The Good Life

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 56

Psalm 56 ESV

To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

Scripture Reading: Romans 12:9-13

Romans 12:9–13 ESV

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Sermon

Well once again, and as always, Good Morning Church! I was truly glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

At the beginning of this year we started a series through what is largely considered the most depressing book of the Bible. And here we are in sermon 18 in that series, and I am happy to tell you that, for the most part, Solomon is going to be turning the page. Form here on out while still not being the overly bubbly giddy happy friend, he will stop being the super depressed and gloomy one! So at least that is improvement.

And he does this by sharing with us more of what we talked about a few weeks ago in “practical wisdom”. And here, in the passage that we will be looking at today, practical wisdom in how we ought to live and importantly, ENJOY our lives.

Solomon has spent over 9 chapters telling us why life is vain, and pointless, and difficult and now it is as if he is challenging us. The particular challenge is important here. For those of us who came to Grace Group we got to talk about this a bit. The argument goes a bit like this:

Life is hard, life is difficult, like we said two weeks ago, the world is so broken that we look around and it feels like all we see is bad things happening to good people and good things happening to bad people. But what are you going to do about it? Well, you can get depressed, or angry, or mopey… or you can trust the Lord. And trusting the Lord comes with it’s own advantages, and THAT is what he will encourage us with today.

So with that being said lets dive into our passage for today, a bit of a shorter one, Ecclesiastes 9:7-10

Ecclesiastes 9:7–10 ESV

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, 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. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning, Lets begin with a word of Prayer

Our Father In Heaven, Holy, and righteous is your great name. We are grateful for today. Another day that you have made that we can rejoice and be glad in it. Thank you for your grace and mercy, that you for every good and perfect gift that you have given to us. you have been god to us and for that we are thankful. thank you for your son, thank you for the gift of the Spirit, our comforter. and we thank you for your word. Given that we might know you and hear from you. We ask that you would meet with us this morning. Empower us to see clearly all the good things that you have blessed us with. Help us to live in that. it is in Jesus name that we pray. AMEN

If I had to summarize, this passage… Even more, if I had to give you like a one word summary, what would It be. I have a pastor friend who he talks about any sermon you have should have... he calls it “The 2 A.M summary.” This is how this works. You know, I'm laying in bed, Desiree. Wakes me up at 2 A.M. She's like, just curious. What are you preaching on tomorrow morning? What answer would I give what's the 2 am answer? The half asleep shortest answer i can give without taking off the CPAP and fully waking up… What's this about? What's this passage is 2 am answer. Well, it's a principle. And the principle he wants us to do. It's to live with joy.

The Principle: JOY

The principle, or the thought that what ties this passage and what motivates us as we go through the end now of Ecclesiastes is to have joy.

It showed up multiple times in this passage, we eat our bread with joy. We drink our wine with a merry heart, that’s the same thought — a merry heart, That's joyful. We enjoy life with our wives, that’s verse 9. We are called here in this passage to have joy. Solomon is telling us have joy. And this is why the book of Ecclesiastes is so beautiful: there's no “but wait Solomon” that we could bring up that he has not already covered in this book. Nothing we could say would counter him telling us to have joy.

He's saying have joy — but Solomon isn't life pointless. Yeah, I know have joy. He tells us to have joy, but Solomon, isn't it Difficult? don't bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people? Yeah... Have Joy. Okay Solomon. But isn't life Vain and toilsome and Troublesome? Yeah, Have joy. The principle he's giving us here.

This is the challenge that I started with. Your options are: 1) life is hard complain about it or 2) Life is hard, have joy. and Solomon says have joy. It's better. If you have joy life's more meaningful. If you have joy the sun shines brighter. When you have joy life has meaning and purpose and goodness.

It is better to have Joy. Just like wisdom was better than Folly. Joy is better. So, be filled with Joy. There's a new testament principle that sort of ties along with this. When Jesus is talking on The Sermon on the Mount. He says, don't worry. Which of You by worrying is going to add a single minute to your life. Jesus is just saying there's no use in worrying, it doesn't do anything for you. This is almost the opposite if bad things are happening to everyone. So have joy, May the joy of the Lord, be your strength. Joy will get you through it and stress will not help you at all… As you go through trials, and you go through life and things are happening And you're going through this or going through that… Be joyous.

