Grateful: For Time, 11/22/15

Sermon 11-22-15 thankful for time Eccl 3:1-14

3 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,  a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,    a time to be silent 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 do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Sermon series

Grateful.  For creation, for kindness, for forgiveness, for time

I love this passage for a memorial service – when nothing else is requested

A time for everything –

to build, to laugh, to dance, to embrace, to keep, to throw out, to love

He has made all things beautiful in his time

          Oh, how many times I did not like a circumstance, only to find later

          that there was some good to come from it

God has set eternity in the hearts of men and women

          Inside of use there is something innate that knows that God exists

          Romans 1:20  ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Do you have the time? Someone would ask

Pocket watch 1500

Wrist watch – ww 1

Time:  what is it/ is not………….

Time is money.  No its not.

You can make more money.  You can never get your time back

It is valuable

It is limited

Pink Floyd-Time

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

How many days have I lived…….365 x 58 =  plus july 5-nov 22 = 21,317

Time:  spending it poorly

6 most destructive ways to waste time

1.   -Feeling guilty

Spending time being remorseful John Ferguson story

When is the best day to plant a tree? 50 years ago

2.   -Worrying

3.   -Being angry – last week w cathy’s travel

Time filled with negative attitudes takes up time that could be used for positive moments.

We can never get that time back.

4.   -Biding time

Sometimes we check out……….. get thru a difficult time.  Drinking, gambling,

Bide thru a time until we can get to a better time

Click – fast fwd thru boring life to get to the good parts

Its all the good parts

5.   -Not paying attention

It goes by fast

It gets filled with so much stuff.

Marking time autopilot

6.   -Making it about us

Our national anthem might indeed be more Frank Sinatra than Francis Scott Key: "I Did It My Way." 

Retirement………. Christians don’t get to retire.

Henry & John – Page 28

We all have our positions, don't we? And we listen from those positions. "Henry, how you've changed! You were so tall and you've grown so short. You were so well built and you've grown so thin. You were so fair and you've become so dark. What happened to you, Henry"? Henry says, "I 'm not Henry. I 'm John". "Oh, you changed your name too!"

How do you get people like that to listen?

Time:  spending it well

One greek word for time is  chronos time, from which we get "chronological" time.

Chronos Time and Kairos Time Dad’s grandfather clock          PICTURE

Ephesians 5:16  “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” KJV

Kairos is the brand of time most often mentioned in the New Testament kairos refers more to a decisive time -- the right time, the appropriate time. the moment when God intervenes

"[make] the most of the time [kairos]

kairos [timeliness] should fuel the management of our chronos.

Rather than just letting time tick away, put it to the Spirit's use

best uses of your time

1.   -Pay attention

I lost my keys.  They are right where I put them

Pay attention, kids are growing up.  Just yesterday my kids sang in the childrens choir.  Just yesterday my kids brought me Sunday school papers.  Just yesterday my kids  were in youth group.

Wake up.  Pay attention.  Its going to go by fast

A nice definition of an awakened person: a person who no longer marches to the drums of society, a person who dances to the tune of the music that springs up from within.

2.   -Savoring the time, even the painful time

-See the good

3.   -Love people

Have a life.  He is looking for a life.

What is having a life?

Knowing why you are here…… not about having money, or being married or single.

Its not about going out on Friday night.

To have a life is to touch the world for good.

And we are given a little bit of time to do so.

525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?
How about love? How about love? Measure in love. Seasons oflove.

4.   -Do something constructive

Conclusion

Time!  There is so much to be thankful for. 

Life is a gift

Ecclesiastes – I have tried it all.  It is all vanity.  Except for one thing.  Honor god and depart from evil-

¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.