Out of Control

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Bubba)

Good morning family!

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Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Psalm 95:1-3)

Prayer of Praise (Shelly Robertson)

We Believe (Apostle's Creed)

It Is Not Death to Die

Prayer of Confession (Jerry Brewton), Sinful desire for control

Assurance of Pardon (Isaiah 55:6–9)

Reaching & Teaching Video

Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Scripture Reading (Eccl. 6:10-7:14)—page _________ in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Bubba)

Prayer for PBC—Help us to think rightly about death

Prayer for kingdom partner—Pillar Network

Prayer for US—House of Representatives

Prayer for the world—Belguim

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

Can you remember the moment it first hit you—really hit you—that you were not in control?

I was a 17-year-old college student on the campus of Bob Jones University.

Up to that point, I lived most of my life under the illusion that I was in control.

Sure, I had boundaries. My parents had rules and my college had rules. But I had learned how to navigate the system in a way that led to mostly predictable outcomes.

I lived as if I controlled my own life and my own destiny.

Until on September 30, 2002 when the house of cards that I built came crashing down.

I was walking towards the cafeteria for lunch, when my dad called and told me my two-year-old baby brother, Adrien, had hit his head, fallen into a swimming pool, and was now on life support.

I was almost three hours away. There was nothing I could do to help my little brother.

Even when I arrived, there was nothing I could do. I spent most of the night stretched out over waiting room chairs, bargaining with God. But I was totally and completely out of control.

And the next morning as I stood in that hospital room with my family and watched my father and mother weep for their son. They begged God to save him. They begged Adrien to wake up. They wept uncontrollably, but my brother was already gone.

It only takes a split second to destroy the illusion that you are in control. Have you experienced such a moment?

Maybe it came with the loss of a loved one.

Or an unwelcome diagnosis.

Or at the bitter end of a relationship.

Or the death of a dream.

As painful as these moments are, it’s actually a good thing to realize you’re not in control.

Because…

Deep joy comes when you stop pretending you’re in control and start trusting the One who is.

That’s the Big idea we’re going to study in God’s Word today.

So please turn in your Bibles (if you’re not already there) to Ecclesiastes 6:10.

Today we officially cross the halfway point of this book of the Bible, so before we begin let’s pause to remember a few key truths about this book.

Written by either Solomon—or someone who was trying to sound a lot like him—it comes from an ancient literary genre called wisdom literature.

Wisdom literature communicates truth through poetry, rhetorical questions, figures of speech, and anecdotes.

Many books of the Bible are like a fastball right down the middle. You know right where it’s going. But the book of Ecclesiastes is like a knuckleball that catches you off guard.

But there are two key terms in the book that help us adjust to its surprising way of communicating.

The first is the word hevel, which is translated in our English Bibles as “vanity.”

The word hevel refers to something elusive and transitory.

Like smoke curling up from a chimney, like the bubbles blown by a toddler, like your breath on a cold winter’s morning, hevel cannot be kept and it cannot be controlled.

This word will appears 38 times in Ecclesiastes, and we’ll see it today in 6:11 and 7:6.

The other term that helps us adjust to the book of Ecclesiastes is the phrase under the sun.

It refers to the material world. To a life lived horizontally, without reference to the Creator.

This phrase appears 29 times in Ecclesiastes, and it’ll pop up today in 6:12.

The author of Ecclesiastes is NOT trying to depress you, even if it feels like that sometimes.

He’s inviting you to join him on a dark path to deep joy.

The kind of joy that can survive what my family endured in 2003.

But in order to survive pain like that with your joy intact, you need to wrestle with painful and inconvenient truths.

Like our key truth for today, that Deep joy comes when you stop pretending you’re in control and start trusting the One who is.

But this is easier said than done. Because even after the illusion of control is stripped away from you, it doesn’t take long for you to start thinking and acting like you’re in control again.

The Preacher invites us to take Three Steps in the right direction.

First, 6:10-12 invite you to accept life’s uncertainty.

Then, 7:1-12 instruct you to embrace your responsibility.

Finally, 7:13-14 urge you to trust God’s sovereignty.

Let’s begin.

If you want to stop pretending you’re in control and start trusting the One who is, you must…

1) Accept Life’s UNCERTAINTY

Ecclesiastes 6:10—Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he.

To name something is to exercise authority over it. Like God naming Adam, then giving Adam authority to name the animals.

The Preacher looks at the entire timeline of your life and says “it’s already been named, just not by you.”

This is just a poetic way of pointing out the obvious: you are not in control.

It’s easy to feel like you’re in control when life goes well. You work hard, and get a degree or a promotion. You watch a few YouTube videos and remodel your house. You get married and start a family. You set fitness goals and meet them, now you’re in the best shape of your life!

