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!
God’s word contains words of faith that we are to access and exercise in every season we face in life. Now, as you think about what Solomon said, “Did you have words of faith you could draw upon during those times?” When you think about 2024, it held some stressful times and times of love and joy. It was a year when we had opportunities to step out in faith and times when we had opportunities but hesitated. It was a year of continual change. As you reflect on your year, let me change the question for you. As you reflect on 2024, “Did you have and use words of faith on the inside of you to help you through the year?” Remember, just because we know the Word does not mean we will use it in our life’s seasons.
David wrote in Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” A few years ago, my oldest daughter gave me a book for Christmas titled “Your Father’s Story – Dad I want to know everything about you.” It is a book filled with questions for me to answer about my life, from childhood to becoming a dad. It was not a book I could sit down and complete in a week. I worked on it for a couple of years. As I answered the questions in that book, there was a recurring theme as the book transitioned from my childhood to my becoming an adult. The questions related to wisdom – what I had learned and what I would want to pass down to my daughters. As I continued answering those questions some of my answers came from Scripture – words of faith I learned in the Word myself and words of faith I was taught growing up. I am a living witness of what James wrote in James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” This book made me reflect on the good times and the tough times of my life. It looked at the highs and the lows and what I learned from them. What I know now I wish I knew 40 years ago, and it is what David said, “So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
When I read what David said and reflected on my life, I realized that I did not number my days – apply importance to all of them. I realized that in a lot of my “life moments” I did not practice wisdom – I did not access the words of faith that had been instilled in me – because I was not thinking about the outcome. I was not thinking about the results that would follow an action that I took in haste. In short, I did not connect my words of faith to those times when, for if I had accessed them, they would have given me pause and a chance to make a different decision. You see, had I numbered my days (gave importance to each day) and understood them as the “only moments” I would ever have in that specific time, I believe that I would have exercised the words of faith inside of me to slow down and make a different decision.
Let me give you an example of one of the questions in that book. One question asked, “Looking back, what do you wish you’d made more time for?” As I read that question I paused and thought about the answer because it was something I had been thinking about for a while. My answer was “Family.” I wish that I had made more time for my family, especially when my daughters were smaller. I can remember attending some of their events at school and being there in body only as I was tired from being on the road all week, but I felt obligated to support their activities. I missed out on spending quality time with them because of my job. I also missed a lot of quality time with my wife for the same reason. I could be in her presence, but my mind was often thinking about work-related things. If I could get back some of those moments, I would make different choices. There is a time for everything but I missed some of those specific times because I was not prepared, interested, preoccupied and just too tired to engage. I am sure some of you know what I am talking about. I now have more days behind me than I have before me, so I am purposefully choosing to make each day count. I am purposefully choosing to make sure I am in the moment, that I am open and available to do whatever God wants me to do with the time that I have left. I am purposefully managing my remaining time with my wife and family, being present in those moments and giving them my undivided attention as I had not done for so many years.
Paul wrote the following to the Church in Ephesus, “(15) See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, (16) redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (17) Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17) This is my desire for the rest of my life. Again, I wish I had done this when I was in my twenties. I believe that this is one of the reasons why Paul says the days are evil. Once they were gone, I could not go back and undo my mistakes, my wrong decisions or how I had treated people. And I will tell you something Strangers Rest, there have been times when I have grieved because of those “evil days” and my contributing conduct in them.
You see, so many of us are focused on yesterday – a day in the past that we can do absolutely nothing about because it is already past. God told Isaiah, “(18) Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. (19) Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:18-19) God told the people through Isaiah to forget about the past because He was getting ready to do something new. So many people spend so much time reflecting on the past and opportunities missed that they cannot live in the present and continue to miss current opportunities. So how much time in the present have we lost fretting over yesterday? And this is important, “Did we have words of faith on the inside of us to help us with yesterday?” If we did, why didn’t we use them when we needed them?
But my problem also extended to the things of tomorrow. When I was working I was always focusing on what was coming up to the extent that I could not enjoy the present day. I used to hate Sunday evenings because that was the time I had to start shifting to work mode because I would be traveling on Monday morning. Jesus addressed this when He said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34) In the verses preceding this one, Jesus was explaining why we should not worry. He said that we should focus on the day at hand – the day we are living in.
