All right, Ecclesiastes 3. Let's read the first fifteen groups of what we're going to be looking at tonight, and make some comments on them. Paul and Wright, Ecclesiastes 3.1. There is an appointed time for everything, and there is a time for every event under heaven. It's time to give birth, and it's time to die. It's time to plant, and it's time to uproot riddled planets. It's time to kill, and it's time to heal. It's time to tear down, and it's time to build up. It's time to weep, and it's time to laugh. It's time to mourn, and it's time to dance. It's time to throw stones, and it's time to gather stones. It's time to embrace, and it's time to shun embracing. It's time to search, and it's time to give up at last. It's time to keep, and it's time to throw away. It's time to tear apart, and it's time to sew together. It's time to be silent, and it's time to speak. It's time to love, and it's time to hate. It's time for war, and it's time for peace. What profit is there to the worker from that in which he torments? I have seen the task that God has given his sons and men. He has disillogified himself. He has made everything appropriate in his time. He has also set eternity in their hearts. yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning, even to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime. Moreover, that every man who eats and drinks be good in all his labor, if he can get the gun. I know that everything God does will remain forever. There is nothing to add to it, and there is nothing to take from it. For God has so worked that men That which is, has been already, and that which will be, has already been. For God speaks what has passed by." Now, we come here to this session tonight, and really what the message is about is finding contentment in a cursed world. And the title of the message is, He's Navigating Successfully in a Cursed World. Now, when we talk about success, when we're looking at what we call the wisdom literature—Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job—when we talk about success, we're not talking about the success that you expect in a worldly perspective, not necessarily. Success from a biblical perspective does not necessarily mean that you have a big, thick wallet filled with lots of money. Success from a biblical perspective means that you have been able to go through life and you've been able to go through life, and you've been able to come through with the right heart, the right relationship with God, and you have been obtained God's blessings. Now, God's blessings from the Bible, we know, sometimes include things like material prosperity, but material prosperity is not the essence of success from a biblical perspective. It is much, much deeper than mere money. But the question is this, how can we go through life? How can you go through life to navigate? Now, you know the word navigate. The idea is kind of having to go through the perils of life. It's almost like you're taking a ship through a bunch of icebergs. How can we navigate through a cursed world such as we live in? This is what we're going to be discussing today. Apart from the total realities that we know are true. that we know that the bottom line in everything is when you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, we can look at things in this world and we can say, how can we have success in this time? What I'm getting to is this. Bottom line is this, there's nothing more important than you have to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. You know that's the answer. But what about just life in general? Apart from, let's say, the eternal side of things, how can we, you know, have success in this life? The reason why I say this is because we spend tens of thousands of dollars to go to school. We go twelve years, fifteen years, eighteen years, twenty years, you know? have twenty years of education, thousands of dollars, and, you know, we go and we get masters and doctors and all these other things, but is that really going to produce success in this world? Not necessarily, does it? Not even from a material perspective, but if we get all of this education to prepare us to go through life, is that really going to give us what we're looking for? We do all kinds of things to try to find success in the world, but sometimes things happen that frustrate that process, too, right? In other words, you may go out, you may work real hard to become a surgeon, and, you know, you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you study all your life, the last twenty years, and then you get some kind of disease where your fingers shake. You can't be a surgeon. What are you going to do then? Your success was built upon that one thing, to become a doctor, and then you can't do it. What I'm saying is that there are going to be things in your life where you have a goal you're pursuing. You want to do something, and you're chasing after that goal. Something may happen that just knocks your legs right out from under you. Something may come into your life that totally takes away everything you were building your life on. Then what are you going to do? So the question that we want to answer is, how can we navigate successfully in a cursed world. We may make our