The Meaning of Life:
Ecclesiastes Sermon #8:
God Gives the Power to Enjoy.
Recap: This is the 8th installment of our series on Ecclesiastes. All the previous sermons in the series are available online in video and in written form if you’d like to catch up with us. We have been going through line by line/ verse by verse and really trying to get a depth of understanding of this book which some have said is a tough book or even a depressing book. We want to see Jesus in these pages and see how Solomon is trying to show us the meaning of life.
We have seen that throughout that Solomon, the wisest, richest, most powerful man in history has committed his life to a grand experiment of finding out the meaning of life. He has asked all the questions that we would ask and tried everything to the highest degree possible. He has tried riches, fame, sex, comedy, accomplishments, the arts, architecture, wars, being the most handsome, all the best foods and intoxications… and he finds that nothing satisfies him “under the sun” which means without God. It is all vaporous a chasing after the wind. And we have developed this picture of life where God is weaving a grand tapestry above our heads but we only see the underside which is a chaos of threads that don’t seem to have any meaning but God sees the top of the tapestry and it is amazingly beautiful and intricate beyond anything we could ever imagine. One day we will see above the tapestry and see what God has been doing all this time. I believe that by the Holy Spirit we can have glimpses of what He’s doing but not the whole picture until we are with Him in Glory.
And in our last sermon on chapter 5, we talked about Joy and the Fear of God. We talked about walking out your faith with fear and trembling. Guarding our steps as we come to the house of the Lord… How it is good for a man to work and to work as one working for the Lord. After trying so many things in this grand experiment for the meaning of life and seeing that leisure doesn’t satisfy, Solomon concluded chapter 5 like this:
Eclesiastes 5:19–20
18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. 19 Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
So we want our hearts to be occupied with joy! This is the gift of God. Today we are going to delve into chapter 6 which is kind of the conclusion of the first part of Solomon’s grand experiment… and today I’d like to look at this line by line and see what the Holy Spirit will show us each today.
Ecclesiastes 6:1-12
1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. 5 Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 6 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?
7 All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. 8 For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.
10 Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. 11 The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? 12 For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?
Now, I have 6 questions for us as we go through this.
Let’s start again in verse 1:
1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.
Notice that it’s not just wealth, he gives three things that we really value, there’s wealth [the money in your accounts], possessions [your house, car, stuff], and honor [how people look at you, how cool you are, how respected you are]. In the World, Under the Sun, you could say that these three things make up the value of your life. This is the stuff of life. And, verse two it says yet God does not give him power to enjoy them.
#1: Do you enjoy what you have? Not just money, but possessions and honor as well. Has God Given you the Ability to Enjoy them? If He hasn’t then pray asking Him, He says you have ot because you ask not. It is such a blessing to have contentment and joy in what you have. Consider this: what is the opposite? To never be satisfied with what you have, to be covetous of what other people have, and again this is not just wealth, this is possessions but also the honor that other people are given, this is jealousy…
In many ways, right now, America is built on the opposite of a God Given Joy in what you have and is all about looking around and wanting everything BUT what God has given you.
Everyone goes on Social Media and looks at AI generated filters of perfect looking people… everyone thinks that they should be payed more or given more or have more because they compare themselves to everyone else. How much better would your life be if you could have JOY IN YOUR CURRENT LIFE, WITH YOUR CURRENT POSSESSIONS AND YOUR CURRENT LEVEL OF HONOR. That would really be winning the lottery and that is what the Lord wants for you! Have Joy in what you already have!
Let’s get raw here, people think that if they just get a new job, then they will be happy, if you just get different friends, if you had different children that were better behaved, or different parents who had treated you better, or if you lived in a different state with different politics, or had a different wife???? NO!!! If you don’t have God-Given Joy in your current circumstances then any of these changes WILL NOT BRING YOU JOY. It’s not the circumstance that is robbing you of joy… it’s you…
You know, I teach statistics and something has always bothered me statistically is you often hear the statistic that 50% of all marriages end in divorce. It’s misleading. When people hear that statistic they think that it means don’t get married because chances are that you will get divorced. IT DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOUR MARRIAGE HAS A 50% CHANCE OF A DIVORCE.
Within that statistic, my marriage to my wonderful wife Lydia, THAT WILL NOT END IN DIVORCE NO MATTER WHAT, OUR MARRIAGE THAT HAS A 0% CHANCE OF DIVORCE, counts as two marriages[one for her and one for me]. The guy who marries and divorces 5 times to 5 different women counts as TEN marriages. So, to get to 50%, you would need 5 marriages like mine to counteract 1 man’s chronic divorcing.
