1. "Your dreams may never become reality due to factors far beyond your control. Your curve might never slope up as fast or reach as high as you wanted to."

2. "If you're looking for an excuse to avoid risk or responsibility, you will always be able to find one. Excuses are an endlessly renewable resource."

3. "He who considers rejection will not ask a woman out on a date. She who considers the long odds will not submit a job application. Those who regard an awkward silence will not share the gospel."

4. "Uncertainty should make you more diligent, not less. This whole section aims to block a false conclusion that we're often tempted to draw: outcome uncertain, failure possible, therefore best not to bother."

5. "God has never promised to fit his providence to your preferences. Enjoyment in work is not a must have but a nice to have."

6. "We've all heard the bitter secular proverb that says, no good deed goes unpunished. But the truth in light of the final judgment is that no good deed will ever go unrewarded. It's just that sometimes you have to wait for your reward until after you're dead."

7. "All the good gifts in your life are like birds. They flitter up, perch on a branch, stay put for a minute so you can drink in their beauty, and then they all fly away."

8. "God has stocked this world full of lawful, legitimate delights. All of creation is like a restaurant where everything on the menu is good, everything on the menu is available, and everything on the menu is prepaid. It's all on the house."

9. "So often we import vexation and blame circumstance. So often what we think is a problem just because of something in our life, we've really made into a problem because of what's in our heart."

10. "One day the earth itself will say to you, you are taking up dust that I require for other purposes."

Observation Questions

1. According to Ecclesiastes 11:1-2, what does the teacher command regarding generosity, and what reason does he give for this instruction?

2. In Ecclesiastes 11:4-6, what does the teacher say about the person who "observes the wind" and "regards the clouds," and what alternative does he recommend in verse 6?

3. What command does Ecclesiastes 11:9 give to the young man, and what warning accompanies this command about enjoyment?

4. According to Ecclesiastes 12:1, when are we to remember our Creator, and what is described as coming afterward in that same verse?

5. In the poetic description of Ecclesiastes 12:6-7, what images does the teacher use to depict death, and where does he say the spirit goes when a person dies?

6. How does the teacher conclude his message in Ecclesiastes 12:8, and how does this phrase connect to the opening of the book?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does the teacher use uncertainty about the future (not knowing which seed will prosper, not knowing what disaster may come) as a motivation for action rather than inaction? What does this reveal about the relationship between faith and risk?

2. In Ecclesiastes 11:7-8, the teacher says "light is sweet" and commands rejoicing in all one's years, yet immediately reminds us that "the days of darkness will be many." How do these two truths work together rather than contradict each other?

3. What is the significance of the teacher addressing young people specifically in Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:1? Why is youth particularly important for remembering one's Creator?

4. How does the phrase "God will bring you into judgment" in Ecclesiastes 11:9 function as a guardrail rather than a prohibition against enjoyment? What kind of enjoyment does this encourage versus discourage?

5. The teacher repeatedly uses the word "vanity" (hebel) throughout Ecclesiastes, including in 12:8. Based on how it is used in this passage (describing youth, earthly goods, and "all that comes"), what does this term communicate about the nature of earthly life rather than its value?

Application Questions

1. The sermon emphasized that "excuses are an endlessly renewable resource" for avoiding risk. What specific opportunity to serve God or others have you been avoiding because you're waiting for conditions to be more favorable or success to be more guaranteed? What would it look like to "sow seed" in that area this week?

2. The teacher commands us to "remove vexation from your heart" (11:10), identifying internal enemies of enjoyment like bitterness, envy, anxiety, and constant striving. Which of these most frequently robs you of the ability to rejoice in God's good gifts? What practical step could you take to cultivate contentment in that area?

3. The sermon noted that "if you want to guarantee zero harvest, all you have to do is not sow." In what relationship—whether in hospitality, discipleship, or evangelism—have you stopped investing because of past disappointment or fear of rejection? How might you take a risk of reinvesting this week?

4. Ecclesiastes 12:1 calls us to remember our Creator "in the days of your youth, before the evil days come." What specific practice or habit could you establish now that would help you build a "fortress of devotion" to sustain you through future seasons of difficulty and loss?

