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Ecclesiastes Session Six 7.17.19 · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  I have the distinct privilege of speaking on the certainty of death. Ecclesiastes is a pretty heavy book, but at least we get to take a break from the heavy to talk about how we're all going to die. I took my sister Gina out to dinner with some of her friends last month to celebrate her birthday. The day before we went, Gina told her girls she was really excited to go out with all of us. Her 12-year-old Avery said, That's so fun, Mommy. You should do stuff like that more often.
• 0:32
  Then her nine-year-old Reagan chimed in, Yeah, Mommy, you never know when you're going to die, so it's important to enjoy yourself while you can. Reagan has an ecclesiastical take on life. In all seriousness, death is unfortunately a certainty of our earthly life. The preacher knew this and laments it in the passage we are studying tonight. We're going to be in chapter 9. Let's start by reading the first six verses. But all this I lay to heart.
• 1:06
  examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know. Both are before him. It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.
• 1:31
  This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished.
• 2:00
  and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. The preacher lumps every single person together in these verses. It doesn't matter what you do or say, who you are, how much you went to church, who your friends are, you will one day experience death. This is a grievous thing to the preacher. Death grieved Jesus too. Almost nine years ago, my brother Pete passed away.
• 2:29
  He would be turning 49 tomorrow if he were still with us. When that happened, I went through a season of acute grief, and I often find solace in writing. You better believe that I was writing then. I wrote something somewhat like a blog entry called, Death Sucks, Jesus Thought So Too. Here is a small excerpt from that. Death is not natural. Frankly, death sucks. We were not created to die.
• 2:58
  Death entered the world as a result of sin. When we experience the death of a loved one, we are feeling the curse in full force. We are getting a taste of the reason Jesus had to leave paradise for an imperfect world and be crucified. Jesus wept because Lazarus died. As a friend told me, the word wept in this case has two implications, deep sorrow and deep anger at the human condition.
• 3:28
  Even though he knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, he wept. Now, even though as Solomon says, we all face death on this earth, as believers we have a living hope that one day we will be alive in heaven. So that is where our similarities with non-believers end. This is why spreading the gospel to the non-believers in our life is so important. This thought has come up again and again around the table discussions.
• 3:57
  that my tables have had, and I think it's something God is really trying to impress on all of us. We need to be sharing the gospel with those around us so that we can share spiritual life. Now, when we think about the reality of death, there are many possible responses. In his book, Recovering Eden, which was recommended to me by Hallie, Zach Eslein lists several of these possible responses, and this is where your note sheets come in handy.
• 4:28
  If you would like to take notes. So, the first response that we can have to death is nihilism. Basically, that everything is meaningless. So, we throw our hands up in despair. This is the Eeyore approach. I know that Hallie mentioned Eeyore last week. And it's, you know, Eeyore builds his house out of his little sticks and they fall down. And he builds it again and they fall back down. So, it's like Eeyore is saying, everything I put together, you tear down. There's no point.
• 4:59
  But, from the same book, Eswine says that the preacher has a certain response to the nihilist. The preacher agrees with the nihilist that meaning is lost with us, but he maintains that God exists and is knowable. Therefore, purpose can be recovered, not beneath the sun, but in the one who created the sun. And that is the point. Purpose is in the one who created the sun. And like we've seen over and over again,
• 5:29
  The preacher is just fed up with the pointlessness of all of these things that he's tried, but he comes to the conclusion the purpose is the one who created the sun. For someone who is tempted to despair, a verse that came to my mind is Psalm 23, 4, which I'm sure we all know. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
• 5:58
  Yes, there are hardships under the sun, but we have God with us. Another possible approach to death would be cynicism. It's all going to end anyway, so why even try? Why even work hard? Why even be kind to anybody? It doesn't matter in the end. The preacher's response to this would be,
• 6:21
  That he agrees with the cynic that much of what we aspire to in life is nothing more than striving after wind. As we've read in Ecclesiastes, we see that phrase over and over again. Yet, relation to God and to our neighbors, for his sake, remains. There is a sadness we are meant to enter, a recovery of beauty that we are meant to long for, neighbors we are meant to stand with and love. And again, for his sake, for God's sake.
