God's Provision, Protection, And Peace

Intro and brief recap of last week.

Explain Hevel and point to where it is used this week.

Hevel - temporary, breath, meaningless, brief, and is the same Hebrew word for Able, the brother that was murdered by Cain.

verse 10 and 14 - “This too is futile.”

Recap of last week.

God gives us earthly leadership so that we can grow.

God is the ultimate authority.

The time to say yes to God’s leadership is now.

God’s directive for all believers is for us to be disciples and also to be disciple-makers.

This is not a task just for those that are advanced in their faith.

From the moment you give your life to Christ, you are a disciple and you have something to share with others.

You have the Holy Spirit living inside you.

He is the one that is doing the work of disciple-making.

Our role is to do and say what the Holy Spirit is saying.

This is exactly how Jesus described His ministry.

Today we are going to finish up chapter 8 with a word on how we are to respond to injustices that we face.

Let’s read it together.

Ecclesiastes 8:10–9:1 CSB

10 In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they did those things. This too is futile. 11 Because the sentence against an evil act is not carried out quickly, the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit evil. 12 Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before him. 13 However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God. 14 There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile. 15 So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun. 16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one’s eyes do not close in sleep day or night), 17 I observed all the work of God and concluded that a person is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a person labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it; even if a wise person claims to know it, he is unable to discover it. 1 Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: The righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands. People don’t know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them.

We started this study by looking at the story of Cain and Able to see and understand Hevel.

Just like Able did not deserve to die and Cain did not deserve to have the life that he stole from Able, we experience injustice in our own lives.

For most of us, it isn’t a life and death situation, but the reality is that injustice is rampant in our world.

All of us will experience injustice in varying degrees over the course of our lives.

The goal today is for us to hear the words of the author of Ecclesiastes and learn how to respond to injustice in a way that is beneficial.

Over the last five years, I have felt that the Lord was telling me that there would come a time or many times when I would have the opportunity to use my position in the world to help others.

This week I was given that kind of opportunity and I want to share some of that story as a case study for this passage.

There is a young man in my life that, from birth, has had a hard life.

He is nineteen years old and has only spoken to his father twice.

Both times were on the phone and based on the way he refereed to them, they were underwhelming.

He is one of six children and their family is way below the poverty line.

As a young man, he is trying to get his adult life started.

He is dating a young lady that has a little boy and he has taken the father role for this child.

He has an apartment and now his younger siblings often stay with him.

His goal is to be able to take care of his family.

That is all he wants.

He has been struggling for quite a while to get a full time job so that he can support his family.

I was asked by my counter part at work last week if I knew of anyone that wanted to work because we have some entry level positions open.

I immediately thought of this young man.

I thought that his asking that was the Holy Spirit.

I began making calls and trying to figure out how to make it happen.

Other professionals are also involved, but he is struggling to get things handled.

God confirmed it was time for me to help him when my boss, the owner of the company called to ask how Petron could help him.

The problem is that he doesn’t know his Social security number, which we all know is required to get a job.

The Social security office isn’t open right now and the only way to get it is to provide an I.D. and an original birth certificate.

All he has is a copy of his birth certificate.

He, like many others in his position, had no idea where to start.

That’s where God has spoken for me to help him.

This young man still has a long way to go, but we are working the problems to help get him all that is needed.

I share this because my guess is that most if not all of the people in this room didn’t have this much trouble getting your first real job.

There are many reasons that this young man is in the situation that he finds himself in, but the point is that he is stuck.

He is living in injustice and has no idea how to get out.

That is why God has placed a community of believers in his life to help him.

The question is, when and how do we help?

The preacher is telling us in our passage today that there is a lot in this world that is not fair.

How do we respond?

We respond to injustice and suffering with faith and trust in God’s justice.

There is much we can do, but we always need to start by asking God.

We will address this later in this passage, but I want you to hear me say that all of our actions should be prompted and motivated by the Holy Spirit.

As we obey what God is saying, we need to remember a couple of important truths.

God’s timing is not like our timing.

We have talked about this previously and so I won’t spend much time here.

God does not exist in time as we do.

Because of that, He acts when all are ready.

Often, in our lack of understanding, we want it to happen in our time frame.

There will be times when God allows us to see a person struggling.

