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As we enter into a season of preparation in the weeks ahead of Easter, Ash Wednesday is a time to stop, reflect and place before God those sins and struggles we are burdened by. Join us for a brief evening prayer service that will include receiving ashes, a sign God’s people have participated in since the Old Testament times to express our frailty before God. As we take this time together, we will be reminded of the life He offers us in His Word.
Our prayer service will be both online only this year.
We will be gathering online via live-streaming on March 5 at 7 pm on both YouTube and Facebook Live.
Join us live on Thursday at 7 pm on your preferred streaming service:
We are located at 335 Droste Road in St. Charles, MO. We look forward to meeting you!
We spend our lives building things we think will last—a career, a home, savings, security—only to watch them crumble anyway, and Ecclesiastes 12 asks the question we’d rather not face: if everything in this world eventually falls apart, what are we actually trusting in?
The following study questions and transcript are AI generated and may contain errors.
The pastor mentions that we often can’t see the future collapse of what feels permanent—we’re making decisions as if it’s the early 90s when the mall is still gleaming, not realizing it’s already headed for rubble. What are some things in your life right now that feel too solid to fail, and how might that blindness affect the choices you’re making?
David had a choice after his sin: he could have used his power as king to cover it up further, like other kings around him did. Instead, he repented. What made the difference in David’s response, and what does that suggest about what it takes for us to turn toward God rather than away from him when we’ve fallen short?
The pastor describes himself as impatient and complaining about his back injury, even while preparing this message about trusting God. Why do we struggle to live out what we intellectually know to be true, and what role might regular practices like Ash Wednesday play in closing that gap?
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:1 that because we have God’s promises, we should cleanse ourselves and bring holiness to completion. How is repentance connected to hope rather than despair? What’s the difference between coming before God broken and coming before God broken and believing he can make things right?
The ash cross points both to our mortality (“from dust we came, to dust we shall return”) and to Christ’s victory over death. How does holding both truths at once—that we are finite and that Christ is eternal—shape the way we live day to day?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Good evening, and welcome to this year’s Little Hills Church Ash Wednesday service. Perhaps you’re here at an Ash Wednesday service for the first time. Maybe you’re here, but you’re thinking, how can an Ash Wednesday service be online? Isn’t it about the ash cross that you can receive on your forehead? Well, whatever reason you’re here, or maybe you’re wondering why you’re here, I’m glad you’re here.
As we’re going to go on this journey together tonight, what we’re going to see is that yes, that ash cross is the familiar physical symbol that we participate in usually on an Ash Wednesday. But the even more important thing, the heart of it, is that we spend some time before God with repentant hearts. He calls us to come before him and place before him the burdens we have, the challenges we have, the places where we just know we’re falling short, and the places where we’re not even ready to admit we’re falling short. Why? Because he’s a good and loving God, and as we come before him with those burdens, what does he do? He reminds us of how much he loves us. You see, the ash cross is a reminder, it’s a physical activity we can participate in, but it isn’t the thing itself. What really matters is what’s going on in our hearts. That’s where we’re going to dwell tonight together.
So I’m glad we’re together as a church family. If you’re new here, I’m glad that you’re here with us. Let’s spend this time, come before God, reflect in his amazing love, and then use that to prepare our hearts as we look towards Easter six weeks from now.
As we start tonight, we have a call to worship. It’s from Psalm 51. Here’s what we read:
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
And I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.”
David writes those words as he reflects on the sin he’s committed with Bathsheba and against also Bathsheba’s husband as he murdered Uriah to try to get away with his first sin. He compounds it. He sins against Bathsheba. He sins against God. He sins against Uriah. He just keeps running with that until he’s confronted with the Word of God. And as he receives that confrontation, he had a choice. He was an ancient Near Eastern king, and ancient Near Eastern kings could do whatever they wanted. They aren’t like the leaders of today that someone could appeal to court, someone could file a complaint, someone could try to pass legislation to stop something. An ancient Near Eastern king, if he wanted to murder someone, if he wanted to take someone’s wife, he could do it. And no one could say anything.
And yet, as Nathan the prophet came to David and confronted him, David was struck by the one authority that was genuinely an authority over him, God himself. And because David sought after the heart of God, even in his sin, and it is sin, David chose not to run with that sin, embrace that sin further, but instead comes before the Lord in a heart of repentance.
