Sermon from March 15, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

We're gonna walk through twenty-two this morning. And as you're turning there, you know I'm not the greatest when it comes to titles for sermons. To say death for all sounds like I'm being negative, Nancy. I'm not trying to be that way, but just realize what we're gonna see in scripture today will kind of go along some of those same lines. And I don't know about you, but as I'm processing the book of Ecclesiastes, there's a part of me saying, Okay, God, can I switch to something else? Because it seems like Sunday after Sunday, almost kind of like a broken record. A broken record according to the book of Ecclesiastes week after week after week. Same thing, vanity toil. But what's got me thinking today and this week, and of course, obviously that little mishap didn't help at all, is the idea that I'm kind of ready to get out of Ecclesiastes because when you talk about these things, they start happening in your life. And I've got to be able to set the right candle at example. And I'm just tired of some of these things happening. Let me explain to you. You've had a week, uh I'm not trying to gripe, but just know that I'm human, I have a normal life like everybody else. So I start out the week, I go to cut grass, you gotta change the blades. You ever try to change a blade in a lawnmower and you can't get the bolt off? And you're using all kinds of different tools, you've spent money on some of the best tools, same tools they use at the lawn cutting place, and still can't get them off. That'll mess you up, that'll make you mad, right? Make you real mad. You go from places like that to thinking, okay, you got work to do, pressure washing job, and then people don't show up to work, they're gonna work. And then you you got days like this, you're ready to go, and all of a sudden the microphone breaks or is not working quite right, even though it just changed the batteries in it. How do I handle those kind of things? That's what we've been looking at all this time. Life is going to happen. Good things are gonna happen, bad things are gonna happen. That's just life. Now, obviously, there's some times where things happen because of our sin, because we're under attack or a trial, or maybe being tested to see if we're gonna be faithful to the Lord. So there's different reasons for that. I'm not gonna go over those reasons right now, but just realize we're all walking through life together, we're all gonna have the same outcome. Death to all. So, like we've been saying as we go through the book of Ecclesiastes, are we seeking to make the most of every opportunity that we have to enjoy it? Now, this is where it's like I'm preaching to the choir, but I'm preaching to myself because you can ask Debbie sometimes they get frustrated, like without lawnmower. That's quite frustrating. Can't get that blade off. Somebody cuts grass and you know, maybe they forgot that one tire was flat. So when you cut at an angle, it messes the whole yard up. You know what I'm saying? Just things happen, okay? But can I find the joy in the everyday life? Just something to think about. As we walk through Ecclesiastes, we're reminded in Psalm 90, where the psalmist is saying, Lord, teach me to number my days. I'm not going to live forever, you're not going to live forever. We don't know how many days we have left, but can we make the most of those days? Look at what it says in Psalm 90, verses 9 and 10. It says, For all our days pass under the wrath, your wrath, talking about God's. We bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are under 70, or even by reason of strength, 80. Yet their span is but toil and trouble, they're soon gone, and we fly away. Now that can be kind of depressing for some of us in the room, because we're not yet 70 or not yet 80. It'd be encouraging for this. I won't call any names of anybody that had a birthday this week, but they've passed that 80 about seven years at least, but I won't call any names. But the idea here, the psalmist is saying, life is going to happen. You're going to live a life 70, 80, maybe 90, maybe 100, depending on how things go. It's going to be like toil. There's going to be suffering, and it's going to fly by. But he goes on to say, who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you? Then he says, So teach us to number our days that we may get or gain a heart of wisdom. Can we ask the Lord to teach us to number our days? To help us not know the exact time of our death, but to know to make the most of the time that we have left. Just this week, and in terms of trying to live life and experience life and get through the business side of things, I get a phone call, we'll have to be up at Thompson Funeral. I'm at a translate for a family who lost a month-old baby. That reminds me of how short life can be. I leave from there to go to the hospital to visit a neighbor who is dying and probably has about a week to live. Grateful that