Time Is Short — Dan Young

Just remember that our days are short, time is short, and the time is short, our days are short. I'm 42 years old and time has flown by, and by God's grace, if I live another 42 years, a means of strength, you know, or the Lord permits, that those days will fly by too.

Eternal Value Versus Earthly Ambition

And the things that you do now, are they going to be of eternal value, or are they going to be of earthly value? You know, I found myself at this time, very focused on the earthly things, and not the eternal things.

And it's good to do that, to focus on your earthly ambitions, but they need to be surrendered to the will of God. And God needs to be the one who directs your steps. It says, in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

We all have ambition, this comes from God. We all have desires, this comes from the Lord, and they're good desires, they're not unworthy desires. Many of us want to have a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment in our life, knowing that we had an impact, but you know, the greatest impact that we can have is for the Lord on this earth.

The Supremacy of Jesus Over Human Accolades

Our time is short, and the accolades that we attain to, they will mean nothing compared to the accolades that Jesus will get. When He comes in the room, we will bow the knee. When great men come in the room, we may stand, we may clap, we may give them honor, but when Jesus comes in the room, every great man will bow, every king will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

So we have to remember that the things that we're seeking after, they may be good things, they may be lawful things, but they're garbage compared to knowing Jesus. And I don't know about you, but I have to check my heart very often, because I can see myself getting caught up with the pursuits of this life, rather than the pursuit of God.

Following Jesus Into Surrender and Humility

And knowing Him, you know, we may have moments throughout the year where we have strong desires to go deeper with the Lord, to walk with Him, but you know, those moments sometimes come and then they go.

My desire is that consistently I would be walking with Jesus, in whichever direction He takes me. It says when Peter was younger, he said to him that when you were younger, you got to clothe yourself and choose whichever direction you wanted to go, but when you go old, someone else will clothe you and someone else will lead you and make those choices for you and will take you to places that you do not want to go.

You know, maybe it's God's will that we would learn to humble ourselves, that we would get light on ourselves and see the condition of our own hearts. Many a times we don't see the condition of our hearts because our lives are pleasant, we have good jobs, we have our daily life, many of us have families, children, or things that we look forward to, but the greatest blessing that you can have is when Jesus shows you your own heart and changes your heart and conforms you to His image and shows you that things in life that aren't good.

So we need to learn to cast off every weight and hindrance, even our ambitions, even our good plans. We need to say, Lord, if it's your will, I will do it, if it's not your will, I won't do it. Many of us make a mistake and we do things outside of God's will.

We need to say, Lord, forgive me for doing those things, help me to learn from this and not to do it again. And so I pray that you guys would surrender your will, your days to the Lord because He's the one who's going to accomplish something in your life through and by His Spirit.

Receiving Everything From the Lord

First Corinthians 4, it says, what do you have that you have not received and why do you boast as if you have not received it? You don't have to turn there, but I'm just quoting it. We have to remember that all the things that have been given to us have been given to us by the Lord and we can't sit there and say that, you know what, and start to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to.

We have to have low esteem or a low estimation of ourselves and a high estimation of Jesus. And sometimes we get caught up in that, that we think that we're doing better spiritually than we are and we have to check our own hearts.

Numbering Our Days With Wisdom

But in Psalm chapter 90, I wanted to read a few verses. Oh Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were born or thou did give birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

You turn man back into dust and you say return, O children of men, for a thousand years in thy sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night, thou has swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep in the morning, they're like grass, which sprouts anew in the morning, it flourishes and our lives sprout things toward evening and fades and withers away.

For we have been consumed by your anger and by your wrath, we have been dismayed. You have placed our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days have declined in our fury, we have finished our years like a sigh.

As for the days of our life, they contain 70 years or if due to strength, 80 years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow for soon it is gone and we fly away. You know, it's amazing. Soon it is gone.

All our days are but labor, trials, they're gone. They're come and they go. We have to remember this in everything that we do. What is our focus in this life? Who understands the power of your anger and your fury according to the fear that is due thee?

Verse 12. So teach us to number our days that we may present to thee a heart of wisdom. Teach us to number our days so that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. You know, when you think and take into account that our days are short, we're going to have a more of a heavenly perspective and not so much of an earthly perspective.

Knowing Jesus Above Ministry and Accomplishment

You know, even having ministry isn't always the greatest thing. You know that? Ministering to people isn't always the greatest thing. Knowing Jesus is the greatest thing. So we have to remember that, Lord, help me to present to you a heart of wisdom that considers the earthly things but vain and the eternal things is very important because our days are going to be past quick and we must remember that.

I want to read one other verse that would encourage me. It's in Psalm chapter 9. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart. I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and exult in thee. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before thee, for you have maintained my just cause. You sit on the throne judging righteously. You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed the wicked.

You have blotted their name forever and ever. The Lord rebukes the world. He rebukes the world in hopes that the men and women would repent and that they would number their days and see that, hey, it's not about us.

It's not about how great we are, how successful we can be. It's about how great the Lord is and the Lord rebukes the nations. It says right here, the enemy has come to an end in perpetual ruins and you have uprooted the cities.

The very memory of them have perished, but the Lord abides forever. He has established his throne for judgment and he will judge the world in righteousness. He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.

Rejecting the World's Pursuit of Greatness

The Lord will judge the world and he is doing that right now. The nations are of like a drop of a bucket in his sight and you know what, many times we get caught up with trying to become great, establishing our name on this earth, building something that we can boast about and say that, look at what we have accomplished.

My friends, we can't get caught up in the same things that the world seeks after. The world seeks after to have a name, to be somebody successful, to have a position, to say that, look at what has happened in my life and we can't get caught up in that.

We have to say, Lord, your will be done, not my own. And if you look at the example of Jesus, if you look at the example of Jesus, Jesus never sought after that. He always sought to do the Lord's will.

Whenever they had an opportunity to make him king, what did he say? It says he went and he hid himself at that time. And some of us would say, well, I have a pretty easy day job. I have a pretty meaningless life.

I'm just going about my work and I come home and I'm tired. But you know what, our heart attitude in that can be wrong because we're still having the same attitude of just living our life and not presenting to the heart of wisdom.

The Lord as Refuge for Those Who Seek Him

The Lord will judge the nations. And it says right here, verse nine, the Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know thy name will put your trust in thee, for thou, O Lord, has not forsaken those who seek thee.

You know, the Lord has not forsaken those who seek after him. Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion. Declare among the peoples his deeds, for he who requires blood remembers them. He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

Be gracious to me, O Lord. Behold, my affliction from those who hate me, those who do lift up their head from the gates of death, that I may tell of all thy praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion, I may rejoice in thy salvation.

The nations have sunk down in the pit that they have made, in the net which they hood, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made himself known. He has executed judgment in the work of his hands.

The wicked is snared. You know, yesterday we had a gathering yesterday at the college when I played basketball back in 2020. And, you know, I didn't want to go because it was a reminder to me of the life that I was living when I was apart from the Lord.

Earthly Accolades and the Emptiness of Life Apart From God

And, you know, everybody there, we got a reward and an accolade for being the national champions of the school of that year. We were the best team in the country. And the coach, he got up there and he said, I want to say something about Daniel.

He said this wonderful thing. And I remember sitting there thinking like, you know what? This is absolutely meaningless in the eyes of the Lord. I'm grateful that the Lord gave me an opportunity to play sports, to do the things that I did.

But in God's eyes, they mean absolutely nothing. And I remember standing there and I was reminded of a time that after we won the national championship five minutes after the game, I remember sharing this testimony with one of my teammates last night.

And I said, five minutes after the game of winning the best accolade that you can get in the country at that time, I had such a sense of emptiness, such a sense of emptiness, because I knew that was outside of the will of God.

And so we can be seeking for these things and have some sort of sense of accomplishment. But if you are outside of the will of God and the things that you are desiring after, it will leave you empty. And I told that to my teammates last night.

And I said, you know what? I was outside of God's will at that time. And as much as it's nice that I get an accolade for being that person, I can tell you this, that it pales, it's garbage and dung in comparison to knowing Jesus.

I said, I have such a better life walking with Jesus than I did having all these accomplishments in the world. So I want to exhort you and also encourage you that you guys can seek after some sort of accolade, even be a mighty preacher, something like that, that people would know your name.

Seeking God's Kingdom Rather Than Human Recognition

But it will mean nothing if it's outside of God's will. You need to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and say, Lord, not my will and your will be done. And you know, I can see that the Lord has shown me in my heart lately that I've really striven to be known among the higher echelon or the upper echelon of society as somebody who is successful as a businessman, as somebody who who's done a good job.

And, you know, the Lord continually reminds me, Dan, I'm not with that person. I'm not with a successful person. I'm with him who is humble and contrite, who trembles at my word, who is little in his own eyes.

And you know what I say, Lord, help me to judge myself rightfully, righteously, so you don't have to judge me. Help me, Lord, to look inward and to say, Dan, the things that you're pursuing after are not for God's glory, they're for your own glory.

Last night, the glory of man was there and everybody was clapping. But you know what? When Jesus comes again, that glory is a fading glory. There's going to be a glory that remains. And that's the glory of knowing him.

Christ in You, the Hope of Glory

It says right here that Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul exhorted them. He said, I exhort you and I'm going to preach to every man that the true riches of his glory would be Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So I pray that you guys would remind yourselves that it's not about all the things that we can do and accomplish in this life. It's about knowing him and ask him to help you to search your heart to see if the things that you're seeking after are for his glory or for your own glory, to be known as somebody who is wise, who is good, who is righteous, who gets accolades from men.

That's not the things that we should seek after. It should be seeking after the things that will endure for eternity, and that's knowing him. And I always want to remind myself that in heaven, they present their offerings and their praises to God 24 hours a day.

They never stop praising the Lord. So let's remind that in our minds today that the things we're seeking after, let's stop and praise the Lord and say, Lord, your will be done and not my own.