Old things New Podcast

Ep 140: Do you listen at Church? (Ecc 5:1-3).

PrayRead: Ecc 5:1-7.MeditationAs Solomon opens up his words of wisdom on worship, he starts with this basic instruction: come to listen. Verse one says: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.”In the first place, we know that Solomon is talking about worship because he refers specifically to the house of God, the Temple of God. It was the centre of worship in the Old Testament, the heartbeat of sacrifice, worship, and instruction in the Word of God. Let me make a parallel for us here. As you know, we do not worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. Under the New Covenant, worship is no longer focused on a place. It is focused in a people. In Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians 2:19-21 we are told that the temple is no longer made of bricks and mortar, but of living souls. As the Spirit of God dwells in the hearts of believers, it is believers who are being built up into the house of God. And in the First Epistle to the Corinthians 3:17 we also see this plainly: “you are the temple.”What this all means is that, just as Israel gathered to worship in the physical temple under the Old Covenant, so as we gather together with God’s people under the New Covenant we are gathering for worship. There is a parallel between the Old Testament temple and the gatherings of the church in the New Testament. So then, Solomon’s advice applies to what we do in public worship together.The first thing he says is this: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.” Do not come to worship ill prepared. Do not come carelessly. Do not come without having considered what it is you are doing. Guard your steps. Guarding our steps suggests that we ought to be prepared for worship. We ought to be on guard, and one does not need to be on guard unless there are dangers involved.Have you ever considered that as you come to worship God, there is danger? We will open up in these meditations what the nature of those dangers are, but let that sink in for a moment. You would not carelessly go bungee jumping or sky diving. You would not normally help as a volunteer firefighter without training and preparation. And yet we must ask ourselves: Do I come carelessly to worship? Do we prepare our hearts with prayer? Do we come prepared to engage in what we are about to do? If we are not on guard, then our defence is open to attack and we are vulnerable. Be prayerful, diligent, and ready for worship.Worshipping God is serious. Our God will not be mocked, and he will not wink at sin. To be flippant in worship is to be foolish.So you are prepared for worship, but prepared for what? Verse one says, “To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools.”Two things stand out here.You come prepared to worship, and one of the things you come prepared for is to listen. Has it occurred to you that as you come to worship, you come to hear the Most High God speak with you? Sunday meetings are no social club gatherings. They are a solemn, joyful, fearful meeting between the Lord of heaven and his redeemed people. Therefore come prepared to listen. Come to worship expecting by faith to hear from God. Pray in advance that God would open your eyes and the eyes of all who attend. Pray that he would show you clearly what he is saying. Pray that he would prepare your heart to receive his message and enable you to repent and change as a result.Perhaps you leave church feeling bored sometimes, feeling there was nothing to interest you. Before you blame someone else, ask yourself, did you pray before you came? Did you cry out before the service that God would deal mercifully with you, that he would open your hard heart? Guard your steps when you come to the house of God. Prepare your heart to listen.Listening does not only mean properly engaging while you are hearing what God is saying. Listening means taking it away, repenting, and taking action on what he has commanded you to do. The mark of sincere listening is sincere change in our lives. Take note of the application you receive each Sunday, and be diligent to put it into practice in prayerful reliance on the Holy Spirit.There is another assumption here (i.e. the second thing of two I mentioned earlier). The assumption is that you will come. It is a terrible thing to be so careless with the worship of God that we view it as optional. It is a gross neglect to come to church only every so often when you feel like it. There are times when missing church is necessary, and to a degree that is a matter between each one of us and God. Yet it remains true that we must not be careless with worship. Gym enthusiasts make every session. Movie lovers attend the cinema every week without fail. We make time for the things we love. But what is our attitude towards meeting with the Most High God? If we are not regular in worship, it says something.We have seen that the call to worship is a call to come and listen, but worship is not about listening only. The Reformed tradition has always understood worship to be a conversation. It is a conversation between God and his people. That is the structure of our worship. Do you come ready and prepared to listen to God speak in worship? SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationHoly God, we confess that we have often come into your presence carelessly, without guarding our steps or preparing our hearts to listen. We have treated worship lightly, allowed our minds to wander, and failed to tremble at your word or expect you to speak. Forgive us for offering you distracted hearts and empty words, and cleanse us from the pride and dullness that keep us from sincere repentance. By your Spirit, make us watchful, teachable, and ready to obey, that as we draw near to listen we may be changed and built up as your dwelling place. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

