Bold & Joyful

Good morning, Church.

Today's text is Ecclesiastes 11.

Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.

Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you do not know what disaster may happen on earth.

If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls there it will lie.

He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eye to see the sun.

So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many, all that comes is vanity.

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.

Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

This is the word of our Lord.

You may be seated.

Good morning.

Thank you for joining us this morning.

My name is James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.

Um it's been so awesome, I think, this summer, all the work that Zach's put in taking these 1640 songs and making them sound awesome.

Um I don't know if he's walking out, so I'm just gonna talk freely about him.

But you uh you you know uh how uh like nobody knew who Bach was until like after he was dead and he'd just been serving this church, writing these beautiful songs for them to sing and worship with.

This is what a great idea.

Well, in case you're wondering, like, what would it have been like to go to Bach's church?

I think you get a little slice of that.

Um, getting to have Zach lead your worship.

Sometimes I wonder if you, you know, don't take for granted how good he is and what a joy it is to get to sing along with him.

All right, that's all.

This is week 11 in Ecclesiastes, and we are covering two topics, two of the three that will close out the book, Be Bold and Be Joyful.

And the last one is be godly.

So next week we'll cover be godly, and then we'll be done with Ecclesiastes, and then we'll move into Exodus.

And so today, the exhortation from Solomon in his book is be bold and be joyful.

So with that in mind, let's pray, and then we'll enter our text for the day.

Lord God, what is our home other than you?

What can we trust in for generations other than you, Lord?

As we sung this morning, we only take place for one generation.

And we only take place for 70 years by reason of strength, 80 years, Lord.

You are everlasting, our everlasting God.

We gather together on this Sunday morning before Labor Day.

Lord God, we remember the promises that you have made to us in generations past.

None of us were there, none of us witnessed the events, but they've been handed down to us by your church and by your word that you've preserved by the active work of your Holy Spirit, and we receive the benefits of your faithfulness to your promises even this morning.

As we sing along the words that have been written inspired by you thousands of years ago, Lord, we sing those same promises which are true for us today.

Lord, our lives are so fleeting, and it is so hard to understand the stories that we are in when we're in the middle of them, and we don't know what their resolution might be, and we see so many stories around us that have no clear resolution.

But Lord, our hope is that they all resolve in you, the everlasting one, the only place they could all resolve.

We praise you for your loving-kindness, for your faithfulness towards us, for the forgiveness of sins, your grace and mercy.

We pray that we would trust in those things more deeply today.

Lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So a couple of weeks ago, Solomon showed us how death and chance are like these cruel villains in our lives that seem to sweep away the meaning from everything.

And then he calls us to meeting to meaning, even with a clear understanding of death and chance.

Death is inevitable, and chance is just around the corner, and it can sneak up on you when you least expect it.

But then after teaching us about death and chance, Solomon took some time that we looked at in the in chapter 10, which we looked at last week, in which Solomon just gave us plain wisdom for life and for the life that we're to live out here.

And what that shows us is that even if we get the answers to the questions of death and chance, and even if we see that those can that the meaning of our lives can only be resolved by faith in God, that there are still problems in our lives that are ordinary and that have to be accounted for.

You still have to know how to show up at work, you still have to know how to raise your kids, you still have to know how to deal with somebody who's in authority over you.

And Solomon's main advice throughout all of those things was don't be a fool when you do that.

And by the way, Solomon instructs us in his wisdom for life that he offered that everything that you do is dangerous.

There is an inherent danger to any decision that you make, to all aspects of life.

There is risk around every corner, so don't be a fool, because there's risk around every corner.

The way that he explained that was he said that the person who cuts stones and works in the quarry, well, they get hurt by stones.

And the person who chops wood, well, they get hurt by the wood that they chop.

There's danger everywhere.

In any decision that you make, there's risk.

So the wisdom for life, don't be a fool out there.

It's risky, it's high-stakes games, even in the ordinary places of life.

Instead, be wise.

