Judgment - Ecclesiastes 3

You know, when I was a kid - some of you already know this - I grew as a pastor’s kid, and our whole life revolved around the church. And I want to be clear - I loved the church. I know some people have had really rough experiences with the church, but every church I have been a part of has been a wonderful family of God. The little old ladies who ran Sunday school - they were like extra grandmas. The youth leaders were like aunts and uncles to us - my church friends were practically my brothers and sisters. I liked being a church kid. I liked being a pastor’s kid. But where I grew up, being a pastor’s kid did not make you a cool person. Honestly even just being a Christian in the public schools on the east side of the state - pretty much guaranteed you were going to get made fun of. And I’m not really sure why I wanted to be seen as cool, like why did that matter? Why did I care? But I did! I’m kind of a people pleaser, and I just want people to like me. And I remember one time, our church was doing a weekend retreat at a campground. I think it was labor day weekend. And our church didn’t take up the whole campground - there were other groups there. And so it was my church friends, but also some other random kids we met that weekend. And we did a lot of sitting around campfires hanging out. I was 12 or 13 or something like that. I was just about the age where boys start to notice that girls can be very pretty. And there was a pretty girl that weekend. She was not a church kid, but we all hung out all weekend. But on the last night one of my friends let it drop that I was the pastor’s kid. And from across the circle this girl leaned forward in her camp chair and said, “You? You are a pastor’s kid? But you’re so normal!” [laugh]. And it’s amazing, because that was like 25 years ago - but I still remember it because I was so flattered. I’m a pastor’s kid, but…like, normal. Oh - I’m a Christian, but I’m not like weird about it. I wore that as a badge of honor for years - even after I became a pastor! I had this mentality, I’m going to take this book - and I’m going to try and make it seem normal. I don’t want to weird people out. I don’t want to challenge people too much. And I don’t want to speak poorly of my previous church, but I was part of a denomination where we were rewarded for watering things down. Don’t be one of those weird Christians. Don’t make people feel bad. Don’t talk about judgment. Don’t challenge people too much. Our whole motto was “we’ll just be nicer than all the other churches, that will make us cool.” Literally, and I’m a little bit ashamed to admit this, but I went years before I used the word “sin” in a message. Because that’s judgmental! Start talking about sin - that’s a weird word. That’s going to make people feel bad. When I started in ministry, I had a shallow message - and it created shallow believers. 

But here’s the thing about God’s word [hold up the bible - these are deep waters. As I studied the bible week after week, God revealed himself to me. I don’t know if this makes sense, but it was like my heart rediscovered Awe. Even though I was a pastor, I had so much to learn. I think I had used God as a bumper sticker that you slap on a moral code of niceness. But as the years went by, and I kept reading and studying and teaching this book - it did a work in my heart and I sort of rediscovered who and what God actually is. It was like a second awakening in my life. And so I started to talk about the weird stuff more. I got more vocal about sin, I started challenging people more. It was sort of like I stopped saying, “Jesus is a good idea, if you feel like following him, and I started saying Jesus is necessary for your life.” And that was not always popular. I remember one time I preached a message where I said, “everyone needs Jesus in their life.” And I was so nice about it, like, guys - seriously, it was SUCH a softball message. I was still in my people pleasing mode. I had an older fellow come up to me after the service. Regular attender, he had come to the church for years - we’ll call him Joseph, because that’s not his real name. He was probably in his early 70’s, sort of an odd guy, single, came by himself. And he comes up to me and says, “I’m not sure I agree with that stuff about needing Jesus.” And then he said something that shook me to my core. He said, “I go to a lot of funerals, I’ve a lot of older friends who have passed away over the years - and at every funeral, sometimes they were good people, sometimes they were bad people, sometimes they knew God, sometimes they were atheists - and at all the funerals the pastor always seems to say ‘I’m sure this person who died is up in heaven with God now.” and so I think I’ll be okay, even if I don’t agree with you about Jesus. I’m actually here to meet someone, and church women are just nicer.” [pause]. Gross. Now I want to be clear - if you believe in God, and want to find someone special who also believes in God and shares your values, there’s no better place to look than a church, that’s wonderful. But if you’re not a Christian, I pray you are here to meet Jesus, not hit on little old church ladies. But I’ll be honest, that’s not actually what I thought was gross about what he said. What bothered me was the, “I don’t think it matters if I agree about Jesus’ line. This man had been in my church for years, practically every Sunday, and that’s what he believed. Something broke inside me that day. I had failed him as his pastor. There’s a freight train of death and judgment heading towards this man and I had never warned him - why? Because I wanted him to like me more? Because I wanted to be seen as one of those nice Christians who makes people feel good instead of telling people the truth and helping them grow closer to the God who loves them?  What kind of standard is that for a pastor? What kind of standard is that for any person?

