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God is Always Good!!
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A study on Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 Verse 14.
Well, good day to everyone, and welcome to our Bible study on Ecclesiastes. Today, we're going to be looking at chapter 7, primarily at verse 14 and really 14b. We'll spend a fair amount of time on that particular verse because it's very important that we realize that God is not only directly involved in all the good things that take place, but he is also directly involved in all things, good or bad, that take place on this planet, even though he is always good. This verse will have us come to realize that God is not just the God of things going well, but he is the God that is in control of every single thing that he has created. He controls the atoms, the electrons, the neutrons, the protons. That's how minutely he is involved in all things that he created. And so when good things take place in our lives, we will come to find out that we are sometimes thankful, but not always thankful, that we are, perhaps more often than we'd like to think about it, ingrates when it comes to what the Lord is giving us because we think we deserve more. And then when bad things come into our lives, we really don't understand those things, really question what's going on. Why is God allowing this to take place in my life? And and uh we have this incredible tendency to complain and complain a lot. And as we will learn when we look uh primarily back in the uh book of Numbers, uh, how God responded to his chosen people, to the people that he uh opened the door to allow to escape the slavery that they were experiencing in Egypt, to bring them into a promised land, a land that he decided to give to them because of his love for them, and yet they were murmuring over and over and over again over what they didn't have instead of focusing on what God did provide for them, which was everything they needed for life in the desert, and uh and then uh thanking him tremendously for what he's done for them. Instead, they weren't happy. They weren't happy with the food, the water, they weren't happy with Moses, they weren't happy with Moses' wife. They just had all sorts of problems, and it irritated the Lord tremendously, as we will see as we dig into those verses. The goal here is for us to realize that we too can be like the Israelites murmuring in the desert. As a matter of fact, chances are very good that that's exactly who we're like. We don't want to be like that, do we? Do we really want to be criticizing God and complaining about what's going on in our life? Because ultimately, when we complain to somebody else about what's going on in our life, we're really complaining about what God is allowing to take place in our life. And we're unsatisfied with his will. We're unhappy with what he's allowing to take place in our lives, and so we grumble and we complain and we murmur at him. Let's see how our response should be as we work our way through Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 14. Thanks for joining us, and I hope this study is a blessing. A couple of things before we get into uh Ecclesiastes chapter 7, uh starting with verse 14. You know, last time we met, we we talked about the need to be very careful because God is always good, and we're talking about uh in verse 13 where we see clearly that Solomon tells us that God does create, make things crooked. And um I want to read this because uh this came from a book that I'm reading right now, uh edited by Joel uh uh Beake. And the name of the book is The Beauty and Glory of the Father, and it's just a couple of sentences here. Um it's in the middle of this that I want us to pay particular attention as to why God necessarily has to create crooked things. I'm quoting from the book now. Our sin requires that we have a surety to pay our debts to God or we shall pay them in hell. God is merciful, but he is also just. His anger burns against sin. That is not because God is evil, he is good from himself. Here's the part we, you and me, we provoke him to be severe. God cannot show mercy at the expense of justice. One attribute in God must not devour another, all must have satisfaction, his justice must have no wrong. There in a paragraph tells us why this world is broken and in the situation that it's in, who God is and how he has reacted initially to the fall in the garden and then to the continuing sin that takes place in this world. But of the utmost, and that's what's I I read this because as we were talking about this last time, I want to make sure we have planted, planted, deeply rooted in our hearts, that God does not create evil. And we talked about what MacArthur said about sin. Okay? Does God do things that are calamitous? Yes, he does. Isaiah 45, 7 is clear that he does those things. It's never a moral issue, it's always a physical issue. And why does he do those things? Because of sin. He is good from himself, but we provoke him to be severe. His mercy runs out, and he will always be just, and that justice in him has to be satisfied. Equally so with his grace, with his mercy, with his immutability, and all the characteristics that God has. They work, they are intertwined. One doesn't take over from another. They are in perfect harmony within himself, within the Godhead, the Holy Spirit and the Father and Jesus Christ. But ultimately, only this is why the world needs Jesus. Because of this, because of this, that God's, even though he is a merciful God, when you or I stand before him, if we were without Jesus, his justice will not take a back seat to his mercy at that time. And as this man that wrote this said, our sin requires that we have a surety. Our assurance, our surety is Jesus Christ and the payment that he made on the cross by shedding his blood. We need to have that surety. We need to have Jesus to pay our debts to God, or we, all those that don't accept Jesus, will pay them in hell. That's how utterly important it is for us to talk to everybody that we know, even if we don't have the right words, even if we feel sheepish, even if we're nervous, they're gonna spend an eternity in hell paying for their sins. And are we okay with not telling them about Jesus? Whether or not they reject us, that's not our problem. We need to go tell it on the mountain and everywhere, over the hills and everywhere, as He gives us that opportunity so that the people that we know, that we've had an opportunity to witness to, we are not responsible for their salvation. But if they reject the only surety that has been placed on this earth, and that is Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, if they reject him, it wasn't because they didn't know. It wasn't because we didn't take an opportunity to tell them about him. And once again, we say this, we all know this every year. This is a wonderful time to do this. Because even though the world is in worse shape than I've ever lived through, period. I don't know if it's ever been worse than it is now. It's certainly very bad. Um, it is still a great opportunity. And Sue told me a week or so ago, and I made this announcement in church uh Sunday that she heard um that uh Rochester, New York, Rochester, New York, for cities of its size, it's about a 200,000 to 225,000 people for cities of its size. Rochester, New York is the second most unchurched city in the United States of America. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Michigan's first.
