Fractured Fairy Tales

Are you familiar with what a fractured fairy tale is? The books written about fractured fairy tales. Fractured fairy tales are fairy tales that are taken and either the plot or the characters are changed so that they don't turn out the way they're supposed to. In fact, it's interesting to read them. I read one this week on the Prince and the Frog where a frog looks up at a prince and says, would you kiss me? And the prince said, no, that's what princes do. Princes don't do that. But he felt compelled to kiss the frog anyway. He kissed the frog and immediately was turned into a frog and they lived happily ever after on a lily pad. That's a fractured fairy tale. I read one about Cinderella this week. You know, the story of Cinderella at the end of the story. The prince sends out a servant with the glass slipper to find who in the kingdom it fits so he will be able to identify the young lady that he danced with so romantically that night. The fractured fairy tale version ends this way and then the prince knelt down and tried to put the glass slipper on Cinderella's foot. Cinderella says this or thinks this. I really didn't notice that he had a funny nose and he certainly looked better all dressed up in fancy clothes. He's not nearly as attractive as he seemed the other night so I think I'll just pretend that this glass slipper feels too tight. That's the fractured fairy tale version of Cinderella's story. Well, in all reality and in all honesty, things in life sometimes seem like a series of fractured fairy tales. Life sometimes seems to be coming at us that way. Things don't work out as we had dreamed and hoped they would. In fact, what we thought life would be like, the dreams we had for life, the hopes we envisioned for life are shattered on the hard realities of life. How often that is true for probably all of us in this room. Solomon understands that in the book of Ecclesiastes. We've been journeying through the book of Ecclesiastes lately. We've been seeing that Solomon in the section of the book that we're in, chapters three through five, Solomon is dealing with the fact that God has an overall purpose and plan for life. And within that purpose for life, God makes everything, works everything together to use Paul's terminology. He makes everything beautiful in its time, in his time. But Solomon is smart enough, he has the wisdom of God. He's smart enough to know that life doesn't always look that way. There are hard realities in life that seem to call that Bible truth of God's sovereign plan and purpose, making everything beautiful in his time. It seems to call that into question. There are hard realities of life that seem to make us wonder, is God really in control? And is everything going to end up turning out beautiful in his time? Is that really true? Doesn't seem to be true in my life, we may think. That's where we need the wisdom of Solomon. In the book of Ecclesiastes, we find ourselves this morning in chapter four and verse seven. Solomon has already addressed some of those hard realities of life. He's dealt with injustice. He's dealt with the concept of death. And the fact that it seems to be a level playing field for all of mankind. He's dealt with the injustice from the hard reality of oppression and of the kind of competitive spirit that causes people to drive themselves and drive themselves toward being better and having success at the expense of everything else in their lives. He's dealt with some of those hard realities. Today as we come to chapter four, verse seven, notice what he says. Again, I saw something meaningless under the sun. Under the sun, from this world's perspective, life on this earth, I'm going to tell you Solomon says a couple of other things that I saw that that leave me questioning and leave many people questioning. Is there really any meaning or purpose? Does God really have a plan? Is he really in control? So Solomon today is aware of the hard realities of life. And in the passage we find today, he reflects on two more of those hard realities. Let's look at the first one. In verse eight, verses eight through twelve, actually Solomon introduces to us the reality of isolation, the reality of isolation. And that is aloneness. Notice what he says in verse eight. There was a man all alone. He had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil. Yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. For whom am I toiling, he asked? And why am I depriving myself of enjoyment? This too is meaningless, a miserable business. This is a sad picture of isolation. Solomon draws and paints this sad picture of isolation. A man who is all alone, a man who doesn't have a brother, no family, no son to leave his business, his work to nobody to invest his life in. And he withdraws then the picture really is because of that he withdraws into his own world. And becomes isolated from everybody and pours himself into his work. And all that it will get him. This is the picture Solomon is drawing for us. And as he looks at this picture of the sad picture of isolation, he gives us three observations about this person. It may be a man or a woman, it's a man in the text here, but it may be a woman as well. Three pictures, three observations about this sad picture of isolation. First of all, he says this man is one who has a miserly attitude. Is a miserly attitude. See it again there in verse 8, it was a man all alone. He had neither son nor brother. And then it talks about pouring himself into his work and his toil. The idea is not just that he's alone. The idea is that he