Despite Difficulty & Death, Enjoy Life

Life is Pain

In the cult classic movie, “The Princess Bride,” Westley, the protagonist rescues Buttercup, his true love, under the disguise of The Pirate Roberts. Buttercup is under the impression that The Dread Pirate Roberts killed her true love Westley five years earlier. In their dialogue leading up to the big reveal, Buttercup says to the dread pirate Roberts, “You mock my pain!” Westley responds,

“Life is Pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling you something.” Westley-Princess Bride

“Life is pain,” has been one of Solomon’s themes throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. It is the reality of living in a sinful broken world. Anyone who says differently is trying to sell you something. Why is life pain? Solomon reminds us verse 11-12 that,

Life is Difficult & Unpredictable (Eccl 9:11)

Ecclesiastes 9:11 HCSB

Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them.

Verse 11, is full on odd realities. The swift are expected to win the race, the strong are supposed to win the battle, the wise should have plenty to eat, and the those who are skilled at what they do should be admired by people. Yet, in this life, the swift do not always win, the strong are sometimes defeated, the wise go hungry, and the skilled worker is not paid what he is worth. These realities make life unpredictable and difficult. It explains Murphy’s Law. Secondly,

Life is Certain to End in Death (Eccl 9:12)

Ecclesiastes 9:12 HCSB

For man certainly does not know his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them.

Solomon has hammered this theme all throughout Ecclesiastes. Death is the great antagonist to your health, wealth, and prosperity. And you do not know when death will come for you. You just know it is coming.

“Life is pain because it is difficult, unpredictable, and certain to end in death.”

Solomon, however, advises not to meddle too long on this reality. In fact, he has some good news for his readers.

Despite life being painful, God desires for you to enjoy every single day He gives you on this earth.

Solomon exhorts you to respond to life’s painful existence or adversity with joy six times in Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 2:24 HCSB

There is nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand,

He says,

Ecclesiastes 3:12 HCSB

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life.

He says,

Ecclesiastes 5:18 HCSB

Here is what I have seen to be good: it is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward.

He says,

Ecclesiastes 8:15 HCSB

So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

He says,

Ecclesiastes 9:7 HCSB

Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works.

and finally,

Ecclesiastes 11:8 HCSB

Indeed, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, since they will be many. All that comes is futile.

Yes, life is pain. We know this. The Bible teaches it and life validates it. However, God does not leave us to suffer under the dark clouds of difficulty and death. All throughout the book Solomon has called you to fear God and trust in his sovereign justice and goodness. Because when you build our life on the foundation of His sure justice, despite your difficulty and certain death, God ensures you can rejoice, even when life is painful.

Dr. Michael LeFebvre, who has written on Ecclesiastes, writes in his book Ecclesiastes: Joy That Perseveres,”

“Ecclesiastes admits the problem of life’s many vanities. But it does not leave us to despair in our plight...Solomon calls us to source our joy in faith that God governs the world’s order. It is the Lord who promises not to leave his world in the possession of sinners. He will ultimately bestow the world’s fruits to those honoring him. As becomes increasingly clear through the course of the book, the Lord’s final provision is only certain in the coming judgment. There are no guarantees of outcomes today. But trusting God’s justice offers a basis for joy, even while suffering present vanities.” Dr. Michael LeFebvre

God grants joy to those who fear him and trust in His sovereign justice and goodness, even as life is painful. God does not deny the pain, but he gives you joys to help you hold fast as he brings this world into his perfect order. But joy is not only given, it is commanded.

Solomon Commands Joy

In chapter 9, Solomon offers four joys for you to consider in this life that help you hold fast. These are not suggestions. Solomon commands you to enjoy these things. He uses imperative phrases like, “Go, eat with pleasure,” or “ Let your clothes be white,” or “Enjoy life” or “rejoice young man.” These are things you must do, which means you have to set your heart to do them with intention. Joy is not just a spontaneous feeling. Joy is commanded in the Bible. Paul might be your greatest example when he says to the Philippian church,

Philippians 4:4 ESV

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Understand that the Philippian church was undergoing a lot of stress. Life for them was painful. They were being persecuted from the outside and suffering discontent from within. Paul tells them that their suffering has been granted to them to suffer for Christ sake, that is God has brought suffering to them for His glory and their joy (Philippians 1:29). Their painful circumstances were governed by God’s sovereignty. Knowing this, Paul gives them the imperative to rejoice, then he doubles down and says “again I say rejoice.”

