In Search of a Happy Ending

A Sermon on Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

November 14, 1979 – First Baptist Church (Conway, AR)

Dr. Henry here argues that the imagery of this passage points the reader to consider the inevitably of lessened mental and physical abilities which accompany getting older. Rather than being some kind of scare-tactic designed to make people wonder if an early death might unexpectedly await them, these verses remind its readers that death, at some point, certainly awaits them. A life without a commitment to the sovereign Creator leads only to pleasureless future, increasingly devoid of cognitive and material enjoyments.

 Quotables

“Man’s lifespan is limited. And the meaning of life, both here and hereafter, depends on the relationship in which we personally stand to the living God.”

“The consequence of a life that is void of a commitment to the creator is that it moves inescapably towards evil days.”

“Remember your creator.”

“There’s nothing alarming about this. He’s telling us about the course of human life. And whether you find joy and meaning and happiness in the latter years, or even in the middle years, will depend upon on whether, prior to the experiences that confront all of us across the years, we have entered into a personal relationship with the Lord and Giver of life, for salvation, for service, for all of it.”