The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: You are to view life as a gift, not as a right. To live a thankful life for the benefits that God gives you is to have a God perspective under the sun.

Guest (Male): This is the Alternative Broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Healthy ambition can drive us to improve and succeed, but Dr. Evans says when that morphs into greed, a lot of what we get isn't what we want. Today, he'll talk about how to live a more meaningful life punctuated with God's provision and presence. Let's join him as he takes us to the book of Ecclesiastes.

Dr. Tony Evans: We got to the middle part of chapter 5 last time and let me pick it up at verse 13. "There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt." So he's seeing greed and how destructive it can be when those riches were lost through bad investments and that he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him. "As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so he will return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand." So he wants you to know you're leaving it all behind.

So then you must look at material, physical things—in this case, money—for what it really is. It is a tool to be used, not a god to be worshipped because you can't take it with you. You leave it for another. He says, "This is a grievous evil. Exactly as man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?" For the wind is that phrase of nothing that is lasting. The Bible would say it in the New Testament: seek ye first the kingdom of God, something that lasts, and all these things will be added to you.

Throughout his life he also eats and drinks with great vexation, sickness, and anger. When your priorities are wrong, you're miserable even if you have stuff. Furthermore, verse 19, "As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God." Notice how he punctuates the reality with God. You are to view life as a gift, not as a right. When somebody gives you a gift, the appropriate thing to do is say thanks because it was given to you.

To live a thankful life under the sun for the benefits that God gives you is to have a God perspective under the sun because a God perspective under the sun equips you better to deal with the realities of life under the sun because life under the sun is not always good. For he will not often, verse 20, "consider the years of his life because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart." In other words, as you get older, the years of your life are passing. If gratitude and being grateful for what you have from God becomes how you think, how you live, and how you function, then the years of life aren't crushing on you because God is interacting with your gladness.

Keep that gladness of heart which comes from a thanksgiving spirit under the sun because that is how God interfaces with us through the positives and negatives of life. He comes to chapter 6 and he keeps going back from evil to good, good to evil. "There is an evil which I have seen under the sun where men live, and it is prevalent among men: a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God has not empowered him to eat from them, for a foreigner enjoys them. This is vanity and severe affliction."

I have seen people with stuff they never get around to enjoying. Notice why they don't get around to enjoying them: God has not empowered him to eat from them. You exclude God out and it very well be you never get to enjoy all the stuff, like the man in Luke 12 where God said to him, "You fool. Tonight your soul is required. You ain't gonna enjoy any of that retirement." I was told about a lady recently who waited until she retired to live a thankful life and now I understand that she could be dying and she just retired.

Don't wait. Life under the sun, let it be punctuated with thanksgiving for God now so that you have gladness now and don't wait until you retire because you may not get to retire. We don't know. We all want to live the average lifespan in America which is 78.8 years. That's average. Women live four years longer than men. Don't you hate that guys? They get four years longer than we do. You don't know and since you don't know, make today matter. The way to do that, he says, is thanksgiving to God because he says I've observed a person having it all and winding up with nothing.

So he's trying to deal with an attitude of how that attitude ought to be shaped under the sun because even as believers we live under the sun. "If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, better the miscarriage than he." What a way to live your life in such a way that it was better for you not to have been born in the first place. Better that he be miscarried than have this unsatisfied life.

The antidote to that is the injection of a grateful attitude day by day to God, or as the Lord's Prayer says, "Give us this day my daily bread." Give me today what I need to be okay today because the Bible says tomorrow will take care of itself. Plan for tomorrow because the Bible encourages planning, but don't live in tomorrow because today is the tomorrow you were looking for yesterday. So when you get up tomorrow morning under God, you get up and you give thanks. I may not have steak and potatoes but Lord thank you for pork and beans that I'm not starving.

