How Make the Most of Your Life | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we're beginning a brand new

teaching series called A Matter of Time, where

we're talking all about time. Spoiler alert,

you only have a limited time on earth. So what

are you going to do with it? How do we make the

most of this time that we have? And can we really

do anything that lasts forever? Those are just

some of the questions that Rob is going to unpack

for us in today's sermon. It is entitled, A Psalm

of Moses. A thousand years in your sight are

like a day that has just gone by or like a watch

in the night. Yet you sweep people away in the

sleep of death. They are like the new grass of

the morning. In the morning it springs up new,

but by evening it is dry and withered. We are

consumed by your anger and terrified. by your

indignation. You've set our iniquities before

you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

All our days pass away under your wrath. We finish

our years with a moan. Our days may come to 70

years or 80 if our strength endures, yet the

best of them are but trouble and sorrow for they

quickly pass and we... Fly away. If only we knew

the power of your anger. Your wrath is as great

as the fear that is your due. Teach us to number

our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Today

we're going to get kicked off by talking about

an incredibly encouraging and uplifting topic,

and that is the topic of death. So aren't you

glad that you came to church this morning? This

probably all got started for me a couple weeks

ago when I visited this website that was called

Death Clock. The idea is you go there and you

put in your age, you know, when you were born,

your weight. They ask you a few other kind of

lifestyle questions. And then the website will

spit out what they say is the exact day that

you are supposed to die. And why anyone would

create a website like this is beyond me. But

of course, I couldn't resist doing it. And so

I put in my details. And according to deathclock

.com, I am going to die on Sunday. At least it's

a Sunday. Sunday, May 31st, 2061. So that means

I now have 12 ,811 days. 14 hours and about 45

minutes and 30, 29, 28, 27, 20. Yes, at deafclock

.com, they will actually give you a... countdown

that is counting down to the time of your death

now rationally i know in my head this is all

hogwash and you know surely my days are in god's

hands not in the hands of some algorithm but

still there is something very unsettling about

watching your life reduced to the ticking of

a clock That is especially true for me this summer,

because this summer I'm going to turn 50 years

old. Wow. Hey, you know, and I know they say.

50 is nifty, but I'm not so sure because I've

noticed something about myself. And that is,

you know, when you're young, right? Life feels

just endless. Like when you're 16, it feels like

the summer could go on and on forever. The summer

takes 14 months. And then when you're 20 years

old, oh my gosh, it feels like 50 is so, so far

away. You've got your whole life ahead of you.

But then at some point in your journey, something

happens. and you begin to realize that time is

running out. And you start counting, not how

many days you have lived, but you start thinking

about how many more days you might have to live.

And I don't know when this change in thinking

happens. I think it maybe happens at some point,

maybe in your 40s. But you begin to realize life

is moving fast. Time is moving fast. Time is

running out. And actually, the older that you

get, the faster that time seems to go by. And

that's actually a scientifically proven fact.

There's good reasons. Why? Like when you're a

kid, it feels like forever. You're waiting for

Christmas to come forever and forever. And then

when you're an adult, all of a sudden, it feels

like Christmas happens like every 11 minutes,

right? It's coming so fast. Life is coming at

you faster and faster the older that you get.

And so if the question that we're always asking

is, oh, what time is it? Or what time do we need

to leave? Or what time is this service going

to be over? Guys, I'm going to tell you, the

service always ends at about the same time. So

usually, usually at the same time, mostly at

the same time. But instead of asking the question,

you know, what time is it? There is a better

question we really should be asking. That is,

what am I doing with my time? Because your time

is slipping away with every tick of the clock,

with every flip of the calendar, with every day

and year that goes by. And we might try to want

to push that thought off or avoid that thought

or deny that it's even happening. We say things

like, oh, I got lots of time. Or maybe you've

heard people say, I got my whole life ahead of

me. And one day I'll get to that. And one day

I'll slow down. And one day I'll make time for

those important things. It's not the way it works.

And the Bible doesn't speak about time that way

at all. James says, what is your life? For you're

just a mist that appears for a little time and

then it vanishes. Or Job says, my days are swifter

than a runner. They fly away without a glimpse

of joy. The psalmist says, we're merely mortal.

We're gone like the breath of a wind that never

returns. And Peter says, all flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of the grass.

