A Better World Ahead, Starting Today

I've seen Redlands this morning. Our sister congregation would want me to say hello to all of you. And then we had the opportunity to drive through the Inland Empire today, down through Guacamole Alley, the 15th. Glorious, beautiful. She could be up there today in Redlands with all the mountains and all the clouds are underneath. And then all you do is you see the big mountains with all the snow on it. Just gorgeous.

I told Susan as we're going up to Redlands today, this is better than September around here. This is the time of year that we live for up in Riverside County. I had a question. I was thinking about something. Was he just mentioning the preliminary Book of Life list? Was that what you were doing or is that the council? That'll get everybody on, Paul. So we'll see. It is certainly good to be back. Good to be back home. Home is wherever God's people are. I was home with Susie this morning in Redlands. We were home last week with the Combined Congregations back in Cincinnati. And next week we'll be home in Los Angeles. And next week we'll be home somewhere, but we'll look at where the schedule is and we will be home. I want to bring a message to you today and sometimes people wonder, well, what did the guy speak about anyway? So I'd like to give you the title up right front. And then we'll speak to that and build to that point and hopefully you'll go away with a lesson and with an opportunity as we go out into the week and into the world and perhaps live a little bit better than when we came in. The title of my message today to you is simply this, A Better World Ahead. A Better World Ahead Starting Today. I'd like you to join with me in Genesis 1, verse 26. Let's go right to the beginning of the Bible. Genesis is actually a title for just simply beginning. No better place to start than at the beginning of a book or the beginning of a movie.

I'd like you to join with me in Genesis 1 and starting in verse 26. I'm going to take you through several scriptures and several concepts and then I'll come to point shortly. In Genesis 1, verse 26, it tells us, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image and in the image of God he created them. Male and female he created them. We go to the book of beginnings right at the start of the story and we come to understand something very special. God created his children, his very, very special creation in his image. God created us in his, as the phrase goes, his spitting image that is at least in physical form and in physical likeness. We often use that phrase in family talk and amongst one another and you see a child or you see a young person and you say, well here she is the spitting image of their parents and or sometimes if it's a guy, this is guy talk ladies, we'll just simply say, well there's a chip off the old block and hopefully normally that is a compliment. Well, I won't go into that, but a chip off the old block. But then let's go a little bit further and let's look at verse 28. And then it says, then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the bird of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth. God made this very special creation, our love and creator. He made us in his very likeness and then he blessed us with the opportunity of having others, others that would live and others that would be in his likeness, our children. It was a command. It was a thought from the very beginning that men and women would come together, would marry and have children and be raised and have a life and move on to the next step. Join me in another scripture. Let's turn to the middle of the Bible and let's turn to the book of Psalms. Psalms has the comment about being fruitful and multiplying and what comes from the fruit of the union of a man and a woman. And God says something very, very special about children in Psalms 127 and picking up the thought in verse 3. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward and like arrows in the hands of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. God's Word says right from the Word that children are a blessing. In fact, right here it says they are a heritage from the Lord. Allow me now to expand off the scriptures and move into some other thoughts and other concepts. I'd like to, for a moment, use a sentence that comes out of the United Nations Declaration to Mankind. It says, mankind owes to the child the best that it has to give. I'd like to also read from our own Declaration of Independence. It states, Thus, all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I suggest to you on this afternoon in San Diego that also pertains to children. Where am I taking you as a congregation and as friends and brethren within the body of Christ?

Yesterday in Connecticut, these biblical concepts and lofty principles were tragically violated. All of us by now have heard the story, gotten the news, and are in shock and in horror as to what happened in Connecticut. We've come to understand that a disturbed individual killed his own mother, killed other adults, and that children, and those children are all of our children, were being stalked. Shall we say the little innocents that were ages 5 to 11? I read a story this morning as I woke up and was reading it. It mentions a hero, and I'm sure there were many heroes on that day. One brave custodian, understanding what was going on and hearing the ruckus in the office, and understanding that danger had come to visit that schoolyard, one brave custodian ran down the hall warning that rampage was occurring in a building, not just any building, but their building, a building that housed children. Evil had come to roost in that location. Teachers, teachers who love and give of themselves every day to our children. And some of our people right here are teachers, and every day they have an opportunity to touch the future. But these teachers who love and give of themselves to our children, they instinctively, because that's what a teacher does, instinctively went into protection mode. They heard over the intercom the warning that was coming, and they instinctively locked the doors to their classroom.

