Priorities

The marker is quite striking. It's black, granite. It's seven feet long. It's three feet high. Two small children have stood before it. They're no longer small. They've grown up. The years have passed. It's almost 37 years now. It's a tombstone. It's a tombstone in Concord, New Hampshire, and the inscription on it begins like this. S. Krista McAuliffe. Wife. Mother. Teacher. Pioneer Woman. Crew member. Space Shuttle Challenger. America's first ordinary citizen to venture towards space. Above the inscription is the symbol of NASA's Teacher in Space program that they were running at the time. It's a torch with the shuttle ascending toward the stars. On January the 28th, 1986, Krista McAuliffe and six crew members died when the Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida. She was 37 years old. If she were alive today, she would be 74.

Her two small children, along with many others, watched as part of the audience as the countdown began. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, liftoff!

Seventy-five seconds later, with all eyes glued on it as it ascended. 75 seconds later, with the two small children watching and all the others that were watching, the shuttle disappeared in a massive fireball. And two small children were left motherless.

I have wondered over the years if the children had had their choice, would they have rearranged the priorities? You know, they have a mother that they can be proud of, and I'd take nothing away from her courage. But they've had to grow up without her. And I assume they married. I assume they have children. Their mother never got to meet their mates. Their mother never got to meet their children or grandchildren. And they had to grow up without her. And if she had to do it over, if she could rearrange the priorities, would she say, going back to the time when the selection process was going on, would she say if she had it to do over? I am a teacher, and I'd like to go.

But I'm also a mother. And since there are others who don't risk leaving two small children motherless, because there were risks involved, they all knew that. She knew that. Not likely to happen, but there were risks. There had been other accidents before. Not any quite like that one, no. But since there are others who don't risk leaving two small children motherless, I have to pass. Because there were other teachers that didn't have children. They could have been used. There has been some speculation, and there's no way to know for sure. But with that capsule sitting up there on top, when the explosion occurred, did she and the six crew members, the seven of them, did they survive the initial blow-up? As parts fell back to earth, into the sea, into the ocean, were there seconds that they were alive? And if there were, if it was that way, then they obviously would have known we're dead people. We're thinking right now, but this has failed, and we're plummeting to our death. There's no way to know.

Maybe, of course, in the future, we can get the rest of the story. But also, I don't know what the two children would say now, but I bet if you had asked them then, and they had had the power to turn time back and rearrange the priorities, they would have. Because the arrangement of priorities cost them their mother. And boy, moms are important. You know, in a sense, priorities were out of order. Priorities were not in the best order, and of course, death was the result. And two, what about NASA's priorities at the time? You know, the number one priority always has to be safety. Think about that. Number one priority should have been safety, but it got number two at best. Because, again, if those of us who remember the context of that time, there was pride of schedule. There was pride of technology. There was pride of image. And that came first. There was reputation to think about. Safety got second. So things had been delayed. Things were behind. And against NASA's better judgment, on a very cold morning, they went ahead. A steel broke, and death resulted. I know if NASA had had it to do over, they would have done it differently. They would have rearranged the priorities. Our priorities can cost us. We can pay for the arrangement of our priorities. That's why it is so crucial to have them set properly in order. Proper order. You know, true success depends on us properly aligning our priorities, doesn't it? People always talk about resolutions at the first of a new year, don't they? Now, I realize it's not a new year the way God counts a year. But calendar-wise, with the calendar we use, it's a new calendar year. And people always talk about making resolutions at the first of the new year. What about resolving to get and to keep their priorities in order? And to set their minds and their attention to maintaining proper priorities throughout the year. Success depends on properly aligning priorities. Your and my hour, spiritual success, depends on properly aligning priorities. That's what I'm going to talk about today. Priorities. One word sums up the subject. One word serves as the title. Priorities. Because, brethren, I want us to make it a part of our daily practice. I want us to embed it in our fiber, in our baseline, in our reference point, in our MO, modus operandi. I want us to make it a part of us to simply think according to priorities. To live days according to priorities. To think priorities, because they're so crucial.

