Genesis: What Time is For

You may be seated.

Good morning.

Good to see you.

So we are going to be continuing our way through Genesis 1 through 3.

And this morning, we're going to be looking at a couple different concepts in Genesis.

Last week we really picked apart Genesis 1.

We really dissected it.

And this morning we're going to look at a couple of two different concepts that sort of surface in Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

So the past eight days have given those of us who follow the national news a good bit to be concerned about.

There's a lot to be concerned about.

I watch the news every night.

I listen to the news every morning.

And I found myself every night as I watched the news being incredibly judgmental towards someone.

And I could pick a different person every night of the week.

Someone or some group of people about something.

And the name or the person of the group, I could find a way to be judgmental toward them.

And after I sort of throughout the week, weeded my way through all my judgmentalism, and trust me, there's a lot.

I'm a preacher.

I can have opinions.

There was sadness, just sorrow for the loss of life eight days ago, for violence, for hatred, for racism, for racial bias, for the lack of moral declaration, for the lack of moral leadership.

And it was interesting that so much of this came after our text last week.

Because that's immediately where my mind went to is Genesis 1.27.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them.

God blessed them.

So this means he did not just create white people in the image of God.

And he did not just create black people in the image of God, or Middle Eastern people in the image of God, or any other people group.

He created all of us in all of our differences in his image.

And all of us equal and all of us lovely.

And so much of this Imago Day, that's what this doctrine is, is Imago Day, created in the image of God.

So much of this Imago Day has gone sideways.

I mean, even throughout the biblical history, throughout the Old Testament, one people group hating another people group, and then that people group hating another people group, all of it has gone sideways so much, still sideways, so often.

And then we see Jesus in the New Testament showing up and showing us the way back to the truth of Imago Day as he just loves people of all races, genders, socioeconomic.

And then Paul expounds on this doctrine in Galatians 3, 28, where he says, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

So all of this means in the gospel of Jesus, this is what this means.

Hatred and racism and racial bias and a lack of moral declaration about any of that, all of that should break our hearts.

And I know where I'm standing.

Because I grew up here.

I've grown up in Georgia my entire life.

I'm a Southerner.

And I'm standing in a room of mostly white people, not all white people, mostly white people, in a southern town.

But to be southern no longer means to be racist or to be racially biased.

And to be southern is not an excuse to be against the way of Jesus because you're a Christian.

And you're a Christian before you're a Southerner.

And you're a Christian before you're a liberal.

And you're a Christian before you're a conservative.

And so to be a Christian means that we live in a place of humility and repentance when it comes to this stuff.

Like eventually, after we weed our way through the judgmentalism, which we all have, we get to the point where we go, oh, I have bias.

And maybe even racism.

And that I need to repent of.

I ran into a prayer this week.

My mentor Scotty Smith wrote this.

I'll read it.

Father, before the values of this world or the father of lies, the tweets on our screens, or the idols of our hearts claim our thinking.

We surrender our thought lives to you.

Gladly, Father, we want our thoughts to be captivated with Jesus, by Jesus, for Jesus.

We want the kingship and reign of Jesus, not the madness and the meanness of our current political scene to rule in our hearts.

We want the truth and gospel of Jesus, not the spin of social media or the fears of our hearts to shape our reactions, our sleep and our choices.

We want the mercy and grace of our great high priest Jesus, not our biases or selfishness, to determine how we look at other people, disappointing circumstances or hurtful events.

May it be, Father, may it be by your grace and for your glory, so very amen.

We pray in Jesus' glorious and graceful name.

So there's our lighthearted introduction for this morning.

And now we'll turn to the real sermon.

That was just kind of an add-on on Thursday.

Wrote that part.

Well, here's the regular part of the sermon.

That's just light-hearted entry to warm us up.

So Genesis 1, here's this other concept.

So the one concept that surfaces is Amago Day.

The other concept that surfaces in Genesis 1 is that time was created.

This would be such an easy thing to read over.

Just to pass by.

See, God created time.

And let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.

And it was so.

And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars.

And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.

And God saw that it was good.

And there was evening and there was morning the fourth day.

So here's what we see in Genesis.

We see God, who is outside of time, creates time, and within that he creates places and creatures.

So I learned a little this week.

The average American, so that's us, we sleep on average eight hours and 50 minutes a night.

I would have never guessed that.

We're doing really well.

I would not have guessed it.

I would have guessed like seven.

It would have been my guess.

We're doing good.

Let's feel good about ourselves.

This is a moment to be proud about ourselves.

That's fantastic.

By the way, so that means you sleep 28 years out of your 78-year lifespan.

You sleep 28 years of it.

And I love that.

