1 00:00:02,920 --> 00:00:05,880 Good morning. Once you grab your Bible and 2 00:00:05,880 --> 00:00:09,080 head on over to Ecclesiastes, we're going to be in chapter 3, 3 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:12,520 Ecclesiastes chapter 3. It's great to have you with us 4 00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:14,280 this morning. I know there's many that 5 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:15,800 probably visiting for the first time. 6 00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:19,440 Maybe you popped in to witness family getting baptized or 7 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:21,760 whatever the case might be. But if you don't quite know the, 8 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:25,400 the framework to the book of Ecclesiastes, very Simply put, 9 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:29,560 it's written by King Solomon in his all that days, he's he's 10 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:31,840 looking back on life. You know, the Bible calls 11 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:35,040 Solomon the wisest man that ever lived, but he's looking back on 12 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:37,160 his life with a purpose. He's actually looking at your 13 00:00:37,160 --> 00:00:39,480 life too. And, and what we give ourselves 14 00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:41,880 to. And he's examining life, 15 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,200 examining the things that we, we build our lives on, the things 16 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:48,160 we pursue, the things we sell our souls for, the things that 17 00:00:48,160 --> 00:00:51,520 the world tries to sell us. And he starts asking the 18 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:55,360 question is, do you realize how much what we pursue and what we 19 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,360 give ourselves to is actually meaningless? 20 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:01,640 Meaningless. Meaningless is how it starts. 21 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:05,080 Very sorry. The voices in my head like to 22 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:08,120 show their ways. Meaningless, meaningless. 23 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:11,720 Everything is meaningless. And he's been going after 24 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:17,480 riches, work, honor, pleasure, wealth and treasures. 25 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:22,080 And he's asking the question, what of this has any eternal 26 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:25,280 value? He's like a grandfather or a 27 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,040 father leaning over his children and saying, the last thing I 28 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,480 want you to do is sell your soul for that which is meaningless. 29 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:35,480 Do you spend your entire life building this, this legacy, 30 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:38,720 climbing up the ladder of success, only to realize as you 31 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:41,040 breathe your loss that the ladder was leaning against the 32 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:44,400 wrong wall? And over there is stuff that is 33 00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:46,440 eternal. And so we've been doing this 34 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:49,320 over the last few weeks. You can catch up on our website 35 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:53,240 or on our app because it is a rather intriguing book and very 36 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:55,440 challenging. But today, what he does in 37 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:59,280 chapter 3 of as we saw last week is he begins to unpack time. 38 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:01,920 But what I want to look at, what I want to show you today is that 39 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:06,400 he unpacks time as a weapon, a tool for you and I to discern 40 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:09,680 the difference between what is meaningless and what has eternal 41 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:11,600 value. He looks at time so that you and 42 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:14,640 I can be recalibrated from the immediate to the eternal. 43 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:17,920 So we're going to take a look at that Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 44 00:02:17,920 --> 00:02:20,000 11. We're just going to look at one 45 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,280 verse and this is what it says. If you're not there, we'll pop 46 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,520 it up on the screen for you. But this is Solomon writing and 47 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:28,640 he says he has made referring to God. 48 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:31,800 He has made everything beautiful in its time. 49 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:35,240 He has also set eternity in the human heart. 50 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:39,560 Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 51 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:42,720 This is like the tripod that He puts this lens on. 52 00:02:42,920 --> 00:02:44,760 He has made everything beautiful in His time. 53 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:47,240 He has also set eternity in the human heart. 54 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:51,960 Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 55 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:54,880 Going to look at those two points, those three points 56 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:56,360 there. I know it kind of seems a little 57 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:58,120 bit philosophical, but bear with me. 58 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:00,360 We're going to build some understanding and unpack this 59 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:02,400 together. But firstly starts off simply by 60 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:06,680 saying He has made everything beautiful in its time. 61 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:08,480 Rory touched on this a little bit last week. 62 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:12,040 He's made everything beautiful in its time. 63 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:16,120 One of the biblical scholars actually paraphrases it and says 64 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:19,400 the following. He says God's purposes, the 65 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:22,120 things that God's busy with that which has meaning. 