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Welcome to the Potter's House, Salmon Arm podcast.

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We are a Bible-believing church located in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

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We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship Ministries with 3,000 churches around the

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world.

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We are a church focused on world evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.

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Here we will share recent sermons from PHSA Church and other sermons from throughout our

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fellowship.

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I am Pastor David Bigford and I will be your host for this podcast.

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I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing to you and bring

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you closer to God.

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Hello and welcome back to the podcast.

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My name is David Bigford.

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I'm the pastor here at the Potter's House in Salmon Arm.

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Today I have a message that I've put together.

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It's called the Final Countdown or the Ever-Running Clock.

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Our text that we're going to be working off of today is James 4, verses 13 through 17.

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Before we dive into this, just a little bit of a fun story.

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I had been wanting to do this hike locally here for months, actually probably over a

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year.

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It's called the Large Hill Traverse.

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If you're in the area, you know that this can be a cross-country skiing route or it

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can be a mountain biking route.

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I decided that I've been thinking about it for a long time.

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I wanted to do this track as a hike.

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It's about 40 kilometers long from Sycamore to Salmon Arm.

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It does go over or near a high point in the terrain.

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Because we had fairly little snow this year, I thought, okay, well, let's give it a shot

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and see if it skirts the snow line.

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It was great for the first 20 kilometers into the hike, but as I progressed through the hike

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and I got past that 20 kilometer mark, I started seeing a little bit of snow.

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It didn't give me really any concern.

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But before I knew it, I was knee deep and then thigh deep into some pretty, pretty soft snow

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and ended up spending a good six kilometers just post-holing through some pretty heavy

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snow.

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I was planning this hike as a one day.

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I had some safety gear, so I wasn't really in any real danger.

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But man, it started hailing and it was a bit rainy and it was a trial.

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As you're hiking through this and this goes into the story a little bit, I started thinking

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about the time running out.

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I was watching my watch and I started watching my average speed just clicking away and lowering

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because I was keeping pretty good pace of time.

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Now, mind you, I have a pack, so I'm rucking.

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It's not super heavy, but I was able to average about a four and a half kilometer per hour

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clip, even with some pretty good elevation gain.

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But as I hit that snow, it just started slowing down, slowing down, slowing down.

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So I was getting pretty worried.

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I wasn't going to be able to get back in time.

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I was getting tired because of the postholing and luckily, as I remember crying out, Lord,

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I'm going to need some help.

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I'm going to need to bail off this hike and just go down below the snow level.

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And it was at that point that a good Samaritan was there.

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The person was looking for their dog and was able to give me a ride to get me back on track

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past the snow level and further down the trail and, yes, they found their dog.

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So that story ended great, but it was just a tremendously powerful time.

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That's one of the reasons why I like doing extreme solo backpacking and hiking and stuff

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of that nature because when you're pushing yourself past your boundaries, when you're

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pushing yourself against the clock, you really start to get a better idea or a better understanding

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of who you are as a person and what you're capable of.

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My neighbor this same weekend did a backyard ultra where he was running a laps and each

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lap was, you had an hour to complete like six kilometers-ish or something.

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And the winner of the race is the person who was able to keep going the longest.

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And he had a goal that he achieved where he was able to do about 53 or 54 kilometers in

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about eight or nine hours somewhere in there.

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But the other people, he said, we're still continuing on until the next day.

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So they were still running.

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So it's just pretty neat because we think about what we're capable of as people or we're

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capable of in the manner of timing and just understanding that there is a clock running.

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And it's just kind of an interesting story.

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So let's go ahead and jump in.

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So the hourglass and the mechanical clock, this is an article I pulled for this sermon

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and it says, how old is the hourglass?

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2000 years, 4000 years.

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Oddly enough, historian R.T.

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Ballmer dates it to about the same time as the first mechanical clocks.

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It's only about 700 years old.

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The hourglass had some strong characteristics on the positive side.

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It was far simpler and cheaper than the mechanical clock or the earlier water clock.

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Resetting it after it ran down couldn't be simpler and it didn't vanish when you used

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it the way a graduated candle did.

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Its accuracy wasn't bad either.

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Once some problems had been solved, you couldn't have loaded just any old sand into it.

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You had to find a free flowing material that was unresponsive to humidity.

