SUNDAY (LIVE) - April 19, 2026 | The Grind: Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 - Dust to Dust

``But the reason why we hold on to bitterness and anger and wanting to get vengeance and wanting to get back to people and have those things play in our head, the only reason why we hold on to those is we believe we have to get vengeance. But when you believe that there is a god who says, vengeance is mine, I will repay, that's the only time that you can not be overcome by evil, because that evil will weave its way into your soul. And it will come out. [01:06:40] (35 seconds)  #VengeanceIsHis

You might be angry at somebody else, but it will come out with your kids or your spouse, or some other ways, because that's what happens. You're just your teeth are set on edge from it, and then it just begins to pollute everything else. The only way you can stay away from that, the only way that you cannot allow that wickedness to get into you is to say, okay, Lord, vengeance is yours. You'll repay. I will not be overcome of evil, but I'll overcome evil with good. The only way you can do that is to know there is a divine judge that one day will make everything right. [01:07:14] (33 seconds)  #OvercomeEvilWithGood

And it's important to preach that to your soul. No. I don't have to hang on to this. No. I don't have to try to make this right. No. I don't have to try nope. Vengeance is his. He'll repay. I'm gonna overcome evil with good today. That's the way. Preach to your own heart. And in this, if God's gonna make it right, there has to be a resurrection. The truth is, you and I are immortal. And our creation, God walks into us, and that part of us lives forever. You'll last forever. [01:07:48] (41 seconds)  #ResurrectionHope

We need to learn to preach to ourselves. We need to learn to say to our own hearts. We need to learn to doubt our own doubts. Why why do we give doubt so much weight? Why don't we doubt our own doubts speaking to ourselves? And the thing that he says is so important, god will judge everything in its right time. He's going to do that. There's a time, and the only way that works is if there is actually a resurrection. So, even in the midst of all of his doubt, he's saying, God's gonna make things right, and there is a resurrection. [01:03:25] (31 seconds)  #DoubtYourDoubts

Do we die and that's it? You ever thought about that? You ever stood beside a little 36 inch casket and wondered, is this it? Every society has to grapple with this. I think every person has to grapple with this. Is it just dust to dust? That's it. And societies, what they've done is there's three gigantic answers. There's minor ones in there, but the three major answers that societies have come up with on what happens after you die are number one, the immortality of the soul. [00:51:35] (44 seconds)  #AfterlifeQuestions

Bad theology has a body count. It matters what you believe. So immortality of the soul, reincarnation, and the third one, eternal oblivion. That you and I are just cosmic mistakes or chemical reactions, that's all we are. When the brain ceases its chemical reaction, you cease, and that's it. Dust to dust, there is nothing else. You're just gone. Eternally gone. So, it's also called materialism or extinctivism, all similar terms. Meaning, when you die, that's it. [00:57:15] (41 seconds)  #BeliefsHaveConsequences

Which always I just step back from that and think, man, if you believe that, it turns life weird. So Hitler, who's responsible for the death of millions of people, like a megalomaniac, able to kill like no one else because he had weapons that no one had had before him, and no one's as nut job as him. So, Hitler dies, dusted us, that's it. He has the same death as your next door neighbor who is the nicest guy in the world that believes all roads lead to God, that says, you man, we love people like we love ourselves. You serve any way you can. Just the greatest guy in the world. Those guys have the same exact end, dust and dust. [00:57:56] (39 seconds)  #MaterialismFlattensLife

You just die, and it's over. I said, I wish you could just live, have as much fun as you possibly can, and then you die. And Duane just got serious. Like, he sat down in his bowl and just looked at me. Oh, yeah? You really want that, Matt? Just have fun. He said, then you better get out there and have fun right now. What are you doing? You're wasting time. If life is about having fun, you better get after it. You better figure out how to have lots of fun. You better never sleep in because if you sleep in, you coulda been having fun. You better research and look at other people that have more fun than you. Figure to have more fun than those guys because it's all about fun, Matt. Go have fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. He goes, that sounds like an exhausting way to live. [01:00:39] (38 seconds)  #FunIsNoAnswer

This is what Christians believe, the immortality of the soul. Second option is reincarnation. And know this, what a society believes will affect how they treat people. So, in India, the predominant religion in India, there's a minority of Christians and a minority of Muslims, the predominant religion in India is called Hinduism. And Hinduism believes in reincarnation. Better luck next time. And they believe this. However you lived, if you live good, then you level up in the next life, and you keep leveling up. But if you live bad, if you're a bad kind of person, you level down. That affects a society. [00:54:06] (51 seconds)  #BeliefsShapeSociety

