1 00:00:00,920 --> 00:00:03,680 Good morning. If you got a Bible, go ahead and 2 00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:05,840 turn that open to Psalm 90. We're in the middle of a we're 3 00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:09,160 in the middle of a little bit of a random sermon series until 4 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:11,400 community groups launch again next month. 5 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:13,320 We're calling it Psalms for every square inch. 6 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:14,600 It's been a little bit scattered. 7 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:18,480 You know, pastors are primarily just picking, hey, this Psalm 8 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:21,200 has moved me. We're going to exposite this 9 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:25,560 Psalm and I am doing Psalm 90, which I've always wanted to 10 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,160 preach on and I decided to preach on this, I think last 11 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:33,160 Sunday night. And it, it, it dawned on me like 12 00:00:33,160 --> 00:00:37,560 Friday night way too late. It dawned on me, Oh no, kids are 13 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:39,480 going to be with us during that sermon. 14 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:43,480 And the reason why it came to me as an Oh no is because as you 15 00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:47,200 read through the 1st 1112 verses of Psalm 90, you'll notice that 16 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,920 it's a very def forward Psalm. And so my, it's not my intention 17 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:55,240 to, it's not my intention to rush any difficult conversations 18 00:00:55,240 --> 00:00:57,080 that your kids want to have with you. 19 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:01,960 And at the same point time, what, what the Bible does is it 20 00:01:01,960 --> 00:01:05,600 forces us to confront big issues that the world is ignoring. 21 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,520 So I'm not going to try to like, I'm not going to try to, what 22 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:11,800 I'm going to do is rather than preaching, I'm going to elevate 23 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:14,720 my vocabulary like an inch. Does that make sense? 24 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:19,800 OK, so I'm not afraid of words like death, even with kids in 25 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,360 the room. But rather than preaching A 26 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,080 sermon that's centered around death, I'm going to preach a 27 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:28,120 sermon that's centered around frailty. 28 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:32,280 Understood. Mortality. 29 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:38,360 Brevity and and stuff like that. And as we slosh our way through 30 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:42,160 those first 11 or 12 verses, I think you'll find that it will 31 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:47,440 be worth it in order to get to verse 12 or 13 in in Psalm 90. 32 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:49,000 I'm going to pray. Then we'll move through this. 33 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:58,680 Heavenly Father, the Psalms, Lord Psalms explore difficult 34 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:03,920 subjects like mortality. But my, my prayer for us this 35 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:09,039 morning is that we would know that we do not have to explore 36 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:14,200 tough subjects alone. We don't. 37 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,960 And so my prayer for us is that the light of the Holy Spirit in 38 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:25,680 this moment, that he would illuminate this room, that he 39 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:29,320 would illuminate our hearts, He would illuminate our minds so 40 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:34,680 clearly that we could see and sense the presence of Jesus with 41 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:39,280 us here. It is Jesus who is our guide 42 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:43,000 through difficult subjects. It is Jesus who is with us. 43 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,360 He will take us by the hand and he will guide us through things. 44 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:53,560 And at the end of the day, the only thing I have found in my 45 00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:57,720 heart in my life, the only thing that has ever helped me make 46 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:01,760 sense of human frailty and mortality and brevity and death, 47 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:06,720 the only thing that is ever satisfied my itch to know why 48 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:09,400 that's even a thing is the death of Jesus Christ. 49 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:15,360 And so may the death of Jesus and the death of Jesus alone be 50 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:19,280 what brings comfort to us. This morning, in the name of 51 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:23,560 Jesus, all God's people prayed. Amen. 52 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:30,720 Psalm 90, I read the, I read in, in my opinion, the perfect novel 53 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:32,960 during my sabbatical, my three weeks off. 54 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:37,680 It was a phenomenal novel. It was written 50 years ago and 55 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:40,120 apparently it didn't get a lot of attention when it was written 56 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:42,360 in like 10 years ago. Out of nowhere, this novel 57 00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:45,560 started to get a ton of attention in literary circles as 58 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:47,440 a quote UN quote perfect American novel. 59 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:49,320 And so I picked it up in this novel. 60 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:52,840 It absolutely ruined me. It devastated, needed me. 61 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:58,320 I was, I was reading the the final chapter of the book. 62 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:00,800 It was a work of fiction. I was reading the final chapter 63 00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:04,760 of it in Starbucks and I'm sitting, I'm not, I'm not 64 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:06,240 kidding. I'm sitting there in the middle 65 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:09,360 of a public coffee shop trying to read the ending of this book 66 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:10,920 and I have tears coming down my face. 67 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:13,840 I'm like, Oh my goodness, how many pages are left? 68 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:17,440 And so I looked down and there's like 6 pages left still. 69 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:19,399 I'm like, oh, I'm not, I'm too much of a mess. 70 00:04:19,399 --> 00:04:21,640 I'm not going to be able to make it through this publicly. 71 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:25,960 So I, I put my cap on like I hid my face and I walked to my car 72 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:29,960 and locked myself in my car in the parking lot in order to read 73 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:33,280 those last 6 pages privately so I could just weep. 74 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:36,160 It was, it was really close to a perfect novel. 75 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:37,760 I don't know if anybody's ever heard of it. 76 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:40,920 The book was called Stoner, not that kind of Stoner. 77 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:43,560 Relax, we're in church. Relax. 78 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:45,960 It's written fit. Have you heard of this, Tara? 79 00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:53,360 It's, it's like Hemingway and Steinbeck had a baby kind of 80 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:56,240 stylistically. It's it's fantastic. 