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Hey everybody, this is Pastor 
John Ewart from Inglewood 

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Baptist Church here in Rocky 
Mountain, North Carolina. 

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Thank you for tuning into the 
podcast today. 

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Today we're going to continue in
our series called Help Searching

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for God's peace with him, with 
one another, and with ourselves.

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Listen closely to what God has 
to say to you today. 

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Welcome everyone to this session
together. 

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Those of you who are listening 
online, thank you so much for 

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joining that way. 
And for those of you who are 

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alive, I appreciate very much 
your presence here in this 

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series. 
I have appreciated the feedback 

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that you all have shared, been 
very, very gracious, and just 

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want God to be glorified in 
that. 

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And just just to let you know, 
the next episode that we'll be 

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doing the next session together,
I'm actually going to be talking

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about work and how do how do we 
actually approach the subject of

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work? 
Now, some of you may be retired,

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but don't let that stop you to 
talk about work in the way not 

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only from a career or vocational
standpoint, but also service. 

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Just how do we deal with this 
subject matter of work? 

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It was created as a good thing. 
During the fall, it became a 

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different thing and we've 
struggled against it and with it

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ever since. 
So that'll be our next time 

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together. 
But tonight, we're going to talk

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about trapping time in this 
series. 

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We've been talking about anger 
and stress and fear and guilt. 

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We exist in a fallen creation, 
and because of that, we struggle

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and we need help. 
We deal with evil, we deal with 

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sin, we deal with problems. 
We deal with choices that 

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sometimes are not good ones. 
And we've addressed several 

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emotional reactions that we 
might face in this particular 

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session. 
I want to actually address a 

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part of the creation that might 
tempt us towards some of these 

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reactions. 
This is actually something that 

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we deal with constantly and it 
actually might put us into a 

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place of stress or cause us to 
be angry or allow us to somehow 

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experience fear. 
So, so this could be positive or

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negative, this aspect of 
creation. 

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And I want us to think about 
that. 

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As I share in every session, I 
am very thankful for biblical 

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counselors and, and also for our
churches ministries that we have

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in recovery and pastoral care 
and things like that. 

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For some of you, you might need 
to call the church office and, 

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and, and get some special help. 
For others, you might need a 

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long term, larger network of 
support in your life. 

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The primary audience that I'm 
sharing with is, is those of us 

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who deal with levels of, of 
stress and anger and these 

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emotional responses that fall 
within what we might consider a 

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fairly normal ranges. 
But but then at times we do go 

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beyond that. 
And all of us need to know what 

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God's word says about these 
things. 

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And we all need the Lord's help.
Some of you in extreme cases 

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might even need the help of 
medical expertise and or law 

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enforcement in cases of abuse. 
I'm going to say that every 

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single session because I want 
that to be a part of of your 

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option if you need that, but we 
all need help. 

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So let's walk together through 
God's word and just think 

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through the fact that our goal 
is very simple, where after that

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word, Shalom, that word, peace, 
that word for completeness, that

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word for satisfaction. 
No, no person who's walked the 

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earth has ever achieved perfect 
Shalom since before Genesis 3 in

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the garden. 
And Jesus Christ Christ himself 

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is the only one who was able to 
achieve that. 

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And so that's something that 
we're looking to how can we grow

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in that? 
And tonight we're going to talk 

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about what, frankly, has become 
probably the currency of the 

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21st century time. 
It used to be that we would 

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spend time to make money, and 
certain generations still think 

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that way, but a lot of the 
younger generations today will 

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actually spend money to save 
time. 

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And so we have fast everything, 
instant everything if we can. 

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And if it's not as instant as we
want it to be, we're frustrated 

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with a a fast food drive through
that takes more than more than 

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10 minutes. 
And so we'll actually try to 

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spend money to save time. 
In one Harvard survey, the US 

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wage earners actually log the 
equivalent of an extra month of 

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time on the job each year 
compared with workers 2 decades 

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ago. 
We're working longer hours, we 

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work more. 
And we'll talk more about that 

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some next time. 
But it's interesting because 50%

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of these people also said that 
they would willingly take less 

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pay for more time. 
Time is precious in our culture.

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Time is precious in our century,
which is also affects the 

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church. 
Frankly, you've got to think 

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about, this is something that 
your pastors and I talk about 

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often in the fact that in 
today's world, think about what 

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an active church member is. 
You know, how many hours a week 

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do you actually have the 
opportunity to pour into a quote

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UN quote, active church member 
anymore? 

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We used to have more services 
than we do now. 

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Most churches have stopped many 
of them. 

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Many churches don't have this 
these extra times like this one 

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even anymore. 
In fact, I've known from some 

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folks from some other churches 
who are coming to these sessions

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because their church doesn't 
offer anything. 

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And so we have fewer and fewer 
minutes that we can pour into 

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people in terms of discipleship 
and ministry. 

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And so time's a very precious 
thing for all of us. 

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It's also very fleeting. 
Time seems to run away from us. 

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As you grow older, you'll learn 
that all of the old cliches 

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about time are true, that time 
seems to speed up, that time 

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seems to fly by even faster. 
In fact, there's an old an old 

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poem that goes something like 
this. 

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Didn't say it was a good one. 
I said it was an old one. 

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It said when as a child I 
laughed and wept. 

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Time crept when as a youth I 
dreamed and talked. 

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Time walked when I became a full
grown man, time ran. 

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Soon I shall find in passing on 
time gone. 

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And so time is very fleeting. 
So we need to make the most of 

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what we have. 
They say that time flies when 

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you're having fun. 
A frog once said time's fun when

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you're having flies. 
But we're not frogs. 

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And so we have to approach that 
a little, a little differently 

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perhaps. 
And So what we recognize is that

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time itself is a, a very 
fleeting thing. 

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And the reality is that time 
flies by whether you frankly, 

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you're having fun or you're not 
having fun. 

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It's relentless. 
It never, ever, ever stops. 

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And in the midst of it, the 
problem is time isn't really 

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flying. 
We find that we are, that we're 

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flying through life trying to 
get through the To Do List, 

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trying to, to deal with the 
stresses and the anger and the 

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guilt and the fear and all the 
emotional reactions that we've 

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been talking about. 
And we're going to talk about 

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some more of those down the 
road. 

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And so we need to learn how to 
take time to make time. 

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It's not just going to happen 
accidentally. 

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And so we need to learn to trap 
it. 

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How can we trap time before it 
frankly traps us? 

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And that's going to be our 
subject matter. 

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So turn to James 4 if you have a
Bible or, or just listen along 

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and, and we'll, we'll walk 
through some James 4 here. 

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We each get 24 hours a day. 
What are we going to do with 

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them? 
James 4 is going to give us some

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insight. 
And so we have a few things, few

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simple things that we're going 
to talk about tonight and then 

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some not so simple things that 
we're going to talk about 

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tonight as well. 
Some of you are here because I 

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made a theological promise to 
some of you about about time, 

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and we'll get to that here in a 
bit. 

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Those who know what I'm talking 
about know what I'm talking 

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about. 
Those of you who don't know what

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I'm talking about, don't worry 
about it. 

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You'll be exposed to it and 
wonder what it was. 

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All right, here we go. 
In order to trap time, first of 

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all, let's just recognize that 
we need to recognize the 

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limitations of time. 
There are certain limitations 

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when it comes to time. 
James 413 says this, Come now. 

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You who say today or tomorrow we
will go into such and such a 

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town and spend a year there and 
trade and make a profit. 

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Yet you don't know what tomorrow
will bring. 

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What is your life? 
For you are a mist that appears 

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for a little time and then 
vanishes. 

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James starts off by saying come 
now or or now. 

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Listen. 
Another translation might say 

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you need to pay attention to 
this. 

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You need, you need to look at 
here and focus for a minute 

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because he's trying to tell you 
something important. 

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And the, and, and the, the moral
of the story, the bottom line of

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this, this story is that man 
wants to be in charge. 

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Man's trying to be in control. 
And yet there are certain things

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that are not controllable. 
And so we need to be careful 

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about how much energy and how 
much focus, how much weight we 

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are trying to place upon 
controlling certain things when 

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in fact you can't control those 
things, which is difficult for 

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this world because this world 
likes to box things up, control 

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it, define it, redefine it, 
distort it, et cetera. 

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So in this story, in this 
passage, they want to choose 

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their time for this and that. 
They want to pick the spot 

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according to their own pleasure.
They want to stay as long as 

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they wish. 
They want to arrange their time 

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for their own benefit and 
pleasure. 

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And they want then about boast 
about their profits. 

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They got it all planned out. 
Now, don't take this as a 

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passage against planning. 
That's not the point here. 

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It's a passage against pride. 
And so it's not that we're we're

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we're not supposed to plan, but 
it's a dangerous thing to leave 

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the divine out of your planning.
You got a plan, as one friend of

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mine who passed away not too 
long ago once said, you, you've 

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got a plan within the hand of 
God. 

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You know, you're resting in his 
hands, recognizing his 

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sovereignty and making plans 
within that framework. 

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So, so this passage doesn't 
condemn honest work. 

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It's not doing that. 
We'll talk more about that next 

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time together. 
It's again, it's not condemning 

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careful planning. 
It does condemn time spent 

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outside of the will of God, 
where I'm trying to control my 

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time. 
I'm trying to control my 

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destiny, so to speak. 
I'm trying to, you know, I've 

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got my dream board all mapped 
out. 

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Either know what one of those 
are are are not. 

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And if you don't, you're better 
off. 

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But, but I got my dream board 
all planned out, got my path all

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figured out. 
And I'm in complete control. 

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If, if I, if I dream hard 
enough, if I think about it hard

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enough, if I want it hard 
enough, I can achieve it. 

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And all of that's just not true.
The world likes us to think it 

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is, but it's not. 
We're not in control of that. 

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I've said to you before in 
stories and illustration that, 

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that you don't know what's going
to happen to you 10 seconds from

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now. 
You have no idea what's going to

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happen an hour from now. 
We're, we're, we're not in 

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control of this. 
So they, it condemns these 

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people for playing God and that,
that's the point. 

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So we need to recognize the 
limitations that time brings. 

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They were oblivious to the 
presumption, the presumptiveness

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of predicting their own future. 
There was no thought of, of, of 

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God in Arabic. 
Muslim would say Inshallah or if

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Allah wills and it's a, it's the
end of a lot of, a lot of 

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statements. 
If God wills, I'll do this. 

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If God wills, I'll do that. 
And, and there's even a thought 

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within that religion, perhaps 
more than what these folks were 

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thinking about, but they spoke 
here as if they could control 

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their own destinies. 
And they already knew the 

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outcome of their destinies and 
their days. 

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If you dream it, you can, you 
can live it. 

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They viewed themselves as the 
final authority as they omit 

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God. 
So James is reminding them of, 

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of their, their ignorance and 
their arrogance about tomorrow. 

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And remember, remember, we, we 
don't, we don't get to see 

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tomorrow. 
You know, we can. 

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The irony of boasting about time
is dramatic here in the sense of

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they, they didn't know anything 
about their future experience. 

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No matter what they said about 
it. 

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They were deceiving themselves. 
Life is quite fragile. 

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Life is frankly quite short 
comparatively. 

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We're nothing but a mist. 
The Bible says we're, we're 

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vapors that come and go and, 
and, and like the puff of a tea 

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kettle, they, they evaporate 
and, and no one knows the time 

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of, of his or, or her own life. 
And so we, we need to be 

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careful. 
So it's like a, it's like the 

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man who went to a doctor for a 
checkup. 

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Some of you spend time doing 
that. 

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00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:07,560
And the next day he came back 
for the results and the doctor 

235
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said he had some some very bad 
news for him and he had bad news

236
00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:15,200
and some, some worse news. 
And the bad news was is that he 

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only had 24 hours to live. 
And so the man was distraught. 

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You know, 24 hours. 
There's there's no way I can get

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my affairs in order in 24 hours.
I can't believe this. 

240
00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:28,880
What news could possibly be 
worse than this? 

241
00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:31,680
And the doctor said, well, the 
worst news is that I was 

242
00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:34,360
supposed to tell you this 
yesterday. 

243
00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:41,760
So, so we need to define the 
limitations of time properly. 

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So I've shared a few of them, 
just three of them. 

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There could be 30 of them, but 
there's, there's, there's just 

246
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three of them here. 
First of all, we just recognize 

247
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we've been talking about the 
fact that time cannot be 

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controlled. 
We, we can't control it. 

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You can't stop it. 
And normally now there are 

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passages in Scripture where 
prophets can make the sun stand 

251
00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:03,560
still and, and, and miracles can
happen with time. 

