Living Wisely is Vapor | Ecclesiastes 2:12-26 | 05/24/26

All right, brothers and sisters. Well,

great to be with all of you. As Eric

noted earlier, we're going to be

continuing our journey through the book

of Ecclesiastes. Um, as we've gone down

the rabbit hole with Cohelith, I hope

that you're experiencing some of the

cognitive dissonance and existential

crisis that I felt as I was going

through this book. Um,

because he's wrestling, of course, with

the the big question of life. What

matters? like what really matters at the

end of the day.

And you know, people can look at the

same information and come to slightly

different conclusions.

So, you know, as we're going to see

today, there's there's one way of

looking at life where it's all dark and

bleak and then you can look at that same

information

and observe different things about it.

And you've probably observed this in

your normal life. You've seen two people

going through similar struggles and one

of them is doing it in faith with joy

and peace and another person's going

through the exact same thing but it's

literally crushing them.

So why would that be?

You all know that I'm a huge fan of the

Lord of the Rings, J.R. Tolken's Lord of

the Rings. And one of the reasons I

enjoy that book so much is because of

the different ways it displays different

kinds of people. It kind of shows you

how the the consequences of what they

value. So for instance, there's a

character Denithor. He's the steward of

the great kingdom of Gondor. He's the

lord and ruler over the city. And he's

powerful. And you know, you don't get

this in the movie so much as in the

book, but he's this brilliant,

disciplined, insightful, careful,

methodical guy. And he's really

concerned about his legacy. But over

time, he becomes consumed with fear of

losing that legacy. As darkness spreads

and death draws near, Denithor realizes

he's never going to be able. He's he's

watching this kingdom he's tried so hard

to build slip through his fingers, and

it literally drives him mad. He tries to

take his own son's life.

Now, why would that be? Well, his hope

was tied to what he could protect and

build and hold on to. and coming to

grips with the limitations of his own

power, he was driven into madness and

despair.

That's one way of relating to the fact

that you can't grip and grasp and hold

on to the outcome of reality that you're

looking for.

You contrast that to another character

going through something equally, if not

more difficult, named Sam Wise Gamji.

Sam is not a great king. He's a country

bumpkin. He's small. He doesn't have a

lot of power, but he's with Frodo on the

way into the darkness to cast the ring

into the fires of Mount Doom.

And Sam has no glory, no power. And yet

throughout the story, he is habitually

capable of something that Denithor can't

seem to do, which is just rejoice in the

good things of life. you know, he's

walking through the darkness and

thinking about can't wait to cook

breakfast, you know, and it's it's kind

of amazing to read because you you feel

like you've encountered characters like

that in your real life.

Sam can receive the simple gifts of life

with gratitude. He faces that same

threat of death and destruction every

day while at the same time able to think

about the good meal that comes next,

about the garden, about the taste of

strawberries and cream, of laughter,

friendship, rest, and the promise of

home.

Even the shadow of death and suffering,

Sam retains the ability to enjoy the

world as a gift rather than looking at

it as something to possess, as an

ultimate gain.

This contrast that I've just laid out

before you gets surprisingly close to

what I think Solomon is doing in

Ecclesiastes 2:es 12- 26 this morning.

Solomon in this passage has examined

wisdom, work, achievement, legacy.

He's thought about what they do when you

have them and he's come to the painful

conclusion that time and death

eventually takes away everything we try

to build under the sun. Wisdom cannot

defeat death. Work cannot secure

permanence. Achievement cannot provide

lasting meaning. But instead of driving

us to despair,

Solomon this morning is going to point

us to a different way to live, a

different way to think about it.

Learning to receive life itself as a

gift from the hand of God instead of

something to be conquered and possessed.

And that brings us to what I believe the

central point is that God wants to say

to us this morning from Ecclesiastes.

It's this.

All earthly gain will fade with time and

death. All earthly gain will fade with

time and death. So receive life as God's

gift. Please open your Bibles to

Ecclesiastes chapter 2.

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

Let me briefly remind us of the context

up to this point in the book.

We've been introduced to Cohelith, the

king of Jerusalem, the main character of

the book, and he's been taking us

through this experiment that he's

conducted about what actually matters in

this world.

