Isaiah 40:6-8, What Lasts?

What's Isaiah chapter 40 verses 6 to 8? hear the word of the Lord a

Voice says cry and I said what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field

The grass withers the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it

Surely the people are grass the grass withers the flower fades

But the Word of our God will stand forever May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his

Holy Word Well, what do you think last? We all know or should know we say we know there's some things won't last our money won't last

Even though we spend a lot of time spent a lot of our life trying to earn it our house won't last

So let me know our cars won't last We hate the idea but even our health our strength our youth

Doesn't last I was a strong skinny all muscle and bone track and cross -country runner jumping over obstacles

That didn't last as you can tell One day even our bodies won't last as we just read in Psalm 39

Oh Lord, make me to know my end and what is the measure of my days? Let me to know how Fleeting I am

But even if we don't last on earth We all want to be part of something that lasts maybe a cause

To be on the what some people now call the right side of history Which is why I have some people in our day have such a zeal for their causes

They just don't pour their whole life into that because they think even if they personally won't last this cause whatever it is

Hopefully it will last Maybe the family will last Right, a lot of people believe the even if they personally don't the family will ask well the

Chinese believe that it was our ancestral tablet The imperative to remember your ancestors even venerate them

So that at least they last for now in your memory, and of course they believe they will last Into the beyond as in the

Godfather to the mother of the family tells Michael the main character you can never lose your family But by the end of the movie

Michael has divorced his wife and has had his brother killed hmm So what lasts we want our memories to last we build monuments to others or to ourselves perhaps the most prominent monument in Singapore is an obelisk kind of like Washington Monument not quite as big and It's inscribed on it to the civilian dead of the

Japanese occupation So they built monuments to the dead. That's what gravestones are Desperate attempt to leave something in stone that will last when our bodies don't and it's good occasionally visit cemeteries and to remember the dead

But for most people even these attempts to remember those in the past only last a few generations

Maybe you go to your parents graves sites, but how many of you ever go to your Grandparents great -grandparents.

Have you ever done that? We may remember our grandparents or even heard about our great -grandparents

But beyond that we're fortunate to have a little more than a name and soon we even lose track of the names and there are millions billions of people like that passed away and completely forgotten by the living a

While back I visited a cemetery in rural, Kentucky It was mostly an old cemetery with graves that went back to the 19th century and summers many of them were so eroded

That you couldn't read these inscriptions on them anymore. You couldn't read the names the people are lost.

They're gone Some of them had even completed the gravestones had just completely fallen apart

Just dissolve eroded to the you know It's not like a stub but it's just fallen apart into pieces pieces of whatever stone it is

It's made out of just sent lying around it. But right away there. I noticed a newer headstone

They're very pretty recent. It was small to medium size. And as I walked up behind it I noticed several bouquets of artificial flowers decorating it and little statuettes got these praying angels

It was a little American flag. They've been set up. It had fallen down. I reached down and set it back up again

And as I got around the front, I noticed a little first a little stone bench

It's just curved Facing in toward the the gravestone and then there's another flat stone by that bench at the foot of the grave

That simply read our daughter and then I looked at the name She was

Sarah Spelled without an H Sarah and the dates or an August 10th 1993 died

August 10th 1993 Probably the girl's mother spent many hours grieving there and one day even though the mother of Sarah's tried hard to remember her daughter

She too will be buried and Sarah's gravestone will erode into dust

Perhaps one of the most impressive memorials to the dead is to make Something of their memory last in the minds of the living is

Washington DC simple Vietnam Veterans Memorial Have you ever been there you you walk by it?

You begin kind of like this right by the walkway the sidewalk and it starts out about knee -high

Actually a new the path goes down and the names As the wall gets higher and higher and their names begin to appear carved in all capital letters and as you go down while beside you goes up and you gradually come overshadowed now with this wall beyond way beyond your height and each name is the name of an

American lost in Vietnam over 55 ,000 of them and you're engulfed then in the names of the dead and each one of them is whispering

All flesh is grass And that's what Isaiah says here the book of Isaiah is easily divided into three major parts the first part and the 35 chapters first 35 chapters are prophecies of destruction of coming judgment both on Israel and many of the nations

Surrounding it and then the second part for versus from chapters 36 to 39 tell the story of how

