SPEAKER_00: Go through a few technology checks here.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome.
SPEAKER_01: It's good to be with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Um, if you're visiting with us, uh our uh uh lead pastor Andrew and his family are finishing up their uh summer vacation, so they're still on the on the road.
SPEAKER_01: They'll be with us next week.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but in the in the uh the gap that we have there, uh both Henry and I have had the pleasure to bring God's word uh for you guys.
SPEAKER_01: And today I have the pleasure of being in uh Psalm 90.
SPEAKER_01: So we have we are in this selection of of Psalms, and it is a tough one when you're given the opportunity to go and and pick one.
SPEAKER_01: Um I think that's as difficult as anything.
SPEAKER_01: But when I was considering this and looking, so many times we come to the Psalms and we're thinking about these songs and what is it like to sing.
SPEAKER_01: And then when we come to 90, we see this prayer of Moses.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, oh wow, I I want to really dig into this prayer of Moses and what that looks like and and how we can apply it.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've I've labeled or titled this sermon a prayer for the church.
SPEAKER_01: So um I'm gonna have the the uh the text on slides, but our first pass-through will we'll I'll need you to turn in that and your copy of God's word to this psalm.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but let's pray first.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Father, God, as we have sung this morning and considered you, there's so many elements of what we sing that I see portrayed in this prayer, that I see uh encouraging our hearts uh with the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And Father, I pray that as we open your word, as we consider what it means to consider who you are, your power and your majesty and your work in the lives of mankind and your salvation for your children.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I pray that today our hearts would be stirred, our hearts would be challenged, and we would be motivated as your people to live lives reflective of the hope that you give us.
SPEAKER_01: Bless our time together, Father, in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So again, as you're as you're turning to uh Psalm 90, I kind of want to uh I'm gonna have a couple of background things.
SPEAKER_01: One, just a uh just a story as I was considering this.
SPEAKER_01: I started to consider Warren Buffett.
SPEAKER_01: Warren Buffett is a 95-year-old businessman.
SPEAKER_01: He is the chairman of the board of Berkshire Hathaway, and he's referred to as the Oracle of Omaha.
SPEAKER_01: He's ranked as the 11th richest man in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and and he it's reported, the research that I could I could find, it's reported that uh he had uh grown up or at some point of his life had had been in the Presbyterian church, and that now he he professes to be agnostic.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but an auction is held each year to auction off a lunch with Warren Buffett.
SPEAKER_01: And just to give you an idea, the highest amount paid for this lunch in 2022 was$19 million.
SPEAKER_01: This year's lunch went for$9 million.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, can you imagine paying that amount of money for a lunch with one man?
SPEAKER_01: So as the Oracle of Omaha, uh, he's well known for his investment approach, his objectives, the returns that he brings.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he commands a very significant following in the investment community, and people try to really follow him, see what he does, try to get the best return and investment that they can.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, if you can imagine, we've all heard the phrase, the$64,000 question.
SPEAKER_01: What could the$19 million question be?
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then, you know, I started thinking, what could you gain over a lunch?
SPEAKER_01: I've paid$19 million, I have lunch.
SPEAKER_01: What could you gain possibly over that period of time?
SPEAKER_01: And as I thought about that question this week, I've really considered what if Warren Buffett were simply asked, have you ever prayed?
SPEAKER_01: And if so, what did you pray for?
SPEAKER_01: What might he answer to that question?
SPEAKER_01: So today when we're looking at Psalm 90, we're going to see this prayer of Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but before we do that, I just want to share a little bit about Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Shared a little bit about Warren Buffett.
SPEAKER_01: Um, great.
SPEAKER_01: We always worry about the text here being large enough to read.
SPEAKER_01: So if we look in Acts chapter 7, we really see a good background in Moses and his life.
SPEAKER_01: And so looking in verses 20 through 23, this is what we read.
SPEAKER_01: And this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God's sight, and he was brought up for three months in his father's house.
SPEAKER_01: And when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
SPEAKER_01: When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So from three months to forty, this was his state.
SPEAKER_01: Beginning in twenty-nine, at this retort, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame, a fire in a bush.
