Remember Your Creator

resolved never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

Number 17,

resolved that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I had come to die.

Number 40,

resolved to inquire every night before I go to bed whether I've acted in the best way I possibly could with respect to eating and drinking.

Number 41,

resolved to ask myself at the end of every day, and every week, and every month, and every year, wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better.

Now that might seem daunting, but I want you to see how he understands what the preacher's telling us. That the moments are too precious to waste away. The hours are fleeting. The days are coming to an end. There's no guarantee of another year. God has given you this life, and it's worth self-evaluation. It's worth an examination. How can I live this life? How can I enjoy this life? How can I know God and make Him known in this life? We must remember death is coming. Darkness is coming. Rejoice in the light while you have it. All that comes is vanity. As we want to think about what this means for us, This passage, if it's focusing on a people, it's the older generation. If you have many years, so if you're in the older generation, are you rejoicing in this life? If you have many years, are you seeking to make sure you enjoy them? Do you look back with regrets? Let me encourage you, there's still time. If you have the day, if you have the blessing to see the light today, you have time. I do want to encourage you, there's no time to retire from life. There's just different seasons where we get to reprioritize and refocus what we should be doing with our lives. Enjoy these days. They're all precious and they're all fleeting. The sweet life is meant to be lived with our families, in Christ, with the body of Christ. We see that aging isn't a Our culture sees aging as a problem, whereas the church sees aging as a time where wisdom is gained and therefore wisdom is given to others. We have to make sure we're actually thinking about aging according to scripture. The church is supposed to see silver and gray hair as a blessing, not a curse. Everyone. One of the key themes. The key theme is fear God. And under that theme is, steward what God has given you. He's given us life. Every day is a gift of God. Know how we take everything for granted. Every day is a gift of God to know him and make him known. No matter your age, what are your patterns and priorities? What kind of disciplines are you developing in your life? All that comes is vanity. There he's referring specifically to the fact that the dark days are coming. He has an underdeveloped eternal life. Christ is going to develop this more, and we'll think about that more later, but here he's seeing death is coming. All is vanity. It's fleeting. Live for the glory of Christ. Is there a bird on a window? I want to trust the deacons are going to take care of that bird one way or the other. It was a couple of weeks ago, it was a, don't be careful what you say, a bird might hear it. Bird showed up at the wrong sermon. Second point, rejoice, life will be judged. Verses 7 and 8, there's a sweetness, there's a pleasantness, there's a seize the day kind of moment here. Well now he turns his attention with the same key word, rejoice, celebrate, but now notice it's on the young folks. And there's a shift in our preacher as he's bringing this message to an end.

Rejoice, oh young man, in your youth.

Rejoice in your youth, young people.

And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.

Notice that repetition. When you're young, you have energy. You have all the possibilities ahead of you. You have opportunities. These are good days, if you're young. There are days that you'll remember. There are days to enjoy. There are days not to be anxious about what's before you. There are days not to always be looking ahead. Well, I want that next thing, whether it be that next grade, that next step of life, getting your driver's license, getting that next privilege. Today, enjoy what you have. Rejoice in the days of your youth. You cannot steward God's good gifts if you're always hoping for what you think might be ahead. He continues, let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Let your desires, your feelings, your will, let those things cheer your heart today. And he continues with commands, with the key word walk, how you live. Walk in the ways of your heart. in the sight of your eyes. Enjoy being young for all it entails, what you desire, what you see. I believe he is seeking to state a positive declaration here, but I think we need to make sure we're not inferring what he's not implying. Our concept of youth and adolescence is foreign to scripture. When we talk about youth in our culture, we normally are talking about, let's live as if there is no tomorrow, and let's try to enjoy everything we possibly can without pretending there's no consequences for it. There's something weird about our culture that encourages youth, go experiment and go find yourself by doing anything you want, and we're encouraging people to go into sin with a lie that that kind of sin won't have long-term consequences. How dangerous. Not only this, but we seem to keep stretching youth and what it means to be youthful. In our culture, we honor youthfulness. Here, he's simply saying rejoice in the days of your youth. It's very different. Just like Paul says, do not let them despise you for being young, he's not saying don't let them despise you for being immature. It's very different. Rejoice in the days of your youth. That does not mean do whatever you want without worry of consequence. Because notice how he qualifies this.

