WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.500 Okay, so real quick, anybody enjoying the rain? 00:00:08.270 --> 00:00:10.429 Yeah, if you've got friends that are here and 00:00:10.429 --> 00:00:12.070 they're like, I didn't know Arizona could look 00:00:12.070 --> 00:00:14.189 like this, make sure they're gone before a month 00:00:14.189 --> 00:00:17.750 from now, right? Make sure they only see the 00:00:17.750 --> 00:00:19.969 green. My 15 -year -old has been taking pictures 00:00:19.969 --> 00:00:22.489 of rolling hills. She's like, I didn't know these 00:00:22.489 --> 00:00:24.710 hills were like this. And I'm like, we drove 00:00:24.710 --> 00:00:29.989 this road every day. So just amazing to see what 00:00:29.989 --> 00:00:33.189 rain does. Okay, so fall. Anybody love fall? 00:00:34.009 --> 00:00:39.060 Okay. Now I got to ask, anybody love summer? 00:00:40.679 --> 00:00:43.659 Yeah. So what you have at this moment, and online, 00:00:43.799 --> 00:00:46.460 whatever yours is, what you have at this moment 00:00:46.460 --> 00:00:49.060 is you have people who are grieving and people 00:00:49.060 --> 00:00:51.060 that are excited all in the same room. Like some 00:00:51.060 --> 00:00:53.700 people are like, summer's done. I hate it. And 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:55.500 other people's like, yes, it's finally fall. 00:00:55.719 --> 00:01:01.399 Okay. It's PSL season. Pumpkin spice latte, where 00:01:01.399 --> 00:01:05.969 are you at? That doesn't bode well. I'm just 00:01:05.969 --> 00:01:07.689 saying, Starbucks just released it. It doesn't 00:01:07.689 --> 00:01:10.450 bode well for them, judging by the outcome of 00:01:10.450 --> 00:01:13.790 people loving. There's a handful of you. But 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:17.769 with that, isn't it interesting things are seasonal, 00:01:17.909 --> 00:01:20.290 right? Like they're intended to be seasonal. 00:01:20.909 --> 00:01:23.689 And I just want to talk about this moment for 00:01:23.689 --> 00:01:29.799 a minute. Like this is a moment. This is not 00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:32.319 meant to be something that has to be and will 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:36.060 always be and will hold it. What it's meant to 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:38.319 be is this, that you are present here this morning. 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:42.879 And in the midst of being present, the hope, 00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:46.700 our desire is that you experience God for yourself. 00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:51.939 That you see him, that you know him. That you 00:01:51.939 --> 00:01:54.700 walk out of here and you go, I feel like I met 00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:58.379 with God. But it's only supposed to be a moment. 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.400 It's not supposed to sustain you all the way 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:03.859 through. It's not supposed to be something that 00:02:03.859 --> 00:02:06.579 you're like, ah, we gotta stay. It would be weird 00:02:06.579 --> 00:02:08.919 if you stayed because we turn the lights off 00:02:08.919 --> 00:02:13.599 and everything, right? We all go home. But isn't 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:15.300 it fascinating that if we're not careful, we 00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:17.740 chase these moments and these experiences. What 00:02:17.740 --> 00:02:19.819 if the moment is just meant to be the moment? 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:24.259 What if today the Holy Spirit just wants to speak 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:27.680 to you? What if God just wants to show up for 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:30.099 you that you would see something different in 00:02:30.099 --> 00:02:34.139 him? That you would experience something different 00:02:34.139 --> 00:02:36.919 and it's just meant to be for right here, right 00:02:36.919 --> 00:02:42.000 now. That it's not meant to, on Monday morning, 00:02:42.060 --> 00:02:45.620 you're like, I gotta go back to church. But you're 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:47.680 meant to wake up and experience him in a different 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:50.939 way. Because if you're here and you go, John, 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:52.259 this better be good because it's got to hold 00:02:52.259 --> 00:02:54.939 me over for seven days, I got bad news for you. 00:02:55.519 --> 00:02:58.520 You're going to be a mess in six, right? You're 00:02:58.520 --> 00:02:59.740 going to be a mess in five. You'll be a mess 00:02:59.740 --> 00:03:03.080 by Monday morning. And this idea of seasonal, 00:03:03.180 --> 00:03:05.280 this idea of things that come and go, anybody 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:09.460 remember? Let's ask it this way. Anybody used 00:03:09.460 --> 00:03:13.860 the pneumatic tube mailing system? And I don't 00:03:13.860 --> 00:03:17.759 mean at the bank. I mean in a city. Anybody? 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:20.159 No. Good. That means you're not old. Well done. 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:25.000 Apparently, there was... Two tube systems between 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:27.740 post offices and they would send letters and 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:31.060 packages like in New York City underground to 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:32.759 one another. Like we have a version of that at 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:34.500 banks because banks haven't figured it out yet. 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:39.039 But the idea is this, that they could send it 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.000 because it was faster than going on a horse. 00:03:41.620 --> 00:03:45.180 And so they could air compress these tubes underground. 00:03:45.620 --> 00:03:48.120 And so it started in Philadelphia and just grew 00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:51.319 from there. What about this? Anybody remember? 00:03:52.370 --> 00:03:58.689 The fax machine. You're like, yeah, of course. 