← Mariners Church Weekend Messages
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Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast. Inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes.
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Yes. Happy Mother's Day, moms. If you're sitting next to your mom or maybe your wife or a mom figure in your life, why don't you reach over and just give them a little squeeze right now? Aw, you guys are so cute. Moms, we hope you feel extra love today. I think I wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember. I grew up. We had a lot of puppies, little beagle puppies that my brother would raise, and I would dress them in baby doll clothes and put diapers on them and mom them, and it was just so much fun. But being a real mom, I gotta say, is better. It's better. It's also harder because I can't put my kids back in a pen like I put those puppies back in a pen, but I still think it's so much better. And so we all know that no matter what stage of parenting you're in, you have days where it's so fun and so filled with joy. And then you have days where it's so sad and you're sorrowful and you're worried. And some days you're like, my kids are amazing. I am killing it. And then other days, you think, I think I might be messing them up for their entire life. And I want you to know I am right there with you. Right there with you. And we, as a church, want moms to know you are making an eternal impact in your kid's life. My mom still makes an impact in my life. And so you are doing that whether you feel like it or whether you don't. We love you, we appreciate you, and we want you to hear us say that we think you're amazing. So let me pray a prayer of blessing over you moms in the room. Jesus, thank you for the gift of moms. Thank you, God, for letting me be a mom. Thank you for giving me an awesome mom. Lord God, we pray. Father, today you will just help the moms here just to feel a little extra loved. God. God, I pray for the ones that are in seasons of joy that you will remind them that that is a gift from you. God, help them to see you in it. And I also pray for the ones that are in a. Maybe a sad or sorrowful time. Maybe they've lost a mom or they want to be a mom so bad. It just hasn't happened. God, I pray you'll be so, so close to them, God. Would you just, even in this moment, just let them feel a warm embrace from you, Lord. And remind them that you hurt when they're hurting. God. Father. We just pray, Lord, that today, as we celebrate Mother's Day, that they will feel known and loved mostly by you, Lord. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Okay, so before Eric comes to teach, let's take a look at our next teaching series up here.
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Do you ever feel like you're wandering through life, not where you once were, but also not where you want to be in between, in the wilderness. The wilderness is a metaphor for the life of the Christian not living our old lives, but also not yet where we will be when we are with Christ forever. The metaphor comes from a book in the Old Testament, a book in between the rescue from slavery in Exodus and receiving the promised land in Joshua. The Book of Numbers, also titled in the Wilderness in Hebrew, gives the epic account of God's people in the wilderness for 40 years. They are surrounded by complaining people. They struggle with fear. But through it all, God keeps his promises. Their story is your story. Life often feels like we are walking in the wilderness. We can learn much from the epic stories in the Book of Numbers, stories that ultimately point us to God's story.
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All right, I'm excited to teach the Book of Numbers to you. Some of you are like, what is that, a math book? What is the Book of Numbers? It's an incredible account in the Old Testament, and if you're a Christian, it really is your story. You may not have known this before, but it is your story. See, God's people were in Egyptian slavery in the Book of Exodus, which we studied together last year. Next year, we'll study the Book of Joshua when they go into the land that God had for his people. But the Book of Numbers is the in between time. They're in the wilderness. In fact, that's where you are right now. You're not yet where you will be, in everlasting paradise, but you're not where you once were. You've been rescued, if you're a Christian, from the slavery of your own sin and from your shame. But you're in the middle. You're in between. You're. And this is an incredible book in the Bible. And this. This book. Oh, my gosh. There's things that you don't even see about the whole Bible if you don't study the Book of Numbers. For example, when Jesus said, I am the bread of Life. He was quoting from the Book of Numbers when Jesus said, just as the snake was lifted up in the desert, I'll be lifted up and draw all men to myself quoting the Book of Numbers. And so if you don't study the Book of Numbers, you're not gonna see the whole story of the Bible. Which is why I'm gonna teach you the Book of Numbers. Cause I love you so much. It's gonna be awesome. It starts in three weeks, and I hope you'll join us. You're the only service who didn't get jacked about that. It's going to be awesome. Okay, but today, if we haven't met, my name's Eric. I'm the senior pastor here. We're actually in another book of the Bible, the book of Ecclesiastes. We're spending a lot of times in books of the Bible in 2026, which is always good for our souls. Before I jump into the passage, I want to echo what Kay, my wife, shared to the moms. Happy Mother's Day. We are so thankful