Ecclesiastes 12 - Ron Wallace

Okay, we're in Ecclesiastes twelve.

We're gonna wrap up Ecclesiastes this morning.

I had a perfect t-shirt to wear this morning.

I I came into the thrift store and it said statistics show five out of five people die.

Don't do this without Jesus or something like that.

And I just couldn't bring myself to preach in a t-shirt.

So I'm sorry.

It's it's a button up it is again.

So the letter R, for some reason, is used to abbreviate a lot of things.

It must be easy to remember or something, because we use it a lot.

Like if I say uh I need a little R and R, you know that means rest and relaxation.

If I say uh in school, we mostly learned the three Rs.

You may know, maybe not if you're real young, but if you're had parents that were my parents' age, or you are my parents' age, you would know that those three Rs are reading, writing, arithmetic.

Too much homework makes me sick.

If if I say, um, why couldn't the young pirate go to the movie?

You instinctively know, because it was rated R.

Anyway, so this morning I'm going to break down um Ecclesiastes chapter 12 with the letter R.

Ecclesiastes 12 · chapter mention

Okay?

So we're gonna use the letter R today.

We're gonna go through the first eight verses, verses one through eight, and we're going to see that we are to remember.

And then we're going to go through verses nine through twelve, and we'll look at how we are to reason.

And then we're going to look at verses 13 and 14 and see that we are to respect.

So we are to remember, reason, and respect.

And really, I think as we look back on the whole of the book of Ecclesiastes, we can see those three R's, those three things throughout the theme of Ecclesiastes, the whole book.

We know that up to this point, that the author has told us that life is like a vapor.

It's slipping away.

We can't build anything on it.

We can't grasp it long enough to be satisfied.

We can't see clearly through this vapor.

He has also pointed us back to God for true satisfaction.

But overall, the author, the preacher, has shown his frustration with trying to get anywhere in this life to find lasting joy.

There's a frustration there.

And here we come to the end of the preacher's life and the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, and the preacher is looking back over his life.

Now bear in mind, as he looks back over his life, this is someone that has been on the top.

He's had more possessions and more people in his life than any of us sitting here and all of us sitting here put together.

He has tasted what most people only dream of when it comes to the financial side of life.

On the flip side of that, he has gone without.

He's deprived himself as to know what it is like to have nothing.

He's trying to see if he goes without, if that somehow enhances his spirituality and leads him to a more abundant life.

It did not.

So work failed to bring him satisfaction.

Education failed to bring him satisfaction.

Pleasure failed to bring him satisfaction.

So here he is at the end of all of this.

And what does he say?

Well, we're going to start in verse number one of chapter 12.

This is what it says.

I remember being in high school and playing football.

And every game, some coach would get up there and stand in front of us, and he would say something to the effect of, you guys got to play really hard, and you got to remember that one day you're not going to be able to do this.

You're going to miss all of this.

And in my mind, I'm just thinking, enough talking, old man.

Like, get out of the way.

I'm ready to go.

Like I want to hit somebody.

There wasn't really anything I could do with that call to remember.

I wasn't, it's not like I was going to go out onto the field and in the middle of the play think, oh man, coach said I'm going to miss this.

I'm going to harness up all my energy right here, and I'm going to go run this kid down because I'm not going to be able to do this in two years, and my knees are going to hurt, and I can won't be able to move right.

I can't, there's not a lot that I can do with the coach telling me, remember, you're going to miss this.

But the preacher's call to remember is a little bit different than that.

Look at verse 1 there again.

It says, Remember also your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come and the years draw near, of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them.

There is a way that you are shaping your life when you are young that impacts the entirety of your life.

If you set your life up now when you're young, giving no thought to God, giving no time to your creator, and what he would have for you and your life, and you go about your life as if you don't need him because you can do everything in your own strength, that leads you to days later down the road that have you saying, I have no pleasure in them.

This passage calls us to remember God before the evil days come upon you.

The evil days here are talking about the general difficulty with the aging process, the deterioration of your mind and body as you age.

Before that happens, remember God.

And this doesn't mean reminisce about God.

This isn't reminiscing.

He's not saying in your youth you should think back to how God was when you were little.

But instead, he's saying set your life up in a way that you will be aware of God and his presence all the days of your life.

This just doesn't just happen when you're old.

You don't just wake up one day when you're old and say, you know what, I've done all my living now.

Now I think I will remember God.

Now that I've I've got this all out of my system, I'm gonna remember God now.

No, set things up in your youth to remember your creator.

Make good habits now to draw near to God.

If not, the pull of this world only makes it more difficult as you age to draw near to him.

Then he goes over this uh aging process over the next six verses.

