The Futility of Youth

The Vanities of Life: The Futility of Youth

Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:8

I. Introduction

A. Story of running a half marathon and being passed by old woman.  Here was a woman than was hanging on to her youth and milking her life for every moment.

II. Find joy in a godly life (9-10)

A. Exegesis

1. Rejoice in your youth and let your heart cheer you!

a) There is a wonder in youth that is not fully appreciated until it is gone

(1) Your body doesn’t hurt

(2) You sleep better

(3) You have a naiveté that is blissful

b) We are to find joy in our youth while we still can

(1) To enjoy the wonder of life

(2) To enjoy the beauty of God’s creation

(3) To enjoy a wide open hope in what life can bring

c) Too many people start off their lives with unhappiness and disappointment

2. Walk in the ways of your heart – Pursue the wonder and joy of youth

3. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment

a) This is not the idea that we should pursue the things without regard to judgment

b) On the contrary, it is an acknowledgement that the man of God who lives life to the fullest in accordance with the laws of God will find fulfillment

c) Solomon would have realized that it was often the sin of life that brings life’s deepest pains

d) Remove vexation from your heart – don’t spend your life angry

e) Put away pain from your body – We often cower in fear from the pains and difficulties of life, but we are to experience life with a faith in God’s plan for your life

B. Application

1. We are to see the Christian life as the most fulfilling

2. We have a world that wants to remain adolescent perpetually

3. We have a world that things fulfillment is found in sin

4. But growing up in the maturity of Christ will allow us to fully enjoy our youth

III. Find purpose and meaning in your creator (1)

A. Exegesis

1. Remember also your creator!

a) We are made by someone – God

b) We are made for a purpose

(1) Whatever you make, you do so with a purpose.

(2) It would be foolish to spend time making something without worth or purpose

c) We are to acknowledge that we are the product of a good creator who creator all things and declared them “very good”

d) We are to see life through the lens of that creator

2. Why?  Because you are growing older and there will be a time when you are not able to serve him as you can today

3. A life lived well serving God will not bring to the days of evil, but to a good old age and death

a) I want to know that when I come to old age and can no longer serve like I could that I lived according to the purpose for which God made me

4. There is a difference between old age that follows a life spent according to God’s purposes and life spent according to our own

B. Application

1. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him – John Piper

2. We find our greatest hope and pleasure in our creator – He is the greatest source of joy

3. We short-sale ourselves when we reach for the world as our satisfaction instead of God in our youth!

IV. Live life with ongoing faith   Find Faith when life gets hard (2-5)

A. Exegesis

1. Difficult times (2)

a) V2 has an apocalyptic feel to it, but it doesn’t fit the context

b) This seems to talk about a time when bad things are coming

2. Getting older has it’s hardships

a) Muscles tremble

b) Backs bend

c) Hard work ceases

d) Sights gets dim

e) They don’t come out their doors like they once did

f) Hearing gets light

g) Afraid of heights and falling

h) Almond tree – gray hair

i) Grasshopper – when people don’t hop as high

j) Desire fails – Literally caper berry fails – IT was an aphrodisiac

k) Death is imminent

B. Application

1. These times are coming to all of us

2. We must remember that there is purpose and destination with the believer

3. This is only bad if there is not God and no purpose

4. It is in our most difficult times of desperation that we must have God in order to have hope

V. Find hope in a greater wisdom (6-8)

A. Exegesis

1. These are all pictures of a time when things are dead and gone – This is a picture of the grave

a) The silver cord – something of fine value, until it is broken

b) The three containers (the bowl, the pitcher and the wheel, or jug) are all broken at the cistern, or the grave (pit) – Their contents spilled to unrecovered

2. This is the picture of a graveside where life has ended

3. It does show the hope that the Spirit would return to God after the body is dead

B. Application

1. Philippians 1:21 – “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

2. What often keeps us from living for Jesus in our youth is that we can’t see this end of life

3. We must be able to see in our minds a time when life will be over and the opportunities to serve Him are gone

4. Solomon recognizes that this privilege of serving Christ can only be done before we lose our abilities.

VI. Conclusion

A. This lesson of death from a “wise man” only leaves us wanting for something greater.  IN the end all is vanity because we simply live to die.  In the end, all that is left is mourning.

B. But, the end of the book says, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

C. We find our hope in a greater wisdom – that of Jesus Christ

D. This is the culmination of the full book

E. When we consider that the entire word and the entire history of moan finds its fulfillment in the cross of Jesus Christ we realize that our duty begins at salvation – putting our faith in the one who died to makes us new

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him – Sermon by John Piper - http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/god-is-most-glorified-in-us-when-we-are-most-satisfied-in-him

1. Oprah walked away from orthodox Christianity when she was about 27 because of the biblical teaching that God is Jealous — he demands that he and no one else get our highest allegiance and affection. It didn’t sound loving to her.

2. Brad Pitt turned away from his boyhood faith, he says, because God says, “You have to say that I'm the best. . . . It seemed to be about ego.”

3. C. S. Lewis, before he became a Christian, complained that God’s demand to be praised sounded like “a vain woman who wants compliments.”

4. Erik Reece, the writer of An American Gospel, rejected the Jesus of the Gospels because only an egomaniac would demand that we love him for than we love our parents and children.

5. And Michael Prowse, the columnist for the London Financial times, turned away because only “tyrants, puffed up with pride, crave adulation.”

Responses:

1. No Oprah, if God were not jealous for all your affections, he would be indifferent to your final misery.

2. No Brad Pitt, if God didn’t demand that you see him as the best, he wouldn’t care about your supreme happiness.

3. No Mr. Lewis, God is not vain in demanding your praise. This is his highest virtue, and your highest joy.

4. No, Erik Reece, if Jesus didn’t lay claim on greater love than your children do, he be selling your heart to what cannot satisfy forever.

5. No, Michael Prowse, God does not crave your adulation, he offers it as your greatest pleasure.

Contest Tries to Name Funeral Home Café

A South Carolina funeral home is planning to open what it calls a "Coffee Corner." It will be stocked with Starbucks coffee and offer WiFi as well as a fireplace and a television. The funeral home's owner says that he hopes it will help mourners "get their minds off what's going on.''

A news magazine called The Week welcomed people to submit a name for this novel café.

Honorable Mention awards included …

The Grim Roaster

You Can Take It with You

The Last Cup

De-Coffinated!

Perkatory

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Bean Nice Knowing You

See Ya Latte

These were the top winners:

Third Place: Latte for Your Own Funeral

Second Place: Still Above Grounds Café

First Place: Time to Meet Your Mocha

Preaching Angles: (1) Denial; Death; Grief—This news story is a great example of our tendency to deny the hard truths of life, especially our mortality. The funeral home owner wants to help people "get their minds off what's going on," but mourners actually need to face the reality of death and grieve it rather than just avoid it. (2) Afterlife; Judgment, divine—This story also illustrates our attempts not to think about what happens after we die.

The Week, "The Week contest—Funeral home cafes," (7-26-12); submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky