← ArchiveEcclesiastesEcclesiastes – Living to Die (Ecclesiastes 9:1-10)DateJuly 14, 2024SpeakerAaron MeeksTextEcclesiastes 9:1–10Passages in this sermonEcclesiastes 95:36Genesis 2:1611:18Romans 3:2311:581 Corinthians 1517:14Psalms 1920:34Luke 924:11Revelation 327:17TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Music playing Music playing0:30Music playing Good morning, everybody.1:00My name is Aaron Meeks. This is Pastor Josh who has introduced me. I am one of your pastors here at this church. I work primarily with our students, which some of them are on our front row right here. And I am so thankful to bring the word to you today. So let's pray before we begin. Father, we thank you so much for the provision of your word.1:26That you have given us instructions to live by, encouragement in times of need. We thank you for every single word that you've given us, Lord. Today, allow my words to bring you glory and honor. Lord, if someone in this room that does not know you as Lord and Savior, I pray that today is the day for them. I pray this in your precious holy name. Amen. So, everywhere we look today, everywhere we look, we're always bombarded with advertisements constantly.1:56And these advertisements are trying to tell us something, to tell us to enjoy our lives. Always trying to tell us how to enjoy them. Whether it be food, drinks, TV, luxury homes, AC, because I love that this time of year, and luxury cars. Never before has comfort been more of a guarantee than we are right now in today's age.2:23No matter what number of good things we have, our human nature always has us wanting more. More, bigger, better things in this world. Especially when we're comparing to our neighbors. We're constantly being reminded by companies how to enjoy our lives. So, I'm going to go through a few of those today. We're going to have a little bit of fun before we have a really deep topic today.2:52So, as we go through these, Coca-Cola. You know, I love Coca-Cola. It's one of my favorite drinks. One of their symbols is just simply enjoy. Or enjoy the refreshment. Open happiness is one of their phrases they've used in the past. Publix. We have a few workers from Publix, one or two in the room, I think. Where shopping is a pleasure. Excellent.3:22Excellent. Okay. This is a test. Burger King. Have it your... Okay. I don't know if you guys know this one or not, but Walmart. Save money, live better. Excellent. Some of you got that. So, while they do this, especially Publix. I'm thinking about them in my mind. Oftentimes, they'll show these happy images of how life can be. But, and sometimes I'll even have kids cooking in the kitchen. And let me tell you, I have a 20-month-old.3:50It's not the case. What you see on there. But we've got to realize that they're not selling only products to us. They're trying to sell a lifestyle. And in life, everything is not as it appears on our screens. Whether it be your phone or your TV or wherever. Shopping is not always a pleasure. Just because you open a coat does not mean happiness follows through. And although you may be saving a few dollars at Walmart, that doesn't make that mean that you live better.4:18And so, today, when we read Scripture, our Scripture, where the teacher looks at death and his life, and what we can do to enjoy life despite death, the teacher is reflecting on his life and what really matters. First, we're going to read this to the lens of the world's view on death. Then, how our faith in Jesus Christ changes everything.4:47Throughout the studies of Ecclesiastes, we have followed the churchmen in a journey of reflection on what the meaning of life is. And what truly matters to us. The person writing, who is often said to be Solomon, is entering the end of his life. When we see the end of life in the old age question, we have an old age question that we ask when we see the end of life.5:09If you die today, where would you spend eternity? And that's something, a question that I've heard preachers ask over my entire life being in church. And I can still hear Billy Graham's voice in the back of my head as well saying that. So, as we go through our Scripture today, in Ecclesiastes 9, 1 through 10, we're going to be answering a lot of those questions.5:36So let's read. Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all. The righteous, the wise, and their works are in God's hands. People don't know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them. Everything is the same for everyone. There is one fate for the righteous and for 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.6:02As it is for the good, so also 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 in all that is done under the sun. There is one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil and madness in their hearts while they live, after they go to the dead.6:31But 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 reward for them, because the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate, their envy have already disappeared, and there is no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun.6:55Verse 7. 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.7:23For that is your portion in life, and in your struggle under the sun. Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going. That is a tough scripture. And so when we read these verses, it seems somewhat hopeless. The teacher addresses the idea that all mankind, both righteous and the unrighteous, will face the same fate.7:53Death. And so if you all still remain unconvinced about we're all going to die, you all pass something on the way into church today. A cemetery. This cemetery has been there for years. Some of the names are from the late 1700s to the 1800s. I'll read off a few of these. Ash, Kerr, Corson, Simpson, Foreman, and Copeland.8:23There's just a few that I passed through just earlier. Today we focus our hearts where the word leads to life and death. So verse 1 starts out with, I took it all to heart and explained it all. The following words give us examples of how people on earth are similar. We're all in God's hands, and our fate is the same. The teacher is reflecting on all this or everything.8:51Reflection is one of Yahweh's great spiritual tools in our lives. Reflection allows Christians to spend time in prayer and contemplation. Fostering a closer, more intimate relationship with God. Reflecting on personal actions and attitudes can lead to confession, repentance, and receiving God's forgiveness and grace. Reflecting on God's promises and presence can bring peace, contentment, and assurance in the midst of life's challenges.9:21Listen to Ecclesiastes' reflection. It's not only for the elderly, guys. Students, this is for y'all, too. We're not promised tomorrow. Even if you feel like death is so far away for you. Like, I kind of feel that way. I still have a 20-month-old son. But even then, we need to reflect on these things.9:48On all this. On our lives. So, I'm going to ask that question once again. You're going to hear me repeat this several times. If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity? Remember that everything is the same for everyone. We all have one faith, as we see in verse 2 and 3. And we see here in this passage that no matter what kind of life we live, what kind of job we have, or what kind of honor or position we hold,10:13this life all ends the same way. In death. Death is one of those things we can't run from. No matter what. Ecclesiastes shouts at all who listens, life is fleeting. We are all living to die. In fact, if you think about it, we all start out our lives on the path toward death.10:40Each day, each hour, and each minute, we're closer to the ultimate fate. But why? Why is death our common path? There's got to be a reason for that. To answer this, we're going to need to look where death first came into play in the scriptures. If we look at the beginning with creation that God made and sin entered into the world.11:04Death comes into the world because of the first sin of Adam and Eve. We see in Genesis 2.16 where the Bible mentions the tree of knowledge and good and evil. God commands them not to eat of it or they would surely die. He made a promise to Adam and Eve that if they obeyed his command and ate the fruit, they would surely die.11:28Satan would later use these words to confuse them. It was because sin entered into the world that death happened. It's because sin entered into your life that's why death happened. Scriptures tell us that we're all sinners and therefore we all deserve death.11:54In Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And then later in the book of Romans, we are told in chapter 6.23 that the wages of sin is death. But God doesn't want us to live eternally in the valley of the shadow of death. If we're all going to die, what's the purpose of this life? Why even try?12:23Why does it all matter? And some people take that viewpoint seriously. But also there's another one. You don't want to die. I mean, I don't want to. It's not the ultimate goal. Our world has always tried to avoid death and figure out ways to get around it. Woody Allen famously wrote, I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens. From the world's perspective, death can be intimidating. The fear of not knowing what is coming can cause uneasiness for many.12:54But no matter how much we try to avoid it, eventually death will come for us all. And throughout this sermon, I've actually had this conversation with my wife about death. It makes her uncomfortable, for one, as it does me. But in my 32 years on this earth, I have seen several of my closest friends or family die. Some were in so much pain that it was sort of a relief.13:25And some were really sudden. Many of you today have many more stories than I do about death. But there's one person in particular in my life that I wish was still here. One that I know if we could have prevented it, we would have. My father-in-law, Mark, died of COVID while on a ventilator a few years ago. And we prayed so hard for him to get well and still be here.13:51Actually, his family called other hospitals to see if they would take him. They even tried to get up patient transportation to transfer him to a better hospital. They could take him in. They tried so many things. We even created a Facebook page for prayer. But God had other plans. We wish he could still be here to see Cohen grow up. But Mark said on many occasions, when his time came to die, he knew where he would go.14:21His purpose in this life was to lead his family to Christ and allow his testimony to be used by Christ. He did that. He is one that I believe ran the race well. He wasn't perfect, but he ran the race well. God uses his life and his death for his kingdom. My father-in-law lived out an eternal truce and Ecclesiastes we read today.14:50A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. For you, the names of the