SPEAKER_00I don't know what city in Michigan. But it's somewhere in Michigan. Somewhere in Michigan. So we look at that and say, well, you know, no wonder we're in the shape that we're in in this in this county and in this city. But what an opportunity for us, right? Most people are unchurched. And um and so we have a we there is a gigantic harvest out there for all of us. And while we can't uh be in front of everybody, we can be and will be in front of somebody, and we need to take that advantage of those times. Um I have another thing, but that's only if we have time at the end. So let's turn to uh Ecclesiastes chapter 7. And um I'm gonna start with verse 14. Actually, we did we did part of 14. Um we did the first part, and and 14a says, and I'm reading out of the uh New American Standard, I believe, is this in the day of prosperity be happy. And that's pretty easy to do. But um we are going to kind of tie this in in why we aren't always happy or joyous when things are going well. And and verse the first part B of verse 14 says, But in the day of adversity, consider God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not discover anything that will be after him. So again, last time we met, we we talked about the incredible number of blessings that we all have that we are so prone to not think about, and also so prone to complain in the midst of all the blessings. But now I want to get into um the real complaint department of how we can be, and in many instances we are prone to be. Complaining is a flaw of us, it's a flaw of sinners. It is part of humanity's sinful condition. We grumble about long lines, prices, people, the weather, and you know, just about anything that might cross our path. In the book of Numbers, the Israelites murmured and complained against God until they so exasperated him that he threatened to destroy them. Think about that. Complaining. And we'll look into some of those verses. They complained so much about how God was taking care of them that it almost brought him to the point of destroying them. Yet he did remain faithful to them through all of their unfaithfulness and through all of their complaining, and he remains faithful to us as his children, even in the midst of our whining and our complaining. Seven times in six verses in the book of Numbers, some form of the word murmur appears. And a murmur is uh it's derived from an ancient word that actually describes the sound people make when they're complaining. That guy over there is really still kind of bad. That's a murmur, right? And what it really means is it's a complainer, it's a backbiter, it's a a whisperer whispering things that are negative about somebody else or some situation they're in. It is somebody that criticizes. That's what a murmur is, and that's what the Israelites were doing in the desert as they were, as they were uh being as they had left Egypt. And how did they leave Egypt? By God's incredible grace and power, right? He split the Red Sea. Every Israelite made it through the Red Sea, every Egyptian following them to kill them died in the Red Sea. And they're out in the middle of the desert. Uh, they're there a lot longer than they should have been, but again, that was because of unfaithfulness to the Lord. And yet, as we will see, it didn't take them long, and a lot of times it doesn't take us long to start to murmur and complain ourselves. And I'm gonna say this more than once. But ultimately, when you and I complain, ultimately, we're we're complaining about the situation or the circumstance that God has us in. So remember that. I'm gonna say it more than once. When we complain, we're really we're really complaining against God. We just read verse 14, right? God brings days of prosperity, he brings days of adversity, he brings them. They don't take place in these, like, oh wow, I was paying attention over there. Look what happened to Bob over here. You know, I gotta fix that, or it slipped through my fingers and I really wasn't aware of paying attention. No. He brings both of those types of days or times into our lives. He's responsible for them. He's either fully in control of everything that happens on this earth or he's not. And if he's not, he isn't God. Again, after all the miracles that the children of Israel had seen God do in Egypt, including the parting of the Red Sea, so that they could walk through on dry land, they still complained so bitterly that God heard a constant rumbling from their encampment in the wilderness, wherever they may have set up for that evening for camp. Listen to what they did. They repeatedly complained about food and water. Numbers 20, 2 through 5, if you're taking notes, and Numbers 21, verse 5. They repeatedly complained about food and water. They always had enough of this stuff, but they complained. You know, when I was going through this and I was reading these passages and I was putting this together, I just kept thinking about myself. I just kept thinking about myself. Why am I not completely 100% satisfied with what the Lord has given me? After all, he's meted out exactly what he wants for me. I need to be grateful, I need to be thankful for what it is. Instead of saying, and none of us may say, well, I want more, we may not say that out loud, but inside we might be saying that. Gee, that's nice, but it would have been nicer if they complained about food and water. When they had manna from heaven, they complained that they had no meat. That's in Numbers 11, 4 through 6. They grumbled and rebelled against Moses' leadership. Numbers 14, 2 through 5. Numbers 16, 1 through 3. Aaron and Miriam, Moses' own siblings, complained about Zipporah, Moses' wife, in Numbers 12, 1. The people even complained about God's judgment that resulted from their complaints. That's in Numbers 16, 41. They're complaining, God's judging, and then they're complaining about him judging against their complaining. Shortly after they were freed from slavery in Egypt, the Israelites began to run low on food. They forgot, quickly forgot, the hardship that