3: A Plea to the Real You

A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA 1. INTRODUCTION - Early in Jesus’ ministry, John the Baptist sent messengers to Him to ask if He really was the King, the Chosen One, who the OT Scriptures spoke about: o Lk 7:21-23: In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me - In response to scandalized Jewish religious leaders: o Lk 5:31-32: Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” - These passage (all the miracle passages, really!) are important: o They speak about a reversal o About a righting of something that’s gone wrong o About fixing something that’s broken - Jesus has come to fix this world before He rules over it o He owns it, He made it, o and He’s repairing it and us before He takes it out on the road - Jesus spent His time here telling people all about that: o (1) First passage (“sinners to repentance”): ▪ We’re broken, that’s why He’s the Great Physician who’s come to heal us - to give life to spiritually dead people! ▪ And that’s all of us o (2) Second passage (healing) ▪ Jesus came to fix the wrongness in this world ▪ Disease, injury, death, economic disparities ▪ This isn’t the way things are supposed to be ▪ If you belong to Him, you can be part of a future where all that is gone - In short, God offers an escape pod out of the bleak emptiness of day to day life here, under the sun o He offers purpose o He offers hope 1 Pastor Tyler Robbins A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA o o o o He offers peace He offers reconciliation He offers a new family He offers citizenship in His coming kingdom ▪ and He offers it all in exchange for your allegiance ▪ Solomon wants you to take this deal 2. TEXT Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them” (Ecc 12:1) - The days of your youth: God wants the best part of your life o Solomon isn’t saying that old age is pointless o He’s saying that God made you for a purpose o The more time you spend as a member of His family, the more peace, the more joy, the more fulfillment you’ll have o So, while you have time ▪ (1) Choose God ▪ (2) So you can live the kind of life He created you to live - Remember: this is Solomon’s point in the whole book – choose God! o (1) This is for wayward believers ▪ Whatever is pulling you away ▪ Whatever has consumed your heart and mind ▪ Whatever distraction has sapped your joy for God ▪ If your relationship with the Lord has faded a bit to grey, as though the colors of faith are slowly leeching out of your life ▪ You can make a decision to “remember your Creator” this morning ▪ Solomon knows (better than anyone!) that we’re tempted to drift away ▪ God, through Him, tells you to come back and stop wasting your life on things that pass away o (2) This plea is also for unbelievers; for people outside the family: ▪ We all die, and we can’t take anything with us ▪ But, so many of us still find purpose and value those things, anyway! 2 Pastor Tyler Robbins A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA ▪ That’s why some people can’t retire – they’d be giving up their lives, what defines them ▪ But, Solomon says, “… he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten,” (Ecc 9:4-5). ▪ You can still choose God, today - No pleasure: choose God before you begin to lose your zest for life o You don’t take chances o You become very cautious o You stop traveling o Your life settles into a very safe, very humdrum pattern o Your days of adventure, of “great things,” of excitement are over o Your zeal and enthusiasm are gone - The point: o It’s never too late to join God’s family o But, if you’re young, it’s especially important you do it now o Give God the best, most productive, most energetic, most passionate years of your life - Solomon now describes the “walls closing in” as death approaches, o and old age takes its toll, o and he does it to knock sense into you, into me, into all of us! o he wants us to choose God while we can! before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain (Ecc 12:2) - Choose God before your life fades like a sky darkening before a thunderstorm o The sun is blotted out o The moon and stars are gone o Everything around you is gloomy darkness, o growing more forbidding every minute - If you’ve ever been out in the country and seen a thunderstorm roll in, o seen the growing darkness that blots out the daylight, o seen the rolling clouds that look like they’ll about to cover the world in a sinister blanket, 3 Pastor Tyler Robbins A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA o then you get the metaphor - Your life will end, blotted out just as surely as a thunderstorm shuts out the sun: o Have you chosen God, yet? o If you know Him, have you decided to remember Him, yet? in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed (Ecc 12:3) - Keepers of the house: your limbs o Your strength fails o The arms that used to be so strong now tremble o The legs sag at the knees o The straight back now stoops over, bent by age and worn down by a lifetime of work o Your teeth hurt, and you can’t eat what you used to – your palate diminishes into blandness maybe even without you knowing (“old people’s food”) o Eyes are dimmed, and the colors of life begin to shade into grey - Your body will begin to fail you, one day – because death is coming for you: o Where is your job? Retired years ago o Where are all the women? Gone, along with your desire o Where’s the booze? It might still be there, but you know