Ecclesiastes 12

Bethlehem Bible Church

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I was reading this week how to handle emergencies. The CDC gives us some guidelines on what to do if there's an emergency, especially if you have children to help prepare them.

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They say a little preparation now makes a big difference later. And so you've got before, during, and after steps when it comes to emergencies.

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And they say before the emergency, maybe you wanna have an emergency kit, maybe details on how to connect with the family during an emergency, make sure you do safe things and after emergency, regroup.

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And I thought, you know, that's interesting. Preparation, knowing what to do during, then how to work through things afterward.

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Before, during, after is a common slogan. And by the way, that's our outline for this morning's passage in Ecclesiastes 12.

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Before, during, and after. And we're gonna talk about not tornadoes and floods and hurricanes.

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We're gonna talk about the ultimate emergency. How to be prepared before the ultimate emergency, what to do while you're living your life awaiting the ultimate emergency, and what happens after the ultimate emergency.

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And that ultimate emergency is, in fact, the emergency of emergencies, and it is death.

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We are going to die. So how do we think about death before we die? How do we think about death while we're living, during, and what happens at the very end after we die?

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Before, during, and after. So take your Bibles and turn to Ecclesiastes 12. This is specifically a sermon for young people.

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If you're young, the sermon is directed specifically to you, because you need to think about death now that you're young, not just wait till you're older.

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Not just waiting until you get, I think at age 50, the AARP mail in the mailbox.

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For those of you that laughed, you're old and you get the AARP. It's basically a free magazine for the old, decrepit people, like 50 -year -olds and over.

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I want you as a congregation, obviously, to think rightly about death, but specifically in Ecclesiastes 12 today, it's about young people.

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Every person is going to die, and you need to think about it when you're young, because it'll affect the way you live in light of the

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Lord. Some people don't wanna talk about death, and of course, as we've been going through the book of Ecclesiastes, I mean, it seems like that's all he talks about sometimes is death.

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But the fool says, I don't wanna talk about death. The wise man, the wise woman says,

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I need to understand. I was reading this week about something called terror management theory.

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Knowing that you're gonna die, how do you navigate life without becoming paralyzed? By fear.

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And this is the one that struck me the most interestingly. A 2013 study involving people in the

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US, Turkey, and Malaysia found that religiosity increased their fear of death.

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Religious people were more afraid to die than unreligious people. I thought, that's strange, especially for Christians living in light of the resurrected

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Christ. We should not be the one who are afraid because we realize Jesus has taken care of the fear of death because we know what's on the other side.

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People are so afraid of death, they attend hypnotherapy, they do talk therapy, they do something called neurolinguistic programming, self -help group therapies.

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What do we do? Now, if you're an unbeliever, I do actually want you to be afraid of death and what's on the other side.

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Right, it's important for you as an unbeliever to think through one day I'll die and then I'll stand before God and it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of a living

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God, to think that God is a consuming fire. If you're here today, young or old, and you're not trusting in the

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the one we celebrated who was born to be our representative and lived to live in our place and to die on our behalf and to be raised, you ought to be very concerned.

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John Owen said, Satan's greatest success is in making people think they have plenty of time before they die to consider their eternal welfare.

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I've got plenty of time, I'll take care of that later. Tozer said, the vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.

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And I sure hope that's not you. I'm not gonna deal with death and hell and all that stuff because, I'll just ignore that.

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No, today is the day, there's that old poem that says, the clock of life is wound but once and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop at late or early hour.

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To lose one's wealth is sad indeed, to lose one's health is more. To lose one's soul is such a loss that no man can restore.

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So if you're an unbeliever today, I call you by the proclamation of the word of God to believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ. That's the most important thing. You ought to be afraid. But for Christians, how do we think of death?

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And today we're in the book of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter 12. And we of course come to this passage knowing that Jesus has destroyed

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Satan's power who has the power of death and he's delivered us all from the fear of death because we used to be subject to lifelong slavery, afraid of death no longer.

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Can you imagine today, unless I, the Lord returns in the next 45 minutes or you die or I die or we all die, we're gonna make it through Ecclesiastes.

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We made it, like 15 weeks through Ecclesiastes walking through hard subjects but important ones.

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I mean, talk about a relevant book. Talk about a timely book. People say, well, the Bibles, it's antiquated, it's old, it's irrelevant.

