Views from the House of Mourning

Good afternoon, everyone. Happy Sabbath! Hope you're enjoying the long holiday weekend.

Maybe it's only me, but I always wondered why Labor Day is a day that we get off.

We'll go with it. A day off of work is worth it, right?

If you will, turn with me, please, to Ecclesiastes 7. I'd like to start this sermon with a scripture, and maybe kind of like the conundrum of not working on Labor Day. It seems a little counterintuitive at first when we read it.

We'll read Ecclesiastes 7 and we'll read verses 2 and 4. Ecclesiastes 7 verses 2 and 4.

Here we read, Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.

For that is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart.

And in verse 4 it continues on, The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

This seems a little odd when we read it at first, because I think in life in general, the last thing we want to do is deal with trouble, deal with tragedy, deal with mourning and all those things that go along with it.

And of course, we have to read this carefully and with measure and understand what it's talking about.

It's certainly not saying that fantastic celebrations like we'll have with the wedding tomorrow are bad or wrong or anything else.

In fact, those are fantastic things and things that we should celebrate and enjoy to the full.

But what a scripture like this is telling us is that the mindset, the views that come when we deal with difficulties in life, especially times of tragedy, are useful ones. They're ones that help us to build wisdom.

And it's a mindset that we need to keep in our minds, and not just this idea that everything that we do in life is to seek pleasure and to simply have fun.

As most of you know, in our family, we've experienced a couple of deaths in the close family in just the last couple of months period.

So we've been living in the house of mourning lately and several others in the congregation have as well, with things that you've dealt with in your lives and in your families.

So for the sermon time today, I wanted to spend a little time just to simply share with you some views from the house of mourning and hope that it could be useful to all of us as we reflect on our lives.

For those of you who like titles, I've simply called this sermon, Views from the House of Mourning.

If you'll turn with me to Psalm 90, we'll read verse 12.

Actually, you don't have to turn there if you don't want to. It's a pretty short passage.

I think the same thing that was meant in Ecclesiastes in the passage that we just read is what's intended here in Psalm 90, verse 12.

Here, the Psalmist writes, So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

And so what it's talking about here is the fact that in tying these things together, numbering our days, realizing the fact that our lives don't last forever, realizing the fact that there is an end to the physical life that we live, is supposed to help us to gain a heart of wisdom.

And so as we reflect on this, that's really the reason, I think, why Solomon wrote what he did in Ecclesiastes in terms of better to be in the house of mourning, because it's at times that we reflect on the shortness of life, the preciousness of life, that we reflect in a more wise way on the way that we're living our own lives.

And if we're doing it right, it should cause some reflection and some thought on the ways that we order our lives and our steps.

So what are some of the wisdom that we can gather as we reflect on the shortness of life, as we reflect on numbering our days?

I'd like to just offer a few views that I've considered here over the course, especially of the last few weeks to month, and encourage everyone to give thought to these things as we go through them.

For the first view, I'd like to offer up the idea that we don't have control. It's God who has control.

And as a result of the fact that God has control, we have to center ourselves on Him and do it in faith.

So again, this first view that we don't have control, it's God who has control in our lives.

And this is really what lies at the core of our lives as Christians anyways, isn't it?

I often think on the fact that we try to create this illusion in life that we do have control.

We make our plans, we consider all the things that we're going to do.

And if we're not careful, we don't consider the fact that we live at God's pleasure.

We live according to His plan and His will.

Turn with me, if you will, to James 4. We'll read how James wrote this in his epistle.

James 4, and we'll read verses 13 through 16.

James 4, starting in verse 13, we read, Come now, you who say today or tomorrow will go to such and such a city.

We'll spend a year there, we'll buy and sell and make a profit.

Whereas you don't know what will happen tomorrow.

For what is your life?

It's even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall either live and do this or that.

But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

And so again, we have to understand what it is that's being said here.

What is not being said is, don't make any plans for your life.

Everything's random and just sort of drift along.

