A Time for Everything

Intro

750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers 383: Life Span

According to the Chicago Tribune, on February 21, 1995, Jeanne Calment of Arles, France, celebrated her 120th birthday. She was verifiably the oldest person in the world and had become somewhat of a celebrity in France. France’s minister of health came to her birthday party. Three books had been written about her.

Medical scientists have researched her life to try to discover the secret of her longevity. They found that for years she ate two pounds of chocolate a week. She smoked moderately until age 117. She cooked with olive oil. She took vigorous walks and even rode her bike through the streets of Arles until she was 100.

At age 110 she said with good humor, “I had to wait 110 years to become famous. I intend to enjoy it as long as possible.”

But by age 120 she was confined to a wheelchair. “I see badly,” she said, “I hear badly, I can’t feel anything, but everything’s fine.”

Someone asked Calment what kind of future she expected. Still displaying her good humor, she replied, “A very short one.”

She speaks for us all. Even if we are young and have a hundred years to live, the body has limits, and even a long life is short.

Time is running out!

All is vanity he says, all is vanity.

The God of Kairos (1-15)

trend to look at this list as a list of simple moments

we compare it to the current world and we can be frightened

time

Kronos - specific moments in time

Kairos - convergence of events for a specific purpose

LXX - quoted by Paul and others in the NT

Kairos is used for the word “time”

Divine reason

our world is constantly changing

God is in control

none of these are out of his control

micro vs macro

micro - a single moment you spend that could have been spent doing something else

macro - a single moment you can never get back and has let you one moment closer to death

see all this chaos around us, wonder where is God

Hebrew people wanted the name of God

i am the God who is…not the God who was or will be....is

God is outside of time

he already knew this would happen

he already knew the outcome

All around us we see “all is vanity”

Pastor Michael Kelley, “The way that you escape the vanity that is under the sun, is to look outside from under the sun.”

God is not under the sun

he has seen this all and he already put into motion its outcome

As we struggle to understand it all....stop!

Seek God!

Eternity is in our hearts

C.S. Lewis, “ earthly pleasure is only meant to arouse us to the world to come.”

that longing for eternity shows us that we are meant for so much more!

Don’t let the chaos of life and this world take away from you the knowledge that our God is and always will be

that God is in control, now and forever

When you feel the vanity of time, when things are out of control. we look to the God who is not under the sun, but above it, who’s time is always right.

The God of Urgency (16-22)

God’s order of time is perfect

He is eternal and all he sets into motion is done so perfectly

needs to addition or subtraction

all is done so that we revere him

we see injustice and wickedness

all around us justice is perverted and sin is the rule of the day

bot God’s timing is perfect

God uses all this to show us that we are like animals in that we all die

all decay

the urgency is seen here!

God is in control, and one day all will be brought to an end

our own lives, and even the world

one day he will turn to his son and say, “Go back”

Hebrews says it is appointed once for man to die, then the judgement.

the vanity of time is that there is only so much of it

when we feel the chaos of the world and see the pain and agony around us

we know God is in control and one day will return to bring us into the eternity that he has set into our hearts

yet we also feel that same urgency of time, as we look to the lost souls around us

Conclusion

God is in control, and one day he will say “enough”

the main question we asked

do you really believe that God is active in the universe today?

the truest test we have, is that we go and share Jesus. If he is active today, he is making opportunities for you today

The nation is in chaos, the world is in chaos, they need Jesus more than ever

time is running out!

church, time is running out. in Chaos we know God’s go this, but when it comes to our neighbor, we say “tomorrow, tomorrow”

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,   

Old Time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles today   

Tomorrow will be dying.