Living a Good Life: Making Sense of Your Appetites, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In today's time, we have many voices seeking claim over our hearts.

But in Ecclesiastes 7, Solomon points out that this is not a new problem. Mankind has always had to answer the question, who will inform my beliefs on how life ought to be? In this message titled, Making Sense of the Voices, Pastor Rich gives us some practical advice on how to discern the value and truth behind those voices.

Let's listen in. Open your copy of the scriptures once again to Ecclesiastes 7. May we hear the voice of God this morning from his word.

Ecclesiastes is about making sense of the journey. Today we're going to talk about voices. You hear voices.

Did you know that? Maybe some of us more than others, but we all hear voices. There are voices constantly speaking, and so today's text is making sense of all the voices.

Because for whatever appetite you had last time, we talked about making sense of our appetites. And whatever appetites you have, there is a voice speaking to that appetite. Are you aware of that?

You need to be aware of that. This is what Solomon is teaching us in chapter 7 of Ecclesiastes. At the end of chapter 6, he says in verse 12, he asks two questions. For who knows what is good for man while he lives in the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? Who knows what is good and who can tell man what will be after him?

There's one simple answer to that question. God can. Because he is the transcendent, infinite being, he has the big picture in view. He is the one who has created and established the big picture. He is the one who can tell what is good.

He is the one who can tell us what is afterwards. His voice is speaking. But there are many other voices that are speaking into your life as well. And the question today is, which ones are you choosing to listen to? Making sense of the voices.

Because all of them have the same message, essentially. And it is this. This is how life should be. This is how life should be. You've got myriad voices speaking into your heart and mind with this message and accompanying information.

This is how life should be. And that's why he says in verse seven, a good name is better than precious ointment. What is precious ointment? Precious ointment is something which appeals to the sense. It has two purposes. It's appealing to the sense, but also it does what? It covers up odor. It covers up the odor of corruption that every one of us experiences. A good name is better than precious ointment.

That which appeals to the sense and covers up odor. And there is so much spoken into your life and mine that is nothing more than simply precious ointment than simply precious ointment that is appealing to the senses, but covers up odor. Here's a question for you this morning. Who is informing your belief of how life ought to be? Someone is informing you.

It's that one that you are letting to seep into your heart and mind. Who is informing your belief of how life ought to be? Does that message include what you deserve? Does it include what you deserve? If you are in pursuit of what you deserve, my life ought to be about what I deserve, then I have a message for you this morning.

You are living a make-believe life. And this is the very thing that Solomon challenges. Because if anybody lived a make-believe life, it was Solomon. Remember back a few chapters ago, chapter two, he tried everything under the sun. He stopped at nothing to bring him pleasure and satisfaction.

And what was his conclusion? It's empty. It's all empty. A make-believe life doesn't work. And there are plenty of voices speaking into our lives day after day after day that want us to buy into a make-believe reality so that it covers up the realities of life. We so desperately need God to speak, don't we? What are the voices?

Solomon mentions them here in verses one through eight. The day of death better than the day of birth. What? The day of birth. The house of feasting. The voices of laughter.

The song of fools. The beginning of a thing. Something that's new and novel. This shiny new thing. Whether it's a shiny new vehicle or a shiny new position. Now some of you are saying, Rich, you're being a little bit disingenuous now with that vehicle you've got parked out in the parking lot. Listen, I need you to know something, okay? That's a 10 year old glorified go-kart. That's all it is, okay?

I've heard people say, Rich, you're going through a midlife crisis. There is no crisis involved in this at all. It was done in a perfect state of calmness, perfectly satisfied in the grace of God, okay? So there you go.

All right, now let's talk about these voices. The day of birth. And the opposite is death. The opposite of the house of feasting is sorrow. The opposite of laughter is sadness. The opposite of the song of fools is the rebuke of the wise. The opposite of the beginning of a thing is the end of a thing.

Which is better, he says. It's better that list on the right is better. Those are the things that you actually learn from. And you're saying right now, this is kind of a negative thing here, isn't it?

It's kind of kind of dark. Here's what Solomon is saying. These are voices that are coming to you.

And all of the voices on the left tend to cover up the harsh realities of life, because there are harsh realities of life. A day of birth. A day of birth. I've got two grandkids almost here. Andrea's already down in Florida expecting our fourth grandchild. The day of birth.

It's so exciting. New, precious life, right? But what do we know about the child?

He hasn't lived life yet. What is there to know other than what God has revealed? So all these voices, the voices of the new, the voices of the novel, the voices of things that want you to consume, the voices that feed your appetites, that promise to satisfy your appetites, the voices of laughter. It's not that these are bad.

Laughter certainly has its place. The voices of music and shows, many of them devoid of moral content. But these are the things, even if it might be an attractive song, it can be like that ointment. It appeals to the sense, but it's covering up an odor if there's no moral content in that song. I challenge you this morning, I challenge you to evaluate the music you listen to according to content. Because you know what? You may be meditating on something that is self-destructive.

I challenge you to that. What voices are you listening to? They are used to drown out the realities of life, the fact that life is hard, that life is broken. Here's the biggest reality, life is temporary. This life under the sun is temporary. But that subject is taboo, particularly in our prosperous, comfortable Western culture. But it's not taboo for Solomon. We're not allowed to talk about death, but he talks about it. And he says, you know what? When you're prepared to die, that's when you are prepared to live a successful life.

That's his whole point here. Matters of the heart, matters of the mind, matters of relationship, a future, these need to be dealt with. And yes, there is joy in life, there are good things in life, and we are called to enjoy them. But the joys of life, of life's good things are whispers of the glory that God has in store for us.

But the brokenness and the corruption of life in and around every person is something that must honestly be dealt with if we are to make any sense of the journey, any sense at all. Why would he say the end of the thing is better than the beginning? Why would he say the end of the thing is better than the beginning? Why would he say the day of death is better than the day of birth? Sounds kind of morbid, doesn't it? Why is he saying it?

Here's what he's saying. Take a child that is born, and when a child is first born, it's beautiful, it's precious, it's cuddly. Now fast forward, fast forward 70, 80, 90 years, and where is that child?

Lying in a casket. What kind of life has that child lived? What were the values? What were the accomplishments of that child's life?

Was it all about measurable stuff and acquisition? Or did that child invest his life in other people? Did that child know God? Did that child love God? You see, those are the things you know at the end.

You don't know those things at the beginning. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.