SPEAKER_01: And then when we pick up in verse thirty-five and thirty-six, this Moses, whom they rejected, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge?
SPEAKER_01: This man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of an angel who appeared to him in the bush.
SPEAKER_01: This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.
SPEAKER_01: And then we come to the end in Deuteronomy 34 7.
SPEAKER_01: Moses was 120 years old when he died.
SPEAKER_01: I love this part.
SPEAKER_01: His eyes, his eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine that?
SPEAKER_01: 120 years old.
SPEAKER_01: His eyes are undimmed and his vigor unabated.
SPEAKER_01: So with that background, you can look and you can see that there are three distinct periods in Moses' life.
SPEAKER_01: He has the 40 year, these 40-year cycles, 40 years in Pharaoh's house.
SPEAKER_01: He was a fugitive in exile for 40 years, and then he was God's chosen leader for 40 years, and he ultimately lived to be 120 years old.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I want you with me, when we consider this prayer, to think about that time in Moses' life from 80 to 120 and the in the wealth of wisdom that comes with age, with being God's man and seeing his hand in your life.
SPEAKER_01: He's advanced in years, and I just love to think about the perspective that that brings and what that prayer looks like from this man.
SPEAKER_00: With that, let's go to Psalm ninety.
SPEAKER_01: A prayer of Moses, the man of God Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
SPEAKER_01: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
SPEAKER_01: You return man to dust and say, Return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night, you sweep them away as with a flood.
SPEAKER_01: They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning, in the morning it flourishes, and is renewed, in the evening it fades and withers, for we are brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath we are dismayed.
SPEAKER_01: You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
SPEAKER_01: For all our days pass away under your wrath, we bring our years to an end like a sigh, the years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty, yet their span is but toil and trouble.
SPEAKER_01: They are soon gone, and we fly away.
SPEAKER_01: Who considers the power of your anger or your wrath according to the fear of you?
SPEAKER_01: So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Return, O Lord, how long?
SPEAKER_01: Have pity on your servants, satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
SPEAKER_01: Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.
SPEAKER_01: Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
SPEAKER_01: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, establish the work of our hands.
SPEAKER_01: So our outline today, and again if you're visiting, this is what forms the cheat sheet if you had one of these uh sermon handouts from the back, is that we're gonna look at God's majesty and power in verses one and two, God's decree in verses three and four, and then man's condition and God's wrath in five through eleven, and then we will close with man's petition.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin with God's majesty and power.
SPEAKER_01: A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
SPEAKER_01: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
SPEAKER_01: What an incredible beginning to a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Moses, the man of God.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't the oracle of Egypt, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is the man of God.
SPEAKER_01: And when we see that, it's it indicates a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: So we're seeing Moses here as prophet, and he God has used Moses to speak powerfully.
SPEAKER_01: He's spoken to Pharaoh, he's spoken to the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: And now, if you can imagine this man that God has used to speak for him, turning his face toward God and praying this prayer, this heartfelt prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Scripture gives us this view of what the relationship was like between God and Moses, as a man God would speak to face to face.
SPEAKER_01: To consider a prayer of Moses is to consider an intimate conversation with God.
SPEAKER_01: So this photo is from the recent Artemis II mission, and it shows in the background the crescent earth at the distance behind the moon.
SPEAKER_01: And can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: I just I just want to sit and look at this and think about the words that are on the screen and just and just soak this up.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, imagine the perspective of man and and and what can be gained in one moment, in one in one time, when you're looking and you see in the far distance this blue planet, they're green, and recognize the sovereignty and the majesty and the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 120 reads, for his invisible invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_01: If man was without excuse in ancient times, how much more today with the technology and ability that we have to send man into space, to take a photo of this image and to bring that back?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how much more are we without excuse today?
SPEAKER_01: Genesis one eleven, God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed and fruit, trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And it was so think about that.
SPEAKER_01: God spoke, and he spoke this world into existence, and he spoke a certain vegetation and a certain plant, and the trees and the fruits and the seeds and all of these things at the command of God.
SPEAKER_01: And among the vegetation on that distant blue planet that we see in this photo, there were bulrushes.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus 2 3.