I think a lot of times we read this psalm and we read the story behind it and we think, David, boy, what an evil, horrible man. So he repents. But if we remember that context, that what David was doing, all the kings around him were doing as well, they could get away with it, but there’s a key difference, and that’s being confronted with and being receptive to God’s Word. And hopefully we’re not following in the exact footsteps of David in his sin, but we’re all invited to follow in the footsteps of his repentance, because while our sins might, in our own minds at least, seem far less worthy of concern, they all keep us away from holiness. And they all need us to come with that same repentant heart, to understand that whether our sin is small in our eyes or huge, whether it’s small in the eyes of the world or huge, before God completely separates us, it is complete and utter separation, because we are unholy and he is holy.
And yet, what did David recognize? That he could come before the Lord and the Lord would forgive him, because the Lord is also good and loving.
What can we depend on? David realized that he couldn’t depend on his own power, his own might. That palace, yes, it looked mighty, but it would fail. His army, yes, it looked mighty, but someday it would fall. His own life, he may have felt still very much alive and in command, but someday that would fail. But he could depend on the mercy of the Lord, and so he turns to the Lord. That’s what we’re called tonight as well, because everything that we think is strong, everything we think can hold up for us, well, it won’t.
I remember as a kid, back in the 80s, early 90s, that was right prime time for the indoor mall, right? That was like an institution across the country. And those malls had stores that had been around for a century or more, and felt like they too were essentially permanent. They were laws of nature. Of course, you’d always have Sears, always have JCPenney, you’d always have these stores.
We know that’s not quite the case, right? I remember as a kid going into Midrivers Mall, the one that’s nearby, and it was fine, but if we were really going to do something special, maybe go with my grandparents or something like that, and spend the day, go to the food court, see different things, we might go to Chesterfield Mall. And Chesterfield Mall, for those of you not in St. Louis, you may not know this, but it was just absolutely massive. And for those of you here, you may be nodding in agreement, you remember that mall. It was more interesting than a lot of the malls. It was not just a big straight shot, it had different angles and turns, and had beautiful sculptures and fountains and recessed areas with big plantings. It wasn’t just a bunch of shops, it was like an indoor park, sort of. And I remember just being fascinated by it when I was there as a kid. And it was huge, and it had these huge stores, it felt like it should be around forever. Where is it now? As a video that was posted on Twitter, or Axe a few weeks ago showed, there’s very little of it left. It’s been closed or dying for a number of years now, and now it’s a pile of rubble. That giant mall with somewhere over a million square feet of space, and these beautiful sculptures and this amazing design, now it’s a bunch of wreckage, a bunch of concrete.
It’s not just malls. Yes, malls are the thing that are fading out of favor at the moment, but everything that we think is that way, everything we think is too big to fail, everything we think is too dependable, too strong, too fierce, too… whatever we want it to be, including our own lives, we’re going to fail. Ash Wednesday reminds us that from dust we came and to dust we shall return, and the question is, where are we going to turn? Are we just going to return to dust, or are we going to turn to something more lasting? That’s what David did in Psalm 51, and that’s also, we’re going to spend some time at the end of Ecclesiastes, and as we look there, we find that Solomon comes to the same conclusion as his father.
Take a look at Ecclesiastes 12, verse 13a: “The end of the matter, all has been heard.”
What’s the matter? If we read through all of Ecclesiastes, Solomon lists out all the different things he’s obtained, all his wisdom, all his power, all the ways he sought after happiness and pleasure and success, and how they all end up being meaningless. He’s tried it all. He’s done it all. At the end he can say, I’ve covered it; you’re not going to find any exceptions. And at each point throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, what does he say? It’s meaningless.
As we think about our own things that we hold on to, the things that we think are going to provide meaning, either the things we already have that in the moment we feel like are strong, they’re massive structures that will never be torn down, or those things that we’re directing our hearts towards, the things we’re yearning for, because we think those are the things that are going to bring us happiness. Let’s pray that God would help us to see the true reality about them as we explore this passage together.
Let’s pray. Father, would you help us to be people who understand the true reality of the things in this life, that everything in this life is passing, but your love is not. Would you help us to repent of those places we put our dependence elsewhere, and help us to turn our eyes towards you, we pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
The matter that Solomon outlines, here’s the thing. He’s listed, we’re not going to come up with anything that he hasn’t at least touched on the category of. There might be new ways of playing it out, right? We’re not going to get a horse and chariot. We might want a really nice car instead. We’re not kings and queens, so maybe not a palace, but a really nice house. Maybe not the wisdom that Solomon was pursuing, but certainly wisdom. We think we’ll find something that will allow us to elevate our place and have meaning in life.
