Ecclesiastes 9:1-9

Now you have an outline, it's a four part series on relationships. And then Resurrection Sunday, and then we're going to look at the book of Philippians after that. So that's kind of the lay of the land for us in Ecclesiastes 9.

Qoheleth from here to the end starts to give us more of his conclusions about life, more of his worldview, more of his connection to God. About the 1st 8 chapters, about all he did was sort of depress us with life is hard, you don't

know anything. Wisdom helps, but it doesn't solve everything. You're going to die. He's not completely out of that yet, but he's given us a little more of his

conclusions about what he believes about life in this difficult world.

So Ecclesiastes 9:1 “Qohelelth”, which I should say again, some of you are new. This is the man who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Most people think it was Solomon. Qoheleth is a Hebrew word that simply means a person who

gathers others to give them wisdom. And it's called Ecclesiastes in the English Bible because the Greek word for someone who does the same thing is from our word ecclesia, the gathering of the church. So that's why it has this name in the English Bible. verse one.

“For I've taken all this to heart. And explain it, that righteous men, wise men and their deeds are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred. Anything awaits him. It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked, for the good, for the clean and for the unclean, For the man who offers a sacrifice, and for the one who does not take sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the Sinner. As the swearer is, so

is the one who is afraid to swear. This isn't evil and all that is done under the sun that there is one fate for all men.

Furthermore, the hearts of the Son of Men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they all go to the dead. For

whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope. Surely a live dog is better than a dead lion, for the living know that they will die. But the dead does not know anything, nor have they any longer. A reward for their memory is forgotten. Indeed, their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun. Verse 7.

The first few verses I just read are dealing with stuff that is certain.

And now he's changing this stuff. That is wise. Verse 7 Go then eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart. For God has already approved your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with a woman whom you love, all the days of your fleeting life which he has given you under the sun, for this is your reward, and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun. May we pray one

second, please.

We're so thankful, Father, for your book. We're so thankful for a chance to reflect on it. I pray you give me your ability by your Spirit to say what's true, to say it clearly. To say what's accurate from what we just read. And I pray for all of us, starting with me. We would open ourselves up to what you have for us, open ourselves up for different ways we should be thinking, feeling, acting, relating. We need your guidance. We need your help in this. We pray it in Christ's name, Amen.

Listen: There is a famous quote about uber confident people that states, “I wish I was as certain about one thing as he is about everything.”

QUESTION: Are there things about which you are certain? …Absolutely convinced …no debate

You may know some of these people, they're just, they just feel like they're the smartest person in any room they enter. Their opinions are always right. Their decisions are always right. Their judgments are always right. Everything they believe is true. And they see themselves basically to be a gift to the world. You know, aren't you lucky that I'm here to explain the truth to you? They feel they are a gift to the world. I wouldn't say there's so much a gift to the world as they're probably foolish. To think I know exactly what is true about everything.

There are some things to be certain about. Jesus is God, I'm certain I don't care. You can argue with me all day. I'm certain I'm just hard headed about that. But there's other things to be uncertain about. Like James says, come now, you who say tomorrow will go to such and such a city and will stay there a year and we'll engage in business and we'll make a profit. He says you don't even know what tomorrow holds. Why would you be certain about the next whole year? That's just foolish. Some things to be certain about, some things to be uncertain about. And you know people and you know yourself. There's things you're absolutely convinced about. No discussion. You are absolutely certain about it.

●    My first pastor told me that he believed with all of his heart that God would not let us get to the moon. He said if God wanted us on the moon, he would have put some of us there. This is not going to happen. He was wrong.

●    My younger brother, when he was a child, believed our stomach had compartments in it. There was one for vegetables, one for potatoes, one for meat and one for dessert, and therefore he never mixed them. He ate all the vegetables, all the potatoes, all the meat and all the dessert because your stomach needs time to flip that little valve and move it to the right place. He was certain about it.

●    I was absolutely certain my high school friend would win the state tournament. Best wrestler I ever saw, never defeated Once he took fourth. I was absolutely certain about it.

●    My dad is certain. He was certain that Sasquatch is real. Spent his entire life in the woods. Literally entire life. Never saw him, but he kept the faith. The evidence is not in yet.

Let's be careful about that one. So there are things in life to be certain about, but there are probably a lot fewer of them than you think. And the key issue is I've got to be certain about the right things. Then I've got to wait for the evidence to come in on the other things, because not all the evidence is in on some things. What am I going to be certain about?

