The Dream Team, Part 6

Pastor Tom Van Kempen
Written By Daniel Hahn

Type: Sunday Morning Service

Series: The Dream Team

Sermon: Part 6 - What Time Is It?

🗣️ Speaker: Pastor Tom Van Kempen

Life is short, and Scripture calls us to live with urgency, investing our days in God’s purposes rather than excuses or selfish pursuits. Each believer has been uniquely gifted to serve others, and the time to get in the game is now. Above all, love must guide our actions, covering sin, promoting healing, and showing the world the reality of our faith.

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What Time Is It? Living with Urgency and Purpose

Every person faces the reality that life is short. Whether our days number seventy, eighty, or less, time passes quickly, and Scripture reminds us to live with intention. Psalm 90:12 urges us to number our days so we may gain a heart of wisdom, challenging us to consider how we are investing the time God has given.

The Urgency of the Hour

Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:7, “The end of all things is at hand. Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.” He emphasized that the stakes are eternal, and believers cannot afford to remain on the sidelines. Just as an athlete knows when it’s game time, we too must recognize that the spiritual clock is ticking.

Moving Beyond Excuses

Excuses are easy—“I’m not qualified,” “I’m too busy,” or “I don’t know where to start.” Yet none of us are qualified on our own; it is by God’s grace and gifting that we are able to serve. Opportunities to minister are all around us, and the right time is not someday in the future—the right time is now.

Love as the Guiding Force

Peter continues by highlighting the central role of love: “Above all things, have fervent love for one another” (1 Peter 4:8). True love stretches beyond our natural circles and even extends to those who are difficult to love. Love covers wounds, protects reputations, and promotes healing, demonstrating the reality of God’s presence among His people.

Everyone Has a Gift to Use

1 Peter 4:10 affirms that each believer has received a gift to steward. Some gifts cluster together, others flow from past experiences or even pain, but all are meant to build up the body of Christ. The question is not whether you have a gift, but whether you will choose to use it.

Living Faithfully to the End

Jesus’ parable of the talents reminds us that faithfulness is rewarded, while passivity leads to loss. Life is too precious to waste chasing temporary fame or possessions. The greatest reward will be hearing the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” as we step into eternity.

  • Use the questions listed below as a launching point to discuss the sermon points together as a family. These are great for dinner table discussions and small groups.

    Opening Question: When you hear the phrase “time is ticking away,” what emotions or thoughts come to mind?

    Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 4:7–11, Psalm 90:12

    Discussion Questions:

    1. How does numbering our days help us live with greater intentionality?

    2. What excuses tend to keep people from serving in ministry, and how can we overcome them?

    3. Why do you think Peter emphasizes love above all else in the context of urgency?

    4. What gifts do you believe God has placed in your life, and how might you use them to serve others?

    5. How would your daily life change if you truly lived as though time is short?

    Action Step: Identify one practical way you can serve this week—whether in church, at home, or in the community—and commit to following through.

  • 1 Peter 4:7–11
    Peter wrote to scattered believers in Asia Minor who were facing trials and persecution. His reminder that “the end of all things is at hand” reflects both the expectation of Christ’s imminent return and the urgency of living faithfully under pressure. Love, hospitality, and using one’s gifts were not optional extras but essential survival practices for the early church’s witness and unity.

    Psalm 90:10–12
    This psalm, attributed to Moses, contrasts the eternal nature of God with the brevity of human life. Ancient lifespans varied, but seventy to eighty years was considered a full life in Israelite culture. The prayer to “number our days” calls God’s people to humility, wisdom, and dependence on Him in the midst of life’s shortness.

    Matthew 25:14–30 (Parable of the Talents)
    In this parable, Jesus describes a master entrusting resources to his servants before leaving on a journey. Upon his return, the faithful are rewarded while the one who did nothing is rebuked. The parable underscores accountability, stewardship, and the expectation that God’s people actively use what He has entrusted until Christ’s return.

  • Introduction (5 min):
    Show a stopwatch or timer and let it tick loudly for a few seconds. Ask the kids, “What happens when the timer runs out?” Explain that just like in a game, life has a clock too—and God wants us to use our time wisely.

