We are continuing through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. It's a challenging book, a great book. So if you have questions along the way, on the screen it shows you an email and a text number that you can send those questions to. We'll try to get you those answers. A few years ago, Google released a database of more than five million books that had been published in the last 50 years. And you can put a search word in the database and you can find out how frequently certain words are being used through the centuries. Based on that database, New York Times columnist David Brooks summarized the last 50 years with these words, the rise of individualism. And he based that on the fact that the words that once were used a lot but can being used less and vice versa. So for instance, words like self, personalized, I come first and I can do it myself in the last 50 years have been used more and more and more. But words that talk about community and communal aspects have decreased markedly. So words that would be used less frequently would be community, share, band together, or common good. Now in our society, self-sufficiency is praised as a virtue. It is praised as a virtue. And there's an element of self-sufficiency that is appropriate. We certainly, in parenting, want children to learn to do things and become moved from dependence to interdependence to independence. We don't want children that grow up that can't stand on their two feet, but when we take self-sufficiency too far, as our society is prone to do, we end up thinking that we can build our lives, that we can solve our problems, that everything is in our control, that we can control our destinies. Today's biblical passage puts that to rest and shows us why we can't do it. And we are going to look at Ecclesiastes 9, this case against self-sufficiency. And we're gonna learn where self-sufficiency or how self-sufficiency is eliminated. Let me set the context of Ecclesiastes 9, then we'll read the first 12 verses. After several chapters in a row, laying out his perspective on life, the teacher, that's the one speaking through most of Ecclesiastes, The teacher uses this chapter to reiterate human inability to control our destinies and to give positive advice about how to respond. So over and over and over again, there are these reflections on life and how we can't control it. We're coming near the end of that section and very soon we're going to start wrapping up the book of Ecclesiastes and the tone is going to change, but we're here again this week. So I invite you to stand with me if you will, and we're going to read Ecclesiastes 9. I put verses one to 18 through as the week was developing. I really wasn't sure if we were gonna be able to cover 12 verses today or 18 verses today. Verses 13 to 18 are a bridge between the first 12 verses here in chapter nine and what comes in chapter 10. So I have decided once the sermon was finally done that we're only gonna do the first 12 verses. So the screen says one to 18, but we're only gonna really look at verses 1 to 12, but let's read God's Word. Indeed I took all this to heart. The thing is the same for everyone. There's one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, So also it is for the sinner, as it is for the one who takes an oath, so also for the one who fears an oath. This is an evil and all that is done under the sun. There's one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil and madness is in their hearts while they live and after that they go to the dead. But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead don't know anything. There is no longer a reward for them because the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate, and their envy have already disappeared. There's no longer a portion for them, and all that is done under the sun. Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun. Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength. Because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom and shield where you are going. Again, I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful. Rather, time and chance happen to all of them. For certainly no one knows his time like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap. So people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them. This is the Word of God. He can be seated. Often we live under the illusion that we can control our lives. We can control our destinies. There are phrases that have been ruthered through our society. Master your own fate. Captain your own ship. Chart your own course. Be your own person. Find yourself. Or maybe you sing Frank Sinatra's song, I Did It My Way. But this chapter, Ecclesiastes 9, smashes all those illusions. It shows us why self-sufficiency is the wrong approach to life. So this is on your outline if you want to follow along. We're going to give you a couple of reasons why self-sufficiency is just not the right approach to life and Fortunately, he is also going to give us some positive advice about what the right approach to life is. So how does the writer here, the speaker here, build his case, first of all, by pointing out something about death. Death is certain. Death is certain. Verse one, indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all. The righteous, the wise, and their works are in God's teachers and preachers today that say if you just love God, you're gonna have all the health and wealth that you would ever want, that you would ever desire. Contrary to that false view, people in life have mixed experiences, including godly people, the righteous, the wise, as we see in verse one. Even the righteous and the wise are in God's hands. And people don't know whether to expect