Steven Furtick - Count The Years (03/01/2017)
This sermon explores the two Greek words for time, chronos (sequential time) and kairos (the opportune moment). The preacher argues that we often miss "God moments" because we wait for dramatic kairos events, when in fact, through Christ, every mundane chronos moment has the potential to be redeemed into kairos. The conclusion is that believers, indwelt by God's Spirit, can actively create sacred moments by recognizing God's presence and purpose in the ordinary, daily tasks of life.
Understanding Chronos and Kairos Time
The first Greek word that you'll see in Scripture regarding time is the word chronos. C-H-R-O-N-O-S. And I believe they'll put it on the screen. It means, as you probably would have guessed from context clues, chronological or sequential time. The second Greek word is kairos. Kairos. K-A-I-R-O-S is how we spell it in English. Kairos. And it means in Scripture, usually, not exclusively, but usually when you see it, it means the right or opportune moment. It's different than chronos, which is just clock time. God lives in Kairos. We live in chronos. God lives in Kairos.
But here's what I was thinking. I was thinking about that phrase, "a God moment." And I wondered if that phrase might not be doing a little more harm than good when we use it. See, all time is God's time. Amen. And just like when I stand up on a stage to preach in someone else's church, and I realize it's not my time I'm preaching with, when you wake up in the morning and you walk out into the world that God made when He said to darkness, "let there be light," and light was, and He called it evening and morning, the first day.
See, God made days and set them in weeks and multiplied them into years. And at one point, you'll look back over your life and you'll have to give an account for it. What did I do with God's time? And I guarantee you, God won't talk about just moments where there was a rainbow or a royal premiere or something that you thought was cool because it was coincidental. See, all time is God's time. Let me say it straighter. I believe that every moment has the potential to be a God moment if you want to find God in the moment.
The Challenge of Seeing and Speaking Truth
When I studied this this week, the way it hit me was so powerful. I've been nervous if I can get it across to you the way God said it to me because one of the most frustrating things as a preacher, I'm not sure if you've experienced this, is when you see something but you don't have the words to say it like you saw it. So I need you to pray for me right now, okay? I want you to pray for me right now because I want to get this to you. I want to get this to you today. I'm going to show you how to be a time traveler. Fire up the DeLorean because we are traveling through time right now together.
We're moving to a different dimension in our minds. Pray for me right now. Come on, stretch your hand and say, "Help this preacher. Help this preacher. Give me my mail. Give me my mail." Because I've got something to show you today. And it excited me when I saw it. See, because here's where we live. We live in tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. And see, life is mostly sowing. Rarely reaping. That's why Paul said, "Don't get weary in well-doing." Don't get weary in chronos. Don't get weary on Monday morning. Because there's a harvest ahead if you keep planting seed.
The Invisible Growth in Chronos
Let me read you something. I was reading a commentary that Eugene Peterson, who wrote The Message translation of the Bible, he wrote a little commentary about these verses. And I loved how he put it. I couldn't improve upon it, so I just want to read it to you. I believe they'll put it on the screen as well. He says, "Acts of faith aren't like pebbles dropped in a pool that make a few temporary ripples and then sink to the bottom inert. They are seeds planted in the soil of life. And they will come up one day. The harvest is inevitable. Don't be misled."
He quotes a verse, "No one makes a fool of God. When a person plants, he'll harvest." Decisions are seed. Attitudes are seed. Acts are seed. Prayers are seed. Thoughts are seed. And all of it will come to harvest. The person, though, who looks for quick results from planting seeds of well-doing will be disappointed. If I want potatoes for dinner tomorrow, it will do me little good to go out tonight and plant potatoes in my garden. This is my favorite line. "Long stretches of darkness and invisibility and silence separate planting from reaping."
Seed, time, time, time. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. This is annoying. So is waiting. Because of long stretches. See, the harvest is inevitable. But the growth is invisible. Because it is hidden in chronos. And so, God gives an encouragement to all of those who are looking at chronos, who are looking at seed, who are looking at weeks and months and years that seem unproductive. And he says, I want you to come over into my time zone, where I'm already doing stuff all around you.
How to Recognize and Create Kairos Moments
I want you to develop a spirit of patient perseverance as you wait on the promise to materialize in your life. I want you to learn how to trust me in chronos. And I want you to learn how to recognize kairos. See, the thing is, we miss the God moments because we don't know what we're looking for. We miss the kairos because it's dressed like chronos. Deeper. We miss the tree because it's dressed like a seed. We miss the miraculous because it's dressed like the mundane.
And God says, I want you to know that when I sent my Spirit and opened the heavens through the work of my Son, guess what I did? I put every moment back on the market for you to redeem and turn into a God moment. Here it is. You don't have to wait for kairos to come. You can create kairos because God is in you, working all around you. Even when you can't see him, God has given his children the ability to create kairos.