The grass withers and the flower falls off. Or

today, as we read, our days quickly pass and

we fly away. It's cheery stuff, I know. But the

goal of the Bible is not to depress us. It is

actually to wake us up. Because according to

the Bible... A foolish way to live is to assume

that you've got all sorts of time, right? In

fact, one biblical definition of a fool is someone

who thinks they've got their whole life ahead

of them. Remember the parable Jesus told about

the rich fool, this guy who thought he had his

whole life ahead of him, and then he died that

night. As a pastor, I have done more than my

fair share of funerals over the years. You know,

it's interesting, even here at Trinity, it feels

like over the past few weeks and months, there's

just been more and more funerals. What's going

on, Trinity? Stop it. But in my 22 years as a

priest, I have done funerals for people in their

80s or 90s, in their 60s, in their 40s, their

20s. I've done funerals for teenagers, done even

funerals for children. And so I feel like I can

confidently say to you, you do not have your

whole life ahead of you. And today, Psalm 90

invites us not to run away from that reality,

but to actually face it honestly. Because if

a fool says, I've got my whole life in front

of me, then a wise person says, no, no, my days

are numbered. So that's what we're going to talk

about today. And I want to let you know that

it's going to take us a few weeks to really unpack

all the interesting things the Bible says about

time. Today might seem a little bit of a downer,

but we're going to get to all the other stuff

in the weeks ahead as well. I've given you a

little few teaching notes here, you know, just

so we can make the most of our time together.

One of the things that... Psalm 90 teaches us

right off the bat, and this is a good place to

start, is though our time is running out, God's

time is not. And I love how the psalm sets the

stage by reminding us that God is eternal. Lord,

you've been our dwelling place throughout all

generations. Before the mountains were born,

or you brought forth the whole world, God. In

other words, before there were oceans, before

there were planets, before there was human history,

before there were people, before there was the

Canada Revenue Agency, there was God, right?

God has no beginning. God has no end. The psalmist,

you know, he looks to the mountains as an example.

It's not a bad example. If you've ever stood

at the Rocky Mountains or the Alps, you look

at these things and you're like, these things

must have been here forever. There is a sense

of permanence when you look at a mountain. But

the psalmist says, no, no, actually before they

existed, God existed. And after they are gone

and one day they will be gone, God will still

be there. From everlasting this way to everlasting

that way, you are God. And that means that the

only permanent thing in the whole universe, the

only stable thing in the universe is God. Careers

change, relationships change, your body changes,

right? Cultures change, technology changes like

every 17 minutes. Everything in this world is

temporary. So if you are trying to find stability

through your achievements or through your health

or your beauty or your money or your career or

your plans, you're not gonna feel very stable

at all. These things all change. Stability. can

only be found in an eternal God who does not

change. And here, I think, is where we make a

mistake in our lives. And that is, we spend a

lot of our lives trying to make ourselves kind

of permanent. right? We're trying to make for

ourselves a name that will last. We want to leave

a legacy that's going to, you know, speak to

generations and generations of people after we

are gone. But the truth is, we don't got enough

time. You know, our lives are so small and so

short that we just don't have enough days and

hours and minutes to make of our lives something

that is going to last forever. For the future

to all look back and say, oh, what a wonderful

life that person lived. Let me give you a little

example. But I remember my grandpa, Grandpa John,

very, very clearly. He grew up in our home with

us. And so for most of our childhood, he was

there at every single meal. And he died when

I was, you know, just becoming a teenager. So

obviously my parents knew Grandpa John really

well. Me and my siblings, we lived with him.

We knew Grandpa John really well. really well.

Now, my children, I don't think, they never,

no, they never, they never met, of course. What

am I saying? They never met Grandpa John. They

might recognize his picture on a wall, and they

might have remembered that his name was John,

but certainly their children will have no idea

who he is. He will be completely forgotten. And

I hate to tell you this, but a hundred years

after you are dead, nobody will remember your

name. And that's not to be cynical. It is just

to say, hey, time moves on and history moves

on. And we can't make a name for ourselves. Alistair

Begg says that we are all going to elude the

pens of the historians. In the last 10 ,000 years,

just think of the empires that have risen and

fallen. The Roman Empire, the Zhou Dynasty in

China, Mongolian Empire, the Ottoman Empire,

the British Empire, the German Empire, whatever.

They're all gone now, right? They were just blips

on the screen of history. These nations were

once powerful enough to shake the whole world,

and now they are relegated to the history books

and the museums. So no. Only God is eternal.

We will not be remembered. Which sounds depressing,

I know. But we were never meant to find meaning

in making our own name eternal. So Psalm 90,

that's how it begins. It says, only God is eternal.

