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[0:00] Psalms 90. Turn to Psalms 90 if you would. And good to be here. It really is good to be here with you guys. It's real good to see again some people that I haven't seen for a very long time. And again be with family love being with family. We don't get that opportunity. Our families, the Wolski family and our family, you know, me and my father and even our gifts, my brothers, you know, there were spread throughout the country. And so we're not really close. So it's really a blessing to be able to get together and see family. So, you know, it's just a, and it feels good to be back here, be back at this church. I walked into this building and again, just the memories, some different times where we have come back through here. We've been coming through here for a long time. And just, I remembered, I said, I think I remember there being a sand volleyball court at one point. And I was never really good at it. So we never touched it. You know, I never went out there, but I remember that and just some different things. And so it again, it is a blessing.

[0:59] It's a blessing to be here. This morning is going to be very practical. This is not, I don't think necessarily, you know, this is my look at something here in the Bible, something that I think the Lord has helped to direct my life as best I can. And to just kind of try to help me out a little bit. And I think it'll just be just a kind of a good little breakdown as to just some general things in life, general sections in life. Your life is broken up into four scores. Look, if you would, in Psalms chapter 90.

[1:31] ...in Psalms chapter 90. And that says there in verse 10, the days of our years are threescore years and 10, and that is 70 years. And if by reason of strength, they be four score years, there's your reason why you make it to 80 plus. Yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away.

[1:58] Now we're looking forward to that time when we fly away, but most of the time lives are cut off. I just, uh, somebody came to me, uh, yesterday, brother Gorski, never met him. And he said, I saw you preach. He goes, you just did a memorial service. And I did, I just did a memorial service for a lady that I pulled in the last day of church, our last day, excuse me, of the year. We're going into our watch night service. And as I'm pulling in a young man and, uh, that I just him and his, his, uh, he's the son-in-law of the person he called me about. And he was kind of weepy. And he said, pastor, he goes, Tony was just found dead.

[2:32] And she was supposed to be there that night. You say, what happened? I mean, it kind of threw me through a little bit of a loop. We changed everything around and I'd go visit with some family and had some guys running some things at the church there, the 31st of December. And you say, what was it? We weren't expecting that. Uh, she was soon cut off. She was cut off before the four score years.

[2:52] But, uh, you know, if you and I get cut off, we're going to heaven. Praise the Lord. We understand that, but we fly away and I'm looking forward to that. We go upward. We don't go downward. Now, if you're not saved, then, uh, you're, you should not be looking forward to that day.

[3:05] But this is just a very practical lesson here today, uh, dealing with, uh, four score. Now a score is 20 years, which seems like a long time, but that's only 7,300 days.

[3:18] And four score is only 29,200 days. When you say it that way, it begins to go, Ooh, not a lot of time. It just doesn't feel that way. Every day is gone and it is gone for good.

[3:32] There ain't many people who are going to live like Dick Van Dyke here on this earth, right? I mean, he is still tap dancing in a way, right? And a hundred years old. I think he just turned. I don't know where he found the fountain of youth or maybe it's old brand muffins or whatever it might be, but he's living for a very long time. But you know what? He will be cut off. I'm not glorying in that. I don't look for that. I mean, but what I'm saying is, is that very rarely does a person live that long.

[3:57] Uh, I think in my day and age, there was a, uh, a Chinese lady or Japanese lady lived about 125 years. And I believe about 120 years is about the cap that God put on man. You find that in Genesis.

[4:09] And that's what you find. I mean, from Genesis lay lives were for a long time, but really about 120 years of the days of man. And right around Moses's time, God said, that's about it. We're, we're not letting you go in much longer than that.

[4:20] I mean, that is a lot of strength, but for me and you, if by reason of strength, it is four scores. So let's just imagine today that all of us are strong. We're all healthy and that we're all going to make it to 80 plus. All right.

[4:32] Now it might not be the case, but let's just imagine that's going to be that way. So let's take these four score and let's break them down. The first 20, the second 21 to 20, uh, 21 to 40, right?

[4:43] 41 to 60, 61 to 80. And let's just kind of look at how should we, or how practically, how should life be done? And again, you can disagree with me, not from the, not from the pew. Amen. Don't do that.

[4:55] But you can disagree with me in your own thoughts on what the four score should be, but this is just a general truth. All right. Just something to help us to apply our days unto wisdom. Let's have a word of prayer and we'll jump into it.

