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it's our last Sunday of 2024. Can you believe it? Last Sunday of 2024 and uh I guess you could say it's the first week of the new year because as we come into Wednesday it'll be 2025. You know when 2025 hits 2024 is over. It's never to be returned to. It's uh you're never gonna have another 2024 day and uh you know as we start to sort of count down the days of the new year uh you know I want to kind of reflect back on the days that have gone past. We count down the days and then before you know it you're going to be counting down the minutes and then you're going to be counting down the seconds right. 10 9 8 7 not not really like that 10 9 and 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 happy new year and while it's great to go into the new year 2025. Do we have regrets about 2024? Do we uh you know do we look back and go man uh was 2024 really that profitable to me or did I waste a lot of time and this chapter actually deals with that topic about the days that God has given us and uh it's a it's a psalm of Moses. It's a song of Moses and I want you to notice what it says there in uh psalm 90 look at verse number 12. He says to God so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Moses is telling God God look help us to understand that our our days are numbered okay well you know once 2024 is gone it's gone forever okay that's my point uh you know the days that go by you you'll never get them again you know every day we live is one less day you're going to have on this earth and in life and so the title for the sermon today is number your days number your days and of course Moses is asking God teach us to number our days meaning as human beings we don't normally number our days we just think tomorrow's going to come it's just going to be another day and we sort of lose sight about taking advantage of the days that God has given us now if someone like an enemy of yours some of that hates you comes up to you and says your days are numbered what does that mean they're they're they're you know it's an it's a threat they're saying you know that like I'm going to come and end your days I'm coming to uh you know end your life and it's meant to be a threat but the truth is your days are numbered okay and so we ought to number our days we ought to number our own days God has given us a number of days a number of years whereby we are to live and we want to make most of the days that God has given us right now I'm not gonna we're not gonna read this whole psalm or go through this whole psalm but Moses begins and I suppose it's you know it's all about the nation of Israel you need to understand and you know uh when Moses comes on the scene especially when with the nation of Israel you know before that I should say before they were a nation they were under bondage by Egypt weren't they they were known as the children of Israel and you can look back at the 400 or so years that they were in bondage or under Egypt and say man what what a waste of years for the nation to be held in bondage all these years and so God would send Moses to come and deliver them out of that place so they can serve God faithfully you know they can have the nation that God had initialized had set to be the in place since he made the promises unto Abraham and so you know God wanted a nation on the land a people of people that were his people whose God was their God God was their God and so you know this is important to look back you know God wanted Israel to look back and say man we've wasted so many years and so first thing I want to do here is to think about how we can waste our time with the days that God has given us first of all look at verse number four speaking about God it says for a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night so even though our days are numbered you're not to God a thousand years is just like yesterday right to God time operates very differently to us God is eternal okay a thousand years is as a day and as a day to him as a thousand years God is outside of time but we we are stuck in time okay I mean a thousand years for us would be a long time like that would be a long time right we only get to potentially up to a hundred years if God blesses us to live a thousand years would be like wow that's like a hundred uh uh lifetimes no no it wouldn't be 100 lives it'd be 10 lifetimes for example right uh but to God it's like as if it was just yesterday it just just it goes past okay and so time to God is insignificant but of course a thousand years to us is great significance and so the point is that every day we live ought to be significant to us because we have such few days to live our days are numbered now look at verse number seven this is how you can waste your days all right now I hope you haven't wasted a lot of 2024 okay but generally speaking we do as human beings waste a lot of our days it says in verse number seven 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 so we can definitely say boy if we spend days in God's anger we're wasting those days right now what are some ways that the nation of Israel and by extension yourselves how can we waste certain days well verse number eight mentions our iniquities our iniquities our sins that we do before God it says thou hast set our iniquities before thee so Moses is saying here that all our sins or every sin we ever commit it's it's in the face of God it's it's an offense to God God sees all of our sins you can't hide your sins from God he knows them he knows what you've done he knows what you thought okay you can hide it from your parents you can hide it from your loved ones you can hide it from people but God sees it all and that's why he continues in verse number eight our secret sins in the light of thy countenance sometimes we think we have secret sins right nobody knows these sins that I've committed but all our secret sins are in his light God there are no secret sins to God okay so here's how you can waste your time okay waste your days when you walk in darkness you're far from the Lord your heart is not toward him you're in secret sins you hide your face even from God and say well I'm just going to keep this to myself and I'm not going to go God to God and ask him to forgive me you know you can go by days and and weeks and months trying to hide your sins from God thinking well no Lord I just you know I just know where to face you but there are no secret sins to God you know a really great example of this is King David we know of David's great sin in the bible right where he took another man's wife and she fell pregnant ends up killing the husband sending him into warfare and pulling back the troops so he would die against the enemy and you know he took the prophet Nathan to confront David about his sin and that that confrontation of that sin you know how long it took over nine months because it was after the baby was born that Nathan was sent by God to confront David about his sins David held King David held a secret sin from God for over nine months all right and that could be you you could have had something like I just I don't want to face God I don't want to deal