back to index2018-12-30 Look Up, Look In, Look Out
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Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Psalm chapter 90, and I want to read, 00:00:10.520 |
we're going to be in this text for about three weeks. 00:00:12.920 |
So before we jump into the book of Hebrews, we want to take some time to kind of wrestle 00:00:18.460 |
through this text, and then you'll understand why I chose this text in a minute once we 00:00:24.640 |
But we'll be here, and then when I come back from India, we'll jump back, jump into the 00:00:28.440 |
study of the book of Hebrews for those of you who want to get a head start. 00:00:37.880 |
"Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 00:00:41.520 |
Before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from 00:00:48.400 |
You turn man back into dust and say, 'Return, O children of men.' 00:00:52.000 |
For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it passes by. 00:00:56.760 |
For as a watch in the night, you have swept them away like a flood. 00:01:04.640 |
In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew. 00:01:13.160 |
You have placed our iniquity before you, our secret sins in light of your presence. 00:01:22.120 |
As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due strength, eighty 00:01:31.800 |
Who understands the power of your anger and your fury according to the fear that is due 00:01:37.040 |
So teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. 00:01:41.280 |
Do return, O Lord, how long will it be, and be sorry for your servants. 00:01:46.040 |
O satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness that we may sing for joy and be glad 00:01:52.480 |
Make us glad according to the days you have conflicted us and the years we have seen evil. 00:01:57.140 |
Let your work appear to your servants and your majesty, their children. 00:02:00.600 |
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and confirm for us the work of our hands. 00:02:11.480 |
Gracious Father, we thank you so much for your faithfulness in 2018. 00:02:18.560 |
We thank you, Father, as we look forward to the next year. 00:02:22.120 |
As we reflect, evaluate, project, and plan, give us a heart of wisdom according to your 00:02:30.800 |
May pursuing Christ, worshiping Christ, fellowshipping with Christ be our greatest passion. 00:02:38.400 |
So for that end, we pray for your reminder, we pray for encouragement and guidance. 00:02:46.920 |
All right, as you guys know, today is the last service of 2018. 00:02:53.680 |
Again, you say it every single year, I say it every single year, but it seems like every 00:03:05.280 |
You had, I can't remember how many weddings we've had. 00:03:10.760 |
It almost seemed like it was every single week. 00:03:13.920 |
So it's great that a lot of you are multiplying. 00:03:24.520 |
And maybe in 2019, you're praying that God would continue to bless you in your life. 00:03:30.280 |
There's some of you in this room that has gone through tremendous hardship. 00:03:34.160 |
You've wrestled through the sickness of a loved one. 00:03:36.880 |
And even now, I know that there's many in our church who have parents or sister or brother 00:03:41.720 |
or somebody that they're praying over and is visiting the hospital on a regular basis. 00:03:47.640 |
And so we are praying with you and we see you from a distance. 00:03:51.400 |
And so 2018 has been a rough year and 2019 looks like it's going to be a rough year for 00:03:58.280 |
Every year at the end of the year, we naturally, whether we like it or not, it's all over. 00:04:03.080 |
Whether it's at church or you're watching television, they have a countdown. 00:04:11.720 |
If you're a sports fan, what are the 10 best dunks in the NBA? 00:04:17.560 |
And then when the new year comes, they begin to project that hopefully, you know, this 00:04:22.880 |
So it forces us to reflect upon what happened. 00:04:27.540 |
For me, as I look upon 2018, you know, the biggest thing obviously that happened to me 00:04:33.840 |
And again, it's just another year, but it's difficult not to think of mortality, you know. 00:04:43.760 |
Not that, again, I know there's people in this room who are much older than I am and 00:04:48.240 |
so I don't want to offend anybody, but at the same time, turning 50 kind of caused me 00:04:53.480 |
to think about, you know, like the next generation. 00:04:57.200 |
You know, I don't know how long God's going to have me on this earth, whether it's 25 00:05:00.760 |
