Summing It All Up

First, worship is all about Christ. Growth is all about Christ. Serving is all about Christ. This book is all about Christ. Life is all about Christ, isn't it? That pretty well sums it up, doesn't it? It's all about Christ. If we make it anything more, then we've missed the mark. We've missed the focus. Well, that's really what we're doing this morning with the book of Ecclesiastes. We are summing it all up. We're putting in to focus what the book has been all about. As we come to the end of this 30-part series on the Book of Ecclesiastes, we find ourselves wrapping up the book today, coming to the middle of chapter 12 and we'll finish up the Book of Ecclesiastes this morning. In the middle of the 20th century, one of the well-known Theologians of the world, probably at that time, the most well-known Theologian and writer in the world on religious topics was from Europe. He made a tour of the world toward the end of his life. He toured the world. He spoke, lectured in great universities across the world. He preached to throngs of people in many places. He rubbed shoulders with scholars from all over the world. He did further research on some writing that he was doing. He also took time to see some of the wonders of the world and to meditate in some of the most wonderful places of natural beauty in this world. When he returned to his home, a news anchor was interviewing him and asked him this question and your trip and your journeys across the world and all of the things that you saw and did, what was the most profound thought you had in that time? He thought for a moment and then he said, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. You know, that does sum it up, doesn't it? So simple and yet so profound. As we have journeyed through the book of Ecclesiastes with Solomon, we have seen that he's taken us on a fascinating journey, a very realistic and yet deep approach to life and look at life. He began the book by raising the specter that we all deal with every day and that is the routine monotony of life. And then he talked about how people try to find in that monotonous routine, how they seek to find real purpose and meaning and fulfillment and significance and joy in life. Some people try to find it in pleasure. Some people try to find it in greater knowledge. Some people try to find it in material possessions. Some people try to find it in their work. And Solomon closes out that first section of the book by saying the only way to find genuine meaning and purpose and fulfillment in life is through a relationship with God and finding joy in Him. And that makes all the other pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together. And then Solomon went even deeper in this book. He showed us the reality of God's plan and purpose and sovereignty in life. And how to respond to some of the apparent challenges to that, like injustice or death or oppression or corruption. And then Solomon moved to another very deep and interesting topic and that was how to see life from God's perspective as he continues to build this overall philosophy of life in this book. And he showed us how God views things, how God sees things and thus how we should see things, how we should have a divine perspective, heavenly perspective on things like prosperity and adversity and character and authority and injustice. And then he took all of those strands of thoughts and truth and teaching that he had given us in this book. And he said, okay, now I'm gonna close the book by showing you how to live life. In light of what you've seen by way of God's truth, how do you form a philosophy of life? How do you approach life? What is your worldview? And he has said we should live with enjoyment seeing all of life as a gift from God to be focused on enjoy. We should live with enthusiasm, whatever our hand finds to do with all of our might. We should live with involvement or engagement in life, continuing to engage ourselves in life and not withdraw because the race is not always to the swift, the battle is not always to the strong wealth, does not always come to the brilliant, he says, and so forth. In other words, life is unpredictable, so stay engaged with God and his world and his word and his work and continue living in what he wants you to do. Live with that sense of involvement or engagement. Then Solomon says we should live with realism, recognizing that people will not always appreciate your efforts or understand your life in Christ. Live with that realism but with the sense of purpose that you will live for Christ anyway. And then he says live not only with those philosophies of life but live with wisdom, live with boldness, taking some risks and faith. Once again, he says live with enjoyment and then we saw last time remember your creator in the days of your youth, live with godliness, remembering him more than just the mental recognition of him, but a deep recognition of who he is and living for him and committing your life to him, live with godliness, Solomon says. Now he comes to the conclusion. In verses 9 through 14 of chapter 12, he will wrap up the book, he will conclude it for us. And just like that theologian, it will be so simple and yet so profound. He will conclude it with two basic responsibilities we have before God that sum up our entire life and purpose and meaning and fulfillment in life. But before he gets there, he's gonna sum up some other things in the book as well. In fact, in his conclusion to the book, Solomon summarizes three elements of the