SPEAKER_01: When we consider Moses and what his life would have been like and what he would have known about God's hand and his life, when she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch.
SPEAKER_01: She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the riverbank.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: God in all of his majesty would ordain on that small planet seen in this view that Moses would be saved in a basket on the Nile River.
SPEAKER_01: Or as Henry shared last week, he would also see our unformed substance.
SPEAKER_01: When we see this, I know we can look and we can think about the ingenuity of man that we've found ways to bring ourselves to this place in space, but how do we not also consider the majesty of God on display?
SPEAKER_01: What a beautiful beginning to a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: To acknowledge that God is our dwelling place.
SPEAKER_01: By his sovereign power and all and authority, before the world ever existed, he would know your name.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, incredible.
SPEAKER_01: He would command the vegetation that would grow, he would ordain that it would be woven into a basket, he would ordain that the baby of three months would be placed in it, and now would be voicing this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: How can we not cry out like Moses?
SPEAKER_01: You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
SPEAKER_01: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
SPEAKER_01: Moses, set adrift in a basket, a fugitive in exile, standing on dry ground within the Red Sea, wandering in the wilderness for forty years, recognizes that in all of that the one constant was God.
SPEAKER_01: God was his dwelling place.
SPEAKER_01: Lost in sin, without hope, a life without meaning, you heard the still, small voice of the Lord and stepped into the palm of his hand.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that a beautiful view?
SPEAKER_01: If you if you've accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, nothing can snatch you out of the hand of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: His majesty and power shows itself in every believer in this room.
SPEAKER_01: He is your dwelling place.
SPEAKER_01: What a beautiful word.
SPEAKER_01: God's decree.
SPEAKER_01: Moses had such a keen understanding of the fall and the condition of man.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh imagine that.
SPEAKER_01: In this prayer, he's he's he's prayed who God is, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
SPEAKER_01: And then he turns his sight toward man and he recognized this condition.
SPEAKER_01: From the moment death entered the world and the mind of man, it became this intimate and constant reminder of the presence of time and God's decree that man would return to dust.
SPEAKER_01: You know, separated from God, man can only ask these types of questions when and how long.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we're desperate to try to constrain God by time.
SPEAKER_01: Um we want to order his work in uh in our lifetimes.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to think of God existing outside of time.
SPEAKER_01: God, when will you act now in my circumstances?
SPEAKER_01: And what time will you will you do this thing?
SPEAKER_01: It is so part of our nature and part of our our desire that we would take God and we would place him in that and then we would squeeze and we would have God deliver for us in our time frame and our timeline all that all that we ask.
SPEAKER_01: Tell me, God, how much time?
SPEAKER_01: And Moses recognizes God's decree that man will return to dust and time as we understand it has no meaning to God.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, think about that.
SPEAKER_01: A thousand years.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're coming to the celebration of 250 years for our nation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you think of a thousand years, 50 generations are as close as yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: What an amazing thought.
SPEAKER_01: They're as close as yesterday or a watch in the night.
SPEAKER_01: And a watch in the night would at this time that would represent four hours.
SPEAKER_01: So one thousand years to God, it's just like an it's just like hours.
SPEAKER_01: It's just like you woke up from last night and it's gone.
SPEAKER_01: One thousand years, fifty generations have come and gone.
SPEAKER_01: But one thing I want to emphasize in this is that before the fall of man, time hasn't always been our enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just explain a little bit here.
SPEAKER_01: In Genesis, when we come back and we look again, in verse five, uh, Genesis one five, it reads, God called the light day and the darkness he called night, and there was evening and there was morning the first day.
SPEAKER_01: And there was a day, it was beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: There was light, and it was day, and there was darkness, and it was night.
SPEAKER_01: And then when we look in Genesis 1.14, and God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there was this created order, and it was it was beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: It was arranged in such a way that when we saw the passing of time, it wasn't without threat.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't an indication of death.
SPEAKER_01: Um, it was qualitative, right?
SPEAKER_01: You could see it, you could see the light, and it was day.
SPEAKER_01: The night it was dark.
