What does the future hold for us?
One day many years ago, when I was in one of my philosophical modes, I pondered the thought of time.
I realized that the past was gone and the future was waiting and that I was trapped in this moment of time!
I can’t speed it up and I can’t slow it down. I can’t hit rewind or fast forward!
One things for sure, we’re not getting any younger. Time is surely linear.
Someone described the seven stages of man’s life like this: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills, wills.
If you’re going to do something with your life now is the time, now is your window of opportunity.
Ps 39:4-5 says
"Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath." NLT
Someone took the time to do the research for us. If we live to 75…
We will spend 3 years in school (24 hours a day)
7 years eating
14 years working
5 years driving/riding in airplane
5 years talking
1 year recovering from sickness
24 years sleeping
15 years amusing ourselves
Now what if you spent every Sunday of your life (0-75) in church without missing a Sunday. How long will that be?...
5 ½ months! If you came Sunday morning and Wednesday night it would be 11 months.
Our lives are certainly brief and it would seem we would give more of a priority to the One who gave it to us.
In light of the brevity of life, of linear nature of life and of the trappings of time we come to realize that now is our window of opportunity. Here is some advice to take full advantage of our window of opportunity.
1. Now is the time to risk failure (11:1-6)
a. Life is too short to fear failure (Wisdom for economic investments)
i. take some chances (v.1)
ii. be smart and diversify (v.2)
iii. failure will happen (v.3)
iv. don’t be ruled by a fear of failure (vv.4-6)
A Georgia farmer, ragged and barefooted, was standing on the steps of his tumbledown shack.
A stranger stopped for a drink of water and just to pass the time of day he asked: "How is your cotton coming along?" he asked.
"Ain’t got none," replied the farmer.
"Did you plant any?" asked the stranger.
"Nope," was the reply, "afraid of bollweevils."
"Well," continued the stranger, "how is your corn?"
"Didn’t plant none," came the answer, "’fraid there weren’t going to be no rain."
The visitor persevered: "Well, how are your potatoes?"
"Ain’t got none. Scairt - of potato bugs."
"Really, what did you plant?" pressed the stranger.
"Nothin’," was the calm reply, "I jest played safe."
Jeff Strite @sermoncentral.com
2) You’ve failed many times. You fell the first time you walked, you wrecked your bike the first time you tried to ride it, you almost drowned the first time you tried to swim.
2. Now is the time to rejoice freely (11:7-9, 12:1-5)
a. Life is too brief not to enjoy so go for it! (vv.7-9)
i. Enjoy each stage of your life to the fullest
ii. But, let your enthusiasm be tempered by the fact we will face God’s judgment (v.9)
b. Do it before you get too old (12:1-5)
George Burns said you know your getting old when:
The gleam in your eyes is from the sun hitting your bifocals
Your children start to look middle-aged
you sit in a rocking chair but you can’t get it going
the little gray-haired woman you help across the street is your wife
your knees buckle but your belt won’t
And lastly, you know you’re getting older when stoop to tie your shoes and you wonder what else you can do while you’re down there.
ill. A while back an expert on the subject of time management was speaking to a group of business students.
After speaking to them for a while, he said, “Okay, it’s time for a quiz.” He set a one-gallon, wide mouthed Mason jar on the table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks & carefully placed them, one at a time, inside the jar. When the jar was filled to the top & no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?” Everyone in the class said, “Yes.”
“Really?” he said. Then he reached under the table & pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel into the jar & shook it, causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.
Then he smiled & asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time the class was on to him. “Probably not,” one of them said.
“Good!” he replied. And he reached under the table & brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in & it filled all the spaces between the rocks & the gravel. Once more he asked, “Is this jar full?” “No!” the class shouted. Again he said, “Good!” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water & began to pour in the water until the jar was filled to the brim.
Then he looked back at the class & asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”
One eager beaver raised his hand & said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit something more into it!”
“No,” the speaker replied, “that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is this: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”
What are the big rocks of your life? They should include these: Each day drawing nearer to God, spending time with Him in prayer, & seeking His guidance for your life through reading His Word. Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you’ll never get them in at all.
i. Look what’s gonna happen (vv.1-5)
If I could paraphrase 12:1-5, you get the idea of what he was saying happens to us as we get old.
1 Don’t forget the LORD in your youth. Remember Him by pursuing His plans for your life. If you wait too long, you are liable to say, “It’s too late to serve God now. I’m too old.