00:04:00.169 --> 00:04:03.889 Isn't everybody? So I watched this thing. They 00:04:03.889 --> 00:04:06.930 took F1 drivers, Formula 1 drivers, and they 00:04:06.930 --> 00:04:08.909 did a generational challenge. And they took the 00:04:08.909 --> 00:04:11.009 oldest one as 41, and the youngest one was like 00:04:11.009 --> 00:04:13.830 18 at the time, I think. And they just used things 00:04:13.830 --> 00:04:15.750 like a fax machine. And people are like, a fax 00:04:15.750 --> 00:04:18.250 machine? What is that? And the 41's like, yeah, 00:04:18.389 --> 00:04:21.240 I remember that. Here's what's interesting with 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:23.800 the fax machine, right? I was looking at this 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:25.680 and there was a leadership group. I was listening 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:28.860 to a podcast that used to send 900 faxes every 00:04:28.860 --> 00:04:32.319 Monday morning all over the country. And it was 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:35.740 the latest tips on leadership, right? Anybody 00:04:35.740 --> 00:04:39.040 ever use a fax machine? They're awful. They're 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:41.019 awful, right? They only worked half the time. 00:04:41.579 --> 00:04:47.019 Anybody remember pagers? Okay. My daughter, when 00:04:47.019 --> 00:04:50.579 she was born. My oldest, my wife was two weeks 00:04:50.579 --> 00:04:53.639 late. Gentlemen, it is something you never want 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:55.579 to experience in your life to have your wife 00:04:55.579 --> 00:04:59.399 two weeks late in delivering a baby. It is a 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:01.480 special time of life. And what I learned was 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:04.100 I need to be on call. So the latest thing was 00:05:04.100 --> 00:05:06.740 a pager, right? A pager you could clip on your 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:09.540 pocket. I could go do landscaping and the pager 00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:11.879 would go off and told me it was time, right? 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:14.639 So I was ready and they were cool back then, 00:05:14.660 --> 00:05:18.199 right? And so you got a pager and you could call 00:05:18.199 --> 00:05:21.040 and send little messages to it and the whole 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:24.540 thing, right? But what about, okay, let's go 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:31.439 VHS tapes. Okay, younger generations in the room 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:33.560 than the people that are saying yes right now, 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:38.290 do not bring them back. Like you would sit down 00:05:38.290 --> 00:05:40.730 to watch a movie and put your VHS tape in and 00:05:40.730 --> 00:05:43.769 the machine would eat your VHS, right? And you'd 00:05:43.769 --> 00:05:45.430 spend the rest of the night trying to get it 00:05:45.430 --> 00:05:47.529 out of the machine. And then when you played 00:05:47.529 --> 00:05:50.769 it, it sounded like the chipmunks, right? It's 00:05:50.769 --> 00:05:52.730 not a good time. I know it looks good and it 00:05:52.730 --> 00:05:55.189 looks retro. It's not a good time, trust me. 00:05:56.129 --> 00:05:59.550 Remember, anybody in here have AOL back in the 00:05:59.550 --> 00:06:04.629 day? You got mail? Anybody still got AOL? You 00:06:04.629 --> 00:06:06.370 got to get rid of that. You got to get rid of 00:06:06.370 --> 00:06:08.550 that. It's time to step forward into time, right? 00:06:09.470 --> 00:06:11.470 But just out of your cassette tapes, remember 00:06:11.470 --> 00:06:14.589 the Walkman? Oh, man, you had a little fuzzy, 00:06:14.730 --> 00:06:16.189 like, I don't even know what they were made out 00:06:16.189 --> 00:06:19.110 of, the foam things on your ears. And you're 00:06:19.110 --> 00:06:20.769 walking around, and you took your music everywhere, 00:06:20.970 --> 00:06:23.209 and the same thing would happen. You had to take 00:06:23.209 --> 00:06:26.050 a pencil and twist that sucker, right? You know 00:06:26.050 --> 00:06:28.569 what's crazy with the VHS tape, though? My kids 00:06:28.569 --> 00:06:33.350 will never know Be Kind and Rewind, right? Those 00:06:33.350 --> 00:06:37.930 days are gone. Isn't it fascinating that things 00:06:37.930 --> 00:06:42.550 that were so new became obsolete? Isn't it fascinating? 00:06:42.569 --> 00:06:44.949 You had to have it. It was the thing to have. 00:06:45.550 --> 00:06:47.310 If you're going to be the cutting edge of business, 00:06:47.529 --> 00:06:49.490 if you're going to be the one that's out front, 00:06:49.529 --> 00:06:52.529 and isn't it fascinating that those things, we 00:06:52.529 --> 00:06:54.910 laugh at them now because they're obsolete to 00:06:54.910 --> 00:06:57.689 the point where we're like, why would you ever 00:06:57.689 --> 00:07:01.439 bring dial -up back? Just the noise alone of 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:02.620 dial -up. If you don't know what I'm talking 00:07:02.620 --> 00:07:04.920 about, look it up later and listen to it. It's 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:10.100 a good time. But this idea of we're always, always 00:07:10.100 --> 00:07:12.959 moving and trying to grasp something that will 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:15.439 make this moment better and have deeper meaning. 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:17.560 And that's really where we're going to sit for 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:19.519 a few weeks, maybe a few months. We'll see what 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:24.899 God does. It's the fight for meaning. Where do 00:07:24.899 --> 00:07:27.300 I draw meaning in this life? And if you have 00:07:27.300 --> 00:07:30.430 a Bible, we're in Ecclesiastes. Chapter one. 00:07:32.629 --> 00:07:35.730 In Ecclesiastes chapter one, the first verse 00:07:35.730 --> 00:07:39.170 says this, the words of the teacher, the words 00:07:39.170 --> 00:07:42.810 of the teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem, 00:07:42.889 --> 00:07:44.990 the words of the teacher, that word teacher is 00:07:44.990 --> 00:07:48.410 one who gathers people. They gather people for 00:07:48.410 --> 00:07:50.410 the purpose of telling them something. So the 00:07:50.410 --> 00:07:53.089 teacher has gathered people and he is going to 00:07:53.089 --> 00:07:56.230 tell people something specific. Now, there's 00:07:56.230 --> 00:08:00.420 debate on who is actually the author. And it 00:08:00.420 --> 00:08:02.439 comes more from modern scholars. Church tradition 00:08:02.439 --> 00:08:06.720 puts this with Solomon, King Solomon. And yet 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.980 modern scholars have said, well, wait a minute, 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:12.699 this sounds like it was written years later just 00:08:12.699 --> 00:08:16.000 judging by this stuff. But what's pretty consistent 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:17.680 is this, that if there's a different author, 00:08:17.720 --> 00:08:20.800 a different teacher, what we're learning from 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:23.079 is the life of Solomon because he was the greatest 00:08:23.079 --> 00:08:25.500 when it comes to discovering meaning. He was 00:08:25.500 --> 00:08:28.500 the greatest experiment that we have. It would 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:30.420 make sense that it was Solomon. Here's what I 00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:33.279 mean. That Solomon was said to be the wisest 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:36.100 person that ever lived. It's believed that he 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:41.860 spoke and wrote 3 ,000 proverbs. I don't even 00:08:41.860 --> 00:08:46.720 have one. He wrote 3 ,000. He wrote 100 songs, 00:08:47.059 --> 00:08:50.019 right? So you think about somebody who can create 00:08:50.019 --> 00:08:54.600 out of words and create out of sounds, and there's 00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:57.539 100 songs that he's put together that he built. 