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. 00:01:11.679 --> 00:01:14.159 For a moment, just bow our heads in prayer. Father, 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:24.000 Your Word can be hard to understand, and we give You thanks and praise that You have so ordered it, 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:31.760 that while You want us to read Your Word on our own and You really delight in us delighting in Your Word. At 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:37.519 the same time, You have not left us alone, but have brought us into local churches like this, where we 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:43.920 can help each other both understand the Word, but to receive the Word and to grow and to dwell within it. 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:49.680 And we ask, Father, that Your Holy Spirit would do that gentle but powerful work in us to make us such 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:59.760 a community of humble, inquisitive learners and also a community of humble teachers who submit to Your Word, 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:06.159 desiring hungrily to receive all that You give us, desire to give us in Your Word. So Father, do that today. 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:13.520 Make us hungry for Your Word. Feed us with Your Word. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:22.879 So it was a long time ago, but early on in my ministry, 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:31.919 I would get called occasionally for generic Anglican funerals or a funeral home funeral. And by that, 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:38.239 I mean, somebody died, they had no particular connection to any church whatsoever, but it might 00:02:38.239 --> 00:02:43.279 have been in their will or something like that. Or the family members said, no, he'd want an Anglican 00:02:43.279 --> 00:02:49.439 service. So the funeral directors would get on the phone and go down a list and eventually find some 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:53.359 Anglican minister who would do the funeral. And so it was one of those types of funerals a long, 00:02:53.359 --> 00:03:00.319 long time ago. And I do the funeral, and there's only eight people at the funeral. And the fellow who had 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:07.359 died, I believe was in his mid-40s, and he died at work. He was a government office worker. And one day 00:03:07.359 --> 00:03:16.239 at work, he just collapsed on his desk, dead. He just died, just instantly like that. But on the day 00:03:16.239 --> 00:03:21.680 of his funeral, and there had been no wake, were visiting hours in advance. There were only eight 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:28.000 people at the funeral, including his divorced wife, his two sons in their early 20s, and a 15-year-old 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:34.479 daughter. And a man who had died so suddenly like that had only eight people at his funeral. 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:40.319 And whatever he had done in his life, I never found out what he had done. But what had that man done 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:48.080 that even his 15-year-old daughter did not shed one single tear at the funeral of her father? In fact, 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:54.000 not a single person shed a tear at that funeral. And I've always wondered, what had that man done 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:02.560 in his life? That it ended in such a way. I tell you this story, it's a very sobering story, 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:07.919 but it's hopefully a sobering story that as we look at Ecclesiastes, you'll get a sense of why 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:15.759 Ecclesiastes speaks like it does. And also understand that part of what, a big part of what Ecclesiastes 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:21.759 wants to happen is for you to actually live a more joyful life, believe it or not, free from delusions. 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:29.599 The book of Ecclesiastes is a reality respecter. And it is trying to teach us and encourage us to be 00:04:29.599 --> 00:04:35.519 reality respecters. But in such a way that it doesn't leave us depressed, because our depression 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:41.519 comes from delusions and lies and idols. But to actually know the true and living God and how he 00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:47.519 speaks become reality respecters. And so let's look. We're almost finished Ecclesiastes, we're preaching 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:56.000 through it. And if you turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 11, verse 1, it begins in a 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:03.359 bit of a surprising way. Ecclesiastes chapter 11, verse 1, and it begins like this. So this is the 00:05:03.359 --> 00:05:10.319 second to last literary unit in the book of Ecclesiastes. And it begins like this. 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:16.240 It says, cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:20.800 seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. Now, if you're 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:25.279 thinking to yourself, I have the vaguest idea in the world what that meant. That's what I thought 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:31.120 when I first read it too. You're in good company. That's why I have to read learned people who know 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:36.159 Hebrew and the culture and all that to get what is an ancient saying. And there's some debate about the 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:41.280 exact meaning of this ancient saying, but basically what this is saying is this. Now, you notice again, 00:05:41.280 --> 00:05:46.720 look at verse 2, give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:54.960 on earth. And so what this text is saying is something very counterintuitive, and it goes right 00:05:54.960 --> 00:06:00.879 to that story that I began with. In the real world, you never know when disaster is going to hit. 