What is being said here, especially as we read in verse 16, talking about boasting in arrogance, is understanding at its heart, as we lay out our plans, as we have dreams and desires and move towards things that we want to do in life.

There's something additional that we need to keep in mind while we're doing that.

And that is what God's will is for our lives.

And we need to consider that will. We need to pray to Him about that will.

We set our plans before Him and we ask Him to direct us in the way that He wants to go, just as Jesus Christ prayed as He was nearing His crucifixion, that not His own will, but that God's will be done. It doesn't mean that we don't have plans.

It doesn't mean that we don't have objectives and things that we want to accomplish in life.

But what it does mean if we lay those things at His feet, recognizing the fact that in the end, God's will and where He wants to direct our lives is going to be the most important thing whenever it comes to a fork in the road between those things.

Turn with me, if you will, to Proverbs 16, verse 9, another short passage that reinforces this same thought. Proverbs 16, verse 9. Here, reading from the New Living Translation, Proverbs says, We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.

We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.

I think this is a balance that we need to work out in our lives as we think through it.

If we're very much goal-oriented and task-oriented, which is something that I tend to be, I can tell you from personal experience, you get pretty frustrated when you've planned something out and it doesn't work the way that you wanted it to work. And I know certainly in my own life, that's something I've had to grapple with and come to terms with, which is the way I want things to work is not necessarily the way they need to work or the way they should work or God's will that they should work. And we can cause ourselves so much consternation and frustration—I know I can do that to myself—when I want so much for a certain outcome to come out because I planned it that way, I put all the pieces in place and I just think that's the best way it should work.

And then something comes out of nowhere and changes those plans. And I think we've all probably had to deal with that at some point in time. That's what's really meant by this scripture. Again, we have to guard against this fatalistic idea, and if anyone who's taken high school literature class, you've probably had to deal with the ideas of fate versus self-determination.

Anyone remember reading those long and, excuse me, Joe, boring essays?

About whether we can really determine our fate or not. But it's made and written to make people think about these things. To what extent should we plan? To what extent should we try to direct our lives? And to what extent do we just throw up our hands and say, well, God's going to do what he's going to do anyways, so why try? I think we understand clearly, and we should, as it says here in this proverb, we should make our plans.

It's completely appropriate that we set out plans and objectives, and especially when we're young, what better thing to do than to chart out our lives, the things that we like to do, the direction we'd like to go, the education we'd like to get in order to be able to accomplish those things. But then also to set them before God, ask Him His will, and ask Him to direct the steps. We take the steps. We have faith in God that as we're moving forward, if it's not going the direction that He wills it to, that He'll move things, He'll adjust it, and He'll lead us in His paths.

Of course, we understand underlying all of this, that God's ultimate plan for us is salvation. He wants us to be born as children in His family, be raised with life eternal, and that's going to be His first and foremost goal for us. Much more important than anything that we want to accomplish in this life. And of course, as task-oriented individuals, like we are as human beings, we can often get wrapped up so much in the direction that we think things should go that we lose sight of where it is that God is trying to direct our lives more wholly.

And that's why in the end, we don't have to turn there if we don't want to, but in 2 Corinthians 5, 7, another very short passage in Scripture, it says that we walk by faith and not by sight. So ultimately, as we put everything together, as we put our plans together, we do need to strike that balance of understanding what is and what is not in our control. And knowing that ultimately, God is the one who will direct the things that happen in our lives. But knowing that we have a loving Father who wants nothing more than to work everything out for our good and to lead us to salvation, in faith we can trust in Him to know that those paths are going to go to the place that He wants them to go, which is our ultimate success in being born as children into His family.

The last thing I'll point out before we leave this view is thinking back to the Lord's Prayer. You know, we often read it. For many people, it's maybe the only scriptural passage they know, but when we think about the Lord's Prayer, we think about the fact that God says, Your will be done. Jesus Christ, when He was talking to the disciples about praying, He said, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. I know I've mentioned this theme before when I've spoken because something that crosses my mind a lot, again because of the way that I'm focused on things that I want to do, and that is how often do we pray to God, thy will be done, and how often do we pray to God, my will be done?

