In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the brevity of life and the importance of seeking wisdom from God. He emphasizes the need to number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom. The speaker warns against the dangers of forgetting God and becoming consumed by worldly prosperity. He encourages listeners to take control of their bodies and desires, directing them towards God's will and purpose.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Can we stand and pray? Father, we thank you for that connection, that wonderful connection that we can have through Christ Jesus. Thank you, Father, for making us joint heirs together with Christ. Oh, Father, I could just go home and meditate upon those things that we have heard so far. Truly, we have been fed. Truly, it has been a rich time already to come together here and meet together, sing together, hear the Word of God together, fellowship together. Surely, we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Oh, God, come and fill this vessel. Lord, I make myself usable to You this morning. I offer myself up and yield myself on that altar. Lord, I pray that You would flow through me. Use me today to minister to someone else. Help me, Lord, to be true to Your Word, to glorify You in all that I say and do here today. I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, I appreciated the opening. Brother Alex, that ministered to me. That was food for my soul. And I want to be a Berean from here and take those things and search the Scriptures and ponder them in my heart. Well, I thank God this morning that I have a family of redeemed saints that I can come and meet with, worship with, fellowship with. And I count it a privilege to be here this morning and to open the Word of God with you. I think we'll start with reading the first twelve verses of Psalms, chapter 90. A prayer of Moses, the man of God. Psalms, chapter 90. Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever Thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carryest them away as with a flood. They are as a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up. In the evening it is cut down and withereth. For we are consumed by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten. And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of Thine anger? Even according to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. The title that I have given to this little message is, Numbering Our Days. Now, this is not something that I did well at when I was growing up. I felt pretty secure. I felt pretty indestructible growing up, becoming a youth. I never had a broken bone like Diane is dealing with here this morning. I never, I just never seemed to have any near-death experience, although probably I had many of them. My grandparents were alive. My parents were alive. My cousins were alive. The circle that I was close to, that I walked with, that I had relationships with, no one ever died. It just seemed like everyone always lived. And life was just going on. My grandparents were here. My parents were here. I would grow up and be a father someday, and someday a grandparent, and it just seemed like I was going to be here for a long time. And of course, at the age of 10 and 12 and 16, it seems like life just stands still. But in the last five years, a lot of that has changed. Now, I only have one grandparent alive. My father suddenly passed away five years ago. Here in our congregation, I watched our brother Vernon Martin pass away, Mary Jane's husband. I saw our brother Danny Troyer pass away, Sister Ida's husband, a few years earlier, Sister Ruth Gonzales. Some of you probably remember her. She passed away here before our eyes. I was just thinking recently, our brother Aidan Troyer out in Colorado, who used to be here among us, is now gone. And people are just, the people who I knew, the people who I loved, the people who I had relationships with, are now passing away. And I guess the one that struck me the most, that has led me down this road of numbering my days, I didn't think it would affect me in this way, but I remember getting the word that my father passed away, and because he, as far as I knew, wasn't sick, and was only 54 years of age, didn't think about him dying yet, it was quite a shock to me, because like I said, I really hadn't been close to much death, as far as in close relationships. So, this came as quite a shock to me, and I was a two hours drive away. So, as I started driving home, this, the finality, and the, I don't know, it just didn't want to sink in. It just, it just didn't seem real. And, you know, a lot of things go through your mind at a time like that, and over the next week or so, because his heart failed him, and he just ceased to live. But, you know, I started thinking about my old heart pumping in there, and that was the only thing that was keeping me going, and, you know, I could just drop over right now. If my heart stopped, I'd just drop, and I'd be gone. You know, and there hadn't been a whole lot of consideration to that before, in my life, in the first 30 years of my life. It just seemed like everything was fine, and, you know, I wasn't going to just immediately drop over without knowing ahead of time that I was going to die. And so this really made me start counting my days, numbering my days. So, I think here to start, I'll draw a line here, which I'm sure you're all familiar with. We have eternity past, back here, and here we have eternity future, and this here's time. This line right here is what we're living in right now, called time. And, you know, it's probably not that big in the line of eternity, but you