Rev. David Holwick ZM adapted from serm97g.pco, 2/16/97
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
December 11, 2011
Ecclesiastes 11:7 - 12:1
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I. Seize the day.
A. The potential and tragedy of life.
A couple of years ago I was hiking the trials in Allamuchy Park
near Cranberry Lake.
Deep in the woods I came upon an upright stone that looked
suspiciously like a grave stone.
It wasn't - it was a memorial to an energetic man.
An etched picture on the stone shows him on a mountain bike
because that was his passion in life.
He once went on a 24-hour bike event in that very park.
His favorite expression was, "Livin' large!"
His day-job was being a securities analyst on Wall Street.
He was pretty good at it - he won an award for being the third
best in the industry at what he did.
Forbes magazine did a long interview with him.
His name was Dean Eberling.
His office was on the 58th floor of World Trade Center, tower 2.
Early on September 11, 2001, he heard the first plane hit the
other tower.
Dean and 26 of his coworkers got into an express elevator.
It started to go down when the second plane struck the floors
directly above them.
The elevator cable was severed and the car started to fall.
Emergency brakes stopped it just above the concourse level.
Dean and another man pried an 8-inch gap in the door near the
floor of the buckled car.
Flames started coming down the elevator shaft.
Dean and the other man helped two women slowly crawl through
the gap in doors.
Dean's chance would never come.
As firefighters attempted to cut open the door with a chainsaw,
the building collapsed.
He was only 44 years old.
A few of his friends hauled the 1,000-pound monument out to
the lonely mountain bike trail.
#63563
Dean's story recalls the Robin Williams' movie, "Dead Poets
Society."
One vivid scene: he shows students pictures of school athletic
teams from the previous century.
They are young and vibrant - and dead.
Life is short. Seize each day and make it count.
#4040
B. How much do you get out of life?
1) Do you think your life could be better?
2) Do you wonder if life can truly be fulfilling?
3) Only God can make it so.
II. Life is meant to be enjoyed.
A. Life is good. 11:7
1) Creation has much light and beauty.
2) Enjoy your time in this world. 11:8
a) It will not all be rosy. There will be darkness.
b) Keep it in mind, but don't let it defeat you.
1> In our limited reasoning, darkness can wipe out
all the light.
A> That is why so many young people end their
lives before they ever start really living.
B> It can seem pretty meaningless - without God.
2> But remind yourself that Jesus came to defeat the
darkness.
A> You are not alone.
B. Youth is good.
1) God wants young people to be happy. 11:9
a) Follow your heart and eyes - sounds dangerous.
1> Sometimes it is.
2> My Rebecca has taken up mountain climbing, the
kind with hard hats and ropes.
3> Daniel chases tornadoes in his car, and Josiah
snowboards down steep, tree-covered slopes.
b) Youth take more risks.
1> Go ahead and challenge yourselves.
2> Find out what your physical limits are.
2) "Following the eyes" sounds like pleasure-seeking.
a) Eyes can gravitate toward pretty dangerous things.
1> Addictions, sexuality, risk-taking.
2> A new book is called "Dear Me: A Letter to My
Sixteen-Year-Old Self."
Famous people reach back in time to give advice to
themselves.
The author Stephen King tells his 16-year-old self:
"It's simple, really, just five words:
STAY AWAY FROM RECREATIONAL DRUGS."
Alice Cooper, the bat-eating bad-boy of my
generation:
"Trashy girls are excitin' for about 5 minutes.
Keep your eye out for a really good lookin' church
girl.
Then you'll have the best of both worlds."
William Shattner of Star Trek fame sounds the most
like Solomon:
"Live in the moment.
Enjoy those feelings of inadequacy.
Live in your youth, because it passes too quickly."
#9439
b) Not hedonism, but responsibility is emphasized here.
1> Note that Solomon says that we will be judged for
everything we do.
2> Choose wisely or you will get burned.
A> Dean Eberling himself didn't always make good
choices.
Among the internet articles on him is one about
how Merrill Lynch fired him.
Apparently he sent obscene emails through his
business account.
B> We may be judged in this life, but definitely in
the next...
C. Don't idolize youth.
1) I am not young anymore.
a) My stamina is shot and my hair is quickly thinning.
b) But I'm not dead yet.
1> Phone conversation with my father this week.
He has gotten one of those electric lift chairs
because his knees give out before his rear
hits the chair.
But dad doesn't feel sorry for himself.
He and a buddy saw a man in his 60s who was much
worse off than either of them.
2) All our years can be cherished, "however many we live." 11:8
III. There are always limits.
A. Positive statements are harshly balanced with negative.
1) Enjoy life - darkness is coming. 11:8
2) Be happy - you will be judged. 11:9
3) Banish anxiety - youth and vigor mean nothing. 11:10
B. Judgment is coming.
1) Death in view?
2) It should be a great motivator.
In 1982, "ABC Evening News" reported on an unusual work of
modern art - a chair attached to a shotgun.
It was to be viewed by sitting in the chair and looking
directly into the gunbarrel.
The gun was loaded and set on a timer to fire at an
undetermined moment within the next hundred years.
The amazing thing was that people waited in lines to sit and
stare into the bullet's path!
They all knew the gun could go off at point-blank range at
any moment, but they were gambling that the fatal blast
wouldn't happen during their minute in the chair.
#63564
a) Very foolish, but no more foolish than not taking God
into account.
b) Defying God leads to self-destruction.
