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Medical Lake Community Church
Life is fleeting and unpredictable, raising questions about what really matters when tomorrow is never guaranteed. This passage from Ecclesiastes explores the shared reality that confronts every person with a surprising response that follows. What if understanding our mortality is the very thing that frees us to receive God’s gifts and live with purpose right now?

📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/the-only-thing-we-all-have-in-common

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Transcript
00:00Well, this was a hard week, wasn't it?
00:02This was a hard week.
00:04I was reminded this week how short life is.
00:12We know Tuesday afternoon, two Spokane County deputies were called out to a domestic abuse.
00:20And both of them were shot.
00:22And the sad thing is, when we get back to the deputies,
00:25we actually know the family where this took place at.
00:30They're part of Four Lakes Community Church.
00:32So, we have a connection to them as well.
00:35And two of them are dead.
00:41The first deputy that died, I don't know if you remember, Paul Carroll.
00:45Paul and Sandra Carroll, they were part of the congregation, moved to Tennessee.
00:48Paul worked with this first deputy, the first man who died.
00:51He worked with him when the man was a cadet.
00:53And Paul assured us this man was a believer.
00:56That lessens a little bit the grief that we have here.
00:59And I'm understanding that the second deputy has also died.
01:06Life is so brief.
01:07It is so short.
01:10We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring to us.
01:13It is a vapor.
01:17I mean, I've been in the hospital in the past before.
01:20And the doctor comes in to talk to the person that I know.
01:25And the doctor's talking to the person.
01:27And the doctor's, you know, talking hard words to the person.
01:31They're not in a good place.
01:33And medically.
01:34And he's saying hard words to the person.
01:36And I can see it in their eyes the moment they realize their mortality, that they may die soon.
01:44You can see it in their eyes.
01:46It's like a revelation.
01:47They can see it.
01:48They recognize, perhaps, for one of the first times that life is really short.
01:57It's a vapor.
02:00In the text that we're going to look at today, in Ecclesiastes chapter 9, Solomon shares with us what we
02:07all have in common in the first part of the text.
02:10And then the last part of the text is how we ought to respond to that truth.
02:15So, that's how basically the text is laid out.
02:17He tells us what we all have in common and then how you and I ought to respond to that
02:22truth that we all share in common right here.
02:25You can put it like this.
02:26That life is temporary.
02:29It flees like a vapor.
02:31So, live life every day to the fullest for this is the gift of God.
02:36It doesn't matter if you're 15 or 90.
02:41Life is short.
02:44You know, sometimes our minds are always off into the future, thinking about stuff that's coming up that we often
02:53forget to live in the present.
02:56I mean, I'm a planner.
02:57I like to plan things I give in the morning.
02:59I have a list of things I'm going to do.
03:00It drives my wife crazy.
03:01She's not like that.
03:02That's me.
03:03I've got a list and I want to follow my list because there are all these things I need to
03:06do in the future that sometimes I forget to live in the moment.
03:10That my mind is somewhere else.
03:12Why do we do that?
03:13Maybe I'm the only one.
03:16Okay, thank you.
03:19So, we want to look at who wrote the book and why he wrote it.
03:22Just briefly.
03:23I mean, Andy talked a little bit about it.
03:24He did a great job a couple of weeks ago talking about the passage out of Ecclesiastes he was preaching
03:28on.
03:28But let's go back if you want to.
03:30It's going to be up on the screen or you can go back to your Bibles.
03:32Either one.
03:32Chapter 1 of Ecclesiastes.
03:34And we're going to find out who wrote it and why he wrote it.
03:37Why he wrote it.
03:39So, the text says the words of the preacher, the teacher, koleth in Hebrew, koleth, you're going to see that
03:46one of the quotes that's coming up.
03:47The teacher, the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, Solomon is who we're talking about.
03:52Son of David, Solomon.
03:54So, he says, vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
04:00He doesn't mean it's meaningless.
04:02He's simply saying it's temporary.
04:04Temporary.
04:04It's fleeting.
04:06Everything is.
04:07Whether that's health or youth or life, it's fleeting.
04:12It's a vapor.
04:13It's here today and gone tomorrow.
