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Sermon

Seize the Day God’s Way

Speaker
David Capoccia
Scripture
Ecclesiastes 8:16-9:10

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

This passage from Ecclesiastes 8:16–9:10 teaches us to seize every day as a gift from God. Solomon gives two reasons why we should stop waiting around: life is fundamentally uncertain, and death is absolutely certain. Rather than responding with despair or reckless hedonism, we are called to gratefully enjoy God’s simple gifts—food, clothing, marriage, and work—while we still can. This is not mere worldly indulgence but an act of worship that honors the Giver.

Key Lessons:

  1. No one can discover the grand secrets of life or control the future—we are entirely in God’s hands and must trust Him with what comes.
  2. Death comes to everyone regardless of how they lived, which makes every remaining day an urgent opportunity to live wisely.
  3. Reverently enjoying God’s simple gifts—food, marriage, work—is not worldly indulgence but genuine worship and obedience.
  4. Work is not a curse but a good gift from God, and we honor Him by doing whatever our hands find to do with all our might.

Application: We are called to stop waiting around for perfect circumstances and instead make the most of what God has already given us. Whether that means enjoying a meal with gratitude, investing in our marriages, working diligently, serving in the church, sharing the gospel, or most importantly, repenting and believing in Jesus—we must act now while the opportunity remains.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What good gifts from God have you been neglecting or taking for granted, and what would it look like to enjoy them more fully this week?
  2. How does the certainty of death change the way you prioritize your daily decisions and relationships?
  3. In what areas of your life are you “waiting around” instead of seizing the day God’s way, and what is one practical step you can take to change that?

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 8:16–9:10 teaches that life’s uncertainty and death’s certainty should motivate us to gratefully enjoy God’s gifts now. Ecclesiastes 8:12–13 affirms that it will be well for those who fear God, grounding our enjoyment in reverent trust rather than nihilism.

Outline

Introduction

So good to see so many of you today.

Let’s pray to the Lord as we look to hear from his word.

Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us to another year to 2026. Yet we need your word this year just like we did last year. We need your wisdom. We need your spirit to guide us. So God, from this text, from this word today, teach us and enable me to speak and explain it in a way that honors and is accurate. Honors you and is accurate to your word in Jesus name.

Amen.

The Good but Time-Limited Gift of Life

Well, over the extended holiday that we just had, someone gifted Emma and me some fruit. And that got me thinking about another notable time in my life in which I in which we received a gift of fruit that I want to tell you about.

While Em and I were living in Los Angeles during my seminary training, somebody else was kind enough to give us some fruit, a gift basket of Harry and David fruit. It came with many snacks and also several fresh pears.

Em and I were delighted to receive this gift of pears. We immediately ate one pair each. And I think that pair was the most delicious I’d ever tasted.

But then over the next week or so, we forgot about the gift. We forgot about the fruit. And by the time we came back to enjoy some more, can you guess what had happened?

The fruit had gone bad.

We had to throw the pairs away feeling a bit embarrassed that somebody had given us this nice gift, this thoughtful gift, but we had failed to make full use of it.

Now, I bring up that story to pose the question to you. Have you ever similarly failed to make good use of or to make full use of a gift?

Maybe you received a free homework pass in school, but you never used it because you were always waiting for that bigger assignment to use it on. Or maybe you received a gift certificate to a nice restaurant, but you kept saying, “Oh, yeah, we’ll go there later. We’ll go there later.” But then your certificate expired and you couldn’t go at all.

Or maybe God blessed you with children, but you never really spent much time with them and now they’ve grown grown up and gone away.

Life is full of good but timelmited opportunities.

Often you don’t know how long an opportunity will last.

And if you wait too long or if you simply forget, you you can miss out.

According to the Bible, life itself is a good but timelimited opportunity. Not just the things in life, but life itself. Life is a gift, but it is a gift that is fading fast.

“Life itself is a good but time-limited opportunity—a gift that is fading fast.”

For all of us human beings living under the sun, we all know that we are going to die.

But we don’t know when we are going to die or what might happen to change our lives in a dramatic way before that time.

So what is the wise way to live life?

What is the best way to handle this good but timelimited opportunity?

And the answer is simple and it’s one that even many cultures around the world both ancient and modern have realized and articulated in different ways. And the answer is make the most of your life while you can.

Seize the Day: The Book of Ecclesiastes

The first century BC Roman poet Horus used a phrase that captures this really biblical concept and that phrase is carpedium often translated as seize the day. A more literal translation is pluck the ripe day.

If you want to be wise and please God with the way that you live, then you should gratefully pluck every ripe day that God gives you.

“If you want to be wise and please God, gratefully pluck every ripe day that God gives you.”

This is what King Solomon himself teaches in a certain book of the Bible called Ecclesiastes.

And I believe that a particular text that highlights this truth will serve us well as we think about living our lives in this new year. So if you would please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 8. Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 8. The title of the sermon is Sees the Day God’s Way.

Sees the Day God’s Way.

