Well, let’s take our Bibles. I thought this was a fourth and final message, but it’s not the case. So we’re going to do a fourth message on Ecclesiastes 3, and we’ll definitely wrap it up next Sunday morning.
We’ve been looking at the subject of time. It’s about time. I want to pick up the thread of Solomon’s thinking here in verse nine of chapter three. If you’re with us this morning, it’s our custom to work through books of the Bible. We trust that you’ve brought a Bible. If you haven’t, we’ve got Bibles you’ll find on the way out. They are yours for the taking. Please come and open the word with us and learn what God has to say about life and the life to come.
Ecclesiastes 3:9. “What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat, drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. I know that whatever God does it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nothing taken from it. God does it that men should fear before Him. That which is has already been, and what is to be has already been. And God requires an account of what has passed. Moreover, I saw under the sun in the place of judgment wickedness was there. In the place of righteousness, iniquity was there.”
“I said in my heart, ‘God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.’ I said in my heart, ‘Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them that they may see that they themselves are like animals.’ For what happens to the sons of man also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath. Man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to the one place. All are from the dust, and all return to dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men which goes upward and the spirit of the animal which goes down to the earth?”
“So I perceive that nothing is better than a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?” Well, we trust God will bless His Word to each of our lives this morning for His Word is life. It’s living, and it’s powerful. Someone has said this, “To realize the value of one year, ask a student who failed a grade. To realize the value of one month, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. To realize the value of one week, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper. To realize the value of one hour, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet. To realize the value of one minute, ask a person who missed the train. To realize the value of one second, ask a person who just avoided an accident. To realize the value of one millisecond, ask the person who won a silver medal at the Olympics.”
The value of time, as we come into Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon is occupied with that thought. He’s trying to put a value on time because, remember, he’s seeking to understand if life has a purpose, if life adds up to something profitable. And therefore, it shouldn’t surprise us that he would be occupied with the question of time, because if life is to have worth, time must have value, because life is made up of days, days are made up of hours, hours are made up of minutes.
What value should we put on time? Because if time has value, then life has worth. And Solomon helps us to see here that time has value, therefore life has worth, because God has ordained it that there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. We’ve already noted in this passage that God is the potentate of time, that God makes everything beautiful in its time. God governs time. God created it. It is His servant, it is not His master. And the God who governs time gives us time. And that time is significant, that time is weighty. In fact, that time will be taken from us sometime, and we’ll go give an account for what we did with it. These are the thoughts and the truths that occupy Solomon here in Ecclesiastes 3. I want to jump right in again to the stream of Solomon’s thinking.
We looked at this passage and started to look at it under three particular headings: the blending of time, verses one through eight. Then we started to look at the sending of time, verses nine through 15. And then this morning we’ll make us started looking at the ending of time. But when we were last together, we were looking at verses nine through 15, this whole idea that indeed God sends us time, that God apportions our days, that God allots our time on earth. There is a purpose to everything that God puts us through. There is an end to every day that you and I experience. We came to see God’s sovereignty in it all, especially verse 11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” God has His hand on the helm of history. God is putting all the pieces together according to His intricate, wise plan.
And if that’s the case, then you and I can find hope even in the midst of our confusion, because if we’ll give God time, if we’ll trust God in the meantime, He’ll make it all fitting, He’ll make it all appropriate. It will all add up to something of significance. That’s where we left off last week. As we looked at the sending of time, we notice, first of all, time is governed by God, but I want you to notice a second thing, time is given by God. Time is given by God, and it is something we should embrace happily. Look at verses 12 through 13, “I know that nothing is better for man or them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God.”
As the dimmer switch is turned up in this book, we are brought to a place of greater God consciousness. Solomon insightfully reminds us that from heaven’s perspective a man can do no better than to embrace and enjoy the life that God has given him as a gift. Solomon acknowledges in verses nine and 10 that life may at times seem like a rather strange and at times an unwanted gift. Life can be burdensome. Life can be bothersome. This is what occupies man. This is the thesis of this book. But it is nevertheless a gift, and it should be accepted gratefully, not grudgingly. That’s the point that’s being made here in verses 12 through 13. The point being made here is that while we may not understand the past and that while we may not know the future, we must and we should enjoy the present as a gift from God.