04:14It's not that it's meaningless.
04:16It's just temporary.
04:18It's not lasting.
04:19What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
04:24So, that's a key phrase for the book, under the sun.
04:26So, he's showing us life lived under the sun, not above the sun in the heavenly realm, but life on
04:32earth.
04:32Humans, us living on earth, under the sun.
04:36A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
04:41However, so Solomon, one of the wisest, Jesus is the wisest, but one of the wisest, second wisest man who
04:48ever lived, at least we're told in the scripture, gives us some help to understand certain things.
04:53Helps us to understand that life is temporary.
04:55It is short.
04:57It is not lasting.
04:58It is a vapor.
04:59You say, well, I'm 90 years old.
05:01That's great.
05:03But in reference to eternity, that's just a vapor.
05:08It's just a vapor.
05:12The only thing that's eternal is God, who is above the sun in this book.
05:18He's the eternal one that we are to fix ourselves on.
05:20He's the one that's lasting and eternal and permanent.
05:23Everything under the sun is temporary.
05:26It's fleeting.
05:27It's a vapor.
05:30So, look with me on something that we all, all humans, not just believers, but all humans share in verses
05:371 through 6.
05:38This is the same faith for all human beings, verses 1 through 6.
05:43But all this I laid to heart, and we're going to talk about what all this I laid to heart
05:47was.
05:47That's at the end of chapter 8.
05:48We'll talk about that in just a second.
05:51But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are
05:59in the hand of God.
06:00That's a little clue that he wants us to pay attention to.
06:04They're in God's hand.
06:06Whether it is love or hate, whether God shows his favor on a person or doesn't show his favor on
06:11a person, man does not know.
06:12Both are before him.
06:14We kind of see things not clearly often.
06:17Verse 2,
06:18It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and to the wicked, to the
06:26good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean.
06:29You see these dichotomies, these antithetical statements, one side and the other.
06:34To him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice.
06:38As the good one is, so is the sinner.
06:40And he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.
06:44This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all.
06:51The same event happens to all.
06:53Also, the hearts of the children under man are full of evil.
06:56And madness is in their hearts while they live.
07:00And after that, they go to the dead.
07:03But he who is joined with all the living has hope.
07:07For a living dog is better than a dead lion.
07:11For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing.
07:16And they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
07:21Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished because they're dead.
07:26And forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
07:29So, the dichotomy is alive and death.
07:31Alive and death is what's going on here.
07:34He starts off with the hand of God to remind us that God is sovereign in all of the actions
07:38that's going on in his universe.
07:40He is sovereign.
07:41He is the king.
07:41He is the ruler.
07:42Everything is in the hand of God.
07:44Nothing is outside of the hand of God.
07:46Everything is in the hand of God.
07:48It speaks about everything in God's control.
07:50Proverbs 21 says,
07:52The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord.
07:56He turns it wherever he will.
07:58God is sovereign in all of these events.
08:01God is sovereign.
08:03It's in his hand.
08:04And then he talks about, you know, I could look at one person and see adversity happen to that person.
08:09I could look at another person and see prosperity happen to that person.
08:12But I can't tell by just looking at adversity and prosperity whether God favors that person or whether God doesn't
08:19favor that person.
08:20Because we know that good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.
08:26So, I can't tell just by looking at somebody and I shouldn't make a judgment about just looking at someone
08:30when God favors them because they're suffering adversity.
08:33I mean, they're suffering prosperity or whether God doesn't favor them because they're in adversity.
08:37So, don't go there is what he's basically saying.
08:39We just can't tell.
08:41We can't tell.
08:43Love or hate, we don't know.
08:45So, don't judge the person because they're sufferings.
08:48Hell, you must have done something wrong because you're suffering.
08:51God's favor must not be resting upon you.
08:53We have no way of knowing that.
08:54So, don't go there is what he said.
08:56Ecclesiastes 8, he says this.
08:58This is what he was considering.
09:01There is a vanity that takes place, an emptiness, in this case an emptiness, a fleeting thought that takes place
09:07on earth.
09:08That there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked.
09:12So, good people have bad things happen to them.
09:15And there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous.