    Scripture (5 min):
    Read 1 Peter 4:10–11. Talk about how God gives each person special gifts to serve others.

    Craft (7 min):
    “Gift Box of Service” – Provide small paper boxes or envelopes. Have the kids decorate them and write or draw one way they can serve others this week.

    Game (5 min):
    “Beat the Clock” – Divide into teams and give them a simple task (like stacking cups or passing a ball). See how much they can do before the timer runs out. Relate it back: life is short, so we need to get busy serving God!

    Discussion Questions (5 min):

    1. What is one gift or talent you think God has given you?

    2. Why is it important to love others, even when it’s hard?

    3. How can you serve God at school or at home?

    Wrap-Up with Prayer (3 min):
    Pray together: “Lord, thank You for giving us gifts and time. Help us use them to love others and serve You every day.”

  • It's good to see everybody in the house of the Lord today. Today is week number six in our Dream Team series. And we've been really driving towards this week. We've been hoping that Oxford Assembly of God Churches is not the kind of church where the 20% do most of the work. We want everyone, say everyone. We want everyone to be involved in active ministry in some way, shape or form. So today I want to go back to the 1990s again and I want to talk about the Chicago Bulls just for a second. Any NBA fans? Yeah? Or are you Orlando Magic fans? You don't even like? Okay, okay. Well, whatever. The Chicago Bulls were probably one of the greatest teams that the NBA's ever seen. They won six championships in eight years. And if the greatest basketball player of all time hadn't taken two years out to play baseball, they probably would have won eight consecutive championships. They were a force to be reckoned with. Now, during their championship run, they would take time before the tip-off, and what they would do is they'd get together in a huddle, and you've probably seen this. Most teams get together in a huddle, and they would ask this question. One guy would yell it out. What time is that? And the other 12 players in unison would say, Game time who? Okay, are you guys ready? Game time who? What time is it? Not bad. I'm impressed. I'm appreciative. My high school team took it a step further. When I was coaching that team I told you about a couple of weeks ago that came back from 17 down. We would do it three times. Someone would yell, what time is it? Game time. What time is it? Game time. What time is it? Game time. What time is it? Game time. Who, who, who? Because those 90s bulls inspired this high school team to be a great team and they came back and as you remember, won the state championship. So today, I want to ask you a personal question. In your life, what time is it? Is it bench time? Is it stand time? Or is it game time? Peter in 1 Peter 4, verse 7, he says this, but the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers. When I read a scripture like this, I begin to understand that Peter, like many pastors today, are trying to convince, we're trying to our churches. He was trying to convince his audience that it's game time. It's not time to take a sabbatical. It's not time to be on the bench. It's not time to sit in the stands and watch the game. It's time to play. And so he uses this urgent language to help you to understand literally what is at stake. When he says the end of all things, he's referring literally to the the physical end of the world and the universe. And what he's trying to communicate in this letter is that we're fighting for the hearts and souls of humanity. That people's lives are on the line and their eternal destiny is at stake. And he wants you to understand even today that the time is short. Time's literally winding down. There is a proverbial scoreboard clock and it's ticking down to zero. If you remember the group from the early 90s called DC Talk, they had a song entitled, Time is Ticking Away. And the song went tick, tick, ticking away. Just last week, there was all this commotion that somebody predicted the end of the world was going to happen on September the 23rd. And here's my fear. That when people predict the end of the world to happen on a particular date and it doesn't, then people's hearts start to get hardened. Back 25 years ago, they were saying that the Mayan calendar predicted that the end of the world was going to happen in 2012. And it didn't happen. Many naysayers and doomsday speakers were saying that Y2K was going to usher in the end of the world. All of these predictions. And so sometimes we grow weary of hearing it and believe, you know what? It's either not going to happen or I've got plenty of time. I'm here to tell you, even if you don't believe we're in the final days, even if you don't believe Christ's return is imminent, I can tell you one thing. Your life is short even if you live to be 70 or 80. Amen? I mean 70 or 80 is nothing. I'm here to tell you. I came here nine months ago. Where did the nine months go? I mean, I feel like I started yesterday. It's almost been a year already. Time is tick, tick, ticking away. Psalm chapter 90 verses 10 and 12 say this, the days of our lives are 70 years. And if