have to make something that we can see. So, in this time, this time that we live in right now, is even a smaller speck, called a vapor, that we're living in. You know, you can... Most of us knew our father. Some, probably, that are here, never knew their father. Maybe he passed away before they were old enough to remember him. But most of us know our father, and some of us knew our grandfather, and some of us may have even known our great-grandfather. But, as we consider our genealogies, and the people that have come and gone, you know, we can... Brother Alex went over this genealogy this morning, and I like going through genealogies, and, you know, starting at Adam, or the other way, going back. You know, there's all these men. They're just here for a vapor, and then they're gone. And all we have is, so-and-so begat so-and-so, and they lived in this little line of time, in eternity, and now they're gone. And, it becomes a... It does something very sobering in your heart, when you start to realize that, yeah, my life is only a vapor, and it's just here for a short time, just like a vapor that, you see for a short time, and then it vanishes away. Moses seems to have written this in the midst of the goings-on there in the wilderness. He saw much of the anger, the judgment, the wrath of God, and it comes through very clear here in this chapter. He saw the earth open up, and men just be swallowed up in a moment. He saw snakes come in and bite His people, and they were dying like flies. He saw thousands of people die in one day because of God's judgment upon them. And, He writes, For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee. All our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our year as a tale that is told. He saw possibly over a million people in that 40 year time in the wilderness die before His eyes. He understood about the brevity of life. He understood that we're only here for a moment, and we don't know when we will be cut off. He saw people who were perfectly healthy gone just like that. And the awesomeness of that seemed to settle down upon His heart here as He's writing. And He realizes that, wow, maybe I won't be here tomorrow. God was very upset today. He brought judgment upon us. I may not be here tomorrow. So, Lord, teach me. This is a prayer. I don't know if you noticed, but He's talking to God. He has a connection with the Triune God. Alex? Here? And so He's asking this Triune God, teach me. Teach us. Teach us out here in the wilderness, I can see Him saying, to number our days and to apply our hearts unto wisdom. So is how this verse starts out. I'd like to just take a look here at this verse 12. He's talking about the length of our days and the brevity of our days and being consumed in a moment. And so He concludes by saying, so. And that word so is referring back to the brevity of life because of the brevity of our lives. Teach us. See, He's praying. He's asking God to teach Him, to teach us. That word teach, I looked up in the Strongs. It has the idea of being observant, caring, recognizing, being aware, comprehending, considering, discerning. Teach us. Teach us. Not them. Not the person over in Africa or in South America, but us. Right here at Africa Christian Fellowship. Teach us to be discerning, to be aware, to comprehend our days. To number means to weigh out or to allot or constitute officially our days. To break down our days into allotments. Notice here that He doesn't say years. He doesn't say decades. He says days. He has He has been very aware that He does not have the promise of tomorrow. And when God says, Moses, your day is here, then He's gone. He may not have a moment's notice. He has watched people die right before His eyes that were perfectly healthy. He understands that He has a Creator God who has the ability to not only create life, but also destroy life. And He has a very clear vision of this. And so, He's asking God to teach Him how to number His days. To weigh out His days. To break down His life into small allotments that He can apply His heart unto wisdom. And now let's look at applying that we may apply to go or come in a wide variety of applications. To besiege. To come against or upon. Cause to be fallen or fetch or go to war. It's a military word. This applying our hearts unto wisdom means to... It's synonymous with what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9 when he said, I bring my body into subjection. I tell it what to do. I tell it where it's going to go. I tell it when it's going to get up. I tell it what it's going to eat and how much it's going to eat. And because I have a goal, I have a vision. I'm not letting my body tell me what to do. I am telling it what to do. He was applying His heart. He was causing His heart to go a certain direction. He wasn't just letting His senses, His five senses take it wherever it wanted to go. He was in an all out war against His flesh, against His five senses. And He was saying, this is what you're going to do. This is what you're going to set your affection on. This is what you're going to set your focus on today. Or breaking it down maybe even into allotments to this is what I'm going to do for this next hour. And I won't be distracted from it. So teach us to number our days that we may apply that we may apply our hearts. And our hearts is that seed of affection where we dream and where things happen. The heart is the most powerful part of our being. And when our heart gets involved with something, then things happen. When you're convinced in your heart that this is the way you need to go, then you'll go that way. When you're convinced that Jesus Christ is Lord and it's a part of