252
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But that's not Normandy. 
That's not something we can 

253
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expect and and depend upon. 
So in our normal life and our 

254
00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:12,320
normal existence, we can't 
control time. 

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00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:16,080
Time also can't be predicted. 
We don't know what's going to 

256
00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:19,160
happen in the future. 
No matter how hard we try, no 

257
00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:23,120
matter how hard you focus, no 
matter how hard you plan you, we

258
00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:26,480
can't comprehend the 
complexities of life and what 

259
00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:30,240
can happen around us to 
accurately predict what's going 

260
00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:33,480
to happen in the future. 
Most of us are not Nostradamus, 

261
00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:35,960
and he was wrong most of the 
time too. 

262
00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:41,560
So we can't really predict it. 
And then time can't be extended.

263
00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:46,200
That's the third limitation. 
There's a time that you have 

264
00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:50,000
listened to the psalmist, Psalm 
39, verse 5. 

265
00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:54,560
Behold, you have made my days, a
few hand breaths, and my 

266
00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,440
lifetime is as nothing before 
you. 

267
00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:03,520
Surely all mankind stands as a 
mere breath, and that's how God 

268
00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,360
sees our existence. 
So it's, it's actually quite 

269
00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:09,280
amazing, quite gracious. 
We'll mention this more later, 

270
00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:12,600
but it's actually quite gracious
that God actually works within 

271
00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:16,560
the mist that is our life. 
The fact that he cares so much 

272
00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:20,160
about that mist, that he cares 
so much about that vapor and 

273
00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:24,600
that he does work within the the
few decades that we have here on

274
00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:27,720
this planet in a way that can 
actually bring him glory. 

275
00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:29,920
That's quite grace. 
It's quite amazing when you 

276
00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:33,320
recognize and we'll talk more 
about his perspective of time 

277
00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:35,640
later. 
And so to think about the 

278
00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:38,880
graciousness of God and the fact
that even though we can't extend

279
00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:42,720
time, there are stories right 
now and I won't go into detail 

280
00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:47,040
about it, but there there's a 
billionaire guy who's working 

281
00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:50,680
with every aspect of science and
health and diet and everything 

282
00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:53,920
he can to do to be. 
And he's also now affecting his 

283
00:15:53,920 --> 00:15:58,160
son, who's also participating in
it to try to, to live forever. 

284
00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:03,200
He's doing every scientific 
possible possible thing you can 

285
00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:05,760
do. 
And he's he's healthier than 

286
00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:08,120
most. 
He's also not living life at 

287
00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:09,640
all. 
He basically lives in a 

288
00:16:09,640 --> 00:16:13,040
hyperbolic chamber most of the 
time, doesn't have any kind of 

289
00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:16,520
existence whatsoever. 
You know, he might be a little 

290
00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:18,840
younger than us, but my 
prediction is he's going to die 

291
00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:24,400
right on time. 
And it's always amazing to see 

292
00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:26,880
people. 
My grandfather, who I've 

293
00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:29,760
mentioned to you multiple times,
you know, he worked five days a 

294
00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:37,720
week at 96 and died at 97. 
And I don't know if I'm destined

295
00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:40,080
for that. 
Not sure I want to be, frankly. 

296
00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:43,600
You know, really, I'd like to go
see Jesus. 

297
00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:46,400
But anyway, if he keeps me here,
he'll do that. 

298
00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:47,720
And we'll work as hard as we 
can. 

299
00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:50,640
But we need to recognize the 
limitations of time. 

300
00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:54,160
But perhaps more importantly, 
let's recognize the Lord 

301
00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:57,760
overtime. 
In verse 15, he says this. 

302
00:16:57,760 --> 00:17:02,760
This is really the the punch of 
the story in James 4. 

303
00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:06,040
Instead of acting this way, 
instead of instead of acting 

304
00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:08,800
like you get to go predict and 
you get to go plan and you get 

305
00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:11,880
to get to lay it all out 
perfectly the way you want it to

306
00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:14,520
turn out. 
Instead of doing that, what you 

307
00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:19,200
ought to say is if the Lord 
wills, we will live and do this 

308
00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:21,640
or do that. 
In other words, there's an 

309
00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:25,839
umbrella of sovereignty. 
There's a submission to God's 

310
00:17:25,839 --> 00:17:28,960
lordship over creation that 
we're submitting to. 

311
00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:32,120
And so these people were, in a 
sense, playing God. 

312
00:17:32,120 --> 00:17:34,160
And that's the point that James 
is trying to make. 

313
00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:37,280
They were substituting 
themselves for that sovereignty.

314
00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:39,600
They were substituting 
themselves for that authority. 

315
00:17:40,120 --> 00:17:45,040
And so life is unpredictable 
and, and frankly, we're foolish 

316
00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:50,400
and the world is full of that. 
We're foolish if we rely on 

317
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:55,040
anything other than God to map 
out our lives and to think about

318
00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:59,080
what's next. 
God is the one who holds that in

319
00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:02,760
his, in his divine plan, and we 
need to be close to him so that 

320
00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:06,040
we can learn it. 
So, so presumption, as these 

321
00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:10,040
people were demonstrating it, it
denies who we are. 

322
00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:14,320
It also denies who God is and 
the difference between the two 

323
00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:18,640
and how much we need him. 
So time and space belong only to

324
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:23,880
God and and thus all we do is 
dependent upon him. 

325
00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:27,360
And we're going to hit that even
harder as we walk through this. 

326
00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:29,400
A man once asked, this is an old
one. 

327
00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:32,840
A man once asked God how long a 
million years was to him. 

328
00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:36,920
And God said, it's, it's just 
like a single second of, of your

329
00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:39,720
time, my child. 
And so the man said, well, what 

330
00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:42,800
about $1,000,000? 
And God says, well, to me, it's,

331
00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:46,040
it's just like a single penny 
And so, well, Lord, could I have

332
00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:49,560
one of your pennies? 
And, and the Lord answered, 

333
00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:51,760
certainly, my child, just a 
second. 

334
00:18:56,320 --> 00:18:57,560
I appreciate you. 
Thank you. 

335
00:18:59,360 --> 00:19:02,760
I was worried that was going to 
take more thought than it than 

336
00:19:02,760 --> 00:19:05,360
it did, especially with the 
delivery. 

337
00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:10,760
But but but there's one norm 
which the life of faith lives 

338
00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:13,760
out seriously. 
And that that really is if God 

339
00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:18,840
wills Deus Valente in in Latin, 
which you may hear again some 

340
00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:22,520
other time, but it's it was used
for over 100 years. 

341
00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:24,560
It's Latin. 
But then it was a it was a 

342
00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:28,720
statement between Christians for
over 100 years as as kind of 

343
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:30,280
whenever they would write to one
another. 

344
00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:33,000
That was the postscript. 
That was the PS they would 

345
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,560
always say Deos Valente, which 
is simply means if the Lord 

346
00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:39,400
wills or God willing. 
So that's how they would close 

347
00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:42,000
their letters to one another as 
they wrote because there was a 

348
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:43,840
recognition. 
Everything I'm saying to you, 

349
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:45,920
all these plans, all these 
wonderful things we're saying, 

350
00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:51,240
talking about, all is submitted 
under the authority of the 

351
00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:55,080
creation, your creator of time 
and the manager of time. 

352
00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:57,120
So, so there's nothing wrong 
with doing business. 

353
00:19:57,120 --> 00:20:00,360
There's nothing wrong with 
planning with what God entrusts 

354
00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:01,960
us. 
In fact, you can, we can read 

355
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:04,360
many other passages where we've 
got to count the cost of the 

356
00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:06,880
tower we've got. 
He wants us to invest, He wants 

357
00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:08,800
us to, to to build. 
He wants us to grow. 

358
00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:11,000
So that's all, all according to 
scripture. 

359
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:14,360
The whole idea is, is that for 
him to bless us. 

360
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:18,720
With those things that he puts 
at our disposal, those those 

361
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,240
resources that he gives us, kind
of like we talked about with, 

362
00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:25,880
with our act series, we just 
recognize that God himself is 

363
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:30,240
not at our disposal. 
We have to recognize that he is 

364
00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:35,440
the one who is truly Lord. 
So if if as life is lived, it's 

365
00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:40,280
only if God wills. 
And so the purpose of time and 

366
00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:44,160
history, this might seem a 
little deep to you, but the but 

367
00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:48,800
the entire purpose of time, the 
entire purpose of history is not

368
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:53,000
for us to live according to our 
schedules and timetables. 

369
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:56,880
That's not why we were created. 
That's not why time was created.

370
00:20:57,120 --> 00:21:01,040
The purpose of time and history 
is for the revelation and glory 

371
00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:06,040
of God and to live out his plan 
and his will as he orchestrates 

372
00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:09,480
it. 
So, so time is an instrument of 

373
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:12,760
God, and we're going to talk 
more about what time really is 

374
00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:14,960
in a minute. 
I've mentioned this to some of 

375
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,240
you before loosely, but we're 
going to get into it a little 

376
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,120
more. 
Time is an instrument of God as 

377
00:21:20,120 --> 00:21:24,520
he seeks to reveal Himself and 
his planned man. 

378
00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:30,200
So time is not accidental. 
Time is not incidental. 

379
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:36,040
It is his possession and, and, 
and it can be approached with 

380
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:39,520
anticipation. 
The Bible says we can expect, we

381
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:44,440
can hope, we can wait upon the 
Lord, but but it also is 

382
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:46,560
something that we recognize 
belongs to him. 

383
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:50,840
So I want to give you the proper
perspective of time and this 

384
00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:55,880
might help you understand issues
such as election and 

385
00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:59,160
predestination and God's 
foreknowledge. 

386
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:04,160
Now I am just going to say out 
loud that I am not going to 

387
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,920
satisfy any of you with what I'm
about to say. 

388
00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:10,560
Volumes have been written for 
thousands of years on these 

389
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:13,080
subject matters. 
Some of you already have 

390
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,200
preconceived ideas and you are 
not, you won't agree with me 

391
00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,160
perhaps. 
And so I, I appreciate that 

392
00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:24,520
everybody has the right to be 
wrong, but at the same time, I 

393
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:27,560
want to simplify this. 
I don't mean that. 

394
00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:32,280
Well, maybe I do, but I do want 
to simplify this. 

395
00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:35,680
I don't want to oversimplify it.
It may sound like I'm doing 

396
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,280
this, but I'm not. 
What I'm talking about is 

397
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:42,360
extremely deep, but I want to 
simplify this because I also 

398
00:22:42,360 --> 00:22:44,360
know that they're just people 
who don't even know what those 

399
00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:46,600
words mean. 
They have no idea what what 

400
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:50,120
that's all about. 
And, and later on we're going to

401
00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:55,040
get into conversations about, 
about election and, and 

402
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:58,800
predestination on a, on a, just 
hang with me for a minute. 

403
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,560
On a soteriological level, how 
does salvation actually work? 

404
00:23:03,120 --> 00:23:05,640
We're going to do, I'll do a 
whole series on some doctrinal 

405
00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:08,240
things later. 
I'm going to talk about 

406
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:10,120
eschatology. 
That'll be the day everybody 

407
00:23:10,120 --> 00:23:12,800
wants to show up to hear what I 
think about the second coming, 

408
00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:15,200
because there's some of you that
that's all you want to talk 

409
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:16,560
about. 
Probably. 

410
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:19,320
I don't know you. 
So I'm not pointing fingers, but

411
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,240
I just know there always is. 
All right. 

412
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:26,360
And, and, but, but what I really
want to talk about here is the 

413
00:23:26,360 --> 00:23:31,120
fact that we really need to 
remember that time is a part of 

414
00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:34,840
the creation and that that's 
that's crucial to all this 

415
00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:37,600
theological understanding. 
I don't care how many volumes 

416
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:39,720
are written. 
I don't how many Theo I know 

417
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:41,640
these theologians, I've worked 
with them for years. 

418
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:44,960
I don't care how much they're 
debating on this, but the idea 

419
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:48,320
is that time is a part of the 
creation, and we've got to 

420
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:51,520
recognize that. 
So time, as I've shared with 

421
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:55,760
some of you before, is defined 
by the relationship of the 

422
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:59,720
Earth's rotation and the sun. 
You get to stick out to think 

423
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:05,400
about what time is. 
See, so time was all created in 

424
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:10,800
Genesis chapter 1. 
So a day is how long? 

425
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:13,680
It's 24 hours, but why is it 24 
hours? 

426
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:17,240
What's going on? 
Yeah. 

427
00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:19,240
The earth is rotating on its 
axis. 

428
00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:24,200
A year is 300 and more or less 
65 days because it's that's how 

429
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:26,000
long it takes to go around the 
sun. 