God saved Jerusalem from the vicious Invasion by Assyria just as in 2nd

Kings chapters 18 and 19 We talked about that last week the Assyrian invasion and then third from chapters 40 on God addresses the survivors of the

Assyrian invasion beginning with in chapter 40 verse 1 comfort Comfort now before the invasion when

Judah was feeling comfortable They're smugly looking at the northern kingdom of Israel Which remember had been have been wiped out and been taken away by the

Assyrians about 20 years before comfortable that Judah was comfortable that that hadn't happened to us and So sure that they were safe because you know, they had the temple

That was their insurance policy. They thought they were safe. And so they were buying off God they thought with their religion like someone today who's been told that you know, he's always saved because he prayed a prayer way back when he was a kid in Sunday school and now he thinks that he can live immorally he can have no interest in God's Word and he is safe still

He thinks he's told at least he believes he's safe from judgment because that prairie prayed and maybe he got wet in baptism

And he thinks that's that keeps him safe. So he's comfortable now in Isaiah's time after the

Assyrian invasion after the angel the Lord delivered Jerusalem remember probably with biological weapons, but not

Most of the rest of the country remember the destruction of like each and the others still the survivors

From Jerusalem, they're shell -shocked. They're stunned many are in mourning. They've seen men impaled

Before them is that's what the Assyrians would do when they laid siege to a city They would take some of the whatever men they could capture outside the city and impale them on stakes outside There's a warning to notice to the men people in the city

We're gonna do this to you to let you surrender now Some of them were flayed alive and we have testimony to this in our in archaeology.

They've uncovered the Assyrians is Picturing this there's no they're proud of it what they did to the people they conquered but to the people of Judah now

They've lost everything and so they're stunned even if they've survived they'd like to bereaved at a funeral They're like the mother of some college kid getting a call

From the police to inform her that we're sorry to inform you that it's been an accident on the highway

And your kid didn't make it before Isaiah afflicted the comfortable now

He comforts the afflicted and so that's the setting That's the context the wake of the

Assyrian invasion of this passage and then Isaiah Here's a voice apparently from heaven telling him to cry out voice says cry

It's a command Isaiah cry Don't just talk don't just say

But exclaim a message cry be stirring be earnest be urgent What is he supposed to passionately proclaim to cry all flesh is grass?

That's the literal translation of the Hebrew and by flesh He doesn't mean what the Apostle Paul means sometimes uses that word for in the

New Testament a fallen human nature No, Isaiah simply means all people all human beings are just like grass.

They're temporary. They're short -lived They're soon forgotten now. Notice how he emphasizes that in every verse of this passage

Three verses every verse in its own way all flesh is grass in verse six.

It's beauty The beautiful things that people produce the best of what they have

It's like a wildflower out there in the yard in verse 7 the grass withers

Turns brown like our grass does this time of year like all flesh it ages and goes away

The flower again, he mentions the flower in verse 7 the beauty it fades

And he says surely the people He means particularly that word But usually means the the

Gentile nations these empires these borders these people all kinds of people like the Assyrians who appear so mighty

They some seem so impressive with their army their their military power Surely the people like the

Romans like the Americans their grass At the end of verse 7 and again the third time in case you missed the point in verse 8 the grass withers the flower fades and sharp contrast to that to all the flesh human beings that Withers notice how the prophet

Isaiah refers to the word the Word of God the Scripture God's Word. It is the Word of our

God. It's from him. It's not from human beings not from their fads They didn't make it up. It's not just what?

Poets in the past fabricated out of their imagination it stands in contrast to withering it never wilts it is forever

It may not always be popular But it always is This is what he's crying out the word stands forever, but all flesh is grass

But surely it means that all carnal all fleshly people, you know, they're like grass But not us, you know, that's good people

We last forever, right? I mean our goodness makes us laughs, right? Is that what he means now look at the passage carefully verse 6 all flesh is grass

All kinds of people human beings are grass and all its beauty Is like the flower of the field

Mentioned it last week this word for beauty here translated the NIV translates it as glory the

King James Version translated as goodness It's one of the most interesting words in the Bible here the the ESV beauty the

Hebrew word is pronounced hesed Hesed is usually translated mercies or steadfast.

