Live With Joy

Mar 08, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Good morning, Church. I learned something this morning. I learned that the early service on daylight saving time Sunday is an early service. So maybe you've chosen the better part and have come for a latter service. I'm also starting to learn at the late service that it feels like a long time since breakfast. So tired and hungry could be a bad combination. Good to have you with us this morning. If you've been here any length of time, you know where we're going this morning. Take out your Bibles and turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 9. And if you're a guest here this morning, we want to welcome you. We're so glad that you're here. You just need to know that we've been involved in a sermon series through the book of Ecclesiastes. We began that shortly after the new year began, and we'll have that finished by Resurrection Sunday or before Resurrection Sunday, which is just a few Sundays away. And so we've been in this series of messages in the book of Ecclesiastes. If you brought your Bible, great, find Ecclesiastes 9. If you don't have a Bible, use the one in the seat back in front of you. And if you don't own one, certainly take the one home with you. We'd love for you to have a Bible as your own. The book of Ecclesiastes should be pretty easy to find. If you drop right into the middle of your Bible, you would drop into the book of Psalms. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes is where you'll find that. And that's where we'll be this morning. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Pastor Mark. I'm one of the pastors on staff here and glad to be leading you in the Word of God this morning. Last Sunday morning, I shared with you a little bit of my own life. I shared with you that I had the experience in my sophomore year of college of living on campus in a dormitory, dorm number eight. And I shared with you that it was the wrestler dorm. The wrestling team was housed there. I was not a wrestler, my buddy wasn't a wrestler, but that's where we were placed by the university. And we spent a year living among strong athletes with strong odors in a facility that didn't have a laundry facility. And uh, but that was our situation. We were either fortunate or unfortunate, but that was our living conditions for our sophomore year. I want to circle back around to that this morning, let you know that my junior year of college, my conditions greatly improved, significantly, immeasurably improved. My junior year of college, I was no longer living on campus. I was no longer living in the wrestling dorm. I was no longer even living with my uh my college roommate, my friend, but I was now living off campus. And I was living in a rented two-bedroom, one-bathroom condo, and I was living with a beautiful woman. That sound good. Yes, between my sophomore and junior year, uh, Lynn and I were married. And uh Lynn is a beautiful woman. Her inner beauty shines greater than her external radiance. She is wonderful, and so my living conditions have been greatly improved for the last 37 years. I'm not sure she'd make the same argument, but it's been certainly true for me. Well, when Lynn and I got married, I was halfway through my education, she was halfway through hers, but we were fully in love and we got married. Uh, we got married young. I was only 20 years old, she was 19 years old. And so, because we were getting married so young, we made some commitments. We made some decisions that were going to guide and direct the early years of our marriage. We made a number of them. But one of the commitments that we made is that we were not going to have any children for three, four, five, even six years. I needed to get through my education, she needed to finish her education, we needed to get ourselves a little more stable, a little more secure in our uh living situation. So we decided to put off having children uh for a while. And that was going to guide us. Several months into our marriage, there was a couple who were friends with Lynn and I. They were a little bit older than us, and they had gotten married a year before us, and uh, we heard that they had a little baby, and so we went to visit them. Now, a little heads up about me, I love little babies. I love little babies. So if you're walking around here and you have a little baby, I won't be the creeper that comes up and says, Can I hold your baby? But if you want to say, Do you want to hold my baby? the answer is always gonna be yes. I love little babies. So Lynn and I, we're at some friends of ours and they had a little baby, just a few weeks old, and we're hugging on that little one and holding it and having a great time. And of course, the question comes up in conversation Well, when are the two of you gonna start a family? When are you gonna have a little baby? And we gave them our answer. We said, We're gonna wait. We got to wait for a little while, maybe four or five years before we have even get started. And uh I think the I think some of that was driven by wisdom. We needed to finish school, but I think some of it was just a little bit of selfishness. We were