Work Is But a Breath

Thank you, Jen, and thank you for bearing with us.

It's a joy to worship with you.

It is a little tight in here, but what's great about that is I can hear all of you sing really well.

And it's such a privilege and a joy to worship together.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 2.

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

We started this sermon series in this wonderful book in the Old Testament two weeks ago.

Three weeks ago.

We are in chapter 2, verses 12 to 26 this morning.

Let me pray now for the reading and preaching of God's Word.

Heavenly Father, we come to your Word again.

We are weak, but you are strong.

Our words are sometimes filled with untruths, but your Word is truth.

And your Word gives life.

We ask that you would make alive spiritually by your power every single soul here this morning as we listen to your Word.

Lord, we pray that you would humble us again.

Remind us of our finiteness, our creatureliness, our mortality, so that we might know the end of our days and live with wisdom and humility.

And point us to the good news of Jesus Christ.

Exalt His name, the most precious gift you've given us.

So that His name is exalted and trusted in.

Amen.

On every lip and by every heart here in this room.

Help us now in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

If you are able, please stand.

And for the reading of God's Word, we'd like to stand to honor God as we read His Word.

And I will read it out loud for us.

Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verses 12 to 26.

Ecclesiastes 2:12–26

So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly.

For what can the man do who comes after the king?

Only what has already been done.

Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly,

as there is more gain in light than in darkness.

The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.

And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them.

Then I said in my heart,

What happens to the fool will happen to me also.

Why then have I been so very wise?

And I said in my heart that this also is vanity.

For of the wise as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance,

seeing that in the days to come, all will have been long forgotten.

How the wise dies just like the fool.

So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me,

for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun,

seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me.

And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool.

Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun.

This also is vanity.

So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,

because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill

must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it.

This also is vanity and a great evil.

What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun?

For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation.

Even in the night his heart does not rest.

This also is vanity.

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.

This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.

For apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

For to the one who pleases him, God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy.

But to the sinner, he has given the business of gathering and collecting,

only to give to one who pleases God.

This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

You may be seated.

As I mentioned, we started our new sermon series three weeks ago,

and the first week of the sermon, which introduced the entire series in this book of Ecclesiastes,

we talked about how our life is but a breath.

That we are fleeting.

That we are never filled as human beings.

And that we will all eventually be forgotten.

That's the reality of life in this fallen world as we work this cursed ground.

However, that might prompt some people to respond in a hedonistic way.

Saying, well, if that's the case, and it's all futile and fleeting,

then I'm just going to live a maximally pleasurable life and indulge myself in everything.

Well, that's what we saw in last week's passage.

And the preacher of Ecclesiastes concluded that even after indulging in every conceivable pleasure

and denying himself no pleasure that his eyes can see and desire,

he concluded that even pleasure is but a breath.

No pleasure on earth can ultimately satisfy.

It gives us diminishing returns and leaves us ultimately empty.

Now, that reality then might prompt some people to respond,

instead turning toward work.

Trying to do something meaningful.

Trying to make something of their own lives.

And to leave a legacy.

I'm going to be successful and I'm going to leave a mark on this earth.

That's where we are headed this morning in this morning's passage in Ecclesiastes 2.12-26.

But the author of Ecclesiastes quickly bursts that bubble also.

And he tells us that work and all that we stand to gain from our work and our hard work

are also heavy, a puff of breath.

A passing wind.

Striving after wind.

But then, he tells us something that he hasn't told us yet up to this point.

And this is really the first light that we see,

the light of hope that shines onto this darkness of Ecclesiastes,

the despair that we've seen so far.

And it's just knowing that our work and what we gain from our work are but a breath,

we should enjoy our work as a gift from God.

And that's the amazing insight and wisdom we gain from this word.

And how do we actually do that?

How do we enjoy that work?

That's what we're going to talk about.

But first, before we get there, we're going to talk about how we will all be forgotten.

The author of Ecclesiastes likes to remind us of that and keep us in our place.

And then he will tell us that we must leave it all behind.

And then he tells us that we should enjoy our work.

The preacher once again turns to assessing the merits of these three approaches to life,

wisdom, madness, and folly in verse 12.

And he asks, does it matter at all whether you live as a wise man or a madman or a fool?

