March 28 | Full Service | Mercy Hill Church | On Demand

[Music] good evening mercier church welcome where you guys stand we have a chance right now to worship the god who created us and he created us so that we would bring him glory so let's do that tonight as we sing to him [Music] let our praise let our praise be your welcome and let our songs be a sign that we are here for you yes we are oh we are here for you [Music] let your breath come from heaven and fill our hearts with your life oh we are here for you [Music] we are here for you let's tell them right now our hearts are open [Music] you alone [Music] fall down [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] day [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] nothing here is [Music] [Music] fall down [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] we welcome you in prayer [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] be welcomed in this place we welcome you with praise we welcome you with praise amen you guys can have a seat check out this video what's up mercedes church we're so excited that you've joined us and if this is your first time welcome we got a special gift just for you come say hello by visiting our first time guest 10 or you can simply text mh church to 81411 maybe this isn't your first time but it's your first time in a long time coming back around and we want to say welcome back church we're only one week away from easter we have so many great events planned including a worship night this friday and easter egg hunt on saturday and then 13 services across all campuses starting this week we do want to point out that our easter service times and types are all different to accommodate all comfort levels so be sure to check out all of the times and locations online as well as register at mercyhillchurch.com forward slash easter we can't wait to celebrate with you also our equipped seminars are coming up in a couple of weeks so here's pastor rocky to give you the rundown of all the classes being offered this spring hey mercy hill family i'm so excited to tell you about our spring session of equip seminars running through the month of april we've got six classes coming up on some great topics and five of them are brand new to mercy hill hey check these out hey do you feel like you've been plugging away at the christian life doing all the right things yet still end up asking why does it seem nothing is changing in my life well pastors jason azarello and jeremy dagger are leading a seminar on emotionally healthy spirituality that's all about digging into the deep stuff that unlocks real and lasting transformation in christ hey we're all called to take the gospel to the nations but did you know that can start right here if you're excited about the thought of living on mission in your community but you're wondering what that really looks like john truey and rachel smedley are leading a seminar called no passport required that reveals the heart of god for the nations and get super practical on how to start living missionally right here in our own neighborhoods hey maybe you've been all in here at mercy hill for a while or just recently got connected and are wondering what unique part can i play in the story of god's mission in the world well pastor jonathan yarbrough is leading a seminar called unlocking your spiritual gifts that's all about helping you figure out how god has uniquely wired you for serving in the church do you feel like you worship god with passion during the weekend services but then the passion fades when you start the week do you want to unlock the secret to not only praising god on the weekend but also for a world-changing kind of purpose for your life then check out our worship pastor john azarello's seminar titled after his newly published book you are what you worship and learn how the idea of worship is much more than just the songs we see hey you've heard pastor andrew tell stories in his sermons about life on their farm and them as a family just being out and enjoying god's creation the beauty and grandeur of god's creation is close to his heart so hey if you're wondering how to rightly view and value creation without making it god or very practically just want to know what creation stewardship looks like in the christian life check out pastor andrew's upcoming seminar how to care for god's creation to learn how the word of god speaks directly to our relationship with god's green earth and finally if you're ready to get out of debt start saving and live generously this is the perfect time for you to jump into financial peace university this nine-week course facilitated by jamison and dusky hill gives practical week-by-week steps to get you moving toward financial freedom so that you can live more generously just visit our website today where you can find out more about each of these classes and register we can't wait to see you there just visit our website today to register and find out more about each of these classes we can't wait to see you there lastly i wanted to make you aware of our weekender coming up if you're new to mercy hill or you just been visiting for a while you may be wondering okay what's next how do i get involved how do i get more connected the next step at mercy hill is an event we call the weekender at this event you'll have a chance to meet members of our staff team learn more about mercyhill's vision and explore ways that you can be involved the next weekender is coming up the weekend of april 25th and will take place at our regional campus and if you don't feel comfortable gathering around others yet that's okay we understand so we're also offering the weekender online visit our website today to register we can't wait to see you there y'all we're gonna continue worshiping together today we have so much to be thankful for because of the cross of jesus so let's stand together and continue to worship as we lift up our song of thankfulness to jesus [Music] without your goodness i would be desperate without your love slave to the darkness if it wasn't for the cross with your kindness you chase me down when i was lost where would i be if it wasn't for the cross come on hallelujah oh thank you jesus i was a [Music] hallelujah [Music] lord [Music] and all my shame was met with mercy and now your mercy will be my song and all the glory [Music] [Applause] [Music] i hallelujah [Music] the power is [Music] [Music] cause with is oh thank you jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] put out for us [Music] oh thank you jesus i [Music] [Music] hallelujah for the cross by your stripes [Music] and by your stripes [Music] the power of sin is overcome it is [Music] is [Music] thank you [Music] you jesus my freedom [Music] seated high [Music] from your life [Music] after you know it holy is the lord of heaven toast the earth is full of your glory holy is [Music] [Music] i will say [Music] [Applause] [Music] my heart is overwhelmed i can do nothing else but thank you jesus i offer up my life sacrifice to thank you jesus christ make that a prayer today my heart is overwhelmed i can do nothing else but thank you jesus to thank you jesus my heart is [Music] jesus to thank you jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] the lord [Music] the lord [Music] the lord [Music] the lord [Music] my heart is overwhelmed i can do nothing else but thank you [Music] living jesus [Music] to thank you jesus my heart is overwhelmed i can do nothing else but thank you jesus to thank you jesus and holy is the lord [Music] none can compare to your holiness