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On the downside, hourglasses were pretty short term timepieces.

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The very name tells you it's hard to find one that'll run more than an hour.

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The other big drawback is that they can't be calibrated.

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Sand moves downward and jerks.

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The edge of sand is uneven and if you mark five minute intervals in the glass, the sand

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will hit those marks differently each time you turn it.

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An hourglass really tells you only when an hour is up.

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So as we think about that time, we think about sand running through the hourglass and time

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slipping away from us.

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Let's go ahead and look at James 4, 13-17.

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Boasting about tomorrow in verse 13 it says, Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we

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will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make profit.

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Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

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What is your life for you are missed that appears for a little time and then vanishes?

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And you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

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As it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil.

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So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him, it is to sin.

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So why am I talking about clocks?

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What's so important about the passage of time that we have created these clocks to measure

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it?

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Let's think about that for a second.

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How many timepieces do you think you have around you at this very moment?

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As I sit here recording this, I've got one on two, a clock on each computer display.

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I've got my watch, that's a clock.

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I've got my phone.

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I've got a work phone.

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So I've got several clocks kicking around just right here.

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So that shows us that it is important for us to have clocks.

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I mean, you can also think of, there's a clock in my car, there's a clock on the oven, there's

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a clock on the microwave.

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That's a lot of clocks.

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Clearly we have a desire to know what time it is, but why is that?

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Are we really so busy that we need to constantly be told what time it is or is it more because

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we're constantly faced with anxiety that comes from our own mortality?

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We never have enough time.

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I struggle with this thought myself.

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Do I have enough time?

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I struggle with it.

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Is there enough time to get the tasks I want accomplished finished?

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This is going to take too long, or can I really survive in this world into my 80s or 90s or

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beyond?

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Like these kind of thoughts of morality are all time-based.

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The Bible talks a lot about time, and in our texts we are warned not to boast about tomorrow

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because we don't know what tomorrow will bring.

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And it's important as we move on in this to remember that God exists outside of time.

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He is omnipresent, omniscient, and all powerful.

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So he's outside of the reality of time.

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In Ecclesiastes we learn that there is time for everything.

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It says in Ecclesiastes 3, 1-8, for everything there is a season, a time for every matter

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under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up what

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is planted, a time to kill, a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up,

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a time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance, a time to cast away

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stones, and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from

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embracing, a time to seek, a time to lose, a time to keep, a time to cast away, a time

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to tear, a time to sow, a time to keep silence, a time to speak, a time to love, a time to

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hate, a time for war, a time for peace.

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So as we jump into my first point, which is the hourglass, we know that time is something

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that God created for us.

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It's a measuring point for our life, and it's something that is critical for us in this

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temporal time that we live in.

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The hourglass found their place in setting off these blocks of time, the time between

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the canonical hours in a monastery or between watches on board a ship.

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Of course, they didn't run long enough or accurately enough for marine navigation.

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They were a poor man's timepiece, a kind of clock for every man.

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Both the mechanical clock and the hourglass found powerful symbolic roles during the Renaissance.

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The complex mechanical clocks, with its rotary gears, became a metaphor for the heavenly spheres

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of the wheels of fortune.

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But the hourglass, whose sand runs out, became a metaphor for the running out of sands that

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we all inevitably face.

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It became and remains a universal symbol of death.

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The two technologies, one simple, one complex, running side by side.

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The clock making a continuum of time and the hourglass segmenting that time.

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The clock speaking of timelessness and the hourglass showing us finality.

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The clock evoking things celestial and the hourglass reminding us of the base earth.

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The two technologies, why was the hourglass so late in coming?

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Maybe it had to wait for its opposite, the clock, to be invented.

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As we think about these different ideas of time, it's pretty powerful.

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The sand flowing through an hourglass, the finality of the hourglass.

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Whereas a geared clock, or even like we use these days, digital clocks, you could just

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recharge it.

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You plug your phone in, or it's plugged into the wall, it goes continuously.

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So I believe the desire to segment time is important for our society.

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It gives us boundaries and structure in our day and for our lives.

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In the pre-industrial age, we began our day with the rising of the sun or when the rooster

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crows.

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Once awake, we would use the sun as our timepiece.

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Time was segmented as dawn, morning, midday, afternoon, dusk, and evening.