00:08:58.629 --> 00:09:01.529 You talk about achievement. He built palaces. 00:09:01.629 --> 00:09:06.610 And beyond that, he built entire cities. He built 00:09:06.610 --> 00:09:09.669 the very temple of God, which was a monument 00:09:09.669 --> 00:09:13.250 to God. You talk about somebody who has accomplished 00:09:13.250 --> 00:09:15.990 some stuff. You talk about somebody who has chased 00:09:15.990 --> 00:09:18.370 and done something in the name of God. You talk 00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:22.149 about somebody who has success. His wealth alone, 00:09:22.350 --> 00:09:25.940 his riches. They said gold, silver, livestock, 00:09:26.279 --> 00:09:30.559 servants, you name it, land, he's got it. So 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:32.720 when you talk about wealth and what wealth can 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:36.240 bring, you talk about the idea of having everything 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:39.639 at your disposal, it makes him great for an experiment 00:09:39.639 --> 00:09:44.320 going, can I find meaning in my stuff and in 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:49.200 my money? Is there something more to it if I 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:53.970 amass enough of it? You get to his wives. He 00:09:53.970 --> 00:09:58.330 had 700 wives. And as if that wasn't enough, 00:09:58.409 --> 00:10:02.690 300 concubines. Altogether, he had 1 ,000 women 00:10:02.690 --> 00:10:05.370 in his life. Doesn't sound like the wisest man 00:10:05.370 --> 00:10:07.190 that ever lived. I'm just going to throw that 00:10:07.190 --> 00:10:09.269 out there. Just going to throw that out there. 00:10:10.690 --> 00:10:14.830 But if it's found in pleasure, if meaning is 00:10:14.830 --> 00:10:17.490 found in pleasure, then he's a great test subject 00:10:17.490 --> 00:10:21.570 to go, tell us what you discovered. And over 00:10:21.570 --> 00:10:23.570 the next weeks together, we're going to unfold 00:10:23.570 --> 00:10:27.009 the life of Solomon. We're going to unfold what 00:10:27.009 --> 00:10:30.809 this looks like to put the experiment and meaning 00:10:30.809 --> 00:10:34.450 and the things that we're so captivated by on 00:10:34.450 --> 00:10:37.769 planet Earth to the test of is there actually 00:10:37.769 --> 00:10:42.590 anything there? You think about it. This guy 00:10:42.590 --> 00:10:46.629 is the perfect test subject. I mean, whoever 00:10:46.629 --> 00:10:48.750 is the wealthiest person that you think is the 00:10:48.750 --> 00:10:53.200 wealthiest, Put their name in. Whatever music 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:56.220 icon you listen to because they're the most famous 00:10:56.220 --> 00:11:01.620 one, put them in there. Whatever that looks like 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:05.019 from the innovative that can come up with something 00:11:05.019 --> 00:11:07.340 new, put that person in there. Put the person 00:11:07.340 --> 00:11:11.039 in there that they have ultimate success and 00:11:11.039 --> 00:11:16.720 it's on display for all. And the man that had 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:23.159 everything, riches. success, achievements, women 00:11:23.159 --> 00:11:29.919 in his life, money in his life, says this. Ecclesiastes 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:33.100 1 .1, the words of the teacher, son of David, 00:11:33.179 --> 00:11:35.879 king in Jerusalem, meaningless, meaningless, 00:11:36.220 --> 00:11:40.320 says the teacher, utterly meaningless. Everything 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:44.179 is meaningless. What do people gain from all 00:11:44.179 --> 00:11:46.799 their labors at which they toil under the sun? 00:11:47.309 --> 00:11:50.149 generations come and generations go, but the 00:11:50.149 --> 00:11:54.029 earth remains forever. The sun rises and the 00:11:54.029 --> 00:11:56.470 sun sets. It hurries back to where it rises. 00:11:56.509 --> 00:11:59.269 The wind blows to the south and turns to the 00:11:59.269 --> 00:12:02.409 north. Round and round it goes, ever returning 00:12:02.409 --> 00:12:06.129 on its course. All streams flow into the sea, 00:12:06.330 --> 00:12:09.909 yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams 00:12:09.909 --> 00:12:13.549 come from, there they return again. All things 00:12:13.549 --> 00:12:17.440 are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:21.299 never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill 00:12:21.299 --> 00:12:24.480 of hearing. What has been will be again. What 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:27.480 has been done will be done again. There is nothing 00:12:27.480 --> 00:12:32.039 new under the sun. Is there anything of which 00:12:32.039 --> 00:12:35.639 one can say, look, this is something new. It 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:38.799 was here already long ago. It was here before 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:44.000 our time. No one remembers the former generations 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:47.159 and even those yet to come will not be remembered 00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:51.399 by those who follow them. Welcome to church. 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:55.740 You are glad you fought the traffic to be here 00:12:55.740 --> 00:13:00.980 today. He starts out with meaningless, meaningless, 00:13:01.220 --> 00:13:04.740 says the teacher. Utterly meaningless. Everything 00:13:04.740 --> 00:13:08.919 is meaningless. We don't have a great translation 00:13:08.919 --> 00:13:13.320 of the word. The word is hevel in the original. 00:13:13.419 --> 00:13:18.279 And across, we use this word meaningless. Futile 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:21.360 is another one. But it actually carries a better 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:25.820 picture of smoke or vapor. And so the idea of 00:13:25.820 --> 00:13:28.399 the word is actually found in what's created 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:35.840 when you try to grasp smoke or a vapor. That 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:40.240 what happens is the harder you grasp doesn't 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:43.399 help you hold on to it. So the idea is that the 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:47.120 word is smoke or vapor. And what we are doing 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:50.220 is trying to hold on to something that was never 00:13:50.220 --> 00:13:53.860 meant to be held on to. So when you put it in 00:13:53.860 --> 00:13:56.659 the context of the conversation. You put it in 00:13:56.659 --> 00:13:58.860 the context of the experiment, what he's getting 00:13:58.860 --> 00:14:02.840 at is that everything we think matters is like 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:06.419 trying to grab smoke and hold onto it to gain 00:14:06.419 --> 00:14:09.399 something from it, only to open your hand and 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:13.980 it is empty because you cannot grasp smoke. It's 00:14:13.980 --> 00:14:17.500 meaningless. It's a meaningless task that you 00:14:17.500 --> 00:14:20.539 would go and try and grasp smoke, that you would 00:14:20.539 --> 00:14:23.580 grasp a vapor. and try and hold on. So he says, 00:14:23.659 --> 00:14:25.980 meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless. 00:14:27.620 --> 00:14:30.080 Verse three, what do people gain from all their 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:33.659 labors at which they toil under the sun? What 00:14:33.659 --> 00:14:37.080 do people gain from all their labors at which 00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:40.990 they toil under the sun? That phrase under the 00:14:40.990 --> 00:14:44.769 sun shows up some 29 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. 