WEBVTT 00:00:03.386 --> 00:00:04.647 You're ready for the word of God? 00:00:04.647 --> 00:00:06.631 Yeah, me too. 00:00:06.631 --> 00:00:07.272 Me too. 00:00:07.272 --> 00:00:14.490 Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, starting in verse 16,. 00:00:14.490 --> 00:00:24.032 Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice even there was wickedness. 00:00:24.032 --> 00:00:34.912 I said in my heart God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. 00:00:34.912 --> 00:00:54.993 I said in my heart, with regard to the children of man, that God is testing them, that they may see that they themselves are but beasts, for what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beast is the same as one dies, so dies the other. 00:00:54.993 --> 00:00:59.838 They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all his vanity. 00:00:59.838 --> 00:01:08.156 All go to one place, all are from the dust, and to the dust all return. 00:01:08.156 --> 00:01:14.677 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? 00:01:14.677 --> 00:01:19.191 So I have been in the spirit of the beast. 00:01:19.191 --> 00:01:20.384 The beast goes down into the earth. 00:01:20.384 --> 00:01:24.685 So I saw that there's nothing better than that. 00:01:24.685 --> 00:01:30.525 A man should rejoice, rejoice, rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. 00:01:30.525 --> 00:01:33.846 Who can bring him to see what will be after him? 00:01:33.846 --> 00:01:37.207 Well, father, we thank you for your word. 00:01:37.207 --> 00:01:39.748 We know that it's alive and it's powerful. 00:01:39.748 --> 00:01:45.885 We know it's every bit of it is for our instruction, and we pray for these words of wisdom that you give us this morning. 00:01:45.885 --> 00:01:53.269 We ask for your Holy Spirit to speak to us and let us see the things we need to see this morning. 00:01:53.269 --> 00:01:56.066 We pray for that in Jesus' name, amen. 00:01:56.066 --> 00:02:00.483 All right, so here's a question of the morning. 00:02:00.483 --> 00:02:11.644 If you could go back in time and sit for one day with any person in history Okay, jesus is assumed. 00:02:11.644 --> 00:02:16.687 Okay, besides Jesus, all right, of course, the answer is Jesus, right. 00:02:16.687 --> 00:02:23.932 If you could tear any battleground or any historical landmark with the person who made history there. 00:02:23.932 --> 00:02:29.191 Or if you could go back to any time in history and find the greatest person living at that time. 00:02:29.191 --> 00:02:42.092 Go back to the store, sit down with them, have a personal conversation with them, get wisdom from their mouth, not filtered by history books or anything like that. 00:02:42.092 --> 00:02:47.465 Hear them say this is what I saw, this is what I experienced, this is what I concluded. 00:02:47.465 --> 00:02:49.242 Who would you choose? 00:02:49.242 --> 00:02:53.287 Okay, paul, that's good. 00:02:53.287 --> 00:03:00.647 Yeah, he would have given Martin Luther, abraham Lincoln, adam. 00:03:00.647 --> 00:03:02.243 What would you ask? 00:03:02.243 --> 00:03:05.205 What did you do that for? 00:03:05.205 --> 00:03:10.963 Oh, did not. 00:03:10.963 --> 00:03:19.259 Somebody did not say Elvis, you got all of human history and you're going to go for Elvis. 00:03:19.259 --> 00:03:24.444 Oh man, I feel like that's a low bar right there. 00:03:24.444 --> 00:03:33.013 I feel like it would be pretty cool to get a guided tour of the moon with Neil Armstrong. 00:03:33.013 --> 00:03:34.022 That would be nice, wouldn't it? 00:03:34.022 --> 00:03:37.022 I'd like to sit. 00:03:37.022 --> 00:03:38.007 This is just who I am. 00:03:38.007 --> 00:03:50.050 I'd like to sit on a porch with a glass of sweet tea I sweet tea with Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln and talk about the emancipation of slaves. 00:03:50.050 --> 00:03:51.062 That's just who I am. 00:03:51.062 --> 00:03:54.504 Okay, fun question, but you know what? 00:03:54.525 --> 00:03:58.252 It's good to remember that Ecclesiastes is a memoir. 00:03:58.252 --> 00:04:12.280 Solomon is telling us his personal experiences, right, and it's in his own words, and he was the greatest of his time and he's looking back over his life and he's sharing with his readers and many things that he's learned. 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:26.269 This man is like the guide for life because he's had it all, he's seen it all, he's been in positions of great power, he has great wisdom, he's a great guide, right, and the amazing thing is that we can sit down with him this morning. 00:04:26.269 --> 00:04:28.908 We actually can't hear his words this morning. 