This morning we’re going to talk about finding joy in a sad world. The first message Ecclesiastes drives home, with tremendous force, is that life is fragile, fleeting and frustrating. You won’t figure things out, it won’t all be fair. You will do lots of things over and over that do not really matter. And no matter what you do, or accomplish it won’t satisfy you.

The book shatters our false hopes in pleasure and achievement, and forces us to look at the simple terrifying truth that life is vanity, a breath, and we all die.  

Only the Bible tells us WHY life has misery and death. Futility came in with sin! Paul said “the creation has been subjected to futility and is groaning in the pains of childbirth.”  That’s the world we live in!

So..Is joy even possible here? Or is it just for the next life?  This book says YES! Joy is possible right here under the sun!Ecclesiastes begins, “Futilities of futility, all is futility”! YET,  we find that Ecclesiastes is a book about joy! 7 times it preaches joy as a way of life for God’s people.  And it’s a big joy, an extravagant joy!  

Haddon Robinson tells how he went through a period of life in which he “lived in the dark night of the soul”.  He spent several months in this darkness, depression and questioning. But he said, “there was a preacher who brought me back into the sunlight again.”  Of course that preacher was Solomon and the message was Ecclesiastes!  This book can bring you into greater and deeper joy too! 

But...joy in Ecclesiastes is NOT found by ignoring the burden or the brevity of life, but by facing it head on!  Solomon takes us all the way into the futility of life and THEN brings us out on the other side with joy!  

One writer said, Ecclesiastes does not say here are “7 steps to happiness.” "No, no, here's how to get so sad that you might actually find joy!" There's a certain subversion to it, if you can tune into it, and it changes your life.”..“The brilliance of Ecclesiastes is: however bad you think it is, it's worse. Your starting point is "oh, my word, we're all gonna die, maybe soon." And if you can accept that, now you actually have a shot at joy.” 

So the road to joy is something like this: Life is fragile, it’s like a breath, you are here, then you’re gone, you can’t change that. So leave all the mystery to God, accept your lot and go enjoy God and the good things He has given you, right here, right now!

Ecclesiastes says God’s goodness is right there in front of us all the time. We don’t have to climb the highest mountain.  Or take a Mediterranean cruise.  Solomon said, it’s right there in your food and drink and in your work, things you do every day! It’s in a good sandwich or salad, a cup of coffee; it’s in your everyday tasks.  So find joy in God’s gifts!  Enjoy life with your wife.  Enjoy creation, sunshine or blue sky, clouds or rain. Enjoy a good song, or taking a walk, or putting on your favorite dress, or pair of shoes.  Ecclesiastes COMMANDS us to see God’s goodness in everyday things and enjoy them.  

But that raises a question. Why doesn’t this book merely tell us to enjoy life and skip the depressing message of vanity?  It’s because IF we do not face the vanity of life, we won’t find the joy of life. If we try to find satisfaction, purpose and meaning under the sun, we end up severely disappointed. If we insist on understanding life we won’t enjoy life.

It’s WHEN we accept that life is a breath, and a mystery and a burden, when we face the limitations of pleasure and things to satisfy us, THEN we can enjoy the good things God gives us.  And we can enjoy then a lot!!  (What really helped me with anxieties about business was to tell myself, if it all falls apart, if we lose everything, if we have nothing but food and clothing we can be happy and content.)  That was my way of accepting futility and the real possibility of failure, and that gave me the freedom to enjoy the goodness of God along the way. 

*The joy that Solomon preaches to us is a tough joy! It is a joy IN futility!  It doesn’t shrink back from hard realities. We accept that life is fallen, that much is NOT what we want it to be.  But we CHOOSE to enjoy the many good things God has for us here; we choose to be happy in God and His gifts!!  The message is: “Life is vanity – go eat your bread with joy!”  That leaves us scratching our head a bit.  But it is profound wisdom!! 

9:9 illustrates this perfectly!  “Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun.”  I told Cindy when I walked out the door Friday morning, I’m gonna go and enjoy my vain life under the sun today!  NIV even more brutal, “enjoy all the days of your meaningless life”  I think the NASB has it right, “enjoy all the days of your fleeting life”. It’s accepting the reality of vanity, but facing it with joy!

The same attitude is taught in chapter 2.  Verse 22 says “For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun.  Indeed his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night his mind does not rest.” But then verse 24 says, "There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and to enjoy his work.”  Wait a minute Solomon, you just said work was stressful and life is hard.  Did you really say, “enjoy your work”? “Yes” Solomon would answer.  That’s exactly what I said.

There is this paradox!  In full view of the vanity of work, enjoy your work!  You can know your work is repetitive, meaningless in many ways, that the results won’t really matter but still rejoice in it anyway.  Roy Zuck called it a feisty joy that refuses to quit under the sun. 

Most of us think we can only find joy in the absence of trouble.  So we wait to be happy, till our troubles get resolved.  But since that will never happen in a world subjected to futility, Solomon presents a different approach altogether. He says, Yes, you will toil all your days, but also rejoice in your toil all your days!   

So Solomon sticks the vanity of life right in our face again and again but after each section on vanity, he pivots shockingly to the extravagant joy of life under the sun.  

7 exhortations to joy: *2:24, "There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and to enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God. 

*3:12,13 I know that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his labor—this is God's gift to man. 

*3:22 “I have seen that there is nothing better for a man that to enjoy his work because that is his lot. 

*5:18 “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to each and drink and to find satisfaction in all the labor one does under the sun, during the few days of life that God has given him-for this is his lot.” 19Furthermore when God gives wealth and possessions and enables you to enjoy them, accept your lot and rejoice in your labor for this is a gift from God. 

*8:15 “So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this joy will go with him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.” 