He describes to us this aging process a little bit.

I'm gonna read verses two through seven.

It says, Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain, and the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut, when the sound of the grinding is low, when one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low.

They are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way.

The almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desires fail, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets, before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it, vanity of vanities.

So he says that one day your strength will begin to fail, your teeth will wear down, your strong body will begin to bend, your eyesight will begin to fade, you will lose your nerve to do things, you will lose your desire to do things.

Why?

How does this happen?

Because when you're young and you're feeling good and you're bouncing around and you're shadow boxing everything around you, I mean, life is easy and it feels really good, like nothing can really stop you.

And it sounds ridiculous to think that one day you will lose your desire for life.

I always think, like whenever I see that someone's dying and they're just like, you know, I'm just ready to go.

It's like, really?

Like, so death actually robs the desire from you.

Yes, the aging process literally strips you of your desire for life.

The sounds that you now enjoy, or at times are even annoyed by will fade away.

And eventually you won't even mind that those noises are gone.

The noisy house will slowly get more and more quiet, and you'll say, hmm, this is kind of nice.

The fight for the daily grind will leave you as your body prepares to go to the dust and as your spirit prepares to return to the God that it came from.

And the preacher says, Vanity of vanity, says the preacher, all is vanity.

Vapor of vapors, all is vapor.

This life will blow by so fast that before you know it, you can't fix anybody breakfast anymore because there's nobody there to fix breakfast for.

You can't hug your mom because she's gone.

You can't pay$250 to take your family to Wendy's.

Instead, it's just you and your wife, and it's$75.

You can't do that stuff.

You can't hang out with your friends on a carefree weeknight anymore because that's not the phase of life that you're in.

It's gone.

And you'll never get it back.

And sometimes that'll hurt your gut so bad, your heart will ache over those things.

Because you want to get that back and you can't.

It's gone.

It's a vapor.

You'll never get it back.

That's why the preacher says, remember your creator in the days of your youth.

Walk through your whole life with God.

You're going to face some loss.

You're going to lose parents.

You're going to have friends walk out of your life.

You're going to lose some stuff.

How much better will it be to face all of that?

Everything that life has in store for you when you are walking with the one that created you.

Remember your creator and the days of your youth.

Set that up in your youth so that you can walk through him with him through the entirety of your life.

He moves on to verse numbers numbers nine through twelve.

And listen to what he says here, verses nine through twelve.

Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.

The preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.

The words of the wise are like goads, and nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings.

They are given by one shepherd.

My son, beware of anything beyond these.

Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

So here you have this wise, knowledgeable author that has written all of these words of wisdom.

It says that he has written words of truth.

He has arranged his words with great care.

So not haphazardly, but very thoughtfully, he has arranged all these words.

These words that this wise, thoughtful, knowledgeable, God-fearing man has laid out for us should cause us to reason some things in our mind.

We should be able to use some logical thinking here.

That if the message of this person that has lived more life and done more things than we are going to do still concludes that life without God is empty, we should have the reasoning skills to determine that we ain't no special case.

We're not going to do better than this and find some secret.

That yes, we may feel the temptation to try to run our own lives, that we may get the urge to chase things and and and pursue things that are outside of God.

But we have evidence here from someone that has been down every road, that's pursued everything pleasurable in the world, that that he his evidence are pointing to the fact that that simply does not work.

So use your reasoning skills and fight the temptation to be your own God.

He says in verse 11 that words of the wise are like goads.

A goad is a long stick used to direct an ox while you're plowing a field.

Probably not used a whole lot anymore.

But have you ever went to the fair and watched someone show the pig, like show a pig?

And you get these kids and they're just hitting these pigs and trying to get them to direct them, and they're like trying to maintain eye contact with the judge.

It looks kind of like like two elderly people sword fighting, they're like smacking these pigs, like looking up.

It's it's weird.

It's kind of a weird thing.

Um I dated Lene through high school when she was into 4H, and I came from Mansfield where like a stray cat was like as close to an animal as you got.

So when I saw this pig smacking thing going on, I was like, this might not work out.

Um but it did, it worked out.

And uh you can always tell the people that just showed up um and just started whacking the pig that day.

Like they they didn't practice this, they're just hitting that pig, and the pig's like, hey, it's whatever.

My face is a football.

I can do this all day.

Like, I'm not listening to your direction because I can't feel anything.

Don't be like those pigs.

Allow these words of wisdom to sink into your ears and direct your path.

Reason in your mind that these words of wisdom are here on purpose.

I should do something with these.

Pour over these, apply these to your life.

Not just the words that are written in Ecclesiastes, but the words throughout the entirety of God's Word.