They instinctively, like a mother bird, began to put wings around these children, and to put them in closets and under desks, and to huddle them here or there, because after all there was evil that had come to visit them on that day. They locked the doors, they began to hear the noises, they began to hear the shots, perhaps in another room, and they hid their children, their children, our children, from what they could only imagine.

So you and I know the rest of the story. Six or seven adults on that day and nearly 20 children lost their lives. An innocence amongst the little innocence would be forever gone. Twenty of them would be slaughtered by a troubled individual, further gone mad into an unretrievable dark spot where only evil and destruction dwell. Interesting. We had another story that once the rampage was over, things had quieted down some. Perhaps you've seen some of the pictures.

The little ones, the innocence, would be herded to safe spots. See, school's supposed to be safe. Classroom's supposed to be safe. But they were herded to safe spots. And as best as they could, the adults sheltered their eyes and sheltered their range from seeing any more than they possibly could, recognizing that those would indeed be lifetime impressions for the rest of their lives. I believe our President, Mr. Obama, and I would really encourage all of you to have an opportunity to see that four-to-four-and-a-half-minute speech.

It's on the Internet. I was certainly moved, and I think our President summed it up very well yesterday as a fellow citizen and as a father of two daughters. He basically summed it up in this sense that yesterday as a nation, we all lost family. Why is this germane? Why is this important to you and I? You see, these little ones will never be able to live out the words that we find over in Ecclesiastes 3. Join me there for a second, would you please? In the book of Ecclesiastes, a book of wisdom written by the preacher, written by Solomon, written nearly 3,000 years ago.

Ecclesiastes 3, and let's begin here in verse 1. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die. I want to share a thought with you, friends. The 20 innocents, the 20 little ones between ages 5 and 11 yesterday in this lifetime will never make it past verse 1. A time to be born and a time to die, because their life is over.

And it was snuffed out by violence and an interruption that nobody planned for. But nonetheless, let's move forward in the seasons of life and what they will be missing. A time to plan and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up.

A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. And a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.

A time to gain and a time to lose, a time to keep, and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to sow. And a time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate and a time of war and a time of peace. As I mentioned this morning in Redlands, I gave this message there. This conjures up all of the different aspects of life, the seasons of life from teenage to adult, and all the seasons of adulthood. But I was mentioning this morning that I couldn't help but look here in verse 5.

You'll join me for a second. With the thought of a man that was once a boy, it says at a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones. I know in one sense that he was probably talking about agriculture and talking about farming and growing something.

But when you talk to a guy, and you gals know this, is that young boys, even teenagers, and even 61-year-old men, that's him, is that we like to toss things. Have you noticed that, ladies? Like keys or other things. It all starts when you're young.

To cast away stones, when I thought of that this morning, I thought of when I was 15, 16, 17, and even when I was in college with a chap, Susan knows him, and Sandy will remember him, Melanglima. Mel and I were always competing all through life. It was always who could do the most with what. Very simple. It didn't cost anything. It was normally spinning a ring or taking a stone and going down by a still pond. Boys love this. You go along the shore, and what you're looking for is you're looking just for the perfect rock.

You gentlemen out there know what the perfect rock is like. The perfect rock has to, in one sense, be either oblong or round. Kind of like a sand dollar. It has to be perfect. It has to be thin. It has to be thin. It has to be just the right weight. That gets you started, but that's only the beginning. Then, after you find the right rock, you have to know how to throw it. Some can, some can't. We'll talk about that later. Then you have to have just the right move, where you go down like this.

You get that, anybody with me? You get it right there, and you have that still pond. You're thinking, I'm going to get 20 skips out of this. I'm going to blow this guy out. You get ready, you have the perfect rock, you throw it, and it's thud! Go first one, out! But many a time you'll get maybe 10, 15. If you're really good, you can only imagine. The joy of life, the joy of some mutual male bonding and some companionship and a little up-and-ship, and to see what you can do with what you've got.

The joy of life on a summer afternoon by a still pond.

To express a little bit of your manhood, your growing masculinity, and a competence factor that you're trying to develop. You ladies can think of another venue for the ladies, but I want to keep this message going. The point is this, those little five-year-olds will never have that opportunity by a still pond. They'll never have it when they're 10, they'll never have it when they're 20. They won't even get to do it when they're a grandfather while they can still use their arm before Medicare takes over. They will not be able to cast away stones. Lives, just a day ago, were snuffed out and gone.