lord god fill us with remind a reminder that you lord alone can satisfy god that your glory your presence is worthy of all praise when we step into your presence god we have the chance to give you back the best of what you've given to us lord crying out to you lord like isaiah when we realize how dirty we are apart from you god how unworthy we are apart from you may we be reminded that you've already done the work to clean us up god if we put our faith in jesus we get to sing with the angels holy holy holy is the lord god almighty thank you lord for that truth god you are so good and so kind and so faithful and so holy but yet you think of us have your way in here today god that you get all glory for you're the only one that deserves it in jesus name amen you guys can be [Music] seated [Music] that's all right well hey welcome guys welcome at our campuses before we dive into the sermon for today we're going to pray one more time uh for our easter week coming up um guys it's just a pivotal moment in the life of our church really praying for spiritual breakthrough and praying for a lot of people uh to be able to come home and also uh with that to uh to see a lot of new people come into the church and so man it's just gonna be an incredible weekend for us we have a bunch of baptisms already scheduled and man praying for more this weekend to contribute to that so hey i had a couple things i want to just kind of go back over though as we uh get going and that is man our service times are changing for easter weekend uh and i want to make sure that you guys kind of note that all right there's going to be an 8 30 at regional the rest of the campuses are 10 and 11 30. okay uh there's also going to be two college services on wednesday night at clifton and at high point i can't wait to be there you college students man we have live preaching at both of those services so excited for that uh also we're gonna have a sunday night service uh that's an outdoor service two of the services the 8 30 and then uh 10 o'clock at clifton are masked required and refereed okay the other services are going to be kind of the normal uh procedures that we've been following so guys we're trying to do everything we can do to give everybody an opportunity to come home and to bring others with them here's how you can help us with that hey go rsvp for the service that you're thinking about coming to okay that's going to help us prepare it's also going to help us prepare for what we need to do after easter when we see sort of the response to some of the different service times so i hope you guys will do that second thing i want to say is this hey if you have been a one of those just uh kind of stalwart serving people that the church was built on for years and you're not back to serving yet after kovid man i'm gonna i'm gonna push you that easter is the time at least for that weekend to jump in okay jump in and serve on easter uh man here here's this is cool okay but we gotta just think about this hey since the church started gathering again in the summer our attendance has doubled all right since that summer uh gathering all the way till now which we praise god for that at the same time the volunteer numbers have not doubled okay and so what it is is like man there's a lot of people holding the road right now man all of our staff all of their spouses every one of their kids just about if they're over about 12 years old our elders their spouses man they are holding the road right now along with many of you who are volunteering right now but you guys that are volunteering and serving you know there's gaps everywhere okay so if you can uh jump back in even if it's just for easter weekend that would be great we want to prepare the jars i want you i want you to hear this okay man i've been telling y'all i feel like the lord is gonna do something going forward things like this on our college staff and many of our college leaders in the last two months have shared the gospel on the college campus of the triad over 500 times okay so i want you to think at some point that's gonna pop like at some point the wave is going to come not just from that but culturally as well where we are as a culture and and vaccines and just all that stuff people are going to make their way back in we want to be ready for that and so if you can't man jump in and serve you go to our easter page there's a place right there to serve last thing i want to say as we get ready okay and i know there's a long kind of intro on the front of the front of the sermon but it's a big weekend for us uh is this man we are proclaiming a fast i i know that i know that in the bible it talks about your fasting being secret got it okay it also talks about proclaiming a fast at times and that's what i'm doing okay i'm asking a hundred people to jump in and fast with me it ends up being about four days 11 meals okay they're we're gonna have a devotional for every single meal so man every time you would have eaten a meal we're gonna jump into the spiritual uh bread and we're gonna pray together for different things um we're also going to be praying for our church plants as they approach easter we're going to be doing that kind of stuff so i'll be communicating with you we're also going to have a special prayer night saturday night for those that are on that team and have signed up for that listen it's not a legalistic thing fasting's between you and the lord if you're like man there's no way i can do that even medically i can't do that that's fine okay would you jump in and join with me for whatever part of that that you can you can text fasting to eight one four one one uh or sign up on our website i'm also praying for ten college students to step forward and go to bat for their campus all right and pray with me uh over easter so i'm asking you guys to do that all right i know that's a long thing right in the front we got a lot going on for easter more than that on the website but you guys check out our easter page let's go to the lord in prayer and just the prayer today is simple we're here we're just going to ask god to bless it all right let's let's pray father we come before you across all four of our locations and we ask before we dive into the sermon today that your hand would be on our plans we can build the house we can move we can do all the things we can swing the hammer god we can make plans but it is all for naught if you do not move god we beg you to move lord you are certainly worthy of being praised from every tribe tongue and nation and you are worthy of a shout of praise going up from greensboro high point winston-salem north carolina god over from elon lord i pray right now that your hand would be moved for us god we pray that we would see addictions broken marriage is put back together god i pray that we would see people that are coming out of the shadows back into the community of faith where they belong maybe they've been gone for years the last year of shaking them up father i pray for baptism salvation god i just pray that you would move lord we see you in the book of acts lord we see the strategy in the book of acts lord they chased these days on the calendar where the culture was ready to to think about god again and we want to chase those days we want to chase easter weekend god i pray that you'll move and the very ground will shake beneath us in christ's name we pray amen amen amen well good to see you guys uh today we're gonna be diving into the book of ecclesiastes so if you got a copy of scripture you could take it out and turn with me there uh today