00:04:28.908 --> 00:04:34.132 We can see what he saw and hear what he thought about what he saw. 00:04:34.132 --> 00:04:52.994 He's like the guide for life and he asks all these questions that, especially like even here today, he asks questions, we talk, we ask, and mankind asks right Questions about the uncertainty of life and why do unjust things happen, and what is valuable and what happens after we die. 00:04:52.994 --> 00:04:56.826 This is pretty important stuff, right, and he's going for it. 00:04:56.826 --> 00:05:11.211 We see, from the very beginning, like in chapter one, we saw that Solomon reminds us that the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear satisfied with hearing or filled with hearing. 00:05:12.379 --> 00:05:19.011 And so Solomon is saying temporary things do not satisfy my organs. 00:05:19.011 --> 00:05:28.279 Organs only always, ever, want more and more until they fail or never filled up. 00:05:28.279 --> 00:05:31.170 So he uses this word vanity over and over. 00:05:31.170 --> 00:05:34.259 And the word really it's translated emptiness or meaninglessness. 00:05:34.259 --> 00:05:41.279 But it's really it's a picture word and the picture is it's a fog, it's a mist, everything's misty. 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:50.235 I can't quite make it out or a mist is something that doesn't last for a long time, or a mist is something that really doesn't have much substance to it. 00:05:50.235 --> 00:05:54.971 It's like cotton candy, you know put it in your mouth and it's just gone. 00:05:54.971 --> 00:06:06.279 It's sweet, it's sweet to the tongue, but it never fills the stomach and then it gives you cavities. 00:06:09.708 --> 00:06:15.259 And Solomon, but he's saying the process of trying to figure this life out is like shepherding the wind. 00:06:15.259 --> 00:06:21.656 I think it's a beautiful and kind of desperate word picture. 00:06:21.656 --> 00:06:22.637 Shepherding the wind. 00:06:22.637 --> 00:06:23.279 How do you shepherd the wind? 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:25.279 How are you going to control the wind? 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:27.848 There's nothing you can really do to get a handle on the wind right. 00:06:28.581 --> 00:06:33.279 So from one angle this book can seem like it's really cynical and really depressing. 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:39.451 But I'm telling you, as I'm studying it for these sermons, I don't see it that way. 00:06:39.451 --> 00:06:40.052 I don't think so. 00:06:40.052 --> 00:06:43.488 To me, in the end, solomon's angle is positive. 00:06:46.764 --> 00:07:01.706 But the book does help us understand that asking hard questions and even realism, even maybe skepticism, are important parts of our faith If we want a simple, like supernatural, shallow, kind of faith. 00:07:01.706 --> 00:07:04.612 This book really gets on our nerves. 00:07:04.612 --> 00:07:22.911 But there's some of us that want deeper answers and ask harder questions and can smell a fake from 100 yards away and they've lived long enough to know that life is not as easy as everybody says it's going to be. 00:07:22.911 --> 00:07:26.468 It's not rosy, and I need some real answers. 00:07:26.468 --> 00:07:29.949 I need somebody who will speak reality to me. 00:07:29.949 --> 00:07:34.449 Well, solomon's your man, because he does it. 00:07:35.339 --> 00:07:43.617 But his thoughts are swinging like from pessimism to joy and from living life to the full to it's all vanity. 00:07:43.617 --> 00:07:44.240 What are we supposed to think? 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:46.259 What do we think about life? 00:07:46.259 --> 00:07:48.279 Is it vanity or is it beautiful? 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:49.826 Is it worth living? 00:07:49.826 --> 00:07:55.711 And Solomon says it all depends on how you orient yourself toward God. 00:07:55.711 --> 00:07:57.906 That makes the difference. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:07:59.886 So let's look at this passage here a second. 00:07:59.886 --> 00:08:01.906 And we see this. 00:08:01.906 --> 00:08:04.228 This is a pattern that we see in this book. 00:08:04.228 --> 00:08:10.987 I don't know if you've noticed it yet, but it's all through this book and the pattern is I saw. 00:08:10.987 --> 00:08:15.857 And then I said I saw these things. 00:08:15.857 --> 00:08:25.487 And then I said in my heart I saw, I said I saw, I said so, solomon is observing, I'm seeing. 00:08:26.132 --> 00:08:27.259 And then Solomon is drawing conclusions. 00:08:27.259 --> 00:08:28.927 That's what's going on here. 00:08:28.927 --> 00:08:35.279 But you can't always take his first words as his final answer, his conclusions. 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:39.830 You know, man is like an animal, there's no difference. 00:08:39.830 --> 00:08:43.279 Okay, yeah, but let's keep listening. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:43.902 That's not. 00:08:44.003 --> 00:08:48.279 You can't just stop there, because he goes a little further, right, but look what he says. 