16 Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.
(ESV)
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
(ESV)
8 If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. 9 But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.1
[1] 5:9
(ESV)
16 Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.
(ESV)
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
(ESV)
8 If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. 9 But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.1
[1] 5:9
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Have you guys been enjoying the study on Ecclesiastes? For the most part. I I've certainly have heard the word, hevel, thrown out a lot. And I'm not sure, you know, the last, sermon I preached was on death. Ecclesiastes 3 in chapter 9.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm not sure if I've ever heard more feedback, positive feedback, from a sermon than from that one of just people processing their mortality. And, I'm glad that we have a guide like Solomon to to guide us through that. Actually, all of Ecclesiastes has been having an impact on me, but, chapters 3 and chapters 9 certainly have. So before I and this is gonna be kind of odd. Before we even look at chapter 4, any of you don't have any questions about Ecclesiastes?
Jeffrey Heine:I'm being serious. I mean, we no longer have home groups. And so you didn't have it, like, even a time to really process some of the things we've been hearing lately. But I can have a few minutes here to answer any questions about death or resurrection, how can Solomon write these things and live the way he did? You know, whatever.
Jeffrey Heine:Interpretive issues of Ecclesiastes, you got it. Few minutes, I'll open it up. If not, we're gonna move on. Used to do this all the time at Redeemer. We moved into this place and it just people started clamming up.
Jeffrey Heine:So I got too formal. Alright. Going once, twice. I'm so glad you all understand Ecclesiastes. Now I need I because I've got questions, and now I know who to go to.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. If y'all would look at chapter 4. Yes. Go ahead. Great.
Jeffrey Heine:From an elder.
Connor Coskery:I'm struggling sometimes with Solomon because he had so many losses. Yeah. He had so many time. He disobeyed every rule and put forward
Jeffrey Heine:So the the the question or the statement is just Solomon's life with all the women he was with, all the poor decisions he made, all this questioning, are his words really wise? And that would not just apply to Ecclesiastes. That would also apply to Proverbs, to Song of Solomon. And that is not an easy one to wrestle with. And so there's times, like, when you're reading through Ecclesiastes, you're like, well, I agree with that one.
Jeffrey Heine:Therefore, it's right. Sometimes, I don't. Well, that's because Solomon was probably a bad person. I don't have to agree with that. Some people interpret Ecclesiastes that way.
Jeffrey Heine:I I see it as Solomon is often and we don't know it's Solomon. It's the preacher. But the way he describes himself, it certainly seems like Solomon, that he is speaking mostly through a worldly wisdom. And that's why he, you know, he says he could do all those things, pursue pleasures, like, to the nth degree and do all of this while keeping his wisdom with him. Well, you cannot keep a godly wisdom with you while you're pursuing all those things.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I think at at this time, whatever stage of life he is in, this is just my own interpretation, he is still really wise in the ways of the world and seeing how it works. And he is applying the best wisdom that this world has to offer. And he's showing us some things. And he's actually asking some really good questions that the world asks. Why am I doing these things?
Jeffrey Heine:Why does any of this matter? Ecclesiastes is one of the best, evangelistic books out there because it actually asks the questions that the rest of the world is asking. And now you're gonna hear from the wisest person in the world giving you answers. But then I do think you have in his moments, because he's reflecting back in His life, and I I hope it's a a time where He's come and repented, He does lead you to the Lord. He never has lost faith.
Jeffrey Heine:And so that's how I would interpret it as a whole. And we haven't gotten there yet, but when we come to the end of Ecclesiastes, the preacher steps in. I mean, the, the author of the book steps in. Remember, there's 2 writers. There's a person who introduces the preacher, and the preacher gives his sermon for 11 chapters.
Jeffrey Heine:And then at the end, the person steps in, goes, now we've listened to the preacher, and let me tell you what we need to hold on to. And they actually mesh really well. And so I think the author of the book later tells you, you can trust. You can trust the preacher and what he has had to tell us. But it's attention.
Jeffrey Heine:Without a doubt, it's attention. It's one of the reasons I stayed away from the book for so long. Yeah. Anyone else real quick? Admin knew it was gonna happen.
Jeffrey Heine:Last week you created a lot about it. Actually, it was 2 weeks ago, but yes. And, could you clarify a little bit? Yeah. Just ultimate destination, heavenly banquets, Yeah.