withdraws from all other human contact. He has no son to share his work with or leave it to. He has no brother to work with him in the family business or whatever he's doing. So given that, he decides to isolate himself and withdraw himself and pour himself, devote himself to his work and gaining all the wealth he possibly can. And becomes miserly about his wealth, about his job, about his time, about his life. He's not willing to open up to anyone else. He's not willing to open up his life for relationships with anyone else. He is in every sense of the word Charles Dickens Scrooge. He has isolated himself. And the observation Solomon gives us of him is he has a miserly attitude. But the second observation Solomon gives us about this man is that he has an obsessive desire. This miserly attitude that I don't care about anybody else. I don't even want relationships with anybody else. I'm going to put my whole life into my work and getting wealth leads him to an obsessive drive to do that very thing. You see what it says there in the middle of the verse? There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. No end to his toil. He pours himself into the effort to gain all the wealth he can get. To get everything he can in this life. So his whole life is focused on his job. All of his time, all of his activities, he's gotten to the point where it's become an obsession with him. He doesn't know how to quit. He can't slow down anymore. You find yourself there? You find yourself there in life where you've gotten to the point where you're obsessively driven to gain more and do more. Make the next deal, climb the next rung of the ladder of success. Be a little better than you were before. And when that obsession takes over, that drive takes over. You begin to pull away even more from other people. It's a vicious cycle. And there are more reasons to stay busy. And you start piling up work on the weekends and the evenings. And there's no end to it. There is no end to his toil. An obsessive drive. But there's another observation Solomon makes about this sad picture of isolation. And that is a person who withdraws from others like this with a miserly attitude and becomes obsessive and driven in his personality. And that's a person who is always in his pursuit of things and wealth. Always ends up here with a shocking realization. Notice the shocking realization that Solomon defines for us. He says this guy evidently got the thinking. He had a little bit of time. Maybe he got sick. Maybe he went to the hospital. Maybe he woke up in the middle of the night one night. Notice what he starts thinking with this shocking realization. And why am I depriving myself of enjoyment? He looks around one day. He wakes up in the middle of the night. And he realizes that although he has reached the top of the ladder of success. Even though he has the big office with the cushy chair and the great big desk and the panoramic view out his window. And a company car new one every year. Several company credit cards, a personal valet to park his car. Although he's got everything he wants. Everything he ever aimed for in life. He wakes up in the middle of the night one night and says, who am I doing this for? I don't have anyone to leave this to or share this with. I am a lonely man. And not only who am I doing this for. But why am I depriving myself of enjoyment? I've got everything you can have that money could buy all the new cars. I've got the boat. I've got everything. I've got the fanciest house. I don't have any time to enjoy it. Because I'm working all the time to try to provide this stuff. And he wakes up and realizes with questions like this. For who am I doing all this? Why am I driving myself so hard? Why can't I enjoy life? Who's going to profit from my labor anyway? Who do I think I'm impressing? And he's empty. And what he comes to after the shocking realization is a realization that he needs companionship. And that's where Solomon takes us next. Once this man concludes this to his meaningless, a miserable business. This is empty. This is no purpose. Life is miserable. Solomon introduces us to the antidote to that kind of sad picture of isolation. And it's this. It's the need for companionship. Look at it in verse 9. Two are better than one. Because they have a good return for their labor. Interesting. He's still talking about work. And he's talking about a return for their labor. But is he talking about progress charts and balance sheets? Is he talking about the bottom line? No, no. I don't think so. I think he's talking about the kind of return that is not figured on the company balance sheets. Or the quarterly portfolio. He's not talking about that kind of return. He's talking about the personal fulfillment and enjoyment of life and work in relationship with other people. So the need for companionship, whether it be in marriage or in friendships or in the church. Solomon says two are better than one. To live an isolated life withdrawn from everybody focused on your own stuff and your own agenda is not the way to live. God intended us to live in relationship and community with other people. That's why they are 15 or 16 one another in the New Testament. Even in church life we're not supposed to withdraw from other people. We're to live in community with others in relationship with others with one another, caring for one another. Praising for one another, praying for one another, loving one another, greeting one another, accepting one another. All of the one another of the New Testament. We're to be living out in relationship in the