Life is Short, Live Well

Introduction

Just a moment, I want to read from Ecclesiastes chapter 11, chapter 11, beginning in verse 8. Appreciate Justin’s five job and selecting songs and leading us in those songs this morning. A line that may be a bit confusing in that last song, I think fits pretty well with where we’re going this morning. That your goodness is running after me. God is begging us to see his goodness, to realize it, to accept it into our lives. It’s all around us, and part of what’s happening as we live this life is what we perceive, what we’re willing to see, what we will accept, is actually happening around us, and our perception becomes our reality in so many ways. And what the wise man of Ecclesiastes is wanting us to understand and see is the importance of God being a part of my life and how that changes everything.

He wants me so badly to see it. And but it’s up to me to decide. It’s my choice whether or not I’m going to receive life as the gift of God, or I’m going to go through the monotony of trying to do this alone. And when I go about it that way, it is dark, it is bleak, and that’s the message we see within this book. The contrast between a life lived, seeking self, pursuing the things of this life in comparison to what it’s like to seek the things of God. And when I’m willing to stop and to slow down day after day and receive God in my life and see the blessing he is to me, it changes everything about my outlook. And that’s what this wise man wants me and wants you to see as we read through his thoughts and wisdom that he offers to the world.

Begin reading to me in Ecclesiastes chapter 8, 11, in verse 8. Ecclesiastes 11, beginning in verse 8. So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart hear 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. Remove vexation from your heart and put away pain from your body. For youth and the dawn of life are vanity. In previous sermons, we’ve talked about the general message of the teacher that life is heavy, that Hebrew word that has kind of nuanced meanings.

And what we’re going to look at this morning is really that meaning of short. Life is temporary. But it also can be meaningless if we live it apart from God. That’s another way that word can be translated. It is like a vapor, it’s like a breath. We’ve sung a little bit about that this morning. It’s like that wave that Justin mentioned that comes crashing in and then recedes. That’s just how quick life is. And in the moment it doesn’t seem that way, but then in an instant, we’re a lot older, aren’t we? And everything has changed. And that’s just the nature of how life works. And so we’ve talked about the limits of control and how God is the author of time and we can’t stop the clock.

And various messages from this book. But this morning, what we’re going to talk about is how we respond to the reality of what life is, that life is short. And in recognizing that life is short and that God is sovereign, we should live it well with wisdom. I think maybe the most natural thing for us to think about when we think about the brevity of life, particularly those who are of us who are a little bit older, and maybe the younger ones among us haven’t thought about this yet. But those that are a little bit older, we think about regrets. You know, what would I have done differently? And of course, there’s plenty of studies on this, some recent studies dealing with baby boomers, found that 40% wish they had spent more time with family and friends.

38% wish they had spoken up at a crucial moment. 32% wish they had traveled more, 30% wish they had gotten more sleep. Some of these things relate to careers. You know, we spent all this time in most of the book of Ecclesiastes, is about toil, it’s about work and how we see our work. Right? If you read through it again, you’ll see that concept coming up again and again and again. In fact, in all the summaries, there’s seven summaries where he’s pointing us to the idea of finding joy in our life, enjoying the things of life, and every single one of them toil, work is mentioned. How we view our work is so important in this life, this temporary life that we’re living here. And so it’s not surprising that many of these regrets tie into the nature of work.

I wish I would have spent less time at work and more time with family. Or I had traveled more, enjoyed the creation that God has given us, adventured, followed some of the dreams that I had. These are the sorts of things that tie in to some of those numbers that I gave you earlier. Eric Zilmer, who is a neuropsychologist from Drexel, explains some of this. And I think this is a little bit helpful. He says, regret is a negative emotion that often hangs around longer than it should.

Unburdened by the regrets of the past or their anxieties about the future. Most regrets are not logical. So the answer, he says, is to focus on the present, replace regret with gratefulness. So it’s interesting that this guy is an educated neuropsychologist, that’s amazing and everything, but I want you to understand that what he says right here is exactly what the Bible says.

