If you read my short recap post of my time at Camp Regen, hosted by Dr. John MacArthur and Grace Community Church, you would know that I am in a short blog post series diving into my notes from my top-take-away sermons! (Through writing these posts, I have edited them and added onto them for the sake of it being in “post form”.)
At the end, comment something you learned from my notes- I’d simply love to know!
Posing question for today’s notes: Do you invest your time in things that will matter in eternity?
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Life is aggravating because we want more than we have, no matter how much we already have. Everyone seeks out happiness. Everything we do is for the pursuit of satisfaction as a side effect of the fall, when greed, selfishness, and vanity entered the world. But here is the thing: satisfaction is temporary. And no amount of schoolwork, no matter what degree you graduate with, no matter how many books you read or research you do, you will never gain wisdom and discernment apart from God’s Word, reading it and studying it. And without wisdom, without God’s Word, we will never be truly satisfied.
Going back to Ecclesiastes, we will be looking in 2:1-3. The author of Ecclesiastes was wealthy and always desired more- it was never enough– he experimented with sexual pleasures, intoxicating substances- anything to stimulate the mind or body to make him feel something, anything with the questions: Will this satisfy me? Will this make me happy?
And this man had everything- every service, every object, and every opportunity available to him- and it still wasn’t enough! Even after he tried recreating his image of a perfect slice of heaven on earth, in the end it did nothing for him and was in vain.
Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 “I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.“
No matter what all you have, no matter what you have available to you, you will still die! Things will still be just things, life will still be frustrating, there will still be spiritual warfare on this side of heaven! Life will not be perfect, easy, always full of laughter and happiness, or wealth; that is not Christianity! Our savior bled out and died on a cross to save us wretched, unworthy sinners– He isn’t going to make us smile all of the time! Rewire your selfish mind to be grateful and enjoy every single thing in our day to day life because God is gracious and merciful! And when we learn that our hours, days, months, years of life granted to us are a humble gift from God, that he can take back at any given moment, then only then can we truly appreciate life and the time we are given to properly number our days on this earth!
Live as though you have seen the glory, joy, and light of heaven… and the torments of hell. Meaning: live, walk, talk, breathe with the knowledge of God’s eternity promise in heaven to those who believe in him, but also with the discipline that comes with the consequences against our worldly actions. Get in God’s Word and read it. Study it. Memorize it. And apply it to your life! Nothing of this world will ever satisfy you, only a content heart in Jesus and Jesus alone can satisfy your dehydrated soul.
Our time on this earth is short, friends. What are we doing right now that will matter in eternity? Because I will tell you right now that buying that house or car, listening to an Olivia Rodrigo song to “give you the feels”, reading Harry Potter, taking a personality quiz, doing this, buying that, or recreating whatever will not matter in eternity! So what are we doing?
She Writes Truth 