for you. You remind us of God's tender compassion towards us in the Old Testament. God says that he's loved us as a mother cares for her children, that God loves us with a tender mercy and compassion. And great moms remind us of God's tender mercy and compassion. So I honor you, moms. I hope you feel cherished and beloved and blessed today. God sees you in all that you do, and so I'm really thankful for you. We're going to jump into Ecclesiastes today. We're walking through this incredible book. Solomon, the wisest person who ever lived, who received his wisdom from God, he is sharing from this incredible book, wisdom. Several years ago, I took my oldest daughter Eden on a dad daughter trip to New Orleans, where I grew up. I say New Orleans. If you're from New Orleans. Some people say New Orleans. If you say New Orleans, that's incorrect. It's not how you say it. I brought her to New Orleans to show her the places that I used to eat when I was growing up to help her understand how I grew up. And we toured the city, but we also went on a swamp tour. A swamp tour where you get to go through parts of the bayou. It's just really awesome. And this older guy, thick, Cajun, apple accent, loves New Orleans, loves his city, is passionate for what he does. He was our tour guide. He was awesome. He's what growing up, we would have called a cou. Now a kuyan is Cajun. So if you called someone a kuyon, it's Cajun, and it means an idiot. Kuyon means idiot, but we always used it affectionately. And so when we would call someone a kuyon, it was an affectionate term for an older guy who's been around the block, who's filled with wisdom. He fishes a lot, drinks a lot of beer, and will fight anybody for his friends. But he's wise. He's a kuyon, a wise guy. And this kuyon was taking us on the tour, and at the very end, he pulled close to the dock and shut off the boat. And he said, y' all, listen. He starts to pontificate and lament the city where he grew up, New Orleans, the city that he loves. And he's talking about how it's just not what it used to be. He says that another hurricane comes through this area, and the marshland will lose more of the marshland. And he says, my New Orleans Saints, they haven't been good in a long time. The local politicians are crooked and corrupt. The crime in our city is up. The only thing we got left is our food and our hospitality. This is what he's saying. And then he goes, how many y' all done be staying in the Quarter? How many done y' all be staying in the Quarter? We knew he met the French Quarter. So everybody in the boat is staying in the French Quarter. We all raised our hand. He said, y' all done do me a favor now. Y' all got to eat. The food going to be real good. Buddha and Tibeto going to cook that food. The food going to be real good for y'. All. But when y' all go out to eat, if the service is good, y' all tip real good. Now, y' all hear me. Y' all tip real good. That service be good. Y' all tip real good. Now, you hear me? But if that service bad, y' all don't tip nothing. We need to run them out of this city. Y' all don't tip good. Y'. All. Y' all tip nothing if the service isn't good. And we were shocked because here's someone in the service industry saying not to tip if the service is bad. Now, as a Christian, I believe us Christians should be very generous tippers, because Jesus has been generous to us. But he's saying to not tip. And it's this wise couilla saying not to tip. Why? Because he says all we got left is our food and our hospitality. He may not have realized it, but he's wise. He's quoting from Plato. Without realizing it. Plato, the famous philosopher, said, whatever is celebrated is cultivated. Whatever is celebrated in a country is cultivated in a country. And so he was saying, the one thing we have is our food and hospitality. So when it's good, the celebrate it. When it's not good, don't celebrate it. He was being wise, but it was shocking. It was a shocking piece of wisdom to not tip at all. Now in Ecclesiastes, Solomon is your tour guide in life, and he's filled with wisdom. And just like the guy in the bayou said, this is broken and crooked. Solomon says, this world is crooked, but I'm gonna tell you how to live here. In fact, he says in the passage we're gonna start studying today, we're gonna be in chapter seven all the way through chapter ten. I'm gonna pick some passages in that section. Not gonna have time to read the whole section. But he says in chapter seven that this world is crooked and bent out of shape. Verse 13 of chapter 7, he says, consider the work of God, who can straighten out what he's made crooked. Solomon is clearly pointing back to the first several chapters in the Bible. When sin entered the world and everything got crooked. The reason it got crooked is because in gen God had made everything right and perfect. This world was flourishing. Everything was as it should be. But then Genesis, chapter three, third chapter in the Bible happens. Humanity. Adam and Eve, in the garden, representing all of us. They go against God. They disobey him. Sin enters the world. And when sin enters the world, God judges the world because of its sin. And God is the one that makes this world crooked. He causes this world to be unable to be enough for you so that you'll look for him and long for another world. He made it crooked. Now some will say, I don't like that he made it crooked. And it's not my fault I wasn't there. I wasn't in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Why am I living in a crooked world when I wasn't there? Well, Solomon answers you, but you know this. If you're a thoughtful person, you won't be surprised. He says in verse 20, there