Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Eccl.
8:1-9:1
School Shooting: Many people are wanting this event to not just be another statistic, but a wake up call.
How do we keep our kids safe at school?
Big question!
Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes is giving us a series of wake up calls.
“Wake up Call” = a person or thing that causes people to become fully alert to an unsatisfactory situation and to take action to remedy it.
WAKE UP CALL: We must submit to authority.
I don’t know about you, but I’m going struggle with this one.
Submitting to anyone has always been a tough order for me.
Ill.
Daddy Issues.
Many of us struggle with authority, in part due to pride, but also because much authority has been abused and is abused.
Modern Americans love the idea of “sticking it to the man”.
Main Idea: We are called to submit to all authority because it ultimately means we are submitting to God’s authority.
Submit to God’s Authority in Leaders
Ecc.
8:2-9
Every leader that is in place is there only by the sovereign providence of God.
Romans 13:1-2
And it is assumed, like here with Solomon, that some leaders are not going to have the best intentions for those that they are supposed to serve
see Samuel’s words to Israel).
David recognized this principle.
He would not take the opportunity to kill or capture Saul even after he had been anointed and ordained as king.
What do we do when that authority is unfair?
Or wicked?
Do we rebel?
Do we repay evil with evil?
Eccl.
8:3-4 —NO!
We are told here to submit and wait for the possible opportunity to make a change
Becoming a Christian is an act of submitting ourselves to God’s ultimate authority.
This means
We only submit to human authority under his ultimate authority
We receive everything we are dealt in this life as from God’s authority.
Submit to God’s Authority in Unfairness
When we see events like this past Wed., it is so easy to say, “Why God?
Why would you allow 14 and 15 year olds to die like that?
There’s so many wicked people that should receive a bullet, but they get away and seemingly go on to enjoy their life.”
Illustration: Coby in Sudan … still runs loose
Read Eccl.
8:14 — Solomon is recognizing what we all experience.
Good happening to bad people and bad happening to good people.
But the truth we are given throughout the Bible is that everything we experience (good and bad) ultimately comes from God. --- and ultimately is for our good.
So we are called to submit to God’s authority even though we don’t understand it.
When bad things happen to us, we inevitably think, “Im a good guy.
This shouldn’t happen to me.”
Who said you’re a good guy?
R.C. Sproul used to say, “We alway ask why do bad things happen to good people.
But we should really be asking why do good things happen to us bad people?”
If we are complaining about how life is so unfair we are forgetting that we need to be praising God for being an unfair God – because if God were “fair”, we would be without hope.
Submit to God’s Authority and have Joy
Eccl.
8:1 —“Who is like the wise?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.”
Solomon begins this whole passage declaring that the wise person’s face will shine and the “hardness of his face” will change.
In other words, he will have peace and contentment … and even joy.
But how—if, as we’ve seen, rulers are going to be evil and unjust, if evil deeds will not be punished quickly, if bad things happen to the righteous and good things to the wicked?
Solomon tells us in a few places.
Eccl.
8:8 —“No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death.
There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.”
Eccl.
8:12-13 —”Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him.
13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.”
Eccl 8:15-9:1--
So knowing that God is in total control,
Conclusion
The greatest motivation beyond finding joy and peace in submission to God is realizing that Jesus fully submitted to God.
Had Jesus not willing submitted himself to God’s severe authority, we would not be saved.
Illustration: soldiers submit to severe orders in order to keep their nation/people safe
Jesus, like a good soldier, cried out to God, “If there is any way let this cup pass from me, but your will be done.”
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