And Solomon doesn’t say outright, all these things are things that you should not do. There are plenty of times we should seek wisdom. It’s good to have a house. It’s good to have a car. The question is, are we depending on those things? Do we think those are the things that are going to provide us meaning in life? Everything around us is passing away.
Even if you’re in a really amazingly well-built house, someday it will fall. Even if you have an incredibly secure job at a company that isn’t cutting any jobs right now, someday that company will cut jobs, and someday that company will close. If you’re retired, you might feel really secure with your savings, but someday that will go all away. Even if you make it through your life, someday our lives will pass away, and it’s not going to do any good then.
The point being, there really isn’t anything in this world that we can stake our claim to that is somehow going to secure us. And yet we do, and that’s why it’s so important to take time to reflect. Where are we really? Where are we in relation to our God, and to the things in this world? Because we spend an awful lot of time thinking, am I making myself secure? Am I making myself happy? But the funny thing is, with those questions we ask, we’re not measuring them correctly, because we look at that mall, and we’re in the early 90s, and we think, there’s no way it’s going anywhere. But what we don’t realize is we’re actually in 2025, and that mall’s being torn down. It’s going to be depending on it.
Solomon says, the answer’s right here in front of us. I perceive that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it so that people fear before him.
There’s so much that we try to add purpose to in life, and make lasting and meaningful, and secure ourselves in. But Solomon says, and this is relatively early in the book, he already knows the answer. The only thing that endures is what God does. So why is it that we chase after so much else? Why do I constantly cast my lot with things that I think are going to save me, or please me that won’t endure? Sometimes we just need to be smacked over the head to say, oh, wait a sec.
We’re online tonight for a variety of reasons, but one of them being, as I know many of you have been praying for me, the fact that I did something relatively significant to my back and I’m recovering, and it’s made things a challenge, and I sure appreciate those prayers.
I wish I could say that I’m super reflective all the time about how this process is going. I’m not. I’m impatient. But at least as I think about it here, and as soon as I finish, I’ll go right back to mumbling and grumbling, because that’s the way I am. But as I think about it here, it’s a helpful reminder. Because all those things I started, all the projects I was planning to do, the things up at church or at home that I was just starting that now I can’t do at the moment because I can’t bend over, I can’t sit down, well, let’s remind me of, that even when I feel like I can pretty much do whatever I want, I’m able to get around and move and do and so on. Well, there’ll be a time I can’t.
And no matter how healthy you are, no matter how healthy I am, that is a truth that is unavoidable. There will be a time we can’t. Why do we trust in our own abilities, our own strength? Not just our physical strength, our intellectual strength. Like, well, I will always be able to figure out in here how to solve the problem. Then we find ourselves at our wits end because we can’t solve a problem.
God says, why are you doing that? Trust in me. Why do we trust in politicians who make bold promises to somehow make things right for us when we know that every single time they will let us down? Why do we trust in our careers? Why do we trust in the praise and adoration of other people? These things will let us down.
Allman knew it. He had it all. The only thing that endures, he said, is what God does. That’s still true today. God’s wisdom remains.
Back to verse 13. The end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
That one phrase in there, it may be translated, this is the duty of man, or the whole duty of man, or something along those lines. I think arguably the best translation is simply, the whole man, whole of man. Because when we think about it, it’s not just a study in Ecclesiastes on what our duties are. It does arrive at that point. But it’s really about everything we pursue, everything we think, everything we do, everything that we are.
Because if we’re all focused inward, and we’re all focused on what we can do, and what we are, and who we are, and how important we are, or how important we’d like to be, those things are going to pass. Question is, are we focused on who God is? Because he’s the one who remains.
And so, when Solomon arrives at this point, he’s talked about everything that we might pursue, and he says, instead, let’s think about the only thing that really sums up any meaning to us at all, and that’s that we are made in the image of God, that we’re loved by God, that God endures, and that we can turn to him. Because when we turn to him, we go from the lack of meaning that we think is meaning, to the only actual, genuine, real meaning. The only structure that won’t be torn down, won’t have the bulldozers come in and turn it into a pile of rubble.
No other way. It’s not escapable. That’s what he’s getting to in that close there. “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
God’s will is going to be done. And the invitation here is to turn to him. And if you’ve never turned to Jesus, tonight’s a great night to do it, to say, Jesus, I realize I’ve been pursuing things, I’ve been running as fast as I can, but everything behind me keeps collapsing.