your heart and you have experienced a relationship, you have that connection with Him, you will allow someone to cut off your head before you'll deny Him. Because your heart is there. You're willing to sacrifice your life for something that your heart is given to. So what are we to do? Well, we're to apply our hearts, the most powerful part of our being, to wisdom. And I guess there's many different directions you could go with this wisdom. But I like to see wisdom being those things that have eternal value. You know, we can spend our days doing many different things and we can look back and say, well, you know, that was kind of dumb. Now that I look back on it, that wasn't very wise. And many times, the way that we determine whether something was wise or not, if we're born again, and I'm going on that basis, I guess, somewhat in this message, that we are born again and that we do love Christ and we do have that connection with Him. So we look back and we ponder where we've been, the direction we've been going, and we realize, well, that was wise or that was unwise. And usually it's based upon whether it has eternal value to it. So I'm basing this wisdom upon eternal value here this morning. So, because of the brevity of our life, brothers and sisters, because we don't know when our day will come. As I was preparing this message, I thought of the little girl just maybe two months ago now. One of our neighbors. She drowned. And I guess I thought to bring this up because again, it was someone that I knew. And just a couple of months ago, a couple of months prior to her passing away, I built a deck for them and this little girl was... we couldn't keep her off the deck. She had to come and observe what we were doing. She was in a little chatter box learning how to talk and she'd just chatter and chatter away and just a pleasant little girl and just a little over a year old and you would think that she has a long time to live. But now she's gone. So, this applies from the smallest to the oldest here among us. God is no respecter of persons. And when our life's work here is ended, which can be at a year old and it can be at 80 years of age and it can be anywhere in between, we don't know. But because of the brevity of our life, brothers and sisters, let's pray with Moses here this morning that He would teach us that God would teach us. Make it a prayer of your heart that God would teach you to number your days to break down your life into small allotments and to realize that I don't have the promise of a 50 year future yet. But I do have right now. I do have this moment. I am alive yet. I do have this opportunity right now. And let's break it down in such a way that we can look back tomorrow. We can look back on today and say, praise God. We can look back a year later and say, yes, I gained ground. Yes, I went forward. That temptation is not as strong as it used to be. That sin that seemed to so easily beset me before, I'm not bothered by the same as I was a year ago. The purpose of this message is to motivate us, to encourage us to grow in our Christian life. It's to encourage us not to settle back and be satisfied with where we are. But to go forward. Things that... I just wrote a few things down here to make practical here. This applying our hearts unto wisdom. Some of the things that we need to apply our hearts to. We live in a world where the five senses can take over, can mean a lot to us, and the real world, the eternal world, can look pretty dim. Can look pretty far away sometimes. This really stood out to me this morning as we sang in light of the message. On Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land where my possessions lie. Now, this songwriter is likening Canaan to heaven but which is maybe debatable. I would see Canaan land as the Christian life that we're in right now and the enemies that we're to fight are the the sin that we're conquering now in our lives are the enemies are the all the enemies that they were to conquer, they are in the promised land. But I'd still like to apply it here to us today in Canaan land. I guess I'd like to apply it being in Canaan land and casting a wishful eye to that fair and happy land where my possessions lie. Now, I'm assuming again this morning that and hoping, trusting that your possessions do lie there. We heard a salvation message here a couple of weeks back from our brother Philip. Praise God. We need to keep that always in focus and we need to continually be preaching to the lost and it needs to be a priority in our life. But this morning I am preaching primarily to the saint, to those who have been born again and I want to remind you that your possessions are not here on this earth. I want to stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance this morning that your possessions aren't here. And I want to encourage you to cast a wishful eye this morning to where your possessions lie. When shall I reach that happy place and be forever blessed? When shall I see my Father's face and in His bosom rest? There we will know a true connection with the Father and with the Son and with the Holy Ghost. There we will know even as also we are known. There we can enjoy this triune Godhead where our true possessions lie. So, let's apply our hearts to wisdom and in doing so, one of the things that wisdom condemns, I'm going to mention four things that wisdom condemns and look at the other side of them as well. One is the anxious life. I thought when I became a Christian that as a Christian you didn't worry. You didn't have worries. You weren't anxious about things. You just naturally put your trust in God now and everything was fine and okay. But, I've realized after being a Christian now for 17 years that there is a temptation to be anxious, to be cumbered about with overmuch care. Paul admonished the Philippians and he was admonishing the Christians. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your heart, the seat of your affections, the most powerful part of your being. It shall keep that with a peace that passes all understanding. The anxious life. This wisdom condemns the anxious life. When you look back today on yesterday which is good to do sometimes and look at what you were anxious about and what you were worrying about it has no eternal value, does it? It doesn't make sense today that I worried about that yesterday. Brothers and sisters, let's not be anxious. Jesus said, take no thought for tomorrow. And brother Alex gave us the definition for that at the brothers meeting. It doesn't mean to be irresponsible. It doesn't mean to, as we know, taking no thought, to not think about tomorrow. It means don't be anxious. Don't be worrying. Don't be concerned. If you're being faithful with what you know to do today, that you know you're doing what is right, you're being responsible before God and doing what He requires of you to do, you need not concern yourself with the things that you don't understand and how they're going to get done or how it's going to get paid for. One of the things that we face here in America today that we're bombarded with is that you can't afford to have more than one or two children. You just simply couldn't afford it. There'd be no money there to raise them. You couldn't give them a proper training. And as responsible beings, we want to make sure we can live within our means. But God said to be fruitful and multiply upon the earth and He said, they are a gift from Me and that if you will obey Me, I will take care of you. So, are you going to be anxious about having children? When God says, if I can take care of that flower that is only here today and gone tomorrow, and I take so much care to make so much beauty, and I notice the sparrows that fall that are of much less worth than you are, can't I take care of you? Can't you trust Me to take care of you? God says, teach us, Lord, to apply our hearts unto wisdom. It's the life of rest. It's a life of connection with the Godhead and knowing that in Him everything is alright. It's okay. I'm in His care. Yes, that might be a mess up, but don't be anxious. Don't be concerned how the pieces are going to fit together. It's okay. Trust Me. The anxious life, not to be confused with being responsible, not to be confused with faithfulness, with doing the good that we know to do, knowing what is right for me to do and doing it. James says, therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. So, I don't want you to confuse what I'm saying here with being faithful to do what you know is right to do. But let's not be concerned. Let's not be anxious. Let's come to God each day, recognizing that I have this day. Lord, teach me how to engage my heart in the things that are wise. And it's not wise, brothers and sisters, to be anxious, to be concerned, to fear. Anxiousness, worrying and fear go hand in hand. To fear what may happen. To fear what could happen. With our children it's a temptation. They could... something could happen to them, right? Some sickness could overtake them. We could get cancer. But don't be anxious about it. Don't worry about it. Do what you know to do is right today and let God take care of that. And know, be convinced in your heart that place that is the most powerful part of your being. Let your heart be at rest that this God, this great, awesome, triune God that I have connection with is going to take care of me. And if I get cancer and die, or if I have an accident and die, or if I have a heart attack and die, my wife and children will be taken care of. Are you anxious about how your family will fare? Fathers, if you were to die, or sisters, are you anxious about your children? Are you anxious about your health? There's a lot of, lot of things, many things, numerous things, a multitude of things that can go wrong. But wisdom condemns the anxious life. Wisdom says, No. No way, heart. No heart. You're not going to go that way. No heart. You stay away from that. You rest in that triune God. Keep that connection with the triune God. And, it's okay. It's alright. The selfish life. Wisdom condemns the selfish life. The life that says, I'm sorry friend, I don't have time for you today. I've got things that I need to do. The life that says, I know you have a need, but I don't have time to meet it today. I don't have time to reach out to you today. The selfish life. Wisdom condemns the selfish life. Wisdom says, heart, you only have today. Break it down to today. Sometimes, I've been tempted with, I'll do more. I'll be able to do more when my children are older and I have some financial freedom and they can go to work in my stead. I'll do more then. Well, maybe there's some truth to that. But, wisdom says, heart, don't go there. Don't live for yourself today. Remember, you only have today. You don't have tomorrow. What you have is right now. Wisdom says to that heart, heart, consider, for one, it's only in this life, consider brothers and sisters, it's only in this life that we get to live for others, in the sense that it doesn't seem like in heaven we're called to reach out to anyone, does it? We're going to fall down, prostrate at Jesus' feet. He's going to serve us. We're going to be in a place of perfect rest, a place of perfect peace, no more anxiety and it's a place of rest. It's a place that we, it seems, can, in a different way than we know today, all