plans, we may have our plans, but guess what? Sometimes God has a different plan for us. In Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 9, it says, The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. We go out and we form our plans, but it says the Lord directs his steps. Proverbs 19.21, it says, Many are the plans in a man's heart, but, he says, the counsel of the Lord will stand. We may have our goals and our objectives as we say, I'm going to go and I'm going to get a medical degree, I'm going to go and I'm going to get a computer degree, and, you know, God may change your plans. You may think that you're going to be a computer expert working for a big corporation, and God makes you missionaries. Well, what I want to look at tonight is this, okay? Four keys for navigating successfully in a cursed world. Ezekiel 33, verses 1 to 15, show us four keys for how you and I can navigate successfully in a cursed world. And the message really has to do with our need to learn to depend upon God, our need to trust God and to believe His words. Now, there's four keys to this, and the first one you can find in the first nine verses. Verses one to nine show us key number one, and it is this. Recognize the inherent difficulties of trying to go through life in its first world. Recognize the inherent difficulties of life in the first world. The reason why is because life is not simple. You try to plan something. You know, maybe you get married and you think, yes, I'm getting married now and I'm going to be happy for the rest of my life. And then you find out that it's not so easy being married. Marriage is not easy, as married people will agree with me. You know, it's hard stuff. I'm surprised that the Lord kept my marriage together. It was only His grace that we stayed together. You know, God's grace. But, you know, it's not easy, but you find yourself and you find out that it's real hard. You open a business to make lots of money, and then something happens. I have a friend in Phoenix. This guy has has two times lost his business and each time ended up with a million dollars in personal debt. A million dollars in personal debt. And he's dug out of it both times. Another guy, I just talked to a client yesterday on the phone, he's a guy up in Vegas, he's an engineer, and he sold his business recently. And he told me that they've had a change in the tax law, which I'm not even going to doubt you about. And by Friday, he has to come up with $500,000 cash to pay a tax bill. $500,000. So, sometimes things don't go like you expected, okay? Okay, now what are we going to do? As a Christian, what we can do from the Bible is we can know from what God has already shown us in the Bible to expect this kind of reversal. God shows us that there are all kinds of things that are going to happen in life, that He's in control of it all, and so when something happens to you that doesn't go according to your plan, you can know that God is still in control. This is one of the keys to getting through life successfully, is you know that God is still in control, even though all of these other things are happening. Now, in verses 1-8, what Solomon does, is he shows us that life in a cursed world that we live in We could call it life under the sun, or life, we could say, under heaven. Life in a cursed world involves a whole variety of possibilities, and there are fourteen pairs of these gifts, and verses 1-8 are fourteen pairs of life. Whatever it is. We found out we have termites, too. Even though we just had to pay attention about two years ago, we found termites over here. But, getting back to the point, there are fourteen pairs that Solomon chose us to show that there are no actions, that God is in control. Now, he says in verse one, there is an appointed time for everything. And that word appointed time is the word, it means season or a fixed period by God. Something that is not in general time, but it is something that is specific. What he's saying to us is this, God has control of the universe. Do you believe that? I do. I believe God has control of every bit of this universe. He's got control of the big things, and He's got control of the little things, like me as well. God has control of everything. There's an appointed time for most things, is all it says, right? No? There's an appointed time for what? Everything. You see, God is sovereign. By the way, if God is not sovereign over everything, then he's not God, because that means that there's such a thing as chance. And there's one word that does not exist in God's vocabulary. It's the word oops. God never gets caught by surprise. Nothing ever happens to catch him off guard. He is sovereign over everything. He says there is an appointed time for everything. There is a time for every event under heaven. This word under heaven, the same idea as being under the sun. It's life in a cursed world, and there is a fixed purpose in God's plan. Remember what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11? It says that God, He predestined us according to His purpose to work all things after the counsel of His own will. He works all things after the counsel of His own will. Now, I remember my theology professor, one of my theology professors one time, he