He's gone out, he's made a handful of

carefully considered observations, and

he has concluded that everything is like

vapor. the Hebrew word he

all is he

even good things that appear solid and

substantive when you try to grasp them

they're like vapor in your hands and so

what does he mean by that well what he

meant by that what you know sort of the

way he introduced this in chapter one is

that no matter what anybody does nothing

seems to matter nothing seems to change

and nothing is really new and nothing

and everything's eventually forgotten

Nothing anyone can do can really seem to

affect the things that affect us most.

Nothing new has ever really come about

to address these big problems and

questions we wrestle with. And then

there's just the frank reality that

everything we've done or said and who we

are is going to be forgotten eventually.

And because of this, Solomon can't seem

to grasp what actually matters.

That what actually matters language.

Eric introduced that last week. I'm

totally stealing it. He said it was

okay. He never said copyright. Um but

but it's it's a great it's such a a a

um it's so vague. What matters and what

really matters. You kind of know what I

mean by that, right? But we're going

with Cohelith on this journey to unpack

what that means. What matters and what

really matters. There are lots of

important things in the world, but what

are the things that are of ultimate

importance? What are the things I'm

going to care about as I'm laying down

to die?

There are things that matter and there's

things that really matter.

So, what Solomon's been doing up to this

point in the book is just interviewing

the candidates for the position or

whatever. You know, it's like, well,

maybe it's living a super wise life.

Maybe that's what matters. And he goes

and does it and he goes, this also is he

last week. He's like, well, maybe giving

myself every kind of pleasure I can

imagine is the answer. And he does it

and he says this also is he. Then he

thinks to himself, what if I attain this

great degree of prestige? What if every

what if I build these great monuments

and and parks and so forth? Maybe that

will give me the sense of what really

matters. And that too, he concludes, is

also he. There is nothing to be gained

under the sun, he says.

And so now in chapter 2, Solomon has

gotten to a pretty dark place.

If you can imagine being him for a

moment, being pre-cross and

resurrection,

he's just discovered that everything

he's been told his entire life about

what would make a life good, what would

actually matter, it was actually false.

It's all untrue.

Wisdom doesn't actually help. It just

makes me sad.

Then you think about what other people

have said. Go gratify all your impulses.

And and that didn't work.

Your prestige eventually fades.

What does all of this amount to in the

end? He keeps asking, what does it

really matter? And all of these

experiments have yielded nothing. A big

fat zero.

So wow. So all that stuff that the world

has told you your whole life matters, it

turns out they've only said that because

they've never been able to attain that

kind of thing. But once you attained it,

you saw that this too was also he

vapor.

You and I have never been able to go see

what it's like to give your body every

conceivable pleasure. You and I have not

been able to attain the highest

thresholds of wisdom. Well, I won't

speak for everyone in here. There's a

couple pretty smart people here. I've

never been able to attain the highest

levels of wisdom. I've never attained

the highest level of prestige. I can't

tell you that walking down that road

leads to nowhere. But Solomon can.

That's the point.

The king can walk down the road and say,

"Nope, that is also a dead end." So,

where do we go from here, Solomon?

We have to walk through some dark

places. Let's humble our minds. Let's

open our hearts for the reading of the

word of the Lord.

Ecclesiastes chapter 2, beginning in

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

verse 12. So I turned to consider wisdom

and madness and folly. For what can the

man do who comes after the king? Only

what's 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

striving after wind. I hated all my toil

in which I toiled 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 something a person who has

toiled wisdom, 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 fart 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 have enjoyment?

For to the one who pleases God,

excuse me, 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 the one who pleases God.

This also is vanity and striving after

wind. This is the word of the Lord. Can

someone give me a small cup of water?

I'm like choking on something.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

So, we're going to look at three things

here.

We're going to start by considering the

truth about life as Cohelis sees it.

Second, we're going to consider

different ways to respond to this truth

about life. And third, we're going to

consider the better way that he puts

forward. Thank you so much.

Sorry, this has never happened before.

Oh, thanks. Just try this.

Wow, that feels way better.

Thank you, Water and Eric and Scott.

Here, let's try it one more time.

Okay,

so let's start with the truth about

life.

Looking down in our text in verse 12,

Solomon wants to return to this question

of wisdom and folly and its value.

You might remember that we already

explored this option in chapter 1. But

Solomon's journey isn't linear.

He isn't going down a checklist. He's a

real guy going back and forth going,

"Did I miss something here?"

I turn back again to this issue of

wisdom and folly because who will be

able to explore this more than I have

the opportunity to? What can a man do

who comes after the king? He

I don't know what is going on. Let me

try this for a second.

