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Text from Ecclesiastes 9
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Text from Ecclesiastes 9
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Solomon reflects on the idea that both the righteous and the wicked share the same destiny and that no one knows what awaits them. He emphasizes that the hearts of men are full of evil and that there is madness in their hearts. He also points out that the living have hope, even though death is inevitable. Solomon advises people to enjoy life and to do everything with all their might because there is no working or planning in the grave. He shares a story about a poor but wise man who saves a city, but is not remembered. Solomon concludes that wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor is often despised. He believes that the quiet words of the wise should be heeded over the shouts of fools. Solomon's overall conclusion is that everything, including wisdom, is ultimately in God's hands. Ecclesiastes, and we'll cover the entire chapter this day, so all of chapter 9, verses 1 through 18 will be our text this morning. This is one of those classic texts. I was thinking about that this morning also. We have an opportunity to read the classics, and clearly God's Word stands alone as one of the classics. It's the Word of God, but as a book it's a classic, and Ecclesiastes is one of those great books, and in this chapter it's just a great text for us to read, plus it communicates the Word of God to us. So Ecclesiastes, chapter 9, verses 1 through 18, this is God's Word. So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him. All share a common destiny, the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good man, so with the sinner. As it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them. This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun. The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil, and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. Everyone who is among the living has hope. Even a live dog is better off than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate, and their jealousy have long since vanished. Never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun. Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun, all your meaningless days, for this is your lot in life, and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. For in the grave where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. I have seen something else under the sun. The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned, but time and chance happen to them all. Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come, as fish are caught in a cruel net or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them. I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me. There was once a small city with only a few people in it, and a powerful king came against it, surrounded it, and built huge siege works against it. Now there lived in that city a man, poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom, but nobody remembered that poor man. So I said wisdom is better than strength, but the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded. The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Making our way through Ecclesiastes, and today we're at Solomon's conclusion. This is the words he uses, Solomon's conclusion. As we study this text, this particular chapter, verses 1 through 3, we see, of course, something that we have seen already, but Solomon reinforces it again. Everything rests in the hands of God. Verses 3 through 10, we read what it's like to live in the shadow of death. Verses 11 and 12, that's the unpredictability of life and death. And then 13 through 18, we'll read of the rejection of the gift of life, and then we'll see at the end, we'll understand the application of Jesus in Ecclesiastes. We're two-thirds of the way through the book. Solomon has taken us through his efforts to seek out and find wisdom. The big question, of course, before Solomon, before us all, can man acquire wisdom? And as Solomon has stated, he has certainly looked everywhere and at everything on his quest. And yet his quest does not bear fruit. Let's notice again, selected verses, these are in chapter 1. Notice these verses. Solomon begins his book stating his purpose for writing. This is chapter 1, verses 13 and 14, and Solomon writes, I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men. I have seen all the things that are done under the sun. And, of course, Solomon, as we know, was deeply committed to this, and he took great pride in what he was able to accomplish. Look at verse 16 of that text. I thought to myself, look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me, and I've experienced much of wisdom and knowledge. But we skip down to verse 18 and we find the sober truth concerning Solomon's discovery. Solomon writes, for with much wisdom comes much sorrow. The more knowledge, the more grief. And so, though Solomon will cover the details throughout his book, he cuts to the chase and he gives us the hypothesis of his work. Notice the last phrase, verse 14 of chapter 1. He writes this, all of the things I have found. So all of these are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. So is it not interesting here in Ecclesiastes that Solomon is making the case? And perhaps it is true that Solomon doesn't even realize the extent to which he makes the case, but Solomon is making the case that there is a limit. There's a limit to