Living a Full Life

One month to live. Grab your message notes that look like this. They're right in the middle of the bulletins that you were handed as you walked in. And these will help you follow along with the message today. In fact, look at the key verse for this morning at the top of the page. It's Ecclesiastes 7:2. It says, "Death is the destiny of everyone." And the living, that's you, should take this to heart. Now some of you are saying, "Wow, church is so positive and uplifting today." First there was that song and now this. Listen, don't take this verse the wrong way. My wife was at the store last week and saw this card that she said, "Wow, that's a perfect tie-in to our One Month to Live series." It says, "I used to live each day as if it were my last, but people got tired of me screaming, 'I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!'" That would be taking this verse the wrong way. That is not the intent of this verse or this series. This is not supposed to be morbid. This verse is about taking stock of the fact that we all have limited time, right? I mean, let's face it, death is our destiny and so we need to think about how to live a full life, a meaningful life. This is a message on how to have a meaningless life. I hope you're glad you came. No. It's a message on living a full life with the few days that we have on this earth. That's what this whole series is about and that's what this message is about.

As we wrap up our series, let's do an overview of the book of the Bible that that key verse comes from. We're gonna do an overview, a summary of one of the strangest, odd, not frequently preached about, potentially confusing, but intriguing books of the Bible, the book of Ecclesiastes. Now, you don't hear a lot of sermons on the book of Ecclesiastes because at first blush, it's kind of confusing what it's even doing in the Bible. It sounds like a French existentialist tract from 3,000 years ago and it's potentially hard to understand what its message is for us today. But actually, it is the perfect book to wrap up the series One Month to Live because that's what this whole book of the Bible is about.

Here's the set up, about a thousand years before Christ. The book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon about 3,000 years ago. Now, the Bible says that he was the wisest man who ever lived. He was very philosophical, a deep thinker, and he was one of the richest men who ever lived too. And in this book, Solomon kind of introduces his topic in chapter one. He says, "This book is about an experiment that I did with my life." His whole life, you could say, was one grand science fair project. And maybe I'm just seeing it that way because I've got science fair on my mind right now. You know, last week was Science Fair Week for the seventh graders at school here in Santa Cruz County, and we have a seventh grader. Anybody here remember Science Fair? Anybody remember? Okay, then you know the nightmare that we just went through with our science fair project.

First, you've got to come up with an experiment. And that is the toughest part, choosing what project you're going to do. We, like every other parent of a seventh grader, agonize over what to do. We read stuff. We did Google searches. And while we were doing Google searches on science fair project ideas, we found some fascinating science fair ideas. Science experiments that have been tried by seventh graders here in the area. I wish we thought of some of these. Like this kid who was brilliant. The "we" workout was his project. I would give this kid an A just for sheer lazy genius. I actually admire him. And speaking of exercise, here's one. Does exercising affect? Does it? The world will never know. Does it affect the ability to complete sentences? I don't know. And I'd like to know the story behind this one so badly. Electricity versus Cat. Now, of course, this can't be what I think it is, but it's a great title. And look at that grin. And she's holding jumper cables. This is a kid with a sense of humor, and I hope her teacher has one too. That's all I gotta say.

Alright, how about this one? Garlic, the silent killer. I am just really super glad I did not have to be in this kid's house for this experiment. So, there were some fascinating experiments there. Our son, David's experiment, was to see how music affected the pace of runners. And it was a very interesting project. He got the cooperation of a lot of PE classes at school. He tried playing slow music, and that made people slow way down. He tried playing fast music, which made people speed up a little bit. And then he tried the Black Eyed Peas Super Bowl performance music, and that made people go immediately insane. But that's not important right now. And the whole book of Ecclesiastes, though, is really like a giant science fair project. It's about Solomon's lifelong experiment. He basically says, "I tried everything in my life." "I tried everything!" Human beings can possibly try to find a meaningful life, to find a full life. I tried it all to see what works. It was Solomon's search for meaning.