What things are certain in life:

Qoheleth shares some things that are certain:

●    “The lives and the deeds of righteous people and wise people are in the hand of God.” (v.1)

And truthfully, the lives of every person is in the hand of God. There is no one who is operating outside the hand and knowledge of God. But he says please understand that you're in the hand of God if you're a wise person, if you're a righteous person. God is in control of everything. Now, I am not the person to explain to you the reality that God is sovereign. And we have a choice. I'm absolutely convinced, I'm certain that God is sovereign. God is wringing his hands in heaven about nothing. He never says, Oh, I didn't see that person getting elected. Oh, I didn't see this coming down the Pike. He controls all of it and he sees all of it. He knows all of it. And I'm also sure, I'm certain, that he makes His will known to me. I've got this whole book. I've got this whole book.

One of my teachers used to say it's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that bother me. It's the parts I do understand and not doing. That's what bothers me. I am absolutely certain what God wants me to do, but it's also clear that He doesn't force me to do them. I can either obey or disobey. God is sovereign, I can obey or disobey, but my life and my destiny are absolutely in his hands.

●    Anything awaits us: Love or hatred or who knows what (v1)

So here's the second thing that's certain in verse one. It relates to this. That's the question, how does God feel about us? And he says at the end of verse one, hatred or anything, you don't know what awaits you and you can be certain about that. Now Romans 1:19 says that the creation of the of

the world, the universe makes it clear. God exists. No one can say I had no evidence about the existence of God. That's a long that's a whole other sermon series, but Creation just makes it clear God is. This is not accidental stuff. There's too much design, there's too much purpose. It is amazing. Now the question is, how does he feel about us? Because we look at creation and say there's stuff that's beautiful and there's stuff that's ugly. There's stuff that's wonderful and there's stuff that's bitter. There's stuff that's sublime and

there's stuff that's miserable.

There's not always beautiful things in creation and as I look at creation, I can't really finally make a decision as God formed me against me. Creation doesn't do that for me. It just says he exists. Is he forming or is he against me? Does he love me? Does he hate me? Does he accept me or reject me? But the big mistake we make is making decisions based only on what we can see.

There is more evidence to be considered than what we can physically see.

There's other stuff to take into mind in this world when we try to answer the question, does God love me or does he not love me? There's more evidence than creation available. There's evidence like this book.

There's evidence like change and transformed lives. There's evidence like writers from the past who have documented the way that God worked and said what's true about him. There's evidence like the fact that this book has persevered for decades, for centuries, for millennia. It's the most widely read, most widely published, most popular book of all time. Despite efforts to

stamp it out. There's stuff that's true that really helps us think about this. And we have to say to myself, I got to look at all the evidence, not just what I can see. If I see a lion takedown a zebra and start eating the zebra while it's still alive, I say. How could a loving God let that happen? Well, the answer is that's not what He started with. What he created, both the lion and the zebra were eating grass. The answer is something else happened. God didn't design that kind of pain. So what else happened was in chapter 3 of Genesis, obviously

so.

●    There is one fate for all people: Death (v. 2-3)

We're all going to die. There's evidence besides creation that God loves us or hates us. Here's the next thing that's certain verses 2 and three. There's one fate for all people. Everyone, no exception, is going to die. Everyone, whether they're good or evil, will die. Everyone, whether they are a believer or unbeliever, will die. I can't go to the Grim Reaper and say, listen, I trusted Jesus and I've been a pretty good guy for recently. And therefore I want to pass on this, you know, I don't want to die.

Or I want to die in what I call the Uncle Steve Method, my brother-in-law

who took a nap on his couch after he had retired and woke up in heaven.

It's a great method. I would love his method. But I can't sign up for it. There's no place to go and sign up for that. I might have to make the 28 months miserable. Cancer dropping down till I'm in, you know, just in pain the whole time. I don't have, I don't have an option about that. I'm going to die. I have no idea how I'm going to die. I can't choose to die unless I commit suicide.

Which is a horrible choice. If you're sitting here today and thinking about that, if you're considering that, if your life is that low that you're struggling with that you must come see me after this service. Please, please come see me after this service.

You are too valuable of a person. God has too much in store for you. It is a horrible choice. Please, please come speak to me right after the service. Walk

straight up to me. I would be happy to talk to you. I've not been there for a long time. I got there for a brief time once.

Thank God I was preserved from it. Please come speak to me if that's your situation. So we don't have a choice about how to die. We are going to die. Qoheleth makes that very clear. And the core message in life, in this fallen world, is that death is certain and we can't fix it. There's stuff we can't understand, there's stuff we can't postpone. There's stuff that's beyond us.