And I can tell you from my own personal experience, I'm pretty good at going before God and building a case for why I think things should go a certain way. And I hope He laughs more than He gets mad, because He probably views me as a silly child, like we might view a two-year-old talking about how life should operate. But I think it's something that we do have to reflect on.

Thy will be done. And that's something that we have to understand ultimately in life is we're not meant to have control. What we're meant to do is to learn and to understand the fact that God will direct our paths and has control of our lives and will take them to their ultimate, wonderful, and correct conclusion. So as we leave this point, just to leave you with what I'm thinking about on this view, it can be easy for us to believe that we have time when we don't number our days.

Time to exert our will on our lives and then perhaps to pivot after that to seek what it is that God wants. I know that I've thought about it that way from time to time. And we can lull ourselves into thinking, well, you know, there's so much time we'll sort of set this God thing on the shelf over here while we work out this sort of thing that we really want to do.

And as time, you know, I'll be satisfied once this is done, and then I'll pivot over here when I'm old and when everything else that I want to do is done, and then I'll focus on God. And I think as we learn this view of numbering our days and realizing that we don't really have control over how many days there are in our lives, that's where we realize we have to build God and following His will and His way of life into every step that we take in every day of our lives, even if we think, and perhaps we do, have decades still to go.

Let's shift to another view here, which I've simply stated as death focusing us on what's important in life. The end of our lives, the end of a life, focuses us on what's important.

Turn with me, if you will, to Luke 14. We'll read a parable here that Jesus Christ gave, talking about the kingdom of God.

Luke 14, and we'll start in verse 16.

Jesus Christ, in the 16th verse of Luke 14, says, A certain man gave a great supper, and invited many. And he sent his servant at supper-time to say to those who were invited, Come, for all things are now ready. But they all, with one accord, began to make excuses. The first said to him, I bought a piece of ground, I must go and see it. I asked to have me excused. And another said, I bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm going to test them. I asked you to have me excused. And still another said, I've married a wife, and therefore, I can't come. So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, the maim, the lame, and the blind. And the servant said, Master, it is done as you commanded, and there is still room. And the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper. So what is it that Jesus Christ was pointing to here when he was using this parable? You know, back at that time, when a lot of people, in terms of food, just had subsistence. They grew the food that they needed to live on, and they typically didn't have much left. Refrigeration didn't exist. They could basically probably salt and dry meats, maybe pickle some things in order to live over in the winter.

But there wasn't, you know, a grocery store down the street where you could just go and buy as much food as you wanted and eat your fill. So both the prestige of being invited to a great banquet, of somebody who had a lot of means, but also just the food, was a big deal. And these people all turned it down because there were other, more urgent things that were going on in their lives.

And when you think about it, the reasons that are named here in the parable, none of them are wrong pursuits of themselves, are they? None of them are sinful pursuits. Talk about someone buying a piece of ground and having to go and see it. Someone else having bought five yoke of oxen. Someone else getting married. All fantastic things to do. Wonderful events in life, as they're going through their lives, building their businesses, building their livelihood, building their family. But it was a matter of priorities that's being talked about in this parable. And the fact that people put those priorities of the things that they had going on day to day in their lives, ahead of, in this case, through the parable, the calling of God, it was that that made Jesus Christ talk about the fact that those people would not be invited to the supper. So one of the things we consider, we number our days, we look out of those views of the house in mourning, it does help us to remember what's important in life. Because as we see in our conscious again of life coming to an end, it makes us focus and resort the priorities that we have.

Now as human beings, it's natural, right? The things that are immediate, the things that feel urgent, are the things that get our focus. I know if you take time management courses, if you take other courses that try to teach you managerial or leadership skills, one of the big pitfalls that they often talk about is there's so many tasks that come your way, and the human tendency for most people is whatever it is that's coming at them, they'll try to deal with first.

