All right, go with me to Psalm
139. Psalm 139 first. This is a good New Year's message. Start the year. It's a good thing
to continue to think about, meditate on throughout the year, every
day. Count your blessings. Count your
blessings. and number your days. This is wisdom, isn't it? The
Word tells us to bless the Lord, O my soul, bless the Lord, and
forget not all His benefits. Forget not all His benefits,
who daily loadeth us with benefit. Count your blessings. Counting
your blessings will lessen your troubles. Counting your blessings will
lessen your troubles. That's a fact. The blessings
of our Lord you will find if you count them. You can't count
them. David's going to tell us. There
more than can be numbered. But the blessings of the Lord
far outweigh our troubles. You know it's so, don't you?
Far outweigh our troubles. But now, I hope to bring this
out. The fact is, troubles are a blessing
to God's people. You understand? Troubles are
a blessing, maybe the greatest blessings of all, for the child
of God. Because our Lord said, I've got
a good article going in our Bulletin Sunday. All of them, it's just
great. I sent it to Robin first because
it was so good. I knew she'd be blessed by it,
and sure enough she was. But by my father. Romans 8, 28. It's all too good for God's people. I mean everything. All. It's
all good. Psalm 139, look at verse 17 and
18. David says, How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them,
if I should count them. They are more in number than
the sand. More in number than the sand.
Count your blessings. He said, if I should try to count
God's thoughts toward me. Those the Lord thinks on are
those He loves. This is what David, I think one
time David said, what is man that thou art mindful of him?
What is man that God would even think on him? Man won't think
on God until God causes him to think on God. But God, but God, thinks on his people. Those he
thinks on, he loves. Those he thinks on, he cares
for. Those he thinks on, he provides
for, he protects them. Those he thinks on, he leads,
he guides, he communes with them. As a father pities his children. I believe that's going to be
Sunday's message from Psalm 103, as we said it might be. Those,
his children, they are always on his mind. They're always on
his mind, thinking on them. They're very good, they're welfare.
Shall I quote Brother David Edmondson again? David, are you listening?
He's out to do you good. Like a father pities his children,
he thinks on them constantly. He thought on his children long
before they were born. For whom he did foreknow, that's
before the world began. David thinks, thinking about
God, thinking on me is just precious. and all of his thoughts toward
me. It's a precious thing when one
of the brethren tells you that I've been thinking of you today.
Isn't it? Isn't that precious to you? I've been thinking about
you. I've been praying for you. That's a blessing, isn't it?
Especially if somebody wakes up thinking about you. That's
love, isn't it? You ignore those you don't love.
You don't think of them. But those you love. that you
think on. And our Lord thinks on His people,
thinks on us every day, all day. There's not a moment that He's
not thinking on His people. Our Lord Jesus Christ came here
for the express purpose of saving His people. And every waking
hour was spent on their behalf, for their salvation, thinking
on them. There's a girl up here I've got
to go see. Or there's a man down here that
needs me. There's one down here, there's one up here. There's
a sick man. There's a family. Every day. All day. Every day. Thinking on his people. Isn't
that marvelous? Isn't that wonderful? David said,
that's so precious for me to think on that. And he said, we're
always on his mind. Look at verse 18. He said, when
I wake up, I'm with him. Lamentations 3 is a favorite
of many of you, isn't it? Lamentations 3, it says, The
Lord's mercies were not consumed. His compassions, David says,
When I recall this to mind, I have hope. That it says, The Lord's
mercies were not consumed. His compassions, they never stop. They fail not. They are new every
morning. Every morning, his mercies. You
remember the message a few weeks ago, Psalm 103, two weeks ago. The tender mercies of the Lord,
you remember that? The blessing to me. I jotted several things
down for that message, but we ran out of time. And you remember,
I was going to deal with the pity of the Lord, too. But thinking
of his mercies took one whole message. It could take a thousand.
You should count them, number them. They're more than the sand.
I jotted down a few of them. Daily, yearly, lifelong, tender
mercies, blessings of our Lord. I'm going to save the best for
last, okay? But think about just the living
mercies and blessings of God, of daily life. Every day. Day
in and day out. All our lives. Food and drink.