00:14:44.990 --> 00:14:48.250 Under the sun is our earthly realm. It is planet 00:14:48.250 --> 00:14:51.450 earth where we live. We are under the sun. And 00:14:51.450 --> 00:14:53.710 so when it speaks of it, it's speaking to the 00:14:53.710 --> 00:14:57.549 here and now, a time and place. You are anchored 00:14:57.549 --> 00:15:00.690 in time. This is the only place that you will 00:15:00.690 --> 00:15:03.250 be anchored in time and to a specific place. 00:15:03.909 --> 00:15:06.669 When you think about eternity, eternity is endless. 00:15:07.559 --> 00:15:11.519 And so the idea is, as we build this over the 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:14.100 next weeks together, the idea is like a tree 00:15:14.100 --> 00:15:19.980 that has rings and the rings mark time. That 00:15:19.980 --> 00:15:22.799 what actually the ring is doing as in this time 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:25.940 and this place, it's leaving a mark. What we're 00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:28.919 saying is that we are in the fight for meaning 00:15:28.919 --> 00:15:33.740 in this time and this place right here, right 00:15:33.740 --> 00:15:37.129 now. Not in the fight of my parents' generation, 00:15:37.490 --> 00:15:41.269 not in the fight of my future kids, grandkids, 00:15:41.370 --> 00:15:43.149 great -grandkids, whatever it happens to be. 00:15:43.210 --> 00:15:45.970 I'm here and now in this moment. And in this 00:15:45.970 --> 00:15:49.090 moment, what is the fight for meaning? What is 00:15:49.090 --> 00:15:52.330 it that I'm trying to hold on to? What is it 00:15:52.330 --> 00:15:56.169 that I'm trying to gain more from in this time, 00:15:56.230 --> 00:15:58.590 in this place? And so what's set up here is he 00:15:58.590 --> 00:16:01.600 goes, what do people gain? That word gain. is 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:04.419 an accounting term, right? That when you put 00:16:04.419 --> 00:16:07.700 all your expenses in, what is your advantage? 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:11.879 What is your profit? The idea of labor is all 00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:14.820 of the activity that went into whatever it was. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:17.980 And his summation is that all of your activity 00:16:17.980 --> 00:16:22.200 and all of your resources and all of that into 00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:27.200 the fight for meaning is meaningless. That it's 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:32.480 like trying to grab smoke. What do people gain 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:34.419 from all their labors at which they toil under 00:16:34.419 --> 00:16:37.019 the sun? So here's how we're gonna frame this. 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:42.899 That we fight in this time, in this place. Just 00:16:42.899 --> 00:16:46.580 like a tree marks the year and the season, we 00:16:46.580 --> 00:16:50.940 fight in that space. But you are fighting every 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:53.779 single day for meaning. You are fighting every 00:16:53.779 --> 00:16:56.980 single day for purpose. You are fighting every 00:16:56.980 --> 00:17:00.850 single day. And so what happens here then is 00:17:00.850 --> 00:17:04.210 if the fight is for meaning, what he lays out 00:17:04.210 --> 00:17:06.950 in the next parts is where we will explore over 00:17:06.950 --> 00:17:10.410 the weeks to come. And you could think of it 00:17:10.410 --> 00:17:14.089 this way, that you get into the ring and verse 00:17:14.089 --> 00:17:16.549 three is the bell is rung, the fight is on, the 00:17:16.549 --> 00:17:19.690 fight for meaning. And what he lays out is round 00:17:19.690 --> 00:17:23.450 one. And in round one, starting in verse four, 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:26.480 generations come and generations go, but the 00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:30.539 earth remains forever. The sun rises and the 00:17:30.539 --> 00:17:33.500 sun sets and hurries back to where it rises. 00:17:33.779 --> 00:17:36.700 The wind blows to the south and turns to the 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:40.000 north. Round and round it goes, ever returning 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.079 on its course. All streams flow into the sea, 00:17:44.259 --> 00:17:48.740 yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:53.039 come from, there they return again. What is he 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:56.460 getting at? That you are here now and you are 00:17:56.460 --> 00:17:59.559 giving all of your labor to try and gain something 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:02.799 in this fight for meaning. You are giving all 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:05.140 of your resources. You're giving everything you 00:18:05.140 --> 00:18:09.039 have. And what he's saying is, guess what? You're 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:12.319 gonna do that and you're gonna die and the earth 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:17.160 is gonna continue on without you. That's a sobering 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:20.880 thought. But what he's getting us into is in 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:24.259 the first round of this fight, it's the fight 00:18:24.259 --> 00:18:28.319 for control of time. It's the fight for the control 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:32.259 of time. It's the fight that you want to hang 00:18:32.259 --> 00:18:35.700 on and you want to control this moment. You want 00:18:35.700 --> 00:18:38.660 the moment to build. You want to extend time. 00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:43.279 And the image here is that we need to have of 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:46.920 the sun chasing its tail. The sun never stops. 