Godly Wisdom at Every Turn

[0:00] The following message was given at a Sunday celebration at Trinity Grace Church in Athens.! For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com.

[0:11] ! I say, keep the king's command because of God's oath to him. Be not hasty to go from his presence.

[0:40] Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, what are you doing?

[0:53] Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. For there is a time and a way for everything, although man's trouble lies heavy on him.

[1:11] For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? No man has power to retain the spirit or power over the day of death.

[1:24] There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.

[1:41] Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.

[1:53] Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him.

[2:13] But it will not be well with the wicked. Neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked.

[2:31] And there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. Yes, I said that this also is vanity. And I commend joy.

[2:44] For man has nothing better under the sun, but to eat and to drink and to be joyful. For this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

[2:57] When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep. Then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun.

[3:16] However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

[3:28] God bless the preaching and hearing of his word. Well, my wife Elizabeth and I recently celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary.

[3:40] In those few years, we've had quite a few adventures, outnumbered only by probably misadventures. So I guess it would have come to no surprise, should have been no surprise, that something would go down as we attempted to do a little outing recently to celebrate.

[3:58] Elizabeth suggested that we go on a hike to the top of a mountain where I proposed to her. Kind of like a nostalgia hike. So that's what we did. We set out to do this. However, it had been a while since we'd hiked these particular trails.

[4:12] And so we were a little rusty on the turns. I took a picture of the map at the trail just in case we needed a reference along the way. And I'm really glad that we did.

[4:23] It wasn't too long before we missed our first turn. But we pulled the picture out and we were able to backtrack a little before going too far in the wrong direction.

[4:34] And we made a couple more of those kind of minor errors. And then we recalibrated and got back on the trail before it started to get really steep. Well, we finally got to the place where there are a bunch of switchbacks going back and forth all the way up to the top of the mountain.

[4:51] So we were at the base of it. And wouldn't you know, at one point, the trail kind of tapered off and we couldn't really see trailblazes anymore. So we backtracked a little, but we couldn't make sense of the direction of the trail.

[5:07] So we tried to keep following what we thought was the trail. And eventually we found ourselves plowing through all this thick brush and thorns and thistles.

[5:18] And we were ducking under like these fallen logs. We decided the best idea would be to crawl up the hillside to get to the base of the rock bluff.

[5:28] So we'd be away from the foliage and we'd be able to start to work our way down because we knew that there was some kind of cleft in the bluffs that would eventually open up to the top of the mountain. Even though I had the trail picture on my phone, it wasn't detailed enough to let us know exactly where we were at that moment.

[5:48] So I kept trying to open the trail app on my phone to see this like live GPS update of where we were. But my phone, of course, had no signal.

[6:01] Of course. So it wasn't long before we found ourselves laying on the side of the mountain dirt as we inched our way over and up with a periodic bear crawl.

[6:17] So at this point, there was really no way to turn back. We were too high. It was too steep. And I don't think we could have gotten backwards. And we really had no clear idea of how to get above the bluffs.

[6:30] And it was in this precarious moment we were able to actually look out through a clearing in the trees only to see a storm system rolling in towards us.

[6:42] Great. I thought, well, we figured we already had experienced some really dynamic life moments on this trail. Like our first date was there. Our engagement was there. And so I thought maybe we'd just be adding our deaths to the list of moments that we shared along this trail.

[6:57] Well, just as we were feeling completely disoriented and stuck, I pulled out my phone and a miracle happened. 5G. We happened to be in the perfect window of elevation.

[7:10] And I had signal. My trail app opened up. I could see the whole trail. I could see the whole thing. I could see the switchbacks. I could see that cleft that we were looking for.

[7:21] And more importantly, I could see where we were in relation to the trail. We were only like 200 yards away. So we laid against the hillside and we shimmied our way along until we found the trail.

[7:37] We kissed the earth, raised our hands to God. We really did. We really did. Praise the Lord. And it turned out, it really did turn out to be a wonderful view from the top. But we never would have made it without that aerial perspective.

[7:52] We never would have made sense of where we were and which way to go had it not been for that gracious window of seeing the bigger picture. Well, in a similar way, it's easy to be turned around on the trail in life.