And he begins the exploration with this question.

For what can the man do who comes after the king?

As I've mentioned in the previous weeks, I think most likely the character of this book,

the preacher, is King Solomon, who compiled some of these wise sayings.

And so I think he is thinking hypothetically about what his successor might do.

And Solomon knows the answer, and he gives it.

Only what has already been done.

What can the man do who comes after the king?

Only what has already been done.

Here he is echoing what he said early in chapter 1, verses 9 to 10.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done.

And there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said, see, this is new?

It has been already in the ages before us.

Nothing we do is ever truly, in an absolute sense, novel.

It's something like it has already been done before.

Look at the things that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are campaigning on.

What can the man do who comes after the king?

Let's see what they promise.

Harris promises to curb the emission of greenhouse gases and control climate change.

That sounds a lot like Joe Biden before her,

who provided hundreds of billions of dollars toward clean energy.

That sounds a lot like Barack Obama before him,

who helped negotiate the Paris Climate Accords.

That sounds a lot like Bill Clinton before him,

who negotiated the Kyoto Protocol,

in which developed countries promised to cut their carbon emissions.

And that sounds a lot like what George H.W. Bush negotiated and signed,

the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

And that sounds a lot like what Ronald Reagan,

who signed the Global Climate Protection Act of 1987.

So what Harris is promising to do is nothing new.

For what can the man do who comes after the king?

Only what has already been done.

Democratic and Republican presidents in past years

have all tried to solve this issue to no avail.

Similarly, Donald Trump promises that he will end the Russia-Ukraine war

as soon as he becomes president.

And that he will restore peace through strength

and prevent World War III.

Once again, campaign promises like that are nothing new.

In 1916, Woodrow Wilson campaigned for re-election with this slogan,

He kept us out of war.

Just 29 days after he was sworn in for his second term,

U.S. declared war against Germany, joining World War I.

After him, in 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt promised during his campaign,

Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.

But a year later, after Pearl Harbor was bombed,

U.S. declared war on Japan and entered World War II.

After him, 1964, Lyndon Johnson said during his campaign

he would not send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home

to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.

But later that year, he dramatically increased U.S. military presence in Vietnam,

in the Vietnam War.

After him, in 1968, Richard Nixon promised that he would end the Vietnam War

and make peace with honor.

But he never did manage to end the Vietnam War.

After him, in 2000, George W. Bush campaigned,

saying that he would stop extending our troops all around the world

in nation-building missions.

But in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks,

he started new wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

After him, in 2008, Barack Obama pledged to end the war in Afghanistan,

only to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan year after year

in both his first and second terms.

After him, Joe Biden promised that he would end the forever wars.

But now there are two more wars going on,

in Ukraine and in Gaza, Israel.

Sure, Israel isn't directly involved,

but we've spent hundreds of billions of dollars

and some U.S. soldiers have died,

killed by Iran-backed terrorist groups.

So what Trump is promising to do is nothing new.

For what can the man do who comes after the king?

Only what has already been done.

The Democratic and Republican presidents in the past

have all tried to end wars,

but the warring nations pay no heed to such campaign promises.

And the sinful nature of humanity does not change,

apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ.

Now, this doesn't mean that there is no point in trying to gain wisdom at all

or trying to conduct ourselves with wisdom

or to elect wiser rulers.

Of course, there is a point in all that.

It's still better to be wise than to be foolish.

And that's what the preacher says in verses 13 to 14.

Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly,

as there is more gain in light than in darkness.

The wise person has his eyes in his head,

but the fool walks in darkness.

The wise person lives in light,

and the foolish person lives in darkness.

The wise person knows how to navigate life with wisdom,

and he knows how to avoid the pitfalls of life.

But the foolish person is ignorant and just stumbles through life,

which is better.

Of course, wisdom is better.

The preacher does not deny the superiority of wisdom in an ultimate sense,

and this is consistent with the teaching of Proverbs.

But here's the kicker at the end of verse 14.

And yet I perceive that the same event happens to them all.

What is this same event?

That happens to them all.

It's death.

The preacher continues in verses 15 to 17.

Then I said in my heart,

What happens to the fool will happen to me also.

Why then have I been so very wise?

And I said in my heart that this also is vanity,

for of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance,

seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten,

how the wise dies just like the fool.