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:54.192 He says I saw unto the sun that in the place of justice even there was wickedness. 00:08:54.192 --> 00:08:56.561 That's verse 17. 00:08:56.561 --> 00:09:19.414 Here's a problem, right, there are institutions that are ordained by God, that were supposed to reflect his character and make life easier for us, like the court of law and the house of worship, the righteous judge and the holy priest. 00:09:19.414 --> 00:09:28.529 These places are supposed to be places of where we are getting some kind of justice and righteousness right. 00:09:28.529 --> 00:09:39.500 So there's no real way to have a sustainable society unless there's law and order and a place that we can get justice and a fair trial and accurate representation. 00:09:39.500 --> 00:09:46.205 Fair representation and institutions are supposed to be the place of refuge and safety. 00:09:46.205 --> 00:09:47.408 But something's broken. 00:09:47.408 --> 00:09:49.101 Something's broken. 00:09:49.101 --> 00:09:51.717 He's just saying it. 00:09:51.717 --> 00:09:52.899 We all kind of see it. 00:09:52.899 --> 00:09:56.808 Right, if you're actually looking, you see it, but he's saying it. 00:09:56.808 --> 00:10:09.645 The Solomon looked at those places where he's supposed to find justice and righteousness and he only found wickedness, prejudice, corruption, bribery, no recourse for justice. 00:10:10.676 --> 00:10:14.715 I thought about Paul when he was on trial in Acts, chapter 24. 00:10:14.715 --> 00:10:18.087 He was before Felix and Felix is having Paul come in. 00:10:18.087 --> 00:10:25.908 And then he lets Paul speak and he says Paul, I'll talk to you later about this and and it says that many times Paul came in to see Felix. 00:10:25.908 --> 00:10:28.518 And it says why. 00:10:28.518 --> 00:10:33.308 It says because Felix thought Paul would eventually offer him some money. 00:10:33.308 --> 00:10:40.860 It slipped him a little bribe to get out of jail, but Paul didn't play the game. 00:10:40.860 --> 00:10:46.120 And Paul spent over two years in custody because he didn't play the game. 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:51.235 I mean, it was true in Solomon's day, it's true in Paul's day, it's true in our day too, right? 00:10:51.515 --> 00:10:59.985 I remember I was in one African country, which will remain nameless, but I was stopped. 00:10:59.985 --> 00:11:06.754 We dropped somebody off at the airport and we were just leaving, drop them off, leaving. 00:11:06.754 --> 00:11:19.307 We're driving out the exit and we were pulled over by the police and the officer came up to the window and while he came to the window, another officer ran behind and clamped our wheel. 00:11:19.307 --> 00:11:34.408 We're stuck, we can't go anywhere until we paid 140 Ghana CDs, which is about 50 bucks, something like that. 00:11:34.408 --> 00:11:47.482 I was in another former communist country, which will remain nameless, and there was a pastor who was driving us to church and he pulled. 00:11:47.482 --> 00:11:49.687 He was pulled over for some reason. 00:11:49.687 --> 00:11:51.999 There was no apparent reason to us. 00:11:51.999 --> 00:12:06.605 He was pulled over and in that country the police officer stays back and you get out of your car and you bring it, and so you bring whatever they're asking for, you go to them, and so the pastor went back and you know what he took with him. 00:12:06.605 --> 00:12:26.350 He took three things with him Vehicle registration, driver's license, wallet and really the officer didn't really care about the first two, he just wanted I think it was 10,000 Kazakhstan-y-tengays, which is about 40 bucks. 00:12:26.350 --> 00:12:28.899 I think 40 bucks is about the going price. 00:12:28.899 --> 00:12:34.038 Basically, 40 bucks is like the price of integrity. 00:12:34.038 --> 00:12:40.054 People sell it out for about 40 bucks, or 30 pieces of silver, maybe I don't know. 00:12:40.054 --> 00:12:42.740 Maybe that's it too. 00:12:42.740 --> 00:12:46.956 The people who are supposed to protect and serve were just running a racket, and it happens. 00:12:46.956 --> 00:12:48.461 It happens here as well. 00:12:48.461 --> 00:12:51.548 Sometimes the stakes are a whole lot higher. 00:12:52.556 --> 00:13:01.884 One of my favorite films of the last five years or so is called Just Mercy, and I don't know if you've seen it or not, but you might want to think about seeing it. 00:13:01.884 --> 00:13:19.004 It's a great film based on a true story, and it's about this defense attorney who moves to Alabama and his intent is to help defend poor people who can't afford proper legal representation. 00:13:19.004 --> 00:13:27.908 What he ends up doing is defending these death row inmates in the South in Alabama, most of them African American. 00:13:27.908 --> 00:13:31.721 Among those were Walter McMillan. 