5. The sermon stated that enjoyment should be pursued in ways "you will eagerly and easily give an account of on the last day." Think of a specific area of leisure or pleasure in your life—how might the reality of future judgment shape how you engage with that good gift differently?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Genesis 2:7; 3:19 — These verses establish the foundation for Ecclesiastes 12:7, showing humanity's creation from dust and breath and the curse of returning to dust because of sin.

2. Proverbs 11:24-26 — This passage reinforces the paradox of generous giving leading to abundance, echoing the teacher's command to cast bread upon the waters.

3. Matthew 6:25-34 — Jesus addresses anxiety about the future and calls His followers to trust God's provision rather than being paralyzed by uncertainty, connecting to the sermon's theme of acting despite not knowing outcomes.

4. 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 — Paul's teaching on death being swallowed up in victory through Christ provides the answer to the sobering reality of mortality depicted in Ecclesiastes 12.

5. James 4:13-17 — James warns against presuming on the future and calls believers to submit their plans to God's will, reinforcing the sermon's emphasis on life's uncertainty and the need for humble dependence on God.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Shape of Life: Confronting Uncertainty and Mortality

II. Risk: Life Is Uncertain, So Risk Generously (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6)

III. Rejoice: Life Is Fleeting, So Rejoice While You Can (Ecclesiastes 11:7-10)

IV. Remember: Life Will End, So Remember Your Creator (Ecclesiastes 12:1-8)

V. Christ Is the Answer to Death and the End of Your Journey

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Detailed Sermon Outline

What shape do you want your life to have? How would you draw that shape on a graph? If you were to draw the unedited desire of your heart, my guess is that the shape you would draw looks like what many economists want to see in a chart of GDP growth. Growth, progress, taking ever upward, up and to the right, growing rate of growth, slanting ever higher, higher with no end in sight.

The younger you are, the more likely you are to imagine your life as a curve sloping ever upward, bringing in more friends, more fun, more skill, more success, more money, more happiness.

But that curve won't slope up forever.

It can't. Unless you die first, someday the growth of each of those factors will slow, then peak and crest and start cascading downward. A day will come when the promotion you receive will be your last. A day will come when you will never again be as strong and healthy as you were the day before. And even before those days come, there are no guarantees that you will find what you seek.

Your dreams may never become reality due to factors far beyond your control.

Your curve might never slope up as fast or reach as high as you wanted to. Whether the good you seek is friendship or family or finances or fulfillment. This morning we continue our study in the book of Ecclesiastes from chapter 11, verse 1 to chapter 12, verse 8. This is the end of the teacher's journey. This is his closing statement.

Next week, Lord willing, we'll consider the book's last six verses, which are an epilogue. They're a summary of and reflection on the whole book. But our passage today is the grand finale. This is the vista we've been hiking up toward for the last ten chapters. It's on page 559 in the pew Bibles.

Please follow along as I read the whole passage.

Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, For you know not what disaster may happen on earth. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment. Remove vexation from your heart and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life our vanity. 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.' Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, 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 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. 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. 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, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, all is vanity.

Is vanity. This passage teaches you what to count on.

Count on the uncertainty of everything you plan and the certainty that everything will end. Nothing in this life is guaranteed except death.

So, pinned between the uncertainty of everything and the certain end of everything, how should you live? You should risk, rejoice, and remember. Risk, rejoice, and remember. Those will be our three points for the sermon. Point one, risk.

Life is uncertain, so risk generously. This is the teacher's message to us in chapter 11, verses 1 to 6. Look again at verses 1 and 2: Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. Some interpreters take these verses to speak of commerce.

Cast out multiple investments in different directions, diversify your portfolio, and you'll have a better chance of return and be insured against one of them failing. That reading is possible, but I think it's more likely these verses are an exhortation to give generously to others. One reason is that many ancient cultures around Israel had proverbs about generosity that were nearly identical to this one. For instance, Turkish version: Do good. Cast bread into the water.

If the fish does not know it, God will. If the mechanics of the metaphor are tripping you up, of casting bread upon water, you have to remember we're not talking about Wonder Bread here, which would dissolve instantly. We're talking about a nice, sturdy Mediterranean flatbread. You can kind of throw it out like a Frisbee. It'll just coast for a while.