is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins. Essentially, all of us have brought our crooked ways into this world. We're a part of making this world and. And imperfect place. But how do we live here now in a world that's not perfect? How do we live? So in chapter seven, Solomon starts giving us a bunch of pithy statements on how to live. If you've read the book of Proverbs, this will be very similar. The Book of Proverbs, if you are new to the Christian faith and new to studying the Bible, I'm so glad you're with us. Was also written by Solomon, and it's a collection of wise sayings, the first six chapters of Ecclesiastes. Solomon has given us these, these major pontificating moments about the mean of life. And he's established well, if you've been with us the last several weeks, he's established well that this world is not going to be enough for you. But life, if you receive it as a gift, if you receive it as a gift, can be full. But if you put pressure on life or on your career, or on a relationship, or on motherhood, or on fatherhood, or on anything to be your everything, it will never be enough for you. But if God is your everything, then you can receive everything else as a gift. That's what he's been building the case, the first six chapters. He's established that this world is crooked and been out of shape. But now, like the tour guide I was with on the Bayou, he's just going to get real and honest about how to live in a world that's not enough, in a world that is crooked and bent out of shape. Now, his advice, his counsel is going to be similar to the Kuya's advice to shocking. There's going to be some shocking things that he says. It's going to be very similar to the book of Proverbs. Now I'm going to give you five as I'll give you the overview of chapter seven through ten. I'm going to read one verse in each section, but I'm going to give you the entire section so you can read it later. And it's going to feel a bit disconnected, these five statements, but they all come from the scripture in the order that they're given. And so if you, if you think that order should change when you get to heaven, you can talk to Solomon about that. I'm just going by the order that he gave. All right, so here's the first one. Here's how we live in a world that's crooked. Number one, let sorrow be a teacher. You can read chapter seven, verse one through 14, but in a moment I'll read the verse that essentially sums up this section. But he's saying, in a world that is crooked, you are going to have sorrow. There's going to be challenging days, there's going to be really painful seasons. There's going to be grief and death. There's going to be sorrow. And you can choose to let sorrow teach you something. Let sorrow be a teacher. When I was in the marketplace, the division that I led, there was a guy in our finance team whose daughter, five years old, was diagnosed with cancer. It was really heartbreaking. And he came to us and asked if he could have an extended leave of absence so he essentially could live at the hospital with her in the weeks that they believed were gonna be her final weeks. And he lived there at the hospital. And then when she passed, I and our team went to the funeral service, the memorial service. And I was shocked when with such courage and grace, he got up and and talked for 20 minutes at his own daughter daughter's 5 year old daughter's funeral service. He shared, I'll never forget, he shared how in the last 24 hours of her life, she was filled with a burst of energy. And he was at the hospital and stayed awake all of those 24 hours, trying to breathe in every single moment of that day. How he held her and imagined that she came home from middle school in the future with her heart broken. And he was able to comfort her. She wanted to dance, so he put music on and he danced with his daughter in the last 24 hours of her five year old life in the hospital. And imagine that he had just walked her down the aisle and was dancing with her on her wedding night. I sat there and I was gutted. What does Solomon say to do in those moments when you were gutted? He says in verse two of chapter seven, it is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind and the living should take it to heart. He says in the moments and the world's crooked, it's been out of shape. You are gonna have moments like that. And when those moments happen, those moments are actually better for you than a house of feasting, because you can take it to heart. There's something you can learn. I remember driving home from that funeral service and being unable to speak. It was so painful, it was so saddening. Yet there was such hope because he was a believer, she was a believer, but it was so he. But what did that moment inspire me to do? I remember pulling into the driveway and couldn't wait to get inside to hug my little girls and to get on the floor and play dolls with them. Because these moments are all we have. So let sorrow be your teacher, the wisdom writer says. And when these Moments happen, you learn something and you throw yourself into what this life offers you. That's number one. Number two, not connected to number one, but it's really important. Be neither unrighteous nor self righteous. And you can read this in chapter 7, verse 15 through 29. Again, he's just given us these pithy statements that are overarching for this entire section. He's saying, don't be unrighteous, but also don't be too righteous. Don't be self righteous. This is fascinating. Look, with me in verse 16 and 17, he says this. Don't be excessively righteous, which is really fascinating. If you show up at church and the preacher says, hey, listen, I got some news for y' all