our cares are laid aside and we're going to rest. We're going to enjoy God together. We're going to enjoy God together and He's going to serve us. Christ wants to serve us. So, rather than seeing this as a negative, that I can't live for myself today, I'm going to take a breath and say, well, I did that yesterday and life is a fool, isn't it? And can't I just rest? Well, we're headed there, brothers. We're headed there, sisters. But consider that this is our only opportunity, just this vapor. It's our only opportunity. Let's take advantage of it. Wisdom says, Heart, go after that opportunity. Lay down your life for that neighbor. Go ahead and give some extra money to that beggar. Heart, don't heap this life upon yourself. Heart, don't go after those things that are just going to bring yourself pleasure. Wait a little while. That vapor's almost disappeared. And you can rest. Your day of rest is coming. But right now, wisdom says to that heart, that place where your affections are, that place, that most powerful part of you that makes things happen, Heart, go ahead and die to yourself. Die to your own desires. Die to your own affections. Go ahead and lay down your life for your wife. Lay down your life for your husband. For your children. For that neighbor that doesn't have that beautiful connection with me. That if his life ended today, he would know nothing but eternal torment. Heart, wisdom says, be done with the self-life. Be done with me, myself and I. It says in Galatians 6, I think verse 10, As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially those of the household of faith. If we, brothers and sisters, are willing to set our affection on doing good unto others and being a slave for each other, as that verse pictures there, the world will look on, they will envy, they will ask questions, they will say, I want your God to be my God. Isn't that what we want to see? Wisdom condemns the selfish life. Wisdom condemns the worldly life. Three here. I have the worldly life as the person who lives solely by his five physical senses. Touch, taste, smell, seeing. What did I miss? Hearing. Yes. Wisdom condemns the worldly life. Wisdom says, heart, set your affection on another world. On other worldliness. Heart, you're not going to listen to that music. Heart, it's not time to indulge in that good food right now. Heart, I don't want you going there. I don't want you to set your eyes upon all those things that are going to make lust, that are going to make a desire for earthly things rather than the eternal to become real. Heart, wisdom cries, I want you to cast a wistful eye on heaven's banks where your true possessions lie. Heart, don't set your heart on that money. Heart, don't focus on that dream house, that nice new car. We live in a society where we are well aware and hear it many times, the American dream. Wisdom says, heart, I don't want you setting your heart on the American dream. I have something far better for you, heart. Heart, I want you to live below your means. Do you know what that means? Maybe you make $30,000 a year, but maybe you could get by on $25,000 a year. We live in a day where the worldly life, the life of living by our five physical senses says, if you can afford it, do it. If you can afford a $30,000 car, buy it. If you can afford a $70,000 car, buy it. Wisdom says, heart, no, don't do it. Don't do it. I want you to cast a wistful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land where your true possessions lie for is the irreligious life. And I felt, even though I'm speaking to Christians this morning, I have to say this because God admonished His people not once, but many times in many different ways. And specifically, when you get into the land of Canaan and your eyes behold vineyards that your hands did not plant, and you live in houses that you didn't have to build with your own sweat and labor, beware, my people, beware that you don't forget Me. And the very thing that He cautioned them against is the thing that happened. They prospered. They were victorious over their enemies. They had plenty to eat. They had houses to live in. They no longer lived in tents. They no longer lived on the manna in the wilderness which they seemed to grow weary of. They had what I guess they called real food now. And their hearts grew cold towards God. They forgot God to the point where they built altars unto Baal. They built high places where they worshiped gods that were just hewn out of stone and wood after God, the only true and living God, led them through the wilderness, conquered their enemies for them, went before them, directed them, led them, gave them the Ten Commandments, spoke with them. Spoke very plainly with Moses and spoke with them through Moses, I should say. And yet, they forgot God. Wisdom cries this morning, brothers and sisters, when your pantries are full, when your freezers are full, when the money is good, when there seems to be no lack, and your health seems to be fine, and all seems to be well, wisdom cries, heart, don't forget God. Don't forget God. The only true and living God. The triune God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The One who bought you with His own precious blood. The One who redeemed you from Egypt, from death, from a life of hopelessness, from a life of eternal damnation. Don't forget Me, wisdom says. The irreligious life. The life that's casual and cool towards God. The life that's irreverent towards God. The life that says, there's more important things to do than to meditate upon the Word, than to sing the songs of Zion. I've got other things to do right now. Brothers and sisters, don't forget God. So, because the