Sermon

Teach Us to Number Our Days | January 4, 2026 AM

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

  5. us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

  7. You know, we're typically pretty good about counting things,

  8. aren't we? When it comes the issue of

  9. counting things, it's something that we do often.

  10. You know, you log into the bank account and you count how much

  11. money you have or, well, how much money you owe.

  12. All right, That's something that we're familiar with doing.

  13. If you turn on sports radio or you look at ESPN or one of the

  14. many sports channels that are out there, they're constantly

  15. counting the top five quarterbacks.

  16. The top ten in college basketball, Who's really the

  17. best in college football? Who should be in the playoffs

  18. and who should be out of the playoffs?

  19. Ranking and re ranking and counting.

  20. You see it all the time. We rank businesses and

  21. restaurants when we visit them, don't we?

  22. One star to five stars. And some of you might have gone

  23. on the Google after a bad experience somewhere and you

  24. said I'm going to give them one star.

  25. In fact, if I give them no stars, I would give them no

  26. stars. We're counting and ranking in

  27. those types of ways. We count steps, we count

  28. calories, we count sleep cycles with our apps and well, counting

  29. calories, something I haven't been doing lately, I think.

  30. But in general, you understand businesses count sales and

  31. profits and losses and all these different things.

  32. But of all the things we number, perhaps the most important thing

  33. to number is the thing that we don't often think about, and

  34. that's this numbering our days. I'm not talking about time

  35. necessarily in and of itself, because we do count a lot in

  36. regards to time, don't we? We all wear or many of us wear

  37. watches and certainly we carry our cell phones with us and they

  38. always have the time on it in fact.

  39. I feel like sometimes I need to have my phone on me, not because

  40. I need to check texts or get calls, but just because I simply

  41. want to make sure I can tell the time when we're in office at

  42. the. School in a car, anywhere we go,

  43. it seems like there's a clock nearby.

  44. For some reason the church thought it was a good idea to

  45. put a clock right in the back to make sure that actually I put it

  46. there, but still to make sure that we are at least.

  47. I know what time it is because we don't want to go way, way too

  48. long. Amen.

  49. OK, That was a trick. All right.

  50. You're supposed to say no, pastor, go as long as you want.

  51. No, never mind. But I agree with you.

  52. We want to know what time it is, how many times a day.

  53. Do you just want to check what time it is?

  54. You need to see what the time is.

  55. In fact, the most common question we probably ask is

  56. this. Do you have the time?

  57. You know what time it is, but we're going to see today from

  58. this Psalm written by none other than Moses.

  59. Believe it or not, we're familiar with David's psalms

  60. mostly, aren't we? But Moses writing this Psalm,

  61. Psalm chapter 90, is not necessarily the issue of telling

    Psalms 90 chapter mention

  62. time or counting time, but the fact that we need to number our

  63. days. What does that mean?

  64. Why is it important to us, and why do we need to consider it

  65. here today, particularly at the beginning of 2026?

  66. Would you stand with me for the reading of God's Word?

  67. Again, we're in. Psalm chapter 90 and we'll begin

    Psalms 90 chapter mention

  68. reading in verse #9 For all our days are passed away in thy

  69. wrath. We spend our years as a tale

  70. that is told. The days of our years are three

  71. score years and 10. And if by.

  72. Reason of strength, they be 4 score years, yet is there

  73. strength, labor and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly

  74. away. By the way, if you're not sure 3

  75. score, 4 score that some of you were thinking 4 score and seven

  76. years ago, that's probably what you're thinking of.

  77. It's talking about 70 years, 3 score and 10 or 4 score being 80

  78. years, about the average length of life maybe that we could

  79. consider. Who knoweth the power of thine

  80. anger? It says in verse 11, even

  81. according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

  82. Look at verse 12. So teach us to number our days,

  83. that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

  84. God wants us to number our days for what reason?

  85. So we can live in a way that is. Wise in God's eyes and not

  86. within our own life. And we'll look at what that

  87. means for us this morning as we consider the issue of numbering

  88. our days. Would you be seated?

  89. And we'll pray together. Heavenly Father, we do thank you

  90. for this morning. And we thank you for our guests

  91. and visitors who are with us today.

  92. We thank you for returning visitors.

  93. We thank you for how you bless this church.

  94. We think of those who are not able to be with us today.

  95. And I think of several who are dealing with the flu or flu

  96. light symptoms. I think of our brother Vince,

  97. who's recovering from surgery and others.

  98. I, I always hesitate to name names.

  99. I don't want to miss anyone. But at the same Time, Lord, be

  100. with those who are watching, those who are unable to be here,

  101. Lord, those who are here today, Lord, may your word do what only

  102. your word can do Lord, mine. My own thoughts and my own words

  103. are so limited, Lord, they're, they're so meaningless in so

  104. many ways. Lord, it's your word that

  105. changes lives. And may that be what people here

  106. today. And may that be what makes a

  107. difference in people's lives today.

  108. And we do ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

  109. I mentioned just a few moments ago, this Psalm is an

  110. interesting one for no other reason.