man's acquiring of and application of wisdom. We want to possess wisdom, and we want to comprehend wisdom, especially the wisdom from God and especially the wisdom that would serve us at a particular moment, at a particular situation. And when we have that, we want to operate in that wisdom in a wise manner. But try as we might, there is something about wisdom that is ultimately elusive. We tend to be hesitant, for example, about making decisions and taking action because, of course, we don't want to take the wrong action. And so our tendency, our human tendency, is to delay taking a particular action. Because we won't take an action at all, because we're just paralyzed in fear of, am I making the right decision, am I making the wise decision? So we tend to hesitate in making decisions and taking action. It's also a mis-tendency here to push back. Man is prone here to respond with something like, wait a second, we can do this, we can figure this out, we can resolve this issue, there's ultimately nothing standing in our way. A classic example for this very logic, this very wisdom, was found, of course, in Genesis chapter 11. And this story you know, this is the story of the Tower of Babel. Genesis chapter 11, starting with verse 1. And Genesis says, Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. And they said to each other, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. And they used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves, and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. So let's consider the story of the building of the Tower of Babel, and let's consider it from the perspective of wisdom. Whose wisdom was applied here? Wisdom that said, We can do this, we can build a tower to demonstrate that we don't need God, that we ourselves can be renowned throughout the world. And then some guy chimes in with his wisdom and says, Hey, wait a second, you want me to do this, stacking one rock on top of another? You're going to have to bake some bricks, and you better bake them thoroughly, because that's what you're going to need to accomplish this feat of engineering. And then of course some political demagogue picks up the ball, and he pontificates his wisdom and says, Well, let's get the public works department together with the bricklayers union, and let's build a city to support the construction of this tower. I don't know if they had that actual conversation. That's kind of the conversation that's running through my head when I see this text. So who do you suppose was the fount of wisdom that hatched this harebrained scheme? The plan was not going to work. It was never going to work. And from this story we understand, and the Bible's making a claim, that there is an extent to man's wisdom. Man cannot comprehend everything. Man cannot comprehend on his own. So Solomon proceeds to cover the rest of chapter 1, and also then chapters 2-8, and he describes in detail his quest for wisdom. And he comes to what he perceives as a completion of his search. For we notice the beginning words of chapter 9 and verse 1. Notice what it says. It says, So I reflected on all of this. So the first eight chapters, I reflected on all of this, and I concluded. Here it comes. All the things that Solomon has seen, and examined, and studied, and analyzed, and considered, and compared, and contrasted, Solomon has reflected on all of this. And as a result of his effort, he has come to a conclusion, finally, finally a conclusion. So if wisdom cannot find its ultimate rest within the mind of man, then where does wisdom abide? And can wisdom be attained by man? What is the truth concerning wisdom? And here we find Solomon's conclusion. It's in the second phrase of verse 1. He writes this, that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands. Solomon's conclusion, that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands. Solomon, granted by God to the child of God, rests within and resides within and is directed and shaped by the hands of God, the God who is sovereign, the God who rules and reigns over all. It all remains within God's hands. So a fair question here is, well, what constitutes all? Well, we find it listed here in verses 1 and 2, the rest of chapter 1 and then in verse 2. It's an exhaustive list, but I think it's fair to say that we would do well to see this list as sufficiently representative. So when God's word says here that all resides in God's hands, what constitutes all? Look at our text. Love and hate, righteousness and wickedness, good and bad, clean and unclean, as to religion, sacrificial compliance and sacrificial noncompliance, the good and the sinful, and as to devotion, committed and uncommitted. Solomon has concluded that all of this, all of this, finds meaning and purpose and value residing within the grip of God. God owns it all, God ordains it all, God mediates it all, and then and only then God brings it all to us. And then because He has maintained ownership of it, God then brings resolution to it all. And these things listed, they're all big things, they're all important things, they're certainly all fundamental things. And we admit that in this world, in this life, we don't necessarily comprehend them, we don't understand them. We have concepts for them. You know, we agree, take right and wrong. We don't really agree on right and wrong. You and I might know something that's right and might know something that's wrong, we might see it, but of course the next person down the line may not necessarily agree. So we don't necessarily have agreement on these