How Not to be Disappointed

It is a joy to be back with you when Chip called and said another first Sunday of the month, I was going to be invited to come back and preach. I took it because I knew that meant potluck. So I was here. If it was any other Sunday, it was a no. But since it was the first Sunday I was here. Anyways, it is a joy to be back with you and to see you again. We have made some quick friends among the body here at Jefferson Park Baptist Church and look forward to those relationships going forward. I'm excited about the fact that it looks like that y'all are coming to the close of the search process. As you've announced a candidate and we'll be considering him and we'll be praying for you and pray that that might be a fruitful ministry that you have together with Keith as you move forward. This morning, we are going to be in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, Ecclesiastes chapter 12. I'm going to read chapter 12, and if you would stand with me in honor of God and the reading of his word this morning, I'll be reading from the English Standard Version, Ecclesiastes chapter 12. The preacher says, Remember also your creator in the days of your youth. Before the evil days come and the years draw near, of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain and the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men are bent and the grinders cease because they are few and those who look through the windows are dimmed and the doors of the street are shut. When the sound of the grinding is low and rises up and one rises up at the sound of the bird and all the daughters of song are brought low. They are afraid also of what is high and tears in the way geometry blossoms. The grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails because man is going to his eternal home and the mourners go about the street before the silver cord is snapped and the Golden Bowl is broken and the pitcher is shattered at the fountain or the wheel is broken at the cistern and the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God who gave it vanity of vanities, says the preacher. All is vanity. Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. And the preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these of the making of books. There is no end and of much study is weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. You may be seated. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that as we face life and all of the difficulties and the joys and the trials, The times of excitement, the times of mourning that we have your scripture that can help guide us. The fact that we can look to your word and we can find truth and we know that your word is truth and we know that we can study it and Lord, that we can hang our life on the things that are taught therein. Dear Lord, thank you for your spirit. Thank you for the fact that your spirit guides us, convicts us. teaches us, leads us into all truth, and may your spirit lead us this morning as we study this passage. Lord, I thank you for Jefferson Park Baptist Church. Lord, I pray as they are heading into this new phase of considering the calling of Keith Goad as their pastor. Lord, I just pray for Keith. I pray that you might give him wisdom as he interacts with this local body. I pray for this local body, Lord, that they might look for the man of God and consider Keith as the man of God who should lead them. And Lord, I pray that if it be in your will to call Keith to be pastor shepherd of this local church, that he would shepherd them faithfully. And I pray that this church would follow faithfully, Lord, as he seeks to guide them by the leadership of your spirit and truth. Lord, as we look at this passage, let us, Lord, come to it with open hearts so that we can see what it is that we can learn from your scripture. so that we can get it from the pews this morning with a changed perspective, a perspective that's not our own, but is a perspective that is of your spirit and a perspective that's of your word. We pray these things in your mighty, wonderful and your gracious name. Amen. Imagine if you would for me a man born in 1935. The man is born in 1935 and he lives a typical childhood. He wakes up. He plays outside. He has his breakfast. He has his lunch. He has his dinner. The family eats roughly about the same time every day. He has, even though it's a different food every day, there's a rotation in the things that go on, just like all of us. There's different food that we eat, but then we continually kind of eat the same things over and over again. He gets to the age of elementary school. He goes to elementary school. He wakes up at the same time every day. Lunch is at the same time every day. His choices are limited, so he eats pretty much the same thing every day. He comes home at the same time every day. He plays. He does his homework. He goes to bed about the same time every day. This continues on into junior high and to high school, this routine of going on of life about the same. There's some slight variations that might happen in it, but yet it's waking up about the same time. It's eating about the same things. Then he finally gets to the place where he graduates from college and it's freedom from this kind of routine of the education that he's been through. But what does he find that he just moves from one routine into another routine? He wakes up about the same time, eats about the same thing for breakfast every day. He goes to work, strives to do well at work. He moves up in his company over time, very successful in the things that he does, but yet life is still, quite honestly, about the same. And he comes to the place of retirement. It's time to get away from the grind. It's time to get away from this daily routine, only to be replaced again with another routine. About the same time that he wakes up every day, about the same thing that he eats, about the same places that he goes. If he plays golf, it's the same day every week that he plays golf with his friends. If he plays cards, it's the same day every week that he does that. And this routine that continues on until finally he reaches the end of his life. And he dies. When you look back on your life, you're asking, what's the point? You ask yourself what the preacher asked the beginning of Ecclesiastes for all of this toil under the sun. What does man gain for what is he is? And he comes to the conclusion, he says, vanity of vanities, all his vanity. And so this preacher throughout the first 11 chapters of Ecclesiastes really