Permission to Live | Myles Holmes

Well, it's good to be with you this morning.

If you have a copy of God's word, you can open it up to Ecclesiastes chapter 9.

Ecclesiastes 9 · chapter mention

If you don't have a copy of God's word, our ushers are making their way down the aisle right now, and you can just flag one of them down.

They'd love to get a copy into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you.

I wonder if you've ever noticed this about life that often many of us are waiting for life to begin.

We sort of live our whole lives like that, don't we?

In fact, just this morning I was talking to a boy in grade eight, and I remember being in grade eight thinking, man, you know, high school is gonna be where it's at.

And you get to grade nine, you realize high school is not where it's at.

And then you buy into this promise that it's it's university, you know, college, university, that's where the freedom is.

And you get to university and they say, you know, there's no fun allowed here because life begins when you get a job.

And you get that first job, and you understand how the cycle goes.

You wait for the next job, and it's not just this job, it's retirement.

It always seems like life is just one step out of our reach.

Same thing happens in our relationships, doesn't it?

I remember being a teenage boy believing that life would never begin because I didn't think I could ever get a girlfriend.

And I'm glad that there wasn't that much laughter that you couldn't believe that with me.

And then I got a girlfriend, and you know, I had to lock her in, and I thought if I could just lock her in, then it's gonna be good.

And and I did lock her in, which is the most hilarious prank that's ever been pulled on anybody.

And I thought, well, when we have kids, and then you have kids and you're exhausted, and when they grow up and when they move out, and it just seems like every time we get the thing that promised life, the life we can really enjoy seems to be the season beyond the life that we have.

Does it seem like that to you?

You nod with agreement with me if it seems like that to you.

I mean, we understand this, and our culture understands it.

In fact, every culture has understood it and has created slogans to even combat it.

The Roman culture had this.

They said carpe dium.

Seize the day.

They understood that you you can be so caught up.

Have you ever done this?

You're so caught up with the season ahead of you that you actually miss entirely what's what's right before you.

Carpe diem, we we get it.

I mean, you go on Instagram, you see it left, right, and center.

Live in the moment.

You only live once.

All of these sayings that we've created so that we can just do something so simple as enjoy the day that we have been given.

And yet you look at these slogans, and not only have we needed a slogan for thousands of years and have the reality right in front of us that a slogan hasn't really worked, these slogans, Carpe DMC is the day, live in the moment, you only live once, they really lack something, don't they?

It's kind of like when someone gives you the command, you you better have fun.

You know, you can't really embrace it, it's hard to be forced to have fun, you know.

You kind of paste a cheesy smile on your face.

I'm having so much fun, you know.

You can't fake it.

And these commands, they lack something, they they lack a reason.

Sure, you can seize the day, but for what purpose?

And certainly you can live in the moment, but can we be honest?

Sometimes, can we just be frank here?

The moment's just it's bad.

God, I don't want to live in this moment.

Now, Solomon in Ecclesiastes chapter nine, he should he wants to show us how you can actually enjoy the day, how you can actually seize the day, how you can actually have permission to live.

And he does something fascinating for us.

He doesn't take us to, you know, like a beautiful sunset to say, see, look, look how beautiful this is.

This is something you can enjoy.

He doesn't take us to a moment in his life that was like truly spectacular and say, hey, listen, maybe you'll under, maybe someday you'll get to experience this, or you'll be in this relationship, or you'll get that job, and you'll really be able to enjoy it.

And in fact, it's it's fascinating what Solomon does.

He takes us to a graveyard.

He takes us to a graveyard to show us why we are free to live today.

And at this graveyard, he wants us to understand what is the big idea for this us this morning, that God has already given you permission in Jesus Christ to enjoy the only day that he has given to you.

That's the only day that you can be certain of.

Loved one, you have permission to live in Jesus Christ.

I want you to see that in the text, and so I'd ask you to stand with me as we read Ecclesiastes chapter 9.

Ecclesiastes 9 · chapter mention

I'm gonna go from verses 1 to 12 this morning.

As we read, I want you to watch for a certain word.

The word is no.

This passage it kind of functions a little bit like a picture frame.

Solomon wants us to show, wants to show us a picture.

That picture is verses 7 to 10.

It is framed by verses 1 to 6 and 11 and 12 with this reality of what we do not know.

