Declaring Our Dependence

1:07Our founding document, our first document, a document which we celebrate every July 4th as Independence Day, is our Declaration of Independence. And within that document, we have that famous quote of that we should be free. To pursue life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. One of the most famous speeches leading up to our independence was from a patriot named Patrick Henry. Patrick Henry, on March 23rd, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, made a speech in which he said, Give me liberty or give me death. That's how much we love liberty. We'd rather die than give it up, and rightly so.

2:10We rightly love our liberty and our independence. Our text this morning, however, can rightly be described as a celebration of the dependence of God's people. Psalm 120 through 134 each include the title that is usually translated Song of Assense. This is because they frequently reference Jerusalem and Zion, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Biblical writers regularly describe individuals as going up to Jerusalem no matter where the people happen to be located in relation to the city. So your hometown may be literally on top of a mountain. It may literally be above.

3:00Sea level-wise, it may be above Jerusalem, but if you're going to where God is, it is a journey of ascent. Going from the lowly to the high, because Jerusalem is where God dwells with his people. These psalms were often recited or sung as hymns of worship, not only during gathered temple worship, but also during the pilgrimage of dispersed Jews back to Jerusalem after Babylonian captivity for highly high days of holiness. This is also one of two psalms that's written by King Solomon, the other being the 72nd Psalm.

3:47On this occasion, the setting is of a king who diligently strives to develop and protect his kingdom. We're meant to vividly imagine the majesty and the splendor of Solomon's temple in the background of this psalm. However, the main point for the owner of the house is that Yahweh, the God of Israel, allows the owner to rest securely without anxiety when he is dependent upon the Lord for all things. Just like wise and mighty King Solomon, God's people dependent. Depend on him for our establishment, for our protection, for our rest, and for our legacy.

4:39Look with me in the first part of verse 1 where we see that we depend on God for our establishment. It says, unless Yahweh builds the house, those who build labor in vain. Notice that Solomon uses the proper pronoun for the name of God. He uses Yahweh, not the generic Elohim. According to Solomon, only the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob can build an eternal house. You know, this goes against the hyper-ecumenical culture of our day, which if you want to believe in someone or something, that's fine. It really doesn't matter which one it is. Just believe in something.

5:28Solomon wasn't calling upon the name of some nameless God. He was calling upon the God of the covenant. He was calling upon the God who had revealed himself through his word, who had saved and rescued Israel out of Egypt, who had promised a later king like David, but a king that would reign forever and ever and ever. Solomon was specific. And notice that he uses the word house. He says, Unless Yahweh builds the house, that word house, bayit, in Hebrew can mean an individual house, but it can also mean a community or a city. It can even mean a nation. So the meaning isn't exactly clear here, but any of these meanings could apply. What is very clear is that people and their possessions will not remain eternally together. So many of the things we are giving so much of our time, our talent, and our treasure to will one day be possessed by someone else if they continue to exist at all.

6:42Someone who could never appreciate the building like the original builder. Look at the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. When, in reflecting, and this remember that this is a man, a king who the Lord did not hold back anything for which he desired and wanted. And reflecting upon his life and all that he had, listen to what he says. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun. Because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything.

7:30To be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. We recently bought a house, and we love this house, and it's a sweet house, and we're so thankful for the blessing of this home. But the truth of the matter is, we didn't build it. We can never appreciate this house like the original builder or the original family that owned this house when it was built. They probably understood where all the nooks and crannies were and why they were there and everything that was significant about them. It took me two weeks to figure out how the sprinklers worked.

8:17Every morning at 7:30 for two weeks, I would be late to work as I'm trying to get out the door. I parked my truck in the front in the front of the house, and I would stand there because the sprinklers were going off, and I didn't want to walk through the sprinklers and get wet. I was held hostage by the sprinklers of my own house because I didn't understand them nor appreciate them. It's quite an undertaking to build a house or to build a community or to build a nation.

8:48But anything that is not given by the Lord will not last. Listen to Peter in describing the consummation of the age, the end of our time. He says, but. The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Notice he doesn't say immediately that they'll be destroyed, he says, first they will be exposed. In other words, at the end of the age, we will see what really matters. We will know then what was of eternal significance.

9:32That dream house, that vacation home, that seemingly perfect neighborhood that you waited forever to move into and have invested so much into. That seemingly powerful and secure government in which we rest and place our security, all of these things will come to their demise. To place all that effort into something that is clutched and held on to, like we can take it into eternity, but is really only temporary, that's something that should be pitied, not envied.