430
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:29,760
When did all that happen? 
Genesis chapter one. 

431
00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:35,360
Time did not exist before 
Genesis chapter 1. 

432
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:39,720
Now, this is a basic premise. 
Did God exist before Genesis 

433
00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:41,560
chapter 1? 
Yes. 

434
00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:46,640
So God is not a part of time. 
You got me. 

435
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:51,440
God transcends the concept of 
time. 

436
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:53,440
Now. 
It's almost impossible for our 

437
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:58,600
human brains to comprehend this.
It's like the word eternal. 

438
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:00,840
It's a very hard thing to 
comprehend. 

439
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:04,120
As simple as that word might be.
It's hard for us to comprehend 

440
00:25:04,120 --> 00:25:12,240
forever because we are trapped 
in what time we live in time 

441
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:14,760
because we are part of the 
creation. 

442
00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:18,120
God is not. 
So don't try to box God up. 

443
00:25:18,120 --> 00:25:21,480
That's my frustration with some 
of my theological friends is 

444
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,000
they're trying to box God up. 
They, they want to figure God 

445
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:26,040
completely out. 
They want to be able to define 

446
00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:27,960
God. 
Quit trying to figure God out. 

447
00:25:29,120 --> 00:25:31,760
That's a complete he'll, he'll 
make sure you can't do that. 

448
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:36,240
Read stories about, I don't 
know, Babel, etcetera. 

449
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:39,320
God's going to make sure you 
can't quite figure him out. 

450
00:25:39,360 --> 00:25:41,840
He only reveals to us what we've
got to know about him. 

451
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:45,200
There's a whole lot more about 
him we don't know and so don't 

452
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:49,840
try to box him up in some human 
form and in some human equation.

453
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:53,000
It becomes a mathematical trap. 
And that's where some theology 

454
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:54,560
ends up. 
Same thing with some 

455
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:58,120
soteriological conclusions. 
They find themselves in a in a 

456
00:25:58,120 --> 00:26:02,280
mathematical trap. 
So we are, we are limited, but 

457
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:07,120
what we can see next down the 
line, but God is not because he 

458
00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:11,120
transcends all this. 
Now, here's the simplest way, 

459
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:15,600
and I'm not the first one to say
this, and I'm going to quote CS 

460
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:19,160
Lewis in a minute, who has a 
very profound way of expressing 

461
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:21,840
this. 
But the easiest way for me to 

462
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:23,960
define this for you, and I'm 
sure this was some of you 

463
00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:28,960
before, this is the two-minute 
part is is in geometry, the 

464
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:33,320
distance between two points is 
called what a line. 

465
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:35,440
Thank you, math people. 
Appreciate you. 

466
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:38,840
Some of us didn't do so well in 
that class, but thank you. 

467
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,800
It's a line. 
Now, if you really know your 

468
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:46,280
geometry, when you turn that 
line on its end, it becomes 

469
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:48,040
what? 
A point? 

470
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:51,800
That's the difference in our 
perspectives. 

471
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:57,520
We are in the line. 
God sees the point. 

472
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:01,720
So one of the things you have to
wrap your heads around is that 

473
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:05,960
that's how God sees time. 
He sees past, present, and 

474
00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:10,040
future all together. 
There's no limit to his ability 

475
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:12,360
to see it. 
And that is how we can actually 

476
00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:15,360
explain things like 
predestination and election. 

477
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:20,320
God sees time differently. 
CS Lewis has a cool term for it.

478
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,120
He refers to it as God's 
unbounded. 

479
00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:27,040
Now you Google that sometime 
with CS Lewis and you can read a

480
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:30,360
whole lot of stuff about what he
says about is it? 

481
00:27:30,360 --> 00:27:34,240
There's 22 terms for it. 
God's unbounded now, or 

482
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,680
sometimes he'll refer to it as 
his eternal now. 

483
00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:42,880
And so God sees all at once. 
And that's the issue and that's 

484
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,280
the problem we have. 
And so there are two kinds of 

485
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:49,360
time in the Bible. 
There's actually more, but 2 

486
00:27:49,360 --> 00:27:53,880
words that are important. 
There's Kronos, Kronos time. 

487
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:58,080
That's, that's, that's the earth
moving through space, spinning 

488
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:02,640
the created time right? 
That we talk about, that we live

489
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:07,040
in and we can, we can chart it 
maybe imperfectly, but we 

490
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:10,280
charted the other kind of time 
is chaos. 

491
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:13,280
That's God's time. 
It's a different, it's a 

492
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:16,160
different quality of time. 
It's a whole different 

493
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:18,760
substance. 
It's not the same time that we 

494
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:22,120
live in. 
So CS Lewis will talk about 

495
00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:26,200
God's unbounded now, where now 
is both this moment right now 

496
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:28,400
and also what stretches into 
eternity. 

497
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:32,120
And so According to him, for for
everything is happening now. 

498
00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:35,840
This is part of God's 
omnipresence and omniscience. 

499
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:40,800
God knows all things. 
God is present at all times and 

500
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:44,440
all places. 
And so for him, this is a very 

501
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:46,320
different experience than for 
us. 

502
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:48,240
And it's hard. 
I, I'm not expecting you to 

503
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:52,160
understand him. 
I don't, I, I don't understand 

504
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,240
that perspective. 
I can't, my, my football sized 

505
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:58,000
cranial cavity is not capable of
that. 

506
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,840
But that's what's going on. 
So here's a great quote from 

507
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:03,800
Lewis. 
He says God doesn't foresee the 

508
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:07,360
humans making their free 
contributions in the future, but

509
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:10,160
sees them doing so in his 
unbounded now. 

510
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:14,480
And obviously to watch a man 
doing something is not the same 

511
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:17,920
as to make him do it. 
And so there's this, this 

512
00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:22,760
balance of we're living in this 
freedom on the line. 

513
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:25,400
Does God already know what 
choice I'm going to make? 

514
00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:28,520
Sure he does. 
Does God already know who's 

515
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:30,000
going to heaven and going to 
hell? 

516
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:32,720
Yes. 
Does that mean that I have no 

517
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:37,480
free will or no or no choice? 
No, because my perspective is 

518
00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:40,600
that's all I have. 
You, you don't have ES written 

519
00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:42,640
on your forehead. 
I don't know if you're the elect

520
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:45,000
or not. 
So I have a responsibility to 

521
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,880
share with everybody. 
I have the responsibility to 

522
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:51,520
share the gospel with everyone. 
And so we, we'll talk about 

523
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,920
Calvinism and some of those 
issues later as well. 

524
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:57,600
And, and how many we are and how
many we're not. 

525
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:00,760
If you're talking about petals 
off a flower, we'll do that one 

526
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:02,680
day. 
We're not going to do that now, 

527
00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:07,440
but to recognize that God is 
experiencing everything at once 

528
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,000
in a different way. 
And he, he isn't just predicting

529
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,760
the future, He's telling us how 
it happens because he already 

530
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:17,520
can see it. 
And so we just recognize that 

531
00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:22,960
God sees time in a very 
different way and he owns it. 

532
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:25,880
He's in absolute control over 
it. 

533
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:29,840
He orchestrates it. 
He is Lord over it, just like 

534
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,080
he's Lord over every other part 
of the created order. 

535
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:35,640
And so he's the Lord of 
creation. 

536
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,920
That includes time. 
And we can't separate those 

537
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:41,760
things. 
So he has an intended purpose 

538
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:45,520
for our moments in our timeline 
that we call life. 

539
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:48,320
And he has things. 
He hopes that we will do a lot 

540
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:51,560
as we're walking down the line. 
Because that's all I can see. 

541
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:55,800
All I can see is next. 
All I can see is past. 

542
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,000
That's all. 
All I can see is right now 

543
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,560
because I'm, I'm, I'm on the 
very, very narrow part of the 

544
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:05,280
line and that's all I can see, 
right? 

545
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,160
And so we have no right to 
ignore that will. 

546
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:11,560
We have to actively seek that 
will. 

547
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:13,840
And so we have to ask ourselves,
how can I know it? 

548
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:17,800
And so as you start your day, 
you better ask him. 

549
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:21,160
And so let me let me talk about 
spending your time this way and 

550
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,920
just for just a minute, because 
he has a plan and purpose and we

551
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,240
need to give him time. 
So let me talk about this for a 

552
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:30,480
minute. 
Let me give you a principle to 

553
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:32,680
take with you. 
I want you to think about a 

554
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:35,160
tithe of a tithe of the of your 
time. 

555
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:39,240
I'll say that better. 
Sorry, a tithe of a tithe of 

556
00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:41,560
your time. 
Don't try to say that 10 times 

557
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:43,720
fast. 
Here's what I mean. 

558
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:49,120
There are 60 minutes every hour,
24 hours a day. 

559
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:55,440
That's 1440 minutes every day. 
OK, We all have that. 

560
00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:58,760
I don't care how busy you are. 
I don't care who you are. 

561
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:01,000
That's all you get. 
That's all you have. 

562
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:06,160
We all have that 1440 minutes 
every day. 

563
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,480
OK, now let's say you actually 
sleep 8 hours a day. 

564
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:13,840
I'd like to meet you. 
I'd like to talk about that. 

565
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,080
I don't do that. 
I know people who do. 

566
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:18,960
I know some people who sleep 
more than that. 

567
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,360
Bless your hearts. 
I don't. 

568
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:25,200
But let's say you sleep 8 hours.
That recommended 8 hours. 

569
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:27,120
Whoever recommends things, 
right? 

570
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:31,240
That's the same people who say I
should weigh 175 lbs on a chart.

571
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:37,480
So you have 16 hours left being 
awake. 

572
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:39,960
You with me so far, Math not too
hard. 

573
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:41,680
You with me. 
We got off the geometry. 

574
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,120
This is simple math. 
Now game. 

575
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:49,240
All right, that's 960 minutes. 
So you theoretically have about 

576
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:57,560
960 minutes awake every day. 
If you sleep 8 hours, 10% of 960

577
00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:02,240
minutes is 96 minutes. 
That's a tithe of your time. 

578
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:08,600
A tithe of the tithe of your 
time would then be 9.6 minutes. 

579
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:10,680
Now just bear with me for a 
minute. 

580
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:13,320
I know this is a crowd that 
wants to spend more than 10 

581
00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,840
minutes a day with God, but 
here's my challenge. 

582
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:19,280
I want to, I want to at least 
challenge you to begin your day 

583
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:23,400
with 10 minutes with God. 
And some of you say, well, 

584
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:25,120
that's not enough. 
I agree with you. 

585
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:28,880
I want you to get up to the 96. 
But for some of you who are 

586
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:32,560
doing no minutes with God every 
single day, let's start with the

587
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:36,000
tithe of the tithe. 
Let's start with 9.6 minutes a 

588
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:40,320
day seeking God's will for your 
life in prayer and Bible study. 

589
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:42,840
See what that does? 
You can say that's too simple, 

590
00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:44,240
that's too easy. 
Now it's not. 

591
00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:45,320
See what? 
See what? 

592
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:48,680
See what happens if you spend 10
minutes a day in the Word, 10 

593
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:51,800
minutes a day in prayer. 
See what Satan does, see what 

594
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:54,400
God does. 
Just watch what happens, right? 

595
00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:59,400
And then eventually let's build 
up to maybe the, the 96 minutes 

596
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:01,240
a day or an hour and a half a 
day. 

597
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:04,040
What a what a time that would be
if we could get to that point, 

598
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:08,000
if we were practicing our 
spiritual disciplines and study 

599
00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:11,520
and prayer every day for an hour
and a half, that would be pretty

600
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:14,400
tremendous for a lot of people. 
We know, we know people who 

601
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,719
spend more time than that. 
You know, they're great stories 

602
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:19,920
of people who spent three hours 
a day in prayer in church 

603
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:22,159
history and whatnot will bless 
their hearts. 

604
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:27,159
But for most people in today's 
world, with the currency of time

605
00:34:27,159 --> 00:34:30,679
like it is, I would love to see 
you start with 10 minutes, 

606
00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:33,000
That's it. 
And then get it. 

607
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:36,719
Start working toward that hour, 
that hour and a half. 

608
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,000
See what you can do. 
Maybe you have to break that up 

609
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:43,280
even and let's see what happens.
So we need to, we need to seek 

610
00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:45,880
to expand that. 
I challenge that because we'll, 

611
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:47,880
we'll say where has the time 
gone? 

612
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:51,120
And the truth of the matter is 
time hadn't gone anywhere. 