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:09.040 My favorite example, it'll be until I die, is the Thursday before all of Ontario got completely and 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:15.199 utterly shut down. I was one of those few people who left my house on that Monday, and it was as if 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:20.240 the zombie apocalypse had appeared. If you were in downtown Ottawa, you didn't see virtually, 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:25.519 you saw virtually no people, only the fentanyl addicts stumbling along like zombies. So it looked like a 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:30.399 zombie apocalypse. That was on the Monday. The Thursday, just before that, I was with a meeting of 15 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:35.439 other Anglican clergy, and none of us talked about churches being shut down. None of us talked about 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:40.479 how the churches should try to adapt to it. And all of us, as we were driving home, heard the NBA 00:06:40.479 --> 00:06:47.439 has canceled the season, the NHL has canceled the season. And then of course, the famous line, 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:52.639 three weeks of shutdown to flatten the curve, which turned into whatever it was. But nobody knows the 00:06:52.639 --> 00:06:58.079 future. Nobody knows when disaster is going to occur. But the counterintuitive, the normal way that 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:03.120 would react to that, nobody knows when disaster is going to happen is, therefore, one of two, 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:07.759 well, there's three types of things that we do, but that'll come next. Here, there's two types of 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:14.719 natural things we do. The first one is, I better hoard. I better get lots of bottled water. I better 00:07:14.719 --> 00:07:22.159 find a place in the bush where I can go. I better get gold bars, because Bitcoin, I mean, if everything 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:26.480 goes down and there's no internet, Bitcoin becomes, I don't want to depress you, but it becomes worthless. 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:31.600 You know, I better get gold. I better get jewels. I, you know, I better get guns. I better get lots of 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:35.920 food. And that's, that's one thing that we think we're going to have to deal with it. The other thing 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:40.160 is, if you think, oh gosh, good grief, disaster can come at any point in time, then I might as well 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:44.240 eat, drink, and be merry, because what's the point of saving for the future or doing anything, 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:50.400 because disaster would happen any time. But the, the Ecclesiastes says the complete opposite. 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:54.719 Disaster can happen at every time, any time. So you better be generous today. 00:07:56.159 --> 00:08:00.319 What? That doesn't make any sense. That's completely counterintuitive. 00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:06.079 I better be generous. Because if disaster happens, I don't have any money to be generous, 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:10.079 then what, I can't be generous. Now, how does that fit with the story that I began with? 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:15.919 For all I know, I don't know, for all I know, that man went to work every day and said, you know what, 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:22.560 next week would be a good time to call up my daughter and start to be nice to her and generous 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:26.960 to her. And the week after, and the week after, and the week after, and then he died. 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:35.440 He never got a chance to forgive, to apologize, to be generous, whatever his issues were, 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:43.280 he never got that opportunity. You see, the Bible here is giving us very counterintuitive advice. 00:08:43.280 --> 00:08:47.840 And as we're going to see more in a moment, but you know, the gospel text, which I just read a few 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:55.120 minutes ago, and part of the lesson of that text was that if you have, if God has dealt with you in a 00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:01.760 way that is filled with mercy and forgiveness, then partly what it means to live as his son or daughter 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:08.399 is to be one who practices mercy and forgiveness. And if, in fact, the structure of the world is that 00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:15.519 we are constant recipients of the generosity of God, then it means that partly how we are to live 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:24.399 as full human beings is to be characterized by generosity, by generosity. And sometimes the thing 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:28.240 about cast your bread upon the water is verse one, for you will find it after many days. It actually says 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:31.759 you might find it after many days. That's one of those things. Sometimes being generous gives you 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:37.600 some type of payback, and sometimes it just means you have less money. It means that you can't buy a 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:44.000 Subaru wilderness version. You've got to buy the Subaru Crosstrek because you've given away your money. 