So I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me,

for all is vanity and is striving after wind.

Think about it this way.

There are two drivers,

and they're both going to die in a car accident today.

But one of them is a very competent and careful driver.

He slows down before the speed bumps.

He checks the rear view mirror and the side mirrors as he is driving.

He hovers very close to the speed limit,

and he doesn't speed.

He stops at all the lights.

And if you are in his car,

you feel like this is the smoothest and safest ride you've ever been on.

And then there's the second driver.

This is a reckless and foolish driver.

When he is driving through the speed bumps,

the car basically gets airtime.

Now, he never checks any of the mirrors,

and the cars are honking all over the place.

Oops, there goes a red light that I just ran.

Now, which way of driving is better?

Clearly, the wise way of driving is better,

but they're both going to die today in a car accident.

So what's the point?

That's the philosophical question

that the preacher of Ecclesiastes is driving at.

Do you feel the futility of it all?

The wise person who works diligently

and saves gradually and invests prudently

and grows his or her wealth,

and the foolish person who is lazy

and then squanders her wealth

and then becomes homeless,

both of those people are going to die one day.

And they'll have to leave it all behind.

Death, as people say, is the great equalizer.

And who is going to remember them?

No one.

For of the wise as of the fool,

there is no enduring remembrance,

seeing that in the days to come,

all will have been long forgotten.

Even if you make something,

an enduring contribution to the world,

and you are memorialized or immortalized

with a statue or a bust somewhere

or a building named after you,

one day someone's going to raise that building

to make room for a new one,

and they'll name it after someone else.

One day they will topple that statue

because the values have changed,

and someone else will be put up.

Earlier this month,

I saw an article

about how the Chicago Bears legend,

I don't know how many of you guys know this legend,

Steve McMichael.

You guys know who this is?

Not a single person.

Chicago Bears legend,

Steve McMichael,

was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame

earlier this month.

And you know what's sad?

I saw a picture of the induction

because he couldn't attend the ceremony in person.

All his,

in the picture,

the man is bedridden in hospital

because he's dying from ALS.

While his wife and friends are surrounding him,

they're smiling,

and they're beaming with pride,

and the wife is holding this bronze bust of him.

Of course,

it's modeled after when he was still young

and handsome and athletic and muscular.

And he is a shell of himself now,

just lying there in bed.

And she's beaming at the bust and says,

hey, look, this is you.

This is you.

This is you.

Forever.

That's you forever.

Isn't it beautiful?

That's what the wife says.

The scene is thick with irony.

No, that bust is clearly not him.

Looks nothing like him now.

And surely,

it's not him forever.

That recognition does not last forever.

In fact,

he's already in the process of being forgotten,

as you can see.

He can't talk.

He can't smile.

He can't even turn to look at the bust.

His wife has to grab his head

and turn his head toward it.

Do you really think the man in that situation cares

that he just got into the Proof Football Hall of Fame?

Whether you are rich or poor,

famous or anonymous,

a success or a failure,

there is no enduring remembrance,

seeing that in the days to come,

all will have been long forgotten.

That's the brutal reality of life in this fallen world.

Maybe you're trying to invent something

or start a new business

that will be the next Amazon

or Microsoft

or Google

or Apple.

Maybe you want to make a break,

make some breakthroughs in AI

or make some other lasting contribution

to your academic field.

Maybe you want to write a best-selling book.

But no matter what we accomplish,

the inescapable reality

is that we will all be forgotten.

There is futility to our work

that is woven into the very fabric

of this fallen world.

It's all a striving after wind.

And if you keep chasing after that wind,

seeking some sort of ultimate gain

from the work that you do,

then you will end up hating life,

as the preacher says here.

And you will conclude

that life under the sun is grievous.

However,

if we recognize this humbling truth

and lean into the freedom of insignificance,

the freedom of mortality,

then instead of treating our work

and what we stand to gain from work

as a God,

we can do our work

and receive the gain

from our blessings of our work

as a gift.

And that's the difference.

The preacher of Ecclesiastes

will elaborate on this a little later.

But before we get to that,

there's another sobering truth

in verses 18 to 23.

Not only will we ourselves be forgotten,

our life's work

and all the wealth we've gained,

we must leave it all behind.