  111. If only then the fact that the author is Moses and Moses was

  112. not necessarily the person that we think of or the person who we

  113. think of when we think of the book of Psalms, because we often

  114. think of David, don't we? The sweet psalmist who wrote so

  115. many of the Psalms. But there's one and one only

  116. Psalm that is attributed to Moses in the 150 psalms that we

  117. find in this book. And you're looking at it right

  118. now, Psalm number 90, and interestingly enough, it says a

  119. prayer of Moses. And by the way, above verse #1

  120. do you see? It doesn't have a verse number

  121. there, but it says a prayer of Moses, the man of God.

  122. That verse there, if you would, is verse 0, or we would call it

  123. a prescript instead of a postscript, meaning this.

  124. It is part of the Bible. That was not supplied there by

  125. your publisher. That was not supplied there by

  126. someone else. It's actually part of the

  127. biblical record. And so we're reading this.

  128. It's not that your Bible publisher thought, hey, maybe

  129. Moses wrote this and I'm going to put that in there.

  130. But we know that this is. Inspired from the Lord that this

  131. was written by Moses and how is he titled there in that verse 0

  132. if you will, he's called the prayer of Moses the man of God.

  133. Now the title man of God is actually not found that many

  134. times in the word of God. It's very rarely used and it's

  135. saved for some of the choices of God's servants, for instance,

  136. David or Elijah, Elijah or a very few rare others.

  137. And this alerts us by seeing that Moses is a man of God, that

  138. this is a man who's about to give us some very keen spiritual

  139. insight. This is a man who lived for not

  140. 70 or 80 years, but actually lived for 120 years.

  141. And could we put it this way? He saw some things in his life.

  142. He lived 40 years in Egypt and then 40 years in the backside of

  143. the desert watching sheep, and then 40 years wandering around

  144. the desert with the sheep of the people of Israel.

  145. He spent 120 years, and during that time, particularly in the

  146. last 40 years, he handled himself as a man of God.

  147. In fact, the New Testament presents Moses as a supreme

  148. servant in the Old Testament. He was faithful, he was

  149. authoritative, he was prophetic. Putting it this way, when Moses

  150. speaks, we ought to listen. I know we can say that all the

  151. word of God, I mean, where should you not listen out of the

  152. 66 books that we find in the Bible.

  153. But yet when Moses speaks, he lived in such a way that there's

  154. something about us when, when we see that he's identified as a

  155. man of God, there's some things that he gets by the inspiration

  156. of the Spirit that we need to understand here today.

  157. Now, Moses made a lot of different requests to the Lord

  158. in the 40 or so years he was truly serving the Lord.

  159. He made a lot of different requests.

  160. Perhaps maybe the most famous or infamous of his request was at

  161. the burning Bush. Do you remember after he had a

  162. back and forth conversation with God a little bit, What was his

  163. request? Lord, send someone else.

  164. By the way, God was willing to work with Moses while he was

  165. working through some of his difficulties.

  166. You know, like I'm slow speech. Will they listen to me?

  167. Who should I say sent me? The Lord was very willing to

  168. work with him while he was dealing with some of those

  169. difficulties. By the way, this isn't my

  170. message, but can I take a time out and say this?

  171. The Lord is willing to work with you with some of your

  172. difficulties as well. Did you know you have some

  173. difficulties? If you don't, Sir, just ask your

  174. wife. She'll tell you what your

  175. difficulties are. All right, did you know you have

  176. some? We all have them, don't we?

  177. We all have difficulties. The Lord is willing to work with

  178. us if we come at those difficulties with an honest

  179. heart. But here's where he got

  180. crossways with God when he said this.

  181. Lord, we ascend someone else. What was he saying, Lord?

  182. I don't want to do it. Listen, you can have these

  183. issues that you're trying to work out with the Lord.

  184. Here's something you don't want to tell the Lord.

  185. No. Could I give you a nickel's

  186. worth of free advice this morning?

  187. Don't tell the Lord no when He's working on your heart.

  188. Don't tell the Lord no when you are reading His word and He's

  189. impressing upon your heart. There's some things that you

  190. need to change. Yes, you need to grow.

  191. I need to grow too. Yes, there's some things that we

  192. might have apprehensions about. I have those two.

  193. The Lord is willing to work with us in those things.

  194. But listen, have an open heart. Don't tell the Lord no.

  195. And that's what Moses did. By the way, you know what it

  196. said after that? The Lord got angry.

  197. Why? Because he said no.

  198. But as Moses began to grow, he asked some very interesting

  199. requests of the Lord. For instance, Exodus chapter 32

    Exodus 32 chapter mention

  200. verse #32 after the golden calf incident he said this If thou

  201. wilt forgive their sin and if not Lord.