And you’ve heard me say it over and over as we’ve worked through this book, the importance of focusing on the present, of showing gratitude and how this changes everything about our life when we’re willing to do this. Interestingly, though, and those of you who are older will appreciate this, the boomer crowd, 60s plus, although they have regrets, they are actually the happiest age group in the United States, according to the 2024 Happiness Report. So I find that interesting. In that report, and it’s a little alarming, actually, too. in that report, it says, in many but not all regions, the young are happier than the old, and so what it’s saying is around the world. So this is a worldwide report. In general, those who are younger are happier, but in North America, happiness has fallen so sharply for the young that they are now less happy than the old.

1. Living Well Works Best When We Rejoice in Our Youth

I don’t have time or the inclination this morning to go into all the reasons for that. I have some thoughts about it, maybe for another time. but it is alarming that our young people are so unhappy when we’ve been so blessed, and we have so much, and maybe that ties in to some of that, not appreciating the things that we actually have, and this is why gratitude is such an important thing. And so I want to talk about this idea of life being short and how this factors into the concept of also living well. And I want to begin where we read this morning, which is in chapter 11, with this thought of this idea that living well works best when we rejoice in our youth.

What the wise man wants us to see is we should start as early as we possibly can and rejoicing in the things that we have. Sometimes, particularly in modern culture, it’s kind of this idea you can sow your wild oats, and young people, maybe you don’t even know what that means. That just means live it up. You know, do whatever you want to do and enjoy life to the fullest from a material, hedonistic, secularist sort of mindset. Do the things that seem fun and desirable to you, and then sometime later in life, you’ll kind of get it all back together and do the right things again. The preacher says that is utterly foolish. And that will only create more problems in your life, and life is short.

Why do you want to waste your time, particularly in your early years, with things that are frivolous and unimportant? Why do things that cause sorrow and burden in your heart and in your mind? This is exactly the point he’s making here. He tells this young man to rejoice, right? Rejoice in the things of your youth. Follow your heart, follow your dreams. Youth is an amazing time of life. That’s one reason it’s so sad that our young people are so anxious and depressed. Because in reality, it’s a great time of life. The possibilities are endless. You have all sorts of directions you could go, and in fact, maybe you’re going a certain direction, and you can change that direction. You know, you’re 20 years old and you want to do one thing and you decide, no, I don’t want to do that.

I’m going to do something else. When you’re 55, that’s a little bit more difficult. You know, but when you’re younger, you have so many possibilities, and options are open to you. You are strong often, physically, mentally, from a material standpoint, from an earthly standpoint, you are kind of at your peak in your youth. How sad for that to be a time of stress and anxiety and depression, which it seems to be so frequently, at least in our country, in our region of the world. And the wise man, he warns us against this and he tells us how to deal with this, right? Avoid drama in your life. Get the things out of life that create problems. If there are problems in your life, if there are issues, you’re you’re a young person.

Why are you pursuing them? You know, find things that bring joy into your life. Follow the things that shear your heart. And now, in the midst of that, we’ll talk more about this next week. He says, God will bring you into judgment. So he’s not just saying do whatever you want and enjoy life however you want to enjoy it. That’s not the message here, because there’s another side of this that we need to fear God and that there will be a judgment. But within the limit of doing things that are pleasing to God, he says, enjoy it, do it. Why are you holding yourself back? But here’s the key remove vexation or sorrow from your heart and put away pain from your body. This is why would you do things that are bringing stress and drama to your mind?

Why would you do things that are bringing problems to your body? Okay, I understand that when we’re younger, we can be a little bit foolish. you know, when I was younger, I enjoyed doing things that were a little bit more adventurous. I wanted to skydive, never got to do that. I promised Katie I wouldn’t after we got married. I did bungee jump, you know, so there’s things I skied and I hit big jumps and did all kinds of things. And at the moment, you don’t think much about it, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t do those things or enjoy them. That’s great. Just know your body can take a toll from some of that. And that’s one of the great things about youth.

