944. Life is a Breath

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we'll hear a message preached by Dr. Nathan Crockett, which was preached to the BJU student body during the 2020 fall semester. The scripture passage is James 4, and the title of his message is, Life is a Breath.

Please turn in your Bibles to James 4, James 4. It's a privilege to be with you here. Several years ago, my wife was flying for a Bob Jones friendship dinner to Pittsburgh, and at the time I had one child, not five, and I was taking Shepherd home with me, and I remember those trips home when my wife was flying somewhere, and he would be in the back seat, and he was used to having her back there to come for him, and he would start crying, and I did something with him I've been able to do with my other kids as well. If they're crying or just need to sleep, I turn on classical music, and it seems to instantly put them to sleep. There's something about classical music that way, and so I turned on a classical music station, and he right away fell asleep. Remember we got to a four-way stop on State Park Road, and a commercial came on that classical music station, and asked me what my favorite song was, and what my favorite flower was, and it went on to imply that if I did not plan my funeral ahead of time with the fine folks of this particular mortuary here in town, that maybe I would have a funeral, and nobody would play my favorite song, and no one would display my favorite flower. Now as soon as that commercial came on, my son in the back seat immediately woke up and started crying. He'd been sleeping because of the music, now this wakes him up, and so I was a little bit annoyed, maybe more than a little bit. You know, why did you have to end the classical music? Why do you have to wake up my son in the back seat?

At the time I was in my mid-30s, you know, why do you have to confront me with my impending death? Can't I just drive home in peace? I kind of wanted to turn off the radio. I wanted to lean to the back seat and say, Shepherd, don't listen to this.

I tried not to think of my favorite song and my favorite flower. In hindsight, I really don't even have a favorite flower, but you know, that commercial really rubbed me the wrong way, and I think for some of you this morning that sermon may be that way, because what I want to do today is to show you from Scripture a very apparent reality that all of us know but few of us like to think about, and that is that apart from the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, all of us are going to die. Our life here is very, very short, and it could be that for many of you today as we look at James 4 and some other passages, you're going to feel today about this sermon kind of the way I felt about that radio commercial. You're going to want to turn it off.

You're going to want to block me out. You're going to want to think about a bunch of other things, because today from God's Word, I plan to persistently and continually and maybe in your mind somewhat obnoxiously remind you of that reality that apart from Christ's return, every single one of us in this auditorium are going to die. Now for many of you and many believers through the history of the church, they've said that there's been one particular spiritual truth that has motivated them more than anything else.

For those of you who've sat under the ministry of Dr. Bob Jones III, he often says the most sobering reality in the world today is that people are dying and going to hell today. I remember one well-known Christian preacher that said the thing that most motivated him was that God always sees me. Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, God's watching.

I don't know what it is for you. Maybe it's the fact that the Holy Spirit indwells you. Maybe it's the fact that you hold God's Word in your hands. For my wife, it's the fact that God is the creator, that every beautiful thing you see in creation, God made that. Maybe for you it's the fact that Jesus died for you. For me personally, since I've been a teenager, the spiritual truth that has been the most motivating to me has been this reality, that I have one life and it's quickly passing.

I have one life and it's quickly passing. We're gonna see that in James 4 today. When I tried to think of a title for this sermon, the first thing that came to my mind is to live like you're dying. Then I found out that's a famous country music song, so I figured I better not use that one. I almost thought about just the three simple words, you will die, but that sounds like a terrorist threat, which wouldn't be a good idea this time of year, right? So really what I want to entitle the sermon today is actually straight from Scripture, and it's also from a painting of a former student.