[5:07] Father, again, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the opportunity, God, to look at something pretty practical here. Lord, we want to make sure that we do things correct, do things the way that you want them done, do things the way that is.

[5:19] Lord, it's natural in a way, God, it's very natural. And so father, we ask that you put your hand upon our lives. Lord, we leave here today and we start our Mondays back up another week of our lives.

[5:30] And then there's a certain amount of doubt days and hours and moments, God, that we're not going to get back. And so God, we ask you, please help us to think a little more soberly about the time that we have left.

[5:40] Lord, we love you. Help us to apply our hearts unto wisdom today. God, Jesus name. I pray. Amen. First thing I want to say, look at Psalms chapter 78. Now we're going to keep you right here in the book of Psalms, except for a couple of different chapters where we'll go to.

[5:53] But Psalms chapter 78. And the first thing that we're going to talk about, I've alliterated this. Everyone's going to start with the letter F and it's going to deal with a different part of your life. The first one is first steps. One to 20 is first steps of life. And this is going to deal with education.

[6:10] Everything within the first 20 years is learning, learning, learning, learning education. Look at Psalms chapter 78 verses one through eight. And I think he lays it out pretty well here.

[6:21] I think this has to deal with spiritually and physically. Right now we've got kids. We've got a couple of three kids that have graduated. We've got three kids that are in school and they are, you know what they do?

[6:32] They open their Bibles up in the morning and they try to learn something spiritually. And then what do they do? They open up their schoolwork later on in that day and they complain about it, but they get into it. Right. And then we're trying to teach them some education. You say, why?

[6:45] Because this first 20 years, children are a sponge. Let me say this to parents. Your children are learning whether you're teaching them or not. All right. You need to be the one that is in control of them.

[6:57] You need to brainwash them or the world will do it for you. Hitler said, you give me a child till these eight. I'll have him for a lifetime. And boy, did he ever. And if you don't start training your children the right way from zero all the way up to where they're out of your house, let me tell you something. The world will get in there and I've raised six of them still in the process of raising them.

[7:19] And I know a thing or two about raising children. All right. Psalms chapter 78 verse one. Give ear, oh, my people to my long client, your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known.

[7:33] And our fathers have told us we will not hide them from the children showing to the generation to come. The praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. He hath established the testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn or rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

[8:08] These first 20 years, the first steps of life are all about education. We are learning. This is why we try to be very gracious and patient with those that are in those first 20 years.

[8:22] They have not set the pace for their life. They don't even know life yet. They're learning it. It's exciting. Man, we've got a lot of little kids. I was telling him today, my office is underneath the sanctuary where there's a number of different things. And it just sounds like every once in a while, it's a runway up there where these kids are running up and down.

[8:39] You say, what do you do after church? I let them run, man. They've been cooped up for as long as I'm preaching and I just let them run. And we've got a bunch of little kids. Then you say, what are you doing? Well, I want them to sit there and I want them to be educated in Sunday school. I want to teach them how to sit in church, by the way, how they sit at your house. We'll teach them how to sit in church later. So you're educating them all the time. I mean, it's all about education. Teach, teach, teach, teach, teach. And it is very important to do that. But look at, look how learning starts. Verse one, give ear, give ear. And then it says, incline your ears. First thing we learn about education is that it starts with opening up your ears to the truth and it better be the truth or it's going to be somebody's quote unquote truth. You know, Oh, that I love these words.

[9:23] Don't when I say I love it, I hate it. Oh, well, that's your truth. No, the truth is the truth. It's not your truth. My truth. The truth is the truth. Two plus two is still four. No matter how uneducated you are, you can say two plus two is five because I believe it's five. You are wrong.

[9:40] Open up your ears to the truth, right? And so we're supposed to open up our ears. Even James says this, wherefore my beloved brethren be, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

[9:52] You have two ears and one mouth, which means you should listen twice as much as you speak, right? That's very important. Then verse two, he says this, I will, now that we've opened our ears, we can now open up our mouth unto a, in a parable and will utter dark sayings of old only after we've been educated on something. Should we even speak about it? I remember when I graduated from Pensacola Bible Institute, I got up there and I said this, I have not learned anything. I said, I've been taught everything. You learn by experience. I've been taught it. What do you, what do you think? Just because I was, the Bible's opened up to me that I learned it. No, I was taught it now through the years and putting that book into me and letting it filter through me. I start seeing some of these truths and I'm like, I understand when I just got up and said, listen, I know how to raise kids.

