Act Now Before It's Too Late

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Well, you can take your copy of God’s Word this morning and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 9. And if you were here last week, you potentially walked away a little bit discouraged. And I think that Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verses 1 through 6, which we looked at last week, is probably the ocean floor of despair in the entire book of Ecclesiastes. It is the The most pessimistic, the most negative paragraph in the entire book, if you can believe that. He is suffocating us underneath the dismality of life is hard and everybody’s going to die. There’s nothing more negative and pessimistic and miserable than being faced with the fact that life is brutal and then death is killer.

If the very best reason to be alive is because at least when you’re alive you know you’re going to die, that does not make for a very wonderful life. But if Ecclesiastes 9, 1-6 is the ocean floor of despair, today’s paragraph is the Everest of delight. I felt like last Sunday morning I didn’t just preach Ecclesiastes 9, 1-6, I owned it. I mean, I was right there. I didn’t have any trouble identifying with the despair that was found in Ecclesiastes. I think that a light breeze would have blown me over, like that’s how kind of fragile I felt. I think that a feather would have just crushed the already heavy feeling, the burden of vanity.

And that’s where I was personally. But I want to own this paragraph as well. I want to not just tell you about this paragraph. I want to own it. I want to be the joy that’s found in verses 7 through 10. And if your stomach can’t handle going from the lowest of valleys immediately to dangling your toes over the peak of some high mountain, then you’re going to have to blame Solomon because he’s the one who goes himself from the lowest to the highest from absolute despair to unbelievable delight. The fact is there is remedy for the misery that we talked about last week. And it is not just that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

There is light in the tunnel. It may be a teeny light. It may be a small light, but all you need is a really small light if the tunnel is dark. And there is a light in the midst of the tunnel.

We may be afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, bent, but not what? Broken. You may be pushed all the way back. You might be as low as you can go and bent over, but you don’t have to be broken. And what you really need to do is act now before it’s too late. It’s the title of the message. And I’ll tell you what, I need this. I need Ecclesiastes 9, 7-10, and I’ll tell you, I need it because I see Ecclesiastes changing me. I knew when we started to study the book of Ecclesiastes that I needed to learn how to enjoy the process. I didn’t realize how badly I needed to learn that. It is as hard for me to stay melancholy as it is hard for me to stay under the covers in bed for another five minutes. You have a lot of work to do to convince me that there is joy with my feet on the cold floor and in the dark of the morning. You have a lot of work to do to convince me to get out of bed and even though I don’t think I’ve made the transition perfectly just yet, Solomon

keeps persuading me to get up and get dressed and get some coffee and get going and get working and get tired and go to bed and get up in the morning and do it all over again. And that’s good and to enjoy it all through, or at least to attempt to enjoy that process. And if you want that, then you’ve got to follow Solomon’s commands here in Ecclesiastes 9, 7-10. Maybe we could think about it like Solomon says, instead of Simon says. This is Solomon says, and Solomon is going to give us four pieces of advice. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verses 7 through 10 is going to sound somewhat familiar to things that we’ve already covered.

In fact, this paragraph is the fifth buoy in Ecclesiastes that Solomon points us to. Chapter 2 verses 24 through 26 was the very first ETP, enjoy the process paragraph. We looked at that point again in chapter 3 verses 13 and 14, chapter 5 verses 18 through 20 in chapter 8 verse 15. And while this paragraph bears a lot of similarities to the first four buoys that we looked at, this paragraph builds further, gives us even greater specificity as Solomon has been plunging our heads underneath the rushing river vanity. This buoy is something we can hold onto and keep our heads above water, and we need And what’s significant, most significant I think about this paragraph is that whereas in the first four times he’s talked about enjoying the process, he has commended joy and now he commands it.

In the first four he was giving it as advice. He was saying, this is what I have seen to be best. And now he says, this isn’t just my advice, this is your responsibility to pursue this kind of joy. then there are going to be four parts to the game plan when we’re playing for keeps. Ecclesiastes is playing for keeps eternally. That starts now. Four parts of the game plan to get joy while we’re playing for keeps. Let’s read the paragraph and then I’ll give you those four things. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 7. Go eat your bread in 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, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol to which you are going. parts to the game plan for joy while we’re playing for keeps. Number one, dig in. Verse seven, dig in. Now it may look like verse seven has three commands and it actually does have three commands, but I think they’re best understood under one umbrella and I’ll try to tell you why I think that is. So verse seven says, go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart for God has already approved what you do. Now obviously, Eat your bread and drink your wine.