they had endured and longed for the meats and the fruits and the vegetables of Egypt. So God sent manna to satisfy their appetites. Exodus 16, 1 through 4. But soon they grew tired of manna and grumbled about the lack of meat. Numbers 11, 4 through 6. You get the you get the gist of what's going on here? Never happy. And, you know, just because it took place thousands of years ago doesn't, you know, what does Solomon tell us? Tell us there's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing new under the sun. All the stuff God has blessed us with, all the things that he has kept away from us that might be harmful to us, that we don't even know might have been harmful to us, but he keeps them away. And we have a hard time way too often giving him thanks for what he has done for us. God was supplying all of their needs, and that's the thing to remember here. He supplied everything they need to wander through the wilderness for the 40 years. Even their clothes didn't wear out. Deuteronomy 8.4 says this your clothing did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell these 40 years. But that wasn't enough. How often do we stop to reflect on God's goodness to us in providing all we have rather than complain to Him about what we don't have? He promises you and me to supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ. That's Philippians 4, 19. We've heard many Christians grumble, just like the Israelites, and maybe we're hearing ourselves. Aaron and Miriam, as I said, they complained about Moses' wife Zipporah, although we don't even know why. Maybe it's because she was a Cushite. We don't, the Bible really doesn't say why they complained about uh Zipporah, Moses' wife. Their gripe was directed against Moses. Think about this, the only person with whom God spoke face to face. Your wife, Moses. I mean, think about what they could have been thinking about. Moses was up on Mount Sinai, face to face with God, getting directions and commandments from the Lord to come back down this mountain to show us his ways. It's incredible. The one who created us, the one who got us this far, the one who's given us all the food that we need and all the water that we need to drink, look what he's done for us. Moses has got words from I am, and what do they focus on? We don't like your wife. How about, you know, maybe nobody in this room did this ever, but how about the uh congregant who doesn't like the pastor's wife? Can't get past the sermons because, oh, she just rubs me the wrong way, or the person in the pew in front of you. I got to move my seat because I'll be thinking about them the whole time and I don't like them. Instead of listening to the one that's been anointed by God to be the shepherd, lowercase s of the flock in that church to teach us and to guide us and to protect us. Now we're not gonna listen and we're focusing on that, his wife, or whatever it might be. We're guilty. We're guilty of the same things. We have God's holy word. We can open it up and we can just draw some incredible promises, his love and his faithfulness to us. And yet we might be in church just thinking about, oh, I really don't like that other person. That's what they were doing. That's what they were doing. They questioned his decisions and even his leadership. Did they not fear God's anger? God gave Moses the directions of what to do and where to go and how to do all these things to bring glory to his name. Were they not afraid that in attacking Moses, that they might very well be irritating the God of the universe? The one who chose. Chose them, the one who created that whole people, right? There wasn't a Jew when the earth was formed. God took Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, right? He created a new people with whom, you know, he said, your seed will be a blessing to all peoples. Ultimately, that's going to be Jesus Christ the Messiah. I am going to take you, the apple of my eye, and I'm going to lead you into a promised land. All these things God was going to do for them. And throughout history, well, I don't have enough. It's not fair. It's not right, and all this kind of stuff. And we are no different. If you think about it, we are no different. If they weren't fearful, and it doesn't seem like they were, of God's retribution, they should have. Because here's what scripture says in Numbers 12, 1 and 2. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. The Lord heard it. God judged, remember what took place after this? God judges Miriam by afflicting her with leprosy. To avoid a similar fate, Aaron, who was right there, right with Miriam, going, you know, wagging their finger at Moses, he immediately, Aaron immediately, seeks God's mercy and forgiveness, and God graciously restores Miriam to health. Here's verse 15, same chapter. And Moses cried to the Lord, O God, please heal her, please. But the Lord said to Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? In other words, that would have been shameful enough, but she's gone against me. She's gone against me. Should she not be shamed for seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought back in again. In the midst of God's judgment, we always see his mercy. So Miriam, verse 15, was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought back in. Miriam rebels essentially against God, complains against God. He judges her for that. Moses prays to the Lord. Please, please heal her, please, Lord. God hears Moses' prayer, and in the midst of all this, let's face it, he could have snuffed her out like this and had every right to do so. We're going to see. God has every right to do anything he wants to do with anything he's created. Is there anything here that he hasn't created? Nope. So he gets to do whatever he wants to do with what he's created. And guess what, guys? It's good. Because that's all he can do. Can somebody turn to James chapter 4 for me, please? Just raise your hand if you get there. All right, Nance, verse, will you please read for us verses 1, 2, and 3? James 4, 1, 2, and 3.