by reason of strength, they're 80 years. So teach us to number our days. that we may gain a heart of wisdom. So I want to help you. On a Wednesday night, about a month or so ago, I brought up a little graph. And my wife is helping me here bring up this little graph right here. And this is a graph to help you to number your days. Now, if you were here on Wednesday night, it's just a friendly reminder. If you weren't here, you get to see this for the first time. If you get to live to be 80, and there's no guarantees, You guys understand that right? I mean in light of what just happened to Charlie Kirk 31 years old you know there are no guarantees in life but if you're average and you get to live to be 70 or 80 you're going to live to about 29,000 days and so who are the teenagers in the house? If you're a teenager let me see your hand. Teenagers okay. Any other teenagers over here? Teenagers over here? Okay I see you in the back. Ah! Some people are raising their hands. by faith or they're just lying to me? One of the two. Okay? But if you're around 15, you're going to get 29,000 days to live. And you've already lived about 5,500. So you still got 23,000 to go. It looks like there's a long life out ahead of you. If you're 25, you're now down underneath 20,000 days. And when you put it in terms of days, it seems to go by so much quicker. I'm almost 65 years old. That means I've already lived 23,725 days. I've only got 5,000 left. I gotta get busy. Who can say amen? I mean, the end of our life isn't the time to take it easy and do nothing. The end of our life, if we're blessed to live to be this old, is a time to really make an impact on the next generation. Who can say amen? I don't want to scare those of you who are 80. But that's the full allotment right there. So if you're 80 or close to it, you're on bonus time. Listen, everybody's on bonus time. There's no guarantees here. And we need to live every day as if it's our last. What would you do if you knew you were dying tomorrow? Would it change your approach? Would it change your attitude? Unfortunately for most of us, we'd have to say yes. It would change what we do. We would change some things in an instant if we knew we had 30 days to live. We would probably do a lot of things differently. And so number three here, we need to understand it's time to get serious. That's the bottom line. We need to quit making excuses because so many of us, human beings have an infinite capacity for excuse making. Here's the probably on the top five list of excuses why I don't do anything at church. Probably number two or three is I'm not qualified. Did you know none of us are qualified? We're qualified by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we are gifted by the Spirit of God. Everything we get is through grace. Who can say amen? Everything we get is because God has made a provision for us. It's not through us it's done. It's through Him in Jesus' name. Then I see so much indecision. Pastor, I don't know what to do. That's why we're having a ministry fair today, so that you can go out into the gymnasium after this service. and you can go from booth to booth and you can talk to leaders and say, what is this all about? How can I get involved? You can ask yourself, God, what do you want me to do? Which booth do you want me to go to? The indecision, the hesitancy. Here's what people are waiting for. Just the right time. Well, the right time's now. They're waiting for an audible voice from God. The time is now. Pastor Tom, okay? But it's still an audible voice saying, go to the gym after the service. We're waiting for the perfect opportunity. There are none. There are good opportunities. There are no perfect opportunities. We need to quit waiting and get busy for God. And please don't use busyness as your excuse. I'm doing too much right now. There is nothing more important than what God wants you to do. Who can say, Amen. Some people are afraid of making mistakes, and I understand that, but we all make mistakes, so that's an irrelevant excuse. Here's the reality, okay? Most people don't get involved because they really don't want to. It's called selfishness. It's my time. I don't want to give it away. I want to sleep in. I want to do my favorite hobby. I want to listen to what the Bible says. Forget your long enough to lend a helping hand. Your life will never be judged by what you get, but by what you give. I'm just telling you, it says we need to be watchful, and then it says pray. If you sincerely don't know what to do, then I'm encouraging you to pray. Pray, God, what do you want from me? What have you gifted me with? How have I been uniquely designed? Why am I right here? at this church, at this particular time in history, there is something you want me to do. Reveal it to me in Jesus' name. Give me wisdom. Give me direction. And then pray for everybody else. Help Oxford Assembly of God so that everyone is placed in the role where they will be most beneficial to the kingdom of God. Who can say amen? That's what we want. We want to be a part of a team that is working in unity, going the same direction. What time is it? Thank you. Thank you so much. It's game time, but in the middle of the game, sometimes there's