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:48.639 So it doesn't mean you have to live with a long face and do with nothing, but it means that you 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:52.720 choose generosity. You never, you never, there's, nobody ever has enough money to be generous, by the way, 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:57.039 just in case you're wondering. You never have enough money to be generous. You have to choose to be 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:03.839 generous. And this text is saying you never know when disaster is going to strike. And here's the 00:10:03.839 --> 00:10:10.879 thing about it, that disaster can strike at any time. If you choose hoarding as your solution, 00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:17.679 that doesn't mean disaster doesn't strike. If you choose just to live and drink and tomorrow we die, 00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:22.879 that doesn't protect you from disaster happening. The disaster to the person who says, I'm just going 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:27.919 to eat and drink and just live a completely, like, why worry about the future? The disaster for you 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:34.960 might be that you live to be 70. But with a whole pile of sexual diseases, a terrible liver completely 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:40.000 and utterly ruined your health, you know? Or you try to hoard and all happens is that, I don't know, 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.720 just something happens and all your hoarded stuff just completely and utterly disappears. Like disaster, 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:49.840 you can't avoid the truth that disaster can happen at any moment by either eating and drinking, 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:53.920 because tomorrow you die, or by hoarding, or by the next thing, which we'll talk about in a moment. 00:10:54.560 --> 00:10:59.920 So there's never, so why wouldn't you be generous today? In fact, you know, if you think about it 00:10:59.920 --> 00:11:05.840 for a second, wouldn't you like it said at your funeral? You know, you know what, you know what 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:11.920 Sue was doing, you know, just before she died like that? You know, just before Sue died like that, 00:11:11.920 --> 00:11:17.280 it was just before Christmas, she put in like a hundred dollar tip for her favorite barista, 00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:25.759 and she gave a whole pile of money to the poor in East Africa. And you know, and she had just brought 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:32.399 in a huge big tray of donuts and cupcakes to the office, and that's what happened just before she 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:42.319 died. Wouldn't you like to have that said at your funeral? Of course you would. You never know when 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:47.360 disaster will strike, so you better be generous today. It's not so counterintuitive, but so wise. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:52.160 And then the text is going to go, because what the text is going to do, it's going to keep reminding us 00:11:52.160 --> 00:11:59.440 of true goods that exist, and generosity is a true good. The next one here is the next couple, and sort 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:05.840 of mixed up because the text goes zigzagging like this. It's not a linear text, it's a zigzag text. And 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:11.440 for those of us who are really hardwired to linear thought, you hate the book of Ecclesiastes, you 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:16.000 don't like the book of Ecclesiastes, because he doesn't believe in linear thought. He believes in 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:21.360 zigging and zagging and catching you by surprise, coming at you from the side. But look what happens 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:27.040 now. Another type of good, verse 3. Doesn't sound like it. But if the clouds are full of rain, 00:12:27.040 --> 00:12:32.080 they empty themselves on the earth. Well, that's obvious. And if a tree falls to the south or to the north, 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:36.960 in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. Well, that's obvious. He who observes the wind 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:44.000 will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. And then just skip down, we're going to 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:49.520 come back to verse 6 in a moment, 5 in a moment, but just skip down to verse 6. In the morning sow your 00:12:49.520 --> 00:12:55.120 seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, 00:12:55.120 --> 00:13:00.080 or whether both alike will be good. And so what this is talking about here is that 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:08.240 the book of Ecclesiastes is a reality respecter, and it wants us to respect the reality that there 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:14.800 are just natural limits to life. Now, it's not trying to say, it's not like religion has been 00:13:14.800 --> 00:13:22.240 used historically and even today to keep people down, and say you just have to stay in your place. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:26.640 You know, your parents were poor, your grandparents were poor, your great-grandparents were poor, 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:31.600 therefore you should be poor. Your great-grandparents were persecuted, your grandparents were persecuted, 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.679 your parents were persecuted, therefore you should be persecuted. Just, it's not saying to 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:42.559 accept limits like that. It's not a tool of oppression, it's the opposite. It's a tool of freedom, 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:49.120 a tool of actual hope and encouragement. But what it is saying is that, on one hand, if you understand it, 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:56.000 the weather is completely and utterly indifferent to you. Get over it. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:04.320 It's completely indifferent to you. Massively. It doesn't think, oh, George would really like it 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:09.360 to not snow today. He'd only like it to snow on days other than Sundays, so people come to church. 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:12.480 Weather doesn't care. It's going to snow whenever it's going to snow. 