Ecclesiastes: Let God Be Your God

Well, that's the uplifting passage for Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day.

Start with that.

I think we can get to something hopeful out of it.

So it's our last week going through the book of Ecclesiastes.

So congratulations on that.

It's been a few months going through Ecclesiastes, and this book is filled with these kind of what we just felt of Christian reading from Ecclesiastes 12, these poetic ramblings.

Very poetic, a little cynical at times, but what Solomon is saying is he's saying everything under the sun is vanity, is that word uh Havel, vapor.

Like it's it's here for just a little bit and then it's gone.

It's meaningless.

And so what he's saying, and you felt this, and I felt this, we've all felt this, is power, say power.

It's like more and more influence you have.

So more and more influence you have in your friend group or you know, in school, or at your job, neighborhood, more and more influence you have, you think, oh, that's gonna be the thing.

That'll be the thing that gives me meaning.

That'll be the thing that I can finally grab a hold of.

And he says, ah, vapor on that.

Okay, well, well, money, money will be the thing, or like the next car, the next job, the next status, the next, the next level.

Like you'll get that that next raise, and that'll be that'll be the one.

That will be the one.

Or the next romance, or romance in general, oh, you know, just to be in love and have someone to love and love me, and that's good, and a lot of these things are good, right?

I mean, these are good things.

And he says to all these things, I'm trying I've tried them all.

But when it comes to delivering us from our condition and our need to be truly loved, absolved of sin, these things are these things are vapor.

Because we always carry our insecurities into them.

None of them can really, really save us.

And you know this, and I know that you you know it because you went from a corolla to a Camry, and then and then some to a Cadillac, right?

Or maybe you're still in the Corolla, right?

Maybe you're still in the Corolla, but you've seen it.

Go from the Corolla to the Camry to the Cadillac, you get to the Cadillac.

I'm not picking on Cadillac, I just saw a Cadillac commercial yesterday, and I I thought to myself, man, like I really think I'd be happier.

Like by the end of the commercial, I don't know if you've seen the commercial, it was fantastic, it was unbelievable.

I was convinced.

30 seconds, and I was convinced.

But you get the Cadillac, and we've done this.

You get the Cadillac, you've done it.

And then you sort of miss the Corolla, right?

Because it doesn't work.

These things, and they're fine with drive, Cadillac, Corolla, I don't care what you drive.

No matter what you, they can't deliver you.

They can't bring you lasting joy, they can't deliver you.

And now here's what the the here's what the book of Ecclesiastes is saying.

So here are some 12 books representing 12 chapters.

I think there's 12.

I counted them out pretty quickly, but 12 books, 12 chapters of Ecclesiastes.

Got a bookend on this side, a bookend on this side.

So the book of Ecclesiastes, this is how the book of Ecclesiastes is structured.

You have a bookend at the beginning, a narrator, opens it up.

Kind of gives a little bit of summary, opens up the this whole book of Ecclesiastes, and then you get uh, and all in between, you get what's called the preacher.

And this is the voice of Solomon.

Probably written by somebody else, but it's the voice of Solomon.

It's written in his voice.

You get lots of rambling, lots of poetry, you get some wisdom, get a lot of emotion, you know how his preachers are.

This is the voice of the preacher, and it's just boom, boom, boom, boom, all the way through, and then you get to chapter 12, and you get the book end on the end.

So you get narrator, preacher, narrator.

This is the structure of Ecclesiastes.

You want to understand Ecclesiastes?

Here it is.

This is how it is framed up for us.

And you have this narrator at the beginning and the end, and the narrator is clear, very level-headed, a very clear voice, much more clear than the in-between that we've been like rooting our way through and figuring our way through the last few months.

The narrator is what we tend to think when we think about reading the Bible.

Like, just kind of straightforward.

But the preacher is what we tend to forget about the Bible, and it's that it's written by people, inspired by God, but still filled with emotion and problems and issues.

So in between is this preacher, all this poetry and wisdom.

But we get to the end, this book end on the end, chapter 12.

I'll reread a couple of the verses.

Verse 1 remember also your creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them.

So here's the bookend.

So three points we're gonna have this morning.

It's nothing new because it's the bookend, right?

It's the review of the whole book.

