WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:00.640 Seated. 00:00:01.199 --> 00:00:08.640 So as Josh said, uh we are working our way through the book of Ecclesiastes, this very intriguing book in the Old Testament. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:10.160 It's about King Solomon. 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:15.839 Maybe King Solomon wrote it or somebody else wrote it about Solomon, is probably more what it is. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:22.640 And and it's a guy at the end of his life letting loose, letting loose a lot of raw feelings. 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:26.879 And he's not telling us necessarily what is right and what is wrong. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:30.000 He's telling us what life is like. 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:35.359 And so this morning, Ecclesiastes 3, it's a it's a pretty famous passage, right? 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:40.000 To every turn, turn turn. 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:42.079 Turn, turn, turn. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:44.240 There is a season. 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:46.399 Very good, very good. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:47.439 Anybody know who wrote it? 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:49.600 No, not the birds. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:50.799 I thought it was the birds. 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:52.159 The birds made it famous. 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:55.200 Pete Seeger, he wrote it in the 50s. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:57.039 The birds made it famous in the 60s. 00:00:57.119 --> 00:00:58.799 I did a little Wikipedia this week. 00:00:58.880 --> 00:00:59.840 I wouldn't have known that either. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.679 I thought it was, actually, I thought it was the Beatles that shows you, and then I found that it was the birds. 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:05.200 Alright, so I was really wrong. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:10.879 But what I did know was Kevin Bacon read this in front of the city council in Footloose. 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:12.000 Anybody know that, right? 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:13.280 Cinema history. 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:17.519 Cinema history was made when he read Ecclesiastes 3. 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:21.200 He didn't get the dance approved, by the way, in case you're wondering. 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:21.920 But he quoted it. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:22.480 He quoted it. 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:25.840 Alright, so Ecclesiastes 3, 1 and 2. 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:33.760 For everything there's a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die. 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:38.400 So I worked up a little illustration today. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.120 I just grabbed stuff around my house, if that's okay with you. 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:48.799 So pretty much what he says is you are you're born and you're gonna die. 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:50.400 I mean, it's it's just what it is. 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:56.159 I mean, it's it's it's the way that in you in you, this is you, you are in this. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:57.680 You are in this. 00:01:58.159 --> 00:01:58.480 Okay? 00:01:59.040 --> 00:01:59.920 Nobody escapes. 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:05.120 This is these are the these are certainties in all of our lives. 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:13.599 And now within this, there is a I collected more stuff around my house, there's just a range of experiences, right? 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:20.879 Like all sorts of different experiences and their different sizes, and all sorts of stuff just goes on in life. 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:24.000 Let's just put it all that was a big one. 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:29.439 That was a that was like something really great or something really, really bad. 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:31.599 And and this is this is life. 00:02:31.680 --> 00:03:10.240 This and you're in here in this timeline, you're in here, and there's stuff, and you're making your way through, and there's and the complexity of it is that there's some there's some really good things that remain good, and then there's some like really bad things that stay bad, you don't see them turning good, but then there's like other things that started good and then they turned bad, and then there's other ones that started bad, and amazingly later they're they're good, and yet we are in this and we are, and what Solomon is saying is we are bound in this. 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:14.319 We are you you will be born and you will die. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:17.840 You you are bound in time. 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:21.280 And in that we are very limited. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:22.560 This is point number one. 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:25.120 Life in this world is bound in time. 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:25.759 That's it. 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:36.879 Point number one, you are born and you will die, and there's a range, a range of experiences within life of joy and grief along the way. 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:38.080 And that's point number two. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:41.919 Life in this world is filled with joy and grief. 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:46.879 This is sort of a pretty good synopsis of verses two through eight, those all those couplets. 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:52.400 You know, there's gonna be killing and healing, weeping and laughing, seeking and losing, loving and hating and a whole bunch of others. 00:03:52.479 --> 00:04:03.439 But basically saying, hey, there's gonna be joy, like really joyful seasons and things and experiences, and then there's gonna be loss and hurt and grieving. 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:12.960 Two weeks ago I took our last high chair and booster seat to goodwill. 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:15.919 So, what that means is it's groundbreaking. 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:20.720 Maybe you've been through it, you've been through it, and you're on the other side, or maybe you haven't got there yet. 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:24.639 Maybe you don't have a high chair in your house at all, and you're very happy about that. 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:27.279 What it means is there's no no nowhere in my house. 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:29.920 Nowhere in my house, not in a closet, not in the attic. 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:43.439 There is no high chair, there is no booster seat, and so I'm dropping off this old, worn-out, nasty, sticky high chair that all three of my girls sat in and made a mess in. 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:47.439 And giving it away means a new season. 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:51.600 Giving it away means there's a new experience that's coming to fruition. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:53.680 It means there's no more babies in my house. 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:55.199 That's what it means. 00:04:56.079 --> 00:04:56.480 Right? 00:04:57.040 --> 00:05:00.560 But it means it means all that difficulty's gone. 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:01.040 Right? 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:02.000 Praise the Lord. 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:04.720 Oh, God, oh, that's wonderful. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:14.399 But it also means that there's nobody to watch, learn to walk, or learn to talk, or you know, fix all their words. 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:17.279 Like, like we just have a couple words left. 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:18.000 Right? 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:22.959 Our three-year-old calls avocado Colorado, and she calls, that's fantastic. 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:25.199 And no, we're not fixing it. 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:30.160 We're like, as long as you want to call it Colorado, it will be Colorado. 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:30.800 Right? 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:33.360 There's only a few of those left. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:42.079 And so so there can be, there can be, in the same moment, there can be an experience of joy and a grieving, and a grieving. 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:51.279 Because I carry in this high chair to goodwill and drop it off and and and leave in joy and in grief in the same moment. 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:54.240 And that's and that's an experience bound in time. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:57.439 And maybe you've known this, right? 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:13.199 Because you your kid got their driver's license, or you dropped them off at college, and you're like, hallelujah, they're getting some independence, and I'm getting independence because they're getting independence and they're alive and they're functioning, but but then they're not around as much. 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:15.519 And that is sort of sad. 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:19.360 Or maybe you got the bigger job, right? 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:24.000 You were under somebody else for so long, and you go, Oh, I would never do it like that. 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:25.680 I can't believe they're making that decision. 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:29.279 They're ridiculous, and you go home, you're like, oh, I would do this, this, and this. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:43.600 And then you get the bigger job, and so you get a little bit better salary, you get to make some directional decisions, and this is all exciting, this is joy, this is incredible, but you never expected the weight of the responsibility. 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:48.160 And so there's some grief with it as well. 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:53.120 Or a sorrow arrived, and it just stayed sorrow. 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:57.519 You just hadn't seen it turn to good. 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:00.639 Like you got you got cancer, and it's just horrible. 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:05.279 It was just horrible, and it was horrible, and it is horrible, and you just hadn't seen that one turn around. 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:12.399 Or you got cancer, and the very thing that you thought was gonna be horrible restored your soul and your family. 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:12.959 Right? 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:18.879 And I think we hear stories like that, at least I hear stories like that, and I think to myself, great, good for you. 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:20.800 Like, good for you. 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:23.680 Learn from your grief, right? 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:28.079 Like, I am so happy for you, but I don't want to learn like that, right? 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:29.680 I want you to learn like that. 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:40.480 I want to learn like skiing down a long blue ski run, and I have perfect ACLs, and my body doesn't hurt at the age of 37, my right hip does not ache. 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:45.680 I don't know why it aches at 37, but it does, and none of that, I just want it all perfect, right? 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:48.160 We like joy, we like comfort. 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:49.759 That's what we prefer. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:51.920 Of course, that's what we prefer. 00:07:52.160 --> 00:08:01.600 Healthy babies and springtime, number one at Chick-fil-A, you get it, and it's just a good, it's just so good, right? 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:03.040 We like that. 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:06.079 Grief is the thing that we're not sure about. 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:08.959 Grief is the thing we're not sure about. 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:12.160 And then there's grieving people all over the Bible. 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:16.959 Not only grief, just people voicing it, just letting loose. 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:20.480 Jesus is weeping. 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:24.480 Uh, 40% of the Psalms are people asking, God, where are you at? 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:26.720 There's a whole book called Lamentations. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:37.759 People in the Old Testament are ripping their clothes, ripping their clothes in a signal and symbolism of saying, like, my heart is ripping. 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:44.879 And then I think about us, I think about our culture, and we start to tear up and we go, Oh, I'm sorry. 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:46.879 I'm sorry. 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:51.679 No, no, no, no, you don't have to be sorry for grieving. 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:54.080 Oh, I just need to let me collect myself. 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:54.639 I'll be back. 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:56.639 I'll be back in just a second. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:06.320 A death of a loved one in the Jewish practice, they would take a week and be together in silence, just grieving. 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:13.519 No work, no work, no phone, just together, just grieving because they needed to. 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:15.840 Because they knew they needed to. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:20.799 And after the week and after the burial, then they had a month, a month of grieving begins. 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:26.639 After that, there's a year of grieving, and they know this, and they because they need to. 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:29.840 I think about how we often do it. 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:37.759 Like, let's make the arrangements in three days, work right up to it, right? 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:40.639 And get there and act like nothing really happened. 