But it's a particular type of joint. It's not a it's not just a blind joy. It's not an ignorant Joy... There's a phrase we have. “What I don't know won't hurt me.”’ And the heart behind that phrase is yeah, but if bad things are happening, if I don't know about them, at least, I don't, I don't have to care. What Solomon is actually telling us to do is much more profound and that is with open eyes with a realization of what life is really like. Still be joyous. We can’t say that Solomon does not know how hard life can be, see the first 17 sermons in this book, but still he wants us here to have joy. It is a joy aware of the difficulties, and a joy that sees the God who gives us joy.

Matthew Henry describes it this way. He says “the joy here described is the gladness of heart that Springs from a sense of divine favor.” If we note, all of the things he listed, In verse 7, God approved what you do? In verse 9, this is our portion in life, Translation: This is what God has given to us. This has been the thought in all of Ecclesiastes, When he said that you should work, and you should enjoy your toil, why? Because this is your lot, specifically the lot that GOD has given to you.

Why should we have joy in the midst of anything and everything? Because God has been good to us. James chapter 1 James would write “consider it pure joy. When you face Trials of many kinds for we know that” here's the David version of this thought, when, when things happen around you, God's working in you.. when you face trials, when you face troubles, God's working in you, he's sanctifying you, James says, so that you'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. So have joy. God's working in, you God's with you, God's getting you through this and in fact, any of the things we Face God is sending them our way. We may not know why Ecclesiastes tells us. We may not know the full picture Ecclesiastes tells us. It's still from the hand of God… trust in him. I'm feeling a bit like a broken record there, but here's the lesson: trust in him, and when we trust in him, Joy will follow.

Not happiness, not ease. Not pure unadulterated, feelings of euphoria... Joy. Something deeper. Something more important. The joy of the Lord that sustains us that enables us that empowers us. Joy that works in us. So have joy.

Have joy in what?

He'll give us some foundations.

FOUNDATIONS:

Here's where the Practical part of this practical wisdom comes in, right? The principle is have joy. But how can I have joy? What can I do to have joy? Let's be, let's be practical for a little while. Let's let's give you real things that you can sit back and think “I can have joy because” Or “I can have joy in”.

It's real easy as a pastor to get up and then just say, “well, the joy of the Lord is your strength, just be more joyous.” And then you look at your life and you're like “I don't have much to be joyful in” David must not really know how hard life really is...

Solomon will give us some foundations. He'll give us some things in this passage that we can have joy in And it's okay. In fact, it's good to look around and think This makes me happy, this gives me joy...

Martin Luther in talking about this, passage spoke about it. And said, this passage was the Cure, For this sort of fake Christian, I'm just going to suffer because I'm called to suffer and suffer, mindset. Solomon here says: No, you're not. Maybe you are called to suffer some things, but you are not called to give off all worldly, Earthly Pleasures, all things that are good and pleasant, you are not called to live a miserable life. Go move into a monastery, forsake all of your belongings, whip yourself and be just miserable your whole life. This passage flies in the face of that. He gives his foundations things we can be joyful in

So how can you have joy?

It starts in contentment.

CONTENTMENT

Ecclesiastes 9:7 ESV

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

So, be content.

Bread and whine... It's what you have. Bread and wine here is not some elaborate ornate meal. This is the meal you eat every day. and here he says to find joy in it. As you're eating bread. Maybe it's garlic bread and it's easier to have joy there… but the fact remains: Have joy. As you eat as you drink have a merry heart, be content with what God has given you. Because life is hard, and It could be harder. So, if you're eating that bread, praise be to God that he has allowed you to have bread, to eat and have joy. As you drink your wine. As you're drinking, whatever it is that's in front of you as you are. Being nourished by the physical tangible gifts that God has given you. Be content.

It's okay. God has already… This is what he says. “God has already approved. What you do.” It's okay to eat.

Again if we remember there was a portion of Ecclesiastes that we went back to Genesis 1, 2 and 3 a lot. And when he talked about, I planted this garden and I did all these things and I grew. and here we can think back again... There's this idea here. God put Adam and Eve in the garden. Remember back to Genesis 2. Here's the garden. All the trees, any tree you want? You can eat of it. Except for one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This means that every tree that Adam went to, he goes to the apple tree. Can I eat this one God. I already told you. You can eat all of them. Okay, good. Go to the Orange tree. How about this tree God? Can I eat of this tree? I already told you. You could eat of all of them. Okay, what about? Okay God. Wait what about? This one's not a tree. It's a bush. Can I eat these blackberries? I told you as long as it's not the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil, you're good. Okay, God about to trick you. How about this Vine? Can I have these grapes? I've already proved... I said you can eat of anything. Just not this one tree… There is no need for Adam to ask about potatoes and broccoli… because God has already approved.

