Stop Working for the Weekend!

[0:00] The following message is given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.! For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com.

[0:13] This is the Word of God. Preacher says, Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness.

[0:25] In the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.

[0:41] I said in my heart, with regard to the children of man, that God is testing them, that they might see that they themselves are but beast. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beast is the same.

[1:01] As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beast, for all is vanity.

[1:15] All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward, and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth.

[1:31] So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?

[1:46] Again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and there is no one to comfort them. On the side of the oppressors, there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.

[2:00] And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

[2:17] Then I saw that all toil and all skill and work come from man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

[2:32] The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and striving after wind.

[2:48] Grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of God abides forever. Philosopher Peter Kreeft says, Ecclesiastes is the greatest of all books of philosophy.

[3:01] I don't know what you think about, but when I think about the word philosophy, often I think about old men in flowing robes pondering existence and the meaning of life.

[3:13] Or perhaps think about modern day academics questioning the beginning and the meaning of life. Why is there something instead of nothing? Did the universe big bang into existence or did we evolve from some lesser life form?

[3:28] Perhaps a more perplexing question, did Adam have a belly button? You'll get that later. When you hear the word philosophy, you and I, we often think of discussions and deliberations detached from reality, right?

[3:44] We think about questions that don't really matter on how we do life. But in Ecclesiastes, we encounter a very different form of philosophy.

[3:55] It is definitely philosophy. Because what he's been talking about in the last three chapters is the meaning of life. Is there meaning of life? Is there purpose in life? But Solomon is not writing for academics.

[4:08] He's not writing for those who live in ivory towers, those who love to read. Solomon is writing for folks like you and me. And Solomon is not asking theoretical questions.

[4:22] Solomon is asking questions about how to live life under the sun. He's asking questions, trying to make sense of this world that has gone sideways.

[4:35] And it's no more, maybe no more true than what we find in our passage this morning. This morning, after telling us last week as we studied that there's a time for everything. Time for peace, time for war, you know, all these different things.

[4:49] He shifts now from a discussion of time to a discussion of place. Time, as we have seen, is fundamental to life. We live in a world dominated by time.

[5:03] God is not dominated by time. He's the eternal God. He exists outside of time, which is crazy. But we live in a world dominated by time.

[5:13] Time ticks and talks. Time starts and stops. It just keeps going. It just comes and goes and never stops. Times and seasons. But we also live in a world dominated by place.

[5:29] Time and place. Craig Bartholomew says, time and place are the two great coordinates of created life. And in verse 16, the focus moves from time to place.

[5:41] We see the emphasis on place twice in verse 16 in the place of justice. Again, in verse 20, when he says, all go to one place.

[5:53] And then we see it in this repeated emphasis in work. And what we do in this place, in this work in verse 17, 22 and 4. For Solomon is helping us see, God does not just give us a time to live this life.

[6:06] God gives us a place in which to live this life. We live in times and seasons that God gives. But we also live in places where God appoints.

[6:18] Why do you live in Athens, Tennessee or McMinn County or in East Tennessee? Why don't you live in Korea or in India or South America or California? Perhaps it's because you moved here.

[6:30] Perhaps it's because your parents moved here. Your great grandparents or grandparents, whatever. Perhaps someone in your family moved here, established roots here to find freedom or something else. Perhaps so.

[6:41] But Solomon says, this in fact is a place assigned to you. This is where you're meant to be. This is a place assigned for you to live life under the sun.

[6:53] But not only that, in times God gives and places God assigns, God sets out work for us to do all the days of our life. A big part of living wisely is understanding time and place and its relationship to work.

[7:08] So in a word, where we're going, pretty simple main point. God has given you a place to be and work to do every day unto Him. God has given you a place to be and work to do every day unto Him.

[7:21] I'm going to break this out as we do normally in three points. The first one is work joyfully in spite of injustice. Work joyfully in spite of injustice.

[7:33] You know, sometimes we think if God's given us a place to do it, if we're in the center of the will of God, then everything's going to go easy. Solomon says, not so fast. Even though God gives a place to be and work to do, it's not always easy.

[7:47] Life under the sun is broken. It's deranged. It's sideways. And we see its brokenness wherever we have placed us. He begins in verse 16. Moreover, that's the word meant to connect and kind of bridge a gap between what he's about to say and what he's just said.

[8:04] So there's a time for everything. But we need to see what this time and what this everything might include. And so he continues. Everyone should rejoice in his time and place and in his work because it's God's gift to him.