with pretend it doesn't exist then look these are wasted days these are wasted weeks these are wasted months imagine going nine months hiding from God what a waste of time when God could have used those nine months in fellowship to teach and to guide and to enrich and to bless your life but rather King David would rather hide and be there in the wrath of God where another man had to end up like boy I mean Nathan didn't even have to know about this like it's embarrassing when someone else has to know about it and then they have to confront you about it you know when it comes to secret sins the sins that we commit brethren immediately just go to God God really knows just sort of keep a short account all right go to God sort it out ask for his forgiveness confess them before God so you can be in the light of his fellowship okay because that's where the true blessings are when we're in fellowship with God you know when you're hiding your sins you're wasting your days okay your days are already numbered you know why waste them hiding your sins from God what else what are the things that can waste our time look at verse number nine for all our days are passed away in thy wrath we spend our years as a tale that is told so again he's speaking about the nation right he goes these years that go by just like a story I don't know you know if you ever you know watched like someone read a story to you and you listen to a tale and you're like oh that's a really good story it starts and then it ends and it's like okay well that was good to hear about and it's over well our years are like that it's like a tale that has been told it starts and then it'll be over and you'll be like oh it's over already like that went by quick all right so we don't want to waste our time uh you know um or allowing our days to pass in God's anger we don't want to be on the wrong side of God right this is why I brought up the sins before we don't want to waste our time in God's anger I want to wait I want to spend my time with God's smile upon me with his face shining upon me right I want to be in God's presence I want to love him and serve him and for him to just do wonderful works through my life and through the life of my family and through the life of New Life Baptist Church wasting your allowing your days to pass in God's anger is just a it's a waste of days this is why Moses is like well can you teach us to number our days because we're allowing all these days to go by wasted when we could be doing so many great things I mean think about how God wanted them in the promised land right and they're like no they're like giants these Canaanites we can't go and defeat them all right 40 years in the wilderness 40 years wasted you know where where a generation of 20 years and over could not even go into the promised land they left Egypt on the hope that they promised land and they end up dying in the wilderness they've wasted their days they should have focused on getting to the promised land as soon as possible and Brian the same thing for you the promised land represents a victorious and wonderful and blessed Christian life why waste your days in the wilderness you know let's go to the promised land take down the giants you know the the problems the sins the things that keep us away from God let's just take them down let's not waste our time and spend time with God in the promised land verse number 10 Psalm 90 verse number 10 the days of our years are three score years and ten a score is 20 so three score is three times 20 60 and 10 60 plus 10 is 70 all right so I guess the average lifespan at this point in time was around 70 okay and in many ways if you look at the average lifespan in the world as a as the world in general it's about 75 okay then it says and if by reason of strength they'd be four score years four times 20 80 years he goes look maybe the strongest of us are going to get to 80 years now Moses was 80 when he actually led the children of Israel out of Egypt okay he lived another 40 years on top of that so that Moses had a lot of strength like God really prolonged his days all right praise God for that but you know this is the average lifespan and I think the average lifespan in Australia is about 85 okay so you get to 85 you've had some strong years like you've lived you know you know pretty long pretty long on the earth you get beyond that there's a lot of strength okay now this is where you need to like think about your life and and like again we're not promised that we're even going to wake up tomorrow are we we could be driving home from church after service car accident and it's finished right just something you're in your body gives way your heart stops whatever it is right I mean anything can happen and your life is over we we understand how fragile we are and I guess in in many people's eyes if they can live you know many years that is the goal and so they'll take care of themselves very much so nothing wrong with that you know of itself right to take care of oneself and your body it's a it's a temple of the Lord you know um but one thing that I've learned in life is I mean I don't know if you probably all recognize this but quality of life is better than quantity of life would you agree with that quality of life is better than quantity I'd rather have less days but quality days than many days and many days of sorrow and and and you know heartache and things like that and so we can see here that God gives us a good 70 to 80 years and for those that live longer he says something interesting about this it says yet is there strength labor and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away but say look if we just strive to live as many days as we can we just add more labor more work and more sorrow all right so it's like yes it's good to have a long life but you're going to have more sorrow the longer you live okay and so he's making a point that you know just chasing as many days and living as long as we possibly can is kind of like a waste of effort because at the end of days your day's going to cut off anyway you're going to fly away you just added more sorrow and more labor to your life and so you know again this is kind of like the the pursuit of an extended life you know chasing quantity rather than quality because I don't know I'd rather live I'm 43 I think am I 43 I probably am okay I'd rather have lived 50 years of joy and look there's obviously heartache and all of that okay I understand that I'd rather live 50 years of joy and die at 50 okay then live a hundred years and 80 years of that is just sorrow and depression and misery and just 20 of those are joy I'd rather 50 years of joy than 20 years of joy this is why quality is better than quantity now we don't know what our quantity of days are we don't know that but one thing we can do is make sure the days that God has given us are of high quality we want the days that God has given us to be productive and you've done well today to be here on Sunday you've numbered today say today I'm going to be in the house of the Lord I'm going to learn something from God I'm going to praise the Lord good start to your new week good start to what will become 