Now, you might think that that sort of instruction, which is these warnings about the dangers of life, that it would cause you to conclude, okay, I know what I need to do next.

I should probably just kind of lay low and not take too many chances out here because this is every game that we're playing is this very high stakes, very dangerous game.

But that's to take his instruction too narrowly.

Remember, he didn't say there are dangerous places and there are safe places.

He said, everywhere is dangerous.

That's the rule.

Everywhere is dangerous.

So we shouldn't take that instruction too narrowly, and we should understand the type of advice that Solomon is giving.

He's saying it's dangerous everywhere, so don't be a fool.

You might think it's dangerous out there, so I just need to hide in my room and play it safe.

And then Solomon would say, hide in your room and play it safe.

Don't you remember?

I already told you a little folding of the hands and you'll devour yourself.

Your room alone is just as dangerous as out there taking the risks.

Don't take his instruction too narrowly.

Don't take his cautions as something that's meant to remove your nerve.

Instead, take them as parental advice.

Before your dad hands you the keys to the car to drive for the first time, he gives you instruction.

And the instruction is meant to caution you, and it's meant to warn you about the dangers of it.

He says, check the tire pressure.

Buckle up.

Keep your eyes on the road.

Remember, every other driver is just looking at their phone 100% of the time.

And if you're driving at night, the only other people that you're driving with are drunk or they're cops.

And then you think, okay, well, what was that advice for?

Is that I should just leave it parked?

And then you're but that instruction was not so that you could leave the car parked.

Then your dad hands you the keys to the car and he says, get out there.

That was the point of the instruction.

The point of the caution was so that you could get out there.

It's dangerous out there, but be bold.

This is Solomon's instruction for us today, after having explained to us the dangers of the life that we're in, that we're surrounded by.

His instructions are be bold and be joyful.

And we'll see that that way of living is only possible by faith.

Now, the sum of these will be found, and the final end of all things that Solomon has been explaining will be found next week when he calls us to be godly.

And we'll see that being bold, being joyful, these are just subsets of being godly, this final call.

But for today, Solomon's call is be bold and be joyful.

All right, so we'll take those in order.

First, be bold.

Ecclesiastes 11, 1 through 2.

Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.

Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.

It's a familiar verse.

It's one of those oddly familiar verses.

Cast your bread upon the waters, and then you will find it after many days.

I think it's something that we hear, but it's like, what is he talking about?

It doesn't sound like investment instruction.

It sounds more like duck feeding instruction.

But he doesn't just mean bread, you know, he's not talking about feeding the ducks.

He's talking about what it takes to trade.

One of uh the commentators that I read explained that he he thinks that uh Ecclesiastes was likely written during Solomon's building project.

And Solomon's building project was to build the temple of the Lord.

And where do you get the materials to build the temple of the Lord?

Well, it turns out some of the best uh woodcutters and some of the best trees are entire, and that's it's gonna take a while to get there.

And I'm gonna have to do some international trade in order to get it.

And if you want, you these cedars are nice, but if you want the real cedars, you're gonna have to go to Lebanon.

That's where the cedars are.

So how do you get those?

Well, you've got to take the wheat that you've harvested, you've got to put it in ships.

And you've got to put those ships in the most treacherous place you can imagine, across the seas, where there's wind that you can't control, and there's waves that can come up at any given moment, and all of what you've worked for and planted and harvested and then packaged and sent away, there's this moment where you say, It's out of my hands.

I hope it works.

And you cast your bread upon the waters, and then you wait patiently for that deal that you made, for that king that you just have to trust to send back, once he receives the bread that you've casted upon the waters, to send back those Lebanon cedars.

Those are the good ones.

You get those back there and you say, This is some cedar that we could use to build the house of the Lord.

If you don't cast your bread upon the waters, you don't get the Lebanon cedars.

If you don't get the Lebanon cedars, then your temple is going to be just it's not not as good as it could have been.

Certainly not a place that would honor the Lord.

So be bold.

Everything requires risk.