he knows where he's going, that he's lived a good life. But his days, like we would say today, his days are truly numbered. Can we say now, the Lord would take us home right now, that we've lived life to the fullest? That even though it's been difficult, that we've sought to enjoy it, and sought to seek after God, and be grateful for his goodness to us, even when things didn't seem to be all that good. Solomon's been looking last week, we talked about there's a time for everything under the sun, a time to live, a time to die, a time to be plant, a time to be uh uh to harvest it, etc. etc. He was looking at the idea that life is kind of transitory. Okay, you come, you live, you move on. So the question we were thinking about asking him is do we really enjoy life? Because if we're not careful, we could be that negative Nancy. We could be that woe is me, things, bad things are just always happening, right? But that's not how God intended it to be. We saw also last week what God does, the things of his kingdom, that will last for all of eternity. Our life, or our lot, or another way to say it, our lot in life, to love God, to enjoy him forever, even in the midst of trying times and difficult circumstances. Now, granted, it's hard. We've all been through different things in life. Maybe we have some commonalities, some things we've gone through that have been difficult, maybe the loss of a spouse or parent or child, but yet at the same time, we've all experienced a little bit different, just because the circumstances are different. But what we have in common, what can unite us, is our love and our confidence and our faith in Jesus Christ. Do you have that love and confidence? Right now it's probably easy because we're probably not going through an awful lot, but under the hard times, it's harder to lean on the Lord. Maybe we want to get mad at him or something. Life is passing, we go through difficult times, but will we seek to love him and enjoy him here on this earth? Uh, a reminder of that we see in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 16 through 21, it says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. That is not easy, but that's kind of a concept that we see in Ecclesiastes. Enjoy life. Yes, it's difficult, but let's give thanks to God in everything: the good and the bad. Again, that's not easy to do, but it's we're challenged by Paul to do that as he challenged the church in Thessalonica. I challenge you to do that in today, and the days to come, and what's coming at us this week, as well as understanding. That's kind of what Solomon had in mind with Ecclesiastes. Okay, with that being said, let's look at the scripture. Now, today it's a little bit different as we start off. Just to give you a little bit of grammatical stuff here. Uh, Solomon's writing, and when he writes, sometimes he'll write and he'll start a new paragraph, like you would, I think, we'll see in this next verse, um, where it says, moreover, he's giving the idea that he's going to start a new concept. The challenge is that when we read this, and we read this verse last week, to say this verse doesn't quite seem to fit in, but it's God's word, so it has to make sense, and we have to figure out what does he mean. Well, it's one thing to figure out what he means in the original language, it's another thing to kind of get it right in English. So let me just show you how difficult this can be here for a second. Take a look at this. Whoa. Two things with one hand. Go down to the NIV, a very popular one I've read since a kid, and it says, and God will call the past to account. Or you can go to the NASV, one that I used to use a lot, and it's a good version. It says, God seeks what has passed by. So what is it that we're trying to say here? Yes, it can be confusing. Yes, each version sounds a little bit different, but we have to remember to say something in one language, sometimes it's hard to communicate it in the exact same way in another language. I think I mentioned that to you before. In English, I'll say, How old are you? But in Spanish, if I were to translate that in Spanish, I wouldn't say it exactly like that. I would say, How many years do you have? Not that big a deal, but as a translator, if somebody says to me, Cuantos años tiene, you're saying, Well, I you wouldn't say, Well, I have in English, I was translating it. They're saying, How old are you? They wouldn't say how many years do you have? We know as translators how to fix that. And that's a simple example, but it gets complicated when you go back to Hebrew, but the culture that's uh different back then than it is today. So, what's the point? Real simple. What is it that's in the past that God's talking about? It says God seeks the persecuted, and what he's looking at here is the fact that the persecuted, those who have been persecuted, those who are oppressed, will be held accountable for their actions. So in parentheses, we put there justice for the idea that God seeks justice