[8:19] But what do we do when that place includes injustice? Look at verse 16. I saw in the sun, in the place of justice there is wickedness. In the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.

[8:33] Those clauses obviously parallel one another. In the place of justice there's wickedness. In the place of righteousness there's wickedness. The place of justice is where the innocent are supposed to be cleared of wrongdoing.

[8:48] Where the guilty are supposed to be punished. But Solomon says it's not always so. Now in Israel, the place of justice would have been the city gates where the elders gathered to deliberate and decide on the matters affecting the community.

[9:03] Just as we saw all throughout the Old Testament. And Solomon says it's precisely there that there's injustice. But if Solomon was walking through our world, he would find the same thing.

[9:16] The innocent are not always cleared of wrongdoing. The guilty are not always punished. Evil is not always punished. Good is not always praised. Righteousness is not always rewarded.

[9:28] And to clarify, Solomon's complaint is not just that the wheels of justice sometimes go awry.

[9:40] He's not just complaining that sometimes they deliver the wrong verdict. You know, there's tons of shows on TV where, you know, you're solving a crime that was solved wrongly before.

[9:52] You know, an innocent person is behind jail, behind bars. We love those types of things, a podcast, things like that, about that. But that's not what Solomon's talking about. Merely.

[10:03] He is talking about that. But he's also saying the place of justice is polluted by people who deliberately protect their own interests and fail to protect the weak, the vulnerable, and the poor.

[10:16] So Solomon is not just complaining that injustice is being done. He's complaining that because wickedness occupies the place of justice, injustice cannot be corrected. The place of justice are where laws against injustice are to be established.

[10:33] But when the place of justice establishes laws protecting injustice, there's no way for injustice to be protected. I don't know if you follow that. But, you know, we strive to avoid political speech here.

[10:49] But I cannot help but imagine what Solomon would say to this culture. In a culture that rightly talks about the need to protect victims, the most vulnerable in our society, the ones most in need of protection, the unborn, are stripped of protection by law.

[11:05] That's what Solomon's talking about. When the ones who wear the robes are the ones who establish injustice with law.

[11:19] So too in our land, in the place of justice, there's weakness. What are we to do? Solomon continues and reminds us that God will judge the righteous and the wicked.

[11:31] Look in verse 17. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked. There's a time for every matter and for every work. There's a time for the judgment of God, he says. There's a day coming and a day set when all will appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

[11:47] We know even more clearly than Solomon did. So that each will receive what is his due for what he's done in the body, whether good or evil. You know, Hebrews 9 says, it's pointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment.

[12:06] As we've sang already, the only freedom to stand before the judgment of God is to shed blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. But if we're thinking, but what does judgment have to do with every day?

[12:27] When is this judgment day? When will God sort all these things out? When will God make all these things right? We don't know.

[12:39] Jesus says, even I don't know. And that is by God's design as well. Solomon says, God is testing us and teaching us that we are but beasts.

[12:50] And so that's a kind of tricky thing. What does he mean by that? That we're supposed to relate with animals and cats and dogs in a really important way. In some ways, yes, Solomon, though, is not commenting on our biology.

[13:01] Solomon knows that we're creating the image of God and so unlike every creature of the earth. But Solomon is commenting on the reality that like animals, we all will die.

[13:12] Look at verse 19. For what happens to children of man and what happens to the beast is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath. Man has no advantage over beef.

[13:24] He has no advantage when it comes to death. Sometimes I'll run around Athens and you run by so many creatures dead. It's a good reminder.

[13:35] All is vanity. Verse 20. All go to one place. All are from dust and to dust. All return. Now, Proverbs 9.11 says, by wisdom your days will be multiplied and your years will be added to your life.

[13:48] But Solomon says, not so fast. Solomon says, living wisely may not lead to long life. May not lead to a successful life.

[14:00] May not lead to a prosperous life. You may fear God and die young. You may go to church every week and lose your spouse. You may pray your way through cancer only to have it rear its ugly head again.

[14:15] Because of the curse against Adam's sin, ashes to dust. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. We're all going to die and there's nothing we can do to avoid it.

[14:26] And it's right here that we could be tempted to say life is meaningless. This is all some silly game.

[14:38] What really matters if we don't, if the way we live doesn't help us live longer? What really matters if we could die at any moment? It's right here that people throw in the towel on life.

[14:51] Many begin to despair of anything good happening in life. Many begin to hate life as Solomon did in chapter 2. But if we respond in despair or hatred or fear, then we fail to learn from the test.