  202. Blot me, I pray, out of thy book, he requested.

  203. Lord, if you won't forgive them, will you curse me and forgive

  204. them? We want to talk about a man with

  205. a heart. It's a man with a heart, he says

  206. in Exodus 33, the next chapter, he says, I beseech the Lord,

  207. show me thy glory. And what a wonderful text that

  208. is. Exodus 34, the very next

  209. chapter. Let, my Lord, I pray thee, go

  210. among. Us for it is a stiff necked

  211. people. Lord, will you please go with us

  212. because I can't handle this on my own.

  213. Numbers 14 verse 19 pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of

    Numbers 14:19

  214. this people. Moses was a man who was

  215. acquainted of making requests to God, but perhaps his most unique

  216. of all requests is right here in Psalm chapter 90 verse #12 where

    Psalms 90 chapter mention

  217. it says this So teach us and could we even?

  218. Put it this way. So teach us Lord.

  219. I'm not trying to add to the Word of God, but it's obvious

  220. that He's speaking to the Lord here.

  221. In fact, you see it at the very next verse.

  222. Oh, teach us, Lord. Or to what number our days?

  223. His request was this. Lord, I need.

  224. You to help me with something. I need You to help us with

  225. something. We need to be able to number our

  226. days now to understand exactly what we just read here in verses

  227. #9 through 12. It actually helps us to go all

  228. the way back to the beginning of the chapter.

  229. So only 8 verses. So I want you to follow along

  230. with me from verse #1 and going to verse #8.

  231. Because there's a contrast that's taking place here.

  232. The verses we're about to read show both the permanence.

  233. And the power of God, listen, it shows the permanence.

  234. What does that mean? He's always there, He said,

  235. well, what happened at the beginning?

  236. Well, he was there. Well, what would happen at the

  237. end? Well, He'll be there after the

  238. end, you say. Well, that doesn't make any

  239. sense. That's called eternality.

  240. That's called his permanence, and then His power, the great

  241. power of God. Look at it here in verses one

  242. through 8. Lord, thou has been our dwelling

  243. place in all generations before the mountains were brought

  244. forth. And that word before my Bible I

  245. have circled before the mountains were brought forth, or

  246. ever. Thou has formed the earth and

  247. the world, even from everlasting to everlasting.

  248. Thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction

  249. and sayest return, ye children of men and talking about the

  250. fact that that men will be judged and there's a returning.

  251. Returning to what? Well, returning to dust.

  252. I would say ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

  253. That man was made out of the dust of the earth.

  254. And man returns to the dust of the earth for 1000 years.

  255. And I sight our but as yesterday.

  256. When it is past, there's a watch in the night.

  257. Thou carries them away with a flood.

  258. They are as asleep in the morning.

  259. They are like grass which groweth up in the morning it

  260. flourisheth and groweth up in the evening.

  261. It is cut down and withereth. For we are consumed by thine

  262. anger, and by Thy wrath are we troubled.

  263. Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins, in

  264. the light of Thy countenance so. What do we see in those eight

  265. verses that we just read? We can't obviously treat them

  266. all here this morning and dig through all of them, but I do

  267. believe what we just saw in verses one through a the

  268. contrast with the text we read at the beginning of the message

  269. shows the contrast between the eternality of God and the very

  270. temporary nature of man means this God always has.

  271. Been God, always will be, but we're here for a short time.

  272. And it also shows the contrast between the strength of God and

  273. how fragile man is. So who are you calling fragile,

  274. pastor? How many broken a bone in your

  275. life? You'll find out how fragile you

  276. are, aren't you? I've never broken a bone, all

  277. things considered. I still find myself to be pretty

  278. fragile, all things considered. Especially emotionally fragile.

  279. No, no, I'm just kidding. Maybe I'm kidding, but anyway.

  280. This is what I do know. You want to find out how fragile

  281. you are? Why don't you fast?

  282. We just struck oil. All right?

  283. You know what happens? You know what's amazing?

  284. I'm not a breakfast person. I've said this before.

  285. I'm not a Big Breakfast person but when someone tells me I

  286. can't have breakfast I want it all.

  287. Do you know what I'm saying? Well Mr. Rivera, you got to fast

  288. for this blood work. It's going to be till 11:00.

  289. I don't normally eat breakfast till or have anything till 11:00

  290. anyway. But when you tell me I can't,

  291. now I got to have it. Why?

  292. Because we're fragile, right? That's who we are.

  293. But listen, we may be fragile. God is not fragile.

  294. We may be temporary, but God is permanent.

  295. We may be here. For a moment and gone the next

  296. in the eons of time, if you will, and the time that we have

  297. here since God created the world and until whenever the trumpet

  298. sounds and but we do know this. God has always been.

  299. And that brings us to our text. And Moses, first of all, says in

  300. verse #9 that our life is like a tale.

  301. And by tail I mean TALE like a story.

  302. Now, we'll say when I very first preached from this text, not

  303. this message, but I preached from this text, I want to say,

  304. Diane, I mean, we've just been at Westgate for, for probably a

  305. few months, I want to say. And so I was 2223 years old.

  306. And I remember preaching from this text.

  307. And I remember saying that, you know, that your life is like a

  308. story. And what will your story of your

  309. life be like? And I remember preaching that,

  310. you know what? It's not a bad message

  311. necessarily, but it's not really what the text is trying to say.