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:46.320 We're sad for about two hours, and then we hide all of our sadness as if nothing happened. 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:48.879 But the problem is something did happen. 00:09:51.360 --> 00:10:06.639 See, as for grief, whether it's a death of a person or the death of a season, or you're dropping off a high chair at goodwill, and it's just a change in your life, if it matters to you, it matters. 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:12.480 When there's a change, usually we need to grieve something. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:16.799 See, healthy spirituality is being honest about your emotions. 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:22.159 It's not making judgments over, oh, whether, oh, I shouldn't be, or I should be, or I should be over this, or I should. 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:22.960 No, no, no, no. 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:26.240 Just healthy spirituality is honest about your emotions. 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:30.639 You have to give yourself permission to enjoy the joy. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:35.039 Some of us aren't even good at that because we'll nitpick ourselves even when it's a joyful season. 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:36.159 Enjoy the joy. 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:37.440 Like, like, good. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:38.960 Enjoy that. 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:44.720 And also embrace that sometimes we need to weep in the sorrow. 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:48.879 And maybe you would say, but it's not even that big of a deal. 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:50.320 I should be over that. 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:53.600 I should have, maybe you've heard that, I should have more faith. 00:10:55.919 --> 00:10:57.679 It doesn't mean you lack faith. 00:10:57.840 --> 00:10:59.440 It just means you're sad. 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:05.120 I mean, maybe the godly thing is to be sad. 00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:07.120 Maybe that's the godly thing. 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:11.759 And maybe you need to be sad for three weeks, or maybe just a day, or maybe a year. 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:12.559 I don't know. 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.200 There's no timeline on this grieving. 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:16.720 But you have to grieve. 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:18.320 You have to grieve things. 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:21.840 We're constantly needing to grieve things. 00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:28.320 Jesus had great meals with his friends, and then we turn around and we see him weeping. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:31.120 It's joy and it's grief. 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:32.559 And we have to ask ourselves, right? 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:40.960 Like, okay, so in this, we're bound in time, this range of experience, and it all can feel very insecure, very uncertain. 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:49.120 Is there anything secure amidst the insecurity of the range of experiences we go through? 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:51.840 Solomon continues in verses 9 through 11. 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:55.200 What gain has the worker from his toil? 00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:59.279 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:02.720 He has made everything beautiful in its time. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:09.200 Now I think we'll wrestle with that one for like the rest of our lives because we're going, like, I see some of it, I don't see all of it, I'm not sure about that one. 00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:11.200 I'm really wrestling with this one. 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:12.639 But he says it. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:15.279 He has made everything beautiful in its time. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.320 We're bound in time, it's hard for us to get that one. 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:28.240 Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:36.480 So he reminds us, you're bound in time, you're limited, you won't understand everything, but he's put eternity into the core of who you are. 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:38.240 And that's point number three. 00:12:38.559 --> 00:12:43.679 Our hearts, the core of who we are, are rooted in eternity. 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:45.679 So he says this. 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:47.840 He says, eternity's been placed in your heart. 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:57.519 This is the word olam, which is like forever time, but some people actually think it's not really, we tend to think eternity, and we think, well, that's just time that goes on forever. 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:00.000 Some people think, well, that might not be the best way to think about it. 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:04.080 The better way might be to think about its existence without time. 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:08.000 And that's hard for us to understand because we're within time. 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:10.480 Let our brains kind of explode a little bit there. 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:13.840 So this world is one constant timeline, right? 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:14.799 That we exist in. 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:22.399 It's linear, it's just one moment to the next over experience after experience after experience, right? 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:28.399 And Solomon is saying, eternity is put in your heart, so there's a hint of something else. 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:35.279 There's a hint of some other realm, some other way of existence, and it's inside of you. 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:36.799 And we know it a little bit. 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:42.320 Like we get these feelings every once in a while because we'll say something like, Oh, where did the time go? 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:44.879 Oh, time really flew by. 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:45.600 Right? 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:52.240 We get these little moments, or our time stretches, and you're like, oh, how did third, how has it only 30 minutes gone by? 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:53.039 This is horrible. 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:55.279 And other times, like, three hours just went by. 00:13:55.360 --> 00:13:57.440 I can't believe that went by. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:00.080 And we get these little hints. 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:05.600 So Solomon hints at it, and then Jesus gives it. 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:10.720 Jesus said in John 10, verse 28, I give them eternal life. 00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:16.720 So I give them an existence, a way to live that's beyond time. 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:20.159 Okay, so let me break it down a little bit. 