The Seasons of Life. The book of Wisdom tells us something further in Ecclesiastes 9. Join me there if you would. Just a few verses over. Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 11. Let's notice what it says. I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill. But time and chance happen to them all. For a man also does not notice, no his time, like a fish taken in a cruel net, or like the birds caught in a snare. So the sons of men are snared in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them. Back in Connecticut the other day, nobody woke up this morning, said a watch, and said that I am now going to be in the cruel net. I'm going to be in the snare. I'm going to be in the snare.

That evil will come upon me. The time is now. Nobody plans that. Beautiful young children with all of their life ahead of them in the wrong place at the wrong time with the disturbed individual and their life was snuffed out. None of us know what's going to happen day by day. None of us know what's going to happen day by day. The preacher offers these words to us to raise our alert level. Shall we say from not orange but to red or whatever it was several years ago? To bring all of us into a reality. To recognize that the time is short. Life can be precarious. It's not how long it is to be in the wrong place. It's not how long we have but what we do with what we have, not tomorrow but today. Join me if you would in Luke 13, verse 1 because Jesus himself speaks to this to bring us to an alert. In the Gospel thereof, the Gospel of Luke, let's notice Luke 13. In Luke 13 and beginning in verse 1, people come to Jesus with a question. There were present in Luke 13 and verse 1, there were present at that season some who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. The Galileans by nature were somewhat, do I dare say, hotheads. Kind of hill people, not your urbanites as down in Jerusalem. And oftentimes if something was going to happen, it was going to happen up in the hills. Kind of like Kentucky all the way back two thousand years ago. But Pilate, the Roman curator, had in some manner put down some form of insurrection and the Galileans here were in that sense slaughtered and their blood was shed. Jesus comes back in verse 2, and Jesus answered and said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you no. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. He takes the focus off of what happened yesterday and puts the focus on to today. He takes the focus off of, are you with me? Others. And he says, Now what are you going to do seeing these things be so? And now he stretches it a step further. Notice what it says here. He also spoke, excuse me, also it says in verse 4, Or those eighteen on whom the tower and seleum fell and killed them. Somehow some edifice collapsed. Do you think that they were sinners? Were sinners in all other men who dwell in Jerusalem? Was there a curse that was involved? He says, I tell you no. But unless you repent, unless you take stock and consider your ways, you repent, you will also likewise perish. Interesting. Jesus is telling us something here, friends. He's telling us that the Galileans and the people upon whom the tower fell, says their time has come and gone. But that for those who hear the story, read the newspapers, scan the net, understand the facts, that it is for their time, your time, my time, to repent, to examine beyond the information on the net, and or to move beyond simply the momentary inspiration to be a tad different than you were when you woke up on Thursday or Friday. But a transformation as to how we live our lives before God and before others. To change. To go a different direction. And not just have your heart go up and down, but to allow our existence, our life, which is by giving to us by God, to be a tad different than it was before the news came to us.

I bring to you a message, and it is simply this. We do not live in a kid-friendly world.

Consider, for a moment, the world that you and I live in today. Now, when I say that, please understand, the world has not really been on the right track since Eden. Sometimes that's hard for people to understand because we'll say, oh, I could really wish to have the good old days back. No back when we had Hostess Twinkies. For those of you that have been reading the news. Or just when the only equipment that we had in our kitchen was a shiny metallic sunbeam poster. Or back when there was just simply Leave It The Beaver, Wally and the Beaver, My Three Sons, Fred McMurray, our all-time favorite, Lassie.

