Remember your creator

[0:00] taking bold steps for God. And now we come to perhaps a passage that's fairly well known to it's certainly the verse remember your creator in the days of your youth is well known but let's read this together and then I'll show you a video which you've seen before but I'll show you again.

[0:18] So Ecclesiastes chapter 11 reading from verse 7 the teacher whether it's Solomon or whoever we don't know says light is sweet and it pleases the eyes to see the sun however many years anyone may live let them enjoy them all but let them remember the days of darkness for there will be many everything to come is meaningless you who are young be happy while you are young and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment so then banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body for youth and vigor are meaningless remember your creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say I find no pleasure in them before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark and the clouds return after the rain when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men stoop when the grinders cease because they are few and those looking through the windows grow dim when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades when people rise up at the sound of birds but all their songs grow faint when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the street when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire no longer is stirred then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets remember him before the silver cord is severed and the golden bowl is broken before the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel broken at the well and the dust returns to the ground it came from and the spirit returns to God who gave it meaningless meaningless says the teacher everything is meaningless we'll end our reading at the end of verse 8 and we'll look at the text of this we will dissect the text of the passage we've looked at i try to do that in all my sermons at the end of the day it's the word of God we we want to hear isn't it more than the words of a preacher but let's just once again just ask for the Lord's help to understand his word father we come before you now with your word open before us we pray father you would speak to us now as individuals and as a congregation in Jesus name amen if you go into google and uh and you type the word youth this is the image that that comes up it's the very first image and i like this image it's it sounds uh shows everything that there is about youth uh i'm sure if you've ever tried to take one of those photographs my girls try to get you let's do these jumpy things uh and depending on the age you're all going up in different installments it's kind of yeah i'm just about ready to launch here if you can give us a couple of minutes and uh and even as i looked at that it must have been the guy in the far right that shouted jump because the person on the far left is just just getting the message and uh you have about 20 takes before you can get them right but that's a great image of youth just full of energy full of joy just jumping and you can probably remember yeah i remember what that was like i remember when i was carefree didn't have a care in the world and but life is different and that's very much what we're going to be looking at tonight the importance of youth how to how to live life as a young person but also really to to consider your creator while you still can although this is related to young people it's really related to anybody who at this point still have their faculties because there'll come a time when you won't have your faculties and it will then be too late so this is the lowest yet it's very much youth but it's it can be up to 56 or 70 really any time i won't really recap on what we've done just now but ecclesiastes i've enjoyed this series i must confess i've preached on this before but i've redone it uh this time and i've got more out of it this time than i did the first time and i've just enjoyed i found it a challenge and i found it reaffirming to know that life does its purpose if you're a christian if you don't everything is meaningless without christ nothing makes sense absolutely nothing even god as creator doesn't make sense he is the only person who can make sense of of sin and and bringing us back to to god and heaven and glory and all that await so we're coming to the end of the book and really uh the preacher now is beginning to pull a lot of this stuff together and he's very much now beginning to involve god he's coming to this conclusion after trying many things wine women saw him all these things uh as he saw the problems of life injustice persecution nobody defending the the weak and so forth he's he's coming back to god god is is really the reason for everything so i want to go to go through this this passage that we've looked at tonight and read tonight is basically a speech about life and death and it's basically pointing to a time in the future when life will become more and more difficult and as i said it's not just for youth but there'll come a time in everybody's life when we won't function as well mentally physically and so forth and during the times that we have all our faculties together everybody without exception needs to consider god as their creator and ultimately as their savior creator is only one part but we need to take god seriously many people live their life and have no reference to god they've heard the word god they they live and die without god and that is the most dangerous and the most foolish thing that anyone can do because we will all meet him that is for sure and jesus made that plain so let's go through this there's quite a few wee bits and bobs so if you're taking notes you'll get this so the first thing is this that that i want us to note the teacher here says remember you're young that's the first thing from verses 7 through to 10 he's he's extolling what it's like to be young to be a young person it's great to be young whenever we think of an idyllic scene or scenario we say that everything is sweetness and light if you ask me how i'm doing i say it's all sweetness and light you would think well you're obviously having a good time sweetness and light it's a wee