Ecclesiastes: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

So a year ago I was headed to lunch uh down near Cumberland Mall and I as I was driving, I don't know, min mentally I I went somewhere else other than driving, but I was I was headed down there and then I was got on 285 and if you you know how you headed 75 south and 285 east and west kind of they crisscross and so it's not the lane you think you should be in and I wasn't paying attention.

So I end up going 285 east instead of I needed to go west, which right away I missed the exit, and so I gotta head up and then I get off at the first exit, and so of course the first exit doesn't really have a bridge over and had the excess road for another mile, and then to that bridge, and then back over, and then back down that other access road, and then back on 285, and now I'm on 285 uh west, headed back to the exit I need to get to to have lunch with my friend.

And I had built in a little bit of slim margin here, not much, like three minutes.

Like that's how I like to run it.

A three-minute margin is what I really like.

And so my margin's gone, and I'm like, oh, he's gonna be sitting there, and I'm all that's kind of I'm getting stressed.

And so I'm driving along and just again, again, I missed it again.

I just drive right by, miss the exit again.

And this point, a lot of self-hatred, a lot of self-doubt running through me.

Um, and so I head up to the next exit, I get off, I go over, I come back, I come back.

And of course, then I have to explain to my friend why he's been sitting there for 15 minutes uh without it, it's because I'm just driving around, just like a moron, just driving around, right?

Just that's what I'm doing, apparently.

Um, and and maybe maybe it's ridiculous, but maybe you do that, maybe you've done that.

If you do that, that particular thing, you're very aware of it because your spouse lets you know about it.

Uh, but maybe you've uh been in like algebra class, right?

I had Mr.

Jennings, and he wore shirts that look like graph paper, which was awesome for a math teacher.

And he would be sitting next to his overhead projector, and I don't know how it would happen, but you know what I'm talking about because you could sit through an hour of algebra and somehow you heard nothing.

Somehow you were in there the whole time and you heard nothing, or your your kid's ball game, and somehow you were there for an hour and a half and you didn't see anything.

And later on, you're like, you played great.

I thought you played a great game.

Or you're reading your kid a book at night, or or you're on a date with your like your sweet somebody, but there's a television behind him or her, and and the conversation just you're not you're there, but you're not there, right?

Like you know the feeling, like the reality that while our bodies can be in one place, mentally we can just be in so many different places.

And oftentimes we sort of like this is an escape fascination.

Uh maybe in this, we we feed that, and then it feeds our discontentment.

Uh we live in the past in some sort of shame, or we live in the future in some sort of anxiety, and yet, and this is sort of what I think Solomon's saying, and yet the present is the only moment any of us have.

Right here, like right now.

We don't even have like the picnic coming up, and you're like, should we go or not?

It looks cloudy.

Like you don't even have the picnic later on.

This is it.

This is the only moment you have, you don't have any other moment.

And I say all that because these philosophical ramblings of of Solomon.

And we've been looking at this book of Ecclesiastes and Old Testament, if you haven't been coming lately.

Uh Old Testament book, very strange book, like real cynical, philosophical.

Uh, it's written in King Solomon's voice, but probably not him.

But it's uh it's philosophical, it's cynical, it's rambling.

At times, he's repetitious, at times it's incredibly wise, and you're with him, and you're like, yes, yes, yes.

And then he starts talking, you're like, not sure, I'm not sure about that, not sure about that, and then yes, yes, yeah, and that's how it feels as we as we read it.

So it's almost his journal.

It's like the it's the journal you'd write, and you would never let anybody look at it, except his ended up in the Bible, and everybody gets to talk about it.

And so chapter eight is filled with thoughts about obeying the king, which is him.

Uh convenient for him to write about that.

And then some thoughts about the goodness of fearing God, which we've talked about, which is coming under God's reign.

And then he gets into chapter 9, and this is where our reading comes in this morning.

And verses 1 through 6 talks about the difficulties of life, just the difficulties of living in this world.

And so what Solomon's saying in those verses, he's saying, you can't figure it all out.