is cool because i told somebody earlier my favorite sermons in any series are the first sermon and the last sermon of the series okay today is the last sermon of a series and the reason i love that is because we get to kind of recap where we've been and really charge people with the main ideas and the thrust of a book and that is what we are going to do today all right today we come to the end of the matter we get all the way to the bottom of it and what we have seen throughout this series is very simply this there is no way that we can make sense of our lives under the sun without wisdom from beyond the sun we need the lord to give us what we need to make sense of our life if we don't have a why a point a meaning from beyond the sun what we will inevitably do is we will look to things like hobbies ball games meals jobs entertainment material possessions and a million other things i could think of and what we will say is i know there's some purpose that's supposed to be in my life so i will make this thing my why my meaning my purpose in life and the problem is of course that those things and this is what we've seen throughout this book y'all they were never created to be that and they will fail in delivering that all right now we understand that through this book and that's what we're going to get into a little bit more today but the thing is i've got to push you with and challenge you with right now uh is this as we move on from ecclesiastes i've got to kind of do that that sharp question again and just say man do you know what the true north of your life is do you know why you are here you get up in the morning you go to work you eat meals you think about vacations you take your kids to stuff all day every day why why do you do those things i thought about at the beginning of the series i'm gonna bring it back and that is to say this man if you had a friend that came to you and said hey i want you to go and stand on the corner on tuesday uh this particular road tuesday for two hours stand on the corner every one of us would do the same thing we would say why right we would say okay why i'm not saying no but why if they said to us oh no reason you know we would laugh it would be a joke there is no way i'm gonna go stand on the corner on tuesday for no reason and yet i bet you even within our congregation and certainly the world around us there are many of us still that will wake up tomorrow and drive to work and if i said why it would be like i need money why because you need money to live why do you need to live it's like stop asking me questions you know that's where it would be it would be like man honestly i don't have like that foundational why and meaning and the point of my life i have something that is fragile that i'm clinging to and what i want to do in the last kind of sermon of this series y'all is to try to push on that one more time y'all uh ecclesiastes exposes the fragility of the foundation of many of our lives and and the tragedy of that is that y'all there should be a bedrock foundation all right there is a purpose a destiny a calling for every single one of us and this room certainly and all the other rooms and our campuses there is a purpose for why you are here and what solomon has done in this book is is this okay by asking all the questions and getting us to see everything else's vanity all of a sudden maybe today we're able to see if it's all vanity then maybe there is a purpose by showing me what the purpose isn't man we're gonna get to see what the purpose is here's the big idea living for god's glory reverses our feelings of vanity and provides immense purpose in our life that ain't super clever okay on the last series i just went for clear this is super clear all right it reverses the feelings of vanity pointlessness frustration meaninglessness and it replaces it with a sense of deep purpose that pervades our life man our work what we're doing with our children the way we're thinking about relationships the way we think about friendships family it's there's nothing that it won't touch when we finally understand the missing piece living for god's glory the fear of the lord which is why we are put on this earth you were created for a purpose a destiny there is a calling in your life okay and i want to kind of bring our series to rest today by hitting that one more time look with me ecclesiastes chapter 12 starting in verse 9. besides being wise the preacher also taught the people knowledge weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care the preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth verse 11 the words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings they are given by one shepherd my son beware of anything beyond these of making many books there is no end and much study is a and in much study there is a wariness of the flesh now we're not done with our passage for today but let me stop right there and let me give you a road map okay let's just start walking and talking we got to talk through this stuff there's a bunch here i want to talk through it we'll talk and we'll read some more scripture and then towards the end we're going to come out with this big idea of the missing piece god's glory the fear of god now look look with me again look what he says in verse 9 being being wise the preacher taught people listen knowledge weighing studying arranging with great care he took delight uprightly all right he spoke the truth this is talking about god's word all right solomon taught wisdom and knowledge and he took great care in doing so and we have that all right we have that in the wisdom literature we have that in the book of proverbs for example certainly uh in this book as well but if you look down look what it said in verse 11 the words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed so the collected things this is the point they are given by one shepherd so i'm trying to build this out for you i want you to think about what we've been reading over the last couple of of months all right we have a book that is written probably and i've kind of taken it this way the whole time by solomon the wisest man that has ever lived but it actually is the thoughts and the collected sayings and the words of who the one shepherd y'all who is the shepherd who is the one shepherd it's the verse if you've been around church you learned as a kid the lord is my sep shepherd psalm 23 or psalm 80. so here's what we have we have a very deep understanding of the bible that you and i read week in and week out and it's this yes it was written by human hands but it is written under the inspiration of the holy spirit of god it is the words of solomon but it is the words of the one shepherd now this is why i want to set all that up okay and you see this in the new testament second timothy 3 16 talks about this about how the word of god the scripture is breathed out by god yes it was written by the hand of solomon but it is breathed out by god why is that important here's why this is important how seriously do you take your bible how seriously do you take the wisdom literature how seriously do you take the book of proverbs song of solomon how seriously do we take the book of ecclesiastes are we eating it up why because here's what i would say you've got a book that's written by the wisest man that ever walked the face of the of the earth under the inspiration of the holy spirit of god and the express purpose of the books that he writes are that we would know how to live in the world that god created wisest man inspiration of the holy spirit