THE OUTER LIMITS: ECCLESIASTES-Change Your Tomorrow

 Change Your Tomorrow Ecclesiastes 7:15-29 When posed with the question “what is wrong with the world” G.K. Chesterton reportedly responded wit the following letter: “Dear Sirs: I am. Sincerely Yours G. K. Chesterton” What would you say, if someone wrote you and asked “what is wrong with the world” What would you say, crime, war, hate, racism, murder, rape, sexism, Russia, the President of the United States of America, Democrats, Republicans, Jill Stein and the Green party… What compelled Chesterton to say, “I am” What would you say? Before you answer, hold on - and lets see if Solomon will change your answer; the way you answer the question, changes tomorrow: Ecclesiastes 7:15–29 (ESV) 15 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. Here he has teed us up, to walk into his current problem and it’s summed up like this: “How can God be good and fair when the world he created is bad and unfair” Maybe you’re here - maybe you’ve been here, maybe you KNOW someone who is here now. No matter where you are, Solomon is here and he’s dragging you through it. How will you answer the person who says: · Why would God make me with homosexual tendencies if that leaves me open for sin · Why would God make me with strong heterosexual tendencies that I’m unable to reconcile with day-to-day life · Why would God make me single · Why would God allow for awful things to befall me Here is what I want you to see - Solomon opens up with “in my vain life” he's walking you through his struggle, his personal torment and he’ll circle this back to himself after he works through it. But maybe if you’re struggling with the question “How can God be good and fair when the world he created is bad and unfair” remember Solomon is too. If you’re talking with someone who’s struggling through that - remember Solomon was and God saw fit that it would be recorded in the Bible. Why - because it’s a common struggle. This is common; if you’re a Christian you’ll be flabbergasted when this question hits you. You KNOW it shouldn’t, but it does and/or it will if you’re paying attention. This life is so broken and so unfair and will throw curveballs as you and you’ll functionally question God. Why am I struggling with this? Why is the world like this around me? Why are dirt bags living great and good people struggling? Ecclesiastes 7:16–18 (ESV) 16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17  Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. Wait… what? Lets reduce this down: 16 - Seeking perfection frustrates and isn’t trusting God it’s elevating self. 17 - Don’t toy with wickedness and sin, but don’t expect perfection So lets go back: Ecclesiastes 7:16 (ESV) 16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? These next two verses will say don’t be something - and don’t become something. Verse 16 don’t be righteous and work to become righteous on your own, perfectly. You cannot - you’re man not God. Ecclesiastes 7:17 (ESV) 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? The swing is verse 17; it’s our natural reaction, so if one extreme isn’t right, then the other one is: he guides us here too, don’t be overly wicked, so he’s not saying don’t be too good, don’t be too bad: it says don’t strain for perfection; don’t give it up and party - Solomon’s personal struggle with Wisdom calls us to something in the middle of these two opposites, that we’ll hear in a minute and it helps us land an answer to this question: “How can God be good and fair when the world he created is bad and unfair” So here he comes in verse 18: Ecclesiastes 7:18 (ESV) 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. So, it’s not the one who gives up and parties, or who is particularly personally righteous who lives well and survives this life, rather then one who fears God. Why? And guys this is HUGE to this, this is part of seeking more of God from this section and it has 2 parts, if you only get two things, it would be these two: ready? 1: you wont try to manipulate God with righteousness 2: you wont become separated from him, because you’re identified by being given OVER to your sin. How do you fear God in a way that doesn’t work to manipulate him or give up and live given over to sin? Ecclesiastes 7:19 (ESV) 19 Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. Wisdom is the key to living in fear of God, wisdom is valuable we see in Job 28 and proverbs 16 - wisdom gives balance and strength. Also, wisdom gives an accurate view of life it’s more valuable than all the power this world could offer - it’s why when tested with all the kingdom of the entire world by Satan in Matthew - Jesus said: Jesus said to him (in Matthew 4:10), "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’" wisdom gave the guide rails to answer back - resisting sin, and recalling scripture’s statements so that he would not sin against God. Ecclesiastes 7:20 (ESV) 20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Right, doesn’t wisdom tell us that? Ecclesiastes 7:21 (ESV) 21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Here is an example, don’t take to heart what people say, because surly you know people talk badly about you, right? I mean, even people you like and are friends with, they smack talk you every once in a while, I just want to break that news to you. BUT…. but, keep reading - here is the balance and strength wisdom gives, Solomon has a practical example, ready: Ecclesiastes 7:22 (ESV) 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. Oh ouch. He’s right isn’t he? Do you see what this process of wisdom is doing for him? It’s helping him answer the question “what’s wrong with the world” it’s letting him look through the scan lines and see truth about himself, letting him better understand through wisdom truth, life - he’s giving guide rails for living in wisdom. Wisdom is giving him both balance and strength for living in a world that reveals that the answer to the question “what is wrong with the world” includes bits of you and me. Ecclesiastes 7:23-24 (ESV) 23 All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? He is coming to a conclusion about wisdom, that the ultimate answers on life, are Wisdom knows the answer to “what is wrong with the world” and wisdom gives balance and strength to its owner for wise living. Ecclesiastes 7:25 (ESV) 25 I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. Knowing about Solomon will help this next section make so much more since - look at 1 Kings 11 and you’ll see Solomon had how many wives? That known lets read 26-28 Ecclesiastes 7:26-28 (ESV) 26 And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. 27 Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 28 which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. This reading in the context of Solomon’s life isn’t about who’s better women or men, that’s a shallow (if not sinful) reading. Rather, in the context of “in my vain life” how Solomon started verse 16, it’s about Solomon who’s 1000 wives all worshipped other Gods and so he was snared through his indulgence, through his falling for the trappings of sin, as it says in James, through his own desires. The outcomes of his life aren’t that God made him in negative circumstances, rather that his desires for what he thought he wanted, delivered negative circumstances. So he concludes: Ecclesiastes 7:29 (ESV) 29 See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. I believe that Solomon intends on making sovereignty easier on us. God made us upright - but it’s us who trusts schemes, who look to explain and understand the world in a way that doesn’t recognize God, our NOT trusting God as sovereign continues to move away from God - seeing that our desires lead us away gives us strength and balance to stay near, guide rails. When we can answer the question “what’s wrong with the world” without finding fault with God or his creation and realize God made us upright and we chose schemes over God, THEN we begin towards a wisdom that we’ll never fully know. Wisdom gives us guide rails to living in a broken place with a sovereign God. There is a sign on the way to the Harrisburg incinerator as they’ve been working on a road. The road literally stops, and there is no shoulder, it just drops into a fairly large ditch - the sign reads “warning no guide rails”. I’ve been perplexed by that - I feel that it should be a guard rail, guarding you from falling over, not a guide rail, I mean if it’s guiding you - you’re grinding your car against it, in my mind. That’s what I think of when I read, the key in verses 16 and 17, don’t try to be perfection, you’re not - don’t give up and go all crazy these are guards not guides, and in the middle is wisdom that gives strength and balance. Wisdom is the guide, not the guard. Wisdom keeps you from slamming into the side or going over, wisdom lets you settle that God doesn’t owe you an answer, but wisdom keeps you moving forward, realizing that God made everything right, man made everything wrong - and for a time, a short time, God will allow things to be off kilter - so that many would be called to His kingdom. SO here is how this changes tomorrow: When you can realize that the spirit of disobedience in you is what is wrong with the world, along with G.K Chesterton and you pair that with the wisdom of the knowledge of the sovereignty of God - and you find your salvation in Christ, then - and only then, you’re ready for the freedom of wisdom’s guide rails. So tomorrow you’ll know that there are some things you cannot explain and that’s be cause God is God and you’re not. Lets live full of Joy in the guide and guards God’s given us and be joyous in a world infected with schemes but under the reign of a good God. And so maybe the guides give you the answer to: · Why would God make me with homosexual tendencies if that leaves me open for sin · Why would God make me with strong heterosexual tendencies that I’m unable to reconcile with day-to-day life · Why would God make me single · Why would God allow for awful things to befall me The schemes of man’s sin, aren’t the doing of God, he made us upright - and we got sideways fast, trust God and seek wisdom for all of those issues and more lets allow an accurate view of God guide our fight for joy, in the midst of the foggy world of sin. And so this truth must shape your answer to the real question “How can God be good and fair when the world he created is bad and unfair”… Ruminate on that this weekend, the wisdom of our answer will give your direction/balance it will either be wise or foolish, but it will be one or the other. THE OUTER LIMITS: ECCLESIASTES – Change your Tomorrow Pastor John Weathersby Transcend Church 7 of 7 Sunday 1/15/2017