Reasons to Enjoy Life

Reasons to Enjoy Life
Well, good morning, my name is Jason Wolin and I'm one of the pastors on staff here and it's great to be with you again today. We began with this video on biblical joy to set the joy of Ecclesiastes in its proper context.

Today we continue where we left off last week. We saw Solomon commending joy to us. He's commending to us a simple formula of how to enjoy life. Enjoy what you understand. Trust when you don't. In order for us to really enjoy the good simple gifts of food, a spring day, a camping trip we have to release to God the parts that don't make sense.

- Why do good things happen to evil people?
- Why is it that death sweeps away the evil and the righteous?

And when we entrust our good Father with complexities above our paygrade, we are then free to enjoy life.

- This isn't the carpe diem (seize-the-day) joy that comes out of a worldview of fatalism. It's all headed down the sewer anyway so here's a piece of happiness to numb me along the way.

- This is a joy that comes out of the fact that God is causing all things to work together for good. The fact that the redemptive narrative, however mysterious, is surely and absolutely unfolding. And that God as ruler and king has redeemed and is redeeming his people. And we can have joy knowing that God has got this under control.

So today we continue this study on joy.

Now in chapters 8 and 9, we see Solomon is writing using a very specific technique: He's using what we will call literary whiplash. He's violently bouncing back and forth between two extremes. He's bouncing from the chaos of life, the evil and the tragedy of the world, the unfair nature of life, and then without a transitional sentence bounces into the simple, amazing, even profound joys that God gifts us.

And his tactic in using this literary whiplash is to make a sharp comparison. He starts by depressing you into submission that it is not possible to understand the mystery of suffering and death in hopes that you will relinquish those mysteries to God and focus on the present joys in front of you. "Wouldn't you rather just enjoy the gifts of God rather than spend your whole life figuring out what can never be understood?"

When I was a kid I was really into magnets and tried to build a perpetual motion machine. And I had all these ideas. And I was so determined. At first, my dad encouraged me because he saw that I was having fun and learning things. But I think he could tell that was getting obsessed with it and I remember him making an offhanded comment, "You know, if you invent a perpetual motion machine you will have to break a law of the universe." I was like, "Thanks for throwing shade on my dreams." He said, "Enough with magnets and trying to do the impossible. It's not like you can just easily break the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Why don't you go play in the sandbox."

That is what Solomon is doing. Dude, just release the parts of life you can't understand to God. Just release it. There's joy right here for you.

Solomon really is commending joy to us. In fact, I had a seminary professor who wrote a commentary on Ecclesiastes and he subtitled his work 'The Philippians of the OT' because he really sees joy as the interpretive key to the book.

A lot of people have trouble seeing that because they read the book as pessimistic. But it all depends on your perspective. For example, one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life is the solar eclipse that happened a few years ago. It was so impactful to me, my brain went into straight up record mode: I can literally remember every detail of it. It was truly epic. Now obviously these moments are incredibly rare and are very short-lived. Just a few short seconds maybe once or twice in your life and for some, never.

Now given the shortness of this event and how rare this event is, I have become someone of an evangelist. I might tell someone, "Man you've got to take the day off work to come out and see this." And they would say, "Well, I have this lead I'm working on and I might be able to close this big sale."

- And I would argue back, "Dude, you might close that sale, but equally, you might lose that sale."
- You only get one solar eclipse. It is 100% certain and it's 100% awesome and then it will be 100% gone.

Do you hear that as pessimism? I'm not trying to be pessimistic about your sale. Nor am I being pessimistic about the brevity of solar eclipses. I'm just saying, "Why not enjoy the thing that's right here, right now, that's guaranteed? Why would you let this joy pass you by?"

This is what Solomon is saying. So in today's passage, we are going to see Solomon continue to commend joy to us. And some of those arguments will be positive; look at how great this joy is. And some arguments are negative; stop thinking you have control over future joy because there's no guarantee. But positively or negatively, he's commending joy.

So with that setup, let's break into our text.

