← 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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Well, good morning. Good morning. Great to see you. I am really excited about closing out the book of Ecclesiastes together. It's been so fun to walk through it and I can't wait for you to see how this incredible wisdom literature comes to an end. Now, in 2007, there was a world renowned concert violinist named Joshua Bell who set up his violin in the corner of the entranceway of a subway station. You could see here in some footage that off in the corner. By the way, this was the high quality footage of 2007 and Joshua set up in the corner there. He had placed his violin case in front of him. He pulled out his $3.5 million Stradivarius violin and began to play. Over the course of about 90 minutes, about a thousand people walked right by him. A few, only a few stopped to take in this moment to listen to the playing that was happening. And in fact, by the end of that 90 minutes, he had made $32 in tips. So, very successful day for Joshua Bell. What made that such a staggering contrast is that just two days prior, Joshua Bell played in front of a completely sold out Boston Symphony hall, an entire auditorium who came to see him play the same violin and the same music played by the same person. So what changed? What was different? Obviously the context of what you're expecting is what changes everything. For the people who showed up to the subway station that day, they paid little to no attention to the world renowned violinist playing in the corner. They had somewhere to go and what they heard was just simply a soundtrack to the busyness of their lives. But the crowd, the two nights prior, they came for him and they got to enjoy and experience all of it. So we've been reading the book of Ecclesiastes and for several weeks we have walked through a book that if we're honest, it is brutally honest what is written in this book. It is constantly reminding us that so much of our life is chasing after the wind, chasing after the meaningless pursuits of life. It has confronted how we think about work and pleasure and relationships and money and time and even death. 29 times the book has used the word havel, which can be translated as a vapor breath, smoke or meaninglessness. It has continued to show us that what you pursue after will eventually all go away. This book does not have a lot of hope within it. On its surface. And yet what I hope you've experienced over the last several weeks is that we continue to find hope within God's word, because all of it is inevitably points to Jesus in. This closing section is about to do the same as well. So I want to take you through the last few verses of the book of Ecclesiastes. Let's look at chapter 12 starting in verse nine. Now, it says this. In addition to the teacher being a wise man, he constantly taught the people knowledge. He weighed, explored and arranged many proverbs. The teacher sought to find delightful sayings and write words of truth accurately. The sayings of the wise are like cattle prods, and those from masters of collections are like firmly embedded nails. The sayings are given by one shepherd. If you've been working through the book of Ecclesiastes with us, you know that Solomon is the author of the book. But he has been writing in first person throughout the book. He has said, I have seen in my own eyes, I have said in my heart, I have observed. Then we get to verse nine of the last chapter and it flips to third person. All of a sudden, a narrator has entered into the scene and says he has weighed, observed and seen. Someone else is talking about Solomon and affirms really the wisdom of Solomon, affirms the validity of the entire book of Ecclesiastes as wisdom literature, but then gives us a couple of new word pictures. So inside of there there are two images that are given. The first was that the wor Ecclesiastes or wisdom literature are like cattle prods. Now, for those of us living here in Orange county, we probably haven't prodded a cattle before. And so let me show you what one of these looks like. Here would be the tool that would be used. Apparently it's a baguette with a knife on the end of looks like a scary weapon. But in fact, it would actually be a very ineffective weapon because it was only about 18 to 24 inches long. And that blade on the end was quite small. You see, it wasn't intended to inflict pain or harm, but instead to provide discomfort to an animal trying to get it to move in a particular direction. When the ox would move this way, the shepherd would poke it on that side and bring it back online. Wisdom literature is intended to be uncomfortable on purpose. It is intended to poke and prod us against the meanderings and the wanderings that we do in our life, chasing after all kinds of things. Wisdom literature prods us in a direction of wisdom. It's intended to bring us closer to God. Now, Ecclesiastes has already shown us that our career will not save us, that our finances won't ultimately save us either, that the pleasure that we seek in life, it will not fully satisfy us. And even our youth is