The Perspective We Need | Myles Holmes

It's so good to be together this morning.

Before we open up God's word, this week marks a week that is maybe we could call it important, maybe we could call it terrifying.

Maybe for some of the kids and students in here, we would even call it dreaded.

It is back to school this week.

Can we hear it?

For school kids, can we hear it?

For school.

I know that was your parents clapping.

That was your parents clapping.

I was watching, you weren't clapping.

Your parents very pumped about back to school.

We want to take a time, the time out of our service this morning to pray for our children, our teachers, school staff, schools as they begin a new year on Tuesday.

And this is something more than just acknowledging that, you know, summer's over and dreading that together.

It really is something that's important, not only in their lives, but in the mission of our church.

Discipleship of our students and of our children is a massive part of the mission that Jesus has given to Redemption Church.

We are a church that is obsessed with the biblical mission that Jesus wrote for his disciples for us in the Great Commission, to make disciples of all the earth, to glorify God by seeing lost people saved, saved people matured, and mature people multiplied.

And a massive, massive, massive part of our calling in the life of our church right now is the shepherding of the children and youth that God has given us.

And so we do this as a church family together.

We regularly dedicate children not only to the Lord, but to the church and promise our support to these children as they grow to love and follow Jesus.

And we want to take a big transition like this one and use it as a practical way to keep that promise to these children, for our children and youth to know that our church truly does love them and want to disciple them and pray for them.

And so I would ask for you to join me in prayer as we lift up our students and school staff.

Let's pray together.

Father, we give you praise for every one of the children and youth that you have blessed this church in abundance with.

And God, we pray on this really important and important Sunday, we pray for them.

Lord, we pray as they return to school and the many challenges that await them, not only in their education and the growing of their minds, but in their social lives and their spiritual lives.

God, we pray that you would give them wisdom and peace and courage.

God, that you would help them to follow Jesus in their schools.

Lord, as they return, we pray that their identity would be firmly fixed in you.

That they would not be caught up in the many idols that are prevalent in schools, whether it be thinking that their worth comes from their grades or their popularity or their abilities or their futures.

God, I pray that this would be a year where our children and youth are solidified in their identity in you, that they are loved despite their sinfulness with a love that is so much greater than they could ever possibly imagine.

God, we lift up our public schools to you, fulfilling the command that you've given to us to pray for our leaders and for our government, asking, God, that this would be a place where children are protected, where truth prevails, where teachers are supported.

God, we pray that you would give the Christians who serve in these schools strength.

Give them courage to display the character of Christ.

Lord, give them opportunity to speak naturally about the hope that they have in you.

God, we pray for the Christian schools that link arms with our church and discipling and raising and educating these children.

We pray for Nova Christian Academy and Stowville Christian School and King Christian School.

God, would you keep these schools so firmly rooted in your word?

Help them and their boards and their leaders and teachers and administrative staff to be faithful to Christ, to pursue the work that they've been given to not only educate but to disciple children with great excellence.

God, give their leaders wisdom, discernment as they navigate the difficult landscape of Christian education in this day and age.

God, we pray also for the families in our church that homeschool.

Lord, we pray for the parents who are educating their children, for patience.

We pray for the children.

God, that as they learn and disciple, are discipled in their families, God, that they would grow to love you and to know the world that you have placed them in.

Lord, we pray for the staff.

We pray for the teachers that are in our church.

We pray for the administrative staff, everyone who takes up this important work as employment, as a job to teach children.

Lord, we pray for them for courage, for strength.

And Lord, we lastly pray for the parents.

God, as parents, would you help us to steward these gifts that you have given us, recognizing, Lord, that they are just that, they are gifts from your hands.

That they are these children are not ours, but they are yours, Lord.

Help us to shepherd them, to disciple them, to train them up in the way that they should go.

And ultimately, Lord, to teach them how your steadfast love is better than life.

God, above all these things, our our heart is that you would save our children.

Lord, that you would mature them in the gospel, that you would grow them into men and women who love your word and serve your church and gladly give their lives to follow you.

God, we lift this all up in the name of our Lord Jesus.

Amen.

All God's people said, Amen.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to open them up to Ecclesiastes chapter 11.