So don’t waste that. At least think about it. Be a little bit careful. This is the blessing. This is the strength of youth, is that God has blessed you with a strong body and a strong mind. And think about this is where the real key is. How can I use that to glorify God? This is not a time that’s just for me to do what I want to do and do for me. Just because I’m young is no excuse to be ungodly. The idea I’ll just get it all together later is a foolish concept, and it’s going to infect me in so many other ways. And let me just stop and say at the moment, so we don’t go too far this direction, that all of us have done foolish, sinful, harmful things.

And so it’s not that if we’ve done those, we just can’t ever recover and can’t ever get it back on track again. That’s not the point here. But if we’re thinking straight and we’re listening to the wise man here, this preacher, we’re going to think carefully, even in our youth, about how to do things well. If you’re not married. So youth is a wide range, right? It can be some of the young teenagers. It also can be young adults who are even married and have children. You’re not old just because you’ve reached that point of life. You’re still pretty young, a lot of you. Right? But if you’re not married, it’s a time to develop yourself as a person of God now. And if you do get married one day at some point, you will have prepared yourself as a person of God so you have something to offer to a spouse eventually.

Marriage is not a place you go to then be built up and have to lean on somebody else and for them to have to carry you along all the time. That’s going to lead to a really bad marriage. And so why waste the time in our youth? You will never have more time than you have right now, young people. You will never have more time. I know you think you’re busy. You will never have more time than you have right now. To open your Bibles and read and to study and to grow and to grow your relationship with God, to pray. You have very little responsibilities in reality. You have the things that you’re doing, but you’re not taking care of a house and a family and bills.

You don’t have all of these concerns. You have all sorts of mental space and lack of stress to take your time and do things that can grow you spiritually. Particularly if you’re at the point where you’re not married, you don’t even have another person you’re responsible to. Paul talks about this very idea in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. It’s a time in which you can grow in your relationship with God like no other, because no one else is pulling you for your time and your mental space. And so don’t waste your youth in frivolity and in futility. Use it in a time as a time that is a time for building and a time for growth. And if you’re married, maybe you didn’t spend time doing those things when you were younger.

That’s okay. As early as you can, begin doing that now. Establish good habits, develop solid habits as an individual, but also in your marriage. Or in your young family. I can just tell you right now, it’s like running uphill to try to do that later. We talked about regret earlier. There’s habits and things I wish I would have done as a husband and a father way earlier. Put some thought into that if you’re a young married couple. If you’re a young married couple with small children. Think about the importance of good habits and how that will help you later on in your life. Rejoice in your youth. Direct your heart in the right things. And it’ll help so much as you are maturing in life. It’ll make such a difference as you grow old.

And this is the very point. We didn’t read chapter 12, but this is the very point he’s making in chapter 12. Remember also your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come, before things get difficult. That’s what he’s saying. You know, and the picture there is ultimately one of kind of going to death, right? You know, as your body’s breaking down and you’re getting older, but that’s not really the limit of the image. It’s just the idea as you get older, things get more difficult and life gets harder. And so do it as you’re young. Remember your creator in your youth so that you are better prepared as you age. I mean, it doesn’t have to be the picture of 95-year-old on their deathbed.

That’s that’s not the limit of the image here. It can be the 45-year-old or the 55-year-old or the 60-year-old. I’m telling you start to have some aches and pains when you’re in your 40s. And I’ve heard it doesn’t get a whole lot better. You know, so take advantage of the time in life where you don’t deal with those things. Or at least don’t deal with them as much. If you can’t rejoice in your youth, maybe this is the biggest point. If you can’t rejoice in your youth, you’ll have a really hard time rejoicing in your old age. If we can’t find it in our heart, if we can’t see the goodness of God around us at 25, at 30, what makes us think we’re going to see it when we’re 60, when we’re 70.