Love as in the steadfast love of the Lord Never ceases some lamentations that song we sang the word there's a visually kiss it it emphasizes dependability

Reliability or covenant love. It's it's a it's a good thing a very good thing. It's from the Lord. It never ceases at last here though the hesed of the flesh

Well, that's different. That's like a flower. This is surprising, isn't it? You know, we don't mind hearing that bad things will fade away that evil will wither like a like a dead flower

We want you know, Hitler's and I'm who say whoever it is some evil thing to we want them to fade away

But we think if I do good I can last But here God is telling us that even if even the best of human things even the best of human fleshly steadfast love

Will not last God's not saying that here that wickedness will disappear and our good works if you're good

You do the right thing then you will then you will ask you will remain No, he say that even our glory even our goodness even the best virtue you can have

Will vanish to soon be forgotten like a dead wildflower

This is a shock to us What kind of thing you might expect here in church expect to be told him, you know do good and if you do good

You'll you'll last now we say What you produce it's like a it's like a flower out there.

It's not gonna last very long We like to imagine that we deserve a share of eternity just because we think our hearts are in the right place

That at least something from us will last maybe our body won't but we can produce something surely.

Well our morality Won't that make us like our religion? Ain't that what we're here for so we can last it's like paying your insurance

So you can get something that keeps you safe or our family that will last but look what

Isaiah cries out instead We think our good works deserve to be remembered make us remembered forever But instead

God tells us that even our the best thing you could have our chesed our good steadfast love

It's merely a it's a wildflower soon wilts in the hot desert wind

Mary and I both went to seminary in Southern, California. Now the weather in Southern, California is a lot like that of Israel There's a sea on one side

California's the Pacific Ocean to the west and the desert on the other to the east and when the wind comes from the sea as It does most of the time it's pleasant

But when the wind blows in off the desert It's very hot and very dry

Southern, California They call it the Santa Ana winds and it's just so hot you wouldn't believe it

It causes plants to wilt and us humans to retreat to air conditioning It gave me nosebleeds whenever the

Santa Ana winds blew if I just rub my nose and start bleeding It's horrible to scorching wind like a blast out of an oven

And Isaiah was referring to just such a wind coming in off the desert in Israel scorches everything

And he compares it to the spirit or the breath of God and Hebrew were the word for breath here in verse 7

The breath of the Lord blows on it It's the same word for spirit the wind of God the

Spirit of God blows on the best of our things and they are Like a flower before the

Santa Ana winds So Isaiah's saying they're just like the hot dry desert winds a wither the grass and the flowers in the same way the

Spirit of God Blows and it wilts all human beings and even the best of their works the best thing that you could have

Your flowers Withers it to nothing What last?

Flowers don't Now we like flowers some people make their living producing flowers because that's how much we esteem them

You go meet often go greet somebody the hospital you bring flowers at a funeral you often bring flowers flowers are popular but Flowers fade the flower fades both verses 7 and 8 says it twice.

These are best things they fade Flowers by nature are attractive. They're alluring

We liked them but during Isaiah's time Earlier when he was afflicting the comfortable before the

Assyrian invasion King Ahaz of Judah and second Kings 16 He went to visit the king of Assyria a previous king of Assyria the emperor of the

Assyrian Empire in Damascus So the people's he's going to meet there who are grass

But he may care a has was a evil king He was a bad king and he didn't know that he didn't understand that they're grass

So he's going to meet the people's the Gentiles the nation's at the end In second Kings 7 and there among the people's he saw there in a

Syrian altar for for one of their gods The Syrians they had they must had style it was attractive altar really looked good and So he thought this is so alluring this is so attractive we've got to have this in our temple

We've got to have the same kind of altar And so he commanded the priests of the Lord and Jerusalem to copy it

To build exactly the same kind of altar that the Assyrians had for their pagan gods put it up in the temple of the

Lord He said that was alluring him that attracted him like a flower What he saw from the people's he saw success

He saw power saw what it looked to them and their culture like beauty So he mimicked the world

He was conformed to the culture To its ideas of beautiful worship and the

Lord here tells Isaiah to cry The people's the nation's as populous as they may be as powerful as they may be as Beautiful as cultured as they may be as intelligent as they think they are

Their grass They're fading away The world imposes on to us what it is.

Sure. It is the wave of the future On the right side of history is a popular slogan today

Just last week a major supposedly Christian columnist endorsed the proposed respect for marriage act

Which is right now before Congress was codifies so -called same -sex marriage. We just got to go with it

Now you just some Christians are saying we just got to go along We got to support it because that's the wave of the future. That's what the culture says is beautiful We got to be behind it.

