Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, October 7. Does life seem like it's full of new reasons to worry every single day? If you feel that way, then listen closely to this series that will help you understand God's will and begin enjoying life. Ecclesiastes chapter 9, beginning in verse 7 and reading through verse 10. He says, Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart.
For God now accepted thy works. Let thy garments be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity, for that is thy portion in this life, and thy labor which thou takest under the sun. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest. And what he's simply saying by that last verse is, when you and I die, there won't be the opportunity that God has given us here. And of course, our labors are going to be different from our labors here. And so he's not talking about the fact there, that there is no life beyond this one.
And so many things that he says in this book, if you just read it and take it out of its context, it almost seems to be a contradiction of many of the things in the Bible. If I should ask you tonight, how many of you really and truly enjoy your life? A lot of folks that you and I see with a smile that's plastic, they put it on every morning, take it off every night. It's all exterior because it does not come from a life of enjoyment. A lot of people who give you a hefty handshake that is only alive from their shoulder down, because in their heart, there's something missing. They're not really enjoying life.
You hear a lot of people who laugh very loudly, but it only comes from about shoulders up, because it's not coming from their heart. It's not coming from their spirit because they're not really and truly enjoying life. Now, once you get over the facade of what they parade around, and you get down to digging down inside and you talk about what they really feel about life, after a while, they lose the smile, lose their warmth, and then they begin to tell you how miserable, how frustrated, how anxious, how fearful they are about life. We are living in an age when people ought to be enjoying life and not enjoying life at all.
Well, when you come to this particular book and you read through it, the first time you read through it, if you read through it with no helps and no notes, it may cause a lot of frustration. You think, what in the world is he talking about? So in essence, he's really saying three things in all of these chapters of Ecclesiastes. He says, first of all, when you look at life, and these are not the points now, but just a little briefing here.
When you look at life, it looks like it's so empty or so unexplainable. And there are several key passages here, for example, the first chapter, the fourth chapter, the eighth chapter, verses that the writer of the Ecclesiastes simply says, you know, what is the explanation of all these things? But the second thing he says is that God intends for man to enjoy living. And the third thing he says in the book is simply this, that a wise man will obey God in the process he's going to enjoy life and reap an eternal reward. He only says those three things primarily in the book. And what I want us to dwell upon is the fact of how to enjoy life and the night God wants us to enjoy life. And three things I want to say. The first one is this, that in the enjoyment of life was designed by God in creation. The enjoyment of life was designed by God in creation. Now, let me just mention several things to you. First of all, when God created man, go back to Genesis for a moment. Let's look at that first couple of two or three chapters here.
And there are about four or five things I want you to get down here. First of all, he placed Adam in a perfect habitation. God intended for Adam and Eve and mankind to enjoy life.
So what did he do? You read that first chapter of Genesis and the Bible says that from God's viewpoint, and he's perfect and he had the power to do it some other way if he wanted to, that God created a perfect habitation that would satisfy every need of the man he placed in that garden. So that when God designed life to begin with, he designed it for man to enjoy living. You just imagine what Adam enjoyed when he walked through that garden. I mean, the oranges were huge, the apples were large, the pumpkins were big, the watermelons were always ripe, everything was just right. The birds sang, the sky was blue, the stars shone at nighttime, everything was perfect.
Everything in that garden was perfect. Now, if God had not intended for man to enjoy life, he would have done all kinds of things. He would have put thorns in his path, the birds would have attacked him, the dogs would have bit him, he couldn't sleep at night, all kinds of fleas, gnats, ticks, mosquitoes, all kinds of things would have been attacking Adam.
He didn't have a problem with any of that. All of that stuff came after the fall after man blew God's perfect design and creation. So that when God designed creation, he designed it for man to enjoy life.
So he gave him a perfect habitation. The second thing he did, he gave him a partner, somebody that the scripture says to complete his life. Everything that God created, when he finished it all, he says it's all good. And God looked a second time, he said, there's one thing about that's not good.
He says it is not good for a man to live alone. So in order for Adam to enjoy life to the very fullest, now, he had his favorite dog and he had elephants and he had camels and he had all kinds of things to enjoy. But you know, when Adam looked over everything that God gave him and told him to give them all a name, there's something missing. So God gave him a perfect partner. The third thing he gave him here, and I think this is very important, was he gave him a personal responsibility.
