This past week I celebrated a birthday, my birthday – 29 years old and I had a lot of wonderful people who were really quick to remind me that it was one year away from 30. So thanks so much for that encouragement. 361 more days until 30 years old. Now some of you are thinking- “Big deal. You’re just a young punk. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have many years on you.” Yeah, I guess it isn’t that big of a deal. The other week I was visiting the oldest member of our congregation – Tillie Johnson. She’s a 106 ½ years old…that’s Tillie. 106 ½. So my 29 compared to 106 ½ - that’s not a big deal.
We’re going to be talking about time today. Because I have realized that as I get older time goes by faster and faster and since the birth of my son over a year ago now – I just see the growth that he’s making. It’s kind of frightening how fast time goes. Maybe you have kids who have grown and now have grandkids who are growing. Maybe grandkids who have had kids. You know what I’m talking about. The passage of time seems to speed up. For you in VBS – all of you guys – time is going pretty slow. Enjoy it. Summer time seems kind of long doesn’t it? …No, okay. I like that. A man after my own heart. But when you look forward to something in a couple of weeks it seems like forever until it comes. You’ve got to wait and wait and wait. Well, soon there’s going to come a day – and it’s starting to snowball for me where time goes by faster and faster.
We’re going to look at Psalm 103 today. I invite you to turn there if you have your Bibles. We’re continuing on through this Psalm looking at the lavishness of God….His extravagance. Who God is and why David, the Psalmist, praises Him in such a way that he does. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, let all that is within me bless His holy name”…and he goes on verse after verse praising God for who He is.
Today we come to verse 15. First we have the bad news. Okay, you want to hear the bad news? It starts in verse 15.
“As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field for the wind passes over it and it is gone and its place knows it no more.”
The bad news is that everyone is going to die someday. And when we do die it’s going to come quicker than we would like because life is short. Life is short. Whether you live 29 years or you live 106 ½ years, life is short. In the grand scheme of things and in eternity a 106 years is nothing compared to 2,000 years of history or 6,000 years or the age of God…timeless.
Men and women, boys and girls, our days are short in the grand scheme of things. We’re all going to come to the day of our death. We’re all going to die. That’s reality. Now maybe some of you are saying, “Why does the Pastor have to talk about death? We’re having such a fun day here and we’re celebrating life.” I’m all about life too. I’m all about living because I believe Jesus saves people. God saves people to live for Him and to make a difference here on earth today for the kingdom of God. But I also have to be honest and I also want to share the whole story with you. I don’t want to leave out some of this. David writes “for man, his days are like grass – they’re like a flower of the field.”
This spring a flower came up in front of the house – some tulips. It was really nice. We had that nice warm spring weather, but then the weather turned cold kind of like today and those flowers were gone. They were there and gone.
David is praising God and in the midst of it he comes to the reality of who we are before God and we’re dust as he said in verse 14. I want to share with you all of God’s Word and I want you to know that you are going to face death unless Jesus comes back again. So I want you to be ready. If I was driving down the road with a bunch of my friends and they knew the road. They’d been down there before and they knew that there was a speed bump…a huge speed bump that if you hit going 50 or 60 miles per hour the car is going to fall apart and the engine will fall out of the frame…and they don’t tell me about it…when we hit that and the car breaks down and we can’t go any further, I’m going to say to them, “why didn’t you tell me about this speed bump. You knew it was here. Now it’s taking us off the race.” Or they could say, “Well, we were having such a good conversation about other things and the scenery was so nice and the sun was shining and a lot of things to look at, so we didn’t want be bothersome and seem pessimistic to tell you about the speed bump coming up.”
Well, we’re all going to have to face death and it’s more than a speed bump. It’s the end. After death, God’s Word says that we face the judgment of God. We face His judgment. God will judge us for who we are and what we’ve done. You and I, sinful men and women, we all sin. We make mistakes. We have to stand before a holy and righteous and powerful and perfect God who can’t accept sin. That’s reality. So I’m letting you know that right now. Whether you have ten years, 29 years, 100 plus, the day is going to come.
The second part of this bad news is not only life is short, but that the world will forget you. Verse 16 says,
“the wind passes over it, it’s gone and it’s place remembers you no more.”
Another sad thing – the bad news about this life is that this world is going to forget you. This world is going to forget you. Even your family will forget you. How many know your grandfather – at least one of your grandfathers? Keep your hands up. How many of you know at least one of your great-grandparents? How many know and you have information about – you know about your great-great grandparents – one of them…great-great? Okay, there’s a couple right there hanging on. I know my grandparents. I know a little bit about my great-grandparents. My great-great grandparents, even though they are my family – it’s who I come from, my blood…I don’t know anything about them whatsoever. Even your family is going to forget about you eventually because that’s the way that the world works. It moves on. It keeps going. The world is going to forget you. Even if you’re a great man or woman and you make your impact…imprint on society, after thousands of years you are going to be forgotten. You might be archived away in some library somewhere, but in every day living, nobody is going to remember you.