81 00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:58,760 It's on my desk in my office. You should go take a peek at it 82 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:00,520 right now. But essentially what makes it 83 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:04,360 exceptional is the fact that it is a book about an ordinary 84 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,760 American life, and it gets depth and meaning to an ordinary 85 00:05:08,280 --> 00:05:10,560 American life. And what happens to It's called 86 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:13,680 Stoner because his name is William William Stoner and 87 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:16,400 Stoner goes through the difficulties of an ordinary 88 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:19,000 life. His his marriage turns out to be 89 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,520 cold and cruel and it devours him. 90 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:23,880 He falls in love with his teaching job, but then one of 91 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:28,120 his bitter coworkers tries to destroy his career and stunts it 92 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:30,640 permanently. He falls in love with his 93 00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:33,960 daughter, but she is, in a way, taken from him. 94 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:37,800 And so the entire book is just filled with this sense of loss 95 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:42,240 and broken dreams and this sense of loss and broken dreams. 96 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:46,080 For Stoner, it hits him hardest in this moment early on when his 97 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:47,960 dad dies. His dad was a farmer. 98 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:52,160 And I just want you to, for a moment, I just want you to 99 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,680 consider this quote from the book Stoner. 100 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:57,920 Has he? Stoner has just attended his 101 00:05:57,920 --> 00:05:59,840 father's funeral. And then he goes out into the 102 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:02,840 farm that his father farmed. And this is what the book says, 103 00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:06,000 quote. They buried his father in a 104 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:10,280 small plot on the outskirts of Boonville, and William returned 105 00:06:10,280 --> 00:06:13,720 to the farm with his mother. That night he could not sleep. 106 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,560 He dressed and walked into the field that his father had 107 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:22,480 worked, year after year to the end that he now had found. 108 00:06:23,280 --> 00:06:28,280 Stoner knelt in the field, and he took a dry clod of dirt, a 109 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:33,240 dry clod of earth in his hand, and he broke him, and he watched 110 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:39,480 the grains darken, the moonlight crumble and flow through his 111 00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:44,440 fingers. He thought of the cost, exacted 112 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:50,720 year after year by the soil, and it remained as it had been, a 113 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:54,320 little more barren, perhaps a little more frugal of increase, 114 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:59,920 but nothing in the farm had ultimately changed their lives. 115 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:01,320 He's thinking about his mother and father. 116 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:05,680 Their lives have been expended and cheerless labor, their 117 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:10,720 wheels broken, their intelligences numbed, and now 118 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:13,840 they were in the earth to which they had given their entire 119 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:17,720 lives. And slowly, year by year, the 120 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:21,600 earth would take them. Slowly the damp in the rot would 121 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:25,720 infest the pine boxes which held their bodies, and slowly it 122 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,400 would touch their flesh. And finally, it would consume 123 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:33,800 the last vestiges of their substances, and they would 124 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:42,200 become, they would become a meaningless part of that 125 00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:48,560 stubborn earth to which they had long ago given themselves. 126 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:51,680 Yeesh. Right. 127 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:55,680 So Stoner is holding a clot of dirt in his hands, and he's 128 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:57,440 letting it slip through his fingers. 129 00:07:57,440 --> 00:08:00,720 And the point here is that Stoner is experiencing 130 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:04,080 existential dread as he considers the end of his father, 131 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:06,880 and he comes face to face with the fact of his father's 132 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:09,800 mortality. He makes a common but crucial 133 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,960 error. Cynicism, right? 134 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:17,960 It's all meaning. My father had given his life to 135 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:23,080 this farm, and at the end of his life, it's just going to consume 136 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:25,640 him. It's all must be meaningless. 137 00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:30,320 And the first half of Psalm 90 reads like the author of the 138 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:33,919 Psalm has a handful of soil in his hands. 139 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:38,280 And as it crumbles through his fingers, he's wondering what is 140 00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:42,520 the point of all this meaninglessness? 141 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:44,840 Are we having fun yet? If you're able, let's stand for 142 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:55,680 the reading of God's Word. There are some preliminary, I 143 00:08:55,680 --> 00:09:01,040 guess optimistic verses. Lord, you have been our dwelling 144 00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:03,640 place in all generations. Before the mountains were 145 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:06,400 brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world 146 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:10,440 from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. 147 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:16,240 And then it hits, but you return man to dust, and say, return how 148 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:20,840 children of man for 1000 years in your sight, or but as 149 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:25,920 yesterday when it is passed, or as a watch in night you sweep 150 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:29,480 them away. As with the flood, they're like 151 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:33,320 a dream. Like the grass that is renewed 152 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:35,640 in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and 153 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:39,600 is renewed, but in the evening it fades and Withers. 154 00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:45,280 For we are brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath We are 155 00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:48,440 dismayed. You have set our iniquities 156 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,800 before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 157 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:56,600 For all our days pass away under your wrath. 158 00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:02,720 We bring our years to an end like a sigh. 159 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:08,600 The years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80. 160 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:11,560 Yet their span is but toil and trouble. 161 00:10:11,560 --> 00:10:14,320 They are soon gone and we just fly away. 162 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:19,000 Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according 163 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:25,760 to the fear of you? And then there's a pivot. 