How God can Bless your Timeline

What are you doing with the time God has given you? In this encouraging message, Pastor Chris Teien explores how God can bless every season of life—from your early years to your final days. Drawing from Ecclesiastes 3, Ephesians 1, and personal experience, this message reminds us it’s never too early—or too late—to live for God's purpose and leave a legacy of faith.

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/14349979

Key Points:

1. Blessings Through Your Timeline – Ecclesiastes 3:1–2. Every season of life matters to God.
2. Blessings by Investing in Children – Luke 18:15–17. Investing in the next generation brings eternal impact.
3. Blessings by Seeking Guidance at Life’s Crossroads – Proverbs 3:5–6. Trusting God opens unexpected doors.
4. Blessings Through Contentment – 1 Timothy 6:6–12. True satisfaction comes from trusting Christ, not things.
5. Blessings by Communicating Faith – Psalm 71:15–18. Sharing your story encourages others and honors Christ.
6. Blessings Through Contribution – Proverbs 3:9–10. Honoring God with what you have leads to spiritual reward.
7. Blessings While Waiting for Heaven – Philippians 3:20–21. Believers live with hope and assurance of eternity.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:

• Impact of Christian music like DC Talk and TobyMac on spiritual priorities.
• Volunteering opportunities that shaped his calling and leadership growth.
• Mentoring influence from grandparents and church members during his youth.
• Observations on retirees who live longer when they stay active in service.

Notable Quotes:

• “God blesses every season when you trust Him.”
• “Your timeline isn’t measured by possessions but by your legacy in Christ.”
• “You can be faithful at every stage of life—learning, leading, and leaving a legacy.”

Actionable Takeaways:

1. Be faithful in whatever season God has you.
2. Invest your time and influence in the next generation.
3. Pursue contentment by focusing on what matters most.
4. Share your faith story to encourage others.

Scripture References:

• Ecclesiastes 3:1–2
• Ephesians 1:3
• Luke 18:15–17
• Proverbs 3:5–6
• 1 Timothy 6:6–12
• Psalm 71:15–18
• Philippians 3:20–21

Keywords:
 timeline, Ecclesiastes 3, legacy, investing in children, leadership, contentment, faithfulness, life purpose, spiritual growth, heaven

Closing Statement:
 God can bless your entire life timeline when you walk closely with Him. Let every season, every decision, and every opportunity reflect His purpose and prepare you for eternity.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