I've had the privilege for the past number of years of usually taking my youngest child on walks in the morning, and from 8 to 9 a.m. most every morning this semester I've gone on walks with my two-year-old daughter, and on cold days like today we try to walk inside buildings and we are walking through the faculty art show even this morning. If you don't go see those art shows, you really should, they're fabulous. Years ago I remember walking through a student art show, and this student had done a tremendous job, and there were many of her paintings that I really liked, even thought about buying, but one in particular was my favorite. It was a very large painting. It was a little girl, probably three, maybe four years old. She was, if I remember right, blonde hair, blue eyes, rosy red cheeks, and on that canvas her face was actually larger than life, and on the left side of the canvas there was her face here, and she had a withered dandelion. You know when dandelions look like old people and they get those white little fluffy looks, and she was blowing it. So on this side of the canvas was her face and her puffed out rosy red cheeks, and she's blowing this dandelion, and it's really bright, bright yellows and blues and rosy red cheeks, and as the dandelion, as she blows those seeds, they're sort of swirling around until they get to the end of this large canvas, and the further you get to the right of the canvas, the darker the canvas becomes, and you see fewer and fewer seeds, and really by the time you get to this side of the canvas, it's pitch black, and the title of that painting, which is straight from Scripture, and the title of my sermon this morning is very simply this, Life is a Breath.

Life is a Breath. You're in James chapter 4 verses 13 through 5, 12, deal with sins of the rich. Let's begin reading in verse 13 of James 4. Go to now ye that say today or tomorrow will go into such a city and continue there a ye and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, a mist, or smoke, or an exhale breath on a cold day that appearth for a little time and then vanish at the way, and in the Greek he plays on two different Greek participles that have the same root.

In English would be like saying your life appearing then disappearing. For that ye ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that, but now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin. This passage is not teaching us that financial planning is sin.

We're told in many other places in Scripture that we should use wisdom about stewardship and financial planning, but this passage does teach us that financial arrogance and self-confident boasting, that those are sins. When we forget that our life is in God's hands. Can you imagine if this weekend you went home to visit your parents and you had a headache that was so bad that you wanted to go see the doctor. That probably have to be a really bad headache for a college student. You went to see the doctor and they do all these tests and the more tests they do the more nervous you start to get. Just imagine hypothetically if that doctor comes back out to you in the waiting room and your parents and he's very somber and he tells you that you have a massive brain tumor because of its location on your brain it's inoperable and they tell you you have about 60 days to live.

We probably all know people who've heard reports like that. What would you do for those final 60 days of your life? What if same scenario he comes back out he says it's it's mildly growing it's in a location where we cannot access it we think you have about a year to live maybe 60 weeks. How would you live those final 60 weeks? What if it's actually a very slow growing tumor and he comes out to you and he says well you know horrible news there's nothing we can do about it but it is growing at a very very slow rate I think you probably have about five years to live maybe 60 months.

Or what if he comes out to you says good news it's just a migraine take some Advil and you should be okay you're you're a young healthy 20 year old you probably have 60 years of life left. You see whether it's 60 days or 60 weeks or 60 months or 60 years we're all terminal right it's just a matter of time. Robert Moffett the famous missionary said we will have all of eternity to enjoy our spiritual victories but only one short lifetime to win them.

