Wired for Eternity

Solomon says what God does is flawless and it's forever. Even when, beloved, it doesn't look like God is ruling from heaven, God is ruling. Even when your world and maybe your own personal world is filled with chaos, God is ordering the chaos.

Even when things seem to be falling apart, God is sovereignly engineering the falling apart of those things so they ultimately fall into the puzzle of his divine providence. Have you ever felt a longing that nothing on earth satisfies? This desire reflects something deeper. It's truth Solomon explored in Ecclesiastes. In today's message, you'll learn how God has wired you for eternity, giving life meaning even in its simplest moments. Hear how prayer, joy in daily activities, and recognizing God's sovereignty can change your perspective. Uncover why life isn't just about enduring, but enjoying God's gifts.

Stick around as Stephen brings timeless insights to help you see God's beautiful purpose, even when life doesn't make sense. One author made the statement that no matter how far you go back in time, every civilization in human history was shaped by the sense that we will live forever somewhere. The more we excavate, the more evidence is uncovered that people throughout human history believed in life after earth.

He went on to give several descriptions. The Australian Aborigines picture heaven as a distant island beyond the western horizon. Peruvians and Polynesians believe they went to the sun or to the moon after death. Native Americans believe that in their afterlife, their spirits would hunt the spirits of the buffalo. The oldest secular story to have been excavated was written in Babylon some 2700 years before the birth of Christ, and it referred to their heroes upon death going to a place of rest beneath a tree of life.

Sounds ever so slightly familiar. The pyramids, he went on, of Egypt entombed wealthy citizens in royalty with maps placed beside their embalmed bodies so they wouldn't get lost as they traveled in the afterlife. Seneca, the Roman philosopher, said, the day thou fearest, referring to the day of death, the day thou fearest is the birthday of your eternity. Although the depictions of the afterlife vary widely, the global unifying testimony of the vast majority of the human race throughout human history involves the concept of life after death. Somebody might say to me, you know, Stephen, not everybody believes it, and I would say, no, not everybody is willing to admit it, and so they may find ways to debunk it or deny it, distort it, disbelieve it. Atheist Stephen Hawking was asked what his view was of Christianity, life after death, and he said, the brain is a computer which will stop working when its components fail.

And there is no afterlife for broken down computers. He went on to say, Christianity is a fairy tale. It is an illusion embraced by people who are afraid of the dark. A few days after, he made that comment, John Lennox, a mathematician, a professor at Oxford University, and a Christian apologist was asked, what did you think about his statement that Christianity is an illusion embraced by people who are afraid of the dark?

He said, well, atheism is an illusion embraced by people who are afraid of the light. The truth is, the believer is the only one neither afraid of the dark or the light. We're not afraid of the darkness of death. We don't understand it.

It's a mystery to us, and frankly, if we were all honest, we're going to wonder how it's going to feel and how long it's going to last and what that transmigration is going to be like and all of that. But we don't fear that dark veil, knowing behind it is a kingdom of light and life. Death is simply the hand that opens the doorway of heaven.

Not everyone will admit to life after death, but the compelling observation is that the human being intuitively anticipates something more out there, something beyond what we can see, taste, or touch. You see, God has placed us in time, but he has wired us for eternity. So the question remains, well, what kind of perspective should we have as we travel through time, so to speak, on our way to eternity?

As Francis Schaeffer, the apologist, famously asked in the last century, how shall we then live? Well, the Bible gives us hundreds of encouragements and promises and principles and commandments, but I want to answer that from what Solomon has provided in his inspired journal. So let's go back to Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, and let's limit ourselves to the observations he makes in just this next paragraph where we left off. What I want to do is put Solomon's observations into four encouragements, four encouragements for the believer who is traveling through time, heading toward eternity. The first one is this, don't lose heart as God composes your life story. Notice Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, and verse 9.

Let's pick it back up there. What gain has the worker from his toil? You may remember the word toil, it's appeared already, that's a reference to a person's burden, his workload in life.

So what are you really getting out of all of that burden, all of the workload you've been given? Notice Solomon makes an observation, verse 10. I've seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. Sounds like what he said earlier in his journal in your thing, and he's going to say something really pessimistic now, but he doesn't. He says, he has made everything, all of that beautiful in its time. That reference to time takes you back to his poem he just concluded. If you were with us, you remember there's a time for birth, death, sorrow, joy, laughter, tears, reaping and sowing. It might not fit our plans, but it is all fitting into his plans.

And the word beautiful as we studied it in our last session can be translated fitting or suitable. So the question isn't, what am I getting out of life? The question is, what is God fitting into my life? What is God choosing to unveil as he reveals the composition of my life story? You see, when we understand his authorship, it keeps us from losing heart as God composes the next chapter.

See, this is how, beloved, we don't waste chapters on suffering. This is what God is doing. This is what God is finding fitting. This is what God is allowing.

This is what God is using in your life. Joseph, if you're old enough in the faith, know that he went through these years of suffering. His brothers sold him into slavery. He languishes in prison for years.

