Living A Better Life

Transcript

They’re like smoke, temporary, like everything else under the sun, they won’t last. And so, when confronted with this kind of critique, what is it that humans do? How do they respond? Well, for most people, they either tune out or they turn up. What I mean by this is that they either become hopeless, they start to believe that there’s no point in living at all, or they become reckless, choosing to live however they want to try and make the most of what life has to offer. But the thing is that Kohelet’s aim was never meant to lead us into hopelessness or reckless living. He was simply making critical observations. That’s been his M.O. for the first six chapters of this book. But now, in the second half of the book, he’s moved from being this kind of worldly critic to being more of a wise counselor. He wants us to see that while ultimate

satisfaction can’t be found in the things under the sun, there is a healthier way to live, or a better way to live under the horizon. And this is where we find ourselves this morning, in the second half of the book, where the Kohelet moves from the myths that have been shaping the vast majority of our lives to learning to live a better life under the horizon. A life that is authentically grounded in reality, so that even though our world is heavy, we can learn to live and flourish in the fleeting nature of it. And so this morning, the Kohelet fills this text with these very practical principles of how to live the better life. And as I mentioned in the beginning, this is a difficult chapter primarily because all of these principles are nested in poetry. And so it’s easy to get lost in the weeds trying to understand the

Living with Perspective

poetry that we miss, the very basic principles that he kind of shoots at us like a machine gun. And so today what I want to do is try to simplify the passage by breaking it into four sections and pulling out of the poetry all these basic principles that are sandwiched within these sections. And so we’ll look at how the better life is lived, how the better life lives with perspective, lives in the present, lives under providence, and lives within paradox. Okay? So let’s begin in verses 1 through 6 with the better life lives with perspective. A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It’s better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face, the

heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools, for as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools. This also is vanity. So the first thing I want you to notice is that the Kohelet offers us perspective in these first six verses through this kind of poetic contrast. So if you can see on one side, you have the day of death, the house of mourning, sorrow, sadness of face, and rebuke. And on the other side, you have the day of birth, house of feasting, laughter, house of mirth, which just means house of pleasure, and songs. And so the Kohelet begins this contrast by saying a good name is better than

expensive perfume. And what he means by that is this, a long-standing good reputation is more important than momentary praise. You see, the aroma of perfume, even the most expensive perfume, eventually fades, but a good reputation lingers over the course of a person’s life. This is why he goes on to say that the day of death is better than the day of birth, because a good reputation isn’t defined at your baby shower, it’s defined at your eulogy. Being born into a reputable family doesn’t mean that you yourself will become reputable. It’s only after your life when people will truly be able to say, this person lived a full life, one of character and integrity. I was just having this conversation with Greg in our time before the service in prayer, and he was mentioning how someone told him that he only quotes dead people, and the reason why he only

quotes dead people is because when you’re dead, your character is fixed. I think that’s, amen. So the question then is, how does one begin to build a long-standing reputation of good character and integrity? Well, he says it starts by living now with your future funeral in focus. Live for your eulogy. Live in such a way that people will praise you when it’s all said and done. In fact, that’s what eulogy means. It means to praise someone who died. So don’t live for the praise of the moment. Live for your eulogy. And while the Kohelet speaks about what might be spoken at your funeral, he also pushes into perspective the inevitability of death. This is why he says that the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting. In other words, death has a way of bringing things in your everyday life into perspective. And friends, we

need this perspective, because we tend to do everything we can to hide from the inevitability of death. I mean, we don’t even call it death. When someone dies, we say things like, oh, they passed away, or they’re no longer with us, or, you know, they’re on the other side. Things like that. We don’t call it what it is because the idea of finality is often too hard for us to bear. No one wants to talk about the fact that we will all eventually die. And so instead, they’d rather talk about happy things, empty things, insignificant things. They’d rather joke and laugh and have fun. And listen, there’s nothing inherently wrong with those things. Those can be good things. But we can’t pretend that laughing and joking is all there is in this life. Because when we do that, we’re not living in reality. There is a sacredness to sorrow and sadness because

it reminds us that we live in a fallen world, in a sinful world. And that puts into perspective that death will eventually come for everyone in this fallen world because of sin. And if we live with that kind of perspective in front of us, it will radically shape how we live our lives. You see, part of living the better life is not denying death, but inviting it into our perspective. And it’s not just death. It’s sadness in general. Living a better life is not running from the hard realities of life, but being in tune with the deep and heavy emotions we experience in this world. Lament and grief and pain and sorrow are very important parts of our lives. But most people choose not to push into them, to not sit in those emotions. Instead, what they do is they drown out those emotions through the art of escapism. They don’t want to feel those

