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Ecclesiastes #4 : Solomon’s Grand Experiment, Part 2
Chapter 2
Please take out your Bibles and turn in them to the book of Ecclesiastes and chapter number 2. Ecclesiastes chapter number 2.
I want to share with you a story that Steve Arterburn tells about an egg hunt that he went on when he was a kid. He writes, “They called it the Golden Egg. I called it the Big One. It was Easter, and I was a three-year-old on an egg hunt. This was serious business. Candy, you must understand, was an extremely important part of my life…Because I was so young, my mom let me watch the organizers hide the colored eggs and chocolates on the green rolling fields where the hunt would take place. Before long, I had spotted the man with the “Big One”—a jumbo sized, crème-filled, chocolate egg wrapped in gold foil. He was off to the side of the field, jamming the prize egg into a hole where a water faucet pipe came up to through ground. I may have been only three, but I wasn’t a fool. I knew an inside tip when I saw one. Call it a competitive edge at the bunny-eat-bunny world of Easter egg hunts.
All the kids were herded behind the starting line. Most of the others were much older and bigger than me—but not wiser. With the word “Go!” the hunt started and I made a beeline for the Big One. It didn’t matter how many colored eggs or chocolates laid in my path; I did not stop to pick up these lesser, almost meaningless morsels. My legs, being puny three-year-old models, could not take me there fast enough. Relatively soon, however, I reached my destination. I glanced around. I was alone. The egg was mine, all mine. But as I reached my hand into the shallow hole, my peewee face formed an expression you see only in old Hitchcock movies. “Huh? There’s nothing here!” The hole was empty…I lay down on the grass and I peered into the six-inch hole. I wasn’t going to move until I found it.
I started digging and pulling grass around the hole, but nothing I did uncovered the golden egg that I had seen placed there. At the age of three, I wasn’t able to consider the possibility that the man had moved the egg after I had turned and walked back toward the starting line…
a loud scream from across the field broke my concentration. In an old oak tree, between two branches that hung low enough for kids to reach, one of the children had found the Big One. Leslie Walters. I still remember her name. As I ran across the field in disbelief, fake green grass flew from my otherwise empty basket. When I spotted Leslie with the Big One I started to cry…He goes on to say, “From the certainty of a sweet and calculated victory came the bitter taste of defeat. Still, the day wasn’t a total loss, for I had learned a valuable lesson: that which promises to bring happiness and fulfillment, often leaves us empty.”
Most of us spend a considerable time and energy searching for the Big One—whatever it is we think will bring lasting joy and satisfaction. We dream about it, sweat over it, even do without other, smaller things in its pursuit. For we know once we have achieved, possessed, owned, romanced, or conquered the Big One, our lives, once and for all, will be happy and fulfilling.”
I want you to know this morning, there is no need for you to go on a fruitless hunt for the Big One that will really satisfy because Solomon has already been down that path. He has already searched out those holes.
We are studying right now Solomon’s Grand Experiment. And today we are coming to part number two in that experiment. We are seeing that he is out to live out the fondest fantasies of humanity. He’s living out, at the end of Chapter 1 and in Chapter 2, the ultimate ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ [TV show]. And we have been pointing out that in his Grand Experiment, there is nobody like him. There never has been anybody like him. He had no mental limitations at all. In fact, he was the wisest person who ever lived. He had no financial limitations; he was the richest person who ever lived. He had no time or authority limitations because he was king, and no one was going to check him in his Great Experiment.
Now last week we began looking at his Grand Experiment and we noted that people tend to take different paths looking for ultimate fulfillment or satisfaction. One path that people take is the “Let’s Feel Good” path, which we looked at last time…Hedonism, materialism, sexual pleasure. Another path that people often will pursue to find satisfaction and fulfillment in life is what we might call the “Let’s Do It” path. Whether it’s accomplishments, or gaining prominence, or just working hard; that’s a path that we often walk. The third path that people often go down to find significance is what we might call the “Let’s Be Intelligent” path. We have been pointing out that the Book of Ecclesiastes in part is written to counter common assumptions in life and one of those assumptions is that if I could just do ______, if I could just get _______, if I could just experience_______, then I would know lasting satisfaction.
