Win The Day (6)
Win The Day • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewHow long have you lived? There are moments in life where time stands still, where we know in our hearts that we are truly alive... We need to "wind the clock" on those moments!
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Wind The Clock
Wind The Clock
Let me start with two questions:
How old are you?
How long have you lived?
Many years ago, Tony Campolo was teaching a class at the University of Pennsylvania. He asked a student sitting on the front row, “Young man, how long have you lived?”
The unsuspecting student answered his age. “No, no, no,” said Tony Campolo. “That’s how long your heart has been pumping blood. That’s not how long you’ve lived.”
Then he told the class a story about one of the most memorable moments of his life.
In 1944, his fourth-grade class took a field trip to the top of the Empire State Building—the tallest building in the world at the time.
When he stepped off the elevator and out onto the observation deck overlooking New York City, (he says) “time stood still.”
Campolo said: “If I live a million years that moment will still be part of my consciousness, because I was fully alive when I lived it.”
Turning back to that same student, Tony said, “Now, let me ask you the question again. How long have you lived?”
It’s easy calculating age, but it’s much more difficult to quantify life.
Why?
Time is measured in minutes, but life is measured in moments.
What are those Empire State Building moments for you?
When was the last time, time stood still?
How long have you lived?!?
That’s what we’re talking about today!
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
That doesn’t mean that Jesus came to add minutes to our lives… He came to bring life to our minutes!
Look again at John 10:9-10
9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
We need to “Wind The Clock” on life, and learn to make the most of EVERY moment!
We need to develop a right relationship with time.
To many of us live in the wrong time zone — We’re stuck in past-tense guilt, and paralyzed by future-tense fear.
We’re half present, half the time, which means we’re only half alive!
Look at John 10:10 again:
John 10:10 (NIV)
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
We need to learn to live!
… to make the most of the moments we are given… and to live them to the fullest!
BUT… if we are going to do that, there are a few things we need to understand…
1. Time is a human construct.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
Let me ask you: What does that mean?
We use this verse to explain so many of the prophecies in scripture… to define the time periods in Revelation, Daniel, and so many more…
But, it is actually so much deeper!
You see… We struggle with this verse, because this verse makes no sense in the four dimensional world we live in…
We live within the confines of time, BUT…
Newsflash: God does not exist within the laws of time that He created.
The Creator is not subject to the creation!!! (no matter how much we want Him to be)
There is no past, present, and future for God… He created them! Look at Gen. 1. (read some)
The challenge we face… is that four dimensions is all we’ve ever known!
And that’s the problem!
We were created in the image of God, and We have been creating God in our image ever since.
We try to timestamp God.
We try to place God within the confines… the constraints of our timeline!
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.
He is the Ancient of Days.
As Paul Tillich says, “God is the eternal now.”
God is not subject to us!
Nor is He subject to our timeline!
And that is an awesome thing!!!!
Creation was God’s way of starting the clock, for us!
We have been on the clock since God said, “Let there be light.”
The day is coming when we’ll cross the out of our timeline and enter into heaven.
We think of heaven as a future destination… that it’s some place we will one day see… But, let me tell you, heaven is invading earth!
Eternity is invading time, right here, right now.
That is the awesome thing about 2 Peter 3:8, Peter understood how God works!
And He wanted us to understand too!
2 Peter 3:8 (NIV)
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
God sees the Big Picture!
God doesn’t look at the here and now… He has looked at the end!
And while…
2. We live forward , God is working backward.
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, (listen) which God prepared in advance for us to do.
This is where our holy confidence comes from.
God is setting you up.
God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go.
And — guess what? — He’s really good at getting you there.
He is ordering your footsteps.
Romans 8:28, He is working all things together for good.
That doesn’t mean all things are good. We live in a fallen world. Bad things happen to good people because of this silly little thing called free will.
BUT… God can redeem and recycle the pain and suffering.
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
I’m gonna give you a fancy word here… Are you ready?
Teleology — “beginning with the end in mind.”
That’s who God is.
That’s what God does.
You see — For us, the arrow of time moves in one direction — past -> present -> future.
Then Jesus shows up and says: John 8:58
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
God started it all! He knows where we are going, and He works backwards to get us there!
2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.
God says, “I will deliver Jericho into your hands.” No! That’s not what it says.
It says, “I have delivered Jericho into your hands.”
But that’s the wrong verb tense, right?
It should be future tense. He’s talking to Joshua in the present… It hasn’t happened yet.
So why is it past tense?
Because…
3. Everything is created twice.
We’ve talked about this before… Everything was once a thought.
There is an internal or mental or spiritual creation first.
Then, and only then, is there a physical manifestation.
The layout of Washington, DC—first existed in the imagination of Pierre Charles L’Enfant.
When we navigate Pennsylvania Avenue or run around the National Mall, we are navigating places and spaces that were once thoughts and ideas.
This is part of the image of God.
It’s that image that allows us to imagine.
According to the Talmud, along with everything God spoke into existence during the six days of creation, God made provision for miraculous moments that would happen throughout human history.
Again, this is Rabbinic tradition but it’s in keeping with God’s character.
He commanded the Red Sea to split apart… the sun and moon to stand still for Joshua… the ravens to feed Elijah… the fish to spit out Jonah... the fire not to burn Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego… the lions not to harm Daniel.
Simply put, when God gives a vision (when God give direction) He makes provision.
We live at the intersection of two realities: The faithfulness of God pursuing us from the past and the sovereignty of God setting us up for the future.
Bottom line: God can do more in one day than you can accomplish in a thousand lifetimes.
You have to wind the clock.
Ephesians 5:15–16 (NIV)
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,
16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
The KJV says, “Redeem the time.”