09:18And there are bad people that good things happen to them.
09:21And I said that this is also vanity.
09:23I can't tell by just looking at a person whether God favors them or not.
09:26And I shouldn't do that.
09:27I shouldn't go there is what he's saying, basically.
09:30Sometimes the righteous suffer adversity and the wicked suffer prosperity.
09:34And just looking at a person, we can't tell.
09:38Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.
09:41And all God is sovereign.
09:43That's the thought we made.
09:44All God is sovereign.
09:46We are not masters of our own fate.
09:50God is ultimately in control.
09:52Everything is in his hand.
09:54Now, the one thing both the wicked and the righteous share in common is death.
10:00The same event happens to both.
10:02We all join the dead and you're going, Pastor Mark, you're bumming me out here.
10:06This is not exciting stuff.
10:08Just wait.
10:09This is a reality.
10:10He's showing us the reality.
10:12Then he's telling us how we're supposed to respond to the reality.
10:15The same event happens to all.
10:16If Jesus tarries and doesn't take us home in the rapture, we are all going to go the way of
10:21the dead.
10:21We're going to join the dead.
10:24The same event happens to all.
10:27This event, this occurrence happens without a person deciding or assisting in the event.
10:33It just happens.
10:34It happens.
10:36Thomas Boston's remark, death is an exonerable, irresistible messenger who cannot be diverted from executing his orders.
10:43Not by the force of the mighty, the bribes of the rich, nor the entreaties of the poor.
10:48The same event happens to us all.
10:50And it's evil.
10:51It's an evil event.
10:53Death is evil.
10:54It was not.
10:55Every time I do a funeral, I remind myself, this is not the way it's supposed to be.
11:00We were created to live with him in paradise in the garden forever.
11:04Death was not part of the scenario until we rebelled against him and death entered into the human race.
11:10It's not as it ought to be.
11:13It's an evil thing, death is.
11:17It doesn't matter.
11:18I mean, we're not saying it doesn't matter whether you're righteous or wicked.
11:20That's not what he's saying at all.
11:22It's just that the same thing happens to both people, righteous and the wicked.
11:26He gives this overview statement of all of these alls.
11:29I mean, there's six of them.
11:30He makes these comparisons.
11:32The list of polar opposites.
11:34It's righteous and the wicked, good and the evil, clean and the unclean, the person who offers sacrifice, the person
11:40who does not offer sacrifice, good person and the sinner, the person who swears an oath and the person who
11:45doesn't swear.
11:45He's just showing these polar opposites.
11:48Whether you do these, the same event happens to all of us.
11:52We're going to join the dead.
11:53You're still bumming me out, Pastor Mark.
11:55You're still bumming me out here.
11:58This evil, this death that has come into the human race, it's evil.
12:01And Jesus has conquered death, his resurrection.
12:05He gives us his resurrection life.
12:07And our bodies may go into the ground, but we will never die eternally.
12:11We will be with him forever as his people.
12:14He has conquered death.
12:15However, we know our physical bodies will join the dead sometime if he doesn't come and rapture us out of
12:20here.
12:22I mean, a living dog, he says, is better than a dead lion.
12:25I mean, dogs were despicable creatures in the Near East, where a lion is a noble creature.
12:30Better to have a despicable creature alive than something dead.
12:33Why?
12:33Because the living knows certain things and can do certain things.
12:37Once you're dead, you can't change your fate at that point.
12:39Nothing changes when you're dead.
12:42So, a living dog is better than a dead lion.
12:44In one of the Phoenix comic scripts, Snoopy said this,
12:48I don't know what that verse means, but I agree with it.
12:52A living dog is better than a dead lion.
12:54I agree with it.
12:55He's just making a contrast.
12:57If you're still alive, things can change.
13:00Once you die, everything's over.
13:02It's set.
13:03It's sealed.
13:07Someone who dies unredeemed has no hope.
13:09But as long as you're alive, even the wicked have hope of being redeemed.
13:13But once you die, there is no hope.
13:14Things don't change after your death.
13:16You can't just magically say, I want to believe in Jesus after I die.
13:19Your fate is fixed.
13:21So, we all share a common destiny on earth, and that is death.