all about wisdom to disregard that take some kind of pride does that make sense i mean to disregard that take some kind of otherworldly hubris right just to be like no i don't really need that i thought about it like man if you were if you had a bunch of kids you were trying to teach uh how to hit and i said to you hey man i can bring ty cobb back and i can i can insert him batting practice in your little kids little league you know practice and t ty cobb batted 366 over a 24 year career it's astounding i mean he's number one best batting average that ever was okay so if i said i can bring him back and i could get him to teach our kids on this little league team to play and then your coach looks at you and he's like now i'm gonna stick with my youtube guy you know my youtube channel i'm getting all my tips off of like nah we're fine you know we're okay we would say man that takes some kind of pride you know to just disregard the greatest it ever was and say i'm gonna go with what i know my little youtube you know billy bob on youtube teaching my kid how to play you know it's like that would take some kind of pride in hubris right the wisdom from god about living in his world is at our fingertips do we regard it or do we disregard it man the thing is about christians here's what i know if i said to you hey do you believe solomon wrote this and was the wisest man that ever lived yeah well do you believe it was under the inspiration the holy spirit yeah okay do you believe it's about how to live in god's world yeah do you read it very much you know i mean for some of us it's like well i mean how can we say we believe those things yet we don't value it enough to eat it up and to be into it verse 11 the words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings they are given by one shepherd the words of the wise are like goads now what is a goat okay a goad is something that is used to point you in the right direction okay uh actually what it is it's an agrarian type thing a goad is a stick that you've sharpened in order to kind of smack and sort of poke the oxen or the cattle to get them to go wherever they're supposed to go all right at my house we you know we have a couple of cows if i'm trying to get them to go somewhere my kids will be out there waving at them a lot of times they'll have a stick in their hand now i don't let them sharpen the stick okay uh the reason is i got two boys that are wrestling around all the time two weeks ago my sermon was uh get two and got to you guys remember that get to and got to okay i get home they both listen to the sermon and they said dad we get to fight today we don't got to fight today you know that's so that was their that was their interpretation of that sermon uh two weeks ago i don't sharpen the sticks for them but the idea is that you would have something in your hand that's like hey i'm pointing you where you want to go that's what a goad is now why do you need a goat i'm going to tell you because oxen or cattle that type of thing they don't want to go where you want them to go they want to stay right here that's where they want to be if you want them to go over there they're like no i don't know what's over there that's unknown to me over there that's scary over there i don't want to go over there even if it's something that is good for me i want you to think about that in the christian life the word of god is a goad in your life the word moves us to places that we don't want to go even though they are good for us even though it's scary to us god uses the word of god to to to goad us and you ever heard somebody say man you've goaded me now you've jabbed at me now you pointed me you know that's the idea he pushes us where we don't want to go hey i don't want to take care of my body today the word of god a goad your body is a temple i don't want to be faithful today the word of god comes in two shall be one flesh i don't want to work hard today the word of god like a goad comes in and says no no you will work for the glory of god today you understand that's the idea is that we don't maybe want to go there we're afraid to go there it's unknown to go there we have different desires and the word of god because he's loving and gentle he pushes us to where we need to go he also says this and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings they are given by one shepherd not only does the word of god point you in the right dire direction the word of god is fixed the word of god is like an anchor the word of god is like it's like it's it's fixed and nailed okay it's or it's think i mean you could be thinking about your fingernails it's like man they're fixed like they're they're anchored they're not they're not supposed to move this is how the word of god is it's anchored it's nailed it's not supposed to move and it doesn't move and that is such good news for us church i don't know about you guys there have been times in my life where i was in absolute free fall and what i needed to happen was to be caught by an anchor of the word of god that didn't move and when i needed that in my life man the rock didn't move the anchor didn't pull out of the wall the nail held there's been times in my life where i've been so worried that i made myself sick i was thinking about this in that song that we just sang the first time i ever heard that song slave to the darkness i immediately broke down sat down on my chair and began to cry because i thought man some of us maybe hear some of the campuses are going to understand this you know what it's like to be slave to the darkness and then the word of god catches you from psalm 139 and says the darkness is not dark to him it catches you it'll hold i've been tired in my life maybe you've been tired over the last year i've been tired okay you got people upset about handling this issue that way are people upset that way or you guys are too much on covet or you guys don't even think covet exists and i mean it's you know it's always coming from all these different uh you know examples and man you can just you can just end up beat down you can end up a little bit tired and then the word catches you it's an anchor it holds you in isaiah 40. man it says those that wait upon the lord will renew their strength you won't be tired forever and i've been afraid in my life i don't know if you've been afraid in your life but like an anchor second timothy 1 7 comes in and says man fear is not an emotion fear is not a character trait i don't care what the psychologists tell you fear is a spirit we are not to be controlled by it and that's the type of thing that all of a sudden i'm in free fall and it grabs you it's anchored the word of god won't move this is all i want to say and then i got to move on y'all you can't be firmly fixed by the word if you don't know the word we cannot be fixed by it we cannot be goaded by it to get where we need to go if we don't know it man why is this man inspiration of god wisdom for life three quick applications number one man read a chapter of the proverbs every day i think it is probably the most formative small 10-minute christian habit that there has ever been in the history of the world okay so read the book of proverbs at least one chapter every day number two man parent commissioning a lot of you guys are parents man we we love kids at mercy hill we want to help you raise them in admonition of the lord we have parent commissioning coming up may 8th and 9th y'all what do we do in parent commissioning parents we are commissioning you by and large to teach your kids one book to master