said, well, I suppose I could take my keys, or right here, this tape, and throw it on the floor, and say, that wasn't God, that was me. And he said, well, but that was still God's plan, because if I threw it down, it was God's plan that I would do that. Everything is under God's plan. Now, you see, there are some people who don't like to have God sitting on the throne, and And Arminian is someone who wants to take God off the throne and put man on the throne, and they say man is sovereign. I almost choked when I heard this. I was having a conversation with a guy one day a couple years ago, and he said something about the sovereignty of man, and I almost choked when he said that. Man is not sovereign. Man is responsible. God is sovereign. Two absolute truths. God is sovereign, man is responsible. That means that God has control of everything, and yet you and I, we make choices, we make moral choices. You know, I have the ability to choose to, you know, tap on this desk or not do it. How those things combine, quite frankly, nobody knows, but it's true. We are responsible to do what God has called us to do. Now, therefore, because God is sovereign over all life, if you want to have success in His world, and this is His world, if you want to have God's control, that all the things that happen in life are a part of His control. This kind of reminds me about this one guy. You know how in Africa, you know, you have tribal kings, and they go out and they go hunting, and the king had his assistant. And so they went out for a hunt one day, a hunting expedition, but his assistant, the king's assistant, he misloaded the gun, and the gun misfired and it blew off the thumb of the king. The king was furious. So he threw his servant into the jail, into the prison. Well, some time went on, about a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of because there were cannibals there, headhunters, and the cannibals captured the king and they were going to eat the king. And as they got ready to slaughter the king, to eat him, they found out that he was missing his tongue. They were very superstitious people, and so they said, oh, we cannot eat this king, so we are going to release him. And they released the king. The king went back, and the first thing he did was go straight to jail. He said, my friend, he said, I'm sorry that I threw you in prison. I'm sorry. Well, the friend had a certain way of saying things. He used to always say, this is good, this is good. King came back to him and he said, I'm sorry. He said, this is good. He said, what do you mean it's good that I threw you into prison? He said, this is good because if I had not been in jail, I would have been with you on a hunting trip. In other words, all things work together for good. God does have a plan and he works all things for good. Now, Solomon shows us fourteen pairs. He says, first of all, in verse two, he says, there's a time to give birth and a time to die. In God's program, guess what? There's a time when that labor comes, you know? It's not going to come any sooner. Now, we could go and we could do something. We could do a Caesarean section and say, ah-ha, we leave God on that one. No. Guess what? If you do the C-section, it's because God is part of God's plan. Okay, these are two things that go hand-in-hand. Man's action, man's responsibility, and God's sovereignty. And this is what Solomon was getting to, is that as you go through life, you have to realize that God has a control over all things. There's a time, he says, to give birth. There's a time to die. Jesus reminded us in Matthew 6.27. He said, don't be anxious about your life because you can't add one cubit to your life span. You can't add one second to your life. Why are you anxious about it? Guess what? When your number's up, you can go. That doesn't mean we should be irresponsible, doesn't mean we should, you know, walk down the middle of the 405. We do need to exercise responsibility, but God has a plan, and when it's time to die, you're going to die. Secondly, he says, there is a time to plan, there's a time to uproot what is planned. They lived in an agrarian culture. They had a fixed time where they were supposed to do things. This is all part of God's plan. This is time to uproot. Now, sometimes, some commentators have taken this idea of planting and uprooting based on a passage in Jeremiah 18.7 and also in Zephaniah 2.4. Some people have thought that this is about nations, because in Jeremiah he says God is going to plant and God is going to uproot. The idea here is simply showing that God has a program. He's in control. In verse 3, he says, there's a time to kill and there's a time to heal. Some people say, well, wait a minute, doesn't the Bible say, Thou shalt not kill? Are we ever supposed to kill? Well, the answer to that is that, yes, there is time to kill. There's two different Hebrew words that are used. In Exodus, chapter 20, verse 14, when it says, Thou shalt not kill, it's the Hebrew verb raksak. Raksak, it means to murder. He meditated murder. The word harag, that is used right here, is a word that can mean, for example, putting somebody to death, to bring execution, a death penalty. Is it ever right to bring death penalty? Yes, it is. Genesis chapter 9, it