13:26However, we do not all share a common destiny in eternity.
13:32If you're not born again, we don't share, you and I don't share that destiny.
13:35If you're not saved, we don't share a common destiny.
13:38We all may share a common destiny in death, but in eternity, if you don't know Jesus Christ
13:42as your Savior, you and I don't share a common destiny.
13:45So, I need to ask you, do you know Christ as your Savior today?
13:47Have you been born again?
13:50Have you realized your utter sinfulness in the face of a holy God, and you confess your
13:57sins and repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ?
14:00Have you been born again?
14:02I want you to share that destiny with me.
14:05See, the advantage of the living over the dead is that they know they're going to die.
14:11You say, whoa, what kind of advantage is that?
14:14I don't understand that.
14:15I mean, the advantage of the living is that they know they're going to die, for we all
14:19know we're going to go to the same.
14:20How is that an advantage?
14:22Why would that be a good thing to know that I'm going to die?
14:26Well, if you go back to chapter 7 in Ecclesiastes, he tells us that exact thing.
14:30He tells us why it's a good thing that we understand that death is common to all.
14:34Chapter 7, verse 1, a good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death
14:39than the day of birth.
14:41It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this
14:46is the end of all mankind, death.
14:49And the living will lay it to heart.
14:51We'll see that person that has died, and we'll lay it to heart and realize one day,
14:54unless Jesus comes out, we're going to be right there, in a casket, right there.
15:00We'll lay it to heart.
15:02Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face, the heart is made glad.
15:08Our wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
15:15It's good to know that we're going to die, because now we can change today.
15:19Because once you're dead, you can't change it.
15:21Nothing changes after you're dead.
15:24There was a, in Ipswich, Massachusetts, there's a grave epitaph, and it's from Sarah Frisbee.
15:31She died in 1827.
15:33And on the stone, these are the words,
15:36Children of dust, who read with pensive eye,
15:39This lettered stone where mortal relics lie,
15:44Think as you sigh, because they live no more.
15:47Soon you shall drop, and be what you deplore.
15:52Take it to heart, the living.
15:54Take it to heart.
15:56Acknowledge it, because it can alter what happens today.
16:01See, the only way to live life fully is to be prepared to die.
16:07Can't live life fully.
16:11So we need to reckon with the reality of death while we are living.
16:17The dead cannot do this because they're dead.
16:19So we have to think about it.
16:21We have to realize it's a good thing that I understand that I'm going to die.
16:26It's a good thing for me to do that, because I can alter what's happening in my life today.
16:30And that's the second half of the passage where we're going to talk about there.
16:33He tells us what we have in common, but he tells us how to respond to that.
16:39Death is an appointment that all people must keep.
16:42You can't run away from death.
16:45When God says, this is it, this is your last breath, he is sovereign.
16:49He may do that.
16:50Death comes.
16:53It's appointed to us.
16:54In fact, Hebrews 9 says, just as it's appointed for man once to die, and after that comes judgment.
17:00And then he says, and most people will be for the memory of them is forgotten.
17:06It's forgotten.
17:07I am not arrogant enough to think in a hundred years, people will even remember my name.
17:12They won't.
17:13I know they won't.
17:14They may find some reference to a Mark Hudson in connection with Medical Aid Community Church
17:18and some of our paperwork upstairs, but my name will not, they will not remember me.
17:22And I'm okay with that.
17:23Most of us will be forgotten.
17:26Mark Twain said shortly before his death, a myriad of men are born.
17:30They labor and sweat and struggle.
17:33They squabble and scold and fight.
17:35They scramble for little mean advantages over each other.
17:40Age creeps upon them.
17:42And they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence, a world which will lament
17:47them a day and forget them forever.
17:51The memory is forgotten.
17:53So, we ought to do something today if that's going to be forgotten in the future.
18:00Since we know that death is coming for all, we must take the advice that Moses, the great
18:05Moses gave to us in Psalm 90 when he was talking about this very thing.
18:09He says, so teach us to number our days.
18:12I have just a finite number of days.
18:15They're known to God alone.
18:16I don't know what they are.
18:17Why?
18:18That I may get a heart of wisdom.
