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By The Summit Church
4.8
516516 ratings
The podcast currently has 968 episodes available.
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“For everything there is a season …” You might recognize these words (“turn, turn, turn”) as lyrics to a song made popular in the ’60s. But thousands of years before that, they were written as the opening of a poem in the book of Ecclesiastes about the cyclical nature of life. Just as we have no control over summer turning to fall, we can't alter the cycles of life. There is indeed a time to be born and a time to die, a time to laugh and a time to weep. In this week's message from Ecclesiastes 3, Pastor J.D. gives us helpful principles for not only navigating life in a world we can't control, but enjoying it for what it is: a gift from God.

The book of Ecclesiastes is often regarded as one of the most confusing (and perhaps depressing) books in the entire Bible. But the truth is, it’s one that raises—and provides real answers to—some of the core questions of life. In this week’s message from Ecclesiastes 1, Pastor J.D. addresses three common approaches that the world takes to finding meaning in life. These approaches, it’s no surprise, come up short time and time again. And that’s because the only satisfying answer for “life under the sun” is actually to embrace life above the sun—that is, life with God, the only one who truly imbues our lives with meaning.

Upon reading example after disastrous example from Israel's history, it's tempting to just give up and throw in the towel. After all, if these previous generations weren't able to avoid stumbling and falling, what hope is there for us? In this week's message from the last six verses of Jude, Pastor J.D. shows us that the answer is found in one action: to keep ourselves in the love of God. But it doesn't end there. Because the Christian life is meant to be lived in community, we also have a responsibility to help others who are struggling—even at the expense of our own comfort.

Though we don't always view it this way (perhaps even less so on a Monday morning), work is a gift from God. But what happens when work becomes an end in itself, centering on our accomplishments and tempting us to neglect the very relationships we should be pouring into? At that point, Solomon says, it's all meaningless—a chasing after the wind. In this week's message from Ecclesiastes 4–5, Pastor Bryan helps us reframe our work as something that is most meaningful when it goes beyond ourselves, reaching out to ease the plight of the oppressed and reaching up to connect with God.

It seems more than just counterintuitive to say that “the day of death is better than the day of birth.” After all, who in their right mind would rather attend a funeral than a birthday party? But this is exactly the kind of view that Solomon advocates, because it’s only by thinking about life from the perspective of our death that we learn to live wisely. In this week’s message from Ecclesiastes 7, Pastor J.D. reminds us how, in light of how short our lives are, it makes no sense to chase after what is fleeting. Instead, we should leverage our lives to invest in what will serve to advance God’s kingdom long after we’re gone.
Matthew 25:14-30
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