Ecclesiastes 11 · chapter mention

We are in the final sermon of a summer series that we've been working through in the book of Ecclesiastes.

And as we've worked through the book of Ecclesiastes, I don't know what's kind of gone through your heart and mind.

And by the way, I see the ushers standing back there looking at me, reminding me that I forgot to tell you that if you don't have a copy of God's word as you open up to Ecclesiastes chapter 11, the ushers are making their way to the front, and you can flag one of them down.

Ecclesiastes 11 · chapter mention

They'd love to get a copy of God's word into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you.

We've been walking alongside Solomon who labels himself the preacher as he preaches a sermon to us where he really observes the world and tells us not only exactly what he sees, but what he has studied and observed to be true about our world.

And as we've walked through Ecclesiastes, I'm sure that you've kind of felt like it's it's almost like what you would imagine walking onto the scene of a hurricane, maybe a disaster scene after a hurricane has come through, an earthquake has come through, and there's devastation everywhere.

I mean, that really has been in Ecclesiastes, hasn't it?

Solomon has not been afraid to grab us by the shoulders and tell us that where we are placing our hope is in a thing that can only invite misery into our lives.

He's showing us through Ecclesiastes the misery that we pour into our lives when we believe what the world offers rather than what God gives.

And so at times we really get this horrific sense that everything in this world is broken.

There is nothing that you can firmly plant your foot on that will support you.

Whether it's your work, whether it's your family, whether it's your possessions, your pursuit of pleasure, whatever it is, Solomon is like, whatever you reach for, he's got a message for you as a preacher.

It is broken.

And you can almost imagine it as though we're at a hurricane scene, and you're seeing the devastation in the world that this hurricane has brought.

There's debris everywhere.

You can't tell where the homes once were.

The walls are shattered.

There are trees down.

People's possessions are scattered all over the place.

Cars are flipped upside down, and everywhere you look, there is this disturbing devastation.

And yet you could imagine that on that scene, there would also be, as you look between the scenes of rubble, some beautiful things to observe.

Maybe neighbors who are helping neighbors dig out possessions from the rubble, strangers who are serving one another, first responders who are risking their lives to help people, families who in the devastation are brought closer as they sort of suffer together.

In the middle of this scene would not only be disturbing destruction, but breathtaking beauty.

And in that scene, amidst the rubble and the beauty and the destruction and the love and the light and the good things, you would need an external voice to come and help you sort out the pieces of the puzzle.

Is this ultimately beautiful or broken?

Are the people here noble or selfless?

Is life a precious gift or is it cruel?

You see the scene in front of you, but you can't interpret the pieces.

There's too much beauty to say life is meaningless in this world.

There's too much devastation to pretend like everything is right.

And Solomon has taken us on this multi-week journey where maybe there are more questions now than there are answers.

What is the meaning of life?

If everything that he has reached for has been nothing but debris, devastation.

What is there to life?

What Solomon has then done is has really walked us through this hurricane scene that is our world, hasn't he?

He's shown us that there are good things in life.

In fact, Ecclesiastes and Solomon and Ecclesiastes comes back to one of my favorite things time and time again, food.

And I love that about Solomon.

That he takes the normal things of life and embraces this reality.

Listen, there is times in life where you just get to sit in front of a 10-ounce steak.

And that is a good thing.

There's beautiful times in life.

There is light, there is food, there is work.

Work is an incredible thing.

There is friendship.

There is just this goodness to being alive.

There is this appreciation you can have for life.

And yet, amidst the beauty is also this devastation that Solomon is unwilling to not let us look at.

He forces us to look at the devastation of the reality of oppression in our world, of the injustice that we see every corner that we look to.

Of the way that we can labor and labor for our whole entire lives, only in the end to discover that our labor was fruitless.

The reality that we can live as wisely as possible and yet still be forgotten.

The reality that death is coming to us all.

And you see this scene of beauty and devastation, and the pieces are scattered across the ground, and they can't interpret themselves.

And I think the most fascinating part of what Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes comes in these final verses where he takes a step back and he gives us the perspective that we need.

He looks at the pieces that that, I mean, he's really responsible for kind of coming into our lives and pulling the tablecloth off and everything coming scattering across the room and our life is in shambles, and we say, Solomon, what is important, what has meaning?

