Better and Better
Ecclesiastes: Life in a Broken World • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewSermon 13 in a series through the Book of Ecclesiastes
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Psalm of the Day: Psalm 52
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 52
To the choirmaster. A Maskil of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
Your tongue plots destruction,
like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah
You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.
But God will break you down forever;
he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
The righteous shall see and fear,
and shall laugh at him, saying,
“See the man who would not make
God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and sought refuge in his own destruction!”
But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
forever and ever.
I will thank you forever,
because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:22-24
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:22-24
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Sermon:
Sermon:
Good Morning Church!
I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!
Well by way of summary and to prep ourselves for what we're going to look at today. I'd like to actually remind us of a lot that's come before. To go all the way back to the beginning of Ecclesiastes. And not to look at the content necessarily, but to remember Ecclesiastes started with a poem, a longer poem. And that poem set the stage, not just for the book. But for the next section: that all is Vanity, everything under the sun is Vanity, And then in chapter 3, we had another poem, this one the most famous poem in Ecclesiastes the “time” poem. A time to be born and a time to die and that poem set the stage for all that was to come for the next section, which was.. The way I've been saying it is the “God is in control and you are not” section of Ecclesiastes. Well, as we come here to chapter seven, In fact, Ecclesiastes were starting the end of Ecclesiastes.
And so as we switch sections, just a little bit, it shouldn't be surprising to us. That we find another poem. But this one is a much more difficult poem than the other two. Whereas the last two poems had sort of one theme that laid the foundation for all that is to come, As Solomon shifts to the end. In some ways, he's picking all the pieces up, and the Loose Ends that have been developing as he's gone through this journey of finding meaning in life and understanding what the days of our life are for. But in other ways… He's tried all of the wisdom of the world and we've had Proverbs and we've had all of these things. And so, as we get to the end, The the feeling of this book being like the Book of Proverbs is going to increase, There's going to be a lot more wise sayings and ways that we can make our life better. And so this poem deals, a lot with “what is better”. But just like everything else in Ecclesiastes, it does so with its uniquely Ecclesiastes Voice.
And so, we shouldn't expect a sudden change from like The most depressing book of the Bible to the most positive and uplifting book of the Bible. Though there is positive and uplifting things. We will be exhorted to live our lives, better and better to to search for better and better things.
That's the where we get the title of the sermon this week. As we approach this poem, these sayings. Solomon wants us to turn our eyes to things that are better. and in doing so we will begin to find meaning and hope and purpose in the midst of the broken life and the broken world that we live in.
So with that being said, our passage… we've made it all the way to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Just going through this book at Breakneck speed! So Ecclesiastes, 7, we'll be looking at verses 1 through 13 this morning.
A good name is better than precious ointment,
and the day of death than the day of birth.
It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of all mankind,
and the living will lay it to heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise
than to hear the song of fools.
For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of the fools;
this also is vanity.
Surely oppression drives the wise into madness,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning,
and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,
for anger lodges in the heart of fools.
Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
an advantage to those who see the sun.
For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,
and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
Consider the work of God:
who can make straight what he has made crooked?
These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Let's open with a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we do thank you for today. Thank you for your grace and your mercy. We thank you for your wisdom.
Wisdom that you see fit to share with us. Illuminate our hearts and Minds. Help us to see you clearly. Reveal yourself to us, reveal your heart to us. Help us to know who you are and what you have done. I pray that through the work of your son, we would draw close to you. And that by the empowering work of the spirit we would have our eyes and hearts illuminated. It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. And amen.
As I read it, I tried to emphasize and I don't know if you caught it but there's a word that appears over and over and over and over again in this poem. “Better”. If the poem in chapter one was the “vanity” poem and the chapter 3 poem is the “time” poem the chapter 7 poem we have here is the “better” poem. not that it is better, but that's the word that we see over and over and over again. But again, we have to note that the things that we find better aren't the things we might want to call and find better.
It's better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting. Sorrow is better than laughter verse 3. It is better for a man to hear rebuke than it is to hear the song of fools. Verse eight. Better is the end of the thing than the beginning. We could continue: Do not ask why these former days are better than the ones we have now. The poem cares often about what is better. And so as that's the unifying theme. That's what helps us find sense in these often seemingly disconnected thoughts that Solomon is giving us. So the goal today, we're going to walk through this poem and just see what is better. And go from better to better to better getting better and better Each time. That's the thought here as we go through this poem.
But before we get into the points we need to note: The poem starts with a bit of a proverb. “A good name is better than precious. Ointment and the day of death than the day of birth.”
