It's been a busy semester, especially been a busy week, trying to catch up on things, and it was finally yesterday afternoon, this is just a confession that I make. I said, Lord, I haven't had a ton of time to think about Friday, because I'm just trying to keep my head above water with all this grading. We got it done. But I said, Lord, we're going to need your help to know what we need to hear on Friday. Now that ought to be the preacher's prayer all the time, but sometimes God puts you in a pinch just to show you how much you need to depend on Him. And yesterday afternoon, this passage came to my mind, and I couldn't shake it. And even this morning, as I was meditating and such, and so this, for the sake of you homiletical masterpieces out here that have everything together, I'll admit, this morning breaks from what I typically would deliver, but I think that the Lord will use it to challenge some specific hearts here this morning. James chapter 4, verse number 14. We'll start in verse 13. Go to now ye that say today or tomorrow, and we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Yesterday afternoon I found myself, this thought came to my mind. As I thought about this passage, immediately I thought to myself, I am thinking like an old man. Have you ever caught yourself sometimes saying, boy, that sounds like my parents? Maybe you said something and you're like, oh, that sounds like my parents, and you immediately step back and you say, that's a bad thing. Let me tell you something, that's not always a bad thing. Now, sometimes when you say, oh, I sound like my parents or you sound like my parents, sometimes that is a confession. Maybe you're in a poor physical state. Maybe you talk about aches and pains. I get humored hearing teenagers and college students talk about aches and pains. Oh, I'm just hurting so badly and I'm like, just wait. And there are those that are far on before me and they would say, oh, you just wait, you know. But it does, it humors me. But sometimes, maybe, okay, maybe you have aches and pains and you say, that's a mark, that's just, I talk like my parents because, you know, I'm talking about aches and pains. Alright, maybe that's not good. But you know, sometimes when you say something that your parents would say, sometimes that's a mark of maturity on your part. Now I know you may not see it. And you may not feel it. But you know, sometimes when you make a statement, you say, boy, that sounds like what my parents would say. Sometimes that means you're learning some things and some wisdom in life. And I want you to see from James chapter 4, James gives a description of life, and it's rather philosophical. But don't you make the mistake, I don't think that just older people should be thinking like James chapter 4. I think every one of us ought to be thinking like James chapter 4. If I ask you to describe your life, how would you describe it? All of the students in here, you could give me all kinds of descriptions. There are some of you that say life is tiring, especially this week. Life is just not good, some people would say. Others would say life is great. And the truth is, there's a lot of different things that could be explained by all of you. I could probably put a list this long together of how you would describe your life. But this morning, I want to give you a description that applies to every one of us. You say, life is good, life is great. No, I'll tell you, I don't know how your life is. Sometimes the way some of you look in chapel, I wonder. Life is boring. By the way, for some of you, you know, I'll tell you, if you show up at your wedding like you show up in chapel, you're in bad shape, buddy. She's going to look at you and say, really? You really want to go through with this looking like that? You know, I mean, come on. But let me give you a description. that follows through for all of our lives. Now here's the description from James chapter 4. Life is good, I'm not sure for you. Life is bad, I'm not sure for you. But here's a description that fits every one of us. Here it is. Life is a fog. I don't care where you're from. You say, I'm from the north. Some people have a badge of pride like Colin with that, you know. Some people, I'm from the South, and some people say, I'm from neither, I'm from the Midwest. And then there are others that would say, I'm just out there in left field in California, and that's Brother Spencer. It doesn't matter where you're from. It doesn't matter what kind of home you were raised in. Something that's true of every life in this room is your life is a fog, it's a vapor. And don't you reserve that kind of thinking for older people that are on the brink of glory, so to speak. I'm going to tell you something, listen to me, hear me out, and then I'm going to get to going and we're going to be done. I wonder what would happen in this auditorium if every 20-year-old looked at the days of his life like a 90-year-old. As far as what remains. I wonder what would happen. I'll tell you what would happen. You'd come to the conclusion that if your life's a fog, there's only one thing you can do, and that's to live for God in eternity. And I don't care whether it's a Christmas break or whether it's a college semester. All of us have to be conscientious of the fact that our life is a fog, it's a