And then at the very end of the book, he takes a step back and he reminds us of this truth.

It's the main thing I want you to see this morning.

It's going to come up on the screen so that it's ingrained in our minds that life under the sun cannot be interpreted merely from under the sun.

It only begins to make sense when it is seen and lived before God.

Life under the sun cannot be interpreted merely from under the sun.

It only begins to make sense when it is lived and seen before God.

So then, in our passage, as you look from chapter 11 to where we'll spend most of our time this morning, and beginning in chapter 12, verse 9, I want you to notice that when with the final words that Solomon has, he really does a survey of what we've seen so far in Ecclesiastes.

Look there at verse 7.

Notice what he says: light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see sun.

So, verse 8, if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all.

There's light, there's beauty.

They're in this world that is so easy to recognize brokenness.

It's so easy to complain about the evil that we live in.

Solomon here at the end is reminding us there's there's light, there's beauty.

But but look what he says in the second half of verse eight.

Let him remember that the days of darkness will be many.

All that comes in is vanity.

Verse 9, rejoice.

Verse 10, remove vexation from your heart.

Verse 12, really the main imperative and command he's come back to you time and time again.

Remember also your creator in the days of your youth.

Beauty, remembering that you have been created by God, that eternity has been placed in your heart.

But then in verses two to seven, this might be the darkest verses in all of the book.

Your hands will tremble in fear.

The sun and light and moon and the stars will be darkened, and clouds will return after rain, and your legs will weaken, and your teeth will even disappear, Solomon says.

The cord that's that's holding your life, it will snap, dust what you came from, is what you will return to.

Everyone will age and die, and your spirit will return to God until in verse 8 he summarizes with his last words the entire sermon.

Vanity of vanities, says the preacher.

All is vanity.

It is where he began.

And after he has surveyed all of creation, it is where he ends.

Human observation has gone as far as it can go.

And if the book of Ecclesiastes ended in verse 8, we would be standing amidst the wreckage.

But the while while Solomon has finished preaching, God has not.

And there is this incredible literary device that happens in Ecclesiastes where Solomon finishes his sermon and then speaks from another perspective and reminds us of this need that you and I have.

We need another perspective.

Life under the sun cannot be interpreted merely from examining the wreckage, from looking at life under the sun.

We need another voice.

And there it is.

We need another voice.

And it is here in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verses 9 to 14.

Ecclesiastes 12:9–14

I want to read it with you this morning.

As we do, would you stand with me?

This is the word of the Lord.

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 like nails fixed firmly, 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.

Much study is a weariness of the flesh.

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.

Father, we need your help.

And it's at this time that we acknowledge that we have a great need for a perspective beyond our own.

Lord, we saw last week that faith exists because clarity in our life does not.

And this week what we are doing is planting our foot firmly on the truth that what you have spoken we cannot live without.

Lord, in this place, I pray that you would find hearts that are firmly holding on to the words that our Lord Jesus said when he said that man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

God, we need your perspective on life.

Help us, Lord, this morning to make sense of this reality that life cannot be lived unless with sense and meaning unless it is lived before God and seen by Him.

Lord, fill us with your Spirit to transform us by your word.

All for your glory, we pray, in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

You can take a seat.

Here we find a perspective that we could never find just by examining the wreckage that is our world.

God, in these verses, gives us a word to trust, gives us a way to live, and he gives us a judgment to await.

I want you to see first that God in this world gives us a word to trust, a word to trust.

Notice in verses 9, he really is talking about a word.

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

At the very end of the day, Solomon is really careful to make sure that you understand what this is and what it isn't.

The book of Ecclesiastes is not the collection of a man who is an old man who's on his front lawn and ready to complain about everything.

You have had those conversations probably many times, even this week.

Well, back in my day.

Fill in the blank.

Well, kids these days, fill in the blank.

Well, because of social media, fill in the blank.

There are complaints about our world, left, right, and center.

But what we find in Ecclesiastes is not the collection of sayings of a man who is bitter and old.

Notice in verse 9 that he has weighed these things, he has studied them, he has arranged what he's observed for our benefit.

You see that in verse 10.

The preacher sought to find words of delight.

And you know, you think back over some of the things that we just read.

I mean, in verse chapter 11 and 12, didn't he just tell us that our teeth are gonna fall out?

And you think, Solomon, some of this hasn't been so delightful.

I mean, I'm wondering, I'm going back to chapter 10, and you said death comes to all.

And Solomon, I mean, I just don't know if if you really accomplished the goal.

What Solomon has written is beautiful, it's it's compelling, but he's never willing to lie.

And isn't it a bre hasn't it been a breath of fresh air?

If you've been with us as we've walked through Ecclesiastes, I mean, in this world, there are so many people who are saying, hey, listen, anything negative in your life, just don't pay attention to that.

Just look away from what is in negative.

Just ignore it.

When you're anxious, I mean, I've heard this before.

When you're anxious, just find five blue things in the room.

And I'm thankful some of you guys have worn some blue shirts today, so I feel the peace coming into my into my life right now.

Just just ignore what's evil, what's hard in this world.

And Solomon, I mean, he's got a message that would not thrive on social media today.

Hey, hey, I got something really disgusting and nasty.

Come look at this.

You're gonna die.

Okay?

And then at the end, wasn't that a breathtaking word?

Wasn't that beautiful?

Wasn't that a word of truth?

And yet, what we come to understand is that that Ecclesiastes feels uncomfortable because it is telling us the truth about life, even when that truth is difficult to hear.

And yet, verse 11, the reason for that is because we need difficult words.

We need to know what is true, we need to know what is deeply devastating.

So Solomon says, look at verse 11 with me.

The words of The wise are like goads.

They're like goads.

They're like really sharp sticks that you use to poke your children.

I mean, that you use to poke your animal and livestock so that they go a certain way.

You try to go to the left, but you you're up against something that's sharp and painful, and you try to go to the right, and you're up against something that is sharp and painful, and it keeps you on the way that you should go.

And that is what Solomon has been doing with his words.

His words have been like goads, like sharp sticks that cause us great, immense pain, that leave us at times wondering, what am I building my life on?

What is the foundation of my life?

And if it is money, he wants to turn you away from that.

If it is pleasure, he wants to turn you away from that.

If it is wisdom, work, control, family, whatever it is, if it is not a firm foundation, he is willing to use his words like a sharp goad to put you in the way that you should go.

And to for that, don't we say, thank you, Lord?

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you for speaking truth to us when it is hard to hear.

Isn't God's word so refreshing?

And that God is so unwilling to just sugarcoat everything for you.

And there are many who are willing to cut out significant pieces of God's word in order to make a message that is full of sugarcoating, that is pleasant to the ears, that that itches the need of what we want to hear, but God will not do it.

God's words are like goads, but but notice verse 11 that his words are also like nails.

Firmly fixed are the collecting, collected sayings.

And you get the illustration here.

If goads push you away from what is harmful, nails fix you to what is true.

They hold you to what you need to be held to, to realities that we have seen.

Like the reality that God is God and we are not.

Like the reality that life is a gift.

Like the reality that we saw last week, that our responsibility is faithfulness, and we leave the results, we leave the fruitfulness to God.

This is what Solomon has been doing.

He has been wounding us because there are directions that we will never stop walking until we see the destruction of what awaits us if we keep following that.

And he has been securing us like nails to what is true.

And so then the question we ask ourselves is if God has given us a word to trust, loved ones, do you trust it?

Can I ask you right now?

Has God's word been like a goad to you this week?

This week, is there any way that you were living in which you then heard the voice of God and walking in one direction, you were as though pierced with a sharp stick, you turned the other direction?

Has God's word confronted you uncomfortably this week?

I'm not talking about like seven years ago where you had that spiritual experience.

I'm talking about like regularly, are you holding on to God's word like a life booy saying, This is all I have?

In times of uncertainty and suffering, turmoil, has God's word been like a nail to you?

Has it fixed you to what is true?

When the diagnosis comes and all of life comes crumbling down and everything you thought was certain becomes uncertain, do you hold on to the one thing that is true?

God's word.

I mean, I needed that so personally this week.

Found myself coming up to this week, and you know, ministry launch coming in in just a few weeks, and a number of things on the horizon of our church, and found myself even last night, just like, man, I'm looking at my own heart and seeing all this anxiety.

