Developing a Biblical Philosophy of Life

Well today we're going to talk about developing a biblical philosophy of life and I'm concerned that maybe the word philosophy may scare you a little bit this morning. In fact, I'm concerned that the image you may have in your mind when you think of the word philosophy is similar to one on the screen. The absent-minded professor, you know, the guy with the real thick glasses, hair uncone, closed, disheveled, mind way out somewhere. That may be what you think of when you hear the word philosophy. I have known a few professors like that. I have had a few professors like that. I can remember when I was in graduate school in seminary, not in the seminary. I was in, but in another well-known seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary, there was a well-known Old Testament Hebrew scholar by the name of Bruce Waltke. Bruce Waltke is one of the greatest minds the Christian movement has ever seen. He knew 46 languages. And not all of them are current spoken languages. Many of them are dead languages, biblical of the biblical world. He was a Hebrew scholar. I mean, knew that he brewed text as well as anybody alive and still does. But he also knew all the cognate languages, all the surrounding languages of countries around Israel in the ancient near east. Sumerian, Akkadian, Eucharitic, Aramaic, all of those languages and many others like them. He knew he was a brilliant man. But he was also the man who locked himself out of his office eight times in one day. He was out there. His mind was in another orbit. Maybe that's what you think of when you think of the word philosophy, but the word simply means love of wisdom. That's what the word literally means. But the idea in the word philosophy is this. A philosophy, particularly a philosophy of life, is your beliefs and attitudes that form your basis for the way you live. It's what you believe. It is what you think about life that then drives and establishes the way you're going to live your life. It's a way of looking at life that gives some reason to it in your mind and thus gives you a path for how you're going to live. That's what a philosophy of life is. We all have a philosophy of life. Everybody does. Everyone in this room has a philosophy of life, whether or not you've ever thought about that, whether or not you've ever put it down on paper, you've figured out exactly what it is. Everybody has a philosophy of life. And sometimes it's very simple. One guy who had a lot of health issues in his life said, I could summarize my philosophy of life in three words. Il, pill, bill. That's it. That's my life. You may be feeling that your life as well. One wagg said that a man's life is summarized in three stages. You believe in Santa Claus? You don't believe in Santa Claus? Then you are Santa Claus. And that's life for most men. You may have a philosophy of life that's as simple as those. Or maybe more complex, but you do have a philosophy of life. We are at the point in ecclesiasties where Solomon begins to pull together all the strand that he's dealt with in this book to develop a philosophy of life. Now for some of you, your philosophy of life may sound something like this. Material things equal success. Now if that's what you believe about life, that will drive the way you live. It will form a way of life for you. Some of you may live by the philosophy if it feels good, do it. And so I'm only here for one go around. I'm going to get all the guests so I can get out of life. I'm going to live it to the hill. I'm going to have all the fun I possibly can. If you believe that about life, then that's the way you're going to live. Some of you may have the philosophy of life that the highest priority in my life is my family. And everything will center around my family. Some of you may have the philosophy of life that God comes first. He is my ultimate priority and I will live all of my life for His glory. You see what you believe about life, your attitudes and beliefs about life, drive and form and establish the way you will live your life, that is your philosophy of life. And we're at a very critical juncture in the book of Ecclesiastes. We're beginning the last section of the book today. And what Solomon will do is he'll pull everything together that we've seen thus far in the book and help us develop a biblical philosophy of life leading up to a hard-hitting conclusion where he will summarize the whole book in two verses. So that's where we're headed. But we've got to begin today with a foundation in chapter 9 verses 1 through 6. We find the foundation for truths that form a biblical or foundation of a biblical philosophy of life. This is the foundation. This is what we need to build on. The rest of chapters 9 through 12 will build on that. Different building blocks that will help us learn how to live life. But this is the foundation. There are four foundational truths that Solomon says you've got to build a biblical foundation of life upon. Now on the back of your outline this morning you have an outline of the whole book and I just want to remind you that this is so key to understanding the whole book. Solomon has dealt with how people seek to find purpose in meaning in life. It can only begin first of all with a relationship with God. And then the other pieces of the puzzle begin to come together. He has dealt with all of the things in life that seem to give lie to the truth that God has a purpose and a plan in life. If we begin life centered around him then we