The very heart of what Solomon wants us to see is in these middle verses here.

Let me read it for you.

This is the word of the Lord.

But all this I laid to heart.

Examining it all.

How the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God.

Whether it is love or hate, man does not know.

Both are before him.

It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice.

As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all.

Also the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

Go, eat your bread with joy, 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.

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.

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

Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.

For man does not know his time.

Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare.

So the children of man are snared at an evil time when it suddenly falls upon them.

This is the word of the Lord.

You can take a seat this morning.

This text is a picture.

At the center of the picture, we find the freedom we need to live and to enjoy life.

It is permission to live that we're receiving this morning.

And Solomon in this text wants to tell us three ways, three reasons why we can't enjoy today.

Now, if you like things in sequential order, I want you to know this is gonna be a horrible morning for you.

In point one, we're gonna be in verses one to six looking at the first side of this picture frame.

In point two, we're gonna look at the end, verse 11 and 12.

And in point three, I wanna spend some time with you thinking about the very thing that Solomon wants us to see this morning.

Here's the first reason why we can't enjoy today.

First reason we can't enjoy it today is because we're ignorant about what is certain.

We are ignorant about what is certain.

Now, in your Bible, you likely have headings, and those headings sometimes do a really great job at describing what's coming, and maybe you could read your heading for a moment and notice what it says.

Mine says this death comes to all.

And so we reverted plans, and Mike preached last week, and it was phenomenal.

It was not death comes to all.

We waited for this week because I get the privilege to tell you this, loved one, you are going to die.

Statistically, you've heard it's true.

One and one of us will die.

Death comes to all.

You've heard it said before, there's only two things in life that you can be certain about taxes and death.

Solomon is here to say, I talked to the tax man.

One of those things maybe is even uncertain.

There is one thing Solomon agrees with death comes to all.

Death is certain.

It is coming for you.

So, verse one, then look what he says.

This I laid to heart, examining it all.

How the righteous and the wise in their deeds are in the hand of God.

Whether it is love or hate, man does not know.

Both are before him.

It is the same for all since the same event happens to all.

Solomon is looking at life under the sun in the book of Ecclesiastes, and he's like a scientist making observations about what he can see about this life that we live under the sun without God.

And the first thing that he sees is not only that we all die, that one in one of us die, that death comes to all.

He also sees that as you look at your life, it's filled with more uncertainty than it is certainty.

There's not much you can be certain about.

And even in verse one, Solomon looks at his relationship with God and he says, I'm looking at my circumstances, I'm looking at the blessings I've received, I've looked at, I'm looking at the hard things in life, and I can't really tell whether God favors me or whether God's against me.

You just can't tell because I look around, you never done this?

I look around and the wicked are prospering.

I mean, there's people I know they are evil.

I know they're like cheating on their taxes, I know that at work, you know, they're not working with morality, and yet they're the ones who are driving the nice car, they're the ones who are getting the bigger house.

It seems like the wicked are prospering.

And Solomon says, Listen, I'm looking for a verdict from God, and I'm just uncertain because I see other people.

I'd walk past them in the streets.

They're really great people.

It seems like they're good, it seems like they have morality, it seems like they're living for the Lord, and yet they have nothing to show for it.

A good year doesn't mean that God is pleased.

A hard year doesn't mean that God is against us.

We don't know whether God is for us or against us based on our circumstances, Solomon is saying here.

And so he looks at his life and he's he's saying, Listen, I'm trying to interpret, you know, what God's intention is behind this, what he's doing, and I just can't tell.

It's like the modern-day equivalent is you've ever sent a text message, and then the person doesn't respond to you?

If you've ever texted me, you've experienced this before, okay?

So the person doesn't respond to you, and a day later you think, hey, wait a minute, I texted that person, I never got a response.

So so you read the text that you sent them, and you start to think, oh, maybe they read it in the wrong tone.

You know, you said have a nice day, and you you meant have a nice day, but maybe they read it sarcastically.

You know, oh yeah, have a nice day.

You start to think, I I see the message, I see the life, I can't interpret what is behind it.

And Solomon's saying that about his this life, like everywhere I look, I don't know whether it's love or hate, I don't know whether God is for me or against me.

Here is what I do know.