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:36.080 So beyond being defined and completely bound by your experience, there's a way to exist that's that's beyond that, and I give that to them. 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:40.960 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:47.679 So it's existence beyond this boundness, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:53.679 So just for the sake of this, you know, really, really uh brilliant. 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:55.120 Uh where are you at in here? 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:56.320 You're buried under here. 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:57.360 Some good stuff there. 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:05.200 Alright, so this was you, and what Jesus says, I just found the best thing in my house, and it was a chocolate-covered coconut macaroon. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:07.679 And so, pure joy right there. 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:16.000 And Jesus says, I have put in you eternal life, even while you are in bound in this. 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:26.799 So you won't understand all this, you won't understand all this range of experiences, you won't understand every grieving of your life, but I have still put in you, I've still put in you eternal life. 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:31.919 And Jesus is God in time for us to understand something of God, something. 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:40.879 And we don't get it all, we don't get all the explanations, but we but we get to know that he understands suffering, he suffered, and he's with us in our suffering. 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:48.799 And he perfectly took on all of our control issues because don't you want to just control it all? 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:52.399 Josh wants to control their silverware drawer, right? 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:53.600 I know that feeling. 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:56.080 Uh I love to control everything, ask Christie. 00:15:56.240 --> 00:16:01.840 So, but this, we love to control our range of experiences. 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:17.440 If I can just control, if I can just control, if I can control, you know, keeping the comfort and you know, reducing the suffering, and okay, a little bit of that wise, wisdom, but when it just takes over our lives, we become more and more bound by it. 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:23.120 Rather, living out of the thing that's put in us, this eternal life. 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:27.279 So, this control, this desire for control, this is sin. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:29.679 This is us trying to be God. 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:32.639 I will be God over this. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:35.039 And we can't do it. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:38.080 I mean, are any of us being successful at this? 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:47.279 And Jesus comes and in the cross, he even takes on that thing we do with this control. 00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:49.360 And so we get this option. 00:16:49.519 --> 00:17:02.960 We can live surrender, surrendered into this loving, knowing, present God, and live out of that eternal life that's put in us, or live in our attempt to control everything. 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:09.119 Now, I went to sleep last night a little bit later than I should have. 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:10.640 I always do. 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:12.720 Christy doesn't, she goes to sleep. 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:16.240 I, on the other hand, I needed to see that Shark Tank episode. 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:17.839 It was so important to me. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:20.720 It was last night, it was very important to me. 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:22.480 This morning, it didn't matter. 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:25.039 But last night, it meant everything. 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:25.519 Right? 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:32.000 The very wise Jerry Seinfeld says Night Jerry always makes it difficult on morning Jerry. 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:33.359 You know the feeling. 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:44.319 Night Rust finds things that are interesting all the time, and morning rust wakes up and is like, what why did I need to know about those chips that were made out of crickets and they made a deal with Mark Cuban? 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:46.000 It means nothing to my life. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:50.400 But last night it was a very big deal, and I needed to see all of that. 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:52.319 And so we love this, right? 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:53.039 We love it. 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:54.880 And what makes all this possible? 00:17:55.119 --> 00:17:55.440 Right? 00:17:55.519 --> 00:18:03.599 To take on that project at 10 o'clock at night, or to watch another show, or to just you know read a little bit longer, read a little bit longer, a little bit. 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:05.119 What makes all this possible? 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:06.240 Electricity. 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:07.440 I mean, it's just that basic. 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:09.279 I mean, this is what makes it possible. 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:14.880 I mean, before you would have had a fire for a little bit, you would have gone to sleep, and then the farm animal would have woke you up in the morning. 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:16.240 That was the rhythm. 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:18.079 And now we do it totally different. 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:21.039 And I mentioned this because we sort of love it. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:24.000 We have control over the seasons. 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:25.519 Right? 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:30.960 I mean, we will go buy a peach at Whole Foods in the middle of February. 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:36.400 Now, it was probably from Argentina and was flown here overnight, and it cost you$6. 00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:41.519 But we have control over the seasons. 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:43.680 And we love this. 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:50.000 We love it, and I mention it because this is just shows you how much we fight for control. 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:54.640 We fight for control over the range of life experiences. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:11.920 I was out walking on Thursday just thinking about Solomon, talking about us being bound in time and birth and death, the range of experiences that we're in, how we try to control them, and that's that's us trying to be Lord of our lives rather than receiving Christ as Lord of our life. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:14.559 And I'm thinking of y'all, thinking of you guys. 