Please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 9. If you can believe it, we are beginning the last section of the book. We have been walking through the book of Ecclesiastes since January. And Lord willing, at the end of August, I believe, we will be finishing up. And a lot of the things that Solomon, our teacher, will say here. At the end, really he has been building a case, and so they're similar thoughts. And what I love about walking through books of the Bible, like this one particularly, is that it helps us just reinforce the same ideas over and over as we come to the conclusion. And as we walk through it week after week, hopefully it's changing our perspective and the way that we view life and how we interpret it. And it fits more with a biblical perspective. And so he's kind of shifting from more of an investigative mode. We've talked through this whole book how he describes this experiment of life. And so he's kind of been gathering all of his information. And he's been giving us some conclusions throughout, but now he'll actually work toward his final thoughts. At the end of 8, it says, and I saw every work of God. and I conclude it. So you can kind of understand the transition here in the text, that he is basically bringing all the information together, and he's made a conclusion, and then in chapter nine it starts, for I have taken all this to my heart. And so all this information that he has gathered, he has now taken to his heart, and explain it, that righteous men and wise men and their deeds are in the hand of God. man does not know whether it will be love or hatred, anything awaits him. It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked, for the good and the clean and for the unclean. for the man who offers a sacrifice, and for the one who does not sacrifice. As a good man is, so is the sinner. As the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards, they go to the dead. For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope. Surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything. Nor have they any longer a reward, for the memory is forgotten. Indeed, their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, that they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun. Go then, eat your bread in happiness, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the woman whom you have loved all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun. For this is your reward in life, and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do it, Let's pray and ask God's blessing on his word this morning. Father, Lord, would you help us as we move toward the concluding thoughts of this book? God, we want you to continue to just drill into our minds that you are the creator, we are the creation, and all of our lives revolve around who you are and your glory. And I pray that as we practically look at this idea of life and death, you would remind us of how frail we are. And Lord, how short the time we have to live on this earth. God, would you show us today what you have for us from your word, we ask. In your holy and precious name I pray, amen. So he has said a number of things, and I don't know what was running through your mind as you walked through this text with me, but there's a lot of interesting phrases in there. And so hopefully, as we walk through, it'll help us But we want to understand right from the beginning, and he states this at the beginning of his conclusion in verse 1 there, that he believes wholeheartedly in the sovereign hand of God. He says, Our teacher trusts in the sovereignty of God. Whatever comes to us in life, whether it comes in the form of wealth, or whether it comes in the form of poverty, whether it comes in the form of healthiness, or whether it comes in sickness, all of the works of God and everything that we experience come directly from Him. So as we've been wrestling with this concept of divine retribution, we have to constantly fight against the thought that whatever comes into my life, it's because of my good deeds, and I can somehow gain control over what happens to me. We must be very, very careful to just regularly take those thoughts and compare them to scripture. Because many times, God brings things into our lives for a purpose that we do not know, and he has all kinds of things that he wants to accomplish in our own lives and in the lives of those people that these new circumstances now come to affect. And so we have to trust in the sovereign hand of God. It says, God sometimes guides man to hate and sometimes to love. We have illustrations where good and bad really came to people who wanted to follow God and serve Him. Think of Joseph and the hatred that came in the form through his brothers. And it eventually was what took him to a place of slavery and imprisonment. But God was orchestrating this beautiful story to prepare Joseph even though his circumstances came in such a rough way. God was working in his life to orchestrate God's sovereign plan over his people. And so you can look back in the rear view mirror of life and say, okay, that makes much more sense now, but when you're going through it, we must trust in a sovereign God, no matter what happens in our life. And we must fight against the ideas and the perhaps voices that would teach a different kind of perspective on the scripture, that we really can really have an effect on our circumstances by living a certain way. Now, do we wanna live and honor God in every way possible? Absolutely, but we wanna do it for His glory, not so we can gain something from Him. And it really boils down to our motivation. We can look throughout Scripture and understand that sometimes the circumstances that God brought His people through They were for really a variety of reasons. You take the book of Habakkuk. Suffering was part of a really probationary time. In Revelation, you see that suffering was for punishment. But then you have the life of Christ and the life of Paul and suffering was really used to be sacrificial in their lives and to giving of themselves. In Hebrews, we see that suffering can be educational. We