So what do we do? We take God 's hand. We walk calmly and gratefully through the mess. Just hold on to God's hand. Psalm 23, The Lord is

my shepherd. I shall not want, I will not lack for anything. Take God's hand and walk quietly through it.

David Gibson, the guy from Scotland, says this death is the limit God has placed on creatures who want to be gods. He says that includes me because, as my wife could tell you, I'm pretty keen on the idea of being the center of the universe. So God is a self-existent being. It means he needs nothing to exist. It means he will not die and he cannot die. I am a dependent being. I need stuff to exist. I not only can die, but I will die unless Jesus comes back quickly. So part of what he's saying here is that if I want to be God in this world, I'm foolish. Because I'm going to die, and God doesn't die.

If I want to be God in the next World and get my own planet and multiple wives and populate it, it's foolish. You can't be God anywhere because God doesn't die. We're going to die. We need to give up on the thought that, Oh yeah, I am going to be God or I am God. Sometime, eventually, I will be God.

That's nonsense. We are created beings. We are dependent beings. So I'm not only going to die, friends, but here's the bad news. I'm going to die because I'm a Sinner.

In a very real sense, I brought this on myself. I chose this by rebelling against God. I chose this by my acts of sin. I have a sin nature. I'm under the judgment of sin. I do acts of sin. It's my fault and it's not someone else's fault. And I know it's very easy to say, oh, if I'd have been Adam, I wouldn't have done that.

Yeah, I'm not buying it, friends. Personally, I'm not buying it. We all have sinned, and we all sinned with Adam, and it's our fault. We brought this death on ourselves. We're hopeless. We're helpless. We're like a guy in an avalanche. You know, there's this huge tons and tons of snow just carrying him down the slope. There's nothing for him to do but just pray that when it stops, he's

close enough to the surface to dig out. He's hopeless.

That's where we were. And God says, even though we were there. He did something for us, sent His Son to live a sinless life, to pay on the cross for our sin in our place instead of us. Spend 3 days in the tomb, be resurrected, ascend into heaven, pray for us continually. That's what he's up to

right now. Come back for us and bring us to a new heaven and a new earth. That's the good news. I can be a person who experiences that forgiveness that that eternal life by just making a heart level decision to trust Christ and say I give up on all of it. I'm just going to put all my hope in Jesus, Christ alone.

I'm going to die and I brought it on myself. “For by grace you are saved through faith. And that is not of yourself. It's not a result of works, it's a gift from God. Lest any person should boast.” he's saying to me, I will extend you this gift.

●    Living people have ability, but the dead people are done. (v. 4-6)

Living people like us, we have ability. We can act. And in his little statement here, he says a living dog is better than a dead lion. Would you rather have a three legged dog that's alive or a dead lion? Because a three legged dog can still get around. A deadline is a big smelly cleanup on Aisle 4. It's a mess. It's just going to be there until somebody deals with it.

We are alive. We have the opportunity to love God, to love others, to serve others, to make a difference in the world, to provide for our family, to extend forgiveness, to receive forgiveness. We have all kinds of abilities because for now we are alive and it's God's gift to us. When we're not alive, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:8 “…to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

When I die, I'm going to be present with the Lord. I think the Bible makes it clear it's a, it's a nanosecond thing. It's a, it's a very, very glorious experience, which we say, Dave, did you say death is a glorious experience? I did, I did. So we're in the hands of God and therefore we're in good hands. These are the things that he is certain about.

Qoheleth shares some things that are wise. (v.7-10)

●    Go out and enjoy life!

Here's some really wise ways to go about life. Verse 7 Says, “Go enjoy your bread and wine with a cheerful heart before God.” And it's an active command.. Seize the day, Carpe diem, so to speak. It's a different carpe diem than you may have heard about in the secular world, but God enjoys watching us enjoy the good gifts he gives to us. He's happy for us to enjoy the things he gives to us, David Gibson said this verse is the book of Ecclesiastes in a nutshell. He wrote this book to smash into tiny pieces our idea that we can be like God. We aspire to have it all, know it all, do it all, achieve it all, be happy forever, have all the answers, never be left scratching our head and be remembered for all, by all, for all, for all time.

That's what we hope for. But what guarantee is there that we won't go under the bus tomorrow? If you knew that would happen tomorrow, how would you live today? It's our last day friends, we're all going to be hit by a bus tomorrow.

The whole point of Ecclesiastes is the life you have today comes from God's hand as a gift. You have it for a short while and one day God will call time and take it back. Enjoy your life with your wife today, because tomorrow she might

be gone, or you might be. And so part of this story here is that if I'm going to conquer life, it's a fool's game. I can't do it. But if I want to enjoy it as a gift?

