Being At The Right Place At The Right Time!

Being at the right place at the right time!

5/22/11

Leviticus 16

We all have probably used the excuse about “Being at the wrong place at the wrong time”. I didn’t mean to do it; I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time! If you have teens you know what I am talking about. But the title of my sermon talks about the opposite. It is not used in the negative but as a positive.

I have been the lucky recipient before by being at the right place at the right time and by doing so I received some kind of a reward. I can remember one time that stands out the most to me.

I had approached Richard about replacing the pews with chairs in the church. I had found 200 used chairs on the internet for $ 5,000.00. He didn’t see the value to do so because it would only add seating for additional 20-30 spaces to sit and the investment didn’t seem to be worth the return. I told him to take money out of the equation. And not to knock myself out of the blessing by telling you this, but I was going to absorb the cost. I had done my homework and I knew that I was proven that you people will sit closer together if they have chairs instead of pews.

Well by the time that we voted as the church to do so, the used chairs were gone. So instead of trashing the idea after we had already promised another church that they could have our pews, we went out and got quotes on new chairs. We chose to get 180 new chairs for the price of $ 10,800.00.

Well that was all good and everything. The chairs have been a blessing. But the problem was, I didn’t have $ 10,000 to pay for them. So the church agreed to pay for ½ and I was to pay for the other. The church sent the first ½ for their deposit and my ½ was due upon receiving the chairs.

In the mean time I had a car wreck, (Go figure) and I replaced my car with a newer one. I received a call that the chairs were done and were ready to ship in 10 days. I went to the bank account and looked in the savings. I had used part of that money on my car replacement. I was $ 2,700.00 short. I told my wife Hope to keep spending to a minimum and pray because we were short. I could not go back to the church now and renege on my commitment. So I was thinking that I would just go out and get a loan.

My sister was in the market for a house and I saw that a house was going to be going up for auction in the area and thought that I would just go check it out. Well when I got there the contents of the house was sold first and the house would go up afterwards. Now with money being tight, I have no plans of buying anything. But they held up a box with what looked like new full size sheets still in the plastic for sale. Some small voice said, bid! I was the only bidder at $ 5.00 for the whole box. Now Hope was not too happy with my purchase when I got home. But my sister was over and she said she could use the sheets. I gave them to her and within a few hours she called me in a panicked voice explaining to me that when she went to wash the sheets, over $ 300.00 fell out of one set of sheets. Now Hope was OK with me buying them. Then a minute later, she called me again. It ended up that there was a total of $ 2,730.00 cash in those sheets. I called the auctioneer and they just said congratulations, it was an estate sell and no living relatives. I had purchased the contents of the box which included $ 2,730.00 cash. I was in the right place at the right time.

So what does it take for us to be at the right place at the right time with God? As long as we have breath in our lungs and we are here on this earth; the right place is to be in God presence and the right time is always. If you have ever been in a church service where you can feel God’s presence and you leave the place feeling like you had church, which is the way we should strive to be, not just on Sundays but all the time. So how can we be in God’s presence all the time? I want to take us back to BC, (before Christ) so that we can learn from the example of how the High Priest and what he had to do to be in God’s presence. Turn with me if you would to the book of Leviticus, Chapter 16. Leviticus 16:3 "Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering.