So I'm actually just gonna get the title of the sermon
from that last verse there, verse 12, where it says,
for who knoweth what is good for man in this life,
all the days of his vain life,
which he spendeth as a shadow,
for who can tell a man what shall be after him
under the sun, and the title is all the days of our lives,
all the days of our lives, which is kind of
in the phrase there, all the days of his vain life,
but this phrase, all the days of our lives,
or all the days of our life, you know,
that is something, a phrase you see, you know,
similar phrases throughout scripture,
and really what I wanna preach to you about tonight
is having a long-term plan for your life.
You should have a long-term plan for your life.
Obviously, around, you know, the new year,
we preach a lot about, you know,
making plans for the new year,
having short-term plans and short-term goals,
and obviously those are great things to do.
That's something I've preached,
but we're kinda getting to that halfway point in this year.
You know, maybe we've even forgotten already
what it is we set out to do at the beginning of this year,
or maybe we're right on top of all the goals that we set out.
Maybe we just didn't set it in at all, I don't know,
but you know, we should have some goals in our lives,
and obviously, the real popular way to think about that
is, you know, what you're gonna accomplish,
you know, this month, this week, this year,
but really, we look at scripture, you know,
we're told that we should actually
look at our life as the whole,
and obviously we have different seasons in our life,
and one thing that'll really help us in our lives
is if we have, you know, long-term goals
for each season in our life.
You know, that we should have different goals
depending on where we are in life.
We should have long-term plan for your life.
I believe that, and obviously, you know,
probably if we could just sum it all up by saying,
you know, the one long-term goal
that we should all have is to serve God.
You know, whatever season of life you're in,
you should be, you know, asking yourself
and considering, you know, how are you serving God,
in what way, to what degree are you serving God,
and with that in mind, go over to Psalms 23, Psalm 23.
You know, obviously at different seasons in life,
you're gonna be able to serve God
greater than at other seasons.
When you're younger and you have full of energy,
you don't have a lot of the burdens and responsibilities
that come as you grow older, you know,
you probably have a greater opportunity to serve God
than you would later on in life.
You know, the young person who doesn't have
a lot of the responsibilities of life,
as far as maybe, you know, a wife or a spouse and children,
they've got a lot more free time,
obviously they're gonna be able to go out,
and if they want, you know, to serve God to a greater degree
they're gonna be able to go out, at least in that way,
you know, they're gonna go out
and be able to preach the gospel, right?
They're gonna be able to go out,
spend more time knocking doors,
spending more time being able to read their Bible
and know the word of God than perhaps the busy,
you know, housewife, the busy mother of children,
you know, obviously has a lot of other responsibilities
that are demanding her attention day by day
and that have to be tended to, they're not optional, right?
She can't just drop everything and say,
well, I'm gonna go soul winning now,
or I'm just gonna sit down
and demand that all of my children are quiet
so I can read my Bible for an hour.
You know, they have to, a lot of times,
fight to fit those things in.
And I'm just using it as an example that, you know,
obviously we should always be serving God
throughout our whole life.
You know, whatever plans you have in life,
serving God should be at the top of that list,
but understand that's not always gonna look the same
in every season of life.
And that's why a lot of you young people
should take advantage of the fact
that you have this season of life
to serve God in a way that other people can't.
You know, the young ladies in the room
who yet don't have the family,
the young men who don't yet have the, you know,
demanding schedule that must be met,
and you don't have the flexibility to just take time off
and maybe go on the soul-winning trip or whatever,
you know, you should avail yourself as much as you can
and take advantage of those times
because once they're gone, they're gone.
You know, and once that time has come and gone,
you're never gonna be able to get that back, okay?
So serve God with a long,
that should be obviously the long-term goal of all of us.
That is the, and we'll see here
at the end of the Ecclesiastes,
I should have had to keep something there,
we're gonna come back,
but we'll see at the end, you know,
that's what Solomon came up with.
Hey, this is the conclusion of the matter.
Fear God and keep his commandments.
Obviously, there's a lot of vain things in life.
Well, everything ultimately just adds up to vanity.
Even the good things that God has given us
to enjoy this life are vanity.
They're not going to necessarily turn into
or, you know, equate to eternal rewards in heaven, okay?
They're just part, there's the part of life
that ultimately is vain.
I had you go to Psalm 23, right?
Psalm 23, verse six.
You know, obviously a very famous passage here.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Go to Psalms 27.
So there's that phrase again, all the days of my life.
You know, we wanna serve God all the days of our lives.
We wanna make sure we have a long-term plan.
We gotta consider all the days of our lives.
And we gotta think about, you know,
what season that we're in.
I'm not saying that maybe the young, you know,
20-year-old, 20-something-year-old
necessarily needs to figure out
what they're gonna achieve in their 50s, right?
And I'm gonna break this down here in a minute.
But we should have long-term goals.
As we move through life, you know,
we should consider where we are
and what lies ahead of us and what can we accomplish,
you know, in the next season of our life,
in the current season of our life.
And obviously serving God should be on the top of that list.
You know, I thought about the,
I looked at the phrase where Hezekiah, you know,
he was healed of that boil that he had.
They came in, they put the lump of figs on it,
and then he gives this song of praise to God.
And he says, the Lord was ready to save me.
Therefore, we will sing songs to the,
sing my songs to the string instruments
all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
You know, he was healed, and he took the time
that he had left saying, look, I'm gonna praise God,
you know, with the time that I have left, right?
And in a sense, you know, if we're saved,
we've all kind of been healed of that boil of sin.
You know, we should all have that same attitude
that no matter what else I have plans for in life,
no matter what other things I wanna achieve,
no matter what other things I'm going to do in life,
serving God and praising God are still going to be
a major part of that.