it’s worthless o Where’s the education? The diplomas are on the walls in your study, but your knowledge is obsolete now – they’ll disappear when you die o Where’s the “stuff?” It’s there, but it might as well not be there, because you can’t do it anymore - God is shrinking your world: o (1) Closing off routes of distraction o (2) Directing you like a person in a maze to the final destination o (3) And, as He walls things off, He’s asking you once more; “since now you see those other things are useless to you, why don’t you pledge allegiance to me, instead?” ▪ (a) Instead of women, how about me? 4 Pastor Tyler Robbins A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ (b) Instead of booze, how about me? (c) Instead of stuff, how about me? (d) Instead of money, how about me? (e) Instead of being your own King, how about pledging allegiance to Jesus, the true King of this world and the one to come? and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low— (Ecc 12:4) - Doors shut: your circle is activities shrinks o One day you’ll be a virtual prisoner inside your home, o only venturing out for groceries – and maybe not even that - Sound of grinding low: the sounds of daily life fade away o Your hearing begins to go o Your daily circuit sticks closer and closer to home o Isolation closes in more and more o The walls are closer, tighter, and loom darker every week - Rises sound of bird: erratic sleep o A solid nine hours is rarer and rarer o Unsettled, irritable, never feeling 100% o Never feeling fully rested o Meanwhile, the walls close in more and more - As the old distractions slip through your fingers, o you begin to feel more and more despair at what your life has become o and what you have to look forward to - In our day, o no matter who you are, o you still have means to drug yourself so you don’t think these deep thoughts, o so you don’t think about the end (TV, internet) - But, you’ll never be able to totally silence that voice o It breaks in late at night o It breaks in early in the morning o It breaks in when social media gets boring; when you’ve shared all the funny posts that Facebook has to offer 5 Pastor Tyler Robbins A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA - It asks you if this is really all life was about: o (1) to live, have a career, and slowly degenerate into someone marooned inside his own home, o (2) with failing arms, failing legs, a bad back, teeth falling out, o (3) hearing going bad, and not able to sleep more than four hours without having to get up to go to the bathroom, o (4) with everything you are and everything you ever did in life stripped away o (5) so the neighbors just know you as “the old guy” across the street ▪ Is that all there is to life? - Or, is there a King who’s come to save us from ourselves? o (1) who offers us a citizenship in a better place, o (2) in a new and better world, o (3) who says He’ll cleanse our hearts and minds, o (4) give us spiritual life for the first time, o (5) and who will restore our broken bodies one day, o (6) and who will change our lives so we can live with joy, purpose and delight? o (7) who died for your sins, according to the Scriptures, o (8) who rose from the dead to give His people victory over death o (9) who offers you citizenship in exchange for allegiance; for a shift of loyalty, o (10) if you’ll bow and worship Him, o (11) and tell Him you’re sorry for your sins, for not pledging allegiance before, for living a life of self-worship? - Solomon is a pathfinder: o (1) lighting the way with a torch o (2) and pointing us onward in the darkness of this world to Jesus of Nazareth o (3) and God’s plea to you is to be reconciled to Him, o (4) by believing in His Son they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— (Ecc 12:5) 6 Pastor Tyler Robbins A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA - High: afraid of falling Terror: afraid of busy streets Grasshopper: near death, pitiful Desire (sexual): no more Eternal home: the darkness is closing in, and death draws ever closer o Your relatives begin planning the funeral they know is coming o You get your affairs in order o It won’t be long, now o Even then, you can still choose God, and He’ll still accept you with open arms before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern (Ecc 12:6) - Common household items break, and are tossed = your life o The cord will snap, and so will you o The bowl will crack, and so will you o The pitcher will shatter, and so will you o The bucket wheel at the well will break, and so will you - At any moment before that happens: o you can choose to pledge allegiance to the King of Kings o everything else in life will fade, o except the peace you have with God through Jesus Christ our Lord! and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecc 12:7). - One day, though, you’ll be gone – and your chance will be gone, too o Where will your spirit go? Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity (Ecc 12:8) - If all live your whole life without a relationship with God, and die alone, then your entire life is empty and without meaning - Mk 8:36: For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? o (1) You’ll have wasted your life 7 Pastor Tyler Robbins A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA o o o o o o (2) You’ll have died alienated from your King (3) And that means you’ll die in exile, (4) never able to come home, (5) alienated from Him forever (6) and you’ll live that way forever, (7) always looking into the cozy living room from the cold sidewalk outside, o (8) an enemy and a stranger, o (9) a banished outsider who’ll never have peace, o (10) and who will suffer as a traitor forever - Or, Solomon says, you can choose God today Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth (Ecc 12:9-10) - Solomon isn’t a self-help writer (“Dear Solomon”) o He’s bringing all his experiences, all his mistakes, all his wisdom, all his hard-earned lessons to bear, hoping somebody will read this and not make the same mistakes he did o He tried to play the “I love God” pretend game o It didn’t work o He saw that His relationship with God had to be the center o He wants you to see it, too - Will you listen? o His own son didn’t listen! o He wrote Proverbs for Rehoboam, who ignored his father o Everyone is responsible to God for his own sins o Solomon can’t make you listen o He can just write this book, and hope you do listen The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd (Ecc 12:11) - Goads: they poke at you - Firmly fixed: they’re not movable; they’re true regardless of whether you like them 8 Pastor Tyler Robbins A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA - One Shepherd: God (triune) is the Shepherd o Father chooses His sheep o Son rescues the sheep o Spirit gathers the sheep o God (triune) protects the sheep - God has gave us these words: o (1) So they’d poke at you o (2) So they’d make you uncomfortable o (3) So they’d sit there, immovable and unyielding, hovering in your peripheral vision as you try to find peace in other things, o (4) So they’d laugh at you, and say, “I told you!” - But, these words do more than mock us o They tell us, “I told you so!” and shake their head at us o Then, they beckon us forward and say, ▪ “Let me tell you about Somebody who won’t let you down, ▪ who let Himself be killed to save you, ▪ who wants a relationship with you, ▪ who offers you freedom, ▪ who offers you peace, ▪ and who asks for your honest allegiance in return ▪ who asks you to worship Him as King of Kings!” My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh (Ecc 12:12) - There aren’t any answers beyond the words of the One Shepherd o Study all you want about the world’s answers o Solomon’s told us about some of them o They won’t give you peace, and they won’t give you purpose o You can only find peace with God through Jesus Christ The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil (Ecc 12:1314). - If you fear God o then you’ll want to do what He says 9 Pastor Tyler Robbins A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA o and that’s how to have peace o you have it by doing His will! 3. EXHORTATION - Jesus always appealed to the person behind the public mask, behind the façade, behind the curtain – He appealed to the real you:1 o (1) Peter and Andrew had good jobs as fishermen: And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him (Mk 1:17-18) ▪ The façade was ripped away, and they knew they needed this Kingdom Jesus was offering o (2) Philip: “Follow me!” (Jn 1:43) o (3) Matthew was a comfortable IRS agent (Mk 2:14) o (4) Zacchaeus was a very comfortable IRS agent, because he cheated people (Lk 19:1-10) - Jesus didn’t stand there and tell them they’re going to hell o (1) I’m sure that was communicated pretty clearly, but there was more o (2) He gave them hope that their lives mattered o (3) That they mattered o (4) That their purpose in life couldn’t be encapsulated by their jobs, or by money, or by anything else except their relationship to Him as the Prophet, the Priest and King of the Universe o (5) He told them Kingdom of God had come, o (6) and He showed them His power to reverse the curse; to heal the sick, raise the dead – tokens that proved He could fix the world and fix them, o (7) that He could fix all of us o (8) Jesus’ message rips the veil, the façade, the mask away and appeals to the person inside - That’s what Solomon is doing o (1) His words are supposed to be goads to your heart, mind and conscience o (2) Remember your creator now, while you have time, before the end comes 1 Phillips, Plain Christianity, 16-17. 10 Pastor Tyler Robbins A Plea to the Real You (Ecclesiastes 12) Sunday Morning • 03 May 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA o (3) Remember the words in this Scripture ▪ because they come from the One Shepherd who wants you to find your way home, ▪ who doesn’t want you to spend eternity out in the cold - You “remember” God by listening to Him: o Father, Son and Spirit created everything o Jesus is the King of all creation o It all went wrong, but He’s come to fix it o Jesus obeyed God’s law for you o He let Himself be killed for your crimes o He rose from the dead three days later o He went back to heaven, where He, the Father and the Spirit are gathering a family together o Father chooses, Son atones, Spirit changes hearts and minds o Triune God adopting a family of people to be citizens in His coming Kingdom o Son will return one day to defeat darkness and evil, and to judge the living and the dead o He’ll fix us and fix creation o He’ll rule over a good and great world, with evil banished forever o Then, Father and Son will reign together, forever, with the Spirit filling and moving us all to love one another, and to love Him like we ought to o And then, we’ll all finally lead the lives He made us to live - Choose God, so you can be a part of that, and have peace! 11 Pastor Tyler Robbins