[15:05] We fail to understand that we're but dust. And Solomon says the test is actually meant to teach us something surprisingly different. Look at verse 22.

[15:17] He says, So, that's a therefore, in conclusion, I saw that there's nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot.

[15:31] Nothing better. If all are going to die, if we have no advantage over the beast in that respect, there's nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot.

[15:45] Lot. Lot is not a word we use often, but have you ever had to draw straws? Perhaps mom was dividing up chores in the house, and there's kind of some unfavorite chores, and so you had to draw straws on who landed on what chore.

[15:59] A lot is like a straw that you would draw out when making decisions. The lot we draw determines what we receive. Solomon is saying, Your life is like that.

[16:12] Your life is like a straw. That you've drawn. It's the hand you've been dealt. Your life is not yours to decide what to do with it. Your life is God's gift.

[16:26] Now, obviously, that means your life, your lot, comes with real limitation. You can't, despite what, you know, commencement speakers may say, you cannot be whoever you want to be. You cannot do whatever you want to do.

[16:43] Your life is limited by what God has assigned. So that's sobering. But your life also comes with, so it's limited, but it also comes with unrepeatable opportunities.

[17:00] No one will ever have the same influences, experiences, and opportunities as you do. No one will ever be put in the same scenarios and given the same chances to do good as you do.

[17:15] Your life is completely unrepeatable. So it's wonderfully confined in some limitations, but it's also wonderfully unique. And with incredible opportunities to serve the Lord.

[17:30] You know, and a large part of the opportunities you will receive comes from your parents and from your fathers. So call them today if they're not with us and tell them, Happy Father's Day.

[17:41] Thank you for bringing me into this world. One of the major opportunities your lot includes is work and toil. It includes things for you to do, unique ways for you to love and serve your neighbor, to do good to everyone.

[17:56] Solomon is saying this is the test that is meant to teach us. Though we're all going to die, right now God has given us a place to be and a few things to do.

[18:09] One of my favorite songs the past several years captures this very well. It's not a Christian contemporary song. But it captures this reality of living with the awareness that one day you'll die, and yet trying to seize the opportunity it brings.

[18:25] So let me show you these lyrics. This is Jason Isbell. He says, it's not, so he's talking about his wife. It's not the long flowing dress that you're in, or the light coming off of your skin, the fragile heart you protected for so long, or the mercy in your sense of right and wrong.

[18:50] It's not the way you talk me off the roof. Your questions like directions to the truth. So that's the first verse. In the chorus, he says, it's knowing, I'm tempted to sing this right now, I'm not going to.

[19:03] It's knowing that this can't go on forever. Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone. Maybe we'll get 40 years together, but one day I'll be gone.

[19:18] Or one day you'll be gone. He continues, maybe time running out is a gift. I'll work hard till the end of my shift.

[19:32] Give you every second I can find, and hope it isn't me left behind. Definitely sing that one to the lady. But it captures it so well, doesn't it?

[19:42] It's the reality that life is passing so quickly that presses us to work hard, as he says, to the end of our shift.

[20:02] Time running out is a gift. So if we're all going to die, there's nothing better, nothing better than rejoicing in our lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, rejoicing in the life and the work that God has given.

[20:18] That's the point. You know, he's saying there's nothing better than, not merely receiving our lot. You know, sometimes receiving our lot, we might think that's enough, but what he's saying, there's nothing better than rejoicing in it, receiving it as the gift of God, Solomon says, chapter 2, and receiving it as a gift that we rejoice in.

[20:37] So work joyfully in spite of injustice, in spite of the fact that this life will soon end. Verse 2, or point 2, work patiently in spite of evil.

[20:48] Sadly, this world is not just filled with injustice, it's filled with just all-out evil. Life under the sun is filled with abuse, suppression, slavery, cruelty, and all kinds of evil.

[21:06] Look at verse 1, he said, Now he's not saying comfort the powerful there.

[21:22] No one to stop them, essentially. Solomon said there's no way to comfort them. He's not saying there was no one around to say nice words, you know. No one around to send a hallmark card. That's not what he's talking about.

[21:33] He's saying there was no one around to give true comfort. There's no one around to intervene, to stop. It's a dark world. And Solomon wants us to live with our eyes open.

[21:47] Sometimes the attackers are dictators, snuffing out the lives of the poor, the weak, and the ones of the wrong race. Sometimes the attackers are sexual predators, prowling around for someone to devour.