10:23On the other hand, if the Lord is building and establishing His kingdom through your work, And as a steward of your possessions, my friend, you're putting your hands to things that are eternal. Listen to the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 3: According to the grace given me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care now how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is in Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire.

11:16And the work that anyone has built of the foundation on the foundation survives. If it survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as by fire. Fire there is the judgment of the Lord. It's the right standard of God. Not everything that we sweat over is going to survive this judgment. Things that are only for temporary times are by definition and by nature temporary. They will not last.

11:54So, what will last? My college pastor Dwight Edwards used to say that. There's only two things that last forever, the Word of God and the souls of men, and that we should spend our lives investing in those eternal things. Listen to the words of Jesus in the Great Commission of Matthew 28 of what Jesus thinks we should be giving our lives to. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you to the end of the age. What work is eternal? What labor is not in vain? What foundation is God laying through his people? It's the foundation of making disciples of Christ. It's not the work or the materials that last, it's the souls of disciples made through their labor that are eternal. You want that dream home to have an eternal impact? Use it to make disciples. You want your community to be eternally effective for God's kingdom? Make disciples out of and with your neighbors.

13:20You want your job or your career to be eternally useful? Labor to make disciples in the workplace by evangelism. Prayer and study of the Word of God. You want your country to realize the benefit of eternal blessings be used by God to help transform your nation into a disciple-making and mission-sending nation. Those are the things that last. Not only do we depend on God for our establishment, but the second part of verse 1, we see that we depend on God for our protection. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Here we see that Solomon is going to transition from house to city. He's being more clear here. He's talking about the security of a nation or a city or a community more so than an individual. The watchman of the ancient city was the sentry who stood at the gate. His vantage point was one where he had the best view. He had the most sophisticated alert tools and systems. He usually was outfitted with the best training and weapons for defense.

14:40But he's still a watchman, not watchmen. It's one person. In 2018, the United States spent $649 billion on defense. The next seven largest spending countries totaled $609 billion. In defense combined. And yet, our military and national leaders are still concerned and honestly cannot completely defend against an individual or group of terrorists who want to harm American citizens at any cost. Individual Americans in 2017 spent $4.69 billion on home security. $4.69 billion on home security. I have a worthless dog.

15:30I have a schnoodle that strikes terror into the hearts of no man. But we spend a lot on home security. I know I've just opened up my house to everyone who's hearing this and wants to go rob me now. But in that year alone, 2017, there were over 1.2 million incidents of violent crime committed and reported in the United States, and over 7.6 million property crimes. Listen, just as one human watching a city cannot protect that entire place, no amount of money spent on home and national defense can ever keep us totally secure. As Christians, we should totally be reasonable and vigilant in protecting what God has entrusted to us. There is no doubt. But just as we should build things for eternity, We should also seek the Lord for his protection of the most valuable human commodities, the souls of men. Jesus puts it like this in John chapter 10. So Jesus said, again, said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door.

16:57If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand. He cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me, I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. That's us. Amen. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.

18:17Only if Christ is your shepherd, can you truly be eternally safe? If you believe that Jesus died for your sins, if you have repented of your sin and by faith you are trusting in his finished work on the cross for your eternity, Jesus is your shepherd. He is your defender. He is your protector. And he has promised in his word that he will never leave you nor forsake you. He is the good shepherd. We can endure. We can endure pain. We can endure suffering even unto death if Jesus is our good shepherd.

19:08We worry like a lone watchman on the walls of our lives, sometimes more afraid of the world and cares of this world than living the abundant life that our good shepherd desires us to have. Jesus has both a warning and promise for us concerning who we should trust with our lives. From Matthew chapter 10, he says, So have no fear of them. Who's them? That's the world and those that are in the world that would oppose Christ and his people. For nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

19:53And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will deny also before my Father who is in heaven. It seems like every few months or so, another celebrity Christian teacher or pastor or speaker makes a public statement concerning their abandonment of God's Word instead of affirming the world, and instead affirming the world's sinful understanding of morality. Why do intelligent, seemingly biblically literate people all of a sudden jettison the eternal truth of God's word?

20:49I think one of the reasons why it's a matter of security. They're no longer trusting that God is watching over his city, his kingdom. His community, but they're opting for the temporary security and accolades of the world. For being on the right side of history instead of trusting in his word and being on the right side of eternity. There's too often a fear of men that is simply greater than their holy, reverent fear and trust of Christ and His Word.

