Time

Good morning and welcome to another week of church here at the Bridge. I am so glad that we could be here together. Let’s celebrate together and worship though the Word of God.

Happy New Year

Another year come and gone. It always amazes me to think about what happened in the last year and what we can look forward to in the coming year. I know these days that isn’t something that we always want to talk about but it is still an important thing for us to do each year.

That is the funny thing about the passing of time you can never escape it. It is something that we always think about. I was thinking about this idea when i remembered recently i was challenging Isaac with some riddles and i pulled out the riddles from the Hobbit. I loved this one because of course it stumped Isaac but it is interesting to think about.

This thing all things Devours: Birds, Beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stone to meal; Slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountain down.

The answer is of course time.

The Reality of Time

It shows us the reality that we can’t ever escape the reality of time. It is interesting because there are a few times in our lives that we think about time and the affect of times more than others. I thought of two dates that happen each year for us that we talk about time or ponder it each year. The first is our Birthday. It is impossible not to think about time on your birthday because you are getting older. When we are young we celebrate getting older as we get older we start dreading getting older. Funny how that changes.

The other as i mentioned earlier is each new year. We can’t help it and that’s okay that we think about time each year because it is good to reflect on the passing of time to look at the year and see where we can improve and what we can change to make our lives better.

It isn’t just the passing of years though that we allow time to influence us.

Time and American Culture

In american culture time is a powerful force. It drives us so much. You can walk into any book store right now or get on amazon and i am willing to bet you can find hundreds if not thousands of books on time management.

We break our days down into hours and minutes and even seconds sometimes. We are driven by time. Look at the passage of time we used to be able to sit an listen to any one speak for much longer periods of time but now we struggle as a society to stay focused for more than 15 minutes. It is the challegne we face. Watches on our wrists or phones in our pockets the clock is a part of our lives. Time is ticking away.

There is some truth though that we can see from the passage of time though that is important for us this morning.

Ecclesiastes 3:1–13 NIV

1 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 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.

A Time for everything

This passage of scripture is a popular one for talking about the passing of time and the importance of events in our lives. It helps us to be reminded that things will come and go that time will tick on. Both Good and bad the passage of time will come.

At times time is going to hurt. At times things will be good. From birth to death we can’t escape it but that isn’t the main point of this passage as so many look to it to be.

When we read this passage we get focused on the first 10 verses. When we need to see the last three

Ecclesiastes 3:11–13 NIV

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet 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.

God is in Control

When we read this passage we need to include these passages because it is essential to understanding what the author is trying to convey to us. As humans we face the reality that we are subject to the burden of time. It will come and destroy as well as bring joy and happiness. We have to recognize this truth that as human we don’t have the luxury of ignoring time but instead are faced with the burden of time in our lives.

Yet, in all this no matter what this passage calls us to be reminded that God is in control. That God is not bound to time like we are but is above it and is not contained by it and it is because of this we can trust and come to faith that he has a plan that is infinitely grander than we can possibly imagine. He knows how to make even the darkest of times into something beautiful and turn it to the good of his Plans. More and more i think we need to hear this message that he can work and move through any situation.

Recognizing God is in complete control is an important step for us as Christians because it helps us see that we have to trust in him even when we don’t have all the answers we may want or think we need but instead we trust that he will show us at the right time so that we can grow in our faith in him.

Now that we have covered that let’s talk about something that is very much uniquely american.

Time is more than time

We can plan our our entire day we can schedule every minute so we are maximizing our life and we can work the work in a way that we make the most of our day. We do this because we view time as valuable.

I once had a college professor tell us something really important about time and tithing. Now I must preface this with tithing is an important part of our faith and it is something that we are called to do as Christians to further the ministry of God. Don’t get hung up on the money part of this statement this is more a statement about people’s time.

“Show me a Pastor who can get people to invest their time, and i will show you a church who never worries about its finances”

I used to think this was strictly about tithes. As i read it today though i realize this is a statement about our attention as well. Time is valueable but attention is even more important.

From Time to Attention

WE want people to not just give quantity of time but quality of time. That is important to many of us when it comes to our relationships in life. We hear it all the time with kids as parents. Quantity vs Quality. There are pluses and minuses to focusing on only one but the reality is that we want that focused attention. Our relationship with God is not different. It is a relationship that requires our focused attention.

Paul talks about this idea in

2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV

5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

This passage is a powerful one. Think about what he is saying. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Paul is striving to live his life in a way that every thought is focused on Christ. That all aspects of his life are at attention for Him.

Do we live this way today?

Do we allow our mind to wander because we are driven by so many other aspects of our lives?

Do we instead see God in every aspect of our lives trusting in him and letting him have control?

That when we come to times like

Ecclesiastes 3:2–8 NIV

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.

That when we experience any one of these moments that our attention is not focused on ourselves but instead on God who is King and ruler over all things. That we are seeking him and trusting him to know that he has us in his hands. Is our time or Attention focused on him or on our own desires.

This is a challening question we have to ask ourselves not just at the beginning of the year when we are looking to make change but each and every day so that we can hold our minds captive to Christ. Focusing who we are on him.

Let’s Pray.