Wisdom in Youth

Call to Worship: Psalm 150:1-2 // Prayer

Adoration: Father, we praise you. We see your holiness—the excellent greatness of your nature, the pure goodness of who you are, perfect in every way. We see also the glory of your mighty deeds: how you, without effort, made everything that exists; how you uphold all things by the word of your power; and how you have redeemed a people for your name by that mighty act of your Son’s death in which sin and death and hell were defeated.

Confession: Father, we take refuge in your excellent greatness and your mighty deeds—most especially in your redeeming mercy. And so, we also bring to your our sins this morning—how we have failed to act and invest and live our lives fully to your glory; how we have fought and quarreled with one another in pursuit of selfish passions; how we have acted as your enemies, even after you made us your friends by the blood of your Son. Father, forgive us; for we have sinned against you.

Thanksgiving: But we have placed our faith in the blood of your Son, shed for us; and so, you have justified us, declared us righteous based on his righteousness and not our own, and forgiven our sin. Not a single one of us can boast in your sight, nor do we want to: we are justified by faith apart from anything we’ve done. We are sinners, forgiven and restored to you by your bountifully overflowing grace in Christ.

Supp: And having received such a great salvation as this, we ask for your power in and through us to share it boldly with others; we ask that you provide each one of us with opportunities to share the message of the cross with someone who hasn’t heard or believed it yet // and we ask this also for the saints of Harvest Community Church in Hillsboro—we praise you for their faith and for their love for all the saints, and we ask that you would fill them with power and boldness to witness the gospel, that many might be saved through both their witness and ours in this area // and humbly, we bring before you the sin of racism in our community and in our country, along with the dangerous secular ways of trying to address it: first, we ask that among your people, those who’ve embraced racism of any kind would see their sin and repent, and those who’ve embrace worldly theories to fight racism would see how wrong this is, and repent; and second, we ask for your mercy on our country, that both racism and critical theory would loose power, that our deep divisions might see some healing // all these things we lay before your Throne of Grace, entrusting them to your wisdom and power; and now, we ask for your Spirit’s help, that as we turn to your Word we might receive life and joy and wisdom from it...

Family Matters

Men’s retreat, Sep 12-14; but now also, Women’s retreat w/ SGC, September 26-28 at the Cannon Beach Conference center on the topic of Union with Christ.

Northwest Worship Conference, October 4-5: hosted by Hinson Baptist Church, Scholls will take care of admission for all members of the music and sound team, and also up to three members of the congregation who’d just like to grow in understanding what the Bible teaches about worship and music.

Board meeting this Tuesday

Connor + Ariana Johnson membership!

Benediction

Ephesians 6:23–24 ESV

Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

Sermon

Intro: Choose Wisdom While You are Young

So now, Solomon has completed his work. He’s shown us a lot of trails we might take in life, and one by one, he’s roped off their trail heads. They are these paths of trying to fix the world around us, or trying to find ultimate satisfaction in it, and he’s exposed them as foolish. And then, he’s also given us a map for the right trail—the trail of wisdom and action.

But there’s one remaining danger that Solomon wants to address... the danger that we might hear everything that he has written, maybe even turn it over in our minds. Maybe even find it fascinating on some level. And yet, not take it to heart—not actually pursue the path of wisdom. It’s the danger that you might actually hear all of this wisdom from Ecclesiastes, understand it, but fail to act on it. Why? Because in one way or another, you don’t see the urgency of it.

I was talking with a friend recently—not a believer, but a pleasant guy to be around—and I was telling him about some of the themes I was finding and studying in Ecclesiastes. But he was a man who was expecting to find ultimate satisfaction in money, recreation, and a comfortable life. So his response to Solomon’s wisdom was, “Oh, I’ll figure that out when I’m older. I want to take these other paths first.”

