Bye.
SPEAKER_01:We are going to talk about the symbolism that is found in sand. Anybody that knows my wife and I knows that we love to travel and we just adore. We love beaches. My wife looked it up and she says I'm a philosopher, a lover of the seas or of the beach. But we're going to talk about in God's word today, what sand has to do with our message of am I stubborn? Am I rebellious? Let's see what God has to say about it. We'll be right back in just a bit, okay?
SPEAKER_00:We thank you for joining our Words of Life broadcast where our mission is persuading the lost, perfecting each believer, and equipping all for service with practical application from God's Word. We now join Pastor Mark for this week's Words of Life.
SPEAKER_01:We thank you again for joining us right here at the Words of Life show. I am Pastor Mark, and I like to start every episode off by saying, you could have been doing anything else. You could have been watching anyone else. You could have been listening to anyone else, but you have allowed God's spirit to direct you to this broadcast, to hear a word from him. And for that, my wife and I, we are so grateful. Before we start, I want to at least ask the Lord to have his hand upon us. nothing is done by our might. It is not done by our power, but it is by the Lord's. Holy Spirit. So as we go before him today, before we start today's words of life from the word of God, join us in prayer. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank you for this opportunity. And Lord, we're asking that you forgive us first of our sinfulness, thought, word, or deed, for we have indeed missed the mark of your holiness. But Lord, my prayer today is that the meditation of my heart, the words that I speak, Lord, let them be acceptable in your sight. for you are my God, you are my strength, and you are my redeemer. In the name of Jesus, we do pray, amen. In our prayer, I'm gonna go ahead and direct you to our opening text, which is the book of Jeremiah. We're gonna start at Jeremiah chapter five, and we're gonna read a few verses from there. I'll ad-lib just a little bit more to give you the time to get to Jeremiah chapter five. I've ad-libbed enough just in case we're just gonna throw it up here either on the left or the right or is it my left or right or your I've lived enough Jeremiah chapter 5 hopefully you are there that is a prophet of the Old Testament I'm gonna start reading at verse 21 I do believe and our reading is as follows hear this you foolish and senseless people who have eyes but do not see who have ears but do not hear. Should you not fear me, declares the Lord. Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail. They may roar, the waves that is, but they cannot cross. But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone away. They do not say in their hearts, let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for us. the harvest. Again, may the Lord add a blessing to the hearers, the readers, but most importantly, those that intend to do God's holy word with his Holy Spirit's help. The topic that I'd like for us to consider today is the playground, the desert, and the beach. Which season are we in? The playground, the desert, and the beach, which season? Those of you that are watching or listening via the podcast, what season are you in? It is very important to know that when we're talking about the playground, when we're talking about the desert, we're talking about the beach, the one common denominator is sand. My wife and I, we have an affinity for beaches, as well as in my past, I'm an ex-army nurse, army medic. And we had to do some desert training right before Operation Desert Storm. So the desert sand is a part of my life's experience. And our last one, the playground, I think every child hopefully has experienced a playground. But the character trait that I want us to hone in on, to know about sand is, sand is innumerable. It is unable to be numbered. Sand can't be counted. Notice in Hebrews 11, verse 12, the Bible speaks of the descendants being countless as the sand on the seashore. In the book of Jeremiah that we're in, in the 33rd chapter, verse 22, in multiplying the offspring of David, the word of God says, The sands of the sea cannot be measured. And even in the book of Hosea chapter one, the sons of Israel, the word says will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or measured. Number. And so when we're talking about sand, I want to make a brief transition real quick to the things we count, because we talked about sand being innumerable. You cannot count it. If you try to pinch and pick up a little bit of sand between your thumb and your finger, you might have hundreds and even thousands of grains. And so we do understand now that sand is innumerable, but let's transition. The things that we count. If we can't count sand, it's countless. Let's think about real quick the things that we count. There are so many things that we deem as important enough to be counted. Let's just run a few off. Our money. We count birthdays. We count sick days. We count vacation days. We count a year concluding as another year starts. We count scores. We count test results. We count job performances. We count games won. We count games lost. We even count populations. How many people live in this city, this state, this country? We count price tags. We even count calories. We count miles per hour or our speed. So now that we understand the things that we count and we've noticed that sand is innumerable, we can't count it, let's transition back to our opening scripture. And before doing so, I want us to consider a very poignant quote attributed to Dr. Stephen Ross. He said, not everything that can be counted I want to say that again because that hit me like a ton of bricks. Not everything that can be counted counts. And yet, we will still place so much importance on counting things. And these things don't even matter in eternity. But most of the time, we will