Existence: neither time nor history stop repeating. It’s not the point, it’s the platform. RESULTS IN REALIZATION
BECOMING THE PERSON GOD CREATED AND REDEEMED YOU TO BE
Knowledge: apart from revelation knowledge we will always be missing pieces of the puzzle which RESULTS IN GRIEF
Pleasure: makes promises it can’t keep. Promises to broaden your horizons but blinds you. RESULTS IN ADDICTION.
“What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God. I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him. That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been; And God requires an account of what is past.”
Ecclesiastes 3:9-15 NKJV
Coping with cynicism and SOLVING injustice.
The problem that creates cynicism: INJUSTICE
“Moreover I saw under the sun: In the place of judgment, Wickedness was there; And in the place of righteousness, Iniquity was there.”
Ecclesiastes 3:16 NKJV
Two solutions.
“I said in my heart, “God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.” I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.” For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?”
Ecclesiastes 3:17-21 NKJV
Eternal Solution : Injustice is temporary. We live in light of Eternity.
Under the Sun Solution: We respond to injustice by behaving like beasts.
Three Questions
1. What’s your unjust disadvantage?
2. When will you replace self pity with faith?
3. Have you ever considered the impact your life and its message could have on those around you?