We talked about the Lord. We looked at Psalm 104, the Lord
feeding all the animals and so forth. What about us? Anybody
missed a meal? No, look at you. No, we haven't
missed any meals. Food, daily bread. He says, pray,
give us this day our daily bread. Whether we pray for it or not,
He's going to. Whether we thank Him or not, He's going to give
it to us. His thoughts, and this is what
David said in another place, what the Lord said through Isaiah
and David, that my thoughts are not your thoughts. You may not
think on me, but I'm always thinking on you. You may forget me, but
I can't forget you. Because He's God, He's not a
man. And that's our salvation, isn't
it? But all our lives, every day,
day in and day out, David said this, I've never seen the righteous
forsaken, those in Christ. I've never seen them. Are you
listening to me? have had, or do have, or will
have doubts and fears about our salvation. Listen to me now.
And I didn't say this, God did. None of them that trust in Him
shall be ashamed, shall be guilty, shall be desolate, shall be left
out. Nobody that's ever trusted Jesus Christ has been cast out. Ever. You just mark that down. God
can't lie and He's promised that. Blessed are they that trust him.
David said, I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed
begging bread. Our brother Gabe went and some
men went to Africa where it's the poorest of the poor, dirt
poor. Don't talk about being dirt poor. They're dirt poor. Okay. But there's people, there's
third world countries that And Americans complain about
waiting in line at Walmart or something for their grocery cart
full of food. And there's people waiting on
a helicopter to drop a bag of rice at. Now, buddy. But he said, David said, I've
never seen God's seed begging bread. As poor as our brethren
are down in Mexico, they've always got food on the table. Right? Brethren in Africa, never. The widow's barrel, remember? It never ran dry. It was always
just one handful. That crucible never failed her
whole life. What about yours? Never. Never. Oh, try to count the meals. Try to count the meals he served
you. My mother had four children. A husband, that's six people.
And she fixed three meals a day. Women used to do this. Three
meals a day. I'm talking big breakfast, lunch,
and supper. Every day, all of my youth, as
long as I can remember. That's a lot of food. Not to
mention the thousands, literally thousands of visitors, the brothers
and sisters that came to stay in their house, and she just
cooked and cooked and cooked and cooked. And never ran out. That barrel never ran out. Never
ran out. My father paid for it, and he
didn't have much money. Poor young preacher. I can tell
you some stories. How much more does our Heavenly
Father feed His children? Material thing. Material thing. What the world thinks of as the
greatest blessing, material thing. Not the greatest blessing, but
they are blessings, okay? Material blessings are a blessing. For God's people, for those who
acknowledge and thank God, they're a blessing. They're going to
turn into a curse for the world. Those that don't acknowledge
God and thank God and ask God for them and thank Him when He
gives them, they're going to turn into a curse for them. The
money, the riches and all that are going to rise up into judgment
against them. But not God's people. Think about
all the blessings and material things, the benefits. Forget
not all His benefits. Life and health and all these
things. I talked about food and drink. You're still eating. You're
still drinking, aren't you? Walking. You walked in here. You're not bedridden, are you?
Yet. It may reach that. It will reach
that. But not yet. You're still walking. You're still talking. You remember
Brother Charles Ross? Did you go see him? Remember
he spent, Brother Stephen, he spent about two years, couldn't
talk, didn't he? With a feeding tube in it. He still had a big
smile on his face, didn't he? Isn't that amazing? That's amazing
grace what that is. God's people. Barbara. But we're still walking, still
talking, in relatively good health. Most, half anyway in this room,
are at that age where everything they say about you is going to
be followed by these three words. For his age. He looks good. For his age. Right? We've all gotten to that
point. But we're doing pretty well for our age, aren't we?
How many people? I remind my mother this. She's
101. I tell her, Mother, you're not
bedridden yet. You're still able to walk. You're
still able to go to the work services. It's amazing. It's amazing grace. Those are
blessings. They really are blessings. Good
health. Relatively good health. And yet,
as I said, troubles, sickness can be, and probably is, the
greatest blessings that God's people will have. If we didn't
ever have troubles or sicknesses, we'd be just like the world.