The preacher says in verses 18 to 19,

I hated all my toil

in which I toil under the sun,

seeing that I must leave it

to the man who will come after me.

And who knows

whether he will be wise or a fool,

yet he will be master of all

for which I toiled

and used my wisdom under the sun.

This also is vanity.

The certainty of death means

that sooner or later,

we must leave all our accomplishments

and possessions behind.

But there is no guarantee

that our successor will be wise,

wise stewards of what we have passed down.

Now, I think the preacher of Ecclesiastes,

which I think is most likely King Solomon,

was prescient in his realization

because if you recall what happens

right after King Solomon's death,

his son Rehoboam takes over the throne

and then people come and petition him

to lighten their workload.

And Rehoboam, instead of listening

to the wise counselors,

the old man who used to serve

in Solomon, his father's court,

instead he spurns their counsel

and then listens to the foolish young men

who grew up with him

and were standing now in his court.

And because of that,

the kingdom is split now,

divided into northern kingdom of Israel

and southern kingdom of Judah,

and then it begins its downward spiral

from there.

And the zenith of the kingdom of Israel,

which Solomon enjoyed,

is no longer to be found.

Similarly, Clint Murchison Jr.

Murchison Jr. was the son of an oil tycoon

who inherited $200 million

after his father's passing in the late 1960s,

adjusted for inflation

that would be worth over $400 million today.

But unlike his father,

who invested his money wisely,

Murchison Jr. frittered away his money

on passion projects and failed ventures,

and by 1985, he had filed for bankruptcy.

He liquidated all of his assets to repay his debt,

and he died two years later penniless.

Both him and Rehoboam destroyed

their wiser father's legacies.

All of us, as mortals,

face this predicament.

Perhaps you work hard to get a PhD,

and then a postdoc,

and then you gain a tenured professorship

at an esteemed research university,

and then you get a lab named after you.

But what happens to all of it after you die?

Someone will take over your lab.

The lab will be renamed.

And who knows whether your successor

will be wise or foolish,

whether they will see any value

in the research you are doing at all.

Maybe they decide to scrap it all.

We're going to go in a different direction.

What's the point, then,

of all your hard work,

all your worries,

and late nights?

He says in verses 22 to 23,

What has a man from all the toil

and striving of heart

with which he toils beneath the sun?

For all his days are full of sorrow,

and his work is a vexation.

Even in the night,

his heart does not rest.

This also is vanity.

What is there for us to gain

in all the work that we do?

Why do we stress out

and endure sleepless nights

for the sake of our work?

It's no wonder that the preacher says

in verse 20,

So I turned about

and gave my heart up to despair.

Despair over all the toil

of my labors under the sun.

This is the only place

in the book of Ecclesiastes

where we find the word despair.

And note the repetition

of this phrase,

under the sun.

It occurs four times

from verses 17 to 20,

and all in the context

of the most despairing,

hopeless statements

of the preacher.

And this is no accident.

Life under the sun,

life here in this fallen world

is but the merest breath.

It is fleeting,

and it is futile.

That is the inescapable condition

of this cursed ground,

which we have been consigned to work.

And Christians and non-Christians alike

must grapple with the reality

of this fallen world

every single day.

And the preacher's reaction

to this futility

is very strong.

Twice,

he says he hates this kind of life.

He says in verse 17,

so I hated life

because what is done

under the sun

was grievous to me.

And again in verse 18,

he says,

I hated all my toil

in which I toil under the sun.

These are the only two places

in the book of Ecclesiastes

where the preacher says

he hated his life and work.

But this most desperate

and dark

and despairing passage

occurs immediately before

the first light

of Ecclesiastes,

which shines through

in this next few verses.

And here's that first light

in verse 24 and verse 25.

There is nothing better

for a person

than that he should eat and drink

and find enjoyment in his toil.

This also I saw

is from the hand of God

for apart from him

who can eat

or who can have enjoyment.

This is the first

of what is known as

five Carpe Diem passages.

You guys have heard

the phrase Carpe Diem,

right?

C is the day

from Latin.

And there's five such passages

in the book of Ecclesiastes.

And it's an exhortation

to take advantage

of your present opportunities

and to enjoy life today

while it still lasts

rather than counting on tomorrow

which may never come.

