"The Purpose-Driven Life is Hevel (Ecclesiastes 3)" | 9/25/22
Ecclesiastes 3 | 9/25/22 | Will DuVal
In 2002, Rick Warren published his international best-selling book, The Purpose-Driven Life, which to date has sold over 50 million copies. As the title would suggest, Warren argues that we’ve all been put here on earth, by God, for a PURPOSE. That our lives are FILLED with meaning. That includes how we spend 1) our TIME - [*quote*] “our time on earth [might be] just a blink of an eye, but the consequences of it will last forever.” - 2) the WORK we do [*quote*] - “As long as you do things for God, you are a Hall of Famer in heaven's list.” - and most importantly, 3) life’s ultimate AIM - “If you feel hopeless, hold on! [Warren encourages us:] Wonderful changes are going to happen in your life as you begin to live it on purpose.”
Well, three chapters into the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon isn’t nearly as sure.
While Rick Warren assures us that “our time on earth” matters eternally, Solomon laments that our days spent here under the sun are “unhappy… vanity… a striving after wind” (1:14) Hevel.
While Warren calls us “Hall of Famers” on God’s list when we work for Him, Solomon wonders, “What gain has the worker from [ANY of] his toil?” (3:9). Does our work really make any lasting difference?
And in starkest contrast to Warren’s encouragement about life’s hopefulness and purposefulness, Solomon grieves that “man has no advantage over the beasts, for… as one dies, so dies the other… [and] all is [meaningless].” (3:19)
According to Solomon, the pursuit of a “purpose-filled life” is hevel - it’s “vapor, smoke” (Pastor Thad suggested I light my copy of “The Purpose-Driven Life” up here on FIRE… send it “up in smoke”!... as a memorable, visual demonstration for you; I opted NOT to set off the sprinkler system on you this morning!) but Solomon’s point remains: That so often life’s purpose seems to escape us, here under the sun.
And that brings us to Ecclesiastes ch3 this morning, if you want to begin turning there in your Bibles. And as you do, let me offer you a quick OUTLINE of Solomon’s sermon here. His 3-point sermon.
Remember, so far, he has searched for meaning but found none in WORK, NATURE, KNOWLEDGE, PROGRESS, LEGACY and WISDOM in ch1…
Then in ch2 he examined WHOOPIE and WEALTH, before RE-examining WISDOM and WORK, and found them all lacking too.
-
So this morning, Solomon’s going to explore three ADDITIONAL endeavors in the hope of finding purpose. And once again, he’s going to expose a PROBLEM which each of these 3 undertakings, a reason why each one seems to just be more “hevel”, but this time, Solomon’s gonna attempt to actually RESOLVE the problem, to clear away the smoke, to get CLARITY, on life’s purpose. But what he’s gonna discover is that every time he solves ONE problem, it just leads him to an even BIGGER problem with his next proposed pursuit for purpose.
And since my overview is probably as clear as smoke - sorry, I’m trying not to prematurely give away our 3 main bullet points! - so, let’s just dive in.
Would you STAND with me… SCRIPTURE - Ecc ch3:
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.
14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
16 Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. 17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. 18 I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. 19 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. 20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? 22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
#1 - Our TIME is hevel (3:1-8). Time is hevel.
Now, show of hands: how many of you were SINGING ALONG, as we read our way through vv1-8? [*SING*] “To everything - turn, turn…” Yeah; I need you to forget the Byrds this morning. Because that famous 60s TUNE does not at ALL reflect Solomon’s mood here, in the text, okay. Jonathan Akin explains: “The [upbeat] tune [of “Turn, Turn, Turn”] comforts people who think, ‘It doesn’t matter how bad things get; good times are coming!’” (Akin, 35) Things will “turn” around soon enough. But that’s NOT Solomon’s point here! He’s not CELEBRATING all life’s varying seasons, ‘cuz in each of these 14 contrasting pairings he lists, ONE of them is clearly a “time” that Solomon wishes, and WE ought to wish, didn’t exist AT ALL! Solomon’s not HAPPY about the fact that there’s “a time to die… to kill… to weep… to mourn…” Moreover, as Akin puts it: “This poem reveals the great absurdity of life because each activity cancels the other out. There are 14 pluses and 14 minuses, and that adds up to… [any math whizzes here?] ZERO” (Alistair Begg, “Eternity on My Mind”). Every birth ends in death, every planted crop is pulled up, every building is eventually condemned… every peace gives way to another war. Nothing is gained” in this giant HAMSTER WHEEL of life; there’s TONS of activity, but zero progress. (Ecclesiastes, 40)
And because our time here under the sun is hevel, then so too, #2 - is our TOIL. Our TOIL - our WORK - is hevel as well.