feelings, and so what do they do? They tune out through drugs, alcohol, through sex, money, or entertainment, social media, or whatever new thing captures our attention that distracts us from feeling. And of course, all these things are the myths that we’ve been unpacking over the last weeks. Pushing into our pain, the Kohelet says, is a better way to live. One that’s filled with the denial of reality, escapism, empty platitudes, shallow conversations, and, you know, relentless sarcasm does nothing for us. And this is why he says funerals are better than parties. Because no one ever goes to a funeral and asks, hey, how was work today? No one goes to a funeral and says, hey, did you catch the game last night? Crazy, right? Or no one says, hey, you want to hear something funny? No one does that. Or at least no one in their right mind would do that at a funeral.

Because a funeral confronts you with perspective. It reminds you that just as that person lays in a casket, so you will one day lay in a casket. It crystallizes what we so quickly forget, or suppress, or try to escape from. That one day, we will die. And all of the superficial things, all of the shallow statements we left behind, really won’t amount to anything. Living with death in perspective helps us realize that life is a gift. And it’s not to be wasted, but to be enjoyed on meaningful things. Both the joys of life and the sad parts of life. David Gibson in his book, Living Life Backwards, said this, instead of being superficial, death invites you to be a person of depth. Only someone who knows how to weep will really know what it means to laugh. That’s the message of Ecclesiastes. It’s an invitation to be a person who realizes that living a good life means

preparing to die a good death. So family, lament is good for us. Sorrow is helpful for the soul, because it builds depth and character. And it’s not just good for us, it’s good for others. It’s good for other people in the church and in your communities. So what are you doing now that will fill the pages of your eulogy? How are you preparing for your future funeral? Is your greatest desire to simply be known as the life of the party? Oh, I remember that dude, that dude was funny. Or do you want to be known as someone with depth and character and integrity? Someone who would sit in the sorrows and the sufferings of your other brothers and sisters? Now again, I do want to be clear. Laughter is a great gift that God has given us, especially to cope with the hard and painful realities of life.

But laughter doesn’t mean anything if it’s not met with moments of lament. And the way you can know if your life is out of balance in this area is if there’s only laughter and never any tears. I mean, we talked about this in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, for everything there is a season, a time for every matter under the sun. So that means that there’s a time to weep and a time to laugh. There is a time to mourn, and there’s also a time to dance. Family, your life, as you currently experience it, will not last forever. And so the Kohelet is saying you should start living like that. And I know, no one wants to hear this morning. It’s kind of morbid to talk about that. But hearing this rebuke, the Kohelet says is better for you. It’s what he calls the song of fools, when he says if

we don’t listen to this rebuke. I mean, think about the chorus that our culture sings all the time. Our culture is constantly singing empty songs and painting unrealistic pictures of what the good life is. Life is all about laughter. Just think about all the commercials you watch. Everything’s all, you know, jokes and laughter and fun. But that kind of life is void of real life, real sadness. And here’s the truth. When we move beyond the surface of things, our real lives are far more marked by pain and sadness than silly and superficial happiness. And again, the Kohelet says the parties and laughter, those are good things. So we shouldn’t view those as bad. He’s simply saying having the end in perspective helps us to live a better and balanced life. He’s saying what we need in this life is not just jokes from friends. What we need is more warmth and

honesty from friends. So he compares the laughter of fools, kind of joking and sarcasm all the time, to the crackling of thorns. And this is a perfect comparison and image. So imagine a pot sitting on top of an open flame. The crackling of thorns under that pot might make a lot of noise, snap, might seem to create a quick flame, but because they’re thorns and not logs, the flame quickly flickers out and there will be no heat. And so we need more than loud and annoying words that crackle like thorns in a fire that quickly burn out and give no heat. We need the kind of people who can offer long-term warmth and perspective to those around us who are suffering. Real friends are the kinds of friends that will keep you spiritually warm when you’re suffering. We just talked about this a few weeks ago, Ecclesiastes chapter 4. Again, if two lie together, they

keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? And in 1519, the great theologian Martin Luther preached a sermon on how a Christian should prepare to die, and in his sermon he said this, we should familiarize ourselves with death during our lifetime, inviting death into our presence when it’s still at a distance and not on the move. In other words, it’s wise to look at life in the light of our death. And here’s the thing, Christians can invite death into our perspective because unlike the world, death is not something that we need to fear. First Corinthians tells us, oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So if the sting of death, or better stated, the fear of death is gone, because we know that in

