WEBVTT 00:00.451 --> 00:10.639 [SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church, located in Plano, Texas, for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry, please visit citizenschurch.com. 00:12.981 --> 00:13.461 [SPEAKER_01]: Good morning. 00:13.481 --> 00:21.027 [SPEAKER_01]: If you have a Bible term to Psalm 90, and we're going to work through the entire Psalm this morning. 00:21.868 --> 00:24.410 [SPEAKER_01]: As you're turning there, if you're new to Citizens, welcome. 00:24.450 --> 00:27.212 [SPEAKER_01]: My name is Jayman, and I'm one of the pastors here. 00:30.957 --> 00:33.599 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's a prayer that I prayed this week. 00:33.719 --> 00:35.000 [SPEAKER_01]: It'll be on the screen behind me. 00:36.701 --> 00:42.925 [SPEAKER_01]: Father, time is something that you created, but does not combine you. 00:44.426 --> 00:48.709 [SPEAKER_01]: Our lives are finite with time stamps and expiration dates. 00:48.769 --> 00:54.933 [SPEAKER_01]: I ask first that you would help me think of the precious commodity of time with sober judgment. 00:56.054 --> 00:58.756 [SPEAKER_01]: Secondly, I ask for my child that you would teach them 01:00.666 --> 01:03.847 [SPEAKER_01]: and that they would have the wisdom to spend their time on this earth wisely. 01:05.087 --> 01:28.793 [SPEAKER_01]: I asked a third of you a certain awareness of the power of time, and that you would help me be a good steward of the time I have left, may time not intimidate, but instead motivate my child to act wisely and thoughtfully throughout their life, would my child be one in this generation, who uses their time to bring glory to you and blessing to others, 01:31.218 --> 01:39.906 [SPEAKER_01]: Many mornings look like this for me, I get up and sometimes others are up when I get up and sometimes I'm the first one up and I go to make coffee. 01:39.946 --> 01:49.555 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a whole process that only the initiated will care about, but at the end of the coffee-making process as I wait for liquid grace to drain into the caraf. 01:50.156 --> 01:53.759 [SPEAKER_01]: I grab a small prayer book called Sewing a Hidden Seed. 01:54.723 --> 02:01.745 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a book of prayers for parents, helping parents know what to pray and how to pray for their children. 02:01.765 --> 02:02.705 [SPEAKER_01]: I haven't been doing this long. 02:02.725 --> 02:06.286 [SPEAKER_01]: I got the book from a friend about a month ago, and I've been doing it ever since. 02:07.786 --> 02:11.467 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's a true, I love my children to pieces. 02:11.728 --> 02:12.888 [SPEAKER_01]: I just love them so much. 02:13.528 --> 02:15.669 [SPEAKER_01]: And I want things for their life that I can't control. 02:17.489 --> 02:36.003 [SPEAKER_01]: I want things for their life that I get in the way of and so I need help knowing what to pray and how to pray for my kids and so I sit down and I read through the prayer book and then just for a moment I'll add kind of my own words to the prayer and guided by this book over the last you know 20 or so days I have prayed for my children to become like Christ. 02:36.743 --> 02:44.770 [SPEAKER_01]: I've prayed for their mental health, and I have prayed for their wounds in their lives that will need healing in the future, and I've prayed for their future spouse. 02:44.830 --> 02:48.234 [SPEAKER_01]: If God has that plan for them, and I've prayed for their prayer life. 02:48.254 --> 02:53.899 [SPEAKER_01]: And as the book has guided me, I've prayed for things that I've been praying, and I've prayed for things that I've never thought to pray. 02:55.007 --> 03:09.190 [SPEAKER_01]: On Tuesday, I got up, took the kids to school, came home, made the coffee, and I opened a prayer 21 in the book, and it's the prayer that I just read, praying that my children would have a wise relationship to time. 03:09.751 --> 03:19.673 [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know that without the book, I would have prayed a prayer like that, but in reading the prayer and then praying the prayer, I immediately felt the need for a prayer like that. 03:20.546 --> 03:37.592 [SPEAKER_01]: I asked if there would be a certain awareness of the power of time that you would help me be a good steward of the time I have left, may time not intimidate, but instead motivate my child to act wisely and thoughtfully would my child be one in this generation who uses their time to bring glory to you and blessings to others. 03:37.672 --> 03:42.794 [SPEAKER_01]: Parents, wouldn't you want God to answer that prayer for your kids? 03:44.535 --> 03:44.935 [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone. 03:45.909 --> 04:01.175 [SPEAKER_01]: Wouldn't you want God to answer that prayer for you that you would be one in a generation that uses your time in such a way that the seconds of your day, the days of your life are a blessing to others in an honor to God? 04:01.195 --> 04:05.856 [SPEAKER_01]: We need prayers like this because we all live in time and we measure our lives by time. 04:05.936 --> 04:10.038 [SPEAKER_01]: We think about time, we talk about time and largely we have 04:10.778 --> 04:14.081 [SPEAKER_01]: a bit of a dysfunctional broken relationship to time. 04:14.141 --> 04:16.963 [SPEAKER_01]: Our cliches tell the story, I'm running out of time. 04:18.144 --> 04:19.064 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't have enough time. 04:19.965 --> 04:21.206 [SPEAKER_01]: There aren't enough hours in the day. 04:22.287 --> 04:26.170 [SPEAKER_01]: And so we talk about time as this diminishing resource. 