66 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:28,200 God's purposes unfold at the intersection of place and time. 67 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,320 Not just place, but place and time. 68 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:37,640 God's purposes unfold at the intersection of place and time. 69 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:41,520 If you're wondering what all these XS are, it's not X marks 70 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,040 the spot dig for some treasure, although I suppose in one sense 71 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,440 it is. If you recognize that God's 72 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:53,040 purposes intersect or unfold at the intersection of place and 73 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:55,440 time, you begin to understand a little bit of what he's going 74 00:03:55,440 --> 00:03:59,360 after in Ecclesiastes 3. And so when we met on Friday, I 75 00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:02,480 asked the guys to put some of these intersections of place and 76 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:05,000 time at key places. They're not just randomly put 77 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:08,280 across the building because I actually wanted you to see as 78 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:11,240 you came in that there are some spots that God has been doing 79 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:14,600 something extraordinary. Like one of them is up on the 80 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:18,120 stairs over there. Because we have sat and watched 81 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:22,240 as a community as the Denison family had a smear campaign 82 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:26,560 against them. And Front Page Report, Sunday 83 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:31,360 Times and EU magazine and here to stand day after day. 84 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,480 Lord, I will stand in this place trusting you. 85 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:36,680 I wait for your time to deliver me. 86 00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:41,200 And we've seen that deliverance come also ask for one to be done 87 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:43,040 on that side because there's a mact of mine. 88 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:46,520 He came out of prison. We didn't do prison time 89 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:48,320 together. We were in different times. 90 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:53,160 But when he came out of prison, he was in prison. 74 charges 91 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,600 laid against him by Interpol. And when he came out, he came 92 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,160 into three CI and I got to meet him over there and I watched as 93 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:02,320 God got a hold of him in this place in his time. 94 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:07,000 Another one I asked was to be done by the the baptismal pool. 95 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:11,000 I mean, we've seen a lot of place and time, a lot of 96 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:15,080 intersecting and a lot of God's purpose unfold around that pool. 97 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:17,160 And I wanted it to be around the pool, not in the pool. 98 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:20,520 Because the one for me over the years that struck me and, and I 99 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:23,560 was reminded of and prepping for this week was I remember a guy 100 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:26,240 coming up to me, sharing me, sharing his testimony with me. 101 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:28,560 And he said he was going through a divorce. 102 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:32,560 And God kept every time he came to church on a Sunday, God kept 103 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,040 getting a hold of his heart. He could feel his heart racing. 104 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:37,520 It's like, this is so weird. And if I'll go say, no, you must 105 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:38,920 go get baptized. And he kept saying to God, 106 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:43,040 listen, my life is a mess. I can't even keep a marriage 107 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:46,120 together. She hates me and rightly, Sir. 108 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:47,640 And you want me to go get baptized? 109 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:49,960 Imagine what people are going to say if I go and get baptized. 110 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:52,520 Oh, who does he think he is? Holier than thou? 111 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:56,040 Go sort your life out first. And God kept on saying to him, 112 00:05:56,040 --> 00:06:00,160 no, no, no, baptism is not about what you've done, it's about 113 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:04,200 what God has done. So eventually he just said, OK, 114 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:06,200 I'm going to get baptized and came. 115 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:08,840 And he sort of kept it under the radar because he didn't really 116 00:06:08,840 --> 00:06:10,480 want anyone to know. And then he suddenly realized, 117 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:11,480 oh gosh, everyone's going to know. 118 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:15,360 It's going to be on the screen. And he said, to this day, he 119 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:17,720 doesn't know why, but he messaged his ex, said, hey, 120 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:19,040 listen, I'm getting baptized today. 121 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:20,760 We'd love for you to come and witness it. 122 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:25,680 And she came and he says that she was standing on the side of 123 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:28,720 the baptismal pool, intersectional place and Tom. 124 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:31,200 And when he came out of the water, she looked in those eyes 125 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:34,880 and said God has done something in this man, gave him a second 126 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:37,920 chance, didn't sign the divorce papers and they're still married 127 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:43,280 as we speak. God's purposes unfold at the 128 00:06:43,280 --> 00:06:47,600 intersection of place and time. God makes all things beautiful 129 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:50,320 in his time. The other one I wanted was right 130 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:54,360 there. I think one of the hardest 131 00:06:54,360 --> 00:07:00,000 things was watching a friend of mine come back from New Zealand, 132 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:04,080 having lost his three children, officiating their funeral here 133 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:08,600 in this auditorium, but yet watching God restore his faith 134 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:11,840 and his family right there, right there. 