2 “For the storm clouds of old age are surrounding me. My best days are behind me. What good is a feeble old man?”
3 “My arms are weak, my hands are shaky, my knees are worn out and my feet ache! Most of my teeth are missing and I can’t half see! I’m legally blind!”
4 “I can’t hear without my hearing aide, I can’t even enjoy good music anymore. I used to get up with the chickens and now I can hardly get out of bed.
5 “I get dizzy every time I stand and I can’t even drive myself to the store anymore. I look like a wounded grasshopper when I walk and to top it all off, I’m sexually impotent! My life is over. I can hear the people crying at my funeral.”
6 Remember Him before it comes to this! Before you get in this shape.
7 And your body returns to the earth and your spirit returns to God who gave it.
I heard the story about the group of seniors at the nursing home who were sitting around talking about all their ailments. “My arms have gotten so weak I can hardly lift this cup of coffee,” said one. “Yes, I know,” said another. “My cataracts are so bad I can’t even see my coffee.” “I couldn’t even mark and “X” at election time, my hands are so crippled,” volunteered a third.
“I can’t turn my head because of the arthritis in my neck,” said a fourth. “My blood pressure pills make me so dizzy!” exclaimed another. “I forget where I am, and where I’m going,” said another. “I guess that’s the price we pay for getting old,” winced an old man as he slowly shook his head. The others nodded in agreement. “Well, count your blessings,” said one woman cheerfully, “and thank God we can all still drive”.
The Bible says in Ps 90:10
10 The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
NKJV
3. Now is the time to remove hate (11:10)
a. Don’t waste your time in anger and bitterness
J. R. Packard wrote a short story entitled, "The Trouble Is." In that story there is one very moving scene. A riot is in progress with blacks & whites fighting each other. The mother of the little black boy who is telling this story has been hurt. Her family has just gone down & picked her up off the ground & carried her upstairs & placed her in bed.
Now, the little black boy is standing by the window with his grandmother watching what is going on below. As they watch the fighting they notice a white boy running away from a group of blacks. It seems that he’ll get away until he makes a fatal mistake. He turns down their alley, not knowing that it is a dead end. Too late, he realizes his mistake & he turns with a look of horror on his face towards the black youths who are coming after him.
As the little boy watches, he sees a door open below & his grandmother standing there beckoning the white boy to escape through the open door. The little boy says, "At first I was glad because my grandmother had opened the door so the white boy could escape. Then I remembered my mother bleeding & suffering on the bed, & that white people had done that to her. Then I was angry at my grandmother for opening the door."
He goes on, "The trouble is that when people hate each other, the people who are the objects of the hate want to hate the people who hate them, & hurt the people who hurt them, & insult the people who insult them. Soon we find ourselves in a vicious cycle of hating, hurting, & insulting. And nobody opens the door. So we just keep on hurting & hating & insulting." Melvin Newland @sermoncentral.com
Are there some doors you need to open in your life? Life is too short to live with anger, hate, bitterness, and depression.
4. Now is the time to remember God (12:1, 6-7, 13-14)
a. Eternity is too long to forget God (vv.1, 6-7)
ill. 2 old men were sitting on a park bench. One of the men said, “You know as I get older I can’t remember things the way I used to.” The other man said, “I used to have that problem too until I took this memory course. It’s a very simple technique, based on associating words with names, places and events. Now because of that I don’t have trouble remembering anything at all.” The first man said, “Really? What was the name of the course?”
The old man got a puzzled look on his face, turned white as a sheet, scratched his head, then asked, “What’s the flower with a long stem, has thorns on it, the petals can be white or yellow or red?” “A rose?” the other man replied. “Yes, thank you!”
He turned to his wife and said, “Rose, what was the name of that memory course?” Matthew Rogers @sermoncentral.com
Don’t forget God. For He is the One who gave you your life. He has a purpose for your life. Don’t wait until you get older before you remember Him. Now is your window of opportunity.
b. Solomon’s conclusion (vv.13-14)
Conclusion: God loves you so much that He gave His One and Only Son. Jesus died on the cross for you. If you have been putting off recieving Christ consider this: Now is your window of opportunity.
The Bible says in Hebrews 3:7-8, 12-13
So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…
See to it brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
2 Corinthians 6:2
For God says, "At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you." Indeed, the "right time" is now. Today is the day of salvation.