And so what I’m asking is just to put some thought into that, particularly our young people, our teenagers, our young adults. If you’re living every day of life stressed and anxious and depressed, get some help. Reach out to somebody you trust. Find a way to think through this that’s going to help you, that’s going to cause you to grow, and that’s part of what we’re working on as we work through the book of Ecclesiastes. But talk to an elder, talk to me, talk to one of the deacons, talk to another respected member of the congregation. Talk to somebody. You shouldn’t be going through life anxious and depressed day after day. Try to find some answers. And ultimately, what we’ve been looking at here is the answers are not in the world.

They’re not in possessions. It’s not in controlling everything. The answer is in Jesus Christ. That’s ultimately what we’re helping. He’s the one that gives rest to the soul, as he says in Matthew chapter 11. And so we’ve got to find some comfort in that. Now, in saying that, I fully understand, I’m not naive. I realize day to day we go through stresses and difficulties, and there’s times just like those ebbs and flows we’ve sung about where we are depressed and we are down. That’s just part of life. But here’s the thing if I can rejoice as much as possible, I will make it through those dark days much easier. That’s what the wise man says here in Ecclesiastes. You won’t even remember those dark days. Because the Lord will be filling your heart with joy.

2. Find a Joy in the Basic Things of Life

These are the types of things this wise man says here. He’s not denying the reality of difficulties in life or stresses or anxieties or even times of sorrow and depression. He’s not trying to act like those don’t exist. But he’s trying to give us some tools to help along the way. And one of those is to begin rejoicing as young as you possibly can. Start as soon as possible. Don’t waste your youth. The second of these that I see frequently within this book is to find a joy in the basic things of life. It’s just so tempting in our world to think we can manufacture joy. You know, we’re going to go buy that car we’ve always wanted, or the bigger house, or the nicer clothes, or whatever the thing is, right?

We already talked about that. Stuff doesn’t make us happy. That’s not where we’re going to find fulfillment and meaning. But yet it’s just so easy to think that’s going to happen. That we can somehow manufacture these feelings of fullness and that we’re going to find joy in the things of this life. And what he’s saying to us frequently is that’s not where it’s at. It’s not in the fancy vacation, although we can enjoy that, and we should look with gratitude and all that on that kind of situation. It’s certainly not the infatuation of a relationship. It needs to be something much deeper than that. It’s not going to be in the new purchase. All those things are just dopamine hits. They make us feel good for just a few moments and then it all sort of goes away, and then we want to do it again because we’re just seeking that over and over again.

But it’s interesting through the text, it is more just about having gratitude for the things that we have day to day. Finding ways to appreciate what God has given us. In chapter 9, it’s stated this way in verse 7. This is chapter 9 and verse 7. Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. 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. Whatever your hand finds to do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol to which you are going.

But I just noticed that he doesn’t say, go enjoy life and take that amazing vacation, and that’s going to make everything better. Or buy that new thing you wanted, and that’s just going to make you feel really good. He says, Go eat and drink. You know, put on some good clothes and feel good about the day. This is the substance of where true joy is found. And more so, it’s finding gratitude in those things. Joy is found through simple gratitude for doing good, as he talks about early in the book. Just go do good things and see the joy in that. And be grateful for the ability to do that. Eat and drink and work, do your work, and do it hard. Find joy in marriage with this wife that you love, he says.

Notice children are on the list. They’re nowhere in the book. It’s kind of interesting. They’re not in Song of Songs either.

You know, most of these are just basic parts of life. They are the day-to-day elements. And notice Jesus also says, Give us this day our daily bread. You know, he’s not praying for the big vacation or the purchase that he wants. This is, it seems so simple. And yet it’s so profound. To be grateful for those things we do daily. If you can only find joy in that really awesome vacation, for our 20th anniversary, we went to Mexico. It was amazing. It was a place that some people here who had been before and they suggested it. It was awesome. It was amazing. But if I only found joy and fulfillment by doing something like that, I mean, how sad would that be? I just woke up every day and I thought, man, maybe one day I can have joy again and go do something fun, like that vacation we took.