things. We know generally what they are, and we know what they ought to be and what they must be, but we still can't agree on them. We don't really comprehend them, we don't really understand them. We have to admit that there's a limit to our understanding and our embrace of those things. Now we don't like to think about that. We want to say, no, no, no, I know what right and wrong is, don't give me that. It's true, we have this thing where we, to comprehend it fully, to understand it fully, we fail and we fall short. We read the last part of verse 1 and then verses 2 and 3 and we find that it's true for everyone. Notice what Solomon writes, he says, no man knows whether love or hate awaits him. And in this, each person shares a common destiny. This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun. The same destiny overtakes them all. We cry out to God, what about love? Give me the details. And God says to us, look, I own it all. And we require of God, what about the good and bad? Give me the details. And then God says to us, look, I own it all. We complain that we want the specifics and we want them now, God's answer reminding us, I own it, I own it all, this all remains in my hands, God owns it, God possesses it. Now we know that this means, therefore, that there is nothing in our lives and in this world that God doesn't own. There is, therefore, nothing that comes to us, for example, that is owned by Satan. Satan is trying to acquire things, he's trying to use things for his own evil purposes, but Satan doesn't really own anything. It's owned by God. Recall in Genesis, what did Joseph say to his brothers? What you intended against me for evil, God intended for good in order to accomplish a day like this. And Solomon understands this, and so he says, so I considered everything, and I reflected on all of this. And it's here that I drew my conclusion, and here's my conclusion, that all of it rests in God's hands. That's the wisdom that Solomon comes to after his study. Now let's just pause here for a moment, because we need to embrace and understand this wisdom that tells us that everything rests in God's hands. Let's find comfort in this truth. Everything about this world, its sin and its darkness, the utter collapse of our society, which we are seeing now, the worldwide abandonment of truth, which we are seeing now, examples of sin abound. One example of the sin of our world being modern-day slavery. You realize, and Harvard did a study, Harvard did a study that says modern-day slavery, it takes in somewhere in the range of 40 to 50 million people. That was Harvard admitting that. This is one example of sin, and this, of course, includes the international child sex trade in which our nation is abhorrently complicit, and the worldwide accepted practice of now calling evil good while calling good evil. This is rampant in our world, as we know, and yet everything about this world, everything about it, nevertheless, rests in the hands of God. God holds it. God will deal with it, right? God will carry forth His justice concerning all of this. He's not done with anything. He hasn't given up on anything. There will be justice. God will carry forth His justice concerning all things, and when He does, the Bible is clear that the people will only be able to respond with saying these words, when they will say, the judgments of the Lord, they are true and righteous altogether. That will be our only answer. So yes, this stuff is horrible. Yes, this stuff ought to keep us up at night. Watching the evening news should make us sick to our stomachs. Both we consider what's being covered as well as what's not being covered. But my friends, let us not be afraid of these things. Instead, let us face them head on. Let us run toward the battle instead of away from it. How could we possibly do so? How could we possibly do that? Well, we do it because of this, because we know, we know that everything rests in the hands of God. Now we believe this corporately, but we do need to believe it individually as well, do we not? Everything about you and about me, everything about you, all the details of your life, and especially the things you don't like about your life, these also rest in the hands of God. The life that must go on after the spouse has died, the marriage that suffers, the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren that just can't seem to get any traction in this world, the business that fails, or when your doctor calls you as a result of the tests and you say, look, doc, just give me the answer over the phone, and your doctor says, no, you've got to come in the office for this one. And then also, your record and my record, your record of sin, sin that plagued you in the past, sin that continues to rear its ugly head now, and the memory of sin that you know is going to hang around you for the rest of your life. Dear child of God, please do not doubt for a moment, but instead please be confidently assured that everything in your life rests within the hands of God. Yes, this is certainly perplexing, but at the same time it is certainly consoling. And so this is what we know. The God who is truth and the God who is holiness is also the God who is compassion and the God who is mercy, and he holds it all in his hands. He holds it all. There's nothing in your life that you're dealing with that God is not holding. There's nothing in your life that you're dealing with that God is not holding in the palm of his hand. So we come to verses 3 through 10, and we are first confronted with the subject matter