Turn in your Bibles then with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. We'll be reading verses 9 through 15 in Ecclesiastes chapter 3. As we continue our look here and God continues to prompt us down this path in this book that can be a great struggle to work your way through, but we want to speak to you today once again from it and pray that God again would bless His Word for His honor and His glory, for our edification, for our improvement, that we would come face to face with a fact of life that we all perhaps know, but perhaps don't carry with us as we ought. So as Solomon has told us already, I'll not have anything new to share in the sense that it's never been known or that is something that no one has ever thought of before. But perhaps it'll be something that we need to be reminded of again in our life here today. So read with me. After this wonderful passage, these familiar verses in the first eight verses of chapter three, speaking of a time for all things that we spoke upon last week, Solomon now turns and in verse nine, returns again to the question at hand. What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful or appropriate in the Hebrew in its time. 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. I perceive 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. I perceive that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. God has done it so that people fear before him. That which is already has been. That which is to be already has been. And God seeks what has been driven away. That's a tricky last phrase that we want to just take a moment this morning and speak to. God seeks what has been driven away. The Hebrew is very difficult. Many translate this in a variety of different ways. The closest sense that I can come from the study that I have done is that God seeks what has been past, what has been before. God seeks that. God looks to that. And so, without anything further on that, and we might return to it, we see here, having called out the fact that There is an appropriate time for everything under the sun in verses 1 through 8. Solomon returns here in verse 9 to the heart of his inquiry, to the heart of what he is about in this book of Ecclesiastes, the search for meaning, for purpose. And he He attacks that inquiry and he looks into that this morning in this verse in a way that says all the labor, the toil that we endure and that we go through in this life, what gain is there? And I want to talk to you, and if there's a title for my thought this morning, it would be the non-profit business of this life. The non-profit business of this life Solomon asking the question about what is the gain of all of our toil, and that toil in the Hebrew has a negative connotation. It's a weariness, a struggle. It's not work necessarily that one enjoys doing or gets great satisfaction in doing. It's toil, and we use that word today still in that sense. When we talk about the work that we do, we don't necessarily mean that we don't enjoy that work. It's just the work that we're engaged in. But when we say, I toiled at something, there was toil involved, it talks more of a struggle, a striving, kind of a negative idea in it. And that, I think, is in the word here, even in the Hebrew. So Solomon now returns us back to the question. that all of Ecclesiastes is dealing with, and he deals with it in different ways by asking different questions. And here again, he's talking about what profit is there in all of our labor, all of our toil, all of the things that we do. He has said, and though there is a time for everything, Solomon is still left with the question at hand. He's still left with the question of what in life is of benefit. What gain is here in the ESV? What gain is to be found in the toiling of all of our days? And so here, once again, we find ourselves identifying, I think, with Solomon's question. I think all of us do. I think we've all asked this question before. What's the gain of everything that I do? What's the point from the young student in class who doesn't understand the point of all of the work that he's been given to do? Ask the question, what is it all for? What am I gaining from this? to the one who is in the workforce and goes to work every day, and ultimately, at some point in their life, they say, I come to work, and I do all this work, and I go home, and I come back, and there's all this work left to do. What is the gain? What is that that is left? That's the question here that we are dealing with. and we toil and we labor and we wonder at the end of it, what is the gain? What do I have for all of that effort? Have you ever, ever asked that question? What do I have to show for all of my work, all of the toil? What product do I have left to me as a result of all of the effort and the energy that I have put into my life, what is it that I have to show for it? It seems like we've turned from the gospel of Ecclesiastes in the first eight verses. It feels like maybe for me, and I don't know about you as you listened or read this passage yourself, it feels like we've now gone back to the momentary sunshine that showed a little bit in the first eight verses of chapter three of the appropriateness of all things under the sun. It seems like that sun has now darkened once again, and it's almost like we've turned back maybe to Jeremiah or Lamentations. He's come front and center again with this probing and difficult question. One might wonder about the stability of Solomon's frame of mind, his emotional and his intellectual stability. He seems to ping pong back and forth from hints of goodness Hints of things that are better than others. Hints