One of the things that is on your mind, and my mind, and how can it not be, is how much time do we have left in this age? Our young people wonder about that. Our old people wonder about that. Our middle-aged people wonder about that. It's of concern to all of us, I think for obvious reasons, but how much time do we have left in this age? Five years? 10? 15? 30? Only God truly knows, but what about 30? Let's just use that number for a moment. Let's just assume that we have 30 years left. Is that enough time to just play around and waste? We know we got 30 years, so 20 of them I can just take it easy and play around and not hold myself to task. And that last 10, I'll really get with it, or 25 I can do that, and the last time I'll give it, or 29 I can do that, and that last one. Here's something we're warned about, and this is a warning to me, to you, to us in Matthew 24.48. Matthew 24.48. Christ is saying, don't fall into this way of thinking.

When one falls into this way of thinking, the person is indicting themselves.

In Matthew 24, verse 48, the Mount Olivet prophecy, Christ says here, But and if that evil servant shall stay in his heart, and frankly, if you think about it, what is expressed in the next statement is what makes that servant be considered an evil servant.

But and if that evil servant shall stay in his heart, my Lord delays his coming. Why? How would we translate that into what I said previous to us going to the Scripture? Why, we've probably got at least 30 years, and I'm only 30 years old. I would only be 60. I've got plenty of time. I don't have to worry about it. And it's going to be at least 30 years before Christ returns. Someone said to me, not too long ago, whether resurrection may be a thousand years away. I'm sorry, ma'am, you don't know your Bible. But the idea that because it may be way on out there, my Lord delays his coming. It's an attitude. It's a perception. And it can seem like, okay, there's enough time just to spare a few fumbled rounds. But it isn't. So, the shuttle Challenger on the 28th, that will be 37 years ago. I was in Tallahassee, Florida. I was in my vehicle there in the city. I remember where I was, and as my habit was, turning on the news on the hour on the radio and catching it as I was driving in Tallahassee, when they came on with the shocking news that the shuttle had just blown up. That memory in my vehicle in the city of Tallahassee, capital of Florida, current home of Ron DeSantis, is just as sharp as my memory of what I did earlier this morning before coming here. And that was 37 years ago. And I'm 72 now. And it's like, you know, something about getting older, you realize these time blocks, they're not nearly as big as what you once thought they were.

Besides, where is the guarantee of 30 years, or even five? I'll ask you a question. Where is your personal guarantee? Your personal guarantee of having even another year of life? You can't show it to me. You can't find it. Where is your personal? Where is my personal guarantee?

Personal guarantee, ironclad, that I have another year of life? You can't find it. Here's what guarantee you have and I have. You are guaranteed, you have a personal guarantee, and I have a personal guarantee to be in the resurrection into eternal life with God and His family if I remain faithful. That's the guarantee we have. That's the one that counts. Whether I have another year, or five, or ten, or twenty, or whatever, the personal guarantee that you have and I do have, that is the one that counts, really counts, is I will be in the resurrection to eternal life as long as I remain faithful.

It's been said that two things are sure in this life, death and taxes. And they even tax the dead through the survivors.

None of us will avoid dying if man's age goes long enough. And as I put it, numerous times over the years, if God gives us enough time, it'll kill us. Because time is not the friend of mortality. Time is not the friend of something composed of matter. One way or the other, sooner or later, our time is going to be up. Again, when the challenger blew up, I was 35 years old. Well, remember that year is a good year. That's a good age. Like I said, now I'm 72. The one thing that is not sure is how we will go about valuing and using that time. And I think, you know, I look back, 37 years, I don't have 37 years ahead. I mean, 37 years ahead would put me past 100. That's not going to happen. Not going to happen.

The one thing that is not sure, because we make these decisions daily, is how we will go about valuing and using that time, whatever that time is. What will be valuable to you? What will you emphasize in your life? Where will you put the emphasis? What will your time and energy go to? What will be number one? Because if you talk about prioritizing, it means you take the things in your life, responsibilities, roles, things you have to do, and you put an order on them. What's number one? What's number two? What's number three? What's number four with this? When our priorities are in order, and we're living them each day, you aren't preparing daily. For living, or for dying. Again, think about it. Each day we live is a day of life, and it's a day of living. We want in that day to have whatever measure of peace, happiness, achievement, accomplishment that we can have. We want to function in that day with our loved ones, with our roles, our relationships as thoroughly as we can.