SPEAKER_01What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don't they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can't get it. So you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong. You want only what will give you pleasure.
SPEAKER_00So there's three verses that we probably should look at on a regular and ongoing basis. Right? Because what James is telling us is that we have dissatisfaction and grumbling in our lives, and what does it result from? From not getting what we want or expect or think that we deserve. But against whom do we ultimately complain and grumble? God. God. In reality, our complaint is against our God. When the Israelites complained, Moses warned them, they were murmuring in Exodus 16, 8, against the Lord. My boss is really a so-and-so. That guy can't really stand that guy. And this person, you know, in my neighborhood, they're really bad. You know who we're mumbling against? The Lord. The Lord has you at the job that you're at. The Lord has your boss who your boss is. The Lord has you as a neighbor toward the neighbors that you're next to. The Lord has you sitting next to that person in church. The Lord has you working next to that person in a ministry. And yet, here we are grumbling. Guys, we have to get out of that. We have to turn that around. Because ultimately we're grumbling and complaining against the Lord. We're saying to him, Lord, I'm not happy with you. Because you did this to me. You placed me here. You put that person in my life. You brought this situation into my life. And I'm grumbling about it. Maybe I'm grumbling to another person next to me, but ultimately I'm really grumbling against the Lord. Remember, our murmuring, our complaining, our backbiting is against the Lord. Exodus 16, 8. Moses and Aaron could not provide them with food, could not provide the Israelites with food. Yet all the freedom that the Israelites had and all the food and all the water that they had came from God. And if there was ever a lack in any of those things, it was under his control. Can somebody turn to Psalm 24? And whoever's got it, read verse 1. I'm here. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02The earth is the Lord's in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.
SPEAKER_00Who owns everything?
SPEAKER_02The Lord.
SPEAKER_00Everything?
SPEAKER_02Everything.
SPEAKER_00Everything is under his control. Similarly, when we don't get what we want, we too tend to complain. Sinners are complainers. We're still sinners, we're saved sinners, but we're still sinners and we still complain. Regardless of who or what we complain about, we complain against God and his incredible grace, mercy, everything that he's given us. We complain against him because he is the one in full control. He is the one who provides for us and gives us what he wants us to have. He doesn't withhold a thing he doesn't want us to have. He doesn't give us anything more than what he wants us to have. He is in control. He is the one in charge of our circumstances and the one who tells us this in Philippians 2, 14 and 15. Listen, do all things without, what do you think the next word is? Complaining. Do we do some things without complaining? Most things without complaining? Do all things without complaining and disputing? Why? That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. When are we going to shine as lights in the world, right? When we stop complaining and disputing with one another over what's not going right in our lives. Now, things do take place in our lives that don't go right, that don't go the way that we would like them to go, right? Those things happen to every one of us. What do we do about them? Typically we complain. But if we said, okay, I'm not going to complain about this, what do we do? We go to the Lord. Right? We go to the Lord. I'm going to read Psalm 102 before we go, you know, fellowship tonight. It's a beautiful Psalm. There's so much that's brought out into it, and I want to bring it to our attention with regard to what we're reading in Ecclesiastes and even more. But he is, but we need to go to him and plead with him. If we're in a situation and something's happened to us, Lord, I know you're aware of this. You allowed it to take place in my life. I don't know why. If it's sin in my life, it's if I'm harboring sin, show me. I want to repent of that sin and I want to ask for forgiveness because it's there for me at my request. If it's anything else, if if you're trying to teach me to love my neighbor more like myself, if you're trying to teach me to love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, whatever it is, Lord, whatever it is, if you're trying to teach me that when these horrible circumstances come into my life, that you want me to draw closer to Jesus, that you want me to hold him so tightly that he hardly can breathe. Is that why that circumstance is in my life? Because I'm relying more on my own strength and my own worldly wisdom, and you want me to rely more on my Savior and your only begotten Son? Show me what that is, Lord. Reveal to me. I'm convinced He will reveal that to each one of us. Philippians 2, 14 and 15. Do all things without complaining. All. Because when we complain, we're complaining about what God has allowed to take place in our life. God has always been patient with complainers. He always has a desire to be merciful. Whether it was going all the way back into the garden with Adam and Eve, remember this? Verse 12 through uh 12 through 13, two verses in Genesis 3. The man said, speaking to God, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate. It's always somebody else's fault. Adam says, God, your fault. Your fault. You gave me the woman. And the Lord said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me. And I ate. Your fault. And the woman says, if you wouldn't have made the serpent, this never would have happened. God, your fault. Do you see that? Do you see how that complaining and blaming other people and whining just always goes back to the fact that we're complaining against our precious Father in heaven. Whether or not it was Adam and Eve, or the any time throughout Israelite history, uh and even into the early church in Acts, to this very day, complaining has characterized every single society on the planet