18:21It's the same thing that Solomon is saying is, understand you're going to die so that you
18:31don't want to die so that you don't want to die so that you don't want to die.
18:33Humans fill their lives with the distractions of a thousand passions and squander what little
18:38time they have to immediate but insignificant worries.
18:43The possession of the knowledge to know that we're going to die is a great advantage for
18:48living today.
18:50See, I'm still bummed out.
18:51Okay, let's change that point of view.
18:54Now, the reality is we all share the common fate.
18:57One day we'll go the way of the dead.
18:59However, he concludes with how we're supposed to respond to that.
19:03Look at verses 7 through 10.
19:05How should we respond to this truth that we're all going to go the way of the dead someday?
19:09Look at verses 7 through 10.
19:12So, what's he tell us to do?
19:13He starts off with a command.
19:15Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart.
19:21For God has already approved what you do.
19:26The gracious God who gives good gifts has given gifts for us, daily provisions for us,
19:30and he approves of it.
19:32That's why we're able to enjoy them.
19:34Let your garments be always white.
19:37Let not oil be lacking on your head.
19:41Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your fleeting, not meaningless, not
19:48empty, but fleeting temporary life.
19:50It's not going to last long that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion
19:57in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
20:02Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
20:07Jump in and do it.
20:08For there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, that's the realm of the
20:13dead, to which you are going.
20:16Today, do it.
20:17You can't do it when you get into the realm of the dead.
20:20So, he gives us this common fate, but then he tells us, what are we supposed to do with
20:24it?
20:24What are we supposed to do with it?
20:26Solomon obviously prefers life over death.
20:29Yes, he does.
20:30But what are we supposed to do with it?
20:31See, those who are alive have the capacity for enjoyment, but the dead do not.
20:36And those who are alive have the capacity of fruitful labors, but the dead do not.
20:42Donald Glynn said this, God has already approved your work.
20:45What does that mean?
20:46Means that possessing God's gifts and the ability to enjoy them evidence God's prior
20:51approval that one can do so.
20:53If God had not approved the gifts, one could not enjoy them.
20:56In other words, God has given us good gifts.
20:59And we're to enjoy those good gifts that he's given.
21:01He approves those good gifts that he's given to us.
21:03He approves of them.
21:05The bread and the wine, they speak of the daily food.
21:08Remember, we're supposed to pray in the Lord's prayer, pray for our daily food.
21:14There's symbols also of joy and life as well as our daily needs.
21:18God has provided for us for our daily needs.
21:20Rejoice in that.
21:21Enjoy that.
21:23Go.
21:24Eat your bread with joy.
21:27Drink your wine with a merry heart.
21:29Go.
21:31In Psalm 104, we read this.
21:34You cause, speaking of God, you cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man
21:39to cultivate.
21:39So, he provides grass for the livestock that we may eat and plants for man to cultivate
21:46of crops we will eat that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the
21:51heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart.
21:57This grain and wine were seen as a blessing from God's daily provision for us.
22:02Go enjoy them today.
22:04Enjoy what God has provided for your daily provisions.
22:08Enjoy them today.
22:09They may not be exactly what you want.
22:11You may want a T-bone steak and all you're getting is ground beef.
22:17I don't know.
22:17But whatever it is, enjoy it because God has provided for you.
22:23Genesis 27, may God give you the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of
22:29grain and wine.
22:30They're seen as a blessings from God, God's daily provisions.
22:34Now, obviously, Solomon is not talking about drunkenness.
22:37That's condemned in the Bible throughout.
22:38That's not what he's talking about.
22:40He's not talking about getting overly consuming wine, abusing the good gifts that God has given
22:44us.
22:44That's not what he's talking about at all, of course.
22:46Cannot say that.
22:48He's talking about enjoying God's gifts to you.
22:51He supplied them for you to enjoy, not to abuse.
22:55Be thankful for his daily provisions.
22:58Go eat it with joy.
23:00And then he talks about a merry heart.
23:02A merry heart.
23:03It's going to pop up here.
23:04It's also a good heart or a joyous heart.
23:07Often, or a couple of times in the Old Testament, the word merry is used as a person who is
23:11drunk.