You know, that's what we can do in life.
A major part of that.
You know, that's what we can see with Hezekiah, right?
He was healed, and he said,
I'm gonna give God the glory for it.
Look at Psalm 27, verse four, it says,
one thing have I desired of the Lord,
that will I seek after that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
So you can see where this phrase comes up repeatedly, right?
And he's saying, I'm gonna serve God and dwell in his house
all the days of my life and behold the beauty of the Lord
and to acquire in his temple.
All the days of his life,
he's going to be in the house of the Lord.
Again, when we're talking about having long-term plans
for our lives, serving God should be on the top of that list.
No matter how busy we get,
no matter what other things we have going on,
I'm gonna be in the house of the Lord,
I'm gonna be found serving God to whatever degree
I'm able to do it, you know, given my, you know,
whatever season of life I'm in.
And what's great is that, you know,
God gives us liberty, obviously, in our lives
to make our own decisions, right?
Thank God we're not, you know,
just some pre-programmed robot, you know,
that we're just some kind of algorithm
that God has created acting out.
You know, God gives us the ability to make decisions
and to make plans, right?
And that's why it's important to preach sermons like this
because quite frankly, a lot of people just don't make plans.
People just never wanna change,
it just seems like people sometimes
just don't wanna change anything.
You say, well, you know, what, you know, what should I do?
You know, what do I wanna, you know,
what kind of plan should I make?
Well, what do you wanna change?
You know, ask yourself, is there anything I could change
about myself or my circumstance, you know, within reason?
You know, you don't say, oh, I wish I, you know,
obviously there's some things about our physical appearance,
you know, our stature, we just can't change, right?
Well, I wish I was taller, I wish I was shorter.
You know, it's like, well, you got what you got, right?
Deal with it, okay?
But you know, obviously within reason,
there's things about ourselves that we could change
if we wanted to.
You know, there's things that we could change
if we just sat down and thought about what they were, okay?
But sometimes people are never going to change,
they're never gonna make those changes
simply because they don't bother taking the time
to think about it and to actually make those plans
and follow through with them, okay?
I should have had you go back to Ecclesiastes
if you would go to Ecclesiastes 12 and bookmark it
when you get there.
We're gonna be in Ecclesiastes and Psalms,
but Ecclesiastes chapter number 12.
You know, God gives us liberty to make plans.
God gives us liberty in this life to determine our own path.
I love that, I love that, you know,
we can choose the life that we can live.
And obviously I started out by saying, hey, serve God,
you know, no matter where you choose to live
or you know, what occupation even you maybe take on,
serving God is something you can do
in any of those circumstances.
Going to church and winning souls and reading your Bible
and keeping the commandments of God and living for him
and living a godly and holy life is something you can do.
But obviously we have a lot of our own decisions
that we can make, we can make our own determinations
about other things in our lives, we have that liberty.
So why don't we then?
That's kind of what I'm trying to encourage people to do.
Make a plan and do something with that then, right?
And even, you know, no matter what age you're in,
you know, if you're still here
and you still have life ahead of you,
you know, you still have an opportunity to make decisions
and choose a path and accomplish things,
you know, for yourself and for God.
You know, if there's things you want to change
about your circumstance or about your life
or, you know, about you in some way, shape or form,
you can do that, okay?
Look at Ecclesiastes 12, verse one, it says,
remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, right?
So he's kind of speaking to the youth here saying,
don't forget God in your youth,
remember him in the days of your youth,
while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh
when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.
And then he goes on and kind of describes, you know,
getting older, you know, becoming an elderly person,
becoming old to where, you know,
life doesn't have the pleasures that it once did, okay?
Those things kind of go away as we get older.
You know, the taste, the smell, the senses,
a lot of these things, they go away as we get older
and we kind of just look forward to going on to glory, right?
So it's really important while we still have the ability
to change things and enjoy things about this life
that we go ahead and do that.
You know, remember your creator.
You know, and some people probably write themselves off
a little too early when it comes to this idea
of, you know, getting older.
You know, they'll think, well, I'm already, you know,
40, 50, 60 years old.
It's like, it's over, put a fork in me.
It's like, no, you know,
if you could still enjoy a lot of these things,
if you, you know, if you still have life in you,
I think what he's describing in Ecclesiastes chapter 12
is a very elderly person.
You know, somebody who's, you know,
got one foot on a banana peel
and the other one's in the grave, right?
It's really kind of the end of the road for them, okay?
But, you know, anything shy of that, you know,
we should remember our creator, especially in our youth.
Obviously that's where the emphasis is.
Remember your creator in your youth
and make plants in your youth.
And God gives you those liberties to decide what it is
you're gonna do with your life,
but don't forget God in that decision-making.
And all of us, no matter what age we're at,
whether we would consider ourself our youth or not,
we could still make changes in our lives.
We could still make plans and follow through with them
if we want to.
And all I'm simply trying to do with this sermon
is get people to do that, if they're not already.
You know, there's that famous quote that says,
if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
You know, if you don't make any plans at all,
if you don't try to do anything,
then obviously you're not going to achieve anything.
You're not gonna get anything done.
And this is something I've, you know,
you say, where is this coming from?
Well, this is just something I've been thinking about.
You know, I've been thinking about this for some time now,
actually, you know, the last several months,
but you know, this idea,
and it's something I know I preach from time to time,
but the Bible does tell us in Psalm 90,
I know we all know it, I'll just read to us in verse 12.
So teach us to number our days
when we apply our heart unto wisdom.
You know, that'd be a great verse
to just plaster somewhere that you see every day.