[8:08] It's filled with twists and turns. It's overgrown in many areas. The world is filled with thorns and thistles. It's hard to navigate. Great. Ecclesiastes 8 captures some of this by painting a bleak portrait of politics and of people.

[8:26] The picture of the king is dim in verses 2 through 4. You see in verse 3, he does whatever he pleases. Verse 9 says there are those in authority who use their power to promote evil and to hurt others.

[8:41] Verse 4, the one in power doesn't seem open to suggestions or correction. But that's not all. Even beyond those in power, the people really aren't much better.

[8:54] The wicked go in and out of the place and they are praised in verse 10. The wicked, that word wicked, it's mentioned four times and five if we include the word sinner in here.

[9:07] So it's bad enough that the wicked are in society, but it's even worse when the society praises their wickedness as if they're heroes. David Wells, the author, he laments how our culture makes sin look normal and righteousness seem strange.

[9:26] Up is down. Down is up. Right is wrong. Wrong is right. So if the authorities in our lives are corrupt and our culture generally approves of this kind of rule, how are we to navigate our way along the trail?

[9:45] How are we to move forward? Where are we to turn? We need wisdom. We need God's wisdom.

[9:55] Wherever and whenever God will grant it, we need his perspective as much as he will give. What we can know is very limited, but we must grab whatever we can get and orient ourselves according to what God reveals.

[10:16] Do you long for God's wisdom? Do you? I believe that the main point of our text this morning is to apply godly wisdom and enjoy God's gifts in light of our limitations and his sovereignty.

[10:40] Well, on trail, there are many switchbacks. And those often seem counterintuitive as you're going this way, trying to go that way. It may seem like we're going the wrong way at times, but we're actually going the right way.

[10:53] Well, this text gives us God's wisdom to navigate the trail of life with three counterintuitive turns. We'll go through them in this order.

[11:05] The first counterintuitive turn is to submit to authority. In the opening verses here, we're introduced to a wise man in the service of a king.

[11:17] It seems that this is an unpredictable, powerful king who probably ruled in an unrestrained way with no accountability. He's an authority, and it looks as though, based on verses three and four, that he is unchecked, and he's apt to make decisions that perpetuates rather than punishes injustice.

[11:39] In fact, verse nine indicates that earthly authority is often abused. It says, when man had power over man to his hurt. If there's an authority over you like this king, the temptation may be to take a turn towards revolution and revolt, or at a very minimum to grumble and to seethe in your heart against him.

[12:09] Though this seems like this is the obvious path to take in the eyes of the world, God's wisdom counsels us otherwise. And there are a couple of reasons from the text that are given. The first reason is God's oath.

[12:22] Look at verse two. We are commanded to keep the king's commands because of God's oath to him. Well, interpreted literally, it actually reads because of the oath of God.

[12:36] So it's not really clear if this refers to an oath the citizen makes or an oath that God makes. Well, some believe that this is a vow of loyalty that the people made.

[12:47] And if that's the case, then the preacher is reminding those in service of the court of their promise to obey the king, their superior. Well, the other interpretation could be that this is a divine promise from God rather than a human promise.

[13:03] This is a God, the promise that God made to Israel when he put his king on the throne. God's promise to bring about the Messiah through David's line, through the succession of these kings.

[13:15] So this could be a reminder that God's promise will stand as history marches forward, king after king. So we'd be wise to tread lightly.

[13:28] Well, regardless of which interpretation that we take, a high view of God's providence is in mind here. The God who controls the times also controls the reign of kings.

[13:43] Proverbs 21.1 says, The king's heart is a stream of water in the hands of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wills.

[13:56] And this is not only true of the kings in Israel who were in the messianic line. No, God governs even the pagan kingdoms to do his bidding.

[14:08] A biblical example that captures this scenario can be seen in the life and ministry of Daniel. Many of you familiar with this story. Daniel was carried off as a captive in Babylon and trained at the court of the powerful pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar.

[14:24] It's a fun word to say, Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel and a few of his friends were known to be incredibly wise. Daniel 1.20 says, In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.