not something that we can fully rely on. Ecclesiastes is the voice that is in our life trying to show us what real wisdom with perspective. Now, maybe you have someone in your life, like a financial advisor or a good counselor, maybe even a physical trainer, somebody outside of yourself who helps you accomplish the goals that you want. An external voice that's showing you if you want to get there, this is what you must do. Now, when I was in my 30s, I had been working out for a couple of years, and I wasn't seeing the physical results that I wanted to see in my life, which is absolutely jacked. And so I got a physical trainer. In fact, somebody from our church offered to have me come out to their gym and sort of take me through a protocol to help me accomplish my goals. And when I showed up, he said, so what do you want to accomplish? Like, what are you looking for? And I hadn't really thought of this before, and I panicked. And I said, I guess I want to look like you. And he was huge. I mean, like, this guy was so strong. And he goes, good luck, right? And he goes, all right, if that's what you want, let me take you through what you'd have to do to get there. And so for about 45 minutes, he walks me through some various compound lifts and some. Some additional strength exercises. We had very strict form that we were working on, and all things felt really good until I started to get very hot, and I then started to get very dizzy, and then I completely passed out. I fell onto the floor, and I was knocked out cold. And I came to with this gigantic muscular man shaking me, saying, come back, come back. Run from the light. He didn't. He didn't really say that, but I woke up to him shaking me. And then he asked me the most painful question of my life. He said, is this harder than you usually work out? Which, of course it was. I passed out, like, of course. What an obvious question. And then he has to finalized that thought by saying, because this wasn't that hard. And so I sat on the floor of this gym eating a Snickers bar, which is not what you do in a gym. It's counterintuitive to the goals that I had. And I texted my wife and said, I think I need a Ride home. And I never saw him again. And this is why I still look like this. But that outside voice, he was just simply trying to stay, steer me in a direction to help me accomplish my goals. Wisdom, literature. The book of Ecclesiastes is trying to do that as well. Like a cattle prod, it is a voice in our life taking us away from the meaningless pursuits of all other things in our life, saying, this is wisdom. Follow after God. Now, the second image that it gave us was this picture of well driven nails. Now you have a home that has a frame inside the drywall. You may not know this. Let me instruct you. You have a framer that built your house on a solid foundation. The structure is what holds all of the rest of the house. It's the support. If you remove the frame, the entire house would fall down. What wisdom is teaching us here from the book of Ecclesiastes is that throughout this book we have been given wisdom that is like firmly embedded nails. It's like a permanent fastening or a structure that, that will help you support the weight of the rest of your life. It will be the thing that will keep you upright no matter what comes your way, no matter how the wind blows, no matter what the weather. The structure can be secure because of the firmly embedded nails. So we have a cattle prod and we have these firmly embedded nails. This is what wisdom is supposed to be in our life. But the third thing that the narrator says is that all of this, not just these couple verses, but all of Ecclesiastes was given by one shepherd. Now, Solomon wrote the words, but even the words that were given came from someone else. And this narrator, this third person, this third party, is now saying that the one who gave all the wisdom throughout Ecclesiastes was a shepherd with a capital S. If you caught that. Now, if you've been studying God's word for a while, all throughout the the the Scriptures, this image of a shepherd comes out. You can see it. I'm going to show you just a couple of instances. In Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, it says, the God who has been my shepherd all my life. Throughout Psalms, the phrase shepherd of Israel is used. Then you get to the New Testament, we find out who the shepherd is. When in John 10, Jesus says, I am am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. So the good shepherd is the one who has been present throughout Scripture, handing down wisdom for the intent and for the good of the sheep. Look at what Psalm 23 says. One of the most famous psalms or chapters in all of God's word. The Lord is my shepherd, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. So we get this image that Jesus has been influencing and guiding the entirety of God's word. And right here in the book of Ecclesiastes we see that a shepherd has tools at their disposal for the good of the sheep. We learned about the cattle prod. Psalm 23 talks about how a shepherd has a rod and a staff. A rod was intended to fight