Don’t Waste Your Life
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Today’s the last week in our series on the book of Ecclesiastes called Life Under The Sun. It’s called Life Under The Sun and it’s been all about learning how to enjoy today as we look forward to tomorrow, which is something that’s very hard to do at this point in human history. It’s very hard for us to enjoy today as we look forward to tomorrow at this point in human history, because most things we pursue or chase after don’t have a long shelf life. I mean one day something’s trending, the next day it’s not. One day kids are going crazy over Fidget Spinners, the next day they’re not. One day people are doing Pokémon Go, the next day they’re not. One day we’re protesting something, the next day we’re not. One day we’re blowing up social media about a tragedy, the next day we’re not. We’re like a bunch of sheep running from one end of the pen to the other. “Hey let’s run this way! No let’s run that way! Oh now we’re running this way again. Wait, why are we running in the first place?” I don’t know. I just saw everybody else running so I figured I’d run too...Let’s keep running.” It’s run to buy this product, run to buy that product, run to bash our president for tweeting, run to protest and kneel at football games, run to protest by not watching football games, run to protest white supremacy or black lives matter groups, and then we’ll run to the middle and work together when a tragedy occurs. As soon as a tragedy occurs we all start running to the middle, working together, and praising music artists for throwing a benefits concert when just the other day some of those same artists were viciously attacking anybody who disagreed with them politically. But it takes a tragedy for us to run to the middle, work together, only to have a few days pass before it’s back to fighting and protesting again while Puerto Rico’s still waiving their SOS flags needing help. The tragedy’s short lived, because this is what we do. We run from one end of the sheep pen to the other, we pursue and chase after one thing after another, hardly knowing why we’re running in the first place. It all happens so quickly and so frequently because we’re in a fast paced, social media, constantly changing point of human history where very few things have a long shelf life.
Now what all this has done, is it’s caused a lot of people to be confused about what they’re working for and what they’re working towards in life. They’re like, “I don’t know why I’m running, I’m just running. My feet are moving, I’m moving, but I don’t know what I’m moving for and towards. I don’t know what I’m working for and towards.” There’s a lot of people who are confused right now, they don’t know what they’re working for and towards in life. In fact why don’t you ask yourself that question. What are you working for and towards in life?..What is it that you’re working so hard for and towards in life?..Most of us have a hard time answering that question, and in this last chapter of Ecclesiastes Solomon’s gonna address that question. He’s gonna talk about how it’s not just our gadgets, products, and protests that don’t have a long shelf life, it’s our very own lives. Our very own lives don’t have a long shelf life, and so we need to know what we’re working for and towards so we don’t reach the end of our life full of regret still asking, “Why was I running? Why was I running so hard, and what was I running so hard for and towards?” This is what Solomon’s gonna talk about today, so let’s turn our bibles to Ecclesiastes 12:1-14 and get into it. The title of today’s message is “Don’t Waste Your Life.” Don’t waste your life. What are you working so hard for and towards?
Context:
Here’s your context. We started this series off by talking about how Solomon’s a man who’s experienced a lot of life, knows a lot about life, and writes Ecclesiastes toward the end of his life. He’s toward the end of his life, and like an old, wise, grandpa, he’s trying to teach us a few things about life so we don’t repeat his same mistakes. Perhaps more so now than any other chapter in Ecclesiastes you’ll notice Solomon’s older wiser tone, because he talks a lot about what it’s like to be old. He ends ch. 11 by specifically addressing the younger generation telling them not to give much worth to their youthfulness because they’re gonna get old one day, and in ch. 12 he’s gonna give us a personal glimpse as to what that older life is like. Let’s check it out.
