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Sermon of the Week 
Tuesday, July 30 2019

Psalms 118:24 The Psalmist said, “This is the day (appointed time) that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” 

I looked to Webster for a definition of time…. Webster says 

“Time is an allotted, available, use of your life”. “Time is that which separates the finite from the infinite” And Webster defines a “Lifetime” as a period of apprenticeship” …    

In each day there are 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, and 86,400 seconds-and every one of them is a precious gift from God.                                                                If the average person lives to be 70 years of age, they spend 20 years sleeping; 20 years working; 6 years eating; 7 years playing; 5 years dressing; 6 years on the telephone; 3 years waiting for somebody; 5 months tying shoelaces; and only 2½ years left for other things.

Time is something we feel we never have enough of, yet we give it away far too easily. Someone once said, “Time is free, but it is priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it but you can spend it. The present moment you’re in, is the only one you can call your own and it is gone in the batting of an eye”

Psalm 39:6 “We live our lives like those living in shadows. All our activities and energies are spent for things that pass away. We gather, we hoard, we cling to our things, only to leave them all behind for who knows what”.                                                                                                                     As I was preparing, I came across a poem by an unkown author, it says    ”I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day! I had so much to accomplish that I didn’t take time to pray. Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task. “Why doesn’t God help me?” I asked, He answered, “You didn’t ask!” I tried to come into His presence; I used all my keys at the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, “My child, why didn’t you knock!” I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on, gray and bleak. I wondered why God didn’t show me. He answered, “But you didn’t seek.” I woke up early this morning, and paused before entering the day. I had so much to accomplish, that I had to take time to pray.

                                                                                                                                     Over the past month, there were times after the shock from hearing that Winnie would not just need therapy but she would need a hip replacement, we felt that we had been hit by a Mac truck. 4 days after getting this information, she was in surgery. I felt that our situation had placed us in a huge interruption to all our plans and our responsibilities. I call it “The day the world stood still”….(We’ve had a few more of those days since then)

It was as though we had been blind sided and put on a detour away from the main flow of life. We have been through many things together and now we were joined at the hip! Our lives were now centered around a hip joint. (by the way, have you met my new wife?) She’s really HIP!                                  Any way, in the midst of the shock of it all, we found that the bible still is relevant as always, regardless of the situation which we find ourselves in. One of my anchors in all of this was…..

Romans 8:28 which still says….”And we know that  God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are  called according to His purpose. v29  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to (continually) become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. v30  and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also  justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. v31 What then shall we say to all these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

The word “predestined” has to do with our Father God being in charge of our destiny, in hours and days as well as our life time!!! It declares that He always operates in and through the precise time which we must live in, and yet He is timeless!

We also recognize that this word “predestined”, in Romans, existed before what we now know as “time” and will continue to operate long after time has ended. It is before and beyond time!

Time has not always been and it will not always be, but God’s predestination has always been and will always be present and active, in the comings and goings of mankind.

Little Johnny was dealing with some comings and goings…

After church service, little Johnny told his parents he had to go and talk to the minister right away. 

They agree and the pastor greeted the family and Johnny says, “Pastor,

I heard you say today that our bodies came from the dust."

"That's right, Johnny, I did."

"And I heard you say that when we die, our bodies go back to dust."

"Yes, I'm so glad you were paying attention. Why do you ask?"

"Well you better come over to our house right away and look under my bed 'cause somebody is either comin' or they’re goin’under there!"

Long before Adam and Eve were created Time was created. Time is a created object… So before you start stressing, and digressing about time, and time pressure, and time deadlines… be clear that it is just another created thing, made for our use and given to us as a blessing….

Tell someone…. “He makes all things beautiful in His time”…..

Genesis 1:3 “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. v4 And God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. v5 And God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And the evening, and morning—were the first day”.…

”morning and evening were the first day”, those are time markers set up by almighty God. Each day is an amazing gift and everything can change in a day… As we are dealing with our own time markers, we need to remind ourselves that with God, everything can be changed. It doesn’t always have to be the way it is.                                                                           Every today is the tomorrow that God promised yesterday. And His promise will not return void, because He has sworn His promises by His own name!

Psalm 105:8–9 “For though a thousand generations may pass away, He is still true to His word. He has kept every promise (every appointment) that He has made.”

Tom, was a busy, upcoming executive, and Tom was about to get a new “Time Marker” in his life. As he rushed to work in his new jaguar with the radio blasting, suddenly a brick crashed into his driver door. He slammed on brakes and grabbed the kid who threw it, while yelling and pointing at the dent in his bumper. The boy was apologizing and said, that his wheelchair bound brother had fallen out of his chair at the curb, and he was scrapped up and bleeding, and he was too heavy for him to pick up. He said he couldn’t get anyone to stop, and was desperate, so he threw the brick to get someone to stop and help. Tom regathered his senses and picked up the boys brother, making sure he was OK. But he never fixed the dent in his bumper He left that “Time Marker” to remind himself that God shouldn’t have to throw a brick at him to get his attention. God was giving him a time out to reset his priorities.

