Living a Good Life Designed for God, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In his book, Living Life Backward, David Gibson says that keeping the end in view can change us from people who want to control life for gain into people who find deep joy in receiving life as a gift.

We were designed for God. If we try to find our identity and satisfaction in God's stuff instead of in God himself, we will always be left unsatisfied. Thank you for joining us in this series on Ecclesiastes titled Living a Good Life, Making Sense of the Journey. This message unpacks chapter 1 verses 12 through 18.

Let's listen in. This is the second part of the sermon. It was first preached on February 25th, 2018. The wisdom of God comes through revelation. God has spoken. He has spoken.

He has spoken in word and he has spoken in person. And look at the contrast that the psalmist considers. When one has the wisdom of God, Psalm 119, oh how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day.

Watch this. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers for your testimonies are my meditation.

I understand more than the aged for I keep your precepts. It's contrasting the wisdom of God with the mere wisdom of man. When man gains wisdom, knowledge and understanding without any acknowledgement of God, his wisdom, knowledge and understanding is ultimately limited. So we contrast those two kinds of wisdom. And this is what Solomon is presenting here. And so when he talks about the vanity of wisdom, he's speaking of the pursuit of wisdom and the pursuit of a successful life.

If it's vanity, it means that there's utterly no acknowledgement of God. It is simply man arriving at his own meaning and purpose from within himself. And that's why he says, I applied to know, I applied my heart, verse 17, I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but striving after the wind for in much wisdom is much vexation and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Kind of a despairing thought, isn't it? There are two perspectives to applying one's heart to know wisdom. And we discover this. We discover this in Ecclesiastes. Two perspectives.

There's under the sun and there's from beyond the sun. Solomon does not write this as an atheist, not even as an agnostic. He writes this as one who believes in God, but he also writes it as one who has pursued everything under the sun to find meaning and purpose in it. And he says, you can't find it.

It's striving after the wind. If that's all you have is just what's under the sun. Now, you and I need to apply our hearts to know what to know wisdom. Wisdom is a successful life. It's a life well lived. It's functioning according to design.

That's what success is. Now you can apply your heart from two perspectives in this pursuit of wisdom and knowledge. You can apply your heart to know wisdom as a resident, a resident of this earth. And by resident, I mean a person that is digging in.

This is the only reality I know. This is my home. I belong here. I'm digging in.

My thinking is earthbound. I am fully integrated into this life, this material temporal life under the sun. It is where I find my identity. It is where I am pursuing meaning.

And if this is true, if this is one's perspective and I fear this is true of many who call themselves Christian, then this next point is also true. You believe that your greatest treasure is here and now. Your greatest treasure is here and now. And all this stuff of heaven, of glory, of being with God, all of that is religious platitude to make us feel good, to cushion us from the brutality and horrors of death.

But your greatest treasure is here and now. And if this is true, then what it says of us is that we have a diminished view of God and what He has for us. A diminished view of God and what He has for us.

A diminished view of God and what He has for us. Do you know God? Do you know God in His perfection? His perfect love, His perfect goodness, His perfect power, His perfect holiness. Do we know God that way?

Or are we worshipping the God of our imagination who's like us? Help us grasp the heights of your plans for us. Even as a Christian, do I live as if my greatest treasure is here and now? Then I am applying my heart to know wisdom as a resident.

As a resident. This is my home. This is where I belong. When actually, in the scriptures, we discover what God has for us. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures evermore. As for me, I will behold your face in righteousness. I will be satisfied when I awake in your likeness. Are these platitudes to us? They are if I apply my heart to know wisdom as a resident. Because this is the place where I belong.

This is the place where I find my greatest treasure in the here and now. In the world today, in the world of commercial products, the anti-aging industry has made a disease out of getting old. And so many people are investing so much time and energy and resource in fighting the disease instead of growing in wisdom and grace. I might be fighting the wrinkles, but you know what? Those wrinkles keep coming.

They keep coming. What he says in verse 15, what is crooked cannot be made straight. What is lacking cannot be counted. You know what he's saying there?

Let me quote from Stafford Wright. He says, the efforts to straighten things out and supply what seems to be lacking are continually disappointing. And he says, in verse 14, I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity, striving after the wind. All is vanity, striving after the wind. Let me give you a Rich Powell translation of that verse. Life is a rat race, and the only problem with a rat race is at the end of the race, you're still a rat. It's true, isn't it? And that's why he says what he does in verse 18, for in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

What is he saying there? Let me quote Kylan Dalitch to help us understand. The wise man gains an insight into the thousandfold woes of the natural world and of the world of human beings, and this reflects itself in him without his being able to change it.

Hence, the more new numerously observed forms of evil, suffering, and discord, so much greater the sadness. I found that to be true. Do you set your heart to know wisdom as a resident? You're digging in, this is your home, this is where you belong, your greatest treasure is here and now. There's another way to set your heart to know wisdom.

There's another way to set your heart to know wisdom. Not as a resident, but as a migrant. As a migrant. In other words, this isn't your home, this is not where you belong, you are just passing through. And if there's anything that Solomon points out in this book, it's that you are just passing through for 70, 80, maybe some of us 90 years.

You're just passing through. So where's home for you? Where are your treasures truly? If you set your heart to know wisdom as a migrant, that means you are just passing through and you are moving toward the greatest treasure, which is why the scriptures refer to God's people as aliens and strangers. We don't belong here. This is not home. Our greatest treasure is not here. Peter says, 1 Peter 2.11, beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. How true that is. All the distractions that we can have about us promise us to bring meaning and satisfaction and they cannot, they will not, they cannot, and yet somehow we're so easily distracted by them. That is why we need to live life backwards.

What does that look like? Live life backwards. You are headed towards a destination.

Whether you believe that or not is irrelevant. You are headed toward a destination. Do you know what that destination is?

The scriptures reveal that. So there is the destination and if you set your heart to know wisdom as a migrant, you are headed, you're just passing through, headed for that destination, then everything about that destination, what you know to be true there, that God has disclosed to us, everything that is true about that destination informs everything you do as you're passing through this life. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others any time by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.