Anything that is fruitful, anything that is worth doing, requires a boldness and a patience.

Raising your children requires boldness and patience.

Establishing yourself in Denver, where this is a place where you could have a family, a place you could do good work, it requires boldness and patience.

And that looks like casting your bread upon the waters.

You'll find after many days, you'll get it.

You'll get back what you sent out.

And the second verse, give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth, shows us that the boldness and the patience is to be coupled with enthusiasm.

We underestimate these things.

Enthusiasm is very important in order to make anything happen.

It takes boldness, the risk to put it out there, but don't just put it out there.

Put a lot out there.

You should be enthusiastic about this.

A friend of mine worked at a kids' camp and he came back saying kids' camp things one summer, and so we heard them a lot.

He worked at um Eagle Lake.

Any of you ever go to Eagle Lake?

One, two, yeah, three, four.

Wow, cool.

And uh the camp counselors there, they have this expression where they they shout, enthusiasm is contagious.

Exactly.

Enthusiasm is contagious.

We underestimate that.

Your boldness is contagious, your enthusiasm is contagious.

Quit hedging.

Quit hedging.

And what's the reason that he gives?

He's like, uh Solomon's there and you're you're packing up your ships and you're sending out a portion.

It's like, yeah, I'm gonna send out a portion of these, trying to get some of that Lebanon cedar.

And I'm gonna send these across the waters, and I hope to get some of that back.

And Solomon's like, how many are you sending out?

And you're like, I'm sending out seven.

I think that'd be pretty good.

Solomon says, seven, send out eight.

Then you look at Solomon and you say, Yeah.

Let's send out eight.

You know, that that's encouragement.

That's that's like strength.

It's looking towards the future and saying, Yeah, maybe.

What if it works?

Mark Luby, your dad, Mark Luby's a man in the church right now.

Your dad has this expression that I've heard you hit, that I've heard all of his sons say, which is swing hard, you might hit it.

Swing hard, you might hit it.

Now we're talking.

That's the enthusiasm that it takes.

Give seven, give eight.

Give eight, man.

And then the reason that he gives, you might expect it to be like, because it might work.

This is sort of the opposite advice, but it says, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.

That's Ecclesiastes type of encouragement.

You know, so you gotta go to that place with Solomon, that place where it's like, yeah, we're working, you know.

Um Sebastian and I, we've been working out together in my garage, and one of the things that I like to do is when we're in the middle of the workout, say, yeah, now we're here.

We're in that very dark place together.

And then we fist bump and it's fun.

And it's it's that type of encouragement, you know?

It's the it's like, yeah, let's finish this workout because who knows what disaster's coming around the corner.

The point is you don't know.

You don't know what disaster is coming.

And he says give.

And the question is, is it give like investment or is it give like generosity?

Is he is he calling you to be a generous person?

And I think for Solomon, when he speaks in these ambiguities, it's best to not try and parse it.

It's best to think that he's probably saying both.

Because giving for investment and giving for generosity, I think to Solomon, they're not so different in his mind.

What are you investing for?

You'd be investing so that you might build wealth and have something to pass on to maybe even your grandchildren.

You do you'd be investing so that you would have a space that you could bring people into, that you might be of greater benefit for.

You know, you're investing so that you might buy your wealth, be responsible with the talents that have been given to you, and honor the Lord with them.

And if they don't find their end in honoring the Lord, then what are you investing them for anyway?

And of course, that same thing applies to giving.

If you have this money that obviously has come from the hand of the Lord, because what, you don't know how things work.

Think of, I'm talking a lot about people this morning.

I think because I started with that Zach thing and it got my head just thinking about people.

But I think of like Gibson and Paige, you guys are just starting out, you know, just got married, and you've been watching them go through this moment where it's like, how do you move from that like just graduated from college into adulthood?

And you just watch and it's like, I nobody knows how that happens or how you make that move.

Most people figure it out, and and even the ones that figure it out, they look back and they're like, I don't, I don't know how that happened.