But why do we come to this every year? Why do we spend a day, we spend all kinds of time throughout the year in repentance, but why do we take this time every year to do this? It’s because we as believers even, even those who have been believing for a long time, what do we do? Well, it’s what I hinted at earlier.
As I’ve been down with my back, I’m not thinking, oh, let me praise God for the fact that I usually can do these things. I’m not thinking, I’m praising God for the fact that I’m slowly getting better. I’m complaining and miserable and unhappy about the fact that I’m not there yet.
And again, this is a work in progress for me, because I’m describing this, I’m not saying I figured it out. I’m not saying I’ve actually gotten any better at this. I’ve been working on this message for a number of days and in this text, and the whole time I’m still right in that mode. I think that’s what we do.
And then we get past some difficult hurdles, some difficult pain, and we go right into trusting in whatever thing now we think is going to make us happy. How do we instead do otherwise? Maybe we say, well, you know, it’s nice that God’s things endure, but what does that do for me?
I think sometimes even as believers we run into that. I’m glad God’s things endure, but do the things that he has towards me endure? Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1. “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”
Paul says here’s the thing that you need to know. This picks up on that same theme that we’ve been seeing here in Ecclesiastes. We have the promise of God. He says it more explicitly because he’s fully encountered the gospel. Solomon had encountered God, but he hadn’t seen the full unveiling of how God was going to defeat the meaninglessness of the world, the passing of the world.
Paul says, well, we’ve seen it. We have these promises. We know that Jesus came, that the only one whose body wasn’t going to fail—in fact, he didn’t even need a body, chose to take it on for us—that he came into the world and received everything that we should fear. He received rejection, he received suffering, he received death. Not only just death, but unjust death.
People accuse us of something. There’s probably some truth to it, right? Even if it’s not fully true. There’s nothing they could accuse Jesus of that was right, yet they accused him anyway. He was sent to the cross and he died. But in the sense that not even death could endure against him, that he defeated death, then we start to see the path here, out of the meaninglessness that Ecclesiastes reminds us of.
Because as we come with repentant hearts towards God, and we say, these things I keep holding on to, these things I keep saying are important, well, not really what’s important. And God, I want you to help my heart focus more on you. I want to be focused on you in this time, this season of preparation towards Easter, and through the rest of my life beyond that, that God is faithful to provide that to us.
We may not have the ash crosses tonight. We’re actually going to do something a little different. We’re going to have them on Sunday for anyone who’d like to receive one. But it’s not the symbol itself that provides healing, it’s what is happening in our hearts. Are we actually turning to God and saying, I want your life?
And that physical symbol, when you think about it, is really just pointing to that inward truth. Throughout scripture, we’re told about repenting with sackcloth and ashes. In other words, humiliating ourselves, reminding ourselves of the state that we really are in.
It’s not a sign of piety to put on the cross, it’s a sign confessing that we realize we are those headed towards returning to dust. But I love that symbol, because as we put it on, as we receive it, we don’t just receive that reminder of our mortality and the meaninglessness of so much that we pursue, but it’s put on in the shape of a cross, which reminds us of how we escape that meaninglessness.
In that death, including the death that Jesus received, there’s life because Jesus defeated death. And so as we spend time in prayer in the next few minutes and we think about how we come before God, it shouldn’t leave us all depressed and broken and hopeless. Rather, it should be an invitation to hope. The more we realize how fallen we are and how broken we are, and the fact that, yes, things don’t work out in this world, but guess what? There’s an explanation for why, then it allows us to experience all the more God’s grace and His love, and the understanding that there really is a solution coming, something that will make things right.
As we look at that ash that forms a cross, it should call us to a time of reflection on where we are putting our trust today. I stake my claim on that I think are going to be the things that will provide me. And every single one of us is going to miss the mark. We might intellectually know, but we’re going to miss the mark.
And this is an invitation not to keep missing the mark, but to turn towards the One who faced all the meaninglessness, all the brokenness of life for us, and know that He offers us all the meaning and all the richness of His love.
And so let’s pray tonight that God would help us, not just to recognize that we fall short, but to encounter the only One who can make it right and can make life meaningful. I want you to pray with me.
Father, we do pray that You would help us to be people of meaning, to be people who recognize that You are the One who provides meaning in this life. Lord, as we chase after things that don’t provide that meaning, that don’t provide the hope that we need, would You help us to turn from them and turn towards You, to trust in You each and every day of our lives.