Last week we started a series called “Living With The End In Mind” and for the next month or so we’re in the book of Ecclesiastes. And if you missed it last week, we talked about how Ecclesiastes is sort of the moody teenager of the bible. It’s kind of a grumpy book! It has SUCH important truth, but there’s a reason a lot of people avoid this book. It can be heavy, and weird, and judgmental - but what I promised last week, and I want to repeat it here is that if we can unlock how to read this book, it will flood our life with meaning and purpose. For a lot of people who learn how to read Ecclesiastes, it actually becomes their favorite book. 

And so if you want to grab your bibles, we are going to be in Ecclesiastes chapter 3. If you have a physical bible, that’s wonderful - if you would like one, we have some on the bookshelf right there in the back and if you don’t own a bible, that is yours to keep. Please - we love helping people get good at using this book. Take it, it’s yours. If you’re on your phone, make sure you toggle the translation to NLT - that’s New Living Translation. There’s lots of good translations, but today I’m using the NLT - and it’s easier to follow along if the words match. Okay, so chapter 3 starts out, [read v.1-8]. Now if you know any part of the book of Ecclesiastes, it’s probably that part right there. It’s very famous, used at a lot of funerals. It’s a poem about life, and the time we spend. For everything there is a season. But here’s the important part, he says, [read v.9-11a]. That first part I read, it’s a beautiful poem - it’s got structure and rhythm, a time for this and a time for that - but to be honest, you could read that at an atheist’s funeral and nobody would even notice - but it’s not actually saying anything. But then in verse 11, he says, “for God has made everything beautiful for its own time” - and what I don’t want you to miss is that God is in charge of the timeline. It takes no faith to say, “sometimes there are good days and sometimes there are bad days” - but it takes all the faith in the world to say, “God is doing something beautiful with both my good days and my bad days.”

And then, in that same verse, verse 11 - it says [read v.11]. He has planted eternity in the human heart. What’s does that mean? [pause]. God made you for eternity. You were not designed by your creator with an expiration date. You were made for more than the 80-90-whatever years you get in this life. It’s like we talked about last week - there is nothing in this world that can satisfy you. This world, even the best stuff, when the glitter fades - this world will disappoint you. But that’s good news because you were not made for this world! God has taken the concept of eternity, the dream, the hope, the truth - and placed it in our heart. That’s why for a lot of us, maybe even before we followed Jesus, we look around at this universe and we say, “there’s got to be more.” We cannot accept the idea that this limited life is all there is to the universe - because God has placed eternity in the human heart. If you go back 30 years, there was the rise of something called New Atheism. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hutchinson - they all wrote prominent atheist books. And a bunch of them said, “religion is on its way out” - and they were sort of taking a victory lap. This is the age of reason - we’ve got logic, we’ve got science, religion will inevitably continue to shrink. They predicted that people would abandon all that faith nonsense and usher in the age of people glued to reason and scientific evidence. And the movement sort of peaked in 2008, and then to everyone’s surprise - it started to decline! Despite their best efforts, the youngest generations were STILL searching for God. Even with all the logic and science and reason - God has placed eternity in the human heart! And so a lot of them are growing up outside of the church - but that doesn’t stop them from searching for that something more that their heart is telling them is out there. It’s why, in the age of science and reason and logic they made 7 paranormal activity movies. Those movies are not even that good - but the series took off because people are fascinated by the idea that there is something more out there. It’s why healing crystals are a multi-billion dollar industry. It’s why the Wall Street Journal ran a story in the year of our lord 2023 on the rise of Pet Psychics and Pet Mediums. They charge $500 an hour so you can talk to your dead pet. That’s a real story - you can google it. Some people have moved away from Christianity for this reason or that reason, but they cannot escape the nagging idea of eternity, and so they are still searching for it. They’re making stuff up and falling for con artists, false gods and fake religions - but my point is that they are still searching, because God has placed eternity in the human heart. 