See, you don't have to wait for God to give you a good parking space for you to say, "Oh, well, it must be a good day today. I guess God is smiling on me today." No, you can park in the back of the lot and say, "Well, God must want me to get some exercise today." And while I'm walking across this crowded parking lot, I might as well pray in my heart about a situation I'm going to face because there is a kairos in every chronos if you know where to look. But you've got to recognize it. Recognize and respond.
A Testimony of a Personal God Moment
How do I create God moments in the most mundane situations? Recognize and respond. Now would be a good time for you to touch your neighbor and shake him a little bit and say, "You'd better recognize," because if you miss the moment, you might miss a miracle. You might miss a miracle. I got a letter, I guess two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I don't know. I don't know. There's a lot of weeks. I preach every week. I don't know. It's Groundhog Day. But I got this letter. And I really liked it.
And this person, I'm going to read it to you. I kept it on my desk while I was preparing my sermon because it helped me see how God is in every moment. And sometimes you don't even know it when you're in it. But he says, "As a person brought up in a conservative Jewish home, I have never attended church before. When I moved to Charlotte three years ago, I immediately noticed a different vibe in this community than all the places I've ever lived previously. I credit that to living in a Christian-based community."
"For the past three months, I've been attending your church as an undercover Jew. I wanted you to know that I'm so inspired and thankful for what I receive each week attending Elevation. And not only look forward to it every Sunday, but living it every Monday through Saturday." That's what we're trying to accomplish right there. "That this past week was very special for me. I've been struggling with not stopping on six. And I prayed I would somehow get a direct message."
"That no matter what the past has dealt me, my scars, God still has a plan for me. And he has not given up on me. And he can always forgive and repair any wrongs I've lived through, no matter how far down mentally I was. This week had been one of great difficulty for me. I needed to know God would be there for me. Encouraging me to stand up, sit next to him, and know that through gratitude and faith, one day I would defeat my mental enemies and rise again."
"Then, while sitting in the 9:30 worship experience, on 11/24, waiting for that sign, it came loud and clear. Later, Pastor Steven came out into the audience, removed the person sitting right next to me, so he could sit in his seat and preach this message directly to me." I don't know how many of y'all were here when I did that. At the time I was doing it, it felt so ridiculous. I remember thinking, "What are you doing, Furtick?" But this person said, "I had prayed for a direct message, and then the preacher gets down and removes the person sitting next to me and sits down next to me and starts preaching to me."
Your Standing Invitation to God's Presence
He says, "He looked me directly in the eyes sitting next to me and delivered that exact message I prayed for all week and so desperately needed to hear. God does work in miraculous ways. And for that too, I must thank you." Isn't that an awesome glimpse? I love that God would be so personal, even in a big church with a lot of people, that that one person prayed and said, "God, I need something special this week. I don't know if I can make it. I'm not feeling this right now. I'm growing weary in well-doing. I'm planting, not reaping. Help me."
And God says, "Okay. I see you. I hear you. How about if the preacher walks down off the stage and moves the person next to you and sits down next to you and preaches it? Would that... would that suffice?" You say, "Yeah. That's cool." It's just amazing how God can do that. Yet, the chances of that happening to you are very slim. Think how long it would take in this church or any church for every person in the room to get a personal message from God like that.
I mean, walking around, traveling to the campuses, it is very unlikely that the preacher, this preacher, any preacher is going to come sit down next to you. Now, that may be somebody. I don't know. I was just making stuff up but maybe God meant that for you. But we can't do that with everybody in the room. And see, that's an awesome moment. Thank God for that moment. Oh, what that must mean. I've had those moments. We need those moments sometimes.
Redeeming the Time: Creating Kairos Daily
But if you wait for those moments to be encouraged and to do the right thing, if you wait for God to speak and show you every little thing He's called you to do, you might miss the moment that you're praying for by waiting for it. I don't know if you heard me. You might miss the moment you were praying for by waiting for it. So you're praying God would show you something. And He's praying that you would sow something. Where do you sow it? Into the soil. What can you see while the seed is in the soil? Nothing.
You know what God will often show you to let you know that He's with you? Nothing. Because He doesn't want you to trust the seed. So check this out. The preacher might not come sit down next to you. But you have a standing invitation and appointment anytime you want to sit right down next to God in His presence and say, "God I need you right now. I need a kairos moment right now. I need you right now." You have a standing invitation to open your Bible, pull it up on your phone and say, "Oh God I need a word right now. I don't feel like I can make it."
And you might not feel anything or it might not have your name in it or it might not have your mother's maiden name in it or it might not be the verse that corresponds with your birthday but guess what? If the Spirit is in you, God is with you and I'm going to make this moment a God moment. I'm creating kairos. I don't wait for God to break through. I break through. I break through. I break through by the power of His Spirit. Come on, I'm preaching harder than you're helping me. You gotta get with this.