04:26.230 --> 04:27.771 [SPEAKER_01]: It's something that we have. 04:28.251 --> 04:31.794 [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have as much as we used to and what we do have, we're running out of. 04:32.975 --> 04:34.756 [SPEAKER_01]: We think of the future with fear, 04:35.832 --> 04:37.653 [SPEAKER_01]: What will happen in the time that is coming? 04:38.393 --> 04:40.094 [SPEAKER_01]: We think of the past with regret. 04:40.254 --> 04:42.494 [SPEAKER_01]: I wish I could go back in time and do things differently. 04:42.534 --> 04:45.715 [SPEAKER_01]: We feel guilt or shame about the amount of time that we squander. 04:45.916 --> 04:52.478 [SPEAKER_01]: We live in an ironic time where we are mindful that we never have enough time. 04:52.518 --> 04:54.519 [SPEAKER_01]: And we talk about all the time that we wish we had. 04:54.539 --> 04:58.520 [SPEAKER_01]: And yet at the same time, we have found all these new ways to waste time. 04:59.690 --> 05:07.579 [SPEAKER_01]: Some of us are at an age where we feel the passing of time in our bodies, and we're asking how much time do I have left. 05:07.619 --> 05:09.441 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the Theologian named James Mays. 05:10.503 --> 05:17.831 [SPEAKER_01]: He says that this way time is the medium of our mortality, and so the favorite focus of our folly. 05:18.705 --> 05:23.406 [SPEAKER_01]: The young think they're immortal, the old despair because their time is over. 05:24.186 --> 05:32.348 [SPEAKER_01]: Time is a burden when we have to wait, a scarcity when we are busy, it is the source of anxiety, illusion, and remorse. 05:33.609 --> 05:35.309 [SPEAKER_01]: We're several weeks into our made series. 05:35.329 --> 05:37.810 [SPEAKER_01]: We're coming to the end of our false series. 05:38.750 --> 05:45.391 [SPEAKER_01]: We've been talking about what it means to be human and how we're recovering our humanity through the person and work of Jesus Christ. 05:45.431 --> 05:46.912 [SPEAKER_01]: This morning, we're gonna consider time. 05:48.111 --> 05:50.932 [SPEAKER_01]: and the way that we relate to the time that we've been given. 05:51.593 --> 05:53.494 [SPEAKER_01]: There is a way to not fear it. 05:53.774 --> 05:55.334 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a way to not waste it. 05:55.514 --> 05:59.316 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a way to not think about it with regret or carelessness. 05:59.336 --> 06:01.097 [SPEAKER_01]: Psalm 90's gonna be our guide this morning. 06:01.597 --> 06:05.119 [SPEAKER_01]: Psalm 90's a very well-known Psalm, at least the verse that General Red is pretty well-known. 06:05.159 --> 06:12.262 [SPEAKER_01]: It was written by Moses, which if you had asked me before studying this week, I never would have guessed it was written by Moses. 06:12.282 --> 06:15.043 [SPEAKER_01]: He didn't write many Psalms, but this is one that he wrote. 06:17.442 --> 06:37.956 [SPEAKER_01]: as you read it is it's pretty it's a pretty moody song parts of it are pretty harsh it's the most ecclesiasties sounding of all the songs and we don't know when Moses wrote it but many people think it was during the wilderness years of Israel because a few decades in the desert will make you say some pretty depressing things about time 06:38.917 --> 06:47.446 [SPEAKER_01]: One commentator summarizes that this way, its great theme is the pain of time-bound mortal creatures. 06:47.526 --> 06:55.674 [SPEAKER_01]: So the Psalm is about the pain of living time-bound transient lives where we can't escape our own mortality. 06:56.782 --> 07:02.444 [SPEAKER_01]: So it's very honest, and I'm helped by its honesty, but it's not hopeless, so stay with me. 07:02.924 --> 07:04.284 [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm 90 versus one and two. 07:04.344 --> 07:05.345 [SPEAKER_01]: It starts at a high note. 07:05.425 --> 07:08.886 [SPEAKER_01]: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 07:09.866 --> 07:14.308 [SPEAKER_01]: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth in the world. 07:14.448 --> 07:20.710 [SPEAKER_01]: Hear this about our God, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. 07:21.988 --> 07:24.490 [SPEAKER_01]: After the sermon this morning, we're singing one of my favorite songs. 07:24.690 --> 07:26.211 [SPEAKER_01]: I've sung it since I was in high school. 07:26.772 --> 07:28.032 [SPEAKER_01]: One of the lines goes like this. 07:28.353 --> 07:35.117 [SPEAKER_01]: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. 07:36.018 --> 07:39.240 [SPEAKER_01]: In the first few verses of the song, we're singing that kind of song. 07:39.260 --> 07:41.662 [SPEAKER_01]: They're celebrating that reality about God. 07:41.722 --> 07:44.364 [SPEAKER_01]: From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. 07:44.824 --> 07:46.886 [SPEAKER_01]: God is not time-bought. 07:47.829 --> 07:49.870 [SPEAKER_01]: God exists outside of time. 07:50.510 --> 07:56.211 [SPEAKER_01]: God was God before time, God made time, and God will be God long after time is no more. 07:56.891 --> 08:00.532 [SPEAKER_01]: And if that's all we knew about God, it would make him worthy of worship and obedience. 08:00.552 --> 08:10.455 [SPEAKER_01]: Like to be from everlasting, to everlasting, means God is not just outside of time, but in every moment of time, while also being transcendent. 08:11.035 --> 08:13.195 [SPEAKER_01]: So here are a couple of super smart people on this. 08:14.156 --> 08:14.936 [SPEAKER_01]: God's eternity, 08:15.926 --> 08:26.211 [SPEAKER_01]: does not stand abstract and transcendent above time, but is present and imminent in every moment of time, in every second beats the heartbeat of eternity. 08:26.992 --> 08:40.219 [SPEAKER_01]: This one, to God, time is like a great canvas spread before him every moment of which he can take in simultaneously to him, all times are present. 