So nothing new this morning.

If you want to leave, just go ahead and leave.

Nothing new this morning.

Point number one life is not always rainbows and lollipops.

Everybody's on the same page there, right?

Everybody's on the same page, yeah.

The reality of suffering, right?

I could have worded it more theological, intellectual, but I think we all understand life is not always rainbows and lollipops.

This is what he's saying when he's saying the days are evil.

Life is not a glory train.

Life as a Christian is not a glory train, right?

You don't always get the Cadillac, and if you get the Cadillac, the day you get the Cadillac, you find out you get you have cancer.

The day you get the Cadillac, it breaks.

You get in a wreck on the way home.

Your kid gets sick, or you don't get into the college that you want to, or you aren't the success you thought you would be, or the romance that was going to deliver you.

It ends.

Or it's harder.

It's just harder than you thought it would be.

At our house this week, uh have a laundry room being renovated, and so laundry's been backing up.

Uh this is evil.

Laundry backing up, this is this is evil in our our world at this point of lots of little kids.

Laundry's backing up, washing machine's not available yet.

The day the washing machine is available, it breaks.

You're like, evil.

The days are evil, even unto the most littlest things, right?

Like we see it in the littlest things, we see it in big things.

Now, while I'm being incredibly positive, again, happy Mother's Day.

The days are evil, but I don't have to tell you that because you know that.

Like moms, you know this.

You give out so much love, and for that we are so grateful.

But you know the feeling of the days are evil, and that's that's a really strong way to say there are days where you are zapped of freedom and joy and energy.

And if you're a mom, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

And that's just a reality.

Maybe you work outside the home as a mom, and then and then you come home and then you're thinking about dinner and groceries and all of that.

Maybe you're a single mom.

And you're going, like, this is hard.

Eat, I mean, and you wish, you wish, you wish.

I wish for you.

You wish the smiley, perfect Christian, like Christian mom thing.

Like you wish that was true.

Hey, let me, it's not.

It's not true for anybody, okay?

Like the mom you think it's true for, it's not true.

I'm I'm the pastor.

Trust me, okay?

Trust me on this one.

It's not true.

This should be incredibly freeing for you.

Right?

The smiley, perfect Christian mom image thing, not true.

There's just difficulty in life, even with the things that we love the most.

Right?

Like being a mom.

Like there's nothing that you probably love more than being a mom, and yet that can be incredibly difficult.

You don't have to say, Amen.

I know you're nodding along inside your hearts, but life is not always rainbows and lollipops.

My birthday was last week.

I turned 38 years old.

Uh, I have not done birthdays well in my mid-30s.

I don't know why.

I'm trying to figure that out.

There's there's something legit to like midlife crisis stuff.

Like I'm beginning to see that.

If I show up in a red convertible, you know, I traded in my 401k and I'm having real issues.

Talk to the elders to send me to counseling if you see me in a red convertible because I've gone over the edge.

Something about something about uh birth for me, the last few years, birthdays.

I just take a little too much inventory of my life, and uh inevitably I turn that into like a comparison game with other people.

You know, I'm talking about you've done it with like Cindy Joe down the street and Tommy, who you know works at Wells Fargo and he's doing so good, and then you look at your life, you're like, oh, you know, I never really hit that income level I thought I was going to.

Or you do it with just a kid in your class, your grade.

And comparison's always a thief of joy.

And so for just a couple days last week, like the day before my birthday, my birthday, maybe the day after, like not birthday fun, not rainbows and lollipops.

I'm not having a great time.

I'm just sort of down, just like a couple days of a couple days of evil, a couple days of without freedom and joy and life.

And it's all because of one reason.

I don't trust God.

I don't trust He's enough.

I don't.

And I think so often, I think I need to add my production and my pretending or some sort of accumulation.

This is what Solomon's talking about is these things in this book.

I think I need to add those things.

I need to get these things, I need to add them into my justification and my value and my righteousness and my joy to be something in this world.

And to all of that, that thinking and that pursuit just makes it all worse, doesn't it?

Just think, just think you need another Cadillac, right?

Like that's a metaphor.

I'm sorry if you drive a Cadillac, somebody here does, you feel so bad.

You just think you need something else, the next thing.