Jeffrey Heine:So the the line I I I used is in this life when we eat and we drink and we build those deep relationships, we're practicing or we are rehearsing for what is to come. And so, I guess her question is what is our final state? You know, our intermediate state is actually the the source of so much of our singing, which is we just go to heaven when we die. But that's, as you know, the Bible talks so little about that. The old testament hardly talks about that at all.
Jeffrey Heine:And the what the old testament and the new testament writers clearly do point to is resurrection. That the kingdom of God comes here on earth and redeems all things. And there's a very real physical world in which the curse has been lifted. But you'll be doing a lot of the same things you're doing now just without the toil of sin, like, burdening you down. And so that's that's the picture.
Jeffrey Heine:That's where the Bible's going, the last three chapters of Revelation. Real city, real people, real jobs, real eating and drinking, real dancing. You're not just a spirit flying around, or as I used to sing growing up, I'll fly away. I'll fly away. Yeah.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of the best hymns have the worst theology. It's it's true. And and it's it's don't hear me wrong. You'd go to heaven to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord. There is a comfort in being present, but that's a temporary state.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what Paul talks about in 1st Corinthians 15. There you're longing. You're unclothed at that point. You're waiting for the resurrection. Good questions.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. Ecclesiastes 4. I could do this all day. I could because trust me these first few verses in Ecclesiastes 4 are just not fun. So what we're gonna look at, is the brokenness of relationships, the barriers to relationships, and the benefits of relationships.
Jeffrey Heine:And yes, they all start with B. I'll try not to make that mistake again. I could have also done, the ruin of relationships, roadblocks of relationships, and the reward of relationships. So, pick whichever one you want. Chapter 4 verse 1.
Jeffrey Heine:Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them. On the side of their oppressors, there was power and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who were already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is He who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are under the sun.
Jeffrey Heine:And we'll stop there. This is the word of the Lord. It's to be done. Pray with me. Father, we thank you for your word.
Jeffrey Heine:We thank you that you are not scared of the hard questions, that you could take them, and you have answers for them. We Lord, we thank you for the life that you have given us, the life that we do get to enjoy under the sun. And, Lord, this time, would you teach us about the best way to live in that life? I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. The preacher, he begins this chapter by describing a world in which relationships have completely broken down. And this is the world that we live in. Everywhere he looks, he sees tears.
Jeffrey Heine:Tears, of the oppressed, and there is no comfort for them in sight. He he sees this never ending cycle of oppression. The real depressing part of this passage is he just describes the problem and moves on. That's it. It's it's like there's nothing more he could do.
Jeffrey Heine:There's no solution for it. He doesn't he just observes it and just moves on. Oppression, he knows has been happening well before he was born. Oppression was gonna keep on happening after he died, and what was he gonna do about it? He feels so powerless about this, so sick to his stomach.
Jeffrey Heine:When when he sees all of this evil in front of him, he says, you know what? It would just be better if if I was just dead. Then I have to keep looking at all this. And better yet, it'd be better if I had never been born. So I wouldn't have to have ever seen the evils that I see in this life.
Jeffrey Heine:This is really uplifting stuff, isn't it? You're glad you came to church this morning. It's honest is what it is. I mean do you ever watch the news? It's terrible.
Jeffrey Heine:It is a endless cycle of just depression. If I wanted to depress you, I could just read to you some of the articles I read this past week. Articles about sex trafficking or mass starvation. After about 20 minutes, you would just be begging me to stop. I mean, I literally read this week articles about fostering children, foster kids being kept in cages, About sex traffickers posing as charity workers and meeting Ukrainian refugees.
Jeffrey Heine:About Christians being beheaded, children dying of AIDS. I mean I'm going through all this. I'm like, I think I've done enough study. I can't take this anymore. And Solomon is saying, I see it all.
Jeffrey Heine:You know what? And I'd rather just be dead than have to constantly be looking at this. It'd be better not to be born than to spend a lifetime looking at this. The only way we cope is by ignoring it. You can't look at all at it all, because you you just get fatigue.
Jeffrey Heine:But he's saying if you actually look at it all, and that was your choice to to either look at it all or to be dead, which would you choose? He's like, I'd rather be dead. And you might be wondering why is Solomon not calling us into action here? Do something about these injustices. I mean aren't we supposed to stand up for the oppressed?
