FBC Morning Light – May 9, 2022

Well, a good Monday morning to you. As you can tell, I'm not in my normal setting for doing these recordings.

I'm actually at a conference in Ohio in the middle of recording this. So just a little disclosure,

I normally record the week's recordings on Tuesdays the week before.

So as you're getting this on Monday, May 9th,

I'm actually recording it on Tuesday, May 3rd.

And so I'm in Ohio and I had a free time in the afternoon at a conference.

So I thought, well, I'm going to go ahead and get these recordings done. So they'll be ready for uploading and prepared for next week.

So, well, interestingly, in one of the sessions of the conference this week that I'm attending, one of the speakers alluded to a principle that comes out of Ecclesiastes in our scripture reading for today, one part of our scripture reading,

Ecclesiastes chapter 7. So he was talking about, really kind of as an aside, he was talking about a funeral and that it really is supposed to be a thing of sadness.

But he pointed out that a lot of people it seems today are treating funerals almost like the 21st birthday, you know, like a big celebration, a big party.

You know, they got all these pictures of this person is having a great old time and everybody's laughing and carrying on and eating and drinking and carousing as if it's a 21st birthday party.

Uh, now he didn't allude to Ecclesiastes 7, but my mind went there when he pointed this out, because I've often thought of that too.

It's kind of, uh, disappointing. I mean, you know, people can do what they want to do.

That's, that's their choice. But I think, I think that, um, turning a funeral into a party misses out on one of the important values of having a funeral.

The writer of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, he points out that value in Ecclesiastes 7.

Let me just read a few of these verses that, and then comment on, on the value of a funeral.

So he says, a good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of birth.

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For this is the end of all mankind and the living will lay it to heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter for by sadness of face, the heart is made glad.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

It's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. It's better to go to a funeral than it is to a party.

And why is that? Why is that? Because as Solomon points out, going to a funeral confronts you, brings you face to face with some very important realities of life.

And one of them he brings out in the very first verse, he says, a good name is better than precious ointment.

The day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth. Well, when you go to the house of mourning, it confronts you to ask the question of yourself, what kind of a name am

I leaving behind? What kind of a legacy am I leaving? Is the day of my death going to be better than the day of my birth in the sense that I will have lived a good life and left behind a good lasting legacy?

That's one of the benefits. It's one of the blessings of going to a funeral to allow yourself to ask such a question.

He says, it's better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting. For this, the house of mourning is the end of all mankind.

You see, when we do everything we can to shield ourselves from the reality of death, then it helps us to escape thinking about that ultimate destination of all of us.

And that's not valuable. That's not helpful. Because we fail to take into consideration that this is my ultimate destiny.

I too will be lying there one day. I too will face this fate.

And what then? And what am I doing with my life in the meantime? You see, if the funeral is nothing but a party, then

I don't think about those things. All I think about is fun, pleasure. I think about how much fun the person was who passed away, and the pleasurable things, and the delights and joys, the laughter.

That's about all that is accomplished in this. Whereas, really, the house of mourning should get us to think about the effect of that person's life, that life trusting that it was well -lived, the effect of that person's life, the legacy that person left behind, and then challenge us to get us to think about ourselves.

What kind of legacy am I leaving behind? So really, going to the house of mourning just helps to put everything into perspective.

It puts everything into perspective. He says here, interestingly, sorrow is better than laughter.

Why? Because by the sadness of face, the heart is made glad. When we realize things we have to be sad about, then that makes the things we have to be glad about all the more gladdening, if you will.

So in other words, if we think life is a party, and we just live for the party, and we're constantly having to have the ha -ha, the pleasure, then pleasure loses its pleasure.

The pleasurableness of pleasure, the excitement of something that causes us to laugh, loses its edge if it doesn't have anything to contrast itself with.

So it's when we go through times of mourning, and difficulty, and weeping, that the times of joy, and enjoyment, and laughter are all the more precious, you see.

So sadness helps us to put everything in life into perspective. So it's better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of laughter.

It's better to have a funeral where we're confronted with the reality of death, and the sadness of death.

So we don't like to think about that. We don't want to be sad. We don't like to be sad.

But we need to be sad, because that's real. That's reality. It's an inevitability that's coming upon all of us, should the

Lord tarry. So don't eschew that. We don't look at it.

We don't search for it. We don't ask for it. We don't go looking for times to mourn.

But when they come, then let's not run from them.

Let's not try to shield ourselves from them. Let's enter into it, and learn what we can learn from it.

Learn what we can learn about ourselves. Learn what we can learn about life. Ask ourselves the important questions.

What is my destiny? Where am I headed when my time comes? After the grave, then what comes?

Where will I be for all eternity? And what am I leaving behind?

What kind of a legacy? What kind of a name? These are good, important questions to ask.

Hope we'll think about those things today. And I trust that it will be an encouragement to us, not to shun difficult times of mourning.

So Father, I pray that you would encourage us with this passage of Scripture. And all of us, one time or another, are going to have to face the question of how to handle a funeral.

How to handle the time of mourning. And I pray that we would do so wisely. And we ask this in Jesus' name.

And for His sake, Amen. All right. Well, have a good rest of your Monday. I trust the