Solomon's coming with this same thought: you don't need to go through Being miserable with every bite of bread You are eating. God gave it to you. He's already approved it. So eat it and find contentment. As you drink, whatever it is that you drink. God gave it to you. Within reason… again, we can go back to our our Garden of Eden thing. He said don't get drunk, right? So we can't just be oh well drink your wine. Go get some no… But if you're just drinking some wine, Drinking some coke. Drinking a little bit of apple juice whatever it is... Be content. And then that contentment find your joy.

As you sit around. Maybe you're sitting at the dinner table with your family. And it's the same meal you guys eat every Wednesday. Eat your bread With joy. Drink your wine with a merry heart. God's already approved what you do, so Find contentment there. He's blessed, you Be content. More than that. It's not just contentment, not just bread and wine. We can also find some comfort.

COMFORT

Verse 8. It's interesting.

Ecclesiastes 9:8 ESV

Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.

To contextualize this right to try to help us understand what exactly is he saying here? Let me give you the 2024 Las Cruces New Mexico version of this. What actually is exactly going on here?

It's okay. To turn your swamp cooler on high. And make sure. You put lotion on your skin.

This idea of “white garments” when you're living in the desert before any sort of Air conditioning any sort of modern Creature Comforts to have white garments was more cool and more comfortable, it's okay to be comfortable. This idea of oil lacking on your head, it's actually twofold. This is why lotion maybe works here, right? It's because this is like Bath and Body Works. Look it's good smelling lotion. First of all it’s moisturizing your dry skin. And when you live in the desert, That's a problem oil helped that. And you smell good. It's not offensive. It's good to smell good. It's okay to find some Comfort in “creature-ly” Comforts.

This sounds very counter to what we often think we should hear in church. Which is a sort of The physical world is all bad, the spiritual world is all good, and so we ignore the physical. And what Solomon is saying here is it's okay to find Comfort in good and nice things. It's okay to buy an air conditioning system for your house. It's okay.

In fact. These Comforts that we have can be a source of joy. As you're wearing your white garments… as you're sitting in your comfy clothes as you're wearing your nicest clothes… Your head's covered with oil. It's good and pleasant. It smells good, it feels good. It's good and right, it's okay. Find your joy there. We don't need to think that the world and everything in the world is inherently bad. God gave it to you. Find joy In that Comfort. And find joy. In companionship.

COMPANIONSHIP

He says here verse 9,

Ecclesiastes 9:9 ESV

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, 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.

Enjoy the ones God has given to you for companionship.

I think in the first principle, he is being very explicit here: husbands, enjoy your wives wives. Enjoy your husband, enjoy the fellowship. Enjoy the companionship. Enjoy the physical aspects of your marriage. It's good. And right. And okay, you should find enjoyment in the wife or husband that you love all the days of your life. If God has blessed you… for those of you who are married… God has blessed you with a sure companion. One who will be with you… This is why the vows that we say at weddings are so important, And why I always encourage people who I do weddings for to use the traditional vows… Because we're saying “for richer or poorer in sickness and in health, For Better or Worse” in all of the things that life will throw at us, I will be with you. we will hold together.

So enjoy that companionship, enjoy that Fellowship, enjoy that which God has given to you. This is your portion. This is what you have in life. Enjoy it. It's okay to enjoy your wife. It's okay to enjoy your husband. It's okay to say one of the greatest sources of joy in my life is my wife. I thank God for her each and every day… Even the difficult ones.

Even when things aren't going smoothly, even when we're fighting, even when it's hard, I enjoy my wife. She is a blessing. A treasure. God has been good to me. That's good.

Solomon is saying enjoy your wife enjoy… then it expands, right? We start wife, I think there's a small Application we can make there, but then expand it is why I said companionship here.

And your kids. That's the portion, God's given you.

And your friends. Relatives. Your parents. Your aunts your uncles, your cousins. Your friends at church. Enjoy the companionship that God has given to you.

Life is too short to not enjoy companionship with the people that God has placed around you. So enjoy it. Let that be a source of Joy. And know what Solomon lists here. These are all practical things that even in a broken world, where things go wrong, when things are vain, where things are painful. Even in that world, still these things we can find joy in.