years, 30 years, 10 years or five years, I don't know. 00:05:03.720 |
But turning 50 definitely made that reality much more real. 00:05:14.120 |
And I remember very specifically, you know, my 25th birthday. 00:05:18.400 |
And the reason why I remember the 25th birthday so vividly was because that was the first 00:05:25.080 |
And so Esther threw a birthday party, invited all the youth group kids, you know, to our 00:05:29.320 |
apartment and I remember her making the Korean dish doenjang jjigae. 00:05:33.600 |
I remember very specifically everything about that party, who was there, you know, and because 00:05:38.640 |
it was the first time I felt like I had a full-blown birthday party for me and I was 00:05:47.520 |
And then I think about it seemed like yesterday that would happen and those 25 years went 00:05:54.380 |
And so, you know, as I get older, I realize that money comes and goes. 00:06:01.360 |
There are periods of life you have more money than you need or you don't have enough. 00:06:10.720 |
And so the most valuable thing that we have really is time, you know. 00:06:14.760 |
And that's the danger when we're young because we don't think of time as a commodity. 00:06:19.560 |
We think of time as something that we just spend to enjoy ourselves until you get to 00:06:23.400 |
a certain age and then you begin to become more wiser and think, oh, maybe I should be 00:06:29.760 |
But a real wise person recognizes that early on in your 20s, right? 00:06:35.960 |
And not what you wait until your 40s or 50s or 60s, but in your 20s, you recognize that 00:06:43.440 |
How am I going to invest it for God's kingdom? 00:06:47.040 |
All of this, it really is introduction really to chapter 90 of Psalms because the background 00:06:55.160 |
behind the Psalms is Moses has led the nation of Israel through the desert for 40 years. 00:07:02.920 |
So they're on this side of the mountain looking and eagerly anticipating going into the promised 00:07:09.900 |
So what Moses does here is he's reminiscing over the past of Israel's sin that caused 00:07:17.800 |
And they're eagerly anticipating that once we get to the other side, everything that 00:07:23.040 |
they had hoped for was going to be fulfilled. 00:07:27.000 |
And so Moses has taken his time, kind of just like, you know, at the end of every year, 00:07:31.200 |
we're reflecting back in the past and projecting for the future. 00:07:34.160 |
That's exactly what Moses is doing here in chapter 90. 00:07:39.000 |
So I'm going to be covering the first, next week, the second, and then the week after 00:07:47.600 |
First section in verses one through six, which we're going to be covering today, is to remind 00:07:55.280 |
And so we're going to be spending some time talking about that, that before they move 00:07:58.560 |
forward that our view of God is the most fundamental and important truth that if we get it wrong, 00:08:06.400 |
or if we have a misunderstanding of God, or a partial understanding of God, it affects 00:08:11.400 |
the way we see church, it affects the way we see money, it affects the way we see relationships, 00:08:16.600 |
eternity, it affects everything about our life. 00:08:20.160 |
So first and foremost, Moses reminds them of who God is. 00:08:24.520 |
Second section, verses seven through 12, in light of who God is, he talks about who is 00:08:30.660 |
What does a nation of Israel need to remember? 00:08:33.920 |
So he talks about their 40 years and why they were wandering and why God was angry with 00:08:39.800 |
He reminds them of that before they get into the promised land so that they don't repeat 00:08:45.160 |
And then the third and final part of it, verse 13 to 17, describes man's dire need for God. 00:08:51.760 |
That knowing who God is, knowing your condition, that the only answer to that is to cry out 00:09:01.080 |
That before they move into the promised land, they needed to have this, and they need to 00:09:05.160 |
have a firm grasp of who God is, who they are, and who it is that they are depending 00:09:15.480 |
So the way that I named it was, "Look up, look in, and look out." 00:09:21.400 |
So that's going to be the sermon outline, or at least the title of the three-part sermon. 00:09:29.720 |
First thing that he says in the beginning, it says, "It is good to give thanks to the 00:09:39.280 |
"You have been our dwelling in all generations." 00:09:45.320 |
Now you might read that in passing if you know the background. 00:09:50.800 |
