WEBVTT 00:00:04.072 --> 00:00:06.479 If you have your Bibles or you have your phones with your Bibles on. 00:00:06.479 --> 00:00:09.890 I'd like to ask you to turn to Ecclesiastes, chapter 8. 00:00:09.890 --> 00:00:11.103 We're going to jump right in the message. 00:00:11.103 --> 00:00:13.023 Ecclesiastes, chapter 8,. 00:00:13.023 --> 00:00:17.000 I have the whole chapter of chapter 8 and it's really an interesting chapter. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:23.632 Let's go ahead and read through it, starting at verse 1, how wonderful to be wise, to analyze and interpret things. 00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:27.829 Wisdom lights up a person's face, softening its harshness. 00:00:27.829 --> 00:00:33.000 Verse 2, obey the king, since you vowed to God that you would. 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:40.468 Don't try to avoid doing your duty and don't stand with those who plot evil, for the king can do whatever he wants. 00:00:40.468 --> 00:00:43.186 His command is backed by great power. 00:00:43.186 --> 00:00:45.386 No one can resist or question it. 00:00:45.386 --> 00:00:47.968 Those who obey him will not be punished. 00:00:47.968 --> 00:00:57.189 Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble. 00:00:57.189 --> 00:01:02.631 Verse 7, indeed, how can people avoid what they don't know was going to happen? 00:01:02.631 --> 00:01:05.748 None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. 00:01:05.748 --> 00:01:09.370 None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. 00:01:09.370 --> 00:01:13.609 There is no escaping the obligation that dark battle. 00:01:13.609 --> 00:01:17.950 And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked. 00:01:19.260 --> 00:01:25.790 I have thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where people have the power to hurt each other. 00:01:25.790 --> 00:01:36.433 I have seen wicked people buried with honor, yet they were the very ones who frequented the temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes. 00:01:36.433 --> 00:01:38.546 This, too, is meaningless. 00:01:38.546 --> 00:01:43.551 When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. 00:01:43.551 --> 00:01:52.069 But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off. 00:01:52.069 --> 00:01:56.549 The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. 00:01:56.549 --> 00:01:59.980 Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows. 00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:03.670 And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. 00:02:03.670 --> 00:02:11.950 In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. 00:02:11.950 --> 00:02:14.649 This is so meaningless. 00:02:14.649 --> 00:02:22.586 So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink and enjoy life. 00:02:23.241 --> 00:02:23.782 Sermons over here. 00:02:23.782 --> 00:02:26.596 Let's go, Okay. 00:02:26.596 --> 00:02:32.431 That way they will experience some happiness, along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun. 00:02:32.431 --> 00:02:38.412 In my search for wisdom and in my observation of people's burdens here on earth. 00:02:38.412 --> 00:02:43.050 I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night. 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:47.650 I realized that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. 00:02:47.650 --> 00:02:53.451 Not even the wisest person discovers everything, no matter what they claim. 00:02:53.451 --> 00:02:55.787 This is the word of God. 00:02:55.787 --> 00:02:58.609 Father, we are thankful for this book of Ecclesiastes. 00:02:58.609 --> 00:03:10.532 We know that over the years that have gone by, we know that this book has been preserved for us and, father, we pray that today, that we would take out of this word, what you have for us today. 00:03:10.532 --> 00:03:14.562 We thank you for it and we thank you for blessing on everything that's said in. 00:03:14.562 --> 00:03:18.031 Our hearts are open to receive your word in Jesus' name. 00:03:18.031 --> 00:03:21.181 Amen, all right. 00:03:21.200 --> 00:03:22.425 Well, we're continuing our sermon series. 00:03:22.425 --> 00:03:24.245 Life is meaningless. 00:03:24.245 --> 00:03:34.204 We did that specifically to increase attendance and, as you can probably tell from this chapter, there's some tough stuff. 00:03:34.204 --> 00:03:58.231 In this chapter, there's three primary topics that the preacher, of course, a lot of us believe was Solomon, says, and there were three obedience, injustice and then he turns the right corner and he talks about the enjoyment of life Obedience, injustice and the enjoyment of life, and within each of these topics, solomon makes some very profound and yet disturbing observations. 00:03:58.231 --> 00:04:04.923 Remember, he was wiser than any one of us and on the surface. 