613
00:34:51,159 --> 00:34:58,280
We have time is right there, 
1440 minutes every single day 

614
00:34:58,720 --> 00:35:01,240
for every single one of us. 
Don't care what your job is, 

615
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:04,000
don't care how busy you are. 
Don't care how stressed you 

616
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:05,880
think you are. 
Don't care how little time you 

617
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:07,800
have. 
One of the great things that 

618
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:12,320
you'll think is I hope you 
appreciate is in seminary life, 

619
00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:16,320
I often teach pastors and I've 
done this around the world a lot

620
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:19,040
too. 
And we'll talk about spiritual 

621
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:21,440
disciplines and practicing 
spiritual gifts. 

622
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,120
And sometimes I'll have a 
doctoral seminar and it'll be 

623
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:27,080
nothing but pastors in there. 
And I'll, I'll talk about 

624
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:29,880
spending time doing this or 
spending time doing that and 

625
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,320
leadership in the church. 
And, and they'll sit there and 

626
00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:34,120
say, well, I don't have time to 
do that. 

627
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:37,080
You know, whatever it was I was 
talking about that, you know, 

628
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:39,440
leadership development or 
something, you know, I don't 

629
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:42,360
have time to do that. 
That's a mistake. 

630
00:35:42,720 --> 00:35:44,680
They used to refer to me as 
doctor red ink. 

631
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:49,680
And there's a reason for that. 
I'll make you do a 5 minute a 

632
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,200
day for a two week time period 
chart. 

633
00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:55,600
If you're one of my students, if
you'll say that to me, to her, I

634
00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:58,560
want you to tell me what you do 
every 5 minutes for the next two

635
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:02,160
weeks. 
And I bet I can find time in 

636
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,920
your life. 
I bet you're spending a lot of 

637
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:10,520
time looking at these things or 
social media or what the TV or 

638
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:13,400
whatever it is in many of these 
lives. 

639
00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:18,200
And I bet we can carve out the 
hour and a half we need a week 

640
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:20,960
to do whatever it was we were 
talking about, right? 

641
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:23,640
So we better know what His will 
is. 

642
00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:26,360
We're not going to know unless 
we talk to Him and listen to Him

643
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:29,280
and study His Word. 
And so all of our planning, this

644
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:32,960
is what James is trying to say, 
all of our timing, all of our 

645
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:35,440
planning needs to be filtered 
through God's Word. 

646
00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:39,560
We have to be defined by God's 
Word, not the other way around. 

647
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:44,960
And that's why Matthew 633 would
say what it does, but seek first

648
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:48,800
the Kingdom of God and his 
righteousness and all these 

649
00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:50,040
other things will be added to 
you. 

650
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:52,440
You know, the context of that is
the Sermon on the Mount. 

651
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:54,920
And they're talking about all 
the all these things of life 

652
00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:59,040
and, and Jesus says, listen, if 
you'll focus on him, all these 

653
00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:02,960
other things, we'll find a way 
to be taken care of. 

654
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:07,240
And so we're accountable for 
this journey along this moving 

655
00:37:07,240 --> 00:37:11,000
thing, this line that we call 
time or life. 

656
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:14,520
We're accountable for that, and 
we need to seek what God wants, 

657
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:18,280
and so I need to use my time to 
pursue Him and His desires. 

658
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:20,320
The prophet Jeremiah said it 
this way. 

659
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:24,280
In Jeremiah 9 he said, Thus says
the Lord, let not the wise man 

660
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:28,320
boast in his wisdom, let not the
mighty man boast in his might, 

661
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:32,600
Let not the rich man boast in 
his riches, but let him who 

662
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:37,480
boasts, boasts in this that he 
understands and knows me, that I

663
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:40,600
am the Lord who practices 
steadfast love, justice and 

664
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:43,840
righteousness in the earth. 
For in these things I delight 

665
00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:47,960
declares the Lord. 
Great book called knowing God 

666
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:51,480
revolves around that passage to 
saying that our greatest desire 

667
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:56,240
in life, our greatest goal in 
life is to know God and to spend

668
00:37:56,240 --> 00:37:58,640
time with him. 
And if you're not spending time 

669
00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:03,400
with him, listening to him, 
studying him, studying his word 

670
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:06,720
and will, praying to him, I'm 
not sure how you're ever going 

671
00:38:06,720 --> 00:38:10,560
to know how you're supposed to 
operate along the line, so to 

672
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:12,920
speak. 
And so we need to trap time 

673
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:15,120
before it traps us. 
We need to recognize the 

674
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,520
limitations it brings. 
We also need to recognize the 

675
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:21,560
Lord overtime. 
But thirdly, we need to 

676
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:26,160
recognize the lessons from time.
So verse 16 goes on and it says 

677
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:28,920
as it is, see, there's not a 
guess. 

678
00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:32,520
We're gonna have to guess about 
what's going on in this story as

679
00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:34,920
it is. 
You boast in your arrogance. 

680
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:39,840
All such boasting is evil. 
So whoever knows the right thing

681
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:43,040
to do and fails to do it for 
him, it is sin. 

682
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,800
You've often probably quoted 
that second part you'll quote. 

683
00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:49,720
A lot of people will quote verse
17 completely out of context. 

684
00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:55,640
The context here is the use of 
time, that sin of omission that 

685
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:58,400
you know the right thing to do, 
but you're still not doing it. 

686
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:02,040
And so this is an issue of how 
I'm how you're using your life. 

687
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,560
This is an issue of how you're 
using time. 

688
00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:08,280
This is an issue of obedience. 
Are you really obeying God in 

689
00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:11,560
the way that he wants you to? 
So we have sins of what we would

690
00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:15,760
call Commission these, these 
active proactive things we do 

691
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:18,920
sins of omission where we're 
just not doing what we ought to 

692
00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:21,480
be doing. 
And both categories of sin 

693
00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:25,920
causes trouble and, and in this 
context, this verse that we 

694
00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:29,080
often quote, it's in this 
context, if I'm boasting about 

695
00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:33,200
my time, I'm boasting about my 
life, I'm in control of my life.

696
00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:37,000
This is idolatry in this 
simplest form. 

697
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:43,600
I, I believe I'm in charge, I 
believe I'm God, I believe I'm 

698
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:46,000
the Lord of my life. 
Now you people may never 

699
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,320
articulate it that way, but 
that's exactly what they're 

700
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:50,680
doing. 
They've placed themselves on the

701
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:53,760
throne of their life, right? 
So boast. 

702
00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:57,280
This is the same word that's 
used in first John chapter 2, 

703
00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:00,520
verse 16, often translated the 
pride of life. 

704
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:05,680
And so this is a prideful, 
arrogant type attitude. 

705
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:08,920
It's arrogant, it's hollow, it's
presumptuous. 

706
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:11,160
It's a claim that can't be 
fulfilled. 

707
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:15,000
In fact, the word in the 
original language finds its root

708
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:19,160
in the characteristic of a 
wandering quack, like an old 

709
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:23,000
medicine man in the Old West. 
That's actually where this word 

710
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:25,760
gets its, its, its meaning in, 
in biblical times. 

711
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:30,280
It, it's like a travelling quack
who offers cures which will not 

712
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:32,840
cure. 
It's a snake oil salesman. 

713
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:35,760
And that, that, you know, put 
that in biblical times. 

714
00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:38,480
So maybe a, a camel oil 
salesman, I don't know. 

715
00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:42,480
But anyway, you know, a Viper 
oil salesman who's promising you

716
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,400
a cure for your leprosy or 
whatever you have. 

717
00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:48,640
And it's just not real. 
It's just not true. 

718
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:53,000
It's deceiving. 
So we're deceiving ourselves 

719
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:57,080
when we think somehow we get to 
control and we get to be in 

720
00:40:57,080 --> 00:40:59,960
charge. 
So he boasted of things which he

721
00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:02,800
was simply unable to do. 
He he couldn't do it. 

722
00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:08,400
And so this boasting refers to 
this proud confidence in, in, in

723
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:11,120
one's own knowledge or 
cleverness. 

724
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:15,280
That's what the word means. 
It's pride, and that's what 

725
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:18,800
James is talking about, that 
somehow we're living this way. 

726
00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:22,040
So they planned as if they're 
they were the masters of their 

727
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:24,120
own lives. 
So I don't know if you're ever 

728
00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:26,560
around people who have to boast 
about every single thing they 

729
00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:30,400
ever do, you get a running 
record of all they have ever 

730
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,880
done so that they can be 
recognized. 

731
00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:37,080
This happens, believe it or not,
even in the church sometimes. 

732
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:40,880
Don't tell anybody, but even in 
the church sometimes. 

733
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:45,640
Some serve for their own glory, 
not for the glory of God. 

734
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:48,360
It's obvious that the only 
boasting we better do is about 

735
00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:50,520
what God's doing. 
So instead of confessing our 

736
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:54,320
dependence upon God, their 
arrogance erupts and overflows 

737
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:58,280
with bragging about themselves. 
So boasting about the future 

738
00:41:58,280 --> 00:42:02,240
without recognizing the Lord 
overtime the the one who created

739
00:42:02,240 --> 00:42:06,960
and holds time is frankly evil. 
It's aggressively and viciously 

740
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:09,600
wicked. 
That's what he says he says in 

741
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,400
this passage. 
He says, listen, he says in 

742
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:17,400
verse 16, all such boasting is 
the the Greek word is poneros. 

743
00:42:17,720 --> 00:42:21,280
And this word means this word 
means in fact, it's the same 

744
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:22,120
word. 
It's fascinating. 

745
00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:27,200
It's the same word Jesus uses 
when he prays deliver us from 

746
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,000
evil. 
I mean, this is a vicious word. 

747
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:34,760
This is extremely negative word 
that you got to take this 

748
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:37,280
seriously. 
James is taking this extremely 

749
00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:40,800
seriously. 
This is very strong language to 

750
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,160
say that this is just flat out 
satanic. 

751
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:47,120
We need to act upon this and do 
what's right. 

752
00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:51,400
We need to know what, what good 
is before, before we can do it 

753
00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:53,440
though. 
So we have to evaluate our life 

754
00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:57,720
patterns to see if they conform 
to God's word rather than our 

755
00:42:57,720 --> 00:43:00,480
own. 
And we need, we need to plan in 

756
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:03,960
those areas that are, that are 
obvious areas in God's word. 

757
00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:05,520
Sometimes people don't know what
to do. 

758
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:07,920
And, and I, I, I'll talk about 
the black and whites and the 

759
00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:09,960
Grays. 
You know, when God's word is 

760
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:11,760
very clear about something, you 
don't have to worry about it. 

761
00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:12,680
You don't have to wonder about 
it. 

762
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:15,680
Just do that. 
And often I find that that helps

763
00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:19,000
us define the more grey, 
nebulous areas of life. 

764
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:22,080
When we might have two good 
choices, we think we're not sure

765
00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:25,880
which choice to make, and it's 
hard sometimes to discern God's 

766
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:29,040
will. 
But we need to plan to obey in 

767
00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:32,600
those obvious areas 1st. 
And then the surprises, the 

768
00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:37,280
interruptions, the crisis that 
are often tough to plan for. 

769
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:40,600
But when they happen, we we at 
least find our lives prioritized

770
00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:44,120
in a way that will help us to 
focus upon the Lord and be ready

771
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:45,880
to deal with them in a biblical 
way. 

772
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,600
And so many of life's most 
precious moments aren't planned.

773
00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:51,800
And God will bring these things 
to us. 

774
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:56,360
But if we're focused on Him and 
we've established a framework of

775
00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:58,960
biblical decision making and 
reaction that's healthy and 

776
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:02,320
helpful and depends upon Him, 
we'll be in a much better spot. 

777
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:05,400
So. 
So for most people, their level 

778
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:08,720
of knowledge sometimes far 
exceeds their level of 

779
00:44:08,720 --> 00:44:11,960
obedience. 
That was a better line than you 

780
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:14,240
thought it was. 
But for a lot of people, their 

781
00:44:14,240 --> 00:44:17,880
level of their level of 
knowledge far exceeds their 

782
00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:22,760
level of obedience. 
They think they know when in 

783
00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:26,560
fact they just need to trust 
instead of trying to figure it 

784
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:28,400
out. 
So knowledge isn't enough, we 

785
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:30,520
need action. 
So we got to ask ourselves, is 

786
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:33,120
this going to help me or someone
else become a better disciple? 

787
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:36,040
James says that you've been 
fully warned. 

788
00:44:36,240 --> 00:44:37,960
I've pointed the matter out to 
you. 

789
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:41,040
You have no excuse. 
That's the whole point that he's

790
00:44:41,040 --> 00:44:44,280
trying to make here. 
And so let me share 4 lessons of

791
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:46,480
time with you and take a few 
minutes here. 

