Rejoice but Remember - Joel Schrock

Good morning. I also want to welcome everyone here and

say thank you for being here. It's been mentioned a

few times that some of the changes here with Levi's

leaving and John's leaving, and glad to have Glendon's and

Kendrick's here, and we'll maybe forgive them sometime for kidnapping John's,

but glad to have him here for a Sunday at

least this morning. I'd like to speak on a subject

that tends to be it's going to be more directed

at youth, young people, uh than than average probably, but

before three fourths of you stop listening, I would like

to speak to all of us youth and you know,

so what who are the youth? Right? There's different ways

of defining that. Some of this uh message maybe a

few of the youth. I've heard me share a little

of this before. But one definition of youth is a

time when one is young, it's the youth. Another one

is that stage, kind of that awkward stage where you

don't know where you fit in between childhood and adulthood.

You know, you're starting to look like an adult, act

like a child vice versas some times you you be

the appearance of freshness, vigor spirit, youthful. The United Nations

defines youth maybe similarly to what we do fifteen to

twenty four was understand it. So maybe just an idea.

If you're in that fifteen to twenty four year old range,

why don't you stand up and we can get get

a good look at you. That's the youth according to

the UN. All right, you can sit down, thank you.

If you don't like that definition, you can keep looking.

And the sub Saharan African countries tend to start they

call youth starting about twelve twelve years old and going

up more to the thirties, thirty to thirty five. So

I like that definition a little better. You could you

could market different ways. You know, you think of the

prime of your life, maybe physical strength, mental acuity, maybe

that sort of freshness and bigger spirit. Physical strength is

said to peak depending on a lot of things, but

on average somewhere between twenty five and thirty seven, depending

how active you remain. Probably my peak is before thirty seven.

There's there's there's different you know, we can think of

this is not, this is not really doesn't have to

do a lot with youth, but you think of sort

of peaks and primes, activity, so forth. On average, people

make the most money in a week or a month

or whatever you want to gauge it by between forty

five and fifty four, but their net worth doesn't spike

until in the seventies. Generally, if you talk about political prime,

that seems to be about eighty anymore. Cognitives peak. I

don't know how this is figured. I don't know what

all that's calculating into this, but probably we'll get a picture.

Some of this is said to be around mid thirties.

When you factor in a bunch of things. One information

processing speed and you can kind of see that click

right along, flip from one thing to the next process

quickly about eighteen or nineteen. Short term memory tends to

be the best between twenty five and thirty five, emotional

understanding the forties and fifties, vocabulary on average peaks in

the sixties, and crystallized intelligence you've gained all your life

sixties and seventies. So all of these things include most

of us. So I'm going to say that in this room,

most or all of us have some youthful characteristics, some strengths,

or in the prime of our life in some regard

like I said, more of this message will be directed

at those we consider to be youth, but I hope

there's something here for all of us. Youth has been

a time of life that is thought to be important

for various reasons. You can read it through the Bible

other ancient philosophers. Aristotle said, good habits formed in youth

make all the difference. Good habits formed in youth make

all the difference, all the difference later in life. And

I think we'll see that. We'll see some examples from

the Bible where that really holds true. Euripides, another ancient philosopher, said,

whoso neglects learning in his youth loses the past and

is dead for the future. And a lot of times

we think, well, when we're in our youth, we can

think the past isn't all that important. We'll just roll

into the future, saying if you neglect learning in your youth,

you'll lose the past and be dead for the future.

You can turn to Ecclesiastes eleven, and this is our

This is end of eleven. First part of twelve is

going to be kind of our text. And where we

get the title title of this messages rejoice but remember,

So I start reading, and I'll say, at the outset here,

I don't understand everything that's going on in chapter twelve,

so but I'm going to read a bunch of it

comment on a little bit of it. But chapter eleven

verse nine through chapter twelve, verse seven, I think if

you pay attention to the progression here, youth is being

addressed in verses in chapter eleven verses nine, ten, and

chapter twelve, verse one, and then it looks like he's

speaking about old age things that are happening. Do this

in your youth. Here's before this, and you get to

about six verses six and seven, and death is being

discussed here. Pretty quick transition. So start reading Chapter eleven,

verse nine. Rejoice, o young man, in thy youth, and

let thy heart cheer THEE in the days of thy youth,

and walk in the ways of thine heart and in

the sight of thine eyes. But know thou that for

all these things God will bring THEE into judgment. Therefore,

remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from

thy flesh. For childhood and youth are vanity. Chapter twelve.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,

while the evil days come not, nor the years draw niyeh,

when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.