must live according to his purpose and his plan. And if we do that then we need to see life from God's perspective. That's what he's dealt with in chapter 6 through 8. Now he's going to bring all of those strands of truth together and say, okay, with all of that in the background here's how to live life. Here's how to view and have attitudes toward life that will set you on the right course to have a biblical philosophy of life. What's the foundation of that? What are the four cornerstones of this foundation? Well, I tell you this, if I were to say, okay, what are the basic foundational attitudes and beliefs about life that I should have to establish the way I'm going to live? I probably would not have chosen these four. On my own I probably would not have thought of these four at least in the top four. And you may not either until we actually get into the wisest man who ever lived and what he said about them. And then I think the light will come on and you'll say, oh yeah, yeah, that's basic. That is really basic. That's got a form part of the foundation. So let's look at what he says. Foundation corner or stone number one is this. God is in control of the uncertainties of life. We're in Ecclesiastes 9 and that foundation stone is in verse 1. Let's read it. So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands. But no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. It's obvious from the latter part of the verse he's talking about uncertainties in life. But we've got to see this from the first part of the verse first. This is the first thing we need to understand about the uncertainties of life and it's this. There are no uncertainties with God. There are no uncertainties with God. There's nothing that takes him by surprise. There is nothing in life that is a guess with him. He knows everything. And notice how Solomon develops that. First part of the verse he says, I reflected on all this and we'll get to what that means in a moment. But I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands. It's clear that he's talking about the believer, the righteous and the wise and what they do. He says all of that is in God's hands. Now to be in God's hands, the Hebrew thought behind that is that all of this is in God's care. He handles it with care, with knowledge, with infinite love. Everything we do is in his hands. It is under his care. Everything in the believer's life is under his direction and loving care. Theologians call that God's providence. Now the word providence simply means that God works all things together in our lives for good. He determines what good is, good is conforming us to the image of his son as Romans 8 tells us it's to be more Christlike. But God is in control of all things that happen and he uses everything to bring about his purpose in our lives. He knows exactly what he's doing. Everything is under his control. The Solomon says the way I came to that conclusion was by reflecting on all this. We miss some of the flow of thought because there are seven days in between us dealing with this book. And so you may have already forgotten what we saw last in chapter 8. I would have too if I hadn't gone back over it this week to tie it into this message. Remember the last thing we saw in chapter 8 was Solomon's dealing with the uncertainties of life. What we call the mysteries of life. Those mysteries that we just can't figure out why things happen the way they do. Why certain things come into my life the way they do. There are mysteries like that in life and Solomon says as I reflected on all that this was my conclusion that the righteous, the wise and what they do. In other words everything that happens in their lives is under God's control. So his point is there is no uncertainty with God. But the corollary to that, the parallel point to that at the end of the verse is that the uncertainties are only from our perspective. We are the ones who can't see around the corner. We are the ones who don't know what's going to happen and notice how Solomon says it. So everything the righteous and wise do is in God's hands. But he says no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. Interesting choice of words. The words love and hate probably are just used generally here of good and bad circumstances. See Solomon is writing from the perspective of his audience particularly the nations around him. He writes this book at the height of his power to nations around him. And so he's writing from the perspective of people who think about life maybe not from the context of the Bible. And here's the way most people think about life. Most people think about life this way. If good things are happening to me then God must love me. If bad things are happening to me then God must hate me. Or at least I'm certainly not one of his favorites or I'm not in his favor. The song that Scarlet saying addresses that perspective. We pray for blessings. We pray for peace. We pray for mercy. And what we think that means is that everything is going to go well for me. All my problems are going to vanish. And that song is right on target when it says God's blessings may come through trials and heartaches. It is too simplistic a philosophy of life to believe that if God loves me, if he really is a God of love then everything is going to go well for me. Listen, everything being in the caring, loving hands of God under his control does not guarantee you necessarily financial prosperity. Everything in your life being under the loving control of God does not