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. 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:19.039 Let's just bow our heads in prayer. Father, you tell us in your Word that sometimes your Word 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:29.520 is like a series of pointy sticks which you stick into us to prod us in a direction which is far 00:01:29.520 --> 00:01:36.880 better for us. And Father, we confess that we don't like that. We usually think we know better than you, 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:44.640 and we don't like having pointy sticks jabbed into us. But Father, that is your Word. And we know 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:52.399 because of Jesus that you love us and you desire the best for us. So we ask, Father, that you would work 00:01:52.399 --> 00:01:59.359 your Holy Spirit in our lives, that your Word would do its work within us, that we might know Jesus, 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:07.840 and that we might grow in wisdom and learn how to live a better life until we see you face to face. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:12.960 And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated. 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:28.000 I'm just pausing here because I forgot my phone. I'm actually going through withdrawal symptoms even now. 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:35.120 You know, it's just really hard to handle not having a government tracking system on me at all times, 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:41.439 and to which I, of course, keep powered up. Anyway, there you go. I've said, oh, there we go. 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:45.759 Having a stopwatch on my phone and then not pressing start isn't going to help anybody. 00:02:47.359 --> 00:02:52.479 One of the things we talked about last week was a disappointment with God. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:59.599 And if you're here outside of the Christian faith, you might not know that a lot of Christians 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:06.159 struggle with disappointment with God. And maybe you are here considering leaving the Christian faith, 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:09.039 and I would suggest that lots of times when that happens, 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:14.959 it's connected to disappointment with God. And last week we looked at one sort of form of the 00:03:14.959 --> 00:03:21.039 disappointment of God that takes, it's what I call developing a type of quid pro quo mindset when 00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:25.919 it comes to God, which is I do things for you, God, therefore you are supposed to do things for me. 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:31.280 And so, you know, we think to ourselves, you know, think of all the money I gave Lord, and now I'm having 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:36.159 financial trouble. You know, think of how I was, you know, did all this stuff with Sunday school or 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:40.719 with the sound system or with the women's group or the men's group, and now here I am having these 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:47.679 relationship problems. We sort of expect in part of us that we can put God in our debt, that we can bind 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:54.560 him and control him, and that if we do things, God is required to do things for us. One of the great 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:59.680 struggles for this congregation was that there was a group of people who I think really believed deep 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:03.920 in their hearts that within the first two years of us walking away from our building because we 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:10.560 wanted to be faithful to Jesus, that God owed us a new building. And if we didn't get that new building, 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:14.640 it's either because someone like me wasn't faithful enough and praying enough, or because God 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:22.000 wasn't faithful enough. But it's a real problem. And by the way, this type of problem is an aspect of 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:27.439 lots of disappointment in life, the disappointment of life that comes from different idols that we 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:32.639 follow, that we've been worshipping money, we've been worshipping power, we've been worshipping looks, 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:37.599 and we put all of this effort into these things, and then things just don't work out that way, and we're 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:44.879 disappointed in life. It's a human problem which also affects Christians. But today, the book of 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:50.480 Ecclesiastes is going to look at another source of our disappointment with God in terms of pointing 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:57.360 forward to a better way to live and a better way to understand life. So if you'd take your Bibles 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:06.160 and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 6, Ecclesiastes chapter 6, we're going to start reading at verse 10. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:12.240 We're going to go down to chapter 7, verse 14. I'll see if we get through all of it today. There's an 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:19.680 awful lot in there. This is a book, by the way, Ecclesiastes, which was written almost 3,000 years ago. 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:26.319 I mean, we don't often appreciate it that much, but what we're engaged in today is something very ancient. 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:31.199 When we read the book of Ecclesiastes, on one hand, we are doing what Christians and 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:37.680 Jewish people have been doing for 3,000 years, which is gathering on the Lord's day to open His 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:43.839 Word and hear from it. And the other things in our service for Christian worship, to have a worship 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:49.680 service gathered around the Word, saying a creed, which we just read, which comes from the early 300s, 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:55.360 the Lord's Supper, which has been done almost continuously by Christians for 2,000 years. We're 00:05:55.360 --> 00:06:03.520 engaged in something very ancient. And so in an age which values superficiality to take some time to 00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:10.879 look at a book that's still being read for wisdom 3,000 years almost after it was written, that's, 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:17.360 I think, a wise thing to do. But it's going to begin in a type of odd way. So let's look at how it begins. 