00:04:04.923 --> 00:04:13.305 Although some of these topics are a little tough, there is one theme that weaves it all together, and that is the sovereignty of God. 00:04:13.305 --> 00:04:28.351 And I won't be the first person, nor will it be the last person, that gets up here and talks about and preaches on the book of Ecclesiastes and talks about the sovereignty of God, because from Genesis to Revelation, god's sovereignty is on display through all of Scripture. 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:38.971 So the title of today's message and I want to thank my friend Tim Shutz for this Sovereignty and Mid-Crisis and Chaos. 00:04:38.971 --> 00:04:45.235 Crisis, chaos, kind of the same thing Sovereignty amid chaos. 00:04:45.235 --> 00:04:45.980 We're going to do two things. 00:04:45.980 --> 00:04:50.980 We're going to look at what Solomon writes about obedience, injustice and enjoying life. 00:04:50.980 --> 00:05:02.980 We're going to see how we can apply that today to us, and then we're going to look how Solomon weaves this overarching theme of sovereignty and how we should gain so much comfort from that. 00:05:03.201 --> 00:05:04.406 So let's jump straight into it. 00:05:04.406 --> 00:05:06.163 Theme number one starts in. 00:05:06.163 --> 00:05:08.249 Well, I'm going to read verse number one. 00:05:08.249 --> 00:05:10.295 But the theme number one is obedience. 00:05:10.295 --> 00:05:12.000 It's really interesting. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:15.528 You know, when you have a sermon you're going to preach, you have a section of Scripture. 00:05:15.528 --> 00:05:19.107 As a teacher, you tend to look for patterns. 00:05:19.107 --> 00:05:22.665 For some reason, solomon just makes this. 00:05:23.067 --> 00:05:25.872 Verse one is just this statement about wisdom. 00:05:25.872 --> 00:05:33.204 He simply says this how wonderful to be wise and to analyze and interpret things. 00:05:33.204 --> 00:05:37.553 Wisdom lights up a person's face, softening its harshness. 00:05:37.553 --> 00:05:39.922 You know what I think that means? 00:05:39.922 --> 00:05:46.833 I think if you are confused about something, you're like this what, what. 00:05:46.833 --> 00:05:51.095 But if you're wise you're like ah, that softens the face, doesn't it? 00:05:51.095 --> 00:05:55.766 I know you're like it's got nothing softening your face, but you get the idea, okay. 00:05:55.766 --> 00:06:02.827 But I think what Solomon is doing from the very beginning is he's prefacing everything he's about to say about obedience and justice. 00:06:02.827 --> 00:06:06.084 He's prefacing it all, saying this is all filtered through wisdom. 00:06:06.084 --> 00:06:14.067 Okay, this is filtered through wisdom, not the wisdom Solomon earned himself, but the wisdom that God gave him supernaturally, all right. 00:06:14.067 --> 00:06:15.983 So he's kind of prefacing that. 00:06:16.095 --> 00:06:17.560 So let's pick up verse two. 00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:29.095 Obey the king, since you vowed to God that you would don't try to avoid doing your duty and don't stand with those who plot evil, for the king can do whatever he wants. 00:06:29.095 --> 00:06:31.055 His command is backed by great power. 00:06:31.055 --> 00:06:33.622 No one can resist or question it. 00:06:33.622 --> 00:06:36.422 Okay, a little self-serving time here. 00:06:36.422 --> 00:06:36.822 Solomon. 00:06:36.822 --> 00:06:38.898 Who was he? 00:06:38.898 --> 00:06:41.802 It was the king of Israel, right? 00:06:41.802 --> 00:06:44.221 Well, it sounds a little self-serving, right? 00:06:44.221 --> 00:06:46.677 But if you think about it. 00:06:46.677 --> 00:06:51.666 Solomon has a real interesting perspective that we sometimes forget. 00:06:53.396 --> 00:07:14.507 If you go back to 2 Samuel 15 and read chapters 15 through 18, you read something that is basically the equivalent of a movie script, and it's about David, king David's son, absalom, who was trying to usurp and actually literally drove his father off the throne and out of Jerusalem. 00:07:14.507 --> 00:07:16.762 And it's a long and shorted tale. 00:07:16.762 --> 00:07:17.916 He eventually gets his. 00:07:17.916 --> 00:07:19.141 He's riding his horse. 00:07:19.141 --> 00:07:20.524 He gets caught in this branch. 00:07:20.524 --> 00:07:28.886 Joab comes along, who's the leader of David's army, and even though David said don't kill him, he's gone, he's killed. 00:07:30.795 --> 00:07:39.178 Well, when David and his household left Jerusalem in fear of their lives, in fear of Absalom, guess who was with him? 00:07:39.178 --> 00:07:43.043 A 12-year-old named Solomon. 00:07:43.043 --> 00:07:47.725 Solomon was 12 years old when all this happened. 00:07:47.725 --> 00:07:55.074 He saw what happens when you put your hand against God's anointed. 00:07:55.074 --> 00:07:57.684 He saw it right up front. 00:07:57.684 --> 00:08:00.723 He saw the fear in his dad's face. 00:08:00.723 --> 00:08:03.350 He saw all that went on. 00:08:03.350 --> 00:08:04.035 He saw the disruption. 00:08:04.035 --> 00:08:05.961 He heard the weeping. 00:08:05.961 --> 00:08:08.141 He saw all of this firsthand. 00:08:08.141 --> 00:08:13.846 But, more importantly, he saw and he had perspective because he knew what happened. 