Time Is Running Out!

1/14/07

 

 

(The following was used with a PowerPoint presentation, the asterisks indicate slide changes.)

 

Time is amazing.  God created it, set it in motion, and nothing can alter it, change it, speed it up, slow it down or stop it!

 

*Jo. 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning.

 

“In the beginning” in the beginning of time.

 

Before there was ever time, there was God.

 

Time was created for man.  Just as God created the trees, the sun, the stars, He also created time.  Man lives in the boundaries of time, God doesn’t!

 

*Rev. 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

 

*Do you ever feel the pressure of time?

 

Ÿ        The hurry up syndrome.

Ÿ        Trying to squeeze too much into to little time.

Ÿ        Can you slow down enough to smell the roses or not?

Ÿ        How much stress is brought on trying to keep unrealistic schedules?

 

If you try to squeeze God into your schedule you may not find Him.

 

*Ps. 46:10  “Be still, and know that I am God…”

 

* (blank) Time really is fascinating!

 

How many years ago was the beginning?  Nobody has a clue!

 

Yet, at the same time, we have a pretty good idea when the beginning of man was.

 

 

 

Read Gen. 5

 

It almost sounds boring, but it’s fascinating!  And at the same time there is a treasure of insight!

 

*Show the chart.

 

Lamech had first hand knowledge from Adam of the historical beginnings!

 

God waited until Methuselah died a natural death before the flood came.

 

While we are in this section of Genesis I need to answer a question that many people have trouble with.

 

*Where did Cain get his wife?

 

Read Gen. 4:1-17

 

Enoch who is mentioned in verse 17 is not the Enoch mentioned in chapter 5.

 

The answer to this is found in verse 1.  The scripture does not say that Cain was the first and Abel the second!

 

How fast could the world have populated by the time Cain and Abel were born?

 

*Show the obituary card from my grandmother.

 

My own grandmother at the age of 98 was survived by 280 children!  It was not a problem for Adam and Eve to have a good population of people by the time it is mentioned about Cain and his wife.

 

There is something else about time we need to take serious heed to.  We won’t always have it!

 

*Ja. 4:13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

 

 

 

 

Man’s time is next to nothing.  Even the world is running out of time.

 

*2 Pet. 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

 

There is a fascinating time line I want to show you, but I first have to show you the importance of the number seven.

 

The number seven in the book of Revelation is used 55 times.

 

*seven churches

seven golden lamp stands

seven stars

seven spirits of God

seven seals

seven horns and seven eyes

seven angels

seven trumpets

seven thunders

seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake

an enormous red dragon with seven heads

seven last plagues

seven bowls of God's wrath

seven hills

seven kings

 

When the number seven is used in scripture it often accounts for completeness.

 

*Lev. 4:17  “He shall dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it before the LORD seven times in front of the curtain.”

 

*2 Ki. 5:9  “So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house.

¹⁰  Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

 

*Josh. 6:15  “On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times.

¹⁶  The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city!”

 

 

First, let me explain something about prophetic dates.  Without encumbering you with needless explanations, When the Lord would say something would happen in “x” amount of years, it could be a rounded number, not the exact years.  Though sometimes it would be exact.  For instance…

 

*Gen. 15:13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

 

*Ex. 12:40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. ⁴¹At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’S divisions left Egypt.

 

Now, here’s something very interesting…

 

* explain the dates on the slide:  2000/2000/2000/1000

 

*People are blind to the fact that time is running out!

 

*We are running out of time!

 

*The situation is serious!

 

*2 Pet. 3:3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. ⁴They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

 

*Mat. 24:36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;

 

^*39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

 

*What should be our attitude?  Jesus will split the eastern sky!

 

*2 Pet. 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

¹¹Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹²as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.

 

*That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. ¹³But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

 

*1 Pet. 4:7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.

 

*Let me ask you a question.  Suppose you were a caterpillar, would you want to stay one?

 

*This is what God really designed you for!