23:11He had a merry heart and it's obviously that he's drunk.
23:14That's not the word right here.
23:15This is a different word.
23:16It means a good heart or a joyous heart.
23:19A heart that's full of joy or a heart that seeks the good things of God.
23:22That's the idea.
23:23A merry heart.
23:26Back in Ecclesiastes chapter 5, he said this,
23:28Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all
23:36the toil with which one toils under the sun, the few days of his life that God has given
23:41to him.
23:41For this is his lot.
23:43This is his portion.
23:44This is what God has given to us.
23:47Joy, a joyful heart.
23:49Joy is a fruit of the spirit.
23:51As the spirit dwells within us and we consume the word of God and we understand what God
23:55says about us and about this world and how we're to walk, it produces a joy in our heart.
24:02God is the foundation, obviously, and ultimately in communion with God, if we find true joy in
24:08communion with God, it's not dependent upon external circumstances.
24:12So, what he's basically saying, your heart, your inner person, the person you are inside that God
24:17is changing and molding and conforming to the image of his son, your inner man, may that inner
24:23man be full of joy.
24:25May your heart just be full of joy.
24:27May it be a good heart that focuses on the good things of God.
24:31Be full of joy.
24:32Go and do that.
24:34Yes, you will, but go today and enjoy it.
24:37The daily provision God has given to you.
24:41Proverbs 17, 22.
24:43A joyful heart is good medicine.
24:47It's medicine to us, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
24:53So, be thankful for God's daily provisions and enjoy them.
24:56Don't abuse them.
24:57Enjoy them.
24:58He's given them to us for an enjoy today, not in the future, today.
25:03Enjoy them.
25:05White garments, oil, symbols of festivity and joy.
25:08Again, joy comes back up again.
25:10Oil on the head is joy of gladness, oil of gladness.
25:13And festivities with white garments.
25:16Psalm 23, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
25:20You anoint my head with oil.
25:23My cup overflows.
25:24I mean, I got more than I need, God.
25:25You have poured your blessings upon me.
25:27I've got my cup overflows.
25:28I got more than I need.
25:31So, we say unto us this.
25:34We must make every occasion a joyous occasion.
25:39A joyous occasion.
25:42And I say to, to us, today, make many memories.
25:50Make many memories.
25:53Enjoy today.
25:55You may plan for the future.
25:56I do.
25:57It's okay.
25:58But don't forget, we are to live today.
26:00When you talk about festivities and joy, it's usually involving other people, right?
26:05Rarely do you go to a room all by yourself and say, woo, yeehaw, I'm throwing a party.
26:09I mean, typically, you have a bunch of other people around you, right?
26:11Thanksgiving, Christmas.
26:13Festivity is a joyful event we share in relationship with other people.
26:18So, he's talking about being in relationship with other people as well.
26:22It's about relationships.
26:23As we gather together with people in festival gatherings, make it a joyous occasion and make many memories.
26:29Fill your phone up with photos that you run out of iCloud storage.
26:33Make many memories today.
26:39Because we don't know what the future brings, whether adversity or prosperity in light of what certainty of death.
26:46Solomon tells us to enjoy life today while it's here because it's God's good gift to you.
26:52So, again, in Ecclesiastes chapter 3,
26:56I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as
27:01they live.
27:02Also, that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all of his toil.
27:06This is God's gift to man.
27:10It's a gracious gift.
27:12Enjoy today.
27:13Make many memories.
27:15Roland Murphy says,
27:16This can only refer to divine largesse, God's goodness.
27:20Not only to the unbeliever, he gives them sunshine and rain for the crops to grow and unbelievers as well.
27:26But this is God's large, divine largesse.
27:28The divine pleasure is manifested in that one is enjoying these gifts that qualif,
27:33that's the word teacher in Hebrew, so that just means teacher, preacher, is recommending.
27:37However, they are not earned, for humans have no claim on them.
27:40They depend on the inscrutable will and generosity of God.
27:43These are God's good gifts to us.
27:46Today is God's gift to us.
27:49May your heart be full of joy as you gather together with other people in relationship
27:54in a festive gathering, making so many memories that you can talk about them in the future.