As we began examining his Grand Experiment last week, we noted that there is an important quote that we want to have as a backdrop to all of this. It comes from Augustine when he says, “He who has God has everything. He who does not have God has nothing. And he who has God and everything has no more than he who has God alone.”
Now here’s our plan for today as we look at this Grand Experiment, Part 2. We’re going to look at this second path, the “Let’s Do It” Path and we’re going to see how he investigated the area of Accomplishments (in verses 4 to 6); how he investigated the area of Prominence (in verses 9 to11); and how he investigated the arena of Hard Work (in verses 18 to 23). Then we’re going to look at the pathway of “Let’s Be Intelligent”...we want to have fulfillment; let’s just be intelligent. We see that in verses 12 to 17. Then we see the conclusion of this particular section where he’s sharing his experiment. We see that conclusion in verses 24 to 26. So that’s where we’re going this morning, just so you know where we’re headed. And then you can follow along as we move through the section.
So, first of all, the “Lets Do It” path. If I want to find fulfillment, some people say, “Well, we have just got to go out and do it.” One of those things that we go to do is to reap accomplishments. Notice verses 4 to 6 in Ecclesiastes 2. Solomon said, “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 from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees.” Now I want you to notice as we read those verses, there are some words that keep coming up. Did you notice them? I and my and myself. He’s focused on himself and what he can accomplish. And I did this and it was myand I did it for myself. There in verse 4 he says that he built houses for himself where he says, “I built houses for myself.” But you’ll notice it’s houses, plural.
Now if you investigate a little more about Solomon, you’ll know that we learn in 1 Kings that he spent seven years building the Temple of God. Now we have to understand, this was not some little thing– building the Temple of God. It was the number one architectural feat of his day. He spent seven years building the Temple, but we also learn that he spent 13 years building one of his houses. He called that house “The Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.” Now just that title alone gives you some kind of idea what this place must have been like; thirteen years on his own house. You see, “I’m going to accomplish some things. I’m going to do some things.” He also built and maintained vineyards and gardens and parks and trees [likely huge plantings]. You almost get the idea when you listen to what he did, that he had been hearing about and reading about the Garden of Eden. He said, “You know what? Let’s recreate that. Let’s just get vineyards and gardens and parks and trees and we’ll plant all these things.” What an accomplishment it would be to reconstruct the Garden of Eden.
He was involved in all kinds of mega projects. We learn from the Bible that he built cities. Has anybody here built a city by themselves? I didn’t think so. He built multiple cities. He built the city of Hazor, the city of Megiddo. He built the city of Gezer. He built upper and lower Beth Horon. How about that? Not just upper Beth Horon, but lower Beth Horon. He built Baalath. He built Tadmor and he built more cities than that (2 Chronicles 8:1-6). I mean Solomon, when it comes to accomplishments, makes Donald Trump look like a nobody. I mean, “Who’s Donald Trump? I built multiple cities!”
He wrote more than 1,000 songs. He wrote 3,000 wise sayings (1 Kings 4:32). He went down the path of “Let’s Just Do it” and when it comes to accomplishments, nobody was like him. And you know, when he got to the end of that and he looked back on it, and how lasting it was, he said, “It really was empty. It made me feel hollow inside. It just really didn’t deliver any lasting satisfaction.”
When you walk down the “Let’s Do it” path, you not only have accomplishments, you also have Prominence, gaining prominence in the world. And verses 9 through 11 talk about that in chapter 2. Notice the little phrase beginning in verse 9. It says, “Then I became great.” Now that is an understatement: “I became great.” Keep your finger in Ecclesiastes chapter two, turn to the left in your Bible to the book of 1 Kings. You have first and second Samuel, first and second Kings, first and second Chronicles, so Kings is in the middle. 1 Kings chapter 10. In terms of accomplishments and prominence, Solomon says, “I became great.” I want you to see what that really means.
Verse 1 of chapter 10. It says, “Now when the queen of Sheba.” You know it’s interesting how we hear these characters sometimes, and we think, “Were these real people?” Yeah, they were. “And the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon.” It got all around the world and in those days, you know, there wasn’t email. There was no satellite television. It was something incredible for the word of the greatness of an individual to go around the world, but she’d heard about him.