135 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:15,880 God makes all things beautiful in his time. 136 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:17,320 We're talking about this in the week. 137 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:21,720 And someone actually sent a photo of her child whenever she 138 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:24,240 brings him to church, he always lies down on the floor. 139 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:26,400 He can actually show the the picture lies down on the floor, 140 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:32,000 puts his ear to the ground. Oh, does it so often that she 141 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:36,400 eventually took a photo because it's like, what are you up to in 142 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:39,720 the comments where I think my son is lying on the floor 143 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:44,080 because something in that little heart is going God is busy here 144 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:48,120 in this place. I'm listening is this is time is 145 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:50,920 this this time I know comment was actually she thinks more of 146 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:54,280 us should come and just lie and say, Lord, this is this is what 147 00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:55,600 I bring. This is what I need. 148 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:59,680 Would you come and intersect your place and your time. 149 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:02,560 This is what I bring to you. This is what lies shattered on 150 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:03,760 the floor. I need you. 151 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:08,560 I need you, Lord, I need your purposes to unfold in this 152 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:11,600 place. Could it be at this time where 153 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:14,480 you're sharing and there just happened to be a cross on the 154 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:18,800 floor when we're having a, a staff meeting on Tuesday and it 155 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:22,760 all said to the guys, why don't you come and stand and pray, you 156 00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:25,960 know, if you haven't quite had that intersection of place and 157 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:28,400 time and when when we left, someone took a photo of that. 158 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:33,280 Can you see the tears? Why tears? 159 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:39,200 You see sometimes you stand at the intersection of place and 160 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:41,440 time. The time hasn't happened yet. 161 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:47,480 You know, you're standing here. And then there's tears for one 162 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:52,920 of two reasons, either tears of trust or tears of turmoil. 163 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:57,200 How long, O Lord? How long until you answer this? 164 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:01,200 And the problem with tears of turmoil is that that often 165 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:03,720 results in US coming to the conclusion that it's 166 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:06,720 meaningless. That's meaningless. 167 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:12,160 I sat next to my dad's bed praying that you would heal him. 168 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:15,240 You didn't hear my prayer. You didn't answer my prayer. 169 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:18,000 You took them from me. You took them from my family. 170 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:22,080 And I had to grow up under a single mother looking after me 171 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:25,160 and trusting in you. Those prayers meaningless. 172 00:09:25,680 --> 00:09:30,000 A God who heals meaningless. Well, I trusted you. 173 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:32,880 I brought my work situation to you. 174 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:36,280 I didn't want to do it. And you said trust me and I did. 175 00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:38,960 And I lost my job. That that's meaningless. 176 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:42,760 Where were your your purposes at the intersection of that place 177 00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:46,800 in time? We had a conversation and I'm 178 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:48,760 worried that we have tears of turmoil. 179 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:53,320 A wife caught her husband having an affair. 180 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:58,600 God placed in her heart a grace and a faith. 181 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:01,480 Lord, you've done it before. You can do it again. 182 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:05,960 Would you come and do that in in my marriage forgave him, 183 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:11,760 welcomed him back in loved on him, cooked for him and he's had 184 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:15,400 another affair. God meaningless meaningless. 185 00:10:16,680 --> 00:10:20,080 I don't know if you know this, but tears are unique to you. 186 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:23,680 Like your fingerprints like snowflakes. 187 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:27,200 Not only are they unique to you, but they are unique to your 188 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:31,200 situation. So scientists, scientists do 189 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:35,920 gathered one of their friends said, OK, we picked you to chop 190 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:38,040 some onions. So chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, 191 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:39,120 chop, chop. And then they gathered some 192 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:41,880 tears and take a look at what what an onion tear looks like 193 00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:45,440 under a microscope. Beautiful. 