In bread. In the food on your table. Why? do you ever stop and think… I hope… let me preface with this... I hope that before you eat, you sit down and say grace, you thank God for the meal. But why do we do that? This is why. Because God gave that to me. So be content there… As food prices rise and you're like well, You can't afford steaks much anymore. It's going to be a lot more thin cut pork chops, enjoy them. Still good. God, so gave them to us. Be content.

Enjoy. As you sit in your couch, as you lie on your bed, as you wear nice clothes, whatever it is that you find comfort in. Find joy there too. It's a blessing from God.

And then look around to the people that God has given to you and find your joy in the companionship that God has blessed you with, it's okay. We don't have to overly spiritualize all of this. We don't have to go on this sort of, “it has to be this way and we can't just read it on this level.”

It's okay to say you know what? I like good food. Good food. Brings me joy. Praise the Lord.

I like hanging out with my friends. Praise the Lord. God has granted you that companionship.

I like being comfortable. Praise the Lord. It's okay. To find our joy here. Life is hard. Life is difficult. Life will seek to tear your joy away from you. Keep it simple. Build upon these foundations.

But I want to end with a warning. We have to be careful. We can't forget everything that's come before everything that will come after. And we can't forget that Ecclesiastes comes to us as a book of the Bible. And so, the warning I want is to hear is: Remember your priorities

The Warning: PRIORITIES

All of these things that we have talked about today. Are good and right. When we understand that, they are gifts given to us by God for our joy. And all of these things become. Idols. And can tear our joy away from us when we Elevate them into an undue place.

This is what I mean by that. You should be content. In the food, you have But, When getting and having the best food when it's no longer about contentment and it's about getting and wanting and grabbing and having— such that what you have in front of you is never good enough— The priorities are messed up. And now, instead of bringing you Joy it will steal it because your stomach will never be satisfied. A heel of bread Taken with gratitude to The God Who gave it to you. We'll bring you much more joy than the most elaborate six-course meal. That comes from a place of selfishness. also, If you can't find your joy in the little things, your life will be spent seeking after greater and bigger and greater and bigger. You will die. Solomon has said this, and you will be unhappy.

The same thing with Comfort, we can seek comfort so much. We are unwilling to go where God has called us to When we have done this, we will not have joy. I tell when people, you know, Oh, you're a pastor. Where's how do you know you have this calling? What's how do we know you're gonna do this? You know, you're called to be a pastor. How do I say this? I'm going to say this, just bluntly and I pray, you forgive me if it comes off too blunt. How do you know you're called to be a pastor? You don't do it for the money… because contrary to what the world my think, there's not a whole lot of that here.. But there's no amount of money you could give me. That would make me, not want to be a pastor. There's no amount of creaturely Earthly Comforts that money could buy me that would that I would allow to rob me of the joy of serving in the role that God has called me to.

So yeah, I find comfort In creature-ly things sometimes. But God could take them away and I'd still serve him and love him. Its all about Priorities.

Companionship is good. But our wives, our husbands, our family, our kids can become Idols, We must give them to God. And that is where we will find Joy. God himself has given us these things. This is what one of my commentaries says: “Ecclesiastes does not Advocate Hedonism [right Hedonism the pursuit of pleasure].. Ecclesiastes. Does not Advocate heated Hedonism under the shadow of God's ill will, but contentment Comfort and companionship are to be seen as gifts form God. They are the outflow of knowing that we have of an Assurance of acceptance by him.”

That's the priorities. We seek these things in so far as we see that God has given them to us.

But How do we know this? How can we know that this is all from God?

Because he that did not spare his own son, will he not with him also graciously? Give us all things.

You know how I know when I'm eating my bread or drinking my wine that that God has given this gift to me. Because God has given me every gift, he gave me his son.

As I'm experiencing creaturely Comforts, you know what's better than that? Knowing that I rest secure in my savior, No chair is more comfortable than my position in Christ.

So, I enjoy Companionship. Having companionship is fantastic and I love my wife. I love my savior more.

We can push this: My wife is the closest friend I've ever had. I have a friend who is closer than a brother in Jesus Christ, that's how we get this right. And that's how we find Joy. You don't grasp at it in your own strength. You don't strive after it in your own, might you trust in him.

And that's how you live the good life.

Let's pray.