REDEEM EVERY MOMENT
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I think most if not all of you are aware that I currently preach here every Sunday...
But also have a job down the street at IMARC Research...
I’ve been there for a little over 12 years now, and I can tell you that one of the constants that I’ve seen as part of that job in all that time is this - LISTS
Most of the employees at IMARC travel for their jobs...
and so ANY meeting that i find myself in...
…NO DOUBT there will be at least 4-5 people...
who KEEP A LIST...
A list of TASKS
Contacts
Projects
Lists - maybe you’re a LIST person, i don’t know...
I TRY TO BE!
I try to be - BECAUSE - I’m trying to get better at managing my - TIME
I marvel at how well my coworkers manage their time -
Traveling
coming back
writing reports
traveling again BEFORE that report is finished
coming back again
Finishing the first report while starting the 2nd
It’s impressive…and LISTS are things meant to help us manage our - TIME
and they do it well
TIME is an interesting thing...
ALL of us would probably agree that we WISH we had - MORE TIME in the day to get done what we need to get done...
We all WISH we had MORE of this thing called TIME - and yet...
We ALL have the same amount - of it
AND WE NOW - have to - MANAGE the time that we’ve all been given...
…making choices in how we APPROACH the time we have
NOW - Solomon, the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes, the book we’ve been walking through...
…decides to tackle this TOPIC of - - TIME…which we’ll see today.
1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
9 What gain has the worker from his toil?
10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;
13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.
15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
As we read this text - you can feel the UPS and the DOWNS of life....no?
A time to KILL (low) and a time to HEAL (High)
A time to break down (low) and a time to build up (High)
And MAYBE you even had memories of moments in your life as we read each of these BOOK ENDS...
Times when you’ve WEPT....times when you’ve LAUGHED...
Time when you’ve mourned....and times when you’ve DANCED… (and speaking of dancing…)
As we made our way through this text, did anyone start to hear the 1965 song by the Byrds…Turn, Turn, Turn?
That song was written from this passage...
and if you know the song, you know it’s just this real SLOW..
EASY-GOING...
Very melodic - - Jam
And i THINK - it can be easy for us to READ this passage THAT WAY...
very EASY-GOING....like the song...
BUT - if we’re going to keep this chapter within the context of the whole book of Ecclesiastes...
I think it would be wise to READ it in a different way!
I don’t think that Solomon meant for us to read these words or understand these words in that...
SMOOTH
MELODIC
Easy-GOING kind of nature...
But INSTEAD to see them with the same kind of FRUSTRATION with which he saw everything else UNDER the SUN...
that is VANITY
And so maybe we could REIMAGINE the text and maybe INSERT some modern vernacular to give us a better sense of the tone of Solomon...
It might sound something like this:
There’s a time for a healthy pregnancy…and there’s a time for miscarriage
There’s a time for chemo therapy…and there’s a time for remission
There’s a time for enjoying the fellowship of family…and there’s a time when that screaming baby will keep you up ALL night - every night.
There’s a time to enjoy your child’s DESIRE to snuggle you…and there’s a time to feel the PAIN when they want nothing to do with you.
There’s a time to enjoy the camaraderie of classmates...and there’s a time to mourn their passing from disease and old age.
There’s a time to view your PARENTS as STRONG as superheroes…and there’s a time to watch them FADE…into FRAILTY …and into the grave.
And when we read it like this…FEEL it like this...
I believe we can say ALONG with what Solomon has been saying all along...
VANITY...
We’re prisoners of this thing called TIME (24 HOURS in a day)
And EVEN NOW -
it’s TICKING on both your life AND mine....at a MACRO and a MICRO level!
At a MICRO_LEVEL - this very moment in time - you’ve chosen to spend this time doing this very thing here with us today...
At a MACRO_LEVEL - this singular moment - this moment is a moment in time that you will never have back...
AND you are 1 MOMENT closer to DEATH than you were when we started just a second ago.
VANITY!
And what do we SEE?
SLIDE: TIME: Man is Limited
IN TIME
IN TIME
And one of our ISSUES with TIME, is that we live in a - REACTIVE POSTURE to time...
And what we see here as we GET A BIRD’S EYE VIEW to our text today -
Is that most of the things listed here are things that - HAPPEN TO us...