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.

This is wisdom. Walk according to your heart. Enjoy all the things your eyes see. Knowing God has given you a heart. Knowing God has given you eyes. Knowing God will hold you responsible for all the things you decide to do. God will bring everything, all things, into judgment. Young folks, there is no excuse before God to say, but I was young. That doesn't float in the judgment seat of God. When we stand before God, we do not get to say, but God, I was so young. No, God is holy and righteous and wise. He judges with perfect equity. He's fair, he's just, he's right. He will punish every sin with the exact amount of wrath it deserves. He's just. He's righteous. We have to recognize that whatever we do, all things we do, it will come into the perfect, holy judgment of God. There's no excuse. I was young. There's no excuse, but my heart desired it, God. There's no excuse, but my eyes really thought it looked cool. The preacher gives a command, walk in the ways of your heart. Walk in the sight of your eyes with an incredible weighty warning. But know God will bring all things into judgment. But know God will bring all things. We're coming to the end of the matter. If you look at the end of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 13,

the end of the matter, fear God, keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man.

And that's why God will bring every deed into judgment. Fear God. The whole duty of man is to do what God has said, to obey him. That's why he will be just to judge us. He's telling us to follow your heart, but there's a warning, your heart isn't always right. Desires can be deceptive. Sight can lead us astray. We have to remember that sin did enter the world, with a desire in what looked good. And ever since then, we've had twisted hearts and bad eyesight. Enjoy your youth, but know there's a judgment. Walk according to your heart and let your heart cheer you. I want to pause there because I think we understand that is a true statement no matter what, and you don't even have to tell people to do it. Don't we all just do what our hearts tell us to do? Don't we live inside out? We walk according to what we desire. We pursue what we see as good. By definition, we all live in a way that we do what we want to do and how we live represents what we love and how we schedule, what we prioritize, what we say is important. A few weeks ago, in chapter 10, verse 2, we saw there's two different kinds of hearts. There's a wise heart and a foolish heart. What we produce demonstrates what we love. Are we informed by sinful desires? Are we dead, distant to the things of God? Are we turned inward? Walk according to your heart. Your heart could be full of deception and destructive. Walk according to the sight of your eyes. Well, it could be selfish, full of lust and anger, but know that God will bring everything into judgment. This morning, great opportunity to do that self-evaluation we mentioned earlier to make sure you're rejoicing in all your days. How are you walking? What does your walk say about your heart? Is it obvious to you and to others, and you have to ask, and to others, because you might be self-deceived, is it obvious to you and others that you're keeping in step with the Spirit of God, according to Galatians 5? Is it obvious you're keeping in step with the God of life, who has given you his Holy Spirit to seal you and indwell you and change your desires? What do you think about that word walk? Paul tells in Ephesians, walk no longer like the unbelieving, but as the child of God. Walk no longer like a dead person, but walk as one who has received the new life of God. Walk no longer as one who's distant from God, but who's been brought near by the blood of Christ. Walk no longer in foolishness, but walk now in the wisdom given to us by God. Believer, how's your heart? What is it producing? If you go to the doctor, your medical doctor, for an exam, they run all kinds of tests on your heart. Because remember, it's the leading cause of death. They check your pulse, your blood pressure, they listen to the beat, they check your cholesterol, and then the doctor will diagnose and prescribe if there's some changes needed, and sometimes there's an urgent change needed. Well, believer, we have to go to God's Word and to others in discipleship and ask for tests to be run. Your heart is the leading cause of sin. I want to make sure we hear that. Sin isn't a problem outside of us that presses in. No, much more so, sin is a problem inside of us that comes out. Your heart is your leading cause of sin. A few questions you can ask as you want to think through how to run tests on your heart. Do you love God's word? and his word contains law, the good commandments God gives us. Do we love when God says no? Like a child should love it when a parent says no. Do we pray, do we talk to God? And that doesn't mean do we come up with a big long wish list that we're always unsatisfied, he doesn't listen to it and give it to us, everything we want, but do we actually seek to commune with him? to express and enjoy a loving relationship. A significant test that Jesus gives us, do we love one another? Do we experience and share the same love Christ gives us with other Christians? Do you love obeying Jesus? That's his test for if you love him. Do you love obeying Jesus? Be very clear, Jesus loves us. And because he loves us, he has high expectations for us. Praise God for that. So how is your heart? Is it twisted up with lies that might lead to this judgment of wrath? Or is it free to love God? Is it focused on selfishness or is it focused on loving others? Is it bent in on itself or is it bent up toward God? Here's the big picture of what Ecclesiastes has given us, what the preacher is giving us. God, our Creator, which we're going to remember here in a moment, He created us to love Him with all our hearts. That's why He commands us to love Him with all our hearts, our strength, our energy. And let's just think about what that invitation means. God invites us to love Him. We're invited to love him who's most lovely. That shouldn't be burdensome. The song of closing is Be Thou My Vision. And one of the lyrics there is,