00:18:48.109 --> 00:18:51.150 And all your toil and all your work and all your 00:18:51.150 --> 00:18:54.130 labor is like the sun chasing its tail or the 00:18:54.130 --> 00:18:56.490 wind going from one side and pursuing itself 00:18:56.490 --> 00:18:59.589 in the other. And he goes, you're never going 00:18:59.589 --> 00:19:02.730 to find the meaning you hope for. And what he's 00:19:02.730 --> 00:19:05.369 getting at, right, what he's talking about is 00:19:05.369 --> 00:19:10.289 in this round of the fight, that when you decide 00:19:10.289 --> 00:19:13.410 that you're going to try and control time, it's 00:19:13.410 --> 00:19:16.029 like grasping at smoke that's not there. That's 00:19:16.029 --> 00:19:23.490 great. Do you do me a favor? There is somebody 00:19:23.490 --> 00:19:34.029 that's triggering a button behind me. Why does 00:19:34.029 --> 00:19:38.029 it matter? Because we're obsessed as humans with 00:19:38.029 --> 00:19:41.950 trying not to age. You ever notice that? It doesn't 00:19:41.950 --> 00:19:43.890 matter what country. It doesn't matter where 00:19:43.890 --> 00:19:46.809 you are. Everybody's got their ways to not age. 00:19:46.869 --> 00:19:49.869 Why? Because if I can control this space, if 00:19:49.869 --> 00:19:53.210 I can control my life, if I can control the time 00:19:53.210 --> 00:19:56.170 of my life, if I can control, and what it's like 00:19:56.170 --> 00:19:59.049 is grasping smoke because guess what? You can't 00:19:59.049 --> 00:20:04.650 control your time in your life. You don't know 00:20:04.650 --> 00:20:10.009 if you just have this moment. And what he's saying 00:20:10.009 --> 00:20:12.009 is, is when you try and take the moment and make 00:20:12.009 --> 00:20:16.250 it more and extend it and have it, he goes, you 00:20:16.250 --> 00:20:18.269 can't because generations come and generations 00:20:18.269 --> 00:20:24.410 go. Round two is found in verse eight. All things 00:20:24.410 --> 00:20:27.250 are wearisome. Amen, said every parent in the 00:20:27.250 --> 00:20:30.650 room. Parents of toddlers, you're like a double 00:20:30.650 --> 00:20:33.650 amen. You know what I'm saying? All things are 00:20:33.650 --> 00:20:39.730 wearisome. More than one can say. nor the ear 00:20:39.730 --> 00:20:43.069 its fill of hearing. The second round is the 00:20:43.069 --> 00:20:46.569 fight for satisfaction. You have desires deep 00:20:46.569 --> 00:20:50.549 inside of you that long to be satisfied. And 00:20:50.549 --> 00:20:53.529 you will give your entire life trying to fulfill 00:20:53.529 --> 00:20:57.410 that desire with satisfaction to be satisfied. 00:20:58.630 --> 00:21:04.289 The idea of, you talk to an addict, right? The 00:21:04.289 --> 00:21:07.950 idea of an addict that, will tell you, I just 00:21:07.950 --> 00:21:11.289 thought the next one would be different. I thought 00:21:11.289 --> 00:21:13.349 the next one would last longer. I thought the 00:21:13.349 --> 00:21:15.390 next one, right? But it doesn't even have to 00:21:15.390 --> 00:21:19.750 be on a substance. The person who is a workaholic, 00:21:19.950 --> 00:21:23.470 that the achievement they have, that they told 00:21:23.470 --> 00:21:26.230 you was the finish line, they got there and realized, 00:21:26.410 --> 00:21:28.170 no, this isn't the finish line. There's actually 00:21:28.170 --> 00:21:31.970 more to be had. I've got to chase the next thing. 00:21:32.779 --> 00:21:34.680 And what they're saying is that they thought 00:21:34.680 --> 00:21:37.019 there would be meaning in reaching and accomplishing 00:21:37.019 --> 00:21:39.380 only to find that when they got there, it wasn't 00:21:39.380 --> 00:21:43.059 enough and they needed something else. The eye 00:21:43.059 --> 00:21:44.440 is never satisfied. Think about it for a second. 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:50.359 3 ,000 years ago, we're told the eye is never 00:21:50.359 --> 00:21:53.599 satisfied. And what do we have today? An infinite 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:59.480 scroll. Why? Because that's built on the fact 00:21:59.480 --> 00:22:02.289 that your eye will never be satisfied. Fully 00:22:02.289 --> 00:22:05.250 what? Satisfied. You're always going to want 00:22:05.250 --> 00:22:07.650 the next thing. So what's created around it? 00:22:07.789 --> 00:22:10.210 An algorithm that tells you and picks up on what 00:22:10.210 --> 00:22:12.230 you like and keep feeding you what you like, 00:22:12.289 --> 00:22:15.109 hoping that eventually, right? Like you're like, 00:22:15.230 --> 00:22:16.869 eventually I'll have my fill. The only problem 00:22:16.869 --> 00:22:19.630 is you don't have your fill. I mean, you can 00:22:19.630 --> 00:22:21.869 put this to anything in life, any desire that 00:22:21.869 --> 00:22:26.180 you have. The desire itself is not bad. But when 00:22:26.180 --> 00:22:29.700 I ask the desire and I pursue satisfaction and 00:22:29.700 --> 00:22:32.000 I ask satisfaction to give me a meaning for this 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:34.960 moment, it was not meant to do so. And it is 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:43.359 like, it is like doing what? It's like grabbing 00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:46.299 that just this time, maybe I'll be satisfied. 00:22:47.839 --> 00:22:50.759 There's an interview with Tom Brady after he 00:22:50.759 --> 00:22:53.430 won his third Super Bowl. And in the interview 00:22:53.430 --> 00:22:56.309 with Brady, they, you know, are celebrating his 00:22:56.309 --> 00:23:00.710 win. And he said, he goes on record saying, why 00:23:00.710 --> 00:23:04.750 do I have three Super Bowl rings and still there's 00:23:04.750 --> 00:23:09.630 something greater for me out there? How is it 00:23:09.630 --> 00:23:11.589 that he reached the pinnacle of what he was going 00:23:11.589 --> 00:23:16.690 for only to go, it's like grabbing smoke. It 00:23:16.690 --> 00:23:18.930 hasn't fulfilled the way that I thought that 00:23:18.930 --> 00:23:21.779 it would. You talk to a gold medalist. especially 00:23:21.779 --> 00:23:24.099 a young gold medalist. They get home, and they 00:23:24.099 --> 00:23:26.099 should be on this high, but the problem is at 00:23:26.099 --> 00:23:28.160 21 years old, they've accomplished what they 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:30.799 set out to do, and now they sit there and they 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:34.660 go, what do I do now? Because this hasn't sustained. 00:23:34.779 --> 00:23:38.279 The medal goes to a shelf. I saw a video, or 00:23:38.279 --> 00:23:39.940 not a video, a picture recently. My wife was 00:23:39.940 --> 00:23:41.559 showing me. It was an estate sale that was happening. 