And then the rest of the psalm goes on to talk

about how frail we are. Yes, God is from everlasting

to everlasting. We are not. Like, for example,

you turn people back to dust saying, return to

dust, you mortals. A thousand years in your sight

is like a day that has just gone by or like a

watch in the night. I actually did a little bit

of math and I said, okay, so if a thousand years

to God is like a day, then what would my soon

to be 50 years be to God? Well, I did the math

and actually it turns out it would be like an

hour and 10 minutes. So in God's eyes, my life

is an hour and 10 minutes. But it actually gets

worse than that because it says, no, a thousand

years is like a watch in the night. And actually

a watch in the night is three hours, maybe four

hours, depends on how you look at it. And that

basically means that my 50 years to God is nine

minutes long, which means somewhere around the

beginning of this sermon, God said, oh, Rob is

born. And by now I am long dead. You know, so

much of our life, you know, trying to think that

somehow we are in control, but we are just so

frail and we are so fragile and life is so unpredictable.

As a side note, this psalm purports to be written

by Moses himself. If you read it in your Bibles,

you'll see right at the top it says, A Psalm

of Moses. And it's very interesting because from

Moses' perspective, he would have had a vantage

point on the frail and unpredictability of life.

Like, for example, Moses spent his first 40 years,

you know, watching Hebrew slaves. suffer under

Egyptian taskmasters, right? Saw them die and

suffer over and over again. Then he spent the

next 40 years of his life, you know, tending

sheep, same thing, day after day, day in, day

out, just watching and waiting for these days

of monotony to tick by. And then he spent the

last 40 years wandering the wilderness, and we

are told that in the entire generation die off

before they could enter the promised land and

i thought i did a lot of funerals but for moses

every day was another funeral every day was another

grave another reminder that human life is so

so fragile and which is why he the psalmist moses

writes you sweep people away in the sleep of

death They're like the new grass of the morning.

In the morning, it springs up new. But by evening,

it is dry and it is withered. In the Middle East,

you know, the rain would come. And yes, grass

actually would spring up overnight, green and

vibrant and alive. But then by evening, after

the scorching sun, it was brown, it was withered,

and it was gone. That's what life is. feels like,

right? At one moment, everything can be healthy

and stable and secure, and then the next moment,

everything changes. A diagnosis, an accident,

a phone call in the middle of the night. You

know, yesterday, I was dethatching my front lawn

with this special rake, just pulling, and the

idea of a dethatching rake is it pulls out all

the dead and brown grass that has been laying

underneath of the green grass that is trying

to grow. And my goodness, I could not believe

how much was in there. We bagged up tons of this

stuff and put it by the curb, waiting for it

to be picked up and taken off. I don't know how

it all died, right? Maybe it just slowly withered

away, like some of us do. Maybe it was cut off

quickly by our lawnmower last year, and it died

just in a moment. But that's the whole point.

Life is unpredictable. You don't know if you're

going to wither away like grass or you're going

to be cut off all of a sudden. Right? The Bible

says human beings, we're not like oak trees.

We're like grass. Which means not only is life

fragile and unpredictable, but it is just, it's

just short. This is another hard truth that Moses,

the psalmist, wants us to face in Psalm 90. He

says our days, well, maybe they would come to

70 years. Maybe if things are going really good

for you, you'll live to 80 if our strength endures.

Yet the best of those years are but trouble and

sorrow and they fly away. They quickly pass.

I find it kind of remarkable that though this

was written thousands of years ago, those ages

are still kind of right, you know? Most of us

get 70 years. Maybe some of us get 80. Maybe

a few more. Maybe for others, less. But Moses

says they all quickly pass. And it's true, right?

You graduate high school and you blink and you're

paying a mortgage. And you blink again, and the

kids are going off to university. And you blink

again, and the doctor's saying, Rob, at your

age, you should da -da -da, right? We're like,

my age? What are you talking about, right? Life

moves quickly, and Moses has this beautiful poetic

line, and we fly away. It sounds lovely until

you realize he's talking about your death. Now,

like I said before, This creates a real problem

for us as human beings because we want to be

permanent. We want to have our lives matter for

something beyond these few years. We want meaning

that goes deeper than those few years. We don't

want to just be two dates on a gravestone. That's

why I think we try to build wealth. build careers

or reputations. That's why I think so many people

love to write down their memoirs, right? We're

somehow trying to find a way to make our story

last longer, but we can't, and it won't. But

there is good news buried in all of this, and

of course, that's where I want to end today.

There is actually a way to make your story count

forever. And there's a way to make your life

have eternal meaning. There is a way. There is

a way. Tell me, Rob, how does one do that? Well,

let's go back to that God. Remember that God

who is eternal from everlasting to everlasting?

If you are willing to place your life into his

life, if you are willing to make your short story

part of his eternal story, then your story in

him, nested in his life, does go on forever.

