Number Your Days
One of the interesting things in our culture,
is we are almost always conscious of
what time it is.
We wear watches,
or have cell phones with the time on it,
and whether we’re in an office or school
or car or hospital
or anywhere else we go during the day,
there’s almost always a clock somewhere nearby,
so at least a dozen times a day or more
we find ourselves looking to see
what time is it?
Probably the most common question
people ask about time, is,
What time is it?
Here at church we’ve got a clock in the back,
so I can make sure I don’t go too long,
and a lot of you check your watch or cell phone
because you know
we always end right about the same time,
within plus or minus 5 minutes,
and so you’re checking on how I’m doing,
and how close to the end we are.
All of us are very time conscious.
Now once in a while,
you might lose yourself in a novel,
or maybe in a hobby you enjoy,
and you get so wrapped up in it
that you’ll say, I lost track of time.
But even though we may lose track of it for a while,
we’re very quick to recover, we find it again,
and figure out what time it is.
Because we’re all very time conscious.
Now the problem is,
that’s not really the most important question
to ask about time.
This is the last message in our series that we called,
Times And Seasons,
and today I want us to learn to start asking
a better question.
The best question to ask, when it comes to time,
is not, what time is it,
but, what am I doing with my time?
Not, what time is it,
but, what am I doing with my time?
See, the problem with always asking
what time it is,
is that it’s a constant reminder
of something that is probably
the most depressing part about our lives,
It’s a constant reminder that,
your time is running out.
Aren’t you glad you came to church today,
Now you feel depressed,
because your time is running out.
But of course
you really couldn’t avoid being reminded of this,
even if you skipped church,
because we all have calendars
that tell us how fast
the months and years go by,
and we have watches that tell us how fast
the hours and minutes go by.
Some of you even have second hands on your watches,
which are there to remind you
just how fast its going,
because with that second hand,
you can actually watch your life slipping away,
right in front of your eyes,
tick, tock, tick, tock
my life is slipping away right now…
And of course, the older you get
the faster time goes by,
when you were a kid,
Christmas never got here, it took forever,
but when you’re an adult,
its like Christmas is here every time you turn around,
you didn’t even get the credit cards paid off yet
and its Thanksgiving again,
Now, the whole idea of time going by quickly,
is actually a biblical theme,
there’s a lot of scripture in the bible
that deals with the subject of time,
and how it flies by.
The first scripture I want to look at this morning
is some happy thoughts from the book of Job.
Job 7:6
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.
You probably won’t find that verse
on a hallmark card,
or a get well card.
That one’s not gonna cheer anybody up.
But that’s not all Job says,
Job 9:25 TNIV
My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy.
I think Job really needed some Prozac,
he was a little depressed.
But this is a reminder
that every time we look at our watches,
or the clock on the wall
or our cell phone,
it’s a reminder that time is going by really quick.
We all know that as a kid,
we’re always waiting anxiously to get older,
we can’t wait to get another year under our belt,
but then at some point that stops,
usually sometime in your twenties,
and you start not being so thrilled
that you’re another year older,
And then there eventually comes a point,
and I don’t know if you’re there yet,
but there eventually comes a point where,
instead of thinking about how old you are,
you’ll start thinking about
how much time you have left.
Studies have shown that
this generally happens to people
sometime before they reach the age of fifty,
its not the same for everyone,
but at some point,
you stop thinking about your age,
and start thinking,
oh no, time is running out,
I’ve probably only got… x number of years left.
You’re going to look out into the future
and start sensing that
there’s a finish line out there.
Some of you know what I’m talking about…
In fact some of you have probably visited
deathclock.com,
I've mentioned that website before.
If you go to that website,
and answer some questions about your health,
and weight, and habits, and age,
then it’ll tell you the day you’re going to die.
Isn't that great.
I know you all want to find that out.
It also conveniently tells you the number of seconds you have left,
and you can watch them clicking down right in front of your eyes.
I'm down to about 800 million seconds left.
And after looking at that website,
I've learned that Monday September 12th, 2039
might be a bad day for me,
I’m just gonna stay in bed that day.
I was playing around on that website,
putting in different information,
and when I put in one set of health info,
and pushed the button to calculate the day of my death,
a message popped up saying,
I'm sorry, your time has expired, have a nice day.
At some point we all start to wonder,
How much time do I have left?
Unfortunately, deathclock.com has a flaw.
