Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
June 21, 2015 - W1525

Well, if you take out your notes, we're going to talk a little bit about how God multiplies time.?If you know how to invest wisely in this one area of your life, God promises to multiply the fruit and the days of your life.

Although you can’t buy time, it can be invested, and if you invest it wisely, God promises to multiply it.

Proverbs 9:11 says:

"For by me your days will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you." 

This is what the Bible says about how God multiplies time: 

"Be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, for the days are evil." (Ephesians 5:15) 

Consequently if you squander your time, if you do nothing with your time, you invest it poorly, evil is waiting. Because it's waiting to give you the consequences of poorly invested time? dead ends, frustrations and empty results. And you'll run into your future, and when you get there, its void - no fruit.

When it comes to life, don't let five words determine the success of your future:

"I didn't have the time."

Everyone has been given the same amount of time. In fact, time is equal to life. In other words, if you waste your time, you waste your life, but if you master your time, you master your life.

Psalms 90 verse 12 says this:

"Teach us to number our days, so we may present to you a heart of wisdom." 

Did you know that in order to steward our days and our time, it's something we can learn? You've heard it said that time is money. Not true. You can make more money, but you can't make more time. However, God said He will multiply the time you have if you use it correctly.

I want to talk to you today about our last 5?percent of our time. This 5?percent here, if you'll invest that wisely, God will multiply your life in a huge exponential way. Let me say it this way. 85?percent of what you do anybody can do? checking your email, texting, talking on the phone, checking your computer, driving around, sitting in a clinic or a seminar, or whatever it might be. Most of what you do? 85?percent of what you do anybody can do. 10?percent of what you do someone with some measure of training can do? your job, salesmanship or mechanic or doctoring or whatever it might be. You got the training. Someone with the same amount of training can do 10?percent of what you're doing.

But 5?percent of your life only you can do. No one else can do it. And if you'll invest this last 5?percent correctly, God uses that as a multiplying effect for the other 95?percent of your life. Now, I'm not saying to neglect the other 95?percent. I'm just saying prioritize that 5?percent, not the other way around. If you prioritize this, it won't change that, but if you prioritize that, it will multiply this. "By me your days will be multiplied," He says.

That 5?percent is sort of like the ingredients out of which life is made of. It's the most important part. In fact, that's exactly what God is going to hold you and me accountable for in that day. It's that 5?percent. You might ask, "Well, how many hours is that last 5?percent equal to that you have during the week?"

Well, let's put it this way. There are 168 hours in a week. Now, of those, about 50 hours you'll spend sleeping. And 22 of those hours you're going to spend eating. But 11 hours you're going to spend in personal hygiene? showering, shaving, putting on makeup, etc. And ten hours in commuting.

You're going to have about 133 hours taken, and so you have about 35 hours left. You divide this by seven days and you end up with about 5 hours a day which is about 10% of your day. But I want to talk to you about your last 5%.

This 5?percent is absolutely critical because that's the multiplying effect. Well, what's that 5?percent? The 5?percent of your life, other people can do this, but that last 5?percent only you can do. 5?percent of your life - you can't delegate it out. You can't ask someone else to do it. You can't train somebody to do it. Only you can do it. Now, listen very carefully. Your greatest asset is your uniqueness. Only you can do certain things, and here they are. Let me just share it from my life and my perspective.

Only I can be a husband to my wife Anna. Nobody else in the universe can do that. I can't train someone to do it. I can't ask someone else to do it. Only I can be a dad to my kids. No one else can do that. Only I can keep myself spiritually growing and healthy. I can't ask someone else to become holy for me. The other is to keep myself physically healthy. The other thing is taking time to enjoy life. No one can do that for you. Only you can.

So here are the five things that make up the last 5 percent:

Number one is you making sure that you have a vibrant and growing relationship with your spouse.?

Did you know that that's one of the prerequisites for being a servant of God, and it really means to be a one woman man? You miss this and it will start to eat and corrode the rest of your life.

I have been in ministry now for 40 years, and if I were to say anything to you that would bring a prescription for success, I'd say stick with your wife. That's right. A vibrant relationship with your spouse. It's part of your last 5?percent. You miss that, you miss the multiplier effect.

The second thing is not only a vibrant relationship with your spouse but also with your family, your children. Because, remember, only I can be a dad to my kids. Nobody else. I can't delegate that out. I can't hope somebody else will do it for me. I can't abdicate it out to the school system. It's me.

Now, you can't guarantee your children’s success. There's going to be some that go left, some go south; but you have to spend the time, and God uses that. It’s not through the success or the results of your kid, but He will measure the investment in them. That's the multiplier effect. Every child will have his or her own way of thinking, his or her own choices that they will make. But you have your choice.

The third, is to make sure that you're growing spiritually.

In Colossians 1:10 it says:

"See to it that you walk in the manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." 

See, you can't delegate out your spiritual growth. You can't fake it. Your faith and your commitment are going to be tested. Because every single one of us will have opportune moments that the evil one is waiting for, and those moments have your future tied to it. So the decisions that you must make have to be somehow embedded in your soul before the questions are asked, and that's why your spiritual growth is of the utmost importance. Only you can grow yourself spiritually. That's why we encourage everyone here at New Hope to do daily devotions.

And your physical health is of utmost importance because no one else is going to do it for you, and if your health is down, it affects the other 95?percent of your life.

Indeed, in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 it says:

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body." 

Did you know that God is honored when we do our best to keep ourselves healthy? It honors God which tells me if I let it go, it dishonors God.

And then, lastly, only you can take time to enjoy life. There's an old Rabbinic saying, it goes like this: One day God is going to hold all of us accountable for all of the things he created for us to enjoy but we refused to do so.

Consider all the beauty of Hawaii - after a while we take it for granted. I remember when we were pioneering this church. For the first four years of New Hope Oahu, I was so busy, I never touched the ocean, and we live on an island and I never went into the water. And I thought, you know, I've got to take time to enjoy a little bit of what God has created. Otherwise, we get so caught up in the rat race, we don't take time to enjoy life.

I'm going to give you what I call the 10second rulein enjoying life. Take ten more seconds to look at a sunset. Because, you see, if you apply this 10second rule, it will help you so much because everyone has to become responsible for his or her own happiness. How often we abdicate or relegate our happiness to somebody else. You are responsible for your own happiness, and I have found that people are only going to be about as happy as they want to be.

I've got a friend that is mad about everything. He's mad about air. He's mad about everything. Whatever it is, he's mad. And I thought, you are only as happy as you want to be because you have delegated out your happiness to everybody else, and they're going to stomp it flat. You are responsible for your own happiness.

So here's the 10second rule. Ten seconds more talking to your son, just ten seconds. Ten seconds more just saying "hello" to somebody or "goodbye" to your wife, ten seconds more saying "good night" to your daughter, ten seconds more with that cup of coffee just to enjoy that taste. Ten seconds more with that meal. I know some of you take way more than that over meals, but ten seconds just to take the moment to enjoy that taste instead of gulping it down, swallowing it whole, just take ten seconds more. If you'll apply the 10second rule, it will change your whole outlook on life.

We rush from point A?to point B. As soon as the service is over, we're running out there because we want to get to the movies or do this. We're always thinking about the next thing. Ten seconds more. Ten seconds more being patient. Ten seconds more of telling a friend that you appreciate them. Ten seconds more to articulate how much? how thankful you are to your wife, how thankful you are for your husband, how thankful you are for your friend or your child or your pastor, anything. Ten seconds. Ten seconds.

If you'll apply that rule, watch how God will take your last 5?percent and make it the greatest multiplying effect that will change the other 95?percent of your life. Amen?

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