  312. You know, our life is as a tale and meaning this.

  313. It's like a story and it's a short story.

  314. It's here 1 moment. And it's gone the next.

  315. I believe that's the context when you look at everything

  316. that's being spoken of here, how temporary the nature of man is.

  317. Our life is like a tale. Your life is a story, but it's a

  318. short story. Just as a tale is told in a

  319. short fashion. Your life will come and go.

  320. And so that's why Moses first of all says our life is like a

  321. tale. And then it says that our life

  322. is well time. In verse 10, the days of our

  323. years are three score years and 10.

  324. And if by reason of strength they be 4 score years gives

  325. their strength of Labor tomorrow, for it's soon cut off,

  326. we fly away. Now let me be clear about when

  327. it talks about the 70 or 80 years saying that our life is a

  328. 70 or 80 year time time span. This is a general principle.

  329. This is not a promise. We do not.

  330. See that we are guaranteed by the word of God to have 70 or 80

  331. years. You say well.

  332. Can you give us an example? Moses 120 years, right?

  333. He lived for 120 years and we don't always know exactly how

  334. life. Manifests itself.

  335. It's amazing to me and and so sorrowful to me when a parent

  336. has to bury a child. The awful incorrect order of

  337. life as it would seem to be particularly a very young child.

  338. We also know that there are some who live to be 100 or more.

  339. Just a few days ago, I believe was Dick Van Dyke, who just had

  340. his 100th birthday. Unfathomable.

  341. To me that that's even possible. But yet we see here that it says

  342. as a general principle that our life could be somewhere around

  343. 70 to 80 years. It's saying this even if your

  344. life is 70 to 80 years to be cut off in a moment, that we all are

  345. finite in the time that we're here.

  346. Our life isn't just a story. It's a clock.

  347. It's a clock that's ticking downward.

  348. You know, sometimes you see the sands of the hourglass and you

  349. see the last sands go out of it. The difference for us is we

  350. don't know how much sand is in that hourglass and we don't know

  351. when it's going to come out. Listen, your life has been

  352. appointed a time. The Lord knows the time.

  353. We don't know the time, but you can be sure you have been

  354. appointed a time. But this leads us to the

  355. teaching in verse #12 And he says this teach us to number our

  356. days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

  357. We need to know that we make the most of the days we have so that

  358. we can be wise in that which we do for the Lord.

  359. And the fact that Moses says teach us means that it's

  360. something that we we have to learn because it's not natural.

  361. It's not natural to think of us about how much time we have

  362. left. It's not normal for us to think

  363. about the days that we have spent in our life.

  364. I think of myself now being 43 years old.

  365. I think we'll, as this looks here, I'm more than halfway

  366. through my life now. I don't know if that's the case

  367. and I don't know it either way, but I know this.

  368. It's a distinct possibility. And I think about that and I

  369. wonder, what have I done with my life?

  370. What will I do with my life? You see, the numbering of our

  371. days helps us to understand that each day has value.

  372. The numbering of our days ought to make us live in a way that is

  373. wise, Charles Spurgeon said. Of all arrhythmical rules, this

  374. is the hardest to number our days.

  375. Men can number the herds and droves of oxen or sheep they

  376. own. They can estimate the revenues

  377. of their manners and farms, They can with a little pain number

  378. and tell their coins. And yet they are persuaded that

  379. their days are infinite and innumerable and therefore do

  380. never begin to number them. We just saw last week, well, for

  381. the few of you that were here, a lot of you watched online last

  382. week, but we just saw last week that there was a man who had

  383. goods, there was a man who owned things.

  384. And he said this, I've got barns, but it's not enough to

  385. hold all I have, he says. So I'm going to tear down the

  386. barns and I'm going to build bigger barns, but then what?

  387. Did Jesus say of that man? He said, you fool, he says your

  388. souls could be required of you and you have not made the proper

  389. preparation. You thought that life was going

  390. to be forever. You thought life was about the

  391. here and now. He did not number his days and

  392. what did he do? He did not apply his heart to

  393. wisdom. And that brings us all to this

  394. thought, which I want us to dwell on for a few moments this

  395. morning. Since your days are numbered,

  396. you need to live your life for the one whose days are without

  397. number. Since your days are numbered,

  398. you need to live your life for the one whose days are without

  399. number. That contrast is seen right here

  400. in Psalm chapter 90. He has no end.

    Psalms 90 chapter mention

  401. We do, so we live for Him. He has all power.

  402. We don't have much power, So what do we do?

  403. We live for him. We apply ourselves to wisdom.

  404. And so there's three things that I think 3 principles I want us

  405. to look at from this text very quickly this morning.

  406. I'd encourage you to write them down, particularly as we look

  407. down the barrel here at a new year, January 4th.

  408. We've got so much of the year ahead.

  409. Consider these things this morning.

  410. First of all, know this, and it sounds cliche, but it's found in

  411. the Word of God. Every day counts.