Now, remember what we said about literary whiplash. Solomon has just finished depressing us into submission with the absolute certainty of death. We can't lose the context here because it's key to what he's doing. So before we open our text today, let's just re-read where we left off last week.

So what is he saying? He's saying, "Look around. Let's take this out of the realm of religion for a moment. This isn't theological. People who are alive are afraid of death. People who are not alive are not afraid of death. Why because dead people can't think. They can't do anything. That's just a strict observation. What does nature teach us? People die."

Most people think they deserve to be treated fairly, to have a really good life, lots of good things happen to them. What about nature teaches you that? Everything is unfair and the only thing nature teaches you is that you deserve to die.

Do you hear the bleakness and despair? He's pointing out the certainty of death. Why? So you start living! Enjoy this life right now! So that was last week.

Now without a transitional hint, look at how he snaps us into the current simple moment. He goes from the certainty of death in verse 6 to here in verse 7.

You have a gift. You are not dead. A living dog is better than a lion. But you will soon die. So, with this minimum amount of time that we have been given, Solomon is pleading, "Pursue joy! Go see an eclipse. Go sit and watch the ocean. Go watch a sunrise. Lay on your back and look at the clouds. Eat a picnic lunch. Enjoy life."

Now someone who does not agree with the Christian worldview could agree with this point. No question. Enjoy today for you don't know what tomorrow holds. That's just good common sense.

But here's the part that changes everything. These sources of joy are not unexplainable freak occurrences that happen upon you. They are gifts from God. And the fact they are gifts from God totally transforms the way you experience them.

Let me illustrate. American's this year will receive a stimulus check because of the crisis we are in. I suppose we can thank our great-grandchildren from that. Now that's a significant amount of money.

Now, what if your mom or dad, son or daughter, or best friend gave you a birthday present with a check for that same amount of money. At great cost to them, they gave you that check.

It's the same amount of money, but massively different in terms of how you receive it. I mean, your joy is a million times greater simply because of the relationship. Because it's a gift from someone you love. The money is very much secondary to the love that you sense in your heart toward the person. The gratitude, the thankfulness, the affection.

It says in verse 8, God has already approved what you do. God is a smiling father. He's saying, God has laced life with all sorts of pleasures because he loves you. So enjoy all those pleasures along the way as God sovereignly doles them out.

And my favorite part of this text is how common it is. Start glorying in the beauty of God by eating dinner. He says, man, don't just cram calories down your gullet. Dinner is a holy moment. We should eat slowly. Friends should be invited. There's no rushing. Good food and good drinks and good friends are God's gifts to you. Enjoy the portion given to you.

Think about this description of heaven:
- Wedding supper of the lamb where you are banqueting at the table of the king.
Food is a gift from God. That's why we pray before we eat. Do you want to really prepare your heart for heaven? Start at the dinner table. If you want significance, start at the dinner table. Do you want purpose, significance, and meaning in life? Then smile. Laugh. Enjoy the wonderful gift of food with the wonderful gift of family and the wonderful gift of friends. You have been blessed with food to be a blessing. Now go do it.

God wants you to enjoy life! Knowing this eliminates the entire foundation upon which asceticism is built. Asceticism says that God is pleased when we starve ourselves of pleasure. But according to this passage, we don't have to ask the question, "Is it right for me to enjoy a gift of God?" Of course it's right! The text says that God has already approved what you do. In fact, it is right to say that the Bible reserves the severest of language to condemn people who would argue that food and marriage are not gifts to be enjoyed.

Wow, God is serious about us enjoying dinner. Of course, we can abuse a gift. Of course, we can want a gift at the wrong time or in the wrong way. But the gift itself is exactly that. It's a gift that God wants us to enjoy.

Imagine a son who graduates from high school. Dad gives him 20 bucks and says, "Go out with your friends to any restaurant you want and buy anything on the menu." He's been pre-approved to enjoy anything that 20 bucks can buy him. It would be totally wrong thinking for the son to say, "Man, I really want that milkshake, but maybe my dad would be happier if I didn't spend it." No, God is a smiling father and wants you to enjoy the $20 bucks he just gave you. That $20 was for your joy.