00:13:31.721 --> 00:13:34.327 His nickname was Johnny D. 00:13:34.327 --> 00:13:36.715 He was an African American man. 00:13:36.715 --> 00:13:53.976 He was convicted of killing an 18-year-old white girl, put in prison wrongfully, and through the hard work of the lawyer Stevenson and his team, the injustices were uncovered and eventually he was released. 00:13:53.976 --> 00:13:58.528 But he was released only after he had already spent six years on death row. 00:14:01.876 --> 00:14:08.708 The prejudice and the injustice portrayed in that story are ugly. 00:14:08.708 --> 00:14:14.726 It's a true story and, lonnie, you probably could tell us a lot of stories like that, couldn't you? 00:14:14.726 --> 00:14:15.607 From the prison? 00:14:15.607 --> 00:14:18.297 I mean, there's no justice where there should be justice. 00:14:18.297 --> 00:14:21.379 This is what he's saying and he's calling it out. 00:14:21.379 --> 00:14:23.482 Why is it? 00:14:23.482 --> 00:14:25.889 In places that are supposed to be safe, there's no safety. 00:14:25.889 --> 00:14:30.371 Same in Solomon's day, same as Paul's day, same in our day. 00:14:30.875 --> 00:14:31.698 But he goes further. 00:14:31.698 --> 00:14:33.462 He says something even more disturbing. 00:14:33.462 --> 00:14:38.981 He says even in a place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. 00:14:38.981 --> 00:14:41.306 Man. 00:14:41.306 --> 00:14:52.312 Now there's the rub, right, because even in places where you think there would be righteousness a place like church, there's unrighteousness. 00:14:52.312 --> 00:15:11.504 Even sometimes, the very ones who are supposed to be representing the right sometimes have wrong hearts, and even good institutions can become corrupt, or good institutions can have corrupt people in them, and even sometimes the very leaders are the ones that are corrupt. 00:15:11.504 --> 00:15:12.869 So what happens? 00:15:12.869 --> 00:15:36.668 When we experience something men and women who represent God, contrary to the way that he has revealed himself into scriptures then there's sometimes it's hard to disentangle the God who loves you from the leaders, the immature leaders or believers who have hurt you and sometimes you begin to just be angry with God. 00:15:36.668 --> 00:15:46.822 But that doesn't mean these God-ordained institutions are corrupting themselves, because they're just corrupt people in them. 00:15:46.822 --> 00:15:47.946 I mean, you can't throw them out? 00:15:47.946 --> 00:15:52.466 Well, you can, but it's not a great idea to do that. 00:15:53.388 --> 00:15:57.123 There's a lot of people who've been hurt by people in the church. 00:15:57.123 --> 00:15:59.250 I mean, can we talk? 00:15:59.250 --> 00:15:59.793 Is this okay? 00:15:59.793 --> 00:16:02.562 Good, all right, that's great, because we're going to. 00:16:02.562 --> 00:16:08.434 So it might as well be okay. 00:16:08.434 --> 00:16:11.602 They're hurt by people in the church they don't attend. 00:16:11.602 --> 00:16:19.860 Many of them are now in the process of deconstructing their faith because of experiences that they've had with people in church. 00:16:19.860 --> 00:16:29.086 But you know what their story isn't over God. 00:16:29.086 --> 00:16:30.551 It doesn't mean God's through with them. 00:16:30.551 --> 00:16:36.447 God is very well able to shepherd their souls if they're searching, and you know what, I'm fine. 00:16:36.447 --> 00:16:39.163 You can deconstruct with a good heart or a bad heart too. 00:16:39.163 --> 00:16:44.302 You can ask honest questions, which I think Solomon's asking here. 00:16:44.302 --> 00:16:52.849 He's asking real questions from a real, honest heart, genuinely concerned about these things. 00:16:52.849 --> 00:16:53.792 That's okay. 00:16:53.792 --> 00:16:57.322 You can also have bad motives. 00:16:57.322 --> 00:17:01.898 You can have bad motives anywhere, even deconstructing. 00:17:01.898 --> 00:17:04.307 You can have bad motives. 00:17:04.307 --> 00:17:05.089 But pray for them. 00:17:05.089 --> 00:17:06.978 Pray for them, love them. 00:17:06.978 --> 00:17:08.061 God's not finished with them. 00:17:08.061 --> 00:17:09.425 Yet the story is not over yet. 00:17:09.425 --> 00:17:10.028 It's okay. 00:17:10.028 --> 00:17:11.601 Their hearts are searching. 00:17:11.601 --> 00:17:12.423 That's a good thing. 00:17:12.423 --> 00:17:13.747 It's a good thing. 00:17:13.747 --> 00:17:15.721 God is well able to bring them back. 00:17:17.827 --> 00:17:20.396 When I got hurt by a church, I'm not going to church again. 00:17:20.396 --> 00:17:25.292 It's like you know, people get hurt in marriage and they just quit marriage. 00:17:25.292 --> 00:17:27.701 I mean, they quit that marriage. 00:17:27.701 --> 00:17:29.924 They also sometimes quit marriage. 00:17:29.924 --> 00:17:33.291 Marriage is no good. 00:17:33.291 --> 00:17:34.579 It's no good. 00:17:34.579 --> 00:17:38.288 Well, I mean, that doesn't mean the instant. 