08:41.613 --> 08:43.434 [SPEAKER_01]: That breaks my brain just a bit. 08:44.095 --> 08:48.137 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, what does it mean that to God all times or present? 08:48.318 --> 08:51.780 [SPEAKER_01]: I tried really hard to think of a way to illustrate this and I couldn't. 08:52.200 --> 08:55.062 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm pretty sure what I came up with was actually heresy, so I didn't use it. 08:55.542 --> 08:56.063 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I know. 08:57.857 --> 09:04.599 [SPEAKER_01]: The God who can take every moment in all at the same time is worthy of adoration and affection. 09:05.359 --> 09:10.301 [SPEAKER_01]: Ever lasting, to everlasting, immortal, transcendent God. 09:10.681 --> 09:12.702 [SPEAKER_01]: That is a stunning truth about God. 09:13.482 --> 09:19.451 [SPEAKER_01]: And that was made, that reality about God was made to be a blessing to humanity. 09:20.292 --> 09:25.579 [SPEAKER_01]: It was made to be something that is always and only celebrated by humanity. 09:25.639 --> 09:29.905 [SPEAKER_01]: So Moses says about that eternal God, you have been our dwelling place. 09:30.486 --> 09:31.347 [SPEAKER_01]: in all generations. 09:31.387 --> 09:42.895 [SPEAKER_01]: If it's true that he's writing in the desert, he's writing in exile, he's writing about God and he's saying that God, you are a home for us, you are a refuge to us and that must have been a comfort to him in that moment to talk about God as an eternal home. 09:43.215 --> 09:47.358 [SPEAKER_01]: But he's naming something that we see in Genesis 1 and 2 that we've talked about several times throughout this series. 09:47.778 --> 09:50.200 [SPEAKER_01]: God creates and he makes time. 09:51.381 --> 09:56.625 [SPEAKER_01]: The refrain throughout the creation story is there was mourning and there is evening the first day. 09:57.372 --> 10:05.444 [SPEAKER_01]: There was mourning, and there was evening, the second day, there was mourning, and there was evening, the third day, God created a temporal creation. 10:06.065 --> 10:11.774 [SPEAKER_01]: And Adam and Eve are made in time, but they're made to age and mature. 10:12.595 --> 10:15.157 [SPEAKER_01]: As time passes, it's not a threat to them. 10:15.357 --> 10:17.939 [SPEAKER_01]: Only good comes from the passing of time. 10:18.240 --> 10:22.643 [SPEAKER_01]: Because eternal God has made humanity with him to live in a forever home. 10:22.763 --> 10:25.546 [SPEAKER_01]: And so time is not something to fear or regret. 10:25.846 --> 10:27.527 [SPEAKER_01]: Time is not a diminishing resource. 10:28.888 --> 10:30.810 [SPEAKER_01]: If sin had never entered God's world. 10:32.195 --> 10:37.158 [SPEAKER_01]: If sin had never distorted our relationship to time, verse three would read something like this. 10:38.019 --> 10:39.339 [SPEAKER_01]: Humanity lives with you forever. 10:40.060 --> 10:42.381 [SPEAKER_01]: With each passing day, we enjoy more of your presence. 10:43.042 --> 10:48.045 [SPEAKER_01]: Our bodies and souls age in righteousness, holiness and purity, without threat, of decay or death. 10:48.425 --> 10:53.228 [SPEAKER_01]: You are our dwelling place for all generations, and that's how it will always be. 10:53.288 --> 10:56.870 [SPEAKER_01]: That's what verse three would have read, if sin had never entered the world. 10:58.151 --> 10:59.451 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's what verse three actually says. 11:03.525 --> 11:10.646 [SPEAKER_01]: You say return, oh, children who man for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday, when it's passed as a watch in the night. 11:10.746 --> 11:14.007 [SPEAKER_01]: So one and two, he's celebrating the eternality of God. 11:14.807 --> 11:16.968 [SPEAKER_01]: And then in verse three, something shifts. 11:17.788 --> 11:22.749 [SPEAKER_01]: Before sin, humanity related to God's eternality is a safe home, a dwelling place for all generations. 11:23.169 --> 11:31.431 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, it's the fact that God is everlasting, is the sobering standard by which we see 11:33.552 --> 11:34.093 [SPEAKER_01]: our lives are. 11:35.274 --> 11:40.238 [SPEAKER_01]: Instead of dwelling forever, we return dust, which is a euphemism for death. 11:40.879 --> 11:54.171 [SPEAKER_01]: So we're made to live forever where time serves to only measure how blessed life is, sin leads to death, and now time serves to mock how short life is. 11:55.112 --> 11:56.053 [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, what we mean to these verses. 11:56.093 --> 11:58.776 [SPEAKER_01]: What Moses does from here is broken into two different things. 11:58.816 --> 12:00.799 [SPEAKER_01]: Moses laments two things in a broken world. 12:00.839 --> 12:04.984 [SPEAKER_01]: In verses three through six, he laments our mortality. 12:06.105 --> 12:09.669 [SPEAKER_01]: In verses seven through eleven, he laments our immorality. 12:10.590 --> 12:11.331 [SPEAKER_01]: Let's see this briefly. 12:11.551 --> 12:12.773 [SPEAKER_01]: I know it's not what we want. 12:13.093 --> 12:14.174 [SPEAKER_01]: I know it's not what we want. 12:15.143 --> 12:16.984 [SPEAKER_01]: but let's sit in the bad news for a moment. 12:17.624 --> 12:18.564 [SPEAKER_01]: It'll be the best part of your day. 12:19.265 --> 12:28.428 [SPEAKER_01]: You return man to dust and you receive return out children of man for a thousand years in your sight or but as yesterday when it's past or as a watch in the night, you sweep them away as with a flood. 12:28.548 --> 12:37.451 [SPEAKER_01]: They're like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning and in the morning it flourishes and is renewed and in the evening it fades in withers. 12:38.151 --> 12:42.093 [SPEAKER_01]: A thousand years would be a very, very, very long time to live. 12:43.077 --> 12:47.640 [SPEAKER_01]: to God a thousand years is like a watch in the night, which isn't even the whole night. 