Jeffrey Heine:Aren't we supposed to have mercy on the poor, fight for justice? Isn't the Bible full of commands for us to do things like this? Yes. Yes. The Bible is full of commands for us to do this.
Jeffrey Heine:But you need to realize that Ecclesiastes is being written for a different purpose than the other books of the Bible. This book is teaching us that our lives under the sun, there is no net gain ever. In trying to make even a dent into the oppression of man is like trying to harness the wind, is trying to catch the wind. You can't. Humans have been oppressing other humans since the beginning of time outside the garden.
Jeffrey Heine:And there is nothing that you can do or that Solomon could do that could change that. I want you to do a little thought experiment with me. Imagine right now that you were given the power that with a snap of your fingers, you could reverse all the power structures in the world. So, the oppressors would then become powerless. And those who are powerless would then be given power.
Jeffrey Heine:And you in a moment, you could just do that. What do you think would happen if you snapped your fingers and you decided to reverse all the power structures of the world? Do you think the world would suddenly become a kinder and more gentle place? Do you think there'd be peace? I mean maybe for a few weeks.
Jeffrey Heine:The problem is that the powerless, once they're given power, they then become the oppressors. And the cycle never ever stops. Solomon knows that. It doesn't matter who's in power. Whoever's in power, they're going to oppress.
Jeffrey Heine:And Solomon, who was wiser and wealthier and more powerful than you and I will ever be, He doesn't even offer a solution. He doesn't even think he's part of the solution because he knows he's part of the problem. I mean to get to what you were talking about Mark earlier, I mean in 1st Kings 5, we we read terrible things about Solomon. Solomon drafted slaves. He drafted over 30,000 slaves to build the temple.
Jeffrey Heine:And then he got 80,000 people. He drafted them in to be what was called burden carriers. How would you like that as a job? What's your job? It's just to carry burdens.
Jeffrey Heine:80,000 non Jewish people he imported in, and he forced them into labor. Solomon was an oppressor. He actually turned Israel to look more like Egypt. He looked more like a pharaoh than he did, the king of Israel who God was calling him to be. And so he knows he's part of the problem.
Jeffrey Heine:It reminds me of GK Chesterton. He was once asked, what is wrong with the world? And his simple response I'll I'll remember. Like, he's he just said, I am. I am.
Jeffrey Heine:Later, the the great philosopher Taylor Swift would say, it's me. Hi. I'm the problem. It's me. I thought we could use a little levity, people.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, come on. I trying to write this, I stared at a blank computer screen for hours. I'm like, where do you even start? Taylor Swift is where you start, people. She she will always lead you in the right direction.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. So so in these first few verses, Solomon, he describes to us a world that's completely relationally broken. And now he's gonna go on to tell us some of the reasons why, in verses 4 through 8. And these are the barriers to relationships, the barriers to a community. Verse 4.
Jeffrey Heine:Then I saw that all toil and all skill and work came from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after the wind. Now envy or coveting is the only one of the 10 commandments that directly speaks to the heart. An inward action instead of an outward action. And the reason envy is so harmful to relationships is because envy puts itself in competition against another person.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what envy does. You're not together, you're competing with one another. The envious person can only be happy at the expense of another person. This is why envy inevitably leads to oppression. You cannot build a community where outwardly you're saying you love one another, but inwardly you're doing everything you can to compete against one another.
Jeffrey Heine:Very southern. Be honest. Is it there a part of you that is secretly happy when you hear about the failure of others? I mean, when that seemingly you know good looking, happy, wealthy couple gets a divorce. Isn't there a little secret part of you that's like, Nah I knew it was too good to be true.
Jeffrey Heine:I knew it. Or when you were in school, let me ask you, were you more pleased when everyone in your class got an a? Or when you got an a, and everyone else got b's or c's? Some people are like, I have no idea. I've never experienced that.
Jeffrey Heine:Like me. But but no. You I mean, you want the a, but the a is meaningless if everybody's got the a. You just want the a if it's better than your neighbor. It's envy.