SPEAKER_01: And it was quite quantitative, it formed signs and seasons for days.
SPEAKER_01: The measures were good and prosperous for mankind.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you're a gardener, but I I bought some plants on discount the other day, some tomato plants, and I'm like, all right, I can still make use of these things.
SPEAKER_01: I can nurse them back to health, and in so many days I might have fruit from this.
SPEAKER_01: The joy of the seasons.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it was like in in Eden, you know, before the fall.
SPEAKER_01: But if you can imagine that, you know, what what would a season have been like?
SPEAKER_01: You know, not a season of of death or anything, but a season to say, I'm gonna watch this and this plant is gonna bear fruit.
SPEAKER_01: These leaves would change color, whatever it might be, that there was this joy that time or seasons were created that we would measure it and man would prosper by this.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a threat.
SPEAKER_01: Time didn't exist in the way that we see it today.
SPEAKER_01: After the fall, there's a stark difference that stands between God and man, and it's mortality.
SPEAKER_01: Moses can pray this deep truth to God that reflects a weight in the hearts of mankind.
SPEAKER_01: You have decreed that our days are numbered.
SPEAKER_01: Death isn't just the enemy in greatest fear, it's the fulfillment of time.
SPEAKER_01: So now imagine that.
SPEAKER_01: Time has now become the thing by which we measure our our existence.
SPEAKER_01: A time that you'll be born.
SPEAKER_01: This text, I didn't I didn't want to keep you here for days with ecclesiastes, but there when you look at at time and we we see this in the fulfillment of time, we measure that outside of the cross as a measure of of death.
SPEAKER_01: Um and there's that weight.
SPEAKER_01: And I I don't want, as we examine this prayer today.
SPEAKER_01: In no way do I want to remove the weight of what this means.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's important that we feel the weight of what this means.
SPEAKER_00: Man's condition and God's wrath.
SPEAKER_00: He sweep them away as with a flood.
SPEAKER_01: They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning, in the morning it flourishes and is renewed, in the evening it fades and withers.
SPEAKER_01: For we are brought to an end by your anger.
SPEAKER_01: By your wrath we are dismayed.
SPEAKER_01: You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
SPEAKER_01: For all our days pass away under your wrath.
SPEAKER_01: We bring our years to an end like a sigh.
SPEAKER_01: The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty, yet their span is but toil and trouble.
SPEAKER_01: They are soon gone, and we fly away.
SPEAKER_01: Man's condition and God's wrath.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you've seen it at times, and again, this is a this is a weighty thing to think about.
SPEAKER_01: But I I think you've probably seen this illustration at times where if I if I had a rope extended across this stage from from door to door, and within that rope, I had a knot.
SPEAKER_01: Um and that knot, uh, the rope is intended to represent eternity, right?
SPEAKER_01: It goes on forever.
SPEAKER_01: Each end goes on forever.
SPEAKER_01: Um and the knot represents our existence from an eternal perspective.
SPEAKER_01: So if you looked at our lives within this frame of eternity, we would be that small knot.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that would represent all of our existence.
SPEAKER_01: All of our existence, not just Jason, but in that knot, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, imagine if it was just you in that over eternity.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, not even a strand within the cord of this rope, but just the most minute aspect of that.
SPEAKER_01: And now imagine in this rope that extends in that knot, that God can snip that knot out of the rope and it not have an impact on it at all.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that's a difficult thing to consider.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we say to ourselves, why would he ever do that?
SPEAKER_01: The value of the rope, this is the the worldview that we possess outside of the cross, the value of the rope is the knot.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what that's what it's all about.
SPEAKER_01: It's that knot.
SPEAKER_01: That's the value.
SPEAKER_01: The whole purpose of this rope is the knot.
SPEAKER_01: You know, here's the hard truth that Moses is praying.
SPEAKER_01: God can snip that knot without any difference to himself.
SPEAKER_01: That knot gets snipped, and God is everything he was before, and everything he is after is completely fulfilled and lacking nothing.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we want to tell ourselves, oh, God is so dependent on this knot that he made.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is that.
SPEAKER_01: When in actuality, man's condition and God's wrath, that knot deserves to be snipped.