of, no, there is hope. There is meaning to life. To what feels like the majority of it though, that he is throwing his hands up in despair and asking these difficult questions. And again, we might wonder about where Solomon's emotional and intellectual well-being was. He spends a great deal of time in these 12 chapters of Ecclesiastes, lamenting the vanity of this life under the sun, but then he tosses in these moments, these short ideas of things, again, that are better, even things that are good. Things like the idea that in life there is an appropriate time for everything, there's a time for war and a time for peace, a time to love and a time to hate, a time to build up and a time to tear down. All of those 12 opposites that he gave us in the first eight verses, and he gives us those glimpses, but as quickly again as that, ray of light appeared in the darkness of Solomon's musings and his searching for meaning We find ourselves here in these verses once again back to a difficult question. What gain has the worker from all his toil? What is the profit? And that is the word that is used here. The ESV translates the word gain. The ASV, the American Standard Version, the King James Version, the New American Standard Bible, many other English translations do use the word profit instead of gain. And that is the idea and the sense behind the word. What is it that a man profits from all of his labor? Now, a profit The profit at a company is what is left to that company after paying all of their expenses, after paying all of their employees, after paying for all of their equipment, after paying for their building, after paying for everything and their taxes and all of the outflowing things that go out the door. The profit of a business is what is left. So Solomon then is asking, what does a man have left over from all of his labor? What does he have left to himself that is his to show for all that he has done? The answer is rhetorical. The answer is nothing. That is the answer. When he says, and he's asking this question, what profit, the question is, again, what does one have that is left to him to hold on to, to have, to hold, to be in possession of forever after all of His labor under the sun? What is it that is His that He has earned in this world and in this life? What is it that's profit? What's left over for Him to have that's His to always have? And of course, we know the answer. The answer is nothing. And that, that is an idea that might bring some to despair, and I want you to stay with me for just a little while as we look at this. Because the answer, again, as we said, it's nothing. I want to point out here, once again, that this is a probing question which many refuse to ask because of the sobering reality of this answer. We don't want to deal with the fact that there is no profit left to us as a result of our labor here. That there is no earthly good, there's no earthly wealth that then becomes ours, that is profit, and after we've paid all that we have to pay, we're left with it, and that it then is ours. This is a difficult question many refuse to consider. Many people refuse to read Ecclesiastes until they come to the reality on their own through circumstances of life, or through some other struggle, or through just the human experience on this side of eternity. They turn to Ecclesiastes. The questions that Solomon asks rings true for their own heart. They're questions that they themselves have been asking, but far too many people are ignoring this question. What profit? What's left to me after all the effort that I expend in this life? What is left to me in this life? And the answer is nothing. When you came into this world under the sun, Please bear in mind that is what Solomon is talking about. Life here on this side of eternity, when you came into this world, when God gave you life in your mother's womb, and He knitted you together like the psalmist said, when He gave you life and spoke you into existence and brought you forth into the world, when you came into this world, you brought nothing with you, not a thing. Your hands were empty. You had nothing that was yours, nothing that you had earned. Life itself was not something you had obtained. It was something that was given to you. So you were given life, and when you were given life, you came into this world, and you owned nothing, and you brought nothing with you. And we know as well that when we leave this world, when you leave this world under the sun, you will take nothing with you from this life. from this world under the sun, its riches, its fame, its fortune, all of the things of the world that the world values, gold, silver, clothes, houses, lands, jobs, all of these things, you came into the world with none of it. you're going to spend your life and you're going to labor and you're going to toil under the sun. And there are going to be some days when that sun is at high noon, beating down upon you, causing you great toil and great struggle. There are going to be times in your life when there's no sun at all, it feels, and the darkness is just enveloping you and your whole life, and you're going to be laboring all the while, and you're going to go through it day after day after day, and you're going to leave this world and you're going to leave this world with exactly the same amount of things that you came into this world with. None of it. So what is the profit? What is the gain? What's left over for me after I go through all of this effort? Well, the answer is nothing. So then, when we think of profit, and we continue to think in financial terms, your income statement showing the earthly profit that you made in this