Jeffrey Heine:It's competition. And and when someone does really well, they do really well, maybe they get the a, the envious person cannot rejoice with them. At least, in turn I mean, externally you can rejoice, but internally, you're gonna walk away thinking I was so much more deserving. Why didn't that happen to me? Envy does not look for the good in its neighbor, because it's looking for the goods of its neighbor.
Jeffrey Heine:It it wants to take what its neighbor has and make it their own. And therefore, it destroys community. Let's look at verse 5. The fool folds his hand and eats his own flesh. Now this is just a graphic way of describing a lazy person.
Jeffrey Heine:The person who won't work and basically eats their way into starvation. The lazy person wants all the benefits of relationships, the benefits of community, but won't do anything to work for them. If you think about it, laziness is actually the ultimate act of selfishness. You won't work for others. You're only about yourself.
Jeffrey Heine:The late, great Tim Keller. He famously said that he has never known a generation to talk more about community and work for it less than ours. But to have a meaningful relationships takes time and energy. You have to put in the work. You can't always just be the person who receives.
Jeffrey Heine:You have to give. I I will so often, you know, talk to people who they come to me and they're like, you know, I just I can't find community. I can't find community here. And I always stop and I say, well, first off, you never find community. You build it.
Jeffrey Heine:You don't just stumble into community. You have to work for community. So don't try to find it. Work for 1. And then I'll ask them just some basic questions.
Jeffrey Heine:Can I can I just ask you this? Do you go to home group every week? Like every week. When you're at your group, do you contribute to the discussion? Do you send texts or or try to meet outside of home group with those who were part of your group?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you come to the common meals we have at church? Do you spend your time trying to get to know people there? Maybe perhaps some new people. When church is over, do you immediately just bolt and leave? Or do you actually talk with people?
Jeffrey Heine:When's the last time you've brought a meal to someone you knew he needed it? Are you putting in the work? Look at verses 6 through 8. Better is a handful of quietness than 2 hands full of toil, and a striving after the and striving after wind. Again, I saw vanity under the sun.
Jeffrey Heine:One person who has, who has no other, either son or brother. Yet there is no end to all his toil. And his eyes are never satisfied with riches. So that he never asks, for whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? This also is hevel and an unhappy business.
Jeffrey Heine:So here he talks about the opposite of laziness. Laziness, you know, it it's a detriment to building relationships, But so is working too hard at the wrong things. The preacher here, he paints a picture of someone whose hands are always full. As southerners, we would say our plates are full. We just our plates are always full.
Jeffrey Heine:And as a result, there's no quietness, there's no peace in their life. And the person is alone, because they're always busy working. And they'd never have time to actually stop and to ask, why am I doing all this? I mean, why? Why am I working so hard?
Jeffrey Heine:Why not just have less, do less, and then free up a hand? You know, the person that just he's all carrying it just 1. Now you have a free hand. A free hand to give, a free hand to embrace, a free hand to actually do things in life, to build relationships. So some of you, you need to start working for the things that matter.
Jeffrey Heine:Go to your job a little less and work for the things that matter. Let's read on verse 9. 2 are better than 1, because they have a good reward for their toil. Here the the preacher, he's transitioning from the barriers, to community, to now the benefits of being part of a community and having deep relationships. And the first benefit he has here is that we can achieve more with others than we can by doing something ourself.
Jeffrey Heine:This does not apply to group projects at school. Because we all know, like that's just It's doom at school, but it applies to everything else. You can be more productive when you work with others. Remember how when you were in college and you had to move into, you know, you know, your first apartment? Did you do it alone?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean there's no way you could do it alone. You could do some of those things alone, but you're not getting the sofa, you know, up the winding steps by yourself. You're not getting the bed up there by yourself. No. What you would do is you, you would get friends.
Jeffrey Heine:They would come along. They would help you move. And then after you spend all this time moving, you would have pizza together, and it was a bonding experience. You worked hard, you bonded with one another, but you got a whole lot done. That's what the preacher here is saying.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, I thought as I was preparing this, if I had to move right now, my goodness. There's no way I would ever ask friends to help me move. And here's why. Because unlike in college, I now have far more possessions and far fewer friends. This is what happens when we get older.
Jeffrey Heine:It switches. We used to have more friends and less possessions, and somewhere along the way it switches, and you now you get all of these possessions and far fewer friends. The preacher just says, why don't we maybe think about reversing that? You could be more productive when you have friends and you also free up a hand. Verse 10.