And if there are larger, longer-range tasks that need time and focus in order to get done, what is it we typically end up doing? We let them slide. Because something else is more immediately urgent, and then we forget the fact that we've got a deadline that's out two months from now, and that's going to need to get done. If we don't get started today, nothing's going to happen.

Again, Joe, I'm sure you experience this all the time as a teacher. We probably all experience it as high school students or maybe college students, that big term paper that's due. There's always something more important to do than to start preparing the term paper until there's a week left and you haven't begun it yet. And then we all have to scramble. It's manifested as well in our other parts of daily lives. If we speak with anybody who's lived more than a few decades, we probably all could name a few regrets that we have. As time has gone by in the past, we feel that we've under-prioritized certain things, whether those might have been our families, whether it might have been education. I know a number of people that I've known over the years who got married early in life or had other priorities come up, had a great job when they were young, never bothered to further their education or their credentials. And they look back two or three decades later and say, if only. And we all have that in different parts of our lives when we say if only. And so the challenge in terms of focusing now and thinking about numbering our days is, what are those priorities? What are those longer term things that we should be chipping away at day after day after day, no matter what else it is that comes into our lives? We know, of course, at the core of that is our relationship with God, making sure that we're close to Him, understanding His way, spending the time, learning about Him, and taking in His mind into us. There's another great philosopher who had, I think, a fantastic quote about this. Has anyone heard of Mike Tyson?

You probably don't know him as a great philosopher. But his fantastic quote, as he was preparing for a fight against Evander Holyfield, I think it was, which everyone should know, is, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. But when you think about it, I think that's what the psalmist was talking about as well when he was saying, number your days, right? We're walking along, we've got plans, and something comes out of nowhere and just slams us in the side of our face. And all those plans that we thought were so important just sort of vaporize, don't they? And we got to figure out what in the world to do from that point and going forward. And, you know, I'm not sure how long Mike Tyson thought about that quote before it came out of his mouth, but it's really true, isn't it?

We all have our plans, and then something comes to just completely disrupt our lives.

And that's why we need to make sure that we're staying close to God, that we understand what are those foundational priorities. You know, Mr. Thomas has talked before about writing down a personal mission statement, another way of doing these things, to make sure that we've embedded into our own minds what is it that is the most important thing to me, or the top three things in my life, so that no matter what it is that comes along, that proverbial punch in the mouth, you've got somewhere to look and realize and think again, yes, these are the top three things in my life, no matter what it is that's come in to try to disrupt it, to change everything in a moment which can happen, these are the most important things. So one of the things we have to reflect on then is, what is it that's most important? You know, the other experience that I've had a couple of times now in the last two months, which I don't really wish on people too much, but is an educational experience, is cleaning out the dwelling space of a deceased person.

And some of you, I know, have had to do that as well, but it, you know, it spurs a lot of thought.

We've had to do it for Karen's father a couple months ago, had to do it in my sister's situation just a few weeks ago, and it really brings a lot home in terms of what it is that we value in life.

Because when you're going through other people's things, you see what it is that they accumulated, good or bad. Things had certain meaning to them, things were important, put away in special places, and you start to go through those things. And inevitably, as that time goes on, you run out of time, and you just got to get things done. And you have all of these things that you know were important to someone else, to a loved one, but frankly, not all of them are that important to you.

And you have to make decisions, and some of those things end up being given away to people, some of those things might go to thrift stores, some of those things end up getting thrown away.

Because the people to whom they go, it just doesn't mean as much. I remember Mark Graham was telling us about the things that he carries in his pocket, the three things he carries in his pocket, and what they remind him of. But I'd have to say, if most people found those two or three things lying on a dresser somewhere, they'd look at them and they'd say, well, you know, just I'm going to toss that out. Because intrinsically, as physical possessions, they don't mean that much.

