[Ecclesiastes] Recalibrate Your Inner Compass | Benny Ho

good morning everyone and special welcome to those of you who join us online even though you're online i don't get to see all of you but i we all consider you a part of our family uh here in fcc as long as you're tuning in regularly to observe and and to to join us in our service are you ready for god's word this morning okay you're ready you know how many of you enjoyed pasadena's preaching last week when he talked about life and the unpredictability of life and all that and it's beautiful and we particularly love the fact that he tell all of us to go out and enjoy our meals enjoy our relationships enjoy our marriage and i know many of you are living it up out there okay and today i'm going to pick up where pasadena has left off and i am going to share something which i've entitled recalibrating your inner compass and it's actually going to be something that is tied up to what president took us last week now let me introduce my subject this way before i read you the word i first told my family that i am going to answer a call to full-time christian ministry when i was about 22 or 23 years old and i remember if i if i remember it correctly i actually did it during a family gathering where all the extended family were there my uncle aunties and all i think it was chinese new year gathering of salt and that was when i first made my announcement i'm going to become a pastor and immediately after i make the announcement one of my uncles who is a businessman pulled me aside and gave me a pep talk okay and the pep talk goes something like this he says benny why do you want to do this are you stupid or what go and make money while you're young religion can come when you retire now that's the typical mindset of this pragmatic world where we we somehow believe that the race is all will always belong to the fastest the smartest you know the strongest the riches we always think that way there's a basic philosophy that drives society today and there's nothing wrong with all of that there's nothing wrong with what we being strong or being smart of course we want we want to have all that but to think that the answer to life is just make sure that we are aggressive to make sure we are strong and smart and rich is that the answer to life ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 11 and 12 that i'm going to bring you to actually alluded to this idea and then you poke holes at it okay so i'm going to invite you now to go with me to look at ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 11 and 12 where the wise men open our eyes to see another perspective that there are times when we need to expect the unexpected okay so you go to me now ecclesiastes chapter 9 i read for you the next two verses picking up from where pasuden left off listen to this ecclesiastes 9 verse 11 i have seen something else under the sun the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to be learned to the learner but time and chance happen to them all moreover no one knows when their hour will come and by this is referring to death okay we never know when your hour will come as fish are caught in a cruel net or birds are taken in a snare so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them let's bow we have a quick word of prayer father i thank you for your word that week to week nourishes us and instructs us it gives us perspective of life from you not just from us but god you allow us to your word to have a perspective of life that goes beyond our finite understanding so i invite you this this out this morning to come and speak to us and allow your word to inspire us and to instruct us in jesus name we pray amen now before i open up those scriptures for you i need you to understand that these two verses in ecclesiastes chapter 9 is what we will call a transitional passage it is a passage that acts like a pivot you know to help us transit from one train of thought to another that seemingly appears to be disconnected or to be contradictory but actually they are not okay and sometimes you know when people are talking you can find that they make one point and then they make another point the two points don't actually connect but actually they do connect but what we need is something to transit us from one thought to another so what is happening here is this remember last week president told us right into chris eckley chapter 9 verse 1 to 10 the the main thing that the author was was teaching us is this that in the light of the fact that life is short life is so short so enjoy your meals enjoy your marriage enjoy your relationship live it up and what he's saying is almost like from verse 1 to 10 the wise man was telling us that that we need to live life to the limits you know have a blast while it lasts and then you notice from verse 13 onwards you read the rest of verse 13 onwards he begin to tell us another idea the idea is this life is short we also need to live it wisely don't just live it up but leave it wisely and that two ideas seems almost contradictory it seems disconnected so he used ecclesiastes 9 verse 11 and 12 which i'm going to unpack for you this morning to help us transit from the first idea that president alluded to and then next week we're going to talk about leaving wisely that pastor amos is going to take us into but these are the transition that take us in okay and he give us a certain context so that we can see how the two connect and the context basically is this that yes live life to the limits enjoy life but at the same time be wise sleep wisely why because man is not fully in charge that's the idea man is not fully in charge we are not the masters of our own faith we are not the captains of our own soul we are not totally in in control of everything in life how many of you agree with