Jeffrey Heine:For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. So another benefit to having relationships is that, we will receive help when we need it. Friends pick one another up when they fall into sin, or when life just comes and blindsides them with with some tragedy or or or some sickness, when they just get hit by life. You know, when, when Lauren's mom was diagnosed with cancer and she was going through her 1st round of chemotherapy, she had to be gone a whole lot to, to take care of her mom, which meant we were struggling here as a family.
Jeffrey Heine:And because we needed not only some meals, but we needed people to drive our kids around. And the church stepped up. You know, they would give our kids rides to school. They would bring their kids home. They would take our kids to practice.
Jeffrey Heine:They picked us up when we fell down. And I think if I were to open up, you know, Mike here, I think you would have endless testimonies about how the church has done that. Verse 11. Again, if 2 lie together, they keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?
Jeffrey Heine:Now this is not talking about, sleeping with your spouse, who may or may not have the coldest feet on earth. That's not what it's talking about here. It's it's talking about the warmth of companionship. 3000 years ago when this was written, when people would travel, you know they were walking long distances, and they would have to camp out at night. It would get really cold, and so travelers even would gather up together, and they'd sleep near one another to keep one another warm.
Jeffrey Heine:And it wasn't just a physical warmth, it's the emotional warmth of knowing I'm not alone. I'm not alone in my journey. I don't have to brave the elements alone. You know I'm actually a pretty introverted person. I love my alone time.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean I love Sundays. I love being with you. I love leaving and being without you also. I will not mention who it is, but somebody in my home group who hosts it, say, I just love when you all leave. And what she meant is she always felt better afterwards, but we got the point.
Jeffrey Heine:You want your alone time. You want your alone time. I want my alone time, but I can only take it for so long. And soon, I began to desire companionship. I want conversation.
Jeffrey Heine:I wanna sit down with someone at a meal. I wanna sit next to Lauren as we veg and watch something on Sunday night. You know, you go through creation in Genesis, after God creates everything, it is good, it is good, it is good. And then it comes like just jumps out at you. The first time he ever says it, it is not good.
Jeffrey Heine:What was not good? Adam having everything yet being alone. It's not good. Verse 12. And though a man might prevail against 1 who is alone, 2 will withstand him.
Jeffrey Heine:A 3 forward cord is not quickly broken. Here we see that relationships provide protection. And now what I've noticed is that, chapter 4 in Ecclesiastes, a lot of it is often read at weddings. Usually, I read verses 9 through 11, and a lot of times they just leave out verse 12. I mean, because it's kinda awkward, now there's a third person in the relationship.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, it's just, you know, okay. It gets a little weird. But it might be the most appropriate verse concerning marriage in chapter 4. A commonality that I have seen from marriages that have broken down and have gone into crisis, and many of them leading to divorce, is this, that way before that crisis hit, at least one person within that marriage left community. They left the protection of the church.
Jeffrey Heine:They be their attendance on a Sunday morning became spotty. Their attendance to home group was almost non existent. They didn't volunteer any at the church. They withdrew. And when they withdrew, they became vulnerable and they were attacked.
Jeffrey Heine:Community, our faith community, provides us shelter. It protects us from the attacks of the enemy. You have to fight to have a good marriage. And if you're gonna be in a fight, it's nice to know someone's got your back. 2 is always better than 1 when it comes to fighting.
Jeffrey Heine:3 is even better. 4 would even be even better than that. You could just keep on going up. The more close friends you have around you to point out your blind spots, to help protect you, to call you out on things that you can talk to, the more people you have in your life to do that, the safer and healthier you will be. Just as I've seen marriages crumble because they've left community, I have seen so many marriages saved because of their community.
Jeffrey Heine:I've seen so many marriages in which the beginnings of of fracturing within their marriage started to happen, but then their home group rallied around them, spoke truth into them, loved them, nurtured them back to health. Once again, if I were to open up this mic, we would probably have endless stories of people's marriages who have been saved by the relationships within this church. If you're not married, you still need protection. You still need your faith community, because the enemy wants to destroy you just as much as it wants to destroy any marriage. Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:So this is Ecclesiastes. So as we're coming to the end of this, we probably should ask the question, does any of this actually matter? I mean, talking about the oppression, the barriers, you know, relationships, the benefits of relationship. But are there really any? Does any of this really matter?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, I hate to be the downer guy here, but it's kinda where Ecclesiastes keeps leading us. Because isn't the theme of Ecclesiastes that no matter what we do, no matter how many relationships we have, in the end there's a net gain of 0. Over and over again, he says, and there was no gain. And I saw that there was no profit, that it was all just hevel. You know, once again, Solomon says that there will always be oppression.
