It's Later Than You Think

Intro 1: Good morning, everyone. I want to welcome you once again to our church. And this morning, we're going to switch things up a little bit because we often talk about... We, I, me, Russell, myself, I talk about the future hope that we have and it's real. And that doesn't go away, and it doesn't change. But the sermon title says it's later than you think. So, before we dive just a little bit deeper, let's take a moment. Let's pray together, shall we?

Opening prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity. We thank you for this time to be here. God, I pray now that you would watch over me in this moment as I try to expound on your word through the spirit. Guide me, teach me, help me to be a vessel this morning, right now. Jesus’ name, amen.

Intro 2: For the last couple of years, you have heard me exclusively talk about our future hope, our future suffering, our future struggle, our future trial, our future glory in God. All those things are real. All those things don't change. All those things don't go away, but it's later than you think. And I was watching a movie just a few days ago with my family and one of my son's good friends, Matthew, who's here today, and there was a line in it that was not original. It's from ancient Rome from a few popular musicians. Enjoy today, it's later than you think. Carpe diem, seize the day.

It's the great paradox of Christianity because we learn about and we read about our future hope, our future home, heaven, where we're going, what we're living for. Not the things of this earth but the things of heaven that Jesus has promised us, that he assured, that he sealed when he died on the cross and then when he rose again from the dead. But here we are another, Sunday morning, the church isn't filling up and I'm glad that you're here. Maybe you're watching online, maybe you're watching with a group of people. Maybe you're watching alone. It's later than you think. Those words have been playing on repeat in my head every minute of every day, in every task that I do.

They have been shaping the way I'm thinking, the way I react, the way I respond, the way I engage, the way I work, the way I walk around my house. It's later than you think. It's later than you think. It's later than you think, Russ. Jesus got 33 years and his ministry was just a period of three years that we really read about in what is our modern day, Bible. And there's got to be more to the story. There are two sides to every story. And as humans, we say somewhere in the middle lies the truth. And the truth of the matter is, it's later than you think.

I got a piece of advice not too long ago that is now circulating online, and I suspect the person who gave me that advice probably got it from social media. But it's simple. At any given moment, anytime you're flaring up, anytime you're upset, you're angry, that you feel like your temper is going to fly off the charts, pause, close your eyes, even if it's for half of a second. And imagine you are 40 years older than you currently are right now, and this is the only moment in that span of time you are ever going to get, especially when it comes to those of us with children. It's the only time you're going to get to respond to this situation in this way, in this set of circumstances, which is true.

So, he posed a question, how would you react if your 80-year-old self, for me, looked out at this moment and said, "Is that what I would do? Was that the best way to handle it? Is that the best way to bridge this gap? Is that the best way to have this conversation?" And the answer is no. It's later than you think. My twins are 11. I have a few more summers with them if I'm lucky, where they really want to engage with me all the time, where they want to play outside, where they want to play basketball, where they want to play soccer, where they want to throw a baseball, where they want to go play with the dog in me. And suddenly those days won't happen anymore. They'll have distinct lives of their own with activities and friends that are seemingly more important than time with dad and time with mom.

And the Bible talks about these phenomena in more ways than one, in several verses scattered throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. We find references all over the place. Water from the rock with Moses, the parting of the Red Sea, the flood, the promise of never having a flood hit the earth again, the almost sacrifice of Abraham's son, the birth of a child to Sarah in her late age. It's later than you think is not as negative as maybe I once thought about or even initially when I heard it thought about.