necessarily mean you will always have physical health. Everything being in the loving hands of God does not necessarily mean there will never be any pain in your relationships. Everything being in the loving, caring hand of God does not mean you will always have a trouble for a job. Everything in your life being in the loving, caring hands of God does not necessarily mean that everybody will always like you. That is too simplistic a view of life. That is not what the Bible teaches. There are two sides to this. One is that we cannot see around the corner. We do not know whether good or bad circumstances are going to hit us tomorrow. We do not know what life, what twist it is going to take tomorrow. But we can know that the God who does know all things has everything that happens to us and everything we do in his loving, caring, controlling hands. That is the balance in this verse. And it leads me keeping that balance that leads me to this conclusion. We must learn to calmly accept life with trust. If I cannot see around the corner and I do not know whether love or hate or good or bad is awaiting me around the corner, I do not know what is going to meet me tomorrow. If I cannot tell that, but I know there is a God who loves me who has given his son's life to save me and make me one of his children who has everything in his hands. Then here is the way I have got to live life. I have got to live life believing, trusting that God is in control of the uncertainties of life, of what is coming around the corner tomorrow. God is in control of that. And I can trust him in that. Probably most of you in this room have flown on an airplane at some point in your life. One of the reasons why some people are afraid to fly is because of the sense of no control. If you are in a car and you start to have difficulty or you get in bad weather, at least you are driving the car. You can pull the thing off. You can pull into a restaurant or something. You are in control of what happens. When you are on a flight, you are not in control. I will remember, never forget, one of the first flights I ever took back in 1984. I was going to be flying with a group from Dallas, seminary and Grace Seminary and a seminary in Philadelphia to Israel to study the history and geography of the Land of Israel for a month. This is part of my seminary program. Our first leg of our trip was from Chicago to Boston. We were just going to touch down in Boston and refuel to make the transatlantic flight to Zurich, Switzerland. I will never forget that flight from Chicago to Boston. I still remember it vividly today. It was almost 30 years ago. But I still remember it vividly. It was one of those flights that you hear about or you see in movies on television where there is lightning crashing all around. There is a storm. You are going through a storm and the flight is dropping. The plane is dropping hundreds of feet and it is going from side to side. You are just sure the thing is going down. I hadn't flown much. I think I had flown three or four times before that and it was very frightening to me. And I felt very deeply that lack of control. There is nothing I can do. I am 35,000 feet in the air. I can't grab the steering wheel and pull off the road. I have got to trust that the guy up in the cockpit knows what he is doing. And he has got control of this thing. It sure didn't feel like it. That was turning green. People around me were getting sick. It was one of those things where if you didn't have your seatbelt on, you are going to crush your head against the overhead compartment. It was bad. And you could look out the window and see lightning all around us. It was awful. It was terrible feeling. But I had to have trust that the pilot knew what he was doing. When life feels like the bottom is dropping out from under you. When life feels like it is taking jerks and twists that are out of control, you have got to trust the one who says, I have everything in my hands. I know what I am doing. I am going to get you through this. God is in control of the uncertainties of life. That is a basic cornerstone of the foundation for a biblical worldview. It is in control of the uncertainties of life. Here is a second one. This is one that I probably would not think about on my own until I think through it some. That is this. One thing is certain. Death. We just talk about uncertainties in life. There are lots of uncertainties. We can't know what is awaiting us around the corner. We can't see around the corner what is going to face us tomorrow. But there is one thing that is certain we are going to die. One thing is certain. Death. You say that seems like kind of a morbid philosophy of life, John. Look at what Solomon says. Look at verse 2. All share a common destiny. The righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good, so with the sinful. As it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them. This is the evil that happens under the sun. The same destiny overtakes all. Pretty morbid sounding. What Solomon is getting at is this. There is one thing that is certain in your life amidst all the other uncertainties and that is you are going to die. I believe these verses, in fact this whole passage, is commonly misunderstood by those who take, I believe, a wrong view of the book of the Son of S.A.R.E. Ecclesiastes. I read one of the most well-known commentaries this week on Ecclesiastes. One that I picked up when I began this series and he is well-known Old Testament scholar, excellent scholar. I