Jeffrey Heine:There will always be broken broken relationships. So, is there any solution to that? The answer is actually yes. And Solomon hints at it here. Yes.
Jeffrey Heine:And there we have to go to chapter 5. It's the same theme. It's there in your worship guide, chapter 5 verses 8 9. If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter. I mean, once again, he's saying like, everything we just described at I mean, don't be like, I can't believe they would do that.
Jeffrey Heine:Of course you can. Don't be amazed at it. We live in a fallen broken world. There's oppression. There's injustice everywhere.
Jeffrey Heine:Don't be amazed at it. For the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet a higher ones over them. In other words, the higher you go up, it seems to be the more corrupt you become. Verse 9. But this is gain for a land in every way.
Jeffrey Heine:A king cult committed to cultivating fields or to cultivated fields. Now verse 9 should just pop off the page to you. Because once again the theme of Ecclesiastes throughout has been that there has been no gain to anything. Remember going through chapter 3 when there's a time for everything? Everything seems to balance out.
Jeffrey Heine:A time to be born, but don't forget, there's a time to die. You know, there's a time to laugh. Oh yeah, But there's a time to mourn. There's a time for weeping and a time for dancing. Like it's they all balance one another out.
Jeffrey Heine:Net gain, 0. He's been driving that point home to us, but here he says there is gain. This is gain. I mean it just explodes off the page. And not just gain, but gain for a land in every way.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean this means laughter replaces tears, dancing replaces mourning, love replaces hate, peace replaces war. Gain in every way. All that is needed is this, a king. A king that is committed to cultivated fields. Or in other words, what is needed is someone who has absolute power and authority who is committed to bringing out the flourishing of this world.
Jeffrey Heine:If such a king existed, there's a gain in every way. Solomon knows he's not that king, But he also knows this, that the only way to actually overcome all of the evil oppression that's happening in the world and to end the endless cycles of it, is that a true, righteous, powerful King has to come and be all for peace in the flourishing of this world. He knows that's the only way to do it. Now He's not the King, but He is pointing us to the one who is. We all know that Jesus is that King.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus didn't rise up the ladder and become more and more powerful. Jesus would be the exact opposite. And Jesus left His heavenly throne, heavenly glory, left equality with God a thing to be grasped, gave it all up to descend down into this world. And he came not to oppress it, but to liberate it. He came not to force people into his service, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Jeffrey Heine:He came to free us from sin and death, the ultimate oppressors. Jesus is the king we have all longed for. And through his death and resurrection, he not only has restored our relationship with God, he restores our relationships with one another. He taught us to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. To love your neighbor as yourself.
Jeffrey Heine:The new testament is full of all of those one anothers. Loving one another, forgiving one another, being kind to one another, be gentle with one another, exhort one another. Jesus didn't just tell us to do these things. He then gave us his spirit to empower us to do these things. His spirit empowers us and unites us.
Jeffrey Heine:And this is not hevel. This is not like a mist that's here for a moment and then gone. The relationships that God gives us through his spirit endure forever. Once again, when we slow down to eat and to drink and enjoy the community that the spirit has given us, we are practicing eternity. Is this something you're fighting for?
Jeffrey Heine:Is this something you're working for? I would encourage you to do it now as a practice, as a dress rehearsal for the life to come. Pray with me. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that it would have deep roots and anchors in our soul.
Jeffrey Heine:We thank you for the extraordinary gift of community you have given us through your spirit. We are not just people with a common interest hanging out, but we are family, brothers and sisters, united through your spirit, Jesus. Jesus, thank you for being the king to come and to liberate us from the ultimate oppressors, sin and death. The king that is committed to the flourishing of this entire world. You are the king we have always hoped for.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's to you we pray. It's to you we love. And it's your your name we pray. Amen.