00:23:41.640 --> 00:23:44.880 I don't know the man at all, but in one of the 00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:48.640 pictures, there is a row of marathons from all 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:54.680 over where this person has run. I looked at the 00:23:54.680 --> 00:23:56.680 picture and I went, they're just all medals and 00:23:56.680 --> 00:24:00.740 he's no longer there. They're all achievements 00:24:00.740 --> 00:24:05.440 that he gave hours and hours and hours. And something 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:07.599 tells me that after running the first marathon, 00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:10.859 it wasn't enough. And that's what he's getting 00:24:10.859 --> 00:24:13.279 at, that this idea of satisfaction and desire 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:18.140 will never be filled. Verse nine, what has been 00:24:18.140 --> 00:24:21.269 will be again. What has been done will be done 00:24:21.269 --> 00:24:26.390 again. There is nothing new under the sun. Is 00:24:26.390 --> 00:24:29.730 there anything of which one can say, look, this 00:24:29.730 --> 00:24:33.369 is something new. It was here already long ago. 00:24:33.430 --> 00:24:38.990 It was here before our time. The next round of 00:24:38.990 --> 00:24:41.210 the fight, if you like, that we all deal with 00:24:41.210 --> 00:24:44.769 is the desire for new, the desire for better, 00:24:44.849 --> 00:24:47.829 the desire for innovation, the desire to have 00:24:47.829 --> 00:24:52.700 something novel. Something unique. I lived this 00:24:52.700 --> 00:24:54.960 one out for many years. I used to show up early 00:24:54.960 --> 00:24:57.319 in the morning, stand in line, sometimes sit 00:24:57.319 --> 00:25:00.480 for hours on a pavement in the cold because it 00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:03.960 was October. And that Apple phone, right, the 00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:07.440 iPhone, it's like, guess what? This one is revolutionary. 00:25:08.579 --> 00:25:11.700 You got to have it. And so I'm standing in line. 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:14.400 Why? Because I got to have the next phone. And 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:18.640 guess what? Next year, it's revolutionary. And 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:22.900 the year after, it's revolutionary. The idea 00:25:22.900 --> 00:25:24.759 that there was something new. This one's new 00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:27.920 and it's better. And we're searching for meaning 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:31.339 inside of what is new and what is better. Any 00:25:31.339 --> 00:25:37.200 fans of The Bachelor? Not in church. I see you. 00:25:37.339 --> 00:25:41.539 I see you. What does The Bachelor say? This is 00:25:41.539 --> 00:25:45.359 the most dramatic season ever. We've never seen 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:47.099 this before. And you're like, ooh, something 00:25:47.099 --> 00:25:52.869 new. We call them the new seasons. And we consume 00:25:52.869 --> 00:25:56.170 them only to get done and go, it was a terrible 00:25:56.170 --> 00:26:00.910 ending. They should have done it different. But 00:26:00.910 --> 00:26:04.150 the idea of new, we are consumed with getting 00:26:04.150 --> 00:26:08.569 something new. And we're not void of that in 00:26:08.569 --> 00:26:10.490 church, by the way. If you showed up and I preached 00:26:10.490 --> 00:26:12.569 my message from two weeks ago, some of you would 00:26:12.569 --> 00:26:15.109 be like, ooh, that was a new word. And some of 00:26:15.109 --> 00:26:16.450 you would be like, that's the same message you 00:26:16.450 --> 00:26:18.970 gave two weeks ago. And if you show up next week 00:26:18.970 --> 00:26:21.210 and I gave you the same message, and you show 00:26:21.210 --> 00:26:22.410 up the next week and gave you the same message, 00:26:22.450 --> 00:26:24.130 you'd be like, I'm going to go to a church where 00:26:24.130 --> 00:26:28.730 I can get something new. But let me ask you, 00:26:28.769 --> 00:26:30.250 have you applied what we talked about two weeks 00:26:30.250 --> 00:26:34.549 ago yet? I don't mean that as shade. But what's 00:26:34.549 --> 00:26:35.970 funny is you probably don't even remember what 00:26:35.970 --> 00:26:37.170 we talked about two weeks ago. You're sitting 00:26:37.170 --> 00:26:38.630 there like, I don't remember what the message 00:26:38.630 --> 00:26:41.509 is about. And that's not shade on you. That's 00:26:41.509 --> 00:26:43.859 just the... how we're built and how we're wired 00:26:43.859 --> 00:26:45.619 and the fight we're in that it's always got to 00:26:45.619 --> 00:26:47.720 be new and different and better. You better have 00:26:47.720 --> 00:26:50.059 a new interpretation of the scripture. And when 00:26:50.059 --> 00:26:53.240 we do that, when we do that, when we try to gain 00:26:53.240 --> 00:26:56.440 meaning from something new, it is like what? 00:27:00.779 --> 00:27:05.920 Grasping at smoke and it's pointless because 00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:12.019 you can't hold it. You ever wonder why car companies, 00:27:12.200 --> 00:27:14.559 if they got the best car, have to make a new 00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:20.480 one? And you have to have it? Right? And that's 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:23.720 what he's getting at here. Which, by the way, 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:25.420 just one point on something, because somebody's 00:27:25.420 --> 00:27:27.140 going to be like, well, John, you don't understand, 00:27:27.259 --> 00:27:29.299 because when Elon Musk did what he did with a 00:27:29.299 --> 00:27:31.079 rocket ship, and it went up and it parked itself, 00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:33.680 that's new. No, it's not. It's just travel. People 00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:35.599 have been traveling the whole time. We're just 00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:39.380 doing it differently. Travel is travel, right? 00:27:39.759 --> 00:27:45.000 Like the idea of something that has been, right? 00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:48.880 You go, well, hang on, John. The tubes under 00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:51.700 the ground, they were just communicating. Same 00:27:51.700 --> 00:27:54.339 as what you're doing with your phone. Same as 00:27:54.339 --> 00:27:56.960 what you're doing with your fax machine. It's 00:27:56.960 --> 00:27:59.220 just communication in a different variety. It's 00:27:59.220 --> 00:28:03.000 not new. It's still communication. And yet we 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:05.700 want to go, no, no, no, this is new. Why? Because 00:28:05.700 --> 00:28:07.599 there's something we're trying to grasp at and 00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:15.710 hold on to, like smoke. Verse 11. I mean, if 00:28:15.710 --> 00:28:17.130 you aren't cheered up yet, wait for this one. 00:28:18.150 --> 00:28:24.650 No one remembers the former generations. And 00:28:24.650 --> 00:28:27.430 even those yet to come will not be remembered 00:28:27.430 --> 00:28:32.170 by those who follow them. Okay. I heard this. 00:28:32.170 --> 00:28:35.269 This is not unique to me. But when I heard it, 00:28:35.289 --> 00:28:42.059 it marked me. Everybody has two parents, four 00:28:42.059 --> 00:28:46.579 grandparents, eight great -grandparents. Okay, 00:28:46.619 --> 00:28:49.519 by show of hands, both here, Baghdad, Paulding, 00:28:49.619 --> 00:28:54.819 online fam, show of hands, who can name all eight 00:28:54.819 --> 00:29:00.799 great -grandparents first and last name? One, 00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:06.269 two, three. Okay, there will be a quiz. You need 00:29:06.269 --> 00:29:08.130 to come forward at the end of this and you need 00:29:08.130 --> 00:29:10.230 to write the names because you are the first 00:29:10.230 --> 00:29:14.390 three that I have seen in every gathering. You 00:29:14.390 --> 00:29:16.970 guys, we're not talking about famous people. 