12:47.660 --> 12:48.740 [SPEAKER_01]: It's just a portion of the night. 12:49.641 --> 12:59.206 [SPEAKER_01]: The point is, even the life that is ten times longer than the oldest person we've ever heard of, that life is just a portion of an evening to God. 13:00.348 --> 13:02.470 [SPEAKER_01]: And then you get these three images just to make the point. 13:02.490 --> 13:03.911 [SPEAKER_01]: You sweep them away as with a flood. 13:03.931 --> 13:08.034 [SPEAKER_01]: They're like a dream, like grass that's renewed in the morning, and the morning it flourishes, and is renewed. 13:08.395 --> 13:12.798 [SPEAKER_01]: And the evening it fades, and withers life as a flood, life as a dream, life as grass. 13:14.059 --> 13:15.480 [SPEAKER_01]: A flood is sudden and short. 13:16.501 --> 13:19.544 [SPEAKER_01]: It comes on unexpected, and then the waters are seed, and it's gone. 13:20.504 --> 13:21.885 [SPEAKER_01]: What do you remember about your last dream? 13:23.071 --> 13:24.693 [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's true that we dream every night. 13:25.434 --> 13:30.399 [SPEAKER_01]: I have a recurring dream that I get a letter in the mail from my high school telling me I didn't finish a class. 13:31.881 --> 13:35.205 [SPEAKER_01]: But it's been so long that none of my other classes count now. 13:35.605 --> 13:37.708 [SPEAKER_01]: So I have to start all over again like Billy Madison. 13:38.849 --> 13:39.449 [SPEAKER_01]: I know it's weird. 13:39.769 --> 13:42.831 [SPEAKER_01]: I know you probably know that means something about this heart. 13:43.251 --> 13:45.192 [SPEAKER_01]: I would go to counseling, but I don't have time. 13:45.832 --> 13:48.834 [SPEAKER_01]: It happens that dream happens often enough that I remember it. 13:48.914 --> 13:50.774 [SPEAKER_01]: It's one of the only dreams I ever remember. 13:50.855 --> 13:55.797 [SPEAKER_01]: Most dreams, the details are pretty foggy and it certainly didn't feel like it lasts very long. 13:56.357 --> 14:02.600 [SPEAKER_01]: Life, like dreams, are short, confusing, and not very memorable. 14:03.683 --> 14:07.165 [SPEAKER_01]: grass, flourishes in the morning, and then whithers in the evening. 14:07.205 --> 14:10.207 [SPEAKER_01]: So the idea is not here today gone tomorrow. 14:10.367 --> 14:14.049 [SPEAKER_01]: The idea is life is here today gone later today. 14:14.309 --> 14:15.110 [SPEAKER_01]: That's how quick it is. 14:15.970 --> 14:16.630 [SPEAKER_01]: Life is short. 14:17.291 --> 14:18.572 [SPEAKER_01]: And he's saying this, not about... 14:19.352 --> 14:23.875 [SPEAKER_01]: He's saying this not about lives that are cut too short, like those that die young. 14:23.935 --> 14:30.039 [SPEAKER_01]: Later, he's going to talk about the length of life of 70 or 80 years that someone can live. 14:30.440 --> 14:34.563 [SPEAKER_01]: So he's talking about those who live what we'd call a full life, who got a lot of years. 14:34.683 --> 14:36.404 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the point in a world. 14:37.348 --> 14:50.935 [SPEAKER_01]: where we were made by an eternal God to find eternal home with God and to spend our days and months and years in the presence of God unthreatened by the passing of time because of sin every single life is cut too short. 14:51.796 --> 14:54.217 [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone, everyone dies too young. 14:55.178 --> 15:02.842 [SPEAKER_01]: Because we're made, not for time to bring us closer and closer to death, but we were made for time to bring us closer and closer to God. 15:03.802 --> 15:04.583 [SPEAKER_01]: We should live forever. 15:07.173 --> 15:13.175 [SPEAKER_01]: If we make time to think about this, we know intrinsically that we should live forever. 15:13.696 --> 15:19.778 [SPEAKER_01]: Even those who are at an age when they're ready to go, that is often because time has done cruel work on the body. 15:20.378 --> 15:27.301 [SPEAKER_01]: But our life, that our life ends is not how God made it in the beginning. 15:28.902 --> 15:30.622 [SPEAKER_01]: And these Moses is just putting words to that. 15:31.203 --> 15:31.983 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, look at verse seven. 15:33.745 --> 15:37.347 [SPEAKER_01]: For we're brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath, we're dismayed. 15:37.367 --> 15:39.068 [SPEAKER_01]: You've set our iniquities before you. 15:39.088 --> 15:39.869 [SPEAKER_01]: This is terrifying. 15:40.369 --> 15:43.631 [SPEAKER_01]: Our secret sins in the light of your presence. 15:45.032 --> 15:52.096 [SPEAKER_01]: For all our days pass away under your wrath, we bring our years to an end like a sigh, the years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength, 80. 15:52.777 --> 15:56.859 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet their span is but toil and trouble, they are soon gone and we fly away. 15:57.619 --> 15:59.881 [SPEAKER_01]: Who considers the power of your anger 16:04.281 --> 16:08.185 [SPEAKER_01]: A song 90's a popular song in like liturgical books. 16:09.526 --> 16:12.489 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a very popular song that's read at like grave sites. 16:13.730 --> 16:22.178 [SPEAKER_01]: Many, prayer books completely leave out the verses we just read because of how confrontational they are, who considers the power of your anger. 16:22.198 --> 16:24.460 [SPEAKER_01]: That's just not the right mood for every situation. 16:25.141 --> 16:28.344 [SPEAKER_01]: These verses are so important. 16:29.727 --> 16:39.854 [SPEAKER_01]: What Moses has just done is he laments our mortality, and then here he laments our immorality because those two are really heated. 