something called gut check time. This is when the pressure is on. And I've sensed more in the last year or two that the pressure is on the church. And when the pressure is on, what's on the inside usually comes to the surface. If something's ugly on the inside, Then anger, cursing, grumbling, murmuring, complaining comes out. If love's on the inside, love is what comes out. Listen to what Peter says, 1 Peter 4, 8 and 9. And above all things, in other words, the priority is right here. This is number one. Above all things, have fervent love for one another. For love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. So the priority is having a heart filled with love. It will guide you. It will move you. It will direct you to the right thing. Your gifting is not what's the most important. Your talents are not what's most important. Your experience is not what's the most important. Your opinions are not what's most important. It's how much love do you have inside your heart. The heart of a champion is a person whose heart beats in sync with God's heart. A person who so loves the world that he's willing to give whatever it takes for the kingdom of God. Now here's the problem. When it comes to loving people, the problem's the people. I'm just telling you. It's hard to love the unlovable. And I'm married to this wonderful woman right here. I don't know how she's put up with me for 40 years. Because God bless her, yes. I'm glad you didn't say bless her heart. But God bless her. Because there are times when I'm ornery. Grumpy. Ugly, ugly, stupid. Quit saying amen over here. And in November, we have our 40-year anniversary. I can tell you one thing about my wife. When you squeeze, love comes out. And so I'm one of the lucky ones. I get to love someone who's pretty lovable for the most part. But God's called us to love everybody. Even those that when you squeeze them, something ugly comes out. Something disgusting comes out. But when it comes first to the church, this verse and the one that follows it says, love one another, be hospitable to one another, and minister to one another. It's bang, bang, bang. You're supposed to love, love, love. When you read the entire New Testament, And it says, care for one another, greet for one another, serve one another, help one another, forgive one another, be kind to one another, submit to one another, encourage one another, teach one another, edify one another, think about one another, and the list goes on and on and on. Why are we commanded to do this? Because it's so difficult and challenging and hard and we have to be reminded again and again because it's by our love that they'll know we are Christians. That's right. They will know that our faith is real, authentic, and substantial based upon how we care for one another. And that's what draws people from the outside in hospitality. The Greek word is philozenos. And it literally means a love or a friendship with strangers or foreigners. So in order to really be hospitable to those on the outside, we have to be hospitable to those on the inside. One of the greatest examples of this that I've seen was at Charlie Kirk's funeral where Erica Kirk, the widow, stood up and in front of millions and millions of people around the world, she spoke to the assassin who killed her husband and she said, I forgive you. Could you have done that? Think about it. If someone killed the person you loved the most, would your response within the first week be, I forgive you? Because what she's really saying is, your soul is worth more than my grief. Are you listening? Your soul is worth more than my pain. It's worth more than my sorrow. And so I'm going to commit the ultimate act of love. And I'm going to forgive you. Because in the words of Jesus, he didn't really know what he was doing. He was manipulated by the demonic. He was manipulated by evil. He was manipulated by a culture that is trying to literally kill us and destroy us and steal from us. But the church stands in the middle of it and says, You don't get any more of our country. We're making a stand today in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. And we're going to do it by serving in a way that is hard to even understand. This word here for fervent love, he doesn't say just love. He says, I want you to fervent love. That Greek word means to stretch out. In other words, Peter's saying, what I want you to do is, I know you've got your little circle who you love, okay? But you've got to go far beyond those people in your family. You've got to go far beyond even your friends and your neighbors. You've got to stretch that tent as far as possible and love them, and then you have to serve them in Jesus' holy and precious name. Verse 8 says that love covers a multitude of sins. And I'm not talking about hiding them so nobody knows they took place, okay? That's not what Peter means. Peter's saying that there is something healing involved when it comes to true, biblical, agape kind of love. That it covers the wounds or the coldness of sin, kind of like a blanket. And it wraps somebody up and they feel the warmth of God temporarily and it gives them an opportunity to change their way. It covers them like the roof of a house covers you when