Round And Round It Goes... | Jerry Harris

All right. How are you doing today?

Crossing Church? Really?

All right. It is good to be in the house.

Little Lord. It is good to be with the people

of the Lord, across all of our locations and we welcome all of

our locations, all across this region.

We also welcome everyone that's inside and online.

So thankful for each and every one of you and it is it's good

to be able to look at your smiling faces.

It's beautiful outside and beautifully.

More beautiful inside because all of us are here together and

we have the opportunity to be in this Fellowship together in

fellowship with God. That's a great investment.

So, you remember Easter, when we were doing this series, we

weren't in the series, but we defended a one-off called

chasing Shades. And we had those lights up here

that everything was monochromatic and it was like

Clayton was going from black and white to color.

ER and back to black and white. How many of you remember that?

Yeah. It was pretty awesome, that that

affect, right? And that was actually supposed

to be the part of a series but we put a different Series in

between but we're kind of coming back to that and so we're in a

new series called chasing Shades and it's based on exploring a

study in the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old

Testament. I don't know how many of you

have ever really done a Deep dive into Ecclesiastes.

You're probably going on. I don't know if I'm gonna like

this or not. So so why would we do that?

Why would we take you to this Old Testament book with this

giant named? It's because the writer of The

Book of Ecclesiastes is the all-time grand champion of

chasing shades. His name is Solomon.

Now, the author in the book when you read Ecclesiastes, he does

not identify himself by name but by his family and by his title.

So you can figure out who he is by what he says.

And he doesn't in the first verse, let's look at it.

Ecclesiastes 11. The words of the teacher, son of

David, David, the king of Israel.

So he was a child of David and the king in Jerusalem.

There's only one person that Fits both of those descriptions,

and that's Solomon. So that's how we know who it is.

Okay. Now, who is Solomon?

Solomon is the second child. That was born to David and

Bathsheba, you know, that David had multiple wives and just

because listen, just because the Bible says, a person does a

certain thing. It doesn't mean that what they

did was the right thing, the Bible tells you the truth about

people. And and sometimes people say

well, If it's in the Bible, it must be right.

Well, no, it's not right. And David with Bathsheba is a

whole lot of wrong and some of you may remember a story about

an affair that David had with a woman that he saw taking a bath

on a rooftop. When he was up on a rooftop, a

higher rooftop, and it was actually the wife of one of his

best friends. And he has this affair with her.

It produces a pregnancy. He wants to cover up the

pregnancy. And so he asks his friend

through the generals that are out fighting a battle, to allow

his friend to come back home. So that he'll think that the

child is his, but he will not dishonor, the, his fellow

soldiers on the field by even going into his own house.

And actually living out what he had been taught by David and yet

David's trying to cover this the sin up.

And since you can't cover it up by making his friend, think that

it was his child. He actually puts him, has he put

in the place in the battle Will hill?

Where he'll certainly died? And he dies in battle and then

after he dies in battle, David takes his widow to be his own

wife. So no one would know, except for

God now. And a prophet came and tells

David. What he's done.

So try to understand. That Solomon doesn't come with

the best reputation in his past about the child that was

produced from that. Adulterous relationship died was

stillborn after the affair after the murder of her husband, and

the cover-up by King, David Bathsheba.

But then she became pregnant a second time and that second son

was Solomon. So that's his that's his family

history. And he was 19 years old when

King David died and then he became the new king of Israel at

19. Now, the beginning of Solomon's

Reign, when you read about it in First Kings, it's really marked

with a lot of violence. A lot of idolatry and marrying

for political gain. People would marry just to be

able to, you know, produce more for their own kingdom.

And it was also a time when he built a Alice for himself, and

he began the project of building a temple to God.

Now, all of that money had already been procured by his

father David, but it's interesting, isn't it that he

decided to build his Palace first and then he would build a

temple. Yeah.

Yeah, and he really wasn't living a great life as a young

king, but it was during the early stage of this rain, that

this event happens, where he does this sacrificing and gods.