Specifically, we’re going to be looking at Ecclesiastes 8:16 to chapter 9 verse 10 today. And you can find it if you’re using the Bibles that we’ve provided.

You can find it on page 675.

The Structure of Ecclesiastes

Now, this is a key section in the great Old Testament book of wisdom that is Ecclesiastes.

If this book or if you remember our study through it some years ago, you may remember or you may know that the book has two main parts.

Roughly the first half of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 1-6 is all about having us face reality. Life is a vapor. Life is frustrating in many of its qualities.

And this is due to man’s sin. You must face what life is. Life has become free frustratingly vapor-like because of the fall. That’s Ecclesiastes 1:6.

Meanwhile, the second half of the book, Ecclesiastes 7:12, it emphasizes response. Okay, this is the frustrating reality of the world, but how should you live in it? How can people nevertheless live wisely in a world that has been made vaporous by sin?

Now, our passage, as you can see by being in chapter 8 going into nine, we’re in the second half of Ecclesiastes. We’re in the response section of Ecclesiastes. And the text we’re going to look at is actually a turning point even within this latter section. Because you see, starting around Ecclesiastes 9 and going really to the end of the book all the way to chapter 12, Solomon’s wisdom instruction, it picks up energy.

“Solomon’s wisdom picks up energy and drives toward one simple idea: What are you waiting for?”

It drives toward his conclusion while underscoring one simple idea. And that idea is what are you waiting for?

If this is life with its fundamental frustrations and here’s the wisdom for how to respond to life, what are you waiting for? Go do it.

So, we’re going to see that same question, what are you waiting for?

Applied throughout our passage today.

Reading the Passage

So, let’s now read the passage.

Ecclesiastes 8:16 going into chapter 9:10.

This is Solomon, King Solomon at the end of his life speaking by the spirit of God.

When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth, even though one should never sleep day or night, and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover.

Ecclesiastes 8:17: “Man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun.”

And though the wise man should say, I know, he cannot discover.

For I’ve taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God.

Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred. Anything awaits him. It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and one for the wicked. One for or for the good, for the clean.

I’m sorry, let me re say that verse again. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked, for the good, for the clean and for the unclean.

For the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner. As the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear. This is an evil and all that is done under the son. That there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards, they go to the dead.

For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope. Surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know they will die, but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.

Indeed, their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.

Go then, eat your bread in happiness, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head.

Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which he has given to you under the sun. For this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

For there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in shield where you are going.

Not Cynical Nihilism but Grateful Living

Some interpreters believe this to be one of the bleakest passages in Ecclesiastes and even in the Bible. They believe that a disillusioned Solomon is telling us that death is the end of everyone and there’s nothing to look forward to after death.

After all, shal or the grave, shield just means grave, it represents annihilation or permanent inactivity and forgetfulness. So, you might as well try to enjoy life if you can, while you can.

It’s all you got, and it’s all going to turn to nothing soon.

But such an interpretation would ignore what Solomon says right before this in chapter 8, what Solomon says in other parts of Ecclesiastes, and what the rest of God breathed scripture says.

Though Solomon in his day, he knows very few details about life after death or the world to come, he is nevertheless sure, that God is just, and there will be one day a vindication for those who fear God. If you just glance back at Ecclesiastes 8:12-13, Ecclesiastes 8:12-13, Solomon, same writer, says this.

Ecclesiastes 8:12-13.

Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may lengthen his life, still I know that it will be that well for those who fear God, who fear him openly, but it will not be well for the evil man, and he will not lengthen his days like a shadow because he does not fear God.

So our current passage it cannot be a display of cynical nihilism.

In fact, this passage is the opposite.

In recognition of the nature of life as quickly passing yet a good portion from God, Solomon charges us to make the most of it while we can.

“This is the wise way to live, the most enjoyable way to live, and what will honor God.”

This is the wise way to live. This is the most enjoyable way to live. And this is what will honor God who has given life to us as a gift.

Our text is laid out for us in a simple carp style argument.

Here’s the main idea. In Ecclesiastes 8:16-9:10, Solomon gives two simple reasons why you should seize the day God’s way. Two simple reasons why you should seize the day God’s way. Stop waiting around.

Reason 1: Life Is Uncertain

Seize the day. And we’re going to look at these. We’re going to look at the two reasons and look at Solomon’s conclusions. So, we’ll start with the first simple reason which we see in Ecclesiastes 8:16 going to chapter 9 verse one.

The first reason is life is uncertain. Life is uncertain.

Look at verse 16 to 17 of chapter 8 again as we look at this first piece of the argument.

No One Can Discover Life’s Grand Secrets

Solomon says, “When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth, even though one should never sleep day or night, and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover. And though the wise man should say, I know, he cannot discover.” These two verses represent a transition from the previous passages instruction to the new one. And the idea here is one we see repeatedly in the book of Ecclesiastes. Namely that no one, not even Solomon the great, not even Solomon blessed with divine wisdom, no one is able to figure out the grand secrets of life.

