Ecclesiastes 6:10-7:24 | Uncomfortable yet comforting words of wisdom

Ecclesiastes

6:es 10 to 7 verse 24.

So that's Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 6:10

chapter 6 verse 10 through to chapter 7

verse 24.

Whatever exists has already been named

and what humanity is has been known. No

one can contend with someone who is

stronger.

The more the words, the less the

meaning. And how does that profit

anyone?

For who knows what is good for a person

in life during the few and meaningless

days that they pass through like a

shadow?

Who can tell them what will happen under

the sun after they are gone?

A good name is better than fine perfume,

and the day of death better than the day

of birth. It is better to go to a house

of mourning than to go to a house of

feasting, for death is the destiny of

everyone, and the living should take

this to heart.

Frustration is better than laughter

because a sad face is good for the

heart.

The heart of the wise is in the house of

mourning, but the heart of fools is in

the house of pleasure.

It is better to heed the rebuke of a

wise person than to listen to the song

of fools. Like the crackling of thorns

under the pot, so is the laughter of

fools. This too is meaningless.

Extortion turns a wise person into a

fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

The end of a matter is better than its

beginning, and patience is better than

pride.

Do not be quickly provoked in your

spirit, for anger resides in the lap of

fools.

Do not say, "Why were the old days

better than these?" For it is not wise

to ask such questions.

Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good

thing and benefits those who see the

sun.

Wisdom is a shelter as money is a

shelter. But the advantage of knowledge

is this. Wisdom preserves those who have

it.

Consider what God has done. Who can

straighten what he has made crooked?

When times are good, be happy. And when

times are bad, consider this. God has

made the one as well as the other.

Therefore, no one can discover anything

about their future.

In this meaningless life of mine, I have

seen both of these. The righteous

perishing in their righteousness and the

wicked living long in their wickedness.

Do not be overrighteous, neither be over

wise. Why destroy yourself?

Do not be over wicked and do not be a

fool. Why die before your time? It is

good to grasp the one and not let go of

the other. Whoever fears God will avoid

all extremes.

Wisdom makes one wise person more

powerful than 10 rulers in a city.

Indeed, there is no one on earth who is

righteous.

No one who does what is right and never

sins.

Do not pay attention to every word

people say, or you may hear your servant

cursing you. For you know in your heart

that many times you yourself have cursed

others.

All this I tested by wisdom and I said I

am determined to be wise but this was

beyond me. Whatever exists is far off

and most profound. Who can discover it?

Thank you so much, Rachel, for reading

that for us.

Good morning.

>> And we have 15 minutes left of morning.

It's almost afternoon.

I hope that you are gaining lots of

wisdom from our series in Ecclesiastes.

Are you? Cuz I I am. This book has so

much street level wisdom for us, doesn't

it? Did you enjoy your lot more this

week? I hope you did. I hope you drank

your coffee with joy and enjoyed your

lot as much as you could this week.

And now this week, we have more words

for us. They are

uncomfortable.

And yet, as we will see, they are

comforting as well. So, let's pray and

ask for the Lord's help.

Dear Father, we ask that you would

please in your kindness and in your

mercy meet us now as we look at your

word together.

We pray that you would give us ears to

hear. We pray that you would expose our

hearts and we pray that you would cause

us to turn our eyes towards Jesus and to

put our trust in him because he loves us

and gave himself for us. Amen.

>> Today we need to talk about control.

Do you like to be in control?

Do you desire to control your life?

Let me ask you the same thing in a

different way. Do you ever complain?

Do you get anxious?

Do you get angry?

Do you get frustrated?

We all do.

What all of those things show

is that you like to be in control.

How much control do you really have over

your life? What do you control in life?

Do you control the weather, the rain

that keeps starting and stopping right

now?

Do you control the actions of the other

8.2 billion people in this world?

Do you control geopolitical conflicts

or traffic

or unexpected tragedies

or sickness

or the return of Jesus? Do you control

any of those things? What do you

control?

You are in control of one thing,

responsible for one thing. yourself,

your actions, your thoughts, your words,

everything else is outside of your

control.

But are we content with that or do we

want to control more?

As we've been going through this series

in class in Ecclesiastes, I'm struggling

with it too, Rachel, this morning.

We've been seeing the key concept

is this concept the word heel which we

are saying it's it's translated vapor

vapor of vapors. That's what this book

is telling us. Everything is vapor.

