Ears to Hear

Psalm 95. Come, let us sing for joy to the lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving. And extoll him with music and song.

For the lord is the great god, the great king, above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come. Let us bow down in worship let us kneel before the lord, our maker, for he is our god, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meraba, as you did that day at Massa in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me. They tried me though they had seen what I did. For 40 years, I was angry with that generation. I said these are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways. So I declared on oath in my anger.

They shall never enter my rest. Page 679 now, we're going to turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and read verses 1 to 8. So page 6 7 9. Remember your creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say I find no pleasure in them before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark and the clouds return after the rain. When the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men stoop when the grinders cease because they are few and those looking through the windows grow dim when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades.

When people rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets. When the ormond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire no longer is stirred. Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets. Remember him, before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well. And the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to god who gave it.

Meaningless, meaningless says the teacher. Everything is meaningless. Father god help us now, please, to to listen. Help us. We've got 2 ears, you've given us, and we pray please that you would help us to use them.

That we may hear what you say and not be a hypocrite and agree but do nothing but be doers of what we hear you say in Jesus' name, our man. Now, I want you to come with me. We're gonna have a look psalm 95, so keep that open. But I want you to I want you to come with me to a a real illustration, actually, but I want to put you in it or put us in it. So we're flying over to America.

We're going to an American football stadium to see a thing that they call football and I've never been. I don't ever want to go to an American football match but, we're going anyway. So we're there. We're sitting in a crowd We're sitting in a crowd of a hundred thousand people. And, the teams are in mid play.

And we're right up in the gods right up far away. But even where we're sitting, we they're they're giants. Because they're all padded out and they've got all their gear on and their helmets on and and they just look like giants. The cheerleader girls for both sides are bouncing up and down and jumping around and throwing their bomb bombs all over the place. To get us all excited about a very unexciting game.

But we're there and we're trying to get into the the feel of it. When suddenly play stops, Now as far as I can see with American Football, it stops quite a lot, but suddenly, it it stops for no for no reason. And the giants all stand up to full height and you just see how big they are now. The cheerleader girls all just stop dancing around. And quiet begins to come right around the stadium.

And no one's singing anymore. No one's shouting. And then 1 person laughs And then another laughs. And then before you know it, you've got a hundred thousand people just roaring with laughter at the American footballers. Now, what's happened?

This is a true story. A tiny little dog has run onto the pitch, and it's stopped play. How it got there? No 1 knows, but it stopped play. And the American giants are now trying to catch this little furball.

And it's harder than the, you know, to catch the normal ball. And it's running through their legs. And as they die for it, it just just speeds up a bit and gets away from them. And so these proud men are looking like fools and a hundred thousand people are laughing at them. Then 1 of them thinks there's no way we're gonna catch this little furball So 1 of the American footballers bends down and calls to the little little dog.

Come on boy, assuming it is a boy, but come on boy, Come on. This way. And then another 1 thinks, yeah, that's a good idea. I'll call it. Come on.

And then someone in the crowd thinks, oh, we'll call it. Come on, boy. Come on. Then someone else then someone else. And from laughter, from silence to laughter to a hundred thousand people, including you and me, going Come on boy.

This way. Come on. Now which way should the dog run? That's my big philosophical question. Who should it run to?

It's confused. There are so many voices calling for it to come, it does not know what to do. Now I'm not trying to be stupid when I say this, But if you think about it, life can be just like that, and we can be just like a dog in a stadium. A hundred thousand voices. So many voices, they all demand your attention.

And they usually demand your attention now. And they usually say, come here. Come on. This way. Take 1 day in your life.

Perhaps you wake up to the radio, or you wake up to your phone saying something to you. Perhaps the first thing you do is to stretch out for your phone, and you look at a hundred thousand messages, for you. And there are adverts and messages and things calling your attention. On your smartphone, there's podcasts to look at. There's blogs to read.

There's texts. There's messages, there's the radio, perhaps the TV, there's music. There are voices just everywhere. There are voices written all over our clothes, advertising, advertising clothing, telling us what we should be buying. It's everywhere.

The voice is literally everywhere. The bags you carry advertise the company. I'm old enough to remember in, I think it was Sainsbury's when they first of all gave you a bag with with their Sainsbury's logo on it. You used to get bags without the logo, and I remember The first time I was given a bag with Sainsbury's written on it, I said how much am I getting paid for advertising for you? And they said nothing.