It's just it was the association and the meaning that it has. And I think it causes some reflection, certainly does for me, about what is it I accumulate around myself? Why is it important to me? And do I need to be spending the time doing that that I am? I think it's a worthwhile thing for all of us to reflect on. Because the other incredible lesson, I think, that comes from it is that within a couple of days' time, what's left of us in terms of our physical footprint can be erased. You know, I don't know that we think about that every day, but within a short period of time, our belongings, everything else is taken away. And what's left at that point in time, when all those material things are gone, what's left? And what's really left of us is what we meant to other people. The relationships we had with those people, the effect that we had on their lives during the time that we lived, those are the things that are left. It's a rare situation, you've got to be an incredibly famous person to have your house preserved with all of your belongings, right? You can name several of them. I drive actually by President Garfield's log cabin where he was born, just about every day in my morning rounds. Although, from what I've been told, it's been reconstructed, so it's a fake too. But, you know, very few of us are going to have our places where we lived and all of our possessions preserved physically, and if we did, it wouldn't mean anything to much of anyone, maybe a few members of our close family. But there's a different effect that we can have on people. I think we've probably all seen this at memorial services and funerals that we visit as people talk about somebody who's passed away. And what do they talk about?

They talk about that collection of Encyclopedia Britannica's from 1929 that they had on their shelves, or their model airplane collection, or whatever else it might be. Very rare that they do.

What they talk about is what that person meant to them, right? The time that they did this, the time that they were in difficulty and that person came and helped them, the time that they were working through something, and being side by side with that person made a difference in their lives.

If it's a parent, we think about what that person did in terms of making sacrifices for us, teaching us, guiding us through our lives. That's the footprint that lasts. And, you know, we often spend so much time. I heard really interesting write-up. I forget who it was from. But it essentially said when we talk to children, especially young children, we ask them, what do you want to be? And we determine that, though, or we meet it in terms of what do you want to do?

You want to be a firefighter or policeman or a nurse or something like that. But we don't really think of it in terms of what do you want to become? As a person, what qualities do you want to become?

And how often do we think about that, whether for our own lives, for our children, for the people that we have contact with in life? Rather than what it is that we put our physical hands on and do, what is it that we want to become as people? I had a really interesting exercise at work, probably 10-12 years ago, and the person challenged us to make a statement, and they said, this is going to feel really strange, but the statement I want you to make is, I am a leader who?

And really, you know, it's kind of strange to verbalize those things, because you don't want to stand up and say, well, I'm a leader who does this. But the point of the exercise was to think about what is it that you want to have as an effect on other people in the way that you lead?

And I think that same theme or topic is what we should think about in this context. What is it that we want our life to mean to people that we've come into contact after we're gone?

I am a Christian who? How would you finish that sentence? I'm a Christian who encourages people in everything that they do, or who can always be seen as offering hope, even when there doesn't seem to be any hope in a situation. Or fill in the blank for yourself. How would you fill that in?

It's another way of having your personal mission statement, or what it is that you stand for as a person, and what it is that you want to accomplish and be as a person, and the priority that that takes in our lives. So as we leave this point, how often do we reflect on the priorities that we're setting in our lives? The footprint that we're leaving behind? Encourage everyone to give some thought to that as we think about the direction that our lives go. The next view I'd like to share with you is living with a sense of urgency. Living with a sense of urgency.

Now, it's pretty typical. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but how many people have been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Again, you don't have to raise your hands if you don't want to.

Because typically, when you ask people who live in a city if they've been to an attraction that's in their own city, about a third of them will say that they've been there. And the others will say, I've always thought of going there, but I've just never really got to it. Or they'll say, I've been there, but the only time I've been there was when visitors came from out of town.

And that's a very typical thing, isn't it? Because, you know, when you go as a tourist somewhere, what do you do? It's like you figure out every hour of your day, I want to see this, and I'm going to take a half hour by train, I'm going to see this, and this is open until 9 at night so we can get there after dinner, and you plan all these things that you want to see on a trip because you want to fill that time, you want to use that time, you've got a sense of urgency, you've paid all this money perhaps to take a trip somewhere, and you want to use up every hour to soak in the things that there are to do there, to go to the restaurants, to see the attractions, whatever it might be. But then when we're in our own towns, what is it that we think?

