Time for Everything

Hello, and welcome to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast.

Thank you so much for listening.

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We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together.

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We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today.

Alrighty.

Oh, good morning church.

Got a, uh, pumping massive crowd in today.

Um, no guys, I'm super excited to be here, right?

This is the last one of the year.

Um, I am thankful for everyone that is here.

Um, I know like either, you know, a few of us have been sick.

A few of us are under the weather at the moment.

A few of us are out of town enjoying hot, nice weather, AKA the scenes.

Uh, if you have any, um, unwanted angst for the cold weather, uh, pass it on to them as they're enjoying that nice, that nice weather at the moment.

Um, no, I hope this last week, um, your guys' time was filled with great friendship, great family.

Um, and at worst for this last week, I hope that your sports team won, right?

That's where I'm at.

Um, right.

Like my, my Denver Nuggets got to play on a Christmas day.

We won that game, but then, uh, proceeded to lose by a lot the next day, which is fine.

Um, but for today, like Alex said, it's a little bit of a different setup.

Obviously with not a lot of people, I think this is a great time for us to focus a lot on prayer.

But I do have a lesson about Ecclesiastes that I do want to take a look at today, um, and focus on like our time and how we value it.

And the title of the lesson today, as you can see, is Remember Our Creator.

It's a title they can write out of Ecclesiastes 12.

And the goal today is for us to take a step back and analyze our time, how we spend it, what value we give it, and how it should always be pointing right back to our loving creator, our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a lesson in our life that is always going to be needed, right?

Like this is something that, you know, we could do it, you know, today, six months from now, eight months, nine months, like, you know, still be applicable every time we hear it.

Um, however, as we are now at the end of the calendar year, right, as we, we, you know, mark these times that we get to, to take a time and introspectively look at our lives, right?

It's a time that a lot of us reflect on what's been good this year, what's been bad, you know, what are the things that we've neglected, what are some things that we've relished in this past year.

This type of reflection brings us to this unique, somewhat often misunderstood and darkened take on our time on earth, which is Ecclesiastes, right?

If you've read Ecclesiastes in depth, you're like, okay, this is an interesting lesson to do.

Um, but that's why I want to, like, before we get into this little lesson, I kind of want to slap a hearty, I want to say warning, but just advisory when we, when we look at Ecclesiastes.

It is not a simple reading.

You know, the Bible talks about spiritual knowledge being like a progression of children's food, right?

Some basic teachings are like milk, like what a baby infant should take, right?

You know, the teachings are straight to the point.

We understand what we see.

Some teachings are more advanced and would like, and would be like eating a hearty meal.

Ecclesiastes is a three course meal sometimes, right?

It is a full on, it's a heavy appetizer, a big old, you know, steak and asparagus and a delightful dessert at the end.

Um, right?

Now, when I say this, this doesn't mean that that's the level of spiritual understanding we need for this lesson, right?

Not by any means.

Um, or just even look at Ecclesiastes, but I am warning or just giving a, you know, advice that if this is a book that you haven't read, or if you are going to read, um, do it with commentaries.

Do it with an understanding of how you intake deep, kind of like intrusive thoughts, because that is Ecclesiastes in a, you know, in a nutshell.

And right?

We may be asking why that is, right?

Like, okay, like that's a, most lessons don't start with an advisory of, if you're going to read this, you know, do it with commentaries and wisdom in it.

Um, but for the idea of that, like, let's take a look at the few divided topics, right?

There's the subtopics that you get within each, um, within each chapter within each book.

And here are a few that are in Ecclesiastes, right?

It first starts with everything is futile, right?

With wisdom comes sorrow, futility of pleasure, from dust to dust.

God's work remains forever, and to everything there is a season, and et cetera, and et cetera.

Ecclesiastes, in my opinion, is like the intrusive thoughts in someone's head won the battle and it took the pen, and that is like Ecclesiastes, right?

It is the, it's the thoughts that some of us are like, I'm not going to share that out loud because I don't want people to think a certain way about me.

Like I sometimes think like that is Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes is very much like, are you, are you okay?

Like, what's going on in that head?

But to a point of why I really appreciate Ecclesiastes is we all have them, right?

We all have these thoughts of existential crisis.

Why does it matter?

Why do bad things happen?

What purpose does my life have?

I have no control over any big issue that is in this world, right?

War, famine, greed, power, and encapsulate it all into one, the sin that spreads on this earth like a disease.

Now looking at Ecclesiastes, it can often circle around this sadness, like I wanted to point it out at first, right?

I think when people read it, it's like, oh, it's a doom and gloom book.

