Ecclesiastes 2024

Well, if you'd like to, take a seat, and we are back in Ecclesiastes chapter 11, and we're gonna read verses 6 through to the the end of the book. So we're concluding this series today. Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun. However, many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all, but let them remember the days of darkness for there will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.

You who are young, be happy while you are young. And let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart. And whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things, god will bring you into judgment. So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body for youth and vigor are meaningless.

Remember your creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come, and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them. Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark and the clouds return after the rain, when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men stoop when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades when peoples rise up at the sound of birds but all their songs grow faint when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets. When the ormond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets. Remember him before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken before the pitcher is shattered at spring and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to god who gave it.

Meaningless. Meaningless says the teacher. Everything is meaningless. Not only was the teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs.

The teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true. The words of the wise are like goads. They're collected sayings like firmly embedded nails given by 1 shepherd. Bewarned my son of anything in addition to them. Of making many books, there is no end.

And much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard. Here is the conclusion of the matter. Fear god, and keep his commandments. For this is the duty of all mankind, for god will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

I'm afraid I'm a living illustration of a grasshopper, but we'll we'll come to that, in a minute. My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm 1 of the parts of church is lovely to have you with us. We've come to the end now of this amazing, ancient book 3000 years old, but so absolutely modern dealing with such real issues. And if you're here for the first time, you probably do need to go back and have a listen to to some of them.

Let me pray. For the help us now, as we look at this strange ending, please help us challenge us help us by your spirit to apply it to our hearts and lives in Jesus' name, our men. Now I'm gonna talk about something that we all know is coming. Everyone in this room knows it's coming. Even though some of us who wanna deny it, doesn't matter whether you deny it.

It's coming. It isn't the secret. In fact, there's evidence all around us and it's dis on display, we know it's coming. I'm talking about getting old. I'm talking about the process of old age, the process of aging.

It's it's it's not as if god's kept aging from us. He's not kept that process as a secret. It's it's not hidden in some way. It's there, isn't it? It's a great visual aid.

That actually our bodies are decaying. We're getting old and rather decrepit and that death is coming. What a visual aid? Imagine if it didn't happen like that. Imagine if we got to the age of 30 or whatever you think is a good age, and that's what we say that physically.

We looked that age. No 1 looked any older than 30 but they just dropped dead when they got to 70, but we didn't know they were 70. But god's given this visual aid of us growing older. Now the strange thing is that for decades, some of us that are older have worried about all kinds of things that we can look back on and say, why did we worry about because it didn't happen. But old age, we've forgotten about very often.

It's going to happen unless you die early, it's going to happen. Your body body is going to decay. And we we we seem to think that youth will will last forever, but then we're forced by the body to notice that it isn't. You know, we suddenly realized that we can't eat everything we want to eat. And not look like a pig.

You know, we can't it suddenly happens. You can't eat like you did when you were young. We suddenly realized that the TV actors mumble and we have to have subtitles on. We suddenly realized that the smile lines don't go away when we stop smiling, even when we're grumpy, they're there. We suddenly realize that there are muscles that we'd never thought about ever Only we now feel, and that when we wake up in the morning, everything is hurting, and that which is not hurting doesn't work.

We we suddenly have hair stopping to grow where it used to grow, well, some of us, and suddenly sprouting out in areas that it there should never be hair. It's it's a strange thing, isn't it? And if you're not aware of it yet about getting old, when you get to the age of 60, you get a present on the day of your birthday from the NHS. It's a little box. It looks exciting.

It's got a little spoon in it. And it's a poo box and the spoon is to gather up the poo and put it in the little receptacle and send it through the post. I mean, postman. Dear me. It tells you don't get the stuff on the outside.

Oh, there's all this. Now, of course, some of us will try and deny old age, and the reason is because we know that youth is such an important time. And that youth is where they're supposed to be the best years of our lives. And so some of us unnaturally try to hold on to youth. The black hair that had gone gray suddenly it's back to black.

The family has stayed car. We no no longer need. We trade him for a sports car. Make us feel young. Rinkles suddenly disappear in our skin.

Through the power of Botox. We suddenly buy indoor cycles and those weights that are always in the corner but never seem to be used all to a stop to stop the appearance of advancing advancing age. Of the years, but we can't. They're relentless. Actually, the word coming isn't good, really, is it?