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:23.360 It's Ecclesiastes 6, verse 10. And most of us, including me when I read it for the first time, 00:06:24.080 --> 00:06:28.560 don't really know what it's talking about. I had trouble figuring out what it was saying. And here's 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:29.040 what it says, 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:29.680 It says, 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:37.680 Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:43.520 dispute with one stronger than he. Well, I'll read that again. It's Ecclesiastes 6, 10. Whatever has 00:06:43.520 --> 00:06:49.040 come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:54.560 one stronger than he. So this is confusing. So what's really going on here, it's actually a very simple 00:06:54.560 --> 00:07:00.720 idea and very profound idea. Nowadays, when Christians talk about God, we tend to use a lot 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:06.800 of abstract words. And that's a completely valid and important way to do it. I'll talk about how God 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:13.439 is omnipresent. I'll talk about him being omnipotent. I'll talk about him being transcendent, or imminent, 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:19.199 or simple. And there's a variety of words like that that we use that are abstract, and they have their 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:27.039 place. They're very important. But what's happening here is a functional description of God that's 00:07:27.039 --> 00:07:35.360 relevant for human beings to know something about themselves. So it's a functional definition of God 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:48.159 designed to help you become... Now, I read two newspapers a day. I look at the news and all that stuff. 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:54.320 I'm going to say these terms right now, and I don't mean them... I really literally don't know if it's 00:07:54.320 --> 00:07:59.600 a term that the left shoots at the right, or the right shoots at the left, or they both insult each 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:05.840 other with. So don't... I literally don't know, okay? So don't take it as I'm trying to give you some type 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:13.760 of code, of left-wing code or right-wing code. But you maybe have heard people saying about other people 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:20.319 that they're not... they're reality deniers. Those other people, they're reality deniers. We're the 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:27.759 reality embracers. We're the reality acknowledgers. So I don't... you can tell me afterwards if it's a 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:34.159 left-wing slur against right-wing or right-wing slur against left. I don't know the answer to that. But 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:39.360 it's relevant here. Because how it begins, and it's going to be important for the rest, it's a 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:47.919 functional definition of God to help you become a reality embracer, an acknowledger, and stop being 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:55.120 a reality denier. So here's how it goes. If you think of it in this way, now listen to it. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:01.680 Whatever has come to be has already been named. So in the Old Testament, which our Jewish friends 00:09:01.680 --> 00:09:07.840 call the Tanakh, to name something is a sign of authority and sovereignty over it and power over it. 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:14.639 And so what it's saying here is that there is a being who has named everything that exists in the past 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:20.240 and present and future. In other words, there is someone who actually has a God who actually has 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:28.240 authority, sovereignty over every single thing that has existed, is existing, and will exist. He is named 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:35.040 it all. He has sovereignty and authority over it. There is a God who is like that. And this same God knows what 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:42.159 a human being is. And it means here, you can take it both in a singular sense, in particular, or a universal 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:49.120 sense, that this God who has named everything that exists, also actually is the one who knows what human 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:56.719 beings are like. Who knows what I'm like. Not just in general, but very specifically. So if you ask my wife, 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:01.279 she'd say there's still lots of stuff she hasn't figured out about me. That there's lots of stuff 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:07.120 about me, which is a mystery to her, even though we've been married many decades. And I'll be honest 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:12.160 with you, there's things about me that I don't understand as well. You know, sometimes the question 00:10:12.160 --> 00:10:16.480 is, why do you do it? And I'd have to say, well, I don't really know why I did it. It was wrong that I did it. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:23.039 I don't really know why I did it. But what this is saying is that God knows me better than Louise knows me. 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:30.480 But God knows me better than George knows me. And it's the same of you. That God actually knows that 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:36.000 every human being is a bit of a mystery to themselves. Unless you just don't, you think 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:40.800 superficially about yourself. Every human being is a bit of a mystery to themselves. And a lot of people 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:46.079 are mysteries. But God, human beings aren't mysteries to God. I am not a mystery to God. 00:10:46.079 --> 00:10:50.799 He sees and understands me better than I see and understand myself. So it's a functional 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:56.319 definition to help us be a reality embracer. There is a God who is sovereign over all things, 00:10:56.319 --> 00:11:01.839 who knows what human beings are, and he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. It's 00:11:01.839 --> 00:11:07.039 clunky language because it's quite literal. The he here is referring to the fact that human beings 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:14.799 can't dispute