CCF Sermon Devotional From 8-23-26

The writer opens with a blessing, celebrating youthful joy and urging readers to cherish each moment. He truly believes this and has no intention to mislead.

Next, he offers a thought-provoking line that changes the tone, reminding us that we must answer for our deeds before God. This timeless truth is both sound and relevant. We ought to enjoy the life we’ve received, mindful of its origin and its fleeting nature.

Throughout the book, he repeatedly uses a particular word that many Bible translations render as “meaningless,” yet the intended image is mist or fog. Think of your breath on a cold morning—visible and tangible, yet fleeting and intangible, like trying to grasp something that slips through your fingers.

He describes youth this way—not worthless or sinful, but simply elusive and hard to hold.

The question follows: how many of us share his view? We pour great effort into clinging to youth’s fleeting nature, pursuing physical appearance, endless possibilities, and a sense of perpetual ability.

When we believe we have our whole life ahead, it’s easy to ignore the inevitable decline of old age. This realization often arrives sooner than expected, sometimes slipping in unnoticed. In youth, it’s hard to grasp this while nothing yet hurts physically.

Nevertheless, the reality is clear—we all age, and someday, perhaps tomorrow, we will stand before our Maker, who gave our lives meaning and purpose and will hold us accountable for our actions.

He worries that the excitement of youth and the illusion of an endless future can cloud our judgment. He stresses that we must not let this excitement cause us to forget that God will hold us accountable for our actions throughout life.

He knows this reality is often missed when we’re young and preoccupied with our own dreams. We pursue what seems an endless future, forgetting that tomorrow could be the end, and we will be held accountable for our choices.

Now, note what he doesn’t say: he doesn’t condemn youth’s excitement; rather, he urges us to be mindful today of youth’s real potential to distract us from the Creator’s purpose when we chase our own.

He offers a profound reality check: God has given us this life and already infused it with inherent meaning. Our purpose is to live within that meaning, not to invent our own interpretation. As time passes and life’s inevitable decay sets in, we should cease chasing fleeting illusions, for such pursuit is merely youth’s vanity.

Yesterday concluded with a cautionary message: stop chasing meaning and purpose for life that is not yours to define, as that pursuit is merely a vanity.

This pursuit is not novel; it has persisted throughout history.

Adam and Eve, devoid of sickness, aging, or death, had never witnessed anything end.

Their existence was characterized by vitality and a life with a God from whom everything within them and around them originated.

Yet, the opportunity was there not to listen to God, by eating of the tree they were told by God not to eat from, or else suffer the consequence of death.

However, the day came when the serpent posed a question: did God truly say so?

Carefully examine what he offered. Your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, possessing knowledge of both good and evil.

The serpent’s proposal was not just to eat forbidden fruit, it was the right to make independent judgments about what is good and what is evil.

Eve accepted this proposal and made her own judgment about the tree.

It was beautiful, the fruit appeared delicious, and the wisdom seemed valuable. She consumed it, and Adam did the same.

However, what initially seemed appealing became sin for them, and they crumpled under the consequence of sin.

This is the same theme explored in Genesis 3 and Ecclesiastes. Consider some of the pursuits of the writer of Ecclesiastes: work, wisdom, pleasure, possessions, money, justice, power, and more.

None of these pursuits are inherently evil. God created them with purpose and intended for us to use them according to his design.

However, the writer of Ecclesiastes took each pursuit and distorted its intended purpose to fulfill a purpose in himself. None of these pursuits could bear the weight of his distorted intentions. They all crumbled under his misuse of God’s good gifts. This is akin to the reach of the garden. We take what God has given us and direct it in a manner that He never intended.

We are taking something, whether it be things or even ourselves, and bending them to our intent, which is contrary to God’s intent and design. Adam and Eve sought to determine good and evil for themselves, and so do we.

Yesterday concluded in the most unfortunate manner. Adam and Eve made their own choices, leading to a disastrous outcome.

So, what does God do in response?

Let’s examine the curse passages in Genesis 3 closely. Each piece of the curse directly affects something that God had already provided to them.

Eve was in part created to bear children, but now she will bear them in great pain.

Eve was also meant to stand beside Adam as his partner and helpmate, but now there will be conflict between them. Read that line carefully. God is not altering His plan for marriage; He is simply describing the corruption that sin has brought about.

Adam was placed in a garden that God had cultivated for him, but now he will toil in the ground, struggling against the very soil that sustains him.

Adam himself was made from the dust, and now he will labor with that dust throughout his life, ultimately returning to it.

Nothing new is introduced. God does not invent a new punishment out of thin air. He allows the weight of sin’s corruption to rest upon His creation, which has been misused.

This is a profound truth to contemplate. They took God’s magnificent creation, including themselves, and abused it. God’s response is to allow Adam and Eve to live in the corruption and sin that they have chosen.

It’s important to note that God did not lose his temper, he remains righteous. He is holy, and holiness is not something He switches on or off when we sin.

Now, let’s observe what else God does simultaneously.

He covers them. They had attempted to cover their shame of nakedness by sewing fig leaves together. So, God took from His own creation and fashioned them clothing from the skins of animals. In doing so, something of God’s own creation was destroyed so that they could be covered. He provided for them what they could not do for themselves.