you are my best thought by day or by night.

There's no greater being. There's no one more worthy of love. There's no one more enjoyable to love. That's the invitation. But loving God, to be really clear, is incredibly difficult because her hearts are twisted. One of my children's tuck-ins, we try to put them to bed and we enjoy those moments with our young children. One of my children has a lot of energy until she finally just like flips a switch and goes to sleep. And she's wild and you know, trying to tuck her in, I'm constantly saying, calm down, we're trying to, you know, get calm for bed, get calm for bed. She looked at me one night and just said,

but Edith can't stop being Edith.

Yeah, she referred to herself in the third person. And I should have been more clear. No, you have to have self-control. But I was so amazed by just that incredible insight. Sinners can't stop being sinners. You are true to your own self, but that's usually a really bad thing. We actually can't control the twistedness we have inside. We can't control the sin that demands we submit to it as a master. We can't control our own self-deceiving hearts. Friends, that's why we have to hear this morning. But God, who will judge us for those hearts? He has loved us and has offered us an opportunity, an invitation to love Him by first loving us while we're unlovely. He loves us while we're still sinners. He loves us while we're still running against Him, deserving of judgment. The first invitation is that we receive His forgiveness. That's how we first receive His love so we can love Him. Knowing the Father sent His Son to die for our sins. We're first forgiven for that sin we have no control over. We're first forgiven for that sin we are worthy of judgment for. And then our hearts are changed. That first act of love of God to forgive us shapes us and reshapes us and gives us a new heart. I got a believer this morning. The first invitation from God is to receive His love by receiving His forgiveness. You cannot love God until you've actually received His forgiveness and He sent His Son to forgive you. First ask, Lord, forgive me for my sin. Forgive me for Denying you love. Forgive me for not loving you. And then your heart is changed to actually love him the way you're designed. Notice verse 10. This section for young folks is so centered upon the heart. Let your heart cheer you. Walk in the ways of your heart. Now verse 10. Remove vexation from your heart. That is frustration.

Put away pain from your body. For you through the dawn of life are vanity.