book. He will get the conclusion of the purpose in just a few moments. But first of all, let's look at the other things that he concludes and wraps up and summarizes in this masterful book. The first is the composition of the book. In verses 9 and 10, Solomon describes how the book was composed and I don't want to just slide over these verses to get to the end because these two verses give us a fascinating insight into how the Bible was written and how God's truth was given to us. Solomon describes in detail the composition of this book. First of all, he describes the qualifications of the composer, the one who wrote the book, verse 9, he says, not only was the teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. Now, there's the qualifications of the teacher. The teacher was wise and it may look at first glance that that's kind of a boastful claim. The writer of the book claiming to be wise, claiming to be the repository of divine wisdom, that's kind of high-sounding stuff, isn't it? But you have to remember, there were three groups of spiritual leaders in Israel's national life and the Old Testament. And all of them recognized that their responsibilities and their opportunities came directly from God. There was the prophet who called the people back to the law of God. His message, the prophet's message, came directly from God and he always recognized that. There was the priest who lived out and who taught the law of God to the people in Israel and he readily recognized and admitted that his law came from God, it did not originate with him. And then thirdly, there was the wise man or the wise teacher, the one who wrote proverbs, the one who wrote wise sayings, Job, the book of Psalms, all of this wisdom literature, the wise man in Israel would tell you right up front, my wisdom comes from God, it does not originate with me. In fact, Solomon will say that very thing in just a couple of verses. So Solomon is not claiming some great wisdom for himself, although he rightly could, right? He was the wisest man in all the earth and God granted him that wisdom because of his selfless prayer to have wisdom and leading God's people. But he's a part of that wise man group in Israel that would recognize that wisdom comes from God and I just share it with God's people. But that's his qualification to recognize that any wisdom he has comes directly from God and he is the conduit of that. As he says in verse 9, he imparted with knowledge to the people. So he is wise because his wisdom is given by God, his message is given by God. What he shares is given by God, he simply gives that to the people. That's his qualification. But notice, he also describes the deliberate care in composing this book. And this is the fascinating part to me. He describes how the book was actually composed. If you, if you kind of tear apart the next five things he says in verse 9 and 10, he will describe five different links in this chain of getting God's word to his people. But you can group it into three categories and that's what I want to do for just a moment. The first two things he says have to do with the study and preparation that was required even by authors of scripture to do what they did. Notice what he says in verse 9. Middle of the verse, he pondered and searched out and set in order many Proverbs. The teacher searched to find just the right words and what he wrote was upright and true. The first two of those statements, first two of those verbs describe the study and preparation that was needed by those who recorded God's word to do their work. I think sometimes we think of inspiration and that's the process God used in breathing out his word through men who were chosen to record it. Sometimes we think of that process as God decided to speak through a person and that person kind of went into a trance. They were zapped and they didn't know what they were doing, their hand mysteriously picked up a quill and they began writing something that they didn't even realize. They didn't even realize they didn't know what they were writing. We sometimes see inspiration that way. That's not at all how God did it. God used the background, personalities and hard work of these men to bring his truth to bear. And so Solomon says in studying and preparing, first of all, I pondered that word means I weighed carefully what should be presented when I wrote this book. It's not like he was just suddenly struck and was in a trance and picked up a quill and somebody was moving his hand. No, no. He pondered carefully what should go into this book. And then he says, I also searched out and said in order many Proverbs, but he searched them out first. That word searched out, that verb literally means to delve deeper into a topic, to study it diligently and thoroughly, search it out, dig as deep as you can go. This man prepared himself to write what he wrote. He studied and prepared hard. And God used that even in the giving of his word in inspiration and recording Scripture. So Solomon pondered, he thought things through, he weighed out what should be included. And he searched out deeply in his study and preparation. But then noticed the next two words which actually have to do with the writing of the word. He says, then I set in order many Proverbs, set in order literally arranged. The truth that I had pondered and weighed and thought through and studied diligently and dug deep to get. Then I decided how to arrange it. And I decided to arrange it in Proverbs in short and wise sayings. So I set them in order. This