Eating and drinking go together naturally. That’s something that you typically do at the same time. And what is so amazing is that eating and drinking represent the most earthly, temporal, monotonous, never-ending, mundane type of activity you can do. If you are going to keep living, you have to eat and drink. That gets wearisome, especially for those people who have to always be preparing the food. As soon as you get done washing the dishes, you’ve got to start over again, preparing the next meal. That is the most not lasting, earthly kind of activity that you can be a part of. And yet, we’ve already learned that Solomon told us there is nothing better than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all our toil.

I think his point is that we don’t need special things to have enjoyment in life. Enjoyment is typically found in the simple things. And the implication is that whatever you have to eat or drink, it’s your bread, your wine, it’s what you have on hand. It’s not hoping for something else, it’s just what you have. Eat that with joy, have a merry heart. If we have food, let’s be content with that and enjoy that. But there’s even more to it in verse 7. There are some clarifications that Solomon gives starting with the very first word, which is actually a command. New American Standard and ESV, go! Eat your bread, drink your wine, but it starts with go.

And this is a typical Hebrew construction. In fact, you’ll notice this as you read through your Old Testament next year in 2008, as you’re making those plans already. You will come across places where you get multiple commands at the beginning like, Get up, Go. You don’t necessarily need to say both of those because going implies getting up. Arise, Go. Same kind of deal here is, Go eat your bread. It’s assuming that people aren’t bringing it to you that you’re probably going to have to get up and go make your dinner or fix yourself whatever lunch you’re having. Point is, don’t just roll into breakfast and slouch in your chair, but I mean, go get those Cheerios.

Get up, go enjoy it, dig in. Whatever you’ve got, go enjoy that. And it isn’t just eat and drink, it’s eat with joy and drink with the merry heart. And so whether you’re having some ramen noodles or Daniel’s broiler, whether you are having a gourmet mom cooked meal or you’re having some instant microwave mac and cheese, whatever it is, eat and drink with joy. Dig in. if Emoryl was here, he’d say, bam! You know, put some spice on there. Enjoy it. Now, wait a second. Maybe you’re thinking to yourself already, I mean, are we really supposed to enjoy food that much? Isn’t that just going to turn us into gluttons? Well, what happens if we replace God with food?

Is that possible? Well, obviously that’s possible. Oprah will tell you about that every third show, about how people love their food and they have comfort food and so they turn to food to make them happy instead of God. She’s not making that conclusion, I’m helping her out the rest of the way. That’s the after show discussion. What if we start to love food more than God?

In fact, shouldn’t we feel just a little bit guilty for enjoying something that is so insignificant. I mean, other than the fact that we get to keep living because we eat, I mean eating is potentially not an eternally necessary or significant thing. Maybe we should feel a little guilty about digging in. Well, Solomon tells us why we can and should enjoy the food that he has given us because God has already approved what you do. Now this is more than God has already given divine authorization for your Jenny Craig plan or whatever it is. This is not just saying that God has written in the clouds what diet it is that you should be on. That’s not what he’s talking about. And obviously some people, typically unbelieving guys who write about the Bible, which I never understood why they waste their time doing that, but unbelieving kind of people who talk about this use this this statement that God has already approved what you do to kind of be a blanket to cover all of your sin. So go sin, do whatever you want, and God approves that. That’s clearly

not the point. The point is not that God is excited and approves when we sin. As far back as Ecclesiastes 9 verse 1, who is Solomon’s consideration here? It’s the righteous and the wise. The assumption here is in verse 7 that we’re still talking about people who are trying to live according to what God’s standard is and trying to do and make decisions according to the principles and the wisdom that God provides. And so this assumes that the person is a God-ferer. That’s who he’s been thinking about already in chapter 9. This is a person whom God is pleased with. We know that the people God is pleased with other people who fear Him.

