24-1110a Transcript

Preacher: Tom Freed

(2:05) Good Morning. Good to see everybody. I’m current in the rotation, (2:12) so we got five guys. John’s preaching tonight, so come on and support him too. (2:18) He doesn’t always preach, but he does a great job.

Hopefully he’ll preach more. (2:25) My sermon is called Dust in the Wind, so I’m sticking with the (2:31) song titles for my sermons. Last week was Can’t Get No Satisfaction, so (2:39) I wasn’t going to preach on this, but it just popped in my head, and I decided to go with it.

(2:45) I’m not going to sing again, so I hope you’re not expecting that. (2:52) The song is from a band, Kansas. It basically talks about how short life is and how fast it passes by.

(3:01) Nothing lasts forever and time slips away. We blink and the moment is gone and all (3:07) your money won’t buy you another minute for just another drop in an endless sea, (3:14) and all we do crumble to the ground. All we are is dust in the wind.

(3:20) It almost sounds biblical, some of the stuff, because God talks about the same thing. (3:25) The time is short. God says life is but a vapor, James 4 14, whereas you do not know what will (3:34) happen tomorrow.

For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and (3:40) then vanishes away. Man is like a breath, his days are like a passing shadow, Psalm 144.4. (3:51) Indeed you have made my days as hand breaths, and my age is as nothing before you. Certainly every (3:59) man at his best state is but a vapor, Psalm 39.5. We can see how fast this time goes by (4:09) on this earth.

As older we get, I’ve heard a lot of people say time seems to speed up. (4:18) I’m middle-aged now and the last 20-30 years are basically just a blur. (4:23) You know, you wake up and one day it’s like, man, what happened? (4:27) Where did all the time go? When you are a kid, you never think you are going to grow old.

It (4:34) seems like it takes forever to age. You can’t wait to grow up and do all the fun things. (4:41) You can’t wait to drive, go to rated R movies, smoke, drink, you know, all the stuff you shouldn’t do.

(4:50) A lot of times as kids, instead of respecting our elders, (4:54) we make fun of them for being old. You can remember back as a kid, (5:01) making fun of an elderly person, they usually had the same response. (5:06) Just wait, you’re going to be old one day too.

They’re completely right. You know, a lot of us (5:13) you know, tease older people, maybe our grandparents or something, but (5:18) you know, time waits for nobody. Soon you’re going to be (5:22) old one day and you’ll have kids making fun of you.

So be nice to your elders. (5:32) We’re lucky to make it 70 or 80 years old before we pass. Psalm 9010.

The days of our lives are 70 (5:41) years and if by reason of strength they are 80 years. Yet their bones is only in labor and sorrow (5:48) for soon it is cut off and we fly away. That verse basically is right.

(5:56) We work hard most of our lives with jobs we don’t really like. You know, a lot of us from age 14 (6:04) to 60 or 70, by the time we’re ready to retire, we have too many health issues to enjoy. We might (6:12) not even make it to retirement.

My job, plenty of people have passed away before they can even (6:20) retire. Job 14, one through two. A man who was born a woman is a few days and full of trouble.

(6:28) He comes forth like a flower and fades away. He flees like a shadow and does not continue. (6:36) We can see that life is short.

It’s full of pain, suffering. It’s not all bad, but (6:44) there’s plenty of sorrow. You know, there’s plenty of hard work and toil for what it seems like (6:50) nothing, especially nowadays with the price of everything.

You know, we work hard. It seems like (6:55) you can barely get by. Even Jacob who lived 130 years said his years were few and evil.

(7:04) And Jacob said to Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have (7:13) been the days and years of my life. And they have not attained to the days and years of the life of (7:18) my fathers, the days of their pilgrimage.

Genesis 47, 9. That’s coming from somebody who lived a (7:27) good life, who was a patriarch in the Old Testament. And he said his days are few and evil. We can’t, (7:37) he probably, none of us will live close to 130 years.