00:17:38.288 --> 00:17:50.692 That's not a factual or accurate assessment of the institution of marriage, because God created it and God says it's very good and it is very good. 00:17:50.692 --> 00:17:59.702 But it sometimes goes bad and you can't just throw the institution out because there's some bad hearts in it. 00:17:59.702 --> 00:18:00.566 That's what I'm saying. 00:18:01.166 --> 00:18:07.301 I had a flat tire once and that tire really let me down. 00:18:07.301 --> 00:18:14.914 I said I'm not driving anymore, I'm done with driving. 00:18:14.914 --> 00:18:15.582 That's not true. 00:18:15.582 --> 00:18:16.825 I drove to church this morning. 00:18:16.825 --> 00:18:20.313 Okay, I got food poisoning once. 00:18:20.313 --> 00:18:22.125 I said that's it. 00:18:22.125 --> 00:18:23.711 I am not eating ever again. 00:18:23.711 --> 00:18:26.599 That's kind of silly, isn't it? 00:18:26.599 --> 00:18:28.384 Of course I ate breakfast this morning. 00:18:28.384 --> 00:18:32.115 You know I got hurt. 00:18:32.115 --> 00:18:33.819 I'm quitting church. 00:18:33.819 --> 00:18:37.608 Okay, I've been church hurt. 00:18:37.608 --> 00:18:39.794 You've been church hurt. 00:18:39.794 --> 00:18:42.920 All God's people been church hurt. 00:18:42.920 --> 00:18:49.771 Believe me, your pastors have seen some of the worst of it. 00:18:49.771 --> 00:19:06.523 Believe me, if you want to share stories, we have a cup of coffee, strong, long cup of coffee, and I'm not making light of any experiences you might have, because your pain is real, my pain is real. 00:19:07.165 --> 00:19:09.998 But we have to think correctly about the church. 00:19:09.998 --> 00:19:19.323 The church is a wonderfully strong, resilient, nurturing place, with people in it who've been redeemed, who are healthy. 00:19:19.323 --> 00:19:32.722 The church is also a discourate, can be discouraging, degrading, degrading, toxic place, because there are people in churches that are not healthy. 00:19:32.722 --> 00:19:39.660 But it just surprises us and it disappoints us when it happens in the church because it's not supposed to happen in the church. 00:19:39.660 --> 00:19:43.734 Right, I looked into place of righteousness and I saw wickedness. 00:19:45.079 --> 00:19:56.038 But human beings are complex and sometimes current reactions are tied to past hurts and there's a degree of immaturity and a degree of insecurity. 00:19:56.038 --> 00:19:58.766 And sometimes, yes, there are bad motives. 00:19:58.766 --> 00:20:00.190 There's just bad hearts involved. 00:20:00.190 --> 00:20:04.746 Sometimes Humans are flawed, and I'm one of them. 00:20:04.746 --> 00:20:15.528 But church hurt, parental hurt, job hurt, friend hurt, it's really all. 00:20:15.528 --> 00:20:19.397 People hurt, right, it really comes from people. 00:20:19.417 --> 00:20:25.163 And even though we may have been hurt in church, the fact remains that Jesus Christ loves the church. 00:20:25.163 --> 00:20:29.174 Jesus Christ gave himself up for the church. 00:20:29.174 --> 00:20:36.682 Jesus Christ continues to intercede for his church and he's cleansing his bride and he's making her spotless. 00:20:36.682 --> 00:20:41.074 She's just not spotless yet, but she's gonna be. 00:20:41.074 --> 00:20:48.673 My personal church hurt and it's significant. 00:20:49.634 --> 00:21:15.345 After I've dealt with it, after I've seen it through the lens of Scripture and after I've seen allowed the Holy Spirit to enlight me on things about that hurt has actually caused me to draw nearer to God instead of push me away from God, because it's actually shown me what his heart is, and here's what I've seen about his heart God loves justice, mercy and humility. 00:21:15.345 --> 00:21:18.672 That's Micah 6-8. 00:21:18.672 --> 00:21:26.211 God is for the poor, the grief stricken, the humble, the brokenhearted and the peacemakers. 00:21:26.211 --> 00:21:30.683 That's Matthew 5, verses 1 through 12. 00:21:30.683 --> 00:21:35.295 God stands against the proud and for the humble. 00:21:35.295 --> 00:21:38.282 That's James 4-6. 00:21:38.943 --> 00:21:43.383 Jesus got angry at religious leaders who impeded rather than encouraged the faith of others. 00:21:43.383 --> 00:21:46.832 That's Matthew 21, verse 12 through 12 and 13. 00:21:46.832 --> 00:21:51.733 What I found is that God's heart breaks for the brokenhearted. 00:21:51.733 --> 00:22:00.402 He really cares for you, even in the midst of your broken heart, and I believe that he did not ordain your abuse. 00:22:00.402 --> 00:22:05.511 And so we can't, we can't run from church. 00:22:05.511 --> 00:22:09.517 We can run from church, but we can't really run from church if we're thinking correctly. 00:22:09.517 --> 00:22:10.300 Think about it. 00:22:10.300 --> 00:22:14.074 God gives gifts to the church to mature the church. 00:22:15.077 --> 00:22:24.548 So it doesn't make any sense for me to say, god, make me like you and then refuse to put myself in the context which he uses to make me like him. 00:22:24.548 --> 00:22:27.075 It doesn't make any sense. 