Everything cannot be grasped. Life

cannot be grasped. And we've been saying

to you that there are three senses in

which life cannot be grasped. It cannot

be grasped in in the sense of time. Time

is always slipping away from us and we

cannot hold on to it. It cannot be

grasped in the sense of understanding.

We cannot grasp the paradox of life

and it also cannot be grasped in the

sense of control. You cannot control

life.

So far, we've seen a lot in the first

few chapters about time, but this week

it's all about understanding and

control. That's the sense of Hebel that

we're going to see today.

This is all over our passage, but you

can see it most clearly in chapter 6,

verse 12. Look at that verse again

there. This really lays out the question

that this passage is wrestling with.

Chapter 6, verse 12. Who knows what is

good for a person in life? And then the

next question, who can tell them what

will happen? So you hear those two

questions. Who knows what is good for

us? That's the issue of understanding.

Who knows what will happen to us? That's

the issue of control. Do you hear those

two issues there in that verse?

We think we know what is good for us.

We think we know what will happen to us.

But the answer to those two questions is

actually not I do, but God does.

God knows what is good for us.

God knows what will happen to us.

This passage is calling us to repent of

our desire for control.

The path of repentance in this passage,

I'm just going to lay it out for us as

we start, is moving from control to

acceptance to trust. That's the path of

repentance before all of us this morning

in this passage.

So the way that this passage is

structured, we have three sections of

questions that the teacher is asking us

at the beginning, at the end, and right

in the middle. He asks us really

uncomfortable questions to expose the

lack of control. And then in between

those three sections, he gives us

wisdom. Sections of wisdom to help us

learn how do I actually live if I'm not

in control of the world. So this is

different from a lot of what we've seen

so far in Ecclesiastes has been the

teacher observing the world. I saw this.

I noticed that. I saw this. This time

he's just going to give us wisdom for

how to live in the world. What does it

look like to live wisely when you are

not in control? What would it look like

to live wisely?

We've also been talking about these

three levels. There's the level one

where everything is vapor, so it's

meaningless. Then level two, everything

is vapor. So enjoy it while you can.

this whole passage we're up in heaven

level three God's view perspective. So

now teaching us how to live wisely.

Okay. So let's get into this. The first

round of questions that he's going to

bring us is there in chapter 6 10-2.

And notice that he starts with a couple

observations in verse 10.

Whatever exists has already been named.

and what humanity is has been known.

No one can contend with someone who is

stronger. In other words, here's what

he's saying. Things are the way they

are.

We are the way we are.

We can't change that. We can't contend

with someone who is stronger. Now, in

the context of the book of Ecclesiastes,

who is the one who is stronger than us?

God.

He's the one to be feared. So what he's

saying is things are the way they are

and we can't contend with God on that.

Then he makes this statement in verse

11.

The more the words, the more the vapor.

So what is the advantage? In other

words, you can talk all you want. You

can complain all you want. You can get

angry all you want.

But that does not mean that you will

control your life anymore.

God is still the one who's in control.

And then he gives us those two questions

that we saw in verse 12. Who knows what

is good for us? Who knows what will

happen to us? Think with me.

Do you know what is good for yourself?

We certainly think we do. My kids think

it would be good for them to eat

chocolate and ice cream all day long. Is

it? No.

No. No. No. But we adults, we are far

more sophisticated and wise. We know

what is good for us, don't we?

Do we?

All of our complaining

over the things in life that we have no

control over shows that we think we know

what's better for us. doesn't it?

Do you know what will happen to you?

Again, we think we do. We make plans for

our lives. But once again, all of our

anxieties over those things that we

can't control.

They show that we want to know what will

happen to us. We want to control what

will happen to us.

Now, again, the answer to both of these

questions is is God, right? God knows

what is good for us. Remember back in

chapter three,

God makes everything good in its own

time.

God knows what's good for us in our

lives.

And God knows what will happen to us,

doesn't he? He knows the end from the

beginning. We'll see more of that in

this chapter.

So, these are the uncomfortable

questions he's confronting us with as we

start into this. Now, what we need to do

is he's going to say, "Okay, if that's

true, we don't know what's good for us.

We don't know what will happen to us,

but God does.

Then how should we live?

What would be a way to live wisely? What

should our speech look like? What should

our thinking look like if that is true?"

That brings us into that first section

of wisdom, chapter 7, verses 1-2. And

here's the first piece of wisdom that

he's going to give us.