Lord, would You help us to understand that whatever we hold on to, big or small, that not only is it passing, but none of it is so big that it eliminates the opportunity to come before You, that like David, we can come and speak of how deeply we sin, but know that You do indeed purge us and make us as white as snow. Pray for Your forgiving grace tonight and the comfort that we find in that, and I ask this in Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
We’re going to spend a few minutes now with something called the Litany. You can see it up on your screen. And the Litany is just a set of prayers, traditional prayers, that walk us through our struggles, our failures, and our desperate need for our Lord.
And traditionally, this Litany is said out loud, where I or whomever was leading the service would say it, and that there are certain parts that you’ll see underlined that you would say, and I invite you, wherever you are, to go ahead and join in on those parts. Let’s say this together, because this isn’t a prayer that I’m somehow making effective for you. It’s a prayer that we all bring before our God. We’re just helping each other to walk through it. Let’s pray this prayer together now.
O Lord, have mercy.
O Christ, have mercy.
O Lord, have mercy.
O Christ, hear us.
God the Father in heaven, have mercy.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy.
God the Holy Spirit, have mercy.
Be gracious to us.
Spare us, good Lord.
Be gracious to us.
Help us, good Lord, from all sin, from all error, from all evil, from the crafts and assaults of the devil, from sudden and evil death, from pestilence and famine, from war and bloodshed, from sedition and from rebellion, from lightning and tempest, from all calamity by fire and water, and from everlasting death.
Good Lord, deliver us.
By the mystery of your holy incarnation, by your holy nativity, by your baptism, fasting and temptation, by your agony and bloody sweat, by your cross and passion, by your precious death and burial, by your glorious resurrection and ascension, by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, help us, good Lord.
In all time of our tribulation, in all time of our prosperity, in the hour of death and in the day of judgment, help us, good Lord.
We poor sinners implore you to hear us, O Lord, to rule and govern your holy Christian church and to preserve all pastors and ministers of your church in the true knowledge and understanding of your wholesome word and to sustain them in holy living, to put an end to all schisms and causes of offense, to bring into the way of truth all who have erred and are deceived, to beat down Satan under our feet, to send faithful laborers into your harvest and to accompany your word with your grace and spirit.
We implore you to hear us, good Lord, to raise those who fall and to strengthen those who stand and to comfort and help the weak-hearted and the distressed.
We implore you to hear us, good Lord, to give to all peoples concord and peace, to preserve our land from discord and strife, to give our country your protection in every time of need, to direct and defend our president and all in authority, to bless and protect our magistrates and all our people, to watch over and help all who are in danger, necessity and tribulation, to protect and guide all who travel, to grant all women with child and all mothers with infant children increasing happiness in their blessings, to defend all orphans and widows and provide for them, to strengthen and keep all sick persons and young children, to free those in bondage and to have mercy on us all.
We implore you to hear us, good Lord, to forgive our enemies, persecutors and slanderers and to turn their hearts, to give and preserve for our use the kindly fruits of the earth and graciously to hear our prayers.
We implore you to hear us, good Lord.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, we implore you to hear us.
Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy!
Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy!
Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, grant us your peace.
O Christ, hear us.
O Lord, have mercy.
O Christ, have mercy.
O Lord, have mercy.
As we think about that prayer, and if you notice the journey in it, it touches on the things that we’ve been talking about. Because at each point, whether it’s our own sin and our failings, the forces of evil against us, the needs of our world and our church family and everyone else that has ever lived, it turns everything to the fact that the one place, the one source of meaning and hope is our Lord.
Now we’re going to take a few moments in silent confession, and as we do, let’s not just leave it general like that. Let’s just spend some time. You don’t need to ever write anything out to share with anyone else. It’s just between you and God. Take a few moments to lay the things that you’re holding on to that you shouldn’t, to lay the things that you’re trusting in that you shouldn’t, that we can all take those things and lay them before God, and know just as He will have mercy on all the things described in that prayer, that specifically for you and for me, He’ll have mercy on the things that we place before Him now. Will you pray with me, please?
Father, we do pray that you would offer us, again, a fresh, a renewing spirit, that you would forgive us of these things that we place before you, the places where we don’t trust in you, the places where we trust in other things, places where we seek to find meaning that isn’t in you. Would you turn our hearts fully towards you tonight? Would you give us the peace that comes only through you? Would you give us strength then as we go into this season of preparation for Easter, and as we use that season of preparation to prepare for the entirety of our lives ahead, that you would strengthen us and enable us to do the work you’ve called us to, to walk faithfully with you, and to be comforted the entire way by the love that comes only from you. We pray in Jesus’ precious name, amen.