And I open up God's word, and it just so happens that the psalm that I'm praying through is Psalm 95, and in it the psalmist says, the earth is the Lord's and the sea is his.

Everything is his, everything is God's.

God is in control of all things, and like a nail firmly fixing me in a life of uncertainty, and I don't know what the future holds, is God's word.

God is still God.

Loved one, you need that.

Does God's word work like that in your life?

This is what Solomon is telling us.

Under the sun, we we can see the wreckage, right, loved one?

We can see the brokenness.

And at times we can even see the beauty and try to focus on that, but but we cannot interpret it.

And what we need in our day-to-day life is to know that in the end, evil will not have the final word.

That faithfulness means something, that that justice matters, that that death is not the end.

This perspective, it comes from a voice outside of us.

It comes from the the word of God.

And if you have that, you have the perspective that can carry you through the deepest and darkest times.

You know, one of the things I love, I maybe I don't love it, but I find incredibly fascinating about our culture and society in this day and age is that we have really sectioned off some of the most horrific things that happen in our cities and in our towns and in our homes to a small group of first responders who see it.

Only a handful of people see other people die regularly, and that wasn't certainly the case historically.

It was just, I mean, Grandma Betty, she was dead on your couch for a few days before she came, from what I read in the history books.

And even some of the most evil crime and significant suffering that happens, it is really sectioned off from the general public, maybe rightfully so, to people who are trained first responders.

And I was talking at our worship and prayer night a few weeks ago to one of the first responders in our church and asking him, you know, sharing this observation I have and asking him how he deals with it.

And and, you know, he told me that there's a he really cannot comprehend how his co-workers can do the job that he does, how they can see such deep devastation and destruction and still go on.

In fact, he told me there's not many atheists in his line of work.

Not that there are people who confess Christ, but but in the midst of that darkness, he finds that everybody is reaching for a perspective that is external to them, and maybe they kind of make up their own God and they're unwilling to hear the voice of God through the pages of Scripture.

But but I found it incredible that not only was he in this deeply dark job, firmly fixed to truth and perspective by the word of God, but also that other people who did the job they could only make it through if they were willing to listen to a voice beyond themselves, which sometimes they would make up themselves and wouldn't lead them very far.

So what we need, we need a perspective from outside of our life to make sense of our life.

And and here Solomon is telling us where that comes from.

Do you see it at the end of verse 11?

They are given by one shepherd.

And Israel, as they read Ecclesiastes, know who knows who that shepherd is, because their favorite psalm is probably much like yours, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd.

And as Jesus comes in the Gospel of John, he he gives great meaning to these words when he says, I am the good shepherd.

Jesus is the shepherd who enters into the wreckage, who comes to the hurricane disaster scene, and he does not speak from the heavens, giving us perspective that is external but far from us.

He comes beside us.

He enters into life under the sun, he walks through injustice, he weeps at graves, he endures betrayal and violence, and and he is even called by the prophet of Isaiah, he's called the man of sorrows.

The loved one, do you understand what God has given you?

He has given you a word that you can trust because it's not a perspective that is outside your situation, giving you some advice.

We've all had that before, right?

We've all had the friend who's too quick to give us advice to a situation that they don't understand.

And you, you know, your great high priest is not that.

He suffered, he endured.

No one knew darkness and injustice and oppression and pain and sorrow like him.

And because of that, he is a voice that we can trust to shepherd us like goads, keeping us from what is harmful, and nails fixing us to what is firmly true.

That's what Ecclesiastes has been to us, hasn't it?

It has been pushing us away from the things of life that will not sustain or satisfy or bring life or peace or joy.

It's much like an illustration I once heard of a bird in a forest.

I'm saying this because a few weeks ago I deeply offended every bird watcher in our church, and so now I'm doing some PR right now.

A bird in the forest and he makes a nest in a tree.

Now I'm probably gonna get some emails from the bird watchers about birds and nests and trees.

I've probably said something wrong already.

Anyways, he makes a nest in a tree, and a man with an axe comes and he starts beating on the tree.

And the tree's shaking, and the bird's looking down, and he's saying, Well, what's going on here?

Why are you hitting my tree?

And this man with the axe just keeps hitting the tree until eventually the bird gets fed up.

He he leaves the tree, he finds a new one, he builds a nest there.