I made this phone call, and that finally led to this job.

And then we finally, after looking around, got a place to stay over here, and then now all of a sudden I got bills like the rest of you guys, and it's great.

Nobody knows how that move happens.

So you don't know, you don't know how these investments work.

You don't know how you got to the place that you got to, and yet the Lord has been gracious with you and He's blessed you and He's given you something like an income, and so you have some money.

Can you imagine not being generous with that?

It's a horrifying thought to think give to the Lord.

How much should you give?

I don't know, maybe give seven.

Then there's Solomon, give eight.

Give eight to the Lord.

Why?

You don't know what disaster might come.

There could be a disaster just around the corner and it wipes you out completely.

You'll have nothing left.

The chapter that we're preaching on is Ecclesiastes chapter 11.

Ecclesiastes 11 · chapter mention

And there might be a chapter 11 just around the corner.

That was a bankruptcy joke that the attorney in the back laughed at.

He didn't laugh.

He said, hey.

There might be a chapter 11 waiting just around the corner for you.

And when you're when you're on the other side of that chapter 11, that bankruptcy, you'd look back and think, gosh, I should have given more away.

I didn't know what disaster was coming.

Back when I had it, I should have given it.

There could be death waiting just around the corner.

How silly to have not been generous when you had it.

How foolish to stand before the Lord and think, yeah, I was saving up for you know myself and these things, and I had all these trips planned and all these things, and so I gave six, and then you hear, I should have given seven.

Now that I think about it, I should have given eight.

Both are risk.

They're always risk.

It's not a risk that you take because you finally know what's coming next.

It's a risk that you take because you finally acknowledge that you don't.

You don't know what's coming next.

You are a generational type of thing.

You're like a you're like a trend.

You know, that's what that's what your life is like.

Your skinny jeans, now it's whatever Gen Z baggy jeans.

You know, you're you're a trend.

And it's just here for a moment and it's and it's gone.

And it's like, why, why did that change?

And everybody says, I we don't know where these things come from.

We just obey.

That's what trends are like.

You come and you go.

You don't know what's coming next.

God is from everlasting to everlasting.

Eternal knows exactly what's coming next.

So how can you be bold?

It's not because of what you know, it's because of what you don't.

And when you acknowledge what you don't, you can be bold because you know Him.

You know the one who knows.

So live with a boldness as though you're entrusting yourself to the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 11, 3 through 4, continuing on this theme of boldness, if the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth.

And if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

That's a great Ecclesiastes verse.

If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth.

Amen?

If a tree falls to the south or to the north, and the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

Come on, preacher.

I think he's saying something like you can describe the cause and effect of these things.

You know something like when the clouds are full, it rains.

And when a tree falls because of the wind and the rain and falls to the south or to the north, that's where the tree's gonna be.

Then you're gonna have to deal with the tree being there.

You can describe the cause and effect.

It's real.

There's real cause and effect in the world.

It can be understood, it's discernible, and it imposes upon us realities that we have to deal with.

But do not mistake your understanding of cause and effect with your control over it.

Your understanding that when the clouds are full of rain, the rain falls, gives you no control over whether the rain will fall on your crops.

Your understanding that when it gets windy and rainy and the tree falls and you've got to deal with the tree wherever it lies gives you no ability to determine when this tree is going to fall or when that tree is going to fall.

Don't mistake your understanding of it for control over it.

If you do mistake your understanding of it for control over it, then you might think you'll be able to discern the perfect time for everything.

Then you'll be like the person who is standing out and he's observing the wind.

And when you're sowing, you know, and you want it to fall in your field and not your neighbor's field, because they didn't even, you know, collect these seeds.

You want it to so you want it to fall in your field, you know?

And then if it's gonna be a windy day, you're out there throwing seed, and it's getting all over the place, and it's not gonna settle down on the dirt where the way that you had it, so you think, I'll just wait.

There's gonna be a perfect day.

There's a windless day coming.

