Make Your Life Count
Focus: Life is short so make God’s best of it.
Function: The listener will make an assessment of their lives to re-align priorities as needed.
Most of us don’t like to see money wasted. If someone inherits hundreds of thousands of dollars and blows it all in a few months or years, we think that’s irresponsible.
Jean-Philippe Bryk is a 43-year-old with a wife and two children. In 1995 he entered his local casino for the first time, just for fun, and won [about C$ 2000]. Since then he has lost about 1 million dollars. He says, "I neglected my family and friends. I lied to them and used them to get money. I blew my mother’s inheritance. I lied to the banks. You do everything, anything, to get your fix." He’s now suing the casino for their responsibility.
It’s a shame all of that happens and I think governments are partly to blame as well. The truth for this man, however, is that his complusion has thrown his life way out of balance. In wasting his money, he has also wasted part of his life.
You see, each of us has something much much much more valuable than a million dollars. We have time. Ask most people dying of cancer whether they’d rather have a million dollars or time. They’d rather have what you’ve got.
You may have much or little. But even if you have a week, you have more than some people. How do you keep from gambling your time away?
A Nike commercial caption went, "Life is short! Just do it!" The question is, "What is ’it’?" If "it" is just bouncing around in new shoes, that doesn’t seem like much.
The Psalm we’ll look at today could have a caption something like Nike’s. But it might say, "Life is short, do it right."
It’s the only psalm attributed to Moses. He lived long but had some really hard experiences. In fact this is a lament -- things have not been going so good. It may well have been written during the desert years before he took on leadership. It may be a mid-life psalm. How did he turn it around to make his life count?
The first verses of the the psalm teach us to
1. Back up For a God-Perspective
Look in your Bibles at [vv 1-2]. If you want to find out what to do with your time, look to the one who is not time-bound. God is not a recent invention --he’s been there from forever and will be around forever.
One reason I think people like the mountains is they seem old and steady -- something not easily removed. Yet God pre-dates them all.
If you are a believer, your home rests in the arms of God, not on this earth. Still, most of us rather enjoy it here. But C.S. Lewis has a timely reminder, "Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."
God is your true retreat. So when you ask "what is ’it’ I should be doing?", the first step is to back up. Look through the eyes of the One who started it all.
As soon as we do that, little stuff matters less. Things that touch the clock of eternity matter most. Does it matter that much if I make this or that business decision? Do I need to worry so much about the impressions I make on others? Does it really matter if I buy Ford or Chrysler, Coke or Pepsi, Gap or American Eagle? Is that movie so important to watch or are there other things that matter more?
That leads us to another principle:
2. Remember, Life is Short
Do you remember everything that happened to you yesterday? What you ate? Who you talked to? Every word you said? Not likely. [vv. 3-5]
Humans are limited. Our lives on earth have a morning, a noon and an evening. We tend not to think about it until about noon of life. Then you have a mid-life crisis!
There’s a site on the internet called deathclock.com. You can enter your date of birth, whether you smoke, your body health and so on. It will give you a calculation of your life expectancy. Then you click on the screen. Since the time I did this over a week ago, I’ve used up about a million seconds.
Unless Jesus comes, we’ll each end up with a gravestone bearing our name.
That should get each of us thinking just a little, "What on earth am I here for? How will I make the best of the time I have left?"
For some this probably seems like a frivolous question. Talk about death to a child and she says, "Die? What’s that?" To a teenager, and he says, "Yeah right, not in my lifetime." The twenty something says, "Sure, some day." The forty crowd says, "Yikes it’s true, I’m already at half time." Fifteen years later there’s more peace for those with faith, "That’s OK, I can still live with purpose." When you’re old and your body is failing you may say, "With faith in God, death is my friend." Vance Havner once said, "The hope of dying is the only thing that keeps me alive."
Obviously, if you have limited funds, you’d want to spend them wisely. If you have limited days, you’ll want to use them wisely -- if you’re responsible. You don’t want to gamble them away.
One of the biggest gambles is to get involved in destructive behaviour -- behaviour the Bible calls "sin".
3. Avoid Sin - It Makes Life Hard
We pick up that thread in [vv. 7-11].
Sin blocks God’s blessing from your life. And if it goes far enough as a slap in his face, it may well activate his anger.
We might hide things from others and then wonder, "Why do I feel so miserable?" Everyone who lives a double life pays for it in some way. Pretending and putting up a front sucks the spiritual vitality right out of you. Inside, we know we may be able to fool others, but we can’t fool God.
A life spent like that is indeed, but trouble and sorrow. The word in that verse speaks to a "wearing, wearying effort". Life lived outside of God’s purposes wears you down. You begin to feel apathetic, tired, and unmotivated. You start to agree with the statement, "Life is hard and then you die!"
You might think, "The stuff I’m doing isn’t that bad!" Well, if it’s pulling you way from God’s design for you, it’s making you less fulfilled than you could be, if it’s a quick fix to dull a meaningless life, if it’s pulling you off what you should be doing, it’s sin and it’s making your life hard.
Personally, I find there are times when I drift. I know what I should do but I want comfort more. I know what I shouldn’t do, but the pleasure substitutes for enjoying God. Those things are a gamble.
It’s usually when it hurts that we start to say, "Something’s wrong." Then you know it’s time to
4. Re-Align Your Life Priorities
Verse twelve is a key verse to this psalm and to your life. It says, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
Consider the opposite. A heart of foolishness would mean spending your best energy on things that don’t matter and leaving only leftover energy for things that do. It means trying to manufacture your own happiness from doing things that you think will satisfy you.
