7/19/26 Worship Service & Sermon: Fearing God in Crooked Days - Ecclesiastes 7:13-18

Join us for Worship! 7/19/26 Sunday Service from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA. Worship Leader: Luke Stoltzfus Speaker: Dave Royes Title: Fearing God in Crooked Days Scripture: Ecclesiastes 7:13-18 Sermon Outline: 1. God controls what is crooked 2. God decrees every day 3. God preserves his people Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. Notes: Main Point: The fear of God exalts in the providence of God 1. Introduction A. A difficult song to sing B. A different approach to life C. Main point 2. God controls what is crooked • He is never frustrated 3. God decrees every day A. His decrees make us joyful B. His decrees make us humble 4. God preserves His people A. A seeming injustice B. A warning against self-righteousness C. A warning against immorality D. The right response E. The darkest day 5. Application Whate'er my God ordains is right: his holy will abideth I will be still, whate're he doth, and follow where he guideth. He is my God; though dark my road, he holds me that I shall not fall: wherefore to him I leave it all. Whate'er my God ordains is right: he never will deceive me; he leads my by the proper path; I know he will not leave me. I take, content, what he hath sent; his hand can turn my griefs away, and patiently I wait his day. Whate'er my God ordains is right: though now this cup, in drinking, may bitter seem to my faint heart, I take it all unshrinking. My God is true; each morn anew sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart, and pain and sorrow shall depart. Whate'er my God ordains is right: here shall my stand be taken; though sorrow, need, or death be mine, yet am I not forsaken. My father's care is round me there; he holds me that I shall not fall: and so to him I leave it all. --Samuel Rodigast, Catheine Winkworth " As to the crook itself, the crook in the lot, for the better understanding of it, these few things that follow are premised. First. There is a certain train or course of events, by the providence of God, falling to every one of us during our life in this world. And that is our lot, as being allotted to us by the sovereign God, our Creator and Governor, "in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways. " This train of events is widely different to different persons, according to the will and pleasure of the sovereign Manage, who orders men's condition in the world in a great variety, some moving in a higher, some in a lower sphere. Second. In that train or course of events, some fall out, cross to us, and against the grain; and these make the crook in our lot. While we are here, there will be cross events, as well as agreeable ones, in our lot and condition. Sometimes things are softly and agreeably gliding on; but, by and by, there is some incident which alters that course, grates us, and panes us, as, when we have made a wrong step we begin to limp. Third. Everybody's lot in this world has some crook in it..." --The Crook in the Lot, by Thomas Boston #sovereignty #crookeddays #providence To connect with Brick Lane, visit our website at: https://www.brick52.org/ For more biblical teaching, you can also listen to audio sermons at: https://www.brick52.org/audio-sermons