It talks about the meaninglessness of life, right?

But once you dig into Ecclesiastes a lot more, it isn't all about the doom and gloom of this world, right?

But rather, it pins all these things that the world has to offer with the security and joy that comes from the Lord and be like, here's what this life has to offer.

This is what the Lord has to offer.

See for yourself why one is more important than the other.

And that's what we're going to focus on today.

We're going to focus a little bit on that and how we focus that into our time.

So with this first point, my first point is remember God's light.

Remember God's light.

God's light.

Ecclesiastes 12, 13 through 14, is the verse we're going to look for this first point.

And it says, when all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this, fear God and keep his commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil, right?

So this is the final verse of Ecclesiastes, right?

So when these verses were written, there had been 12 plus chapters about the trials and tribulations that this earth has to offer.

How the things of happiness that we strive for are also fleeting in the end.

What's so important about this verse in the last couple of chapters is it compares the earth and its perceived light with the unshakable light that is God.

And just like Ecclesiastes, right, we all desire meaning in life, right?

If you met someone who didn't, I'd be a little worried, right?

Often that search takes us down long, winding up and down paths filled with bursts of satisfication that shine bright for a time, then eventually fades.

For some of us, right, it's money and a secure job, right?

For some of us, it's security and relationships, right?

You know, whether it be your friendships or a more intimate relationship, right?

For some of us, especially me, it's the happiness we find in our hobbies and our likes, right?

So no matter what it is, right, we often seek a light, right?

We're always seeking a light, but most of the lights that we seek dim and fade.

What Ecclesiastes, but even more, the bigger picture of the Bible is communicating that these perceived lights in our life do not compare to the Lord's light, amen?

Ecclesiastes presents us with this naturalistic vision of life, one that understands why we seek after vain items, right?

It's like, I understand, we enjoy pleasure, we enjoy, you know, a laugh, we enjoy seeking out these things.

I get it, right?

It's written for that, it's like, I get why these are alluring, right?

It's understanding, but ultimately recognizes the rule and reign of God in the world.

So when we take this and when we look at our own time, our focus, and our energy, right, we often misplace it in so many ways.

You know, for myself, I think about all the ways that I put my time into so many things that benefit me and secure what makes me happy, right?

It's the idea of like, when I read like the fleeting light, I'm like, oh, I do that so often, right?

It's like, what am I looking forward to in the next, you know, seven days that it will like make me happy, right?

That gives me joy, that gives me my own life, right?

But something Ecclesiastes is incredibly wonderful in is his ability to show how these come and go, right?

You know, right, it is most like 99.9% written by Solomon, right?

And Solomon, with the most expertise, like the most wise, richest human being in the world.

That's why, you know, we take this with a grain of salt, like man had like everything, right?

And so he's writing this of like, it could be the richest person in the world, or it could be the poorest person in the world.

We all die someday.

We all lose these things that we look for light in, right?

No one is immortal.

And that is why we have to remember God's light, right?

It's why we're here, it's why we're here today, right?

We understand the bigger picture in our life, we understand that there's a light that's deeper than the ones that we seek in ourselves, right?

Because by our human nature, and maybe I'm just speaking for myself, and if so, that is what it is, we probably would not be here on a Sunday morning, on Christmas Eve, right?

Waking up, you know, moderately early to come to church, right?

Like by our own sinful nature, we're like, it's my off day, I want to sleep in, you know, the Lions played last night, that's a tough subject for some of you.

Or your favorite team plays like later today, you're like, I'm just gonna chill, right?

But we know, right?

That's our light.

That's like, that's our fleeting light, right?

It's a perceived light of, oh, I get to sleep in, I get to enjoy my time, but God's light is deeper than that.

That's why sometimes we sacrifice our time, because we understand there's something deeper in our lives than that.

Right?

So that is why we need to remember how important it is to recognize God among all of the things that when we take up our time and we think about how we've spent it, right?

We need to remember God's light in our life on a day-to-day basis.

Now as I come to the second and last point for today, it highlights the first point, but I also don't want us to come away just being like, because I think the reason why Ecclesiastes is for a mature reading, because I think some people come away and it's like, I'm not going to do anything with my life.

Everything is meaningless.

And it's like, well, like, that's not what that was meant to be for, but I get where you got that.

I get where that comes from.

But what I think is super important is this idea, if we have focus, we have the foundation of God is the number one thing in our lives, right?

Focusing on that and no other pursuit that can match our relationship with God, then this idea of then how do we spend our time after that?

And that's what the second point is about.

Remember time is a gift.