But what happens when the economy tanks and you get laid off and can’t find a new job? Or your house burns down in a fire? Or a car accident takes your family? Or your doctor calls you and tells you that the cancer is aggressive and you only have a few months to live?

What are you going to do in the moments when life spins outside of your control?

You can fight and complain about the way your life turns out, but the Preacher says you’re “disputing with Someone who is stronger than you.”

He doesn’t tell us who this Someone is, but he will at the end of our passage.

But he does warn us that fighting and complaining when life spins out of our control doesn’t fix anything.

Ecclesiastes 6:11—The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about our pain when life hurts. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t open up with God or others.

But it does mean your words don’t change anything.

Just think about the story of Job. In one day he lost almost everything. His business, his wealth, his children, and his health. For about a third of Job’s 42 chapters he laments about what he lost.

Job’s laments weren’t always wrong. But they were always ineffectual. None of his words brought back a single child that he lost.

You might feel like you’re in control of your life, but you aren’t. Control is an illusion.

Your life is as fragile as Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall. In the blink of an eye your life can fall apart and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men cannot put it back together again.

Just to drill this point home, the Preacher concludes this first section with two questions that illustrate just how uncertain life actually is.

Ecclesiastes 6:12—For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?

The second question illustrates the reality that none of us know the future.

Who can tell man what will be? The answer to the Preacher’s rhetorical question is nobody!

There are plenty of people who talk and act as if they know what tomorrow holds. But the truth is, they don’t.

Perhaps the Apostle James was meditating on this verse when he said…

James 4:13–15—Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

You are not in control. You do not know what will happen this afternoon, let alone tomorrow or next week or next year.

Even your life—the most precious gift you have—is a mist that appears for a little time then disappears.

That’s another point the Preacher is making in 6:12.

Even if you live to be 100, your days are few and your life passes like a shadow.

As a part of a local church blessed with people from every generation, I’ve had the privilege of spending a lot of time with a lot of people at the end of life.

Do you know what I’ve never heard anybody say? That took FOREVER! FINALLY!

No, everybody talks about how FAST life flies by.

Life is short. And you don’t know when yours is going to end. There is Someone who knows the number of your days. But it isn’t you. Because you aren’t in control!

Deep joy comes when you stop pretending you’re in control and start trusting the One who is.

You can start by accepting life’s uncertainty.

Admit that you really don’t know how it’s going to turn out. And you really aren’t in control.

But once you accept that, you’re in danger of swinging the pendulum to the other extreme.

Once you accept life’s uncertainty, you’re in danger of embracing futility.

Of saying, “Que Sera, Sera,” whatever happens, happens. My life doesn’t matter, my choices don’t matter.

“I’ll just pursue nihilism, hedonism or escapism until I die!”

The Preacher rejects those paths. Instead, he invites you to…

2) Embrace Your RESPONSIBILITY

Go back to 6:12 for just a moment.

Notice the Preacher asks a question, “who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life?”

7:1-12 is actually Solomon’s answer to that question.

He uses the Hebrew word tov, which is translated “good” or “better” nine times in this section.

We don’t have ultimate control over our lives. But we do have a responsibility to make good choices that lead to blessing in our lives and the lives around us.

Consider six choices you have a responsibility to make—choices that can lead to the good life.

A) Choose INTEGRITY over extravagance

Ecclesiastes 7:1a—A good name is better than precious ointment…

A good name is a reference to your reputation. Your integrity and character.

Precious ointment would’ve been a costly luxury in ancient Israel.

So the Preacher is urging us to choose integrity over extravagance.

It is hard to build up a good reputation, and it’s easy to lose it.

Taking the time to cultivate a good name will be worth it, no matter how long it takes.

If you’re prone to tell lies, exaggerate, or make commitments you don’t keep, people have learned not to trust you. They take what you say with a grain of salt. Or they just assume it’s not true because you said it.

You might feel like you’ve buried yourself into a hole that is too deep to ever get out. But if you confess your sin and fight to speak truthfully you can eventually become a person of integrity. And it’ll be worth more than anything money can buy.

If you want to embrace your responsibility in life, you’ll choose integrity over extravagance. But also…

B) Choose REFLECTION over frivolity

Ecclesiastes 7:1b—… and the day of death [is better than] than the day of birth.

The Preacher is not referring to his death, he’s referring to the death of someone else.

He’s saying that witnessing someone die leads to wisdom and reflection even more than witnessing a child being born.

This is especially clear when you read…

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4—It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

Essentially the Preacher is saying it’s better to spend your time at funerals than at parties.

Does that seem insensitive to you? Or counterintuitive?

The reason a funeral is more beneficial than a party is this: a funeral helps you to remember your mortality.