And again—none of those things he was pursuing are wrong. In their proper place, they’re good: as Solomon has taught us, enjoy whatever money, recreation, work, comfort, food, friendships that God puts in front of you! Enjoy them! But don’t expect them to satisfy your soul on that ultimate level: Eccl. 1:8, “the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing...”

But when you’re confronted with Solomon’s wisdom on these things, there’s a temptation to say: “Yes, but I still want to explore those other paths. I’ll come back and figure out this path of wisdom when I’m a bit older.”

It’s an answer we give because we don’t see the urgency of Solomon’s message.

Today, Solomon is going to confront this problem by showing us how urgent the path of wisdom is—how time-sensitive it is. And he’s going to do this in two parts:

First, he’s going to urge you to see and enjoy the goodness of life while you are still young, and that’s in verses 7-10 of chapter 11.

Second, he’s going to show you the tragedy of failing to remember your Creator until you are old, and that’s in verses 1-8 of chapter 12.

To sum it all up: he’s going to urge you: Choose wisdom while you are young!

Choose the Wisdom of Enjoying God’s Gifts While You are Young

Now, at first you might think, “Does Solomon really need to urge young people to see and enjoy the goodness of life? Isn’t that just something that young folks naturally do? Actually, don’t we need to teach young folks to restrain themselves, if anything?”

When you bring children to a playground, for example, you don’t have to urge them to play. The moment they catch sight of it, they sprint to it with joy. If you’re on the other side of the street from the playground, you might have to catch hold of them to keep them from running out in to traffic to reach it.

But what Solomon has shown us so far is that—yes, we do have a natural way that we just run out there and pursue life and try to enjoy it as much as we can—but often, we do this in a way that is foolish, and so ultimately ruins the joy that we might have.

And so, living well in this world does include enjoying the good things of life—the good things God gives us—but in a way that it wise, and not destructive.

And Solomon here urges us to choose that wise way of enjoying life while we are young.

He begins this by simply affirming that life is very good. Verse 7:

Ecclesiastes 11:7 ESV

Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

In context, he’s not talking about day vs. night, or cloudy days vs. sunny days—but as vs. 8 shows, he’s talking about simply being alive.

Yes this world is crooked. It can be a dark place. But it is still God’s world, and it is so good to be alive in it. Solomon has said so much to us about life under the sun—and in this verse, he wants to make sure we understand, it is good to be alive under the sun. Period.

And this isn’t a new thought. Back in chapter nine, he wrote:

“A living dog is better than a dead lion.” In that culture, a lion was a powerful, fierce beast. God even compared himself to a lion in Hosea. By contrast, dogs were considered unclean—roaming the streets looking for scraps, like large rats.

So his point was, life and time in God’s world is so valuable that it would be better to be a living rat than a dead lion.

“Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.”

For this reason, in the first half of vs. 8, he commands, “So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all...” But from there, he gives three more commands on how to succeed at doing this:

First, in the second half of vs. 8, he says, “…let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.”

There’s that word, “vanity” again—and you can see, in this context, that it doesn’t mean “all that comes in life is meaningless” but rather, “all that comes is fleeting.” All that comes is a vapor—here today, gone tomorrow. We’re commanded to remember that.

And also, we’re supposed to remember that, “the days of darkness” will be many in our lives.

Now right there you might be thinking: “How could remembering those sober truths possibly help me to take joy in my life?” That’s an understandable question.

Let me put it to you this way: when you approach life as though your youth will never run out, and as though dark days will never come—when you try to enjoy this world as if it isn’t a crooked place, then your joy will be shattered when those dark days arrive. You’ll expect life in this world to satisfy you on some ultimate level, and it will fail you, and your joy will be shattered.

Personally, I find it very sad to talk with someone whose trying to pretend that he or she is still happy, and putting on a face that everything’s OK, even when that kind of flimsy joy has just been shattered by some tragedy or failed earthly hope. In those cases, it’s as if joy depends on denying how painful the thing is that just happened, or dismissing it—to admit the reality of the pain would mean to lose all hope of joy. And far too often, that is how Christians approach joy.

