Sermon Transcript — May 27, 2006
I realize that in a hall this size with people of various ages here, some of you have had to deal with medical conditions that puts you face to face with your own, or with a loved-one's mortality, the possibility or perhaps the reality that the end of a physical existence might be or would in fact be very near. The Bible does tell us that there is wisdom in considering how short our lives are and in living our lives each day in the light of that realization and that is in fact what I would like to talk to you about today.
When people face the possibility of the end of their own existence it brings a seriousness to their understanding about life. It changes priorities and that is a very Biblical concept. As I was studying this I came across what I find to be a fascinating example in 2 Kings 20. We have one of the Kings of Judah here, one of the good kings of Judah, who came face to face with his own mortality and it has a happy ending. God healed him and then he had some very interesting thoughts going looking back on how he felt as he went through this process. But let's read the introduction here first in:
2 Kings 20:1 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.'"That sounds pretty final, doesn't it?
V.2 - Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying
V.3 – "Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
That certainly is an emotion people feel when they are confronted with the possibility of death.
V.4 – And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
V.5 – "Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, "Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.
V.6 – And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria ; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David."'"
We can only imagine what kind of thoughts went through Hezekiah's mind as he was informed by Isaiah that his disease was terminal and that he was not going to recover, he was going to die. That is a hard kind of news to face and we might ask ourselves the question: Did that change the way Hezekiah lived those last 15 years? Did he do anything differently? And there is actually a quite interesting passage in Isaiah 38.
Here we have a sort of Psalm, if you will, a poem or a hymn that Hezekiah either wrote or had written where he mused upon the thoughts that were going through his mind when he thought he was going to die. What Hezekiah wrote after this event is not preserved in Kings, it is actually preserved in Isaiah, and here we have it.
Isaiah 38:9 This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
So he is thinking back on what it was like and some of the things that were going through his mind; some of the things that he worried about or grieved over and then we come to a conclusion that he reached, once he was healed and he had this experience under his belt, so to speak.
V.10 – I said, "In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the remainder of my years."
And that is interesting. He said: "This kind of isn't fair; I am supposed to have more years than what I am really getting here. I am deprived of the remainder of them", and I think most of us probably have an expectation, whether we've ever really thought concretely in those terms or not, we have an expectation of, you know, we're going to have so many years of life. We can reasonable expect to live to whatever: Seventy, seventy-five, eighty. My grandmother, dad's mom, died at 93. I might have that expectation. "Our family lives a long time". And Hezekiah thought he was going to live longer, and suddenly the word fell: you are not going to recover from this sickness. "I am deprived of the remainder of my years" and that forced him to confront the reality that none of us really knows how many years we have. We may have an expectation but that expectation may or may not be met. None of us really know how long we have.
V.11 – I said, "I shall not see Yah, the Lord in the land of the living; I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
Apparently he started thinking about the relationships he had with people; the social intercourse that he had in the court and with his friends, and with his councilors. He said: "I am not going to have that any more". He reflected on his relationships, his interpersonal relationships and he probably valued some friendships and he was going to miss having that time with them.
V.12 – My life span is gone, taken from me like a shepherd's tent;. Shepherds were always on the move so their tents were small, they were not very complicated and they could be taken down in a second. I have cut off my life like weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night you make an end of me.
V.13 – I have considered until morning – Like a lion, so He breaks all my bones; From day until night You make an end of me.
There is pain some times; it goes along with facing this kind of circumstance. There is fear when we have to confront that kind of circumstance. Like a lion would cause fear or like breaking of bones would cause pain. This was not an easy situation for him to go through.
V.14 – Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; My eyes fail from looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; Undertake for me!
He cried out to God and said: "Save me. Heal me of this. Let me go on and have life once again". And then in V.15, God did intervene.
V.15 – What shall I say? He Himself has done it. God healed me. I am not going to die right now. I am going to have more years of life and what was his conclusion? He said: "I shall walk carefully all my years".
Apparently Hezekiah felt he hadn't walked carefully or at least as carefully as he was going to now, prior to having this, I guess we can say, near death experience. He said: "Now I am going to be really careful. I am going to pay a lot more attention to what priorities I have, to what I spent my time and my life on. I am going to walk a lot more carefully than I did before". And then he goes on to say: "In the bitterness of my soul." And we might understand that to mean: I am going to pay very careful attention. There is going to be a calm, there is going to be a solemn submission to God's will. I am not going to get too exuberant about things. I am going to be very careful and very thoughtful about the way I live my life.