Well, I've got lots of time. If I don't go there this year, I'll go there next year.

Go there the year after. It's not going anywhere. And that illusion of having that endless amount of time burns away of the sense of urgency in terms of how we prioritize things and how we go at things in our lives. Turn with me, if you will, to Ecclesiastes 9-10. I think I've mentioned before this was my mom's motivational scripture for me when it came time to clean my room.

Ecclesiastes 9-10. It reads, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.

If there's no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you're going.

So that was a good one for me when it was time to clean my room. Never really worked entirely, but I remembered the scripture. So I guess if I apply this in life in some way, my mom achieved her objective. But what's it saying here? Do! Accomplish! Be! We've got our lives. Live your life.

Throw your energy into it. If it's worth doing it, do it with all your might. Don't do it halfway.

Pick out the things that you want to do and excel at them. Go after them. Don't let excuses get in the way because when life is over, it's over. Whether you're incapacitated or you just simply die, if you have the ability to reflect back, the last thing you want to do is say, I wish when I had the energy I had. And so put that hat on today and go for it. Do the things that you're able to do and that you want to do. I can think of a friend of mine about the same age as Karen and me. Boy, probably 20 years ago she had lung cancer at a relatively early age and survived it. And one of the things I admire about this lady is she has determined as a result of that that she's going to make the most out of life. And every year she sets a new goal for herself.

Just, you know, sometimes even bizarre things. Just to do and try something new. Now this friend, they decide they're going to buy an old house in an emerging neighborhood and fix it up from the bottom up. Now her husband's not always as excited about this stuff as she is, but they went out and did it. They'd never done it before. It was a new experience and they bought this old probably 1920s, 1930s house and built it back up from nothing in a neighborhood and, you know, an older emerging neighborhood in their city that's starting to change and develop. But she goes out and just every year says, what is a new thing that I want to do and sets herself out to do it? And I think it's a fantastic example of just having some urgency to life and not settling into just the regular day-to-day, but really taking advantage of the energy and the ability that you have and just trying new things and doing those things. And in the right way, it is proper to live for today. You know, as Christians, we look often towards the future, but there is definitely an element to our Christian lives of having urgency to live for today. God doesn't say, sit back, I'm going to return sooner or later and wait till then and then we'll do great things.

He says what our hand finds to do, do it with our might and do it now. It's an expression of his mind and his spirit. That's a human spirit that he put in us, is the willingness and the desire to accomplish. Turn with me, if you will, to Matthew 6. Matthew 6, and we'll read verses 31 through 34. It strikes a little bit back at the topic about control as well that we talked about earlier. Matthew 6, we'll start in verse 31. Therefore, do not worry, Jesus says, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added to you. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Now again, it's not saying don't ever make plans in your life, but it is talking about an attitude here where we can spend so much time getting anxious about what the next thing is that's going to happen that we never really put our energy to what it is that's in front of us and again on priority and important at that point in time. So focusing on the things that are in front of us today, the people who are around us, the things that we're doing, and giving those things our proper focus rather than getting worried and concerned and uptight about the things that are going to happen or the things that we have planned for a day, five days, a year going forward. Of course, we know we have to do these things in measure and it's again not talking about don't plan, but saying don't be anxious. And there is a big difference about putting plans together and being anxious and worried and trying to force things to happen because that's the way we want those things to be.

You know, I think in this context as well about a story I read once too about a lady, and like so many of us do, she had special things in her life that she set and put away in a cabinet.

In this case, it was a fine set of china and some jewelry and those were the special china and the special jewelry and those things were set away and put away in a cabinet because those were saved for special occasions. And as life went on, day-to-day life, there was never really a special occasion that was special enough to use it. And the way that this story goes, it wasn't until she died and there was a big meal at the end to celebrate her life that the special china came out and that her daughters took the special jewelry out and looked at it. And how often do we do that in our lives as well? We take things, we set them away, and we say we're not going to use those except at a special time, and then there's always some reason why there's no special time that ever comes.