And so, she decided to come check this out and she is someone else who is a powerful person. So, she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue of people. I do not know how many people she had with her, but it was an entourage, unbelievable, with camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart, and Solomon answered all of the questions that she had. “Nothing was hidden from the king which he did not explain to her.”
When the queen of Sheba perceived all the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built—and he built more than one—the food of his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of the waiters, their attire, their cupbearers, his stairway by which you went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. She was just deflated. She was just totally awestruck.
Then she said to the king in verse 6, “’It was a true report which I have heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. Nevertheless, I did not believe [them].’ I said, Nobody could be that great, until I came and my eyes had seen it myself, and behold, the half had not been told to me. In other words, What I heard about how great you are and your prominence; I did not even hear the half of it. It’s far, far… mean, I couldn’t believe it when I heard what I heard. But it’s double or triple beyond what I had heard. And she said, “You exceed in wisdom and in prosperity the report which I have heard.”
Then notice down in verse 10, she gave the king…she was so impressed with Solomon…she gave the king 120 talents of gold and a great amount of spices and precious stones. And you know, we read these things in the bible and we go, “Well, what’s the significance of that?” She gave him 120 talents of gold. You know what that is? That’s 4 plus tons. You want to talk about an entourage she came with? Carrying at least four plus tons of gold? And she said, You know, I’m so impressed with how prominent and how awesome you are, here’s 4 tons of gold because I want to be with you; I want to hang out with you and your side of things. You are an incredible person.
Now go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 2. As he started reflecting about all his accomplishments and all of his prominence, notice verse 11. He said, “Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold,” notice this, verse 11, “all was vanity and striving after wind. And there was no profit under the sun.” Even with Solomon’s Prominence. If you’re looking for significance, he’s the number 1 guy in the world and he says, When I was really looking for lasting satisfaction from that, it was fleeting. It was like striving after the wind. “What does that really get you in this world?” is what he is saying. And that can be true for believers you know.
Tommy Nelson tells a story of how he was in London a few years ago and he went looking for the church of the most famous preacher who ever drew a breath in the western hemisphere. He was born in England in 1834 and he became a Christian and preached his first sermon at the age of 16. At the age of 19, he preached as a guest in the famous, but at that time mostly lifeless, New Parks Street Chapel in London. Only 200 people came to its 1200 seat sanctuary. By the age of 21, he had taken over the full-time pastorate of that historic congregation. Within a year, the New Parks Street Chapel had to be enlarged to seat the crowds who came to hear him preach. Still more people came to hear him preach, so in 1861 the church moved into the Metropolitan Tabernacle which could accommodate in a service 6500 people. This preacher not only started orphanages to care for thousands of children, but he also influenced the lives of businessmen and government officials and even kings. His name…Charles Haddon Spurgeon. When he died in 1892, he was arguably the most famous man in the world. “So,” Tommy Nelson says, “when I went to London, I wanted to see his church. And I found the general area of town and I started asking a few locals if they could show me the way to Mr. Spurgeon’s church and guess what their response was. “Mr. Who?” You know, “Mr. Who?”
You see, even when we aim at Prominence, and we get there, it is still a fleeting thing. And so, when we’re pursuing the path of let’s find significance by “Let’s just Do it,” you have Accomplishments, you have Prominence.
A third thing that you often see when we are trying to find significance down a path of “Let’s Do it,” is that of Hard Work and we see that in chapter verses 18 to 23. You know what the mantra of hard work is? “Hey listen, if you can just burn the midnight oil; if you can have calculated investments risks; if you could just skip enough days off and log enough long hours; you’re going to arrive at a great place. Everything is going to work out in the end. Then you experience lasting satisfaction.” And that’s exactly what Solomon did. And you know what he found? He said, “That was also futility.” It was all so bewildering to him.
Notice verse 18. He says, “Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored under the sun, for with all the hard I’ve done, I must leave it to a man who will come after me.” He said, “I did the hard work thing man! I burned the midnight oil! I didn’t have those days off. I just worked hard trying to find satisfaction and fulfillment and then I realized when I got it all done, you can’t take it with you!” And the fruit all of that labor gets left to another person. Notice verse 19. He says, not only does it get left to another person, but “who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity.” It is empty.