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:18.399 And on one hand, then there's these two types of things that go on. There's a lot of people, 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:22.720 and a lot of their stress in life comes from thinking that you can analyze things and pick 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:27.759 opportune moments, the absolute, like, perfect moment to act. It's a type of the whole thing about, 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:31.440 you know, if you're looking at all the clouds and all you won't under, it's like that, it's talking about 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:38.960 analysis, paralysis by analysis. And it's talking about trying to pick the perfect time to act. And the text is 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:44.240 saying, listen, there's, I mean, obviously there can be better times than others to, you know, to act, 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:50.160 like, you know, obviously you don't organize an outdoor picnic with a blanket and beach toys in 00:14:50.160 --> 00:14:55.280 January in Ottawa. Like, obviously there's some things like that which are just obviously you don't do. 00:14:55.680 --> 00:15:02.160 But fundamentally it is, like, work is a good. The thing about work is that God has designed human 00:15:02.160 --> 00:15:07.440 beings to be fruitful, and being fruitful is a good. God has designed human beings that they can cause 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:13.920 things to happen. That is a good thing. Lean into it. God has designed human beings so that they can do 00:15:13.920 --> 00:15:19.040 one thing, which is plan their work, but on the other hand, they have to plan their work in such a way 00:15:19.040 --> 00:15:24.800 that they're not caught up with the delusions that they can control the future as if the clouds will 00:15:24.800 --> 00:15:32.080 listen to you about when they're going to rain, because they won't. They don't. They never will. 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:38.080 Like, get over it. You can't control the future in that. There's some natural limits in terms of what 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:43.280 you know and what you don't know, and you just, you need to live within those types of things. And so you 00:15:43.280 --> 00:15:47.520 should work hard. Be fruitful. Be fruitful in the morning. Be fruitful in the afternoon. Be fruitful in 00:15:47.520 --> 00:15:52.000 the evening. There's other texts about rest, but being fruitful. So that means even if you're retired, 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:56.000 you're still called to be fruitful. Maybe you're being fruitful as your volunteer work with the church. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:00.560 Maybe it's just your helpfulness with your neighbors. Maybe it's just baking cookies and doing all sorts of 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:04.799 other things and having a very neat and tidy and beautiful house. Whatever is, be fruitful. 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:12.239 Being fruitful is a good. Yes, disaster can happen at any time, and just as disaster can happen any time, 00:16:12.239 --> 00:16:17.679 choose to be generous anyway. Disaster can happen at any time, choose to be fruitful. Choose to be fruitful. 00:16:21.119 --> 00:16:27.359 That's the thing, because being fruitful is a good. Now, the verse 6 which I skipped, verse 5 I said, 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:33.680 now this is a, a lot of people get confused by this text because, well, I'll read it. Verse 5, 00:16:33.680 --> 00:16:39.600 as you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:45.680 not know the work of God who makes everything, or it's more literally who does everything. So this isn't 00:16:45.680 --> 00:16:51.600 saying, oh gosh, 3,000 years ago they didn't have obstetricians. That's not what the point is. 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:57.279 The point is something very different, and it's going to become more emphasized throughout the 00:16:57.279 --> 00:17:03.279 rest of this last literary unit, which is the mystery and the miracle of life, 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:10.400 which we just take for granted, but that all life ultimately only comes from God. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:16.160 Now, I'm going to be a little bit controversial. That's, you know, I'm never controversial by the 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:21.360 way here, but it's, I want to just be a bit of a reality respecter. One of the things which is so 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:28.640 powerful about the evolutionary theory of how all things came to be, the neo-Darwinian evolutionary 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:33.200 theory, which is what you basically, everybody in Canada believes, and if you have any doubts about 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:37.840 it, it shows that you probably, I don't know, you know, you drag your knuckles on the ground and you 00:17:37.840 --> 00:17:42.240 can't think and you're dumb and all that type of stuff. And one of the things we need to do is just 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:48.799 push back a lot with that because on one hand, it's very plausible. We can understand how there can be 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:58.880 genetic desirable developments of change. My dad was five foot five and a half. Before gravity started 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:03.440 to win, I was five foot ten and a half. I don't know how tall I am now, but gravity is winning. I'm 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:09.200 shrinking. And my sons are all taller than me. One of my sons is six foot seven. 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:14.559 He drank ant water, for those of you who like 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:21.680 the Lord of the Rings. That's all I can say by it. And so we can understand how there can be this 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:26.080 development, you know, natural development. But here's the thing, the huge Achilles, 00:18:26.080 --> 00:18:33.360 the huge problem Achilles heel with evolutionary theory, it is completely and utterly implausible. 00:18:34.080 --> 00:18:41.200 That dead matter can all of a sudden create life. It is completely implausible that that which has no 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:49.759 mind whatsoever all of a sudden develop mind. It is completely impossible to think that a world 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:55.600 which communicates no information all of a sudden is structured around information. Those are at least 00:18:55.600 --> 00:19:01.519 three but other complete and utter things which make no sense, which we don't expect. Nobody thinks that 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:06.319 all of a sudden the chairs will start to speak to us. Nobody thinks that if there was an explosion in 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:11.599 here that the chairs would start to speak to us, that they would have mind and be able to communicate 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:18.480 information. They can't. How do you go from complete non-life to life? And that is completely implausible to 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:24.960 people. But if that doesn't happen, all the rest of the stuff which is plausible can't actually come to be 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:34.480 without that life. And so this text is saying something that we all intuitively know that's entirely 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:42.960 plausible. That life has to come from that which is life in and of itself. And all life is a gift. 