I don't think there's a warning of anxiety, of worry, of embracing difficulty and pain. No, it's put these things away. Seek the blessed happy life. Walk in the way of your heart. Remove vexation from your heart. Remove the difficulties that cause you to not enjoy life the way you're supposed to. It's amazing to walk alongside believers who have burdens. We all carry burdens of sin today, of sin in the past, of circumstances, health, relationships, work. And there's a way in which, for some reason, our burdens love company. Here, there's a wisdom. Put those away. Put the things away that are causing you to not enjoy life. And what we need to see here is God desires us to enjoy life. I'm gonna go back to verse nine. But know that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment. We will all be judged. Believer, last week, Matt preached from 2 Corinthians 5, and we read earlier from 1 Corinthians 3, both of which teach a judgment that comes upon believers. There's two judgments. If you're not a Christian this morning, you need to worry about that first judgment. You need to ask Jesus to forgive you, lest you will be judged and God will bring out wrath for all your sins. But 2 Corinthians 5 and 1 Corinthians 3, they're clear. 2 Corinthians 5 is very clear. There's a rebuke for not being faithful for the Christian. And there's a reward for faithfulness. This world is full of opportunities, Christian, for eternal reward. Yeah, it's full of opportunities for temporal, immediate gratification. But it's full of opportunities for eternal reward. By being faithful at work, by being faithful in the home, by being faithful as a church member, being faithful as an evangelist, by being faithful in the most mundane thing is an opportunity to glorify God and worship Him for a reward. We still have to live under the fear of the Lord, a reverence. knowing that as Christians we're not justified by our works, we're justified by faith alone, by His grace, but there's still an answer we must give for how we lived. The calling is not to be youthful this morning. No, the calling is to recognize everything we do under the sun, we brought under God's judgment in the life to come. And there's a way in which we could fear that, that there's a way in which we can receive God's grace and live to long for it. For the youth, for the young, I'm so encouraged by how I see the young folks ordering their lives here. It truly is encouraging. Let me continue to encourage you that you're putting away the narcissism. You're ordering your life around God, his word, his people, and just the way you're serving is so encouraging. Let me warn you, do not let a summer lull overtake you. Especially those, we want to encourage, who've gone away for the summer, gone home for the summer. Once you get out of those normal routines, it's just too easy to fall into a lull. Be on guard against such a lull, a slowness in spiritual disciplines. As we hear that word, let us rejoice, knowing God will bring all things into judgment. The last point, the last word from the preacher, remember also your creator. His last point, remember God, life is coming to an end. Now, interestingly, this is the first time we've had creator as the name for God. He's referred to Elohim, God, over and over again. There's been numerous references to God, but here there's a creator emphasis. And I believe there's a helpfulness here. There's a centrality that we must remember God is our creator.

In him we live and move and have our being.

God is our creator. What does that make us? Created. God is creator. He depends upon no one or nothing for his existence. He is life in himself. Whatever life we have is completely dependent upon him. Remember, you are created. You have a creator. We're dependent. We're not just dependent upon the very life we have. We're dependent on everything we have. Over and over again, Ecclesiastes, the preacher, has brought us to the point where whatever you have, it's a gift from God. He's our creator. We don't exist without him. He's our creator. We have nothing apart from him. Remember your creator. Remember you're a creator in the days of your youth. When you might be too busy, when you might be making these foolish decisions, when you might be so focused on what's ahead or what you wanna do now, remember you're a creator, remember you're dependent. Remember you'll give an answer. Remember also you're a creator in the days of your youth. Now, as we look at this last section, it could be formed into a poem. There's discussion among commentators as to if this is a last poem or not. The preacher began with a poem. It wouldn't be unlike him to end with a poem. What I wanna focus here is remember your creator in the days of your youth and notice how all of this long section is saying one thing with great repetition to make sure we understand its importance. And there's something repeated over and over again. There's temporal claws after temporal claws. Time is ticking away. Remember your creator before the evil days, before the sun and the light and the moon, in the day, when the sound, before the silver. There's a time coming when you no longer see the sweet life you've been given. There's a time when death is coming. Before that time, remember your Creator. That first temporal clause, before the days come and the years draw near, before you die. Over and over again, he's just saying over and over and over again, before you die, before you die. Those evil days, those unhappy days, which you'll say have no pleasure in them. This could be those days that you are no longer able to enjoy the life because you're not able to get out and see the sun. Or the days when you're actually dead. Those many days after in darkness. Notice verse 2, there's a cosmicness to death.

Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened.

Now that could be either personally for the person who can't see them anymore, or there might be an allusion to the new heavens and new earth that do not have sun, moon, or stars. Verse three is meant to show you, and it's somewhat, you have to see the commentary and explain it to me. I had no idea what was really going on here. There's four different classes of people. There's high class, low class males, and high class, low class females. But the whole point is the day is coming for all. It's universal. Death is the leveler for no matter what your status or position in life are. Verse four. points to the fact that the streets will be full of, death is coming and life is slowed down. Verse five, the death is coming and you're going to your eternal home, the mourners will be in the streets. Verse six, supposedly these are things that are done at a funeral in many cultures. I just wanna focus on verse seven. Over and over again, death is coming, it's fearful. Death is coming, it's fearful. Verse seven has incredible theological significance.