struggles with this this picture of life. He tries many different things, he attempts all kinds of things, great things from man's perspective. But he gets to the end, he's wondering, what's the point of it all? And then finally, he gets to chapter 12. And in chapter 12, as he reexamines all of his life, as he's coming to the close of his life, he realizes then what is the purpose. And so as we look at this passage in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 this morning, I want us to answer the question how not to be disappointed in the end. How not to be disappointed in the end. There is one thing that we are all guaranteed. That is that we will die. And judgment will come. And so how do we live life in such a way that we are not disappointed in the end? The first thing that I want us to see in this passage this morning, in Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse one, is to never forget the God who created you. Never forget the God who created you. Verse one says, Remember also your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them. So he starts off this passage telling us to remember. telling us to recall this is a picture of not just simply remembering some kind of a fond event that happens in our life, but this is actually a dwelling, a thinking upon a reviewing, a taking and internalizing these things that they are not just a passing memory for us, but this is something that we are constantly processing in our minds. We are dwelling on these things. And this is something that we frequently see without within scripture that we are called to do. Second, Peter, chapter one, verse 12 to 13, says, therefore, Peter, writing to these believers, says, therefore, I intend also always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. So he is identifying here is that they know them. They've been established in him, in them. But he has this purpose, and that is to remind them of these things. That you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it is right as long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder. For many times we get caught up in the things that we think, OK, we just simply remember these. We will remember these things. We know them. We've experienced them. Therefore, they're going to be a part of my life and they're going to be a part of my remembrance. But the fact of the matter is that's not the case. Fact of the matter is, as life rushes in, all of the things that we face on a daily basis come into our life and the things that we think are important and that we remember get pushed to the side. And this is why when Peter writes to these believers, he says, therefore, I intend always to remind you of these things. And he closes by saying, I think it right as long as I'm in this body to stir you up by way of reminder. And likewise, in Ecclesiastes 12.1, why we are encouraged to remember. Exodus chapter three, verse 14 and 15, God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say to this people, Israel, I am has sent me to you. God has also said to Moses, say to this people of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. And thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. So God setting forth through Moses to his people as he calls them out, the fact that they are to remember their God throughout all generations. This isn't some event that happens once in their life, but this is something that is to continue to happen day after day of their walk before their God. But the fact of the matter is, is that life, the things that entice us away from these things of God encounter in. God even knew this because in Deuteronomy, chapter eight, verse 13 and 19, he sets forth why is going to be the fact that they aren't going to remember him. And quite honestly, it's the same reason that we don't end up remembering God on a frequent basis. In Deuteronomy 8, 13 and 19, he says, and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will be lifted up and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. out of the house of slavery, who led you to the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of flinty rock, who led you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you and do good in the end. Beware, lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand has gotten me this well. You shall remember the Lord, your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord, your God, and go go after other gods and serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. And so through Moses, God presents to his people the very fact that where they are to remember him throughout all generations, life is going to come in and they're going to get to the point where they fool themselves that all that they have is theirs and they will forget their God. Even after all of the great and wonderful things that God has done for them, as he gives the things that he has led them out of, the ways that he has provided for them, these things that we think are landmarks in our life that we will never forget, God proclaims, you will forget these things. Because you will come to the place that you are reliant upon yourself. So we are to remember, but specifically what we are to remember here, according to this passage, is that we are to remember also your creator. It is our creator is somebody specific that we are to mention that we are to remember as to as God was presented there in Exodus chapter three to remember him throughout all of our throughout all of the generations. And this idea of creator here gives us a very specific view of God. The fact that this isn't just some person that we encountered that we are supposed to remember as a part of our life, but this is actually the very source of our being, the reason we have breath, the reason we walk, the reason that we are here today. He is not just simply a God that provides for us, but he is actually the very source of our being. We learn from Colossians chapter one that with Jesus Christ being the image of the invisible God and it says that by him and for him that all things were created and it says that in him all things are held together. The reason why the laws of physics exist, the reason why the planets are where they are and that they do not move and that we are not crashing into one another is because of the fact that Jesus Christ has all of this in his hand and controls it. He is our creator. He is not just the one that simply flung things into motion, but he is the one that actually sustains it. He is the source. He is the one that actually knits