Verse 12, [read v.12-13]. God is in charge of the timeline, and he has placed eternity in the human heart - and then, [read v.14-15]. There’s an old quote that says, “history doesn’t repeat, but it sure does rhyme.” Did you know that Israel has had 15 wars with Palestine in Gaza since 1948. 15 wars. That’s a new war every 5 years. And of course we remember the bombing of Iran? Holy smokes that was huge news - we took out half their navy in response to some nasty stuff they were getting up to - messing with oil, and of course part of it was that they were expanding their nuclear capacities and research into weaponization. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about - operation praying mantis, ordered by President Ronald Reagon in 1988. [pause]. Oh wait - was there something more recent? History may not repeat, but it sure does rhyme - or, as the bible puts it, what is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before. And please hear me - I’m not making light of war or the horrible things armies are doing to one another right at this very moment. But I’ve seen a lot of people respond to the modern moment with stress and anxiety, fear about the end of the world - and into that uneasiness what the teacher has for us is the reminder that God is in charge of the timeline. We made it through last time, we’ll make it through this time, and we’ll make it through the next time too. Or maybe we should make it less global. In your life, do you ever feel stuck in cycles? Stuck making the same mistakes, dealing with the same frustrations, the same disappointments? And into the cycle of “history that rhymes”, let me ask: “How does the existence of a timeless God change the narrative?” Without God, I get up here and start saying, “there’s a season for everything” and that feels kind of meaningless or even hopeless. But if we understand that there is a God out there, in charge of all the pieces, it changes everything. If you find yourself looking at life, and you’re starting to be cynical - assuming the worst, in your family life or your job - remember that God is in charge of the timeline. Or maybe you’re starting to give up hope - dealing with chronic pain or the never ending job hunt, facing rejection - remember God is in charge of the timeline. Or maybe it’s a patience thing - you’re starting to feel like life is never going to get any better - with your kids or your marriage, or even just society in general - and every month or year that goes by, things always seem to be a little bit worse, and your patience is spread so thin and you’re starting to give up - remember that God is in charge of the timeline. A timeline where God steps into a world where history is stuck on repeat changes everything.

[pause, maybe sit down]. To be honest, I struggle with this next part. Because that all sounds really inspiring. There’s a God who is in charge of the timeline, he has placed eternity into our hearts - and even when we are feeling stuck - a timeless God breaks repetitive cycles. You might be sitting there thinking, “Well, I don’t get why people don’t like this book. It’s all good news so far.” And you know - I’m a recovering people pleaser - so I’m so tempted to stop there and not read the next section. Verse 16, [read v.16-17]. There it is - judgment. He looks at the court system and shakes his head in disappointment. They’re corrupt! Bad guys are getting off for free - without punishment. But then, it’s almost like he’s comforting himself, in due season - talking about timing, a season for everything, in due season God will judge everyone. And it’s kind of funny, if you think about it - because I feel like we have such a love/hate relationship with judgment. When we see injustice, when we hear about corrupt courtrooms - it breaks our heart and fills us with righteous anger. How many of you have seen a news story in the last week that tickled your sense of justice? Like, you saw something that happened in the news that filled you with righteous anger. It made you want to see evil punished. Maybe we like judgment more than we realize. When someone hurts you, and you know they’ll never see it. You long for God’s judgment. When grieving parents are denied justice for their child’s killer, and there are no words for the terror and fury that can consume their hearts and overwhelm their broken home. You long for God’s judgment. When politicians hand out pardons to their family members, or protect pedophiles or make billions doing insider trading - we long for God’s judgment. When we experience injustice - we don’t even have to have an intellectual argument about it - there’s just this instinct, this primal anger about it. And there’s a reason for that, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 16 says, [“This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”] Right in there, on our hearts, right next to the concept of eternity - God put his law. That’s why we long for justice, and corruption ticks us off so much. That’s why we long for evil to be put in its place. [pause]. You know, other people’s evil. We’ve talked about this before - we’re very comfortable with judgment for OTHER people, but we do not want God’s judgment in our lives. 