00:08:13.846 --> 00:08:23.648 He knew that God dealt with Absalom and his other brother that tried it again, by the way, I mean King David was under attack by his own family. 00:08:24.435 --> 00:08:25.841 But King Solomon had all this. 00:08:25.841 --> 00:08:36.942 He understood it and he understood that a king, when he's placed in the position, is placed there by God and you are not the one that you serve that. 00:08:36.942 --> 00:08:38.660 You can't take that away. 00:08:38.660 --> 00:08:42.565 Now you might say where are you going with this, scott? 00:08:42.565 --> 00:08:44.259 Where are you going? 00:08:44.259 --> 00:08:46.057 Well, let's first. 00:08:46.096 --> 00:08:50.366 When we talk about applying this today, we got to make a few clear delineations here. 00:08:50.366 --> 00:08:53.302 First off, israel was a theocracy. 00:08:53.302 --> 00:09:05.806 A theocracy and a theocracy is when those who govern or rule over a state or a nation do so by divine guidance and they're placed there and appointed there by God himself. 00:09:05.806 --> 00:09:19.095 Solomon would know this more than anybody because I'm sure he heard his stories from his dad about being called by God to be the next king and then running from Saul for all those years. 00:09:19.095 --> 00:09:21.095 I'm sure he had that perspective. 00:09:21.095 --> 00:09:24.095 But remember, god spoke directly to Solomon. 00:09:24.095 --> 00:09:27.163 Remember he asked him what do you want? 00:09:27.163 --> 00:09:30.095 And that's when Solomon says I need wisdom. 00:09:30.095 --> 00:09:33.095 So he understood that he was placed there. 00:09:33.095 --> 00:09:39.075 So a theocracy is God's placing someone directly in that position, even speaking to them. 00:09:39.075 --> 00:09:41.182 But we live in a democracy. 00:09:41.182 --> 00:09:42.875 You know. 00:09:42.875 --> 00:09:45.541 What's different there, of course, is on the surface. 00:09:45.541 --> 00:09:50.609 We, as the people of the country, we elect rulers. 00:09:50.609 --> 00:09:54.445 So I'm just going to identify up front there's a difference there. 00:09:55.416 --> 00:09:59.905 However, this is where God's sovereignty comes into play. 00:09:59.905 --> 00:10:06.966 This is where God's sovereignty comes into play because there's these irritating little scriptures. 00:10:06.966 --> 00:10:12.095 One's in Daniel, chapter two, verses 20 and 21. 00:10:12.095 --> 00:10:16.529 Daniel answered and said blessed be the name of God forever and ever. 00:10:16.529 --> 00:10:18.095 To whom belong wisdom and might? 00:10:18.095 --> 00:10:22.802 He changes times and seasons that's not talking about daylight savings time, by the way. 00:10:22.802 --> 00:10:30.407 He removes kings and sets up kings. 00:10:30.407 --> 00:10:34.605 He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. 00:10:34.605 --> 00:10:37.883 Now you might say, well, yes, god, but that's Old Testament stuff. 00:10:37.883 --> 00:10:44.908 Well then, there's another irritating little scripture by the apostle Paul, in Romans 13 and verse one and two. 00:10:44.908 --> 00:10:51.427 He says everyone must submit himself to governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. 00:10:51.427 --> 00:10:55.054 The authorities that exist have been appointed by God. 00:10:55.054 --> 00:10:56.660 Why did he have to say that? 00:10:56.660 --> 00:11:04.095 Consequently, whoever resists authority is opposing what God has said in place, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 00:11:04.655 --> 00:11:06.782 Now let me just make a couple of clear statements here. 00:11:06.782 --> 00:11:21.923 We know evil exists, right, and all you have to do is look through history and you see a lot of evil rulers, okay, and so I want to make sure, right up front, and get this. 00:11:21.923 --> 00:11:23.264 You can write this down, make this. 00:11:23.264 --> 00:11:24.548 This is my stance here. 00:11:24.548 --> 00:11:30.265 I'm not saying that when evil rulers do evil things, we give it a stamp of approval. 00:11:30.265 --> 00:11:37.028 I'm not saying when evil rulers tell us to do evil things, or even demand us to do evil things, that we just follow. 00:11:37.028 --> 00:11:38.320 I'm not saying that at all. 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:46.764 I am saying, though, and God's sovereignty, they're there for a reason, sometimes a reason that we don't see, but they're there. 00:11:48.174 --> 00:11:50.120 Remember Shadrach, meshidak and Abednego? 00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:53.951 Remember that one, nebuchadnezzar. 00:11:53.951 --> 00:12:00.389 Right, by the way, we know God used Nebuchadnezzar to punish Israel. 00:12:00.389 --> 00:12:01.126 Right, we know that. 00:12:01.126 --> 00:12:12.149 And here they are, standing in front of the image of Nebuchadnezzar, the big statue, and they say we won't bow down and even if we're burned up in your big fire, we're okay with that. 00:12:12.149 --> 00:12:20.292 Okay, they did not comply to the evil request that would cause them to compromise their faith. 