And then you've missed the window.

You've missed the opportunity to sow your seed.

Because you were looking at something and you understood the relationship, but you thought you could control it.

You can't.

The time was now.

You looked out and you thought, well, it looks like rain's coming.

Now's not the time to harvest.

Look, you take what you can get in the harvesting game.

If it's the time to harvest, you've just got to harvest.

If you observe the wind, you won't sow.

If you regard the clouds, you won't reap.

Shows us we one of the tricks, I think, of our moment is this trick that if you if you get enough information, you can be wise.

This is one of the tricks of the, this is why the language models that we like are large.

You know, that's my type of language model.

I like large language models, not small language models.

Well, I've got terrible news for you.

You are a small language model.

You will not have all the information.

You can't access it.

It's impossible.

In fact, wisdom does not lie in all the information.

That's not where wisdom lies.

It seems as though, because of the type of thing you are, this one-generation trend type of thing, this small language model that you are, Solomon is showing us that this key aspect of human wisdom is not the quantity of things you can know, it is the quantity of things you can ignore.

Because he's saying, look, there's probably some ideal circumstance waiting around the corner, but you have to sow now.

There's some ideal that you're looking for, but the time to reap is now.

No more information will help you out of this.

You just have to act.

And there's no other way to explain that action other than by faith.

It has to be by faith.

It's the only explanation for that type of action.

Because there's this key to wisdom that is this acknowledgement of all that you don't know, all that you won't know, and all that you can't know.

And that's why Solomon takes us next in this call to this bold way of living into just forcing us to see all that you don't know.

In verses five through six, he says, As you do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

In the morning, sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

Look, you don't know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child.

We don't know we we we know some some actions that correlate to where babies come from.

We don't know where babies come from.

We don't know how that happens, how a spirit comes to the womb of a woman.

This is an unthinkable mystery.

It it happened to each of you.

And then you became this type of thing that you are that looks and sees and smells and notices things, and there's this um eternity in your heart.

Where did that come from?

This longing for truth and meaning.

Where did that come from?

You don't know.

You don't know how that happened.

It's the most fundamental question that you could possibly ask.

It's like, what are why am I the type of thing that I am and why does life feel like this?

You don't know.

You don't know.

Isn't that weird?

I'd think if I knew anything, I would know that.

Because I've been me this whole time.

And you don't know.

And yet you think, well, if I just had a little bit more information, then I'd be able to discern if I had this, you know, more uh if I had all the data at hand, then I'd always be able to make the perfect decision.

If we were to just create something that had all of the data and was able to access it instantly, then we'd be in a world of nonstop perfect decisions.

That's a crazy thing for a creature who doesn't even know where they came from to think.

So you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

You know, unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Why is that?

Because for anything to actually happen, it must be the Lord who finally does it.

It must be the Lord.

The Lord is the final reason, the true cause of all things that you seek to have happen in the world.

He is the one who finally does it.

And you don't know how he does it.

You don't know how he makes everything.

So what do you do?

Because you don't know what will finally make this hope that you have happen.

In the morning, sow your seed.

At evening, withhold not your hand.

You don't know which will prosper, this or that.

Maybe both will work.

That's a bold life.

That's bold living.

And it shows us there's a there's just a bold a boldness to saying, when I go, when I wake up and I go to work in the morning, yeah, I'm gonna try and make it really happen here.

Because what do I know?

It might work.

There's this my my marriage is on the limit.

What if I really tried to keep it together?

It might work.

When I come home in the evening, I'm going to trust this wisdom, I'm going to ignore all of the information that I could be taking in, and I'm going to give my attention to my children.

Because what if it works?

What if they grow up?

What if they become wise?

Who knows?

It might work.

Don't withhold your hand.

It's a life of faith.

It's bold.

It's visionary.

It sees things that aren't there yet.

It takes risks in order to see that they might exist.

It's a life of faith.

And it's in this final acknowledgement.

This is the sort of paradox that I want us to see.