V.16 – O Lord, by these things men live; And in all these things is the life of my spirit; so You will restore me and make me live. His hope was in God. His focus was there.
Now look at v.17. This might be a little startling but this goes right along with the theme that we are going to look at today.
V.17 – Indeed it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness; that's interesting. Hezekiah, looking back on this experience said: "You know, God let me go through that to bring me a special peace that I have now. It was indeed for my own peace that I had to go through that bitter period" and we do learn a certain peace. We learn wisdom; we learn equanimity when we go through these kinds of experiences, when we meditate on the gravity of our own human existence. Continuing on: but You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back. Thankful for what God did in his life.
V.18 – For Sheol cannot thank You, death cannot praise You; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
V.19 – The living, the living man, he shall praise You, as I do this day; the father shall make known Your truth to the children.
He said: "I am going to share what I have learnt with my children. I want to pass this wisdom on to others so that they don't have to go through the same kind of thing that I did in order to learn this important lesson". In fact you and I are profiting from it today, thousands of years down the road.
V.20 – The Lord was ready to save me; therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.
Now that is interesting, too. Perhaps this poem was made into a song and some commentators, if you check the commentaries, believe, or at least they pose the question: Perhaps this was sung every year on the anniversary of his healing, because he didn't want to forget what he learnt by having to confront his immortality and realizing his life only hung by a threat. He learnt wisdom and peace by facing that type of situation.
It seems like the possibility of facing death focuses the attention of human beings like nothing else can. And I think we can understand why that is. If you ever talk to a veteran who was in combat or you've ever read about the stories, you know that they never forget those experiences. They never forget the intensity of that feeling: I may not live through the next few minutes. And sometimes even in the very last parts of their lives, the memories that come back to them most vividly are those memories when they came very close to not surviving any further.
Now this is not an isolated incident here with Hezekiah of people reflecting, God's people, God's servants reflecting on the gravity of life and saying it is very wise for us to consider that. It is very wise for us to think about how short our lives really are.
Moses, one of the great men of God, also reflected on this topic. Turn to Psalm 90. We most often think of the Psalms as being written by David and most of them apparently were either written or collected by David but apparently Psalm 90 is the oldest of all the Psalms, because it was written by Moses. That is going back quite a ways before David and this Psalm was possibly written just after the Israelites rebelled after the bad report of the spies that went in to look at the Promised Land. Remember they came back and said: "It is impossible, we can't do it". Israel murmured against Moses and God, and God said to them: "O.K. this whole generation is going to die in the wilderness. You are not going to enter the Promised Land until the next generation comes along." So Moses was no doubt thinking these same kinds of things and so were many Israelites. They were thinking about the length of their life and what they were going to be able to do in it and what they weren't. Let's look at a few things that Moses wrote here in Psalm 90.
Ps. 90:1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
V.2 – Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
V.3 – You turn man to destruction, and say, "Return, O children of men."
V.4 – For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past. God's conception of time is not the same as ours. And like a watch in the night . There were watches in the night. They would have guards who would stand watch during the night but most people slept through that, so a watch in the night for most people, they were not even aware of its passing. It was all over by the time they woke up in the morning.
V.5 – You carry them away like a flood; they are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up:
V.6 – In the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down and withers.
V.7 – For we have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified.
V.8 – You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
V.9 – For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; we finish our years like a sigh.
V.10 – The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; Apart from God there is not really any thing of value that comes out of this human life in terms of eternity. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
V.11 – Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
Now look at v.12:
V.12 – So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Teach us to number our days. That's kind of the same sentiment that we heard in the song at the beginning. Live like you are dying. Think about how short your life is and live your life with that thought in mind. Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Of course, can any of us really number our days? Do you know how many days you are going to live? If you are going to live 40,000 days that will be about 77 years I think, if my calculations were correct. Do you know if you've got 40,000 or not how many would be passed, how many more do you have? As we saw before, we may have expectations but we've no certainty about how many days we have, so we can't really number our days in that sense. O, I know I've got x amount still before me but we can't say that how ever many it is, it is not as many as I want to have. We want to be able to go on beyond this existence that we have.