16:39.874 --> 16:44.477 [SPEAKER_01]: I cannot live a long life. 16:44.497 --> 16:46.338 [SPEAKER_01]: I cannot live a good life. 16:47.679 --> 16:49.501 [SPEAKER_01]: Death is the punishment for sin. 16:49.561 --> 16:51.902 [SPEAKER_01]: The wages of sin is death as what Roman says. 16:52.463 --> 16:57.306 [SPEAKER_01]: Meaning this, we deserve short lives. 16:58.862 --> 17:00.283 [SPEAKER_01]: And these verses don't mince words. 17:00.323 --> 17:11.652 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, look, I know that we could probably objectively compare our lives to other people that we know and think we are living a better life than other people that we know who've lived worse lives than us. 17:11.872 --> 17:13.714 [SPEAKER_01]: That's probably just objectively true. 17:13.934 --> 17:14.375 [SPEAKER_01]: But here's this. 17:15.055 --> 17:22.721 [SPEAKER_01]: You have set our iniquities before you are secret sins and a lot of your presence who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you. 17:22.741 --> 17:24.042 [SPEAKER_01]: The Bible makes this point in a lot of ways. 17:24.482 --> 17:26.484 [SPEAKER_01]: We could name the sins that we all agree are awful. 17:26.524 --> 17:29.526 [SPEAKER_01]: We could name the sins like murder and stealing and adultery. 17:29.887 --> 17:38.133 [SPEAKER_01]: We could name the source of our sin ultimately as idolatry and talk about the ways that we worship things that are not God, like we worship power and control and comfort and approval. 17:38.153 --> 17:44.318 [SPEAKER_01]: But just in light of this song, everyone is included in this and light of the song. 17:45.109 --> 17:53.996 [SPEAKER_01]: What if you simply stand before God and have to give an account for the way you've used all the time you've been given? 17:55.477 --> 18:02.102 [SPEAKER_01]: And our sins are set before Him, even our secret sins, exposing His Holy Presence. 18:03.543 --> 18:11.829 [SPEAKER_01]: And when God has every second of our life in front of Him, could we say about could you say about every second that was time-lust then? 18:15.437 --> 18:25.305 [SPEAKER_01]: No seconds of selfishness, no seconds of judgmentalism, pride, unrighteous anger, not a single second of envy or jealousy or bitterness. 18:25.625 --> 18:28.087 [SPEAKER_01]: If to live longer, you had to plead your case. 18:28.167 --> 18:33.432 [SPEAKER_01]: If to live longer, you had to meet the standard that every second was morally good. 18:34.452 --> 18:34.993 [SPEAKER_01]: How would you do? 18:37.195 --> 18:37.755 [SPEAKER_01]: I'll speak for me. 18:39.036 --> 18:40.017 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like my chances. 18:41.182 --> 18:47.404 [SPEAKER_01]: Not only do I not, not only do I not like my chances for the years I've lived, I don't even like my chances for yesterday. 18:48.204 --> 18:56.406 [SPEAKER_01]: In the presence of God who can take in, who can take in all moments, all at the same time, and who sees my secrets, I am quite undone. 18:57.486 --> 19:06.509 [SPEAKER_01]: In the presence of eternal Holy God everlasting to everlasting, our lives are short and our lives fall short. 19:07.419 --> 19:12.161 [SPEAKER_01]: We are tragically mortal because we are tragically immoral. 19:13.042 --> 19:18.064 [SPEAKER_01]: So look at verse 12, it says this, there is no hope everyone is doomed. 19:19.264 --> 19:19.785 [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't say that. 19:22.166 --> 19:26.708 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse 12, distract us from our number days that we may get a heart of coping and folly. 19:28.308 --> 19:28.869 [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't say that. 19:30.449 --> 19:34.171 [SPEAKER_01]: Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of fear, dread, regret, and despair. 19:37.048 --> 19:37.888 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's what it actually says. 19:38.969 --> 19:42.471 [SPEAKER_01]: Teach us the number our days that we make it a heart of wisdom. 19:43.312 --> 19:44.272 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, that doesn't follow. 19:45.933 --> 19:49.655 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse 12 does not follow from verses 3 through 11. 19:50.175 --> 19:51.516 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a dramatic turn. 19:52.657 --> 19:54.338 [SPEAKER_01]: He's lamenting mortality. 19:54.378 --> 19:55.979 [SPEAKER_01]: He's lamenting immorality. 19:55.999 --> 19:58.020 [SPEAKER_01]: And all of the things says, give us wisdom. 19:59.414 --> 20:00.816 [SPEAKER_01]: So hope enters the prayer. 20:01.376 --> 20:07.843 [SPEAKER_01]: It's no longer limiting mortality and immorality, but asking that time would forge heart level wisdom. 20:08.384 --> 20:11.067 [SPEAKER_01]: And he substantiates that prayer with what he says next. 20:11.107 --> 20:12.848 [SPEAKER_01]: Listen to how the language changes. 20:13.369 --> 20:16.332 [SPEAKER_01]: Return, oh Lord, remember that? 20:17.285 --> 20:18.826 [SPEAKER_01]: How long have pity on your servants? 20:19.247 --> 20:23.630 [SPEAKER_01]: Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 20:24.051 --> 20:28.435 [SPEAKER_01]: Make us glad for as many days as you've afflicted us and for as many years as we've seen evil. 20:28.815 --> 20:32.898 [SPEAKER_01]: Let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children. 20:33.219 --> 20:37.963 [SPEAKER_01]: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. 20:38.043 --> 20:40.245 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, establish the work. 20:40.885 --> 20:41.625 [SPEAKER_01]: of our hands. 20:42.426 --> 20:43.326 [SPEAKER_01]: It's quite the contrast. 20:43.346 --> 20:44.627 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to show you the contrast. 