In v9, Solomon asks, “What gain has the worker from his toil?”
Now, we’re gonna come BACK to point #1 in just a minute, but let’s try and follow his train of thought here: if every positive action has its equal and opposite negative RE-action in life, that negates it - if every birth ends in death, everything built eventually gets torn down - then logically, all our effort, our TOIL, our attempts to make any progress and actually advance things here under the sun is all in VAIN; it’s HEVEL.
And speaking of “nothing new under the sun”, even Solomon’s MIND is here starting to go in circles, because he’s already lamented the vanity of work TWICE now; remember, in ch1 he asked the exact same question he does here: “What does man gain by all his toil” (1:3), and then AGAIN in ch2: “What has a man from all the toil… with which he toils beneath the sun?” (2:22). So Solomon’s BRAIN seems to be stuck on the hamster wheel as well!
But then he has a break-through, here in v11. First, in v10, he makes another identical observation from ch1; he says: “I’ve seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with”, and we expect him to call it “HEVEL”, just like he did back in ch1, when he said, “It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with… it’s all HEVEL” (1:13-14). But watch what he says here in ch3 now instead: “[GOD] has made everything beautiful in its time.”
Why the change? What happened between ch1 and ch3 here? [math whizzes again…] Remember Solomon’s conclusion to ch2 last week? Where he finally celebrated the ONLY thing that’s NOT hevel in this world: WORSHIP! Assigning God the worth - the ULTIMATE worth! - that He alone deserves. Then and only then does everything ELSE in life find its meaning and joy in HIM. When we accept that everything under the sun is [*quote*] “from the hand of GOD” (2:24), when we learn to receive money and sex and wisdom and work NOT as the sources of our meaning and joy, but for what they really ARE: GIFTS - GOOD gifts - that are intended to point us back to the GIVER, GOD, who ALONE is the source of ALL meaning and joy; and when we find our satisfaction and hope in HIM, then all of a sudden He makes “everything [ELSE] beautiful in its time”, as well.
So here’s Solomon’s internal DEBATE, in these first 11 verses:
PROBLEM: (vv1-10) If everything we DO in life just gets UN-done, then what’s the point?
ANSWER / SOLUTION: (v11) The point is to have DONE it. The BEAUTY is in the DOING. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “It’s not about the DESTINATION; it’s about [WHAT?] - the JOURNEY.”
Solomon’s starting to sound like a hippie; maybe that’s why the Byrds covered him. In ANY case, NOW we can back up and revisit Solomon’s lyrics in vv1-8 from a new perspective. Sure, in an “under the sun” world devoid of God, then death, killing, weeping, mourning - it’s all depressing hevel. But WITH God in the picture, suddenly we discover new BEAUTY in life - even in the hard parts.
Everyone sees the beauty in BIRTH - watching my daughter be born was the single greatest, most transcendent moment of my life.
But now we can ALSO find the beauty even in DEATH. I love officiating weddings - the birth of a new marriage? Beautiful. But there’s nothing better than a FUNERAL… as LONG as GOD is in the picture. You take HIM out, and it’s hevel; death is an ATROCITY.
But when you know the One who CONQUERED death, who rose from the grave to free us from the power of death and raise us to new, ETERNAL life with Him, then you know that death is just a momentary passageway - it’s just a quick door that you walk through that separates this hevel-filled life “under the sun” that’s now behind you from the HEAVENLY life WITH the Son - your SAVIOR! - that now lies BEFORE you, where there is GOODNESS and LIFE and JOY FOREVERMORE!
Friends: in Christ’s resurrection, God has made even DEATH “beautiful” in its time - when the time comes; when YOUR time comes - will your death be “beautiful”? That depends: is GOD in the picture, for you? Is JESUS - God the Son, the second person of the Trinity - is He your Lord and Savior? If He’s NOT, now would be a great time, a BEAUTIFUL time, to repent - to “turn, turn, turn” from your SINS, and trust, trust, trust in JESUS. And be SAVED.
With GOD in the picture, v2, both the time to “plant” as well as the time to “pluck up” become beautiful. Philip Ryken explains: “In the OT, these verbs are often used to describe God’s relationship with his people. God planted his people as a fruitful vineyard (see Isa 5:1). But when they turned against him in rebellion, God dug up the vine, and sent his people away into captivity [in EXILE] (see Isa 5:5).” (Ecclesiastes, 82)
But again, with GOD, it’s ALL beautiful. It’s beautiful that God made His covenant with Abraham, and planted, established, his people Israel. But it’s even MORE beautiful that God has now allowed a “partial hardening” to come over Israel - Romans 11 - so that God might pluck THEM up in order to graft US in - a bunch of GENTILES - INTO His covenant, NOW, His new and even BETTER covenant, ETERNAL life in CHRIST!