[10:38] It's because I've raised kids. Now the book is not written. I'm not writing any book on how to raise children. Why? Cause one's already been there. We just need to apply what's already been written. But, but, uh, I've learned some things about it. I have a real hard time when somebody is in their twenties, get up and start talking about how to rear kids into their teens, but you haven't had any yet.

[10:58] Right? I'm not saying that there's not an authority there. I'm not saying that the Bible, the guy can get up very humbly and say, here's what the Bible says. I appreciate that. But when somebody starts acting like an authority on something, when they've never been there, boy, that's really hard to listen to. You say, what is it? Well, I've been around a little bit. I've been around a little bit on this education thing. First 20 years is education. So I'm going to listen with both my ears. Then I'm going to open up my mouth and look at verse three. Say, why should we do this? The reason here in verse three is that those dark sayings of old were passed down. This Asaph wrote the Psalm and he said, listen, I'm going to now open up my mouth because dark sayings of old things from ancient time had passed down to me. And I need for the generation that is right in front of me, these younger generation to get it, to learn from it. All right. Verse four, verse four and five, we, we, the older generation will not hide them. The dark sayings of old from their children, showing the generations to come, the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he had done. He has established the testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded for our fathers that we should make them known to their children. It is our job as parents or as an elder in the church. And when I say an elder, I'm not getting, you know, theological there.

[12:08] I mean, an older person in the church got a little salt and salt mixed in with the pepper to be able to open up our mouths and, and to be able to educate and help those that are younger. I love it. When I get texts from the 20 and under crowd saying, pastor, can we meet? Of course we can. You say, why?

[12:27] Cause I know they're in that molding stage where I can sit there and I take that very cautiously. I want to listen to what they're saying. I open up the Bible and I say, okay, here's what I've learned. As far as I can tell, this is what this means. All right. Cause they're going to, they're going to latch onto every word. They're sponges. They're sponges. They want to know knowledge. Once they get past 20, it's like, now they want to show what I've learned. But I mean, up until 20, it's like, I'm learning, learning, learning, learning. It's all about education. And there's something about that. Cause I know that I can now pour into them. We had a lady come into church, uh, a number of years back and she was sitting in the back row and I walked over and I shook her hand and I just said, uh, it's good to have you here. And she said, uh, she said, uh, I'm pro-life. Hug her head.

[13:10] And I was like, I wanted, I wanted to go like, why did you hang your head? Like, that's a good thing. The Lord said, he just asked her again what she said. I said, okay, I almost missed her. I said, uh, I said, I'm sorry. I didn't hear her. She said, what'd you say? You hung her head like she's saying I'm pro-life, but that's a bad thing. I'm pro-life. I don't want babies to be born, right?

[13:28] Right. Right. One of you does. Thank you for agreeing with me. Amen. But, uh, I, I bought up to what she said. She hung her head. So the reaction was wrong from what she said. And I looked back and I said, I'm sorry, what did you say? She goes, I'm a poly-wife. Poly-wife is a polygamist. We've had to deal with that. You might not have had to deal with that here in Idaho. Welcome to it, man. It's a subculture. We've had to deal with it a couple of times in our church. People coming in and dealing with polygamists.

[13:52] And, uh, I remember looking at her and here she is 50 something, the second wife of three out of three of a man that, not in our church, but of a man that's lost. You've got eight kids with each one of the women. And I'm like, okay. And she got out of it by studying her Bible where the Bible says about the lady. She's sweet, man. She's a sweet lady, but I'm telling you, she's in the mid-50s and there's about, what am I going to do to educate her?

[14:15] Right? I mean, all of that doctrine that's been put into her, false doctrine or not, still has its way a little bit different from time to time. And I'm like, well, thank you for bringing her, but what's the benefit? She's blessed. Don't get me wrong. She's awesome.

[14:29] But like we're, and then all of a sudden, here comes in some of her kids. And there's a young man named Samuel. I'm telling you, a kid's gold. Right now his job in the church is after every service to organize every hymn book. Put him in the right spot. And he does it like coffee. And then he'll text me and he'll say, Pastor, can we get together for coffee?