  412. Every day counts. And by counting, I mean that

  413. every day matters. There's something at stake.

  414. Every day the Lord allows you to wake up in the morning.

  415. There's things for you to do, there's things for you to learn.

  416. There's people for you to serve. There's souls that you need to

  417. give the gospel to. There are things that you need

  418. to give, and there's things that you need to receive.

  419. Listen, every day counts. Meaning every day matters.

  420. If our life is a tale that is told, listen.

  421. We need to know that every word in a story, story matters.

  422. What? What happens if you waste 10% of

  423. the words in the story? Well, depending on where it is,

  424. where those words are taken out, you might have a quite a

  425. different story, can't you? I think of the old English

  426. teacher joke. I was an English teacher for a

  427. while about the difference between the sentence I ate comma

  428. grandma and I ate grandma. Now you think about that for a

  429. second. I ate comma Grandma or I ate

  430. grandma no comma. With one sentence you were

  431. telling grandma you had supper. The other sentence you're

  432. telling grandma she is the supper.

  433. That comma matters. Doesn't I ate grandma not No, I

  434. hate grandma. You know that's not right.

  435. Listen, what I'm saying is even every punctuation mark matters,

  436. and the life that you have and the life that I have every.

  437. Day matters. Every day counts.

  438. Don't waste the days that God has given you.

  439. Find something meaningful to do for him every day, even if it's

  440. small, knowing that your life belongs to him.

  441. Listen, show people Jesus Christ, Psalm, second

    2 Corinthians 3:2

  442. Corinthians chapter 3 verse 2 where he said your epistle

  443. written in our hearts, known and read of all men.

  444. You know what that verse is saying is that there's a lot of

  445. people that will never read the Bible, but they'll see you and

  446. you'll be the closest Bible that they've ever seen.

  447. What would they get from you? Will they get the true word?

  448. Will they get some other word that maybe pushes them further

  449. from Christ? Listen, make every day count in

  450. how you live for the Lord. Listen, clock in and clock out

  451. of your job with purpose, knowing that you're serving the

  452. Lord. You say, well, I'm not serving

  453. the Lord. I'm serving this huge

  454. corporation. I'm not serving this Lord, the

  455. Lord. I'm serving this boss I don't

  456. like. Listen, you are serving the Lord

  457. through your testimony and through your ethic.

  458. Yes, you can show Christ even in the job site.

  459. Yes, make every day count. Go to school with meaning, do

  460. your chores and make repairs with His Spirit.

  461. Since every day counts, show Him every day to everyone in

  462. everything that you do. That doesn't mean you get to

  463. hand a track to everybody you talk to.

  464. It doesn't mean you get to extend the name of Jesus Christ

  465. to everybody you talk to. But it does mean this.

  466. You can show people Christ through your countenance.

  467. You can show people Christ through your decisions.

  468. And listen, if you waste a day today, guess what?

  469. There's another day tomorrow. Don't just decide that you

  470. wasted the day for the Lord today and you're going to waste

  471. the next week to make yourself feel better.

  472. Bad about wasting today. Do people really do that?

  473. Listen, I can tell you this that you start eating healthy and you

  474. have a bad day and you're like, you know what?

  475. It's Monday had a bad day, so I'm going to start next Sunday.

  476. That's what we do, isn't it? But every day counts.

  477. You mess up today. Well.

  478. Confess it to the Lord and make tomorrow count.

  479. You know what Satan wants you to do.

  480. He wants you to make sure you waste today and then keep

  481. wasting tomorrow and the following day and the following

  482. day and the following day and the following day.

  483. And you're always going to tell you along the way how no good

  484. you are and how much a waste you are and how God's wasting His

  485. time on you. And this is what He's going to

  486. tell you. Listen, make every day count for

  487. Him. And if you missed making today

  488. count, listen, make tomorrow count for him #1 our life is a

  489. tale is told. That means that every day counts

  490. #2 every day is a currency, Every day is a currency.

  491. Say, well, Pastor, what does that mean?

  492. Well, really, it goes along with the last point.

  493. But I would say this, that every day is a currency.

  494. It's a commodity. It's something that you hold

  495. meaning. This yesterday has already been

  496. spent. Tomorrow's not in your account

  497. yet. Do you know what you have to

  498. spend today? Well, what am I going to do

  499. tomorrow? It's not tomorrow.

  500. You know, I'm not saying preparation and planning is a

  501. bad thing. I encourage you to prepare and

  502. plan. We just talked about this last

  503. week and we looked at it where Jesus said that the fact was

  504. that if you were going to build a tower, you ought to count to

  505. make sure that you had enough money to build the tower.

  506. If you were to go to war, you probably ought to make sure you

  507. have more soldiers than the other people that you're going

  508. to war with. That planning and preparation is

  509. good. But listen, it only goes so far.

  510. You can only serve the Lord today.

  511. It's a currency, and if you waste today, listen, it's gone.

  512. That's why it says we must number our days and apply our

  513. hearts to wisdom. Are you willing to spend the

  514. currency of today wisely? Could you imagine if I had $100

  515. bill up here and I just, I have to imagine that, I guess.