Look at this verse. He says, "I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives." Kind of the whole book is about the one month to live topic. And in chapter 2 of his book, he says, "Here's what I did. Here's the write-up for my experiment." And you might want to fill in the bullet points there on the first page of your notes, because here's where we go through it. First he says he tried pleasure. Pleasure! And no one could go on a binge like Solomon did, because he was so wealthy. He says, "I said to myself, 'Come now! I will test you with pleasure.' I tried cheering myself with wine and embracing folly." Now, remember, he is seeking a spiritual awakening in mind-altering substances. And so he would have fit in really well here in Santa Cruz County, wouldn't he have? In fact, Summer of Love, 1967, here in the Bay Area. George Harrison, who was with the Beatles, of course, came here to the Bay Area. In fact, specifically to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, LSD headquarters of the world at the time.

And, well, here he described what he saw there. Listen to this. You know, into Haight-Ashbury, expecting to be this brilliant place, and it was just full of horrible, spotty dropout kids on drugs. It certainly showed me what was really happening in the drug cult. It wasn't what I thought of all these groovy people getting, having spiritual awakenings and being artistic. It was just, it was like the battery, it was like alcoholism, it was like any addiction. So, at that point, I stopped taking it, actually, the dreaded isergic. I had some in a little bottle, and I put it, it was liquid, I put it on a microscope, and I looked at it, and it looked like rope, just like old rope, and I thought, well, I'm not going to put that in my brain anymore. Interesting, isn't it? You know, it might just be my imagination, but I think I recognize some of you in those scenes filmed at Golden Gate Park there. Was that you? I think I saw Gary and Suzy Williams blowing soap bubbles, but I'm not sure.

So, at least George Harrison was wise enough to recognize that chemical substances can't deliver spiritual goods, and that's what Solomon recognized us here, too. But he says, "Alright, that was just part of my experiment. I went on and I tried a harem as well. You knew this was coming, right? The delights of a man's heart. I denied myself nothing. My eyes desired. I refused my heart. No pleasure." Now, when it says harem, you might be thinking, like what, that's like 12 or 13 women. Well, the Bible is very specific. It says he had 700 wives and 300 paid mistresses or concubines, and I don't know how he made the distinction. I don't know if he got to like 700 wives and said, "I can't have any more wives." From now on, it's only mistresses for me. I'll have 300 of those. But I don't know how he comes up with these numbers, but I was thinking about this, and I thought to myself, you know, he's in heaven now with the other Bible prophets, and I can just imagine their conversations.

I can just imagine that some of them are pretty upset with Solomon. I can hear it Jeremiah. So, let me get this straight, Lord. Solomon's assignment from you is to try a thousand women to see if that brings meaning, and I get to be the weeping prophet? How are these assignments decided, you know? And Solomon Langley says, "Well, it doesn't satisfy." You know, I don't think that's going to be enough for Jeremiah, but we keep seeing people rediscover this. Tiger Woods, sadly, last year in his press conference, he said, quote, "I felt that I deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me." Sounds just like a quote from Ecclesiastes, doesn't it? And then he says, "How could I be so selfish and so foolish?" That's a word-for-word quote from his press conference. "Pleasure promises more than it can deliver." So Solomon goes, "Okay, pleasure, check, been there, done that." Next hypothesis, projects.

Verse 4, "So I undertook great projects. I built houses, plural, houses for myself, and planted vineyards." And he goes on to describe more projects. When I think of projects in California, and people who were like Solomon addicted to finding meaning in projects, you know, I think of one name, I think of William Randolph Hearst. And this last Thursday, my wife Lori and I went down to Hearst Castle, took some pictures. Yes, it was like a hurricane down there in the storm, but we went down there. First of all, we figured it would be less crowded. And secondly, we went because this was one of the things I put on my bucket list during the first week of the series. I told you about that. I said my wife had never been down there to Hearst Castle, so we're going to go down there. That afternoon I went and made reservations, and lo and behold, it was in the middle of the storm.

