REMEMBER YOUR CREATOR WHEN AND WHILE YOU ARE YOUNG

CHRIST THE ROCK CONGREGATION
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 3^RD 2023
Sermon BY Marc Simeon

THE WORTHLESSNESS OF LIFE WITHOUT GOD

REMEMBER YOUR CREATOR WHEN AND WHILE YOU ARE YOUNG

Ecclesiastes 11:9-10 Easy To Read Translation

• ⁹ So young people, enjoy yourselves while you are young. Be happy. Do whatever your heart leads you to do. Do whatever you want, but remember that God will judge you for everything you do. 
• ¹⁰ Don’t let your anger control you, and don’t let your body lead you to sin.^[c] People do foolish things in the dawn of life while they are young.

The Problems of Old Age

• ECCL 12:1-8
• 1 Remember your Creator while you are young, before the bad times come—before the years come when you say, “I have wasted my life.”^[a]
• ² Remember your Creator while you are young, before the time comes when the sun and the moon and the stars become dark to you—before problems come again and again like one storm after another.
• ³ At that time your arms will lose their strength. Your legs will become weak and bent. Your teeth will fall out, and you will not be able to chew your food. Your eyes will not see clearly. 
•  ⁴ You will become hard of hearing. You will not hear the noise in the streets. Even the stone grinding your grain will seem quiet to you. You will not be able to hear the women singing. But even the sound of a bird singing will wake you early in the morning because you will not be able to sleep.
• ⁵ You will be afraid of high places. You will be afraid of tripping over every small thing in your path. Your hair will become white like the flowers on an almond tree. You will drag yourself along like a grasshopper when you walk. You will lose your desire,^[b] and then you will go to your eternal home. The mourners will gather in the streets as they carry your body to the grave.
• ⁶ Remember your Creator while you are young, before the silver rope snaps and the golden bowl is crushed like a jar broken at the well, like a stone cover on a well that breaks and falls in.
• ⁷ Your body came from the earth. And when you die, it will return to the earth. But your spirit came from God, and when you die, it will return to him.
• ⁸ Everything is so meaningless. The Teacher says that it is all a waste of time!^[c]

INTRODUCTION

• Successful people get an unfair advantage over others, they seems to always have open platforms to tell their stories.
• Whether in sport, or business, or in academia; once you make it to prominence, you automatically become a role model.
• People will not only follow your trade, but they want wear the same clothe you wear
  • They want to eat the same food you eat
  • They want to do to their bodies the same thing you did to yours
  • If you pierce your ears, so will your followers
  • If you have tattoos so will your followers
  • If you don’t shave, so will many
  • If you wear your clothe backward, so will many
  • If you die your hair a certain color, so will many
  • If you wear your pants down, so will many
• Many fools have made it to prominence these days, that’s why the world is so upside down.
• In the Bible we find a man who has gone to many of these stages in his life.
• He was a prince who later became one of the greatest king of all times
• At times, he was considered as the wisest man alive
• He became the richest man alive even more so than all who were before him
• In the pinnacle of his successes, he made some of the dumbest mistakes imaginable.
• He became some sort of a maniac
• He became insatiable for wealth and pleasure,
• Like a spoil child: he said it himself: “I refuse myself nothing that I desire”
• He became one of the most foolish persons by his licentiousness lifestyle.
• He did not just run two or three girl friends at a time, that’s for beginners.
• How about 700 wives and 300 concubines
• In spite of his foolishness, he was a wonder to all around him
• He is credited for the building of the first Temple
• He was a great architect
• He was a great trader
• He was a great warrior
• He was a great monarch
• He was a great writer
• He was a great philosopher
• He was a passionate pleasure seeker
• Salomon spent his life looking for thrills and excitements.
• He got in a lot of trouble in his search for knowledge
• His heart got turned away from God and began to explore other beliefs
• He build a number of temples for foreign gods also
• He is now an old man; Salomon decided to help others from falling in the same pit he had fallen into.
• He wrote three books that are part of the Cannon, (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Salomon)
• Toward the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, Salomon zeroed in to the young man
• It is as if he was telling them: “Please don’t follow my footstep)
• Ecclesiastes 11:9-10 
• ⁹ So young people, enjoy yourselves while you are young. Be happy. Do whatever your heart leads you to do. Do whatever you want, but remember that God will judge you for everything you do. 
• ¹⁰ Don’t let your anger control you, and don’t let your body lead you to sin.^[c] People do foolish things in the dawn of life while they are young.
• Salomon is instructing the young man as if to say;  “do as I say and not as I did”
• Go for your dream
• Explore the world
• Enjoy your life, have fun while it last
• Go for it but there is a catch to it
• God is keeping the count on all your actions.
• This life is just a pre-trial to determine where one will spend his eternity.