Because I need a break at the end of the day, right?

I mean, I just need a break from all of it.

An average American spends five hours a day watching TV.

And actually, as you get younger into like teenage and students, uh it becomes less.

So as you're an adult, five hours a day.

We spend 1.5 years.

1.5 years of our lives on the toilet.

I mean, I'll just I thought it was interesting enough to mention.

That's a good amount of time for contemplation, but we know what's going on on the toilet.

You're on your phone, which by the way, is 23 days a year.

23 days a year.

So if you're needing time, I found time for you.

23 days a year on your phone.

And still it's easy to feel like we don't have time or we can't get time under control.

We think about time all the time.

That's why we say things like, what time is it?

I don't have enough time.

I don't know if we can fit that in.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Are you wasting my time?

Right?

Like that's the worst feeling.

Are you wasting my time?

You ever had someone text you an address?

And they just messed up.

Like one little number, but it sent you to the wrong place, and then you're trying to figure it out, and you're looking it up, and you're calling, and you're going, they are wasting my time.

Or you had a boyfriend in college, and he should have broken up with you at month six, but he didn't break up with you till month 14.

And you get to month 14, and you're like, you wasted my time.

It's a bad feeling.

I used to work somewhere, we would have these meetings, their most inefficient meetings.

I hated them.

I hated them so much that I would take a Coke and crackers into the meeting, every meeting.

And just at the point where I was about to become the unibomber in that place, just at that moment, I would open my Coke and crackers and have my snack, and I would just eat it strategically the rest of the meeting.

Because you're wasting my time.

And we all, we all hate that.

So I want to jump from I want to jump from Genesis, this idea of time.

We know the feeling of time.

We can know the feeling of the crushing of time.

I don't have enough time, or you're wasting my time.

But I want to jump from this idea of time being created in Genesis to two words that are in the New Testament about time, which give us great insight about time.

And the first word is Kronos.

This is this word throughout the New Testament, and it's pretty much any time that we we see this word in the New Testament.

It's just the passage of time.

It's just time passing, one moment after another.

It's the way most of us think about time most of the time.

You're wasting my time.

You would say something like, Russ, I think it's about time for this sermon to pick up the pace.

That would be the way you would use Kronos.

Okay, well, I totally agree with you.

So, second word.

Kairos.

Kairos is time as meaning.

So some have called it deep time.

It's not just time passing, it's not the clicking of the clock, it's what time brings.

It's the moment, it's that moment when your existence and your relationships or your job or your friendships, your family means something.

Right?

It's not just living in a moment that's passing, but it means something.

So we live and we operate most of our days wrapped up in chronos, but we want an existence of Kairos.

Now, this word Kairos is used in Ephesians 5, 15, and 16.

This is as much our text this morning than the Genesis passage.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time.

Because the days are evil.

Okay, so making the best use of Kairos.

So Paul's saying, I want you to have Kairos.

I want you to have time as meaning, not just time passing by.

I want you to have time as meaning.

And you go, well, that's a lot of pressure.

Well, in the context of this Ephesians 5, Paul has just showered you already in those first few chapters.

You are saved by grace, not by you being the most time efficient, and you can manage your time, and every moment means everything.

At this point in Ephesians, when you get Ephesians 5, you are so secure in the grace of God that it is not by your work and your production and your meaning.

You are like, I am a child of God based by the saved by grace, by Jesus' work alone.

I am good forever.

I don't have to prove anything, earn anything, I am good.

And then Paul says, by the way, because of that, make the best use of your kairos.

May your time not just pass by, but mean something.

So a few points.

Number one, if we think back to Genesis, God's eternal.

The fact that God created time and he was outside of it, God is eternal.

Not meaning he exists and lives forever, because that would be a language and a framework of time, if you're tracking with me just for a moment here.

It actually means that God exists outside of time, where time does not exist.

And that's about all we can say about it, because I think anything more than that we're just not going to understand.

But God exists outside of time, which does mean a lot for us, even if we can't get our minds around it all the time, because it means there's a type of existence for us that's outside of the burden of Kronos.

It means there's some sort of deeper meaning to life.

Point number two God created and we live in both Kronos and Kairos.

So our our hope, our hope, we know this feeling, but our hope is.

Our hope is to live not defined and bound by the clock.

But to be connected to Kairos, to have some meaning for all of these moments that are passing by.

And this is a shift.

This is a shift of going like, what time is it to what is my time for?

That shift from what time is it to what is my time for?

And like I said, as a child of God, you get to ask that question without any guilt or shame or anxiety.

You get to ask it freely.

What's my time for?

Yesterday we spent the day with my college roommate and his wife and their four kids, and I asked him when he wanted to retire.