It’s so sad to think that way. And what the preacher is saying is when you get up and you have some food to eat, be grateful for that. I mean, that’s amazing that I can get up and I can eat every day, and I have good things to drink, and I have a family to share things with. I have a wife that I can enjoy life with, or I have a family around me, or I have good friends. These are the things to find joy in. And you can find them every single day. It’s just the basics.

So maybe that’s another reason why we should be grateful for them and not see them in a negative light. He says, don’t be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink? Do not be anxious about tomorrow. We’ll hold that thought here for a few moments and get back to it. But the idea is we can allow the things we eat and the things we drink to be sources of anxiety, or we can see them as a blessing and we can be thankful for them. And maybe that is the wisdom behind how many of us at each meal stop for a moment and say a prayer of gratitude. Maybe it seems mundane or too simple. But do you not see this is exactly the sort of thing the preacher tells us to be doing?

Gratitude actually changes your brain function. Did you know that? This is another one of those things that science sort of backs up, neuroscience especially backs up. But of course, if you read scripture, you already know this the importance of showing gratitude. But having an attitude of thankfulness day by day, in fact, in some of these studies, they had a gratitude journal. So some people were journaling the things they’re thankful for, other people were journaling their problems, essentially, and then they’re looking at the difference. It’s how one of these studies were done. They’re done different ways. There’s plenty of these out there. But what happens when you are regularly thinking about the things you’re grateful for is it balances those short dopamine hits, you know, the one you someone likes your post or the picture or whatever and makes you feel really good, and then you have to go back three minutes later to see if anybody else has, right?

That’s the dopamine, right? But when we are grateful and we have thankfulness in our heart and we’re finding things day by day by day, it’s shifting our brain, it’s producing serotonin, which balances those dopamine hits, and it results in longer lasting contentment and emotional stability. And the results are actually pretty remarkable. People who focus on gratitude daily, it actually reduces their pain. It reduces physical pain to do that. You get better sleep.

This is all in an article called The Neuroscience of Gratitude. I mean, I guess it seems pretty simple, and if we read scripture, I think we can kind of see how this would work. But it’s it’s kind of amazing that these things we would think of as physical things like sleep or pain are actually influenced in a huge way just by every single day being thankful for things. And you’ve probably experienced this in your own life. Maybe you’ve realized some of us struggle with this more than others. Some of us are more pessimistic by nature, and we see the things that we don’t like around us, and we highlight those things and emphasize them. But if you’re like that, I’ve struggled with that a little bit myself, then you realize this is not good for you.

I need to be thinking about the things that are good, the things I can be thankful for. And when I actually focus on that and spend some time, put some effort into even writing down, if you’ve ever journaled or done this sort of thing, you probably have felt the difference in the way you feel. If you’re every single day writing down things you’re you’re thankful for, and the idea would be you’re you’re doing different things, it’s not just the same thing every day, although that’d be better than nothing. But you’re you’re actually shifting and changing the way your brain functions. And what’s amazing about that is exactly what the wise man is saying to do here. Yeah, we can all find all the bad things, and we could complain about all sorts of stuff in every single realm.

We can complain about how our worship goes. You could complain about Han preaching this sermon. We can complain about all sorts of stuff if that’s what we want to do. But what he’s telling us here is why don’t we find joy in things? And it’s not that we can’t ever point out things that should be different or ever offer criticisms. Certainly that’s that’s not the point here. But if we are people who are regularly seeking thankfulness and gratitude in our life, it is going to change the way we think, and it’s going to change the way that we live. And really, the wise man says as much. Places like Ecclesiastes chapter 2. The difference in thinking has to do with our connection to God and the way we see life.