You don’t just have joy, you choose to have joy. It’s a choice you make with your heart to keep the right perspective about this painful life through the lens of God’s sovereign goodness and justice. So, Solomon commands you to enjoy life despite its difficulty. How is your attitude this morning? How is your heart? Has the pain of life burdened you so much that you feel bitter? Take a moment to repent and ask God to help you see his goodness and justice, to see Jesus’s death and resurrection. Ask God to help you to rejoice, even through your tears, you can be joyful.

Four Enjoyments in This Life.

Enjoy Your Meals (Eccl 9:7)

Ecclesiastes 9:7 HCSB

Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works.

God has ordained that food be a source of joy in this world. Just a few examples will suffice. In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam and Eve the entire garden to enjoy minus one tree. When God called his people out of Egypt, from the bondage of slavery, he told them to eat a passover meal together (Exodus 12). When God called the 70 elders that were to help Moses up to his mountain,

Exodus 24:11 ESV

And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

Fast-forward to the New Testament and you see Jesus eating and drinking and celebrating with people. He begins his ministry at a wedding feast held in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-10). He ate dinner with tax collectors and sinners with Matthew (Matthew 9:10). He had dinner with Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50). The wee little man, Zacchaeus came to salvation eating dinner with Jesus at his house (Luke 19:6-7). He ate with Mary and Martha and Lazarus often. Can you imagine how great of a dinner they had together when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (Luke 10:38-42; John 12:2)?

When Jesus’s hour had come, one of the last things he did with his disciples was eat the Lord’s supper (Matthew 26). After he is resurrected, he eats lunch with Peter and his disciples on the beach. There is great theology in food, especially when it involves eating meals together. Food is not just for sustenance, but for fellowship, community, and spiritual growth.

God uses food to bring joy into your life. One the one hand, He blasts your taste buds with sweet and savory foods that warm your heart to glorify Him. he could have made everything bland. On the other hand, He forms the meal around community so that you get satisfaction from both the food and the fellowship. How often have you enjoyed a meal simply because it was eaten in good company? There is something out of this world special about good food and eating together, which begs the question,

Why are we not eating together more?

Think about the Home.

The family does not gather around the table as much as it use too. The Food Marketing Institute Foundation by The Hartman Group, released a study in June 2017, showing that, 84% of parents agreed that family meals were important, but only 50% of family dinners were eaten together. In the past 20 years, the frequency of family dinners has declined 33 percent.

Consider the Church

Unfortunately, the church appears to be following a similar pattern. Charles E. Moore offers on example of a pattern that might be seen in too many churches. He writes,

“I had been invited to speak to a congregation – a small fellowship smack dab in the middle of Manhattan – when a member came up to me and began telling me about the history of their church. What she said struck me – not only because it was sad, but also unsettling.

At the outset, the church was a lively group of young adults who ate supper together and read the Bible. It was in 1972. Streams of discontented youth were looking for something different. Every Saturday night, for twelve years, they crammed together around a common table in an upstairs room of an old historic church building. It was simple, informal, natural, normal, alive.

Then a certain pastor so-and-so suggested they start meeting properly on Sundays for worship. “That’s when we became a church,” the woman said. “We’ve been meeting here ever since.”

I asked if she ever missed how it used to be. “Yeah…. But we’re just too many people and too busy now. We don’t eat together anymore...We did a lot of eating together then, but not anymore.”

In my estimation, this story is indicative of too many churches in the West. It makes me wonder,

Is there a connection between the decline of the family and not eating together as a family?

Is there a connection between a lack of fellowship and loyalty in our churches and the decrease of fellowship meals?

What about our own church family? Why are you not attending our fellowship meals?

God has granted you an opportunity for joy through eating and drinking, especially together as a family and church community. You must be intentional about showing up and participating in it. Purpose in your heart to enjoy your church family over Michaels smoked brisket with Myrtha’s green beans and Barbs deviled eggs. Throw in some some of whatever Tami King cooks for good measure. And for giggles, finish the whole thing off with Andi Harston’s Red Velvet cake. Let’s not wait until a funeral to eat together. Let’s make it a priority to eat together as often as we can in the church and in our homes. Solomon says God has already approved your deeds, that is it is God’s desire for us to enjoy our meals together (Eccl 9:7).

Enjoy Making the Most of It (Eccl 9:8)

Ecclesiastes 9:8 HCSB

Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head.

Solomon lived in a hot desert climate. I lived in Texas, same kind of hot. It’s s dry heat, like an oven. When I first moved to Texas it hadn’t rained in 44 days. I think the average temperature was 106 degrees. You would expect when the sin went down that it would cool off. It did, to about 95 degrees.