can learn from suffering and sometimes even discipline where God keeps us hemmed in. You take John chapter nine and suffering is actually so that God would be glorified through his own works. You have the disciples walking along and there was a man there and they asked the question, you know, this guy's in rough shape, who sinned? Did he sin or did his parents sin? And Jesus said, actually it was neither one. It was so that I could be glorified through my works. And so suffering can be really so that God gets glory from our lives as he accomplishes his purposes. And in Job, we can kind of come to the conclusion that suffering many times is simply just unexplainable. So we have to be very, very careful that we fight against the idea of I'm having a bad day, Am I living the way that I should? Is God loving me less because of the choices I'm making? We have to be very, very careful. God does want us to live each and every day to his glory, fulfilling the moral aspect of his will, absolutely. But we don't have to live on this constant roller coaster, does God love me today, does he not? Have I done enough today or have I not? No, God may be bringing these circumstances into your life and it may come in the form of hate or just in general what we would categorize something that is bad because he wants to accomplish wonderful things in our lives. And really it's a call to faith. As he concludes these thoughts, it's a call to faith to believe What you see around you is really just a small aspect of the greater picture of God's sovereign plan in all of our lives. Now would you go to verse two, it says, it is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous, and for the wicked, and for the good, for the clean, and for the unclean, and for the one who offers a sacrifice, and the one who does not offer the sacrifice. As the good man, and so is the sinner, and the swearer, and the one who does not swear. So there's these Really, these contrasts of people. And Solomon's conclusion is, everyone has the same fate under the sun. We're just talking simply about death. Now, does Solomon believe that there is something after death? Absolutely, he does. He's referred to that in the book as we've walked through it. But he's just simply making a conclusion. all of these dead ends that he explored, the pleasure, the materialism, and everything that this world, the relationships, everything that this world has to offer, it all actually comes to an end. And really, death is the great equalizer. And so the focus here at the end is pretty, it's a pretty strong focus on death, that we should, as God's people, be living our lives as if we have an end. and our end is coming. There is a curse that came upon those who first walked this earth, and that curse was passed down, and so we will experience, unless the Lord returns, we will experience like everyone who has gone before us. Now sometimes the idea of death causes fear in the life of a person. But for the believer, it actually should not cause fear. Because the sting of death has been taken out. because of what our Lord and Savior has accomplished on the cross. And so actually living with the idea of death being ever in front of us actually can be a great motivation. And that's his point here. He gives all of these descriptions about the good person and then the sinner, the one who does make a vow, And this is kind of bringing in some concepts of Old Testament worship. Those who swear and those who don't. Those who make vows and those who don't. Those who offer sacrifices and those who don't. At the end of the day, we all die. Now for ages, for ages, people have tried to fight against this idea of death. There was a Time Magazine article that really described how people through the ages have tried to delay death. And I thought it would be interesting and helpful for you. And the title of the article is actually Insane Ways that Man Tries to Cheat Death. So going back all the way to the 1600, 600 BC, people were advised to consume a mixture of root powder, gold, honey, and butter after their morning bath. And this was thought to allow folks to live longer. Now, sounds like it could be a fairly expensive endeavor, but perhaps you want to try it. They get worse. around 300 A.D., the ideal diet for longevity was a mixture of spices, vegetables, turtles, crane eggs, and other long-living creatures. You know, people will do all kinds of things and believe all kinds of things. Just, you know, do a quick Google search on ways to live longer lives. And you will find probably many, many pages of these crazy ways that man comes up with to really stay death, because there's such a fear of death. You'll like this one. In 1400s, the elderly should drink the blood of young men. Crazy, right? But Pope Innocent VII, he supposedly tried this, but he actually died shortly after. We graduate a little bit in the 1700s. If you only drink water, you could potentially live to 100. 1921, take radium, a wonder drug that can alleviate ailments of old age. Bonus for you, Sir Francis Bacon, he suggested opium and baths. And there was a whole list of these, many of which I could not read in public. But this really helps us understand, really, the perspective that so many times The human being, you know, as a race, we try to avoid and really cheat what is coming to all of us. And that's Solomon's point. I have looked at life under the sun. And he's described it in many ways. He's described it as being meaningless. He's described it as being a vapor. He's described it as being very puzzling. And his conclusion is, the treadmill of life, one generation comes and one generation goes, and you have those who are righteous and those who are unrighteous, but everyone will experience death. And so, what do we do with this conclusion? How does the child of God, the God-fearer, the follower of Christ, how does he or she really live each day with this idea that my death is coming? And I don't know when it will be. Well, he helps us understand what life should look like because if you look in verse four, it says, for whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope. Surely