Parties are great. Parties are fun! But few people leave a party thinking about the brevity of life. Few people leave a party thinking about the type of legacy we’ll leave. Few people leave a party thinking about what happens after death. Few people leave a party thinking about eternity.

But funerals are different. Funerals invite us to zoom out from the distractions of life and think about the moment when all of us will face death.

Some of you can go an entire year or more without ever thinking about eternity, but when we are confronted with the specter of death it’s almost impossible to ignore the longing in our hearts for life after death.

At age 18, a young Jonathan Edwards composed a list of 70 resolutions that he committed to review once a week. His ninth resolution said this: “Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death." [1]

How would your life be different if you regularly reflected on your own death?

Wouldn’t you live differently?

And yet, far too many of us waste our lives pursuing mindless frivolities that distract us from what’s most important. We have a lot of fun, but we don’t stop to think about the brevity of life.

If you want to embrace your responsibility in life, you’ll choose reflection over frivolity. But also you’ll…

C) Choose REBUKE over distraction

Ecclesiastes 7:5-6—It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity.

In Solomon’s day, two of the most common types of distraction were music and laughter.

Not a lot has changed in the last 3000 years. Today we have more music and comedians to listen to than at any time in human history.

And those are just two types of distractions. We could add to that list sports, television, movies, board games, video games, smartphones, social media, 24/7 news, travel, hobbies, and buying whatever you want whenever you want on Amazon.

Solomon looks at it all and he says, it’s like thorns crackling under a pot. They catch fire really easy, burn really fast, and then they’re gone.

You live in a world that is constantly trying to distract you from what’s really important. But none of it keeps you distracted for long, so there always has to be another event, another game, another movie, another post, another experience.

Do you know what’s better than the distracted life?

A life with real, deep relationships with people that love you enough to occasionally rebuke you. To say, “Bro, what are you doing?!? Stop that!”

Kids, I know mom and dad frustrate you when they lecture you. You would much rather play your video games or watch TV. But the Bible says those rebukes from mom and dad are BETTER than entertainment.

Adults, you don’t stop needing rebukes when you become an adult. Do you have any relationships in your life where people have the freedom to rebuke you? Or are you so busy chasing distraction that you wouldn’t listen anyways?

If you want to embrace your responsibility in life, you’ll choose rebuke over distraction. But also you’ll…

D) Choose PATIENCE over restlessness

Ecclesiastes 7:7-9—Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart. Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.

The centerpiece of these verses is being patient in spirit like verse 8 talks about.

And the opposite of the type of patience the Preacher envisions here is an unsettled restlessness.

In verse 7, Solomon says even someone who is relatively wise will be tempted by a bribe when oppression strikes.

Why? Because they’re restless. Their savings are gone and they cannot wait to see how God will provide.

In verse 8, the restless are always tempted to start something fresh and new. But the patient are willing to see something through until the end. And that’s better.

In verse 9 the restless are easily angered when things don’t go their way. Because they cannot wait for God to execute justice in His time.

Do you see yourself in any of these verses? Do you struggle waiting on God to provide? Do you struggle finishing what you started? Do you struggle with anger?

All of this restlessness is a symptom of someone who thinks they are in control! Patiently waiting requires a belief in Something or Someone bigger than you who is in control when you are not.

If you want to embrace your responsibility in life, you’ll choose patience over restlessness. But also you’ll…

E) Choose GRATITUDE over nostalgia

Ecclesiastes 7:10—Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

This one is a temptation for anybody north of about 30 years old. It’s very easy to look in the rearview mirror and tell yourself that those were the good old days.

I was born in 1984, but I don’t really remember most of the 80s. For me the good old days were the 1990s. When mullets were lame, only girls wore short shorts, gas was under a buck, kids didn’t need seatbelts, you could still Super Size your meal at McDonald’s, everybody knew only women could get pregnant, and tick tock was only the noise a clock makes.

But nostalgia is a fool’s errand, because some of you can remember talking about the good old days when I was a kid. And if we live long enough some of us will eventually talk about the 2020s as the good old days too. Imagine that.

In his commentary on Ecclesiastes, Douglas O’Donnell writes, “Nostalgia of this sort nauseates Pastor Solomon, for he knows, as we all should know, that each age has its own unique opportunities and challenges, and we cannot face the challenges of our age by pining after another.” [2]

Instead of pining for the good old days, be grateful for the days you have now.

If you want to embrace your responsibility in life, you’ll choose gratitude over nostalgia. But also…

F) Choose WISDOM over wealth

Ecclesiastes 7:11–12—Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

Many people look to wealth for their security and protection.

We talked last week about why loving money is a bad investment.

But the truth is, money can help offer a measure of protection.

But the protection wisdom offers is even better.

Because wisdom can actually preserve your life, and wealth cannot.