This is different from hedonism

which pursues pleasure

as the highest good.

We saw the programmatic end

of hedonism

in last week's passage

where Solomon recounts

his foray into the pleasures

and self-indulgence.

He says he kept his heart

from no pleasure

and indulged in all

that his eyes desired.

Alcohol, gardens, parks,

pools, possessions,

jewelry, treasures,

music, sex.

He tried them all

and he still concluded

it's all vanity

and there is nothing

to be gained in them.

The pleasures of this world

cannot ultimately

fail or satisfy us.

The preacher already knows this

so this is not

a hedonistic despair.

But he's saying

something different

when he says

there is nothing better

for a person

than that he should eat

and drink

and find enjoyment

in his toil.

The word toil

is a key word in this book.

It occurs almost 30 times

in the book

and it captures

the fallen condition

of humanity

in the world.

Our work in this world

is toil and hardship

because of Adam's sin.

Remember what happened

after Adam sinned

in the Garden of Eden.

Now you must work the ground

with the sweat of your brow

and it will yield to you

thorns and thistles.

That's what toil looks like.

You till the ground

and you sow the seeds

by the sweat of your brow

but it still yields

thorns and thistles.

There is a pain

and there is a futility

in all of our labors

under the sun.

And for that reason

the very first

real philosophical question

of the book of Ecclesiastes

was this

in chapter 1 verse 3.

What does man gain

by all the toil

at which he toils

under the sun?

What do we have to gain

from this?

And the word gain

is a translation

of a Hebrew word

that means profit.

It's an economical term.

Profit or advantage.

It conveys the human desire

to make a profit.

To leave a surplus.

To get to the bottom line

of the ledger

and to have a black number there

instead of a red one.

But because we live

in a world that is hevel,

that is mere breath,

there is actually

nothing to be gained.

So the preacher says instead

there is nothing better

for a person

than that he should eat

and drink

and find enjoyment

in his toil.

What does that look like?

We tend to treat life

as a means

to gain control.

As a means

to get ahead.

We tend to use

the world around us

as leverage

for attaining

our own goals.

We see our relationships

and our degrees

and our internships

and jobs

all as stepping stones

for the next thing

to the greater things.

But what if

God gives us

these things

not to be used

or mastered

but simply

to be enjoyed?

What is our work

and indeed

life itself

if it's not

a means of gain

but a gift

to be enjoyed?

That's the meaning

of verses 24

and 25.

This also I saw

is from the hand

of God

for apart from him

who can eat

or who can have

enjoyment?

Our toil

and all our eating

and drinking

come from the hand

of God.

In the despairing

passages of chapter 2

there's not a single

mention of God

at all.

But here

in verses 24

to 26

God is mentioned

three times

in quick succession.

and it's the

presence of God

that transforms

our entire perspective

on life

and enables

to enjoy

these things

as gifts

rather than

employing them

for personal gain.

In fact

two other

Carpe Diem passages

3.13 and 5.19

explicitly use

the word gift

as a contrast

to the word gain.

It says

that everyone

should eat

and drink

and take pleasure

in all his toil.

this is God's

gift

to man.

This is the main point

of the book

of Ecclesiastes

and if you get it

it is profound.

If you see life

as the marketplace

or the trading floor

for gain

then we will live

consumed

and acquisitive lives

that are never satisfied.

But if we receive life

along with all its toils

along with all the joys

and woes

and the highs

and lows

as a gift

then we will be able

to enjoy life

and laugh

along the way.

This life

is still only a breath.

As pastor and professor

Ian Proven puts it

quote

the gift of God

does not make

this meaninglessness

go away.

We do have purpose

and meaning

but in the sense

that the fallen world

the condition

of this fallen world

doesn't change

until the renewal

of the new heavens

and the new earth.

So the meaninglessness

of this life

doesn't go away

the gift of God

does not make it go away

but the gift of God

makes this vanity

enjoyable.

When we let

the certainty of death

and the consequent

futility of life

instill in us

the wisdom of humility

and the freedom

of insignificance

then we can enjoy

our work

as a gift

from God.

We stop seeing

our children

as a means

for gain

as a way

for proving

our superiority

or gaining

social standing

or as a way

of lifting ourselves

up above others.

