All The Time In The World

Delivered on 10/23/16

                
 
Psalms 90: 1-4      The Eternity Of God And Man’s Frailty
Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. 3 You turn man to destruction, And say, “Return, O children of men.” 4 For a thousand years in Your sight, Are like yesterday when it is past,
And like a watch in the night.
 
Our Lord Jesus, longs for an intimate relationship with you and I. Time spent in communication with Him is the best way to grow close to Him, as we recognize His majesty, and our own needs. Because God is “infinite”, and inhabits eternity, He is not bound by the same constraints of time that can limit and frustrate you and I. What may seem like a delay to us, is always right on time with our God. We are called by Him, and for Him…for His purpose…
 
John 15:16
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
 
Jesus does not want us to lead unproductive or unfocused lives. He chose us not only for salvation, but to play a significant role in His kingdom. He wants each of us to fulfill a particular purpose.
 
Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course! Close the account!
 
Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as lost whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s
deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of each day.
 
I read a story about a man who worked at a factory. One of his main jobs was to blow the factory whistle at 5:00 to indicate the workday was over. He walked to work each day and passed a jewelry store where a beautiful grandfather clock was displayed in the window. Every morning, he stopped and set his pocket watch to match the time on the grandfather clock. One morning the store owner was out front sweeping the sidewalk and the factory worker asked him how he kept such accurate time on the grandfather clock. The jeweler said, “Oh, I set it every afternoon when the factory whistle blows at 5:00.”
Wow!!! that sounds like trouble to me. Both men depended on each other to keep track of their time. People live by the clock, because time is important to all of us. Benjamin Franklin said, “Do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.”
 
Many frustrated people, if not all… seem to always fight the clock, habitually, as a way of life. They stay up late, then they sleep as late as they can and then rush frantically to school or work, gulping down an unhealthy breakfast in the car, applying their make-up, and fixing their appearance at the stoplight,and talking on their cell phone at the same time.
 
As we study Jesus’ life I am amazed that He never seemed to be in a hurry. Although He was doing the most important job in history (redeeming the world, saving sinners), and although He knew He only had a few years to do it, He never ran. He made time to consider the flowers and the birds of the air. He had time to put his hands on the little children and bless them. Time was His friend.
 
Scriptures gives us some great insight into how time can become our friend rather than our enemy. Basically, God exists in a realm that is not bound by time or space. God doesn’t wear a watch. He doesn’t have a Day-Timer or a PDA. He is the Creator of time, and He is greater than time. So, the first step in making time your friend is to totally immerse your life in God.
 
Psalms 90:10-12
The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
 
“ So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom”. Let’s use the four letters in the word TIME to help us learn it’s importance.
 
T- Treasure:
 
God says we should treasure time as a valuable commodity. You number your years (or at least some of you do), but God says every day is so precious, we should treasure it and number it.
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. How valuable is an hour? Ask the businessman whose flight was delayed an hour and he missed an important business deal.
How valuable is one minute? Ask the man who had the heart attack in the restaurant and an EMT happened to be sitting at the next table and CPR saved his life. How valuable is a second? Ask the person who barely missed a head on with an oncoming car. How valuable is a millisecond? Ask the Olympic swimmer who missed qualifying by six-tenths. Time really is valuable. So learn a couple of things about what this means for you and your family.
Learn to treasure every moment that you have! Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is
a mystery. Today is a gift...That’s why it’s called the “present!” You can make more money but you can’t make more time.
 
We’ve all heard the expression, “time is money?”right?  It’s not true. Time is much more valuable than money. It may be hard to make more money, but it can be done. But it is totally impossible to make more time. TIME is more valuable than money.
 
A.W. Tozer wrote:
“Time is a resource that is nonrenewable and nontransferable. You cannot store it, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up or give it up. You can’t hoard it up or save it for a rainy day–when it’s lost it’s unrecoverable. When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.”
                            ( Power point)
 
So… understand, and learn that you should treasure time as the most valuable asset you are given in this world. The next letter in TIME is…
 
I- Invest:
 
We, so loosely use a lot of phrases with time that aren’t really possible. You can’t buy more time and you can’t really find more time. We speak of making time, but that’s impossible, too. And almost… always, never happens! Sounds familiar???
 
We can not save time…we can only invest in it. Time is more valuable than money, but it’s like money in that it can be spent and invested. It’s different from money though, because while money can be saved, time can’t. It you don’t use it, you lose it. Forever.  Jim Croce wrote a song that said, “If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I’d like to do, is to save every day ‘till eternity passes away–just to spend them with you.” ( Time In A Bottle ) Those are great lyrics, and it would be nice if we could save time, but you can’t. In fact, a few months after he wrote that song, he was tragically killed in a plane crash in Louisiana at the age of 30. The facts still remain…we cant save time!
 