2025 hey praise God that this Wednesday is New Year's Day you can start the first day of the new year in the house of the Lord I mean that would be productive that would you know you've got to start numbering your days God help us to number our days I don't know how many days I've got 50 years 44 years 100 years 70 80 years Lord but I just don't want it to be all labor and sorrow I want it to be quality I want to spend time with you I want to be productive Lord I want to achieve as much as I can for your name's sake here on this earth help me to number my days you know Job I'll just very quickly read from the book of Job Job says these words in Job 14 verse 5 he says seen Batman speaking about man seen his days are determined the number of his months are with thee thou has appointed his bounds that he cannot pass God says like Lord you know days you've given us you have the months Lord and we can't pass that it's like a bound it's a boundary that we can't just like all right Lord you've given me 90 years I'm going for 91 years you can't you know God is in control of the days that you have and look it must be the days that he's given us for every human being must be enough days to know Christ our savior must be enough for that at the bare minimum all right must be enough for us to do a work for him there must be enough days to serve our Lord Jesus Christ now the thief on the cross he wasted a lot of years thankfully he numbered his days he was on the cross he had no other choice but to number his days he knows that was his final day and got right with Christ on the last day thankfully okay he was able to number it like he's forced to number his days he knows this is the last day that I'll ever live I better get right with God he made that decision praise God everybody on this earth has at least enough days to made made right with God look at verse 11 Psalm 90 verse 11 who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath what this essentially saying is if you know God's anger and wrath and you do because you know God's ultimate wrath is the lake of fire okay quite extreme you know people being tormented day and night forever and ever you know all right so basically saying here if you know God's anger and his wrath you ought to fear him you ought to fear of the Lord and fear in the Lord we understand is a biblical principle found all over your bible from the old testament to the new testament we ought to have a fear of God how else can you waste your days by not fearing him because it's fearing God and realizing God you've given me a new day this day like well you know the fear of God will do you say this day is for you Lord you've given me a new day I ought to live for you Lord I don't want to waste this day with you chastising me and you correcting me and and me sitting against you Lord you know and me hiding my sins from you this is not the day that you've given me to do that you've given me a day to fear you and I better do what you've asked me to do today Lord that will help you right not to waste the days away that God has given you so we ought to live with the fear of the Lord in our lives it's going to help us number our days make our days quality productive you know and serving our mighty God and then verse number 12 so so because of all these wasted days that Israel has had so teach us to number our days for what purpose that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom wisdom God has given us days God has given us today to apply it to wisdom and brethren all the other days that you've wasted what's the opposite of wisdom of being wise foolish wasting your days away is a foolish thing to do so we need to apply our hearts unto wisdom and once you've numbered your days and I don't know I don't know how many days I've got all I know I've got today all right so today is a day that I need to apply to wisdom I know that the average lifespan in Australia is 85 years Lord willing if you give me that time I'm now 43 that means I've got another 42 years left of life I better start to number them they they're counting down I want to do something great for you God before my body is destroyed before my brain gives I don't know some people are really I don't know a lot of older people you know they're even their their mental capacity kind of diminishes over time Lord just use me now Lord while I've got my strength and I've got clarity of mind and I've got the ability to do something great for you Lord because and they the days are going to go by and it's going to get harder and harder as the years go by so we don't want to waste the days that God has given us we want to apply them to wisdom now you're in Psalm so come with me to Psalm 111 Psalm 111 there's a reason why the fear of God is mentioned in verse number 11 and there's a reason why the fear of I mean the the wisdom or wisdom is mentioned there in verse number 12 because we know that these two things come together and in Psalm 111 just for example Psalm 111 verse number 10 Psalm 111 and verse number 10 the Bible reads the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom so if we are to apply our hearts unto wisdom it's impossible unless you have the fear of the Lord okay this is important part of your life fear in the Lord and look I don't wake up like oh how's God going to punish me today I'm so afraid is he going to cast me to hellfire I don't have that fear okay I know I stand in the righteousness of Christ all right I know that even if I'm unfaithful he cannot deny himself okay the Lord God lives within me his Holy Spirit is within me I have the new man he sees me clothed in the righteousness of Christ so I'm not afraid in that sense but I realize God's given me 24 hours these 24 hours I've got my wife I've got my kids today Sunday I've got church you might say Monday for me is work I've got these days Lord how do I serve you in the days that you've given me fear will drive you to do the right thing the fear of God will drive you to obey his commandments this is why if you continue verse number 10 there are some 111 verse number 10 it says a good understanding have all they that do his commandments his praise endureth forever so a good understanding have all they that do his commandments all right so it's wise to do his commandments to do his commandments we're going to touch upon that in a moment okay but to be wise requires fear and we know that the most productive lives that we can possibly live on this on this earth is to follow the commands that he's given us that are laid out in his scriptures so how do I do that we need to be wise how do I get wisdom you got to fear the Lord how do I fear the Lord remember his wrath remember his anger remember what God can do and then you have that fear and then you remember today is a life worth living for Jesus Christ Lord Christ what would you have me to do today and that's the best way to live your life you know a life that chases after the commandments of God this is a blessed life now come with me to Hebrews 5 Hebrews 5 so this was all kind of an introduction right I don't want you wasting your days we've seen examples of how you can waste two days away and we would know