00:22:27.075 --> 00:22:41.199 And how am I going to learn how to love unless I'm challenged to either love or hate, to be offended or forgive. 00:22:41.199 --> 00:22:48.238 And now I'm going to use my pain as justification to hate and be bitter toward others? 00:22:48.238 --> 00:22:49.661 I mean, where does it ever stop? 00:22:49.661 --> 00:22:53.599 Where does it stop Unless we humble ourselves? 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:58.037 I choose to love the church because I have to say this I have to choose. 00:22:58.037 --> 00:23:06.541 I choose to love the church despite her faults, because Jesus Christ chooses to love me despite my faults. 00:23:06.541 --> 00:23:11.517 I receive grace and that's how I can give grace. 00:23:12.159 --> 00:23:26.346 And, honestly, sometimes I think what we're expecting from people is just unrealistic, because we're looking to them for approval or for security or significance or some provision that only God can give, and that's too much pressure for anybody to handle. 00:23:26.346 --> 00:23:27.992 And it's almost. 00:23:27.992 --> 00:23:33.951 It's always going to disappoint when you're putting your trust in people. 00:23:33.951 --> 00:23:34.573 It's always is a. 00:23:34.573 --> 00:23:40.477 I believe we should strive to live in such a way that we bless and not stress other people. 00:23:40.477 --> 00:23:49.423 I believe that that we are able to show Jesus to people, honor people and and give value to people, represent Jesus. 00:23:49.423 --> 00:23:51.174 But we strive to do that. 00:23:51.174 --> 00:23:51.817 But here we are. 00:23:51.817 --> 00:23:56.185 We're humans, right, we're humanity. 00:23:56.185 --> 00:23:58.056 We're the rose and the thorn. 00:23:58.056 --> 00:24:05.251 We're beautiful and we're pain inflicting both. 00:24:06.153 --> 00:24:32.922 So, yeah, there are hypocrites in the church, there are hypocrites on your job, there are hypocrites in politics, there are hypocrites in the media, there are hypocrites in sports, there are hypocrites in your family, and there's a hypocrite in your mirror and in mine. 00:24:32.922 --> 00:24:34.005 It's just the truth. 00:24:34.005 --> 00:24:35.250 So what are we going to do? 00:24:35.250 --> 00:24:37.096 What are we going to do? 00:24:37.096 --> 00:24:42.520 We have to humble ourselves, I think, and and give people the grace that we would want them to give to us. 00:24:42.520 --> 00:24:46.557 And I think Solomon is actually trying to help us learn about ourselves. 00:24:47.339 --> 00:25:01.816 In a lot of this book and here in this passage, even in verse 18, look, he says I set in my heart, with regard to the children of man, that God is testing them, that they may see that they themselves are butt beasts. 00:25:01.816 --> 00:25:12.958 All those rascals in church, all those unjust judges, all those preachers that are faking it. 00:25:12.958 --> 00:25:20.419 And Solomon is saying that God is challenging us. 00:25:20.419 --> 00:25:22.564 So we can see, we're no different. 00:25:22.564 --> 00:25:24.709 We're no different. 00:25:24.709 --> 00:25:26.855 He's. 00:25:26.855 --> 00:25:30.069 We're not behaving like men and women made in the image of God. 00:25:30.069 --> 00:25:31.676 We're behaving like beasts. 00:25:31.676 --> 00:25:36.332 And the nature of man is corrupted even from the fall. 00:25:36.332 --> 00:25:37.695 It's a fatal flaw. 00:25:37.695 --> 00:25:38.959 We're a crooked timber. 00:25:38.959 --> 00:25:40.162 It's hard to build with that. 00:25:40.162 --> 00:25:48.813 It's tough, tough to work with people, and I am one so and man is not basically good. 00:25:48.813 --> 00:25:49.413 I love this. 00:25:49.413 --> 00:25:50.499 I saw this this week. 00:25:50.519 --> 00:25:55.758 As I was preparing this sermon, my friend, kasia, in in Poland, put this on her Facebook. 00:25:55.758 --> 00:25:58.041 She said man is good. 00:25:58.041 --> 00:26:02.674 That's what cannibals say Awesome. 00:26:02.674 --> 00:26:13.587 It's also what people say who are not really paying attention. 00:26:13.587 --> 00:26:19.325 You know, yeah, there's goodness, of course there's goodness, but we're a mixed bag. 00:26:19.325 --> 00:26:19.816 That's the thing. 00:26:19.816 --> 00:26:21.484 But Solomon's paying attention. 00:26:21.484 --> 00:26:22.770 He's paying attention. 00:26:22.770 --> 00:26:32.050 These places, I'm looking, these places where justice and righteousness are supposed to be, and all I'm seeing is this is a reality, is we need a redeemer to change our hearts? 00:26:32.050 --> 00:26:34.176 And he goes even further. 00:26:34.176 --> 00:26:37.545 He says man has no advantage over the beasts. 00:26:37.545 --> 00:26:40.622 Animals and humans all go to the same place. 00:26:40.622 --> 00:26:43.673 That's not talking about heaven and hell. 00:26:43.673 --> 00:26:47.587 That's talking about we came from dust, we go to dust, we all, we all die. 00:26:47.587 --> 00:26:50.277 That's what he's saying. 