164 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:33,480 So in light of all of that, so teach us to number our days, 165 00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:37,560 that we may get a heart of wisdom return. 166 00:10:37,560 --> 00:10:42,640 O Lord, how long have pity on us, Your servants, satisfy us in 167 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:47,760 the morning with Your steadfast love that we may be, that we may 168 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:50,600 rejoice and be glad all of our days. 169 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:54,600 Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, and for 170 00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:56,760 as many years as we have seen evil. 171 00:10:56,760 --> 00:10:58,920 Then our lives can be filled with purpose and meaning. 172 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:02,360 Let Your work be shown to Your servants and Your glorious power 173 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:05,480 to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our 174 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:09,360 God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. 175 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:13,360 Yes, establish the work of our hands. 176 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:16,600 It starts down here, then it ends up here. 177 00:11:16,680 --> 00:11:23,600 What's going on? You can have a seat and as you 178 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:25,760 do, look at those first 2 verses right there. 179 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:28,200 Those kind of the the way that stands a functions. 180 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:32,520 This is kind of a a preliminary comment on on the Psalm. 181 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:34,960 What the psalmist says in verse one and two is Lord, you've been 182 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:37,320 our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains 183 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:39,760 were brought forth or ever you would even form the earth and 184 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:42,000 the world from everlasting to everlasting. 185 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:45,000 You are God. What the psalmist is doing right 186 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:48,200 out of the gates, what he wants to establish is the fact that 187 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:50,880 God is eternal. He has no beginning, he has no 188 00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:53,240 end. He has a alpha and he's the 189 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:56,520 Omega, which begs a question, a literary question, which is 190 00:11:56,520 --> 00:11:59,760 well, why? Why would this psalmist want to 191 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:03,880 point out or highly like the eternality of God of all things 192 00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:07,960 the eternality of God at the beginning of this Psalm answer 193 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:17,240 because it's going to create a stark contrast with about what 194 00:12:17,240 --> 00:12:20,040 she talks about next. God is eternal. 195 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:23,120 He has no beginning or end. Human beings. 196 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:31,440 On the other hand, man life is brief, life is frail, life is 197 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:35,920 fickle versus 3 and 4. You return man to dust and say 198 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:40,440 return, O children of man for 1000 years in your sight are as 199 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:44,080 but yesterday when it's passed or as a watch in the night 200 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:50,040 finitude brevity of the human life, the length of a human life 201 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:53,640 from God's perspective is it is like nothing is what the 202 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:56,880 psalmist is saying in verses 3 and four 1000 years from our 203 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:58,760 vantage point. It's just to God. 204 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:02,600 It's just like a a brief moment that has already become a 205 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:06,360 distant memory to God. It's like, it's like nothing. 206 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:09,280 And then then you have versus 5 and 6. 207 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:12,520 You sweep them humans, you sweep them away. 208 00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:16,000 As with a flood, they're like a dream, like a grass that's 209 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:18,520 renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and 210 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:21,840 is renewed, but in the evening it fades and wither. 211 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:25,320 Some poetry is what the Solomon is employing to make the same 212 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:30,280 point, which is the brevity of human life, The brevity of the 213 00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:33,520 human life compared to the eternal God of the cosmos. 214 00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:36,320 What's it like? It's like the poetic device of 215 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,480 grass. It sprouts up one day and grows. 216 00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:42,280 The next day it Withers and is gone. 217 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:46,280 Finitude and the brevity of the human life verses 7 and 8. 218 00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:50,360 Psalmist goes on to say, For we are brought to an end by your 219 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:54,120 anger, by your wrath. We are dismayed you have set our 220 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:56,840 iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your 221 00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:59,880 presence. This is a theological take on 222 00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:02,880 finitude and the brevity of the human life in verses 7 and 8. 223 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:05,120 What the author of the psalmist pointing out here is that 224 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:08,280 finitude is penal, right? It's a it's a pen, it's a 225 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:11,880 penalty, right God, God doesn't like death. 226 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:14,200 He hates death. It's an intruder upon his 227 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:17,240 creation. But it is the penalty of sin 228 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:20,480 that is entered into the cosmos. And so whenever the psalmist 229 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:24,800 sees finitude and more mortality, the psalmist is 230 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:29,280 reminded of the anger and wrath of God towards sin and it's 231 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:36,080 penalty which is death, finitude and the brevity of human life. 232 00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:41,960 I'm not, I'm not proud of this story. 233 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:46,360 I, I'm going to tell it really quickly as as a means of 234 00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:50,000 repentance. I regret it now, but about about 235 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:55,120 10 years ago, I, I was young and dumb and I was at a pastor's 236 00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:58,880 conference in Chicago with some of the leaders from the church 237 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:01,560 that planted us. And we are sitting at a round 238 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:03,680 table with another pastor from Chicago. 239 00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:06,480 And he's going through a difficult season of ministry. 