And if we are keeping our priorities in order, our living is good. But we're also living in a way that if dying occurs, we're still okay. Family has to go on without us, and they will, but we're okay. The country of western song, I don't know who does it. I don't remember the guy who sings it. I don't remember exactly the exact title, but it's a song that speaks to live like you're dying. Because what he's speaking to is cherishing the life you have. Cherishing the time you have. Treasure each day of time and energy and opportunity, because that's what it is. Each day is a day of... it's a unit of time and energy and opportunity. And if you lived each day as though it might be your last, you would make full use of it. You would appreciate it, and you would make good use. You treat it as a treasure. And of course, you're walking and functioning in a godly confidence when you do that. You know, they've said that in the instant that someone is about to die, because there have been people who came so close to dying, they thought they were dead. I mean, they thought they were as good as dead, and then they were spared. And they'll talk about how, well, my whole life just flashed in front of my eyes. And let's suppose I have not had that kind of experience, but I can understand that. They'll talk about their whole life flashing in front of them. I have been in an accident, a vehicular accident. Some of you in here have been in a vehicular accident. And whether it's a vehicular accident or some other real scary and really potentially serious situation, you know something happens. Everything around you goes into slow motion.

You're about to hit that vehicle, or they're about to hit you, and everything goes into slow motion. And people talk about later, the ones who survived these things, how everything just went into slow motion. It didn't go into slow motion. The adrenaline, everything, so hit your system that your mind speeded up into hyper speed. And your mind was shooting forward so fast in nanoseconds, that all. Everything speeded up in here, and it made everything out there look slow. That's what happened. So in those moments of time, yes, a light can happen.

But as far as things flashing before your eyes and processing things and thoughts so fast in nanoseconds, so to speak, if that's true, then there's also something else that would flood over a person in microseconds when all of a sudden they're just, you know, this is it, you know, death. Either a great fear, God, no, I'm not ready. Or at least a certain peace and calmness of mind, because you don't fear, quote, as some would say, what's on the other side. Peace or fear, which it will be as being determined ahead of time, isn't it, by the way, that we prioritize and live. You and I are going to spend our time on something, one thing or another. That's just, that's life. We're going to spend our time on something. We certainly can't hold it. It's going to pass even if we do nothing with it. So how will we use it? It's kind of like you look at, I've got this watch here and it's got a second hand on it. That second hand just continues to click, 60 clicks on each minute. It just continues to click around the face of this watch. And that minute hand will continue to shift another minute and another minute and another minute. And I can't stop that second hand from moving. Somebody says, well, I'll tell you what you can do. You can take the battery out.

But you know what I'm saying? You can't stop time from moving on. You have no power to stop it. All you can do is choose how to use it. What's going to be accomplished with it? What's going to be left remaining in this place when it's gone? And we must learn to think in increments of days. It's not wrong to plan for weeks and months and years and all of that. That's fine. And there's some things that call for planning for weeks and months and years. But when I'm talking about our most basic unit of time is the day. We get up in the morning, we crank up, we get going, we spend that day. We spend that unit of time and energy. And of course, I realize when you're younger, at the end of the day, you can be out of time, but still have energy. You get older at the end of the day, there might still be a little time, but the energy's been used up. And you find as you get older, you have to shepherd your energy more and make sure that you deal with it in a way to cover the bases that need to be covered. But the most basic unit of time that we human beings, being beings made of matter, experience is the day unit, the 24 unit of day and night. And learning to think in terms of we get up, we keep our priorities in order, we attended the priorities, and at the end of the day, we've got something to show for having had our priorities in order. If you ever had a day, and it's rhetorical because I know you have, I've had them too, if you ever had a day where at the end of the day, you kind of look back over there and you say, this has been a blown day, this has been a busted day, I don't really have anything of an appreciable nature.

I don't have anything to really show for it. I didn't even catch any fish, you know, whatever it may be. I have nothing to show for it. And there's been times when, you know, you have a day where you just feel like that day's been a total waste. I mean, you can't think of anything that was of a worthy nature in any sense, accomplished.

You know, in reality, time is all we have. Time is our life. Again, what is it producing? What do we have to show for it? What will we have to show for it? Think about how God so designed life.

We grow up, because everybody in here is either grown up or in the process of growing up.