It's it that sounds like we're waiting on a platform for a train to come and then we get on it an old age come. Come we are becoming old. Right now you're gonna be older than you were at the beginning of this sermon. You'll probably feel it. Yeah?

Your cells are already working out. To become older. We're we're changing. It's not that it's coming. We're changing.

We're growing. We're moving towards. We are the train if you like. Moving towards old age. At 1 time, in this country, the legal definition of old age was over 50.

We've pushed that back, and it looks like we've slowed the process down, but it's coming. Old age is coming. To the teacher, Solomon, who calls himself the teacher who writes this book, trying to hold on to youth is stupid, empty, and meaningless. Just trying to hold on to youth for the sake of it. Look what he says in that first, that that, second part of of chapter 11 from first for 7.

Lots of stuff in here. Light is sweet, and it pleases the eye to see the sun. Aren't you pleased to see the sun? Yeah. Verse 8.

However, many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all. That's a that's a great line, isn't it? I mean, you would love me to stop there, wouldn't you? Let's enjoy our lives. Come on.

Don't wanna hear anything else, but here he goes verse at the second half of verse 8, but let him remember the days of darkness for they will be many. Everything to come is meaningless. He like cheers us up and then, woof, gosh. Be happy. Wow, young man.

While you are young and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eye sees. Wow. What a positive message, but know that for all these things, god will bring you to judgment. So banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body for youth and vigor are meaningless.

What I think he's saying here is to idolize the state of youth just for trying to be young all the time is a disaster and actually you won't enjoy your youth because you'll spend your time trying to be young. When you're not, you'll even spoil the gift of youth if you're running after youth all the time. And unless, and he'll go on to do this, unless you've found the answer to the meaning of your life, you'll never really be able to be happy not with a deep contentment, not with a joy in the soul. You'll never be able to be happy even in youth, even if you hold on to youth. Even if you hang on and look young, you'll never be happy until you've dealt with old age and the darkness to come.

When you've dealt with that fact that's going to happen and understand what that means, then you can be happy in your youth. If we grow older and if growing older doesn't catch us by surprise. It's not god's fault. He's demonstrated it to you. Look around you.

We're getting older. There's ample evidence and there's ample advice. And here, interestingly, at the end of his book, he primarily aims at young people, So if you think you can go to that young adults group, this is for you, okay, particularly, but it'll be for all of us. Now over the past few weeks, we've been listening to god's voice through this teacher, through Solomon, In the Hebrew, he's called the, the teacher, the preacher, the lecturer. We've seen this man as, you know, He's he's sort of done everything.

He's a man who's been there, done that. He's bought the t shirt. He knows all of these experiences, and that's why this such a helpful book. We don't have to go there, do that and buy the teach a t shirt. And his experiences are the experiences that everyone on the planet has.

No matter what we do, no matter what we get, no matter what how hard we work, there's a sense of frustration, there's a sense of incompleteness about life. He calls it meaningless. The Hebrew word is Hebrew, Hebrewel meaningless. He's aware that everything in the end lacked substance. It's a vapor he calls it.

It's it's a sort of here today gone the gone tomorrow sort of experience. We love it as it's there. It feels substantial, but it soon disappears. It's soon gone like a puff of wind like a vapor. There are many good things in life and he talks about them.

Many good things to enjoy, yet they're here and then gone. There's always a void. Why? Why? Well, he did answer it.

I think in in chapter 3, he said that god has put eternity in our hearts. There's something bigger than this world in us, a yearning for an eternal, a bigger, a grander, a something more, and that in our hearts disturbs us, causes everything to be a vapor And even when we try to make up meaning, even when we try to make our own meaning, we know it's like a fairy tale. It's not true. It's made up. It has no substance.

And so the only way that we're going to actually appeal to that eternal in us is it's it is if the eternal 1 god speaks to and above the sun revelation coming down to under the sun world that he keeps talking about. In other words, we need more than observation. And that's what he's been doing through. He's like writing a diary, he's observing sex and money and power and wealth and politics and prayer and god and he's always just observing, but we need more than observation We need explanation. We need revelation.

It's a bit like trying to watch a film with the or or a drama or something on the TV with the sound turned down and no subtitles set up. You try and watch a film like that. I I'm I remember, I was on a plane once flying to America, and it was in the days where you didn't have your own individual screen. You had a big screen up to watch it. Does anyone remember that when they had a big screen, but you had to pay for the headphones.