neglect to count that which will. Within Psalm 90 and 12, the writer warns us as we get ready to transition to our exegesis of the text. Oh Lord, teach us to realize the brevity of life. In other words, to number our days so that we may grow in wisdom. Now this verse sounds comparable to the word spoken within our opening scripture, whereas God addresses through the prophet a stubborn person. Rebellious people who refuse to acknowledge that there is a forthcoming, a reckoning with God and all of humanity, we will experience that date. This appointment, it will not be avoided. And the one with whom we must encounter, he describes humanity to a T as being rebellious and rebellious. stubborn. And so if he spoke to the prophet back then and called his people, his chosen nation, Israel, Judah, they were separate, but they were still his people. He called them rebellious and stubborn. Well, guess what? If we look around today, not much. has changed. And so before we get to our application points, let's do an exegesis of Jeremiah chapter 5. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet due to the responsibility of carrying an unpopular message, i.e., thus saith the Lord, to a rebellious people his entire life. Now God's chosen nation, Israel, had already been conquered and a remaining group of remnants, Judah and they would soon follow. So God says to his people through Jeremiah, even the roaring, loud, billowing waves, they obey my commands. And I even use sand to stop the waves, the sea from progressing forward so that the waves of the sea, they can only go so far. But then God says, but my people, they are stubborn. They are rebellious. They are heading for reckoning with me. And so I wanna backtrack so that you do not miss the symbolism of what God said. He said, I have situated sand grains to literally stop the progress of a sea or an ocean from overflowing, i.e. the waves even have to obey what I say. And then he says, but my people, Waves obey me and they can't go but so far, but my people, they are stubborn. They are rebellious. They are far from me. They are headed for judgment, a reckoning with me. That's very powerful because even if we go forth into the New Testament, the book of Hebrews chapter nine, verses 27 and 28, paint a picture and let us know just as a man is appointed to to die once, and after that to face judgment, so also Christ was only offered once to bear the sins of many. And Jesus will appear a second time, this time not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await his coming. The book of Hebrews, one chapter later, chapter 10, verses 30 and 31, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing, the verse continues, to fall into the hands of the living God. Now, these types of messages were what God called Jeremiah to speak to his people back into the Old Testament. And with that now understood, we can start our transition application from the text to our lives. Because not much has changed with humanity's rebellion and stubbornness towards our Creator. But prior to getting to these important application points, here's a quick introspective moment. And it beckons us to just look within ourselves when it comes down to God's messengers. And when I say one of God's messengers, I mean me included. And here's our introspective challenge for anybody that says, God has called me to preach and to teach. Thus saith the Lord, Are we proclaiming and preparing God's message? Are we proclaiming the entire counsel of the Bible? Not picking and choosing what we like or staying away from that that we think will be, oh, that's troublesome or that's not going to be popular. Are we proclaiming the entire message and preparing God's people in regards to A, acknowledging our sinful rebellion towards him? B, the repentance necessary to be forgiven through Jesus alone, or C, are we preparing people to meet God as we enter eternity because we're doing so in either joy or horror. And so as we transition from our text where God uses this example of uncontrollable waves being subject to his command to stop at the boundaries of sand, It's right here where I'd like to further expound by using sand as a symbolic measure of seasons of our lives. We are in one of three stages as time dwindles towards meeting God in eternity. Number one, we are either on the playground of life that's still carelessly in sin, not thinking anything about a future reckoning. Or number two, you are in the desert of life You're unsatisfied, but something's missing. You might think you're seeking something, but the reality is God is seeking you. Or you are in stage number three. That's our beach stage of life. Those are preparatory. Notice I did not say easy. I just say those are preparatory seasons for our purpose here on earth that will reverberate in eternity. And so what does the playground, what does the desert, and what does the beach, what do they all have in common? Well, we have established that that is sand. So let's tackle number one. Let's see if you're still in the playground of life. And when we think about the playground of life and all of the sand on playgrounds, let's think sand. Okay, we're on the playground as a child. Hopefully we've all experienced a playground. They let you loose at recess. That is your playtime to simply run wild, be free, have fun, just let loose. But as a child on the playground, there are not many thoughts, if at all, about how we can hurt ourselves if we are careless enough. Now, I'm dating myself. I know I'm, what, 55 this year, God be willing, but if you've never experienced the monkey bars growing up where you had to go from rail to rail of that iron and then your hands were slippery and you slipped off, yeah, you hurt yourself because it was about six and seven, eight feet up. If you've never gotten on a swing set and then jumped out at its highest point and then once you landed, your archers said, what were you thinking? Why are you doing that? I'll never do that