194 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:50,440 Hey, that's an onion tear. And then they found someone who 195 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:54,440 was going through grief and they gathered one of their tears and 196 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:56,880 put that under a microscope. Take a look at what tears of 197 00:10:56,880 --> 00:11:00,360 grief look like. You can almost see the pain and 198 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:06,400 the angst and the anxiety. You know the Bible says in Psalm 199 00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:10,920 56, verse 8, you keep track of all my sorrows. 200 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:14,000 You've collected all my tears in your bottle. 201 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:17,040 You've recorded each one in your book. 202 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:21,320 Why? Because He makes all things 203 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:25,840 beautiful in it's time. He might still be gathering 204 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:30,080 those tears. You might be in play saying 205 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:33,960 Lord, now would be a good time. He's gathering those tears 206 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:37,000 because the time will come when he will make all things 207 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:40,680 beautiful in his time, the intersection of his place and 208 00:11:40,680 --> 00:11:42,800 his time. That's where his purposes 209 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:45,360 unfold. So last week, if you were here, 210 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:49,760 you might have been traumatized by Rory dropping that Battlestar 211 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:53,680 Galactica Star Wars 5000 piece Legos set. 212 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:59,040 It's like 18,000 Rand. It's his masterpiece, 5000 213 00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:03,200 pieces. And he goes and all the geeks in 214 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:07,640 the auditorium, you cut me deep, Shrek, you cut me deep. 215 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:11,440 So I went to him this week. I said, I'm so glad you used 216 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:13,760 Lego as that example because I don't know. 217 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:18,120 I'm sure you know, Lego actually comes up in the New Testament 218 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:21,960 very, very often. You didn't know that. 219 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:26,920 So the New Testament is written in Greek. 220 00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:29,320 It's it's ancient Greek. They call it Koine Greek. 221 00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:31,800 And then it's translated into English. 222 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:34,480 But in the Koine Greek, you've got the word logos. 223 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:36,040 Have you ever heard the word logos? 224 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:39,520 It means word. In the beginning was the logos, 225 00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:43,640 and the logos was God word. This is referred to as the logos 226 00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:47,560 of God, the word of God. But when that word is given as 227 00:12:47,560 --> 00:12:52,120 an instruction, logos becomes Lego in Greek. 228 00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:57,400 And the very first time Lego pops up in the New Testament, 229 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:00,840 it's right at the very end of the genealogy in Matthew chapter 230 00:13:00,840 --> 00:13:05,320 1 doesn't begin, not right at the very beginning. 231 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:08,080 You know, when Adam and Eve blew it, Surely we should have had 232 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:10,240 Lego come along and fix the problem. 233 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:15,160 Not even Abraham, Isaac or Jacob, not with Moses or Joshua, 234 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,480 not even David. But the Bible says in the 235 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:26,800 fullness of time, at just the right time, Matthew 1, Mary was 236 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:31,240 the mother of Jesus, who is called, who is Lego Messiah? 237 00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:35,120 Messiah. It's the name given to the one 238 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:38,040 who saves, who restores, who redeems. 239 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:42,720 Just like when you buy Lego, you get that little booklet they 240 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:45,240 said, put this piece first, that piece second. 241 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:52,480 In the fullness of time, God's purposes unfold at the 242 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:59,920 intersection of place and time. Lego, the Messiah sent, and this 243 00:13:59,920 --> 00:14:02,760 is the first thing that Solomon tries to help us understand. 244 00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:06,960 The God will make all things beautiful, but he'll do it in 245 00:14:06,960 --> 00:14:09,920 it's time. And sometimes you're standing 246 00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:12,560 there and sometimes you're crying tears of turmoil. 247 00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:16,600 Sometimes it's tears of trust. But the very first thing, the 248 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:19,960 very first way you and I can discern, is this meaningless or 249 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:23,560 is this eternal? As we recognize God's purposes 250 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:28,120 will unfold at the intersection of place and time, and maybe 251 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:30,040 you're here and all you have is place. 252 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,920 How long, O Lord? How long, O Lord, He makes all 253 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:36,760 things beautiful in its time. So that's the first thing that 254 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:41,480 he puts down. The second thing it says he's 255 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:44,080 also set eternity in the human heart. 