Speaks to him. You need to read this because

this gives you the background you need to stand on to

understand what I'm going to be talking about today.

The king that Solomon went to gibeon to offer sacrifices for.

That was the most important high place in Solomon.

Offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar at

gibeon. The Lord appeared to Solomon

during the night in a dream. And God said, ask for whatever

you want me to give you. How many of you like to hear

that from God? Ask for whatever you want.

And what would you say? That might be right there.

Your whole sermon. What would you say?

Solomon answered. You have shown great.

Kindness to your servant My Father, David because he was

faithful to you. And in many ways he was and

righteous and upright in heart. He pursued God, you have

continued this great kindness to him, and have given him a son to

sit on his throne to this day. This very day.

Now, Lord, my God, you have made.

Serving King in place of my father, David, but I am only a

little child and did not know how to carry out my duties.

So there's a lot of humility there in that in that prayer.

Your servant is here among the people.

You have chosen a great people too numerous to count or number.

So give your servant a Discerning heart.

That's his prayer. To govern your people and to

distinguish between right and wrong for who is able to govern

this great people of yours. The Lord was pleased that

Solomon asked for this. So God said to him, since you've

asked for this and not long for long life or wealth for

yourself, nor of asked, for the death of your enemies, but for

discernment in administering Justice, I will do what you have

asked. I will give you a wise and

Discerning heart so that there will never have been anyone,

like you listen to this, nor will there ever be another?

There's never been and there will never be anyone as wise as

this King because that's what God Said.

Moreover. I'll give you what you have not

asked for both wealth and honor, so that in your lifetime, you

have will have no equal among Kings.

Wow. Wow, so that resulted in

Solomon, having this uncanny ability to be worldly successful

in literally, every way a person could be successful.

And if you really want to know how successful he was, you need

to read First Kings 10, 14 to 29.

I'm not going to read that for you now, but it's amazing.

What? What?

He amassed now. There's a website called wealth

result.com. And it lists the top 10 all-time

wealthiest people in the world. Now if you put Elon Musk on that

list, and he's the wealthiest man on Earth right now, he would

presently be between number four and five on that list based on

his net worth. But guess who number one is?

Number one, all-time all cultures richest man via net

worth on that app. Solomon, Solomon's net worth is

estimated to be at two point one trillion dollars.

That's nearly 10 times. Elon musk's present net worth.

Wow, because of this gift that God gave him of wisdom.

Solomon was able to have virtually unlimited money.

I mean, he used gold for Mortar. He had unlimited access to

pleasure. He had unlimited power.

He had unlimited influence. He could live out every dream,

every desire, and every fantasy that anyone could ever imagine.

And with all of that. Wouldn't you think that he'd be

happy or satisfied? And then we read Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 1:2

chapter 1 verse 2, where only two verses in look what it says.

Meaningless meaningless says the teacher.

Utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless.

Let me ask you a question. Does that sound like a man who

is fulfilled? Because this is written later in

his life. What does this sound like a man

who's frustrated and unfulfilled?

You spend some time in this book with me and you'll find a man

who is lost. Who is cynical, who is virtually

hopeless, a man full of answers, but missing the most important

one. In my opinion, a man more to be

pitied than to be applauded. Why.

Because his search? Was confined to the lower story.

Now, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about,

when I say that. Let me explain the difference

between the lower story and the upper Story.

The lower story is the place where you and I live.

It's where we deal with life. It's where we grind it out.

It's where you have to pay the bills at the end of the month.

It's where you go to the grocery store.

It's where you experience the challenges and, and the pain and

the difficulty. And the joys of this life.

That's the lower story. But there's also, the upper

Storey the upper. Ori is the place that God calls

you to. It's the place where he doesn't

do you harm, but good, it's where you find a purpose and a

plan for your life that he has provided for you.

It's where that relationship is. That's the upper story.