Hey buddy.

>> Oh yeah, I got another one in here.

Thank you.

Thank you sir.

It's times like this I'm so thankful not

to be one of these like super

professional slick, you know, it's like

I can just get something caught in my

throat and everyone just empathizes and

understands.

Is it true that wisdom doesn't really

matter? Well, now here in verse 13,

Solomon's going to formally introduce us

to these categories that Eric gave us

last week. There are things that matter.

They just don't really matter.

Cohela says in verse 13 that he saw

there is more gain in wisdom than there

is in folly and there is more gain in

light than in darkness.

When he concluded a few weeks ago that

wisdom doesn't really matter, that

doesn't mean it doesn't matter at all.

That doesn't mean it's meaningless and

has no value. To say that something is

not ultimate is not to claim that it's

worthless.

Wisdom might bring sorrow and vexation,

but here he seems to say it's better to

actually understand what's going on than

to remain ignorant of it. He actually

uses the word gain, which is a loaded

word that he's been using throughout the

text. There's more gain in wisdom than

in folly. And of course, whether or not

something can be gained under the the

sun has been the king's driving

question.

There's more gain, he says. All right,

this worked. I'm going to spit it out

now. Sorry, everyone.

Sorry. I don't know what happened there.

There's more gain in wisdom as there's

more gain in light than in darkness.

It's better to see, he's saying, than to

be ignorant. Wisdom might bring sorrow

and vexation. That's what he told us in

chapter one. I gained wisdom. I explored

madness and folly. But it made me sad

and it bothered me. But it's actually

better to understand than to be in the

darkness.

It's important to understand that here

Cohelith explicitly overturns the claim

that ignorance is bliss.

That's a thing we tell ourselves that

ignorance is bliss. And he's saying it's

actually not bliss.

Um, maybe it feels like bliss for a

minute, but you will be sad that you

ignored the problem when the problem

finally comes.

He underscores this point by saying,

"The wise person has his eyes in his

head, but the fool walks in darkness."

You know, once every couple months, Eric

tells me, "You should go to the doctor

and get a checkup and go get a blood

test and see how you're doing." And

every month, I'm like, "Yeah, you're

right. I should." And then I just like

never do it. But I feel like the king

this week has been screaming at me like,

"You should walk in wisdom. Go find out

what's going on in your body.

We should all go to the doctor probably

more than we do." Uh,

ignorance is not bliss when it comes to

health things. The fool walks in

darkness. It says, "The wise person has

his eyes in his head." I actually think

I actually think that's a really good

illustration for kind of what Solomon's

point is. It's better to know if

something's wrong with your health than

to just pretend like there's no problems

and find out later what was really going

on. You've probably heard a medical

doctor in in some context say, you know,

I'm really glad we caught this early.

Things are easier to treat when you

catch them early. It's better to know

than to not know and just let the

problem get worse.

There's more gain in wisdom than in

folly. Often times your life will be

more comfortable and more enjoyable if

you're attentive to your health and just

choosing to be ignorant about it. Life

is better than darkness. So wisdom may

not be an ultimate matter, but it does

matter.

But there's a problem. There's a problem

with it. Back down to verse 14. Yet I

perceived, he says, the same thing

happens to all of them. We're still all

going to die. You think of the

healthiest person you know and think of

the most unhealthy person you can you

can think of. What's going to happen to

them in a hundred years?

They're both going to be dead.

The king says in his heart in verse 15,

"What happens to the fool will also

happen to me." Why then? He asks, "Why

have I been so very wise?" I mean, it it

really is an interesting question. If

doing this just makes my life a little

bit better, why do it at all?

He also says in his heart, "This also is

vanity, he

for of the wise as of the fool there is

no enduring remembrance." Look at how

the wise dies just like the fool. Even

if I acknowledge the goodness of wisdom

and seek to incorporate it into my life,

even if I can see that it is good, just

on an ultimate good, it still can't

produce anything new. It still can't

really change anything. I will still be

forgotten just like everybody else.

You can almost feel his frustration

mounting in this text. Verse 14, the

same event happens to all of them. Verse

15, why did I go to all the trouble to

be so very wise? Verse 16, the wise dies

just like the fool.

The truth about life is that wisdom is

good, but mortality and time seem to

almost render it meaningless.

Why be wise? He asks, "If I'm just gonna

die and everyone's gonna forget about

me, what's the point? Why do it? Why

would I subject myself to the sorrow and

vexation of wisdom when all of it just

is going to come to nothing anyway? It's

he

all of it's hevil.