SPEAKER_01: That's a hard truth.
SPEAKER_01: That's a hard thing.
SPEAKER_01: Why could a loving God do such a thing?
SPEAKER_01: Moses answers the question in his prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in light of your presence.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we don't, I mean, we do it, we we model this when we come together in worship.
SPEAKER_01: We've done it this morning.
SPEAKER_01: The songs that we sing, and I'm I'm looking at the words as we're singing this or reflecting this very truth that that you see in this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Um, we don't naturally bring our sins before God with a heart of confession.
SPEAKER_01: That's not who we are outside of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We hide the same as Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_01: We we we run away.
SPEAKER_01: But God is all knowing.
SPEAKER_01: He's not dependent on us.
SPEAKER_01: He places these sins within his view, and nothing is held in secret.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing of our sin in our lives that God doesn't know.
SPEAKER_01: It's not held in secret, and his anger is stirred, and his wrath is required, and death enters the timeline of man.
SPEAKER_01: It's a weighty thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a difficult thing to consider.
SPEAKER_01: When death enters the story of man, time becomes the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Time, you know, we measure time to embrace, and sometimes we embrace time with great joy and anticipation.
SPEAKER_01: When it's the birth of a child, we can't wait.
SPEAKER_01: How long will it be?
SPEAKER_01: How how how soon will it get here?
SPEAKER_01: But also we look at time with great dread and anticipation, the death of a loved one.
SPEAKER_01: How long do they have?
SPEAKER_01: How long do we have?
SPEAKER_01: It's with great dread that we see that.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you will recognize this, and I had to put it in here because I just did.
SPEAKER_01: When I was thinking this, it came to my mind, I don't know that it's good, like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Terrible, Kenneth, terrible.
SPEAKER_01: But we but we hear that and we think about it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, our lives are so caught up and compelled with this time.
SPEAKER_01: Time is fleeting.
SPEAKER_01: And yet it's God's wrath, it's man's condition and God's wrath.
SPEAKER_01: And it's deserved.
SPEAKER_01: The years accumulate and we reach 70 or 80.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I will sometimes say, maybe you can you can uh talk to me later and see if you've had these experiences.
SPEAKER_01: I'll sometimes say, I have more years behind me than I do ahead.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a I mean, it's a factual statement.
SPEAKER_01: I have years more years behind me than I do ahead.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what the common response is to that statement.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, don't don't say that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't, don't, you don't say that.
SPEAKER_01: Um you know that's depressing, man.
SPEAKER_01: That's more don't don't go saying that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't I don't want to think like that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I told a young man at work a while back, I said, Look, I'm not competing with you in this job.
SPEAKER_01: I have more years behind me than I do ahead.
SPEAKER_01: I'm happy that it's gonna be you instead of me at some point.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, don't don't say that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Moses pours out the despair we refuse to acknowledge in this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We we want to say, don't no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Don't don't say that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not speak as though this is a real thing.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just push that aside.
SPEAKER_01: Living 120 years old with the vigor unabated, you know, it provides an opportunity to watch a lot of generations pass and pass before.
SPEAKER_01: Can you feel the weight of the brevity of man in this prayer?
SPEAKER_01: And that Moses would point to this death.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't want to simply pass by it just quickly and not let it sit with the weight that it deserves.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this deserves consideration.
SPEAKER_01: It deserves our way of analyzing this and looking at this and considering it.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses asked this question.
SPEAKER_01: Who considers this?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you?
SPEAKER_01: Who leans into this truth?
SPEAKER_01: Who leans into this knowledge?
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's saying the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: You know, who considers this?
SPEAKER_01: The short answer is nobody.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody considers this.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we want to shake our fists at the cause.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we shake our fists at the cause, and we uh we invest billions of dollars in medical research.
SPEAKER_01: Billions of dollars in medical research, but rarely, if ever, do we simply consider the just wrath of God poured out on man.
SPEAKER_01: Rarely do we ever just sit in that and think about that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, but the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: It is a truth we must accept if we want to have the true knowledge and understanding of God.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Moses didn't ask our permission to pray this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Moses didn't say, I'm gonna make this comfortable for you guys.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna pray that watermelon tastes sweet.