792
00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:51,040
So some applications. 
So, so trapping time for the 

793
00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:58,200
Kingdom recognizes that that 
seeking to control or claim 

794
00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:01,800
credit for our time is arrogant 
and evil. 

795
00:45:02,640 --> 00:45:04,560
And we really need to think 
about that a little bit. 

796
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:08,640
We, we have these sins of 
Commission and omission. 

797
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:11,160
So this idea of sin is missing 
the mark. 

798
00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:14,240
But, but but not only doing 
wrong, but failing to do what's 

799
00:45:14,240 --> 00:45:15,760
right. 
And so the Lord gives us a 

800
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:19,240
command and we either ignore it 
or simply fail to do it. 

801
00:45:19,240 --> 00:45:23,480
Don't, don't ignore James. 
So we recognize that seeking to 

802
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:27,800
control this or, or claim credit
is arrogant. 

803
00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:31,240
It's evil. 
You know, I was sharing with the

804
00:45:31,240 --> 00:45:34,920
staff this morning. 
Every morning we gather to pray 

805
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:38,800
together before the as the day 
begins and I try to bring up a 

806
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:41,520
passage of Scripture from my own
quiet time. 

807
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:47,000
What did God kind of say that I 
thought was neat this morning as

808
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:48,600
I study various books of the 
Bible? 

809
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:50,920
And one of the things that I've 
been working through, I've been,

810
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:52,920
I've been doing a double study 
of Exodus. 

811
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:54,520
Don't worry about that. 
I'm not necessarily preaching a 

812
00:45:54,520 --> 00:45:56,440
series on Exodus. 
I'm just I've been caught up in 

813
00:45:56,440 --> 00:45:58,280
the Exodus. 
So I've been through it one 

814
00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:00,600
time. 
I'm back in it again and I've 

815
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:02,960
been kind of doing, I've done it
at home and doing it here at the

816
00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:05,080
office. 
And I'm, I'm in the middle of 

817
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:08,040
the plagues again. 
You got to think about this for 

818
00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:11,600
a minute. 
So plague after plague after 

819
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:16,600
plague, Moses and Aaron, you 
know what God says, go do this, 

820
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:20,520
you know, make gnats out of dust
or boils are going to appear or 

821
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:24,640
fire from hail from the sky. 
The livestock are going to drop 

822
00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:25,960
dead. 
All these different things, you 

823
00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:28,240
know, blood, blood, water 
turning to blood, all these 

824
00:46:28,240 --> 00:46:29,800
different plagues, right? 
Ten of them. 

825
00:46:30,720 --> 00:46:33,720
And to some degree these plagues
are an attack upon the Egyptian 

826
00:46:33,720 --> 00:46:35,160
gods. 
And you got to recognize that 

827
00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:39,160
backdrop that one by one God is 
destroying the, the, the 

828
00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:43,240
pantheon of, of Egyptian gods. 
But but the other thing you've 

829
00:46:43,240 --> 00:46:46,400
got to and by the way, the final
act of the first born dying is 

830
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:51,560
an attack on on Pharaoh. 
Pharaoh, because Pharaoh himself

831
00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:54,440
is a God. 
And so to recognize that his own

832
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:57,880
son would die. 
So he is the son of RAW, the sun

833
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:03,080
God FA FA Raoh. 
Pharaoh is how it should be 

834
00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:05,040
pronounced. 
So you recognize he's the son of

835
00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:07,480
RAW. 
But anyway, those attacks are 

836
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:08,880
there. 
But what's interesting to me is 

837
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,240
the Moses, Aaron perspective. 
So here's Moses and Aaron. 

838
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:13,880
OK, God. 
Yes, Sir. 

839
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:17,120
Yes, Sir. 
You know, staff, rod, snakes, 

840
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:25,000
blood, gnats, flies, frogs, 
livestock, hail, Everything 

841
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:26,240
happens, right? 
According to what? 

842
00:47:26,240 --> 00:47:28,400
Goshen's fine. 
Egypt's decimated. 

843
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:30,840
Everything's just great. 
Let my people go. 

844
00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:32,720
Pharaoh says. 
If you'll tell God to stop, I'll

845
00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:34,520
let my people go. 
Then what does Pharaoh do? 

846
00:47:35,720 --> 00:47:38,960
His heart is hardened over and 
over and over and over and over 

847
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:42,160
again. 
And I'm sitting there thinking 

848
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:45,960
this whole time that Moses and 
Aaron and the people of Israel 

849
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:51,320
still in slavery, still making 
brick now without straw, they 

850
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:56,200
have to wait on all this. 
Think about the time but God, 

851
00:47:56,640 --> 00:48:02,080
but God, God, you said, but God 
time. 

852
00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:07,000
And you recognize, why does God 
make them go through all 10 

853
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:09,720
plagues? 
And part of it might be the 

854
00:48:09,720 --> 00:48:11,640
Egyptian God angle. 
I get that. 

855
00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:16,160
But I think the bigger part of 
it is, is that God wanted Egypt 

856
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:19,920
to talk about him, that when it 
was done, because when you read 

857
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:25,040
the passages that you might know
that I am God, that you might 

858
00:48:25,040 --> 00:48:28,760
know I am the Lord. 
And he's saying that to the 

859
00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:32,600
Egyptians, not just but also to 
the people of Israel. 

860
00:48:32,720 --> 00:48:36,880
The people of Israel needed to 
know that because they were 

861
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:40,440
going to need to know that to go
through the wilderness and to 

862
00:48:40,440 --> 00:48:43,520
get into Canaan. 
They needed to know He was 

863
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:46,720
indeed God. 
Remember, it had been a whole 

864
00:48:46,720 --> 00:48:50,400
been a long time since Joseph, 
It had been a long time since 

865
00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:53,680
the patriarchs. 
They hadn't had a prophet, they 

866
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:58,080
hadn't had this word from God. 
So they needed the evidence. 

867
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:02,160
The Egyptians were then going to
be testifiers of God, and the 

868
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:05,720
Bible's pretty clear about that.
I'm going to whip these people 

869
00:49:05,720 --> 00:49:08,120
down to the point of they're 
going to tell the whole world. 

870
00:49:08,240 --> 00:49:11,000
The most powerful nation on the 
planet is going to tell the 

871
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:14,440
whole world that that Hebrew God
is the real God. 

872
00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:19,840
That's the real deal. 
Now, easy to read that in a few 

873
00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:23,520
chapters. 
Tough to have gone through that 

874
00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:28,360
if you're Moses and Aaron. 
I'm sure you know, the people of

875
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:30,600
the people that the Hebrew 
people at different times are 

876
00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:33,840
doubting them. 
They're, you know, they don't 

877
00:49:33,840 --> 00:49:36,680
know there's another plague. 
Moses doesn't know. 

878
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:40,960
We're waiting for #10 The flies 
are going to do it. 

879
00:49:42,240 --> 00:49:46,080
The flies didn't do it. 
The frogs, frogs are going to do

880
00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:48,720
it. 
The frogs didn't do it. 

881
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:52,360
You know, think about the 
endurance. 

882
00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:56,960
Think about their perspective. 
It just hit me, I was probably 

883
00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:58,920
harping too much about that to 
the staff this morning. 

884
00:49:58,920 --> 00:50:03,160
But anyway, I just, it kind of 
hit me that poor old Moses and 

885
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:07,960
Aaron had to endure and wait 
upon the Lord to do what he's 

886
00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:12,440
going to do, even when it didn't
make sense, even when it seemed 

887
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:15,520
like failure. 
Well, Lord, we thought we had 

888
00:50:15,520 --> 00:50:18,000
this and Moses as hard, as 
hardened, and he's still not 

889
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:19,160
going to let us go. 
We did. 

890
00:50:19,200 --> 00:50:21,560
And he's still not going to let 
us go and he's still not going 

891
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:23,880
to let us go and he's still not 
going to let us go. 

892
00:50:24,720 --> 00:50:27,960
But in the end, they learn about
the Passover. 

893
00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:31,760
In the end, they learn about 
deliverance. 

894
00:50:32,720 --> 00:50:37,480
And years later, they celebrate 
the Passover again with the 

895
00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:41,600
final sacrifice, the final lamb,
Jesus Christ. 

896
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:45,400
And all of the picture fits 
together in a perfect way. 

897
00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:49,160
And that, and that's a God who's
in charge of time. 

898
00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:55,800
Who those years for him because 
he has a purpose and a plan. 

899
00:50:56,440 --> 00:51:01,160
So be patient, wait upon the 
Lord, recognize that he's in 

900
00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:03,280
control. 
You don't need to seek to 

901
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:05,400
control that. 
So #2 trapping time for the 

902
00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:08,640
Kingdom requires this 
recognition of God's 

903
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:12,520
sovereignty. 
Psalm 139, which is a verse we 

904
00:51:12,520 --> 00:51:17,240
often use and for the sanctity 
of human life, and rightfully so

905
00:51:17,720 --> 00:51:21,400
says this your eyes saw my 
unformed substance in the in 

906
00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:23,960
your book were written every one
of them. 

907
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:28,480
The days that were formed for me
when as yet there was none of 

908
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:32,520
them. 
So even before I was born, even 

909
00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:37,280
while I'm in my mother's womb, 
even when I'm a speck of a 

910
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:43,520
cellular being, God has a plan. 
He has days, He has purpose for 

911
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:45,640
me. 
He already knows because he can 

912
00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:47,600
see it all. 
He sees the point. 

913
00:51:48,200 --> 00:51:53,920
I'm just on the line. 
He knows me #3 trapping time for

914
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:56,960
the Kingdom requires the 
prioritization of and 

915
00:51:56,960 --> 00:52:02,400
participation in God's work. 
And I shared a little bit about 

916
00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:05,040
this in our Acts series in the 
sermon about Ananias and 

917
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:08,600
Sapphira in Acts chapter 5 about
stewardship in the sense that 

918
00:52:08,600 --> 00:52:11,040
stewardship is, is not about 
money. 

919
00:52:11,040 --> 00:52:13,520
It just, it is, but it's not. 
It includes that. 

920
00:52:13,840 --> 00:52:16,120
But if you weren't, if you 
didn't hear that message, you 

921
00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:18,440
need to go back and listen to it
because it's about life. 

922
00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:22,280
Stewardship is your best time. 
It's your best energy, it's your

923
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:25,600
best resources. 
It's your, it's your best focus,

924
00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:29,120
it's your best skill set, it's 
your best experiences. 

925
00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:31,680
And some of the stuff that 
you've been through on that 

926
00:52:31,680 --> 00:52:35,680
timeline that you, that you 
hated, that were horrible, that 

927
00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:38,280
were difficult. 
Some of those experiences are 

928
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:44,000
going to be tools that God uses 
in stewardship to minister to 

929
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:47,240
somebody else who's going 
through it, somebody that you 

930
00:52:47,240 --> 00:52:51,480
can relate to that maybe nobody 
else could relate to. 

931
00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:54,360
You know, over the years, 
because of some of my past 

932
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:58,280
experiences, I've been able to 
have conversations with men that

933
00:52:58,520 --> 00:53:00,440
some of you would consider kind 
of rough and tough. 

934
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:04,280
Kind of guys have been through 
some stuff and we can have 

935
00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:07,800
conversations and I'm, I can 
relate to what they're going 

936
00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:10,200
through to some degree. 
And, and we can talk. 

937
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:12,160
Well, some of you have been 
through crisis, you've been 

938
00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:15,200
through drama, you've been 
through, through real things in 

939
00:53:15,200 --> 00:53:18,440
life. 
And God will use those in 

940
00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:21,560
ministry if you'll allow him. 
But it's our best, it's our best

941
00:53:21,560 --> 00:53:24,360
energy. 
It's it's a tithe of our time. 

942
00:53:24,360 --> 00:53:27,800
It's a tithe of our money. 
It's a tithe of our talent, our 

943
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:30,240
spiritual giftedness. 
One of the things that we're 

944
00:53:30,240 --> 00:53:32,880
going to have to talk about is 
how do we discover our spiritual

945
00:53:32,880 --> 00:53:35,320
giftedness in calling? 
How do we do that? 

946
00:53:35,320 --> 00:53:38,040
We've got some practical things 
coming up down the line. 

947
00:53:38,040 --> 00:53:40,280
We're talking through those 
things of how we're going to 

948
00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:42,960
help you discover those things 
and put them into action and 

949
00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:46,400
actually and actually help you 
find your place in service to 

950
00:53:46,440 --> 00:53:48,520
where you don't have to go 
searching on a web board 

951
00:53:48,520 --> 00:53:49,840
someplace. 
But we're actually going to help

952
00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:54,040
you match up to ministry so that
you can serve and you can place 

953
00:53:54,200 --> 00:53:56,640
your best skills, your best 
experience, your best 

954
00:53:56,640 --> 00:53:58,360
giftedness, and calling into 
service. 