Oh

your baby started

walking at seven months?

Mine started walking

and swimming

at five months.

Oh

your daughter

went to UMass

with a scholarship?

My daughter

skipped two grades

and went to Harvard

at 15, 16.

Then instead of

running the rat race

this rat race

of life

and driving

our kids

mad

by our own

insatiable

lust for success

and pushing them

to be kids

that we want

them to be

instead of

receiving them

as gifts

that God

has given

as they are

with all their

idiosyncrasies

and quirks

in all their

strengths

and weaknesses.

That's the difference.

When we stop

seeing our work

as a means

for gain

as a way

of making

something

of yourself

to prove

yourself

to leave

a lasting

legacy

then instead

of relating

if we were

to give up

that perspective

instead of

receive it

as a gift

then instead

of relating

to our

colleagues

and fellow

students

as competitors

to beat

we can relate

to them

as neighbors

to love.

Instead of

working ourselves

to death

for this

ephemeral

gain

we can

actually

enjoy

our work

along the way.

Most of the

musicians

who were popular

in the 80s

have long

stopped performing.

Many of them

have been

long forgotten.

Some of them

are already dead.

but there

is a musician

who is still

performing

and making

headlines

dubbed

the Queen

of Pop

Madonna

with sales

of over

400 million

records worldwide

that's almost

four times as much

as Taylor Swift.

Can you imagine

that?

She's a best

selling female

recording artist

of all time.

She's the most

successful solo

artist in history

for the U.S.

Billboard

100 chart

with 44

number one

singles.

She's the first

woman to

accumulate

one billion

dollars in

concert revenue.

She was named

by Forbes

the highest

paid female

musician

a record

11 times

across four

different

separate decades.

She was inducted

into the Rock and Roll

Hall of Fame

in 2008.

She has even won

a Golden Globe

Award for

Best Actress.

But she's still

not done.

An article

from October

14,

2023

is entitled

Madonna

Celebrates

Four Decades

of Hits

with Career

Spanning

Spectacle.

An article

from May

16,

2024

is entitled

The Nerve

of Madonna

to Pull

It Off

Again.

She's 66

years old.

Why does

she keep

going?

An interview

she gave

to Vanity

Fair

in 1991

gives us

some clues.

Don't worry,

I don't read

Vanity Fair.

I found this

in another

book I read.

This is what

Madonna said

then.

I have

an iron

will

and all

of my

will

has always

been to

conquer

some horrible

feeling

of inadequacy.

I push

past one

spell of it

and discover

myself as

a special

human being

and then I

get to another

stage and think

I'm mediocre

and uninteresting.

Again

and again

my drive

in life

is from

this horrible

fear of

being mediocre

and that's

always pushing

me,

pushing me

because even

though I

become somebody

I still have

to prove

that I'm

somebody.

My struggle

has never

ended

and it

probably

never will.

1991

still going

in 2024.

If anybody

has made

it by our

society and

culture standards

it's

Madonna.

Yet she

feels that she

is mediocre

and uninteresting

and inadequate.

That's the

sad picture

of what it

looks like

to make

your work

your idol.

Working,

making your work

your God

instead of

receiving it

as a gift.

I can

assure you

that Madonna

is not

enjoying

her toil

as a gift.

To her

it's a cruel

necessity

and an

obsession.

There's

nothing better

for a person

than that he

should eat

and drink

and find

enjoyment

in his

toil.

I recall

seeing an ad

recently for

prepared meal

delivery services.

I don't know

if you guys

do this.

It went

something like

this.

Well you

don't want

to eat

unhealthy

fast food

and you

don't have

the time

and the

energy

to go

out

with

your

friends

to a

restaurant

so use

this

prepared

meal

service

and have

it

delivered

to your

door.

That was

the logic

of the

advertisement.

Now I don't

want to condemn

you if you've

used services

like this.

I've gotten

some free

samples myself

in the past.

But we all

lead busy

lives.

But what

if we didn't

see food

and drinks

as a means

for gain

as necessary

fuel

so that we

can continue

working

but instead

we receive

them as

gifts

in and of

themselves

to be

enjoyed.

1 Corinthians

10 31

does not

say

eat and

drink

so that

you can

do

something

for the

glory

of God.