phrase that we use when things are going well and in verse 7 that's how he begins light is sweet and it pleases the eyes to see the sun yeah already i'm looking forward to the clocks going forward and they've just gone back and they're looking forward to the sun we like that but like sweetness and light it really encourages and he begins to imply to apply this this aspect of light and sweet to the times when we were young and carefree when when everything appears light or it's bright and the whole world is before us i can remember uh when i was working and then i left one company to another one and i said i paid something into a pension i was only 25 and he says well you can take it with you just now you're only 25 you can you can you can plenty of time to build up your pension i wish i kept it now but at the time i said yeah 25 yeah give us it i'm never growing old it's it's how we all feel when you're young you you don't think of pensions you're not interested in the future your whole life lies ahead of you i think i've mentioned before just going to the graduation services of my two daughters and heriot what and seeing the fellow graduates they graduated and now they're the head of microbiology for bristles or something like that and you go oh they have and you see them all young fit sporty doing everything getting their scroll all thing made up gowned up and you think their whole world just lies ahead of them they don't know what what their life is going to be like who they're going to marry where they're going to live and so forth it's a very very exciting time young people enjoy many blessings in life they don't have the same cares that come with having adult responsibilities my daughter and her husband have just bought a house and the whole stress of mortgage is just weighing heavy you can see the cloud gathering uh up to then it was fine yeah we just watched netflix and we got for a bite to eat now they've got a mortgage and then there's a baby on the way trying not to laugh and think so well welcome to the real world uh this is this is what it's like and uh and you can see this big dark cloud you can see it in their face they've even got frown lines already you don't have the same cares when you're younger you don't need money cares rent problems anything like that your mum and dad look after you but your bodies are strong and they're getting stronger your hearts are are are full of laughter and joy and life is great and it's all about movies or whatever it is the future's full of possibilities some of us have taken many roads and we've already traveled this land quite a bit there that all the avenues are still open go up here and then go there and then do that and then take that path of life that career it's all lying ahead they're free to take risks if it doesn't quite work they can come back again and try something else most of us have no time to take risks now we are if we could just get to the end of the road we will do well they have time to go in new directions these are many of the reasons so the teacher says in verse 9 to the young be happy while you're young and i'm sure we would all agree with that let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see and that's what we would say to young folk isn't it there's nothing worse than just saying well it's hard it's doom and gloom you don't put your pressures on your kids well if you anybody they're sitting at 12 year old and you're trying to explain what a mortgage is like and it's going to be hard and doom and gloom enjoy life take easy begin to kind of enjoy yourself sad to say many young people don't always live like that there's an advert on just now which i think is quite powerful uh i think it talks about you see this wee boy maybe you've seen it with a rucksack on and he's sitting at the swimming pool and he says some young people carry more than than than really is good for them or they should and they're all swimming and he's sitting at the side of the pool with a rucksack on and then you see him moving into a club or something and the rucksack is removed and young people are like that they the teacher here will say in verse 10 banish anxiety from your heart cast off troubles for your body and your youth and vigor some people that's easier said than done isn't it it's the saddest thing and even in whister hails there will be many people maybe you know folk and they would love to enjoy and see whatever enjoy whatever their heart sees and just reach out and take it the world is their oyster for some the world is a hard hard place but this is what it should be young folks shouldn't have to be burdened by many of these things it's a time of health it's a time of vitality opportunity uh but for some it's often hindered so the teacher he is basically saying see well you're young enjoy yourself while you can enjoy yourself don't waste your energy don't waste it foolishly it's sad that so many young folk just spend all their time on their phone overweight no playing football no doing various things some folk just waste their time george bernard shaw uh that well-known quote the trouble with youth is with you it's wasted on the youth uh if only they realize i have all this energy and you could say you're fit use it for this but they waste it and so forth so the teacher's advice first of all remember you're young enjoy it while you can and uh why do you see this verse eight however many years anyone will live let them enjoy it because there's coming a time when it won't be so easy so secondly he says remember you'll get old the first five verses of chapter 12 he tells them that things won't always stay the same you won't always be young and your mind is sharp i love listening to university i watch university challenge every monday they've given up on only connect they're they're off the wall they're bonkers uh that try to get your head yeah how do you think like that but university challenge 20 year olds 20 the stuff they know like wow they know the chemical formula for all sorts of stuff and jazz music and everything wow that is impressive their minds are wee sponges they are very clever but it won't always be like this so remember you'll get old verse eight but let them remember the days of darkness for there will be many and he's very graphic now as he goes through