See, listen, Solomon is saying, and my life confirms, I think your life confirms, that more production and accumulation by me does not bring me peace and redemption.

Yet in my sin, I continue to run to it again and again to self-save.

Like this is this is the thing.

This is why I have to preach the gospel.

You have to preach the gospel to yourself over and over and over again and live in a confession and a repentance and a receiving of God's grace over you.

And this leads into point number two.

What I think Solomon is is looking for, and I think what you're looking for, point number two, we're all looking to be loved.

We're all looking to be loved.

I mean, if you think back through this book of Ecclesiastes and you just think through everything Solomon's gone through, he's like, I've done this and I've gone through this, and I tried to get a lot of money and I tried to have a lot of power, and I tried to have a lot of sex and I was doing all these things, and none of these things really added up.

Right?

You remember the song?

You remember the song?

I was looking for love in all the wrong places?

Urban cowboy.

It's been a while.

It'd be a little cliche to quote it, but it's perfect, too perfect not to quote it, so I'm going to quote it.

I was looking for love in all the wrong places, looking for love in too many faces, searching their eyes, looking for traces of what I'm dreaming of, hoping to find a friend and lover.

I'll bless the day I discover another heart looking for love.

Right?

This is our condition showing itself.

Just this drive in us for this.

And due to your sin to run to all sorts of places to self-save rather than God, you have a never-ending need for never-ending love, for absolution and redemption.

A few weeks ago, Christy took me to see Seinfeld at the Fox.

It was fantastic.

He comes out, Jerry comes out.

I'm huge, huge, huge, huge, huge.

I can't say I watch a Seinfeld every day.

Let's just put it that way.

Every day, at some point, I will watch a Seinfeld episode.

It is a part of my day, it is a part of my spiritual practice, it's a part of my life.

Every day.

A few weeks ago, Christy takes me to see Seinfeld at the Fox.

Jerry comes out, no notes, just standing there, a microphone.

He kills it for over an hour.

Just joke after joke after joke.

You don't stop laughing, you're shaking in your seats.

I mean, people are out loud, they're falling over.

Unbelievable.

And you've you've probably seen the TV show.

It is such cynicism, right?

It's a cynical slant on reality.

It's Solomon, right?

And they actually have a lot in common.

They're incredibly wealthy and they're Jewish.

I mean, these men have a lot in common.

You know, it's ten minutes on like you got here, but you want to be somewhere else.

Ten minutes on that.

We're never happy where we're at.

Like you're here, sort of, you're thinking about lunch.

You get to lunch, you're sort of thinking about, eh, don't know if I like being at this restaurant, thinking about being at home.

The nap you're gonna take, you're taking the nap.

It's like we're here, but sort of want to be five minutes on vacation.

Instead of fighting at home, you fight at a hotel, right?

It's just a cynical slant on reality.

It's raw reality in your face.

And it's like Solomon in that way.

Very, very similar.

Here's the difference.

Here's the difference.

Seinfeld finishes his set, and we're all laughing.

I mean, we're laughing walking out of the theater, but we have no answers for any of this ordinary mess.

Solomon finishes his set, and here's what he says: Ecclesiastes 12, 13, and 14.

The end of the matter.

All has been heard.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

So, point number three, fear God and obey him.

I'll be honest with you, I'm reading this this week, and at first look, I'm going, this sounds as depressing as the days are evil.

I'm just be honest.

Like, okay, so the good option, the good option here, according to Solomon, is be afraid of God and obey him out of fear.

This is the conclusion.

This is the good option.

And I'm going, I I don't know.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

But see, this is the best language Solomon has at his point in time of history before Jesus, before the teachings of Jesus, before the death of Jesus, before the resurrection of Jesus, before the teachings of Paul, before the new covenant has come to fruition.

This is the best language Solomon has at the time to say, come under God and live in the humility to receive from him, and out of that honor him with your life.

So we could rephrase point number three instead of fear God and obey him, which a lot of us on this side of Jesus go, really?

That's the point.

No, on this side of the new covenant of Jesus, that point can be translated into enjoy the peace of not being your own God and Savior.

Right?

That's the book in.

You don't have to be your own God.

You can come under God.

Solomon's language, Old Testament, fear God.