No it

says so

whether

you eat

or drink

or whatever

you do

do all

to the

glory

of God.

We're even

supposed to

eat and

drink

to the

glory

of God.

Note that

this is

not the

same as

the fatalistic

hedonistic

perspective

that is

critiqued

in 1 Corinthians

15 32

let us

eat and

drink

for tomorrow

we die.

That's not

a biblical

perspective.

We don't

eat and

drink

because

there's

nothing

better

to do.

We eat

and drink

because

they are

gifts

from God

for us

to enjoy.

What if

you decide

for yourself

one day

that instead

of choosing

from a menu

that someone

else has

curated for

you,

you choose

for yourself

what you're

going to

make that

day?

What if

instead of

just buying

food

that someone

else has

made,

what if

you decided

one day

to cook

your food?

What if

you slowed

down enough

one day

to actually

enjoy the

food you

made instead

of scarfing

it down

and run

to your

next

appointment?

What if

you took

it even

one step

further?

You took

after Lance

and Shelley

and grew

your own

food and

raised your

own chicken?

Award winning

novelist,

poet,

and cultural

critic Wendell

Berry writes

this in a

chapter entitled

Pleasures of

Eating in

his book

What Are

People For?

He says

this,

eating with

the fullest

pleasure,

pleasure that

does not

depend on

ignorance,

is perhaps

the profoundest

enactment of

our connection

with the

world.

In this

pleasure we

experience and

celebrate our

dependence and

our gratitude

for we are

living from

mystery,

from creatures

we did not

make and

powers we

cannot comprehend.

I haven't

gone fishing

in 20 years,

that's sad,

but somebody,

somebody somewhere

caught the

tuna that I

had yesterday,

and God

ultimately put

that tuna

there in the

seas so that

that fisherman

can catch it,

and tuna

tastes pretty

bland and

squishy by

itself,

but you put

it over a

little bit of

rice,

and you dip

that thing in

a little bit of

soy sauce,

and you eat

that with some

pickled ginger

and wasabi,

oh my goodness,

that's a

delicious sushi.

Or kale.

Kale tastes like

tough grass

by itself,

but you drizzle

some olive oil

on that thing,

and sprinkle some

salt on it,

and you put it

in the oven for

a little bit,

oh, that tastes

better than any

chip you can buy

in the grocery

store.

Who said no?

God created

this vast world

and filled it

to the brim

with things we

can eat and

drink,

and then he

gave us up

to 10,000

taste buds

so that we

can enjoy

them.

Only if we

humbly

acknowledge our

mortality and

slow down

enough to

savor.

On February

1st, 2021,

Pastor Tim Keller

came on Kevin

DeYoung's podcast,

Life and Books

and Everything,

to talk about

a number of

things,

and at one

point,

Keller reflects

on being

diagnosed with

pancreatic

cancer.

He would

actually claim

his life a

few years

later after

this interview.

And then he

talks about how

pancreatic cancer

diagnosis completely

changed his and

his wife's

perspective on

life and the

way they orient

themselves.

He confesses

this.

He says,

I always rested

my heart,

frankly,

in ministry

accomplishments,

ministry goals.

Hey, we've

done this.

We got this

started.

We moved to

that.

In other words,

I really tried

to turn this

world into

heaven.

I was trying

to make

heaven out

of the

earth.

And as a

result of

that,

I was always

unhappy.

I was never

enjoying my

day because

I was always

thinking about

tomorrow and

all the stuff

I have to get

done and how

I'm behind.

And what's

happened with

the cancer is

that suddenly we

can't make a

heaven out of

this earth because

it's going to be

taken away from

us.

It just jolts you

so much that you

say, I got to

make heaven my

heaven.

I got to make

God my

heaven.

And here's

what's really

weird.

When you

actually make

heaven heaven,

the joys of

the earth are

more poignant

than they used

to be.

That's what's

so strange.

We enjoy our

day more than

we ever did.

We look out on

the water here,

the East River

for example.

There's a whole

lot of things that

we never really

enjoy that much.

The more we

make heaven out

of the real

heaven, this

world becomes

something we're

actually enjoying

for its own

sake instead of

trying to make

it give us more

than it really

can.

So oddly enough,

we've never been

happier.

Day to day, we've

never enjoyed our

days more.