Everyone wants to know the future.

Everyone wants to know how to act perfectly to secure that particular future that he or she desires. If anyone could discover that knowledge, the secrets for that, it would have been Solomon.

But look at how Solomon reminds us of his own experience, his own quest for this knowledge. In verse 16, he says he fully gave himself to the task of understanding everything that happens on earth.

This task was so demanding that it often cost Solomon’s sleep.

Solomon then beheld every reality, every kind of work of God as it takes place on earth. And what was Solomon’s ultimate conclusion?

It’s verse 17.

You cannot fully understand what God’s doing in the world or why God’s doing it.

“You cannot fully understand what God’s doing in the world or why God’s doing it.”

The fundamental scheme of the world, the inner workings, the full explanation. It is a secret thing that belongs only to God. I’m not just talking about the inner portions of our planet. I mean the universe, why things are working the way that they are and how everything works out. You can’t know that even if you try to outdo Solomon, if you study laboriously, if you don’t allow yourself sleep day or night in this quest, you’ll get the same result.

You won’t discover.

Solomon points out at the end of verse 17 that there will nevertheless be many naive people who insist that they will discover or that they have discovered the secrets of life. But Solomon tells us when you hear it, don’t believe it.

Though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot and will not discover.

Now, don’t misunderstand Solomon. He’s not saying we can’t make certain advances in knowledge. We can’t discover new technologies. No, we can and we have, and these are very good.

But no one is going to discover the full explanation or find how to fix this life’s fundamentally vapor-like nature.

So where does this admission leave every man or woman, every boy or girl on this earth who still must face life?

We Are in the Hands of God

Chapter 9 verse one.

For I have taken all this to my heart and explained it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God.

Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred. Anything awaits him.

Your inability to discover life’s fundamental and grand secrets, it leaves you simply in the hands of God.

Even wise men, even righteous men, all their choices, all their actions, all their consequences, they are simply in God’s hands.

We must rely on God for everything.

“Your inability to discover life’s grand secrets leaves you simply in the hands of God.”

We must trust him.

And as life plays out, we must take from him whatever he chooses to give us.

He is a good God. He is worthy of this.

But his ways are beyond ours.

We can never know for certain what will happen to us next in life. We know that a good God is arranging it all. But we don’t know the specifics.

Love and Hatred: What Awaits Us

You see the line, man does not know whether it will be love or hatred.

Anything awaits him. The Hebrew more literally reads both love and hatred.

There is not a man knowing all before him.

About whose love and hatred is Solomon speaking?

Some interpreters believe that Solomon refers to God’s love and hatred. But a better interpretation is to see the love and hatred as belonging to man according to the different circumstances that God sovereignly aortions to a person. After all, the two other times that Solomon refers to love and hatred in Ecclesiastes together, they both describe man’s experience. In Ecclesiastes 3:8, Solomon mentioned a time to love and a time to hate. And further down in our passage, verse six, he says, “Indeed, their love, that is people’s love, their hate and their zeal have already perished.” So, same idea here in verse one. What Solomon is basically telling us then is you don’t know whether the next experience you will face in your life is one that you will love or one that you will hate. Whether it will be filled with love for people and things that are good or be filled with hate for people and things that are evil.

Both await you. It’s not like you’re only going to get one and not the other.

No, everybody faces both. But you don’t know when.

It’s all in God’s good, loving, sovereign, but unreadable plan.

And Solomon had said essentially the same thing in Ecclesiastes 3.

So what does this mean? It means the sermon point that I already mentioned. Life is fundamentally uncertain.

We don’t know how long a good thing from God will last. And we don’t know whether something we hate is right around the corner.

“We don’t know how long a good thing from God will last or whether something we hate is right around the corner.”

So what should we do?

Well, if we’re wise, we will seize the day. We will stop waiting around and start making the most of the good that we have already received from God, enjoying it, using it, worshiping God for it.

Reason 2: Death Is Certain

Life’s uncertainty, however, is only the first simple reason that we should do this. We see the second simple reason in verses 2 to 6, Ecclesiastes 9. Life is uncertain. Number one, but number two, death is certain. Death is certain.

Look at verses two and three of chapter nine.

One Fate for All

It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked. For the good, for the clean, and for the unclean, for the man who offers a sacrifice, and for the one who does not who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner. As the swiver is, so is the one who is afraid to swear. This is an evil and all that is done under the sun that there is one fate for all men. Oh, we’ll stop there.

Here again is something that we see throughout Ecclesiastes. Solomon reminding us that all of us are going to die no matter how we lived.

You may notice that verse two provides a series of contrasting pairs. We’ll just consider them in summary fashion.

Whether you live righteously or not, whether you meticulously follow ceremonial laws or not, whether you offer public worship worship or not, whether you zealously take oath before God or not, the outcome is the same.

Death.

“Whether you live righteously or not, the outcome is the same: death.”

It’s not like you’re super righteous, you just never die. No, you die, too.

