The Winning Walk is the international teaching ministry of Dr. Ed Young.
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#Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
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The Winning Walk with Dr. Ed Young | No Guarantees In Life | January 12, 2022
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- Dr. Ed Young: We're studying a book of sheer philosophy.
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- Somebody would say, "Well, I came here to study the Bible and
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- you mean to tell me we're going to study a book that contains
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- sheer philosophy?"
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- Absolutely, there's nothing more confusing than to have a lot of
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- answers without any questions.
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- The Book of Ecclesiastes asks the questions the rest of the
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- Bible answers.
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- The Book of Ecclesiastes, we need to remember,
- 00:01:06.612 --> 00:01:09.848
- is the only book in the canon that pictures life without God.
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- Solomon, in his twilight years writes his autobiography and we
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- see how far he has declined from his early
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- years as king of Israel.
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- You remember he built a temple.
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- You remember in a dream he asks God for wisdom.
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- You remember how he started off with humility,
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- a worshiper, someone who obeyed and sought
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- to please the living God.
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- But something happened to him.
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- So, he writes the end of life, this thing about philosophy.
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- And he tell us the thesis of the book with two giant parenthesis.
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- Chapter 1 of Ecclesiastes verse 2 he says about life,
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- "Vanity of vanity, all is vanity."
- 00:02:05.304 --> 00:02:09.208
- That's really a poor translation.
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- It should say, "Meaninglessness and
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- meaninglessnesses, all is meaningless."
- 00:02:15.414 --> 00:02:21.420
- When you see a singular attached to a plural, you
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- have a superlative.
- 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:31.263
- In other words, Lord of lords would say there's
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- no lord above this Lord.
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- Servant of servants, you have no servant
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- superior to this servant.
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- Holy of holies, there's no place more holy than this place.
- 00:02:43.575 --> 00:02:49.381
- And see, we have meaninglessness and meaninglessnesses.
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- In other words, life is a void.
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- Life is smoke.
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- Life has no rhyme, no reason, has no significance,
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- no value and therefore Solomon said,
- 00:03:02.594 --> 00:03:05.197
- "You don't have any purpose in your life."
- 00:03:05.197 --> 00:03:08.700
- He says this in chapter 1, verse 2 and all the way to end of
- 00:03:08.700 --> 00:03:13.238
- Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 8 he repeats the very same phrase.
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- So, there is a parenthesis saying life doesn't make sense
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- and you can't make sense of life.
- 00:03:24.216 --> 00:03:28.520
- Well, I'm sure that made your day.
- 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:35.661
- But we proceed how Solomon developed this and we understand
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- that in this book of sheer philosophy,
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- he forces us to answer the big questions of life that the rest
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- of the Bible clearly answers.
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- I want you to pretend with me for a minute that you got a call
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- from your banker say last Thursday afternoon about 4
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- o'clock and you pick up the phone and your banker says,
- 00:04:11.897 --> 00:04:15.033
- "I've got good news for you.
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- Someone who loves you very much is gonna to deposit in your
- 00:04:19.071 --> 00:04:24.876
- account 86.400 pennies every day.
- 00:04:24.876 --> 00:04:34.286
- Quick math, $846 a day, and that's good.
- 00:04:34.286 --> 00:04:42.361
- Quick math, about $315.000 a year,
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- that's real good.
- 00:04:47.032 --> 00:04:49.267
- "And that's gonna be the deposited in
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- my account every day?"
- 00:04:51.002 --> 00:04:52.471
- "Yes."
- 00:04:52.471 --> 00:04:54.005
- The banker says, "There's one catch to this,
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- this person who loves you very much says you must spend all of
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- that amount every day.
- 00:05:01.213 --> 00:05:04.082
- Any that you do not spend, goes back to the bank."
- 00:05:04.082 --> 00:05:09.454
- It didn't take you long to figure out,
- 00:05:09.454 --> 00:05:10.956
- "I think I can spend $846 a day.
- 00:05:10.956 --> 00:05:15.394
- I'll have no trouble doing that."
- 00:05:15.394 --> 00:05:18.630
- Now, let's get serious. That was pretend.
