2013년 12월 1일 주일 영어예배 설교
전도서 12:1

(Ecclesiastes 12:1)

     Many works of art and literary work well known to us have been about the vanity of life. They express this nature of life in many ways. While some of them suggest it in pleasant and hopeful ways, some show it in gloomy and hopeless manners. But apart from the diverse ways of showing the vanity of life, they have something in common. They never directly say how to live as a man. Properly speaking, they are not able to show it. It is true that some works with a kind of Christian view or colors use Christian senses and terms, but even they don’t have any distinctive position on the definition of life itself. So even if they are great, deep, and thoughtful works, and we can get a little insight and taste some aspects of life, we cannot earn any obvious direction on how to live. And most of the great works leave getting any clear answer to readers. However, as always, there is no way to gain any proper standardized answer about how to live for men with depraved, and sinful nature. Therefore, since countless literary works and works of arts began to question and deal with “what is life?”, “where is life from and going?”, “why and how do I live?”, people are still questioning the matter and certainly will continue to do the same in the future.

Here, today’s text clearly demonstrates what the utmost important matter in life is. Through the preacher’s demonstration in Ecclesiastes, I want us to find the true duty and nature of life and how to accomplish the duty especially in life’s youth.

In verse 1, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’” The author of Ecclesiastes is the king Solomon. As we know, he enjoyed extremely great wealth, glory, and honor. Not only that, he has a reputation for great wisdom and insight into life. He developed various natures of human life and world, and tips for wise conducts in diverse situations for any given matter in the world. And also he encouraged young people to truly enjoy every factor in their lives. Lastly, he concludes his development of Ecclesiastes like this, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.”, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” His conclusion is that the only meaning of life is to serve God through all factors in one’s life. Not the main meaning, the only meaning of life, to serve God! One detail of his heavy and deep theme of the book is today’s text, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’” The word ‘remember’ is ‘zekor’ in Hebrew, which doesn’t mean to just not forget something but means to “always having something in mind.” Having what in mind? Your Creator. It means to remember the creator who created the universe and all things in it, the creator who created all invisible laws and principles for the running of the universe, the creator who is the absolute being as the controller and sustainer of the universe, the creator who made and let you be born at the time he planned through a biological way through your father and mother, the creator who provides all things and environment for your life, and especially the creator who saved you from your terrible sin through our Lord Jesus Christ and let you recognize that your name is in the list of the life book of Him. The Bible gives orders to us to have the creator in our mind all the time in our lives. This instruction also suggests a special condition about time that the order must be carried out, “in the days of your youth.” Here, the expression, ‘in the days of your youth’ of course indicates the so-called prime time of life, a vigorous youth time. But the words following the expression, ‘evil days’ – ‘yeme harah’ in Hebrew and ‘pleasure’ – ‘heppetz’ in Hebrew, point to the fact that the expression, in the days of your youth’, has more meaning beyond just young age. In other words, “the evil days and the years of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”” means the days in which one realizes one’s meaningless past time spent not remembering one’s creator and regrets the time. Therefore, “the days of your youth” represents the time before that regretful and meaningless time, which is the time of youth you are in now. So the preacher of Ecclesiastes who once enjoyed all the wealth, glory, and honor to the extent that one possibly can enjoy in the world as the great king instructs, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’.”

Everyone, do you hear the clear commandment of the Bible to young people like you? This teaching of the Bible is to Christian people, especially to the Christian young people like you. This teaching of the Bible is to you in the midst of people in this world who never acknowledge God as their creator and never are reborn by the Holy Spirit, that is, never able to listen to God’s clear and severe voice. Listen again to the voice of God to you, Christian young men, in the midst of this wicked world, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth!”

You have to remember your creator, or have your creator in your mind all the time ‘in the days of your youth.’ Not in the days after you enter college. Not in the days after you once live and enjoy in the same way that people who have the worldview against God live. Not in the days after you graduate from college and get a stable position. Not in the days after you date and get married. Not in the days after you raise all your children. Not in the days after you plan for your later years. Here, now, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them,” remember your creator. Remember, Christian young men, all your life is God’s, in God’s hands. Study and prepare your brilliant future in and for God. Make friends and fully enjoy all your young factors in and for God. Take care of and obey your parents in and for God. Christian young people, God is your master and sustainer, not just your god. God is the one and only concern in your life. You are here for God. This is the very worldview that God suggests to His chosen young people in this world.

Everyone, the most and highest pleasure to a man is being in and for God. This is safety, guarantee, and prosperity itself. You, Christian young people here, you have forceful, hot beating hearts. Offer these hearts of yours to your creator right away. Being with God is the blessedness. The young man who believes and grasps this fact surely wins. God never let that young man alone, surely blesses and gives prosperity to him or her in order for him or her to continue to live as His competent and powerful Christian in this world. Whom are you looking at with a puzzled mind in this chaotic world? Look at young Joseph, young David, young Daniel who triumphantly experienced the great blessings from their God in their ages through remembering their creator ‘in the days of their youth.’ Look at God who was with them. Look at Jesus Christ, your savior and protector. Become a young man who remembers his creator in the midst of a world that has forgotten its creator. Become a young man who firmly hold this impregnable Christian worldview from the Words of God in the midst of this world that hopelessly holds its own weak and defective worldview.

I hope all of you become young men remembering your creator in the days of your youth and taste the true essence of life and lead a triumphant, glittering life.