Living in the Present

the end, after this life, we will experience eternal life, then it’s completely reasonable to not only face the realities of this momentary life, but to live as if death is ever before us. So instead of trying to escape it, the Kohelet says the better life learns to lean into it. He says it’s not only good to place death in our perspective, but it’s also good to place the present into perspective. We see this is in verses 8 and 12, the better life lives in the present. Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. Say not, why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Wisdom

is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun, for the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom perseveres the life of him who has it. So here that the Kohelet moves from focusing on our character in light of our future funeral, to focusing on our character in light of our present circumstances. And interesting, the way he addresses living in the present is by speaking to the way we view our past. And the reason he addresses our past is because the difficulties of our present reality often pushes us back to the past. So when we’re impatient, or frustrated, or we feel powerless to change our present circumstances, if we’re uncomfortable or unhappy, we often mentally and emotionally move backwards to a time when life seemed more comfortable and less challenging. We tend to gravitate toward nostalgia, which is just really another

form of escapism. But the problem with nostalgia is that it leads us to believe that the past was free from pain or challenges. I mean, how often do you find your thoughts drifting to those better days, when life seemed less stressful or more fulfilling? I do this a lot when I think about Portland. When Heather and I first moved to Portland, it was wonderful. Like, we didn’t have any kids, and we would cruise around downtown Portland on our bikes at like 10 p.m. Do that now, you’d be crazy. Unless you’re Sam Nagel. But we often look back at those days, and we think, oh man, that was wonderful. But even those days were filled with challenges, and they were far from fulfilling, because when we had children, like, oh this is far better than what the past was like. We do this all the time. We

easily can lose sight of what happened in the past, imagining that life would be better if we could somehow return to those days. But friends, this is not helpful for us. Nostalgia, though seductive, is deceptive. And our minds, affected by the fall, can play cruel tricks on us about our past, convincing us that the past was far better than our current circumstances. But the reality is the past was never quite as we remembered it. And what we do is we reimagine it. We rewrite the script of our past experiences, which only deepens our frustration with our present circumstances. The Qohelet says don’t do that. We shouldn’t cling so tightly to the past, that in reality wasn’t exactly as we remember it, that we get angry with the present. And the reason why we don’t do that is because, A, we can’t do anything to go back to those days, just

wishful thinking. And B, you can’t drive forward in life effectively if your eyes are constantly fixed on the rearview mirror. So, a greater reality, friends, is this. God’s people are not called to be a looking-back kind of people. We are a people who look forward to our future hope. One of the reasons why we celebrate the Lord’s Table every single week is to help us maintain this perspective. It reminds us that we have a future hope, and that future hope impacts and governs everything in our present reality. So, if you find yourself struggling in the moment, if your life is full of pain and suffering, if you have deep sorrow and sadness in your world right now, or if you just find yourself exhausted from fighting that one sin that keeps on circling back every few months or so, family, look forward. It’s not gonna always be this way. We have a

future hope that is fixed and secure. There will be a day where we will experience no more sadness, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering. And praise be to God, no more fighting our sin. And because we have this fixed future hope, we can endure the slight momentary troubles of the moment. So, the better life pushes us to have a proper perspective of the past, the present, and the future. And the primary reason we could live with our future funerals in view and learn to live in the present, even in the midst of challenges, without escaping through nostalgia, is because God is sovereign over it all. In fact, we see that in verses 13 and 14. The better life lives under providence. Verse 13, consider the work of God, who can make straight what he has made crooked. In the day of prosperity, be joyful. And in the day of adversity, consider God has made

the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. Family, one of the ways that we can navigate our past, present, and future without anger and frustration is trusting that God is exercising divine providence over it all. In other words, God has so meticulously orchestrated the totality of our lives, that not only is it impossible to change the course of his plans, but more importantly, we can rest confidently in his plans, knowing that everything is working together for our good, according to his perfect plan. And if you don’t believe that, just let some of these verses hit you in your heart this morning. Romans 8.28, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Proverbs 16.9, the heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his

steps. Ephesians 1.11, in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Isaiah 46.10, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. Family, you can’t straighten out what God has providentially made crooked for your good, because God in his perfect wisdom is orchestrating all that’s crooked, meaning all the circumstances of our entire lives. And the better life, to live that life, sees this as safety and security. It’s so important to understand this reality, because here’s what we do. We tend to think that when things are good, and when things are comfortable, and when things are kind of aligned with what we want for our lives, then God is good and God is in control. But when things are hard, painful, and when things are misaligned with what we want for ourselves, well then we start to think,