- 00:05:18.630 --> 00:05:24.903
- The truth is that someone who loves you and loves me very much
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- deposits every day in our
- 00:05:29.775 --> 00:05:32.377
- bank of time 86.400 seconds.
- 00:05:32.377 --> 00:05:41.753
- Now, the interesting thing about this deposit of time in your
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- life and in my life is that we can't accumulate it.
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- We can't say, "I'm not gonna use this time today.
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- I'm gonna save it for another moment."
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- Time is like a coin when you spend it, you can't recall it.
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- You can't get it back.
- 00:06:01.807 --> 00:06:04.075
- So, how we use that gift that God gives us who loves us very
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- much is exceedingly important.
- 00:06:08.413 --> 00:06:11.516
- Time. By the way, what is time?
- 00:06:11.516 --> 00:06:18.089
- You get a lot of squirrely definitions to that.
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- A simple one, I think, it is a measurement of a period.
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- That's time.
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- Time is something that man has created.
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- We create it where that great timepiece that we find in the
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- heavens, the planets, the sun, the moon,
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- we want to check the true and accurate time we can look to
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- that and see exactly what time it is.
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- But when all the planet cease and the moon and the stars go
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- away, there is no more time and we move into timelessness.
- 00:06:51.990 --> 00:06:58.563
- Some of us remember the gospel song it has a little phrase in
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- it, "And time shall be no more."
- 00:07:02.601 --> 00:07:06.872
- When we leave this planet and move into eternity,
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- there's no more time.
- 00:07:11.376 --> 00:07:14.679
- We move from the finite to the infinite.
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- We move from this earth into the heavens.
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- And therefore we, in this life, are interested in time and we
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- want to maximize the time that we have on this earth.
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- And we use this element, this word "time" all the time.
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- "Do we have time to do that? It's time to go."
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- Time and timing is very important.
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- There's a time to buy stock and there's a time to sell stock,
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- not that I do either one.
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- Years ago, I had a little bit of money,
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- couple of thousand dollars and I bought high and sold low.
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- I never again went to the Las Vegas that's called the market.
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- So, time is everything.
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- When your company is in trouble, don't go to your boss and say,
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- "I need a raise."
- 00:08:08.767 --> 00:08:10.869
- Poor timing. There's a time that we invest.
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- There's a time that we use and time involves timing.
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- It means everything.
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- We're sick and we don't go to the doctor.
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- If we'd gone, we'd got a diagnosis,
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- we'd got well a lot sooner.
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- You see, time and timing and this whole section,
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- whole section of Ecclesiastes about time, this third chapter.
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- We've already looked at the first chapter,
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- if you've missed that, Ecclesiastes starts off with
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- great pessimism and he says, "Everything repeats itself.
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- Life is circular, thesis, antithesis,
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- synthesis, thesis, antithesis, synthesis,
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- everything just repeats itself.
- 00:08:59.784 --> 00:09:02.487
- And in chapter 2 Solomon says, "Well,
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- time and life is meaninglessness.
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- It has no meaning but," he says, "I've tried everything."
- 00:09:07.659 --> 00:09:12.030
- How many people who've ever lived could stand up and say,
- 00:09:12.030 --> 00:09:15.066
- "I've tried everything you could try to make sense out of life"?
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- Not many people have the capacity or the ability to do
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- that but Solomon did and finally he comes to the same conclusion.
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- He came to 35 different times in the Book of Ecclesiastes life
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- makes no sense.
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- It is without meaning. It is without significance.
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- It's without value.
- 00:09:38.289 --> 00:09:40.859
- Chapter 1, chapter 2, now we come to chapter 3 and here he
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- begins with this interesting, interesting verse,
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- verse 1, he says, "There's an appointed time for everything.
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- And there is a time for every event under the sun."
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- He brings us back to time and timeliness and then through
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- verse 8, he gives us a philosophy of time, T-I-M-E.
- 00:10:06.384 --> 00:10:14.759
- Now understand something, Solomon is looking at this world
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- from a fat land perspective.
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- He's looking at this world only under the sun.