• 6:52
  Another approach, which I think is very, very, very popular in our culture, is hedonism. This is the pursuit of pleasure. You only live once. Eat, drink, and be merry. For tomorrow we die. Pleasuring ourselves is the goal of our vain lives. There's a great illustration that Eswine mentions from a book called The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
• 7:19
  Most of you know I was an English major in college, so when I got to that point, I was really excited to think about how literature and the Bible come together. If you have not read this book, it is pretty brutal, but it is a great illustration of how giving into worldly pleasures takes a toll on our souls. Because the main character, Dorian Gray, is beautiful on the outside. He is perfect, flawless, but he has a portrait hidden away.
• 7:48
  in his study, and everything he does that tarnishes his soul is reflected on that portrait. Every single thing. And that reminded me of the verse that Christ says in Mark 8, 36, for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? In that novel, Dorian Gray had everything he wanted, but he was ugly and dark. The preacher's response to the hedonist would be,
• 8:18
  That though our senses, our gifts, and pleasures bring delight, the preacher insists that there remains a difference between lust and love, between grateful receiving and greedy consuming, between sacred regard and selfish use. Self-indulgence implies that love is not required, that we need care nothing for patience, restraint, humility, and the protection of others from being treated as our property or toys.
• 8:45
  So self-indulgence would not be a good response to death. It's so selfish, but like I said, it's pretty rampant in our society. So these, the nihilist, the cynic, the hedonist, these are all kind of more secular, worldly responses to death, I'd say. But I think that there are two responses that Christians have that are really easy to fall into. And one of those is Christian pietism.
• 9:15
  Christian pietism says, attention to the physical and bodily is waste. The condition of our soul is all that matters now. I'm not sure where I read this quote, but I saw it somewhere that some people are so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good. Now, don't get me wrong. We are supposed to be eternally minded. Jesus said to store up our treasures in heaven, but we cannot be so focused on heaven that we miss out on what God is doing here.
• 9:45
  The preacher's response would be, Our impending death calls us to prayer and piety, but not in isolation from the physical provisions of God for us. Our spouses, our food, our place, our work, and our enjoyment of each are not meant to fade from view when death speaks. These are his gifts to us and not trash to be thrown in the dumpster while we carry our Bibles and sit in the alley, waiting with praise and prayer for death to come.
• 10:13
  So again, don't cast aside the gifts just because we're waiting for heaven. Another Christian approach would be Christian escapism. Now this romanticizes the vanity under the sun and puts slogans to it. Things really aren't that bad. Pain isn't warranted. Tears aren't faithful. Unfortunately, when my brother passed away, I had a lot of well-meaning people try to put a band-aid on it.
• 10:44
  with some of these Christian slogans. And I think that the Christian slogans really turn grievers off to Christianity. People raise their hands and say, why is there pain in the world? We can't stamp a Christian slogan on it. Again, we feel the curse when people around us die. The reason Christ had to come to earth for us, because of this. And so we shouldn't, when we see someone grieving, we shouldn't just try to dismiss it.
• 11:15
  We need to sit with them in that and really just say, this is hard. If you don't know what to say, just say, that's really hard. I'm so sorry. So the preacher's response to the Christian escapist would be, while the sloganeers create their Christian fortune cookies with one-sentence inspirations, the wise sit with the recipients of those fortunes and grieve with them at their tables as they grapple with the inability of such jargon to recover the Eden that we've lost.
• 11:44
  the satisfaction that our hearts pine for, or the lost nobility for which our life under the sun was made. And that statement or that phrase, to recover the Eden that we've lost, is exactly what's going on here for us when we talk about death. We know that it was meant to be different than it is now, and it's okay to recognize that. So now we've seen five ways that we should not respond to death. So what, how should we do? What should we do?
• 12:14
  Hallie touched on this last week when she talked about wisdom. What I've loved about this study is that so much of this book interweaves itself throughout each week because there are repeating themes, which is nice for us who need to hear things a few times before actually doing it. So the appropriate response to the reality of death is to enjoy life. And I don't want to throw a slogan at you.
• 12:41
  You know, a trite slogan, but I really, in studying this section, have come to that conclusion that we were made to enjoy this life because God gave it as a gift. The next few points come out of be satisfied by war and we're speed. And I think on your sheet, there are other references listed about the enjoying life that Solomon talked about, again, with the recurring themes.
• 13:11
  But where she says, don't sit around and brood, get up and live. God gives us good gifts to enjoy, so enjoy them. And while studying this, the verse, God brought John 10, 10 to mind, that says, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Now, are we living an abundant life? Again, I know that there are hardships. I know everyone is going through something at any point in life.
