Intro: Death has been all around me lately. Visiting people who have died. Did my first funeral last Monday. Even in sports people have been close to death. Red Wings player, Fischer. All of this death around me has caused me to do two things. One remember the people that have passed. And second it has caused me to look at life. I think it is good for us to evaluate our lives. Do our lives have meaning? Are we living our lives to the fullest? I went to one of my favorite books in the Bible to help me with some of these questions.
I. Death in its time is beautiful. Ecclesiastes 3:1-11. There is a time for everything in your life. And then there is also a time for death. Verse 11 though says that everything, even death, is beautiful in its time. Wow. If we can learn to see death as beautiful, imagine how that would impact our LIFE. If we learn to see death as beautiful it will help us with fear. If we learn to see death as beautiful it will help us in our mourning. If we can learn to see death as beautiful we come closer to understanding God’s view of life.
Transistion: It sounds simple enough. But how can we see death as beautiful? Most of the deaths that I’ve seen recently have actually been pretty ugly. What is beautiful about a painful prolonged death? I think the rest of verse 11 answers that in two ways.
II. “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;”. KJV says, “He has set the world in their heart”. World there has the meaning of “beginning of” and “without end”. So eternity is an easier way to say it. Eternity helps us see death as beautiful. We know that like war, hate, mourning, killing… all these are temporary things. They are beautiful in their time and their time ends. Death is not a permanent thing. It is a part of life.
III. Verse 11 goes on to say, “yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end”. Even though God has put eternity in our hearts we can’t fully understand it. We also can’t understand what God has done. What God does and continues to do will not always make sense to us. I Corinthians 13:12 says that “we see through a glass darkly”. It just means that we cannot expect our finite minds to understand God’s infinite wisdom.
Example: Story about Laura and Colleen.
So what should we do?
I. Examine our lives. Do we have meaning in life? Eternal meaning in life? How do we have meaning? In order for our lives to have eternal meaning we must trust Christ. Ecclesiastes 3:17. Will you be found guilty at that judgement or will you have trusted Christ to talk you place, be your substitute, pay the penalty for your sins.
II. Then we need to make sure that we are taking advantage of life. Ecc. 3:12 and 13. We should enjoy life. Enjoying life is the gift of God. We shouldn’t spend our lives trying to fill it up with things that are not eternal. We shouldn’t spend our lives trying to make more money. Work is important and even mentioned in verse 12, but it isn’t to be the focus of our lives. We need to enjoy the life that God has given us. Verse 12 also says that we should do good. Do good here isn’t the absence of doing bad. It is action, not refraining from a bad action. Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
What are you doing?
Are you getting your meaning in life from things that are meaningless to God? We try to get meaning from lots of wrong places. We try to build a legacy. Ecclesiastes 12:13 and 14 really wrap it up well for us. You want your life to have eternal meaning? “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” Fear God and obey Him. That includes salvation, running from evil, and doing good. Those are the ways that we have an eternally meaningful life.
I also threw in some other verses. II cor. 5:8 for death not being permanent. Matt. 6:19-21 about storing up treasure in heaven.
2 comments:
What are you thinking? Why would you tell a Granny that you used a story about her grandkids and then not relay the story? humph
I'm sad the recorder wasn't working, it sounds great! Did many people say something about it?
I knew that would get you. I didn't actually tell a story there. I don't always follow my notes as closely as I'd like. I did talk about doing good and how when I tell the girls to be good I'm actually telling them not to be bad. God isn't doing the same when he tells us to do good.
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