the storms are raging outside and there's hail or wind or snow or whatever it is. And inside the house, you're protected from those things. You're protected from the lightning. You're not going to get struck. You're not going to die. It's protection. When you don't grumble and instead say positive things about people in front of others, you're protecting their reputations. You're protecting their personhood. You're protecting them in a beautiful way. And then finally, again, I'm not a nurse or a doctor, but I've been told that wounds are bandaged many times because the bandage actually promotes healing when it's covered. Do you understand that when you love somebody who's broken by sin, that you begin promoting the healing process in their life? By serving them. By ministering to them. You are bringing a healing and the possibility that they can be totally healed in the name of Jesus Christ. Who can say amen? And so what time is it? It's game time. It's get in the game time. 1 Peter 4 verse 10 says, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. This verse says that we all have a gift. And I don't think it's limiting it to one thing. I said this earlier in this series. I think it was in week one. I said people have what's been come to known as gift clusters. In other words, a lot of times a is a good teacher. Those are two different gifts. Pastoring is a gift. Teaching is a gift. Sometimes a pastor has both of those things. Okay? Sometimes people have the gift of encouragement and they also have the gift of hospitality. They seem to cluster in areas. And I found that to be true. Everybody has something that they can use to promote and to minister in the kingdom of God. So your responsibility is simple. Number one, you have to discover your gift. What has God called you to do? I had three people who went through the membership class this month, and they met me out in the gymnasium, and they had their tests that I had given them, and we had given a personality test, and we'd given a spiritual gifts test. And as we were looking at the test, we could see, oh, God made me in a unique way. I'm a little bit like this, and I'm Not like this. And we didn't finish grading it. That was on them. But I'm sure as they finished grading the test, they were like, yeah, that matches my personality. A test doesn't tell you who you are. It confirms things you already know. See what I'm saying? Because we all kind of know. We all grew up as three, four, five, six-year-olds, and we had dreams, and we had aspirations, and some of those were worldly, okay? Some of those were from the world. But some of those were in accordance with the design that God placed in your life. God made you unique and special and beautiful. And he made you for his kingdom, for good works in the name of Jesus Christ. Another thing is, is you can look at your negative life experiences. Your misery oftentimes becomes your ministry. I know people who are drug addicts, alcoholics. They go to, go to, NA or AA and one of the first things they have to do is they have to get a sponsor. Who's the sponsor? It's someone who's been there and done that. It's someone who experienced the pain and the brokenness of alcoholism, but now they've been in victory for 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 30 years and they can walk this new person through this journey. Who can say amen? The same is true in the church. AA was a Christian program long before what we see it as today, and it still can be a Christian program. We've got Celebrate Recovery. We've got all of these different things where we can walk people through because your misery can become your ministry. You can get training. We have trainings here at the church all the time. You can go online. You can read books. You can go and take a class at a university. You can get trained in a particular area. And here's my favorite one. Just do something. In doing something, you'll either like it or you won't. If you don't like it, do something else. Experiment. There's no reason to wait for the perfect thing. It's not there anyway. I remember I had graduated from college with a business degree, went into the business world, started working for the Sean Williams Paint Company, and I got Five promotions in my first three years of the company. I was killing it and I was hating it at the same time. It's just like this isn't how I want to spend my life. I want to do something different and now it's too late. That's really what was in my mind. I was now 29 years old. I got to that point and I'm thinking it's too late. I can't do anything else and I go to a meeting like this and the minister up there goes, now you've heard this before, if you're 18 or under and God's calling you into the ministry, come on forward. If you're 21 or younger and you're called into the ministry, come on forward. 