Do you think of God that way? He wants to bless you. He is a smiling father. He wants to see you happy.

- He gifts you beautiful weather so you can enjoy it. So get out.
- He gifts you food. He gifts you drink. So eat and drink.
- He gifts you freedom.
- He gifts you music for your joy. So listen.

You have the pre-approval from God to enjoy all those things. You are pre-authorized to enjoy life.

In chapter 9 verse 8 it says, "Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head." Anointing one's head with oil was a common practice in this very dry climate. It was the common finishing touch after you've washed and cleaned. Same with white garments. Your dirty brown garments are used for farming and traveling. But when you are washed, you put on your white garments. It's a sign of being clean. So you anoint your head with oil and wear white clothes before a wedding. You'd do it before a feast or festival. But you'd also do it before entering into the temple. David, after he had mourned the death of his son, washed, anointed himself with oil, and went into the house of God.

In other words, you've been given liberty to wash and enjoy life. Enjoy the gifts but don't soil yourself with them. Solomon knows a thing or two about trying to use God's gifts the wrong way. He's soiled himself with every gift God's given him.

Remember, Solomon was the great happiness experimenter. And he began the book by trying to over-dose on every one of the gifts. But now as he begins to summarize some of his lessons, you hear the wisdom coming out.

- Women can't make you happy, but enjoy your wife.
- Work can't satisfy, but enjoy your work.
- Food can't fulfill, but enjoy your food.
- Wisdom can't solve your problems, but enjoy the fruits of wisdom.

Because you have already been fulfilled by God, the gifts only serve as vehicles to remind you of why God is so worthy of your affection. They are tokens of God's love, expressions of his kindness. God is a smiling father that wants to bless your socks off. So really, the call here is to enjoy God, through his gifts.

Here's a little bit of insight into my composition: I've got a broken piece of code in my brain that causes me to lose my keys. No matter how hard I try, no matter how hard I try to fix this defect, I still misplace them. I literally lose my keys all the time. I'm comforted when I hear that at least some other humans have this problem. Now there are various ways in which a person can lose keys, but I can tell you the worse kind. It goes like this: you're just a tad bit late and you have the moment of terror where you realize the keys are lost. You tear apart couches, clean bedrooms, inspect junk drawers, and retrace your steps to no avail, only to pass by the car and see the keys hanging in the ignition.

It's so terrible because the thing you wanted so badly, that would have unlocked everything, was right there but you searched and searched.

Joy is kind of like that. The fruits are hanging all around you. Joy is dangling right here, right now, today. The key is right in front of you. It's staring at you, but here you are tearing apart couch cushions and closets and jean pockets. Solomon yells at you, "The keys are in the ignition!"

Here's the way we tend to do this. We find ourselves discontent and so we look back yesterday, a week ago, a year ago, to remember a time when we were happy. The good old days...man if we could just get back to that.

Or we find ourselves thinking forward, the key is certainly just up there a few more years. If only I get this amount of money, then I can be happy.

And yet, the key is dangling right in front of you. Today. Right here. Just open your eyes and see it. Look how much joy is everywhere. Look at it! It's everywhere!

You are allowed to enjoy life, so open your eyes and take in what's right in front of you.

This is a simple appeal to just enjoy what's right in front of you. When I am tempted to think that I need to buy something to be happy, I often think to myself, "Actually, what unfinished project is right in front of me? What is right here that I can do?"

- We need to go on vacation. What if you just went down to the Boise River with a picnic lunch?
- What if you just planted a garden? What if you enjoyed the process of weeding instead of seeing it as a chore?
- What if you just call a friend and laugh? What if you called 10 friends?
- Pet your dog or cat.

