Ecclesiastes' Challenge For Us All: Living Above Or Below The Sun?

Today our church had a wonderful opportunity to feed close to 50 high school students breakfast for their Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting. Bill Howell, Ken McCormick, Jack & Linda Lewis, along with Pete Baker were there to help set up, serve, and take down. They were awesome to work with! While we were there I shared briefly with those students the message we've been looking at in Ecclesiastes on Sunday mornings. I shared with them the challenge of Ecclesiastes 1 where the Teacher states many times "Meaningless! Meaningless!...I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind." 

The challenge I laid out to those students is the challenge we all face. If we live our lives "under the sun" with a "this world only" perspective, then yes, life can be meaningless. However, as Christ followers, God has set eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We are not living our lives for the here and now under the sun. We are living our lives above the sun. It doesn't mean we should withdraw from everything around us and cocoon ourselves. Quite the opposite. We go into our schools, we go into our neighborhoods, we go into the marketplace, we go into government, we go into the prisons, we go into countries to unreached people groups; we go anywhere and everywhere to share the good news of Jesus. 

The challenge I face everyday is to live with an eternal perspective. How about you? I am grateful for the fact God hasn't left me alone in this endeavor. He's given me His Holy Spirit. He's given me brothers and sisters in the church to walk alongside me. As we look at Ecclesiastes 4 this Sunday the Teacher will remind us that "Two are better than one...if one falls down his friend can help him up." 

My challenge for you: live above the sun keeping your eyes on Jesus; and while you do it let's do it together. It's called the Church. Jesus died for His bride the Church. We need one another!

Hope to see you Sunday,

Pastor Tommy