has to do with the artistic and poetic arrangement of the material into a form of literature called Proverbs or Wisdom Literature. It's the artistic side of things. By the way, God used that. God used that in the recording of his word. This man who would think how best to say something, how to put it in an artistic form and a skillful order so that it would be pleasing as it was read. And the second phrase he says here on this means pretty much the same thing. He says the teacher searched to find just the right words. In other words, he sought, he searched out literally how to get just the right words. The word right means delightful. Literally words that are pleasing, words that are poetic, words that have meaning and drive home the truth. So Solomon is saying I actually gave effort to presenting this truth in a fashion that was pleasing, that would be catchy, that would grab people's attention. He's talking about compelling, memorable writing. And he sought and studied and searched out to find just the right words to put it into words. And then the last description of this composing of the book describes the result. The result of this village and study and preparation and effort and then the figuring out how to say it in the most memorable, compelling, artistic way, the result is this, verse 10, the teacher searched to find just the right words. And what he wrote was upright and true. Meaning that the end product, the result was a correctly ordered and written book. And it was done in an upright manner. It was done with all sincerity and honesty and integrity. And the result was that it was true. God's truth. Now I would have you to think for just a moment how amazing this is when we think of God recording his word. God did not just take men who were involved in other things. And as I said before, zap them into some kind of trance. God used everything about their skills and their knowledge and their ability and their diligent study and preparation and thinking through how to correctly present this. And in the most compelling and artistic way, say it in a way that would grab minds and hearts. God used all of that in the giving of his word, the fascinating insight into the inspiration of scripture. One of those rare instances we have in the Bible where the actual process of writing the Bible is described for us. It's amazing, really amazing in its insight. But let me take just a moment to describe and apply this to the handling of God's word. Because I think it has something to teach us about that as well. If God would use such diligent care on the part of writers of scripture, diligent preparation and study and the thinking through how to most compellingly and artistically put it into words. If God would use that in the giving of his word, certainly he expects that in the handling of his word. For those who minister the word of God, we are under that same divine compulsion to give attention to those same things. God never blesses or says anything good about slothfulness in the diligence of preparing to give his word to others. I told you this story before back in the 70s in my first pastorate in North Carolina. That was in the day when you did a lot of Thursday night visitation programs. We had one of those and we would go out every Thursday night and visit in various homes. Sometimes it would be people who we felt were lost and whose names have been given to us by others in our church. We would knock on doors and we would visit folks. Remember being with one of our deacons in a home one night and this man was clearly a lost man. But as we sought to describe for him what the gospel is all about, he wanted to go other directions. As is often the case, he wanted to take off on rabbit trails. One of those rabbit trails went something like this. We were talking to him about recognizing his lost condition that he needed to be saved. He said, I want to be a preacher someday. He said, yeah, but I don't want to be one of those kind of preachers that ask to study. I just want to get up in the pulpit and the Holy Spirit fill me and say what the Holy Spirit is directing. Well, I didn't launch into the summary of Ecclesiastes with him at that time, but I sure wanted to. If the Holy Spirit is able to just move on the spur of the moment, isn't he also able to move on Tuesday morning? And Wednesday morning? And Thursday morning? To do what God says, I even did when my word was given by inspiration. And that is to use diligent study and preparation. And even the artistic side of how to put it together in a way that's compelling and memorable. Maybe in an outline form in some way that people can remember and latch on to. Isn't that a part of the process too? I think it is. So Bible fellowship teachers, small group leaders, whenever you are responsible for giving out the word, treat that with all seriousness. That is not something to be taken lightly. The handling of God's word. If God would take such care in giving it to us, then we'd dare not be sloppy in how we present it. Just a little application of this to the methodology of giving out the word of God. I think it's so important that we take this book seriously. And by the way, this is a living book that penetrates into the hearts of people. It is unlike anything else in this world. And it is the tool which the Spirit of God uses in life change. So out the New Testament, it is clear. This is the tool. Not somebody else's book. Not somebody's program. This is the book that God uses in life change. That's what the Bible teaches