again. You've experienced a little bit of danger. Let's think about merry-go-rounds on a playground. How many of us has run as fast as we could and then you tried to hop on or even you jumped off and you rolled a few times in the dirt? How about getting on a slide in the summer with short pants? Yeah, I think we've all had the bottom literally burn. All of these things on a playground. Because of the potential harm that a child can cause themselves, sand is usually placed on playgrounds just to remind us that a fall will occur because of the nature of the playground's purpose. And this is exactly what sand has done to humanity. All of us have fallen and nobody is able to get up and extricate themselves from the falling, i.e. the effects of sin without the help of God. And to understand the severity of our sinful condition of the heart, imagine these grains of sand on every playground, and that still does not quantify how much that we are fallen and have sinned against God. Romans 3 10-12 states, as it is written, there is none, no one righteous, not even one. There's no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Yet, some, they're still on the playground of life, entangled with sin as eternity beckons. Is that you, my friend? We're gonna take care of that in just a moment. But let's jump right into point number two. Are you in the desert stage of life? Think of the desert as all of that. You're just seeking. You might be watching or listening and you're feeling alone. You feel isolated. You feel deserted, maybe. Bewildered. You're frustrated. You're lacking purpose or direction. What's the point of life? I'm never happy. I'm never fulfilled. There seems to be this longing. You struggle constantly. I hear some people say, if I did not have bad luck, I would have no luck at all. Nothing seems to be going your way. You're seeking. You're searching. You're looking for something, but you can't quite put a finger on it. The odds are that in your searching, God is the one really calling out to you. but to be found by God we have to first admit that the effects of sin have caused us to be estranged from him we are lost without him we can't go we can't be we can't do or say anything without the hand of our God so as we're thinking about this desert is that you seeking you Something's missing. Let's backtrack briefly to the playground. Because at that sand, that point in our lives, in our youth, hopefully we've left that behind. But I wanna backtrack because at that sand stage of our lives in the playground, guess what we've done? We have brought forth into this next stage of life, more sand, and it just continues to pile up like this unbearable weight. And that's what sin does to us without God. So remember, sin is innumerable, but God's grace, he is merciful. Today could be your day of erasing that sin debt that we all face without God's mercy and his grace. So what we're really doing when we search to feel that empty space within our heart, what we're really doing is we're attempting to feel a space that only God can feel. It's an eternal spirit. It's an eternal soul. And God is the only one able to satisfy that longing that he created in our hearts to desire him. Peace, purpose, protection, safety. So if that's you, you're in the desert. Okay, Pastor Mark, how do I get out of this desert stage? This seeking of sin is burdening me down and I'm just looking for something. How do I extricate myself from that? Well, that's going to take you to hopefully this stage of life. Our final application point, number three, hopefully you make it to the beach stage of life. God would that none perish, but that all, everyone comes to repentance before eternity begins. He said a few qualifications though, and basically everything is found in one qualification or one qualifier that is a person, his only son, Jesus. The beach stage of life through Jesus Christ alone That is the only way to be reconciled back to God. What's the sand, the beach? What does that have to do with Jesus? Well, I want us to understand that God so loved the world. This is what I want you to understand that he did. He operates outside of time. He created time and put us within time, but he condescended, he stooped low. He visited earth in time to endure the sinful, rebellious, stubbornness of humanity, just to reconcile us in love back to him with his birth, with his death and his resurrection through his only mediator, his only son, the only part of him, one third of the Trinity, Jesus the Christ. And so our prayers that you have accepted God's gracious offer as you are watching and listening to this message, Okay, that is our prayer. Because if you have not, the only reason that one of God's messengers are supposed to teach or preach is to bring you to this point. There are so many things that I see being preached and taught. And again, my challenge to us that are called to preach and to say what thus saith the Lord, are we getting people prepared? Are we counting that which matters the most? It's time to stop counting things that not really are gonna impact eternity. We need to start getting people ready to meet this holy, awesome, only God of creation. Let's clarify how we're gonna do this at this stage of this life because if you're at the beach stage of life, I wanna clarify something. I am not conveying that our Christian life is a life of ease because it will be the total opposite as we continue living in a stubborn, rebellious world that is not our eternal home, a stubborn rebellionist that wants no part of God. That's okay because God is going to offer, but he's not going to demand and make you accept his gracious offer. So I want us to understand that the beach represents for those of us that have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior alone to be reconciled to God. The beach represents us resting in him. us trusting him as he prepares us for our purpose right here to carry out on this earth. And that purpose will somehow