We've never enjoyed

hugs more.

We've never enjoyed

food more.

She'll say, this

would be great to

make.

We've never enjoyed

walks more.

We've never enjoyed

the actual things.

We see, touch,

taste, hear, and

smell around us

more.

It's almost like,

why?

What's the matter

with us?

And the answer

is, we got our

hearts off of

those things, so

weirdly enough, we

enjoy them more.

That's the wisdom

of Ecclesiastes.

Helen Lemel's

wonderful hymn is

still true.

Turn your eyes

upon Jesus, look

full in His

wonderful grace,

and the things

of earth will

grow strangely

dim in the

light of His

glory and grace.

That is true.

When we come to

grips with our

mortality and stop

making idols and

gods of the

things of earth,

when we stop

trying to make

the good things

that God has

given us,

God things that

rule our lives,

lo and behold,

not only do the

things of earth

grow dimmer,

we also get to

enjoy the things

of earth that

God's given to

us as gifts.

And God loves

to lavish His

good gifts to

us, doesn't He?

That is His

mode of operation.

In fact, even

our salvation is

a gift.

The default mode

of the human

heart, unfortunately,

is to grind, is

to earn our

salvation as our

keep, rather than

receiving it freely

as a gift.

In 1510, Martin

Luther climbed the

marble steps of

the Scala Sancta

in Rome.

He climbed the

28 steps on his

knees, on each

step reciting the

Lord's Prayer,

because he wrongly

believed that if he

were sincere enough

and if he were

devoted enough and

if he climbed that

stairs enough times

by his act of

devotion that he

might be able to

redeem a soul from

purgatory.

Later in life,

Luther learned not

only that there is

no such thing as a

purgatory, but that

that is not how God

saves His people.

Not by doing some

great works of

piety like climbing

the Scala Sancta,

but by the grace of

God, salvation is

received as a gift

through simple

faith in the

person and work

of Jesus Christ.

And that's why

Jesus never instituted

the Scala Sancta

as a sacrament

that we should

observe.

He instituted

instead the Lord's

Supper as the

sacrament, and in

doing so, He

dignified the

simple and regular

act of eating

and drinking.

This is what He

said in Matthew

26, 26-28.

Jesus took bread

and after blessing

it, broke it and

gave it to the

disciples and said,

take, eat, this

is my body.

And He took a

cup and when He

had given thanks,

He gave it to

them saying,

drink of it, all

of you, for this

is my blood of

the covenant, which

is poured out for

many for the

forgiveness of

sins.

In the same way

that the foods

that we eat and

the drinks that we

drink are gifts

from God for us

to enjoy, so the

body and blood

of Christ, body

broken for us, the

blood shed for us,

are gifts for us

to receive freely

for our eternal

joy.

It's not our own

sacrifice that

saves us, but the

sacrifice of Christ.

It's not our own

body and blood that

saves us, but the

body and blood of

Jesus Christ.

If you think of

your salvation as

gain instead of

as a gift, if you

live in order to

justify yourself, to

obey enough and to

be righteous enough

to earn your keep,

then you will end

up despairing.

All is vanity and

a striving after

wind.

Because you can

never do quite

enough.

But if you trust

in Jesus alone for

your salvation, that

he died on the

cross for the

forgiveness of your

sins and that he

was raised from the

dead, you can

receive salvation as

a gift from God.

Then, the

sacraments, the

eating the bread

and drinking the

blood, the

spiritual disciplines,

prayer, scripture

reading, corporate

worship, fellowship,

and participation in

the community of

God's people, these

things no longer feel

like a drudgery or an

onerous burden that

you must bear.

Rather, they become

gifts that you can

enjoy, that gives life

and freedom.

God has given his only

son to us.

What more can

heaven give?

So let's enjoy these

gifts today.

Let me pray.

Father, we confess that

we so often think that

we know better than

you.

We drive ourselves

seeking satisfaction

and fulfillment,

thinking, oh, we have

no time to lose.

this is the only way,

and I know the way.

But Lord, your ways are

always higher than

ours.

So humble us, oh,

Lord God, to know our

own impending death, and

even more importantly, to

know the death of Jesus

Christ on our behalf.

So we can truly say that

for us, to live is Christ,

and to die is gain.

Help us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Okay.