Sermon Tone Analysis

Can I Live Without Knowing

Ecclesiastes 8:16-9:12

Can I live, without knowing?

When a relative dies, can I live without knowing why?

When a believer is given a 3 weeks to live prognosis and stage 4 incurable cancer diagnosis, can I live without knowing why?

When an infant dies, can I live without knowing why?

…and in the midst of it all, do I have joy or am I downtrodden, broken, and beaten?

That is Solomon’s question and to us I ask…

Can I look at the circumstances of my life and determine whether or not God loves me? we’re coming up to *the intersection of man and God* where we find man’s limits of knowing, what more would we expect of our 8.5LB brain?

Ecclesiastes 8:16–9:12 (ESV)

16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep,

17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun.

However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out.

Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

He is back, full circle - applying wisdom, knowing what’s happening on earth when realizing that God is real, now - he’s beginning to realize the end of human wisdom is the intersection where we find God - and it’s from this intersection that we pick back up in chapter 9.

He is going to lay out to us what in college the professor calls a syllabus.

*Syllabus: an outline of the subjects in a course of study or teaching.*

Here is Solomon’s syllabus

*v1-6 Everyone Dies*

*v7-10 Live Like This (take notes these are the answers to the final)*

*v11~/12 How To Endure, Life.

- Knowing God it’s life beyond the intersection!

*

Ecclesiastes 9:1-12 (ESV)

1 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God.

Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him.

2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice.

As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.

3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all.

Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

This concept of the “hand of God” is one that is present in all of scripture.

It’s used to talk about God’s power in a poetic way, one that makes you think of His grip, Solomon uses it in the midst of his syllabus’ first section on death.

His point - God is in control, even over death.

He’s marching us into the quandary that he wants us to be found in and this is that: the things that befall the righteous include the worst outcome we could imagine, death.

We’re obsessed with avoiding death.

It’s the ultimate end for us, however - remember, we’re not coming up to the ultimate end under the sun, inside the realities of this life, rather we’re exceeding the intersection of reality and life as we understand with our earth bound 8lb brain and passing into the realm of God, so that we’ll force the question, how can we live

A) Knowing there is a God

B) Accepting the terrible lot of life because it MUST end in death (the worst thing)

C) Having joy because we’re seeing beyond the intersection to the goodness of God.

So, we’ve taken the bait we’ve decided to click the link that says - she read that God was in charge over death; you wont believe what happens next!

*It’s the intersection of man and God.*

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10

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

8 Let your garments be always white.

Let not oil be lacking on your head.

9 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.

10 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.

Church I want us to *slow down here* and remember that now this is the second time that God in his providence has walked Solomon through a logical thinking process to return to the same conclusion - be joyful.

We need to set aside the snark for a moment (I say this as the captain of snark) and think about where we are, where we stand on this holy ground - approaching the intersection of the finite and infinite - we’re where we don't understand how to discern the why of things like death - realizing that God not only understands but orchestrates what we don’t understand.

We’re taking a leap from catch-phrase Christian who “has faith” who trusts God, in the the realm of finding joy in life, that stems from the richness of knowing that God is good, not because of circumstances or money but because He IS.

Will you be ready to leap with me?

I pray that we’re ready for this - at the intersection church where we need to stop loving our sorrow.

Where we need to park our snark, when it stops our joy.

Where we need to consider the things we say in balance with the commands for our words in Proverbs 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 25, 26.

Why - because we need to capture idle words it’s an absolutely unmistakably important theme in wisdom literature!

Ephesians 4:29 (ESV)

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Colossians 3:8 (ESV)

8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Psalm 141:3 (ESV)

3  Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;

keep watch over the door of my lips!

So if we’re to stop with the negative snark, what are we to start?

We’re to start striving for joy - and we’re to remember it’s at the intersection of God and man that we begin.

Jesus, who made water into wine.

That sounds cool, it’s a good magic trick - he could have pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

But He didn’t - He did something of more substance and more consequence, He while attending this wedding, the celebration of two unifying in one flesh under God, He gives a gift of win, to the entire party - the celebration and fellowship continues.

SO we stop complaining and we start enjoying all the gifts God gives us, in Christ.

We enjoy every last drop of the simple things.

Have you ever gone to bed looking forward to that first cup of coffee in the morning?

I have, that’s JOY.

Look with me to:

Genesis 1:29 (ESV)

29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.

You shall have them for food.

God gave them a multiplicity of food for our joy - he gave them a pallet to soak it all in and KNOW that He is God and He is good, now lean in here, and stick with me through this:

In the fall there is something amazing to see -

I think we tend to think of God as punitive to us in this life: like he pronounced punishment on us like a drunken stepfather to his redheaded barefooted-disobedient stepchild.

NO - He told us the ramifications of our sin, were separation from fellowship and some other things related to our no longer living in His trusting care and protection, BUT and this is huge, get this; but…

Isaiah 6:3 (ESV)

3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Are we missing it - the whole earth is FULL of it, God’s glory, little bits of what’s amazing about him fill this place, and so when we park our snarkieness that robs our joy, and look for His glory in this place, in food and drink and in our wives and husbands, and in our friends, and in our Christian friendship and fellowship, in home groups and serving together, in seeing Christ proclaimed in our midst, the fullness of this amazing creation from which He never took the Genesis 1:29 seed bearing plants - we have the full pallet of His glory to enjoy and when we do that, we’ll know great joy even in THIS life because we CAN know His glory here - we just tend to focus on that from which we can place our snark.

Now in the syllabus we learn how to live!

Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 (ESV)

*Wisdom Better Than Folly*

11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.

All die, without regard to anything they do!

12 For man does not know his time.

Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

*Don’t be caught up in the here and now, in the temporary things - death brings us to this precious, to this cross roads where man ends, and God doesn’t begin but rather, continues beyond the crossroad to the source of joy, God Himself.*

Lets not let our gaze be stopped in this life, by a glass ceiling by constantly clogging our own minds and mouths with negativity Proverbs 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 25, 26 - it’s our snarkiness, rather lets press past that crossroads, into God’s reality, being encouraged by joy, and fellowship, by the glories of His reality in this life soaking up the abundance of blessing in life, and lets find joy.

So, can I live without knowing why?

Yes because God is beyond the crossroads of our 8LB brains!

Yes, because not knowing why forces you to the intersection of what it is to be human and the beginning of God.

We come to know we’re limited and God is infinite - then the blessings of life become crystal clear - and rather than dwelling on the things we perceive as negative, we move forward into maturity in a life lived in full pursuit of… joy.