How to be Certain When You are Uncertain

Ecclesiastes chapter 11 The first 10 verses, well the only 10 verses in chapter 11, we're going to read and then we'll spend some time talking about them this evening We won't meet next week but then we'll conclude the next two Wednesdays with chapter 12 and then we'll be done with the book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 11 verse number 1, cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days Divide your portion to seven or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth

If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed or whether both of them alike will be good

The light is pleasant and it is good for the eyes to see the sun Indeed if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many Everything that is to come will be futility Rejoice young man during your childhood and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood and follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things

So remove grief and anger from your heart and put away evil from your body because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting Solomon makes it very clear that there's so much you do not know He says, you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth You have no idea He says, you do not know the pathway of the wind He says, you do not know the activity of God And then he says, you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed He makes it clear that there is so much we do not know Most of us think we know everything but in our reality we don't know that much at all

And Solomon wants to help us understand that because he wants us to rely upon the Lord and to rest in his providence There are certain things we do know For instance, Paul would say in 2 Timothy 1 verse number 12 that, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him until that day Paul knew whom he believed in Doesn't say, I know what I believe He says, I know whom I believe Now, Paul knew what he believed also but he knew the Lord whom he believed in

The Bible also says in Romans chapter 8 verse number 28 that, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose In other words, we can know for certain that everything that happens to us is going to turn out for our good We know that Our life is like a cake, all right? I'm not a baker, so I don't know much about baking cakes But I've watched my mother bake cakes. I've watched my wife bake cakes. I've watched my girls bake cakes

And I know that when you do this, you bring out the butter and you set it over here, and you bring out the flour and you set it over there, and you bring out the cake mix in the box and put it over there, and the eggs over here, and the nutmeg or whatever it is you're going to put in it over there, and all that kind of stuff And you have all that stuff on the counter And if you were to taste each aspect of the ingredients to the cake, some would taste good but most would taste bad on their own But you put them all together and you bake the cake and it comes out pretty good

That's the way our lives are in the light of God There are good things and there are bad things, but God works all those things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose We know this because the Bible says, these things we know John says it this way in 1st John chapter 5, he says this, he says, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life So you can know for certain that you have eternal life

Paul would say in Philippians 1 verse number 6, being confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ Our Lord says that He goes away to prepare a place for us and that if He goes away He will come again He will receive us to Himself that where He is there we may be also So we know that we have eternal life John goes on to say in verse number 18, we know that no one who is born of God practices sin We know that We know for certain that someone who lives in sin doesn't know God

Now they can say they do, but I'm going to believe what John says under the inspiration of the Spirit of God who says that we know that no one who is born of God practices sin And then he says this, but he who has or was born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him We know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true and we are in Him who is true in His Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal life

So John tells us these things you can know for certain So there are certain things that we know, but most things in life we don't know In fact, the Bible tells us that no matter how hard you try, no man will ever know the hour of our Lord's return We can try to know it, but you'll never know Only the Father in heaven knows that Solomon also says in Proverbs chapter 27 verse number 1, do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth So you can't boast about tomorrow because you don't know about tomorrow You don't even know if you'll be alive tomorrow

So there's no sense of boasting about something you do not know James says it this way, he says, you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow You don't know that You don't know if you'll be in the same kind of health tomorrow as you are today You don't know anything about tomorrow In fact, the Bible says that in Deuteronomy 29 29 that the secret things belong to God So you'll never know the secret things They belong only to God In fact, Paul says in 1st Corinthians 2 11, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God So there are certain things that you're going to know

The Bible makes it very clear But for most things in life we do not know There's so much uncertainty about life We have no guarantee that I'll have my job tomorrow. I have no guarantee I'll be alive tomorrow It's uncertain. I have no guarantee that my children will be obedient and walk with God. I do not know that That's uncertain We would like to say that my wife or my husband won't leave me tomorrow, but I have no certainty of that either Right? That's why there are so many divorces in the world There's just so much uncertainty about life We do not know what tomorrow brings

We don't know what tonight brings We don't know what's going to happen with my family, my marriage, my work, my school. I do not know And that's a good place to be In fact, not knowing is a motivation Not knowing about tomorrow can motivate you to live today the right way So how can you be certain when there is so much uncertainty about life? That's what Solomon's going to address in chapter 11