And Solomon confesses again what a frustrating fact of life this is. What he calls an evil.

Not only must the good and bad both face a life of uncertainty, they also face both certain death.

Hearts Full of Evil and Insanity

At the end of verse three, Solomon then reminds us how most people react to this one fate of all men, with evil and insanity. Look at the rest of verse three.

Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and a sananity is in their hearts throughout their lives.

Afterwards, they go to the dead.

See the phrase here, hearts full of evil. Solomon explains how the common fate of death for all people leads mankind generally to embrace evil.

The attitude is there’s one fate for all men. If doing good or doing evil won’t change that, then why hold off on doing evil? Why not enjoy fulfilling every inclination of my heart, whether it’s good or bad?

“The common fate of death for all people leads mankind generally to embrace evil.”

Everyone’s going to die anyways. I might as well have a good time before I do.

Yet, notice in verse three that men’s heart arts are not just said to be full of evil, but also insanity. Insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives.

The word insanity could also be translated madness, foolishness, or even blindness.

During life, people naively or stubbornly remain blind to the realities of death and even more importantly to the reality of God’s judgment after death.

Thus, they act foolishly, even insanely. Pastor Bobby has said many times before that being a Christian is like finally becoming sane. Your family members think you went insane, that you joined a cult. But no, you’re actually coming to true clarity of thought.

Living as a sinner and continued rebellion against God. That’s the true insanity. That’s stupidity and madness.

You can’t think clearly when you’re doing that.

If you want to think soberly, if you want to come to reality, then you must repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

But most people in the world don’t live this way and they don’t want to live this way.

They therefore pursue sin. They chase after everything in the world that will not ultimately profit.

They weary themselves in obtaining treasures that will not last.

And then as Solomon says the end of verse three, afterwards they go to the dead. And the phrase is even more abrupt in the Hebrew literally and after it to the dead.

Like rodents fighting and scurrying on a ship that’s about to snap in half. So people pursue evil and insanity despite the sobering realities of soon arriving death and judgment.

The Advantage of the Living

Now though all people will face death, Christ’s coming being the only exception for that, there is an advantage for the wise when it comes to death, which is what Solomon says next in verses four and five.

For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope. Surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know they will die. Stop there.

What according to Solomon is a great advantage for the wise?

It is not simply that there will be a judgment that will go well for them after death. That’s true. That’s not Solomon’s focus in this verse.

The advantage that the wise have is that they know they will die.

“The advantage that the wise have is that they know they will die—and truly appreciate that fact.”

They truly appreciate that fact.

Which means for them there is hope.

Hope in what sense?

Hope and that they still have a chance to make the most out of their lives. In other parts of this book, Ecclesiastes, Solomon speaks quite provocatively about how the dead in certain respects are better off than the living.

In Ecclesiastes 4:2, Solomon says, just to paraphrase, Ecclesiastes 4:2, “Better to be dead than to suffer through life without comforting companions.” Ecclesiastes 6:3, Ecclesiastes 6:3, better to be a miscarriage than to live a long life without enjoying good.

A Live Dog Is Better Than a Dead Lion

But notice here, Ecclesiastes 9:4, Solomon flips the evaluation and he says, “The living are far better off than the dead.” In fact, Solomon even says, “Surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.” Now, that saying would have much more punch in ancient Hebrew culture than in ours today. And why is that?

Because today, at least in America, people love dogs.

Dogs are valued companions. We have dog groomers. We have dog hotels and even dog treat bakeries.

But people in ancient Hebrew culture typically hated dogs.

Dogs were not pets. They were disgusting. And unclean wild animals.

Dogs roved in feral packs on the outskirts of the city and ate dead bodies and trash.

No one, aside from maybe shepherds, owned a dog, much less wanted to be a dog. In fact, one of the easiest ways to insult a Hebrew is to call him a dog.

So with that background, Solomon’s words are shocking.

Better to be a live dog than a dead lion.

Lions were considered fierce and majestic animals. Hebrews definitely respected lions. Wouldn’t mind being compared to a lion. Maybe even be a lion. But Solomon asks, “What’s the good in being a lion if you’re dead?

Can’t do anything anymore.

Better to be a live dog or to give a roughly equivalent modern expression better to be a live rat than a dead lion because at least you can still do something with your life. Your portion is not yet gone from this world.

“Better to be a live rat than a dead lion, because at least you can still do something with your life.”

So here again, friends and brethren, is why you must make the most of your life while you can. Seize the day in God’s way, not the world’s way, but seize the day. Life, every day of it is a gift to be seized.

You still have a chance to do something with it, to make the most of it, to use it well before God and men.

This is an opportunity you won’t always have.

The dead, no matter how great they once were, they have lost that opportunity.

But because you’re sitting here today listening to this, you still have that opportunity.

The Disadvantages of Being Dead

Now, next in verses five and six, Solomon makes some observations about the disadvantages of being dead. And we must be careful with these verses lest we come to some strange theological conclusions that are out of balance with the rest of the Bible. Solomon’s main thought, main emphasis in these next two verses is that being dead means that you can’t do anything profitable for this world anymore.