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:52.559 The mystery is, you could do something to make me die and I am just a sack of chemicals. 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:55.600 Where does life come from? 00:19:57.840 --> 00:20:04.640 We are surrounded by life. And in a sense, we are surrounded by evidence of God's existence. 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:12.480 And we all intuitively understand that life is a positive good. In fact, if you look at the next 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:17.920 thing here, verse 7, light is sweet and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. It's 00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:23.759 partially what this book is trying to get us to do as a reality respecter is to understand that 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:30.000 there's things about the actual structure of reality that are inherently symbolic, that we inherently 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:35.839 understand and most cultures have understood other than ones which are very, very evil, that there is 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:41.519 something good about light, that there is a positive good to light. Those of you who've lived in 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:48.319 Vancouver or visited Vancouver, gosh, all of a sudden there's a sunny day for one hour. Wow, that's 00:20:48.319 --> 00:20:52.400 fantastic. Look how beautiful the mountains are. Then the rain comes and the clouds and there you are, 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:59.279 lost in no sunlight for quite a period of time. And so life is a positive good. Light is a positive good. 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:06.160 And both ultimately are things which God has created. And then it continues here with another 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:11.039 thing which is a positive good, which is that a person can sometimes live to be quite old. Look 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:19.759 at verse 8. So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. The teacher isn't being a 00:21:19.759 --> 00:21:24.240 Debbie Downer, a Donnie Downer, but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:30.960 All that comes is vanity. And the word here, vanity, once again, basically the way to understand that 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:37.920 is that it's fleeting. Everything is fleeting. Everything is held together by something other 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:42.640 than itself, that God ultimately has to hold everything together. And so why does it say that? On 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:49.920 one hand, it's a good to have a long life. And you should rejoice in them all. But here's the thing, 00:21:49.920 --> 00:21:59.840 because the book of Ecclesiastes is trying to prepare you to understand, respect reality, and realize 00:21:59.840 --> 00:22:06.800 that reality is pointing to something beyond itself that only ultimately the gospel answers and fulfills. 00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:14.480 And what's it saying here? George, just think for yourself, even if you live to be 100, 00:22:16.159 --> 00:22:20.639 the time after your death will be vastly longer than your 100 years. 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:30.560 Vastly longer. And so the question is, how shall you then live if this is true? 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:36.399 How do you live if this is true? 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:42.240 How do you not ask bigger questions about life? 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:51.359 Even if you live to be 100, the days after you die are going to be vastly longer, 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:54.319 incomparably longer than your 100 years of life. 00:22:54.319 --> 00:23:01.039 So rejoice. Old age is a great good. And then it continues. And it's all setting you up to have a 00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:08.720 more, a very profound understanding of what it means to be a human being, and the shape of reality, 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:14.799 and how it should shape your longings and your prayers. Verse 9 and 10. Rejoice, O young man, 00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:20.960 rejoice, O young woman, in your youth. Rejoice in it. And let your heart cheer you in the days of your 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:27.600 youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things, 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:34.480 God will bring you into judgment. That's not being a downer. It's very important. Verse 10. I'll come 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:43.360 back to it. Remove vexation from your heart. In other words, don't let woes form you. Don't let woes 00:23:43.360 --> 00:23:50.319 form you. Continues on. And put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are fleeting. 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:54.720 That's what vanity means here. Or they can become vanity if you're consumed with them. 00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:03.519 So what's going on here? I mean, I think it was on Friday. I can remember. Just within the last week 00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:11.359 or two, my wife had a group of my granddaughters over. I think their ages ranged from about five to 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:17.200 about seven. And they were making cookies with my wife. And do you know that if you get four little 00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:21.279 girls together with their grandmother making cookies, do you know they bounce? 