for those who have been oppressed and those who have been persecuted. So basically, what we're looking at, this little verse here at the end of the paragraph or uh chapter uh three, verse 15, going into 16, is a little transition statement. Okay, so think about this idea that God seeks justice for those who've been oppressed. And the question would be where are they oppressed at? When is that justice going to take place? The simple ideas we'll see in uh verses 16 and 17, maybe going into 18, will be with the court system and politics. When is that revenge going to take place? Or is that justice going to be fixed? Well, it doesn't exactly say, but you and I both know that that's gonna take place at the end of time if he doesn't choose to do it sooner. So start off in verse 16, listen to what he says. Moreover, I saw under the sun, and the place of justice, even there was wickedness, the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. So here's the problem. You got a place set up where there should be justice. Isn't that a courtroom? And what is he finding? Is he finding justice in the courtroom? No. Says there place of righteousness. And when I think of a place of righteousness, the first thing honestly I think of would be a church. And we know that in the church it's made up of sinful people, but sometimes those sinful people do more sinful things, then wickedness comes out. But that would be taking it out of context. So leaving it in the context, the courthouse, the political system that's been set up, is a place where there should be justice and righteousness, doing the things that are right. But what is he finding? Wickedness. Now, does that apply to us today? We could all take, if we had time, we're not gonna do it, but we could start talking about the political issues of the day and how uh wickedness is prevailing. You don't need examples on that. You know what I'm talking about. Maybe you've seen it in the court system, maybe it's been done against you, maybe you've stood up, hopefully you've stood up and fought against it the best you can. But there was a problem in Solomon's day, and that's what we're looking at here. Verse 17, he's I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there's a time for everything and every matter, excuse me, a time for uh there's a time for every matter and for every work. So part of me says, This is gonna be normal, unfortunately, that with politics, with the government, with anything having to do with court system, yeah, you're gonna have some good judges, uh, but you're gonna have some jurors that are, but I would say is kind of like off the rocker that don't live for Jesus. Things are not gonna always be fair. But God will judge the righteous and the wicked. Now, if it were me, I would want that judgment to come quick. Sometimes in a court you might see that you can appeal a decision, and sometimes you can win and you get that righteousness and you get that justice. Other times you don't. But let us not forget, as we live our lives, the God who loves us, who cares for us, hates sin, is going to punish sin. And for those who do not know Christ at the end of time, they're gonna have to stand before the Father, and as He reveals His sin to them, and they realize that they've never placed their faith in Him, their punishment will come immediately. Sometimes I don't know about you, but I think how do these people get away with this stuff? You know, on a simple level when it comes to driving and how people act when they drive, right? How do they get away with this stuff? I've said several times, I wish I had a paintball gun, I could just shoot at a car that was doing something that was against the law and let the police find them and give them a ticket. Well, it doesn't work that way. I have to wait and let justice do its run its course, right? But God says he will judge your righteousness. If he says he's gonna do it, sorry about that, if he said he's gonna do it, he is gonna do it. There's a time for every matter and for every work. Verse um 18 switches over now to a transition. We go from the idea of political oppression to look at this concept of fate of all of God's creatures. There's a reason to put all of God's creatures because we're gonna see not just the fate of man, but we're also gonna see the fate of the word they use in the ESB says beast. So I just put all of God's creatures here. And what is that faith, fate, excuse me, to be born, to live, and to die. So we go from the political side, justice, wickedness, to look at the fate of mankind once again, and to maybe even humble us a little bit, and to see what we have in common with the creatures that God created. Look at verse 18. It says, I said in my heart with regard to the children of men that God is testing them, that they may see that they themselves are but beast. Well, how's that for being encouragement? You're just a beast, you're a wild animal. And that's not, by the way, that's not in a positive sense, or