this week. Don't try to be too holy. Don't be holy this week. Like, what does this mean? I'll explain in a moment. Don't be excessively righteous and don't be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Don't be excessively wicked and don't be foolish. Why should you die before your time? Solomon says there's two extremes. There is unrighteous and there's self righteous. You don't want to be either unrighteous or self righteous. Self righteous is when you don't find your righteousness in your Savior, Jesus, but you find your righteousness in yourself. You trust yourself. You think highly of yourself. You think you are good enough to qualify yourself before God, that you are moral enough or ethical enough. Or you have this moral superiority over others that causes you to be judgmental and arrogant, that you in your own goodness can make yourself right before God. That is self righteous. Solomon says, don't be self righteous. And then there's unrighteous. Unrighteous is when you don't find your satisfaction in Jesus. You find your satisfaction in this world and you throw yourself into the pleasures of this world because you don't want him at all. And so if you're unrighteous, you push God away because you don't want him. But if you're self righteous, you push God away because you think you don't need him. And you also push other people away because they view you as arrogant and judgmental. Because you think you are good enough to earn God's favor and earn God's love. Solomon says, be neither one of these unrighteous or self righteous. When I was a youth pastor back in the day, there was a group of teenagers that came to me about one of their leaders. They said, eric, you're not going to believe this. They said, the guy's name, he was a young adult. And they said, he told us in our life group, in our Bible study, he told us that he has not sinned in six months. I was like, nah, there's no way. That dude did not say that. He's. You have to. I always tend to think the best of the team I'm with. I'm on. So I'm like, no, that guy didn't say that. I'm sure you probably misheard him, but I'll talk to him. So I go to the guy and I say, hey, man, maybe some teenagers misheard something you said. I just want to talk to you about maybe you sent the signal. Did you? Let me just say it. Did you say that you haven't sinned in six months? He said, I haven't sinned in six months. I said, bro, you're sinning right now. You're either arrogant or you're lying. Like you're sinning right now. People ask me, like, what kind of guy was this? Last night after the service, he was a young adult who lived with his mommy, and his mommy told him how awesome he was. When he gets married, he'll find out he's not perfect because then he'll know real quickly, he's not perfect. I don't know why I just shared that. Probably should have shared that on Mother's Day. But that's just the truth. That's the truth. Solomon is saying, don't be that guy. Don't be that guy. Don't try to send the signal that you're perfect. Don't try to send the signal that you have conquered this life. Don't be that guy. You'll only push people away. Don't be self righteous. Don't be unrighteous. Now all of us lean to one side or the other. Even those of us who are Christians. Those of us who know Jesus. Now, those of us who know Jesus. We are not self righteous. We're not unrighteous. We're actually righteous. Not because of our goodness, but because we've believed in Jesus. And Jesus has given us his goodness and his righteousness. He's made us right before God. But we still. Cause none of us are perfect. We still will lean to one side or the other. You should be aware which side you lean to. Here's how you know if you lean to unrighteous. If tomorrow you're at work and a buddy asks you, hey, man, what'd you do this weekend? You say, man, I went to church and heard a message about Jesus, I'm a Christian. And the person's like, really? I had no idea. That means that you lean unrighteous people should not be surprised to find out that you follow Jesus. They should not be surprised to know that you worship him. And here's how you know if you lean self righteous, if someone comes to you and shares a concern and you actually put everything away and you look at them and you listen to them and they are surprised because they're like, huh, I thought you would never understand. It means they think that you think you're better than all of their problems. You don't want to lean to either one. You don't want to be either one of those. You don't want to be self righteous or unrighteous. You want to walk after Jesus because he has made you. Okay, that's number two. Here's number three again. These are disconnected, but they're just coming from the text and they're all important on how to live in a world that's crooked and bent out of shape. Justice doesn't always win here. You have to know this because you're going to experience injustice in this life. Mother's Day 4k and me, many years was very painful. Four and a half years we wrestled with infertility. The struggles were on both of our sides. So both of us were going to doctors and doctors told us that it was gonna be impossible for us to have children. I remember coming to church during those and it was painful on Mother's Day because Kay was in deep pain, which made the day painful for me. Seeing her in pain. I wanted a kid, she wanted a kid. It was painful. We, during that season did not struggle with friends of ours who loved each other and wanted to be parents when they would have a kid. We were so happy for them. We could tell sometimes that some of our friends would be hesitant to be too exuberant with their joy in front of us because