00:26:50.597 --> 00:26:52.625 And who knows what happens after death? 00:26:52.625 --> 00:26:55.615 Who knows what happens after death. 00:26:55.615 --> 00:26:59.630 Really, only God knows what happens after death. 00:26:59.630 --> 00:27:00.251 I mean, we don't. 00:27:00.251 --> 00:27:04.423 We don't have any empirical evidence about what happens after death. 00:27:04.423 --> 00:27:14.057 Maybe we have some testimonies of people who died and came back, but we're we can't measure it, we can't see it. 00:27:14.258 --> 00:27:22.021 Everybody lives in in faith on this subject, whether you believe there's something after death or you don't believe. 00:27:22.021 --> 00:27:24.596 We're both living by faith here. 00:27:24.596 --> 00:27:32.199 But our faith is informed by the scriptures and also by the very power of God that has transformed us. 00:27:32.199 --> 00:27:40.563 We have experienced the power of God and so it's not really like a visual thing. 00:27:40.563 --> 00:27:41.865 We don't see it. 00:27:41.865 --> 00:27:46.021 We don't know what's beyond death by observation, but we know it by revelation. 00:27:46.021 --> 00:27:51.019 Job talks about it, daniel talks about it, isaiah talks about it. 00:27:51.019 --> 00:27:52.924 The New Testament is full of it. 00:27:52.924 --> 00:27:54.738 Jesus talked about it. 00:27:54.738 --> 00:27:59.596 Our hearts, the spirit of God, bears witness in our hearts about it. 00:27:59.596 --> 00:28:03.568 If there is something after death, we believe it. 00:28:03.568 --> 00:28:04.893 We do believe it. 00:28:04.893 --> 00:28:08.461 But Psalm is saying here you know who knows? 00:28:08.461 --> 00:28:14.714 Only God knows, ultimately All of these questions. 00:28:14.714 --> 00:28:18.512 But it's really curious to me when you look at all of his questions. 00:28:18.554 --> 00:28:26.913 I think Solomon's conclusions in the end are not really about trying to figure things out, because he seems to be really okay with not figuring everything out. 00:28:26.913 --> 00:28:27.978 Have you noticed that? 00:28:27.978 --> 00:28:32.577 Yet he's laying it out here, but he's not figuring every single thing out. 00:28:32.577 --> 00:28:33.984 He's not. 00:28:33.984 --> 00:28:40.924 He's pretty comfortable with attentions, but he's more concerned with what we're doing right now. 00:28:40.924 --> 00:28:42.167 So what? 00:28:42.167 --> 00:28:46.208 What do what we know and what we don't know? 00:28:46.208 --> 00:28:48.936 How does that affect what we're doing right now? 00:28:48.936 --> 00:28:50.441 So that's what he says. 00:28:50.441 --> 00:28:52.626 I saw, I saw. 00:28:52.626 --> 00:28:56.238 I said, okay, I'm seeing all these things. 00:28:56.238 --> 00:28:59.635 And then I said in my heart there's a conclusion here that he's coming to. 00:28:59.635 --> 00:29:05.894 How do we, how does what we know and what we don't know affect how we live? 00:29:06.355 --> 00:29:24.834 And I think what I see him saying here is don't let what you see leads you to the conclusion that life is not worth living, because what he ends up with is not a suicidal thought he's not talking about, it's just worthless. 00:29:24.834 --> 00:29:25.474 Let's just die. 00:29:25.474 --> 00:29:34.275 He says these things are not what they ought to be, but we all are given a lot in life. 00:29:34.275 --> 00:29:36.784 We should rejoice in the lot that we're given. 00:29:36.784 --> 00:29:40.080 A lot means a measure of good things. 00:29:40.080 --> 00:29:40.845 That's what it actually means. 00:29:40.845 --> 00:29:46.031 There's something allotted to you, your family, your job. 00:29:46.031 --> 00:29:53.663 So what else is there for men to do except rejoice in the job that he has, and he goes on. 00:29:53.663 --> 00:29:57.845 Later on he says rejoice in your family, rejoice in the wife that God gives you. 00:29:58.288 --> 00:30:04.845 He tells all through the following chapters it's not, life is worthless and we might as well die. 00:30:04.845 --> 00:30:08.836 And it's not, we might as well live it up because we're going to die. 00:30:08.836 --> 00:30:13.825 It's not just a selfish and self gratifying and narcissistic thing. 00:30:13.825 --> 00:30:28.778 I think what he's saying is live a life centered on God and appreciate every day as it comes as a gift of God from you, and live it, live it, live it. 00:30:28.778 --> 00:30:31.431 What else is there for us to do but to live it? 00:30:31.431 --> 00:30:34.845 It's actually more positive than we think it is. 00:30:34.845 --> 00:30:40.480 It sounds pretty hard, because he's being realistic, he's being real. 