And if you know the story, you’ll know that as much as Solomon built all of this up, and he got all of this accomplished, and as prominent as he was, how about his son Rehoboam (who received all the benefits)? God left his son, His son Rehoboam. It is important to note that Solomon became half-hearted in his walk with God. And when you have a father who is half-hearted in his walk with God, you know what often happens with the son? You end up with a son who is cold-hearted in his walk with God. And that is exactly what happened. And you can read about it if you want in 1 Kings Chapter 12.
What Rehoboam does there is rather than listen to the seasoned counsel of his father’s assistants, he listened to his self-serving friends. And what it ends up doing is it casts Israel into civil unrest. In fact, it leads to an explosion of false worship in the land of Israel and eventually gets him into such hot water that he has to go plunder the gold of the temple to pay off the Egyptian army. And I think when Solomon wrote this, I think he knew what was coming. You know, I think he knew the heart of his son. And He says, ‘What is it? What is it? You work hard to get all this significance and fulfillment out of it. And I have to leave it somebody else, and I don’t even know if they’re going to be a fool or not’
Notice verse 20. He says, “Therefore I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun. When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, then he gives his legacy to one who has not labored with them. This too is vanity and a great evil.” Really what he is saying is you end up passing along all the stuff that you got done to someone else; it’s your something for their nothing. It will usually breed irresponsibility, if not in the first generation usually in the second. And if you go and examine that in life you will find it to be true.
I was reading something—I haven’t verified this—but about Warren Buffett. He’s one of the richest men in the world. And how little he plans to pass onto his kids. Now, he’s thinking about this principle. You see, when someone receives something for nothing, it tends to breed irresponsibility, if not in the first generation usually in the second.
Now I want you to understand in all of this, Solomon is NOT saying, “Look, it’s wrong to get things done.” He’s NOT saying, “It’s wrong to receive recognition.” He’s NOT saying, “It’s wrong to expend effort in life.” What he IS saying is that those things don’t bring lasting fulfillment. And he asks a rather haunting question in verse 22. “For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving for which he labors under the sun?” I mean, what do you really get out of it, if you just look at it on the human plane? What do you gain? “Because all his days,” verse 23, “his task is painful and grievous.” Life is tough and hard. “Even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity.”
One path we often walk down looking for some sort of fulfillment is the “Let’s Feel Good” path. Another path we walk down is the “Let’s just Do it” path; it will all work out. The third path is the “Let’s just Be Intelligent” path which we see in verses 12 to17. The idea here is, “If I want to find fulfillment and lasting satisfaction in life, what I need to do is educate myself; I need to reason my way through life. And then ultimately, if I well-educate myself, and reason my way through life carefully, then ultimately, life will be okay.”
With Solomon, you must understand, there’s so much to study about him. He educated himself, probably more than any other person. He immersed himself in intellectual pursuits. Again, we learn from 1 Kings chapter 4 verse 33 that he had the ability to stand up and lecture on trees. He could stand up and lecture on animals. He could lecture on birds. He could stand up and lecture on reptiles. He could stand up and lecture on fish. Just give him a subject and he could go off on it.
Notice in chapter 2, verse 12. “So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly; for what will the man do who will come after the king except what has already been done?” Basically, what he is saying there is a couple of things. He said, ‘I want you to understand folks, if you think you’re going to go out there and do something I haven’t tried, I’m a hard act to follow.’ He says, ‘What are you going to do that I haven’t done?’ And the answer is nothing. He’s already run that path down. And He says there in verse 12, “I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly.” I decided to take an intelligent approach…is it better to live wisely or is it better to live wildly? And some of us who are young now are asking that same question. You’re really wondering, is it better to live wisely or is it better to live wildly?
Well, you know, you only have so much time in your life and you could spend a lot of time wasting your time trying to answer that question—but here you’ve got someone who has already answered it for you. The answer is in verse 13. “I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.” Okay? There’s the bottom-line conclusion. There isn’t even a comparison whether you should live wisely or wildly.
Notice he says, “The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.” The wise and intelligent person has their eyes open. They understand the importance of getting a good education. They understand the importance of getting a valuable job. They understand the importance of making prudent choices as you work your way through life. They have their eyes open. But the fool, well the fool lives like he has no insight. The fool goes through life like he is operating in the dark. The fool is reckless. The fool decides to cut corners. The fool decides to get themselves entangled with vices. And what he is saying here is, it is better to be smart than stupid. And some of us parents have been trying to tell our kids that for a long time! It’s better to be smart than it is to be stupid.