Adam and eve, got a brick thrown at them when they weren’t paying attention as God told them… “If you sin, you will die”…. (There was no death before then, no one died, and no one got old). Ageing and death didn’t begin until they sinned. Sin opened the door for death and the destroyer to enter into the earth realm. Far too many have found that short cuts are not always the best or quickest way to get somewhere…

Sometimes Shortcuts will get you a time out! Time outs, werecreated by God. The prodigal son had a time out….Job had one, so did Lot, and what about Jacob and then there is King David, and Elijah by the brook. Take advantage of the time outs that you find yourself in and don’t waste them. God may be resetting your priorities. Some folks get their time out in the hospital, some folks get a time out in the sudden death of a loved one, some folks get a time out when they are suddenly faced with divorce and children get caught in the middle, and there are some folks that God gets their attention when their career falls apart or they face the senior citizen syndrome. Grace and favor still waits for us in those places where we have time out.        

God has scheduled a big time out for planet earth to reset it’spriorities! Scripture tells us that during the time when Christ returns to the earth to reign for a 1000 years no one can die. If people come into the millennium at 60, at the end of the millennium they will be 1060 years old, If they were 6 they will be 1006 at the end. There will be no sickness, no wars, and no death. This lets us see time as a dispensable commodity. It tells us that God can sovereignly do what He desires to do with death, sickness, war and time.

                                                                                                                             There will come a moment, when God says “No more”…. And all those things will pack their bags and disappear!                   

Revelation 10:6 And (the angel) swore by Him that lives for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that are in it, and the earth, and the things that are in it, and the sea, and the things which are in it, that time shall be no more.”

But notice before He turns it off, He will manipulate it, and use it for His purposes, as He accomplishes His will through us as long as the earth remains. Time is just another tool which He has in His tool box of unlimited resources.

So we must re-think time in terms of Nevertheless!!!.

I love the words “Nevertheless” in the bible. It means that for the child of God everything is up for negotiation by God! You might even call it the 
“Spirit of Nevertheless”….It sees and believes a greater reality

Psalm 129:2 "Many times I have suffered attacks from the enemy, nevertheless, he has not prevailed against me”.

When Peter was tired from fishing all night and Jesus said.. “go back out and let down the nets….Peter said “Nevertheless at your word I will”.. When Daniel faced the lion’s den, he said “Nevertheless I won’t back down”….When no one would listento Noah, He didn’t back down, but said “Nevertheless” God has shown me what I must do, and he did it.                                         When Jeremiah’s family turned against him… When Jonah didn’t want to do it…When Joseph was wronged… When Paul went through shipwreck, imprisonment, stoning, beating, and being left for dead….When Abraham didn’t even know where to go….When David was just bringing lunch to his brothers and ended up facing Goliath….It was a “Nevertheless” that turned everything around and redeemed and reset the situation and many times a Nevertheless changed all of history!

Someone may say, “My marriage has not worked out the way I planned – Nevertheless – I will trust Him with my future and my outcome”!                           My health is not improving like I have prayed – Nevertheless – I will still serve Him with the time and strength that I have!                                                       I am all alone – Nevertheless –He is with me always!                                                 Someone has badly hurt me – Nevertheless – God will bring me through the healing and forgiveness which is needed.                                                                 My life has not turned out like I had hoped – Nevertheless – My future is secure and He has a plan for me.                                                                                      I am in the midst of crisis – Nevertheless – I know that everything must pass through my Father’s hands!

Ephesians 5:15 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, v16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. v17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is”.       

It’s clear that the will of the Lord in Ephesians 5, is that we have been given a mandate to redeem the time! It’s God’s mandate to each of us. Notice He tells us to “redeem the time, because there is a lot of evil, which wants to make decisions about your life and your timeline. So if we don’t choose, it will choose for us!

If you have had a strong impulse to pray for someone, that they be given safety, or that there is an urgent need and then you found out that they were in a dangerous or even life threatening situation, but because folks prayed it was turned around, and they came through it without harm…If you were awakened at the mid-night hour to claim healing or believe for miracles in someone’s behalf, you were being called upon to redeem the time. 

Lola Elliott was moved by God to take an unwanted child into her heart and home and introduce him to Jesus and teach him to the truth of God’s word. God used her to redeemed a life and change the future and alter time. MY TIME, MY LIFE, MY FUTURE!She didn’t just think about it or pray about it, she did something about it and she redeemed my life. 

Nothing happens until we do something…

Someone wrote…..If you have work to do—do it now. 

If you have a witness to give—give it now.

If you have a soul to win—win them now.

If you have an obligation to fulfill—fulfill it now.

If you have a vow to pay—pay it now.

If you have a wrong to right—right it now.

If you have a confession to give—give it now.

If you have a preparation to make--make it now.

If you have children to train—train them now.

Remember, time is passing and now is the best time.

Thank God, “He is the restorer”….