So you could watch the film, but if you wanted to hear it, you had to pay for headphones. There's no way I was gonna pay for the headphones. So I just watched this film and it was Oh, I can't remember her name now, but, she was awful. And so I just made up the story. And and and I'm sure I got bits right.

But I'm sure I got lots wrong. So we look around and we observe and we learn and we we we can get some things right, but We're confused and we get things wrong, and that's where he's been. Now he turns to young people in the light of old age and then death. And he says I'm gonna tell you my conclusion. Of all my diary entries, of all the things I've tried, here's my conclusion, and here's my first point tonight, today.

Remember your creator in the days of your youth. You hear that? Chapter 12 verse 1. Here's his conclusions. Remember your creator in the days of your youth.

Now notice this, It's not remember God. It's so much more personal than that. It's remember your creator. It's not some remember some vague god that has no right over you, you know, that comes with rulers and laws but has nothing to do with you It's not a god like that. Here I am living my life, trying to make my life, and then this god thing demands me to submit to it.

It's not some vague deity that has demands and rules or some vague power that knows nothing about me. It's remember your creator remember the 1 that actually made you, the 1 that put you together, the 1 that knows how you fit the 1 that knows how you work best, the 1 that formed you and made you and knows you better than you know you. He designed you and made you. He's the creator and it's not some factory creation when you read the Bible. It's not some robot or AI factory thing that just stamps out the mold.

He made you Remember, your, your creator, the 1 that made you, not just everyone, but you You're not an accident, he's saying. You're not just a fortuitous occurrence of atoms. You're not just something that somehow has gathered together through an accident and somehow you've gotta create yourself. This is the sadness of what's going on with you, isn't it? People are being told.

Create yourself. Make yourself. You're not big enough for that, and death will show you. You can't make yourself. You're coming undone.

In verses 6 and 7 of chapter 12, the teacher again, that he says remember him, that's the creator, obviously, before the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to god who gave it. So Solomon's taking us right back to the Bible, to Genesis chapter 3, where it says that the lord god formed man from the dust of the ground and then breathed into his nostril as the breath of life. That's what you are. You're not just a load of atoms together that you could separate and sell for a few pennies. You're not just dust.

If if I burn you, you turn to dust. But you're more than that. There is a creator that has taken dust and formed you and made you you and breathed his spirit. You are body and spirit. You are body and soul made designed by none other than creator god.

Only created things have meaning. Accidents don't. Your creator created you for a purpose for meaning. Now in the Bible, when it talked about meaning and purpose, It's not just like, you know, I might make a, a lawnmower. Yeah?

And it's created and designed to cut grass. It it it I mean there is something in that. You know, it that's what if I make a lawnmower, that's what I've made it for. I haven't made it to, you know, go fishing with. I haven't made it to put in the bath.

I've made it to cut grass. Yeah. But that's just a sort of mechanical way of seeing it. God doesn't make us like in that mechanical way. When it talks about meaning and purpose, It's really intimate.

It's really relational. It's knowing. It's about love that meaning is love. Someone loves you bigger than you. Remember your creator Now that's not like remembering exams.

You know, you gotta go over the dates, you know, your history teacher here, you know, what happened is something the only date anyone can remember is 10, 6 6, isn't it? And then 16 66. And what's the other 1? 19 66. Yeah.

They're the 3 dates. That's all you need to remember. If you wanna become a British citizen, 10 66 16 66. What happened in 16 66? The great who said that?

Yes. Great fire of London. What happened in 19 66? Well, it's unbelievable. We have to go that far back, isn't it?

We are so pathetic. But anyway, there we go. You know, it's not just stuffing yourself with remembrance of a few dates that don't mean anything. When he says remember your creator, what he's actually saying is, listen. Look, drop everything.

Drop drop this sense of self sufficiency. Remember your creator. Don't remember you. Remember your creator. Stop going on about yourself.

Know him. Serv him. Love him. He's your highest joy. Remembering your creator is knowing how to relate to him, to walk with him, to discover him, to learn more about him, to let your creator constantly recreate you and make you and make you into the better model that he wants you to be.

Remember your creator. We're made to have a relationship with him. We're made and we'll see the word in a minute to have awe or fear god. We are meant to fear god because he's the creator and we're the creature. And what that means is that we are meant to worship him.