I coached football for the Ferris Yellow Jackets. Our uniforms were black and orange, mostly black. Black was a horrible color to have on at noon in August. Black absorbs the heat. I felt like I was wearing a slow cooker. For Solomon, wearing white was a way to keep cool, to provide some comfort.

Wearing white was also celebratory. It’s the color worn at weddings and party’s. Wearing white garments contrasted putting sackcloth and ashes on your head as if you were mourning. The oil on your head was an anointing and a way to showing health and joy. That is why Jesus tells his disciples too anoint their head with oil when they fast. The oil makes the skin look healthy, and not gaunt. You are to smile and embrace your fast as a delightful act of worship. The same idea is found here.

When you put it all together, Solomon instructs you to make the most of your life situation. Treat your days as a day of celebration, not mourning.

Purpose in your you heart to make the most of it. When it’s a 106 degrees outside, its hot-thats painful. Go inside and turn on the A/C and thank God for it. When you pay $134.00 at the gas pump to fill up your truck and you realize that has to last you for two weeks, thank God you have truck. Thank God you are free to drive that truck on roads that have no tanks or artillery being fired at you. When you have $200 for two weeks of groceries with multiple mouths to feed, thank God he has provided flour and butter and beans and eggs and Top Ramen and spaghetti. Thank God you have a house to eat it in and a stove to cook and bake and the refrigerator to store your food. When you find yourself in the hospital and the doctor says its going to be a long road, thank God you are still on the road and there are options.

Life is all about perspective. Be intentional about keeping the right perspective. Choose to celebrate your days on this earth. One of the messages I send my kids at home and on the TTV bus in the morning is, “We are going to make it a great day. You showed up. That is half the battle. God has given you this day, so lets make the most of it.” Put on the white garment. Anoint your head with oil. Tell the this painful world that God is good and that he is sovereign, and in the words of Dave Harbough, “God’s got this.”

Enjoy Your Marriage (Eccl 9:9)

Ecclesiastes 9:9 HCSB

Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun.

Some of you might say marriage is pain. That is because marriage is hard work. It is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do aside from trying to raise my children. Marriage takes a lot of intentional time and energy to produce fruit that glorifies God and proclaims the gospel to the world. But despite the difficulty in marriage, God says it is good to be married and it is good for man and woman to enjoy each other.

When God said it was not good for man to be alone, he fashioned Eve from Adam to be his wife. He made them male and female, and he made Adam and Eve to compliment each other. Both Adam and Eve are equal in dignity and status, but share different roles to achieve one goal-glorify God in their marriage.

One of the ways you glorify God in your marriage is by enjoying the gift and responsibility of sexual intimacy-sexual intimacy is what Solomon has in mind when he says “enjoy your wife.” Sexual intimacy between a man and woman is a good gift that is not just for procreation, but for enjoyment. Just as God could’ve made food bland, he also could have made physical intimacy unenjoyable.

So, how do you enjoy sexual intimacy with your spouse? How doe you glorify God in it? I think the writer of Hebrews is helpful.

The writer of Hebrews says

Hebrews 13:4 HCSB

Marriage must be respected by all, and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge immoral people and adulterers.

For starters, you enjoy intimacy and glorify God in it when you enjoy his good gift inside his boundaries of marriage. Marriage is a life long covenant between a man and a woman to live together as a family under the authority of God. (If anyone tells you differently they are selling you something.) The writer of Hebrews speaks of an undefiled bed. To understand what that is, it might bet wise to ask, What does a defiled marriage bed look like? It looks like sexual intimacy outside of God’s boundaries. It looks like,

Adultery

God says,

Exodus 20:14 ESV

“You shall not commit adultery.

Fornication

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Homosexuality

1 Corinthians 6:9 ESV

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

and

Jude 7 ESV

just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Prostitution

1 Corinthians 6:15–16 ESV

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

Pornography

Matthew 5:28 ESV

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

All of these are outside the boundaries of God’s covenant of marriage and they defile the marriage bed. They are unholy or immoral. How do you protect your marriage bed from defilement? First, in your pre-marriage life, be wise with your heart and your body. Guard your heart and mind from lust and your body from being in a position to compromise your future marriage bed.

For those who are married, Paul warns that neglect can lead to a defiled marriage bed. Paul commends that husbands and wives should not neglect each other in sexual intimacy when He says

1 Corinthians 7:2–5 (HCSB)

But because sexual immorality is so common, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband....Do not deprive one another sexually—except when you agree for a time, to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again; otherwise, Satan may tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

God has given sexual intimacy to husbands and wives as a gift to be enjoyed within the limitations of their marriage, but freely to be enjoyed nonetheless. Inside the boundaries of marriage, intimacy between a man and woman is not evil nor perverted, but holy and good. Solomon says, enjoy it, and Paul echoes that and says enjoy it often. Life is already hard and difficult. If you are married, be intentional about enjoying your spouse by celebrating your marriage covenant through sexual unity.

