November 16, 2018, Sharing Recording:

All is Vanity

After reading the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes, we understand that all is vanity, a chasing after the wind. That's really what life is all about. What Solomon realised, Yi Zhongtian also realised ( *Note: Yi Zhongtian is a professor at Xiamen University and a well-known lecturer on Hundred Schools of Thought Forum). As a preacher, I once shared the Gospel with a friend, but he didn't listen much. He said that Yi Zhongtian preached well, and he had to watch a certain passage of Yi Zhongtian's speech repeatedly, saying it was particularly classic. I was very puzzled, what exactly did Yi Zhongtian say?

I carefully read one of his passages: When one is quiet, lying down and thinking carefully, it is really not easy to live in this world. Knowing that one will die in the future, one still has to work hard to live. What is the purpose of living a lifetime? The complex society, the elusive human heart, the concerns that cannot be let go, the experiences of joys and sorrows, the endless hardships, the insurmountable helplessness, the unforgettable yesterday, the busy today, the unimaginable tomorrow, and finally, one does not know where one will disappear one day. This is life.

I think this passage is well said, but the second half takes a turn, so no matter how busy or tired you are, don't forget to take care of yourself. Winter has arrived, the weather is cold, be sure to take good care of yourself! Life is like the weather, predictable, but often unexpected. Whether it is sunny or full of partings and reunions, a good mood is the only wealth in life that cannot be taken away. (Omitted) It turns out it is still about loving oneself, caring for the flesh. There is more to this passage, but I won't list them one by one.

What he said seems to make some sense, but can a good mood really be maintained? I don't think so. The first two chapters of Ecclesiastes mentioned that whether it is wisdom, foolishness, or arrogance, all are vanity. Vanity means meaningless. In the third chapter, the Preacher begins to say:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

What you say doesn't count, what I say doesn't count, it turns out that God has pre-arranged everything. Some of our brothers and sisters are busy making money, busy investing, busy building factories, and as a result, they owe a large debt. Then they come to me and ask me to pray for their business, making themselves very entangled and uncomfortable. What is the meaning of doing these things? Is it not possible not to do them? Tossing and turning like this, can they see through it?

God Created the Perfect Examination Room

Someone raised a very sharp question: God, why did you create these devils? The devil tempted people to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After people ate it, they died spiritually and lived extremely uncomfortably. Since all this is vanity, what is the meaning of living? The answer is the theme of the third chapter: God created the perfect examination room.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Brothers and sisters, learn to see through life, see through life and death, see through money, see through enjoyment, see through blessings, see through curses, but most importantly, see through what God is doing in this world. It turns out that God has set up a big examination room. Everything is arranged by God, and you have no way to change it.

In China, there is a term called Tianming ( 天命 ), which means that a person is destined to be the emperor. For example, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu fought for the world. Xiang Yu was powerful and extraordinary, but the world was taken by Liu Bang. It was Xiang Yu who defeated the Qin Dynasty, but it was Liu Bang who ultimately gained the world. Everyone should have heard the story of the Feast at Hong Gate, which was originally intended to kill Liu Bang, but no matter how carefully it was arranged, it did not succeed.

Many times you will find that things do not shift according to people's will. The affairs of the world are really difficult to figure out. It turns out that all of this is arranged by God and has little to do with what we do or don't do. This is the exam God gives us, the purpose is to sift out those who belong to God and sift out the garbage. This garbage is likely to be your relatives, they deliberately choose not to see through, and you don't need to be sad!

Learn to See Through Everything

I once gave my brothers and sisters homework and asked them to learn to be shrewd. I talked about many things, but I didn't talk about the most essential thing. The most essential thing is to see through everything. Money easily deceives a person. If you ask me to judge whether a person is foolish, I will look at his attitude towards money. Some people are so arrogant when they have a little money, and some people live like slaves when they have no money. How can these two kinds of people bear blessings? People who cannot see through are very foolish people.