256 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:49,280 Now this is where it gets really hard because essentially he's 257 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:53,920 saying, OK, He makes all things beautiful in its time, but 258 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:57,720 sometimes that time it's only an eternity. 259 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:01,920 I don't like that he didn't ask me about that. 260 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,880 I'm like, surely should have had some counsel before you decided 261 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:09,600 on, you know, it's like, where's this God of power, God who's 262 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:13,080 able, You know, I'm a, I'm a fast food 2 minute noodle. 263 00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:16,640 Just add water, instant pudding, get what you want without 264 00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:19,320 waiting kind of guy. I don't know if you saw that ad 265 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:21,240 back in the 80s. It's a credit card. 266 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:25,680 And the slogan was with this credit card, you can take the 267 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:28,800 weight out of wanting. That's my love language. 268 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:39,720 Nike, do it now. But waiting in eternity. 269 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:50,120 There is a church in Europe who was taken to court by the City 270 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,480 Council because they'd painted one word on their roof. 271 00:15:54,480 --> 00:16:04,520 Not Jesus, not hell, eternity. And the people who are so up in 272 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:07,080 arms about the simple painting of a word. 273 00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:09,440 Eternity on. I don't want to think about 274 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:11,320 eternity. I want to set my heart, my 275 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:15,200 affections, my life on now. I think it is the single most 276 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:20,320 strategic element of the enemy's tactics on you is getting you 277 00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:24,920 infatuated and consumed with the now, the immediate at the cost 278 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:28,720 of the eternal so much so that we just we don't even want to 279 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:30,880 think about it. Don't don't put your stuffs on 280 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:32,240 me. Eternity. 281 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:34,480 I want to I want to sleep with her now. 282 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:38,680 I want to have that affair now. The slogan in the UK, life is 283 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:42,640 short, have an affair, life is short. 284 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:45,680 You breathe your last, your face, and give an account to 285 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:49,120 your Creator. But life is short. 286 00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:50,960 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do it now. 287 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:57,120 Last week, if you were here, we didn't have 7 baptisms. 288 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:01,520 We had one Louis. And if you were here, you would 289 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:03,680 have heard, I think it was Clinton was hosting, said, hey, 290 00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,280 listen, Louis got terminal cancer. 291 00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:08,400 Let's just pray for Louis before he gets baptized. 292 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:12,040 And then we went to the last group on Thursday night and I 293 00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:14,839 heard the back story. And so I phoned Stefan, who did 294 00:17:14,839 --> 00:17:17,319 the baptism. I said, listen, just clarifies 295 00:17:17,319 --> 00:17:17,880 this. True. 296 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:21,480 So what had happened was he'd been walking a road. 297 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:23,520 Stephen had been walking a road with Louis for a while. 298 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:27,200 And he'd gone to Australia, I think on the 28th of November, 299 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:30,960 got a phone call from Louis. Louis had just gotten news from 300 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:33,160 the doctor. It's terminal. 301 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:36,360 And the doctor said to Louis, you've got weeks to live. 302 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:40,440 And Stephen's heart obviously breaking. 303 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:44,160 Oh gosh, that's heavy, heavy, heavy. 304 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:48,600 And then Louis asked Stefan, would you do my funeral? 305 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:51,120 You're a Christian, right? Can you do my funeral? 306 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:55,640 And I love Stefan's answer. He said, I don't think I can 307 00:17:55,720 --> 00:18:00,120 bury you do your funeral, but I'd love to bury you in the 308 00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:05,200 baptismal pool on Sunday. You see, because that is what it 309 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:11,400 represents. It's this imagery of us being 310 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:16,360 buried in Christ but raised to eternal life in him. 311 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:21,000 You couldn't know how I bumped into Stefan this morning and 312 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:22,800 said, listen, is he? Is Louis still alive? 313 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:28,560 Because these are the questions you ask about a man who's got 314 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:30,480 terminal cancer and weeks to live. 315 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:37,000 He might be haven't heard from him today, but I can tell you, 316 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:42,040 Louis filters absolutely everything through one word. 317 00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:45,720 Eternity. What about you? 318 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:53,160 Have you considered eternity? When you stand before your 319 00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:57,520 creator and you have to give an account, are you seriously going 320 00:18:57,520 --> 00:19:00,400 to try and weigh up? Well, I was, I was, I was better 321 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:04,040 than Joe. I was almost as good as Pitt. 322 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:09,360 You got to let me in. But we are to give an account 323 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:15,320 for every thought, every action, every deed, even giving an 324 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:19,760 account for the things we didn't do and knew we ought to do. 325 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:24,400 There is only one way that eternity can find its place and 326 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:29,680 time, and that is at the cross. And so he says to us, he says 327 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:33,160 he's also said eternity in the human heart. 