Teach us to number our days.
You know, no matter what age we're at,
we should probably sit down and think about,
okay, how much time do I really,
you know, if I live a natural life,
can I really expect to live?
How much more time do I have on this earth?
And then, you know, and some of us,
obviously it's gonna be shorter than others.
You know, we should probably, if that's us,
should probably think, okay, not just give up hope
and say, well, that, you know, it's too late.
There's nothing else I can do.
My life is over.
You could still accomplish great things for God, you know?
And I'm kind of preaching to myself too a little bit here
because even at 40 years of age,
you can think, oh, my life's half over.
I'm done, right?
But really, if you sit there and you number your days
and you do what the Bible says
and you apply your heart unto wisdom,
you know, even if you're past, you know,
halfway through your natural life,
you can still accomplish, you know,
more things for God than a lot of people will
with their entire lives, and that's true.
You know, if you're sitting there at 50 years old
and you think, oh, I've only got maybe 30 years at best,
you know, you could still accomplish more
in those 30 years for God than a lot of people will
with their entire lives.
And I'm talking to a lot of Christians
simply because a lot of people don't take the time to plan.
You know, and especially in the youth, don't they?
Like, the youth, this is something,
I'll get around to it, right?
Life just becomes about having fun
and just doing whatever they want.
There's not a lot of planning that can go into that
sometimes, and a lot of times, youth just gets wasted.
You know, and that's why a lot of times,
even people who are maybe more advanced in years
can still accomplish more than a lot of youths will
with their youth, okay?
It doesn't have to be that way,
but that's kind of the way human nature is.
That's just kind of the way people are.
It ought not be that way, though,
but it's, you know, that's the way things will play out
if we don't apply our hearts unto wisdom.
And we ought to teach, we ought to number our days,
consider what season of life we're in,
in our youth, in our middle age,
or maybe even more advanced ages,
we should apply our hearts unto wisdom
and consider what can we accomplish for God
and then set out to do that.
You know, what can we do?
What souls can we win?
What can we improve on?
Those are the things that we should be thinking about.
And honestly, I really take that phrase,
you know, number our days to heart, okay?
I did the very depressing experiment once
of seeing how many days I had left, you know,
from my current, you know, where I was until 80, right?
Because that's kind of what the Bible tells us, you know,
by reason of strength, four score and 10, right?
Obviously we can live beyond that,
but I think 80, that's being, you know,
being buried in a good old age and full of years, right?
That's a good advanced age.
That'd be a good life.
You know, so I took that,
I thought there's some experiment
where you count how many days that is,
how many actual days.
And I can't remember exactly how many days it was,
but it was like, if you equated that to dollars,
it was not very impressive at all.
It was like half a year's worth of expenses.
You know, it was like in the 30,000s or something like that.
It's just like, ah, you know, if you look at it like that,
that can be maybe a little disheartening if you think,
oh man, I only have 30,000 days left if I live till 80,
you know, but, you know,
so maybe we need to scale it back a little bit.
This is kind of what I've learned
when it comes to this thing of numbering your days.
So what I did is I actually numbered
until my 50th birthday, right?
Because obviously that's kind of a milestone.
When you hit 50, that's a major milestone in your life.
And I could tell you,
and I didn't just prepare this for this sermon.
I knew this morning that I had 2,760 days
until my 50th birthday.
As I count it now, like every day,
how long have I been doing that?
Two days, okay?
And I got a witness,
because this guy was talking about this with my wife,
and I leaned over in the drive home this afternoon.
I said, I have 2,760 days until my 50th birthday.
Say, why would you do that?
Because, you know, it gives me some kind of a timeframe.
You know, I'm numbering my days
so that I can apply my heart to wisdom.
So I can understand as I see that,
you know, 2,759, 2,758, 2,757,
as that begins to tick down,
you know, that time is passing.
And that we need to apply our hearts to wisdom
if we're, you know, actually going to accomplish something
or improve in some area,
you have to consider the fact
that you don't have all the time in the world, right?
That you have to get to work.
And what I've found is that when we plan in the long term,
it actually makes us a more patient people.
At least it's done this for me.
Because, you know, honestly, there's a lot of things
that I would like to accomplish.
There's a lot of different things I want to start doing.
There's a lot of things that I want to do to improve myself.
But the tendency is a lot of times for people,
when they start to think about that,
they feel like they have to get it all done right now.
You know, they got to make all these big changes.
They got to take on all these endeavors.
They've got to, you know, make all these improvements
so that they can hurry up and get it done.
But when you actually number your days
and see how much time you have
to a certain date or whatever,
it'll actually make you more patient.
Because, you know, when I number, you say,
why did you number it to 50?
Because I thought about, well, when I turn 50
and I look back, you know, on this, you know,
between then and now, you know,
what will I have to accomplish
to not feel like my 40s were wasted?
You know how I love to use a lot of alliteration
and I use these things to kind of remind myself,
you know, in my own life, you know,
I came up with this, you know, how I want to live my 40s.
I said, I want to forge my 50s in my 40s.
I'm going to forge my 50s in my 40s.
You know, I want to live today.
I want to live the rest of this decade of my life, right?
This next seven and a half years
so that when I turn 50, I can look back and say,
hey, I accomplished this and I accomplished this
and I improved this.
And honestly, if I do all that, my 50s will be very,
I believe, formidable.
You know, I'll be hopefully, God willing,
if I make it that far and I'm able to do everything
I want to do, you know, I'll be,
I have improved as a preacher,
I'll have improved as a husband and as a father,
I'll have improved as a leader, you know,
I'll have improved personally, you know, my own life,
things that I want just for me, you know,
but I'm using myself as an example because, you know,
that's something we can all do.