We'd forget God. But He sends these things. Just enough troubles
to keep us from being completely and totally down and depressed
and discouraged. But enough to keep us wanting
another place, a better city. Because builder and maker is
God. Sickness. To be sick in bed can be the
greatest blessing. You learn more in sickness and
trial and trouble than you do in prosperity. You really do. You'll really count your blessing
when you're lying in the bed, won't you? Or if one of your
loved ones is. You'll really think on God then,
won't you? His Word only, His Word will
never mean to you what it does when you're in trouble. Or one
of your, one that you love. It will never mean as much to
you as then. So that makes troubles and trials
and sicknesses and sorrows and all that the greatest of blessings,
one of the greatest. Then there's the blessings of
home and family and friends, home, you know, food and shelter. Our Lord says having food and
rain might be content. He didn't have a place to lay
His head. Why? Do you remember reading Psalm
90? You remember what the first? Lord, thou hast been our dwelling
place. In Him we live and move and have
our being. See, our homes are not our safety and not really
our protection. They're just a place to get out
of the weather. He's our fortress. He's our refuge. He's our safety. He's our shelter. He's our hiding place. He's our
dwelling place. But he has given us homes, nice
homes, to get warm and dry. You know, the church house, I
call it the church house. This is not the church. You're
the church. Okay? This is the church house where
the church meets. We're the temple of God, and
He's our temple. But God's given us this nice
church house, hasn't He? You know, if I'd had my druthers,
we'd trade places with that Catholic place up the hill there. They've
got the best view in town. Well, anyway, we've got the best
gospel in town. But He's given us a nice place,
our homes. We have heat. We have air conditioning. Think about it. And Brother Kelly
and I think about the greatest physical material blessing on
earth is hot water. Running water. You've fed some
water in a bucket, haven't you Ron? Irene? Nancy? You've fed some water
in a bucket. All our lives, every day, day in, Day after, hadn't
missed a thing. Isn't that something? Hadn't
lacked for anything. Family. Oh, I was so blessed. Father and a mother that loved
me so much. I never lacked for anything.
You boys, Johnny, Tommy, do you have a good dad? I expect a big,
loud amen there. I knew your daddy. Were you not
blessed? To have a father that loves you,
or a mother that loves you, or a father and a mother that loves
you. Sisters and brothers, siblings,
home. That's a blessing. That's a great
blessing. Some of you have brothers that
are your brother in Christ. Boy, what a double blessing that
is. Some of you have sons that are
your brothers in Christ. My, what a blessing. Double blessing. The Lord's so good, isn't He? Family, husband. You still got
a husband that loves you? You still got a wife that loves
you? John, that's amazing grace, isn't it? Some of you lost your husbands,
wives. You're blessed with one now.
It's a blessing, isn't it? Children, grandchildren, friends. You got any friends? How many? Count them. Let me tell you this. If you've
got one good friend, I mean one really good friend, you're a
blessed man. But I know you. I know all that.
You've got a bunch of friends. Everywhere I go, How's old John
Davis doing? How's Irene doing? Tell old Ron
we love you. Notice it's always old. Tell
old Ron. How's old Doug doing? You've got a bunch of friends
that love you. What a blessing. Tell old Kelly. Old Kelly. Yeah, you're at that
age? Count them. Count your friends. They're blessings.
They're blessings. How many have we had over the
years? How many have we lost? How many have come and gone?
How many friends? How many brothers? Then I jotted down this. God's
restraining and constraining grace. Now that's getting really
good. God's restraining grace. There's a difference between
restraining, where He keeps something from you. Constraining is make
things happen. Okay? Restraining grace, where
He holds back. You're not in prison. Isn't that a miracle, brother,
that we're not in prison? You're not on the street, sister,
walking the street. That's a miracle of God's grace,
restraining grace. He's kept you from it. I've got brothers, you've got
brothers and sisters that have children in prison. You've got a dear friend, a brother,
a grace preacher that's got five children and all of them are
lost and one of them is in prison. How would you like to have that
as a trial? God's grace is sufficient. Restraining
grace. You're not walking the street.