Every day, there are so many joys. Picture life as a conveyor belt. On that conveyor belt are trays with meals. At breakfast time, a meal comes out, then lunch, then dinner. Now you don't get a choice. Sometimes it's very familiar. Sometimes it's very different. But every day, without fail, the meals keep coming. It would be foolish to look at that meal and say, "I don't like oatmeal. I wish I could have the bacon and eggs from two weeks ago." Or to say, "I heard that tomorrow we are having prime rib," so you let the meal go. Eat what's in front of you.

Don't look forward to tomorrow's meals. And conversely, don't be like the Israelites that look back on yesterday's meals, if only we were back in Egypt with the leeks and garlic. Enjoy what God gives you today. What delightful things, nourishing things, healthy things are right in front of you right now. Go enjoy them.

Now at first blush, these commands seem so strange. Why would we have to be commanded to enjoy something? If it was enjoyable, why would we need encouragement to enjoy it? Isn't enjoyment kind of automatic? Here's the answer: because the greatest joys in life are joys that require work.

Take for example the joy of food. I mean there's top ramen. You boil water and you are done. That's super easy. You can scarf it down. That's food. But good food takes work. You have to prepare. You have to carve out time on the calendar to shop for it. It takes a long time to prepare and cook. But man, so much better.

And because it's work, we have to be reminded that it worth it.

Consider marriage. Solomon says to live with your wife whom you love. He's commending joy with your spouse. Spiritual and emotional intimacy does not come easily. Getting into the core is difficult. You have to really listen and engage and understand and ask good questions and be humble. We have to die to self and live for the other person. Solomon says, "Look at your husband. Look at your wife. There is so much joy to be had right there in that person you are married to, but you have to seek it. There's no such thing as 5-minute relational depth."

You have to dive into them and try to understand them and relate with them. Seek depth with your wife, with your husband. This is your portion. As you work at that, your joy increases because your personality, desires, and values collide with your spouse's, you both get sharpened. This deep, meaningful, emotional connection is established. That's a gift from God.

Few things in life are meaningful and beautiful and do not have a cost.

The same is true for work. Solomon says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." Pour yourself into your work and see where it goes. Pull hard on the oars and see what God does with that. Work hard and be rewarded by that work.

So these were both positive pleas. Enjoy God's gifts because God is a smiling father and pleasure is a dangling key. Now he's going to transition to negative pleas.

He's getting you to act on that enjoyment by pointing out the instability and uncertainty of life. Tomorrow, this joy may be gone.

If you are always putting off today for the sake of tomorrow you might be really sorry because tomorrow may never come. Chance is a thieving rat.

You can't guarantee the outcome you're seeking. Notice that everything on this list is in the future.

- There's a female gymnast who is training for a medal. And she's training today so that she can win. But she slips on the balance beam and falls. The race was not to the swift.
- There's a Navy Commander who's training up his men, who have the best defense system in the world but are destroyed by the undetected submarine. The battle is not to the strong.
- There's a guy who graduated valedictorian, acing all the exams and studying his guts out through MIT, but the high school dropout established the Fortune 500 company. Riches are not to those with knowledge.

There are two lessons Solomon is pointing out. There are uncontrollable elements that will rob you of your dreams. But secondly, don't rely on your talents and gifts to get you your dreams.

It is so easy to make formulas for success. And in one sense, it isn't wrong. It's not wrong to plan. Proverbs talks all about this.

Proverbs 6:6-11, "Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man."

But even the best-laid plans won't always turn out. You can't trust in the plans.

- The first out of the gate doesn't always win.
- The strongest doesn't always survive.
- Great planning sometimes ends with failure.
- The wise sometimes get discriminated against.

Time and chance happen to all.

Life just doesn't turn out the way you expect, no matter how wise you are. No matter how right you are. I remember being that 25-year-old kid that knew it all because I had read some books. I would think, "Dude, it's simple. Here's how it works. Here's the formula for success."

But it never works that way. There are always exceptions, chance, loopholes, variants, x-factors, free radicals.

We hate the idea of not being in control. And we are often so scared of not having control that we develop paranoia. I think we have a bit of this in our culture right now trying to control an invisible virus. We have this illusion that if we do certain things, we will be safe. Really? Isn't God ultimately in control? Oh, how we hate not being in control.