The world's changed since then, hasn't it? But a tad. Solomon had that same issue, do I dare say, 3,000 years ago? When he says, there is coming a generation, oh my, this next generation, I do not know what is going to become of them. So one generation, some of you younger people that are in our congregation, who I've heard this one before, where is this going? Can you imagine 3,000 years ago, parents were worried about what the kids were going to do with all of their games and what was going to become of the world. But to be very frank, the world has never been on the right course since Eden. Since humanity rejected God's way of life right in the garden. What I want to share with you is simply this, if you're taking a note and you may feel free to do so. Since Eden, we do not live in a God-friendly world. We do not live in a people-friendly world. And increasingly, increasingly, we do not live in a kid-friendly world. Why do I say this? Allow me to share this, but for a moment. Today, in so-called progressive societies, we find a kid-unfriendly world. I speak of those, what we call Western societies or developed nations. They are not kid-friendly. You say, well, Mr. Weber, how can you say that? I will. We live in a world where children, living beings, fetus, and embryos are aborted. Their personal developing existence is violently violated in what is specifically created and designed to be the very safest spot in all of the world. The most wonderful and secure nest in all of the world to develop, to grow, and to come out blooming. I speak of a mother's womb. We think of the other day, where 20 men are killed, but every day, every day, a little child that is developing is aborted. Existence violated. Life pampered with. That only comes from God. Today, in an increasingly secular and humanistic society, we find meaning to the words found over in 2 Timothy. Join me if you would there for a moment. 2 Timothy. Let's pick up the thought in verse 1. Sometimes we think of Paul being one that speaks to the gospel, but in a sense, he also prophesied about the times that you and I would live in. 2 Timothy 3 and verse 1, but know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self-interesting, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Paul says from such people, turn away. This speaks to our world today, that is increasingly moving away from the Judeo-Christian ethic, from the very principles that are enshrined in our founding documents, whether it be the Mayflower Compact, whether it be the Declaration of Independence, and or even the Ten Commandments. James Madison himself, sometimes considered a deist or somehow yesteryear's progressive, said that the only way that you can understand the Constitution is by a god-fearing people and the Ten Commandments. Some progressive. Interesting, isn't it? Today in America, where God is minted on our coins and enshrined in our key founding documents, our Heavenly Father, called by our founding fathers as the beneficent disposer of all events, is increasingly marginalized from the public square and from our public schools.

Beyond that, in this unfundly kid world, increasingly families are spread thin and divided, fractured, fragmented, distanced from one another due to economy and sometimes just simply survival, and also increasingly by culture. The family structure of living with your own father and your own mother has been disrupted time and again.

This has affected the Weber family. This has affected the next generation in our family.

Susan and I understand that. Susan and I also understand the benefit and the strength of an extended family of grandparents and others to shore up the lack that is always there in a child when they're away from their father or their mother. There's always a deep hole. There's always something missing. They always want their mommy and their daddy together. That is always their desire that they wake up to. This is an unfriendly world to kids. My question then to you here in San Diego is simply this. Thus, where do we come in in preparing for that better future that I spoke of about a little bit earlier? Here's what I'd like to do with you. I've given you some challenging news. I think we're already sobered and I don't want to take you down so far that we can't see what God has in store for each and every one of us. Allow me to share this thought. Nothing new. You've heard it before, but you might want to jot it down. Let's begin with the end in mind.

And I do want to share with you that a better world is coming. And may I say boldly and gladly in proclaiming the gospel, the good news, that it is going to be kid-friendly at that. Join me, if you would, for a moment. I'd like to show you who introduces us to that world and what he is like. Join me, if you would, in Mark 10. In Mark 10, join me there, if you would, please, the gospel thereof. Mark 10, and let's take a look at verse 13. This speaks of Jesus, the lover of children who created a kid-friendly environment. Then they brought little children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

He's too busy. He's got to get here. All of his handlers, all of his schedulers, got involved. Don't have time. Got to move on to the next event. But when Jesus saw it, he was greatly displeased and said to them, Let the little children come to me.

Do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God, where they are in their life. The innocent ones with their innocence is that of the kingdom of God. This is the material. This is the DNA that is needed for the new creation called the body of Christ. Verse 15, Assuredly I say to you, whosoever does not receive the kingdom of God as this little child, like the innocents with their innocence, will by no means enter it.

The reason I mention this to all of you is because this is the one that welcomes us to a different future and a better future. And a kid-friendly world.

It's interesting you can just jot this down in John 10 and verse 10. Jesus said, I have come that they might have life. Not just kids, but we that are recycled teenagers, all of humanity, that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly.

Let's move through a window and let's go into the future for a moment to the world that God presents to you and me and the future that humanity can share. And join me if you would in Isaiah 65.

Isaiah is oftentimes called the prophet with a new mind. He speaks of a new heaven, a new earth. He speaks of a new Jerusalem, a new song. He speaks of a new name. He talks. He proclaims a new environment. Isaiah 65, and let's notice what it says here to encourage us. Remember what Isaiah the prophet says? He says in Isaiah 40, we're speaking of God, comfort them.