that when we waste our days it's foolishness okay we've been foolish the day that was wasted would never be returned it's gone okay it's a day that you could have done something for the Lord it's a day that you could have kept his commandments it's a day that you could have feared him it's a day that you could have grown in wisdom but you've wasted it away so that is not what we ought to do we ought to number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom and what we saw that I'll just while you got to Hebrews 5 I'll just read it to you again in Psalm 111 verse 10 the fear of the Lord is beginning wisdom a good understanding have all they that do his commandments I want you to number your days you know we got two and a half days roughly left in 2024 okay that's all you got left this is all you got left for 2024 why don't you just give it to the Lord say Lord you know these two and a half days left I just want to fear you Lord give me wisdom these last two and a half days of 2024 help me to do the commandments that you've listed out in the scriptures help me to be productive these last two and a half days is a good time right the turn of the year to realize man days truly are limited days are truly numbered let me let me give these last two and a half days for my Lord God now we understand we know that we need a good understanding so Hebrews 5 11 Hebrews 5 11 how do we get a good understanding of what God expects from us from his commandments how do we get that well Hebrews 5 11 says of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing ye a dole of hearing now we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God we know that has to do with salvation but it comes with all our spiritual growth as we're growing out we go from faith to faith we're growing our faithfulness toward God we need to be able to hear his word but you know sometimes as God's people we can become dull of hearing like ah I know it already I've heard it all there's nothing new Pastor Kevin he's just a parrot of every some every other pastor I've heard before right I really know it all I know more than all the pastors in fact you know you get to that point it's like I just I can't absorb anything new anymore I've just you become dull of hearing now I personally believe that I'm never I'm never in this life whatever days that God is I'm never going to come and understand everything in the Bible every verse every sentence I don't think I'm ever going to exhaust God's word I don't think I'm gonna get support I just know it all Lord I know not just what's on the surface level I know all the layers and all the applications and I have all the right doctrines I mean if that's you you're pretty much God at that point in time then you know hats off to you I understand that our life is constant growth right we're growing to be more like Christ and if you say man I'm dull of hearing I know it all you're basically saying I've reached Christ's level look at I'm Jesus Christ that's like no look don't be dull of hearing you know we need to hear God's word right I mean I don't know how many times you read through your Bible cover to cover or if you've heard sermons from every chapter of the book of the Bible you know you're never gonna get to the ends of the depths of his wisdom there is so much to learn sometimes even I'm just I'm like flabbergasted by something like man how did I not know this in the Bible how did I not pick up on this or I read the scriptures in context I'm like man I used to think this passage was about this topic and now I realize in context it has nothing to do with that that's something wow like you know my eyes are constantly being opened by God's word I'll be surprised if you're never learning anything I'm like that's that's you're either you're either Jesus or you're dull of hearing if you're going to the point where you just know it and brethren if we you know if we need to develop a good understanding this is why he's given us days all right to develop a good understanding of his word look at verse number 12 Hebrews 5 12 for when for a time you ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God and to become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe I want to know this verse I'm 14 but strong meats belong to them that are of full age what's full age maturity for those that are fully matured not just in your age like you're an adult but spiritually mature that's who the strong meat belongs to okay strong meat doesn't make you mature the milk matures you once you mature now you can take in the strong meats meaning you're still growing even when you're mature you understand that you're mature man I'm a well-rounded Christian I'm doing well all right good now it's time for you to learn more here's some strong meat for you to consume it says there a full age even those by reason of use reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil what do we learn about who those of full age are that they use what they've learned they exercise they put into practice that which they've learned they're able to discern good and evil they're making the right decisions in life so this leads us to the next thing right you know we need a good understanding of his commandments we need to hear we come to church right the spirit which speaks in the house of God we know that the Holy Spirit is teaching us is guiding us is confirming what I'm saying to be true or false you know you ought to go back home and test what you've heard with God's word to see if it's true right we ought to hear God's work that's important part you can't exercise you can't discern you can't take the actions until you first hear and get a good understanding of what you've learned so hearing is important and church plays an important role in this process now of course your own bible reading as well is important you're on time with God you're on time being sensitive to the leading of God these things are all important and to the in today's age praise God for the internet you can hear sermons from all across the world from some godly men praise God I'm not against that whatsoever okay I'm not against listening to some great preachers online okay but what I am against is when you listen to great preachers online hand sermons a day right you hear you hear you hear you hear you know you know uh-huh get it understand yep understand understand whoa lots to us yep more more more more more more more more but you don't exercise your faith you don't do the discerning you don't do the judging all right in your life you don't become mature of a full age all right you're not using uh the what God has given you in your life and this is something that is new to me it kind of is surprise doesn't surprise me so much but it's it's a concept that is kind of new to me in the last decade or so is the amount of knowledge people have because they've absorbed a lot of information don't apply it to their lives you know so I know why that church is wrong I know why that pastor's beliefs are wrong I know why brother Michael is wrong I know why pastor Kevin is wrong I know why sister Cindy is wrong I can identify everybody's problems because I have so much