You should accept your present and you

should accept your future.

That's the wisdom. Now, there's a lot

here in these verses and I I don't want

to force it all unnaturally to say what

I want it to say, but it all does seem

to be basically related to that first

question. Who knows what's good for us?

Eight times in these 12 verses, he uses

the word good or better. He's telling us

what is good or better. And everything

here in these verses basically relates

to attitudes or words

of acceptance.

Learning to accept that God knows what

is good, that God controls my present

and God controls my future.

Look at how he starts in verse one.

A good name is better than fine perfume.

The day of death better than the day of

birth.

Really?

I mean, did you go to Shaun and Ashing's

baby shower yesterday? That's way better

than a funeral.

So, how can the day of death be better

than the day of birth?

Well, notice that he connects this

thought to a good name, a good

reputation.

Here's his point. The day of birth, it's

a day of uncertainty. You don't know

what will come of this child and you

don't control their life.

But the day of death, if someone has

maintained a good name throughout their

life, through all the ups and downs and

challenges of life, they have kept a

good reputation. That's a better day.

It's better to die well than to start

out in uncertainty. That's what he's

saying. Same thing he says in verse 8,

the end of a matter is better than its

beginning. An end of something brings

certainty and closure. The beginning of

something, well, we don't know what will

happen to us.

If if you want an illustration of how

this works, think about the high-profile

Christians you have looked up to who

have destroyed their own names through

scandal.

It would have been better for them in

some ways, I think Ecclesiastes would

say, not to have been born

Because it's better to end well than to

start with uncertainty. That's what he's

saying.

We aren't responsible for what happens

to us in this life, but we are

responsible for maintaining a good name

through the midst of it all.

Then look at the second half there,

verse 8. Patience is better than pride.

Do not be quickly provoked in your

spirit for anger resides in the lap of

fools.

Why do we get angry brothers and

sisters?

Anger is always related to control.

My kingdom come, my will be done. That's

why we get angry, right?

When the world does not bend to our

will, that's when you and I get angry.

Anger shows I want to control my life.

And the teacher says to us, don't be a

fool.

Who knows what is good for you?

God does.

This spot of traffic that you find

yourself in

or the annoying neighbor that lives next

to you and they leave their dog out

barking all night.

It's not outside of his control.

It's outside of your control, but it's

not outside of his control. So, accept

he knows what is good for you. Don't be

angry. Don't be a fool.

Then the teacher presses us on our

concerns and desire to control the

future. Look at verse two. It is better

to go to a house of mourning than to go

to a house of feasting. For death is the

destiny of everyone, and the living

should take this to heart. Or verse

four, the heart of the wise is in the

house of mourning, but the heart of

fools is in the house of pleasure. Now,

the point here is never go to a birthday

party or celebrate Christmas.

Just sit outside a funeral home all day

long and watch the funerals happen.

That's not what he's saying.

I mean, last week he told us, "Enjoy

your life, right?

But what he's what the teacher is

recognizing here is our tendency is to

want to avoid death to deny death. And

he's telling us accept your destiny.

We talk to our kids about destinies they

can have. Do you ever tell them your

destiny is death?

That's the truest destiny you could tell

them for all of us.

Let's not avoid that destiny. He says by

feasting and pleasure living as if this

life is all there is. It's not. It will

be gone before we know it. You can't

grasp it and you can't control when it

will end. So those who are wise should

regularly visit the house of mourning to

remind themselves of that.

Do you regularly remind yourself of your

coming death?

Do you take it to heart and reflect on

it like the teacher says you should? The

teacher says, "If you're wise, you

will." This is why I love to walk around

graveyards because it reminds me of my

coming death. And I need to be reminded

of that.

Then he presses more into denial here in

verse three. A weird verse. Frustration

is better than laughter

because a sad face is good for the

heart.

Really

then he he says something similar there

explains it a bit more in verse 5. It's

better to heed the rebuke of a wise

person than to listen to the song of

fools. Like the crackling of thorns

under a pot, so is the laughter of

fools. Okay, do you see the picture

here? I don't know if you've ever seen

thorns burning. I hadn't. So, I looked

it up on YouTube this week. They burn

really loud and hot and fast and then

they're gone because there's no

substance to them. Well, what he's

saying is the that crackling hot burning

that that's like the laughter of fools

who are just giggling, laughing their

way through life, pretending

that this life is all there is and

living in denial of the way the world

really is.