us in our mother's womb, as the psalmist says in Psalm 119, Psalm 119, verse 13, for you formed my inward parts and you knitted me together in my mother's womb. He is our very creator. This is why we look back to him. We think fondly of our parents. Many times some some had difficult childhoods and we don't. But most of us, we think fondly of our parents. And the reason we have that connection with them, they are the ones that brought us into this world. They are the ones that provided us, provided for us in life. And we think fondly of those things when we look back. There might have been difficult times, but we're thankful for the ways that they provided for us and continue to. In a sense, from an earthly perspective, whereas we've been knit together in our mother's wombs, it is through this action of our mother and father that we have been brought forth by the hand of God. In Psalm 107. We are reminded of many ways that God has provided. We won't read all of Psalm 107, but in Psalm 107, he goes through all of these situations and how God has continued to provide. Psalm 107.1, the psalmist says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. He says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west and the north and the south. He says in verse four that some have wandered in desert ways, finding no way to a city to dwell in. And then it says in verse seven that he led these people then by a straight way till they reached the city to dwell in. And let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love. He says in verse 10 that some sat in darkness in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against a rebelled against the words of God and scorned the counsel of the Most High. But then it says that they cried out to him and in verse 14, that he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and burst their bonds apart. It says, let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love. Some, it says in verse 17, are fools through their sinful ways, but then they cry to the Lord. And in verse 20, he sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love. It says in verse 23 that some went down to the sea and ships doing business on great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works of the deep, for he commanded and raised the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea. And it became through the stormy wind that they turned and they cried to him in verse twenty nine. It says that he made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed and they were glad and they brought forth their desired their desired haven. And it says that they thank the Lord for his steadfast love. It says he turns rivers into deserts of spring, fruitful land into a salty, salty waste because of the evil of its inhabitants. He turns all these things, but then he says he provides for them because by his blessing in verse 38, they multiply greatly and he does not let their livestock diminish. And it comes to all of this and it says in verse twenty forty two that the upright see it and are glad and all wickedness shuts its mouth. Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. And then it says here, let them consider. This is the same concept of us remembering. Let him consider the steadfast love of the Lord. So not simply the creator, but through his creation, actually the sustainer of these things and one that we are to remember. The context of this, as we look at this passage, the context is important when he says, remember your creator. He's getting to a point here of looking at life and saying, you know what? What was described in Deuteronomy about how the wealth of this world, all of these things have been provided, he says, he says, I experienced this in my life where I turned away from God. So the context here is remembering is that I'm getting back here to the beginning, I'm getting back to why it is that I exist, why it is that I do the things that I do, because I have looked at my life and I consider it wasted. I consider it vanity over all the things that are accomplished. So he's saying what we should be at a place is we remember also our creator. And it's for many times in life, it's important for us to have to go back and remember why things have been done. We all get in this habit. We get in the habit of simply doing things because we've always done them that way. When you ask yourself the question, why is it that you do it? Many times it's been forgotten. You don't know. I remember a time that I was working with a particular office and I was watching this lady print these things off of her printer and she was then sticking them in a filing cabinet. And I looked at her and I said, there was two big four-drawer lateral filing cabinets filled with this stuff that she prints off every time that she does this particular action. And I asked her, I said, well, why do you do this? She said, I don't know. I just was told during training that I was to click print. I don't know why we do it. I said, have you ever, and this lady has worked for us for years, have you ever gotten up and gone to that filing cabinet to pull something out of that filing cabinet and do something with it? Have you ever looked at any of those things again? She said, no, never have. Been here for nearly 15 years. Never have. I said, stop it. Don't do it anymore. It's pointless what you're doing when you can't trace back to why it is that you're doing something you really have to evaluate why you have to really evaluate why then you're continuing to do it. But likewise, with our life, we're to be in a place where we are to remember our creator. We're to remember why it is that we're here. We're not here by some sort of random selection. We are here by the very sovereign hand of God. We exist for a purpose. And we are to dwell on that dwell on who is God. Why is it that he created me? Why is it that he's here? Why am I sitting in this pew this morning? Why am I here? If we just simply go about the routines and we get caught up in life and all these things, we get to the end of life and all of a sudden we start contemplating it and we go, what was the purpose? Catch the purpose early, because he tells us to remember our creator. So we are to never forget the God who created us, but likewise, we are not to delay in our service to God, for he says, remember also your creators. And he says specifically in the days of your youth, he says, remember your creator in the days of your youth. Start off this way. Don't find yourself in life down the road where you have