The Reality of Aging | Ecclesiastes 12 | Tommy Danner

Thank you for coming out this morning in the rain.

And uh I don't know if it's gonna last all day or not, but nonetheless, we're inside where it's dry, and uh thank you for uh being here this morning.

Uh Colton asked me several uh weeks ago if I would preach today for him, and um I said would gladly do that.

And uh I'm just not used to preaching in a time frame.

I was telling Chris just a minute ago, you know, you got a certain time expires, you know, so I feel a lot of pressure.

So I got my pair of scissors.

If I have to cut my you know sermon and a half, then I'll just do that.

So we'll try to get you out of here uh by the uh uh the time we're supposed to be out.

And um, you know, I faced a dilemma.

I was telling my wife uh yesterday, um, you know, I uh got all this paraphernalia around my head.

And I have my glasses on, I have hearing aids, and now I've got a mic, and they all are associated with my ears.

And I said, something's got to give.

Too many things.

Something's gonna fall off and break, so I decided to leave my hearing aids at home today.

So uh hopefully you can hear me, but I don't have to hear you.

So uh you'll know in advance, okay?

If I ignore you, it's probably on purpose.

So uh several months ago, several months ago, my wife and I decided that it was time for me to retire.

Colton mentioned this last Sunday, and I so appreciate the prayers that you uh prayed for me last week, and um, and I believe those to be true and sincere.

That being said, I guess that meant that I was getting old.

That's kind of hard to admit, but I don't feel that I'm old.

I don't feel that way.

After all, I am in my early 40s.

You chuckle as if that's not true.

Maybe it's time for me to implement the great bumper sticker theology that says, I may get old, but I refuse to grow up.

That's great theology.

Yeah, speaking of retirement, if you would allow me, I'd like to say a few words about someone who will have the job of putting up with me now on a full-time basis.

My longtime partner in life has put up with me for 46 years.

She has been involved and been my help in every part of my life and in everything I've done.

Every time I turned around, there she was.

From moving tables to shuffling chairs, planning events, running errands, cooking mills to make things happen.

I look forward to the next stage of our lives together.

Where are you?

I see a big light up here.

I can't see well down there.

Oh, there you are right there.

Okay.

I look forward to the next stage of our lives together.

I read some words the other day, and I don't know who wrote them, but I do stand in agreement with those words.

So one day late from Valentine's, it was the words are if I had the chance to live life over again, I would find you sooner so that I could love you longer.

Well, the next stage for me is now the honeydew list.

Love you, peanut.

Thanks for serving with me all these years.

It was the idea of retiring that uh that brought this passage to mind.

And that passage is found in Ecclesiastes chapter 12.

Ecclesiastes 12 · chapter mention

So if you have a Bible, or if you have a social media Bible, or whatever, or a Bible app or whatever you have, I'd love for you to turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 12.

Ecclesiastes 12 · chapter mention

I don't know if you've read, it's somewhat of an obscure book in the sense that it's not read very much.

It's right after the book of Proverbs, if you're looking for it.

But in thinking through retirement issues and all that stage of life, this chapter did come up in mind, and I want to share some things with you regarding that.

But before we get started in the book itself, the author of the book is King Solomon.

Some of his background, just so you get a sense of the overall book as we look specifically at chapter 12.

His father was King David, and his mother was Bathsheba.

And Solomon was known for his wisdom.

He wrote much of the wisdom literature in the Bible, and he is credited with writing most of the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and Psalm 72 and Psalm 127.

He also built the original temple in Jerusalem after his father David had passed away.

God blessed Solomon with riches beyond measure, and his kingdom was filled with peace and luxury.

In fact, in 1 Kings chapter 10, verse 23, it says that King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.

1 Kings 10:23

And in 1 Kings chapters 1 through chapter 10 of that book, record the incredible blessings that God had bestowed upon Solomon.

1 Kings 1 · chapter mention

The depths of God's given wisdom and his ever-increasing wealth provide the stage of a life for greatness and for blessing.

In the first 10 chapters of 1 Kings.