Right? So in verse 24, there is nothing better. This is chapter 2 and verse 24. There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his soil. Notice, find enjoyment. It doesn’t just show up for you. You have to receive it. You have to think about it. Right? We have to realize this is the goodness of God in my life and appreciate that. Right? Find enjoyment in his toil. This also I saw is from the hand of God. For apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him, God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy. So that’s one side of this. The one who’s seeking to please God and do things his way, God gives him these good things, knowledge and wisdom and joy.

But to the sinner, the one who opposes God or doesn’t take thought for God or isn’t interested in the things of God, he has given the business, or that’s just the idea of work. He’s given the work of gathering and collecting. I mean, what a miserable life. Your life is just gathering and collecting. That’s all you do. And then it’s over. Right? Because life is short. We should want to live this as best we can. Life is short, and so live well. If we want to live it well, it’s gonna be with God, not apart from him. And when we are trying to please God, he gives us all sorts of good things, wisdom and knowledge, a life that we can enjoy. It is his gift.

But when we don’t, it is a misery.

3. We Do This Now, Today

If we’re not seeking to please God, if we’re not seeing God in all aspects of our life, it’s gonna be just a tremendous bore. And we’re gonna wonder what all is this for anyway? What’s the point of my work? Why am I doing all this? And we’re gonna find ourselves empty in the end. Which then leads to what I think is the driving point throughout the entire book, is that is that we do this now. Today. This is the point he’s making over and over again. This is the whole reason why it’s the ordinary things, right? It’s not the vacation or the purchase, the things that happen kind of sporadically, and those are fun, and we can enjoy those, but it’s not those that are gonna give us the long lasting contentment.

It is that we find the things today that are going to lead us to contentment and fulfillment in life in a relationship with God, in relationship with God’s people. So don’t get hung up on the past, on the regrets, all the things that we wish could be different. Remember what he talked about. Even though these older people had regrets, they’re actually the happiest people. Why is that? As he says, often regrets, we hang on to them too long anyway, and as we get old, we realize, well, we can’t change it. So I’m gonna focus on now. Right? And the more we focus on the present and think about the things that we have now that God has given us, the less we’re gonna be riddled with regret of things in the past.

And certainly don’t be fretting the future, be anxious about the things to come when we can’t even control those things. They’re not even within our realm of control, as we talked about last week. And so, why burden ourselves with the anxieties of the future or the regrets of the past? What the wise man is saying here is not to be imprudent, not to think at all about what we’re gonna do in our life, but to focus on today, just as Jesus says to do. There’s enough anxiety for tomorrow. Right? Let it’s gonna come. Focus on the things that have to be dealt with today, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6, and seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things are gonna be added to you the food that you need and the drink and the clothes that you’re gonna wear, and then you can appreciate what God has given.

This is the message Jesus is giving them in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s completely in keeping with what’s happening here in the book of Ecclesiastes. But I want us to understand that the point being made here is that this is a choice. It is a choice that I have to make if I’m going to enjoy today. Whatever the day brings, I can find joy in it. If a person lives many years and says, let him rejoice in them all. This is chapter 11. We read this earlier in verse 8. So rejoice in them all. That’s an interesting thought since the very next phrase is, but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. You can rejoice in them all, even though there’s going to be dark days if you have the right perspective.

If you’re coming at this from the right mindset, focused on the joy of what God has given us, even in the midst sometimes of extreme trial and difficulty. Seven times within this book, scattered through kind of in a systematic way, there are these summary texts saying, enjoy life as God’s gift today. Chapter 2, 24, 312, 322, 518, 815, 9, 7, 11, 8 through 10, where we just read. Just over and over and over, sometimes right after a text about how dark things can be, he says, I’m telling you to enjoy life. It’s a choice. It’s a decision that we make whether or not we’re going to enjoy the things that we go through day after day. So we can appreciate and learn from the past, but don’t idealize it.