to correct course like he has. And he has had to get back to a place of remembering his creator. But start off this way in remembering the days of your youth, especially in the youth when we seem invincible, when we seem that we can accomplish all things on our own. At that point in time, that's when it's important to remember your creator. But likewise, we are to be at this point before the period of life draws close. For he says here, remember your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come in, the years draw near. So in other words, life comes crashing in and you find no pleasure in this in them. The results of sin in this life, the pain, the suffering, all the things that go on that happen in life is that if you get to these things in life and you have not remembered your creator, then you find yourself in a tendency to live life bitter towards God or just simply denying that he even exists. He says that to do this before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are dark and the clouds return to the rain. In other words, before things are coming to an end, as he looks at this now, there are some that believe here in this particular this particular point, this analogy that's going on here in Ecclesiastes 12, that this is relating to some kind of eschatological event or the end times, the things of the world ending. But I think more properly from context that this is looking at life as it is drawing in your own life that is drawing to a close. For he describes these things, he just gives us this picture. He says, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, most believe this is referring to somebody as they characteristics of as they get up older in age. As I was talking to one of your church members here at the beginning of the service, inviting me to his class, he said that, you know, this is the old man's class. Nobody else is able to call it that. We're able to call that ourselves. But this is the this is the old man's class. And you look at these things and you see some of these characteristics that are here that just happened because of the fact that our bodies break down. It is inevitable that these things happen to all of us. So in the days when the keepers of the house tremble talking about the hands, the hands trembling, when the strong men are bent, this is a picture of the shoulders and the shoulders being bent over. When the grinder sees this is the teeth because they are few. Fortunately, we're in society today with dentists that keep some of our teeth around, but some of us still struggle with this. And so when these grinders cease because there are few, and when they look through windows that are dim, this is talking about their eyesight and the fact they have difficulty seeing. And the doors of the street are shut, talking about their mouth, the ability to speak with people. When the sound of the grounding is low or one rises up at the sound of the bird talking about the tendency as we get older to rise earlier in the morning, but then likewise and all the daughters of the song are brought low. This is talking about a loss of hearing and the things that exist there is that this loss of hearing that all of a sudden things become harder to hear. And it says in verse five that they are afraid also of what is high and tears that are in the way, the fear of falling, the things that are in front of us, the things that might happen. That we don't go out in the dark because we have trouble seeing where we have fears of what are going on as we as things get to get progressed in life and we look at the things that are there. Matter of fact, he even goes on to say that the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself and desire fails. This is even talking about sexual desire that dissipate that dissipates as you get older, because why man is going to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets. He says before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is broken or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain or the wheel is broken at the cistern and the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Why? Because all of this vanity of vanity, says the preacher, all this vanity. In other words, the preacher says, when I look back upon my life and the things that I've accomplished and the things that I one time thought were great in the sight of man, I've discovered it's all vanity. When I get to this point that all of these characteristics in my life seem true, I remember that I see all of a sudden that my life was wasted. My life was wasted after pursuits that had no eternal significance. And so what he's saying here is remember your creators in the days of your youth before these things come. This idea of vanity of vanities, this word appears 38 times throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. As he looks at these things and he declares that all of these things that he's seen, he says, I have great I've built great palaces. I've planted great gardens. I've expanded the territory of my kingdom. And through all those things, he says, vanity of vanities. He's looking back at life in a could have, should have and would have scenario, I play golf this way. You know, at the end, I'm disappointed with what it is that I shot. And I think back to all the things that I could have done, I should have done or I would have done. If certain factors would come into place and because of that, I'm sure that I could have easily trimmed 20 shots off of my game. If I would have done this easily, if I just could have, should have or would have these things, we look back at life, we look back at many things in life and we look back and we say, could have, we could have, we should have and we would have. But what the preacher is saying to us here in Ecclesiastes, he's saying, don't get to the end of life and look at life from this could have, should have and would have perspective. Now, remember your creator, even in the days of your youth, the fact of catching early in your life that your focus might be right, that this is not something that happens, that you look back and remembering the days of your creator. And this is not something that you tell yourself that this is going to happen one day. One day I'll get around for this right now. I'm going to live life for myself. I'm going to accomplish the things that are for myself. I'm going to accomplish the things that I want to do. But early on in life, remember your creator in the days of your youth. And the final thing that I want to see in the