The Empty Promise of Overthinking | Ecclesiastes 7:13–29

God Is Still Just | Reverberate Podcast

Title: God Is Still Just --- 0:00 Introduction 0:23 Injustice and Oppression is a Reality of Life Under the Sun 3:03 How Should Christians Respond to Injustice? 10:02 But What About Church Hurt? 23:10 How Would You Counsel a Victim of Spiritual Abuse? 29:01 Turning to God, Even in Seasons of Hurt 33:08 Dealing With the Big and Simple Hurts 35:38  What's Next? --- Ecclesiastes 3:16 Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. (ESV) --- In this episode, Pastor Jed, Pastor Isaias, and Jason discuss injustice and oppression in Ecclesiastes and how Christians should respond when wrongdoing appears in places meant to protect and care for people. They consider the difference between righteous action and personal vengeance, along with the pain of church hurt and spiritual abuse. The conversation also offers help for grieving honestly, rebuilding trust wisely, receiving God’s good gifts, and resting in the God who judges justly. --- Berean Bible Church is a non-denominational church in East Knoxville, TN. We are grounded in the Word, celebrating the transformative power of the Gospel. Our community thrives on worship and mutual encouragement, fostering deep connections among members. Committed to our mission, we reach out with compassion and hope, reflecting God's glory throughout our city and beyond. Learn more at berean.church.

The Empty Promise of Overthinking | Ecclesiastes 7:13–29

Title: The Empty Promise of Overthinking --- 0:00 Marketing: Your Life is Unpredictable, and Our Product Can Solve That 3:38  Reading Ecclesiastes 7 5:03  Consider the Work of God 6:11 Who Can Make Straight What He Has Made Crooked? 15:54 Sometimes Righteous People Perish and Evil People Flourish 21:05 Examples of Good You Can Pursue 27:52 The Impossible Task of Seeking Out the Scheme of Things 37:00 Where Are You Tempted? --- Ecclesiastes 7:13–29 Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things—which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. (ESV) --- In Ecclesiastes 7:13–29, Solomon confronts the empty promise that enough thought, wisdom, or careful planning can make life predictable. God gives both prosperity and adversity, and no human scheme can remove life’s uncertainty. Overthinking may disguise itself as wisdom, but it often feeds pride or fear by tempting us to believe we can control every outcome. Jed Gillis explains that uncertainty should lead neither to passivity nor foolish risk. Instead, believers are called to fear God, pursue wisdom and righteousness, and trust Him with the results. God did not create us to understand every detail of His plan. He created us to depend on Him and faithfully pursue the good He has placed before us. --- Berean Bible Church is a non-denominational church in East Knoxville, TN. We are grounded in the Word, celebrating the transformative power of the Gospel. Our community thrives on worship and mutual encouragement, fostering deep connections among members. Committed to our mission, we reach out with compassion and hope, reflecting God's glory throughout our city and beyond. Learn more at berean.church.

Are You Praying or Bargaining? | Reverberate Podcast

Title: Are You Praying or Bargaining? --- 0:00 Introduction 0:24 Is Praying for Things the Same as "Bargaining With God?" 4:24 Drawing Near to Listen is Better 5:26 Looking at Abraham Pleading for Lot 6:36 Looking at Moses Pleading for Israel 7:21 Looking at Gideon Asking for a Sign 8:54 Can We Claim God's Promises or Specific Verses? 11:57 Wrestling With God Versus Passive Submission in Prayer 19:47 What's Next --- Ecclesiastes 5:1–3 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. (ESV) --- In this episode of Reverberate, Pastor Jed and Jason explore Solomon’s warning in Ecclesiastes 5:1-3 about approaching God with humility instead of treating prayer like a transaction. They explain the difference between faithfully bringing requests before God and trying to earn God’s favor through good works, promises, or religious performance. Looking at examples such as Abraham, Moses, Gideon, and Jacob, they show that biblical prayer appeals to God’s character and promises rather than attempting to place God in our debt. The conversation also examines what it means to “draw near to listen.” Rather than filling prayer with anxious words or trying to control outcomes, Christians are called to trust God’s goodness, cast their cares on Him, and leave room to hear His Word shape their hearts. The episode encourages a posture of reverence, quiet dependence, and genuine worship, reminding listeners that prayer is ultimately about trusting the God who loves His children, not persuading Him through bargains or performance. --- Berean Bible Church is a non-denominational church in East Knoxville, TN. We are grounded in the Word, celebrating the transformative power of the Gospel. Our community thrives on worship and mutual encouragement, fostering deep connections among members. Committed to our mission, we reach out with compassion and hope, reflecting God's glory throughout our city and beyond. Learn more at berean.church.

Living Life Backwards | Ecclesiastes 6:10–7:12

Title: Living Life Backwards In Living Life Backwards, Jed Gillis explains that Ecclesiastes 6:10–7:12 calls us to stop trying to control an unknown future and instead trust the God who knows what is truly good. Solomon urges us to live with the end in view, valuing a faithful life and a good name over unrealized potential. He also teaches that sorrow can lead to wisdom, honest weakness can draw believers closer together, and wise correction is better than shallow praise. Rather than escaping into fantasy, bitterness, or nostalgia, we should pursue wisdom in the present. This means facing difficult truths, welcoming correction from wise people, and refusing to live in anger over a past we cannot change. We do not know what lies ahead, but God does. A wise life rests in His knowledge, follows His patterns, and seeks a good end. --- 0:00 Are You Ready to Continue in Battle? 3:12  Reading Ecclesiastes 5:15  A Fear of the Unknown 11:46  What Solomon Sees as Good Pursuits 11:59  Live Towards a Good End 22:26  Don't Live in a Fantasy Land Even If It Makes You Feel Happier Now 30:17  Pursue Uncomfortable Good 36:34  Don't Live in an Angry Pity Party, Even If It Feels Safer Now 41:19 Conclusion --- Ecclesiastes 6:10–7:12 Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity. Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart. Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. (ESV) --- --- Berean Bible Church is a non-denominational church in East Knoxville, TN. We are grounded in the Word, celebrating the transformative power of the Gospel. Our community thrives on worship and mutual encouragement, fostering deep connections among members. Committed to our mission, we reach out with compassion and hope, reflecting God's glory throughout our city and beyond. Learn more at berean.church.

Did Solomon Know About Heaven? | Reverberate Podcast

Title: Did Solomon Know About Heaven?---0:00 Introduction0:38 Ecclesiastes says "what happens to man and beast is the same." I thought we go to heaven when we die?6:28 Is "enjoy your work" really all there is?12:01 If all Scripture is inspired by God, why was Solomon confused about the afterlife?18:48 Solomon's complex journey to a simple conclusion20:43 What's next?---Ecclesiastes 3:18–22I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? 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? (ESV)---In this episode, Pastor Jed and Jason discuss Ecclesiastes 3:19-22 and Solomon’s comparison between the death of people and animals. The conversation wrestles with hard questions about death, the afterlife, human limits, and what we can truly know by observation alone. Solomon is not reducing human life to animal life or denying the hope of resurrection. He is reminding us that we are creatures, not God. Death, evil, injustice, and uncertainty all confront our desire for control. Yet Ecclesiastes does not leave us in despair. It calls us to receive God’s gifts, rejoice in the work before us, do good, and trust the Lord with what we cannot see.---Berean Bible Church is a non-denominational church in East Knoxville, TN. We are grounded in the Word, celebrating the transformative power of the Gospel. Our community thrives on worship and mutual encouragement, fostering deep connections among members. Committed to our mission, we reach out with compassion and hope, reflecting God's glory throughout our city and beyond.Learn more at berean.church.