You know, maybe Wally and Carol, but (7:43) that’s maybe the only people here that can do it. (7:49) The good news is it’s not all doom and gloom. We have plenty of good times along with the bad.

(7:55) But we do have to keep in mind time goes by fast and it’s over before we know it. (8:01) Most of the things we focus on and work for are meaningless. The little time we have on earth, (8:07) we need to focus on the right things.

I think most of us as Christians, even as Christians, (8:16) fall into the trap of focusing most of our time and effort on worldly things. (8:22) We put most of our time and energy into our jobs, family, friends, sports, recreation, politics, (8:30) vacations, video games, watching TV, you know, our hobbies, whatever. There’s a million things (8:36) we could do, especially nowadays.

All the computers, smartphones, internet, all the (8:43) crazy things going on. What time do we waste watching TV? If we put one tenth of that time (8:52) into, you know, reading the Bible, we’d be way better off. We worry about money, (9:01) better think of us, where we live, what kind of car we drive.

Some of us have health issues. (9:09) Most of our time and energy is spent thinking about worldly things, working towards making (9:16) money for the world. God says it’s foolish to put all your time and effort into this world and not (9:22) towards him.

You see from one of Jesus' parables, he talks about this. Luke 12, 16-21, and he spoke (9:35) a parable to them saying, the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. He thought to (9:41) himself saying, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops? But he said, I will do (9:48) this.

I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and goods. (9:57) I will say to my soul, soul, you must have many goods laid out for many years. (10:03) Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said to him, fool, this night your soul will be (10:10) required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? So as he who lays up (10:18) treasure for himself, but is not rich towards God. We can see that’s what this country is about.

We (10:29) all these rich people have all these huge houses, huge storage places. Some of them have hundreds (10:35) of cars, you know, hundreds of millions just on cars, boats, everything else. But God says it’s (10:43) foolish to just store up treasure on earth.

How many of us do the same thing? We work 40, 50, (10:51) 60 hours a week, sometimes even more. We can have a nice home, car, TVs in every room, cell phones, (11:00) everything else, but we neglect the most important thing in life, God. He just said, (11:07) don’t worry about material things on earth.

We put his kingdom first, he will add these things to us. (11:14) Matthew 6, 31 through 33. Therefore do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, (11:21) or what shall we wear? After all these things the Gentiles seek, your heavenly Father knows that you (11:27) need these things.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall (11:33) be added to you. We should focus on God first. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

(11:42) Jesus didn’t care about money and wealth. He was homeless. He didn’t have a penny to his name, (11:49) and he could have had anything in the world because he’s God.

(11:52) It will take the limited time we have to build treasures on earth. Use it to build (11:57) treasures in heaven. Matthew 6, 19 through 21.

Do not lay up yourselves treasures on earth, (12:06) where moths and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves (12:10) treasures in heaven, neither moths nor rust destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. (12:16) For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.

The life is short. (12:24) But the parable says, why work and toil night and day, storing up wealth for somebody else to (12:30) spend when you die? Where do you think all that money goes that you worked hard for? (12:36) How do you spend it all while you’re living? I mean, a lot of these people die with (12:41) a lot of money. My aunt died with a million dollars saved up.

(12:44) And she worked a regular job. So what good does that do you? You can’t take anything with you (12:53) when you leave. My old preacher used to always say, you’ll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse.

(13:02) So that’s a quote from Denzel Washington. So you don’t see U-Hauls at funerals because (13:10) people know that stuff isn’t going to go with you wherever you end up in heaven or in hell. (13:17) You can see from the Egyptian tombs built for the possessions of the pharaohs.

(13:24) They’re still there thousands of years later. They’re still finding tombs and stuff in it. (13:30) Why break your back? Why do all that work for the short time on earth (13:35) and you can’t take it with you? The world thinks those with the most toys wins.

(13:43) But God says the exact opposite. Luke 12, 15. And he said to them, take heed and beware of (13:50) covetousness.

