A point of light: looking away from the world, looking toward the kingdom
I send greetings in the name of Jesus:
The fact is that the more we understand God and his desires for us, the less we see value in the world around us. The more we are drawn to the kingdom of heaven, the less we will be able to really relate to the nature and sinful desires of the world. I want us to look now at how we can see all things becoming of form and type of vanity in the eyes of David and Solomon as we read what they say in Ecclesiastes 2:1-25. The writing starts out concerning pleasures and how those pleasures without God become meaningless it continues to show us that even wisdom and folly are meaningless and toward the end it even talks about the idea of toil and hard work being meaningless but here's what it says"I thought in my heart, come, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good. But then also proved to be meaningless. Laughter, I said is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish? I tried sharing myself with wine, and embracing folly, my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives
I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and I planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds from trees in the. I made reservoirs of water groups of flourishing trees. I bought male and female servants and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also own more herds and flocks and anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasurer of Kings in the provinces. I inquired men and women singers, and a harem as well the delights of my heart of man. I became greater by far than any in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me." That takes us down to verse 9 in our reading today. It also shows me very much the way that we have grown as a society to pleasure ourselves. It seems like we have been lulled to sleep in our ability to think for ourselves about what is important, and what is lasting in life. He goes on to say"I denied myself nothing eyes desired I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun." Today we see the result of a very rapid decline in our ability to think and reason for ourselves. The idea of having everything that we want, when we want it has become so normal in our society that we no longer have the patience to wait for something to be done well.
We simply have too much stuff around us to confuse us, and distract us to be able to think clearly about life, and about eternity. I don't believe that the writers Ecclesiastes were trying to make life in general become a bummer, but I do believe the writer here is trying to tell us the only way we can find God is to not clutter our lives with temporary things that do not matter. I actually feel that those people who think of themselves as the have not's in life are probably much more blessed than they realize. The reason I say that is found throughout the Scriptures in that those who pose this great wealth also have the most difficult time finding God. Even those with the greatest knowledge of this world find that man's wisdom is insufficient. In fact regarding wisdom we can look at chapter 4 in Ecclesiastes and find that the writer looked at all things in this world and found that there was nothing that didn't relate in some way to vanity all things that this world had to offer became vanity. He saw a right to the heart of this world into the heart of the decedent behind the things of this world, and he saw that it was a trick of Satan to cause us to become puffed up within ourselves about things in Chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes the writer turns his attention to our worship of God into the vanity that comes in with us from this world. The words do not give the sacrifice of fools. A fool make a vow to God without the intent of heart to keep that vow, but a wise man will know that God expects us to be true to our word. The truth will come out from our hearts no matter how hard we try to hide from, or to hide it from God. The things that we hold to this world and say that we love in our hearts will not be what satisfies us ever. We can go all the way through the book of Ecclesiastes and study of these things in fact I think that it would be good for you to do the. There are many things that we can draw from the Scriptures that will help us in our growth today. All that I am spoken of today deals with the relationship with God and what God wants from us in a relationship. We are called on by the spirit to begin to awaken to the call of the spirit. That is my personal ministry, to awaken the bride of Christ where ever I am a find her in various churches still asleep. Would you pray with me: father we are slow to move within your will to be the children that you created us to be. I pray Lord that your word would help us to see that our obedience is a key to really having a complete relationship with you. We are created eternal us. It's, but not as physical beings because this existence only leads to corruption, and sent. You have promised to come again for our spirits as you can trust the intent of our heart to love you as you have loved us. Give us the wisdom Lord to understand what was written in the book of Ecclesiastes and then apply it to our life here. We asked this in Jesus name Amen. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
The fact is that the more we understand God and his desires for us, the less we see value in the world around us. The more we are drawn to the kingdom of heaven, the less we will be able to really relate to the nature and sinful desires of the world. I want us to look now at how we can see all things becoming of form and type of vanity in the eyes of David and Solomon as we read what they say in Ecclesiastes 2:1-25. The writing starts out concerning pleasures and how those pleasures without God become meaningless it continues to show us that even wisdom and folly are meaningless and toward the end it even talks about the idea of toil and hard work being meaningless but here's what it says"I thought in my heart, come, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good. But then also proved to be meaningless. Laughter, I said is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish? I tried sharing myself with wine, and embracing folly, my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives
I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and I planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds from trees in the. I made reservoirs of water groups of flourishing trees. I bought male and female servants and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also own more herds and flocks and anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasurer of Kings in the provinces. I inquired men and women singers, and a harem as well the delights of my heart of man. I became greater by far than any in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me." That takes us down to verse 9 in our reading today. It also shows me very much the way that we have grown as a society to pleasure ourselves. It seems like we have been lulled to sleep in our ability to think for ourselves about what is important, and what is lasting in life. He goes on to say"I denied myself nothing eyes desired I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun." Today we see the result of a very rapid decline in our ability to think and reason for ourselves. The idea of having everything that we want, when we want it has become so normal in our society that we no longer have the patience to wait for something to be done well.
We simply have too much stuff around us to confuse us, and distract us to be able to think clearly about life, and about eternity. I don't believe that the writers Ecclesiastes were trying to make life in general become a bummer, but I do believe the writer here is trying to tell us the only way we can find God is to not clutter our lives with temporary things that do not matter. I actually feel that those people who think of themselves as the have not's in life are probably much more blessed than they realize. The reason I say that is found throughout the Scriptures in that those who pose this great wealth also have the most difficult time finding God. Even those with the greatest knowledge of this world find that man's wisdom is insufficient. In fact regarding wisdom we can look at chapter 4 in Ecclesiastes and find that the writer looked at all things in this world and found that there was nothing that didn't relate in some way to vanity all things that this world had to offer became vanity. He saw a right to the heart of this world into the heart of the decedent behind the things of this world, and he saw that it was a trick of Satan to cause us to become puffed up within ourselves about things in Chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes the writer turns his attention to our worship of God into the vanity that comes in with us from this world. The words do not give the sacrifice of fools. A fool make a vow to God without the intent of heart to keep that vow, but a wise man will know that God expects us to be true to our word. The truth will come out from our hearts no matter how hard we try to hide from, or to hide it from God. The things that we hold to this world and say that we love in our hearts will not be what satisfies us ever. We can go all the way through the book of Ecclesiastes and study of these things in fact I think that it would be good for you to do the. There are many things that we can draw from the Scriptures that will help us in our growth today. All that I am spoken of today deals with the relationship with God and what God wants from us in a relationship. We are called on by the spirit to begin to awaken to the call of the spirit. That is my personal ministry, to awaken the bride of Christ where ever I am a find her in various churches still asleep. Would you pray with me: father we are slow to move within your will to be the children that you created us to be. I pray Lord that your word would help us to see that our obedience is a key to really having a complete relationship with you. We are created eternal us. It's, but not as physical beings because this existence only leads to corruption, and sent. You have promised to come again for our spirits as you can trust the intent of our heart to love you as you have loved us. Give us the wisdom Lord to understand what was written in the book of Ecclesiastes and then apply it to our life here. We asked this in Jesus name Amen. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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