1 Chronicles chapter 29. This is the last sermon in the Life of David series. And we'll begin reading at verse 20. Then David said to all the assembly, now bless the Lord your God. So all the assembly blessed the Lord God of their fathers and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord and the king. And they made sacrifices to the Lord and offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the next day. A thousand bulls, a thousand rams, a thousand lambs with their drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. So they ate and drank before the Lord with great gladness on that day, and they made Solomon the son of David king the second time and anointed him before the Lord to be the leader and Zadok to be the priest. Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David, his father, and prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. All the leaders and the mighty men and also all the sons of King David submitted themselves to King Solomon. So the Lord exalted Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel. Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. And the period that he reigned over Israel was 40 years. Seven years he reigned in Hebron and 33 years he reigned in Jerusalem. So he died in a good old age, full of days and riches and honor, and Solomon his son reigned in his place. Now the acts of King David, first and last, indeed they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer. with all His reign and His might, and the events that happen to Him, to Israel, and to all the kingdoms of the lands. Amen. Father, we thank You for this, Your Word. It is our glory to study it, to understand it, and to obey it. And we pray that by the power of Your Holy Spirit, You would enable us during this continued time of worship to be sanctified by Your truth, by Your Word, and that we would glorify You with our responses. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well the other day I happened to notice a gravestone for Mel Blanc and actually I was a little bit shocked by it when I saw it. It said, that's all folks and some of you are too young probably to have seen the cartoon films Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird and the Sylvester and Porky Pig and all of those old cartoon strips. Well, Mel Blanc was not only the creator of Porky Pig, he was the voiceover for most of the cartoons back when I was a kid. And at the end of every film, Porky Pig would stutter, that's all folks. And that just became a very famous tagline on the cartoon. Sometimes they had the other characters saying, that's all folks. And so for an old guy like me to put those images together on a tombstone just doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem like it goes together. Now, from one perspective, you could see why he would want to be remembered by his life work. And in some ways that that phrase captures his entire career at at Hollywood. He was a famous for voicing Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Wiley E. Coyote, the Tasmanian Devil. And you'll probably recognize a whole bunch of other cartoon characters if I went through them, at least those of you who are older. I know it probably shows that I watched too much TV when I was a kid, at least when we were on furlough. When we were in Ethiopia, we didn't have any TVs. But this guy really was an absolutely amazing impersonator with his voice. It's just astounding, all of the voices. And that's why the second tagline in your notes there that the gravestone says, man of a thousand voices. So the phrase on the tombstone, that's all folks could be taken in an appropriate and humorous way as a summary to his long career. But when you see it on a gravestone, it's discordant and it could miscommunicate. It could communicate that he believes in no life hereafter. Once you die, That's all, folks. That's the end of it. There's nothing more. Or it could communicate that all he wanted to be remembered for was his success in Hollywood. Could communicate that life is just one big joke. Or it could communicate that his family was really proud of his accomplishments. I don't know. But it does leave you guessing. In any case, whatever the family intended by that marker, I put the picture into your outlines to remind us that the end of your life is just as important as how you live it. Where does your life point to? Even when you're near the end of your life, where does it point to? There are two kings in the book of 2 Chronicles that are, their life is written in a way where it's very clear that they started their life very well. They started their reign very well, but they ended poorly. And that's King Hezekiah and King Asa. They were both good kings in some ways, but they ended poorly. And to some degree that was true of Solomon as well. Actually, he did repent, and so he did end his life well. But I'm going to focus in on what is meant by that phrase today. How do we end our lives well? Almost everyone who has written on the life of David agrees that he ended his life well. And by that they clearly cannot mean that David did not have glaring sins and errors even toward the end of his life. Obviously we recognize that his adultery with Bathsheba, his situation with with Uriah, killing of Uriah, had negative ramifications that went way beyond his life. But even toward the end of his life, a few months earlier, the situation with Abishag showed poor judgment when he went along with his advisors. And so Ending his life well clearly cannot mean that he was sinless. He was not. If you take a look at verse 14, he expresses his utter unworthiness of even serving God and giving things to God. He says, but who am I? And who are my people? In verse 14, he acknowledges that his life is nothing. It's emptiness apart from God and the significance that