body of Christ. And yet some of us sitting here this morning are not in any meaningful relationship or friendship with anyone. And even in our marriages and our homes, there's distance, silence, no intimate relationship of sharing of lives with one another. It's a tool of the enemy to destroy our lives. God wants us to live in community and relationship with one another, develop closeness with one another. And that has to be cultivated. It doesn't come natural unless you just have real outgoing kind of personality. And if so, even your friendships may be very superficial and not really meaningful and deep. You may still feel lonely and isolated. God intends for us and we need to be intentional about pursuing the development of relationships and companionship with one another. Why, you say, just to escape isolation? No, no, look at what Solomon says next. He gives us three benefits of companionship in verses 10 through 12. The first one in verse 10 is assistance. Verse 10, if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Assistance. Someone falls down if you have a companion, if you have a friend, if you have someone you can trust, they help pick you up. And that's not just a literal physical fall necessarily. We all stumble in life. We all fall. We all fail. We all make a mess of things sometimes. And if we have no one beside us to help us when we're in trouble to help us. How sad that is. You know, we realize when we do fail, when we do fall, make a mess of things how dependent we are on other people. The Solomon says one of the benefits of companionship is assistance. When I think of that principle, I think of a Bible story that illustrates it so well. The story of Elijah. Elijah was a great prophet of God. He was one of the greatest in the Old Testament. He's one of my favorite characters in the Bible. I think it's the love of his bold and passionate stand for truth and for the true God in a time of spiritual darkness in Israel when bail was worshipped by most people. And he was willing to challenge the king about his bail worship and confront him with his departure from the true God. The beautiful, bold, fearless man of God who learned to trust God in many ways is God provided for his needs. The peak of his ministry is on Mount Carmel when he challenges the prophets of bail to a public contest to show who is the true God. And God does a miraculous thing by answering with fire from a clear blue sky. Not a cloud in the sky and consumes his sacrifice. And all the people cry out, the Lord, Jehovah, he is God. Jehovah, he is God. What a tremendous accomplishment on the part of Elijah. But Queen Jezebel responds to that by saying, I am going to kill you. And Elijah somehow hit a wall. Maybe it was emotional physical exertion, a combination of that and pouring himself into his ministry so hard, but he hit a wall. He just took off. He ran. And the Bible says his intent was to just leave ministry. Quit. In fact, he was so discouraged and burnt out and depressed that he asked God to take his life. He said, God, please, just kill me. I'm no better than my father's. They didn't succeed in bringing Israel back to you. I haven't either. I'm done. I'm finished. I'd rather die. And God did several gracious things for Elijah. One was to feed him and give him something to drink and refresh him physically and let him sleep a little bit. That was part of what he needed. Some physical recharging. And then God gave him meaningful work to do. But one of the things God did for him is that I want you to go anoint Elijah to be a prophet in your stead. Now, it's interesting that Elijah continued ministering for some time longer. But the Bible says in the last verse of first Kings chapter 19 that Elijah became his servant, his helper. One to journey alongside him, one to learn from him. Yes. But one also to encourage him and support him and assist him. You don't hear of Elijah ever again getting to that point of despair and discouragement. Why? Because God had given him a companion to assist him. One of the benefits of companionship is assistance. The second benefit is comfort. Look at verse 11. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? And when you read that, you think immediately maybe of marriage and married couples snuggling a little bit and just forget that and move on. That's not exactly what Solomon is talking about. Obviously that's one way to comfort one another in the marriage relationship. But that's not really what he's talking about. Probably more in his mind is the common practice of that day of traveling in groups of people. And oftentimes you would have to camp out, you know, you walked places and it was several days to get there. And so you'd camp out overnight and on a chilly night, not only a blanket, but just the closeness of other people in that group and the body heat would help keep you warm through the night. And so basically he's talking about comfort, the kind of comfort that helps you feel warm and sustained when you are vulnerable. Now take that away from the physical comfort necessarily, although it includes that, take that away to any time you are vulnerable and suffering hardship and you need the warmth of someone's comfort. Maybe you're facing surgery. Maybe you're facing a family crisis right now and your family spinning out of control. Maybe you're away from your family. You're new here. You've just moved here. Everything you're familiar with is somewhere else. Maybe you've faced a death in your family. Someone very close to you. Maybe even a tragic situation. God help you if you're alone. You