But the crumbling decline of his promising life can be found in 1 Kings chapter 11 in the first three words.

1 Kings 11 · chapter mention

Before I read those three words, please keep in mind that in 1 Kings chapter 1 through 10, God has been blessing Solomon in every imaginable way.

1 Kings 1 · chapter mention

Wealth, wisdom, peace in the kingdom for 40 years, a life looking ahead, of great blessing, moving on.

But in chapter 11, there were three words where we see the decline of Solomon in his kingdom and the decline in his own personal life.

Those three words were King Solomon, however.

King Solomon, however.

This is called tone in writing and in literature.

In other words, those three words, can you see the dark clouds starting to build up on the horizon of his life?

Everything for ten chapters is well, it's good.

God Solomon is obedient to the Lord.

But King Solomon, however.

And from that point on, there was great decline in the kingdom and in his life.

Solomon writes Ecclesiastes shortly after that.

But he is now in the twilight of his life when he pins the words of the book of Ecclesiastes.

A little bit of background with Solomon.

Among most Jewish historians, it's believed that Solomon died around 55 to 60 years old.

Seems young to me, doesn't it?

I had the old man with a long beard pictured, uh, you know, kind of like uh Derek Shipley, very, very similar to that.

But he wasn't that old.

But in the Old Testament times, as you can read and research, that was a pretty good old, a pretty good old age at that point.

People didn't live all that long.

And even though he would not be considered an old man by today's standards, he has observed life enough to see the hopelessness that it brings.

He has become a cynical, pessimistic, sarcastic, scoffing person in the twilight years of his life as he reflects on both his personal life and the reality of life in general.

So please understand the perspective from which he's looking at life.

And he is now an old person.

I want to introduce you to a couple of uh, this is all introduction thing, so I'm gonna move on here, but some familiar terms throughout the book that you need to be familiar with.

First term you need to become acquainted with is meaninglessness or meaningless.

First word.

Some translations have it as vanity.

Thirty-eight times in the book of Ecclesiastes, in 12 chapters, you'll find meaningless.

And in fact, if you'll go to the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, if you can get there pretty quickly, and he starts at the second verse.

It doesn't take him long to introduce that term because the verse says, meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher, utterly meaningless.

Everything is meaningless.

Wow, welcome to the book of Ecclesiastes.

The word emphasizes the frustration and temporary nature of life under the sun when separated from God.

That brings me up to the second phrase you need to be familiar with.

It's under the sun, all throughout the book of Ecclesiastes.

Twenty-nine times that phrase is used.

Meaningless, thirty-eight times.

Under the sun, twenty-nine times.

It serves as a constant reminder that separates life without God's eternal perspective.

It signifies the idea of beneath the sky, a viewpoint or on earth perspective, and it emphasizes the futility or meaninglessness of life's endeavors, such as work, wisdom, pleasure, when viewed as a means to an end themselves.

In other words, where are you living life?

Under the sun.

Because there's meaning to that.

So let me kind of give you some uh verses here, particularly in Ecclesiastes 2.

Verse 17 says, So I hated life.

Because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.

All of it's meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Verse 20 of Ecclesiastes 2 says, So my heart began to despair over all the toilsome labor under the sun.

Kind of getting depressed by now, aren't you?

Kind of wondering, oh, this is man, I do see the dark clouds.

But this is the part of his life that he has lived and he's now over here toward the end of his life, and he's seeing from his vision the perspective of how life really is.

Life that's under the sun.

Solomon continues to discuss the meaninglessness of life under the sun for the remainder of the book.

But in chapter 12, which is our text this morning, he shares some advice from his personal diary, which really is the book of Ecclesiastes, somewhat his personal diary, at the conclusion of his life to all who will listen, especially younger people.

That's really his target audience.

So listen, young people this morning, not just teenagers, but 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds.

Listen, if you will, to the words of the wisest man that ever lived outside of Jesus Christ.

Ecclesiastes 12 is written as an allegory.

Miss Sherry, help me out now if I get this wrong, okay?