  516. So could you imagine $100 bill I have up here and I have a

  517. shredder and I say, you know what, we've got a party coming

  518. up here at the church. I think we've got a bridal

  519. shower and then we got we got baby shower in different order,

  520. but they're coming up. We need some confetti.

  521. Let's put some $100 bills in here.

  522. All right. They passed their cheaper ways

  523. to make confetti than with $100 bills.

  524. Somebody would say, why are we tithing at this church?

  525. They just put $100 bills in the like.

  526. That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

  527. Listen, why would you do that? Listen, that money was made to

  528. be spent. And if it's not spent today, it

  529. will be spent eventually. But listen, your days are like

  530. $100 bills that if you don't spend it today, you might as

  531. well shred it. It's done, it's gone.

  532. That conversation that you need to have, listen.

  533. Have it today as the Lord allows that.

  534. Person that you need to witness to talk to them today, that

  535. person. That you need to reconcile with.

  536. Try to reconcile with them today.

  537. I know it's not always that easy, I understand that, but if

  538. there is any possibility of it, don't put it off till tomorrow.

  539. Spend the currency of it today. The Bible talks to us constantly

  540. about making sure that we use the currency of today.

  541. Psalm 118, verse 24. This is the day which the Lord

    Psalms 118:24

  542. has made. Let us rejoice and be glad to do

  543. Hebrews 313, but exhort one another daily while it is called

  544. today, lest anyone of you be hardened through the

  545. deceitfulness of sin. You know what it says.

  546. If you're going to be an encouragement to somebody, you

  547. know a good time to be an encouragement to somebody today.

  548. You know, I really want to encourage.

  549. I was thinking about you. I mean, I didn't call you or

  550. text you, but I was thinking about you.

  551. Well, don't just think about them, call them and text them

  552. today. Listen, the whole thing with

  553. thoughts and prayers. I was thinking about you.

  554. Listen, don't think about me. Pray for me.

  555. Put the thoughts off to the side.

  556. Just give me the. Prayers, all right, because I,

  557. to be honest, I don't know how much I want you thinking about

  558. me, all right, but I do want you.

  559. Praying for me. I want you to pray.

  560. I need. You to pray for me.

  561. But it says, when do you do that?

  562. Today, in the day that is called today.

  563. Joshua 2425, perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible that

  564. deals with today. And if it seemed evil unto you

  565. to serve, the Lord, choose you. This day, whom you will serve,

  566. whether you're gods which are served that your father served

  567. on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, and

  568. whose land you dwell. But As for me and my house, we

  569. will serve the Lord. Joshua said this.

  570. We're making a decision today, he said.

  571. Well, I'm going to make a decision tomorrow.

  572. Well, you're making a decision today not to.

  573. And so you've made a decision by not making a decision.

  574. Hey, Pastor, could you say that again?

  575. I don't know that I could say it again, all right.

  576. But I do know that you can put you can say I'm not going to

  577. decide to do anything with today.

  578. And listen, you just waste it. You shredded it, it's gone.

  579. It's done. There's nothing to do with it.

  580. Say, why wouldn't waste $100 bill that way?

  581. Why would you waste a day like that, which is so far more

  582. valuable than $100 bill? You know, they produce a lot of

  583. things for $100. You know what they don't

  584. produce? Time.

  585. Jim Elliott, missionary to the unreached people of Ecuador,

  586. believed obedience to Christ was worth any cost.

  587. In 1956, he and four of the missionaries were killed when

  588. attempting first contact. His journal line is often

  589. quoted. Listen to this.

  590. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he

  591. cannot lose. That's deep.

  592. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, meaning the things

  593. of this life to gain what he cannot lose, the things of

  594. eternity. Jesus put it this way.

  595. They're not out for yourselves. Treasures on earth for most, and

  596. moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves breakthrough and

  597. steal. So instead lay up for yourselves

  598. treasure in heaven. The ends with this, for where

  599. your treasure is, there will your heart be also, meaning

  600. this. The more you number your days

  601. and the more you lay up your treasures, the currency of these

  602. days the right way, you know your heart will be where it

  603. needs to be every day. Excuse me?

  604. Every day counts, every day is a currency #3 and finally, every

  605. day is a countdown. Every day is a countdown.

  606. Remember 3 score years and 1070 or 80 years as a principal.

  607. Not a promise, but we do know. This it's a reminder that our

  608. time will be up someday and we don't know when the buzzer will

  609. sound. You watch a any Sport on

  610. television today and they have right there in the bottom of the

  611. screen or right there in the corner of the screen.

  612. What do they have? The clock, you know when the

  613. game is going to end reasonably so depending on how many fouls

  614. or penalties or stuff there may be going on, but you have a

  615. reasonable understanding of how long the game will go.

  616. Now, remember when I coached girls basketball coach, high

  617. school basketball, that we would go to a lot of gyms and most of

  618. these gyms were pretty, you know, small and pretty Spartan

  619. in the way that they were set up.