and begins to explain what it will be like when you get old i must confess i couldn't help but laugh at some of these but we're going to go through them there'll be a time of less joy look at verse one before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you say i find no pleasure in them usually when you're young there's loads of things you enjoy fashion food clothes music and so forth and some of them are are are good but some of them you change you're maybe going to the things that you use joy and you put away those things and you don't enjoy them quite the same but some of the times you can't enjoy lucille and i were brought up in blanty our formative years i knew lucille a couple of years before we were married or courting uh so we often go through to blantyre and there's a park there and i would love to be 15 again the summer nights we used to spend 10 o'clock play football up to about three or four get your dinner head back out to 10 o'clock at night and jesus play football for about 10 hours every day in the summer for me that that's that was bliss i'd love to go back to those can you imagine if me and all my mates went with us 60 year old it would just be a joke there'd be ambulances called we paramedics you just can't do it uh things change where you don't enjoy the same thing the fact of life is this our joy in many ways can diminish as we get older so another change in part of that is darkness look at verse two before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark and the clouds return after the rain he compares old age now with a gathering storm night and day are darkened by clouds and after the rain falls storm clouds gather again that's what it says the clouds return after the rain just just what you really don't want and that's what happens when you get older when you're young there's still time for the skies to clear but when you get older it just seems to be one thing after another one ailment after another one tablet one test after another it's just just as you get rid of one cloud there's another cloud on its way that is true that is life and that is the picture that's painted here before things change and life becomes harder in other words the light of life will grow dim that's what he's basically saying here therefore the joys associated with youth won't always be the same rain clouds will come and then it will be one thing after another and then what he does from verses three to five he begins to paint this picture of an elderly person like a house a house that's in decay this is what made me laugh anyway a house that's in decay and the buildings beginning to crumble and he paints a very very vivid picture of the human body and compares it to a house so verse three talks about strength or strength he says when the keepers of the house tremble the keepers of the house most commentators say are a person's arms when they start to tremble when you're kind of you're not as steady-handed i find them i'm getting like that more and more that happened to me after surgery i noticed that just your hand trembles but various diseases the keepers of the house begin the things that your arms use to just keep everything going verse three the strong men stoop this is when your legs or your back begin to bend with age you you're not as as strong uh chris hoy stage four cancer big strong man uh made weak and he was given advice and he's done a terrific work just now encouraging men with prostate cancer or to get it checked and so forth strong men stoop even the strongest of us will eventually stoop and then he goes on to talk about your teeth of all things verse three when the grinders cease this isn't somebody with an angle grinder this is your grinders when they because they are few when you begin to lose some of your grinders and and all you're left is bumping your gums that's all you've got left with i just it is a great picture uh that one really made me laugh uh when the grinders cease when you're going boy i'm running out of teeth here i can't i'm gonna have to get my my dinner through a straw uh it's just that is that's a picture and then only that just when you think that's the last of it he looks at your eyes verse three those looking through the windows using your windows looking through the windows grow dim cataracts loss of loss of vision need for glasses laser surgery those looking through the windows you're like i can hardly see uh what's actually happening still not finished he goes to the ears verse four when the doors to the street are closed now what does this mean the doors are ears that are deaf or hard of hearing to they're closed to the hustle and bustle outside you don't know what's happening out there in the world it's as if the doors are closed and you cannot hear this is something i struggle with every wednesday if you sit up here i'm constantly going oh lord let me hear what they're saying uh sorry i missed that can you say that again your high frequencies look go when you get older and your eyesight's fading the windows are blocked up the doors are shut you really are struggling and then your appearance changes in verse five when the almond tree blossoms what does this mean almond tree blossoms in the middle of winter and at first the blossoms are a reddish color uh the almond tree but as time comes they they begin to resemble snow this is your hair turning white if if you have hair uh it would it would turn white whatever hair you've got left is turning white and that is the almond tree blossoming uh and that that is what will happen so if you're young and you've got big jet black hair it's going to change at some point either you'll lose it or it'll turn white either way and then mobility it just gets worse verse five you lose your spring it says when the grasshopper drags itself along boy that is a picture eh a grasshopper just dragging itself dear life is hard it's you're no longer springing up you're getting up in installments from the sofa or you've got one of these big springy seats that will help you that's your grasshopper that becomes your grasshopper that's the only thing that can get you back up so he paints this picture of the grasshopper dragging itself along it's the ungainly motion of the elderly and this will happen to us and then sleep look at sleep when people rise up