00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:29.680 I mean, not my wife. She wasn't bouncing. But they bounce. They can't actually stand still. They bounce 00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:35.759 up and down. And they giggle all the time. And they laugh. And it's so beautiful. 00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:44.079 Like, it's so beautiful to watch them giggling and bouncing while they try to mix things and scatter 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:48.799 things all over. Because it's hard to mix something in a bowl when you're bouncing. But, you know, 00:24:48.799 --> 00:24:53.599 Louise is very patient with them. Because what's important is spending time with your granddaughters, 00:24:53.599 --> 00:24:57.920 not how many cookies you can make. If you make three less cookies because of scattered stuff, 00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:02.319 that's fine. Like, life goes on. Because little kids bounce. It's all beautiful. Life is beautiful like 00:25:02.319 --> 00:25:07.439 that, isn't it? And those kids should rejoice in it. And then teenagers and all of that, you should 00:25:07.439 --> 00:25:12.799 rejoice in it. And this thing about judgment, it's going to become more important as we come to the 00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:17.279 end of the text. I'm going to come back to it in another sense. But it's also, it's just really saying, 00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:22.639 but by the way, understand with all of that, that there still is a moral universe. Even though life is 00:25:22.639 --> 00:25:28.240 very short and very fleeting, and you will die, and there's more to life after you die, or the time 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:32.079 after your death is going to be far longer than life before you. But you live in a moral universe. 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:38.720 God sees all things. And by the way, why is it that you assume that if a person just follows their 00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:45.359 heart and does what brings them joy, that it will always mean doing evil things? It will mean, but why 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:52.640 should that be? I mean, the fact of the matter is, the fact of the matter is, it is vastly more fulfilling 00:25:52.640 --> 00:26:00.640 to be generous than to be a hoarder and greedy. It is a better way to live. And for young men 00:26:01.440 --> 00:26:11.280 and young women, your strength, your be heroes, be courageous, defend the weak, pursue justice, 00:26:12.560 --> 00:26:17.920 enter into businesses and make money because you take risks. Those are all positive, beautiful, 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:28.800 good things. Go for it. Goodness is good for you. It really is. If you're able to find one that you 00:26:28.800 --> 00:26:34.160 can marry and stay faithful to them, you know, because it's a good thing. And you can get children 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:41.920 and grandchildren if God is kind to you. Maybe you can't, but you... These are all... It's not just bad things. 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:51.680 Like, pursue that which is good and courage and honor and wisdom and knowledge and kindness 00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:58.160 and gentleness and self-control. Pursue them. 00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:03.360 All the days of your youth. 00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:11.199 You know, the vexation and pain, a lot of that in our lives come from either doing things which are 00:27:11.199 --> 00:27:16.479 quite evil that eventually come to haunt us. But in particular, it's often, I think, because as you 00:27:16.479 --> 00:27:21.199 know, pain resides in your body. I think there's a profound insight here about how emotional and 00:27:21.199 --> 00:27:26.479 mental and spiritual pain comes to reside in your body as well. But a lot of our vexation comes 00:27:26.480 --> 00:27:36.000 because we choose to be hoarders or vast consumers rather than generous. We choose to do these types 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:42.880 of things rather than maybe taking on causality and being fruitful. And we think that we can control 00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:47.920 the future and control external things. And there's no limits for all that. And that's just going to keep 00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:54.559 causing us heartache and pain rather than just coming to accept that some days reality and nature is just 00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:58.559 not all ordered around me. And some days things are going to go very well and some things things are 00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:02.639 going to go very hard. But for me as a Christian, we're going to see in a moment God is still in his 00:28:02.639 --> 00:28:09.279 heaven. And the thing which causes us the most pain is thinking that we can control the future and that 00:28:09.279 --> 00:28:17.359 we will live forever. And those are delusions and lies. Those are delusions and lies. Ecclesiastes is 00:28:17.359 --> 00:28:23.359 telling you the truth. And I was going to tell you something very beautiful which human beings in their 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:29.599 deepest part suspect and believe, but it's being articulated for you. And it's that sad bit that 00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:34.079 Shirley read. Look at verse 12. We're coming to the end of the literary unit 12 verses 1 to 8. 00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:39.199 And it says here, remember also your creator in the days of your youth 00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:45.759 before the evil days come and the years draw near on which you will say, I have no pleasure in them. 00:28:46.719 --> 00:28:50.799 So what's going to go on here? We'll see in a moment. So first of all, I think this is the first time 00:28:50.799 --> 00:28:57.440 in the book that it says very clearly that we have a creator. I am not my own creator. I am vapor. 