I want you to just imagine right now we're going to the graveyard for a minute
You go to the graveyard you see on the tombstone the person's name
when they were born a dash and when they died
Don't you think it's interesting that your whole life from the time you're born till you die comes down to a dash
So here's what I want to ask you
What are you doing with your dash because that's about how fast you're gonna feel like it went by when you get to be about
75 or 80 you're gonna go I can't believe
That it's all gone don't get to that point in life and have nothing but regrets
You know the dash really, you know when it gets right down to it that's it
It's the time period in between your birth and your death
that is the
dash that's on your stone
What we do with the dash on our stone
Is what counts
Life goes by so fast
None of us knows how long we have left none of us
Every hour that we use is one we will never get back
So we don't want to waste them
We want to use them wisely
Time is just too valuable to waste
I wonder how many people at the end their life feel
That they have truly lived the life that they were meant to live or wanted to live
God can do so many great things through us
If we'll take steps of faith if you don't like the way your life is going
You're the only one that can change it
24 hours a day seven days a week
That's all you're gonna get
Isn't it amazing that some people do so much with their life
And other people do so pitifully little with their life
We can't blame it on circumstances we are the ones who need to rise up
And begin to live the life on purpose that God wants us to live and stop just blaming everything
That's going on around us from how we were raised to
The government to this to that to something else time is too valuable
To waste and if you don't believe that now you just wait till you get somewhere up in the 60s or 70s and see if
you don't think that time is valuable
And you want to use your time that you've got for that during that little dash of your life
To get to know God and to help other people
That's what life is about life is not primarily about making money
It's not primarily about having a nice home. It's not primarily about having a retirement account
It's not primarily about you know, any of these things
what is most important is your relationship with the Lord and
Using what you have to serve Him and to help other people
That's really
What counts and when you get down to the very end if you can look back on your life
And if you can know that that's the life that you've lived
Then I tell you you'll be a whole lot better off
Than if you look back and have all kinds of regrets
What you should have done how you should have lived, you know the life that you could have lived but didn't live
What's gonna fill your heart. It's gonna be God. You need God in your life
And I tell you if you know if I die before Jesus comes I should be so blessed
To have a strong faith in God to be able to look back and know that I've lived for Jesus
But I've lived my dash in a way that pleases him
See it's very important
To make decisions now that are going to make things right when all this is over and it will be over
Jesus is coming soon
I don't know if he'll come in my lifetime but I think I should live every day like he will
Psalm 90:12 so teach us to number our days
That we may get a heart of wisdom
David talked about this a lot in the Psalms and Psalm thirty nine verses 4 & 5
he says Lord make me to know my end
And to appreciate the measure of my days what it is. Let me know and realize how frail I am
And how transient is my stay here
We want to live smart
Don't get so caught up in the busyness of everyday life that you forget that this is not your true home
Some people are so stinking busy. They don't even time to talk to their kids
They're so busy, some people are so busy out making money that by the time they
Are ready to die. All they're gonna have as a bank account. Can I tell you when you're on your deathbed
You're not gonna ask to see your bank balance
you're gonna want your family and so now is the time to be spending time with them and not
Doing so many foolish things that you don't even have time to do the things that are really important
Just say to yourself. Okay
Am I really doing what God wants me to do, you know today everybody's busy busy busy busy busy
But God has not called us to be busy. He has called us to bear good fruit
amen
So let me ask you are you busy or fruitful?
Get busy doing what God wants you to do
You don't want to be on the day on your deathbed and then thinking to yourself No, I don't. I'm not ready
I don't know the Lord. I don't know the Bible. I don't have the promises of God in my heart
You know, you don't want to get to that point
You want to be ready for the day of your death
What counts
above everything else is your
relationship with Jesus
You know whatever we can do for Jesus brothers and sisters. Let's do it
Let's use our time wisely for the Lord
That is what it's all about
That's why we're here
You know make your choice to be on Jesus side. It's the best choice you can ever make is to follow
Jesus will never be happy without Jesus. He's our maker. He's our Savior
He's the truth and it's through following him that we will find the real purpose and the meaning of life
May God help us to give him our dash
Matthew 6:19 and 20
do not gather and heap up
And store up for yourselves treasures
on earth where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy and where thieves break through and steal
But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven
Then neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy and where thieves do not break through and steal
I don't want to spend my whole life
Just storing up stuff that's already in the process of decay
And someday is going to end up in a junkyard somewhere
if you want to get a revelation go find yourself a good junkyard
And just stand there and look at it for about 15 minutes and think somebody probably lost their marriage over that
Somebody never got to know their kids over that
Somebody was dishonest over that
Somebody never had any time for God over that and now that is a pile of trash somewhere in a junkyard
Because that's what happens to all the things that we worship here
The people in your life are more important than your money
We just get caught up in the wheel of progress
Everybody thinks they just got to get on that wheel
But you know what
we're in the world and not of it and I really have come to the conclusion that
God's intention for us is to spend most of our time here getting ready for there
We should be spending more of our time here getting ready for there because there is going to come before you know it
and then we're gonna stand in the presence of God
And give an account of our lives
If you're not right with God now is the time
Make wise choices about how to use your time
We only get one life
What are you gonna do with your dash