The Word:
Ecclesiastes 12:1-14 states this, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth...” There’s the big idea, there’s the big idea of what Solomon’s teaching us. He’s teaching us to remember our Creator, to remember God while we’re still young. He specifically speaks to the younger generation, meaning those in their teens, twenties, thirties, and let’s say 40’s plus so I don’t get into trouble. He specifically speaks to the younger generation because most young people don’t think about how short life is, instead they tend to think they have their entire lives ahead of them. As a result they tend to chase all kinds of things that’ll bring them pleasure in the moment. Younger people tend to live in the moment, in the present, and they rarely if ever look at what’s ahead of them. They rarely if ever think about the future. The middle aged generation tends to think about the past, present, and sometimes freaks out about the future which we call a midlife crisis. It’s called a midlife crisis because they’re freaking out over half their life being gone and they’re wondering if what they’ve been working so hard for and towards is actually worth it. So they start thinking career change, life change, somethings gotta change because half my life’s gone and I’m gonna retire and die soon. They start freaking out and shift more towards future thinking, rather than present life in the moment thinking like the younger generation. But the older generation, they tend to do a lot of reflecting like Solomon’s doing in the text. They tend to do a lot of reflecting on the past, reflecting on the present, and reflecting on how little time is left in their future. They know they don’t have much time left, so they start adjusting their wills, making funeral preparations, creating bucket lists, checking off stuff on their bucket lists, some even soak in guilt and regret over how they lived their lives when they were young. They regret many of the pointless things they worked so hard for and towards when they were young.
Look here’s my point, I’ve never met a young person who already planned their funeral. I’ve met plenty of old people who’ve planned their funeral, but I’ve never met a young person who’s done that. It’s because when you’re young you think you have your entire life ahead of you, and Solomon’s trying to get every generation, especially the younger generation to reflect on our lives before we lose our lives. He’s trying to remind us that life doesn’t have a long shelf life, so we need to know what we’re working for and towards. He’s trying to teach us to not waste our lives chasing temporal things like sheep in a sheep pen, instead we need to remember our Creator and chase after the eternal things of our Creator. That’s the big idea of what he’s saying. He’s saying don’t waste your life. Your life can have so much purpose, when you remember your Creator, and use your life for the eternal purposes of your Creator.
Again vs. 1 states, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them;’ 2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, 3 in the day when the keepers of the house tremble...” He’s talking about what life is like when you’re older. He says ‘in the day,’ meaning the day when you get old, ‘the keepers of the house will tremble,’ meaning we’ll get palsy, we’ll get the shakes. When we get older our arms will shake, our legs will shake, and we’ll have to live in a one story house because walking up and down the stairs will be too risky. Solomon’s giving us a glimpse of what it’s like to be old, and he’s about to give us an even greater glimpse as the text continues.
Again vs. 3, “...in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed...” The ‘strong men are bent’ is a symbol of older people having to hunch over. Their back and leg muscles aren’t as strong as they used to be, so it causes them to hunch over a bit. They can’t walk, run, or hike like they used to, because their now weaker and hunched over. The ‘grinders cease’ is a symbol of missing teeth, of losing teeth. They didn’t have good dental hygiene like we do today, so when you got old you’d lose your teeth and have a hard time eating your food. But even today our teeth and gums will get softer when you get old, and you’ll have to cut back on all the hard Halloween candy. Solomon says it’s because our grinders will cease to be what they used to be. He also says the ‘windows are dimmed,’ meaning we’ll start to lose our eyesight the older we get. As we get older we’ll start to lose our eyesight, we’ll start to need reading glasses, multi-purpose glasses, blowup the computer screen, use a flashlight to walk around the house at night, and avoid driving in the dark. Solomon says it’s because you’re getting old, and your eyes are starting to fade. The windows are dimmed.
Vs. 4, “And the doors on the street are shut when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low...” He’s talking about our hearing. He’s saying you’ll lose your hearing when you get old. You’re not gonna be able to hear ‘the daughters of song,’ meaning the music or other sounds you’ve been able to enjoy. I’ve had some old people say this is actually a blessing. They’re like “When the grandkids are loud or my spouse won’t stop talking, I just hit the mute button. I turn off my hearing aid.” Some call it a blessing. Solomon’s saying you’ll lose your hearing when you get old.