This is what we call two lines in parallel. And Solomon's trying to say just as much as a good name is better than precious ointment. So too, the day of death is better than The day of your birth. And this is sort of the mission statement and laying the ground for all that is to come. WE are dealing with two separate but related thoughts including one: How we live, that is the “a better name” part, and how we view the life we are living - that's the “day of death” part. And these thoughts will be developed and built upon. The better things we weigh here build off of this thought.
But we need to let that linger in our minds as we go through the rest, he sort of opens with this. He drops this bomb and then jumps right into the rest of things.
Part of why it might be better for the day of death to be better than a day of birth is our next section. Because counter-intuitively and counter to what our hearts may think. Even Better is sorrow.
Better is SORROW
Better is SORROW
It's better. Solomon says. To be sorrowful. To go to the house of mourning is better than to go to the house of feasting. Why we could ask and we should ask, why would it be better to go to the house of mourning? Feasts are good. We are turning this church after this service into a house of feasting. We are having a potluck. It is good to Feast. But why is the house of mourning better? He tells us in verse 2 because this is the end of all mankind.
We shouldn't just think House of feasting. House of mourning. Is like the description of two different houses in your neighborhood. The house of mourning literally here is like, the funeral home The place where we mourn the death of those we loved and cared for And this is the beginning as to why sorrow is better? Because all of us, ultimately will die.
That's been a theme throughout all of Ecclesiastes, the wise and the foolish. They both die, the good and the evil, they both die. Everyone dies and so all of us should lay in our hearts and understand that the house of mourning is better because we will all end up there.
And there's multiple ways to think that. We will all end up there because people around us that we know and love will pass. But we'll all end up there, because one day we will all pass. And so it's better to go to the house of mourning to feel this sorrow because that lets us know that's what this life is all about. Because verse 3, he says it. Just clear as day. Sorrow is better than laughter. Sorrow is better than laughter! Why could sorrow be better than laughter? It's good to laugh. It's fun to laugh. It's good to tell jokes. So how or WHY can it be better?
Because by the sadness of face, the heart is made glad.
The senior Pastor of my last church used to often read a poem at the funerals he would do. And while I do not remember the name or author of the poem, I do remember the heart, and It was correct. The basic gist was this: The cost of love is funerals. If we didn't love. Funerals wouldn't hurt. If we didn't have love in our heart, these things wouldn't be so painful. That's basically what Solomon's saying here. That it's actually.. as we see our sorrow, we start to realize That we also have great good.
Just this few months ago I along will all my family flew out to Pittsburgh PA. Why were we going there? My grandfather's funeral. It's hard. And it's sad. But then all the family got together. I got hang out with my cousins. And see my aunts and uncles. And THAT is good.
How many times have you been to a funeral and enjoyed seeing your family? In fact, Every funeral, I think I've ever gone to and in every funeral I have ever done You hear some phrase, similar to: “You know, we should get together more often. We should do this sometime when we don't have a funeral.”
But it never happens and funerals are when we get together. And so it's by sadness of the heart of the face is made glad. And so, our heart verse 4, our heart goes into the house of mourning because that's where we know we find Value. And the fool just cares for the fleeting temporary pleasures of the House of Mirth. So, it's better. Sorrow is better.
It's painful. It's difficult. But if the question is, “how do we live life in a broken world”? This is the start of an answer for us. By realizing that our sorrow and the Brokenness is better. That the Brokenness brings value in some ways that the Brokenness we experience can Empower and enrich and enliven, our souls. It's counterintuitive and it's difficult. But it's true. Sorrows better.
Lets be careful though here... It's not, that laughter is bad, it can become idolatrous, but not inherently bad. mirth, it's not bad... but to put your heart in the House of Mirth is… Feasting's not bad. I even said we're going to turn this place into a house of feasting after service today. That's okay. We're trying to do both sides of this If we're being honest later today.
it's a house of feasting because we're going to have food but it's a house of mourning because our good friends are leaving us. We can have both. And the sorrow somehow makes these things richer. Because better is sorrow. And better is rebuke.
Better is REBUKE
Better is REBUKE
It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise
than to hear the song of fools.
For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of the fools;
this also is vanity.
To hear rebuke. It's better. To have someone come down on you and tell you what you're doing wrong. It's better.
When I was a youth pastor, I used to say, all the time to my youth, maybe I should say it more here. If I say something wrong, Particularly from the pulpit. Please. Rebuke me. Tell me. When I was talking to youth, I said it would it would be the proudest day of my life if one of my youth came up to me and said “you said this about this verse and I think you were wrong.” Because that means three things: one, they were actually paying attention to what I said. Which when you're teaching youth is not a guarantee. two, they cared enough about God's word to actually think about it. But three, and most importantly for me, I need to hear that rebuke so that I don't make the same mistakes over and over again.
