should spend time each day with God through His word and prayer. Just as the Lord used His time to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God and to be with the sick, the sinners, and the marginalized, so should we. That’s how we live wisely, making best use of the time we’re given, according to God’s will for us.
 
And we shouldn’t put off using our time wisely and according to God's will until some time later in the future because we do not know when our lives will end.
 
James 4:13-15 says, “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.” Why, 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. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”” (Jms 4:13-15)
 
As Christians, the most important thing we should consider when deciding where and how to spend our time is whether it is in the Lord's will.
 
We don't know what will happen in the future, and we can't control it. The only time we can control is the present. So our attitude as Christians should be to humbly lift up our future to God and use the time He has given us today to do His will, rather than getting too preoccupied with the unknown future.
 
So, how do you use the 24 hours of your day? How much do you spend your time according to God’s will?
 
What I feel these days is that there is so much we as Christians need to know in order to make God known to non-Christians. We need to know the Bible in depth, and then we need to be able to explain the truths we find in the Bible to non-Christians in a way that they can understand. There are countless books on the subject.
 
1 Peter 3:15 says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1Pt 3:15).
 
How prepared are you to share God with non-Christians according to this verse? If a non-Christian came up to you and asked you who God is, what the Bible is, what salvation is, and what Jesus is like, what would you say? Are you prepared with the answers to the questions?
 
I think the reason the gospel is not being preached to non-Christians today is because the Christians who claim to know it don’t really know what it is all about and are not living it out.
 
We are called to prepare answers. In order for us to prepare answers, we must diligently study the Bible, read it, and live out the truths we find in it. We must use the time we have been given to do this. That’s how we use our chronos time in a kairos way.
 
I want us to look back at how we’ve spent our time this week. Where did you spend most of your time last week, outside of eating, sleeping, and working? How did it relate to God's will?
 
There's nothing wrong with spending our time doing things that entertain us, but if that's all we do, it means that something's wrong. That shouldn’t be the way we live as Christians.
 
 If we really believe and confess that our time is a gift from God, and that He is therefore the Owner of our time, then we should also be able to live out that confession by actually using our time according to God's will.
 
That's how we should treat time as people of God's kingdom. When we give up our right to use our time as we please and begin to use it for God's will, God will use it to build His kingdom.
 
Let’s pray.
 
[Prayer]
Dear Lord, we thank You for everything You’ve allowed us to have on earth. We profess that all we have is Yours because You are the One who gave it to us.
 
Now Lord, we want to take off our shoes before You and give up our right to our time. We profess that You are the true Lord of our time since You are the One who gives us time each day.
 
Oh Lord, we don't want to live our lives aimlessly. We want to spend more of our time building Your kingdom on earth. We give You our time. Let us know what Your will is for us and how to use our time according to Your will so that we can be used as vessels for Your kingdom.
 
Give us heavenly wisdom so that we may live wisely, making the best use of the time You give us according to Your will.
 
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1) How do you spend most of your time each day apart from working, sleeping, and eating?
 
2) What do you think is the best way for you to use your time according to God’s will?
 
3) How much time do you spend each day getting to know God and being equipped to make Him known? What is the ratio of the time you spend getting to know God versus the time you spend entertaining yourself? How do you balance the two?