While the sun or the light, or the moon or

the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after

the rain. In the days when the keepers of the

house shall tremble, and you can read commentary and like

amplified and some of those things, and it'll label all

these things as hands, feet, eyes, ears and so forth

that are failing kind of a picture of old age,

not going to get into a lot of that. And

the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease

because they are few, and those that look out of

the windows be darken, and the doors be shut in

the streets when the sound of the grinding is low,

and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird,

and all the daughters of music shall be brought low also,

and they shall be afraid of that which is high,

and fears shall be in the way, and the almond

tree shall flourish, and the grasshoppers shall be a burden,

the little things grasshoppers, lots of grasshoppers can be a

big deal. But I think this might have the thought

of little things being a big deal, and and desire

shall fail, because man goeth to his long home, and

the mourners go about the streets. Or ever the silver

cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or

the picture broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken

at the system, then shall the dust return to the

earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto

God who gave it. And so I think, as we'll

go through there, through this, we'll see this contrast. We'll

see this like rejoice, but remember you're going to give

account for this, and this is going to happen pretty quickly.

So Youth, the Younger Youth, Chapter eleven, verse nine says,

to rejoice, Do rejoice, Let your heart cheer. You be thankful,

Be thankful for the good health and the You know,

there's sort of this progression when you know, when you're young,

you just fall in your bounce, and it's where you

get old and you fall on your break and you're

towards the bouncy side still, and you don't really notice

those things. You know, your your legs are bouncy, your

voice is clear, young man, muscles flexing. You know you

only have one chin so far, so rejoice. You can

play volleyball. You can jump, you can set, you can spike.

You can wake up the next morning and not even

notice it. Rejoice, Rejoice, that's good. Your mind is sharp.

You can absorb lots of information, you can memorize things. Rejoice.

You have time and energy to do things, hunt, travel,

go to Bible school, mission projects, go to a coffee

shop with a friend. Rejoice, Do rejoice, but know thou

that for all these things. Don't just rejoice and have

a cheered heart. Do that, But no, thou that for

all these things, God will bring you into judgment. And

God's paying attention. And if you read at the end

of the chapter, which we'll do later, even the secret things.

Verse ten says to put away sorrow, and earlier Leland

shared at the funeral of Priscilla that that the it's

better to go to the house of mourning and some

of these things. And I don't think this is in

conflict with that there's a time for everything. Put away sorrow,

but that's not all. Don't just put away sorrow, put

away evil as well. In verse ten, then we get

to chapter twelve and it says, remember so rejoice, but

remember remember your creator. Now right now, this is where

I think It says, remember now thy Creator, in the

days of thy youth. But I think, no matter what

stage of life we're in, now is the time to

remember our creator, Remember your creator right now. There's a

song based on this passage that I've enjoyed. Believe it's

titled remember Thy Creator, and in it the author takes

some imaginative liberties. I suppose here's some of here's some

of what the song says. Picture an old man on

a park bench, gray, felt hat down around his ears.

He's come to realize that there's nothing left to say

about all those wasted years. Rejoice, young man, in your youth,

and do what seems right in your eyes. In the end,

you will stand alone and answer to your God. So

we have that, we have that contrast brought out again. Rejoice,

do what seems right, but remember that you will give

an account. You will give an account for that. So

the challenge is, don't get to the end of your

life and have a lot of and have wasted years

to look back. Now you will, you will. There's kind

of two options when you go from here. You will

get older or you will die. That's the two options.

You will not stay. You cannot hit pause on the

life on the life train. That's the options. No one

makes it out of this world alive unless you know,

I suppose the second coming of Christ. But as we

know it, this is what happens. You get older or

you die. And as was mentioned, Priscilla just reminded us

of this. She lived for over one hundred and three years.

Beautiful life, lived, full life, long life. But no matter

how full, beautiful or long, our lives will come to

an end. And as we see here in chapter twelve,

our bones, our teeth, our muscles, our eyes, our ears,

all the things that would take for granted when we're

young will fail us or taper off at least. And

as robust as we might be, our lives are very,

very fragile. Now there's maybe more interpretations of verse six

in this, but I think it gives a picture that

if just one chink and a chain, one link in

a chain, it's broken, disconnected. A golden bowl can be

dropped and broken. Beautiful, robust, but fragile, and it takes

one event for this to happen. And the picture at

the fountain, Ah, if you think of a picture being

broke at a fountain, I get the picture maybe of

of it's a hot, dusty day and you're heading to

the fountain, to the spring, to the well for a drink,

and you have a picture. Maybe the picture is there

and you get to the well or the fountain and

it's this picture is just at the stage of its

life where it seems to be the most the most valuable,

the most needed, the most potential, and then it drops

and it breaks. It seems like a very very untimely end.

So we see the fragility of life here. Remember that,

Remember that in your youth. When we get to the

end of our life. And I don't want this to

be all morbid, but when we get to the end

of our life, and if you ever go through a

graveyard and you look at the headstones, usually get a name,

maybe there's a saying, and then there's two dates and

a little dash, And it doesn't matter if you are

one month old or one hundred and twenty years old.