And so He is saying that if you fear God, if you’re pursuing righteousness, you’re pursuing wisdom, then relax and enjoy your dinner. Do you realize what Solomon is saying here? It is God’s will for you to enjoy your meals. Stuff you’ve got to do all the time. Multiple times a day. He has already approved your enjoyment. So stop freaking out. God has given us the need to eat. God has created in us appetites. God has created food. And he means that to be enjoyed. Not instead of him, but from him. It’s God’s will that we dig in and enjoy the process. So verse 7, first part of the game plan for joy while we’re playing for God.

keeps is to dig in. Number two. Verse 8, dress up. Again, there are a couple of commands here in verse 8, but I think that they’re partners, not competitors. Verse 8, let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Now, the phrase, let your garments be always white, it’s amazing how many different suggestions people came up with for what this could possibly, what could possibly be significant about it. Most commonly, the people suggested that you should wear white garments as an issue of comfort because in Israel and Palestine, with the sun beating down in the summertime, if you wear white clothes, then that would reflect the sun and keep you cooler. And the implication is also not only would you be cooler and more comfortable, but you’d be more cleanly because they’d be clean clothes, white clothes, clean clothes.

And so, you know, having a fresh apparel to put on. So more of a comfort and cleanliness issue. And then also a lot of commentators talk about this second thing, let not oil be lacking on your head. Also for hygienic considerations because they didn’t have naturally oily heads. And being out in the sun potentially would dry out your hair and you didn’t have 8,000 types of shampoo and conditioner to choose from. And in fact, you probably weren’t taking a shower a whole lot anyway. So oil was something that was regularly used to keep your skin from getting dry. And basically, it’s the first version of dandruff shampoo.

Your head’s not going to get dry. Your scalp’s not going to get all flaky. and so, hey, that’s great. So you’re comfortable and you’re clean. And while those things may or may not have something to do with why Solomon mentions here, I don’t think that fresh clothes and a dandruff-free scalp are the point. Solomon is not urging us to be hygienic, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. When you put on white garments and pull oil on your head, That meant that the time of mourning and grieving and sorrow and repentance was done. White garments and oil that anointed your head was the opposite of what do you think?

Well, what’s a typical dress for mourning and sorrow and grieving in the Old Testament? Sackcloth and ashes. Tattered, apparently then dirty clothing. And so white garments and oil on your head was a sign of rejoicing. It was a sign of celebration. It’s what you put on when you were going to a party. When King David and Bathsheba’s child died in 2 Samuel 12, verse 20, when he got the news that his child had died, says, David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes, And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. When he was done grieving, mourning, praying, fasting, he put on fresh clothes, anointed his head.

In 2 Samuel 14.2, there was a lady who was mourning or who was supposed to look like she was mourning. And so she was supposed to put on mourning garments. That’s what it says. Mourning garments. there was stuff that you wore to show your mood, your attitude, that you were grieving.

And her head was not to be anointed with oil. You can look at Proverbs 27.9 or Isaiah 61.3 where oil and gladness go together. And even by the time you get to the New Testament, Jesus tells those people who are fasting to do what? To anoint themselves. That was to pull oil on their head so that they looked like they were alive. So that they weren’t making it obvious that they were so gloomy and depressed. He says, oil up that head and look alive. That’s rather mundane. Are we really ready to say that fresh clothes and smell good lotion is something that can make your miserable life more enjoyable? The answer that is yes. I’m not making that up. That’s what Solomon here himself is encouraging us to do. Just like we can enjoy feeding the body, so we can enjoy clothing the body. Everyone has to get dressed and deal with dry skin. We might as well celebrate while we’re doing it. And look, he says, let your garments be always white and let not oil be lacking. I was kind of thinking, you know, when you get sick and you kind of lounge around all day

long and you finally make yourself get out of bed sometime late in the afternoon, what That feels good at that point. I mean, taking a shower and putting on some clean clothes. Some fresh clothes. And I think Solomon is just saying, yeah, clothes cannot replace God, but they’re a way to enjoy what he’s given us. Dig in and dress up. Number three, from verse 9, maximize marriage.

9, enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life that he has given you unto the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil that which you toil unto the sun. Now I’ll admit that it is tough for some people, like myself, it is tough for some people to deal with despair and big bills and car wrecks and cranky people all by ourselves, let alone adding somebody else’s despair onto our own. For some of us, I guess it’s easier to be depressed by ourselves than it is to be depressed with a partner. For some people, the bearing the burden makes it half as heavy. And the joys make it twice as big of joys. There’s some poem about that somewhere. But in chapter Pastor 4, Solomon already told us that two are better than one.

And here in chapter 9 verse 9, he says that a wife is a gift from God for your joy. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love. I mean, that’s almost too simple. Enjoy life with your wife. Enjoy life, avoid the strife with your wife. It does not mean there’s nothing in there that says enjoying life with your wife that you’re not going to have conflict or disagreements? It doesn’t say that there’s never going to be the worse as well as the better. It doesn’t say that there’s not going to be sickness and strife, but it means that you can still enjoy life with your wife as vain and as short as your piddly little pathetic life is.

You can enjoy it with somebody else.

Salma wrote something very similar in Proverbs chapter 5 verses 18 and 19. He said, Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely dear, a graceful doe. Let her breast fill you at all times with delight. Be intoxicated always with her love. Be drunk. Be intoxicated with the friendship and the relationship you have with your spouse. And there’s a reason for that, because your wife, and obviously has application for wives and husbands as well, but your wife is God’s gift to you. If you don’t have the wife yet, then this part is not for you. You should be waiting until you get to that point, but a wife, a spouse, is God’s gift. Marriage is not a perpetual honeymoon, but it still can be very much enjoyed. Because I want you to see that married life is not every night is dating night. Okay, because look at verse 9 again. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life that he has given you unto the sun because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil unto the sun. That’s repetitive

point out that it’s not we’re getting out of work, or we’re getting out of toil, or you can just sit around and drink hot chocolate out of the same cup with two straws and stare longingly into each other’s face and you don’t have any work to do. Verse 10 is also going to talk about work as well. So he’s not saying that you have joy with your wife because you get to watch movies all all the time. He’s saying you can enjoy your responsibilities with someone else. Life is fragile. That’s part of the point of reminding us that it’s a vain life. It’s fragile and it’s short. So have some fun. Stop fighting. Have some fun. Because you’re going to die or she’s gonna die and that’s it.

For us even now we know if Jesus comes back they don’t give or are taken in marriage in heaven. This is it. So enjoy it while you’ve got it in your vain, meaningless, empty life. At least you can partner with somebody else in the middle of that. That is for our joy. If John Piper was here I think he might say, don’t waste your wife. Okay, number four. Dig in, dress up, maximize marriage, and then number four from verse ten is get busy. Solomon moves the fence out another foot to corral even more joy. He started with the stomach, he moved to the exterior, then to relationship, and now to work. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge your wisdom and shield to which you are going. This final command relates to toil and as I have said over and over and over again. And some of you still, this is beyond you, your ears are not able to hear this. Enjoying the process is not about getting out of work.

Joy does not come from being idle or being lazy. I think of some of you guys in particular who waste your days unless someone else is telling you where to go and what to do. You basically do as minimal as possible and you are frustrated. And the reason is because God has not made us to be or to work that little. are to get up and get going and get busy. Do the work. You will get out of work one day when you die. Until that point in time there are opportunities and responsibilities. Whatever your hand finds you do, do it with your might. The idea of whatever your hand finds is the idea of looking for opportunities. Look for open doors to go through. Look for responsibilities to shoulder. Look for employment opportunities and work that you can do. And then do it. Work hard.

Give it all you’ve got. I mean the idea again is working to your full capacity with as much strength and wisdom and energy and thought as you can put into it, use it all. Because when you die, you’re not going to have those opportunities anymore.