I know you're in the somewhere.

An allegory, which is a story, a poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, an extended narrative in which characters and events symbolize broader ideas.

Did I get it right?

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

It's written as an allegory.

So take a moment to turn to Ecclesiastes 12, back to that passage now, right out of the book of Proverbs.

I'd like to read that for you, and you follow along, if you will.

These are the words in the form of an allegory.

Verse 1.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them.

Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark and the clouds return after the rain.

When the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men stoop, when the grind cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim, when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades, when people rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint.

When people are afraid of heights and dangers in the streets, when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire is no longer stirred, then people go to their eternal home, and mourners go about the streets.

Remember him before the silver cord is severed and the golden bowl is broken, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the will is broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher.

Not only was the teacher wise, Solomon is speaking of himself there in the third person, but he also imparted knowledge to the people.

He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs.

The teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.

What he says about life is true.

The words of the wives are like goads, they're collected sayings, like firmly embedded nails given by one shepherd.

Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.

Of making many books, there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

That was a joke.

Now all has been heard, and here is the conclusion of the matter.

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

For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Let's pray.

Father, we are grateful for your word.

Please open up our hearts, our minds, as we receive wisdom, truth that you have given through Solomon to us.

And may these words find their way into our heart and ingrain themselves, change our perspective about life.

Help us to understand, help us to grasp these words that are true.

And only you can do that.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Verses 1 through 8.

I want to break the passage down into two sections.

In verses 1 through 8, the first is the course of life.

Okay?

Verses 1 through 8.

Solomon records the course of life.

So we began, if you will, kind of maybe strangely, but the human body begins the physiological decline associated with aging.

You want to know what Ecclesiastes chapter 12 is about?

Ecclesiastes 12 · chapter mention

You know what the allegory is referring to?

Growing old.

Growing old.

It's what you can look forward to as he describes the process.

Often considered the start of dying.

Most of us think, well, when I get in my 70s, man, I'm right there on the porch.

You know, I'm knocking on the door.

Door hadn't opened yet, but I'm right there.

The truth of the matter is, you don't start dying until you're 70 or 60.

I'm going to pop your bubble here.

You know when you start dying?

Between 20 and 30 years old.

The human body.

As early as 20 to 30 years old, when it's when muscle mass, bone density, metabolic efficiency start to decrease.

Start to decrease.

While active dying, the shutting down of the body itself, occurs in the final days or weeks.

The aging process is a continuous long-term degradation.

Okay?

Hold on to that.

If you are 20 years old, you've already started the process.

You just don't feel it as much as someone who's in their 70s.

Some key stages of aging and decline.

Wake him a watch up here.

There we go.

Okay.

A staging and decline.

Between age 20 and 30, this is what begins to happen.

Muscle mass begins to decline, and physical peak is often reached during that time frame.

You're at your best at that moment.

Ages 30 through 40, those of you in here, your bones begin to weaken.

Get this one.

Your skin loses elasticity.

It just doesn't pop back into place, does it?

You notice a little sag here and there.

You look in the mirror and go, my goodness, I'm not as elastic as I used to be.

And metabolic rates begin to slow.

Ages 50 and over.

This is where we are in that category.

The brain begins to lose cells and shrink.

No wonder I don't remember much sometimes.

Shrinking brain, that's encouraging.

And on average, the body accelerates its transition toward frailty or what is more commonly called old age.

And it seems that most people have their own definition of when you are old.

Is it not true?

You have your own ideas and your own thoughts about that.

So it becomes an opinion as to when you officially become old.

In other words, most people have this you're only as old.

Finish it for me as you feel.

So if I feel okay, I'm not old.

Doesn't matter if I'm 70 or 80 years old.

I feel like I'm a 40-year-old.

That's how age is defined.

This standard, though, seems to have been a general consensus for generations.

However, the U.S.

government stepped in and decided to remove all ambiguity and all opinion.

And after much deliberation, they decided to let you know when you are officially old.

I hear some chuckles out there.

You know what I'm where I'm going with this.