So I turned the bag inside out. Now it's quite hard to do that now because I've there are messages everywhere. In his little book called the tyranny of the urgent, as a bloke, who wrote it called Charles Humble. He writes about a friend who challenged the way he was living. And the friend said to Charles this said this, your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.

Now let me say that again. Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important. Now, I think that's an and powerful sentence. Because so often at the end of the day, we've left undone the things that we really should have done the important things. And we've done the things that we didn't really need to do, but they had a louder voice.

They shouted urgent. We listen to the voice of the urgent rather than the voice of the important. Let me try to illustrate it. Here's a person, perhaps here. Here's someone that says, okay, you know, I'm gonna try and get to grips with the Bible.

It's a big book. Perhaps I'll open it. Perhaps I'll try and is is god speaking through But people talk about this being god's word. Well, that's quite an extraordinary thing to to claim. So if this is god's word, I it's it's seriously important, isn't it?

It's important, vitally important if it is god's word. And then you sit down. Here's this person saying, well, I'm gonna find out. I'm gonna open it up. I'm gonna see whether this is god's word.

Is god speaking to me through this and you start to read it? Your phone buzzes. The urgent. And immediately you can't help it. You're drawn to the urgent.

It's the way those things are designed. The urgent is always louder. It's always now. It's always in the moment. It always draws your attention away from that which is important.

It always interrupts It always shouts. It always offers more excitement. It's in the moment Now that's what the urgent is, and we can run to and fro, filling our lives up with the urgent, It's so easy to forget that which is really important, isn't it? Don't you find that? In life at the end of the day, you think, what have I achieved?

This is why I can never understand when people say, well, I emailed you 3 times on Monday morning. And I always say, well, I'm not sitting around waiting for your emails. I didn't look at them. I looked at none of them, and then people seem to be upset by that. Don't run after the urgent.

Look at the important. Now, what I wanna do this evening if I may, is to call up what I think are the very, very important things in your life. I wanna talk about the most important things, and I want to make those things urgent. I want a buzz. I want a ring.

I want a ping. I want to get into you that these important things are absolutely urgent. I'm talking about the most important thing in your life. I'm talking about your relationship or non relationship with your maker. With god, I'm asking you about your position before the 1 that you will stand before.

Whether you like it or not, and he will judge you. That's what we're talking about here. I'm talking about things that for some reason are really easy to put off thoughts of the afterlife. What does happen when you die? I mean, that's an inevitable thing.

That's a fairly important thing to get right, isn't it? What does happen when you die? Because you know you're going to, so that seems to be very important. To work that out and get that right, doesn't it? What happens?

Forts of heaven, thoughts of hell, thoughts of seeking god's forgiveness, thoughts of what does my maker want me to do? What did he make me for? What pleases him? What does he say? Does he speak into my world?

Many voices They're calling and they're calling and they're calling for your attention, and they will distract you from the importance. So many things in life to do, to achieve, to become, to possess, to have. If I'm not careful, I'm gonna miss the treasures of god your maker speaking to you. You're gonna miss god's glorious kingdom, as he calls it, his place where he rules, You're gonna miss his forgiveness, his voice, his love. Back to the dog.

True story, back to the little dog. Who should he listen to? Hundred thousand people calling for his attention. Who should the little dog run to? The 1 with the nicest voice?

The 1 with the loudest voice? The 1 with the nice little bit of food. I'm sure there's a lot of food or anything American. But but, you know, the 1 with the nicest hot dog. He's a dog after all.

And, Sarah, what, you know, where does he run? Well, I'll tell you what happens. We're watching and the poor little dog totally confused that the the volume of people saying, come on boy, this way. And he runs around just not knowing what to do confused running around like almost chasing his tail. And then as you're watching, you see a man just an ordinary looking bloke.

He doesn't look any different to anybody else, really. And you see him mouthing the same words that everybody else is saying. Come on boy. This way. And you think to yourself, the dog won't even hear him.

He comes to the side of the pitch. He stands on the line, and he calls the dog. But out of all the voices, in the stadium. The dog pricks up his ears, turns towards him and runs to that man. Why?

You know why. He's the master. He's the owner. His voice has more authority and more love and more kindness. That's where home is.

That's when the dog is scared, he runs to his master, his owner, the 1 who cares for him. That voice is really if you can hear it above the crowd, so different to every other voice. Now David wrote this Psalm, Psalm 95. Just have a look at it because at the end of verse 7, and then into verse 8. There's this wonderful statement.

And it says this, today, if you hear his voice talking about god. Today, if if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Don't run away from the voice of god. Don't don't run somewhere else. However, faint the voice of god in a vast crowd shouting for your attention, obey this voice, run to this voice, and you'll find a master.