clearly. He has chosen, 1 Corinthians 1, the foolishness of preaching to save the lost. He has chosen the faithful ministry of the word to build up believers, Ephesians 4. The preaching of the word 2 Timothy chapter 4 to review and encourage and build up the church. It is this book that God uses because this is his tool. So we dare not treat it lightly. This is God's word. And the giving out of God's word is something that is so critical and so important and foundational to the church. We dare not forget it in the midst of all the other things we do. This is our foundation right here. The word of God. It has to be. It must be. It is that important. So Solomon describes the deliberate care in composing his book, which was true of all of the other books of Scripture and should be equally true in giving it out to others. But then notice if you will, the other side of the coin. He's just described the way God used humans to do it. But the other side of the coin is he also describes the ultimate composer of the book. Look at verse 10. The teacher searched to find just the right words and what he wrote was upright and true. But then look at verse 11. The words of the wise are like goats. They're collected, sayings like firmly embedded nails. Now notice this next expression given by one shepherd. Most of your translations will have the word shepherd with a capital S. And it is the belief of most who write on the book of Ecclesiastes that he is talking about. The ultimate composer of the book, the shepherd of Israel, the chief shepherd of Israel. God himself. There is not just one human shepherd in Israel, just as there is not one human shepherd of any church. Or of the body of Christ as a whole. But there is one ultimate shepherd. And that is our good shepherd, our great shepherd, the Bible identifies him in 1 Peter as Christ, our great shepherd. He is the one who shepherd in Israel. He's the one who shepherds the church. And the main responsibility of a shepherd in the New Testament is to feed the flock. So it is God who ultimately composed this book. He is the one shepherd who gave this material to Solomon and used his diligent care and study and his deep pondering and thinking about how to present it. He used all of that. But it ultimately came from God himself. What a beautiful description of how God gave his word. The one shepherd, God himself, faithfully feeding his flock through people that he chose to record his word. That's how God's word came to us. The composition of this book is the description of the composition of all of God's word. But Solomon not only describes the composition of the book. He also describes the purpose of the book. The purpose of the book is threefold. Look at verse 11. The words of the wise are like goads. Now that's an interesting word that we don't use much anymore. But the idea and the purpose of this book and all of God's word is first of all to goad us into action. Or to prod us into action. A goad is probably not an instrument that many of you in this room would use. But it was very common in the agrarian culture of Israel in the Old Testament. A goad was a wooden rod with an iron point on the end of it. And it would be used as you were plowing with oxen to prod the oxen into action. If they were getting lazy or if they were starting to veer off direction, a prod on one side or the other, or a prod in a certain place would get that animal moving and keep them on the right path. It was literally designed to prod the sluggish into action. And that is what the words of the wise are. This book and all of the words of Scripture are designed to prod us into action. This book and all of Scripture is designed to get our attention. This book, I don't know about you, but for me it has exploded into my mind and reformed my thinking about life itself and how to approach it and thus filters down into action and how to live this life. God's Word is designed to convict us, to prick us, to goad us, our hearts and move us to change. And that has a direct impact on the way we walk and the way we live. So it's designed to goad us into action, goad us, prod us, convict us into service, into some kind of action in living for Christ. Secondly, God's Word is designed to fasten down a philosophy of life. This book in particular, Solomon says, is designed for that. He says the words of the wise are like goats. Their collected sayings are firmly embedded nails. Now the idea of the nail here, the kind of nail that he's talking about, is the kind of nail that would be used to tie down an anchored down, fasten down a shepherd's tent. He's used the imagery of a shepherd here. And he has that in mind as he's thinking about these nails that firmly hold down the tent of the shepherd. And so what he's talking about is these words are like those nails that help nail down things that we need to know to give us firm anchorage and good foundation. We have nailed down, if we have paid attention to this book, we've nailed down some troubling issues about God's providence, God's working in our lives and in our hearts and in this world. If we've paid attention, this book has given us some anchorage and some perspective and helped us to really nail down a philosophy of life. This is what we should believe and this is how we should live. This is what this book has nailed down for us. And so it is designed to nail down a philosophy of life, but thirdly it is designed to show the priority of God's truth. I've already mentioned that, but let's Solomon say it, verse 12, be warned my son