Its based on average lifespans,
but average means that,
50% of us here
aren't going to make it to the average,
On Tuesday I did a funeral for a 15 year old,
who apparently was in excellent health,
right up until he died
while sitting on the couch one evening.
What a tragedy, and another reminder that
life is slipping by faster than we even know.
Now I know that we’re not all going to stop
asking the question, What time is it?
But the point is,
a better question to ask would be,
what am I doing with my time?
Maybe I should begin living my life
and spending my time
with the end in mind.
And, the bible has a lot to say about that,
and not from the book of Job,
we’re done with him, just too depressing,
instead, we’re going to look at what somebody wrote,
that you’re all familiar with,
one of the most famous people in the bible,
Moses.
You may not know this,
but Moses actually wrote one of the Psalms.
Psalm chapter 90.
Now, before we look at it,
Why do you think Moses might be a good person
to tell us about time?
Well, you may know his story,
Moses was a Hebrew but was raised as an Egyptian prince,
But one day he saw some Hebrew slaves being abused
he lost his temper, killed an Egyptian,
and had to flee the country.
He goes from living as a prince in a palace,
to living in the wilderness as a fugitive,
watching sheep for a living.
Now here’s something to think about,
Moses spent 40 years
in the wilderness, watching sheep.
What have you been doing the last 40 years?
That’s how long Moses was in the wilderness.
In fact, he spent what we would consider
his best 40 years,
during the prime of his life
basically accomplishing nothing,
just watching sheep in the wilderness.
Every day was the same,
he didn’t need a watch, like we do.
If the sun was up, he was out there watching the sheep,
If the sun was down, he was asleep with the sheep.
same thing every day, 40 years of nothing.
And then one day,
God showed up and said,
Moses, I actually have a plan and purpose for your life.
And we all know this part of the story.
Moses goes back to Egypt,
after some trouble with the Pharaoh
he finally leads the people out of slavery,
And for the rest of his life
he’s the leader of this nation of millions of people.
So Moses goes from wealthy prince,
to a nothing shepherd for 40 years,
apparently wasting his life doing nothing,
then becomes leader of a nation of millions of people,
so that for the next 40 years,
everyone is demanding his time,
he doesn’t have enough time in his day,
The bible tells us how he's on the edge of burnout,
and has to start delegating a bunch.
So with that background,
Moses had some real insights about time,
which he shares with us in this Psalm he wrote.
Before we jump into it,
let me tell you what we’re going to find.
Moses says,
you need to see the context, or the big picture,
He says, that’s the key to your life.
you need to understand
how your life and your time
fit into the big picture of God.
If we understand that,
then we can understand the point of life,
if we don’t understand that,
then eventually we’ll begin to ask,
what’s the point of it all?
Now here’s something interesting about you and me.
When we are young,
we think we are the point, don’t we?
When you were 18 or 19 or 20 years old,
and you had all your life ahead of you,
you thought you were the point of life,
it was all about you.
Now maybe some of you are asking right now,
You mean its not?
Its not all about me?
Some people do think that way, even as adults,
but all of us thought that way
when we were young,
we thought that we were the point of life,
its all about me…
But as we get older
we begin to realize that
we aren’t the point of life,
and then we start to ask, what is the point?
Because as we look into the future,
we notice something…
We notice,
wow, everybody is kind of the same,
we all have the same basic story.
We’re born,
we go to elementary school,
we go to middle school,
we go to high school,
then we either get a job or go to college,
oh, finally some unique paths,
but if we go to college,
then after college we get a job,
so now we’ve caught up with the people who skipped college,
and we’re all on the same path again,
And then we try to get married,
and some of us do get married,
in fact some of us get married 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 times,
and then some of us have kids,
and we spend all our money on our kids,
and then they grow up and go away,
so now we’ve caught up with the people
who never have kids,
and then we retire and play golf
and then we get sick
and then we die.
Now, do you know anybody
whose story sounds kind of like that?
Yeah, how about most of the people you’ve ever known,
have a story that sounds kind of like that.
We all have the same basic story.
So at some point in life you realize this,
and you start to ask,
well what is the point of all that?
And then, if you believe in reincarnation,
I’ve got some bad news for you,
you get to do all that
again, and again, and again.
But the problem is,
you don’t get to learn anything
to take along with you for the next time,
because you don’t remember anything, except,
Oh I think I was Napoleon, or Cleopatra, or maybe both,
But you don’t remember any of the lessons you learned,
so you have to make all your mistakes over again,
and how depressing is that?
So at some point you begin to realize,
I’m not the point,
so what is the point?