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

We've seen him make an allusion to dust returning to earth before. That's in chapter three, verse 20. Here our preacher who keeps giving us kind of common grace, under the sun wisdom, He's showing his hand. He knows the word of Moses. He knows more than he's been speaking of in many ways. He's giving us an under-the-sun view of wisdom in many times, but here he's showing his hand once again that he knows God, Yahweh. He's never called him that, but he knows God, Yahweh. He knows of Moses and how God has created us. How in Genesis 2, he took the earth and formed man from it to show our dependence upon this earth, to show our connection to this earth. And then he declares, God gave us the spirit. This must be referring to when God breathed life into Adam. God shared with us his own life. Not only are we uniquely tied to this earth, God created the garden and created us from the earth of that garden and then placed us in that garden. There's a unique relationship we have to this earth. And then God breathes a life into us, that's why every life is sacred. That's why we're image bearers. Go to Genesis 2, it's so good. God creates us with such a dignity and a worth and a purpose. We have a right relationship with Him. We have a relationship with one another. We have a relationship with this earth. And then Genesis 3, we ruin it. We now live in this glorious ruin that He has promised to fully redeem. We have to remember Genesis 2, there was a warning. If you break the one law, you'll die. And now our preacher, He's reminding us of the consequence of sin. It's death. Death is definitely coming. God made us from this earth to be people of this earth. God made us with his own breath so that we would have a dignity, a value, be his image bearers. God made us depend upon him. He warned us, if you sin, you'll die. And now the preacher has made it very clear, we all will suffer that consequence because we're all sinners. Today we recognize death is painful. Death is not the way it's supposed to be. I burden for many who feel this specifically today, who have mothers who've passed away, I remember my grandmother, who's now passed away, she wouldn't come to church on Sundays on Mother's Day because she grieved the loss of her own mother so much. Would you be mindful of that? We're a church body with so many believers and brothers and sisters who have different circumstances, situations. We wanna make sure we're rejoicing with those who are blessed in their current motherhood, and we wanna rejoice, or we wanna pray for those that are longing for children. We wanna grieve for those who are grieving the loss of mothers. It's a day to celebrate. It's a day for grieving. For those grieving, Remember your creator. He's the author of life. What he gave you, your mother, was good. Remember your creator, who also has brought us new life. And if your mother was a believer, oh, hold out the hope of salvation. Jesus has risen from the dead. She now has new life. You grieve with hope. You grieve. It's an incredible loss, but you grieve the hope that God has loved her and given her life. And friend, brother, sister, remember your creator, who is also your comforter. He is able to comfort us in our grief, in our loss, and I pray he helps us comfort one another. Life is precious, it's sweet, it's a gift of God. Remember your Creator, He's the God of life. He's given you this life to enjoy, but we must enjoy it His way to really enjoy it. He invites us to know Him so that we would enjoy the life He's given us. He's the author, He's the architect, He's the designer. Trust Him to know how to enjoy this life. Remember your Creator. He's generous. He's a generous God who gives us every good and perfect gift that comes down to us. He's a generous God who has not withheld His own Son. Remember your God. He's generous. Remember your Creator who's good. He will judge with perfect righteousness. He will judge those who don't know Christ, so believe in Him if you don't know Him. He will judge us Christian if we're faithful or unfaithful. Remember your Creator who has sent His Son to restore us to life with His own resurrection. Rejoice in life. Remember your creator. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for this word that is a reminder to us because we are a forgetful people. You are God and we are not. You are in heaven, we are on earth. You are good and righteous and holy and perfect. We all had gone our own way away from you. And you are the gracious God who pursues us with mercy, You are also the good God who will judge with perfect righteousness. Lord, let us today consider how to rejoice in the day you've given us, in the life you've given us. Let us consider today how we can seek comfort from you, not understanding the problems we have, but comfort in that you are the good, wise God who loves us. Lord, let us know how to help point each other to know you, to love you, to worship you, and to long to see you face to face. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.