328 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:35,440 What's interesting there is he doesn't say, he said eternity in 329 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,960 the Christian heart, that he said eternity in the human 330 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:41,840 heart. This is supposed to bother us 331 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:44,560 like that eternity on the roof of a church. 332 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:50,000 It's supposed to call us to an account to let us calibrate and 333 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,880 evaluate everything that we do Eternity. 334 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:55,360 You know, I was, I was thinking about Louis and I thought, you 335 00:19:55,360 --> 00:20:00,080 know what? Sometimes I think my prayer 336 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:05,640 life, my, the pain I'm going through, the grief, the tears 337 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:07,400 that I'm crying. I'm like, oh Lord, if you can 338 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:10,800 just come through for me. God is leaning over and saying, 339 00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:13,000 no, you know what? You, you don't need to be 340 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,200 rescued. You just need a recalibration. 341 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:19,520 You're so consumed with the immediate and it's Hevel, the 342 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:22,320 meaninglessness Hevel that's bringing all these headaches. 343 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:24,520 And I'm like, Lord, you've got to give me that business deal 344 00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:25,560 and you've got to come through for me. 345 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:28,160 And, and she has to say yes. And everything I get and it's 346 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:30,680 just sucking the laugh out of me as I'm trying to grab at smoke 347 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:33,080 and go say like, let me just recalibrate. 348 00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:36,840 Not rescue, just recalibrate if you can begin to have an 349 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:42,160 understanding of eternity, that everything echoes into eternity. 350 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:47,360 The problem with Louis is that he's got terminal cancer. 351 00:20:47,360 --> 00:20:49,520 The problem with me is I've got hurry sickness. 352 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,720 And if I had to guess, you probably have hurry sickness 353 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:54,400 too. It's the thing. 354 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:57,720 Shout out to Ross Roger if you ever, if you're ever looking for 355 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:00,560 a good church in Durban, Olive Tree, Ross. 356 00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:06,520 He's an amazing man, gifted preacher, wonderful teacher, and 357 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:08,760 he helped me see the hurry sickness. 358 00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:10,320 In my soul. It's a thing. 359 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:13,120 So here are some of the signs that you've got hurry sickness. 360 00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:16,040 Firstly, you're extremely irritable. 361 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:21,680 Now, don't nudge your husband. I know we're talking about 362 00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:26,200 people at the other church. Yeah, but think about. 363 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:28,040 It's irritable. Yeah. 364 00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:30,160 If you don't believe me, just wait till tomorrow morning. 365 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:31,920 You're trying to get your kids to school on time. 366 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:33,640 It's time to leave. And they don't even have their 367 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,640 shoes and socks on and they haven't packed a lunch box. 368 00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:39,600 And you just in the red. Maybe you won't even have to 369 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:42,640 wait till Monday. Maybe today you go home and your 370 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:47,080 wife says, babes, can we just stop at Woolies to get bread and 371 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:51,040 milk? Every man ever has fallen for 372 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:57,760 that one because the the male species hears the words bread 373 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:03,360 and milk. How long can it take to get 374 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:09,080 bread and milk? So we we fall for it every time. 375 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:10,640 I'll just stay in the car, babes. 376 00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:18,160 You don't get bread. Only to find out she is shopping 377 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:24,400 for the Ethiopian children who haven't had food and she's heard 378 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,360 that the Ukraine Russia war is coming South and we need to 379 00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:30,600 stock. And you're so irritable at the 380 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:32,280 end of this. By the time she climbs in, you 381 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:33,720 got to go for marriage counselling. 382 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:36,640 Don't fall for it man, Save yourself. 383 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:39,640 But what you will find is that you're extremely irritable. 384 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,880 Love it. Too hypersensitive. 