So your timeline, so some refer to it as the dash. So on the tombstone, it says that so-and-so lived from, say, 1950 to 2020 or something like that. Your timeline is that dash on how you spend your life, on what you've done with the things in your life, how that has worked out. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, for everything, there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to harvest. And if you read Ecclesiastes 3, it has a lot more times to do things. But here it says that there's a time to be born and a time to die. And in the midst of that is the timeline of your life. And the question is, what are you doing in that timeline? Young people often say, Well, I'll get serious about following Jesus later. I'm just going to have a good time right now and do my own thing. And when I get older, I'll find my way into church. At old people, they say, Well, I'm retired now. I'm too old. There isn't anything that I have to offer. Actually, except not this church. So some of the key people that get the most done around in this church are over 70 years old. So age is not a factor. And some of you are just very good at loving Jesus and volunteering with your time. Some who claim to be retired aren't even actually retired because they still work and they do a lot of work around here. But I used to think that my timing of my life didn't matter. And I had made a commitment when I was a young Christian to just listen to Christian music, and so I have primarily the only thing, basically the only thing I listen to is Christian music. And I know a lot about Christian music and know a lot about certain authors, including DC Talk and Toby Mack. Toby Mack's really popular. He can still pack out arenas. The thing that I find most encouraging about Toby Mack is that he is older than I am. So that makes me feel good. That obviously he is still relevant, so there may be a chance for me to still be relevant too. And if you'll indulge me, I would like to read some lyrics from a DC talk song from 1990. That's so crazy. That was 34 years ago that they started to, they were going to Liberty University and singing Christian music. But this song influenced me. The reason I'm reading it to you is because it influenced me, because it affected my thoughts. And it applies to this message. And when I thought about my timeline and my life, I immediately thought of this song. So 70 years is all we got to accumulate goods that seem to mean a lot. For the first 20 years, you're off to school, learning principles and learning the tools. To make lots of money, the ultimate goal, gain the whole world and yet lose your soul. Twenty gets the knowledge, 30 years to apply, and then just 20 years left for asking why. Didn't realize what it was all about. All done for self in this world will pass. All done for Christ in this world will last. Sounds like a simple task. But everyday life seems to get in the way. No time to serve, barely time to pray. Our mind transforms a want to a need, a simple process that we call greed. You say you like to have money, well, I do too. The problem starts when the money has you. Working overtime to keep up with the pace, a lifestyle that you want to embrace, but it's two steps from where your needs are met. You're keeping up with the Joneses, but you're all in debt, which will lead to stress, not meeting the bills, while you're sporting the bends or Mercedes Benz, a nice car with all the thrills. The domino effects got your life in check, a temporary stitch, like when you don't get paid and you're living a wreck. Things of this world are passing away here tomorrow, but they're sure not here to stay. Don't lay up your treasures upon this earth, and they'll soon pass away and all return to dirt. That is the lyrics from a contemporary Christian kind of hip-hop song from 30 some years ago. Like I said, I know quite a bit about Toby Mack, my friend, actually, my morg my mortgage broker slash friend went to school with him. And so Toby Mack had loved like rap music and hip-hop music and laid that at the feet of Christ and said that I want Jesus and I'm willing to let this go. And instead, Jesus let him pick it back up. And he is still making a difference in contemporary Christian music today. So he dominates the airwaves, he fills concert halls, God has blessed him in many ways. His life has not been without trouble. He recently lost an adult son. Difficult things are part of every Christian's life. But just this whole idea of what is your life about? I love leadership books, and from what I hear from the wisdom of old expert leaders, that there's three phases of leadership in basically life. The first phase is when you're learning. You're trying to learn to be a good leader, and you're trying to learn the skills, and you're trying to learn how to be good at it. And then you get to lead. You are doing the work. You're leading. The best years are right then and there. And then as you start to maybe lose interest or energy, there's different reasons that people sometimes want to stop being the leader. A pastor friend of mine of a converged church like ours that has multiple sites recently at 60 years old passed the baton off to a younger pastor to be the senior pastor so that he could be the founding slash teaching pastor so that he would have more opportunities to do other things with his life instead of just leading the church. But the last third is leaving, but not leaving, just walking out the door, leaving a legacy, which means you pass on what you know to the younger people around you. You raise them up, you mentor them, you teach them, you pass on your legacy to someone else, you pass on your Christian heritage. You do everything you can to make sure that you don't die until the people around you can hear your story, until they can hear what Christ has done in your life and your salvation story and all of those things. So, number one, we experience blessings. I talked about blessings last week from John chapter 1, verse 16. Grace upon grace and blessings through Jesus. And I mentioned that we were going to continue that, and I was going to share about being blessed through your timeline, and next week is blessed through the church, and then after that is blessed through what you do for work, whether it's a job, employment, or a hobby or the thing that you do, the thing