knowledge but they themselves never change remain the same in life and this is what it surprises me like how much is like how many people are like this a lot yep I've heard it all all right but you're still a babe because you're not exercising what you've absorbed you're not putting it into your life you're able to tell where everybody else is wrong and everyone else's beliefs are wrong but your own life does not demonstrate that you have grown to the level of maturity in Christ Jesus stop numbering everyone else's days and start numbering your own dates teach us to number our days lord how many days are left for me I don't know about you but like when I read my Bible I realize just how poor I am as a Christian how much improvement that I need to make as a pastor how much better I can be as a father how much better I can be as a husband right when I read about honoring your parents I remember my mum and dad in Sydney and I need to be there for them as they age you know I read about friendships and I realize I could be a better friend right when I read the scriptures I say boy I can be a better son of my heavenly father right I can be a better soul winner I can lead my household better I should be doing better I need to grow that's been my life's journey as a Christian as a believer as a reader of God's word as a hearer of God's word when I hear God's word I'm thinking man I need to improve I need to change right God's given me today not that I can point out why that brother over there needs to change God's given me today so I can change so I can grow in wisdom because that's what wisdom is wisdom is the exercising of the knowledge that God has given you I think of a babe just an overweight obese babe a lot of knowledge but you're not growing you're not maturing you're not the teachers I can criticize everybody I know why everybody's wrong what about you this is wisdom this ought to be wisdom right God you've given me someday you've given me what's the day today brethren the 28th 29th the 29th Lord you want me to grow in wisdom today you want me to be more like Christ today Lord I'm hearing a sermon from church today give me one major thing that I can change in my life and Lord can you help me make the change right now because Lord you give me today for some change you give me today to number my days you give me today to grow in wisdom I don't want to waste my time away just recognizing why everybody else needs to change but not me we need a good understanding if we're going to do and grow and mature we need the good understanding don't forget I'm all for understanding but then we need to apply that understanding right look at James 1 can we get to James 1 you guys know these passages James 1 22 James 1 22 and we know look it's in the bible because we naturally are these kinds of even myself it's always easier to identify where someone else needs to grow than acknowledging where I need to grow right it's always easier all right and that's why we come to a passage like James 1 look at James 1 verse number 22 but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves see it's not that hearing is bad and growing in knowledge is bad but if you don't do it God is saying you're deceiving yourself now is deceiving yourself a good thing or a bad thing it's a bad thing it's a negative thing right so you're like okay I'm gonna absorb all the sermons that are under the sun right man I know it all now but you don't do it what happens you're deceiving yourself you're sin against yourself okay you're doing wrong to yourself you're damaging yourself we need to be doers so much better than listening to 10 sermons a day listen to one sermon a day and do that one sermon and if that one sermon has 10 things to do okay forget nine of those things take one of those things to do in that sermon and do that that's better that's much better than listening to 100 sermons knowing all the information of 100 sermons and not doing any of it oh but I'm better at determining whether that pass is wrong over there how does that help your life how do you how does that make you more like Christ how does that make you mature and grow and growing wisdom and be productive for the Lord the days that God has given you God has given you a race to run you're running your race you're not trying to tell other people how to run their races focus on like you're sat at the start line oh yeah you need to go faster over there watch for that corner no you run right you get on the race track and start running for the Lord Jesus Christ so we need to do his commandments get a good understanding and do it let me read to you once again don't just turn away just the passage there in um Psalm 90 verse number 12 so teach us to number our days that we may apply our heart unto wisdom and Psalm 111 verse number 10 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have all they that do his commandments all right we need the fear of the Lord we need wisdom and wisdom comes by hearing yes acquiring knowledge yes but if you don't put it into practice you've deceived yourself no one else has wronged you you've wronged yourself okay you've sinned against yourself no you need to put it into practice you're in James 1 look at verse number 23 for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass the glass there is a mirror okay so when you hear God's word you go to the mirror it's like it's like going to the mirror right and you look and you look at your mirror and go man that's a that's a new wrinkle on my face all right my teeth are getting a bit yellow need to be that needs to be fixed all right you look oh my hair's out of place that needs to be fixed I've got some fluff on the cheeks I need to shave there I don't look appropriate and clean you go man you start to look at all your defects right you're looking in the mirror I'm getting older I'm aging all right I can see the defects all right good you've heard it you can see the defects then what happens so the one that is not a door it says verse 124 uh for he behold of himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was straight away you forget you walk away from the mirror and you're like oh I've got no defects I heard it all whoa I have no defects everyone else has defects everyone else needs to fix their lives but I got no defects you know I'm I'm I'm a chewy and for the Lord you've deceived yourself deceiving yourself look I've done it too I'm not attacking anybody I'm I'm I'm guilty of deceiving myself I'm guilty of knowing God's word that's something I need to change in my life and then you know five years go by and you haven't changed it or whatever it is right a week's gone by and you haven't changed it we're all guilty of this all right but what a waste of let's say five years till you realize man I need I didn't change I better change it now what a waste God's given you these five years that went by God's given you the week that went by God's giving you the days that went by for you to make the application into your life to do what he's asking you to do and grow in wisdom I want to end on a sermon like this because I want you to think about 2025 to come before you know it it's going to