385 00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:47,640 One comment just drives you into the red. 386 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,720 Restless. How did your quiet time go this 387 00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:53,320 morning? If you had one? 388 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:54,440 Maybe you just slipped right through it. 389 00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:58,440 But you know, highly likely you have a quiet time and suddenly 390 00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:00,440 you've got to remember this. I've got to put that on my To Do 391 00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:01,920 List and I haven't checked this e-mail. 392 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:03,120 What's the weather like for tomorrow? 393 00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:06,760 It's like ADHD on steroids. Restlessness, well, 394 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:09,760 multitasking, you know, maybe you're going to do that today. 395 00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:14,680 You go home and you're going to binge Binilanders and you're 396 00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:19,000 going to scroll the gram like, like, and you're going to have a 397 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:22,440 deep, meaningful conversation with your husband and he's going 398 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:28,040 like, I wonder why emotionally numb. 399 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,200 You want to care. You know, it's right to care, 400 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:33,800 but you just don't care. Because so much is going on in 401 00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:34,760 my life. I'm so busy. 402 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:38,280 There's so many fires I've got to put out or you isolate 403 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:40,200 yourself. When last did you go to the life 404 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,720 group? I bet you if I had to ask you, 405 00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:45,840 why not? It's just it's such a busy 406 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:49,000 season. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, 407 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:50,600 hurry, hurry. Sickness. 408 00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:54,760 And so he says. God has set eternity in the 409 00:23:54,760 --> 00:24:02,800 human heart as a Plumb line, as a scale, as a lens for you and I 410 00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:06,640 to measure what is immediates and what is eternal, what is 411 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:12,720 hevel and what is tov. So we started off, He has made 412 00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:14,120 everything beautiful in His time. 413 00:24:14,120 --> 00:24:17,280 He's also said eternity in the human heart, and then he wraps 414 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:20,560 the two up with this. Yet no one can fathom what God 415 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:23,680 has done from beginning to end. So on one side, He's made 416 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:28,400 everything beautiful in his time and then on this side he says, 417 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:31,120 yet he has also set eternity in the human heart. 418 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:35,160 And we've got this tension and instead of resolving the two, he 419 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,320 drops the mic and says, yet no one can fathom what God has done 420 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:41,520 from beginning to end. You know, I love, I love looking 421 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:44,560 at the original Greek and Hebrew that scripture was written in. 422 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:47,040 And I was so surprised, you know what it says in this one. 423 00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:50,200 Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 424 00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:53,360 It's it's 3 letters. WTF. 425 00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:02,760 But you know what WTF means? He doesn't know what the fathom 426 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,920 your kids can explain. When you get home real, he's 427 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:17,920 going like what? This just doesn't make sense to 428 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,080 this mind. This just doesn't mean what the 429 00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:25,960 fathom if no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to 430 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:27,080 end. And the reason why we get to 431 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:29,760 that place, the reason why we stand and we look and we say 432 00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:34,320 yes, but in criteria is of turmoil rather than trust is 433 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:37,520 because of one word in that sentence, the word God. 434 00:25:39,120 --> 00:25:41,080 I want to tell you a little bit about God. 435 00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:45,840 So I discovered something recently that has literally it 436 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:48,880 has changed my prayer life. I think it's changed my 437 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:51,080 worldview and has most definitely changed my 438 00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:54,520 priorities. I wasn't really paying attention 439 00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:57,400 at school first time around, but the second time around I've 440 00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,040 discovered something about our planets. 441 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:03,520 Now the Earth is, it's pretty big, right? 442 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,000 It's the, it's the biggest planets I've ever lived on. 443 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:10,360 And what I discovered was that the sun in the sky is a whole 444 00:26:10,360 --> 00:26:12,400 lot bigger. No, it doesn't look that way. 445 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:18,480 But if you had to take this planet, you could put 1.3 446 00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:23,520 million Earths into our sun, 1.3 million Earths. 447 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:25,400 Now, I don't know when last you walked to Joburg. 448 00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:30,000 I was asked to swim from Robben Island to the Cape Coast. 