Living Under Providence

well, God is not good, and everything in my life is out of control. Or we start to feel like God is indifferent to what’s happening in my life. The better life lives in the reality that God is in control of both adversity and joy. It’s important to understand this. Listen, God, though he is sovereign over all things, he’s not responsible for the evil. Okay, he’s not responsible for it, but he has control over it all, and he’s using it for our good. And I know that this is a very hard thing to understand. It’s something that we can’t easily reconcile. In many ways, it’s a paradox or an apparent contradiction, but it’s not a contradiction. It’s a reality. It’s a trustworthy truth that we can carry in the worst of our circumstances. Part of the Christian life is living in the reality of paradox, that though we don’t understand certain things and sometimes

Living Within Paradox

can’t make sense of it, we don’t need to fight against it because God is using it all for our good through his providence. And this is why the Kohelet explains that the better life lives within paradox. You see that in verse 7 and verses 15 through 22. Surely oppression drives the wise into madness and a bribe corrupts the heart. In my vain life, I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil doing. Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. Wisdom gives strength to the wise more than ten

rulers who are in a city. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. So throughout these verses, what we see is a series of paradoxes that challenge conventional wisdom and understanding. The Kohelet is essentially saying the better life is to not get too comfortable with your assumptions about the world that God is governing. And in the following verses, you see a whole lot of assumptions that are being challenged. So for example, one of those assumptions is that wisdom will never fail us, and will always lead us to a healthy and a happy life. And so we bank on wisdom, and we think that if I live righteously, we will live a long life. And if we live in

wickedness, then our lives will be cut short. Our assumption is that we can make righteousness work in our favor. But what we find out is that it’s not that simple. It’s a bit more nuanced. So take, for example, what the Kohelet says in verse 15. He says, in my vain life, I’ve seen everything. He’s looked at everything. There’s a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness. And there’s a wicked man who seems to prosper in his evil doing. And this seems like a contradiction, because the Bible tells us what happens to those who live in wickedness, and what happens to those who live in righteousness. So for example, in Exodus 2012, it says, honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Deuteronomy 533, it says, you shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded

you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess. So we have this framework that says, if I live righteously, then I will live a long and healthy life. But then we come across these other parts in the Bible that seem to contradict the way of righteousness. So take, for example, Stephen, this young deacon in the book of Acts. He’s converted, and he does the righteous thing. He stands up in righteousness, and proclaims Christ Jesus to this council of people. What do they do? They kill him. So here he makes the righteous decision, and he gets stoned for doing so. And then Abel, we’ve talked about this before. Abel, who is righteous, he dies an unjust death. But Cain, on the other hand, the wicked brother, well he lives a long life, and he goes on to even have children. That seems

to contradict this. But family, this is not a contradiction. This is kind of a paradox. What ends up happening shouldn’t have happened, and it doesn’t make sense according to our conventional wisdom. And the wisdom that we should take away from this is that wisdom has its limits. Not everything works as we think it’s supposed to work, because we’re not God. We don’t have his perspective. We know that God is working all things out according to his wise plan, but we don’t understand his plan, because we don’t have his mind. Romans 11 34 says, for who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor? And the Kohelet continues to shatter our presuppositions concerning the conventional wisdom of righteousness and wickedness, wisdom and foolishness. He tells us not to be super-righteous. That sounds crazy. He says not to be too wise? And again, this might sound like a contradiction, or even counterintuitive,

especially when we think about the words of Jesus, who said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. What the Kohelet is warning here is, it’s not against righteousness, but self-righteousness, and attempting to be overly wise. And the reason for these warnings is that at the core of self-righteousness, and trying to be overly wise, is pride. And in this particular context, the pride is in thinking that based on your own self-righteousness, and trying to maneuver your own wisdom, that you can somehow please God enough to manipulate the hand of God into giving you a long life. But Proverbs 16 18 tells us that pride comes before destruction, and this is why the Kohelet asks, why should you destroy yourself? Don’t be so proud. You can’t escape death by trying to live a super-righteous life. And more importantly, you can’t please God by being self-righteous. If you stand before