Transcribe →

Ep 139: The Danger of Careless Worship (Ecc 5:1-7).

Mar 100:08:28Tap to summarize

PrayRead: Ecc 5:1-7.MeditationIn the words of John Piper: “Mission exists because worship doesn’t.” In John 4, Jesus tells us that God is seeking worshippers. The highest end for which we were created was to glorify God, to declare his excellence, to revel in his beauty, and to enjoy him forever. And yet, as we reflect on our own worship, how often are we truly so enraptured by God’s beauty that we would say we are reveling in it? Do we delight to declare and sing of God’s goodness? Perhaps we do not delight in God as we ought to, and perhaps sometimes our hearts are cold in worship. But I hope that you can say: “Yes, yes I do delight to worship God, and I lament that my heart is not warmer towards him.”The most important thing we can do as Christians is to glorify God and worship him. It follows, then, that one of the most important topics we can talk about is worship. In this next passage in the Book of Ecclesiastes, which we will unfold over the next few meditations, Solomon has some startling insights to give us about worship.As you will know if you have read Ecclesiastes before, this book can be very difficult to understand at times. Throughout our studies, I have been using a governing analogy to help you understand how this book works. I have said that the Book of Ecclesiastes is like a labyrinth, an immense, perplexing, sometimes mysterious maze. It is easy to get lost, easy to find yourself in a dead end with no way of getting to the middle. Solomon’s aim in this book is to show us how to get to the middle. His goal is to teach us how to fear God in a fallen world. At the end of the book, in Ecclesiastes 12:13, Solomon says, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” To reach this goal, Solomon leads us through this labyrinth.He does two kinds of things to guide us. He shows us the path to walk on in a positive sense, winding his way through, leading us in good directions, teaching us the fear of the Lord. But at times he deliberately takes us to dead ends so that we can know what to avoid. Every passage can be thought of as either a dead end or another stretch on the path toward the end goal, part of the right trail in this labyrinth. Sometimes Solomon leads us down dead-end paths, and other times he leads us down paths that positively teach us the fear of the Lord.At this point, I’m introducing chapter 5:1-7, and in light of our governing metaophor, Solomon’s purpose here is very clear. He’s not trying to show us a dead end in these verses. In these verses he wants to take us deliberately down a very important path in the labyrinth, a path that is crucial if we would seek to live life in the fear of God. The topic on Solomon’s mind here, again, is worship.What do you think of when I say worship? Take a moment to ponder that question. Do you think of emotions? For many churches today, the primary goal is to experience something emotionally in worship. Maybe you think of routine and comfort. Maybe you think of preaching, as if preaching is the main thing when it comes to church on Sunday. Maybe it is just a religious word. Maybe it is a word you treasure and value because it reminds you of the goodness of God. Whatever the case may be, as Solomon unfolds worship through the eyes of wisdom, there will probably be something, perhaps a number of things, that you did not expect.I should warn you right up front: the path Solomon leads us on today is central and important, but it is not easy. True to form, Solomon does not pull any of his punches. What he has to say is deeply confronting. There truly is a danger in careless worship. This may not be comfortable, but for anyone sincerely desiring to grow in godliness, it will be beneficial. Let’s follow our guide, then, and see where he takes us in the next few meditations. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationLord, I confess that my heart is often cold in worship, and I have failed to delight fully in your beauty and glory. Forgive me for seeking comfort, routine, or fleeting emotion instead of exalting you with all my soul. By your Spirit, kindle in me a true love for your excellence, that my praise may rise with joy and sincerity. I consecrate myself anew to glorify you in every thought, word, and deed, and to walk faithfully in the fear of the Lord all my days. Please help me to grow in wisdom in the next few studies, that I may worship you in a way that is pleasing to you. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

Transcribe →

Ep 138: A Parable for Pursuing Christian Fellowship (Ecc 4:13-16).

Feb 2400:12:49Tap to summarize

PrayRead: Ecc 4:4-16.MeditationNow we have a peculiar little story in verses 13 through 16, it’s almost a parable. Solomon tells the story of a foolish old king who did not know how to take advice. We will open this up a bit more later, but for now notice the old king. What was the defining mark of this king? That he did not know how to take advice. He did not listen to people. He had cut himself off from good advice. And so the poor and wise youth was better than the hard-hearted and isolated old king.Envy and laziness both tend towards isolation, but here is another cause: the inability to listen. Listening to no one but ourselves is a sure way to reach a dead end in life. You can have all the riches in the world, but a poor wise man who listens is better than a rich king whose heart is hard. Fearing God requires a listening heart. It requires a heart that listens to God, and a heart that listens to good advice from others. It requires a heart that looks for good advice from others.If we see this tendency in ourselves, the tendency not to talk with others, we ought to take note of this warning.If you simply do not talk to others there cannot be a relationship. That is a danger in itself.The tendency to argue with others, or an argumentative spirit, is an indicator of someone who does not listen.The tendency of inattention, giving people only half of our attention; or perhaps of talking too much, these are not good signs.Someone with a tendency to talk a lot may struggle to listen.There may be a tendency not to show real interest in others, for this foolish king would not have been one to ask sensitive questions of others to better understand them.It may be someone who interrupts, someone who formulates what he wants to say while the other is talking.It may be someone who lacks a genuine interest in the other person as they are speaking, or someone who is quick to form opinions on others.All these things show us tendencies towards isolation and individualism. As and if we follow these patterns ourselves, we live in our own mental bubble, and we are not open-hearted. We are becoming like the old king of the parable. Perhaps it was old-man Solomon reflecting on himself.As Solomon has shown us, being self-focused is a dead end in life.But what then can we do? Perhaps as we have looked at some of these areas, you have noticed some of these patterns in your own life. I certainly have. At different points every one of us will be self-focused in some way or another. So how do we respond?As Solomon points out, rather than living in isolation, we must seek to live in community. We must rather be the poor, wise, youth, if that is what it comes down to. It is the cure of Christian fellowship that we need. Two are better than one (v. 9), and a threefold cord is not quickly broken (v. 12). There is strength in numbers. Better is a poor but wise youth who listens than an old and foolish king who does not.Where does this leave us? Consider a few points of application to ponder.First, it is only as we turn to God that we can find restoration from the isolation that sin brings. As we have seen in these meditations on individualism, isolation is destructive. In the biggest sense, however, our isolation is ultimately an isolation from God. Although we were created to be in relationship with him, through our sin we have cut ourselves off. Even as Christians, when we pursue sin, we are running from God to try to do it ourselves. This world is full of people who do not know God and who have not come to God.If that is you, as you read these words, if you have not come to Christ, then there is one message to hear: if you remain isolated from God, you will find yourself alone in a dead end. Your life will pass you by. Even if you are successful, as the poor, wise young man in verses 13 through 16 was, it will not be long before you too depart from this earth. As that young man was forgotten, so too will we be. And as we come to eternity, if our relationship with God has not been restored, we will find ourselves isolated in damnation for all eternity.If you do not know God, then you need the message of the gospel: God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life. Come to Christ, believe in him, and God will restore you to himself. There is only one ultimate answer to isolation, and that is to come to the God of love revealed in Christ.And as Christians this is just as true. Without him we can do nothing. Christ is our daily solution to dealing with the sin that so often threatens to isolate us. To the degree that we allow sin to lodge in our hearts, we will find that God is not near. Keep short accounts with God. Confess your sin regularly across the day. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Here is an application for fearing God and avoiding isolation: keep your heart warm towards God. If you do that, you will have a fountain in your heart, a fountain that works to bring unity and harmony rather than division and isolation.As we are united and restored to God, as we keep near to him, we are also restored to one another. The unity and harmony that we have together in Christ is the basis of finding unity and harmony in our marriages, families, friendships, and churches. Christ is the only true means of unity on a human level. Christ is the key to killing individualism in our own hearts and to drawing together as well. We need to live the gospel out in our human relationships. Humility and confession should feature regularly. Forgiveness and restoration should follow every time. We need to keep short accounts with one another; this is basic to building unity and relationship. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. That text is sometimes used at weddings as a reminder that two humans, bound together with God, will be strong. While that was not Solomon’s purpose, the principle is good. As we cling to one another in friendship and love, and cling together under God, we will be strong.A few further words of application.First, we saw that envy tends towards isolation. Here is application for defeating envy: seek your satisfaction in Christ. Envy looks at what its neighbour has and wants it. But God, in place of this, calls us not to desire anything but him. Delight yourself in God alone, and he will give to you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). A sure antidote to individualism is a heart that is fully satisfied in Christ. As we are satisfied in Christ, we will no longer envy what others have. We will no longer put up barriers and objectify people. We will delight in Christ, and we will delight in others, and we will seek to help them delight in Christ. So seek your satisfaction in Christ. As a practical way of doing that, think about the things you are doing each day. As you think about those things, ask yourself if they are helping you to be satisfied in Christ, or if they are hindering you. That question is a good internal measure for searching our own hearts.Second, prayerfully look for ways to serve others. We saw in verse 5 the way that laziness tends to isolate an individual and make him useless. Sometimes the reason we feel lonely is because we are not proactive in service. Idleness can perpetuate loneliness. Often, the antidote to isolation may be to prayerfully and actively seek to serve others. If we get up, get active, and seek opportunities to serve others, we may find that our friendship grows as well. Always be praying and looking for ways to be a blessing to others. Christ has blessed us, that we may bless others. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationFather of mercy, we confess that we have loved our own thoughts more than your wisdom, and have isolated ourselves through pride, envy, laziness, and an unwillingness to listen. We have cut ourselves off from you and from others, choosing self over fellowship, and we grieve the coldness of heart that has followed. Please draw us again to Christ, restore us to yourself, and warm our hearts by your Spirit, that we may delight in you above all and keep short accounts with you and with one another. Consecrate us to lives of humble love, attentive listening, and joyful service, that bound together with you and your people, we may reflect the unity and grace of our Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

Transcribe →

Ep 137: Don’t be a loner (Ecc 4:9-12).

Feb 1200:05:01Tap to summarize

PrayRead: Ecc 4:4-12.MeditationWe’ve seen that envy and laziness as forces of individualism, but Solomon has two more insights to give. Reading from verse 9: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”Solomon gives us a small picture in these verses, but there is a great deal there to see. The basic point is clear, isn’t it? It is not good to be alone. The one who is alone will not find help in the day of trouble, he will not find warmth in the cold, nor will he have protection in a time of danger.And so let me ask the question plainly: Are you an isolated person? Are you cut off from close relationships? Are the relationships you do have distant? Do you keep to yourself? What Solomon is saying is that this tendency is not good. It is destructive.In terms of our faith, if we do not have companions, we will have no one to lift us up when we stumble. In despair, there will be no one to offer us hope. We might easily fall into doctrinal error or even heresy. And just as our bodies are cold when we are alone in the nighttime of winter, so too our spirits grow cold in isolation. By ourselves, our affections may well grow cold, and we will have no one to warm us.And so the question remains: Do we have close relationships together? And more importantly, do we have a close relationship with the Lord? Do we draw near to him? Do we draw near to each other? God did not create us to do life alone. It is not good for man to be alone. He created us to do life together, to love God, and to love one another. Whatever path in life we walk, we can be sure that walking alone is not good. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

Transcribe →

Ep 136: Individualism is... lazy? (Ecc 4:5)

Feb 1000:05:50Tap to summarize

PrayRead: Ecc 4:4-5.MeditationSolomon has another observation on individualism for us in verse five: “The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.” Now, like last time, you might be asking again: What has this got to do with individualism? Let me try and show you. Notice the description of this man. The first thing we see is that he is lazy. He sits, he folds his hands, and he does nothing. And as a result, he consumes himself.Notice too that Solomon draws our attention to this man’s isolation. Perhaps you are asking: Where do we see isolation here? Look closely. He does not serve others. He is not with others. He is not talking to others. He is eating his own flesh, focusing on himself. There is an emphasis here on the way he is absorbed in himself, and in doing so he is destroying himself. Just as there is a connection between envy and isolation, so too there is a connection between laziness and isolation.This makes sense when you think about it. It could well be that the reason so many Australians do not get to know each other is because they cannot be bothered. It takes effort to try and get to know your neighbours. It takes a willingness to serve, and sometimes to deal with difficult people. Laziness says, I can’t be bothered. And as it sits there by itself, it is consumed.Now that is true literally in the sense of work. If you do not work, if you are lazy, you will have no money and no food. But it is also true socially and spiritually. Laziness really is a force of spiritual destruction. It isolates the one who is lazy and cuts him off from usefulness, love, and service in the community of God’s people. Laziness in our devotional life will leave us isolated from God. If we are too lazy to listen to him, and too lazy to speak with him in prayer, it will be destructive in our lives.And so again we need to consider ourselves in this area as well. Are we lazy? Are we letting idleness grow in our hearts? Are we apathetic about growing in Christ? Are we neglectful in seeking the Lord? Are we unproductive? Are we generally isolated because we are not putting the effort in to grow in relationships with others? If we are lazy, we will not grow. We will start consuming ourselves. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

Transcribe →

Ep 135: The Sin of Individualism (Ecc 4:4-8).