a living dog is better than a dead lion. You may say, what in the world is that in there for? Well, in the ancient Near East, dogs were kind of on the bottom of the animal chain. They were more scavengers that would roam the streets and eat all the filth and anything that they could find. Now, we have come a long way, right? In our culture, most people would say, and now we have jacks in our home, and we understand this a little bit more, but people now elevate dogs way to the top, but Psalm is just giving a simple illustration that a living dog, something that most people in the culture in which this was written, most people would look at that and say, that dog is worthless. On the other hand, they elevated, a lion was considered to be kind of at the top, the most glorious or prestigious animal. But if a lion is dead, he's not doing anything. So it's a simple illustration that says, you know what? While you have life, you have hope. So yes, we look around, death is everywhere, and we will experience, we will experience it, but we have hope. You still have a, check your, if you have a pulse this morning, there is hope. That's what he says in verse four. For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope. Verse five, for the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything. Nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten." Again, describing that treadmill of life. So what do we do with all this information? Solomon's very clear. I suggest that it is a call for us to actually enjoy life while we have it. And let the idea of the fact that we are all going to die Let that motivate us to live well. Because you'll see in chapter nine and verse seven there, he moves toward the idea of action. He says go then. With all of this information about death, he basically says go and live. And live really, really well. So for the child of God, for the one who knows that the sting of death has been taken out, and we have a glorious resurrection awaiting us with our wonderful Savior, and we will forever and ever enjoy Him and the eternal blessings that He has offered to us. That is what awaits us. So yes, you will die someday. In God's sovereign plan, That is what awaits us, but until that happens, enjoy the life that God has given you. Now, throughout the book, he has actually said some of these things, and he's really kind of given them as comparisons. In some of the ways, he says, you know what? There are things that are better than others. He gets much more direct in this passage. In verses seven through 10 here, we actually have imperatives. What are imperatives? They're actually commands. So his conclusions get a little more direct. This is what you do with all this information, all the struggles in the earthbound life, all of the hardship that you experience in and of yourself, all of the injustice that you see in the world, all the death that is around you and the death that is coming, what do you do with all this information? Enjoy your Creator and the life that He has given you. So many times people, even Christians, They get so consumed about the here and now and what's going on, and they spend many of their days anxious and all bound up with worry and concern. Why? Well, the price of gas, or the culture that's going down so fast, or you can fill in line after line after line the things that cause us anxiety and worry. And it can really distract us if our eyes are only focused on the here and now, life under the sun, the earthbound living. It can take the joy out of living that God intended for all of us to have. Now you don't just live a carefree life doing whatever you want, that's not his point. But how do you handle these tensions that are real? When life is broken and all you see is brokenness, what do we do? We trust a sovereign God, right? We trust Him because everything is from His hands. And then we enjoy because there's hope. We still have breath today and we know what's coming at the end. We know the end of the story. We have Jesus to look forward to. He's gonna be waiting for us. and He's gone away to prepare a place for us. And that's real and that's true. And so we get up every day and we enjoy the life that he has given us. I would suggest, number one, in verses seven and following it, it says, go, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works. Let your clothes be white all the time and let not oil be lacking from your head. I just kind of, in a general summation, I put, enjoy the provision of God, or you could say, enjoy the nourishment of God. And so he talks about the provision that he gives to us, and we even have walked through together the Lord's Prayer, and he describes just a general heart of thanks, of giving thanks to God for daily bread. And so these are imperatives. He says, go then, enjoy what I provide for you. Go eat. Now you have to keep all of these things in context of the whole of the scripture. So you cannot conclude that I can just eat and eat and eat. And because God would be against gluttony, right? And so we have to be very, very careful that we consider the whole moral aspect of God's will that he has revealed in the scripture. But it's the mindset, it's the heart behind it that Psalm is getting to. As God's people, we actually can enjoy life. We don't have to live our lives bound up with worry and concern and anxiousness of what's ahead. If you have bread on your table and something to drink, enjoy that. Now there's been much teaching here in the past about some of the things he says, drink your wine with a cheerful heart, and Pastor Taylor taught on that, and someday I'm sure we'll teach more on it. But again, this is not a call to live a life however you want. Because there's very clear instruction in scripture against drunkenness. So the heart behind this is to go enjoy the provision of God, the nourishment. He goes on to describe these garments that are white, and this is more of a cultural thing, and these garments would be considering times of festivity and times where the child of God, the Pilgrim, would come to Jerusalem, and there would be festivals, but they