be gone it'll be 2026 I want 2025 to be the most wise year that you've ever lived the wisest year I want you to walk away man I've just grown in wisdom in 2025 how did you do that brother how did you do that sister God taught me to number my days I don't know how many days I've got left so I wanted to give it all to God I want to follow his commands I'm going to stop criticizing everybody else and I'm going to focus on the changes that I need to make myself look at verse 125 James 1 25 but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he is not sorry he be not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man look at this man shall be blessed in his deed in his deed what he does right there's a blessing when you do what God asks you to do God says I'm going to bless you you so today let's say today God's given us December 29th all right do you want to be blessed on December 29th or do you want to waste it away you're going to be blessed I want to be blessed with you I want to that I don't need to wait till 2025 I've got December 29 2024 because I don't know if I'm going to see 2025 do you we don't know that all right I know that I'm seeing today and I want to be blessed today so there must be something in the sermon today that I can apply and change all right I'm going to look at the perfect law of liberty God's word I'm going to keep looking at the mirror and I'm going to see where my hair needs to be fixed and I'm going to fix my hair and I'm going to see what I need to shave see under here I should have shaved this morning I didn't I'm going to look at that I'm going to shave I'm going to fix that okay and if I do the changes that God wants me to make he's going to bless me and I can say man December 29th was profitable December 29 for the day that I've grown in the Lord December 29th is a day that I applied wisdom in my life I didn't allow it to just be forget to forget sorry you know I'm not just going to allow it to go by and it's never to no benefit out of the day that God's given me I want I want 2025 for your brethren if you make it that far God willing we all will but we don't know for sure we don't know but I really want it to be a day a year of wisdom a year of doing changing being more like Christ stop wasting the days away serve him faithfully and you guys know my position I've taught it over and over again because I think it's important say my pastor all day my work I've got then serve Jesus at work serve Christ at work make him your boss say yes Jesus Christ I'm going to get the work done I'm going to be a valued employee I'm going to I'm going to make it productive today here at my workplace for your name's sake Jesus Christ I'm going to set an example of what a believer should be as a hard-working employee and set myself an example and Lord I'm not doing it for man's sake I'm doing it for your name's sake every day can be a day of wisdom a day of growth man I'd love nothing more for you to turn around at the end of 2025 and say pastor I'm a changed man I'm a changed woman from where I was a year ago I've become wiser in the Lord all right because I've numbered my days you know I'm taking advantage of the days that God has given me can you come with me to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10 please the Bible says so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom all right Matthew 10 16 says these are the words of Jesus behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves now sometime this year I preached already on this sermon right being wise as serpents and harmless as doves see God wants to be wise like serpents I want you to think about the serpent right the snake it's kind of like an ambush creature in many ways right it uses its senses it's it's very tactful in the decision that a snake does there are snakes all over the sunshine coast every now and again you get a glimpse of them but quite often they're just hiding all right they're just in the grass they're under a log there's just somewhere just waiting for the prey to come by for the senses to alert them it's time to eat to be tactful all right about its decision making and then it goes and consumes its meal when it's ready the serpent is very tactful in its decisions that it makes and I want you to also think about the decisions you make we're always making decisions in life you know and I don't know you can you can apply this to a new year's resolution if you want okay but there are there are changes there are decisions that we are constantly having to make you know one of the things about my life just not that I'm this amazing person but having a big family life is constantly evolving like it's not like today is always like six months is going to be very different to what it is today but that's been my life it's just this constant change and every now and again I've got to grab a hold of Christina and say honey our lives have changed again life has changed again right now we have four teenagers whatever it is right now now the kids need work and our kids like there's always this change that's happening constantly in our lives and every now we need to just stop what we're doing just completely stop and go we if things have changed this much we just can't continue the same way that we've been going before we've got to apply tactics we've got to realize man things you know to operate better as a family the decision needs to make might need to change because our life has changed right and so just like a serpent you know being tactful a serpent takes advantage of a of a good opportunity you know you've got a good opportunity a door opens for you you know be wise about that yeah look that's going to be good let's make that decision let's do that that's going to work out better for us you know these are decisions that we need to make through wisdom that god has given us but at the same time when it comes to wisdom we need to be harmless as doves okay harmless as doves because we all have some level of wisdom and understand like i said it's quite easy to then criticize everybody else all right no we need to be harmless as doves right we don't want to set out to destroy others in our pursuit of wisdom we want to make sure that whatever needs to be altered and changed we do that within our own lives instead of wasting our time trying to change the lives of others and many times destroying the lives of others when you get involved in situations that have nothing to do with you can you come into ecclesiastes ecclesiastes chapter seven ecclesiastes chapter seven please ecclesiastes chapter seven now again this is this what i'm going to cover here is a topic that kind of has come to light for me in the last year you know and i've shared some of these things with with our church members some of the men in our church but let me just quickly explain that the book of ecclesiastes is king solomon's journey right i mean he's already a saved man he's been moved by the holy spirit of god to pen these words these words are true but in the book of ecclesiastes he expresses how he's been backslidden from god where he's chased satisfaction things of the world and just the truths that he's found in