Here is the one thing that is certain death.

In verses two and three, he categorizes all these people, the righteous and the wicked, the the good and the evil, the clean and the unclean.

The one who sacrifices, the one who doesn't sacrifice, the good one and the sinner, the one who swears and the one who shuns an oath.

It's like righteous and unrighteous, good and bad, successful and unsuccessful, the person with a family and the person without a family, the person with an amazing job and the person who's stuck in a nine to five and just cannot, like they can't live there.

The same thing Solomon says happens to all of them.

And it's almost like Solomon then in this verse takes us to the grave, and he it's a little bit morbid, but he's pointing at each grave and he's picking up the dust that remains of these lives and showing it to us and saying, hey, can you tell which dust is successful dust?

Can you tell which which of these remains had a had a family that loved them?

Can you tell which of this dust was like approved and liked by their friend group?

Can you tell which of this dust had the most followers on Instagram?

And it's this absurd idea of like, no.

Loved one, you started as dust, and you are going to dust, and it doesn't matter what you do in between, you will be dust.

And we need to hear this before we can live.

And you're saying, listen, I didn't sign up for this, okay?

I was hoping we would get a night and nice and happy message.

We're gonna get there, but we can't get there yet.

Solomon needs you to know what you are.

You are dust going to dust.

Now notice that in verse 3, Solomon says, This is an evil.

You see that?

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to them all.

In other words, he takes a step back and says, This isn't the way that it should be.

Death is a robber.

Death comes to steal everything you have in life under the sun.

We think about that, don't we?

I mean, we think about death and we think, oh, it's the end of everything physical.

Loved one, it's also the end of everything you've built.

Nothing can outlast death.

No matter how successful you are, you will not be able to tell the successful dust from the unsuccessful dust.

It's not the way it's supposed to be.

So looking at this, then Solomon says, At the end of verse 3, madness is in their hearts while they live.

I don't know.

Can you look around our culture and find a better explanation of what is going on?

We madness is in their hearts.

We are all going crazy.

And then you know what happens?

Death is an equalizer.

And then they all die.

After that, they go to the dead.

Look at verse 4.

But he who is joined to the living has all hope.

And you think, oh man, okay, Solomon's got something good for me here.

Okay?

Then he says, For a living dog is better than a dead lion.

And we have trouble interpreting what that means because when we think of a dog, we think of like this cute little cuddly puffy Pomeranian who lives in our house.

That is not how the ancient Israelites thought about dogs.

You know how they thought about dogs?

It's much more like, have you ever seen a possum?

I don't know if you've ever seen a possum.

If you have before, it's a possum is kind of like a rat who swallowed a bowling ball and then went and got a bad haircut.

That is what a possum is.

They are the ugliest creatures known to mankind.

I was talking to my neighbor about how I saw one in the house.

He said, No, possums are good.

I said, You misunderstand, okay?

You have not seen one.

These things are offensive just to your eyes.

They are horrible.

Solomon is saying essentially this listen, if you're living, it's better to be a rat.

It's better to be a spider.

It's better to be like the lowest living thing that has accomplished absolutely nothing than it is to be a dead lion.

Why?

Because the dead lion has everything has been taken from him by death.

He used to have prestige.

He used to have strength.

He used to strut around the earth.

He was like the king of the food chain.

And now death has taken it all.

And so it's better to be this scraggly dog.

Its smile is sideways, its teeth are all out, it's stray.

It's better to be that because at least that living dog has something it can enjoy in life.

The dead lion has nothing.

Verse 5, for the living know that they will die.

But the dead know, you see that word, know nothing, and they have no reward.

For the memory of them is forgotten.

Verse 6, their love and their hate and their envy have already perished.

No matter what good thing they did for themselves, no matter what evil thing they did, it has all been taken away from them by the death.

Nothing will last.

And it is death.

Nothing else under the sun has eternal value.

Everything else will die.

Think about it, loved one.

Think about it for a moment.

What that you are building right now will be remembered even 10 years after your death.

Maybe some things.

What's going to be remembered 50 years after your death?

What's going to be remembered a hundred years after your death?

There's nothing.

There is nothing that death does not come to equalize and flatten to the ground.

Death comes to all, and it is the great equalizer.

There's nothing.

You can't think, I mean, you what do you say?