On August 14th, 1935, they decided that the official start of old age would begin when you are required to roll in what?

Social security.

Now you're old.

Now you get inducted.

I guess now I'm officially old as well as others who enrolled before me, Alan Bolin.

Please don't raise your hands, okay?

Of those who are exclusive members of the old age club, according to the U.S.

government.

So he talks about the course of life here.

And in that little segment between verses 1 through 8, there are three things I want to kind of break those down into the uh areas.

The first, to understand that in the course of life, there is a physiological, excuse me, excuse me, a psychological.

My daughter is here this morning.

I appreciate that.

She teaches AP psychology at Houston High School, so I gotta be careful in this one.

I'll pass my English exam.

I hope I can pass the psychology exam.

The psychological effect that occurs when old age Begins to set in.

That's found in verses one and two.

There we go.

The verse says we read, Remember the Creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come, and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them.

Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark and the clouds return after the rain.

In that verse, you see the psychology of what it is to grow old.

This deals in the area of the mind as a function of awareness, feeling, and motivation.

It is the psychology of the mind he's talking about in verses 1 and verse 2.

Remember, it's an important verb, your creator in the days of your youth.

And there's a reason why he says that time frame.

The term remember is to be mindful, it is to recount, it is to consider.

In other words, it is not to, it's to be an intentional, active process that occurs in the mind.

Remember.

Remember.

It is not passive or dependent on some thought that randomly enters your mind because you hear a certain song on the radio and you go back to your high school years in the gymnasium where they had the big dance or something.

It's not that.

Oh man, my grandfather used to, that takes me back to his kitchen.

And then you remember that.

It's not that way.

It's not with that thought in mind.

Perhaps the idea, don't ever forget to remember your creator in the days of your youth.

We have to be intentional to remember God in the stage of our youth.

And he places a time frame on when we are to remember.

And that time frame is when you're younger.

Because while you are old, okay, watch these verses real carefully with me.

This is the psychology of it.

While you're young, not old, before days of trouble.

The years approach when there's no pleasure.

The sun, the light, the moon, the stars grow dark.

The clouds return after the rain.

You see, there's something, this is the psychology of old age.

It is the effect that old age has on your mind when you get old, or when the days of trouble come.

You find no pleasure in those days.

They're dark days.

Notice when it says the clouds return after the rain.

What normally comes after the rainstorm?

Sunshine, right?

Clouds move out, sun comes out, and our spirits soar because the rain's gone.

But not if you're old.

What comes after the rain?

Clouds.

Again.

It is that type of idea that when we are living in our old age, if we're not careful, clouds return after the rain.

In other words, there's no sunshine, there's nothing to look forward to.

If you've ever been in a nursing home, you'll see that.

The years approach that bring no pleasure.

You don't look forward to tomorrow.

Those are days of trouble.

He's talking about old age and the perspective of how our mind sees old age.

Dreadful, dark, nothing new.

Get up and do the same thing every day again.

And it drives you crazy.

A couple of passages in the book of Ecclesiastes, and I'll read them quickly, to kind of reinforce this thought.

In chapter 1, verse 8, all things are wearisome, more than one can say.

Chapter 2, verse 11.

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun.

In verse 17 of chapter 2, so I hated life because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.

Chapter 3, verse 16, and I saw something else under the sun.

In the place of judgment, wickedness was there.

In the place of justice, wickedness was there.

And then in verse 19 of chapter 3, surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals.

The same fate awaits them both.

As one dies, so dies the other.

We're compared to animals.

We're no better than they are because both die the same way.

You get run over by a car, you're going to die.

If the dog gets run over by the car, it's going to die.

These are depressing thoughts.

But they begin to occur when you get old.

And the whole book of Ecclesiastes reinforces that idea.

That's the psychological effect of old days of old folks.

They live life under the sun.

This is how they see life.

Days of trouble.

The second stage of that, there is the physiological effect that occurs when old age begins to set in in verses three through five.

Whereas the psychological relates to the mind, the physiological relates to the body's physical processes.