We have the same common pattern. We grow up seeing the strength of the flesh before us, don't we? We see the high point of it. We see the peak of it. We see the prime. We see it present in mom and dad, maybe grandparents, if they're still younger and pretty much in their prime. But we see it in those before us. We're a kid. We're young. We're a child. We're a young teen. But before us is the strength of the flesh, a strong dad, a strong mother, a strong aunt, strong uncles, and again, maybe strong grandparents, if they're still younger. And then we ourselves have that strength that we see in front of us. As teenagers, we begin to find, you know, if you're a guy, you've got some muscles you didn't know you had. You know, we begin to come into our prime and our strength. And you find that your energy is in your endurance and just what makes for strong, healthy energy, you come into it on your own. In your teens, your twenties, your thirties, and even your forties, and a few can hold it as they go into their fifties. And then as we're in our prime and personally experiencing it, we see it failing in those before us. Those that we've known were strong, mom, dad, aunt, uncles. I remember dad's strength. I remember the last couple of years of dad's strength, how it hit me, how weak he was getting. And I saw his strength broken with a major massive stroke and the fevelness that resulted from that. And I remember the effect on me. I was 33 years of age at the time, just 33, and my dad from that point on was a broken individual. And you know, by the time a person reaches 40, enough has been seen to begin to impress that reality in the mind. And we're sobered. We're sobered by the lesson, the fact that that strength, it's only temperate. It's wonderful. The glory of young men is their strength. I mean, the flower of youth and the glory of the strength, that's fine. It's part of the whole process. But it doesn't last. It's temporary. It's passing. James 4.14.

Here's one of the things about if you will study the Bible all your life, from the time you were a kid to the time you're an old man or an old woman, it's interesting that if you study your Bible and you read your Bible lifelong, from the time you're young to the time you're old, you will identify with some things more when you're young in Scripture, and you won't quite understand some other things quite as well that you'll understand when you're older. There are certain things that will make a lot of sense to you when you're young, and you won't forget that as you move along, but then there's things of when you get older that will really make a lot more impact with you because you're living in that which is described. And the study of the Bible as a lifelong thing is a tremendous treasure chest. James, the half-sibling of Christ, who also became an apostle. In James 4, 14, Whereas you know not, what shall be on tomorrow? I mean, can any one of you tell me what's going to happen tomorrow? Well, now I can tell you what some of my plans are. I can tell you what I plan to do, and I can also tell you what some of the routine things are that have to be done. I can tell you that. And I can tell you what I would like to see happen tomorrow, at least up to a point. But I don't know what may be added into my plans.

You know, as we all know, one phone call can have the effect of really altering your life. One event where as you don't know what shall be on tomorrow. We really don't. We plan for tomorrow. We have our plans and our purposes, but we can't guarantee what will or will not be. And James says, for what is your life? Well, your life is wonderful. It's valuable. It's precious. It's a great opportunity. It's a blessing from God to have life.

But in terms of what this life is, what is it really in one sense when it comes to time? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. To this old country boy who grew up fishing, hunting, roaming the woodlands, loving to be in the fields, on the streams, in the hills and the hollows. Many a morning, being out early and looking over the landscape and over a pond and the vapor, the fog, the vapor that just kind of shrouded everything. And as the first rays of the sun begin to hit it, it started just dissipating and evaporating away and clearing off. And so many times I thought, if it could just last a little bit longer, it is so pretty. But it is so temporary, so quick. And James says, that's what your life is like. A vapor. It appears for a little time and then vanishes away. For a brief moment, this wondrous flesh and blood instrument encases biochemical energy. And it is wondrous. Wondrous flesh and blood instrument that God created that encases biochemical energy. And then, as Peter said, and all I have to do is flip one page over to 1 Peter 1.24. 1 Peter 1.24, For all flesh is as grass.

It's not that it can't be good while you have it. It's just that it doesn't last. All flesh is as grass. And all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower thereof falls away. And then in due time, it's me. It's not grandpa and grandma, or great grandpa and grandma. It's not mom and dad. It's not aunts and uncles. It's me. I'm where they got to. I've gotten there. It's no longer the other guy. My turn has come to start failing in the flesh. 1 Kings 2, verses 1 and 2. 1 Kings 2.

Verses 1 and 2. Now, the days of David... I grew up on David. From a child up, David was always one of my heroes.

He was a main biblical hero for me.

The days of David, his time drew nigh that he should die. And he's only 70. I've already lived two years past his lifetime, but I'm not in his league. I know that.