[22:00] Sometimes the attackers are doctors. who pledge to protect life but work to destroy life. Abortion clinics and clinics offering lethal ejections for those who no longer want to live.

[22:13] Sometimes the attackers are unknown individuals who commit random acts of evil and snatch away the hopes and dreams and expectations of loved ones. Sometimes the attackers, though, are members of our own family.

[22:28] The ones placed in our lives to love and protect us. I grew up in South Carolina. I was 14 years old. This little town in South Carolina called Union immediately hit the news.

[22:45] Nationwide notoriety because of the dealings of a woman named Susan Smith. She accused a black man of kidnapping her children in a carjacking and killing them.

[22:59] After an investigation and a long trial that we talked about in my sixth grade class, it was found out that Miss Smith drowned her three-year-old and 14-month-old in her car in a nearby lake.

[23:15] Not only did Miss Smith fail to wipe her children's tears, she silenced their cries forever. But we all know you don't have to do that to fail in love and protect your children.

[23:34] All you have to do is work too much. All you have to do is neglect them. All you have to do is emotionally disengage from them and criticize them or silence them. All you have to do is just provide a place for them to eat and to sleep.

[23:51] What do we do in a world with so much evil? How do we face it down? Solomon says, If this world is all there is, the dead are more fortunate.

[24:05] Better is the one who has not been born than the rest of us. Now that's so funny. He just said, There's nothing better than rejoicing in your lot. Now he says, Better not be born.

[24:19] I don't think we're going to completely untie the knot there. But what about for those who have been born already? Wonderfully, those of us who know the Lord find comfort in Him.

[24:33] I remember reading the story about a woman who was repeatedly mistreated by her father and she was bitter and angry. She hated her life. Then in her mid-twenties, she came to faith in Jesus Christ.

[24:48] He comforted her. Even though her life was marred, by mounting agonies, it formed the backdrop for the God of all comfort to meet her and comfort her.

[25:04] But you know, I want to ask Solomon, is this all? Did we just pray to the Lord for comfort and wait for Him to bring judgment?

[25:15] Is that what it is? Is a Christian life then like a retreat to the sidelines life where you just kind of pray for her to be nursed up on the sidelines and pray for God to intervene and change the game?

[25:27] Is that the Christian? Is that our play now in this evil, wicked world? Is that all there is? I don't think it is. I think, even though he doesn't finish this thought right here, we're called to still rejoice in our lot.

[25:40] We're still called to live in the place that God has given and do the work that God has assigned. And so what I want to say is work patiently in spite of evil. Patiently do good in spite of the evil of this world.

[25:57] Continue to sow seeds when the tears fall. When the tears well up over the evil of this world or the dark clouds of addiction or the headache of loneliness, work patiently.

[26:10] Don't give up. John Piper says these incredible words. Occasionally, weep deeply over the life you hoped would be.

[26:23] If you're not willing to admit that your life is not all you'd hoped it would be, I don't know if I can help you. Grieve the losses.

[26:35] Then wash your face. Trust God. And embrace the life you have. Reminds me of that popular book. Girl, wash your face, you know, or whatever that book is. That's what I always think when I see the cover.

[26:48] This is not talking about that. This is talking about a resiliency that only the Lord can give.

[27:01] I must say, as I've gotten older, the joys have increased, but the sorrows have too. And they cut deep. So continue to sow seeds when the tears fall.

[27:13] Continue to sow seeds when the wicked prevail. We're living in challenging times. It's Pride Month. A month which applauds our culture's assault on God's created order and design for family relations and family stability, social stability.

[27:30] It's a time when our culture calls us to call something good that God has called evil. Carl Truman has said, Pride Month is something with which no Christian should have any sympathy whatsoever.

[27:42] I believe that with all my heart. Now, I do not mean we should not reach out to people under the sway of these pervasive and destructive ideas. We can. We should.

[27:53] I mean, we cannot fly their flag or join their cause in the slightest. But what do we do in response, though? So in this wicked world that calls evil things good, what do we do in response?

[28:05] Do we throw all our hopes in politics? Do we just kind of get behind the right man who's going to bring order back? Do we run away from this world?

[28:16] Do we buy a farm and run away? No slight on people that own a farm. Do we build another city on a hill? It worked for America for a little while, so let's build another one.

[28:26] I don't think any of those things are what we're called to do. Right now, I'm reading a very fascinating book called The Patient Ferment of the Early Church. Even the title is fascinating. During the first 300 years of the early church, the church was out of power and routinely kicked and killed by wicked rulers.