Let's examine exactly what happens to the physiological parts of the body when old age comes knocking at your door.

All these references that we're going to find here in verses three through five are a reference to what happens to your body when you get older.

So if you have your passage there, it says, when the keepers of the house tremble, that's the allegory.

What are the keepers of the house?

As it relates to your body.

It's the idea that your hands begin to shake.

Your hands begin to shake.

You ever walked up to an old person, which I can now include myself in that, evidently, according to U.S.

government.

You ever seen you go to shake their hand and you see this?

You ever notice that?

Their hands tremble.

My wife so far will ask me to open a jar.

I'll man up.

I'll grab a thing, I'm tucking it.

I can get that jar off.

That lid off that jar may take me a little bit.

I can get it off.

But when you get older, you can't quite do that.

You've got to grab the pliers or something, you know, and help get that lid off that jar.

Keepers of the house, your hands do everything for your body.

That's why it's the keepers.

The house is the idea of the body itself.

Your hands do everything for you.

Try brushing your teeth without your hands.

Try eating without your hands.

They do everything.

They take care of the body, but they begin to shake.

At some point, they're not as strong as they used to be.

Arthritis begins to set in.

I gotta move along here.

Strong men stoop at your reference to your legs.

How do you know that?

Well, if you'll notice, even it's in the plural sense, strong men, not strong men, it's more than one.

They stoop.

It's your legs.

You ever walk behind an old person?

They tend to waddle sometimes.

You know?

Because your legs are what they used to be.

The legs hold up the entire body.

It is the most powerful part of your body or your legs.

They get you everywhere you need to go.

But when you get older, it becomes a struggle to get up off your recliner because your knees start creaking a little bit.

You know?

Those weird noises that old age makes.

Strong men stoop.

The legs begin to go out.

The grinders cease because they are few.

I'll bet you can guess that one.

You lose your teeth.

Oh, well, I can just go to the dentist.

No, no, no, no, no.

This was Solomon's day, okay?

It's not quite that easy just to say that.

In Solomon's day, the grinders cease because they are few.

It's a loss of teeth that begins to occur.

Those looking through the windows grow dim.

It is diminishing eyesight.

That's why I chose to wear my glasses this morning and give up on my hearing aids, okay?

The eyesight begins to diminish.

Doors to the street are closed, and the sound of grinding fades.

This is the idea of their loss of hearing.

Because people like me and maybe some others, their hearing goes bad.

You don't understand quite as clearly as you once do when people say something.

My wife says, I'm gonna go to bed.

And I jump up off the couch.

What you hit your head?

I don't hear well.

I don't hear well.

People rise up at the sound of birds.

It's the idea that our sleeping pattern changes.

Old people don't sleep through the night very well.

Can I get an amen?

You know?

We wake up at every little thing, whether it's some thought in the mind, whether it's some sound, but yet we don't have hearing very well, but we can hear those little sounds, like the chain clicking off the ceiling fan, you know?

Wakes you right up.

We can't sleep very well.

That's why a lot of old folks take a nap at one o'clock in the afternoon.

Because you didn't sleep well during the day.

All their songs grow faint.

The idea that the voice quality begins to decline.

There's a raspiness to the voice that occurs when you get old.

Old folks become afraid of heights and dangers in the streets.

They develop a keen awareness of danger.

Is it not true?

Young people, can you tell, can you see that in your grandparents?

Grandpa's gonna go out to uh down the road with a friend.

Well, what hold on a minute, hold on a minute.

Who is this guy?

Do I know him?

You can't go down there.

I don't know this guy is.

You make sure that you don't play on the street.

You play in the house, and on and on it goes.

So the concerns of danger, and when you get older, it is in your mind, it permeates your thought process.

Everything is in the context of what can go wrong.

There's a strong keenness, uh, keenness of danger.

The almond tree blossoms begins to happen when you're an old age.

What an almond tree?

Have you ever seen an almond tree in full bloom?

Maybe it'd be better applied if the um uh maybe a different sort of tree, because we don't have very many almond trees in this area, but the Bradford pears.