3) Immediacy of death should motivate us.
A university professor once told of being invited to speak
at a military base one December.
There he met an unforgettable soldier named Ralph.
Ralph had been sent to meet him at the airport, and after
they had introduced themselves, they headed toward the
baggage claim.
As they walked down the concourse, Ralph kept disappearing.
Once to help an older woman whose suitcase had fallen open.
Once to lift two toddlers up to where they could see Santa
Claus.
And again to give directions to someone who was lost.
Each time he came back with a big smile on his face.
"Where did you learn to do that?" the professor asked.
"Do what?" Ralph said
"Where did you learn to live like that?"
"Oh," Ralph said, "during the war, I guess."
Then he told the professor about his tour of duty in
Viet Nam, about how it was his job to clear mine fields.
He had watched his friends blow up before his eyes, one
after another.
"I learned to live between steps," he said.
"I never knew whether the next one would be my last, so I
learned to get everything I could out of the moment
between when I picked up my foot and when I put it
down again.
Every step I took was a whole new world, and I guess I've
just been that way ever since."
The abundance of our lives is not determined by how long we
live, but how well we live it.
Christ makes abundant life possible if we choose to live it
now.
#3147
C. We need a goal worth reaching.
1) Our ways matter to God.
2) He will hold us accountable for how we live.
IV. The priorities of the life that matters.
A. The test of eternity.
1) All we can give is our time.
a) When we work, we are paid for our time.
b) When we play, we are taking "time out."
c) Life is a series of decisions regarding how we will
spend out time.
2) All of Ecclesiastes stands under weight of eternity.
a) Without God, life is meaningless.
3) Does what we are doing make a difference in eternity?
a) Jesus tells us not to be preoccupied with the mundane.
b) We are always very close to the next world.
B. The test of humanity.
1) Only people last forever.
a) Death is real, but life isn't short.
Listen to how C. S. Lewis describes how we should regard
our next-door neighbor:
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible
gods and goddesses.
You need to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting
person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,
if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to
worship.
On the other hand, they might be a horror and a corruption
such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.
"All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other
to one or other of these destinations...
There are no ordinary people.
You have never talked to a mere mortal.
Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations - these are mortal,
and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.
But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry,
snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting
splendours."
- C. S. Lewis
The Weight of Glory
#63565
2) Serve others, better them, love them.
C. The test of conformity.
1) Measure goals and priorities by this - does it conform me
to Jesus Christ?
a) We need to ask if we are becoming more like Jesus. Phil 2
2) Bow knee before Jesus now, not when forced to later.
V. Know God now.
A. Positive approach to life must rest on something substantial.
1) Cheerfulness, courage - even sound morality - are not enough.
2) Be godly!
Mike Conroy sent me an email this week, one that was
originally written by Mario Green:
A real man is the kind of man that when your feet hit the
floor each morning the devil says, "Oh Crap, he's up!"
Brother, life is too short to wake up with regrets.
So love the people who treat you right.
Forgive the ones who don't, just because you can.
Believe everything happens for a reason.
If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands.
If it changes your life, let it.
Take a few minutes to think before you act when you're mad.
Forgive quickly.
God never said life would be easy.
He just promised it would be worth it.
B. Our greatest challenge in life is the right commitment.
1) Letter from Becky Rubenstein (then Salmon) a few years ago:
Pastor Dave,
I hope that you can help me out.
I spoke with my roommates last night about religion.
We got into the conversation because it is Ash Wednesday
today and someone was explaining what the meaning was.
They seem very opposed to the idea of religion and it seems
like there are a lot of reasons why they consider it all
a fairy tale.
The Bible is nonsense and Jesus is not who we believe him
to be.
There are two girls that do believe in God and Jesus Christ
but they are still a little sketchy.
The others really don't have any feelings except opposition.
I am really bad at giving facts and answers etc.
I don't base my faith on those things.
God has shown himself to me in many ways.
It is easier for me to act like a Christian and worry about
myself than to talk about it with outsiders.
I need some work on that.
Thanks
BECKY [1]
2) Remember God - not just a mental action, but a full
commitment to him.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] The letter was written to me on February 12, 1997.
# 3147 “Abundant Life,” by Barbara Brown Taylor, Leadership, February 16,
1997, page 61.
# 4040 “A Monument In The Grass Rides,” by Rev. David Holwick from
personal experience, June 25, 1995.
# 9439 “What Would Older People Tell Their Teenage Selves?” by Jocelyn
McClurg, USA Today, October 21, 2011, <http://www.usatoday.com
/life/books/news/story/2011-10-19/dear-me-writers-write-to-their-
young-selves/50831880/1>.
#63563 “Livin' Large,” by Rev. David Holwick, based on personal research
and the articles "Remembering September 11, 2001: Dean P.
Eberling Obituary" (originally published on March 8, 2003, in
The New York Times), <http://www.legacy.com/Sept11/Story.aspx?
PersonID=134405>, and "Phoenix Rising, the legacy of the 89th
floor," by Shawn McCarthy, Globe and Mail, September 9, 2006,
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/phoenix-
rising-the-legacy-of-the-89th-floor/article842127/>.
#63564 “Standing In Line To Get Shot,” adapted from an ABC Evening News
broadcast in 1982.
#63565 “Your Neighbors Are Possible Gods and Goddesses,” by C. S. Lewis,
from his book , The Weight of Glory.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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