You can read the news probably every single week, and you can find accounts of someone that was clearly guilty of a heinous crime getting out of that heinous crime because of a technicality. The law is so complex now, it gets exploited by guilty people. There's injustice where there should be justice. And even, let's say, if all the i's are dotted right and all the t's are crossed correctly, you have to get through a trial of 12 jurors. [00:38:58] (39 seconds)  #JusticeSystemFails

Life's unfair. There are injustices. And Solomon is sitting on a Monday morning, and he it's causing him to doubt it. I don't know if I believe the first half of chapter three right now. And then his second problem, humans behaving badly. Verse 18, I 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. What's the law of the jungle? Might is right. That's the law of the jungle. [00:43:32] (43 seconds)  #MightMakesRight

And in the moment, the majority of people always pretty much say this, sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me. I don't want physical pain. I would hate to smash my thumb right now. So, almost the majority is always, I'll I'll take emotional pain over physical pain. But then, they'll wait and they'll do some things to distract, and then they'll start asking them about things that they remember that were painful in their life. Guess what no one talks about? The time they smash their thumb. Guess what everyone talks about? Emotional pain. [00:45:03] (35 seconds)  #EmotionalPainLasts

And, I always say, listen to how Jesus answers that. Because he answers a group of people called the Sadducees who said, there's no afterlife, there's no resurrection, and they were actually a really bad group of people, and they didn't want an afterlife. So, Jesus answers them like this. It's He quotes from the Old Testament. Matthew 22 verse 31. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read talking to bible scholars. I love that. Just a little dig on them. Have you read your bible? [00:52:47] (31 seconds)  #JesusOnResurrection

And, I love that it says, I said to my heart, that's Solomon preaching to himself. He's in the middle of his despair, he's in the middle of his doubt, he's in the middle of his issues, and for a moment he just says, hold on a second, I need to preach to myself right now, even though I'm doubting, even though this I'm trusting God will make all the unfairness, and all the injustice, and all the bad, and all the weakness, I'm trusting one day, he'll make it right. And then he goes back into despair. We need to learn to preach to ourselves. [01:02:55] (34 seconds)  #PreachToYourHeart

You sense that presence. It fills you with power. You've got courage to witness that's that next week to your coworkers. You wanna be the parent that God has created you to be. You wanna do hard things for God's glory. No problem. You wanna set your mind on the prize. You wanna be a saint this week, saying no to sin and yes to God. You just feel this, yeah. And then you walk out these doors and it's like a giant eraser, just scrubs you clean. And you get into your car, and before you leave the parking lot, you're a 100% pagan, and you're driving like it. [00:36:21] (41 seconds)  #SpiritualMomentumLost

Humans aren't supposed to behave that way. Right? Read Genesis one. We're not created with the beast. We're created in the image of God. But very often, humans will drop down to the level of a beast and smite's right. And you get hurt. You get hurt by humans. So, was reading these studies this last couple of weeks, where they would ask people, would you rather have physical pain, smash your thumb with a hammer, or emotional pain, Somebody, whatever, do does something you gossess about, you know, bad relationship. [00:44:23] (41 seconds)  #WeRememberEmotionalPain

The more you're like someone that's saying, I'm going to deny myself. I'm gonna do what's right. I'm gonna help. I'm gonna sacrifice. I'm gonna read my bible. I'm going to pray. The more that you dedicate yourself to living right, the more you will feel the unfairness of life. Do you know that? Here's why. The individual that doesn't care, that steals, that is undermining, that does drugs, that sleeps around, that just absolutely lives terribly. They expect life not to work out right. Yeah. You know, I deserve it. [00:40:59] (32 seconds)  #RighteousLifeFeelsHarder

We don't overcome evil with good. We don't do that. It's why we lock our doors. It's why we do background checks for anyone that's gonna be around our children, because we realized there's a lot of beasts posing as image bearers. And Solomon says, that's giant problem number two. Meh. Problem number one, there's all this injustice. Problem number two, image bearers act like beasts. And so, his final issue that Monday morning is, maybe death is it. Verse 19. For what happens to the children of man, and what happens to the beasts is the same. [00:50:20] (42 seconds)  #BeastsPosingAsHumans

And we're talking like we didn't have a table, so we'd always eat in our little little living room. So, I just have a bowl of cereal, I'm eating, and I'm talking to Duane, and I told Duane this, I said, and Duane was the the happiest of our roommates. He was just always up for a good time, always smiling, always laughing, just a great disposition. So so I thought I'd have a good audience with him. I said, you know what, Duane? I said, I wish life was. You live, and you die, and that's it. Like this right here. [01:00:09] (30 seconds)  #LiveNowDieThen