00:12:21.125 --> 00:12:22.188 So we have to understand it. 00:12:22.188 --> 00:12:34.591 We look at all that, but at the same time, we can't run off the rails and say we're gonna go after our government because we disagree with a stance on something. 00:12:34.591 --> 00:12:40.873 Now, one of the things I think is beautiful in a democracy is flawed, as our democracy is. 00:12:40.873 --> 00:12:42.606 We can vote. 00:12:42.606 --> 00:12:44.652 We have a vote, right? 00:12:44.652 --> 00:12:47.831 I know a lot of people say, well, I don't trust the electoral process anymore. 00:12:47.831 --> 00:12:48.567 Understand that. 00:12:48.567 --> 00:12:55.393 But all you have to do is look around the world at other democracies and realize our electoral process is about as good as it's gonna get right. 00:12:55.393 --> 00:12:59.250 We can peacefully protest. 00:12:59.250 --> 00:13:05.008 I've had the chance to march in the March for Life a couple of times. 00:13:06.749 --> 00:13:07.773 We've done different things. 00:13:07.773 --> 00:13:11.755 We've publicly displayed our opposition to things. 00:13:11.755 --> 00:13:29.893 We can do all that within the law, but what we can't do is go over and above the law, and what I mean by that again is, obviously, if the law is causing us or telling us we need to disobey God, that's a different story, right? 00:13:29.893 --> 00:13:42.168 But we have to understand that God's sovereign hand is always at work and he is allowing people to be in positions of power that do evil things. 00:13:42.168 --> 00:13:44.307 You know I look this up. 00:13:44.307 --> 00:14:05.115 If you take Hitler, if you take Stalin and if you take I think it's, let me see, I wrote it down here Hitler is Stalin, or this isn't the injustice part I'm gonna talk about, but there's three dictators that I looked at. 00:14:05.115 --> 00:14:09.328 Literally, they were responsible for killing over a hundred million people. 00:14:09.328 --> 00:14:17.552 A hundred million people, and you might say, well, god's sovereign in that. 00:14:17.552 --> 00:14:19.390 Yeah, god's sovereign in that too. 00:14:19.390 --> 00:14:23.769 There's a lot of things that, as you look at, we don't understand. 00:14:23.769 --> 00:14:30.010 But we have to trust and know that God's got a purpose in place, but he's also not evil. 00:14:30.010 --> 00:14:31.811 We just have to keep that and understand that. 00:14:31.811 --> 00:14:42.212 And so how we respond to people that lead us and guide us, well, we have to trust that God's doing something bigger than maybe we can see. 00:14:43.664 --> 00:14:46.326 In verses five through six, he says something really interesting. 00:14:46.326 --> 00:14:48.934 He says those who obey him will not be punished. 00:14:48.934 --> 00:14:56.910 Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble. 00:14:56.910 --> 00:14:59.971 He says this in the context of obedience. 00:14:59.971 --> 00:15:01.976 What's he saying? 00:15:01.976 --> 00:15:02.687 When I read this? 00:15:02.687 --> 00:15:03.991 I read this three or four times. 00:15:04.125 --> 00:15:07.027 I'm reading this and suddenly I thought about Nathan the prophet. 00:15:07.027 --> 00:15:09.335 Remember Nathan? 00:15:09.335 --> 00:15:11.207 Here's David. 00:15:11.207 --> 00:15:15.494 He sees Bathsheba and then the ball starts rolling right. 00:15:15.494 --> 00:15:23.312 Pretty soon he's literally signing the death warrant for Bathsheba's husband. 00:15:23.312 --> 00:15:29.395 Now she's there, she's pregnant all this time. 00:15:29.644 --> 00:15:37.297 Months goes by and there's Nathan the prophet watching every day, seeing the king with Bathsheba. 00:15:37.297 --> 00:15:44.332 Knowing it was wrong, knowing what had happened the first day it happened, did he approach David? 00:15:44.332 --> 00:15:45.075 No, he didn't. 00:15:45.075 --> 00:15:53.091 There was a time, there was timing that had to be done and God, I believe, gave him wisdom. 00:15:53.091 --> 00:16:03.772 So when he finally came in and confronted David with that little parable of his, that was the time and that was the right time that God anointed it. 00:16:03.772 --> 00:16:09.288 Rather than God will give you the right time and give us the right time to do certain things like that, we have to trust him. 00:16:09.288 --> 00:16:12.293 We have to trust that he's going to give us those times. 00:16:12.293 --> 00:16:14.354 We are not called to be passive. 00:16:14.354 --> 00:16:17.211 We're not called to be passive in our country. 00:16:17.211 --> 00:16:25.705 We're called to be active in our country, in our local, in the local elections which we just had, in the national elections. 00:16:25.705 --> 00:16:38.133 We're called to be active, but within, again, the boundaries of the law, and that's something too important to remember and it takes wisdom to know when to do that. 00:16:39.307 --> 00:16:41.085 All right, the theme two is injustice. 00:16:41.085 --> 00:16:42.269 So this is the tough section. 00:16:42.269 --> 00:16:56.595 You know we all want to see justice done, but Solomon really gives us a reality check with this section and his reality check, basically, is say we're not promised that every person who does evil will be brought to justice in their lifetime or in our lifetime. 