But let me begin tonight with an illustration that I used on Tuesday morning with our women's Bible study. I was asked to sum up the book of Esther in 30 minutes. I have a hard enough time summing up one verse in 30 minutes, let alone summing up a whole book in 30 minutes So it was a great challenge for me And I love challenges because that means there's pressure And pressure in my book is pleasure So you pray for pressure so you can perform with pleasure That's my motto in life. I love pressure And so I was pressured to sum up one book, the book of Esther, in 30 minutes

Unfortunately, it took me 37 minutes But I didn't completely sum up the entire book All that to say is this, is that the book of Esther is about being certain amidst so much uncertainty You need to understand something about the book of Esther It doesn't mention the name of God, but God is the theme of the book of Esther In fact, God screams in every verse in Esther The king, Ahasuerus, is mentioned 176 times in the book of Esther But the king of kings is not mentioned at all But the king of kings is in control of all that takes place in the book of Esther Because there is so much uncertainty

And it begins with the king having a summit for six months because he wants to invade Greece At the end of those six months, he invites the queen, that's an inviter He commands the queen, Queen Vashti, to come and present herself before all these men And she refuses to do so So the king dismisses her, demotes her She is no longer his queen She can't disobey a king's command because if he allows that to happen, then anyone can disobey the king's command And so that's not going to happen So he is furious He demotes her She's gone There is no queen So they got to choose a new queen

And so it's exactly four years later that the new queen is chosen And her name is Esther And I was sharing with the women on Tuesday morning that there were 50 million people in Persia at the time of the book of Esther And that would mean there's probably at least 20 million women in the Persia Empire at that time But there's only going to be one woman that's going to be the queen Only one And so they pair the 20 million women down to 400 virgins So one out of the 400 is going to be the queen Just one

And the Bible tells us they have a whole year to prepare and to prepare to present themselves before the king And so they do All 400 women And you can kind of imagine that they kind of all blend together after a moment of time because these are the purest and the most beautiful virgins in all of Persia And so they've all got to be the best of the best, the cream of the crop, right? And so one files in, another files out One files in, another files out But there's one woman that slays the king's heart That's Esther

She had to be remarkable because she had to stand out among the other 400 that were paired down from the 20 million to be the ideal queen for the king You can imagine what she must have been thinking So much uncertainty about what would happen to her next So she becomes the queen in Persia She is elevated to the highest position a woman could have in the kingdom She's the queen She's a Jewish orphan She's the cousin of Mordecai Mordecai is 15 years older than she is And he raises Esther He's concerned about Esther They're related together Their parents were in Babylonian captivity

And after the captivity, a lot of the Jews went back to Israel, but there are some who stayed in Persia and were dispersed among the kingdom of Persia And Mordecai and Esther stayed in the capital city of Susa That's where the king reigned And so she was chosen to be the queen Just giving you some background to the story so you understand how much uncertainty there would be in her life, and yet there were certain things she could be absolutely certain about

And so what takes place is a series of events where Haman, who is a hater of the Jews, Haman is a descendant of Esau, okay? He is an Agagite, who's a descendant of the Amalekites, who are descendants of Esau That's very important to the story For three times or four times, it says that Haman was an Agagite You have to know this because if he's a descendant of Esau, and Esau's mantra was, Genesis 27, verse number 41, Jacob, I will kill The descendants of Esau have that same mantra

Haman is the great-great-grandfather of King Herod, who wanted to kill all the babies at the birth of Christ because Herod, who was an Idumean, was by birth an Edomite, a descendant of Esau And the whole story is about how it is Haman hates the Jews And so he devises a plan to exterminate all the Jews, right? And Mordecai understands, as the king signs this decree, and it goes all throughout Persia, they're going to destroy every woman, every child, every man who is a Jew from Persia all the way back to the land of Israel, to Jerusalem And the king signs a decree

So Mordecai, we see that decree, he's a Jew The king does not know that Esther is a Jew She's kept that quiet She's not told anyone And so they do not know that she's a Jew So Mordecai gets word that Haman has taken this decree from the king to exterminate the Jews And so Mordecai tells Esther, you must present yourself to the king and plead for your people's lives