The real divorce rate is closer to 30%, which is still incredibly high… but being a statistics teacher, that just bothers me and I have to get it out there.
The problem is that if a person has had a divorce then they are much more likely when they remarry to have another divorce, the divorce rate for second marriages is 67% and for third marriages it 75%! What does this mean, getting a new spouse will not bring you joy! You MUST HAVE GOD-GIVEN JOY WHERE YOU ARE BECAUSE IT’S YOU NOT THEM THAT IS THE PROBLEM.
Now, if you’re divorced and you are hearing this, there is hope today. There is joy in the Lord and I want to encourage you to find your joy in the Lord… seek Him in this and know the dangers of you and declare today that this statistic is NOT YOU. You have the god given ability to have joy in your wealth, your possessions, your honor, your current life!
And, obviously there are circumstances where there is abuse and there needs to be a change, children and women need to be protected, so that’s a different scenario, and we would love to help you through that however we can, really… but what I’m talking about here is the epidemic of discontentment that leads people to think they need an upgrade. You don’t need an upgrade, what you need is to pray for Joy to be given to you in your current situation.
That’s going to bring us to verse 3 and our second question:
3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
#2: Who do you share it with? When you get wealth and possessions and honor, who do you share it with?
You know, in bible times, fathering a hundred children and living many years are signs that you are very blessed! You have success and a huge family and probably herds and vineyards and servants… you’ve made it. If your soul is not satisfied then a stillborn child is better off than you because at least people mourned them. At least they had potential… if you have had all sorts of financial success but didn’t have God-Given Joy then that is such a wasted of life.
4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. 5 Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 6 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?
Here’s a thought for you: Who’s going to be at your funeral? What are they going to say? How many people will be there?
Solomon says, you can have wealth and possessions and many children and seem to be blessed compared to others and live a long time and in the end if you die and no-one cares and no one loves you… that’s sad. Do you begin to see the importance of community in your life? You’re not wealthy unless you have someone to share it with. It’s the story of A Christmas Carol, Ebenezzer Scrooge, it’s worthless to be wealthy without sharing it with someone.
But, how many of us have been to a great funeral were person after person comes up and testifies, this was a great person, a great dad, they shared Christ with me, here’s how they affected my life…
Verse 7:
7 All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. 8 For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.
#3: Are you content with what you have?
So, the idea here is contentment. How many of us are just naturally content people? We’re Americans. When you go to someone else’s house and it’s a nice house, are you happy for them or do you have thoughts like, maybe we should do that with our house, we need a better house, why are there things so much better than ours?, why are their kids so well-behaved? Why is their spouse so good looking? How do they afford that vehicle or that xyz…
If you feel the need to upgrade everything in your life by looking at others then you are not content. Guess what happens when you upgrade, you WILL STILL NOT BE CONTENT… because it is vanity, it is a striving after wind. You’ll never be satisfied. Now, when do you actually need an upgrade… well it can’t come from looking at what other people have… the question can’t be God, why haven’t you blessed me?
It has to be why am I not satisfied? Can you upgrade something with wisdom and prayer and guarding yourself against coveting what others have? Doing so will not feel American, like not getting into credit card debt, not having impulse buys that make you live above your means… Not being jealous of your neighbor… if you don’t have this there’s only one way to start, pray that God will make you have Joy with what you currently have, if you are thankful for what God has already given you and you voice that thankfulness, it guards you against the trap of covetousness and desire that this world is setting for you.
The next question comes from verse 10:
10 Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he.
#4: Who’s got the final say? Who’s really in charge here?
Who here is a baseball fan? I shouldn’t put my own hand up because of all the sports, I’ve really never been a baseball fan, but I saw an interview once with a major league baseball umpire and I’ll never forget what he said. The interviewer asked him, as you look back on your long career as an umpire, are there any calls that you got wrong? That you wish you could have back? And, the retired umpire looked back confused and said, I don’t know what you mean. So the interviewer tried to rephrase the question, she said, you know like a strike that you called that you later realized should have been a ball or someone you called safe that was actually out, you know, regrets that you wish you could have back. Still confused about the question, the umpire just said, I don’t really understand what you mean because it’s not a strike until I say it’s a strike and the runner isn’t safe unless I say they are safe, and once I say it, that’s what it is.
You see, on the baseball field, the umpire has the final say. It doesn’t matter if the crowd or the players or the coaches all sign a petition that they got it wrong, the umpire has the only vote that matters.
Now, here’s why I bring this up. In our lives, who is the umpire? If we’re being honest, we act sometimes like we are the umpire. Like we are in charge and we can call it the way we want to call it, but on Earth, God is the umpire, God is in charge. He makes the call and it is done. He is sovereign and in charge.