28:01We must stop worrying about future events that we can't alter
28:04and be giving, living each day to its fullest.
28:09See, when I taught through this many, many years ago,
28:11I can't even remember what year it was.
28:12As we talked through the book of Gillesiastes, it was life-changing for me.
28:16I was a young pastor in the church.
28:18I hadn't been here too long.
28:19And when you're new to stuff, you got to try to figure everything out.
28:22And there was a lot of stuff I was trying to figure out still.
28:24And things, the fires I had to put out over here, fires over there I had to put out.
28:28Fixing stuff.
28:29And so, my mind was always on, how can I make the church successful?
28:33So, I would sit at the dinner table with my mind on that thought over there,
28:38eat dinner with my kids, who were growing up, they're young at the time,
28:41and not really say anything to them.
28:44Because I'm thinking about this stuff over here.
28:47And I thought later on as I went through this, I thought,
28:49did my kids ever think I was mad at them?
28:52You know how a parent will sit at the table and not say anything,
28:54and the kid's going, are they mad at me?
28:55And I thought, did my kids think I was mad at them or something?
28:58Because I never talked?
28:59Because I was thinking about, I wasn't living in the moment?
29:02And I asked them as an adult, and I'm so grateful they said,
29:06no, Dad, we didn't think that.
29:07I mean, they could have.
29:09Because I wasn't there.
29:11I wasn't present with them.
29:12I was somewhere else.
29:14And that's the danger for us.
29:17We have to be present.
29:18Now, here.
29:20Here.
29:23And everything we do, we do to the glory of God.
29:26Colossians 3.17.
29:28And whatever you do in word or deed,
29:30do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
29:32giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
29:35See, it is our Father, our God, His will,
29:40that we enjoy life.
29:42That's His will.
29:43It's His gift to us that we enjoy today.
29:47Today, making memories with people and relationship of festivities and joy and gladness
29:52with a merry heart that's full of good things thinking about God and joy.
29:58Today, it's an imperative.
30:01It's a command.
30:02Back to Ecclesiastes chapter 2.
30:05There is nothing better for a person that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toll.
30:11There's nothing better than that.
30:13This also, I say, is from the hand of God.
30:15God gives it to us.
30:17For apart from Him, who can eat or who can have an enjoyment.
30:20Apart from God, who is sovereign, we have nothing.
30:22He gives us all of these good gifts to enjoy today.
30:27Today, in the present.
30:31Talks about marriage.
30:32Enjoy life with a wife whom you love.
30:35He's talking about a marriage that's full of love.
30:39That's a lifelong marriage.
30:41That's monogamous.
30:42It's about the joy of two people being bound together in the covenant of marriage and everything
30:48that means in that relationship of a husband and wife.
30:50Enjoy it.
30:51Enjoy it.
30:55Proverbs 18.22.
30:57He who finds a wife finds a good thing.
31:00It's a good thing.
31:01Now, I know that some people are given the gift of not marrying.
31:06I understand that.
31:07God gives that gift.
31:08I get that.
31:09However, it's a good thing.
31:11Who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.
31:15See, more and more people seem to forget Henry Ford's advice when he was asked on his 50th
31:20wedding anniversary how he made it so long, 50 years in a marriage.
31:24We have often forgotten his advice.
31:26His advice was simply this.
31:28Just the same one as the automobile business.
31:31Stick to one model.
31:35We forget that.
31:37So enjoy that relationship that God has brought you together in a covenant of marriage and
31:43enjoy that together.
31:45It's to be a time of blessing, not contention.
31:48Enjoy it.
31:49Enjoy it.
31:51Live your moment, life moment by moment with a spouse or without a spouse because life is
31:57short.
31:57Life is short.
31:59It is a vapor.
32:03And then he says, whatever you set your hands to do, what you purpose in your heart to do,
32:09what you set your hands to do, those, whatever those is that we purpose must ultimately glorify
32:15God.
32:15It's not about self.
32:16It's about God.
32:17Okay?
32:17They must ultimately glorify God.
32:19First Corinthians 10 31, we know this.
32:21So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
32:25So we understand whatever we set our hand to do has to glorify God.