And Moses knew that people ask that,
so in Psalm 90 Moses says,
Okay, you want to know the answer to that?
All right, here it is.
The reason you don’t understand the point,
and the reason you ask
what is the point,
is that you don’t understand
the context, or the big picture, of your life
and why you’ve been placed here on earth
for a few years.
That’s the summary of what Moses says in this Psalm.
So lets start reading it.
Psalm 90, verse 1
Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world,
[in other words, even before creation]
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Now this is important,
Moses is saying,
if you really want to understand your life,
the bookends of your life
are not really your birth and death,
like we all think...
The bookends of your life are really
from everlasting to everlasting, with God in the middle.
You see, the only way you’ll ever really understand
your purpose, and the point of your life,
is to understand that
the context or setting or timing of your life,
is not from your birth to your death,
because it's not all about you.
The way to understand the timing of your life,
is from everlasting to everlasting with God in the middle.
Now, that may seem a little confusing,
but we’ll see it more clearly as we go along.
Verse 3 it says,
You turn people back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, you mortals."
That’s an inspiring picture, right?
Reminds me of the little boy in Sunday school,
he learned the scripture that says,
from dust you came, and to dust you shall return.
that evening his mother hears him scream,
she runs into his bedroom, and he says,
Mom, mom, there’s somebody under my bed,
either coming or going.
The point Moses is making is that,
no matter how rich or popular
or cool or powerful you are,
and he could add,
By the way, I’m Moses, I had all that,
but no matter how rich or famous you are,
at the end of it,
God says, Return to dust.
Then we get to Verse 4… and you’ve all heard this quote:
A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
Now lets think about this.
A thousand years ago, was the middle ages,
In Europe the crusades were just getting ready to start.
The strongest military in the world
was the Chinese Empire, Song Dynasty,
the strongest economy in the world was the Arab empire,
and most of the leading scientists were Muslim,
1,000 years ago is a long time,
it was a whole different world.
But God says, from that time (just before the crusades),
to right now, its like one day to me.
And we think, Whooohh, that’s quick,
But Moses goes on, he says
well, its actually even quicker than that,
its like a watch in the night.
Back then,
The night would be broken up into 3 or 4 watches,
each one was about 3 hours,
so Moses is saying,
Yeah, 1000 years is like 3 hours to God.
Now, but if you think in those terms,
how long is your life,
from God’s perspective?
If 1000 years is like 3 hours to God,
how long is your life?
I did the math, Its about 14 minutes.
That’s how long your life is, in God’s timing.
And for most of you
the first 7 minutes is gone already,
so I better talk fast.
Some of you are saying,
Ken are you trying to cheer us up or what?
Well, hang on, it gets worse.
Moses goes on, Verse 5,
Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—they are like the new grass of the morning: In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered.
So Moses is saying that,
in the perspective of Eternity,
a persons life is like grass that withers in a day,
or like a watch in the night, then its gone,
Now the point that God wants us to get here,
is not that your life doesn’t matter.
That is not the point,
It may feel like that from what I’ve said so far,
but that is not what Moses or God is trying to say here.
The rest of the bible shows very clearly,
that your life does matter enormously to God.
The point here is that,
your life is so brief, so quick,
so much like grass that withers,
or a watch in the night,
It is so quick that it is foolish and useless
for you or I to try to use our life
to create something, on our own,
that will last,
it is foolish for you or I to try to use our life
to create something, on our own,
that will last,
because the truth is,
we just don’t have enough time.
God says, if you try to make this life all about you,
and try to do something really significant
on your own,
you just don’t have enough time to do it.
And that means,
Your only hope for purpose,
Your only hope for significance,
is to take all your little moments of time,
take all your minutes and hours
and days and weeks and months,
and fit them into what God is doing
in his grand story and purpose.
That is your only hope for finding purpose,
and significance in life.
Now it that seems hard to understand or grasp,
lets flip it around the other way for a minute.
If we think about famous people in history,
we can immediately think of many people
who didn’t follow Moses’ advice,
and they tried to make the world all about them,
We especially see this
in some of the dictators around the world,
or crooked corporate executives…
They tried to make life all about
their power, and their fame,
and their accomplishments,
and it was all about trying to get everyone else
to do what they wanted,
In fact,
Maybe you’re married to someone like this.
If so, just keep looking straight up here,
do not let them know you're thinking about them right now.