But I just find it interesting. He was given 70 years. So far, I've had two beyond that, which I'm thankful for.

Now, the days of David drew nigh that he should die. And he charged Solomon his son's saying, and noticed the way he words it. He wasn't in denial. He just straightforward faced the reality. I go the way of all the earth.

I'm not going to be around Solomon. You be strong, therefore, and you show yourself a man. I go the way of all the earth. The flesh will fail. That's automatic. It's just a matter of time of the turning of the globe as sure as the rising and falling of the sun. You can run from it. You can play kid. You can have a midlife crisis. Or you can make full use of it by producing something for the future that will remain and be there for when your time has run out. Psalm 90. One of the great things about Psalm 90 as far as if you need any additional confirmation that it's by God's inspiration, not that we need that, but this is not a psalm of David or Hezekiah or Solomon or anybody other than Moses. This is a psalm of Moses. And here Moses was 120 years of age when he died, and he only died because God took his life, probably just put him to sleep. I didn't go into the sleep of death and buried him. Nobody knows where that grave is. And if God handed down that, Moses probably would have lived to be 130 or 140 or beyond. Unusually strong physically in that way. But God took his life and buried him in 120. And he doesn't speak to 120 here. Notice what he speaks to. And this, again, is by way of inspiration because he was talking about the basic time frame or time allotment to human beings today. Verse 10, the days of our years. And think about that word when you think of a day, you think of the most basic individual unit of time and energy.

You go to bed, you get up, you go through the day, you go to bed again, you repeat the cycle. It's a 24-hour cycle, and that is the most basic human cycle. And it's demarcated by sunset. Sunset to sunset. The days, the increments of days of our years are 3, 4 years and 10 or 70. And if by reason of strength they be 4-squared or 80 years, yet is their strength. And anybody who's lived to be 70 or 80, and if by reason of strength it's beyond, can also tell you the same thing. But yes, along the way, there have been so many good things and blessings and so many things to just enjoy and appreciate for many people. But at the same time, sprinkle throughout those years, there's so much labor and sorrow. For it is soon cut off and we faint away as it should be rendered as it is in the Hebrew. Okay, is that a reality? We deal with it. Moses has inspired to write that.

And David could read these words. And like I said, David only got the 3-squared years and 10. Verse 12. So in the aftermath of that realization, what do you want to come out of that? 12. Verse 12. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. And again, I think that there is an issue of breaking it down to the most basic unit that we deal with, which is the day. Days. Teach us to number our days.

I didn't quite do things today the way that I'm pleased with. I'm not sure God's pleased with how I use this day today. I kind of blew it. I kind of wasted it. It's kind of a busted day. Well, I can't get today back, but I'll slow over again in the morning and I'll make sure tomorrow's not a busted day, not a blown day. I'll get some things done that are very worthy of how I spend my time and energy. Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Because if I move over for the answer to John's words in 1 John 2.17, in 1 John 2.17, why teach us to number our days? Why look to God as they help us to number our days, or that is to use our days wisely and know that time doesn't just keep going on for us in order that we apply our hearts to wisdom, to the purpose of life, to why we exist, to doing it in a way that we have a future when this life, this life course has been run.

Because, and here's a good enough reason in the words of John in 1 John 2.17, and the world passes away. Where do we live? You don't live in the world tomorrow. You don't live in the kingdom of God. I don't live in the kingdom of God. Envision. I live in vision in the world tomorrow. I live in vision in the kingdom of God in the sense that I keep that vision, that goal, that purpose in mind. Yes. But I live in a world that is not, that has no future. I live in a world that's going to pass away. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof, and one reason that's mentioned is because the world we live in is so driven by lust. It is so driven by the wrong things. The world passes away, and the lust thereof, but He, the numbers His days, that applies His heart to wisdom, that arranges His priorities, keeps His priorities in order. He that does the will of God abides forever, survives this age.

Now, it's inevitable, so why fear? Just use your time wisely. That's really all we have to do in one sense. Use our time wisely. That allows for a very solid present, because when we use our time wisely, guess why? Our regular daily living is better. And not only does it give us a solid present, but it also gives us an assured future. Back in 1 Kings, this time Chapter 1, 1 Kings Chapter 1, 1 Kings Chapter 2, 1. David was at that inevitable moment. And again, growing up, I paid very close attention to David.