Joel 2:25 “I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, and the gnawing caterpillar has destroyed ”  

He not only shortens time, redeems time, but He restores time that you have lost. Lost time which wants you to live your life with the “If onlies, and the “what ifs” of regret”, beating yourself up, thinking I should have done this or that.

He is the restorer and can bring you back on the right path, and realign you, so you can reconnect with what you’ve lost, and regain what you thought you had missed forever.

He will restore the children to the parents, He will restore marriages, He will restore lost health and mend broken hearts. This goes beyond what He can do and moves into the arena of what He WILL DO!!!

As I think of the God of all times…. I think of Phillip who went from a village in Samaria where he was seeing God bring revival, to immediately find himself in the desert place near Ashdod, to keep a divine appointment with a Etheopian eunic, which means in an instant, he traveled 700 miles, in no time at all. God needed to get the gospel to Etheopia, so He canceled time and space and got His messenger to the right place at the right time with the right person. 

Psalm 37:34 “So don’t be impatient for the Lord to act; keep moving forward steadily in His ways, and he will exalt you at the right time. And when he does, you will possess every promise, including your full inheritance. You’ll watch with your own eyes and those who oppose you will no longer be”.

When the Lord gets ready, He will move heaven and earth to accomplish His pleasure. God is in charge of what He has created. Time is no exception. He can do in a moment or a day, what other wise might take weeks or months or years!

In Mark chapter 6, When the disciples were in the boat on their way to Gadara, where Jesus had sent them, and they were there because He told them to go over to the other side. They didn’t understand that the storm couldn’t stop them, if He told them to go over to the other side!    But what I want us to see here is, when Jesus rebuked the storm, and it calmed, it says “immediately they were on the other side”….

THEY WENT FROM TOILING ALL NIGHT AND MAKING NO HEADWAY, TO IMMEDIATELY FINDING THEMSELVES ON THE OTHER SIDE!

God can get you to where you should be, no matter how late you think you are, or how behind you might think you might be.

Please listen to me, We will always have all the time we need to do everything that God has destined and appointed us to do!!

Know that God can make your efforts multiply beyond what you could ever do on your own. Know that little is much when God is in it. Your mustard seed, as little as it may seem, can still produce something greater than you could ever imagined.

The story of Joshua, fighting in the valley of Aijalon. Tells us that God can make time stand still while he does what is His purpose, and accomplish what He has planned for His people. Sowhether God made the entire solar system stand still or just the earth stop rotating, on its axis, either way it’s a pretty big deal, (wouldn’t you say) 

Joshua 10:12 “On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” v13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. v14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man”.                         Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

The Lord’s prayer factors into this truth of the God of all time.Jesus taught us to pray, what is known as the Lord’s prayer. But it is actually the disciple’s prayer. In that prayer it says “Give us this day (this appointed time) our daily bread”… God is telling us to believe that on any given day, in our daily time line, our supply for that day will be made available to us, If we understand that He is in charge of our days and our time.

“Our times are in His hands”… Oh, church, to live, knowing that there is one who can change time, stop time, or turn time back, is to live knowing that He makes the impossible possible every day!!
Here’s the good news…. If you are a born again child of God, you are timeless, you are an eternal being. The moment you received Christ, time lost it’s hold on you. But it’s your choice, to live as a slave to time, or to take charge of time, in your home, in your marriage, in your work place…. And Redeem The Time…. 

God used an Esther to redeem the time for the nation of Israel, when it looked like Haman was going to succeed in his evil plan… God used a Samson, with all his flaws, to redeem Israel from the Philistine nation… God used rebellious lot, by way of a great fish that offered him room and board for a cruise to Nineveh to redeem that evil nation from distruction.. So just think what He can do through you if you’ll make yourself available.

CS Lewis said, “You can’t go back to the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending”…

Isaiah 38:4  Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, v5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. v6  “I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.” v7  “This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken”v8  “Behold, I will  a cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go backward ten steps.” Sothe sun’s shadow went backward ten steps on the stairway upon which it had gone down”.

If we can find out what God has done, then we can find out what He can and will do….He has His way in the whirlwind and the storm. He makes a way where there is no way.                                                                                       Time after time, we have found that at the end of ourselves, and it is then that we step over into the beginning of Himself. It’s not just an ending, it’s His new beginning. We don’t have to be stuck at the devil’s level. With the dead end, and the endless maze with no way out 

Isaiah 60:22 “The least will become a thousand, and the smallest will become a powerful people. When the right time comes, I will make this happen quickly. For I am the Lord!" 

Let’s believe for time redeemed, restored, reset, renewed, and redirected, in the name of Jesus! God is letting us know that He can and will reset time for you. He will restore the years that have been devoured and destroyed. I believe God is shaping and redirecting some things, it was going one way, but now it is going another. It wasn’t working but now it will. New ideas, new contacts, new information, and new opportunities are beginning to spring forth!

Let’s believe together as we take Him at His word, that He is the God who rules over time, and our times are in His hands….Weserve the God of all time….

Say it with me…. (He Redeems, He Restores, He Resets, He Renews and Redirects)

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