says that if you have somebody who has slain a human life, that person must pay with their own life because they have defaced the image of God who was in that human being. And so what Solomon is saying here is that, yes, there is a time to put people to death, But there is also a time, he says, to heal. A time to kill and a time to heal. By the way, remember that song? Whenever I read this passage, remember that song from the 60s by the Byrds? They made a song from this passage. Do you ever remember that song? It's the third time I read it. Over here in verse 3, he's talking about another time. He says, there's a time to tear down, a time to build up. It's what we found out here at the church, you know? They wanted to do a building project for a long time, but guess what? It just wasn't God's timing. Just had to work it. I was going to be the pastor and The former pastor moved out, and that's when the time came. So there was a time to tear down some old buildings that were sitting out here. Now it was a time to put up a new one, a time to build. It was all part of God's plan. This is what Solomon's getting to. He says there's a time to weep, and he says there is also a time to laugh. Interestingly, too, you can't see it in the English text, but if you go to this last word in verse three, a time to build up, it's the word that livenoth, livenoth, and then if you come here to weep, it's livcoth. Livnoth, livcoth, there's a little bit of a play on words that he's using between livnoth and verse three, and then livcoth. It's time to weep and it's time to laugh. You come down here to verse 4, he says again, there's a time to mourn, looking at human emotions, and a time to laugh. Mourning, this is the word hafa that talks about great weeping, like at the death of a loved one. A funeral where you have all the people standing out there wailing and beating their chests, There's a time for that, Solomon says, a time to just really let it all go, but he says there is also a time, he says, to dance, to be happy. Well, God has appointed a time for all of these things. Verse 5, he says, there's a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones. It doesn't mean you're supposed to go down to the beach and start throwing rocks in the ocean and say, well, it's the time to throw stones right now. Actually, what this expression means, if you were back in First Kings, Chapter 3, in two places, First Kings, Chapter 3, in verse 19, here's what it says. First Kings, Chapter 3. Chapter 3 in verse 19, what it says is, "...you shall strike," okay, Elisha says, it says, "...you shall strike every fortified city, and every choice city, and all every good free, and stop all streams of water, and mar every good piece of land with stone." One of the things that you would do if you went out to battle against another enemy, If you do things like tear down all the trees, you would put rocks in their wells, and you would also take and you would scatter huge boulders all over their fields. You would throw big boulders and stones, and the army would come and they would ruin your fields so that you couldn't have any food. And so, when he talks in here about casting stones and also about gathering stones up, it would have the idea of a field where you do the farming. There's a time to take and clear the field out, like if you're going to do a farming exhibition, talk to people and go see some people, and you just... So, you know, the guy comes home and says, hey, come here, honey, give me a sushi treat, you know? Because it's that time, honey. Now, what's that mean? I like 1 Corinthians chapter 7, where Paul says, you know, hey, you belong to your wife, your wife belongs to you, and you belong to your wife, and whatever the other one says, you've got authority over yourself and your body. But here, in Ecclesiastes, what he's saying is there's an appropriate time for, you know, affection and romance, because there's also a time when it's just not right. God has a point of season. You come down here to verse 6, he says, it was a time to search, a time to give up is lost. I remember when I was a kid, I lost my commentary coloring book that I got when I broke my big toe. And I never did find that thing. I searched for years, and finally had to give up the search. I don't know what happened to me, but I still got my book. You know, I put it right on that night thing, the history of the book. But there's a time to give up, okay? You come down here to protect, there's a time to keep and a time to throw away. You know, you save things and save things, sometimes, therefore, you just have to take it. Solomon says in verse 7, there's a time to tear apart, there's a time to sew together, a time to be silent, a time to speak. The Bible says a lot about this, about staying silent. Proverbs 10, 19, in the multitude of words, transgression is not lacking. In other words, if you talk a lot, you balance the community of sin. In the multitude of words, transgression is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. There's a time to be quiet. Just kind of stay dumb. In Proverbs, chapter 17, verse 27, it says, The one who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Now, listen to this. Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he is counted proven. There's a time to be quiet, but there's also a time to speak up, like our contractors have. Today, there was a problem at a daycare where children, say, I guess it's a Christian school, and there's some real hazards at this Christian school out in Riverside, and he told the people about it, and they said, well, we don't think we're going to do anything, and we think we should take the kids out of the school. And he's real, really concerned about these dangers, so he's going to take them. He's going to call the city inspector and have him go out and check out these dangers. The whole point, Solomon says, is that God has a program that he's working out. God has a program. Down here in verse 8, he says, there's a time to love and a time to hate, even a place for hate. Incidentally, listen to what it says in Psalm 105, verse 25, talking about the way that the Israelites... Remember how the Jews were living in Egypt? And then the Egyptians turned against them and began to turn them into slaves. In Psalm 105, verse 25, it says, God turned their hearts to give His people to deal happily with His servants. It actually says, God turned their hearts. It was a part of God's plan. You say, wait a minute, I thought the Egyptians were the ones who were sending by persecuting the Jews. They were. It was their responsibility. They were sinning by turning against the Jews and by persecuting them, but it was all part of God's plan, and it actually ascribes ultimate cause in Psalm 105.25 to God. God was the one who was working out a plan. It was all part of God's plan to bring them out to Moses. And he finally says here in verse 8, there is a time for war and a time for peace. A time for war and a time for peace. In Joshua chapter 1, you remember that when the Jews came out of Egypt, God took them to the promised land and God said, Go in, guys, utterly mow them down. I'm giving you the land, and these people are so wicked. You are my instruments to bring judgment upon them. It is war. It is holy war. And that's what God did. Now, when you come and look at all of this, okay, the point that we want to make and the point that we want to recognize is this. It's found in verse 9. Because of all of the circumstances that will come into your life, we want to know that we cannot control these events. God is control, and God has a plan, and these things are going to come in, and if you don't recognize that God has a plan, and you don't have all the answers, it may really, really mess you up when something bad happens. Because you're building your life, and all of a sudden something happens, and there is a disease. You say, how could this happen? People get mad at God. People get mad at God, and they shake their fists at God, and they say, how could this be? Listen, you and I are living in a cursed world. It's not the way that it's supposed to be. It's messed up. It's crooked. And these kinds of things that happen are a part of, like, a perpetual fulfillment, says in verse 9. If you don't understand this, what you will do is you'll live your life, and then something is going to happen that's going to just totally knock you off base. And in verse 9, he says, What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toileth? There's a time for everything, and that often includes tragedy and horrible circumstances. Solomon is saying, if we're only living for this world, and then something terrible happens to us, what good is it? What good is life? By the way, go back to chapter 1, verse 3. This is the key question of the whole book. Chapter 1, verse 3, he says, what advantage does man have in his work? And that word advantage, the word get thrown, the Hebrew word get thrown, is the same word that is used down here in Proverbs chapter 2, verses 3 and 9. What profit, is the word that means net profit, net gain. So what Solomon is doing is he's going through the quest to answer the question, how can we get ahead? How can we have success in the first world? Where is the profit? How do we get the profit? And when he comes away here in chapter 3, verse 9, he says, you know what? I have found out that because of all the things that can happen in life, there is no profit if we're only living on a horizontal plane. Solomon sees that life in the first world means that we are under the plan of a sovereign God and sometimes things don't happen the way that we would like, but we as Christians, listen, we as Christians, if we understand this, will be able to weather the storm. It's not going to take away the pain when something bad happens. It really won't. You're not going to have an answer for why is this happening. God needs an answer. You know, when Job had everything taken away from him, his children, his wealth, his health. God never gave Job an answer in all of that thing. But in the end, God showed him that he could trust Him. That's what the lesson was. God said, you have to trust me, Job. And this is what we know from Ecclesiastes. We don't have all the answers, but we do know that life has many varied circumstances, but we can trust God in all of this. Now, that is the first key. You have to recognize, if you want to have success, you have to recognize that life is filled with