Nor can you enjoy the gifts of God in this world anymore.

Solomon first says, continuing on in verse 5, “But the dead do not know anything.” You hear that and you’re like, “What?

How does that fit with the rest of scripture?” Well, let’s try and understand Solomon’s meaning. This cannot literally be true that the dead have no thought, no understanding, no knowledge of anything.

Because otherwise what Solomon has already mentioned in this book, the coming vindicating judgment of the righteous, the righteous dead, it would be meaningless. If the dead don’t know anything and God says, “By the way, I’ve vindicated you in my judgment.” What are the righteous dead going to care? They don’t know. So surely that cannot be Solomon’s meaning. Rather, his idea must be the dead do not know something that will still profit them in their earthly lives.

It’s too late. Their lives are over.

“Whatever the dead learn after death makes no difference for their time on earth—it’s too late.”

Whatever they learn after death, it makes no difference for their time on earth because they’re now dead.

Solomon says further in verse 5 that there’s no longer any reward, more literally, there’s no longer any wages for the dead. Again, Solomon can’t be saying that there’s no reward in the afterlife. Again, that contradicts Solomon’s confidence in the judgment that will go well for the righteous. But instead, the idea must be that with death, there’s no more possibility of appreciating any earthly reward for your labor.

It’s kind of like having a birthday party and then suddenly being called away by an emergency.

However much you anticipated enjoying the party, it’s over. If you didn’t get to try the cake, too bad. You have more important concerns now.

Solomon connects this idea of earthly reward with remembrance since verse 5 ends with for their memory is forgotten.

One of the temporary wages of this life is that some people care to know you and even to remember you.

For certain people, God even gives them a respectable name, popular reputation.

But death means the end of that. If you didn’t get to enjoy the fruits of a good name, it’s too late when you die. The world marches on and you and your name, they’re all too soon forgotten.

Passions Perish at Death

The beginning of verse six notes that all the driving emotions of life perish with a person at death.

Solomon says, “Indeed, their love, their hate, and their zeal, or jealousy, same word in Hebrew, have already perished.” We’ll stop there.

Whatever you did or did not get to do with these driving emotions in your life, they’re done. When you die, your share or portion in the world under the sun, it is finished.

And this is interesting because it was common in ancient pagan cultures to believe that people who died with strong unfulfilled passions, they did not move on to the next world. They would stick around as mournful, pining or vengeful spirits.

But Solomon says that is not the case.

When you perish, your passions perish with you. Everything that drove you forward is laid aside for you no longer have a direct interest in what takes place under the sun as the end of verse six says and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.

“When you perish, your passions perish with you. You no longer have a share under the sun.”

So again friends and brethren if death is the end of any opportunity to make the most of life and its gifts how should you live right now?

Sees the day. Stop waiting around and start making the most of your vaporous life gifted to you by God.

Conclusion: Make the Most of Your Life

And this is the very conclusion that Solomon himself spells out in a call to action in verses 7 to 10, our final section of the text. Number one, life is uncertain. Number two, death is certain.

Therefore, number three, conclusion, make the most of your life while you can. Make the most of your life while you can. Look at verse seven.

Go then, eat your bread in happiness, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works.

Ecclesiastes 9:7: “Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works.”

This might be a surprising shift if you’re not familiar with the book of Ecclesiastes, but this is actually something that Solomon has done before.

He says, “Look at life. Look at its frustrations. Here’s the wise way to respond. And by the way, enjoy life.” How can you say this? Actually, his exhortation to enjoy life here is even more forceful and confident than ones previous in this book or even afterwards. In Ecclesiastes 8:14-15, Solomon said that he commended pleasure.

He praised joy. But here Solomon actually commands us. He says, “Go.” What are you sitting around for? Go.

Eat and Drink in Happiness

Go and do what? Go eat and drink.

Solomon says, “Go eat and drink.” If you’re familiar with Solomon’s other calls to enjoy life in this book, you’ll notice that Solomon always seems to mention food. Food and drink in the exhortation. What’s with this guy? Is he a foodie?

Why is he always talking about eating and drinking?

I think the reason is because food and drink are common gifts and therefore they are a great symbol for what Solomon is getting at.

Making the most of your life includes in large portion enjoying all the simple gifts that you have from God.

“Making the most of your life includes enjoying all the simple gifts that you have from God.”

After all, everyone must eat. Everyone must drink.

So why not enjoy what you eat and drink, making the most of these simple life necessities.

Food doesn’t have to be expensive to be enjoyable. You can eat mac and cheese to the glory of God or PBJ, peanut butter and jelly, or an apple. So like all the favorite foods of my son Benjamin.

Now if you have the means and opportunity, you can eat something more expensive or refined. But whatever good food and drink God has given you for a portion, Solomon says, eat it in happiness.

Drink it with a cheerful heart. In short, enjoy it. Be thankful for it.