I talked about the concept of core interests before. If a person's core interest is power, you must stay away from him, be careful he bites you. There was a sister who left the church called Little Chicken Leg, because she said it was better to gnaw on chicken legs than to eat cornbread. Humans know this, and beasts also know this. Are humans living for chicken legs, the same as beasts?

We used to have a puppy, a kind of beast, and I gave it chicken legs to eat. But if I pulled the chicken leg out of its mouth, it would show its teeth and roar at me. For beasts, you can't touch its core interests. Why are spiritual people smart? Because our core interest is God. No one can touch God, and no one can take away this core interest. If a person's core interest is chicken legs, then he is the same as a beast.

The examination room set up by God is to sift all the garbage into hell and sift all the treasures into the kingdom of God. How to judge whether a person is a treasure? Just look at his vision. If you can see through God's actions, you will value eternal life very much. There is a time to be born, and a time to die. You cannot decide when you are born, nor can you decide when you die. God has arranged everything. Everything that is tossed about during life is meaningless. New retail and education are vanity. We must understand what people are living for.

Some people do pastoral work, and as they do it, they become entangled and depressed. They feel that they are not good enough, that they are bad, and even want to die because they are not doing well in pastoral care. This is all because they don't understand! In fact, whether you do well or not doesn't matter that much, you can't decide how the person being pastored will turn out. Many people don't do well in pastoral care, but that little sheep gets better; some people work hard in pastoral care, but that little sheep doesn't get better. Later I found out that pastoral care is not for the person being pastored, but for the growth of the person doing the pastoral care. We must learn to see through. God created a perfect refining ground, all arranged by God.

Everything in the World is an Exam

God is testing us, everything is an exam. Let me ask, brothers and sisters, how are you doing in this exam?

Let me tell you a joke: A child went to take an exam, and the teacher's questions were very interesting, asking: Why do some people fail? The student answered: Because there are exams, so there are failures. There was another question asking: How many sides does this box have? Answer: Two sides, the inside and the outside. Ask: What kind of family is Confucius? Answer: He is an old man. Ask: What can't be eaten for breakfast? Answer: You can't eat lunch or dinner for breakfast. This child is very talented and answered very well.

So, brothers and sisters, you must know that this is an examination room. How are you doing today? If you don't do well, and the answer is announced as a failure, can you come back and retake the exam? You think it's like a driving test, where you can retake it. This is a life exam.

So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them? (Ecclesiastes 3:22)

When you die and look back on this life, when you see the messy and conflicting things, will you fall into the knowledge of good and evil? Now the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is no longer just one tree, the whole earth is like a forest, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is readily available. God created these things, and people must experience trials in them.

In the midst of experiencing trials, constantly remind yourself that this is just an exam. When a person leaves this world, he hands in his paper. At that time, will we have the same feelings as the Apostle Paul: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day. Do you dare to say that? If you don't dare, you have to examine yourself whether you can pass this exam. If you are still thinking about being greedy for money, when you close your eyes and kick your legs, what else is there?

Put Eternal Life In Your Heart

God puts eternal life in our hearts. Do you have an eternal heart inside? A spiritual person sees through everything. If you can't see through, you can't be shrewd, you can't be smart. Many people like to reason with me, and when they reason, they expose themselves. People don't know that these things have little to do with what they do. If you create your destiny with your own hands and work hard, and then die, that's troublesome. You look back and see that life is not like this. Life is just an exam. After the exam, is there an eternal crown stored for you, or is there an eternal judgment coming for you?

Today, if you can't see through, living is just like a beast, ultimately born from dust and returning to dust, but your spirit will be judged, and everything you do in this world will be judged. No one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 3:11-13 )

Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call to account what has passed. (Ecclesiastes 3:15)

Union with God

The conclusion is this: to do meaningful things in this meaningless life, that is, for eternal life, and union with God is eternal life. The way to eternal life needs to go through the church, because the church is the body of Jesus Christ. Don't think that health products and hospitals can save your life; do what is effective. To answer the examination paper perfectly, know that the most important thing is only one thing. Grasp the most important thing in life. If you don't grasp it, it's because you don't see through it. If you can't see through it, you can't be joyful in this life. Once you see through it, you let go and you will be joyful. Don't think that Yi Zhongtian is joyful because he has talked about many things; it's not possible.