She says these words in the book of Esther, the fourth chapter, the 11th verse, all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king, to the inner court, who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death Unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter, so he may live And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these 30 days Mordecai says to Esther, you've got to go and plead for your people She says, I just can't go into the king's presence. I have to be summoned

Because the law states that if I go and march into the king's presence, I will be killed Unless the king extends his scepter to me, I can't go in So Mordecai responds and says, do not imagine that you in the king's palace can escape any more than all the Jews For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father's house will perish And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this

In other words, Esther, you need to know, whether you go into the king's presence or you don't go into the king's presence, you're going to die You're a Jew You're going to be killed The handwriting's on the wall You are as good as dead And know this, Esther, that if you don't do this, God will someway, somehow protect and preserve the nation Why? Because it was Mordecai who would rest, he would rest in the revelation of God He believed in Abrahamic promise He believed in Davidic promise He knew that He clung to the truth and said, listen, if you don't do this, Esther, somebody else will

Because somebody else, God's going to protect the nation no matter what But you have been assigned to royalty for this particular time You are here for this opportunity This is your time to stand strong and stand firm amidst all the uncertainty of whether you will live or whether you will die Know this, God's word is true, and God will preserve his people Don't you want to be a part of that preservation opportunity? And this is how she responds Then Esther told them to reply to the Mordecai, go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast for me

Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way And thus, I will go into the king, which is not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish. I will go to the king, even though I've not been summoned to the king And if I die, I die So while Mordecai would rest in the revelation of God, Esther would prove the providence of God If it's God's will for me to perish, I will perish If not, I will live So amidst all this was this uncertainty as what was going to happen

She had no idea whether she would live or die, but she knew this, that in some way, somehow, God would deliver his people because of the revelation of God's promise to Abraham and to David And Mordecai made sure she knew that So on the very next day, came about on the third day, excuse me, verse chapter 5, that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace in front of the king's rooms, and the king was sitting on his royal throne in the throne room opposite the entrance of the palace She puts on her royal robes She has no idea what's going to happen

There's so much uncertainty surrounding this whole experience, and she gets ready to go into the king's palace, and she stands there in fear and trepidation with all this uncertainty, yet certain that God will do something great And so, text says, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight And the king extended to Esther the golden scepter, which was in his hand So Esther came near and touched the top of the scepter

Then the king said to her, what is troubling you, Queen Esther? And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom, it shall be given to you And she would not ask for half the kingdom because that was not what she wanted She wanted her people's lives to be spared And so, the text goes on You read through it She wants a dinner for Haman and the king and just her That's it And he grants her that opportunity But yet, after granting that opportunity, he asks again the same question, what do you want, Esther? Up to half the kingdom She says, I want you to come back tomorrow for another banquet

Why? Because something wasn't right And of course, it wasn't right And of course, the king had insomnia that night And the king called for the chronicles to come and be read to him As he read the chronicles, he realized that Mordecai, five years earlier, had uncovered a plot to kill the king and he was not recognized And so, he would recognize Mordecai on the next day when Haman came in And Haman thought the king was going to honor him, but instead he honors Mordecai instead, and they have a dinner that night And Esther has no idea how the king is going to respond

Again, there was so much uncertainty because he does not know that she is a Jew And so, when he asks, what do you want, Queen Esther? She says, I want to be able to live and I want my people to be able to live because you've given a decree to kill us all And the king is furious She doesn't know if she's going to be killed right there because the king made a decree He can't go back on that He's got to kill the queen And he wants to know who made this decree, who was behind all this And of course, she says, Haman, you know He is so furious that he hangs Haman on the gallows

And there was so much uncertainty as to what would happen, but again, she was spared All that to say is that the book of Esther is about trusting in the providence of God because God is in control of every situation and every circumstance in your life, good or bad, because God is working all things together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose And from there, they developed that whole feast, the Feast of Purim, because it's all about the celebration of God's deliverance of His people from the atrocities of Haman's decree from the king to kill the Jewish nation

And God delivers them and spares them and saves them because God's in complete control All that to say is that with Mordecai, with Esther, they had no idea what God was going to do They had no idea what was going to happen tomorrow They had no idea that the decree would be rescinded or that a king would have to develop another decree in order to save the people They had no idea what was going to happen, but they had to trust the true and living God Why do I say all that? I say all that because life is filled with uncertainty about what's going to happen next We just don't know