In order to understand the Bible, what's the first and most important thing that we need 00:09:55.880 |
So if you don't know the context, it just sounds like many other passages where it says, 00:10:04.120 |
But remember the context in which this is written. 00:10:08.760 |
They're eagerly anticipating to get into what? 00:10:16.320 |
The word for dwelling place here in some other places is translated refuge, or if you want 00:10:27.560 |
Before you get into your home that you've been wandering for 40 years and fantasizing 00:10:31.640 |
about, crossing over this mountain and finally getting to the promised land, he reminds them 00:10:45.680 |
For every single one of us, for every single one of us, there is a longing and a desire 00:10:55.040 |
No matter how much you love to travel, no matter how many places you go, whether you're 00:11:01.160 |
an introvert or an extrovert, at some point, you want to eventually get home because that's 00:11:09.000 |
That's where you're not thinking about anything. 00:11:10.760 |
You went out and did experience some tremendous stuff, but at some point, you want to go home, 00:11:25.680 |
You can see the Israelites are thinking while they're wandering in the desert, they're 00:11:33.040 |
Enemies can come and just squash them anytime they want. 00:11:36.080 |
So for any nation, their dream would be to go into a city where they're fortified with 00:11:43.000 |
So they were probably dreaming this, like, "Oh, we're almost home. 00:11:48.880 |
And Moses reminds them, "That is not your home. 00:11:59.880 |
Most of you guys weren't here when I read it, but it made me think about, again, that 00:12:06.360 |
I said Michael Bubble, but it's Michael Buble. 00:12:08.600 |
I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I thought it was appropriate for the text 00:12:14.240 |
that we're looking at where he talks about missing home. 00:12:17.960 |
You know, "Another summer day has come and gone in Paris and Rome, but I want to go home. 00:12:24.520 |
To be surrounded by a million people, I still feel all alone. 00:12:30.120 |
Oh, I miss you, you know, until another winter day has come and gone away in either Paris 00:12:50.600 |
Obviously, it's a catchy tune, but, you know, that's one of the songs that I have on my 00:12:55.040 |
iPhone that when I'm flying and I'm away and I want to kind of block out the noise, that's 00:13:10.680 |
And so that song, to me, it kind of reminds me not only about my home in Irvine, but it 00:13:17.840 |
reminds me of the groaning in my heart that no matter where I am, that there is a longing 00:13:28.880 |
In Hebrews 4, 8 through 9, the author says, "If Joshua had given them rest," meaning, 00:13:37.040 |
as Joshua led the nation of Israel into the Promised Land, if Joshua gave them that rest 00:13:42.360 |
that they were looking for, he would not have spoken of another day after that. 00:13:46.260 |
So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 00:13:49.480 |
In other words, they were looking to go to the Promised Land because they thought they 00:13:53.360 |
were going home, but if that was truly their home, it would have been finished. 00:14:02.280 |
Hebrews 11, 13 to 14, these men and women of faith who wandered out and gave their lives, 00:14:08.400 |
if their desire was to be home to the Promised Land, many of them never made it. 00:14:17.740 |
This is what it says, "All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having 00:14:22.700 |
seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were 00:14:26.980 |
strangers and exiles on earth, for those who say such things make it clear that they are 00:14:35.160 |
Every single one of us, the scripture says, the Holy Spirit's been deposited and is groaning 00:14:43.260 |
What do you think the Holy Spirit is praying for us? 00:14:47.240 |
When he groans on our behalf, what do you think he's groaning on our behalf for? 00:14:55.580 |
So that you can live a little bit longer instead of dying at 30, that you died at 90? 00:14:59.820 |
What do you think he's primarily deposited in us for? 00:15:05.220 |
He's groaning to bring us to the Father, to actualize the salvation that was started when 00:15:11.940 |
we accepted Christ, and it's going to be fulfilled in glorification. 00:15:23.060 |
A Christian has the Holy Spirit constantly reminding us, "This is not your home." 00:15:31.980 |
And the frustration with Christians sometimes is that we try so hard to make this our home 00:15:38.660 |