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I mean, as I've studied Ecclesiastes this week, I thought to myself, you know, it's the most timely book maybe of all.

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No wonder it's so popular. And God would tell us through this wisdom literature, a book called

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Ecclesiastes, a book called The Preacher, that life has meaning and you can live life to the fullest but you can't find a full life and satisfaction in this life, it has to be the one who gives you life.

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That's where you find satisfaction. You focus on yourself, bad things happen. I mean, the best cure for hedonism is to try it.

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It's unfulfilling, it doesn't satisfy. But when you pour your life out for others and the

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Lord Jesus, yes, it does. No wonder the two greatest commandments are love God and love yourself.

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Love God and love others. And when you're loving God and loving others, that's when the fulfillment and the fruit kicks in.

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Do you think, I was made for this. And so I like Ecclesiastes because it's just, it's just got the angles, it's just got the edges.

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There's not really anything smooth. You're gonna just get told the truth, kind of Boston style,

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Worcester style. Here it is, Southeast style. And when we realize as Christian people, there's no condemnation and that we can walk before God by faith and trust him, things fall into place.

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So our outline today is very simple. Let me give you final exhortations, dear living ones regarding death.

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Exhortations to the living about death. And it's simple, before, during and after. That's our outline, before, during and after.

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Before death, what do we think of? During life, while we wait death, how do we act? And then what happens after we die?

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Before, during and after. You can see where I got my outline. I'm just not making this up.

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Do you see in chapter 12, verse one, before the evil days, right there in the center of the earth, center of the earth, not center of the earth, but center of the verse.

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Journey to the center of the earth. Journey to the center here of this verse, before the evil days.

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Do you see it in verse two? How does it start? Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened. Can you not see it in verse six?

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Before the silver cord is snapped. Verses one through eight talk about before, before, before, before what?

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Before we die. How do we think about things before we die? It's good to think now. It's not good to just wait until we're on our deathbeds.

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That would be foolish. It's better to think about things before. And so he gives this command, especially to you young people because it's tied into last section.

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Remember chapter 11, verse nine. Rejoice, oh young man, in your youth and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.

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Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment.

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Remove vexation from your heart and put pain away from your body for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

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Remember, see it's tied right in. Remember also your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come and the years draw near of what you will say,

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I have no pleasure in them. And so if you're young, especially God wants you through Solomon's preaching to remember, to think, not just kind of stumble through life, not just kind of, well, you know what?

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I'll think about God later. I've got my own plans now. I'll sow my wild oats now. When I'm older, you know, there's always time later.

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I'll think about God when I'm older. And he says, I don't want you to do that. I want you to think about him now.

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I want you to consider him now. And remember doesn't just mean kind of to think, although it includes that.

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It means to think about and to ponder. And just like with the Lord's Supper, remember when

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Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. You really think through and you're thinking, okay,

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I was made by God. God the creator made me and he made me for himself.

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And he gave me my mother and my father and all these backgrounds and everything else. And he made me and I'm supposed to be thinking about this

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God now. Interesting. Now, when I say to you, remember also your creator, who's that creator that he's talking about?

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Of course, it's the Big Bang. You're supposed to be thinking about the Big Bang regularly, you young people.

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When I think of creator, I think of, and you should be thinking Trinitarianly as well. When you see the word

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God, Lord, Yahweh, you should be thinking the triune God. And of course, when we know we have the rest of the

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Bible, yes, we think about God, the father's creator, wonderful. We think about the Holy Spirit as creator, wonderful.

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He is and he is. But how about these verses just to remind you to be thinking about who Jesus is.

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In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And the word was God, he was in the beginning with God.

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All things were made through Jesus. And without Jesus was not anything made that was made.

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When you're young, you need to be thinking about the creator. And of course, Jesus is a judge and he's a savior, but he made you.

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And if God made you, the triune God made you, that has implications about how you think, what you do, what you don't do.

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How about this in Colossians? For by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Jesus and for him.

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You were created for the pleasure of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're to think about that.

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Of course, we've trusted in the Lord, but now we need to think about it in the days of our youth, because bad things are gonna happen.

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Do you see the rest of the verse? Before the evil days come, it's talking about death and the years drawn near of what you'll say,

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I have no pleasure in them. Distressing days are coming, difficult days are coming. And it's hard to remember and think properly and walk by faith when there's emergencies to take care of.