For one’s life does not consist of the abundance of the things he possesses. (13:56) But doesn’t, you know, life isn’t just about all the things you can own. There’s a lot more to it.

(14:06) We think the rich have it so good, but they’re fools if all they care about is money. (14:11) You know, it’s not wrong to be rich, but if you put that first and you neglect God, it’s wrong. (14:19) Like the song says, you can’t buy another minute on this earth.

(14:22) And you definitely can’t buy your way into heaven. God is not impressed with how much wealth, status, (14:30) fame and power you can have on this earth. He’s impressed with somebody who obeys his word, (14:37) who keeps his commandments.

That’s what impresses God. So we have the perfect example (14:46) of somebody who lived a short time on earth, but did his whole, through his whole life, (14:53) he did the right thing. Son of God came to the earth, lowering himself as a man to spend every (15:00) waking second of his life doing his father’s will.

He’s, like I said, he didn’t care about money. (15:06) He didn’t care about power or fame. All he cared about was doing what God sent him to do.

(15:13) Most of us today that are here have lived longer than Jesus. (15:19) Twice as long, even more. He was only 33 years of age when he was crucified.

(15:27) That is a short life. He spent only three years in public ministry. (15:34) In that short time, he turned the whole world upside down.

He accomplished so many things in (15:40) just three years that all the books in the world could not contain it. It was written down, (15:48) John 21, 25. And there are also many things that Jesus did, many other things that Jesus did, (15:57) because they were written one by one.

I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the (16:02) books that would be written. You already have a big book written about what he did. (16:08) In three years, as they wrote down everything he did, he couldn’t contain it all.

(16:15) A short time on earth and even shorter to complete his mission. (16:20) But he understood what he should focus his time and energy on. (16:25) How many of us focus completely on doing God’s word, obeying him? (16:33) Both of us focus on worldly things like our job, relationships, money, sports.

(16:40) Whatever else you could think of. Just as King Solomon said, everything in this world is useless. (16:49) The only thing that really matters is fearing God and keeping his commandments.

(16:55) Imagine what we can accomplish in our short time on earth if we gave all we had like Jesus. (17:01) Even if we gave one-tenth, one-hundredth of what he did. Mark 420.

But these are the ones (17:10) sown on good ground. Those who hear the word accepted and bear fruit, some thirtyfold, (17:17) some sixty, and some a hundred. Don’t be the twenty or thirtyfold, be the hundredfold.

(17:25) Some of us have been Christians five, ten, or twenty times as long as Jesus had his ministry. (17:34) What have most of us spent our time doing as Christians? We’ve been doing the things of the (17:39) world and the things of God. If you love the things of the world, the love of the Father is (17:46) not in you.

1 John 2, 15-17. Do not love the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, (17:56) the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, (18:01) the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. (18:06) And the world is passing away in the lust of it. But he who does the will of the Father (18:12) abides forever.

Let’s use our short time on earth wisely and look to Jesus as an example. (18:22) Look what he accomplished in three years. We still talk about him.

He only had three years (18:31) that he had his ministry. Think about all the time we have, all the years we have. Some of us (18:39) have just become Christians, but some of us have been Christians 30, 40, 50 years.

(18:46) If we focus on God, we can do great things. Have you ever thought to yourself how long (18:54) eternity actually is? How long is 100 years compared to eternity? We can’t even comprehend (19:04) eternity. Time on earth compared to eternity truly is just a blank of an eye or a breath.

(19:15) You know, the life is so short on this earth. It seems like it’s long. It seems like 100 years (19:20) is a long time.

Compared to eternity in heaven or hell, it’s nothing. Why would anyone, (19:28) knowing how short this time on earth is, risk losing it all by sinning or worse yet, (19:33) walking away from God? What could this earth possibly offer you that is worth spending eternity (19:40) in a devil’s hell? You know, think about it. This earth really, this world really can’t offer you (19:46) anything.