If you want a God moment in your life, make one. If you want to feel His presence, praise Him. If you want Him to speak to you, open His word and seek Him. Every moment is a God moment. He was there in the beginning. He'll be there when you get to the end. And when God is in it, every moment is a miracle. Come on and shout to Him. God might not sit down next to you. But anytime you choose to, you can sit down next to God.
From Visitation to Habitation
See, they didn't have this in the Old Testament. Before Jesus came, it wasn't like this. You had to wait on a visitation. But now we live in a place of habitation. Visitation means God shows up. Habitation means he unpacks his stuff and takes over the house. And so now any room you want to walk in, he's there. Hey, I got another scripture if you got a minute. You got a minute? You got a minute? I'm going over my time. And I'm proud of it. It feels good. Sometimes.
In Ephesians 5, verse 16, he says, "make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil." You know what the Greek word is for "make the most of every opportunity"? The old translations used to translate it, "redeeming the time." You know what that means? It means to buy it back. That means you can't make more, but you can buy back what's in front of you. See, because most sermons on time are like, oh, we need to cram more in. We need to get more in. We need to fit more in.
And everything from the day planner to the palm pilot. And now you can synchronize all the things you have to do across all your different devices. You can put it on your forehead. You can put it on your wrist. It's the mark of the beast. We can always see where we got to be. So we live in a state of emergency. But the spirit of emergency is the enemy of divine opportunity because God didn't put you here just to count the days and see how much more you could fit in.
Finding God in the Pots and Pans
He put you here so you could see how much God you could get out of all the moments that he's put you in. But you got to buy it back. You got to buy it back because the devil wants to steal it. He wants to steal that moment that you could have poured into your kids. He wants to steal that moment that you could have encouraged somebody. But you got to buy it back because every moment is on the market. And Jesus already paid the price. So I'm buying back my kairos. I see it. You're getting it now.
Now you realize that there's more in a moment than you have the ability to see with your natural eyes. So watch this. One more thing. And we're done. Because you've got places to be. Everybody say "buy it back." Buy it back. Buy it back. Buy it back. Buy it back. Buy it back. I'm not even getting to my Christmas scripture. I had a whole thing about Matthew chapter 2 verses 7 through 9. But I'm going to have to save it. Let me just say this. Because we miss the moment. Because we despise the mundane.
"If I only had more chronos." You don't get more chronos. What you get is to make the most out of the chronos, thereby turning it into kairos. And know that you will reap if you don't faint. You will if you don't. These words by St. Teresa of Avila moved me. And I really wanted to speak it to the moms today. I mean the men can get it too. But it's really for the moms. Because St. Teresa of Avila was giving an address to some people who were feeling down on themselves because they didn't have enough time to pray like they wanted to pray.
She's quoted as saying, "Don't think that if you had a great deal of time you'd spend more of it in prayer. Get rid of that idea. God gives more in a moment." A kairos. See Galatians 6:9 where it says, "At the proper time we will reap if we don't faint." That word is kairos. Ephesians 5 verse 16, where Paul says, "Make the most of every opportunity." The word is kairos. "God gives more in a moment than in a long period of time," chronos, "for his actions are not measured by time at all." God doesn't measure moments like we measure moments.
She says, "Know that even when you are in the kitchen, our Lord is moving among the pots and pans." See, when you can see purpose and praise in the pots and pans, you've learned to master the moment rather than the moment mastering you. You've learned to buy back the time instead of letting the time sell you out and make you miss your life. We don't recognize the kairos because it looks like chronos. We don't recognize the divine opportunities with our children because it looks like homework.
"But if God can move among the pots and pans, can he move when you sit down to help Tiffany with her math Tuesday night?" No? I want a God moment. Okay. Then bring God into that moment. Because he's in you. Come on now. Rainbows? That's awesome. Homework is awesome too. So I'm buying back this moment now. It doesn't mean that you're not going to fuss at him a little bit. It doesn't mean that you're not going to yell. It doesn't mean that you're going to feel the presence of God and, "Oh my God, when we did eight times seven I just felt the spirit say Isaiah 56!"
I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about in the pots and pans. Come on. In the traffic of commuting. Did you know you can bring kairos into your car in the middle of your commute? Yeah you can. Some people drive to work and it's 40 minutes of hell. Some people get a worship CD and turn it into 40 minutes of heaven. Why? Because I'm not waiting on kairos. I'm bringing kairos in my car. And if Christ is in me, kairos is in this car. Hey, I'm not just paying my bills on Wednesday. I'm trusting God, come on worship team, to be the God of provision in my Wednesday like he was on my Sunday.
Because I can create kairos when I recognize and respond. Come on. We're planting seed. We're planting seed. We're planting seed. Come on. We're redeeming moments. Come on. We're scrubbing pots and pans. But we see the purpose and the presence of God. And if you don't faint in the planting, you can celebrate in the reaping. Because weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.