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- He's looking at this world only to sense what you can see,
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- and feel, and touch, and understand.
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- He's looking at a flat world.
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- In his survey, he doesn't look above the sun.
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- Ladies and gentlemen, live out your life under the sun with no
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- sense of a transcendent God and I'll tell you,
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- you'll come up, sooner or later according to capacity,
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- to the same conclusion that Solomon had,
- 00:10:56.367 --> 00:10:59.037
- there's no meaning.
- 00:10:59.037 --> 00:11:01.639
- There's no value. It doesn't last.
- 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:04.776
- You're just a pebble on the seashore of history.
- 00:11:04.776 --> 00:11:10.782
- But then he gives us the verses that we all remember and he has
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- these 14 couplets of contrast.
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- Time to be born, a time to die, a time to speak,
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- a time to be silent.
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- Boy, I wish I knew when to speak, when to be silent.
- 00:11:24.763 --> 00:11:27.899
- But there's all these seasons and he takes us through these
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- 14 different couplets.
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- The first four if you look at them,
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- they deal with a body.
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- The next four deal with a soul. The last six deal with a spirit.
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- Listen to them, it's a philosophy of time.
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- He said there's, "A time to give birth,
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- a time to die; A time to plant, a time to uproot
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- what is planted.
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- A time to kill, a time to heal; A time to tear down,
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- a time to build up.
- 00:11:58.363 --> 00:12:00.098
- A time to weep and a time to laugh;
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- A time to mourn and a time to dance.
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- A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
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- A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
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- A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
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- A time to keep and a time to throw away.
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- A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
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- A time to be silent, a time to speak.
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- A time to love and a time to hate;
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- A time for war and a time for peace."
- 00:12:26.791 --> 00:12:30.395
- We're familiar with those words, they're the most--that's the
- 00:12:30.395 --> 00:12:33.698
- most familiar passage in all of the Book of Ecclesiastes and
- 00:12:33.698 --> 00:12:37.635
- he's saying how important it is time,
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- and timing and even now Solomon begins to get some sense.
- 00:12:40.605 --> 00:12:46.010
- Look what he says in verse 11.
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- He says, "He has made," he's talking about God now.
- 00:12:48.913 --> 00:12:53.284
- "He has made everything beautiful in its time.
- 00:12:53.284 --> 00:12:56.254
- He's also said eternity in their heart."
- 00:12:56.254 --> 00:12:58.990
- Verse 12 he says, "I know that there's nothing better for to us
- 00:12:58.990 --> 00:13:02.794
- do than to rejoice."
- 00:13:02.794 --> 00:13:04.829
- In verse 13 he says, "It is a gift of God."
- 00:13:04.829 --> 00:13:08.032
- Verse 14 he says, "Fear him," that means to worship him.
- 00:13:08.032 --> 00:13:12.737
- So now, Solomon, who's been so pessimistic,
- 00:13:12.737 --> 00:13:16.007
- sort of looks a little bit about God and is not a clear
- 00:13:16.007 --> 00:13:20.712
- understanding of God.
- 00:13:20.712 --> 00:13:23.348
- Somehow he had compromised everything.
- 00:13:23.348 --> 00:13:26.651
- He had sort of a God that was a hybrid God,
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- not Jehovah, not Yahweh, not Elohim.
- 00:13:29.954 --> 00:13:33.524
- He had lost that. How'd he lose it?
- 00:13:33.524 --> 00:13:35.994
- I think all the woman he married,
- 00:13:35.994 --> 00:13:38.529
- oh yeah, because they brought their pagan
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- religions into the land.
- 00:13:41.232 --> 00:13:42.767
- They built altars on top of all those hills and Solomon,
- 00:13:42.767 --> 00:13:46.404
- in order to keep them happy, would go up and worship them,
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- all the gods and goddesses and therefore he gradually moved
- 00:13:50.275 --> 00:13:53.978
- away from generally worshiping the true and living God.
- 00:13:53.978 --> 00:13:58.750
- That's when somebody says, "Well,
- 00:13:58.750 --> 00:14:00.251
- at least they worship Allah God."
- 00:14:00.251 --> 00:14:03.187
- No, Allah is a million miles from the God we know in Jesus
- 00:14:03.187 --> 00:14:07.058
- Christ, make no mistake about it.
- 00:14:07.058 --> 00:14:10.295
- And that's exactly what these gods are even with Solomon.
- 00:14:10.295 --> 00:14:14.098
- He just went away.
- 00:14:14.098 --> 00:14:15.400
- He moved away, not consciously or rationally.
- 00:14:15.400 --> 00:14:18.870
- When I was a freshman, University of Alabama,
- 00:14:18.870 --> 00:14:22.073
- my first Sunday I went to Sunday school in church as a freshman.
- 00:14:22.073 --> 00:14:26.644
- I'd done it all my life, that's what I did.
- 00:14:26.644 --> 00:14:29.814
- The next Sunday, you know, I was tired,
- 00:14:29.814 --> 00:14:32.317
- I had a hard week and I just went to church.
- 00:14:32.317 --> 00:14:35.853
- The next Sunday, you know, I went to church but I got there
- 00:14:35.853 --> 00:14:39.190
- late just in time for them singing the invitational hymn,
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- "Just As I Am."
- 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:45.596
- Next Sunday I didn't go. Next Sunday I didn't go.
- 00:14:45.596 --> 00:14:49.267
- The third Sunday I felt guilty and I went just to church,
- 00:14:49.267 --> 00:14:53.404
- and then I just quit going to church.
- 00:14:53.404 --> 00:14:57.909
- That's what happens, isn't it?
- 00:14:57.909 --> 00:15:00.011
- Just sort of gradually we move out,
- 00:15:00.011 --> 00:15:02.213
- we move away and that's what happened to Solomon.
- 00:15:02.213 --> 00:15:06.017
- He picked up all these other gods and goddesses,
- 00:15:06.017 --> 00:15:09.153
- began to worship, trying to please all these wives to keep
- 00:15:09.153 --> 00:15:12.323
- international relations intact.
- 00:15:12.323 --> 00:15:15.226
- All of a sudden, he'd wondered away from the true and living
- 00:15:15.226 --> 00:15:17.228
- God but now he sees life is without meaning,
- 00:15:17.228 --> 00:15:20.565
- but there is little hope because a semblance of the true God just
- 00:15:20.565 --> 00:15:24.802
- kind of reaches down from heaven and he said,
- 00:15:24.802 --> 00:15:27.772
- "I want you to know even though life's without meaning,
- 00:15:27.772 --> 00:15:30.308
- boy, there's beauty in life.
- 00:15:30.308 --> 00:15:34.278
- And I want you to know that life is a gift of God.
- 00:15:34.278 --> 00:15:38.182
- And I want you to know we are to fear him,
- 00:15:38.182 --> 00:15:40.385
- and that means we are to worship him."
- 00:15:40.385 --> 00:15:42.787
- Remember human beings are the only animals that worship God.
- 00:15:42.787 --> 00:15:47.392
- I love my dog Winston but food, affection,
- 00:15:47.392 --> 00:15:51.129
- and play, that's as far as he goes.
- 00:15:51.129 --> 00:15:55.633
- He has no semblance of worship. He has no semblance of death.
- 00:15:55.633 --> 00:16:00.838
- He just food, play, affection, that's it.
- 00:16:00.838 --> 00:16:08.346
- You see, we are distinctive as human beings.
- 00:16:08.346 --> 00:16:12.917
- We're made in the image of God and somehow Solomon had lost and
- 00:16:12.917 --> 00:16:16.854
- blurred that image out but he has little glimpses here of a
- 00:16:16.854 --> 00:16:22.026
- life that has meaning and he shares all this with us.
- 00:16:22.026 --> 00:16:25.596
- You can look at it.
- 00:16:25.596 --> 00:16:27.131
- He talks about, "I know, I know."
- 00:16:27.131 --> 00:16:29.133
- You see in verse 13, I know, verse 14, "I know."
- 00:16:29.133 --> 00:16:32.470
- Verse 10 he says, "I have seen."
- 00:16:32.470 --> 00:16:36.074
- He says in verse 16, "I have seen."
