By Brian Mitchell
One day a man was speaking with God and he
asked him, “God is it true that to you a thousand years is just a minute?”
“That’s true,” God replied. The man continued, “And is it true that to you a
million dollars is like a penny?” “Yes, that’s true,” God said. Then the man
said, “God, could I have a penny?” God replied, “Sure, in just a minute.” One writer shares a story about his
daughter that took place when she was two years old. He said that Jenna was
just learning to speak well, but one day as they walked hand in hand through
their apartment lobby, his daughter noticed a ball, and looked at her dad and
said, “Just a moment” and she slid her hand from his and went after the ball. He thought to himself: “A moment? Who told
her about moments? To date, her existence had been time-free. Toddlers know no
beginning or end or hurry or slow or late or soon. But Jenna’s phrase, ‘Just a
moment,’ announced that time had entered her world.” He continued, “Life, she
was discovering, is a cache of moments: measurable and countable increments,
like change in a pocket or buttons in a can. Your pocket may be full of
decades, my pocket may be down to a few years, but everyone has a certain
number of moments. Everyone, that is, except God.” Here is the main idea that I want us to
wrestle with and try to grasp from today’s sermon: Life is short; God is
forever. Do you understand and believe both of those truths? Perhaps the first
of those truths is easier to grasp and believe than the second one. Life is
indeed short and it passes by so quickly. It is hard for me to wrap my head
around the fact that I am 50 years old and have been serving the Lord here at
Jackson for more than 10 years! When we were children, didn’t summers seem
like they lasted forever? Then when we became a teenager, it seemed like
forever until we could get our driver’s license, or graduate from high school.
But now at age 50 those things are over 30 years in the past! How time flies!
And it seems to speed up the older you get. That’s why it is so important for
us to realize that life is short, but God is forever. And we want to make sure
that we live in a way that makes our one and only life count for eternity. As you know, we are in a sermon series
called “It’s All About God – Living a God-Centered Life.” It’s easy to fall
into the trap of thinking that life is all about us, but the Bible is clear
that it’s all about God. Creation is God’s world; history is God’s story; all
of us are made in God’s image; and it is all for God’s glory. Last week, we
talked about glimpsing God’s glory, who is there to help us always, whether we
recognize it or not. Our God is eternal; He is an everlasting
God. Today, I want to declare what the Bible says about God’s eternal nature.
God has always been and always will be; He lives beyond time. As finite people,
trying to understand eternity is like trying to cram the ocean into a bucket,
and yet we have to try. God has set eternity in our hearts, yet we cannot
fathom it. We have a taste of it—like a bucket of ocean water—and we yearn for
it, but it is beyond us to fully grasp it. Yet, it is important that we try, so
today I will reveal things about it. |
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- Brian Mitchell served as a minister with the Jackson Church of Christ in Jackson, MO. Please visit the congregation's website at https://www.jacksonchurchofchrist.net |
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