Vs. 5, “They are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along...” The ‘terrors are in the way’ is a symbol of older people having to watch where they step. They have to worry about tripping, falling, taking a wrong step, breaking an arm, a leg, a hip which will send them to the hospital or rehab for months. They have to watch their step. ‘The almond tree’ is a symbol of grey hair. When an almond tree blossoms it blossoms white, so it’s a symbol of grey hair. The older you get the more grey hair you get and the more hair you lose. You lose hair where you want it and gain hair where you don’t want it. It’s like your hair just starts growing inward rather than upward. It starts shooting out of your ears and nose like a chia pet. It’ll look like you snorted a cat or something. Solomon says this is what happens when you get old. You lose your sight, your hearing, your strength, your hair, and you start to drag yourself along like a ‘grasshopper drags itself along.’
Again vs. 5, “They are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets, 6 before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, 7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” I don’t have time to break all this symbolism down, but it’s basically talking about death. Solomon is talking about death, and notice he says ‘desire fails.’ He says desire fails as you get old. It’s because older people know time’s running out, they know they’ll be heading to their ‘eternal home’ as the text states. I’ve seen this happen to a lot of older people. I’ve seen them lose their desire to live, like they’re just waiting to die. But I’ve also seen some older people like Solomon who want to finish the race strong by using their years of wisdom and wealth to pour into the next generation and help the church in reaching the next generation. They don’t lose their desire in retirement. A Christian should never lose their desire in retirement, because they’re never retired from helping the church spread the gospel to the next generation. Some people both young and old think the goal of life is to work hard now so they can sit back, relax, and enjoy retirement later. “I’ve got 5 yrs left, I’ve got 10 yrs left.” They’re counting down the clock to retirement. But the reality is we’re not guaranteed to make it to retirement, and the Christian’s job isn’t ever done after retirement. They still have work to do when it comes to spreading the gospel. Yet so many older people lose their desire, they waste their years of wisdom, years of wealth, final years of their life, and Solomon’s saying to both the younger and older generations don’t waste your life OR the end of your life. Your life can have so much purpose, when you remember your Creator, and use your life for the eternal purposes of your Creator.
Vs. 8, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.” He says ‘all is vanity,’ meaning our youthful mindset is vanity, our mindset that we’re always gonna have tomorrow. Solomon’s like, “No you’re not. You’re not always gonna have tomorrow and before you know it you’re gonna be old like me unable to do the things you used to do when you were younger. So enjoy your younger years now while they last, but take time to reflect on your life before you lose your life. Take time to reflect on what you’re working so hard for and towards. Take time to remember your Creator, and to use your life for the eternal purposes of your Creator because everything else you’re chasing after in the sheep pen isn’t gonna last...It’s not gonna last...It’s all temporal vanity, so don’t waste your life chasing those things. Don’t waste your life.” Are you wasting your life? We’re doing a little older generation reflection. Are you wasting your life?..What are you working so hard for and towards?..What are you working so hard for and towards? More importantly, is what you’re working so hard for and towards gonna last, or are you wasting your life on temporal vanity?..Don’t waste your life. Your life can have so much purpose, when you remember your Creator and use your life for the eternal purposes of your Creator.
Vs. 9, “Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. 10 The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. 11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. 12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” Simply put, God’s gonna hold us accountable for our actions, He’s gonna hold us accountable for the way we lived our lives, so we need to stop wasting our lives chasing vain things. Instead we need to remember our Creator while we’re still young, still alive, and we need to follow the voice of our Creator, the voice of the ‘one Shepherd’ as the text states. The text states that the bible’s like a ‘goad,’ which is a long stick that has a sharp point at the end. Shepherds use it to poke their sheep in the right direction. The Bible’s like a goad, if you trust it, it’ll guide you in the right direction because it’s divinely inspired by our ‘one Shepherd’ Jesus. In John 10:11 Jesus said “I’m the good Shepherd,” meaning He’s God, he’s the ‘one Shepherd’ Solomon’s been saying we need to listen to. Jesus is God who came to live, die, and rise again for the forgiveness of our sins. Like a good Shepherd he gave up his life, for our lives. Solomon says we need to listen to his voice, because his voice is the only voice that won’t ever steer us wrong. His voice is the only voice that can fill our empty souls.