that right we are not totally in control in life can hand us all kinds of things a curved ball can come from anywhere and just when you think everything is going well boom a cup ball can come something unexpected happen and boom everything can change and people understand that and therefore we need to make sure in the light of all this in the light of where anything can happen in light of this we need to make sure that our inner compass the inner compass of our heart is oriented to the right purpose and then our lives can be lived wisely and to help us understand this the wise man points out two things in verse 11 and 12 that can give us a better perspective a more whole wholesome perspective to life and the two things he instructs us today is this number one the means of life we cannot presume first thing he teaches is this the means of life that god has given to us or the means of life that we can attain we cannot presume on them look at verse 11 i have seen something else under the sun the race is not the slave or the battle to the strong nor does food come to the wise or well to the brilliant of favor to the learner but time and chance watch this time and chance happen to them all now when you read this in the english sometimes it doesn't kick it doesn't spring out as much but when you look at the hebrew text in hebrew language they have a lot of focus on emphasis you know when you read the hebrew text certain words are emphasized and those emphasis give us an idea of what the author is saying so when you look at this verse verse 11 in the hebrew text the emphasis is on the little word no not not not or no the niv translation don't capture it as well i show you the king james version it put it clearer it goes like this the race is not that's the emphasis it's not to the sweep nor the battle to the strong no bread to the to the wise nor riches to men of understanding no favor to men or skill in other words what the wise man is saying is this and don't miss this what the wise man is saying is this success is not what you think it is get me the emphasis is on this that is all these are our definitions of success but he says no success is not what you think it is the pragmatists want us to believe that the race is always the fastest the strongest the smartest the richest but that's not always true many people put our trust in our health our wealth our wit our wisdom but are undependable why because life is unpredictable life is not we are not in control life is not predictable curveballs can come from everywhere stuff can happen in life if you don't believe us muhammad ali three times world boxing champion when i was growing up he was like every one of us well my generation we look forward to watch him in his in in in in the ring you know in his heydays you remember pasa chinglai surely will remember this we even this guy was so well known he was so respected we even have a song written about him that goes like this he stings he danced like a butterfly he stings like a bee remember that song it was about this man in the ring you know he made boxing such an art in such an art form that when he's in the ring they said he dances like a butterfly he thinks like a bee but now then what happened he was stricken all of a sudden with parkinson's disease and he ended up he cannot even speak without slurring in an interview that he did near the end of his life he said this you know i had the world at my feet at one time but look at me now i have absolutely nothing to show for it anything can happen life is unpredictable we are not in control max lucado the famous christian altar was the one who coined this phrase i liked very much he said the pole of power is greasy i like that the pole of power is greasy you know we struggle to climb all the way to the top oh it's super juicy it's so greasy you can just fall down all just like that in one instance and we have all seen in life right the fastest runner sometimes can lose the race also the weaker players can end up winning the game some of the best football teams they don't make it to the finals why because life is unpredictable do all do the best team always win no do the smartest people make the most money all the time not necessarily in fact you can be smart very smart and i put you in a country where the economy is struggling you you may not survive as well but on the counter you know just thinking about this season and the country if you got some money in the last six to nine months all you need to do is release all the technology stocks you know on the paper you pin it on a dart board you stand in the distance you take darts and throat wherever the dart lane you just buy the company most likely you make some money already does that mean that you're the smartest investor maybe not you just happened to be the right place at the right time it just so happened that kovic 19 has drove the market down and then all the government handout had drove the market back up and you just happened to land there are you with me just life is not always about us the wise men put it this way you know he said time and chance happened to them all and that word chance in the hebrew hd paga which actually means in this context unfavorable circumstance that are unforeseen that unfavorable things unforeseen circumstances can happen to every one of us and it does not matter if we are swift or strong or smart or skillful time and chance can overtake us all now please understand i'm not saying therefore we should not seek to be stronger or smarter or wiser of course we want all this but the point i'm making is this sometimes the smart can make the most of time and procedure remember two weeks ago we talked about this there's a proper time and procedure and the smart knows how to make the use of it the devices know how to make use of it but