He put him in a perfect habitation. He gave him a partner to share it with, and then he gave him a personal responsibility. Because you see, God knew for man to enjoy life, he can't really enjoy life unless he's being challenged to grow in each area of his life. So he gave him a twofold responsibility. He said, Adam, he said, you are to subdue and you are to control, you're to keep, you are to be sure that the garden is well taken care of.
Secondly, he was to take care of Eve, so that Adam had a twofold responsibility. And for a person to enjoy life, you're not going to find anybody who's enjoying their life if they have no responsibility. A fellow said to me the other day, someone was talking about how wealthy this person was and all the things that they had, and yet they were absolutely miserable because they had no personal responsibility.
They finished their education, didn't have to work, had all the money they could ever spend and a whole lot more, and they're just going from one thing to another. You see, there is no enjoyment without responsibility. You see, an unchallenged person will never be able to enjoy life like God meant for us to enjoy it. So what did he do? He gave him a personal responsibility. Then the next thing he did, he put a perimeter around which Adam was not to cross. He said, Adam, everything in this garden is good. In the midst of the garden, there's a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now you can have everything that I've placed, and you see this amazing thing to me, how we look at the Garden of Eden and we miss the trees, we miss the sky, we miss the springs, we miss the flowers, we miss the birds, all those beautiful things, absolutely perfect.
And you know what we do? We just all focus on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why in the world did God put that there?
We forget all the good things he put there. God didn't put the tree that will wipe Adam out. He didn't put the tree that will make Adam miserable. He gave Adam a perfect habitation, a partner, responsibility. He gave him everything he needed to make life enjoyable, including certain limitations. Now watch this. You show me a person who's enjoying life who has no limitations.
You can't find one. You see, life in the reality of the makeup of life, there has to be certain limitations in every person's life for them to enjoy life. So that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is not placed there in order to make Adam miserable or to wipe him and Eve out of their enjoyment of life. It was put there to give him a choice.
He's a responsible man and there is a limitation upon what he can do. And you see, we get hung up on the tree and the vast, the vast beauty of the creation of the garden of Eden, we forget all about that. But you see, their wrong choice cost them the beauty of their habitation. It cost them the oneness of their partnership, their relationship with each other. It changed their responsibility. It changed the perimeters of their life. Their whole life was altered because they violated what God intended for them as a perfect habitation. You know why most people are not enjoying life? They're doing the same thing that Adam did, the same thing that Eve did. They're crossing over boundaries that God has set in their habitation, getting out of God's will, vocationally or geographically, getting out of God's will and their relationship to their partner, getting out of God's will and their responsibility.
They get lazy and slothful or want something easy. Whether it is eating, for example, you overeat to the excess and it affects you physically. God has given us the gift of sex, but if not treated properly, overindulgence out of the perimeters of God, the same thing happens. He's given us friendships, but if our friendships began to move toward using someone for our own selfish gain, we've crossed the perimeter and again, we're out from under God's purpose and plan for our life and we've ruined it. Every single thing God has given us, for example, he may make one woman beautiful, another man handsome, and God gives that to you as a gift in your life.
But if you use that as an area of pride and you use it to downgrade other people and you look down your nose to them, what happens? You lose your enjoyment of the gift of God. You have a particular gift that God has given you that maybe blesses other people or causes them enjoyment. When you begin to use that selfishly, the very thing that God gave you that would help you enjoy life can turn right around and make your very life miserable so that every single gift of God is, listen, is a delicate thing in the eyes of God and in the hands of man. Everything that God has given us for our enjoyment when misused, misapplied, turns upon us and brings about the destruction, defeat of the very thing that we're seeking, that is to enjoy life. So you see, the enjoyment of life is divinely designed. It is proclaimed all through the scriptures.
For example, let's go back to a passage that we usually apply to the work of the Holy Spirit. We say, well, let's why don't you turn that we all know it by heart, Galatians chapter five, verse twenty two and twenty three. But I want you to look at these words for just a moment here because you think about enjoying life. And I got to think about, well, can a person really and truly enjoy their life unless these things are true?
So you must answer them for yourself. So I want you to look at these words in Galatians chapter five verse. Well, let's go back to verse 19. First of all, he says, Now the works of flesh, that is the natural, normal way for a man to live is this.