This is something we, in a philosophy,
I think we could all adopt and put into practice
in our lives.
You know, what's the next major milestone in your life?
What are you going to do when you look back
on the time between then and now
and say, what did I accomplish?
Well, if you don't think about that now,
it's not going to be anything.
It'll be nothing.
You won't have accomplished anything, you know,
and I know that's true because honestly, you know,
a lot of, you know, like I said earlier,
a lot of times that's how youth spend their lives.
I mean, I know that's how I spent a lot of my life
in my youth.
I wasn't thinking about at 21, 22 years of age,
you know, what do I want to have accomplished by 30?
You know, and I'm not saying that it's something
to be proud of.
You know, that's a shameful thing, honestly.
Even the young people in this room should start thinking
about what is it do you want to accomplish, you know,
in the next 10 years?
What are your plans?
What are you going to get done?
How are you going to improve?
What are you going to excel at?
If you don't sit down and number your days,
you're not going to apply your heart to wisdom.
It's just a fact.
And what I've found is that, you know,
instead of looking at, you know,
what am I going to accomplish between now and 80?
You know, kind of shortening that horizon a little bit,
although albeit 50 is still out there.
It's a lot can happen in eight years.
It does allow, make you, make you help you realize
how much time you have to actually accomplish
everything you might want to do and not feel so rushed
into having to get everything done immediately.
And you can actually formulate a plan.
Okay, here's step one, step two, step three.
And you can work your way through that, okay?
And not feel rushed to make you patient.
And so, you know, it kind of led me to think, you know,
people should plan for each decade of their life.
So I want to kind of just very quickly tonight,
just kind of go through the different seasons of life.
Cause I understand we have a wide gamut of people here
when it comes to age and praise God for that, okay?
So let me start with the youngest,
those of you that are, you know, 10 and below.
And obviously, you know, these kind of,
some of these ages will overlap, all right?
Maybe this could stretch into the twelves, the tweens.
I don't know what the tweens are even, you know,
is that like, I don't care.
You know, you know, the early teenage years,
basically your childhood, you know,
sorry to break it to some of you,
but turning 13 does not,
you do not cease to be a child at 13, okay?
So this could kind of stretch.
Obviously there's some room here where things will overlap,
but you know, just generally speaking, children, right?
You say, should children have an outlook on life?
Yes, and it's very simple, okay?
I'm gonna give it to you very quickly.
Obey and play, that's it.
That's the two things for you, really.
Okay, cause the Bible, you know, addresses children,
and we all know those passages, right?
I'm sure every child in here could stand up
and quote Ephesians chapter six, verse one.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord,
for this is right, okay?
You know, Colossians 3, 20.
Children, obey your parents in all things,
for this is well pleasing unto the Lord, okay?
So I mean, the Bible commands that of children,
and obviously, you know, honoring our parents
is something that goes on even to our adult years,
I get that, but we apply that to children,
so that's it for you, obey and play.
You know, that's something I tell my kids,
especially the ones that are getting older,
and they get all excited about, you know,
becoming a teenager, and I hate to break it to them,
but being a teenager isn't all that great, you know?
I know a lot of the teenagers would probably argue
with me on that point, but it just shows what they know.
Being a teenager is probably, and I know I pick on them
a little bit, and I'm cutting, you know,
they deserve to have a little slack cut for them,
because it is one of the most difficult
and awkward stages of life.
In fact, it is the most awkward and difficult stage,
and it's difficult in that sense, that it's awkward,
you know, for all the reasons that it is,
so don't get too excited about becoming
a teenager, children, because it's really not all,
everything gets cracked up to be,
I certainly wouldn't want to go back
and repeat it, for several reasons.
So, children, obey your parents,
and don't be in a rush to grow up, you know?
Don't be in a rush to hurry up and try to become an adult,
because once your childhood's over, that's it.
There's never gonna be another season in your life
where people are gonna want you to just go in another room
and play with a bunch of toys, right?
Where people just want you to get in the store,
and just go play with your Legos, go play with your cars,
go outside and just run around, please, no one,
there's gonna come a point in your life
where if you do that, people are gonna start
looking at you weird, and saying, what's wrong with you?
Do something productive, get to work,
pay some bills, right?
That's what it becomes, that's what being an adult is,
it becomes a lot of responsibility.
So that's the outlook even children should have, okay?
So there's that first season of life.
Then obviously, and that would also apply
even to teenagers and young people,
that they should just continue to obey, to learn,
to work, to do what they're supposed to do,
and to enjoy life as they can through play
and take different activities and things,
because that stuff goes away in time.
So we'll move on though, what about people
that are getting into maybe that young adulthood,
the early or the late teens, early 20s,
that even really up to their 30s,
when you're kinda considered an adult, 18 to 30, right?
Well really, that's a season in life,
what kind of plans should you make?
What kind of long-term plans should be on the horizon
for somebody that's approaching that season of their life?
And it's pretty cookie cutter, it's pretty generic,
but it's generic for a reason.
It's because it's just the natural course of life.
It's a career, it's marriage, and it's children.
That's really it.
And I'm gonna emphasize that
because of the world philosophy that's out there.
There's a lot of other people that will tell you,
oh no, no, no, that's not what your 20s are for.
Now your 20s are to sow your wild oats,
it's to go out there and party and live it up, okay?
That's not what the Bible says,
the Bible doesn't teach that, okay?
Go to Psalms 128, Psalms 128,
the Bible says in Lamentations 3,
it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
What's good for a young man?