32:28It's not about us.
32:29It's about him.
32:30We got that.
32:32Because when death comes, there's no longer an opportunity to set our hand to anything
32:36because we're dead.
32:37All of our opportunities are gone when we're dead.
32:39But now, today, our opportunities abound for us.
32:44So Solomon is advising us to live life intensely.
32:47Do whatever you are able to do.
32:51Do not procrastinate.
32:54Do it today.
32:56Whatever you set your hand to do, do it now.
32:58Do it today.
32:58Do it all to the glory of God.
33:00And don't put it off until tomorrow.
33:01Do it today.
33:03And do it with gusto, full passion.
33:06He wants us to seize the opportunities while we're alive.
33:09Because death ends our opportunities in this life.
33:11We have no more opportunities to serve, to love, to grow, to have festive vacations with
33:16friends.
33:19Death ceases all of that.
33:21And Paul told the Galatians, so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone.
33:26And today, we have opportunity.
33:27When we're dead, we have no more opportunity.
33:29And especially to those who are of the household of faith.
33:33So even though we know that death is coming for us all, we don't sit around passively,
33:37oh, I'm so sad.
33:38No.
33:39Live life to the fullest today.
33:43Enjoy what God has given to you.
33:44Yes, we're all going to go the way of the, we're all going to join the dead unless Jesus
33:47comes in rapture.
33:48I understand that.
33:50However, Solomon says, that's a truth.
33:52But how do we respond to it?
33:54Live life today intensely.
33:57Live it intensely.
33:59Because every gift that God has given us are good gifts from the Father of lights.
34:04James tells us, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from
34:09the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning, which God never
34:13changes.
34:13He gives good gifts to His people.
34:15He actually gives good gifts to humanity.
34:18He gives the sunshine and the rain so that crops can grow.
34:21So it's not just to the believers.
34:23He's a God that gives good gifts.
34:26So we need to reckon with the reality of death so that we can embrace life today and everything
34:34that God has given us.
34:37So He says to us, pursue life moment by moment, for your life is a vapor.
34:43However, it's temporary.
34:46It is really short.
34:48Do it today.
34:52We need to reckon with that.
34:55We've heard this phrase before, but in a spiritual sense, in a true godly sense, not as it's used
35:00normally, in the true spiritual godly sense, He's basically saying, carpe diem.
35:06Carpe, that's right.
35:07Now, in a holy godly sense, not in a selfish sense, not in a selfish sense, make the most
35:13of today.
35:14Enjoy the present, is what He's telling us.
35:17And do it all for the glory of God.
35:21So two things, again, very simple, which is exactly what we covered.
35:24Life is a vapor.
35:25It comes and goes so quickly.
35:28Reckon with your mortality, number your days, that you may get a heart of wisdom.
35:33So it's a good thing to know that we're going to die.
35:35It's not a bad thing, because we can change the way we live today.
35:39Two, again, enjoy daily all of God's good gifts to us, pursuing life moment by moment,
35:47making many memories, and doing all for the glory of God.
35:51It's really heavy up front, but the backside is, enjoy life today with all of the good gifts
36:00God has given to us.
36:01Let's pray.
36:02Thank you, Father, for providing.
36:04You are sovereign.
36:05You've provided all of these things for us.
36:07And we understand, whether we're young or whether we're old, we don't know when we
36:11will take our final breath.
36:13That's the importance of understanding that I'm going to die, is that I'm going to alter
36:17the way I live today, because I know I'm going to die.
36:20And all of my opportunities and all the things I want to do after I die, I can't do.
36:25So I understand that.
36:27But I thank you for just a reminder for people like me, who get caught up so much into the
36:33future and planning that forget the present.
36:36I need to hear this.
36:38I need to understand moment by moment.
36:40I need to live my life for your glory, enjoying your good gifts with my heart that is, that's
36:47directed towards you and full of joy, making so many memories together with relationships
36:53of people whom I love, whom I desire to be around.
36:57So thank you, Father, for the reminder to me, I need it, that life is short.
37:04It's just temporary.
37:07Enjoy your good gifts today.
37:10We pray in Jesus' name.
37:12Amen.

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