vapor, and we ought to live like it and use it wisely. So let me give you four things. as I think about the fact that our life is a fog. Now please understand this, when I say life is a fog, I'm not necessarily like, yeah, my life is so foggy I can't see straight. That's not what James is trying to convey. But he's talking about the brevity of life. And here's four things I want to share with you. Number one, life is short. It almost sounds like a pithy phrase, you know. You say, life is short. We say, oh yes, we all know that. But let me put some things in perspective for you in Psalm 90 and verse 10. It says, The days of our years are threescore years and ten. And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet it is their strength, labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. So let's talk about numbers for just a moment. And in talking about numbers, I'm not here to depress an older generation and to make a younger generation think that you've got lots of time. I'm trying to give us all some perspective that we desperately need. Let's take 70 years. Let's say you're going to live 70 years and I can't promise you 70 years and you can't promise yourself 70 years. But let's take 70 years. You think about where you're at right now. I'll tell you what, being 45, it hits me that if that is the case and that were my life expectancy, I'm more than halfway there. I found online the other day, it was probably a vain thing to go to, but I thought, I just need to see what this thing says. And it was a death estimator. And according to a life insurance company, they said I was going to live to be 81. They didn't ask me about my diabetes, they didn't ask me about my melanoma, they didn't ask me about anything. I mean, but I was going to live to be 81. I thought, wow, I'll tell you, that's very authoritative. But let's say you only have 70 years. Well, here's the problem. There are many of you here, you say, well, man alive, if that's the case, I've got a whole lifetime to live. I've got 50 years. Some of you would say. But you know, never one time in the Bible you find an attitude suggested that you've got life to waste and you can just do whatever you want. You see, the older you get, the more valuable you'll see time is. And you know what? We need some 20-year-olds to be thinking like some 80-year-olds. Some in this room, Brother Childs would be one. We say, well, the Lord's blessed him with a long life, and He certainly has. But I'll guarantee you one thing, Brother Childs, he views every day as a gift from God, and he wants to use it for his honor and glory. If that kind of sobriety is found in a younger generation, I'll tell you, it's transforming. Have the youth and the exuberance of a 20-year-old, but seek to squeeze out of life everything you can, like somebody who's older, for the honor and the glory of God. Life is short. We're reminded of that in our neighborhoods, in our churches. There are people today in America that have died younger than we are, for any of us. And so what does that kind of an attitude provoke? Should it provoke morbid thinking? When the Bible talks about 70 years and if you have 80, you know that's great. Well, should that provoke in us a fatalistic mindset? No. I'll tell you what it should provoke in us, found later in the chapter, Psalm 90 verse 12, So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. God doesn't expect you to sit in a pew and say, well, I'll pick my casket and I'll make all the arrangements and I'll think about death for the next little bit. No, God said, live your life with wisdom and follow Him. But there's probably some of us in this room, we're not living like life is short. We're living like we've got lots of time. But when you can put eternity in the equation, this life is but a drop in the bucket. We better use it wisely. Not only is life short, but I want you to see number two, that life is not to be wasted. When you understand that life is a great commodity, there's some of you in this room, you're tight wads with your money. Now, there's some of you that aren't and need to be. But there are some of you, listen, when it comes to money, I mean, you're just like, boy, you're like, that's, you know, that pays the school bill and that pays the bills and, you know, I've got retirement and everything else. So, boy, you're just hoarding it, you know, you're just putting it to the side. There are others of you, it's like holes in your pocket, just running. I mean, you walked out, the students follow you because money's just falling out of your pockets and they'll pick it up. I don't know what your attitude is about money. There's a variety of attitudes about money. But I'll tell you, your attitude about life is very important. And if you live like you've got all kinds of life and you don't mind wasting a lot of it, listen to me. I have never talked to a Christian who wasted a part of his life who looked back and said, I'm glad I wasted part of my life. Now, how does a person waste his life? I mean, how do you waste money? Well, there's lots of ways to waste money. Some of you guys on video games, you know, I've got to have this newest virtual tool in this game and it costs five bucks, you know, and you have nothing to show for it but just a five dollar debit card account. You know, you're