WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.679 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:19.039 Please bow your heads in prayer for a moment. Father, sometimes when we come to your Word, we know 00:01:19.039 --> 00:01:23.359 we really need the help of your Holy Spirit and the help of others to understand it. Sometimes we think 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:28.400 we don't, but Father, you know the truth is we always need the help of others, and we always need 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:33.680 your help through the Holy Spirit for us to understand your Word. And so Father, as the 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:39.519 collect earlier prayed, we ask that you grant us quiet minds. And we give you thanks and praise, 00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:48.239 Father, that you desire us to know Jesus and to follow Him in the real world, the real world as it 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:55.919 really is. And so Father, we ask that you just bring home to us deeply how much Jesus loves us 00:01:55.919 --> 00:02:02.000 and cares for us and how He walks with us so that we can flourish in this world. And we ask this in 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:07.359 the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated. 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:19.599 So a couple of weeks ago, on a Friday afternoon, I had some news which was exceptionally, not exceptionally, 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:27.199 that's too strong a word. It was very, very, very disheartening. And sort of caused me a little bit 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:33.439 of a bout of depression for a period of time. It was one of those times when, and by the way, 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:37.439 this is, it's an organization I'm involved with, so you can't be thinking, oh, is this something 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:44.319 that Josiah is doing? No, it's another organization, not this church, but I'm involved in several other 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:52.800 organizations. And it was just very disheartening. I had, it had been something that I had been working 00:02:52.800 --> 00:03:00.159 on for years. It involved, it had brought forth very, very good fruit. And I discovered that it was 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:08.159 being actively undermined behind the scenes. The good work now made to look as if it wasn't good 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:13.519 work, it never existed, it wasn't good work at all. People who weren't really competent or qualified 00:03:14.079 --> 00:03:18.400 were going to move in a completely different direction. And this was being completely hidden 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:27.120 from me. And it was very hard. It was very hard to hear that. And it sort of threw me for a loop. 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:34.400 The Bible text that we're going to read today and study today, despite its oddities, is actually 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:40.080 very helpful for people who go through situations like that. When you sort of are a bit betrayed, 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:47.600 your work is denigrated. People who, you know, aren't competent get the promotions and get the 00:03:47.600 --> 00:03:55.040 praise and the applause. And it's also a text where, in a sense, if you wonder what God would say to you, 00:03:55.600 --> 00:03:59.840 like if you go to, if God all of a sudden appeared to you and you asked him, God, what on earth is going 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:06.400 on with this? The text that we're going to read actually gives us a big part of what God would say 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:13.840 to you about why that's happened in your life, why he's allowed it to happen. So let's have a look. 00:04:14.480 --> 00:04:21.040 It's a text written approximately 3,000 years ago and still read today. It's Ecclesiastes chapter 9. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:27.040 The entire chapter, we just read 12 verses, but there's 18 verses. We're going to look at all of 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:32.960 the verses. And I mean, it's probably written by Solomon. It's not for sure whether it was written by 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:39.039 Solomon. But if it wasn't Solomon, it was a Solomon-like figure or a Solomon-like thought exercise 00:04:39.039 --> 00:04:46.000 about 3,000 years. And it's still being read for its wisdom. And it's an angular wisdom. 00:04:47.359 --> 00:04:52.079 And by angular, I mean, it's not smooth. It's not polished. It's not shiny. It doesn't just 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:58.799 effortlessly fit into your life. It requires some digesting and meditating upon. But once you do that, 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:05.259 it's very, very wise and very helpful. And here's how it begins. Chapter 9, verse 1. 00:05:05.340 --> 00:05:13.300 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in 00:05:13.300 --> 00:05:22.000 the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know. Both are before him. Now just pause 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:27.060 here for a second. This is a really good example. It's very shocking. You know, love or hate, what does 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:32.139 that mean? It's one of those times where the Bible text, especially when you're reading wisdom 00:05:32.139 --> 00:05:36.519 literature like this, you need to pause and contemplate it a little bit, meditate upon it, 00:05:36.540 --> 00:05:41.180 and maybe get some help. But what it means here by love or hate, it has several different meanings. 00:05:41.300 --> 00:05:45.980 It doesn't just mean one. There's a type of a helpful way for you to think about it in different ways. 00:05:45.980 --> 00:05:54.900 One way is, if you just observe the world, and you don't have any divine revelation, you don't know 00:05:54.900 --> 00:06:00.920 about Jesus, and you just observe the world, would you conclude that God hated human beings or loved 00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:08.180 them? Now that's an interesting question, isn't it? What would you conclude just from empirical data, 00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:12.920 just by looking at the world? Does God love us or hate us? That's one way to understand what he's saying. 