Comfort me, my people. And the way that we do this, friends, is by reading the holy scriptures.

Isaiah 65 verse 17, For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

The memories, whether good or bad, grand or ill, will not come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem as rejoicing. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people.

The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

We saw some of that over the last couple of days, and do I dare say we will see it again, another location, another time, another massacre of the innocence or young people.

It says here, notice, friends, it says, The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. You think of some of those anguished photos that you saw, perhaps on the net or on television and or no hope, life shattered, loved ones separated, dead.

I know what the voice of anguish sounds like.

I remember very well when my brother died. I was young. I was a little brother. I remember nearly 60 years later the wailing in our house of my mother and of a father.

It still lives and rings in my mind when the order of nature is reversed.

Our God promises there's a time coming in which there's going to be no more crying, no more sorrow, no more wailing. No more, notice what it says, shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days, for the child shall die 100 years old, but the sinner being 100 years old shall be accursed, whether numerically or figuratively what is being spoken of here is length of days.

That every kid, every young lady, every young boy will get past verse 2 in Ecclesiastes 3. That's God's promise and that's the world that he's bringing.

They shall build houses and inhabit them. They're going to be able to enjoy the seasons of life. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build in another inhabit. They shall not plant in another eat. For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of my people, like some of those oak trees that are up there in the Santa Isabel Valley or up around Ramona or over there by Fallbrook. Some of those old oak trees where it takes three or four men just to put their arms and spread around. They've been around that long. They're that agent. This is what God promises, length of days. And they shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble.

For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord and their offspring with them.

And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer. And while they are still speaking, I will hear the wolf and the lamb shall feed together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

And dust shall be the serpent's food. And notice, and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all of my holy mountain, says the Lord. What a wonderful world God has prepared for humanity in the future.

It's not the world that we live in today. It's almost as God is saying that I'm going to have an umbrella. And before is the need I will answer. We can't always do that today.

Sometimes, in this unfriendly world to kids, we as grandparents, aunts, uncles, we worry when our children are out of our sight. I'm sure all of us as grandparents or parents sometimes we've been in one of these big block stores like a Home Depot. This is not advertising, by the way. Like a Home Depot or Toys R Us or some gigantic 20,000 with all the different aisles.

Something catches your attention for a moment. You start talking to somebody, and you know you have to watch Johnny or Janie, but you kind of look over for a moment. And you look down and they're not there. How do you feel when your child is not with you or right by you? A little one in one of those big block stores. I'll tell you how I feel. Susan, you go right, I go left. Stay in touch.

All of a sudden, we have the Weber Army. We are proactive. We are out there.

We want to embrace our little loved ones, our three daughters or our five granddaughters and or the little grand man. He is walking, but when he really starts running around one of those box stores, we want them secure. God is promising us, brethren, that we are going to be in a secure world. We're going to be a part of the solution as we secure that world for others. And when there is a danger, when there is alarm, we're going to be able to say, this is the way. Walk you in it.

Join me, if you would, in Zechariah 8. Another of the minor prophets with the major message for us, Zechariah 8. In Zechariah 8, let's notice what it says here in verse 3.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, old men, old women. Well, actually, I want to go to verse 3. I'm on 4.

Pardon me. Thus says the eternal, I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth. Let's understand a principle here. To be true to principle, this is speaking of a redeemed people in Jerusalem. But let's understand something. Jerusalem in Israel itself does not have a monopoly on God's attention. This is speaking also of what the entire world is going to be like. Jerusalem is going to be called the city of truth. The mountain or the government of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. And thus says the Lord of hosts, old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age. And I love verse 5. Notice what it says. The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls, and they are going to be playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts, it's marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days. Will it also be marvelous in my eyes? says the Lord of hosts. I think he's saying in Hebrew, you betcha. I rejoice in what I am bringing to this earth. Now for every cause there is an effect. Join me if you would in Isaiah 11. How is this made possible? Isaiah 11 in verse 9. This is how it is made possible. It says that they shall not hurt nor destroy in all of my holy mountain. Everybody wants that. In society, we don't want casualties. We don't want hurt. We don't want harm.

