Alright, Jesus, I thank you for such a wonderful time or
worship. God, I thank you for meeting
with us so powerfully as we sing your praises.
Lord Jesus, Lord God, and I pray, Lord God, that you were to
change and mould us. Lord God, as as I bring this
final instalment from the book of Ecclesiastes that you would
challenge every single one of us.
Lord God, we pray. Lord Jesus God, our ultimate
goal is that we want to be like you.
They'll go we want to worship you.
We want to be like you Jesus, Lord God, I so I pray that you
would challenge every single one of us as as I preached this
morning. Amen, Amen.
So where did the I've gone what we're going to do is I'm going
to I'm going to just share a bit from the last few lines of
Ecclesiastes and then I'm going to ask if you people to respond
and in a way of responding. I want you to business with God,
and then when you've done business with God, I'm going to
ask you to come and take communion.
So wherever that went, if it could like come to the front,
that'd be great. We could just put it somewhere
that would be awesome. So like I said, we have been all
summer in the Book of Ecclesiastes and I've thoroughly
enjoyed it. And today we are in Ecclesiastes
chapter 12, verses 9 to 14. Now it didn't feel like it at
some points if you've been following it, but Ecclesiastes
actually has a good ending. You read the book and it is just
chapter upon chapter upon chapter of life is rubbish.
Life is meaningless. What's the point of even
existing? It even says at some point says
I wish I was never born. Better is those who are who are
dead than those who are living. Is he Solomon?
He started off so well in life didn't he?
God comes to him and he says to him, he says to him, I will give
you anything, Solomon, what you want.
And Solomon says I want wisdom and knowledge and understanding
of how to lead your people. And God says amazing, brilliant,
I will give you that and more. And under Solomon's reign, the
whole Middle East was under peace.
He extended the borders of Israel far beyond his father
David. But as we've spoken time and
time again during this series is one of the ways that he he got
peace. One of the ways he extended the
borders was by numerous 700 to be exact, marriage alliances he
took on. He married princesses and
chiefs, daughters and any dignitary.
He married them to create these alliances.
And later on in life we read in Scripture that his, his eyes
were turned from worshipping Yahweh, from worshipping the God
of the Bible, from worshipping Jesus to worshipping everything
in anything else. And that's what the book of
ecclesias is ultimately about. It's Solomon trying to find
satisfaction, trying to find fulfilment in anything else
apart from Jesus, anything else apart from Yahweh, the God of
the Bible. And he comes over and over again
and says it's meaningless. I have unlimited wealth, so much
power, but nothing satisfied my soul.
But thankfully, as we're going to read here, the message does
not end with meaninglessness. The message that he brings ends
in hope. So let's read It says not only
was the teacher wise, but also imparted knowledge to the
people. He pondered and searched out all
out and set in order many proverbs.
The teacher searched to find just the right words, and what
he wrote was upright and true. The words of the wise are like
goads. They're collected sayings like
firmly embedded nails given by 1 shepherd.
Be warned, my son, of anything, in addition to them, of making
many books. There is no end and much study
wearies the body. Now all has been heard.
Here is the conclusion of the matter.
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the
duty of all mankind, for God will bring every deed into
judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good
or evil. So Solomon, he's chased after
everything you can possibly imagine and he comes to this
conclusion at the end of this book.
I mean this book ultimately at the end, this is kind of his,
his, his repentance. He's saying, God, I've chased
after everything apart from you, but I want to turn.
That's what repentance means. I mean, I'm turning from these
things and I'm turning back to you.
And in conclusion, he says that fullness of life, that joy, that
life beyond measure is found for those who fear gods and keep his
commandments. Now, when he says fear, he
doesn't mean that you need to be terrified of gods, though.
You know, if you think of Moses or Isaiah or Ezekiel or even the
apostle John, when they met God, when they saw God face to face,
they fell down as though dead. They were terrified because what
what it means to fear God, it means to put him in his right
place, to not just say Jesus is Lord, but to live that he truly
is, that he is Saviour and Lord of your life.