But anybody else ever been down to Hearst Castle, raise your hand if you've been down there. Well, then you know what I'm going to talk about. The richest guy in America at one time, Hearst, is addicted to building projects. He works on this one until the day he dies. It is still not finished. It never satisfies him, even though he fills this just one of his houses, plural, with room after room after room after room after room of art and antiques and fancy ceilings. He pried off of medieval castles and tile walkways. He pried up from the floors of ancient Rome. And when you're done walking through this place that he spent millions and millions of dollars and thousands and thousands of hours on. And when you're done wandering through the museum about him and watching the movie about him, you're not left with the slightest idea of who he really was or what he stood for or what he felt or the causes that he contributed to.

The overriding impression that every single person who's ever been there that I've spoken with, leaves with, is some version of, "Man, that guy had a lot of stuff. Look at all his stuff." And ladies and gentlemen, if you follow me, we'll walk into another room full of more of his stuff. So you leave not inspired but impressed with all of the stuff that he had. But it doesn't add up to anything. And that's the same conclusion that Solomon comes through. He tried the same thing, projects, which he then filled with the same thing, a ton of possessions, just like Hearst. Verse 7, "I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed gold and silver for myself and the treasure of kings and provinces." Lots of possessions. The Bible specifies this. Again, let me give you some idea of this.

The Bible says it took 14 years to build just his main palace. It was huge. And 1 Kings 4 says, "Just to feed Solomon's household, each day they had to slaughter 30 cattle and 100 sheep every day." Of course, that did include a thousand women and all their children, but still, this was an enormously rich man. And yet, he does a tour of all of his castle rooms, just like you do when you go through Hearst Castle, and he looks around and he goes, "You know, I sure have a lot of stuff. It's remarkable how much stuff I've got, but what does it all mean?" Howard Hughes was another Hearst-like figure, legendarily rich, and when a reporter asked him, "How much does it take to make a man happy?" He famously said, "Just a little bit more." True story.

And then Solomon turned to prestige, right? Fame. "Make it a name." He says, verse 9, "Then I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me." And honestly, in retrospect, than anyone in Jerusalem after him, too. He was top of the heap. He had bragging rights. He's still famous today. He's more famous than anybody else who existed in his lifetime, isn't he? Who else do you know from that era, 3,000 years ago? Probably King Solomon would be top of the heap, number one. But he says, "Doesn't satisfy." Albert Einstein had a revealing quote about fame. Einstein said, "It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely." So Solomon tries all this, and then what happens? Well, here's the conclusion to his great science fair project.

Look at the verse at the bottom of page one, verse 11. "Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind." This word meaningless, circle that word there at the bottom of your first page there. It's an interesting word. It appears 35 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. So it's obviously the key word of this book. Solomon went back to it over and over and over again. And in my word study of this word this week, I found that it's also used for air or wind in ancient Hebrew. In fact, I found a website by a professor of Hebrew at New York University, and he said that the point of this word is it's what's left after you poke a soap bubble and it pops. The nothing that is left with a popped soap bubble, that's what this word basically kind of tries to communicate. There's nothing there. He goes, "I looked at it all. It was a popped soap bubble. It was that empty. It was that meaningless."

Now, it's important to note that he's not saying these things aren't fun. He's saying they're meaningless, and that's an important distinction. When I was a teenager, I did some things that I probably shouldn't have done. And I thought, "Hey, this stuff is fun." You know? "They lied to me in church! This is fun!" But the message is not that it's not fun. The message is that it's meaningless, that these are dead ends. If you ever wonder, why is the book of Ecclesiastes, with all this description of all this stuff that, you know, the Hugh Hefner of the ancient world, Solomon did, why is this even in the Bible? Well, because God's telling you these are dead ends you can avoid. Yet here's the funny thing about human nature, no matter how many people fail at something, we think, "I might have a different outcome." And so people keep trying the same science fair project Solomon tried over and over and over again, hoping for a different conclusion to their experiment, right? Why do humans never learn?