And so we spend our whole lives trying to figure out HOW TO appropriately RESPOND to these things… (Start most days with plans)
**examples of RESPONDING to life . . . (Rachel sat down last night…Tenley woke up crying)
And so IN A SENSE - we’re actually PRISONERS of time...
We’re LIMITED!
How many of you - more often than not - feel like a PRISONER of time… (with every selfie post made on facebook, there’s ONE MORE wrinkle on the face…)
Time is moving, never stopping, and we CAN’T HELP - but flow DOWN THAT STREAM!
And when we actually REALIZE THIS is happening - we get this unsettling realization that we -
REALLY DON’T CONTROL ANYTHING…that’s happening
*Does that mean we don’t TRY to take control?
Not at all....
We’ll try to take control...
We buckle our seat belts…even on an airplane
We eat organic
We invest in a 401K
We go GREEN
We get rid of cable
We get yearly check-ups
We take supplements
We take vitamins
We work-out
And yet ALL of these things are really just fooling us into THINKING we can exercise control over the circumstances of life.
We can’t!
*Anyone know somebody who was IN-SHAPE…worked out all the time, and just dropped dead one day at a young age? (teacher in Brunswick)
are we in control?
no!
And yet ANOTHER aspect of TIME that we deal with is THIS - when we realize...
we have this LIMITED resource that we deal with...
..every moment of every day...
THERE’s SOMETHING that wells up inside of us that causes us to think - THIS ISN’T RIGHT!
This is what Solomon acknowledges for us in this passage...
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
I graduated from high school in 1996…22 years ago!
I turned 40 years old this past April…and it’s already AUGUST…!
I’ve seen kids I went to school with…no longer kids…NO LONGER ALIVE...
I see the posts on facebook...
ONCE healthy people....now NOT healthy...
I’ve seen KIDS - grow up - who NOW have their own kids…who now have THEIR own kids...
And i say to Myself - MY RIDE is coming to an end!
And i FEEL the weight of James 4:14
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.
We FEEL the weight of THIS reality...
I KNOW you do...
We feel the reality of being PRISONERS of time....
Bound by it’s chains…and CARRIED along to the grave....regardless of how much we fight!
Back to verse 11
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Again we see that God has put the idea of ETERNITY into our hearts....
YET - we don’t fully grasp it...
And i think this plays itself out in how we THINK about ETERNITY!
I think most people - even Christians…when they think about eternity...
What comes to mind is this STRAIGHT LINE....
With ARROWS at each end…*
And this really is - BIBLICALLY speaking....a misunderstanding of what ETERNITY is...
From a biblical perspective, ETERNITY is NOT - BEING on that line and then going on FOREVER...
Eternity is actually ESCAPING that LINE ALTOGETHER...
because that’s the realm where God dwells and does all of His work!
SLIDE: TIME: God is Not Limited
IN TIME
IN TIME
We see this very truth that God is NOT LIMITED when it comes to time - all over the Bible...
8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
This book of life was written before the Foundation of the World...
AND YET - the book is called what?
The Book of Life of the Lamb who Was Slain.
This book shows us that BEFORE mankind existed, before sin entered HUMANITY...
There was a BOOK of LIFE Of the LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN...
God is NOT bound by time!
We see in Romans chapter 8, the apostle Paul looking out at Christians and using terms like:
Sanctified
and Glorified....
In the PAST TENSE...
Even though we know to us - those things happen in the FUTURE...
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
God exists outside of the constraints of TIME as WE know it..
All of these things have already happened from His perspective...
And this is demonstrated by the - VERY NAME OF GOD...
When the Israelites needed to know the name of God - He responded with the PRESENT TENSE form of the word - BE
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
God said - LISTEN - if you want to know my name...
If you want to know the summation of who I am.
SLIDE:
“I AM THE GOD WHO IS”
Not the God who WAS....not the God who WILL BE...
But the God who IS
And this kind of ETERNITY is in our hearts…we have a GLIMPSE of it in our hearts...
And so - if we want to BREAK FREE - from the VANITY of TIME...
Then the ONLY way we can do that is to LOOK to the One who exists OUTSIDE of TIME...
Or to put it how Solomon puts it in Ecclesiastical language...
The only way to ESCAPE the VANITY that is UNDER THE SUN...
Is to LOOK BEYOND the SUN...