life, it's going to show zero. It's going to show zero because you don't take any of it with you. You labored, you toiled, you strove, maybe you were wonderfully successful. but your income statement is gonna show zero from the labors, the wealth, the profit of this world. I don't care how diligently you worked, how early maybe you got up each day, how many hours per week you put in at the office, how connected you may be to other people with worldly wealth. Maybe you were born, as some say, with a silver spoon in your mouth. I don't care how smart you are, you're going to leave this world with the exact same amount of worldly possessions as you entered it with, zero. And so Solomon asks the question, then why do we labor? What is the gain? What is the profit? Refusing to acknowledge the truth of what I've said. And it's not true because I said it. It's true because the Word of God says it. And it's just true because it's true. Refusing to acknowledge the truth of what we have just said, that you will leave this world with none of the world's riches, that you will leave this life and there'll be no profit for you from the life under the sun. Refusing to acknowledge this truth leaves people living in a fantasy land. a make-believe world in their own minds. But it is no more possible for us to leave this life with a single one of our earthly possessions than it is for Mary Poppins to fly away with her umbrella or the Wicked Witch to fly away on her broom. To leave this world, to think that you can leave this world with an ounce of the world's riches The world's things. To think that is to live in a fantasy land. As children, maybe we believed some of those fairy tales. Maybe that's possible. But as adults, we realize they call them fairy tales for a reason. They're just made up stories. They're not real. You want to know one of the biggest challenges we have in our day today, in our lives, in our time in which we live in 2022? It's people don't want to deal with what is real. They don't want to deal with it. They don't want to deal with this difficult question. Because to them, there seems to be no way out to a place of goodness or joy or happiness. but to believe that there is profit for me in the things of this world, again, it is to believe a fairy tale. Now, before you turn away in helpless despair and quit your job and give up on this life altogether because you think you understand what I'm saying, Or, before you turn me off, thinking that I'm just another one of those stereotypical negative preachers, and there's no sense in listening to me anymore, I would ask you to just consider with me just a little longer some of the things that Solomon says here. I don't want you to walk away in despair. I don't think Solomon ends there. He's not going to end there in chapter 12. But here he is asking a very sobering and difficult question. What is the gain for all that I do? What is the purpose? What is the point? I don't want you to turn away in despair and throw your hands up and say there's no point. That's not Solomon's point, not ultimately. It's the truth that he's wanting you to see now. But he's got more to say about it, so I want you to see the truth of what Solomon says, as difficult as it might be to hear. You know, the things that are hard for you to hear are probably the most important things for you to hear. The things that are hard to accept are probably the things that are most important for you to accept. And if this is hard to hear, then I want you to lean into that. I don't want you to push it away. I want you to see this truth. Why? To leave you in despair, as we've said? Of course not. So that you might look elsewhere for your meaning and your joy and your purpose and your profit. That you might look to the world and the life that is to come for profit. and that you would see this world for what it is. That you would see that truth clearly. And again, that you might begin to look somewhere else for the meaning in life that will continue to elude you so long as you look for it in the things of this life again under the sun. You need to come face-to-face with the truth of that message. The truth of that reality. that the things on this side of eternity are never gonna complete you, fulfill you, give you meaning. You're gonna come to where Solomon is and say, wait a minute, I'm gonna leave this world and I'm not taking anything with me. What is the profit then of my life under the sun? The news I'm sharing with you today might be likened to a doctor sharing the news of a cancer diagnosis with a patient. The doctor's not the problem. An individual may be upset with a doctor when they tell them, you have cancer, but the doctor's not the problem that that person faces, that that patient faces. And you know what? The diagnosis and the announcement of that diagnosis, that's not the problem either. That's not what is really facing the patient and what the truth that they really need to face. The problem the patient faces is cancer. In a similar way, Solomon is not the problem you face here. You can turn him off. You can not read what he has to say. You can ignore what the scripture says about life. and you can turn your face somewhere else. You can ignore Solomon, but again, he's not the problem you're facing. His assessment of the vanity of this life under the sun and the profitless toil we all undergo in our lives is also not the problem. Not his assessment alone. The preacher's not the problem that you face. The truth he preaches is not the problem you face. The problem you and I face as human beings is that there is no prophet on this side of eternity, in the things of this world. That's