Well, my business, you know, I'm building this really big business.

And yet, don't we know this about businesses?

I mean, I used to work at Zellers, and that was, I spent every dollar I made at Zellers at Subway.

And Zellers is gone, and I think Subway is on the way out too, based on the recent experiences I've had there.

I don't want to get caught off on a whole sermon about firehouse subs versus subway, but we'll leave that for another day.

Everything is decaying, everything is dying.

Your work will be gone, you'll be forgotten.

What about your family?

What about your, I mean, you're pouring into your family and you have sons, and maybe they'll carry on the heritage, and then uh and yet I'm reminded that every family name comes to an end.

You know, I mean, my family, the home's name, is facing this right now because I could not crack the code.

I could only have girls.

And I'm looking at my brothers.

I mean, I got, I got, how many cousins do I have?

And brother, I got there's four other boys in the family.

No, six other boys.

I forgot about two other two of the cousins.

They're not very much to talk about.

Anyway, six boys, okay?

Six boys, and I'm looking at them.

I'm saying, listen, you, it's it's your chance.

You gotta do it, and yet none of them look like they're having boys.

And so the homes family, it's it's kind of on the face of extinction here, and I don't, I don't mean I don't really mind.

That's the way it goes.

Every family comes to an end.

What can you think of that lasts?

Love, I even think about the church.

I mean, we think about the church, right?

Jesus said, I'm gonna build my church and it will be unstoppable.

The gates of hell won't even be able to stop it, and yet I can't help but to think that there is no New Testament church that is around today.

And if we are honest with ourselves as much as we love what the Lord is doing here at Redemption Church, unless the Lord returns statistically, we've got a pretty short lifespan until these doors close.

Loved ones, nothing will act.

Don't be ignorant about what is certain.

And don't Ask uncertain things to give you a certainty they can't give.

That's the second thing that Solomon wants you to see this morning.

The reason why we can't enjoy today is because we are we we ask uncertain things for a certainty they can't give.

In other words, we're certain about what is uncertain.

We're certain about what is uncertain.

You see my outline?

I love my outline this morning.

You're ignorant about what is certain.

You're uncertain.

You're certain about what is uncertain.

Look at what Solomon then says.

Now we're gonna skip down from verse 6 to verse 11.

Again, Solomon is talking here about what we don't know.

You see that in verse 12?

You can circle this word if you know it.

I mean, you'll really have a clear understanding of this passage.

In verse 12, for a man does not know his time.

But then in verse 11, he he lists these accomplishments, these human advantages that should guarantee an outcome, but don't.

You see it there in verse 11?

Again, I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift.

Who should the race be to?

It should be to the swift, but Solomon says it doesn't work like that.

I mean, you've seen those Olympic runners who trained their whole entire life for a race and then pull a hamstring the day before.

He keeps going.

The battle doesn't go to the strong.

I mean, it doesn't matter how many uh big muscles you have.

Sometimes it's the smaller person who wins just by mistake.

The riches don't necessarily go to the intelligent.

You can be smart, but but maybe born in an unfavorable economic circumstance.

It's not necessarily true that just because you're smart you'll be rich.

Notice before that, he says bread doesn't necessarily go to the wise.

You can know how the world works, but still, I mean, you can know how to escape famine, but still sometimes it just sweeps over the whole culture.

Just because you have an advantage doesn't mean that you are guaranteed an outcome.

And yet, loved one, don't we spend our whole lives betting on what we think will lead to a happy life?

And so for some of us, it's it's something like our body.

And yet we've all met the person who, you know, they weren't any fun at all because when you invited them over, they just couldn't have a slice of the carrot cake.

And sure, they were all vascular and ripped and shredded, but they were, you know, they just they were so disciplined, they were so healthy.

And yet, despite their health, despite their commitment to fitness, they died young.

Something catastrophic happened and took away their health.

Just because you live healthy doesn't mean that you're guaranteed that outcome.

And what Solomon's doing right now for those of us who are committed to this life that says, like, if I have a certain body or if I if I have a certain standard of health, then I'll be happy.

Solomon's pulling out the rug from under our feet to say, listen, you're not promised any of that.

Like you are a heart attack away.

You are a health problem away of from having no health at all.

You're not promised.

The advantage doesn't promise the outcome.