love or hate. Righteous and good, godly people, sometimes they're gonna experience love, and sometimes they're gonna experience hate. Again, this teacher's making observations about what he sees in life. This is wisdom literature. He's observing things. And it's our job to place it in the context of all of Scripture and develop it, which we plan to do. This is true not only for the righteous and the godly, it's true for all people. Look at verse 2. Everything is the same for everyone. There's one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. You know, see the pairs? Uh, righteous, wicked, good, bad, clean, unclean one who sacrificed one who doesn't. This is a pretty broad net, right? It's it's everybody. Everybody is going to experience something. Verse three. What is it? This is an evil that is done under the sun. There's one fate for everyone. Now, if we were to set it up, we might set it up that, oh, if you were good, if you were righteous, if you're godly, then you're gonna live a long, long, long time. You'll live forever. Never be sick, never have challenges or problems. And if you're bad, then bad things are gonna happen to you. But that's not the way life is. There's one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that, they go to the dead. So you cannot be godly enough to escape death. In fact, if you exclude the two exceptions who were transported from earth to heaven in a unique way, Enoch and Elijah, the death rate for all of human history is 100%. None of us are gonna escape it. None of us are gonna escape it. And that's his observation. He's looking around and says, there's this evil Death is certain. Verse 4, but there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living since a live dog is better than a dead lion. Had you rather be a dog or a lion? Well, in that day, you'd rather be a lion, right? A lion is big and strong, and dogs weren't like nice little pets like we have. They were mangy, street-roaming creatures. But it's better to be alive and be a dog than to be a lion that's dead. I don't know what kind of complaint you came in with this morning, but as far as I can tell, all of you are alive. So just praise God, you're alive, that you've got some hope. You are alive. Verse five, why? Why does this comparison four, that four gives us the reason, it grounds it, For the living know they will die, but the dead don't know anything. There's no longer reward for them because the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate, their envy has already disappeared, and there's no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun. After someone passes, the world goes on without them. For those that are closest to them, the world stops temporarily, just for a small number of people. But the world goes on and eventually their memory passes and they won't experience love or hate or zeal, envy or anything anymore because that only happens while they're alive. So wisdom involves understanding that we're only alive once. We're only here once, right now, if you're alive. And wisdom is being able to grab that and appreciate that and live in light of it. I mean, really live in light of it. God knows what is going to happen, but we don't. That proves that we're not God. that we can't be self-sufficient, that we can't control our destinies. So why not depend on the God who created us and sustains us and even who sent his own son, Jesus, to die for us? Why not depend on him rather than trying to be so self-sufficient in life? Now, we're gonna skip over verses seven to 10. We're going straight through. Normally, we do go straight through. We're gonna come back to verses seven to 10. We're gonna skip to verse 11 and 12, which gives us the second reason why self-sufficiency is just the wrong approach to life. The first one is because death is certain, right? The second reason goes the other way. Death is certain, but many things in life are unpredictable. You could write the word uncertain if you want, unpredictable. And this section goes from 11 to 18, and it's divided into two parts. 11 and 12 talk about time and chance, and then verses 13 to 18 talk about how wisdom is limited. And again, as I mentioned earlier, today I'm only putting that in there for the outline. It's already on your outline. But we're only gonna go to 11 and 12 And then 13 next week, hopefully, Lord willing, if he gives us next week, we'll bridge the gap with 13 to 18 between this week and chapter 10. So let's look at time and chance in verse 11. Look what he says. Again, I saw unto the son that the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong or bread to the wise or riches to the discerning or favor to the skillful, rather time and chance happen to them all. Here's what's interesting to me and unfortunate. We tend to live as if the one certain thing, which is death, is not going to happen. We don't think about it. Especially the younger you are, the less you tend to think about it. We almost could say, how many times have you thought about death in the last month? If we had all your answers, it would probably be the younger you are, the lower that number is. Unless you had a friend die, right? Or a grandparent or a relative. But we tend not to think about that. And on the other hand, well, before I say that side of it, People would admit it. If we were pressed, everybody would give the quote right answer. Oh, do you think you're gonna die? Well, of course, yeah, everybody admit, yeah, I'm gonna die. But it's just like we're going all along, we're living our lives as if that's not even really gonna necessarily happen. But the things that are uncertain, on the other hand, we tend to think they're certain. We tend to build our lives thinking that certain