that fills your time, the work that you do. Even if you're retired, you should find something to do with your time. Find some way to do work because that's how you keep living. When you have a reason to get up in the morning because there's something for you to do, you keep moving on. There was a study years ago that showed that people who retired that didn't have anything to do except sit around the golf course and sip lemonade died sooner than people that were busy doing something. And volunteering in the church, volunteering in the community, those are things that retired people can do that are good. But in Ephesians 1, verse 3, it says, Praise be to the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. And to be blessed in those spiritual blessings, salvation, to have the Holy Spirit, to have spiritual gifts, to have knowledge and maturity in Christ, to have blessing. Proverbs 10, 22, I think it is, says also it says, the blessing of the Lord makes a person rich and adds no sorrow to it or with it. Now, we're not a church that says that God is just automatically going to make you rich. God provides what you need. So he might provide you with a lot of resources and he might not, but it's not about getting rich. We don't pursue Jesus because we want stuff. We pursue Jesus because he is the way, the truth, and the life. He gives eternal life and helps us to live a life that matters. Helps us to live a life that is satisfying beyond what we could ever do on our own, to be able to know the Savior of the world, this great and wonderful Galatians 3, 14, through Christ Jesus. God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith. And so you have the saved Jews and the Gentiles together in Christ with the Holy Spirit, with justification, with all of these things working together. True blessings come through Christ. And then number two, we experience blessings through investing in children. Through investing in children. So there used to be a day when parents needed children, especially on the farm. So the more kids you had, the more could get done on the farm. And it was a good thing. And then you want to train those kids up and maybe they could start their own farms. And it was just good all the way around. And now, as time has gone on, there's not a lot of work for kids to do. Some parents are creative in finding stuff for their kids to do, which is good. Some parents actually transfer or teach skills to their young kids that they're able to use for a lifetime. But often what happens is that kids don't have anything to do. So parents buy them lots of video games and bring them to every sports thing, and they just live like this separate experienced life without actually participating in or contributing to the life of the family. So the parents are like, okay, we brought children into the world because someone brought us into the world and we should pay the world back by having more children. And children are fun and exciting, but they can't really do anything to help us, is what some people think. I met a turkey farmer who said, I said, Do your kids help out on the farm a lot? So he farmed corn and soybeans and he had turkeys. And he's no, there's nothing for the kids to do. He's the bales are too big. They can't throw these round bales. You only have to take a forklift to lift them up because they're too heavy. So they can't do that. And so everything's automated, so there's nothing for them to do there. So every now and then we ask them to sweep something, but there's really no chores for them to do around here because we've got it taken care of. Machines have taken over, and uh it's pretty efficient. So my kids just do what they want to do with their friends. But the church sees children as an opportunity to disciple the next generation. The church looks at children as the future leaders of our church and society and of great value because Jesus loves children and we should too. The Bible says that children are a gift from the Lord, they are a reward from Him. And one of the greatest things that can happen is when your children grow up to be some of your best friends. That is a great thing. So it is wonderful to experience life with your children, to see them grow up to be godly children, to see them raise up their children in the things of the Lord and to pass that on. That is a great thing. It doesn't always work that way. A matter of fact, you can be the best parent in the world and do everything right and have a kid go the opposite direction and do everything that you didn't teach them to do, the opposite of what you taught them to do. Or I've seen some parents that are just terrible parents, and they end up with some super godly, bright, great kids that are leaders and everything. But the general idea is if you train up your children in the Lord, that they are going to follow that way. So in Luke chapter 18, people were bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. Because what they expected in that time is that the rabbi or the teacher would bless the children, so they'd bring their kids and they wanted a blessing from the children. And the disciples thought this was kind of a waste of Jesus' time. It's like Jesus is trying to teach something important here. Don't interrupt him. So when the disciples saw this, they rebuked them, the parents and the children. But Jesus called the children to them and said, Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. So Jesus valued the children, and we should value the children. And I think it's so cool that in this church we have people that show up for a Wednesday nights that don't have kids in the program to volunteer to serve and to teach those kids. We have Vicky and Mary, the snack ladies, who bring lots of food down to the youth group and also for the kids. And so neither of them have children in the program. But they show up, they make the snacks, they distribute the snacks. They're the snack ladies, and that's their ministry. And it is so much easier to do junior and senior high ministry with food on the table than not. So it's a great ministry they do. They value children. Many people in this church value children. We need to make sure that we always value children. So in Jesus' day, the man was the head of the household. He was seen as most valuable. And then the wife also had her place. But children were