Don’t say, oh, it used to be so much better. Make the best of right now. That’s the wisdom of Ecclesiastes. Have you ever seen those memes? I think they’re great in a lot of ways, but it’s, you know, you always know the first, but you don’t ever think of the last, you know, the last time you’re gonna hold your baby or rock your baby or read the bedtime story or any of those kind of things. And so you cry and you kind of feel that feeling emotion of sorrow because, oh yeah, I mean, there were those last times and all of that. and that’s fine. I think there’s some good in that. But I want us to understand the point of that is not to make you cry about what you don’t have anymore.

The real point in those messages is actually to help you remember to live in the moment. To see the joy of what you have right now. Because one day it’ll change and it’ll be different, and then you’ll see the joy in that. It’s gonna be a different thing. The point is not to make you upset. That’s not really the point. The whole message there is enjoy today and think about the right now and appreciate the gift of what God has given you in the moment. And so, mamas don’t cry that one day you’ll rock your baby for the last time or read the last bedtime story. Smile at the gift of doing that today. Enjoy that moment today. Appreciate how God has blessed you in this moment that you get to do this even when you are exhausted beyond belief.

That’s the wisdom of Ecclesiastes. And if you want to cry later about it, that’s okay too. But the main idea is that we’re focused on the present. Right? And dads, maybe it’s a little bit different for us. Don’t get frustrated that you have to buy the new uniform or the equipment or pay the travel fees. If you’re gonna do it, enjoy it. You know, don’t moan and complain about it. Go support your child. What an amazing thing. You get to go watch your children do something they love to do. You can support them and take interest in their lives and the opportunities that they’re seeking. And of course, there’s life lessons along the way. And so you can choose to find joy. You can complain about how much it costs and the time it takes and all that, or you can just find the joy in that.

This is the message of Ecclesiastes. Enjoy today. And I get it. I know it’s hard. I’ve coached before. Some of y’all have coached before. It’s difficult. Or you’re just a parent bringing kids all over the place. I’m not saying it’s not difficult or hard, but the message here is you can choose how to think about it. And so, why choose the stress and the anxiety? Why choose the frustration when we can see the joy in it? And similarly realize that one day it’ll be really different. And so appreciate the way it is right now. The money’s gonna go away anyway. We already talked about that. And I get sometimes there’s limitations, and sometimes we have to say no, but if we’re gonna say yes, say yes and enjoy it.

This is the way we really enjoy life. Going to your kids’ game and putting interest in that, it’s not gonna be the big purchase you give them one day to try to buy their love. That’s not gonna be what it is. It’s gonna be that you showed up every day for them and you took joy in that. And so, dads, let’s not forget that. That matters to our kids, and it matters to our wife. And yes, wives, moms, the same for you two. I’m just trying to hit the angles that maybe speak a little bit more to each. Zilmer says most regrets are not logical and can be dismissed upon closer examination. Mark Twain said it this way I had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.

Whether it’s the past or the future, we get tied up in things that often don’t matter a whole lot. And we allow it to sacrifice the joy of the present. And this is what the wise man Ecclesiastes is encouraging us not to do. But to take joy today. When you go to lunch today with your family or your friends, sit for a moment and just appreciate the joy of that moment and how God has blessed you. And so the more we stay in the present, the more the past and the future will not bother us. And we can focus and we can think on the beauty of what God has given us day by day. Give us this day our daily bread. Jesus didn’t say, give us our bread tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

Conclusion

Today that may mean you realize you need Jesus Christ in your life.

And make it right. And what a beautiful thing that would be.

Empty and fruitless. You can make that decision. That’s where the wise man’s ultimately going. All of this reaches a pinnacle with Jesus himself: that he is wisdom, he is knowledge, he is love, he is healing. And you can find that through him and through his blood if you will die to self, you’ll be buried in baptism, be resurrected to newness of life, and begin walking with him. And he will take your burdens away and he will give you rest. Can we help you with that this morning? Come now as we stand and we sing.