Isn’t that so amazing? That instead of the vanity of life under the sun being a reason not to work, instead of how pointless and futile and repetitious life is, instead of that being a reason not to work, Solomon says that is a reason to get to work and to work hard. Act now. Before it’s too late. Because when you die, that’s it. And that’s his point in saying there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shield at which you are going. And again, this has led totally liberal commentators to say, oh, Solomon doesn’t believe in the afterlife and there is no heaven or hell, you just are annihilated and your soul sleeps forever. But again, we don’t have to go elsewhere in the Bible prove it. We can prove it from Ecclesiastes itself. When Solomon says in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 11 that God has put eternity into man’s heart. We know as well from Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse 9 when he says, enjoy what you’re doing, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Sheol then is just a way to describe the

the place of the dead, the grave. We’re all going to die. It’s another way to say that. And so when you die, the opportunities of this life are no longer, so get busy, get to work. The point is you get one shot at this life. One. That’s it. And knowing that will will either cause you horrible despair or very intense joy and eagerness to have a blast while you last. You know what’s so interesting? Out of these four things, these four things that we can’t get out of, this is reality. Eating and getting dressed and being married and working. That’s reality. You know what? Some of those most popular reality television shows are about these four things. I mean you got Top Chef, you got Project Runway and What Not to Wear for your dressing stuff. For marriage you can either go from the single side to the bachelor trying to find a partner or you got Wife Swap which tries to make you realize why you should like your own wife so much. And then for the work one you totally We’ve got the apprentice.

We’ve got reality television is so close. Eating, what you put into your body, clothing, what you put on your body, marriage, who you live your life with in your house, and working what you do the rest of the time. I mean, the world knows that that’s reality, And yet, it also can’t get to joy in those things because it can’t see them rightly. It can’t see them with God. The fact is God made cooks and tailors and 80’s ballad bands who write love songs. And He made entrepreneurs and He made people who want to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for doing whatever they can to the best of their ability. God made those people.

And so have a happy meal, put on your party dress, hold your wife’s hand, and just grab the bull by the horns and go for it. That’s the secret, is to realize that that is what life is about from God. That’s not what life is about instead of God. That is what life is about from God. God made taste and texture and color and smells and sensations and emotions and relationship and unfinished projects. Not just to be endured, but to be enjoyed. Three of the things we’ve talked about this morning were there before the fall. was before the fall, and marriage was before the fall, and working was before the fall. Getting dressed is the only one that came after the fall.

So at least three out of those four things God envisions as part of a perfect paradise. Eating, relationship, toil, labor, working. Sin makes all of them up, ruins all of them. Yes, but as we get them from God, we can have great joy. Now, since it’s only two days before Christmas, I cannot help but think about how Jesus relates to Ecclesiastes 9, seven through 10. I understand that Solomon was not thinking about Jesus when he wrote Ecclesiastes 9, seven through 10. I get that. When he wrote his book, he wasn’t thinking about Jesus, but we have more of the book. So if you’d allow me just for a little bit to think about what’s in the rest of the book, do you realize that Christmas is a story of God embracing vanity under the sun?

Now you’ve heard the Christmas story a billion times. A billion, million, thousand, trillion, whatever, zillion. You’ve heard the Christmas story. Yeah, we get that. But can we just think about some of the elements about the Christmas story in terms of Ecclesiastes, in terms of the vanity of life under the sun? Because what we have in the Christmas story is God identifying with and embracing hard, meaningless, by itself, empty by itself stuff. Jesus is a manual. And that means what? God with us. And I know the pastors that he talked about it in first service, you know when he said, God became a man. You’re God, and then you take on flesh.

That’s not easy or majestic. You’re God and you become a man. That’s not the way I’d rather go. And not only did he become a man, He lived among men. That’s even worse. I could handle it being a man if I didn’t have to live among men. But other people are a large part of the reason why it’s so empty and meaningless and vain. He became a man. He lived among men. He partook of the same things and was made like us in every respect. I was thinking about the Gospel of John Chapter 1 where John is the one who talks about You know, the Word was God, the Word was with God, the Word became flesh, and just a few verses later he says, I’m not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.

And we’re like, oh yeah, that’s true because Jesus is really more special. What about the fact that God was wearing sandals? God in sandals. Now that’s vanity, especially if they had the little strap between the toes. This extra vanity. The creator of the universe comes in a manger as a helpless baby. I love the song by For Him, What a Strange Way to Save the World. There would have been no Bethlehem if Jesus would come as He deserved. If God had come as He deserved, I mean, there would have been parades and parties and worldwide press coverage, and He would not have come as a baby that needed to grow up and have His diaper changed and be potty trained and innumerable other things that being a man put Him under that He would not have experienced as God.