And that's why you we need to understand that Solomon's search

was confined to the lower Storey.

Look at Ecclesiastes 13 through seven.

It says, what do people gain from all?

Are laborers at which they toil Under the Sun Generations.

Come and generations. Go?

But the Earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets.

And hurries back to where it rises the wind, blows to the

South and then turns to the north.

Round and round it goes. Every turning on its course,

streams flow into the sea. It's he's never full to the

place. The streams come from there.

They return again. Now, the phrase that really

struck me in that passage. Is that part in verse 6, where

it goes round and round it goes? And it's true.

That's kind of life. Isn't it?

Made me think about a personal story?

Okay, because when I was a little kid my parents, it was a

cheap, it was a cheap thing to do on the weekend would take us

with load us all up and take us in the car to the drive-in

theater. Okay.

I need to see a show of hands at all of our locations.

How many of you have personally experienced going to a drive-in

theater. Raise up your hands.

Okay. A lot of you have.

How many of you never experienced a drive-in theater?

Raise your hand. If you've never experienced,

that's so sad. It really is because drive-in

theaters are just great and there's so many great things

that we experience in a dress that you experience in a

drive-in theater. First of all, the the sound of

the movie is terrible because it's coming out of this little

aluminum speaker that you hang on your door, you window area,

right? But you do have surround sound

because everybody's got one of those and some of you that went

to the drive-in remember that you didn't sit in your car, you

backed up your truck and you put Lawn chairs there.

How many you did that? Oh, yeah, and I'm not going to

ask how many of you tried to sneak in your friends in the

trunk of a car. Because that happened a lot to.

And you know, I remember the chocolate malts that you would

get that were frozen like rock hard and you start working on

the outside with a wooden spoon to try to actually get a bite.

And how many of you remember orange push-ups?

Oh, Where do you get those today?

I don't even know. Right?

So there's lots of great things about drive-in theaters.

But the thing I like the most at the to drive-in theaters, my

parents would go Lafayette Road in Indianapolis and Westlake.

Those were the two theaters. Both of them had something at up

front just underneath the screen.

That was amazing. I called it a merry-go-round,

some of you might call it a carousel.

You know what I'm talking about when I say carousel.

Yeah, there's still some of them around I found out in the Green

Room this week that the one that was at.

The White Oaks Mall in Springfield is gone now, but

they used to have one there and it was actually a double decker,

like it had stairs and had two levels.

There's one in St. Louis at the aquarium.

And probably, if you've ever been to a county fair, you've

been able to get on one kind of a cheaper version, but you've

been able to experience one. So, let's just take a ride for a

moment. What does that look like?

What is it? Like?

This is what it's like right here.

This is like riding on a Carousel and just a few things

to understand. You have all these different

animals and their on this mechanism that makes you go up

and down and then there are some of these animals or to the

benches. If you're the lane person that

wants to sit on a bench. Right?

And then there's the center part and there's the mirrors all the

way around. The let you see yourself.

While you're riding, whatever you're riding and a calliope in

the middle that's run on. On air steam, right?

It has a special sound. And you know, some of those

characters move. Some of them don't and you buy

your ticket, right? And like Solomon says, round and

round. You go.

That's how it works with a carousel.

And that's how it works in the lower story, your life and my

life. It's like a carousel.

It's like a merry-go-round. It looks so inviting.

It sounds so happy. It sounds so fun, and you have

these different animals that you can ride in all these different

experiences that you can choose from.

But eventually what happens after you've spent your quarter,

your 50 cents or whatever. It is now, five bucks.

I don't know. The ride is over and you have to

get off. Let somebody else get on the

ride. Now.

You can go buy another ticket and you can write a different

animal, but eventually It'll stop again and you'll have to

get off the ride again. Now, maybe some of you.

You're not a merry-go-round person.

You're not a carousel person. Maybe you're a ferris wheel

person. You're a total Daredevil.

