Redeeming Lost Time
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· 537 viewsGod's ability to restore the lost time in our lives
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I have to admit to you this morning that I am a fortunate person
When I was 14 God laid it upon my heart to be a preacher of the message that He would give me
Shortly there-after He gave me this scripture, not so much as a life motto as I thought of it for a long time, but more as an anchor to help see me through difficult seasons and the times that I would not be preaching
For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
Since those days of my youth I have been privileged to preach this message thousands of times to thousands of people, from young children to youth to young adults to “not so young” adults
Yet there was a time when I wasn’t preaching, and, if I’m honest with you, I didn’t want to have anything to do with preaching in spite of whatever arrangement God and I had
Things had happened to me in ministry that soured me and so I suppressed that call and that desire and I, to use a scriptural analogy, spent a few years wandering in the desert
Those were my “lost years” and while I never fully walked away from relationship with Christ I certainly couldn’t say that we were at our closest during that time
Often times I look back and I think of those years as my “lost years” and while I never fully walked away from relationship with Christ I certainly couldn’t say that we were at our closest during that time
Now you may not not be able to relate to the circumstances of my story but I do believe that all of us can relate to having at least a little bit of “lost time” at some point in their lives
Our lost time comes in many different ways and may be in relation to different areas of our lives
Maybe your lost years are in relation to your work or productivity
They could have been misdirected years where you chose a career path in one particular direction and maybe even spent years in school study and preparing for that direction only to find yourself less than enthused with where you find yourself
Looking back you find yourself thinking, ‘If only I had studied this, or if only I had taken advantage of that opportunity’
Or maybe your time wasn’t misdirected but it seems to have been fruitless. a lot of hard work put into this direction or this endeavour, you have invested your equity both financial and sweat only to see it be less than successful
A bad invest or maybe a failed business venture you just can’t help but wonder what has become of all your hard work
Our lost years can also be in the area of relationships
A failed relationship can often be viewed by us as a fruitless time just as it was in a business sense
Time and energy and resources put into making this joint venture a success only to see it unravel and you wonder what you should have done different or if you should have just avoided it all together
A similar dynamic can happen to us within the family context
Something happens that causes a rift and as that sour is allowed to fester it brings about a division to a point where family members refuse to talk to one another and innocent people who have nothing to do with the original offense are alienated from one another without ever knowing the reason why
This I am referring to as a separation years
Sometimes those lost years are the result of the pain that we endured during them
The illness or unexpected loss of someone that we love hurts not only in the moment but can often leave a void that spans a much longer time period than we ever dreamed it would
Plans both short term and long term are changed, or abandoned all together and we can find ourselves regretting not just the presence or future but even living with the regret of opportunities not taken in the past which now seen to be out of our reach
The lost years can also be from a spiritual perspective
The Christ-less years
You have no idea how many times I have heard people lament how late in their lives they came to Christ
You hear about how much self-inflicted pain they could have avoided and how much more they could have enjoyed the blessing that comes with being a child of the King
For others those wasted years were the rebellious years
Sure they came to Christ at a good early age but for whatever reason they walked away
They identify with the story of the prodigal son, they had it all but didn’t recognize it and so they went off on their own to find their own way only to hit rock bottom and realize their need of the gospel and the foolishness of their rebellion
And then there’s the lost years that are due to our own selfishness
This is when a person makes a commitment to Christ but it doesn’t run deep
It’s just another aspect of their life
Jesus sounded good and they are smart enough to see a benefit of being a follower of what He had to say and they certainly don’t want to risk Hell and so they take a form of Jesus adding Him to all the other things of their life
That is until one day when Jesus gets a hold of them and they realize that superficial relationship with Christ is nothing more than wasted time and how much more they could have been doing for the kingdom if only
Whatever area of our life it relates to, our lost years always bring us to that same point, that point where we look back upon them and think, “If only...”
The problem is that far too many people waste the present lamenting the past which only compounds the issue
But this morning I want to bring hope to you and let you know that God is not only able but is willing and even desiring to restore those lost years, to redeem them and make them fruitful as He desired them to be in the first place
You might think that it doesn’t seem plausible but let me remind you of the reason Jesus gave for coming to Earth 2000 years ago
Luke 19
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
‘But Pastor that’s just talking about salvation, redeeming us from our sins’
Actually The Greek word for “lost” that is used in this passage is the word “apollymi” and it means “something that is brought to nothing, made void, destroyed, forever gone”
And that word used for “save” is the word “sozo” and it means, “to cure, heal, restore to health, to rescue and save from ruin”
While I agree that in its context Jesus was definitely speaking about saving sinners but isn’t possible that Jesus came to redeem more than just sinners but that in His role as redeemer that He came to redeem all things
Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians by reminding them that because of His obedience, Jesus was placed above “all things” and the Father put everything “under His feet”
Do you believe that this also includes time?
