C - Pentecost 13 - Hebrews 12:4-29

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text for our message this morning is the Epistle Lesson from Hebrews 12

Introduction: Rally Day – studying the Word of God

This morning our Sunday School teachers have worked diligently to put together a Rally Day program. Certainly this morning we offered a breakfast to all who came, which is always welcome. After today our Sunday School children will make the switch to their new classes and (for some) new teachers. The Sunday School classes will update their curriculum so that their lessons fit in with our worship services. Our teachers want to help our students and parents get excited about the program so that they take advantage of it.

Sunday School is an amazing blessing for children. Now that we are mentioning it, it's not such a bad thing for adults either. Sunday School or Bible Study if you prefer to call it that is yet one more opportunity to study the word of God. To have the bible taught to our children and to study the bible ourselves. Because – and this is the key – the Bible is the means that God has given for us so that we can know him. In Sunday School our children learn the bible and therefore they learn to know God. The same thing happens in Bible Study. As you learn God's Word, the better you learn, the greater the blessing.

Our text from Hebrews talks about the kingdom that is unshakable. It says, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.” God's Kingdom is untouchable. It cannot be destroyed. For those who are a part of this kingdom they too are untouchable and indestructible. This Kingdom is ours. God gives it to us in his Holy Word. God's Word, reading and studying it and knowing it and believing it prepares us for that day when God, who our text refers to as “a consuming fire” will come with judgment. He will come, and he will destroy the things that are made, that is he will destroy this creation. But! Being solidly grounded in faith and in the Word of God preserves us in that kingdom that cannot be destroyed.

That is good news. It is good news for the future as we wait for the resurrection of the dead. But it is also good news for today. Today we are blessed to have the promises of God that do not fail that keep us safe during our day to day living, God's promises give me hope for today, right now, for what I am dealing with this month, this week or this hour. God's Word gives us hope as we deal with our struggles.

Our Struggle with Sin

Our text begins by saying, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” It refers to our struggles as being struggles with sin. There are lots of different things that people struggle with. We don't always think of them as being struggles with sin.

For example, This past week I was asked to visit a young girl named Claire who had just graduated from college and was preparing to begin an advanced study program. Claire was in the hospital because she at 23 and otherwise healthy had suffered a stroke. We might not think of this as being a struggle with sin, yet it is. Every struggle that we might encounter -whether it be with your health, with some person or relationship, whether it be with stress or work or whether it be with the weakness of your sinful flesh, every struggle is a struggle with sin because every struggle is the result of sin. If there were no sin in the world there would be no strokes, no stress, no arguments, no belligerent or unreasonable people, there would be no occasion for struggle. Whether you are responsible for them or not, whether you bear some responsibility or guilt in their existence or not, All of those things are the result of sin.

And what is more, all of these things provide you with opportunity for temptation. You might be tempted to be angry with God for allowing something like this to happen. You might be tempted to be bitter. You might be tempted to try to seek revenge against the person you feel has wronged you. Your struggle is likely to become a struggle against your own sinful flesh and the temptation to sin.

God's Purpose for our Struggle

1. God Allows us to struggle. As much as we might not like our struggle and as much as we might wish that we could be without, our struggle actually is for us a blessing. In fact, our text reveals for us a remarkable (and also a somewhat surprising) truth. God allows us to be tempted. He has the power to stop temptation. He has the power to keep Satan far away. He could reduce these temptations to sin to an absolute minimum. You might wonder Why God would do that?”

Those of you who keep livestock know that you have to protect them against predators. If you have sheep, you look for ways to keep them safe from the coyotes. If you were in bed some night and you heard coyotes around your property, you might go out with a rifle to scare them away or even shoot them if you are able. Your would want to keep the predators away from your livestock because you want to be certain that they are safe and not disturbed. This is what makes sense to us. Why then would God allow the coyotes into the sheep pen? Why would God allow the devil and his evil angels to opportunity to disturb or harm us?

2. God uses our struggle to discipline us.

Our text gives us the answer – God allows us to be tempted and to struggle with sin, to struggle with the devil and his temptations because he wants to discipline us. Our text quotes proverbs chapter 3. “My Son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord Disciplines those he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.” God allows us to be bothered by sin because he uses this testing to teach us and to chastise us. To remove sin from us so that we can grow in our faith and in our love for him. God allows these temptation to come because through them he provides for us a great spiritual benefit.