- 00:16:36.074 --> 00:16:39.377
- In 17 he says, "I said to myself."
- 00:16:39.377 --> 00:16:41.979
- Eighteen he said, "I said to myself."
- 00:16:41.979 --> 00:16:44.549
- Twenty-two he says, "I have seen."
- 00:16:44.549 --> 00:16:46.284
- What's he doing?
- 00:16:46.284 --> 00:16:47.418
- He is saying, "Here's all of the philosophy of time,
- 00:16:47.418 --> 00:16:50.555
- a time for this, a time for that," and he says,
- 00:16:50.555 --> 00:16:53.057
- "that's the sovereignty of God."
- 00:16:53.057 --> 00:16:55.693
- In other words, this is how God operates life in this world
- 00:16:55.693 --> 00:17:00.398
- under the sun but then he has little glimpses
- 00:17:00.398 --> 00:17:04.802
- that God's a part of this.
- 00:17:04.802 --> 00:17:06.370
- Everything's beautiful in its own way.
- 00:17:06.370 --> 00:17:08.739
- And then that tremendous verse, "God has planted
- 00:17:08.739 --> 00:17:12.310
- eternity in our hearts."
- 00:17:12.310 --> 00:17:14.645
- Everybody here, whoever you are, God has planted eternity in your
- 00:17:14.645 --> 00:17:20.551
- heart, and Solomon sees that until finally he comes to the
- 00:17:20.551 --> 00:17:24.889
- end of the chapter and he asks a question and it's such
- 00:17:24.889 --> 00:17:29.660
- an important question.
- 00:17:29.660 --> 00:17:30.862
- He says the last phrase, he said,
- 00:17:30.862 --> 00:17:34.165
- "I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be
- 00:17:34.165 --> 00:17:37.101
- happy in his activities, for that is his lot."
- 00:17:37.101 --> 00:17:40.872
- Here's the question, "For who will bring him to see
- 00:17:40.872 --> 00:17:44.442
- what will occur after him?"
- 00:17:44.442 --> 00:17:46.811
- In other words, after all is said and done and we leave this
- 00:17:46.811 --> 00:17:50.414
- life, who knows what will happen after that?
- 00:17:50.414 --> 00:17:56.554
- Big question, is it not, ladies and gentlemen?
- 00:17:56.554 --> 00:18:00.158
- Big, big question.
- 00:18:00.158 --> 00:18:04.061
- Zack Parrish, brought up in our church,
- 00:18:04.061 --> 00:18:08.799
- tremendous teenager, parents sold out to Christ,
- 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:13.070
- finished school, went to college,
- 00:18:13.070 --> 00:18:16.541
- got married, had two little girls,
- 00:18:16.541 --> 00:18:19.343
- was a banker in Denver, Colorado.
- 00:18:19.343 --> 00:18:23.014
- Didn't like banking.
- 00:18:23.014 --> 00:18:24.649
- He felt he was called to make a difference in law enforcement.
- 00:18:24.649 --> 00:18:28.686
- He went and trained and became a policeman on the staff of the
- 00:18:28.686 --> 00:18:34.125
- police department there in Denver, Colorado.
- 00:18:34.125 --> 00:18:38.863
- And it was on December the 31 I got a call early in the morning
- 00:18:38.863 --> 00:18:43.634
- that broke my heart.
- 00:18:43.634 --> 00:18:45.803
- Zack had been killed while investigating what was
- 00:18:45.803 --> 00:18:50.408
- supposedly a domestic violence call with his team of policemen,
- 00:18:50.408 --> 00:18:55.780
- but it was a setup.
- 00:18:55.780 --> 00:18:58.716
- They were ambushed.
- 00:18:58.716 --> 00:19:01.052
- The call came there through tears,
- 00:19:01.052 --> 00:19:03.421
- my tears were added to it, that Zack had been killed.
- 00:19:03.421 --> 00:19:10.595
- I talked to mother and dad as they were driving up there.
- 00:19:10.595 --> 00:19:14.365
- They were devastated.