I mean, what else can we think about?

What about work?

I mean, you build up your whole life, you climb the career corporate ladder.

Maybe you build a business, maybe you get some reputation and some career capital, some skill, and yet you've seen how fast those things can be taken away.

You've seen how fast the tides can turn, maybe in the economy.

So when what looks like to be a strong position that you'll have forever just gets taken away.

Doesn't matter how big of a buildness business you build.

I mean, you can lose it in a moment.

We bet our lives on what usually works.

Whether it's the body, whether it's the business, whether it's the family, whether it's the friend group, whether it's a vision of success, a certain income that we want to make, whatever it is, we we build our lives on this vision we believe will deliver to us an outcome of joy, of satisfaction, of approval, of worth.

But Solomon has a uh a sobering word for you at the end of verse 11.

But time and chance happen to them all.

They can be taken away.

Death is a robber.

Death will take everything that you have earned under the sun.

You've heard it said before, you cannot take a U-Haul to the grave, and loved one, you cannot take anything.

Death will take it all.

And worse than that, in verse 12, Solomon tells us that we don't know our time.

You see that in verse 12?

For man does not know his time.

And then he gives us like this illustration is horrifying.

You see the illustration in verse 12?

Like a fish that is taken in an evil net.

A fish swims around all of its life.

What else does a fish do?

I don't know.

Some fishers in here know because their YouTube feed is probably like live feed of a fish with a GoPro or something on its head.

But a fish just swims around its whole life, and then in the winter it goes below the ice in the summer, it comes back up, and then one day it's just doing what it's done its whole entire life.

It's a fish that just keeps fishing along, and then it gets caught up by a net.

And like that, its life is ended.

And it never did anything spectacular.

It was just going along with its day.

It was just making some toast, it was just making some coffee, doing the same thing that it had done for years and years and years, and then like that, death comes to all.

It is the great equalizer, it steals everything.

So the bird, okay, you're not a fish person, you're probably a bird person.

They're all here, okay?

I'm the fish person, so I'm you know with some of you guys, but the bird watchers I don't understand.

But, anyways, in case here's another sermon, I should do a series, one on subway and firehouse, and another one on bird watching.

That's the series will be called Five Quickest Ways to Kill Your Church.

That's what we'll do, okay?

You see the bird in verse 12.

Like birds that are caught in a snare.

The bird spends its whole life flying around, landing on a fence post, landing in a tree, landing on the ground, finding a worm, doing this.

It just spends its whole life doing that.

It's never still, it's always flying away.

It's it's landed millions and millions and millions of times, and then one time it lands in a net and it is gone.

And loved one, here is what Solomon is saying: your life is the same.

There is no warning of when death will come.

It will come and it will take everything that you are building from you.

Nothing will last.

What is Solomon doing?

He's removing this illusion that you and I have of control, this belief that you and I have that like we're promised the very next breath that we take.

In fact, loved one, can we do it just that maybe an illustration to just apply this truth further home?

Everyone take a breath right now.

And Solomon's saying, listen, that that breath you were not promised.

And there is a day coming in your life.

It has come in every human being's life for thousands and thousands and thousands of years where you will breathe your last breath.

The day is coming.

You cannot determine God's verdict on your life.

You cannot guarantee tomorrow.

And without anything else, if all we have is life under the sun, then when we are told to live in the moment or to seize the day, we should really be doing that with great fear, shouldn't we?

This great fear that, like, you know, that breath you just took, that could have been your last.

And this day that you're living, it could be your last.

And that could be all that there is.

And yet, right in the middle of this terrible news is the picture that Solomon wants us to see.

It's the third reason that we can't enjoy today.

Here's what I want you to see in verses 7 to 10.

We are uncertain about what is decided.

The reason that we can't enjoy today is because we are uncertain about what is decided.

In the very middle of this passage sits something that is absolutely certain and true and finished and decided and settled.

Do you see it there?

In a passage that is so full with man does not know, verse seven is kind of striking because Solomon comes with all these things that he knows.

Seven imperative commands in a row in verses seven to ten.

Look what he says in verse seven.

Go.

Go.

We're in the graveyard.

Listen, go get out of here and do what?

Eat your bread with joy.

I knew firehouse subs would come up again in the sermon somewhere.