It means approaching Him in a manner worthy of who he is.
I mean, as we've sung, as we've sung already today, worthy is
his name were he is the King of kings, He's the King of
righteousness, the King of glory, He's the King of heaven
and of earth. He rules and reigns over all
things for all times. There is no end to his dominion
and power. He's the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end. See through Jesus, all things
were made and are sustained by his very words.
He commands the rains to fall, the wind to blow, the sun to
shine. At his very commandment He holds
the stars, the sun, the moon, the planets in their place and
moves them through the sky. He formed you, He breathed life
into you. He knows every hair on your
head, and He knows every step that you will ever take.
There is no word that you can say, no thought that you can
think, no place where you can go that He does not know.
He left heavens the throne room. He came to earth.
He was completely, totally obedient to the Father.
He was pinned upon a cross, but death could not hold him.
The grave could not keep him. He rose again, victorious over
Satan's sin and death. And one day he will part the
skies. He will return again and put an
end to all sickness, all death, and make all things new.
That is who we worship. That is our King.
That is our Jesus church. Do you live in the reality of
who he is? Does your life reflect Jesus
Lordship over you? So Jesus said that to love him
is to do what he says. To love him is to do what he
said. The Bible, it is full of
commandments, it's full of wisdom.
But Jesus said that the whole of the Bible, the whole of the law
and the prophets could be summed up in one saying, What do you
say what he said, he said, nor most he said, the greatest
commandment, love the Lord your God.
Yes, he said, Isaac, can you put that up?
Thank you, we're out. Well done.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, with
all your minds. This is the first and greatest
commandment and the second is like it.
Love your neighbour as yourself. All the law and the prophets
hang on these two commandments. You see, to fear God, to do, to
love God is to do what he says, to be obedient to him.
You see, if someone says I love God, I love Jesus, but they
don't do what he asks them to do.
And Jesus says, you don't love me, we can sing worthy is your
name. Jesus, I love you.
But if we leave this place and we go and live our lives without
him as our Lord, she says, you don't love me.
You might have a really nice voice, but you don't love me.
See, I mean, what does it mean to love?
I mean, let's have some examples.
How can you love each other? What can you do for each other?
To love each other? Be kind, Spend time with people.
Got myself some others, huh? Give them a hug.
Yeah. Physically.
Was this not given out today? Feed them.
Yeah.
Clothe people. Yeah.
Is that where are you looking?
I think you were looking. Yeah, all these things.
And it's it's about doing things.
It's about putting others before.
Yes. To love someone is to put others
than before you. Jesus said this in John 15.
No greater love than this than one who laid down his life for a
friend. And then Paul would expand on
that in Romans and he'd say, not Jesus not only died for friends,
but actually he died for us when we were his enemies.
That's how much Jesus loved us, and that's what he calls us to
do, to love one another. But the problem is we find that
really hard because we live in a world of self.
I can't remember who brought it, so sorry.
But someone brought over this summer.
They brought and they pointed out that the book of
Ecclesiastes, a lot of it is Solomon going woe is me.
It's all about me. It's all about my faults.
It's all about what I want. It's all about how I can achieve
things. It's all me, myself and I.
And we live in a world which is centred around me, myself and I
what I do, what I want to do, I eat what I want to eat.
I go where I want to go. I be who I want to be.
And so we need to practise church, we need to practise
defeating the God of self. We need to practise and the best
way we we defeat the God of self is by loving others is by
putting others first, by serving one another.
See when we serve one another we go from me to you.
When we serve one another, we lay down our needs for others.
We think less of ourselves to think more of others.
In doing so when we serve one another, we not only love each
other, but actually we love Jesus because he asks us to do
it, because he tells us to do it, because actually we're
acting just like he did. Jesus said in Mark 10, even the
Son of Man did not come to serve.