with God because God is stronger than me. Like, I do dispute with him in my mind, 00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:21.039 and maybe with my lips, but I can't really. He's stronger than me. And so this is a functional 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:29.199 definition of God. And the question really is, in a sense, why would you believe in a God that's 00:11:29.199 --> 00:11:36.719 anything less than that? So you might be an agnostic in doubt that such a God exists. You might be an 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:41.279 atheist who believe you know that such a God doesn't exist, and that's fine. We can have 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:46.240 conversations around that. But for people who are religious and spiritual in different ways, 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:52.480 why would you worship or trust or serve anything, any God or deity that is less than that? 00:11:55.360 --> 00:12:02.160 Like, why bother if that being or deity, like, if God is just like a force, or if God is just like the 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:08.719 all or the everything or some type of a spirit in the world? I mean, we can control energies, 00:12:08.719 --> 00:12:12.799 and the all is sort of, well, yeah, yeah, there's the all, but the all is sort of irrelevant to me. 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:20.639 And why would you do anything if it's the God that exists? Why would you act as if that the God you 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:25.039 worship or serve, who's less than that, like, why would you bother? It doesn't make any sense. 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:33.439 And that's sort of the functional point which is going on here. But then it is, the problem comes, 00:12:33.439 --> 00:12:38.959 and this is the reality enabler, we're not reality embracer versus the reality denier, and this is 00:12:38.959 --> 00:12:46.959 where the Bible becomes a mirror to us, is that I, in a sense, believe this about other people, that this 00:12:46.959 --> 00:12:53.599 is what God is like, but I don't really believe it about myself. I give myself a pass. Like, that's what 00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:01.040 611 is saying. Look at it. The verse, the more words, the more vanity. And what is the advantage to man? 00:13:01.680 --> 00:13:08.000 And vanity here is a type of thinking yourself way better than you actually are, and it's also, 00:13:08.560 --> 00:13:13.360 at the same time in the original language, it's implying that to just speak more words at God and 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:18.240 dispute with God is a vain pursuit. Why? Because he's stronger than you. It's not going to work 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:23.200 at all. So what's going on here is not making a comment about the number of words. It's not saying, 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:28.240 George, if your whole sermon was just three emojis on the screen and then you sat down, 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:32.879 that would be way better than preaching for 30 minutes. Or that the best emails that you could 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:38.240 send each other is one emoji with no text. Those are the best. It's not saying anything about that. 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:45.040 It's referring back to this idea of disputing with God and arguing with God, complaining about God, 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:51.679 complaining about the way things are. So, um, as other, you know, God should know better. God, 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:57.599 why are you doing this? Uh, just a sense of discontent with God, which we put into some types of words. 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:04.319 And, um, it's going to get developed more as the rest of it goes, but the, what the source of this 00:14:04.319 --> 00:14:09.039 problem is this, and this is the source of our, that this, the type of disappointment with God that's 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:15.839 being talked about in this section, much of your life, much of my life, much of your life is organized 00:14:15.839 --> 00:14:23.279 around thinking that you know the future, that you can manage the future, and that you will not die. 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:35.279 You go outside, you meet a hundred people, and this describes each one of those hundred people. And if 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:41.919 you look in the mirror, it describes yourself. You live your life organized around thinking that you 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:48.639 know the future, that you can manage it, because it's predictable, you'll be able to do things in it, 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:54.559 and that you will not die. There will not be an end to your life. And so, when things don't work out 00:14:54.559 --> 00:15:05.120 that way, when there's a market crash and you lose 30% of your savings in a couple of days, uh, when 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:12.240 in fact, uh, you know, the, the kids that you've, uh, you know, you've lavished your, your attention and 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:17.759 love on completely and utterly rebel against you and say to your face that they hate you and they wish you 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:24.960 were dead, uh, when relationships and friendships that have gone on a long time come to an end, 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:30.960 these are all in some ways different ways that we think that we know the future, we think the future 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:35.360 will go in a particular pattern, and we think we'll be able to control it, and we'll be able to get the 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:39.840 types of things we want, and we don't think we'll ever die and have to take death into account. 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:46.879 And then when reality just doesn't match those expectations, we feel disappointment with life, 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:51.360 disappointment with reality, and if we're a Christian or some other religious or spiritual 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:56.159 person, you feel disappointment. And that's a real thing. 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:05.039 Just by, um, I was talking to a guy about a month or so ago about something to do with this, 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:09.759 because it was, I mentioned Ecclesiastes talks a lot about the, the topic of death, and, uh, it was 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:14.480 really interesting. I, you know, he said about three or four things, and after he'd said about three or four 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:20.000 things, I stopped him and said, you do realize that in every sentence you just said to me, 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:23.440 you talked as if your death is optional. 