If wealth could preserve your life, than rich people wouldn’t die!

But perhaps you’re wondering, “wait a minute! Wise people die too don’t they? What does the Preacher mean when he says wisdom is better than money because it preserves the life of him who has it?”

To answer that question, we need to consider the final step that Solomon wants us to take.

Remember our Big Idea: Deep joy comes when you stop pretending you’re in control and start trusting the One who is.

If you want to stop pretending you’re in control and start trusting the One who is, you have to...

… Accept life’s uncertainty and embrace your responsibility.

But you cannot stop there. Because think through that list—how many of us are able to consistently do these things?

How many of you regularly choose integrity over extravagance? Or reflection over frivolity? Or rebuke over distraction?

The truth is, all of us fall short of this list. The path to life-preserving wisdom in 7:12 isn’t pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. It’s looking to Someone bigger than you.

If you want to stop pretending you’re in control and start trusting the One who is, you must learn to…

3) Trust God’s SOVEREIGNTY

Ecclesiastes 7:13—Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?

In 1737 a Scottish Presbyterian pastor named Thomas Boston wrote a famous book about suffering entitled The Crook in the Lot.

That title wasn’t a reference to a thief in the backyard. It was based on this verse.

The crook in your lot is the suffering that you endure under the sun.

And the Preacher wants you to understand that your suffering is not an accident. It was ordained by the sovereign hand of God.

Thomas Boston wrote this: “As to the crook in your lot, God has made it; and it must continue while He will have it so. Should you ply your utmost force to even it, or make it straight, your attempt will be vain: it will not change for all you can do. Only He who made it can mend it, or make it straight.” [3]

You are not in control, friend. When suffering comes, you cannot reverse it or make it go away.

So what should you do?

Ecclesiastes 7:14—In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

When life is going well—when you’re not suffering—you shouldn’t be worrying about when something bad is going to happen. You should rejoice! Enjoy it!

When adversity comes, fight to remember that God is still in control.

God is not only sovereign over the good in your life. He is sovereign over the bad.

This does not mean that God is the author of evil. He is perfectly good! But it does mean that God is sovereign over evil.

I love the way John Piper explains it in his book Providence: “If finite humans can find ways to handle radioactive uranium to produce useful energy without being contaminated by the deadly radiation, it is likely that the infinitely wise God can handle the deadly evil of sin without contamination or harm in bringing about his wise and holy purposes. If finite humans searching for a preventive vaccine can handle the lethal viruses of new diseases without being infected themselves, it is likely that the infinitely wise and good God can handle the disease of sin without being infected.” [4]

If it’s hard for you to accept that God is sovereign, even over evil and suffering in your life, I invite you to leave the pages of Ecclesiastes and consider the darkest day in human history.

Almost 1000 years after Solomon wrote these words, the eternal Son of God was born of a virgin in Bethlehem.

He lived a perfect life, never giving in to sin. He always chose the path of wisdom, unlike you and me.

And yet, the only perfectly innocent human being died the most brutal death imaginable.

That is evil.

And yet, Christians affectionately refer to that day as Good Friday.

Why? Because God turned evil into good!

The death of Christ wasn’t an accident! It was all a part of God’s plan to rescue His people!

Jesus died as a substitute for His people. He paid the penalty for our sinful failure to take responsibility and pursue lives of wisdom and goodness. And on the third day He rose from death so that whoever believes in Him can have His righteousness as a free gift!

Have you trusted in Jesus? Repent and believe today!

If you have, you can trust God’s sovereignty—even when life hurts—because you know that He will one day turn all this evil and suffering and pain into good.

The Apostle Paul puts it this way…

Romans 8:28—And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

Deep joy comes when you stop pretending you’re in control and start trusting the One who is.

Augustus Toplady was an 18th-century pastor in England, best known today for the hymns he wrote—especially Rock of Ages and the song we’re about to sing. But his preaching also pointed people to God’s sovereignty despite life’s uncertainty. In one sermon, he reminded his hearers: “Health is a tender, precarious flower; life is a brittle, slender thread; how soon the one may wither, and the other break, He alone can tell who lent us both.” [5]

Toplady knew those words were true. For most of his adult life he suffered with tuberculosis, a slow and painful disease that left him frail and often struggling for breath. By the age of thirty-seven, he was confined to bed and could hardly move across a room without help. And yet, as his body withered, his faith only grew stronger.

On his deathbed Toplady told his friends: “It is all perfect peace and unclouded sunshine. I am going to my Father, and my Savior. No mortal man can live better than I am living now.”

That’s not the voice of a man in control. And it’s not the voice of a man who’s afraid because he’s out of control.

It’s the voice of a man who found deep joy by trusting the God who is sovereign over all.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Now Why This Fear

Benediction (Romans 11:36)