off outside predators and his staff was meant to guide the sheep into green pastures, protection and provision. A cattle prod for wisdom moving in a direction. This is what Jesus is doing in our lives. We are his sheep. He is our shepherd. Jesus is the one who is trying to guide us in the life that God had always designed for us. And so if we hang on to this picture that Jesus can actually be found in this passage, we you will see that the intent of Ecclesiastes is not for it to simply exist only in what you see, but that we might actually lift our eyes, find God and see Jesus present in this book as well. Now verse 12 continues on and he says this. But beyond these, my son, be warned, there is no end to the making of many books and much study wearies the body. Much study wearies the body. I feel a little bit convicted sharing that verse with all of our college and high school students who are now preparing for finals all across Southern California right now. Because that verse will be used against us parents as they remind us that they are so tired because much study has wearied their body. Not my son, he hasn't started yet and finals are in 24 hours. But that's okay, no problem. I'm sure it'll go well. Now this passage is not intended to be anti intellectual. This is not saying never study or don't study or don't learn and grow in knowledge. But it is saying do not just continuously try to grow in knowledge and never actually apply it to your life. That endless studying is actually meaningless as well because if you just grow in knowledge and you never practice, then you never get to experience wisdom. You see, wisdom is knowledge in practice. So Ecclesiastes is saying learn and grow and understand, but also allow it to move towards action. A lot of time gets spent in our life investing in all kinds of things. Perhaps you got have been caught up in your life in the, in the virtual video game world for a while. Maybe you've got a really elaborate animal crossing land that You've built, you're very proud of it. My kids have played a lot of Minecraft. In fact, my kids and John Thomas, who's one of our discipleship pastors, our kids have linked up and they have, in Minecraft, built the entirety of Mariners Irvine. If that's not the most pastor kid I've ever heard, I don't know what is right. But a lot of time gets spent in these kind of virtual spaces. And the question is, really, for what. It's enjoyable, but does it serve any, any purpose? We live in a place. We live in a time where we are constantly drawn in by our phones and our devices or television to just kind of like endlessly absorb content. Your phone is always trying to get you to dive deeper into an endless scroll. Like maybe you've sat down on the couch before, you've opened up TikTok, Instagram or your favorite news outlet, and 10 minutes later you realize it's been two hours. Like you've had that moment before. Let me just ask you, have you ever found the end of Instagram? Like you've scrolled to the bottom trying to see when it ends? Has it ever ended? No. And have you ever felt better at the end of those times? No. Right. That's by design. It's designed to pull you in and to keep you going. What I love about God's word, especially when we hold onto a physical copy of God's word and I look, I use the Bible app. I do all that stuff as well. But. But every morning this is my Bible that sits on my coffee table. It's there waiting for me at 5:30 every morning with a cup of coffee. To be fair, I make the coffee, the Bible doesn't. But I bring the coffee and we sit down and it is a physical copy that reminds me that it has a beginning and an end, that this is the fullness of God's word so that I might understand the heart of God in its fullness. I do not need to endlessly search for more. It's all right here. This is the voice of God. This is his heart. This is Jesus. And I can learn and understand as often as I would like. This is what God is trying to teach us in this wisdom, literature. Learn and grow and study. But at some point, realize that that is not enough on its own. We must practice. So here are the final two verses of the book of Ecclesiastes. Verse 13 says this. When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is, fear God and keep his commands. Because this is for all humanity. For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil. That's the final phrases. Fear God, keep his commands because God will judge everything. That's how the book closes. It's the end of what the reader is then left with is figuring out how then do I fear God, keep his commands and be prepared for the final act of judgment which will come my way. So fear God for those of us who are new to studying scripture does not mean be afraid of God. This does not mean that we should live in terror of who God is. But it's a picture of awe or reverence that we might have a right sized view of God and when we do, we have a right sized view of ourself as well, which is much smaller but it's not about again, just a contrast of his size to ours. It's one that ought to move us towards awe. Alistair Begg is a pastor who says this. The