You like that idea of being way way up in the air you get this

incredible view, right? And you have the thrill of being

so high. Some of you are just terrified

at that. But other of you that is you

just love that, right, but eventually, what happens you

have to come back down, don't you?

Hopefully slowly? But you have to come back down

and have to get off the ride. And then there's some of you.

You're not Ferris wheel people, you're not Carousel, people your

teacups people. And if you're a teacup person at

the end of my sermon, we're going to have an invitation time

and you need to come up and just repent of that.

Because I mean you're you're strange because you know, what a

tea cup is, Right? Tea cups are like they're like

round and round squared. So you sit in it around.

Teacup and you have this round thing in front of you and before

the ride even starts, you can start doing this and you start

spinning like this, and then they start to run.

It and you're spinning like this, while you're spinning like

this and then you vomit. That's why you need to accept

Christ at the end of this sermon because that's you just need to

be delivered from that. I don't know, but all I'm trying

to say, is there different ways to describe going round and

round, right? But the fact of the matter is,

none of those rides ever, really goes anywhere.

Just back to where you started, only, you have less money in

your pocket, then you did before because you paid for your ticket

and that is the way. Is in the lower story even at

its best, you never really get anywhere and sometimes the price

of that ticket is extraordinarily and staggeringly

high. It was high for Solomon and it's

recorded in First Kings chapter, 11, verses 1 to 13, King

Solomon. However.

Loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter.

I mean, he had so many wives you had to categorize them by

nationality. Moabites ammonites edomites.

I do nians in Hittites. They were from Nations about

which the Lord had told the Israelites.

You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely

turn your hearts after their gods.

Nevertheless. Solomon held fast to them in

love, you know, God told him not to do that.

God told him to be the husband of one wife.

God told him not to store up wealth, like gold silver or

horses and he's known for his wives.

He's known for his Stables. He's known for his wealth.

How many he had 700 wives of Royal birth.

That's princesses. And 300 concubines and his wives

led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives

turned his heart after other gods.

And his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord, his God, as

the heart of David. His father had been, he followed

a stirreth the goddess of the sidonians.

And Molech, you know, Molech was an idol.

That you sacrificed little children alive by burning them

alive. I'm not gonna try to paint this

as any kind of a pleasant picture and that's why he's

called the detestable, god of the ammonites.

So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

He did not follow the Lord completely as David, his father

had done on a hill east of Jerusalem Solomon, built a high

place for Chima. Same kind of sacrificing, the

detestable, God of Moab, and for Molech, the detestable god of

the ammonites. He did the same for all of his

foreign wives who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their

gods. The Lord became angry with

Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the

god of Israel who had appeared to him twice.

Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods

Solomon did not keep the Lord's command.

So the Lord said to Solomon since this is your attitude.

You have not kept my Covenant, my decrees, which I commanded

you. I will most certainly tear the

kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates,

nevertheless for the sake of David.

Father, I will not do it during your lifetime.

I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

Yet. I will not tear the whole

Kingdom from him, but we'll give him one tribe for the sake of

David, my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have

chosen. Ecclesiastes is the search for

meaning. In the lower story.

I wonder how many of us are searching for meaning in the

lower story in the circumstances of this world.

The problem is that meaning or purpose isn't there?

It's in the upper Story. The upper story isn't about the

things that God can give you in the lower story.

Like the Prosperity Gospel says, right.

It's about God's presence in your life.

And it's about God's plan for your life.

Now Solomon directed, his god-given gift at cornering, the

market of the lower story, which he did better than anybody

chasing Shades. And in the end.

He had nothing to show for it. His family was a mess, his

kingdom was divided and eventually everything he built,

even the temple, he built to God, came to ruin, you know,

some historians up until recently and recent archaeology.

Wondered if King Solomon had ever even existed at all.

Solomon became the object of his own conclusion.

Interesting thing a book about the Book of Ecclesiastes just

that the conclusion is at the very beginning of the book, not

at the end. The conclusion is everything is

meaningless. And he was the object of that.