God gives. In the last words that he penned in 2 Samuel chapter 23, he describes what a good godly leader should look like, but he acknowledges he did not live up to that standard. He didn't even live up to the standard that he expects kings to live by. He said in that chapter, Although my house is not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure, for this is all my salvation and all my desire. So he did not live a perfect life But he did know how to live by grace. He knew how to repent of his sins, how to turn from his sins, how to hate his sins, and how to cling to the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah at that point. And I think that is symbolized in all of the burnt offerings, the sacrifices that were made in verse 21 of our chapter. Those all pointed forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, who through this typology, they were believing that he would provide for their sins. And if you want to end your life well, make sure that you never lose your grip on Jesus and on His grace. You may fall again in the future. David had a number of falls in his life. But make sure you get right back up, you cling to the Lord and His forgiveness, and you get restored into fellowship with God. From man's perspective, David may have seemed like a loser. Look at how some of his kids turned out. Didn't turn out very well. And you think of Bathsheba, you look at Uriah and you think, what a loser. Ah, yes, from one perspective, he was a loser, but not from God's perspective, not at all. God considered him a winner because he saw God's grace as all his salvation, all his desire. It was totally his security. And because of that, I think we should see David as a winner as well. We for sure do not see the emblem on David's tombstone. That's all, folks, not at all. Another thing that makes some people think that they have ended well is that they have accumulated vast sums of money and anybody who lived in David's day may have thought that David had ended well because he was the person with the most money. Okay, he won the game of cash flow You know Roger is a guy or Roger Kawasaki's cash flow game. He had won it He was the guy with the most money we saw a couple of weeks ago that he must have been a multi-billionaire because he had already given away just in chapter 29 billions of dollars And so we might think that wealth was one of the criteria by which this passage says he ended well. In fact, verse 28 talks about those. He's full of days and riches and honor. Is that not an indication that he ended well? Well, we'll get to that verse in a little bit. But the answer is no, no. Riches were not the measure of how he ended well. I just want to remind you of what we saw last week. Last week we saw that riches don't make a man, nor do they necessarily break a man. Job was fabulously wealthy, but because he had a steward's heart, God labeled him as a success when he was wealthy, and even more of a success when he lost all of his wealth. And last week we looked at 15 characteristics of David's stewardship of riches that set him apart from most other rich men and made him a success. By the way, he had those same, we didn't mention it, but he had those same 15 characteristics in Ziklag years earlier when he lost all of his wealth. So those characteristics of stewardship were what made God pleased with his servant David. So while I would say that you don't end well by having the most riches, you do end well by having the best stewardship, as characterized by those 15 points. He certainly didn't look at his riches and say, that's all folks. There was a whole lot more to ending well. David ended well not because he was a success at building his kingdom out of the impossible chaos of the Middle East. I mean it really was an amazing thing that he had accomplished. to pull together that kingdom and it shows that he was a remarkable leader so I'm not downplaying that at all but David didn't look at the successful empire that he had put together and say that's all folks instead David ended well because he built his kingdom in total dependence upon God based on his word, in step with his kingdom, and with a vision to glorifying God. It was a different kind of a kingdom. And you see that focus all the way through chapters 22 through 29, but I especially like the wonderful way that verses 11 through 12 displays that. He prays this. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, and the glory. The victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and on earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you and you reign over all. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. So David's reigning was not about David. It was about glorifying God on earth and seeing the heavenly kingdom being lived out on earth more and more. In fact, two of the Psalms that were written during this period of time, Psalms 29 and 30, are Psalms that call all of the kings of the earth, all of the mighty ones who are out there to see and say that Jehovah reigns and that he is enthroned forever. Now it's rare for politicians to do that, which means They don't end well, they haven't even begun well. They are not acknowledging God in their reign. David saw his own Davidic kingdom as simply being a manifestation of God's bigger kingdom. And it's because David's kingdom was so committed to God's kingdom that he became a type of the coming Messiah of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the prophets. David ended well because he was able to maintain a perspective that I think often eludes even the best of Christians. Too often, Christians see their role in life as being successful in building their own nest egg, or their own kingdom, or their own comforts, or winning the pro-life battle, or whatever it is that is their earthly work. And even in our circles, it's very easy to have a wrong perspective on such things as building a dynasty, building covenant succession with our families. We need an eternal perspective if we are to make our earthly decisions right. And we've got to see the relationship between what we are doing and what God is accomplishing on earth. R.J. Rushdune gave a wonderful chapter on how the kingdom of God needs to be a priority in our lives. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And I'm not gonna give you all of the points that Rushdune gives on what it means to seek the kingdom, but I do wanna quote the first two that he gave. And this is from his book, Sovereignty. He says, very plainly, our Lord requires us to give priority to the kingdom of God. This means, first, that this kingdom must govern us, our institutions, including church and state, our vocations, activities, arts, sciences, families, ourselves, and all things else. There is no sphere, area, nor even an atom in all creation outside this kingdom and its absolute government. Second, this is a sovereign, not a satellite kingdom. And you probably know intuitively what he means by a satellite kingdom. He means that God's kingdom is not just an add-on, an extra in your life. No, God's kingdom encompasses everything. It's not just a part out there. So he says, Second, this is a sovereign, not a satellite kingdom, and is ruled by the sovereign, Christ the King. He is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 1 Timothy 6.15. The realm of the triune God cannot be given to another without sin, and if we yield either ourselves, our families, or our nations to another sovereign, we shall be judged. So David ended well even though he was not perfect because he was passionate about God's kingdom and he saw all that he owned. all that he did and all that he was as an important part of reflecting God's kingdom here on earth as he was living. At the end of David's life he did not think, that's all folks, he saw what he was doing as contributing to God's never-ending reign and it gave him great joy to serve God's kingdom. Fourth, David ended well not because he was a man of prayer. Now that may come as a surprise to you, but think of it this way. I have seen Buddhists and Hindus and Muslims who pray a whole lot more than some of us pray. I've seen Jehovah's Witnesses and other cults pray a whole lot more than some of us pray. But prayer that springs from our flesh glorifies only the flesh. It does not glorify God. Jesus said, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. And I think too many times we think The reason I've had a bad day is because I didn't do devotions. We treat it as if it's kind of a talisman or a lucky rabbit's foot or something like that, as if we can manipulate God. If we put in these kinds of motions in prayer, God's got to come through on our behalf. I want you to look at the prayer. Just skim over it. I'm not going to read it all, but verses 10 through 19. You've probably noticed last week when we read it out loud, and when you've read this yourself out loud, that it grabs your spirit. Okay? It stirs your spirit. There's something about these words that makes this prayer different. And I think in part it's the content. It's very God-centered, God-glorifying. and scripture-based content, but I think there's more to it than that. This prayer is so powerful because it is a prayer that was birthed by the Spirit of God. Now obviously, because it's inspired, right? It was a prayer given by the Spirit. And so obviously the Father is going to hear a prayer that the Spirit is praying through David. And that is something that should get our attention. How can the Father ever deny the prayers that are uttered by either His only begotten Son or by His Holy Spirit? He cannot. He cannot deny those prayers. It's what makes those prayers so successful. And this is why I love singing the Psalms. We use them every single day in our family devotions. These Psalms are the prayers of Christ, but they're inspired by the Spirit. And when we sing them, the Father always hears them. If we sing them in faith, the Father always hears those prayers. And David's prayer depended on Christ, was driven by the Spirit, and honored the Father. It was a Trinitarian prayer. Now obviously, none of us have the gift of inspiration today. Inspired prophecy and inspired prayers ended in 70 A.D. But that does not mean that the Holy Spirit stops stirring up our prayers today. Jude 20 commands all Christians to pray in the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 6, verse 18 commands us to continually pray in the Holy Spirit. So we should be able to do so as ordinary Christians. The Holy Spirit can prompt us to pray, can empower us, can lead us, can make our prayers successful. I want you to listen to Romans 8, 26 through 27. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And I love Spurgeon's comments on this he said God the Holy Spirit writes our prayers God the Son presents our prayers and God the Father accepts our prayers and with the whole Trinity to help us in it what cannot prayer perform so I think you're beginning to see there's a pattern in all of these verses that we are going through David ended well because he depended upon God in absolutely everything that he did, including his prayer life. He thirsted for God. He was not satisfied when God was absent. You can see that in so many of his Psalms. He ended well because he was a man wrapped up in God. And so the fifth point says that David ended well, not because he was a man of worship or faithfully attended all of the worship services, but because he engaged in true worship in God's presence. He met with God, he communed with God, he taught others to do so. I'll read verses 20 through 22. Then David said to all the assembly, now bless the