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We also break down time into seasons, years, decades, generations, and many other ways to

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mark the passage of time.

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The Bible makes it clear that the time is precious and should not be wasted, but that

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it should be used wisely.

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In Ephesians 5, 15-18, it says, Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise,

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making the best use of time because the days are evil.

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Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get

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drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

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And again in Colossians 4, 5-6, it says, Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best

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use of time.

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Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought

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to answer each person.

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We are told to make the best use of time and not to remain idle or passive with reverence

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to the time that Christ has given us for His purpose here on earth.

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The hourglass represents a timer for us that measures those segments of time that we set

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for specific tasks.

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We use digital equivalents every day, the timer on our phone or on the oven, the timers

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represent the time we have to complete a task like baking a cake, or maybe the time you

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set aside to read the word or pray.

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We should segment our day to glorify God in all that we do, even in today's age, long

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after the Industrial Revolution, we can set time aside for God, the things of God.

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That does not mean we shrink from our responsibilities, but rather that you doodletly attend to your

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daily responsibilities so that you will preserve the time needed for the things of God.

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What I mean by this is that it is relatively simple.

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It is really simple.

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Colossians 3.23 says, Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.

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Here is an example.

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I took the time yesterday to go for a really long hike.

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I was out there for just after nine hours.

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Even with that kind of hike and arduous task, there are repercussions on the fringes.

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You have the time preparing for it beforehand and you have the time recovering from it afterwards.

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You have to make space for that time.

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Why would I use this block of time for that?

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For me and my person, I feel that pushing myself to those kind of extremes helps me

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draw closer to God.

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It might surprise you, but it does bring a little fear.

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I have safety precautions.

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I feel like I'm comfortable when I do these things, but that doesn't mean that when I'm

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out there, three kilometers into an unknown six kilometers of post-holing through snow,

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that I'm not worried.

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What did I get myself into?

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Why did I do this?

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You have to throw yourself these anxieties and everything upon the Lord.

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At least that's how I do it.

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When I'm out there, I spend a lot of time in prayer, contemplation, listening to the

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Word of God on a podcast or audiobook.

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I find it to be a very useful time away from all other distractions.

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You're just pumping and breathing your heart's beat racing and you're accomplishing a task,

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but it gives me the time and space to think about what I am focusing on in my life.

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I think that's a very important part of our lives, is having those times where you pull

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away from the minutiae of your day-to-day and the monotony of your day-to-day to shake

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things up in your mindset.

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Our focus should always be on the Lord, so that means our job should be done properly

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and promptly, so as to put God first in all we do.

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The world tries to make their own God, and therefore they have their own clocks, timers,

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and hourglasses.

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One of the most prominent in our society day is the doomsday clock, or the climate clock.

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You might have heard of these things.

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Inheriting to both these clocks is this presumption that man will doom itself to annihilation.

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The doomsday clock marks the likelihood of humanity being destroyed by nuclear war, and

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the climate clock marks the time before we destroy our planet via the increase of climate

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change.

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Interestingly, both these clocks demand the removal of freedom from the majority of the

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world's population in favor of a few powerful people, more important people, and leaders

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who can govern the world free from God.

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The machinations of men seeking to control the world through secular paganism, they

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desire to create a world not bound by God's laws, but the laws of the few who seek to

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subjugate the many.

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They want to control your freedom of mobility.

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They want to control your time, all for an idea of a different kind of apocalypse, not

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an apocalypse like what we'd read in the end times within the Bible, but a man-made apocalypse

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that only they can save you from.

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So it's very interesting.

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And so we have to be very aware of how others want to manipulate our view of time for their

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own gain.

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This brings me to my next point, which is the mechanical or electrical clock.

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So back in March 2019, the UN held its 73rd session.

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During that meeting, they held a high level meeting on climate and sustainability.

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The title of the press release that came out from that meeting was, only 11 years left

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to prevent irreversible damage from climate change.

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The subtitle of this article was, Ambition, Urgency Needed to Address Global Emergencies,

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which the Secretary General says.

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And here's the opening statement.

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Just over a decade is all that remains to stop irreversible damage from our climate change.

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World leaders heard today as General Assembly opened a high level meeting on the relationship

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between the phenomenon and sustainable development.