things are going to happen, period. Like if you're swift, you're gonna win the race, right? You know, that's what we're taught. Work hard, if you're a runner, develop yourself and you'll win the race. And you know what? Most of the time that happens, right? Most of the time, the person who wins the foot race is the one who's worked the hardest and has a body that fits it and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But we've probably all seen Olympics where The runner who was leading got accidentally tripped and didn't win the race, right? So, doesn't always, fastest runner doesn't always win. The battle to the strong, usually in battle, the strongest army wins, but not always. Bread to the wise. Usually, people that manage their finances well are gonna have enough food to eat. But sometimes things just get reversed and it doesn't happen for them. Favor to the skillful. Usually smart, well-trained people do well in business. But then sometimes a global pandemic comes and they go out of business, right? Time and chance happen to them all. You work hard to save money for retirement, and you have your plans. When you retire, you and your spouse are gonna travel and see the world. And three months before you retire, you get diagnosed with a terminal illness, or your wife or husband gets diagnosed with dementia. This doesn't only happen to old people. It doesn't only happen to old, it does happen to old people, often. But sometimes it happens to young people. I was in college with a guy. I was in student government with him. He was, I can't remember what year it was. Well, I know I was in student government with him, like, I think freshman, sophomore, and junior year. He was big, strong, athletic, great singing voice, very popular on campus. We went to college in Tennessee up in the mountains and he was out hiking, I think it was at night, with someone and took a step that wasn't actually ground and fell a long way and never walked again. There's no guarantee that you're going to be healthy and live a long life. None of us are guaranteed that, right? Verse 12, for certainty or for certainly no one knows his time like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap. So people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them. Young couple gets married, and they think, oh, we're gonna love each other our whole lives, and we're gonna be together our whole lives, and we're gonna grow old together, and we're gonna have children together, and we're gonna have our grandchildren around us, and that might happen, and sometimes that happens. Often that happens. Sometimes one of those newly married spouses doesn't even make it to 30 years old. You start a career. You're moving up, you're getting promotions, you're getting a bigger salary. You're 28 years old and then your company gets bought. and you're out. You get, they downsize. And no matter how great a producer you are, you get, you lose your job. A fish doesn't expect it to be, get caught in a net. You can see, doesn't expect it's caught in a cruel net. Birds that are, you know, hunting, they get caught in a trap. They're not expecting it. We don't, there are things that happen in life like that. So human plans and goals and dreams are not certain. And all of this leads us to understand, again, 13 to 18, we'll come back to that next week. But let's skip through there. Self-sufficiency is eliminated by what is certain and uncertain. Self-sufficiency is eliminated by what is certain and uncertain. What's certain? Death. What's uncertain? Everything else. Everything else is uncertain. And that eliminates self-sufficiency. So the question becomes, how then should we live? With respect to Francis Schaeffer, who coined that long, long ago. How then should we live? Well, this middle section, verses seven to 10, talk about it. Let's see what he says. Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head. That's why I wore a white shirt today. Let your clothes be white. I mean, I had my pink shirt out, the one with green polka dots and blue stripes. I was ready to go. My wife said, honey, are you really wanting to wear that shirt today? He didn't just say, enjoy life. There's some urgency here. Go, go, eat your bread with pleasure. Stop complaining. Get busy living, as Walt Kaiser asked it. Why should anyone who truly fears God have the joy of life stolen out from under him because of the unsolved perplexities still remaining in the partially disclosed plan of God? A lot of words. Let me read that again. I think that's a great question. Why should anyone who truly fears God have the joy of life stolen out from under him because of the unsolved perplexities still remaining? in the partially disclosed plan of God." So this verse 8, these white clothes and oil, that speaks of celebration and that speaks of joy. And if you are married, speaking from a male perspective, like to live with your wife, if you are married, verse 9 says, enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life. which has been given you under the sun all your fleeting days, for that is your portion in life and your struggle under the sun." Now, we all know who are married that marriage itself has ups and downs and it's not always easy and it requires work, but just enjoy the life with your spouse. And I don't think that eating and drinking and marriage that are listed here comprehensive in the sense that this is all of God's gift to us, but I think this is just a representative of the gifts that God gives you. Enjoy them with joy and live life with joy. I think it's a legitimate to apply it to all of God's gifts. In fact, verse 10 kind of expands on that viewpoint. Whatever your hand hands fine to do, do it with all your strength. Because