00:16:25.680 --> 00:16:30.560 You weren't actually able, like I said, you know, part of Ecclesiastes is bringing you face to the 00:16:30.560 --> 00:16:34.560 face with the knowledge that you're going to die. And then he, he said, well, that's sort of 00:16:34.560 --> 00:16:38.000 reasonable. He said a variety of things, but every single one of the cases, none of them did he say, 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:43.840 and I am going to die. He always talked as if it was an option. And of course, who's going to pick 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:49.120 the option of dying? I mean, very few people. I know in Canada there's an increasing number, 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:56.240 but that's a whole other sermon topic about what's going on there. So our disappointment with God is, 00:16:56.240 --> 00:17:02.480 uh, is, uh, is, uh, that these things just don't happen the way that we think they're going to happen. 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:04.480 Um, 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:16.079 yeah. So the rest of the book is going to ask, it's going to ask, sorry, there's, I've lost my place in 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:23.200 my notes. So the next questions are going to, uh, introduce a section where it's a series of, uh, 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:32.880 uh, sticks that prod us to, to consider the fact that we think that life is that to challenge our 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:38.880 assumption that life is organized, that we can organize our life around thinking we know the future, 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:43.840 we can manage the future, we can succeed in the future, and we will not die. And it's going to, 00:17:43.840 --> 00:17:47.360 and, and if that doesn't happen, we're disappointed. And it's going to try to have us 00:17:47.360 --> 00:17:53.039 to live a wiser life. And so these next two questions in verse 12 will help us. It goes like 00:17:53.039 --> 00:18:00.079 this, verse 12, for who knows what is good for man or for a human being? Well, a human being lives 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:06.240 the few days of their vain life. And vain here means that your life is very brief. And then it 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:14.559 has this very powerful image, which he passes like a shadow. For who can tell man what will be after 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:20.240 him under the sun? For those of you who love C.S. Lewis, you'll know that in several of his essays, 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:27.120 and it has its greatest telling in the final book of his Narnia Chronicles, The Last Battle. He refers to 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:33.920 this world that we live in as the Shadowlands. And I don't know if he got that from Plato, 00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:40.160 or if he got that from reading Ecclesiastes, or some other source, but it's, it's very interesting. 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:45.680 It, it sort of just says that at the end of the day, the impact, the real impact that we have on the 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:50.400 world is a little bit like the impact a shadow has in passing through a room. 00:18:53.360 --> 00:18:58.960 Now that's a depressing thought for Canadians, which I'm going to get to in a moment. Why is 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:06.160 Ecclesiastes depressing us? Shouldn't religion and spirituality make us feel positive and upbeat, 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:12.880 not depress us? But the question is in verse 12, who knows? Well, the question is that somebody does 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:18.800 know, God knows. What is in fact good for a human being while he lives in a brief life? 00:19:19.600 --> 00:19:26.160 Vain here means like vapor, a life that's just very passing, and which in a say he walks through like a 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:32.080 shadow. And then the question for who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:40.240 Well, the implication is we, God can tell us what happens after because God has named everything 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:45.439 that exists, but I'm jumping ahead. So now he gets into these questions to try to prod us, 00:19:45.439 --> 00:19:50.159 to stick us, to make us try to think in a different way, a wiser way. And the first one is like this. 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:57.359 I'm going to stop. I'll read the, just the first part of chapter seven, verse one. It goes like this. 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:03.919 A good name is better than precious ointment. Now what's going on here? It's a thought experiment. 00:20:04.959 --> 00:20:09.839 And the thought experiment is like, as I imagine, it's a little bit like the book by Dickens, 00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:15.759 A Christmas Carol. But God appears to, let's say, we'll just use Jono, just because he's here and 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:21.679 he's my mate, he's my brother in Christ. And God appears before Jono and says, Jono, I'm going to show 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:26.720 you, I'm going to give you a chance and a vision to see what's going to be said about you at your funeral. 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:33.120 And then God says, by the way, mate, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is you're 00:20:33.120 --> 00:20:38.240 going to live another 35 years. The bad news is Jesus isn't going to return for more than 35 years. 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:43.680 You're going to die before he returns. And Jono goes to his funeral, where you go to your funeral, 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:50.320 and what would you rather have said about you at the funeral afterwards? Would you rather have said, 00:20:52.720 --> 00:21:01.920 Jono was a really good person? Or would you rather hear them say, Jono had a lot of expensive stuff? 00:21:07.840 --> 00:21:12.960 Which, of course, is completely useless now. What would you rather have said at your funeral? 