A Sermon Delivered on Wednesday evening, March 30th, 2020, by
Evangelist PAUL ACQUAH, Live on MZ Radio London, UK
Most Christians find themselves living between the “regrets of yesterday” and the “worries of tomorrow”.
Anyone familiar with the Scripture knows that this is not a part of God’s plan. In fact, the believer is to
forget the past and press on without anxiety. You see, the not-so-good decisions in our lives can stay with us for years. And even after the effects have worn off, regrets can remain. It’s so easy to go back and relive memories that we aren’t proud of. And one of the biggest ways that Satan tries to get at us all is with regret.
But thankfully, there are steps we can take to live without regrets. You can take solace in knowing your
past does not define who you are or what God is going to do in your future. This is a message on maximising our time on earth by redeeming the time.
You may ask, is it possible to live a life where you don’t have any regrets at the end? And the answer is, it’s possible. How do we do that? It’s about maximising the time that we have on this earth. And how do we maximise the time that we have on this earth? It is simply by redeeming the time. Redeeming the time is to take ownership of our time. It’s about not being distracted in life, but taking control of our time. That will enable you to live with no regrets. Let’s turn our Bibles to 2 Tim 4. I’m going to read verses 5 to 8. The apostle Paul writing to Timothy said “5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. 7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:5-8).
“The time for my departure is near”. So, here’s the thing nobody wants to hear – my life is being poured
out, the time for my departure is near, my life has come to an end. The reality, however, is that we are all
going to die one day. So, it’s not a question of if we’re going to die or when we’re going to die. The true
thing that I want to address is how we die. In other words, what legacy are we leaving, what fruits are we
leaving behind to impact our generation? When our time to pass from this life to the next life comes, will
we have any regrets about how we lived? It’s possible to live for all of eternity, being proud of the life that
we lived and being happy with the life that we lived. Paul reminds me of myself, and he reminds me of so
many people because when it comes to the time for our departure, what will we do? What did Paul say?
What did he do? Did he pray for more time? Paul didn’t pray for more time, He didn’t pray that he wanted
more money, he didn’t pray for all of the things that we may think are necessary to chase after, what we call worldly success. When Paul was at the end of his life, the only thing he could say was, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Tim. 4:6-8).
If you were to be near the end of your life today, will you say I wished I had more time? When Paul was
about to transfer from this life to the next one, the only thing on his heart was, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. I just want us to be able to meet our end, or transfer from this life to the next without wishing we have more time. And so, if there’s something that we need to do, we should do it today. If there’s someone that you love, and you haven’t told them that you love them, you should tell them you love them today. Tell them you believe in them today. Give them encouraging words today. If there’s someone that you need to forgive today, then forgive them today. Live every day like it’s your last day. That’s how you redeem the time. Live every moment to the maximum and maximize every moment you have in this life, because this life is precious and this life is not promised. We’re not going to live forever. We have a limited time on this earth. And therefore, something that’s limited is precious because it’s not unlimited – it’s not like you can just get more and more of it. There’s a set amount of time we have on this earth and that makes it precious, so we should live with our end in mind. We can look back at our lives and not have any regrets because we all have seasons of opportunities in this life.
Why are some people living higher lives, and for others, life is a struggle after struggle? They are always
crawling. You may be thinking, how come someone else’s life just seems to be going up high and headed
to the top and I am always in a struggle. In Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 11, the Bible says, “I returned and
saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong nor bread to the wise nor
riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill but time and chance happen to them all”. So,
what the Bible is saying is that we don’t have to be the richest person, we don’t have to be the smartest
person, we don’t have to be the strongest person to succeed. It doesn’t even matter what country you live in, what status you were born into, what political and governmental system you live under, that stuff doesn’t matter. The Bible says time and chance happen to all. That means no one is excluded. God is no respecter of persons. It doesn’t matter where you are in your life right now, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world right now, and it doesn’t matter what’s happening around you, time and chance is happening to you and you have to take that opportunity. May God help us to see time and chance.
Time and chance means seasons of opportunity. So, it doesn’t matter where I am, it doesn’t matter what’s going on in my life, it doesn’t matter the circumstances of my upbringing, it doesn’t matter if I’m in a country where there are certain privileges or certain freedoms, or I’m in a country where there’s just
complete oppression. All of those things don’t matter because time and chance, seasons of opportunities happen to us all, and you don’t have to be rich or fast or strong or smart or privileged or connected. You just have to be able to discern to be successful. You have to be able to discern the hand of God in your life.
You have to be able to discern how God is moving in your life. You have to be able to discern God putting
favour on you and you have to be able to discern how to walk with Him in every season of your life, because every season of your life is a season of opportunity. In other words, there are opportunities in every season that we live in, and it only takes a person who’s able to see those opportunities to make good use of them.
So, no matter how hard or difficult life has been, you have to continue to recognise the seasons of
opportunities that God gives you.
You have to take advantage of the lifetime of an opportunity in the lifetime of that opportunity. This is
because every opportunity has a lifetime. Opportunities don’t just come and stay there forever. They come and they go. There are seasons where God is bringing a new opportunity your way. There are seasons where God is opening new doors for you. There are seasons where God is bringing new people into your life or different things like that, and you and I have to discern the season that we’re in, so we can recognise and maximise the opportunities that season has for us all.
Christ is the only saviour of the world. Have you received Him? If you will, please pray this prayer after me, saying every word from your heart…
Dear Lord, I recognise that I am a sinner and need to be saved.
I understand that Jesus died in my place and suffered the judgment of all of my sins.
I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and He is at the right hand of the father.
Lord Jesus, I surrender my Life to you.
Come and Live in my heart and be my Lord and saviour.
Thank You for saving me. Amen!