Simple Rhythms: Time
Time is a gift from God. We use it to navigate our lives and fulfill our purpose, but it's easy to lose sight of how sacred it is and give into its relentless march. Embracing the spiritual significance of time helps us recognize it as a precious resource to helps us draw closer to Jesus.
Transcript
Intro
Today, we kick off our Simple Summer series called Simple Rhythms. In the next 2 months, we’re going to focus on how we can connect with Jesus regularly through spiritual exercises. Summer is a great time to unwind and relax, but there are things worth keeping in rhythm, so we don’t go out of funk. Today, we’re starting the series off talking about time.
Much of life our life is governed by time. We wake up at a certain time to go to work so we can earn money to buy essentials like food and water to keep us alive. We establish times during the day when we eat and drink to sustain us. Many bodily functions are regulated by time and rhythm. Our heart and breathing are regulated and follow a timely pattern. When those timed rhythms are disrupted, it could be harmful to our health. Time is the one resource that is essential to our being and doing. It’s also the one resource that doesn’t cost us anything, but none of us can get more time so it’s important that we use our time to establish and find rhythms to help us do purposeful things like stay connected with God.
This morning, I want us to find the sacred significance that time has to help us connect with God. Understanding this truth helps us resemble God, restore our purpose, and renew our spirituality and we find this in the very first pages of the Bible.
Resembling God’s Understanding of Time
In Genesis 1, the creation story, we often highlight creation itself, but this morning I want to focus on God’s sense of time and rhythm. On each of the 6 days of creation, God generally did 3 things. He created, observed, and rested. On the first day of creation, God said “let there be light”, he created. God saw that the light was good, he observed. And there was evening and morning implying that he rested. On the second day of creation, God said, “let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear”, again he created. God saw that it was good, he observed. God also said “let the land produce vegetation”, created again. God saw it was good, observed. And there was evening and morning, rest. And the rest of the days follow that pattern.
Now, we’re created in God’s image, so we all possess this sense of time and rhythm like God. Take a moment and think about the patterns and rhythms that you have in life. Do you have relatively set times to do the essential tasks each day? Do you have a relative schedule to do the things you enjoy during the week? Some of us have a more rigid understanding of time, but I think we all have rhythms that govern how we use our time. Even in our sin and rebellion, this God-given rhythm is still present, but it causes us to focus on other things instead of God, but when we trust in Jesus, he restore the purpose of this God-given rhythm. When we believe in Jesus, we’re transformed to pursue godly things instead of ungodly things. Our character, habits, and tendencies are being transformed as God restores our purpose.
Restoring our purpose
In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 it says,
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”
This reminds us that as believers, God is making us more like him. God is constantly at work transforming us day by day. Our transformation doesn’t happen one time, but it is on-going. God provides opportunities for us to experience challenges that lead us to trust him. Romans 5:3-4 reminds us this,
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Notice Paul says that we glory in our sufferings. We don’t just experience difficulties once, but they are on-going struggles, but these struggles help produce perseverance and character. This reminds me of Galatians 5. Our rhythms are being transformed and restored to resemble God’s rhythm. Prior to God transforming us, we’ve established rhythms that don’t look like his. Galatians 5:19-21 tells us this,
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
These are the rhythms we establish when we don’t obey God, but when we believe, trust and walk in obedience with him, the result is the fruit of the spirit. This is described as,
love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.
And all these traits and characteristics that make us resemble God.
Renewed Spirituality
And when our purpose is restored, our spirituality is renewed. If we continue reading in Galatians 5, Paul says this about our renewed state,
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
The sense that our spirituality is renewed comes from this idea that we have crucified the flesh. Crucifying something means we put it to death. We give up on it. Here, Paul says we give up our old rhythms and in place, we keep in step with the spirit, which beautifully illustrates the concept of rhythm and time.
Application
What’s important is learning to establishing these rhythms in the time that we have. How can we learn to establish rhythm? I think we must consider what our relationship with time is. For some of us, we compete with it because we feel like there’s not enough time. We race through the day trying to complete as many tasks as possible. Maybe we even stay up into the late hours of evening sacrificing sleep to do all that we can so we have time for more things. For others, the week feels like a prison, and we count down the minutes, hours, and days until we can experience freedom. We try to do whatever to kill time so we can to finally escape into real life. I think we should turn back to God’s rhythms and embrace his rhythms for ourselves. If we go back to Genesis 1-2 and look at God’s rhythm during creation, it involved creation, observation, and rest and we have a to find a way to cooperate with that timing instead of competing against it. I think we do well when it comes to doing and observing. Much of our life involves doing those two things, but we can often struggle when it comes to rest. Many research shows that Americans don’t set aside time to relax each day, but it’s a part of God’s healthy rhythms with time for us. Rest is built into how we use our time. Interestingly, it’s 1 of the 10 commandments and it happens to be the longest commandment too. This is just a part of what it says,
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work”
I think rest can feel pointless because we aren’t doing anything, but Aaron Damiani offers this perspective about the rest,
“We begin our days at night described in Genesis 1. We begin our day with rest…Our work is ceasing, God’s work continues throughout the night: protecting, empowering, creating, and healing…As evening gives way to bedtime and we fall asleep, we put ourselves and our loved ones into the hands of God.”
As we get ready to conclude, I didn’t quite expect us to land here, but I’m ok with it. Rest is an essential rhythm when it comes to how we use our time and I think it’s important that we consider it worthwhile and important because without it we can’t do what God invites us to so as we conclude, discover the rhythms that God has for you and your time. One exercise that I want to invite you into before we pray is budgeting your time. Now, this is an exercise I’ve used with couples that helps them determine what actually prioritizes their time. I once had a couple discover that they spent a ridiculous amount of time commuting and it made them consider what they could do differently so they can have that time to be with each other. This morning, I think we can use it to help us determine how we actually use our time and what we can do to shift things so we can find time to connect with Jesus. So, in your bulletins, there’s a worksheet to budget your time. I’d like you to take the next 5 minutes and fill in as much of it as you can. Start with the “NOW” column to determine your current rhythms. After you do that, I’d like you to consider what you’d like your goal to be. If you find that you’re spending too much time or not enough time in one area, write in what your goal is. I hope this can help you see what you actually prioritize and what you’d like to prioritize so you can have the time to connect with Jesus. So take 5 minutes and work on this exercise
Next, I want you to take just a couple minutes and share with the people around you what you discovered and what you’d like to change in regards to your time and how it can help you connect with Jesus more. I’ll come back and close us in prayer.
Thanks for doing all of that. I hope that this is a practical way to help you see how you use your time and what you can do to align your time so it resemble God’s rhythm that he has for our time. Let’s pray.