Lord your God. So the assembly blessed the Lord God of their fathers and bowed their heads and prosperated themselves before the Lord and the king. And they made sacrifices to the Lord and offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the next day, a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, a thousand lambs with their drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. So they ate and drank before the Lord with great gladness on that day. Now I want you to notice the phrases before the Lord in verses 20 and 22. And the phrase, to the Lord, in verse 21. Just as all of life for David was God-focused, his worship was God-centered. In his introduction to Matt Redmond's book, Face Down, Louis Giglio says this, Worship always begins with God. Apart from His willingness to share Himself with us, we would never see His face being forever stranded from His intimate embrace. Without true glimpses of God, we will invariably try to shrink Him down to our own size, rather than allow even the tiniest taste of His infinite glory to stretch our mind and soul upward as we try to fathom His. That's why worship without revelation is so lackluster, dull, and void of the awesome wonder that belongs to God alone. The kind of nearsighted worship we can comfortably offer standing up or sitting down. But when our eyes are opened to drink in His matchless beauty, we are intrinsically drawn face down to the ground, that place of worship where we are both secure and somewhat afraid, in love and in awe, bowed low yet somehow lifted high. David was a man who had success in life and in death because he was a man who worshiped in the Spirit, trusted in Christ to the glory of God. So it was not just any kind of worship. It was the kind of worship that one of my favorite books on this subject is by Virginia Brooks. She describes it as the reach of the heart. It's the heart reaching out to God. So I want to end well by imitating David, who, even though he was not perfect, he knew how to tap into perfection through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was drawn to the perfection of God himself. Now, sometimes we think a person ends well because his children are a success. And the second half of verse 22 certainly shows that David was a success at this point. But I think we should add that David's heart was for covenant succession, passing on a vision. Now in a previous sermon, I communicated how David passed on that vision to his youngest son, Solomon. I think he had failed. We talked about that. He had failed with some of the earlier children, but he picked up the mantle with Solomon. Verse 22 uses the phrase, before the Lord, one more time. It says, and they made Solomon the son of David king the second time and anointed him before the Lord to be the leader and Zadok to be priest. So this was covenant succession of both family and church. Both Solomon and Zadok were anointed a second time to emphasize the fact that this was very, very self-conscious and deliberate. It was a self-conscious passing on of the faith to the next generation. And in these chapters on covenant succession, the phrase before the Lord occurs six times and to the Lord occurs five times. Seventh, it's not just any dominion that enables us to end well. So we need to understand that even unbelievers since the fall of Adam still have that urge for dominion. But their dominion is not really got the same motive, goal, and standard. Sometimes it's engaged in selfish ways, sometimes even demonic ways. So if you get your sense of satisfaction from the successful dominion that you have taken in science, agriculture, politics, voiceover cartoons, or anything else, make sure you're doing it by the power of God and to His glory. Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now there's an interesting phrase in verse 23. It says that Solomon sat on Jehovah's throne. Let me read the whole verse. And Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, all capital letters, Lord is Jehovah, as king instead of David, his father, and prospered and all Israel obeyed him. Now there's a lot wrapped up in that little phrase that impacts eschatology, impacts our view of the Kingdom of Christ. I just want to point out the most obvious implication of the whole clause there that Solomon sat on the throne of Jehovah as king in place of his father David. That shows that Solomon's throne is ultimately not his throne, it's Jehovah's throne. And since he sat on Jehovah's throne in place of his father David, it implies that David sat on Jehovah's throne and therefore David's throne was not just David's throne, it was Jehovah's throne. And while it's a remarkable typology of the Lord Jesus Christ that Jesus would sit on the throne of Jehovah, and while it shows that Jesus' throne today really is Jehovah's throne, it's David's throne, the two are identical in God's eyes, and the book of Acts I think is quite clear on that. We also need to keep in mind that the literal application of that verse in David's day was that David did not have the privilege of taking politics as one aspect of dominion apart from God's kingdom. He could not see politics as independent of God's kingdom. As JFB Commentary points out, this phrase shows that both David and Solomon were successful, at least at this point in their lives, in being Jehovah's vicegerents. Now that's a big word that you probably ought to have in your vocabulary. A vicegerent is defined in the dictionary as, quote, a person exercising delegated power on behalf of a sovereign or a ruler. Well, that's Romans 13. Romans 13 says that civil magistrates are supposed to be ministers of God. They're supposed to minister God's word. And if they don't, if instead their whole rule is characterized by ministering man's rule, man's word, they're in rebellion against God. They're