Ice Cold Bottles of Cristy
Pastor Luke Walker preaches this sermon exploring Solomon's wisdom about life, death, and living with purpose in the present moment.
Pastor Luke Walker preaches a sermon exploring Solomon's command to eat bread with joy and drink wine with a merry heart, because God has already approved what we do.
Scripture Text: Ecclesiastes 9:7
"Go, Eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do."
Sermon Outline
Forward - Solomon commands us to go forward, to seize the day. Time is precious and constantly passing. We should face the future with our heads in the game, making the most of every opportunity.
Festivities - Eating and drinking with joy are not just suggestions but commandments. These basic enjoyments become spiritual disciplines as we learn to participate in life's simple pleasures with gratitude before God, just as Jesus did.
Fermentation - An exploration of what Scripture says about wine and alcohol. The Bible celebrates wine as God's gift to cheer the heart, while condemning drunkenness. Christians have freedom before God to navigate these consumable joys with self-control and good conscience. We must do everything in faith and for God's glory.
Foundation - The reason we can enjoy life's blessings: God has already approved what we do. This points to the doctrine of justification by faith—God approves of us in Christ. He delights in our work, our worship, and even our simple enjoyments when done before Him with believing hearts.
Four Applications
Take to the Blessings of Life - Don't try to be super-spiritual. We're made of dust, designed to enjoy God through tangible earthly blessings.
Enjoy the Blessings We Have - A bird in hand is better than two in the bush. Live within your means and enjoy what God has given you, whether fine wine or coffee.
Do All with Believing Hearts - Everything should be done unto God with intentionality. Whatever doesn't proceed from faith is sin. Rejoice even over scantier meals.
Cheer Hearts with the Old Gospel Vintage - Wine symbolizes Christ's blood and the gladness of the gospel. The ultimate thing that cheers us is knowing God approves of us in Christ.
Pastor Luke reminds us in this sermon of the freedom we have in Christ, through justification by faith and being are clothed in his righteousness, that God watches us with delight and pleasure, rejoicing when we enjoy His gifts with grateful hearts. This is the old gospel vintage that truly cheers our souls—God loves us, enjoys us, and delights in us through Christ. Jesus Himself drank wine and experienced this blessing fully, showing us He is right down to earth with us in all things.
Key Themes
🙌 Seizing the day in light of life's brevity
😍 The spiritual discipline of joy and gratitude
🍷 Biblical teaching on wine, alcohol, and Christian freedom
❤️🔥 Doing everything with a good heart before God
🗿 The difference between enjoying God's gifts and making them idols
🚭 How sin ruins even good things and why abstinence is sometimes necessary
🩸 Wine as a picture of the gospel and Christ's blood
🥹 God's delight in His children
Never Forfeit or Quit
Pastor Luke Walker preaches this sermon exploring Solomon's wisdom about life, death, and living with purpose in the present moment.
Pastor Luke Walker preaches this sermon exploring Solomon's wisdom about life, death, and living with purpose in the present moment.
Ecclesiastes 9:3-6
"The hearts of the children of man are full of evil and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that, they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope for a living dog is better than a dead lion, for the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun."
Outline
I. Low Quality Life - The reality of evil and madness in human hearts, even among believers. Understanding our sinful nature and the need for daily grace.
II. Living Hope - Why it's better to be alive: we have opportunity and the present moment. Like pawns on God's chessboard, we're still in the game and called to seize the day for Christ's glory.
III. Little Knowledge - Facing the uncomfortable truth that we will die and be forgotten. Solomon calls us to look mortality in the face rather than suppress this reality.
IV. Complete Loss - Everything we do is animated by love, hate, or envy, and when we die, all perishes. Our works and memories fade, which shows us the seriousness of sin.
Four Applications
I. Repent of Our Evil and Madness - Acknowledge the sin in our hearts and walk humbly before God, choosing love over hate and envy.
II. Take Advantage of Life as We Have It - Embrace the present moment and live fully in the circumstances God has placed us in today.
III. Look Death in the Hairy Eyeball - Face our mortality honestly, which leads us to trust in Christ who removes death's sting.
IV. Praise God for the Living Memory of Christ's Love - Unlike us, Jesus lived perfectly without evil, envy, or hate. His life and memory live on through Scripture and through His people.
Key Themes
⚙️ The human heart as an idol factory (John Calvin)
🌅 Living in the present moment as Jesus did
⚖️ Death as the great equalizer
👀 The superiority of being alive and having opportunity
✝️ Christ as the answer to human brokenness
📖 The living memory of Christ preserved in Scripture
This message reminds us that while our lives are marked by sin and will end in death, we have hope in Christ who conquered death and gives us eternal life. Let us live fully in the present, face our mortality with courage, and trust in the Savior who transforms our low-quality lives into something eternally meaningful.
Rev Ain’t Right
In this message from Ecclesiastes 8:10–13, Solomon looks out over a world where even the wicked seem to prosper—praised at their funerals, applauded in the temple, and never struck down for their sin. Why does God wait? Why do hypocrites thrive?
Three insights from Ecclesiastes 8:10–13
Hypocrites – the religious wicked who go in and out of the holy place but live for human praise.
Don’t Be Hasty – why God’s patience tests our faith and calls us to imitate His slow, merciful timing (with a little help from Treebeard and The Dark Knight).
Who Wins – those who live coram Deo, before the face of God, trusting that it will be well with those who fear Him.
Ultimately, this passage drives us to Christ—the only One who ever lived with perfect sincerity before God. Jesus went in and out of the temple without hypocrisy, worshiped wholly for the Father’s glory, and clothed us in His righteousness so that even our imperfect worship is accepted in Him.