one book in their life man to teach them the word of god because it is a goad and because it is firmly fixed in a time that they will need it and number three i would say this you all meditate on the bible and it will shape your life think about the word of god and it will get into the woven fabric of who you are i i think about this man have you ever met somebody where their humor was like super shaped by like a certain genre or like a television show or something i meet people all the time that are maybe my age for whatever reason maybe it's that kind of generation and like their whole character and their whole humor has been shaped by the show the office okay it's like if you didn't see the office you're not going to understand 30 percent of what they're talking about uh you know what there's probably other examples like that what i'm saying is like man is the word of god like that for us where it is like man if you don't get the word in some sense this person is always going to be strange to you i mean it's gonna maybe they're the aroma of christ sure but there there's just something about them that it's gonna be hard for somebody outside because it's like man the woven fabric of their life is the word of god it ought to be man why is this man inspiration of the holy spirit the wisdom of god for our life are we taking it seriously ecclesiastes 12 12 my son beware of anything beyond these of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh the wisdom of god has been carefully put together it is a goat to push us it is firmly fixed all right but here's the deal many times i think what we have and listen i've said this before and i don't have to go all the way into this man i want to have different disciplines i i mean i feel like even as a pastor i need to be uh you know cross-reading and different disciplines and all of that and i think as a christian we need to be the sharpest people on the planet and a lot of disciplines not just the bible but okay but here's the deal i think what he's getting at here is something like this y'all many resources can tell you what maybe a lot of them can tell you how there's really only one that can tell you the ultimate why i think a lot of people are looking for their why in endless podcasts and never-ending youtube channels and audible books and all this stuff which is great i do the same thing and yet we've got to understand there might be a podcast that can tell you how to think about politics it cannot tell you why ultimately like why you why you should there might be an audiobook that can tell you how to be a good leader it can't tell you why the ultimate reason for why actually one of the best leadership books i've ever read i recommend it is called start with the y all right start with the y by simon cynic and the funny thing about that book is it awakens you to the need for a why and it cannot tell you the why the why is the word of god the why is who you are and have been created to be the why is shaped by the bible there are plenty of youtube channels telling you how to do a hobby but they can't tell you why i could go on and on and on i said this earlier uh in a different uh sermon so i don't need to go all the way back through it but y'all i do think it's relevant to say this hey for some of you it's like man you know some of the bible stuff you know what god has to say but you feel like you're on an endless search for truth and a why and purpose and meaning in your life and all these other areas and i feel like at the end of this series i just need to call out to you and i need to say man is it time to land is it time to come to the end of the matter because a lot of times we ask questions to find truth and a lot of times we ask questions to avoid the truth you can say it like this we can ask questions to form conclusions or we can ask questions to avoid them you know c.s lewis has a part of the book called the great divorce that's this way where basically what happens is there's a guy who is kind of arguing in this these spirits are talking back and forth and one of them is wanting to go to heaven and the other one is wanting to stay right where they are which is not heaven okay and and it's kind of like this the spirit says hey i want to take you to the place of answers and the other one says oh no there is no final answers right like there's nothing final like we don't want to go and and the spirit is saying no you know when you were a child you would ask questions because you genuinely wanted to understand truth you ask questions to form conclusions you need to go back to that childlike spirit where you're asking the question because you actually want to answer and you know what the other spirit says he says when i was a child when i became a man i put away childish things hey some of us right here are that way some of us our campuses are that way you're trying to avoid an inevitable conclusion man i think it's like this you kind of already have figured it out man once i submit the bible and god and he has a plan for my life that means i submit my life to him and when i submit my life to him that's not something i'm willing to do right now it masquerades as an intellectual problem and the reality is that it is a heart and it is a submission problem it's asking endless questions in order to avoid an ultimate conclusion it's a lot like when you go you guys put a man put a little kid to bed and you put him in the bed and you're like hey don't get up and right before you know don't get up go to sleep and right before you get out the door they're like what if i got to go to the bathroom and you're like well okay yeah but you know like don't get up all right got it well what if i got what if i need some water well what if dad what if you call my name what if there's a fire dad do you want me to get up or not you know and they're asking like a million questions over and over and over and the whole point is it's not all that stuff it's like man i don't want you to leave i don't want you i don't want to have to go to bed that's the point it's an inevitable conclusion that i'm trying to avoid by asking and asking and asking and asking hey are some of us in that mode are they questions of postponement my question for you is this hey is it time for you to land we have a bunch of college students at clifton a high point i'm going to ask you guys even directly hey is it time for you to land you guys have four years four years of maybe some of the most major impact in a strategic environment in your life and are you wasting it with questions that you already kind of understand where this thing should go all right and so i'm going to ask you man is it time to land we're baptizing at clifton and easter you can sign up for that on the easter page on our website all right let's get to the matter okay trying to teach through this but here's the deal we get to the end of the matter and that's exactly what he says look the end of the matter all has been heard fear god and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man for god will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing whether good or evil in the end at the bottom you ever been in you've been a situation where it's like man just cut to the chase like let's just we've been it's like you're negotiating something you're negotiating a car you're negotiating a house you're in a meeting you're like we have been talking forever it's time like just get to the point i think the book of ecclesiastes in some sense is supposed to get us to that place where by the time you get all the