Our understanding of that in the new covenant, come under God.

That He is the sovereign ruler and grace over your life.

You do not have to continue down the exhausting pursuit to be your own Savior.

You don't have to do your own saving.

You don't have to do your own absolving.

You don't have to do your own redeeming.

Right?

And this is everything that Solomon was doing throughout this entire book.

And out of this great gift that he has given to you, walk in his ways.

Out of gratitude, out of great security as his children.

Not to prove something, not to earn something, not to pay something back.

Tuesday night, I went with my family to the fifth grade talent show on the square.

There's some Marietta Mayberry going on, right?

I mean, totally just classic small town.

It was so good.

Getting in that down on the square, we're in the theater, fifth grade talent show.

We're all live at our kids sitting there.

My oldest is sitting with all her friends over at a separate row, because they're big kids now.

And we get there, and um it's 12 acts, and they're gonna have a PTA meeting, and then there's 12 acts, and then in between each act, there was uh some MCs.

There's like there's three fifth graders that were MCing the talent show.

Anyone go to the fifth grade talent show?

It's a hot ticket, hot ticket this week here.

And so three MCs, there's two girls.

I'm sorry, I don't remember their names.

Sorry if you're related to them.

Uh there was uh a boy, fifth grade boy, his name was Gus.

I don't know if y'all know Gus.

He's a little guy.

He was a pretty adorable little guy, pretty funny.

And Christy leans over to me right at the beginning and she says, Hey, Gus's mom is right in front of you, is sitting in front of you.

Right?

You know what this means, right?

This means I think you'll probably say something really inappropriate about Gus.

And you need to know that's his mom.

Okay?

And she's probably right.

I will not say, but he was great.

Like, and all the acts were great.

I mean, that's what was so I mean, they're just like brave kids going for it on stage in front of people, just going for it.

And he was great.

He was he was adorable, he was funny, he did a great job.

But I realized about five minutes into this thing, the greatest thing going on here was Gus's mom.

She was so tuned in to her boy.

Everything he said was funny.

I mean, she was la she was having the time of her life watching her boy.

She would laugh when the rest of the people wouldn't laugh.

It was incredible.

And so I'm just watching her.

She is so tuned in.

I quit watching Gus entirely.

The great thing going on was her.

This was so incredibly endearing.

Like her being enamored with her son like this.

And he did a great job.

But he wasn't Seinfeld on stage, right?

I mean, he was a fifth grader.

He did a really, really great job for a fifth grader.

But it didn't even matter to her.

She didn't care.

That's her boy.

See, this is the picture of the gospel, this unconditionally loving parent just showering acceptance toward you.

I think about that, and then I think about Solomon.

I mean, I go, man, I he would have loved to have known that full story.

He was looking forward to it.

He knew there had to be an answer to all of this.

He was looking forward to a savior.

But man, it would have been incredible for him to know this sort of love.

Because Solomon only knew a God of justice and power.

He didn't know that God loves so much to pursue us into suffering, into our anxiety and our hurt and our brokenness and our imperfection.

Solomon knew of the God where you brought your sacrifice to him.

But this was always to show us that one day we would need God Himself to be the sacrifice.

For us to be secure, securely loved, fully redeemed, we would need God Himself to be the sacrifice.

So God's not just the powerful God, but actually the powerless God that comes into our suffering.

And it's only this suffering God, Jesus, that can move us from a resignation of like just fear God and obey Him, fear God and obey Him, to move us from that into a gracious, secure redemption empowered by our position in Christ alone and by His Spirit in us to live in grateful and honorable living.

Listen, we have incredible hope for today.

So much more than what Solomon had.

And it's not because we'll perfectly obey or love or refuse power and money and status and all those things.

It's not because we're going to be perfect, it's because God Himself loves us.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you find perfect saving in Christ's work for you because He has taken your sin upon the cross and given you his righteousness.

And moms, may you live in the gracious peace of God, not because you're perfect, but because you are his daughter.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your goodness to us.

And that while we are not perfect, you are perfect for us.

Thank you that you call us to yourself into a full, secure, perfect redemption by your son's work for us.

May that have power inside of us, and may your spirit, may your spirit do great work in us for our lives to honor you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.