What exactly is your core interest? If you live to make money, what you end up earning is toil, trouble and sorrow, which will follow you throughout your life. Today, we must strive for eternal life, enter into unity with God, and God will surely let us live a blessed life in this world. Blessing itself is vanity, because blessing is not the most important thing, not the original meaning of things; whether blessed or not, these will pass away.

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:36-38)

Know that these people got it right, because they have eternal life in them. They know that being sawn in two, dying of cancer in the future, is also death. If God arranges for us to leave in this way, truly thank God! If there is no eternal life in this world, only this life, like beasts, then let us die like this.

Grasp the Essence

Think about it, are you a beast or a human being? Are you living in vanity or in God's good will? How is your examination paper going? Why do some people pass and some don't? Because some people haven't seen through it yet! The word preached today is this word. For example, it doesn't matter if a child doesn't do well on an exam, because it won't affect the future. Many people do well in subjects such as mathematics and language, but they don't live well in the future. Those who don't do well live very well instead. Grasp the essence; the essential things are very important.

Yesterday, I served a sister from North America who likes to have people intercede for her because they are very busy. She said, Please, Pastor, intercede for me. So I tested her. What is intercession? She gave me a long explanation, but I didn't understand it. Brothers and sisters must know that some intercessions succeed and some don't. Some things succeed even without intercession. Actually, it has nothing to do with intercession or not; it cannot prove anything.

Today, we must know for sure that many Christians have wrong ideas about believing in the Lord. Intercession is one of them. Many people do it without understanding. We cannot be confused when reading the Bible. If you are confused, you will not pass the exam, and eternal darkness will be reserved for you. After you die, come back and look at these things now; you will regret it greatly. We must not do things that make us regret; we must strive to enter into completeness and strive to be united with God and obtain eternal life. How many people can understand the concept of eternal life clearly? How many people live like ghosts and still think they have obtained eternal life?

Eternal life is walking with God. In Genesis chapter 5, Enoch, everyone in that era died, only Enoch walked with God, and God took him away. We must not take our concept of eternal life lightly; our God is a consuming fire. If you listen carefully to my lecture on Hebrews, you will understand its importance.

I feel that I preached Hebrews the best. When this book is written in the future, you must buy a copy and treasure it. This is the best book among the Scriptures that I have studied. You may ask, didn't you say Genesis before? That's different. Hebrews has deep spiritual knowledge and is a book that makes people strive to enter into completeness. I named it Striving to Enter into Completeness.

Mind set on the flesh is death

People must come out of the vain life. It is a tragedy if they don't come out of vanity. If one doesn't know that life is vanity of vanities, how will they pursue meaningful things? The only meaningful thing for people is to enter into eternal life. Living is not like a beast. Thinking about the complex society, the invisible life, the inextricable concerns, and the endless joys and sorrows, no matter how busy or tired you are, don't forget to be kind to yourself. What is this called? Is being kind to yourself having the image of God?

Be kind to yourself, so if others don’t let you be kind to yourself, if your core interests are violated, how can you be joyful? What if you can't take care of yourself? Some people don't want to lie in a hospital bed and have their children bring them food and clean them every day. If that day really comes, what you say doesn't count, and then your children will tell you to hire a nanny; no one has time to bring you food and clean you every day.

Those who have had cancer have all taken good care of themselves; they are all very mindful of the flesh and discerning of good and evil. Discerning good and evil, plus minding the flesh, plus loving the world, that is the terminal stage of cancer in the spirit, and finally virtual diseases will become real diseases. Stop believing in health products, stop believing in taking good care of yourself. Taking care is useless, do you know why? Because you haven't seen through it. Can a person who takes good care of themself live out God's blessing? Can they take on the destiny of becoming a blessing to all nations and peoples?

