Remember to Remember

Ecclesiastes 11:1 – 12:14

If you’d slip up your hand, I want to put a Bible in your hand. If you’re here with somebody who doesn’t have a Bible with them and they aren’t raising their hand, you raise your hand for them because we really want you to be in the Word this morning. We want you to be in the Word. We’re coming up to a conclusion of Ecclesiastes. We’re in chapters 11 and 12 this morning. This is really kind of bittersweet for me because I really… This series on Ecclesiastes wasn’t something I actually went into eagerly.

We have a teaching team, and they were always saying, “Let’s do Ecclesiastes.” I said, “No! I don’t want to do that.” They kept going, “Oh!” One of them in particular goes, “I just really feel like God is calling us to Ecclesiastes right now.” So we went into it, and I really didn’t much want to do it. I’m just being very transparent with you because it’s hard. It’s hard slogging because there is so much poetic stuff in it and metaphoric that it’s not very… It’s not straightforward. You have to spend a lot of time explaining a lot of stuff.

If you got a note like Ecclesiastes from your friend, you would probably say, “Are you thinking about killing yourself?” You know? I mean, it’s like, “Everything is meaningless. Meaningless, meaningless! Nothing makes me happy!” It’s like, “What is wrong with you?” You know? I have to say this to you. I think sometimes we don’t take time to wrestle with the Scriptures. We want immediate gratification. We just want somebody to straightforward go, “Okay, this is what you’re supposed to do” instead of saying, “Okay, let me tell you a story.”

It’s like your granddaddy. You go and ask your granddad for advice, and he heads off down through memory lane. You’re going, “No, I really just wanted to know whether you thought I should buy the house.” He is telling you this story about the Depression or something. “We walked to school. It was snowing, and it was uphill both ways.” You’re going, “No! I just want you to tell me should I do this.”

What we have to realize is this is what Jesus did. They would come and ask Jesus questions. He’d go, “Let Me tell you a story.” Then He starts telling them about this prodigal son thing. You go, “No. I really just want to know…” Now when we don’t embrace the Scriptures that are given to us, it’s actually a little arrogant because what we’re doing is saying, “God, You gave us the wrong kind of book.” No, this is His Book. This is His Word, but it’s not always like propositional.

We’re coming into the close. I’m really going to miss Ecclesiastes, and I’m even thinking about extending the study a week because we’re kind of moving toward Christmas. Chapter 11 (and I don’t have time to get into it this morning) really deals with how to go into uncharted territories. Have you ever been on the edge, and you were headed into places that had so much potential for upside and so much potential for downside, and you seemed paralyzed at the shore of that potential? You didn’t know whether to run or jump in the water. That’s what chapter 11 is about, but I’m not going to do it.

I’m going to go into chapter 12. If you look at chapter 11, verse 7. “Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning.” Now this is stuff like… Our generation may be the first generation in human history that has not been raised on proverbs. By that I mean axioms for life. If you grew up in a town, there are axioms. If you grew up in a village, there are axioms. Sort of bumper sticker sorts of things that our generation kind of has thrown out. They’ve said, “Oh, that’s just bumper sticker mentalities.”

You do know that most of the time when something gets on a bumper sticker, it at least contains some sort of truth that’s been really just distilled down to a basic level. What verse 7 says is basically every day is a new day. Every day is a new day. “When people live to be very old, let them rejoice in every day of life. But let them remember there will be many dark days.” Now hold on to that word remember because that word remember is going to be the rhythm of everything else that is said here. If you notice the title here, it is Remember to Remember.

“But let them also remember there will be many dark days. Everything still to come is meaningless.” He is not going to let go of that. We’ve talked about that. “Young people, it’s wonderful to be young!” If you’re older, can you say, “Yes”? Yeah! You remember young? Young when you didn’t even need coffee; you were coffee. Have you watched these kids run around? I mean, after church, come in this room, and there will be little kids just running back and forth. They’re not on a diet! They’re just like…

I watch my grandkids, and I go, Man, what would it be like to have that much energy for just three hours a day? “It’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in.” Look at this. You come back to this word. “But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do.” You see what he is saying? Embrace it! Have a good time, but remember you’re going to stand before God. Live life in light of that reality that you’re going to stand. You’re going to give account. Don’t be fearful of life. Embrace life! Have an amazing time, but remember you’re living it in a specific direction.

Look at this phrase: “So refuse to worry.” Now that’s a simple statement…refuse to worry. Don’t! Reject it! Refuse. Make a choice. You’re not going to be a worrier. Now you know what worry is? Worry is reverse meditation. That’s what it is. When people say, “Well, tell me what it means to meditate?” “Okay. Can you worry?” “Oh yes! I’m really good at worrying.” “Then you’re already gifted meditating. You just focus the wrong direction.” If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate.