There's a little bit of a cultural translation that has to happen here.

These verses don't tell us exactly what the return of the generosity will be or when you will receive that return. And verse 2 also enlists uncertainty as a motive to generosity. You don't know what disaster will happen, so spend your money generously while you have it. It might be that tomorrow you're the one who needs the charity.

Verse 3 reminds us of the limits of what we can know and influence and control. Look at verse 3. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. Lie. If the clouds are dark and thick, it's gonna rain, but you don't know when.

On Tuesday at 11:00 a.m., I checked my weather app. It predicted rain starting at 4:00 p.m. Then I immediately got up from my desk, walked out the back door of the church building here, and saw Ben Lacy coming in whose shirt was soaked because it was raining great big fat drops of rain. At the very moment when I checked my app and it assured me that rain was five hours off, It was already raining. I just hadn't bothered to look out the window. Verse 3, the phrase in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie, is not just telling us that you don't know what's going to happen, like when it's going to rain.

It's telling us you don't get to tell the tree where to fall. That thing's going to fall whether you like it or not. It's going to fall whichever way it wants to. And once it has fallen, there is precious little you can do about it.

In 1957, R. C. Sproul was awakened to faith in Christ by that very phrase. You might think that is the least likely verse in the Bible for somebody to get converted from.

But what R. C. Saw when he looked at that verse, was himself helpless, immobile, unable to lift himself up into a right relationship to God.

Verse 4 returns to the relationship between risk and responsible action. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. Wind is a hazard for sowing because it can blow the seed away. And rain is a hazard for reaping because it can soak the grain and ruin it. But as Ecclesiastes 3:2 says, there is a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted.

Wisdom teaches you to do what the season requires, regardless of the weather.

If you're looking for an excuse to avoid risk or responsibility, you will always be able to find one. Excuses are an endlessly renewable resource.

He who considers rejection will not ask a woman out on a date. She who considers the long odds will not submit a job application. Those who regard an awkward silence will not share the gospel.

Verse 5 links up with verse 3 and returns us to the theme of what we don't know.

As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. The teacher is not assuming that there is a time when the infant in the womb is a material entity but not yet a living person. That is not his assumption here. Instead, he's simply drawing on the language of creation. We're all made of both dust and breath, matter and spirit.

And he's saying, you don't know how life comes together. Now, if you're not a Christian or you've got a skeptical streak, you might think that our more advanced scientific knowledge of embryology disproves this verse. You might think, we do know how the child comes together in the womb. But the point is not that you can't know anything but that you'll never know everything.

And life itself, including its beginning, is still a mystery, still a marvel, still a miracle. Science can reveal more to us of how great and vast that mystery is, but it can never dispel the mystery. Take modern knowledge of DNA, for example. Here's Bill Bryson in his book on the body talking about how much of it you have. You have a meter of it packed into every cell and so many cells that if you formed all the DNA in your body into a single fine strand, it would stretch 10 billion miles to beyond Pluto.

Think of it. There is enough of you to leave the solar system. You are, in the most literal sense, cosmic.

Does that make life seem like less of a miracle or more?

In verse 6, the preacher again turns to uncertainty as a motive for action rather than inaction. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

This verse, by its language of morning and evening, is not telling you to never stop working, but it is saying to work diligently and regularly. And it states the principle that makes this whole section tick: Uncertainty should make you more diligent Not less.

This whole section, these six verses, aim to block a false conclusion that we're often tempted to draw: outcome uncertain, failure possible, therefore best not to bother. It is only ever possible to reduce risk, not eliminate it. No choice. You will ever make in this life is risk-free. There are no risk-free options.

Life is uncertain, so risk generously. This applies to work, to relationships, to generously and sacrificially sharing what you have with others, and to so much more. So often, what we're looking for in life is a guaranteed success, a sure thing, It's in the bag. You only want to commit to something if you know it will work. You only want to select the career path if you are absolutely certain it is the best possible fit with your desires, abilities, and circumstances.

But that's not the path to freedom. That's a path to crippling indecision.