Surrounding his birth, his family had to move, and his family had to move because of the governmental injustice that was killing thousands of baby boys in the region. God becoming man in some sense made it worse and made the earth full of more vanity, at least at that point in time. His mother would have borne the stigma of suspicious neighbors who always wondered about how Jesus was born and who the father really was. If I can, just try to think about Jesus in light of the four things we talked about, the four parts of the game plan. You think about food. Think about what it was like for God to eat. Think about what it would be like for God to embrace the vanity of oatmeal for breakfast again.

Do you, I mean I kind of wonder, did Jesus ever say to his mom, look I made taste buds and we’re not getting the full effect here of what I made these things to do. But yet he embraced oatmeal for breakfast again. What about, and this is kind of some imagination, but what about the vanity? Jesus experiencing the vanity of when his mom shrank his favorite sweater right before he was supposed to go to his buddy’s bar mitzvah party. And yet, he is the one who came up with the idea of fabric shrinking. That was his idea. And yet, he put himself into that. I mean, obviously, he didn’t get married, but what about the work one?

What about Jesus, whose father was a carpenter, obviously? What about Jesus making a chair? I mean, you want to talk about feeling like you’re not being productive in your life, okay? What about Jesus making a chair? He could have told you the exact date and how it was going to break. And even more than that, He’s making a chair when He made the tree that the wood came from to make the chair. And yet, God embraces and identifies with us in our vanity. You know, there are other things as well. I was trying to think of some different ways that he embraced vanity. Obviously his electricity couldn’t go out, but maybe the candle went out and he had to go. His mom sends him next door to light the candle off of the next door neighbor’s candle, but on his way back, the rain is coming down and he’s got to go back and forth like seven or eight times just to get the candle with the light back over to His house.

And He is the one who made all of that to work. And yet He embraced it. And He did that all with joy. I mean, He prays for His disciples that they would have a fullness of joy like He had. He came that we would have life and have life abundant. And obviously, there are spiritual elements of that. But if Jesus wanted to save us and take us immediately to heaven, He could do that. He lets us stay here, not just for the sake of our endurance, but for the sake of our enjoyment. God could have made the world any way that He wanted to. Because all this stuff didn’t exist. Food didn’t exist. Digestion didn’t exist. Clothing didn’t exist.

All of this stuff was stuff that God had to create. Why did he create? Why did he do that? Well, the obvious answer is to show his glory. Do you not also think it was to share his joy? God is sharing his joy. He’s wanting us to know and recognize and praise him for his creativity and his power and his wisdom, no doubt. But don’t you also see he wants us to embrace his joy? God made fruit to enjoy. I don’t know how, but you can enjoy fruit. God made fabric. God made it so you can hold hands with your wife. God made business opportunities and raw materials to make stuff out of. God is the one who made that. He arranged it.

His son identified with us in that, all so that we could have joy. And I tell you what, some of you, undoubtedly, you’re looking for joy underneath your Christmas tree. You think that when you open that present, that thing is going to finally solve all your problems or whatever it is. And moments later, if your joy isn’t from God, you’ll be dissatisfied.

I just want to remind you again, it’s not just about eating or dressing up or getting getting married or working hard, it’s about receiving joy from God in the process of all those things. I’m pleading with you, if you don’t think that joy under the sun is really possible, then you don’t get a manual. And you need to get that, otherwise you will never really enjoy the process now under the sun, or certainly for eternity. Father, we We need your help. We need your spirit to do that because oftentimes we get stuck in verses one through six and we can’t rise above the despair and the misery and the frustration and the vanity, but we need to. In fact, it’s our responsibility to. Solomon commands us to dig in, realizing you’ve approved what we do, and to dress up, and to be festive and celebrate, and to maximize our marriages and our spouses and enjoy that relationship, and then to work hard and look for opportunities and make the most of what we can.

We need your help to see life this way. For those of us who are believers, we need your spirit to enable that joy in us, the fruit that He produces. Most of all, we’re thankful for the gift of your Son and how He did become like us to show us that that joy is possible. It’s not just empty, but it can be enjoyed in Him. We pray in His name. Amen.