[14:45] Later, Daniel is found to be the only one in the whole kingdom able to interpret the king's dream. This was a pagan king who apparently had power over God's people.

[15:01] And yet, all of this power was squarely under the sovereign hand of God. The prophet Jeremiah had just read this text. He makes this explicit whenever he gives this message to God's people.

[15:16] Jeremiah 27, 6 and 7. These are God's words through the prophet. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant.

[15:30] And I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. And all the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes.

[15:42] Then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave. Even though his people were experiencing exile and they were shaken under the hand of an ungodly ruler, God was not surprised.

[16:02] Nor had he forsaken his people. On the contrary, he said very clearly what would happen to his people at the end of this very same chapter in verse 22.

[16:14] They shall be carried to Babylon and remain there until the day when I visit them, declares the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.

[16:25] It's this confidence in God's oath that in part gives us this counterintuitive turn. As God's people, our default posture towards authority should not be insubordination.

[16:40] To be insubordinate shows an attitude of ingratitude and a mistrust of God's providential plans. Whether it is a teacher, a boss, a parent, or president.

[16:57] Our default should be a humble submission to authority. We should aim to be like Daniel. He was discreet, respectful, loyal, and diligent.

[17:12] He was all these things without compromising faithfulness to God. His default was submission. Some Christians wrongly think that to freely serve God, we must be free from any godless government.

[17:33] But even Christ was not completely opposed to Caesar. And a few years later, Peter encouraged Christians in 1 Peter 2, 13 through 14, to be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

[18:00] Even the corrupt and ungodly authorities are under God's providential rule. Remember that Rome played its part in the spread of the gospel.

[18:11] The arrogant, powerful, polytheistic empire conquered massive portions of the known world and instituted a vast infrastructure that went to the far reaches of the empire.

[18:26] And even though that sprawling infrastructure was created by power-thirsty pagans, God used all of their pagan pipework to pump the gospel throughout the entire world.

[18:39] God is the king of kings and the lord of lords. He is not unnerved by the petty powers of this world. And nor should we.

[18:52] So we can submit to the demands of a cantankerous manager who gripes and complains. We can be respectful to a teacher that has a lifestyle outside the classroom that we do not agree with.

[19:10] We can refuse to add our voices to the hateful speech that characterizes both the left and the right. As the people of God who trust in God, our default can be a calm deference to authority.

[19:29] This does not mean that we obey all things blindly. On the contrary, we are to be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves.

[19:42] As Daniel demonstrated his default, notice the default was submission where possible. However, when it came to direct opposition to God's command to worship him alone, Daniel had to respectfully decline the dictates of the king.

[20:06] If the government outlaws Christian faith and practice, we will have to refuse and pay the price no matter what that might be. But defiance is not our first play.

[20:19] God calls us first to submit to authority, trusting in his sovereign timing. But another reason to submit to authority is because of God's rule.

[20:34] Look at verse 8. No man has power. No man has power to retain the spirit or power over the day of death.

[20:44] What the preacher is highlighting here is that it doesn't matter what kind of power and authority a man may have in this world. Ultimately, no man has power over life and death.

[20:58] Whether a king or a servant, death comes for us all. Even the most powerful king cannot anchor his soul to his body.

[21:09] Life cannot be preserved. Death takes us all. And even between the bookends of life and death, there are the inescapable realities of war.

[21:22] War serves here in this text as an example of the universality of our limitations. Regardless of rank, wars can devastate a kingdom from the very top down to the very bottom.

[21:36] It's a sobering reminder that there are limits to even those who think their power is boundless. What became of the world's most powerful tyrants?

[21:48] Where is Genghis Khan? Dead. Henry VIII? Dead. Stalin? Dead. Hitler? Dead.

[21:58] Saddam Hussein? Dead. In this sense, the servant and the king are both amiss here today and gone tomorrow. God is the only one who has power over life and death.

[22:12] He is the creator and the sustainer. Therefore, we can submit to the authorities over us because God is the only one who has all authority over those who have authority over us.

[22:22] Right. So submit to authority. The second counterintuitive turn that this passage lays out for us is to fear God.