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:18.240 Boy, Jono, I'm going to miss him. He was a really good person. Or, you know, 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:24.560 the thing about Jono, he had a lot of expensive stuff. I mean, when you put the question to you 00:21:24.560 --> 00:21:31.120 very bluntly, most people would say, I'd rather be thought of as a good person. It's actually pretty 00:21:31.120 --> 00:21:37.600 dismissive to be just said about me that I had a lot of expensive stuff. But then, see, the next thing 00:21:37.600 --> 00:21:42.080 for us is that we're not going to learn the lesson from this, because what we want to do next is 00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:47.119 think to ourselves so we can have it both ways. Without realizing, as the rest of the thing is 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:53.359 going to go and point out, that actually, if you want to start living your life in such a way that 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:59.439 on your funeral, at your funeral, people say, the thing about Louise, the thing about Daniel, 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:05.680 the thing about Laurier, the thing about Deborah, is they were a really good person, 00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:10.000 and not that they had a lot of expensive stuff, then that means you're going to have to change your 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:16.480 life now. Like, it means you're going to have to be financially generous, which means you're going 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:20.000 to have less money to buy expensive stuff. It doesn't mean you can't buy some expensive stuff, 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:23.039 you can't just buy as much. It means you're going to have to learn how to forgive. It means you're 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:27.279 going to have to learn how to be patient. It means you're going to have to learn how to forgive. It 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:31.759 means you're going to have to learn how to have some resilience in dealing with hard times. So, 00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:35.839 there's a whole pile of things you're going to have to learn if, in fact, on your deathbed, 00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:40.159 not on your deathbed, but at your funeral, people say, this person was a really good person, not 00:22:40.159 --> 00:22:44.960 they're a person who has a really had a lot of stuff. And then look at the second part of the verse, 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:51.440 which is a shocking thing. And these two things really are the introduction to the five verses which 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:58.720 follow. A good name is better than precious ointment, verse, half of the verse, and the second one, 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:04.880 and the day of death than the day of birth, right? So, a good name is better than precious ointment, 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:13.519 and the day of death is better than the day of birth. Now, that doesn't make any sense to Canadians. 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:25.920 I mean, death is depressing. In the different coffee shops that I've been to over the years, 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:29.759 if I happen to mention to them, if they say something about, like, what are you doing today? 00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:33.759 And I don't hide things from them. I'll say things like, and this is partially how you have 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:37.359 Christian conversations with people. They say, oh, what are you going to be doing next? I'll say, 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:42.639 well, I'm going to go read the Bible and pray. They go, like, oh, you're going to go read the Bible and pray? 00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:47.360 Like, why wouldn't you say that if that's what you're about to do? Like, why is it we would hide that, right? 00:23:47.360 --> 00:23:50.560 But sometimes they say, well, I'm going to be doing a funeral in an hour, and they go, oh my, 00:23:50.560 --> 00:23:56.560 you can just see they sag. That must be so hard, so terrible. Because for Canadians, it's, there's 00:23:56.560 --> 00:24:01.360 nothing that can go with that. But there's this idea here that, you know, if you want to know what is 00:24:01.360 --> 00:24:10.000 good, the part of the process to knowing how to have a better life, do good, have a good, some good 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:16.559 things happen, have a better life, the part, hard part of it's going to be that you need to spend 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:23.119 more time thinking about the day of death than the day of birth. There's a Scottish pastor by the name 00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:27.519 of, I think his name is David Gibson. If I don't have his name right, that's my problem. But he 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:32.480 summarizes this section in a very, very brilliant, beautiful way. I'm just paraphrasing it because he, 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:36.400 I had to look up some of the words because they were Scottish words that I didn't know what they 00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:42.800 meant in Canadian English in 2025. But he basically said, a body in the casket 00:24:43.600 --> 00:24:50.480 will teach you vastly more about wisdom and the good life than a baby in its car seat. 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:59.920 That's what he's, that's what's being said in this section. A body in the casket 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:08.160 will teach you vastly more about wisdom and the good life than a baby in its car seat or crib. 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:15.120 Or to make it right, rhyme a bit that a body in the casket will teach you more than a baby in a basket. 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:23.440 Several weeks ago, I talked about how, you know, everybody has a view of the world. Everybody has 00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:28.880 a philosophy of life. It doesn't matter if you spend your time in bars. It doesn't matter if you spend 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:34.640 your time studying philosophy, getting a PhD or teaching it. Everybody has a view of the world, 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:40.000 a philosophy of life. And if I was to say that your view of the world and philosophy of life, 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.559 if it doesn't account for how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, you'd all say that's 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:50.000 ridiculous, George. That nobody's philosophy of life has to include a discussion of how many angels 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:57.119 can dance on the head of a pin. But, as I said a couple of weeks ago, every philosophy or life or 00:25:57.119 --> 00:26:03.039 view of the world has to take account death. And not just death in general, but your death. 