• 13:42
  But Christ gave us abundant life. And what's cool about that verse is that it's in the context of sheep knowing their shepherd's voice. So when we are responding to our shepherd's voice, we are going to have that abundant life. So what things do we have to enjoy? What's nice about this passage, verses 7 to 10, is that it gives us some really, really practical things that we can enjoy.
• 14:11
  So in verse 7, it says, Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. So the first thing we can enjoy is happy, leisurely meals. I don't know about you, but I love food. And we're at a Baptist church, so I'm assuming that you love food too. I've been reading a book called The Common Rule, in which Justin Early challenges us.
• 14:41
  to cultivate healthy godly habits, to enjoy life to the fullest, for the love of God and neighbor. And one of the habits that he encourages us to do is to have one meal a day with people. One meal a day, breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, but just a time around the table where you can touch base with another human being and not your cell phone, and where you can just make eye contact and talk and bond over food.
• 15:10
  Happy leisurely meals. Another one is joyful family celebrations. So in verse 8, it says, let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. I love making big deals out of birthdays and accomplishments. If you do something and you worked hard for it, you should be celebrated. I think that that's wonderful. My daughter, Jade, just had her second birthday yesterday.
• 15:37
  And we not only went out to eat once, we went twice because happy leisurely meals, celebration, we're doing it. Celebrate those small things. Philippians 4.4, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say again, rejoice. Anyway, I'll get to that later. Another thing to rejoice in is a faithful, loving marriage. Verse 9.
• 16:01
  Enjoy life with the wife whom you love and all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. I love what Ari said about how the D word is not in their house because they will make that marriage work. And if you are married, rejoice in that. Another thing to enjoy is hard work, which is kind of rough.
• 16:31
  I can't remember who it was in one of our past lessons this Summer Thrive. She said that work was part of Eden. And I was like, okay, that's true. But we can enjoy doing work. We can enjoy the mundane. There's such a difference between a day when I'm just changing diapers to change diapers or typing emails to type emails and when I invite God into those moments. Those simple, mundane tasks.
• 17:01
  are paving the way for somebody's life. And it doesn't have to be a huge thing, but we can invite God into that mundane and have joy in those little moments. And verse 10 said, Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. That also reminded me of Colossians 3.17. Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Giving thanks.
• 17:32
  To God. That you get to do that work. That you have the ability to do that work. And maybe your work serves other people. So thank God that you're able to serve people through your work. All of those things bring him honor. And the end of verse 10 is a little bit challenging. For there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shield to which you are going. I think honestly that just goes along with what Solomon is saying in verse 1 through 6. About how we all die.
• 18:02
  And when he sees that we all die, he's kind of exasperated about it and says, do what you can. So those happy leisurely meals, joyful family celebrations, a faithful loving marriage, and hard work. I know it's simple, but I think that we can all be enjoying our lives a little bit better in those ways. For me personally, I'm prone to melancholy.
• 18:30
  I often find myself dwelling on the negative things I see happening around me, to others, and to me. The injustices I witness, how people act without wisdom. Much like Solomon, I want to dwell on the evils under the sun. But the other day, the Lord struck me with the thought that things won't always be this way. My daughter Jade won't always be this little. My husband Spencer and I won't always be young. I won't always get to box with my sister.
• 19:01
  That thought, while sad, challenges me to be thankful for these precious times and try to come out of the fog of melancholy that I so easily fall into and choose to be thankful for the good things in my life. What in your life right now won't always be this way? I'll give you an easy one. It won't always be Summer Thrive. Ladies, this is my favorite Thrive Session. The chance to get together with all of you and sing together and learn together and discuss and pray for each other.
• 19:32
  just feeds my soul. As Solomon constantly reminds us, life is a vapor. The challenge to enjoy this short life God has given us does not disregard hardship or push us to forget what we have suffered, but it does say that there is a creator who knows all of the things we see and we can rejoice in the good gifts he has given us under the sun. I want to end with a poem by Mary Oliver that I think really fits in with our study. Because again,
• 20:03
  English major. The summer day. Who made the world? Who made the swan and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean. The one who has flung herself out of the grass. The one who is eating sugar out of my hand. Who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down. Who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open and floats away.
• 20:33
  I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much.
• 21:04
  for tonight, for Ari's testimony, and for the worship that we got to do together. And I pray, Lord, that if there's something that these women needed to hear tonight, that they heard it. We thank you for your goodness to us and for the gift of life that you've given us. And we do thank you that your son died for our sins so that we can have newness of life in you. We pray all this in your name. Amen.