20:44.667 --> 20:45.708 [SPEAKER_01]: It'll be on the screen behind me. 20:46.388 --> 20:48.810 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse 3, we are called, the children of man. 20:49.850 --> 20:51.731 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse 13 called, Servants of God. 20:52.512 --> 20:55.153 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse 7, we're brought to an end by God's anger. 20:55.193 --> 20:58.195 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse 14, we are satisfied by God's steadfast love. 20:58.936 --> 21:01.057 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse 10, our years are toil and trouble. 21:01.077 --> 21:03.138 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse 15, we're glad all our days. 21:03.738 --> 21:05.599 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse 11, we're under God's wrath. 21:05.900 --> 21:09.682 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse 17, we are kept by God's favor. 21:10.516 --> 21:12.557 [SPEAKER_01]: Those are very different perspectives on life. 21:12.597 --> 21:15.219 [SPEAKER_01]: Those are different views on God and self and death. 21:15.539 --> 21:24.765 [SPEAKER_01]: And time, if I asked for a show of hands, which one you'd prefer, you would say sign me up for servants of God, satisfied and steadfast love, glad all our days kept by God's favor. 21:24.785 --> 21:25.525 [SPEAKER_01]: What's the difference? 21:26.946 --> 21:29.368 [SPEAKER_01]: The word return is used twice in the Psalm. 21:30.941 --> 21:36.104 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's the difference between those who have a foolish relationship with time and those who can have a wise relationship with time. 21:36.624 --> 21:44.068 [SPEAKER_01]: And verse 3 starts with return, man, to the dust, and verse 13, return, O, Lord. 21:45.289 --> 21:47.210 [SPEAKER_01]: The word Lord is the covenant name of God. 21:47.934 --> 21:53.537 [SPEAKER_01]: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who pledges steadfast, never failing, always and forever low to his people. 21:53.937 --> 22:01.000 [SPEAKER_01]: And so Moses here, the prayer changes because Moses appeals to relationship with covenant God. 22:01.801 --> 22:13.386 [SPEAKER_01]: The God who returns man to the dust has not left us there, but that God in love has returned to us, relented, has made a way for us to be made right with him. 22:13.846 --> 22:14.847 [SPEAKER_01]: And we, Christians, 22:16.290 --> 22:21.093 [SPEAKER_01]: We pray this Psalm and understand this Psalm through the lens of Christ. 22:21.634 --> 22:25.897 [SPEAKER_01]: You know something now that Moses did not know when he first wrote this. 22:27.298 --> 22:31.561 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus has come and Jesus has restored verse 1. 22:32.361 --> 22:35.304 [SPEAKER_01]: He is our dwelling place in all generations. 22:35.884 --> 22:37.725 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to tell you some very good news. 22:38.946 --> 22:39.687 [SPEAKER_01]: The Son of God. 22:40.655 --> 22:47.437 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus wrapped in mortal flesh, lived every second of his life, right, justly. 22:48.178 --> 22:50.558 [SPEAKER_01]: He had no sins, not even secret ones. 22:51.439 --> 22:55.120 [SPEAKER_01]: He was crucified, and then he was returned to the dust in death. 22:55.540 --> 23:07.064 [SPEAKER_01]: But instead of being like a flood, or like a dream, or like grass, here for a moment, and gone, he rose again in glorified resurrection, immortal, imperishable, undefiable. 23:11.570 --> 23:18.396 [SPEAKER_01]: And he invites all, all, grew up in church, first time to step foot in a church. 23:18.916 --> 23:24.180 [SPEAKER_01]: He invites all who turned to him by repentance and faith to share in that kind of life. 23:25.121 --> 23:31.446 [SPEAKER_01]: With Christ, what that means is, your life is temporal and your life is eternal. 23:31.766 --> 23:34.889 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to show you this image has helped me, so I'm a visual learner. 23:35.629 --> 23:38.492 [SPEAKER_01]: Your life Christian now exists on two different timelines. 23:38.512 --> 23:39.513 [SPEAKER_01]: It'll be on the screen behind me. 23:40.443 --> 23:42.365 [SPEAKER_01]: Your life is temporal. 23:43.105 --> 23:47.329 [SPEAKER_01]: The bookins of your temporal life are your birth and your death. 23:48.289 --> 23:53.854 [SPEAKER_01]: But as a Christian, the moment that you believe in Christ, your life is also eternal. 23:54.474 --> 23:59.098 [SPEAKER_01]: So from your conversion, all the way to resurrection and eternal life with Christ. 23:59.598 --> 24:02.921 [SPEAKER_01]: So temporal life begins at birth, your days are numbered and that ends at death. 24:02.981 --> 24:07.705 [SPEAKER_01]: But when you come a Christian, you know metaphor Jesus uses to talk about your conversion, 24:11.051 --> 24:15.153 [SPEAKER_01]: because we are born again into eternal life, the moment that Christ saves you. 24:15.213 --> 24:18.534 [SPEAKER_01]: Eternal life for the Christian is not something that starts when you die. 24:18.594 --> 24:20.495 [SPEAKER_01]: It's something that starts when you first believe. 24:21.335 --> 24:22.496 [SPEAKER_01]: And we talked about this a few weeks ago. 24:22.516 --> 24:24.936 [SPEAKER_01]: When you do die, your soul goes to be with Jesus. 24:24.977 --> 24:26.277 [SPEAKER_01]: You wait for Jesus to return. 24:26.637 --> 24:30.119 [SPEAKER_01]: When Jesus returns, your soul and your body are reunited in resurrection. 24:30.459 --> 24:36.821 [SPEAKER_01]: And you live just like Christ as body and soul never to die again forever and ever, amen. 24:37.181 --> 24:38.422 [SPEAKER_01]: You live now, Christian. 24:39.485 --> 24:42.507 [SPEAKER_01]: Your life is being played out in those overlapping timelines. 24:43.627 --> 24:49.590 [SPEAKER_01]: If you're a believer in Jesus, your life is being lived between, right now, conversion and death. 