- 00:19:14.365 --> 00:19:16.534
- They had his funeral, which was put online all across America.
- 00:19:16.534 --> 00:19:21.839
- You probably read it in the newspaper about it.
- 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:24.842
- It went online around the world.
- 00:19:24.842 --> 00:19:28.279
- In that funeral, they gave a clear witness of what a
- 00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:30.915
- tremendous Christian this young police officer was,
- 00:19:30.915 --> 00:19:34.518
- what a dynamic life, and they explained how the gospel says to
- 00:19:34.518 --> 00:19:38.823
- be absent from the body here is to be present with
- 00:19:38.823 --> 00:19:42.093
- the Lord there.
- 00:19:42.093 --> 00:19:43.327
- And it came through tears, and celebration,
- 00:19:43.327 --> 00:19:46.030
- and a presentation to the gospel.
- 00:19:46.030 --> 00:19:47.665
- Present in that funeral service was an atheist who had a room
- 00:19:47.665 --> 00:19:53.404
- above the little apartment where Zack had been killed and he
- 00:19:53.404 --> 00:19:58.042
- said, "As an atheist, I went just sort of out of respect."
- 00:19:58.042 --> 00:20:03.614
- And he said, "But in that service,
- 00:20:03.614 --> 00:20:06.517
- I understood," he said, "for the first time,
- 00:20:06.517 --> 00:20:08.552
- that there is a God, that he loves us,
- 00:20:08.552 --> 00:20:10.855
- that his Son died so I may be forgiven and have new life."
- 00:20:10.855 --> 00:20:13.924
- And he became a glorious born-again Christian in a
- 00:20:13.924 --> 00:20:17.728
- memorial service for Zack.
- 00:20:17.728 --> 00:20:21.265
- More than that, his mother, who is on my team,
- 00:20:21.265 --> 00:20:26.237
- his mother and dad said they received hundreds of all kind,
- 00:20:26.237 --> 00:20:31.475
- emails, correspondence from people all over America and all
- 00:20:31.475 --> 00:20:34.912
- around the world that observed that funeral and said they
- 00:20:34.912 --> 00:20:38.049
- understood what it means to really live with Jesus Christ.
- 00:20:38.049 --> 00:20:42.520
- So, they said, you know, this is their words,
- 00:20:42.520 --> 00:20:47.091
- "Jesus Christ gave his only Son.
- 00:20:47.091 --> 00:20:50.828
- Everybody thought the devil had won,
- 00:20:50.828 --> 00:20:53.898
- evil had conquered on the cross, but he took the cross and evil
- 00:20:53.898 --> 00:20:59.804
- and turned it into the power for salvation for the world,
- 00:20:59.804 --> 00:21:03.107
- but it cost him his only Son."
- 00:21:03.107 --> 00:21:05.109
- And they said, "This has cost us our only son Zack,
- 00:21:05.109 --> 00:21:10.548
- and it was done absolutely by evil
- 00:21:10.548 --> 00:21:12.616
- people with evil intentions."
- 00:21:12.616 --> 00:21:14.585
- But he said, "If that's what it takes for these dozens,
- 00:21:14.585 --> 00:21:18.456
- hundreds that come to know Jesus Christ,
- 00:21:18.456 --> 00:21:20.725
- I understand it." That's from his parents.
- 00:21:20.725 --> 00:21:27.098
- Now, I want you to notice something,
- 00:21:27.098 --> 00:21:30.501
- the 11th verse in this chapter it talks about
- 00:21:30.501 --> 00:21:33.170
- what has will be again.
- 00:21:33.170 --> 00:21:36.107
- It says simply, God does not leave anything unfinished.
- 00:21:36.107 --> 00:21:41.078
- If a life is shortened, there'll be a time in which that time
- 00:21:41.078 --> 00:21:45.049
- will be fulfilled in heaven.
- 00:21:45.049 --> 00:21:47.318
- Anything that's broken here, he will heal there.
- 00:21:47.318 --> 00:21:51.021
- The Garden of Eden will come back into existence,
- 00:21:51.021 --> 00:21:53.758
- there'll be a new heaven and a new earth.