240 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,560 And of course I would never, we would never laugh in his face. 241 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:12,560 And we, we listened in the moment, but he's going through a 242 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:17,520 tough season in, in ministry. And all of us were leaning in 243 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:20,520 and he just kind of leaned back after it all. 244 00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:32,080 And he said, he said it's just death, pastoral ministry, it's 245 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:38,760 just death. And all of us were like, and for 246 00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:42,280 the next year or two, sometimes we would sit around whenever we 247 00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:45,200 would talk about pastoral ministry and how we enjoyed it, 248 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:49,800 we, we would always bring that up as a means of mockery about 249 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:51,520 being like, Oh yeah. Well, you know, at the end of 250 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:53,760 the day, it's just, it's just death. 251 00:15:55,560 --> 00:16:01,600 But that's the exact tone of Psalm 90. 252 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:05,680 Like those are the 1st 12 verses. 253 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:11,560 Look at verse 9 through 11 For all our days. 254 00:16:11,560 --> 00:16:15,600 They pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an end 255 00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:19,040 like a sigh. The years of our life are 70 or 256 00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:24,080 maybe 80, yet their span is it's toil and trouble. 257 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:26,640 And then there's gone and we fly away. 258 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:31,440 Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according 259 00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:36,640 to the fear of you? Again, finitude and the brevity 260 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:39,160 of of life. This time, the psalmist takes a 261 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:42,160 mathematical approach to the problem. 262 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:49,560 And he says, look, you got maybe 70, maybe 80 on average. 263 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:55,400 And it's like, yeesh, this guy is the life of the party, isn't 264 00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:58,840 he? Be be honest. 265 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:00,800 You're not. You're not inviting him to your 266 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:02,920 community group. All right? 267 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:06,319 This is the guy who wears all black, listens to too much My 268 00:17:06,319 --> 00:17:08,760 Chemical Romance and wears too much eyeliner. 269 00:17:09,760 --> 00:17:12,800 It goes to the party, sits in the corner, talks about 270 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:15,319 existential. It's just death. 271 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:18,400 This guy is such a buzzkill, right? 272 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:23,240 Here's where it gets really interesting. 273 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:32,440 Who wrote Psalm 90? You don't have to guess. 274 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,160 Look at the inscription at the very beginning of the Psalm. 275 00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:41,080 It tells you Jay, Who wrote Psalm 90. 276 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:48,400 Sorry, you're not in trouble. I just thought you'd have the 277 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:56,200 answer. Moses, do you know how many 278 00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:59,800 psalms Moses has written? One. 279 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:04,600 This is the only Psalm he wrote a prayer of Moses, the man of 280 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:05,720 God. Watch this. 281 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:07,160 Watch this. This is going to make everything 282 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:08,160 click. It's going to make these first 283 00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:11,240 11 verses click. OK, Moses, if you don't know, 284 00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:14,320 he's the man of God in the Old Testament who led the people of 285 00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:17,160 God out of slavery in Egypt and ultimately to the Promised Land. 286 00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:19,800 But while they were in the wilderness, which was supposed 287 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:23,320 to be a short stint, the people of God sinned big time. 288 00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:27,000 And they were condemned by God to wander in the wilderness for 289 00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:33,080 40 years, 40 years, 40 years to wander in the wilderness before 290 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,680 entering the Promised Land. Why 40? 291 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:41,320 Well, Numbers actually, the Book of Numbers actually tells us 40 292 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:46,080 the numbers exact because God wanted to allow for the current 293 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:50,200 disobedient generation of Israelites who sinned to pass 294 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:53,640 away before entering into the Promised Land. 295 00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:57,440 So here, here we go. Watch this. 296 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,600 So while Moses was leading the people of God through the 297 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:06,120 wilderness for 40 years, do you know what he saw? 298 00:19:06,120 --> 00:19:13,840 A lot of finitude. How much? 299 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:15,720 Good question. Let me prove it to you. 300 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:18,960 According to Numbers, another book in the Bible, there was a 301 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:21,200 census that was taken at the beginning of the wilderness 302 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:29,240 journey and it recorded exactly 603,550 men of fighting age. 303 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:34,880 So only men who are aged 20 and up 603,550. 304 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:37,480 Most scholars estimate that the total Israelite population. 305 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,160 If you throw in women, children, elderly or sorry, women, 306 00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:42,600 children and Levi White said there, it was probably around 2 307 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:44,000 million, give or take half a million. 308 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:47,280 Some say 1.5, some say 22.5. We'll meet in the middle and say 309 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:50,480 about 2 million people. Here's where it gets really 310 00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:53,160 interesting, though. The logic of wandering for 40 311 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:57,240 years in the wilderness is that all men 20 years and upwards 312 00:19:57,240 --> 00:19:59,920 need to pass away before entering into the promised land. 313 00:20:00,120 --> 00:20:04,400 That number would have been the 603,000 number, not the 314 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:08,520 2,000,000 number. If you spread that number, we'll 315 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:13,600 even crank it down. The number of 600,000 out over 316 00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:17,640 the course of 40 years. Do you know how many deaths 317 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:19,640 yearly happened in the wilderness? 318 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:26,600 15,000, probably more, but about 15,000 to put that in 319 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:32,080 perspective. That means about 1250 deaths 320 00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:35,080 were happening in the wilderness per month. 321 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:41,240 To put that into perspective, while Moses was leading the 322 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:45,120 people of God wandering through the wilderness, he was seeing 323 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:53,560 about 40 deaths per day, 40 per day. 324 00:20:55,920 --> 00:21:00,040 That means that if Moses never sleeps, which of course he does, 325 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:05,760 and if Moses never takes breaks, which of course is not true, But 326 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:09,560 if Moses did never sleep and then never took a break, then on 327 00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:13,920 an average day of pastoral ministry for Moses, he's 328 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:19,360 performing about two funerals per hour. 329 00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:27,000 That's all he's doing. You know what he's doing? 