But here, Solomon points to a better way: not a joy that comes from pretending the world isn’t that bad, but a joy that comes from enjoying God’s good gifts—however he chooses to give them—in the midst of a crooked world.

That kind of joy will avoid the despair of becoming disillusioned with life, on the one hand, and the danger of setting your heart on God’s gifts rather than God himself, on the other.

That kind of joy, which understand the dark days and remembers the shortness of life, will be able to savor the sweetness of life.

And so—this is counter-intuitive—but learning while you are young that life is fleeting is necessary if you’re going to walk the wise path that leads to joy.

So that’s the first of the three commands for how to rejoice in the life that God gives you. The second is this: rejoice in a way that pleases your Creator. Look at vs. 9

Ecclesiastes 11:9 ESV

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Now, we need to be clear about what that verse is saying—it’s not saying that God will judge you for being happy. That’s obvious if you just remember everything Solomon’s taught so far, about how good it is to enjoy God’s gifts.

So what the verse is saying is that God will judge the way that you choose to pursue joy. He will judge it either to be wise, or foolish; righteous, or sinful. And he will make those judgments on the last day.

So what it’s saying is this: while you are young, pursue joy. You have many desires that are good, as long as they are pursued rightly:

The desire for food is good, and so it’s good to eat good food with a thankful heart. But it can also become twisted into gluttony, for example.

In a similar way, the desire for intimacy can be twisted into perversions such as pornography or intimacy outside of marriage; but when it is pursued the way it was designed to be—within the covenant of marriage—not only does it bring joy, but it pleases God because you are enjoying a gift that he gave you.

So Solomon’s point is, pursue joy while you are young. Take delight in these earthly gifts that God has given. But do it in a way where you are honoring the Creator’s design in these things—for in the end, when he makes all things right, he will bring your actions into judgement.

And it’s probably worth saying here, this doesn’t just establish boundaries for how you enjoy God’s gifts. It also means that the whole shape of your life should conform to his design. Solomon’s told you to take joy in your work, and do it with all your might. But if you do that in a way that causes you to neglect your family, you’ve missed the point. Or if you focus on your family, but do so in a way that your family is isolated from outside fellowship—again, you’ve missed the design and the blessing of human life as God made it.

And again, Solomon’s point is: don’t wait until you’re old to grasp these things. Take hold of this wisdom while you’re young, so that you can truly enjoy God’s gifts. Learn to rejoice wisely in life, while you are still young.

And the third command is this: avoid obstacles to joy while you are young. Look at vs. 10:

Ecclesiastes 11:10 ESV

Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Now we’ll explore that verse in just a second, but I want to address something first: this wisdom from Solomon has an evil twin, called hedonism.

Hedonism says: “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” At first glance, that sounds like some of the things that Solomon says. So how’s it different? It essentially says, I don’t care what’s true about the world. I just want to do what makes me feel good.

By contrast, Solomon’s saying, the world is crooked and life is short. But it’s still God’s world and these things are still his gifts. So enjoy life with wisdom, to the glory of God.

So, how does that work out in verse 10? Putting pain away from your body is pretty straight forward: take care of yourself. Within reason, do what you can to be healthy. Seek medical help when you can. Physical health is fleeting, but when you can have it it’s a good gift from God. So pursue it. Don’t ruin your youth with preventable health problems. That’s straightforward

But it’s not just physical health that can prevent you from enjoying life in your youth. Spiritual sickness will do that too, and it’s worse. If you have a heart full of bitterness, or if you stew in self-pity, you will have little joy. Many good gifts from God will sit in front of you, but you won’t be able to enjoy them. So Solomon’s commanding you: repent of your bitterness, your self-pity, or whatever else is vexing your heart. Confess it to the Lord. The blood of Christ is enough to cover it, and the power of God is enough to help you turn away from it.