- 00:21:53.758 --> 00:21:56.961
- And by the way, what is science?
- 00:21:56.961 --> 00:22:00.498
- Science is simply memories of the past,
- 00:22:00.498 --> 00:22:04.301
- write that down.
- 00:22:04.301 --> 00:22:05.836
- Science is memories of the past.
- 00:22:05.836 --> 00:22:08.839
- You say, "Well, I don't understand that."
- 00:22:08.839 --> 00:22:11.809
- Geology is simply a memory of the earth.
- 00:22:11.809 --> 00:22:21.986
- Astronomy is simply a memory of the universe.
- 00:22:21.986 --> 00:22:28.392
- History is simply a memory of the human race.
- 00:22:28.392 --> 00:22:32.296
- Everything ever that has taken place is written down on heaven,
- 00:22:32.296 --> 00:22:38.002
- on earth, in the mind and heart of God,
- 00:22:38.002 --> 00:22:40.671
- and it will all be restored fully and completely in that way
- 00:22:40.671 --> 00:22:45.009
- when God comes and revisits earth in the Second Coming of
- 00:22:45.009 --> 00:22:49.046
- Jesus Christ.
- 00:22:49.046 --> 00:22:50.181
- God doesn't have any unfinished symphonies.
- 00:22:50.181 --> 00:22:53.217
- He doesn't have anything that started and didn't seek it all
- 00:22:53.217 --> 00:22:56.921
- the way into completion.
- 00:22:56.921 --> 00:22:58.422
- He completes all this and I'll tell you the brevity of Zack's
- 00:22:58.422 --> 00:23:02.860
- life will be totally completed and it will all go.
- 00:23:02.860 --> 00:23:05.596
- And the moral here is we use our platform because whatever
- 00:23:05.596 --> 00:23:09.266
- happens, let's answer this question,
- 00:23:09.266 --> 00:23:13.137
- "Well, who knows," asks Solomon," what's gonna
- 00:23:13.137 --> 00:23:15.639
- happen in all of this?"
- 00:23:15.639 --> 00:23:17.541
- I'm gonna give you the answer to that the Apostle Paul gave and
- 00:23:17.541 --> 00:23:20.845
- God gives us in the latter part of Romans chapter 8,
- 00:23:20.845 --> 00:23:24.515
- and Romans 8 undoubtedly is one of the greatest books in
- 00:23:24.515 --> 00:23:28.385
- all the Bible.
- 00:23:28.385 --> 00:23:29.353
- Let me give you an answer to that.
- 00:23:29.353 --> 00:23:31.555
- He says, "What then shall we say to these things?
- 00:23:31.555 --> 00:23:36.527
- If God is with us, who or what can be against us?
- 00:23:36.527 --> 00:23:42.766
- He who did not spare His own Son,
- 00:23:42.766 --> 00:23:46.303
- but delivered Him over for us all,
- 00:23:46.303 --> 00:23:49.340
- how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
- 00:23:49.340 --> 00:23:57.047
- Who will separate us from the love of Christ?"
- 00:23:57.047 --> 00:23:59.683
- That's the question he asks.
- 00:23:59.683 --> 00:24:02.453
- "Will tribulation, distress, persecution,
- 00:24:02.453 --> 00:24:08.859
- famine, nakedness, peril, or sword?
- 00:24:08.859 --> 00:24:13.230
- Just as it is written, For Your sake we are being put to death
- 00:24:13.230 --> 00:24:17.001
- all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
- 00:24:17.001 --> 00:24:21.071
- But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through
- 00:24:21.071 --> 00:24:26.744
- Him who loved us.
- 00:24:26.744 --> 00:24:28.412
- For I am convinced that neither death,
- 00:24:28.412 --> 00:24:33.150
- nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
- 00:24:33.150 --> 00:24:37.688
- nor things present, nor things to come,
- 00:24:37.688 --> 00:24:40.357
- nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
- 00:24:40.357 --> 00:24:42.793
- nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from
- 00:24:42.793 --> 00:24:46.430
- the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
- 00:24:46.430 --> 00:24:52.903
- (Dr. Ed Young): We all have regrets in our lives.