at the sound of birds but all their songs grow faint sleep becomes very light very fitful and even the sound of a wee bird boom what was that you're awake you're as sharp as attack you don't sleep as sound my daughters when they were younger could sleep in a washing line nothing would move them you got a wee kid and you could drag the kid and its heads everywhere and it's still asleep but when you get older the slightest wee creak you're awake you that's you you're bright and bushy tailed and although it's the sound of a bird that's painted here for us that wakens us even their songs begin to grow faint and we don't hear them quite as much as we used to so here then is a as a picture of somebody growing old like a house where strength where teeth where eyes where ears where appearance where mobility and where sleep so he said to young folk remember your creator before all these things happen and it can be summed up you remember barzillai's lament when king david invited him to the palace let me remind you he says i am now 80 years old can i tell the difference between what is enjoyable and what is not can your servant taste what he eats and drinks can i still hear the sound of male and female servants why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king that sums up doesn't it i'm 80 i don't enjoy the things my faculties are not the same but it doesn't end there even fear he mentions verse 5 when people are afraid of heights and dangers in the streets the fear of falling winter is coming i don't know how many times as a pastor of a church i've had people in the church elderly folk who fell on the way to church they slid on ice and they and the catalogue of disasters uh i remember even in john mcintyre visiting him when he'd fall and he said if i was 25 i'd be back i'd be out there now i'd be back in my feet but you fall your hips down and it sets in motion a catalogue of other things afraid of heights afraid of falling being jostled it says dangers in the streets jostled in the street bones are brittle the merest stumble can can spell disaster winter's quite a fearful time for just folk getting out and about in the streets and then survival verse 5 the desire is no longer stirred what does this mean it's not all about let's do this let's do that let's go scuba diving in the seychelles let's go bungee jumping the desire is no longer there for these things it's just about survival you just think life is just hard if i can just get to the end of the week and the tablets work and everything's okay and i get the appointment when i need the appointment this is life so here is a picture of getting old true a real picture and even comical i must confess i laughed i laughed at some of these and if you can laugh then maybe it's not so bad science and medicine can only do so much they can delay it uh but or ease it but they can't solve it we we are god's creation is everything that creates decays even this building bricks and mortar decays everything on this planet will decay and it's no surprise even our bodies we will decay but we need a better hope so thirdly and lastly remember your creator this is what the teacher wants to communicate to us remember your creator in the days of your youth bono the singer with you too said this ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books it's a book about a character who wants to find out why he's alive why he was created he tries knowledge he tries wealth he tries experience he tries everything you hurry to the end of the book to find out why and it says remember your creator and in a way it's such a letdown he says but then he says yet it isn't to to remember your creator at some point in your life is the most important thing you can do to consider god to consider is this all there is when i'm beginning to slow down and decay i need to remember my creator so it says in verse six remember him remember him and he he paints a picture of death here because death will come all our way all these things will eventually lead there so he mentions a few before before these things happen look at the picture he paints they're all descriptions of death verse six before the silver cord is severed or the golden bowl is broken it's basically like a you could see a silver cord holding a bowl a light bowl or whatever it snaps the bowl smashes the light has gone out it's very very graphic and any changes in metaphor again in verse six before the picture is shattered at the spring and the wheel broken at the well here is somebody trying to draw water the the the the jug it gets smashed because the wheel gets smashed so in other words the apparatus is destroyed beyond repair the light is is wrecked smashed and so forth and he's painting a picture here of the suddenness of death that it will come this will snap this breaks and uh the light has gone out the well of life has has has died and although and this is the saddest thing although there is evidence of decay throughout your life it happens at different times i mean i'm 64 i'm older than chris hoye and he's showing signs of decay it comes to us at different times and the sad thing is is decay comes and more body begins to decay but we do not look to god and say am i right before is there a god begin to ask the big questions and when it comes it still happens very sudden before we know although we know we're not getting well and and we're getting worse than the year before it can still come very sudden and as a result of verse seven the dust returns to the ground from where it came that is our destiny remember genesis 3 by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you will return verse seven the spirit returns to god who created it he has given us a spirit your body minded spirit our body dies our mind will cave in but our spirit remains and it returns to god it is who we really are so verse five then people go to their eternal home mourners go about the street that's journey's end we've reached the end of our journey our eternal home is entered and the streets that we once feared are now filled with people mourning our death and that is the final scene here but the point here is this the teacher that says do not wait till it's too late to the cord snaps the wheel gets broken picture gets destroyed remember your creator while you can that's what