In 1977, the Russian comedian, Yakoff Smirnoff, immigrated to the United States. He was asked what he loved most about America and his answer: “grocery stores.”
“I walked down an aisle and saw powdered milk,” he said, “just add water and you get milk. Right next to it was powdered orange juice, just as water and you get orange juice. Then I saw baby powder, and I thought to myself, what a country!”
We live in a culture that aims at fifteen minutes of fame.
We want to get-rich-quick. We want the quick fix.
We are an instant gratification culture. We want it OUR WAY, RIGHT AWAY!
Just look at Facebook, TikTok, Reels, …
But Rome wasn’t built in a day.
It’s gonna take longer than you like.
We have to learn to manage our time — to Wind the Clock!
You don’t find time, you make time.
All of us are allotted the same amount of seconds every minute, the same amount of minutes every hour, the same amount of hours every day.
Time is the great equalizer!
You don’t find time to write books, you make time.
You don’t find time to train for a marathon, you make time.
You don’t find time for family, you make time.
How?
1. Curse the fig tree.
WWHHAATT???
12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.
14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
I find this story fascinating. It’s in a category by itself.
All the other miracles that Jesus performed are life giving. This one is the exact opposite. Jesus curses the barren fig tree.
Why?
It’s not producing fruit.
I know, Yes… It was not in season for the fig tree… BUT… That’s the lesson for us!
— Notice that Mark says “the disciples heard Him.” —
Church… We are not fruit trees!
We do not have a “season” of productivity and a season of non-productivity!
We don’t get to choose to produce fruit only in times we are happy and feel good…
John 15:1–2 (NIV)
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Look at the world around us!
We are here for such a time as this!
We are here for such a place as this!
John 4:35 (NIV)
35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
Faithfulness is fruitfulness.
All of us have barren fig trees in our lives — we all have things that waste time, and waste energy.
We need to get them out!!!
The average person spends 142 minutes on social media/day.
That is 15% of your waking hours.
Cursing the fig tree is identifying the things that waste time.
It’s saving time the same way you would save money.
Let me say this: “Setting your alarm clock is a spiritual decision.”
Now, I’m not trying to step on any toes… We are all different.
If you’re a lark, you’ve got to guard those early morning hours.
If you’re an owl, it’s leveraging those late nights instead of watching late night TV.
You have to figure out what works for you.
Do you remember habit stacking?
It’s leveraging your daily routines in creative ways.
You have to create cues that trigger good habits.
Put a book in your bathroom, and you can read a book a month.
— I remember my grandmother always kept a book, The Bathroom Reader, in the bathroom… —
Don’t just listen to the news. Pray for the news.
Listen to a podcast while you exercise.
Listen to an audio book while you commute.
You redeem the time by turning those daily routines into good habits.
Establish boundaries.
Establishing boundaries is making pre-decisions.
(Early on in my pastorate, I figured out that I had to set boundaries. w/expectations on my wife, and my kids, as well as my time… )
2. Do the math.
How many minutes do you spend meeting with others?
How much time do you spend “hanging out” with the same people every week?
How many minutes does it take you to read 20 pages of a book?
How many minutes do you spend commuting and how many commutes would it take to complete an audiobook?
Once you do the math you can reverse engineer your goals and calculate where you want to be.
If I want to read a book a month, and the average book is 300 pages then I need to read about 10 pages a day to reach my goal.
That’s how You manage minutes — You do the math.
Alright, let me switch gears.
If managing minutes is a science, then managing moments is an art.
The ancient Greeks had two words for time—chronos and kairos.
They are two sides of the same coin, but they are as different as heads and tails.
Chronos is clock time.
Chronos is sequential — past -> present -> future.
Chronos is quantitative — seconds, minutes, and hours.
Managing chronos time is incredibly important. If you don’t control your calendar, your calendar will control you.
Look at Ephesians 5:15-16
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,
16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
The word used in Ephesians 5:16 is kairos.
It’s those top-of-the-Empire-State-Building moments.
It actually translates two ways—time or opportunity.
It’s counting the cost… not just the actual cost, but the opportunity cost.
Kairos is all about seizing the moment.
It’s recognizing those moments when you’re standing on holy ground and taking off your shoes.
It’s smelling the roses.
It’s what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 6, when He says to “consider the lillies”…
We don’t have to worry when we trust God, and walk in faithfulness to Him!
BUT… That means that we don’t waste the moment…
We have to be… stewards of teachable moments.
Teachable moments are kairos moments.
They can be about us, or about others.
These moments present themselves all the time, but all too often, we react rather than proact.
We react in the flesh instead of seeing the moment for what it is.
These are the moments that change our lives.
We need to wind the Kairos clock!
How do you wind the kairos clock?
You pay attention to those promptings of the Holy Spirit.
You see opportunities where others see issues.
No one was better at this than Jesus.
6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
The religious leaders wanted to stone the woman caught in the act of adultery, but Jesus taught them…
Over and over, Jesus does this…
When Mary anointed Jesus’s feet, and Lazarus complained, Jesus said,
7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.
8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
The disciples tried to keep the children away… Mt 19:14
14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Even on the cross, Jesus is all about everyone else.
He says to the soldiers, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
He tells John to look out for his mother.
He even shows grace to the thief hanging on the cross next to Him.
People all around us need us to be peacemakers, grace givers, and tone setters.
Winding the clock is about accumulating experiences.
Don’t accumulate possessions, accumulate experiences.
I haven’t met any people possessed by a demon, but I have met lots of people possessed by their possessions.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
God created you for a purpose, but you have to manage your life!
You have to manage the minutes.
You have to manage the moments.
What are you doing with the moments God gives you?
This life will soon be past.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.