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So this isn't that old, it's 2019.

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And so they're basically saying it, doomsday is coming.

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At the end of this meeting, the group agreed to fix the problem by supporting equity funds

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or green portfolios for business.

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So the stage is set.

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There's an emergency.

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And at the time, the time is of the essence, and we need to give our resources to the elite

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so they can save us from ourselves.

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The idea that time is running out resonates with most of us and it prompts us to want

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to help and do something.

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But the flaw with this thinking is that by putting men above God, we are making ourselves

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slaves to men just as the nation of Israel did when they clamored for a king.

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So let's take a step back and look at the whole scale of time and not just the segmented

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time that they argue.

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They argue that the sands of time are wasting away, but they neglect the very real truth

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of the entirety of true time.

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When we read the scripture, we see that there has been global catastrophe before, Genesis

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7, 19 through 20, and the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high

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mountains under the whole heaven were covered.

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The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep.

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And after the great flood, God promised to never flood the whole earth again in Genesis

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8, 21 through 22.

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And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again

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curse the ground because a man, for the attention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

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But will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done?

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While the earth remains seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and

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night shall not cease.

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So here we see in the scripture that God too has a clock, and he has promised that for

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as long as there is an earth, we will have seed time harvest, cold and heat, summer,

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winter, day and night.

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I do find it interesting that the same people who claim that God could not cause a global

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flood are the same people teaching you and your kids that mankind is going to cause a

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global calamity.

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You have to wonder why they would diminish the power of God while exponentially multiplying

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the power of mankind.

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It's also interesting because if they held logically to their evolutionary beliefs, there

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would be no point in saving the earth from humanity because something else would certainly

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evolve to take our place.

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And there's no reason to hold mankind to any higher standard than the animals that came

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before us.

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It is only because we have made ourselves gods in our own right that we believe that we have

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the authority to make such claims.

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Dr. William Provine, professor of biological sciences at Cornell University, wrote an article

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that says, Darwinism, Science or Naturalistic Philosophy.

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And it says this and is a snippet from this article.

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Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear.

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And I must say that these are basically Darwin's views.

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There are no gods, no purposeful forces of any kind, no life after death.

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When I die, I am absolutely certain that I'm going to be completely dead.

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That's just all that's going to be the end of me.

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There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, no free will

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for humans either.

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So as you go back to our story about the hourglass and the mechanical clock, we remember these

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two devices ended up representing something very different to society.

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The complex mechanical clock with its rotary gears became the metaphor for heavenly spheres,

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but the hourglass whose sand runs out became the metaphor for running out of time.

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The two technologies, one simple one complex running side by side the clock making the

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continuum of time and the hourglass segmenting it.

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The clock is used in society to show the endlessness of time, but the time that is devoid of God.

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The hourglass is used to show the impending calamity of society, a calamity that is of

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our own doing, and only we can save ourselves from this self-imposed destruction.

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But to what end?

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If we have nothing past this life, then what is there worth working towards?

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The reality is, God is the ultimate clock maker.

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And this lets, as we close, we're going to look at the last point which is the graduated

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candle.

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So in the article above, there was a mention of the candle clock, and I like the imagery

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of this clock compared to the hourglass.

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There is an extra amount of finality to the graduated candle that is more pronounced than

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an hourglass.

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A candle just like life burns through time, and at some point will run out of fuel and

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will sputter and go out.

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And James 4, 14, it says, Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

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What is your life?

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For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

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It is because of this very nature of life that time is so important.

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It is not because of what the world tells us, but rather what the promises that we have

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through our fate.

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The world wants you to be anxious and fearful about the passage of time because they believe

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that this is all that you have.

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And that is it.

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We do not believe in the finality of death, but rather the resurrection of life.

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So as our time draws near and the candle burns down, it is not the end for us, even if it

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is the end of our world.

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We cling to our faith in a resurrected Christ and our subsequent salvation through Him.

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Even if you have lived a life full of sin and the sands of time are almost gone, your

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hourglass is almost spent.

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God can just turn it over and give you more time.

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He can rewind the clock of your life.

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Even if your time on earth is over, you can, through Jesus Christ, be saved and enter into

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the kingdom where there is no time but eternity.

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So how do we spend our life and the knowledge of Christ?