just hoping to have life, enjoying life together as a married couple without any children. But we give them our answer. No, we're gonna wait. We're gonna wait a while before we have any children. Little did we know at the time, but Lynn was already pregnant. And we found out just a few days later. So before I finished my degree, before we ever planned to have children, and before our second anniversary, Lynn and I had a baby, a little baby girl whom we named Brooke, and Brooke was refreshing to us. So uh Lynn and I were brand new parents. Have you ever seen brand new parents? There's nothing so helpless as brand new parents. I have no idea what they're doing. But that was our experience. And because uh Brooke came early, earlier than expected, and because we knew that we wanted to have a family, we wanted to have more than one child, and we don't want to have a big gap between children, uh, we made it another decision. We said, well, let's let's now begin having a family. Let's uh let's begin uh having more children so that they're not spaced out so significantly, and uh we we know how to make babies at this point, and so we we go at it, and we're gonna have children, we're gonna raise a family. We got started on that, and there was no pregnancy, and then no pregnancy, and no pregnancy, a year goes by, two years go by, finally, deep into the third year, we finally got pregnant. And three years after the first child, we had a little another little baby, and this time it wasn't a baby boy, it was another baby girl, and we named her Melody Joy, daughter number two. Brooke and Melody are our first two children, they couldn't be more opposite. One has brown hair, brown eyes, the other one has blonde hair, blue eyes, and their temperaments and personalities are just completely opposite. You didn't think they were from the same parents. But now we have we have two children. At this point, with two little kids, I don't know if we were making any plans at all. I don't know what our thoughts were, but the very next year our son Austin was born. 15 months later, Austin was born. And he uh he came early, and uh he came quickly. Matter of fact, he came so quickly that there was only a nurse and I in the delivery room and Lynn. The nurse and I and Lynn. And I was far more involved in that delivery than any man should ever be involved. And he came not only fast, but he also came very early. And on the calendar, he came two weeks early, which he was born on April Fool's Day. So I start calling all my family and friends and saying, Hey, we had a baby boy, and they're like, Yeah, right. No one would believe me. Remarkable. Well, so now we have three children, two girls, one boy. Uh, when you become parents with three kids, you become real parents at that point. You can no longer run one-on-one. It's zone defense, you gotta work this out with three kids. There was a morning, a couple years after my son was born, that I was getting ready to go to work. I was dressed and up and ready and ready to go out the door and head off for work for the day. And um, I thought I'd go back in the house and give that lovely, beautiful wife of mine a kiss goodbye, and I'd see her later in the evening. So I walk back in the house to give her a kiss, and she comes across the living room floor, and as she's crossing the living room floor, she passes out. Collapses right to the floor. That's not normal in our home. I don't know if that's but she hits the floor, and I don't know what's going on. So I rush over and I bring her back to consciousness, and she doesn't know what's going on, and she doesn't feel right. And so I immediately call the neighbor lady and said, Hey, can you come over and watch our three little ones? There's something going on with Lynn. We need to get some medical attention. And she came over, and Lynn and I got in the car and we headed out to a medical facility. We get there and we discover that Lynn was pregnant again. But this time she had had a ruptured tubal pregnancy. And so we'd lost that child. And because it had ruptured the way it was, she was bleeding internally and she's pooling with blood, and that's what caused her to pass out. They immediately begin to go toward an emergency surgery. I remember my wife at that point like, is there any other way? Can we do this some other way? And they're like, No, if we don't do surgery, you die. And so they rush her off to surgery. We lost the child and they spared my wife, and it was a successful surgery. But after that, the medical staff they come out and they're like, you know, the surgery was a success, but you shouldn't have any more children. The risks are too high, the dangers are too great, and so you ought not to have any more children. So we took the necessary steps to not have any more children. And uh we figured that chapter was over. We have two daughters, we have a son, and uh we start giving away all of our baby stuff. And a year later, Jesse, our daughter, was born. Isn't that remarkable? Not possible to have kids? We had another one. I share all that with you, not just to share family history, but I'm making a point, and it's the point that the preacher is making in Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Uh, the preacher, as he observes life, as he examines life, and as he records it for us, as he examines life under the sun, he reaches some conclusions and he shares them with us. In Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse 11, this is what he says. Again, I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift. We thought it would be. We thought the swift would win win races. The race is not to the swift, the battle not for the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happened to them all. Time and chance happened to them all. What the preacher is literally saying is happenings happen. Things that we didn't expect to happen happen. Things that we didn't plan for happened, things that we thought would never happen happen. The very opposite of what we thought would happen happened. Life happens, circumstances change, situations arise, unforeseen things impinge upon our plans. Everything doesn't always happen the way we map it out. And so as the preacher examines life, one of the things that he comes to the conclusion is life is uncertain. Life is uncertain. Now, the apostle James, the half-brother of Jesus, says the very same thing in the epistle of James. If you turn to, I'm not gonna have you turn there, but in James chapter 4, verses 13 through 15, he says, Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we'll go into such and such a town and we'll spend a year there and we'll make a lot of money. He says, You will you don't even know what tomorrow will bring. You don't even know what tomorrow will happen. What is your life? You are but a a heavel, a mist, a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, what you ought to say is, if the Lord wills, we will do this or we will do that. Life is uncertain. Life is uncertain. It's interesting to hear people today say, well, you know, everything happens for a purpose. The preacher in Ecclesiastes would be quick to point out that it might not be a discernible purpose. You might not know. Because time and chance happen to everyone. And there are things at play that influence our lives, things that we have no control over, things that we can't foresee, things that we can't even leverage for our advantage. Life is uncertain. Now, this morning I've given you just one snapshot, a narrow snapshot into my life, and that of having children. But if you and I had all afternoon, I could sit down and I could share with you countless contours of my life and reveal to you how my life in no way reflects how I thought my life would be. Not even a close resemblance. I went off to the university to be a phys ed. I was a phys ed major, to be a physical education teacher. I've done nothing in physical education. I told my fiance before we got married, I would never be a pastor. For someone who's never going to be a pastor, I've done a whole lot of pastoring. As I look in the rearview mirror of my life, I'm utterly amazed at my loving creator and my gracious Redeemer, how he has redirected my life, changed my course, changed my desires, wrecked all my plans, and gave me a life that's far greater than I could have ever imagined. As I consider the fact that you and I are both in this room this morning, that's nothing short of a miracle. Ten years ago, it's unlikely either of us would have placed us here on daylight saving time Sunday, March 8, 2026. But here we are. And God has brought it about. Time and chances happen to every one of us, life is uncertain, and here we are sitting together in this room. Life is unpredictable. Life doesn't always go according to plan. Life is often outside of our control, beyond our management. And the preacher in Ecclesiastes pulls it out and he says, Life is uncertain. Now he doesn't just notice what is uncertain, but he also points out something that is absolutely certain in life. Well, what does he say is absolutely certain? Well, you I've had you look at verse 11. I'm not going to put it on the screen, but look at the very next verse. Chapter 9, verse 12. He goes on to say this. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare. So the children of man are snared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them. What is he talking about? What is it that's absolutely certain? Life is uncertain, but something is absolutely certain. Well, if you're not sure what he's talking about, look back at verse one, and let's look at that opening paragraph of this chapter. Verse 1 he says, But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise are and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know. We're a mixed bag of motives. Both are before him. It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as one who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. But he who is joined with the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion, for the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. What the preacher observes as he examines life is he tells us that life is uncertain, death is certain. Death is absolutely certain. And he says here in this paragraph the good guys and the bad guys, the religious ones and the irreligious ones, the wise