That's what he's saying.

I've been laying in bed at night

thinking about these words, letting them

kind of sink into my heart and trying to

feel the weight of them.

What would it mean to actually not feel

capable of grasping what truly matters?

Let's turn our attention to a few of the

ways that a king is going to respond to

this truth about life. Verse 17.

So I hated my life.

Last week, Eric told us that you should

not think of Cohelith, the the teacher,

the speaker in this book, as like an

exemplar, someone that you should

imitate. And he didn't say too much more

about it, but here's a really good

example of what he was talking about.

Um, this is not the right way to

respond, and yet this is an honest

response. The king lies in bed at night

contemplating the fact that he can't

figure out what really matters, no

matter how hard he tries, and he hates

it.

He begins to hate life itself.

I can't find any lasting gain, so I hate

life.

Have you ever felt that way or been in

fellowship with someone who's feeling

that way?

Everything is vanity. Everything is

striving after the wind. Nothing is

graspable. Nothing. What am I even doing

here?

What is done under the sun is grievous.

It's actions and motions and ups and

downs and backs and forth. And none of

it seems to really matter. I can't find

any lasting gain. So, I hate my life.

I can't imagine waking up every day and

snapping out of the groggginess and

having some coffee and just going to

work and doing work all day that felt

like it was meaningless. and coming home

and turning on a screen and just

checking out until I could go to sleep

and then do it all the next day. And so

like it's it's what am I doing? I hate

this.

It's even worse for Solomon because he's

actually he didn't just get stuck in

that that grind, that cyclic cyclic

grind. He actually got himself up, went

outside, got his body into shape, went

and drove all the Lamborghinis and

everything, and then like traveled the

world and, you know, whatever, whatever

our um modern

analog would be. He's tried it all. He

did all the stuff that's supposed to

make you happy and supposed to answer

the question, what ultimately matters,

and he's come up empty. This actually is

all an illusion. None of it actually

matters in real life.

Then in verse 18, he not only hates his

life, but he hates all the work he's

done. Everything he's accomplished under

the sun. He says, "I'm just going to

leave it to someone else who might have

no idea what they're doing with it. I've

mastered how to make the garden grow,

and the person coming after me may or

may not have any idea how a sprinkler

even works."

And yet that guy,

the dude ignorant of how sprinklers

work, is going to become the new master

of the garden. This is a grievous evil,

he calls it. All of my wise and diligent

work left to a fool. And yet, this is

also he.

I mean, it's it's kind of crazy. Can you

imagine being so frustrated by the fact

that you are cannot find permanence

anywhere that you actually hate the

works that you've built because you

don't get to keep them forever. You

don't have any control over what happens

to them after you die.

That'd be like Steve Jobs hating Apple

before he died or Bill Gates hating his

charitable foundations.

Coell has gone down to a deep and tragic

place in his mind here. He doesn't just

hate his life, he hates the legacy he's

leaving behind.

And right as you're wondering if this

guy's soul can sink any deeper into a

pit, he hits rock bottom at verse 20. I

turned and gave up my heart to despair

over all the toils of my labor under the

sun.

The only thing worse than hating

something is giving up all feelings for

it at all.

Being utterly cast down. The word for

despair here means cast down without

hope.

When he explains his despair, we can see

why it's so tragic. He says in verse 21,

sometimes a person who has worked with

wisdom and knowledge and skill must

leave everyone everything to be enjoyed

by someone who did not toil for it. He's

saying you can spend your life, you can

pour out your time on earth building

something beautiful and good with wisdom

and knowledge and skill and just when

it's time for you to enjoy it, your

life's over.

Your energy and effort was for nothing.

It was for someone. You get

right when you were getting ready to go

inside this house you diligently built

and sit down and finally have a cup of

tea, you drop dead.

And his response to all this,

to his quest to understand what really

matters is that he sees that he's not

grasped the answer to his question. He

sees his life work slipping through his

fingers and he responds by hating life,

hating his work and desparing in his

heart. He says in verse 21, "This is not

only he, it's a great evil." Once again,

Solomon puts his finger, I think, on

this underlying concern that something

just seems wrong with the world.

Something seems broken about this.

Something is off, and he can feel it,

but he just can't grasp it.

In verse 22, he reflects again on what

it is that we're doing with our lives.