What is the best thing? A nice car, some money, you know, maybe a relationship. (19:57) Really, it’s nothing compared to what God can offer you. Why would you throw it all away (20:02) this short time so you can spend eternity in being miserable? Even if you gained the whole world, (20:10) it still wouldn’t be worth it.

Mark 8, 36 through 38. For what will it profit a man if he gains (20:16) the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (20:23) For who was ever ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation? (20:29) Of him, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his glory, (20:33) of his Father with the holy angels. We can see that even if you gained everything, (20:40) if you conquered the whole world, you gained everything in it, it still wouldn’t be worth (20:45) losing your soul over.

But we sometimes risk losing our soul over nothing, over petty things. (20:57) Like Esau selling his birthright for a cup of soup. That’s what we do when we get involved in (21:07) sin or even walk away from the Lord.

We give it all up for nothing. The world can’t offer you (21:15) anything that Christianity can’t. It can’t hold a candle to it.

When you become a Christian and (21:22) know the truth, there is truly nowhere else to go. John 6, 66 through 69. From that time, (21:32) many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

Then Jesus said to the twelve, (21:38) do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? (21:47) You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and to know that you are the (21:53) Christ, the son of the living God. That’s a perfect answer.

There’s nowhere else to go. (22:03) Once you have the truth and know it, why would you turn away from the Lord? It’s going to be in (22:08) the back of your mind the whole time. Jesus is the son of God and has the words of eternal life.

(22:18) Why would you even want to think about walking away from that? For all he did for us, (22:24) coming to earth and dying for us, suffering, going to the cross for our sins. The time on (22:31) earth is short and it will be over before you know it. You need to start thinking where you’re going (22:37) to spend eternity.

Psalm 103, 15 through 18. As for man, his days are like grass. (22:45) The flower of the field slowly flourishes.

The wind passes over it and it is gone and the place (22:53) remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. (22:59) To those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children.

(23:05) To such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his commandments and do them. (23:13) So if you want to please God and make it to heaven, you need to keep his commands. Life is (23:20) short.

It is like dust in the wind. You’re going to die and nobody’s going to remember you. (23:26) You know, why not? Even if you’re going to have to sacrifice and suffer a little bit, (23:32) why not do that in this short time and spend eternity in paradise? (23:39) We can see that not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

(23:45) He who does the will of my father in heaven, Jesus said, (23:51) if you want to call on his name, you don’t shout it in the air, (23:56) but you do it through obedience to his word. If you haven’t become a Christian yet, what are you (24:03) waiting for? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. (24:12) We can see calling on his name is being baptized.

Calling on his name is doing what he says, (24:19) not just in word only. How then shall they call on him who have not believed? And how shall they (24:26) believe on him who they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall (24:32) they preach unless they are set? As it is written, how beautiful the feet of those who preach the (24:39) gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. Romans 10, 14 through 15.

(24:47) So this is exactly what we need to do as Christians. (24:51) We need to go out and preach the good news, baptizing in Jesus' name. (24:58) This is a command we need to follow if we want to continue to grow (25:02) the church and save others.

Mark 16, 15 through 16. And he said to them, go into the world (25:10) and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, (25:16) but he who does not believe will be condemned.

We need to go out in the world and set (25:24) the world on fire like the early Christians did. (25:28) We need to make use of the good time, the short time we have on earth. (25:33) It’ll be over shortly, so let’s stand before God and say we did all we could.

(25:38) 2 Timothy 4, 7 through 8. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. (25:45) I have kept the faith.

Finally there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, (25:51) which the Lord the righteous judge will give me on that day. (25:55) And not only me, but also all those who loved his appearing. (26:02) Let’s make, like I said, good use of our time.

It’s short. (26:08) Let’s use it obeying God, doing his will, not our own will. If you’re not a Christian and you’d (26:17) like to become one today, I need our prayers to come forward.