We're supposed to accept it now, but the Lord can blow on it and It will wilt away

What last? human fads don't They're also fleeting flowers.

They allure us fads fashions. They're attractive. They attract us to To something that's new a new way of doing things to change sometimes now, they're not always bad

It's not always sinful to change certain outward customs because the times have changed like, you know, like not wearing ties to church

I've changed in my lifetime. You still always think you got to wear a tie to church Well types change news are new styles of music.

That's not wrong. But sometimes a fad comes along like Transsexuality It says it's on the right side of history and it treats anyone as a bigot

You're a bigot if you don't go along who dares to question it and it is contrary to God's creation or just to nature and God's Word So don't let fleeting flower a fleeting flower distract you

From the eternal word our worship must be rooted in what God has said Not just what is popular, but the culture thinks is attractive

Our ideas of right and wrong should come from God's Word. Not just what every wind of Opinion says is reasonable

What last Our goodness Doesn't our morality

Doesn't not even our religion last. It's also a fleeting flower And this is often what religious people forget when they choose morality or moralism cultivating human virtue

Striving to perfect human character and good works when they choose all those good.

Sure. They're good. They're hesitant. That's it's good They're good that they're temporary things

Over what is eternal many people think that's what religion is all about Cultivating those wildflowers and maybe that is what other religions are about As we see right here in Isaiah 40

God's Word is not primarily about encouraging moral health This is what we forget when we get too absorbed in making our faith making the church the

Bible the gospel All about improving our morality make being more moral being making political changes

Maybe going on social crusades Stopping drunkenness and pornography and abortion and we should be moral people.

Yes, and we should be moral people Because God has made us Moral, he's made us good.

We bear good fruit You should be involved in influencing our nation to be a better place, but we do all that we bear good fruit because first God has

Made us good. He saved us. I was power and made us that way now

We cannot as bad trees by nature Develop ourselves into good trees. You can't cultivate a dead tree into a fruit -bearing tree

You can't you have to make it supernaturally come alive So we must be born again and bear good fruit and that is something that we cannot do for ourselves

It must be done for us because even the best of the fruit we bear for ourselves our flowers

The best of it will wilt when God's eternal spirit

Blows on it When we reduce Christianity with a system of more moralism to morality

Focusing on the family something like that. It's all about that Political changes about politics getting the policies the laws we want passed something like Confucianism When we do that to it, we destroy what is eternal about it.

We make it into a system of moral self -improvement Self -help all about cultivating flowers

They will soon wither away About 250 years ago in New England into America some of the descendants of the

Puritans making themselves sophisticated now We've been to Harvard were sophisticated and we can accept the secularist assumptions of the of the what they call the light enlightenment

They began to assert that that we must accept what the world culture at that time says it's rational

We've got to be rational like these new wave of philosophers of Europe That human minds are more reliable than the

Word of God that one must believe that people are naturally good So we can reason our way to what is right and good and and true everything revolved around human beings for them

Man is the measure of all things kind of their slogan Christianity then for those who believed in it was still it was in their minds.

It may be a good thing They may like it and what they think it is was in their minds all about cultivating human virtue human chesed

Fleeting flowers. It's about morality. It's about improving yourself about cultivating yourself That's what they thought the ones who went with the enlightenment

But they were really just importing into the church the idea that had been diluting western culture for about 300 years now the idea that man not god, but man

Is the measure of all things In other words, he likes it. He thinks it's reasonable. It feels good to him and it's true.

It's good. It's right According to man this started with what is known as the enlightenment and they gave it that name because they believed it was enlightening to be free of the superstition of christianity the superstition

The belief that the bible is the word of god the word of god which stands over us

And judges us the word of god that tells us what's true and right and good They began to believe that the bible is not the word of god, but just the words of men and then we were not really sinners

We're not dead in our trespasses and sins, but we're good enough as we are To see what's true and right and to follow the truth by ourselves

With we just we just exert ourselves. We can do it Our our flowers will last they thought

One of the leaders of this point of view was a frenchman named voltaire Voltaire was confident that his enlightenment view would prevail and the bible would eventually become because of the way they saw things now

The bible would become a relic No one's going to read it anymore. They thought he he claimed in 1776 quote 100 years from my day.