[14:50] Yes. Let's go, buddy. 16 years old and I'll sit down with him. I'll talk to him and I'll bring him to my office and I'll talk to him and we'll text back and forth. He said, what are you doing? I'm pumping into that guy, man, because God's going to use him. That's right. I don't know who he is. You know what he could be? He could be the next pastor of Stilbar's dad. That's right. I mean that. We'll get to the last story here in just a minute, but I believe in education. It's my job as somebody who's older to help these people with their first steps. They might not like the things we say. They might not understand him and they don't understand him yet because they haven't learned by experience, but it's true. And we got to tell them it's our job. And then verse six, it is their job that the generation to come might know them. Even the children, it should be born who should arise and declare them to their children. What we want is that what we've taught to go to the next generation and then teach it farther on and keep it going. Do you know that we're teaching things that were taught to us 2000 years ago? Why? Because one Christian generation passed it to the next Christian generation and the doctrine is still sound and functioning in our churches, in our lives. Because what has happened in the Christian family is what

[15:58] God wants to happen in our families. We educate them, right? We do not let them run our homes. We do not let them educate us. They're kids. They don't know anything. Their minds are mush. It's our job to make them what God would have them to be. Educate your children and educate them in the right way. And then verse seven and eight, these are the reason for a good education is to avoid the pitfalls that hardships that others have gone through in the past.

[16:25] I'm a second son. You say, what'd you learn? I learned a lot from watching my older brother do things that made dad upset. I will not do that thing. I like watching my brother. I didn't like watch my brother get spanked or anything and praise the Lord for spankings. I thank God for spank to my parents, to their face. I said, thank you for spanking me. Spanking me shows you love me. I tell you, the Bible says right there, if you love your child, you will chase in your child.

[16:49] That is what God says. I don't care what the world says. And I looked at him out as a man, as a grown adult male. I'll say, thank you for spanking me when I was young. I needed that. All right here. We look here. You know what happens if we don't train up our children, they end up going right to the same pitfalls that we did or the generation before us.

[17:09] It's our job. Train up a child in the way you should go. And we as old, he will not depart from it. Train up a child. By the way, that's a proverb, not a promise. That's a general truth. But if you don't train your child, you're still training your child. You're training your child to get away with everything they want. And you're training your child that they can have their own way. And when they get older, that doesn't work very well because the red and blue will get behind them and say, sorry, regardless, you still have to obey authority. You better train them in the house.

[17:36] Education. You know what we want? We want our children to be better than us. David is on his deathbed. I believe it was Nathan that came in or somebody came in and said, Solomon's sitting on the throne. And that man that came in said this, he goes, we pray that his throne would be better than yours. And David's like, praise the Lord.

[17:57] I want my kids to be better than me in everything. Except for God. Which isn't too difficult. But I want them to be better than me in everything in life. I want them to build a foundation.

[18:13] Listen, John Giff started a foundation. Then it went to Sam Giff. And now it's Nathan Giff. And then it's going to be Ezra and Mason and Ira. And it's going to be Deborah and Miriam and Phoebe.

[18:25] And I want them to keep building and building and building. First 20 years, the first 7,300 days of your life for education. Now, next one's family, prosperity, family here, posterity. Excuse me.

[18:37] Look at Psalms 127. Psalms 127. These are such pleasant chapters, man. I love these chapters. We'll just start there in verses 3 through 5. We looked at first steps. That's your first score.

[18:54] Here's your second score, 21 to 40. This is family. This is your posterity, right? This is trying to have kids. Low children are in heritage of the Lord. And the fruit of the womb is his reward. I have, I've been rewarded. I love my kids. I just, man, I'm telling you, we'll go home. We'll pray every morning. We pray every night. And here I got my 22-year-old daughter who'll come out of her room.

[19:25] And she'll be around with all from the 22 out of the 8. And if she's not going to bed already, because she's got to get early to go to work, you know, I don't drag her out. You know, she's 22. She's an adult living in my home, right? Same with the 20-year-old. And the 18-year-old's adult-ish, you know, he thinks he's what he is, but he's not quite there yet. But they come out and they submit to the, Hey, let's pray. I want you to pray. And you pray. And we'll just go to bed.