Poncho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary, he was so hard to capture or kill. He finally got shot and as he was dying he said to those gathered around him…his friends, “don’t let it end like this. Tell them that I said something good.” He didn’t want it to end and he wanted to be remembered for that last word, but he couldn’t come up with it.
My friend, life is short. We’re going to be gone someday and nobody’s going to remember.
All right, let’s go on to the good news. Verse 17: “But”…thank the Lord for the conjunction. It comes around a lot of different places. Ephesians, chapter 2, “But God, rich in mercy and love…” But look at this – verse 17:
“But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. And His righteousness to children’s children- to those who keep his covenant and
remember to do His commandments.”
Here’s the good news. The good news is that the steadfast love of the Lord lasts forever. There’s that word again – steadfast love. In the Hebrew, hesed that we looked at for the last couple of weeks, it’s peppered throughout this Psalm. It means steadfast love or translated in some Bibles “lovingkindness” or “abounding love” or sometimes “mercy”. But it’s really covenant love. It’s God’s covenant love that He makes a covenant with people…an agreement. He comes together with His people and says, “I will be your God. I’ll look out after you. You’ll be my children. I’ll take care of you.” That love, that steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. So David in comparison to man’s days who are short – they come and go – the love, the hesed, lovingkindness of God lasts forever.
The covenant that God made with Noah that he would never flood the earth again. Then he made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be their God and to bless all of the families of the world through their lineage. The promise of Jesus. Covenant with David renewed that covenant that he had on Mount Sinai with Moses to be the God of the Israelites and now the covenant is through Jesus, His Son.
That’s the new covenant in Jeremiah 31 – that no longer is the law written on tablets of stone, but it’s written on our hearts. Here’s the new covenant that God makes with people. It’s for you. It’s for you to decide to have or not have. You don’t have to enter into t6his covenant, but here’s the covenant. The covenant is that you see yourself as really who you are. You see yourself as a sinner. Not only that you see Jesus as that sacrifice for your sin. And then you believe in Him. You have faith in Him and trust in what He did on the cross to purchase your salvation. That’s the new covenant. And Jesus, before He was betrayed with a last supper with his disciples and he had the cup of wine and he says, “This is the blood of the new covenant. This is the new covenant.” That’s what God calls you to today – to join Him to that covenant…to see yourself as a sinner; that you can’t do anything about it and then to become a disciple of Jesus by putting your trust in Him.
Well who is this promise for – the promise of the steadfast love of the Lord? I mean, wouldn’t you want to have the steadfast love of the Lord?- His abounding love, his lovingkindness, his covenant love?…God, who keeps His covenant. Yes, who is it for? Verse 18, it’s for those who keep his covenant and remember to do His commandments.
You see, David was under the old covenant when they lived by the law. But the law was still about mercy; it was still about God’s forgiveness. Remember earlier in the Psalm, Moses praises God by using God’s own words from Exodus. It says, “God is merciful and gracious, abounding in covenant love (steadfast love) for those who keep the covenant.” It’s for you, the steadfast love of God. For those of you who enter into the covenant with God and you say, “I am a sinner. I can’t make my life right on my own. I can try. Maybe some of you today think, “Well, I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough for God. I’m not good enough to be a Christian. I’m not good enough to live the Christian life.” Well, Jesus called twelve “not good enough’s” to follow after Him. That’s the new covenant. The secret that a lot of people don’t realize is that it is for the “not good enoughs”. To enter into this new covenant with God is to admit that you don’t have it all together. It’s not for the religious elite. I’m not a religious elite person. I don’t have it all down and follow a list of do’s and don’ts. It’s for those who see their sin and they are broken by it. And they realize that “I can’t please God on my own and I’m sick of trying to. Jesus live in me.”
Aw, you say that’s pretty easy…this new covenant. The old covenant they had to go through these rules and they had to make these sacrifices. It seemed a lot more strict. Ephesians 2:8,9 says, “It’s by grace you’ve been saved through faith. Not of yourselves. It’s a gift of God, not of works so that no one can boast.” Today I’m calling everyone to grace – to the grace of Jesus Christ, to His cross where He made full satisfaction for your sin and my sin. I’m calling you to that today – to enter into that covenant with Him.