It's like when I was a kid, every afternoon after school, I'd run home to watch Gilligan's Island. Anybody else ever watch Gilligan's Island when you were a kid? Why did I do this? My thought, "Maybe this time Gilligan will get off the island!" Right? Maybe this time. The bizarre thing was I was watching reruns. I'd seen these episodes a hundred times. It's all of us thinking, "Maybe this time it'll happen. Maybe this time the Robinsons won't be lost in space. Maybe this time the coyote will catch the roadrunner." And Solomon's saying, "That's the way it is with these four things." Humans keep thinking, "Maybe this time it'll work for me." I know it didn't work for Solomon. It didn't work for Tiger Woods. It didn't work for Howard Hughes. It didn't work for Hearst, but I'm different. Solomon's saying, "Save yourself some time. Been there, done that, doesn't work."

So if these things, which basically summarize so much of human endeavor, if these things don't bring meaning to life, don't bring satisfaction to life, as we wrap up this series, "One Month to Live," we've got to ask, "Well then, what does?" What are Solomon's, you could say, his secrets to satisfaction? Well, in the rest of the book of Ecclesiastes, he drops a lot of hints. He doesn't organize it the way I've done it in these notes. You've got to really troll through the book to figure out what Solomon's getting at. In fact, at the end of the book, he says, "These sayings of mine are meant to be goads, that is, spurs, like on a boot and you're spurring a horse." He's saying, "They're not meant to be easy to understand. They're meant to be sayings that prompt you to think, that goad you to deeper thinking, but what I've done here is I've collected just some of these verses, and I'm hoping you'll read a little bit further in Ecclesiastes, to really get yourself thinking about what brings lasting meaning to life.

But here's four themes that you see over and over again in his book, and the first one is really the one he talks about most, and it's this, number one on your list, "Enjoy the Little Things." Savor life's little daily gifts. He says this over and over again. Look at all these verses. Ecclesiastes 2:24. He says, "So I decided there's nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction and work. These pleasures are from the hand of God." In other words, thou shalt enjoy life. I got a question for you. Why is it so easy to remember all the thou shalt nots of the Bible and so hard to remember the thou shalts? Why is it so easy to remember what's prohibited and so hard to remember what's encouraged in the Bible? Why? Because we have this unbiblical, legalistic view of God. But it says here these pleasures are all from the hand of God. Look at this. Ecclesiastes 9:7. It says, "So go ahead, eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this." Now, I want to ask you to do something that's going to blow your mind and maybe change your life if you tend to be legalistic. I want you to circle the phrase, "God approves of this." He's talking about enjoying life.

In fact, say that out loud with me. God approves of this. You know, I used to think that this wasn't true. I used to think God actually didn't want me to enjoy life, that it was more spiritual to be miserable. But did you know that the Bible actually commands you to enjoy life at least 50 times? Now, look at this verse. I want to comment on this verse a little bit because I don't want you to get hung up on the word "wine." Nervous laughter in the room here. But a lot of Christians get hung up on this word. I want to say three what I hope are obvious statements here. Number one, obviously, he's not saying "eat and drink to excess." Because he just said in chapter two, he tried that, and it was no good. Number two, obviously, there are problems with alcohol, especially if you're an alcoholic. And there are a lot of close friends of mine, I mean a lot of friends of mine in this church who have found a lot of healing through our recovery programs, and I don't want to put a stumbling block in your path with this verse. Number three, obviously, he's not saying "everybody should drink wine," and if you're a tea-toler, you're sinning. That's not the point of this verse. You could substitute anything you enjoy in moderation as a drink in that verse, and it would be making the same point. Drink your coffee with enjoyment. Drink your lemonade. Savor it with enjoyment. His point is, savor what's on your table. Savor life's common pleasures.