The devils role in our discipline.

One aspect of the struggle with sin and temptation that is amazing is that our struggle against temptation and suffering and even the devil himself can work out to be a great blessing. In this regard the devil and the world actually become God's servants. The Devil and all his slaves in the world who hate God and work their hardest to destroy what God loves actually serve God and help Him to accomplish His Holy Will as they go about tempting and testing Christians.

Christians are sinful people. Christians, even though they are redeemed by God and holy are sinners. Even though our spirits are made alive through faith and through Baptism our flesh is dead in sin and will remain dead until the day of the resurrection. We know this but we have short memories. We forget that we are sinners we forget that we so desperately need to be forgiven of our sin. We forget that we need to keep up the fight against our sinful flesh.

This spiritual amnesia can strike any one of us at any time. A retired pastor, yes, a pastor, told a friend of mine that he used to struggle with sin when he was younger man. But as he grew older he didn't have much of a problem with it. My friends pastor was struggling with spiritual amnesia. He had forgotten that he was a sinner, he had forgotten that his sinful flesh was still hanging on and sticking to him.

The blessing of Discipline

God our good and loving and gracious father wants to help us remember how pitiful and pathetic we are. He wants us to remember that we can do nothing about our sinful hearts and minds and bodies. So God in his love for us allows the Devil to unwittingly wage his war of temptation against us. He lays his best traps. He constructs his craftiest lies. And he places them in front of us to lure us into temptation. We in our foolishness stumble right into the trap time and time again. We struggle against it. We fight. We battle our hardest to keep the devil and our own sinful flesh at bay. We feel like we are going to be overcome, like the battle is more than we can handle.

And guess what has just happened. The devil, God's fiercest and most bitter enemy has just reminded you of your weakness. He has just reminded you of how much you need God. He has just driven you back to God. He has driven you to church, back to the place where God has promised to strengthen you in your fight with sin. Back to the place where God has promised to clean you from the filth that has stained during the battle. He has driven you back into the bible, so that you can draw strength during those times of struggle. The enemy has unwittingly acted as the servant of the one he most despises.

And what of those times that we actually give in? What happens when we realize that we have fallen into the trap and and lazily allowed ourselves to be taken? We repent. Yes! Immediately we repent and turn from the sin. We begin to struggle and fight and kick so that we will not be taken.

But even then we look to Jesus. Because while we have acted in our own best interest, while the pain and frustration of the fight has not been worth it to us, while we have looked to please our own skin rather than risk shedding our blood we thank God that he sent Jesus for us.

While our struggling has at times been painful and uncomfortable, while it has at times gotten the better of us, we are not dead yet. And thanks to Jesus we know that we never will be. Thanks to Jesus, who did shed his blood. Who was overcome. Who was killed and destroyed, our sin is forgiven. Jesus washes every sin away. And Jesus makes us clean.

The hope of the Unshakable Kingdom

As we struggle in our lives, the struggle can be intense and it can be frustrating. It can be stressful. But God gives to us hope. That while we struggle against these temptations they are struggles against things that are temporary. They are struggles against things that won't last. There is no struggle in this world that will last beyond this life. It doesn't matter what it is.

As we have been discussing things that people struggle with this morning, perhaps something has come into your mind that you struggle with. Something that is troubling for you that leads you into sin and temptation. Maybe it drags you down and overwhelms you. Maybe it there are times that it consumes you and is all that you can think about. Maybe you find yourself praying that God would just take it away because your life would be so much better and easier without it.

Maybe instead of worrying about it so much you should instead be grateful for it. Pray that God would give you his grace to help you endure it. Pray that God would keep you from being overcome by it. Trust that God has done and will do exactly what you have prayed for. And then, and this is hard, pray to God a prayer of thanksgiving. Thank God that he loved you enough to allow you to struggle. Thank God that he has blessed you with this thorn in the flesh. Thank God that he has not allowed you to be deceived by the illusion of your own strength. Thank God that he has reminded you of your weakness. Remember. This world is characterized by its weakness. Everything is temporary. Everything has its expiration date. Everything will come to an end. It will all one day burn up and be no more than a pile of ash. But not you. You have the promise of a kingdom that is unshakable and indestructible. You have the hope that because of the word of God you will live forever. You will not be overcome. You will not be overwhelmed. You will not be destroyed.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, [13] and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Pentecost 11 - Luke 12:22-40

So what kinds of things do you worry about? Jesus mentions many of these things in our text this morning; things like food and clothing, or health and well being - we all worry about these sorts of things all the time. But what do you worry about? Perhaps you worry about whether or not you will be able to pay your bills. Whether your job will pay you enough to enable you to maintain your current standard of living. Maybe you are worried about taxes, about the rising price of gasoline.