Secondly, God recognized the danger of man being trapped in sin forever. So He blocks the tree of life, which may initially appear as a punishment. However, it is actually a form of mercy. God does not want them to live forever in a state of sin.

Finally, He sends them out of Eden to live with the consequences of their choices—hard ground and the reality of their actions.

These three actions demonstrate God’s unwavering presence and His commitment to not abandoning them.

The consequence of sin is falling, and God is right there with them in that moment. Despite the consequences, God remains merciful and gracious toward His people.

Now, a straightforward statement. God still allows us to live under the consequences of sin and our own sin. Under these consequences we feel the weight of sin. Under the weight of sin, we find our limitation, and need for redemption only God can provide.

So God did not abandon us. While He allowed the consequences of sin to unfold, He also remained in the mess with us by his grace.

God did not walk away then. He is still that God when the body starts to fail.

Going back to Ecclesiastes, the writer does something bold. He describes a body giving out, one piece at a time.

The light dims. The legs tremble, and he calls them the guards of the house. The shoulders stoop. The teeth are down to a few. The eyes look out and see less than they did.

Fear of falling. White hair. Dragging along without energy. Even desire goes quiet.

We started this week saying that old age arrives sooner than we expect. Here the writer shows us what arrives.

He is not being cruel. He is being honest in a way we mostly refuse to be.

Some of you are reading this from the far side of that description. You are not imagining it. You are living inside it.

This passage was written for you, not at you. Nothing here says your suffering is a message aimed at you personally.

Because look at what the writer actually wants from all of it. One word, again and again. Remember.

Remember Him. Remember your Creator.

Not brace yourself. Not fear the end. Remember Him.

Here is what decay does. It does not create your need for God. It uncovers a need that was always there.

When you were young and strong, the need was just as real. It was only easier to ignore.

A little later the writer gets blunt about how God works on us. He says the words of the wise are like cattle prods, painful but helpful.

Most people probably haven’t worked with sheep, but you can imagine they’re stubborn. When you try to motivate stubbornness you need a motivator. The writer reminds us of the power of a pointy stick for motivation called a goad, and compares it to the proverbs God uses to prod us along in scripture.

That is the whole picture. The stick gets sheep to move even when they don’t want to, and the hand holding it belongs to a shepherd. The proverbs collected by the writer of Ecclesiastes guide us, our Shepherd, God.

Yesterday we asked what the Shepherd, God, is driving us toward. Here is the answer in summation, and it is short.

The writer has spent an entire book searching. He tried everything a man could try. He has more to say about it than anyone.

Then he stops himself. Be careful, he says. Writing books is endless, and much study wears you out.

You are not going to figure God out by grinding harder. That was never the assignment.

Here now is my final conclusion. Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.

Two things, and that is all. Fear God, which means reverence and awe, taking him seriously as God. And do what he says.

Notice how ordinary it is. No secret knowledge. No advanced level. Just the created listening to his Creator.

But do not stop before the last verse, because the last verse should stop us cold.

God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.

We heard this on the first day of the week. Now the writer says it again, and he adds one word.

Every secret thing. The part nobody knows about. The thought you would never say out loud.

Pastor Nate tells about his mama saying the switch to his ears was located on his backside. He says he paid a lot more attention after that.

We laugh, and then we notice what it means. Sometimes the only reason we finally listen is that something got our attention.

That last verse is meant to get your attention.

Because here is the honest arithmetic. Fear God and obey him is our duty. It is right. We owe it; created to Creator.

And not one of us has done it. Not in public. Certainly not in secret.

So the conclusion of Ecclesiastes leaves us holding a real debt that we cannot pay.

That is not a flaw in the book. That is the book doing its work.

Fear God and obey him, and every secret thing will be judged.

Yesterday left a question standing. If every secret thing is judged, who could possibly stand God’s judgment?

Putting it bluntly, the answer is no one, because we all sin. Yet, there is good news: there is one who can make a way. That is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

He existed before anything was created. Everything was created through him and for him.

Read that last part again. For him. Every gift we have spent this week misusing was made for him in the first place.

He holds all creation together. We spend our lives trying to hold our own lives together. He is the one doing it all along.

Then Paul says something that speaks straight into yesterday and the day before. Jesus is supreme over all who rise from the dead.

Jesus was sinless, but he did not dodge death; he became incarnate and died on a Roman cross. Why would Jesus do this, to save us from our sin? He experiences death and resurrection, so we might have a means for resurrection life.

That matters, because death is still an enemy. Scripture says plainly that death will one day be destroyed (1 Cor 15:26). It is not a friend. It was never part of God’s plan for us.

But it is not the end of the story. And it is not the last word over anyone who belongs to Christ.

And through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

Peace. That is what we have been reaching for all week, in all the wrong places. Control. Security. Something solid to hold.

It was never something we could grab. It was always something to receive.

That peace comes to us through faith in Christ. It is offered to everyone, and it is received by trusting him. Not by being good enough.

Think back to the garden. God took from his own creation and covered what Adam and Eve could not cover.

At the cross, God gave his own Son and covered what we cannot cover.

That is the answer to our sin and our decay. Not a better effort. Not a longer life. Him.

God gives life its meaning. Our job is to live inside that meaning, in awe of him and obedient to him.

And now we know his name.