DECISION TIME

Mark 1:14–15 NIV

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

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HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE YOU HAD A KAIROS MOMENT IN A CHRONOS WORLD?

LET US BEGIN BY DEFINING SOME TERMS. THE GREEK LANGUAGE, THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT USES TWO DIFFERENT WORDS FOR TIME.

CHRONOS AND KAIROS

CHRONOS SLIDE

CHRONOS TIME - THE WORD CHRONOS GIVES US CHRONOLOGY.

CHRONOS TIME IS DRUDGERY. TIME MEASURED BY THE TICKING OF THE CLOCK.

EACH SECOND EXACTLY LIKE THE ONE THAT WENT BEFORE IT:

EXAMPLES:

A CONVICT IN HIS PRISON CELL CHECKING OFF DATES ON A CALENDAR

A PERSON WITH INSOMNIA THAT ALL THEY CAN HERE IS THE INCESSANT TICKING OF THE CLOCK AS THEY WILL THE SUN TO RISE

A PERSON WHO HATES THEIR JOB AND WAITS FOR 5 O CLOCK SO THEY CAN GET OUT OF THERE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE

OR EVEN A STUDENT WAITING FOR THE BELL TO RING SO CLASS CAN BE OVER

WHAT ABOUT A TRAFFIC JAM - CONTINUALLY LOOKING AT THE CLOCK KNOWING YOU WILL BE LATE

THAT IS CHRONOS TIME

IT IS EMPTY, MEANINGLESS HUMDRUM TIME, A VOID THAT MUST BE FILLED. WHEN WE TALK ABOUT KILLING TIME WE ARE REFERRING TO CHRONOS TIME.

KAIROS SLIDE

KAIROS TIME REPRESENTS THOSE RICH, EXTRA SPECIAL, SIGNIFICANT DRAMATIC MOMENTS THAT ARE PACKED WITH MEANING.

MOMENTS THAT STAND OUT AND STAY WITH YOU FOR A LIFETIME.

KAIROS TIME IS FULL TIME,

VITAL TIME,

CRUCIAL TIME

DECISIVE TIME

GOD’S TIME

THOSE RICH SPECIAL MOMENTS THAT BREAK INTO THE HUMDRUM AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

WHEN THINGS SEEM TO BE FALLING INTO PLACE AND GOD SPEAKS TO YOU LOUD AND CLEAR. THAT IS KAIROS.

AND IF YOU WANT THE THEOLOGIAN WORD FOR IT, IT WOULD BE A MOMENT OF REVELATION.

KAIROS IS A VERY KEY WORD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. WHEN JESUS CAME PREACHING HE SAID “THE TIME IS FULFILLED” AND THE WORD IS KAIROS NOT CHRONOS

SLIDE

Mark 1:15 NIV

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

IT WAS A SPECIAL TIME, A DRAMATIC TIME.

JESUS’S LIFE WAS PACKED WITH KARIOS MOMENTS.

WHAT ABOUT YOURS?

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU EXPERIENCED A KAIROS MOMENT.

IN THORNTON WILDER’S PLAY “OUR TOWN” A YOUNG WOMAN NAMED EMILY DIED AND IS PERMITTED TO RETURN TO HER HOME TO RELIVE 1 DAY IN HER LIFE,

ANY DAY SHE CHOOSES.

THAT DAY FOR HER WAS HER TWELFTH BIRTHDAY.

SHE COMES BACK AND IS VERY DISAPPOINTED AS SHE REALISED THAT THE FAMILY WERE WAY TO BUSY TO PAY ANY ATTENTION TO EACH OTHER, OR EVEN THE PEOPLE AROUND THEM. SELF FOCUSED AND INSULATED. THEY WERE LIVING IN A CHRONOS WORLD. TOO BUSY TO STOP.

EMILY EVENTUALLY ASKS THE QUESTION

EMILY QUESTION SLIDE

“ DO ANY HUMAN BEINGS EVER REALISE LIFE WHILE THEY ARE LIVING IT?”