Go eat your bread with joy.

Listen, we've been in the grave.

Here's what you don't know.

You don't know anything for certain.

Here's what you do know that you're gonna die.

Go eat your bread with joy.

Drink your wine with a merry heart, Solomon says.

But these words are so important.

What comes next?

Love, circle this, star it.

It's highlight it.

For God has already approved what you do.

Before the command to go comes, before the command to enjoy life comes, before the command to enjoy bread and wine and relationships and even clothes in here, okay?

Before those commands come, Solomon says this God has already approved what you do.

The verdict that Solomon was looking for in verse one, he says, God has already given, and he doesn't tell us how.

I mean, that answer is going to be fully given to us in Jesus Christ when he comes.

But here is what Solomon knows: that man has been made right with God, so that the things that they have are actually a gift from him.

Loved one, you don't need to earn approval.

If you do, then how you live with the things that you have should be a very stressful thing.

There is no joy in them at all because the bread that you're given, the wine that you're given, the wife that you're given are all given to you as a test.

Does God really love you?

God has said, I love you, and so I've given you these gifts for you to enjoy.

There's a great difference between those two things, you know.

I mean, the parents in this room know what it's like on Christmas to wrap a gift for your kids.

And you know, it's a maybe it's a special gift you bought for them and you know they're gonna enjoy it, and you wrap it.

And what's the greatest pleasure on Christmas morning?

It is giving it to that child who is yours and saying, This is yours, and you know what's gonna make me so happy today is watching you enjoy this thing.

You know, loved one, God has if your faith is in Jesus Christ, God has made you his child and he has given you things on earth so that you might enjoy him as the giver of every good gift.

He has given it to you.

We know the reverse, don't we?

We we often know what it's like to give a gift that someone just doesn't really enjoy.

In fact, I I had this, I built for my kids a play structure in my backyard.

You know where this is going already.

It was not just any play structure.

This isn't, I'm not talking like Costco, okay?

This was like wood.

It cost me thousands and of dollars.

It cost me way too much.

And I don't build stuff, so it took way too much time.

And I built this, but I thought, man, I might my identity was attached to this play structure.

That's another sermon, but I gave this as a gift to my children, and I said, go and play it in it.

And they loved it, but they loved it too much.

And they made a rule that whenever you're in the playhouse, which it, by the way, is outside, right beside the garden in the chicken coop, it's a very dirty place.

They said they made a rule that when you go into the playhouse, you have to take off your shoes.

They loved it too much.

Now that's an incredibly inconvenient rule for a child who just wants to rip around and go down the slide all day.

And so, flash forward a year, this playhouse was growing cobwebs.

A robin had actually made a nest in the playhouse.

And I was thankful that at least the robin was using it.

No one had used this thing.

They had made all these rules about how to enjoy it, and and and it's too good, and and we can't, you know, you gotta do this, it's too good of a gift.

Until the chickens invaded.

And chickens pooped all over that playhouse, which I gotta tell you wasn't helpful for my identity at all.

That was like, you know, I thought the low of lows.

But once that place had been made dirty, they started to enjoy it again and they wore their shoes and they played in it again, and I finally got to relish and creating something for my kids to enjoy and play in and experience their childhood in and love one.

God has given you these gifts.

And so many of us, we we look at them and we say, Oh, I gotta I gotta use, I gotta gain God's approval.

And Solomon's here to say, God has already approved of what you do.

It's not that God will approve of you once you improve, it's that God has already approved of you.

So then, Solomon says, go and eat.

Don't eat to become acceptable, eat because you already are accepted.

Notice, loved one, how ordinary the gifts are that Solomon talks about.

Go and eat your bread with joy.

I mean, every Solomon's the richest man in the world.

He doesn't say, hey, listen, go and enjoy your Ferrari with joy.

And we say, Oh, great, well, I don't have a Ferrari.

He points to normal gifts.

Go and enjoy your bread.

Eat your bread with joy.

Drink your wine with a merry heart.

Goes on in verse eight.

Let your garments be white.

Verse eight is really like this festival imagery where you'd put on the whitest garments and you'd anoint your head with oil and you'd go to the party.

And Solomon's saying, listen, if you are a child of God, it's party time.

Enjoy your life.

Look at verse 9.