Now it's amazing how we twist this round because We say, oh, we've got this ugly god that needs our worship, does he? There he is this dictator and he's like something from North Korea that we have to bow down to and smile and clap to. And he he need that's no We worship him because when you remember who he is, he's just worthy. When you understand his kindness and his love and his creativity and his passion. Then there's no 1 bigger than god and so we worship.

When you remember him, You don't think of yourself, you think of him. When we understand who god is and you see it in the bible, we fall on our faces and say holy, holy, holy, You are so grand and beautiful and holy and pure and magnificent. We adore you that actually when we remember God, There's something so big that actually I can do nothing but praise him and adore him and thank him and everything else falls into its place. That's the god we are to remember. He's the 1 that designed us to know something so much bigger than 10 66, 16 66, and 19 66.

Yeah. Remember your creator before it's too late. Remember him before you waste good things. Remember your creator so that you don't come to the end of your life and it's been stuffed full of meaningless vapers. And you have a handful of emptiness.

And you're put into the coffin with nothing in it. Remember, the teacher urges us to remember him when we're young. Notice what he does. It's interesting. In chapter 11, there are 2 commands in 1 in the 11 and then 1 in, in chapter 12 verse 1, 2 commands.

Command to be happy when you're young. Right? Here's a command for you, Rob. Right? Are you looking at me?

Be happy. God says be happy when you're young. If it's a smile. Yeah. Remember those lines will stay there forever.

Yeah. Be happy when you're young. If you're young, be happy, that's a command, but then remember your creator. Now how do those 2 things fit? Well, god isn't a killjoy.

God absolutely wants young people to be happy, but you'll be happy when you know that your future is sorted. Won't you? You'll be happy. You know, you you you'll be happy when you're young. You won't be worried.

About the future and even death, or keeping on to the onto my youth so I'm for for no reason. It's interesting, isn't it? So, I mean, I know we all go through stages, but, I'm sure some of you did. Well, I doubt any of you did. It was all so lovely.

But, you know, some, you know, kids. Do we have to go to church, ma'am? You know, it's boring. It's dull. My now my friends don't go to church.

Yeah. Listen, just think about this. The life of just coming to church on Sunday morning. Just an illustration. Yeah.

What would you be doing if you're young and you weren't at church? What would you be doing? What would you see? Dark. You'd be in your smelly room It would be shut up and you'd be asleep.

There's no life. At least when you were dragged here by your mom and dad, there's life. You can moan, you can smile, you can laugh, you can have a cup of coffee, you can have a biscuit, you can moan all the way back on. But you're alive, The teenagers will still be in bed when you get back and the only life they've got is some bleep of a phone that's telling them something about a cat. It's death isn't it.

Think about the life that god wants us to have even on that illustration. Remember while you have opportunity, old age is setting in, believe it or not, it'll come quicker than you think. And when old age comes, you lose abilities, you start changing your even motivations and desires go. So start when you're young. Look at the barrenness.

And the loneliness of so many old people that are in this world and make sure you're not gonna be like that. Build your future. What you reap is what you've sown now. What you sow now in 10 years time you'll reap, you will be the person that you are you are thinking of in 10 years time because of what you've sown now or 20 years or 40 years. Now is the time to realize your potential.

Now is the time for responsibility to learn things that are really important to be molded by god honoring patterns in your life to be sowing righteousness, righteousness because that brings joy because you know who you are and you are serving your creator and remembering him. Give your life. Give your energies, your liveliness, your imagination, they start to go. Give your freshness of youth, spread the light of joy in yourself so that when you're old, there's something of the lamp there so that others see it. Commit yourself to the lord.

That's the first point. Remember your creator in the days of your youth. Are you going to do that? Older people, you're gonna pray for these younger ones? You're gonna pray that they'd do that?

Are you gonna actually give all your energy they may be children of the creator. Yeah? Or you're gonna burden them with awful things that weigh them down. That's the first point. Second point.

Remember your creator before old age. Remember your creator before old age. You see, it's interesting that the way we sell old age in our country is retirement. Yeah. And it's all sort of beautiful, really.

It's sort of basically trying to go back to youth, but rid of the job Now my pension has come in, you know, the pension fund and the investment and, you know, mature. I I I feel, you know, the the investments have matured, and I've got a lot of money. I can do hobbies. I can play golf. I can go on the cruise, you know, and it's all sort of very promising, and it's basically just trying to refind our youth.