like, well, I spent that and I'd rather buy a couple of Big Macs, to be honest, for five bucks rather than something I can't touch or, you know, have. There's lots of ways to waste money. But I think as illustrated in the life of the prodigal son, listen to me, far greater mistake is when you waste your life, and that's exactly what that younger son did in Luke 16. You remember when the older sibling, he comes back to the dad, and it's interesting, now that I was an only child, there were some things I was deprived of. I was deprived of ratting out your siblings, like some of you have done for a lifetime. But this older brother comes back to the dad in Luke 15 and he says, Hey, your son's wasted his substance with riotous living. You know, in essence, in the story, he was saying, Dad, this man's wasted your inheritance. He's wasted his life. If I went out in the parking lot after the service and I pulled out a hundred dollar bill, I said, I want all of you to gather around me. and on one hand I took the hundred dollar bill and on the other hand I took a lighter and I lit it and a big flame shot out. There'd be two types of reactions from you students. Alright, there'd be some of you like Kenneth Lingle that would stand there just like, with that look of, I can't believe he's doing this. You'd just be like, what is his problem? But then there'd be some of you like Colton. I'll tell you what Colton would do. Colton would just kindly bend my wrist in a fashion that would almost break it, watch it drift to the ground, stomp it out and pray that more than half of it's still there, and then he would spend it. be one of those two reactions. Why? Because all of you would be like, man, what a waste! And you're right. But listen to me. If you leave this campus with a hard heart, one that is distant from God, I make a prophecy, I'm not a prophet or a son of a prophet, but you're going to waste a precious thing. You're going to waste years of your life. How long will it take you to come to the realization life is a vapor? Live for eternity. It's not to be wasted. You know, if there is any one wish, I'll tell you what, that I could have right now, more than a new vehicle, more than anything that I could ever look at and say, boy, that'd be nice. I'll tell you, if there is any one thing I could have, this is what it'd be, and God is my witness, this is my heart. It'd be for every one of you to walk out of here saying, I'm going to live for God in eternity. But I'm going to tell you what, there's no amount of pleading of mine that can change your heart, only God can. So number one, life is temporary, it's short. Number two, life is not to be wasted. Number three is this, with God, life is best. I wish I could show you my notes. I was scribbling them out, and I said, with life, God is good. And they didn't set well with me. And I said, no, I'm going to mark out the word good, and I'm going to put the word best. We go to the Outer Banks every year. That's Asiana's neck of the woods. We have seen her in the summertime for years. We'd go vacation, go to the church that she attends. And there's all kinds of shops you can find, t-shirts and all kinds of stuff. Well, there's this one store. And you go into that store, I'm sure some of you have seen it before. It has shirts plastered with this motto all over it. It says, Life is Good. And it may have pictures of turtles or, you know, other ethereal images that you just look at and make you think about nothing, you know. That's just, you know, I'm not a fashion guru, but I just walk in, I'm like, okay, that makes no sense, but people buy it. But it really is. I mean, if I said to some of you the phrase, life is good, you're like, yeah, I've got a shirt, it's great, you know, I've got a shirt with that on it. Listen, I'm not here to preach against your fashion choices, although I question people that wear shirts with turtles on them, but anyway. But can I tell you something? Somebody's made millions of dollars on a theme that really has deceived a lot of people. Because I'm telling you, you can't experience the best in life without God. I promise you that. You know, there was somebody in the New Testament who said, you know what, life is best with God. You know who it was? It was Paul when he said this in Philippians, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. For to me to live is money. I remember years ago, I was talking to a guy out on the Shelby Square. It's bad whenever you have a preacher on the Shelby Square and an Amway salesman on the Shelby Square. And he was out there recruiting people for his business. I was out there giving out the gospel and his name was Murdoch. I'll never forget him. His name was Murdoch. And I went up to him and I gave him the gospel, you know, and he looked at me and after a while he just said, man, he said, life is money. He said, life is about money. I mean, he just gave me the spill, and I just sat there very disinterested. I thought, oh boy, he listened to me, so I'll listen to him. But that's the thinking of people. I want to ask you, if your life could be summed up in one word, what would it be? You say, well, life is this, or life is that, life is entertainment. Now, we'd never say that. Nobody here would ever say, well, life for me is entertainment. Why? Because we know that's like not