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:22.520 The other way to understand is this, is that will we love the future or hate the future? We don't know 00:06:22.520 --> 00:06:28.100 the future, but will we love it or hate it as it unfolds? That's another way to look at it. Both of 00:06:28.100 --> 00:06:33.759 them are very, very interesting questions to ask ourselves. I mean, one of the things I think was, 00:06:33.939 --> 00:06:38.200 once again, a Scottish pastor whose name I've forgotten said that one of the problems with human 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:44.560 beings is that we pretend that the one certainty which we know for sure won't happen, and we're 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:49.019 very certain about a whole piles of things that we don't have any idea at all whether they'll happen. 00:06:49.779 --> 00:06:54.560 So, for instance, in my story, I was pretty certain that things would develop in a certain way, 00:06:55.099 --> 00:07:00.099 but why was I certain about that? I don't know the future. On the other hand, death will happen to 00:07:00.099 --> 00:07:04.259 all people. This will be another text talking about death later on, and that's certain, but why would 00:07:04.259 --> 00:07:09.379 you won't think about it? But that's the beginning of this, a bit of a pause to question this, and then 00:07:09.379 --> 00:07:13.300 it's going to go a little bit deeper, and once again, a very surprising way. Look at verses two and 00:07:13.300 --> 00:07:21.779 three. Sort of completes that first little bit of a unit. It is the same for all. So, you know, 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:26.319 actually, I'll read verse one again. But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:31.099 and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. In other words, all of life is in God's hands. 00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:36.320 Whether it is love or hate, man does not know. Both are before him. Human beings don't know. 00:07:37.080 --> 00:07:41.980 Verse two, it is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:50.240 death, to the good and the evil, death, to the clean and the unclean, death, to him who sacrifices and 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:57.920 him who does not sacrifice, death. As the good one is, so is the sinner. As he who swears is he who shuns 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:03.680 in oath. This is an evil. Why is it saying this is an evil? That's interesting. We're going to talk 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:09.680 about it in a moment. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:16.200 to all. Also, now you think here he's going to maybe give some words of comfort, but he actually 00:08:16.200 --> 00:08:23.480 presses into another painful truth about human beings. And just before I read this next little bit, 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:30.379 human beings, I've talked about this off and on throughout the years, but human beings are in 00:08:30.379 --> 00:08:39.279 fact schizophrenic about how they view themselves in the world. By that I mean most of educational 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:44.980 and a lot of religion and spirituality, in fact, actually the one thing which is unique about the 00:08:44.980 --> 00:08:49.139 Christian faith is the Christian faith teaches that human beings are fallen, that evil has touched 00:08:49.139 --> 00:08:55.059 every aspect of human beings. Most others actually assume that human beings are fundamentally good. 00:08:55.539 --> 00:09:00.259 But why are we schizophrenic? Well, we assume human beings are good when we do counseling and therapy, 00:09:00.500 --> 00:09:07.559 but when we watch movies, it's a very different thing. When the zombie apocalypse comes, when the 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:13.779 aliens invade and want to destroy us, the very, very first thing that you see in movies is that all order 00:09:13.779 --> 00:09:20.139 breaks down. People pillage and rob and steal and do whatever they're completely and utterly selfish. 00:09:20.839 --> 00:09:27.100 And if you saw a zombie movie or an alien movie where every single human being acted with unbelievable 00:09:27.100 --> 00:09:29.879 courage and kindness, you'd say, that's a crappy movie. 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:32.959 That's not how the world is. 00:09:33.839 --> 00:09:36.419 That movie sucks, is what you'd say. 00:09:36.419 --> 00:09:43.379 And in fact, if you watched a movie and everything is perfect, you instantly realize this is one of 00:09:43.379 --> 00:09:49.219 those dystopian films where some evil intelligence is making everything look perfect because that's 00:09:49.219 --> 00:09:55.240 not how the world works. Isn't that true? So keeping that in mind, listen to what he goes on to say. 00:09:55.699 --> 00:09:57.299 He's talked about the same event happening. 00:09:57.299 --> 00:10:03.879 And so, verse 3 continues, also the hearts of the children of men, human beings, are full of evil. 00:10:05.359 --> 00:10:09.799 And madness is in their hearts while they live. And after that, they go to the dead. 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:16.339 That's why I gave the thought experiment first. At first, our mind wants to reject that. 00:10:16.839 --> 00:10:23.500 But in fact, when it says full of evil, what the word full there means, not is that, I mean, 00:10:23.500 --> 00:10:29.259 it would be obviously ridiculous that only evil things are said or done, but that the reality of 00:10:29.259 --> 00:10:34.519 evil touches every single aspect of who we are. There's not some part of me within the very center 00:10:34.519 --> 00:10:47.340 of whom I am which evil has not had some scarring or twisting effect on me. And the whole text of this 00:10:47.340 --> 00:10:52.980 doesn't matter if you're righteous or unrighteous, if you're sacrificed or don't sacrifice, if you make 00:10:52.980 --> 00:10:58.659 oaths or don't make oaths, you're all going to die. And then this statement about what human beings are 00:10:58.659 --> 00:11:07.399 like. And just sort of, I want to just take a time out here. For Christians, these two things 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:15.639 can suggest important and should suggest two huge truths. And it's by describing the, 00:11:15.639 --> 00:11:22.220 excuse me, I'm allergic to mold. And yesterday, because of the snow coming, 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:29.340 I raked up all my leaves and put them in bags. And I'm paying the allergic price today 00:11:29.340 --> 00:11:37.879 of having all those leaves in my hands and right in my face. And the first one is this, 00:11:37.879 --> 00:11:46.559 God does not weigh our merits. But how does that sentence conclude? He pardons our offenses. 