All of eternity to enjoy our spiritual victories but only one short lifetime to win them. Please turn to Luke chapter 12. Luke 12 this parable of the rich fool is found only in Luke's gospel I say turn there probably means go there with your thumbs on your phone for most of you right? Luke 12 look at verse 13. One of the company said unto him master speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me and Christ said unto him man who made me a judge or a divider over you he said unto them take heed and beware of covetousness this violation of the tenth commandment for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses and then Jesus verse 16 gives them a parable the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully and he thought within himself saying what shall I do because I have no room 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 fruits my grain my wheat my barley all my goods and I'll say to my soul soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but God said unto him thou fool he's guilty of the ultimate folly of thinking he can live apart from God thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee then who shall those things be which thou hast provided so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God this man thought he was finally ready to live but God tells him he's not even ready to die now is there anything wrong with eating no it's highly recommended is there anything wrong with drinking non-alcoholic beverages of course not is there anything wrong with being happy no but there's something incredibly wrong with living your life apart from God I remember when I was interim pastor of a church in Landrum South Carolina nearly an hour from here and I would preach on Sunday mornings and we'd go to some friend's house on Sunday afternoons you'd eat there with a bunch of college students and I remember one of my kids who was very young at the time probably about it not even a year old and I was trying to be on a diet then which I need to be now as well and I remember I would usually skip dessert and I would go upstairs I lay out on a couch on my back and put my child on top of my chest and we take a little nap together and I remember just listening to the heartbeat of my child I remember all these weird thoughts would go through my mind like you think your iPhone has a great battery life for your Kindle think about a heart that can beat hundreds of thousands of times over 80 or 90 years and you never even have to plug your kids into the wall socket right I mean only only God can make something like that and then I remember I would have this thought as I held my little baby there on top of me and I would think someday this heart will stop beating and obviously as a parent I hope I never see that day for any of my five kids I'm praying deeply for one of my friends who recently lost their toddler just a few days ago and yet thoughts like that make me want to be a dad who will raise my kids not just to be successful in life but to be prepared for eternity right this life here is just a breath even 80 years or a hundred years compared to eternity it's tiny listen to these verses you don't have to turn there but second Samuel 14 14 we must needs die we are as water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again job 925 my days are swifter than a post a runner they flee away they see no good they're passed away as a swift ships as an eagle that haste it there swoops down to its prey Psalm 39 5 behold you've made my days as in hand breath mine ages is nothing before the literally I'm a breath before you Proverbs 27 1 boast not thyself of tomorrow for the knowest not what a day may bring forth Psalm 90 verse 5 and following thou caries them away as with a flood they're like asleep in the morning they're like grass which growth up in the morning it flourishes and growth up and the evening it's cut down and withers for all our days are passed away in thy wrath we spend our years as a tale that is told Isaiah 38 12 mine age is departed it's removed from me as a shepherd's tent 1st Peter 1 24 all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass what is scripture telling us it's a very apparent fact isn't it apart from the return of the Lord Jesus Christ you and me we're going to die listen you are not fast enough to outrun death you are not smart enough to outwit death you're not good-looking enough to flirt with death you're not rich enough to buy off death you are not strong enough to overpower death one of the most basic realities of life is that all of us die doesn't matter if you're Steve Jobs or Heath Ledger or Michael Jackson or put in the name of any recent movie star or musician who's died within the past year you're going to die the God of the universe knows exactly how many days you and I are going to live and it's impossible for us to live one second longer than he has planned for us all the armies of earth could not prevent your death when God is through with you in fact all of us are several minutes closer to death than when we began Chapel right we're gonna die no questions asked no objections raised no maybe no mulligan no do-over we'll all die one day people that know us will look at our lifeless body in a cold coffin they'll walk by they'll say things maybe nice maybe not we don't really know what the cause of our death is going to be typically it could be a virus it might be a bacteria it might be a car or a bullet or tree limb or stroke of lightning it might be a heart attack or cancer or an asteroid or a nuclear bomb but we're gonna die our death perhaps will be expected or it might be utterly shocking it might be decades from now or it could happen within the next 24 hours but all of us are gonna die what if when you went home for break your parents you had a birthday maybe turned 20 and your parents say they've been waiting for a