330 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:31,720 He's digging holes and performing funerals. 331 00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:38,000 That's that's his job. And when you get that, all of a 332 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,880 sudden, Psalm 90 makes a lot of sense. 333 00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:45,440 You sweep them away like a flood. 334 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:48,520 Yeah. People are just dropping. 335 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:51,400 Yeah. Life is just death. 336 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:58,640 Yeah. Moses spent 40 years wandering 337 00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:01,920 around in a cemetery. That's what the wilderness was 338 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:05,040 for him. It was a cemetery. 339 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:14,280 Does Psalm 90 make sense now? So no wonder Moses wasn't the 340 00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:18,280 life of the party, right? No wonder he was a killjoy. 341 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:29,800 Or is he being killjoy? Not to sound like Shrek, but I'm 342 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:32,560 convinced the shape of life is like an orange. 343 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:38,080 Onion's great too. Shape of life is like an orange. 344 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:42,600 The surface feels, tastes, appear, smells bitter, and it 345 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:46,080 turns your face sour. But if you peel your way through 346 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:48,720 the bitterness, and the key is you have to go through the 347 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:52,760 bitterness at the very of the center of it, underneath the 348 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:57,000 bitter wrapper of it, is the glorious divine sweetness of the 349 00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:58,800 orange. This is the way that God has 350 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:02,240 designed life. It doesn't matter if we prefer 351 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:04,400 it to be a different way. It doesn't matter if we like it. 352 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,360 It doesn't matter if we approve of it or wish it were different. 353 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:11,920 A true experience of joy in life is not like choosing between a 354 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:13,960 happy experience or sad experience. 355 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,400 That's not what the Bible's talking about when it puts forth 356 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,520 joy for you. It's like, oh, I don't want to 357 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,480 have a sad experience. I want to be happy. 358 00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:25,040 That's not what it's like biblically. 359 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:29,640 It's not the way it works. It's more like an orange in its 360 00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:32,760 peel. Like an orange in its peel, 361 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:35,120 right? You see this with Paul in First 362 00:23:35,120 --> 00:23:36,960 Corinthians. Paul's describing his entire 363 00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:46,280 ministry and he says sorrowful comma yet always rejoicing. 364 00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:50,560 Which one is it? Are you happy or sad, bro? 365 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:56,880 Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, like an orange in its peel. 366 00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:01,240 Real biblical joy is always wrapped in the sadness and 367 00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:05,680 sorrow and suffering of life. Joy has a bitter peel of sorrow 368 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:09,920 around it, and you must go through it, not avoid it, not 369 00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:13,320 pretend it doesn't exist if you want to bite into the citrusy 370 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:15,920 flavor of joy. As Christians, we don't get to 371 00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:18,600 plug our ears and convince ourselves that life should be 372 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:23,120 easy and still arrive at joy. That's why the cross is the 373 00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:25,720 symbol of the Christian life. That's why the cross is the 374 00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,840 center of the Christian faith, because the shape of the cross 375 00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:32,200 is the shape of life. What happened with the cross? 376 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,160 Jesus went through death, through sorrow, through 377 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:41,360 suffering for the joy that was set before him, not one or the 378 00:24:41,360 --> 00:24:44,440 other. And so as Christians, when we 379 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:49,320 call our way through the bitter orange peel, right, And we do 380 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:53,680 hard things like considering the fact that we're mortal, 381 00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:58,720 considering the fact that we're sinful, considering the our 382 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:01,480 experience of convictions of sin, whatever the hard thing is 383 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:05,520 in life, when we claw our way through the bitter orange peel, 384 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:09,520 we are fighting for joy. Look at that fight for joy. 385 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,960 We don't mean pretend like everything's fine. 386 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:21,480 We mean dig, dig deep. But I tell my, I tell my 387 00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:27,240 wrestlers, they don't like it. They don't think it's funny. 388 00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:31,280 I like it. I tell them. 389 00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:34,520 I tell them, look, you are, you are never closer to happiness 390 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,960 than when you are exhausted. They hate it. 391 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:40,480 They hate it. I what I do with my middle 392 00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:43,480 school wrestlers is when they're, when they're warming 393 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:52,720 up, I, I yell, Hey, what's fun? And they have to yell hard work, 394 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:59,800 but they hard work. So I yell what's fun hard work. 395 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:01,760 And then I yell what's hard work? 396 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:07,840 And they yell fun. I don't know why they keep 397 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:10,160 asking me to coach. I don't even know why they keep 398 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:12,400 on inviting me back. They like it. 399 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:16,360 They just pretend not to. What's hard work fun? 400 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:20,520 What's fun hard work. But your brain is wired in such 401 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:24,000 a way that like, it literally was designed by God to not have 402 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:28,360 the capacity to release feel good chemicals unless you face 403 00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:34,120 difficult challenges. Your brain hoards all of your 404 00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:37,760 joy chemicals in its brain unless you're willing to go 405 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,440 through a challenge and then it releases all those feel good 406 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:41,680 chemicals. That's the way life is. 407 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:44,600 That's why when, when wrestlers are going, when they're, when 408 00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:49,680 they're doing sprints, I'll yell how, how lucky are you guys to 409 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:51,600 be able to be doing sprints right now? 410 00:26:52,360 --> 00:26:58,360 Your your poor friends at home, They're stuck on the couch. 