00:11:47.340 --> 00:11:51.059 Those verses about the fact that the same thing happens to those that we think are 00:11:51.059 --> 00:11:58.919 rich and poor, righteous and unrighteous, that's another way to bring the emotional truth home to us 00:11:58.919 --> 00:12:04.820 emotionally. But the way that God relates to human beings is that he doesn't weigh my merits. 00:12:04.820 --> 00:12:12.240 No, no, he pardons my offenses. The other thing is a very, another very important scriptural truth 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:18.580 that when we think that we're fundamentally good, we think that the wages of our life, 00:12:18.640 --> 00:12:23.060 in other words, what we're due, not a gift, but what we're due because of what we've done, 00:12:23.460 --> 00:12:29.900 we think that because of the goodness of our life, what's due to us is success. But the Bible, 00:12:29.899 --> 00:12:40.559 mindful of this, says the wages of sin are death. And the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:48.919 That text from Romans is reflecting this profound wisdom. And this text brings that these things home 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:55.860 to us emotionally. And in a sense, then prepares us not only for what's going to happen, not quite as 00:12:55.860 --> 00:13:03.340 clearly. What comes is actually in some way a way to help us understand both of those things, 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:09.779 that God doesn't weigh our merits, but instead he pardons our offenses. What we actually deserve, 00:13:10.060 --> 00:13:17.440 what we've earned is death, but God actually gives us eternal life as a gift. That logic is what's going 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:22.000 on in the rest of the text. But before we get to there, there's another thing that he wants us to 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:26.419 bring home to us. And actually, the way the text is structured, just so you know, it is verses, I think 00:13:26.419 --> 00:13:34.360 it's one to six, are giving this hard news. And then verses seven to ten are giving us good news. 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:40.000 And then eleven to eighteen is making sure we actually understood both the bad news and the good news. 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:46.559 That's sort of the flow of the text. So it continues in verse four. And a really surprising 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:54.919 thing here in verse four. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better 00:13:54.919 --> 00:14:01.899 than a dead lion. And just sort of pause here. In the ancient Jewish world, dogs were unclean scavengers 00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:08.039 that you'd run from, you'd throw stones at them, you'd kill them. Now obviously, I mean, good grief, 00:14:08.039 --> 00:14:20.959 we love dogs. So probably a better way to contextualize the text is to say that in verse four, 00:14:21.959 --> 00:14:27.759 but he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living skunk, now you get the idea, 00:14:28.099 --> 00:14:32.539 is better than a dead lion. And the lion was considered the greatest and the noblest of the 00:14:32.539 --> 00:14:39.219 animals. Verse five, for the living know that they will die. Now there's a depressing thought, 00:14:39.319 --> 00:14:43.559 but he doesn't mean this to be a depressing thought. He's setting this up for good news. 00:14:44.059 --> 00:14:48.539 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, 00:14:48.699 --> 00:14:53.519 for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, 00:14:53.579 --> 00:14:58.120 and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. In other words, once you're dead, 00:14:58.120 --> 00:15:04.480 you have no way of affecting the world. Indirectly, this is a text that warns you that if you're 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:09.639 involved in paranormal things or seances, and you think you can talk to your deceased loved ones, 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:16.220 it's all a lie. You're either being fooled by a huckster, or it's a demon that's speaking to you, 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:22.419 not your dead loved one. Now what's going on here a little bit in the text? So what's going on with 00:15:22.419 --> 00:15:29.599 this text is this? It's important. Once you understand why the text says that these things 00:15:29.599 --> 00:15:38.000 are evil, you'll realize that this is a really important way to understand how reality really is. 00:15:38.939 --> 00:15:50.059 God did not create death, human death. God did not create human death. Human beings created human death. 