Make the most of it. We say, we often quote that passage in Corinthians that says, “Whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” Even eating and drinking.

You can eat and drink to the glory of God. Not only can you, that’s what God calls you to do.

God Approves Your Enjoyment

Notice why Solomon gives this exhortation at the end of verse 7. He says, “For God has already approved your works.” And if you think about it, that’s a profound statement. Solomon is saying, “God wants you to enjoy simple gifts like food and drink.” He likes that. He approves of that.

And this should only make sense. Any giver is pleased when he sees someone using and enjoying the gift given.

And so is God. It honors him when you enjoy the good things of life that he has chosen to give you.

“Any giver is pleased when someone uses and enjoys the gift given. And so is God.”

This of course is in along with my title seizing the day God’s way. Not enjoying the gift more than the giver as if there were ultimate gain in the gift itself. That’s idolatry.

Thanks God, I don’t really want you, but I really want this gift that you’ve given me. No, that’s not it. Rather, you enjoy the gift because of the giver. Or said another way, you enjoy the giver through the gift. Wow, you’re a great God for giving me this good food.

Enjoying Gifts as Worship

You see, when we reverently enjoy the simple gifts of life, such as food and drink, it’s actually worship.

It’s worship.

It’s gratefully using your life the way that God intended.

“When we reverently enjoy the simple gifts of life, it’s actually worship.”

In a way, it’s a matter of obedience.

What is one of the things that God condemns the word world for? They were not thankful.

Even though God gave them so God gave them so many good gifts.

So when you receive, when you enjoy, when you give thanks for the simple gifts of life, you are worshiping God as God intended you to do.

So don’t let the opportunity to enjoy life’s simple gifts pass you by.

Wear Your Good Clothes

But Solomon says more by way of illustration. Look at verse eight.

Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head.

Now, this also is an interesting example.

In ancient Hebrew culture, white clothes or bright clothes were your good clothes and they were associated with feasts and festivals.

Meanwhile, putting oil on the head, that was part of perfuming yourself for attending such happy occasions. Perfumed oil was quite expensive. It was not to be used lightly.

So, what’s Solomon saying in verse eight?

Same basic truth as in the previous verse.

Stop waiting around to enjoy the good things that you have from God. Stop leaving your best clothes in the closet.

Stop leaving your perfumed oil to be used some unknown time in the future.

You don’t know what’s going to happen in life, but you do know you will die soon.

So get dressed up and go to the festival.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen in life, but you do know you will die soon. So get dressed up and go.”

And if there’s not a festival to go to, wear your good clothes and perfume anyways.

Because you might not get another chance.

Now, what about you, dear listeners?

Do you have something nice that you hardly ever use or you’re saving up for some unknown day in the future, some special occasion?

Solomon prods you, “What are you waiting for? Use it before you lose it.

Don’t wait to enjoy the good things of God in this life until life is over and you don’t get another chance.

Now, the next example for making sure you enjoy God’s good gifts.

Enjoy Life with Your Spouse

It’s one of the happiest commands of the Bible. Verse 9, enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life, which he has given to you under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9:9: “Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life.”

For this is your reward in life and in your toil which you have labored under the sun.

Now again, if we’re familiar with the rest of Ecclesiastes, we might be a little surprised by Solomon’s words here because doesn’t Solomon recommend that we beware those of the opposite gender.

He says that in Ecclesiastes 7:26-29.

And didn’t Solomon himself find no true satisfaction though he had 1,000 wives and concubines? Ecclesiastes 2:8-11.

Yes, that’s true. But remember, Solomon also wrote Proverbs 18:22. Proverbs 18:22. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.

And Solomon also wrote the Song of Songs, which is all about a married couple enjoying their love together and God’s approval of such.

So what’s going on here in verse 9?

Solomon is reminding us that even though no relationship or spouse can bring you ultimate satisfaction, no true gain even in a spouse, nevertheless, a spouse, just one spouse is still a good gift to you from God.

So enjoy that gift.

Enjoy your spouse. Serve your spouse.

Enjoy your love together in marriage.

Your Spouse Is God’s Gift

Your spouse is probably not everything that you wish your spouse would be. But that’s life. This is the vaporous world we encounter. You’re never going to find that perfect person. And by the way, you’re no perfect person yourself.

Your spouse wishes you were a little different, too.

So rather than complain about your spouse or pine after some other spouse, enjoy everything good that your spouse is.

After all, your spouse, even in his or her imperfections, was specifically made for you. God joined you together with that spouse.

So see all of life together with your spouse.

The ups, the downs, the being young, the being old, the children being born, the children growing up. Enjoy it all with your spouse. Life is better together.

“See all of life together with your spouse—the ups, the downs, the children being born, growing up. Life is better together.”

Ecclesiastes 4.

Your spouse is part of your God ordained portion during your vaporous life and your difficult toil.

And you won’t have your spouse forever.

You never know how many days you have left together.