Then I can.

You have all given a gift to a child or a grandchild. It's something they really wanted and they opened it up on Christmas and they're just thrilled out of their minds and there's delight on their face and they play with it and play with it and play with it. And they thank you and they hug you and they're just so happy to have it.

I think I get more joy out of watching that than I ever did getting a gift. God enjoys watching us enjoy the stuff He gives us. God enjoys watching us experience life and family, food, wine, fun, meaningful life. He enjoys watching us do that. First Timothy 6:17. God has given us all things richly to enjoy.

There's a writer named David Ford who said Jesus literally ate his way through the Gospels. Have you ever thought about that? He ate his way through the Gospels. They're always eating together. He sends people into Sychar to get food. They're having breakfast on the beach, fish. They're feeding with fish and loaves. They do the Lord's Supper together. They're just always eating. They're walking through the fields, picking heads off the green. He just ate his way through the Gospels. Now, he wasn't a glutton, and I'm not advocating,

gluttony. But I am saying we should enjoy it. The stuff that God gives us to eat. I'm going to eat my way through life, obviously. I have been, obviously.

Today, after the second hour, I have charge of my three granddaughters all by myself. Everybody else has commitments. We're going to Idaho Pizza. Whoo salad bar, pizza, cinnamon sticks. Grandpa, can I have more cinnamon sticks? Of course you can. And bring me a couple. My son and his wife were helping downtown at “Family Life Conference” this weekend. They have no idea what I'm saying. And so I mean the clear, you know, I mean the clear. Unless one of

you rats me out. Then I am in the clear about this.

I'm going to the Super Bowl party tonight. I'm not going to tell you who I'm rooting for because I'll alienate a bunch of people, but I am going for the food.

My buddy is going to have hors d'oeuvres like you can imagine.

The second wise thing, verse 8, wear white clothes, put oil on your head. You're thinking, OK, that's going to take some exegetical sleight of hand there, preacher man, to tell us what that means. Left to myself, I don't know, but there's an author, Old Testament scholar named Stanley Grudeness, who says

to the people in distress were sackcloth and ashes on their heads. And in our time, you go to a funeral with black on and you go to a wedding with white.

One And so he's saying, dress up, enjoy life, wear this stuff you like to wear,

put oil on your head. He says they put oil on their heads to prevent sunburn.

I wasn't there. I don't know, but he's simply saying enjoy life and take care of yourself.

Wear white stuff. Wear nice clothing. Dress up like a Baptist headed to Easter Sunday morning. Dress up like a kid headed to a Hawaiian luau. Really enjoy what you like to wear or wear what you like. Be a person who until you die, says I'm going to enjoy my life. I'm going to wear white. I'm going to be a person who admits, I'm going to die.

But who doesn't wear black every day? Because I admit I'm going to die, I can wear white, bright, colorful things in my life.

●    Enjoy your spouse your whole, toiling, laboring, uncertain life (v. 9)

Enjoy your wife or your husband, all your toiling, laboring, uncertain life. If you have a spouse, that person is a gift from God to you. Enjoy that person. Invest in that person. If you do not have a spouse, let me tell you what to do. Pursue

God. Pursue ministry, run toward God, and then after a while look around and see who is running with you. And pick out one of those people. Look for someone running with you. You're not going to find a spouse if you're sitting at home in your apartment Saturday night knitting washcloths. You've got to get out there a little bit that's targeted at a specific person in here. God willing,

she'll forgive me. Kathy Gibson is a gift to me. 50, almost 51 years ago, we got married. Kathy was a pre Med student, a valedictorian. She had more

scholarship money than she could use. She had to give some back, but I rescued her from a life of wealth and purpose and meaning. Yeah, yes. I pulled her down into obscurity and poverty. Why did she do that? I don't appreciate Amens over here. I don't know which one you guys said that.

Why did she do that? I do not know. Deeply grateful she did. Deeply grateful!

I don't know why she did it.

David Gibson again. “Cherish and protect the person God has given you.”

If you are too busy to enjoy the life you have together, then you are too busy. End of story. If you do not enjoy each other, then it is likely that you are simply taking what you can from each other to pursue other goals and ambitions that are never going to give you all they promise. You may use each other to gain something that will turn out to be not to gain at all. And lose each other in the process. Enjoy this person that God has given you for all of your life.

Now on this theme of enjoying life as a gift, even though it's uncertain and even though we're going to die and even though we're toiling, there's a writer by the name of ND Wilson. He wrote a book on Ecclesiastes called “Death by Living”, and he gave a long list of ways to enjoy life and to honor God. And I loved the list, but I thought it's a little too East Coast, so I modified it for the

Idaho version. I mean, I kept most of his stuff, but you'll see the Idaho pieces of it.