[19:45] We just make quick prayer. You know, it happens a lot of times we'll be sitting there and we'll be before we pray and they'll start talking and we'll talk for 30 minutes. We'll just goof off and talk and just fellowship. And we love each other. Let me tell you something, man, that does this man's heart good to see them sitting there. They're in the sound booth or they're doing ushering or they're playing the piano or they're in Sunday schools teaching or they're just running around shaking kids, people's hands, just being cute little kids, man. I look at my family and I just say, thank you. Wow. But I'm done having them. I am 46. When Phoebe was born, I joined the fix, the six and get fixed club. All right. Some of you will get that later. Ain't happening anymore.

[20:30] You say, when'd you start having them from 20 to 40s? When I had them say, why? Because I could still run them down now. I don't know if I can do that. My son's 18. He has smoothed everything.

[20:42] He does. My 16 year old is as big as I am, man. I mean, I can't even chase down my eight year old girl. She's got wheels, buddy. You say, what'd you do? Well, I train them, but then I had them at the age when I could still be a parent to him. It's good stuff. Psalms 127 verse three, low children are heritage of the Lord and fruit of the womb is his reward as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man.

[21:01] So are the children of the youth happy is the man that has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gates. In the next chapter over, it talks about the wife, uh, being like a fruitful vine by the sides of her house. You know, a vine produces in the middle of its season. And that's what we're supposed to do. We get it closer to that, that twenties to forties. And that's when we start having our babies and start having our kids. I mean, I know Sarah and Elizabeth are exceptions to the rule, but this is what God expects. He expects that we get educated and then we find a mate and we begin to have kids. And then we begin to, to have a family and hopefully grow them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, right? Psalms 127, these kids, they're a blessing. This is the way the institution of marriage is supposed to be. God made it this way that man would find a woman. And by the way, that's the way it is. You know it as well as I do. That's the way it is.

[21:53] But if you're not trained that way from Bible, if you're not trained that way in church or in your home, then the world will do its job to train you from one to 20, that you can be 26 different genders, right? This is why you need to do your job training them. Be careful what you put in front of your little kids. All right. Be careful what you subject themselves to. Let me step back here.

[22:15] Didn't say this. I had a young man come to me at camp a couple of years back. He was crying. And he said, Pastor, I don't know that I'm saved. I'm like, what do you mean? I said, well, I didn't, and I'm not rebuking him. I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, I just don't know. I said, okay, let's go through. Went through it all. I got to the end of it. I said, are you saved? He goes, you're not saved. I said, okay, let me ask you a question, buddy.

[22:33] I said, why do you think that way? Let's go back to your history. I started peeling back the onion of his little life, 18 years old at that time. Now he's 20 something, 20 years old I think. And it felt for about one year, his parents were waffling back and forth trying to find the right church and they went to a church that taught to lead your salvation. And for one year, that false doctrine was put into them and it still has an effect on it today.

[22:55] See, when you put yourself under false doctrine or false teaching, you put your kids underneath that, you say, oh, they'll little, they won't get it. They'll, they'll, they won't bother them. They'll soak it up and it might be a scar to them later on. It's your job to train them. But then when you come of age, find that right spouse, it's your job to make them.

[23:14] Amen. Have some kids. I know we might not be passed out. I know we got some people here single and some people that are younger. I just want to get you to do a chiropractic adjustment at the right time. Here it is. 20 to 40 is your family time. Amen. Don't wait till you can afford to have kids. Get married. Don't wait till you can afford to have kids.

[23:33] You ain't never going to be able to afford to have kids. On paper, my check looks nice and it's gone by the end of the week. You say why? Cause I got six kids. That's why. I mean, it is gone, baby gone. I just like God be with you till we meet next Monday. It's gone, but I'm, I'm putting into my family because I'm, I'm 46, but I'm still kind of in this one. They, these scores kind of overlap. Some people get married before 20. Some people have kids after 40. Uh, and so we understand they can overlap. It's not a cut and dry thing.