closing verses of this passage is a grass that serving God is your purpose in life. Grass that serving God is your purpose in life. He says in verse nine, the writer that compiled all these sayings of the preacher, he says, besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge. Weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. This is one of the passages why they believe this creature that is being referenced within Ecclesiastes is possibly King Solomon. Nowhere told to us in Ecclesiastes that's the case and it's speculation. But that's one of the reasons that they look at is that this preacher was involved in basically these many proverbs and this arranging many proverbs and that if this is Solomon that we have the book of Proverbs that gives us many of these sayings. It says that the preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth, communicating to his people what words of truth are. For he says that these wise words in verse 11, he says the words of the wise are like goads. They're like nails. In other words, they're like goads. They're like a prod that takes you. The words of the wise, as you read Scripture, they're like this prod that pushes you in your life and pushes you in the right direction. They're like nails that are firmly fixed. They're things that you can hang your life on. Matter of fact, you know, yesterday as I was doing some work in one of our half bath in our house, My wife had painted and so I was going back there to hang the towel rack and to hang the place for the toilet paper and I had to affix it in such a way that I had to get screws and anchors because of where everything was located and there wasn't studs that I could go into that would allow me to firmly affix those things so that when somebody pulled on them a little bit, they wouldn't just simply pull out of the wall. And what this person is saying here is that these words of the wise, what we have presented to us in Scripture, that they brought us along and that there are things that we can hang our life on because they are firmly fixed. They are these collected sayings, and it says here that they are attributed to the one shepherd. And the way that we look at this is that whereas these came through the preacher, where these have really come to us is actually through the true shepherd, and that is God himself. He says, as a matter of fact, in verse 12, my son, to whom he is writing, beware of anything beyond these. What he's saying here is what you have in the Bible, what you have that has been given to you, beware of things beyond these, for he says here that of the making of many books, there is no end and of much study. There is weariness of the flesh. I think last year, one website that I looked at said that just last year alone, there were over a million books published. Just last year alone, over a million books published addressing all kinds of things. All you have to do is go to a bookstore, go to one of the mega bookstores, and you can find books on everything, on how to live your life, on how to invest your money, on how to do all kinds of things. But what he's saying is, my son, be aware of anything beyond these words that you find in Scripture, not that you can't look at them, but just be aware of them, recognize the fact that they can be counter to what it is that is being taught within Scripture, the wise words that have been given to us, that in much study, there is weariness of flesh to focus on these things. But in this purpose of life, he gets to verse 13. This person has compiled all this as the end of the matter. Very abruptly, this comes to an end, the end of the matter. He says all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. Fear God and keep his commandments. If you look at a personal mission statement that you're looking, we read Matthew 22 a little bit earlier and where we are challenged to love the Lord our God, the greatest commandment, to love the Lord our God with our heart and with our soul and our mind. If you want to even look at this from a different angle, this perspective of fearing God and keep His commandments. Why? For this is the whole duty of man. That word there, whole, that means entire, means complete. If in other words, if you want to know why it is that you exist today, why it is that you're breathing, why it is that you're going to be able to enjoy this lunch afterwards, why it is that you have your family, why it is that you have your job throughout all of these things, that our mission statement is that we are to fear God and keep his commandments. Job 28. We are told, and he said to man, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to turn away from evil is understanding this fear. God is the beginning of a wise life for us. It's the fact that we look God from a reverent standpoint, that we look God at our Creator and the fact that He is our sustainer and He is the one for which we live and we stand in reverence and fear of Him. And likewise, His commandments are given are His very words. We have that are revealed to us within Scripture, all throughout Scripture, all of Scripture are God's words, God's commandments for us to follow and for us following those, then showing our love of God. Deuteronomy 6, 1 through 3 says, Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules. The Lord, your God, commanded me to teach you that you may do them and the land to which you are going over to possess it. That you may fear the Lord, your God and your son and your son's sons by keeping all of his statutes and commandments, which I command you all of the days of your life, that your days may be long here, therefore, oh, Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord, your God of your fathers has promised you in the land flowing with milk and honey. This is our whole duty. There is no separation in our life between the secular and the sacred. We get to the place in our life that we think that there is a secular life and there is a sacred life. There is the life that we live outside of the body of Christ, and then there's the life that we live inside the body of Christ. That's an improper view. The improper view is everything is sacred. The sacred is to pervade everything that's in our life. So as we look at our marriage, how do we look at our marriage and what do we do in our marriage? We fear God and we keep his commandments. What do we do in raising our family? We fear God and we keep his commandments. How do we make decisions about things like investing? We fear God and we keep his commandments. How do I make