brevity of your life, brothers and sisters, ask God to help you number your days. To break down your life into allotments. That you may apply your heart unto wisdom. That you may engage, as if in a war, your heart unto wisdom. That you're willing to set your heart, though it seem to be your destruction, apply, cause your heart to be fallen after wisdom. Besiege. That's a good word for it, isn't it? That you besiege your heart unto wisdom. You make sure nothing keeps your heart from going after wisdom. In conclusion, if it seems that this numbering your days business is pretty bleak, and that that's going to cause depression upon me, if you're saying, Brother, if I were to do that, if I were to think that today's my last day, I'd be depressed. I'd get discouraged about that. Well, let me encourage you to number your days not as if it was ending something, but as if it was the beginning of something. I'll never forget, that it really made a delible impression on my heart when I called Brother Dave Escher one time, and it goes back a few years now, and I asked him how he's doing, and he said, Wonderful! It's the first day of the rest of my life. And that really stuck with me, Dave. I tell my children that all the time. This is the first day of the rest of our life. It can be very positive. It can be very motivating in a good way. It can cause us, when we apply our hearts unto wisdom, and Paul said, So fight I, not as one that beateth the air. I'm not just out there striking at nothing. I'm gaining ground by breaking my life into allotments, by numbering my days. It's not ending something. It's beginning something where I'll be able to look back tomorrow and say, Yes, I gained ground. No, it didn't end. That was where it began. You can look back a year later and say, Yes, I grew in grace this last year. That brother that used to rub me the wrong way, it doesn't affect me anymore. I love that brother. That sister that just, I just couldn't relate to. I would go out of my way to go around her. I can go up to her and look her right in the eyes and wish her God's blessing. See, it's a growing that we're talking about here. It's numbering our days. It's applying our hearts unto wisdom. It's another way of preaching a message of going on unto perfection. When we number our days, it brings a soberness in our life. It brings a reality of where our true possessions lie. It brings many healthy things into our life that cause us to grow in grace and that we grow from glory to glory into the image of Jesus Christ so that when others see us, no longer do they see the old man. They see Jesus. You know, brother, the way you responded in that situation, that just reminded me of Jesus. That's what you may hear a year down the road. If you start numbering your days and apply your heart, set yourself in a war to wisdom. Only one life, and it's very short. It's but a vapor. My Father, who always was here, who I could never imagine not being here, He's not here this morning. The vapor has disappeared. So, because we're going to soon disappear, brothers and sisters. Apply your heart. Engage your heart in war to the things that are wise. I want you to be able to look back a year from now after engaging your heart and saying, praise God. And I'm sure you can do that. And don't you just love to be able to do that? Look back and say, you know, praise God. I'd love to do it over again. What we did during that time, I'd love to do it all over again. My wife and I would love to be married all over again and go through our first couple weeks of marriage together. We love looking back on it. We have no regrets about it. Many things in our relationship together, we look back and say, you know, praise God. Isn't that beautiful? Wasn't that wonderful? And those are things that in the line of eternity, a million years from now, the day after you die, you'll be able to say, praise God. What would you do if you had one day left? Some of you have experienced that feeling. Some that are sitting in this room have probably faced near death. The question kept coming to my mind, what would you do, each one of you in this room, if you had one day left? Just think about it. We've heard it a thousand times already, but what if we would only have one day left and the Lord would call us? How many would have to run and find a friend that we've wronged or make some apology or confess bitterness or you name the list? Thinking of eternity, I heard an illustration. Maybe we can grasp it a little bit more. It's like a bird going from the West Coast with one grain of sand to the East Coast and dropping it off, going back, getting another grain of sand. How many grains of sand are in the West Coast? Does anybody know? Well, we all know. No one has that answer. After he's done with all of that, eternity still, there's no end. It's just a part. It's just the beginning. It's more than our small minds can grasp, but it's one way that we can ponder to number our days. You know, as a young boy, in the Amish culture there, I went to many funerals. There was something about a funeral, about a dead body. It brought a soberness to my heart. It caused me to number my days, just thinking that someday I'm going to be in there, like Brother Dean shared. Someday it's going to be me. How will I apply my heart to wisdom? How will I... It just brought a... I can't describe. I think some of you can probably relate to it. It just... Some were unprepared, we know. Some rebellious boy hit a telephone pole and killed himself. And there was just an awe... There was just a soberness about that funeral that it just brought an awakening or a great soberness to the people that knowing that