411 00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:02,680 My goodness, those poor souls are stuck on the couch. 412 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:06,480 They got to, they got to be watching their favorite TV show, 413 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:10,160 scrolling on their phones. You're just getting more and 414 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:13,440 more sorrowful, but not you. You're once Sprint away from 415 00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:18,560 happiness. And it's it's true. 416 00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:25,280 It's true, right? Bring that up because this is 417 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:29,080 the shape of Psalm 90. I bring that up because I think 418 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:32,040 that the spiritual realm mimics the physical realm. 419 00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:37,320 You don't experience biblical joy by avoiding hardship or 420 00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:41,360 ignoring the sorrows or ignoring the pains in your life. 421 00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:46,120 You must face them. Memento Mori. 422 00:27:46,120 --> 00:27:51,920 Be mindful of your frailty. Admit you're going to die and 423 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:55,400 then go through them. That's why when Moses confronts 424 00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:59,120 his own mortality long enough for those first 11 verses, when 425 00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:02,120 he does the hard thing that human nature is averse to, I 426 00:28:02,120 --> 00:28:04,720 don't want to think about it. When he rejects the comfort of 427 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:06,520 ignorance, I don't want to think about that stuff. 428 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:13,040 It ultimately leads him to joy. Moses is not a killjoy. 429 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:18,520 Moses is a custodian of joy. Psalm 90 is not morbid. 430 00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,640 Moses's response, verse 12, we see it. 431 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:26,200 His response is not, not to tell people, well, you know, life, 432 00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:29,120 life is just death. So, you know, just walk around 433 00:28:29,120 --> 00:28:31,080 fixated on death and drag your toes. 434 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,800 No, look at verse 12. This is his response. 435 00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:43,040 He says, OK, so teach us to number our days that we may get 436 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:50,240 a heart of everybody. Say wisdom, great, I want to be 437 00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:53,240 wise. Do you want to be wise? 438 00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:56,440 What? So what would that look like? 439 00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:01,040 What would it look like to live a wise life in view of our 440 00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:03,640 finitude? We'll look at verse 13. 441 00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,920 Moses pleased with the Lord, return, O Lord, how long have 442 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:09,840 pity on us. And then he goes on to say, 443 00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:15,080 satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love. 444 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,800 Why? That or in order, or for the 445 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:23,120 sake of Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast 446 00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:29,040 love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 447 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:32,920 In case you missed it, here's a different way of phrasing it. 448 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,720 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us and for as 449 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,960 many years as we have seen evil and then he goes on to say then 450 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,400 our lives can we can do meaningful work that matters. 451 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:47,600 He was on as I let the favor right you God's God's love for 452 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:52,600 us of the Lord our God be upon us and then establish the work 453 00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:54,520 of our hands. Yes, establish the work of our 454 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:55,200 hands. Wow. 455 00:29:55,640 --> 00:30:05,280 So the wise heart follow me here that knows that she's mortal and 456 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:09,040 her days are numbered. How does she live? 457 00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:17,320 The Psalm tells us she lives in dependence upon God, asking God 458 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:23,720 to help her quote, rejoice and be glad all of her days. 459 00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:29,480 Wow. So the effect that Moses wants 460 00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:33,200 Psalm 90 to have on us isn't for us to walk around with our tails 461 00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:35,760 between our legs like Eeyore all the time. 462 00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:40,360 He, he wants us to walk through the sorrow and sadness and 463 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:48,200 suffering of our life so that we live with an urgency for 464 00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:55,080 pursuing maximum joy in God. What's the word for that? 465 00:30:55,840 --> 00:31:00,120 That's wise. It's wisdom. 466 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:06,360 There's actually a ton of practical used to this. 467 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:13,080 Aquinas kind of a big deal in the 13th century Aquinas, 13th 468 00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:15,560 century theologian. He had such an interesting take 469 00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:20,360 on this that I actually I had to read what he wrote twice. 470 00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:27,000 Aquinas said quote, rather than face the weight of mortality, 471 00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:31,520 the soul turns to distractions, agitation and laziness. 472 00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:34,120 This is helpful because this happened in the 13th century. 473 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,200 I tend to think like, oh, this is like a 21st century problem. 474 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,440 We want to put makeup on everything and not avoid hard 475 00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:41,960 things because we have technology. 476 00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,680 No, it's a human problem, right? They're going through this in 477 00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:47,120 the 13th century. Aquina says rather than face the 478 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:50,080 weight of mortality, the soul will turn to anything 479 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:52,280 distractions, agitation and laziness. 480 00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:58,520 And he goes on to say this is a kind of spiritual disgust. 481 00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:03,040 OK, Right. That makes everything watch this 482 00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:10,120 heavy and meaningless. Interesting. 483 00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:14,880 I was like, is he saying what I think he's saying? 484 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,360 Right. It would seem that pretending 485 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:22,640 like you're not mortal would actually make life feel lighter, 486 00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:26,680 right? But what Aquinas is saying is it 487 00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,200 actually makes everything feel heavy and meaningless. 