Perhaps you worry about the weather, whether or not it will rain, how much it will rain, whether or not the rain will be enough to help your crops to grow.

Perhaps you are worried about the new school year that is coming up – maybe your a teacher beginning a new year with new students. Maybe you are a student going into a new class with new classmates, maybe to a new school, maybe going away to college for the first time. Maybe you are a parent worried about sending your son or daughter to a new school with new challenges and new temptations.

Perhaps you are someone who is very conscientious and at times conscious of what others think. Maybe you are worried about what others think, about their perception of you, whether or not they like you, whether or not they approve of you, your personality, the way you look, the way you act.

Perhaps you are worried about your health and well being, or that of those who you love. Maybe you are worried about sicknesses, pandemics, the upcoming cold and flu season, cancer.

Maybe you are worried about accidental disasters that occur. Maybe your worried about causing some sort of calamity or being the victim of one. Maybe you are worried about war and terrorism. Maybe you are worried about national or even global politics and the upcoming election and the effect that it will have on our culture and society.

This is a long list of things to worry about. We could go on. Maybe we have covered a few of the things that you worry about. We could probably list off lots more. There are lots of things that people become anxious about.

To all of us who are worriers about anything at any time, Jesus says the same thing to all of us. Jesus says “Do not worry.” Do not worry! Stop worrying. Don't do it. And what's more, Jesus is not just encouraging us not to worry. He is not just saying, “Listen everything is going to be fine you really don't need to stress out so much.” Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Lord of the Church is commanding us not to worry! Just like when you send your kids off to school and tell them to do their homework, listen to their teacher, get along with the other students; Jesus is giving instructions that he expects us to obey. Not options, not soft words of encouragement – commands. Don't worry!

That presents us with a problem – doesn't it? After all, how often are we guilty of that very thing. How often are we guilty of disobeying this command, breaking his command and committing this very sin. We do it all the time. We seem to be doing it more and more. We are constantly and continually finding something to worry about, something to be anxious about. We are continually disobeying Jesus and allowing our anxiety to distract us from the one thing that is needful (as Jesus defines it here) that is, seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness.

As Jesus gives the command that we are not to be anxious, he does so in full knowledge of the problem that worry presents for us. Jesus knows us. He sees our hearts and he knows the thoughts in our minds and in our hearts and he sees the damage and the danger that anxiety presents for us.

Now, when we talk about worry or anxiety, it is important to acknowledge that there are two different kinds of anxiety that the bible identifies. Not all worry is the same and not all worry is sin. There is a righteous anxiety and there is a sinful anxiety. The Greek word that is used here can have two different senses to it, depending on how it is used. In 2 Corinthians, Paul says that he is burdened with anxiety for the spiritual well being of his children in Christ. He is moved to anxiety because he knows of the trying times, the testing and temptations, that they are enduring. He is anxious for them that they stand up under the strain of the temptation and not be lead away into sin and apostasy. This righteous anxiety is anxiety and concern for the well being of others, especially (and this is important) as it relates to their place in the Kingdom of Christ. We are called upon to be looking out for the spiritual care of our Christian brothers and sisters, and of our own children. We should be praying for their faith and salvation. We should be praying for them fervently and ceaselessly. This is godly and righteous.

So, for example, when Paul became aware that the Christians in Corinth were suffering, when he heard about their temptations and their sin he became anxious for them. He was burdened with his concern for them. If you know that a friend is going through a difficult time, if you were worried and concerned and anxious for them as they went through their struggle, if you were worried because you want them to be okay, if you were afraid that their struggle might lead them away from the kingdom of God, then your anxiety is righteous. You need to pray to God for this person.