955
00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:04,000
So we're working through all 
that #4 trapping time for the 

956
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:07,600
Kingdom requires a knowledge of 
God's Word and God's will for 

957
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:09,720
our lives. 
Once again, we're we're not 

958
00:54:09,720 --> 00:54:12,800
going to know what to do unless 
we know what He wants us to do. 

959
00:54:13,120 --> 00:54:17,360
So Ephesians 5 says this. 
Look carefully then, how you 

960
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:21,200
walk. 
Not as unwise, but as wise, 

961
00:54:21,440 --> 00:54:27,640
making the best use of the time,
because the days are evil. 

962
00:54:28,920 --> 00:54:32,920
Therefore, do not be foolish, 
but understand what the will of 

963
00:54:32,920 --> 00:54:34,960
the Lord is. 
I don't know a passage that's 

964
00:54:34,960 --> 00:54:38,640
more clear. 
The days that we live in here 

965
00:54:38,640 --> 00:54:42,080
are fallen. 
There's a reason why evil 

966
00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:45,800
exists, and we'll do a whole 
thing on that one day. 

967
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:47,680
I know I keep talking about all 
the things we're going to do, 

968
00:54:47,680 --> 00:54:49,040
but I'm brand new. 
Give me a minute. 

969
00:54:50,880 --> 00:54:54,440
So why does the problem of evil 
exist? 

970
00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:56,160
Why does evil exist in this 
world? 

971
00:54:56,160 --> 00:54:57,640
In the 1st place? 
We got to talk about those 

972
00:54:57,640 --> 00:54:58,920
things. 
A big question for a lot of 

973
00:54:58,920 --> 00:55:01,360
people, and some people struggle
with God because of that. 

974
00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:05,600
But we recognize that these days
that we live in are fallen. 

975
00:55:05,600 --> 00:55:11,840
This creation is groaning, time 
is groaning, and so we have to 

976
00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:16,840
make the most of it Now. 
The best use of our time to not 

977
00:55:16,840 --> 00:55:22,480
be foolish is to understand what
God's will is for your life and 

978
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:25,400
to live it out. 
There's no way you're going to 

979
00:55:25,400 --> 00:55:28,880
know that unless you're engaged 
with Him. 

980
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:33,400
You're abiding in Him and He in 
you, so that together you bear 

981
00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:35,800
that fruit. 
John 15-5 ish. 

982
00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:39,040
You've got to be in His Word. 
You've got to be in prayer. 

983
00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:41,920
This is why the church needs to 
exist. 

984
00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:47,440
The church needs to exist to 
help equip you to discover what 

985
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:50,600
God's will is for your life and 
to live it out and to give you 

986
00:55:50,600 --> 00:55:54,000
opportunities to do that. 
That's why the church needs to 

987
00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:57,720
exist. 
And so we need to spend time 

988
00:55:57,720 --> 00:56:02,720
with Him in order to understand 
how He wants us to use His time,

989
00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:06,120
right? 
And then Psalm 90 says, so teach

990
00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:10,560
us to number our days that we 
may get a heart of wisdom, 

991
00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:12,600
right? 
We need to think about what that

992
00:56:12,600 --> 00:56:15,600
means. 
Life should be a deliberate act,

993
00:56:16,080 --> 00:56:19,760
not some passive response to 
circumstance. 

994
00:56:21,000 --> 00:56:23,360
When it says to wait upon the 
Lord, that doesn't mean you're 

995
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:26,000
sitting around staring at the 
sky wondering if he's going to 

996
00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:29,240
ever show up. 
Waiting upon the Lord is an 

997
00:56:29,240 --> 00:56:33,800
active participation in abiding 
and connecting with Him. 

998
00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:36,960
It's kind of like when the 
disciples were told in the in 

999
00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:39,600
the book of Acts to go back to 
Jerusalem and wait for the Holy 

1000
00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:41,280
Spirit. 
They weren't just going back and

1001
00:56:41,280 --> 00:56:43,360
sitting around doing nothing. 
They were praying, they were 

1002
00:56:43,360 --> 00:56:45,600
worshipping, they were 
fellowshipping, they were 

1003
00:56:45,600 --> 00:56:48,240
encouraging, they were 
strengthening one another. 

1004
00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:50,480
Remember what he said? 
I can just hear him. 

1005
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:52,640
Remember what he said? 
Now this makes sense. 

1006
00:56:52,760 --> 00:56:54,560
I remember when he said he 
predicted. 

1007
00:56:54,560 --> 00:56:55,960
I remember. 
I can just hear him. 

1008
00:56:56,760 --> 00:56:58,440
Even Thomas. 
Maybe. 

1009
00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:01,480
Maybe. 
Yeah. 

1010
00:57:01,640 --> 00:57:05,400
You know, Thomas, too. 
Supposedly Thomas went as far as

1011
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:08,320
India according to tradition. 
That's tradition. 

1012
00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:10,920
There's not a lot of fact in 
place. 

1013
00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:14,240
But theoretically, the apostle 
Thomas went as far as India to 

1014
00:57:14,240 --> 00:57:18,640
show the gospel in the end. 
But it should be a deliberate 

1015
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:20,920
act. 
Life is Life is something we 

1016
00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:22,640
need to seize. 
It's short. 

1017
00:57:22,640 --> 00:57:26,160
It's fleeting, gang. 
I've done 300 and something 

1018
00:57:26,160 --> 00:57:31,240
funerals in my lifetime. 
I had a funeral. 

1019
00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:34,960
I see. 
I tell the new agent story. 

1020
00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:37,920
So Neil would be thrilled to 
death if he were alive, that I 

1021
00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:42,280
just said his name out loud. 
But so I had a church treasurer 

1022
00:57:42,280 --> 00:57:45,760
who was the most prolific 
regional Funeral Home director 

1023
00:57:45,760 --> 00:57:48,680
I'd ever met, Right. 
You may not know this. 

1024
00:57:48,680 --> 00:57:50,040
Anybody here in the Funeral Home
business? 

1025
00:57:50,640 --> 00:57:53,480
You could testify to this? 
Anybody here a funeral director?

1026
00:57:53,800 --> 00:57:57,200
So most funeral homes in the 
United States of America are 

1027
00:57:57,200 --> 00:57:59,320
actually owned by a few 
corporations. 

1028
00:57:59,600 --> 00:58:01,720
They really are. 
And then they'll have a family 

1029
00:58:01,720 --> 00:58:03,760
name on them. 
The family may have started it, 

1030
00:58:03,760 --> 00:58:06,080
but most of them have been 
bought out by just a few 

1031
00:58:06,080 --> 00:58:07,800
corporations. 
That's behind the scenes 

1032
00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:10,800
knowledge. 
Don't tell anybody this was a 

1033
00:58:10,800 --> 00:58:14,600
family owned and run deal. 
He had multiple chapels and 

1034
00:58:14,600 --> 00:58:17,600
multiple towns in eastern 
Oklahoma, right? 

1035
00:58:18,240 --> 00:58:22,600
And any time a person would come
along who didn't have a church 

1036
00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:25,520
or didn't have a pastor, and it 
was very evangelistic, he just 

1037
00:58:25,520 --> 00:58:29,160
knew that I needed to do their 
funeral and I needed to be there

1038
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:33,160
to share the gospel with them. 
And so Neil would do 12 funerals

1039
00:58:33,160 --> 00:58:36,360
a week. 
And so I had the opportunity 

1040
00:58:36,360 --> 00:58:39,680
some weeks to do 12 funerals. 
I didn't, but I would have that 

1041
00:58:39,720 --> 00:58:42,440
if you were on staff at that 
church, you had the opportunity 

1042
00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:47,040
to preach and as many funerals 
as you could possibly preach. 

1043
00:58:47,040 --> 00:58:49,920
And if I could write a funny 
book about funerals, I would, 

1044
00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:52,320
but I'm not sure you can. 
Can you write a funny book about

1045
00:58:52,320 --> 00:58:55,040
funerals? 
I have some funny funeral 

1046
00:58:55,040 --> 00:58:56,360
stories. 
But anyway, I don't know that 

1047
00:58:56,360 --> 00:58:59,960
you're supposed to do that. 
I've done funerals. 

1048
00:58:59,960 --> 00:59:01,920
Now, just bear with me for a 
minute and it's not more, but 

1049
00:59:01,920 --> 00:59:04,400
hang in there. 
I've done funerals for 

1050
00:59:04,400 --> 00:59:08,240
incredible believers. 
I mean, people who are mentors 

1051
00:59:08,240 --> 00:59:11,600
to me, people who are role model
Charlie Greer, people, just 

1052
00:59:11,600 --> 00:59:14,680
wonderful homecoming 
celebrations, you know, where 

1053
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:17,600
everybody who knew this person 
believed this person was a 

1054
00:59:17,600 --> 00:59:20,480
believer, saw the testimony of 
their life, saw the fruit of 

1055
00:59:20,480 --> 00:59:22,880
their life. 
What a glorious, wonderful 

1056
00:59:22,880 --> 00:59:26,040
celebration of a person who's 
now with Jesus, right? 

1057
00:59:27,160 --> 00:59:31,120
But I've also done the funerals 
for people who didn't know Jesus

1058
00:59:31,120 --> 00:59:33,760
at all. 
I've been the only one at the 

1059
00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:37,600
graveside. 
I, I've, I've been the only one 

1060
00:59:37,680 --> 00:59:40,640
that the family had any 
connection with whatsoever. 

1061
00:59:40,800 --> 00:59:42,720
And none of them were saved, 
right. 

1062
00:59:43,760 --> 00:59:50,720
And to recognize the use of life
and, and, and perhaps carefully,

1063
00:59:50,800 --> 00:59:56,320
the waste of life to say what, 
what did this amount to in the 

1064
00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:59,760
end? 
I've done funerals for tragic 

1065
00:59:59,760 --> 01:00:01,960
stories. 
Suicidal. 

1066
01:00:02,520 --> 01:00:04,960
Babies, I won't go into any more
detail. 

1067
01:00:04,960 --> 01:00:10,400
It's going to be very sad. 
And so the contrast of life, 

1068
01:00:11,240 --> 01:00:15,520
what that life meant, the impact
of that life and, and I'm not 

1069
01:00:15,520 --> 01:00:17,680
here to judge. 
I don't know all those details 

1070
01:00:17,680 --> 01:00:19,400
of those people. 
I don't know who all they 

1071
01:00:19,400 --> 01:00:23,320
impacted and maybe even negative
impact had positive result. 

1072
01:00:23,320 --> 01:00:29,480
You never know, you know, but I 
was just there and I got to 

1073
01:00:29,480 --> 01:00:32,680
experience it week after week 
after week after week after week

1074
01:00:33,000 --> 01:00:39,080
in church life, from church 
members to non church members to

1075
01:00:39,080 --> 01:00:43,240
tragic stories and and to walk 
through that with people and to 

1076
01:00:43,240 --> 01:00:47,360
think about, you know, part of 
what here here's a basic funeral

1077
01:00:47,360 --> 01:00:48,600
sermon. 
Aren't you excited? 

1078
01:00:48,600 --> 01:00:51,480
You came for this? 
Here's a so here's a basic 

1079
01:00:51,480 --> 01:00:53,160
funeral sermon. 
Here's what you're going to do 

1080
01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:54,560
at a funeral. 
So if you ever have to preach a 

1081
01:00:54,560 --> 01:00:56,280
funeral, here's here's your 
outline. 

1082
01:00:56,360 --> 01:00:58,880
You're right, we're here to 
honor a life. 

1083
01:00:59,520 --> 01:01:04,760
So, so you try to figure out 
something, anything that you 

1084
01:01:04,760 --> 01:01:06,640
might say. 
I don't preach people into 

1085
01:01:06,640 --> 01:01:08,000
heaven. 
I can't, I'm not going to do 

1086
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:10,680
that. 
But but is there anything nice 

1087
01:01:10,680 --> 01:01:14,240
that you can say about that dead
person you with me? 

1088
01:01:14,760 --> 01:01:16,960
We're here to honor a life. 
Now, sometimes it's really easy 

1089
01:01:16,960 --> 01:01:19,520
sometimes that, that you know 
that that could be that that can

1090
01:01:19,520 --> 01:01:21,720
be, you know, a long time, a lot
of stuff. 

1091
01:01:22,560 --> 01:01:26,360
We're, we're here to honor a 
life #2 we're, we're, we're, 

1092
01:01:26,480 --> 01:01:29,040
we're here to seek help for our 
loss. 