But I want you to notice that there is one of those words that just sort of jumps out of the text. Right there in verse 14 he says, “And yet I know.” We could say, “but.” It’s better to be smart than stupid, but “one fate befalls them both.” He says, “Then I said to myself, ‘As is the fate of the fool, it will also befall me. Why then have I been extremely wise?’ And I said to myself, ‘This too is vanity!’”
I read this week about an artist who painted a picture. And in this picture, there is a mountain of skulls. It’s just a pile of skulls piled all up. At first when you see it, it just looks like a pyramid of skulls, but if you look more closely, you’ll notice that there is something written on each skull. One skull says, “Doctor.” Another one says, “Teacher.” Another “Secretary.” Another “Technician.” Another “Salesman” Another “Foreman.” Another “Driver.” Another “Captain.” Another “Lawyer” and another “Judge.” You have all of these skulls there, each one representing a different occupation.
Really, that is what Solomon is saying. He says, ‘It doesn’t make any difference what your occupation may be; or what your life choices may be; or whether you were stupid or smart. We’re all going to die.’ And that’s reality. We’re all going to die. See, the Nobel Prize winner has the same fate as the uneducated guy who can’t even read. And see, here’s the point: death is a serious problem if you’ve put all of your eggs in an earthly basket, even if one of them is the “golden egg”. If you just put all your eggs into the earthly basket, death is a major league [very significant] problem.
You know that life is a gift? And one day, you’re going to have to return that gift to the giver of it and so will I. And if you delete God out of the picture—this is what Solomon is saying—all that really remains is doom and gloom. Sure, it is better to be smart than stupid, but if you just delete God out of it, where are you?
Notice verse 17. He says, “So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me because everything is futility and striving after the wind.” I don’t know if you’ve caught it or not, but Solomon’s Grand Experiment that he went through is really a metaphor for all of humanity. See, he’s just representing all of us.
Steve Arterburn goes on to say, “We like to call ourselves sophisticates. We believe in scientific theory and we read the Wall Street Journal [business newspaper]. We subscribe to the theory, secretly or not, that humankind is evolving and we are far superior to our brutish and superstitious ancestors. We smirk when we read how they worshipped gods. We scoff, “How could those people really bow down to a golden calf?” Yet at the same time without even knowing it, we are on our own knees before subtle (but just as real) false gods. They are the “-isms” of our day: workaholism, as if the fruit of endless labors will finally bring satisfaction; intellectualism, as if we could get so smart that we would finally feel fulfilled; Or materialism, as if some thing could give us joy.”
What Solomon is saying is—when you’re just looking at life on the human plane, the life down under—all the labor, all the projects, all the study, all the pursuits, all the time and energy is just stirring up a cloud of dust…if you delete God out of the equation.
One of the great Old Testament scholars, Derek Kidner said this: “If every card in your hand is going to be trumped, what does it really matter how you play?” And that’s the issue that is being raised by Solomon.
We have a Conclusion to this focus on his experiment and it’s found in chapter 2 verses 24 to 26. We’ve told you in the early studies of this book that repeatedly, repeatedly, over-and-over again, the message of Solomon is going to be “Remember God and enjoy life.” Remember God and enjoy life.
Look at verse 24. He says, “There is nothing better for man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.” You know what he is saying? ‘You can’t really appreciate work without a relationship with God, because when we have a relationship with God we understand how work fits into His plan.’
Do you know that God has designed four divine objectives for work? If you’re not taking notes, you’ve got to start taking some notes, okay? Right now. Because generally we do not understand that God has a plan for work. Some of us who are younger again—and some of us who are older—say, “I don’t even know what I’m doing going to work. What’s the purpose of all of this?” Well, see that’s where God comes into play. He tells us what the divine objectives are for work. And I want to give them to you.
Number one, is To Provide for our Daily Needs and you can jot down some references. 1 Timothy 5:8 talks about providing for your family, and also 2 Thessalonians 3:10. You know, if you don’t work you shouldn’t eat. See, part of the reason we work is To Provide for our Daily Needs.
