Sermon Central
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Stop The Clock
Contributed by Sylvester Fergusson on Aug 13, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: There are times in our lives when there is a drastic change and we begin numbering the years from that time. So often we would hear, Oh it is five years since mother died, or two years since we were married. These are time stopping moments. In our lives t
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STOP THE CLOCK….. AND START IT OVER AGAIN
When Time Starts Again
Scripture Reading Ezra 3: 10-13
It has been five years since
It has been two years since…
It has been ten years since…
It has been six years since…
It has been fifty years since…
Perhaps you have heard these phrases echoed in your ears over and over again. Some associated with bad events:
It has been two years since my son disappeared.
It has been five years since I was diagnosed with HIV
It has been ten years since I was in the accident
Or some in association with wonderful events
It has been ten year since I was marriedWhat ever the situation it has most often been associated with life changing events. Clock stopping events: Events that stop the clock in your life, and then start it all ticking again.
It has been two years since I have been baptized
It has been ten year since I accepted Jesus Christ into my life
Events that cause us to start measuring time from the moment they occurred.
The title for this sermon is STOP THE CLOCK.
PRAYER
In the year was 536 BC there was buzz amongst the Jewish people Cyrus had issued a decree that all the Jews desirous of returning to Jerusalem could do so. Those who were not going were to assist those who desired to go. The past had caught up with the present: Jeremiah’s prediction that the Jews would be 70 years in captivity then they would return home, was about to be fulfilled, the time had come.
For them the clock had stopped ticking. Returning to their home land was the greatest event in the history of their lives. They were some who had never seen Jerusalem, they had only heard the tales of oldsters: They longed to see if all that they had heard was true;
They were those who came as young men and had grown old in a strange land they longed to return to the land of their youth.
And they were those who did not care less for Jerusalem and its history but it offered a chance to get away from the miserable existence which they now endured. Together these played their part in the fulfillment of the prophecy.
Then they were those who had made a home in Babylon, they had formed friendships and association and found it hard to break with the present for a taste of the past, they would remain. They names would be lost to the Jewish annals of history/legacy forever.
It is always an exciting time to return home. How excited we shall be when we return home, back to Eden renewed. The Bible tells us in Rev. 22:1,2 And he showed me, a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out to the throne of God and of the lamb.
In the midst of the street of it and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits and yield her fruit every month : and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Isaiah tells us in chp. 65:25 the wolf and the lamb shall feed together and, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent’s meat.
But that’s not all, Paul tells us in 1 corth. 2:9 … Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But before we get there we must heed God’s call to ;
the unconsecrated to be consecrated ;
the uncommitted to be committed;
to the unsurrendered to be surrendered;
to the unsaved to be saved
How long God asks will you halt between two decisions, if the LORD be God serve him. Stop the clock and start it again with new frame of mind.
Let the unconsecrated become consecrated in the service of Jesus Christ
Let the uncommitted become committed to the LORD Jesus Christ
Let the unsurrendered, surrender his will to God
And let the unsaved give his heart to Jesus Christ and be saved. Stop the clock. You can start it again.
Once you have done so my friends the first task you must perform is to build the altar of God. The bible tells us one of the first tasks the Jews set out to do on reaching Jerusalem is to build the altar of God; Ezra 3: 2
[Ezra 3:2, 3] Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offering thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