just the truth. That's what Solomon identified. He said, there's no prophet under the sun. What is it of the things of this life? What do I profit? What remains? What stays with me? The problem, again, that you face as a human being under the sun is that life for the human being under the sun brings with it no profit. It's a not-for-profit business that we're engaged in here. So how does he continue to wrestle with this thought? Because in just a few verses, he's gonna talk about enjoying the labor enjoying the toil. So how do we bring these things, these thoughts, these ideas together under one roof that it makes sense and it clicks? Well, we have to first, again, do what we've tried to do, which is come face to face with the truth of the fact that there's no profit here on this side of eternity. In verse 10, he says, I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. The phrasing of that verse is very interesting to me. Solomon has said that man's toil is vain and empty, and now he says that it is God who has given him the toil. He says here, I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. And he's already said that that toil, that business, that labor is without profit. So in some ways, some might say, well, then the vanity of life is God's fault. I mean, after all, Solomon just said God's the one that gave us this vanity, this labor, this toil, then it's God's fault. So we blame God and we point our finger at God and we get angry with God and we get irritated with God and we get irritated with others around us and we feel very closed in and we think there is nowhere to go even if we believe. I mean, God, those that maybe don't want to accept the truth of what I'm saying, they'll point their finger back at Him and say, it's your fault. You're the one that gave us this vanity. Did God give us this vanity, this vain life and this vain work for some malicious, malevolent reason? Does He want you to feel empty and hopeless? Does He want you to be Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill? Well, I think the answer to that question clearly in all of Scripture is no, but I want to look just briefly at Genesis chapter 3 verse 17 through 19 when God did this very thing that Solomon said he did. When did God give man this vain labor under the sun? Well, Genesis chapter 3, 17 through 19, God said to Adam, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." So you see, number one, Solomon's words are true. It was God, it is God, who gave us this labor, this task, this life under the sun, this laboring in a vain and empty world. But You must remember, we must all remember, that it was man's disobedience that brought that judgment. And it was a judgment that man brought upon himself. The vain, the emptiness of this life, it's not God's fault. It's not God's fault. It's ours. It's Adam's in the original fall of man from the single command that God had given him, don't eat of the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. He did, he disobeyed God. And I know in our world today, this idea of disobeying authority is championed and it is applauded and it is thought to be just the greatest thing in the world to disobey and to rebel against authority. But I want to tell you that the reason that the life that we live and the toil that we live and the reason that there's no profit here is because of our disobedience to God. That's why. We fell from His law. He is God. We are His creation. He said, you are gonna toil now by the sweat of your brow. You are gonna bring forth food and you'll eat of it. This is why, by the way, you pull the weeds in the garden and the weeds just come back. This is why you and I, seemingly in our lives, often have to do the same things over and over and over again. The same laborious, toiling work just to continue to get by in this life. And at the end of it, we ask the question, what profit am I going to have? What's going to be left to me when all is said and done of all that I do in this world and in this life? How much of my bank account am I going to be able to take with me when I close my eyes in death? How many of my friends am I going to be able to take with me through that gate called death that will walk with me into whatever comes next? How much of what I've gained here? How much of the things that I put into my bag of worldly riches and worldly wealth and things that matter to me here, how much of that, how big is that bag going to be? How full will it be when I leave this life and go to the next? And the answer is, it will be absolutely empty. And by the way, you won't even have the bag. Be nothing. So when we see the truth of that, and the labor of that, and we realize that it was God who then sentenced it, and by the way, God just cast judgment on the truth of the matter, you've disobeyed, and as I told you, you are now separated. And that's what death is, and that separation from God, that death from God, is what makes life vain. That's what makes life vain. That's what makes life here under the sun empty. This is why labor in this life is vain. Because it's going to end. And we all know that. And as we've already said, you will take nothing from this world with you when you leave it. This is a not-for-profit business that we're dealing with in this life. You'll have nothing. It'll be zero. So as you face the truth of the vanity and the toil of this life, don't forget what caused it and who's responsible for it. And if you say, well, it wasn't me that ate of the tree, why am I being held responsible for what somebody else did? I'd simply ask you to consider your life and consider the sin that you yourself committed against