that Solomon has previously discussed. Here he deals with it again, and he does so because it is, of course, something that everyone is going to have to face. From verse 3 through verse 6, Solomon writes of death, and here is specifically the reality of death as seen from the perspective of life under the sun. Verse 5 captures the essence of his statement. He writes the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. And it is vital that we communicate this to this world that seems so hell-bent on destroying itself. An existence outside of the sovereignty of God, outside of his rule and reign, offers those that seek it an eternity that holds absolutely nothing. An existence outside of the sovereignty of God, outside of his rule and reign, offers those that seek it an eternity that holds absolutely nothing. We notice the horrible desolation of those who reject God. Look at verse 6. Their love, their hate, their jealousy, all of it, everything, has long since vanished. Never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun. What a desolation, what an emptiness, what a barrenness for those who would not know God and would not trust in God. And we know the opposite of this. We know the opposite of verse 6. Why? Because the Bible tells us so. Recall the status of believers, the status of believers who remain in this world and this life. In Hebrews chapter 12, it says what? It says we are surrounded, we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. The church of Jesus Christ is not surrounded by a grave-bound collection of nothing-doing, nothing-knowing non-existers. I've created a whole bunch of words in there. The church of Jesus Christ is not surrounded by a grave-bound collection of nothing-doing, nothing-knowing non-existers. Believers in this life are lovingly encompassed, and we're lovingly encompassed by the forever family of God. And when the child of God departs this life, he or she is immediately found in glory to be forevermore among the group known as the great cloud of witnesses. That's why we celebrate a funeral of a believer, of a believer who departs this life. It's sad that they depart this life because, but then again we celebrate because where they're going, man, apart the great cloud of witnesses. And as verse 4 says concerning the believers, those who reside under heaven, those who reside under the sovereignty of God, Solomon writes this, anyone who is among the living has this hope. We have this hope. And just as Solomon writes in verses 3-6 concerning the emptiness of the death of a one who sought to exist outside of the sovereign rule and reign of God, he employs verses 7-10 to explain how one who is a believer, one who embraces the sovereignty of God over all things, how that one is to live in this life and in this world and in the midst of the sin and the darkness of this world. We all recall the words of David found in Psalm 23 where David says that he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, and here is Solomon describing for us what that walk looks like. What is it like to live in the shadow of death? He's just, Solomon told us about it in 3-6. Now he's going to describe in verses 7-10 what it looks like to live as a believer in the shadow of death. And we notice here listed the imperatives of God, these are imperatives. Now please note that I'm not rattling off for you Tom's top seven suggestions on how to live a godly life. First this is not my list, this is God's, for it comes from his word. And second of course you didn't come to hear my list, so if I ever start to spout off my own personal opinions from the pulpit, please do both of us a favor and run from here as fast as you possibly can. And third, these are not suggestions, they are imperatives, they are commands. So just like the Ten Commandments are commands, these also are commands, they're imperatives of God. What does he say in verses 7-10? Let's just look at the imperative words here, go, eat, drink, be clothed in white. And here we recall the words of the prophet Isaiah chapter 1, when Isaiah says, Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Also be anointed. In other words, don't walk around with an intentional look that conveys that it's holy to be miserable. Remember Jesus says in Matthew 6, he says, When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men that they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full, but when you fast, put oil on your head, wash your face, so it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father. And then enjoy life. And then do what you do with all your might. These are imperatives. These things are listed, they're all appointed by God, and they're commands that He gives us. Yes, the fall corrupted all these things, and so we must take care to live obediently to God's Word, and we must understand how we're to operate in the midst of these things, despite the fact that we're a fallen. Nevertheless, God would still have us to enjoy what He has placed before us as we tend to what He has placed before us. We've discussed this before, during this study of Ecclesiastes, work, as we know, is an original command of God. It's an institution granted to man in the garden before the fall, and so therefore it's a creation mandate, and the command of God for the labor of man is indicative of the truth that our faith is to be active and not passive, and we're always to do what we do as unto God and for His glory. And this is not consistent with Scripture's teaching for believers, His command for our life. John chapter 15, Jesus