You haven't left the gospel. If you could, you would. You
haven't. Why? Does it have anything to
do with you? No, we're kept by the power of
God. We're kept from this world. How are we going to overcome
the world? By this faith God gives us. God-given faith. Constraining
grace. Grace that causes you to do things.
It makes you do things. It makes you lie down in green
pastures. You're still coming to hear the gospel. Look at this,
Wednesday night. This just tickles me to death. Look at this crowd
of people. So you're still coming. And you're
going to hear the same thing you've heard for years. And you're
still coming. That's constraining grace. It's
the love of Christ. He loves you. And He's given
you a love for Him. The love of God shed abroad in
your heart and make you want to keep coming. If it wasn't
there, you wouldn't keep coming. You understand? That's constraining
grace. You're hearing. You keep coming
and hearing. What else can you hear? You know,
at Christmas, we've been watching this movie every year. It's kind of a tradition of Gabe
and Hannah and the girl. And I just so don't want to watch
it again next year. But it's a tradition. Kind of
funny, really. But you're not getting tired
of this. It's getting better. That's constraining
grace. You're still believing. You're
still calling. You're still praying. You're still reading. You still
desire and love the Word of God, the worship, the people of God.
Count the times you've come here. Try to count the messages you've
heard. I personally, I'm just telling
you this as just a matter of fact, have preached in here over
8,000 messages. And that's not counting Henry
Mahan, and Scott Richardson, and Maurice Montgomery, and David,
and Gabe, and Maurice, and you name it, David Pledger, just
on and on it goes, all the others. How many thousands must be predicted? Count them. Go to Genesis 32
with me. I'm going to have you turn to
three more Scriptures. I promise, three more Scriptures.
Genesis, Ephesians, and Psalm 90. Hold me to that now. But
Genesis 32. You love this verse. You love this. You're going to
want to remember where it is. Genesis 32. And this brings me
to the last and greatest thing. It's the greatest blessing of
all. And what I was leading into is not this temporal life, not
the things in this temporal life, but eternal life. Salvation. Salvation. Life that won't end. Life more abundant. Oh my, you're talking about food
and drink. We have meat to eat, really. We have meat to eat that
the world knows not of. The Lord has fed us with food
that the world doesn't know anything about. And you know what I'm
talking about. I'm talking about the body and
the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
talking about the gospel. We're feeding on fat things and
wine on the leaves, well refined, aren't we? Every Sunday, every
Wednesday, Sunday after Wednesday, how blessed we are. This is the
blessing of blessing. Oh, food and drink. The gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're still eating, still feasting,
aren't we? Drinking, feasting after all
these years. And it doesn't grow weary, it
grows sweeter, doesn't it? We went through Exodus, you remember,
years ago, and then started back on it again, and I thought, I've
never looked at this before. We went through Genesis twice,
and the second time I thought, did I even deal with that? It's
brand new. We've went through 45 books of
the Bible, every verse. And it just keeps getting better
and sweeter. Look at Genesis 32. I used to
quote half of this. This is Jacob, and it kind of
has a real special meaning to me. He came to the place where
the angels of God met him. I remember preaching on this.
It was just wonderful. Jacob saw the angels of God,
a host of them, and he called it Mahan-naum. But it goes on down here, and
Jacob said, verse 9, Oh God of my father Abraham, God of my
father Isaac. He didn't always know God. He
didn't always think on God. He didn't always pray to God.
But God thought on him. God loved him. God revealed himself
to him. Christ wrestled with him. God
of my father Isaac, the Lord, which said to me, return unto
thy country, to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. I am not worthy of the least
of all the mercies. Have you ever quoted that? Do
you not think of that all the time? I'm not all the mercies
that you've shown me. We've just talked about some
of them. We tried to count a few of them. I mean, just a few. We're not worthy of the least
of those mercies. But it doesn't stop there. He
says, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and
of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy
servant. The Lord has shown us the truth.