[28:46] And the virtue written about more than any other virtue in the first 300 years, you know what it was? Patience. Patience.

[29:01] Alan Crider, the author, says, the Christians believe that God is patient and that Jesus visibly embodied patience on the cross, many other places. And they concluded that they, trusting in God, should be patient, not controlling events, not anxious or in a hurry, and never using force to achieve their ends.

[29:21] The early church, under the persecution of Nero, Domitian, Decius, the early church did not talk of revolution. They did not talk of politics.

[29:34] They did not even talk about injustice. They talked about patience. They must have read the New Testament. The kingdom of God does not come in political power. The kingdom of God comes in seed form.

[29:45] And so, keep sowing the seeds of patience. We're not freaking out right now. We're hunkering down and walking patiently and quietly unto the Lord.

[29:58] So, keep working. Go back to the job. Work patiently in spite of evil. And fathers, I think this is a wonderful word for us. Even though this world is evil, even though you may be frustrated by the headlines, even though you may be annoyed by so many things outside your control, keep your eyes focused at home.

[30:18] Don't miss the forest for the trees. John Tyson says, keep sowing seeds.

[30:31] Sow seeds of encouragement instead of criticism. Sow seeds of attention. Put your phone down. Sow seeds of morality. Model integrity in the small things.

[30:43] Sow seeds of discipline. Let your kids see you restrain yourself. Sow seeds of courage. Confront the things they know you hate. Sow seeds of servanthood.

[30:54] Do the overlooked stuff without fanfare. Sow seeds of a godly marriage. Be affectionate with your wife in front of your kids.

[31:07] So, work patiently in spite of evil. Thirdly, work restfully in spite of envy and striving.

[31:18] Work restfully in spite of envy and striving. Sadly, the world is not just filled with injustice and evil. It's filled with envy and striving.

[31:30] Look in verse 4. Then I saw all toil and all skill and work was from man's envy. All toil, all skill and work comes from envy.

[31:43] All skill, all striving and work comes from wanting what others have. Proverbs says, Envy makes the bones rot. One author captures the feeling of envy very well.

[31:57] Whenever my friend succeeds, something in me dies. You ever had that feeling? I really don't want them to get that sale.

[32:10] I want them to get that new job. How much of our work and labor and striving is driven by envy? By the craving to have what others have.

[32:22] To have a certain house, a certain body shape, a certain number of dead animals mounted on the wall. It can be anything, but Solomon says, all of it's vanity.

[32:34] You can taste the most things. All of it's striving after. All of it's unproductive. All of it never pays off, never pays down, never pays out.

[32:47] It's chasing the wind. Now, if envy drives all work and toil and striving and work, then maybe we should embrace a life of ease.

[32:58] Let the good times roll. Right? Sit back, relax. But Solomon says, not working is not the way to joy either. Look at verse 5.

[33:08] He says, the fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Now, that's a bit intense. But he folds his hand. The idea is he stops working. He's not literally saying he eats his own flesh.

[33:23] He's saying he stops working and he destroys himself. He's saying that when you pursue a life of ease and leisure, you destroy yourself. If you live for the weekend, for the tailgate, for the party, the only person you ruin is yourself.

[33:39] Sometimes when I return home to South Carolina, go by and see friends, encounter old friends, still play in the same old games. One of my friends calls these guys, they call a man child.

[33:53] A man child. Now, that's a little critical, but accurate. Are you a man child? Really?

[34:06] Are you? Do you shirk responsibility? You fold your hands too much? Are you too into tailgating?

[34:18] Are you living for the weekend? Not working is not the way to joy. It's the way to self-destruction.

[34:28] But also, he flips to the other side. Working too much is not the way either. Which is very sobering. Look in verse 6. He says, Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and striving after the wind.

[34:43] So, there's a contrast between one handful of quietness and two hands full of toil and striving. Two hands full of toil and striving is a life dominated by too much work. By working too hard.

[34:56] By striving too much. It's pointless. It doesn't pay off. It's striving after the wind. That Solomon would ask us, if we were here, Do you really need to work as much as you do? Do you really need that extra shift?

[35:09] Is more money really what is best for your soul, your family, your neighbor? Remember, he's saying, One handful of quietness is better. I think what he means is, One handful of work along with a handful of quietness.

[35:24] So, work with restfulness. Solomon, in so doing, Solomon is shifting our focus back to our lot. on the time and place and opportunities God has uniquely given us.