00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:09.279 Your own death and the death of your loved ones. And if your philosophy of life, 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:16.160 if your view of the world doesn't take that into account, it can't be thoughtful and wise. 00:26:16.160 --> 00:26:26.880 Like, it literally cannot be thoughtful and wise. Because death is not an option. 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:33.200 So here it says, a good name, verse chapter 7, verse 1, is better than precious ointment. 00:26:35.600 --> 00:26:39.920 And the day of death is better than the day of birth. And it continues developing this theme. It is 00:26:39.920 --> 00:26:47.440 better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For this, that is, 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:53.680 the house of mourning, is the end of all human beings, and the living will lay it to heart. 00:26:55.279 --> 00:27:02.320 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. 00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:07.759 Now, that's, what does that mean here? What it means here is this. First of all, 00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:13.919 actually, I'll read verse 4, and then I'll go back. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, 00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:21.759 but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. Now, it's not just saying that going to funerals will 00:27:21.759 --> 00:27:27.599 make you wise, because the fact is, and I know I might be offending some people, and I might make 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:32.799 some of you feel uncomfortable. But I'm only talking about this because this is what Ecclesiastes is 00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:40.079 talking about. And I'm, it's partly, a big part of my job is for you to hear this Bible text addressing 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:47.919 you. I need to hear it address me first, but I need help each of us hear the Bible address each of us 00:27:47.919 --> 00:27:55.359 concretely. If you go to most Canadian funerals, and you listen to what they say, you will leave more 00:27:55.359 --> 00:28:01.919 foolish than when you came in. And I say that because much foolishness is said at Canadian 00:28:01.919 --> 00:28:08.159 funerals. They'll quote a famous poem from written in 1910, and it might have been true of one Christian 00:28:08.159 --> 00:28:13.599 talking to another Christian, but they'll, it's a very common thing, a group of secular Canadians 00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:19.679 talking to other secular Canadians about not being sad at death, because all that the person who's died 00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:25.680 has just done has gone into another room. Just, just the next room, the next room over. So don't be sad. 00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:36.080 Or you'll be told that they're looking down on you, the loved one. I just, okay, this is bad. 00:28:37.120 --> 00:28:42.080 For a whole pile of people who don't like Trump, Trump dies, would it be reassuring to know that 00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:50.960 Trump was looking down on you? If you die the day after Trump does, would it be reassuring that 00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:56.799 you're going to go to a room with Trump next door for all eternity? Now, for, on the other hand, 00:28:56.799 --> 00:29:00.720 for those of you who hate Trudeau or Carney or whatever, that's the exact same thing. Would it 00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:06.319 be comforting for you to think that you can't escape Trudeau's look and you'll spend all eternity in the 00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:12.159 next room? Like, really? Really? And then why on earth would you believe that? Like, what makes 00:29:12.159 --> 00:29:17.279 you think? What evidence is there that you, that anything like that will happen? It's, it's ways to 00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:25.200 avoid thinking about the casket. There is no evidence for it. And, and this is where it comes home that it's, 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:30.960 so what's really more important even than just thinking about a body in a casket, this is what's really 00:29:30.960 --> 00:29:37.600 struck me these last couple of days, is that do I spend time thinking that I will be in a casket? 00:29:39.840 --> 00:29:45.920 And not just me, but that someday Louise will be in a casket, that my kids will be in a casket, 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:52.079 that my grandchildren will be in a casket, that I will be in a casket, a dead body. 00:29:52.079 --> 00:30:03.599 See, death isn't optional. And for Canadians, the idea that you're going to die and the idea that you 00:30:03.599 --> 00:30:08.720 can't control the future, George, these are just completely and utterly depressing thoughts. And 00:30:08.720 --> 00:30:17.199 that's where the writer, the teacher of Ecclesiastes says, exactly. If you don't have that period of sadness, 00:30:17.200 --> 00:30:25.840 you will never know gladness. That's what it means. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness, 00:30:25.840 --> 00:30:32.160 the face of the heart, the face of, by sadness of face, the heart is made glad. That, that earlier 00:30:32.160 --> 00:30:38.880 step of considering the fact, George, that you will die, you will be in that casket. And how should I then 00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:47.039 live if that is in fact a truth about me? It's depressing and saddening when we think about it at first, 00:30:47.039 --> 00:30:53.759 but there is the possibility of gladness as a result of doing it. And then, and then it actually has 00:30:53.759 --> 00:30:58.240 this whole thing about hearing the rebuke of the text, which is very uncomfortable for Canadians. 00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:04.240 That's what's going on here in verses five and six, where it says, it is better for a man or a woman 00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:11.839 to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, 00:31:11.839 --> 00:31:18.559 so is the laughter of the fools. This also is vanity. In other words, it's far better for you to 00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:24.079 hear this than to hear that famous song, Is That All There Is? If that's all there is, my friend, 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:31.919 we should just get drunk and dance, because that's all there is. Famous song of the 60s, which is still 00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:40.240 played. If that's all there is. This is far wiser. Not the mirth of people in a bar singing a song like 00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:46.000 that and saying, I will drink to that, and is there a light for my cigarette. That's the... 