And then this lumberjack comes to that tree as well, and he starts hitting that tree and hitting it and hitting it and hitting it, and the bird looks down and he says, What is going on here?

Why is this man following me?

He finds another tree, and the lumberjack comes to that tree and looks up to the tree and calls and says, Listen, bird, don't you understand?

This whole forest is coming down, and he keeps beating the trees until this bird builds a nest on a rock.

And loved ones, that is what God has been doing with us.

He is asking us, where have you built your nest?

What loss would make you feel like your life no longer had meaning?

That may be may reveal the gift you are asking to do what only Christ can do.

And God is such a good shepherd that He is unwilling to let you settle in what is coming down.

He is calling you then in this book to receive the beauty of the forest, to enjoy its shade.

But loved one, don't build your eternal home here.

Don't stake your identity on what is coming down.

Fasten your life to Christ.

The shepherd has spoken.

He's given us a word to trust.

The question then becomes, how should we live?

And that's the second thing that this the shepherd gives us.

God gives us a way to live.

He gives us a way to live.

Now, understand this that as we look at the wreckage of this world and we see the devastation and the beauty, we don't just need more information.

We need the right perspective.

We need truth.

So then in verse 11, verse 12, sorry, notice what Solomon says, my son, beware of anything beyond these, beyond these words of the shepherd, beyond these collecting sayings of the shepherd.

My son, verse 12, beware of anything beyond these, of making books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

Now I find this verse fascinating because it is written in the ancient Near East.

And I don't know what Solomon's bedroom looked like, but I'm imagining that there is a shelf on it, and there's a few handwritten scrolls on it, and they're, you know, bound up, and he's looking at that shelf, and maybe it's just like, you know, the smallest IKEA shelf you can look at, and he says, Man, these writings are endless.

And then you flash forward to our world, and doesn't that seem more true today than it has ever been?

I mean, there has been more content made on Netflix that if you were to watch every minute of your life, you could never get to the bottom of it.

And you can go on your phone and you can scroll and scroll and scroll, and you will never, so long as you have Wi-Fi, you will never get to the bottom of the endless sayings that people have to say.

You can go on Kindle.

Millions and millions and millions of books are made, giving you information and perspective, whatever perspective you want, you will find.

In fact, haven't you noticed that on social media lately?

Whatever your thing is, you will find someone supporting it.

You know, I I like to, I'm interested in health and fitness, and so I'll go on social media and I'll find some, you know, health nut guy who's talking about broccoli and fiber and saying, without it, you are going to die.

You flip to the next thing, and it's a carnivore person who says, beware of broccoli.

If you eat broccoli, you will die.

The next you flip to the next thing, it's a therapist that says, Listen, you're worrying too much about broccoli.

All this worrying is bringing stress into your life.

You're gonna die if you keep worrying about broccoli.

And Solomon comes and he says, Death comes to all.

Why are we eating broccoli anyway?

We can hear whatever perspective we want, and it's more true now than ever.

Like, you will hear what you want to hear.

And so Solomon's saying this, my son, beware of words beyond what the word of God has said.

There is nothing, there is nothing that you can be certain that is true beyond God's word.

Isn't that true?

Like, if you go two generations back to your great-grandparents, three generations?

I don't know.

I gotta do, I'll do the math later and I'll correct it next week.

Go a few generations back to your great-grandparents.

Aren't there things that they believe to be true that you look on now and you you think laughable?

Like really?

They thought that was true?

I mean, they used to write, right?

They used to think it was bad to wash your hands before labor and delivery.

We got some information now to say, well, that wow, that's ridiculous.

And are we so prideful to say that we do not now believe certain things to be true that in a few generations will come out to be, I mean, absolutely ludicrous?

Solomon says, listen, there is one word that is eternally true.

And if if any verse in scripture is proof of it, it is this verse that was written thousands of years ago and is more true today than the day it was written of making of many books, there is no end, and much studiness is a weariness to the flesh.

Listen, loved ones, human wisdom can help you steward parts of your life.

It cannot tell you what life is ultimately for.

And you need to understand this that this in this day and age, we are drowning in content, we are drowning in people's voices, but we are starving for wisdom.

And Solomon says, Look here, look here, I will show you the way to live.