this young man is lost. He's not made it. He was in rebellion. Those things made a deep impression on my young heart. And I had to think of Brother Dan here with us. He's just getting into business with us here. Brother Dean and I. Looking forward to working with him. He was the man. There was no one else that could do it like Dan. And getting things organized, getting things ready for the next day. I was really looking forward to that. And one day that all ended. We got a phone call. Dan Troyer passed away. It was so final. It was so final. Your mind reels. You all know how that is. But someday it will be you. And I look at that as not a thing that we need to fear. And yet as an unconverted person, we should fear. We should tremble. We should seek to know the Lord. We should find out where we're at. But for the converted, the prepared heart, we don't have to fear that. Thank you Brother Dean for that. I think it's good that we consider eternity. I hear you praying once in a while, stamp eternity on the eyeballs of my heart. Let's see eternity. We can stand here and talk about eternity for an hour and we still can't get to the depth of it. To the bottom. It's so... And yet it's reality. It's something that we'll all face. Does anyone have a testimony to share this morning? The Lord doing something in your life. This is your time. You feel free to raise your hand. Go ahead Brother Toddy. Yeah. I just want to thank the Lord for the message this morning. And I was deeply challenged and encouraged. Just thought of a passage from Ephesians 5. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And I think Brother Dean gave us some excellent insights into what the will of the Lord is not, concerning the anxious life, selfish life, worldly life, and the irreligious life. I also needed to make a rather sobering announcement for Weston and Charity. And I think it fits right in with the message. This morning, a couple of weeks ago, I had put an announcement in everybody's mailbox to pray for a man named Taylor, who was a man who has helped Weston and Charity in many different ways. And seemed very interested in Christianity and the gospel. And he had become very sick, and Weston finally decided to take him to the hospital where it was discovered that he was being poisoned. He was suffering from, someone was poisoning him, which is something that they do there to their enemies. And so Weston had requested prayer for this man. And I'm sad to say that earlier this week, Taylor passed away. And he died at the home of the traditional healer's house. And there was no indication that he was trusting in Jesus at the time of his death. May the Lord help us to remember our days. Amen. There's one down here in the front. Is there anyone else? Go ahead, David. I think we're all familiar with the practice of speech that many use in saying, if the Lord wills. I'll see you tomorrow if the Lord wills. I'll see you tomorrow. I'll do this if the Lord wills. I don't know if I didn't hear you mention this passage of Scripture, but this in the book of James, the fourth chapter, says, Go ye now, ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. And it is true that it's easy in business to make our own plans. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. The Scripture there teaches us that it's evil to forget that my life is held by God. And when we're making those plans, it's actually a commandment, ye ought to say, Well, if I live, if the Lord lets me live, that's my plan. And I see there's a submission to the will of God in the whole matter. This is my plan, but it's in the hands of God, just like all my life is, my vapor is. Amen. Go ahead, Marvin. Yes, I maybe have a few words more so as an announcement and a testimony, I guess. I'd like to say, as David says, If the Lord wills, it would be our heart's desire to be moving back to Indiana next month with the little church there, with the eight families. I guess our heart there is to just be in support and encouragement to them, to the community and our families, and just reach out to them and just be involved in the work of the Lord there. And I say again, I guess, as David said, If the Lord's will, that would be our heart. I would also like to say thank you to all your brothers and sisters and your love, encouragement, prayers, and support that you've been for us. So I just say we're going to miss you all. I ask that you remember us in prayer. And I guess I'm not sure if I'll be here at the next Brothers Meeting or not because there's a wedding there also. So I thought that's maybe why I would say something now about it. So thank you all. God bless you, Marvin, your family. Go ahead, Dave. Yeah, I'd like to thank Brother Dean for the message. I feel I needed it. I think we need to be aware of the brevity of life. And I was convicted on the concerns that I have with the things of this world many times. A couple hundred years ago, a guy wrote a poem that is one of my favorite poems. And it talks about the brevity of life, and I have it written in the back of my Bible. And it is, Why should the spirit of mortal be proud, Like the swift-fleeting meteor or the fast-flying cloud, Like the flash of lightning or the break of a wave, Which passes from life to his rest in the grave? The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, Be scattered around, and together be laid. The young and the old, the low and the high, Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie. The hand of the king that the miter hath borne, The brow of the priest, The hand of the king that the scepter hath borne, And the brow of the priest that the miter hath