Numbering our days causes us to reflect on the fact that our lives are very short. And the farther along we get in life, the shorter the whole experience becomes. We've all, many of you will remember back when you were children or teenagers, time was of no consequence. You know you look forward to your life. You thought, man I've got 50 years. That may as well be eternity, 50 years. We start getting a little farther along, and 20 comes along and that doesn't bother us too much and we have this kind of a blissful period in your twenties when you are not worried about too much either and then the big three-0 starts creeping over the horizon. We start getting intonations of mortality. Man, 30! Then 35 and maybe we are halfway if we are only going to live three score and ten, and then 40. That's depressing, isn't it? And then it goes on and on and suddenly we're looking back on that and we're thinking, now, this whole thing is going to be over in a snap! I don't have much time left. I thought it was going to be so long and in reality it is like a breath. It seems like just yesterday that I was a child. That is numbering our days. It's thinking about the brevity of this physical life that we have. And Moses prayed that. Teach us, Father, to do that. Teach me to have an awareness of how short my life is and how many important things I have to do with the time that I have.
King David was also a man that reflected on this. David was confronted at a very young age with the reality of life and death. He put his life on the line many times as a soldier, starting as a very young man, perhaps just a teenager, when he went out to fight Goliath. That would be a near-death experience. Nine feet tall, huge guy, muscular, already probably many kills to his credit, reputation far and wide and David is a smallish young man going out to fight him. He probably felt like he was taking his life in his hands, and he was. All through David's life he confronted death on many occasions. It is recorded in 1 Samuel 20 that he told Jonathan, when King Saul was out to kill him, he said: "There is only a step between me and death. If I make one miss-step here, if I go one step the wrong direction, I am a dead man". He knew what that was like and David also in the Psalms reflected on that. Look at Psalm 39.
Psalm 39:4 David prayed here: Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.
V.5 - Indeed, you have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.
Probably the vapor we see most commonly is probably on our coffee in the morning. It is not very substantial. You get a hot steaming cup of coffee in the morning and it doesn't last very long. You blow on it and it is gone. David didn't drink coffee in the morning but he knew about vapor and he said that's what our lives are like. It is like a little steam coming off a lake in the morning or from a cooking fire. Certainly "at his best state," the best you can hope for is to have life just like a vapor and then he said: "Selah", which is as you probably known, means pause, think about that. Reflect on what we've just read or said.
V.6 – Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; a lot of occupations that we spend a lot of time in are in reality vain. You are not going to have any great import a couple of days from now, a couple of weeks from now, certainly a couple of generations from now. He heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them.
V.7 – And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.
David got that got clear pretty early on in life: My hope is in You. If You're not involved in my life, if I am not pursuing Your goals, if I am not submitting to You and trying to achieve what You want me to achieve, then my life is just a vapor. But many people in this world forget that and sometimes we do to. I certainly put myself in that category. We can get so caught up with all the different activities that we have. We are so busy that the really important things can get crowded out and we may go days or weeks or months or sometimes even years having lost sight of the priorities that we really should have in our lives. We don't life like we are dying. We don't number our days. We live as if we have an infinity of days before us in this flesh and as we are seeing, that is not the case.
Psalm 118. Since we are in the Psalms, let's look at one more which I have been meditating on of late and it is just very interesting to think about also.
Ps. 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Now if you read a couple of verses before, probably the first meaning of this particular verse in Psalm 118 is talking about the Messiah entering into His Kingship. That is a special day that the Eternal has made and we will certainly rejoice in that day but I think there is a broader understanding of that as well. Really, each and every day that we have to live, each and every day we have, is a day which the Eternal has made for us. He has put us here. He has created this earth and all of its echo systems capable of supporting and sustaining our lives and He has given us this day to accomplish certain things. And apparently the Psalmist here, it may have been David or another, he said: "I am going to concentrate on this day that I have to live. This is the day that God has made for me to live today and I am going to be glad and rejoice in it. I am going to take advantage of this day and use it for all it's worth". Use it for something constructive. I am going to accomplish God's will on this day that the Lord has made for me. We really should appreciate each and every day of life that God gives us.
Of course we are coming up on Memorial Day this weekend and on this time of the year we reflect on young men and women who have served in the armed forces of the country in the past. Many times in our history God has used their service to preserve certain blessings to this country. It doesn't mean everything that has happened was according to His will but He certainly has used those efforts and sometimes a sacrifice of those people to accomplish certain things for this nation which is very richly blessed. We can't get very far thinking about Memorial Day without thinking about how some lives, young lives, were cut short in their service to our country and we come face to face with the reality of how frail human life can be.