488 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:32,920 So refusing to acknowledge your mortality, according to Aquinas, 489 00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:36,800 makes everything heavier. How so? 490 00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:40,720 Let's let's test this really quickly. 491 00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:42,400 I know I'm pushing time right now. 492 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,240 Imagine for just a moment, an issue in your life right now. 493 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:50,320 I don't care what it is. It's between you and the Lord. 494 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:53,480 Maybe it's a tough decision. You have to make it work. 495 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:56,640 Maybe it's a conversation you know you need to have in your 496 00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:58,720 marriage. Maybe it's a behavioral issue 497 00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:01,040 with the kid. I don't like Whatever it is. 498 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:05,520 Imagine one of those issues, and I want you to hold that issue in 499 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:12,200 your heart right now. How does the issue feel in your 500 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,280 heart? Heavy. 501 00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:17,400 It's heavy. That's why we're all going to 502 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:21,680 say, man, it's heavy. OK, Keep that issue in your 503 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:24,720 heart right now. But I want you to tell yourself 504 00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:27,160 one truth that you normally don't remember. 505 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:31,080 Here's the truth. Someday you're going to croak 506 00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:39,200 and stand before Jesus. How does that, how does that 507 00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:42,480 make the issue feel? It doesn't vanish. 508 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,280 That's foolishness to pretend like it's not an issue. 509 00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:54,640 But it gets lighter, doesn't it? You have that issue, and it's 510 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:57,240 worth thinking about and it's worth trying to do the right 511 00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:59,640 thing. But you when you remember your 512 00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:04,920 mortality, the issue gets appropriately lighter. 513 00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,400 That's what Aquinas is saying, right? 514 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:12,440 If you don't do that, everything feels so heavy and meaningless. 515 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,480 But the human heart that contemplates her mortality 516 00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:19,960 understands that the appropriate decision in every situation is 517 00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:25,080 to urgently seek joy in Jesus. And this, what this does is it 518 00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:29,920 empowers her to obey Jesus, to listen to Jesus, to honor Jesus, 519 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:34,880 and to enjoy Jesus with an urgency in every moment. 520 00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:36,920 Most people don't have this realization until it's too late. 521 00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:39,719 Stoner, the book that I was talking about, he has this a 522 00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:42,080 similar realization. He's not a Christian, and so he 523 00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:44,199 doesn't have a religion, his epiphany while he's on his 524 00:34:44,199 --> 00:34:48,120 deathbed, but he does have a really common epiphany on his 525 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:49,520 deathbed. I just want you to look at it, 526 00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:51,280 all right? It's a lot different than his 527 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:55,199 clump of dirt moment. He's sitting on his deathbed 528 00:34:55,199 --> 00:34:57,360 with his wife. And this is just a moving 529 00:34:57,360 --> 00:34:59,320 paragraph. It says, quote. 530 00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:03,200 A new tranquility had come between them. 531 00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:08,480 It was like a quietness that was like the beginning of love, and 532 00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:13,280 almost without thinking, Stoner knew why it had come. 533 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:17,320 They had forgiven themselves for the harm that they had done each 534 00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:22,160 other, and almost with regret, he looked at her now, in the 535 00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:26,720 soft light of late afternoon, her face seemed young, and 536 00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:31,280 online he sees her differently. If I had been stronger, he 537 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:34,040 thought. If I had known more. 538 00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:39,120 If I could have understood. And finally, mercilessly, he 539 00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:43,520 thought, if only I had loved her more. 540 00:35:46,240 --> 00:35:48,440 As if it were a long distance and had to go. 541 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:52,640 His hand moved across the sheet that covered him and touched her 542 00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:54,880 hand. So when he's holding the clump 543 00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:59,480 of dirt, he makes a common error in considering his mortality. 544 00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:03,240 It's just meaningless. But now, on the edge of his own 545 00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:08,800 passing, he's hit by the correct meaning of mortality, which is I 546 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:15,720 wish I would have loved more. Moses in Psalm 90 is saying 547 00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:26,360 Wisdom is having that deathbed realization right now in the 548 00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:30,040 Pew. You're sitting in, in the moment 549 00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:34,120 you're occupying and not waiting until it's too late. 550 00:36:34,240 --> 00:36:35,840 It's coming to the conclusion right now. 551 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:38,360 Oh my goodness, my days are numbered. 552 00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:42,120 I need to urgently fight for Jesus. 553 00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:46,280 I need to urgently fight for joy and satisfaction in Jesus. 554 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:49,000 I need to love Jesus. The one who created me. 555 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:51,360 The one who, even when I was enemies with him, took on flesh 556 00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:52,880 for me. The one who died for me. 557 00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:55,560 The one whose death on the cross purchased forgiveness of sins 558 00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:57,240 for me. The one who gave his 559 00:36:57,240 --> 00:37:00,760 righteousness to me. The one who sent his Spirit to 560 00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:02,880 me. The one who even now at the 561 00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:06,440 right hand of the Father, continues to intercede for me, 562 00:37:06,720 --> 00:37:10,400 and the one who, who after the days of my numbered life are 563 00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:14,800 over in this mortal body, will resurrect me to eternal life 564 00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:23,080 with Him. And, and then and then are you 565 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:28,760 guys with me? And when you see that, then you 566 00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:32,040 can see Psalm 90 with gospel eyes. 567 00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:36,800 You could see it with gospel eyes. 568 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:39,280 And this is where the gospel blows up. 569 00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:42,840 Psalm 90. You ready? 