decisions about where I'm going to go to school? We fear God and we keep his commandments. How do I make decisions about the job that I'm supposed to take or whether I'm supposed to go someplace particular? How do we do this? We fear God. And we keep his commandments, facing a decision on calling a pastor to your church. How do we do this? We fear God. We keep his commandments. Making other decisions about church, what we eat, what we drink, what we watch, all of these things, what do we do? We fear God and we keep his commandments. You say, but God doesn't absolutely with black and white address every single issue that life faces. Whereas he might not give you a command on everything that says, do not watch this or do or do this when it comes to the individual choices. He does give us wisdom. Matter of fact, Peter tells us in second Peter that he has given us he has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, everything pertaining to life and godliness. So the sum of our life, the whole duty of our life as we look up and why we wake in the morning, why we do the things that we do, it is to fear God and keep his commandments. It is not one of the menu items that exist on our daily life. It's not a checklist. It's not OK. I've got to I've got to cut the yard. I've got to go to the grocery store. I've got to do some homework. I've got to do some reading and I've got to fear God and keep his commandments. And it's something that we get to a place and we checked off. But no, that's where we start. We fear God and keep his commandments and it pervades everything that we do. So we're to never forget the God who created us. We're also to not delay in this service to God. And likewise, we are to fulfill this mission that we have, the statement that we have to fear him, to fear God and to keep his commandments. So how can we apply this? Make dwelling upon God a regular part of your day. This is things like Bible intake, looking at the Bible, reading it. How is it that this impacts my life, not just simply reading it from a perspective? OK, I read this passage and I'm done. I go on. But then actually processing it, meditating it on a daily basis is Joshua challenged. And Joshua said that to to to to basically meditate and to chew on the words that he's put forth. It pervades what you listen to, it pervades what you watch, the conversations with your children, that the things about God are a part of that on a daily basis. They're not things that happen every once in a while, but they're things that happen frequently. Also, don't put off this effort, thinking it's something that you're going to pick up when it's older. When life slows down, when you get to a different stage in your life, don't put off to those times. Focus on these things now. But keep in mind, too, if you're older and this hasn't been a characteristic of your life, it's not ever too late to get to a place where you're remembering your creator, to the place where you are fearing God and keep his commandments, whereas you might look back on your life and think there are things that I wish I would have done different. Don't find yourself in a place where tomorrow you're saying the same thing about what it is that you could have done today. that you fear God and you keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. So learn this personal mission statement, internalize it, make it a part of your life that you fear God and keep his commandments. And one of the great things that's about this book is it addresses the very Ecclesiastes, it addresses the very base things of life. Ecclesiastes is a great place to start a conversation with somebody. When you look at life and it examines these things, especially these things that we've looked in chapter 12, Ecclesiastes is a great place to look at somebody. It's a great place to go to chapter one and to look at somebody standing next to you and you're saying and saying all this work you're doing, what's the point? It's a great place to start and launch into a conversation about the things of God. And then finally, without all of these things, challenge one another to fear God and keep his commandments. Challenge one another to remember who it is that created you. Challenge one another to find yourself in a place where you are not delaying your service to God. And remind one another and challenge one another to grasp that serving God is your purpose in life. If all of these things are characteristics of your life, you know what? You're not going to be disappointed in the end. If you want to get back to the end as you face your eternal destiny, And you want to not be disappointed. These are the characteristics that will exist in your life. These are the characteristics that can start today, therefore, can be evident in your life tomorrow, no matter where you are. But most importantly, none of this can happen if you don't have a relationship with Christ. You are going to be disappointed in the end if you don't have a relationship with Christ. All of this is assumed with the fact of not just simply remembering our creator, but trusting in the fact of what he has done on the cross of Christ for us. And one of the things that I challenge you is that if you are here today. And you are without Christ following after Christ, trusting in what it is that he has done on the cross, placing your faith in him is something that has not ever happened in your life. Don't delay. Don't delay. Make today the day that you follow after him. And that you live your life in such a way to realize that I am sinful and I am standing before a holy God in my eternal destiny is is hell. If I don't place my faith in him, make today the day that you follow after him and for the rest of us to sum it up, to remember always your creator in the days of your youth. Fear God, keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for How good and gracious you are to us, how you have provided for us your word to challenge with challenges with these things. The fact that your word is like goads and like nails for us that are firmly fixed. Lord, I just pray that you would help us to always remember you. To put it in the forefront of our mind to spend time dwelling upon who you are and what it is that you have done for us. The fact that you are our creator, our very source and our very sustainer. And Lord, as we look back to the reason why we exist, might we grasp and understand that our whole duty is to fear you and to keep your commandments. We pray these things in your mighty, wonderful and your gracious name. Amen.