By the way, if you know how to be afraid, you know how to have faith. They’re the same thing. They’re exactly the same thing. They’re just focused different directions. Oh, there is so much here. That word refuse to worry, the root word of that word refuse is the word that describes throwing away a stone. It’s like take this stone up and throw it away. If you have something you’re really worried about, that is a great… Just grab a rock. Write on it this. Just take it and throw it.

You say, “I’m not going to do it. I’m going to throw this out of my brain. You don’t have a place in my life. Boom! This is out of here.” Has anybody seen Forrest Gump? I love that movie. I know there are some bad parts of it. I’m sorry, but it’s a great movie. It’s a great movie. Remember that part in the movie where Forrest is in love with Jenny, and they’re walking down the road? Jenny has this terrible home life. She has lived in an abusive home. She has just had a terrible home life. She is walking.

There are so many great lines in that movie. In this part of the movie, she is walking along, and she walks by the house where they grew up. Jenny starts throwing rocks at the house. She just starts throwing rocks at the house. She throws rocks at the house until she is exhausted. Do you remember what Forrest says here? “Sometimes, Jenny, there is just not enough rocks.” Now you know what? We know that! Sometimes no matter how many times we throw rocks at a situation, there is just not enough rocks. You have to get to that place where you say, “No, this is not going to define who I am (this worry).”

“Keep your body healthy.” Boy, we could talk about that awhile. Let’s not talk about it over Thanksgiving. Then he goes back to this default, “But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless.” Do you remember what this word meaningless means? I don’t really want to do this to you again. Meaningless means it’s just a big hunk of air. That’s what it is. It’s just nothing. Life is just nothing.

Chapter 12. “Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator.” Now if you’re looking at an older translation, it says this: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” In the New Living Translation, it reads nicely, but you miss that hit again grammatically. Remember…because this is the hammer, this is the nail he is hitting over and over. Remember, remember, remember, remember.

“Honor Him in your youth.” Now the two words here are remember and revere. It’s living a Godward life. Revere your Creator. Revere your Maker. Remember who you are. Now look at this. “…Before you grow old and say, ‘Life is not pleasant anymore.'” Before. There is a timing issue there. Verse 2, “Remember Him before…” You see this? There is a timing issue here. “…The light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes.”

You see what he is saying here? He is reflecting upon his own life. He is using metaphors to describe old age…”Before your eyes get cloudy.” It’s kind of hard for us to even imagine because we don’t live in that world. We have been born into this medically marvelous environment where we have medicines and we have all kinds of things that have enhanced and expanded our life spans. Not only our life spans, but the quality of our lives. If you were born pre-1900, the average age, the median age, lifespan was right about 42. Whoa! A lot of you wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be here!

How many of you have had any enhancement…? Now I’m going on. Don’t stop right there. Enhancement to your eyes of any sort whatsoever. I’m talking about glasses, contacts, LASIK surgery, anything done to your eyes. Let’s see your hands. Okay. Look around. Wait a minute. It would be easier to say who hasn’t? Now you realize before those things were available, you and I would be blind people. We wouldn’t be able to read. We wouldn’t be able to drive because there wouldn’t be cars obviously because nobody could make the parts.

You know, when we think about life as it is, we forget that life as it was… It was a whole different life. A lot of people were blind. When you turn 40, there is this thing called presbyopia. Am I saying that right? Some of our people who know… Is presbyopia…is that right? Presbyopia. That’s close enough! Literally, when you turn 40, your eyes change. I mean, it’s a strange thing.

How many of you have ever had a cast or physical therapy or had a bone set or like a hip operation or a knee or a foot…any of those kinds of orthopedic aids? Okay. All of you would be cripples! You understand? That would have been your life. You would have been blind by now. You would have been crippled by now. It gets more detailed.

“The guards of your house [that’s your legs]…” Before your hands start shaking. “Remember Him before your teeth – your few remaining servants – stop grinding.” I’m not going to ask you how many of you have been to a dentist. You know who we are. “The women looking through the windows – see dimly.” Again, this whole illusion to the eyes. “Remember Him…” Again you get these timing issues. “…Before the door to life’s opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades.” This is your hearing. “Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint.”

Now he is describing a duality of maladies here, which is that your hearing gets worse, but things wake you up more. It’s true! I’m telling you! You can’t hear as well, but when you do hear something, you can’t sleep as well. “Remember Him before…” Again, it’s this timing issue. “…Before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets.” You see this is the reality. I mean, do you remember…?