I don't know if you've been trying, but if you've been trying, you're very frustrated.

You can't figure it all out.

You can't know the future.

I don't know if you've been trying that.

Uh if so, you're exhausted.

Anybody been surprised, right?

You had a surprise in your life?

Good one, bad one?

Can't know the future.

You can't control death.

This is what he's saying.

These are you can't control death.

Not for you, not for your loved ones, not for your children.

As much as we would want to, we can't.

And on top of that, on top of that, good things happen to bad people, and then bad things happen to good people.

And this is very, very frustrating to him and to us, right?

And he's saying what he's saying, we're we're fighting this.

We are all fighting this, and I hate it.

I hate this.

I can't control everything.

Don't you just oh, don't you just hate that?

I mean, that is just oh, I hate that.

I mean, as a dad, right?

That I can't control everything.

As a dad, that's incredibly frustrating.

As a husband, as a friend, as a pastor, just as a person, that I can't control everything.

I want to.

Like I really, really want to, and I really do a lot to try to.

And in that, there's an incredible amount of exhaustion.

And an incredible amount of me just trying to be God.

My senior year of high school, I took this class called Careers in Education.

Basically, it was a class for people who wanted to be teachers.

Um, I didn't want to be a teacher, but I had some cute girls were in the class, and then on top of that, it was you got to leave school for a period, and I thought that was awesome.

And so these were the rational decisions for my education throughout life, were these types of uh decision making.

Um, I had no business being in the class.

Um, it wasn't for me, but here I am, uh, a period out of the day, going to elementary school, for me to be in charge of 25 second graders.

This was the worst decision I could have ever had.

Not my gifting.

Not my gifting.

And it's not even like here where you volunteer in children's ministry and you have help.

There's somebody else in the room.

No, the teacher would leave.

She was like, ah, freebie, right?

Like, freebie, I'm gone, have fun.

I I didn't know what to do.

I mean, talk about death comes at any moment.

Bad things happen to good people, you can't control anything, right?

And I'm trying to control it.

I'm trying to control 25 uncontrollable, at least for me, uncontrollable little created beings, of which I didn't like any of them.

I didn't.

I don't like any of them.

I like my children, not sure about your children, and I definitely didn't like those 25 kids.

Just what it was.

And I would leave those like 50 minutes every day, having tried to control so badly, just trying to control so much, I would be so exhausted.

Like headache every day.

You know what I'm talking about.

Because you have a job that's stressful, or your marriage is not that great, because you can't get your husband to change, or you're waiting for a test result, or a big test is coming up, or your friend is sick, or the bill is due, or your grandkids are hurting, or the girl doesn't like you, or the shame still hurts, or you have anxiety about something in the future, and all of that it's just like, oh, I'll try to control more and more and more.

And that tight gripping is so exhausting because you you can't understand everything, you can't control everything, you don't even know when death will come.

And to all of that, Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 9, 7 through 10, I'll reread what Sam read.

Go eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Let your garments be always white, let not oil be lacking on your head.

So he said that because of all of that, like because all this cynical philosophy of how life is, he's saying, like, you know what?

Like cynical surrender, like at least just surrender to it and eat some bread and drink some wine and have a merry heart, and you know what, and get dressed and look decent and enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life, and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

I'm thinking picking up on the cynical surrender at this point.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shiol to which you are going.

So he's saying, you aren't in control.

Everything doesn't make sense.

So eat and drink and be merry, enjoy your life, and in your wife, and your work.

So two points this morning.

Point number one, uh no matter where you're at in life, point number one is Solomon resigns.

Well, what we see here, Solomon resigns to a cynical surrender in life.

This is what he resigns to.

I mean, there's a hopelessness to this, like to him, like to his surrender.

I mean, at least it's surrender.

But for us, it's a little bit different, right?

Like, like you read this and you're like, oh, like, yes, a little bit.

Like, that's that part of Ecclesiastes.

You're like, yep, I'm with you, but oh, like you sound a little negative for me.

But at least he's surrendering, so we're like, yes, yes, yes.