But sorry, did not come to be served.
Let's get that right. But to serve.
Even the Son of Man did not come to serve, but to I can't get
him. Even the son of man did not come
to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for
many. Jesus, the one who who, how was
the only one who's fully entitled to say universe serve
my needs. People bow down before me.
I mean, if you know your if you know mythology, you know the
Greeks. They believe that the gods
created us so we could serve them.
Of Jesus, who deserves to be served.
He said He came to earth not for us to bow down to him, but for
him to serve us. And therefore how much more
should we serve one another? I This is not true of this
church, but it is a well known stat in most churches that 20%
of the people do 100% of the work.
And that shocks me. That shocks me because church we
should be the most servant hearted, the most loving people.
We are the only ones on the planet who Jesus has revealed
himself to as the servant king. And therefore, how much more
should we want to serve and love others give of ourselves for
everyone else to serve people see as a Christ follower, as a
Christian, we should be the first to volunteer.
I want to help you. I'll can I do that for you?
How can I love you? I mean, it's been brilliant on
our on our WhatsApp group this week.
Just so you know, Ray who came back not too great after after
voted seeing the amount of people who've just gone and
visited him spending time with someone is serving them.
You are having to any you are having to sacrifice something
you could have done elsewhere to go and see someone to spend time
with them. Church.
We should be a people who actively look for opportunities
to serve and love one another to love each other as God loves us.
See, for a husband to love his wife is to serve her.
For a wife to love her husband is to serve him, to look, to
love and serve one another. I know some of you, some of you
really recently have been baptised, which is brilliant and
it's a way of being, being honouring and when doing what
Jesus asked her to do. But actually that doesn't define
you as a Christian. Saying a prayer doesn't define
you as a Christian. What Jesus said, those who are
mine do what I say. So you know, when, when we look,
when we gather as leaders and we look, when we kind of pray
through and we look through the people in the church, we, it's
quite easy, quite often to see who's doing well, who's spending
time with Jesus, who's worshipping him, who's who's,
who's having who's, who's being really impacted by God at the
moment because we can see them. They, we can see them say, what
can I do? We can see the people who are
really running strong with God are those who are willing, who
are desiring to serve, to love one another.
We hear stories of people going to see people, stories of people
wanting to serve, people wanting to wanting to put others 1st.
And we say, this is this is this is what Jesus calls us to do.
And as a, you know, as a lead ship team, as an L chip team,
now I can, I can wholeheartedly say, you look at Shagen, look at
Julian, look at dads. Actually, these guys are servers
first before they are leaders, they are servers.
And that's what we look for as we bring on other elders,
deacons, other people in positions of authority want to
see, do they serve? Are they using their gifts and
their talents, what God has given them to serve and love one
another? So I've got a challenge for you
church, every single one of you. And you may be saying, well,
this isn't my church. Well, I've still got a challenge
for you that you can do first challenge or you can do the
first one. Definitely first one is who can
you serve this week? How can you change your life,
Natalie, which I thoroughly recommend when the preach comes
out. Natalie Williams shared on the
second night Awesome. And she shared of a of a person
who loved running and one day they went running and they
passed a homeless person and got stirred them to provide for
them. So they went, they ran back
home, made a sandwich and then ran it to that person and gave
it to them. And they said for the next
however long three years, this person, they would, before they
went for a run, they would make a bag full of sandwiches to give
out to people who were in need. So there was nothing extra
really except for making some sandwiches in their life.
They were just incorporating how can I serve people around me?
So what can you do this week to serve someone?
Secondly, how can you practically help serve the body,
especially here on a Sunday when the body gathers together?
I mean, that may mean joining a a a serving team.
That may mean thinking creatively of how you can help
or serve people, maybe give people lifts.
It will mean being creative, having to sacrifice some of your
own time to serve the body. And let me just go through.
I mean, serving is more than what we do on Sundays.
But I just want to highlight some things that we do do on
Sundays. And I just want to thank people.
