Jan. 2, 2018
Calendars 1 – Once Upon a Time
PASTOR TROY BREWER, OpenDoor Church, Burleson
PREREQUISITES, PREMISES, LINES OF LOGIC AND THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING THINGS RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING
Now, in order for us to get to the revelation or to the conclusion of this truth that will set us free, we have to go through several premises.
A premise is when you follow a line of logic that will support a conclusion. Basically, the things you have to know in order to come to a mind-blowing revelation.
The Bible would call it a “therefore.” It’s like when Jesus says, “OK, now that you’ve got that idea, from there, we move forward.” Therefores are all throughout the word.
There are a Titanic 1,220 “therefores” throughout the Bible – 76 in the book of John alone!
John 8:36 – If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
John 8:47 – He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
This is why we need our foundation to be based on the word of God. This is why we need to teach our kids foundational principles, values, scriptures and biblical truth so we can all be Kingdom thinkers.
What’s the conclusion? What’s this world-changing, life-altering revelation?
It’s simple. You do not have to be caged by your timeline or your calendar. You do not have to be enslaved to your past or fearful of your future. You can invite Jesus Christ into your past or future and His redemptive power can change everything in your now.
Premise 1 – God created time and is not subject or shackled by it in any way.
Premise 2 – God created time for the purpose of works of redemption.
Premise 3 – Redemption changes everything.
Premise 4 – Note the hidden, manifest omnipresence of God throughout your timelines.
Premise 5 – We are stewards, not owners of our lives. As priests, we apply the blood. As kings, we bring Kingdom dominion into all we steward.
Jesus is a time traveler and we can partner with Him to be made manifest in every moment of our lives. Chains in our current situation will fall off when we displace the enemy with His manifest presence in our past.
So, I encourage you to take time out to learn how time works and how time can work for you. Learn the powerful prophetic act of redeeming time. Be set free right now and in your future from things that have happened in your past.
You do not have to be a slave to your past.
Jesus Christ is called the “One who was, the One who is, and the One who is yet to come.”
“My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.” – Steve Jobs
If you’ve been around for any amount of time, you know time is a common part of everyday, expressive language. We say things like this:
- IN THE NICK OF TIME meaning just before time ran out.
- TIME FLIES meaning accelerated time.
- TIME MARCHES ON which says time is unstoppable.
- TIME ON MY HANDS might mean wasted time or a feeling of more than enough time.
- A STITCH IN TIME talks about disciplined time.
- TIME OUT is all about stopping the clock.
- TIME IN restarting the clock and becoming rededicated to the game.
- PASSING TIME speaks of leisurely waiting.
- DOING TIME is a prison term.
- KILLING TIME could also be called spending time.
- WASTING TIME is a lot like killing time.
- LOSING TIME is connected to the anxiety of running out of time.
- ON TIME means “as scheduled.”
- FOR THE TIME BEING means right now, but things could change.
- BIG TIME means super important or influential.
- THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE speaks of dreams coming true.
- AND ONCE UPON TIME is a poetic term for a certain time frame in the past.
Oh, we are all about time, but do we really know what time even is?
Pastor Troy’s worldview of time: Time is a gift from God.
God gave you time.
Time is something that can be measured, numbered and predicted by common people. Time is an environment that God created for our sakes and we need to understand time in order to partner with His purposes for us.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 – To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven…
Time is a blessing for the redeemed and a curse for God’s haters. It owns everything that isn’t kingdom and is a valuable tool for the purposes of the redeemed and the redeemer. Scripture tells us God gives and God takes away. When it comes to time, we need to know the prophetic value of time before we step into eternity. Let’s unpack this.
I played guitar in a Christian Rock Band throughout the late eighties and a lot of times we played secular sets in bars and clubs because we didn’t want to starve to death. It was also a powerful outreach in the rock community. Our songs would have kingdom themes and, at the end of the night, we would let everybody know we were Christians and offer to share Jesus with them in the parking lot or over at the bar.
One night in Austin, Texas, I was playing on world famous 6th Street at a place called The Liberty Lunch. As I sat at the bar with a young married couple in the midst of praying for them, I looked up and saw this framed statement. It was in-between pictures of cropdusting airplanes, guitar players and Texas folk art.
“Time is God’s way of keeping everything from happening at once.”
I had to drive all the way back to Johnson County and I couldn’t get that phrase out of my head. I prayed out loud and asked God, “Sir, why wouldn’t you want everything to happen at one time?”
That night, God began talking to me about time in an ongoing dialogue that is still going on today.