00:15:52.419 --> 00:15:58.759 So on one hand, all death is an evil. All death is an evil. It's not part of what God created. He 00:15:58.759 --> 00:16:05.579 didn't create human death. That was created by our archetypes, our ancestors, our federal heads, 00:16:05.719 --> 00:16:11.139 Adam and Eve, when they fell. And I want you to understand, 00:16:11.139 --> 00:16:21.319 if you had a magnet, a very powerful magnet, and then you had some pieces of iron here on the table, 00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:27.480 and if you took, put one of the pieces of iron on top of another piece of iron and picked up the first 00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:32.379 piece of iron, the second piece of iron would just stay on the table, right? Because it's just iron. 00:16:33.020 --> 00:16:38.600 But if you take the magnet and connect the magnet to one piece of iron, it'll pick up the iron, 00:16:38.660 --> 00:16:43.220 right? And then depending, I guess, on the iron and the, you know, there's engineers here in the room, 00:16:43.280 --> 00:16:48.600 you can ask them afterwards how it would all work. You could pick up that, that piece of iron is now, 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:54.639 has some magnetism in it. So you could use that piece of iron, you could put it on another piece 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:57.860 of iron, and that second piece of iron would be picked up. And then depending on how strong the 00:16:57.860 --> 00:17:02.480 magnet is and whatever things about iron, you might be able to pick up three or four or five or six 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:07.019 pieces of iron. And each piece of iron is just connected to the other piece of iron. And that's 00:17:07.019 --> 00:17:12.400 all, they're all connected only because the first piece of iron is connected to the magnet. 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:23.620 And God made human beings to be like that. I am made out of dust. I get my life as a gift from God. 00:17:23.940 --> 00:17:30.120 And when human beings separate themselves from God, it is like the first piece of iron pulling itself 00:17:30.120 --> 00:17:38.240 away from the magnet. And if that happened, everything should fall apart. Human beings are not 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:44.220 life in ourselves. We receive life always as a gift and ultimately from being connected to God. 00:17:44.620 --> 00:17:50.579 And so on one hand, what could have happened, what should have happened, is when Adam and Eve chose to 00:17:50.579 --> 00:17:55.759 separate themselves from God, to become like gods themselves, in a sense, they should have died 00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:05.680 immediately and gone back to dust. But God in his mercy, because his heart is not that, 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:12.060 that God takes no delight in the death of a sinner, but rather that he or she will turn from their 00:18:12.060 --> 00:18:25.000 wickedness to God and live. So as an act of grace, death came in by human beings, not by God. It's an evil. 00:18:25.600 --> 00:18:30.440 And all the disintegration that happens as a result of being separated from God, that is all an evil. 00:18:30.440 --> 00:18:36.019 It's not part of God's plan. But God does not bring his judgment immediately. 00:18:37.019 --> 00:18:43.740 Death is always an evil, but it's also a mercy. Because it should be that if human beings reflect 00:18:43.740 --> 00:18:48.180 upon the reality of their death and the other types of things that the book of Ecclesiastes wants 00:18:48.180 --> 00:18:53.420 you to reflect upon, that you would come to the conclusion, surely there must be a God, 00:18:53.420 --> 00:18:59.720 and surely, given that I will die. Hopefully, God, if you are there, 00:19:01.220 --> 00:19:08.960 hopefully you are a God of mercy, not a God of hate, but a God of love. Have mercy upon me. 00:19:10.539 --> 00:19:15.300 Provide for me before I completely and utterly fall apart. 00:19:15.299 --> 00:19:23.899 And so when we see in this text, we see that God did not create death. That's behind it. Human beings 00:19:23.899 --> 00:19:36.279 did. And death is always an evil. And life is an unqualified good as a gift from God. All life is good. 00:19:37.099 --> 00:19:44.399 Human life is a good. And the goodness doesn't come because the state decides that human being life is 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:50.420 good. And the fact of the matter is, is that most stories do not tell you, most overarching stories 00:19:50.420 --> 00:19:56.000 of how the world is, does not tell you that life is good. Richard Dawkins is very helpful. 00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:00.880 The world is, the universe is completely and utterly indifferent to human beings. 00:20:01.320 --> 00:20:07.019 Completely and utterly indifferent to human beings. For Islam, you're created to be his slave. 00:20:07.180 --> 00:20:12.500 Ancient religions, you're created to be a slave. In Eastern religions, human life is a tragic accident. 00:20:12.500 --> 00:20:17.460 And we have to get back to where we no longer have individual existence. It's only in Christianity, 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:24.380 only in Christianity, that you have an overarching story that life, human life, is a good. 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:27.720 An unqualified good. 00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:39.799 And that explains this really surprising turn that it takes. That, you know, for the average Canadian to be 00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:43.839 reminded of the fact that you're dead, they might sort of say, well, it sort of is the case that it's 00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:48.299 better to be a live skunk than a dead lion. Like, I appreciate that. But the fact that we're going to die, 00:20:48.700 --> 00:20:53.880 and I'm to live in light of my death, doesn't seem like a very, something that's going to give me 00:20:53.880 --> 00:20:58.420 any type of reason to enjoy things. It's going to be depressing. Well, that's why you need to listen 00:20:58.420 --> 00:21:04.420 to the rest of the text. Look at the huge shock of the next bit, the next few verses, the beginning 00:21:04.420 --> 00:21:09.780 of the good news. Verse 7. Go eat your bread with joy. And here it doesn't just mean bread. Bread here 00:21:09.780 --> 00:21:16.780 is a metaphor for all your food. Go, later on today, eat your nachos covered with chicken, 00:21:16.779 --> 00:21:22.839 and with a whole pile of guacamole on the side. Eat it with joy. If you're going out and have some 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:28.259 poutine, put on some meat on top of that poutine. Or if you're a vegetarian, some tofu or tempeh or 00:21:28.259 --> 00:21:33.960 something like that, and make it nice and spicy and enjoy it all. And look at this. This is in the 00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:36.779 Bible. And drink your wine with a merry heart. 