00:29:18.470 --> 00:29:20.650 We're talking that you don't know. We're talking 00:29:20.650 --> 00:29:24.069 about people who you have their DNA. And they 00:29:24.069 --> 00:29:27.789 were only three generations ago. And you can't 00:29:27.789 --> 00:29:30.089 even remember the names. Don't feel bad. Other 00:29:30.089 --> 00:29:34.839 than three, nobody can. Isn't that, this blew 00:29:34.839 --> 00:29:39.359 my mind. That my grandson, when he has kids, 00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:44.079 their kids will not remember my name. And yet 00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:48.339 round four is the fight, the round where legacy, 00:29:48.500 --> 00:29:51.579 everybody is trying to build a legacy. Everybody 00:29:51.579 --> 00:29:54.000 wants to be remembered. Everybody is fighting 00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:58.059 to have significance. Everybody wants. to have 00:29:58.059 --> 00:30:00.599 a life that was bigger than just your time on 00:30:00.599 --> 00:30:02.279 planet earth. And we're trying to find meaning 00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:05.160 and build. Don't believe me? There is a ballroom 00:30:05.160 --> 00:30:08.819 being built. Right? Like we're trying to establish 00:30:08.819 --> 00:30:11.400 this earth and a memory and people remember us 00:30:11.400 --> 00:30:14.380 and know our name and be, right? Like this is 00:30:14.380 --> 00:30:19.140 not new. They did a survey recently. It's interesting. 00:30:19.160 --> 00:30:22.359 We call people influencers. They did a survey 00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:24.079 amongst high school and middle school students 00:30:24.079 --> 00:30:27.140 of what careers would you like to have? 60 % 00:30:27.140 --> 00:30:31.759 said they would like to be an influencer. Students 00:30:31.759 --> 00:30:34.460 don't feel bad. 44 % of everybody said they want 00:30:34.460 --> 00:30:40.000 to be an influencer. And when asked why, famous 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.380 and make money. I want to be known. I want to 00:30:44.380 --> 00:30:47.380 be known. Everybody got to know my name. Kobe 00:30:47.380 --> 00:30:51.380 Bryant, right? Kobe takes an off season or in 00:30:51.380 --> 00:30:55.140 the off season. He decided he needed to score 00:30:55.140 --> 00:30:59.579 more points. And in 2001, the end of the 2000 00:30:59.579 --> 00:31:02.099 season, 2001, it's believed that he put on 12 00:31:02.099 --> 00:31:06.480 pounds of muscle so that he could be bigger in 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:08.400 the box, so to speak, so that he could score 00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:12.160 more points. Kobe came out of that season and 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:14.980 did just what he wanted. I'd be curious if anybody 00:31:14.980 --> 00:31:17.440 can quote the stat of that season on his scoring 00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:20.380 points. Right, like what was he doing? I'm gonna 00:31:20.380 --> 00:31:23.019 establish my name. I'm gonna win more, right? 00:31:23.099 --> 00:31:26.279 Like, and he gave an entire off season to gain 00:31:26.279 --> 00:31:30.380 meaning from a point scoring number that now 00:31:30.380 --> 00:31:33.220 people are like, he did what? Back then, I gotta 00:31:33.220 --> 00:31:40.099 look it up to remember. What does he say? No 00:31:40.099 --> 00:31:47.319 one remembers the former generations. When we 00:31:47.319 --> 00:31:52.160 try to make legacy something and we are going 00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:55.599 to gain meaning from our name being known, it 00:31:55.599 --> 00:32:04.519 is like what? It is like grabbing smoke and trying 00:32:04.519 --> 00:32:11.359 to hold on to it. When I find my significance 00:32:11.359 --> 00:32:15.440 in being known by people, Which right now we 00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:19.160 have flags at half mast for a lady who passed 00:32:19.160 --> 00:32:23.759 away. That in two generations won't even have 00:32:23.759 --> 00:32:27.940 a clue who she was. It is like trying to grasp 00:32:27.940 --> 00:32:36.000 smoke that disappears. Turn to John chapter 10. 00:32:39.079 --> 00:32:42.099 Because where we're going is the antidote. where 00:32:42.099 --> 00:32:45.660 we'll be for the next weeks, is speaking specifically 00:32:45.660 --> 00:32:48.559 into each of these rounds and inside of the rounds. 00:32:49.539 --> 00:32:52.000 Well, what's the answer, John? What's the answer 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:55.259 if it's all meaningless? And in John 10, 10, 00:32:55.259 --> 00:32:58.039 it says this, Jesus speaking about the good shepherd 00:32:58.039 --> 00:33:01.339 and being the good shepherd, the thief comes 00:33:01.339 --> 00:33:04.440 only to steal, kill, and destroy. He would love 00:33:04.440 --> 00:33:08.819 to take your life. He would love to take your 00:33:08.819 --> 00:33:12.609 life and make it meaningless. But notice what 00:33:12.609 --> 00:33:16.089 Jesus says. I have come that they may have life 00:33:16.089 --> 00:33:21.190 and have it to the full. So Jesus goes, hey, 00:33:21.230 --> 00:33:26.029 the reason I came for humanity, this struggling 00:33:26.029 --> 00:33:28.349 down here in this time and space, the reason 00:33:28.349 --> 00:33:32.349 I came and stretched out my arms and let them 00:33:32.349 --> 00:33:35.150 put me on a cross, the reason I took your sin, 00:33:35.269 --> 00:33:38.109 humanity, and put it on me, the reason I took 00:33:38.109 --> 00:33:41.220 all your brokenness, The reason I took everything 00:33:41.220 --> 00:33:43.720 that separated you from God and put it on me 00:33:43.720 --> 00:33:47.279 is so that I could put it to death for you. Why? 00:33:47.500 --> 00:33:51.299 So that you can have life and life to the full. 00:33:52.140 --> 00:33:57.680 That word full, some translate it abundant. That 00:33:57.680 --> 00:34:03.240 word full is more than enough. What Jesus is 00:34:03.240 --> 00:34:06.400 saying is this moment in this space and time. 00:34:07.849 --> 00:34:14.389 can be more than enough for you because he's 00:34:14.389 --> 00:34:18.269 giving it back to you. The enemy would love to 00:34:18.269 --> 00:34:21.349 steal it and make it about something else. And 00:34:21.349 --> 00:34:26.369 in this moment, he is giving back to you. So 00:34:26.369 --> 00:34:31.170 what's the antidote? It's that Jesus makes me 00:34:31.170 --> 00:34:36.460 present right here, right now. You get to be 00:34:36.460 --> 00:34:38.179 present in the moment. Why? Because you're not 00:34:38.179 --> 00:34:40.099 trying to extract something greater from the 00:34:40.099 --> 00:34:43.559 moment than just the moment. We're not trying 00:34:43.559 --> 00:34:45.099 to make the moment more than what the moment 00:34:45.099 --> 00:34:50.400 is. We're not trying to get some meaning and 00:34:50.400 --> 00:34:53.480 some significance. We're not trying to control 00:34:53.480 --> 00:34:55.719 the moment. We're just present in the moment. 