We ought not to be just laughing our way

through life, brothers and sisters. This

world is cursed.

We ought to experience genuine

frustration and lament and grief over

how the world is. Listen, it's good for

us to laugh.

The teacher is not telling us not to

laugh. Laughter really, the only people

who can laugh truly in this world are

those who believe that God is in

control. We can laugh with joy. But the

laughter of denial,

the laughter of silly songs and Tik Toks

and YouTube shorts and memes and

meaningless things. He says it's better

for you to listen to a rebuke than to

just fill your mind with that. Because

guess what? A rebuke is probably closer

tied to reality

than all of that silly stuff is.

Now, if that one stings for those of you

who are younger and love to look at

memes,

then we get to verse 10. And this one

stings for those of you who are older.

Verse 10, do not say,

"Why were the old days better than

these?

For it's not wise to ask such

questions."

We all have tendencies to talk about the

good old days when our health was

better, our relationship was not yet

broken,

the world before internet or the AI or

whatever it is. But you see the wisdom

here. We can complain about the world as

much as we want, the way the world is.

But who's in control of the way the

world is?

God is.

Who knows what is good?

God does. So ought we to be living in

the past if God has brought us into the

present where we are today or ought we

to accept the present.

Wow. That is some rain, isn't it?

He finishes this section of wisdom in

verse 11 and 12 by telling us that

wisdom is a shelter.

The word here for shelter is the word

shadow.

wisdom. He says living in these ways,

thinking these ways, it will be like a

shadow sheltering you from the sun,

protecting you. Living in this way will

protect you, brothers and sisters, from

living in the scorching, burning sun of

complaint and anxiety and anger and

stress.

You live unlike this and you'll put

yourself out in the sunburn of anger and

complaint.

But you live in this way and you'll live

under the shelter of wisdom trusting God

that he knows what is good for your

life.

We need to recognize how life works in

this world. Instead of complaining, the

teacher is telling us we should have a

contentment.

Instead of anxiety, we should have

trust. Instead of anger, we should have

patience. Instead of denial, we should

have seriousness.

Instead of empty laughter, we should

listen and consider.

We're not in control. So, wisdom teaches

us to accept our present and our future.

Now,

what we're talking about here is hard.

We need to have a small view of yourself

and a big view of God to live this way.

You need the fear of God. And so that

brings us now to the second round of

questions. Now in verses 13 and 14, he

is going to press us even further and

show us God is the one who is in

control. Look at verse 13. Consider

consider what God has done. Who can

straighten what he has made crooked?

When times are good, be happy. But when

times are bad, consider this. God has

made the one as well as the other.

Therefore, no one can discover anything

about their future.

Do you see how he's answering those two

questions from the beginning? Who knows

what's good for us? Well, God does. Who

knows what will happen to us? Now, he

says, God does. God is the one in

control. Consider, he says twice,

consider what God has done. He makes

crooked and no one can straighten it

out.

He controls good times and bad times.

God has made both, the teacher says.

How does that sit with you?

Is that uncomfortable?

Some of you have endured unspeakable

evil and grief.

Is God the one who made that?

We need to be really clear here. God is

not the author of any evil.

God is light. In him is no darkness at

all. God hates evil. He is not tempted

by evil. He does not tempt anyone to

evil. He is not responsible for evil.

But

God is in control of all things. All

things, including

evil.

Nothing that happens is outside of his

sovereign control.

And if you're struggling with that, it's

not just the teacher who will say this

to us. God himself in Isaiah 45, listen

to what he says. I am Yahweh

and there is no other. I form the light

and I create darkness. I bring

prosperity and I create disaster.

I, Yahweh, do all these things.

That's Isaiah 45. Or think of what Job

says in the midst of his immense

suffering. Job 1, Yahweh gave

and Yahweh has taken away.

May the name of Yahweh be praised. Or in

the next chapter, verse two, when his

wife says, "Curse God and die." And he

says to her, "Shall we accept good from

God and not trouble?

God is not the author of evil. He is not

responsible for evil. He hates evil. But

he is utterly and absolutely in control

of all evil and all things in this

world.

And that is what the teacher is calling

us to consider.

God knows what is good. God knows what

will happen. There is nothing outside of

his control.

So we need to accept this that he knows

what is good that he is working all

things even trouble for our good

even things that don't look good to us.

Brothers and sisters instead of

complaining and fretting and seeking to

control

we need to accept

accept what God has done. except that he

controls all things.

Now we move to the second section of

wisdom.

In the first section he said to us,

accept your present, accept your future.

Now in this one he will say to us

accept the limits of righteousness and

wisdom.

Wisdom is good. We've already saw that

it's like a shelter for you. But now

we're going to see the limits of wisdom

that we can never truly grasp how this

world works. We can never control this

world or control God with our own

wisdom. Look at how he sets the problem

up here for us in verse 15.

In this vapor life of mine, I have seen

both of these.

the righteous perishing in their

righteousness

and the wicked living long in their

wickedness. Have you seen that?

We've all seen that, right? And it

bothers us.

We are all born naturally with a sort of

karma/legalism

attitude in our hearts. If I do well,

surely it'll go well for me.

If I'm righteous, surely God or the

universe will treat me well. If I'm bad,

God will punish me.

We We think that wisdom and

righteousness will help us to avoid

trouble, that somehow God or the

universe will owe it to us if we are

good. We think that we can control God

by being righteous.

But that's not how it works. The

righteous suffer

and the wicked thrive.

And now in light of that, the teacher

brings out some really surprising

wisdom. Look at verse 16.

Do not be overrighteous,

neither be over wise. Don't Why destroy

yourself?

Do not be over wicked and do not be a

fool. Why die before your time? It is

good to grasp the one and not let go of

the other. Whoever whoever fears God

will avoid all extremes. Now, what is he

saying? Is he saying, "Listen,

it's okay to sin a little bit sometimes.

Just be a fool. Get it out of your

system. God understands."

Is that what he's saying? No. Here's

what he's saying.

You don't control the world by your

wisdom or by your righteousness.

You can be super wise and super

disciplined and super holy all the time

and it doesn't mean you'll avoid

trouble.

You can't control God by being

righteous.

That's not how it works. So don't wear

yourself out trying to put God in your

debt in order to avoid trouble because

that's not how the world works. Now, if

that's still enjoy the ice cream,

well, just because you always choose the

more righteous answer,

it doesn't mean that you will control

your life and avoid trouble.

God is still in control and you will

never never put him in your debt.

So instead, he says at the end of verse

18, here's what you should do. You

should fear God.

Sometimes that will mean getting up

early to pray.

And sometimes that will mean recognizing

your weakness as a human and sleeping.

And just cuz you do one and not the

other, it doesn't mean that God will

make you have a happy life.

Isn't that wisdom for us?

That just throws a wrench in our

legalistic hearts, doesn't it? We want

to control the world by our

righteousness. And the teacher says,

"Get over it. You never will."

Then he says a similar thing in a

different way in verses 19 and 20.

Wisdom makes one person wise or one wise

person more powerful than 10 rulers in a

city. But there's no one on earth who's

righteous. No one who does what is right

and never sins. I love these verses.

Verse 19, wisdom is awesome. Verse 20,

no one's wise.

See how he does that?

You might be wise. Good for you. There's

no one who's righteous in God's sight.

He is trying to give us attention and to

show us that no matter how wise, how

righteous we are,

we shouldn't put ourselves up on a

pedestal and think that we control God.

Now,

there's no one righteous in this world.

You will never put him in your debt.

That brings us then to the final round

of questions. Very quickly, look at

verse 23 and 24. All this I tested by

wisdom and I said, I am determined to be

wise,

but this was beyond me. Whatever exists

is far off and most profound. In the

original language there, he says,

"Whatever exists is deep. It's deep.

Who can find it?"

Brothers and sisters, we want wisdom. We

want to know how this world works. We

want to discern the pattern for how God

works so that we can control our lives

by matching his pattern. But we can't.

It's beyond us. It's deep, deep. who can

find it.

We need to learn not to control but to

accept that God is in control.

God knows what is good for us.

God knows what will happen to us.

Aren't these uncomfortable truths

yet

comforting truths?

It's uncomfortable that I'm not in

control.

But it's comforting that God is.

It's uncomfortable that I don't know

what is good for me, but it's comforting

that God does.

It's uncomfortable that I don't know

what will happen to me, but it's

comforting that God does.

If you're searching for the right

response, emotional response to this

passage, how should I feel? Let me

suggest this. You should feel chastened,

humbled, and hopeful.

Chasened

because we're seeing our desire to

control the world.