It's better to hear rebuke than to have a “Yes Man” Who just comes along besides you, and everything you say is right, and everything you say is good and they let you continue in your sin. So, we should rebuke one another. Because rebuke is better. In love in kindness.
Rebuke, doesn't have to be this mean-hearted cold-hearted coming down on someone, but we do have to be honest and go up and say, brother, you are sinning. You need to stop. To go up to someone and say “you say that you are a Christian, your life tells me Otherwise, I must judge a tree by its fruits and if you continue down this road, I'm going to need you to stop claiming the Name of Christ. We should be honest and truthful. Rebuking one another because rebuke is better. The laughter of fools when people just get around and joke around and no one's going to be honest with one another.
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It's like the crackling of thorns under a pot. And culturally we might not fully understand this. Let me help you out a little bit. Some wood burns. Hot Burns. Fast makes a loud noise, but won't heat up your water. Other wood. Burn slow. And for a long time. And that's what you want in your campfire.
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Thorns. Like most weeds will flame up quickly and then quickly go out. It's not useful. The laughter of fools is not helpful. It is Solomon says, vanity. And so it's better to hear rebuke. It's better to have people speak truth into our lives, and it's better for us to hear it.
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Though, none of us like it. No discipline seems Pleasant in the moment, but in the end result, it is for our good. So we must hear rebuke. It is better. To be rebuked. And it's better to be patient. Verse 7. Surely oppression drives the wise into madness and a bribe, corrupts the heart better is the end of a thing than its beginning.
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And the patient is Spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry. For anger, lodges in the heart. Of fools. He starts with a proverb. That just is true. The. Will hate oppression. And witnessing oppression in the world, will drive us to Madness.
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The world is crazy and witnessing the craziness of the world will drive anyone with any sense in their head. Matt. Just turn on Netflix, whatever you place, you like to watch your documentaries and you see the Brokenness of the world? And this, it's mad. It's a mad world out there.
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And so it drives us into madness. Those who accept Brides will corrupt their heart. But in the context here, what Solomon is saying is there is oppression, there is this stuff, it will drive you mad, but if your solution to, this is to take bribes and do shortcuts and, and not be patient with what God is doing.
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If your desire is to cut Corners, Your heart will be corrupted. That's verse 9 or verse 7. Because verse 8 gets to the point better, is the end of a thing than its beginning. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. This patience then. Is waiting for God's will to come.
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The patience here. Is understanding that. What we long for is ultimately the return of Christ. All things being made, right? That is the end. That's the ultimate end. We can look at this sort of an individual times right? Where it's every individual thing. The better the end of the church service is better than the beginning.
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We could go there and I think there's some truth here but what Solomon I think really wants us to have is a patient Eternal long-term mindset. Where we look ahead to the beginning or sorry rather to the end of all things. When Christ will come and Rule when God will make all things, right?
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The Old Testament term for all of, this was the great day of the Lord. We look forward to the day of our Lord's coming. And it's better. That patient spirit is better than the proud one that thinks I can fix it. I can do it. I will make things right.
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Don't become angry. When there's oppression going around. I don't even say when people are taking bribes. When you're stuck in the end, in the middle of things, which I would argue is the worst, right? The end is better than the beginning, but worse than both of those is being stuck somewhere in the middle guess where we are?
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Stuck in the middle. Don't become angry. Rather be patient because patience. Is better. And all of these are building to our to the next thing that's better. Sorrow is better because it causes our heart to look at the right places rebuke is better because it empowers us to live, right?
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And we see the mistakes we're making, patience is better because it allows us to endure and see clearly what God is doing because this all leads to our need for wisdom and wisdom is better. Verse 10. Say not, why are these former days? Why were the former days better than these?
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Don't ask. This is fascinating to listen to the Solomon talks about all sorts of things that we just do automatically and Solomon's willing to challenge us. This don't long for the good old days. Don't think well back when I was a kid. I have a big birthday this year.
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I'm adding a zero to the end of my age. Those always make you feel old and then you start to think about all these young kids running around. Don't do that. Don't think why were the former days better than these? Don't think. Why could we have it so much better?
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When we were a kid? That's not right. Thinking says Solomon. For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. It's pride. It's selfishness. Probably It's a lack of understanding that God is moving all of history past present and future towards his end goal. And so any day now is closer to the return of Our Savior so it is better.
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No day in the past was better than this one. Because we are closer to the return of Our Lord. That's like the most base level to say it, but there's more that we can see from this. But it's not wise to long for the good old days. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage.
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To those who see the
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As we move forward in our life. As our life moves onward. You need to gain wisdom. As we get inheritances. We're adding up a lot of the stuff that's come before. We go to the house of mourning. These people. We know and love are dying. We'll probably receive an inheritance.