when the scripture clearly keeps telling us, "This is not your home." 00:15:43.220 |
And we're jumping from relationship to relationship, from group to group, from event to event, 00:15:54.020 |
That's what Moses is trying to remind the nation of Israel. 00:16:00.300 |
You are going to have mountains around you, but that is not your rest. 00:16:09.180 |
Again that's why Paul says in Colossians 3, 1-4, "Therefore you have been raised with 00:16:16.420 |
He doesn't say you've been raised with Christ, now make the best of it on earth. 00:16:22.720 |
Now that you've been raised with Christ, now that you know that you're not from here, look 00:16:28.180 |
up where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 00:16:31.660 |
Set your mind to the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 00:16:35.080 |
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 00:16:38.080 |
When Christ was your life, our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in 00:16:43.940 |
In other words, our life, while we're here, will always feel like it's not our home, because 00:16:55.700 |
No matter how comfortable you are, no matter how financially well off you are, if you are 00:17:01.220 |
a born-again Christian and the Holy Spirit is indwelling in you, there will always be 00:17:06.620 |
a sense of discontent with this world, because it wasn't meant to be our home. 00:17:13.700 |
Just like the promised land for the nation of Israel was only to ultimately point to 00:17:23.780 |
It was to teach them about glory and the new heavens that are going to come, but it was 00:17:27.780 |
only a shadow, and that was not their reality. 00:17:32.220 |
Philippians 3.20, it says again, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also 00:17:35.940 |
we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." 00:17:47.060 |
In other words, before Egypt, during Egypt, and after Egypt, the Lord has always been 00:17:58.060 |
Crossing over this mountain is not going to get you to your home. 00:18:01.140 |
The Lord has been your refuge in all generations. 00:18:04.780 |
Before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from 00:18:11.420 |
To us, mountains are a place that we hike, and we go to the peak, and we take good selfies, 00:18:16.620 |
and we put it on our Instagram, and so we think of mountains as a beautiful place to 00:18:21.940 |
Think about what mountains were for them at that time. 00:18:26.580 |
Mountains were natural barriers to protect them from their enemies. 00:18:30.620 |
So if you look at the ancient civilizations, typically they are surrounded by natural walls 00:18:37.380 |
because it protected them from enemies so they could see them coming, you know, standing 00:18:42.020 |
up on the top, and even if they did come, they would have the higher position. 00:18:48.240 |
So for them, the mountains, Moses is on this side of the mountain looking, saying, "We're 00:18:52.860 |
going to cross over to the promised land," but he says, "Before the mountains were ever 00:19:03.320 |
Another thing that the mountain represented for the ancient people was that they believed 00:19:07.760 |
that if they climbed the mountains, that they would get higher, and they would be able to 00:19:13.200 |
So a lot of the idols, idol worshippers, set up temples and places in where? 00:19:20.360 |
And God told the nation of Israel that, "Do not worship me like the pagans do," and set 00:19:27.800 |
Because they thought that if they kept on climbing, that they would somehow get closer 00:19:31.640 |
So the mountain naturally represented to them a place of refuge and a place where they thought 00:19:37.580 |
that they could bring themselves higher and get closer to God. 00:19:41.760 |
And that's the context in which Moses is saying, "Before the mountains were born, you gave 00:19:47.800 |
The only reason why these mountains are even here is because the God who created it is 00:19:53.160 |
And the moment we forget that, and we begin to give credit to the creation rather than 00:20:01.200 |
Think about all the magnificent places that we visit, whether it's big cities or, you 00:20:05.720 |
know, again, you go to Beijing, they have the Great Wall. 00:20:08.440 |
Some of you guys may have been there multiple times. 00:20:11.600 |
We go there and people spend thousands of dollars to visit, to look at it, and be marveled 00:20:20.040 |
I've been there so many times because that's exactly what it looks like to me. 00:20:23.840 |