1093
01:01:29,640 --> 01:01:32,320
Because I don't care who you 
are, whether you're saved or 

1094
01:01:32,320 --> 01:01:34,200
unsaved, you're going to grieve.
You ought to grieve. 

1095
01:01:34,560 --> 01:01:36,440
Christians should grieve. 
It's OK to grieve. 

1096
01:01:36,440 --> 01:01:38,920
We grieve as people though, who 
have what? 

1097
01:01:39,320 --> 01:01:41,200
Yeah, we have hope. 
It's just different. 

1098
01:01:41,640 --> 01:01:44,720
But so, so I want to help the 
non Christian to know how to get

1099
01:01:44,720 --> 01:01:47,240
to that hope. 
And obviously I'm, I'm helping 

1100
01:01:47,240 --> 01:01:50,560
the Christian to, to embrace the
hope that they have. 

1101
01:01:50,560 --> 01:01:54,320
So we're we need help for our 
hurt and then and then we need 

1102
01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:56,880
hope for our lives. 
So that's that alliterated 

1103
01:01:57,040 --> 01:02:01,080
honor, a life help for a hurt, 
hope for our lives. 

1104
01:02:01,200 --> 01:02:02,960
So if nothing else that they 
didn't, I'm preaching the 

1105
01:02:02,960 --> 01:02:07,800
gospel, right? 
And I sit there sometimes at 

1106
01:02:07,800 --> 01:02:11,160
that first point and even the 
family can't give you anything, 

1107
01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:16,160
you know. 
I mean, you know, Uncle Charlie 

1108
01:02:16,160 --> 01:02:18,760
learned not to cuss except when 
he was drunk. 

1109
01:02:18,760 --> 01:02:19,560
I mean, you know what I'm 
saying? 

1110
01:02:19,560 --> 01:02:30,120
I mean, sometimes. 
But when you have a 15 year old 

1111
01:02:31,440 --> 01:02:37,440
who was arrested with his father
for dealing drugs and his dad 

1112
01:02:37,440 --> 01:02:41,480
goes to the penitentiary and the
15 year old kills himself 

1113
01:02:41,480 --> 01:02:42,800
because he didn't want to go to 
jail. 

1114
01:02:44,480 --> 01:02:46,080
And you're asked to do the 
funeral. 

1115
01:02:47,240 --> 01:02:52,160
And the State Highway Patrol 
have to circle the Chapel and 

1116
01:02:52,160 --> 01:02:55,200
tell you to wear a bulletproof 
vest to preach the funeral 

1117
01:02:55,840 --> 01:02:59,320
because there's going to be a 
shooting at the funeral because 

1118
01:02:59,320 --> 01:03:02,440
of the divorce between the 
father and the mother. 

1119
01:03:03,640 --> 01:03:06,040
And you literally have a Chapel 
with an aisle down the middle 

1120
01:03:06,040 --> 01:03:08,920
and mom sides here and dad sides
here. 

1121
01:03:09,360 --> 01:03:16,320
And you've got this 15 year old 
and they want you to wear a 

1122
01:03:16,320 --> 01:03:19,400
bulletproof vest. 
And there are there are armed 

1123
01:03:19,400 --> 01:03:24,600
men circling the entire service 
because they'd had a fist fight 

1124
01:03:24,600 --> 01:03:30,080
the night before in the at the 
viewing, even knives came out. 

1125
01:03:33,400 --> 01:03:35,840
I didn't wear the bulletproof 
vest, not my style. 

1126
01:03:38,240 --> 01:03:41,000
But then at the end of the 
service, after I share the 

1127
01:03:41,000 --> 01:03:45,160
gospel in those places and that 
culture, people would come by 

1128
01:03:45,160 --> 01:03:46,920
and view. 
It was open casket, believe it 

1129
01:03:46,920 --> 01:03:48,160
or not. 
Should not have been, but it 

1130
01:03:48,160 --> 01:03:50,960
was. 
And they view and they go by. 

1131
01:03:52,320 --> 01:03:56,600
So and then the family comes by 
and circles back and sits down 

1132
01:03:56,600 --> 01:03:58,320
and you'll have a prayer with 
the family. 

1133
01:03:58,320 --> 01:04:00,720
That's a tradition back in those
hills. 

1134
01:04:01,960 --> 01:04:04,720
Visitors come by, they go out, 
the family circles around. 

1135
01:04:05,000 --> 01:04:08,680
Soon as the mother stands up to 
come view her son, this entire 

1136
01:04:08,680 --> 01:04:11,200
section gets up, turns their 
back and walks out. 

1137
01:04:12,480 --> 01:04:18,480
Humanity. 
And I thought to myself, Teresa 

1138
01:04:18,480 --> 01:04:21,520
remembers that story. 
They were relatives of church 

1139
01:04:21,520 --> 01:04:24,120
members. 
They made sure the funeral was 

1140
01:04:24,120 --> 01:04:26,960
just across the state line so 
that the dad couldn't get out of

1141
01:04:26,960 --> 01:04:30,960
the pen to come to the funeral. 
They wouldn't let him cross the 

1142
01:04:30,960 --> 01:04:36,160
state line. 
I share that ugly story with you

1143
01:04:36,160 --> 01:04:40,200
on purpose. 
These days we live in are evil 

1144
01:04:41,960 --> 01:04:49,120
and life can be wasted, right? 
Not just that 15 year old. 

1145
01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:53,880
I mean, what a tragic way. 
He was not a believer, No 

1146
01:04:53,880 --> 01:04:57,560
evidence at all whatsoever that 
he knew anything about Jesus. 

1147
01:04:59,160 --> 01:05:05,440
But these people, there's a 
line. 

1148
01:05:07,040 --> 01:05:08,280
What are you going to do with 
that? 

1149
01:05:09,720 --> 01:05:13,840
What are you going to invest in?
And that's a dramatic story. 

1150
01:05:13,840 --> 01:05:16,640
I showed the dramatic story on 
purpose so that it hits you in a

1151
01:05:16,640 --> 01:05:19,560
dramatic way. 
But we are stewards of time, 

1152
01:05:19,720 --> 01:05:25,200
which means that we are stewards
of life, every part of it. 

1153
01:05:26,000 --> 01:05:29,000
And wasted time is a wasted 
life. 

1154
01:05:29,320 --> 01:05:34,400
So we have to pursue, we have to
understand his will, the fact 

1155
01:05:34,400 --> 01:05:36,880
that he's in absolute control of
this. 

1156
01:05:36,920 --> 01:05:40,520
Whether I believe that I reject 
that I, I, I'm an atheist, I'm 

1157
01:05:40,520 --> 01:05:43,200
an agnostic, whatever it is, it 
doesn't matter. 

1158
01:05:43,200 --> 01:05:46,240
It doesn't change the fact that 
he's still in absolute control 

1159
01:05:46,240 --> 01:05:48,720
over time. 
Because the other thing about 

1160
01:05:48,720 --> 01:05:51,200
time, which is what some of you 
want me to talk about is there's

1161
01:05:51,200 --> 01:05:56,400
going to be an end to it. 
And only the Father knows. 

1162
01:05:58,720 --> 01:06:01,280
Quit trying to figure it out 
because only the Father knows. 

1163
01:06:03,120 --> 01:06:04,400
And there's going to come a 
moment. 

1164
01:06:04,480 --> 01:06:07,240
Trumpets are going to blow, 
Things are going to happen. 

1165
01:06:08,040 --> 01:06:14,080
One day I'll describe all those 
things, I promise, but it'll 

1166
01:06:14,080 --> 01:06:17,680
end. 
And my perspective is it could 

1167
01:06:17,680 --> 01:06:21,640
end today. 
I'm not waiting on anything, 

1168
01:06:22,920 --> 01:06:27,600
anytime, anytime. 
What are you doing with the 

1169
01:06:27,600 --> 01:06:32,160
line? 
God already knows, but He's 

1170
01:06:32,160 --> 01:06:35,840
given you the freedom to make 
those choices. 

1171
01:06:35,840 --> 01:06:39,000
It's amazing. 
It's a mystery beyond our 

1172
01:06:39,000 --> 01:06:42,720
comprehension perhaps, but we 
need to focus on His mission and

1173
01:06:42,720 --> 01:06:46,760
pathway about it. 
It reminds me of an old monkey 

1174
01:06:46,760 --> 01:06:47,720
trap. 
I don't know if y'all know 

1175
01:06:47,720 --> 01:06:49,480
monkey traps. 
You also do them with raccoons. 

1176
01:06:49,480 --> 01:06:51,600
We used to do them with, we used
to do a lot of raccoon hunting 

1177
01:06:51,600 --> 01:06:54,040
in, in the Ozarks. 
But you, you also have monkey, 

1178
01:06:54,120 --> 01:06:55,520
monkey traps. 
You know exactly. 

1179
01:06:55,520 --> 01:06:58,240
He knows exactly what you do. 
And one way to do this with 

1180
01:06:58,240 --> 01:07:00,440
either a raccoon or a monkey, 
they'll both do this because 

1181
01:07:00,440 --> 01:07:03,120
you're idiots. 
So what will happen is is you, 

1182
01:07:03,160 --> 01:07:05,960
you cut a hole in a tree branch.
There's different ways to do 

1183
01:07:05,960 --> 01:07:07,200
this. 
Didn't have to be a tree branch,

1184
01:07:07,200 --> 01:07:10,120
but we'll just say it's a big 
take a big tree, cut a big hole 

1185
01:07:10,120 --> 01:07:13,440
in there and put a shiny piece 
of foil down in that hole. 

1186
01:07:13,600 --> 01:07:17,080
Then put 22 horseshoe nails in 
where the ends of the horseshoes

1187
01:07:17,080 --> 01:07:20,000
are pointing downward. 
That monkey or that raccoon will

1188
01:07:20,000 --> 01:07:21,840
reach in there to get that shiny
little whatever. 

1189
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:23,800
It could be a piece of fruit or 
it could be a piece of foil. 

1190
01:07:23,880 --> 01:07:25,680
He's going to reach down in 
there and he's going to grab 

1191
01:07:25,680 --> 01:07:27,920
that foil or that piece of 
fruit, and he's going to try to 

1192
01:07:27,920 --> 01:07:29,760
get his hand out. 
But when he makes the first, his

1193
01:07:29,760 --> 01:07:31,920
hand's too big. 
Those horseshoe nails are going 

1194
01:07:31,920 --> 01:07:34,120
to dig into his hand and he 
can't get out. 

1195
01:07:34,520 --> 01:07:37,360
Now all that dumb thing has to 
do is what? 

1196
01:07:38,160 --> 01:07:41,360
Let go? 
And you know what it'll do? 

1197
01:07:41,920 --> 01:07:44,920
It'll die sitting there before 
it. 

1198
01:07:44,920 --> 01:07:48,640
Let's go before it'll let go. 
You can hear it screaming, 

1199
01:07:48,680 --> 01:07:51,920
squealing, carrying on. 
And you can go and have you 

1200
01:07:51,920 --> 01:07:53,680
monkey meat or raccoon for 
dinner. 

1201
01:07:54,760 --> 01:07:57,720
I've had both. 
Yum. 

1202
01:08:03,720 --> 01:08:07,520
Raccoon's better than monkey, 
just for the record. 

1203
01:08:08,320 --> 01:08:15,520
Little greasy make you want to 
go out to Wendy's so, but that 

1204
01:08:15,520 --> 01:08:21,880
thing will sit there because it 
doesn't want to give up control.

1205
01:08:24,120 --> 01:08:33,000
Now gang, sometimes that's how 
we're living life, isn't it? 

1206
01:08:33,000 --> 01:08:39,520
Corey 10 Boom, who I'll quote 
often because I like her, was at

1207
01:08:39,520 --> 01:08:41,000
Chuck Swindoll's church one 
time. 

1208
01:08:41,720 --> 01:08:44,040
Swindell, big old Marine this in
his younger days. 

1209
01:08:45,359 --> 01:08:48,319
And Swindell was in a tense 
conversation with somebody after

1210
01:08:48,319 --> 01:08:51,680
church and you and and he was 
just kind of he was tensed up 

1211
01:08:51,680 --> 01:08:53,319
kind of making fist. 
You could just see they're 

1212
01:08:53,439 --> 01:08:56,399
physically tense. 
You get to see the stress in his

1213
01:08:56,399 --> 01:08:58,200
shoulders and his arms and his 
hands. 