[22:36] Well, this certainly isn't the first time the concept has come up in Ecclesiastes. We've seen it a number of times. However, it does go against the grain of our natural inclinations, doesn't it?

[22:49] Look at the frustration expressed in verse 11. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

[23:02] Many crimes were never prosecuted. Other crimes were prosecuted, but the wicked got off the hook without penalty. It's frustrating. Others were delayed time and time and time again.

[23:15] All this encourages people to do more evil. Delayed judgments and reward for wickedness leads to more wickedness. In other words, the slower the legal system, the quicker the crime rate rises.

[23:27] Not only is justice sluggish here, and in many cases even absent, the preacher is also confronted with the sheer contrast of the wicked and the righteous.

[23:38] In verse 11, he observes that the wicked used to go in and out of the holy places and were praised in the city where they had done such things.

[23:51] It seemed that the wicked lived in prosperity. What's up with that? They went in and out of the synagogue looking like they were righteous, pious people. They were seen as respectable. In fact, they were praised in the city.

[24:04] The very places where they did these wicked deeds. Well, this is a picture of seeming injustice, isn't it? You just feel your blood starting to boil. It's a topsy-turvy world.

[24:15] The world often applauds wickedness as if it is commendable. The musician that receives millions of dollars to make songs about doing drugs, exploiting women sexually, and rebelling against all authority.

[24:28] Or the politician that swears to protect life with a hand on the Bible and then is applauded as he advocates the slaughter of children as a basic human right. Or the man who is celebrated as a hero after he abandons his wife and children in order to pursue a same-sex relationship and be true to himself.

[24:46] It's not just the wicked. It's not just that they receive what should be reserved for the righteous. Praise and accolades and respect.

[24:58] The preacher also observes that the righteous often receive the bad things that should have fallen on the wicked. Verse 14. There are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous.

[25:18] We've all seen this. We've all seen this. It's like the godly couple who long to have a child, to love and to raise, but they go through the agonizing loss of miscarriage after miscarriage.

[25:34] And meanwhile, the reckless and immature guy gets to work late because he was busy in the parking lot, cussing out his girlfriend over the phone because she accidentally got pregnant.

[25:47] Why is it like this? Why are the good things happening to bad people and the bad things happening to good people? In light of these things, it can be a temptation to think, where is God in this?

[26:02] Does he not care? Or maybe he's not powerful. Or maybe he's not good. This seems like a moment where we can find ourselves off the trail and in a seeming stalemate.

[26:19] So what are we to do with this dilemma? Amazingly, we're not told to do anything. Instead, we're told to know something and to trust in someone.

[26:34] Look at verses 12 and 13. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God because they fear before him.

[26:51] But it will not be well with the wicked. Neither will he prolong his days like a shadow because he does not fear before God. Going on our observations alone only gets us so far, doesn't it?

[27:05] And it can potentially get us far off the trail. If we want to stay the course God intended for us, if we want to walk through this life with his wisdom, then we must take a counterintuitive turn right here.

[27:20] Fear God. We must trust God and his word. And his word says that it will not be well with the wicked.

[27:31] It will not be well with the wicked because he does not fear God. And it will be well for those who do fear God.

[27:41] Well, how can he say this? This was precisely the dilemma faced in Psalm 73. The psalmist was struck by the seeming injustice of the wicked experiencing the good things of life while the righteous received the bad.

[27:58] Psalm 73, 12 and 13. This is him crying out to the Lord. Behold, these are the wicked always, always at ease. They increase in riches.

[28:10] All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. Maybe you can relate to the anguish of the psalmist cry here.

[28:21] But what happened to the psalmist here? A little further on in the passage, he got 5G.

[28:33] He received an appropriate perspective. God revealed to him something extremely significant in verse 17. It says this, I went into the sanctuary of God.

[28:45] Then I discerned therein, the wicked. The psalmist articulates what we see the preacher highlighting about the fear of God.

[28:56] The psalmist's eyes are peeled off of the temporary and are fixed on the eternal. And suddenly there's clarity. The one who has good things in this life is not to be envied.