00:16:56.595 --> 00:16:58.879 Okay, let's read some of this. 00:16:58.879 --> 00:17:05.526 Verse nine I've thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where people have the power to hurt each other. 00:17:05.526 --> 00:17:07.528 Man, that verse hit me. 00:17:07.528 --> 00:17:11.989 People have the power to hurt each other. 00:17:11.989 --> 00:17:24.962 It is amazing if you look at people like Stalin and Edel Hitler and Mao Zedong was the other one I was trying to think about If you look at the harm, the heart of those people that caused that. 00:17:24.962 --> 00:17:34.431 The same underpinning root of evil is in the bully in the Powell Middle School. 00:17:34.431 --> 00:17:46.467 It's the same root cause One's just further advanced the power to hurt each other. 00:17:46.467 --> 00:17:56.887 Mankind, from the very beginning of the fall, has been in a struggle against itself and the things that man can do to each other. 00:17:56.887 --> 00:17:59.526 It just makes your gut churn. 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:02.567 A lot of you remember the book Lord of the Flies. 00:18:02.567 --> 00:18:10.257 Lord of the Fries is the McDonald's book (audience laughing loudly in background). 00:18:10.257 --> 00:18:26.548 Lord of the Flies whole group of British schoolboys stranded on an island and if you're familiar with it, in what happens is they start out just trying to survive and in the end they're killing each other. 00:18:26.548 --> 00:18:30.286 It was terrible, but it's a reality check. 00:18:30.286 --> 00:18:33.569 It really shows the heart that's there In verse 10, 11,. 00:18:33.569 --> 00:18:41.365 I have seen wicked people buried with honor, yet they were the very ones who frequented the temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes. 00:18:41.365 --> 00:18:43.445 This too is meaningless. 00:18:43.445 --> 00:18:44.883 I love he keeps going back. 00:18:44.883 --> 00:18:45.705 This is meaningless. 00:18:46.519 --> 00:18:50.106 When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. 00:18:50.106 --> 00:18:53.907 Justices rarely serve quickly. 00:18:53.907 --> 00:19:01.765 Even if you find, like somebody goes and does a mass shooting, how long until they usually get through the trial Two, three years sometimes. 00:19:01.765 --> 00:19:04.981 Right, it's crazy how long it takes Justice. 00:19:04.981 --> 00:19:06.386 What is true justice, right? 00:19:06.386 --> 00:19:10.326 The TV show Cold Case Files Anybody ever watch Cold Case Files? 00:19:11.099 --> 00:19:14.224 Yeah, some of you don't wanna put your hand up, it's okay, I watch it too. 00:19:14.224 --> 00:19:18.932 It starts and it has these things on there. 00:19:18.932 --> 00:19:22.690 It says every year 100,000 cases go unsolved. 00:19:22.690 --> 00:19:26.868 This only less than 1% are solved. 00:19:26.868 --> 00:19:30.307 This is a story of one of those cases. 00:19:30.307 --> 00:19:35.084 If that's true, there's a lot of cases that never get solved. 00:19:35.084 --> 00:19:39.230 There's a lot of people that are never brought to justice. 00:19:39.230 --> 00:19:45.931 And the reason we like to watch those shows or like the movie the Equalizer right, you know what we like about the Equalizer. 00:19:45.931 --> 00:19:47.645 I'll tell you what we like about the Equalizer. 00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:50.820 Justice now that's what we love, don't? 00:19:50.820 --> 00:19:51.265 We love that? 00:19:51.265 --> 00:19:53.767 Justice now, oh, let's love that. 00:19:53.767 --> 00:19:55.605 Don't have to go through the legal system. 00:19:55.605 --> 00:20:00.265 Just send Denzel and he'll take care of everything in 22 seconds. 00:20:00.265 --> 00:20:04.123 We love that. 00:20:04.123 --> 00:20:07.288 But he says something here that's really important. 00:20:07.288 --> 00:20:18.289 He said because, because justice isn't served up right away, people continue to sin. 00:20:19.980 --> 00:20:24.586 You know, I wanna talk specifically well, to all of us, but specifically to the young people. 00:20:24.586 --> 00:20:25.483 I wanna share a story. 00:20:25.483 --> 00:20:43.346 You know, I was a Christian kid in school and I remember now I kept my notes clean, walked the straight lines and a lot of kids at school they would go out on the weekends and they'd party, right, and they'd drink too much and there'd be sex involved and all that stuff, and you'd hear about it. 00:20:43.346 --> 00:20:54.083 You know, whatever, I didn't hang around a lot of those kids, but you heard about it, right, the rumors that went around schools and I remember sitting there thinking, man, they're gonna get theirs. 00:20:54.083 --> 00:20:58.108 I was really self-righteous, but it was terrible. 00:20:58.108 --> 00:20:59.825 I wanted to get see him punished. 00:20:59.825 --> 00:21:00.662 But you know what? 00:21:00.662 --> 00:21:03.307 Nothing seemed to be really bad happened to him. 00:21:03.307 --> 00:21:06.509 You know, it just seemed like you're okay. 00:21:06.509 --> 00:21:10.140 And even now, maybe it was your parents. 