But with people like this,
that are trying to accomplish things for themselves,
and its all about them,
there’s two things that always happen:
#1, They always run out of time
before they finish what they started,
and #2, History never speaks well of them.
You see, We all just somehow know,
down deep,
that if I try to make it all about me,
and in my few years here on earth,
I’m gonna be the center,
I’m gonna be the whole point of life,
whenever somebody does that,
there’s just something inside most of us that says,
that’s just not right. Its not right.
That person is missing the boat,
that is not a person we like,
that’s a person that leaves
a trail of broken relationships,
that’s a person who leaves a country,
or a corporation in ruins,
because it was all about them,
that’s a person who leaves a family,
or a marriage in ruins,
because it was all about them.
And we come to realize
about a person like that,
that there is something very small,
and something very selfish,
something that we don’t want to be like,
and we don’t want to work for a person like that,
we don’t want co-workers like that,
we don’t want neighbors like that,
we don’t want to marry someone like that,
we don’t want our kids to be like that,
we don’t want our kids to marry someone like that,
Because we’ve seen what happens
when someone makes this life
all about them,
and we don’t want to go there.
And it’s a reminder to us,
that in our few years,
our greatest opportunity is not about
making ourselves the center,
and making ourselves the point of it all,
its got to be something more and greater than that,
because even when a person has
vast power and influence,
and vast wealth,
and is able to do anything they want to,
even those people,
if they try to make it all about them,
they always run out of time,
they usually do not have a good end,
and people never speak well of them
when its all said and done.
You simply can’t make this life work
and turn out right, if its all about you.
Its been tried a million times
and its never been done yet.
If anybody could have pulled it off, its Moses,
he’s got power and prestige like nobody before him,
and yet Moses says, Nope, it won’t work.
That’s not how life works, its too short.
You can’t just think about
your own, brief little life,
if you try, you miss the big picture,
you miss the boat,
you miss out on real life.
The only way to think about this life,
is from everlasting to everlasting,
with God in the middle,
the same God who invites you into
that big picture,
that everlasting picture,
and if you become part of his picture,
then you become part of the everlasting,
and it all becomes worthwhile,
and significant and
meaningful
and full of purpose.
Moses goes on in verse 10
Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
He’s saying here,
even if you have a good life,
there are going to be some years
of hardship and sorrow,
and that doesn’t mean
God doesn’t love you
or care about you,
that doesn’t mean
God doesn’t have a purpose for you,
that doesn’t mean
God isn’t paying attention,
Remember, this is Moses writing this,
who experienced this same thing,
he had 40 years in the wilderness,
without any apparent purpose for his life,
He had a lot of years of trouble and sorrow,
but he says,
they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Verse 11:
If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.
That’s a difficult verse to understand.
The bible translators have a really tough time
translating this one from the Hebrew
and capturing the right meaning in English,
But its basically saying that,
if we really understood God’s glory,
if we understood how great and powerful he is,
how awesome he is,
how high above us, how holy he is,
If we understood how much reverence
we ought to show God,
then we would immediately devote our brief lives,
our 70 or 80 years,
to doing God’s will and purpose,
If we really understood the glory of God,
we wouldn’t even hesitate
to lay our lives down,
and tell God, whatever you want,
whenever you want it,
its all yours,
no hesitation,
no holding back,
no reservations,
its all yours God.
That’s how we’d respond
if we could really see and know God.
And then Moses says
one of the most classic scriptures of the bible,
its sort of the summary
of everything he’s said up to this point,
and it’s the answer to how we approach life,
Verse 12
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Moses says,
teach us to number our days,
because we don’t know how to do this,
teach us, because we don’t do this naturally,
teach us, because this is something we all need to learn.
Teach us to number our days,
in other words, teach us
to live as if our days are numbered.
teach us what it means
to live as if our days are numbered.
Because our days are numbered,
we don’t like to think about it
but we’re reminded
every time we look at the second hand on that clock,
they are numbered.
So God, teach us to really live.
Show us, what does it mean to live
as if our days are numbered?
Now, numbering your days
is something that all of us have done before.
I remember counting down the days,
till high school graduation,
then till college graduation,
Your kids count down the days till Christmas.
If you’re a woman,
and you were once a bride,
you know what it means to number your days.
Hey, when are you getting married?
26 days!!!
You number the days.
Or if you’re pregnant, somebody asks you,
When are you due?
and you know the exact date, Jan 15th.
And, because you know how many days,
you also know all the things you have to get done
before those days run out.