If you have experienced what I lived through then you too have spent time worrying about tomorrow – a day that has not even come and might not see. Do we realize that tomorrow is a day that we cannot control as it has not arrived yet and that worrying about tomorrow stops us from living in and enjoying the moments of today? How many times have we worried about tomorrow, about things that could happen but never did and those worries stopped us from enjoying our present? This is what Jesus was talking about when He said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34) He was telling us to focus on the day at hand as tomorrow will bring its own issues. But here is what I want you to really think about, the words of faith that we have available to us today, if we do not use them today, in this time, in the moment when they are needed, they cannot be used tomorrow to change the opportunities we missed today. I am not saying we cannot believe in faith for a different outcome after we messed up, but our faith today cannot change what we did yesterday. But praise God the words of faith we have available to us today can be used to prepare us for what might come our way tomorrow. Someone said, and I find it to be true, that “Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, but faith looks up.”
Solomon wrote that there was a time for everything under the sun; David, his father, asked God to help us number our days. Why? Because there is a time for everything under the sun! James wrote that if we lacked wisdom – if we lack words of faith – we could go to God and ask for it and He would give it to us. Why? Because there is a time for everything under the sun and we need wisdom, words of faith, to understand and operate every day of our lives. Finally, Jesus said that tomorrow will take care of itself and to focus on the present day. Why? Because we can do nothing about yesterday because it is already passed! We can do nothing about tomorrow because it has not happened yet. There is a time for everything under the sun. The question is this: “In 2025, will we have words of faith on the inside of us to help us?”
I want to close with a reminder of the story of the three Hebrew boys as found in Daniel chapter three. These young men were probably teenagers when this story takes place giving proof that faith in God is not age dependent, but belief dependent. Isaiah wrote, “…. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’ (Isaiah 7:9b) I want to read to you the conversation between king Nebuchadnezzar and them. At this moment it has been reported to the king that these three young men refused his order to worship the golden image when they heard the sounds from the musical instruments. The king brings them before Him and the following discussion is recorded beginning at verse fourteen.
“(14) Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, ‘Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? (15) Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?’ (16) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. (17) If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. (18) But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” (Daniel 3:14-18)
King Nebuchadnezzar threatened them with the fiery furnace if they did not agree to fall down and worship the image he had created. Those three young men told the king that they had nothing to say on the matter and then they professed in faith what God was going to do. Verse seventeen records, “(17) If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king.” Did you see it? Did you see the profession of faith in what they said? When the King threatened to throw them into the fiery furnace they said if you do, then “…. our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king.” They professed that not only was God able to do it, but they also professed that God would deliver them from his hand. Do you see their profession of faith? They “knew” that God could deliver them, and they “believed” that He would, but they told the king, even if He did not, they would not worship his gods. This is how we walk in faith in all of our seasons. First we read God’s word and plant it in our hearts so that we are fully versed on what God can do. Then once we know what God can do, we believe Him – it is truly that simple.
I want to go back to what David said in Psalm 90:12. “So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” We no longer have time to waste. As I said earlier, as I completed the book for my daughter, I understood how much time I had lost and will never get back. I lost time with my family. I lost time serving God. I lost time being stupid. I lost time building my faith. I lost time worrying about things that never happened. I lost time worrying about how my needs would be met. I lost time wondering if God was truly hearing my prayers. I could easily say that I wasted time doing all of these things, but the word lost gives more clarity to something that is gone that I cannot get back. How much time did you lose in 2024 not walking in faith? How much time are you planning to lose in 2025? I do not believe that any of you are actively planning to lose more time in 2025, but if you do not make any changes to your lives, you will repeat 2024 in how you respond to your moments and thus you will in fact be losing more time. Time is running out. I see that clearer today than I ever have. In 2025, will you have words of faith on the inside of you and use them to help you use the time that your Heavenly Father has given to you as a blessing to Him here on earth? That is my plan for 2025. What about you? I will leave you with this poem
“By Faith, Not Sight”
by Ruth A. Morgan
“Sometimes I’m sad, I know not why, my heart is so distressed.
It seems the burdens of this world, have settled on my heart.
And I know...I know that God, Who doeth all things right,
Will lead me thru to understand… to walk by faith, not sight.
And though I may not see the way, He’s planned for me to go.
The way seems dark to me just now, but oh, I’m sure He knows!
Today He guides my feeble step, tomorrow’s in His right,
He has asked me never to fear, but walk by faith, not sight.
Someday the mists will roll away, the sun will shine again.
I’ll see the beauty in the flowers, I’ll hear the birds refrain.
And then I’ll know my Father’s hand, has led the way to light
Because I placed my hand in His, and walked by faith, not sight.”
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