earth. And although murmuring sometimes does bear consequences from our Father in heaven, he always offers patience, mercy, and forgiveness to you and to me, to his children. Always. But we need to be cognizant of what we're doing as forgiveness when we do it, and then he is there ready to forgive us and have mercy upon us. And he is very patient with us. I'm 72 years old, been saved for 32 years, and been a complainer for 32 years. How patient has he been with me? How long suffering has he been with me? And likewise with everybody in this room, regardless of how long you've been saved, we're complainers. We're complaining sinners. It's not right. Do all things without complaining, the word tells us. Although God confronted and judged the Israelites many times for their sins, especially for the sins of idolatry. And why did they become an idolatrous people? There's many reasons for that. Some of them are not directly to this related to this study, but some were like, well, you know what? God's been pretty good, but what harm can it be if I throw in a Baal or an Ashtera or a Diana or somebody else into the whole mix and start throwing a couple of pennies their way too? Can that hurt? Yeah, right. Sure it can hurt because when you give reverence to anyone or anything that only God deserves, he's going to be patient and he's going to be merciful and praise God that he is. But he does have a time from our perspective. He's outside of time, but there comes a time if we don't repent and change our ways that he says enough is enough. We need to be reminded through the scriptures every time we want to complain, to be reminded that we're complaining against God. And it's wonderful to know that we have a patient, faithful God. He is the one that we serve, and he is there for us all the way. We can say with the psalmist in Psalm 105, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. On a lighter note, talking about complaining, this came off the internet from a pastor who said, wrote this. I often think of my maternal grandmother's favorite story, which so clearly depicts humanity's sinful, never satisfied, always complaining nature. She was a waitress for many years, and although the incident did not happen to her, it's a reminder that to God, it's a reminder that to God, perhaps our complaints sound equally as bad. Here we go. A certain disagreeable gentleman ate his breakfast in the same diner day after day, year after year. The waitresses did their very best to serve him, but he always complained about something. The eggs were overcooked or they were undercooked, the toast was too light or it was too dark, the coffee was too strong or it was too weak. No breakfast was ever quite right. So one waitress, determined to please this customer, took extra special care to make sure everything was perfect. His coffee was right on time and just right. His juice was exactly the right temperature and had just the right amount of pulp that he liked. He ordered two eggs, one scrambled and one over easy. When she set the plate before him, he shook his head in disgust. What could be the problem? She wondered. Is everything to your liking? She asked. Are the eggs okay? No, he complained. You scrambled the wrong one.
SPEAKER_02Oh gosh.
SPEAKER_00So what do we need to do, guys? We need to give thanks. We need to stop murmuring. We need to stop complaining. It does nothing for us. You know that? Our complaining does nothing for us at all. It doesn't change any situation. How do you think our complaints sound to the people that are listening to us? You know, for half the time they want to run in another direction. Oh boy, here comes complaining, Bob. What's he got to say about what's going on in his life right now? Let's get out of here, you know? Um, and it might very well wreck our testimony for the Lord. It's a rejection of his goodness in our lives at that moment in time. It is ugly and it's sinful. And again, I know that we've I'm sure we've all done it. I know I have, and it's a shameful thing that I would do this because I know, I know, at least in part and a great part, what the Lord has done for me. He has given me so much grace and so much mercy in my life. I'm deeply, deeply, deeply indebted to my Lord for all that he has done for me, even when things don't go my way, and I need to pay particular attention when I want to complain. In the second half of verse 14, as we continue on in this thing, in contrast to either rejoicing in the good that God has brought us, or complaining that that good is not enough, and I hope we see that we need to change our ways, but most likely, God has also brought adversity into our lives. I think I mentioned this fellow's name is uh Eswine. He wrote a commentary on Ecclesiastes called Recovering Eden. And he says, um, why does God bring these lousy things into our lives? And he writes, because though this is a mystery, we need to stand on this truth that no matter what happens in our lives, God holds on to us and maintains his purpose for us. God holds on to us and maintains his purpose for us, regardless of what is going on in our lives, regardless of how crooked the road is or the path is, how broken our lives might be that he has allowed to take place in our world. No matter what happens in your life or my life, God holds on to us and he maintains his purpose for us. What's his ultimate purpose for us? To glorify his name. That's his ultimate purpose, to glorify his name. When we draw closer to Jesus, we glorify his name. When we become more like Jesus, we glorify his name. When we have choices to make that are according to his will or against it, and we make them according to his will, we glorify his name. Oh, that we would do that more and more and more, that he and he alone would receive the glory that only he deserves. We mentioned this last time. We, you and I, cannot make straight what God has made crooked. We can't fix everything. You know, when I wrote this, Chris and I were uh a couple of days away from going to breakfast uh one day, one Friday, and and we discussed this very thing that that we're guys, right? And you know, give us a problem for us to solve. That's what we want. We're problem solvers, right? Throw a problem in front of us, we want to be the fixer guys. We're the problem solvers, we're the we're