And if we had more TIME, if it wasn’t so FLEETING - hevel - we could walk through each ONE of these 14 pairings in vv1-8, and appreciate God’s redemptive power to bring BEAUTY from ashes, to turn EVIL for good, with every ONE of them.
There’s “a time to kill, and a time to heal” - a time to take your dog to the vet to get him the meds that’ll HEAL ‘em, and a time to take him there to put him down. And it’s sadly beautiful, cuz we know all dogs go to heaven too, right?
There’s “a time to break down, and a time to build up” - How many of y’all were in town in 2005 when they tore down the OLD Busch Stadium? Busch Memorial? Was it SAD - be honest: how many of you shed a tear? But was it also BEAUTIFUL, when they built NEW Busch Stadium - bigger and better - right on TOP of it? You can’t build NEW Busch without tearing down OLD Busch.
You can’t “SEEK” if you don’t “LOSE”.
You can’t “SEW” if you don’t “TEAR”.
There’s no such thing as “love” without “hate”, “peace” without “war”.
And GOD has made it ALL “beautiful in its time”.
But that leads Solomon to another PROBLEM now. He may have solved the problem of TIME’S “hevel-ness”, by appealing to GOD - the only One ABOVE the sun who brings everything UNDER the sun its meaning and beauty. But that now raises…
PROBLEM #2: Namely, that now I just wanna get ABOVE the sun! Once you’ve acknowledged all the HEVEL down here, but there’s a place up THERE, out THERE, that’s PERFECT, uncontaminated by hevel, filled with a GOD who’s perfect - no trace of hevel - then that just leaves me wanting to be THERE, with HIM, instead of HERE!
We keep reading in v11: Yes, God “has made everything beautiful in its time. [BUT…] Also, [we read] he has put eternity into man's heart”.
Problem #2: We LONG for ETERNITY!
As C.S. Lewis famously put it: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” (Mere Christianity, p120)
And we think, “Wow, Clives - that’s such a beautiful thought!”
But Solomon says, “Yeah, but it’s also incredibly FRUSTRATING! To be made for another world! Cuz now I LONG for THAT world! And if I was MADE for it, then that makes me a FOREIGNER here; I’m an ALIEN, a “stranger and exile” - Hebrews 11:13 calls us. And Solomon cries: “I don’t know about you, but I’m HOMESICK!”
God has put ETERNITY in our hearts - in ALL our hearts, by the way. There’s no such thing as a REAL atheist. God says in Romans 1 He’s made it OBVIOUS in Creation that He exists; it’s not POSSIBLE to watch your baby be born and NOT know there’s a God. But what Solomon tells us here is that deep down, we all WANT there to be a God too. Or at least we want there to be SOMETHING that’s eternal, SOMETHING that lasts.
God put ETERNITY in our hearts, and try as the atheist may to EXPEL it, with pseudo-scientific arguments; try as you may to AVOID it, with all the hevel of THIS world” - some of us are so distracted by all the shiny objects around us down here that we barely spare a THOUGHT about life ABOVE the sun, ETERNITY; we try and IGNORE it. But Solomon says, “You can’t avoid it forever. Eternity is IN there. And it haunts us all.”
In divinity school, my New Testament professor was an atheist, orthodox Jew (that’s a story for another time!). She knew more ABOUT Jesus than anyone I’ve ever met; she just didn’t know Jesus, sadly. But I’ll never forget the story she told our class about sitting with her mother in her last moments before death.
She said she was holding her mom’s hand, crying, and her mom said, “AJ, I’m scared. What’s gonna happen to me?”
And my professor looked down at her mother and said, “Mom, you’re gonna go to heaven, and see Dad again. And it’s gonna be PERFECT.”
And her mom took a few more breaths, and then she died.
And my professor wept, and left the room, and after some time had passed, so it wasn’t too insensitive, my professor’s HUSBAND, who had ALSO been in the room with them, asked her about it; he said, “Hey, what WAS that? You told your mom she was going to Heaven? You don’t believe in Heaven?”
And she said, “When I looked into my dying mother’s eyes and I said it, in that moment, I believed it.”
Because God has put eternity into man’s heart.