24:50.050 --> 24:53.172 [SPEAKER_01]: The eternal timeline does not mean we should ignore the temporal. 24:54.433 --> 24:58.136 [SPEAKER_01]: The temporal timeline should be infused with the hope of the eternal. 24:58.316 --> 24:59.337 [SPEAKER_01]: So here's my point. 24:59.717 --> 25:02.660 [SPEAKER_01]: But longing to Christ changes our relationship to time. 25:03.000 --> 25:05.402 [SPEAKER_01]: You're not to be afraid of number days. 25:06.063 --> 25:07.964 [SPEAKER_01]: You're not to be careless with the time you have. 25:08.144 --> 25:10.226 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to regret or squander. 25:10.647 --> 25:19.454 [SPEAKER_01]: Our relationship to time as those living in the double timeline of temporal and eternal can be marked by one word, wisdom. 25:21.085 --> 25:26.008 [SPEAKER_01]: teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 25:26.068 --> 25:27.790 [SPEAKER_01]: The best way I know to draw this out. 25:28.665 --> 25:32.688 [SPEAKER_01]: is to go back to a passage that we've talked about a few times in the past few years. 25:32.748 --> 25:38.113 [SPEAKER_01]: Ecclesiastes 7, 1 and 2, it is blunt and it's bluntness helps me. 25:38.833 --> 25:43.437 [SPEAKER_01]: A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death better than the day of birth. 25:44.138 --> 25:51.564 [SPEAKER_01]: It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting for this is the end of all mankind and the living will lay it to heart. 25:52.384 --> 25:54.086 [SPEAKER_01]: I went to a baby shower last weekend. 25:55.707 --> 26:00.808 [SPEAKER_01]: We looked at the picture of the sonogram, and we talked about who we thought the baby looked like, mom or dad. 26:02.128 --> 26:03.569 [SPEAKER_01]: Karen, I walked into the nursery. 26:04.529 --> 26:08.450 [SPEAKER_01]: It was just the most perfect little girl pink you could imagine. 26:09.050 --> 26:10.290 [SPEAKER_01]: And the room was being readied. 26:10.910 --> 26:14.971 [SPEAKER_01]: In the conversation at this baby shower is excitement for the future. 26:16.111 --> 26:19.212 [SPEAKER_01]: The day of birth is a wonderful thing. 26:20.512 --> 26:23.593 [SPEAKER_01]: I officiated, I've officiated two funerals in the last two months. 26:27.005 --> 26:28.607 [SPEAKER_01]: different experience than the baby shower. 26:29.808 --> 26:33.492 [SPEAKER_01]: The day of death does not experienceially. 26:33.592 --> 26:36.815 [SPEAKER_01]: The day of death does not feel better than the day of birth. 26:37.296 --> 26:39.258 [SPEAKER_01]: At first blush, this verse doesn't seem true. 26:39.338 --> 26:39.979 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the wisdom. 26:40.119 --> 26:40.719 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the wisdom. 26:42.101 --> 26:44.083 [SPEAKER_01]: There are things set about you at your birth. 26:45.644 --> 26:47.787 [SPEAKER_01]: There are things that will be set about you at your death. 26:48.835 --> 26:50.897 [SPEAKER_01]: At your birth, the thing said about you are hopeful. 26:50.957 --> 26:51.999 [SPEAKER_01]: It's opportunity. 26:52.119 --> 26:58.906 [SPEAKER_01]: It's what if hopefully there were prayers prayed over your life at your day of birth that people wanted to come true. 26:59.507 --> 27:03.892 [SPEAKER_01]: At your death, it's this is where they were. 27:05.638 --> 27:11.541 [SPEAKER_01]: And you know this in those moments the things that carry the most weight are not they were good at their hobby They made a ton of money. 27:11.561 --> 27:26.908 [SPEAKER_01]: They have a house full of stuff that we now have to sort through the things that make a ulogy Honorable are when the real substance of a person is named by those closest to that person He was so patient with me She taught me what grace is all about. 27:27.609 --> 27:29.410 [SPEAKER_01]: I know Jesus better because I knew them 27:30.547 --> 27:38.433 [SPEAKER_01]: So my friend about this verse, my friend Zach says that this way, it is the obituary, not the birth announcement that best reveals the measure of a person. 27:39.314 --> 27:40.495 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's the wisdom offered here. 27:40.995 --> 27:43.217 [SPEAKER_01]: It's better to go to the house of mourning, the house of feasting. 27:43.237 --> 27:45.859 [SPEAKER_01]: You leave the house of feasting and you think that was fun. 27:46.179 --> 27:46.940 [SPEAKER_01]: Let's do it again. 27:47.340 --> 27:52.364 [SPEAKER_01]: You leave the house of mourning and you're asking what will be said about me when my time comes. 27:53.825 --> 27:55.146 [SPEAKER_01]: And when you ask questions like that, 27:56.562 --> 27:59.064 [SPEAKER_01]: when you're thinking about number days in that way. 27:59.384 --> 28:00.425 [SPEAKER_01]: You have a shot at wisdom. 28:01.566 --> 28:06.009 [SPEAKER_01]: So we live in these overlapping timelines, both temporal and eternal hear me beloved hear me. 28:06.730 --> 28:14.176 [SPEAKER_01]: What you do and how you live between conversion and death it matters, it matters. 28:15.036 --> 28:17.758 [SPEAKER_01]: And something about the bluntness of ecclesiasties just helps me. 28:18.039 --> 28:19.520 [SPEAKER_01]: I hear it like this, this is how I hear it. 28:20.100 --> 28:22.762 [SPEAKER_01]: Your days in this temporal life are numbered, 28:27.270 --> 28:35.632 [SPEAKER_01]: Not in a morbid way, just in a way that helps us order life wise perspective on what matters. 28:35.812 --> 28:37.012 [SPEAKER_01]: And you know where that will lead you. 28:37.632 --> 28:52.876 [SPEAKER_01]: If you are self-aware, if you are honest, if you have a shred of humility, that will lead you over and over and over again to the cross of Christ, seeking grace for your failures, I have no shot at an honorable eulogy without Jesus. 28:53.576 --> 28:56.997 [SPEAKER_01]: I am like everyone else beset by my own immorality. 