[24:08] We understand that's the way it can be, but, uh, I'm still in this time with family. I've got some little kids. I'll have kids in my home till I'm a hundred. So it's just the way it's going to be. Verse four. They're like arrows. They're like arrows in your hand to help you out. That's what you should have. And I believe in verse five, you have many kids as you want. We get this weird doctrine about having kids. Bible says that when we had our fourth son or fourth child, Ezra, uh, excuse me, third child, Ezra, I read, I saw that verse happy as the man that had his quiver. I've had young adults that are, you know, having kids and they go, when do you know? And I just said, you just know, you just know his quiver. The world says, well, this is what you should do. And then sometimes we don't have enough kids because we try to put our career in front of our family. I can't, we're going to get that in just a second to the next door. But we, you know, I looked at that verse that says his quiver. And it just kind of gave me some peace to know that God would let me know. And we had that little, she gave me a little present, the whole family. And

[25:16] Phoebe was ready before we had known it, little hit, little plaque and just said, loved you before I met you. And of course I'm like crying. This is so cool. And he was like, there was something inside of me that just went quick off. Like, okay, I'm done. We got the perfect little Brady lunch. We're ready to go. You know, we're just done having family, having kids. It's awesome. As long as you're training right. If you don't train them right, they'll be the biggest frustration to you and the people around you. Train them right. And you love them and you put everything you have in 20 to 40, man. Awesome. Still run them down, still play with them. I throw a football and watch my boys go catch it. You know, I mean, I'm out there playing golf with my kids now, my sons now, and just go walk for walks with my daughters. It's awesome, man. I love it. Second score is family. Say what's the third score? Third score. Look at Psalms 49. Third score comes from 41 to 60. And this is really your finances. Man, I am so tired of watching those in their 20 to 40s. Try to retire at 35.

[26:19] I want to be a YouTuber, an influencer. I want to be rich and I want to have everything I want. Blah, blah, blah. And they're losing what God has put in there. Naturally have your kids at that time. Instead, they're trying to become these self-made millionaires and be this wonderful thing. And they don't know anything about anything yet, but they know how to get a following from 41 to 60 is your finances. That's your career. 40 number of testing. That's when finally people start looking at you and thinking you might know something because you've been through some things. Psalms 49 verse 10 for he see it that wise men die. Likewise, the fool and the brutish person and leave their wealth to others. You know, I believe this. I believe that the rapture is going to come save anyways, plan for retirement anyways. See, I grew up in the age when the Lord was coming back in 1983 and then 1988 and then 1990, 1993, the 1997 and a half. And then year 2000. And then, uh, some guy came out there. I mean, just kept going, getting pushed back and pushed back. You say, what do we do? Well, I don't want to leave any money for the Antichrist. I highly doubt the

[27:29] Antichrist needs independent Baptists money because we don't have a lot of it anyways, right? We're not going to be fueling his false kingdom. It's going to happen regardless of what you have. All right.

[27:41] So let me just say this. There's a lot of people that were thought the Lord was coming back in 88. We're pushing up daisies today. You know what you should do? Save anyways. This is the career time. This is when you can finally, some of your kids are grown up. You know what I'm finding now is that I kind of want to go to the office a little bit more because some of my kids are older. They're out of the house. They're going through three of them are going to work. The other one just kind of takes, he's a blessing, just kind of takes care of some different things. The other two, they're a little bit younger, but mom's home. And I kind of feel like it's okay for me to go to the office a little bit more. Why? I don't want to, I've got one family here. This is something I've lived with. I can get, I don't want my church to ever become more important to my family. I can get another church. I don't want to have to get another family, but now I'm getting older and I'm kind of like, you know, I find it inside of me, this change that's happening where I really want to just, I like being at the office a little bit. It's fun. I got an office at my house, so I'll go down there and I'll study and it's nice. The door opens up. Kids come in, talk to me. My wife comes in, talks to me. It's great. I love that. But I'm starting to find out that I'm feeling more like, what am I doing with my life? Lord, where is this going? I, how productive is this? Let's move forward, right? 40 years old, 40 years old when people usually start to get a little more serious about retirement, they begin to start planning for some different things. You know, the Bible says, consider the aunt. I'll read you some verses here. So we don't have the sake of time here, but Proverbs chapter six says this. I'll just read them and you can just kind of listen. You know, the verses, if you're, if you're a Bible reader, maybe you read a problem for the date, but he says this, go to the aunt thou slugger, consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer a ruler provided her meat in the summer and gather their food in the harvest. How long will thou sleep,

[29:23] O slugger? When will thou rise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of thy hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth and I want as an armed man. You're, you know, we should consider the aunt. I had, I was an associate pastor for 10 years under a man named Bryant Legault. And then he was an associate pastor of a man named a brother Christian and brother Christian had put away and put away and put away and taught.