To GET OVER THE SUN!
THINK about it - TIME is a PIECE of CREATION...
God CREATED time - just like He created
the round earth
the sun
the moon
the rock
the tiger
elephant...
And these things were CREATED as WAS time...
and so GOD RULES - OVER time, just like He rules over these things...
And we can LOOK to the One who RULES OVER time...
We can look to the one who EXISTS outside of the VANITY under the sun...
and embrace Him who is OVER the SUN...
And one of the GREAT things about this passage in Ecclesiastes is that it points us -
NOT ONLY to the vanity that exists UNDER the SUN…in our respect...
But it also
points to the Great Purposes that God has - in time.
When we look at this passage from today, we see the word “TIME” repeated 29 times...
A time for this, a time for that...
And in the Bible there are 2 words often used to represent TIME...
One of them is...
Chronos - which refers to sequential time…SO if you wanted to know what time is was - you would ask
What Chronos is it?
The other word used for time is - Kairos (kyros)
And this word doesn’t mean a SPECIFIC point in time, but instead refers to a CONVERGENCE of events for a SPECIFIC purpose.
It refers to an OPPORTUNE time for a PURPOSE...
NOW - quickly - the OT was written in Hebrew, and the NT was written in Greek...
But there is a Greek translation of the OT - and it’s called the Septuagint.
And if you look at the Septuagint, the Greek word that is used over and over again for the word TIME in Eccl 3...
is NOT the word Chronos but the word Kairos.
And so from Solomon’s perspective in this chapter - He’s not mainly referring to the fact that there is a TIME for YOU to do all these things...
a time to be born and a time to die..
a time to break down and a time to build up...
But he’s also saying - MAINLY - that there’s a KAIROS time
There is a RIGHT time to be Born and a RIGHT time to Die…AND the POINT IS - -
We can view this CHAPTER - more importantly we can view LIFE - through the LENS of a SOVEREIGN God...
So that in GOD’S ACTIVE TIMING - there is DIVINE meaning and PURPOSE in EVERYTHING that happens...
This use of the word KAIROS here shows us that there is AN ORCHESTRATOR to life...
And so for us - FOR YOU - as you walk through life - CAUGHT under the VANITY of TIME...
A prisoner to TIME...
merely REACTING to the CHRONOS circumstances of life...
We can know - that GOD - in His KAIROS TIME, orchestrates all of it…and that NONE of our circumstances falls OUTSIDE of His control!
And so - not only is God NOT LIMITED regarding time...
SLIDE: TIME: God Rules Over It
IN TIME
IN TIME
And Isn’t it a blessing to know - that we’re not on some - Out-Of-Control train…making it’s way down the track of time…toward an UNKNOWN end…?
And so EVEN THOUGH we are ON THE LINE of Eternity....
merely reacting to all of life...
Feeling the frustrations of our LIMITATIONS to TIME with Eternity being planted in our hearts...
God - Who exists OUTSIDE of TIME - is Working through all of it..
moving and shaping and molding
and orchestrating events in ways in which we cannot possibly comprehend
AND listen to this:
And the true measure of whether we believe that God is actually ACTIVE is found NOT in our words, but in our own activity.
Remember the parable of the talents?
Jesus told this parable - and in it...
A Master entrusted some of his servants with these talents (money)
And while the Master was away, the servants used the talents that the Master had given them.
The first 2 servants used the talents, the resources, given them and they made a return on their investment...
And the Master was pleased! He said to them- Well done thou good and faithful servant…enter into the JOY of your master.
But the 3rd servant DID NOT use his talents...
He was scared of the Master, so he HID the talents…he buried them.
What was the result - that servant was cast out.
See God expects that we be ACTIVE with the resources He has entrusted to us..
So that if we TRULY believe that God has NOT taken His hands off of humanity...
that the world is NOT spinning out of control...
When we actually believe that God is not MERELY just - here with us...
but is ACTUALLY ACTIVE in orchestrating our LIVES
The way that we measure how deeply that resonates with us in our SOULS...
is how ACTIVE we are in INVESTING for His kingdom...
That if we’re ACTIVE in sharing the gospel...
ACTIVE in generosity
ACTIVE in ministry
ACTIVE in giving
ACTIVE in listening...
That if we’re ACTIVE in GOING and DOING and BEING...