difficulties. There's a second key to have success in the first world. Recognize the eternal beauty that God has built into the master plan. You know what Romans chapter 1 verse 28 says? Follow it with me. We know that all things work together for good, for those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose. Paul said, we know that all things work together for good. He didn't say, I think. Or, you know, I imagine, he said, we know. God has a perfect plan that encompasses everything. Even the things that are happening in your life right now, and you say, this really hurts me. And I don't know if I can bear it. There is a beautiful plan that God has worked out. Now in verses 10 to 11, we see the fact of this beautiful plan that God has designed. He says down here in verse 10, Solomon says, I have seen, I have seen this task that God has given to the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. I have looked at this plan that God has given to us where we've got to work and labor and toil. We're afflicted with hard labor. And he says in verse 11, God has made everything, my translation says, appropriate in this time. What do your Bibles say? Beautiful, perhaps. You know the song, He is Lord, He is Lord? No, what is the one? God has a plan, and in that plan, everything fits together for perfect good. I don't know how that worked out. God hasn't told me how it all works together for perfect, perfect plan and end, but this is what we know from the Scripture. So God has given men a task to labor and to work in a cursed world. It is a part of the fact that we do live in a cursed world, but God has made all things beautiful. And so what you and I need to do is we need to learn to be accessible. this life, it is so horrible, I hate this rug, and he just spent his whole life doing that. Never once did the bug come out from the rug to see that it was a beautiful Persian rug, a beautiful tapestry that was woven together. Never once did the bug see the beauty of his own existence, of the world he lived in. And what we need to do is we need to come up with a viewpoint of the whole thing. He lets you see the beauty of what he's doing. By the way, do you know where the key is to this whole thing? The cross. In the cross, you find out that God has made a provision for our redemption. The cross, the resurrection, that is the key to seeing the beauty of God's plan. We're not going to be left in this mess forever. So God has given a chance to man to labor, that's part of the curse, but he has made everything beautiful, and then also in verse 11 it says, he has also set eternity in their heart. Interesting expression. He has set eternity in man's heart. And I believe this has to do with the fact that you and I are created in the image of God. You and I have been created in God's image. Because we are spiritual beings, because we're not dogs, We know that there is something greater than time itself. You know, my cat doesn't think about anything but eating her food. sitting on my bed and looking beautiful. She's a nice cat. She likes to help me sit down and be petted. My cat doesn't contemplate, you know, eternity, but God has put eternity into the heart of man. God has made you as a spiritual being created in His image, and so man has a yearning to know How things will go beyond the grave. Man has that desire. Walter Kaiser says this is a deep-seated desire, a compulsive drive, because man is made in the image of God, to appreciate the beauty of his creation, to know the character, the composition, and the meaning of the world, instead of to discern its purpose and destiny. Like Kaiser says, there is a majesty and madness to the whole thing. God has put eternity in our hearts for this, yet so that man will not find out the work that God has done from the beginning to the end. As we're living in this time-bound world, apart from Scripture, Apart from what God has made known in Scripture, men will wonder about the future, but guess what? They'll never find the answer unless God makes it known. This is why you can have success in a cursed world, because God has allowed you, through the revelation of His Word, to know Him, to know the way out of this curse. Otherwise, you're going to go through life wondering about things, but you'll never find an answer. It says man cannot find out, it says, what God has done from the beginning to the end. That's a very frustrating thing for the unpaid person. They're going to go through life and they're never going to find the answer, but my friend, God has opened your heart, through His Word, to know Him and to know the way to have His blessings. So that is the key, that is the second key to having success from life in a cursed world. Number one, you have to recognize that life is full of difficulties, and going through life sometimes you're going to have a lot of problems. Number two, you have to recognize the beauty of God's whole plan. Number three, there's a third key. You have to recognize that God has given certain blessings to us. Temporal blessings. Blessings that you can have right now in this world, that He has made for sons of Adam. You and I are sons of Adam. Now, Adam, of course, is the first man. Adam fell into sin. We are sons and daughters of Adam. We