believe he is completely off base in how he views the book. Because of that, he takes these verses as despair. As someone who is basically saying, you know, everybody goes the same way. Everybody is going to die. There is nothing to life. There is nothing after life. Everybody goes the same way. He believes that the book was written not by Solomon, but by someone who is a pessimistic guy in life and had a wrong view of life. I just don't see that in the book of Ecclesiastes. But at any rate, I want to try to, first of all, clear up some common misunderstandings of these verses. One is the misunderstanding of the word destiny. Some translations actually use the word fate. And Solomon begins by saying, all share a common destiny or fate. Some people take that to mean the afterlife or what happens when you die that it is the same for everybody. And that is not Solomon's point. The word, the Hebrew word for destiny or fate actually is a word which better could be translated event or happening. What Solomon is saying is there is not that there is one destiny. Everybody ends up in the same place. He is saying there is one event that happens to everybody. There is one event that is common to everybody. The second misunderstanding about this verse is the idea that the same thing happens to everybody no matter how you live in the afterlife when you die. That is not what Solomon is saying. He does say that whatever event this is, it is going to be the same for whoever you are, no matter what you do. No matter if you are righteous or wicked, good or bad, clean or unclean, he says in verse 2. And that is dealing with Israel's religious system. Someone who was clean was ceremonially clean had not become unpure through any type of action or even like contact with a dead body and therefore could not go into the temple. That is clean and unclean. Or whether you offer sacrifices or don't, whether you are concerned about your spiritual duties or you are not, same thing will happen to both. Whether you are good or sinful, he says at the end of verse 3, whether you are those who take an oath or those who are afraid to take an oath and he is talking there again about your spiritual commitments. Someone who is spiritually sensitive and wants to be close to God is going to make commitments to God. Vows promises to God oaths, the Old Testament word would be. Someone who doesn't give a rip about the spiritual life or doesn't care anything about God, it is not going to make any commitments to God. Obviously, Solomon is saying the same event happens to all of you. Not the same destiny or fate in the sense of where you will be after you die, but the same event. And it is clear in the context when he says the same destiny overtakes all. This is the evil that happens under the sun. He is talking about what happens on this earth. Now what happens after death? What happens on this earth? In verses 45 and 6, he talks about it very clearly. He is talking about death. What is the one event that happens to everybody? No matter who you are or how you have lived, religious, irreligious, believer, unbeliever, godly, wicked, doesn't matter, the one event that happens to everybody is you are going to die someday. It is the same for everybody. You are going to die. And when Solomon says this is the evil in everything that happens on this earth, he is not accusing God of doing wrong. Again, as often times in the book of Ecclesiastes, the word evil means something of misfortune that happens, something that is bad that happens, you are going to die. And that is going to happen to everybody. Here is Solomon's point. Death is certain and you need to face up to it. You need to recognize that. You are going to die someday. And it does not matter who you are or how you have lived, you are going to die someday. That comes to everybody. By the way, the reason I believe that is what his point is, he has already said it three times in the book of Ecclesiastes. Chapter 3 verses 18 to 21, chapter 5 verses 15 to 16, chapter 6 verse 6, three times he has already said basically the same thing. No matter who you are, one day you are going to die. One day this life is going to end. It comes to everybody. You need to recognize that. You need to face up to that. It needs to be a part, a cornerstone of the belief system that forms how you are going to live. Because if you look death square in the face, then the next question is, how do I prepare for that? How do I get ready for that certainty? If that is going to happen to everybody, I better be ready. And so that is what Solomon's point is. He said it back in chapter 7. You may recall that passage in chapter 7 where he said the day of death is better than the day of birth. That it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. And remember when we were looking at those verses we saw that Solomon's point is this, you learn more about what is really important in life by looking death in the face than by going to a party and having a big time. You will think more seriously about life and about how to prepare for death if you look at square in the face. Don't try to ignore it. Don't try to avoid it. Don't put your head in the sand like it's not going to happen. There is one event that's going to happen to everybody, Solomon says, and it's death. And so the important part of that is to know that you're ready to die. To know that you're ready to meet God someday. And the Bible makes it clear as you get the whole scope of God's revelation in his word. The Bible