Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 A Time for Everything

1.There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

2.a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3.a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

4.a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5.a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6.a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7.a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8.a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

A Time to Start Again

Getting Past your Past (2011 mistakes).

A Fresh Start Again 2012

I. Admit our Failures

• Other people can hurt us,

• other people can harm us,

• and other people can scar us.

• But the only person that can ruin your life is you.

Proverbs 28:13

“A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confess and forsakes them he gets another chance.”

II. Refocus our Thoughts

Proverbs 4:23 "Be careful how you think. Your life is

shaped by your thoughts." The way you think, determines the way

you feel. And the way you feel determines the way you act.

If you want to change your actions, just change the way you think and it will inevitably change the way you act.

Have a Good Attitude about yourself

• ILL. There is an old story about a happy little boy who went out into the field wearing a baseball cap. In one hand he carried a baseball, & in the other a baseball bat. His face looks with confidence…

• Like the little boy with the bat, that your attitude, your frame of mind, your reaction to its events will largely determine whether it is a year of victory or a year of defeat.

III. Change our Priorities

• Research what people do with their time

• If we live to be 75 years old

• Most of us will have spent 3 solid years, 24 hours a day, acquiring an education - grade school, high school & college.

• We’ll have spent 7 years eating, 24 hours a day, - some more, some less, obviously.

• We’ll have spent 14 years, day & night, working.

• We’ll have spent 5 years riding in automobiles, trains or airplanes.

• We’ll have spent 5 years talking with each other -again some more & some less.

• We’ll have spent 1 year sick or recovering from sickness.

• We’ll have spent 24 years of our life sleeping!

• We’ll have spent 3 years reading books, magazines & newspapers.

• And 12 years amusing ourselves - watching TV, going to the movies, fishing, etc.

• That totals up to 75 years - & that is what the researchers say, on the average, most of us will have done with our lives.

Application

• As we looked at these statistics and begin thinking.

• Let’s suppose that you spent every Sunday of your life, for 75 years - through infancy, childhood, adulthood, old age - in God’s Church worshiping during the Church Service. Now if you did, how much time would you have spent worshiping God?

• Figure it out - the answer is less than 5 1/2 months.

IV. Change continues when we Depend on God

We don’t need to depend on ourselves.

We’ve already proven that we can’t do it on our own.

Zechariah 4:6 “ You will not succeed by your own strength or power but by My Spirit, says the Lord. ”

Getting Past your Past (2011 mistakes).

A Fresh Start Again on 2012

A Time to Start Again

Admit our Mistakes

Refocus our Thinking

Change our Priorities

Continue to Depend on God