This boldness, this wonder of this life of faith that he's calling us to, which resulted in the beauty of Solomon's temple, you know, the bread on the waters, the come back, and it's the cedars of Lebanon, become the beauty of the temple.

That type of beautiful life.

It doesn't come from you getting all of the information.

It comes from you acknowledging that you don't have it.

But you trust the Lord.

You trust his goodness.

You have faith in him and faith in his care for you.

And then you step out.

It's not foolishness, remember.

It's not just you sitting around thinking, like, okay, yeah, whatever I think I'll do.

No, there's, you know, an abundance of counselors is helpful.

And Solomon's already given us the warnings to not be fools.

So we remember those when we step out, but those were not to keep us inside.

Those were meant to send you out.

You should hear a tinge of the New Testament in this.

Because this is part of the reason that Paul was just so unstoppable as an apostle.

Why he worked harder than all the other apostles.

I think is because he understood this.

1 Corinthians 3, 6 through 7, he says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

It's like, Paul, why are you running around?

Man, that kind of you the book of Acts is like him running around and being in prison.

The guy's got two speeds.

And it's like you'd ask him, it's like, why are you running around so much, Paul?

Like, what is is it because you know that the next place you show up at, it's going to be a church that works?

And he would say, I don't know.

I don't know.

But I'll tell you one thing I know, God gives the growth.

I know God gives the growth, so I'll plant.

Well, why would you plant if you aren't even the one that can bring the growth?

Why would you take a risk like that?

He's like, Well, I'd rather have the growth in God's hands.

Do you know what he's like?

He's very good.

Paul could say, he's been very good to me.

How could we say?

How could you say he's been very good to me?

Sometimes I wonder, like, if God were to show up and he would hear our concerns and what we're thinking about, I think he would sit down with us and he would say, What do you think I'm like?

What have you read about me?

Has it been the book I gave you?

Remember that one?

Remember the whole, remember the whole Jesus event?

That that what I did there?

What do you think I'm like?

So go dig up your talent.

You don't have to be you don't have to be afraid of me.

Go dig up your talent and at least put it in the bank to get some interest.

And you're like, oh maybe, maybe, yeah, probably the bank probably isn't enough, is it?

Maybe I'll give seven and then, you know, the Holy Spirit would say, would draw to mind the scriptures and say, give eight.

Give eight.

That's the wonder of these great heroes of the faith.

It wasn't that they knew, was that they knew they didn't, but they knew the Lord.

They trusted him.

They trusted him.

So be bold.

Be bold.

Go get it.

Think of it, go do it.

Take a risk.

It might work.

Make decisions.

Take action.

Be bold.

It's a life of faith.

It's a life of faith.

Next is be joyful.

Ecclesiastes 11, 7 through 8.

Be bold, then be joyful.

Solomon says, Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all.

But let him remember that the days of darkness will be many.

All that comes is vanity.

Light is sweet.

It's pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

I think that Andrew Huberman says the same thing.

It's pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

It's good, it's good for you.

It's a sort of just a nice way of saying it almost sounds trite.

It's like he's just saying life, life is good.

It's good that you're alive.

It's good that you can look and see beautiful things.

It's good that you can walk places and get in your car and drive places.

It's good.

It's good.

It's pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

So if you live many years, you should rejoice in them all.

Rejoice in the years of your life.

Rejoice in the life that you're in right now.

It's good to be in this life.

It's a good place to be.

Now, this isn't trite.

This isn't.

We didn't somehow jump out of Ecclesiastes into some like silly bumper sticker or like life is good, the brand.

We're still in Ecclesiastes.

He's not just being trite and foolish.

He understands, he uh he completely understands that it ends in death and that chance might come and wipe away everything.

Solomon, of course, understands this.

So he couples them with this reality.

He says, but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many.

All that comes is vanity, all that comes is vapor.

Remember, you're a trend.

There will be one after another trend.

And we'll look back and say, I can't believe we dressed that way.