way to the end of the book you're like man just say it straight okay like you've been you've been saying it and asking endless questions and vanity this and vanity that just tell me if this ain't the point of my life and the purpose then what is and the end of the matter is fear god and keep his commandments that's what it says the end of man is what some translations even say the sum total the reason that you and i are here the end of man is not hobbies the end of man is not marriage the end of man is not work the end of man is not entertainment the end of man is to fear god and to keep his commandments what does fear god mean i know that can be confusing fear god means an awe a reverence a respect a deep gratitude for who god is and what he has done for us in the gospel that is the fear it is a fear without being afraid it is a fear that actually draws us in i'll give you an example of that c.s lewis again in the book the horse and his boy from the chronicles of narnia series all right when is a horse uh that they end up getting kind of chased by aslan and he ends up revealing themselves finally to win and bree he breathes a big war horse she's a smaller horse and wynn looks at aslan and here's what the book says it says shaking okay she's afraid she trots over to aslan she sees him and here's what she says now she's scared to death but she walks over to him and she says you're the most beautiful thing that i've ever seen and you can eat me if you want to she says i'd rather be eaten by you than fed by anybody else and he looks at her and he says i knew that you would come joy shall be yours i'd rather be eaten by you than fed by anybody else i'm scared to death and yet i can't look away you are beautiful and here i come there's an aw there's a reverence there is a respect pastor eugene from high point campus just said it like this man it's taking god seriously that's what it is it's like man i see him i take him seriously i take what he says seriously and i am drawn to him this is the whole end you read the whole book of ecclesiastes this is the point you were put on earth to fear god now you can do that through your kids sports and your work and all your hobbies and all this stuff there's millions of things in our life but you were put here for one reason to fear god you guys seen these memes you had one job have you seen those okay i got a i got a couple over here uh have you seen this one uh the first one you guys could throw it up there uh you had one job okay it's just wrong it's like nope that's not go to the next one um this one's problematic okay you had one job this is highly problematic somebody got killed by this one i guarantee okay the next one uh is this you can't read it okay here's what it says it says installed by it's a smoke detector and then somebody wrote in the ceiling okay installed on the ceiling it should have been a date and instead it was a location okay you had one job that's the point you guys have seen these before man you had one thing that you were supposed to do y'all we have one job the end of the matter the end of the man is not all of this stuff the end of man one job the end of man is to fear god to live a life that is reverential to him in relationship with him be a god-fearing person application uh today is this in the end y'all fear god and obey him okay every one of us have come to the place in our life where there was a bit of a sneaking despair why am i here what am i supposed to remember that's what billy graham said you go to every university on earth cambridge oxford it's always the same two questions why am i here and what am i supposed to do and every one of us have felt the sneaking desperation of not knowing the answer to that question in our life man we feel like i think there's something deeper that is out there for me the good news is you feel like that because there is you were made for a purpose a calling a destiny and praise god because of the gospel we can actually we were created to fear god and only because of the gospel y'all we can fear god that destiny is available to us today you know we're reading in ecclesiastes but this book has many implications later in the bible because it raised a lot of questions that we don't see the answer to maybe fully until we get to jesus sure solomon could tell us to fear god but it is only through the one who was greater than solomon the greater solomon the greater king that we are actually given a way to fear god jesus christ can actually help us here actually he said so much himself in matthew chapter 12 jesus christ is kind of bantering going back and forth with some of the religious leaders man he's been teaching he's been healing he gassed out demons and what do they say we're going to get into this in our next series that's why i'm not a christian okay we're going to get into this in our next series but one of the things they say they see him heal they see him cast out a demon they don't care we think a miracle would change the way our heart is man here's the deal they see all this stuff they don't care they hate him they want him gone and they try to trap him and so you go read it matthew chapter 12. they start asking him questions trying to get him trapped and jesus ends up saying to them man this is an adulteress generation you want a sign you want a miracle for me other than what i've already done you're going to have the sign of jonah maybe some of you have heard that before not the point for today then he says this little lesser known okay he actually talks about another sign it's not the sign of jonah but here's what he says in matthew chapter 12 verse 42 the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of solomon now that's the point okay he says man if the queen of the south came back she would look at all the y'all and she would say what what he how could i travel the seas to hear just the wisdom of solomon and yet you guys reject jesus christ who is the way the truth and the life he says something greater than solomon is here here's what he means solomon was great he was wise man he wrote under the inspiration of the holy spirit and he said some things to us here's what solomon did he said you are put on earth to fear god don't chase all this other stuff i've already been there i've been to the bottom of that it's a labyrinth of dead ends you were put here to fear god and that is great but here's what the queen of the south is saying man i would travel the seas to hear that but the one who could actually provide our way into a fearing god relationship you guys crucified you you didn't want to hear from him solomon was great but he wasn't the answer solomon was great but he wasn't the savior man solomon's life ended in a absolute train wreck got wrapped up with a thousand women literally he had a thousand women wives concubines they let his heart astray his enduring legacy was building massive idols for the people to fall away and god said i will rip the kingdom from you but i won't do it in your day because of david because of my servant it'll be ripped from your son that's what happened in his life man solomon wrote some things that we need to hear but at the end of his at the end of the day he was not the savior he couldn't take us there think about this from chapter 12 and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings they are given by one shepherd y'all solomon wrote down the collected sayings he wrote down the word so that we would know that we are supposed to fear god but i want you to think about the one that was greater than solomon solomon nailed