Verse 13 the end of the matter, all has been heard.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Solomon looks at all the voices and he says, There is one thing that is so important that you fear the Lord, that you keep his commandments.

Everything boils down to this.

And Solomon is not saying, Listen, uh, are you thankful?

I've solved every mystery in your life.

I've answered every question you've ever had.

He is telling us what we need to know in order to live.

And so we have this entire world of self-help that is saying, Here are the seven things that you must do to optimize your life and do this and do that, and make sure that you you get the sunlight and the food and the exercise and make sure that you're not stressed at work and make sure that you're successful, all these voices coming in to construct and optimize and save our lives.

And God then comes in with his booming voice and places him at the center, himself at the center, and asks us this question: Do you know him?

Do you know God?

Do you revere him?

Do you stand in awe of him?

Have you brought every part of life under his authority?

That is the only question that we must ask if we want perspective in this life.

Am I living the life God has given me before him?

Am I living for one voice and one voice alone?

And what the fear of God then needs to become in our lives, this awe and reverence of him, it becomes like the new sun in the solar system that is our life.

Where before everything orbited around work or family or our body or possessions, and everything was out of whack because those things are not strong enough.

Their gravitational pull is not strong enough to keep us in perspective.

Here, God places himself in the middle and says, Listen, once you make the primary objective of your life, the whole duty of man, the whole duty of your life to fear me and keep my commandments, I will then be the center.

And all of these things, it's not that they disappear from your life.

You know, I've had so many people ask me that as we've worked through Ecclesiastes.

I mean, are you telling me I gotta quit my job?

I mean, are you telling me I get to quit my job?

Are you telling me I gotta stop worrying so much about health?

And the answer is no.

All those things are good things.

The question is, what's at the center?

Loved ones, what's what's at the center of your life?

You know, your work it is not primarily about proving your worth, it is a place to honor God.

Your body is the same thing.

Your health is not something that you need to preserve in order to be happy.

It is a gift that you have been given to steward before God.

And this is true about your family too.

Your family and the way that your kids behave and act is not evidence that you have built a successful life.

These are the people that you are called to love, these are the people that you are called to shepherd and disciple.

In other words, what's the one thing we need?

And so helpfully we need to circle verse 13 of Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and highlight it and star it and recognize that the great thing that Solomon has done for us is boil down the main thing we need in life, the truest perspective we must embrace, fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Ecclesiastes 12 · chapter mention

We hear a word that we can trust, we're given a way that we must live.

But can we really trust that that when we obey God, that evil will not still not flourish?

Can we believe that when we're faithful to God, fearing Him and keeping His commandments, that our faithfulness will not be overlooked?

Verse 14 then comes in to give us final perspective.

And after such a strong resounding note in verse 13, it seems like such an odd place to end, back in what seems to be dark and devastating.

The last thing God gives us is a judgment to await.

It is a judgment to await.

Look at verse 14 with us with me, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

I love this promise that we are given.

In a world where we are drowning in voices, telling us what they believe to be true, God says that on the final day only one voice will be heard.

There will be no competing interpretations of life.

Everything, everyone will end with God's verdict.

You see that here?

Every evil secret or good thing will be brought into judgment.

Every evil will be exposed, every lie will stand in the face of truth.

Every unseen act, whether of sin or of faithfulness, on that final day.

Before the Lord will be exposed before Him.

Love ones.

The question right now is: do you believe that?

In your heart of hearts, can you confess that it is true that a day of judgment is coming?

And if the answer to that is yes, the question then becomes do you live like it's true?

Do you live like it's true that history will not end with competing interpretations of life?

It will end with God's verdict.

Do you live like it's true that every secret thought, hidden intention of the heart will be exposed before the Lord?

You know, you know, if you do live like that is true, you can stand and see the wreckage of life and the devastation of our world, and you don't have to panic, you don't have to worry, because you know that there is a God who is coming to make all things right.

You can, in the midst of that wreckage, you can act faithfully before the Lord, serving him, and you don't need the attention, you don't need the affirmation, and you don't need to do it in order to be loved by him.

You know that he is coming to make all things right, that the judge sees what no one else sees.

It is God's judgment that will be the final interpretation of history.

But loved one, I also want you to rejoice in this reality.