We're also coming up on the day of Pentecost which teaches us how God calls different people at different times but there aren't many days of salvation for each individual. There is one, and our day of salvation is now. What we do now will reverberate throughout eternity. What we do with this physical life that we have now, with however many years we have left, that's going to be reverberating throughout all eternity for us. So these are certainly lessons that are appropriate for the time of the year where we are.
Now let's turn forward a little bit farther. Let's go to Ecclesiastes 9. Ecclesiastes is the musings, composition of the musings of Solomon when he was trying to figure out the meaning of life. A very wise man. God granted him great wisdom and it says at the beginning of the book he just sat out to figure out what this is all about. What am I doing here? What am I suppose to be accomplishing? And there are lots of interesting observations that Solomon made in Ecclesiastes. Here are some of them.
Eccl. 9:5 For the living knows that they will die; although now a days we are not confronted with death as much as our ancestors would have been. We very rarely have children that die in childbirth or in infancy. It does still happen and it is a very grievous thing and I know that it has happened to members of the Church of God, but that's become a rare thing. It used to be something like half or third of children born died before their second birthday. Our grandparents and great-grandparents were confronted with death a lot more. They knew they were going to die. And now a days we don't see that very much or if we do it's in a very unrealistic way on television.
V.5 – For the living know that they will die; we should know that. But the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Of course he is thinking in purely physical terms now, not what God has in store for us in eternity.
V.6 – Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished;that's kind of interesting when you think about that too. Things that seem so important to us: who we love, hateful feelings that may exist that consume some people's lives, or envy, these strong emotions that seem so important to our lives, well, maybe your children will remember some of that, maybe, but probably not, your grandchildren might remember some of that but can you remember any thing about your great, great, great, great grandparents? Do you know any thing about the loves or the hates or the envies that they had? That is just all gone. Nobody is going to remember that just a couple of generations down the road and yet it can seem so important to us now, can't it? Their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun. That is, of course, until the resurrection comes. So he says:
V.7 – Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
V.8 – Let your garments always be white, and let your head lack no oil.Take advantage of the small pleasures of life. Be clean, be healthy, and live in a clean and pleasant environment.
V.9 – Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life. He keeps repeating that doesn't it. He kept coming back to that. Really enjoy the time with your wonderful wife in this useless existence that you have, or your husband, of course. He was writing this probably for his sons. Live joyfully with the wife, or husband, whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; or emptiness, for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun.
Then he says in v.10, and this is interesting too:
V.10 – Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; put yourself into it. Live life to the full. Whatever you are going to do, do it to the best of your ability. For there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where, in case you missed it, you are going. He kept coming back to that over and over again.
At the end of the story you are going to a hole in the ground and they cover you up and that is it. So take advantage of the time that you have, the love that you have for your mate. Take advantage the love you have in your family. Enjoy the pleasures that God has made a part of this human existence because this physical existence is vanity, it is a vapor and it is going to be over a lot sooner than any of us care to think about. So we have to reflect on both things at the same time. We need to be thoughtful and ponderous in some ways, and careful about the way we live our lives. And we also need to throw ourselves into it and live it to the full, so we kind of balancing these two things all the time.
There was a famous historic symbol that developed in the Roman Empire which was the symbol of a dolphin twisted around an anchor and it came to be considered as a symbol of moderation. It was inscribed on his coins, by Emperor Titus of Rome , and it was meant, this device that he had, to express the balance between hurry and delay. There is a failure sometimes that comes from rushing in without premeditation. Acting without thinking, that can cause failure some times. But sometimes there is a failure that comes from over hesitation, not getting involved. Missing the chance to act that would have made a big difference. So the anchor was a symbol of delay, obviously an anchor slows down a boat or keeps it from moving, but also firmness and a security because sometimes a boat that drops its anchor is trying to avoid a storm, and it may need that anchor to keep it in place for its own salvation.
The dolphin at the time was regarded at the time as the fastest of sea creatures. And so that is a symbol of speed and alacrity. Sometimes the dolphin and the anchor were, and I believe still are, in Europe, in some family crests and there are families that use the dolphin and the anchor and then underneath they have a Latin motto: Festino lente. Hasten, slowly. So it expresses the idea of moderation, of the just balance between two opposing forces. It also represents maturity which is the balance between too great a haste and too great a hesitation.