He was meaningless. The thing is he knew better his

father even with all of his shortcomings did better because

he's pursued the heart of almighty.

God, Solomon was more about what he could get from God.

Then to be close to God. Have you ever heard this before?

The person who dies with the most toys wins?

How many of you've heard that before?

The truth is the person who dies with the most toys is Dad.

Winds, are you kidding in my opinion?

Ecclesiastes is the most depressing book of the entire

Bible and that's saying something because it's even

worse than the book of Lamentations.

You know, the book of Lamentations is titled

Lamentations, which means incredible deep sorrow.

Because at least Lamentations reminds us of the upper story.

Look at Lamentations, 3:22-23 for, because of the Lord's.

Great love. We are not consumed for his

compassion's never fail. Well, that's upper story.

There are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness?

Can I get an amen? That's the upper story?

I say to myself. The Lord is my portion.

Therefore. I will wait for him.

Wow. Beautiful.

So why in the world are we in this most depressing book of the

Bible? Like I could have done a lot of

things today. Jerry.

What do I have to listen to this?

Because it shows us that the pursuit of happiness in the

lower story is an illusion. And you know what?

I think I think a lot of us are doing exactly that.

I think a lot of us are looking for happiness, in the lower

story. We're pursuing it in the lore

story. We're saying, if I just get

enough money, if I just get enough education, if I just get

a better relationship, if I just get better connected, if they're

just something else in the lower story.

If I live in a nicer house, my drive, a better car.

If I have a little bit more money in the bank, if I have a

little bit better, retirement portfolio.

Then I'll be happy. Nobody ever searched harder and

went deeper in this than Solomon and you're not going to find

something that he didn't. The tragedy of the of his life

is a testimony for us to find our meaning are worth our

identity, and our purpose in the upper story.

The good life is a god life must say it.

Again. The good life is a god life.

Everything else is Carnival barkers and throw away prizes.

Let's apply this. Okay, looking across the board.

As I scan this audience all the rest of the audiences that are

listening right. Now.

How many of you by show of hands?

Consider yourself, Young? Okay, it's good.

If you consider yourself young, you really need this book.

Look at Ecclesiastes 12 one. Remember your creator in the

days of your youth. Before the days of trouble.

Anybody, my age are around my age, or older than my's going.

I get the days of trouble. Like I do an assessment every

morning. What is still working?

I'm like, on Apollo 13. It's like what on the spacecraft

still? Works absolutely true before the

days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say

hi fine. No pleasure in them.

If you're young or consider yourself young, you can start

right now. You can make the most of your

life. In the upper story.

You can take advantage of your youth, your health, your energy,

and your gifts to very make the very most of your life for God.

How many of you across all of our locations, ready your show

of hands time? Are middle-aged.

It is so funny. When I asked these questions.

Nobody wants to admit anything. You need this book.

If you consider yourself, middle-aged, you need this book

because you can wake up one day and find yourself thinking is

this all there is and that's pretty disconcerting.

You can, you can look at your life and you can say, you know,

what, I've spent years climbing, the ladder of success, only to

find that that ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.

We've all heard midlife crisis, right?

Well a midlife crisis, can be a good thing if it leads to a

midlife evaluation in the direction of the upper story.

All right. I'm going to ask the question

again. How many of you consider

yourself a senior adult? Yeah, you get the discounts.

If you're a senior adult, you need this book because often

people get to the age where they qualify themselves a senior

adults and they wonder if they're not needed or if they're

useless. This book reminds us that your

value is calculated in the upper Storey.

Not in the lower Storey, not in other people's evaluation of

you, but in God's and it's incredible.

You realize that your experience can teach your children, your

grandchildren, even your great-grandchildren and the

church, this incredible value of an intimate personal

relationship, with Jesus Christ, listening to me, for the Long

Haul. You know, I can say things like

this. I am young and now I'm old and I

have not seen the righteous forsaken and I say it with

authority. And it's because of my age.