THE BRUTAL ENDING OF MAN’S LIFE CYCLE ON EARTH

• As high that a man can be elevated, he cannot stay up there forever.
• Like an airplane; as high that an airplane can fly, it has to finally land.
• The landing can be brutal
• The landing ground may not be plane as one would wish it.
• The winter years of one’s life can be very frigid and uncomfortable.
• Forget about the big projects and the big dreams; just getting up and walk around can require a miracle.
• Taking a shower, going to the toilet, drive your car, read your mail, listen to the radio, eat your food, walk up the stairs to your room can all be a problem.
•  ECCL 12:1-6
• 1 Remember your Creator while you are young, before the bad times come—before the years come when you say, “I have wasted my life.”^[a]
• ² Remember your Creator while you are young, before the time comes when the sun and the moon and the stars become dark to you—before problems come again and again like one storm after another.
• ³ At that time your arms will lose their strength. Your legs will become weak and bent. Your teeth will fall out, and you will not be able to chew your food. Your eyes will not see clearly. 
• ⁴ You will become hard of hearing. You will not hear the noise in the streets. Even the stone grinding your grain will seem quiet to you. You will not be able to hear the women singing. But even the sound of a bird singing will wake you early in the morning because you will not be able to sleep.
• ⁵ You will be afraid of high places. You will be afraid of tripping over every small thing in your path. Your hair will become white like the flowers on an almond tree. You will drag yourself along like a grasshopper when you walk. You will lose your desire,^[b] and then you will go to your eternal home. The mourners will gather in the streets as they carry your body to the grave.
• ⁶ Remember your Creator while you are young, before the silver rope snaps and the golden bowl is crushed like a jar broken at the well, like a stone cover on a well that breaks and falls in.
• The words of Salomon concerning old ages are nothing but depressing.
• How about cheering an old man with these verses to let him know what’s coming.
• As bad as it sounds, this is the very reality many people are living.
• Only Christians share a different view of life although we all have to go through the same life cycles on earth.
• Remember that Salomon is making allusion to the natural man living under the sun
• As you can see, Salomon pictures death as the ultimate finish.

THE PERSPECTIVE OF LIFE FROM A CHRISTIAN POINT OF VIEW

• The Apostle Paul is right when he says:
• 1Co 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
• Salomon was the wisest man alive, but Jesus is the embodiment of wisdom
• Salomon’s wisdom was limited to the earthly realm, but Jesus’ wisdom encompasses nut just the earthly experience, but Jesus bridges the earthly experience to the span of eternity.
• MarK 8:36
•  36 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
• While the words of Salomon are very sound for this earthly pilgrimage, they do not encompass the full spectrum of life.
• We will barrow the words of an happy camper, one who had a glorious finish in life to make a full portrait of life on this side of heaven.

CONCLUSION

• In conclusion, we will borrow the words of the Apostle Paul on the eve of his death.
• Philippians 1:20-24
•  ^{20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.} 
• ^{21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.} 
• ^{22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!}
•  ^{23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;} 
• ^{24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.}
• ^{Paul shows all signs of defiance even in the presence of death}
• ^{Paul does not focus on his physical condition as an old man}
• ^{Paul spent his old age beholding the eternity he was going to spend with Christ.}
• ^{The Christian experience makes more sense when death is imminent.}
• ^{The Christian ought to experience a great sense of calm and joy when his earthly journey is nearly to its end.}
• ^{I know that the last thing in a young person’s mind is death.}
• ^{Yet, death is not a respecter of age.}
• ^{We have to remember God our Creator now and at all stages in life.}
• ^{We have to remember that all our actions are registered on God’s book of records.}
• ^{We have to remember that this life is temporal and just a pre-trial of the real life to come.}
• ^{We have to remember that we will all stand before God’s throne in judgment to give account for the good or bad that we’ve done in our lives on earth.}
• ^{Remembers that there will be consequences and rewards according to our deeds.}
• ^{Remember that what we do on this earth determines whether our eternal destiny will be glorious or doomed.}   

• ^{ECCL 12:1}
• ^{1 Remember your Creator while you are young, before the bad times come—before the years come when you say, “I have wasted my life.”}
• ^AMEN!