Feb 500:13:08Tap to summarize

PrayRead: Ecc 4:4-8.MeditationThere is a prevailing sickness in our culture today. You will find this sickness quarantined behind closed suburban doors and high fences. You will see its symptoms in next door neighbours avoiding eye contact and a friendly wave. There are train carriages full of this disease all across our major cities each day. You notice it when you look up from your phone and realise that almost everyone on board is glued to their screen. This disease leaves people bedridden night after night as they sit alone, watching an endless stream of episodes on flickering screens. And worse still, we might even find symptoms of this disease in our own hearts if we look closely, in our tendencies to avoid other people and to close ourselves off.You see it sometimes in churches as well. People standing after church by themselves for awkward minutes on end. Closed circles of people who know each other well and talk to no one else. People not knowing each other’s names. The sickness I am talking about is the disease of individualism, the compulsive tendency that we each have to be self-oriented and self-contained. This disease has always existed among sinful people, and it is something we will all need to fight against, even as Christians.And even if you are “a social person”, you will probably still find that you are not immune to this sickness. As we will see in our passage, it is possible to be surrounded by people and yet still live in a radically individualistic way. It is possible to interact with others and yet still be almost entirely self-absorbed, self-focused and self-contained, with other people becoming a means to an end for our own goals.As Solomon continues to lead us through the vast labyrinth of life, in our passage he notices something else in this broken world and brings it to our attention: the plague of individualism. And without question, what he will show us is that individualism is a dead end. It is a sin that we must resist, and an influenza for which we must find a cure. Individualism is a sure way to avoid growing in the fear of the Lord.There is, however, a positive side to Solomon’s message here. As we have seen before, Solomon does not want to lead us down dead-end paths. He is not a despairing old skeptic. He is a man of wisdom, and he wants to show us the pathway to life. He wants to teach us how to live life in a fallen world in the fear of God. And again, as we will see here, what he shows us is that we are not designed to love and fear God alone. We are designed to live together. To fear God is to live together.You find this right there at the creation in Genesis 2:18: “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone.’” Walking through the labyrinth of life is best done in the company of others. In our next meditation we will look at the cure for individualism, but first we must understand the problem. So let’s consider the disease of individualism. I want us to be better able to spot this tendency in our own hearts, and I want to show you, as Solomon does, just how much of a dead end isolation really is.Generally speaking, individualism, thinking, and behaviour that is self-absorbed and self-contained, rears its head in all sorts of ways. In broad terms, it really is just a basic aspect of sin. While we were created to put God first, others second and self last, sin gives us a new equation: self first, others second, God last. In that sense, sin is individualistic by definition. So we are not going to see everything there is to see about individualism. There is too much to cover. But in our particular passage, we are given some unique insights as we listen to the voice of Christ speaking through Solomon. As we know, all wisdom ultimately comes to us from God in Christ, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:30. Never forget that Ecclesiastes is a book of God’s wisdom, not merely Solomon’s.We see Solomon’s first observation in verse 4: “Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbour.” This may have been written thousands of years ago, but it is a cutting-edge commentary on modern Australia. We see this, do we not? A busy economy, people industriously toiling away in life. But Solomon looks below the surface and says that this toil, generally speaking, is driven by envy.We live in an economy of envy. You see this in workplaces. Our vocations were designed to be a means of glorifying God and serving others, yet in verses 7 and 8 we see a worker who lives alone and works for no one but himself. Instead of serving one another, what we so often find today is that work revolves around climbing the ladder. What people call career progression is often nothing more than corporatised envy. Pursuing excellence is one thing, and it is to be encouraged. But pursuing excellence does not necessarily mean being better than everyone else or being in charge of everyone else. God did not design work to be driven by envy, but by love service.You might ask at this point, what does envy have to do with individualism? But that is exactly the point. We may not realise it at first, but envy is actually a characteristic of individualism. If you are absorbed by getting what others have, who is your attention focused on? You see it there in verse four: the man does not love his neighbour, he objectifies him. He does not rejoice in his neighbour’s prosperity. His neighbour becomes nothing more than a benchmark for his own goals and desires. Envy, by definition, is individualistic. It does not treat other people as people. It separates people and poisons relationships.We can see many examples of how envy poisons communities around us. People toil in their careers, treading on others to get higher, sacrificing their families in the process. We see it on social media, where people are absorbed by impressing others and envying what others have. There is a lifestyle many Australians pursue: holidays, a beautiful partner, lots of money, not having kids so that those things are easier to obtain. These pursuits often feed on envy. And envy is a dead end. It will not lead you to the fear of God. It will lead you down a winding labyrinth path until you find yourself sitting alone in a dark corner.Solomon opens up the individualism of envy further in verses seven and eight: “Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, ‘For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?’ This also is vanity and an unhappy business.” You see it clearly. This man works and works and works. His eyes are never satisfied with riches. He never stops to ask himself, ‘Who am I doing this for?’ He has no one in his life. No son. No brother. He is alone, consumed by individualism, and yet he is still not satisfied.What Solomon is saying is that this too is a dead end. It is hevel. This man will work and work and work, and in the end he will have no one. He will die. His riches will disappear. His life will be over, and he will have nothing. This is what envy does. It isolates its victims and destroys them.So we must examine our own hearts. Do we see envy at work within us? Are we workaholics, so focused on toiling and earning that we push all other people out? Is your life a lonely life? It may be that the reason for that loneliness is an all-consuming devotion to work. Our work can become a means of filling our own cravings rather than a means of serving God and serving others. Work can take up all our time and leave us with no time to serve anyone else. Consider this, pray, and tune in to the next meditation to look at the cure! SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

Transcribe →

Ep 125: A time to kill, a time to heal (Ecc 3:2-3).