would be accompanied with worship, and so the garments should be white because and you wanna make sure you're right before God, so there's this aspect of purity and cleanliness, but it's kind of enjoy, it really describes a whole enjoyment. And oil in the scripture is many times described as something that brings refreshment. And some of the medicinal things that was used, it would be very, very helpful, and so he says, really, in a sense, I provide for you. Enjoy the days that you have left. Enjoy the nourishment. Enjoy the festivities. But do it with the right perspective because I think there is that purity aspect here. And trust the Lord that even when difficult things come into our lives, we can still look to Him and be thankful. Now, as far as application, I would say that, you know, there's a feeling that you kind of experience, at least I do, after just a really nice dinner party. You know, you get an invitation to someone's house or a special dinner and you go to that, you make the commitment, you kind of get dressed up and you go to that dinner. I so much enjoyed the dinner for eights and I've heard a lot of conversation about those and how helpful they are, but you go sit around the table and you enjoy fellowship with other believers. And you walk away and it's that feeling of, wow, that was really, really nice. There's something about it. When God's people get together and they enjoy fellowship, the food was great, the fellowship was great, These are the kinds of things that should characterize the lives of believers. Now, we don't just live one party to the other, but really, I think we probably could do a lot more than we do. How many times do you hear it said, do you say it yourself, or does someone say it to you? Hey, we need to get together. Man, this was a great meal. We should do this more often. How many times, even in a church family like this, have you said to someone, hey, let's have a meal together? Do you follow up on it? If we lived, like really lived as though we're dying, and that's his point here. If we lived as we were dying, what would your schedule look like? we had a family member who was struggling with cancer and at the point where it came to the days when he was nearing his death, he made a comment at a grocery store. He said, look at all these people. They lived their lives without a care in the world. And for him, the clock was ticking. So every movement mattered. And that's the idea of this text. The clock is ticking for all of us. Every movement matters. So why not enjoy the good gifts that God has given us? But it's with him in the center of them. We can't just take His gifts and separate them from the person. No, He's the giver. All of our lives are to be in fear or reverential, all of Him. And so we're supposed to live lives through Him. But that is a life of enjoyment. There is hope in all of our activity. Why not celebrate him now? We're gonna be celebrating him forever and ever and ever. Why not celebrate him now? Why not get involved in people's lives? We say we're a church family. Why not take every opportunity to invest in others? Now I understand you still have to work. He's gonna talk about that in just a minute. But so much of our time We delay because we think, oh, we'll do it later. I'll make that phone call later, even though it's probably the spirit prompting to say, hey, minister to this person, do this, send that card, go grab coffee. Ah, I'm so busy. Enjoy the provision of God. True members of the people of God are always to be festive and in a joyous mood. because their faith helps them to rise above the gloomy present circumstance into the glorious future that is awaiting them. So there really is a possibility to rejoice in all things. We must be very, very careful that we don't live despondent, discouraged lives as believers. God is too good. He's given us so much. So why not take the time to enjoy his good gifts? I would suggest the second thing he says is enjoy your marriage. Look at verse nine. Live joyfully with your wife or enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which he has given to you under the sun. There's a call on married people to enjoy their marriage. And again, this is a command. Marriage is a gift from God. Our days are fleeting. All the days of your fleeting life, marriage, your wife, this is your reward. Take time to enjoy your marriage. And then in verse 10, I would suggest it says there, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. For there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. Enjoy labor. You say, really? Yes. God created us to work, and that was before the fall. Adam and Eve were to cultivate the garden, to take care of the animals. Inherent in creation is the idea of work. Now it really, it changed to where work becomes much harder after the fall, but still God desires us to enjoy our work. Why? Because the day's coming where you can't work anymore. Why? Because you're gonna die. When I talk to people about their work, I try to, on a regular basis, follow up with the question, do you enjoy it? Do you enjoy your work? Why? Because that's what God desires of us. And if we're viewing life correctly, like the fact that there's not many days left, our lives are fleeting, then we should be able to get up to the glory of God, be thankful for the breath that we have, and go about using the talents and giftedness that God has given us. And they're different for all of us. You take a group this size, so much ability and talent in a variety of different ways that is expressed every single week, and we are supposed to be enjoying that process. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it mightily. Don't just check in and check out. Work to the glory of God. Be excellent in your labor, understanding that it's for His glory and it's a gift every day that you can get up and do something. Because there is no working in the grave, that's what he says, there's no work in the grave. So enjoy. Enjoy the provision of God. Enjoy the relationships that come. Enjoy labor and work. These are conclusions that are a must. This is not an option for us, folks. We should be finding joy in our earthbound lives because God is at the center. There's a Christian song that was written a few years ago that says, we only have 86,400 seconds in a day to turn it all around or throw it all away. We need to tell them that we love them while we have the chance to say we need to live like we're dying. You know, sometimes we think that we have all the time in the world, and so our perspective gets really out of place. Our priorities get out of place. If you're the kind of person that says, you know what, I don't have time to spend with people because I've got so much work to do. That is not what God intended. It's just not. He wants you to work hard and do your work to the glory of God, but it should not control everything that you do. because he also wants you to enjoy all the relationships that he has given in your life, and the simple provision on a daily basis. And if you're so caught up in earthbound living where you cannot enjoy those things, then something is out of whack. And a reminder, remember he said it's better to go to the house of mourning. Why, because it reminds us that death is coming. But that should not cause us to fear and worry. It should actually motivate us to live well. Enjoy life with God at the center. I found this on a blog that I thought was helpful about this passage. Death is an artist. Death does not just destroy. It urges us to sketch life and light on the canvas of our lives while we can. The logic here is that death loosens my grip on God's gifts as if they were ever mine by right and instead frees me to see his world for what it is, the lavish endowment to wayward creatures of abundant good things that we do not deserve. Nourishment, love, and work, these things become more enjoyable when we paint them into our lives knowing one day they will pass. Try and hold on to them or worship them and we will find we are chasing the wind with only fistfuls of mist to show for all of our effort. In a hundred years, it is near certain that almost no one will remember you ever lived. Think about that. If it's true, then here is Ecclesiastes' portrait of a life well lived. Eat and open your home. Share what you own. Give away what you have. Remember your creator. Enjoy your loved ones. Fear God. Love his law. Treasure his gospel. All these things are God's great gifts. And strangely, death can open your hands to receive them. Do you understand his point? Death does not bring fear for the believer. The brokenness of this world should not cause us to live anxious lives full of worry and regret. Actually, the concluding matter, when we see all of these things, we should live well. Live life to the glory of God. What does that look like practically? Enjoy your meal today. In fact, invite someone over. You say, I don't like to cook. Well then, take someone out. That person that you've been saying for months, call them this week. Enjoy the relationships that God has blessed you with. Love your spouse well and go to work tomorrow with a smile on your face because you have hope. You have another day to live. You say, well, you don't know my job. I don't have to. You can live life to God's glory in the most difficult of circumstances. And if you understand death is coming, it really should motivate us to live. So live well. Live with hope of the gospel. And there may be someone here today who you do not have hope because you don't know where you will spend eternity once you die. My friend, today you can know because God has offered to you a free gift called salvation. Salvation is for the one who will come humbly before their creator and say, I have sinned against you. I am not perfect. I have nothing to offer you that will cause you to like me in a sense. Jesus Christ came to this earth and he went to the cross and he paid for your sins and he took care of all of the work that you could never accomplish. And if you will turn to him with that humble heart before your creator and say, Jesus, I acknowledge my sin and I trust you as my Messiah, my Savior, He will save you today. And you can get up tomorrow with a whole new perspective on life. Today can be the day of salvation. Today can be day one where you learn to live well. And for the child of God that you're on the treadmill and it seems long and hard, be thankful you're on that treadmill. Because death is coming. And what that should do is motivate us to live really, really well, all to His glory. But live well, enjoy the nourishment, enjoy His provision, enjoy the relationships, and enjoy the work that He has called all of us to do. Would you bow with me as we close our time this morning? O weary child of God, Listen to these words, for whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope. There is hope today. So as you go, would you look to your Creator? Would you find joy in Him and joy in all of the good gifts that He supplies? When all the voices are so loud and say otherwise, would you let the voice of truth remind you and carry you through? Your father loves you, and he has wonderful things planned for you, so enjoy the day. Our God in heaven, In light of what we've done to you, from your first creation, Adam and Eve, and everyone since then, we're born into this world rebellious, stealing your glory, wanting to do it our own way. But in your kindness, and in your grace, God, you gave us your Son because of your loving. And you've given us this day to live, and perhaps tomorrow, So, God, as your people, while we live, I pray that we would live well. We truly would be anxious for nothing, but in everything, give thanks because this is your will for our lives. God, I pray that we would enjoy and give thanks for all the nourishment that you provide. I pray that you would help us to value and cherish relationships and we would be involved in people's lives for your glory. And I pray that we would serve you day in, day out, no matter where we work. We would do it with joy and finding our satisfaction in you and you alone. Lord, thank you for hope today. I pray that you will encourage our hearts as we go. In your holy and precious name I pray. Amen.