loved ones that you know are different than mine. But the story remains the same. Maybe you have someone on your mind today. Whether it be a friend, a neighbor, grandparent, or even a child. Who you want nothing more than a hug one more time.15:18Or say, I love you. We may not always understand why people die before their time. Or our time. But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living. As it says in Ecclesiastes 9 and 4. Death feels final to us especially when we lose someone close to us. Death does seem like the end. But praise be to God, our father does not leave us there.15:45Embedded deep within Ecclesiastes chapter 9, the reader finds a thread that leads us to hope of resurrection. A glimmer of light that shines toward an empty tomb. Do you hear it? Do you see it? In verse 9 and 9 verse 4. But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living. Jesus died so that we could live. Jesus took our punishment for our sins so that we didn't have to experience the wrath of God of what we truly deserved.16:13Which is death. Ultimate death. In his glory and divine judgment, he sent his son to be born a virgin and go through every temptation, every sin, every human emotion, but without sin. He then died the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. He took the death sentence for us. In perfect human form, he died in our place.16:43Because of this, we can look at this scripture from a viewpoint of a believer. With Ecclesiastes, he calls, joined with the living. As followers of Christ, God has a different story for us. Let us take a minute and walk through this passage as a believer in Jesus Christ. Although we know that one day we will all leave this earth and breathe our last, for those that have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, our story does not end.17:09In 1 Corinthians 15, 55-58, death has been swallowed up in victory. And that's just because Jesus died in our place. And he rose again. We all have the same fate on this earth as stated in scriptures, but the way we spend eternity is different. For those who follow Jesus, then we are declared not guilty. Because Jesus took our place.17:40Not because of works we've done. We are seen holy, pure, sinless before the Father because Jesus bore our sins on the cross. But if we do not follow Jesus, then we are declared guilty and an enemy with God. This final part of the passage talks about enjoying this life. As believers, we are not to live despair because death is coming. We are to enjoy life because death is but a doorway to the glory of the King.18:08Even more, when we live with a heavenly perspective, it makes the pleasures of life more full. In Ecclesiastes 9, 7, Go, eat your bread with pleasure and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. As people who follow Christ, we know something that the lost and dying world after doesn't. We know that death is not to be feared or avoided.18:40We are to trust in the one who conquered death. We are to rest in the knowledge that God is in control of eternity. In verse 7, we are told, Go and eat your bread with pleasure. Let your clothes be white all the time. Never let oil be lacking in your head. Simply enjoy your life. When I think about enjoying my life, there are a few things that come to mind. One of them is the southern comfort food.19:10Fried chicken. That's right. The crunch, the juiciness, when it's cooked just right. I mean, we put honey on it. We pair it with waffles, salads, sandwiches, whatever, right? We even have restaurants dedicated to fried chicken. I'm getting hungry. I don't know about y'all. But fried chicken is heavenly good and an earthly example of how we do enjoy our food. I've enjoyed it a little too much, but that's okay.19:40The Lord has been good to me. But the Lord has commanded us to enjoy this life because God has already accepted our work. How can a holy God prejudge your works unless your sin has already been prepaid? This is the beauty of Christ's atoning work on the cross. That our sin is fully paid. We're declared not guilty.20:09Because of this glorious gospel, Christians, we are commanded to live our lives for one purpose. To bring God glory. Our lives are dedicated to bringing God glory. And everything that we do, say, we should be bringing God glory. We should take a page from the creation around us. As it says in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.20:38So as we live our lives, we should be declaring the work of God's hands. Have you ever stood at the top of a mountaintop and looked out and truly stood in awe of our creator? Maybe if you've been on an airplane, you look out at the expanse of land and sea. As Christians, we need to enjoy and view this life through the lens, the fact that we serve a sovereign God21:07who created this world. In verse 10, we see that we have a limited time here on earth. So let us do with all our strength. When reading this, we're reminded that we don't have time to waste. Seneca, who I've recently learned about, is a Roman senator. He said this, it is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is short.21:40And our days are numbered. Let us do everything to bring God glory.21:54For believers, we know there's an urgency to do the work of the Lord. The things of this world will fade away. But the kingdom will last forever and ever. If we dedicate what we do in this world to further the kingdom of God, that time, that work, I can guarantee this. It