Why in 2010 did we all dress like we were 1800s like gold miners?

By the small chuckle, I might have overstated when I said all.

But it was a thing.

You had to be there.

It's all vanity, it's vapor, it will go away.

But this becomes part of the reason to enjoy it.

Because he's saying how foolish it would be to look back over a life that you knew was coming to an end and to have not enjoyed it.

That seems foolish.

Verse 9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.

Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

So to the young man, to the young men, young man, rejoice in your youth.

Rejoice in your youth.

You can run, boys and girls.

You jump.

You just you just bounce.

You know, you fall down and you just bounce up.

You don't always bounce.

When you fall down later, you just you fall down and you stick.

Rejoice in that.

Enjoy it.

It's an awesome time.

There's a there's a right now, there's a glory in your strength.

There's a glory in your strength.

For all the kids in here.

So play.

Play really hard.

Enjoy it.

Rejoice in that.

Rejoice in your youth.

Let your heart cheer in the days of your youth.

Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes.

Man, this is about as close as the scriptures get to like a like a little follow your heart.

It's about as close as they get to it.

Don't worry, I'll slam that door closed here pretty soon.

But there is something to this, there's something that's important to recognize in this.

A good reason to do something is because you think you'll like it.

That's an overlooked reason.

But it's a very important reason to do something.

Why paint your walls this color rather than that color?

You know the best reason for that, a reason that I think is probably beyond any other possible reason, is you think you'll like it.

You think you'll enjoy the way that it looks.

Why make this meal tonight rather than that meal?

You know the best possible reason?

You think you'll like it.

You think it will taste good to you.

Look with your eyes at the at the beautiful things.

See it's a it's uh rejoice in these things because you think you'll like it.

There can be lots of lots of bad decisions can be not made because you you I'll say it like this.

There are a lot of decisions that can be made poorly because you moralized where you shouldn't have.

I think one of the difficulties in interpreting Ecclesiastes is that there's all this instruction that's not, it doesn't really slot into the moral category in the way that we normal normally think about it.

It slots into the here's what things are like category.

Here's what things are like.

So because things are like that, yeah, paint it, paint it the color that you that you like.

That's the best reason to.

But we know enough, and we've been in Ecclesiastes enough, to know that this can't just be mere frivolity because uh treating things frivolously is no pathway to joy.

Solomon's already shown us that.

He's shown us that there is no satisfaction in making sure that you're always satisfied.

That that's actually an empty bag that's a dead end.

There's there's nothing there.

If you were to perfectly satisfy yourself in all the things of this world, you would find that it amounted to nothing and you weren't satisfied, and it all comes up frivolous.

That's why, after walking the ways of your heart in the sight of your eyes, he says, but know that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment.

And you think, oh, of course.

There it is.

There's that there's that God that I was that I was afraid of who sneaks up behind, right?

He it was a bait and switch.

He told you, Yeah, do whatever you want.

I'm watching you.

Who's watching?

Who's the one who brings it into judgment?

Remember, it is the very one who is commanding you to rejoice in all of your days.

What do you think he's like?

And is it possible for you, the type of thing who has eternity in your heart, to possibly Possibly it to really enjoy anything that you know is frivolous.

You can't.

It has to be finally meaningful.

And the only place of final meaning is the judgment of God.

That's actually, it's not in the way.

The judgment of God is not in the way of you enjoying the things that you think you would like.

It is the way of you enjoying those things.

Because you know this color pleases me, and that's good.

And the Lord has commanded me to paint it the color that I want.

And so I am.

How could that be meaningful?

How could that be anything other than frivolous?

You probably only like that color because it's trending now.

You know, your millennial gray will be, will transition quickly into a millennial green.

And both times you'll think it was your own taste.

You know, and it wasn't your own taste.

It was just what was coming down the line next from the folks that tell us what colors we like.

But enjoy it now.

Enjoy it now.

All these things God brings into judgment.

That is our hope of being able to enjoy them.

So, enjoy them.