He never does go back home. And yet he would say to his brothers when they reconciled, you meant it for evil, but God meant it, God wrote it, God fitted into my life for good. You know, at the end of this, it was suitable after all. This is how you don't waste those chapters of suffering. This is how you don't misuse those chapters of success, turning it all into self-praising, self-congratulating, this is what I did, this is what I did here, this is the decision I made here, and I did these three things and I'm successful. You do these three things and you can do it too. It's all idolatry.

Worship me. This is how you don't misuse those chapters of success. 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. The word for eternity here has been variously translated by some to mean the world. He's put the world in your heart, well, we like him to get that out of there.

Ignorance, we might agree with that. Darkness or eternity. The translation we arrive at is one that then would fit the context of this chapter, this paragraph. He has just completed a poem about time, God orchestrating and planning over time. Furthermore, and rather conclusively, the same word appears again in verse 14. If you want to look down there, we're told that whatever God does, it endures forever, same word. For all of eternity. In other words, God has put forever in our hearts. This sense of forever in our hearts. This concept, this idea, this reality of eternal forever is in our hearts. And with that, God has made us inquisitive, hasn't he? About eternity. Even though Solomon tells us we can't figure out very much about it unless it's provided in Scripture, what God has been doing from eternity past and what he's going to do in eternity future, what we know and what we only know is what God has revealed.

He was the only eyewitness at creation and he told us what happened. And there are a lot of people that have trouble with that. Well, what are you going to do about the last creation? You have any trouble with that one? Not as many people have as much trouble with that one. We want to go to heaven.

We're all for that one. We know what God has revealed. We know what he's told us and he makes us inquisitive about that and that's because we're made in his image and our God is an eternal God with immortality stamped on us and so we are thus wired for eternity. God has planted us in time but with an implanted sense of eternity.

I love the way C.S. Lewis wrote it. He writes this way, 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.

I love that. Don't lose heart as God writes out your life story. Don't lose touch with that sense of eternity. It's real.

It's God implanted. Solomon makes a third observation on how to live through time as we head toward eternity. Don't lose out on joy, on the joy of simple activity.

Don't lose out on that. Verse 12, 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. Now you might read that and think, okay, we got it. Let's move on to the next verse. Now hang on a second.

I'm convinced that what I just read would not be in the Bible had God not chosen to write it. We would never say this. We don't talk this way.

We're too pietistic. Enjoy your meal. I mean savor those simple things in life. Take pleasure in your job, whatever you can of it. Really. There is enjoyment, Solomon writes in this text, in doing good things.

We'd say, yeah, we get that. That's really all you ought to have in that verse. Enjoy doing good things, but enjoy lunch. Enjoy it all. Enjoy building that house.

Enjoy fixing that computer. Enjoy writing that contract. Enjoy cooking that meal. Enjoy teaching that class.

Enjoy cutting that lawn. God takes pleasure in them. Consider them pleasures and gifts from God to you. Notice how Solomon puts it. Enjoying the simple things of life isn't second best.

Look again. I perceived that there is nothing better than to be joyful in these simple pleasures as gifts from your Creator God. It's as if Solomon says you might be bound in time, but even the mundane is not a waste of time. In fact, he recommends we enjoy as much as we can of it. We're not used to talking that way. If we're allowed to talk that way in church, let me put it this way. God enjoys your enjoyment. As long as it isn't violating, obviously, the Word of God, God enjoys the fact that you enjoy the simplest things in life, like lunch that you're going to have in about two hours. You know, I read and research typically on Fridays, and then on Saturday I start writing.

I'll spend anywhere from eight to 12 hours depending, writing it out, and footnoting and all of that. And I was reading, going back to one of my commentaries yesterday, I already put in about seven or eight hours, and I'm just kind of plunking through it, and he's applying verse 12, and he does it very practically, and it provoked my thinking to such practical thoughts as what I've shared. He put it this way. He said, this means in a very practical way, take a vacation. Don't feel guilty about it. Spend time outdoors. Pursue an enjoyable hobby.

Plant some flowers. Watch a football game. It was obviously the voice of God speaking to me right here.

Watch a football game. Paul picks up the same idea. And again, this is really God would care? He wired us to enjoy this?

Yes. Paul even says it this way. He picks up along the same thing. Theme 1 Corinthians 10, whether you're eating or drinking, you're enjoying meals. Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God, which means God can be glorified in the most mundane, simple pleasure.

Glorify him and enjoy it. God created you with a capacity to enjoy it, and God enjoys the fact that you enjoy it, even a simple meal. Teach your children and your grandchildren that even the simplest things are gifts from God to be enjoyed.

Would it be a surprise to us? Would it be a surprise to us to get to heaven one day and the Lord look at some of us and say, you know, I wanted you to enjoy your life more than you did. I gave you so many little gifts along the way. Yes, you had burdens and toils, but because you were usually looking for something else, you missed that little gift along the way.

I think he could say that to all of us. As you travel through time on your way to eternity, Solomon would say, hey, identify them. Look for them.

Enjoy them as much as you can. They are actually gifted from the hand of your Creator, God. One more, number four, don't lose sight of God's sovereignty. Notice verse 14, I perceive that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it.