HOW ABOUT YOU?

DO YOU REALISE LIFE WHILE YOU ARE LIVING IT?

DO YOU HAVE KAIROS MOMENTS OR IS LIFE PASSING YOU BY?

QUESTION MARK SLIDE

IT IS THOSE LIGHT BULB MOMENTS, WHEN THE LIGHTS TURN ON FOR YOU. WHEN THERE IS MEANING IN WHAT YOU DO AND WHERE GOD SPEAKS TO US LOUD AND CLEAR.

LIGHT BULB SLIGHT

NEW INSIGHT SLIDE

THE KAIROS MOMENT OF NEW INSIGHT:

THE EXCITEMENT OF A NEW UNDERSTANDING, A NEW DISCOVERY OR THE THRILL OF A NEW IDEA. YET WE SO OFTEN CLOSE OUR MINDS AND GIVE INTO BOREDOM.

ILLUSTRATE: -

LUCY IS CHASING CHARLIE BROWN SHOUTING “I’LL GET YOU CHARLIE BROWN, I’LL CATCH YOU AND WHEN I DO I’LL KNOCK YOUR BLOCK OFF”

SUDDENLY CHARLIE BROWN SCREETCHES TO A HALT AND TURNS AROUND AND SAYS TO LUCY, WAIT A MOMENT LUCY, IF YOU AND I A REALTIVELY SMALL CHILDREN WITH RELATIVELY SMALL PROBLEMS, CAN’T SIT DOWN AND TALK THROUGH OUR PROBLEMS IN A MATURE WAY, HOW CAN WE EXPECT THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD TO...” THEN “POW!!” LUCY SLUGS HIM. SHE SAYS I HAD TO HIT HIM QUICK, HE WAS BEGINNING TO MAKE SENSE.

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY DID TO JESUS, THEY HIT HIM WITH THE CROSS. BECAUSE HE WAS BEGINNING TO MAKE SENSE.

JAMES MOORE IN HIS BOOK SEIZING THE MOMENTS SAYS IN HIS OPINION NOTHING WAS MORE RESPONSIBLE FOR NAILING JESUS TO A CROSS THAN THE SIN OF CLOSED MINDS.

THE PEOPLE WERE AFRAID OF THE KAIROS MOMENTS, TERRIFIED BY JESUS’ NEW IDEAS AND AFRAID OF HIS NEW INSIGHTS.

THEY DID NOT WANT THEIR CHRONOS WORLD DISTURBED, THEY TRIED TO SILENCE HIM. ISN’T THAT TRAGIC?!!

MOORE RECOUNTS A FASCINATING LEGEND ABOUT SOME TRAVELLERS CROSSING THE DESERT IN A CAMEL CARAVAN. THEY COME TO AN OASIS THAT HAD A STRANGE SIGN, IT READ “PICK UP SOME PEBBLES AND PUT THEM IN YOUR POCKETS. TRAVEL A DAYS JOURNEY, AND THEN LOOK AT THE PEBBLES, AND YOU WILL WILL BE BOTH GLAD AND SAD.

THE TRAVELLERS OBEYED AND AT THE END OF THE DAYS JOURNEY THEY REMEMBERED THE SIGN AND TOOK THE STONES OUT OF THIER POCKETS. THE PEBBLES HAD TURNED INTO GOLD NUGGETS. THE SIGN WAS RIGHT THEY WERE BOTH HAPPY AND SAD. HAPPY THAT THEY TURNED INTO GOLD BUT SAD THEY DIDN’T PICK UP MORE.

LEARNING IS LIKE THAT. WHEN I COME TO THE END OF MY LIFE I THINK I WILL BE BOTH HAPPY AND SAD. HAPPY THAT I PICKED UP SOME NUGGETS OF WISDOM ALONG THE WAY BUT SAD THAT I DIDN’T MAKE THE SACRIFICE TO PICK UP A WHOLE LOT MORE.