So 100 years from 1776 That'd be 1876 there will be not be a bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker

In other words a museum piece No bibles anywhere except some, you know scholars will have it to to look at past literature

Well, it didn't turn out that way did it he assumed that the word of the lord was grass and now over 200 years after voltaire's death

Only university students basically study voltaire and the bible is still a bestseller and even in his native france not long after his death the bible society

Use voltaire's home as his is their headquarters And use voltaire's own printing press

To print their bibles And so once again the scripture was fulfilled He who sits in the heavens laughs

Those who marry the spirit of the age soon find themselves widows and so they traded The rationalists the enlightenment people they traded the proclamation of god's word cry all flesh is grass they traded that for human sophistication and they ended up with What nothing?

But those christians who did not fall for the lure of fleeting flowers helped bring about revivals particularly in this country in england

Called the great awakening they stood fast for the word of god. They chose proclamation

Cry all flesh is grass. They chose proclamation instead of sophistication and many of them

Then many many of them went as evangelists all over america missionaries all over the world And they prayed and they preached for waves of revivals as they called them people to believe the word of god

And be born again And thousands of churches were planted as the word of god flourished

And the atheism or the deism of the enlightenment Wilted And here we are today

We are the spiritual beneficiaries of those who chose the eternal word over fleeting flowers proclamation

Overt sophistication, but every generation faces the temptation to be shaped by the times rather than to shake the times

Today the temptations of the fleeting flowers of sophistication Are with us more than ever

You know, we too are faced with a temptation to choose the popular over the permanent we're told we're bigots if we don't

You got to be on the right side of history. This is the way everyone is going to believe in the future And so we're battered down with that.

That's the way it is out of the world So we all face this regular onslaught that to be sophisticated modern kind of tolerant people

We have to believe like the world tells us to believe Very permissive ideas about sexuality

Basically, if it feels good, you can do what is fine about tolerance for things The bible calls sins about indulgence for child rearing about total equality and gender roles in the family and in the church

And in our day those ideas are just pressed in on us now all the time through the media through social media

About this is the way you live if you're going to be right with society and it helps when that pressure is on When we can step back

And see that all these things That people today are so sure Are there are the wave of the future?

They're on the right side of history. They always like to say These things that they're so sure

Are the truths that any open -minded intelligent modern person simply must accept

They can't fathom they can imagine that anyone could believe differently than that all these things

They're all grass Soon the spirit of god will blow on them And they'll wilt away in a moment

And only his word Will be left So the question to you

Is which will you follow? I'm sure you can follow the fleeting flowers of the world Be popular for a while go along with it go with a wave

Be part of the mob the group go with their thinking Which will you follow the popular or the permanent now?

That sounds simple in theory just follow And it is simple with god's grace

But not only the the pressures of the world but also our human pride. It's not only the pressures from outside It's the problem we have on the inside our human pride our haughty hearts

It tempts us to stray From god's word and to go our own we're tempted to be smug

And to think well, you know, look at this. I know better. I thought of something better than this

I'm smarter I've been better educated. I'm in a wiser age more tolerant age.

We know better than this So we pompously think that we know better than to simply follow the way marked out for us by god

What last? God's way Follow it

When I ran cross country in college, we ran a five mile race on the campus of west georgia state university

But if I recall correctly in this one race, there were about 50 of us runners They line us up Have you ever seen a cross country race line us up on this field?

That the starting line and the director of the race gave us only one instruction This is not like a track where you where you know where you go.

You don't have where you're going to go on this Campus and the director of the race gave us over one instruction follow the white line

There was a white line Made out of chalk on the ground. It's supposed to guide us for the whole course of the five mile race

Simple direct instructions, right? Impossible to get lost just follow the white line And then he raised the starting pistol and fired it.

So we were off running following the white line About two thirds of the way through the race

I was getting really tired But the finish line was still too far away to give you any hope, you know if I got like you could see the starting the finish line and press on to finish and Worn out from already about three miles of running

Couldn't see anyone in front of me. Couldn't hear anyone behind me Now just following this white line down a trail through a forest and I remember thinking well how this might be a nice Walking trail that wasn't so tired.

I was just so exhausted It was impossible to get lost because there were through that trail There's trees and bushes on either side and of course the white line down the middle of it that we're told to follow

Then I turned this corner And I saw the white line Which was in the middle of the trail?

