The Palace, the Priest, and the Plow | Ecclesiastes 4:13-5:9

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.

Christ Over All

Title: Christ Over All --- 0:00 Introduction: Christ Over All 4:05 Christ's Power Over Darkness 16:06 Christ's Power Over Sin 21:09 Christ's Power Over Death 26:55 Christ's Power Over Earthly Kingdoms 34:24 Christ's Power Over Every Power at His Return 38:52 Closing Prayer --- Colossians 1:15–20 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (ESV) --- In “Christ Over All,” Isaias Viñales preaches from Colossians 1:15–20 on the supreme authority of Jesus Christ over every power. Christ is Lord over the unseen powers of darkness, which tremble and obey at his command. He is Lord over sin, breaking its dominion through the cross and forgiving the debt that stood against us. He is Lord over death, rising bodily from the grave and holding the keys of death and Hades. He is Lord over earthly kingdoms, outlasting every empire and establishing a kingdom that will never be destroyed. The sermon calls believers to take comfort in Christ’s present reign and urges all people to bow before him now as Savior and King, before every knee bows at his return. --- 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.

Painful Pieces in a Beautiful Story | Reverberate Podcast

Title: Painful Pieces in a Beautiful Story --- 0:00 Introduction 00:37 How Is Everything Beautiful if Despair Exist? 7:15 How Is Everything Beautiful if Evil Exist? 8:58 How Should We Think and Talk About Tragic Situations? 15:43 Trusting God Even If We Don't See the Good 18:11 Avoiding Both Emotional Detachment and Overwhelm 24:40 What's Next? --- Ecclesiastes 3:1–13 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. (ESV) --- Pastor Jed and Jason discuss Ecclesiastes 3 and Solomon’s statement that God has made everything beautiful in its time. They wrestle with how that can be true in a world filled with grief, death, moral evil, and painful stories we do not fully understand. The conversation points to Lazarus, Joseph, and the cross to show that evil is never called good by itself, yet God can make even painful things fit within a larger story of redemption. They also discuss how Christians should grieve honestly, trust God without easy answers, and resist emotional detachment while still resting in the hope of resurrection. --- 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.