Enjoy the life, enjoy life with the wife whom you love.

I mean, maybe it's not a wife, maybe it's friendship.

Solomon's saying, like, like, enjoy the relationships that you have.

You can enjoy it because God has approved of what you do.

These are gifts to you.

This is your portion.

The this you have nothing to achieve, you have nothing to pay God back.

This is yours, God says.

In other words, Solomon's asking you to look at your life right now.

And to realize that where you are right now is not a waiting room.

You're not waiting for the thing that's gonna complete your life.

Solomon says, look around at the ordinary things you have and recognize that if you go all in on them, you can have joy, not in the gift, but in the giver of every good gift.

In light of that, look at verse 10.

I mean, Solomon says, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.

It's not that you need to find something more significant than what you have right now.

It's not that you need to wait for the kids to be older or like to get the cottage or to get a better job where you have more time.

Solomon says, whatever your hands find, what's that, whatever is already there, enjoy it with all your might, looking not to the goodness of the gift, but the goodness of the giver.

In other words, loved ones, it's it if you recognize that by faith in Jesus Christ you are accepted and approved of and a child of God, then you don't need anymore.

What you need to do is receive what you have been given in this very moment.

Spend yourself on what is already in your hands.

It's the question that Solomon has for us this morning.

The question is this will you live while you are dying?

Everything is dying.

Each one of us, heartbeat by heartbeat, breath by breath, is getting closer to that day where death, which has come for all, will come for us.

And Solomon's answer is this, or question is this, will you live?

Will you live today?

Will you live while you are dying?

Or will you die waiting for life to begin?

Now, if Solomon and all that he saw under the sun were the whole story, death would take everything.

And the message that we then have would be to enjoy the gifts, to do the work with all your might, but then just lose it all because that's all you have.

And it's not a very great message.

But thousands of years later, Jesus would come.

Jesus faced the same reality.

Jesus was not immune to the reality that death comes for all.

Jesus was not immune to the great robber that death is.

He could have been, he could have dwelt in heaven forever, and yet he took on human flesh, and taking on human flesh, he took on the journey that you and I do from the very first day that we are born.

It was a journey from the very first breath of life to his death.

And when Jesus came, he walked, marched towards the grave.

But loved one, we sang it this morning, the grave could not hold him.

Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord that there was a man whose life work could not be held down by the grave.

And on the third day when Jesus rose again, he rose, having accomplished the greatest work that would ever be accomplished in life.

He said something that you and I never have been able to say, and you and I never will be able to say.

It is finished.

It is finished, Jesus says.

It is decided.

The cross and the resurrection are God's verdict on your life.

You are made innocent in Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ, you have been lavished in grace, which is the favor of God, made into a new creation.

You have been redeemed, once being a child of darkness, loved one, you are now a child of life.

So that Solomon in Ecclesiastes 9, he can sort of assert this verdict and the approval that God has given to him of when Christ came and purchased it.

He purchased it.

And we know Paul says that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.

The verdict is settled.

If your faith is in Jesus Christ, you have been bought eternal life in him.

He is the firstborn of the resurrection.

And there is a day coming that we sang about this morning.

I mean, I love how God just lines this up.

Death has no sting.

Why?

Not because you won't face it.

You will face it and it will rob you of everything that you've built under the sun.

But one day Jesus will return and he will call your name and your ashes, your dust will be raised up to new eternal life.

And you will live eternally with God.

Enjoying the life that He died to purchase for you.

Do you know what that means about the ordinary joys that you and I experience?

The bread, the wine, the wife, the garments, the oil, the life that Solomon calls us to live now.

You know what that means about this life?

Everything we experience now and enjoy is only a rumor of what is to come.

You know that loved one?

It's only a taste of what is coming.

This past week I got a notification on Spotify, and it said one of my favorite artists has released an album.

That's what I thought it said.

And so I clicked into it and I realized that they didn't release an album.

They are going to release an album in 40 days, and I was incredibly disappointed.

I was excited to listen to this album, but there's 12 songs and they were all grayed out, but there was one that on Spotify was white, and you know what that means.

It means you get to you get a little listen.

And there's this sense of you know disappointment that this album's not released, but I got to listen to one song and I got to enjoy one song, and now I just cannot wait for the full album to be released and loved one.

