Dear Grace Covenant Church, I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Good Lord's Day to you. I hope that this is the last video sermon that I'll be doing in a while. We'll see, time will tell. But I'm grateful that we have another day. I'm grateful that though we are not gathered today physically, we are gathered in spirit and you throughout houses and Hampton Roads are lifting up high the name of Jesus Christ. Before we get to the Ministry of the Word this morning, I just have really a few announcements. Number one, on behalf of the elders and the deacons, we miss you all. I know that some of you have been able to see one another over these last six weeks. It's been now, I know that my wife and I have had a chance to see a few saints throughout this six-week period. And I can tell you that when we did, It was a tremendous encouragement to us. In fact, there were tears in some people's eyes that we got to see each other again. So we are hoping, this leads into my second announcement, that that will be the experience for all of us next Lord's Day. I think that's May 3rd. Let me check just to make sure on my calendar here. I think that's May 3rd. Sunday, May 3rd, we are planning on having what's called a drive-in church service. I've sent out an email with details, but I just want to reiterate in case some of you didn't read that email, because I know some of you don't read that email. You know who you are. We are planning on May 3rd, Sunday, May 3rd, to have what's called a drive-in church service. And what it is, basically you guys are going to come. You're going to park in the parking lot like you normally do, but instead of coming into the church, you're actually going to stay in your cars, and we are going to broadcast the music, the scripture reading, and the sermon out to your radios. We're going to pick a frequency, we're going to iron out all those details, and you're going to listen. You're not going to get out of the car unless you need to go to the restroom, in which case you can use the restroom in the church, and again, more details will be forthcoming. But we are looking forward to getting together, at least in the parking lot. We can wave at each other from the parking lot. If you want to roll down your windows, that's up to you. But we are going to be able to see one another, hear the Word of God, and we're going to break bread together in the Holy Supper. We have these little communion cups that are two times sealed. First the juice is sealed, and then on top of that there's a wafer, and that's sealed. We'll be passing those out and sharing communion together. So if you have any questions about that, I encourage you to shoot me an email, give me a phone call, text me, and we can answer any questions that you have about that. Let's turn our attention now to the ministry of the Word. I'd like you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Psalm 90. Psalm 90. Turn in the book of Psalms to the 90th Psalm, and we're gonna get to that in just a moment. I'm sure that many of you have read these statistics, but I read a very interesting statistic the other day that during lockdown or stay-at-home orders, people across the nation are spending as many as eight hours a day streaming things like Netflix. You have to admit, for I think all of us in this generation for the most part, This is, as I've said many times, a new category for us. This whole lockdown thing, this whole quarantine thing, we've never experienced it. So naturally, we're trying to figure it out as we go. Now, I just want to say at the outset, I know that there are some in our congregation who have continued to go into work every day and life is business as normal for them. So I know that there's going to be exceptions to the things I'm going to talk about this morning. But for most of us, Many, if not most of you, if you're working, you're working from home, which means that you're dealing with the daily distractions at home that you wouldn't normally deal with. And the world has a particular way of dealing with things like lockdown. There are certain things that they're going to do with their time. There are certain ways in which they're going to squander their time. And I guess a question I have this morning for us is, during lockdown or stay-at-home orders, should a Christian's use of time look any different than the world's use of time? Well, the simple answer to that is yes. And before I go any further, I just want to qualify by saying I'm not saying that it looks so radically different that Christians do things that nobody's ever heard of before. I'm not saying that. It's okay for Christians to watch Netflix. It's okay for Christians to shop on Amazon. Again, I'm not saying that. What I am saying is an inordinate use of such things when a good thing becomes an ultimate thing. Should Christians' use of time How they speak with their time, how they act with their time, what they think about in their time. Should it look differently than the world? Yes. I would submit to you that as Christians, we need to think outside the box. And we do that first by recognizing, first and foremost, that COVID-19 is the sovereign will of the Lord. Let me repeat. This is no accident. The Lord has sovereignly in His wisdom, for reasons known unto Him in the counsel of the triune God, has decided and implemented plans to bring about this spread of COVID-19. We don't understand why. We don't know what He's doing. But I'll say this. When God does something extraordinary, we need to bear in mind that He's trying to get our attention. Can I say that again? When God does things out of the ordinary, when He does things