"Time Giving!"
" The 3 T’s - Time, Treasure, and Talent" series part 2 of 3
Text: Ecc. 3:1-11 & Selected
Cross Creek Community Church
Pastor Dave Martin - Feb. 11, 2001
www.crosscreekcc.org
God’s Word is Powerful, Relevant, and Life Changing!
Eccles. 3:1-11 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: ..... 11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
We will WORSHIP and SERVE our Lord for all eternity!
Today, be using your 3T’s - Time, Treasures, & Talents.
How hard is it to give of your time? God desires your heart, then He’ll have your time, treasures, and talents. This morning allow the Holy Spirit to confront you face to face with your use of time. Each one of us has a purpose for which we have been created. God is almighty and eternal who stands outside the realm of time. We look at time in a three dimensional way, past, present and future.
Every moment comes to you pregnant with a divine purpose; time being so precious that God deals it out only second by second. Once it leaves your hands and your power to do with it as you please, it plunges into eternity, to remain forever what you made it.
* Einstein’s theory of relativity E=MC2 which basically says the faster we travel, slower the time.
I. Understanding Time...
1. God is the CREATOR and MASTER of time.
Psalm 90:1-2 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. 2Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
* God is the creator and master of time - Gen 1:1"In the beginning God created"
1 Cor. 2:7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
* We stand in time and see it in a linear fashion of past, present and future. God stands outside of any time constraints.
A. W. Tozer - God dwells in eternity, but time dwells in God. He has already lived all our tomorrow’s as he has lived all our yesterdays.
* The great I AM, the forever, eternal, self-existent one. The forever present I AM. Ex. 3:14; Jn 8:58
* Absolutely impossible to describe an infinite eternal God, not bound by time.
2 Peter 3:8 "...With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."
Titus 1:2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,
* Time had a beginning, God did not, for He is the Creator and Master of time.
2. Time is PRECIOUS, use it wisely.
James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
* We are all creatures of time. We’re all given various amounts of time to use while alive.
* To some, it is very short but to others, it may be for 70 - 80 years or longer. Ps. 90:10
* Once time is gone, it can never be reclaimed or changed - it is forever fixed in eternity.
Ephes. 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
* We’re unable to hoard it up or to save it for a rainy day - when lost it’s unrecoverable.
* Time slowly sucks the life from us. Each of us is growing older daily - time is precious.
* Our total lifetime is made up of continual NOW’s, or present choices and decisions.
Psalm 31:15 "My times are in your hands..."
* This morning you are sitting here at Cross Creek - you’re at the crossroads of your life.
* You’re not here by mistake or accident. So use this and all time wisely - it’s precious.
James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
* Jesus stepped out of eternity of heaven into time on earth to redeem mankind from sin.
* Jesus used His time upon earth wisely. He taught and ministered for just over 3 years and look at all He accomplished in this short period of time.
* He was never in a hurry, He was relaxed because God is in control - walking out His perfect will.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said "A day is a miniature eternity". In our lives, there should not be any difference between secular and sacred, using all our time wisely for the lord.
* Time is precious, to be used wisely - A day is a span of time no one is wealthy enough to waste.
Each day comes bearing its gifts, Untie the ribbons, smell the roses, serve the Lord in it’s fullness.
* All of our days are ordained and ordered by God, there is no "chance" or luck with the Lord.
Psalm 139:16 "....All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
* We as Christians have no "ordinary" days but everyday has extraordinary significance.
Ralph Washington -Time is the deposit each one has in the bank of God, and no one knows the balance.
* Our God has a perfect divine plan for your life. Do you know what it is?
* Time never takes time off, it is always marching on, to be stopped only by God.
* Paul Tsongas said, "Nobody on his deathbed ever said, ’I wish I had spent more time on my job.’"
Take an inventory with your life, look at your life as God would see it.
3. Developing an Eternal Perspective...
* Gain WISDOM from your past.
Ephes. 5:15-17 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
* Are you still in the same old rut you were in a few years ago?
* Are you still struggling with that sin that so easily overtakes you? You just can’t shake it.
* Learn from your past - don’t go there again. We will oftentimes go back to the pigs trough of sin.
* An old relationship, you know is bad - don’t go there. An old lifestyle, church, job, habits - gain wisdom from your past - begin developing an eternal perspective, which is very important.