It turns out, God wants us to move from past to future, from dark to light, and from death to life. If He is going to redeem us and move us from history to destiny, time is the only place something like that can happen. Time is a stage where the spotlight can shine on redemption and transformation.
Let’s look at how the Bible introduces Heaven’s view of time.
GOD’S GLORY IN TIME
I want to take you back to an ancient setting. Moses, the Jew that didn’t belong in the house of the Egyptians and wasn’t welcome in the camp of his own people, had run away and lived with another group he didn’t belong to – the Midianites. After forty years, he finally found somebody he belonged to – God. After a world-famous, supernatural showdown with the most powerful man on the planet, Moses wanted a deeper walk with God and, like Oliver Twist, dared to ask for more.
Exodus 33:18 – “Show me your glory.”
He wanted to see the “glory” of God.
“Glory” might best be described as the weighty or tangible presence of God, or God’s visible awesomeness.
The relationship Moses had with God was special and so was the revelation God had for him. Upon request, God replied that His awesomeness would not be seen head on. But, still He had a plan.
Exodus 33:17-23 – So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” 18 And he (Moses) said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
In a time long ago, Moses had gone to the top of the mountain and seen the backside of God. In a tiny glimpse of God’s glory, Moses saw the goodness of God from that moment…backward in time past. All of it. Every good thing God had done and every good way God had been in the past, Moses saw all of it in a game-changing glimpse of God’s backside.
You might not know it, but this is a reference to a timeline. Everything under the law deals with present/past tense so this is the way God would reveal His glory, or visible awesomeness, to Moses – in present/past tense.
Present/past tense = The Law
Present/future tense = The Grace of God
So, when Moses put his ancient feather to his animal skin canvas that would become the very first Bible, these were the epic words that he would use to introduce the world to the written word of God.
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And that is how he starts off the Bible. A barefoot. ancient man in the middle east comes down from a mountain with a reference to God creating time, space and matter all at once.
In the beginning (TIME)
God created the heaven (SPACE)
and the earth (MATTER)
Genesis 1:1 – says God created time, space and matter. Also in continuum with space and time is matter.
It simply means that time, space and matter are connected in a way that makes them inseparable. That’s what Genesis one actually says!
This amazing truth was written for the world to see 3,500 years before Albert Einstein or Hermann Minkowski first suggested a space-time continuum in 1908. Before those two Jews brought this truth to the world, another Jew – 35 centuries earlier – wrote it down for literally the whole world to see.
So the Bible starts off by letting us know that God is not subject to time, space or matter. However, time and all that’s in continuum with it, is subject to Him because He is the creator of those things.
Time and creation, at this point, are connected. Time is a created thing. Time was created by God and actually serves God for very specific purposes. Because there are different purposes of God, God has created different kinds of time to fulfill those purposes.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 – To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven…
Premise 1 – Time is created by God. Time is subject to God. God is not subject to time.
Time is one of the most amazing features of all God’s creation.
And just like the rest of God’s creation, Jesus Christ rules and reigns over all of it.
He can put His hands on time:
Jeremiah 32:17 – Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
He can order time:
1 Corinthians 14:33 NIV – For God is not a God of disorder but of peace–as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.
He can stop time:
Joshua 10:13 NIV – So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies
He can accelerate time:
Amos 9:13 – “…the plowman will overtake the reaper.”
He can even step in and out of time anywhere He chooses as easily as you and I can step on or off a train anywhere along the line.
He can change time:
Isaiah 38:8 – I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
He can change space and distance because they are in continuum with time:
Acts 8:39-40 – Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip was found at Azotus.
He can change matter just like when changed water into wine and healed people of leprosy.
If you can believe God can be with somebody on the other side of the world at the same time He is with you, then it is not much of a leap to believe he can step into your past because space and time are in continuum.
It doesn’t take any more faith for you to believe God can step into your past or your future right now, than it does to believe God can heal the sick because time and matter are in continuum.
So, all of the systems of time, for God, are like the weather, or world governments or human bodies. He has designed time to run according to certain principles and laws, but He can step into any single time frame and change it the same as he can heal a human body, reroute a hurricane, or unseat a demonic king.
Time, space and matter are part of God’s creation and are in perfect continuum.
Time is created by God and time is subject to God’s authority – and that’s the bottom line.
He is the master and the creator of time. He is uniquely genius in understanding the timing of things.
LOGISTICAL MIRACLES
* The blessing of being on time
* The cursing of not being on time
Deuteronomy 28:67 – In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.
You do not want to be out of synch in your timing.