there's no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you're going. Now, when we get to the grave, which is Sheol here, we will have no more opportunities to work, to plan, to live, to laugh, to serve. to eat, to drink, that's it, it won't be there. Don't be half-hearted at work. Don't be half-hearted at play. Don't be half-hearted at church. Don't be half-hearted when you serve. Don't be half-hearted in your relationships. Like an athlete who's retiring and they're playing their final game and they walk off the field for the last time, leave it all out there on the field. Don't walk off and say, I wish I would have done this or that. Now in a book like Ecclesiastes, that has often pointed out to us inequities in life and difficulties. We're only seeing the partially disclosed plan of God. I would sum up how the teacher advises us to live in verse seven through 10 in this way, life is a gift from God, it's not what we make of it, So enjoy it and go after it with passion. This is one of the several so-called carpe diem sections in Ecclesiastes. There have been several, you know, kind of go for it now, encouraging us to seize the day, but not in a hedonistic way like a secular mind would tell us, or our society would certainly stress, would not be in a way that is apart from God. In fact, I mean, that's all they have. That's all the secular world has. They don't have God, so they can't put God in the equation. Oh, they could if they wanted to, but that's not the biblical worldview. It's very important to note that in all of these so-called carpe diem passages in Ecclesiastes where he says, go enjoy life, go do this, enjoy eating or whatever, in all of them, the center of them is God. The center of them is God. I love this quote from Brian Davis. In the created world, can only truly enjoy what you do not worship in the created world. Now, let me back up for a second. If you're taking notes, let me just give you one, two, three, let me give you four places in Ecclesiastes. We've already been through three of them and today is the fourth one where this notion of enjoying life, seizing the day, comes with a focus on God. So in 224, so that's the first one, 224, there's nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen even this is from God's hand. That's 224. 313, it is also the gift of God. whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts. In 5, 19, and 20, this is a gift of God, for he does not often consider the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart. And then here in 9, 7, go eat your bread with pleasure and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. This is not saying go live it up apart from God and his ways. It's not saying that. He's not saying don't worry about evil because God doesn't care. For we know that God does. It is saying that God loves a joyful heart. that God loves a joyful heart, so go enjoy. But don't make an idol of God's gifts. So enjoy God's gifts, but don't make an idol of them. And that's why I bring out this quote from Brian Davis. If we think about how can we love life and God's gifts while also serving God and not getting things out of balance, well, In the created world, you can only truly enjoy what you do not worship. Let me expand this quote from Davis and give you some examples. Let's take sex for an example. The man who makes sex his God, and who worships it, discovers that actually what is normal, pleasurable, soon becomes inadequate. Not enough, And he becomes chained to a path whereby he begins to enjoy only perversion, which, of course, is no enjoyment. How about family? The woman who makes her family her God and who worships her children discovers that they fail and disappoint her and do not achieve all she wanted them to achieve, and so she is left empty and fulfilled. And you could add, that could be true of work, that could be true of money, that could be true of any of God's gifts, if rather than just enjoying them and using them in a proper perspective and context, the greater perspective of serving God, if we make idols of them, We're going to be empty. Davis says, when you worship God's gifts, they will never ever deliver what they promise and instead leave you empty and broken. And he points out something that I frankly had not thought about much or at all. He said, God uses different tools to make us homesick for heaven. We're living here on earth. And God uses different things to make us really want to go to heaven. Because let's face it, most of us don't think about heaven to make us homesick for heaven. Because they are so good, he gives them to us so it will make us long for heaven. We had a wedding celebration yesterday. The Thompson family's here. So great to see Faith Thompson, who grew up at Harvest and went to Maine for a while and then college to see her get married. What a great celebration. It was wonderful. You know, there's a lot of wedding imagery in this chapter of Ecclesiastes 9. You know, you got the husband and wife, you got the food and drink, you got the white garments and the oil So anytime we celebrate something good, we should not think, oh, well, that's evil. Christians aren't supposed to celebrate. But we shouldn't also say, oh, well, I'm gonna make a God out of this. We should say, isn't God good? And aren't his gifts good? And let these good gifts make us long for heaven. Because heaven is a wonderful place with all good gifts and no sickness or death or broken relationships. That leads me right into the first note that I want to draw your attention to. The first note is this, because the teacher's perspective is under the sun and pre-Jesus, We can view it as valuable, but not final. Remember where we are in the Bible. The New Testament has not