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In Galatians 6, 9 through 10 it says, And let us not grow weary of doing good, for due

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season we will reap, if we do not give up, so that when we have the opportunity, let

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us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

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Let us do good and not be anxious about the passage of time.

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Let us rejoice in our God who knows all these things and has given us clarity of His Word

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to strengthen our faith in Him.

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It is through faith that we are saved and in salvation we strive for the perfection

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in Christ.

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So this is the importance of time in our life, is to do everything unto the Lord because

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through Him we have eternity.

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If you are not saved, if you haven't given your life to Jesus Christ, yeah, this life

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can be terrifying.

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But I have to ask you, if you do believe, if you are at this point in your life, an atheist

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or agnostic and you don't really know that there is anything past this life, then why

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is it so important for you to fight for this world?

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If there is nothing worth continuing on because once you are gone, you are gone, then it doesn't

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make sense to be so anxious about all of the calamity that you see in the world.

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Because it is like our biologist said, Dr. William Province or Provine.

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If you believe in Darwinian view, then when you die, you are gone.

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And there is no point.

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But we as Christians believe that there is a point.

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We believe that there is an eternity to account for.

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And we believe that it comes through faith in Jesus Christ, the repentance of sin and

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the acceptance that Jesus is your Savior.

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And so with that, as I close, I just like to have every head bowed, every eye closed,

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wherever you are listening, unless you are driving, of course.

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But I want to give a quick invitation that if you are not a Christian, if you haven't

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given your life to Jesus Christ, or maybe you have in the past, but you have walked

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away and you are not right with God, I like to give an invitation for you to come into

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the family or to come back.

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And you can do that.

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It's a very simple thing.

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I'll lead you through a quick prayer real quick.

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It's a sinner's prayer.

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It's just simply as this.

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But I want to make sure that you can signify that with an uplifted hand right now that

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you want to get saved.

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Because I can't see it as a podcast, but God can see it.

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God can see your heart.

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He can see your soul.

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And if that's you and you rose your hand, then I want you to repeat this after me.

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Dear Lord God, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you sensed your son, Jesus Christ,

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and that he died for my sins.

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I accept Jesus to be my savior, and I thank you for salvation through grace in Jesus'

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name.

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Amen.

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Simple prayer, and it takes your name from destruction into the Lamb's book of life.

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Now you have eternity to be concerned with, not the temporalness of this time.

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And it's a very powerful thing because now you can cast all the anxieties of this world

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onto Christ, and he will bear that load for you.

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So with that, it's important things.

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Next steps is simple.

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You just get a Bible, download the app.

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It's free.

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Start reading the words.

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Start in the Gospels, the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

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That'll help you.

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Start praying, crying out to God, and then find a church to lock into.

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If you're in the Saminar Mary, come to our church.

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We'd be happy to have you.

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If you're not from around here, then reach out.

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We have 3,500 churches globally, and we would be happy to have you join with us in worship

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of our God.

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I want to thank everybody for listening today, and just to look at as I kind of close, I

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just want to say the hikes that I do, the kind of stuff that I do, it's a good way to

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push yourself mentally, to put yourself in uncomfortable situations so that you're alone

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with your own thoughts.

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That's really what prayer can be oftentimes as well.

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But I think it's important that as we travel through this space and time of life, to understand

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that you're never alone.

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When you're scared, when you're tired, when you're exhausted, God is always there.

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And it's a powerful thing as you come to Christ and you accept Him as your Lord and Savior

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to know that you are never alone.

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That there is always a God, there's always a Father in heaven that cares for you.

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And so with that, I want to thank you for listening.

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I want to ask a favor that if you can like, share, and subscribe to this podcast, that

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would greatly help us getting this message out.

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We're really excited here.

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We're going to be moving into a new building next month.

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Well, a month in a week or so.

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So we're very excited about that.

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We have some big plans for the summer with some outreaches and stuff planned and Salmon

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Arm.

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And so I want you to continue to pray for us that God will help us.

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And I want to again thank you for listening and have a great week.

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God bless.

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Thank you for listening to the PHA Potters House Salmon Arm Podcast.

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00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:39,800
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at pottershouse underscore salmon arm to keep up to date on

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what we are doing.

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And join the conversation and discover how Jesus Christ can revolutionize your life.