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So now when you've got youth, all right, dedicate some time to think about who God is and to think, oh,

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I'm created, but then I'm sinful. And I need the Lord Jesus to forgive me and I need the

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Lord Jesus to sustain me. I need the Lord Jesus to provide for me. There's a

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God, dear Christian, who chose you in eternity past, who had the son die for you and sent the spirit to live in you.

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And we're to remember that, not waste away, fritter away the days. Before, before old age, before death, before the evil time.

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Here's what the word remember means. With everything you've got wholeheartedly, you sit and just think for a second.

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And by the way, young people these days, it's hard for them to think about anything, right? And here's why it's hard for them to think about anything.

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They've canceled the World Cup, you don't have to worry about the score. Oh, interesting, good. Everything's here, by the way, side note,

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I'm not a legalist, I know you know that. But parents, when you hand this to your children, bad things happen, be very, very wise, pastorally speaking.

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You say, where's that in the text? It's not in the text. But it's hard to remember who

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God is when it's just 24 seven stuff. We're never quiet enough, we never sit down long enough, we never take walks by ourselves without the phone, without earbuds in, to just think.

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Now, old people too, this is good for you as well, when's the last time you just kind of thought, sat down with maybe a little notepad and just started writing about all the blessings?

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I think about that song, count your blessings, name them one by one, count the many blessings, see what

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God has done. And all of a sudden you begin to do that and things start changing like this. I don't,

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I'm not grumpy anymore, I'm not complaining anymore, I've got my focus somewhere else. I'm thinking about the God of the universe who made me with the word who made this whole universe.

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And when you remember as a young person, who God is, it saves you from a lot of pain later.

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It saves you from being a young man or a young woman saying, I think I'm gonna marry somebody,

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I love them, they're pretty, they're intelligent, they're handsome, but they're not a Christian. Would not this exhortation help that person?

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Wait a second, don't throw your life away and do dumb things now, sinful things now.

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Don't be like Solomon, loving God, serving God, building the temple, marrying the other women, following false gods, don't do that.

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Remember in the days of your youth. Well, I think I'll just, you know, I'm forgiven and I'll just be sexually immoral and I'll just sleep with my girlfriend, sleep with my boyfriend, sleep with anybody else.

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When you're remembering who God is when you're young, you're thinking, no, no, he made me for himself. And he's given me all kinds of pleasures and he's not against sex, he's for sex in marriage and I need to be thinking rightly.

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You can see how, what a preventative thing this is. One man said, it's a grave mistake to say, as a young person,

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I'm going to wait till I get older to begin serving the Lord. And of course for us, if we're older and we've wasted a lot of time, we just say to the

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Lord, please forgive me. I'd like to start remembering you today. I'd like to start honoring you today.

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John Newton said when he was dying, although my memory is fading, I remember two things very clearly.

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I remember I'm a great sinner and I remember Christ is a great savior. Remembering when we're old, remembering when we're young.

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Now look at what happens in verses two and following. We see some metaphors describing our body and how it gets older.

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Here's what's happening, dear congregation. He's addressing the young people, you young people, I'm addressing you, here's what's happening.

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We're gonna give you a little idea what old age is like. Through metaphors, through poetry, we want you, young people, to know what old age is like.

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Before I get into the passage, here's what it's like for me. When I used to play football, we'd play a full game of football.

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I played in high school football, the Northwest Huskies is what we were. And I played football and you get hit, you get all kinds of stuff happen to you and you wake up in the next morning and you can barely get out of bed because you're thinking,

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I just got my clock cleaned on that punt. Well, that's how

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I feel every day now, even though I didn't play. That's what old age feels like. Like shuffling over the bathroom.

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But there was no football back in those days, American football, so he gives these metaphors for old age because you young people need to know what it's like before you're too old to serve with all your heart.

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He wants to show you the decay.

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Young people, you need to know what it's like to when you get old, it's gonna motivate you to serve now. Solomon doesn't want death to sneak up on you young people.

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Old age sneaking up on you. So look what he says in Ecclesiastes 12 too. Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain.

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You know what he's probably talking about? Before your eyes start getting dim. Sun's not as bright, moon's not as bright.

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You're gonna see in this whole section, he's gonna talk about the human body decaying. And he wants you young people to know what that's like so you can serve now.