particular time to tell you about a particular uncle there was a falling out with the family and they wanted to wait till your 20th birthday to tell you about him and when they say his name you immediately recognize it he's one of the richest men in the world he's good friends with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates he's not just a millionaire he's a multi-billionaire and they tell you that you're supposed to call him on your 20th birthday so you pick up the phone and you reach the secretary of his secretary of his secretary and finally as they put you through you talk to your uncle for hypothetical reasons we'll just call him super rich uncle you get super rich uncle on the phone and he tells you he's been waiting for your 20th birthday and there's a back history that he's not going to go into but all this time he's wanted to be generous to you as his niece or nephew and now he wants to finally make it up to you are you free this coming Saturday or whatever in and you say sure and that Saturday a Rolls-Royce limousine pulls up to your front yard in your small little neighborhood and a chauffeur gets out and meets you at the door and you get in this limo with your super rich uncle and he asks you where the nearest mall is that and you tell him and he tells the chauffeur to go to the mall and you go to the mall and he says he has some real estate business in the area he's gonna leave you at the mall by yourself to have the shopping trip of a lifetime and you're curious about this and he hands you a card and he says very few people know that visa has this card but it has a 60 million dollar credit limit and you kind of gulp and you say how much of that can I spend and he said are you kidding you have my blood flowing through your veins I'd be disappointed if you didn't spend all of it he speaks a 16-digit code into the card it starts glowing green he tells you it will self destruct in one hour you know this card is actually made of platinum it doesn't have the word platinum on it right you know it's made of platinum this is you know you've never had an experience like this before in your life and you just turn to start profusely thanking him and he says you're wasting your time one hour 60 million dollars that's a million dollars a minute go to it and he jumps in his limo and heads off and you walk into that mall holding 60 million dollars in your hand with one hour to spend it what would you do you know you you probably would be a man or woman on a mission right you'd be thinking about stuff you could resell on eBay and Craigslist some of you culinary arts students might try to buy up the whole food court some of you guys with engagement on the mind would head straight to the jewelry store a lot of you probably go to the Apple Store some of you if you have relatives that are into commercial real estate maybe you just spend the time in the parking lot on your smartphone trying to buy up a chunk of the mall for 60 million dollars like do a broker a commercial deal there in an hour a lot of you that have school bills would be desperately trying to think of what shops could you get cash back you know that would be nice you would hope it was a mall that had like a BMW plant or Mercedes plant or something attached to it you could spend 60 million that way maybe you know I don't know exactly what you would do I'm looking at thousands of really creative students you probably think of stuff that would never even enter my mind I don't know what you would do but I'm pretty sure I know what you would not do I don't think you would shuffle your feet I don't think you'd sit down on a bench there and just kind of people watch for the next hour I don't think you would go through the food court tasting all the free samples you know chicken teriyaki is good but not when you're burning a million dollars a minute right I think you'd be a man or a mission woman on a mission why because you had something really valuable to spend in a short period of time to spend it now I doubt any of us have billionaire uncles and I'm not sure that VC even makes a 60 million dollar credit card the guys and girls there is something that I know I know that the God of the universe the God who spoke the world into existence the God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth and every mind that that God has given you something far more valuable than 60 million dollars he's given you a life he's given you a mind and a body and talents and abilities and opportunities he's invested in you this one life and he's told you that you have a very short time to spend it so how are you doing are you living like you're dying are you a man or woman on a mission are you just kind of shuffling through life people watching doing a little bit of nothing and playing all the newest video games hoping that someday sometime maybe inspiration will strike and you'll think of something to do with your life not trying to be critical but I am in earnest here because your life is so short and it's like you'll snap your fingers and you'll be 40 years old like me feels like yesterday I was sitting in those seats your life is a breath we often use inaccurate terminology we tend to think we're in the land of the living and we visit a funeral home and we think that someone went to the land of the dying but it's the exact opposite right now every single one of us is in the land of the dying every breath we breathe we're one step closer to death and when you die for the first time in your life you enter the land of the living because we all will live somewhere eternally the day that you breathe your last breath here on this earth you will leave the land of the dying and you will enter the land of the living to your eternal delight or your unending horror and it could be that for some of you this message has very frightful application because you're still