Then we demonstrate that WE TRULY believe that OUR GOD is ACTIVELY orchestrating opportunities FOR US!
Listen to the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Now we probably read this and think - TIPTOE through life....don’t sin...
NO!!
Paul isn’t advocating a DEFENSIVE posture here...
He’s advocating an OFFENSIVE posture...
LOOK for opportunities…BE ACTIVE! Keep your head on a SWIVEL - LOOKING for opportunities!
BE CONFIDENT - paul is saying - that God is ACTIVELY orchestrating opportunities for you in your EVERYDAY lives...
And take advantage of them!
REDEEM the MOMENTS of your LIFE! For the SAKE of God’s Glory
In doing so - we will LOOK like Jesus!
And this we’ll close with...
What have we seen so far:
In TIme:
Man is Limited
God is Not Limited
God Rules Over It
SLIDE: In Time: God Is For You
IN TIME
IN TIME
How do we know that God actually exists outside of time...
and how do we know that in all of His orchestrating He is actually doing so for our GOOD?
Good question?
Yes - why?
Because when you look around at your life...
and you see what’s going on around you - EVERYTHING seems to contradict that message.
The circumstances of our lives....of our kids
of our nation
of the world
SEEM to contradict the notion that there is a God who is in control AND who loves His people...
How do we know?
The way that we know that THIS God, who exists outside of TIME...
is not only powerful but LOVING...
…is NOT to look at our circumstances...
But to look to - Jesus
Because IN JESUS - we see a God who is ALWAYS - on time
When we look to Jesus we see that there was 400 years of silence between the end of the OT...
..and the start of the NT...
400 years of people suffering
400 years of UNCLAIMED promises
400 years of generation after generation asking each other - Has God Left Us?
Yet in Galatians chapter 4, Paul says
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
_ And so Jesus was born...
And then grew in wisdom and stature...
And for 30 years He prepared and made Himself ready...
To the point where people probably thought...
Is this EVER going to happen?
And then…Jesus comes to be baptized by John the Baptist and John questions Him...
what does Jesus say?
15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
Let it be so - NOW - at JUST the RIGHT TIME, Jesus presents Himself as the Lamb who will take away the sins of the World...
And then after 3 years of MINISTRY..and TEACHING and miracles...
Jesus is arrested and taken captive…and NAILED to a cross
And if there was EVER a moment when it looked like this was careening out of CONTROL...
We SEE that EVEN then - God was in COMPLETE CONTROL...
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
at the right - KAIROS…time
Christ DIES and is BURIED...
And then for 3 days - all the doubts
All the disciples wondering if their WORLD’s were turned upside down...
Wondering if life as they knew it could EVER be the same again...
3 days of going back to fishing and their jobs...
If all they had HEARD, and all they had experienced was even REAL...
And then - at JUST THE RIGHT TIME, Jesus burst open the tomb and ROSE from the DEAD...
AND NOW - some 2000 years from that event...
WE - like the apostles during those 3 days - We sit and WONDER..
Will it EVER come to pass?
Will all the bad things ever come untrue
Will God ever come from His people
Will redemption ever REVEAL itself for those who Love Christ!?
And EVEN NOW _ we KNOW - that Jesus Christ SITS at the right hand of the Father - WAITING
FOR JUST THE RIGHT TIME - to hear the words...
“Go Back!”
This message today is not about making sure you SQUEEZE ALL the life you can out of the days you have.
This is a message - for when you FEEL the VANITY of time over you...
When you realize you’re a PRISONER of time...
merely REACTING to all of life…all of it outside of your control...
When you feel like it’s all CAREENING out of control...
TO LOOK to the God who is not UNDER the SUN....but OVER the SUN...
And who’s time is ALWAYS RIGHT - no matter what time it is - for you.
GOSPEL
God is for you!
How do i know?
In Romans 3:10-12 - we see that No one is righteous, no one understands, no one seeks, all have turned...
In Romans 3:23 - The Bible teaches us that ALL HAVE SINNED and fallen short of God’s glory...
In Romans 6:23 - we see that the wages of sin is death!
SIN separates us from God. Your sin has separated you from God.
But that God made a way for us to get back to GOD.*
And so TODAY could be the RIGHT TIME for you to be RECONCILED to God...
I pray that it is...
Let’s pray...