SPEAKER_01: How does that sound to you?
SPEAKER_01: You know, he is praying this heartfelt prayer that he has seen the work of God in his life, he has seen the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, imagine the rebellion of Korah.
SPEAKER_01: I was just thinking of this, where the the earth opens up and it consumes the people and it closes.
SPEAKER_01: And and Moses is looking at that going, This is real, people.
SPEAKER_01: The wrath of God is real.
SPEAKER_01: Moses didn't ask our permission.
SPEAKER_01: He brings before God a weight of mankind born in sin, constrained by time, facing death in the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_01: I love this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I know you guys are like, Really?
SPEAKER_01: I love this prayer and this weight, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel.
SPEAKER_01: Why is this weight important?
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 9 10 reads, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
SPEAKER_01: You know, our prayer of confession that we have, we want to convey that similar weight.
SPEAKER_01: I know when when Kent was introducing this and we were talking about this confession, we didn't want it reconciled within the prayer.
SPEAKER_01: This confession was was was meant to hold us and to have us consider what it really means to be in sin.
SPEAKER_01: And then, like we've seen this morning, there's this assurance of part, and there's this great emphasis on what Christ has done for us, and we and we celebrate that and we and we go through this week after week, um, and we model it, and it comes in here and there's and there's worship, and yes, there's a part to it that's heavy.
SPEAKER_01: But how do we gain a knowledge and understanding of wisdom if we don't view God completely?
SPEAKER_01: If we only view God partially Man's petition.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: I've prayed this a number of times in verse twelve.
SPEAKER_01: I just love this concept, I love this idea.
SPEAKER_01: So teach us to number our days, that we might get a heart of wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Return, O Lord, how long?
SPEAKER_01: Have pity on your servants, satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
SPEAKER_01: Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.
SPEAKER_01: Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
SPEAKER_01: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, establish the work of our hands.
SPEAKER_01: Similar to this assurance of pardon, this this prayer and this petition, it turns to something encouraging, something beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Since God has decreed that to dust we shall return, and man's condition is fallen and under the wrath of God, then teach us to number our days that we may gain or get a heart of wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Don't leave us in this state, God.
SPEAKER_01: We cry out like Moses.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when I was I was thinking of this, and and there's so many.
SPEAKER_01: And my mind goes to movies too.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you know, I it's it's terrible.
SPEAKER_01: Um but are just great stories.
SPEAKER_01: Um Groundhog's Day.
SPEAKER_01: Ground Sog Day, the guy's waking up the same day and he's trying to see.
SPEAKER_01: We there's this redemption aspect of there's time, and I need some redemption.
SPEAKER_01: I need something to change.
SPEAKER_01: Um and then I was drawn to, I mean, and it's time and time, and this is the condition of man.
SPEAKER_01: And then I considered a Christmas carol, an Ebenezer Scrooge in a Christmas carol.
SPEAKER_01: When I think of, don't leave us in this state, God.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us to number our days.
SPEAKER_01: Scrooge says, are these the shadows of the things that will be?
SPEAKER_01: Or are they the shadows of the things that might be, only yet may be altered by my own hand?
SPEAKER_01: He's crying out, teach me.
SPEAKER_01: Teach me to number these days, this time that I've had.
SPEAKER_01: Now we can't alter it by our own hand.
SPEAKER_01: But I love this idea, this view that I want to see it as valuable.
SPEAKER_01: I want to look at the time that God grants me, and I want to see it as great value.
SPEAKER_01: I listened to a sermon by Alistair Begg.
SPEAKER_01: Um, oh, it's been a couple of weeks ago, and in this sermon, he used this illustration.
SPEAKER_01: I just thought it was beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: And if you go back and listen to it, I'm sure I'm gonna butcher it.
SPEAKER_01: So just take my version.
SPEAKER_01: Um this is what he said.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine each day you wake up and there's a deposit in your bank account in the amount of$86,400.
SPEAKER_01: $86,400.
SPEAKER_01: And you must spend the full amount every day by the end of the day.
SPEAKER_01: $86,400.