And it’s worth mentioning, there is no long-term spiritual health for a person who turns his back on the church. The idea that looks like common sense at first is, “While you’re young, spend your Sundays traveling or enjoying the great outdoors” or something like that. “Then when you’re older, you can settle down and spend more time in church.”

But think about this for a second: if our fallen hearts tend to carry sins and vexations around in them, and that blocks our joy; and if a key for turning away from those sins is to be deeply imbedded in a local church—then what the truth? Waiting to get serious about church life until you’re older will actually result in less joyful time during your young adult years.

[story of not having an answer to give b/c out of fellowship?]

And so, the wise path to joy includes seeking health—especially spiritual health—while you are young.

And so, to sum up the point of this first half of the passage: Solomon commands you to pursue joy while you are young. And he commands you to do this by remembering the vanity of life, by enjoying God’s gifts wisely and righteously, and by avoiding unnecessary pain—especially the pain of a spiritually unhealthy heart—while you are young. Choose the wisdom of delighting in God’s gifts while you are still young. Choose wisdom while you are young!

Choose the Wisdom of Remembering God Before You Grow Old

And he carries on with this idea of choosing wisdom while young in chapter 12, verses 1-8. The first side of the coin here was a wise enjoyment of God’s gifts. But the second side of the coin—really the heart of the matter—is remembering your Creator while you are young.

“Remember your Creator”—what does it mean? Such a simple three words, and yet, an ocean of meaning.

Proverbs 9:10 ESV

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

To fear God, to know God, to take joy in God, to worship God—these are all just different ways of expressing the core spirituality of someone who belongs to God.

So really, we can talk about the path of wisdom all day long. But we’ll never get to the heart of the issue until we do something: Remember our Creator. Fear our Lord. Behold our God. It is this one act of the soul that sets everything else about life into its proper place.

Psalm 27:4 ESV

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

This is the greatest thing and the core thing about the path of wisdom: to remember your Creator.

The same idea was expressed with different words back in Ecclesiastes 5:1-2:

Ecclesiastes 5:1–2 ESV

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.

So you can charge into the temple, boasting about how much you know about your Creator. Offering the sacrifice of fools. But it’s worthless. What does it mean to remember your Creator? That HE is in heaven, and you are on earth.

In other words, you remember him as the one who made all and gives life to all; you remember him as the Sovereign Lord who reigns from heaven. And you remember yourself as a mere creature, utterly dependent in every way upon him. And, you remember your own sinfulness—the ways in which you’ve broken his law and deserve his judgement.

And from there, you remember the wisdom of his mercy. How he gave his son to die for our redemption, and through his son he proclaims “Peace to those who are near, and peace to those who are far off.” You allow your heart to be dumbstruck at the wonder of such grace, ‘that of all of those who come to him for forgiveness, he will not cast out a single one.’

Remember your creator: this means, turn from your sin, and trust in his mercy to save you. One preacher said, “Salvation is when a helpless sinner casts himself into the arms of an almighty savior.” And what is the result of this? A life lived remembering your Creator. Spiritual eyes which, year by year, learn the joy of gazing upon the beauty of the Lord, beholding his glory.

But this leads us to what is probably the most haunting passage in Ecclesiastes. You see, Solomon is not just urging you to turn to God, to be saved and to grow in wisdom. He’s urging you to do it while you are young. And so, he presents us with the tragedy of waiting until Old Age—

And the language of this poetry is so profound, so haunting, that I don’t want to explain it mechanically to you, line by line. I think that would ruin it. But I want to point you to a couple things here, to help you feel what Solomon is saying:

Ecclesiastes 12:1 ESV

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

So the poem is about what? Old age.

And he goes on to describe old age symbolically from here. Trembling keepers of the house, for example, are—legs that tremble when you put your weight on them; loss of hearing is described as, “all the daughters of song brought low;” the almond tree blossoms, meaning, hair becomes white; and finally the sliver cord of life itself is snapped. Listen to how it flows from vs. 3 to 8:

Ecclesiastes 12:3–8 ESV

in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low— they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.