YET, continuing v11 now, “so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” Solomon says: “Consider this - there are at LEAST 4 different theories on what God did at the BEGINNING (I did an “Ask the Pastor” episode on this, btw - quick shout out for our podcast - episode #25, I think it was, 2 years ago) but there’s “Young Earth” Creationism (the earth is 6,000 years old, “Old Earth” Creationism (earth is ~4 billion years old), “Theistic Evolution” (God used the Big Bang and evolution to create everything); and of course there’s “Darwinian Materialism” (which posits NO god at ALL). And Solomon says, “Don’t even get me STARTED on all your guesses for how it’s all gonna END: Dispensationalism, Historic Premillennialism, POST-millennialism, A-millennialism, Partial Preterism… and those are just the CHRISTIAN theories!”
So Solomon says, “Here we are, [and I thought I’d give you a VISUAL to help illustrate this one… see the white line there in the center of the screen?... No, okay, [A/V team]: can you zoom in a bit… Ok, see it now? That white line is the entire history of the universe, from its beginning long ago in the PAST, to its end at a predetermined but unknown to us time in the future. Now, you see that tiny YELLOW dot on the line? No, well that’s because that represents YOUR LIFE. Your ENTIRE life is just a tiny little 70, 80, 90 year BLIP on the radar screen of HISTORY; if Genesis 1:1 was the beginning of time - remember, God exists OUTSIDE of time and space, which He CREATED - our universe is NOT eternal; it had a definitive beginning, and one day, the universe as we KNOW it, will come to an END - so if we exist as a mere BLIP on the timeline of history, Solomon says, “You can’t even see the beginning OR the end of the TIMELINE; how much LESS can you understand the GOD who exists OUTSIDE of the timeline altogether! The INFINITE, ETERNAL God who CREATED the timeline, and everything in it!” Solomon says, “Fat chance!”
So he concludes in v12: SOLUTION #2, to problem #2 (of having eternity in your heart): “I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.”
Translation: “Just enjoy your little blip.” Listen: the timeline’s just too BIG for you. And the God BEYOND the timeline is WAAAAY too big for you. So just enjoy your little blip. And “do good”, while you’re at it. Ephesians 2:10 says that’s why God PUT us here, after all: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” It’s our DUTY to “do good”, and Solomon adds - it’s also our DELIGHT; he says, “take pleasure in your toil [in doing good, doing God’s work; for] - this is God's gift to man.”
And then Solomon concludes point #2 by further emphasizing the difference between God’s VASTNESS, and our BLIP-ness, in vv14 & 15: “I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it.” God is ETERNAL, and He is eternal-LY SOVEREIGN. That’s just a fancy theological word that means “God is IN CHARGE”. As God Himself declares in Isaiah 46:9 & 10:
“ I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet even done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose”
And friends: our proper RESPONSE, in light of God’s sovereignty, v14, is to FEAR Him: “God has done [all this], so that people fear before him.” Which Psalm 33:8 defines this way: “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let [them] stand in awe of him!” Awe, respect, reverence, and yes, even a little TREMBLING - when you realize that the only reason that giant oak tree in your front yard hasn’t come crashing down on your daughter’s bedroom is that GOD is holding it in place. As I was writing this section of the sermon last night, I got a text from one of our members here, Daniel Sakala, who informed me, “Pastor Will, I was in a terrible accident this week, I got blind-sided by someone running a light, who flipped and totaled my car, the people who pulled me out of my sunroof couldn’t believe I walked away without a scratch” - friends, the only reason Daniel is even ALIVE right now - the only reason YOU’RE alive right now! - is because God, in His sovereignty, is watching OVER us. That ought to make us FEAR him, in a healthy way. Stand in AWE, and worship Him.
When we consider that WHATEVER He does, v14, “endures forever”; while whatever WE do, v15 now, is hevel: “That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been”. But watch this: “...and God seeks what has been driven away”; or your Bible might alert you that the Hebrew participle there literally translates “what has been PURSUED”; “God seeks what has been pursued”.
In other words, God is seeking the same thing YOU’RE pursuing, friends: an eternity TOGETHER, with you. That’s what HE wants. He’s seeking YOU! And he’s willing to leave the other 99 sheep, to hunt you down and FIND you. Praise God!
Now, it’d be GREAT if Solomon just ended things right there, wouldn’t it, on a happy note. But instead, he opens up a whole ‘nother can of worms - a WORLD of worms! - on us, in v16. Quick recap:
Problem #1 (vv1-10): Time is hevel; what’s the point?
Solution #1 (v11): Just enjoy it while you can.
Problem #2 (v11): But I wanna live for MORE than just this life; I’ve got ETERNITY in my heart…
Solution #2 (vv12-15): You can’t HANDLE eternity - it’s INFINITELY OUT OF your paygrade; you need to leave eternity to God, in His more-than capable, Sovereign hands, and just enjoy your little blip. “Eat, drink, and enjoy your hevel-filled toil while you can.”
