Live Like it....

Imagine that

Imagine a world where everybody lived as though there were someone who had a hand of providence over them

I wanna look as we go into the new year at something I think each of us could stand to work on as christians

I think most all of us fail to live our lives as though God already takes care of us

I wanna look at some scriptures in Ecclesiastes

English Standard Version Chapter 9

9 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

Enjoy Life with the One You Love

7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.

9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going

If you go back through Ecclesiastes you find many place that the author tells us that all lives are in the hand of God

starting out breaking down verse 1 he tells us that again

He tells us all lives good or evil are in the hands of God

We as humans are very limited however God is very infinite

see he already has plans for our 2019 even if they aren’t our plans

Moving on through v.2 and 3

We find it again saying this goes for everyone the righteous or the wicked

Its talking about death in saying all of us are going to die.

No matter who you are or no matter how good or bad you are there will come a time that you will die.

v.4

I want to look at the lion and dog v.4 tells us about just a moment

I know in these days we have our dogs and we look at them as these great things but in those days dogs were looked down on as scavengers however lions were majestic and powerful hunters

So in verse 4 the author goes from telling us about death to essentially telling us that our life is meaningful even if we are a lonely scavenger who many people see as worthless

I wanna look through a couple more verses then come back to verse 4

v 5-6

So were back to talking about death and when we put all these verses together as a whole I have to think that we aren’t living like we are thankful for our lives

We live as though God has given us nothing when hes given us everything

Lets talk more about the dog shall we

The dog was used an analagy to tell us even if you arent worth anything in most peoples eyes youre life still has a purpose

there is meaning in you being on this earth God blessed us with this life and he blessed us to enjoy

We fall so easy into a depression state that we run around and were so worried about everything in our lives that we don’t look like God is anywhere near us

Why would anyone want to be a christian when all they see is a bunch of mopey sad Christians

God blessed us with a gift called life we should live like its truly a gift not a curse

On a even deeper level we rareley live like God has a purpose on our lives

We get in routines and we do the same thing every single day

Pope John Paul II said

1001 Illustrations that Connect Illustration 332: Turning on the Switch

After I had faith, living things became precious to me. I wanted to pet them, hug them—babies and dogs and lizards, whatever. For me the great fruit of belief is joy. There is a God, there is a purpose, there is a meaning to things, there are realities we cannot guess at, there is a big peace, and you are part of it.

“God is good.” Near him is where you want to be. There is something called everlasting happiness, and Saint Paul—a fiercely imperfect man who was a great man—was granted visions of it, and that great user of words was floored by it and said that no one can imagine how wonderful it is. The human imagination cannot encompass it.

People of true faith enjoy life

As the qutoe said they enjoy lizards and dog and babies. They enjoy the little things of life. Most of all they know God has a purpose on them

You know i can get as moody and grumpy as anyone but when I sit down and think about how God first off blessed us with this life then allowed us to have a purpose in this life it blows my mind how people can run around and always look so sad and angry

Our God didn’t create us to mope around like our lives are over

our God created us with a purpose our God created us to show happiness

If God cant make us happy then why are we even here

Why did we come into church this morning

When people look at us sad christians they cant believe its a good thing

In fact I think a lot of times the christians end up looking more down then the other people

If the hand of God is always upon our lives why do we live as though we are all alone?

When things come into our heads that bother us we always say we need to share it with people but rarely share it with God.

When we mess up I think were like “oh sorry God” then move on with our life like he isnt even there

It should joyful and comforting to know Gods providence is always on our lives

God wants nothing but the best for us.

So I say we go into our new year and simply do one thing… we live like God is a part of it

I think we nearly disown God and we say oh you can be a part of this but not that.

I want you here but not there.

The thing about God and his providence is we dont get to pick when we want it

Its always there want it or not

IT SHOULD BE COMFORTING TO KNOW THAT AS A CHILD OF GOD I CANT MESS UP HIS PROTECTION

THERE ISNT ANYTHING I CAN DO THAT WILL EVER GET RID OF HIS HAND ON MY LIFE

(CLOSE)

I hope you took one simply thing out of this

Live this year and every year foward as though God is the guardian of youre life

live youre life knowing his hand of protection is over you

Ecclesiasties chapter 9 was telling us to enjoy our lives

We seem to forget one day we wont have it

We seem to forget our lives have meaning and we just fall in a rut of the same cycle every week

We arent happy children of God. Were people who look like were forced to be christians