Before our Bodies Fail - 10/1/2023 Sunday Sermon

Before our Bodies Fail

The Feast of Tabernacles reminded Israel that they lived in tents on their way to the Promised Land, and was given of God to remind Israel of the difference between temporary hardships and eternal satisfaction in their God.

There are 4 major themes in Ecclesiastes we have seen repeated, and all four of them show up at the end of the book:

Nothing we engage in apart from God will bring us meaning if pursued as an end in itself; God has a beautiful plan for our lives that we can begin experiencing in this life; God gives us the ability to enjoy life now even in the midst of hardships; By faith we need to revere God and live our life within biblical boundaries.

Read Ecclesiastes 12

Remember God before you lose your bod V. 1-8

He uses the word evil here because aging and death themselves are unnatural results of original sin. They never would have happened if Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned,and won’t be present on the New Earth of Revelations 21-22.

For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end, like a sigh. The years of our lives are seventy, or if by reason of strength, eighty; but their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. -Ps. 90:10

Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. -2 John 1:8

Impending death is irreversible – it is the aging process that will not get reversed until Jesus turns us all into Benjamin Buttons on the new earth!

But Solomon also calls death the ultimate thing that is fleeting – the body has died, but the spirit returns to God who gave it.

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. -2 Corinthians 5:1

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him. -Hebrews 9:27-28

Respond to God while you can V. 9-12

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. -Hebrews 4:12

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. -2 Timothy 3:16-17

Trust and Obey for you’ll stand before God one day V. 13-14