First of all, he says adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, all to do with sensuality, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions and heresies, endings, murders, drunkenness, ravelings, and such like of which I tell you before, as I've told you in the past, they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, we don't expect people who are in the process of committing these particular acts or have the motivation to do so they can get away with it. Those folks aren't enjoying life and why aren't they enjoying life? Because you cannot enjoy life living in violation of scriptural principles. Secondly, you cannot enjoy life when your motivations, desires, behavior, habits, actions, in relationships to the people and all those relate to other people.
When those relationships are the people not right, you can't enjoy life. All right, what's the opposite of that? Look in verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love. Does it take love to enjoy life?
By all means. Joy. If you're enjoying life, you're going to find joy there. Peace. Can you enjoy life when your soul is restless, turmoil, like the winds of the sea driving the waves?
No. Patient. Man, you can't enjoy life without being patient. You can't live with other folks without learning to be patient. Well, gentleness. Can a person enjoy life when they're harsh, cruel, and cold toward other people?
Goodness. When a person just got evil on the inside, you can't enjoy life. Faith. Can a person enjoy life who's constantly doubting and worrying?
Neatness or humility? Show me a proud man or woman who's enjoying life. You know why their actions of proud are so evident? Because they don't like themselves.
Therefore, other folks don't like them and so they put on this particular air about how well off they are and how good they're doing in life and everything. All that's just a big fake and a cover-up and you don't enjoy life walking around the mask on. So he says, not only neatness or humility, temperance or self-control. There's no such thing as enjoying life without living in the perimeter that God has set for your life.
So let me ask you a question. If God did not intend for us to enjoy life, why in the world did he say, when the Holy Spirit comes into your life, here's what he'll do. He will express through you the ninefold fruit of the Spirit that every person who's really enjoying life must have.
Why did he give that? Did he give that as some theological principle that you're not large in our minds? Or did he give us the fruit of the Spirit to enjoy life? So you see, not only did he design enjoyment for life in the creation, all through the Scriptures, he's proclaimed it. Look, if you will, back in Psalm 16. There's a beautiful verse here.
Could not mean anything but the fact that God wants us to enjoy the life that he's given us. The last verse of the sixteenth Psalm. Psalm 16, verse 11.
You ought to mark this one down, memorize this one. Listen. Thou wilt show me, listen now, thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.
You know what he's saying? Listen, he says, first of all, God, you're going to show me the path that I'm to walk in. Secondly, he says, in the presence of God, there is joy. Listen, he says there is fullness of joy. And listen, fullness of joy.
Is it not true that out of his presence, you'll never have fullness of joy? At thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. You go through the Bible looking at what he says about God's right hand.
God's omnipotent, powerful right hand, always reaching out to men. And he says, at thy right hand, there are pleasures for evermore. Now, I don't believe he's just talking about when you and I get to heaven. God wants us to enjoy life now. He doesn't want to put us in the furnace for 65 years to get us ready for heaven. He wants us to enjoy it now. He never intended the Christian life be a what?
A burden, but something to lift us up a buoyancy. Not a prison house, he says, but pleasure. Not something we have to do, but something we want to enjoy. And you see, sometimes we Christians think we can't enjoy life. It's a sin to enjoy life in some people. That is a self-imposed negativism that God never put upon you and me. You'll never enjoy life as long as you think God's up there marking them down. He's going to judge me and surely as I, I'm going to make a mistake as sure as I'm doing my best. You'll never be able to enjoy life because you see, tell me a greater witness for God the Father than a happy, committed, spirit-filled Christian who knows how to enjoy their life.
Well, I can tell you this, you'll never enjoy your life until you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior and surrender your life to him. Listen, not to take upon yourself commandments and laws that will burden your life down. You know why God gave all those? He said, my yoke is easy. It doesn't even bend the neck, let alone the shoulders. He says, my yoke is easy. My burden is light. You know why?
Because it always rests one quarter of an inch above the shoulder and you can't even feel the weight of it. God intends for his people to enjoy living. The first step toward enjoying life is accepting Christ as your savior and learning to live in what? In his presence is fullness of enjoyment and at his right hand, he says, are pleasures forevermore. I just want to ask you, do you really know how to enjoy life?
Let me ask you this, is there somebody seated here tonight and you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your savior? I want to tell you something. The book of Ecclesiastes says, you can learn as much as a man can learn, gain as much wealth as a man can gain, go all the places that you desire to go, wrap around you all the people you want to wrap around you and you'll find life one big, empty, disappointing void. Because you see, the enjoyment of life doesn't start out here. It starts within a man in his relationship to Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening to God Wants You to Enjoy Life. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.