worn, The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave, Are all mingled together and laid in the grave. The peasant whose lot is to sow and to reap, The herdsman who climbs with his goats up the steep, The beggar who wandered in search of his bread, Are all buried together beneath the grass that we tread. The saint who enjoyed his communion with heaven, And the sinner who dared to remain unforgiven, The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. So the multitude goes like the flower in the weed, They faded away to let others succeed, And so the multitude comes, even those we behold, To repeat the same tales that have often been told. For we are the same as our fathers have been, We see the same sights that our fathers have seen, We drink the same stream and we feel the same sun, And run the same course that our fathers have run. Oh, tis the wink of an eye, tis the drought of a breath, From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, From the gilded saloon to the byre and the shroud, Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? You know, as Dean was sharing about in a year from now, There will probably be some among us that will not be here. Very, very possible. Although we're a young congregation, we don't know. We only have this minute, don't we? We don't even have this day promised. Anyone else? Brother Rick, go ahead. Yes, amen. I was blessed by both messages this morning very much. I was thinking of a couple of different thoughts about Brother Dean's message. One, God does use the number of the days of a man's life, even for the unsaved, to wake up other people. I think of my own life. Ten days before I turned 15, my father passed away suddenly, just like Brother Dean's father passed away suddenly. My father was in an accident, but I never saw him alive from the time he left until I saw him the next day. He'd already passed away in the hospital. And it was about 13 1⁄2 years after that that I was born again, but I can honestly say not very many days went by in that 13 1⁄2 years where I didn't think about, my father is dead. And there were days I didn't know what to do with it because I wasn't a Christian, but it kind of just was there. It kind of gnawed at me. And even though I was lost, it taught me to number my days in a way because I realized my father is dead and I'm just his son. And those things out of his death, I can say, God used it to bring a soberness in a very foolish young man's life. And though it didn't have the fruit for about a dozen years, I can say it was part of the story of why I got born again even. I don't know what to do with all of those things, but I do know that those things do happen in our lives. And so much the more here, in a Christian setting, as you said, there could be some not here a year from now. Those things should sober our young people that are 12, 13, 14, 15, that think, as Dean said, he thought when he was 16, he was indestructible. But when we see those things, there is something that we can learn from that that we're not indestructible. And the other thing that I thought of is, as Dean said at the end, although this should not cause us... a message like this is not to bring depression, it does bring a soberness, but also it brings another thing, which I think he was saying at the end, and that is, what really Moses was saying is, Lord, wake us up. Stir us up. And so God can even use death or the numbering of our days as a stick to stick into the fire of our life, the heart of our life, and stir the thing back up again and bring more life. And that is the purpose of this. And I know that was one of Brother Dean's purposes, at least that's what I got out of it, is to stir me up again, not to ponder death, but rather to ponder how am I going to live my life for God. And that is a good thing. Even though it's a sober thing, it's a good thing. And God can use it for us to be awake. Amen. I agree. Is there anyone else? The one in the back there, Jason. Yes, I just want to thank Brother Dean and Brother Alex for their message this morning. I feel God has been showing me that my heart has grown very cold and indifferent toward Him and His Word, and I just want to confess that as sin and ask you all to pray for me, if you think about it. I really desire to be in love with Christ and His Word again, and not just be swayed by the things of this world, but have my focus on Christ. Thank you. God bless you, Amy. May the Lord give you that desire. I would like to just draw something on the board here for you to consider. Where's the end of that circle? As young children, all of us, when we ponder eternity, there is a beginning, but there's no end. Then where will we spend eternity? Or where will you be in eternity? Just something for us to consider. You start thinking about it. Everything that we do, we think, well, next week I'll be done with this job, or in two weeks I want to start another job, and then in three weeks I'll be done with that. But eternity is going to be a beginning without an end. And so those things cause us to number our days, to ponder our ways, to wake us up, to look to the Lord Jesus. He's the one. And we're in a day where Prosperity had to think of Dean as he was sharing there about the Lord speaking to the Israelites. Are we in that stage of time where we have houses, lands that we didn't build? We're growing cold. We all just be stirred up again this morning to maintain that fire, that love for Jesus, that the lost people out on the street can say, I'd like to have what that brother has, something different. Well, thank you again, Brother Dean. I think we'll have a song and then I'll have a few announcements. Thank you all for sharing.