But back to reality, Go back to reality. Look at chapter 12 verse 1 and 2. Remember your creator in the days of your youth before The days of trouble come and the years approach when you say I find no pleasure in them. Yeah? I mean, I always think a holiday, lovely, sit on the beach, you know, drink a coffee, find you can't be on the beach that long because you gotta lather up because you're gonna get burnt.

You can't have too many coffees because your heart starts put pal palpitating. Yeah. It's a water lie, isn't it? Before the days of trouble come, and the years approach when you say I find no pleasure in them. Before the sun, and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain.

The sun and the light and the moon. They're symbols of joy. We saw that in verse 7. They're symbols of light, but now he's saying remember god before the light starts to recede before the storms take center stage. Remember your creator before that happens.

Old age isn't just a nice retirement and a warm glow. These clouds come and notice they come and then they come back. That's what happens in old age. The clouds rain and go away and then they come back and rain again. And there's a there's a a sadness.

1 sadness, 1 storm after the other, becoming old, becomes becoming lonely. You know, all my mom's friends were either dead or just couldn't get to see her and she couldn't get to see. She was all on her own. It was lonely. 1 cloud comes, 1 person dies, another friend dies, another person dies, going on and living to a hundred is not necessarily a blessing.

You're on your own. It can be very sad. And then he goes in and he describes the physical. Let's just go through this. I won't take long.

Versus 3 to 5. Are you ready? Remember you're created before this happens. Now let's just have a look at this. This is poetry.

Remember you're created before this happens when the keepers of the house tremble. What's the keepers of the house? He's talking about your body. Well, it's probably your arms, isn't it? That's the strength that keeps you.

Someone comes against me, and I'll I'll I'll keep myself a fight I'm strong. I can pick things up when those keepers start to tremble. Yeah? Remember god before, actually, you're thinking, I actually can't do so much as I used to be able to do. So of god before that happens, And then look, and the strong men stoop.

You get the back going. The strength of the back goes. The hands are going. The back is tpending. Isn't this just description of old age?

And listen, when the grinders cease because they are few. What's that? Your teeth. Yeah? They're few.

Yes. And there may be none. You know, it's always the funny thing, isn't it? When grandma's 80 and blow the candles out and she blows them and the teeth come out as well. And then says, do you want to slice when the grind is a few?

And then look, look at this, and those who looking, and and those looking through windows grow dim. What's the windows? Eyes up if you've got glasses. Hans up, you got glasses, yeah, or or what the other things? Come on, hands up glasses.

Yep. Yep. You're getting old. By the way, I don't. But you're getting old.

I can still read my my my 10 font. Yes? Look at verse 4. When the doors of the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades, what are the doors of the street? Well, I mean, you could take that to be a lots of things.

I think it's the mouth. I think it's the food because it talks about the grout the grinding fades. And we can't eat a curry anymore. He said, no curry, but now get indigestion. I always remember my grandma always having indigestion.

I didn't even know what it was. She was always having always sucker peppermint, you know, The peppermint was the savior of everything. It's always the peppermint. You need a peppermint. I don't need a peppermint.

I don't have that. I do now. I do have a peppermint now. Yeah. I understand it.

Oh, there we are. You can't take this into the the doors, you know, street food coming in. Oh, I used to our onions, I can't eat them now. No. No.

It has to be bland. And anyway, I can't chew because the grinders are fading. Look, when men rise up at the sound of the birds. That's what old people do. They're up early.

I was up at 5 15. What's going on? What's going on? Yeah? You're up early at the sound of the birds, but you can't hear them.

Yes, because look. But all their songs grow faint. What was that a robin? Oh, no, it was Anne's snoring. Oh, I didn't realize.

Yeah. Verse 5, when men are afraid of heights, oh, I'm not going there anymore. Are you be able to go up a ladder with 1 leg but not now. Yeah. Oh, no.

No. No. The dangers in the street. Oh, isn't it awful? I'm not going out.

I double locked the door and have 1 of those chains and a little hole where I can look through. And the almond tree blossoms, almond trees go gray when your hair has gone gray. He's saying, and the grasshopper drags his legs along. That's what this is for. Yeah?

You're dragging your leg. Yeah. I never thought I would drag a leg. I never thought I'd have pain there. I didn't know there was a muscle there to have pain in it.