on the bottom of the spectrum. They were supposed to be maybe seen but not heard from. They did not have value at that time. And Jesus is like, no, they are valuable. And then he points out that we are supposed to have faith like children. So truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. To have that kind of faith of a child, to have that trust of a child. And so you and I, if we have opportunity to invest in kids, maybe not our kids, but other kids, we should do everything that we can. So my step-grandpa, I always called him grandpa, but he was really my step-grandpa. So I think he showed up when I was like six, I'm not sure of the year. But nonetheless, um, he just treated me like I was his own grandson. And so he invested into my life spiritually. He would constantly ask me if I was saved, and if I understood what it meant to be saved, and he wanted me to give him a good answer because he wanted to make sure that I was saved. And he was a spiritual influence. He could have said, Oh, you're a stepkid. You're not really one of my real grandchildren, whatever. But no, he took the opportunity and uh invested, made that investment, and it was we need to do that too. Whatever we can do with our real, with our biological kids, the stepkids, the neighborhood kids. What are we doing to tell the kids about Jesus? There is reward and blessing when we invest in children. We can experience blessings seeking guidance at the crossroads. Investing at the crossroads of life. So maybe you're young and you're trying to figure out what to do with your life, and you're like, I just know that God has called me to something, but I don't know what it is. Or I just want to do something important with my life, but I don't know what it is, or how to get there. I'm not sure. I can't afford to just go to college and get a degree. But maybe there's some specialized training that you could take, or you could take some classes or whatever. As you're trying to figure it out, you're praying, you're crying out to God. The Bible says to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, and in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. So you are praying, you're looking for opportunities, you're trusting God. If you volunteer to try new things and to do find yourself in different situations, you might be surprised at where it leads and who you meet and the opportunities that you'll find. But when you're young in life and you're trying to figure out what to do, maybe you just explore different things and figure out what you like and what you don't. So I worked at a tune-up mechanic shop for three weeks. I had like, I don't know, auto mechanics one, two, and three, and I was the teacher's assistant in high school. And I like cars a lot. But I worked at this mechanic shop place, and after three weeks of it, I decided it wasn't for me, that I did not want that to be my life calling, that I felt that God was calling me to something more. Actually, I felt that God had called me to ministry when I was in 10th grade, but I didn't know what that meant. And Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that God does not give us everything we want, but he does fulfill his promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to himself. And so as I continued to work in different places and gain new skills and get different jobs, worked in construction for a bit, and I worked at this obstacle place for a bit, I didn't know what I was to do. So I took the classes that were available to me. So I'm like, maybe I should get an optician, be trained up to be an optician or something. So I took those classes and I was just looking and learning and praying to see how God would lead me down the way. And I needed money to provide for my family. And I also noticed that the president of the obstacle company that I was working for, his car could be cleaned up. So I asked him, I said, Hey, would you like me to come and I'll detail your car? And in exchange for some money I need to help provide for my family, he's like, sure, why don't you come on over? So pretty soon I was not only detailing his car and doing his yard work, but when I was at that company for eight years, in the beginning I had established a really good rapport with the president of the company because I volunteered to do something, and we crossed paths, and there's so many times when you just volunteer to get into your present, you just show up, you're involved in stuff, you volunteer to do stuff, you have experiences and you meet people. We sang a song with the mountain in the background, and I'm not sure if those are the Grand Tetons or not, but I have slept at the base of the Tetons in a sleeping bag one night around the 4th of July years ago because I volunteered to work at a Christian camp and help build the building, a pole barn, and we went to Jackson Hole to do our laundry and we didn't have any place to stay, so we ended up sleeping outside at the base of the Tetons. I had that experience because I showed up, because I was just trusting God, saying, Oh, I wonder where this leads. I'll volunteer for this and see where that leads. And so many times when we trust God, He can do great things. But we say to ourselves, we're not perfect, we don't have it all together. How can God use me? Tony Evans says, God will meet you where you are in order to take you where he wants you to go. I think that is so true. And as we volunteer to serve and we do all these great things, or maybe we don't do things great, maybe it seems impossible, God shows up. Chuck Swindah says, we are all faced with a series of great opportunities, brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. And when my daughter was born, my wife and I, we were really young parents. We got married at 19. I looked at that little baby and I'm like, oh Lord, please help me to be able to provide for this child. I don't know how we're gonna do this, but I pray that you'll help. And I can say that He has been faithful. Sometimes you are in a situation where you are underemployed or you're working in a job that is below what you could do, and you need to pray and look for opportunity and maybe take some risk to try to step out into a job that's more of a career type of thing, something that you can have a future in, something that will help you to build a career, to use your life