that are extra-ordinary, He's trying to get our attention. Perhaps He's trying, for example, to get us to re-examine some long-standing habits in our lives that have in some way, shape, or form impeded our sanctification or impeded the joy and the fire of our marriage, or impeded the way in which we raise our children. Maybe there's some tension there, whether your children are young or teenagers or maybe even out of the house. Maybe there's something that we've lost along the way, that we've forgotten along the way, that we've let fall off the plate, if you will, that God is trying to say through this ordeal known as COVID-19, hey, remember this, come back to it. And when I say God is trying to get our attention, I don't mean by that that you get the virus. I mean, you may or may not get the virus. I hope you don't. If you do, it's the sovereign will of the Lord, and He's got a plan for it. But I have a much more modest intention in what I mean by that. I mean that for most of us, our lives have been severely interrupted. no doubt there are silver linings throughout this time, right? I mean, many of us through this time have been able to see family in certain quantities of time that we wouldn't normally see them in, and that's a beautiful thing. And I mean extended family, but not to mention your immediate family. You're getting some concentrated time with your family. Now, on the one hand, that can and perhaps is, in your case, a very good thing, a very positive thing, a very encouraging thing. Let's not lie and let's not try to live that Facebook life. We also know that the flip side of that is that it's going to cause some tension. And I would say, as Kierkegaard says about anxiety, instead of trying to avoid things like anxiety or avoid things like tension, you embrace it. And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning. I want to talk to you about, from the Word of God, this idea of redeeming the time. We've got a lot of time on our hands right now. And the bottom line is that we need to be reminded that time is a gift from the Lord and He expects us to use it wisely. And I think that we all want to emerge from this time of lockdown with a clear conscience as to what we did with our time, right? We want to believe that our time was redeemed, that it was used well. We don't want to have any regrets coming out of lockdown. We all know that we will, but we want to strive while we're still in the midst of this. And who knows where the end is at this point. It could be another four weeks. It could be more. That's why I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm chapter 90. This psalm was more than likely written by Moses at a time when he was reflecting back on the wilderness wanderings. And as he thought about those 40 years in the wilderness, many scholars say that as many as 600,000 people died. And that's the time that we see ourselves in right now, right? I don't know what the numbers are. Last I checked, it was something like 40,000 deaths. I don't know if that's in the States or worldwide, but there's deaths going on all over the place due to COVID-19. We're seeing people drop left and right. And it's in this context that we want to consider Psalm 90. But I want you to consider first the idea that time is precious and of limited commodity. Look at Psalm 90. Verse 1, a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born, or thou didst give birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Thou didst turn back man into dust, and didst say, Return, O children of men. I want you to consider, just for a moment, This idea that time is precious and of limited commodity. I want you to notice in verses 2 and 4 that the psalmist or Moses is basically contrasting God in verses 2 and 4 with mankind in the other verses through verse 10. He says in verse 2 that before the mountains were born, God, you gave birth to the earth and the world. You are from everlasting to everlasting. You are eternal. You have no beginning. You will have no end. You are the Ancient of Days. You are eternal. Everlasting God. But man's life? in the land of the living, which is a phrase that the Old Testament uses for this time before you die, man's life is exceedingly short. Verse five, God causes the years of man to sweep away like a flood. Our years, verses five and six, are like grass. It sprouts in the morning and in the evening it's gone. And what is this shortness of life due to? It is due to the sin of Adam and our own sin. Look at verses seven through nine. for we have been consumed by your anger, and by your wrath we have been dismayed. You have placed our iniquities before you, our secret sins, in the light of your presence. For all our days have declined in your fury, we have finished our years like a sigh." What is Moses reflecting back on here? He's reflecting back on that chasm that stands between God and man, a chasm that is due to sin. Let me tell you something. And as for the days of our life, they contain 70 years, or if due to strength, 80 years. Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for soon it is gone and we fly away. You know, the average lifespan even in our day, you know, 70 to 80 years. And the thing is, is that's nothing. That's nothing, especially when you read those stories in the early chapters of Genesis where people were living up until 900 years. You know, young people, you, You think that life goes so slowly, you're waiting till you're a teenager, then you're waiting till you're 16 so you can drive a car, then you're waiting till you're 18 so you can go up to college, and you think, oh, the years go by so slowly, and my birthday takes forever to get here. You think it goes slowly now, but the day's gonna come where you're gonna ask, where did all the years go? Trust me. Go ask a silver-headed saint in our church, what do you think about time? See, we are so far removed from the Garden that 70 or 80 years has become normal. We're not flabbergasted by it anymore. We should be flabbergasted by the fact that we live only 70 to 80 years. But I want you to think of it, it's like the Israelites, right, when they were in slavery? They had all this food that they, you know, it was just okay back then. But then they start wandering in the wilderness and they start longing for what was normal. Oh, the fish and the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, that was normal. So when they were liberated and wandering around in the desert, they were crying out for it. Okay, that had become the normal, but we do the same thing. We have all this time. And the question I have for us is what are we doing with it? Are we being lulled to apathy and insignificance by binging on things like Netflix? Again, I don't want this to die of a thousand qualifications. I'm only going to say this one more time. There's nothing wrong in and of itself with watching Netflix. But when you give yourself over to anything, I don't care what it is, that takes your sense of zeal for the Lord, and for his people, and for the church, and for the kingdom, and for the gospel, and for salvation away, and you're just apathetic about it. That's not a good thing. Are you checking the news every five minutes? I know I find myself doing that sometimes. What's the newest thing? Nothing, just another article about nothing. And again, not saying those things are bad, but are we losing ourselves in social media such that We don't even see the people in front of us. You see, time is a precious commodity that, listen, once it is lost, it cannot be recovered. You know, people are comparing the economic crash that's probably coming and already started to rear its ugly head that's in our country now to the recession back in 2008 with the housing bubble. And, you know, as I think back on that, I'm like, you know, people lost their houses, and that was bad. People lost their cars, that was bad. People even lost their retirement, that's bad. But all those things, you know, those things, you can build those things back up. You can eventually buy another house. You can eventually buy another car. You can eventually build your retirement back up. But time, once time is gone, it's gone. And that's why I repeat, time is a precious and limited commodity. And we want to live as if we have no regrets. But it's hard for us. It's hard for us to see our need for wisdom in the moment, isn't it? If I could give one small piece of advice, if most or all of your closest friends and relatives and brethren are telling you that you're wrong or that you need to grow in an area, you probably do. Don't be so pigheaded as to think that you're smarter than everyone else. But that's the point. So often we do. We think that we're smarter than everybody else. We would never say that, but we think that we're smarter than everybody else. We think that it's going to be different than us. We think that we don't need to plan for the future. We think that we've got time on our hands. We've got plenty of time to make those decisions, right? We think that our children are just going to magically become Christians without catechizing them, or our abs will miraculously turn into a six pack without doing crunches and watching what we eat. It's just going to magically happen. They're magically delicious. It's just going to happen. We don't make good use of time, and that's why the psalmist says in verse 12, teach us to number our days. Teach us, verse 12, to number our days. teaches to get a heart of wisdom. This in Psalm 90 verse 12 is basically the Old Testament version of Paul in Ephesians 5 verses 15 through 17. Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise, but wise, making the most of your time. Other versions say redeeming the time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. So as I said, the world has a way of getting through stay-at-home orders, but just because the rest of the world is doing it doesn't mean that it is wisdom for us to do the same thing. In the time of COVID-19, you just stay home and binge watch TV or get on social media or whatever. No, we're Christians. No, things are going to look different. You know, now is an unparalleled time when most of us actually have the time to do something that we've wanted to do for a long time. And I would say that now is the time when we need to take decisive action. Napoleon Bonaparte, that great strategist, said, in every battle, there is a 10 to 15 minute window that is crucial. If you take advantage of that moment, you will win the battle. If you squander that moment, you will lose the battle. How much wisdom, how much common grace did the Lord give that man? And I would say that 10 to 15 minute window, speaking metaphorically, is with us now. We are in a season of our life where we have ample amount of time on our hands. We need to be wise with how we use this time. We need to be wise in the words that we speak. We need to redeem every word that comes out of our mouth. We need to dispense with some of the words that are coming out of some of our mouths. We need to be intentional to be using our words, using our tongues to build up as much as we possibly can. You know, Jesus said, I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. I've got to be honest with you, brethren, that has woken me up in the middle of the night on more than one occasion and scared me. And I think that that's one of the things that it should do. We need to be diligent in the decisions that we make with the time we have. We need to be diligent in the things that we leave undone and the things that we do. It's an old, tired phrase, but I think there's much wisdom to it. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. You know, I know that's a cute, trite little phrase, but beloved, it's true. It's true. Jesus is not going to care how big your yard was. He's not. He loves you. He's the one that gave you the yard. Jesus isn't gonna care that your grass was greener than your neighbor's. I'm sorry, he's just not gonna care. You know who he's gonna care about? Did you love me? Did you love my word? Did you take my word to those who needed it? Okay? Who's the enemy in all this? If we find ourselves, and this is the case always, not just during lockdown orders during COVID-19, but if we find ourselves in a battle to make the best use of time, who or what is the enemy? The enemy is procrastination. Oh yeah, yeah. The enemy is procrastination. And procrastination is crafty, very crafty. If I could personify procrastination for a moment. Procrastination is deceptive because it leads you to believe that you'll be different tomorrow, that you'll magically have desire to do tomorrow what you didn't have desire to do today. Nope, nope. The only thing different about tomorrow is the weather, okay? And if you're in Hampton Roads, it's different every 15 minutes. But when you wake up tomorrow, there you are, the same person. If you want to start to kill a habit or continue killing a habit, today is the day. Not tomorrow. Not the next day. Not next week. And the encouraging thing about all of this is that if you work on developing a healthy habit today, then you're going to have a little more momentum tomorrow to do it again. And then in two days, you'll have two days worth of momentum. In three days, three. You know what the experts say for what it's worth? You do anything for 21 days and it becomes a habit. It becomes a habit. So how can we redeem time during this COVID-19 lockdown? Number one on the top of the list is in this time where you have more time on your hands, give some time to prayer. If I had a nickel every time I said, and every time I heard somebody say, Well, I don't pray like I should. I don't pray as much as I should. I don't pray as fervently as I should. It's like the perennial confession at a prayer meeting. It's the perennial confession at a time of accountability. We're always telling each other how horrible we are at prayer. I get it. Now we have a time where we have more time on our hands. And I've been struggling in prayer. It's crazy. You would think With more time, it would be easier to pray. I've actually found it harder to pray, but give some time to prayer. I mean, can I just say one thing before I move on to the next point? I know that we're working on a vaccine to get this thing taken care of, but you know what? At the end of the day, the Lord is going to give the solution to all this. So if the Lord is going to bring this thing to a speedy end, what should we as his children do? We should pray. that he would bring that solution in a speedy manner. Here's a second thing you could do to redeem the time. How about reach out to somebody and attempt reconciliation. Somebody with whom you have tension in a relationship. It's been years and you feel like you haven't made any progress. And you know what? You don't have to bring back or trudge back up all the other stuff. necessarily. You know what you could do? I was just talking to somebody today and they were talking about a long-standing relationship in which they have tension with somebody. It's actually his dad. And he was asking me, he's like, I feel like I've done everything I can. I feel like my dad's not listening. Should I broach the topic again, or should I just be like, hey, Paul says, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men, and I feel like I've done everything I can do to be at peace with all men, so just leave it where it is. And what I told him, for what it's worth, I said, you know, one thing you could do is you could just call him up, and without any qualification, just say, can I just tell you something I appreciate about you? Can I tell you why I respect you? So make an attempt to reconcile. Thirdly, serve your brethren. Well, how do I do that? Well, you could surprise them with a meal. It's a very common thing that we do. But you know another way you could do it? The stay-at-home orders are that you can't meet with more than 10 people, but you can meet with less than 10 people. You can have somebody over to your house for dinner. Eating is essential. There you go. Have some people over. Maybe you've been in the church, this church, for 10 years and you've never had the so-and-so's over. Have them over if their conscience is okay with it. Now is a wonderful time to get to know people in the body. Now is a wonderful time to just invite some other brothers and sisters over with their family or by themselves, whatever the case may be, and say, tell me your testimony. I want to hear how you came to the Lord. Tell me how the Lord brought you through a difficult time in your life. Let me just have a front row seat to how the Lord is putting His glory on display. What's a fourth thing you could do? For those specifically, for those of you who have children, small children, but this applies to if you have children at all, take some time to work on family worship habits. This is a wonderful time to hone your craft and your style and your habit and your pattern