We’ve said it a hundred times. Sundays are the best day of the week.
But, this whole weekend was so great with our friend Steve Whitacre in town.
On Saturday, he spoke to us about the issue of parenting primarily from Colossians 1:28. There were so many helpful & grace-filled tips for parenting during all stages.
Click here to listen to the seminar.
And yesterday we welcomed 10 new members to our church. It is extremely humbling that they would consider Trinity Grace their home. We are nothing special, but it’s definitely an evidence of grace and His kindness.
Steve reminded us of what the book of Ecclesiastes is all about—being a happy realist.
Click here to listen to his full sermon, or you can watch the entire service on YouTube.
Below are the Scriptures and quotes from Steve’s message.
Ecclesiastes 9
We learned to live with realistic joy.
“The Psalms teach us how to worship; Proverbs, how to behave; Job how to suffer; Song of Solomon, how to love; and Ecclesiastes, how to live. How? With realism and reverence, with humility and restraint, cooly and contentedly, in wisdom and in joy.” -J.I. Packer
1. Enjoy your wine. [9:7-8]
"It's vital to see that eating, drinking, dressing, and loving in these verses do not form an exhaustive list of God's gifts. Rather, it's a representative list of what it looks like to love life and to live it to the full. These things are a way of saying: when God made the world, he made it good, and no amount of being a Christian, of being spiritual, ever changes the fact that God put you in a physical world with hands and food and drink and culture and relationships and beauty. Sin fractures everything, distorts everything. It means we cannot understand everything. But sin does not uncreate everything. So if we were to tap into the Preacher's worldview and train of thought, I think an expanded list would go something like this:
Ride a bike, see the Grand Canyon, go to the theater, learn to make music, visit the sick, care for the dying, cook a meal, feed the hungry, watch a film, read a book, laugh with some friends until it makes you cry, play football, run a marathon, snorkel in the ocean, listen to Mozart, ring your parents, write a letter, play with your kids, spend your money, learn a language, plant a church, start a school, speak about Christ, travel to somewhere you've never been, adopt a child, give away your fortune and then some, shape someone else's life by laying down your own. You may be able to add to the above list in a hundred ways; I hope you can add at least a few more." -David Gibson
2. Enjoy your wife. [9:9]
“If you can tell me that you will go through the world with me, you will surely make it a better world for me, and me a better man for it, and I will try hard to make it a better world for you. -Charles Dickens
3. Enjoy your work. [9:10]
“So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? -Ecclesiastes 3:22
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” -Thessalonians 5:18