they didn't want to sting us with their good news. But it didn't sting us. We were so excited for them. But what did sting and what was painful? The most painful was when people who didn't want kids were getting pregnant. When a husband would cheat on his wife with a mistress and the mistress would be pregnant and there'd be all kinds of complex discussions and complications. Those moments were like, God, why would you allow that to bring a child into the world when we are begging you right now for a kid? Or when a guy had multiple kids with his wife, didn't want any more kids, complained about the kids he had and be like, I can't help it, I get her pregnant. I look at her and she get pregnant. I did not like hearing those moments because it stung. It stung. Someone who didn't even want a kid being blessed with a child. I remember going to God, God, this isn't fair. And honestly, this shows I'm being transparent with you. My own self righteousness in those moments that because I'm following after you, God, some kind of way I feel like you owe me. God used the pain of that season to chip away some of my self righteousness. But chapter 8 in Ecclesiastes is all about the injustice. That often doesn't. That that is mind numbing for us to observe in this world. That chapter eight, the moral math doesn't always add up. That people who do good often don't have good return to them. And sometimes people who are evil and selfish have good return to them. That sometimes you'll see a business leader who lacks integrity and cuts corners and he's the one who ends up in the corner office. Or there's a person who's hateful and that person is the one who's thriving. And the person who is kind and compassionate is the one who's barely surviving. You watch the injustice happen in this world. So Solomon reminds us this is a really important verse in chapter 8, verse 12. Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, so he's observing the injustice. It doesn't seem right. A sinner who doesn't follow after God, he keeps sinning and he actually has a prolonged and a prosperous life. But then he gives this statement and here's the good news. This is what causes us to hold on. I also know that it will go well with God fearing people for they are reverent before him. Solomon likely doesn't even fully understand what he's written down. This is the inspired word of God. But what he's pointing to is that though in this life there's injustice, it's going to in the end go well for those of us who fear God. For those of us who know God or known by God are his sons and his daughters. That one day God is going to right every wrong. That one day everything is gonna be made right. That one day there is going to be full justice. And that justice doesn't always win here, but one day it will. Because one day Christ is going to make everything right and everything is gonna be perfect for the sons and daughters of God. Okay, number four is Actually connected to number three. You have to prepare for the unfair. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon uses the phrase under the sun to refer to life here when we're in a crooked and broken world. And he says this in verse 11 of chapter 9. So this is chapter 9, verse 11 through 18, but I'll just read verse 11. He says, you have to prepare for the unfair. Again, I saw under the sun. So that's life here in a crooked and broken place. Again, I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battles to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful. Rather, time and chance happen to all of them. Notice what Solomon says. Sometimes it's not the fastest person who wins the race, or the strongest one who wins the battle, or the wise, or the discerning who have riches given to them, or the skillful who are successful. Why? Why does it not work out that way? Why is it not fair? Because time and chance happen to all of them. Essentially, life under the sun happens to everyone. And in this world that's crooked and broken and not perfect, life and time and chance are going to happen to you. And you are going to have to prepare for the unfair, because there's going to be unfair in this life. And the reason I'm really passionate about this for you is if you don't prepare when something difficult will happen to you, you could wrongly perceive that God is against you or that you have done something wrong multiple times. I've. Lots of times, regularly. I will tell someone at our church who shares a situation with me, I can tell they're wrestling with is God against them or did they do something wrong? And as I've listened, I've put my hands on their shoulders and said, listen, in this moment, in this case, you have done nothing wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I get, no, no, no, look at me. Cause I feel like I have to say it over and over again because it's hard for this truth to really get down deep. No, look at me in this moment, man. You've done nothing wrong. Do you believe me? God's not against you. You, in this moment, have done nothing wrong. Now, I'm not saying that we don't ever do anything wrong. In fact, when there's pain and struggles in this life, there's one of three options. Option one. Sometimes we have a pain or struggle in this life because we have done something wrong, because we have sinned, and we're wrestling with some of the consequences. From our own choices. So you can have pain right now in your life as a result of something that you've done or a choice that you've made. But even then, God's grace is bigger than your choice. His mercy is bigger than your sin. But sometimes, yes, we have consequences become of because of our choices. That's number one. Number