Rejoice, God is in Control

Transcript

Good morning, Saints. If we haven’t met yet, my name is Andrey. I’m a member here at Trinity Church of Portland, and I also have the immense privilege of serving here as one of the staff pastors. So if you’re visiting, welcome. It’s wonderful to have you. It’s wonderful to get to worship with you.

Well, friends, we continue our series studying the book of Ecclesiastes, “Hevel Under the Horizon” is the name of this series, and we find ourselves this morning in chapter 11 of Ecclesiastes. I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 11. We’re going to be looking at the whole chapter this morning. If you don’t have a Bible with you, there should be a Bible in the seat in front of you. And if you don’t have a Bible at home, we’d love to give you one as a gift. We’d love to encourage you to take that home, read it, study it, and come to know the God of the Bible.

Friends, if you’ve turned in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 11, I’d like to invite you to stand for the reading of God’s Word.

“Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. And if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Remove vexation from your heart and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.”

This is the Word of the Lord, Saints. Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

Would you pray with me? Father, we ask for your grace as we turn to this portion of wisdom literature. We want to hear from you. We want to know you, and we want to grow in our love for you, Lord. Help us, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In 2005, a psychologist named Barry Schwartz gave a TED Talk titled “The Paradox of Choice.” He also wrote a book with the same title the year before. In both, he shares about an experience that got him thinking about choice and how we make decisions. He was sent to the grocery store to pick a salad dressing, and as he stood in the salad dressing aisle, what to most people would seem like a great selection, he found himself completely overwhelmed by the amount of options—seemingly hundreds. He came to see that having too many options is actually a bad thing.

He believed that having fewer options would simplify a person’s life and allow for the chosen option to be more enjoyable, even if there weren’t a whole spectrum of choices. Essentially, fewer options help avoid what’s called decision fatigue or analysis paralysis. More options don’t produce better results; they make the experience of buying or doing something worse. We’ve all been there—faced with too many options, whether it’s salad dressings, choosing a movie on a streaming service, or deciding which headphones to buy on Amazon. It’s exhausting.

Having more options doesn’t make things easier. You’d think that having enough information and choices would do exactly that, but it overwhelms us and leads to less satisfaction with whatever we ultimately decide on because we wonder if we’ve made the right choice. Free Amazon returns make that easy to correct, but the anxiety that follows is uncomfortable.

Barry Schwartz’s conclusion and various studies about choice and freedom point to a very human problem: a person doesn’t necessarily need more information, more options, or to see exactly how things will play out to do the right thing and stick with it. For us, that’s a hard thing to swallow.

In Ecclesiastes 11, the Kohelet, or the preacher, addresses this very problem. It’s an ancient problem, and his answer is: don’t worry. You can act. You can live your life. You can do what you need to do. You can do what you want to do. God is in control, so just go and do something.

As we continue our study and come to the final two chapters of this wonderful book of wisdom literature, we come to a topic that, if you’ve been with us these last few weeks, will sound familiar. Something we covered in Ecclesiastes 9 just a couple of weeks ago. The essence of that topic and today’s is: God is sovereign, life is good, so enjoy the gifts you receive from your Creator.

It’s almost as if God, knowing us and how we’re wired—like the lyrics of that great hymn say, that our hearts are prone to wander—saw fit to remind us of this reality again so soon. So, dear Christian, this life is short, but it is also beautiful. The God who made you has given you today, so rejoice. He’s in perfect control of every single aspect of your life, so you’re free to live.

As we consider the words of the preacher in Ecclesiastes 11, we’ll first look at the reality that God’s sovereignty gives you and me the freedom to live meaningfully and intentionally. Then, in the final four verses of this chapter, we’ll see that we are to live—truly live—while there’s still time.

First, let’s look at freedom because of God’s sovereignty. The language used by the preacher in these first six verses points us to the reality that much of life is simply out of our control. There’s no way you can affect certain things. There’s no way you can change certain things. There are things we can’t even understand how they happen, and that’s okay.

There’s so much we simply don’t know in this life. No matter what we do, some things won’t change or go another way. There’s so much beyond our ability to wrap our minds around. So what do we do? Do we freeze? Do we move to inaction? No. The preacher tells us to live our lives. We invest. We work. We plant. We try. We share. We bless. And we do all this with peace in our hearts precisely because God is sovereign and will do whatever He wants with our efforts.

You see, I don’t have to live in the anxiety of, “Did I do enough? Did I make the right decisions at every step?” No, you didn’t. But God can take two crooked sticks and make a straight line. God can take your failed efforts, and mine, and make something beautiful out of them. It’s precisely because He’s in control that we feel the freedom to live the lives He’s called us to.