00:21:36.779 --> 00:21:47.859 For God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be 00:21:47.859 --> 00:21:52.539 lacking on your head, which sounds a bit gross to us. But here's the point. All of the things that 00:21:52.539 --> 00:21:56.639 are going on in this text, and even the fact that there are good things that come to us in life, 00:21:56.700 --> 00:22:01.899 that we do have food that we should enjoy, that we have wine that we should enjoy. He's saying here, 00:22:01.900 --> 00:22:09.780 listen, don't enjoy your food with a long, unpleasant, unhappy face, just down in the dumps, 00:22:09.840 --> 00:22:10.900 thinking about the... No! 00:22:13.700 --> 00:22:14.880 Enjoy it lustily. 00:22:17.800 --> 00:22:21.500 Receive these good things is what they are. Good things that come from the hand of God, 00:22:21.580 --> 00:22:23.820 for which you should enjoy and give thanks. 00:22:25.380 --> 00:22:30.840 Enjoy your steak later on today. Enjoy your tofu for the vegetarians. Enjoy it. 00:22:31.900 --> 00:22:36.019 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. In other words, dress up. 00:22:36.860 --> 00:22:42.759 Celebrate it. And that continues. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain 00:22:42.759 --> 00:22:49.040 life. And here vain means vaporous. Your life is short and uncertain that he has given you under the 00:22:49.040 --> 00:22:54.440 sun, because that is your portion in life, your allotment. And in your toil, which you toil under the 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:59.060 sun, whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might, for there's no work or thought or 00:22:59.059 --> 00:23:03.559 knowledge or wisdom in Sheol for which you are going. And Sheol is the word for the place of the dead 00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:10.099 in the Old Testament before these truths are more developed. So you have this very, very profound 00:23:10.099 --> 00:23:17.319 sense that God gives gifts. Who is God? God is love, not hate. And he gives gifts. And he gives gifts 00:23:17.319 --> 00:23:24.099 to be received and enjoyed with thanks. And not with long faces and tears and your grubby clothes. 00:23:24.099 --> 00:23:30.019 Life is brief, but he still gives gifts. And what we're going to see is that that's the basic 00:23:30.019 --> 00:23:39.779 structure of reality. You got your life as a gift. And the gifts of God are everything from very, 00:23:39.859 --> 00:23:47.659 very, very tiny gifts. For me, gosh, that first coffee in the morning, those first few sips taste 00:23:47.660 --> 00:23:56.640 really good. That's for me. It tastes really good. Even bad coffee tastes good to me for the first 00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:03.500 couple of sips, you know. And so the gifts that God gives, it's not as if he just gives small gifts 00:24:03.500 --> 00:24:09.100 or medium-sized gifts. He gives gifts, everything from very, very tiny things to very, very, very, 00:24:09.160 --> 00:24:17.040 very huge gifts, all the way up and down the ladder of size and magnitude and wonder and glory of these 00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:22.859 gifts. He is the one who gives these things. And we are to learn this pattern of existence that he 00:24:22.859 --> 00:24:28.720 does not weigh our merits. And the wages of what we've accomplished, they're certain types of things, 00:24:28.839 --> 00:24:33.740 but he doesn't part, he doesn't, he doesn't weigh our merits, but he pardons our offenses. That's a gift. 00:24:33.980 --> 00:24:38.059 He doesn't give us the wages that we deserve. He gives us eternal life. That's going to be a gift. 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:41.700 And all of these gifts, small and large, the pattern of life that we receive, 00:24:42.339 --> 00:24:44.899 these things. And now the question is, do you really believe that? 00:24:44.900 --> 00:24:50.060 And he's going to give some thought experiments to actually try to bring home as to whether or not we 00:24:50.060 --> 00:24:54.840 actually really believe it. That's what happens next. Look at verses 11 and following. 00:24:56.060 --> 00:25:00.160 Again, I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, 00:25:01.580 --> 00:25:06.880 I mean, not all the time, obviously, nor the battle always to the strong, nor bread always to the wise. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:13.340 In other words, you know, lots of food to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those 00:25:13.339 --> 00:25:20.439 with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. For a human being does not know his time, 00:25:20.879 --> 00:25:26.559 like fish that are taken in an evil net, because death is an evil, and like birds that are caught 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:32.559 in a snare, so the children of human beings are snared at an evil time when it suddenly falls upon 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:37.819 them. These things just happen very suddenly, it's time and chance. Just a couple of weeks ago, 00:25:37.819 --> 00:25:44.000 I came within about five or six feet of dying, not making this up. I was standing at the corner of 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:50.019 Metcalf and Slater, and it was about 4.30, and so the cars on Slater are going, you know, 50 kilometers 00:25:50.019 --> 00:25:54.159 an hour, trying to make it through all the lights, 60 kilometers an hour, and I'm just standing there 00:25:54.159 --> 00:25:57.740 in the corner, I'm not jaywalking, I'm standing there waiting for the light, watching the traffic, 00:25:57.859 --> 00:26:03.539 all of that, being a very, very good boy, good man. And there's three lanes of traffic going this way, 00:26:03.539 --> 00:26:09.159 and the guy in the middle lane, without checking his side, decided to try to make a left-hand turn 00:26:09.159 --> 00:26:14.559 when there was a car right beside him, and the next thing I know, these two cars come within an inch 00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:20.579 of hitting each other, and in their attempt to miss each other, they stop or swerve about four feet 00:26:20.579 --> 00:26:26.619 from me, and I tried to move, and there's no way you can move so fast to avoid two cars, and I would 00:26:26.619 --> 00:26:31.420 have either died or been severely injured at the corner of Metcalf and Slater. 