God. Remember that it is death that makes everything in this life under the sun vain. If we could live here forever and keep the things we gain in the world, then nothing of what Solomon says about this life would be true. But we do all face death because we all have sinned. And as Romans tells us in 3.23, the wages, there's the financial term again, the wages of sin is death. Separation from God. So I beg you not to blame God or to be bitter against Him. Yes, it's true, He gave us the business of working under the sun when He knew and He knows that nothing that we gain here will be taken with us, but it was us, you and me, who made that labor vain. Before their sin, Adam and Eve labored in the garden. And for a time, that labor was not empty and vain, because death was not yet in the world. And so they tended to the garden, and there was profit to be found in it. But once sin came in, in a sense, then when sin came into the world, in a sense, everything died. In a sense, everything died, including the ability to find meaning and purpose here under the sun, apart from God. He says in verse 11, he's made everything beautiful and it's time, even though if I looked at our labor, even though if I looked at our labor alone, the things that we do, it's vain and empty, when done at the right time, as Solomon has already laid out for us in the first eight verses, there is an appropriate time, beautiful time, as the ESV translates it. This is why, by the way, the same thing that we do one day can be beautiful, and the very same thing done another day at another time isn't. This is why, for one, a certain activity can be beautiful and appropriate, and for another, it cannot be. It's this complex reality of life. Again, God, though, has made everything appropriate in its time, and we spent a lot of time last week looking at that, and so we want to move along to this next point. Also, he says in this not-for-profit business of life, God's put eternity into man's heart. God has put eternity into your heart. What does that mean? What does it mean that eternity has been put into my heart? Here lies the reason I think man has a sense, an awareness of the vanity of this life, because God has placed into your heart, into your awareness, He has placed inside of you an awareness of the idea of eternity. It's there. You can try to deny it. You can say that because I don't understand it, it's not real, but that's like saying I don't understand how the law of gravity works, so gravity must not be real. Your understanding of a thing does not necessitate its existence, or not. God has placed in your heart, into the heart of man, an awareness of eternity. Man, human beings, can look back in time. You and I can do this. We can look backward in time. We can think backwards in time. And as we look backward in time, we inherently and intuitively, we know that there had to be a beginning. Don't we? We look back in time and say at some point there had to be a beginning of this thing called life, this thing called creation, this thing itself called time. We understand that there had to be a thing, a beginning of it all, of time itself, and that if there was a beginning And God places that reality in our hearts and that awareness of eternity in our hearts. And as we look backward and we think to ourselves, there had to be a beginning, then we also understand there had to be a beginner. One who started this thing called life and time and this world under the sun. And if there was a beginner, then he must be God. We see then an eternity that stretches backward infinitely. infinitely backward, and a God who existed in that infinite eternity, and you and I can look forward in time. We can think about the future we can look forward and realize if there was something that preceded time, which we can do by looking backward and realizing there was a beginning, and understanding, well, if there was a beginning of this thing called time, as we look forward, we realize that there will be something that will end this time, and that will then follow time, and that thing, too, is called eternity. And we know this. This has been placed in our hearts. And so eternity is what God has placed in our hearts. And eternity swallows up time from the beginning to the end. It encompasses time and just expands like the universe. And I'm not surprised anytime I read a new scientific headline, the universe is bigger than scientists thought it was. You're not going to find the end of it, is my opinion. It expands, and it's said to even be expanding, but time has limits. It's the very definition, in one respect, of what time is, and eternity encompasses it all. It swallows it up. God has placed into your heart and mine the awareness, this understanding, that though we live our lives under the sun ever and always limited by time, we are ultimately going to find ourselves in eternity. I think that's what Solomon is saying. He's planted that seed in your heart, hasn't he? That seed, it goes and it bears fruit and it blooms when you start asking questions like what Solomon is asking. What's the point? Because you see the limit of time that God has placed into your mind, your heart, an awareness of eternity. And you know that time is not the end. Eternity is. Eternity that goes on and on and on and thus without Him. This leaves us with an understanding that life here is vain. All that we have here, all that we gain of this world's things will be turned loose and given over to someone else. But this awareness also shows us just how small we are and how big God is. We have but the beginning of an idea of eternity. We can kind of just scratch the surface. If we put