We cant save time…we can only invest in it… At a graduation commencement at his alma mater, Wheaton College, Billy Graham said...
 
 “Time is the capital that God has given us to invest. People are the stocks in which we are to invest our time, whether they’re blue chips or penny stocks or even junk bonds.”
                           ( Power Point )
 
Where you invest your time reveals what is most important to you.
 
Have you ever heard this excuse? Some dad or mom will say, “I don’t spend much time with my family, but the little time I do spend is ‘quality time.’” I don’t really like that phrase, because it is most often used as an excuse for not spending much time together.
“Quality time” is a word that is not proper, or appropriate, because all of time has the same quality. It’s like talking about “quality money.” If I offered you a hundred dollar bill, would you say, “No, it’s wrinkled.” I’d rather have that new, crisp $5 because it’s of better quality.” Hello.?!
 
I prefer the phrase “ family time” or “meaningful family time” but there is no substitute for investing a large quantity of time with your family. If they are whats more important to you, you’ll indicate it by the amount of time that you have given them. The next letter TIME is…
 
M- Manage:
 
Always keep in mind that, everything that we have, and all that we are, we receive form above. We received from our God…God is the creator of time, and He alone controls it.
 
Short story: A time management expert was teaching a seminar for executives. He placed a large, clear open-mouthed jar in front of the group. Next, he put seven or eight large rocks into the jar until it was full. “Is the jar full?” He asked. Everyone nodded. Then he took pebbles and filled up the jar with the small rocks until they reached the rim. “Is the jar full?” By now, they didn’t answer. So, he poured fine sand in. “Is the jar full?” Some nodded. He proceeded to take a pitcher of water and filled up the jar again. “What’s the lesson about time management?” he asked…
Hands shot up, and everyone agreed “No matter how busy you are you can always fit more things into your schedule.” “Wrong.” he replied. “The lesson is, unless you put the big rocks in first, they never will fit in. You must figure out what the big rocks are for you.” What are the big rocks in your life? Giving time to God? Giving time to your marriage and to your children? If you don’t put those big rocks in first, someone, or something else will fill up your jar.
 
Church…understand this, every moment is a gift from God that must be managed wisely. There is an entire field of study called “time management.” In almost every business in America, consultants are hired to teach busy executives how to better manage their time. Time management is a hot topic. But…time management is a misleading concept. You can’t really manage time. You can’t delay it, speed it up, save it or lose it. No matter what you do time keeps moving forward at the same rate. The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.
 
Scripture uses another word. Instead of managing your time, it speaks of “redeeming” the time, which is an even better idea. Paul writes in…
 
Ephesians 5:14-15
14 Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
 
 
The phrase “walk circumspectly,” means to be constantly looking around to make the most of every opportunity. Emmett Smith was a great football running back, but he’s not the biggest or the fastest, or the strongest. What he excels at is running with his eyes open, and he is one of the best at seeing holes as they open and then running through them. That’s the way we should live, looking for every opportunity to invest time wisely, then darting through them. When an opportunity passes, it can’t be reclaimed, it is gone forever. If we don’t manage our time…someone, or something else will manage it for us.
 
Some people complain they just don’t have enough time to spend with their family. You’ve got exactly the same amount of time as everyone else, you just aren’t managing your time wisely or managing yourself wisely.
 
The most important time you will invest will be in your family. Many of you remember the song, “The Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin. Part of it says…
“My child arrived just the other day. He came to the world in the usual way.
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away.
He was talking before I knew it, and as he grew He said, “I’m going to be like you, Dad.
You know I’m going to be like you.”
 
The final verse says of the song says…

I’ve long since retired and my son’s moved away. I called him up just the other day.
I said, “I’d like to see you, if you don’t mind.” He said, “I’d love to, Dad, if I could find the time. You see, my new job’s a hassle and the kids have the flu,
But it’s sure nice talking to you, Dad. It’s been real nice talking to you.”
And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me, He’d grown up just like me.
My boy was just like me.
 
I’m sure many of you have heard the song, but here’s the rest of the story: Harry Chapin’s wife, Sandy, actually wrote the words to that song after their son Josh was born. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy. When their son was 7, Harry was performing 200 concerts a year, and Sandy asked him when he was going to take some time to be with his son. Harry promised to make some time at the end of the summer. He never made it. That summer, a truck hit Harry’s Volkswagen bug and he was killed. Time lost…it could never come back!
 
Galatians 6:7
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
 
Now…this verse is about bearing each others burdens, of the household of faith. Using what we have learned and to teach others. To bring them up, and not tear them down.
“whatever a mans sows, that he will also reap”, is true in our daily walk. Each and every action… decision we make, right or wrong will have a future effect on those around us. ( Family, Friends, people we love ) Just like the song…
Dad was too busy, no time for his son. Son got old, no time for his dad. Dad died, all the time in the world was lost, and there was no way to get it back.
 