says, if you obey my commands, you'll remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remained in His love. I've told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. The call of God, Philippians 4, command, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. The command of God and God's word, 1 Thessalonians 5, be joyful always. These are imperatives, they're commands of God. And it's also, this is a passage, also a description consistent with what we know of the early church. Recall Acts chapter 2, verse 46, speaking of the early church, every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts and they broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Now this passage should not be understood as contradictory to our understanding of our eternal life in Christ. Solomon here doesn't deny life after death. What he teaches here is that we are to live the life we have been given and live it to the fullness because when we do so, that glorifies God. So we come to verses 11 and 12 and here we find again difficult and yet obvious truth. We don't know everything. We can't predict everything. We don't possess certainty. This is what Solomon is telling us. Notice Solomon's words. I have seen something else under the sun. The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned, but time and chance happen to them all. Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come as fish are caught in a cruel net or birds are taken in a snare. So men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them. Again when we think about Solomon, we remember that sometimes the truth he's communicating is the truth of this world and sometimes he's communicating wisdom that is under heaven and we need to make sure we're getting our categories straight. And this is what it says. It says I've seen something else under the sun when Solomon communicates these things. This is what the world sees. This is what the world thinks. This is what we see when we are living outside of or out from under the rule and reign of God. Now the word here we've rendered as chance also means occurrence or it means misfortune and though it certainly carries that connotation, yet chance is a good revering. Recall that this is the view of life under the sun and of course from this perspective, life and life's events would likely seem to occur in a haphazard manner. Life is haphazard and this is the understanding when you live in life under the sun, when wisdom is under the sun, when you're living your life away from the sovereignty of God, then life and life events all just seem to happen haphazardly. It's the unpredictability of life and death. Life's events are unexpected and so therefore the assumption is that life's events are purely random but life under heaven knows that there's more to the story. The believer certainly does not know the schedule of the events of one's life but the believer does know the one who has a schedule and we know the one who compiled the schedule. We know the one who has stuck to the schedule and we know the one who is sticking to that schedule and the one who will stick to the schedule and the one who will complete that schedule. So yeah, we don't know the details but we know the one who's in charge of the details. We come to the end of the chapter and then here in verse 13, Solomon tells us a little parable, a little story. He says in verse 13, I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me. Now the word here rendered as impressed, when we see the word impressed and we think about the word impressed, we generally give it a positive spin. That impressed me greatly. Well let's remember that the word impressed doesn't always mean that it's a positive view. Sometimes the word can be a negative view as well and sometimes it can be neutral. Solomon is impressed by the story that he's about to share. It doesn't mean he likes it, it doesn't mean he has a positive attitude about it. It just, he doesn't necessarily see it as a positive but he does see it as important and impressed him in that way. With that, let's look at verses 14 and 15. There was once a small city with only a few people in it, and a powerful king came against it, surrounded it, and built huge siege works against it. Now there lived in that city a man, poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Now this story, this would make a great movie indeed. I mean I might even pony up $10 for popcorn and another $10 for the soda when I go to the theater to see this one, but seriously, this is a great story. And in the story we read that this poor man, one who yet possessed great wisdom, went to work on behalf of his beloved hometown. And as the story goes, the poor man employed his wisdom. So none of the villagers had to take up arms against the attacking army. No one was recruited to go over the wall in an attempt to compromise the siege works and defend the city. The poor man employed wisdom in defense of the city. And as we see in the middle of verse 15, the city was saved. Certainly an unpredictable outcome. Would anyone have predicted that this strategy employing wisdom rather than brute force would have won the city their victory? Anyone would have been crazy to take these odds. And yet this is precisely what happened. This poor man saved the city, and he did it by his wisdom. Now we would certainly think then that to honor and to remember this poor man's work in saving the city, the city leaders would have held a parade in the man's honor, and they would have erected a statue to him in the town square. But