But it's man-made structure that, you know, like, what is that? 00:20:29.160 |
1,500 miles and 500 years to build, and then never acknowledging the mountain that it sits 00:20:39.280 |
It's the God behind the mountain and the man that God created who had the intellect and 00:20:45.520 |
the will to be able to put those stones together. 00:20:50.560 |
But like it says in Romans chapter 1, you know, that man's sin is we give credit to 00:20:58.600 |
We make creation our refuge rather than the one who created it. 00:21:03.860 |
And that's the first thing that he reminds the nation of Israel. 00:21:06.160 |
Before we get into the promised land, it is not sin to be comfortable. 00:21:18.000 |
But the moment that that becomes our refuge, the blessing that God has given us can easily 00:21:28.640 |
If we forget who God is, this promised land that he's taken us into can easily turn into 00:21:36.560 |
Second thing that he reminds us, man's fate is ultimately in God's hands. 00:21:42.240 |
He says, "You turn man back into dust and say, 'Return, O children of men.'" 00:21:46.680 |
In other words, God is in charge of your life. 00:21:51.000 |
You know, one of the most foolish teachings of this world, and every time you hear somebody 00:21:56.480 |
who's experienced any kind of success, do you have anything to say? 00:22:01.360 |
And they say, "Well, believe in yourself and you can do anything." 00:22:09.480 |
And usually, if you've lived long enough, you know, nobody believes that. 00:22:23.920 |
If you believe in yourself, you can achieve anything. 00:22:32.480 |
It's like, "Oh man, I want to be a little bit taller." 00:22:39.680 |
I mean, even when we make promises, "I'll see you tomorrow," right? 00:22:46.160 |
And from now until then, nothing's going to happen. 00:22:48.800 |
You're just kind of taking the probability of how things have been, and the possibility 00:22:57.840 |
That's not the best that we can do because we can't control what's going to happen. 00:23:02.380 |
So it's like, "I'll do my best to be there tomorrow." 00:23:09.000 |
To think that somehow we can control our destiny. 00:23:17.500 |
So the first thing that he says, "Remember who God is. 00:23:33.560 |
Think about how much of our frustration lies when we start to think, "Only if I had this. 00:23:43.260 |
Because if my circumstances were different, I would have more control over my fate." 00:23:49.340 |
And we forget that God is absolutely sovereign. 00:23:54.120 |
In John 10, 17, 18, "For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life 00:24:04.860 |
No human being can say, "I lay down my life and I take it back up when I please." 00:24:12.380 |
And when it's time for you to leave, you're not going to choose to leave either. 00:24:21.440 |
It is appointed for all men to die once, and after this comes judgment. 00:24:29.640 |
The reason why He's telling us all of this is as we are going in, they may be thinking 00:24:41.820 |
Now let's work hard and make something of our nation." 00:24:46.120 |
He's reminding them, "You don't have that power. 00:24:50.640 |
God is the only one who is absolutely sovereign." 00:24:53.960 |
That's why in Philippians chapter 4, 6 through 7, Paul says, "Be anxious for nothing, but 00:24:58.760 |
in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made 00:25:03.760 |
In other words, your anxiousness is because you haven't surrendered to God. 00:25:09.200 |
And why would you give Him thanks before He answers your prayer? 00:25:14.000 |
Because you're acknowledging that He is the one who has power over me. 00:25:18.120 |
Whatever circumstance you're in, how much of our anxiousness is because we don't have 00:25:26.680 |
When we think we're in control, if I do this and I put my money in this account and invest 00:25:32.120 |
If I switch jobs and do this and that, or, and we have all these things that we've well 00:25:36.800 |
planned and then all of a sudden you throw a wrench in that, and then we begin to get 00:25:45.240 |
But He says, "When you're anxious with everything, bring your prayers and supplication and thanksgiving 00:25:51.840 |
to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts 00:26:07.480 |
And until we recognize that, we do our best to live in rebellion against that, even when 00:26:15.840 |
Oftentimes our rebellion against God is not a shaking of fists before God. 00:26:20.200 |
It's small decisions that we make that have nothing to do with Him for the purpose of 00:26:25.320 |