only god is in control of time and chance men can if we as if we if we live wisely we are smart we actually can make the best of time and procedure and processes but only god controls time and chance and in the light of the uncertainties of life our aim in life is now not just to do the things that will make us the fastest and the strongest and the smartest but we need to ask ourselves why are we doing what we are doing with me it's not just about what i'm doing but why am i doing what i'm doing we cannot depend on the means of life to make ourselves the greatest and the best but we need to go deeper and actually ask ourselves what is the meaning of all this otherwise we will end up with greater means in life but we don't have meaning to live for you know it's easy to increase our means for making a living and then we don't actually have the meaning of life and then we miss the plot it's not just about having increased means of living but more importantly it is to know the meaning of life you know it's so easy for every one of us to end up just enjoying uh ourselves by doing what we want eat drink and be merry but we have never really enjoyed life the life that god actually ordained for us but we just end up enjoying the things of life but we don't really end up living the life that god intended for us and how many of you agree you cannot how can you enjoy life unless you first know what life is all about and how can you know what life is all about unless we first know god the giver of life it starts there by knowing who god is he's the giver of life and then we will know the meaning of life and so you listen to this statement which i like very much too many people live life with a clock but not a compass can i say it again too many people live life with a clock but not a compass the clock actually speaks of our commitment it speaks about appointments you speak of our goals our schedules our activities our pursuits know what to do and when to do them that's the clock okay but we need a compass the campus speaks of our purpose it speaks about vision it speaks about direction or mission of values so the clock actually details the what and the when but it is the compass that actually defines the why why am i doing all this stuff that i'm doing you know so you live by the clock then you know okay tomorrow i got to do this tuesday i got to do that you know so you got all your activities lined up you got all these schedules that you had to follow all these things that you had to do but only the compass the inner compass of our heart tell us why we do all this stuff are you with me we don't just want to end up going running around with just the clock without a compass when there's a gap between the clock and the compass we end up doing things that do not necessarily contribute to our sense of calling and destiny that god has given to us you see and and this is when we begin once as a gap between the the clock and the compass that's when we begin to feel a sense of lostness you know we begin to have this deep feeling of dissatisfaction and sometimes emptiness you know life becomes mechanical life becomes meaningless we end up busy but we are not quite sure what we're busy about because there isn't that compass we only got a clock so we got a calendar that is full but we don't have a compass that is clear and i think that's an important thing to look at therefore it's very important examine our purpose what is the meaning behind everything that we do why do we do what we do this is what gives us a sense of purpose and destiny and we live life with the once you live life with a clear inner compass calibrated to the call of god for our life then i think we begin to carry out our clock with a whole lot more meaning so rather than just to seek to be the richest faster stronger smartest more importantly we ask ourselves am i living according to god's will and purpose for my life am i living by the clock or am i living by the compass am i just driven by my schedules on the outside or am i really driven by a sense of destiny on the inside that's an important question the means of life we cannot presume because they can come and go but the second thing the wise men tell us is this the mortality of life we cannot predict the mortality of life how long it's like going to last no one can predict look at verse 12 now he goes on to say this moreover no man knows when his hour will come as fish are caught in a cruel net or birds are taken in in the trap so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them here the wise man goes on to tell us about the mortality of human life and how many of you do agree right that no one none of us here knows when death described here as evil times will actually come upon us and in the light of this we must not only enjoy life which is what we learn from verse 1 to 10 but we must also do so with eternity in mind you got to enjoy life but do it with eternity in mind and the wise man here reminds us death is not only certain for all men but it can also be sudden for some right death is not only certain for every one of us but for some of us there can be sudden so the wise man goes on to give us two illustrations to illustrate the idea that that death can be sudden he brings out two things number one fish that is caught in the net and the second is birds that are caught in a trap now we all know right no fish ever anticipate to be caught in the net no no um no birth is ever anticipated to be to be trapped you know this is sudden it's the emphasis is of above these pictures uh in the suddenness that caught them it's a curveball the unexpectedness of it all and in the same way men also things unexpected things can happen to us there for some come very suddenly too okay so you look at james chapter 4 verse 13 to 15. listen to what james says here