SPEAKER_01: But the good news is, is when the next day begins, your bank account pops back up,$86,400, you get to start again, and each and every day you had this amount of money come into your bank account for you to spend.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, wow, imagine that.
SPEAKER_01: Each day we wake up with$86,400 seconds we will spend.
SPEAKER_01: Those seconds are spent each and every day.
SPEAKER_00: They are gone.
SPEAKER_00: We spend them, never to return again.
SPEAKER_00: What if those 86,400 seconds were your last?
SPEAKER_00: How valuable would they be to you?
SPEAKER_01: I think about that.
SPEAKER_01: We say sometimes, and I it as you get older, man, time sure goes by fast.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was just, we just celebrated our granddaughter's one year birthday.
SPEAKER_01: Man, time sure goes by fast.
SPEAKER_01: I I gotta break it to you.
SPEAKER_01: Time goes by at the same speed, it's always gone by.
SPEAKER_01: We wear that out, we just need to stop.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm the older I get, I'm gonna say it more and more and more and more.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive me, younger people, forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: Show me grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the truth time doesn't move faster, it gets more valuable.
SPEAKER_01: Time gets more valuable.
SPEAKER_01: We start to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Wait a second, 86,400.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder how many more of those I'm gonna have.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, teach me to number them.
SPEAKER_01: Teach me to hold them in my hand, teach me to think of them as being valuable.
SPEAKER_01: I want to go back and I want you to look at this, and I want you to kind of scripture doesn't give us when Moses prayed this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm taking a little bit of a detour, but I'm doing it because this is the way I like to think of how Moses prayed this.
SPEAKER_01: In Deuteronomy 32, 48 through 50, that very day the Lord spoke to Moses, go up this mountain of the Arabim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for possession, and die on the mountain which you go up, be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now imagine a vigorous hundred and twenty-year-old man climbing a mountain, and he's standing there, and God is granting him this opportunity to look across the horizon at the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: And he stirs his heart as he looks across that horizon and he prays, Return, O Lord, how long?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just think about this.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I want each of us to have this heart that can consider each and every day an opportunity to cry out, Return, O Lord, how long?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that a beautiful thing?
SPEAKER_01: You know, when this petition was met, I mean, Moses had cried out, return, O Lord.
SPEAKER_01: When it's met through Christ, it was the ultimate display of God's steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: This prayer has been answered from the manger to the cross and for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: For those who are in Christ, we have the great reason to rejoice and be glad in all our days.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about this.
SPEAKER_01: Man's petition, let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children.
SPEAKER_01: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, establish the work of our hands.
SPEAKER_01: The work that your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children.
SPEAKER_01: There is no greater work than the work of the cross, and no greater glorious power revealed than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That is that is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's something I want to say, and I've said this a number of times.
SPEAKER_01: If there is no conflict, if there are no consequences, there's no need for the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So when when we hear this, oh, don't talk about death, that's that's morbid.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to hear that.
SPEAKER_01: I can't I can't stand the thought.
SPEAKER_01: If we strip all of that out of our language, all of that out of our thoughts, what's the gospel for?
SPEAKER_01: What are you being saved from if you don't consider this?
SPEAKER_01: If there's no way so when we when we sit in that, it's glorious that we can say in 1 Corinthians 15, 54 through 55, when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
SPEAKER_01: O death, where is your victory?
SPEAKER_01: O death, where is your sting?
SPEAKER_01: We just sang this a minute ago.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sitting here singing it going, Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord, there is no sting to death for us.
SPEAKER_01: There that the time that we have is a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_01: We rejoice in the days that we have because there's hope that we cling to because of Christ and what he has done, and what he has done to pay for the penalty of our sins.
SPEAKER_01: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, establish the work of our hands.
SPEAKER_01: Our work has been established.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 28, 19, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We have work to do.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a beautiful work.
SPEAKER_01: It's not forced labor, it's a work of love.
SPEAKER_01: From this prayer we can see a few things.
SPEAKER_01: God's people have been given a heart of wisdom, numbering each day as one purchased with a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: You weren't purchased just to have, you were purchased for a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: God's people.