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Your eyes start to fail, start to get old. Verse three, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble.

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What's that? Probably the arms, most people thinking. Shaking from age or all of a sudden you get

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Parkinson's, you shake a little bit. You become feeble, the strong men are bent.

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Most likely talking about the legs. Maybe he's talking about you're hunched over, kind of get hunched back when you get older.

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Strong men are bent, some of your translations might say, the mighty men stoop. One writer said of this.

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Your knees buckle when your belt won't. This one's obvious.

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The grinders cease because they're few. What are your grinders? It's your teeth.

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You don't have that many teeth. I mean, I remember it was just, I don't know how long ago was it girls, eight years ago, and it was

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Christmassy time and the girls with Kim made a peppermint ice cream cake, a pie, like Oreo crust.

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And they said, daddy, there's pieces of peppermint in that peppermint ice cream pie cake thing.

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And so just be careful that you don't hurt your teeth. Don't tell me what to do kind of thing. I'm the dad.

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I took a bite. Oh, oh, oh, that was $6 ,000.

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But before you had doctors that could put in implants back in those days, you just were without a tooth.

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You fell when you were running, no teeth. You just have few teeth. The grinders are few. He's saying young people, before your body deteriorates, serve the

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Lord now. Those who look through the windows are dimmed, talking again about the eyes, probably cataracts or something.

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You look out the window, you know, like that. Everything's blurry. I mean, without glasses on, everything's just blurry.

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I drive down the street, everything's blurry. Everything is not clear. It's not crisp. When I used to be younger, my vision was 2010.

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I could just see everything perfectly. And so before you get old and you start getting hunched over and you kind of shake a little bit and you can't see, serve the

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Lord now. That's the point. Verse four, he keeps going. He's describing what old age looks like with poetry so that you serve now while you can.

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The doors of the street are shut. When the sound of the grinding's low, one raises up at the sound of the bird and all the daughters of the song are brought low.

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You can't hear. You can't sleep through the night. I don't wanna ask for a raise of hands, but some of us know you have to get up in the middle of the night three times, two times, five times.

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Can't hear anything. Remember my children would say, Dad, you can't hear anything. You know, your favorite word is what?

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They said, but your hearing is especially good if you wanna take a nap. You can hear every sound we make. That's right.

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I mean, you could just kind of put your own description here. What happens to you when you're old? You have to shave your ears.

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That would be my description. I always tell preachers that I'm training young men. When you get old, there's a rule.

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Here's a rule. Don't shave your ears on Sunday morning because if you cut yourself with a straight razor, it just bleeds for the whole sermon.

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Hair growing, no hair where it's supposed to be. Sound of the grinding's low. You can't hear anything.

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Can't go to sleep. Wake up early. High -pitched sounds you can't hear.

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Verse five. He again in context is trying to paint a picture of what age looks like so that you can serve the

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Lord now while you can. They're afraid also of what is high. I mean, I used to be able to jump off the top of fences, jump off the top of buildings, drop and roll.

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And now if something's high, I'm like, I can't get up there. I won't even go two steps up on a ladder. Afraid.

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Terrors along the way. I mean, I wasn't afraid of anything. I walked through the streets of Manhattan and now all of a sudden

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I'm kind of like, wait a second, I'm not as strong. If somebody does try to do something to me or my family, what am

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I going to do? I'm frightened about lots of things now.

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The almond tree blossoms. Almond trees blossom. When they do, they're white.

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What do you think he's talking about here? When I was growing up, they had something called

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Grecian formula. And it was, you could rub on Grecian formula so you didn't have to have gray hair.

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And you're a young person and you go, unless Jesus comes back, unless I die in an accident or something, in some disease early, that's going to be you.

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Couple of young men right here, one day you're going to be old, gray, hunched over, walking like pastor does, glasses.

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Well, you got glasses now. See, it's happening already. See, our bodies just begin to break down.

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So when you're young, you just get to serve with all your might. You can just keep going and going and going.

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And that's why it is such a tragedy. And I don't have anybody in particular, but that is such a tragedy for the high school groups and the cornerstone groups.

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Oh, sorry. And the young people groups, the five solas group, and the young people in the church, 30 and younger.