Remember time is a gift.

I have one more verse for you.

Ecclesiastes 11, 7 through 9.

And it says, light is sweet and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

So if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all.

Let him remember the days of darkness for they will be many.

Everything to come is futile.

Rejoice, oh, young man, while you are young.

Let your heart be glad in the days of your youth.

Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but now that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

In ties with remembering God's light, I think it's also very important to remember God's gift of time to us on a day-to-day basis, right?

I think about Ecclesiastes 11, 7, right, especially when I was digging into this book.

It's a simple thought, but how often do we just appreciate the sun, right, in the beginning, right?

You know, now, I'm from Colorado, and we see the sun actually quite often.

We get a lot of sunny days even in the winter, but I think coming to Michigan, I was like, I think I appreciate the sun when it comes out in March just a little more than maybe I did in Colorado.

I was like, oh, I'll see it, you know, in February.

It's like, if we see it in February, it's like, is Jesus coming back?

Like, it's a great day, don't spend it inside the office.

You're calling in, you know, sick that day to spend some outside time, right?

But it's the little things, right?

And that's why I think it's not just about the sun, right?

It's about the bigger picture of how we appreciate our day-to-day lives and then how we go forth and use it, right?

Today's lesson is tied with some intentional prayer.

And I can't count the number of times that I've heard a lesson that ties prayer and a good prayer life with gratitude.

Like, I kid you not, I have at least 50-plus lessons on prayer, and I don't think any of them have ever left without one of the main core things being, if you don't pray with gratitude, you're probably not going to be a grateful person in your life.

And it's like, that makes a lot of sense, right?

Like, that adds up, right?

But it's thankful for all the little things, right?

It's the air that we breathe, it's the water we drink, the friends we have, the roof over our heads, the food on our plates.

You know, I think we need to have these prayers because they remind us of how much has been given and how much of it is a gift, right?

Because there are people that don't have that, but also they would pray a gratitude of the things they have that somebody else doesn't have, right?

Like, the list goes on and on of the things that we have in this world that we get to wake up and breathe air.

Like, that in itself is a gift.

It's the time that we give and that we don't deserve, right?

But the issue for all of us, if you're anything like me, is we often get so just in the mess of the day-to-day life, right?

We forget why it's so important, right?

We forget why the time on earth is to be cherished, right?

Because we're so focused on so many little things that we have to do on a day-to-day basis that we forget the bigger picture.

We forget why we're here, why we share our lives with people, why we enjoy when your kids are driving you up the wall and you just want to go hide in a dark room for two hours.

But we forget those things because the day-to-day life sucks us in, right?

And I want everyone to think about how they approach those moments, right?

I'm going to give you a couple of chores, activities, things that we do on a day-to-day basis and I want you to think about how you think about those things.

Do you find them a joy?

Do you do them with gladness if you put your life into it or something you hate doing?

Because I'm going to be honest, some of these, I put some headphones in, don't talk to me.

And so this is very convicting for me, right?

Grocery shopping, right?

Getting coffee, going to the gym, filling up for gas, right?

Clocking in and out of work every day.

That takes up at least eight hours, right?

That's a long time.

There's a lot within that subsection itself, right?

Walking the dog.

And for those who don't have dogs, just taking a walk, right?

Having dinner with your family.

I'm a massive proponent for enjoying the little things.

And the things like this that we have in our lives, I just don't think we rejoice in them enough, right?

I don't think that we give them to God as much as we think we should, right?

I think about how these moments are a way for God's light to be shined in our lives.

Yeah.

We rarely do it.

And I say that from a personal experience.

Like I said, grocery shopping, this was the first one I was like, I put in headphones and I swear, if someone looks at me, I'm like, don't you dare.

I'm here on a mission to get my food and get out.

Right?

I'm like, what am I like?

I sometimes like, what am I doing?

Like, I'm supposed to be sharing my life.

I'm like, no, I don't want to.

But right, like that's like the, that is what we challenge with on a day-to-day basis, right?

We're challenged with these moments where we can, you know, be just individualized and suck ourselves into our own lives where we can use God's light, right?

We could see all these things that the world sees as meaningless, right?

But if we have God's light, if we remember our creator and we put them into practice, there's so much more to live in these day-to-day moments.

For my analogy, right?

So I've been trying, I'm so happy for this analogy.

I wasn't going to say this as a preface, but I have to, right?

So I've been working to get a country lyric into an analogy and I've done it.

I'm so happy about this.

I'm not even going to lie, right?

I'm so to the point, if you guys don't, as you get to know me more, I love country music with like way too much passion.