it in an academic course term, we'd say we could probably understand a bit of the syllabus of Eternity 101. And God has a doctorate degree in it. He knows all about it. We have but the beginning idea of eternity, and God knows every moment of time in the smallest degree of detail. Have you ever thought about that, about God? The majesty of God and His awareness of eternity. Time plays out before God all at once, in a sense. He sees a thousand years ago as today, and today is a thousand years ago. He knows the thoughts, by the way, of every human being that was on the face of the planet at any particular second of time, every thought going through their mind, every circumstance that they faced, every particle of dust on the table that they sat at as they wept and cried out to Him. He knew it. It's streaming before Him as though it just happened. That's how He knows it. He sees it from the beginning to the end and everywhere in between. You and I, though, have a sense of it, an understanding, an awareness of its existence. It is God who understands it through and through. And this kind of knowledge, when we think about it with God, it leaves us with Solomon and what he said of man, that we cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. There's a limit to our understanding. But that kind of knowledge, we understand, is reserved for God and all we can do is recognize it and humble and awe of God. Humility before Him and adoration for Him. I want to conclude my thoughts here as quickly as we can in verses, really we'll cover 12 through 15 here. And any of these things we could look more closely at. But I want to reread them and just make a few concluding remarks about them. I perceive that there's nothing better for them. Here we go. This is Solomon giving us the ray of light in an otherwise dark thought. I perceive that there is nothing better for them, that is man, that is you and me, than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live. I want to stop just a moment. I read a fascinating article yesterday. And it was an article that was a study done that demonstrated and proved in a scientific, observable way, however they wanted to label that. But they said, you know what we found out? It seems that people who understand or think that they're accountable to God, they're happier people. I thought, it doesn't surprise me at all, but it surprised the people in the study. I thought happiness was freedom from all accountability. Do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want, with whomever I want. Not accountable to anything or anybody. In this article, they were just saying it's hard to believe in just about every category. The people who believe themselves accountable to God are happier people. more content people. I perceive that there's nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good. That idea of accountability, do good as long as they live. That's what, that's, there's nothing better for, for you and for me than that. Also that there should, that they should eat and drink and take pleasure in, in all his toil. The very toil that he just said moments ago was empty and vain and without any profit at all. He says, you should enjoy it. He used to take joy in it. This is God's gift to man. So sure, I'm not going to leave anything that I work for here. I'm not going to take anything that I work for here with me, but that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy doing it. Take joy from it in God to say, thank you for this day, this time, this opportunity, knowing that eternity is in my heart and it is to you that I am going and I don't look to these things for my meaning and purpose. He goes on, I perceive that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. God has done it. So that people fear before him that which is already has been, that which is to be already has been. So there's nothing out there in the future that hasn't already been. And God seeks what has been driven away. Again, this idea he seeks what is past. It's all the same. And we've all heard that history repeats itself. That's what's going on here to a degree. There is a vast difference here between labor that is temporary and focused on the temporary, focused on life under the sun, and labor that is focused on eternity. God's labor, God's desire, His will, is the same as it has always been. And I will be concluding my remarks here very shortly, but I do want you to tune in, if you can, and listen to these verses and what God, I think, is telling us in them. Because this is a big idea that he closes with in these particular verses. God's labor, again, his work, his desire, it's the same as it's always been. Time does not impact it. The passage of time does not change God's nature, his character, his will, his desire, his love, his hatred. No matter where you are on the timeline of creation from beginning to end, no matter where we are on that timeline, God's will and God's desire for you and for me is exactly the same. Time doesn't change what He wants from man. God wants the same thing from you that He wanted from Abraham, that He wanted from Adam and Seth. that He wanted from Ruth, that He wanted from Joshua and Moses, that He wanted from Peter and John. God's desire, God's want, God's desire for you and what He desires from you does not change no matter how long time may go on, no matter how long you may live, no matter what time in your life you may be at. God wants the same thing from you today as he has always wanted from man in the past. There's nothing new under the sun, including what God wants from you. That's an important idea. This is a big idea, I think, bigger