He was a main biblical character and hero for me as a young boy, young man growing up. I paid close attention to him. And in some ways, I really do feel like I already know him. That when I meet him in the kingdom of God, when he sits on a throne under Christ over all Israel, in the millennial reign, I feel like he's somebody that I can walk up to and speak to that I already know.

Now, King David Chapter 1, Verse 1, 1 Kings. Now, King David was old and stricken in years. Right at 70, maybe only 69 at this point, but right at 70. Old and stricken in years. That's how it's expressed here. And you think about it. Look at the condition. They covered him with clothes, but he got no heat.

They couldn't put enough clothes on him for him to get warm. Think about somebody whose metabolism is shutting down enough, or their circulation is bad enough, or a combination of both to where they cannot generate enough bodily heat that even if you pile them with clothes, and they had sheep's wool and all, that they can get warm. That is a pretty broken down physical condition, isn't it? There's no strength left to the flesh. There's no strength left to the person. As it says, he was old and stricken in years. And that's when he calls Solomon, as we read in Chapter 2, Verse 1, and he told Solomon in Chapter 2, Verse 2, I go the way of all the earth.

I go the way of all the earth. I'm not surprised this is what happens to matter. This is what happens to a frame and a being that's made of temporary substance. And he was at that end of a little moment, but he had confidence.

He had confidence. Again, you don't find the fear. He had confidence because he looked ahead and he made use of this time. He had numbered his days. He had applied his heart to wisdom, and he used his time God's way. I remember the words of... and you've got them recorded. We all do in the Bible there. I'm not going to turn there, but in Acts 13, in Acts 13, in verse 22, you have this statement where it's quoting God, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who shall fulfill all my will. Wow! What a statement! I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who shall fulfill all my will.

Well, we're talking about a man who is a warrior, a king, a statesman, a writer, a poet, a shepherd, a prophet, all of that and more. David expresses in Psalm 144, verse 4, man is like to vanity. And what he means here more than anything is man is so temporary. Vanity as in temporary. You could take more out of it, but that is included. Man is like to vanity, or so temporary. His days are as a shadow that passes away. His days are as a shadow that passes away. Let's go no matter what your age is, but especially if you're older right now.

Let's go down the back trail back into our youth for a moment. Do you remember when you were a kid in elementary school? I do. How long an hour was. Recess will never come. And Monday morning when you climb on that school bus, I can't even see Friday afternoon when I climb on that same school bus to go home for the weekend.

That is so far away. Do we remember how long an hour was? We thought in hours. You didn't think in days. You didn't plan as a child, as a kid. You didn't plan according to days as such. You thought in terms of hours.

And an hour was a big block of time. Now, did you notice that as you got older, you began to think in terms of days? And then the time came, you began to think in terms of weeks. And if you live long enough, the time comes, you think in terms of months.

And sadly, and ironically, at the time that you come to where you start thinking in terms of years, you don't have many left.

I cannot prove how. I don't know the full answer. But somehow, some way, in our brains, how we see time and how time affects us changes as we get older. Something happens. A minute is still a minute. An hour is still an hour. A day is still a day. That hasn't changed. But somehow, some way, in our minds and our brains, time has a different effect on us. Like anymore, an hour is nothing. A day is hardly anything anymore. Weeks go by so quickly. It's the first day of the month, and bang! It's the 30th or the 31st of the month.

Now, I know people say, well, as you get older, you have more to do and keep up with, more on your hard drive, so to speak, and that speaks things out. Well, it's true, up to a point, but it still doesn't answer it fully. Something changes. And I think of the words of David there in Psalm 37 verse 25. I'm not going to turn to it, but Psalm 37 verse 25, where he says, I was young. What happened? I was young. What happened? Now, I'm old. And he was strong, and he was powerful. And again, the accounts of going after the lion and the bear to deliver the sheep. And very active. And again, warrior, king, statesman, shepherd, poet, prophet. And now, old, feeble, stricken in years, can't even get warm, soon to be dead.

David knew both ends of the spectrum of life. And if you read through the Psalms, those were 70 years of one of the fullest lives that it could ever be.