You know, you know, this life is like that.

The things that you get to enjoy are not.

But a taste and a rumor of what is to come, of the things that you will enjoy in eternally in heaven.

It's why I love in the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah has a vision of heaven coming to earth.

And it's fascinating that when Isaiah sees the end of all things, it's not a courtroom he sees, it's not a throne room he sees, it's a table that he sees.

It's fascinating in Isaiah 26, verse 6.

Isaiah 26:6

This is the vision he sees.

On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, an aged wine, well refreshed, loved one.

You know, I wonder what you've imagined when you see the Lord.

Maybe for some of you it's like this terrifying day, maybe whatever it is, I don't know.

You know what Isaiah says it is?

It is a feast.

It is a feast with all these ordinary things that you know about, but infinitely so much better.

Of the bread that you've eaten your whole life, but loved one, when you take up this bread, you will say, Oh, this is the bread that all my life is pointing to.

When you take up this wine, you'll say, This is the thing I got a taste of it in life, but now this is the thing that it was always pointing me towards.

This is the fullness of it.

And then two verses later, Isaiah says the thing that Solomon spent 12 chapters unable to say, Isaiah 25, verse 8, he will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.

Isaiah 25:8

Loved ones, death is a problem.

Death is a great evil, but death is not the final answer.

It is not the final answer.

You know, it means that the things that you have now, you're able to enjoy, not as the I mean, if it's all you have, loved one, and that's your life, you really have nothing.

Everything you have points forward to that day.

I need to end this on a C.

S.

Lewis quote.

No sermon is a good sermon unless it ends in C.

S.

Lewis, right?

C.

S.

Lewis, the end of some of you guys are like, every sermon you've ever preached without C.

S.

Lewis is the best, okay?

Stop it with the Lord of the Rings.

Anyways, C.

S.

Lewis in the the last book of his Chronicles of Narnia series.

Children walk into a country that they've never seen, and they find that somehow this country is more real than every anything they've ever seen before.

Every rock, every flower, every blade of grass, it just looks like it means more.

And then C.S.

Lewis writes this, and I think this has been so helpful for me.

It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling.

He stamped his right forehoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried, I have come home at last.

This is my real country.

I belong here.

This is the land I've been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.

The reason why we love the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.

Come further up, come further in.

Loved one, can you receive what God has placed in front of you today?

The gifts that He has given you today, knowing that it is not the end of the story, knowing that these things will pass away from your hands.

And when you breathe that last breath, you will wake up to an eternal life with Jesus Christ.

And every joy that you have ever experienced in life, you will realize that it was only a forte.

It was only a rumor.

And you have woken up at the table of the Lord.

That's good news, isn't it?

It's good news that we get to celebrate and remember this morning as we take communion together.

Communion was the Lord's way of reminding us that the bread we get to enjoy and the wine we get to savor all point to a feast that is coming.

Now, the symbol I find incredibly helpful because in your hands is this cup, and if you haven't received it, the ushers are making their way down the aisle, and you can flag one of them down and they'll get one into your hands.

But you'll notice that almost comically, the bread and the cup are not enough to satisfy you.

If this has been your only meal this week since our last communion, then I would like to get you some medical attention after the service.

It's not enough, but it is a taste.

And you get a taste of the stalest cracker you've ever chewed on and the oldest juice you've ever drank.

And yet, what is it supposed to do?

It reminds you that there is better bread to come.

There is better wine to come.

It is at the table that is in the presence of the Lord, which, if your faith is in Jesus Christ, you are secured a place at that table.

And so, loved one, would you take this cup and eat the bread today, rejoicing in the reality of all that you have been given now, but hopeful in eternity, because greater things are yet to come.

There's two reasons why you might refrain from taking this this morning if you haven't placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we would ask that you let this pass.

We would love to have a conversation with you about what that looks like.

This is for those who by faith have been saved from their sin and reserved a seat at that table.

The second reason is because you might be living with unrepentant sin in your life, sin that you've been convicted of and that you have no remorse over, no guilt over, and you're un refusing to walk in repentance of.

We would ask that you let this cup pass as well.

The worship team is gonna sing a song over us, and when you're ready, I would like to ask you to take the elements on your own time when you feel ready, and then join the worship team in standing and singing this song together.