Dec 18Tap to summarize

PrayRead: Ecc 3:1-8.MeditationThere is a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. There will be seasons of hard work in life. Planting is by definition a time when you invest rather than gain. You work hard, and you give of your resources. This runs counter to the right now mindset of many Australians, who would rather spend in advance than work hard at the grind-stone and save. Yet there will be seasons of hard work, and we must embrace those seasons. So work hard at your jobs, work hard at your relationships, work hard in your homes and in raising your children. Work hard at your marriage and invest in it. Even reaping itself is hard work, but the day will come when we will reap a mighty harvest. There will be harvests in this life, but the greatest harvest of all comes in eternity. Honouring Christ in this life will mean working hard.There is a time to kill. This probably jars a little against modern western ears, and the reason for this is that today sin has completely twisted our minds. We refuse to kill murderers, for example, and yet we defend to the hilt the right to slay unborn innocents. The death penalty is seen as abominable, but abortion clinics are treated as practically a civil right. Yet God, in his wisdom, declares clearly that there is a time to kill. We must look to God’s Word to learn the standard of right and wrong. In Gen 9:6 we read, Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. The reason our lives are precious is because they image God, and modern society has almost completely lost this insight. There is, in fact, a time to kill. When somebody murders somebody else, they deserve to die, because in murdering another person they have committed one of the purest acts of hatred against God possible. To murder is to show oneself to be worthy of death. There is a time to kill. And beyond this, it is always a good time to be killing sin. There is a time to kill, and so we must be skilled in the art of spiritual warfare. We must take up the sword of the Spirit each and every day. We must wage war against, and kill, our sinful nature every day.There is a time to heal. Has it ever occurred to you that if you are sick, then by definition, in God’s good and perfect plan, it is not a time to heal, because you are always in exactly the season of life that God wants you to be in. This does not mean do not seek healing, and it does not mean do not ask for it in prayer. After all, there is a time to heal. But since there is a time to heal, we must also accept the fact that there is a time to be sick or injured. Think about that, and it will help you live patiently through sickness.There is a time to break down, and a time to build up. In a fallen world, sometimes a thing may be so thoroughly corrupted by sin that all that can be done with it is to break it down and destroy it. Destroying things is a sad but necessary part of life in a sinful world. Conversely, there is also a call upon our lives to be building up in Christ: building up one another in Christ, building up our families in Christ, building a business, and building an education. There is a time to build. As we saw last week, we are called to be constructive with the gifts and opportunities that God gives us. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

Transcribe →

All episodes

Ep 140: Do you listen at Church? (Ecc 5:1-3).

Ep 139: The Danger of Careless Worship (Ecc 5:1-7).

Ep 138: A Parable for Pursuing Christian Fellowship (Ecc 4:13-16).

Ep 137: Don’t be a loner (Ecc 4:9-12).

Ep 136: Individualism is... lazy? (Ecc 4:5)

Ep 135: The Sin of Individualism (Ecc 4:4-8).

Ep 125: A time to kill, a time to heal (Ecc 3:2-3).

Old things New Podcast

All episodes

Ep 140: Do you listen at Church? (Ecc 5:1-3).

Ep 139: The Danger of Careless Worship (Ecc 5:1-7).

Ep 138: A Parable for Pursuing Christian Fellowship (Ecc 4:13-16).

Ep 137: Don’t be a loner (Ecc 4:9-12).

Ep 136: Individualism is... lazy? (Ecc 4:5)

Ep 135: The Sin of Individualism (Ecc 4:4-8).

Ep 125: A time to kill, a time to heal (Ecc 3:2-3).