21:28We're all susceptible to this temptation. May we be found faithful in Christ, clinging to his eternal truth, because that is where we find our true protection. But we also depend on God for our rest. Look at verse 2 with me. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. If my oldest son, my teenager, were here, he might argue that verse 2 is a proof text for his perpetual sleeping in during the summertime.

22:08But he's not talking about digilance or work. He's talking about our worldliness, our work that is done in vanity, our understanding of what our work really means and what our rest really is. He's not talking about diligence. He's not talking about putting our hand to the plow. He's talking... About being concerned with the cares of this world. He says that is vanity. It's vain that we do this. Vain means literally worthless. It's futile. It means that it comes to naught. All this work, all this anxiety, all this worrying, and it comes to nothing. He's talking about being anxious over things that are not worth our anxiety.

22:58If we are working and earning and giving our best energy to things which do not have eternal value, we do so in vanity. Consider again the words of our Savior from Matthew 6. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? And which of you can be, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Because if God so closed the grass of the field, which Today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven. Will he not much more clothe you, oh, you of little faith?

24:11Truth is, we don't rest well. We don't. We don't rest well. And I say this as a confession. I've had to build into my life habits of leaving devices that might connect me to the outside world outside my bedroom when it's time to sleep. Otherwise, I'll be up. I'll be wondering. I'll be thinking about these things which I shouldn't be giving my energy to when I should be resting, enjoying the Lord's rest. We just don't rest well. And as Americans, we don't rest well. In contrast to the European Union, which mandates 20 days of paid vacation, the United States has no federal laws guaranteeing paid time off, sick leave, or even breaks for national holidays. I'm not advocating for all of those things, but I am just saying that people rest in other ways around the country, around the world. In the Netherlands, 26 days of vacation are given in a given year. It's typical. In America, Canada, Japan, and Hong Kong, workers average 10 days off each year. Yet a survey by Harris Interactive. Have found that at the end of 2012, Americans had an average of nine unused vacation days.

25:38We average 10, and we don't use nine of them. You do the math. And yet, just about every survey and poll and study that we can find over the last decade tells us that we are more anxious, tells us that we are more worn out than ever before, and not worn out in a good way. Listen, we're to work hard at everything we do. 1 Corinthians 10, 31, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, even the most menial things that we put our hands to, that we put our work to, those things should all be done to God's glory. We should work hard.

26:23But we are to rest in our trust that it is the Lord who ultimately cares for us. He says that there at the end of verse 2 here in Psalm 127, he says that he gives to his beloved sleep. He gives, he presents a gift to his beloved. Who are the beloved? The beloved are the men and women who know God and are known by God. They have received the gift of not having their lives given to temporal. Worldly things. The beloved man and the beloved woman is not worn down by the anxieties of this world because we're not working towards the same ends as the natural person. We have an eternal rest secured by Jesus. Listen to Jesus' own words in describing this rest from Matthew chapter 11. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke. He's not talking about yolks like eggs. He's talking about yoke, like a yoke of oxen, like a burden that has been given, a heavy weight that has been given for a beast of burden to pull or to carry. He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am not a taskmaster. He says, I am gentle and I'm lowly in heart. That means his concern is for you.

28:09And you will find rest for what? For your body? At some point, look at what Jesus is concerned with. He says, you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Church, it should not be that we are anxious for eternity. It should not be that we allow the worries and the cares and the concerns of this world to overwhelm us for our security and our rest is grounded in the finished work of Jesus Christ. He has for us an eternal rest that he has gone before us to prepare, that he has promised all of those that are in Christ Jesus. Regardless of how hard you work, find your rest in Christ.

29:13And finally, verses 3 through 5, we see that we depend on God for our legacy. We depend on God for our legacy. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. How can we demonstrate that we trust and we depend upon our Lord for all these things that we have now, our establishment, our protection, our rest?

29:59By depending on our Lord, our On him for our future. He says that children are a heritage. Literally, that is an inheritance. They're a blessing. They're a gift. They're not something that can be earned. And so, therefore, they're not something that we should necessarily be prideful for. They're not necessarily something that we should say, hey, look at me and look at what I have. Look at what I've earned. They are a gift. They're a gift. They're given by the Lord. They aren't earned by our own merit. They're not deserved because parents somehow are better than those that do not have children. You miss completely the heart and character of our Lord. They're a gift.