Have you ever seen those?

What color are they when they bloom?

I know you see a Bradford pear and bloom.

They're white.

When the almond tree blossoms when you get old, guess what happens?

Yeah, even Lady Clarol is gonna have can't uh put you know, has trouble with this one because her hair turns white.

Or my case, turns loose.

The almond tree blossoms, the hair turns white, the grasshopper drags itself along.

You ever going down the interstate and watch an old person drive?

You're right on up on the steering wheel and they're doing 40 miles an hour to the 70, and as you go back, you're cranning your neck out of what's wrong, you're gonna cause an accident because you're going too slow.

And they everything they do is slow.

They eat slow, they talk slow, they sleep slow.

Everything in the life of when you get older, everything you do slows down.

And then the last one of this of this list of allegories of growing old, what happens to your body?

Desire no longer is stirred.

There comes a time when you no longer have the ability to reproduce.

Believe the New American Standard Version has this translated the caper berry becomes ineffective.

It's the idea of seed being planted into the ground and reproducing.

There comes a time we don't have children anymore.

When you get old, that's part of the process.

This is the beauty, and I fully believe that Solomon chose the form of an allegory.

Instead of just saying things like, Well, when you get old, your hands shake and your teeth fall out, you can't hear anything.

He's saving the dignity of those who might be old.

Well, as he pins it like this, kind of softens the blow, if you will.

Maybe let me give you a modern paraphrase.

Everything that works hurts.

And what doesn't hurt doesn't work.

You know you're getting old when you feel like the morning after, even though you haven't been anywhere.

Or you know you're getting old when your little black book only contains the name ending in MD.

You know you're getting old when your mind makes contract your body can't keep.

Or maybe you know you're old when you look forward to a dull evening.

You're old when your knees buckle and your belt won't.

You're old when your back goes out more than you do.

My favorite here is you get old when you seek your teeth into a stake and they stay there.

I say that uh I went to see my mom uh a few weeks ago and she has false teeth.

Yes, those things really do exist still.

She asked me, son, can you go get my false teeth out of the bathroom?

I got them in a little cup in there.

And uh, can you rinse those off and bring it back to me?

Well, that happens to you, okay?

Well, you get to do that for your mom.

Oh grab them again.

Uh oh, I'm kind of stretching.

Yeah, that's what it is.

You know you're old when you have false teeth, I guess.

And you know you're old when all the you have all the answers, you know them all, but nobody asks the questions.

They don't care about your opinion anymore.

You're too old.

What do you know?

Well, moving along quickly, the third area of this is the physical effect that occurs when old age sets in.

We looked at the psychological, we've seen the physiological, and now we're talking about the physical part.

You know what happens?

Guess what happens?

You die.

That's it.

It's kind of anticlimactic, isn't it?

You know?

Solomon tells us what's going to happen to us.

Well, then what's next?

Oh, you die.

That's what the verse says.

Then people go to their eternal home, and mourners go about the streets.

Remember him.

Before the silver cord is severed, the golden bowl is broken, and he takes all these terms of finality at this point.

The silver cord, please notice that it's severed.

The value of the silver cord lends importance.

But the silver cord gets severed.

Not just scratched, not just cut, it is severed.

It's over.

The golden bowl is broken.

Not cracked, not chipped.

It's broken.

The pitcher is shattered at the well.

The idea of the giving life, giving water that you would normally get from the pitcher is not there anymore because the pitcher is shattered.

It's irreparable.

You can't get super glue and put it back together again.

The wheel is broken at the well.

It's not just temporarily out of service, it's broken.

Those are terms and verbs of finality.

In other words, death is certain.

It's coming your way at the end of the process of growing old.

The next step is you die.

The dust returns to the ground, and the spirit returns to God.

The physical effects of old age, when it runs its course, is inevitable.

Genesis chapter 2, verse 17.

Genesis 2:17

But you must not eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die.

Hebrews 9, 27.

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.

Oh, we're going to die.

That's what happens in old age.

The second part is the conclusion of the matter.