So don’t wait to make the most of your spouse. Don’t wait to make the most of your marriage. Don’t miss that good but timelmited opportunity.

Don’t become distracted from your spouse by chasing some vaporous gains in the world.

Don’t sinfully abandon or war against your spouse because that would be unprofitable for you and that would dishonor God when he has given you such a gift.

Instead, be humble, be gracious, be understanding with your spouse. Seek reconciliation for sin and misunderstandings with your spouse. And then gratefully enjoy life together.

Work Hard While You Can

Solomon has one more example of making the most out of life. And this example too might be surprising. Verse 10.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. For there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in shiel where you are going.

Ecclesiastes 9:10: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”

This recommendation might be the most counterintuitive of the bunch.

Wait a second. Considering life’s uncertainty and death’s certainty, you’re telling me I should work hard?

Yes.

Whatever opportunity for work or service that you find in front of you, do it and do it well.

Why? Because you can’t work when you’re dead.

Once you’re in the grave, you cannot contribute any work, scheme, knowledge, or wisdom to the tasks of life under the sun. You’ve clocked out for good.

Work Is a Gift, Not a Curse

Now, we won’t understand this exhortation if we still think like the world does and believe that work itself is a curse. It’s not a curse. Work is not a curse. God created work for man before the fall.

And God himself is a worker.

Work was cursed at the fall. It’s true.

But work itself is still good. Though it comes with toil, work is a gift from God.

You were made to work. It is a gift from God.

“Work itself is still good. Though it comes with toil, work is a gift from God. You were made to work.”

God created us to work and to find enjoyment in work. There is enjoyment in learning and applying skillful labor.

There is enjoyment in accomplishing a task. There is enjoyment in bringing benefit to yourself or benefit to others by work. Even though, as Solomon makes clear elsewhere in Ecclesiastes, that benefit is temporary. You’re not going to fundamentally change the world, fix the world by your work. It’s a vaporous world.

Nevertheless, you do provide temporary benefit by your work. And you can enjoy that.

Work is part of God’s good portion for each of us in this life.

All kinds of work, by the way. Not just like you go to your job, but parenting your kids, serving in the church, being obedient to give the gospel. In a way, all of those are work and yet they are to be enjoyed.

You were meant for that.

Indeed, if you want to live life well, if you want to make the most out of your lives, then you should work hard while you still can.

We should work for ourselves, our families, our church, our neighbors, our country, ultimately for God.

And even if a specific task that has been set in front of you is not your first preference, not the type of work that you would prefer to do, you can still enjoy it because it is God’s portion for you. It’s still part of the gift that he’s given you.

You can work for your own pleasure and for the pleasure and glory of God.

What Are You Waiting For?

Now, is this not all? Very interesting and amazing instruction.

Such teaching is not what we hear very often, but it is God’s scripture. This is the word and wisdom of God spoken by his spirit through Solomon.

Life is uncertain. Death is certain. So if you want to live life wisely, seize the day. Again, not as many in the world sees the day. You hear phrases like yolo or things on those along those lines.

It’s a justification for recklessness or the idolatrous pursuit of sin, which ignores God’s judgment and common sense. We seize the day God’s way. We pursue him while reverently enjoying the simple gifts he gives us.

“We seize the day God’s way—pursuing Him while reverently enjoying the simple gifts He gives us.”

So friends and brethren, is that your life attitude? Are you seizing the day? Are you seizing the day God’s way?

And if not, ask yourself, what is preventing you from doing so?

Are you afraid of work?

Are you taken in by laziness?

Is it fear?

Is it busyness with things that are unimportant?

Is it the deceitfulness of sin? Is it some vain idol that’s captured you?

Whatever it is, if you’re not heeding this wisdom, it’s time to change. It’s time to give up those excuses. It’s time to put aside those impediments. Instead, consider what good you could take advantage of right now in your lives that you haven’t been doing.

Maybe it’s simply, even as Solomon gives us as an example, maybe it’s simply enjoying a nice meal or wearing your good clothes.

Maybe it’s getting a job. Maybe it’s getting married.

Maybe it’s spending time with the one you have married, spending time with your children, spending time with other dear loved ones.

Maybe it’s serving in the church. Maybe it’s finally giving that person you love the gospel as Jesus commanded you to do.

The Gospel: The Ultimate Way to Seize the Day

Or maybe, most importantly, it’s repenting and believing in that gospel yourself.

There’s a good but timelmited opportunity that you don’t want to fail to make the most of.

After all, what are you waiting for?

Death, God’s judgment are coming soon.

You don’t know when.

Don’t be foolish. Don’t be insane. Don’t waste to use your gift of life. Don’t waste wait to use the gift of the gospel that was presented to you before it’s too late or until it’s too late. Seize the day in the most important way possible. Turn from your sin. Turn from your self-ruule. Turn from all your self-righteous attempts to earn favor or salvation from God and instead believe in Jesus. Believe in his perfect life, his substitutionary death and his victorious resurrection as the only means to make you acceptable to God. The only way to bring you to God. It’s not your good works. It’s his good works.