And he knew both ends of the spectrum of life. Use it while you have it, because your life in the meantime will be so much better. And when it does play out, you've gained that precious epitaph from God found in Psalm 116 verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. And if you use it wisely, whatever amount of time it is, it's sufficient. I've always wondered, thought about, the interesting point that previous to the Noacian Flood, the average human lifespan was right at a thousand years. Noah lived to be 950, Adam lived to be 930, Methuselah lived to be 969, but basically, human beings were living basically a thousand years. And there's a number of reasons for that. But what was all that time used for? Well, Genesis 6.5, and again, just reference it, but in Genesis 6 verse 5 came a time where man's imagination was only evil continually. It's just extra time to multiply evil. That's all it was. And yet, if a person applies himself properly, responsibly to life, 70 years or 70 plus is more than sufficient. A 70 to 80 year lifespan is very sufficient. It's rhetorical when I say to you, my brethren, what's top priority in our calling? Serving God and doing His will. That's Matthew 6.33. And you notice Matthew 6.33 says to seek you first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. The Kingdom of God is a goal that we will not be a part of without His righteousness. And His righteousness has to do with learning to live the right way and do things the right way. As a person, as a husband, as a father, as a wife, as a mother, as a friend, as a worker, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness is number one priority. Always has been, and when I say has been for those that God has called and given opportunity to, and always will be, it's just that the rest of mankind will realize that at a later time. And everything else is secondary. And a lot of the other stuff that is secondary is important. It's not that it's not important. It's important. But it's secondary. And do we put at the top of our list that which will help us to attain to the Kingdom of God, to God's righteousness in His Kingdom? Do we put at the top of our list that which is really going to help us, to help us attain to that Kingdom? I want to go to Ephesians 5. I said earlier that time is our life.

How are we using time? It will run out eventually. In Ephesians 5, in verse 16, this very significant Scripture redeeming the time. And again, just learning to think in terms of priorities. Learning to operate according to priorities. Learning to focus on priorities. Learning to arrange our lives according to priorities. Paul says redeeming the time, or that is properly using it. Why? It gives the answer because the days are evil. What is really different, if anything, about that time when he wrote in our time now? Well, the days we're living in are evil. If you look at what's being promoted, even in this vast, vast hope of mankind, humanly.

Look at the evil that is being propounded in this land. And it looks at this point like no true breaks are going to be put on it. Redeeming the time because the days are evil, because the days of evil, whether it be Sodom and Gomorrah, or it be the pre-noation time, they eventually come to a culmination and time has run out. And to us, to redeem the time, to use it wisely, because things are headed to a point, and they're getting worse and worse all along the way to that point, but there's coming a time when this age is going to conclude. In verse 15, see then that you walk circumspectly, soberly, responsibly, not as fools, but as wise. In verse 17, wherefore be you not unwise, but unnoticed. Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

Here's another thing that I realized long ago. Now, I was always a very active person. Had a lot of energy, had a lot of interest, but I realized long ago, you don't have enough time to do everything that you want to do. Something has to give.

This is where priorities come in. Put first things first. And when you run out of time, if you're putting first things first, it's like each day you get up and you put first things first, if you run out of time, the things that are left undone will be the least important.

And the most important will have been accomplished. And our top priority is to maintain a relationship with God, which is based on prayer and Bible study and occasional fasting. And we're going to find, as a Christian soldier, as we have being on a daily battlefield, that we're going to have to fight to meet such need, because something will always be eating into it. Something will always be trying to get in the way. There will always be some obstacle that will be thrown into the mix. Now, there was a time when we talked about the one-eyed monster, TV. You don't hear that anymore because TV may still be a one-eyed monster. But now, with technology, the internet, social media, it's a time when people can play themselves to death. With technology, through technology.

Just like TV, we used to say, could be a tremendous tool, and can be. Technology can be a tremendous tool. The internet and social media. I mean, technology can be a tremendous tool, or it can be a tremendous drain and distraction. And just like some people used to go to the job, come in, get the... fix a TV dinner, and sit in front of the boob tube, from the TV to bedtime, then go to bed and repeat the process the next day, something that just substituted social media, all of that in place of the TV, or both.

You know, there's a need to simplify our lives by getting our priorities basic and straight. And there are two areas that are leading in need. One is, number one is God, right? Right. Number two is necessities, isn't it? And with those two in place, you can progress from there, can't you? For instance, job and family are priorities over something we used to have. This doesn't apply now, at least in most areas and cases, but it does make the point. Years ago in the church, we had what we call Spokesman's Club, and it was the training club for speech training, etc., etc. A very good program. And anyhow, it was something that a lot of congregations had. Now, God is number one priority, right? Number two are the necessities. And, of course, number two, you would have to say job and family are priorities over speaking club.