570 00:37:43,720 --> 00:37:46,680 Here it is. Are your days numbered? 571 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:52,040 Yes. In the mortal, failing sinful 572 00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:55,160 body you have yes. Are your days numbered? 573 00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:58,280 Yes. But do you know whose days are 574 00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:01,280 also numbered? Deaths. 575 00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:07,000 Days are numbered. Death has a leash on it. 576 00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:13,480 Death has an expiration date. That's why we sang O the 577 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:21,360 fullness of salvation. Sin and death defeated both of 578 00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:24,000 them. The Western Church is really 579 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:27,760 good at focusing on the defeat of sin, which is great, right? 580 00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:31,480 And you're going to be in heaven with your soul with them, and 581 00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:35,040 that's great. That's just not what to him, we 582 00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:38,760 call full salvation. Full salvation requires the 583 00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:40,920 resurrection. You ever wondered why? 584 00:38:41,240 --> 00:38:43,360 Why do we even need to be resurrected if our souls are in 585 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:47,320 heaven with God? Because our bodies are still in 586 00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:50,200 the ground waiting for us. And if God leaves them there, 587 00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:54,480 that means death wins. That's only half a gospel. 588 00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:58,680 Jesus wants to defeat sin and death. 589 00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:01,960 Death is God's enemy. He hates it. 590 00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:05,640 He's not partners with it, he's not a fan of it. 591 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:10,640 He's willing to employ it when necessary, but he hates death. 592 00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:12,880 It is his enemy. That's why the Bible says that 593 00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:17,160 when Jesus returns, even death itself will be destroyed because 594 00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:19,600 of the death of Jesus. You can actually read verses one 595 00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:21,040 through 11 and apply it to death. 596 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:25,120 Verse 7, death will be brought to an end by your anger, by your 597 00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:27,080 wrath. Death will be dismayed. 598 00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:30,400 Verse nine, death will pass away under your wrath. 599 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:32,760 Death will bring its years to an end like a sigh. 600 00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:35,800 Jesus doesn't just want to save your soul. 601 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:38,920 He does. He also wants to crush death and 602 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:40,440 resurrect your body. Amen. 603 00:39:41,240 --> 00:39:44,520 And that's why when Jesus died, he did not merely die. 604 00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:48,280 When Jesus died, he took a shovel into the grave with him. 605 00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:52,840 And where there was only a wall, Jesus dug an exit so that all 606 00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:55,920 who believe in Jesus will be resurrected into everlasting 607 00:39:55,920 --> 00:40:00,200 glory and March out of the grave on resurrection day and triumph 608 00:40:00,240 --> 00:40:03,080 over death. Deaths days are numbered. 609 00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:09,400 The the grip, the grip, the grip that death's greedy little hands 610 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:12,480 right now have on the bodies of your loved ones. 611 00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:16,080 It's slipping. It's slipping. 612 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:20,880 And when Jesus comes back? When he returns, he's going to 613 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:24,880 break each and every one of Death's fingers to finally and 614 00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:29,280 fully destroy it so that for those in Christ Jesus, there 615 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:32,600 will be a resurrection into eternal glory. 616 00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:43,640 So until that day, until we see Death defeated, until we see 617 00:40:43,640 --> 00:40:46,920 death destroyed, until we see death crushed, what would be a 618 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:50,000 wise way to spend our very numbered days? 619 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:52,040 What would it look like to live a wise life? 620 00:40:52,960 --> 00:41:00,640 Answer. Seek maximum joy in Jesus 621 00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:05,080 urgently, every moment, every day. 622 00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:10,920 Fight for joy in Jesus. Heavenly Father, thank you for 623 00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:14,000 the destruction of of death and the good news of the gospel. 624 00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:21,120 Sometimes, yeah, I don't know if anybody needs to hear this. 625 00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:25,160 Sometimes we think that Christianity means that we have 626 00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:28,880 to pretend like like death doesn't bother. 627 00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:32,600 I I remember Lord, there was a friend of mine who one time told 628 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:34,640 me when he was at the funeral of a loved 1. 629 00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:38,840 He was told by his parents, said he wasn't allowed to cry because 630 00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:41,600 his friend was safe with Jesus in heaven, and that should make 631 00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:45,480 him happy. And of course, that part is 632 00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:47,240 true. It's just not the full truth. 633 00:41:48,240 --> 00:41:54,560 It is very possible, and I think even healthy to #1 yes, be happy 634 00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:57,240 that the souls of our loved ones are with Jesus in heaven. 635 00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:05,920 And yeah, we can also be very angry and very sorrowful that 636 00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:10,040 death currently has a grip on their mortal bodies, and that 637 00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:14,600 can make us angry and sorrowful. And the reason why it's OK is 638 00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:16,440 because that's the way you feel about death. 639 00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:20,880 The Book of Revelation, you call death the final enemy of God. 640 00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:24,880 You don't like it, you despise it. 641 00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:28,080 You weep at it in the person of Jesus Christ and the Gospels. 642 00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:37,520 And yeah, but we weep and mourn not as those who have no hope. 643 00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:42,880 We do so with the full knowledge that one day Jesus Christ will 644 00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:46,960 return and destroy and defeat death and crush death underneath 645 00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:51,560 his feet and throw him into into the lake of fire. 646 00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:57,000 And we believe that. And so, Lord, until that day, I 647 00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:02,200 pray that you would teach us to number our days so that we might 648 00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:05,560 be wise people. So it's in the precious name of 649 00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:07,320 Jesus that all God's people prayed. 650 00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:11,680 Amen. Let's stand and let's worship 651 00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:12,480 this Jesus together.