Instead of just jumping in and fixing their problems we need to ask God how to respond.

Are we playing the part of an amateur providence, trying to play God’s role in the lives of others? Are we so noisy in our instruction of other people that God cannot get near them? - Oswald Chambers

Whether the troubles that life throws are our own or of those we love, we need to realize that God is aware and is working for our good.

Jumping in to save the day isn’t always the answer.

To point back to our case study, many of us have seen these issues in this young man’s life, but it wasn’t until this week that God gave me the go-ahead to be involved.

I have tried before and God shut me down.

I don’t know why, but someone or some part of what God is doing wasn’t ready yet.

There is suffering and injustice all around us and God has a plan to use each of us in some way.

Rather than us trying to figure it out, we need to ask God what to do and then trust in His answer.

We also need to realize that how He handles it may look very different than how we would.

In verse ten today we see the words “in such circumstances”.

This phrase is only used in one other place in all of scripture and it is found in the book of Esther.

Esther 4:16 CSB

16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my female servants will also fast in the same way. After that, I will go to the king even if it is against the law. If I perish, I perish.”

To give some context to this passage, Esther has been chosen by King Xerxes as his new wife.

The previous wife did something to displease him and so he replaced her.

You need to know that to understand the boldness that Queen Esther is exhibiting.

One of King Xerxes is plotting to kill a man named Mordecai that was Esther’s uncle and who also raised her.

Haman, the plotter, doesn’t just want to kill Mordecai, but also all of his ethnicity which was the Jewish people that were living in captivity under King Xerxes.

When Esther hears of the plot, how does she respond?

She asks all of her people to join her in prayer and fasting.

She is also willing to give her life to save her people.

She is laying it all on the line.

We respond as a community to the injustice we see.

Esther was ready to give her life for her people, but God was faithful to prepare Xerxes's heart before she arrived.

A person was not allowed to enter Xerxes’s presence unless they were summoned.

Even his wife was subject to this rule.

In order to save her people, she was prepared to approach the king, even a the cost of her life.

However, because God was working, He caused Xerxes to see Esther and call her to himself.

It’s a great story and you should go read it, but to shorten it, the king granted her request, saved Isreal, and had Haman put to death on the gallows he had made to kill Mordecai on.

God will take care of those in right relationship with Him.

Ecclesiastes 8:12–15 CSB

12 Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before him. 13 However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God. 14 There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile. 15 So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

This does not mean what culture thinks it does.

Some current Christian culture would tell you that this means that we will be financially blessed and have no troubles in life.

That is not what the author is saying.

He is saying that those that are in a right relationship with God will have God working in their lives for their benefit.

Living in a “right” with God is an abiding relationship.

We have experienced God through relationship and in response, we are abiding in Him.

God working in our lives doesn’t mean we won’t have troubles, rather it means that we aren’t facing those troubles alone.

Queen Esther was certainly experiencing trouble, but she trusted in God in the midst of it and God saved her and her people.

This young man in my life is living in difficulty, but God is working in his life through myself and many other believers.

Some from this church and some from my office.

God doesn’t make our trouble instantly disappear.

Instead, He guides us through them, and by doing so, we learn to trust Him.

This is how our faith is built.

Ask anyone in this building how difficulties in life have grown them and they will have story after story to tell of God’s guidance in times of trouble.

As crazy as it is that the Norman’s house was struck by lightning, caught fire, and flooded at the same time, I can’t wait to see how God is going to use it.

They are going to have a story to tell of God’s goodness, protection, and blessings!

It is God’s desire that we enjoy our lives.

We were created in God’s image with the purpose of living in relationship with Him.

When we were created in the garden, He provided all the food and drink we could ever desire.

Even though sin entered the world through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, we still long for food, drink, and satisfying work.

If we will choose to live in obedience to God, He will provide all that we need to be able to enjoy food, drink, and work.

Your satisfaction will no longer be dependent on what culture demands.

Your satisfaction will come from your relationship with God.

You won’t want or need what culture defines as “good”.

God’s presence in your life is the satisfaction that all of us long for.

We do not know what life holds for us, therefore, we choose to trust God with our well being.