Enjoy Your Work (Eccl 9:10)

Ecclesiastes 9:10 HCSB

Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

Shoel is the place of the dead. Ecclesiastes was written before Daniel, which speaks of resurrection. So, it is possible that Solomon did not believe in or understand the resurrection. So, in his mind, when you die, your body is done. There is no planning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, or work in the grave. So, if you are going to do anything meaningful, you need to do it while you are alive. By meaningful, he means purposeful work.

Work is part of God’s creational design. He assigned work before the fall (Genesis 2:15). God appointed man to be steward of His creation. What do I means by stewards?

We taught the children in TTV about stewardship last week. And we told them that a steward is someone who manages or cares for something. God made man in his image and gave him the responsibility to care for His creation. God has given his world skilled people to care for it, and to use it to create a better life.

So, throughout the Bible you see gardeners (Gen 2:8) and Shepherds (Psa 23), and vine-dressers (Isaiah 5:1-7). God also wired men to create because you also see skilled laborers like potters (Jer 18:6) and metalworkers (Mal 3:2-3; Ezk 22:20). There are physicians (Matthew 8:16) who work to heal our diseases. There are artisans and architects who build houses and temples. Consider when God wanted his Tent of Meeting and his Temple created. He put into the hearts of Israel skilled workers to create bricks, rugs, curtains, lamps, silverware, and the ark of the covenant. God loves work. When he created creation he said it was good, that is, I am satisfied with my work. He put that same desire in his image bearers. You have a desire wot work and create because God has that same desire and he wants you to fulfill it. Work is a source of joy.

The fall makes work harder. By the sweat of your brow and the toil of your hands will you feed yourself-hence life is pain. Hard work is not easy, but it is necessary for your joy. Sidney Greidanus wisely says

“Hard work is part of the joy of living. God created us to work (Gen 2:15). So purposeful work should give us satisfaction and joy.” Sidney Greidanus

The key for Greidanus is “purposeful work.” One of the things I lament in Litchfield is too many of our young people, especially our boys, have no vision for work. They roam around the community with no direction, no purpose, no understanding of the value of work and the joy it brings to life. So they turn to drugs and alcohol and a life of poverty. It feeds their despair and depression creating a vicious cycle. One of the things I hope to accomplish through TTV is to mentor our children toward a good and healthy vision of work as a source of joy. Solomon says to you, do purposeful work and find joy in it.

Joy in this Life is Hard Work

It seems to odd that we have to work so hard to enjoy life. Right now we have to work to cultivate joy in the smaller things of life. We have to strive to be intentional about eating meals together. And when life is hard, we have to purpose in our heart to make the most of it with the right perspective. For now, marriage is hard work, and we have to make time and energy for physical intimacy with our spouse, or at least hold off until we have a spouse. Right now we work hard and hope what we do matters in the end. But there is coming a day, brothers and sisters, when our joy will be perfect and forever.

Jesus is Life

There is coming a day when we will sit down and eat a the magnificent meal together. Our joy will finally be complete because we have finally come home and Jesus will present his bride as spotless and beautiful. All of heaven will rejoice at the finished work of the Son. We will have our new resurrected glorified bodies that will enjoy real food and real rest and real joy. Let me show you what I am talking about. Listen to the true words of God.

Revelation 19:6–9 ESV

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

Do you see the meal? Do you rest? Do you see the marriage? Do you see the finished work? That is your future if you are invited to marriage super of the Lamb. You have to be invited, which means you must confess and repent of your sins. You must ask God for forgiveness. You must accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation by asking him to be our Lord and savior; ask him to come into your heart and live and be your king and your treasure. He will take your sin and receive God’s wrath on the cross in your place, a wrath you deserve. He will in turn give you his righteousness and justify before His Holy Father. Your sins will be forgiven and you will have eternal life. You will be allowed to enter the marriage super of the Lamb.

In this world, life is pain. Anyone says any differently is trying to sell you something. But brothers and sisters, Jesus is your life. He is your strength and your joy in the morning. You can sing for joy at the work of his hands and his side and his cross. Jesus is your all in all. Draw near to him and bless your soul. Jesus gives you ten thousand reasons to sing for joy in this life. If anyone tells you differently, they are trying to sell you something.