SPEAKER_01: Have been shown the steadfast love of God through Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Been shown the steadfast love of God.
SPEAKER_01: God's people rejoice and are glad all our days for the hope we have before us.
SPEAKER_01: We don't live life in despair.
SPEAKER_00: Death has no grip on us.
SPEAKER_00: We have a great hope.
SPEAKER_00: Henry, I want to say, and all of God's people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We have this great truth revealed through Christ in his death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Based on these truths, I can wholeheartedly proclaim to you today the best days of your life this side of eternity will be the days you work for the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Those will be your best days.
SPEAKER_01: That will be the best work that you do.
SPEAKER_01: That is your greatest hope.
SPEAKER_01: Warren Buffett sees compounding interest as one of the most powerful forces in wealth creation.
SPEAKER_01: He's called it the eighth wonder of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Simply put, it is reinvesting investment gains over a long period of time and having those gains compound.
SPEAKER_01: Time is your friend in this exercise, in this model, and the more of it that you have in terms of time, the more wealth you will accumulate.
SPEAKER_01: At ninety five, Warren Buffett won't see wealth compound much longer compared to what he's already seen.
SPEAKER_01: I think of what the last eighty six thousand four hundred seconds might look like for this professing agnostic.
SPEAKER_01: I see him in bed being attended to by a nurse that makes thirty dollars an hour.
SPEAKER_01: The value of her care far exceeds a nineteen million dollar lunch.
SPEAKER_01: The nurse has the final discussion with Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Buffett and shares the truth of the gospel, and he receives something money can't buy.
SPEAKER_01: Compounding interest isn't the most powerful force.
SPEAKER_00: It's the compounding love of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of his people.
SPEAKER_01: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, establish the work of our hands, church.
SPEAKER_01: Henry, you're right.
SPEAKER_01: You don't write these things into.
SPEAKER_01: I have an addendum.
SPEAKER_01: How do we apply?
SPEAKER_01: And it's not, it's not up here.
SPEAKER_01: How do we apply this prayer and work for the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: We apply it in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: How we live and what we say when the world cries out for answers.
SPEAKER_01: Here's some examples.
SPEAKER_01: Will AI take over and be the end of mankind?
SPEAKER_01: God is my dwelling place from everlasting to everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: He is God.
SPEAKER_01: If you believe that AI will hasten your death and your time is limited, then let's talk about Jesus and the eternal hope he offers.
SPEAKER_01: It seems like everything we eat, drink, touch has some chemical, some contamination that's going to cause cancer or kill us.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
SPEAKER_01: I really don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it does concern me and it brings me to a place where I want to cry out all the more, Christ, return today.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, return, O Lord.
SPEAKER_01: How long?
SPEAKER_01: You know, I wrote that, I thought, there are two ways you can look at that.
SPEAKER_01: You can celebrate with amen, or you can say, more time.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you you just why don't you ever just get in the mud with me and wallow in this terrible state of mind?
SPEAKER_01: In this terrible state of mind.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I've I've prayed to number my days, and I consider their value.
SPEAKER_01: And to if today's my last 86,400 seconds, then I want to use them to talk about my future hope and the future hope that it brings in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to waste a single second.
SPEAKER_01: The world cries out, give me something other than Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to hear just this from you.
SPEAKER_01: Our response should be, give me nothing but Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here today and you find yourself without hope, with time as your enemy, let today be the day that you accept the eternal hope that Christ offers.
SPEAKER_01: In the numbering of your days, may today be day one of an eternity with Christ, the author and perfecter of your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Father, what hope we have in you.
SPEAKER_01: God, the creator of the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
SPEAKER_01: And Father, we are sinful, we are broken, and we want you to fit our mold.
SPEAKER_01: We want you in time with us, changing our circumstances, solving our problems, removing the fear and weight of death.
SPEAKER_01: But Father, I pray that as we consider those thoughts, our hearts and minds turn to the resolution that Christ would hang on a cross, and through the atonement of our sins, Father, that we would be reconciled with you.
SPEAKER_01: God, we would have a great hope, an eternal hope in our lives, God, and I pray for us as your people and for this church, establish the work of our hands.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.