not even beginning or ending well. You have not ended your life well if you have made a fortune, a kingdom, a reputation, et cetera, independently of God. fantastic phrase in Revelation chapter 2 where it indicates that there are certain people who share the throne with Christ. But it's those who are overcomers against evil and followers of the Lamb. It's not just anybody. Just as Jesus did not come down from heaven to do His own will, but the will of His Father in heaven, we should not take any aspect of our dominion independently of God's will. And it's why it's so sad to me when conservatives lionize and heroize You know, some elderly politician in the Republican Party who has spent an entire lifetime never mentioning the name of God or the scriptures of the law of God, lionizing him, and all he's done is oppose liberal humanism with conservative humanism. He has excluded God from his dominion, which means he is not ending well. He has not lived well. He has not begun well. David's call was a call to politicians to live well under God and to end well under God. And that's the next point. It's true of the next point, climbing the ladder of success. There had been others who wanted this throne. We saw that earlier, including some of Solomon's brothers. He was the youngest. He was the least likely to take that throne. But because Solomon in his youth had been faithful to God, God blessed him with more. And it's really the same as David. David was faithful with very little when he was a kid, and God kept blessing him with more and with more. The key point is not how high you climb, but are you doing God's will right now? Are you doing what God has called you to do right now? Now let's read verses 23 through 27. Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father and prospered and all Israel obeyed him. All the leaders and the mighty men and also all the sons of King David submitted themselves to King Solomon. The Lord exalted Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel. Thus David, the son of Jesse, reigned over all Israel. In other words, David was faithful in the same way God exalted him in the same way. And the period that he reigned over Israel was 40 years, 7 years he reigned in Hebron, and 33 years he reigned in Jerusalem. Now, climbing the corporate ladder is okay if that's what God has called you to do. But too often people climb the corporate ladder like Absalom, Sheba, Ziba, and Adonijah did. They climbed the corporate ladder by stepping on people's fingers. In other words, they're not using the right methodology. And they do so with selfish motives and goals, never having considered, how is my change of job going to impact my ability to serve God's kingdom? And often they are left empty at the end of their lives, realizing that their pursuits are meaningless. I think it would be hard to imagine a more successful climb to power and fame and honor and prestige than Winston Churchill had. But near the end of his life, just before he slipped into a coma, his parting comment was, I'm bored with it all. His tombstone metaphorically had, that's all folks, and that's why he became so bored with life and found life so meaningless and empty. The ninth reason that I see David as having ended well is that the inspired statement of the author in verse 28 is not simply that he had long life, riches, and honor. Any humanist might think, well, yeah, that's the pinnacle of living, have long life, riches, and honor. But it's not just any kind. Let's look first of all at the old age. The author speaks of a good old age or literally good gray hair. That's the literal Hebrew. Not all gray hair is good. The Hebrew word for good is tova and has both moral and aesthetic meaning. The dictionary defines it as good, pleasant, beautiful, delightful, glad, joyful, precious, correct, righteous. Well, not everybody who gets old is pleasant and is morally upright, is righteous. Some of them are bitter and cynical and hard. But David ended well because he had good gray hair. There was something about the quality of his old age that made it good. Have that adjective, tova, describing it. And by the way, that did not mean that this quality of life meant he didn't have aches and pains. Remember we saw just a few weeks, a few months earlier, he had been an invalid in bed for quite some time. And yet he still was living with a quality that could be characterized as good old age, because it was lived under God. Just as God looked at the things that he had created in Genesis chapter 1, he said, that's good, and that's good, and this is very good. He looks at the quality of David's old age and he says, that's good. gray hair. That's good old age and that, brothers and sisters, is part of what it means to end well. And it wasn't just any riches in honor that are mentioned either. The adjective defining those riches in honor as full is shavah, which means full or satisfying. Those who have riches in honor as an idol cannot find them satisfying. And I could multiply quotes from rich people and famous people who have had an amazing life, and yet they hate their lives. They find their lives so meaningless. But I don't think you have to go any further than King Solomon. He started well. He started very humbly, very godly attitude toward God. But over time, he backslid. And in Ecclesiastes, he says he came to a point where he hated life and life was empty. And he said, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Even the things that people aspire for, the riches, the wisdom, the buildings, all of the different things that he had had, he said it was all empty. It left him empty. David's last psalm in the Psalter appears to be Psalm 72. Now the Psalter is not arranged chronologically, it's arranged topically, so there are Psalms of David after Psalm 72. And there's