Time Giving! Series

"Time Giving!"

" The 3 T’s - Time, Treasure, and Talent" series part 2 of 3

Text: Ecc. 3:1-11 & Selected

Cross Creek Community Church

Pastor Dave Martin - Feb. 11, 2001

www.crosscreekcc.org

God’s Word is Powerful, Relevant, and Life Changing!

Eccles. 3:1-11 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: ..... 11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

We will WORSHIP and SERVE our Lord for all eternity!

Today, be using your 3T’s - Time, Treasures, & Talents.

How hard is it to give of your time? God desires your heart, then He’ll have your time, treasures, and talents. This morning allow the Holy Spirit to confront you face to face with your use of time. Each one of us has a purpose for which we have been created. God is almighty and eternal who stands outside the realm of time. We look at time in a three dimensional way, past, present and future.

Every moment comes to you pregnant with a divine purpose; time being so precious that God deals it out only second by second. Once it leaves your hands and your power to do with it as you please, it plunges into eternity, to remain forever what you made it.

* Einstein’s theory of relativity E=MC2 which basically says the faster we travel, slower the time.

I. Understanding Time...

1. God is the CREATOR and MASTER of time.

Psalm 90:1-2 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. 2Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

* God is the creator and master of time - Gen 1:1"In the beginning God created"

1 Cor. 2:7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

* We stand in time and see it in a linear fashion of past, present and future. God stands outside of any time constraints.

A. W. Tozer - God dwells in eternity, but time dwells in God. He has already lived all our tomorrow’s as he has lived all our yesterdays.

* The great I AM, the forever, eternal, self-existent one. The forever present I AM. Ex. 3:14; Jn 8:58

* Absolutely impossible to describe an infinite eternal God, not bound by time.

2 Peter 3:8 "...With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."

Titus 1:2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,

* Time had a beginning, God did not, for He is the Creator and Master of time.

2. Time is PRECIOUS, use it wisely.

James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

* We are all creatures of time. We’re all given various amounts of time to use while alive.

* To some, it is very short but to others, it may be for 70 - 80 years or longer. Ps. 90:10

* Once time is gone, it can never be reclaimed or changed - it is forever fixed in eternity.

Ephes. 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

* We’re unable to hoard it up or to save it for a rainy day - when lost it’s unrecoverable.

* Time slowly sucks the life from us. Each of us is growing older daily - time is precious.

* Our total lifetime is made up of continual NOW’s, or present choices and decisions.

Psalm 31:15 "My times are in your hands..."

* This morning you are sitting here at Cross Creek - you’re at the crossroads of your life.

* You’re not here by mistake or accident. So use this and all time wisely - it’s precious.

James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

* Jesus stepped out of eternity of heaven into time on earth to redeem mankind from sin.

* Jesus used His time upon earth wisely. He taught and ministered for just over 3 years and look at all He accomplished in this short period of time.

* He was never in a hurry, He was relaxed because God is in control - walking out His perfect will.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said "A day is a miniature eternity". In our lives, there should not be any difference between secular and sacred, using all our time wisely for the lord.