00:28:58.319 --> 00:29:05.680 But I have a creator who's created me and holds me together. And I have a beginning and I will have 00:29:05.680 --> 00:29:11.200 an end, at least in terms of this earthly existence. But there is a creator who existed before me and 00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:17.039 and while I exist and will exist after me. And I should remember him. And remember here, 00:29:17.039 --> 00:29:21.680 it doesn't just say, oh yeah, yeah, there's a creator. Remember here, if you go through and you 00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:25.839 read what our Jewish friends call the Tanakh and what we call the Old Testament, you'll see like 00:29:26.399 --> 00:29:34.879 it means to contemplate and dwell in the truth of with loyalty and with commitment. That's what 00:29:34.879 --> 00:29:40.000 remember means. So that's why in the fourth commandment says, remember the Sabbath day to 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:45.119 keep it holy. That doesn't mean, oh yeah, it's Sunday. No, that's not what it means. It means to 00:29:45.119 --> 00:29:51.920 dwell in it, to take it to heart, to be loyal to that truth. So remember your creator, the days of 00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:56.240 your youth, the evil days come. I remember, some of you might remember last week I talked about how 00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:03.680 God created life, humans created death. Death came into the world because human beings rebelled against 00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:09.200 God and wanted to become their own creator and be their God and even be the creator of the creator. 00:30:09.840 --> 00:30:15.200 And that brought in evil and evil automatically brought death. And I use the example, you can go 00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:20.480 back and listen to the magnets and how they fall once they're disconnected from God. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:28.640 But what the Bible here is going to say now is that even though human beings brought death in, 00:30:28.640 --> 00:30:37.680 every death is a cosmic tragedy. So the next bit that I'm going to read, the next six verses, 00:30:38.080 --> 00:30:42.400 they're not literal. And there's several different ways. If you go into commentaries, 00:30:42.400 --> 00:30:49.040 there's at several different levels that the imagery works. Sorry, my phone thought I was talking to it. 00:30:49.040 --> 00:30:57.840 That's so crazy. Anyway, it just spoke to me. By the way, if it's China or North Korea trying to 00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:04.559 listen in, I hope you come to Jesus just in case. So there you go. Or whatever AI thing some high-tech 00:31:04.559 --> 00:31:11.759 company is doing. So, oh yeah, where was I? So what you need to hear is this, and partly it's 00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:17.439 a, they're images from nature. Partly it's an image of a great house or a city coming into collapse. 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:23.679 Partially it's just, like if you watch some movies like Lord of the Rings and the darkness, 00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:29.039 which is all coming before the day of apparent doom. It's a series of images not meant to be taken 00:31:29.039 --> 00:31:33.279 literally. And here's what it says, right? So verse one again, chapter 12, verse one, 00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:38.480 remember also your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come 00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:46.799 and the years draw near of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them. Before the sun and the light 00:31:46.799 --> 00:31:55.119 and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain. The clouds work there 00:31:55.119 --> 00:32:02.879 as a like dark storm clouds of doom and the clouds return after the rain. In the day when the keepers of 00:32:02.880 --> 00:32:12.320 the house tremble and the strong men are bent and the grinders cease because they are few and those 00:32:12.320 --> 00:32:20.240 who look through the windows are dimmed and the doors in the street are shut when the sound of the grinding 00:32:20.240 --> 00:32:27.600 is low and one rises up at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song are brought low. 00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:37.039 They are afraid also of what is high and terrors are in the way. The almond tree blossoms. It's an image 00:32:37.039 --> 00:32:47.519 of your hair going gray. The grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails because man, human, a human, 00:32:47.519 --> 00:32:57.279 man and woman is going to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets. Before the silver cord 00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:07.759 is snapped, the golden bowl is broken, where the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, where the wheel broken at the cistern 00:33:08.639 --> 00:33:20.559 and the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanity says the preacher all is vanity. 00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:22.559 Vanity of vanity. 00:33:26.879 --> 00:33:30.799 You know, I talked a bit about the fact that all life is a miracle 00:33:33.440 --> 00:33:38.399 and when this says that what what human being what christians understand human beings to be 00:33:39.359 --> 00:33:44.960 you can look at it from two points of view. You could say that a human being is an enfleshed 00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:51.840 or an embodied soul. The other way that you can look at what a human being is that we are in souled 00:33:51.840 --> 00:34:02.799 bodies or you could say that we are in souled matter where we are in mattered spirit and death is when the 00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:08.559 spirit leaves the body and once the spirit and the soul leaves the body then the body dies 00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:16.960 and this text is saying that ultimately all life is a gift of God and all life ultimately belongs to God 00:34:18.239 --> 00:34:22.320 and it is the greatest of all delusions to believe that we have created ourselves 00:34:23.119 --> 00:34:31.679 or that we own ourselves. We ultimately belong to God. We do not belong to ourself and the part of the 00:34:31.679 --> 00:34:40.960 the unbelievable beauty of humanity is that God took out of dust and made creatures like us that are 00:34:42.399 --> 00:34:52.799 spectacularly beautiful and intricate and fragile and transient and to understand all of the imagery of 00:34:52.799 --> 00:35:00.239 this text you go back and you read John chapter 11 and read the story of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus 00:35:00.239 --> 00:35:09.119 and at the tomb of Lazarus you see Jesus have a profound sigh at the horror of death and decomposition 00:35:10.159 --> 00:35:12.719 and he weeps. 