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:52.799 That's not hearing the wise rebuke of Ecclesiastes. 00:31:56.160 --> 00:32:02.640 Now, the next thing then is, so if the meditating upon the fact of your death is going to help make 00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:08.880 you wise, the next little bit, which I have to deal with shortly to bring things to a conclusion, 00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:15.600 there's a warning here that wisdom has to do its full work, and wisdom and its wisdom... the wisdom 00:32:15.600 --> 00:32:21.520 you get from thinking upon this is not invulnerable, that you can lose wisdom by... in a variety of 00:32:21.520 --> 00:32:30.800 different ways. That wisdom is a true good, and life is better with wisdom than without, but wisdom can 00:32:30.800 --> 00:32:37.200 be lost. And in verses 7 to 10, it's going to give you a variety of wisdom killers, and that's what 00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:42.480 here is verse 7. Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart. 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:48.799 And it's not talking about a wise person being oppressed, and it's not talking about a wise... 00:32:48.799 --> 00:32:54.880 What it's talking about is that if I get some wisdom, but then I start to oppress people, 00:32:55.360 --> 00:33:01.840 it means that wisdom will flee from me. If I start using bribes or receiving bribes, it will 00:33:01.839 --> 00:33:08.000 take my wisdom far from me. Verse 8, better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:14.399 in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Just very, very briefly, it's saying that patience is 00:33:14.399 --> 00:33:21.359 something that is in keeping with wisdom, but pride will kill wisdom. Verse 9, be not quick in your spirit 00:33:21.359 --> 00:33:28.319 to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. That just as oppressing people, taking bribes, 00:33:28.319 --> 00:33:35.839 and showing favoritism is not wise, and will reduce and kill wisdom in you. To be not to be patient, 00:33:35.839 --> 00:33:42.319 but impatient, to be filled with pride will kill wisdom in you. To become anger-driven will kill 00:33:42.319 --> 00:33:49.439 wisdom in you. And then here's a really surprising one, nostalgia will kill wisdom in you. Say not. Verse 00:33:49.439 --> 00:33:54.319 10, why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. 00:33:54.319 --> 00:34:00.799 Nostalgia is self-indulgence. It stops you from acting. It stops you from assessing things that 00:34:00.799 --> 00:34:06.720 are going on. It means that you turn your eyes away from the bad things that went on in the past, and 00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:12.079 make it all look like it was good, and it makes the the evil things of today look far worse. It's 00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:14.000 something that will kill wisdom in you. 00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:20.960 And then it says, listen, you've got to try to hold on to it. Look at what it says in verses 11 and 12. 00:34:20.960 --> 00:34:29.039 Wisdom is good. Wisdom is good with an inheritance. If you have money, wisdom is good if you have money. 00:34:29.039 --> 00:34:34.000 And it's an advantage to those who live under the sun. For the protection of wisdom is like the 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:40.000 protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:47.280 And so it's saying to us, listen, wisdom is worth it. Like this idea that we're going to, 00:34:47.280 --> 00:34:54.079 you see, the problem is for most Canadians, because most Canadians think to themselves that our life has 00:34:54.079 --> 00:34:58.800 to be organized thinking that we know the future, and that we can manage it, and that we can be 00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:04.639 successful with our goals, and that we will not die. And then to realize that in fact things come up in 00:35:04.639 --> 00:35:10.480 our lives that we can't control, and they change in radical ways, we're going to get into that more 00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:15.119 in a moment, and that we will die. The average person says, well, what's the use of anything? 00:35:15.119 --> 00:35:19.599 Like how can there be anything good if all of those things are going to happen? And the Bible wants to 00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:26.159 remind us that in fact wisdom is always better than foolishness, and life is better than death. 00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:32.079 And to manage even the shortness of life, and even the fact that you're going to die, it's always 00:35:32.079 --> 00:35:38.000 better to do that with wisdom than without. But wisdom can be lost. So be careful about these types 00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:44.480 of vices around pride, and impatience, and anger, and nostalgia, which is a surprising one, but it's a 00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:49.359 really important one for Canadians. And let me know, I mean, maybe a whole pile of you millennials, you 00:35:49.359 --> 00:35:53.839 haven't started saying how things the following generations aren't as good as you guys. Maybe you 00:35:53.840 --> 00:35:58.559 haven't said that yet, maybe you already have it. I can tell you that baby boomers say it all the time. 00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:05.840 What's the problem with all these millennials? And I can tell you, you millennials, you're going to be 00:36:05.840 --> 00:36:11.920 saying it about the next generations, because it's a human problem. So this little bat bit, maybe God 00:36:11.920 --> 00:36:16.480 just threw it in here just for Canadian boomers, I don't know, and generation Xers, or whatever other 00:36:16.480 --> 00:36:22.079 those generations are, because we regularly say it, you know. But it's a positive good. 00:36:24.559 --> 00:36:28.640 And then the thing is all wrapping itself up. Consider the work of God. Verse 13. 00:36:29.840 --> 00:36:32.000 Who can make straight what he has made crooked? 00:36:33.920 --> 00:36:39.600 And then verse 14. In the day of prosperity, be joyful, and in the day of adversity, consider. 00:36:40.880 --> 00:36:48.800 God has made the one as well as the other. Why? So that human beings may not find out anything that will be after him. 00:36:48.800 --> 00:36:55.519 It's a positive good for us that we don't know the future. It is a positive good for us that the future 00:36:55.519 --> 00:37:02.160 isn't a straight line that we can discern, but it's a crooked line that we can't discern. It is a good 00:37:02.160 --> 00:37:06.480 thing for us to know that there will be times when some things will happen which we should just receive 00:37:06.480 --> 00:37:12.000 as a gift. And there will be other things that we can, that then we just, but we can't control things. 