down the word of god but jesus christ was the word that was nailed to a cross so that you and i wouldn't just know what we're supposed to do but we could be counted as righteous counted as ones who did fear god all the days of our life and in knowing the gospel and knowing what he has done knowing that jesus christ took a a a lived a life we couldn't live and then die to death that we deserve and then in his resurrection we get to live in the newness of life in this right restored god-fearing relationship with him oh it changes everything for us all right but let me talk to the believers then i'll talk to the unbelievers and then i'll be done for today okay believer you're a god-fearer that's who you are jesus christ has made you into that not because you were great okay but because of what he has done and his great love for us his righteousness has covered you it counts for you and you are a god fearer okay that is who you are but let me ask you this in what areas of your life is it not leading to the obedience that it was supposed to remember what it said it actually said man fear god and obey his commands the book of ecclesiastes ends y'all right where the book of proverbs begins proverbs chapter 1 verse 7 fearing god the beginning of wisdom wisdom is to obey god's commands it is to live life by his design here's my point okay if you're like man i'm not sure how how i'm doing fear in god check the fruit check the obedience is there obedience happening in your life because if fearing god does not lead to obedience then it is a fake fear then it's a fear that looks right on the weekend but it's not something isn't right if it's not producing the obedience that it should and what areas man do we need to go to the father today we need to say man there are areas of my life where i don't want to obey i don't desire obedience i i don't want to walk in that what are the areas in your life that are that way can you identify them and then can you say today man the way to move back into authenticity is not to just try harder and do better not to get real guilty today all right the way is to be broken and to realize god loves you anyway man to get that reverential fear he's awesome he's good man we respect him we are drawn to him even though we're scared of death we're not afraid of him but we fear him that kind of thing you get some of that in your soul and it will begin to produce obedience in your life i thought about this hey the week before easter man some of us might need a goad a push here okay and the push is man are you going to be a missionary for this week in order to see people come and hear the gospel at our easter services across 13 services four locations or are you thinking right now i don't want to be an ambassador of christ even though i'm a christian is there something in your heart that's like man i don't want to invite like i don't want to i don't want to talk to my neighbors and my kids ball team and i don't want to be talking to co-workers and i don't want to i don't want to do that i don't have that desire to be an ambassador of christ this week the answer is not for me to make you feel guilty the answer is not for you to just put your head down and plow through it the answer is can you see today that there is a god who is awesome who is loving a man who draws you in who we fear but we're not afraid of who we have a reverential awe for oh the one who didn't just say fear god but died because we didn't fear god in our place and then resurrected on our behalf that we could be caught up in this whole movement if we begin to get some of that in our life it's like all of a sudden it's like man my heart begins to melt and i want to talk to others uh about this man i pray that we'll be an inviting bunch of people this week to our easter services all of our campuses college students everybody right man there's there's inviter cards in the lobby come get more whatever you need to do man if we can help you if we can personally help you if you've got an idea email the pastors okay amanda we want to catalyze the church to be able to get after it uh this week all right fear and obey hey the last thing is this though uh for some of us it is truly time to move from pointless to purpose we've come to the end of the matter we were created to fear god you were created with one job all right i'm gonna give you one more illustration okay i don't know if any of you guys know what this is all right jeremy dagger comes walking into my office a couple months ago and he says man do you have any idea what this is i said man i don't know ask randy okay randy usually knows about stuff like this uh pastor randy and randy was like man i don't know what that is and we were looking around we're like man i don't know what it is and i said man i don't know what it is but i know there is one dude who will absolutely know what that is and he lives off of henley drive in middleburg florida call my dad okay he texts my dad my dad immediately takes him right back and says that's a fire hydrant wrench guys all right so mystery solved it's a fire hydrant ranch why jeremy has one and if it's even legal that's a different mystery okay i don't know all right uh but i thought about that and i'm like man you know we look at this the natural question is what is it for every tool in the world everything in the world it's like you look at it and you go man that thing was created for some particular thing you know the particular thing that you and i were created for is to live a life and reverential fear of god and use everything else in our life leverage to that end it is a life that explodes with meaning every minute shot through with glory the everyday with the eye on the eternal that's what you were created for if you're not a believer here today or if you've not taken steps in obedience to baptism i want to push on you last verse for god will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing whether good or evil i'm not asking you between something good and something neutral okay it's either man i get on board with the purpose for which i was created a life shot through with glory explode with joy and meaning move from pointless to purpose it's not between that and nothing it's between that and an eternal separation from god in hell every deed will be judged and a christian looks at that and we say man there's great hope for us in that because jesus already took that for us i know all the times i didn't fulfill my purpose i know all the times i didn't fear god and jesus took the judgment for that there's hope for us in that but if you're not a believer then you'll be judged for this for all eternity man it's time for us to get right you can close your bibles i'm going to go through a gospel prayer again you guys can bow your heads close your eyes as we close i'm going to pray but listen if you need to get right at our campuses somebody's seeing this online if it's like man pointless to purpose today is the day of salvation for you then you need to pray with me right now after me in your heart pray this to god man it's time to land you know enough endless questions putting off an inevitable destination no man let's get right with the lord and step into our purpose today you would pray this you say father i know i'm a sinner i know living this way is pointless i believe jesus paid for my sin on the cross offers new life in the resurrection would you pray this with me in your heart and i want to step into your purpose for me would you give your life to jesus give your heart to jesus today you guys the campuses