Maybe some of you were never this way, but I remember days in my life when people used to say, “You better be careful when you go out on the streets. You know, you might get robbed, or something might happen.” You know what my thinking was? It was like, If they come to rob us, we are their problem. We are not afraid of them. They better be afraid of us. We are the problem. Solomon goes, “You get up to a point in time where you realize you really don’t want to fight because even if you win, you get hurt.”

Before your hair turns loose. Here he is talking about white, which would be… You know, I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad hair day. “And you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper.” This is graphic! Have you ever seen like in the winter when a grasshopper starts dying, and they’re just kind of dragging along. “And the caperberry no longer inspires sexual desire.” You understand what that means, don’t you? Caperberries were thought of as aphrodisiacs. I’m just going to stop there.

“Your everlasting home, when the mourners will weep at your funeral. Yes, remember your Creator [look at this] now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps.” Now you see what he is describing. He is describing this very graphic, beautiful thing. It’s like this lamp, this silver lamp, and the cord that holds it up becomes frayed. It’s beautiful. Then it crashes down to the ground. Before “the golden bowl is broken.”

These are all powerful ancient metaphors. “Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. From then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” He says, “Everything is meaningless. Everything is empty. Everything is vain.”

There are three things here. One is…

1. Solomon says, “Don’t forget to remember.” I wish I had time to bring the whiteboard up and do a little bit more on last week. On the top of your sheet, I have this phrase: God gave humanity a rhythm of life, and it wasn’t given in the form of a suggestion but a command.

There in Exodus, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

I remember as a kid reading the Ten Commandments and thinking, How did this one get here? This seems like a mis-classification of sin. I mean, it’s like going out on a car lot and finding them selling doughnuts. You know? There you see like a Maserati, a Ford, a Chevy, a Toyota. There in that parking place is a doughnut. You go, You know what? I see why these are different cars, and they’re different levels of value of cars. How does the doughnut get in the car lot?

This is like don’t forget to take a day off because how is that in any way similar to committing murder? That’s a biggie! Oh, he killed somebody! That’s big. He committed adultery. That’s big. I mean, these are big sins. Then you have the Sabbath. Why is that so serious? Now I’m going to tell you something. If you don’t know why it’s serious, well, you don’t understand it because I didn’t. You know what it is? It’s not a day out. It’s not time out. It’s time in.

He says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. Remember that you were created.” Here is what he says. If you listened last week about sharpening the ax, you can’t cut wood and sharpen the ax at the same time. He says, “You stop and remember who you are. Remember what you’re about. Remember why you’re here. Remember who made you. Remember your nature. Remember you. You need to stop. This needs to be a rhythm of life you have that you do not work to rest. You work from rest.”

When God created the heavens and the earth in six days, seventh day Sabbath rest literally means to climb up on the throne and sit. It means to reign with Him. It means to come and be with Me. Associate with Me. Love with Me. Be with Me. Come with Me. This is the nature of which we’re created. This is what Solomon lost. He forgot who he was. If we forget who we are, we cannot do what we’re supposed to do. If we forget who we are, we cannot be who we’re supposed to be.

Solomon, when he was born, was given a name. Do you remember that? It was Yedidiah, the delight of YHWH. He 30-something times in Ecclesiastes uses the word God. It’s never the word YHWH. It’s always the word Elohim. Creator, yes. Covenant God he doesn’t even remember who He is. Over and over and over and over again you find that command in Scripture. “Remember, remember, remember, remember, remember, remember, remember, remember.”

They get out into the middle of the desert, and they said, “Wow! We remember when we lived in Egypt, and we had watermelons and fresh fish and spicy food. We had it for free.” Free? You were slaves! Do you remember you used to build those brick stuff? They beat you. You were nobody. You had nothing. You remember the fresh fish you had for free? No, you completely lost your memory. We tend to remember the things we should forget and forget the things we should remember. Remember who you are. The second thing is…

2. Solomon says, “Don’t wait to remember.” Don’t wait till you get an older person to figure out who you were meant to be. Find out now who you are in your youth. In your youth, discover your identity. Number three is…

3. Solomon says, “Great memories grow from great memories.” This is all through Psalms. This is, “We remember who we are because that gives us confidence to go do more.” Remember. Remember! They’re down in the… God delivered them mightily out of the hands of the Egyptians. They go over here, and they fight these fights. They get so afraid of people that the Egyptians could have beat. Did you forget what God did in Egypt?

Listen…here is what memory is. One, it’s a mental choice. It’s a choice. What are you going to think about? Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t control what you think about. Yes, you can. You can take every imagination captive, choosing what you’re going to think about. Not just letting your mind go anywhere. No, we’re going to choose a course. It’s a mental choice where I am going to make a choice to go a direction with my thinking.

