It’s Time
11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Romans 13:11
I. It’s Time to forget the past
a. We have all done stupid thing in our past
i. We allow those things to hinder our relationship with God
ii. We allow those things to hinder our service to God
b. God promises us that we can be forgiven no matter what – 1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9
i. God uses screw ups
1. David – Even though he was adulterer and murder
2. Jonah – Even though he ran away
3. Zacheus – Even though he was a cheat
4. Paul – Even though he stood against God and persecuted His people
ii. When we live in Christ, we have a new day – 2 Corinthians 5:15
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. – 2 Corinthians 5:17
II. It’s Time to live in the present – Matthew 6:34
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. – Matthew 6:34
a. Forget the past
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before – Philippians 3:13
i. What good does it do to live in the past – We can’t change it. We can only learn from it
ii. We need to strive to the future
b. pay attention to what’s going on today
i. God is revealing Himself to us in everything we do and every place we go
III. It’s Time to plan for the future
a. We need to wake up out of our Spiritual Sleep
Pearl Harbor’s "What If"
Pearl Harbor! The morning of December 7, 1941, found 353 Japanese airplanes swarming all around the Harbor site. Within a couple of hours, America lost 8 big battleships, 6 major airfields, almost all planes, and 2,400 men. That happened at 7:50 AM in what was supposedly a surprised attack. But these are the startling facts:
That morning at 7 AM, while the Japanese warplanes were 137 miles (50 minutes) away, two US soldiers on a small radar station in the Pacific scanned the screen and saw dots and dots appearing, until the whole screen was filled. These soldiers notified their youthful supervisor, a lieutenant. No other officer was around, that being a Sunday.
The lieutenant thought these must be planes from California, and without another thought, said these crucial words: "Don’t worry about it." There would have been time to scramble the planes at Pearl Harbor, prepare the battleships and shelter the men, but this lieutenant, at the most responsible moment of his career, failed the nation.
i. It’s interesting that two years ago Christian made a big deal about the term “Holiday,” but this year there wasn’t much said about it.
ii. We are too quiet
iii. We are no longer the light of the world.
b. Where are you at with your Relationship with God?
i. Are you growing
ii. Are you stagnant
iii. Let’s use the past as a catalyst to make a better future
In Washington, DC, by the Hall of Archives on Constitutional Avenue is a bronze statue of a girl, sitting with a book in her hands. She has come to the last page and is looking thoughtfully at the volume, reflecting on what she has read. Underneath the statue are the words: "All that is past is prologue."
What a person thinks of the past determines his view of the future.
Our past is just the beginning for our future.