He asks the same question again. What

has a man or what what does a man gain

from all the toil? And then he really

wants to grab your head and make you

look at it. What have you gotten from

all your hard work in life in verse 23?

Sorrow, vexation, restlessness, and all

of it for what? All of it for what? For

heaven.

I would suggest that this book started

in a dark place,

but we have waited out with the king

into the deepest, darkest end of the

pool.

Why be wise? It's not like you can

change anything. Not like anyone's going

to remember you. We're just going to die

anyway. Why work hard?

Why not just hate life, hate your work,

and give your heart up to despair?

This book asks us to deal with that

question soberly.

To think about it long and hard.

What has work in life gotten us besides

a headache, a heartache, a weary body, a

restless soul?

All our pursuits have given nothing

lasting, nothing that will be

remembered, and nothing that will

ultimately have affected the world.

My father used to tell me all the time

when I was a boy, all men long to leave

their footprints on the sands of time.

And Cohelith walked by and said, "Well,

we live in the desert, buddy. The wind's

going to blow it away in a matter of

hours."

Is that it?

Is that how this sermon should end?

It's crazy, though. Where do we even go

from there with someone? Just I I want

you to This isn't in my notes. Maybe I

should stop. No, let's go here. It's

It's worth at some point in your life,

you're going to be sitting next to

someone who's going to say something

like this to you. It's probably going to

happen. I've had this conversation maybe

a dozen times where someone's come to

this place in their soul. Nothing

matters. Why am I here? I hate my life.

I want to die.

It's probably good to have something

helpful to offer them.

Let's consider a different way of

thinking about all this.

Verse 24 says, "There's nothing better

for a person that he should eat and

drink and find enjoyment in his toil."

So a second ago he hated his toil. Now

he says there's nothing better than

finding enjoyment in his toil. So that

sentence is supposed to feel like

emotional whiplash.

It feels like emotional whiplash in

English. It feels even more like a

emotional whiplash in Hebrew. The Hebrew

word under the translation for better.

There's nothing better is like one of

the most positive words in the Bible. So

when God's making the world before the

fall and he's like God separated the

light from the darkness and he called it

what did he call it? Good. Tove. That

same word.

All this stuff that he describes about

Eden that's good. The making of man is

good. It's the same word here from a

theological perspective. It's loaded

with a lot of really positive good

connotations.

It's a word used to describe the land of

milk and honey that they're going to be

given when they enter it with Joshua.

It's a world full of brightness and

beauty in its theological context.

This is sometime the the word translated

better is sometimes it's often used to

describe the fertility or like the

richness of a land. It's sometimes

translated as goodness or best or merry

or prosperous or precious or fine.

Sometimes it's even translated as wealth

or beauty.

It's like it's like if I was telling you

I there's no perfect analogy, okay? But

like it's like if I was saying life is

meaningless and terrible and everything

is pointless and hell and also puppies.

You'd be like that. How did that that

doesn't seem like it's in the right

place in your sentence.

Nothing matters. Everything's vapor.

Everyone you love is going to die. Oh,

look, a monarch butterfly.

interpret this text. There's two really

common ones. The first is is to think

he's saying, "Everything's so terrible.

I hate my life. I hate my work. Why does

anyone do anything?" I guess in light of

how tragic the world is, there's nothing

better than to enjoy the small goods

that you can. You know, the shadow of

death is looming. Time is marching on in

its unceasing, unrelenting way. Just

make the best of it if that's what you

can do.

That is one defensible way to interpret

that. And I understand why people think

that it's correct. I don't agree with

them.

There is a completely different way to

read this text.

The second way to understand this is a

fundamentally different sh fundamental

shift in tone and perspective. Yes, work

is toil. Yes, death is inevitable. Yes,

there is still yet at the same time

there is still good in this world that

reflects God's created purpose.

Maybe you can't grasp onto what

ultimately matters in this world, but

you can still live in harmony with God's

purposes and enjoy the goods God has

given us to take pleasure in. There's

nothing better for a person than that he

should eat and drink and find enjoyment

in his work. This also I saw, he says,

is from the hand of God. For apart from

him, God, who can have enjoyment?

That's a really interesting question

that we're going to spend time unpacking

over the coming months.

For to the one who pleases him, God, God

is given wisdom and knowledge and joy.

Remember in chapter one, it's wisdom and

knowledge, sorrow, and vexation. But to

the one who pleases God, wisdom,

knowledge crowned with joy.