It's kind of, it's overwhelming for a lot of people.

But there is this country song by a man named Toby Keith called My List.

It is one of my favorite songs of all time, but my favorite song from Toby Keith.

And it paints a beautiful picture of like what matters in life, right?

And it is on the next slide.

I don't know if it's going to play.

So if it doesn't, I do have the lyrics down.

But obviously, Toby Keith is going to be better at singing it.

But obviously, I can just speak it out if it doesn't work, because I don't think it will.

Well, I'm not going to sing it for us.

Let's, we're not going to go too far.

The spoken word will be a stronger play for us.

So yeah, that's all right.

It's not that big of a deal.

But I want to read the first verse, the first section of verse and chorus for you.

Just kind of paint your picture of like our day-to-day lives, right?

And so the song starts like this.

It says, under an old brass paperweight is my list of things to do today.

Go to the bank in the hardware store.

Put a new lock on the cellar door.

I cross them off as I get them done.

But when the sun is set, there's still more than a few things left that I haven't got to yet.

Then it goes into the chorus.

It says, go for a walk.

Say a little prayer.

Take a deep breath of mountain air.

Put on my glove and play some catch.

It's time that I make time for that.

Wave the shore and cast a line.

Look up an old lost friend of mine.

Sit on the porch and give my girl a kiss.

Start living.

That's the next thing on my list.

Like I said, Mr. Toby Keith will sing that a little better.

But when I think of that song, I think of Ecclesiastes.

I think, like, this is the stuff it means to rejoice in our life that we live, right?

To make an impact in the people that we have on a day-to-day relationship with.

And you tie this song, if you tie this song with our structure of godliness, how many lives can we impact with this mindset of living out the important things on our list?

Right?

And so as I wrap up for this part of the service and we go into our prayer, I want to have you guys think about a couple questions.

And this isn't the prayer part.

This is, like, a little thought process for you guys.

Like, how much of that time that we talk about, the things that really matter, how much are you giving to the people in your lives, right?

So I think that's, like, what Ecclesiastes is about.

And obviously, we didn't have, like, a lot of time to dig deep into the book.

But, right?

Like, we pursue so many things in our life.

We pursue a paycheck, right?

We pursue all types of things that get us places, cars, houses, right?

And they're good in some essence.

But, right, at the end of the day, I just don't think, right, we'll remember, you know, all the days that we clocked in to work, right?

Like, I think we'll remember some days when, you know, half the people show up and we have a great prayer time, right?

Like, we will remember those so much more, right?

We're going to remember, right?

For me, I'm not going to remember the times that I listened to great music in the grocery store.

I'll probably remember if I had a great conversation with someone, though, right?

You know, I would, you know, I'll remember the talks with my mom and dad, right?

Rather than doing whatever the heck I else would be doing, right?

Like, I can call my mom and dad at any point, right?

You know, the talks with my brother, right?

When I go to campus and share, right, I have those stories.

To the point of ecclesiastics, the point of looking at our time is, right, it's a gift.

We don't have a whole ton of it, really.

Like, we just don't know, right?

For some people, it's doom and gloom.

It's a sad thing.

I'm like, that's a cherished thing.

Like, don't lose it, right?

So, as we kind of start to focus in on prayer, we focus in.

A lot of people, like we said, take this time to reflect.

Reflect on how much of your time has been given to be a light into people's worlds, right, to be God's light into people's worlds.

And if we do that, not only our lives, but the lives of everyone around us, God's love will be enhanced.

And our church, our personal lives will be so much better off for it if we focus on these things with a profound gratitude for the lives we have and if we do it on a day-to-day basis.

And so, with that, that's the lesson part.

We want to get to the topics for prayer.

So, at this time, you want to split into groups of three to four and spend, it's going to be about six to eight minutes.

I want you guys to have a focus on one of these two.

If you want to hit both, do so.

But remember, split it between your time.

Do not take up the whole six minutes.

By you just praying, right?

So, two things that you can do, right?

Prayer of gratitude, as we talked about, right?

What you are thankful for, right?

What are some things that are gifts that you haven't recognized are gifts?

What are some things that you haven't cherished that you should probably be cherishing right now?

Or the second prayer that you can do is a prayer petition, right?

Prayer for this next year to be focused on God's light and then bringing others into that light.

Focusing more on like how you can, you know, better yourself and the ways of growing in God's light and also helping others in that.

So, at this time, I want you guys to break up into three or four.

You'll have about six to eight minutes.

We'll come back.

I will say, I'll give you nine.

Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast.

If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected.

Please go to kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on.

In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.