00:21:10.140 --> 00:21:13.480 Maybe it was people you know, they're in church, they're married, they're happy. 00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:22.799 Yeah, you knew they had a pretty rough past and they did all that and you're like, okay, well, why shouldn't I go out and quote have my fun now? 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:25.359 Because, after all, it's they really. 00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:27.669 Nobody's really paying the price for it. 00:21:27.669 --> 00:21:29.886 Yeah, they are. 00:21:29.886 --> 00:21:32.415 Yeah, they are. 00:21:32.415 --> 00:21:32.739 Now they are. 00:21:32.739 --> 00:21:35.465 We have scars, brethren. 00:21:35.465 --> 00:21:38.207 I have scars for things that I've done. 00:21:38.207 --> 00:21:47.005 Everybody has scars and it's interesting when you look at especially something like sex right, sex outside of marriage. 00:21:47.381 --> 00:21:51.867 I heard Tim Keller listen to a great message for him the other day and he talked about. 00:21:51.867 --> 00:21:52.762 He talks about this. 00:21:52.762 --> 00:21:58.108 When it says to become one flesh, a lot of people think, well, that's just two people physically connecting. 00:21:58.108 --> 00:22:03.900 Well, that's not what it is, because if it was it, he literally saying he's saying the same thing twice. 00:22:03.900 --> 00:22:09.920 What he's really saying is there's your mind and your soul and your spirit gets connected to that person. 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:17.960 It gets connected and he's saying so, don't do that, because it's designed within those boundaries. 00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:18.875 And you know what? 00:22:18.875 --> 00:22:26.240 I believe in God's healing power and I know God can heal things, but I also know that it's much easier not to wound. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:37.498 Take the wound, and so if you are a young person and you have kept yourself and are keeping yourself from marriage, let me just tell you it's worth every bit of resistance. 00:22:37.498 --> 00:22:37.858 It's worth it. 00:22:37.858 --> 00:22:50.896 It's worth it because there's scars you won't have to deal with, and I just felt like I needed to share that with you guys and for all of us all of us. 00:22:51.018 --> 00:23:00.532 That applies in other areas, but even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off. 00:23:00.532 --> 00:23:02.029 I love this part. 00:23:02.029 --> 00:23:02.708 This is in verse 12. 00:23:02.708 --> 00:23:15.078 I love the fact that he says this, and really what he's saying is those who fear God meaning they are obeying God and say they'll be better off, does that guarantee we'll never be persecuted? 00:23:15.078 --> 00:23:20.034 Does that mean the righteous in this world will always just be patted on the head and rewarded? 00:23:20.034 --> 00:23:23.319 Nope, you may be a righteous person. 00:23:23.319 --> 00:23:27.723 Nope, you may lose your job, you may lose friends, you may lose family. 00:23:27.723 --> 00:23:32.268 A lot of you could put your hands up and say I've been there, done that because of my faith. 00:23:32.268 --> 00:23:35.926 More importantly, some people lost their lives. 00:23:35.926 --> 00:23:39.907 They've lost their lives because of that. 00:23:39.907 --> 00:23:47.664 When he says they will be better off, he's looking at the long tail folks, and that's what you and I need to look at. 00:23:47.664 --> 00:24:05.709 We need to look and realize that when we follow God, we're gonna be better off eventually, because this life see if you can catch this it's that quick, that quick, and that's too much to compare to eternity. 00:24:05.709 --> 00:24:07.941 And Solomon knew that. 00:24:07.941 --> 00:24:09.803 He knew that. 00:24:11.407 --> 00:24:14.942 Verse 13, the wicked will not prosper for they do not fear God. 00:24:14.942 --> 00:24:17.569 Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows. 00:24:17.569 --> 00:24:21.211 Listen, we know there's a lot of evil people that live a long time. 00:24:21.211 --> 00:24:25.691 We understand that there are also a lot of evil people that don't live a long time. 00:24:25.691 --> 00:24:31.910 And this is not all that I that is meaningless in our world, in this life. 00:24:31.910 --> 00:24:36.684 Good people are often treated as though they were wicked and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. 00:24:37.186 --> 00:24:41.545 This is so meaningless that sometimes I'll see a video of somebody with hold. 00:24:41.545 --> 00:24:42.409 You know holding up. 00:24:42.409 --> 00:24:45.805 You know the like gender discussions, right and about. 00:24:45.805 --> 00:24:54.613 There's male, there's female and other, and people will automatically start labeling them You're misogynistic and you're this and that and there's labeling and they'll be viewed as wicked. 00:24:54.613 --> 00:24:58.269 They'll be literally viewed because they're standing on what's truth. 00:24:58.269 --> 00:25:01.563 They're literally labeled as being wicked. 