whatever you might think that might mean. No, that's more in a negative sense. Sinful and uncontrollable, want to do your own way, be stubborn. Kind of like this wild beast that has taken up shelter outside of my house that's not welcome. A dog that as many times as you chase off, he still comes back. An animal that we're not feeding because we can't take ownership because we can't afford to take care of our dog right now, and the laws in our town uh we cannot follow those with the way our house is designed, and we don't want an animal. But are we not just like that? This morning, y'all, I chased the dog off the porch, and he's still come back to do the same thing, being a knucklehead. Do we aren't we like that with God? God tells us to do something, we get all mad upset, say we're gonna do it, then we don't do it. Are we like beasts? We can eat, drink, breathe, communicate. Verse 19. It says, For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beast, for all is vanity. And all of a sudden, here comes that sounds like it's negative again. Well, you live, you have your life, you die. Well, he's given the correlation. That's not just for us, that's also for the animals. So what's going to be the difference? Well, look at verse 20. What does it say here? All go to one place, all are from to all are from dust, and to dust all return. Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what we're saying here. We know how it is with life. You're born, you die, what happens when you die? You can pay money and be embalmed, you could do a taxidermy with your pet, but dust to dust. That's been from the beginning of time. That's what we have in common. But, listen to this in 21. Who knows whether the spirits what's going to happen to them? Are they gonna ascend to heaven? That beast, is it gonna go down to earth? Or could it be vice versa? Again, for the animals, it's not the place to just say animals go to heaven or not. We're not gonna discuss that. But for mankind, isn't there a choice? Don't they have an option? They place their faith in Christ, they can ascend to heaven. If they choose not to accept Christ, that great day of judgment comes, they'll they'll descend to the lake of fire. Verse 22 says, So I saw there's nothing better than a man should rejoice at his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? I don't know about you, but I like to make plans. And I think about uh when I'm not here anymore, what's gonna happen to that which I've acquired, or that which I'm responsible for, family, grandkids, things like that. I want the best for them. But can I be in control of what's gonna happen after I die? No. I can set the stage, I can leave an inheritance, I can put some trust together, I can do some things like that. But when you're gone, you're gone. What happens after that is outside of your control. So, what should man be doing? Solomon comes to find out nothing better than a man should do but to rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Do you rejoice in your work? Do you? And I know three-fourths of the room technically are retired. But just because you're retired doesn't mean you don't work, right? I imagine you still have responsibilities. The trash still needs to be taken out, taken out, somebody's still got to cook, somebody's still got to get the groceries, somebody's still got to take care of the animals, somebody's still got to check on the kids, the grandkids, neighbors, etc. etc. Can we seek to rejoice in the light that God's given us? And don't get me wrong, it's easy to complain. It's easy to be negative. I'd love to gripe to you more about that dog, but you don't want to hear about that. I loved to gripe with you about that lawnmower and all the different things I tried to do to get that thing to work, to get changed that blade and couldn't get that bolt off. The only thing I didn't try was dynamite, and I figured that probably wouldn't be the best thing to do. I love to gripe about other crazy stuff that happens when you're out about living life. But during the difficult times, let's seek to do like it says in 1 Thessalonians 5 18 and rejoice in all circumstances to give thanks to God. What will gratitude do to our negativity? You know, some of us are very happy people. You think they're negative, never negative. Others you might say, Well, they're always. Negative. Another say they're negative once in a while. It doesn't matter which category you fall into, but could we seek to find the good in all things and to rejoice? The lawnmower. Let's go back to that for a second. I'm laying on the ground. I got that bad boy jacked up. And I've got these different impact drills, these uh air compressor ones. I got the right size, and I'm going, I'm going. And I could do one of two things. I could have beat the snot out of it with a pole. And I could have cussed it out. It wouldn't have been that hard to do. I know some of them words. But I had my employee with me. And what would I be showing him if I