  620. And if you were lucky, you had one electronic clock 1, and it

  621. was only on one side of the gym. There's a problem.

  622. You got to play both ways. So if we were at home, we always

  623. made sure that we got the side where we saw the clock in the

  624. fourth quarter. If we were away, they always

  625. made sure that we got the side where you couldn't see the clock

  626. in the fourth quarter. And so if we were very close and

  627. we need to make sure we need to make a last second bucket, you

  628. know what I had to do? I had to stop coaching and I had

  629. to do this 10/9, 8. I had to count because I could

  630. see the clock. None of them could because

  631. they're back towards the clock and if you were against the

  632. other team and they really want to get into your head, all of a

  633. sudden people in the crowd and people in the other bench are

  634. going. 479. Two, and they didn't know.

  635. But listen, if they hit the buzzer could sound and they

  636. could hold on to the ball and didn't even know it was time to

  637. shoot and it was too late. So listen, do you know what I

  638. told them? Now listen to this.

  639. I had to tell the girls this. Don't listen to the other

  640. voices. You listen to my voice.

  641. I'm the coach. I'll tell you when the time's

  642. up. No one else is going to tell you

  643. one time. It is in fact, they're going to

  644. try to tell you some other time. But I'm the one that will be

  645. honest enough. I'm the one with the information

  646. that will tell you when time is up.

  647. Now, listen, I'm not trying to suggest this morning that if you

  648. walk closely enough with God that He will give you the time

  649. of your days. By the way, God is merciful and

  650. gracious enough to not tell us when our time is.

  651. You think you want to know that? I don't.

  652. I'm not trying to suggest that this morning.

  653. But I'm saying this. If you walk with God and you

  654. follow His countdown, if you will, you'll be where you need

  655. to be and you'll do what you need to do and you'll get

  656. accomplished and you get accomplished if you listen to

  657. his voice and not the voices of the world.

  658. Know what the voices of the world tell you?

  659. Don't go to church. You're wasting your time.

  660. You're wasting your time. You're coming to to listen to to

  661. some preacher who's standing up with his really weird looking

  662. suit jacket and he's got that's why the church had to give him a

  663. love offer. He's got another suit jacket.

  664. You know what I'm saying? Christmas gift and you're going

  665. to waste of your time. Why are you reading your Bible?

  666. No waste. You know what you could do with

  667. your. You know what you could do with

  668. that? 15 minutes or or so, or however

  669. long it is. In the morning when you're.

  670. Having time with God you waste your time why would you pray

  671. what a waste of time why would you fast what a waste of time

  672. why would you try to reach other people for Christ what a what a

  673. waste of time why would you prioritize your life to.

  674. Live in a way that's pleasing to God.

  675. Why don't you just please yourself?

  676. That's what everyone else is doing.

  677. Everyone else just wants to please themselves, and you're

  678. missing out by trying to please the Lord.

  679. Why would you do that? It sees all these other voices

  680. are saying, do all these other things.

  681. You know what some there will be a time when the Lord says time.

  682. And you know what you'll have? You'll still be holding onto the

  683. ball and it'll be too late. And the Bible says that there

  684. will be tears as we approach heaven.

  685. You say, pastor, that doesn't make sense.

  686. I don't have time to go there. But the Book of Revelation says

  687. he'll wipe every tear from our eye.

  688. I always wonder why we're crying.

  689. There's probably a lot of reasons for it.

  690. I have to imagine one of those is the things that we knew we

  691. should have done, but we were so worried about the here and now

  692. and we'll be an eternity and look at what we had and say that

  693. was so fleeting. It was momentary and we wasted

  694. our life for things that don't matter.

  695. Do you know if? You were on the.

  696. Forbes 500 list and you're in heaven.

  697. By the way, anyone here on the Forbes 500 list?

  698. If you do, make sure you tie. All right, good, I'm in.

  699. I see that hand. All right, good.

  700. But I do. I do know this.

  701. In heaven you could be a pauper and you're on equal ground.

  702. That's right. That's right.

  703. You live this life with nothing, you say?

  704. Well, well, do you find that in the Bible?

  705. I'll give you one worse. There is a man who lived his

  706. life so badly, had sores all over himself.

  707. He had nothing. He he, he begged for crumbs off

  708. of a man's table. And that man was so rich that he

  709. lacked nothing. But the Bible says that man

  710. defended turning hell and Lazarus had comfort.

  711. By the way, I don't believe that's a parable because

  712. parables don't give names. There's a reason Lazarus was

  713. mentioned as being in paradise and the other man mentioned

  714. being in hell because he still had family that was spoken of in

  715. that parable. Listen, it's real.

  716. Count your days. Every day is a countdown the

  717. Lord. And listen, we don't know when

  718. the Lord will reappear again for his second coming.

  719. We don't know if we'll go, as my preacher used to say, by the

  720. undertaker or the upper taker. But we do know this.

  721. Your time is short. Say, pastor, what are you

  722. saying? Saying this, if you don't know

  723. where you spend eternity, you don't wait another day.