To work, to bear the yoke,
not to just live this carefree lifestyle
where you're just out there, just living it up.
That's actually gonna be detrimental
for you in the long run.
It'll have detrimental effects on your health,
it'll have detrimental effects on your finances,
it'll have detrimental effects on your spirituality,
it'll have negative effects if your life
just becomes all about living for self in your youth, okay?
So people that are in that age bracket,
you know, that 18 to 30 where they're kind of,
you know, they're coming into adulthood,
they're young adults, they're taking on responsibilities,
you know, the things you should be trying to accomplish
are a career, marriage, and children, okay?
And obviously that differs a little bit
when it comes into whether or not you are a man or a woman.
Look at Psalms 128, verse one.
Blessed is everyone that fearth the Lord,
that walketh in his ways.
You know, who's the blessed person?
The one that fears God and walks in his ways.
Yeah, but that's something you do when you're older.
No, it's for everyone.
For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands.
Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
So God's saying, if you fear me,
and you walk in my ways, you'll be happy.
But now notice how God describes
what a happy life looks like.
What is, how does the Bible define happiness, right?
Happy shalt thou be, it shall be well with thee.
What does it mean, how does the Bible picture
it going well with us?
Verse three, thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine
by the sides of thine house,
and thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
You know, he didn't say, you know,
happiness is you doing a keg stand in the woods
at a bonfire.
You know, you, happiness is you, you know,
just bumming around Europe and skydiving
and doing all, you know, just living it up.
That's not what he said.
He said happiness and being blessed by God
is having a wife and children.
And that's not the popular message.
You know, that's not what everyone just feels like.
That's what's tying them down.
But isn't it funny how many people you'll run into
who don't have the spouse, who don't have the children,
and that's all they want more than anything.
You know, they wish they could go back and get that.
Those people are out there.
You know, so maybe we should just trust
what the Bible's saying here
and just believe it when it's telling you
that true happiness is fearing God
and a life that's gonna satisfy over the long haul
and not just end up being vain and meaningless
as a life that involves a family, okay?
And obviously, if it means a family,
it means responsibilities, it means a career,
it means being able to provide for that family,
it means bearing the yoke in your youth
because that's the rest of life is bearing the yoke.
Man was designed to work.
That's what we're here to do.
Look at verse four.
Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed
that feareth the Lord.
Oh, that doesn't sound like a blessing.
Well, the Bible says that is a blessing,
that if you're gonna fear God,
that's how God's gonna bless you.
Gonna give you the spouse.
He's gonna give you the children, okay?
The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion
and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem
all the days of thy life,
yea, they shall see thy children's children
and peace upon Israel.
That's a great blessing to have in life,
to be able to see your children's children,
to set the grandchild upon your knee, okay?
That's something we can look forward to
and ought to and ought to strive for even in our youth.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number nine.
Ecclesiastes chapter number nine.
And I'm kinda parking it here a minute
because I wanna combat this world philosophy
that's out there that is gonna tell young people
to just put off marriage, put off having children,
just go out there and just live it up
and just make life all about just you having fun,
just make it about self,
just make it about you having all these crazy adventures.
Just turn your life into an Instagram Reel, okay?
Newsflash, those people,
that's not what their life's really like.
You know, life isn't always,
life isn't just going to all these exotic locations
and living all these just insane adventures, right?
It's probably some trust fund child
who has nothing better to do
than just fly around the world
and paint some fake picture
of what life is supposed to be like.
And here's the thing, people look at that
and they think, oh, that's the blessed life,
me standing under a waterfall on some exotic island.
If I could just have those experiences
and go do those type of things,
if I could just drive the motorcycle
and go out and just do all these crazy adventures,
then I'd be happy.
No, you won't.
You might be entertained.
I'm not saying you're going to go there
and yawn and be bored.
You're going to regret in that moment doing it.
But if you just make your life about that
and just chasing after those things, even in your youth,
you know what?
You're going to find out at the end, it's all vanity
and it's all meaningless.
You say, what kind of things do you regret, Brother Corbin?
You know, I was actually thinking this the other day.
One of the regrets I have in life
is that I didn't meet my wife sooner
so we can start having children sooner.
We met at 28, 29.
We got married 29 years.
Had our first child at 30.
Am I getting all this right?
Okay, it's been a while.
But sometimes I think, man, if we'd met earlier
and we could have had another 10 years of having kids.
You know, I'm not saying that to,
I say I regret that,
but that's a good regret in a sense.
I'm glad we met when we did.
I'm glad that we had the children that we have.
In fact, I love my children so much, I wish I had more.
You know, I don't sit here going, man,
if I had just put off marriage for another five years,
if I just put off having kids for another decade,
I could have gone out and bought a fast car.
I'd have more nice clothes.
Or I could have gone up in a hot air balloon.
It's not like you can't do some of those things,
even with children.
I mean, it becomes incredibly hard to do
pretty much anything at some point,
but we'll get to that in a minute.
But what I'm saying is don't let this world, young people,
paint this picture for you
that this is what it looks like to be happy.
This is to live this fast paced, exciting life.
The Bible says the opposite.
It says that a blessed and happy life
is marriage and children.
It's true.
And we're commanded to be fruitful and multiply.
Look at Ecclesiastes nine, excuse me.
Ecclesiastes chapter number nine, verse nine.
Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest
all the days of the life of thy vanity.
You know, life is vain, ultimately.
And living with your wife, living with your spouse
is probably the most meaningful thing
that's gonna come out of life.
It's true.
God gives us this relationship.
God gives us the fruit of this relationship
because it's something that brings true
and lasting value to our lives, okay?
Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest
all the days of the life of thy vanity,
which he hath given thee under the sun
all the days of thy vanity,
for this is thy portion in this life
and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun.
This counters this world philosophy out there
that says your youth, your 20s,
because that's kind of the age
that we're looking at right now,
because we're talking about having long-term goals
for all these different seasons of life.
This counters that age of 18 to 20,
maybe even in your 30s, whatever, okay?
What are some of the philosophies that are out there?
Oh, your 20s are time to experiment.
That's what I've heard.
I remember, I'm being told that.
Oh, you're 21, 22.
This is the time of life that you just go out there
and just experiment.
What they mean is just go out there
and get involved in all kinds of sin.
That's what they're saying.
Go out there and just drink and do drugs
and fornicate and sleep around and party.
Just do the complete opposite of what the Bible says.
That's the philosophy that's out there.
You know, just go out there and hang out at the bars,
go to all the shows, and just hook up with whoever,
and just have all the one-night stands you can
and just experiment.
I love how they put that little,
oh, it's experimenting, like it's some harmless thing,
like it's something good,
like you're gonna come to some conclusion at the end of it.
Like I have a hypothesis about my life
and I'm gonna go out and experiment
and kind of see what's for me.
Well, the Bible's already told us
what is good for us in our youth.
It's marriage and children.
And maybe you can't put that up on a reel somewhere
and impress everybody with it, but you know what?
That's what the Bible says is blessed and happy in life.
That's gonna make you not live a vain and meaningless life
if you do that.
It counters this philosophy.
You know, experiment in your 20s.
Let me just, you know, let me translate that for you.
Do things you'll be ashamed of later.
That's what that is.
Hey, go on an experiment.
Basically, go do things that you're gonna regret
later in life that you wish you hadn't done.
Is that where, that's where it leads.
You know, go get the disease you wish you hadn't gotten.
Go out there and make the terrible decision
you wish you never made.
Experiment.
That's what they mean by that.
You know, your 20s is a time to make mistakes, right?
I've heard that one too.
It's a time to make mistakes.
It's a, let me translate that.
And I get it, you know, we're,
obviously we're all gonna make mistakes.
You know, but we're all not gonna make
the same mistakes everybody makes.
Well, at least we don't have to, okay?
We're all gonna mess up.
We're all gonna, wish we could have things we could do over
even when we're trying our best to fear God
and walk in his ways, I get that, okay?
But what I'm saying is there's people out there,
it's time for you to just go out there
and just make mistakes, experiment.
You know, make mistakes, what they're saying is
just go out there and waste time.
Just go out there and waste a whole decade of your life
accomplishing nothing and then trying to play,
and then having to play catch up later
in your 30s and your 40s.
Because other people who feared God
and were more diligent about the things of God
got way ahead of you, right?
And instead of out living and partying,
you know, living it up and partying and everything,
they settled down, got married,
got serious about their career,
and now in their 30s and 40s,
you know, they're successful, they have children,
they have adult children by the time they're in their 40s,
they're enjoying them, you know,
they have older children that are helping
with their younger children.
That's what they mean by experiment and make mistakes.
It's go out there and get into sin and waste time, okay?
That should not be the long-term goals
we have for young people.
That's not the long-term goal
you should have set for yourself.
It should be what's found in scripture.
And it's very clear what the Bible says.
You know, find a spouse, get married.
And, you know, I debated whether or not
I was gonna put this next point in here.
Advice for finding a spouse.
Because I found that this is me
just usually wasting my breath.
You know, and it's especially frustrating
when guys will come to me,
hey, you got any advice for finding a wife?
And then I give them advice and they're just like,
nah, that won't work.
And they just walk away.
It's like, well, you know, I'm the one with the wife.
You know, so obviously it worked to some degree.
And I could point, and I've given advice
that maybe even wasn't necessarily what I did,
but I've seen it work for other people.
Okay, and you know what, I'll just throw it out there
just in case it might fall on some ears
that people might actually do it
and it might work out for them.
Because I know that, you know,
a lot of people probably wanna fulfill this for their lives.
They might say, you know, that's what I wanna do.
I wanna find the spouse and I want to fulfill that.
You know, praise God for that.
You know, that's gonna be a blessed young person, okay?
So advice for finding a spouse, all right?
My real, like, the stuff I've said in the past,
well, here's one that I said in the past to one guy,
more than one guy.
I've said this to several of them.
Maybe even express it from the pulpit here, I don't know.
I said, why don't you go get a part-time job
at In-N-Out or Chick-fil-A
and find a wife there, right?
Because that's the thing.
Well, where do you find a woman?
Well, one, if you're looking for a wife,
looking for one in a kitchen is probably, you know,
not a black star, I don't know.
Especially if she's making sandwiches, come on.
Just kidding.
I'm half joking on that one.
But think about it.
You'd say, well, that would never work.
But yet I can point you to people
where that's exactly where they met their,
maybe not at In-N-Out or Chick-fil-A.
I just use those two restaurants
because if you're gonna work at fast food,
those are the best ones to work at.
And they're stuck there with you, right?
They're gonna have to interact with you.
They're cornered.
They can't quit, right?
So, you know, that's worked for people, you know,
but I've given that out there.
And again, I'm sure everybody that just heard that
is gonna go, that'll never work.
And yet it could, you know,
because you see young people there, right?
You see young ladies there.
You see the young men there, right?
And if you've already got the day job
and you're working that part time at night
trying to find the spouse there,
you're already earning a paycheck
and saving up for the ring.
You've already got the honeymoon money.
You got the down payments, okay?
So anyway, that's solid advice, by the way.
But no one will ever take me up on that.
You know, maybe my son will one day.