Solomon has acknowledged that God is up to something. In the great scheme of things, God will make it all fitting. Remember we said we may be holding a piece of our life in our hands this morning and we really don’t understand that it’s an unwanted gift. We’re not sure where it fits. In fact, we don’t believe it fits anywhere. But in the great scheme of things, God will work it all together for good. God will make it all beautiful in His time. We’ve got to acknowledge that we’ll only get a snippet of an understanding of what God is up to. In fact, it’s acknowledged here at the end of verse 11 that no one can find out the work that God does. We know that He’s at work, and we know that His work in the end will be beautiful, but we won’t be able to comprehend it in the scheme of things.
And so there will be days of clear confusion in each of our lives. We will find ourselves in consternation over a certain set of circumstances we find ourselves in. But here’s the point, we cannot change the past, we do not know the future, we can’t even be sure what God’s up to at a given moment, but this we can do, we enjoy the present as a gift from God. We can seize the day despite its injuries, its iniquities, and inequities. That’s what Solomon is advocating here. Here’s what he’s saying: “We must not let that which we do not like, we must not let that which we do not understand destroy our capacity to enjoy that which we have.”
It’s just a good piece of common sense here. Okay, we’re going to be tested by life. Life will be bothersome. Life will be burdensome. Life will often be marked by mystery and misery. So what are you to do? Well, you’re to trust God. You’re to wait upon the Lord. You’re not to doubt His goodness and His mercy, and you’re at least to enjoy those things that can be enjoyed. You can’t postpone your happiness just because things aren’t exactly the way you would want them to be, because things will never be the way you want them to be. If you keep planning for your happiness in a future day, you’ll never be happy. That’s the point here. There’s nothing better to do, then at least add up what you got and enjoy it as a gift from God.
God has given us all things to enjoy. One writer put it like this, “Since man and his ignorance of God’s plan cannot be sure of the appropriateness or the lasting significance of his labor, Solomon again recommends the present enjoyment of life. He recommended it earlier in the book. He recommends it here. He’ll finish this chapter with a similar thought. So I perceive that nothing is better than that of a man that he should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage for who can bring him to see what will happen after him.” He carries this theme through chapter five, chapter eight, chapter nine, and chapter 11.
Solomon gives us a philosophy of life here. Remember, God is good, do good, and enjoy good. It’s not bad, is it? Remember, God is good because the good of all your labor is a gift from God. Therefore, do good in your life and enjoy the good that God has allowed you to experience. You don’t have to feel guilty about it. You don’t have to postpone your joy because all your ducks aren’t in a row. It’s just the way life is. Now, as I thought about that, I paused for a moment and started to think that out and tease that out because God is asking me even in the midst of my confusion, even in the midst of my consternation to celebrate life on a daily basis.
How do I do that? A couple of things I wrote down for you and I to ponder. Number one, let God be God. You’re not going to enjoy life until you let God be God. Be still and know that He is God. He will make it all beautiful in its time. And so when you’re up to your waste in muck, the stuff of life, don’t postpone your happiness. While you may not understand all that God is up to, at least receive His gifts and enjoy them. You see, the doctrine of God’s sovereignty is a security blanket, it’s not a straitjacket. It frees us to enjoy the things that we can enjoy despite life’s challenges.
See, in some sense, you’re going to have to leave some things to the side, leave those with God. They’re part of the mystery and the misery of life. But on the other hand, there’s things right under your nose, right at your hand, at your elbow that you can enjoy. God says there’s nothing better to do than to actually do that. The Christian doesn’t need to lose their joy because although they do not know all that God is doing, they know God, and they trust Him with what He’s doing. And so ,in the midst of the bad things, there are undoubtedly good things, and we know that the other things are working for good. Therefore, we don’t need to be a sourpuss. We don’t need to be a party pooper. We can enjoy life.
We’re realistic about life. We take the good with the bad. We take the bad with the good. And we know that there’s nothing better for a man than to enjoy the labor of his hands and the goodness of God in the midst of life’s mysteries and miseries, because every cloud has a silver lining of God-induced, grace-produced joy. This also means that you’ll value the simple things in life, because Solomon says here that we’re to eat and drink and enjoy the good of all our labor. We know that God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. But on the other hand, we see the supply of grace in the simple gifts of life, and it causes us to trust His hand. It causes us to embrace and enjoy His goodness. Small things are big things.