two, you can be suffering pain because someone else made a choice against you, someone else sinned, someone betrayed you, or harmed you, or hurt you, abused you. You can be suffering right now not because of your sin, but because someone else's sin. But third, and this is really common, sometimes you're suffering not because of your choice or someone else's choice. Sometimes you're suffering because you're here in a world that's broken and bent out of shape. You live life under the sun. And if you don't absorb this truth, you can think that God is against you, or you could actually think that you did something wrong when you've done nothing wrong. You will live in a world under the sun and you will be filled with seasons that have pain. Perhaps you will wrestle with infertility. Perhaps you will get a devastating medical diagnosis. And in those moments, you must know that this is because you live in a broken and fallen world, not because you did anything wrong. And in those moments, you must know that you have a God who is with you, that he's not against you. You cannot stop life coming at you, but you can control. If you're going to allow God to hold you in the midst of all of the pain and all of the struggles, you have to prepare for the unfair. Now, this is just. Some people don't like Ecclesiastes because Solomon's just honest. And if you just want to come to church and everything, be fake and happy, then you don't like Ecclesiastes. But if you appreciate raw honesty, then you actually appreciate his words. He's saying that this is going to happen to you and be ready for the unfair. Okay, number five. Small folly, not big failures is what will ruin a life. Now, this is shocking. Just like the Kuya and the bayou who said, don't tip. This is surprising. This is all of chapter 10. It's surprising that the wisest person who ever lived says, if you're gonna ruin your life, it's not gonna be because some big choices that you make. If you ruin your life, it's gonna be a series of small follies that compound and multiply and take you out. All of chapter 10. But let me read verse one. Dead flies make a perfumer's oil ferment and stink. So a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. When Solomon is writing, he's writing in the ancient world where perfume was very valuable. And to mess it up, it would only take a few flies, not a bucket of flies. A few flies would cause all of the perfume to stink. Solomon is saying, the small follies in your life will actually stink up your life and ruin you. And in the rest of chapter 10, he mentions what some of those follies are. He speaks about your words. You may think your words are small. He says your words actually will dictate the whole trajectory of your life. They're not small at all. They may seem small, but they actually will impact the whole course of your life. He speaks of laziness, that if you're lazy in one part of your life, laziness tends to spill over to other parts of your life. He speaks of bitterness and anger, that when you get bitter and angry inside, that it will corrode your character and corrode who you are. You aren't surprised when you read chapter 10 because you've seen this. You've seen people who have lost their credibility with careless words in DMS or text messages. You've seen people who have been lazy in one area of their life and it's caused it to spill over to others. You've seen people who are filled with bitterness and they're angry all the time, and they don't even see it. And you sit down and you ask, what. What happened to you? And they can't even fully articulate the source of their bitterness. It has just corroded their entire character, their entire being. Multiple times as a pastor, I've sat down with husbands who have broken their covenant before God to their wife, to be faithful to this woman for the rest of their life till death do us part. And in the fallout, when they get to the bottom of themselves and they actually ask God for mercy and they're trying to pick up the pieces again. I been in those conversations, and sometimes I've asked. I just want to learn what happened. And most of the time, it is not the big sins, the big failures that are mentioned. It's always small follies that started a flirt here and there at the office or sometimes commonly. I've heard, man, I was just bored. I was just bored. I was bored with life. I was bored with my career. I was bored with everything. I was looking for something, anything to make me feel alive. See, we can look at boredom like it's a small fly. Boredom is not a small fly. And if you're bored, it's a common thing, especially for men and young men. To say, I'm just bored. To say you're bored means that you are admitting that you're not looking at God. Because if you're looking at God, you were never bored. Because God is never boring. He's always thrilling, he's always quenching. And he's the one who gives us real hope and purpose in life. If you're bored, it's because you're not looking at him. So you look to him. He's never boring. He's never boring. But that's a small fly that can corrode a whole life. And so Solomon says, here's what you have to do. You have to repent of these small follies. You have to get them out of the perfume. You have to remove them from your life. You don't want your life to stink. He's the Kuyon, he's the old wise guy and he's saying, hey, hey, this isn't what it should be. This world isn't what it should be because we sinned and messed everything up. But here's how we live here. Let sorrow be a teacher, be neither unrighteous nor self righteous. Justice doesn't always win here, but it does win in the end. Prepare for the unfair and realize that small folly, not big