This godly anxiety is not the kind of anxiety that Jesus is talking about, however. What Jesus is talking about is a selfish anxiety. He is talking about an anxiety that is focused on me, on my own health, my own happiness. My own level of comfort, my reputation, my career, what I eat, what I wear. My house and transportation, my life. This kind of anxiety is sin. Jesus tells us that the pagans run after these things. Jesus tells us that our heavenly father who loves us and cares for us knows that we need them he will provide them for us beyond even what we need. Jesus gives evidence. He says, “Consider the wildflowers that grow out in the fields. Consider their delicate beauty and rich color. Even King Solomon, the wealthiest king in the history of the Nation of Israel was not dressed as richly as the grass that is here today and gone tomorrow,” God takes care of his creation. If this is how God takes care of things that are as insignificant and unimportant as grass, how more will he care for you!

We have mentioned so far that some anxiety is godly and some is sinful. You might be wondering how do you tell the difference. How do you know if your anxiety is godly anxiety or if it is worldly, pagan anxiety, Here is the test: Jesus commands us in conjunction with the command not to worry to, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.” Our first and foremost, our primary goal and concern should be the kingdom of God. It should be the salvation of our souls, of our own and that of our family members, our neighbors, even the entire world. It should be faithful worship of God. It should be right and true understanding of the Bible. We might ask ourselves if our worry is related to Christ and his kingdom. Paul's anxiety was. He was worried for his spiritual sons and daughters. He was worried that they remain faithful in their times of testing. He was worried that they be preserved from those things that would pull them away from faith and salvation.

The blessing of our text is that Jesus knows our hearts and he knows our worries. He knows that we are tempted to ungodly and sinful worry. He knows that we struggle with the worry, whether godly or ungodly, and it is his desire to comfort us in all our worry. And so he does.

If your anxiety is godly and righteous anxiety – if you are anxious for your own salvation as you are tempted and tested or if your are worried for the spiritual health of a friend or neighbor as they undergo some kind of difficulty, then Jesus offers to us wonderful words of comfort.

I had a conversation over the week with someone who was remarking about all of the evil that exists in the world today. Between the trash that is on the television, in the movie theaters, in the lyrics of the songs on popular radio, and floating around on the Internet what chance do kids have to grow up to live godly lives? Indeed we are seeing the effects of these sins in the rate of addiction to drugs and alcohol, to pornography, in the rate of divorce and children born to single parents, in the acceptance of the gay lifestyle, in the number of sexual predators. Raising a child to adulthood and sending them off to make their way in the world is a scary proposition.

But who is holding our children in His hands? As we worry about our children or our friends and neighbors for that matter, and as we worry about the testing and temptations that they are sure to undergo, as we pray fervently for them, for their health and for their faith, they are entrusted to the care of the God who as Jesus says here, wants to give to them the kingdom. It is God's “good pleasure” to give them His kingdom. He desires that they be faithful. He desires that they remain in the faith. He desires that they receive salvation. He desires that they inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Our bible class has been talking about the doctrine of election or predestination. This biblical teaching is given to us to comfort us in these very circumstances. God wants us to be sure of our salvation so he reveals to us that our salvation is God's choice – it is his electing, He makes it his job to bring us to faith and then to preserve us in that faith. He does it wholly and completely. Therefore we don't have to worry – about ourselves or about our children or grandchildren. No matter what horror we have to endure in this world, no matter how faithless our hearts might be – The God who has elected us will bring us into the inheritance that he has prepared for us. What a blessing! In spite of our worry, we can be sure that the God who baptized our children will go with them off to school, off to high school, off to college, off to their first job, or out on their first drive or worse on their first date!

But that has only covered the righteous anxiety. What about the unrighteous anxiety? What about those sins that we have committed as we have in a fit of idolatry put our own comfort or happiness or well being, our own selfishness above God's call to be servants to him and to our neighbors? What about the horrible and idolatrous sin of worry?

Know this: when you worry, when you sin against God in your self worship – seeking first the cares and concerns of this world, when you sin against your neighbor by denying to him the service that he so desperately needs from you by keeping for yourself your time and your treasures because you are worried that there isn't enough of you and your possessions to go around that God forgives that sin. Confess that sin. Repent of that sin. Do not let it tear you away from the kingdom of heaven, do not let it distract you from seeking first that kingdom and the righteousness that God has called you to. And know that your sins have been forgiven. More than that, when you worry, when you are anxious, know that Jesus himself is worried for you. Know that he has felt for you a deeper worry than you have ever felt or have ever known. Know that He has gotten down on his knees to pray for you with groans that words cannot express. Know that he has felt this anxiety and worry for you so deeply. Know that he was not just worried sick, Jesus was worried to death – literally. In his worry for you, in his anxiety for you, he died – it cost him his life. He worried until there was nothing left for him to do than to pay for your sin of worry with his own flesh and blood. Jesus worried himself all the way to the cross so that your sin of worry would never be able to keep you from enjoying the kingdom that he has prepared for you.