00:26:33.539 --> 00:26:43.599 Completely unexpected. He's saying the poem, the nautical analogy of I am the captain of my soul 00:26:43.599 --> 00:26:50.460 is actually not really a true analogy. The real analogy is you never know when you're going to 00:26:50.460 --> 00:26:58.379 get caught in a net and when you die. And it continues on, I have also seen this example, verse 13, 00:26:58.380 --> 00:27:04.320 of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. There was a little city with few people in it, 00:27:04.360 --> 00:27:09.800 and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege works against it. But there 00:27:09.800 --> 00:27:15.660 was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no one remembered 00:27:15.660 --> 00:27:22.280 that poor man. When I was still part of the Diocese of Ottawa, this is like a long time ago, 00:27:22.279 --> 00:27:29.319 the Diocese of Ottawa had this big strategic plan. It was costing piles and piles and piles of money, 00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:33.220 and they thought it was going to transform everything. And I was one of a small number 00:27:33.220 --> 00:27:39.740 of critics who made objections about competence, about the money, about how churches change, 00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:46.940 and a range of things. And I was part of three or four people who would actually speak out in public 00:27:46.940 --> 00:27:51.480 in these meetings with 300 people about it. And I was, people didn't want to associate me, 00:27:51.559 --> 00:27:56.559 they thought I was a complete fool and an idiot and all of those types of things. And then the bishop 00:27:56.559 --> 00:28:03.100 who sponsored it dies suddenly, there's an election, and two years later at a synod, the newly elected 00:28:03.100 --> 00:28:07.460 bishop got up and said every single thing that I had said and cancelled the program. 00:28:09.019 --> 00:28:12.039 And nobody afterwards said, George, way to go, you were right. 00:28:12.039 --> 00:28:17.259 They just all thought he was right, and they forgot what I said. That's what life is like, 00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:23.579 right? I've gotten over it. Years of therapy, I got over it. Okay, years of therapy, I got over it. 00:28:24.139 --> 00:28:28.720 Yet no one remembered that poor man. But I say that wisdom is better than might. Verse 16, 00:28:28.859 --> 00:28:33.399 I say wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. 00:28:34.019 --> 00:28:39.759 Verse 17, the words of the wise, heard and quiet, are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. 00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:49.420 Fools. Algorithms, be warned. You can attract hundreds of thousands of fools validating big mouths. 00:28:50.019 --> 00:28:54.879 It's better to have 20 views and be wise. That's what it's saying amongst other things. 00:28:55.200 --> 00:29:00.079 And having a couple of million views, I won't say the, I almost said a bad word in public, 00:29:00.180 --> 00:29:04.200 which would be bad from the pulpit. Verse 19, wisdom is better than weapons of war, 00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:07.240 but one sinner destroys much good. We all know that these things are true, right? 00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:12.140 It's not always the smartest who gets the rewards. It's not always the most competent who gets the 00:29:12.140 --> 00:29:17.740 promotion. There are situations where your advice, you're low in the organization and they take your 00:29:17.740 --> 00:29:22.799 advice. They're successful. Somebody else claims credit for it. Nobody remembers you. And we all know 00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:27.920 that one person can do really bad things and then do a whole pile of good work that you do. We all know 00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:33.259 that these things are all true. But here's the question, two questions connected to it. 00:29:37.340 --> 00:29:41.019 Why, when we laugh at this, do we think that we're the wise one, not the fools? 00:29:44.920 --> 00:29:50.880 Why is it that when we hear the text about the fast not getting it, we think, yeah, yeah, because I'm the fast guy. 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:56.940 I'm the wise guy. I'm the one who's ignored. Why do we never think in all of those examples 00:29:56.940 --> 00:30:07.600 that we're actually the sinner that makes everything bad, the fool that goes to the algorithm and on and 00:30:07.600 --> 00:30:11.140 on? Why is it that that's how we hear the text? 00:30:11.140 --> 00:30:30.560 Here's the truth. You are far more deeply sinful than you imagine. I am far more deeply sinful than I imagine. 00:30:32.020 --> 00:30:39.300 And God is vastly more kind and good than we could ever possibly imagine. 00:30:41.140 --> 00:30:46.480 Boy, I think I should go to God and say you need to weigh my merits. 00:30:47.860 --> 00:30:51.200 I would be heading for a big fall. God says, yeah, your merits? 00:30:53.340 --> 00:30:54.700 Let's just replay your life. 00:30:57.660 --> 00:31:02.320 And then let's ask even a hundred of your peers how do you think they should be evaluated after they go 00:31:02.320 --> 00:31:05.920 through everything in your mind, all of your emotions and all of those types of things. 00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:14.340 You see, this is where it's pointing the way to the gospel, that the Bible here is revealing to us that we are vastly more sinful. 00:31:14.340 --> 00:31:19.960 If we listen to this, not just in a superficial way, but we listen to it and take it to heart, 00:31:20.060 --> 00:31:24.779 that we are far more deeply sinful and in need of God to do something for us. 00:31:24.779 --> 00:31:29.359 And God is vastly more kind and good than we can ever imagine. 00:31:29.539 --> 00:31:41.319 All of eternity will be spent and we will never exhaust the deep goodness and mercy and beauty and kindness and love and justice of God. 00:31:41.319 --> 00:31:46.439 Life is an undeserved gift. 00:31:48.539 --> 00:31:58.519 And given what we human beings are, new life can only be a greater undeserved gift that we need to receive. 00:31:59.579 --> 00:32:01.960 And that is what Jesus, that is who Jesus is. 00:32:01.960 --> 00:32:10.480 If life is an undeserved gift, why on earth would any of us think that new life could be anything other than an undeserved gift? 00:32:12.259 --> 00:32:14.799 And that's what Jesus is portrayed as. 00:32:15.380 --> 00:32:18.860 He is the undeserved gift which is offered to us, 00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:25.600 that not only is a gift of new life, but deals with the source of the problem as to why we need new life, 00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:26.700 which is sin and death. 