as well y'all can look back up uh here for just a minute here's what i want to say y'all if you pray with me or if you're a christian uh if you prayed with me today or maybe you're a christian you're like man i've never taken that card there's a card right there if you guys thank you if you guys have never uh man if you've never been baptized if you prayed with me to receive christ one of our campuses are here today the next step for you is to put that on display for the world to see at easter by getting in the water and getting the baptismal pool all right hey maybe you're a christian and you're like man i'm a believer i've been a christian for a long time but you know every time i bring this up the spirit of god puts his finger right on your heart it's time for you to take this step of obedience you know what i'm talking about okay hey there's a couple ways that you can tell us that it's time for you to get baptized and you want to talk about that and we want to talk to you about it one of our pastors will contact you you can text baptize to 8-1-4-1-1 you can sign up on our church website three different ways or then you can just fill this card out right here okay and all of our campuses and the seat right in front of you there's a little seat back and you just pop that you just sign it pop that thing right in very anonymous as soon as the services are over all of our locations then our teams are going to fly through there they'll grab every one of those we'll get every single one of them and we will contact you uh tomorrow all right let's pray [Music] father god we come before you and we just ask right now uh lord that in a spirit of prayer god you'll convict and you'll move in our life god move some to an area of being of obedience and move some into an area of baptism you guys with a spirit of prayer and heads bowed if you want to do that hey some of you guys need to stare this card right in the face really grapple with it i'm going to give you guys a few minutes of reflection as our band plays [Music] he stepped [Music] you breathe [Music] hallelujah [Music] just as i am [Music] i surrender i surrender [Music] i surrendered you've seen what i have done but you know what i've become [Music] hallelujah [Music] me [Music] is is [Music] [Applause] is i surrender holy spirit [Music] then i can trust you with [Music] then i can trust you with [Music] oh [Music] this next part says with all my heart with all my soul with all my strength i will love you lord make this a prayer today let your heart say these words with truth [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] is [Music] lord i surrendered [Music] holy spirit [Music] i surrender but i surrendered [Music] surrender [Music] amen church can we give god praise today for what he is doing amen again may that be our prayer that the holy spirit just captures us and that we freely surrender to what he has done for us amen amen we guys can be seated at this time again we have an opportunity just to remember that our whole lives is to give god the glory that he is due and as we think about that we're going to continue to worship and transition into a time of giving you know the bible says and the bible tells us that giving is our obedience to the confession of the gospel of christ and as we think about giving the best motivation out of our whole hearts is to give in a heart of gratitude based off the greatest gift that god has given us and that's the gift of jesus christ and the salvation that he has gifted to us so as we think about giving i personally want to encourage you and invite you to give today as god has done a work here at mercy hill church as we look to make disciples and multiply churches i encourage you to give to us so that we can not only see an impact here in the triad but throughout the world and giving is simple you can give in one of a few ways you can go to our online platform and give there you can use the gift boxes here in the back of the sanctuary or you can simply text mhgive to 81411 and you'll receive a link that you can use to give right here right now well church as we um continue uh just to think about uh giving and just what we expect god to do as we start our easter services next week you heard pastor andrew say we are going to be starting a new sermon series and again i can tell you about it but i want you to check out this video that tells it better what are we doing nico uh we're asking people if they're christians are they not christians you know i'm kind of nervous but i'm usually kind of excited what's your name nico nico yes we would love to know why you're you don't consider yourself christian uh i don't consider my i don't i don't really believe in religion i believe religion is very uh manipulative i believe in in salvation i believe in you know jesus but i also believe in buddha i also believe in krishna and like ganesha my mom's half of the family is are islamic and my death side of the family is christian i grew up very confused and not knowing if there's only one god then how come there's more religions yeah that's why i don't really believe in anything i'm not a christian because i'm just not a christian i mean i still believe in god and a higher power i had a lot of questions that church really couldn't answer so here i am now i'm not a christian i believe that every religion has something to offer so i want to hear every side and hear what every person thinks because i think religion isn't a book i believe that religion is the people that believe in what the book says a bunch of different people in a bunch of different views that's why i'm agnostic um i was a practicing christian for a very long time the worship teams men's groups all of that stuff i got a little tired of not being enough within the church even seeing the hypocrisy of the high ups once i stepped away from the church i realized i didn't need to be in the church to be a good person so that was that's one of the reasons why i'm no longer a practicing christian church we look forward to that series that starting next week and again we think about all the the people we saw in the video and in the teaser again of just how important it is for us to recognize how important the gospel is and that people hear um the gospel of christ so we have a few things that we want to put on your radar the first thing is to be sure that you um go online to rsvp for the service that you plan to attend also we have invited cards out in the lobby that we want you to take as many as you need use those as tools to invite people to come and hear the gospel of jesus christ on easter weekend we also want to remind you if you filled out this baptism card again fill it out before you leave um to so that you can go public with your faith on easter weekend you can fill that out and put it in the seat back right in front of you well church we have enjoyed worshiping with you we hope that this service has challenged you and grown you in your relationship with christ because we believe that growing people are going people we're going to have a prayer team down front if you need prayer for anything mercy hill church you are sent out you

Channel: Mercy Hill Church

Views: 720

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: jesus, mercy hill, mercy hill church, andrew hopper, greensboro, high point, triad, expository preaching, church, online worship, worship online, church online, online worship service, online church service, sermon, ecclesiastes

Id: nOcX8rmULLk

Length: 82min 5sec (4925 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021