Ecclesiastes 7:8
The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.

Hi, Pastor Bob here. Welcome back to the Men of Valor podcast. The reading today is from the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 8 and it states, “The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.”

The other night at a prayer and worship meeting, Pastor Jeff made this statement: “It's the beginning of the end...” As the prayer time was ending and the last few songs were just starting to be played, as I heard him say that, it immediately hit my heart. Not because the prayer was ending but because for so many people the end of not knowing the Lord Jesus Christ is getting near because the beginning of hearing about the Lord Jesus Christ is just beginning in their lives. His church is beginning to be awakened to their godly purpose to show the love that they have for their heavenly Father and to tell the world about the Lord Jesus Christ.

“...it was actually the beginning of the end of the world waiting for the true Messiah.”

Colossians 2:15 says, “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Who looking at Him on the cross that day would imagine the person that was hanging there would be worshipped by perhaps millions of followers and people would be obeying His teaching, suffer, and even be dying for Him 2000 years after that crucifixion day? Always remember, life is a movie, it is not a photograph. If you only look at a picture of Moses tending sheep in the desert, you would miss the ending of how God used him to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt. Instead of seeing this man guiding sheep, you would see this obedient man and God saying to him as he led millions of people out of Egypt speaking as it states in Exodus 14:13, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.” If you saw a picture of Abraham when he was 90 years old, you would be thinking, ‘Wow, his building-a-family days are over but you would miss the Lord's Word to him in Genesis 17:4, when He said to him, “As for me, this is the covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.” Abraham! Wow! What an example of faith and obedience to God.

If you saw a picture of Christ on the cross, you would have not understood the ending of what He accomplished for His heavenly Father and for you. And if you saw a picture of yourself while you were in the world sinning, before getting to know Christ as your Lord and Savior, you would miss the end of the movie of how He would forgive you and how He would possibly use you when you lay your life down for Him, when you follow Him and when you obey Him.

As it says in Romans chapter 6 verse 22, “But now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” As the song goes, “I know the end of the story, I come out from the wilderness, leaning on my Beloved…” can't you just imagine leaving the wilderness of sin and being held in the precious loving arms of Jesus Christ the Savior that died for you? As Christians, we do believe in movies with happy endings and nothing is happier than that ending.

“You knew our ending before we even began to walk on this Earth.”