God based on your own merits, or presumed self-righteousness, surely you will see destruction. Sidney Gredonis puts it this way when he says, the teacher of Ecclesiastes exposes all efforts to fulfill the absolute ideals of righteousness as self-serving attempts to reap glory. A life obsessed with righteousness, in fact, blinds a person to his or her own sinfulness. So to be clear, self-righteousness is, at its core, the sin of pride that parades itself as wise and righteous. So not only are you to not be self-righteous, and not be overly wise, he also gives us the flip side of the coin. Don’t be very wicked, and don’t be very foolish. And this also seems like a contradiction. So is he saying that we could be kind of sort of wicked, and just a little foolish? He’s not saying that. What he’s essentially saying is that if righteousness and wisdom won’t

guarantee you a prolonged life, don’t believe the lie that wickedness and foolishness is a better way to live. You see, living with wisdom, despite its limitations, is still better than foolishness. In fact, he says wisdom is the very strength of a wise person. That’s why the Kohelet says, wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. And essentially he’s just saying that wisdom is stronger than a fortified city. Now, we see this motif of wisdom as strength all over the book of Proverbs. You read the book of Proverbs, it’s everywhere. But here’s the thing, although wisdom provides strength, it doesn’t provide righteousness. Though the Kohelet in this section has stitched wisdom and righteousness together, just as he stitched wickedness and foolishness together, wisdom and righteousness are not the same. And wisdom can’t make us righteous. And to drive the point here, he

exposes our lack of righteousness in verses 21 and 22. He says, don’t take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. In other words, no matter how wise or righteous we strive to be, we still sin against God and other people. It’s easy for us to blame the world’s brokenness on other people’s sins, but your sin contributes to the broken world too. Your wisdom is limited because, like all of humanity, you’re sinful. So what’s the Kohelet’s takeaway here? He’s saying, if you’re not perfectly righteous, how can you demand perfect righteousness from others who wrong you? Charles Spurgeon once said this, he says, if a man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him, for you are worse than he thinks you to be. And how can you argue

with Spurgeon? The Kohelet’s wise counsel from verses 1 to 22, this kind of machine-gun counsel, essentially boils down to this. If you want to live the better life under the horizon, instead of trusting in all these other things to give you fulfillment and satisfaction, focus on long-term character and integrity. Don’t run from life’s painful and difficult parts, rather lean into them. Live into each moment patiently and humbly, not letting your anger get the best of you. Live in light of God’s providence. This will help you sit in the tension of trials while tasting the great joys of life, knowing that God providentially provides both. Embrace life’s paradoxes and avoid self-righteousness and hypocrisy, and finally lean into wisdom, even with its limits, to guide you towards the better life. This, friends, is the wise counsel of the Kohelet. This is his wisdom for living the better life under the horizon.

The Better Life Requires a Savior

It’s not too hard, right? But here’s the thing, a better life won’t give you eternal life. You need something far better than a better way of living, because you can follow all the Kohelet’s wisdom, and that will lead you to behavior modification. That won’t change your heart, and even that won’t help you deal with your sin. What you need is to recognize your need of a Savior. A better life won’t save you, and wisdom alone won’t save you. You need Jesus Christ. You need wisdom personified. You need the Son of God who came with his future funeral in mind, not just with the perspective of dying, but for the purpose of dying, so that through his death he could secure the salvation you need for your sins. You need the God who calls you in the present to trust in his past saving work, to offer you the only hope you have for the future. You need the God who

providentially orchestrated all things to bring about not just a better life, but eternal life. You need the God who works in the most paradoxical way. The unrighteous are made righteous through the righteousness of another. That through one man’s death, life is offered to you and everyone else who would believe. That through something as brutal as a bloody cross, you can receive endless joy and forgiveness of sins. And if you trust in him when you die, you can experience life. Far better life than what this world has to offer in terms of the good life. You can have everlasting life with him. Do you know this Jesus who offers not just a better life, but eternal life? You can have him if you would but trust and believe that he is who he says he is. The Lord of all creation, the Savior of the world, and the giver of everlasting life. And here’s what’s amazing, it doesn’t

matter what you’ve done in your past. His death saves you from all of that. You can have this Jesus this morning. And dear Christian, listen, we can only experience the better life now because God gave his life for you. There was nothing that you did on your own to deserve it. You were not righteous enough. You were not wise enough. You didn’t do anything. You couldn’t do anything. And so Jesus did it all for you. He rescued you when you could not rescue yourself. And this family should flood your heart with joy and worship. Revealing in that reality is the key to living the better life as a Christian. But not just a better life, but eternal life. What do you think we will be doing for the rest of our life in eternity? Worshiping God, celebrating God, reveling in his goodness and glory for

all that he’s accomplished for us. And so you might want to start living that reality now. This is what we get to experience. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that though it is hard to hear these truths, the Kohelet tells us that better is a rebuke than a song of fools. We pray God that you would help us to plant this truth deep into our hearts because your world and your rules are far better for us than what we can conjure up on our own. And we thank you that you’ve not left us on our own, that you’ve provided everything necessary to live a righteous and wise life. We pray God that you would meet us as we seek to give you all the praise and all the glory in this life that we live under the horizon. We pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen.