"The Time of Our Lives"
James 4:14
James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Introduction: What Happens Every 15 Minutes
Hands on Illustration: Set the timer for 15 minutes -- I am setting this timer for 15 minutes and 15 minutes from now it will ring and at that point I will tell you how valuable 15 minutes are in this world.
When the Timer goes off and rings this is what would have happened in the world!
Do you know - What happens in 15 minutes?
"Mission Maker Magazine", page 18, Edition 2008, (www.WorldChristianDatabase.org):
3,882 souls began life in the world
1, 721 souls meet Jesus face-to-face because they died
5, 448 people migrated internationally
201 children became homeless or family-less
1,137 rural poor migrated to cities worldwide
570 people moved into urban slums
34 people began supporting themselves only by collecting garbage
688 children under age five died from preventable starvation related causes in the world
5 Christians died for their Christian witness worldwide
"Time is an energy force which needs to be invested into eternity." The timing of an action or a word will determine whether it is a success or a failure. There is always a time factor tied to everything we do in life. So we have to be able to discern what time it is.
From a sermon by Michael McCartney, Energy Conservation, 1/28/2010
I. Our Plans
a. Wrong Planning -- ...today or tomorrow... It's not wrong to plan, but it is foolish to plan wrongly! The Lord doesn't condemn planning for the future but it is wrong to plan presumptuously.
b. Willful Planning -- ...we will go... We propose but God disposes.
The best laid schemes of Mice and Men
oft go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
Robert Burns, To a Mouse (Poem, November, 1785) Scottish national poet (1759 - 1796)
c. Worldly Planning -- ...buy, sell, and get gain... Some of you will say what's wrong with this; after all, a man's got to live!
Luke 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. 16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
ILL: TOMORROW
He was going to be all that a mortal should be
Tomorrow
No one would be better than he
Tomorrow
Each morning he stacked up the letters he would write
Tomorrow
It was too bad indeed he was too busy to see Bill, but he promised to do it
Tomorrow
The greatest of workers this man would have been
Tomorrow
The world would have known him had he ever seen
Tomorrow
But the fact is he died and faded from view, and all
that was left when living was through Was a mountain of things he intended to do
Tomorrow.
II. Our Problem
a. The limitations we have
Chuck Swindoll stated this in His book Living on the Ragged Edge and its focus is about the importance of our time:
Every morning someone who loves you very much deposits into your bank of time 86,400 seconds of time-which represents 1,440 minutes-which, of course, equal twenty-four hours each day.
Now you've got to remember the same stipulation applies, because God gives you this amount of time for you to use each day. Nothing is carried over on credit to the next day. There is no such thing as a twenty-six-hour day (though some of us wish there were). From today's dawn until tomorrow's dawn, you have a precisely determined amount of time. As someone has put it, "Life is a coin. You can spend it anyway you want to, but you can spend it only once."
One of the most fascinating (and, I might add, frustrating) of all subjects is this four-letter word TIME. It's amazing. We all have the same amount of time. Whether we are penniless or whether we happen to be the richest person on earth, whether we are young or old, single or married, employed or without a job, an adolescent in school or the President of the United States of America-we have exactly the same amount of time (page 67).
From a sermon by Michael McCartney, Energy Conservation, 1/28/2010
b. The life we have
Analagy: Old word for mist (like atmos, from which our "atmosphere"), in N.T. only here and Acts 2:19 with kapnou (vapour of smoke (from Joel 2:30).
David Ponder illustration:
III. Our Perspective
a. The adjustment we should make -- "...whereas we ought to say..."
We have the opportunity to change the way that we live. We cannot change the past but we can being now to change the way that we live. If we want to change our actions we need to begin with our attitudes for actions always follow attitudes!
b. The acknowledgment we should make -- The key to this change is to recognize the sovereignty of God. Every plan we make and every prayer that we pray should be preferaced by "...if the Lord will..." Even Jesus recognized the sovereignty of the Father!
c. The action we should take
Conclusion:
TEMPORARY CASTLES
"A little boy is on the beach. On his knees he scoops and packs the sand with plastic shovels into a bright red bucket. Then he upends the bucket on the surface and lifts it. And, to the delight of the little architect, a castle tower is created.
"All afternoon he will work. Spooning out the moat. Packing the walls. Bottle tops will be sentries. Popsicle sticks will be bridges. A sandcastle will be built.
"Big city. Busy streets. Rumbling traffic.
"A man in his office. At his desk he shuffles papers into stacks and delegates assignments. He cradles the phone on his shoulder and punches the keyboard with his fingers. Numbers are juggled and contracts are signed and much to the delight
the man, a profit is made.
"All his life he will work. Formulating the plans. Forecasting the future. Annuities will be sentries. Capital gains will be bridges. An empire will be built.
"Two builders of two castles. They have much in common. They shape granules into grandeurs. They see nothing and make something. They are diligent and determined. And for both the tide will rise and the end will come.
"Yet that is where the similarities cease. For the boy sees the end while the man ignores it. Watch the boy as the dusk approaches.
"As the waves near, the wise child jumps to his feet and begins to clap. There is no sorrow. No fear. No regret. He knew this would happen. He is not surprised. And when the great breaker crashes into his castle and his masterpiece is sucked into the sea, he smiles. He smiles, picks up his tools, takes his father's hand, and goes home.
"The grownup, however, is not so wise. As the wave of years collapses on his castle he is terrified. He hovers over the sandy monument to protect it. He blocks the waves from the walls he has made. Salt-water soaked and shivering he snarls at the incoming tide.
"'It's my castle,' he defies.
"The ocean need not respond. Both know to whom the sand belongs...
"And I don't know much about sandcastles. But children do. Watch them and learn. Go ahead and build, but build with a child's heart. When the sun sets and the tides take -- applaud. Salute the process of life, take your Father's hand and go home"
(Max Lucado, More Stories for the Heart (Multnomah: Sisters, Oregon, 1997), 224-225.