Nothing can be subtracted from it or taken from it. God has done it so that people fear before Him. In other words, having the proper vision of God's sovereignty leads us to fear Him. That expression in the Hebrew language is tantamount to trusting Him.

I like what one author said, this is trembling trust. This is where God becomes really great and we become really small. We stand in awe of Him. It leads us to worship Him properly. And it leads us to believe then that this great God's plans are perfect.

The journal He's writing for your life and for mine does not include one mistake. Notice again, whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added, addition, or taken away, subtraction. There are no additions to His plans.

There are no subtractions. God never says, well, I didn't see that coming. I've got to fit that in. I've got to add that to your journal. Oh, I didn't like that one. I'd like to erase that.

And I didn't plan that so I'm going to take it out. God never rewrites anything. Even when, beloved, it doesn't look like God is ruling from heaven, God is ruling. Even when your world and maybe your own personal world is filled with chaos, God is ordering the chaos according to His divine eternal purposes. Even when things seem to be falling apart, God is sovereignly engineering the falling apart of those things so they ultimately fall into the puzzle of His divine providence. Solomon says what God does is flawless and it's forever. Now the problem we have again is we're stuck here in time. God has this eternal view.

All we have is a point of view and it's usually no bigger than a point, a little dot. The truth gave reassurance to Job, however, at the end of his suffering when he wrote, I know that you, God, can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be stopped or thwarted. Solomon will write in his Proverbs, the Lord has made everything for its own purpose.

Beloved, we cannot know all that God's hand is doing in this mysterious ebb and flow, in the circumstances of our lives. In fact, we might struggle with the fact that God is this sovereign over our lives. By the way, trust me, the Bible makes it clear we're still to submit to Him.

We're still to get out of bed in the morning. We're still responsible to obey Him. We submit to Him so that we can enjoy His fellowship, so that He can give us insight and discernment as we obey Him, seeing the things that roll out from His sovereign will as we walk with Him. We recognize, however, we recognize, the oldest among us in the faith and the youngest, that life happens to us while we're usually busy making other plans. We trust Him because He sees eternity past, eternity future, and because He is sovereign, what we discover as our day unfolds that He has planned is without accident, it is only filled with appointment.

If we could just live this way every day, to not lose sight of God's gracious, flawless, eternal sovereignty. Sometimes we see it, don't we? Sometimes we get it. Oh, God did this, and He delayed that, and He said no here because He's going to say yes there, and I had this conversation just at the right moment, and the phone rang, or whatever it is. We get it, we see it sometimes. The truth is He's doing this every day, every moment of the day in the entire universe He's designed. We just don't see it.

Let me give you an example that came from the testimony of someone in our fellowship, one of the men who served Christ for many decades. He would be embarrassed if I told you his name, so I'll just give you his initials, Dr. Bill Barber. He was rear-ended a few weeks ago in traffic. It wasn't his fault. Peeled up a few panels on his new car. After a little while, he kind of collected himself, and traffic had begun to move around him, and he got out of his car, and he walked back to the car. Behind him and standing there was the driver of that car, a young college-age gal, and she was visibly shaken and crying. Bill put his arm around her shoulder and said, it's okay, evidently God wanted me to meet you today.

Wow. When we don't lose sight of God's sovereignty, we say every so often wonderful statements of trust like that. I hope whenever we get into an accident out there now, that's the first thing that's going to come to our mind, because it's sure coming to mind. God evidently wanted me to meet you today. Solomon ends this paragraph at verse 15. Notice, that which is already has been, that which is to be already has been.

In other words, from God's perspective, there's no past, there's no future. He is not the great I was, the great I might be. He is the great I am with him.

Everything is present at once. We're talking mystery here. He doesn't forget anything.

He isn't surprised by anything. It says God seeks what has been driven away. What Solomon means here is that God will call the past into account.

This is shepherding terminology. This is another way of saying that at the end of time and at the beginning of eternity, so to speak, God is going to redeem everything. More than likely, there's the expression of our understanding to some degree that God did in fact make everything right. That's the idea. So without God, what are you left with?

What encouragement would anybody have? We would be like Voltaire. We're just Adam stuck in the mud, an accident. One man writes of the despairing prospects of life and then eternal life. His name was Clarence Darrow.

He was the attorney who argued for evolution in the famous Scopes trial in 1925 that tragically changed the educational trajectory of generations in our country. He wrote transparently and honestly, he said this, life is like a ship tossed by every wave and by every wind, a ship headed to no port and no harbor with no rudder, no compass, no pilot, simply floating for a time, then lost forever in the waves. Solomon would beg to differ as he encourages the believer and our creator God as you travel through life on your way to eternity. Don't lose sight of God's sovereignty and you won't lose out on the joy of simple God-gifted activity and because you recognize that God-created sense of eternity, you won't lose heart as God composes and reveals to you what he has written in your life story.

Remember, God's plans for you are perfect, so live each day with joy and trust. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Today's message is called Wired for Eternity. Do you ever have questions about the Bible but don't know where to turn? We've developed a tool that can transform how you explore scripture and deepen your understanding of the Christian faith. With just a few keystrokes, you can instantly search through Stephen's teachings and find answers you can trust.

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