of anything in addition to them. See what he's talking about? In the flow of thought he's talked about the words of the wise, these collected sayings, this knowledge that has been sought out, pondered, carefully written down, shared with God's people, is word. That's what he's talking about. And so in exalting God's word, in exalting what God has told us, he says, be warned of anything in addition to them, to these wise sayings. And then he goes on to say, of making many books, there is no end, and much study worries the body, life verse of every student. What Solomon is saying here is there's a lot of other stuff you can read and focus on and try to use to direct your life. But there's only one life giving book and life changing book and book that is designed to renew your mind and thus transform you and change you into the image of Christ, and that is this book. Now God can obviously use many other books to help direct us back to his word and explain concepts in his word that will help us to grow, but it is this book that we should focus upon and give attention to. There are lots of other books around, but in addition to these wise words, Solomon warns, be careful, be careful about anything else. Other books, other productions of men may be good, but they are not errorless. They are not perfect like God's word is. And they do not have the imbred, imborn power of the spirit of God to change our lives. So be careful. Evidently, there was a lot of literary activity in that day, just like there is today because he says of making many books, there is no end. There's a lot of literary activity in our day too. And by the way, be careful before you think that books are on the way out because of our computers. It came across an interesting article by Professor Harvard University. His name is Robert Danton, and just a couple of years ago, this article appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education based on a speech that he had made to a group of people. He talked about the five myths of the information age. The first myth he talked about was the book is dead. It isn't. He talks about the fact that more books are produced in print each year than in the previous year in 2011 when he made this speech. One million new books appeared worldwide. The population of books is increasing, not decreasing, certainly not dying. Another myth, he says, is all information is now available online. He says the absurdity of this claim is obvious to anyone who has ever done research in archives, only a tiny fraction of archival materials ever been read, much less digitized judicial decisions, legislation, regulations, report by public bodies, and even books. Google estimates there are 130 million books in the world today, only 12% of which have been digitized. And with a million new books being produced every year, they're having trouble keeping up with just what's coming out. So yes, there's tremendous information on the web, and the thing that's exploded in the information age is that it is so easily accessible to anybody and everybody. But Solomon is still right of the making of many books, there is no end. There's no end in sight to the making of many books. Books written about everything imaginable. And you can find anything you want to out there, but you will never find anything that can replace this. You can weary yourself with much study of many books, even in trying to study this book, the use of so many other books in doing that can become wearying. But there is nothing that can take the place of this book, and that's why Solomon highlights the priority of the word of God, the priority of God's truth. But I did tell you that he was really concluding the message of the book. So let's get to that in our last few minutes. Solomon concludes the message of the book. And basically he says this is what it all comes down to, summing it all up. Here is the content of this book in summary fashion, verse 13, the content. Now all has been heard. In other words, I've given you everything I'm going to give you. Here is the conclusion of the matter. In other words, here is the summary of everything I've given you in this book. Here it is to simple and yet profound statements. Fear God and keep His commandments. That's it. You want this book and really the whole book, the whole word of God, summarized in two simple but profound statements. Here it is. Fear God, keep His commandments. They are very simple and yet they are so profound. What does it really mean to fear God? Does it mean to cower in the corner afraid of what He'll do to you? Not really. As we have seen before, it's a common theme in this book. It's mentioned several times in the book. And so no surprise that Solomon would include it in his summary. To fear God literally means to understand who God is and then respond appropriately. That's the simplest and yet I think most accurate definition I can give. To understand who God is and then respond appropriately. So here's what he's saying. We need to understand who God is. We need to see who he is. God is holy. Do you understand what that means? God is absolutely unstained by evil in the world. Absolutely separate from all evil. And thus he cannot tolerate evil in his presence. So how does it mean we should respond when we recognize God as holy? If you really understand who God is, you will realize that you have no right to be in his presence on your own. Because we are not holy in the sense. We are not perfect like God is. And that's the standard by the way. The standard