Yeah. And the desire no longer is stirred, then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the street. In chapter 1 of this book of Ecclesiastes, his opening there we go. His and that's so annoying. I'm not allowed to bend down as part of the healing process, and what do you do?

The grinder the the the the the grasshopper's leg has just fallen off. At the beginning of chapter 1 of this book, he opens with a poem and he says generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. Here in this closing poem, he says all must go to their eternity and dust must return to the earth as it was. And then he adds to this poem. I'm not sure if I've got so much time, but look at versus 5 to 8.

He says, then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the street. You're dead then. Remember him, remember god before the silver cord is severed and the golden bowl is broken before the picture is shattered at the spring. And the wheel broken at the well. So you've got this idea of this this lamp, and it's on a silver thread, and 1 of the links break and the whole thing crashes and the light goes out.

The golden bowl, that's where you had the the the light and it's broken and the picture that's down at the spring, the water. There's no longer water coming in. Yeah. And the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to god who gave it, meaningless, meaningless, says, before the silver cord is broken, before the water of life has gone before the light of life goes out. Remember your creator.

Remember him. Remember who he is. Remember who he is. Remember that Jesus is the light of the world remember that Jesus is the water of life. Remember that he is the eternal 1, that your whole body, and that your whole spirit yearns for.

Remember remember him before your death day. Thirdly, last point. Remember your creator fear god. Look at verse 13. Fear god and keep his commands for this is the whole duty of man, or the word duty isn't there, but it's it's what man is about.

This is his big conclusion. Fear god and his commandments. Now hold it. Commandments have come. That means that the above the sun god has spoken, has given commandments, an explanation, a revelation, Fear god and keep his commandments for this is the whole of man.

This is what you're about. This is the whole purpose. Revere him. He's god He's spoken. You are small and weak and meaningless without him.

You are dry and you are in darkness without him. You are just dust without him, breathing his spirit, into you. You are nothing without god, so don't mess with him. He's given you commands. Then look what it says in verse 14.

For god will bring every deed to judgment including every hidden thing, whether good or evil. There is a judgment of god. And judgment of god, it means that this is good news because it means that what you do has significance If there is no right and wrong, if there is no judgment, whatever you do doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you do, but if there's a judgment, if there's a right and wrong, then it matters. That you do right and not wrong.

Do you see that? So judgment of god, the judgment of god upon our lives suddenly says, there is meaning, and there is meaning in these commandments. And I need to follow these commandments. But that's the problem. The big problem is I haven't followed the commandments.

I don't even know what they are. Can you rename the 10 commandments? We don't even know them most of us. So how can we follow them? And so we've broken the commandments, and this is what this whole book is pleading with us for to remember that there are commandments but you in your little tiny world who think you're the sovereign have broken the sovereign's commandments and look where it's got you.

It's got you dragging your legs. It's got you going to darkness. It's got you into a meaningless existence It's bringing you to judgment day. That the whole book is pointing us to this revelation that God will give in the lord Jesus Christ. How wonderful?

Because there is 1 person in the whole of the world that's kept his commandments. Only 1 none of the other religious leaders would even claim to be keeping his commandments but Jesus kept the commandments of God every single 1 of them. So much so that god who created men and men and women at the beginning in Genesis and saw what he created and said it was very good but then we sinned and broke the commandments that when that same god the father looks at Jesus the son, he says, this is my son. I'm well pleased with him. He's very good.

He's obeyed everything. He remembered me. In his youth. He laid down wisdom. He became the wisdom of god.

Look at verses 9 and 11. Surely, this is a little picture of Jesus, the great teacher. I know it's the writer of Ecclesiastes to some degree and every teacher to some degree. But surely this is the picture of Jesus. Look, not only was the teacher wise was Jesus wise, but also he imparted knowledge to people.

Did Jesus impart knowledge to people? He pondered and searched and set in order many proverbs. In other words, he thought through who he was for speaking to so that they would get it and understand. In pithy ways. Did Jesus do that?

The teacher searched to find the right words and what he wrote was upright and true. Is Jesus teaching upright and true? The words of the wise are like goads, that means it's like a kick up the pants. They really strike us. But look, they're collected sayings like firmly embedded nails.

They're really This is what you wanna hang your life on given by 1 shepherd. The whole of the book of ecclesiastes is saying, look at Jesus. We need Jesus. He's the 1 that has come and he is obeyed all the commandments of god on our behalf, but not only has he taught about god, taught about forgiveness, Not only did he not break any of the commandments. He's the great shepherd.