“Seize the day in the most important way possible—turn from your sin and believe in Jesus.”

It’s his life. It’s his self that saves you. Nothing from yourself. If you will repent of your sins and you will believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, God says you will be saved. You have eternal life.

This is the first and foremost way to seize the day God’s way. And of course, there are others.

Clarification: Contentment, Not Covetousness

Now, allow me to give two quick clarifications before we bring this message to an end. Maybe these things were sitting in your mind as we were going along. Remember that this teaching, this wise teaching from Solomon is all about making the most of what you have, not grasping after that which you don’t have so that you can make the most of it. No, that’s covetousness. That’s idolatry. That’s discontent.

If you’re not rich, if you’re not married and would like to be, or if you don’t have a great job, don’t worry about it.

God has ordained for you different gifts for your life in his own wisdom.

No good thing in life is essential.

“This teaching is about making the most of what you have, not grasping after what you don’t have.”

And whatever good thing you might receive from God, you better be careful.

Those good things bring their own troubles and temptations with them.

If you’re able to change your life circumstances in a way that would be positive for you, you can gain wealth, you can get married, you can get a better job, great.

But if not, don’t sweat it.

Embracing whatever portion you have is the true key for pleasing God and enjoying life. Of course, if you have Jesus Christ, then anything else is not even necessary.

Clarification: Enjoyment Complements Endurance

The other clarification, remember that this teaching is not contradictory but complimentary to what other scriptures say and urging us to endure suffering. Endure suffering now and wait for the reward to come.

Solomon’s teaching does not contradict that. Indeed, Solomon does not ignore that suffering is part of life. No, that’s quite obvious if you read the rest of Ecclesiastes.

Neither does he ignore the truth that for some good things the righteous must simply wait even wait till after they die.

Nevertheless, Solomon wants to make sure that we don’t go too far to the other side.

There are some good things that God has given to us now to help us in our difficult earthly sojourns.

So, we shouldn’t miss out on those good things by some misplaced aesthetic piety. Oh, no. I’m not allowed to enjoy any good things in the world because I’m a Christian and I look forward to the world to come.

Actually, not only do God’s good things comfort us now, but as I alluded to earlier, enjoying these good things is part of pleasing God and even laying up treasure in heaven.

Not every choice in the Christian life is a choice between enjoyment now and enjoyment later.

For some things, it’s actually both.

“Not every choice in the Christian life is between enjoyment now and enjoyment later. For some things, it’s actually both.”

You’re not being a good steward of the gift God has given you in a spouse if you don’t enjoy your spouse.

But when you do enjoy your spouse, not only is that a blessing to you now, but God says that is obedience that acrrues a heavenly reward just by way of one example.

So you not only please God when you give up comfort and suffer joyfully for his sake, but you also please God when you reverently enjoy the comforting gifts he gives you.

Never making too much of them, not turning them into idols, but enjoying them in a thankful and reverent way.

Resolve to Seize the Day God’s Way

So the new year is a time for new resolutions.

So let us resolve individually and as a church for this year and for each day of this year to seize the day God’s way.

“Let us resolve individually and as a church for each day of this year to seize the day God’s way.”

Let’s stop waiting around whatever it is you’re waiting around for that involves good. Stop. Let us instead make the most of this life and its good gifts from God while we can. Let me pray to God now.

God, you are a good God.

We thank you first and foremost for the goodness of your gospel. We did not deserve the gift of Jesus Christ coming into the world as a man. We did not deserve the gift of his dying on the cross on behalf of sinners. We did not deserve the gift of the gospel being declared to us that by faith unites us to Jesus Christ and allows us therefore to receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

We did not deserve the good gift of your salvation, but you freely extended it to us. Thank you, God. Thank you, God.

Thank you for your salvation. For any here who have not yet received that salvation by turning from sin and believing in Jesus, I pray that they would today. But God, you have given us many other good gifts. Today you’ve given us the gift of another day of life so that we can be here in church and we can hear your word and we can be encouraged and we can sing. God, this is a gift. It is a gift to be thankfully received and to be reverently enjoyed.

Forgive us, God, for where we have not given you thanks. We have not revered you because of your gifts. We simply have not received your gifts.

Forgive us God for where we have received them but only in a way that was idolatrous where we said I will take this gift of God and I will love it more than I love God or forgive us for those things but Lord we wish to walk differently and because you’ve promised that you’ve given us your spirit spirit we are confident that we can if you will help us God and we believe that you will want to put this passage’s teaching into practice we want to seize the day your way.

God, we don’t know how much longer we have to live or what big changes might come our way that close off certain opportunities for us in this life.

Opportunities to work, opportunities to serve, opportunities to enjoy your good gifts.

So Lord, help us to learn the wisdom.

Help us to really appreciate it. Let it go down deep and help us, your people, to truly enjoy life. Yes, even in this vaporous world, the way that you meant us to.

Thank you for this time. Amen.

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