Well, that is kind of what we are talking about here as well. We don't want to act in our lives without thinking about it nor do we want to sit on the sidelines the whole time and just watch it all happening. We've got to have that right balance of thinking about life but also enjoying it and being actively involved in it and especially accomplishing the things that God wants us to accomplish in our lives. Think about what you are doing but don't waste time on futilities, on things that are futile. That's the lesson in all of these scriptures for us.
Turn over another page. Ecclesiastes 11:9. This is one specifically directed toward young people, teens and young adults. Solomon directed many of his comments to that group.
Eccl. 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; when you don't have aches and pains and you can live on junk food and go on without any problems. You don't get sick; you don't gain weight; you can eat anything; you can do anything and you seem indestructible. Let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; Walk in the ways of your heart. It is a time to plan and think and dream and try out new things that you won't have the energy or the desire to do later on. And in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment. Decisions you make, even as a young person, will catch up with you. They'll catch up with you later on in life. Some of them, they'll catch up with you and you will be really happy they did, and others will catch up with you and you will say: "Boy, I wish I hadn't done that way back then". For all these things God will bring you into judgment. He keeps a record and actually just this human existence that He set up keeps a record. You know it is just kind of built in to this life that we have that some decisions that we make when we are young are going come back to us later on in life. It is just the way God has set it up.
V.10 – Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh. Be happy, enjoy life, but be careful the way you live it. Put evil away, don't get sucked in to those wrong ways of life, because they will come back. It is like a boomerang. They will come back and hit you in the back of the head later on. For childhood and youth are vanity.
In other words, it goes very quickly. It goes very quickly and some of you, who are younger here, are probably grappling with that. It is a little bit hard to understand but if you would talk to some of the grey heads here, the older folks, you will find that they feel very young on the inside. It seems like just yesterday when they were your age. As somebody once said that inside of every older person there is a younger person wondering: what happened? And it won't be very long, a lot quicker than you think, then you are going to be reflecting on some of these same things and you will see the young kids who don't understand and you will understand very personally then and very deeply.
So we are supposed to enjoy our youth. It should be a time of joy but as hard as it is to believe, it is not going to last. It's vanity also. And choices that we make when we are young do affect us for the rest of our lives. Ecclesiastes 12, since we are there, let's look a couple more verses. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. Here is Solomon's conclusion after all of this philosophical discussion and inquiry; here is where he comes out on.
Eccl.12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Here it is: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
That is really the best way you can live your life. That's how you will have the best outcome and the least pain. Fear God and keep His commandments . Accomplish His will, that's the duty, that's what God put us here to do. Now there is a lot more to fearing God and keeping His commandments than just the Ten Commandments, in fact this is one way we could sum up the whole Christian walk of life. To walk with God in all of its different particulars.
V.14 – for God will bring every work into judgment, including, here's a scary thought, every secret thing, whether good or evil.
There are going to be a lot of surprised people in the resurrection because some things are going to come to light that they don't want to come to light and they thought nobody knew about that and here it is. Well, you are going to have to repent of this. All of those things that happened in secret, they all come out sooner or later. Really, what Solomon is saying here is: keep your priorities right. Count your days. Number your days and live your life accordingly.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 – you know, if we are not walking with God, if God's priorities are not our priorities, if we're living for anything else other than what God's will is for us then Paul kind of sum it up here. I believe this was quoted in the first message today. Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:32 If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, - now that's an intriguing thing.
If you check the commentaries, some people think Paul may have actually been thrown to wild animals in a sort of an arena in Ephesus and I would like to know what happened, it that indeed happen. How did he get out of that? Did God perform a miracle? What happened in the fight? That seems to be the indication here. He was thrown to wild beasts in an arena in Ephesus but he said: "even if I managed to come through that alive, if I survived that ordeal what advantage is it to me if the dead do not rise? If there is no resurrection, if I just go into a hole in the ground at the end of my life and that's all there is, then why? What was it all for?" You know if the dead don't rise, if there is no resurrection, if there is no after life, Paul said: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"
That would be pretty empty, wouldn't it? It would be terribly empty and in fact it is empty if God is not in our life. Now sometimes when we are young we can get so excited about all these new things because when we are young we are still discovering the world. There are so many things we don't know, so many experiences we want to have, and so many things we want to get to know. Gradually as we get through life there are fewer and fewer new things, we realize what Solomon did: there is nothing new under the sun. The stuff that has happened is the stuff that is happening is the stuff that is going to happen. And suddenly it gets very empty. What was it all for? Why did I go through this exercise? If we're not achieving God's goals for us then it really is an empty exercise.