Something to reflect on as well. If we have things that make us happy, they're right things to use and do and enjoy, we need to enjoy our lives when we have them as well and not always put things off to the future. So as we leave this point, again, do we live our lives with a sense of urgency, making the most of the days that God has granted us while we have our strength and while we have our energy? I think leading directly from this is the next view, which is the importance of other people in our lives. Now, the whole idea of urgency and priority in the end comes home in the way that we act towards other people.

It's not just about, you know, gratify yourself today because you won't be able to do it tomorrow, but we know that as Christians we live our lives in order to improve the lives of others, to care for others, and to love them as well. If you would, turn with me to Proverbs 3 verses 27 and 28. But we know this is the case because if we just reflect for a short time, we could think of all of the passages in the Bible that talk about the need to love other people.

It talks about the fact that the ultimate outcome of our Christian lives, if we're believers in Jesus Christ and his God Spirit lives within us, the one way you can always tell is by the love that people have for one another. I think it's a great badge of honor for our congregation that people come here and say, this is a very loving group of people, certainly something that I've experienced in the things that we've gone through lately.

And that, in the end, is the ultimate measure because, again, if we're living God's way, if his Spirit is working within us, love is an attribute that absolutely will come out in all of the things that we do. Proverbs 3 verse 27. Again, it kind of picks up on this idea of urgency and using the day and the time when you have it, but also talks about how that needs to be directed.

Proverbs 3, 27, it says, don't withhold good from those who deserve it when it's in your power to help them. If you can help your neighbor now, don't say, come back tomorrow and then I'll help you. So it talks about the urgency of when a situation is in front of us where we can make a difference, whether small or large, where we can help. We're told as Christians, as those who believe in God, who have Christ dwelling in us, that we need to take those opportunities and grasp them when we see them.

Use that moment when you see a need, when you can do something for another person, and take it. You don't wait for tomorrow, you don't wait for the next chance because it didn't quite feel right or whatever else. We're asked and told even that we need to react that way as Jesus Christ would, seeing a need, having a desire to meet that need, and finding a way to help the other people. And so this urgency that we talk about is something we need to look for in the way that we deal with other people.

If we know that there's someone who's hurting, reach out, even if it's in a small way, a text message, a card. So many of you are good already at doing this. And I can tell you from going through these experiences over the last couple of months, even a short five-word text message that says, hey, I'm thinking about you, I'm here for you if you need anything, can make a huge amount of difference when it comes in at that point in time. And again, so many of you have done that, and so I don't have to drive this point home too hard, but it's just this thing that we always have to keep in front of us.

Sometimes we think that we have to make these big grand sort of gestures, and so we put it off because we don't quite have time to do that. What I take from the Scripture when I read this in Proverbs is the fact that if there's something you can do, even if it's small, go ahead and do it. Better to do it now than put it off and try to do something bigger and grander and better two or three or four days from now.

Because if you're like me, the things that you save for a few days from now might actually never happen because they tend to fall off the list, don't they? Let's turn to Ecclesiastes 4.

I know one of the things that I experienced over the course, certainly the last month or so, was the blessings of being part of a community for half a century. My mother still lives in the house that she and my father bought slightly before I was born, and so my sisters and I grew up in that house together. They've been in the same neighborhood for 50-plus years in the same church community for a half a century as well. And I can't tell you how powerful it was to see all of that community come together in all of their different expressions of care for us. It was really just amazing. Friends who dropped everything the night that my sister passed away and just said, I want to be there with you, and came and helped. Words can't even say how much that means. Others, we had a person. I was sitting the next morning with my mom, and this car just comes shooting up the driveway. And this guy that I hadn't seen for 10 years or so, or actually, I guess I'd seen him about a year ago when I was visiting, he came up and he said, I heard the news. I couldn't be at work. I just had to be with you. And to have people reach out that way and do those things, and to know that you have a friends and a community that is that tight and that loving is so incredibly heartwarming, important, comforting, can't even can't even state it. Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion, but woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.

Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one be warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. What's being said here is that we need to accumulate those relationships around us. We need to build those bonds of friendship and love with one another, so that we can help other people when they need it, and so they're there to help us as well when we need it. So we think about priorities, we think about urgency, think of all those things. It comes home to a single place, and that is relationships, relationships with other people. And in the end, that's the way that God's Spirit works itself out between us, isn't it? Through the love that we express, that we share, intangible things that we do for one another.

Let's go to the last view then that I've put together for this message, and that is thankfulness. Thankfulness and even joy. And I think that's the other incredible thing that comes from God's way of life, and that is the hope that we have, and the faith that we have in His way. You know, we're entering this wonderful period of time in the fall holy days that we celebrate, and it's fantastic when we think about the culmination of God's plan.

We think of the Feast of Trumpets, we think about the return of Jesus Christ that we look forward to, we think about the Day of Atonement, we think about Satan being put at bay, and all of the poles that are out there that would lead us in the wrong direction, that take the world in a direction so far from God like we heard about in the sermonette today, are all put away. And then we think of God's kingdom coming through the Feast of Tabernacles, and the opportunity to live as kings and priests as part of God's family. And in my opinion, the very greatest truth of all, at the last great day, when that opportunity to be part of God's family has opened up to every person who has ever lived. Everyone. The amount of joy that we should have as we think about those things, when knowing God's plan, it doesn't take away grief when tragic situations happen. It doesn't take away just the angst that we have as we struggle through trials in life, but we have something that's sure and fast and anchored that we can hold on to, that keeps us from being tossed around and capsized when those storms come across us. Turn with me, if you will, to Philippians 1, verse 6. Philippians 1, verse 6. This is one of the scriptures I just love going back to, because knowing the dedication that God has to our success in life and being born into his family, and his absolute commitment to that is incredibly powerful, especially as we struggle through difficult times in our lives. Philippians 1, verse 6. Paul writes, Being confident, confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. There's a complete confidence there in what Paul is writing. This knowledge that God's very nature is, that he finishes what he starts, and he's begun a good work in each and every one of us. And his intention is to finish that work. No matter what it is that's going on in our lives at any point in time, God's commitment, his intention, is to finish his perfect work in each and every one of us. And that's something that we can be thankful for, we should be joyful about, no matter what the present situation is that we're dealing with at any point in our lives. Let's go on in Philippians to chapter 4. We'll read verses 6 and 7.

As a result of this understanding, Philippians 4, verse 6, Paul writes, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds through Jesus Christ. And that's a fantastic thing to know as we go through the different difficulties that we have in our lives, that this peace of God which does surpass all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds, something we can put our hope in and something we can be grateful for every day. So in conclusion, hopefully few views, hopefully not too random, but some useful views perhaps from the house of mourning, are useful to all of us as we go on in living our lives. We're all in different places in our lives, but these views are things that we should always keep in mind as we think about the lives that we're living, focusing on things like the fact that we're not ultimately in control of our lives.

We have to walk in faith and trust in God to take our lives forward to the conclusion that He has for us, that the end of life focuses us on what's really important in life, and that we have to keep those priorities strong and burning brightly in our minds. So we're not dealing just with the urgent things that come at us from moment to moment, but we're thinking about the ultimate importance of God's way of life and focused on those priorities, that we should live with a sense of urgency, using the time that we have, using the energy that we have, putting God's Spirit to use in our lives, that the focus of this all is on people, on relationships, which are a key priority to our lives. We can't show Christian love if we don't show it to other people. And then lastly, being thankful for what we're blessed with daily, most of all the fact that we have a God who has an absolute commitment to bringing us to a successful conclusion of our lives and into an everlasting hope with Him. So as we go forward with our lives, I hope that we'll all have many days of great joy and great excitement, just as we're going to experience tomorrow with the wedding. But as we have those things, that we also keep in mind the views from the house of mourning, that we number our days, we keep our priorities straight and focus on what's really important as we live our lives day to day, trying to become more and more like our elder brother, Jesus Christ.