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And that's why they especially need this kind of exhortation because left to themselves, oftentimes,

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I see a lot of service around here, so I'm not using the pulpit to be a pulley pulpit, but that's a time where you can really be selfish when you're young and you're really about yourself.

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And everything's about me, myself, and I. But one day you're gonna get old. One day you're gonna be too old.

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So now use all that enthusiasm to serve now. Have fun, of course. You don't have to earn your own salvation.

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You can enjoy life, but you serve. What's he go on to say describing old age? The grasshopper drags itself along.

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I mean, that's interesting. You just think about the word grasshopper. In Nebraska, we would pick up these big grasshoppers before they would hop, and sometimes we would throw them in a little spiderweb to watch what a wolf spider does.

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But we weren't Christians then. But the thing about a grasshopper, it hops.

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It's not a grass shuffler. It's not a grass layer. It's not a grass dragger.

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It's hopping. And when you're young, you have energy. You're going through life. You can serve.

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You can do everything. You can play football. You can play basketball. You can play on the offense and defense and the football.

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And all of a sudden, now you're just like dragging along. This is what old people do. They drag themselves from place to place to place.

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Desire falls, fails, excuse me. Do you see that in the text? Some translates it, the caperberry is ineffective.

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It's pretty easy to know what they're describing there, and I'll only make a quick comment. Caperberries were used as aphrodisiacs, and your desire sexually decreases, diminishes, ineffective.

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Because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets, we're getting ready to be buried.

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And so it's hard when you're on your deathbed to serve. That's one of the things I thought about for years. Someone exhorted me, serve when you're young and when you can, so that when you're on your deathbed, you can say,

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Lord, I poured out myself for you. I made many mistakes in some reasons, some ways I didn't serve you properly, and I've asked for forgiveness for that.

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But when I had the body to serve you, I served you. And it's an easier way to die, going to your eternal home.

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Verse six, this is almost kind of like fast -paced now. It's ultimate. Death is zooming in before the silver cord is snapped.

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Your spinal cord, the golden bowl is broken, maybe your skull, whatever it is, it's like a pitcher that's shattered at the fountain or the wheel broken at the cistern.

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It's just sudden, it's complete, it's over. Something precious is now broken.

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Something beautiful is now destroyed. That's what the act of dying is.

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We're so fragile. Gold was precious, silver was precious. Young people, your body's gonna wear out one day.

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So remember the Lord now, serve now. One man said, growing old is not for sissies.

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Probably right. TV personality Art Linkletter said once, it's better to be over the hill, though, than under it.

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Remember Art Linkletter? Do you remember that famous, famous, famous description of death coming to the person's door?

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The Grim Reaper had a little deal with this person. They said, you know what, Grim Reaper, you can come to my door and take me home and I'm gonna die, but would you just give me a warning sign first, just like a heads up, something in advance so I'll be a little warned.

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All of a sudden, years go by, and the man's thinking about it, his possessions, and the Grim Reaper knocks at the door.

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You're here so soon and without warning. I thought we had an agreement. Grim Reaper responds,

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I've more than kept my part. I've sent you many messengers. Look in the mirror and you will see some of them.

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Notice your hair. Once it was full and black, now it's thin and white. Look at the way you cock your head to listen to me because you can't hear very well.

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Observe how close to the mirror you must stand to see yourself clearly. Yes, I've sent many messengers through the years.

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I'm sorry you're not ready, but the time has come to leave. So when you look in that mirror, young person,

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I think they even have sometimes on devices, they can show what it's like to age yourself 40 years. Do they have that?

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Or is that hacked by the Chinese too? Who knows what? But this is coming for you.

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So serve now. I wanna serve now the Lord. He's worthy. Remember that hymn, softly and tenderly

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Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. See on the portals, He's watching and waiting, watching for you and for me.

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Come home, come home. You who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly,

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Jesus is calling, calling, oh sinner, come home. Remember that song? What a great song, except we don't like to sing the third stanza.

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Time is now fleeting. The moments are passing, passing from you and from me. Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming, coming for you and for me.

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The wages of sin is death. Death is horrible. As bad as bad is, good is better.

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I think about Romans 5. I just, before we keep going in the text, I just want these words to wash over you.

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Therefore sin has washed over you in terms of mentally to think through it. Just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, death spread to all men because all sin.

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For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.

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Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even as those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

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But the free gift, it's not like the trespass. For if many died through the one man's trespass, how much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man,

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Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin.