come into life in a cursed world. We're a son and daughter of Adam. But even though we are living in a cursed world, God has given us certain blessings that we are to enjoy. And Solomon names five of them right here in verses 12 to 13. He says, I know that there is nothing better. Now, when he says there's nothing better, it doesn't mean that this is the answer to everything. He's giving this conclusion through certain assessments. He did it earlier, if you go back here to chapter 2, in verse 24, he says the same thing. He says, there is nothing better for man. Here in chapter 3, in verse 12, he says, there is nothing better, for number one, for man to rejoice. Now, if you go back here to chapter 2, in verse 1, if you look in chapter 2, in verse 1, Paul says, come now, I will test you with pleasure. It's the same verb, same word, sama, means to have pleasure or to enjoy yourself. Solomon is talking about basically just living for enjoyment, you see. What Solomon says back here, if you come to chapter 3 verse 4, he says, there's nothing better than to rejoice or to enjoy yourself in life. Now, is it true that that's the ultimate purpose of life, is simply to have a good time? No. We know that, you know, we're supposed to trust Christ and walk with Him so that we can be with Him forever. But, Paul is talking about life on a horizontal plane. So, he says, look, when it comes to life on a horizontal plane, let me tell you something. go through life without having joy, without rejoicing. That is something that God has given to you as one of his blessings. Number one, that you would rejoice. Number two, that you would, it says, do good in your lifetime, or you could translate it this way, do what is pleasing or pleasant. Rejoice, enjoy yourself, and do what is pleasant. Do you like to go down to the beach? Go down to the beach. like to go for drives out through the mountains, then go out and take a drive, you know? Do something that you enjoy. Number three, he says in verse 13, Moreover, that every man who eats and drinks to see good in all his labor. He mentions three more things. Eating, drinking, and seeing good in your labor. In other words, you like that big steak we were talking about, go down to Black Angus and get yourself a nice big thick steak. And if you like a, you know, a Starbucks coffee, you pop off and you get yourself a nice big mocha frappuccino Starbucks coffee. And then you look at it and you say, my labor is good. I am able to work and I am able to enjoy it. Now, I want to give you three principles that come from 1 Timothy that kind of guide us in this process of enjoying God's blessings. And the first one is in 1 Timothy chapter 4, in verse 4. Paul says, 1 Timothy 4.4, everything created by God is good. It's not as though you have evil produce, okay? Or evil coffee, no? He says, everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude. So one of the keys to enjoying God's blessings is you need to be thankful to God. Because if you're not being thankful to God, you're not being thankful to the giver of the gift that He has given. Number one, to enjoy God's blessings, you should have gratitude. The second thing that he says right here is this, in 1 Timothy. Godliness is a means of great gain when it is accompanied by contentment. In other words, being godly and then being content with what you have is a great way to go through life. So the principle is this, don't be greedy. Don't be greedy. Enjoy what you have and be thankful to God, but don't be greedy," Paul says, because, verse 7, we have brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it either, so don't worry about piling up masses. Verse 8, and if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and despair in many cases. to share, generous and ready to share, with Timothy 6.18. So, you enjoy it, you thank God for it, you go be greedy, and then if God has given you plenty, sure, be generous. You can't take it with you, okay? So, God says, I'm giving you things to enjoy. So, Solomon, and this is exactly what Solomon is saying. Solomon says, look at your life. He says in verse 12, he says, do what is pleasing. Verse 13, look at your eating and your drinking and your labor. And then notice what he says at the end of verse 13. It is what? What does the end of verse 13 say? It is the gift of God. When God gives you the strength to work, that's His gift. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 18, God said, You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to make wealth. You say, but I'm the one that went to college and got this job. But it was God who gave you the strength and the opportunity to do that. So you always must remember where the blessing is coming from. that's one of the keys to having success in the first world. Number one key, you recognize the difficulties. Number two, you recognize the beauty that God has built into His master plan. Number three, recognize the blessings that He has given for you and me to enjoy in the process. Number four, the final key, recognize the overarching purpose of God for your life. Verses 14 and 15, Solomon says, that everything that God does will remain forever. Solomon is going to now really focus upon the fact that God is sovereign over