is not your neighbor. Standard is not the deacons or pastors of a church. All of us are flawed human beings. The standard for getting into heaven is the perfect absolute holiness of God. That's why Paul would say we have all sinned and fallen short of what? What's the standard? The glory of God. His glory standing for all that he is. In other words, recognize who God is. And then if you really see that, you will respond. You must respond by recognizing you cannot stand in his presence on your own. You do not have anything good to offer him. You do not have the kind of character and perfection and glory and holiness that is required to be in his presence. And that's why he offers it to you as a gift. And that's where you must understand something else about God. He's merciful. He's merciful. He does not want us to be punished for eternity for our own sinfulness. And thus he has tender compassion upon us. Mercy means tender compassion that acts to relieve the problem of the one on whom you have tender compassion. And so God has tender compassion on us. And he's done something to relieve us of that problem of sin. And that is given his son, Jesus Christ. So if you fear God, you recognize he's holy and you have no right to be in his presence on your own. None of us do. But you also recognize he's merciful. He loves you. He has tender compassion on you. And he wants you to be in his presence. And he's made a way for that to happen through his son, Jesus Christ. And if you really understand who God is, you fear him. You also understand he's gracious. That means he's not going to expect you to turn over a new leaf and do your best and straighten up and clean up your life before you come to him. He wants you to come to him as we sang this morning just as you are. And he will do the changing. He will do the forgiving. He'll do the cleaning up. He'll forgive you of everything in your past, present and future. And he will wipe your record completely clean and place on your record in heaven. And that's the only way you'll ever get to heaven. If you fear God, you know that he's holy, you know that he's merciful, you know that he's gracious. And you know that he's provided for you the way of salvation where you can be in his presence someday. Listen, this is the summary of everything. This is it. Fear God. Understand who he is and respond accordingly. And then the other part of the summary is do what he says. Keep his commandments. If you really fear God, then you will lift up and exalt and honor his word as the guide for your life. You will understand that when this book says we should do something, it means we should do it. And when it says something is wrong, it means it's wrong. We have quickly lost in this day and in this culture a sense of reverence for God's word. Because it's a reflection of who he is. And so we go about our own lives living what we want to do and doing what we want to do and adopting the value system of this culture around us. In direct opposition to the word of God, oh, how we need a revival of reverence for this book today. And ordering our lives according to God's word, not according to what the culture is doing, not according to the information and the TV programs and the music and the literature of this world system that is so flooding our hearts and thoughts that we can't even think biblically anymore. We need a reverence again for this book and to live according to scripture. Listen, my friend, this sums it all up. Fear God and keep his commandments. Understand who he is, respond accordingly and live according to his word. If you want to know what God wants you to do, that's it. That's it. Fear God, keep his commandments. That's it. It summarizes everything in this book. And by the way, it tells me that this book was not written by some cynical old man of the world who was giving us a worldly philosophy. He's telling us right here what he was telling us to do. Fear God and keep his commandments is what he was telling us to do in this book. And that is it. And then here's the motivation for this message. Why fear God and keep his commandments? Solomon gives us two reasons, two motives for living this way. First of all, it's the purpose for our existence. He says, fear God and keep his commandments for this is the duty of all mankind. I love the way he says this. The word duty is not literally into Hebrew text. Basically, the Hebrew text says this is the whole of man. In other words, this is what we were created for. This is what God made us for was to fear him and keep his commandments. This is it. This is the whole of man. This is what we were made for. This is the beginning, the middle, and the end of life. It's our whole purpose and meaning for existence. And it is so sad that you can live your whole life for some other purpose, for some other meaning, for some other source of fulfillment, and miss what God created you for. And that is to be in a relationship with him that recognizes who he is and responds accordingly and then lives under his kind and gracious word. That's it. That's the whole of man. That's what we were created for. But there's a second motivation for living this way. The second motivation he gives us is in verse 14. And that is we will face God in judgment. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. You see the two uses of the word for in the verse 13 for beginning of verse 14 for giving us the two reasons, two motivations for living this way, for focusing upon this as the message of God's word. Yes, that's what we're recreated for, but we'll also stand before God someday and give an account for how we responded to him and to his word. Now that's a great encouragement on the one hand because God never misses anything. He never misses anything. Things that Solomon has talked about that other folks will never recognize or never understand or may even misinterpret God knows exactly. How you've lived your faithful service for him, things that nobody else ever saw, things that you never call the tension to. Things that people may have misunderstood, God knows all of that. And he will make it right when we stand before him. That's an encouragement. But this is also a warning. It's a warning that we better understand we will someday stand before God. This is designed to jolt us out of our apathy and to kill our complacency. We need to recognize we will stand before God. We will give an account as to whether or not we recognize who he was and how did we respond to that. And we will give an account as to whether or not we lived by his word rather than the dictates of the world around us. This is not to be trifled with. Listen, God is not to be trifled with. His word is not to be trifled with. There may be some who sit in this church every Sunday and just endure what's taking place. Probably a lot of you endure what's happening when I preach. I understand that. But a lot of you just endure from week to week. There's nothing more important in the world than what we're doing here this morning. The fear God and keep his commandments is the purpose for our existence and we will stand to give an account for that someday. And it is possible to sit in church every Sunday. And to treat it is just another obligation of the week or something that is not even important. But I do it because somebody wants me to be here. You're trifling with God. You're playing a game with God that you will lose. This is serious stuff. This is the whole purpose of our existence. We will stand before him someday. You personally will stand before God and you will give an account for how you lived. If you wait and wait and wait and never come to understand who he is, what he's done for you and trusted son Jesus as your savior, you will wake up someday with the sobering, horrifying realization that you are standing before God and you waited too late. This is it, my friend. This is all we have to give. This is all God has to give us. Fear God, keep his commandments. It's what we're created for. It's what we're given account for someday. Are you ready? Are you ready? Back in 1976, some of you will remember the daring rescue by Israeli soldiers of 103 Israeli hostages that were being held by Ida Amin and his rebels in Uganda. Films have been made of that daring rescue. It is an incredible event really in history that it was able to be pulled off. An undercover secretive operational force of Israeli commandos flew into in Tebi Airport where the 103 Israelis were being held hostage. We're able to get inside the building where they were being held and release all 103 of them. There was a lot of planning secretively it went into that but part of it was when they came into the building they would yell out in Hebrew, get on the floor, crawl. Now none of the terrorists understood Hebrew, all of the Israelis obviously would. And so anybody left standing after that first command was shot. All seven of the terrorists holding the Israeli captives hit the ground dead. The tragedy is that three Israelis were also killed. You know why? Two of them stayed standing probably to see what was happening. They were shot as well. One young man actually stood up when he heard that command. We're not sure nobody knows why maybe to again see what was happening. He also was killed. The judgment that was designed for the enemies actually fell upon some Israelis because they did not heed the warning. I've come here this morning to give you a warning. I will not mince words. I will not water it down. The warning is this every person in this room, every person in this world was created was given the breath of life for one reason. And that is so that you might come into a relationship with God that you might fear him, understand who he is and respond appropriately recognizing it is his gracious and merciful gift of his son that enables you to come into a relationship with him and thus spend eternity with him. And then as you come to know him, he has given you this book to order your life by fear God, keep his commandments. That's it. That's the summary of everything we believe and stand for. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the simplicity and yet the profundity of your word. Simple, clear directions, summing it all up and too easy to remember directives to fear you and keep your commandments. But Lord, help us to understand how drastically that alters our lives and changes our eternity and the way we live if we really take that seriously and help us today, Lord, to take it seriously. Oh, Father, I pray for those who may be here without Christ today. Oh, God, do what I cannot do. Nobody else can do it. Only your spirit can do. Move in their hearts. Change minds, break down barriers of pride and resistance. Draw them to yourself through your spirits, gentle, wooing and conviction. I pray, Father, for a shaking out of our complacency and apathy through a recognition that our duty is to live by your commandments, to live by your word. Help us to let your word order our lives as believers. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.