There are questions that would fry the circuit boards of our brain when it comes to life, and we could sit and think about them on any given day. But why not enjoy the smile of a child? Why not enjoy a warm cup of coffee on a brisk morning? Why not feel the sun beneath your feet and between your toes as you walk a West Coast beach? Why not marvel at a sunset? Why not take in a mountain range and forget it for a moment? There’s nothing better to do than that, because you’re not going to understand it anyway, and God’s going to make it all beautiful in His time. So why do you keep postponing the future? Why do you keep missing the joys of the present? Which actually brings me to the last thought: embrace the moment you’re in. That’s a key to life.
Jim Elliot said, “Wherever you are, be all there, because where you are is all you got. And if you don’t like it and if you won’t face it, then life has defeated you.” That’s the point. In fact, Jesus tells us that, doesn’t He, in Matthew 6? “Don’t worry about tomorrow. Focus on today.” In the midst of the mystery of God’s providence, we’re not to brood over the past, we’re not to worry over the future, we’re to live fully in the present. That’s the best thing a man can do. Let God be God, value the simple things of life, and embrace the moment you’re in. We must be in what is, not what was and not what is yet to be, because that’s all that really exists.
Do you know what’s the only thing that’s real? It’s right now in that sense, because the past and the future are abstract concepts, times that never are. They’re only in your head, but they’re not here. The past is gone, the future is yet to come. What’s real, what’s pressing, what’s of value is the moment you’re in. And therefore, there’s nothing better to do than embrace that moment and where you can enjoy things. God-given grace, given things, enjoy them. Pay attention to the present and its simple joys and its grace-gilded moments. Listen to these words by Pascal, the great French philosopher, “We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does, so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts. We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us. And if we find it enjoyable, we are sorry to see it slip away. We try to give it the support of the future and think how we’re going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching. Thus, we never actually live but hope to live. And since we’re always planning how to be happy, it’s inevitable that we never should be or ever will be.”
I like that thought. It’s realistic. Solomon would agree with it. The present hurts. There’s things you don’t like about now. There’s things you’d like to change. Some of that’s outside of your control, some of that you got to leave with God who makes it all fitting, works it all together for good. You’ve got to stop wandering about in times that don’t belong to you. That’s the past and that’s the future. You’ve got to decide to be happy today, because a man or a woman can be as happy as they decide to be. This is the day the Lord has made, listen to this act of resolve, I will rejoice and be glad in it. In it, the day the Lord has given. Pay attention to the present.
I like the story of the doctor, the lawyer, and the engineer who were lined up to be executed by the guillotine. They were asked did they want to face the blade or look away, and so the physician was first up. He said he wanted to face the blade. So they placed his neck in the guillotine. The executioner released the blade, which fell to a point inches above the doctor’s neck and stopped. The crowd was aghast. The king decided it was a divine intervention, and so the doctor was spared.
The lawyer was next in line. He also chose to face the blade. Down it fell. Once more it stopped inches from the man’s naked throat. Again, the throng tittered and the king informed the prisoner that the gods were smiling upon him and he was released and happy to depart. The final prisoner was the engineer. Like his predecessors, he chose to face the blade. He fitted his neck in the crook of the guillotine and looked up at the apparatus. The executioner was about to pull the cord when the engineer pointed to the pulley system and said, “Wait a minute, I think I see the problem.” Yeah, you get the point: accept the grace that God gives you.
I like what one writer said of this very story, “Within us resides an overworking engineer who is more concerned about analyzing the problem than accepting the solution.” Anybody over-analyzing life in the service this morning, drilling down into stuff that you’ll never be able to comprehend, that will distract you and drain you, that will not allow you to accept those grace-gilded moments where you can eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of your labor? Hear that. That’s Solomon’s point, trying to understand all that is wrong with this life and then setting out to fix it can work against what can really be enjoyed. The best thing to do is just accept what is and enjoy what grace has provided and take it a day at a time. Give God time and trust God in the meantime. Because God not only governs time, He gives time, and the time He gives He means us to enjoy it.