There's a little dash between two dates, and that is

the representation left for your life, for the span of

your life. I was thinking about about this. Our memories

are collective memories of people you know in one hundred

years from now. Very likely I think this was mentioned.

Leland mentioned this. Probably probably none, possibly a couple will

be here. But I thought of this. How many people

in here currently know or sometime in your life personally

knew a great grandparent? Raise your hands? How many of

you knew two great grandparents? At least not very many?

How about all of them? How many would that be? Eight?

Eight great grandparents? Nobody, because you'd have four grandparents? Right,

thinking this through, right, how many of you knew four

great grandparents? Anybody? One? One person? Okay? I remember all

of my grandparents, but the way the generations worked out,

not for very much of my life. No great grandparents

for sure. How many of you here personally knew Melvin Trock? Okay? Smattering,

all right? I did for a little bit. That was

That's was my grandpa. What I'm trying to demonstrate here

is what this passage is saying. Our memories fade and

the dust returns to the earth. So while you're young,

while you're energetic, rejoice, make make decisions with eternity in view,

because you're not going to be in this kind of

shape in fifty years for sure. Give a but sorry,

I'll give kind of another family example. So growing up.

I remember four uncles I had, Uncle John Caul and

Uncle Paul Cult, Uncle John Trock and uncle Paul Shock.

Uncle John and uncle Paul and Uncle John, Uncle Paul.

This is Uncle John Shock. And as I understand, I

didn't know him when he was young, obviously, but as

I understand, he was handsome, tough, strong and witty. It's

my understanding, wasn't there. I remember as a young boy

watching him lift weights. He would have been kind of

probably passed his prime, but it really impressed me. And

I don't remember if he could then or if it was,

but he could lift five hundred pounds. That made an impression.

He was a good storyteller, a great storyteller, and a

good salesman. At least he had good stories about being

a good salesman, and he'd be happy to share him

with anybody. He died in his sixties. He was overweight, diabetic, divorced,

children in disarray, and very little to his name. Now

it does seem, thankfully that he made personally, made a

lot of I would say, good choices towards the end

of his life, but the effects of his choices live on.

They live on today, and they'll keep living on the

choices he made as a youth landed him in prison,

but that's not nearly the worst result of the choices

he made when he was young. So enjoy being young,

Enjoy being handsome, Enjoy being tough, and enjoy being witty.

And be thankful. Be thankful for those things. But do

not put your trust or meaning of life in any

of those things, because they will fade and it won't

really matter sometime and we will answer to God and

the dust will return to the earth as it was.

So put your hope in eternal things. You know. Even myself,

I like to consider myself relatively young. I still talk

of myself as one of the young marriages, which would

probably be an offense to some of you young marriage.

You know. The other day my son found a white

hair in my beard, and I thought, yeah, you know,

I'm working on a very dignified salt and pepper beard.

It's okay, But he said, Dad, don't you know that

means you're old. So some of my youth has faded.

You know. I used to distress after school, teaching school

by dunking volleyballs. It was a good it's a good

stress relieveror it's not how I relieve stress anymore. It's

not gravity has a greater effect on me than it

used to. But my joy and purpose and meaning in

life is greater, continues to grow because there's more to

life than that. Isaiah forty. Maybe we'll turn to that quickly.

Isaiah forty speaks of the creator of the universe, and

so in the context of this last couple verses here strength,

the strength of the Creator, the strength of the disposal

of the Creator of the universe Verses thirty and thirty one.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the

young men shall utterly fall. But they that weighed upon

the Lord shall renew their strength, shall mount up with

wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. Familiar verses. Even the youth,

even the strong, young, powerful people, will faint. But as

we rely on the Lord, who is, as Ecclesiastes tells us,

our creator, a creator of the universe, strength will be renewed. Firs. Timothy,

and they will turn to that as well, on Timothy four.

On Timothy four, Verse twelve, another very familiar verse. This

is Paul, an older mentor talking to Timothy, young leader,

and he says, and I I'd like young people, young

men especially listen to this. Let no man despise thy youth,

but be thou an example of the believers in word,

in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith and purity.

And what I'd like you to get here. This is

to a young man. I don't know how young, but

he was young. Timothy says, don't let anybody despise your youth.

But he doesn't say, go out and tell them they

have to listen to you and respect you because you're

an authority. It's not what he said. He said, don't

let people despise your youth. Be an example, be an example,

young leaders, and you do lead by example, whether you

know it or not. Be an example, not only to

the younger, but be an example to the older. And

word and conversation and charity and spirit and purity, be

an example and conversation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who as I understand,

was thirty nine years old when he was killed by

the Nazis, and when he died he said, this is

the end for me, the beginning of life. He once said,

I know this is probably in relation to what was

happening with the Holocaust. He says, silence in the face

of evil is itself evil God who will not hold

a skillless And I'd like you all to get these

next two sentences. Not to speak is to speak. Not

to act is to act. So what he's saying here

is by not speaking, you are, in fact making a statement.