00:25:01.563 --> 00:25:03.130 You're holding people back. 00:25:03.130 --> 00:25:04.536 You are judging people. 00:25:04.536 --> 00:25:07.346 Hey, get used to it, it's not gonna get any better. 00:25:09.310 --> 00:25:10.634 He saw that even back then. 00:25:10.634 --> 00:25:21.291 He saw that that was gonna happen and, as, as Christians, we have to come to understand that this injustice that's all I'm just talking about it's everywhere. 00:25:21.291 --> 00:25:28.433 You guys, and here's the temptation we have we want to take it in our own hands. 00:25:28.433 --> 00:25:30.917 That's the first thing. 00:25:30.917 --> 00:25:35.994 Sometimes we do it actively and it's really sad. 00:25:35.994 --> 00:25:39.869 When you hear about that, by the way, you want to know what's more moving. 00:25:42.775 --> 00:25:49.544 Let's say there is a woman who has a daughter that gets killed, raped and killed by some terrible person. 00:25:49.544 --> 00:25:51.910 Right, you've seen the courtroom dramas. 00:25:51.910 --> 00:26:00.137 Right, where she's in the courtroom saying very accurate but terrible things to this person. 00:26:00.137 --> 00:26:03.813 I hope you rod in jail, I hope you never get in there just saying all this. 00:26:03.813 --> 00:26:06.306 We're all like, yeah, that's how it feel. 00:26:06.306 --> 00:26:20.615 And then you have a woman, a mother, who tears in her eyes, looks upon the person and says I forgive you, I forgive you. 00:26:20.615 --> 00:26:24.298 How do they do that? 00:26:24.298 --> 00:26:27.145 I'll tell you how they do that. 00:26:27.145 --> 00:26:31.096 It's because who's inside of them that allows them to do that. 00:26:33.785 --> 00:26:42.509 I'm not saying letting go of the injustice and realizing it's a robe that you and I have never been given to wear. 00:26:42.509 --> 00:26:49.371 It's not, it's too big for you, it's gonna swallow you and it will destroy you. 00:26:49.371 --> 00:26:56.048 We have to give that to Jesus and we have to realize that he's the one. 00:26:56.048 --> 00:27:04.295 He's the one that's gonna right all those wrongs and realize that we, we have to forgive and move on. 00:27:04.295 --> 00:27:06.701 I'm not saying this is easy, guys. 00:27:06.701 --> 00:27:12.869 I'm saying this is the toughest thing and the wrongs that have been against me have not been that great. 00:27:12.869 --> 00:27:19.094 A lot of you have had great, terrible injustices done towards you and your challenge is even greater. 00:27:19.094 --> 00:27:25.330 But you can do it through God and the strength that God's gonna give you. 00:27:25.330 --> 00:27:26.574 I guarantee that you can. 00:27:26.574 --> 00:27:29.626 We have to trust him. 00:27:30.288 --> 00:27:34.787 Psalms 37, 23 through 24 says the steps of a man are established by the Lord. 00:27:34.787 --> 00:27:39.863 When he delights in his way, you know that he is literally God. 00:27:39.863 --> 00:27:45.977 He delights in the way of the man and I always read that. 00:27:45.977 --> 00:27:47.506 I used to think it was the other way. 00:27:47.506 --> 00:27:50.632 Though he fall, he will not be cast headlong. 00:27:50.632 --> 00:28:00.031 If you trust God and you obey God, he will take delight in you. 00:28:00.031 --> 00:28:15.384 He will take delight in you and even though you trip and fall and we all do he will walk you through that you have to let go of the justice and realize that's for him, it's not for us, it's for him. 00:28:15.384 --> 00:28:22.851 And again, it's the easiest thing to say, the hardest thing to do, I think, in the Christian life, to let that go. 00:28:25.217 --> 00:28:31.233 Now I want to talk about one last thing, and that is the well. 00:28:31.233 --> 00:28:36.450 For some reason that page didn't print up, but that's okay, I'll talk about it anyways the enjoyment of life. 00:28:36.450 --> 00:28:38.275 Here we go Now. 00:28:38.275 --> 00:28:51.026 The enjoyment of life is really interesting because we go from these both these kind of hard things obedience and injustice and then he jumps over to this enjoyment of life and he says by the way, I used the NLT because he did last week, so I figured it was okay. 00:28:52.190 --> 00:29:00.707 Verse 15 says so I recommend having fun, because there's nobody nothing better in the world than to eat, drink and enjoy life, and I appreciated the immense. 00:29:00.707 --> 00:29:01.771 I heard about that, by the way. 00:29:01.771 --> 00:29:07.532 That way they will experience some happiness, along with all the hard work God's given them. 00:29:07.532 --> 00:29:13.336 Now this is something Solomon's done more than once in this chapters, in these chapters so far. 00:29:13.336 --> 00:29:21.625 He gives you all these truths and then there's a summary statement at the end and he's saying you know, I've just figured it out recommend having fun, enjoy your life. 00:29:22.548 --> 00:29:26.606 The problem is, you can take that scripture totally out of context because, guess what? 00:29:26.606 --> 00:29:29.012 There's two more scriptures right behind it. 00:29:29.012 --> 00:29:33.108 They inform about enjoying life. 00:29:33.108 --> 00:29:34.372 So what does he say? 00:29:34.372 --> 00:29:42.209 Verse 16 in my search for wisdom and in my observation of people's burdens here on earth, I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night. 