Verse 10, remove vexation from your heart and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Remove vexation from your heart.

I think what he's referring to here is the vexation that is seeking to know the end from the beginning.

The vexation that is seeking to create a world that is so tight and so perfectly explained, and stories that always resolve in exactly the way that you expect them to, that causes vexation.

And we should not pursue that type of vexation because Solomon is the one who in this book has taught us eternity is in your heart.

God has placed eternity in your heart, yet so that you cannot know the end from the beginning.

So don't vex yourself trying to know the end from the beginning.

Instead, you should say, I don't know what's coming next.

But the Lord is good.

That's what you should say.

That's a life of faith.

It says, put away pain from your body.

Now, this isn't like what Advil could do.

The word for pain is raw, evil, it's translated elsewhere, or just bad.

You should just think bad.

Put away badness from your body.

You know, there's things that you can do to your body which are bad for you.

And they make your life worse.

Put those things away.

Don't treat yourself like that.

And remember, youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

They're a vapor.

They're going away.

That's not reason to write them off, it's reason to enjoy them.

Your life right now is a vapor and it's going away.

Now, I want to conclude this because he's drawn us into these paradoxes where our boldness is not from certainty.

Our boldness is from what we don't know about what's coming next.

Our joy is not because we are able to tie up all the loose ends, and we know that it is right and reasonable to be joyful because we can tell you the end from the beginning.

That's not where our joy is.

But both our boldness and our joy can only come from the place of faith.

And that comes from trusting that the Lord rewards those who seek him.

And being driven into those sort of paradoxes, it reminded me, and where I want to conclude this sermon today, is in Jesus' own teaching.

In John 12, right before he's about to go to the cross, some Greeks show up and they're like, We'd like to see Jesus.

And Jesus says, Come on in.

And when when that happens, then you know it's like you're meeting with Jesus, and he's probably going to say something wild, because that's what he's like.

And in verses 23 through 26 of John 12, these Greeks that show up, this is the word that they get from the Lord.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.

But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Whoever loves his life loses it.

And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me.

And where I am, there will my servant be also.

If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Don't you just kind of can't you hear how this rhymes with Solomon's instruction?

It is not by a certainty of knowing what's coming next that you're able to leave this life that you otherwise would have clung to.

To go on towards the place that you don't know.

It's just by faith that you can do that.

It's just by faith in the Lord.

It's just by faith in Jesus.

And then to know that there is an eternal meaning on the other side of that, you can't prove that.

You can only receive it by faith.

By faith in Jesus.

So with all that you've learned in Ecclesiastes about the vapor of life, the final call, almost final call, is to be bold and to be joyful.

And these can only be done by faith.

Great.

Then let's take communion together.

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul writes, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it.

He said, This is my body which is for you.

And he took the cup, and he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Part of the wonder of this is that it is the new covenant.

That our God is a God who makes things new.

He does new things.

To see something new, you have to leave the old.

You have to step into a place you haven't been before.

That's what it means to be new.

And so to receive this bread and this cup, we have to receive them by faith.

Because faith is just beyond what we can see right now.

And so we receive these by faith.

And in receiving them by faith, we receive the bread that strengthens us, that we might receive that joy.

We receive the wine, which is like liquid Sabbath.

Joy and rest and celebration.

We can only have joy and rest and celebration in this life that we know ends in death when we receive it in faith in the one who has conquered the grave.

The one who draws us to the Father, having atoned for our sins.

That is the newness of the new covenant.

So we invite all of you who've been baptized and who confess Christ Jesus as Lord to come and partake of this Lord's Supper with us today by faith.

And might your faith become bold and joyful.

Let's pray.

Holy Father, we praise you, that while we were dead in our trespasses and sins, entrapped in the old man, Lord, that you sought to do something new.

Put a new song in our mouth and raised us up to put our feet on level ground so that we might praise and honor you.

Lord, work in our hearts that our faith might be bold and might be joyful.

Lift us up in Jesus' name.

Amen.