So, two things must happen One, you must learn to truly rest in the Lord And once you rest in the Lord, you then need to rejoice in the Lord And that are the two points of our outline this evening. I know there are six words on your page You can scratch them all out. I've changed everything, okay? Changed it all to staff at noon at 2.30 Decided to go a different direction Rest in the Lord and you will rejoice in the Lord So let me show you how Solomon says this, because Solomon wants you to rest in the Lord

And he does it three ways. I want you to rest in the Lord by living generously, living dependently, and thirdly, living diligently Because you do not know what's going to happen And Solomon makes that very clear You do not know So he says in verse number one, To seven or even to eight For you do not know what misfortune may occur on earth So he says, I want you to rest in the Lord by living generously, because you do not know what misfortune will come upon you tomorrow or the next week or the next month or the next year You have no idea You say, well, wait a minute

Why would I live generously if I don't know there's going to be misfortune tomorrow? That's the whole point Now remember, Solomon has spent his whole life accumulating everything, building everything And remember, this is the second half of Ecclesiastes He's already begun to turn the corner in his life, and he wants you to live a life of wisdom and discernment He wants you to understand exactly what it is God himself has in store for you So if you go back to chapter two of Ecclesiastes, and you'll remember this, because you spent a lot of time here, he said these words

He says, verse four, I enlarged my works, I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself, I made gardens and parks for myself, and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made ponds of water for myself Verse eight, I collected for myself silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and provinces I provided for myself, male and female singers, and the pleasures of men, many concubines All that my heart desired, I did not withhold. I just kept accumulating all kinds of goods, all kinds of money, all kinds of silver, all kinds of gold

Now he says, don't live accumulating things, live giving things away Live generously He's learned He's learned that the accumulation of all the things that he has is vanity It's empty It means nothing And even though you don't know what misfortune might come your way tomorrow or the next day, live generously today because you know that you only have this moment at this time right now So take your bread, cast it upon the water Now that's not particular to the Bible itself It's an ancient proverb that was used many times extra-biblically to show about risk and faith

And so he says, look, cast your bread, make a decision to throw your bread, and bread is a staple of life It's very valuable In order for you to live, you need bread to live, right? Give us this day our daily bread, right? Christ taught us how to pray Christ himself is the bread of life And so bread becomes that which is valuable And so Solomon says, take that which is valuable and cast it into the waters It might sink It might float away But be assured of this, over many days, over many hours, it shall return to you

In fact, he says, these words, he says, divide your portion to seven, even to eight Seven is the number of completion, eight is the number of abundance So when you are giving generously, give completely and totally, give over abundantly to those who are in need, because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow So you need to trust the Lord Rest in the Lord Don't worry about tomorrow Live generously today In the midst of uncertain days, when you sit, man, I got to prepare a nest egg for tomorrow. I got to make sure I'm all prepared for the future

Why would I want to give stuff away? Listen to what the Bible says Listen to Proverbs 19, verse number 17 He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord and he will pay back what he has given Listen to Proverbs chapter 11, verse number 18 The wicked earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness gets a true reward Proverbs 20, verse number 20, I'm sorry, Proverbs chapter 21, verse number 13 He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered

Remember we quoted to you last week James 1.26 about true religion, right? James 1.27 says that true religion and undefiled before the Father is this, that one visit the widows and orphans in their affliction and keep oneself unspotted from the world Not only is true religion, as it says in verse number 26 of James 1, demonstrated by a bridle tongue, true religion is demonstrated by a burden for those who are in need, a burden for those who are in need and to live a blameless life personally But there's something about lending to the poor

Listen to what Jesus says in Luke's gospel in the 14th chapter He says, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment In other words, he says, look, when you have a dinner, why do you invite your friends? Why do you invite your family? Why? Because you see, they're going to return the favor and that's your reward That's all you're going to get

So he says this, he says, but when you give a reception, invite the poor, invite the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed Since they do not have the means to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous You see, he's saying, when you give, give generously and do it expecting nothing in return because we give receptions and dinners and things for our friends because we will get repaid for that in this life But the crippled man, the lame man, the blind man, the poor man, they can't repay you That's giving generously That's sowing in righteousness