making my life better, to have more control over my life. 00:26:28.720 |
I want you to see the two pictures, okay, if you can put that up. 00:26:38.040 |
Anybody know what the name of these things are? 00:26:48.240 |
There's a technical name for it, but we're not that sophisticated. 00:27:00.220 |
Did anybody have eggs and say, "Take the shell and you preserved it, and you put it into 00:27:09.840 |
It's how you take the yolk and the thing out. 00:27:21.480 |
It was trash before the artist put his hand on it, right? 00:27:26.160 |
And it was because the artist put his hand on it, and all of a sudden the trash became 00:27:34.080 |
The egg in itself, the egg in and of itself is trash. 00:27:38.160 |
It's because God put his touch on it, and that's the distinction between you and I and 00:27:47.080 |
God is the one who has the power to bring us from dust and to put us back into dust. 00:27:55.120 |
And the only reason why you and I are distinguished between the rest of the world is because God 00:28:03.960 |
And that's why the Bible describes our fallen rebellion as falling short of his glory, because 00:28:09.200 |
if his glory doesn't shine off of us, it's just trash. 00:28:15.620 |
So he's reminding us, he is our home, he is our refuge, and he is our creator. 00:28:29.240 |
So if you didn't understand, you couldn't relate with the egg. 00:28:35.160 |
It's just Pepsi can or Diet Pepsi can or Dr. Pepper, okay? 00:28:46.120 |
And to the right, it's Christmas season, so those are ornaments made out of cans, right? 00:28:52.160 |
Some of you are going to drink some soda today, and you're going to throw it into the trash 00:28:55.960 |
And if you're a really good citizen, you may redeem it for one cent, right? 00:29:05.840 |
Until somebody creative and talented put their hand on it and made it into that. 00:29:12.320 |
And that's what he's reminding the nation of Israel. 00:29:16.460 |
He brought you out of dust, and he can take you back into dust. 00:29:20.360 |
Isaiah 64, 8, "But now, O Lord, you are our father. 00:29:34.120 |
And that's why we have the greatest value, and we feel the most alive when his glory 00:29:41.480 |
Not our work, not our determination, not our intellect, not our experience, not our finances, 00:29:49.000 |
Third and finally, he says, "God is eternal." 00:29:53.120 |
God could be our refuge, and God could be sovereign, but if he is not eternal, he's 00:30:02.120 |
God, a thousand years is like yesterday when it passes by." 00:30:07.280 |
Second Peter 3, 8-9, "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that 00:30:11.800 |
with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 00:30:18.280 |
And then he says, "A thousand years is like a watch in the night." 00:30:23.520 |
You know, when I first read it, a watch in the night is like, "Hmm, a watch in the 00:30:35.160 |
A watch in the night is describing Jewish time that's divided into three parts, four 00:30:42.960 |
And so basically, they would say first watch would be the first four hours, second watch 00:30:46.440 |
would be the second four hours, and then they would do that again for the daytime. 00:30:50.480 |
First watch for the daytime, second, and third. 00:30:52.880 |
So that's why when you see Jesus' death, they'll describe it in first hour or second 00:30:58.360 |
They're not talking about six o'clock, seven o'clock. 00:31:04.800 |
So when he says, "A thousand years is like a watch in the night," think about when time 00:31:15.320 |
You ever get so tired and then you say, "Oh, I'm going to lie down for a minute," and 00:31:25.360 |
All the apartments that you've made, you had to pay your bills, and now you're going to 00:31:31.120 |
And you got a bunch of phone calls angry, right? 00:31:33.640 |
And you thought it was five minutes, but it passed by so quick. 00:31:37.320 |
That's what he's comparing time with for God. 00:31:40.720 |
That we just lie down and that watch at four hours in the middle of the night that nobody 00:31:45.200 |
Now if you're college students, you might be up during that time, but normal people 00:31:52.360 |
That's the time that we don't really think about. 00:31:55.360 |
You just lie down, and then during that time, then you just wake up at six, and you don't 00:31:59.560 |
think about two o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock, five o'clock. 00:32:02.560 |
That's what he's comparing to God because he is eternal. 00:32:11.360 |