- 00:24:52.970 --> 00:24:56.307
- Regrets in relationship, careers, finances, and health.
- 00:24:56.307 --> 00:25:00.511
- We always wish we had done things differently.
- 00:25:00.511 --> 00:25:03.013
- King Solomon had everything you could ever want,
- 00:25:03.013 --> 00:25:05.816
- and he did everything you could ever imagine.
- 00:25:05.816 --> 00:25:08.919
- And in the end, just like you and me,
- 00:25:08.919 --> 00:25:11.956
- he was left with regret.
- 00:25:11.956 --> 00:25:14.858
- Join me in my series Living Life with No Regrets,
- 00:25:14.858 --> 00:25:18.696
- where we'll go through the life of Solomon to
- 00:25:18.696 --> 00:25:21.465
- identify the ungodly choices that led him astray and discover
- 00:25:21.465 --> 00:25:26.971
- at the same time principles of wisdom for living a life that
- 00:25:26.971 --> 00:25:31.241
- pleases God & leaves us, with no regrets.
- 00:25:31.241 --> 00:25:36.080
- To get a set of Living Life with No Regrets
- 00:25:36.080 --> 00:25:38.315
- for yourself or someone you love,
- 00:25:38.315 --> 00:25:39.883
- call the number on your screen or go online at winningwalk.org.
- 00:25:39.883 --> 00:25:43.420
- It's our gift to you for your financial
- 00:25:43.420 --> 00:25:45.289
- support of this ministry.
- 00:25:45.289 --> 00:25:49.660
- Dr. Young: How long is your shadow?
- 00:25:49.727 --> 00:25:52.930
- The closer you get to Jesus, the longer and wider your
- 00:25:52.930 --> 00:25:57.001
- shadow will become.
- 00:25:57.001 --> 00:25:58.669
- As we learned in today's study, our lives gained significance
- 00:25:58.669 --> 00:26:02.640
- when we use our influence to be a blessing to others.
- 00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:06.110
- In other words, we use the platform God has given us to
- 00:26:06.110 --> 00:26:09.713
- stand for him and make him known in your family,
- 00:26:09.713 --> 00:26:13.651
- in your business, among your friends,
- 00:26:13.651 --> 00:26:15.586
- while you're doing recreation or recreation.
- 00:26:15.586 --> 00:26:18.922
- That's when our shadow begins to express itself.
- 00:26:18.922 --> 00:26:22.426
- While we cannot know how long our time will be on this earth,
- 00:26:22.426 --> 00:26:26.096
- we can use each day wisely.
- 00:26:26.096 --> 00:26:29.500
- When you and I live each day for him,
- 00:26:29.500 --> 00:26:32.069
- our shadow grows wider and longer and as we influence
- 00:26:32.069 --> 00:26:37.074
- people in ways that glorify him.
- 00:26:37.074 --> 00:26:40.144
- Do you need prayer today? Call the number on your screen.
- 00:26:40.144 --> 00:26:43.647
- We're willing to prayer with you and share with you how you can
- 00:26:43.647 --> 00:26:46.817
- have a life that counts for God and when you do that in ways you
- 00:26:46.817 --> 00:26:51.288
- can't even imagine, your shadow will go in directions,
- 00:26:51.288 --> 00:26:53.924
- "Boy, I didn't know I touched that life,
- 00:26:53.924 --> 00:26:56.160
- I influenced that person.
- 00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:57.528
- I made a difference there."
- 00:26:57.528 --> 00:26:59.697
- With Christ in you and Christ in me,
- 00:26:59.697 --> 00:27:01.632
- that shadow just has power now and power forever.
- 00:27:01.632 --> 00:27:06.303
- Be sure to join me again next week right here on "The Winning
- 00:27:06.303 --> 00:27:09.707
- Walk" as we discover our walk casts a very influential shadow.
- 00:27:09.707 --> 00:27:16.880
- ♪♪♪
- 00:27:16.947 --> 00:27:23.887
- CC by Aberdeen Captioning 1-800-688-6621 www.abercap.com
- 00:27:23.954 --> 00:27:29.999