Or their children begging bread. We have a certain amount of

authority because of the experience of our lives and we

can utilize those experiences to make such a difference.

Let me sum it up this way. It's time to get off the

merry-go-round. And begin the Great Adventure

through the high mountains and the deep valleys of God's

glorious, Grace. His Amazing Grace.

Everything isn't meaningless. Is it?

Not when you're living in the upper story.

We're moving to a time of decision.

This is where. The gospel comes rushing in

because it is such a contrast between the lower story.

And the upper story you think about Jesus Christ dying on the

cross and from the standpoint of the lower story.

Doesn't that just completely fit meaningless?

Man, this great man who is able to accomplish all these amazing

things that everybody can see and experience dies at the prime

of his life at 33 and Enemy of the State.

Executed horribly. But that's only in the lower

story. He was doing something amazing.

He was taking your sin. All of it.

Every bit of it, all your debt. Taking it.

Allowing his father in Heaven to place it on his shoulders.

Saying, I'll be responsible for all they've done. and when he

died, On that cross. He said the Greek word.

That means paid in full. Me, ask you a question.

Is there a lot of things you've done in your life that you need

to say? You're sorry to God for, there's

a lot in mind. And is God going to take that

apology? He will.

If you come to Christ because he paid it all.

So, here's the moment. Where we realize that Jesus

died, not for what he did. But for what we've done that he

was buried and that he rose again.

And he lives today. That is the upper story.

That's the gospel message. And you can come to Christ.

And you don't have to be who you were anymore?

All the answers that Solomon had could give him everything that

this world could offer. And yet he missed the one answer

that he needed most. And as you can have an intimate

personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and if

you've never come into that relationship, you can do that

right now. You can do it today.

You can't afford the ticket. You can't pay the admission.

Jesus bought you the ticket. There's going to be somebody

right over there by our baptistry that would love to

talk to you about what that next step is.

You can he baptized into Christ? Buried with him raised to walk

in newness of Life. Bible says that anyone is in

Christ. He is a new creation.

The old has gone. The new has come.

What a? What a joyful, wonderful hopeful

thing. But only God can give you and he

gives it to you through his own son.

It's not meaningless. Not in the upper story.

Many of you today are here and you've made a decision to

follow. Jesus Christ.

Oh, but that doesn't mean that you don't struggle with the

lower story. Some of you, you know what I'm

saying, all of us at one time or another, we get lost in it.

The cares of this world. They weigh us down.

They break us down. And we don't see any way out.

I mean, think about how many people are struggling needing

counseling right now. you know, Jesus said, He goes when I

leave. He said this to his Apostles

night before he died. He said when I leave, I'm not

going to leave you as orphans. And then he went on to say I'm

going to send you the counselor. I invite you to come up here in

a moment. Get down on your knees and have

a little time with your counselor.

With your counselor, the Holy Spirit.

Lower story's getting you down to Breaking, you down its

grinding on you. You know what he'll do.

He'll help. You see the upper story again.

He'll kind of reorient you to the person that God made you to

be. He'll change you.

I encourage you to consider that today.

These steps will be open and there's plenty of room.

Hey, and you say, well, I can't get to the steps so I don't need

to come. Well, you know what?

There's a second layer. There's a third layer.

There's plenty of room. Would you consider that would

you stand with me? Heavenly father?

I'm praying right now. Because we put all of these

defenses up because we don't want to be made uncomfortable or

feel uncomfortable. I know there's a little bit of

that right now. The idea of, I don't know if I

should go up there or not or my hair looks really bad when it's

wet or who knows? What?

I just pray right now. Father, you'll break through all

of those defenses, all of those pretenses and just see this

child's human heart that just needs you.

So desperately. And I pray father, like little

children. We would just run.

To be close to your son Jesus. My pre we find him here in this

moment. In Jesus name, I pray.

Amen.