30:49He says that they're like arrows in the hand of a warrior and are the children of one's youth. Now, oftentimes, we think of this verse and we're like, yeah, that's awesome. I used to use it all the time as an illustration of, hey, think about this. God's giving you these children so that you can fill up your quiver and you can take that arrow out and you can shoot that arrow wherever it lands. That's where the Lord is going to use your child. That's how you scare parents and you call people to missions. Amen, right?

31:24But I think Solomon actually has a more visceral understanding. It's something that's closer to where his hearers would live. It's a simpler understanding and illustration, actually. We think about arrows, we think about protection. We got protection. That the young people are supposed to take care of the older folks. I'm not going to define what older means, by the way. Amen? Because I'm wiser than that. But the truth of the matter is, this is something we see over and over and over again in the word of the Lord. Children are to protect and to provide for their parents and parents' period in old age. It's a tangible way to honor the fifth commandment, to honor thy father and mother. Is it important to continue keeping the fifth commandment, by the way? To continue honoring our parents? Well, Jesus thinks so. In Mark chapter 7, verses 9 through 13, listen to this just stinging condemnation that he brings down upon the Pharisees. And he said to them, talking about the Pharisees, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, the fifth commandment, amen? And whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. God's serious about this.

32:50Think about that, by the way, whenever your kids, Smart Alec, talk to you, right, in public or otherwise. Think about it. They deserve death. Amen. It's God's word, not mine. But you say, listen, he's talking to the Pharisees. He says, but you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is kraban, that is given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do. What is Jesus talking about? He's talking about a wicked and evil practice of this time period where Pharisees would walk around and in their discipleship of the people and their, quote, shepherding of the people of Israel, they would tell people, they would convict people, they would condemn them for not doing what they told them to do, and that is to give everything they have to the temple or to give everything they have to the religious leaders of Israel. And if someone were to come back and say, yeah, but I'm supposed to take care of mom and dad, and I have a certain amount of this inheritance that's supposed to go to keeping and taking care of mom and dad, the Pharisees would turn back and say, ah, yes, but that is kraban. That is given to the Lord.

34:25That belongs to the Lord, i.e., that belongs to the temple, i.e., That belongs to me. And he would guilt them. They would guilt them, the people of God, into not taking care of their parents. And instead saying, well, this belongs to the Lord. And the Pharisees were the worst at this. I can't take care of my family. I can't take care of my mom, and I don't need to because I am so holy. This money real, it's reserved for the Lord. Jesus says, that's a tradition that you made up. That's not my word. That is your own rebellion against the word of God. That is your own iniquity speaking against the fifth commandment straight from the mouth of God or the hand of God written on those tablets.

35:18Jesus condemned the Pharisees in their neglect and their exploitation of their parents. Children, we need to look after our parents. Amen. We need to take care of them. They were there for us when we couldn't take care of ourselves. We need to be there for them when they need us. Some of you have walked through that. You've walked through that in the suffering of a parent. You were there with them. Maybe your parents have passed away and gone to be with the Lord, and you are there with them. Bless you.

35:56Bless you for walking with your parents. For taking care of them, for ministering to them. What about for those of us that are childless? Well, whether you're married or you're single, verses 3 through 5, they speak to us. They speak to all of us. Think about this. Remember Deuteronomy chapter 6, and this is what's a really famous text. It's the Shema, it's the call of Israel to worship the Lord and the Lord alone. The Shema is still recited in synagogues. So yesterday in the Sabbath, when the Jewish people were getting together in their temples and in their synagogues, they were reciting Deuteronomy chapter 6.

36:43Listen, as the nation of Israel is gathered on the plains of Moab, and they're getting ready to go to take the land that God has promised them on the other side of the Jordan River, Moses gathers all the people together and he teaches them what? The commandments of the Lord. He teaches them the word. What's the most important thing that Israel needs as they cross over into that promised land? They need the word of the Lord. They need to remember God's promises. They need to remember God's covenant. They need to remember those things because that's where we understand and know God's character. That's how we know Him. We know Him through His Word. So He gathers the people. Them all together and listen to what he says. He says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

38:08Moses commands them that you're to be teaching continually all through life as people get up in the morning, as they go along their day, and as their heads hit the pillow at night, they are to be constantly discipled. They're to be constantly poured into with the Word of God. But I want you to notice something. He doesn't say, hear, O parents. He doesn't say, hear, O grandparents. He says, hear, O Israel, hear, O people of God. We all have quivers to fill with arrows. Just as Paul called Timothy his spiritual son, we all have spiritual children. God wants to bring to himself through us in the church. Amen? All of us.