The University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth has told the story about how when she was an undergraduate she was torn between becoming a a doctor, which is the only thing her dad said she could do, and going into education, which she deeply wanted to do because she saw what an impact it could have. She tells of how what freed her from this paralyzing indecision was this: An academic mentor said to her, Angela, life is a story and you can never write the perfect story. The best you can hope for is to write a good one, one you can look back on and be proud of.

Why do you want to write the perfect story? You might call it stewardship, but it's more likely pride. An exaggerated sense of your abilities, your importance, your virtues, and your knowledge of what clearly seems best to you so it must seem best to God. So often we're tempted to view ourselves like we're all 20 million a movie Hollywood A-listers who will not sign a contract unless it's for a guaranteed blockbuster or Oscar contender.

But God?

Has never promised to fit his providence to your preferences. Enjoyment in work is not a must have but a nice to have. You don't know which effort God will bless, you don't know when conditions will be favorable, you don't know what disaster might descend tomorrow on your best laid plans.

What you do know is God's revealed will. You do know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and you know that ultimately no effort you make to serve God and others will ever be wasted. We've all heard the bitter secular proverb that says, no good deed goes unpunished. But the truth in light of the final judgment is that no good deed will ever go unrewarded. It's just that sometimes you have to wait for your reward until after you're dead.

The entire Christian life runs on the fuel of delayed gratification.

In the morning, sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hands. Brothers and sisters, take the risk of sowing the gospel broadly and boldly. You don't know who will respond favorably, so keep sharing the good news fearlessly. As a church, we should be a gospel seed sowing co-op. Pray for each other's evangelism and encourage one another to be brave and bold evangelists.

Brothers and sisters, members of CHBC, take the risk of being generous in hospitality, taking initiative in discipleship, building new relationships. You can't guarantee that your invitation will be well received or that your discipling relationship will be spectacularly fruitful or that this new member will become your new best friend.

But you can sow seed. If you want to guarantee zero harvest, all you have to do is not sow. But to bear fruit always involves risk.

The only way to bear fruit is to risk, and especially to risk rejection and disappointment. If you're feeling empty because someone you've invested in deeply has just moved away, take the risk of investing again.

As Robert Farrar Capon wrote, the world is a tissue of involvements inseparably interwoven with bothers. It is no solution to get rid of the second by abolishing the first. If the only way around distress is to stop loving, well then let us be men about it and settle for distress. Life is uncertain, so risk generously. But now the teacher considers something certain and draws yet another surprising conclusion.

Point two, rejoice. Life is fleeting, so rejoice while you can. This is the message of chapter 11:7-10. Look at verse 7.

Light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the sun.

Here the author is simply saying, Life is good. Life is a gift. All you have to do to be inundated with beauty is open your eyes.

The older I get and the more responsibility I have, the more I appreciate pastimes that are right next door to doing nothing.

Take fishing, for example. Cast, real.

Cast, real. Feel the breeze. Enjoy the sun, talk to a friend, you're doing nothing, but you're doing something. And that's glorious.

In verse 7, what the author is saying about the sun and the light is this: you: don't have to do anything. The sun is shining before you were ever here. The sun shines before you'll ever see it. All you have to do is open your eyes, step outside, soak up the warmth. You don't have to optimize light or turn it into work.

The sun is a standing picture of and witness to God's unceasing generosity. That's why the author uses light as a metaphor for life. It's good, and it's free, and it's always there before you. All you have to do is receive it. The teacher is saying that life is good, so what should you do?

Rejoice in it. Look at verse 8. So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

The teacher's philosophy here chimes with the musician who once sang, But for now we are young, let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see.

In verse 8, the teacher is saying, Enjoy every good gift as long as you have it. Days are coming when aging and death will march up to your door. And start pulling those good things out one by one.

When the teacher says that all that comes is vanity, he means that nothing that comes into your life will stay for good. Here's how Derek Kidner put it: Nothing that we are offered under the sun is ours to keep. All the good gifts in your life are like birds. They flitter up, perch on a branch, stay put for a minute so you can drink in their beauty, and then they all fly away.

Verse 8 is the antithesis of escapism. You should rejoice in the good things you have while you have them precisely because you know you won't always have them.