I want steak and potatoes tomorrow but I have pork and beans today. So while I'm looking forward to steak and potatoes tomorrow, while I want steak and potatoes tomorrow, I'm gonna put some Worcestershire sauce on this hot dog. I'm gonna max out this moment because all I have is today and therefore there is this divine perspective of gratitude to God. He says I've seen people accumulate and have nothing. So he's observing what happens under the sun. He's interjecting God into it for the right perspective because even as believers we live under the sun.

You think of the superstars in the past, their names fade, celebrities' names fade. My name's gonna fade, your name's gonna fade. There'll be a few people who may remember, but then generations come and you're just a name in the wind. So don't make this life more than it is. One of the great fundraising tools when people are trying to raise funds is for people to spend a lot of money to build something in their name. You'll see at Baylor Hospital, you'll see the name of major donors, the building named after them because it's important to not be forgotten.

But he says you will be in obscurity. So he says, verse 5, "it never sees the sun and it never knows anything; it is better off than he" because you become obscure. "Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not enjoy good things; do not all go to one place?" He's arguing for a quality of life to be more important than a quantity of life. Verse 10, "Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is, for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is."

"For there are many words which increase futility. What then is the advantage to a man? For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few years of his futile life? He will spend them like a shadow, for who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?" So what he is saying here is he wants to make sure that you understand your priority. God has designated, "It's appointed unto man once to die." You may be late for a lot of things in your life; you'll be on time for that one.

You have a name and you have a number. You're working out, running, all God is taking all that into consideration and what He wants you to do under the sun among men is to maximize your lifetime during the few years you have here. He comes to chapter 7 and we'll look at a few things here. "A good name is better than good ointment," or perfume and cologne. A good name means your reputation. He says a good reputation is better than perfume if you're a lady, cologne if you're a man.

Now, why do we put on perfume and cologne? To smell sweet. Put it on mostly every day to have this good scent coming from us that others pick up on. We've all heard people say, "What is that you have on?" because they picked up the scent. He says a good name, that is a good reputation, that's what you want people to pick up on, that you're a person of dignity and character. You're not maybe perfect, none of us are, but that being around you is sweet, being around you has a good smell to it.

You have people that you don't want to be around. You probably have some folk who don't want to be around you. That means there's something emanate from you, at least in their view, that doesn't smell right, that doesn't seem right, that you can't trust. So he is saying work on your reputation, on your character. We all can improve, we all need to improve, but make that a focus. Like you make focus smelling sweet, make a focus that your name is good. Some cologne is only a cologne by name.

Some perfume is only a perfume by name; it smells like medicine. But it's got the name cologne or perfume. That's why you want a good name, you want a good smell, and the word "good" in the Bible means beneficial. Other people want to be around it because they pick up on the scent. So you want people to want to be around you for the sake of quality, the quality person that you are or seeking to be. He then says something that I preach a lot when I do funerals, verse 2: "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting because that is the end of every man, and the living take it to heart."

"Sorrow is better than laughter, and when a face is sad, a heart may be happy. The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning while the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure." If I were to take those verses 2 through 4 and summarize them, here's what he says: It's better to go to a funeral than a party. That's what he said, the house of mourning versus the house of feasting. Back in the day, you'll remember, you want to know where the party, where's the party? You went looking for a party or excited when you were told about a party.

Have you gone around and ever asked, "Where's the funeral? I need me a funeral. I just got the weekend coming up, I got to find me a funeral." It's the weekend, everybody needs to go to a funeral on the weekend. Probably never done that. You go to a funeral because you have to; you don't go to a funeral because you want to. Yet he says the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting because at a party you don't get the truth. Everything is camouflaged at a party. Everybody looking the part, talking the part, laughing, you got the music playing, you dancing.

At a party you don't see the real deal because the environment is not conducive to reality. In fact, people go to parties to escape reality. They go to parties to have something to take them out of the humdrum or the struggle of life. So here's my assignment, or here's Solomon's assignment: he says find a funeral. Don't wait till you have to go to one, just go to one because the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting. Why? Because then you are reminded of reality.