He'll wise up and do it.
And then I can say, see.
But here is just some more general advice
because people have a hard time finding a mate today,
especially if you're, you know,
a new IFB, Baptist, fundamental.
I understand, and I honestly,
I have sympathy for people, young people,
because a lot of the other young people today,
they've adopted the world's philosophy, haven't they?
There's not a lot of them out there that are,
a lot of young ladies out there that are looking
to just hurry up and have kids and be somebody's wife.
You know, it's not, they wanna go be the lawyer,
the marine biologist or whatever.
They all wanna just go out and have a career
and go out and pour around, basically.
So I have some sympathy.
But my advice would be to work on attracting a spouse
rather than finding one you're attracted to.
Okay, and what I'm really saying is focus on you, right?
Work on actually being somebody
who can attract a spouse, right?
Young men work on just being strong,
capable, and confident, okay?
That's all I'm gonna say about it.
You know, that's my advice, we gotta move on.
So that's kinda my advice, you know,
when we're talking about having a long-term plan
for all the days of your life.
All the days of your life, you should be thinking
about where you are, what season of life you're in,
what is your goals, what should they be,
what should you be focusing on, right?
We looked at children, obey and play, right?
Young adults, teenagers, start thinking about that career,
finding the spouse, having the children,
that's what the Bible says is a blessed life.
That's, you know, the fruit of the womb is his reward, okay?
Having children is a blessing.
It's not going out there and living some party lifestyle
and everything that comes along with it.
So maybe somebody, you know, maybe people do that, right?
And then they get into that next phase,
you know, their 30s, their 40s, what do you do then?
Well, basically at that point you just hang on
for dear life, that's all you...
You just try not to drown under the burden
of all those responsibilities.
Just try not to let the weight of the world
crush your spirit.
Let's close in prayer, right?
You know, 34 years of age, but honestly,
there is a little bit of truth to that.
You know, you just, just raise those kids,
just hang in there, keep serving God,
don't let them drag you down.
But that's really it, you know,
they just keep serving God and raise those kids.
I really don't have a lot of it,
but you think I'd have a ton of advice for this age group,
but I don't, because, you know, it's really that.
When you start having those kids, you know,
it's just really about day by day, you know,
paying the bills, getting through it.
But as I said at the beginning,
always make sure you're serving God.
You know, don't...
And obviously to as much as you are able to,
you know, given your certain circumstances, okay?
Now, when you get into your forties and onward,
and honestly, I can't talk a lot about
what your life goals should be in your fifties and sixties
and onward, just because, you know, I'm not there yet.
Come back in a couple, you know, every decade
and we'll talk about it.
But pretty much, you know, kind of my philosophy
going into my forties is like I said,
preparing to age well, you know,
and that might not sound flashy,
that might not be the most exciting thing,
but it's practical and it's needful
because it's inevitable that you're gonna get older.
You know, God willing.
And really, as even, and even in your thirties,
really, let me just, we'll just,
from your thirties onward, okay?
Just focus on aging well, you know,
and not sliding into the slime
and just becoming, you know,
completely useless when you get older, right?
Keep your mind sharp, keep your body sharp,
you know, stay in good health and prepare for old age.
The Bible says, I'll just read to us from Psalm 90.
The days of our years are three score and 10,
and if by reason of strength they be four score years,
yet is their strength labor and sorrow
for to soon cut off and we fly away.
So he's saying, hey, you know,
we're three score and 10, 70 years,
and if by reason of strength they be 80, right?
Meaning if we want to get into those
even more advanced years,
it's something we're gonna have
to make happen for ourselves.
You know, it's something that we're gonna have to work on,
we're gonna have to, and obviously, I get it,
disease just comes out of nowhere,
tragedies, things just happen,
they're unavoidable, that's part of life,
but generally speaking, you know, we can focus,
we should be focusing on living into a good old age.
Don't you ever love that phrase,
when you come across it and you're reading through Genesis,
you know, where it's talking about
when this patriarch was, you know, so many years old
and he lived, you know, a full,
he lived to a good old age or he was buried, you know,
in a good old age and full of years.
I love that statement.
You know, I hope that that can be said of me one day,
that I will be, go to my grave full of years
and of a good old age, right?
I wanna make it, you know, I wanna be able to go that far.
Why?
Because I wanna be able to make an impact for Christ.
And so that's kind of my last point.
And you know, you might be sitting out there
and thinking, well, a lot of this doesn't apply to me.
You know, maybe some of these things
just aren't gonna be in the cards
for some people in this room.
The family, the children, just it's not gonna happen,
or it already has, whatever.
One thing we can all do as I started out
in the beginning of the sermon
is to serve God all the days of our lives.
And we can all, should be striving
towards making an impact for Christ.
And really, when you think about it,
all the points that I've made are to that end.
You know, what's the point of having the children?
To raise godly children in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord, as I preached this morning,
and so that they can go out there
and make an impact for Christ
so that our faith continues on,
even in the next generation,
that souls are still being saved, you know,
through our influence long after we've gone to the grave.
Make an impact for Christ.
That's why we should want to live well into our old age.
And understand, even if we are approaching,
you know, those sunset or twilight years,
it's not over, and there's still a lot
that can be done for Christ.
I mean, good night, think about Moses, right?
I think that's one of the greatest examples.
I love that example of Moses that, you know,
he set out at 40 to try to do things in his own power,
but it wasn't until he was 80 years old
that God used him to do the greatest,
some of the greatest works
that you'll ever read about in scripture.
In fact, the Bible says there was not
another prophet like him.
I mean, he's the friend of God,
and that started at 80, right?
