“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10)

2. “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10)

5. “Too young…” • How many times I have heard, “I’m still young. I’ll make time for God when I’m older.” • Parents sometimes aid and abet this thinking • There are some serious problems with such thinking

6. “Too young…” • 1. The “crop failure” may not come • (Galatians 6:7-8) “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life.”

7. “Too young…” • 2. Some of these young people will never grow old • (Ecc. 11:9-12:1) “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know, that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them”

8. (Prov. 4:1-10) “Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father, And attend to know understanding: For I give you good doctrine; Forsake you not my law. For I was a son unto my father, Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. And he taught me, and said unto me: Let your heart retain my words; Keep my commandments, and live; Get wisdom, get understanding; Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth…

9. … Forsake her not, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; Yea, with all your getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; She will bring you to honor, when you do embrace her. She will give to your head a chaplet of grace; A crown of beauty will she deliver to you. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; And the years of your life shall be many.”

11. “Too busy…” • Life is full of responsibilities – job, family, education, recreation, home maintenance, friendships, social life, entertainment

13. “Too busy…” • Our Lord told the story of some who were “too busy” with the affairs of this world • (Luke 14:16-20) “But he said unto him, A certain man made a great supper; and he bade many: and he sent forth his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a field, and I must needs go out and see it; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”

14. “Too busy…” • The Lord’s teaching about the things of this life is very clear and precise • (Matt. 6:19-21) “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

15. (Matt. 6:24, 25) “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?” • (vv. 31-34) “Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek you first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

17. “Too happy…” • The “good life” presents its own dangers • (Luke 12:15-21) “And he said unto them, Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness: for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And he spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he reasoned within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have not where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my grain and my goods….

18. “Too happy…” …And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said unto him, You fool, this night is your soul required of you; and the things which you have prepared, whose shall they be? So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” • Does this have a modern ring to it?

19. “Too happy…” • Moses had a good understanding of this long ago • (Heb. 11:24-27) “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” • (Prov. 3:13) “Happy is the man that finds wisdom, And the man that gets understanding.”

21. “Too tired…” • Retirement often on the minds of those who work for a living • Consider the award certificates hung on the walls of Paul’s prison cell • (II Cor. 11:21-30) “I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I more; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft….

22. …Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, there is that which presses upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is caused to stumble, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness.”

23. “Too tired…” • (II Cor. 12:8-10) “Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” • What about our retirement? It is in the future.

24. (II Tim. 4:5-8) “But be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry. For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved his appearing.”

25. (Gal. 6:9) “And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” • (I Cor. 15:58) “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not vain in the Lord.” • (Heb. 3:14) “for we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end” • (Rev. 2:10) “Fear not the things which you are about to suffer: behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried; and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

27. “Too smart…” • We live in an information age • But our new-found knowledge has not brought mankind any closer to God

28. (Rom. 1:18-22) “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness; because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse: because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”

29. “How Religion Originated. Among the non-scholarly populations of at least the civilized world, surely the most common idea is that religion, if it be true, has been divinely revealed. Divine revelation as an explanation of religious genesis has no place in this book, and under ordinary circumstances all theological interpretations of the origins of religion would be dismissed from consideration as irrelevant or prejudicial” (INTRODUCTION TO RELIGION, Richard Norbeck).

30. “How Religion Originated. Among the non-scholarly populations of at least the civilized world, surely the most common idea is that religion, if it be true, has been divinely revealed. Divine revelation as an explanation of religious genesis has no place in this book, and under ordinary circumstances all theological interpretations of the origins of religion would be dismissed from consideration as irrelevant or prejudicial” (INTRODUCTION TO RELIGION, Richard Norbeck).

31. “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God”

33. “Too late…” • There is nothing more tragic than to die without God • (Luke 16:19-26) “Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day: and a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; yea, even the dogs come and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom…

34. and the rich man also died, and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mer-cy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things: but now here he is comforted and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.”

35. “Too late…’ • Will a man rob God? • (Malachi 3:8) “Will a man rob God? yet you rob me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.”

36. (Acts 17:24-28) “The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands; neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life, and breath, and all things; and he made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”

37. “Too late…” • What do we owe God in return? We owe it all! • (Gal. 2:20) “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.”

38. How do you view your life? Too young Too busy Too happy Too tired Too smart Too late

39. How do you view your life? Too young Will Too busy God Too happy accept Too tired my Too smart excuse Too late ?

40. How do you view your life? Too young Will Too busy God Too happy accept Too tired my Too smart excuse Too late? Too late

41. Don’t let your tombstone have these words on it – “DIED WITHOUT GOD”

42. The time is right; the Lord is calling • (II Cor. 6:1-2) “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

43. Will you hear? “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16)