This is the greatest blessing of all. He's made known His ways
unto Jacob. What psalm was that? Psalm 147. He numbers all the blessings
and He comes down to the last. He said He showed His Word to
Jacob. His statutes, His judgment. He
hasn't dealt that way with any nation. He showed His judgment. He showed His ways to Patrick
Collin. Who? Patrick Holland. You know Patrick down there in
Franklin County, down in Podunk Holler right now. Who? The King
of Glory stopped to reveal Himself. Passed by the President of the
United States to reveal the truth to you. And keeps reminding you because
you keep forgetting. And will never let you forget
because He keeps reminding you. That's a blessing in it. Hmm. I'm not worthy of all the
gospel messages I've heard all my life. But the Lord just keeps
sending them. Just keeps sending them. Don't
let him forget. Holy Spirit, don't wrestle it
with him again. He's trying to get away. Get
him. Pin him down. Hmm. All the mercy. Ephesians 1. Scripture number 2. Ephesians
1. Do you know Ephesians 1? Do you? Do you love it? After you've
heard it, you still love it? After you've heard it 5,343 times?
Do you, John? John is just smiling. Ephesians 1. That's right. Yeah,
let's read that again. How many times? Oh, blessed is
the man, the woman, that knows the joyful sound of the gospel.
The gospel stays good news. Blessed is the man, the woman,
that he causes to approach unto Him chosen to hear, to believe,
to receive. Ephesians 1. My, my. Here is the blessing. starts talking about blessings.
He doesn't name one blessed material thing, does he? Not one. Not food, not drink,
not anything. It's all spiritual blessings.
You want to hear it again? Oh, grace be to you. Verse 2. Peace from God our Father. God's
our Father? Yeah. And the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. Here's a true blessing. In heavenly
things or places. Where are they? In Christ. You know what that means. You
know what they mean. According, here it is, he starts
with what the world hates more than anything. God's election. The accord is, He hath chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. That's a blessing. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. Before the foundation of the world, thought on us that
we should be holy and without blame. Before Him in love He
did this and loved us. He said, I have loved thee with
everlasting love. Therefore, with love and kindness,
I have drawn you to Christ. Chosen you, called you. Predestinated,
verse 5. Oh, there's a second word the
world hates. What God's people love. If you love that word,
God loves you. Or you wouldn't love it. Adoption. Adoption. You still listen to
David? David Edmondson loves adoption. Well, we all do. We're
adopted. We're not orphans. by Jesus Christ. Verse 6, to the praise of the
glory of His grace, He has made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption, the blessing of redemption, forgiveness
of sins. I'm telling you, the sweetest
thing you'll ever, the greatest blessing you'll ever know is
forgiveness if you're a guilty sinner. If you know what real
guilt is and you hear that you've been forgiven, that woman caught
in the act of adultery, That's the sweetest thing she ever heard
in her life. Woman, thy sins be forgiven. That man laying on that bed,
thy sins be forgiven. Oh, forgiveness. He's abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Oh, where sin abounded. Has your
sin abounded? Grace did much more now. You know, try to count spiritual
blessings as mercy, as grace, as forgiveness. How many times
has the Lord forgiven you? Try to count. Today! You know what, it's going to
take eternity for the Lord to show us. Look at chapter 2, verse
7. It says, in the ages to come,
He's going to show us the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's going to take an eternity
to show us just how kind He's been to us. How many times? And
you know, there are so many blessings we're not aware of. Mercies and kindness and grace
that we're just not aware of. Things that He did for us, we
didn't realize. Oh, my chosen, called, adopted,
redeemed, forgiven, sealed, shut up, shut in. My, my. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul.
Now listen. Right now, Psalm 90. Last verse.
Last scripture. Psalm 90. But we're going to
look at 15 verses. Psalm 90. Psalm 90, and I close
where we started. Let me tell you this, folks.