[29:12] Because the good things don't last and the wicked will be met with the judgment of God. It will not go well for the one who does not fear God.

[29:23] There comes a day when death sweeps the wicked away and he must stand before his creator and give an account for his life. And the same is true for each of us.

[29:36] No matter what rank we achieve, no matter what accolades we get, no matter who we know, no matter what we've done, no matter what we think we got away with, we will be called to give an account for every moment God allowed us to breathe his air in the world that he created.

[30:00] We must all stand to answer one by one when everything you've thought, said, and done is laid bare before the judge of all the earth, what will you say?

[30:20] Well, thankfully, the way of the wicked is not the only option. The psalmist's eyes were peeled off the luxuries of the wicked when he went into the sanctuary of God.

[30:37] When he experienced the presence of God, he realized that though he had little and suffered much, he had something infinitely more precious than the wicked man on earth.

[30:49] He had access to God himself. The psalmist suddenly found himself saying, verses 25 and 26, whom have I in heaven but you?

[31:02] And where? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

[31:18] This is the picture of the one who fears God. For the one who fears God, all will be well.

[31:28] For the one who fears God, there is no fear of judgment. For the one who fears God, the judgment has already been settled. God has provided a way for the wicked to be counted as righteous without compromising his justice.

[31:45] Justice has already been delivered. Jesus Christ, the son of God, came to absorb God's righteous judgment against wickedness so that the enemies of God might become the friends of God.

[31:57] While two wicked men hung on the cross beside him, one turned from his sin and put his trust in the king being crucified beside him. The wicked man feared God and this man's sin was covered by the perfect blood of Christ on that cross.

[32:13] And so he was the one who stood before God not to receive wrath, but satisfaction for all eternity. And so I extend the offer of the gospel to you.

[32:26] For those of you who are perplexed by life and you're trying to make sense of what God is doing, I plead with you to fear God and cling to Christ.

[32:38] His judgment will fall on the wicked and all will be well with you. And for those who are numbered with the wicked, there will come a day when God will execute judgment against you.

[32:51] And I plead with you to fear God and to turn to Christ for the forgiveness of sin so that instead of judgment, you can enter into the presence of your creator with fullness of joy.

[33:04] This is the counterintuitive turn that God calls us to in this world. Fear God no matter how topsy-turvy the circumstances may appear. Fear God and it will be well with you.

[33:22] Counterintuitive turn number three. Be joyful. What else can we do in a perplexing world that seems to be dominated by the curse?

[33:36] Perhaps we take the counterintuitive turns of submitting to authority and fearing God. But is that all? While we live in a crooked world with sinners and corrupt authorities, are we just supposed to basically just grit our teeth and bear it?

[33:50] Well, it's true that there are limits to our wisdom and what we can know. Walt went into detail about this last week. The preacher says it again here in verse 17.

[34:00] Look with me. Then I saw all the work of God that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out.

[34:14] Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out. What it's saying is that even a wise man cannot understand all the works of God.

[34:26] There will be moments of that 5G clarity where God reveals something that gives perspective. However, there are many things in life that are concealed from us. There's a limit to what we can know.

[34:39] So, you may conclude that this is just going to be a long, hard road full of pain and mystery so maybe the right way to live now would be similar to the way you behave at the dentist when you get a filling.

[34:56] Y'all know what I'm talking about. The whole time you're laying in that chair, you're not really sure what exactly is going on. You know that the dentist is working something in your mouth.

[35:07] Supposedly, he's doing something for your good. But there's scraping and there's chiseling. There's metal hooks and there's these drills coming out and then you experience pain and you certainly experience mystery as you see smoke and mist rising out of your face.

[35:25] That's not normal. You may even wonder if this dentist really is trying to do you good. So, you might continually scan the walls on either side searching for some kind of plaque or credentials to make sure you're in the right place.

[35:39] But the whole time, what is your posture there? You essentially are squeezing the chair with a death grip. You're waiting in fearful suspense for his next move and you're wincing all the way to the end.

[35:55] Well, maybe this is the way that you're tempted to live the Christian life. It's easy to slip into a mindset that is just consumed with the mysteries that are concealed from us.