fear of God is the soul's adoration of the greatness of God. It is the thing that puts iron in your backbone when the world tries to bend you. Alistair Beg is a Scottish guy and he sounds better when he says it, but you get the picture. I like that idea of putting iron in your backbone because it's about emboldening and strengthening. It's about giving us courage in the face of anything that comes our way. If you've ever stood in Yosemite Valley or at the rim of the Grand Canyon, there are these places where we can be in awe of what we are seeing. It is breathtaking. You see, what I think we are intended to do is to have an even more amount of awe for God that we might be overwhelmed at the grandness of God. Not moved to terror, but moved to strength. Because the awe of God is that that is the one who is on our side. He is the one who is with us. When you have that kind of fear or awe and that picture of God, you get to be strengthened in all of life's circumstances. Now you can stand confidently so then it moves you to action. Fear God, keep his commands. Now keep is this interesting verb that gets used because it means to guard or to watch over, to observe diligently. The original readers of the Old Testament would have had the Ten Commandments as well as the entire religious system set up these laws which would have enabled people to keep the commands of God. It was outlined very clearly but it really put the responsibility on them to figure out how do I live wisely? So I want to Bring it down into our present day. Here's how I think about this. Fear plus obedience is discipleship and a disciplined life. Let me explain this for the next couple of minutes. For us, discipleship is your relationship with God. You are a disciple of Jesus. If you are coming to church and you are trying to understand who is God, you are a disciple. The root there is the learner. A disciple is a learner. It is one who is trying to understand and grow in knowledge of who God is. And you are the student, a learner. So then what is discipleship? Discipleship, I'm sorry, a discipline. A life of discipline, then, is the curriculum. Discipleship is our relationship with God. A disciplined life is the curriculum, the training, the instruction, the practice ground. This is where we get to apply all the things that we have learned as a learner of, of God or of Jesus. Now, I believe, and I want this to be your takeaway today, that discipleship is you and Jesus. And it is best practiced in a church community and a disciplined life is wisdom in action, best practiced as an act of worship. You see, these two things are linked together because discipleship without discipline would be endless learning in which Ecclesiastes is already confronted about. But a discipline's life without discipleship of Jesus would be untethered, subject to change with whatever the latest trend or research tells us. Those two things must remain together. A disciple of Jesus practicing his ways from his Word. You see, when we do that, all of a sudden we don't just know God. We are people who live in God's ways. As your pastor, one of the greatest criticisms that I would love for us to share, fight against, is when people look at the church, not just Mariners Church, but really all Christians, and they say, you claim to know God and yet you don't live differently than anyone else. You see, that level of hypocrisy is something that I think we should be sensitive to because we have God's word, therefore we ought to apply God's word to our life. And therefore we will look differently. We get to then be the salt and light that Jesus invites us to be. We ought to live differently than the world around us. So the book concludes, and I wonder if you've caught it with quite a scary close. You see, fear, God keep his commands because God will judge everything. God will bring all things to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil. There's nothing hidden. There is nothing secret. There is no surprises to God. He doesn't look at our life and go, whoa, I didn't know that was going to happen. You see, there is nothing that we can actively keep from him. But if you think about your relationships, this is why it's so hard for us to understand this. Because in your life, you have public thoughts and then you have private thoughts. Even the public things that you do, you love to share things publicly. You go on social media and you tell us about the new coffee shop that you found, or you brag about that vacation that you're on. There's a lot of things that we like to do publicly. Some of you do too much publicly. But then you also have these private things, these things that you have reserved for your close friendships. The things where you explore together and you say, hey, I'm thinking about changing my job, or I'm considering moving. And you share that with some close group of friends so that they might join you in thinking through those things. But then there's even these other thoughts, these really private ones that are reserved oftentimes for you and your spouse, right? Those sounds like. Like when I'm talking to my wife and I