449 00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:34,680 You know how far that is. And this is like on planet 450 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,120 Earth. And there's 1.3 million of those 451 00:26:37,360 --> 00:26:40,240 that would fit into our sun. Now here's what I discovered 452 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:47,120 thanks to my sponsors. If you were to shrink the sun 453 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,920 down to here because I mean I'm from the bluff, so you really 454 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,000 have to make things basic and you've got to draw me pictures 455 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,280 so you're welcome. But if you are to shrink our sun 456 00:26:55,280 --> 00:27:01,560 down to this size now remember there's 1.3 million earths. 457 00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:06,200 Now when it's this size, you are not even a speck of dust you on 458 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,200 you know the the gamma rays atomic level small. 459 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:16,200 OK, now I want to introduce you to the biggest star that you 460 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:18,800 will see in the NASCAR tonight. I want to introduce you to a 461 00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:25,280 star called Beetlejuice. Now, if you were to use the same 462 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:31,960 scale and put it up against Beetlejuice, OK, this is our 463 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:35,200 sun. There's 1.3 million of us inside 464 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:40,320 this. You're looking at that 465 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:50,160 Beetlejuice, they say it is so big it is twice the size of 466 00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:57,560 Earth's orbit around the sun each. 467 00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:05,680 I've figured that with a bluff. IQ, Beetlejuice and Psalm says 468 00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:13,720 when I consider the heavens, that which you created with your 469 00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:19,040 fingertips, the sun, the moon, the stars which you put in place 470 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,160 who is man, that you are mindful of him. 471 00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:30,080 And I say this because not because so you get an idea of 472 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,000 just how big God is, but so you have an idea of how powerful God 473 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,520 is. See, it doesn't say, when I 474 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,000 consider the fact that you only needed to use your fingerprint, 475 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:43,240 your fingertips, it says this because it's a power display. 476 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:45,800 You know, like you've got something on your on your bowel 477 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,760 and you just get rid of there. You got something here, 478 00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:55,720 fingertips. When I look at that and I 479 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:58,520 recognize that you have so much power. 480 00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:02,000 The Beetlejuice just needs your fingertips. 481 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:06,480 And Beetlejuice dwarfs the Sun, which dwarfs the Earth, which 482 00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:13,520 dwarfs me, which dwarfs what I'm facing, dwarfs my decisions, 483 00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:23,800 dwarfs my Hevel. If his power dwarfs your power, 484 00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:29,880 even your power, Simon, if his power dwarfs your power, so too 485 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,600 surely his wisdom dwarfs your wisdom. 486 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,840 Then Isn't it reasonable to consider the fact that maybe 487 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:43,480 there will be many things that you don't understand yet? 488 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,760 Maybe there'll be many things and many ways that fall on your 489 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:55,560 mind and your IQ and and your world view and your situation. 490 00:29:55,560 --> 00:30:01,000 You go like God. I just don't understand how do 491 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,400 we hold these two intention? Well, he says no one can fathom 492 00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,160 what God has done from beginning to end. 493 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:09,760 He's basically saying sometimes, but you just don't know. 494 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:13,600 How do you hold them in tension? Faith. 495 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:21,600 A faith in the fact that God doesn't introduce himself to you 496 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:30,120 as God, but as Father. A faith that the same God is 497 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:33,840 collecting your tears and putting it into a jar. 498 00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:41,200 Same God who stands there and says there will come a time when 499 00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:44,760 I'll make things beautiful, but it will be at my place and my 500 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,160 time. How do we hold these two 501 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:49,720 intention? The God who unfolds his 502 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:53,560 purposes, the intersection of place and time. 503 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:58,400 We recognize that he's the God of Betelgeuse. 504 00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:03,040 And the God who bottles your tears, we recognize that he's a 505 00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:07,960 God of glory, but a God who wades into your grief. 506 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,240 He says, I'll hold you, just bring it to me. 507 00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:14,600 You're recognized. Whatever it is that you're 508 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:17,400 facing, whatever it is you're up against, whatever questions are 509 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:20,720 in your mind that you can trust to God, He says, my purposes 510 00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:25,160 will unfold at the intersection of place and time. 511 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:31,000 And would you trust me? Would you trust that God to be a 512 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:36,640 man of His word even in the midst of your misunderstanding? 513 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:37,840 Thank you.