reverberate and it will matter in eternity. And so the symbolism of sand at this stage of the beach life, think of sand as being our life on earth, one grain of sand. Our forever, our eternity, where we're headed to, that is the infinite sand on any beach that we can imagine. And so as we prepare to close, I want us to understand that whether you agree or not, we are in one of the three stages of life as time dwindles towards meeting God in eternity. You are in number one, the playground of life. You're still carelessly in sin, not thinking about the repercussions eternally. Number two, you're in the desert of life. You're unsatisfied, but you're seeking something you just might not know what it is. And number three, you are in the beach stage of life. You're in a preparatory season where God is getting you ready to fulfill your purpose on earth and it will reverberate or matter in eternity. which season my faithful listener and viewer what season are you currently in if you do not make the choice to rely on god presently and for safe transport into eternity that choice is being made for you right now and so i want to offer up a prayer with you if you choose lord that sounds just like me I know I'm only here for a short amount of years, months, days, seconds, hours. I'm not put here on earth to live forever, but my soul and spirit, you put eternity in our heart. I am going to live forever cognizant in one of two places and to be reconciled to God safely. I invite you to pray this short prayer with me because we call it the ABCs of salvation through Christ and Christ alone. Father, our aid today as we come to you, Lord, closing this message, our aid today is, Lord, I admit that my life resembles the endless sand that sin has stained me with in my stubbornness, in my rebellion over life. But Lord, the B of salvation is, I believe that your only son, Jesus the Christ, he endured the shame of a cross. He died brutally. when that should have been me. And then he rose from the dead just for me to reconcile me back to you, my Lord and my God. And now we'll close with our sea of salvation. Father God, I publicly confess, publicly confess that Jesus alone, he deserves my temporary life of service, as your Holy Spirit now begins preparing me for eternity in your presence. If that has been your prayer, celebrate. You've made the best decision that you could ever make in your life. We thank God for you. You are now a member of God's eternal family. It is his job. He will perfect that which concerns you. His loving kindness endures forever, and he will never forsake the work of his hands that you and I, we perform. are. As we get ready to go and conclude another Words of Life message, I want to challenge you, hey, you like the message of God because we're always going to take you to the cross, but somewhere within there, yeah, you have your edification sermons, but the only reason a preacher or teacher should be preaching and teaching, saying, thus saith the Lord, is, yes, pastors rebuke, they encourage, they grow the sheep, we get that. But please, the cross has to be at the center of every message because Christ is the only reason we've been given this awesome responsibility that God is going to hold us accountable for. And I see my producer kind of winding up. So I want to go ahead and get this in there. You all can download our Words of Life channel. It's right there on Roku. So if you like video on demand, you feel like you've missed a sermon or two or three, you can download the channel right there or sermons, music videos, even the legacy ministry of my dad, Pastor Mack Earl Ingram, as well as various categories that you can browse. You can also download the Amazon TV or Google Play digital app option, as well as if you like podcasts, Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, those are options as well. And just like the gospel is free, of course, our app on Roku as well as our podcast series and the different apps video, those two are free. I think I'm gonna make my time, really rolling into the background. Our song of the week as we get out of here, we're gonna tie it right into our message. It is called Number Our Days. Our prayer is that this lyrical video really speaks to your heart so that we can start counting the things that matter the most in eternity. and start shaking away from things that won't. Let's begin. Lord, give us the wisdom to number our days. God bless you. God will keep you. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, red teeth of life, I'm in the dark now, but today holds. I've been aching about tonight, but the day has yet to unfold.
SPEAKER_01:I'm like a car
SPEAKER_03:that's right on you
SPEAKER_01:I'm like the dew that's gone
SPEAKER_03:by noon And the flowers finally fade And the time keeps slipping away When my hair keeps turning gray Help me number my days
SPEAKER_01:I've seen the
SPEAKER_03:breath of
SPEAKER_01:winter's cold I've watched my baby girls get grown
SPEAKER_03:To feel the waves of summer's heat Every season reminds
SPEAKER_01:me I'm like the grass that used to stand proud
SPEAKER_03:So
SPEAKER_01:temporary I'm like the plane that's going Through a cloud So
SPEAKER_03:if flowers finally
SPEAKER_01:fade And the time keeps slipping away
SPEAKER_03:When my hair keeps turning gray Help me number See,
SPEAKER_01:all of us are in line. So help me to number
SPEAKER_03:my head.
SPEAKER_01:There is no in this life, there's no rewind. So teach me. Teach me.
SPEAKER_03:Flowers finally fade And the time keeps slipping away When my hair keeps turning gray me number my day flowers finally fade and the time keeps slipping away and when my hair keeps turning gray Help me number my days.
SPEAKER_01:All of us are in line. So help me to number
SPEAKER_03:my
SPEAKER_01:days. There is no in this life, there's no rewind. So teach me to
SPEAKER_03:number. All of us, we're in line. So help me to number. our day there is no in this life there's no rewind so teach us tonight