i'm saying it's not just young people it's while you've got your faculties while you can think remember your creator not just recall him to mind but come to him in reverence recognize who he is how do we go about this we need to affirm that god created us there is a creator there is a god he created each one of us he gives us life and breath and everything it's amazing that people think there is no god i breathe and and i have life my it's arrogance it is pride and god could take the life in a minute you fool tonight your life is demanded of you if you're here tonight and what is this november the 10th 2024 uh the breath that you you have is down to god the life that you have if you are to see another week it will be by god's grace we need to realize that god created us and if i create something it is mine i can do with it as i wish god created us he owns us he is lord of our lives whether we acknowledge it or not but god has also made it plain that death is not the end it is appointed unto people once to die and after that to face judgment and that is why the teacher and all his advice here your young party away before all this happens he says in verse 9 but know that for all these things god will bring you into judgment however we live our life from the cradle to the grave we will be uh have to stand before god as our judge and how we used our life how we spent our time but most importantly how we have taken seriously our sin when you look back if you were 28 i'm sure you could tell me stories when you were young and say yeah i did this shamed of that glad nobody knows was in a pub did this blah blah blah shouted at my kids whatever throughout your life there have been many things you don't have to search very hard to realize that we're sinners everybody's a sinner everybody has failed to live the life that we wanted to live never mind the life that god wanted us to live and it's acknowledging that it's acknowledging that if we are to get into heaven we need a savior and in the love and grace and mercy of god to you he has provided the savior he's provided somebody to deal with your sins and the worst thing that we can do is to refuse that you're not refusing a law of god you're refusing the love of god he stands with arms outstretched and say john i love you i sent my son to die for you do you trust in me we mentioned two verses this morning john 3 16 and 36 for god so loved the world he gave his only son whoever believes in him shan't perish won't perish but have eternal life regardless of whether your bodies decay you will not perish you have eternal life if you're trusting and i mean trusting not believing demons believe but you're trusting only in the death of christ to save you but if we reject him john in that same passage says whoever believes in the son has eternal life but whoever rejects him the son will not see life for god's wrath remains on him that is what awaits those who do not take seriously god as their creator jesus is god's solutions for our sins not just the sins of youth but the sins of last week we need him to be our savior there is no one righteous not even one i wonder if you have considered your creator and taken him seriously are you right with god do you know why you're right with god do you know what your eternal house that he mentions will look like is it eternity with god or eternity without god excluded punishment and so forth it is as serious as this we need to remember our creator in the days of our youth and lastly for the believer it's only half the picture the preacher has painted for us here paul you need to go into the new testament for the complete picture the it's not just a case of the wheel snapping and the cord breaking and it's all doom and gloom paul paints another picture for us in 1 corinthians 15 for this corruption this must put on in corruption and this mortal must put on immortality in other words this body that's an old wreck of a house needs to give way to a better house a better body that is the gospel that is what we have in christ our joy is eternal oh death where is your sting oh he does where is your victory the victory is through our lord jesus christ heaven is is our destination as we wait for the lord this body does not have the final say this body will be clothed with immortality and i like the fact that one of the commentators says this as you've remembered your creator your creator will remember you as your mind grows dim and you can hardly remember where you put your socks or where you put your car keys or who your kids names are and it becomes serious know that your salvation lies not in you remembering him but in him remembering you and that is a great comfort that he remembers you day by day do you see my servant john he he repented he believed he is he is a child of mine he is trusting in in my death as his only hope of salvation and he remembers us and that is one of the most amazing thing let me quote uh reich in one of the commentators it says remember god now while you still have your wits about you remember now while you are still charting your course in life and making important decisions about what you will do with your talents remember your creator now before you forget the god who made you and made make a lot of bad decisions that you will regret later remember god now while you still have a whole lifetime to live for his glory and i want to end with psalm 71 and then we'll sing psalm 71 17 says this since my youth god you have taught me and to this day i declare your marvelous deeds even when i am old and gray do not forsake me my god till i declare your power to the next generation your mighty acts to all who are to come that should be the motto of all our life lord you've been with us throughout our youth but while i'm get old help me to praise you and to show you to the next generation that's to come i'll have this where we grandson if i'm if i'm spared to see him grow up i look forward to telling him about jesus regardless of how you might do university or who might marry or how healthy is you want your children to be saved and we need to pray pray them into the kingdom of god point them to christ remember your creator in the days of your youth let's stand and we're going to sing a song that i understand you haven't sung this before and i was surprised