Number two, it’s marinating in that choice. That mental marinating. That meditating on what God did and the stories of God’s goodness and the stories of God’s grace. Mentally marinating in it. The third thing when you see that word memory in Scripture, it is really a memorial to that memory. It is celebrating those memories. The church does… I’m speaking of Grace. I’m speaking of me. I’m speaking of the church in general. I’m sure there are exceptions to it. The church does a sorry job celebrating. Sorry job! You know what? We think faith is all cognitive.

Listen…the church ought to be the biggest party scene in the world. Yeah! We should because we party for a purpose. We’ve been redeemed. We party in advance because we’re going to see the kingdom break in. We ought to be the biggest partiers in the world because listen…we have a reason to party! Yeah, amen! When you look at Leviticus, most of Leviticus, chapter 23, when it prescribes… The Bible translators always use this word: festivals. They had a festival. What’s a festival? You know what a festival is? It’s a party!

You go to Jerusalem. Save up some of your money. If you find somebody who doesn’t have any money, you save up some more money with them. You take them to Jerusalem, and you guys all get together and party because you used to be slaves, and you’re not now. Don’t you work every day of the week. You’re not a slave. Stop! Remind yourself who you are, whose you are. We do this for a reason.

Now here is a question. I have to quit. Yeah. Here is the question…How do you want to grow old? What kind of old do you want to be because there are a lot of different ways of being old? Do you want to be an old, like empty old, hollow old, sad old, full of regret old? Or do you want to be the kind of old that there is just this sparkle in your eye full of memories, of adventure, of things that God has done that are absolutely beyond description?

Let me show you some pictures. Let me show you some sad old pictures. Here we go. Throw this up. Anybody remember who she is? She was on Knots Landing. This is after she let some surgery person cut all over her face to try to figure out how she could be back young again. Now let me ask you something…Is that sad, or is that sad?

Let me show you another one here. You know why people do this kind of stuff? Because our culture says youth is everything because we have somehow bought into this mindset that you are your face. Do you know you’re not your face? You are not your wrinkles. You are not your pecs, gentlemen or otherwise. If you have been told you are, you’re listening to a lie. You’re listening to a lie.

Second Corinthians, chapter 4, (2 Corinthians 4) there is this beautiful old, and it’s Paul. He says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” He describes some of the things he is going through. He says, “We’re perplexed. We’re pressed. We’re broken.” You know, Paul has been beaten by rods. He has been beaten by whips. He has been stoned. He has been in shipwrecks. Paul’s body is…

I mean, Brett Favre is healthy compared to Paul at this point. I mean, he doesn’t have a joint that is not messed up. He has scars all over his body. His eyes are bulging out of his sockets. He can’t even see well. You know what he says, “This tent I live in is going to be collapsed because I have this other body that God has already prepared for me.”

Let me show you another one. Does anybody remember Michael when he was cute? What possessed him to do this? Let me show you another one. I love this picture. Ninety-two years old. His wife is dead. He is on crutches. There is this continual request of people from all over the world who just want to go sit in the chair next to him. Ninety-two years old. Let me show you this next one. You know who that is? That’s Mother Teresa at 18. Now wasn’t she beautiful? Look at this picture. She is still beautiful. That is a beautiful old. Why would you let anybody cut on those eyes? Why would you take one wrinkle out of that face? No.

Listen…we have bought into something that is seriously not of God. Seriously not of God. We’ve lost our identity. We don’t know who we are, and we’re wandering aimlessly. If you choose the other way, you’re going to end up unhappy, old, and really sad. Here is what he says: “Remember now…” Not later. Remember now.

Listen…you are somebody because Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for your sins. He is our guarantee. He is coming back for us again. I wish I had time to go through and look at all of the places where Jesus talks to His disciples about remember. One of the last things He says to His disciples as He took the bread and He broke it, “This do in remembrance of Me.” That’s a memory thing.

Let’s pray: Lord, thank You for You. You are so, so good. Lord, we have so much to be thankful for. Lord, I pray around the tables of Thanksgiving this church represents that there will be conversations pre-football that somebody will look to the elders of the family and say, “Hey, tell us about some miracles out of our family. Tell us about when we really needed God to come through, and He came through. Let’s just take some time to remember who we are.”

Lord, there may be some folks here who don’t know who they are at all because they really have never come to know You as their Lord and Savior. Maybe some of those folks need somebody to pray with them this morning. Maybe some of us just need to come before the Communion table and ask You to remind us who we are. Lord, maybe some of us just need to get down on our knees beside our chairs and just take a few moments to remember who we are. In Your name we pray, amen.