You'll find a home, you'll find an owner, you'll find joy, you'll find security. Like the little dog jumping into the master's arms, So that's what we're looking at. Now, the first thing I want you to see from this psalm is that we find a great crowd called together here in the Psalm. A great crowd. That's what's going on here.

It's a crowd much bigger than a football stadium and it has many more thousands and thousands of people than a hundred thousand. And it's a crowd that aren't separated supporting 2 different teams. It's a crowd that is full of joy all shouting in unison together. A crowd of people who have come to know a master. That's what's going on.

A crowd of people who know their god, who really know god, A crowd of people who are shouting and they're singing with 1 voice, unlike the crowd in the stadium, all saying, come to me, This crowd are saying, come to him or go to him, run to him. They're not saying, I've got it. They're saying, he's got it. They're saying come to him. And they're encouraging everyone to go that way.

Look at verse 1 of the Psalm, the little numbers of the verse numbers. Come. This is what the crowd are shouting. Let us sing for joy to the lord. That's god.

Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with Thanksgiving and extoll him with music and song for the lord. It's the great god, the great king above all gods. In his hands are the depths of the earth. And the mountain peaks belong to him and the sea is his for he made it and his hands formed the dry land.

Come. Let us bow down in worship Let's kneel before the lord, our maker. For he is our god, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in Maribas, as you did in Masar, in the wilderness. Don't harden your heart like the people of old.

It's a it's a thing that happened in the desert, where they just harden their hearts against god and his kindness to them. Don't be like that. Now Cornerstone Church at this we're just a tiny, weenie, little sort of a few benches of seats in this vast crowd, and we are here for this same reason. This church here is a little bit of the vast crowd and we're all shouting out. Come to him.

Taste and see that the lord is good. Come. This is why the church is here. This is the whole point of us. It's our delight to be a signpost to god, to be an alternative society that loves and has 1 purpose and that loves people from all kinds of different backgrounds because we have 1 god we're not teams fighting against each other.

We don't have our own cheerleader girls and another group has another cheerleader girls. We're actually 1 United, a massive stadium, part of all of the historic people that have followed god all the way through history. And we're shouting out look at him, come to him. He's so he's the master. So you see the big crowd here?

That's the first thing. Here's the second thing. Today. If only you would hear his voice do not harden your hearts, Listen, says the crowd, to this voice, the master's voice above every other voice. Can you hear him?

Let me why? Why should I listen to god? There's a number of things and you see it here in the Psalm. There's a lot more, but just to pick on a few. It's the voice of authority.

Look at verse 6. Come. Let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the lord our maker. It's the voice of authority.

Has the maker got a right to speak to that which he has made. Has god got a right to speak to you? Has god got a right to speak to you what he likes? Has god got a right to even command you to do things? He is your maker.

He is the king of all the universe, has a policeman, has a policeman authority I'm I'm driving here. I'm going down the road, 30 miles an hour, but, you know, I fancy I fancy going 50. And I'm driving down the road at 15 miles an hour, and I'm here. I'm coming this way. It's I'm busy.

I've got I've I'm important things to do. Has a policeman got the authority to pull me over and speak the word of the law to me. I mean, if you stop me, I was, who do you think you are, mate? What are you doing stopping me? What are you talking about?

Who do you think you are? I mean, are you anything special? I mean, that's not the that's not the best way if a policeman ever does pull you over. You're always best to say, well, your humble servant and all this sort of stuff. And you can say that thing in your mind when he's gone, but hasn't he got the authority at least to pull you over and speak the word of the law to you?

Shall the creature ignore the creator? The preserved ignore the preserver. The god who made the voice and speech and words has every right to use it to communicate his will to those he has made. Look at verse 3 of the Psalm. For the lord is the great god, the great king above all gods.

It's not saying that there are lots of other gods. That's a way of saying that He has authority over everything. He's the most important. There is no other god in your life that should be ruling over this 1. He's the king of kings and the lord of lords.

He's the most important God has authority. This is the voice of authority, but not only is god's voice the voice of authority in the sense that he has a right to stop you and to speak to you when he likes and what he likes, but he is an authority on you. This is why it would be crazy not to listen to him. He is an authority. He knows you better than you know you.

Everybody seems to go on journeys to try and find themselves. Well, don't. Listen to him because he made you. He made you. Look at the maker's instructions.