00:34:57.500 --> 00:35:01.309 And that's more than enough. That you can have, 00:35:01.349 --> 00:35:04.010 we'll read in Ecclesiastes as this continues, 00:35:04.110 --> 00:35:10.489 that you can have joy in this moment. When you 00:35:10.489 --> 00:35:13.389 don't make everything deep, all of a sudden I 00:35:13.389 --> 00:35:16.920 can be present and have joy. I'm not trying to 00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:20.219 fight and work and I can just be present and 00:35:20.219 --> 00:35:22.599 go in this moment. There is joy that I receive 00:35:22.599 --> 00:35:26.039 from Jesus to be present and be joyful no matter 00:35:26.039 --> 00:35:28.800 what is going on. Why? Because I got a savior 00:35:28.800 --> 00:35:31.699 that if he can go to a cross and take care of 00:35:31.699 --> 00:35:33.579 all of that, he can take care of this moment. 00:35:36.019 --> 00:35:43.039 And so I get to just be present and I get to 00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:48.019 just have joy. And his more than enough means 00:35:48.019 --> 00:35:50.639 I'm not trying to grab and control. I'm not trying 00:35:50.639 --> 00:35:53.880 to grasp for smoke. I'm not trying to make the, 00:35:53.960 --> 00:35:59.900 I get to just let go. That even though I don't 00:35:59.900 --> 00:36:01.400 know how everything works out, it's more than 00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:04.460 enough right here, right now because of Jesus. 00:36:06.989 --> 00:36:09.849 And I get to just be present with joy and let 00:36:09.849 --> 00:36:12.510 go. And it allows me, it allows me, don't miss 00:36:12.510 --> 00:36:17.989 it. It allows me to enjoy the moment. I promise 00:36:17.989 --> 00:36:21.550 I didn't do this for sermon illustration. I was 00:36:21.550 --> 00:36:23.650 in my backyard this week and I had this little 00:36:23.650 --> 00:36:27.949 guy hanging out. That's my grandson, Beckham. 00:36:28.809 --> 00:36:30.750 And he's just hanging out. We're in the backyard. 00:36:30.869 --> 00:36:33.769 It's that time of day when the sun's just perfect 00:36:33.769 --> 00:36:35.750 for pictures. And so I'm like, I'm just going 00:36:35.750 --> 00:36:38.190 to take pictures of the kid. I'm just going to 00:36:38.190 --> 00:36:41.230 take as many pictures as I can take. And so I 00:36:41.230 --> 00:36:45.409 channeled some of my inner Simon, who is our 00:36:45.409 --> 00:36:49.210 production director for the whole church, right? 00:36:49.369 --> 00:36:51.650 Like, you can give it up for Simon. He's actually 00:36:51.650 --> 00:36:57.809 doing sound today. He loves to take pictures. 00:36:58.859 --> 00:37:01.780 He's a good follow on Instagram when you need 00:37:01.780 --> 00:37:06.599 to just scroll. But I was like, I'm going to 00:37:06.599 --> 00:37:09.099 capture my inner Simon and take the best pictures 00:37:09.099 --> 00:37:13.480 I can. So I'm just taking pictures. And we bought 00:37:13.480 --> 00:37:18.119 Beckham something. It's in the next picture. 00:37:19.900 --> 00:37:22.039 And the man went to work, right? We're like, 00:37:22.119 --> 00:37:23.900 train up a child the way he should go. Put him 00:37:23.900 --> 00:37:26.699 to work. He's going to mow his grandpa's yard. 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:30.219 And so we give him, and he just loves to push 00:37:30.219 --> 00:37:34.440 things. And so he's doing his work. And as he's 00:37:34.440 --> 00:37:37.579 pushing this, what he begins to notice is what 00:37:37.579 --> 00:37:39.820 comes out of it, and we got it in the next picture, 00:37:39.960 --> 00:37:45.219 are bubbles. And he's so excited for the bubbles, 00:37:45.320 --> 00:37:48.159 right, that he starts to run around in the next 00:37:48.159 --> 00:37:50.239 picture, and he's got, I mean, he's just chasing 00:37:50.239 --> 00:37:54.250 wherever they go, right? And he's just after 00:37:54.250 --> 00:37:56.250 these bubbles. And in fact, one of them ends 00:37:56.250 --> 00:37:57.969 up in the next picture. It ends up landing on 00:37:57.969 --> 00:38:05.309 his head. Look at the joy. You didn't have to 00:38:05.309 --> 00:38:07.769 tell him to be joyful. Why? Because he's just 00:38:07.769 --> 00:38:12.289 present. And what I love is when the bubbles 00:38:12.289 --> 00:38:18.230 disappear, he just goes back to work. And he 00:38:18.230 --> 00:38:20.150 doesn't know he's working because his work's 00:38:20.150 --> 00:38:23.400 not really work because he's just present. And 00:38:23.400 --> 00:38:26.760 the bubbles come up again. And he chases them. 00:38:29.920 --> 00:38:33.940 What happens when you grab a bubble? It pops. 00:38:35.639 --> 00:38:41.500 That's Havel. It just disappears. Because a bubble, 00:38:41.599 --> 00:38:43.719 we would all tell Beckham, a bubble was never 00:38:43.719 --> 00:38:47.719 meant to be held onto. It's to be experienced. 00:38:48.920 --> 00:38:54.369 It's to be present. Team, you can come on out 00:38:54.369 --> 00:38:57.989 because I believe what this picture is, you guys, 00:38:58.010 --> 00:39:01.849 is what we should be right now. I believe we 00:39:01.849 --> 00:39:05.170 should be just present right here, right now. 00:39:07.449 --> 00:39:11.369 And by being fully present, I don't have to worry 00:39:11.369 --> 00:39:15.889 about all the things and trying to get more out 00:39:15.889 --> 00:39:18.090 of this. You don't have to worry about none of 00:39:18.090 --> 00:39:23.599 that. You just get to be present. Like a little 00:39:23.599 --> 00:39:28.480 kid chasing a moment, a bubble. You get to have 00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:32.599 joy. What would it look like in this moment to 00:39:32.599 --> 00:39:35.679 be present and just have joy that God made you? 00:39:37.260 --> 00:39:40.260 That he loves you, that he is for you, that he 00:39:40.260 --> 00:39:43.340 is kind, that he is gracious, that he saved you. 00:39:43.420 --> 00:39:45.860 And the life that he gives you is more than enough, 00:39:45.900 --> 00:39:48.199 which means you're more than enough right now, 00:39:48.239 --> 00:39:53.789 right here. And you just get to. Be present and 00:39:53.789 --> 00:40:00.550 with joy sing. And you get to let go because 00:40:00.550 --> 00:40:03.570 it's not that deep. If you suck at singing, it 00:40:03.570 --> 00:40:08.550 doesn't matter. It's going to disappear anyways. 00:40:11.050 --> 00:40:13.329 But you get to just let go because you don't 00:40:13.329 --> 00:40:15.130 have to make the moment more than what it is. 00:40:15.190 --> 00:40:17.670 I'm just here and I'm present and I'm joyful 00:40:17.670 --> 00:40:20.690 and I get to worship so I can let go and I get 00:40:20.690 --> 00:40:29.010 to enjoy my God that I was created for. I've 00:40:29.010 --> 00:40:31.210 had a song in my head all week creating this, 00:40:31.289 --> 00:40:33.670 like in the background to this message and it's 00:40:33.670 --> 00:40:36.769 this. Who am I that you keep me on my mind? God, 00:40:36.949 --> 00:40:41.769 I am just grateful for you. And I get to just 00:40:41.769 --> 00:40:45.449 be present and go, God, I'm just grateful. This 00:40:45.449 --> 00:40:48.170 life is more than enough and I can be here and 00:40:48.170 --> 00:40:51.690 I can have joy. I can let go and I can enjoy 00:40:51.690 --> 00:40:55.590 because God, I'm just grateful for you. Would 00:40:55.590 --> 00:40:56.989 you stand and worship with us?