Now, I know some of you are uncomfortable with this. You're going, "Okay, when's this point going to be over? All this stuff about enjoying life? Where is discipline?" Don't miss this next verse. Solomon says, and this will blow your mind, "enjoyment is a discipline." Enjoyment of life is actually a craft that you have to work on, that you've got to learn, and when you learn it, joy leaks into all of life. There's a lot of verses like this in the whole Bible, but look at this one, Ecclesiastes 8:15. "So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad." Now watch this. "Then," then what? "After he eats and drinks with gladness, then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him." Do you see what he's saying? When you learn to savor life's little gifts, then joy will accompany you all your days. When you learn to just savor what's on your plate.

Now I know, I read this verse and I thought, "Now I know my mom doesn't want me to be a picky ear," right? Because when you learn to enjoy your food, something that common, then you're training yourself to enjoy all of life. When you sit down to peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of water, and you take a bite and you go, "Oh, wow." You know that rye grain that they put? This is even rye bread, but they put some rye grain in there that gives that bread that nutty taste? And that peanut butter, peanut butter is awesome. I feel sorry for Europeans right now because they don't know the joys of peanut butter. Peanut butter is so delicious and that jam that's on it, berries are like God's candy. They're tart and they're sweet and when you make jam out of it, how can it get any better than that? That is a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich and this water is so cool. We have great water in Santa Cruz County. This is a wonderful meal. When you learn to enjoy what's on your table in front of you, then joy will accompany you all your days. You could say eating is joy practice because when you learn to enjoy something common, something that's in front of you at the table, you're training yourself to enjoy all things. Does that make sense?

I like the New Living Translation at the beginning of the same verse, so I recommend having fun. I like this. I think this is going to be my new life verse actually. Now still, some of you are going, "Can we move on from this point? You're resistant to this. You're hardwired to be more drill sergeant than drum circle and you know who you are and that's just the way God made you. This seems weird to you." So let me show you this. I found a quote by Jonathan Edwards who if you are kind of more of a spiritual marine than a spiritual hippie, this guy's like your patron saint because he was a famous Puritan preacher. He preached that famous Hellbroth Fire and Brimstone sermon that everybody's got to read in their history classes, even in secular high school, sinners in the hand of an angry God, very disciplined guy. But I love this quote, "It is not contrary to Christianity that a man should love himself or love his own happiness. Otherwise, that happiness which God hath given him would be no happiness to him." That makes a lot of sense to me.

He's saying, think of it this way, if you as a parent gave your child a toy, you'd want him to enjoy it, right? You want your kids to enjoy the stuff you give them. Well, God gives you gifts to enjoy and unless you enjoy them, they won't be gifts that you enjoy. So enjoy them. There's a poem I like, it's called "If I Had My Life to Live Over Again." Have you heard it? It's by Irma Bongbeck and she says, "If I had my life to live over, I'd dare to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax, I'd limber up, I'd be sillier than I have been on this trip. I'd eat more ice cream and less beans. I'd perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones." She says, "You see, I've been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat and a parachute. But if I had to do it over again, I'd travel lighter than I have. I'd start barefoot earlier in the spring, I'd stay that way later in the fall, I'd go to more dinners, I'd ride more merry-go-rounds. I'd pick more daisies if I had my life to live over." And that's really what Solomon is saying in these verses, like Ecclesiastes 7:8. Read this one out loud with me. Let's say this together. "However many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all." Circle that important word, "all." My wife and I have a little phrase, "Avoid when and then thinking." Do you know what I mean here? It's when you say, "When I get this, then I'll be happy." When we get a new washer and dryer, then we'll be happy. When we finally move, then we'll be happy. When the kids finally move, then we'll be happy. Now, enjoy it now.