But we don't know how to get there right now. Notice what it says in the end. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. For every cause there is an effect. And God's word is going to be spread, moving away from Jerusalem to this entire world when Jesus Christ comes back to this earth. You see, for some of those that are visiting us right now, Jesus Christ and the prophecies both in the Old Testament and the New Testament are not just something to be contained in a stained glass window in a cathedral or in a church. They are living in our hearts. They predominate our thoughts and our minds about that a better world is coming.

And that we long for that. We hope for that. Beyond hope. Beyond hopelessness. That it is embedded in our hearts. That there is life beyond the grave. That loved ones are not going to remain separated. That God has a better future for his children and his special creation yet to come. With that said, then, this is tomorrow. The world. Beginning with the end in mind.

What about us today and where we are? I've often mentioned this at memorial services or funerals.

We cannot bring the dead back from the grave. But we can be there in the future to be a part of God's kingdom and to be a part of the solution. And what I want to share with you here in San Diego as we begin to conclude is simply this. We are to live that wonderful world tomorrow today.

Today. The tension between the future of what I just shared with all of you and the existence we now live must be like a... Are you with me? A taut wire. Tight. Seamless. Our present stance must be our future hope. We live that world tomorrow today. You see, we are in practice and in training, in sacred service to become a kingdom of priests, to teach under Jesus Christ those that will be in the wonderful world tomorrow. Now, you know that, I know that, we know that, but life comes in between all of this and all of us and unfortunately amongst the innocence our children sometimes. We know that we need to spend more time with our wives. We know that we need to spend more time with our children. We know that we need to spend first and foremost more time with our God. But then life gets in between and all of those things that seem so urgent pull us apart from doing that, which is indeed most important. Join me if you would. Let's go to the New Testament, James 4. James 4, and let's pick up the thought in verse 13. Nothing new here, but profound. The human condition does not change. James 4 verse 13. Notice what it says. 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. Today or tomorrow.

I sometimes call this the the Scarlet O'Hara verse. For those of you that know about dear Scarlet, out of Gone with the Wind, notice sometimes life would seem too hard, and it was in the Reconstruction South, and O'Rhett was walking out the door, otherwise known as car cable, and she knew that she had blown it. She was trying to reconfigure for Scarlet, so we dare say to scheme once more, as to how she might get back Rhett. And she's, then, you know, she says, I don't know. She said, oh, you know, that southern bell voice.

And she says, I can't think about it right now, but somehow, somehow, but I'll think about it tomorrow. And then, of course, you know, at the end of the movie, that glorious theme from Gone with the Wind, and the clouds open up, and she's back in Tara, and there's always tomorrow.

Brethren, tomorrow can be one of the most dangerous words for a Christian.

It is today that we act, and today that we begin to change. Dr. Martin Luther King gave a powerful speech one time, and it is called the Urgency of Now, because we can be emotionally moved for the moment with the slaughter of the innocents in Connecticut the other day, and it comes into our frame, it comes, and it goes, and we go back to living just as we did before. Notice what it says here. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city, spend a year thereby and sell, make a profit. Whereas you do not know what you will, what will happen tomorrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore to him who knows to do good, and does it not, it is sin. Today or tomorrow? Two Sabbaths passed. Susan and I were up serving our Bakersfield congregation. We were in for the moment today, and I was already planning tomorrow being Sunday, when we go to Bakersfield, it's kind of about a 12 or 13 hour day. And we got up there and went through all the different functions for the church. And I'm not saying that to complain, it was just a gorgeous, wonderful spiritual event in Bakersfield. But about 7.20, we were back on the road. For those of you who have been there on Highway 15, going east towards the 99th, and we were going down a kind of a rainy, cloudy night. The streets were slick, and all the people were out. Have you ever noticed that there's more people out on the holidays than any other time? I mean, just trying to get through the Trader Joe group. I don't know what they're doing over there, but they're doing it. Just everybody's out. Why are you out? Just everybody's out. I'm out with the reindeer. Just love it. You know, whatever. So everybody's out in Bakersfield. Now, it's not your grandpa's Bakersfield, because there's 350,000 people in Bakersfield now. You know, a lot of people join Merle Haggart and Buck Owens up there. But anyway, everybody's out, and all of a sudden, we're going along, and then didn't plan it. I didn't say it's 7-22. We're going to have an event, Susie. Hold my hand, and let's go for a ride, because the ride was a bump. Because two vehicles back, a guy took his eyes off the road for a moment. Big passenger truck bumped into a big SUV, and then bumped into our little petite Toyota Corolla. That's why you're not seeing it today out there. You're seeing my stealth bomber out there. It's my folks' old car. And bump, bump, bump!