And Solomon says, look, you need to realize that I spent my whole life obtaining and gaining all kinds of goods And you know what? It means nothing But what really means a lot is when you give completely and abundantly and generously because you take that which is valuable, you cast it into the waters, and you know what? One day it will be returned back to you Maybe not in this life, but for certain in the next life So live generously Why? Because you've got to rely upon the Lord You don't know what tomorrow is going to bring You might be broke tomorrow You might lose your job tomorrow

You don't know that But today, live in a way that will honor the Lord and give yourself away So not only live generously, but live dependently Listen to what he says He says this He says, If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth And whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree lies or falls, there it lies He who watches the wind will not sow, and he who looks at the clouds will not reap

Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things You're never going to understand God You're never going to know God and all the things that he does and why he does them You don't know You're not going to understand the activity of God when he makes the wind blow and knock over the trees You're not going to understand the activity of God when it comes to forming the baby in the womb and how all that is developed You just don't understand it

We know that that happens, but God's in charge of all of those things, and you do not know what's going to happen You can't trace the activity of God because God does what God's going to do You just need to live dependently upon him You see, so many times we don't do things The text says, he says, He who watches the wind will not sow, and he who looks at the clouds will not reap In other words, it's too windy today, so we can't do this We can't sow the seeds because it's too windy

Or here come the clouds, it's going to rain, therefore we can't do anything because the rain will wash the seed away You're living in expectation You're living in the realm of uncertainty You don't know it's going to happen that way We look at the crowds We think it's going to rain Is it going to rain or is it not going to rain? The weatherman says that the wind's going to blow, but does the wind blow or does it not blow? God's in charge of the wind blowing, not the weatherman

See? The thing about being a weatherman is you can be wrong and still keep your job, right? Because you're wrong a lot of times about the weather But you see, there's so many things that we don't do because of the uncertainty of them, all right? So, I don't drive on the freeway for the fact that I might die, or the speed of the other cars makes me afraid So I live in the realm of uncertainty, see? Everything is uncertain in life, okay? There are so many things I can't control, but we want to be in control of everything But you can't And so, Solomon says, look, you don't control the wind

You don't control anything God controls it all So you can live in the realm of passivity, but passivity can become your greatest enemy by sitting back and just not doing anything for fear of what might happen You don't know what's going to happen You'll never know until it actually happens So you need to trust in God who does all the activity because He's the one who rules everything So live generously, live dependently Listen to what the Bible says. I love this verse in Psalm 112, verse number 9, when the psalmist said this, He has given freely to the poor His righteousness endures forever

His horn shall be exalted in honor The one who gives freely to the poor, who lives generously, will be honored We don't want to live generously because we're afraid that we're going to lose something But we don't want to give to the Lord for fear of I might not have enough money to pay this or pay that But you live generously, and God will reward, God will take care of you, God will watch over you And so you live generously so you can live now dependently upon God for everything

There are so many things that we don't do because of fear in our own lives, so many things that we don't do because of the uncertainty of the results We say, I don't want to confront someone on their sin because I might lose their friendship If you confront someone on their sin and you lose their friendship, they weren't your friend in the first place They were never a true friend They were just merely an acquaintance That's all they were Because a true friend will accept the rebuke, realize their sin and repent of their sin and turn from their ways

But there are certain things we don't do for fear of what might happen. I don't want to share the gospel with somebody because of what they might think of me You know what? You can't live in that realm You have to live trusting the Lord, living dependently upon Him for everything So live generously, live dependently And then thirdly, make sure that you live diligently for six Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed or whether both of them alike will be good Don't be idle

Get up, get moving, sow your seed in the morning, live diligently, be responsible, be disciplined, be devoted, be dedicated God blesses devotion, dedication and diligence He does not bless negligence and laziness So get up, sow your seed in the morning, sow your seed in the evening You do not know which God is going to bless, how God's going to reward you You don't know what God's going to do So let God perform what God's going to perform

But you live diligently, fulfilling your responsibility, fulfilling the opportunities that God puts before you to be a responsible individual and see what God does Rest in the Lord As you rest in Him, you just live generously, you live dependently, and you live diligently And then second, rejoice in the Lord Listen to what he says He turns from faithful obedience to joyful confidence He says, The light is pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many