makes it clear what your conclusion must be in order to be ready to die. And that is to realize that you came into this world a sinner, one who is separated from God. You have no hope of spending eternity with him if you just keep going the way you're going. But God wants you to spend eternity with him. He wants you to be a part of his family. He loves you so much that he sent his son Jesus, one who never sinned and thus was capable of paying for the sins of others. When he died, it would not be as pentifully for his own sin. He had no sin. So he was morally qualified to be your substitute and my substitute and he died on the cross to pay the penalty before God for your sin and mine. And the Bible says if we will receive him as our savior, if we will admit the fact that we need that substitutionary death of Christ for us to save us, deliver us from God's judgment. Forgive us. Make us a part of God's family and give us a home in heaven. If we will recognize that's the only way we can get to heaven and trust what Christ did for us on the cross to save us, then we are ready to die. One has said you are not ready to live until you know you are ready to die. That's what Solomon is saying here. That's why that is such a key foundational part. A cornerstone of the foundation of a biblical philosophy of life is to look death square in the face. One event will happen to all. That's death. Are you ready? Are you ready for that? Have you looked that square in the face and said I got to do something about this. I need to know that I am ready to meet God. That's why it's so foundational. Let's move over to this corner. There is a third foundational cornerstone of a biblical philosophy of life. It's this. Man is utterly sinful. Now this is one I might not have thought of either. Is this really foundational? Is this key? Is this really something that sounds kind of morbid again? Sounds like you are just downing everybody. Well obviously this is not the popular view of man. This is not the view you are going to hear in most universities and colleges. This is not the view you are going to hear in anthropology classes. Sociology classes. This is not what you are going to hear in philosophy classes. Psychology classes. It's not the popular view of man. The popular view of man is not that somehow we are inwardly depraved and that leads to all kinds of madness. But look at what Solomon says in the middle of verse three. He says the hearts of people moreover are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live and afterward they join the dead. Again sounds kind of morbid doesn't it? But really when you think about what he's saying, this is what he's saying. You've got to have a biblical view of man. You've got to understand humankind and what we are like. This is not a popular view of man but it is a biblical and realistic view of man, of mankind. You see what the world teaches us. What the basic philosophy of mankind is and mankind's condition is something like this. This is called humanism and it is the underlying philosophy of most of what we hear in our culture today. And it goes something like this. You know everybody deep down really is good in their nature. It is either they're conditioning, they're background or some kind of sickness is the reason why they do what they do if it's bad. So that's what that's what man's problem is. Man's problem is that the good that is inside of him just needs to be encouraged and developed and we need to treat like an illness the things that he does that are wrong. That is nowhere better seen than in our judicial system. Time and time again we find this philosophy playing out in our judicial system. Let me just give you a few examples. In Boston a court acquitted Michael Trindle, Michael Tindle of flying illegal drugs into the United States. It's clear that he had done it. It was proven that he had flown illegal drugs in the United States but he was acquitted because his attorneys argued that he was a victim of what they called action, adit syndrome. An emotional disorder, his lawyers describe, that makes a person crave dangerous thrilling situations. So he was not a drug dealer, he was a thrill seeker. He was deep down a good man but he suffered from this syndrome that made him seek thrills and so he was acquitted. Another case, in Oregon, a man who tried to kill his ex-wife was acquitted on the grounds that he suffered from what his lawyer is called. Now listen to this, depression suicide syndrome. Here's the way they described it. The victims of this syndrome deliberately commit poorly planned crimes with the unconscious goal of being caught or killed. So his lawyers argued he really didn't want to shoot his wife, he wanted the police to shoot him. Poor man. And then you remember the famous case in San Francisco when the mayor of San Francisco, Dan Moscone was killed by his, one of his employees, Dan White, George Moscone, Dan White. Remember that trial? Dan White was acquitted of murder even though he had clearly gunned down his boss but he was acquitted for the crime. He was convicted on a lesser manslaughter charge but the defense was what became infamous in the newspapers and in the press as the twinkie syndrome. His attorneys argued that really he suffered from emotional distress brought on by his junk food benches, particularly twinkies. And so the lesser charge of manslaughter was what was appropriate. Now please don't misunderstand me this morning. I do know there is such a thing as mental illness. I understand