The desire to control our lives is

idolatry.

to act and think as if we are God

and then to be disgruntled and angry and

complaining when we find out that we are

not.

That shows the idolatry of control.

So this passage we should feel chasened

in that desire.

But we should also feel humbled

as we accept that God is in control. He

is God and we are not.

But we also should feel hopeful.

Remember at the beginning I said that

the path of repentance in this passage

flows from control to acceptance to

trust.

We don't want to just stop at

acceptance. Fine. Okay. God, you can do

what you want. It's not the right

attitude. No, we want to move towards

joyful trust.

You might remember from a couple months

ago we were in Luke 7 and we saw this

passage where there was all these people

who had expectations of Jesus. Some of

them were rejecting him and others were

justifying him. They were acknowledging

that God's way is right. They were

amening him. And we talked that morning

about how that is what faith is. Faith

is amening God. It is acknowledging that

his ways are right. I may not

understand, but he knows what is right.

That's what we're talking about in this

passage, isn't it? Same thing.

We're talking about faith.

We're talking about trusting God. But

here, we're not talking about in

salvation. We're talking about in the

really, really gritty street level of

your life. the level of your lack of

control over big and small things in

your life. We're talking about having

faith in God there.

That means that what we're really

talking about here is the gospel.

Did you see that in verse 20?

There's no one on earth who's righteous.

No one who does what is right and never

sins.

None of us is righteous.

We can never have a right relationship

with God based on our righteousness, our

wisdom. We are all sinners.

And no matter how much we may try, how

overrighteous or overwise we think we

are, God owes us nothing.

We can't control him. We can't earn

favor from him. But what we can do is

come to him in faith.

Amening

his ways in our life, his assessment of

us that we are unrighteous

and his way of salvation, his way of

right relationship. The people of God

have always been made right with him,

not because they are righteous, but

because they have faith and they amen

his ways.

Ephesians 2, by grace you are saved

through being overrighteous.

No, through faith.

And this is not from yourselves. It's

the gift of God, not from works. So no

one can boast. The teacher in his own

uncomfortable way is preaching that same

gospel to us. There's no one on earth

who does what is right. He says, "So God

calls on you instead to trust him and

fear him and have faith in him."

That gospel is so much clearer for us

now, isn't it? When the teacher wrote

these words, verse 20 was true. There's

no one on earth who does what is right

and never sins. But that's changed now.

Jesus was on this earth under the sun

and he was perfectly doing what was

right and he never sinned.

Yet he died the death that our

unrighteousness deserved. And he gave us

his perfect righteousness and wisdom to

be received by faith. Not by

overrighteousness,

by faith.

And in doing so, Jesus has straightened

what was crooked.

You and me. We're what's crooked in this

world, aren't we? But Jesus has

straightened us out, including our

idolatrous desires to control life, to

control him. He is straightening us back

out towards God. And one day, Jesus will

straighten everything in this crooked

world. Who can straighten what he has

made crooked? Jesus can. Jesus can

straighten this world. So take heart,

brothers and sisters. That day is coming

soon.

But for now,

we can trust him.

He knows what's good for us.

He knows what will happen to us. He's in

control of it all.

So we can trust him.

Brothers and sisters, let's hear these

wise words today.

Let's move by God's grace from control

to acceptance to trust.

Think about it. Life

life is a hassle for most people these

days, isn't it? The people around you

day by day, they fill their lives by

complaint and frustration and anger and

anxiety.

If we would learn to trust God in the

little things and the big things of

life, the ordinary events and the daily

conversations

and the extraordinary things, wouldn't

we stand out?

Isn't that what Paul says to the

Philippians in chapter 2? Do everything

without grumbling and complaining.

Show yourself, he says, to be children

of God in a crooked generation. There's

that word again. And he says, if you do

that, you will shine like stars in the

sky.

So that's what we're being called to

here.

We're being called by these

uncomfortable words of wisdom to stop

acting as if we can control and instead

acknowledge and accept and trust God.

So this is uncomfortable.

But isn't it comforting that the God who

loved us enough to die for us also

controls the details of your life? And

he's controlling them all in his perfect

love for your good and for his glory.

So let's learn to live in wisdom.

Let's accept that God is in control and

we can trust him. Let's pray.

Lord God, we pray

that we would repent of our desire to

control

and then instead we would learn to

accept

and to joyfully trust that you are in

control. Amen.

Let's stand together and