The final letter in TIME is:
 
E- Enjoy:
 
The time we spend with the Lord, and our family should be enjoyable. It should be the best time of your life. Here is a couple of ways to enjoy your each time. Whether, your spending it with the Lord, or with your family.
 
Say no to the things that can rob you of your time. There will always be something else to do. There will always be somewhere else you can be, but if you are going to make spending time with your Lord, or your family a priority you are going to have to learn the power of that little two letter word, “NO.”
 
We need to understand… apply the fact that if we spending time with our Lord, or time with our family, we should be firm in saying “NO” to everything else. Sadly, many will choose to say “YES”, on just about everything. Regardless of consequence, just as long as we are pleasing the masses…everyone!
 
Make a personal inventory of your life now, how you spend your time each day. Remember, “you reap what you sow”, look at your life a year, or five years from now…where do you want your life to be? ( I’m hoping Rapture )
 
Almost everybody on their deathbed wishes that they had spent more time with their loved ones. You will never hear anybody say, I wished I had spent more time at work. Or I wished I had spent more time with my hobbies. There will always be regrets, and those regrets are the TIMES that we lost.
 
I read an article on Ken Griffey, Jr. He was invited to the “Players Choice Awards” where he was to be awarded the player of the decade award. That’s a big deal on national television. He beat out players like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire. But when he found out when the award was to be given, he declined to attend. He had something more important to do. His five-year-old son, Trey, was playing in his first baseball game, and Ken wasn’t going to miss it. Good for him. He made the right…unselfish decision.
 
Learn to stand firm, and say “NO”. Make it a habit, a spiritual practice to always say “YES” to the Lords commands, and His will. Enjoy what God has given you, ( Family, friends, loved ones) you name it. Remember what I said earlier, everything that we have is from the Lord. God gave you a family, good…take good care of them, their a loan from the Lord. Don’t loose anymore precious time that our Lord has given you, make them count starting today. Make each and every second count. If its a God given time..then it is PRICELESS!!!
 
 
James 4:14-15
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
 
Here…we see James rebuke the person who lives life and makes future plans without any regard for the providence of God. Such a person lives without regard for his divine Sovereignty. The word “if”, refers to future events that are conditional. Here the primary consideration in all future planning is the…and only the will of God! Each and every lesson that we have learned from the Lord, we need to apply in order to enjoy this life that He has given. YES!!! This life is from Him!
 
You are very precious in God’s eyes. The proof of that, is that He gave us His only Son. You are more precious than silver and gold, because of His Son. With that in mind and heart, please do not waste any more of your God given time on things that are rubbish, things that are a bunch of nonsense!!!
 
Here are scriptural advice that I can give you so that we can enjoy “ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD”.
 
1: Live peacefully:
 
Hebrews 12:14
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
 
Despite being tempted, persecuted, trials of life. Believers should live at peace with everyone, “so far as it depends on you”,
 
Romans 12:18
18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
 
Just as our Lord did not retaliate with insults or threats. Hebrews has declared how Jesus sacrifice makes us holy once for all in status, giving us confident access to God. In Hebrews 12:14, “holiness”, refers to the purity of life. And it is a life provided by God, and guided by His discipline, so we must strive for it by His power.
 
Get rid of all the rubbish, garbage, all the non sense of life that can cause you to STRESS. Unrelenting stress harms our bodies. We all know that, yet we let it continue day after day after day. Don’t wait for the wake up call of receiving a heart attack. Before you decide you want to relax.
 
Philippians 4:6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
 
That is a command church…learn to relax, enjoy what God has given you. Give Him thanks in everything. After all, He is the One that, “will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”.
 
Create a stronger, healthier relationship with everyone around you. Especially in your household. Marriage isn’t perfect? News flash…there’s no such thing... But there is always room to improve. If one can change, the marriage will change. If both will change…good, you will enjoy life, your more relaxed, and you “will reap what you sow”. Put your trust in the Lord, for he never fails!
 
When we don’t make relationships a priority and make time for each other, our relationships suffer. The truth is relationships take time, and margin provides the time to sit and talk, to listen and enjoy one another, and to provide the comfort we each need. Are you an enemy of your own household?
 
Stop fighting with God…let Him lead you in every aspect of your life. Ministry…He leads. In your household…He leads. We have ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD, but that time belongs to Him, given by Him. Begin today by setting your schedule in His. And you will come to realize that God only wants what is best for you, to make you grow, and conformed in His likeness. That is in His time, and never ours.
 
ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD…is God precious gift to you and I. don’t ever forget that.
 
                              Lastly:
 
“And in the end, It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years”.
                           ( Show Pic )
 
It means that, it is not important how long you live, but whats important is what you do in those years that counts.
 
We have ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD, until God makes all things new!
 
Revelation 21:4-6
4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.