To the sinner, he's given the business

of gathering and collecting only to give

to the one who pleases God. This also is

he and striving after wind. This is also

not something that you can grasp or

control.

So, a couple of big things to notice

here. The first is that the focus

completely shifts in this passage from

the king and what the king can do to God

and what God is doing.

Despite my inability to grasp matters,

he seems to be saying, I can still see

that I live in a world with puppy dogs

and butterflies. And I realize that's

kind of a dumb analogy, but I just

do. You feel like there's this stuff

that's just good. And I don't I can't

deny that it's there.

Even when I give up my heart to despair,

it doesn't make the golden sunset over

the Mediterranean Sea any less

beautiful.

It just is there. Despite how I feel

about it,

it's from God that we should eat and

drink and find joy in our work. It's

from God's hand. He says,

"I just looked for joy in all the places

that the world promised I would find it,

and I found vapor. I found he found

fleeting passing things. I found

something kind of like joy for a little

while, but then it turned into smoke.

And yet, here at the end of chapter 2,

I've turned to face God. And having

faced God, I am confronted with the fact

that apart from him, verse 25, who can

have enjoyment.

Who is the one who receives this joy

from God? It's the one who pleases him,

who lives in accordance with his divine

will, who orders their life after God's

word and wisdom. To the one who seeks to

please God, God crowns him with the

three-fold blessing of the book. Wisdom

and knowledge crowned with joy.

It's from God that you find this joy not

in pursuing wisdom as an end in itself.

You find joy in wisdom not by pursuing

wisdom as an end in itself but by

seeking to honor and obey God.

And God adds the joy.

So what really matters?

You know, Cohelith isn't quite sure yet,

but that does not diminish the goodness

of creation. It does not diminish the

intended design of the world that we

should eat and drink and find pleasure

in our work. It doesn't change the fact

that with God you can receive joy and

wisdom and knowledge rather than just

vexation and sorrow. Even if all of

that, even if all of it is beyond your

ability to fully grasp or control,

eating and drinking and enjoying your

work is a reflection of the shalom God

intended in Eden. It's a reflection of

the shalom God intended in the land.

similar ideas and language.

Cohelith is looking out the world and

he's seeing two apparently contradictory

things. There's nothing permanent. And

what ultimately matters continues to

elude us, which is the worst.

And yet, we can please God and find

enjoyment in the good things that he

gives.

We can see God's grace and judgment at

work in the world.

For the first time in the whole book,

Solomon appears to take a deep breath

and shift from his concern to create

something permanent to simply enjoy

something temporal.

He shifts from wanting to control what

happens tomorrow to simply enjoying what

comes from the hand of God today.

Solomon seems to conclude that you and I

are not created to constantly live in

achiever mode. We're meant to live in

receiver mode. And those dependent on

the good that God gives recognize that

even something like joy is going to come

from him.

Maybe we cannot create lasting gain in

this world. But we can entrust ourselves

to an everlasting God.

The king can't attain the answer to his

question. What really matters? But he

like everyone every one of us is able to

entrust himself to a God who gives us

good things to enjoy to gladden our

hearts.

This life is given as a gift.

This all comes from the hand of God.

Now, before we bring this teaching

forward into what the New Testament does

with it, I think it's really critical to

internalize a couple of things that the

king has said.

First,

all the promises of all the products,

all the promises of all the commercials

that are trying to sell you on status

and success and wealth and prestige as

the way that you will find meaning and

permanence in this world are lying to

you. It's all a lie.

Solomon has been there and he's done it

and he's come back and said that is not

the path to lasting joy. That is not

what actually matters. You must look

elsewhere.

It's crazy since we've started teaching

through this book. Every time a

commercial comes on that like tries to

sell me on a lifestyle, it just makes me

laugh now. It's like you're lying.

Sullivan told me.

Second, the elsewhere you should look is

up at God.

That's the elsewhere you should look.

This whole world comes to us as a gift

from him. Every beautiful and wonderful

thing in it is a gift from his hands.

Every perversion and distortion in it is

a consequence of our sin or the curse

that our sin brought into the world. But

of course with God the curse will not

have the final say because he is loving

and gracious and desires to save us.

God wants to have a relationship with us

and he wants to do it in the everyday

things of our life.

It's interesting that he uses I mean

there's theological reasons but it's

just it's so practical in your eating,

your drinking and your work. God wants

to give you joy. He wants to fellowship

with you.