He says that there's a weariness to too much study in verse 12, but he's not talking about the study of God's word.

He's saying that pursuing knowledge can lead to great weariness.

That there has already been someone that has collected all of these great proverbs and written down much truth and used careful discernment to put all of these sayings and these stories together.

Don't you don't have to pursue wisdom, the world's wisdom, outside of what's already been put together here.

God's wisdom is right in front of you.

Read it and reason with yourself that this is the way of life.

Allow the preacher's experience to be a guide for you, keeping you on the path of wisdom.

Reason with yourself that these words are the words of life.

And then we move to verses 13 and 14.

It says this the end of the matter, all has been heard.

Fear God and keep his commandments.

For this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Uh the end of the matter, all has been heard.

I I just I love that part.

Everything that you need to know is laid out here.

Like, not who you're gonna marry and what you're gonna do for your job, and like whether you should stop at Wendy's or not.

What not everything like that, but what you'll do in with your existence and your significance in this life, as far as that goes, everything has been heard.

God's not holding something back that you need to know.

It's not some guess on how to live a fulfilling or purposeful life.

We're not on like God, it's not, it's not a big game show for God, and we're on let's make a deal, and you gotta like hope that you don't pick a zonk behind door three.

That's not, this is the end of it.

You've heard everything that you need to know.

Here it is.

Now what?

What do we do?

Because there's a lot here.

This this has been a big depressing kind of walk through life.

What do we do with this?

Because it's a lot.

And he says, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Not not to be afraid of God and do what he says, or he'll give you an incurable disease.

This isn't fear-mongering, but respect him.

Stand back and recognize that this being that has created all and is in all is something to be reckoned with.

He's a force.

And he has invited us to come to him.

Praise God for that.

That should amaze us that such a holy, powerful, perfect, wise God has bid us to come.

James 4.8 says, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Psalm 105.3, glory in his name.

Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

Matthew 11, 28, Jesus puts it this puts it this way: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

He has laid it all out for us, and he says, Come to me.

Keeping his commandments are an invitation to the abundant life.

You want this, you want this life to work well for you?

Be in awe and fear and respect of the holy, infinite God of the Bible and walk in his ways.

Fear God and keep his commandments.

Now, I'm not saying you keeping God's commandments forces God's hand into blessing you in this life.

Don't hear that.

But what I am saying is God has ordered things a certain way.

And we will do well to live within the boundaries that God has set forth.

And also, the next verse tells us that God will bring it all into light.

All the good and the evil will be brought into judgment.

And that's that last little part there is what I want to close this sermon.

I want to close this series, and I want to close my time at Proclamation Church with.

God will bring every deed into judgment.

And we often, as believers, think so negatively of that.

This verse tells us that everything, whether good or evil, will be brought into judgment.

When we think about standing before God, we typically think about him calling all of our bad deeds into light and judging them.

We don't usually think about him bringing our good deeds into judgment.

So we spend so much of our life walking around with God, conservatively tippy-toeing around, trying not to mess things up.

We spend our mental space thinking of ways to not let God down.

If you are remembering God, if you are walking through this life with Him, you're using your mind to reason how to direct your steps, and you're allowing your respect for God to guide you and keep you pursuing holiness, then run.

That's the last R in this sermon today.

Run.

Run face first into something for the glory of God.

Use your brain, your talents, your money to advance the kingdom of God.

He's wired you a certain way on purpose.

Some of you are really weird on purpose.

Some of you are super boring and you like details on purpose.

Some of you are spontaneous and you'll just up and just leave and go to another church on purpose.

God has done this on purpose.

Use that for his glory.

If you have been bought with the blood of Jesus, there is no condemnation left for you.

That should make you want to sprint out of this room.

You will not receive any of God's wrath.

It's exhausted.

It is done.

It's completed, it's finished.

You will never, ever experience God's wrath.

There is tremendous freedom in that.

For you to be able to do some things for the sake of God's glory without worrying about if it's the right move or not.

Think about the parable of the talents in Matthew 25.

In Matthew 25, the master hands out one talent to a servant, then he hands out two talents to another servant, then he hands out five talents to another servant.

When he returns from a journey, the master wants to see what his servants have done with these talents that he's given them.

The two talent and the five talent guy doubled up those talents, and they gave back four and ten talents.

And the one talent guy buried that one talent and didn't do anything with it.

Why?

Because he was too worried about messing anything up with the talent that he was given, so he didn't do anything.

He did nothing with it.

And Matthew, right down below that.

So that's in Matthew 25, uh, 14 through 30.

If you go right down below that, it talks about the final judgment.

And I'm going to read these nine verses here, ten verses.