The Big Idea:
Let’s get to the big idea. Here’s the big idea. Don’t waste your life...Don’t waste your life...Life has so much meaning when you remember your Creator, and use your life for the eternal purposes of your Creator. Don’t waste your life...Solomon tells us we’re to work for God and towards the eternal purposes of God, meaning we’re to use our wisdom, our wealth, our very own lives in ways that’ll glorify God, and draw us and others close to God. Some of you are like, “Well that’s boring.” According to Solomon it’s not, according to Solomon it’s the greatest joy there is. I mean if there’s one thing Ecclesiastes and the history books have taught us about Solomon, it’s that he’s a guy who’s worked for and towards many different things in life. He’s a guy who’s ran around the sheep pen. He listened to the voice that said chase education, so he got the degrees, graduated with honors, and wrote a lot of books. He listened to the voice that said chase wine, so he sipped on the Crystal and the Pappy. He listened to the voice that said chase women, so he got over 1000 wives and concubines. He listened to the voice that said chase wealth, so he made lots of money, built massive gardens, infinity pools, and palaces with movie theater rooms. He listened to all the different voices known to humanity chasing it all, having it all, and at the end of it all he said, “It’s all temporal vanity. None of it lasted, none of it filled my soul. So listen to me, learn from me, trust my years of experience like you’d trust a skilled surgeon and their years of experience. Trust me when I say don’t waste your life chasing those voices, those vain things you think will fill your empty soul, because there’s only one thing, one voice that’ll fill your empty soul, it’s the voice of the one Shepherd Jesus! Remember that voice, and follow it.” Do you know that voice?..Do you know that voice, do you know the voice of Jesus?..Do you want to know that voice, or do you already know that voice but you’ve wandered away from it?..Sheep are known for their wandering. They’re known for being prone to wander from their shepherd’s voice, and that’s when they’re the most vulnerable to predators and danger.
In 2006 over 450 sheep in Turkey fell off a cliff and died because they wandered away from their shepherd’s voice. One sheep started running, the other 450 started running, none of them knew what they were running for and towards until it was too late. All 450 of them fell off the cliff and died. If only they would’ve listened to their shepherd’s voice, they would’ve lived. Like these sheep we’re so easily prone to wander from Shepherd Jesus’ voice, we’re so easily prone to run around the sheep pen chasing all other kinds of voices, teachings, and things we think will fill our empty souls, but they never do. Jesus being a good Shepherd will sometimes poke us with a goad to get us to wake up from our wandering so we’ll back away from the cliff. He’ll sometimes poke us with a goad, a scripture, a tough season, speak through a friend, a family member, a church service to wake us up from our wandering so we’ll back away from the cliff, remember Him as our Shepherd, and start listening to his voice either for the first time or again. Has he been poking you with a goad?..Has Shepherd Jesus been poking you with a goad, trying to get you to wake up to his voice because you’ve been wandering?..We all wander, we all chase other things, teachings, and voices causing us to run around the sheep pen, and today we have a chance to listen to Jesus’s voice calling us away from the cliff. We have a chance to listen to his voice so we don’t live a life of regret having chased vain temporal things. So let the non-Christian repent of their sins, believe Jesus is your good Shepherd who died for your sins, and start following his voice. Let the Christian remember to not waste their life chasing vain things, but instead listen to the voice of Jesus over all other voices knowing full well, that it’s only his voice that’ll fill your soul. This is wise, old grandpa Solomon’s advice. It’s to live for, towards, and to follow the voice of Shepherd Jesus. So let’s listen to his voice, and follow it.