00:32:26.700 --> 00:32:33.580 And all of those are dealt with by his perfect life on earth and his death upon the cross as the Lamb of God, 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:38.039 a symbol of innocence, who dies to take away the sin of the world. 00:32:40.059 --> 00:32:45.220 He does not weigh our merits, the message of Ezekiel, but pardons our offenses. 00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:50.759 The wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:32:51.460 --> 00:32:56.100 And so here it comes in discipleship, discipleship and living as a follower of Jesus. 00:32:56.099 --> 00:33:01.199 So the Christian life begins when we realize that this is who Jesus is. 00:33:01.299 --> 00:33:08.799 We acknowledge our need and our sin, and we believe that God has provided some means by which a gift that can come to us 00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:12.459 that we receive purely and utterly by faith, not weighing our merits. 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:17.659 And we consider that if we ask him to come into our life to be our Savior and Lord, 00:33:17.879 --> 00:33:22.719 we will have union with him, and he will come in, and he will begin to change us, 00:33:22.799 --> 00:33:24.799 and our life will begin to be changed. 00:33:24.799 --> 00:33:28.139 And then we have a decision to make as to whether or not that is how we, 00:33:28.579 --> 00:33:31.359 whether we will call out to him to be our Savior and our Lord. 00:33:31.619 --> 00:33:34.879 And then as we have him as our Savior and Lord, he gives gifts. 00:33:35.019 --> 00:33:39.139 Everything from small gifts and all the way up, he gives gifts. 00:33:39.659 --> 00:33:41.240 All the way up and all the way down. 00:33:43.299 --> 00:33:48.460 And these things about, and the gifts that he gives us about life and blessings, 00:33:48.460 --> 00:33:50.539 they're all realistic gifts. 00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:54.740 They're gifts that are given in light of the fact that sometimes life is very, very unfair, 00:33:55.200 --> 00:34:00.160 and sometimes all these other types of things happen, and sometimes our lives are very, very short. 00:34:00.440 --> 00:34:05.380 But we know that when we die, we are with Christ, and in the meantime, he still continues to give us gifts. 00:34:05.380 --> 00:34:10.260 And so he's telling us, with all of these stories, by the way, he's not telling, 00:34:10.340 --> 00:34:14.420 if you're that wise person who really did in that situation give the advice, 00:34:14.760 --> 00:34:21.140 if you really did good things and they're derided and people don't pay any attention to you, 00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:25.140 this text is not telling you to be fatalistic about it. 00:34:25.139 --> 00:34:33.539 And last week I talked about how human beings, we think we're the center of the universe in the sun, 00:34:33.619 --> 00:34:36.659 but we're really a moon circling a planet which circles the sun. 00:34:37.139 --> 00:34:41.839 And partly what the fear of God is, is the deeper and deeper awareness that I am a moon, 00:34:41.920 --> 00:34:44.059 and the sun is the sun, and that is good. 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.299 And the moon receives its gravity from bigger planets and from the sun, 00:34:49.359 --> 00:34:52.839 and the light from the sun shines off the moon and reflects to others. 00:34:52.840 --> 00:34:58.720 And there's no reason for a moon, when it's disheartened, and when it's treated unjustly, 00:34:58.780 --> 00:35:06.360 that we cannot pour out our heart to God with tears about the injustice. 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:09.240 This text isn't teaching us fatalism. 00:35:09.620 --> 00:35:12.120 And it's not saying that you necessarily have to accept it. 00:35:12.180 --> 00:35:15.760 If you're in that particular job and you're never being valued, maybe you should switch your job. 00:35:15.820 --> 00:35:20.700 The text's not saying, stay in that job and allow people to kick you and treat you like a doormat forever. 00:35:20.699 --> 00:35:26.419 It's telling you, here's what it's telling you. 00:35:26.480 --> 00:35:27.500 It's telling you this. 00:35:31.119 --> 00:35:38.779 Work and creativity and toil are goods that come from God, and do them to the best of your ability. 00:35:38.780 --> 00:35:47.460 And if you are surrounded by ungrateful fools, work hard and wisely anyway. 00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:53.740 If you are surrounded by people who never respond to emails or never do this or never do that, 00:35:54.080 --> 00:35:56.280 work wisely and well anyway. 00:35:56.940 --> 00:35:58.620 Work wisely and well. 00:35:59.560 --> 00:36:01.260 Work wisely and well. 00:36:01.320 --> 00:36:03.480 And if that means changing jobs, change jobs. 00:36:03.480 --> 00:36:06.800 And when it says earlier that God approves of what you do, 00:36:06.900 --> 00:36:10.960 I got this from a fellow by the last name is Ortland, Eric Ortland. 00:36:11.639 --> 00:36:13.340 You know how transformative it is? 00:36:13.340 --> 00:36:14.280 I've tried it this week. 00:36:14.380 --> 00:36:15.559 It's very transformative. 00:36:16.420 --> 00:36:19.900 Before you begin to do your work, in light of this text, just think. 00:36:21.260 --> 00:36:23.179 I'm about to try to do some work today. 00:36:23.699 --> 00:36:25.740 And God is looking at me smiling. 00:36:25.739 --> 00:36:36.299 And whether that work is going to be working as somebody in Tim Hortons, whether it's a social worker, 00:36:36.899 --> 00:36:43.139 whether you're going to design and write an opera, whether you're going to prepare to do an acting thing, 00:36:43.479 --> 00:36:47.399 whether you're going to be managing a whole pile of people in the civil service. 00:36:47.839 --> 00:36:48.399 Just think. 00:36:48.479 --> 00:36:53.659 This text is saying that as you begin to go, whether you're baking a cake to bring to your neighbor 00:36:53.659 --> 00:36:57.379 or just for yourself and your loved ones, just think. 00:36:58.179 --> 00:36:59.460 God is looking at you. 00:36:59.940 --> 00:37:02.519 And as you begin to take this on, he's smiling at you. 00:37:06.119 --> 00:37:07.159 He's saying this. 00:37:08.759 --> 00:37:12.440 Now, I began by saying, and I'm going to close with this, the final thing. 