find out that the plans got canceled, and I go, yes, like that's. That's a private thought that I just now shared with you. I love it when plans get canceled, right? Or maybe when you're sitting with your spouse and you talk about which kid is actually your favorite. You know, like those. Those are private thoughts, not meant for anyone. I'm joking. I'm just kidding. They're all equal all the time. But here's the course of most people's spiritual life is that you move from public celebrations to private discussions to. Then you have these reserved things that you go, I think I'll bring this one to God. As if God only knows about you what you choose to bring to him. You see, your discipleship of Jesus will actually be hindered and limited if you believe that God only knows or worse, even cares about the things that you bring, he already knows. There is nothing that you can hide. There are no surprises. There are no secrets. And so what might it look like for you and I to come to that God? Fear? God, awe of who he is? He knows all about us. Because the same spirit who inspired these words, for those of us who have given our life to Jesus, that spirit is within us. He is already aware. Why not bring all? Why not bring everything? Why not allow him to engage in all aspects of our life? You see, we're so afraid of some things in our life. We're afraid to bring them to God because our fear of Those things causes us to shrink back and to experience shame in our life. And yet fear of God says, no, bring them to him and allow him to help us in the course of all fear things. Ecclesiastes 12. I'm not sure if you caught this, but it's a really difficult ending for the original readers because it says, fear God, keep His commands, and God's going to bring all acts to judgment. He puts all the responsibility on the reader. You got to fear God. You have to hang on to his commands. And I am so grateful for you and I that we have Jesus. Because when God created the world, he created it perfectly. But it was our own brokenness. Man is the one who broke the relationship between God. Sin entered into the world. Throughout the entire Old Testament. You get the presence of God trying to provide ways for the people of God to repair that relationship. And in their striving, they just continue to fail, which I find great comfort in, because I would too. But. But God, in His great love for us, does not leave us in our striving. He sends Jesus on our behalf. And it is because of the. The what happened with the Christmas story, the arrival of Jesus and through his perfect life that that led towards his death on a cross and then his resurrection, that you and I are able to rest in the fact that Jesus has paid it all. Jesus took on all of our sin and all of our brokenness so that we might be repaired and connected with God again. Jesus is the good shepherd. He is the one who has the good of us in his mind. He is the one who laid down his life for the sheep. He is the one as the shepherd who has tools at his disposal for our good. He has the rod to protect us from evil. He has the staff to guide us into righteous living. He uses wisdom to help us to become more like Him. This is Jesus. A few years ago, my family and I moved onto a street in our house and not a street in our house. We moved into a house on the street. It's not that big of a house, but right across the way is this house that for our first year of living there, it was kind of an odd and very concerning house because it was completely falling apart. The weeds were overgrown, the trees needed to be trimmed back. You could peer over the fence and see that there's a pool in the backyard that is filled to the top and completely green. The house was falling apart, but we knew that there was one person who lived in it because at night you could see the glow of the television in the living room. But really, sadly, we never saw that person come in or out of the house. We also never saw anyone come to visit or to leave. Somebody was living in that home for a year, completely isolated. And then at some point, an ambulance showed up and took that gentleman out of his home and took him to an assisted living facility where he lived out the rest of his days. And his home was left abandoned. Even after his death, the house just sat there. No one ever came to sort through his things. No one ever came to care for what was left behind. Eventually, that house was sold and a crew showed up. They put a giant dumpster on the street. They punched a hole in the side of the house. They drove a bulldozer into his home, scooped up all the contents of his life, drove it to the street, put it in the dumpster, and took it to the landfill. When I read Ecclesiastes and I think about all the things that we pursue and acquire in our life as being meaningless, I think about this house across the street from mine. I think about all the things that you and I amass in our life and where will it inevitably go? I don't know this gentleman, I don't know anything about his story. All I know is, is that the ending of all of his stuff went to a landfill. And I think about my life, and I