There’s benefits that come along with those who enter into this covenant. A couple of benefits that I thought of. First, the benefit of eternity – of security after you die…of knowing when death comes and you cross over that barrier that you can never come back from again – that you know where you are going and you know in whom you have hope.
Revelation 21…John is receiving revelation from the Lord and you remember the last day of our story time in VBS, we had a picture of heaven. Remember that? This is what it was talking about – Revelation 21. Start at verse 3:
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eye and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. And he who is seated on the throne said, ‘behold, I am making all things new.’ He also said, ‘write this down for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, “it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega – the beginning and the end. Now listen…the One who conquers or to the thirsty, I will give from the spring from the water of life without payment. The One who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son.”
That’s heaven. For those who enter into this covenant, this agreement, with God – that Jesus is your Lord and your Savior…eternity is assured. Heaven is granted for those who believe. It’s a wonderful promise – a place where there is no more tears, or mourning, or sadness, or crying. A place where you don’t have to be remembered because you know who remembers you? – God Almighty and he calls you his son, his daughter. This is heaven. This is a benefit for those who enter into the covenant.
The other benefit is right here and right now. John 10:10 – Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come so that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly.”
This is the gospel message. God wants to save you for the here and the now. He wants to transform your life from the inside out. He wants to make you be a reflector of his glory. He wants to make you be an image of His Son, Jesus. That’s what scripture says – that we might be conformed to the image of His Son.
Jesus wants to so fill your life through His Holy Spirit that people around you will come into contact with God of the universe – think of that…that you would reflect His glory;
that you would make a difference in your life and your life would be turned around;
that your family’s life would be different – it would be founded on God’s Word and the
truth of the gospel;
that those around you would be impacted by it;
that the Word of God – the gospel – is always on your lips…
it’s always in your actions…it’s who you are; it’s what you live and breathe;
it’s not just on Sunday…it’s who you are deep – through and through.
Those who enter into the covenant with God through Jesus Christ make a difference for this life. That’s a benefit. It’s not just for the future, the glorious future that awaits, but praise God we have that. It’s for now. It’s for the 29 years that I have here; it’s for the 70 years you have here; it’s for the 106 years you have there.
I’m going to ask you, have you entered into that covenant with God – with the Lord of the universe? And if you haven’t, what’s stopping you? Life is short.
It was the final game of the 1972 season – professional baseball season. Roberto Clemente was an all-star center fielder. He had a cannon for an arm and he had 2,999 hits going into the final game of the 1972 season for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The announcer for the Pirates at the time looked over his score card as he was preparing for that day’s broadcast and he saw that Roberto Clemente wasn’t penciled in to start – or to play that game. He thought, “Wow, what happened to Roberto? Is he injured or what?” So he went down to the club house and he found Roberto there and he said, “Hey, what’s going on? Are you injured? Why aren’t you in today’s line-up?”
Roberto replied, “Well, management wanted me to sit out this game because they want to really market over the summer the fact that I can get my 3,000th hit the following season. They thought it would be a good way to draw in more fans; they could say, ‘come see Roberto Clemente hit his 3,000th hit. Something that very few major league baseball players have ever done.’
Well, the announcer for the Pittsburgh Pirates said to him, “You can’t do that. You’ve got to go out and play today. You don’t know if you’ll ever get another chance.”
So Roberto took his advice and went out and he played the game. In the 6th inning, he got up to bat and he cracked a double. And he stood on 2nd base and he tipped his cap to the crowd – a standing ovation – one of the very few to get 3,000 base hits in a major league baseball season. You know that off-season, that following off-season, he was on a plane and he was taking supplies to the earth-quake stricken people of Nicaragua and his plane went down and he died. He died in that plane accident.
You never know if you ever get a chance at that 3,000th hit again. All we are guaranteed is now. And today death doesn’t respect men or women, or white or black or rich or poor. It’s no respecter of persons. But there is One that has conquered death. There is One who has made the way plain. He is the One who offers that new covenant to you and I today. Be reconciled today with God.
Romans 10 says that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” You want to call on His name? I give you an invitation today to call on the name of the Lord. Romans 10:9 and 10 says, ‘that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The promise is for you, my friend. Come to Him.
Maybe today you are in Christ, but that lovingkindness – that steadfast love – is really hitting you again. And you need to get right with him again and say, “Lord, I rededicate my life to you. Jesus, fill me by Your Spirit so I can make a difference for you. I want to radiate your glory. I want to be the man of God that you’ve created me to be. I want to be the woman of God that you’ve made me to be for my family, for my community, for my church. I want to use my spiritual gifts for your glory.” The invitation is for you today, too, to get right with Him.