SO WHEN IT COMES TO KAIROS MOMENTS FIRST IS THE MOMENT OF NEW INSIGHT, NEW LEARNING AND EXCITEMENT OF A NEW DISCOVERY, THE THRILL OF A NEW IDEA.

PENITENCE SLIDE

THE KAIROS MOMENT OF PENITENCE

THIS IS THE MOMENT THAT JOLTS OUR CONSCIENCE AND BARES OUR SOUL, THE MOMENT THAT CONVICTS US AND REMINDS US THAT WE NEED A SAVIOUR.

KING DAVID IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:

BRIEFLY TELL OF DAVID AND BATHSHEBA-

SLIDE

2 Samuel 11 NIV

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home. In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. Joab sent David a full account of the battle. He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ ” The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.” David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.” When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

AFTER DAVID HAD SINNED

NATHAN THE PROPHETS COMES TO HIM AND TELLS HIM A PARABLE OF A RICH YOUNG MAN WHO HAD MANY FLOCKS AND HERDS, BUT SLAUGHTERED A POOR MANS ONLY LAMB.

KING DAVID WAS FURIOUS AND MADE THE STATEMENT THAT THE RICH MAN DESERVES TO DIE!

NATHAN THEN KINDLY REMINDS HIM THAT HE IS THAT RICH MAN AND THAT WAS A KAIROS MOMENT FOR DAVID. HE REPENTED.

BUT YOU KNOW ITS NOT ONLY THE BIBLE THAT TELLS OF THESE KAIROS MOMENTS:

THEN THERE IS THE STORY OF ALFRED NOBEL

THE NOTED SWEDISH CHEMIST WHO INVENTED DYNAMITE. A STRANGE THING HAPPENED WHEN HIS BROTHER DIED.

THE NEWSPAPER SOMEHOW GOT CONFUSED AND PUBLISHED THE WRONG OBITUARY, THEY POSTED THE OBITUARY OF ALFRED NOT HIS BROTHER.

THE OBITUARY WENT ON TO DESCRIBE HOW ALFRED CREATED A SUBSTANCE FOR WAR, A SUBSTANCE THAT HAD CAUSED MUCH DEATH AND INJURY AND DEVASTATION.

HE WAS SO CONVICTED AT THAT MOMENT THAT HE SET UP A FOUNDATION FOR AN AWARD THAT TODAY WE KNOW AS THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

A LITTLE CLOSER TO HOME:

MY OWN RECENT KAIROS MOMENT ???

TENDER LOVE EXPERIENCE SLIDE

THE KAIROS MOMENT OF TENDER LOVE EXPERIENCE

IT IS THAT TENDER MOMENT WHEN LOVE FEELS SO RIGHT, WHEN TWO PEOPLE FOR A BRIEF MOMENT BECOME THE WHOLE WORLD FOR EACH OTHER.

THE WOMAN WHO SPENT ALL SHE HAD BY BREAKING THE ALABASTER JAR OF PERFUME AND BATHING JESUS FEET

IN THAT BRIEF MOMENT THEY BECAME THE WORLD FOR EACH OTHER, NOTHING ELSE MATTERED.

THAT WAS A KAIROS MOMENT

JESUS’ MINISTRY WAS FILLED WITH THOSE MOMENTS WHEN HE MADE EYE CONTACT WITH ZACCHAEUS

HEARD THE CRY OF BLIND BARTIMAUS

FEEL THE TOUCH OF A SICK WOMAN AT THE HEM OF HIS GARMENT

TAKE A MOMENT TO BE HONEST - HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN WHEN YOU FELT MOVED BY THE TENDER TOUCH OF GENUINE LOVE.

HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE YOU HAD A KAIROS MOMENT OF LOVE IN THIS CHRONOS WORLD?