been written. Much of the Bible had not been written when this was penned, and so it's true in the sense that it's wisdom literature, and of course, wisdom literature is unique from other types of literature. Wisdom literature accurately records what the wisdom writer was saying, but not every word they say matches all the rest of Scripture. It's up to us to figure it out. And I've given this example, but some of you might be hearing this for the first time. So Job's friends who gave him bad advice, unbiblical advice, it was recorded in Scripture. And here in Ecclesiastes, we get some things that are like this. So for instance, when he says everybody has the same fate, it's valuable and it's true. Believer and unbeliever have the same fate. They're going to the same place. In that sense, it's true, but it's not final. because there will be more revelation to come. That is not the final answer. That's not where it ends. Maybe that's all he knew, but the rest of scripture helps us know more about it. So for instance, the scripture teaches us that for God's people, the future is going to be amazing and There's gonna be a banquet in heaven, a marriage supper of the Lamb. And so the wedding you went to yesterday, some of you, or any wedding where you went to where you saw joy and happiness and dancing and eating and drinking and people were happy and celebrating, that's just a tiny picture of what heaven is gonna be like. Isaiah 25, verse six, looks forward to this. It says, on this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meals and the finest of wines. And when that day comes, look what else God is going to do in verses seven and eight. On this mountain, He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all people, the sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove his people's disgrace from the earth. The Lord has spoken. There's a shroud over us right now. There's a big sheet, it's called death. And it's certain, and we're all facing it. But that wedding supper of the Lamb, that future in heaven, God is just gonna destroy that. He's gonna swallow death up. I think of the New Testament when Paul the apostle, wipe away all the tears from all faces. I have a very, very close uncle to me who's pastored for many, many years, is about to experience that. He's right there, he's close. And it's sad, and there's tears, but God's gonna wipe all those away. Let me make another note, and I think this is important as we start to wrap up this morning. Jesus is the ultimate example of living it up properly. Jesus is the ultimate example of living it up properly. That is, he lived for God fully. and he enjoy the simple gifts of everyday life. So let's just do a little experiment here. Think about what you know about Scripture, about what the New Testament says. The Son of Man came, don't say it out loud, turn to somebody around you if you know any verses that finish this. Take 30 seconds. The Son of Man came All right. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give His life for many. Mark 10. Anybody get that one? Yeah. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. In Luke. Anybody get that one? Yeah. The Son of Man came not to do by own will, but the will of Him who sent me. John 6. Anybody get any of that? Okay. And how about this one? The Son of Man came eating and drinking. He was called a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Nobody experienced loss and sacrifice to accomplish the will of God the Father any more than Jesus. Right, it was hard. He suffered. He was God. He was equal with God the Father, but he gave it up, the position, The existence of being equal with God the Father, or existing in a manner equal with God the Father, Philippians 2 would say, to come on this earth still fully God, but also now fully man and suffering. And yet, he didn't walk around pouting. He was joyful. He ate and drank. He hung out with people. He's a great model for us. Self-sufficiency is eliminated by what is certain and uncertain. So here's my question. Death is certain. Are you ready? Are you saved? Have you opened your heart and life to Jesus Christ? Have you repented of your sin, meaning I acknowledge I'm wrong, I cannot save myself, but Jesus died to save me and I will take him, I will believe in him, by God's grace I will follow him. Don't try to shape life on your own, but build your life on the solid rock, Jesus Christ. How do you do that? Here's some quick tips. Stop complaining. Stop comparing. Stop living in the past. Stop living in the future. Stop separating the secular and the sacred. First Corinthians 10 31 says whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all of the glory of God. Stop trying to control everyone and every outcome. Exercise to stay in shape or get in shape and eat healthy. but don't depend on your own ability to create an invincible body because you can't. Work hard to honor God and meet your obligations and give to God's work, but don't base your value and your security on what you earn or what your net worth is or what people say about you. Start living in the presence today and start giving thanks to God more today. Everything is a gift from God. He was a counselor of Henry VIII and he was a friend of the prominent writer Erasmus. He understood what it meant to say no to the world and yes to God. He enjoyed life. He took part in celebrations. He didn't assign cosmic importance. to his job title or who he was associated with or how he had fun. His heart was devoted to God. And in his meditations, the primary thing he said was this, gladly be thinking of God. Gladly be thinking of God. I think that's a great response and motto. as we come out of Ecclesiastes 9. Gladly be thinking of God. Amen.