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For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

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Therefore as one trespass leads to condemnation for all men, one act of righteousness, Jesus' righteousness, leads to justification and life for all men.

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Back to verse seven, and the dust returns. Can't you think of Genesis right here? The dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

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For you are dust and to dust you shall return, God said to Adam.

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Life is short. You've got one life to live, dear people, young people especially.

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Take your Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians 4 if you would, and remind you some good news as well because there's plenty of chapters in Ecclesiastes that help frame things for us and all the

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Bible to help us think Christianly. Yes, our body's fading away, and now just a reminder to the dear saints who are older and whose body is exactly what we've described in Ecclesiastes 12, two to six.

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Here's 2 Corinthians 4. Because there is a God and there is a creator and there is a sustainer and a preserver and a sin bearer, and so how do we think of the future even though our body is decaying?

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2 Corinthians 4, 16, so we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is what?

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Wasting away, that's a good description of Ecclesiastes 12. Our inner self is being renewed day by day.

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Yes, it's very difficult, but what's our difficulty in light of eternity, verse 17? For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the light but to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.

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For the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal. He goes on in the next chapter.

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For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home, our body, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

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For in this tent, this body, we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, can't wait for heaven, can't wait for the glorified body.

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If indeed by putting it on, we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we'd be further clothed, a glorified body, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

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He has prepared us for this very thing is God, and he's given to us the spirit as a guarantee.

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So what do we do, old, decrepit, failing body Christian? Verse six, so we are always of good courage.

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While we know that we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight.

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Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are home or away, we make it our aim to please

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God. That's what young people should do too. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, not for sins, but for what we've done, for rewards, that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or worthless.

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Back to Ecclesiastes. I'm thankful that as an older, decaying body

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Christian, I'm longing for what's to come. And one day, there'll be glory, and it'll be to live as Christ and to die as Gain.

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But here, the passage is for young people, and he gives a refrain that he started off with in the book of Ecclesiastes.

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Vanity of vanity, says the preacher, all is vanity. Next time you go to the mirror and look at yourself,

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I want you to think vanity mirror, not like I look at myself all the time, therefore

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I'm a vain person. And that happens too, right? We look at ourself all the time, and we're vain.

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I go to the gym, and I watch people, and some people at the gym aren't even there to work out.

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They're there to get the right angles for the selfie to put on whatever, Insta or something.

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Like, what are you doing? Get off the machine. That's not how we roll here. With a smile, of course, because they're gonna say, what do you do for a living?

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I'm a drill sergeant. But remember vanity?

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It can mean frustration. It can mean vanity, or it can mean fleeting.

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So now I want my vanity mirror at home, or even just the mirror in general. When I look at that,

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I wanna think vanity mirror because I'm fleeting. I'm going by fast.

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He's giving me, God has given me signs. I'm getting older and older, and so I've got one life to live.

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I wanna live it for the Lord. My wife regularly says, you know, a lot of people wanna talk about being heroes, but nobody seems to wanna be one.

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It's the fleeting mirror. Maybe we could start selling those on Amazon. Fleeting mirrors. So what to do before?

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Young people remember. Before you die, remember. What about while you're alive, verses nine through 13?

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Before, now we come to the during. Exhortations to the living regarding death, especially young people.

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What about during? Verse nine, besides being wise, back to Ecclesiastes 12, nine, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing, and studying, and arranging many proverbs with great care, all underneath the inspiration of the

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Spirit of God. Of course, he's trying to figure out how to make us wise, looking at the ultimate wisdom, of course, found in Christ Jesus, and now this is all with great care.

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Verse 10, the preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly, he wrote words of truth.

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By the way, if I was gonna teach a preaching class, I would say, man, among other things, you need to preach words of delight, you need to preach rightly, and you need to preach the truth.

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Kind of good exhortations for a pastor, don't you think? Rejoicing words, joyful words, because we're talking about our

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Savior. Words of delight, that even though we're sinners, we're not condemned at all. Jesus has paid for every one of our sins, we are forgiven people.

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Words of delight, uprightly, to speak rightly about God, and words of truth, and that's exactly what this preacher did.

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He's a wise preacher, and he's a good preacher. Verse 11, the words of the wise are like goads, like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd.

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A goad is like a stick to get an animal to go in the right direction or to stop something. It's like a cattle prod to kind of get them to go.