He wants you to eat your tacos to his

glory.

And it's crazy that it feels sort of

silly even to say that, but it's

actually like that's how Jesus taught us

to pray. This is how this is teaching

us. It's like the good that you have in

this world, you're supposed to receive

as a gift that God gives that you might

have fellowship with him and glorify him

in the world.

I promise you, you will never enjoy good

food as much as when you receive it as a

gift from his hand and you consume it in

conscious fellowship of his of him and

seek to glorify him as a consequence of

having eaten it. It'll change the way

you eat. It'll change the way you drink.

You're supposed to do that at work even.

Have you ever had a friend who having

them around just makes everything

better? Like maybe they're funny or they

just have like cool takes on things or

they just always have interesting

thoughts.

If we can have people like that in our

life that just their very presence make

things makes things better, how much

more God, how much more the author of

all those good things, the source of all

those good things.

It's good to pray when you eat, and I'm

sure many of you do. It's also good to

pray when you drink. It's good to pray

when you work.

God wants us to become more aware of his

presence in all of our daily activities.

And we're supposed to receive all of it

as a gift from his hand.

Third,

to those who please God, God has given.

It says God gives

God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy.

One of the most horrific lies that the

devil has ever convinced the world is

that God wants to make us miserable,

guilty, and ignorant.

It's literally the opposite of what God

says he wants to give us. Wisdom,

knowledge, and joy.

Some of you out there have not read your

Bible in a while or prayed in a while

and now you're feeling guilty or you're

feeling reticent to come back to the

Lord because you think that he's going

to make you feel guilty or ashamed.

But brothers and sisters, God's goal is

not to make you guilty. He wants to fill

you with wisdom, knowledge, and joy. He

doesn't want to punish you for your

sins. He wants to heal you from your

sins.

God doesn't want to take away the things

that give you life. He wants to take

away the things that are causing you to

die and replace them with things that

will give you life.

He wants to do good to you.

In the New Testament in 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15, Paul gives a long detailed

unpacking of what the resurrection is

and what it means.

He has a long brilliant discussion about

its authenticity and its implications.

And the very first as when he's done

talking about it, the very first

application he offers us is explaining

to us that all of our work he tells us

to always be abounding in the work of

the Lord because none of it is he.

None of it is in vain.

The resurrection of Christ is what

really matters. The risen Jesus is the

answer to Solomon's question. What

really matters? Christ rising from the

dead because that means that our works

don't die with us. Our works follow us

into new creation. The resurrection is

what matters. Not just because of the

meaning it has in itself, but because of

the meaning it gives to everything else.

Because Christ is raised, we will be

raised also. And in the new creation,

all of our earthly works will be

rewarded or burned away.

Because Jesus is risen, nothing we do is

he

the way you eat your taco can matter

forever.

As strange as it is to say if it's done

for the glory of God.

Even if everything in this world is

ultimately he for Solomon, even he can

enjoy what is good in life. And he can

do so by recognizing that he is not the

author of what is permanent. God is. And

even though he can't seem to answer the

question of what really matters yet,

that doesn't do anything to diminish the

goodness of the world that God has made.

And so he can accept that death and time

empties things of their ultimate value

and receive the goodness of the world

that God has given as a gift. It's

crazy. We um uh went hiking with Rebecca

for kind of her last family day with us

and we went to an area north of San

Francisco. There's these huge mountains

up there. I don't know if well mountains

giant hills uh with sheer cliffs and

stuff and it's really really really

beautiful and um you know her big thing

was for my last hike I want to go see a

beautiful view and so we found a really

high hill and we got there and the whole

thing was socked in fog

and we walked up to the top and it was a

you know I wouldn't call it an easy hike

uh my kids definitely didn't call it an

easy hike uh But we went up there and we

got to the top and we couldn't see.

It was all socked in fog.

And what's crazy was I knew beyond the

fog was literally an ocean of beauty.

And I couldn't see it.

But not being able to see it myself with

my two eyes did not mean it wasn't

there.

There is a good, wonderful world that

God has made that's greater than our

ability to perceive it and detect it. So

enjoy your lunch. Enjoy your drink. Do

your best to find joy in your work. Do

it seeking God's pleasure. Do it as an

attempt to please God. And you will find

yourself receiving from God wisdom,

knowledge, and joy. Earthly gain will

fade with time and death. So receive

this life as God's gift. Let's pray.