25 or under and you're called into the ministry, come on forward. And there I am, 29 years old, sitting in the meeting going, yep, too late for me. And then he goes, you know, I've never done this before, but if you're 30 or under and you're called into the ministry, I was like uh-oh. And I couldn't help myself. I had to go forward in that moment. And the very within the year I was in full-time ministry. I had no plan. I didn't have the schooling yet. I had to go back to school. I had to do all of that stuff. But I was thinking it was too late. Mark Twain, one of my favorite quotes of his is, do as many different things as you can until you're 40 and then choose what you want to do for the rest of your life. I'm in agreement with that. And I'm also of the understanding that you can change what has happened in your life. You're not destined to sit at one door for the rest of your life if greeting is not what God's called you to do. Okay, it's okay to change things. Who can say amen? And then just get and play your position. Now, we have unique positions like in basketball. There's the guard. There's the forward. There's the post player. And we have unique positions here. We have ushers and evangelists and greeters and cafe workers and prayer team members and children's workers and Convoy of Hope volunteers and technicians and pastors and walk volunteers and nursery workers and missionaries and teen workers and parking lot attendants and the list goes on. and on and on and on. But we are all ministers. Did you hear that? Every single one of us, including you, I'm not the only minister in the church. As a matter of fact, if you look at Ephesians chapter 4, my job is to train you to be a minister. We're servants of the Lord. We do whatever it is that He's asked us to do. The word in verse 10 is It means that we serve. It means that we serve others' interests above our own. It means that we wait on tables, that we relieve needs. We are all servants of God, and what we need to do is take on an attitude of appreciation and thanking God that we can partner with Him as co-laborers in the kingdom who can say amen. I'm just glad He wants to use me. I'm glad I I get to do something. God has graciously gifted us with manifold grace, the Scripture says. That's multicolored grace, varied grace, unique grace. He's graciously included me in the mission, and He will graciously reward you someday. Who can say amen? So, as I wrap this thing up, most of you have probably heard the parable, of the talents in the book of Matthew. And one person's given five talents, and one person's given two talents, and one person's given one talent. And I find it so interesting that the one who was given one talent wasn't patted on the back because he saved his talent. It's the reverse of what we do in America. In America, when people are lazy and do nothing, we provide for them and give for them. But the Bible says that's not how God's going to respond to the lazy. He actually calls that steward lazy. The way he responded was by taking his talent away and giving it to the one who now had ten. You might think, how unfair is that? No, that's how the kingdom of God works. When you are faithful, you get rewarded. Who can say amen? So let me close with this story. Elvis Presley. I lived in the Memphis area for four years. And I got to go to Graceland before the museum was built. And then I went after the museum was built. And if you've never been there, you know, you get to go through his house and it looks all 1960s. You get to see all of his gold and platinum records out there. And then you get to see his tomb or the headstone with a bunch of his family members. And you get to see that he had a racquetball court on his property because he loved racquetball. And then when you go to the museum, you see all of his cars, all of his outfits. You see the articles that express how famous he is, how rich he was, all of his movies. And I'm sure most people think, wow, what an awesome life this man lived. Well, Priscilla Presley interviewed was interviewed about him, and this is what she said, quote, Elvis never came to terms with who he was meant to be or what his purpose in life was. He thought he was here for a reason, maybe to preach, maybe to serve, maybe to save, maybe to care for people. That agonizing desire was always with him. And he knew he wasn't fulfilling it. So he'd go on stage and he wouldn't have to think about it. Listen, don't make the same mistake of Elvis Presley. Don't waste your life on accumulating goods, fame, money. None of that stuff matters in eternity. Today, you have an opportunity to commit or recommit yourself to God's dream team. That probably means that you're going to sign up for something right here today out in the gymnasium, and I invite you to follow me. Did you know God gave Elvis hint after hint after hint? Do you realize that the only Grammy he ever won was for a gospel album? Isn't that crazy? The only Grammy ever won was for a gospel album. And one of the songs on that gospel album is, He is my everything. And these are the closing words. After the lightning and the thunder, after the last bell has rung, I want to bow down before Him and hear Him say, well done. Remember, Matthew chapter 24. the parable of the stewards. The ultimate reward is Jesus looking you in the eye and saying, well done, good and faithful servant. As the team closes with this last song, I would really like to invite all of you to join me in the gymnasium after the service. God bless you.

Daniel Hahn
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Ephesians, Part 3