How are you tempted to try to escape from the harder, uglier parts of your life? TV, abusing alcohol, mindless scrolling, daydreaming about the future.

Here in verse 8, the teacher is telling you, Look bad in the face because it will cause the good to shine all the more. And because ignoring the bad will not make it come any more slowly.

In verse 9, the teacher tells us again to rejoice. Look at verse 9, Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Verse 9 is telling you there is a right way to follow your heart. Of course, there is a wrong way to follow your heart and Scripture has a whole lot to say about that.

Our friend, Matt Smederis, had a good article about that on TGC this week. Don't follow your heart into sin. Don't take your natural inclinations as the measure of all that is right and good. Don't let your heart be drawn to the world in its fallen opposition to God.

But you should let your heart be drawn to the world in all its resident radiant goodness. God has stocked this world full of lawful, legitimate delights. All of creation is like a restaurant where everything on the menu is good, everything on the menu is available, and everything on the menu is prepaid. It's all on the house.

He's given you free run of the place. So taste and see that the Lord is good. God has made a good world and right here he commands you to enjoy it. God is the one who made wheat, whose grains can be ground into flour, and the flour can be baked into bread, and the bread can be torn up into tiny little bits and fried. And the breadcrumbs can elevate a spicy pork ragoût into a work of art.

That is the kind of world God has made. There is enjoyment lurking under every rock.

What's the catch? No catch, but a guardrail. Rest of verse 9.

But know that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment. Perhaps you've heard the expression YOLO, you only live once. People often say YOLO before doing something off the wall like skydiving or taking a trip to Antarctica. So what's the difference between the world's YOLO and Ecclesiastes' Yolo. Here's the difference: you: only live once but you'll give an account of all of it to the God who made you.

You only live once but it's all being recorded. And God is the one who is going to provide the final authoritative and eternally consequential post-game Commentary. If you're going to open that bottle, make sure you enjoy it in such a way and in such an amount that you will eagerly and easily give an account of it on the last day. Notice who verse 9 addresses. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth.

I'm so tempted to pull a Blake and say, Young people, y'all remember that? Listen up, young people. Teenagers, if you weren't paying attention, maybe you are now. Let me have your ear for a minute. If you're in your teens, when you are 13 or 15 or 17, You are already building the house that you are going to live in for the next several decades.

If you don't believe me, find a Christian who's 10 or 20 or 30 years older than you and ask them if they still struggle with any sins that they first committed when they were in their teens.

In your teens, Right now, you can either build a foundation that will help you serve God and others for decades or you can dig yourself into a pit that it will be hard to climb out of even if God gives you 70 more years to do it.

Given the demographics of our church, when the teacher here addresses young people, I think a strong majority of you qualify. There are so many gifts that typically come with youth: energy, strength, optimism, imagination, resilience. But what also comes with youth are the illusions of being in control and being invulnerable.

Enjoy your youth, but don't idolize it. Don't worship at the cult of youth. That's the way to spoil the gift. Even while you have it.

Look at verse 10.

Remove vexation from your heart and put away pain from your body for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. Remember that throughout Ecclesiastes, when the author uses that word vanity, what he means is something fleeting, something ungraspable, something that is here and gone in an instant, like mist, like vapor. The dawn of your life will turn to dusk faster than you can imagine. Older members, and I mean those of you in your 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, our whole church, desperately needs the wisdom that you've gained by walking through many more seasons than most of us. You already know by experience that youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

What some of our younger members can barely even imagine, you know is a hard fact. You can prove it. And you've experienced the spiritual gains that so often come hand in hand with earthly losses. So younger members, ask older members what lessons they've learned in the school of aging and pay careful attention because you'll be enrolling soon.

When the teacher says to put away pain from your body, he's saying, don't needlessly harm yourself. Don't work so hard that you burn out. Don't train so hard that you get injured and you have to sit out the rest of the season. And when he says, Remove vexation from your heart, he's pointing out that some things are problems not that come to you from without but that you bring up from within. Remove vexation from your heart.