will never be wasted. If it's done for the Lord Jesus Christ, believers in this room, if it's done for him, and to bring him glory, none of that is ever wasted.22:23So here in Ecclesiastes, no matter what, if you're wise, unwise, good, wicked, clean, unclean, a worshiper, someone who's completely irreligious, everything is the same for everyone. Death. Just as we saw in the text today, no matter what lot you've been given in this world,22:53no matter how good or bad you are, death is inevitable. We all need the atoning grace that God has offered us. The only difference between those made righteous and the unrighteous, is the fact that the righteous have received the free gift of salvation by faith. I'm going to repeat that one more time because I think when we're made righteous23:21rather than we are righteous, we have to remember that's who we are. The difference between those made righteous and the unrighteous is the fact that the righteous have been given a free gift of salvation by faith. Billy Graham famously said, faith is simply trusting God enough to accept what he said. Literally.23:53Literally. Take him at his word. Trust in his word. Not even the Christian that accepts death. But for anyone in Christ Jesus, you might say that we have a unique relationship to death. For instance, let's look at Luke 9, verse 23. It's Jesus speaking. Then he said to them, if anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life24:22will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. For what does not benefit someone if he gains the whole world and yet forfeits himself? Again, our lives are not wasted when it's lived for Christ. But to truly experience abundant life, what it means to live to die, we must die to ourselves and live for Christ. This requires a deep commitment to follow Christ, no matter the cost.24:50Taking up our cross daily is essential, but we need to grasp what it truly entails for us. For the people, in the time the Bible was written, the symbol of the cross was unmistakably clear. However, in modern society, we often do not fully understand the profound implications of the cross. In Roman times, the cross was neither decorative or a piece of jewelry. You wouldn't see people walking around with that.25:20It was a symbol of criminality, suffering, and death. And so, taking up your cross means that you're called to deny or die to yourself. Become a new person. Your personal wants, desires, and pleasures in this life in order to follow Jesus. You must leave all that behind. Even if that path leads to death. I think about so many other missionaries around the world25:50that have lived this life out. Our lives must be completely devoted to God and His kingdom. The devotion means prioritizing God's will over our own.26:07embracing humility, and sometimes enduring suffering. for the sake of the gospel. Matter of fact, that's also pretty much promised in the New Testament. If you follow Christ to the fullest, you will suffer for the cause of Christ. To follow Jesus and take up your cross is to embrace a life of purpose rooted in Christ. It means allowing His love and truth to transform every aspect of our lives, guiding our actions,26:37decisions, and relationships. Ultimately, to take up your cross is to live in such a way that every part of your life is a testament to your faith in Jesus Christ. It is about being willing to face hardship, persecution, knowing that your ultimate reward is eternal life with God. In verse 8, Ecclesiastes describes the good life27:07in this way. Let your clothes be white all the time and never let your oil be lacking on your head. The teacher of the Old Testament gives us another picture of redemption, such as in Revelation 3, 4 through 5. This is part of the letter to the churches in Revelation, but you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes that they will walk with me in white because they are worthy. In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes and I will never27:36erase his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my father and before his angels. The ones who wear white are people who are truly followers of Christ, one who lives their lives for Christ, not defiled by the world. From our passage, we are reminded that we are all as followers of Christ we are to remember that we are seen holy before our father in heaven. We can live our lives to glorify God knowing we are set apart by his grace.28:04As we look, as we have looked at life and death today, I would like each one of you to think about this and contemplate and reflect on this. I'm going to ask that question one more time. If you died today, which we're all promised to die eventually, if you breathed28:34your last on this earth, where would you spend eternity? Is your name written in the Lamb's book of life? Are you clothed in white? For some of you, you say, I did that years ago. But are you living your life to glorify Christ today? And for those that haven't done that, our pastors29:05our pastors will be down front during the song and we will be ready to talk to you after the service or any of you should call up this week to the church. this question should resound in our minds all week. If you breathed your last today, where would you spend eternity? Thank you.← Previous in EcclesiastesEcclesiastes – Moderation in a Misshapen World (Ecclesiastes 7:15-20)Next in Ecclesiastes →Ecclesiastes – Wise sayings (Ecclesiastes 7:1-14)More sermons on Ecclesiastes →
