Intro Music…

 

Thank you so much for tuning in and Welcome everyone – Hope you’re well!  I’m your host, Ben Lively, and you’re listening to “Shaken Awake” – Episode #38! 

 

I just want to thank you for tuning in, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing right this very moment.  

 

And, as always, I promise you another great show – But, more than anything, my HOPE for you today, and always, is that you have an actual encounter with the Lord - He’s is always right there beside you.    If you find ANY value in these episodes, the greatest thank you of all is to pass the work to at least one person you know to help spread the word.

 

So, without further ado, let’s get ready to invite God in with us, right here, right now and allow Him to speak directly to your heart and minds.   

 

So today’s topic is: “Where and What You Place your Time, Energy, and Effort on is What’s Most Important to You – So, What’s Your Time Spent on?”

 

If you’ve been tuning in to this show for a time, you know that most of what I discuss started as a personal conviction of God and The Holy Spirit.  Those convictions led me to Word, and then to obeying God’s command to start this podcast to put these messages out, since many churches do not.  Today’s topic is no exception – in fact, it’s one of the greatest convictions of my life, which helped my conversion from Saul to Paul, you could say.

Looking back on my life, I can see a Trillion opportunities (and there are likely 10 times that amount) to do more with my time than I did.   And almost equally, that many opportunities to have been placing my time, energy, and effort on BETTER things that I have.  How many of you know that once God and The Holy Spirit speak conviction and truth to your heart, soul, and spirit, there is not turning back?  Nothing but conviction, then repentance, which means permanent change in the direction of the narrow path that leads to life.  This is one of them.

Today, I’m going to show you some scriptures that tell us EXACTLY where to spend our time, energy, and effort with the time we have remaining on this Earth.  Why?  Because it’s important to God, and therefore, it must become and remain important to us, right?  Absolutely!

First, I want to give you a glimpse of what I spent most of my life on.  It’s easy – it only take a second to tell you… it was…..ready for this?......ME.  The worst two-letter word in the dictionary, the worst one-letter word is just as bad – which is “I”.  Everything I did – from hanging out with the wrong crowd to feel accepted by the world, to drugs and alcohol to feel numb and happy, to obsessive working out to make myself look good, to the military to escape my hometown reality and family and party hard and hope to kill things, to spending 90% of my week going out partying and working to party, to then a career path to make as much money as I could, to following the business and money gurus to life-hack my way to the top, to starting two businesses to free myself from the grind and make tons of money.   I could say so much more, but that is about the gist of my life since the age of 13 thru 41.  It was a life that was in the world and of the world.  There’s a definition of me in the Bible that describes my lifestyle, you know…..it’s called being a child of this world, the child of satan.   Oh, you doubt?  One of many – 1 John 3:10 – “So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.”  So that was the New Living Translation, one of my favorite versions of the Bible, but just so there’s no doubt, let me give you the same verse in the indisputable (by man’s standard’s it would seem) King James Version – 1 John 3:10 – “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”

 

Talk about conviction, guys!!!!!!  I remember the first time reading this – I was 42 by the time I reached this NT verse. I remember staring at it and reading it over and over again, then staring at it….mouth open of course and my eyes were likely bulging out of my face.  There was no disputing this – to do so would be to dispute God directly.  There’s no way to sugar-coat or gloss over or dismiss this verse, or the many just like it in the Bible.  You either take the verse and use it as one of the many spiritual mirrors to reflect upon whether or not you’re a true Christian, and take it with the absolute seriousness that it reflects.  OR, you choose to ignore it and sweep it under the rug and continue down the easy and broad road that leads to destruction!  Yes, it’s that simple, and that damning, folks!

 

So what does this mean to us today?  How does this apply to this episode today?  I applies to every minute of every day we have left in our lives.  It means everything.

 

What are we supposed to spend our days on?  I can tell you one thing, it’s likely not what we HAVE been spending our days on.  At least in my life, it was never.

 

 

Ephesians 5:16   

Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Psalm 90:12   

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

 

John 17:3-5

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presencewith the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

 

 

James 4:14   

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Romans 13:11   

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

Ephesians 5:15 

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,

Romans 12:1-21 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ...

James 4:13-15 

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Psalm 127:2 

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Matthew 18:34-35 

And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Proverbs 3:11 

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof,

Micah 6:8 

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Colossians 4:1-5 

Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Matthew 5:23-27

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

 

Ecclesiastes 9:10 

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

And here are two that as I was gathering scripture, God reminded me to add in – “Ben, do not leave these two out” was the message I felt and heard:

 

2 Timothy 3:16 

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (evangelizing and dwelling in God’s Word)

2 Timothy 2:24-26 

And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

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Mark 8:38

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

 

2 Timothy 1:8

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,

 

Titus 1:16

They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

2 Timothy 2:12

If we endure, we will also reign with Him;  If we deny Him, He also will deny us;

How will you know and understand the guidebook of our life, to wisdom and meaning and instruction if you never read it?  Get in your Bibles, and begin reading – all of it, not sometimes, all the time.  Don’t use Sunday’s service and podcasts to provide you what God already has in his Living Word.

And the second is just like it… often times there’s meaning in what isn’t said in the Bible, just as much as what IS said in the Bible.  Here’s one out of an infinite number of examples – you can and will never know everything in the Bible, so here’s my best example:  let’s take 2 Timothy 2:12 – “If we endure, we will also reign with Him;  If we deny Him, He also will deny us”  It does NOT say if we never talk about him, or express who He is or what He’s done in our lives, or how He saves or what’s needed to come to Him and receive the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.  It clearly says, if we deny Him.   Isn’t omitting the truth the same as lying?  Isn’t it the same as denying?  If I stole something, and they lined me, who stole and item with three of my friends and asks which one of us stole the item and I say nothing, am I not denying that I stole?   There’s wisdom, power, and great instructions in what you consume in and through your Bible.  There’s NOTHING in what you don’t.

So, my final questions to you is then this:    Where and What You Place your Time, Energy, and Effort on is What’s Most Important to You – So, What’s Your Time Spent on?

My final statement is this and I’m going to “borrow” this one from Pastor and Evangelist Paul Washer:  “We live between two great days:  The day Christ hung before men and the day all men will kneel before Christ,”   To which I will add, “Make your life a life worth living….. for Jesus.  Pick up your cross daily, and live for Him.”

So, before we end today’s show, I just want to thank you all again for tuning in and I HOPE you were touched by today’s message and scripture.  I’d like to ask you a favor only IF you received any value out of today’s show – would you tell at least one person you know – call them, text them, email them, talk to them – tell them to give this show a listen.  

 

Check out the show at shaken-awake.com, email me at ben@shaken-awake.com or call or text me directly for any reason at (407)-493-3208 (repeat).  If you have ideas for the show – LET ME KNOW!  If you know of someone that has an incredible testimony of coming to the Lord, and you think they would be a great guest of this show, please connect with me – I’d love to hear more.

 

Next week!!!!  Tune in Next Sunday – or WHENEVER YOU’RE ABLE, as we dive into another important topic of our day, which is, “How Can We Love Our Neighbor As Ourself If We Truly Don’t?”

Next week’s episode is another powerful and DO-NOT-MISS episode – thanks for joining!  

Until next week, take great care of yourself and each other, and God Bless You all.  

 

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