The teacher in Ecclesiastes points out that in due season, God will judge everyone. And then Romans 3, verse 23 tells us [read v.23]. Well - shoot, that probably includes me. The good news the teacher has for us today is that we were made for eternity, but before eternity we will face judgment…and that’s good news too. You may have heard Romans 6:23 - the wages of sin is death - and I’ve had friends who will push back on that. Why is sin so costly? Why is judgment so important? Why couldn’t God make it so that the punishment for sin was a slap on the wrist? Why does it have to be so extreme and weird? Judgment makes God seem so unreasonable. I’ve literally had people tell me, “judgment goes against love. You can’t be a loving God and judge people.” And I realized a lot of people don’t understand what judgment is, they don’t understand what sin does. God didn’t make sin expensive, he made your life valuable. If your life was reduced down to the couple of decades you have on this earth - sure, judgment feels crazy. But you were made for eternal life. Your life is so incredibly valuable to God. He wants you to have that life of eternity that he put in your heart. And sin destroys life! Sin rips you away from the source of eternity. That’s why the cost of sin seems so high, because God has made life so valuable. If your life didn’t matter, God wouldn’t bother with judgment. So in sort of a weird reversal, judgment is actually really good news. It gives meaning to our life to realize that the things we do, the way we live, actually matters. The God of the universe, who created everything there is, who holds the very cells together that make you - you. He values you. What I want you to realize today is that when the world encourages you to sin, encourages you to live however YOU want to live and ignore the way of Jesus, they are encouraging you to make your life cheaper. Worth less. And into that chaotic self-absorbed mess, the beautiful judgment of God tells you - I believe you are worth more than this. 

Now I have one more thing to show you before we close out, right at the very end of the chapter. The teacher is feeling a little gloomy, a little dejected and hopeless. Verse 22, [read it]. [grin like an idiot] No one will bring us back from death to enjoy life. It’s kind of like the teacher in Ecclesiastes is like “I’m grumpy and hopeless because this life is all I can see and it’s super disappointing” and then thousands of years later we can see, ‘Oh, of course he’s cranky! The missing piece is Jesus!” Hebrews 2, verse 14 [read v.14-15]. Last Sunday, Pastor Josh gave a great message at Center Students about the gospel, and he shared a clip from a pastor named Josh Howerton. It was a powerful story, and I thought I’d close with it here. Once upon a time in a far off country there was an ancient King who was known to be simultaneously the most loving and the most just king who had ever existed. Eventually it was discovered that someone had been stealing from the king’s treasury and because the king was just he issued a decree. He said that when they caught whoever was stealing from his treasury, they would receive 10 lashes in front of the entire kingdom, as a penalty for their theft. They sent out that decree, but the theft continued. Eventually he sent out another decree - forty lashes would be visited upon the person who was caught stealing from the king’s treasury. But watch this - 40 lashes was a death sentence. As weeks went by, it was eventually discovered that none other than the king’s daughter was the one stealing from his treasury. When the news broke, a question began to ripple through the kingdom, “how could the most living king who has ever existed kill his own daughter?” Some people thought he would just pardon her, but then how would he be just? Some people thought that he would punish her, but then how would he be loving? Eventually the king examined it and he said, “the law is clear, sin has taken place, justice must fall - the sentence must be passed.” And the king’s own daughter was brought in front of the entire kingdom, and when she got to the front she was laid over an executioners table, and tied to the table. The executioner ripped open the back of her shirt and stepped back. But just as the executioner lifted his arm to deliver the first of the forty lashes - the king stood up from his throne and cried out and said, “Stop!” Everyone was in dismay. Silently the king walked down into the square. Went forward, bent over his daughter, wrapped his body around his daughter on the stump, ripped his own shirt off his back, looked back at the executioner and said, “Now hit her.” The executioner objected, “I can’t hit her without hitting you.” The king replied, 40 lashes. 40 lashes fell on the back of the king draped over the back of his daughter, and the king died and the girl went free. And that was done for you. Because God is just, punishment for sin has to be paid, but because God is love he chose to make that payment himself. ANd here’s what I want you to understand - when Jesus hung on that bloody cross, and he pushed up on his nail pierced hands, choking to death on his own blood, his final words with his last breath were “It is finished.” You were made for eternity, sin was not. Death was not.

Ecclesiastes is a heavy book full of hard truths, but what I hope you’re starting to see is that those hard truths are actually beautiful. And they’re beautiful BECAUSE they’re hard. That was what I needed to figure out when I was starting out in ministry - back when I was still trying to be a people pleaser - watering down the teachings so people would like me more. But it’s too important to water down.  So when you walk out of here today, I want you to let eternity speak significance into your life. What I mean by that is someday you will die. And when you die you will face judgment. If you have given your life to Jesus, you will survive that judgment - and so my challenge for you today and tomorrow and every day after that is to live as if your life was valuable. Live as if you were designed for eternity. Live as if the God of heaven covered you with his own body. Let’s pray.