Jesus has called us to a life that is free from worry. He has called us to throw our worry and anxiety on him because he cares for us. But even when we have failed, even when we feel that have been overcome with worry, we will not be. Because Jesus was overcome for us.

Amen.

Now may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

C - Pentecost 10 - Ecclesaistes 2:18-26

Vanity of vanities. Says the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. And so begins the book of Ecclesiastes. It begins with the statement that everything in life is hollow and lacks any meaning or purpose.

That might seem like a bleak picture, and were it not for the grace of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ it would be. Apart from Jesus, this world is filled with hollow and shallow things, that if disconnected from the God who gives them and creates them, they would are exactly that – they are hollow. They are vain. They are meaningless.

Our Old Testament lesson for today is from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. While the book doesn't specifically say who the author is, it is widely assumed that the book was written by King Solomon.

If you will remember, Solomon became king after his father David. When Solomon took over the throne the Lord came to him and promised to give to him anything that he would ask for. Solomon could have asked for great wealth or long life or the defeat of his enemies but instead of all of these things he asked God to give to him wisdom. God promised to give Solomon wisdom that surpassed that of any who had ever lived because his request was pleasing to God, God also granted to him those other things as well. God made Solomon exceedingly wealthy and powerful in addition to granting him wisdom. The bible record the story of the queen who traveled a great distance to see Solomon because she had heard rumors of his great wealth and the beauty of Jerusalem. As she was preparing to leave she commented that his wealth was even greater and Jerusalem more beautiful than what she had heard.

During his lifetime, Solomon had been greatly blessed by God – the legend of his wealth and his notoriety can attest to that. He had great wealth and wisdom and power. By earthly standards Solomon was someone to look up to. And while he is renowned for his wisdom, and while his request for wisdom from God is notable, the life that was chosen by Solomon was less than notable. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was no different from the rest of us. Solomon, just like you and me, was plagued by old-fashioned-same-as-everyone-else unfaithfulness and sin.

In the first 2 chapters of Ecclesiastes, Solomon outlines the details of his life. Solomon tells us that he kept from himself nothing that he desired. He indulged in food and drink, he built for himself nice homes and planted them with lush gardens, he surrounded himself with male and female slaves, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, anything that he might desire he had. Yet after achieving all of this and after indulging himself with all of this, he concluded that all of these things were no more than a striving after the wind.

Having found no satisfaction in pleasure, he next devoted himself to hard work and to toil. In his hard work and labor he became famous and made a name for himself. He fame and renown was widespread. Yet in spite of his notoriety, he discovered that this too was hollow. He describes it also as vanity.

Finally he set his sights on wisdom. He devoted himself to the pursuit of wisdom and the application of wisdom. He saw that wisdom was better than foolishness, but still even wisdom was meaningless and vain because in the end, both the wise man and the foolish man die. It did not matter, for all of the things that this world has to offer, that Solomon devoted himself to possessing and achieving, in the end, they are all alike, they are all meaningless and vain.

The irony with all of this is that the world that God made is not meaningless. If you read the Genesis account of the creation, after every day of that very first week God stopped, looked at what he had made and he commented “it is good.” God did not make his creation to be meaningless. He did not make work to be a burden or toilsome. He did not make life on this world to be vain and pointless. God made his creation to be good.

The preacher of our text is commenting on the reality of living in a sinful and fallen world; that is, living in a world that has changed from the way that God made it. When God made this world our work was to be a joy. Our toil under the sun was designed to make us rejoice and be glad and fulfilled. It is only due to sin that lives in us and that lives in the world that our work becomes meaningless.