[29:51] And then he got, he got to the last score of his life. And he said, you know what? I'm going to turn it over to brother Legault. And then brother Legault got to that point. You know what? He thought I was the next guy up. I wasn't the next guy up, but he had put away and he put away and he put it away and put away. And now the next guy up was somebody that was in my college and career. Who's now pastoring the church today. You say, what'd they do? Well, that during that time of that 40 to 60, they started putting away. That was their career stage. They had already raised their family.

[30:18] They're educating their kids. They already had their kids. Now it was to focus on their career from 40 to 60. And of course they went past that into their, into the ministry for a little while. But listen, we need to kind of get these, these scores out of whack. This is the problem. When you start getting your scores out of whack, man, it's your life can get really, can really can, I don't know the word, just it can be a wreck. It really can be. These are just the natural things that I see that I know what people say. Well, you know, I don't want to, I want to leave a good name.

[30:50] A good name is a father's inheritance. And it is, but Solomon also says house and riches are the inheritance of fathers. You know, I want to do one day, if I ever, if my life is ever done, I want to be able to leave more than just a good name to my kids, especially in this day and age, especially in this day and age, man, there's been times where my parents on both sides, Wolski and Gip will just send us a little extra, man. They send us about $10,000 every year. Do you guys get that? You guys don't get that? Yeah, we don't. They they'll send us, they'll send us all just a little bit. And I'm telling you when you're raising kids, that's gone out the window, right? Boy, it is nice to have seen some wisdom in the generation that's ahead of us who thought, yeah, the Lord's coming back tomorrow, but we're going to put away. We're going to put away. We're going to be wise with our finances, man. It's good stuff.

[31:40] Bible says house and riches are an inheritance of fathers. I hope the one day I can do that. You say, how are you going to do that? Well, Solomon also says this in Proverbs chapter 22, verse seven, if thou has nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee? Maybe we quit going out and live in our life like we're 20 and get everything we want. Maybe we need to be a little more careful about our finances. Then the last score, Psalms 128. Close this out here for just a second. Psalms 128.

[32:08] We've looked at first steps. We've looked at family. That's 21 to 40 and 41 to 60 is your finances. That's when you really kind of come to into who you are. People start trusting you and you start seeing some things, make some headway a little bit. Maybe the finances grow a little bit more. It's a blessing.

[32:28] It's a blessing. And then the last score is finality. And again, these overlap, right? These overlap, but finality, and this is retirement. All right. 61 to 80. And I'm not in this score. I'm in the third score of life, but finality. And I'll be honest with you now that I'm 46, I began to look ahead and I can't see the finish line of life or my career, but I know it's just over the hill. I know it's just across and I'm beginning to think on that a little bit more becomes a little more sobering to know that there's going to come a time when I might not be able to do this, when there's going to come a time when I might, we were, me and Toby were talking about this. It was not too long ago that I could see my fingerprints this close to my eyes. And like last year, I was like, all right, there it is. That was a little scary. I was like, I've always been able to see my fingerprints. And now my daughter comes to me the other day. I'm the guy that takes splinters out of hands. And she comes to me, little one, she goes, yeah, I got a splinter. I'm like, hold that still. I told my daughter to get a phone and zoom in on it so I could get to it.

[33:37] You say, why? Because I couldn't see it the same way. You say, what's happening? Oh, I'm in that third score, but I'm beginning to think about the last one. The finality of life. Psalms 128 is just a beautiful Psalm. Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands. Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house. Thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, thus shall the man be that blesseth the fear, be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion and shall see that good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children in peace upon Israel. The last 20 years and beyond, because some of you will make it past that.

[34:20] Amen. 20 years, you know, 80 years, if by reason of strength, some of us have gone, some of them will go. There's longevity with inside the gift side of life. There just is. There's a length thing there.

[34:32] A lot of us have lived a long time, so I understand that I might live past 80 and well past it. Praise the Lord for that. Maybe. Maybe by that time I'll be like, I'm done. I don't know. But last 20 years and beyond should be focused on enjoying the benefits of making the right choices in the first three scores. Should be. King David found out that as he got older, he wasn't expected or able to lead the same way he did when he was younger. He was the warrior king. And the Philistines come out against him. And one of those guys says, King, no, no, no, you're not going out to battle unless you hurt the light of Israel. You're not ready. I'll bet that hurt him, but I bet it hit him. Well, at least I've trained some guys to come up underneath me to take my place. I can, now I can just sit back and go, guys, go to war. This isn't the time when Kings go forth to battle and he messed up in the forties, right? This is later on in life where he's like, I just can't pick up that sword anyway, man.