and the foolish, everyone dies. You're gonna die. You and I, our plans may or may not come to fruition, but one thing that we can plan for with certainty is death. Because as the preacher says here in this paragraph, the same event happens to us all. Life is uncertain, but death is certain. In the movie Braveheart, Mel Gibson plays the uh the part of William Wallace, the great freedom fighter of the Scottish nation. And in that movie, William Wallace says, every man dies. Same thing with the preacher saying, every man dies, not every man really lives. That sounds heroic, doesn't it? It sounds so manly. Sounds so brave. Everyone dies, not every man really lives. As you read through the book of Ecclesiastes, this isn't the only time that he brings up the certainty of death, but as you read through the book, the preacher in Ecclesiastes would say, if you and I have not dealt with the certainty of death, then you and I are not really living. We're just pretending. If you and I have not dealt with the ultimate reality of the certainty of death, we're just ignoring reality. Ignoring the greatest certainty that faces every one of us, this certainty of death. If you and I have not considered the finish line of this preliminary race, then we're not even running the race. We're like playing around at the concession stand when there's a race marked out for us. There's a finish line to this life, and the preacher says that finish line is death. Now, in this context, as we read it, the preacher speaks of death as a great enemy. And he's certainly right. Death is a great enemy. He calls it an evil under the sun. Death is a great enemy because death separates us from our body. I don't know about you, but I'd rather like my body. My body could be in better shape for sure, but I've never been apart from my body. And death separates us from our body. Not only does death separate us from our body, but death separates us from our loved ones, the people whom we love to be with. Death will separate me from my lovely, beautiful wife that I live with and have for the last 37 years. Death separates us from our body, death separates us from our loved one, death separates us from experiences on this planet, pleasures that we enjoy every day. And as we pass away, time marches on, and even the memory of us is quickly forgotten. So the preacher is exactly right. As he observes the certainty of death, he calls death a great enemy, a dreadful enemy. And the Bible tells us that death is something that we have inherited, and that's true, and death is also something that we have earned for ourselves, and death is horrible. So the preacher brings this up life is uncertain, death is certain. So let's think about it for a little bit. Back when death was introduced into the human experience, and it was introduced, it wasn't a part of the good creation that God had made. Death came in when sin came in, and God didn't sin. When the founding creatures who were made in God's image, when they thought they could play the role of the creator, when the finite human beings thought that they could be infinite, and they rebelled against God's gracious authority and his kind benevolence, death was the outcome. Just as he promised. And when death was introduced into the human experience, God did something. What did God do? Did he just say, like, done with you guys? You guys made your bed, now sleep in it. I told you, if you sin, you die. Now death has come. There you go. Now God did something. When death was introduced, God made a promise. God promised a rescuer. A rescuer who would come and crush Satan's head, the great deceiver. He would defeat sin, he would destroy death, he would restore creation, and he would reconcile mankind back into a relationship with himself. But God made a promise, a promise to send a rescuer, and he kept his promise. And the Bible story tells us the big arc of that narrative, that big story of God keeping and making a promise and keeping his promise, because in the course of time, Jesus came. And Jesus is that promised rescuer. He came and he crushed Satan's head. How did he crush Satan's head? Well, he took on temptation and he didn't fail. He was perfectly righteous. He succeeded where our parents fell. He didn't fall. He was perfect in his obedience. Jesus crushed Satan's head. Jesus nailed sin to the cross in his own body. The scripture tells us that he who knew no sin became sin for us. And Jesus took our sin, nailed it to the cross. God demanded a sacrifice of atonement to pay for our sin. And then God made the payment. How gracious, huh? How remarkably gracious. Instead of us paying that sacrifice of atonement, God paid for that sacrifice of atonement, and Jesus is that sacrifice. So Jesus, the promised rescuer, He comes, he crushes Satan's head through his perfect obedience, he nails sin to the cross, and then he destroys death. That great certainty, that great enemy. He destroys death. How does Jesus destroy death? Through his powerful resurrection. He takes on sin and death and he comes back to life. Now the scripture tells us that Jesus holds the keys of sin and death. He holds the keys not like a janitor, he holds the keys like