Sometimes it's the right statement, sometimes it's not. Not to

act is an action all of its own. You are

always saying something, you are always doing something. So be

an example in these things. Romans twelve says, I'm not

going to turn to that, but the beginning of Romans

twelve says I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies

of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

And it goes on to list holy and all these things.

But what better time to present yourself to God a

living sacrifice? And what better way than remembering your creator

and your youth. Many of we would say biblical heroes

made a daring stand or made choices in their youth,

and a lot of them were leaders later in life.

And if you remember that, the thought that habits formed

in youth make all the difference. So if you look

at this. Not going to spend much time, not going

to turn to any of these accounts. But Joseph really familiar.

We know as a young man he was sold away

to far country, to young age, no godly person in

his life as far as we know when he was

in Egypt to see what he was doing, to hold

him accountable. But Joseph was. He was an example, and

he was an example to the people in authority over

him until he was in a position of authority. Then

he was an example still to Pharaoh as well as

to his brothers who had sold him. He was an

example in faith, he was an example and forgiveness. He

was an example in love. He was an example in purity.

Joshua spy who trusted God, and he later became the

leader of God's people. But Joshua could have been quiet

when the spies came back. There were ten spies said

this is a terrible idea. There's giants, there's no way

we can overcome this. The congregation sided with the ten.

Joshua could have just simply been quiet, but remember that

not speaking. By not speaking, he would have been saying something.

He was an example, and he stood up for the truth,

even though it was nearly to his peril. There's Samuel

answered the call of God. In his youth, David trusted

God and meeting Gliath in the battlefield. Again, he's a

young man, he's a shepherd. He's not in the army

as far as we know, his brothers were. He came

to see his brothers, and here's this giant defying God,

defying the armies of God. And he had every reason

to be quiet, to stand there as a young man

and to observe the situation and wonder who's gonna lead

out in this situation. But by not acting, by not speaking,

he would have been making a statement like so many

of the others did. So many others led by that

kind of example. I don't know what happened. He did

speak up on behalf of God, he did act on

behalf of God, and God blessed that Daniel. The three

Hebrew boys again every reason to think, you know, we

can just be quiet in this situation. We can just

let this happen. We're in a different country. We can

just eat the king's meat. But in his youth, Daniel

did something really simple like not eating the king's meat

and drinking the king's wine. That those decisions then led

him to the kind of the most famous story Daniel

in the Lions Dan right, And this is when he

was very old. But the decisions he made as a

youth set him up for success as an old man.

And then again he could have he could have prayed

in his closet. He didn't have to go to the window,

but likely people saw him praying in his window before this,

So by being quiet, by praying somewhere else, he would

have been saying something, he would have been making a statement.

And so he made the right statement. Even Jesus entire

ministry was over before he was thirty five, and we

see Timothy Young their leader in the church, as many others.

I'm going some other young leaders that have been inspiring

been the Swiss Anabaptist Connord Grebel, Felix Mons, even George Blarock.

Connor Grebel and Felix Mons both died I believe one

the plague and the other by drowning before they were

thirty started this movement. They were very instrumental in starting

this movement. Not going to go into that much for

the sake of time. Likely we won't be called to

die at the state, get drowned in a river, thrown

the lions meet a giant on a battlefield in the

physical sense, but we will meet spiritual, mental, and emotional giants.

We will have the opportunity to trust in our own

strengths and abilities, but that will all turn to dust

and be forgotten in a few years. We also will

have the opportunity to be an example, as Paul instructed Timothy,

and for that legacy to live on into eternity. So,

young men, young women, all of us, remember remember your

Creator in the days of your youth? Do you? And

this is for more than a youth here, do you

have a God consciousness? Are you remembering the creator of

the universe when you open the screen on your phone,

when you turn your music on, when you choose which

podcast or story to listen to? Are you remembering your

Creator when you choose which picture to post on the

latest social media of choice. When you should be when

it's the time you should be, and maybe you are

when it's that time when you should be opening your Bible,

reading the Bible, praying to God? Are you remembering your

Creator in that? Rejoice? But remember going to close with

the last two verses of Ecclesiastes. And this is quite

an end to writing Chapter twelve, verses thirteen and fourteen.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear

God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole

duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment,

with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether

it be evil. That's the end of Ecclesiastes. So like

you to think, and all of us, whatever stage of

life we're in, whatever prime we might be in. If

your youth, if your strength, your mental acuity, your sharpness,

what gives you an advantage over other people, but especially physically.

If your youth were to be stripped away overnight, you

went to bed tonight, you woke up without it tomorrow,

what would you be left with? And would you like it?

And would it please God? So rejoice, but also remember

what's hell us all