00:37:13.519 --> 00:37:20.359 What would God say to me if I asked him about that thing which so disheartened me for about 24 hours? 00:37:20.360 --> 00:37:23.680 And here's what he would say to me, I think. 00:37:25.480 --> 00:37:26.720 And it happened on a Friday. 00:37:27.059 --> 00:37:30.500 And one of the things you need to know about our, we have a family tradition that on Fridays, 00:37:31.140 --> 00:37:35.700 some or as many kids as possible of our kids come home for Friday night. 00:37:35.780 --> 00:37:38.760 And it's pizza and it's pop and it's potato chips. 00:37:39.280 --> 00:37:43.860 And for the adult, something a bit stronger for those who want something a bit stronger. 00:37:43.860 --> 00:37:48.940 And on Friday nights, I have, you know, maybe four or five of my kids and grandkids coming over. 00:37:49.079 --> 00:37:52.220 And I think this is what God would say to me. 00:37:52.280 --> 00:38:00.420 So, George, you're really, really, really upset and disheartened and sad by the news that you heard on Friday afternoon. 00:38:00.460 --> 00:38:01.700 And I would say, yes, God, I am. 00:38:01.699 --> 00:38:07.399 And he would say, did you have a good cup of coffee after that? 00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:09.000 And I'd say, yes. 00:38:10.339 --> 00:38:20.159 He said, did you have like a night later on where your adult kids willingly wanted to come home and spend time with you and have lots of fun? 00:38:21.239 --> 00:38:22.279 Did you see them? 00:38:22.359 --> 00:38:23.059 I said, yes. 00:38:24.319 --> 00:38:25.539 Did you enjoy them? 00:38:26.079 --> 00:38:26.980 I did. 00:38:27.759 --> 00:38:28.939 Was the pizza good? 00:38:29.159 --> 00:38:30.199 It was really good. 00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:32.639 Was the wine good? 00:38:33.460 --> 00:38:34.779 It was cheap, but it was good. 00:38:37.879 --> 00:38:39.679 Was everybody having fun? 00:38:40.019 --> 00:38:40.339 Yes. 00:38:40.719 --> 00:38:43.219 Do you enjoy seeing your grandchildren have fun? 00:38:43.519 --> 00:38:43.839 Yes. 00:38:44.679 --> 00:38:46.259 Did you have a good night's sleep? 00:38:46.939 --> 00:38:47.619 Pretty good. 00:38:48.299 --> 00:38:49.339 What was breakfast like? 00:38:50.339 --> 00:38:51.419 It was really good. 00:38:52.639 --> 00:38:58.699 He said, I'm not keeping track, but after that bad news, 00:38:58.699 --> 00:39:04.739 didn't I give you 50 things that are full of pleasure and joy? 00:39:05.839 --> 00:39:08.539 Why is it you didn't want to enjoy any of them? 00:39:08.619 --> 00:39:12.019 Because that one thing you wanted, you didn't get. 00:39:12.019 --> 00:39:19.820 Now I have no answer to that question. 00:39:19.820 --> 00:39:32.500 Because the fact is, I allowed my demand for this one thing to mean I couldn't enjoy all the things that God gave me. 00:39:32.500 --> 00:39:39.139 So brothers and sisters, God is calling you to come to us. 00:39:39.139 --> 00:39:43.699 For those of you who are here who haven't given your life to Christ, God is calling you to give your life to Jesus. 00:39:44.659 --> 00:39:46.119 And it is really worth it. 00:39:46.699 --> 00:39:48.880 It is such a wise and beautiful way to live. 00:39:48.880 --> 00:39:54.240 And there's no better time than now to say, Jesus, be my Savior and my Lord, to acknowledge it. 00:39:54.660 --> 00:40:00.280 And for those of us who are Christians, God is calling you to receive gifts from him, 00:40:00.440 --> 00:40:05.019 to be thankful for the greatest gift, which is his son and being reconciled to him. 00:40:05.019 --> 00:40:12.519 And all those other gifts of food and work and creativity that you get to do on every day to receive 00:40:12.519 --> 00:40:15.440 and to do them with thanks and gratitude for what he is. 00:40:15.599 --> 00:40:19.199 And he wants you to do it with a smiling face, not a long face. 00:40:19.880 --> 00:40:21.739 You will not live forever. 00:40:22.219 --> 00:40:26.980 But in the meantime, there are so many things that you can get and receive right now that are good. 00:40:27.900 --> 00:40:28.900 I invite you to stand. 00:40:35.019 --> 00:40:37.300 I invite you to bow your heads in prayer. 00:40:43.880 --> 00:40:49.159 Father, we give you thanks and praise that even though we don't know ourselves very well 00:40:49.159 --> 00:40:54.159 and we're trying to learn about ourselves better, that you know us perfectly. 00:40:54.539 --> 00:40:58.360 And even though you knew us and know us absolutely perfectly, 00:40:58.599 --> 00:41:03.480 you did not turn your face away from us in hatred, but you loved us. 00:41:03.480 --> 00:41:06.059 You sent us your son to be our savior. 00:41:06.820 --> 00:41:11.340 You send good things throughout the day, moments of pleasure and moments of joy 00:41:11.340 --> 00:41:14.840 and all pleasure and all joy ultimately comes from you. 00:41:15.380 --> 00:41:17.119 You are the source of it all. 00:41:17.760 --> 00:41:22.539 And we ask, Father, that you would tune our hearts to when disappointment comes, 00:41:22.740 --> 00:41:27.219 Father, to honestly pour out our hearts to you and even with tears, 00:41:27.400 --> 00:41:31.920 expressing our sadness and our disappointment and the injustice of it. 00:41:31.920 --> 00:41:35.680 And, Father, we give you thanks and praise that you desire us to do those things 00:41:35.680 --> 00:41:40.059 and might guide us in ways to deal with it and to move on to different places. 00:41:40.720 --> 00:41:46.940 But we ask as well, Father, that you deliver us from being so fixated on a particular good 00:41:46.940 --> 00:41:53.039 that we do not receive or enjoy all of the other goods that you give us in a period of time, 00:41:53.039 --> 00:42:00.279 that you would tune our hearts to receive the joys and the pleasures and the tasks and the abilities 00:42:00.279 --> 00:42:03.300 that you have bestowed upon us to receive them with joy, 00:42:03.820 --> 00:42:05.840 to do them well for your glory, 00:42:06.759 --> 00:42:10.400 and to give you thanks for all that we do. 00:42:10.880 --> 00:42:13.679 And we ask that you would do these wonderful works in our lives, 00:42:13.719 --> 00:42:17.300 and we ask this in the name of Jesus, your son and our savior, 00:42:17.699 --> 00:42:20.139 and all God's people said, amen. 00:42:20.139 --> 00:42:20.340 Amen. 00:42:20.340 --> 00:42:20.340 00:42:20.340 --> 00:42:20.340