Let God be God, value the small things. Don’t live in the past, don’t go running into the future, embrace the moment that’s yours. Let’s make a start for a few moments on the thought of the ending of time. This is the final section that begins in verse 16. In this final section, Solomon moves from looking at life inside of time to looking at eternity outside of time. In the back end of this chapter, Solomon the preacher talks primarily about death and the judgment that follows it. Look at what he says in verse 18, “Concerning the condition of the sons of man, God tests them that they may see that they themselves are like animals, for what happens to the sons of man also happens to animals. One thing befalls them; as one dies so does the other.”
Again, Solomon has taken up with this theme of man’s mortality. That’s one of the frustrating things about life, you don’t get to live that long. And as the animal dies, so does man. But it’s not the end. I think by implication, no, at least in this passage, it’s clearer in other passages. Look at verse 17. “God shall judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time there for every purpose and every work.” King Solomon wants us to be seized by the thought that in life there is a time for everything and then at death there is a time for nothing. The time that God gives as a stewardship will come to an end, and then we will give an account for how we used our days. Our lives may be short, but our actions are long in terms of consequence. They echo out into eternity. We will give an account for our days, for our decisions.
The culminating issue of Solomon’s appointed time discussion is that there is a time for judgment. Did you notice the language there? He picks up the language of verse one, “Just as God has appointed a purpose for everything under heaven; a time to be born, a time to die, there’s also going to be a time at the end of time when God will have us all give an account for the things we did in our bodies.” In fact, God’s judgment is a central theme in this book. If you go to chapter 11 and verse nine, “Rejoice so 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 in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment.”
Solomon is acknowledging that youth is a wonderful time. “Oh, to be young again,” many of us would say. So many paths, so many possibilities. The most grotesque thing is to see an old head on a young set of shoulders. Young people are to embrace life. They’re to experiment. They’re to go out on an adventure. They’re to try and taste life in all its dimensions. But this isn’t a call to godless hedonism, this isn’t a call to abandon yourself to any desire and every desire, because here’s what we’re reminded about: whatever you do, remember that everything you do will be judged. Therefore, the young person needs to be wise and see life as a gift from God.
And so the whole theme of judgment’s there. Even at the end of the book, [inaudible 00:24:58] would read verse 14, “For God will bring every work in the judgment, every secret thing, whether good or evil.” In fact, at a recent board meeting at the Master’s College in sermonary, Dr. MacArthur in a conversation reminded us all that the thought of his personal accountability to God was the biggest motive and greatest sanctifying influence in his whole life in ministry.
It ought to be, isn’t it? That’s a thought that should rise above all other thoughts, that someday we will stand toe to toe, face to face under the glare of God’s glory and holiness and give an account for the stewardship of our lives, for your youth, for middle age, for the later stages of life. That’s why, by the way, I don’t give young people a Bible or a pass. I listen to people as if youth is a time to sow your wild oats. No, the young person’s told here, “Let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, follow the ways of your heart, but know this, it’s all going to come back to the feet of Jesus.” So be careful. Enjoy life, but enjoy that which is healthy, enjoy that which is holy, enjoy that which within the will of God because life is stewardship. Right now counts forever.
That’s why you and I need to ask ourselves on a daily basis this question: “What am I doing today that matters 2,000 years from now?” Because you will be somewhere 2,000 years from now, either in heaven or in hell, reaping the rewards of your righteousness and your faithfulness to Jesus Christ or bearing the punishment of your wickedness and your waywardness apart from God. What are you doing today that will matter 2,000 years from now? Because although man dies as the animal dies, at the end of time he will give an account for his time and God will judge his every action and his every activity.
Now, for a few minutes, the text that we just read seems to muddy the waters in terms of Solomon’s understanding of the life to come. Some would argue that Solomon’s rather agnostic here regarding the question of the life to come. He just tells us that man dies like a dog dies. Some would argue even when he mentions here that judgment is coming he doesn’t specify that this is the final judgment or the end judgment. Well, let me look at that for a few minutes. “Man is said to die like a dog, and when he dies, who knows if his spirit goes upward or downward,” verse 21. Well, I think the confusion’s only apparent. And you never isolate a passage, and so we got to read this chapter within the context of the whole book and this book within the corpus of Scripture. I think you’ll see that the confusion is only apparent. Solomon is not agnostic about the future and the eternal dimension demands existence. In fact, in verses 18 through 20, the text does not say that people are nothing more than animals, but they are like animals in one regard.