The famous French writer Colette, when she was very old, had a great quote. "What a wonderful life I've had. I only wish I'd realized it sooner." We keep hoping for a better life, forgetting to enjoy the one we've got. Like Solomon says in 4:6, "Better one handful with tranquility, than two handfuls with toil and a chasing after the wind." He's saying, "Man, you just got to relax and learn when enough is enough." Chip Ingram is an old friend of mine from back in the days when he was pastor here at Santa Cruz Bible Church. He is one of the most driven guys I know, very focused. But he has really grown in this area, and I like what he says about this. Maybe you can relate. He says, "I've always struggled with the lie that I can do the fun things only after I've gotten all my work done. Don't eat dessert until you've finished all your vegetables." He says, "Only problem, at least in my life, is that the vegetables never end." He says, "If I wait until my work is done to enjoy life, I'll never enjoy life, because the work is never done." That's a great lesson to learn.

So enjoy the little things in life. I hope this impacts you starting the minute you leave today. I hope you walk out those doors holding a hand or giving somebody a hug, breathing in the fresh air and going, "Oh man, that fresh air just smells so good." I hope you don't rush through lunch today. I hope you savor every morsel, because then joy begins to accompany you all the days of your life under the sun. And that really ties right into Solomon's second secret to life, which is this. Appreciate life's seasons. Appreciate life's seasons. Solomon says, "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven." And I want you to circle the key word there, "season." When our three kids were very little, my wife Lori says that her life was changed when a wise older woman came up to her, saw her all stressed out, and said, "Honey, this is just a season." And so she said, "Don't get overstressed, because your kids won't be little for long." And she said, "Don't forget to enjoy it, because your kids won't be little for long." It's a season, and it's true for you and me too.

Ecclesiastes 3:11, "He has made everything beautiful in its time." There is something beautiful for you to enjoy every day. And so don't always look back. Look at this verse. Ecclesiastes 7:10, does this apply to you? "Do not say, 'Why were the old days better than these?' For it is not wise to ask such questions." Is this relevant or what? Do not say, "Yeah, in the old days, the Super Bowl halftime shows that actual music sung by people with actual human hair." Don't say those things, because it's just unwise, and it'll just make you upset. And if you're having a tough time with this, remember 7:8, "The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride." Listen, some of you are going through the toughest season of your life maybe right now, and I don't want to minimize that. I don't want to say that this is easy, all right? But Solomon reminds all of us, "The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and there will be an end." So sit tight, it's only a season. Even if you can't even imagine how the end of this could be better than the beginning, he's saying, "Hang in there, it's just a season." This is not my wisdom. This is wisdom from the man the Bible says was the wisest man ever, King Solomon.

And in every season Solomon says there are opportunities to try the third secret. Number three, do good. Do good, because it gives life meaning. Ecclesiastes 3:12, in fact, let's read this out loud together too. Here we go. "I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live." Now I want you to do kind of an object lesson here. Circle the word happy, and circle do good, and now draw a line between them, because there is a connection. Study after study after study proves this. Researchers call it the philanthropic effect. Doing good just makes you happy. I'll give you an example that many of you just experienced. Two weeks ago we all went out to the courtyard here and signed Valentine's cards for Iraq war veterans who live in the post-traumatic stress disorder ward up at the vets' hospital. Do you remember doing that just a couple of weeks ago? What happened to those? Well, a woman from TLC named Lisa Takat, she's sitting over here right now, took those cards and a Valentine's banquet, which was donated by a local restaurant, put together baskets of donations and took them up to the women's ward, specifically personally.