Then you'll find out who you are. Why would you go on a journey to find out who you are and not and miss the maker's instructions. He is an authority on you. He knows how you tick. He knows you better than you.

No UN. He knows your needs. He knows your wants. He knows what you absolutely need. He knows you.

Why? Because he is your maker. He made you and he made you for a purpose. There are things that you were made for that you should do. And there were things that you were not made for that you shouldn't do.

Read the maker's instructions to find out which is which. If I buy a DAB radio and think, oh, great. I'm gonna chuck the instructions. I think I'll tell you what, I'm gonna have a nice long bath and I wonder what it would be like to plug in the radio into and get an extension lead and I I'm sitting in the bath I would like to hear the music bubbling under the water. I think I'm just gonna get under the water.

I like to hear things under the water. And there's all kinds of bubble noises when I go under there anyway. But now I'm going to get the radio and I'll put the radio in and let's have a go. Let's see what their radio is like under Bang. Yeah.

There's no good me writing to the DAB Radio. I won't be able to. But there's no good writing and say, what's going on? Didn't work underwater. It blew up and killed me.

You know? Read the maker's instructions. He's an authority on you. Why would you listen to other voices about you when the maker has written stuff about you. So many voices, but are they worth listening to?

But there's more under this. Not only is he an authority in the sense he has a right to stop you and speak to you because he is your maker, but he is an authority on you. But this is where the Christian truths are so much more defined and beautiful and just it's just incredible because The maker is an authority on you as a human because the maker became a man. That's the Christian truth. That's Christmas.

God became made. It's extraordinary He knows exactly what it's like to be a man, to be a human. He's experienced it, not just because he's the make but because he's become made, he tasted life, he tasted death. He knows what it is to be mistreated and misunderstood. He knows what it is to have the paparazzi, the religious leaders, take his words, and twist them out of all proportion.

He knows the friend at the pain of a friend, Judith, turning traitor on him. He knows that feeling of someone that he loved being unlovable to him. He knows the exhaustion of physical pain, the whipping, and the beating, and the crucifixion. He knows a fickle crowd that were cheering for him 1 minute and then shouting crucify him the next. He knows the fickleness of fame.

He knows what it is to be despised and rejected. He knows. He's an authority on you because he made you. He's an authority on you because he was made. Wonder psychiatrist.

I I I think this is an extraordinary sentence. JT Fisher, he describes this Listen to what he says. He's talking about the sermon on the Mount, which is a sermon Jesus gave, you get in the Bible in Matthews's gospel. But this is what he says. If you were to take the sum total of all authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified psychology and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene.

If you would combine them and refine them and clean out the excess verbiage, If you were to take the whole of the meat and none of the parsley and if you were to have these unadulterated bits of pure scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living poets, you would have an awkward an incomplete summation of the sermon on the Mount, and it would suffer immeasurably through comparison. Listen to what he says. For nearly 2000 years. The Christian world has been holding in its hands the complete answer to its restless and fruit fruitless yearnings. Here rests the blueprint for successful human life with optimism mental health, and contentment.

What an extra now you may not have got all of that, but what an extraordinary set sentence. Why? Why are Jesus words so fantastic because he's an authority on you? Here is 1 who speaks with authority. But hold it just before I move on, so I'm this is my first point.

He's an authority on on on us, but it's a voice of authority. Just just have a look at verse 6 again because it's just interesting. It says come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the lord, our maker. The word lord there, when you get it in the Bible in capital l o r d, it's really disappointing translators go that route. Because it's not, you you know, a lord is a title, not a name.

Yeah. But that is a name. It's the word Yahweh It's the covenant name. What's that mean? The relationship name, the marriage name of god.

The equivalent in the new testament is father. Father. This is an intimate relational name. He's an authority on us, the father. The father.

So it's a voice of authority Secondly, it's the voice of power because, you know, it's possible to have authority and no power. I read a story many years ago. In 1 of those magazines you get when you're waiting in a waiting room. And, where you used to get, Regis Digest. I haven't seen it for years now, but used to get this thing.

It was the only thing worth reading in any any weight, doctors waiting room. You know, there was always car magazines. There were things about makeup and then there was Regus Digest and you were just rootling around for anything to to read that was had any comprehensible ability at all. And, this was a story in that, and it was about a a farmer, who had a government, surveyor come. The the government, he would he surveyed farms.

And, this of this government surveyor turned up on this farm, the farmer didn't really want him was pretty grumpy about the whole thing, but he wanted to survey a field. And, he said, no, you can't. And the government surveyor got out his papers and he said, I have authority. Here are my credentials. I can view your field, and I could do surveys on your field.