Matthew 7. Jesus addressed the same idea in a different analogy in one of the, I guess we can call it a parable here. He encouraged us to build our lives on His teachings.
Matt.7:24 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them,...it is not just enough to just listen to them - lots of people do that - and does them, that is the hard part actually, putting it into practice, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
V.25 – and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
And there are houses; there are light houses that withstand hurricanes and huge waves because they are so strongly attached to the rock of their foundation.
V.26 – but everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man – we heard about that in the Bible study – will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
I've seen that happen on the coast of Africa. I have watched one house in particular in Benin, in Cotonou, that we used as a Feast site for a couple of years. The ocean started eating away; the currents ate away at the beaches and the surf that used to be a hundred yards away, advanced twenty yards every year. Then it actually undercut the foundation of the house. That house is totally gone and as I would go from year to year, I would go back because I thought it was an interesting lesson. I didn't want to forget that: There was some one who built on the sand and the house fell apart and it's gone.
That's what Jesus said is the case for those who hear what He said but their, you know, they have other priorities; they want to do something else. Other things seem more interesting to them, or more fun, or more rewarding or more what ever.
V.27 – and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.
Now the guy building a house on the sand, he didn't think that was going to happen. He was pretty sure it was a good idea. Man, I am going to have the coolest house on the beach here. Look how close I am to the water. I can step right out and I am in the ocean and it wasn't till later that he realized that was a foolish mistake. He didn't think in the long term but rather in the short term. We need to understand always where we are and why we are doing what we are doing. What we are supposed to be doing.
I came across an interesting story about an early industrialist and banker in the early twentieth century. His name was Dwight Morrow, and you may remember his daughter married Charles Lindberg, but he was quite a wealthy banker. He was a partner at J.P. Morgan Company, which was the largest, most powerful commercial bank in the world at that time. In World War 1, he went to France and was the civilian aide to General John Pershing, the commander of all the U.S. troops. He was appointed U.S. ambassador to Mexico. As I said he was the father-in-law of Charles Lindberg; he was a U.S. senator for a couple of terms. A very rich, powerful, accomplished man, but he had one interesting problem. He was very absent minded and the story is told about Dwight Morrow one time, getting off a train in New York, running off to the telegraph office there on the train station and wiring his secretary: "Why am I in New York? What am I supposed to do?" He'd forgotten why he had gone there. Apparently he hadn't written it down. Why am I here and what am I supposed to do? He received the answer that he was supposed to be going to Princeton to deliver a lecture. O.K. So he went off to do that.
Sometimes that is true of us too. We can get so busy with all the minutia of life that we forget why we are here. Where we are and what we are supposed to be doing. Why are we here and what are we supposed to be doing? We must never let that get crowded out of our minds, out of our understanding, out of our consciousness from day to day. Look with me please in 2 Corinthians 4.
2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
As we get older our bodies start breaking down. They don't work the way they did before. Our outward man is perishing but the inward man, and that's the one that counts in the long run, is being renewed day by day.
V.17 – For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, because life is short, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
V.18 – while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, - number your days - but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Those are God's values. Those are the goals that He sets for us; the things that we are supposed to be accomplishing. We are perishing outwardly but very important, vital spiritual things are happening inside of us which will determine our eternity. That's what we must not loose from view.
Look at the way the apostle John restated a similar principle in 1 John 2:17. John just got finished saying that all that is in the world and giving descriptions of it, it is not of God, it is of the world, and then he says:
1 John 2:17 – And the world is passing away, - that is a phrase we use today to mean dying. Someone is passing away; they are dying. He passed away. He died. The world is passing away. The world is dying. It doesn't know it, but it is. And the lust of it; all the things that get people so excited; all the things they pursue; all the things they build their lives around to acquire more of, whatever it may be: status or respect of people or money or acquisitions or whatever. That's all dying too. It is passing away. It won't be there forever. But he who does the will of God abides forever.
That's the key to having something beyond this life. He who does the will of God abides, continues, forever. Isn't going to die; there will be a first death, but beyond that there won't be a second death. There will be eternal life. The world is dying but he who does the will of God will abide forever.
So that leaves us to consider certain aspects of our lives and I will just mention a few things. You will probably think of more things also.