debate on this, so I'm not going to be dogmatic, but let me briefly explain what I mean. The title of Psalm 72 says, A Psalm of Solomon. But many point out that the title can be translated, just like the Septuagint or the Greek translation does, as a Psalm for Solomon. And the last verse of that Psalm makes no sense if you don't translate it the way the Septuagint does. The last verse of Psalm 72 says, the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. Well, that implies that Psalm 72 is one of his prayers. Well, if that's true, you can see that this Psalm for Solomon was intended to give a Christ-centered perspective on riches, honor, power, and life itself. The whole psalm points to the greater Solomon, to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only man in human history who has managed to live life as fully as God intended and who perfectly glorified God the Father. And Jesus made it clear that you will never have fullness of joy in life and never have satisfaction in riches and honor until you first find satisfaction in God. Psalm 72 is an amazing Psalm, probably written in these last months of David's life, that expresses a longing for the whole earth to worship and glorify God. And that shows David finding total satisfaction and delight in God. So he's not focusing more on the gifts than he does the giver. And it's yet another reason why he ended so well. The last point is that David ended well because he didn't live and strive for man's recognition, but he lived and strove for God's. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Now it's a section that gives praise and recognition, but who's giving the praise and recognition? It's God. These are the words of God. And verses 29 through 30 points us to the prophets and to the scriptures recorded by those prophets. Now the Acts of King David, first and last, indeed they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, in the book of Nathan the prophet, and the book of Gad the seer. His reign and His might and the events that happened to Him, to Israel and to all the kingdoms of the lands. God Himself made an evaluation of David's life and recorded it through the prophets. And I think that needs to be our concern as well. What does God think about me? What does God think about what I am doing? Not so much, what does man think about me? And as you get closer to the end of your life, these 10 points, I think, are worth evaluating. Am I living by grace to God's glory? Am I seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? Am I a steward? Do I pray and worship in the Spirit? And you can continue on through the rest of those 10 ways that we can evaluate our life so that when we get to the end of our lives, we say, no, I'm not gonna have it on my tombstone that that's all, folks. I want I've ended well to be the thing that people remember me for. Now let me end with something that the missionary David Livingston wrote when he was a teenager. Now he prayed this prayer, he kept it with him, but he prayed this on the last day of his life. He was a very frail man on the day that he died. He was out in the jungles of Africa, it was raining, and he was in his tent and his porter could see the silhouette of him being cast by the candle against the tent. Anyway, the porter says he saw him get out of bed and trembling, saw him kneel beside his cot and pray this prayer one last time and then keel over and die. Here was the prayer that he prayed many, many times. O Lord, since Thou hast died to give Thyself for me, no sacrifice would be too great for me to make for Thee. Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever any tie, save the tie that binds me to Thy heart. Lord Jesus, my King, I consecrate my life, Lord, to Thee. I only have one life, and that will soon be past. I want my life to count for Christ. What's done for Him will last. I follow Thee, my Lord, and glory in Thy cross. I gladly leave the world behind and count all gain as loss. Is there more to your life than riches and power and family and your weekly pattern of dominion and rest. David would say that there was much more to his life than that. In fact, what made his life have meaning gave meaning to all of those things I've just listed out. It's not either or, it's a both and. But he would say to live your life sold out to God and when you die You can rest in God's arms and hear his, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Lord Jesus, may this be true of each of us. Father, we love you, but we recognize how shallow our love really is. When we see the infinite love that exists between you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we want to become more like you. Father, we want to serve you, and yet we recognize in many ways how shallow our service is compared to the full-hearted way in which Jesus and your Spirit and you pour out your life for each other and have poured out yourselves for us. Father, we want to be better servants. serving by the power of your Holy Spirit and to your glory we recognize that in ourselves we are nothing and without Christ we can do nothing and so we pray take our hearts Lord take them and enthrone yourself over our hearts we put our heads to the ground and ask Lord Jesus that you would put your foot upon our necks and take us and use us we want to be servants we want to be tools in your hand we want to be pleasing in your sight we want our lives to be wrapped up in you and your kingdom we want to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness knowing that all of these other things that the Gentiles seek for you add to us you delight in adding to us but I pray father we would relate to all of these other things in life in a Christ-centered, grace-driven, cross-based way. Please be with this, your people, and bless them, we pray, in Christ's name, amen.