of family worship. I promise you, if you give them a foundation, they will not soon forget it. I'm not saying they're all going to become believers, but I will say this. I will say this. The Lord is pleased to work generationally. He doesn't do it in a vacuum, he does it through means. And one of those means is that daily, or as often as is possible, not just Sunday, the father as the head of the household is bringing his family to the altar of worship, opening up the word of God, breaking the bread of life, giving it to them, applying it, showing how it fits, how it's relevant in life, giving them the gospel. take some time to work on your family worship. Fifthly, use this time to get to know your neighbors and maybe even share the gospel with them if you haven't already done so. Now there's some of you out there who you've already shared the gospel with your neighbors and God bless you for doing that. But I'm willing to bet that there's some in our congregation who have lived next to their neighbors for 10, 15 years and have never shared the gospel with them. Here's a wonderful opportunity. And can I tell you something? I don't know anything about your neighbors, but now more than ever, I'll bet they're fearful, I'll bet they're scared, and I'll bet they could use some hope. Number six, just gonna throw this out there, exercise. You say, Josh, what are you, my personal trainer? No, I'm not your personal trainer, okay? I'm not trying to be, all right? I don't even play one on TV. I'm a preacher, that's what I do. But I preach to embodied souls, okay? And I can tell you on more than one occasion in my counseling ministry, I've had people who have come and we've opened up the Word of God. I've listened to what they had to say. They were depressed. And as they were unpacking what was going on and I was trying to get a read on where to go, I could tell with some of them that what they needed to do is get some endorphins going. Sometimes it's not always primarily a spiritual thing. Any problem we have in life, in some way, shape, or form, has spiritualness in it. But that doesn't always mean that's a primary problem. Sometimes people just need to get out and get some exercise. We are embodied souls. What happens to our body affects our souls. What happens to our souls affects our bodies. They're intertwined. They're intermeshed. And I know that in my own life, there's been times when I'm like, I am depressed. What in the world is going on? I realize I haven't ran or cycled or walked the dog or even gone up my own stairs for seven days. You need to exercise. So that's something you can do. Finally, husbands, if you don't know what communicates love to your wife, sometimes people call it a love language. I don't care what you call it. You need to find that out. And if you do know, practice it. Write your wife a poem. Nobody cares if you're horrible at poetry. I'm horrible at poetry. I get a kick out of reading my poetry. It's just absolutely horrendous. But my wife, she loves it. Not because the poetry's good, but she loves it because I took the time out to think about her. Write your wife a poem. Clean the dishes for her. Buy her a gift. Spend some time communicating to your wife that you love her. Build up that marriage relationship. Wives do the same thing. When your husband gets home, have his favorite dinner cooked and hot and ready on the table, ready to go, or his favorite drink, or his favorite sweatshirt, whatever the case may be. You know your husband, and husband, you know your wife. But speak to them in a love language that they can understand. Well, as we come to a close, I just want to say this whole idea of taking advantage of the time. I don't know about you, but even in preparing this, I was severely afflicted with guilt. Because I don't use the time that the Lord has given me in the ways that I should. I sometimes squander time. Do you find yourself doing the same thing? And do you find yourself wrestling with guilt for time lost that cannot be recovered? Well, that's where the gospel comes in, beloved. Paul tells us in Galatians 4, 4 and 5, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born into the law, in order to redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. You see, Jesus came, born under the law, to keep that law perfectly. Not just the law, thou shalt and thou shalt not, but wisdom. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law and Jesus perfectly embodied wisdom such that if you want to know what wisdom is in the perfect use of time, look to Jesus. Jesus never wasted a moment. Jesus would often retreat into solitude and pray to the Father Almighty. And you know what's crazy? Even 2,000 years ago as he was praying, I would not be surprised if if your name fell off of his lips in prayer to the Father. That's how much he loves us. He was perfect, so perfect that the Father accepted his sacrifice, which covered our sins. If you have squandered your time, you don't need to look back any further at your own squandering of time, but you look to the perfect keeping of time of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, 2,000 years ago. It culminated in the cross and then had its denouement, if you will, in the resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. So look to Jesus. Turn from your sins. Turn from your procrastination. Turn from your squandering of time and trust in Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Amen. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for this time. We pray that you would give us a good and full Lord's Day, and we ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. You are dismissed.