He's taking aim at the enemies of enjoyment that live in all our hearts: bitterness, envy, anxiety, worry and constant striving for more. You might be vexed because there's something you want more than you want to obey God and he isn't giving it to you. You might be vexed because there's something you can't have and you want it anyway and especially it's hard because your friend has it.

You might be vexed because you're worried about the hypothetical consequences of something that might never happen. So often we import vexation and blame circumstance. So often what we think is a problem just because of something in our life, we've really made into a problem because of what's in our heart. So instead of importing vexation, get rid of it. Put a ban on it.

Get it from outside the borders of your life. Have a zero tolerance policy for vexation.

How can you do that? How can you put away vexation, cultivate contentment, abound in thanksgiving and recognize how fragile and fleeting are all the goods that your heart is getting wrapped around. The goodness and fleetingness of every created thing are twin bumpers that keep our enjoyment of all God's good gifts on earth in the right lane where they belong. Life is fleeting, so rejoice while you can. Point three.

Remember, remember, life will end. So remember your Creator. This is the message of chapter 12:1-8. Start with verse 1. 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. '

This remembering is no mere intellectual exercise. It's not so much about information as it is about devotion. To remember God is to worship Him, to put Him at the center of your life, to place Him higher than any priority, to rank Him before any possible competitor. If you remember that you have a job interview tomorrow, you'll wake up early, put on a nice outfit, head out extra early, leaving lots of time to arrive before the time of the interview. Remembering that interview will affect every single thing you do leading up to it.

That's the kind of remembering Ecclesiastes is talking about when it says, remember your creator. Remembering your creator influences everything you do every day. Ecclesiastes is commending and commanding a radically God-centered life.

What are we to remember? And when are we to remember it?

Dark days of aging and death are coming. So build a fortress of devotion to God before they do. As Charles Bridges wrote, many have remembered too late, none too soon. Verse 1 reintroduces the specter of death and aging. And then verses 2 through 7 hold that specter up before our eyes through a haunting and elusive poem.

Some people take this poem to be an allegory of aging, but I don't think all the elements fit. Some aspects might have reference to this or that bodily function breaking down. But notice, this is an evocative picture not only of aging and death but also of how God is one day going to say, that's a wrap to the whole creation. That's especially clear in verse 2. Listen to verses 2 through 7: Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened.

And the clouds return after the rain. 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 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, they're 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.

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, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

That the sun and the moon are darkened in verse 2 gives this picture a cosmic dimension. It's not just an individual human being who's going to die but one day God is going to hit the shut off button on the whole universe. In verses three to five, the images depict a cessation of life, depopulation, normal routines and rhythms of ancient Near Eastern life like daily grinding at the mill so you can have daily bread, they're all stopping, they're ceasing, and they're giving way to a funeral procession that's taking their place. Then in verse 6, the poem returns again to images of the death of an individual. When it says that the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is broken, the poem is again using light as a metaphor for life.

And specifically, it's picturing human life like a lampstand, like one of the lampstands in the Temple or tabernacle. And it's saying that one day that lampstand is going to be shattered beyond repair. That's the same image we get in verse 7, the reference to pottery breaking, excuse me, still in verse 6, the reference to pottery breaking. It seems to invoke an ancient funeral custom still practiced by some Jews today where the shattering of pottery at a funeral was taken to show that we're all clay pots and one day we'll all be shattered.

Finally, verse 7, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. In P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories, the protagonist Bertie Wooster will sometimes try to get someone to leave the room. By saying, you,'re taking up space that I require for other purposes.

One day the earth itself will say to you, you, are taking up dust that I require for other purposes.

The imagery in verses 2 to 7 is elusive, but the main point is shockingly simple: you:'re going to die. And before you do, it's going to hurt. As Derek Kidner has said commenting on these verses as a whole, in one's early years and for the greater part of life, troubles and illnesses are chiefly setbacks, not disasters. One expects the sky to clear eventually. It is hard to adjust to the closing of that long chapter.

To know that now, in the final stretch, there will be no improvement. The clouds will always gather again, and time will no longer heal but kill.

In the early days of COVID people talked a lot about bending the curve or crushing the curve, and we still want to see those delta cases go down. But here's the problem. One day that crushing is what's going to happen to all the curves in your life. Will you be ready?