00:35:15.359 --> 00:35:20.799 And so all human death is a divine, is a cosmic tragedy 00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:24.719 and God weeps 00:35:24.719 --> 00:35:30.000 and God weeps. 00:35:35.359 --> 00:35:42.879 But here the whole text is structuring us and trying to form us to understand how the real world actually 00:35:42.879 --> 00:35:48.079 works. And if you'd followed along it says actually if there's only one creator 00:35:48.079 --> 00:35:53.679 is the is the same one who is the source of all life 00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:58.639 And if that one creator who is the source of life is also the source of all good, that's the 00:35:58.639 --> 00:36:02.639 importance of that judgment text, that there is in fact a moral universe and it 00:36:02.639 --> 00:36:03.279 ultimately 00:36:03.279 --> 00:36:08.000 That same God who is the one creator who is the one source of life who is the one source of good 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:11.440 Who is the one judge who is also the one who sees all? 00:36:11.440 --> 00:36:17.340 all, and who's the one who knows all, and as we're going to see at the end, because it says later on 00:36:17.340 --> 00:36:21.360 at the end of the book, that he's the one who speaks, that he is the one who creates all speech, 00:36:21.579 --> 00:36:30.820 and he is the one to whom all things will come to an end, then how can anyone other than him redeem us? 00:36:33.860 --> 00:36:40.740 How can there be another, how can there be any hope other than him? All we can hope on is that 00:36:40.739 --> 00:36:47.299 he has shown himself to be gracious and generous. There is nowhere else to go for hope than him, 00:36:48.299 --> 00:36:55.179 and whatever he does to help us has to be a gift, because the whole structure of reality is that God 00:36:55.179 --> 00:37:01.759 is a constant one giving us gifts to which we receive, and so whatever it is, if there is in 00:37:01.759 --> 00:37:07.699 fact something beyond our death and the dissipation of our body, this beautiful human nature that is 00:37:07.699 --> 00:37:12.759 intricate and beautiful and precious, and over which God weeps, then, 00:37:13.259 --> 00:37:20.000 Lord, have mercy on us. There is no hope other than that which you will send, and we can only receive 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:25.599 as a gift, and so the book of Ecclesiastes is preparing us for Jesus, 00:37:25.599 --> 00:37:34.819 the one who becomes vapor for us, the one who becomes all of those beautiful, intricate things, 00:37:35.159 --> 00:37:40.980 the one who is nailed to the cross, the one by whom which we receive forgiveness of sins and pardons, 00:37:41.159 --> 00:37:47.199 the one by whom when we put our faith and trust in him, we are made born again, and we receive new life, 00:37:47.239 --> 00:37:52.319 and we are union with him, and we know that death is not the end, because sin has been dealt with, 00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:57.980 death has been defeated, he is on the far side of the tomb, death is not the final word, 00:37:58.200 --> 00:38:03.800 there can be no structure other than us, God providing this, we can only receive as a gift, 00:38:04.120 --> 00:38:08.960 and what does it mean for how we live? You become a Christian, 00:38:10.280 --> 00:38:17.900 all good things, all pleasure, all joy comes from him. I mean, how many people here love a really, 00:38:17.900 --> 00:38:23.480 really good, thick, rich cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows, all the pleasure 00:38:23.480 --> 00:38:32.059 of that, that comes from him, that comes from him. It's all of a piece, these profound spiritual, 00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:38.800 mental pleasures, the gift of causality, the gift of fruitfulness, the gift of joy, of love, 00:38:38.860 --> 00:38:44.220 of youth, of life, of energy, the gift of Christ, it's all of one piece, we don't have to pick and 00:38:44.219 --> 00:38:51.179 choose between them. We, out of a concern for the poor, and a concern to be generous in the spirit 00:38:51.179 --> 00:38:55.899 of the gospel, we might have to say we can't buy that Subaru wilderness, the Subaru wilderness version, 00:38:55.980 --> 00:39:00.879 we have to live with a cross trek, because we want to be generous, but it's not as if God is ever 00:39:00.879 --> 00:39:05.019 calling you to give through joy, he wants you to understand that joy is at his right hand, pleasure 00:39:05.019 --> 00:39:11.159 at his right hand, and in his presence is a fullness of joy, and that is the structure of reality, 00:39:11.159 --> 00:39:16.460 that he wants us now to start to walk in and understand that even though we do not know the 00:39:16.460 --> 00:39:29.299 future, that's fine. It's all gift, all gift, and knowing Christ, we say, and knowing that Christ 00:39:29.299 --> 00:39:34.619 ultimately is the one that all of this is pointing to, we know who to say thank you to. Thank you, 00:39:34.619 --> 00:39:42.079 God. Thank you for life. Thank you for Christ. For those of you who don't know him as Savior, 00:39:42.259 --> 00:39:47.980 this is why you just say, Jesus, I didn't realize it's all a gift. I want to receive that gift, 00:39:47.980 --> 00:39:51.240 and I want to belong to you. I invite you to stand. 00:40:01.840 --> 00:40:06.240 Father, we give you thanks and praise that you are a generous God, that you are a giver of all good 00:40:06.240 --> 00:40:11.500 gifts, that pleasure comes from you, that joy comes from you, that life comes from you, that light comes 00:40:11.500 --> 00:40:18.460 from you. We give you thanks and praise, Father, that you have joys that you can give us at every season 00:40:18.460 --> 00:40:25.340 in life. We thank you, Father, that you have given Jesus to be our Savior as a profound and deep gift, a gift 00:40:25.340 --> 00:40:34.019 that defeats death and brings a new life that will last beyond this current time under the sun into the 00:40:34.019 --> 00:40:39.340 new heaven and the new earth. And we ask, Father, that you fill our hearts with gratitude for what Christ 00:40:39.340 --> 00:40:45.300 has done, and may gratitude and generosity and mercy and forgiveness and a concern for justice and 00:40:45.300 --> 00:40:50.800 goodness and truth and beauty, Father, may that, as we receive all of these good things from you, may 00:40:50.800 --> 00:40:57.100 these good things form us, Father, to pursue and to be ones who are fruitful in beauty and fruitful in truth 00:40:57.100 --> 00:41:03.880 and fruitful in justice and fruitful in generosity. Father, help us to be fruitful in Christ, and we ask 00:41:03.880 --> 00:41:05.880 this in Jesus' name. Amen.