A Time For Faith

A Time For Faith

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: Matthew 6:24; 33; Philippians 4:13

Good morning Strangers Rest. In my message last Sunday, I asked you “What movies will you create in 2025?” In that message, I spoke about how our thoughts create movies in our minds that cause us to react. Those thoughts can lead us to do things contrary to God’s word or they can lead us to live by and stand on His word. I hope you spent some time this past week thinking about how you will create movies in 2025 that are faith based and to that end, the title of my message today is “A Time for Faith.” D.L. Moody said, “Some say that faith is the gift of God. So is the air, but you have to breathe it; so is bread, but you have to eat it. Some are wanting some miraculous kind of feeling. That is not faith. ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ (Romans 10:17) That is whence faith comes. It is not for me to sit down and wait for faith to come stealing over me with a strong sensation, but it is for me to take God at His Word.” Keep this thought in mind as you listen to this message.

So, if I were to ask you “What time is it?” all of you would check your watch or phone to tell me the time. If I were to ask you “What season is it?” many of you would wonder what is going on in my head that I would ask such a question and then proceed to explain to me the current season. But, if I were you ask you “What season are you in?” some of you might give the same response about the current seasons but others of you might start thinking about your life experiences versus the seasons as it relates to the weather. This morning, I will be talking about time as a measurement of the seasons of life that we experience and the faith we exercise during those seasons.

We are told in Second Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” We know this to be a commandment for how we should live because without faith it is impossible to please God which I will get to later. When I link time and seasons with faith, I am not just speaking of time as it relates to seconds, minutes, and hours, or the four seasons that we go through in life. What I want us to think about this morning as it relates to time is the “moment or period at which something takes place.” And, when those moments are extended, think of them as a season in life. For example, if you have experienced a time of grief, that period of time caused a specific season in your life. At some point you will move beyond it, but while you are grieving, it is a season. Now here is where I am going with this, when we think about faith I want us to think about the words of faith that we have inside of us as we face those moments or periods of time and if we are truly accessing them.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 says, “(1) To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: (2) a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; (3) a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; (4) a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (5) a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; (6) a time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; (7) a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; (8) a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

King Solomon lists twenty-eight “seasons of life.” As I list them, I want you to think about God’s Word – the words of faith – which you have inside of you for each of these because we will experience most of these seasons in our lifetime. He said there is a time to be “born, die, plant, pluck up, kill, heal, break down, build up, weep, laugh, mourn, dance, cast away stones, gather stones, embrace, refrain from embracing, gain, lose, keep things, throw things away, tear, sew, keep silence, speak your mind, love, hate, time for war, and time of peace.” When we examine these twenty-eight “seasons of life” many of us adults here today have experienced most of them. These verses tell us that we live in a world of change and that the events of time and conditions of human life are vastly different from one another and yet occur randomly. We are continually passing and re-passing through them, as in the revolutions of a day and a year. And here is something I want you to think about: although each day is different and each year is different, what we have available to us in God’s word remains the same!