wisely. Because in this timeline, this said you only get 70 years, you're all proven to me you get at least a hundred around here. In that timeline, you only get to do so much, and you should figure out what it is and pray about it. So Joshua said in Joshua 3 5, Joshua told the people, Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you. And that is so key. If you want God's will, if you want God's direction, you need to purify yourselves. You need to get right with God, confessing known sin, spend time in his word, do everything that you can, following after him, and then expecting him to show up and show you how he wants you to work. And you need to make a commitment that when you're given an opportunity, that you will not compromise. You will not compromise your godly standards. Because there will be opportunities that come, and they might say, Hey, we want to hire you for this job. It's gonna be a great job. You're gonna make so much money, and you're gonna like, wait, I wouldn't be able to go to church anymore. I really value going to church. Maybe you wouldn't take that job, or maybe you would try to find some way to work around that. So I know that some people here work every other Sunday, or people that can't come here watch online because they have to work every Sunday. But nonetheless, take that into consideration. But Joshua 20, 14, 24, 15. If you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods, small g, your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. That is a great way to live, a great thing to do. You need to be prepared for what God is going to do in your life. Now is the time to prepare for what you hope to happen in the future. John Maxwell is a great leadership coach. He used to be a pastor who has lots of leadership books. And he says, now is the time to prepare for the opportunity that is sure to come. Once it gets here, it's too late. You won't have time to get ready when the opportunity makes its way to the forefront. Opportunities don't wait on you. You wait on the opportunity. And while you are waiting, you prepare. And he says, I'm looking for leaders with a true commitment to lead others through positive influence. Is that you? As you prepare, then God shows up and gives you the opportunity. Often when an organization or a church has an opportunity, they don't say, Oh, we have this need right now, and we're willing to wait for you to get trained up over the next two years to make that happen. Nope. Instead, you need to put God's first. God first. Number four, experience blessings with contentment. Experience blessings with contentment. It is so easy to be discontent. So I know on my family budget that inflation has gone up, the cost of everything has gone up, and it's really hard to balance the budget as everything keeps going up. Property taxes went up, groceries went up, everything's going up, utilities are going up. Electricity is going up. And but I need to be content. But I'm driving down the road, and so I knew that Iowa had black license plates, and I like them a lot. They remind me of old classic cars with black license plates. And then Minnesota said they would get black license plates, but then they didn't. Then they made it like some first responder's thing, and it didn't look like a plain black and white license plate. I'm driving down the road, my tabs were due, and I saw a Minnesota black license plate, and I did not even know they exist. And I went home and I told my wife, I said, time for me to get tabs, I'd like to get some black license plates. And she says, How much will they cost? I'm like, it's$40 a year, plus like$15 for the plates. And so, yeah, so an additional$40 a year to, I guess the money goes to provide for stuff whatever the DMB wants. But I just wanted the black license plates. And then I'm like, I should just be content with the license plates that I have. Because if I spend$20 a day more than I have, I'll be$7,000 in debt at the end of the year. But if I could save$20 a day, I could gain$7,000. So you just gotta be content. So I got the stickers for my old license plate, and that's that. I don't have black license plates. So maybe someday, I don't know. They have Bible college, like Crown College license plates, too, but that's where I graduated from college. But nonetheless, Paul says, godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. So in your timeline, from birth until the time you go meet Jesus, hopefully, from birth to the grave, from birth to eternity, what are you valuing? What are you putting first? How are you spending your time? So it turns out that Francis Johnson of Darwin, Minnesota, has been spending his time collecting strength since 1950. His ball of thread measures over 10 feet in diameter and weighs five tons. Good use of a life? I don't know. There's a man in New Orleans with 129 core bears. That's a car that Ralph Nader got taken off the market, rear engine little car. A Dallas man had 4,000 hotel keys that he had collected. But this is the worst one. Italian dentist Giovanni Battista Orsinego, who by 1903 had a collection of 2,744 teeth he had extracted himself by 1903. That would be a scary dentist. He'd be like, I have never seen a bicuspid like that before. I'd like to add that to my collection. And then all of a sudden he's like ripping the teeth out of your head. Well, we need to put God first. We need to focus on what God has already given us. We need to disregard what we do not have. We need to refuse to covet what others may have. And we need to give thanks to God for each and all of his gifts. That's in the life application Bible commentary. But we put God first. And so in Hebrews it says we are to keep our lives free from the love of money and be content with that, of what you have, because God has said, Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. The problem with accumulating stuff is you have to worry about it. If you have a lot of money, you have to figure out how you can keep it. If you have enough money and you are free to trust Jesus with your money, you go through life without the big burden of how you hold all your how you protect your stuff, how you keep your stuff, how you accumulate your stuff. Anyway, life is valuable. Jerry, you want to grab the lights? Let's watch this video clip here. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