She was able to spend some time with those women, and each basket had things like a daily scripture book and Mackenzie's chocolates and journals and pens and scarves and earrings and this letter from Lisa. Now imagine you're an Iraq war veteran, you're a woman, you're stuck in some post-traumatic stress disorder ward on Valentine's Day, you get all this stuff and you open up a letter. What is this all about? Hi, my name is Lisa. I'm a single mom from Santa Cruz, California, and I belong to a church called Twin Lakes Church in Aptos. I haven't served our country like you, and I cannot thank you enough for that. But I have had more than my share of unenviable experiences. She says, "I grew up in chaos and then found the same in my adult life. I have countless exterior scars and far deeper ones on my soul, but I found healing and wholeness from God Himself." These baskets for you have a ton of love in them. Your cards were made by the children and signed by the members of Twin Lakes because you have to know how much you are loved by your fellow Americans and especially how special and precious you are to God. I really do hope you enjoy this and the dinner. You are beautiful and cherished.

Well, Lisa went up there on Valentine's this last week and didn't know if she'd be able to connect with the women, didn't know if they would just make her drop this stuff off and leave, but they welcomed her in and she got to enjoy the banquet with the women. And after she came home, she wrote a quick email to all of us pastors. She wrote, "Just got back. God rocks!" And then she described what I just told you. She said, "Please thank the church for all they did, so thank you on her behalf." But listen to this. She says, "I will sleep so well tonight. I have found what can only be described as a coming home through service. It is such a pleasure and an honor to coordinate these little projects." Is doing good really tied to happiness? You bet it is. Don't you feel better right now having just heard that? Some of you are going, "But I missed that!" Well, you've got a chance to do another. Here at Twin Lakes, you've always got a chance to do something else. There's always something coming up. And Project Homeless Connect, which Paul talks about, comes up in a month, details in the lobby and your bulletin. So sign up today if you want to.

And that leads right into the final secret, the foundation really of it all. Number four, put God first. Put God first. Solomon gets to the end of the experiment and he goes, "So I tried all this stuff!" And he says, "Now all has been heard, and here is the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind." Now when he says, "Fear God," that's not cringing in fright and running away. That means a childlike awe and reverence for the Almighty. Now I want you to think about this. This really follows from savoring life. It follows from even enjoying the pita butter sandwich, let alone the sunsets. That's why Elizabeth Barrett Brown had a great quote. She said, "We live in a world crammed with heaven." Don't you love that? "We live in a world crammed with heaven, but only he who sees takes off his shoes." You know, when you enjoy life, it leads not to indulgence, it leads to worship. And Solomon says, "That's really what our souls crave." And this is really kind of like the bottom line here. You can say you hunger for stuff and try to fill that hunger. You can try to fill it with possessions and pleasure and prestige and projects, but none of those things satisfy why. Well, follow me here, because the Bible says that God made you a spiritual being, and a spiritual hunger can't be filled by physical things. That's like trying to fit a square thing into a round hole. It just doesn't work. It doesn't fit. A spiritual hunger can only be satisfied by a relationship with God. What you're really hungering for in the end is God.

There's a deep down longing inside of us for spiritual food. And that's, by the way, why next weekend we're starting this new series called Soul Food, feasting on the wisdom of ancient Psalms. Ecclesiastes is wisdom literature. It's a genre of literature in the Bible called wisdom literature, and so are the Psalms. And the Psalms talk a lot about filling that hunger for God in your soul. And that Psalm series, I'm really looking forward to it. That starts next weekend. It's going to take us up to Easter. But now let's wrap up this series. All of these points of wisdom from Solomon are huge. He says, "This is what brings satisfaction more than anything else in life." And the good thing about these points are, check this out, you don't have to wait to do these things. You don't have to wait until you get a house, or wait until you get a raise, or wait until you get time off, or wait until life gets better, or wait until you're healthier. No matter where you are, no matter what's going on in your life, you can start to do these things today, the minute you walk out of here.

