Redeeming the time because the days are evil,
Ephesians 5 16.
And what is Saint Paul saying here, redeeming
the time because the days are evil?
He is literally saying time is one of
the most precious gifts God ever gave the
human race.
And maybe one day we speak about time
as a topic.
Time is so priceless.
Time is so precious.
Do not waste it in vanities.
Just like the ants, learn from them.
They don't waste time.
All of summer, every second, every minute, every
hour, every day of summer, they never stop
working, working hard, hard, hard to prepare for
the freezing winter that is coming upon them
so they can survive the winter.
They don't waste time.
Like some of us do, going out for
no reason, reading something that is useless, watching
something that is pointless.
What are you wasting time for?
Do you not realize that time is extremely
precious gift from God?
I'll give you an idea how time is
precious.
Some people have asked me, why didn't God
forgive Satan when he made the mistake in
heaven?
Why didn't he forgive him?
He is all merciful.
He is all love.
Isn't Satan one of his creations?
Yes, of course.
Then why didn't he forgive him?
Well, for one simple fact and truth, because
of time.
He could not forgive him.
Because Satan was an angel and the highest
rank in the angelic orders called the cherubims.
He was one of the highest rank in
the angelic orders called the cherubims.
Now, angels are in heaven.
God created them in heaven and placed them
in heaven.
And in heaven, there is one thing, eternal
life.
There is no time.
Time is absent in heaven.
So that means, when you decide on doing
something in heaven, you only have once to
go at it and once only.
There is no time to come back and
say, sorry, I made a mistake.
Are you with me?
Because every tick is a new fresh start
for all of us.
But in heaven, there is no time.
So when the angel made the mistake, he
made it in a realm that has no
time.
Therefore, there was no time for him to
come back and say, sorry, that mistake was
eternal.
He couldn't come back.
Do you realize how easy for a human
being, after making a mistake, coming back to
God and say, please forgive me, Lord.
How come it's so easy?
Because of time.
I made the mistake in this second.
The next second has got nothing to do
with the second where I made that mistake
in.
Then other second is a fresh brand new
start.
I can come back in the next second
and say to God, I'm sorry, forgive me
for my sin.
It is time that permits us and allow
us as humans to come back again and
again and again, seeking God's mercy and forgiveness.
Time is precious.
Do not waste it.
And like one of the church fathers put
it so beautifully, he says, time is a
distraction to eternity.
It was the grace of God that put
us, created us and placed us in a
realm that is governed by time.
So that time would take us away from
eternity in order to be able to come
back and say, sorry, when we make mistakes.
This is how much God loves us.
He knew we were going to make a
mistake.
That's why he put us in a realm
that is governed by time.
Time is a distraction to eternity.
It takes us out of the eternal realm.
The moment the spirit leaves the body, we
enter the eternal realm.
And that's why it's too late to come
back and say, sorry, after the spirit leaves
the body.
Too late.
While you are in the body, you have
the time to come back and say, Lord,
I'm sorry, after the spirit leaves the body,
gone.
Gone.
So that summer, that hot summer symbolizes the
Holy Spirit.
And Saint Paul, like we mentioned in Ephesians
5.16, he says, we need to redeem
that time because the days are evil.
Be wise like the ants.
Work hard for your eternity.
Work hard before winter comes and you're not
able to work anymore.
If summer represents the spirit in the body,
then winter represents spirit leaving the body.
Dead.
Once the spirit leaves the body too late,
you can't say, I'm sorry.
It's not going to get anywhere.
Too late.
Therefore, my beloveds, do not waste this time
on worldly matters, on materialistic matters.
Do not waste this time on pleasure sometimes.
I want to go out with me mates.
I'm going downtown, brother.
I'm going to sit in the car with
the big sabufa habibi in the backseat going.
And I go clubbing and I go and
hang around Mecca till 3am.
What are you doing hanging around Mecca till
3am?
What are you doing in those dark little
alleys exchanging those bags of white powder?
Stop it.
What are you doing in the clubs and
in the pubs gambling and drinking and having
so-called fun?
Poisonous fun.
That time is precious.
Once this tick goes by, nothing can bring
it back.
Nothing.
My beloved daughter, my beloved son, I beg
you, don't be deceived by the world.
Don't listen to people that are trying frantically
to take you away from Christ.
Don't.
That is satanic way.
Satan came to destroy everything good God created.
Do not.
When friends say to you, let's go to
the city, don't run and don't choose them
to be your friends because your friends should
say to you, let's go to the church,
not the club.
Let's go to the light, not darkness.
Let's go to the truth, not the lie.
Let's go to the antidote, not the poisonous
snake.
Do not.
Come to Christ for time is of the
essence.
It's precious.
Stop wasting this time on empty, hopeless, useless
things.
I'm not saying for you not to work
and have a house.
I'm not saying for you not to work
and go on a holiday.
I'm not saying for you not to work
and buy a nice car or nice clothes
or enjoy a moment, but don't let your
entire life based on worldly matters.
Don't fight over materialistic matters.
Don't argue and don't cling to this world
because it was never yours, never will be.
For God's sake, wake up.
Wake up.
All we care about on how I look
beautiful from outside, how about we spend time
to make ourselves look beautiful from inside in
the presence of the Almighty God.
We spend so much on trying to lose
weight and making my face look beautiful and
put the foundation and the mascara and the
mascara and go and do some laser eyebrows
and go to Istanbul to stretch the skin.
The skin is going to come back and
be wrinkled again no matter how many times
you stretch it.
You need to spend time on your heart
my child.
Stop spending time only on your face and
ignore the heart.
Come back and look inside and see how
God is seeing it.
And let me tell you this, the first
step ever in the path to humility, the
first step ever in the path to humility
is when we begin to see our heart
the way God sees it.
And the question is to me and to
all of us, if God comes now and
checks my heart, how would he see it?
Lord have mercy.
Full of spider webs, full of envy and
jealousy and hatred and bigotry and pride and
self ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, dark places.
Spend the time to beautifying your heart.
Stop just looking at your external appearance for
the Lord's sake.
Begin to look to look at your internal
appearance.
Redeeming the time for the days are evil.
Summer for ants is your spirit and the
body.
And as long as the spirit is in
the body, we will always have the opportunity
to come back and say to the Lord,
forgive me Lord for I have sinned.
Have mercy on me.