Ecclesiastes 8:16–9:1 CSB

16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one’s eyes do not close in sleep day or night), 17 I observed all the work of God and concluded that a person is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a person labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it; even if a wise person claims to know it, he is unable to discover it. 1 Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: The righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands. People don’t know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them.

Verse sixteen is helping us to see that the author, while the wisest person to ever live and who spent his entire life pursuing wisdom, still can’t understand all the works of God.

Even if he was able to keep his eyes open both day and night, he still would not be able to know all that God does or why.

He has observed all that a person can see, he explored the places that many cannot, and seeks what others don’t.

If the author cannot find or see all that God is doing, what hope do we, who hardly try to have?

We say that we want to know God’s will and to see what He is doing.

But how hard do apply ourselves?

In the end, it doesn’t matter and that’s the point.

We shouldn’t assume that we can or do know all that is to know because in comparison to the author of Ecclesiastes, we have not tried at all.

The point that the author is making is that he has worked his entire life to understand God’s ways and came to the conclusion that no one can.

He concludes this thought in 9:1

Ecclesiastes 9:1 CSB

1 Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: The righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands. People don’t know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them.

He took all this and concluded that all the work is in God’s hand.

Our desire to know all the answers needs to be replaced with a desire to simply know God.

We can try to make plans for our lives, but we don’t know what life holds for us.

In making plans, all we are doing is setting ourselves up for potential failure.

We can make plans, invest in our future based on those plans, only to have it crumble at our feet because we didn’t consult God.

As I have said many times in the last few weeks, our lives are not our own.

In asking Jesus to be the Lord of our life, we are asking to be the one to determine the course of our lives.

After that request, making plans outside of what God has said, is going to make life harder, not easier.

Life will not feel more fulfilling, but less fulfilling because what we set our hearts on will not satisfy.

I keep repeating this because we need to understand it and live like it.

Our lives are not our own.

Listen to this devotional from Tozer that I read this morning.

So he said to him, "Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?" And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, "Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."—Matthew 22:12-13

...we have such a short time to prepare for such a long time. By that I mean we have now to prepare for then. We have an hour to prepare for eternity. To fail to prepare is an act of moral folly. For anyone to have a day given to prepare, it is an act of inexcusable folly to let anything hinder that preparation. If we find ourselves in a spiritual rut, nothing in the world should hinder us. Nothing in this world is worth it. If we believe in eternity, if we believe in God, if we believe in the eternal existence of the soul, then there is nothing important enough to cause us to commit such an act of moral folly.

Failing to get ready in time for eternity, and failing to get ready now for the great then that lies out yonder, is a trap in plain sight. There is an odd saying in the Old Testament, "How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds" (Proverbs 1:17). When the man of God wrote that, he gave the birds a little credit. It would be silly for a bird watching me set the trap to conveniently fly down and get into it. Yet there are people doing that all the time. People who have to live for eternity fall into that trap set for them in plain sight. Rut, Rot or Revival: The Condition of the Church, 87-88.

"And Lord, I have the message that will enable them to prepare. Give me a willingness—no a passion—to do my part in this urgent matter. Amen."

As the Lord is speaking into our lives, we need to pay close attention to what He is doing.

Instead of making plans, we need to ask God what He is planning.

If we have done that, where we live, work, play, and worship are not inconsequential, but are of utmost importance.

All of those things have very specific purposes and we need to be aware of that.

We need to ask God why He has placed us where we are.

Do you see the level of awesomeness that brings to every aspect of your life?

If God has placed you somewhere, it is because He plans to use you in a way that will have eternal results.

No longer is your job simply a source of income.

No longer is your home just a place to live.

No longer are your neighbors, family, or communities just happenstance.

In every area of your life, God wants to work through you to change the world.

Changing the world!!!

And the best part is that it doesn’t depend on your abilities.

The God who created the world with His voice is living inside of you and do even greater works than Jesus did.

If only we will get out of the way and stop trying to control everything.

I implore that you ask God why He has you where you are!

Don’t waste this life assuming that your presence doesn’t matter.

God created you with purpose and all we have to do to discover and enjoy that eternal purpose is to ask God!

There are no mistakes and no random accidents.

Every person alive is loved by a living God.

His desire for every one of us is to know Him and in knowing Him, enjoy all that this time on earth with Him.

This is our charge, to know Him, and to make Him known.

Let’s get to it.