A second reason is To Have Resources to Share. That’s why we work. Ephesians 4:28 is a verse you can write for that one. We work in order to share with those who have needs.
A third reason, a divine objective for work is To Glorify God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 would be a good verse for that one: “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
And then the fourth divine objective in why we work is To Shine as Light at the Workplace. You can jot down Matthew 28:19 and Matthew 5:16. You see how much this helps? When you go to work, you say, “Okay, I’m here to do these things: to provide for daily needs; to have resources to share; to glorify God; and to shine as God’slight.” I mean, we are to show people that we’re different. With God living inside of us, it ought to peek out a little bit.
Notice verse 25. He says, “For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?” The whole idea is that you have to tap into the infinite. You must look beyond the sun. You’ve got to look to a different arena for significance and fulfillment, and that arena is having a relationship with a living God.
Then notice verse 26. He says, “For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, while to the sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to the one who is good in God’s sight.” See, man desperately searches for and probes in vain to find significance, but God gives wisdom—notice it there—wisdom and knowledge and joy to those who are good in His sight. Translate that: those who walk with Him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy. And then we have that intriguing statement that is buried in the verse somewhat: “To the sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he [God] may give to one who is good in God’s sight.”
You know, there is a classic illustration of this in a place called Glen Erie, Colorado. It’s the headquarters of the Navigators [Christian organization] near Colorado Springs. General William Palmer, who was the founder of Colorado Springs and the founder of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, he married a British girl. And he decided to build an English style, 35-room castle in a natural canyon there for his new British bride. And you know what? She hated it. She hated it. In fact, they only lived there for a few weeks. And this place stood empty for a few years. It was owned by several different people, but eventually the Navigators bought this at a fraction of it’s worth. And you see how often this happens? Where he says, “the sinners,” they have “the task of gathering and collecting so that God may give to the one who is good in God’s sight.” They may benefit from what happens.
So the question really is, what does all of this mean that we have looked at this morning? What is the meaning of it all? Well, one meaning is Don’t Look for the “Golden Egg” in the Wrong Places. Why waste time? Think of the other things that you miss out on when you are trying to burrow into the hole and it’s not there. Another thing is that You Can Have a Whole Basket of Eggs, but we need to remember that you can’t take it with you. You can’t take it with you. Death is still a problem you have to face. Remember the backdrop that we have said of all of this…what Augustine said: “He who has God, has everything. He who does not have God, has nothing. He who has God in everything has no more than He who has God alone.” See, this finite world is not where we are going to find lasting satisfaction. So the question I have to wrestle with and you have to wrestle with is, ‘Why would you want to invest the precious hours of your life going down dead ends?’ Why? We need to remember that we were made to know God. It’s a central truth of the universe. You were made to know God. You were made to know God.
Now as always, [so ably pointed out by Kyle earlier] we want to talk about some Life Response. Okay? Jesus said this in John 6:27, he said, “Don’t labor for the food that perishes. This is the work of God…” You know what He said next? “Believe in Him whom He has sent.” The first life response that we need to have based on what we have looked at in his Grand Experiment is we need to Believe in Him. And so, the question I have for everyone here is, “Have you?” We need to believe in Him, who He was, the Son of God who came, and bled, and died in your place and in mine. Listen men and women, what happens when you die, depends on what happens before you die; that’s what the Bible teaches. You either believe in Him or you reject Him. There are only two choices. So, what He is really calling all of us to do is to Believe in Him. Have you done that? Have you placed your trust, your eternal destiny, your forgiveness in his basket?
The second Life Response I think we need to have is not only do we need to Believe in Him, but we need to Live for Him. We need to live for Him. And the question is, “Are you doing that?” You know—between you and Him—are you living for Him? And you say, “Well, I don’t know.” I want to remind you that wisdom and knowledge and joy is what He gives to those who live for Him.
Let’s pray together:
Father, we thank you so much for your Word. We just thank you again that we have an opportunity to be with the Living Book of Living Truth. And Father, for those who may be here, who have never yet taken the step to believe and trust in Jesus Christ, may they understand that life can end tomorrow, but today they can come to know the God of the universe. And for those of us who know You, Father, may those words, that we would live for Him, echo in our minds this week; it’s the path to which we can find wisdom and joy in life. Work in a great and mighty way in us as we pray, in Jesus Name, Amen.