failures, what ruins a life. Solomon ask, who can fix this broken place? Consider the work of God, who can straighten out what he's made crooked. Verse 13 of chapter 7. This is the wisest person who ever lived. Solomon saying, I can't fix it. I can't read enough, I can't diagnose it enough. I can't fix the problem. Who can straighten it out? Who can straighten it out? You keep reading in the scripture and you find out exactly who can straighten it out. See, Solomon was the son of King David. This is why you want to understand the whole story of the Bible. Because it's beautiful when you see it. Solomon is the son of King David. King David was the king in the greatest season in Israel's history. And God had promised David that his kingdom would last forever. David dies, Solomon then takes the reign. But in the lineage of that kingdom comes another king hundreds of years later, when Jesus Christ is born. Matthew, chapter one, verse one. He's the son of David. He's the true son of David. He's in the lineage of David and he's the everlasting eternal King who's come here to rescue us. He's God, the Son, Jesus, the Christ. He is born of a virgin, enters this world for us. When he's 30 years old, his cousin, a man named John the Baptizer, starts telling everybody, hey, he's here, the Messiah, the Christ, the everlasting King is here and he announces him. But notice what he says. His cousin, the cousin of Jesus, says when he announces Jesus. Matthew 3, verse 3 Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight. There's one who has entered this world whose ways aren't crooked. There's one who's entered this world who every thought he has, every action, every reaction is pure and faultless. Make his ways straight. He's come for us, to rescue us from our crooked ways. And when Jesus, God the Son enters this world, he lives perfectly on our behalf. He places himself on the cross to die for us. And as he dies, those of us who believe in him, all of our crooked bent out of shape ways are placed on him so that Jesus can place on us all of his mercy and forgiveness, all of his grace. So listen if you have believed in Jesus, when God the Father looks at you, he does not see your crooked, bent out of shape ways. All God the Father sees when he looks at you is the perfection of Jesus covering you on the cross. Jesus was treated the way I deserve to be treated, so that throughout all of eternity I can be treated the way Jesus deserves to be treated. Jesus was treated the way I deserve to be treated. And that he was crucified, killed for all of my crooked ways so that throughout all of eternity, those of us who believe in him, we have everlasting life. God the Son entered this world to forgive us of all of our crookedness, make his path straight. And he lived and walked the straight and narrow. He's the pure and holy Son of God. After he was crucified, he was buried. On the third day he was resurrected from the dead. He ascended back to heaven. He's seated at the right hand of the throne of the Father. And scripture says that a time is coming when he's going to enter this world again. He came the first time to suffer and die. He's called the suffering servant who was crucified for us. When he returns, he's going to return as the conquering King. When he came the first time, he came to recreate us, to change us, to take our crooked ways and straighten us and make us right before God, neither self righteous nor unrighteous. When he came the first time he came to make us right with God. When he comes a second time, he's not coming to recreate us. He's already recreated us. When he comes a second time, he's coming to recreate the world. To take all of the crooked lines and straighten them out. To take everything that is sad and undo it. To make everything right and new for the sons and daughters of God. To wipe every tear from every eye of those of us who belong to Him. He's going to come again and say, behold, I'm making everything new. This world is going to be recreated and everything is going to be once again just as it should be. This is going to be a perfect paradise because God the Son, Jesus the Christ is the conquering King who's going to come and end evil and Satan for good and make everything new for the sons and daughters of God. He's going to come back and make everything right. He's going to make it all right. But right now, in this time, we live in the middle. We're in the wilderness. We're in the middle. We have wisdom from him on how to live. But we long for the day. We long for the day when we are with him forever. He is the One who was, who is and who is to come. And we're going to stand and celebrate and sing that he's going to make everything right and live. Stand together. All right, extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week, that you would remind them that you are gentle and approachable and that you love them. Cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week.
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Thanks for tuning in to the Mariners Weekend Message Podcast to support the ministry of Mariners Church. You can click the link in the Show Notes or download the Mariners App at your favorite app store. If you've been navigating God's wisdom with us through this year's annual read and would like to hear personal reflections from pastors in your community, check out the Gospel Every Day podcast. Imagine feeding your heart, mind and soul with the kind of practical wisdom that will change your life. If you haven't picked up the annual read yet, visit MarinersChurch.org or download the Mariners App for more information on where to find it.
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