If you count the Lord and His Kingdom, His people, His Word,
His Gospel, His worship, if you count Christ the greatest blessing
of all, you're truly blessed. Did you hear me? If you count
these things, the things of God, the people of God, the Word of
God, the worship of God, The gospel, Christ himself, is the
greatest blessing of all, more than anything else. You are a
blessed person. David said, Thy lovingkindness
is better to me than life itself and anything in this life. We
looked at that. How many times did we see that? We said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of God than anywhere else. I'd rather be doing this
than anything else. Is there really anything better
than this to you? Examine your heart. Can you say
that from the bottom of your heart? God knows. If you can,
you're the most blessed man on earth. One of them. One of many. Here's what Paul said. Listen
to Paul. Philippians 3. He said, I count
all things but loss. dung for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Can you say that? Can you? Listen to this. He said, I count
not my life dear unto me. He counted all this but loss,
counting the blessings of the Lord as the greatest blessings
of the Lord. And he counted not even his life dear unto him.
Because he said, I have a desire to depart and be with the Lord,
which is far better. He said, I'm in a strait between
the two. Can you say that? You can't say
it every day. But can you say it? Do you say
it? Every now and then? You're a blessed person. If you
count not your life, dear, and you count all things but loss. Psalm 90. Now let's number our
days, okay? I've told you many times that
we need to look at this over and over again. It's been a couple
of years. But it talks about our eternal
God, you read it with me, our Creator, our dwelling place,
and His eternality and how finite we are and how frail our life
is, how short our life is on this earth. Look at verse 4.
He says, a thousand years and I sighed of yesterday when it's
passed, like a watch in the night. A watch in the night back then
was three hours. A thousand years is like three hours. Haven't
you noticed the older you get, the faster time goes by? It's
amazing isn't it? It's amazing that time flies.
Years. Years are like months. And months
are like days, and days go back like hours, and hours like minutes.
It's just so in it. This is the year... Does this boggle your mind? 2025.
It ought to still be 1965. I remember that well. 2025. Get a hold of that. Do you remember
when the year 2000 came around? You're kidding me. It's 2000.
Twenty-five years. Boom. Like that. When are we going to learn?
This time is short. We've got a little time on this
earth. Buy the truth and sell it not. Redeem the time. There's one thing needful. One
thing you can keep, nothing else. There's not one single thing,
not one single person that you can keep on this earth. The only thing you can keep is
in heaven. That's why it says, provide for
yourself bags of treasures in heaven. What's your treasure?
Where your treasure is, where your heart is. Look at verse
4. It says, it's like a watch in
the night, three hours. Verse 5, to carry them away as
with a flood. We say, the old saying is, that's
so much water under the bridge. The years are just rolling by
like water. They're like a sleep. I like
that. Like a sleep. You know, you go
to bed when you're 17. You wake up, you're 70. It's
that quick, isn't it? Isn't it? It really is that quick. You think, where did the time
go? In the morning we're like grass,
we all do wither. Fade like a leaf, Scripture said.
In the morning it flourishes, all these young babies. Aren't
they beautiful? These young children. Youth.
Youth is a blessing. I forgot to mention that. It's
a blessing if you know the Creator in the days of your youth. Otherwise,
it's dangerous. Isn't it? Youth. Well, the world is just God's. And you'll go down with it if
the Lord doesn't reveal Himself to you. Ah, youth goes by so
quick. I've got my whole life ahead
of me. Yeah. Yeah. You wake up and it's over. Say
this is morbid. No, it's not. It's wisdom. Say
this is depressing. No, it's not. It's exciting.
I've got a dear brother and sister, Larry and Debbie Rockwell. I've been talking about them
in Dingus. Dear, he's 50. early fifties,
just told him he's got inoperable cancer, he didn't have very long
to live at all. Leading member of the church. Right hand man
to Brother Roland Browning. Now that's devastating news.