an owner. He now owns sin and death and he gives life and abundant life and eternal life to those who come and place their faith in him. The promised one. God made a promise. God kept his promise. Jesus has come. And he has so transformed death that it's no longer the great enemy, but it now also is a friend. Because for those who trust in Jesus Christ and they're brought to the Heavenly Father through him, to die no longer separates them from Jesus. For a believer in Jesus Christ to die today, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and being present with the Lord is better. It's an improvement. How remarkable. So Jesus takes that which is certain, and then it's a great enemy, and he turns it into a great gift. Let's think about that for a minute. Let's give it some thought. If I were to die this afternoon, somebody like, oh, that won't happen. Well, happenings happen. Life is uncertain. I imagine there was a bunch of people in Union City, Michigan this past week who didn't think a tornado was going to rip through their town, take out a half a dozen lives. No one's planning for that. Unforeseen happenings happen. If I were to die this afternoon, well, if I die, those who those of you who love me can come and mourn my passing. And you can also rejoice in the fact that I've gone to be with Jesus, which is a great improvement. It's better than living with wrestlers. It's better than living with my beautiful wife on Pine Street in Frankimuth? It sure is. Can't begin to imagine how better it is, because I can't even conjure that thought up. See, I place my faith in Jesus Christ. I've been given life and abundant life and eternal life. For me to die is to be absent from the body, but to be present with the Lord, and being present with the Lord is better. What will it be like for me to leave my body behind and go to be with Jesus? What will it be like for me to have a conscious existence as a recognized person, but not have a body? What will that be like? Oh, we don't know. Because the Bible doesn't tell us much about that intermediate state. We do know that the angels, they don't have a body, so they do it on a daily basis. Can't be a problem. But we don't know much what that'll be like. Let's go a step further, though. We have loved ones in Jesus Christ who've gone home before us. They've gone home to be with Jesus. We've put their body in the grave, they've gone to be with Jesus. What are they looking forward to? Oh, there we go. I got an answer. First time. You know, they're looking forward to a glorious future. They're looking to the same glorious future that you and I are looking forward to. Our loved ones who are in Christ, who've gone on to be with Jesus, they're in heaven with him. And our initial thought was like, well, they're not looking forward to anything. I mean, they're in glory. It's beautiful, it's wonderful, it's a great improvement. No, they're still looking, it is, but they're still looking forward to a glorious future. They're looking forward to the return of Jesus Christ. Because when Jesus returns, they'll be coming back with him. And their body will be raised, and they'll be reclothed in a glorified, eternal body. And they'll see the full revelation of Jesus' glory and the full realization of a new heaven, a new earth, a home of righteousness where God will dwell with his people forever. You know what we're getting into here? See, Jesus is so transformed the certainty of death. He's taken it from being an enemy to being a great gift. For me to pass is to be with Jesus, which is better by far in a way that I cannot imagine. If I go home to be with Jesus, I'm looking forward to a glorious future. I'm going to be coming back with Jesus, get my body back, a resurrection, a revelation of Jesus, and a reward of eternal home of righteousness. Isn't this glorious? Do you see how the gospel has transformed this? Life is uncertain, death is certain. It's absolutely remarkable. In Ecclesiastes 3:14, I won't have you turn back there, but earlier in the book, the preacher says, Whatever God does endures forever. What we do doesn't endure, but what God does endures forever. If you and I want to endure forever, if you and I want to live forever, we better get in on what God is doing. And he has done something. He's given, he's made a promise, he's kept that promise, he's given us Jesus, who has destroyed our enemy death, and given us life and eternal life. Here in Ecclesiastes 9, verse 4, it says, He who is joined with the living has hope. Those people who have been joined to Jesus, they have hope. Death is an enemy, death is a gift. Jesus is our living Savior. How remarkable. Well, there's one more message that comes out of the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 9. Life is uncertain, death is certain, but he's got one more message, and we find it in verse 7. How should we now live? 