that. I also know that sometimes we can be conditioned by our upbringing to behave in certain ways but you know what? That was because of somebody else's sin that we were conditioned the way we were conditioned and that it was ingrained in us to act out in certain ways. And typically these kinds of things result from inward sin. A biblical view of man is not that he needs more therapy. It's that he needs a savior. We are sinners in need of a savior. And yes I understand there is some emotional and mental needs that may need therapy. I'm not saying we should do away with all of that but a biblical realistic view of life is not to excuse away clear sin on the basis of some kind of emotional disturbance but recognize that sin is sin. And the Bible's view is that the hearts of people are full of evil and that leads to all kinds of madness. The Hebrew word there means moral wildness, throwing off restraint and just living for sin, wildness. But as the problem the Bible makes it clear, people's hearts are full of evil. We need a savior. We need a savior is what we need. That is a biblical philosophy of life. And any philosophy that focuses upon some kind of therapeutic redeeming of the good that is already in man is not a biblical philosophy of life. We are sinners in need of a savior. Not people who just struggle because although the good is there it's downtrodden because of things we've learned. Man is utterly sinful and needs a savior. It's a basic cornerstone of a biblical philosophy of life. But there's one more. And it's this. In spite of hard realities, life is infinitely valuable. In spite of hard realities and we've talked about some of them this morning. The uncertainties of life what is coming around the corner tomorrow. We may not know. Death, sin, in spite of those hard realities of life, life is infinitely valuable. In a couple of ways, look at what Solomon says verse 4. Anyone who is among the living has hope. Even a live dog is better off than a dead lion. One of the reasons why life is infinitely valuable is because as long as there is life there is hope. Life means there's still hope. If you're alive there is still hope for change. If you're alive there is still hope for a new direction in life. There is still hope for forgiveness. There is still hope that you can redeem the past and by God's grace and forgiveness and strength live a different kind of life. There's still hope if you're alive. And then Solomon quotes a well-known ancient Near Eastern proverb. It was a proverb that was in other cultures besides Israel's. It was well known to people. Egyptian proverb, even a live dog is better off than a dead lion. Now that one doesn't really strike us as much as it would have Solomon's readers. Because we don't see dogs the same way they did in that culture. Today dogs are household pets that are pampered, given their own special little bowls, kitchen, and a library to eat out of. Special little beds to sleep in at night or maybe take over your bed and you sleep on the couch. They're dressed in sweaters when it's cold. Dogs don't live the same life they used to. They have it good nowadays. I usually when I'm getting dressed in the morning, I'll have WVVA on. And I'd like to see what the weather is going to be or who won the ball games the night before and that kind of thing. I don't really pay a whole lot of attention but something caught my attention the other morning. They had a little news item on the Westminster dog show that was recently held. And one of the dogs that was an award-winning dog in this Westminster Kennel dog show which is the ultimate in the country, I guess, died three days later and they suspect there may have been foul play because this was an award-winning dog. And the thing that caught my attention was the owner and I understand no doubt the grief that she felt. I've had pets. I understand how difficult that is. But one of the things that caught my attention is she said, you know, my dog had had bark reduction surgery. That really hit me. There are some reduction surgeries I can probably have and it would benefit me but come on, give me a break. Dark, bark reduction surgery. And I know we have a beloved veterinarian here this morning and I appreciate what you do, my friend. You do a wonderful job. But how many bark reduction surgeries have you done? Zero. Okay. I think it was all a part of making the dogs sound better so it would present better, you know, I guess. But that's what we think of when we think of dogs. Not so in the ancient world. Dogs were not pampered house pets. Dogs were street scavengers. They were more like bony, desperate wolves trying to scavenge for something to eat and they were dangerous. Totally other end of the spectrum is the lion. The ancient culture of the lion was a regal figure. He really was king of the jungle. Solomon had the most beautiful throne in all the known world in his day, overlaid with ivory steps leading up to it huge arms on the side and on each side he had it carved and covered in ivory, a lion, the regal figure. So you're talking about animals from totally different ends of the spectrum as far apart as you could possibly get. But you notice Solomon's point, even a live dog, better off than a dead lion. Because as he says, anyone who's among the living still has hope. So life is infinitely valuable because while there's life, there's hope. Secondly, when there's life, there is opportunity. There's opportunity. Look at it in verses five and six. He goes on to explain. So living