That the judgment we deserve is also the judgment we need.

You know, it's easy to welcome judgment when it's other people's sin, isn't it?

You have that neighbor in your neighborhood, you know, and you think, I just can't wait till this guy stands before the Lord.

Right?

You have that coworker and you think, man, I mean, someday everything's gonna be made right.

And it is easy to think about other people's lives and wait for the day that everything about them is exposed, that the day that their bitterness is exposed, to the day that their evil deed is exposed.

It's easy to welcome judgment when you're imagining the evil of others.

The problem is that God's judgment, you see it here, includes every deed.

Notice that, it includes every secret thing.

And you know, there's a great illustration of this in Nathan and in David in 2 Samuel.

You remember when Nathan comes to David, and David had just comp uh, he just uh participated in one of the most heinous sins in all of Scripture.

He had committed adultery with Bathsheba, and he had murdered Uriah, Bathsheba's husband.

And yet, as he was doing this, he was like so many of us, he could not see his sinfulness for what it is.

He was blind to it.

He didn't know that there was a coming judgment for his horrible sin.

And so Nathan comes to him and he tells him a story.

It is a story about a rich man who stole a poor man's lamb.

And what do you see David do if you know the story?

I mean, David, he he gets so angry.

How could this rich man do this?

And what's he doing?

He's imagining the evil of another person, he's disconnected from it, and he's saying, What we need is judgment.

And as the king, I will bring judgment down on this man.

And there's this amazing verdict that turns the whole courtroom around when Nathan looks at David and says, This, you are the man.

You are the man.

And loved one, do you know that that day is coming for you where all the evil in the world that you have ever seen, the heart of it will be exposed, and you will see that the same bitterness that you wanted to be judged in that person at times it has been relevant in your own life, that the same lust that led that person to adultery, that that same seed has been alive in your life, that the anger, whatever it is, that all of it on one day God will look at you and you will be exposed before him and see that the sins that have been in other people that you have seen and wanted to be judged, that they also are in you, that every deed and secret thing will be brought into judgment, and that on that day you will have no strength to stand before God on the strength of your record.

You will need something else, you will need mercy.

And it is one of the most beautiful places in scripture, in the deepest, darkest devastation of David's sin with Bathsheba and the murdering of Uriah, in Psalm 51, he turns to the Lord, and what does he ask for?

Forgiveness, and he finds it.

He finds it.

Loved one, at the cross, the judge entered into our judgment.

The shepherd who spoke from beyond the wreckage, he entered into the wreckage and he stood in the place of sinners.

At the cross, evil was not ignored, justice was not abandoned.

Instead, it was nailed to a cross where Christ bore the judgment that his people deserved.

And being resurrected three days later, declared that sin, death, and the grave will not have the final word.

This judgment is terrifying if you stand alone.

But Solomon in chapter 12, he takes a step back to show us another perspective.

That the judge is also the savior who has borne our condemnation.

Loved one, do you have a savior in Jesus Christ?

Do you have a savior who gives you confidence to stand before that judge on the final day?

If so, you know it is true for you.

That judgment is ultimately a good thing.

Jesus is coming to clean up the wreckage.

Evil is real, but it is not ultimate.

Faithfulness can be hidden, but it will never be wasted.

Death is certain, but it is not final.

God's beautiful world will not remain forever buried beneath the debris.

You can trust in Jesus instead of trying to build a record that will stand before the Lord on that day.

We finish Ecclesiastes, and we are still standing in a world of beauty and devastation, but God has interpreted the scene and he has given us something we need: a word to trust, a way to live, and a judgment to await.

Love one, your life is brief, but it is not meaningless.

The world is broken, but it is not abandoned.

God has spoken into our lives and given given us meaning when life is lived and seen before him.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for the perspective that you give us in Jesus Christ.

And Lord, I pray that right now would be a moment that we plant our flag in the ground and place our feet firmly on the foundation that is Jesus Christ alone.

To say, Lord, that there is no other way that we can make it apart from Him.

To declare, Lord, Lord, with voices that aren't only our singing from place of heart of our heart with a confession that is true, but are singing with great strength.

To declare, Lord, that our hope is found in Christ alone.

God, there is no other place.

And so we confess this to be true.

We pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Would you stand and sing with me?