There is a reaction in baseball where you might say, I disagree with this umpire, He stinks. I could do better. And, it’s the same with how people treat God. You might not say it out loud but if you disagree with God then you are wrong. God has called you to the place you are in and the person you are married to and the people that are around you and God is Good and loving and gives us good gifts… and God is a better God than you would ever be. So, God has the final say.
Verse 11:
11 The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?
People tend to talk the most about things that they understand the least.
#5 Do you accept that God is smarter than we are?
Maybe you say of course, but do you really live that way? Let’s go back to our idea of contentment. Maybe you are in this category… I’’ll be happy when I have more knowledge. When I have knowledge of why it is that God did it that way, then I’ll be happy. But, God’s word says, you will never know everything. We see in part and we know in part… Some of us feel like we need to know what’s going to happen, we just have to know… Contentment would say, have Joy in God that He is in control. He knows. You can have questions and you can have mystery and it’s ok for you to not understand. God has it.
You know, I’m a dad and there are certain things that I don’t tell my kids. There are things that they aren’t ready to know about. There are certain things that would just freak them out. It would be wrong of me to expose them to EVERYTHING that I know. And, it’s similar with the Father. Content people will be content with what God has told them. This is a rich life. If we trust God we are like a kid in the pool whose father is in the pool with his arms out, the kid doesn’t need to do calculations of buoyancy and gravity and projectile motion to decide what to do. The kid has faith in his dad and the kid just jumps. If you trust God as the perfect Father it means you see His arms out and you just jump. You don’t have to KNOW everything. And, this is coming from someone who likes to study and likes to know… but even more than knowing, I want to Enjoy what God has shown me and be content with my lot in life.
Verse 12:
12 For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?
#6: Last Question: Why are you here? We are ending with a big question.
To answer this, you might need to rethink how important you are:
Some of you might answer this with: there is a certain list of things that God needs done in this world so He brought me here to get that stuff done. If that’s you then I would encourage you to rethink that. God could definitely do that stuff on His own. As a Father, I know that there isn’t one project that is easier to do with my children helping. Unless the goal is for the project to take longer and to break things. It’s just going to make it harder to have my kids “helping.” So, I have them help for them, not because I need them to do the thing, but because I want to build something into them. So, you aren’t here because God needs you to get stuff done for God. That would be a works theology and that’s not what we are about. So why are we here? Well, there’s this phrase I want to point out here that keeps coming up over and over again, it’s the phrase: God giving the power to enjoy: yaslitenu haelohim leekol mimmennu: which literally means “God does give him the power to eat of it.”
Notice that the word enjoy isn’t really in the Hebrew, it is a phrase saying that God gives you the power to eat and be satisfied with what you have, to not be hungry for more stuff, to enjoy means you are fed by what God has given you and He is enough. So this is the key thing. How many of you have heard the phrase “We exist to glorify God?” Well, but how do you practically do that? Solomon is being practical here, he is saying, here’s how you Glorify God… Actually ENJOY life. Be nourished by what He has given you… don’t covet your neighbor's things and your neighbor's wife. These things that God has given you have REAL joy in them. Share them with others. Be thankful for what He has given you, so thankful that you don’t covet what others have. Eat what you have been given by God with Joy! Eat of the position you find yourself in knowing that God has a plan for you in it, even though you can’t see the plan, because you can trust that He is so much smarter than you. He doesn’t need you in it to accomplish the plan. He wants to be with you in it accomplishing it together, even if it’s slower and clumsier with you in it. He loves you and wants to develop His qualities in you. He wants to build you into a little Christ. That is what Christian means after all… little Christ. You glorify God by enjoying what He is giving you. Think about it from God’s perspective, what brings Him Glory? You having joy in what He’s given you… your contentment glorifies God.
Here at Abundant Life we like to pray for people. If you need more joy today I’d like to pray for you as the worship team comes up.
Prayer:
Jehovah Jireh, my provider, who’s grace is sufficient for me. We want to bring you Glory in our lives today Lord first by thanking You for all that you've given us, money, possessions, and honors, these are like crowns that we did not deserve that you have blessed us with and we cast these crowns at your feet as you sit on the throne in Heaven. Father, grant us all the blessing of having JOY in our circumstances, GIVE us the ability to eat of what you have provided and be nourished by it. We confess that we have coveted things and people and we nail those sins to the cross and repent. We turn toward you and give you ALL the glory. For it is You Alone that is Good and we need Your Righteousness to clothe us this week as we go forth Enjoying our Lives as Real Worship to you.
In Jesus Name.
Amen.
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