Obviously the first thing we want to consider is our relationship with God. How much time do we spend with that? How much time do we spend praying, studying and reflecting on His way of life? How much of your disposable time, and believe it or not, you have more free time than any other generation in the history. It doesn't feel like it because we fill it up with so many other things. But you have more free time than any generation in human history. How much of that free time do you use to achieve God's goals for you? What percentage would you say? How much do you study? How much do you pray? How much do you meditate? How much do you try to be active and serving in the Church, or helping, or sending cards of encouragement or any of a number of ways that you can be involved in seeking God's will?
Matthew 6:33 Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the rest of it will take care of itself. Seek that first: the kingdom of God and His righteousness . What percentage of your free time do you use pursuing things like that?
If you've never done that make a list just for yourself, you don't have to show anybody. Make a list. What did I do this morning? Make a list for a week and keep it. How much of my time, how many minutes do I actually spending involving concrete activities that help me be more like my elder brother, Jesus Christ? And compare that with how much time you spend doing other things: watching television; electronics; surfing the internet; whatever it is that you like to do. You might find that very interesting. That should obviously be your first priority. The Bible gives that to us: Seek first.
What about your marriage? How much time do you spend trying to improve it or at least maintain it? Do you appreciate the love that you have from your mate? The appreciation that you get; the companionship; the encouragement; the sharing. Do you ever think about how lonely it would be it you didn't have your mate? How different your life would be? We already read Ecclesiastes 9:9.
Eccl. 9: 9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you. That's one of the best things God has given us. To live joyfully with our mates. Do you spend much time maintaining that? When was the last time you did something just out of the blue; special for your husband or your wife? It is worth the effort. It is worth the time that you will invest.
What about your children? Are you teaching them what they need to know about life? Are you teaching them the spiritual principles that they need on which they should be basing their lives? They need to get that from the parents. The Church tries to help but parents have the first responsibility. Are you helping them do that? Are you really getting to know them; getting to love them for who they are, because they change over time, don't they? That should be a very important part of what we do.
Ephesians 6:4 And you, fathers, it is interesting where the responsibility is put in that passage, don't provoke your children to wrath, and that is easy to do sometimes, especially when they are teenagers it is really easy to provoke them to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
Help them. Bring them up. Teach them. Give them a good start in life and try not to aggravate them any more than you have to. Sometimes you have to but do it as little as possible.
What about your friends? Do you value your friends? Have you ever told them how much you value them?
Proverbs 27:9 Ointment and perfume delight the heart, and the sweetness of a man's friend gives delight by hearty counsel.
It really does. You have friends that you just love to spend time with; you love to talk with them; you love to talk about things that you've done or ideas, or you love to talk about what's going on in the news or you talk about things that you study in the Bible and it is just so encouraging to have a meeting of the minds like that. A companionship is wonderful.
Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Something we should really appreciate.
I've never heard of anyone, as they enter the winter of their lives, and they are looking back on their lives and I have the opportunity, as most pastors have, of talking about these kind of things either with people who are terminally ill or people who are just old and toward the end of their lives, I've never heard anyone lament that they wish they had made more money. I've never heard anyone lament that they wish they had just gone a couple of notches higher in their career, or just made one more trip, or that they just acquired one more thing, or that they just would have loved to have two-hundred more square feet in their house. I've never heard that. But I have heard people say they sure wish they had spent more time with their children or that they had done a better job with their marriage or that they had appreciated their friends more and they would love to be able to go back and do that again. Well, we know about those things now. We've been talking about them. So, what are you going to do about it?
James 4: 13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"'
V.14 – whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor - that takes us back to Solomon again, and David, doesn't it – that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
V.15 – Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."
V.16 – but now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
And then he concludes:
V.17 – Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it because he gets distracted or something else intervenes, to him it is sin.
If we allow our priorities to get side tracked then it reflects on our relationship with our Creator. Don't put off things that need to get done, James is telling us there. If you see you need to do something get going on it right away.
Live each day as a precious gift from God because you will never have that day again. Each day that passes you never get it back. It is gone. If you knew brethren, that you have a short time to live, what would you do differently? I ask you that question because the truth is: you do only have a short time to live and the older you get the shorter the whole experience seems, as I've said before. But what we do with our short span of time here in this life determines what is going to happen in the life to come.
You can call it: live like you were dying if you want, like Tim McGraw did, or you can call it numbering our days, as we read in the scriptures today. But the point is: Our days are numbered and we have really, really important things to accomplish in them. So let's make every day count.