Remember your possibilities; forget your limitations.
Remember your potentialities; forget your seeming restrictions.
Remember your abilities; forget your disabilities.
Remember your assets; forget your liabilities.
Remember your strengths; forget your weaknesses.
Remember your joys; forget your sorrows. William Arthur Ward (1812-1882)
* Do you put your hand on a hot stove, no, why? Because you gained wisdom from your past experiences. Do the same in the spiritual sense.
* You sense a lacking in your spiritual commitment to the Lord, you have a longing for a closer walk with Jesus and you just can’t seem to get connected again.
Will Rogers said, "Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today".
* Set new goals, new priorities with correct Biblical objectives.
* Look back over your life, take inventory, and realize God brought you today to Cross Creek.
* God ordained this day, this very moment. Seize the moment, let the Lord speak to you.
* Concentrate on the future GOAL, heaven.
Philip. 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
* What’s our future goal? Do we have a goal, a purpose for living? We need an eternal perspective. God tells us in Ecc. 3:11, He has placed eternity in our hearts!
* Looking beyond the routine of life, to God’s sovereign eternal plans and purpose.
* Our future goal - to be more like Christ, to be finally home in heaven for all eternity with Christ.
* Understanding time properly will give us a proper eternal perspective.
* Knowing God has a perfect plan for your life, a reason for living - a new relationship with Him.
Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
James 5:8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.
* Knowing beyond a shadow of doubt of our home in heaven, of the future rewards for how I used the time God has ordained for me.
* Focus upon your present Spiritual CONDITION.
Col. 2:6-7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
* First thing you need to do today, now, not tomorrow is to receive Jesus as Lord.
* God desires to restore the broken relationship you have with Him because of your sin.
* The unsaved has a fear of death, a fear of stepping into the unknown without Christ.
A.W. Tozer said, "How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. ... For those out of Christ, time is a devouring beast; before the sons of the new creation time crouches and purrs and licks their hands".
* It’s one thing to believe, yet another to actually receive God’s Son Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
2 Cor. 6:2 For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. No guarantee of tomorrow.
* When we concentrate on knowing Christ and of winning the prize of eternal life, it starts to clarify a lot of the frivolous things in our lives. Take an inventory of your life, see any time wasters?
* Television, laziness, newspapers, magazines, shopping, working, etc. Where’s does your Lord fit?
* What are you doing for Christ today? That’s the important question. Not living on past mountain top experiences of how great a Christian you were years ago. But how’s your NOW?
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Martin Luther said, "I have so much to do today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer".
* Not living on hopes of tomorrow, by constantly saying - I’m going to do this, or next week I’ll start reading my Bible, or in the spring I’ll start going to Sunday morning Bible classes at Church.
* All God really wants of me in a given day is my best effort, do the best I can for Christ.
* If you know Christ, use this time that you exist to grow more like Christ. Be preparing now for all eternity. Yesterday is past, never to be reclaimed, don’t count on tomorrow - use today wisely.
Romans 13:11-12 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
* Begin to see your life as God sees it. Understand how my life can change another person’s destiny forever.
* Have you recently talked with anyone about their eternal destiny?
* You are the one God desires to use today. God tells us to: Wake up, Lay aside, Put on!
* Full-grown oaks are not produced in three years; neither are servants of God.
* Are you being faithful with your time? Using it wisely? Telling others about Christ?
* God wants commitment to Him. Are you Hot? Warm? Cold? Or just plain Indifferent?
* The greatest use of time is to spend it for something that will outlast it. Loving & Serving Christ.
* God created you and placed you in time. Be investing and using your time wisely for the Lord.
* The present - NOW - always directs eternity.
The ultimate meaning and fulfillment of life is having God’s eternal perspective.
Eternity will reveal whether we have made the right use of time.
Gaining wisdom from our past.
Concentrating on the future goal of heaven.
Focusing upon your present spiritual condition.
In the Lord’s supper we see time framed the same way, past, present, and the future.
III. The Lord’s Supper... (1Co. 11:23-32)
A look into the past -
"In remembrance of me..."
A look at the present -
"Let a man examine himself..."
A look to the future -
"Proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes..."
Let’s Pray
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