Notice what he says, he says because there that is the end of every man. It's probably not too many people—I know it's true of me and I've done my share of funerals—all of us knows what it is to be seated out here, to look at that casket up there, and the thought race through your mind, "One day that's me." One day that's me. They ain't gonna tell you that at a party. At a party you doing your thing at a party. Ain't telling you that at a party. The party skips this and it's designed not to deal with that.

And the Bible does say enjoy life. But what he says the benefit of a funeral is is it reminds you of what's important. It reminds you that life is limited. It reminds you that there is an eternal perspective because time is short. He says there, only at a funeral do you learn your end. Verse 4, "The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning while the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure." So he differentiating in closing between a wise mind and a fool's mind. He's dealing with where your mind is.

If you only think in terms of a party, then you're going to not see life as it really is. You're not going to take it seriously because you're escaping it all the time. But in the house of mourning, you got to take life serious. You got to be reminded I only got a few years left, so let me maximize it for good, for God, then for good so that whatever life I have I'm living it well and gaining a good name in the process. So may God give us, no matter where you're starting from, the pursuit of a good name. No matter what your name was or is or has been, go for a good name.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans talking today about living a life punctuated by God. He'll return to wrap up our time together in just a moment. First, though, today's lesson is part of his powerful, practical series called How to Avoid a Wasted Life. It contains nine messages exploring the wisdom of finding joy in everyday life and seeking the things that will last for eternity. Through it, you'll discover that a life lived with God at the center is a life of genuine purpose and fulfillment.

Right now, we'd like to send you as our gift all nine full-length messages in this series as a way of saying thank you for your financial support of this ministry. Along with the complete How to Avoid a Wasted Life audio package, we'll also send you a special bonus: a copy of Dr. Evans' powerful book, Experiencing God Together. In it, he shows how loving and serving others becomes a pathway to experiencing God's presence more deeply in your everyday life. Visit us today at TonyEvans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222 to take advantage of this special offer. That's online at TonyEvans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.

Our faith can be tested by many things, like pain, loss, or even injustice. On the Unbound podcast, Dr. Tony Evans brings stories of true resilience to light. God knows what suffering is like. The God-man himself knows it, far more deeply than we ever will. You're not marrying a man, you're marrying a calling. Home is not four walls and a roof. Hope does not disappoint because of the Holy Spirit who's been poured out within us. Unbound with Dr. Tony Evans. Listen now. You can find the Unbound podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Right now, let's get back to today's lesson from Dr. Evans.

Many people are smart, but not so many are wise. Dr. Evans says the difference between the two is dramatic and can make more of an impact on your life than property and possessions combined. Be sure to join him tomorrow as he continues our look at the path to godly wisdom. With the National Day of Prayer just days away, Dr. Evans encourages us not to wait for a date on the calendar to seek God's guidance. Right now, he invites us to join him in a heartfelt prayer for our nation.

Dr. Tony Evans: Dear Lord, I come to you on behalf of a nation in need of heaven to intervene on earth. There are all kinds of challenges we face as a community. There are challenges with regard to unity racially, culturally, class-wise. There are international challenges, Lord, wars, rumors of wars. There are family challenges, Lord, of identity and breakdown, and then personal challenges of people who need direction, guidance, clarity, deliverance. We say we are one nation under God, but Lord, we need that to be more than a statement but a reality that we're willing to place this nation underneath your rule.

Would you raise up the leaders needed to guide our nation: spiritual leaders, political leaders, community leaders, social leaders, parental leaders who will move the nation and the national discourse back to heaven so that Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, would you create the scenarios necessary to bring our consciousness back to the God of the Bible and of course to the good news of Jesus Christ. May you show each of us our responsibility to be ambassadors on behalf of this nation before God because you said in Isaiah 40 the nations are in your hand.

So we place America in the hands of God and we ask that the God who is over the nations will bring America to God so that we experience God in a revival so that men are saved, women are saved, and a nation is healed. In Jesus' name, amen.