the process and so a lot of the book of ecclesiastes is a it's a journey is what it is it's a journey of discovery it's a journey of him figuring out you know um what are the most important things in life that he ought to be aiming for but they're all truths that they're all true statements but it's true in his part of his journey and he gets to this point here in ecclesiastes seven verse 11 because we're seeking after wisdom aren't we we need to apply wisdom to our hearts and he says this in ecclesiastes 7 11 wisdom is good with an inheritance and by it there is profit to them that see the sun them that see the sun are human beings we all say the sun right okay that there's profits in wisdom with an inheritance now look what it says in verse number 12 for wisdom is a defense and money is a defense but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it what is he saying there's something again i've been sort of talking about more so in the last year with some of the men because one thing that i i didn't really recognize until even like more recently is how limited people are with their knowledge of finances and look my my life is not driven in a pursuit of finances okay like me coming to the sunny coast should be proved to anybody that i have no desire for finances but one thing we learn here is that wisdom is a defense wisdom protects us from foolishness wisdom protects us from making stupid mistakes but money is also a defense okay it defends us from poverty it defends us from not fulfilling our responsibilities to take care of our families you know it defends us from not falling behind on bills all right not having to take out you know great sums of debt or something like that if you've got the money saved up on the side these things will defend you from financial ruin but wisdom is also a defense so what essentially saying is this finances on their own is pointless you guys are probably familiar with stories of people that win lotteries millions of dollars and within a couple of years they're bankrupt they've lost it all you go what happened they didn't have wisdom is what they didn't have we need to be wise with our finances is what we need to do okay the days that god has given you we all have to pay bills we all have to cover costs we all need to take care of our families right we all need to be fed all right god gives us the finances to do those things but we ought not to waste them we ought to be wise with what god has given us and you know i just want you to think about that because i think one thing that i find lacking sometimes not that i'm this financial genie guru or something i'm not i really you know but i understand the importance of saving i understand the importance of investing i understand the importance of getting ready for a rainy day i understand the importance of counting the costs when you go about and start a project you do something right god gives you the resources but then you need wisdom with how you handle those resources that god gives you but money in of itself is a waste because at the end of 12 it says in clicias is uh seven verse 12 it says but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them it haven't it's not that money gives you life it's not like money improves your life it's the wisdom with what you do with the finances and the resources that god gives you that enriches your life so in 2025 i'm just saying be a little bit wiser with your finances all right be a little bit wiser with what the resources and the substance that god has given you you know let your dollar when you spend it be the worth of two dollars all right you don't have to double your income you can just double how you spend your finances you can do more with what god has given you be wise about it like you know get some knowledge around this topic not that your heart is chasing these things but you want god's wisdom you know to be able to apply these things and utilize it that your life can be enriched okay not with possessions but you can have a quality of life you know a fruitful life where you can once again do some great things for the lord can you come here quickly to proverbs eight just to balance this thought proverbs chapter eight please proverbs chapter eight in verse number 10 proverbs chapter eight and verse number 10 proverbs chapter 8 and verse number 10 the bible says receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choice gold for wisdom is better than rubies and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it so don't walk away with the wrong impression i'm not saying chase gold silver and rubies all right wisdom is so much better than all of that but when god gives you silver gold and rubies you want the wisdom to know how to manage those things okay whatever you make in 2025 whatever your income is the jobs are right when you spend your money can you apply god's wisdom say lord you've given me these days i often have to number my days because you know i'm not like the employee that work that earns a consistent paycheck all right as a pastor sometimes i can pay myself something sometimes i can't it's like it's very inconsistent right with the ministry so i have to think in context of the financial year okay from july to the end of june and i think about okay here are what the house payments are going to be this is what the groceries are expected to be this is what the bills are expected to be this is what you know breaking it all down right this is what it's expected to be in order to fulfill that this is roughly the amount that i need this is how i have to operate like ever since i've become a pastor i wasn't like this before okay all right because i don't want to be you know uh what they call it one that doesn't provide for his own worse than infidel i don't want to be what infidel is even better i don't want to be worse than an infidel okay so you know because of the inconsistency of being a pastor financially speaking i've got to think about the year i've got to literally number my days okay now we're coming to the end of december we've got six months left okay six months of groceries are going to cost roughly this six months of uh you know there's insurance coming up there's a car reger coming up i've got to start thinking about these things and then my van's broken down it's probably going to need a service lord please keep it low right don't make it too expensive lord i need to be able to number this and i've got this as substance this is what might come in this month i don't know this is what my i might be able to pay myself i don't know lord and so i i have to start thinking about a whole year right because if the start of the financial year is plenty and then it dies away i need to make sure that that plenty potentially might need to last me to the end of the year and so i i'm often doing this now as a pastor thinking about what it will require and making sure i don't just spend unnecessarily or be foolish with a substance that god has given me that i'm left not to be able to take care of my family's needs so i need wisdom is what i need i need to learn i need to you know uh you know uh be uh prudence with what god has given me and i