Because if it’s not that—if I have to affect the change myself, if I have to ensure that everything I did will ensure a certain result—what’s the alternative? Either God is the creator of all things, the one who controls all and knows all, or it’s all just a roll of the dice.

This picture of God as creator has often been referenced throughout this series. We keep coming back to this title for God: God is creator. God is my creator. God is the sustainer, the one who oversees and upholds all. We keep coming back to this, and it comes from Genesis 1, telling us that in the beginning, the very beginning of our Bible, “In the beginning, He created.”

The Hebrew word there is “bara.” The interesting thing about “bara” is that it has a present continuous force as its meaning. It’s not just that He created, end of story. No, He continues to be the source of the reality He created. He continues to be the source of every single thing in this world.

So either He’s the source of all things, or nobody has any idea what’s going on, and we’re just in a tailspin hoping for the best. But Scripture gives us a different picture altogether. He is the creator. He is sovereign.

Consider Colossians 1:16-17: “For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Amen? Amen.

This is the picture that Kohelet presents us with. It has to be one or the other: life with God, which offers safety, freedom to live, and peace to enjoy life; or existence in an unknown middle space where everything is up to you and ultimately chance.

The God of whom the preacher writes—the one who is totally in control of all things, who knows and sees all, who is all-powerful, needs nothing—is not unknown. He’s not just a divine mystery that is vague, ambiguous, and unknowable. He has revealed Himself, and more than revealing Himself as a distant reality to be studied, He makes a covenant with us, sinners like you and me. He calls us in, makes us His people, and blesses us.

This is a relationship. Then He says, “Go, live your life, enjoy the beautiful world I’ve made, enjoy the gifts I’ve given you. Live for My glory, live for the good of others.”

This God, powerful and big as He is, commissions us for a meaningful life because everything will work out exactly how He desires.

When we’re prepared to take what God provides us in this life—whether time, resources, or whatever else—and throw it into the waters of life, God tells us He will give us a return based on His will and timing. The preacher tells us you can’t see a return on an investment unless there’s an investment, so do something. Just try.

It’s better to risk and go for it than to hoard and be paralyzed by fear.

Consider Matthew 25, where Jesus tells the parable of the talents. If you’re not familiar, three slaves receive varying amounts of money from their master: five, three, and one. The first two invest it. The third is fearful and buries it, not wanting to risk losing it or disappointing his master.

When the master returns, he digs it up with no return on investment. Does the master say, “Good job, you didn’t lose my money?” No. He calls him a wicked and slothful slave. “I gave you something. I trusted you. Why were you lazy? Why were you fearful?”

God has entrusted things to us. God has surrounded us with people. God has given us resources. If I just sit on it and wait for something to happen, apart from the fact that God has called me to live a life of obedience, meaning, and joy, I’m being wicked and slothful.

The preacher wants us to understand God has given you certain things, entrusted certain things to you, and called you to certain things. So as we look at verse one, which many debate, whether it means to be generous with what God has supplied or to be risk-takers, the point is the same: life is short. Don’t hoard what God has given you; do something with it.

We know that when we give to those in need with gladness, we’re giving to the Lord who sees and repays (Proverbs 19:17). As New Testament believers, when we share the gospel and open up about our faith, we don’t know what God will do with that. Generosity with what God has done in our lives is a form of investment.

Isaiah 55:11 tells us God’s word “shall not return to me empty, but shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Not maybe, not possibly, but it will.

God uses our limited, failing efforts, our weaknesses, and inability because it’s not about us. We’re not the ones getting the glory; it’s God’s plan coming to fruition.

The point is to move through life generously, to give, bless, and do good.

Live in the freedom God has given you. Dear Christian, don’t obsess, be fearful, anxious, or stressed about what will or won’t happen. Take risks, try things, build relationships, share your life and faith, get out of your comfort zone, get to know people. Try something to glorify God in your endeavor.

Scripture repeatedly calls us to trust and not worry, not be needlessly anxious or fearful. We’re called to trust the Lord’s timing, plan, will, and way. We’re called not to lean on our own understanding because we’re limited in what we can make of circumstances.

We see what’s immediately around us and think we have it figured out, but God works from points in our lives we’re not connecting today. He works through people and circumstances we don’t realize will affect us.

We only see what’s in front of us. God isn’t limited by the here and now, difficulties, or challenges. He does good and beautiful things out of broken parts of our lives.

This is why Philippians 4:4-6 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:25-26 says, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

And 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.”