need someone who will warm you in your spirit with their comfort and their help. When I think of the comfort that comes from companionship, I think of another Bible story. I think of the story of Naomi and Ruth. Naomi was a Jewish woman who, because her husband was unable to find good work, his crops were not producing. There was a drought in Israel, so he moved to a neighboring country, Moab, because family with him. There are two sons eventually married in their new home, Moabite women. Through a series of unthinkable circumstances, her husband and her two sons died and she's left alone with two daughters-in-law obviously, but she feels the pull to go back to Israel. Why? Because in that day, Aweeda was sustained and helped by her extended family. Her extended family is back in Israel. And so she decides she's got to go back home and she meets with her two daughters-in-law, Orpa and Ruth. And says to them, you know, your home is here. Your families are here. Your life is here. You stay here, but I got to go back home. Neither one of them want to stay. They want to be with her, but she finally persuades Orpa to stay in Moab. But do you remember the words of Ruth? The Bible says that Ruth clings to Naomi and says, God forbid that I should leave you alone. Where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die. And Naomi could not persuade Ruth to stay in her own homeland. If you remember the rest of the story, what a comfort, what a comfort Ruth was to her mother-in-law Naomi. The blessing, the benefit of companionship sometimes comes in the form of comfort when we are cold and vulnerable and someone warms us with that human touch of companionship. I will never forget the story that Laman Strauss told one time in one of his last Bible conferences here back in the 90s. His son, Richard Strauss, who had passed her to a very large and influential church in the Los Angeles area, had succumbed to cancer. Richard was a very well-known pastor. Written a number of books was on James Dobson's program frequently speaking on the home and so forth. I remember Dr. Strauss telling about the funeral service. He said at Richard's funeral there were several of us that spoke and he had a part in that funeral for his own son. He said when he got done with his part, he went back to where he was on the platform and he said, I just felt completely drained. I felt like I was going to collapse. There was a prayer or something afterwards and we all had our heads bowed and we were standing and I thought I was just going to collapse. All of a sudden I felt arms around me. He said I thought for a minute it might be an angel and he said I looked around and it was Chuck Swindall. Just sensing his emptiness and his pain sorrow. He had walked over to him and put those big arms around him and drove him close. Oh, the benefit of companionship, of comfort. But there's a third benefit to companionship that Solomon pictures for us. It's in verse 12 and that is defense. Not only assistance and comfort but sometimes we need someone to defend us. Verse 12 says, though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. According to three strands is not easily broken. When you face opposition in life, when you face attack in life, whether it's verbal attack, physical attack or even verbal attack, when you face that sometimes you need someone to stand up for you. To come to your defense, to help you when your character is under attack or even when you are attacked by that invisible enemy, the worst foe of all, the devil who the Bible says, goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he made devour. When you're under spiritual attack, sometimes you need someone to come to your defense and pray for you and lift you up spiritually. When I think of this benefit of companionship, I think of another Bible story. I think of David and Jonathan. David was certainly under attack. The man who had been chosen by God and noided by the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel to take Saul's place because of Saul's disobedience and rebellion against God. David is hunted down by Saul who is jealous of his success in battle. A couple of occasions Saul himself tried to kill David in his own court, but Jonathan who had been bonded to David in a close friendship through their battles together and through their friendship became a close companion who would warn David when Saul was upset with him, who would warn David if Saul was still hunting him or taking his life and even defend the David to his own father and lost the esteem of his own father because of his companionship with David. Sometimes you need someone to come to your defense. Don't try to go through life on your own. If you're given to the kind of successaholic workaholism that the man pictured here was where you don't think you need anybody, you can make it on your own. And so you withdraw from everybody and you isolate yourself even from your own family and you pour yourself into your work and your goal is to get all you can get. If you're climbing that ladder to success, would you please stop right where you are holding under the run where you are going no further and listen to Solomon. You're headed for disaster, you're headed for emptiness, you're headed for a purposeless life. You need to first of all develop relationships with others, renew your relationship with your family and I would say most of all make sure you have a relationship with God. Because he is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. He is one who will be a companion to you throughout your life