The Time Is Still Short
1 Cor. 7:29a



First let us realize that…
I.  We have but little time left

Job 14: 14:1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
 

We often see small children make choices that are totally wrong. Trading a nickel for a dime because it is bigger. Trading one of their favorite toys for something they want at the moment, but not something they really want to keep. Etc.
 

How much time is a day, month, year, decade?

How much time is an eternity? That is what people are trading.
 

Many (including myself - at times) like to handle things by doing nothing, but…

II. We have to make a choice
 

Josh 24: 15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;

Rev. 1: 3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
 


It is not a difficult choice for us to make if we examine the options - In the "Lady and the Tiger," we see a man that has a difficult choice ahead of him. He has to have at least some doubt in his mind of what to do. Today, however our choice should be clear! Christ directs us the right way. Choose Him and His way!
 
 

One thing we must understand, is…

III. We do NOT have "time" on our side
 

There is a saying that "Time is on our side!" Is this really true? Is it to our advantage to wait? Is time really friendly towards us? IS your "hourglass" staying still or is it emptying?
 

I give to you that…


Use ILL. 39 - Creation
 

No matter what we think…

IV. We may not have "time" to burn
 

We need to…

Ps. 39: 4 LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.
 
 

We also need to…

It is for this reason, we know…

V. The time to serve is now
 
 

Rom. 13: 11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
 
 


 
 

VI. The time to ask is now

ILL. - Share sale end date
 
 

Matt. 7: 7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
 
 

Heb. 3: 7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
 
 


 
 

We cannot expect someone else to ask for us. You will choose today. We need to make the right choice. Right now, the choice is yours. Do you want to choose or reject Christ????? You are doing one or the other…….
 
 
 
 
 
 

Gary Marcum - East 38th Street Free Will Baptist Church - 061100am