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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
Ecclesiastes 06: Don't Argue With God About Destiny
What if the key to a fulfilling life isn't about chasing your desires but trusting the path laid out for you? Join us in our latest episode, "Arguing With God's Destiny in Ecclesiastes," where we unpack the profound wisdom of Ecclesiastes, chapter 6. We explore Solomon's reflections on the emptiness of wealth and honor without the joy of experiencing them and the futility of desiring what we lack. Discover how delighting in the Lord can lead you to the true desires of your heart and why contentment is more valuable than any material possession. We challenge the notion of manipulating life to fit personal goals, urging listeners to embrace God's overarching plan for a more fulfilling existence.
Next, in "Trusting God's Plan for Your Life," we delve into the essence of living with confident trust in God's wisdom and love. While we have free will, worrying about whether our desires will be fulfilled is counterproductive. Solomon's teachings remind us to avoid anxiety and fear, urging us to adopt a simple, solid faith in God's guidance. We discuss the importance of prayer as a way to express gratitude for His faithfulness and seek strength to trust His ways, even in moments of doubt. Ultimately, we emphasize that a well-lived life is rooted in fearing God and obeying His commands. Tune in to find peace and clarity in surrendering to God's perfect plan.
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The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Ecclesiastes, chapter 6, and today's title is Don't Argue With God About Destiny. Don't argue with God about destiny. I know none of y'all have ever done this, but I might have heard of a guy or two who will kind of argue with God and go, okay, god, I need, I want this job, I want to do this this way, I want to do, and we try to sneak, we try to manipulate and we try to figure out how to have the life that we want to have, only to realize God's going to do what he's going to do. Who do you think put those desires in your heart anyway? So, instead of trying to convince God to give us our heart's desire, the Bible actually says how to get the desires of your heart, and that is to fix your thoughts on him. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. And we're going to talk about what that is today. But if you like what we're doing here as we get ready to jump into this, make sure you like, share, subscribe to YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you give us a five-star review on that podcast. It really does help the algorithms get the word out there.
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Speaker 1:Yesterday, man, I'm going to tell you it has been a long time of reading this Bible Breakdown and we've been doing this for a while where I but even in reading it, I'm just convicted all over again and it was just awesome and I'm kind of convicted about this one again today. So I brought old school. I brought a cloth, because what we used to do back in old school churches. If we liked it, man, we'd just start waving stuff, and I feel like this chapter is one of those. I just need to wave it, just say, Lord Jesus, help us, because this is some good stuff from the preacher Solomon and, if you remember, the overall theme of this is the key to a life well lived is a life full of God, and so he's teaching us what that looks like and let's dive into it together. You ready Ecclesiastes, chapter six, verse one, and get your waivers ready, because he's about to get it going.
Speaker 1:There is another serious tragedy that's a hard word to say I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity. God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn't give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth. This is meaningless, a sickening tragedy. A man might have a hundred children and live to be very old, but if he finds no satisfaction in life and doesn't even get a decent burial, it would have been better for him to not even been born. His birth would have been meaningless. And him to not even been born, his birth would have been meaningless and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn't even have had a name and we would have never have to see the sun or known of his existence. Yet he would have had more peace than growing up to be an unhappy man. He might live a thousand years twice over, but still not find contentment. And since he must die like everyone else, well what's the use? All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough.
Speaker 1:So are wise people really better off than fools? Do poor people gain anything by being wise and knowing how to act in front of others? Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have. Come on, solomon. Come on now. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless like chasing the wind. Praise the Lord, all right, verse 10.
Speaker 1:Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. There's no use in arguing with God about your destiny. The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they In a few days of our meaningless lives? Who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone? This is one of those times that if you and I were meeting in person, I'd just sit back in my chair and just go. Can we just soak a minute? I'm going to read that again and let's just think about this for just a moment. And I am so curious. I'd love to know in the comments some of your takeaways, some of your challenges, some of your questions about this. How are you processing this is God's inspired word and it is flat out punching us in the throat. I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm just like come on now. Come on now. Come on, cook for us now. Solomon. Because listen to what he's saying. Verse nine enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have. I'm just going to wave it one more time. Come on. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless. Life's chasing the wind. So the words he's saying enjoy what you have, not what you wish you would have. If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, that means the water bill is higher. Enjoy what you have. Just daydreaming about what you don't have really doesn't help you. But then listen to this Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be and there's no use in arguing with God about your destiny. Okay, now that takes a little bit of unpacking, and so if you don't have a lot of time, then may the Lord be with you in Jesus' name, amen. You're welcome to turn it off, but just a little bit of unpacking.