even when no one else knows or can come to your aid. Jesus Christ, if you know him as Savior, has promised never to leave you or forsake you. And he's also given your spirit, our comforter, to be a constant guide and companion with us. To give us the strength we need, the assistance we need, the comfort we need, the defense we need against the attacks of the enemy. Oh, my friend, if you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior, please do so. Recognize that he died for your sin on the cross. But he died not only for your sin to be forgiven, he died to restore you to a relationship with God so that you could be in God's family, be his child, have the comfort and protection assistance of our Lord with you 24-7 all the time. Don't try to go it alone. The hard reality of isolation is solved first of all by a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, our Savior, and then an intentional effort to form relationships with other people. In the church, yes, in our neighborhood at work, in our families. Don't go it alone. There's another hard reality of life, though, that hits us sometimes that Solomon deals with next. And it's really the opposite end of the spectrum of what we just looked at. This one is the reality of fleeting popularity. You've got on the one hand a guy who doesn't care about anybody else. He's going to isolate himself from everybody else. He's not concerned about relationships because all he's concerned about is pouring himself into his work and getting more of this world stuff. But now we move to a guy who has amazing popularity and the acclaim of everybody. Solomon is going to bring us face to face with the hard reality of fleeting popularity. Notice what he says. In verse 13, he begins to show that this whole thing of popularity is a cycle. There is a cycle that popularity goes through. And everyone who seeks fame and popularity will go through the same cycle. So what is it? Well, the first step in the cycle. Think of it if you will. Kind of as a bell curve. So there's an upswing and then there's a peak and then there's a downswing. Okay. The upswing is this promise. Here's someone who shows great promise. And they begin to win fame and popularity. Notice what Solomon says about this upswing in verse 13. He says, better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning. The youth may have come from prison to the kingship or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom. What an amazing picture there. What a true to life picture. You've got two people that are pictured here. One is an older king. He's self-sufficient. He's experienced. He knows what he's doing. Maybe become a little senile over the years. And so he will not listen to anyone now. He will not take any counsel. He will not listen to any warning. And he begins to lose his grip on power. At the same time, there is an up and coming young rising political star. And this young man wins the hearts of people. He's a new face. He's got new ideas. He sounds wonderful. And he comes from a humble background. Verse 14 says, he may have come from prison to the kingship. He may have even been a political prisoner of the king just mentioned the older king. Because of his ideas. Because maybe of his popularity. Maybe he's come out of prison or maybe he just came from humble beginnings. Born in poverty within his kingdom. But he's a new face. He's got new ideas. And people gravitate toward him. And he's a shooting star. Increasing quickly in popularity. Promise. Great promise. That's the upside of the bell curve. And then the top is a place of acclaim. He finally gets to that place where everyone recognizes him. He is acclaimed. In fact, he is now the king. Look at him in verse 15. I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth. The king's successor. So this young man has risen to the place of power. And he enjoys great popularity. This new king with new ideas. With new promise. Enjoys great popular. He's the man of the hour. He has all the support of everybody. I mean, again, see the verse. All who lived and walked under the sun follows this guy. So he's enjoying what seems like an unlimited honeymoon with the people in the kingdom. Everybody loves him. Everything's working well. His ideas are good. Everything's going great. But inevitably. Inevitably. There is a downside to the bell curve. And it's described for us in verse 16. Fleeting popularity ends in disillusionment. You see it there in verse 16. There was no end to all the people who were before them. There's a little question as to how the Hebrew text ought to be translated there. It could well be translated. And I think it fits the context better. There was no end to all the people who were before him. All the people who loved him, who reverenced him, who thought he was the greatest thing to ever hit the kingdom. No end to that. But notice the contrast. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. Inevitably, a new generation grows up in the kingdom. And to them, this king is the old guy who won't listen to their ideas. And their thoughts about how things ought to be done. And so he begins to lose favor. Things may not have changed not quite as much as what the newer generation thinks they should have. And so now they're looking for a newer face with newer ideas. That's the cycle of popularity. And it happens everywhere. It happens not only in politics, it happens in sports. Today's star is Tamara's bum. Just watch it for a while. Or if you've been around it long enough, you know. Read the accounts of all the former famous professional athletes that had their day. And how many of them are penniless now? Devastated physically, squandering their wealth, or maybe taken advantage of by financial counselors? It's a sad, sad story, fleeting popularity. It happens in the entertainment industry. With entertainers who quickly like a meteorized to the top and sell millions and millions and millions. Where are they now? Well, there's a new and upcoming star that everybody's listening to now. I remember hearing an interview with Natalie Grant, a great female contemporary Christian artist. I love her music. I remember hearing an interview with her when she really began to start winning all the awards and having all the number one songs and so forth. And someone was asking her about her quick rise to that kind of popularity. And here's what she said. She said, you know, I'm not thinking about that. I realized and hear her very words. She said, I'm the flavor of the month. She said, there'll be another young star. There have been since then, you know, the Laura stories and the Francesco Battistellis. And there are others coming along now. And she realized that's not where it's at. She went on to say this. And she said, the theme does not is not grounded in whether or not I sell a bunch of records or I'm at the top of the charts. My theme is in my relationship with Jesus Christ. She had the right perspective on popularity or fame because it is fleeting. Happens in politics, happens in sports, happens in the entertainment industry, it happens in the workplace. How many CEOs last very long? It happens in the church. Fleeting popularity. Oliver Cromwell, back in the 1650s, led an overthrow of King Charles I in England, set up a commonwealth and eventually became the Lord protector of England. And ruled for six years in England before he died. When he took the throne to all the acclaim of those in England, he said to a friend, and I quote, do not trust to the cheering for those persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged. I knew what he was talking about. When he died, the kings came back to power in England two years after Cromwell's death. His body was exhumed by the King of England. He was beheaded two years after he died and his body was hung in effigy as a symbol of the return of the kings to power. And the crowd cheered. Popularity is fleeting. If that's what you're living for, if that's your goal, your aim, your ambition in life, to be famous, to be well known regardless of what arena is in, you will go through that cycle. And you will find just as Solomon tells us in his wisdom, you will find the end of verse 16, the emptiness of popularity. Notice at the end of verse 16, this too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. From your expression by now, isn't it? In Ecclesiastes, what a wonderful word picture of the maddening pursuit after things that are only temporary and earthly. It's like chasing the wind. I know it's there. I think I can catch it, but you never can. You always come up empty handed, chasing after the wind. Let me give you a couple of principles to help you avoid a fractured fairy tale in your life, hopes and dreams that don't turn out like you thought they would. Principle number one, develop friendships and relationships with others. Reestablish, renew broken relationships with your family. Please, please don't isolate yourself. Develop friendships and relationships with neighbors, with co-workers, with brothers and sisters in the body of Christ in the church. Most of all, if you've never done this, please, I urge you to establish a relationship with God as your father through his son Jesus Christ. Trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior today. And you'll become a part of the family of God. You'll never be alone again. Develop friendships and relationships with others. Principle number two, do not live for the acclaim of others. Do not live for the acclaim of others. There is nothing more fickle than the acclaim of others. You'll find fame, popularity, success, recognition. You live for that. And someday you'll find yourself on the downslide of the bell curve. Disillusioned, empty, feeling like you have chased the wind. Maybe a change in your lifestyles needed today. Maybe you need to trust the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior, the one who died for your sins, but also died to give you an undying, eternal companion, one who will be with you forever, and home in heaven with him. Maybe you need to trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior, or maybe as a believer you've gotten your eyes off of eternal things and your whole focus has become in temporal things like popularity or fame or success or just stuff. And you need to refocus your life on eternal things that don't have any bell curves, have any ups and downs. They'll last forever. You need to focus on that. Would you pray with me this morning? Father, help us to listen to the wise counsel of this man. Help us to understand that he knew what he was talking about. He had experienced most of it. Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here that does not know Jesus that they would come to Christ today, I pray Father that if there are believers who have become unfocused in their life, and really are seeking after the things of this world, success and recognition and fame and popularity, I pray Father you would help them to realize how fickle that is. The only thing that lasts is to be pleasing to you. So help us to reorient our lives today in whatever way we need to. We ask in Jesus' name Amen.