It might seem like a funny question because I'm 38 and he's 39, and that'd be like really early to ask that question.

But I had I remembered years ago, and he's a smart, successful, like hard savings guy.

And so years ago, I remember he had said he wanted to retire between the ages of 45 and 50.

And well, now he's 39, he's gonna be 40 in November, and I was wondering like, like, when does he want to retire?

Like, he's thinking the same thing.

And he said, you know, that's so interesting you asked me that.

He said, because I've actually changed.

He said, I did, I used to want to retire between the ages of 45 to 50, but then his brother died while his brother had little kids, and then one of his good friends died earlier this year, who had little kids.

And he said, I realized I could work really hard and save really hard and retire between the ages of 45 and 50.

And when I get to be about 50, my kids are gonna be out of my house.

And I'm gonna wasted all that time.

He said, So I've rearranged what I'm doing.

I'm still saving, I'm still gonna retire.

I'm it's gonna be I'll probably be 60.

He's like, but I'm spending more money on my kids and more time with my kids.

Right?

What is he saying here?

Well, he shifted what time is it to what is time for?

He began to ask that bigger question, not just the question of Kronos, but Kairos.

Like, what is this time for?

These moments right now.

Now, maybe perhaps at this point you're feeling really bad because you do spend 23 days a year on your phone.

Actually, when I give you that stat, you're like, there's no way it's 23.

It's gotta be 60, 70 days a year because I'm on it all the time.

Or maybe your life is not filled with like Mother Teresa meaning.

Like you're like goozing Mother Teresa, you know, Billy Graham meaning into the world.

You're like, I have I'm not even close to it.

Maybe you aren't punctual, maybe you're inefficient, maybe you don't just watch The Bachelor, you'll like re-watch old episodes of The Bachelor, which would be like the biggest waste of time possible.

But I've watched a rerun of 9 of 210 before, so I cannot stay much.

I mean, is Dylan gonna be okay?

Some of you know what I'm talking about.

And you gotta watch, you gotta know.

Well, here's the good news.

Bad news first.

We all know the bad news.

We're not perfect with time.

Okay, bad news first.

We are all failures before time.

None of us are making the most of our chronos and our kairos.

None of us are.

Which means, here comes the good news, which means this is not about us being perfect with our time.

This is about this is about us realizing what Ephesians has taught us leading up to this, make the most of your time, that you are saved by the grace of God.

You're already set free from time being a burden over you, and you get to ask the question what's time for?

This leads us to point number three, sort of a recap.

God, who is outside of time, came into time in the person of Jesus to rescue us from our failure before time.

This is the narrative set from the very beginning in Genesis.

Last week we broke it apart, really dissected, and we said, Oh, we see Elohim, and we see the Spirit, and then we see the Christ, and they were all here from the very beginning.

And then we saw in John how John's writing in his gospel in the New Testament about the Christ, and the word was in the beginning, and now the Christ is coming, the incarnation of God's love for us, and the Christ comes to live his life, to be the sacrifice for us because of our failure to take on our sin upon himself and to give to us his righteousness.

This was the plan the entire time.

Right?

Romans 5, verse 6.

Romans 5:6

For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

So we wrestle with this issue of time.

How will I spend my time?

Am I wasting my time?

Or we beat ourselves up over years of feeling like we've wasted time.

Maybe you feel like you beat yourself up, like I'm not radical enough, I'm not devoted enough.

I've got to use my time better.

And the secret is not to be radical enough or to think you're gonna get yourself devoted enough.

That's a carrot you will not get to.

The secret is to abide in the one who has always been perfect before time was even created.

Jesus frees you to live in Kairos without having to be Mother Teresa or Bonna or Oprah.

You can just be normal.

You can rest when you rest and work when you work and love your family and love your friends.

And that has a great, great meaning in this world.

And deeper than all of that, we find our meaning most of all in the fact that we are God's beloved because of Jesus for us.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you know the one who is outside of time and may you abide in him.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your goodness to us.

These great concepts of today, Amago Day, and Kronos and Kairos.

God forgive us for the ways that we are failures before other people.

As we sit in judgment so quickly.

We hold bias so quickly.

Would you give us a spirit of humility and repentance as a church?

Forgiveness.

Not revenge.

Not entitlement.

God, when it comes to time, would you forgive us for all the ways that we do waste time?

Not that we would grow on our guilt.

We just say we're not perfect.

We know the goal is not perfection.

God, would you give us the freedom in Jesus to ask, what's our time for?

How can we have meaning in our lives?

How can we love more?

God, we thank you for the great gift of Jesus that has that allows us to ask these types of questions without the guilt and the shame of performance.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.