That is the only way. That is the only way to

make your story make lasting sense, to put your

little frail life into God's forever life. You

could choose, if you want, desperately to spend

your 70 or 80 years trying to make a name for

yourself, which won't happen. Or you can put

your little story into the eternal story of God.

And when you do that, then all of a sudden, everything

you do matters forever. Every word, every act

of... faithfulness, every relationship that you

have, whether you're raising children or whether

you're a CEO, whether you're serving others,

whether you're worshiping God, all of those things

now will echo throughout all of eternity, not

because they're connected to you, but because

they are now connected to the living, eternal

God. The point was never to make our lives last

forever, but to take our few years, and drop

them into the God of everlasting life. That is

the only way our brief lives become part of something

eternal. That is the only way that we will never

be forgotten. Which is why after everything that

Psalm 90 tells us, it tells us, you know, that

life is short, time is running out, that God

is eternal, that we are frail. It ends with the

most important thing it has to say to us. And

that is, so therefore, therefore live your life

differently. Live differently. Or as the psalmist

says, teach us, therefore, to number our days

that we may gain a heart of wisdom. You see what

this all really boils down to is numbering our

days. It's remembering the brevity of life. If

you do that, the result is not fear. It is not

anxiety. It's wisdom. Because wisdom, the Bible,

isn't just something you know. It is a way that

you live. Wisdom, therefore, is learning to live

your life, your limited life, in light of eternity.

It's to recognize that because your time is so

limited, it is therefore so, so valuable. Do

you guys, why is gold so valuable? It's because

it's scarce. Why are diamonds so valuable? It's

because they are scarce. Why is your life so

valuable? so valuable is because it's scarce.

Your time is running out. Your time is limited,

right? Time is one of the, it is the most valuable

thing that you have. You know, wisdom says, hey,

if I lose money, I can make more money. If I

lose my career, I can rebuild another career.

But you cannot relive a single day of your life.

Yesterday is gone forever. And wisdom, therefore,

says, I'm not going to live my life worrying

about distractions or constantly scrolling through

my phone, right? Because my time is running out.

Why do I sit around here and say, one day I'm

going to slow down. One day I'm going to get

around to tending to my spiritual life. One day

I'm going to prioritize my family. No, wisdom

says... We need to number our days, realize how

precious they are, and then live our lives differently.

You know, I think that by the time you subtract

sleeping and working and commuting and all the

things that you have to do, by the time you subtract

all those, even for like someone who's middle

-aged like myself, I can't believe I said that,

but middle -aged. you've really maybe only got

a few hundred really significant days left in

your life. Like days that are all yours to like

determine what you want to do with. Goodness

gracious, don't waste them. Live differently.

Wise people, according to Psalm 90, they live

with the end in mind, not in a morbid way, not

in an anxious way, but in a clarifying way. It

really makes things clear. Certain things do

not need to matter as much as they do, right?

Those petty arguments, accumulating wealth, trying

to impress people, all those other things, they

don't matter. What becomes important are the

relationships. love the forgiveness faith the

kingdom of god right the wise person knows to

invest in those things because they actually

last and honestly i don't think anybody ever

lived this way quite like jesus did i mean there's

two things i want to say about jesus as we close

first jesus he lived With a sense of urgency.

Especially when you read the gospel of Mark.

One word keeps coming up again and again. It's

actually annoying if you keep reading. It's the

word immediately. Immediately Jesus went here.

Immediately he healed someone. Immediately he

taught. Immediately he moved toward the cross.

There was this sense of urgency in Jesus' life.

It was not panic. It was not anxiousness. It

was... purpose jesus lived as someone who was

fully aware that his own days were numbered and

so he invested his time in the people and in

the purpose that was most important he never

lived like he had unlimited time and neither

should we but secondly in jesus the most amazing

thing has happened and that is that This God

from everlasting to everlasting in Jesus entered

into our time, right? And stepped into this fragile,

temporary world. He submitted himself, Jesus,

to clocks and calendars, to aging and suffering

and exhaustion and ultimately death itself. And

because the eternal God entered into our mortal

life, it means that us mortals can now enter

into his eternal life. Through his death and

through his resurrection, he opened up a way

for our short little lives to be caught up in

his eternal life. And when we trust Jesus with

these fragile lives as they are, he gives us

his eternal. Which means that your short life

does not have to be meaningless. A life rooted

in Jesus becomes part of something good and eternal.

So, in closing for today, you do not have forever.

But in Jesus, forever can have forever. So God,

teach us to number our days. Teach us to treasure

our time. Teach us to live wisely, to live urgently

like Jesus, and to live eternally with Jesus.

Thanks be to God. Amen. Thanks for listening

to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. This

sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville

in Mississauga, Ontario on May 3rd, 2026.