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:27.759 Like every everything going on in your lives and things I do know about, and I don't know a lot about you know about a lot of stuff I don't know about, but I know about a lot, and thinking about you know, these things for you guys, and what I'm gonna say, and then finally it hits me like, where am I at this? 00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:28.400 Where am I? 00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:30.160 Where am I in this? 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:33.680 And the truth is I'm not very good at this. 00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:39.279 Like, I really will try to control as much as possible for comfort. 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:46.880 Uh the past two years I've watched my wife walk through five deaths of close ones, two years. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:50.000 Five deaths in two years. 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:53.599 And she was amazing at that. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:58.240 Like really wanting to feel each one. 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:01.359 And I just sort of like moving on. 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:04.079 I might feel a little bit a day or two. 00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:06.240 And let's just get back to things. 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:10.000 But here's the thing it doesn't go away. 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:13.359 It's not gonna go away. 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:16.160 You think, oh, it won't have an effect on me. 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:17.920 No, it's already having an effect on you. 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:20.799 It has more of an effect on you if you don't deal with it. 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:34.160 Grieving has power over you unless grieving can be transformative for you if you choose to grieve. 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:40.000 If you don't choose to grieve, the grief itself will have power over you in a negative way. 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:45.920 And this control thing is just us and our sin. 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:52.799 Accepting the limitation in life, accepting this boundness. 00:20:53.440 --> 00:21:02.799 This is part of following Jesus, to accept this and what we discover in it, if we accept it, and yet Christ is in us. 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:05.119 Eternal life is in us. 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:11.279 And so we're rooted in something deeper, even while experiencing this range of experiences. 00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:14.720 Now we're now we're in some process of freedom. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:16.480 Now we're in some process. 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:18.319 Now we're not always good at that, right? 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:20.559 I mean, if you're like me, not always good at that. 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:24.079 Rather just try to control things and avoid things and escape things. 00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:27.200 And so that's why point number four is so good for us. 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:36.240 Though we fight God in controlling the seasons of our lives, He has already fought for our hearts. 00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:38.319 That's what Jesus is talking about here. 00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:39.759 Solomon's hinting toward it. 00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:41.039 Jesus is talking about it. 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:50.880 Though we fight for control over the seasons of our lives, and you know you do it and I do it, though we fight for that, God's already fought for your heart. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:57.920 So all this stuff is happening, the joy and the grief, the range of experiences, and you must process it. 00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:01.599 You must speak it, you must name it, you must see it, you have to feel it. 00:22:01.759 --> 00:22:05.920 But in all of that, inside of you, there is a gift. 00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:08.400 There is Christ Himself. 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:14.000 Eternity has been put into your heart, and Christ calls it forth. 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:16.400 So the grief stuff is hard. 00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:18.079 We don't have to pretend it's not hard. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:20.160 We don't have to like put a godly spin on that. 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:20.880 It's hard. 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:21.759 If it's hard, it's hard. 00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:22.960 If it's sad, it's sad. 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:24.000 That's what it is. 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:25.839 And you get to be that. 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:35.759 But the core of who you are does not rest on your perfect performance of going through all of this range of experiences. 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:43.039 The core of who you are rests in God's word for you and Jesus. 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:48.720 And that's why you are indestructible in your belovedness. 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:51.200 Because he has loved you. 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:56.319 And it's his work for you that's been put over you. 00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:08.079 That when God looks at you in this range of experiences and in your joy, you nitpick yourself and you don't really even enjoy your joy or in the grief, you are avoiding it, and you shove it really far down, and you're not even very good at that. 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:18.720 In that, God looks at you as beloved child because He has put eternity in your heart because of the work of Jesus for you. 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:24.079 You're indestructible in your belovedness because you have been loved. 00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:31.920 So, my brothers and sisters, you are loved beyond the seasons this world throws at you. 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:33.519 Let's pray together. 00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:49.920 God, we do come before you and confess that we love to control the things going on in our lives, and we have a very difficult time with any measure of acceptance and surrender. 00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:56.640 And in this control, we only know more anxiousness and more fear. 00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:03.359 We are bound, and in our pride we do not like it. 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:05.279 And this is our sin. 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:15.839 God, thank you that you took on our sin on the cross and you gave to us your righteousness, so we are forever and destructibly your beloved. 00:24:16.319 --> 00:24:19.680 Help us in this range of experiences of life. 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:27.599 Help us to remember eternity has been placed in our hearts through Jesus Christ Himself. 00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:29.519 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:30.240 Amen.