But then you're like, oh man, vain life, you're vain, everything's vain.

You're like, really?

Is there no point, no purpose?

But this side of the cross, for us, there's more to it than just sort of like this cynical surrender, right?

The New Testament arrives at a different, has a different energy and motive for surrender.

And so what we see, and I'm bridging into Matthew 6, uh, 25 through 34, just because I think these are some verses where Jesus is talking about surrender out of a different motive, a different concern.

And this is point number two.

Jesus redeems us.

Jesus redeems us, and I wish Solomon, like, don't you just wish you could transport Solomon into like post the cross of Jesus and be like, here's your hope.

Everything you were wondering about and journaling about and just distraught about, like, it's fulfilled here in Jesus.

And so Jesus redeems us to a joy-filled surrender in life.

It doesn't have to be a cynical surrender.

Maybe you end up in surrender through like philosophy and through some cynicism.

I'm open to that.

The Bible's open to that.

That's the great thing about Ecclesiastes.

But Jesus eventually wants to move us to joy-filled surrender and life.

So listen to this, Matthew 6, 25 through 34.

It's it's a bit of verses, a bit of words here, but I want you to hear the difference in the tone of what Jesus is calling us to in terms of surrender.

Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

So, like, he's motivating you out of like, you're valuable, you're loved, verse 27.

And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?

So, like, yeah, death is coming, but what what good is worrying about it gonna do?

And why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin.

Yet I tell you, even Solomon, so train of thought here, even with Solomon, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.

Therefore, do not be anxious.

Don't be anxious.

What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?

For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow.

For tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

So these two texts are so interesting because both end up at the same place.

Surrender and living in the present moment.

But while Solomon surrenders in resignation, and I think that's part of it, like it's there's nothing wrong with that.

He kind of just ends up there through philosophical and just like I can't control it all, and it's all negative, and so I guess I'll surrender.

But Jesus inspires us to surrender because of his love for us, because he cares for me in this life.

I can surrender.

Because he cares for me in this life, I can eat and drink and be merry, I can be joy-filled surrender in this moment because of his care for me.

On Thursday, we flew the our whole staff.

So we went to New York for a conference, and we go every year, so it's our yearly uh retreat and conference, and we get to be together, and we get an apartment together for two nights, and we travel together and walk together and ride together and train together, and we're all together, and we stay there, and we go to this theological conference, we have all these conversations, and it's so good.

And so Thursday morning we head to the airport, and I'm tall and I'm impatient, so flying is not my favorite thing, not my favorite, but I like going places, so I'm still gonna participate in this.

I don't like lines, that doesn't help because it's all lines going through the airport.

I don't like people telling me what to do, which line to go in.

I want to pick the line I want to go into.

And that doesn't help because the whole thing's a process of lines and obedience, the whole entire thing.

So my anxiousness just sort of creeps and grows, and I'm arrogant, so I think that I really could run this whole thing better.

Like that's how you know mind you, I have no training or experience in queuing theories or security, uh, but I think I could run it all better than these people who have decades of experience.

And so I talk to Christy about all the ways that this should be improved while we're standing there.

And so I'm just I get more and more anxious about this.

And then we get on an airplane, which is a heavy metal tube with jet engines.

And I didn't used to think about this this way because I was young and I didn't have children.

And now I think about it this way, and you can give me the statistics that it's safer to fly than to drive, but when I'm driving, I have control.

And when I'm on a heavy metal tube with jet engines, I have no control.

There's some guy up there that I don't get to see, and I don't know anything about him, and he's in charge, and I don't like that.

Plus, it's a heavy metal tube, thousands of feet in the air, which I'm still uncomfortable with.

And so this is just anxiety.

This is just anxiety, and I have three little children, and they're out of my sight.

Okay, so they're with somebody else, being cared for by somebody else, right?

So I'm not in control of my children, I'm not in control of the heavy metal tube, I'm not even in control of my seat because it was built for a hobbit, not for me.

My knees are bruised.

Today, my knees are bruised.