00:29:42.209 --> 00:29:46.740 Anybody in ceaseless activity? 00:29:46.740 --> 00:29:47.801 Be honest. 00:29:47.801 --> 00:29:51.510 Do you feel like you have ceaseless activity in your life? 00:29:51.510 --> 00:29:55.801 Yeah, nothing changes. 00:29:55.801 --> 00:29:58.590 It was happening in Solomon's life. 00:29:58.590 --> 00:29:59.876 It's happening here. 00:29:59.876 --> 00:30:04.151 The only problem is back then people spend a lot of time just trying to live. 00:30:04.151 --> 00:30:11.019 Now we fill our every moment up with a lot of times entertainment. 00:30:11.019 --> 00:30:14.528 By the way, do you know that? 00:30:14.528 --> 00:30:17.296 I had a big kick out of this? 00:30:17.296 --> 00:30:24.693 Do you know that the video game market last year was $217 billion? 00:30:24.693 --> 00:30:28.162 $217 billion? 00:30:28.162 --> 00:30:30.247 That's just one form of entertainment. 00:30:30.247 --> 00:30:31.851 You know? 00:30:31.871 --> 00:30:37.026 The ESV says how, neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep. 00:30:37.026 --> 00:30:39.839 We see this all the time. 00:30:39.839 --> 00:30:47.069 We're busy, we busy our lives, and he is saying that that is a negative. 00:30:47.069 --> 00:30:53.480 You can enjoy your life, but if it's too busy, remember we're doing this in context of that right and the verse 17. 00:30:53.480 --> 00:30:56.913 He says I realize that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. 00:30:56.913 --> 00:31:01.366 Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim. 00:31:01.366 --> 00:31:06.954 Do you find yourself? 00:31:06.954 --> 00:31:08.640 If we're just trying to figure out what God's doing? 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:11.134 I wanna know what you're doing, god. 00:31:12.809 --> 00:31:17.933 I've seen this sometimes where people just want a prophetic word and it's okay. 00:31:17.933 --> 00:31:28.795 I think getting a prophetic word is a great thing, but seeking them can be a dangerous precedent and you have to really look deep into your heart and say why do I want that? 00:31:28.795 --> 00:31:34.376 What's driving me to wanna hear something about where I'm going and what the direction is? 00:31:34.376 --> 00:31:40.576 And Tyler talked about it last week and I was listening to it and I thought, yeah, that's exactly the same thing. 00:31:40.576 --> 00:31:42.259 Control. 00:31:42.259 --> 00:31:49.278 And we might even say, well, god, I don't wanna control it, I just wanna know what you're doing. 00:31:49.278 --> 00:31:54.800 Does that not sound and taste a little bit like the garden? 00:31:57.049 --> 00:31:57.832 Here's Satan going. 00:31:57.832 --> 00:32:03.337 I tell you, on the day that you eat, you will be like God and you will know everything. 00:32:03.337 --> 00:32:04.513 I'm talking like Dracula. 00:32:04.513 --> 00:32:19.353 I don't know why he's able to, though he's able to, but literally the same lie that was fed to Adam and Eve is the same lie that we see today, and we slip in God. 00:32:19.353 --> 00:32:20.557 I just wanna know what's going on. 00:32:20.557 --> 00:32:22.734 I just wanna know what's going on. 00:32:22.734 --> 00:32:24.713 He doesn't promise that. 00:32:24.713 --> 00:32:26.779 He doesn't promise that at all. 00:32:26.779 --> 00:32:31.455 We wanna take back control of something we should never have control over. 00:32:32.049 --> 00:32:37.050 And Solomon says stop it, stop it. 00:32:37.050 --> 00:32:43.218 You can't do it, you can't get the answer, so just stop it, quit trying. 00:32:43.218 --> 00:32:47.314 And I see sometimes I wanna put that in my mirror Just says, stop it. 00:32:47.314 --> 00:32:51.076 And there's lots of sins that it will apply to. 00:32:51.076 --> 00:32:53.616 But when it's fun to control, it's really important. 00:32:53.616 --> 00:32:58.815 We have to realize God's someone leading us and guiding our steps. 00:32:58.815 --> 00:33:12.869 So when you look at all that, you realize that that first verse there that says enjoy life, eat, drink, enjoy it Wasn't talking about wanting, just not even thinking about it. 00:33:14.057 --> 00:33:26.230 It's all informed by the fact that number one, you're trusting God in everything right and you're not trusting in yourself and you are following and you're being obedient to him. 00:33:26.230 --> 00:33:33.259 And when you're doing that, you literally can sit back and say I trust you, god, I trust what you're doing. 00:33:33.259 --> 00:33:36.670 So let's conclude this really quickly. 00:33:36.670 --> 00:33:42.145 So there's three lessons that we talked about obedience and again obedience. 00:33:42.145 --> 00:33:57.470 Again, as we talked about, use wisdom to determine how and when we respond to those in authority, but we can still respond and always remember that God's responsible for those putting those that govern over us into those positions, and we sometimes just have to trust. 00:33:57.470 --> 00:34:01.424