Veered just made a sharp turn right into these bushes on the side of the trail

And I had only a second To make a decision I didn't want to stop and look at this in the middle of the race

Do I follow the white line like I was told? or do I follow the easier trail

And in that second, I remember the first thing I did not want to follow the line and jump over the bushes That would literally be a leap of faith because I didn't know what was on the other side

How far does it drop off down on the other side of those bushes? Well, I was already tired and I want to exert more energy.

I mean, it's it was exhausting to try to jump over something If I surely didn't want to jump over those bushes if I didn't have to and then

I started to rationalize Surely the man who marked his trail that chalk he made a mistake

You know, maybe his thing he just turned sharply and he didn't want to pay any attention because after all look at this every reasonable person can see

It's far more rational Far more intelligent far more enlightened you could even say for the race to go down the trail

And I make a lot more sense to stay down that trail and so in that second

I decided that I knew the race course better than the man who marked it down with the chalk So I continued down the comfortable trail and after a while of running down this trail it came into a clearing

And standing there in this clearing in the middle of the forest. There's a bunch of other runners Who had apparently gone before me and made the very same decision

I did There were several trails leading out of this clearing and there was no white line

Telling us which one to take Now you'd think at this point we'd all figure out we'd made a mistake

We'd turn around go back even though he's backtracking and losing a lot of time in the middle race

But we go back to that white line and jump over that bush Admit not I was foolish to not trust the line, but no, that's not the way people think not the way

I thought They were these other runners were standing around. I thought I don't want to waste a second So instead of admitting my mistake without even slowing down I just picked out the trail.

I thought in that second looked best and I started to run down it This must be the best one and the other runners assume that I must know what i'm doing

Right. Hey, I must maybe I ran this course before I must know what i'm doing So they start they take off running after me

I'm leading the pack for a little bit other road after a little bit though Some faster ones caught up and passed me down this trail like they assumed that I was guiding them down the right trail

Soon well, we even caught up with runners Who were really leading the race? The one is who had gone the right way jumped over that bush way back there.

We caught them because We had found a shortcut my my trail I took but because of that they're all mixed together

Runners like me who had taken the shortcuts and runners like them who had jumped over the bush all mixed together

They didn't know who was who and so the whole race had to be declared null and void As though it didn't happen some teams traveled hundreds of miles they ran hard But in the end

It was for nothing There was no winner Now cross -country race being nullified is no great tragedy, but their whole lives

That in the end are just grass that because people decided that they knew better about which way to go than the god who

Marked out the way with his word and there's others that saw them going Confidently down the way they thought was best and then followed after them like they thought like they knew better and they didn't

They're just following they're just going along with a group and no one knows where they're going and it all gets declared nothing

What last? The word of our god The gospel last if you want to be more than just mere grass that quickly withers

It's not enough to just do The things the word of god says to do that's not really the meaning of this passage

The white line we are to follow does not just guide our behavior Rather to guide our heart.

Remember that even the best of our works even our chesed our steadfast love our glory

Is but fleeting flowers That wither in the hot wind the only way to stand forever

To last to continue to live Is to be born again

By god by his word in first peter chapter 1 verse 24 The apostle peter says that christians have been born again by the imperishable

That means always lasting the imperishable seed The gospel itself and then he quotes this very scripture from isaiah

To show that the gospel is imperishable That it's the gospel that is the the word of our god here in isaiah 40.

It is eternal It is the ever -standing word of god it lasts

And makes you last If you believe it The word of our god here that lasts and not just about obeying

You know not just laws that if you follow If we do them then by doing them we earn our lasting

No, even our obedience our law keeping our morality is a fleeting flower that wilts in eternity if it is something that just Comes from us so we can earn lasting by doing them.

It's not about anything we can do by ourselves It's about seeing how sinful we are in light of his word

Looking into it as we look into a mirror and seeing that we are We are sinners that we've fallen short of the glory of god that unlike the so -called enlightenment

That we are not the measure of all things that god is

That life is not about food and money and power and sex and being popular because all those things

They wither like a rose in the hot desert wind instead

It's all about him who weighs the nations in the scales And Finds that they are but dust

Our chief end Is to glorify god and enjoy him forever And that god has something our chief end is to see that god has done something for us that we could not at all do for ourselves

That he saved us that he sent his word not only the book But the living word of god

In the flesh and he came so that we could be something more than just grass

That we can be born again That his word can make us new And we can taste eternity that last