even than I'm fully comprehending and thinking about. But you know what? Abraham The patriarch could never do what I was privileged to do one time, fly on an airplane and go to Liberia and preach the gospel. But you know what else? I can never go back in time and I can never follow God on a march on Jericho with Joshua. I can never do that. Abraham could not do what I've been privileged to do in flying on an airplane and going to preach the gospel. I can never march with Joshua to take the promised land that God had promised to Israel. But you know what? Flying on an airplane to Liberia and marching on Jericho is never and is not what God wants from man. Those are just the manifestations of what God wants from man. His obedience. His love, His devotion, His commitment. God does not seek these things, these outward acts of service. He seeks what motivates those acts of service. A heart that desires to honor Him, obey Him, love Him, looks at this life and sees that this is a not-for-profit business. So I shouldn't be looking to make a profit here from this world. I should be looking to the next. And is that not what Jesus said when he said, don't build up and don't heap up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break in and steal? But instead, Jesus, by the way, pausing momentarily, didn't tell us not to lay up treasures. He told us not to lay them up here. He said quite the opposite. Lay up those treasures in heaven. Put those things in your life that will be treasures in heaven and in eternity, because all of the treasures of this life are vain and empty. And this is what God requires of us, a heart that longs to serve Him in that way and see this life in that way. So anyone, by the way, who desires to please God, at least this is how it was for me as it came to me as I was studying and preparing. This is cause for joy. This is cause, when Solomon said earlier, there's a time to dance, I think this is one of those times. Spiritually, it's time to dance when we understand that God wants the same thing from you and me as He's wanted from all others who have ever followed Him and ever will. He wants the same thing. Perhaps in no other thing is the saying, the more things change, the more they stay the same, more applicable than with the following and the serving of God Almighty. You and I have to do the same thing that everyone else has done who did so. If we are to follow Him, we're going to have to believe Him. We're going to have to trust Him. We're going to have to obey Him. And we're going to have to give Him our hearts. And we're going to do that. And then we're going to have an avenue, an understanding, an awareness. You know what? Because this life is not for profit. It has no impact on our happiness and our contentment. Because our happiness and contentment is not locked up in this life, but it is stored up in heaven with God in eternity. This is the entire reason that we serve the Lord, because we've given him our heart and God wants us to understand that. And then he says here, as he closed, that which is already has been, that which is already has been, and God seeks what has been driven away. And before that, he said in verse 14, at the close of it, he's done all that, so that people fear before him. So that people fear before him. This is why you have to come face to face with the truth of this message. This life is already vain and empty. just because you don't recognize it, acknowledge it, or believe it doesn't make it not so. God has said otherwise. Recognizing that should drive you to a fear and reverence for God, and then that fear and reverence for God will allow you to enjoy even the things of this life because you know, you know that they're not for profit. You take part in them with joy as God gives you and allows you, and you do so knowing that the prophet is not on this side, but it's on the next. Always remember that this life, by the way, this thought is registered with us last week in our study, and it's just continued to go with me. This life that we're now living, It's just the first sentence of your story. Your life, if you know the Lord, is going to go on forever with Him in heaven. And there will be countless pages to be written about that life. The life that's written here is going to say one of two things, one of two sentences. He repented and believed and came to know the Lord and began his life in heaven for all of eternity. Or it'll read, he rejected and denied and entered into eternal death and destruction and separation. And then the story will really begin. Then what happens thereafter is the story. So what is the first sentence of your life going to be? I pray that it is the first and not the last. that you look and you see the vanity of this life apart from God, and you run to Him, and you bow before Him, and you give your heart to Him, and you let Him make you and mold you, and you seek Him until He gives you peace, and He lets you know with an assurance that only the Spirit of God can give you, your story begins with the first sentence. And your life is only yet to begin. Live it here with joy that God gives you in the things that we do here, the friends, the loved ones, the spouses, the children, the work. Find joy there. But find joy because you go, you know what? Were it not for God, this would be vain and empty. But God is real. Eternity is coming. And so I can set my hand to these things and I can do the best that I can with them and for them to be a witness to God and know and be perfectly fine and comfortable and completely okay with the fact that this life is a not-for-profit business. Because my treasure isn't here, but it's there.