28:57.317 --> 29:01.199 [SPEAKER_01]: So I read Ecclesiastes 7-1 and I quickly get to Romans 8-1. 29:01.419 --> 29:04.480 [SPEAKER_01]: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 29:05.380 --> 29:09.441 [SPEAKER_01]: Living for an honorable eulogy does not mean save yourself or atone for your sins. 29:09.521 --> 29:10.262 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus did that. 29:10.582 --> 29:12.242 [SPEAKER_01]: Only he could do that. 29:13.263 --> 29:20.225 [SPEAKER_01]: So maybe a better way to say this, take your sanctification seriously. 29:21.703 --> 29:27.912 [SPEAKER_01]: Christ is changing you, Christ is doing a work in you, make time for that. 29:29.376 --> 29:36.742 [SPEAKER_01]: Because it is your, it is your Christ's likeness, it is your Christ's likeness, that will be the blessing you leave behind when you're gone. 29:37.263 --> 29:49.953 [SPEAKER_01]: When your temporal timeline gives way to the eternal, your full of hope, everything wrong made right, but what we will most, what we will want most is to have lived a consequential Christ exalting life. 29:50.133 --> 29:52.035 [SPEAKER_01]: Very simply, very simply. 29:52.635 --> 29:56.419 [SPEAKER_01]: Let me close saying some things that will not surprise you at all. 29:57.656 --> 29:59.297 [SPEAKER_01]: Saying things that may not move you at all. 30:00.298 --> 30:08.784 [SPEAKER_01]: But in light of numbered days, and in light of honorable eulogies, and in light of Christ's light character, hear this, you have time. 30:10.426 --> 30:12.107 [SPEAKER_01]: You have time to confess sin. 30:13.468 --> 30:15.830 [SPEAKER_01]: You have time to read your Bible and meditate on Scripture. 30:16.718 --> 30:19.759 [SPEAKER_01]: You have time to hear the gospel again and receive grace again. 30:20.259 --> 30:24.540 [SPEAKER_01]: You have time for home group and Christian friends and godly community. 30:24.920 --> 30:27.181 [SPEAKER_01]: You have time to do good work for God's glory. 30:27.201 --> 30:29.342 [SPEAKER_01]: You have time to raise children in God's ways. 30:29.682 --> 30:30.722 [SPEAKER_01]: You have time for church. 30:31.042 --> 30:32.903 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have time to be distracted. 30:32.983 --> 30:36.564 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have time to live for self and escape into trivial things. 30:36.784 --> 30:39.484 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have time for unrepentance and foolishness. 30:40.045 --> 30:40.885 [SPEAKER_01]: You have time. 30:41.795 --> 30:45.418 [SPEAKER_01]: You have time to care for your soul and the presence of Christ. 30:45.898 --> 30:48.460 [SPEAKER_01]: Your days are numbered, your days are numbered. 30:48.940 --> 30:50.681 [SPEAKER_01]: Live for Jesus. 30:51.402 --> 30:51.802 [SPEAKER_01]: Pray with me. 30:58.607 --> 31:05.212 [SPEAKER_01]: Father, time is something that you created, but does not confine you. 31:07.495 --> 31:10.478 [SPEAKER_01]: Our lives are finite with timestamps and expiration dates. 31:10.538 --> 31:15.004 [SPEAKER_01]: I ask that you would help me think of the precious commodity of time with sober judgment. 31:16.245 --> 31:22.292 [SPEAKER_01]: I ask for this church that you would teach us to number our days and that we would have the wisdom to spend our time on earth wisely. 31:23.433 --> 31:28.599 [SPEAKER_01]: I ask for an awareness of the power of time and that you would help us be good stewards of the time we have left. 31:30.003 --> 31:36.087 [SPEAKER_01]: may time not intimidate, but instead motivate our church to act wisely and thoughtfully throughout our lives. 31:36.947 --> 31:44.972 [SPEAKER_01]: Wood, citizens, church, be one in this generation who uses our time to bring glory to you and blessing to others. 31:50.215 --> 31:52.717 [SPEAKER_01]: Beloved with your head bowed and your eyes closed, 31:58.742 --> 32:02.165 [SPEAKER_01]: You have time, right now, to draw near to God. 32:06.769 --> 32:13.736 [SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing right now keeping you from praying humble honest prayers to God. 32:20.802 --> 32:22.504 [SPEAKER_01]: So I just want to say a few things and give a space. 32:31.273 --> 32:41.977 [SPEAKER_01]: Would you believe that you don't have to atone for your squandered sinful seconds of life? 32:42.157 --> 32:43.598 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus has done that for you. 32:46.619 --> 32:51.060 [SPEAKER_01]: This is not your time is running out. 32:51.100 --> 32:53.641 [SPEAKER_01]: You better make up for what you've done, sermon. 32:53.781 --> 32:54.421 [SPEAKER_01]: It's not that. 32:55.742 --> 32:56.482 [SPEAKER_01]: Receive grace. 32:57.403 --> 32:58.323 [SPEAKER_01]: Believe the gospel. 32:59.720 --> 33:08.044 [SPEAKER_01]: See yourself on that timeline that eternity has already been birthed in your heart and your life, you will live forever. 33:10.766 --> 33:16.829 [SPEAKER_01]: And at the same time, would you be sobered by number days? 33:19.150 --> 33:25.714 [SPEAKER_01]: Would you with sincere, zealous faith ask God to make you like Christ? 33:26.933 --> 33:35.035 [SPEAKER_01]: And would you surrender whatever sinful, trivial, meaningless ways that we spend our time, surrender those now? 33:36.295 --> 33:38.155 [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have time to hide our sin. 33:41.056 --> 33:43.297 [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have time to believe the enemy's lies. 33:46.517 --> 33:49.638 [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have time to grow bitter and jealous and angry. 33:51.760 --> 33:54.944 [SPEAKER_01]: Confess, repent, ask for help. 33:56.006 --> 34:00.812 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna stop talking and give you a few minutes to draw near to God.