If you're not a believer in Jesus, what's your answer to death? What will you do when death comes to undo you? What can you do when death comes to undo you? Death will be the end of all you look for, all you work for, and all you hope for.

And our passage teaches that death itself is not the final end but after death comes a reckoning with God. You can only make it through that reckoning with God if you trust in Christ here and now. God created humanity good but we undid ourselves by rebelling against God and plunging headfirst into sin. And so God imposed death, our undoing, as the fitting punishment for our sin. But in mercy, he sent his eternal son into the world to undo death by dying in our place and bearing the curse of death for us.

And not only that, but to trample down death by his resurrection. Jesus is your only answer to death. What he's done is the only satisfying response. He's the only one who can beat death. He's the only one who can get the last word over death.

So if you've never turned from sin and trusted in Christ, repent. Turn from being your own sovereign Lord and master and submit to him and entrust yourself to him today. Christ's death is death's undoing. And yet, unless Christ returns first, which he may well, We who trust in Christ will still have to pass through death. But for us, death will be the gateway to glory.

Verse 7, the Spirit returns to God who gave it. On its own, this verse could simply mean God recalls. The loan of life breath that he made. But in context, where verse 9 in chapter 11 tells us of final judgment, I think this verse is a little bit more. I think it's a word of warning and of hope.

The Spirit returns to God who gave it. For the believer in Jesus, that means entering into unending fellowship with God. Still death is the last enemy. Still death casts its shadow over every earthly good. That's why the teacher concludes in verse 8, Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, all is vanity.

Everything is missed. Everything earthly is dust that will one day blow away.

So remember, life will end, so remember your Creator.

In the past 12 months, what has most frequently reminded me of the inevitability of decay and death is a frequently recurring back injury. I mentioned several sermons ago that I have a degenerative disc my lower back. Most of the time I'm fine, but once in a while it is totally debilitating. Thankfully I've gotten good medical care lately. Things are looking up, but still there have been long stretches of this past year where it has been serious trouble.

For instance, I was grateful to have a sabbatical this summer. I came back to work in late August. My first week back from work, my back got worse and worse and worse until I woke up the first Thursday morning that I was back and I could not sit or stand. Without excruciating pain. So my wife wisely conspired with Mark to make sure I took the day off.

And I lay in bed for 12 hours, nothing but lying there, no relief from being horizontal for 12 hours. Thankfully, by God's grace, that really seemed to jumpstart my back's healing. But it was still an unsettling preview. There will come a time when my back and every other part of me stops getting better.

A couple weeks ago, I had an MRI for my back. If you've never had one, here's what happens. You are told to lie flat on your back and hold completely still.

Then you get conveyor-belted into a close-fitting chamber that resembles a coffin.

And you have to stay perfectly still for 20 minutes while this large machine unnervingly bangs around you.

In the end, it was actually relaxing. Being forced to lie down for 20 minutes is a kind of rest that is hard to get at home with four kids.

I told the tech afterward that I almost fell asleep.

But still, here was another unsettling preview.

Lie down, hold perfectly still, and let a small space swallow you up. One day, you won't have a choice.

How can you be ready for when that time comes. Risk, rejoice, remember. Generously steward all that God gives you. Take the risk of investing the time and talents and treasure he's given you rather than burying them. Delight in his gifts and even more delight in the giver.

And remember the God who not only created you but has recreated you in Christ. Remember the God who holds out to you the certain hope of life beyond the end, life forever beyond the reach of sin. And sorrow. How can you face down all those downward curves to come and do so with confidence and joy? 17th century pastor Samuel Rutherford sums it up pretty well.

Faith lives and spends upon our captain's account. Who is able to pay for all. If there were millions of worlds and as many heavens full of men and angels, Christ would not be pinched to supply all our wants. Christ is a well of life, but who knows how deep it is to the bottom? I have little of him, yet long for more.

God has made many fair flowers, but the fairest is heaven, and the flower of all flowers is Christ.

One year's time in heaven shall swallow up all sorrows beyond all comparison. Christ Jesus is the end of your journey. There is no fear. You may look death in the face with joy. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would train our hearts to so trust in Christ that we look death in the face with joy. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.