the builders. That's the way God really has designed men. And when we can't fix it, we become discouraged, disappointed, even upset with ourselves. And that's the way we are to one extent or another. But Solomon tells us here that we should really feel differently, maybe even to a certain extent, free from what some of the things that take place in our lives. Because, and here's what I mean by that, because we can't know everything. God has not, God has chosen to not reveal to us all the things that He could have revealed to us. So there's a certain amount of ignorance that we all have as we step into the next uh uh step into our path for life during that day. And we're ignorant to a certain extent. And I think I know that God has withheld so much from us because we just our brains couldn't handle it. We would flip out if we knew the future. We would flip out. It's not something anybody should really want to know. We just, I don't think our we were designed to handle that, especially when it comes to trying to figure out how you know how it is that God governs and ordains both the good and the bad things that take place in our lives in this world. Someone wrote this, not me, and I quote Solomon doesn't attempt to answer what we cannot know in this passage. Instead, he focuses on what we do know. Both good things and bad things happen to us. That's what we know. God is within the thing either way. That's what we might say on a test for Christianity, but do we really believe that and act like it and think about it day in and day out? We need to. God is within the thing, the good thing or the bad thing, either way. This means, this is important, I didn't write this, this means that something larger than our prosperity and something larger than our adversity has a hold on us. No matter what, no matter how bad the circumstances are, no matter how good the circumstances are, right? There is something more that God has desired for you and for me to bring glory to his name. Let me uh let me mark this and and this part here, but I do want to I do want us to turn to to uh Psalm 102 and I will get there with you in just a minute. I want to read the I want to read this psalm through. I'll read it. It's I'm reading from the ESV. And then we'll go back and just touch on a few verses that uh that are applicable to our study in Ecclesiastes chapter 7. First of all, this psalm, as we read it, we will find that it covers the immutability of God. He never changes. It covers his creation powers, it covers the fact that the throne is his and his alone. It covers his compassion on those that come to him in humility. It covers the fact that he has the right to do anything he wishes with any part or all of creation. And so we will be able to see here as we read through this psalm together, if we think about it, meditate on it for a moment or two, the things that God has made crooked. But he can straighten them out according to his perfect will. And sometimes for that to take place, prayer, fervent prayer, from a righteous man or woman may just be the remedy and what moves the hand of the Lord to straighten out what he has made crooked. So before we read this, we need to ask ourselves this question: how's our prayer life? Are we running to him in all circumstances? Good, bad, whatever they might be, are we going to him? And when do we go to him? When we exhaust our own efforts, either mental or physical, and then say, well, I've done everything I can do. Now I'm going to go to God? Or do we go to him first, relying on him first, leaning on him first, trusting him first, recognizing that our wisdom is foolishness to him. He is so much more wise. Here's Psalm 102. Read with me to yourselves as we go through this again. This is ESV. I'm going to read through the whole thing and then come back and make a couple of comments. Hear my prayer, O Lord, let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me. Answer me speedily in the day when I call. For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered. I forgot to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places. I lie awake. I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me. Those who deride me use my name for a curse, for I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink. Why? Would we all agree this guy's in rough shape? That's the only thing we don't know the author of this psalm. Okay? Would we all agree this guy's in bad shape right now? He's going through places that God has made crooked. What does he say here? Why are all these things taking place? Verse 10. Because of your indignation and anger, you have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow. I wither away like grass. Now listen, now listen, there's a there's at least two parts to this psalm. Part one is the complaint, what's going on with this particular individual, or he might be representing Israel. We don't really know. Okay, but he's going to the Lord with these things. He's not murmuring against the Lord, he's taking them to the one who is in control of what's going on in this person's life. Now we switch gears and listen to how this psalm changes right now. But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever. You are remembered throughout all generations. You will arise and have pity on Zion. It is the time to favor her. The appointed time has come. For your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust. Nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory. For the Lord builds up Zion, he appears in his glory, he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer. Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord, that he looked down from his holy height. From heaven the Lord looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord, and in Jerusalem his praise, when peoples gather together and kingdoms to worship the Lord. He has broken my strength in mid-course, he has shortened my days. O my God, I say, take me not away in the midst of my days, you whose years endure throughout all generations. Finally, of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain. They will all wear out like a garment, you will change them like a robe, and they will pass away. But you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure, their offspring shall be established before you. The title to this prayer, it's not scripture, but it's a title given by some commentators to this, is this Do not hide your face from me. And it is a prayer of one that is afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord. And notice here that what again, and we pointed this out, he's going through all these troubles, so much so that he feels like it's you have taken me up and thrown me down. It's kind of like what Job was talking about, right? Lord, I wish that I was never born. I don't get what's going on here. The Bible itself says that Job was a righteous man, and all this stuff happened to Job. This guy is going through some terrible things, maybe not as bad as Job, but he doesn't have an answer for him. He doesn't know why. He just knows how he feels. Lord, what's going on in my life? It feels like you lifted me up and gave me a lot of stuff and then went like this on the ground and wrecked me, took stuff away, destroyed me, my bones are broken, I can't eat. I'm alone, my enemies curse me, make fun of me. I can't wake up or go to sleep, that I'm not tormented by someone or something in my life. It's like that's what you did to me. But what does he change to? He changes, and after he confesses to the Lord what's going on in his life, the psalm flips all the way around. His focus is no longer on himself, his focus is then turned on the Lord God Almighty. And he talks about the immutability of God. You know, you will change this world and this earth that you created. And think about this, guys. What's the most um what's the word I want? Um did I write it down? I didn't write it down. But the the the thing that's most stable, that's probably the least changing in our lives, you know, people change all the time. The things that man makes break down and change all the time, and and you know, we die, animals die, insects die, birds die, all that stuff. There's life and death and all living, all living things. But when we think of the earth itself and the heavens around, wow, we just think of those things being very stable. And and they are, they are the least changing things that God has created, the earth and the heavens. This psalmist says, You're gonna wreck them. You created them, you get to wreck them, and you're gonna do that, you're gonna make a change. But you, oh Lord God, you never change. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. The psalmist, the psalmist ascribes to the Lord the fact that he has created the heavens and the earth. And then he ascribes to the Lord, I think it's verse 25, of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. Okay. The psalmist says you made all this stuff. What's he say in verse 26? They will perish, but you will remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. The immutability of God, the unchangeableness of God, the fact that God is from everlasting to everlasting, He is not a created being. He has been there forever. It's hard for our minds to grasp that, and we'll be here forevermore outside of time. And so we see here in this Psalm some amazing, wonderful things that we will go through if we haven't already, and I'm sure we all have. We will go through rough places and occurrences in our lives. There may even be rougher ones coming up. We need to be prepared for those things. We need to prepare ourselves for the loss of loved ones, for illness, for loss of a job, for uh, you know, a bank pulling our house out from underneath us, whatever it might be. You know, kids going astray, uh, you know, that break your heart. Right now they seem really good, and in two years all of a sudden they're off the cliff and you're wondering what took place, and and and uh all those types of things. We need to prepare ourselves for us. And one way to make sure that we're prepared is to know that God is in the midst of it, and that we can and should go to him. Praise him for who he is, and that he has a greater purpose for us and maybe the other people in our lives that these are happen, these things are happening to, that he would get the glory through it all. It is a total, it is a complete mindset, it's a mindset that we do not normally uh uh pay any attention to. We just don't. We, you know, we're into wake up in the morning, go to work, do this, have dinner, go to bed, wake up, you know, this day's the same as the next day. And and we read stuff like this. These are penetrating, profound, beautiful words of scripture to get us where the Holy Spirit could very well be saying to us, look, the next time something comes into your life, or that now, and it's whether or not it's good or bad, God's in the midst. Give him thanks. Give him thanks. You don't think you got enough of the good? Repent. Give him thanks. Ask him, you tell him, I'm sorry for complaining that this didn't turn out better, that I wasn't nicer to this person, that this person aggravated me so much. And there I am complaining about this individual. It's a whole change in our attitude, and it's a difficult one, guys, because for the most part, we've got decades of being saved, and we haven't addressed this issue well enough, long enough, hard enough to really make a change. Now, look, not everybody's the same. There are, you know, some people are bigger complainers, some people are don't complain as much. And and but we all have work to do. We all have work to do. Um, and and um re remember that passage in Philippians, right? You and I are the light of the world. And when we are complaining, when we're disputing with what's going on in our lives, what does the rest of the world look at us and say? Here comes Bob the complainer. Never happy, Bob. You know, you give him an inch and he wants a mile. You give him a penny and he wants a dollar. He's never satisfied, never ultimately happy. And if we will remember from the study or from your own studies, that when we do that, we are actually, we are actually, you know, complaining to God. Thanks, God, thanks a million. My life could have been so much better, my job could have been so much different. My this, my that, you know, why do you have me in this neighborhood? Well, you got we all can pick the circumstances. And something may very well happen tonight or tomorrow or some other time in this week when you and I will have an opportunity to say, whoops, wait