Everything that is to come will be futility In other words, rejoice continually Rejoice continually All the days of your life, all the days that you have had, because they're all a gift from the Lord And God has given them to you He says, Rejoice in them all If you live many years, thank the Lord for that But rejoice in them Rejoice that God has allowed you to live Rejoice in the blessings that God has given to you Learn to rejoice in the Lord always Always Boy, I tell you, that's hard for some people That's really hard for some people

Because he goes on to say, Let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many In other words, you've got to rejoice in the days of darkness as well, right? Earlier he said in Ecclesiastes chapter 7, you know these words Verse 13, Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what he has bent, in the day of prosperity be happy But in the day of adversity consider, God has made the one as well as the other, so man will not discover anything that will be after him But God made them both

God made the day of adversity, God made the day of prosperity, therefore you need to consider what God is doing and trust him and believe in him and rejoice in him Peter would say, In this you greatly rejoice, if necessary, that you suffer many various trials But you greatly rejoice in them Why? Because we rejoice in what God is doing We rejoice in the Lord for who he is We rejoice in his providence because God has taken us through these things He says, Rejoice continually There will be days of adversity There will be days of hardship There will be days of misfortune

You don't know when they're going to come You don't know how many you're going to have But you should rejoice in them If you rest in the Lord, you will rejoice in the Lord So he says, Rejoice continually And then he says, Rejoice responsibly He says this, verse 9, Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes, yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things In other words, he says, Rejoice responsibly

Why? Because, you know, you don't want to live sinfully, you want to live responsibly And so enjoy what God has given to you Enjoy the desires of your heart because God has placed them there But know this, he says, God will hold you accountable for everything And that is the essence of the book of Ecclesiastes Why? Because God's in charge And God judges all things But you need to rejoice responsibly in all that God has given you And then thirdly, he says this, Rejoice morally, not immorally Rejoice purely, not impurely

He says this, Remove grief and anger from your heart and put away evil from your body because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting In the context of rejoicing, there are certain things you've got to remove You've got to rejoice purely So you've got to remove the vexation of anger, the vexation of your spirit, the bitterness that's there Look, the days are fleeting by Don't live them with bitterness Don't live them with anger Don't live them with resentment Don't live them with malice Your childhood is going to come, it's going to go And next thing you know, your days will be over

So live in a way that honors the Lord Rejoice morally, purely, because your life is right before the Lord See, he says, put away these things, these things that bring emotional distress upon your life And then he says this, And evil from your body You're going to rejoice You can't rejoice sinfully You must rejoice purely You can't live in sin So put these things away And Solomon knows this Solomon understands this He indulged himself in all kinds of sinful behavior and it brought nothing upon him So he wasn't able to rejoice in the Lord Instead, it brought him nothing but dissatisfaction

It brought him nothing but heartache, nothing but pain That's what the first half of Ecclesiastes is all about There is nothing there that's satisfied So remove these things from you so you can rejoice in the Lord purely, honestly before him Because these things are only going to hinder your progress Your life is fleeting Your childhood is coming to an end Things in life will be over and therefore you need to rejoice in the Lord So Solomon says rest in the Lord Rejoice in the Lord How do you live certainly amidst all the uncertainty? By resting in what God has said

And what he wants for your life Living in a way that honors and glorifies his name Putting him on display And then if you rest in the Lord, you can rejoice in the Lord But if you're not resting in him, you certainly won't rejoice in him So the order is very significant And you think about Mordecai and Esther and the Jewish nation in the book of Esther How they would have to rest in the Lord to trust him, depend upon him, and live for him amidst the uncertainty of what was about to take place They had no idea what God was going to do They had no certainty of tomorrow

But they had to rest in the Lord And once they rested in the Lord and saw what God did, they rejoiced in the Lord And that's what the Feast of Purim is all about Why? Because Purim is from the Hebrew word pur, which means lot And Haman would cast lots to determine the day in which he was thought of the Jews And so Purim is the feast of lots, a play on words It mimics or it makes fun of Haman and his plot because he had a design, he had a plot, but God had another plan And God was providentially in control of everything And so because they would rest in the Lord, they could rejoice in the Lord