If you ever heard the word cancer, for your loved one or yourself,
it's shocking. They just told him that. Well,
you know, that's a shocking news. But they have a good hope, a
wonderful hope. And Debbie said, you know, I'm
sad for him, she said, but if it was me, I could get downright
excited about it. Anybody? And it's not like, well,
Paul said, we're not just trying to be unclothed. We're trying
to get over all our troubles and get, you know, no more sickness
and sorrow and all that. He said, I want to be with the
Lord. I'm going to be with the Lord. I'm going to be done with
this sin. This old body of death. And this
world, this perverse world. We're going to look at that Sunday. Wherein dwelleth righteousness.
We look at verse 7, we're consumed by that anger, wrath, oh my,
wrath of God revealed from heaven every day, day in and day out.
You set our iniquities and our secret sins in light of Thy countenance.
All our days are passed away. Spend our years as the tale is
told. Brother John Chapman said that he can say so much in a
few words. He said, you ever see years,
the birth year and the death year of somebody behind their
name? And what is in the middle? See,
mine is 1955 and maybe it's not, maybe 2025. It might be real
soon, okay? There's a dash in the middle.
That's our life. So Psalm 103 says, in the place
there I will know it no more. Gone, forgotten, over, and very
few people ever know you ever existed. What are we living for? Read
on. Verse 10. The days of our years,
threescore years and ten. Here's what the Lord has said.
That our time on earth, seventy, maybe eighty. Now you've heard this before,
but this is wisdom. To number your days. If you live
seventy years, when you were born, you had 25,550 days to
live. 25,550 days. I have 270 more. Now that must make you stop and
think. Maybe. I might not have 27 minutes
left. Maybe. That's what it says. Number our days. It goes by that fast. Hmm. 70 years. Okay, verse 12. So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. What is wisdom?
Somebody tell me in one word what is wisdom? Christ. Yeah. Not what is it? It's who. It's
Christ. Teach us to number our days,
that we have such a short time on this earth. And apply our
hearts with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And Christ
is made unto us. What? Wisdom. Keep saying it. Righteousness. Sanctification
and redemption. Are those important? You'll not
live forever without them. And you can't get it anywhere
but God and Christ. Here's wisdom. The wisdom of
the world is foolish. Get all you got. Get all you
have to. Go for it. Why? Are you going
to lose it? That's not wisdom is it, Brother Johnny? Go for
it. Obtain it. Why? Are you going to lose it?
Build big. No, God doesn't want to tear
it down. Build your hopes on the solid rock that can't be broken down. Not on
the sand. That's wisdom isn't it? So teach
us to number our days. We may apply our hearts to know
Christ, to know Him. Paul said, Oh, that I might know
Him. Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in Him. Most of the world lives and wishes
to win the lottery, don't they? Anybody that's ever won the lottery,
it's been a curse to them. They've lost it all. Do you,
one thing, is this what you want to win, Christ? Let me close
with this illustration. Some of you, most of you have
heard it, but when I was a boy, young boy, automobiles were my
life. Cars. Stephen, you know anything
about that? I knew every single Chevy, Ford,
Dodge, Plymouth in the 50s and 60s. Every single car I knew,
I could name them. I still do it. How do you know
that's a 55 Chevy? You don't know it. I said, I
do too. I had two of them. I knew them all. They were my
life. And when I turned 15, my dad helped me buy a 55 Chevrolet. Four-door. Four-door. It was
coral pink and cream color. Oh boy, it was beautiful. It
wasn't to me then. I put in primer. But four door, it's not the two
door. Oh man. But I couldn't drive
it until I was 16. So I made me a homemade calendar
for 365 days. And every day, I would put a
big X. Counting the days until I turned
16. In Kentucky, you see, you can
get your license at 16, you can get your permit when you turn
16. 30 days later, you're a master at driving. You can drive. 30
days and you've mastered this hunk of steel driving 70 miles
an hour down the road. Anyway, that's Kentucky. But I'd count
the days till I turned 16, I'd get in my car, free. I've got my wings, waiting on
my wings, my freedom. And looking back, I can't tell
you how many times the Lord has kept me from destroying myself. Hell on wheels, they call it. Right? Now, all these years later, 55
years later, I'm counting the days to get
my wings. And I'm going to fly out of this
place. Count the days. What about you?
Alright, stand with me.