There’s one particular word in this poem that’s meant to ring in our ears: “before”.

It’s found in verses 1, 2, and 6: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come; before the sun and the light are darkened; before death itself arrives, and the silver cord is snapped.

Remember your Creator before—when you still have a chance to choose the path of wisdom, and live with real joy. It’s another way of saying, Choose wisdom while you are young!

It’s a haunting poem. But again, the purpose is this: to push you toward wisdom and joy. Solomon wants you to feel how deeply tragic it would be to live most of your life away from the wisdom of knowing your Creator, and enjoying his good gifts. To waist the best years of your youth away from God, and the joy that he would give.

And I hope it feels obvious to you now—the deep value of knowing God and living in that wisdom, starting when you’re young. But we must ask, what are the common ways that folks still miss this? I think there are at least three:

First, there’s sinful passions. You may get the sense that the wise path is the best one to take. But until you are willing to turn from your sin to God, you’ll never actually take the wise path. Until you see the beauty of God and his wisdom in comparison to the ugliness of sin, you won’t do it. But Solomon wants you to feel the weight of this, and change course.

Then, there’s spiritual inertia. Maybe you get the point on some level—yes, the path of wisdom and joy is the good path. But you just can’t seem to motivate yourself to turn, and take it. You’re stuck. The point of this poem for you is to be haunted by the image of some day waking up and realizing that you’ve wasted your whole life. Hear this call to wake up, and choose the path of wisdom while you still can.

And finally, there’s surface-level joy. The path of wisdom requires you to spend time in the house of mourning, as we learned in chapter 7. Let me make this plain to you: according to God, as he’s said in his word, you have two choices: the fake joy which avoids dealing with the kinds of truths that Ecclesiastes presents to us, or the real joy that comes from embracing and passing through these truths with faith.

The great tragedy is that a culture of avoiding the hard parts of Scripture has created Christians who don’t want to hear the hard parts of Scripture—who have no taste for it. That, in turn, has produced fragile Christians, unprepared for the difficulties of life. Unable to cope wisely with the crookedness of this world. Ultimately—unable to live with the kind of joy that brings glory to God.

What’s the answer? Remember your Creator today, not tomorrow. Choose the path of wisdom today, not tomorrow.

Choose the path of wisdom while you still have your life in front of you, Remembering your Creator and enjoying his gifts wisely.

Applications:

If we wish to see American Christianity renewed—or maybe we should make the circle smaller: if we wish to see Christianity renewed in the Willamette Valley—one thing is non-negotiable: churches full of folks who’ve chosen wisdom in their youth. Who are ready to begin passing on that wisdom to their children from an early age. Who after they die, are remembered by their children as those who remembered their Creator when they were still young.

I think of my grandfather. His passion for missions when he was still a young man. He lived life to the full: backpacking in the mountains, loving nature, working as a surgeon, sharing the gospel, invested in his church, enjoying his family. Whatever God set in front of him, doing it with all his might. Not a perfect man, of course. None are. But still, walking the path of wisdom from the days of his youth.

Now, maybe that’s discouraging to you. What if you’re middle-aged, or old? What if you came to Christ late in life? Or woke up to this wisdom later in life? Well, there is a certain tragedy to that. But there’s also a beautiful grace, that the Lord saved you even in your later years. And to state the obvious, if you’re listening to this, the golden bowl isn’t broken yet. You still have days ahead of you, and a chance to live them well. A chance to live them remembering your Creator, and taking joy in his many rich blessings which he has bountifully poured out into your life. Today is the day, not tomorrow.

Today is the day to throw away bitterness and let go of offenses. Today is the day to confess that sin that has a strangle hold on your life, and kill it. Today is the day, if you have not believed, to turn to Christ for salvation. Today is the day to get serious about loving your family. Today is the day to give thanks for your food and eat it with joy. Today is the day to behold your God and rejoice in him.

Choose the wise path while you are young! Today is the day.