[36:09] We can't understand all that's happening in God's sovereign plan. Period. We can get swallowed up in the constant barrage of global and national news.

[36:22] The political world looms heavy on our minds. Social media debates just rage on endlessly. The sexual revolution continues to be pushed from every conceivable angle.

[36:34] Doomsday always seems to be just around the corner. The gas prices skyrocket. The grocery prices inflate. You get these triple blueberries for like nine dollars for a small box. Businesses fail.

[36:46] People get laid off. A child drifts from the faith. Marriages end. Families split. Sons lose fathers. Addictions overcome those we love. It can be a temptation to live in such a way that we simply withdraw, keep our heads down, and we just sullenly wait for the new heavens and the new earth.

[37:06] But to live this way would be a mistake. This way of living will take us off the trail. Instead, the preacher gives us another counterintuitive turn.

[37:21] Look at verse 15. And I commend joy for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

[37:40] Here it is again. The preacher gives this shocking refrain. Be joyful. Enjoy God's good gifts. In the midst of a crooked and chaotic world, while the wicked scheme against God, his church, and each other, the righteous are to stand together and praise God from whom all blessings flow.

[38:08] That's why we do it Sunday after Sunday. We are called to a countercultural view of the world. In the place of fear and fretting, we are to gather week after week to recount our undeserved mercies and to sing loud songs of praise to Christ our King.

[38:27] One pastor said, the Christian life is gathering together one day in seven at the very least to delight and pre-fall fun in light of resurrection realities.

[38:41] We are to rejoice in the gospel. We are to gather together and let our hearts soar. First Corinthians 5, 7 and 8 describes us as a people who set out to celebrate the Lord's death for Christ.

[38:58] Our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival. Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

[39:10] Celebration is the fitting response for the Christian even in the midst of a broken, chaotic world. Martin Luther once said, the world is ungrateful.

[39:21] Always looking elsewhere and becoming bored with the things that are present no matter how good they are. May it never be said of us. May it never be said of us, we are to be a people who go to war with the weapons of feasting and gratitude to our God.

[39:40] We are to be a people who push back the darkness with joy. Even though our days may be riddled with mysteries and our knowledge of God's work is limited, we have access to many consolations for our joy.

[39:58] Just consider this passage alone. Verse 8 says, the wicked will not be delivered by their wickedness. That's good news.

[40:09] Praise God. God. Verse 10 says, there will be a day when the wicked are buried and forgotten. Praise God. Verse 12 to 13 says, that justice will come to the wicked and it will be well for those who fear God.

[40:24] Praise God. Verse 14 says, that injustice is temporary. Praise God. Verse 15, frees us to enjoy life because God ultimately determines our days.

[40:36] Praise God for that. What's more, we are a people who in spite of our sin have been drawn in as the beloved children of God so that all we have to look forward to is undeserved kindness for all eternity.

[40:49] Praise God. So as we wait for all these things to be set right, we enjoy God's good gifts along the way. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[41:00] Amen. Amen. When Elizabeth and I finally made it to the top of that mountain, we were unexpectedly sweaty and covered in dirt and slashed up by brambles, but we were overjoyed to have made it to the top.

[41:30] We enjoyed looking out over the Tennessee Valley and remembering God's faithfulness to us over the years. One day, all of us will reach the end of the trail and we'll finally see the big picture.

[41:47] We'll finally look back on all that He brought us through with clarity and with awe. But until that time, let's be a people who apply godly wisdom and enjoy God's gifts in light of our limitations and His sovereignty.

[42:08] And as we wind down this trail, let's be quick to take those counterintuitive turns, submitting to authority, fearing God and being joyful.

[42:19] May God help us. Lord, we cast ourselves to You, knowing that what Your Word has for us is not natural. It's supernatural and we need help.

[42:33] Help us to wind along this trail with all of its mysteries and all of its brambles. A smile on our face, knowing we're headed to glory and all will be well for those who fear You.

[42:50] Thank You for Christ. Thank You for taking care of Your people. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. You've been listening to a message at a Sunday celebration at Trinity Grace Church in Athens.

[43:04] For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com Trinity Grace Church in Athens.