So I'm sitting there getting more and more anxious with my knees being bruised.

But I'm thinking about Solomon, I'm thinking about this passage, is I have to preach on it, so I'm thinking about it.

And all my anxiety, my lack, complete lack of what Jesus would say, like consider the birds, or eat, drink, and be merry, right?

These are the same, these are the same things Solomon and Jesus are saying, and a complete lack of doing this in this moment, because I'm I'm just for me in this moment, I'm all in the future of anxiety of what could happen and might happen, or what's happening somewhere else.

And Solomon says, you can't control it all.

So eat some delta pretzels, have a cranberry juice, enjoy your wife that's sitting next to you, and be merry.

Or as Jesus would say more joyfully, God really cares for you.

He really cares for your life.

And he's not not to say that hardships, like real hardships, don't exist.

He's just saying trying to control them, trying to control all of it won't make it any better.

So be in this moment.

I met with my pastor coach, so he's sort of my counselor.

I met with him this week, earlier this week, and he's in his mid-60s, and he started a church in Nashville, and he pastored it, and he grew it, and he was at that church for 26 years, and so now he's in his early mid-60s, and he has children, and he has grandchildren, and he he did the pastoring and he has books, and and so I come every month with questions with for him.

So I come for questions like for our church, like, hey, how we need to do this, we need to get this better, this is presenting to be a problem, how do we handle this?

But I also come just with personal questions, and so I asked him the question.

I said, I said, what do you think success is?

And he did not even hesitate.

I mean, there was not a moment of let me think about this, there was no hesitation.

And he said, and I'll paraphrase sort of what a maybe a 10-minute 10-minute conversation was.

He said, I think success is being present in the relationships around me because I'm no longer worried about what is going to happen in the next moment, or how I look or what I'm gonna say or do or how something will play out.

Just being present with the people I love.

He said, it's about not being driven by the shame of being found out or everything I've failed at or worried about tomorrow, but knowing I'm fully loved and only have this moment with this person.

That is success.

See, the truth is that you are fully loved even when you don't fully live present in the very moment with somebody.

And that's the thing you need to know in order to live fully present with somebody.

If you don't know that, you won't do it.

And yet knowing that you won't do it perfectly is the very thing that helps you do it.

Right?

So Jesus came not to abolish the law, I mean, he's presenting law here.

Live live fully present with people.

Don't be anxious.

None of us, who's not being anxious?

All of us are being anxious, but knowing that Jesus came to take on our sin, take on our shame, take on all the ways we move to anxiety and control to self-save rather than relying upon Him, the fact that He took that on on the cross and gave us righteousness and our position as the beloved, knowing that is the very thing that helps you become free of living in shame or anxiety to live present.

And we keep reaching for control even while we know we shouldn't.

And all of that is something that we we shouldn't pretend we don't do.

Right?

Because that just creates some sort of like religious phoniness inside of us.

And we don't have to do that, because like I said, you're already fully loved.

The sin is already taken care of.

So the core of who you are is relieved of living out of shame and insecurity, and resting in that truth is relieving to us that we're not consumed to try to control everything.

So maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, in the grace and the mercy of God, we can live fully present with people.

We can consider that bird and be like that bird, that's Jesus' words or Solomon's words.

We can eat that bread and drink that wine and we can be merry.

But even if you don't, and even when you don't, God really cares for you.

He really loves you.

And that's because his love for you is not dependent upon your performance of any sort.

And that you really need to know.

I, I, you really need to know.

It's based on Jesus' performance for us.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you eat and may you drink and may you be merry.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that you call us to such a good thing, like not being anxious, and that you want to free us from all the ways that we live and our shame, and let our shame define us rather than being defined as your beloved, where we live in all the anxieties of tomorrow.

Thank you that you call us to live in this moment, this day.

Thank you that you call us in the promise.

That you care for us, that we are your beloved, therefore we get the great privilege to be free and live in this moment.

Would you help us to trust in you in greater ways?

Thank you for the cross of Jesus that takes upon all of our sin.

Have mercy on us for sinners.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.