So the farmer grumpily said, okay. This is the field. Come in here, open the gate up, shut the gate, and at the other end of the field, was a very fierce whacking great bull. He didn't tell the government surveyor that, but he just wanted he had the credentials and the authority to go in into that field. When he saw the surveyor jumping after the bulls started running towards him, He shouted out to the surveyor.

Show him your credentials. Show him your authority. So it is. It's it's a great little story because it's possible to have power and authority. It's possible to have authority rather without any power.

But not with god. God has authority and power. Look at verses 4 and 5 of that Psalm. In his hand are the depths of the earth, the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his for he made it.

And his hands formed the dry land. It's poetry. It's talking about what happened in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. When god spoke his word and things were created. He had power in his hands to form the dry land.

Power to make the universe. Here is a god that spoke in power And when he said let there be light, there was light. And when he said let there be a sun in the sky and a moon in the sky, there was. When he said let there be land, there was. When he said let there be sea there was.

When he said let there be life, there was life. He has power power in his word. His word is authority, but it is a powerful word It's not lacking in authority. There's a lovely sentence in in, that actually uses Psalm 95, quote, Psalm 95 in the new testament part of the Bible, in in a book called Hebrews, where it talks about psalm, but then it talks about the word of god is active and, alive that the word of god is active and alive. And it's like a 2 edged sword, really sharp sword that can cut through the bone, dividing the bone and the marrow.

So it's very sharp. There's a power in the word, in other words, to get right to the root of a problem, to do massive surgery on us like a scalpel that cuts in or a surgeon's saw that goes through the bone. It's sharp. It's living. It's active.

There's another story. 1 of my favorite in the entire bible. About a prophet called ezekiel who goes to the valley of dry bones. And there are these there's this picture of this this valley, this sun, sort of, hot valley where it's a dry as anything. And there are there's an army of dead bones.

They're just bones. They're bleached white, and they're all muddled up and they're Cade. There's no life. And the prophet is is to preach, which it sounds daft, to to these dead people, to preach the word of the lord, to prophecy the word of the lord, and the bones start rattling. You may know the great song that goes with it.

And they come together, the valley of the dry bones. The bones come together, and he preaches another sermon, another word, and the flesh comes and then he preaches another word and the breath of life god's breath comes in and the dead are made alive. This is what Jesus did. He's called the word of god. He came to funerals and made dead people live.

This is the power of the word. I often say, because poor old car, my son, he has to get up at 3 30 in the morning. You try and wake carl. I bought him this what is that thing called? Sonic boom.

Waker Uppera. Yeah. Not only does it have an alarm that wakes up the entire, you know, street. It has a thing that you put in the bed that goes like this. And still he's asleep.

Jesus could come to a dead person and say to a dead girl, to Lisa Kuhlman, in other words, get up and she rose straight away. Yeah? From death. Carl's not dead and it's harder for me to get him up. Yeah?

That's extraordinary. You know what that's like with teenagers? But well, he's not a teenager anymore, but there you go. But you know, it's it's but god's word can bring life to you if you listen. Here's the third thing.

It's a voice of love. Look at verse 7. For he is our god, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. God speaks not to kill you, but to care for you. He's the good shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep.

He's not some half, hearted heartless hired hand. Who doesn't care about the sheep and runs away when there's a wolf. He's the owner, he's a good shepherd. He loves. He loves He comes to rescue and save.

We're told that if you are in need of a doctor, that's the sort of people he comes to. He comes to those who are lost to seek and to save the lost. This is a voice of love. Coming for the best, the lost sheep to bring us back into the old. Fourth leader is the voice of pleading and warning.

Today, if only you would hear his voice, verse 8, do not harden your hearts as you did in Maribar, as you did on the day of Massar in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me and they tried me And though they had seen what I did, for 40 years, I was angry with this generation. I said they are a people whose hearts go astray. And they have not known my ways. So I declared on oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest This is a pleading warning voice. They won't enter my rest because they wouldn't listen.

They wouldn't come to be my sheep. That is a word of judgment. It's frightening, but it's strong. He's saying, look, if you hear Will you listen, but they choose not to listen? So we can see a great crowd We can hear a great voice, but just have a look at that verse yet again.

There's something we've gotta do. Today, if only you would hear his voice do not harden your heart, That is always the timetable of god. He never promises her tomorrow. You know, we're always putting off on me because we run after the urgent. We always put off, but today, The only thing god says about tomorrow is don't you boast in it because it may not come.