think about yours, and I just think about, where is all this going? What are we really doing with all of this stuff? Because am I just acquiring things that will also just find its way into a landfill? Or am I building relationships on the foundation of Jesus that will hand down a legacy of faith, hopefully for generations? That's what I want. And I know that's what you want, too. You see, Jesus wants to be the foundation of our life. He wants to give us wisdom that becomes the support structure that can hold all of our life. He wants to be the good shepherd who will guide you into green pastures. He wants to be with you. The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most comprehensive teachings of Jesus that we have. And I want to read for you the final verses of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew, chapter seven. I want you just to listen to the Good shepherd and see if you can find any parallels from the Good shepherd to the wisdom that was given by the shepherd in the book of Ecclesiastes. Allow me to read Matthew chapter 7. Starting in verse 24, Jesus says this. Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house, yet it didn't collapse because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who was built, who has built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash. You see, Jesus is echoing the words of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes says, fear God and keep my commands. Jesus says, hear my words and act on them. When the world attacks, when the winds blow, when the waters rise, will your house stand or will it fade away? Will you have a life that goes towards a landfill? Or will you have a legacy of faith that gets handed down? Jesus invites us to build our life on him, for him to be the solid foundation of our life, knowing that if we can hear his words, put them into practice, this life will not be meaningless. It will not be a pursuit of things that will just be gone with the wind. We will have a rich and beautiful and meaningful life. Because it's not that Jesus is a part of our life. Jesus becomes the lens in which we experience all of life. This is how our life can be so beautiful and meaningful, is if you and I do not compartmentalize church and God and discipleship, but instead we say, no, this is all of my life. God is aware of all things. He wants to be engaged in all things. And so then how do I see the world through that lens? I want to take you through just a brief meditation, a reflection, an opportunity for you to interact with the God who is fully present with us right now. And it begins by just thanking him, by just simply allowing your mind to think about the meaning in which God has given you in your life, the meaning of your friendships, your family, your relationships, your. Your work, your purpose. He has given you meaning in so many places. Would you thank him for that? And perhaps you need to even just sit here and think about this idea that God wants to be a part of all of your life, not just a portion of it. Would you invite him to be able to fill in all the cracks, to find all the space in which you have forgotten he is already there. And perhaps there's something in your life that is right now, you think, hidden from him, that you want to bring towards Him. Maybe it's something good that has happened in your life and you want to give it to him, even as an act of worship of him, that he is the one who was with you in it? Or maybe it's one of those broken parts about you that you're not really sure what to do with. You don't even know how to talk about it. Would you allow your Heavenly Father to be with you in the midst of it? What is that hidden thing? And as we close, I want to teach you a very simple prayer. Christians have practiced things called breath prayers for generations. You see, we breathe in and we breathe out thousands of times a day. And a breath prayer is simply focusing our attention on God as we breathe. And a breath prayer can be deployed at any moment where you need to be reminded of God's constant presence in your life. A moment when you are anxious or overwhelmed, where you are standing at a moment of uncertainty. A moment where you feel alone or isolated or hopeless. I use these prayers often. There's a very simple one that I pray all the time. My God, my all. The way it works is as you breathe in, you pray in your mind, My God. And then as you exhale my all. Would you try that with me? My God, my all. One more. My God, my all. It get emotional for me really fast when I can just pause and remember that there is nothing that God is not aware of in my life. And yet because of Jesus, all he sees in me is love of his own son. It's true for you, too. We're going to take some time and we are going to sing. We are going to worship the God who is with us, who is present, the one who wants to be our strong foundation, the one who knows your life and wants to enjoy this moment of worship from you. Would we stand together and let's sing. All right. Extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you 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.