did all that? I'm supposed to be a preacher. Need to set an example. I mean I don't get mad at it. Took it off the jack, we rolled it out in the yard. I got a long pole with a wrench. Tried to use that pole to do it. Didn't do nothing but pinch my finger. That's not funny. I don't know why you think that's funny. We need to talk after church. But you know what I'm saying? Life gets difficult, things happen. Let us seek to get thanks to God in all things and seek to enjoy life. If you're not enjoying it, review and find out what's going on. Maybe it's just simply God's trying to get your attention and say, hey, get back in your word. Read. I ain't gonna lie to you. We just finish up Leviticus, about to go into numbers, but this was difficult to get through. It's not that easy. Numbers is a little bit better, but not a whole lot better. But spend time with the Lord, praying and talking to Him, saying, Lord, this is the week I've had, this is a week that's coming up. I'm anticipating this and that. Help me to rejoice in you, to lean on you, trust in you, and in the midst of whatever happens, to set a godly example for the people. Why do I say that? Doesn't scripture say if if I be lifted up, I'll draw men to myself. You see, sometimes as preachers, even as missionaries, there's this pressure. You gotta grow a big church, you you gotta win all these people to Jesus, you've got to do all this stuff. Bible says we need to set the positive example and need to lift up the name of Jesus. Let him bring people to himself. He'll do that. But as we lift him up on this side of our mouth, and on this side of our mouth, we do things that are not of God, people notice that. Don't they call that speaking out of both sides of your mouth? Yeah, God don't like that. I pray that we would seek the good time, the bad time, knowing that fate's fate. We're gonna have good days. We're gonna find $20 in our pocket we didn't know we had. And we're gonna have bad days when we get nails in our tires. I mean, life's just gonna happen, right? But can we rejoice in the lot, the place, the work, the environment, the city that God's placed us, and seek to give him praise for that. So, in closing, just a couple things to think about. One, do we understand that God hates sin and will punish sin? The reason I bring out that is the first part, the political side, about the oppression side. If God says he's gonna get those who have been oppressive, he will. He'll punish them in his own way. Yes, I'd like for it to be immediately, but that's not how God works. But that oppression for other people could be us as well. If we've been that way with other people. God hates sin. Let's repent of that. And secondly, do we understand that life happens, life goes on, etc., etc., that we need to seek to enjoy it. And when I say enjoy it, I'm not talking about like how the world enjoys it. Let's go out and party and have a good time. Let's go out and try to wash our problems away with uh some kind of substance or something like that. But let's seek to enjoy life, knowing that the good and the bad will happen to us, but let's seek to enjoy it under the guidance and the obedience to the Holy Spirit. That makes sense. It's not easy to do, but can we seek after the Lord at all times to try to walk in the Spirit, allow Him to guide us? And when those trials and tests come and they will come, we'll have somebody that we can lean on, and people will be watching us, and we'll they'll be like, wow, you handle that differently than what I thought. And you can say, the only reason I handle that maybe a little differently than what you expected is because of Jesus. Because I wanted to do A, B, C, and D, but instead I followed after the Lord and leaned on him and allowed him to get me through that circumstance. Ecclesiastes, Solomon, the great wise man, the great teacher, learned a lot, wisdom above anyone else that God had given him, gives us a simple advice that still applies today. What will we do to enjoy life and give thanks to God for that and the midst of the life that he gives us? Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we come before your presence. Thank you for this day. Thank you, Father, for the opportunity to look in your word. We know that your word is true. Father, we know that you're a God of righteousness, of holiness, a God who also has uh revenge in your own time. We pray, Father, for those who were living in sin that they would repent and understand that a day of judgment is coming. But Father, most of all, help us this week to know that in the midst of all that's taken place or that's going to take place, that you're still our God, and help us to lean on you and seek your guidance, your comfort, your peace, your patience in the midst of all, so that when others look at us going through things, they'll say, Wow, there's something different about them, and they'll know that we have been with Jesus. We love you. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.