Today is the time to do this. All god's instructions are today. That's his calendar today. Today is the time of duty, isn't it? If the authority speaks today, it's today.

He expects you to do something. Imagine being in the army and the sergeant shouts at you. Josh, on your feet, march around the block, You see, he's not doing it. He's just smirking at me. He needs his head chopped off or get beaten or court martialed or whatever it is.

Today, It's no good. The soldiers are saying, oh, look. Do you know what? I love that order. Good.

I love the way you do it. I love the way you get all angry and shout. Is it because you're short? You know, I I, you know, I really I actually really quite enjoy the way you're really passionate, really pa I I love passion. And I love the way you're passionate about that order.

And I think it's terrific. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna have a nice sleep because I've got a nice drop of wine to have by my table, nice beer. I'm gonna have a nice sleep, nice beer, and I'll have a go at that tomorrow. So thanks ever so much for that order. What?

It doesn't work. It's today, isn't it? God says today. 1 of the problems and we've heard over this series is that we don't act on the important We don't treat the important as urgent. Today, we are to repent.

Repent just simply means turn to him. Stop living the way you're living. Stop not listening and start listening in this context. If we put off repentance another day, we have another day more to repent of and another day less to repent in. Be careful.

It might be my last. Today is a duty. Today is an opportunity. It's a wonderful day. Sunday, we celebrate the resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ.

It's called the day of the lord, the lord's day. This is the lord's day. We talk about AD, the year of the lord, the year of the lord, and I don't Dominic. We talk about the year this is the year of the lord. We're in a room here where many people have come to trust in the lord Jesus Christ in this room.

Nothing special about the room, but they have. They've heard the word of god here. So this is a great opportunity. You've got a mind at the moment. Your mind is clear enough to understand what I'm saying.

You may not be listening, but you should be, and your mind is clear enough for you to know how to respond. You're not muddled. In that reading, Ecclesiastes, it's a very, very funny reading. And we may come back to it sometime. But listen to it.

Remember your creator in the days of your youth. While you're young, listen to the word of god, remember him and respond to it. Before, and then he describes old age. Before the days of trouble come, And the year's approach when you will say I find no pleasure in them. Talk to old people.

They say I can't taste anymore, corny, or anything anymore. What? No pleasure in them. They get so old. And listen, before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, what are the sun, the light and the moon?

Growing dark there. Their mind is beginning muddled. Their brains are get they forget who are you? What? And that's all muddled up.

And listen, when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men stoop, What are the keepers of the house? The arms? The strong men stoop. Listen to the word of god before you are incapable of listening. That's what he's saying.

Before, at the moment, you're strong, but you're soon. Listen. When the grinders cease because they are few. What do you think they are? You see your teeth?

Yeah. And you're looking through windows and and looking through windows grow dim. What's that? I can't see anything. What's going on here?

Your brain's gone. Your arms are gone? What goes on? Look, when the doors of the street are closed and the sound of grinding failure, I'm getting to grind now. When people rise up with the sound of birds, what's that?

What's that? They're up early in the morning. They sleep in the middle of the day. They can't sleep at night. That's what happens to old people.

But their songs grow faint. I can't hear. What was that? Is that a robin? Yeah?

Listen when people are afraid of heights, and the dangers of the street were not going out there. No. No. No. There's too many nasty young people.

And the almond tree, what's that? It's hair. Starts to blossom. Your hair goes white. And listen, the grasshopper drags his legs.

What are they? They're your legs. A grasshopper's meant to go, and it can jump, you know, thousands of feet compared to its size. But now they're they're dragging along. Look, a grasshopper drags itself along.

The desire no longer is stirred. Oh, yeah. Used to be a time I like young ladies, but I don't know what's going on now. You know, when people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the In other words, you're gonna die. In other words, today is the day to listen because there'll be a time when you'll be befuddled when your ears have gone, your eyes have gone, your teeth have gone, your mind has gone, your youth has gone.

Now remember your creator now. It today. God says, don't boast about tomorrow. You cannot repent too soon because you do not know how soon it will be too late. So turn to him.

Listen to him. Listen to that wonderful savior. Listen to the story of god. Listen to the rescue mission where Jesus has come into this world to seek and to save you. Listen to the cross of the lord Jesus Christ where he has died as a lover to rescue you, to bring you into the father's house so that you can know god, not as some concept, but as a father, listen to the crowd, cheering, and shouting.

Listen to the voice. Today, today. Let's bow our heads and I'll hand over to Tom.