a minute. Not gonna complain, Lord. I'm not gonna complain. Anybody complain about the prices in the food market? You know, we naturally go to the guy that sits in the White House, right? Who's in control of everything? Who's in control of everything? Who's in control of whatever it is, 99 cent a pound turkey instead of 19 cent a pound? I don't know what it is, right? Who's in control of that? God is in control of that. When we complain about those prices, think about this. Especially when we complain about the prices and we have the money to pay for them. Think about who you're complaining against. I've done it. I've done it. No question, I've done it. It's stuff like that. So I'm saying it is a we can address this issue about complaints and disputing uh on a day-to-day issue because we all do it to one extent or another, and it's complaining against God. It's saying, you haven't been gracious enough to me. Now, and I'll end with this. Do we go to the Lord and say, Lord, I pray you take the inflation away? I pray we don't go into a recession, uh you know, I pray this the stock on the shelves is full? Absolutely. Because if they if they're half empty or all full, who's in charge? He is. He is, right? Anybody praying that the railroad guys don't go on strike on December 8th? We should be. Everything that's in your life or mine has been on a in a rail car at one time or another. And if they stop, we ain't seen nothing yet. Empty shelves and high prices. It will be uh it'll be a big time disaster. But remind yourselves. Don't we have plenty? Look at the country God had us born in and live in. Look, I complain a lot about Kathy Hokel, and I complain a lot about Joe Biden. Is God in charge of Kathy Hokel being the governor? He is. He is. So when I'm complaining to you about how evil she is, what I'm really saying is, you know something, God? This whole thing is messed up, and I'm not happy at you because you are, I know you're in control. And it's your fault that she's in there. How do I change that? How do I change that? A, I pray for Hochel's salvation because God's called us to do that, right? We need to pray for our leaders. And number two, remind myself that she's not there by chance. She's not even there because more Democrats voted for her than Republicans voted for Lee Zelden. She's there because God has her there. There is no government that God has not ordained. Do we understand why there's evil governments? Nope. Nope. But he's in the midst of the good and he's in the midst of the bad. So we turn and we go to him and say, Lord, you know who she is. You know she's pro-abortion. You know she's pro-homosexual marriage. You know that these things are against your word, and therefore she's against you. Lord, you're the one that's in charge. I'm asking you to fix this. And if I've got a part to play in this, let me play a part, and that at least would be praying for her. And you know what happens when we do that, guys? Here's what happens when we do that. We stop being so disgusted with them. We're not happy with them. We're not happy with them, but we stop being so disgusted with them because we're turning to the one that's in control. And that changes our whole attitude. It says, wait a minute, I'm not happy with that gal in Albany. I don't like that guy in the White House. I don't like my the majority leader of the Senate. I couldn't stand the leader of the House for all these years. And so I whine and I complain to everybody around me. It's terrible, it's horrible, and all this kind of stuff, right? And it is. But what is am I any different from any other conservative? No, and people that are looking at me and they're listening to me whine and complain, and if they're not saved, what he's no different from me. He's in the same boat I'm in, he hates her as much as I hate her, and blah, blah. And where's the love that I'm supposed to show for my enemy? See how this all gets intertwined? And we're to blame, we're the problem. It's like Polgo said, I I we found the enemy, the enemy is us, right? But we've got a forgiving, patient, long-suffering, uh, merciful, gracious God who will forgive us over and over and over and over and over again. But we've got to learn to go to him. We've got to learn to go to him and watch our attitudes change. Seriously, watch them change. You got somebody at work you just can't stand, and you grumble and you murmur and you tell others about what a moron this guy or gal is, and I wish they were out of my life. I can't stand them and that stuff. No. No. Go to the Lord. Lord, help me through this situation. Is it me? Am I part to blame here? Fix me, Lord. Fix me first. And take care of this whole situation. And whatever your response is, whatever your answer is, give me the insight and the love for you to run back to you and say thank you. And the gratitude, and the gratitude to say thank you for what you've done in my life. Thank you for listening to our Bible study on Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 14. And it's certainly my hope that you've learned something today. And I just want to remind everyone that as we read the word, as we dig into the word, we want to do so uh using the following analysis. Number one, we want to look at it as students. We do want to learn more about Jesus, more about our Lord and Savior, and how much we need him, who he is. We need to be good students, but not only that, we need to be good soldiers, and that is that after we read the word and we understand the commandments and the marching orders that our Lord has given us, that we take that new knowledge and use that knowledge to bring glory to his name by going out and proclaiming the name of Jesus to all those around us. Well, thank you very much for listening. Uh, we we're in the middle of the holiday season. We've just had Thanksgiving, and and my hope is that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family. And as we work our way toward uh Christmas time where we celebrate the birth of our precious Savior, uh may you stay safe, may you be in the Word each and every day, may you lift your praises and thanksgiving to our Lord and Savior each and every day, and may you bring him your supplications that he may hear you and answer you with his perfect will. God bless you all until next time.