Actually, we have a great hospitality team that Kofu heads
up. And let me just say, if you are
a hospitality and I'm including standing at the door and
welcoming people as well, but if you are there, you are not just
turning up early to lay tables and boil water.
You're not just there to be a :) at the front door and hand out,
hand out some bags to people who are guests.
Now, actually you are creating an atmosphere that facilitates
friendship. You are creating an atmosphere
where real community can start to happen, where the non
believer, where the guest can come in and start to make real
friendships. You're making a you're making an
atmosphere where people can have, where people can start to
be discipled, where you can find out what's going on in someone's
life and where things need picking up and not.
You are. It's a vital, vital role to the
church life. If you were on sound team, you
are not just turning up to lay some cables.
And play with the iPad to get the sound levels a bit a bit a
bit nicer. Actually, you are creating an
atmosphere to make it easier for us to corporately worship God so
that we can all hear, so that we can all be LED by the Spirit.
Now you may be saying, well, I'm not a sound engineer.
I could never serve on that. Or let me just say things that
we're really good at. It's great that we serve on
those things, but things that we're not that good at, we don't
understand how much more loving is it to learn those skills?
How much more loving that's sound And that's many other
things. I mean, when we come to sound
team, if you're tone deaf, please don't volunteer.
But but I mean, you can lay cables.
I mean you can lay cables children's team.
I think the people out there who serve on kids are the most like
Jesus in the entire church. There is in when in those of you
who serve and for those who are out there now, they are not.
You are not just babysitting. You are teaching our children
with what you read, the songs that you sing, but also you're
teaching them with your actions that you are willing to serve
them. That they are not just second
class citizens, but they are worthy of your time to serve.
That we want to hear from them. We want to, we want to, to grow.
We want to see the Holy Spirit grow in them.
Not to mention you're serving the young parent who's trying to
have that conversation without a toddler around their ankle.
You're serving. You're serving them more than
you can know. And so thank you so much.
See, I know that not everyone can serve on a rota, but
everyone can serve. Everyone can serve.
Let's put about the main verse again, Solomon says Solomon says
the word. The words of the wise are like
goats. Their collected sayings are
firmly embedded nails given by 1 shepherd.
Be warned, my son of anything In addition to them of making many
books. There is no end and much study
wearies the body. What he's saying simply is love
Jesus and stop making excuses. You can you can write a load of
books of how to do it. You can you can procrastinate
all you want you we can fill the world with books.
But he says stop adding to what I've said.
There are certain things that shepherd, the Good Shepherd
Jesus has given us, which like nails firmly hammered into the
grounds, do what he has said. You see, he says, for God will
bring every deed to judgement, including every hidden thing,
whether it's good or evil. You see every sacrifice you make
every time you put someone else first, others may not see it.
Those up at the front quite often get a thank you well done
as many of you who serve and no one ever sees it.
You know what Jesus does? Jesus sees it and he not only
will acknowledge it, but one day he will thank you face to face.
He will thank you face to face. And actually Jesus says even
more. He says when you serve others,
when you serve your brother and sister, when you serve the non
believer, when you serve those who can't, Jesus says you're not
only serving them, but who are you serving?
You're serving him as well. I'd love ask Lizzie, could you
just come in, just play something for us.
I just want to end, I know breaking tradition.
For those of you who've been here for a while, we usually
take communion on the 1st of the month.
That's next week. But just breaking tradition.
We're going to take it today as well because what I'd love is
for us to respond by taking bread and well, gluten free
bread and juice. And what I want is for us to,
I'm going to pray. But as Lizzie plays, I want you
to hear from the Holy Spirit. What is he saying?
I want you to ask him. Ask him, how can I serve God?
How can I change my life so that I can serve better?
Maybe God will bring to you, remind you again of things where
he's saying, I want you to do this, I want you to do this.