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And so what we have is we have wisdom from Solomon given to us to goad us along life.

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And it's given by what? One judge, is that what it says? No, he is the judge, but not for us anymore because we're

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Christians, so now when God gives us the law, the law is not if we break it, we go to hell, if we break it, we lose our salvation, if we break it, no, we're not gonna have our status changed before God, but he's a shepherd, and he's a father, and so when he gives us words, and goads us along, and wisdom, and obeying commandments, love

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God, love your neighbor, 10 commandments, New Testament commandments, they're to guide us rightly, to lead us like a staff.

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You're rod and your staff, they comfort me. These goads direct us from the shepherd. Of course, the second

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I tell you shepherd, I hope you're thinking Jesus is the ultimate shepherd because he's the good shepherd, he's the chief shepherd, he's the great shepherd.

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What is the purpose of Ecclesiastes? To drive you to utter despair, or to drive you to the

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Lord Jesus, the creator? What's he doing? To drive you into the hands of the shepherd.

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If you say Ecclesiastes is all negative, it's all bad, no, no, these are goads and nails that are given to you by a shepherd to get you in the right place.

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Verse 12, my son, again, this is a father -son relationship just like we have with God.

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The law guides us, the law gives him glory. My son, beware of anything beyond these.

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Of making of books, there's no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. I know what he's saying.

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If I only had a rule book for everything in life, that would help me a lot.

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Dating, finance, marriage, raising children, how to live in the body of Christ. We have all kinds of commands, all kinds of rules, but if I had a rule for everything, that would be better.

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Do you know how many books there would be if we had a rule for everything? There'd be a lot of books, a lot of manuals.

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But what if I would just teach you wisdom, God says? You're not gonna need all the how -to manuals because you're gonna live by wisdom, not by rules.

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Only. Okay, now I have to say it, I'm not against rules, obviously, but as one man said, he says wisdom is nothing more than a goad fixed to a wall.

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Wisdom offers observations that are in no way exhaustive. So the editor warns us against looking for anything more.

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If we look for a rule for every single circumstance in life, we'd need an infinite rule book. So the editor says of making many books, there's no end and much study is weariness of the flesh.

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Because I don't want you walking into my study, looking at all my books and then quoting this verse. The making of many books and reading books, he's not trying to say don't, he's not saying don't read books about Jesus written by pastors.

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He's saying wisdom is the key. I think we have to be careful what we do read.

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I mean, a bad book is a good thief, but now we come to the final, during.

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The final part of this during, before, during and after. The end of the matter, verse 13, after all has been heard.

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You know, he's gonna land the plane now. Fear God, keep his commandments.

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This is the whole duty of man. And it's a lot easier to do when you're young in terms of energy.

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Fear God, remember, this is not a cringing fear of the unbeliever before God, a servile fear of the unbeliever before a thrice holy

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God. This is the kind of fear before God that a son would have with his great father and he'd wanna obey him and honor him because he's so great.

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This is the equivalent of saying believe. Remember, Abraham was told to kill his son

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Isaac and he said what? Now the angel said, now I know that you fear

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God because you believed his word. We trust by faith. We do what he says. We wanna obey

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God. Not because of us getting into heaven by obedience.

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That's reserved for the Lord Jesus. Fear God and keep his commandments. Obeying the Bible is important but for the right reasons is even more important.

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Out of gratitude. And now we have the after. Before, verses one to eight, we die. During, nine to 13 and now after.

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What happens after we die? Verse 14, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

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When you die, there's gonna be an accounting. Here's what most people think, even Christians.

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When I die, there's going to be an accounting and all the sins that I've ever done are gonna kind of pass through God and then maybe kind of I've done a few things bad but more things good and they start functioning like this person that believes salvation is earned by their own work and they say, you know what,

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I'm gonna stand before God based on what I've done. Will that ever be possible?

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To get to heaven and say, God, you can look at my entire life and you can call me just based on what

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I've done? The answer is no, otherwise why send Jesus? What is he saying here?

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He's going to bring every deed into judgment. For the unbeliever, will every sin be brought up and paraded before and judged by God himself, yes?

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Sin must be punished. It must be punished either on the person in hell forever or on the

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Lord Jesus at Calvary. If Jesus has paid for your sins, dear Christian, how do you read that verse?