1 Timothy 5.8 says that, "...one who will not provide for his own is worse than an infidel." That's 1 Timothy 5, verse 8. One who will not provide for his own is worse than an infidel. Okay. In one of the clubs, in one of the congregations that I had, it was time to crank up a new year for the club. And so there was a man in the congregation, a member, and his wife was a member, and they had two little girls, and he was a truck driver. He would head out on Monday morning. He wouldn't get in until Friday afternoon. He had Saturday and Sunday to begin with the family before he had to go on the road again.

And they lived quite a ways from services. And of course, they were always at services.

But he planned to join club. I said, no, Charles. I said, Charles, you're only home on Saturday and Sunday. And y'all are here for services. And you need to be with your wife and your little girls tonight, no Saturday night, and tomorrow. And if your situation ever changes, you can be in club. But that's where you need to be with them. Priorities. And he understood.

We have to learn to live according to need with God, with man, food, clothing, shelter, sleep, exercise.

You know, if a person says, well, it's hard for me to pray in the morning because I fall asleep. I go on my knees. Well, why is that? Because I only step six hours and I need eight. Well, why did you only get six? Well, I stayed up late on the computer playing video games, whatever. See, you start getting your priorities squared away and working things together, and it works out. Again, we only have so much time, and we have to be thrifting what we do. And sometimes a joke comes along and really rattles our complacency, and it makes us realize the preciousness of time, the preciousness of life, and the seriousness of the time that we have. And here's something I thought of. I'll have all eternity to learn to do the things I want to if I learn now to do the things I need to. Let me repeat that. I will have all eternity to learn to do the things I want to if I learn now the things I need to. The necessaries come first in priorities, over wants, extras, and luxuries. Before you pursue extras with your time and resources, ask yourself, have I taken care of the necessities, the necessaries. Don't overload your battery. There is a limit on your time. There is a limit on your energies. And God doesn't wave that. He doesn't wave that aside. Could He wave some of it? Yes. Does He maybe in some few cases occasionally? Yes. But He doesn't wave all of that aside. He expects us to recognize certain limitations on time, energy, and resources that we can only do so much, and only so much so fast, and to prioritize because there's teaching and there's training in it. Keep first things first, and the other things will take care of themselves. And if they're kept in a word, then that guarantees measurable success as we go along. Remember, now, let's be clear. I want to live as long as I can with sufficient quality of life that I want to be living. I'd like to make it to 80. I wouldn't mind making it to 90. I wouldn't mind pushing towards 100.

I am not at a point to say, God, I've already had two years more than David. That's enough. I'm not at that point.

But here's what I keep in mind. It's not as important how long we live as it is what we do with that time while we do live. I enjoy, and I will probably do this in the morning, if it's a warm day, the way my house faces, it faces south. And the big front porch is on the south side, and it faces the southern sun of the wintertime. And it really gets nice and warm on that front porch. And I love to go out there with a hot cup of coffee on that warm, sunny porch and sit down in the rocking chair with my Bible and a pad. That's very enjoyable and profitable and pleasurable for me. And if it should show be in the morning, I'll go out there with a hot cup of coffee and sit down on that warm porch and enjoy sitting in the warm sunshine.

That same sign that I will enjoy, David enjoyed it. He sat also in the warm sunshine. He enjoyed that same sign a long time ago. Now he's dead. But he'll enjoy that same sign again. He'll live again because he kept his priorities straight. I want to go to one final Scripture in closing. That's Psalm 89, verse 47.

Psalm 89. Psalm 89.

And verse 47.

This is really rhetorical in one sense because it's not God that will forget.

If anyone does any forgetting of this, it's man. It's the human being. David writes in Psalm 89, verse 47, Remember how short my time is. It's not God that will forget how short our time is. It's us that might forget how short it is.

We need to remember, yesterday is a canceled check, as a person once said. Tomorrow is a promissory note. You may or you may not get it. Today is cash. Use it. Yesterday is a canceled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is cash. Use it. Make it go as far as it will go by putting a priority on it. Learn to live and to think and to operate in terms of priorities.