now listen you who said today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city spend a year there carry on business make money why you don't even know what will happen tomorrow what is your life you're a mist that appears for a little while havel right and then it vanishes but instead you ought to say if it is the lord's will we will live and do this or that the suddenness of things we are not in control of everything and that's why we need to live life not just fully but also wisely we don't just want to live it up but we also need to live it right we don't just want to live vigorously but we also want to live righteously so two things he give to us the means of life you cannot presume they come and go and the mortality of life you cannot predict because we never know the unexpected can happen okay now in the light of this since we cannot presume on the means of life we cannot predict the mortality of life what then should men do and this is the main lesson i want to leave with you jeremiah 9 verse 23 to 24 listen to the words of the prophet and i think it's so good it says let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boasts of his strength or the rich man both of his riches but let him who both boasts about this that he understands and knows me that i am the lord who exercises kindness justice righteousness on earth for in this i delight the answer to life is not to boast you know in our wisdom or our wealth or all this but the answer is to boast in the fact that we know god we know god and once we know god the giver of life we will have an understanding of the meaning of life and once you know the meaning of life that's when you can understand the purpose of life you see when when god measures the word of a man you look at what jeremiah says right when god matches the word of a man he does not base it on prosperity or posterity how long you live but not on power he never gauges the greatness of human life just based on performance and possession of position of prestige all these are just means okay we by which men measure success in this world but how does god measure success and i've been and i've seen so many different definitions but i was surprised to actually find one that i really like in it it's not it's actually found in webster's dictionary let me tell you a little bit about this and this is a interesting discovery for me uh webster's dictionary actually give a very very good definition of success and uh but before i tell you what it is um let me just share with you how webster came up with this brilliant definition here's here's the story behind the story okay it's interesting that the person who gave us webster's dictionary is a guy by the name of noah webster and noah webster actually became a christian somewhere along in his journey of life he became a christian very devoted one and after he came to christ he wanted to contribute to society by guarding the meaning of words and the reason is because he knew that once the meaning of words are distorted ideas will also become distorted so he is very convinced about that if you let a meaning of a word gets distorted the ideas will get distorted so he wanted to protect the meaning of words so in his dictionary watch this dictionary he defines success as this and i think it really captured the meaning of the word and it goes like this he said success is the favorable or prosperous termination of anything attempted a termination which answers the purpose intended now of course this is written long time ago so the language is a big arcade but the idea is good it goes like this the fake what is success it is the favorable or prosperous termination that means it's a good outcome okay that's success a good outcome of anything attempted but he added this line an outcome which answers the purpose intended don't miss this it's a good outcome but it is a good outcome that answers the intended purpose so you notice that webster did not define success in terms of performance it's not a performance or position word but he defines it as a purpose word that's very important it's rooted in purpose it's not just rooted in purely in success in in performance it's not rooted in the final position we are in it is rooted in purpose that's why we will never hear god say to us well done thou good and faithful ceo no it's not going to be like that it's not rooted in a position or even a performance is rooted ultimately in the sense of purpose you see so but god will always judge a man by his purpose success is measured by that the question to ask therefore for all of us listen brothers and sisters don't miss this the question to us therefore is not are you successful but the question to us is what are you succeeding in what are you succeeding at that's the question one can appear successful but if we have sacrificed the things that matters most at the author of success then we actually could be a failure you know i could actually end up being the a billionaire but if i have sacrificed my family on the altar of that success i'm actually a failure are you with me ultimately it's rooted in purpose so if i can turn out to be the my business can really prosper but if i have sacrificed my integrity to gain that success then actually i'm not a successful person i'm actually a failure why because it's rooted ultimately in purpose see you can be a billionaire you can be a ceo a businessman a janitor a cleaner or even just a car park attendant if we take our job and we consecrate our vocation to god and we we if i'm a cook if i'm cooking for the glory of god i'm cooking with god in my heart then you know what you are successful not because your position or your performance but because of your purpose whatever god has given to me in my role in life be it a a businessman or or a plumber or whatever it is as long as i'm doing it i have a sense of call from god i think that's where it's rooted in it's not rooted in just performance opposition but because of your purpose so i ask you today brothers and sisters what is your purpose in your life for whom are you living this life for what are you living this life you know i speak to all kinds of people and i relate to all kinds of leaders if i speak to a relational person at the end of that conversation i will walk away feeling like people is the most important thing if i speak to a task oriented person i walk away feeling like results is the most important thing if i speak to someone who is meticulous or very detailed i walk away feeling like details is the thing man you got to get the details right you know if i speak to a visionary you know someone that's very dreamy has a lot of vision and plans and purposes i walk away feeling like the mission the project you know that that cost is very very important important and i speak to a businessman you can walk away feeling like money is the thing you got to make profits i wonder if you speak to jesus what would you walk away with have you ever asked yourself you know we talk to all kinds of people we walk away feeling like the most important thing is this or that if you talk to jesus and you walk away what do you think is really utmost in his mind now of course i believe that people is important to christ i believe that you know the cause is important to christ that's why we have the great commission and all that right i believe that results is important to christ he's he's he's he's he's able to do many many things but when i look at his life there is one thing that supersedes them all more than results more than people more than anything one thing really stands out in the life of our lord jesus you know what that is i believe it is the will of god it is the will of god the one thing that drives the life of our lord jesus it boils down to this what is the will of god for me and jesus said it you know himself in john 6 38 he said this my me is to do the will of the father who sent me that's a starting point and with that you know jesus he knew the will of the father for him was to go to the cross so that redemption can come to mankind so what did he do with his life he set his face like a flint towards jerusalem and he walked towards it the moment his ministry was inaugurated he set his way to jerusalem and he walked intentionally towards the will of the father took him three and a half years to get there but he got there and in the end did what the father wanted him to do that was his the purpose of his life hello got me that was the purpose of his life and all of his life was surrounded by one thing i want to do the will of the father and the apostle paul put it this way in philippians 3 verse 13 and 14 this one thing i do forgetting what is behind straining towards what is ahead i press on towards the goal to win the price for which god had called me heavenward in christ jesus is about the will of god what does god want for me king david put it this way in psalms 27 4. one thing i ask of the lord this is what i seek that i may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life no wonder he became the man after god's own heart he said to gaze upon the beauty of the lord to seek him in his temple no wonder they call him the psalmist of israel that was the one thing that drives him mary shared the same purpose luke 10 36 right martha martha the lord answered you are worried upset about many things but one thing is needed mary have chosen what is better and it shall not be taken away from her the primary focus of the believer ultimately revolves around glorifying god by doing the will of the father overarching thing i think is just love the lord love the lord seek the lord save the lost the great commandment the great commission and once we get that overarching thing seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness all these other things will be added unto us our purpose will then determine our destiny in life let me take all that and put it down to practical terms okay by this time you could be asking pastor bernie i agree with you the the primary superseding thing in my life must be to do the will of god but where do i start to discern god's purpose for my life where do i start to know the will of god now most of the time when we try to answer a question like that most of us will start you know so how do i know what is god's call for me most of us will start by looking inwardly at ourselves we ask questions like so what are my gift things no where are my strengths now what am i passionate about what are the desires of my heart now there's nothing wrong with asking those questions because they do point you in the right direction because our calling and our destiny cannot be divorced right from all this that form so much a part of us they are our inner wiring that which god put into us already so yes this is a good question to us they point us in the right direction but my point for all of us today is this listen to me that is not the starting point they are good question to us and we need to ask those questions that to ultimately discern god's will and purpose for our life but that is not the starting point where then is a starting point i believe the starting point to discerning god's view for our life is not by looking inward it is by looking upwards because ultimately ultimately my calling is not rooted in what i want for my life it is rooted in what god wants for my life how many of you were amen that it's not about what i want it's about what god wants and when you look upwards to jesus you find that he has this one overriding priority which is the will of god the will of god is of utmost importance to our lord jesus and it must be of utmost importance to all of us if you would begin the first thing we do to begin to search for that what is the what is god's call for me the starting point is this take the inner compass and oriented firstly to true north which is what i am here not to do my will i am here to do the will the father it starts here my utmost importance in my life is to do the will of god jesus defined it so definitively in john 4 34 my food said jesus is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work in other words my food my sustenance my fulfillment my passion my focus my calling is to do the will of my father whatever that will may be and it's so clear he says my the one overriding drive in my life is to do the will of god you know and it is pure i think it's unadulterated it is so simple it's so uncluttered you know it is so singular it's so uncompromised it's so simple what is your life for he bring it down to bare minimum my life is to do the will of god that's it's so simple to me but bear in mind simple doesn't mean easy it's simple but it's not not necessarily easy because sometimes god's will and our will can collide and when that collision takes place that's where we struggle and until we overcome until we come to that place of surrender and say god in the end not my will but you must be done jesus said his will to do the my food is to do the will of the father who sent me and to finish his work it's simple but it's not easy how do i know you read mark 14 36 in the garden of gethsemane he struggled with god literally did struggle so hard until blood came out of his and his blood came out like sweat all over him what a struggle it is he struggled so hard the capillary is broke you know and blood begins he sweated blood literally and he read mark 14 36 he said alba father everything is possible for you take this cup from me if at all possible please lord i don't want to do this he didn't go and enjoy the cross you understand he endured the cross but in the end he went through this struggle and he came through by saying yet not what i will but what you will not my will but yours be done you know in life there are many things i want but they don't happen in the end it's not what i want it's what god wants my dream you know when i first came out and studying and all that i want to be rich and i looked around and said there are only a few things that can get me there the best is businessman i always wanted to be a businessman i think i still got a little bit of debt inside me you know i want to be rich i want to be a businessman i really want to and there's nothing wrong with that in fact if there is god's desire for me for me gospel for me i think i'll make it well no i shouldn't say that a bit arrogant sorry but no online you know better but you get my point yeah i want to but that was not god's real for me in the end it's not about what i want it's what god wants you know and and it's one thing to know god's will it's quite another thing to do god's will it's one thing to seek god's will it's another thing to surrender myself to a point where i actually be surrendered to do his will and that's the truth and what a model our lord jesus left us you know when he willingly surrendered to the will of the father and he did it and to our lord jesus doing god's will is a paramount important and brothers and sisters we we in a disciple making church we need to understand this is the cornerstone of christian discipleship to do the will of god what is my life for what is your life for it is to do the will of god how do i know god's will it don't start by looking within ourselves it's not by looking inward you start by looking upwards you start by taking this heart or rent it back to god recalibrate it to true north and say god not my will but yours be done and until we have that posture of surrender and yieldedness you will never be able to discern what god wants for you that's the starting point oriented our hearts back to god my need is to do the will of the father who sent me and to finish his work amen why don't you stand together shall we thank you lord we take a few moments this morning just to come into the presence of god and i'd like us to just not move around for a while but just would you just stand in god's presence and do business with the lord this morning [Music] jesus said my meat my sustenance my passion my focus in life is to do the will of god who sent me and to finish his work whatever god has called you to do be it a businessman a lawyer you could be a dentist whatever god has called you to do you do it because he called you too and let it be your passion let it be your heart and let it be something that you would surrender to the lord for some of us here as i was preparing you could be struggling with some things that god has put on your heart for you to do and for you to obey it could be something in your marriage it could be something in your relationship something in your workplace it could be something for your own personal walk with god something that god is calling for and maybe this morning you will say god i come to this point but i will say not my will but yours be done and then i believe god is here to really enable you it is not by might not by power it's by the spirit it's the spirit of god that will give us the grace just like jesus did he struggled with the will of god until he broke through and said not my will but yours be done so would you just take a moment and let's worship the lord wherever you are just worship god so worship team leads us in a few moments i invite you come and do business with the lord thank you lord

Channel: Faith Community Church Perth

Views: 4,344

Rating: 4.9000001 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: IWJOp_CU3a8

Length: 42min 5sec (2525 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020