good. But that's the way we live. Well, I'll tell you, I'm far more interested not in knowing the right answers, but living them. Sum up your life in one word. Let me ask you, would it even begin to approach the one word that Paul used? He said, for to me to live is Christ. and to die is gain. Let me tell you something, young people. Our lives are just a fog. And when we realize that, it will drive us to the fact that the only way we can make it through this life and make the best use of our time is to live for God. But then the last thing that I tell you is this, is that ultimately life is in the hands of God. You know, there were a lot of things that were determined without your input. Do you know that? Nobody asked you, how many brothers and sisters are you going to have? They might have said, how many would you like to have? But that didn't mean they could determine the amount. Hey, nobody came to you and said, who would you like for your parents to be? Did that happen to any of you? I don't think so, because you weren't around for the question to be asked. What am I saying? I'm saying there's a lot of elements in your life right now. Listen, it's just the fingerprint of God that's on your life. Your parents, your siblings, whether you wanted them or not. God said that's what you need. But I'll tell you another thing that the Lord has determined that you have no say in. And it's the date of your birth and the day of your death. And you know what, when we start thinking about that, it makes us feel a little bit helpless, doesn't it? But it's alright to feel helpless when you're looking to an almighty God. The sooner you and I come to the conclusion that our life is not our own, but it's God's, the better off you'll be. I don't take it for granted that you're here in Bible college living that way. Listen, I hope you've come to that conclusion, but I have lived in my own experience through the years. I've seen many who had to come to that conclusion when they were in a pew. They made up their minds, after school was out, I'm going to live and do whatever I want. And I'll tell you what, I'm going to push this aside, and I don't care what people think. I don't care even what God thinks. That's what they think. Listen to me, if that's in your heart, it's not a surrendered heart. At least be honest with it. At least just say, that's where I'm at. Still not good, but I like honesty a lot better than to do deceiving ourselves. But you understand that life is in the hands of God. Listen, young people, life's a fog. And one day that fog is going to be lifted. And when that fog is lifted, you'll wish to God that you'd used your time a lot more wisely than you did. One of the things that I enjoy doing when I drive is I enjoy going down Interstate 77. And before you get into North Carolina, there's a section of I-77 that's called Fancy Gap. Anybody know where that's at? All right, a few of you. I know the folks from West Virginia, they would, because you come down through there. And I love, usually I love driving through Fancy Gap, but there's two parts that driving through that are really disappointing. One is when I'm driving there at night and there's a heavy fog. The reason I hate driving through Fancy Gap at night when there's a heavy fog is because there's a curve about every five feet of interstate. And there are tractor trailers that drive like NASCAR drivers with low visibility. and a roaring engine, and it's really nerve-wracking to do. But I also hate driving through Fancy Gap. Sometimes I'm coming down early in the morning and it's a beautiful view, but when you go down through Fancy Gap and there's a deep fog that's settled in the morning, it's a little bit disappointing. You go through there and you know that there's some beautiful scenery on the other side, but you can't see it. But what I like is sometimes as I've gone through there, the heat has burned off the fog. And once the heat burns off that fog and the fog is lifted, all of a sudden I see Pilot Mountain. Way off in the distance, a little knob out there. I look down in the valley and you see the farms and the farmhouses, and to be quite honest, it's such a beautiful sight, you don't really want to drive quickly through there because it's a beautiful view when the fog is lifted. Listen, if you're a child of God, and I take it that you are, I'm going to tell you there's going to come a day that the fog is going to lift and you're going to see a view unlike anything you've ever seen. And when you see that view of eternity, There'll be a longing and a hoping in your heart that you've used that fog time to live for eternity. More than wanting you to be a preacher or a preacher's wife or a missionary or a Christian school teacher, I want you to live for God and for eternity. Because your life is but a vapor. It appears for a little time. then it vanisheth away. Let's bow our heads together in prayer. Our Father, as we close this chapel hour, Lord, I pray that not only would there be a joy in the fact that we'll be able to leave for a break, but there'll be a sobriety in our hearts that would lead us to live for You. Lord, my heart is that every, every person in this room would live for God and live for eternity. Help us to see this life is but a vapor and to use it for your honor and glory in Jesus' name.