We’re told over and over in Scripture, Old and New Testament, to trust God, His sovereignty, and His perfect plan.

How does it work? How do these things piece together? I don’t know. If someone tells you they know how everything in their life and the lives around them piece together and make sense, they’re not telling the truth. Nobody knows.

It’s easy to theologize or philosophize about this, but it’s not easy to understand or comfortable. Some of you listening might be thinking, “My life is chaos, pain, and suffering. Help me make sense of that. When does God start piecing things together?”

I get it. I’ve been there. I’m not saying this lightly. I don’t know how all these things work together. Talking about God’s sovereignty or an unknown plan can seem like a cop-out. I get that it’s not always comfortable to say, “I won’t lean on my own understanding; I’ll trust the Lord.”

But I know that over and over, at every crossroads, God has shown Himself to be good. He’s graciously given you and me another day to see His provision and care, even if that day is fraught with pain.

I don’t know why your life is harder or easier than someone else’s. But I know God is good. I know that in love for sinners, He sent His Son to die in their place and offer the free gift of salvation. Then He says, “Live. I’ll work out all the details. I’ll oversee everything. I’ll make something beautiful of the life you’ve managed to screw up.”

This is our God, friends.

Ecclesiastes 11 tells us that despite fear or uncertainty, the Christian life is not one of hoarding or timidity. No, we’re told to go and live, use God’s gifts, be generous, and take risks.

You don’t know everything and can’t predict everything, as we see in verses 5 and 6. So don’t base your action or peace on how much you know and understand because that point will never come.

This is hard for the overly analytical among us, yet we’re called to this. It’s actually liberating to live without thinking you have to work everything out before moving in faith. That’s not what God calls us to.

Living a life of joy and freedom begins with accepting and embracing that some things are well out of your control and rejoicing in whatever God, in His infinite wisdom and love, has given you.

Or you can be overwhelmed by the “what ifs” of life, wrestling with what’s out of your control, and be crippled by those fears. The latter will be a miserable, joyless way to live and will ruin you. That’s why God says, “Trust me.”

In his book “Living Life Backward,” which looks specifically at Ecclesiastes, David Gibson writes: “Here is wisdom you will not hear anywhere else. Take the best of what you have and the best of what you are and give them away. Hold them out in open hands to God and to others. Worldly wisdom builds bunkers and barns to prepare for disaster. Biblical wisdom instead throws open the windows and doors of our homes and builds schools and hospitals and churches and sees rich Christians become much, much poorer than they might otherwise have been.”

This, beloved, is a radically different way to live than what the world tells us.

Ecclesiastes tells us: give it all away. God will do something with it much better than you can.

That brings us to our second point: in verses 7 through 10, we’re called to live like there’s no tomorrow. There might not be.

God is sovereign. He will do what He pleases. Many things are out of your control, yet it’s not just chaos, fear, doom, gloom, or darkness. Life is beautiful.

If you want to see beauty, just open your eyes. Consider light peeking through the window in the morning and how wonderful that is. Consider the gift of another day.

Rejoice in God’s good gifts while you have them because you won’t always have them, as we see in verse 8. Don’t take them for granted.

The preacher tells us to enjoy that great meal, that delicious cup of coffee, that long drive where you have time to think, that beautiful hike, the hug with the person you love, a funny movie, a moving song, a bizarre painting you can’t take your eyes off, the joy of your pet, the hot water coming out of your faucet, the clothing on your back.

Saints, enjoy the people seated around you. Look at how beautiful you all are—how interesting, unique, with your stories and awesome genetic makeup giving you distinct facial features.

Enjoy that in one another. Marvel at God’s grace in making the world unique, interesting, and beautiful. Be grateful for all of it, dear Christian.

If you are going to enjoy God’s good gifts, and you should, make sure to do it in such a way that you can give an account for how it was enjoyed.

Being young, ambitious, adventurous, and excited about life is great, but don’t forget, the preacher tells us, God sees all you do and will judge how you’ve lived.

Why would he ruin such a beautiful text? Why not just leave it at “enjoy this life”? Is Kohelet trying to be a downer? Is he saying enjoy but not too much?

No. He’s saying that joy—the joy of the man or woman of God—is always married to goodness and truth. Real joy needs to be rooted in who God is and what it means to live for His glory, not merely for my desires or preferences.

Throughout this book, the preacher warns against a hedonistic life lived solely for pleasure. It will ruin you and leave you empty. All that is just about you and your pleasure is vanity.

But in this warning, he’s telling us that whatever fits within God’s clear commands and outside what He’s forbidden, we are free to enjoy as gifts from a gracious heavenly Father.