And you've been saying late to God, late to God, and he's
saying right this morning, I want you to repent of that and
go and do it. Maybe some of you, God has been
saying for a while, I want you to follow me.
I want you to follow me. I want you to come to me as Lord
and Saviour. And then when you've done
business with gods, when you've told him what how you want to
serve, that you want to give yourself again to him, when
you've repented and said sorry for ignoring him, when you've
done business with him, I want you to then come and take juice
and bread. No one's going to be taking a
tally. You don't have to.
But as a response to Jesus of his bloodshed, of his body
broken for us, we're going to ask him, what do you want of me?
Commit to do it and then come and eat and drink.
So I'm going to pray and you can take 5 minutes, You can take 30
seconds, but I encourage you do business with God.
Jesus. God, I thank you that you, the
Lord of the universe, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace,
you came not so that we would serve you, but you came to serve
us so that we may know you, God. And I ask you right now, God,
reveal to me, reveal to us right now.
Is there anything you want me to do?
Do you want me to respond to you for the first time?
Maybe I, and therefore I gladly give my life to you.
Jesus. Have you been asking me to
serve, to seek your face? And I've been putting it off and
saying no, God, I'm sorry of that.
And today I'm in business and I'm going to run after you
again. Lord, God, I pray, Lord Jesus,
that you would reveal to us again how you want us to act
now. God, I thank you that it doesn't
matter what we've done, what we've said, what we've thought,
but there's always forgiveness at the foot of your cross.
Go. We thank You that your blood was
spilt and your body broken so that we could know you go
through them this morning. We take of your bread.
We take of your, of your, your, your, your wine, your juice as a
remembrance of what you've done, as a commitment to say from here
on in. You are my Lord, you are my
Saviour, you are my king. I praise you.
Just following on on what Ben brought earlier today and during
the week, God brought an image to my mind about what it really
means to be a member of the church.
And it was. We were all in front of a
building and we're all like really happy about this building
that we all have though we're all together.
But the name of the building was everybody's name.
So it was in wasn't CCB Blackpool, it was Tommy, it was
shagging, it was called for, it was Ben, it was Jenny.
It was literally everybody's name as the name of the
building. And what that brought to me was
the church is not just about a certain individual, but it's
about each one of us. And we own it.
And the way we serve is treating it as it's ours.
It's your own building. It's your church.
You are the owners. You are the it's, it exists
because of you. And and I feel like we should
bring that spirit in serving in the church because it's yours.
And just the same way you are are at home, it's your home.
You contribute to your home to make it work.
And you know it's your thing the same way the churches are thing.
And like Ben said during the preach, it's there's nothing too
small or too big. It's yes, it might not be on the
road to, but everybody can serve because it's yours and it's you
know it belongs to you. Thank you.
Shogun just reminded me that part of the church is out there.
We're just going to pray together.
Lord Jesus, thank you that you died for us, all of us.
Lord, we thank you that you didn't just die, but you rose
again. You demonstrated that death has
no power over us, that we live a life to live in service to one
another, but principally to serve you, our Lord.
Lord, I pray for us as a church that that would be our heart,
Lord, that we would be worshippers of you in spirit and
truth, filled with the word going out, impacting the world
out there. And Lord, I pray that for the
kids next door, Lord, I pray that you would fill them with
your word and your spirit, Lord, that they would take the lead
from us. Lord, that they would their
floor would be our ceiling. Lord that they would be excited
to share what you did for us. Lord, we don't take it as a
trivial act that you were God, that you came to earth, you
died, and you rose again. Just tada.
Lord, you were a man. You knew what it was to live as
we live. Lord, our heart is to serve you.
Lord, have your way. And Lord, I pray that as we
serve, we would be united together with one purpose, to
serve you. Lord, that we would find our
home in your church. Thank you God, thank you for
what you've done, for making the way possible.
Thank you for the wisdom that Solomon had, the words that he
shared, and for what we've learnt.
Lord, may we apply it to our lives.
Thank you God.