Of course it includes time. Why wouldn’t it? Jesus Christ has the authority over everything and therefore has the ability to redeem everything including our “lost time” for the Father’s glory and honour
Let me take you back to a time in Israel’s history when things weren’t so good
It was during the time of the prophet Joel and we read in the book that bears his name,
Joel 1:1-4
The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
Hear this, you elders;
listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your ancestors?
Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.
What the locust swarm has left
the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left
other locusts have eaten.
He continues a few verses later saying,
Joel 1:10-12
The fields are ruined,
the ground is dried up;
the grain is destroyed,
the new wine is dried up,
the olive oil fails.
Despair, you farmers,
wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
The vine is dried up
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—
all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Surely the people’s joy
is withered away.
Israel had turned their backs on God and God was trying to get their attention and so a swarm of locusts unlike anything seen before or since according to chapter 2, was sent to devour the crops
In fact for 4 consecutive years the swarms of locusts destroyed every edible thing in the land
For 4 years the farmers tilled the soil, planted the seeds, tended the crops and did everything that they could do to ensure a plentiful, healthy crop
and for 4 years before they could harvest and enjoy the fruits of their labours, everything was stripped away from them
The second chapter of Joel begins with a call to the people to repent of their ways, to turn back to the Lord and once again serve Him with their whole hearts and if they will do that God makes them this promise,
Joel 2:25
“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.
You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
Then you will know that I am in Israel,
that I am the Lord your God,
and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.
Notice in verse 25 that God does promise that He will repay them for the crops or the harvests that were taken away but rather for the “years”
God is a merciful God who delights in restoring what sin seeks to destroy, including the restoration of lost time
It is the enemy’s nature to steal, kill and destroy but it is the role of the Messiah to redeem and restore
So let’s look briefly at just a few of the ways that God can redeem our lost years regardless of what the circumstances were that took them away from us
First God can restore your lost years by deepening your communion with Christ
We read in verse 27, “Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God.”
Far worse than the loss of their crops for the nation of Israel was their spiritual drought, and worse still was that they didn’t even know it
God tells them that although they had, by their own choices, wasted these years away from Him, that He would make up for it by giving them a closeness that they couldn’t even imagine
He can and still do this very same thing if we will allow Him to, if we will ask Him to, if we will just say, ‘Lord I have wasted too much time on other things, I have spent too many years without you and I just want to know you better and deeper than the time we have together reflects.’
You might feel silly praying such a prayer but I can tell you that God wants that even more than you do and He will honour your desire
God can also restore our lost years by multiplying the fruitfulness of the time we have left
For 4 years there was no harvest but God promised to make up for it by making the the next several harvests plentiful
In Mark chapter 4 Jesus teaches the parable of the sower and says,
Mark 4:4-9
As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
When we repent of our “lost years” God can take our remaining time and multiply the harvest
He can bring together that relationship that was severed, He can make the work of our hands be blessed, He can give us a return of 100 fold
But again the key is we have to turn to Him and ask Him to do this, to repent of what brought about the locusts in the first place and trust Him to turn things around
Thirdly God can redeem your lost years by bringing about a long term gain from a short term loss
Joseph had lost years didn’t he!
God had given him great dreams but instead of seeing these dreams come to fruition, Joseph was beaten almost to death, sold into slavery, wrongfully accused and imprisoned and more
All those years of not seeing his family, of not living as he was entitled to live and yet God took those lost years and the things that happened and redeemed them to bring Joseph to a place of great authority where he could save his family
God used the lost years to bring about the dream he had promised Joseph
Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Finally this morning I just want to give you one more way that God redeems our lost years and that is by preparing for us a great reward that eclipses the years that were lost
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
Paul knew a thing or 2 about lost time, Paul spent years persecuting the gospel instead of preaching, Paul, had relationships that were torn apart, Paul saw churches that he had poured so much into torn apart by ridiculous things, Paul saw his own ministry stifled by people on every side
Yet Paul knew that in light of what God has planned for our eternal destination, a few years in this mortal coil will be meaningless
For our reward will “far outweigh them all” or as the Message Bible words it, “These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us.”
God is a redeeming God and He wants to redeem your lost years, will you allow Him to?
Let’s pray