I'm Not Going To Miss You Series

The passage we will be looking at today is kind of a lengthy one. It is Ecclesiastes 11:7 going all the way down to Ecclesiastes 12:8. This particular chunk of passage is actually considered probably the last words that Solomon wrote at least in this book. Even though there are words that follow, as we will talk about next week, those words were believed to be written by an editor. The core theme of today’s passage is the idea of remembering. Specifically remembering your Creator and more specifically remembering your Creator while you are young. If somebody would please stand up and read from Ecclesiastes 11:7 all the way down to 12:8. (Scripture read here.) Did you pick up the theme in there of remembering? Especially remembering your Creator during your youth.

But speaking of remembering, before I go farther in the sermon, is anyone old enough to remember the name Glen Campbell? About half of you. Here is a picture of Glen in his early age. Some of you may know he is a country music legend. He wrote a lot of songs. He played a lot of songs. He played a lot of instruments. He did backup for a lot of different musicians. He is probably best known for some of his popular songs. Can anybody name some of his songs? Wichita Line Man. Rhinestone Cowboy. Southern Nights. I did a little homework and found out that he produced 70 albums and 12 turned gold and another 4 were platinum and another one was platinum plus. The bottom line is he was a very successful country music entertainer. In fact, he had his own show for a while called the Glen Campbell Good Time Hour way back in the day. In 2011, he and his wife decided they wanted to do one last concert tour. At the age of 75, they decided they were going to set across America and begin this tour. The problem was a few weeks before they started the tour they found out that Glen was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It is a devastating disease that first affects your mind before it begins to take hold of your body. The doctors recommended he hang up his guitar and he just can’t do this. He said I am going to do it. So what was supposed to be a five-week tour turned out to be 151 concerts I think ending in Napa Valley in 2013 or something like that. There was a documentary some of you might have heard of. It is called ‘I Will Be Me’ and it was basically a documentary about this last concert tour of Glen Campbell. What makes it special is it wasn’t just about following his music or his life. What was special about it is it chronicled his journey of Alzheimer’s. If you have seen that documentary, the last song he recorded was ‘I Am Not Gonna Miss You’. It is a strange title for a song. It actually sounds self-centered, but it actually has to do with Alzheimer’s. As some of you know who have experienced your family members who gradually begin to forget things what happens is that person kind of goes away. In their case, their father, husband, friend Glen was no longer there. Although they missed him, he had gotten to the point where he couldn’t miss them at all. It is the sad irony of it. You can only miss what you remember. When you can’t remember somebody, you don’t miss them. Watch this video. It is a short video of the song and a little bit of the concert tour and I believe it opens up with Glen going into an MRI machine. (Video shown here.) Sad song. It is a sad song and it is really sad about his life because right now he is in a home for Alzheimer’s patients in Nashville, TN. He can no longer speak for himself. His family has to speak for him. It speaks of the devastating results of the disease called Alzheimer’s.

As we begin to explore today’s passage in Ecclesiastes it doesn’t address Alzheimer’s but it pretty much speaks of the devastating effects of aging on the body especially. As a refresher, we know that Solomon was probably very aged when he wrote Ecclesiastes, so he had a lot of good wisdom that comes with age and a lot of experience. He could share wisdom with people. He would often find himself sharing wisdom to the youth. In this particular passage, though he speaks towards the age, he is really directing it towards the youth and the importance of remembering the Creator while they are still young. He starts off this passage by saying “Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun. However many years a man may live, let him enjoy them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for there will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.” This is an interesting passage because he is basically saying enjoy life. Based on your understanding of Solomon, you know that Solomon could be a bit of a melancholy, Eeyore-type personality. This doesn’t even sound like him. If you were here last week in chapter 9, you may have also seen that one of his conclusions and really his conclusions throughout the entire book is given this meaningless life, you might at least try to enjoy it. That is what he is basically saying here. And not just a part of life. Enjoy all of it. The good and the bad because the bad days will come. The dark clouds will come and they will keep coming. The sun may go away forever as we will see towards the end of the book. He is directing this primarily towards youth. We know that because he goes on to say “Be happy young man while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see.” This isn’t probably one of the passages that parents of teens really want to share around the dinner table. It is like whatever you want to do, go do it. Just follow your eyes. Follow your desires. In fact, if you are not careful, I think your teen could use this passage against you. If you are getting a little too restrictive on their comings and goings, they could say ‘Listen, mom, Pastor Chuck preached on this passage last week and I am just doing what he said.’ We know that Solomon probably wouldn’t get any best parenting awards because it seems like he is encouraging a life without boundaries. Especially if you just read this as an isolated text, which some people often do. But if you notice, there is a comma and what follows the comma is the qualifier. “But know that for all these things, God will bring you to judgment.” So he is saying when you are young, enjoy life. Go for the gusto. Dig yourself into life because it is going to get harder when you get older. Enjoy life. But do it responsibly. We hear the phrase drink responsibly. He is saying live your life responsibly. Your entire life. Even though you may be away from home and the parents can no longer judge you, there is a Creator out there that is very capable of judging you. He is encouraging you to enjoy the gifts you have been given. The wonderful gifts of life. But do it with moderation. No what to say yes to and what to say no to. If you grew up as a Christian, you know you have this built in thing that we call a lie detector or what the culture would call conscience, but we call the Holy Spirit. It allows you to really make good decisions if you are willing to consult the spirit to determine what to say yes to and what to say no to. But unfortunately a lot of the young people make decisions based on how they feel. How do you feel about this? What is it going to do for me? How is it going to affect my feelings and my desires and my passions? What often happens is kids follow their passions and if they continue to make decisions based on their passions, they are going to hit the wall. It is just a matter of time. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is one that I think every student should take away with them when they go to college and put it somewhere they are going to remember it. It is from Proverbs, which actually is also written by Solomon. It says “There is a way that seems right to a man (I inserted there woman), but in the end it leads to death.” Have you ever been in a situation where it just seemed so right? That song ‘If loving you is right, how can it be so wrong’ or something like that. You are in those situations where it just feels so right so how can it be wrong. It is because the Devil is basically telling you it is right. He wants you to screw up. He wants you to make decisions based on your feelings rather than on the word of God and the truth of God. In this opening section here, he is speaking of the idea of enjoying your life but enjoying it with a sense of responsibility.