But in comparison to God's sovereignty, he says in contrast to man, we are like floods 00:32:24.160 |
I mean, you've seen so many videos of what happened in Indonesia even recently. 00:32:30.680 |
And I've seen so many video clips about the tsunami that happened years ago where people 00:32:35.960 |
were just on the beach having fun, and all of a sudden, they see the water being stretched 00:32:39.680 |
out and you have videotapes of people like, "What's going on?" 00:32:54.040 |
James chapter 4, 13 to 15, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to 00:32:58.800 |
such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit,' 00:33:03.480 |
yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. 00:33:08.280 |
You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes." 00:33:12.120 |
God is eternal, and a thousand years to him is like a watch and a night, but for us, we're 00:33:19.600 |
We come in a short period of time and then we're gone. 00:33:31.960 |
Whether you die when you're in your 20s, whether you die in your 50s, whether you die in your 00:33:40.240 |
He's reminding them, in this short life, don't forget who God is because we don't know. 00:33:50.000 |
That's again, that's the temptation when we're young, that we make all these plans. 00:33:54.560 |
If I go to school and if I make enough money and if I buy a house and if I get married 00:33:58.240 |
and if I have kids and we make all of these plans, by the time you get to your 30s, 40s 00:34:02.960 |
and 50s, you realize that you don't have as much control as you think you do. 00:34:08.480 |
Then life passes by and then you try to teach your kids things that you've learned, but 00:34:19.000 |
I remember years ago, my father was sick and he was sick for over a year and a half before 00:34:29.400 |
We knew it was going to be, it could have been any month, it could have been a year, 00:34:34.880 |
But it took a year and a half just to slowly erode. 00:34:39.080 |
But I remember during that period, they had friends and they're about the same age and 00:34:45.400 |
the guy, my dad's friend was maybe about four or five years older than him. 00:34:50.800 |
And so whenever they would get together, they would always pray for my dad because my dad 00:34:58.520 |
And then they were the one always concerned about him. 00:35:01.440 |
And then one day we got news that he played a round of golf, came home, said, "Oh, I'm 00:35:26.400 |
And I remember even my father at the end of his life, he was so uncomfortable because 00:35:31.480 |
he knew that the end was coming, but it just wasn't coming. 00:35:38.600 |
And I remember when he was in the nursing home, he slipped into coma. 00:35:42.680 |
And then the nurses ran into the room and they revived him. 00:35:45.680 |
When he got revived, he wasn't like, "Oh, thank you so much." 00:35:57.000 |
He served God faithfully all these years, and then he knew that the next place that 00:36:00.520 |
he was going was much more comfortable where he is now. 00:36:03.940 |
And I remember thinking at that time, with all the modern medicine and technology that 00:36:08.240 |
we have, that the only thing that they could have done for him is to prolong his suffering. 00:36:14.000 |
And so we were, obviously, we're sad when he passed, but we're also glad because we 00:36:24.680 |
And that's the hope that we have for every Christian, every Christian that knows Christ. 00:36:38.480 |
And the sooner we believe that, sooner we pursue that, sooner we give all our energy 00:36:49.520 |
So whatever it is that you have planned for 2019, whatever it is that you want to put 00:36:54.440 |
behind 2018, my prayer that you would keep this in mind. 00:36:59.960 |
And I pray that God would bless you in your business. 00:37:05.320 |
I pray that some of these things that we're allowed to have in this life, that you would 00:37:13.200 |
But I also pray above all of that, every single one of us would find their home in 00:37:21.560 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us. 00:37:38.800 |
And seeking the Lord's blessing, whatever it is that you are pursuing, whatever you've 00:37:44.000 |
been frustrated with, again, if it had nothing to do with Christ, to take some time, come 00:37:51.960 |
Lord, it's been so hard with my family, my children, my circumstance. 00:37:59.200 |
But in the midst of all of this, let me remember that true life is coming and to look to Christ, 00:38:06.640 |
So let's take our time to pray as our worship team leads us.