2001 A.d.--An Unprecedented Passage Of Time

2001 A.D.--AN UNPRECEDENTED

PASSAGE OF TIME

By

Jerry Falwell

As we approach the year 2001 A.D., we move into a new decade, a new century and a new millennium. This is an unprecedented passage of time. Today I would like to talk with you about what the new millennium teaches us about time and how to use the time we have left.

I. INTRODUCTION

1. The new millennium makes us think about the end time.

I said to you that many will predict that the Lord will come on January 1, 2000 A.D. but that didn’t happen.

2. Passages of time. As we go from one millennium to another, people will become very aware of how time passes. I know a man who wanted to live in three centuries, i.e., the 1800s, the 1900s and the year 2000. He didn’t make it. This sermon will give us a new focus on time and the biblical view of time.

II. LOOKING AGAIN AT WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT TIME.

1. Each person is given a short period of time to live.

The Bible teaches that our life lasts about as long as the steam that comes out of a kettle. You see the steam, and then it’s gone. “What is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14).

In Psalm 90, Moses examines the shortness of a man’s life; Moses said, “People are like grass that springs up in the morning . . . it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered” (Psalm 90:5,6 LB).

2. We live approximately 70 years.

The Bible teaches, “The days of our lives are three score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength, labor and sorrow; for it (our life) is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10).

3. We will all eventually die.

“Lord, through all the generations, You have been our home! Before the mountains were created, before You made the earth and the world, You are God without beginning and ending. You turn people back to dust (they die)” (Psalm 90:1-3 LB).

“It is appointed unto men (and women) once to die” (Hebrews 9:27).

4. God is above time.

One of the greatest things you can say about God is that He is not limited by time. “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4).

III. DON’T COUNT TIME--MAKE YOUR TIME COUNT.

Everyone has time. People often ask me how I get so much done. I don’t have any more time than anyone else, I just get more done in the same amount of time. I try to not waste time. I have learned to make my time count. This is what God says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Numbering our days is counting our days, or making them count.

1. Count your days because you don’t have many.

There are 365 days in a year. If you live to be 70 years-old, you will have lived 25,550 days. When I bury a 2 year-old baby, he has not lived a thousand days.

ILLUSTRATION: A little boy who doesn’t have much money will always count his money. You ought to count your days by making them count.

2. Count your days for they go by quickly.

When I was a boy, it seemed like it took forever for recess to come when I got out of class so I could go outside to play. When you are a child, time drags. The older you get, the faster it goes. Now when a week goes by, I ask myself, “Where did all the time go?” Now when a year goes by, I ask, “Where did the year go?” The older I get, the faster time goes. Moses tells us that our time is “carried away as a flood” (Psalm 90:5). Like the floods on the James River, they come quickly and depart quickly. Our time is just like a flood, and when it is gone; all we have are the memories of what the flood has produced.

3. Count your days because you won’t get a second chance.

We all wish we had more time to pray, so we should number (plan) the amount of time we can pray. We all wish we had more time to read the Bible . . . do the work of God . . . share Christ with the lost. So we should number our days, i.e., plan our time to do these activities for God.

We have to take into account our time at work, our time traveling, our time eating, our time sleeping, so we really have very little time that we can invest in the work of God.