Matthew 25, 31 through 40.

Listen to this.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me.

I was in prison and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and fed you, or thirsty, and gave you drink?

And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you?

And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

And the king will answer them.

Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

Notice what he is saying to his sheep.

He's saying, You fed people, you clothed people, uh, you welcomed people, you visited people, you did some stuff.

He's not saying, well, you didn't upset anybody, and you didn't offend anybody and you didn't take any risk and you didn't, you really tried to avoid everything you could.

No, he's saying you did some stuff.

Now look, it is well established throughout the Bible and throughout our preaching here at Proclamation that we can't do enough stuff to pay for our sins.

So I'm not saying that we need to do some stuff to pay for our sins, because no matter how much stuff we do, you cannot make yourself righteous before God.

Only Jesus' death on the cross can pay for our sins, and it is through faith that we will be granted Jesus' righteousness and stand before God justified by faith alone.

But some of us are acting like that's the end of the story.

Like Jesus saved me and now I'm just kind of in survival mode and I'm trying to wait it out until glory.

That is not what we are called to do.

We are called to run for the glory of God with every breath that He gives us.

We're called to do good things, to work really hard, to spread the gospel, to clothe and feed people, to love our neighbors.

We are not simply trying to avoid sin by removing ourselves from everything.

We are fighting sin.

We are pushing back darkness with the light of God.

And that's what I that's what I'll end with.

That's the call to the Christians here in this room this morning.

Get in the game and use your God-given ability to pour out your life for the sake of God's glory.

Remember God.

Reason with yourself on how to walk in his ways, respect God and the boundaries that he has put in place, and then run.

Don't pace yourself.

Run for the glory of God.

And if you are here and you're not a Christian today, I pray that you, just like the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes, exhaust yourself of everything that this world has to offer, and you realize that the only way to life and purpose and fulfillment is through the love and forgiveness found at the cross of Jesus.

That is my prayer for you this morning.

Um, and this is this is off the cuff here.

That's it for the sermon.

You can put the notes away, whatever.

But before I pray, I just I really want to say thank you.

And sorry.

You uh would be surprised at how difficult it is to work with with churches to make that happen.

Um, but at Proclamation, it really has been mostly mostly a joy.

It really has.

I can't say it's been a hundred percent joyful, that would be a lie, but it has been mostly a joy.

Um, you all have been very generous with your time, your money, your resources in helping make this happen.

Um, we've had people show up with entire sound systems and just put them in at the church.

People have given us thousands of dollars to purchase chairs, to do work around the church.

People have showed up and cleaned up some of the nastiest, moldiest junk to help make this happen.

You have shown me and my family the love of Christ.

And I thank you.

Um you've endured through some really bad jokes and have been a gracious audience as I have fumbled through trying to improve as a preacher.

Thank you.

Uh genuinely I am thankful.

Uh um, and I want I want you guys, so I'm really sorry.

I've really I felt really cold and callous yesterday, and I was like, Lord, please soften my heart, and that's what he's done, and I really wish I was being cold and callous right now.

Um, and I want you, I just I want you guys all to know that um church in churches there's oft often like a suspicious attitude toward leadership.

Like uh what are they doing with the money?

And um, why aren't they doing this, and why are they doing that?

And are that what are they wrapped up in?

Are they wrapped up in stuff that they shouldn't be?

Um what are these elders like behind closed doors?

And I really I just want to assure you guys um that your elders here, Rick and Jimmy, are genuinely men of high character.

Um they they love their wives, they care for their children, they pray for you people, they handle the church's money with great care and thoughtfulness.

Uh they are pursuing Jesus.

We have certainly not agreed on everything, um, but every time a disagreement has arised, it has been resolved with grace and humility every time.

Um proclamation churches in great hands under the care and leadership of these two men.

Pray for them, love on them, hold them accountable, encourage them.

And and to close, like, let's do this again.

Between Grace Church and Proclamation Church, let's pray and let's pour into more people so that so that they can go and they can start and revitalize more churches in Knox County and beyond.

I love you all.

Let's pray I'm done.

God, we uh we we love you.

We we certainly uh we love you, we thank you so much for what you've done.

Um I thank you personally for uh this church and just uh the open-handedness and the generosity, and we just give you the praise for it.

We just pray this morning that you would bless our efforts as we part, uh, that you would bless Grace Church, that you would continue to bless Proclamation Church, that you would bring more people along that would want to plant and revitalize a church.

Um, I pray that you would uh do work through us.

Give us the energy, give us the foresight, give us uh just the tenacity to pour out our lives as a drink offering to you.

We praise you for it.

We thank you, we give you the praise for all these things.

In Jesus' name, amen.