I learned this week the meaning of the word meticulous. It means a person who possesses many fears. Because they have so many fears they try to arrange and organize and control life down to the last detail. The word has evolved a bit so that it has become a virtue but you can see the idea. Fear of unknown outcomes drives all sorts of behavior. But the bottom line is that the future is uncontrollable.

At any moment your life could be over. You could be biting into a sandwich, just like you have done 10,000 times in your life but that particular sandwich has an invisible hook in it, and death reels you in. You never saw it coming. Like a fish taken in an evil net, 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.

Probably my favorite story in the Bible that illustrates this is the story Jesus tells in Luke 12:16-21,

This man is called a fool. Do you want to know what a fool is? A fool is someone who won't listen and never changes. That's a fool. This guy had Ecclesiastes. And Solomon said, enjoy life today. You don't need more. You don't need bigger barns. You have plenty. Enjoy what God has given you.

And he said, "Nah, I need more." Do you know why Jesus told this parable?

Life consists not in the number of possessions but in the ability to enjoy the gifts of God because they are from God and you love God.

- Greed and covetousness say, "When I fill my barns, then I'll thankful and I can be happy as I eat my meal."
- Contentment and joy say, "I'm so thankful and happy as I eat my meal I don't care what's in my barn."

Here's a final analogy. Two positive. Two negative.

Now certain dispositions are not particularly interested in money. They can see the vanity of that. They are more motivated by knowledge or intellect or wisdom.

They see that wealth is unstable and can potentially backfire severely and so they like the security that comes from investing in themselves, not in the economy. I'm going to study and get smarter because nobody can take that away from me. I want to use my wisdom to shape the future. Because after all, chance and wisdom are warring clans. Wisdom tries to control chance and chance tries to outsmart wisdom. But with enough wisdom, I can outsmart chance. I will be loved for saying that really wise thing.

But Solomon says, are you sure? Wisdom might overcome chance, and might overcome even other people. Wisdom is a very powerful tool. But there is no guarantee that you will be appreciated for it.

Let me tell you a story about a wise man, whose wisdom affected an outcome, brought about great success, and then is totally forgotten.

Solomon illustrates this through a story.

Here's his point: big, loud ideas are sometimes wrong. Small ideas spoken in a whisper are sometimes right.

- Here was a wise man who was right.
- He did all the right things.
- He said it all in the right ways and then other people took credit for those things.
- There's no guarantee that you will be remembered for it.

Don't live for the moment of fame or being remembered, because it may never happen. Don't live for the moment where your wisdom is suddenly needed, because it won't be appreciated.

Live for today, right now, with the simple joy that is in front of you. Thank God for it and live!

## Summary

So the appeal here is to enjoy life. Enjoy the good gifts of God because he is a smiling father who wants to give you good things. Don't look at yesterday's gifts. Don't look at tomorrow's gifts. Enjoy today. Why? Because tomorrow's gifts may never come. You are right to plan but chance might destroy everything you worked for. You are right to plan but being right is rarely remembered. So enjoy today.

- God is directing history to fix all the wrongs in the world.
- Jesus Christ is coming back to resurrect the dead.
- Jesus Christ will give you a new body that will not be subject to decay and corruption.
- Is that not a reason to rejoice?
- Is that not a reason to trust God with what you don't understand so that you can enjoy what you do?

## Announcements

As we close, I wanted to let you know about a COVID-19 relief opportunity. As some of you know we sent a team to India this year right before India locked down due to coronavirus. Some of the students who are part of the seminary we support were unable to travel back to their homes before the lockdown and are now stranded without work in some pretty difficult locations.

The village areas are significantly affected as well and we'd like to send a relief gift for the pastors and their wives to meet the needs of the community.

So if you are inclined to give in this way, you can give online, satisfiedinjesus.org, under the 'Community & Giving' tab. Through this tab, you can give online to our regular fund, or there's a dropdown where you can designate your gift to India Relief.

Thank you for your consideration in this regard.