So don't ever think that just because
maybe you didn't have all these other things
take place for you, you made mistakes.
I mean, Moses killed a man, okay?
Moses was a vagabond.
Moses was an outlaw on the run.
He'd made mistakes, right?
Or he was old, you know?
Oh, I'm just too old.
Well, you know, God gives us examples
of people in scripture who did great works
despite their past not being perfect,
who did great works and made huge impact for Christ.
And when I say make an impact for Christ,
I'm not saying you're gonna be some, you know,
well-known televangelist.
I'm saying you're gonna have an impact on eternity.
You know, you might not be known in this world,
but your name will be known in heaven
by a multitude of people
that have come to Christ through you.
I mean, that's what I mean by making an impact for Christ.
Saving souls.
You know, being an influence for God,
being a blessing in your local church,
influencing other people that come
and guiding them and helping them in the scriptures
and living the Christian life.
That's making, that's an impact on eternity.
Yeah, it might never make the newsreels here in this world,
but you know what?
Heaven will know what you've accomplished.
And I don't care what you have or haven't done
in your past, I don't care what age you are right now,
you still have time to do great works for God.
If you wanted to, if you would number your days,
if you would just be sober enough to sit down
and think about how much time do I actually have left
and number those days and then apply your heart
unto wisdom, you could accomplish more.
In fact, you will, it's guaranteed,
you will accomplish more than if you didn't do that.
Or you could just sit there and not do that
and just think, well, I'm just not gonna even bother.
Then you can guarantee
that you're not gonna accomplish anything
if you don't apply your heart to wisdom,
if you don't number your days.
Go to Ecclesiastes 9, we'll wrap it up.
You know, succeed in other areas of your life.
Maybe some of these other things aren't in the cards.
You know, maybe marriage and children and all those things,
it's just not there for you, or it's come and gone.
You know, there's other areas you could succeed in.
Business, you know, or like I said earlier, aging well.
You know, maybe it's time to take up that hobby
that's gonna keep the mind sharp.
Learn a language.
I mean, I don't know, you tell me.
What do you wanna do?
I mean, sometimes I think that's what people just need to do.
They just need to sit down and think,
well, what do I want to accomplish?
What would I wanna look back on in 10 years?
What would I wanna look back in five years?
What long-term goals can I set
that I would be proud of accomplishing
if I did them?
I think if people would just sit down
and at least think about that,
and not just, you know, not just quickly,
not just, you know, hurry up and get that over with,
but actually sit down and really think about this.
I mean, it's something I've thought about,
and I'm gonna just think about it this weekend
so I can come up with a sermon.
I've been thinking about this for a while.
This is something I've been mulling over.
What do I want to accomplish in this life?
What do I wanna get done in the next, by the time I'm 50?
What, on my 50th birthday,
which is on a Tuesday, by the way,
do I wanna look back on and be able to say,
I spent the last, you know, my 40s were spent well.
I accomplished this, I did this, I did this.
What things am I doing so that my 50s
will be better than they otherwise would be, okay?
Succeed in other areas of life, okay?
If some of these things are not on the table for you,
there's still plenty of things you can do.
And as I was just saying,
we can all make an impact for Christ.
I don't know where I had you go.
Ecclesiastes 9, whatsoever, look at verse 10,
thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
You know, find something to do
and do it with all your might.
Accomplish something.
For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge,
nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.
You know, life is gonna come and go,
it's gonna be over before we know it.
You know, we might as well make some goals,
number our days, and then get after it
and actually set out to accomplish something.
You know, and obviously a lot of these things
that I discussed earlier are great biblical goals
that we ought to set for ourselves.
But, you know, whatever thy hand findeth to do,
do it with thy might, succeed at something.
And obviously, as I said, above everything serve God,
make an impact for Christ.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 12,
I said we would go there.
So why should I worry about making an impact for Christ?
Because you'll wish you had.
And I don't care how much we do accomplish for God.
I don't care how many thousands of souls
we end up bringing to Christ.
I don't care how many, you know, great sermons we preach
or put into practice in our lives.
When we get to glory and we see what heaven is really like
and we stand in the presence of God
and we look Christ in the face,
I don't care how much anyone has done,
they'll wish they had done more for God.
And all we can, you know, the best we could ever say
in our life is I did everything that I could.
And, you know, what I'm really trying to preach
or get across by preaching this is that people would avoid
getting there and just saying, well, I didn't do anything.
Or I did next to nothing.
Because that's gonna be, you know,
that's not gonna be a good feeling.
That's not what I want for people in this church.
You know, no matter what we do for Christ,
you know, it's not gonna be enough.
Why should we try to make an impact?
Because when we get to heaven, we'll wish we had.
We'll wish we had.
You know, you might write this sermon off.
You might think this is just, oh, whatever.
But I already know this is a fact.
This is something I know.
What I'm preaching tonight,
whether you put it into practice tonight or not,
when you get to heaven, you'll wish you had.
You know, if you write off what I'm saying
and don't make any plans and don't apply your heart
to wisdom, just think, you know,
I'm just gonna spend my 20s doing whatever I want
and go out there and go ahead and get all the regrets
and go ahead and go out there and make all the mistakes
and waste all that time, you know,
there's gonna come a point in your life
where you wish you had listened.
That's a fact.
Look at Ecclesiastes 12, verse 13.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
What does God expect out of me?
Fear him and keep his commandments.
For God shall bring every work into judgment
and with every secret thing,
whether it be good or whether it will be evil.
You know, we'll wish we had.
You know, the more opportunity we were given to serve God,
you know, the more we'll wish we had done.
Let's go ahead and have a quick word of prayer.