The truth is, that as humans, we need to learn from the God of eternity. He must teach us. We’re not just talking about a new technique for time management, we’re talking about life management -- a true heart of wisdom.
Now you can’t literally number your days the way "deathclock.com" does. For all we know, this very day could be the last one.
Numbering your days means taking each day as a gift. Each one is precious. If $100 is all you’ve got to live on in the next month, you’d be very careful about how you’d spend it. In the same way, live each day to make it count.
So how do you make each day count? You learn from God about what’s worth your time. Then you make sure you do it. You live with purpose -- His purpose in mind.
One of those very clear purposes is to love him and be loved by Him. That’s reflected in [13-14]. If, in a day, I have learned a little more of God and loved him a little more, the day has already been a success of sorts.
This comes from the ultimate conviction in your heart that God is Good. It is He that satisfies.
You will crumble if you believe God puts you in harm’s way to destroy you. You will survive knowing it’s God’s desire to help you. You cling to God’s love because that may be your only hope.
With that in hand, you can begin to look for a turnaround as you allow God’s priorities to replace your own [vv. 15-17].
How do you live wisely? Most people gamble away their time because they don’t know their purpose. Success is impossible without focus. Godly success is impossible without the right focus.
The answer is not to simply "get busier", but to live more intentionally. The average worker in North America now works about two and a half hours a week more than 20 years ago. Does that mean we have a more fulfilled society? The prescriptions for valium and other anti-depressants would say, "no". Merely staying busy does not define success.
It is mission critical that we work at the right priorities. If our priorities are not God’s priorities we will ultimately fail. That’s why I’m excited about the 40 Days of Purpose we will be focusing on in the fall. We are going to give every single person who wants to, the opportunity to fully explore what sort of life God has called them to.
I’m not going to pretend that one message like this will transform you. If God gets ahold of you, it might. But if we work at it together over that spiritually significant time of 40 Days, who knows what God will do?
In the mean time, I do want to challenge you to begin now. How did you fill out your paper? "I will consider myself a success when I am..." Some of you have given this some serious thought already. Some may yet need to.
How do your priorities line up with God’s priorities? And here’s an even harder question, "How do your priorities line up with your actual schedule?" Do the big dreams become daily realities?
[Use visuals] No one’s schedule will look exactly the same, but let me give you an example of how this might work out for a non-retired working person. You might complete your list something like this. I will consider myself a success when I am:
Providing for my household. Obviously we work to live. Ideally, our work is also our calling -- we believe God has placed us in our occupation and workplace by design. If you’re a student this might be school.
A successful Christian also walks daily with Jesus. So devotions are a regular part of the weekly schedule, if not daily. And of course, Sunday morning worship is a given both for its value to us and its example to others.
I would consider myself a failure if I was not involved with my family at a significant level. So suppers together might be a priority, as might be a family night, or one-on-one times during the week.
In this regard I came across this little poem: "If I knew it would be the last time that I’d see you fall asleep, I would tuck you in more tightly and pray the Lord your soul to keep.
"If I knew it would be the last time that I’d see you walk out of the door, I would hug you and kiss you and call you back for one more.
"If I knew it would be the last time I heard your name lifted up in praise, I would videotape each action and word, so I could play it back for days.
"If I knew it would be the last time to spare an extra minute or two, I’d stop and say ’I love you,’ Instead of assuming that you know I do.
"If I knew it would be the last time I would be there to share your day.
"Well, I’m sure you’ll have many more, So, I’ll let this one slip away.
"For surely there is tomorrow to make up for an oversight, and we’ll always get a second chance to make everything all right. There will be another chance to say our ’I love you’s,’ and certainly there’s another chance to say our ’Anything I can do’s ’.
"But just in case I might be wrong, and today is all I get, I’d like to say how much I love you and hope we never forget.
"Tomorrow is not promised to anyone, young or old alike, and today might be your last chance to hold your loved one tight.
"So if you’re waiting for tomorrow, why not do it all today? For if tomorrow never comes, you will surely regret the day, that you didn’t take the extra time for a smile or hug or kiss. And you’re surely too busy to grant someone, what turned out to be their last wish.
"So hold your loved ones close today and whisper in their ear.
"Tell them how much you love them and that you’ll always hold them dear.
"Take the time to say I’m sorry, please forgive me, Thank you, or It’s okay, and if tomorrow never comes, you’ll have no regrets about today.
Good reminder. We’re not quite done. People who succeed also serve others. It may be at church, through a home group, or in the community. They may be encouragers who phone with a purpose, who write encouragement cards with a purpose, who pray hard with a purpose, or who use their gifts of hospitality. But they serve and reach out.
Finally, a balanced spiritual life needs times of renewal. These often happen as you enjoy friendships, God’s creation, or any number of things.
Whatever the shape of your week or month, how you spend your days will determine whether you are successful. Certainly you have the freedom to waste every single day of your life. No one can make you succeed.
But if you want to make something of your life and not gamble away your days, the formula for success will look something like this. God helping you, setting eternal priorities will set you in the right direction. Focus will keep you from getting distracted by sin and less important things. Discipline will give you the ability to carry out your goals in your daily life.
So for you, today, where’s the weak link? Are your priorities where they should be? Do they translate into your schedule? Are particular sins distracting you and making your life hard? How about the discipline? Accountability often helps there.
I invite you to make a new commitment today, to use the time ahead to re-align your life. It could take several months. If you’re a bit of a procrastinator, perhaps you can just commit to pray every day about what God might do for you in the 40 Days of Purpose. [prayer]
May our God count you worthy of his calling. By his power may he fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. And may the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. -2 Thes 1:11-12
Make your life count!