39:00We all need to depend on him to create a spiritual family tree. As Tommy Nelson would say, pastor at Denton Bible Church, long time pastor, when someone would come to ask him, some young man would come and say, I feel like God's calling me to the ministry. Tommy would turn right back to him. The first thing he would say, I know this because he said this to me in New Bronfels, Texas, when I told him I was sensing a call to the ministry, and it humbled me. This is what he said. He said, Great!

39:31Show me your guys. What did he mean by that? I was 22. What guys? What are you talking about? I don't have any guys. I'm not married. I don't have any children. What he meant was this. He would explain this. He said, You should be replicating, reproducing yourself and other people. Who are you pouring into? Show me your spiritual family tree. Amen? He's like, Show me your arrows. Show me that your quiver has arrows in it. And then we can start from there in determining whether or not you're called to the ministry. Amen? Guys, all of us have that. All of us have a quiver that needs to be filled with arrows. We have a church that is full of college students, that's full of youth, that's full of children that need not only their parents to pour into them, but guys, They need older brothers and sisters in Christ to pour into them as well. Titus 2 could not be more clear that the older men would teach the younger men, that the older women would teach the younger women. We're all called to fill our quiver. Amen?

40:50He says there at the end that if our quiver is full of arrows, then we won't be in shame. We won't be put to shame when we speak to the enemies at the gate. What does that mean? Well, the attack of the city often begins at the gate. So to not be put to shame means that it's not just you who is speaking words of war with the enemies. In other words, like this is where it begins. You have the armies that would kind of come, or the attack would come, and they would stop. Have you ever seen Braveheart, right? You see Mel Gibson riding on a horse and he's shouting insults and he's getting the Scots to do a whole lot of other terrible things to insult the British or the English.

41:38This is what would happen. They would speak. They would sort of, think about like in David and Goliath, right? That there was trash talking that was going on between David and Goliath. This is what he means by at the gate of the city when the attack comes. If you don't have anybody with you, You're going to kind of be put to shame. The enemy is not going to be afraid of you, amen? Because he's going to look at you and say, Well, where are your people?

42:10Where's your family tree? Where's your quiver full of arrows? No. When we go to do war with the real enemy, Satan and his values, the prince of the air, the values of this world, when we go to do war with the enemy, we need to go to war with a quiver full. We need to go to war with people we've invested in, amen? That we've given our lives to, that we've poured into. That's the legacy that we want and desire.

42:50A spiritual legacy that will have no end. Stacey and I lived in North Carolina for three years when I was at Southeastern. And North Carolina, South Carolina, that area is really known for the textile business. So we like to grow the cotton in other places in the South, like here in Texas and in the river bottoms, like the Brazos River bottom. But that cotton is useless if it just stays as a ball of cotton. It's got to go someplace to get processed and made into fruit of the loom. Amen? Right? Whatever it is.

43:26And that's what would happen in these factories in North Carolina. In South Carolina, until we figured out that people would do it cheaper in other places, but that's another story for another time. But textile industry is a big part of the heritage of that part of the country. And while we were there, I heard this story about a sign that was seen in a textile mill that said, When your thread becomes tangled, call the foreman. Now, a young woman was new on her job, and her thread became tangled, and she thought, Well, I'll just straighten this out myself. And she tried, but the situation only worsened, and there were more knots and more tangles. And finally, she called the foreman and she said, I did the best I could.

44:11And the foreman looked back at her and said, This, No, you didn't. To do the best, you should have called me. To do the best, you should have called me. One day, we're all going to have to give an account for our toil, for our work. We're going to have to give an account for our building, for our establishment. We're going to have to give an account for who we're really trusting for our protection. We're going to have to give an account for how we used our rest. We're going to have to give an account for our legacy, for our spiritual family tree.

44:49And in that day, when God calls us to account, I did my best is not good enough. And it never is. And it never will be. No. What God desires is that we are dependent upon him. That we are trusting not in our own energies, that we're trusting not in our own intellect, that we're trusting not in our own skill, not in our own power, not in our own might, but that we are trusting in God and God alone.

45:31This morning, if you are placing your trust for your eternity in anything but the finished work of Jesus Christ, you are placing your trust in the wrong place. And I urge you this morning to place your trust in Jesus. Church, may we depend on God for all things. This day, may we make our declaration of dependence. Amen. Let's pray. Father. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.