Ride a bike, see the Grand Canyon, go to the ballet, learn to play an instrument, visit the sick, cook a meal, watch a film, care for the dying, laugh with friends until you cry. Feed the hungry. Read God's book. Build a snowman. Run or walk a 5K, float the Middle Fork. Listen to Mozart, Apply for a moose tag every year. Call your parents. Tell your husband it's just fine if he wants to buy a new pickup. Write a letter, take your kids to Shields, talk about Christ, give away your fortune, Upgrade your couch. Volunteer at Stanton Health Center. Find a good Mexican restaurant. Read a book. Put some cash in an envelope and put it in a missionaries car. Shovel your neighbors walk. Buy a

drum set for your granddaughter. Go snow camping. Take an impromptu unplanned trip. Forgive everyone. Show up at places you are needed. Clean your room, Ask your wife to teach you how to cook something. More difficult than scrambled eggs. David Gibson again, “Shape someone else's life by laying down your own life.” Enjoy the family, the friends that God has given to you. Even though life is toiling. V

●     Apply yourself fully to your pursuits before you go to Sheol. (v.10.)

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom and Sheol where you are going.”

Sheol is the Old Testament place of the dead. It's where everyone before Christ went while they awaited eternity. It's a place of darkness and stillness. It's a place without opportunity. But before you go there, he said, here's how you ought to live. Apply yourself to life. Paul puts it this way.

Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do in Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks through him to God the Father.” Whatever you do, do your work heartily. As for the Lord? Rather than for men. Is it possible, friends, that half hearted living is sinful? That we ought to really be applying ourselves to whatever God set in front of us, whether it's work or school or family or snow shoveling, whatever it is, let me let me apply myself to it.

I want to say a final thing about verses 7 to 10, which is there is a huge amount of wedding imagery in these, in these 3 verses, 4 verses, for example, there's white garments, oil, food, wine, enjoyment, love, husband, wife.

There's a lot of wedding imagery in there.

Revelation 9:6. Hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad, and give glory to Him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. It will be given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the Saints. Then he said to me, write, Blessed are those who are invited to the

marriage supper of the Lamb. These are the true words of God. I suspect that everything in our world, the really happy things and the really difficult things, are designed to cause us to want to go to heaven.

To want to get to the marriage feast, to get to that place of enjoyment, to get to a place where, as Randy Elkhorn said, “We come to our home, which is a place we've never been, is where we want to be. Everything bad and good brings us there”

 So the core truth today is pretty counterintuitive, my friends. Here's what it says. If I admit that life is uncertain, then I'm going to die. I can live an abundant life. If I admit life is uncertain and I'm going to die, then I can really live. But if I say I can control life and I will not die, I will be flatly miserable. Flatly miserable. Life is uncertain. Don't say you're going to go earn money for a year you don't even know about. Tomorrow you are going to die. Qoheleth has not really left a whole lot of doubt about that. Plus the evidence. It seems to be one for one, at least in my lifetime. It's going to happen. But in the meantime, I can still have an abundant life. Jesus said I came that you might

have life and have it more abundantly. Timothy says, “God has given us all we need for life and godliness.” Richly enjoy everything.

Ecclesiastes 9:9 “Enjoy life with a woman who you love, all the days of your fleeting life which has given you under the sun.”

I have two options. Option A is to say I can make life work and I'm not going to die and I will be miserable. Option 2 is to say no life is beyond me to control or even understand I'm going to die.

And if I'd be willing to make that decision, I could have an abundant life. Now, Friends, it's counterintuitive. It's part of what theologians call the upside down economy of God. Let me read a few of those to you:

The first shall be last

The least shall be the greatest.

He who gives up his life shall keep it.

He who keeps his life shall lose it.

The servant shall be the greatest.

The gentle shall inherit the earth.

Anyone who has left houses and brothers and sisters and father and mother and children and farms for my sake, who will see many times more and will inherit eternal life.

The people who have refused to embrace their death will be the living dead. The people who admit they will die will live to the fullest. The people who see life as a fight will be in a fight. The people who see life as a gift. Will have

a gift.

It's the upside down economy of God. I am a person who can say life is a battle, I can't fix it, I am going to die.

But now I'm ready to live well in the meantime.

Core Idea: If I admit that life is uncertain and I’m going to die…I can love an abundant life.

●    Life is uncertain

●    I am going to die

●   Abundant life is still possible! (John 14:6, John 10:10, 1 Timothy 9:17)