This is the text of Rev. Graham Crawford’s sermon for 13 September 2015:

One of my favourite quotes is this: “Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so!”

It is of course harking back to a time when executives and directors used to have lavish, all expenses paid, fairly liquid lunches, which would stretch into the afternoon – which would often accomplish an agreement or a contract, but those involved were rarely capable of doing much else afterwards.

You would just pop out for lunch and often simply not come back to the office that day.

And yet, while lunchtime may be an illusion for some, whether because they barely get time to eat or their lunchtime spreads until teatime, time is a very important concept in life and in the Bible.

Time has a purpose

One of the most famous passages of scripture – which Pete Seeger adapted into a pop song in the late fifties and was made popular by The Byrds – is all about time. “To everything, turn, turn turn, there is a season, turn, turn turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

It describes the cyclical nature of life, that people are born and people die, the rivers flow to the sea, yet the sea is never full. Everything just seems to go round and round in a pattern set in place by our creator God.

However, it is not quite that simple, for we are not Buddhists or Hindus, who believe in a non-moving cyclical nature which includes reincarnation. We believe in a time line that is going somewhere. In the beginning: God; and in the end: a new heaven and a new earth.

Time has a purpose, and time is taking us to a destination prepared by our God.

What Paul says about time

One of the most telling passages of scripture regarding time was written by Paul (Romans 5: 1-11).

5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Christ died for us at just the right time

Did you see that in verse 6? You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

At just the right time, not a moment too soon, not a moment too late, at just the right time.

Christ died for us at just the right time because timing is everything and time is important to God. Indeed, in the history of the world, thanks to the pax romana, the Roman peace, that existed due to their empire, there was no better time for the Messiah to appear and for his followers very quickly to disperse to take the Gospel around the known world.

We believe, in addition to this, that time is a gift from God. Hence, the assurance of pardon we used this morning which says:
“The almighty and merciful Lord grant you pardon and remission of all your sins, time for amendment of life, and the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

God grant us time.

The paradox of time in the modern world

Time is God’s gift to us and like all gifts we are to use it wisely.

We should be the least stressed, most chilled out people in all of history.

Think of all the devices that have been invented over the last fifty years. From food mixers, to washing machines, calculators to computers. Whenever any of these come on the market, we are told they are time-saving or labour-saving inventions.

Why then are we not spending half the day sitting out on the patio drinking cocktails?

After all, we have machines to do all our work for us. But, of course, nothing is that simple: machines cost money; machines break down and cost us more money. So, to afford the machine to save us time, we have to work longer and longer hours and those in control demand more and more from us.

One of the great ironies now is that, because of all the labour saving devices in the home, both husband and wife are working outside the home to afford the labour saving devices.

We have also been granted more and more things with which we can waste time. From television to computer games, there are numerous time-stealers out there ready and willing to take a few minutes here and a few minutes there.

How we use our gift of time has therefore become a very serious issue today.

We have to be very aware of what one author called time robbers.

How many of us try to get up early enough to have a daily quiet time with God before going to work? How many of us actually succeed.

The reason we fail is often a time robber. It might be Question Time, or a late film. It could be a late night chat show or a sporting event happening half way round the world. These are all what this author calls time robbers.

Dawson Trotman used to have the philosophy: “If what I’m doing at 10:00 at night is more important than my quiet time, then I’ll stay up. But if it’s not, then I’m going to bed!” He had been known, even when they had guests, to get up, excuse himself, pass out magazines and say, “Folks, I’m going to bed. You can stay here as long as you want. I’ve got an appointment with God tomorrow morning and, frankly, my appointment with God is the most important thing in my life.” Anti-social, yes maybe, but faithful, quite definitely.

Working out WHY we have time

I think one of the things that we have to get right as Christians is to sort out exactly why we have time.

Why does God grant us time for amendment of life? What exactly is meant by this?

Have you ever read what Epaphras prayer was for the church in Colossae? He prayed this: “That you may become mature Christians and that you may fulfill God’s will for you.” He prayed that they might mature, as that is God’s will.

Elsewhere, Paul wrote: “The body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”

Time to mature in the faith

We are to mature; grow up into the likeness of Christ.

That is our purpose. That is what we should be spending our time doing.

Christ did not save us to watch TV. Christ did not save us to play golf. He didn’t even save us to mess around with model railways. He saved us that we might become mature Christians, more and more like Christ.

So how many of you, let’s have a show of hands, took the Bible study I gave you last Sunday and invited folk round to your house to study and pray together? I had no-one show up at the church on Wednesday night.

So no-one else had time to do that simple Bible study with friends? Now, I know what you are thinking: “But how am I supposed to teach? How am I supposed to lead?”

You are supposed to be able to lead and teach because you have been a Christian for a large number of years and should have matured enough to do so.

Listen to these words from the letter to the Hebrews:

“11 There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.12 You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. 13 For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. 14 Solid food is for those who are mature, (there’s that word mature again!) who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. 6 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.”

The writer to the Hebrews is talking about many of you. You have been believers for so long that you ought to be teaching others.

How many sermons have you heard? You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others.

How many daily devotionals have you done? You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others.

How many Bible studies have you attended? You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others.

I know some who stopped going to Bible studies because they felt they had heard it all before. Well, in that case they should be teachers. They should be sharing what they have heard before with others.

We have been called by God to be his children, to spend our time wisely maturing in the faith so that we can teach others about the hope we have.

If we are not able to teach others about the faith, if we are not mature enough to be able to eat solid spiritual food, then I would suggest that we are not being good stewards of our time.

I would suggest that we need to have serious look at our priorities and what time robbers are not only robbing from us, but also stealing from God.

The greatest threat to the Christian faith

I believe that the greatest threat to Christianity on these shores is not the number of Islamic immigrants. It is not the rise of secularism. It is not even the increasing liberalisation of the mainline church.

The greatest threat to the Christian faith in this part of the world is a lack of spiritual maturity and knowledge.

I say that because, if we were spiritually mature and had the knowledge we should have acquired over the years from sermons and studies, we would have the tools to be able to combat other faiths, other philosophies and even the liberal mindset. It would mean that, to quote again from Ephesians: “We will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”

I want to set you a challenge this week.

Take a piece of paper and mark on it every hour of every day this week. Then, block out the hours spent eating and sleeping. Use your diaries to put on all your appointments, your work hours etc.. Then mark the hours spent working for God, either in study, prayer, mission or ministry. Put in the hours spent on the golf course, the hours spent in front of the TV or even with your model railway or walking the dog. Colour code each one so that you get a very visual representation of all that you are doing. And then, once you have filled in every hour of the week, just look at it. Look at it and ask yourself one simple question.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ, am I being a good steward of my time?

Amen.