without Christ you've never been born again and this sermon has immediate application for you because you're not ready to die you're the one who's been sitting there and the whole time you've been trying to push this sermon out of your mind you're trying really hard not to listen to it you hate going to funerals you hate visiting nursing homes you never want to think about death because you know you're not prepared to die if that's you could I give you some tough love this morning could I plead with you in direct and frank language if you're unsaved don't dabble with God's grace don't mock God's mercy don't presume on God's patience if you're an unbeliever the frightening reality is that you're one heartbeat away from hell if you are a believer this morning how could you in the language of Luke chapter 12 live a life that is rich towards God in our last couple minutes let me tell you a few suggestions number one deliberately tell God he can have your life sometimes tell my students write out a deed to your life and sign it over to God tell God that whatever he wants to do with you whoever he wants you to marry wherever he wants you to go you'll do it because your life is his it's not your own we sing a lot of songs about that but do we actually practice it secondly I would say write out goals for your life if you aim at nothing you'll hit it every time write it a purpose statement a mission statement for your life how can your life best bring God glory and then thirdly take inventory of your schedule how do you spend a typical day how do you spend a typical week or typical month because if one of your goals is to know God better through his word but you spend a typical day reading the Bible for two minutes and watching YouTube clips for five hours it's probably not gonna happen take inventory of your schedule and finally get an accountability partner find somebody who's just as committed as you are to using his or her life for God's glory maybe it's a boyfriend or girlfriend maybe it's a youth pastor maybe it's a parent maybe it's a teacher maybe it's a pastor here or back home someone who will get on you if you spend all of Christmas break watching funny videos of cats on YouTube it's not the best use of your life find someone who's in dead earnest about living this short breath of a life for God's glory and ask them to hold you accountable I'll end with this how many of you have played the game of Monopoly before I know there's a bunch of variations of it they have Monopoly deal and a lot of games now that are shorter probably probably very few of us could raise our hand for the actual game of Monopoly we don't have enough life for that right it's gonna take hours but if you know anything about Monopoly I mean you have all this fake money and you try to buy things and you sell things and you want to get a park place and boardwalk and you don't want to get thrown in jail and so on and and after buying houses and cars and selling houses and cars and so on maybe you win the game maybe you lose the game but what do you do at the end if you're a responsible person you get the rubber bands and you put all that money back in the rubber band and you put everything in its place and you you close up the box if you're irresponsibly just throw it all in and hope that someone else will deal with it later right but at the end of the game after someone wins and someone loses you put all those little bits of stuff all the cars and houses and apartments and money you put it back in a box and you close the lid and you put the box away this might sound really mean but if I know my heart I think I'm saying this in love but guys and girls if you live your life for yourself for fame or fortune or sex or whatever you think is the coolest thing to do at the time if you live your life for yourself in many ways you did nothing more than played a big giant game of Monopoly maybe you bought a bunch of houses maybe you've lost some houses hopefully you didn't get thrown in jail you got some apartments you bought a car you sold a car but at the end of the day you die and they take your body and a few of your possessions and they put you in a box and they close the lid and they put you away six feet under and if that's everything that you lived for then that was your life you wasted it but here's the good news guys and girls you don't have to live for material things you don't have to live for the pleasures of this world you can live for an almighty creator that created you and you little old you sitting in your seat in the FMA right now from a small town that maybe no one's ever heard about you can use your gifts for God's kingdom you can invest yourself in a local church you can be a godly husband or a godly wife an incredible dad a loving mom and you someday can stand before the God of heaven and have him look at you and say well done my good and faithful servant your life is a breath how are you using it let's pray father we thank you for your word pray that for all of us you would help us take this one short life we've been given and invest it for your kingdom and your glory we pray these things in Christ's name amen you've been listening to a sermon by dr. Nathan Crockett preached during the 2020 fall semester to learn more about Bob Jones University the sponsor of today's program you can go to the website The Daily Platform calm you've been listening to The Daily Platform I'm Steve Pettit president of Bob Jones University and I invite you to join us at our beautiful campus in Greenville South Carolina to see how you can be prepared academically and spiritually to serve the Lord through one of our more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs for more information about Bob Jones University visit www.bju.edu or call 800-252-6363 thanks for listening and join us again tomorrow as we study God's Word together on The Daily Platform