All of us have these kind of experiences in life,
when we number our days,
when there’s a big event coming up,
and we know the things we have to do
before that date gets here.
So Moses here is basically saying,
God we have a problem.
We know that our days are going to end at some point,
but we don’t know when,
we don’t know how many we’ve got.
We don’t know the day of our death,
and since we don’t know the day of our death,
and since there’s so much
we don’t understand about you God,
We really need you to teach us God,
what it means to live as if
our days our numbered,
because we know they are numbered,
but we don’t know how many,
we don’t know how long we have left,
So God, we need you to teach us to live as if our days are numbered,
Why?
Why is that so important?
So that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
In other words, Moses is saying,
God, I realize that
I won’t know how to make wise decisions,
unless you teach me to number my days.
I won’t know how to make decisions
that make sense, with the big picture,
the everlasting to everlasting picture,
unless you teach me to number my days.
But God, if you will teach me this,
then I’ll make better decisions,
I’ll make better financial decisions
I’ll make better relationship decisions
I’ll make better parenting decisions
I’ll make better job and career and education decisions,
I will be far wiser if you’ll teach me God,
to make decisions
knowing that my days are numbered.
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
So instead of always saying
What time is it,
We ask God,
I want to know what to do with my limited time.
I know that my time is limited,
my days are numbered,
so God, show me what I should do
with the days I have left.
Now, this is not depressing news.
This is not,
oh no, the end is near, we’re all doomed.
That’s not what it means
to live, knowing that your days are numbered.
This is not depressing, this is exciting.
This is about realizing the fact
that God has given you a gift of some years,
and God has great plans for you,
and a great purpose for those years,
but the purpose isn’t you,
In fact, the purpose is so much greater than you,
its so much more exciting and fulfilling
than just you,
so this is wonderful stuff,
that we get to number our days
and use all of them for God,
to do the amazing things that he’s doing,
things that are everlasting to everlasting,
that will never end,
This is the key to bringing purpose
into the few years you have
on this earth,
When we can say,
God, I believe there is a grander story of my life,
and I am not the main character,
But I do have an important part in the story,
Because God I believe you’re up to something
from generation to generation,
something that’ll make a difference
in people’s lives forever,
and I get to be part of that,
I know you’re up to something huge, God,
and you’ve invited me in,
to take part in that, and help in that,
for my 60 or 70 or 80 years.
You’ve invited me into this glorious story
that you’re bringing about in your creation
from everlasting to everlasting,
I get to be a significant part of that.
So God, teach me to live
as if my days were numbered,
that I may gain a heart of wisdom.
So that I can make wise decisions
that bring glory to you God,
not to me.
because my life is too brief,
and my glory is way too small,
to dedicate my whole life to.
And even though my life
is like a watch in the night,
I don’t want to waste my few years
trying to somehow grab some glory for me,
I want my life to make
the maximum possible difference,
within the great story and great plan
that you’re in the middle of, God.
Teach me to number my days, that I might gain a heart of wisdom.
We’re going to close now,
but on your bulletin outline there’s a prayer,
that I hope you’ll take home,
and I’d like all of us to be praying it, this week.
Heavenly Father, teach me to number my days, that I might gain a heart of wisdom, and fulfill your purpose in my life.
I hope you’ll pray that this week,
I hope you'll pray it on New Years Eve,
as the old year is ending,
And on New Years day,
as the new year is beginning,
I hope you'll pray it and think about
what the next year can bring
if we number our days and use our time wisely,
Wouldn’t it be great if we had a whole church full of people,
who were numbering our days
and gaining a heart of wisdom,
so that we could all fulfill God’s purpose in our lives.
Lets stand for Prayer
and Lets start by praying this right now.
Heavenly Father, teach me to number my days, that I might gain a heart of wisdom, and fulfill your purpose in my life.
Father we pray that you’ll help us to start asking a better question about our time. Instead of only asking the question, What time is it? Help us to ask the question that you’re really concerned about, What am I doing with my time? And Lord we ask you to give us a heart of wisdom, so that we’ll know what to do with the few years that we have, realizing that we are invited to join in with you on a story that reaches from everlasting to everlasting.
And Lord I pray for everyone in this room, from the 14 year old who is starting to learn that life is not all about them, to the person who wishes they had 30 or 40 years back so they could change some priorities, and use those years for God. Whether young or old, Lord, give all of us wisdom to know what to do with our time, so that we can bring glory to you, and not ourselves. And we ask that you’ll not only give us wisdom to know what to do, but also give us courage to do it.