We are God's image bearers, reflecting him on this earth. We are all God's image bearers created in his likeness to worship him. Our neighbor bears his image, even when we can't detect a single attribute. Every child bears his image, even when they have no knowledge of him. Yes, his mercy is offered to the ones we don't relate to, though we have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. We are justified freely through Christ's sacrifice if we accept it. Even so, we each remain image-bearers of the living God, whether now redeemed or still lost. Because the one who gives life, who breathes it into us, who is life itself, created every one of us. So we must preserve it, even though we don't always understand. Even when their life looks different than ours, this is the life that God cares for. This is the life that God asks us to guard. It is fragile, needy, messy, and vulnerable, but it has been made beautiful from dust glimmering in his eyes like starlight. We are charged with cultivating all of it. So in humble gratitude for our own life, we honor God, share the good news, and preserve life. All life, for there are no ordinary outcasts, unimportant. Not unlike us, when we were found, there are only his image bearers.

Chris T 28:19

Through communicating who Jesus is to other people. In Psalm 71, 8, it says, My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long. I love that passage in Psalm 71. Lord, you alone are my hope. I've trusted you, O Lord, from my childhood. Yes, you've been with me from birth, from my mother's womb. You have cared for me. No wonder I am always praising you. My life is an example to many, because you've been my strength and my protection. That's why I can never stop praising you. I declare your glory all day long. And now, in my old age, don't set me aside. Don't abandon me when my strength is failing. I will tell everyone about your righteousness all day long. I will proclaim your saving power, though I am not skilled with words. And it goes on. So you can read that in Psalm 71. But we should proclaim our faith in Christ. We should proclaim our life in Christ. Billy Graham said, Our world today so desperately hungers for hope, yet uncounted people have almost given up. There is despair and hopelessness on every hand. Let us be faithful in proclaiming the hope that is in Jesus. And we are told in 1 Peter 3, in your hearts, revere revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you, to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect. And then Psalm 66, 16, come and hear all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for my soul. John MacArthur had said, the only hope for this or any other society is to hear the word of the Lord and obey. And it is a good thing. You can experience blessing through contribution. I talked a little bit about that last week, but Proverbs 3 9 says, to honor the Lord with your wealth and the best part of your everything you produce, then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine. And we trust God with our finances. We put God first with our finances. John Piper had said the person who thinks the money he makes is meant to mainly, is meant mainly to increase his comforts on earth is a fool. Jesus says, Wise people know that all their money belongs to God and should be used to show that God and not money is their treasure, their comfort, their joy, and their security. And then, number seven, my last point though, we can experience blessings as we're waiting for God to call us home. As we're waiting for God to call us home, I hope that I will come to that last day with great confidence and assurance and be able to proclaim my true faith in Christ and the hope that I have. I realize I might be suffering, I might be in pain, it might be difficult, but to put Jesus first. Philippians 3.20 says, We are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. We are eagerly awaiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. And 2 Corinthians 5.1 says, We know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down, that is when we die and leave this earthly body, we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands. Socrates, at the end of his life, said, All wisdom, all the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some divine word. There is, and we have it. And those of us who knew Christ know Christ have that assurance. So the great evangelist Dil Moody, his deathbed on his deathbed, he was reported to have turned to his boys who are at his bedside and said, If God be your partner, make your plans large. And then he said, I see earth receding and heaven is opening, God is calling me. The reformer John Knox uttered these piercing words, and then he died. Jonathan Edwards said, Trust in God, and you shall have nothing to fear. Patrick Henry said, Doctor, I wish you to observe how real and beneficial the religion of Christ is to a man about to die. In his will he wrote, This is all the inheritance I give to my dear family, the religion of Christ, which I which will give them one which will make them rich indeed. William Shakespeare said, I commend my soul into the hands of God, my creator, hoping and assuredly believing through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Savior, to be made partaker of life everlasting, and my body to the earth whereof it was made. Daniel Webster, who, if you want to understand the King James Version, that's Noah Webster. No, Daniel Webster, sorry. Daniel Webster, the great mystery is Jesus Christ the gospel. What would the condition of any of us be in if we had not the hope of immortality? Thank God the gospel of Jesus Christ through life in immortality to light. And his last words were, I still live. And finally, Charles Dickens, the author. I commit my soul to the mercy of God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I exhort my dear children humbly to try and guide themselves by the teaching of the New Testament. And then point number eight would be blessing through the church, but that's next Sunday, how God can bless you through the church. So we're going to sing a worship song. The worship team can come forward. Lord Jesus, I thank you that you've given us your word that gives us confidence and assurance to live this right, to live this life rightly. I pray that we would not waste our days doing meaningless things that make no eternal difference or don't benefit us. Help us to be free from wasting time yet balanced so that we don't burn ourselves out. We pray that you would continue to bless us and guide us and help us to use every year on the timeline that you've given us from birth to death to eternity.