So look at verse 13, so it's important to get the book of Ecclesiastes in context by
getting the conclusion.
Verse 13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, "Fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good
or whether it be evil."
And let me encourage you with one final thought.
You can mess up your life on this earth pretty bad, but if you're saved, you can always continue
serving God.
You're never out of the game completely when it comes to loving and serving God, as long
as you're breathing air.
And I'm going to be getting to this down the road in the Judges series, but just think
for a moment about Samson.
I mean, could anybody screw up their life worse than Samson did?
I mean, think about it.
This guy screwed up his life in every possible way.
He's permanently blinded, he's enslaved, and he ruined his reputation.
So he's got a bad reputation, even to this day.
It's rare to see even children being named Samson, you know, even though he was a great
man in some ways because of his bad reputation.
For the bad thing, you know, people just don't want their kids to do those things, and I'm
not against anybody naming their kid Samson.
I'm just pointing out the fact that he's not necessarily a role model.
Well, he ruined his reputation, his physical body is ruined because he was blinded, and
he has no freedom, he's enslaved.
He's just a big time loser being made fun of by the Philistines.
The Philistines throw a party just to make fun of him.
He's just the butt of everyone's joke.
I mean, I don't know, you know, the Bible doesn't give us all the details, but I guarantee
you they're probably throwing stuff at him, spitting on him, slapping him around, just
abusing him in any way they can think of, making fun of him.
I mean, can you imagine being in a worse position?
Your own nation's mad at you, the Israelites are mad at you, the Philistines are making
fun of you, your eyes have been poked out, you're doing a job that an animal does, grinding
a millstone, you've failed in every way possible, but yet, yet he was still alive.
And so he was still able to pray to God, and he was still able to do one more thing for
God.
And when he did that last one more thing for God, in a sense, he rehabilitated his reputation
somewhat because of the fact that at least the Israelites were freed from the Philistines
because he killed all the important Philistines, and so they were able to get out from under
their yoke as a result of what Samson did there.
So I will say this to you, you know, maybe you have ruined your finances to the point
where your finances will never be fixed.
Maybe you've ruined your body to the point where, you know, you'll never be able to do
the things physically that you used to do.
You'll never be able to do the sports that you did or whatever, the work that you did,
whatever.
Maybe you've fried your brain on drugs or whatever.
Maybe you've ruined your reputation, ruined your health, ruined all your relationships.
Maybe you've just totally burned the bridge with parents, brothers, sisters, kids, and
maybe you're just a big time loser tonight.
But let me tell you something, if you're a saved child of God, you can drop on your knees
right now or tonight or tomorrow morning and say, "All right, God, I'm ready to go.
Here am I.
Send me, Lord.
I want to live for you.
I want to do something for you."
He will say, "Welcome back.
Let's go.
Let's do it."
Now, you might go back to your old job and say, "I'm sorry, can I come back?"
And they're like, "Nope."
You might try to go back to sports and it's like, "Nope."
You might try to go back to the old girlfriends and boyfriends and it's, "Nope."
You might go back and try to mend things with your spouse or your parents or your siblings
or your friends and they don't want anything to do with you.
But the one relationship that you can always fix is the one with God.
And if, and here's how I know God would never say no is because of the fact that if God
were truly done with you, you would be dead as a child of God, as a Christian.
And I'm speaking to only saved people tonight.
Anybody who's not saved, well, you need a different message about the cross of Jesus
Christ.
I'm up here preaching to the saved.
And I'm here to tell you that if you are breathing air, God is not done with you because if God
were done with you, you would be dead.
So if you're under the sound of my voice and you're a saved child of God, then you can always,
always get back in the game when it comes to the Lord.
And you know, that's encouraging because there are a lot of other things that aren't like
that.
Your sports career is temporary, your job career is temporary, your good looks are temporary,
your relationships are temporary.
The one thing that's permanent is your walk with God.
That will last forever.
And so you can always serve God, you can always be a part of His team, you can always be used
by God.
Remember that you will die.
And the only thing that's going to matter is what you did for God anyway.
So even if you mess up every part of your life, there's always one part of your life
that you can always count on to be there, and that's the spiritual side.
That's your walk with God.