Solomon worked hard in his life. He achieved many things. Israel became a great nation under his direction. But Solomon was a sinful man. He was lead astray by his pagan wives. God had commanded that Israelites not marry these pagan women because he knew that their false gods would tempt his people to wander from the truth. This is exactly what Solomon did. He began to participate in the worship of these false gods. He constructed holy places and temples for these false gods .Solomon, in spite of his great wisdom and understanding fell prey to foolishness and he became yet another victim of our fallen sinful human nature.

Taking note of Solomon's error provides a warning for us – sometimes Christians believe that if they obtain wisdom, if they have lots of discernment and spiritual insight, that will keep them from wandering from the faith. Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived – if wisdom was going to save anyone it should have been him, yet he was no more wise than any one of us – he was just as foolhardy a sinner as we are. Faithfulness to God has nothing to do with how wise we are and how much we know and how diligently we study. Faithfulness to God has everything to do with recognizing our inherent meaninglessness, our weakness and foolishness because of our sin, confessing that sin and receiving from God his forgiveness and salvation.

While it might sound strange to say it, Our faithfulness is God's work. He leads us to repent of our sin. He leads us to his word and sacraments where we receive forgiveness for our sin. He leads us to the salvation that he bought and paid for when he died for our sins on the cross.

Solomon was exactly right as he wrote the words of our text – everything that we might pursue under the sun that is separate from Jesus is meaningless. It earns us temporary fame and fortune but in the end we still die.

This is essentially the point of the parable that Jesus tells in our Gospel reading, the Parable of The rich fool. Jesus tells the story of a man who was very prosperous. His land had produced a large crop for him and so in his pride and in his greed he decided that he would simply store up his wealth and keep it for himself. Then one night God came to the man and said to him, “You fool, this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” And Jesus concludes. “So is the one who lays up treasures in heaven for himself and is not rich toward God.“ The wealth and prosperity that people spend their days chasing after doesn't do you a bit of good when you are standing before the judgment seat of God.

While all of these things, apart from faith are meaningless, that is not to say that they have no value. This is not to say that our lives, the work that we do, the places we go, the lives we enjoy are worthless. On the contrary! They have great worth and great value. However we must understand them and make use of them according to their God given design and purpose.

Again, like we have already said, we are sinners. Everything that we say and do, every minute of every day, we live with the fact that we are sinners, that our sin follows us around and ruins everything that we do or that we try to do. We live in the this world that God made and we just want to use it and enjoy it; but because of that sin, our use of God creation and our enjoyment of it is always damaged. So we keep that in mind. We begin every day with that thought – we confess our sin to God every morning.

And what is so beautiful is that every morning God grants to us forgiveness. Every morning God says to us your sins are forgiven. You are set free from your failures. God remembers the sacrifice of Jesus for us on the cross. God remembers that Jesus bled and died in our place on the cross. God remembers that Jesus paid the full price for our sins and so God says to us your sins have been forgiven. We are set free to live our day in joy that has been bought and paid for by Jesus.

If all you had was a job that you went to every day, earned a pay, check that was divvied up between your bills, your taxes and your other expenses, you would work hard, by the sweat of your brow come home at the end of the day. Suppose you did that day in and day out for your entire working career and as you were preparing to retire you would look back at the end of your life and wonder what the point of it all had been. If you worked just for the sake of your paycheck you might conclude that it all had been meaningless.

Now on the flip side, suppose you are a redeemed child of God. He has set you aside to spend eternity in heaven with him in paradise, where you will eat at his heavenly banquet table, where you will sleep in a room prepared for you in his mansion, where you will live as a prince or princess in his heavenly kingdom. This is your guaranteed inheritance that he has given to you. In the meantime, as you are waiting to receive your promised inheritance, he calls you to work for him in his kingdom here on earth. He prepares for you work to be done and asks you to do this work in his name and for his honor. You are a part of his kingdom working for his purpose with his .

Suddenly your work is no longer mundane. It is no longer purposeless or vanity or meaningless. It is a joy to work. It is a joy to serve. It is a joy to wake up every morning go and do the things that God has given to be done. Because God has called us to it and because God works through us to care for those who need to be cared for.

As Solomon looked back at his life, he saw that where he had wandered from God he found nothing worthwhile. It was frustrating for him and lacked meaning and purpose. When he came to his senses he realized the gift that God had given to him in calling him to his work.

“ There is nothing better for a person,” wrote Solomon, “than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, [25] for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”

As we live our lives in faith, God provides for us the work to be done and rewards us with joy while we do it.