You see, back in Genesis we’re told that man was me in God’s image and he was given authority over the beasts of the earth, over the animal and vegetable world. That’s repeated in Psalm 8:3-8. “Man is not a naked ape. Although man has a higher calling, he is nevertheless, because of the fall, subject to death just like every other creature on God’s earth.” In fact, here in Ecclesiastes 3, when Solomon talks about the fact in verse 20 that from dust we came and to dust we return, that’s an echo of Genesis 3:19 and God’s judgment on Adam’s disobedience, which Paul picks up in Romans 5:12, “Because of one man’s disobedience, sin came into the world and death through sin.”
So man is distinct from the animal kingdom. He was made as the crowning act of God, made for fellowship with God, made to subdue the earth, made to dominate the vegetable and animal kingdom. But when he fell into disobedience, sin entered, and just like the animal dies, so does man die. I think that’s Solomon’s point here. In fact, he tells us, doesn’t he, in verse 19, that man has no advantage over animals for all his vanity. That’s simply saying this: that human life as well as animal life is subject to vanity. King Solomon is not ruling out immortality of the human soul patterned after the image of God. Solomon’s not denying that while the animal dies and ceases to exist, man ceases to exist. He’s not saying that. In fact, he tells us in this very chapter in verse 11 that God has put eternity in our hearts. He’ll tell us in chapter 12 and verse seven, “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.”
The animals goes downward. The soul and spirit of man goes upward to give an account for the life he lived. On the surface, man and animals look the same, but the similarity is only skin-deep. That’s why we should be troubled at news coming out of Spain that a parliamentary committee has adopted a resolution that would give great apes and chimpanzees and gorillas the same right to life, freedom from arbitrary captivity, and protection from torture. In other words, the same legal rights as humans.
See, when you don’t have atheistic world view, you buy into the thought that chimps have 98% of human DNA, genetically the same almost as a human being. And when you look at life under the sun, there’s not much to differentiate in terms of essence the human animal from the chimpanzee, the monkey, the gorilla. In fact, the European Court of Human Rights is now considering an appeal on behalf of a 28-year-old chimp named Matthew who’s looking for his rights to be established and that his remaining days would be funded and he would be taken care of. I know, it’s laughable, but it’s also tragic, because although man dies like the animal dies, man is not the same as the animal.
Solomon in this text does not say that people are nothing more than animals, he’s simply saying that people are like animals in this one regard; they die just like the animal. In verse 21, he states this question, “Does the soul of a man go upward and the animal go downward?” That’s a simple statement of observation. Any possible advantage that a man might claim over an animal is according to Solomon beyond empirical demonstration. Solomon’s not denying the immortality of the human soul, that the human soul will exist beyond the point of physical life. He’s simply saying that under the sun, in terms of the observation, in terms of empirical data, you don’t know if the soul goes up as the animal goes down. Walking by sight not by faith one cannot distinguish between the death of a man and the death of an animal.
But this is not a direct denial of the afterlife or the continuing existence of the human soul. Because Solomon was fully aware that throughout Jewish scripture and the wisdom of his father and fathers indeed there was a conviction of an after-existence. Psalm 16:11, what do we read? “In God’s presence are joys and pleasures forevermore.” in Psalm 73:24, the psalmist talks about how God would receive him in the glory afterward. Psalm 23:6, “Goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life, and then we dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 17:15 tells us that if we die then we have this hope that we might awaken His likeness. There’s only apparent confusion here. Solomon acknowledges here the ending of time, that there’s a time for everything and then at death there’s a time for nothing. And following that, there will come a time when God will judge the righteous and the wicked at His time.