need to allocate and say okay i need to set aside this much to make sure the months is covered that's coming up because i don't know what might be coming up next week i don't know what might be coming up next month and so i'm constantly doing this but i'm not chasing the rubies i'm not chasing the soup and the god i don't care about those things i want the quality of life i want my family to have what they need i want to make sure that we have enough money to put fuel in the car so we can make it to church i want to make like these things these things are what makes it important you know the quality of life is vastly more important than the quantity of days that god gives us last passage please come with me to james free james free james free 13 james free 13 so we're chasing wisdom now what we're about to read in james 3 is there are two kinds of wisdom there's a wisdom of the earth there's an earthly wisdom and if you've got the earthly wisdom you will think i'm very wise i've done it pastor i am wise but is it earthly wisdom or is it wisdom from above is a wisdom from god and look at james 3 13 james 3 13 who is a wise man and endured with knowledge among you let him show out a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom so the truly wise man god says will be meek okay that's that's a sure sign that someone has wisdom because of their meekness he continues verse number 14 but so if this is you instead all right but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth this wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish some people think they're wise because they're in constant strife this brings back to the point that i brought up earlier i know why everybody is wrong i know why you believe wrong i know why you live wrong and let me tell you brother oliver why you're wrong you know what's gonna cause strife when you stick your nose in things that are not yours oh but i know i've got wisdom i don't know i mean well pastor i'm gonna get involved and fix their marriage they're not raising their kids properly i'm gonna fix that you're gonna cause i've got wisdom no you don't this wisdom is of the earth it's sensual it's devilish it causes strife causes strife say pastor it's not me i have no strife with anybody in new life baptist church well praise god but notice what it said in verse 14 but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts you know it's possible to come to church and be at peace with everybody god bless you sister love you brother have a great week and then you get home stupid family all right oh those kids once again you know a little baby was crying at church she couldn't pay attention you know you know what i'm talking about like no never me pastor i hope the hope so hope is never you okay but these things go on in churches bitter envying and strife in your hearts this is not the wisdom that god wants you to have look people are going to do you wrong all the time and you know i'm going to do you wrong i probably i hope not i don't want i don't aim to okay but probably i've probably done i've probably already done something wrong to you i don't know okay and you know what good wisdom would be say you know what i'm not gonna just constantly think about this i'm not just going to be constantly bitter about this i'm not just going to constantly complain i realize this wisdom is of the earth look at this i'm 16 but where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work check your hearts please go into 2025 with the right hearts i want you to have the right wisdom not an earthly wisdom i want you to have the wisdom from above get your hearts sorted out i don't know your hearts i have no idea i have no idea you could i could think you were the most lovely amazing church member i've ever had but your heart might be devilish i have no idea i don't i don't care to know either that's between you and god all right i'd rather think well of you don't tell me about your devilish heart i just want to think well of you go and sort it out with god all right number your days apply to the wisdom from above see when there's envy and strife there is confusion you don't know what is right and wrong you don't have the right wisdom and every evil work you're just going to cause more damage more harm as you live life look at verse number 17 but the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easy to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace this is the wisdom from above this is what your heart ought to be full of purity peace gentleness mercy good fruits without partiality without hypocrisy i've got all of that brother praise god look at verse 18 and the fruit of righteous is sown in peace that make peace are you a peace maker or are you a strife maker which one are you are you mr critical of everybody and everyone and every family and our very pastor and our very church is that you or are you the peacemaker recognizing that everybody needs mercy everybody's messed up in some area of their life i guarantee you there's someone here in church all of you in church are messed up on a belief somewhere in the bible you're not mr perfect neither am i we all need to be able to give each other some mercy some peace all right some first pure we're looking for purity first that's more important purity more important than peace but once you have the purity of god you know what is right then seek peace let's be at peace with one another let's not be in strife so it's a very peaceful church great but when you get home on your drive to home what is in your heart how do you think about sister so-and-so and brother so-and-so how do you think about the children how do you think about the babies how do you think about this pastor you hate my guts i hope not hope you don't just smile at me at church and then go home and i hate that pastor kevin hope not but if it is you all right look into the mirror me too look let's look into the into the glass all right let's identify our faults the law of living let's go to god and say god change me give me wisdom lord help me to number my days 2024 is almost over lord let me take advantage of the last two and a half days that you've given me lord give me the wisdom to make the right decisions help me to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove in 2025 let me make 2025 the wisest year that i've ever had lord help make 2025 the year that i become more like christ jesus than i ever have lord help me to make 2025 where i make the most changes in my life where i can look back and say lord i've grown i've matured i'm of a full age lord i've been perfected in your wisdom total for the sermon today was brethren number your days number them we don't know if we're going to see tomorrow we don't know if we're going to see 2025 we don't know if we're going to see the end of 2025 we don't know if god's going to give us 70 years or 80 years or 100 years but whatever days that god has given you when you wake up say lord i want this to be a quality day lord i want this to be a day of wisdom lord i don't want to waste my days away they're never coming back tell me to take full advantage of the days you've given me okay let's pray