OK, so this morning I’ve entitled this sermon responding to the enigmas, the enigmas of life, and whenever I use that term enigmas people go, huh? And that’s fundamentally what it is. It is really the puzzling events in life the the, the paradoxes, the seeing things which seem difficult. To understand and I suppose they chose a word like Enigma to describe that it’s a difficult word to understand. In life, there are a number of events that you and I struggle to understand. You work in a business scenario and you get unfairly treated. You can’t understand that when you’ve been, you know, for a fact you’ve been doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Or when the righteous person, a person that you know is godly, suffers and faces many trials when when the wicked and sinful people seem to be getting away with it. We struggled with some of these paradoxes. Why would God allow a leader of a government to continue for years and years to bring about much death and destruction? Why doesn’t he just take him out? I mean, remove him. Immediately, why did God allow people like Hitler? Currently we have a scenario where we have Putin and and through this government there’s many people being killed and we on the other side we also have leaders who also bringing about the death of many people. Why are the? Minority groups elevated and their wicked ideas promoted and even praised when their ideas. When you sit down and logically reason and think about these ideas, makes absolutely no sense. And actually, what’s worse is the ideas get praised by the world out there. And and a sense I look at that and I say these guys have lost touch of reality. They are even confused between. What is a? Male and a female. Gender confusion is rampant throughout society. Now they’re speaking about close to 100 different identities. I mean, seriously, are you like half male? Three quarter male, fully male. A third male, not male. It’s just a blend of confusion, aren’t they? And so we look at this and we go how do we respond, how do we respond to the injustices, the confusions, the paradoxes, those kind of things in life. And you may recall Solomon’s on this journey as an older man. He’d messed up a lot of times. He had a lot of wisdom. And remember, in Ecclesiastes 1/3? He says what does man gain by all the toil? All this hard labour at which he toils under the Sun? Is any joy is any purpose? Is there any meaning in this life and so using wisdom he begins his search to find this answer. In Ecclesiastes 113 we have a bit of a description there. Now what is wisdom? But wisdom is a God-given understanding to Jews to do what is right and act in a Christ like manner in every situation or any situation. Ecclesiastes 226 we discovered something of the things that Solomon had discovered. He discovered that God is the giver, the ultimate source of wisdom, knowledge, and joy. To the one who pleases him. Enthusiasts is 612 he’d realised that only God knows what is best for man. Ecclesiastes 7 versus one through 14. He then explored how wisdom helps you to cope an adversity and realise that God brings both. He brings the times of prosperity and the times of adversity. Even this week I got a phone call and of a daughter that was very stressed. And she shared some of the adversities that she was facing. And I know both Eric and myself said this to one another. God has brought this to her footsteps and in a sense that’s a good response that you and I should have every time you. Face the trial. To recognise God has brought this because he brings both the days of prosperity and the days of adversity. When you recognize it, maybe it will help you to respond in a more godly response, because God is bringing it. He wants you to respond godly to those trials, and Ecclesiastes 7 versus 15 through 29. He then focused upon the character of true wisdom. And then an Ecclesiastes 8 versus 91 through nine, he zoomed in how practically to use wisdom to respond to those in authority in that time period. It’s obviously the king. How do you respond to the king? For you, it would be. How do I respond to my boss? How do I respond as a child to my parents? Those would be the kind of things that we’re looking at. And so this morning’s passage then looks at how to respond wisely to the enigmas, the baffling events in life, those things that human wisdom seems to reach its limits and and the only option, really, is to turn to God. God, please, would you tell me how should I respond? To these things, and as you may recall, ecclesiastic is a book written by the most wisest man. Who had received his will? From the only true wise one, which is the shepherd. And we read that enthusiasts 1211, the words of the wise are like gods and like nails firmly fixed or the collected sayings they are given by 1 shepherd. There’s only one shepherd who knows all. And so these baffling events, those things that human wisdom kind of struggles to to battle with. How how do you respond to those? Because there always remains things that you and I, and even with God-given wisdom, we cannot fully fathom who understand, because even with God-given wisdom which Solomon had, he had reached his limits. Why? Because there is a distinction between man. And God, and even with God-given wisdom, there are certain things that belongs to God and not to man. So how should you and I respond? Read with me? First of all, the passage we God speaks to us through the shepherd, through Solomon, to us today, here at Witbank Baptist Church. Ecclesiastes 8 versus 10 through 17.