But here comes Problem #3, in v16: “Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.”
Solomon says, “I was TRYING to just enjoy my little blip down here, but I couldn’t help but notice all of the EVIL, the INJUSTICE, the WICKEDNESS all over the place… under the sun!”
So how does Solomon comfort himself? SOLUTION #3? v17 now: “I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work” - there may be a time for helping AND for hurting, but Solomon says: “there’s ALSO gonna be a time for rewarding AND for punishing!” As he reassures himself LATER, in the very last verse of the whole BOOK, in ch12, spoiler alert: “God will bring every deed into judgment… whether good or evil.”
But that raises PROBLEM #4: That we may never SEE that justice… in THIS lifetime, on THIS side of eternity, under THIS sun. v18: “I said in my heart… that God is testing [us] that [we] may see that [we] are but beasts.” In other words, we’re all gonna DIE, and God is testing whether or not we truly trust in His eternal, sovereign timing and judgment - will we leave it to Him, even if it means we don’t get to see those wrongs get righted on this side of the grave?
But wait a minute: THAT problem just raises the far bigger problem of Death ITSELF! Forget JUSTICE beyond the grave; how sure can we be that there’s ANY hope beyond the grave?! And that’s your third and final bullet point there: #3 - Our TELOS is hevel. “Telos” is Greek for END, the FINISH line; how does the story of our lives END? Is there another chapter, AFTER death?
V19: “For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is hevel. 20 All go to one place [i.e., THE GRAVE]. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. [“Ashes to ashes; dust to dust.” And…] 21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?”
Solomon asks, “Are you SURE we don’t just DIE and turn into worm food, just like every OTHER animal here under the sun? HOW sure are you? And how can you BE sure, after all? I mean, “WHO KNOWS”, v21; who’s to say? NO ONE knows for sure, do they?!
And that’s where Solomon leaves us. Actually, he draws one last conclusion in v22: “So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot.” He’s back to “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we DIE”, but NOW, he doesn’t sound so HAPPY about it, does he? So he ends with an unsolved problem: the problem of the absolute CERTAINTY of death, but the utter UN-certainty of life AFTER death. v22: “Who can bring [man] to see what will be after him?”
And Solomon’s question would remain mostly unanswered for almost a 1,000 years. Sure, there were PROMISES of hope for the Afterlife. JOB had FAITH - “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end…I shall see God” (19:25-27) - David had FAITH - Ps 16:10 “You will not abandon me to the grave”; Ps 49:15 “God will ransom my soul from the power of death” - even SOLOMON, at the END of Ecclesiastes, will snap out of his existential funk long enough to declare: “the dust returns to the earth as it was, and [so too] the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (12:7)
But those were all declarations of FAITH, in God’s promises. And it would take almost 1,000 years for that FAITH to be turned to SIGHT. As a group of people - believers AND unbelievers - all huddled around an occupied tomb and listened to a man announce, ““I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25), and then turn to the lifeless corpse INSIDE the tomb and order “Lazarus: get UP!”, and he DID!
And just a couple weeks later, that very same man would find himself in a tomb, after being brutally tortured and crucified UNJUSTLY, and this time, it was His FATHER, God HIMSELF, who would give the order: “Jesus, GET UP!”, and he DID!
And now, friends, 2,000 years later, though we once again may not SEE, Christ commands our FAITH still today: “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live… Do you believe this?” (Jn 11:25-26)
Do YOU believe it, this morning? Have you believed in JESUS?
I wanna leave you with 3 quick “TAKEAWAYS”- one for each of Solomon’s hevels here. He raised 3 big problems, but only answered TWO of them. So let me remind you of his two solutions, and then offer you a THIRD and most important one:
1) Do you want to know that your TIME here under the sun is filled with PURPOSE? Then Trust God’s promise, to “make everything beautiful in its time”, to “work ALL things together for our GOOD, for those who love Him.”
2) Do you want to know that all your TOIL isn’t for naught; that it’s filled with PURPOSE? Then Trust God’s sovereignty; God is in charge, friends, and that’s really good news for us, because it means you and I don’t HAVE to be! It’s a burden far too big for our shoulders. So keep your toiling in perspective: “be joyful and to do good as long as you live” here under the sun, which in the grand scheme of ETERNITY, is just a BLIP.
3) And finally, but most important of all, do you NEED to know that your TELOS - your END, your FINISH line, the last chapter of YOUR story, is filled with purpose? That there’s more to your life than just these 70, 80, 90 hevel-filled years under the sun? And that death doesn’t get the final word? Then Trust God’s SON, JESUS, our ONLY hope for life beyond the grave!