And look what God did simply because they would trust him, believe in him amidst all the uncertainties of life My friends, listen Every one of us goes through each and every day with so many uncertainties We just don't know what tomorrow will bring We don't know But God's got all that under control He lives in the realm of tomorrow as he lives in the realm of yesterday He lives in all realms So he knows He's got it all under control

You're sitting here tonight and you have a doctor's appointment this week and you're worried about whether or not the report's going to come back, you've got cancer And then you're going to wonder, is it benign or is it malignant, right? So you've got to wait to figure out, am I going to live forever? And the doctor says, you've got six months He doesn't know how long you've got He has no idea how long you have He doesn't know But God knows Years ago, when my first wife was pregnant with our son, she had cancer

And so when we went to the doctor, they said, you're going to have to go through chemotherapy and radiation And of course, this was back in the 80s, and so drugs were not then what they are now And they said, listen, you need to abort your child because if you don't, the drugs are going to kill the baby in the womb And so, Sandy and I, we went home and we thought, you know, we're not going to abort the child That's murder We're not going to do that So we're just going to trust the Lord to do whatever He's going to do If He wants to preserve the child, He'll preserve the child

If He wants to take the child, He'll take the child But amidst all the uncertainty, we were certain about this, that God ordained the pregnancy at the same time she was diagnosed with stage four carcinoma So we knew God was in charge It's God's providence So we could rest in the Lord and then learn to rejoice in the outcome as to what He was going to do And so we would trust the Lord to preserve the baby in the womb And He did God was good God protected our son And he was born He was born a little premature, but that's okay God protected him and watched over him

And God protected him through the whole process But amidst all that was so much uncertainty as to what God was going to do And then there was the certainty or the uncertainty as to whether or not the drugs would even work on Sandy Would she live? Would she die? Who knew? We had no idea And God, His providence, took her home to be with the Lord But that was God's providence But we never ceased to rest in the Lord and therefore we could always rejoice in what God did because we knew that God was providentially in control of all those things

So whatever your situation is, whatever you're going through and you have so much uncertainty about whether my children will come back from their rebellious state, we don't know that Only God knows that Whether my husband will love me like he did 20 years ago or 30 years ago, it's uncertain But you pray You trust You rest in the Lord And you live dependently, you live generously, you live diligently so that you can rejoice in the Lord for all that He's going to do You just don't know, but you don't have to know Not knowing is the motivation for living

Why? Because not knowing motivates you to trust and to believe and to rest and to wait on the Lord That's what God wants you to do He says, just trust me Just believe in me Just rest in me Watch me work Watch me work Sometimes God just says, get out of the way You're in the way You're just messing everything up Just sit back Wait for me to do what I can do

In the realm of all of your uncertainty, the one thing you're certain about is that God is providentially in control of every single event in your life, everything. I was sharing with the ladies on Tuesday that I'm the kind of guy that when I walk outside and I trip over the curb and fall down, I get up and say, phew, that's over

Because it was providentially ordained by God, see? You have to live in that realm that God is orchestrating all the events in life to bring about His great purposes because God works all things together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose God does that He does it in your life He does it in my life He's done it in the life of our church He just wants to make Himself known in your life So Solomon says all this in the beginning of chapter 12, verse number 1 with these words, remember now your Creator in the days of your youth

Don't forget because it's so easily to set the Lord aside in our minds Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth You can't afford to forget your Creator, your designer, the architect of your life, the one who took you in the womb and formed every detail of your life He did all that Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth Why? Because remembering this designer, remembering this God who creates all things after His own purposes is the motivation to live each day for His glory and for His honor Let's pray together

Father, we thank You, Lord, for the time that we have this evening We thank You for how You've opened doors for us We thank You for Your Word So much to talk about, so much to explain, and yet, Lord, You've brought us here together this evening to learn from You. I pray for everyone in the room Lord, I don't know what's going on in their home life, their private life, their work life. I have no idea But I don't need to know You already know That's all that matters, and yet, Lord, You're already at work You're doing something great

We might not see this great today, but, Lord, You're working out all things after the counsel of Your will You are working through all the events of their lives, and You are putting things together in a way that only You can And my prayer for the people here tonight, that they would learn to rest in the Lord They might learn to rejoice in the Lord and see what great things You will do for them The Bible says that You do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ever ask or think So that's our prayer, Father, and we're going to trust You to accomplish that In Jesus' name, amen.