We've looked at the course of life.

That's what we're heading, that's where we're going.

But then he doesn't leave us on such a negative note.

There is a conclusion to the matter.

And I must hurry.

Without reading the passage there in verses 9 through 14, it's uh two things I just want to bring to your mind in that.

One is the accuracy of the message.

It's what Solomon's saying.

Is that really true?

Is it really like that?

He refers to the accuracy of the message when he says the teacher searched to find just the right words.

Not any words.

He wrestled of how to communicate the truth of this.

He found just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.

Yeah, it really is going to happen.

The words are wise, the words otherwise are like goads.

They're collective sayings like firmly embedded nails, reinforcing the idea of the truth.

A gold is a basically a long wooden rod, typically eight to ten feet long, with kind of a sharp iron ending on it.

And these farmers would use them to prod sheep or cattle along.

They'd poke them, get back on the course over here.

Ones over here, get back over here and poke them.

That's what a gold was for.

These words of wisdom are like that.

They keep us on the right path.

They keep us understanding and what to look forward to and what we're gonna have to deal with.

And they're like firmly embedded nails, which got the permanence that are there.

You ever try to get a nail out of a piece of wood that's buried way in there?

You can't get it out.

It's just firmly embedded.

These words in chapter 12 and in all of Ecclesiastes are golds that are firmly embedded.

They are true and they are right.

Now, what's the action of the message then?

There is an action.

Not only is what he says true, but we can do something about it.

Now all has been heard.

Here is the conclusion of the matter.

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

As we conclude this morning, Solomon's words can be viewed as a depressing, hopeless, cynical message.

And it is under the sun.

It really is that way, under the sun.

There is only one way to avoid such a stark, depressing, difficult reality about life.

You have to live life not under the sun, but above the sun.

You must see and live life from God's perspective.

To view and live life from any other perspective will only lead to meaningless chasing after the wind.

It will distort your view of purpose while you are here if you live life under the sun.

Verse 13 tells us how to live above the sun.

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

I close with a short poem by Shell Silverstein called The Folks Inside.

Inside you, boy, there's an old man sleeping.

Dream, waiting for his chance.

Inside you, girl, there's an old lady dozing, wanting to show you a slower dance.

So keep on playing, keep on running, keep on jumping till the day that those old folks down inside you wake up and come out and play.

Remember your creator in the days of your youth while you can.

That's what Solomon's trying to get across to us.

The day is coming when we won't be able to remember him because our mind is affected.

We can't think correctly.

It's too late.

I'd love to go to church, but I'm wheelchair bound.

I can't get there anymore.

My legs are I can't I can't walk much.

I can't get there.

But you want to, too late.

Solomon's message is do and remember for the Lord what you can now when you have all of your faculties together, your mind is straight, remember him then because you wait too long, it's going to be too late.

Do it now.

Do it now.

If you do not know the Lord this morning, and you have been living your life under the sun, get out from under the sun.

Get above the sun.

Put your faith in Jesus Christ this morning.

If you have been looking and longing, not understanding, depressed life, I'm telling you, live life above the sun.

Doesn't mean that your circumstances might not change, but it what will change is your perspective of what's going on.

And you'll look to the Lord and you'll find purpose and meaning.

It won't be meaningless.

But you have to know who the Lord is.

If you don't know him, introduce yourself this morning in the seat where you are.

He's waiting for you.

He wants to change your idea of what you're looking for at.

Come Ecclesiastes 12.

And he can.

Because what's really good, even though we die, guess what happens after that if you know who he is?

Full life.

Full life.

I want you to just take a few moments as the man comes up and um give us some thought to what we talked about this morning in Ecclesiastes 12.

Reflect.

Are you under the sun or are you above the sun this morning?

I would encourage you to move yourself out from under the sun.

So as they played, you think about Ecclesiastes 12.

Think about your life.

Where are you heading?

What are you looking forward to?

And those who uh who can help us in prayer time, if you need prayer, we've got some folks that will be there to help pray for you.

The challenges that you're facing.

You reflect.