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 always be 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 this is your portion in life and your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it. Do it with all your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in jewel to where you are going. Oh, life is uncertain, death is certain, but the message is live with joy. Live with joy. If we have not ignored the reality of the uncertainties of life and the certainty of death, but we have embraced God's promise and his promise kept, and we've received Jesus Christ as our Savior, and we now have been given life and abundant life and eternal life, there's a way to live. And that way which is prescribed for us continually in this book is a way of gladness and joy. The preacher would say, if we've come to trust in our Creator, who has become for us our Redeemer and we have His approval, I mean, He loves us, He likes us, He wants to spend time with us, He's done everything necessary to reconcile us while then enjoying Him and enjoying His gifts, doing it today. This is the right response. This is the right way to live while we're running this preliminary race that we're running. We do have a finish line, and that finish line is the door of death, but that door opens up to us glory upon glory upon glory because of what Christ has accomplished for us. How remarkable. So if life is a gift, and if eternal life is a gift, and if all of this is given to us by our Creator and our Redeemer, then the appropriate response is gladness and joy. Gladness and joy. I'm not gonna live here forever. I have a race to run, I'll finish my race. I won't always be under the sun. I won't always live in a world with corruption and sin and death and disease and hardship. I mean, we experience gifts every day, but we also experience difficulty. No, Christ has so transformed this. Life is uncertain, death is certain, but we can now live with joy because of what God has done for us. Now, here's what's remarkable this is the sixth time in this short little book that the preacher has prescribed that we live with joy. Sixth time. Let me share him with you. You can just listen along. Ecclesiastes 2 24. There's nothing better for a person. Nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also I saw is from the hand of God, for apart from God, who can eat or have enjoyment? God is the giver. Ecclesiastes 3 12. I perceive that there's nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live. So that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in his toil. This is God's gift to man. Ecclesiastes 3 22. So I saw that there's nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for this is his lot. Ecclesiastes five, eighteen. 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. This is a gift from God. Ecclesiastes eight, fifteen. And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him through all his toil, through all the days of his life that God has given him. And now Ecclesiastes 9 7, go eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. In Ecclesiastes, the preacher has given us solid wisdom for living with joy during the few days of this short life under the sun. And that's found in revering God, acknowledging Him, believing His promises, receiving His gift, receiving His ultimate gift in the person of Jesus Christ. That's the way to find real joy. That's the way to really live. Everyone dies, not everyone really lives. You want to really live, you better get in on what God has done. And he's done something for you in Jesus Christ so that you might really live not only just eternally, but live fully and freely today. Ignoring God, trying to live like you are God, trying to control life like you're God, enduring joy will elude you. It'll escape you. And ultimately so will eternal life. But fearing God brings us into a life that's really life. Big idea this morning, our enjoyment of life comes from our appreciation of God. I know there's a lot of different ways I could say that, but I'm gonna leave it just like that. Our genuine enjoyment of life comes from our appreciation, our fearing God. Some of you may like, well, man, this sounds an awful lot like last Sunday's sermon. Well, it's because they're really similar. Last Sunday we said, we don't get our way, life is unfair, we have unanswered questions, but that doesn't rob us of our joy. This morning, life is uncertain, death is certain, but our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, his gift, has changed everything. Having God, having God's approval, really frees us to live in the light of his daily pleasures. Let me close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace and kindness to us in Christ. How remarkable. You have given us life, you have given us joy, you have given us many great and precious gifts. Father, we thank you that you have taken a great enemy and you've so transformed it into a gift. We thank you that even though life is uncertain and death is certain, you have given us in Christ forgiveness and life and acceptance and approval and abundant life and eternal life. That so frees us to receive our daily bread and our daily wine and our daily enjoyments as gifts from your hand and really live today as we look forward to going from one degree of glory to the next. What a treasure, what a pleasure, how great and awesome you are. So we sing to your greatness this morning. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.