Desire to lay down your life for God, don't take care of yourself so much, don't care so much about your children's studies, and don't care about this good and that bad, seeing through that these things are vanity of vanities.

In this exam, if you treat vanity as a very real problem, you will not pass. If you don't pass, then the ghost is on you when you are alive, making you unable to take care of yourself. My mother is over eighty years old and often feels dizzy, with a confused mind. One day she took my hand to a corner and started telling me about discerning good and evil: this is good, that is bad. I rebuked her. People take care of you so well; what are you picking on with occasional problems?

Value Eternal Life, Submit an Examination Paper of Becoming a Blessing to All Nations and Peoples

People are so foolish. Later, a evil spirit called Lao Ma came. Oh my god! Her waist suddenly couldn't straighten up. She couldn't walk from the toilet to the bed. That was the result of taking care of herself. That day, I took her to pray, cast out the demons from her body, and put the word of God in her, hoping that she could become a person with the noble and beautiful image of God's children.

As a result, today I took her to IKEA to buy things. She didn't rest for a single step. We walked as far as she followed. The eighty-year-old woman followed very quickly behind, and she even helped me carry things when getting out of the car. Someone said, how can you not know how to take care of the elderly? I don't have sympathy for her flesh. Carrying some things is just carrying some things. This is God's best grace to her.

Brothers and sisters, start to understand one thing: houses, cars, money, investment returns—these things are all spiritual things; they are all vanity of vanities. Why are fish caught? Because there is bait; once you bite the hook, the fish loses its life. But I will not take the bait, because I don't value these things. These things are vanity of vanities to me. I value eternal life; I know this is an exam. How are you doing on this exam? Even if you see wickedness in the place of judgment, and wickedness in the place of righteousness, will you discern good and evil? Even if you are surrounded by the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, readily available, will you eat it?

Some people are born with a serious ability to discern good and evil. How can they be joyful in life? Our brothers and sisters must have a clear concept. I would like to summarize it together with Hebrews. When you see through these things, can you say to God, I want to strive to enter into completeness in this exam. I want to live out the image of the eternal God. Even if I am nailed to a cross, I am willing to do so. I want to obtain that better promise and that better homeland.

People in the world will leave one day, but when submitting this examination paper, will you dare to say before God: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have done the service that I should do, and I have kept the faith. When submitting the paper, look at it from the first question to the last question, answer all the questions that can be answered correctly, and then say to God: I have come, and the more beautiful homeland that you have prepared for me, I have obtained it! How wonderful this is!

Don't live like a beast. The core interest is his belly, the chicken leg in his mouth. If you live like a beast, you will definitely live in entanglement and discomfort, because many things will snatch the chicken leg in your mouth.

Come out of the life of small chicken legs. I don't care much about eating chicken legs or cornbread. Some brothers and sisters are very lovely. When they come to my office, they always bring large bags of food and drink. I am also very grateful, but I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm. You think these things are important, but these things are really not important to me. Today, a sister insisted on going out to buy a special cooking pot. I said, sister, this is not important. Although I don't want to dampen her enthusiasm, I can't help but dampen it.

It turns out that eating, drinking, and having fun are really not important. What is important is to live out the image of God, through the church, and enter into a unified relationship with God. The command that God gave us is to build a glorious church. The church is the body of Jesus, and we enter into a perfect unity with God. That is the most important thing in our life. There is only one most important thing, and everything else is below it.

You can't think that this is important and that is also important. Some people live to be fifty, sixty, or even seventy or eighty years old and still can't see through the foolish path they have walked over the years. Can you turn from foolishness back to God? When the answers are announced, can you say to God, God, I have submitted a very good examination paper?

Never tell God that you ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because God created a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't say, I take care of my flesh because you created a body for me. Don't say, I care about my core interests because you created me that way. But you should say, God, I have come, and I will do your will. Become a wise person, live out God's glory in this world, and plant your life like a grain of wheat in the ground. Dedicate yourself completely to God, care only about God, and you will surely bear many grains and become a blessing to all nations and peoples on earth. Amen!

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

Ecclesiastes List