00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:16.400 I mean, this is filling into the, one of the main messages of the whole book, that there are things 00:37:16.400 --> 00:37:20.320 that happen. Can I control the future? No. Can I enjoy a cup of coffee right now? Yes. 00:37:21.200 --> 00:37:28.080 It's not just living for the moment. It's to receiving, understanding that the heart of all reality is going to be for us as human beings, 00:37:28.080 --> 00:37:34.720 because we didn't create all things, we don't sustain all things, we won't bring all things to their proper end, we are going to die. 00:37:35.039 --> 00:37:40.720 We are ones who constantly are just receiving. And some of the things that we receive are gifts. 00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:44.399 And we should be grateful and receive it and enjoy it. 00:37:46.879 --> 00:37:51.919 But now that we've got to the end of this, we start to see why this book is written in the Bible, 00:37:52.879 --> 00:38:01.279 and why it's an important book to consider. Because if this really grabs you, if you spend time 00:38:01.279 --> 00:38:07.199 contemplating the fact that one day you will be in a casket, you will be a corpse in a casket, 00:38:07.199 --> 00:38:18.879 then all of a sudden, as that becomes more real to your heart, you appreciate the shock of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 00:38:18.879 --> 00:38:27.279 You understand the shock of the claim that Jesus makes that he will die upon the cross, a shameful death, 00:38:27.919 --> 00:38:33.679 but that on the third day he will not just return to life, but he will defeat death, 00:38:33.679 --> 00:38:44.559 he will defeat that which causes death, and that he will rise from the dead. And that what he does is not just a private victory for himself that we will marvel at, 00:38:44.559 --> 00:38:53.519 but that the entire purpose he came is that for those who understand that their future is a corpse in a casket, 00:38:53.519 --> 00:39:00.400 that the world is a corpse in a casket, and have come to understand that God is greater and stronger than them, and they cannot fight against it. 00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:08.000 The cry of our heart and the question of our heart is surely death is not the final word. 00:39:09.199 --> 00:39:17.840 And surely if wisdom is better than evil, evil cannot be the final word. There must be a final word, which is a wise word. 00:39:17.840 --> 00:39:20.720 And death cannot be the final word. 00:39:20.720 --> 00:39:21.280 And death cannot be final. 00:39:21.280 --> 00:39:28.240 O God, who are sovereign and all-powerful and wise and the giver of all good gifts, 00:39:28.240 --> 00:39:34.960 is there a gift that you will give for me and my mortality and the certainty of my death? 00:39:37.120 --> 00:39:41.840 And John the Baptist comes a thousand years after that saying, 00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:53.120 God has kept his word. The one he has promised has come. And one day he is standing there and he looks at the person who is his cousin, 00:39:53.120 --> 00:39:56.079 and he sees a man walking and he says to his disciples, 00:39:56.079 --> 00:40:01.360 Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:09.039 And he is the one who will die on the cross. He is God's greatest gift. 00:40:09.039 --> 00:40:15.119 It is the gift of wisdom. It is the gift of life. It is the gift of the true and greater blessing. 00:40:15.360 --> 00:40:22.800 It is the gift that all lesser gifts of joy point to. The real life of Jesus upon this earth. 00:40:22.800 --> 00:40:29.599 His real death upon the cross. His real burial in the tomb. And his real resurrection, 00:40:29.599 --> 00:40:34.559 His real life of God. And his real life of God. And his real life of God. And his real life of God. 00:40:34.559 --> 00:40:36.559 To lowly people like you and me. 00:40:37.679 --> 00:40:40.400 Who call out and say, Lord, have mercy upon me. 00:40:42.239 --> 00:40:43.279 Take me to yourself. 00:40:46.559 --> 00:40:51.039 My only hope of thinking upon myself lying in a casket is this. 00:40:51.039 --> 00:41:01.759 To know if I look at myself in the future and I to say, that as my eyes closed on this world, 00:41:02.880 --> 00:41:11.920 as my eyes closed on the shadow lens, my eyes were opened on the other side with a call from my 00:41:11.920 --> 00:41:17.039 Savior who died for me, for whom I'm in union with. And he says, George, 00:41:17.039 --> 00:41:21.519 George, come higher up and come higher and farther in with me. 00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:25.440 Invite you to stand. 00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:35.679 Bow our heads in prayer. 00:41:40.320 --> 00:41:45.679 Father, we give you thanks and praise that you do want to help everybody to have a better life and 00:41:45.679 --> 00:41:50.319 and live a better life. But most of all, Father, you want us to think about these deep things, 00:41:50.319 --> 00:41:57.279 not so we will learn new abstractions, but that we will come to the concrete, real reality of your 00:41:57.279 --> 00:42:07.039 Son, Jesus, that great gift. Emmanuel coming and living amongst us, taking vapor into yourself, 00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:14.319 so to speak. And Jesus walks amongst us, a man, but fully God, fully man, but one person who dies 00:42:14.320 --> 00:42:18.320 as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Father, we thank you that you don't want us 00:42:18.320 --> 00:42:23.440 just to come to new abstractions and new insights, although you do want us to come to those things, 00:42:23.440 --> 00:42:29.680 but most of all, you want us to come to Jesus. We thank you for that. And we ask, Father, that your 00:42:29.680 --> 00:42:34.640 Holy Spirit, your Word, and as we contemplate the reality of our life and its frailty and the fact that 00:42:34.640 --> 00:42:40.000 we will die, that this Father will make us more and more in love with Jesus. Trusting and knowing, 00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:45.440 Father, that as who He is and what He has accomplished for us becomes more real to our hearts, 00:42:46.559 --> 00:42:52.400 that just as He became poor, that we might become rich, that we will be generous, that just as He 00:42:52.400 --> 00:42:58.400 died that our sins will be forgiven, we will learn to forgive. That just as He has been patient with us, 00:42:58.400 --> 00:43:04.320 that we will learn to be patient with others. That just as He spoke the truth, that we will love the 00:43:04.320 --> 00:43:10.080 truth, that we will become more like Him, and that on the day of our death in Christ, people will say 00:43:10.080 --> 00:43:18.000 not just that we were a good person, but that we were a good person who knew Jesus. Father, that is 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:24.640 our cry and our prayer, that that will be how we will be known. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, 00:43:24.639 --> 00:43:34.400 your Son and our Savior. Amen.