1214
01:08:58,399 --> 01:09:01,120
And little Corey 10 Boom, about 
four feet tall, comes up to him 

1215
01:09:01,479 --> 01:09:05,359
and says, Doctor Svendall, give 
me your hands and makes him 

1216
01:09:05,359 --> 01:09:08,960
unclench his fist. 
And she says, Doctor Svendall, 

1217
01:09:10,319 --> 01:09:15,000
you must be very careful about 
that to which we hold on to so 

1218
01:09:15,000 --> 01:09:22,120
tightly. 
Time, life, stewardship, 

1219
01:09:22,960 --> 01:09:30,040
calling, giftedness, skills, 
experience, good and horrible 

1220
01:09:30,200 --> 01:09:36,880
experience are tools to be 
dedicated to God, to be used for

1221
01:09:36,880 --> 01:09:39,720
his glory, if we'll allow him to
do that. 

1222
01:09:40,240 --> 01:09:46,240
So it's all about control. 
So what time is it for you and 

1223
01:09:46,240 --> 01:09:51,000
what is it time for you to do? 
Those are the questions that we 

1224
01:09:51,000 --> 01:09:57,480
have to face to recognize that 
God can already see, God already

1225
01:09:57,480 --> 01:10:00,840
knows. 
But for us, we're in the middle.

1226
01:10:01,840 --> 01:10:05,760
We're in the middle of a of a 
stream, a river, a line. 

1227
01:10:06,920 --> 01:10:11,720
And amazingly, I have a free 
will to make choices. 

1228
01:10:12,640 --> 01:10:19,680
Good ones, dumb ones, bad ones. 
And So what I pray that 

1229
01:10:19,680 --> 01:10:25,040
spiritual maturity does is it 
starts to help me make more good

1230
01:10:25,040 --> 01:10:29,360
ones than bad ones. 
That slowly but surely I make 

1231
01:10:29,360 --> 01:10:32,360
the right choices because I'm 
spending time with him. 

1232
01:10:32,840 --> 01:10:36,080
I'm in his word with him. 
I'm in prayer with him. 

1233
01:10:36,280 --> 01:10:38,680
This is what you want. 
This isn't what I want. 

1234
01:10:38,680 --> 01:10:44,960
This is what you want. 
I've shared about my testimony a

1235
01:10:44,960 --> 01:10:46,480
little bit. 
One of these days I'll share the

1236
01:10:46,480 --> 01:10:48,440
whole testimony with me. 
I've shared some of that 

1237
01:10:48,440 --> 01:10:52,280
baseball bats and, and bouncing 
and boxing and things like this.

1238
01:10:52,280 --> 01:10:55,360
But one of the things that one 
of the things that had to happen

1239
01:10:55,360 --> 01:10:58,240
in my life, and there's still a 
lot of problems in my life and 

1240
01:10:58,240 --> 01:11:01,080
there probably always will be. 
And, and I, I think that there 

1241
01:11:01,080 --> 01:11:03,640
are parts of my brain that were 
probably burned out because of 

1242
01:11:03,640 --> 01:11:06,280
the past, that it will affect me
the rest of my life. 

1243
01:11:06,280 --> 01:11:10,280
And that's really not a joke. 
But I had a real trouble problem

1244
01:11:10,280 --> 01:11:17,640
with alcohol and that comes from
a childhood of exposure. 

1245
01:11:18,680 --> 01:11:23,120
And, and for me, it became a 
real problem, especially when I 

1246
01:11:23,120 --> 01:11:26,000
was running away during this 
horrible prodigal experience 

1247
01:11:26,000 --> 01:11:28,760
that I went through. 
It was became a real I, I was, I

1248
01:11:28,760 --> 01:11:32,560
was a good boxer when I was 
drunk because I'm not a happy 

1249
01:11:32,560 --> 01:11:35,400
drunk. 
I'm a raging drunk. 

1250
01:11:36,600 --> 01:11:40,640
And so you become the Hulk. 
And in those days when I'm 285 

1251
01:11:40,640 --> 01:11:44,600
lbs of solid muscle, that's a 
dangerous place to be. 

1252
01:11:47,600 --> 01:11:50,880
And one night and I shared this 
at the wild game dinner, that 

1253
01:11:50,880 --> 01:11:57,920
one, one night when I, I was in 
a rage after I'd lost a, a fight

1254
01:11:59,160 --> 01:12:05,240
and I was trying to kill 
somebody and God spoke to me and

1255
01:12:05,240 --> 01:12:07,720
God showed me, John, have a 
better life for you. 

1256
01:12:07,720 --> 01:12:10,040
You got to make better choices. 
And I don't know how else to 

1257
01:12:10,040 --> 01:12:12,360
explain it. 
It's almost Damascus roadish. 

1258
01:12:12,440 --> 01:12:15,800
But I'm not a great Mystic, but 
I'm a little bit of one, I guess

1259
01:12:15,800 --> 01:12:18,640
because that was real. 
You can like it, not like it, 

1260
01:12:18,640 --> 01:12:24,800
explain it away, whatever. 
For me, God spoke and I haven't 

1261
01:12:24,800 --> 01:12:33,560
had a drop alcohol since. 
Now I've had the choice, I've 

1262
01:12:33,560 --> 01:12:39,360
had the temptation, I've had the
access, but spiritual maturity, 

1263
01:12:39,800 --> 01:12:45,520
recognizing who needs to be in 
charge, allows me the power to 

1264
01:12:45,520 --> 01:12:50,960
make better choices. 
I, I, I filter everything from 

1265
01:12:50,960 --> 01:12:53,960
him sitting on the throne, not 
me sitting on the throne. 

1266
01:12:54,200 --> 01:13:01,440
So it, it, whether it's alcohol 
or whatever, The thing is not 

1267
01:13:01,440 --> 01:13:07,360
going to happen unless we 
recognize that he is the vine. 

1268
01:13:08,880 --> 01:13:14,280
I'm just a branch and, and, and 
I'm a little short one, probably

1269
01:13:14,280 --> 01:13:17,080
pretty brittle. 
And I'm not going to last very 

1270
01:13:17,080 --> 01:13:21,480
long. 
I'm not, you know, I was, I was 

1271
01:13:21,480 --> 01:13:26,360
15 yesterday. 
I mean, some of you know that 

1272
01:13:26,760 --> 01:13:31,160
the older you get, the more you 
know that I mean, and, and, and,

1273
01:13:31,160 --> 01:13:38,440
and my kids were babies last 
week and, and our my grandson 

1274
01:13:38,440 --> 01:13:40,960
who's getting ready to graduate 
from tech school in the Air 

1275
01:13:40,960 --> 01:13:47,280
Force was just born. 
Boom, boom. 

1276
01:13:49,400 --> 01:13:50,720
Really. 
You going to hold that in your 

1277
01:13:50,720 --> 01:13:52,920
hand, man? 
That's slippery. 

1278
01:13:55,440 --> 01:13:57,080
You got to recognize who's on 
the throne. 

1279
01:13:59,120 --> 01:14:04,320
I've got to abide in Him and He 
and me, and then we can bear 

1280
01:14:04,320 --> 01:14:08,000
much fruit. 
But apart from Him, in time, in 

1281
01:14:08,000 --> 01:14:13,760
life, in decisions, in choices, 
in control, but apart from me, I

1282
01:14:13,760 --> 01:14:16,960
can do what? 
And we got to believe that. 

1283
01:14:17,320 --> 01:14:21,840
But in Him I can do what? 
Isn't that amazing? 

1284
01:14:21,840 --> 01:14:22,480
See that? 
See. 

1285
01:14:22,560 --> 01:14:26,040
See the balance. 
Without Him, I can do nothing. 

1286
01:14:26,200 --> 01:14:29,600
With Him, I can do all things 
that He wants me to do. 

1287
01:14:29,600 --> 01:14:32,320
It would be within His will, but
that's the best way. 

1288
01:14:35,240 --> 01:14:39,040
That's how you trap time. 
This is a lordship issue. 

1289
01:14:39,880 --> 01:14:43,440
It's a stewardship issue. 
It's a life issue. 

1290
01:14:44,640 --> 01:14:48,400
Father, thank you for time. 
It's an amazing commodity. 

1291
01:14:49,880 --> 01:14:51,720
And Father, we're rushing 
around. 

1292
01:14:51,760 --> 01:14:56,960
And Lord, my fear is, is that 
that many of us define success 

1293
01:14:57,080 --> 01:15:01,800
because we woke up in the 
morning, we pushed the button 

1294
01:15:01,800 --> 01:15:06,000
and the garage door opened and 
we took our To Do List. 

1295
01:15:07,160 --> 01:15:10,800
And a successful day was we got 
to check off stuff off our To Do

1296
01:15:10,800 --> 01:15:14,640
List. 
And we didn't even stop for a 

1297
01:15:14,640 --> 01:15:20,560
moment, not even 9.6 minutes to 
ask you what your To Do List was

1298
01:15:20,560 --> 01:15:23,960
for. 
Today though, we had a great 

1299
01:15:23,960 --> 01:15:27,840
day, got a lot done, very 
successful. 

1300
01:15:29,360 --> 01:15:34,120
Father, sometimes we sound just 
like these people in James 4. 

1301
01:15:36,520 --> 01:15:39,440
Forgive us, Father, for taking 
time for granted. 

1302
01:15:40,760 --> 01:15:45,160
It is fleeting, it cannot be 
controlled, it cannot be 

1303
01:15:45,160 --> 01:15:48,040
stopped. 
But Father, what an investment, 

1304
01:15:48,640 --> 01:15:55,280
what a gift of grace to be able 
to live, to live a full life, to

1305
01:15:55,280 --> 01:16:00,640
grab life by the throat and 
squeeze a little, to invest in 

1306
01:16:00,640 --> 01:16:04,400
you and what you want and to 
watch you perform miracle after 

1307
01:16:04,400 --> 01:16:09,720
miracle after miracle. 
To invest all that we are, all 

1308
01:16:09,720 --> 01:16:13,080
of our resources, all of our 
time, all of our giftedness, all

1309
01:16:13,080 --> 01:16:17,600
of Our Calling that You gave us 
in the 1st place into that thing

1310
01:16:17,600 --> 01:16:22,160
called a timeline. 
Forgive us, Father, when we 

1311
01:16:22,160 --> 01:16:25,840
think we control it. 
Forgive us, Father, when we 

1312
01:16:25,840 --> 01:16:33,520
forget that creation, that 
creation contains time and that 

1313
01:16:33,520 --> 01:16:38,600
you're the Creator and that it 
belongs to you, and you can 

1314
01:16:38,600 --> 01:16:44,160
start it and you can stop it at 
any moment according to your 

1315
01:16:44,160 --> 01:16:46,440
will. 
So help us, Father. 

1316
01:16:46,440 --> 01:16:50,560
Invest in your time in your 
vision. 

1317
01:16:51,520 --> 01:16:55,120
Father, Help us to think toward 
eternity because that's where 

1318
01:16:55,120 --> 01:16:58,800
real time is. 
That's where chaos is. 

1319
01:16:59,800 --> 01:17:04,920
And eternity, this short little 
period here is not life. 

1320
01:17:06,040 --> 01:17:10,040
This is a precursor to life. 
This is a warm up to life. 

1321
01:17:11,600 --> 01:17:14,800
And Father, we look forward to 
eternity with you. 

1322
01:17:16,120 --> 01:17:19,280
So Father, whenever you're 
ready, you can end the time 

1323
01:17:19,280 --> 01:17:21,920
here. 
You can come back and take us 

1324
01:17:21,920 --> 01:17:29,400
home anytime, but Father, for 
now, if we're still here, if 

1325
01:17:29,400 --> 01:17:32,000
we're still here the rest of 
tonight and we're here tomorrow,

1326
01:17:32,600 --> 01:17:40,080
that means you want investment, 
You want control, You want us to

1327
01:17:40,080 --> 01:17:43,120
wait upon You and live out Your 
purpose. 

1328
01:17:44,080 --> 01:17:46,640
Thank you so much for the folks 
that are showing up for this. 

1329
01:17:46,640 --> 01:17:48,960
Thank you so much for the folks 
who are listening to this. 

1330
01:17:49,280 --> 01:17:52,440
I pray in the weeks to come as 
we talk about work and we talk 

1331
01:17:52,440 --> 01:17:56,600
about money and we talk about 
hope and a few other things, 

1332
01:17:56,600 --> 01:17:58,200
Father, that you'll just bless 
us. 

1333
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We just want to learn from you. 
We just want to live for you. 

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And so, Father, thank you for 
this time together in Christ's 

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name, Amen. 
God bless you all. 

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01:18:12,840 --> 01:18:18,160
Thank you all so much. 
Thank you so much for listening 

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today. 
And I also hope that you'll go 

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to 
ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com 

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as well as our app and find many
other resources that will bless 

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01:18:25,040 --> 01:18:27,240
you and your families. 
Thank you once again.