Speaker 1:There's a theological issue happening right here, because there are some people who think everything in life is only free will, that God actually doesn't know what's going to happen in the future. These people Molinists and different people like that the theological framework they have is they think that God exists inside of time, the way we do. Therefore, he does not know what's going to happen in the future, because God sees an infinite number of possibilities and so, until we make a decision, he doesn't know what's going to happen. Therefore, god is limited to our choice. Some people think that there's other people that think the exact opposite Everything's completely done, you have no choice, you're already done. Why even try? It's fatalistic and depressing, right. And there's other people. They're in the middle, they're called compatibilists, which, by the way, is where I land, and that is that.
Speaker 1:The answer is God knows what you're going to choose, but you still have free will. Let me give you an example. God knows what you're going to choose, but you still have free will. Let me give you an example. Let's say that you're a football fan and I'm a football fan and I recorded my favorite team play. But I wasn't able to be there. So I recorded it and I'm getting ready to go home to watch the game, but before I can watch the game, you are a snot and you text me who won the game? Well, I am so very frustrated with you because I wanted to watch the game but I now know who won, but I'm going to watch it anyway. Well, the fact that I already know how it's going to end out, does that stop those people on that field from making the choice? No, they're still making their free choices. It's just I already know how it's going to end out in the end.
Speaker 1:Compatibilism is saying everything is determined, but we still have free choice, just like the recorded football game. That's what I believe, because God stands outside of time. Therefore, he sees time like we would see a book. He sees the beginning, he sees the end, he sees everything in between. He lives in the eternal now. He doesn't live in the past or in the future. He lives in all of it at the same time, and if that doesn't hurt your brain, you're not thinking that hard about it, but he does. Therefore, he has to know how it ends. Everything has already been decided From the moment. Like. We have no idea how powerful God's words were when he said in Genesis 1, let there be light. We're still living off of those words because when God spoke this universe into action, he spoke with it. The creative power that we're still living off of the echo of let there be light and he spun it all into existence. That's what we're still living in is in the instant moment he created because, remember, god stands outside of time. So the instant that he said that and everything came to be, we're still in that moment. That's how powerful and how big God is. So he lives outside of time. So everything, according to God, has already been decided.
Speaker 1:Verse 10, it was known long ago what each person would be.
Speaker 1:There's no use in arguing with God about your destiny.
Speaker 1:In other words, he's already got it laid out. Now he's giving you free choice, but he already knows what you're going to choose. Therefore, instead of arguing with God, our job is to trust God, do the very best we can and trust him with the results. So don't be fatalistic. Don't just not try, you know, because you should always try. You just trust, at the end of the day, that God knows what he's doing. And that's what Solomon is trying to say.
Speaker 1:If you spend your whole life worrying, is God going to be faithful? Is God going to do this? Is God going to do that? That's the wrong way to do that. Instead, trust that God is going to do what God's going to do. Now, it is perfectly understandable if you say, okay, listen, I trust that God's going to do what he's going to do. I'm just not trusting. If he's going to do it my way, okay, that's understandable. But remember who God is, that God loves us completely, that nothing in all of creation can love us more than God loves us. Like if you would want anyone calling the shots in your life, you wouldn't even want it to be you. You'd want it to be God, because he loves us more than we have the capacity to love ourselves. Therefore, what Solomon is challenging us to do is to not live in anxiety, not to live in fear, not to try to say a whole bunch of stuff, to try to change things. Instead, live in the confident, solid, simple trust that God knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you blow our minds, that you just got this. Help us to trust that. Help us to trust not only that you've got this, but that you're going to do it the right way. If I'm honest, sometimes I trust you. I know that you see the end from the beginning. I'm just always not so sure if you don't have more confidence in me than you should, because I'm not so sure if I can handle the things that you put on me, and maybe there's others who understand that as well. But we realize, god, that you do trust us and you do know us and you are growing us every day to be more like you. Thank you for your faithfulness and we celebrate you In Jesus' name. We pray Amen and amen, what God's Word says in Ecclesiastes 12, verse 13,. Here is my final conclusion Fear God and obey His commands. I'm going to tell you something. That's what it's all about right there. You want a life well lived. It's got to be a life full of God.