know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward. Even their name is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy of long since banish. I mean, no matter how they lived, whatever they did, that's gone now. And look at the end of the verse, verse six. Never again will they have a part and anything that happens under the sun. Now that expression helps me understand what Solomon's talking about. Again, the writer has been accused of saying, you die and that's it. There's nothing after death. That's not what he's saying. He's talking about under the sun on this earth. You never again have a part and anything that happens here. Here's his point. As long as you're alive, you have opportunity. You have opportunity to change the way you live. You have opportunity to come to the Savior. You have opportunity to live in a way that glorifies God. You have an opportunity to make a mark in life for eternity. But once you die, you can't go back and do it again. You don't have any other opportunities to do that. Life is not a trial run. That you can go back and correct all your mistakes and do it again. You've got one opportunity. That's Solomon's point. Once you die, you can't have an effect on anything under the sun on this earth. He's not talking about what happens in eternity. But I will say this, a biblical philosophy of life says, the only opportunity you have to make any impact on your eternity is here. There is no such thing as purgatory. There is no such thing as some kind of process you go through after death where you can kind of, you know, pay for all of your sins then and get to heaven. There's no such thing as that in the Bible. The only opportunity you have to make any difference in your eternal destiny is here now under the sun on this earth in the one life that God gives you. So as long as there's life, there's opportunity. Do you see now why that's such an important part of a biblical philosophy of life? Why that's so foundational? I've got to live every day realizing that this day is an opportunity I have to make an impact for eternity. And once this day's gone, I can't go back and recapture it. If you know Jesus as your Savior, what that means is you're preparing for the judgment seat of Christ when you will stand before God and every day you're adding a little bit to your record as to what you've given account to before God. While there's life, there's opportunity. That's why life is so infinitely valuable. Because there's still hope and there's still opportunity as long as you're alive and you have opportunity here this morning. You're still alive. I'm the looks of at least most of you are. You still have hope. You still have opportunity to make commitments and decisions that will make a difference in eternity. Here's what Solomon's saying. If you really want to live life with a philosophy of life that is going to mean something, that is going to give you the kinds of direction and life that will make an impact and eternity. And here's four cornerstones of a foundation to build on. Maybe not what we would have thought of, but with Solomon's wisdom, I can see it now. There are uncertainties and curveballs that get thrown to us in life, but God is in control of them. If I didn't believe that, there are days when I'd quit. Not only the minister, I'd quit life. You ever felt that way? If I didn't believe that God was in control of what's coming around the corner. Basic foundational part of a philosophy of life. Death is certain, but that very certainty and looking at square in the face is the only way to make sure we're ready for it. Basic part of a biblical philosophy of life. Man is sinful. That explains the madness in the world, the emotional and moral wildness in the world. It's a result of the evil of our hearts, but God has a remedy for that. And it's a savior, a savior Christ who can not only forgive us of our sin and cleanse us, but can put together our lives again, put us on the right course. And then God has given us this infinitely valuable gift of life. So that we have hope and opportunity to live in such a way that makes a difference in eternity. I'll tell you what. Once I understand what Solomon's saying, that's the foundation I want to build my life on. That's the foundation I want to have for a philosophy of life that will be lived for the glory of God. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the insight you gave Solomon. Thank you, Father, that your word is so sharp and powerful and living. It's relevant to us today. Thank you, Father, that your word penetrates to our hearts. It gets down to where we think and where our motives are. And really dissect how we're living life and how we view life. Father, I pray that with the surgical precision of your spirit, you will penetrate deep into our hearts today and do that work through your word, which only you can do. I pray, Father, for those who may be here without Jesus as their savior, that they would realize they're going to die someday and they have to be prepared for that. The only way to be prepared is to accept Christ as their savior. Do that work. I plead with you, Father, by your spirit and people's hearts. And then, Father, for those of us who have made that life commitment to Christ as our savior, help us to realize how easy it is to get off on the wrong philosophies of life, help us to return to living in a way that will glorify you and honor you and prepare us to stand before you someday. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.