Gen 29:20, So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. Last time, we began to look at time in terms of how it is in place to meet the needs of God’s economy. We saw that time is of little consequence in the plan and purpose of God, meaning that He is neither hindered by its passing nor subject to its scarcity. Everything He does reveals that time has been created with the perfect objective of revealing the Omnipotence and the Omniscience of God. He rules time as surely as He rules the whole of His creation. 
We ended with the passage of Col 1:3-12, where we considered the two days given as monumental in our earthly lives. Please turn to it again as this will be the starting point of this morning’s continuation. Col 1:3-12, We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 
	As a review, the first day mentioned is the day in which we hear the gospel and accept it as the grace of God in our lives. Everything changes for us in the fact that we are, in Christ, made a new creation and are no longer slaves to sin and neither are we any longer slaves to time. It loses its ruling power over us because we begin to see it in its proper perspective as under the mighty sovereignty of Our Lord and Savior. 
	The second day mentioned, in terms of our placement into Christ, is the day in which we begin to give ourselves for the sake of others, as did Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a growth process that is not evaluated by the passage of time. It is developed in line with the effective working of the Holy Spirit. It matters not if we are 10 years old, 25 years old, 50 years old, or a 100 years old. The passage of time does not help nor does it hinder the growth of the work of God in our hearts for the benefit of others. When we are first born again, our entire emphasis is that of what the Lord did for us in His so great love and gift of salvation. Then, as we mature in the effective working grace of God, be it days, months, years, or decades, our eyes become removed from us and firmly set upon only that which will please God. In that reality, we come to recognize that what pleases God the most is that our lives become the living sacrifice of the Love of Christ for others.
	Have we ever stopped to recognize that the reason that we are on this earth is that we are the living expression of the One by Whom we have been given life? So many Christians are beset with the idea that our lives on this earth are so that we can earn some great honor that will be rewarded in heaven. There is a sense that our earthly struggles and strivings and trials will make us better saints in glory. While that may be manifested in the course of our becoming ever more dependent and reliant upon the grace and the mercy of God which creates in us a greater measure of faith in Him to provide for every need, that is not the focal point of why we live on this earth in the sphere of time.
	We are here because as we go through all that the Lord brings, lovingly, patiently, faithfully, and mercifully into our lives, we are seen as the living witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of how we came to know about Jesus. It was because someone shared that truth in such a living and vital manner that we were drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ by the love of God expressed in life. Of course, the pre-salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit was the guiding force and the power of our salvation, but it was because, through His effective work, we saw and heard the witness that declared Jesus Christ resurrected and glorified.
	The ministry of the Church is to be that expression for the sake of others. We are not a social club. We are not a business entity. We are not a political action committee. We are not a force to create economic or social change. We are to be the living expression of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in Whom all those who will but call upon His name and will believe that He is the very begotten Son of God will be saved. Then, as we live in that glorious salvation, God’s Church on Earth functions as the encouragement and the witness of what it means to live by the guidance of the Holy Spirit in complete line with the Word of God. 
	This brings us to the next aspect of the element of time as it correlates to the passage of days. 1 Thess 5:2-11. Please turn to it as we will read it together, 1 Thess 5:2-11. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing. 
	Notice that the Apostle weaves together the fact that the day of the Lord will come when it is not expected and the fact that we are now brought into the light of that day through Jesus Christ. We are equated with being incorporated into the day and thereby, as those who walk in the light, we are to be alert at all times for the day of the Lord. 
We do not know what day that will be, neither the time of day when Christ will return. He, Himself made this known as we read in Mark 13:31-37. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. "But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. "Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is. "It is like a man, away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. "Therefore, be on the alert —  for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, at cockcrowing, or in the morning —  lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. "And what I say to you I say to all, 'Be on the alert!'" 
	It is very evident that, once again, we see time as but a tool that is used by God to facilitate His plan and purpose. While, to men, time is an advancing force that cannot be harnessed and is but a cataclysmic pressure which serves to decay and to destroy all that mankind creates, to God, it is the instrument by which His so great Love will come into full expression in Jesus Christ. 
	Those who are brought into the light of Christ see the passing of each day as one day closer to the revelation of the One in Whom we have our hope, our security, our foundation of truth, and our eternal life. We see the passage of time as but the marking of the course of our opportunities to declare the goodness of God in the manner with which we treat those of this realm. Our eyes see that time is not an enemy, but an occasion to show forth the goodness and the grace and the mercy of God in our behavior and our interaction with others. In that light, we are fully encouraged to show forth the very light of Christ in the every aspect with which we conduct ourselves on this earth. 
	As the Apostle states …But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. In the every course of our dealings with others, with the Lord, and with ourselves, we are to do so as those who walk in the full scrutiny of the light of Jesus Christ, as those who conduct themselves in the light of day. This means that we are to be absolutely transparent in all that we do. Every word we speak, every interaction, every thought must be able to stand the scrutiny of the light of Jesus Christ. 
The Apostle Paul rephrases this reality in Eph 5:1-4. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 
Because we are of the day, the Love of God, which so enthralls and fills our lives and hearts is to be manifested unto others throughout the course of the few hours that we have on this earth. When we consider the limitless length of eternity, it is not so much for God to require from us that we conduct ourselves as the living expression of His so great love. We are on this earth but a few decades in the course of time and to be so encouraged to respect and admire God in the manner of our fleeting years should be viewed as an honor and a privilege in the light of all that He has done. 
So often, we think of obedience to the principles that God has set before us in His Word, under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, as a burden and an impossible task. But that is far from what we should recognize as the Beloved of God. As we read in 1 Cor 13:4-7, Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 
Of ourselves, this walking in the light of the day in Jesus Christ seems to be utterly impossible, but in the truth of the relationship that God has established in us by His indwelling Holy Spirit, this is a tremendous source of life and happiness in the midst of the ravages of time on this earth. We, too, will have that heart of Jacob as detailed in this morning’s passage, So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. Time will seem to pass with the swiftness of a gazelle in the course of so loving God that we obey Him from our hearts of love and thanksgiving and admiration and adoration and worship.
Again, the Apostle Paul so encourages us in 1 Thess 1:2-5 as we consider all those who are walking in the light of Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 
	In this reality, we hold firmly to the fact that it is God Who will hold us true to Himself. So often, we hear a message such as this morning, and we try to make ourselves the ones who are accountable to accomplish such great feats through human wisdom and ability. We tell ourselves that we will be better in the manner in which we conduct ourselves on this earth in the spatial realm of time and human endeavor. 
But the simple truth is that we are to singly and firmly count on the Lord with hearts that seek only to obey Him as He directs. We pray for the ears to hear how He wants us to conduct ourselves in each daily situation as He speaks to us by His Holy Spirit. We pray for the hearts that desire to honor Him as we learn what needs to be true in our lives. We beseech Him to be the wisdom of our every decision as we walk forward each day. And, we count on Him to make us those who walk in the Light of His countenance as He completes the great work that He has begun. Phil 1:2-6, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. So be it!
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Isa 40:3-5. A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. "Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Amen.