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If Jesus died for all your trespasses, God has made you alive in Christ Jesus, how do you look at that verse?

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And if it's I better obey so that God will save me, stop it. If it's, you know what, he's gonna judge all my sins on that day, repent.

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That is not what this is talking about. If you're an unbeliever, everything will be judged. But what did I read earlier in 2

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Corinthians chapter five verse 10? Is not God going to judge everything we've done for him as a work of gratitude?

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Is that what he's talking about? You're looking at me like, I don't know.

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So let me just be bold and tell you, there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus and if Jesus died on the cross for your sins, there's not going to be condemnation in heaven for you ever.

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There will be a reckoning though for what you've done in the body, whether good or evil, whether good or bad, in terms of your service for him and he will reward you based on that day.

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But I don't want you to be afraid of judgment day because I already know what God is going to say. Not guilty.

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Not guilty. I mean, these verses are in the scripture. My little children, I'm writing these things so that you don't sin.

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If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

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A mediator stands between you and someone else. The mediator Jesus stands between you and God.

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You need someone. You need a middleman. You need an umpire. Satan's going to say, oh yeah, but Mike still sinned as a

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Christian. I have a mediator. Not guilty. Not guilty. Paid for. Paid in full. It is finished. But what

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John is talking about here is an advocate and an advocate doesn't stand between you and God. An advocate stands with you before God.

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On that day, on judgment day, you stand before God with Jesus. What do you think the father is going to say about you when

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Jesus is your savior? You're united with Christ. You're united with him and his person and he's already paid for all your sins.

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You think the father is going to say, now you have to pay too. Double jeopardy. Son pays.

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You pay. Do you think that's going to happen? Of course not. So we don't fear judgment day as a

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Damocles sword coming over us. Like, I'm going to be judged for my sins. No. And since you're not going to be judged for your sins, how about obey

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God out of gratitude and say, God, I'm going to serve you my entire life. God, I might be older and I might not be able to serve very much now, but with what you've given me, the legs that you've given me, the mind you've given me,

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I'm going to serve you the best I can. Would you forgive me for being so selfish, for being so focused on myself?

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I'd like to serve you. I wonder if God would answer that prayer. I wonder if he'd like that prayer.

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The Bible says Jesus is the propitiation. He exhausts the wrath of God for our sins.

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Judgment day, dear Christian, is for your works done for God out of gratitude, never for your sins.

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We have a lot of young people here today. You're going to get older. I love being called a grandpa, but part of me hates being called a grandpa.

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That means I'm old. I'm the next on the chopping block. Grandpa. I already figured out the name that I want for being a grandpa,

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Poppy. I'm Big Poppy. You don't have to call me that, but I like little

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Amos to call me that. Can't you even see like a dad or a grandpa going to little

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Amos? You're a little grandchild, five years old, 10 years old, 15 years old, 20 years old, with grandfatherly or grandmotherly wisdom.

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You know what, sweetheart? I made a lot of mistakes when I was younger, and a lot of things I did, and I just thought about me, myself, and I, and I just partied and all this kind of immorality and sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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You know what? That's not good for you. It's not wise for you. Here's what you need to do, and here's how you trust in the

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Lord, and he's gonna give you joys unspeakable, and you're gonna serve him, and it's what's best for you.

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I love you. Can't you sense that? Don't you do that? I know you do. So how much more the Lord God comes alongside and says, this is what you need to do.

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Young people, this is coming. Serve now. Remember.

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Father, thank you for your word. Just pray that you would seal this to our hearts like a goad, like a rivet.

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Father, may no one here respond with, if I don't get judged for my sins,

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I might as well sin all that I want. Father, may that never be. That's not the right response, Paul says in Romans 6.

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The response is to live for Christ, to die for Christ, and encourage others to do the same.

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Father, I know there are plenty of young people here who probably haven't even been born again. Would today you would cause them to be born again?

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Would you give them new life? Would you make them alive? Father, for those, the teenagers and those in their young 20s,

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I'm sure they've made mistakes and they've been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. Would you renew their desire to love you and love others?

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Father, for those of us who are older and on the other side, thank you for being faithful. Thank you for being a good creator.

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Thank you for forgiving all of our sins, so many years of sin, and your grace is still greater.

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Help us to encourage the young people to live for the Lord Jesus and walk by faith.