Chapter 9:7 “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God had already approved your works.  Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head.  Enjoy life with our beloved wife all the days of the fleeting life that God has given you under the sun….For this is your portion in life...”

*11:9”Rejoice O young man while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth.”

What does this teach us?  *First: We are to face life with joy and even celebration!  Ecclesiastes commands us to find joy, right here, right now, right in the futility of life!  The stunning message of Ecclesiastes is NOT the vanity of life but that we are to go enjoy life in the vanity of life.  We are not merely allowed to enjoy some things down here, we are commanded by God to enjoy His good gifts in this life under the sun.

“Go eat your bread with joy” Celebrate over your bread! You might say, “It’s just bread!” But God says, “Give thanks for it. Rejoice over it! Celebrate over your bread!” “Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head.” Life is hard – go dress up like you’re going to a feast, banquet or a party. White garments and oil on the head were expressions of joy.  Go look like you are enjoying life. 

Gill’s exposition of the Bible said, “every day should be like a festival or day of rejoicing to a good man, to whom God has given the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”  Of course, there are times for grief.  But Solomon advises joy as the general rule of life for God’s people. 

Our Christian philosophy of life is not life is a bummer and we’re just waiting for Jesus to take us out of here. No! This life is a gift of God and we are supposed to enjoy it. Even the futilities of life should not overcome our joy in God and his gifts. The apparent victory of evil and injustice, should NOT turn us into gloomy, angry Christians!   

*Second: The enjoyment of God’s gifts is for God’s people! 1Timothy 4:3 Paul said marriage and foods are to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.  (They are for believers!) 4For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.” 

Solomon said, the power to enjoy is given “to the man who is pleasing in his sight.” Ecclesiastes teaches that while all men have good gifts from God, believers are given the special capacity to enjoy God’s gifts. One of the Covid symptoms was inability to taste food.  You could eat something good but without the pleasure of taste. Ecclesiastes says God not only gives the food and drink but He gives the ability to enjoy it!   

*Third: Joy comes with obedience to God. Ecclesiastes does NOT promote joy without God, or joy in sin!  Solomon said “When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.” So the framework for joy is to revere and honor God. We enjoy all good things, within the boundaries of God’s will. 

Fourth: Joy is found in seeing good things as God’s gifts not in making them into an idol. Someone has put it very well, “We can only enjoy what we do not worship.”Ecclesiastes teaches that if we try to find fulfillment in houses or travel, or money or promotion or sex or food and drink, all we will find is meaninglessness, vanity.  If seek God first,if we fear him and obey him and put him above all then we are in a place where we can enjoy all the good things God created for us to enjoy.  

*Fifth: Joy is a precious gift of God!  Solomon said, “Joy is the gift of God.” “Joy is God’s supreme gift to his children in the futile world.”  In some ways this is THE miracle of life.  We can find joy in God’s gifts; enjoy our work, enjoy our food, right here now in a fallen world.  David put it so well, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”.  That’s life!  God gives us His blessing and goodness, right in the midst of our enemies.  In the threats and dangers of life, we enjoy food and God’s goodness. 

*Sixth: Don’t look for big events to make you happy. Five times Solomon said,  “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and to enjoy his work.” We all eat and drink and do something every day!  5:18 says “find satisfaction in all the labor one does under the sun,” IE Find someway to enjoy all the stuff you have to do. Solomon does NOT say go find your dream job and then you’ll be happy.  He said, whatever you do, tell yourself that it is good. And find joy in whatever you do.  We are all supposed to do that!

Whether you are homeschooling or waiting tables in a restaurant, or managing your own business.  Solomon commands us to FIND enjoyment in our work. 

*Seventh: Enjoy life now, today. The good life is when you realize that this is the good life. 9:9 says “enjoy life all the days of your life.” Chapter11 says “if a person lives many years let him rejoice in them ALL”... “Banish anxieties and cares.”  It warns of difficult or dark days ahead. Life will likely have less pleasure in old age. Keep your eyes wide open to God’s abundant good gifts, right now. There is food on the table, today. Enjoy it. Celebrate it. Don’t wait till tomorrow to be happy! 

*Joy is important for all ages.  Ecclesiastes 11:9  “Rejoice while you are young!” The CDC released data on February 13th this year that said, nearly 3 in 5 (57%) U.S. teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021. In other studies 20 percent teens reported having serious thoughts of suicide.

Christian parents we have a duty to preach obedience and responsibility to God. But don’t forget to preach joy too. People need it. All kids need it. Teens desperately need it. 

Parents preach joy to your kids!  Teach your kids how to see God’s goodness and to enjoy life!! 

Now it also tells young people to “Remember your Creator”.  Devote yourself to God.  Fear him and obey him. But within the safety of that, enjoy being young! 

*Conclusion:  Everyone of us has a philosophy of life, a way of looking at life?  What is yours?  If you can’t say what it is, your wife could tell you.  Others could tell you. Because our philosophy of life shows.  7 times Solomon recommends joy in God and His gifts as a philosophy of life.  Paul did too. “Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS! Again I will say it, rejoice!” 

And if Solomon could commend joy with the limited revelation he had, we can commend joy with the much greater revelation we have of Jesus! We experience the futility of the world just as Solomon did but we know Christ! Christ has come! And He is the way out of futility! Christ has come and died for our sins! He “abolished death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the gospel.” The Holy Spirit has been poured out. He give us HIS joy. There is a new world coming!  All creation will be redeemed. We will be resurrected from the dead. And reign with Christ forever and ever. 

So we not only enjoy so much of God’s goodness here and now, we have the hope of eternal joy in the presence of Jesus and our heavenly Father forever!  Someone said, “my life has been hard, but I’ve enjoyed this life and I can’t wait for the next one.”  That’s a good way for a Christian to think!