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:47.176 We should patiently and joyfully embrace daily life as it comes to us from God, as a gift. 00:30:49.885 --> 00:30:59.420 And then he says this I said in my heart God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there's a time for every matter and for every work. 00:30:59.420 --> 00:31:20.310 So he goes on to say, though there's wickedness in places where there should be justice and righteousness, ultimately there is a righteous one who will judge righteously, and I believe Solomon is really genuinely concerned about righteousness and justice, and I think he's looking for it. 00:31:20.310 --> 00:31:22.531 I think he's really searching. 00:31:22.531 --> 00:31:35.319 He wanted to find righteousness, but he also saw that even in his own reign as king and as judge and as God's representative on earth, he was falling short. 00:31:35.319 --> 00:31:41.757 And I say that because he wrote a song about it. 00:31:41.757 --> 00:31:43.009 Did you know? 00:31:43.048 --> 00:31:44.513 Solomon wrote a song about these things? 00:31:44.513 --> 00:31:50.837 We actually read it a few weeks back in our daily Bible app. 00:31:50.837 --> 00:31:52.845 It's Psalm 72. 00:31:52.845 --> 00:31:56.845 And so he wrote this song and it was a prayer to God. 00:31:56.845 --> 00:32:01.845 It seems to me like it's a prayer to God for his own reign, his own position as a king. 00:32:01.845 --> 00:32:10.320 It's a prayer God, give the king justice and let the king rule with wisdom and justice. 00:32:10.320 --> 00:32:16.740 And the Psalm was sung at the coronation of kings. 00:32:16.740 --> 00:32:17.845 It's like a coronation to him. 00:32:17.845 --> 00:32:19.790 When they crowned the king, they sang this song. 00:32:19.790 --> 00:32:25.193 But I think it's pointing to somebody else. 00:32:25.193 --> 00:32:27.818 So see what you think, let's read it. 00:32:27.865 --> 00:32:35.936 Psalm 72, starting at verse one give the king your justice, oh God, and your righteousness to your royal son. 00:32:35.936 --> 00:32:41.375 May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice. 00:32:41.375 --> 00:32:47.277 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people and the hills in righteousness. 00:32:47.277 --> 00:32:51.675 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people. 00:32:51.675 --> 00:32:55.755 Give deliverance to the children of the needy and crush the oppressor. 00:32:55.755 --> 00:33:03.679 And in verse eight, may he have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. 00:33:03.679 --> 00:33:08.355 May the desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust. 00:33:08.355 --> 00:33:13.845 May the kings of Tarshish and the coastlands render him tribute. 00:33:13.845 --> 00:33:16.513 May the kings of Sheba and Siba bring gifts. 00:33:16.513 --> 00:33:18.845 May all kings fall down before him. 00:33:18.845 --> 00:33:28.131 All nations serve him, for he delivers the needy when he calls and the poor in him, who has no helper. 00:33:28.131 --> 00:33:35.777 He has pity on the weak and on the needy and he saves the lives of the needy from oppression and violence. 00:33:35.777 --> 00:33:40.053 He redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight. 00:33:42.845 --> 00:33:45.432 This song goes beyond Solomon. 00:33:45.432 --> 00:33:52.257 This is not just about the son of David, the physical son of David Solomon. 00:33:52.257 --> 00:33:57.336 This is about the spiritual son of David, jesus Christ. 00:33:57.336 --> 00:34:04.116 This is about the Messiah who was promised to come and reign forever in God's kingdom. 00:34:04.116 --> 00:34:06.490 This is going to be on Solomon's day. 00:34:06.490 --> 00:34:07.372 It goes on forever. 00:34:08.885 --> 00:34:12.974 There is a righteous one, there is a just one. 00:34:12.974 --> 00:34:20.730 Jesus is the great high priest, the righteous one in the place of righteousness, and Solomon looked and he saw only wickedness there. 00:34:20.730 --> 00:34:26.695 But there's a righteous one and he's also the king of kings, the just one in the place of justice. 00:34:26.695 --> 00:34:28.967 He will judge righteously. 00:34:28.967 --> 00:34:32.706 And this is what he's looking for. 00:34:32.706 --> 00:34:37.510 Solomon's looking for him in this book of Ecclesiastes, and we're looking for justice in our own lives. 00:34:37.510 --> 00:34:41.251 We're trying to figure out is there any justice anywhere? 00:34:41.251 --> 00:34:43.969 Is there a just one anywhere? 00:34:43.969 --> 00:34:45.353 Is there a righteous one anywhere? 00:34:45.353 --> 00:34:49.824 And there is, there is. 00:34:49.824 --> 00:34:50.688 It's the king of kings. 00:34:50.688 --> 00:34:53.606 There is a place for recourse. 00:34:53.606 --> 00:34:55.353 There is justice. 00:34:55.353 --> 00:34:57.088 In the end, justice is going to be done. 00:34:57.088 --> 00:34:58.873 God will judge. 00:34:58.873 --> 00:35:05.547 And Solomon ends the entire book with this same thing, the same idea God will judge. 00:35:06.007 --> 00:35:07.833 And Paul said it this way at Acts 17. 00:35:07.833 --> 00:35:13.621 When he was preaching to unbelievers, he said times, the times of ignorance. 00:35:13.621 --> 00:35:31.597