[35:24] There's some stuff going on here, but he had done things right. So that way now he could sit there and go, all right, go to war gentlemen. And then, and then the finality of his life was a blessing. He died and he rested in peace. Then here comes his son who he trained. He had educated. He had had it the right time. You know, and here he comes and now he sits on the throne with all wisdom.

[35:44] And he's like, man, I want him to be better than me. Finality. We want that to be that way. Verse one shows us the blessing of heeding the proper education. Blessed is everyone that fears the Lord walketh in his ways. Do it at the right score. Verse three shows the blessings of having the proper family, a fruitful wife, children around my table. Verse two shows the blessings of making the right financial choices. Thou shalt eat the labor of thine hand and happy shall it be, and it shall be well with thee. You know, I, not too long ago, well, about 10 years ago, I took a little bit of money from a house sale, just about, about $10,000. It wasn't a lot. I gave it to an edgy, uh, Edward Jones guy. And he said, uh, what do you want me to do with this? I want to invest it in, obviously. He goes, what's your, what do you want? So I'm called to preach.

[36:36] But I said this, I said, I want to, I want to die in the pulpit with an option of dying on the beach. So I told him. I said, why? Because this right here might not be where I die.

[36:50] I want to make sure though, that I'm prepared and ready. I want to make sure that the end of my life has been done right in those first three scores. Verses four and five is the person sitting back and rejoin, enjoying their retirement. Behold that thus shall the man be that blessed that fear the Lord. He shall bless thee out of Zion and shall see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Verse six. So you can sit back and enjoy kid grandkids. I don't have kids. My kids aren't even married yet, but have peace with it. Maybe this is the Paul statement where he says, I've fought a good fight. I finished my course. I have kept the faith. And you can look back at Timothy and say, I did everything right. Yours now, buddy.

[37:33] And I'm just going to, I'm going to go home in peace. We got four score. Go back to Psalms 90 and let's end it out here. Again, the problem is getting these scores out of whack. It could really mess up life. First score is first steps. It's education. Second score is family. That's your posterity. Third score is your finances. That's when you, that's when it really starts coming. You start trying to worry about that from one to 40, man, when you should be worrying about the other things, it's going to really be frustrating. That's your career. The last one's finality. And that's, that's when you're done. Whenever you're done, you're done. Retirement.

[38:07] Look at Psalms 90 verse 12. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. The reason you need to number your days is you can apply your hearts unto wisdom. Do me a favor. Take your phone out and go to your calculator app. Take your phone out and go to your calculator app. The Bible says in verse nine, if you got one, grab it. All right.

[38:31] For our days are passed away in thy wrath. So we spend our years as a tale that is told. I want you to pop in there. 80. Let's just say you're all going to make it to 80. All right.

[38:44] Now we know 80 is 29,200 days. All right. We got 80 there. Now I want you to subtract your age. Hopefully, hopefully none of you're going into the negatives.

[38:55] All right. Right now I've got 34 years left. And I want you to multiply that by 365 and see how many days you have left. You know what I've got left? I've got 12,410 days left.

[39:12] Celebrate, isn't it? Yeah. Boy, I'd better apply wisdom. Why not? I use those 12,410 days. I didn't write. I want to make sure that I do every story correctly.

[39:28] So that way, when my tale is told, it can be told that Nathan did. Not just Pastor. Nathan did. Did things the right way.

[39:38] That's the story that you should follow after. Let's have a word of prayer and we'll turn it over to the preacher. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the practicality of this lesson.

[39:50] Lord, that we might apply our days. Lord, we might number our days and apply our hearts unto wisdom to know what to do. Father, I ask you to be with each one of these people. Lord, we've got kids over here in the nursery.

[40:00] They're in the first score. Lord, we've got some even in this room in that score. Lord, we're teenagers and just getting into their 20s. And then they start getting into family. And then they get into their, Lord, to their finances, their career.

[40:12] And then, Lord, there's some in this room that are seeing the end. And they're done. They've retired. They're enjoying the fruits of doing things correctly. Lord, please help us to apply our hearts unto wisdom.

[40:24]  Lord, that the tale that is told about us would be a good one. Glorifying to you. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.