He's the shepherd. He's the 1 shepherd. And what does he say? I am the good shepherd that lays my life down for the sheep. Remember that about god.

That god has come into this dying meaningless world as a shepherd to die to bring us back to meaning, to deal with our offense, to deal with our breaking of the commandments, that he is our shepherd. He's the 1 that we need to trust in and to listen to and to love and to follow because he obeyed the commandments If we're his sheep, we follow in that obedience. It's extraordinary. This whole book is pointing us to him. Just have a look at these verses, 1 from the Old Testament, 1 from the new.

Because they complete what we've just been learning. I asked them to go up. Isaiah. Here's a promise This is what Jesus will do. Listen to me, o House of Jacob, all who remain of the House of Israel, You whom I have upheld since you were conceived.

Here's the shepherd. He's gonna uphold us. And leaders, and I have carried since your birth. Even to your old age, and Grey hares, praise the lord. I am he.

I am he. I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you. I will sustain you and I will rescue you. God will carry us even in our old age, carry us even through the waters of death, carry us into the resurrection life that Jesus had risen again into a new kingdom.

The shepherd that takes the through the waters. When the waters are dried, he's the water of life. When the light goes out, he's the light of life. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Here's Paul writing in the new testament.

Therefore, we do not lose heart Even when you're old, you don't lose heart. Though outwardly, we're wasting away. Yet inwardly, we're being renewed every day. See, people are trying to hold on to the outward and not be renewed inwardly. And they become stupid, don't they?

Have haven't you seen these celebrities that try to be young? I mean, look at Madonna, it's like She's exactly the same age as me, and I look better than her. It's unbelievable. They think they look good. They're trying to hold They're trying to hold on to the physical, but inwardly, they're becoming meaner and grumpier and nastier.

But listen, look, Though outwardly, we waste away the inwardly. Why? Because we have the eternal in us. We have Jesus, the 1 who died and rose again in us. We have the water of life.

We have the the light of the world in us inwardly, we're being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles, the aches and the pains, are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs all of the eights and pains. So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, not on this farf old body that's decaying, but what is unseen? Since what is unseen what what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. We fix our eyes on Jesus. Remember, young people remember your creator.

Older people remember your creator before your mind goes, before you get dementia, before you don't know what you're talking about. Remember your creator. Remember the lord Jesus Christ, the word of god, who's coming to the world with the word, the eternal son, who came under the sun, to speak and to teach and to love and to die. And to give us eternal love. Give yourself to him.

Give yourself to him. Then you'll be happy. And through the moans and the groans, you know, there's a new life coming and being renewed every day There's new thoughts of god and his beauty and his revelation, and the body's decaying, but the mind and the spirit are alive in Christ. Come to him, will you? And if you haven't, why not come now?

Stop mucking about. Stop reading the next book. Stop learning and learning and not learning the commands of god. That tell you to come to Christ. Will you do that?

Probably way over time. But will you do that? Is you an older person here that wants to tell a younger person to do that? What do you want to say? Dean?

What do you wanna say, Paul? What do you wanna say, Allison? I wouldn't be where I am now if I haven't been around in 1 series since I was younger. What do you want to do, Paul, not that you're that old, but you know, you look it. Yeah.

Robert. Polish. Say it in Polish. What would you say? It's, oh, wait, oh, sorry, the years have gone.

Sorry. Yeah. That's down there. Yes. Fine, brilliant.

That's what you'd say, isn't it? Dean pray for these young people, Paul, after him, pray for these young people, stand up and pray loudly. That's all. We thank you again that you are our creator. That you know each and every 1 of us intimately, you knit us together.

You made us to enjoy relationship with you and to enjoy your goodness and your love and your creation. And, we we live in a world which is dark and broken and which, can't give us the answers that we search for. It's, seems intent on making us anxious and, it can't provide, an answer to death. And so, lord, we we we ask again that you would help us to remember you and to to remember your word, to remember your promises, to know that you are the 1 who loves and cares for us that lord Jesus, you are the 1 who has gone through death to eternal life. Help us father to learn your promises together as a church as individuals, men and women, boys and girls, lord help us to, to to memorize that catechism, to know these things, lord, while we're young, before old age comes, before our memories go lord help us to commit ourselves to you that we might know you and know the joy of of being in relation with you and knowing where we're going.

So we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.