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A lot of the rebuke, we hear. It is from. Older than us who have lived and known and been there. Usually our parents. And when they pass, we receive an inheritance. Better is the end of a thing. Includes Our Lives. But we need with all of these inheritances wisdom.
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That's the number one thing we could inherit. To have wisdom is Advantage to those who see the sun. To those who are still alive the inheritance, we receive must be wisdom. That's greater than anything else. Anyone else could ever leave to us? More than any retirement account, more than any life, insurance policy more than any house, any will the best thing we could leave to those after us is wisdom?
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Because that'll protect those, we love. Verse 12. The protection of wisdom is like the protection of money. And the advantage of wisdom is that wisdom preserves the life who has it. We ought to hear and understand what is going, what exactly is being said here because this is a rather complicated verse Wisdom protects.
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Money. Can protect us. Wisdom can Empower us to walk in our lives. Take the steps, we need to get a house. Have a job do this. Not put ourselves in dangerous situations, all these other things, wisdom can protect us, money can too, It puts a roof over our head.
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It pays for things that we need and have it keeps us fed. But there's an advantage, they both may protect us, but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
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Maybe not. Money. In fact can either destroy Or protect. Wisdom is always good. Wisdom is better. We all know stories. You you may have seen them in your family or you've heard of co-workers or people who they inherit some great amount of money. And it's gone in years, they're left worse than if they never receive that inheritance at all.
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We've seen it happen.
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Where some young man, inherits some great amount of money and that empowers him to live, some sinful lifestyle. He's now addicted to some sort of drugs, And now all of his money and his life are thrown down the drain. Why? Because there was no wisdom with that. Inheritance wisdom is better.
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That's the culmination. Of what Solomon's been saying here. Why is a good name? Better than precious ointment Because, A good name. Even if I stink, people will like me. No one likes. A sweet smelling jerk. Why is the day of death better than the day of birth? Because the day of death is a day, we celebrate all the wisdom.
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We have accumulated over the course of Our Lives. Because ultimately all this wisdom points us to Christ, why is the day of death better than the day of birth? Because when we die we will go see our savior to be absent. From the body is to be present with the Lord.
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Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 1 is why Paul can write in first Thessalonians. We do not mourn like those who have no hope. Why is the day of death better because wisdom in Christ teaches us that it is better. And so that's the journey we take. Wisdom's better. But there's one more thing Solomon wants us to consider.
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In fact, that's the word. He uses verse 13. Consider the work of God of all of this. Here's the point. We cannot miss. This is where Solomon has been dragging us kicking and screaming throughout the whole book of Ecclesiastes. If we've paid attention, God. Is better. Than what? Everything wisdom, patience, rebuke sorrow, God gives it all God is better consider his work.
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And now we actually have a call back to something. He's talked about before. Consider the work of God who can make straight, what he Notice what Solomon says here, who is it on Earth that can make straight what God himself, has decided will be crooked No one. All the way back in chapter one.
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Solomon said this. Chapter 1 verse 15. What is crooked? Cannot be made straight. That's what he said. In chapter one. And if we remember back in chapter one, this was dealing with the vanity portion and specifically there in the beginning of chapter one, we were dealing with the vanity of wisdom and the problem with wisdom is it can't fix everything.
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You can't know enough, be smart enough, be wise enough to fix all the problems of this Earth.
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God's better.
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The answer is who can make straight, what God has made crooked? No one because God is better. He's stronger. So when we see oppression verse 7, when we see the difficulties of life, when we feel like the old days, were better than these days when we go to the house of mourning, when we go to these things and we experience these things that feel in our heart and in our life, crooked Consider the work of God.
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Consider first that it is God. Who is Sovereign? Who ordained these things? And then consider God. The one who loves us. Who cares for us, who saved us? Who redeemed us? Remember, James chapter, 1, every good and perfect. Gift comes down from the Father of Lights with whom. There is no Shadow or variation due to change.
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Remember the words of Paul he who gave us his son, will he not with him also graciously, give us all things. Remember the words of our savior, John 3:16 for God. So loved the world that he gave his only begotten, son, that whoever believes in him, will not perish.
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But have everlasting knife. Consider the work of God. God is better. How do we live in a broken world? That's it. This is not some elaborate secret to life. I have no 12-step plan for you to make your life feel better. If you were to come for me to counseling, This is the final answer to everything that we face.
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God is better. Trust in him. In the sorrow when we're being rebuked, when our patience is being tried. When we feel like we have no wisdom when we fail in all of the above and more trust in God, he is better. Let's pray.
Transcribed by Pixel