[35:39] We cannot rejoice in what God has given if our hands are always working. We cannot rejoice in what God has given if we're always striving.

[35:50] We need quietness. We need rest. We need to receive and rejoice in what God has given.

[36:04] Jeremiah Burroughs says, A Christian comes to contentment not so much by way of addition as by way of subtraction. Not by adding more to his condition, but by subtracting from his desires so as to make his desires and his circumstances even and equal.

[36:25] Now, if you'll take that one with you, that'll get some work done. We have to learn to rest.

[36:38] So, in conclusion, God has given you a place to be and work to do every day unto him. God has given you a place to be and work to do every day unto him.

[36:50] Amen. But why has God left the world like this? Why has he called us to live and work in a world so filled with injustice, evil, and obsessive striving?

[37:10] Why has he promised a judgment day, but promise we'll never know when that day arrives? You might see a few signs.

[37:24] One of the reasons is to prepare us for the next world. I read a fascinating article a couple years ago about Haley 6.

[37:36] Haley 6 is a British Antarctic surveys research station, so it's on Antarctica. It's stationed at the bottom of the world. The previous five stations were gobbled up by ice and snow.

[37:51] So the Brits turned to a new architect. What he designed is incredible. It looks like something from Mars or from the Jetsons. It's bright blue and red.

[38:02] It rests on hydraulic skis that allow it to move across the ice. I think we have a picture. Yeah. You see the brightness and blueness. You see the skis on the bottom.

[38:14] It combines modern convenience with the attentiveness to the cold Arctic environment. Inside, which I don't have pictures for you, it includes TVs, pool tables, dartboards, a British pub, and more.

[38:29] It's so nice you could almost forget you're on a sheet of ice at the bottom of the world. But strikingly, the architect wanted it to be warm and comfortable and inviting, but he also wanted people to remember where they were.

[38:52] Many of the rooms include numerous views of the skies and surrounding, the very skies that will be dark, dark, completely dark for months of the year. And he includes what he calls numerous brief outdoor trudges from one building to the other.

[39:12] Between the separate parts of the station, to see the sheets of ice in the mounting snow, to feel the gust of wind and freezing cold, to remember that they're not in Britain.

[39:26] our lives are like that, I think. God's given us many gifts. God's given us family and friends and many good things to do, but God calls us to devote ourselves to our lot in a world broken by injustice and evil so that we do not forget where we are.

[39:45] We're not in Eden. We're definitely not in heaven. So we don't get too comfortable so that we remember we're a stranger, an alien.

[39:57] When it comes to citizenship language, we should more identify with a stranger and alien than a citizen because our citizenship is not here. Our citizenship is in heaven.

[40:10] And so we are aware stranger and alien. And it's here that we see more clearly than Solomon. We see wonderfully God has given us a time and a place that this is our lot, this is the hand we've been dealt.

[40:23] God has given us wonderful things to do and to work unto him all the days of our life, but wonderfully even more than that, God is preparing us for another place.

[40:34] Indeed, God is preparing another place for us. Here, we will never feel at home, but one day we will finally arrive home. So some of what this lot is meant to do is to keep us in tension because we're passing through this world to the next.

[40:52] From this world that is fading fast to the next one will never fade. C.S. Lewis, I'll conclude with this, says, if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

[41:14] That's an amazing sentence, isn't it? I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country which I shall not find till after death.

[41:25] I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside. I must make it the main object of my life to press on to that other country and help others do the same.

[41:38] Thank God bless us. Father in heaven, we cry out to you. We hear about injustice and evil and our hearts break again and again.

[41:49] We read the headlines that just barrage us with the evil in this world. We pray, come Lord Jesus. Demonstrate the comfort that only you can give to stop and intervene.

[42:03] We pray, come Lord Jesus, come quickly, come soon. bring all things under your sway and under your obvious visible reign. But Lord, while we're here in the body, we make it our aim to please the Lord.

[42:18] We want to work under you, God. We thank you for the opportunities you've given us, the people you've placed in our lives, the experiences you've given us, the chances to do good and to serve and to love.

[42:34] We pray that we would not be so worldly minded that we fail to be good at home. We fail to live domestic lives in the church, in the family, in the community, loving those who are close, loving our neighbors.

[42:58] Help us. May the reputation of this church not be one that's political, one that's spiritual. A group of people bent on loving people into the next world.

[43:16] Help us, God, we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen. You've been listening to a message given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.

[43:28] For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at trinitygraceathens.com.