that's not what happened. Notice the end of verse 15. Nobody remembered that poor man. Now when Solomon heard this story, he drew an immediate application. And we see this in verses 16 through 18. Solomon says, Now I said wisdom is better than strength. But the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words were no longer heeded. The quiet words of the wise, Solomon continues, are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. Here in chapter 9, Solomon's conclusion to his pursuit of wisdom seems to be this, that the thing that the world claims as wisdom is not wisdom at all, and that wisdom under the sun hasn't a clue concerning life and even concerning this world. The wisdom of this world bumbles along clueless concerning holy and unholy, right and wrong, good and evil, truth and lie, clean and unclean. And as long as wisdom that is under the sun maintains itself as the wisdom that resides detached from God, out from under his sovereignty, rejecting his rule and reign, then that life, the life that is lived under the sun, will always be meaningless. And the death that occurs at the end of that life will always be meaningless. Rejection of the gift of life is 180 degrees in opposition to the wisdom of God. So here's how we would do well to see Jesus in Ecclesiastes in this passage. Thinking of this last parable taught by Solomon, is it not true that the rejection of the poor man who saved the besieged city precisely what this world has done? For there was a city to which the enemy once laid siege, and the city was the people of God, and the enemy was the evil one, and the leaders of that city, the powerful and the wealthy and the important and the learned, they were in fact powerless to break the siege, right? They were powerless to break the siege. The leaders were the scribes and the Pharisees and the priests and all the religiously self-righteous, and the city was besieged by sin. And the leaders of the city could do nothing to break the siege. But one day, the poor man arrived, and he broke the siege, and he saved the city. And he did so not by might and not by power in the way that man understands them, but he did it by what? His wisdom employed in a manner no one else could. The poor man who proved to be that Savior was Jesus. And in the very act that saved the children of God, he saved the city. But nevertheless, he was then rejected by the ones he came to save. John chapter 1, verse 10, he was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. My friends, it is wisdom that is under the sun that has rejected Jesus. It is wisdom that seeks to be away from the rule and reign of God. This is the wisdom that has rejected Jesus. It is imperative for each of us today to not make that same mistake. The wisdom that is under heaven calls us each to glorify God by our words and by our actions and with our lives, knowing that everything, everything belongs to God. And then let us not be the ones who failed to remember the poor man. This is true for the person here who today has never yet professed faith in Jesus. My friend, the invitation is open for you now, today. Place your faith and your trust in Christ for your salvation and receive by faith the grace of God which brings forgiveness of sins and makes you brand new, makes you destined for glory. Unless we get too smug and self-assured, this is also true for the person who has professed faith in Jesus for just months or perhaps years or even decades. For all of us, as we are looking over the spiritual dashboard and out the spiritual windshield of our lives, get that picture? For all of us who are looking over the spiritual dashboard and out the spiritual windshield of our lives, we must see, we must see that glory is appearing to be a larger and larger landmark before us on the horizon. So dearly beloved, let us not take our gaze off of Jesus now. Not for a moment. Not for a moment. Let us not take our gaze off of Christ. In fact, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith. Let's bow our heads and pray, shall we? God, the wisdom that you imparted upon Solomon was not the nuts and bolts of how to do this or how to do that. It was rather the obvious yet revealed truth that you are God and that you are to be trusted with all things. And let the nuts and bolts rest at your feet. Father, give us the confidence and the faith to trust you with all things. Father, there are many dark and evil things going on in this world even now. Things we cannot comprehend and understand. Things we don't possibly comprehend or understand as to why they would even be here, yet here they are. Father, we trust you with them. Would you so move upon this world and would you so reveal your power and your glory in these things? And then, Father, with the very matters of our own lives, all the questions and the concerns, the things that keep us up at night, the things over which we struggle and have anxiety and fear and just do not understand, we trust you with those also. Father, that you would not only rule and reign over us, but you would so direct our steps and give us the confidence to rely on you for all these things. And we trust in you fully. We trust in you completely, knowing that you are bringing us closer to glory and knowing that we can rely on you for all the wisdom that we need for this world because you supply it and you've promised to give it as a gift to your children. For this we thank you and praise you and give you glory. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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