Enjoy, but remember what this life is about and that you will give an account one day.

Why does the preacher address young people specifically? Could it be that what happens in youth sets the stage for later life? Could God be kindly warning young people not to create habits and patterns that will later ruin them?

Could God be warning that giving yourself to certain things will develop habits, addictions, and behaviors that harm and set you on the wrong path, difficult to pull out of later?

God is graciously talking to young people: don’t do it; it will kill you.

Young people, you have the opportunity now, with your parents and God’s kindness bringing you to church, to sit under the preaching of the Word and be around Christians to think about your decisions.

I plead with you: think seriously about your decisions, the trajectory you set, and how you navigate life. Don’t think someone or something owes you what you want or desire because that leads to ruin.

God calls you to trust Him, to love Him more than yourself and the pleasures of this life. In return, He gives you a new heart, new affections, and meaning. Then you can truly enjoy life because worldly pleasures will ruin you. It’s like drinking salt water when thirsty—it won’t help, only destroy.

But this is not just for the young; mature saints are included too. Use the time God has given you. Rejoice in another day to live for His glory, point others to Him, and see Him at work.

Use your experiences and wisdom to bless others, invest in younger people and your brothers and sisters. Don’t dwell on wasted time or regret. Focus on what’s still here and that you have another day to live for God’s glory and make the most of it.

In gratitude for another day, live meaningfully for God’s glory and the good of His people.

Before you think this text is just about being happy despite circumstances, look at verse 8: “Let him remember that the days of darkness will be many.”

We’re to remember pain, difficulty, challenges, and loss. Yet even with all that, we are to rejoice in the gift of life.

Pain, darkness, adversity—while unpleasant—are gifts from the Lord to help us see who God is and teach us dependence on Him. It doesn’t feel like a gift in the moment, but it is. Without it, if life is easy, we don’t stop to think about God.

But when you crash and everything crumbles, you stop and reanalyze who you are, who God is, and how you ought to live.

Ultimately, it’s a gift to keep us dependent.

So, as we consider this joyful, meaningful life, of all people in the world, dear Christian, the believer should be a model of happiness and one who enjoys life whatever the circumstance.

Consider Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: “You are the salt of the earth.” Yes, we bring preservation, but salt adds flavor.

The Christian enjoys and allows others to enjoy life, making things more beautiful, enlivening the world, bringing color and taste.

The Christian, knowing God is in control and sovereign, can freely enjoy this world in a way the unbeliever cannot.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This wisdom is about major truths of life, but also about seeing God’s gifts as they are, enjoying beauty, understanding how we get good and beautiful things, and knowing life is to be lived fully and intentionally.

Dear friend, are you living or merely surviving? Do you see God at work in you and the world? Are you seizing opportunities He sends, or are you passive, apathetic, indifferent? Do you jump on chances to talk about the Lord, to share about the one who saved you and blesses you?

I’m not painting a picture of a life that’s always an action movie with constant change. There are seasons where things seem slow and boring, lacking measurable progress.

But if you’re a Christian, God is equally at work in those seasons as in exciting ones. Are your eyes open to His work? Are you living for His glory?

Friend, life will pass quickly. A day is coming when the curtain closes, likely sooner than you expect.

The only way to truly live is to be connected to the source of life—Jesus, by whom and for whom all things were created, who died for sinners and offers salvation and eternal hope.

Only in Him can we live the joyful life Kohelet writes about. That life won’t always be happy or easy, but it will be joyful and fulfilling because it carries us into eternal joy.

There’s an old hymn I love, “This is My Father’s World.” Let me read the lyrics for us in closing:

“This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears, All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world; I rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas; His hand the wonders wrought. This is my Father’s world; the birds their carols raise. The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise. This is my Father’s world; He shines in all that’s fair. In the rustling grass I hear Him pass; He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father’s world; oh, let me never forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father’s world; why should my heart be sad? The Lord is King; let the heavens ring. God reigns; let earth be glad.”

We are as safe as we can possibly be, saints. Open your eyes to the beauty your heavenly Father places around you and remember how you came to be His child. Then rejoice, dear Christian.

Would you join me in a word of prayer?

Father, You are good and do good. In Your kindness, You sent Your Son to die in our place so that we might have life—not just life, but joyful, beautiful life. Thank You for Your grace and generosity. We ask, Lord, would You tune our hearts, eyes, affections, ears, and everything to see Your beauty and infinite worth in all things and to give You praise and glory in the way we live the life You have graciously given us. We ask in the only name in which we can pray, Jesus, our King, our Savior, our best friend. Amen.