everything, and he's also going to show us what our part of the bargain is. God is sovereign, man is responsible. He says in verse 14, God is sovereign, everything God does remains forever. You can't change it. You cannot change God's plan, whatever His purpose to do. He says, there is nothing to add to it, there is nothing to take away from it. This is God's authority. If you look in verse 15, he says, that which is, has been already. He says, that which will be, has already been. The idea is that, you know, things happen in the past, God's the Holy Spirit begins. Nothing's new under the sun. That's what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1. Nothing new. Whatever has taken place before, it's going to happen again. God has a certain order in what He does, and if you look at the end of verse 15, it's a very difficult clause. He says, My generation says, For God speaks what He has passed by. And that has been translated several different ways by different translations. It's a difficult verb. The NIV, the New International Version, says God will call the past to account. The New King James says God requires an account of what is past. The New Living Translation says God calls each event back in its turn. And I think that's the idea of it, kind of the New International Version, New Living Translation. that a good interpretation of this verse could be, and I wouldn't die on his head, but the idea is that he's saying, look, whatever God has done in the past, we can repeat it again. He's solved an overall thing, and that's really what he's saying in verses 14 and 15. God has a plan. Well, what is the human side of this equation? It's back in verse 14. Notice what he says. He says, I know that everything God does will remain forever. There's nothing to add to it. There's nothing to keep away from it. Why? Now, here it is. For God has so worked that men should what? Fear Him. There we go again. Sovereignty of God, human responsibility. God has done everything in putting this He says, with a purpose, the purpose is that we would fear Him. Does that mean that I cower down and I shake right now? Not exactly. To fear God carries the idea of trusting Him. Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5, trusting the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will break the test. Trusting God involves loving Him. Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 says, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul. John chapter 14 verse 21, Jesus said, If you love Me, do what? Keep My commandments. It involves obedience. It involves trust. It involves a life that is totally given over to God with faith. And so, as you close it up right here, here's the story that Solomon's done. Solomon has shown us that nobody has the answer to all the problems in the universe. Solomon says, look, things are going to happen. You're going to, you know, plant your tree and something's going to happen and uproot it. You're going to build your house and then an earthquake's going to come and tear it down. There's a time for everything, he says. You can't control it. It is a part of God's plan. God asked, and He came to change it. Why does God do all of this? Because He has placed eternity into your heart. You have a desire to know God. You are searching after God because God was drawing you to Himself. God has put these things in your heart so that you might fear Him. Rich Mullins, not Rich Mullins, but Michael Card, has a great song called Poiety. I'm going to close with this. I don't know if you've ever heard the song, but the Greek word poiema, we get the English word poem out of it, but poiema means that which you have made, that which you have put together. I want to read a few lyrics. He says, Life is a song we must sing with our gaze, a poem with meaning more than words can say, a painting of colors and a rainbow to tell, a lyric that rhymes, either heaven or hell. There are living letters that doubt death's grace, but in most of the songs, the force God shapes every second of our little lives, and minds every minute as the universe goes by, and then the chorus goes in. Because the singing and the longing, the joy and the moments of life, are the rhythms and rhymes, the free verse of the song of life. We have a life, and it's free. You go out and you live it. Free verse, as in poetry. And yes, God is shaping, God is working, and the purpose for you is this. that we would love Him and trust Him and have Him send us. That, my friend, is how we have to be for life, to be just as such, just by knowing God, and fearing Him, and keeping His commandments. This is what He taught us to do. Isn't this good stuff? I love it, man. This is so good. Let's bow together and close in prayer. Father, we thank You for this night and for the opportunity to come and to learn from these two Psalms, the wisdom that You have brought down It would have been that you would have been a fifth grader in Harvard, that we might know you and know how we can navigate successfully in this world of curse that we have been thrown into. Father, we thank you for this time, and I pray that you will keep us safe as we go away. We ask your blessings, and we pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. you