Now, God is good. What is interesting, everybody walked away, all three parties.

The gigantic truck had to be towed off. The big SUV had to be towed off.

This sounds like an ad for Toyota Corollas. It's actually an ad for God's blessings.

The Toyota was, shall we say, marginalized in structure.

The trunk doesn't open quite. There's a rear taillight out, and there's a little pop in the fender. See, sometimes God allows things to happen and leaves us a little bent, just to remind us of His goodness, and that He was there, lest we all forget.

Last night, Susan was going down to the mailbox. It was just a matter of events. A woman was backing out in an SUV. You can see I have issues with SUVs. But anyway, a woman was backing out in an SUV. Susan was focused. What is going to be the male today? She's walking this way. This woman over here. This is not a woman thing, ladies, so men do this, too. It's the human condition. She's back out. Susan's almost run over. Somebody shout it. Stop! So, what are you planning to do tomorrow, may I ask, that we ought to do today? What are we putting off that God has given us the assignment today in preparing to serve Him forever? We all know that Proverbs 22 and verse 6 says to train up a child in the way that it should go. And when it is old, it shall not depart. Training is not only a must, but it takes time. And it not only takes rules and procedures, but more than that, it takes love and it takes staying power. It takes being in the game and in the room and in their lives and making them a priority. Children never asked to be born. That was your idea, not theirs. And thus, we have the primary responsibility of creating this nest, creating this environment. And they are raised so quickly. Our daughters are 35, 32, and 30, and it seems just like yesterday when they were youngsters.

Our oldest grandchild now is 13 years old, and Caitlin is just behind her at age 12. Young ladies, growing up, where did the time go? And where did our ability to create an environment and a nest for them to be? Here's what I want to leave you with today, friends. Life is sacred because God made it and it is inherent in Him alone. It is He that is to give and to take away. And now, in our society, that rule is being violated every day, whether it's in a school or whether it's over in Iraq or whether it's over in Afghanistan due to our friendly fire on a friendly village to where we thought there was a terrorist and it was a schoolyard or schoolchildren because these people are cowards. They hide themselves in schools and in public buildings and use others for human shields. They're willing to give their all for their cause. This disturbed individual yesterday was willing to give 26 to 27 lives because of whatever his situation was going on in his mind.

Spiritual life has been granted each of us now to train now in sacred service to become a kingdom of priests forever to assist Jesus Christ in the wonderful world tomorrow. Beyond that, as persons, I want you to think about it. One of the reasons why I was back in Cincinnati with the work of the church. Beyond that, as persons, but as a collective people, as a church, we reach out and preach a gospel that describes a gospel of salvation, of hope to the hopeless, life beyond the grave. We speak to a father above. We point to a father above who also lost a perfect innocent.

His son, who never ever did anything wrong. The perfect son, the perfect student for all of us to emulate. And yet his existence was violated. He was, as scripture says, taken from the land of the living, visited by death, that you and I might live. This is the gospel of the living.

The gospel of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God. And this is the world that he bids you and me enter and prepare for now as we interact more with our children and grandchildren and with one another.

Concluding by Revelation 21 and verse 3. Join me if you would there. Again, we are sobered, but let's look through the window of the future and bring those two together as one.

Revelation 21 verse 3. And I heard a voice, a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. One of my favorite aspects of scripture then, verse 4. And God, you think about some of those photos that you saw yesterday. In the paper, on television, on the net. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. And there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. And then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write, write, for these words are true and faithful. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God that we preach every week. That we strive imperfectly, but strive nonetheless to live in our hearts, in our minds, in our souls, in our actions, in our deeds, every day, not waiting for the future, but living that future as best that we can today as we impact others. Thus, I say to you, dear friends here in San Diego, do not put off tomorrow what you can do today. Love our children and our grandchildren, our nieces and our nephews, and our children here that are in our midst. And indeed, all of God's children, no matter the age.

How do we do that? Love them a little deeper. Hug a little tighter. And yes, share that love a little more. We only have today, but we only have one another. May I say and remind you as I look around, we have a target rich environment. Let us be about our Father's business.