MOMENT OF INSPIRATION SLIDE

THE KAIROS MOMENT OF INSPIRATION

YOU ARE MOVED TO ACTION IN THIS MOMENT OF INSPIRATION WHEN GOD CALLS YOU TO A SPECIAL JOB

MOSES AT THE BURNING BUSH SENSED THE PRESENCE OF GOD, THE CALL OF GOD.

THE BURNING BUSH IS SYMBOLIC OF GODS HOLINESS, FIRE IS THE PURIFYING AND REFINING QUALITY OF GOD’S HOLINESS.

IT WAS A MOMENT OF INSPIRATION GOD SENT HIM TO SET HIS PEOPLE FREE. GOD SAID I WILL GO WITH YOU. MOSES OBEYED BECAUSE IT WAS A KAIROS MOMENT OF INSPIRATION.

Exodus 15:11 NIV

Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?

EXODUS 15

HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE YOU WERE INSPIRED, INSPIRED IN A WAY THAT IT MAKE YOU FEEL THAT YOU CANT SIT STILL. YOU MUST RESPOND YOU MUST ACT ON IT. YOU MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE YOU WERE SPIRITUALLY MOVED.

GOD IS CALLING PEOPLE RIGHT NOW TO SPECIAL TASKS AND SPECIAL COMMITMENTS.

SOME WILL RESPOND BUT SADLY MANY WILL NOT.

SO MANY OF US HAVE GROWN SO ACCUSTOMED TO OUR ROUTINE THAT IT WILL NOT PERMIT THE KAIROS MOMENT OF INSPIRATION TO PENETRATE OUR LIVES.

THERE IS THE LEGEND OF THE TOUCHSTONE THAT SAYS IF YOU COULD FIND THE STONE ON THE COAST OF THE BLACK SEA AND HOLD IT IN YOUR HAND EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH WILL TURN TO GOLD.

YOU WILL RECOGNIZE THE TOUCHSTONE BY ITS WARMTH

THE LEGEND TELLS OF A MAN WHO SOLD EVERYTHING HE HAD AND WENT TO THE BLACK SEA IN SEARCH OF THIS STONE. HE KEPT PICKING UP STONES AND AFTER SOME DAYS REALISED THAT HE WAS PICKING UP THE SAME STONES ALL THE TIME.

HE THEN DECIDED TO THROW EACH STONE IN THE SEA IF IT WAS NOT WARM.

SO THERE HE WAS PICKING UP STONES AND TOSSING THEM ONE BY ONE INTO THE SEA . ONE MORNING HE PICKED UP A STONE AND IT TURNED WARM IN HIS HAND AND BEFORE HE RELISED IT HE HAD TOSSED IT INTO THE SEA.

THIS CAN HAPPEN TO US, WE CAN COME UPON A KAIROS MOMENT AND BE SO DULLED BY ROUTINE THAT BEFORE WE REALISE IT WE THROW IT AWAY.

LIFE IS PACKED WITH KAIROS MOMENTS. I PRAY THAT WE WILL NOT MISS THEM WE WILL BE WARMED BY THEM AND KEEP HOLDING THEM AND CELEBRATE THEM NOT TOSS THEM INTO THE SEA.

MY PRAYER IS THAT WE WILL SEIZE THOSE MOMENTS.

THIS WEEK WE CONCLUDE THE SERIES OF NOT A FAN - WE LAY ASIDE OUR FAN GEAR AND LOOK DEEP WITHIN OURSELVES AND DO A LITTLE ASSESSING.

DECISION TIME SLIDE

MAYBE YOU CAN RELATE TODAY TO ONE OF THESE KAIROS MOMENTS. THE MOMENT OF INSIGHT OR OF TENDER LOVE OR EVEN INSPIRATION.

COMMITMENT IS WHAT SEPARATES A FAN FROM A FOLLOWER.

ARE YOU READY TO COMMIT TO LIVING A BETTER MORE MEANINGFUL LIFE ?

ARE YOU READY TO RE-COMMIT TO LIVING LIFE NOT FOR YOU BUT WHAT GOD WANTS FOR YOU.