Check The Time

The Time is Now

Main Scripture: Psalms 90:12

The New International Version Psalm 90

12 Teach us to number our days,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Context: Sometime we get too caught up by living life, without checking up on on our own lives and seeing if our hearts / souls are in the right place. Its time to check the time on our own lives.

Introduction: I love being a Bahamian! The minute we get to work we.… CHECK THE TIME! The minute we feel hungry on the job we… CHECK THE TIME! The minute we feel tired or sleepy anywhere we.… CHECK THE TIME! When ever we feel like the church service is taking too long we .… CHECK THE TIME! When we our in the airport and the airline host hasn’t call our flight as yet we… CHECK THE TIME! You see we are good at checking the time whenever we feel a slight inconvenience, we are good at checking the time when it benefits us. However, when was the last time we checked the time on our own lives?

Tony Evans Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More Than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking Death

AN OLD man asked a young boy, “What are you going to do with your life?”

The young boy replied, “I’m going to college and get a business degree.”

The old man said, “Well, what then?”

“Oh! Then I’m going up to New York and I’m going to work on Wall Street, become a broker, and then become a millionaire.”

“Oh! OK! And what then?”

The boy continued, “Then I’m going to buy myself a fine house. I may try to retire early so that I can enjoy the good life.”

“What then?”

“Well then, after that, I’m just going to party, relax, and enjoy my grandkids.”

“Alrighty. What then?”

“I guess after all of that, I’m gonna die.”

The old man smiled wryly and looked the young boy in the eyes. “What then?”

For all of us in life, no matter how we live our lives and no matter what we fill them with, we will all die and we need to have a plan in place for that time too.187

Reasoning:

Moses understanding of death:

When we look in scripture at Psalms 90, we see that this particular Psalm was attributed to Moses. This chapter reveals to us a conversation Moses would of had with God. We get to see a little of what was on Moses’s heart, as it pertains to life, the struggles, the challenges and the triumphs of this world, and we also get to see his thoughts on death, and the ways in which we should live whiles we are on this side of heaven.

For those of us who grew up in Sunday school or paid attention in Religious Studies class, we should have a good understanding of who exactly Moses is. We know that during Moses’s lifetime he would have personally witnessed a who lot of death. He was born during the time Pharoah tried to kill all of the new born boys of the Israelites. As a young man he killed an Egyptian soldier, as an older man, God called him to lead His people out of Egypt and into the promise land. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness watching people close to him die. He watched as he lead the nation, people who would of let Egypt with him passed on into glory, whiles their sons and daughter took their places within the community and the various tribes. Moses understands and feels first hand, how fragile life is and the sting of death.

What time is it in your life?

Life is so fragile. Whiles in school my parents never allowed us to watch cartoons or any movies whiles we were getting for school in the morning. The TV was always turned to the community channel. And if you know anything about that, the first thing you would learn and understand is that death, has no respect for who you are. It doesn’t care where you come from, who your parents are, who you know, or who know you. Death doesn’t care if you live behinds the gates or if you live behind a fence. I have seen death come for all age brackets.

People who were once strong and mighty, now week and fighting for their lives from an illness, people who were independent, who use to come and go as they please, now cant move without the dependence of others after a bad accident. Life has a way of humbling us all. Anytime you think you are above something and it can never happen to you, my grammy use to say, “keep living”. Wisdom is knowing that every single day we must give God thanks and praise for clothing us in our right minds, having food on the table, clothes on our back, shoes on our feet and a shelter over our head. Too many times, we takes those small things for granted, not knowing that on your worst day, someone is praying to God for that to be their best day.

What are you doing with your life today? When was the last we stopped and checked the time on our own lives? So many times, we get caught up in doing life, for some its partying and going out every night or weekend, for some its about that money hustle, they lives their lives with the motto… “if it don’t make money then it don’t make sense”, some people live their lives harboring unforgiveness and resentment in their hearts for others. Some people been out of school over 5 years and still talking about that teacher they dont like. We have to learn how to LET THINGS GO!

Moses asked God, to teach him to number his days. Moses understood that we are here today and gone tomorrow. Moses understood that every single day we wake up, and go about our day, is a blessing from God. Too all of my young people, the enemy tries to lie and trick us into believing that we have time, we too young to give our hearts to God, that their is too much life out their to live first. We watch these tv shows and movies, that glorify sex outside of marriage, that glorify getting drunk/wet every time you drink, That in order for you to have fun, you must get drunk. We must wake up and realize that this type of thinking is a plan from the enemy.

Mark 8:36 reminds us that, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” For far too long we have lived life as if tomorrow is promised to us. As if we are entitled to live to see next week, month or year. Moses in this transparent prayer to God, teaches that we should be asking God the exact same thing that he asked. We must all be asking God to teach us to number our days, it does matter if your are 15, or 51, or 91. We must all be numbering our days, we must all be living life intentionally, we must all be living life trying to glorify the One who created us.

You see when we learn to number our days. We gain a heart of wisdom. Wisdom is knowing that tomorrow is promised to no man, wisdom is knowing that we shouldn’t be sleeping around, and we should be waiting for marriage. Wisdom is knowing that you don’t need rum to get through the issues and pressures of today. Wisdom is knowing that their is no day you can go without knowing God as your true and personal saviour. Life is far too fragile for us to play with our souls like that. For you see one day, all of us will be laying across a church whether in a casket or a urn, and a having a Pastor pray and eulogies our remains. If the good Lord doesn’t come before its our time, we all will one day see death. But where will your soul be?

Conclusion:

Moses have seen a whole lot of death in his day, he learned that we all should number our days, so that we may seek a heart of wisdom. He learned that we all should be checking the time on our own lives. Where is your heart posture today? If death comes knocking on your today, can you be like Stephen at his stoning, saying, “Lord, Jesus receive my spirit.” Today is that day, THAT time is THIS time, for us to stop, the distractions, pause the business of this life, and check if our soul is ready to see our maker.

Tony Evans Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More Than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking Death

A FATHER WAS dying. He had his family come around. He only had a few minutes left to live. He had four children. He said, “Good night John, good night Butch, goodnight Betty, good-bye Ralph.” Ralph said, “Wait a minute. You said good night to my siblings, but you said good-bye to me!” The father told his son, “Because the other three children have accepted Jesus, I will see them again in glory, but because you have not, I will never see you again.”

In this very hour and time, who do you most resemble? Are You like John, Butch and Betty who will one day see their father again or are you like Butch will never lay eyes on his father ever again. As this message comes to a close. Let’s check the time on our own lives, to see where we will be once we close our eyes for the final time.