  724. Don't wait another minute. So I have questions about

  725. eternity. I don't know where I'll spend

  726. eternity. You know what?

  727. The answer will not be in a catechism.

  728. The answer will not be in a self help book.

  729. The answer will not be with a new age gurus.

  730. The answer will not be within yourself.

  731. You know, just unlock the the, the, the person inside of you.

  732. No, I'll tell you, I want to lock the person away that's

  733. inside of me as I like the flesh.

  734. I need to lock him away. I need he needs to die daily.

  735. The Bible says read Romans 6-7 and eight.

  736. Find out what you're supposed to do with that.

  737. But I will say this, the answer is in this book and the gospel

  738. message. There's some of you that have

  739. been struggling with this. For a while.

  740. So we've been struggling that whether the was the answer

  741. Catholicism or is the answer in the Baptist Church or is the

  742. answer in the Presbyterian Church or is the answer in the

  743. Bible church, the answer in the non denominational church.

  744. The answer you've missed is in Jesus Christ.

  745. That other stuff we'll work out later, but the answer the

  746. Gospels in Jesus Christ and that you're a Sinner and only he can

  747. save you and that if you do not accept him that there is a very

  748. real penalty for those sins that you will have to pay.

  749. But Jesus already paid it for you.

  750. So he wants you to take the free gift of salvation for those of

  751. you that are saved. The message is this number your

  752. days make every day count. Why?

  753. Because well, he counts every day has value.

  754. Why? Because he has the ultimate.

  755. Value. Your days are numbered, so you

  756. need to live your life for the one whose days are without

  757. number. I'll give you this story and

  758. I'll be done. Consider the story of a man

  759. named William Borden. I've read this several years

  760. ago. Some of you I I know living in

  761. the South. Borden Dairy.

  762. Borden milk was, was the milk that everybody drank.

  763. But William Borden was the heir of that $1,000,000 family

  764. fortune in the late 1800s. It was worth about 2 billion.

  765. It is worth about $2 billion today, equivalent of what that

  766. company was owed. He earned his undergraduate

  767. degree from Yale and a graduate degree from Princeton Seminary.

  768. Against all worldly logic, he left his millions and followed

  769. the call of God to an unreached Muslim people group in western

  770. China. He gave his life to Christ at

  771. the young age and upon graduating from high school, his

  772. parents rewarded him with a tour around the world.

  773. He ventured across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, and God

  774. began to burden his heart for those who had never heard the

  775. gospel of Christ. Williams own passion to follow

  776. Christ was growing, he said, under the preaching of Doctor RA

  777. Torre, a well known evangelist of the day, and felt the Holy

  778. Spirit calling him to commit himself fully to Christ.

  779. He wrote the words No reserves. His father was adamant that his

  780. son attend university and so he obeyed his father's wish and

  781. enrolled at Yale University. William began meeting with a

  782. friend in the mornings to read the Bible and pray together and

  783. soon another student joined them, then another.

  784. The number of students showing up for morning prayer meetings

  785. began to multiply and over the course of a few years what began

  786. as a small group became a campus wide movement.

  787. Some report that by the end of Williams first year.

  788. At Yale, 150 students gathered in groups for prayer meetings,

  789. and by a senior year, the movement grew to 1000 students.

  790. Can you imagine that at Yale in New Haven, CT?

  791. Could you imagine? That also during his college

  792. years, he helped found Yale Hope Mission, seeking to rehabilitate

  793. drunkards and others in need near the docks of New Haven.

  794. The spirit of God stirred and burdened Williams heart

  795. concerning the specific unreached Chinese so much that

  796. he decided to pursue a master's degree from Princeton Seminary

  797. and then sailed directly for China.

  798. Upon graduation. He had several prestigious job

  799. offers, but his mind was still set on China.

  800. Borden then wrote the words No retreats.

  801. William followed through with his plan to sail overseas and

  802. obedience to God's call on his life.

  803. Before going to China, he first spent time in Egypt learning the

  804. Arabic language in preparation for his ministry to Muslims.

  805. It was there they caught spinal meningitis.

  806. William died one month later was buried in Cairo.

  807. He was 25 years old. After his death, these three

  808. phrases were found written inside of his Bible.

  809. No reserves, no retreats, no regrets.

  810. You say that man wasted his life.

  811. He was 25 years old and died. And my response to you would be

  812. this, 100 plus years later we're still talking about him.

  813. There was a woman who wasted an alabaster box.

  814. It would have been about a year's worth of salary.

  815. And Jesus said, as long as I'm spoken of, this woman will be

  816. spoken of in her sacrifice. It's not a waste.

  817. Listen, when you give your life to the Lord, it is never a

  818. waste. Listen, I'll say this and I'll

  819. be done. He'll take better care of your

  820. days than you will. So give your life to Him in

  821. salvation, or continue to consecrate your life to Him on a

  822. daily basis once you're saved. Thank you for listening to the

  823. sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.

  824. If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we

  825. can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at

  826. [email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday

  827. at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.

  828. May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.