Let me squeeze a couple of minutes here and leave you with a fascinating thought to consider. As a footnote, I don’t know if you’ve often reflected on the fact that the Bible likens human beings to the animal. We’ve already acknowledged biblically man is distinct from the animal kingdom, but in his character at times and his conduct at times, apart from God, he evidences animal-like behavior. Listen to these words by Warren Wiersbe, “You and I are the only creatures in God’s creation that can decide what kind of creature we want to be. When a puppy is born, it will grow up to be a dog. When a calf is born, it will grow up to be a cow. But what kind of animal will a boy become or a girl become by the time they graduate high school?”
And before we go any further, you shouldn’t be offended by that. In fact, we do this all the time. As we look at a person’s behavior and traits, we often liken them to animals. “Oh, he’s as sly as a fox. She’s as dirty as a pig. He’s as dumb as an ox. He’s as stubborn as a donkey.” On and on the comparisons go, and the Bible makes those comparisons. Psalm 32:9, what are we told? “Be not like the horse and be not like the mule.” Speaking about guidance, we’re told not to run ahead of God like the horse and we’re not to dig in our heels and oppose God like the mule. Proverbs 7:21-22, we have the picture of a young man, a red-blooded young man and a full flesh of youth, and he goes to the wrong side of town. He winds up in the red light district and he’s approached by a seductively dressed woman who baits him to come home with her and to enjoy illicit sex, to transgress the law of God.
He falls for the trap. He gives into the temptation. And you know what, the Bible says he goes after her like an ox to the slaughter. What an image, like an ox to the slaughter. Oh, the consequences of sexual sin, physically, psychologically, spiritually. Luke 13:22, Jesus says of Herod, “Go tell that old fox.” He was the consummate politician. He was expedient. He put his finger to the wind to see which way the prevailing ideas of the moment were blowing. 2 Peter 2:22 likens the false professor to a pig that leaves the pigsty and the muck in the mire, cleans itself up, passes itself as a domestic pet. But after a while, that old pig nature rises to the surface and the pig goes back to the muck in the mire.
It’s a terrible picture, but a fearful picture, but a true picture of some who are moved in a meeting to make a mental assent to Jesus Christ. They’re moved emotionally. They walk an aisle, they write a card, and for a while they make an attempt to look like a Christian and act like a Christian. But there’s been no true regeneration, no true conversion. There’s a gloss of religiosity, but over time you’ll see them leave the meeting, they’ll not be at the Bible study. You never hear them pray, you never see them singing because there’s no divine nature in them. And they’re like a pig that goes back to the mire. You’ll find them after a year or two years back to their old habits, back to their old habitats.
Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” Man has a nature that takes him far from God, and he follows that nature and he’s like a sheep that breaks through the hedge and the shepherd has to go and find it. Man who was made for dominion over the animals has descended through the fall to become like them. Were you described in any of that? The daughter of Winston Churchill said this in her book, Keep on Dancing, that, “My father once commented to me that to a large extent the civilized world had succeeded in erasing the lion, the tiger from the human soul but had not succeeded in removing the donkey.” Man can be stubborn. In fact, the Bible would say we’re still struggling with the ox complex, the fox complex, the sheep complex, the pig complex, the horse and mule complex. We were made for a glorious relationship with God. Man was the crowning act of God in that first week of creation. But when we rose up in rebellion against God, he fell to look more like the animals over which God had made him to have dominion.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank You for these reminders this morning. Well, Lord, help us to embrace the moment we find ourselves in. Help us, Lord, to appreciate the things that You have caused for our enjoyment, the kiss of a spice, the admiration of a child, the beauty of a sunset, the intoxicating taste of good food. These are ours to be enjoyed, and Lord, while we don’t want to be pollyannish, we realize, Lord, there are big issues in life, there are tragedies, there are trials, there are questions that don’t seem to be easily answered, and we don’t want to ignore that. But there’s nothing better for us to do than to trust You with that which doesn’t make sense to us and to enjoy that which we can hold and that which we have.
Lord, help us to let You be God, to value the simple things, to embrace today, not to vegetate over yesterday or to worry over tomorrow. And Lord, remind us that this day counts forever, that we will die like the animal but our soul will go upward to God. And at the end of time, we will give an answer for all that we did in time. Lord, may that indeed have a sanctifying influence, even a saving influence in each of our lives, for we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.