But I don't want to give you the wrong idea about the book of Ecclesiastes. All of this stuff, the whole, 100% of the book of Ecclesiastes, is about how to live life on this earth. How to live a full life under the sun, which is another phrase used over 30 times in the book. Under the sun. In other words, while you're alive, life will be better for you if you live like this. But this book is not at all about life after life, about life after death, because this book is about Solomon's personal experiment, right? What he personally did, and he couldn't experiment personally with life after death. Only one person has ever been there and done that. And that's the one person the Bible says was greater even than Solomon, Jesus Christ.

Now why am I bringing this up? As we close this series, I have got to finish by asking you the obvious question, and it's this. If you really did only have one month to live, how confident would you be about where you're going? Would you know for sure where you would go when that month ended? This question does lead to contemplating not just what kind of a life you want to live, but what kind of a death you want to die. Somebody gave me a card once that I really liked. In fact, I had it up on the bulletin board of my office for a while. It goes like this, "When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandmother, not frightened and screaming like the passengers in her car." Think about that for a minute, but... But it's a serious question, right? One time I was at the bedside of a man who was dying, and he was so frightened. He was a regular attender here at Twin Lakes, an older guy, and he did not have very long, and he literally grabbed me by my shirt, and he said, "Pastor, I'm so afraid to die." He said, "I'm afraid I'm going to go to hell." And I said, "Why?" He said, "Well, I'm not sure if I did enough." And then he gave me a list. He said, "I gave money to church. I was an usher. I was a Boy Scout leader. I tried to do good my whole life, but I just don't know if it was enough." He had about one day to live, and he was not at peace.

And so I said, "Well, let me tell you a story." I said, "One day Jesus Christ was approached by a guy and asked, 'What do I have to do to make sure I'm going to heaven?'" And the way that guy put it was, "What must I do? What must I do to do the works God requires?" And Jesus answered, "Well, the work, singular, of God is this, to believe in the one He has sent." Now, this might sound a little odd to you if you're visiting this morning and you're just considering Christianity, maybe even if it sounds narrow-minded, and you're going, "What's all that about?" But what Jesus is saying is that when it comes to life after death, you don't get there by doing good works. Those good works Solomon talks about in Ecclesiastes, those are so that your life here has meaning. So you have a better life here right now. But when it gets to going to heaven, what you've got to do is just put yourself in God's hands. Just throw yourself on God's mercy made available through Jesus Christ, because nobody gets to heaven based on, "Well, did you enjoy all the little things? Did you appreciate life's season? Did you do enough good works? Did you put God first? All right, check, you're good enough, you go." Those are the things that make life here better, fuller, more meaningful for you. When it comes to confidence in the hereafter, it's all about trusting in Jesus, because when you trust in Jesus, you're trusting that God loves you enough to make a way for you. You're believing that God Himself came to find you and to save you. You're believing that God wants you to be at peace when it's your time to go, and not because you know you've done enough, but because you know for sure that He's done enough.

And so as we close this series, I just have to ask you, do you believe in the one He has sent? Let's pray. Would you close your eyes and bow your head with me? As we close this series today, let me just talk to you. If you're not certain of where you'll go when your time's up, you may not know this, but the Bible teaches you can be certain, because it teaches going to heaven isn't a matter of whether you've done enough good deeds, but whether you've simply received God's mercy, because that's the only way anybody ever gets into heaven anyway. None of us have done enough. It's all God's grace. So why not say today, "God, I throw myself just on Your mercy. Thank You for the cross which made the way." That was your instrument of mercy, the cross that Jesus died on to pay my penalty. I don't understand it all, but I choose to believe in the one You sent, Jesus Christ. And I want to follow You, Lord, now and forever. Now, most of you here this morning, still with your eyes closed, you've already made that choice, and that's why you came to church today. Why don't you pray something like this? "Lord, I'm confident of my eternity, but help me renew my perspective about my life under the sun. Help me remember to enjoy the little things so the joy leaks into all of life. Help me to remember to appreciate the seasons, to do good when I can, and help me to put You first, to follow You by the power of Your Spirit." God, help today to be a day where I'm experiencing the joy of Your gifts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.