Come and Drink: Choosing God While Time Remains

Ecclesiastes brings every person face to face with the one resource that cannot be bought, managed, or ordered online: time. Brian Johnson’s Project Blueprint makes sense in a world where money can secure almost everything but cannot add another ten years to a life. The rich fool in Luke 12 makes the same mistake on a deeper level. His barns, harvest, surplus, and future were all calculated, but his remaining time was not.

Solomon calls life hevel, a mist and a vapor that comes and goes fast. Ecclesiastes does not say life is worthless, though. Life is sweet. Sunlight, food, work, love, strength, and the simple gift of waking up are good things from God. The shortness of life does not make life less valuable. The shortness of life calls people to receive it with gratitude while they can.

Youth carries a hidden danger because it makes temporary things feel permanent. Youth says there is still plenty of time, while Ecclesiastes says, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” Solomon does not merely say remember God, but remember the Creator, because created people are finite, time-bound, and limited. Dust came from the ground, and dust returns to the ground.

Ecclesiastes 12 paints old age with hard but honest images: dimming windows, trembling keepers, stooping strong men, failing grinders, and darkness gathering after rain. David, who once stood before Goliath, eventually lay under blankets unable to keep warm. Aging itself is not the tragedy, because growing old is a gift many never receive. The tragedy is arriving at the end and discovering that youth, strength, and years were spent on things that could not be kept.

Solomon’s final conclusion brings twelve chapters of work, pleasure, wisdom, riches, success, aging, and death into one clear purpose: fear God and keep His commandments. Humanity was made for close fellowship with God, like Adam in the garden before sin drove humanity eastward from the source of life. Jesus stands at the Feast of Tabernacles and interrupts the ceremony with the invitation, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” Christ offers more than rain for the land or longer days for the body. Christ offers living water for thirsty people running out of time.

The invitation remains urgent because life is fragile and tomorrow is not guaranteed. Jesus says, come while strength remains, come while building, come while time is still being counted forward or backward. God Himself is the goal, not greater wealth, fame, likes, security, or bigger barns. The water of life is found only close to the source.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Time cannot be purchased or preserved Ecclesiastes exposes the false security of resources, planning, and accumulated wealth. Money can create comfort, but it cannot command another day of life. The rich fool had enough grain for many years, yet he did not possess the years he assumed were his. [33:22]
• 2. Life is a gift, not possession Life is hevel, a vapor, but that does not make it empty or worthless. Sunlight, food, work, love, and breath remain good because God gives them. Gratitude receives temporary gifts rightly without turning them into permanent gods. [35:24]
• 3. Remember the Creator before darkness Youth can quietly convince a person that strength and time will always remain. Solomon commands remembrance before the eyes grow dim, the body trembles, and pleasures fade. The right time to turn toward God is not after life becomes unmanageable, but while life still feels full of possibility. [38:58]
• 4. Humanity was made for fellowship The final conclusion of Ecclesiastes is not merely moral effort or religious duty. Fear of God and obedience flow from the true purpose of humanity: close fellowship with the Creator. Eden reveals that life is most human when it is lived near God’s presence. [55:12]
• 5. Christ invites thirsty people now Jesus stands as the source of living water for souls that cannot be satisfied by possessions or extended life. His invitation is not reserved for the young, the old, the successful, or the desperate. Christ calls every thirsty person to come before time runs out.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [28:40] - The Man Trying Not to Die
• [32:33] - The Rich Fool and Limited Time
• [34:17] - Life as Mist and Gift
• [36:14] - Youth and the Illusion of Time
• [38:58] - Remember Your Creator
• [41:02] - The Poetic Picture of Aging
• [44:10] - Dust Returns to Dust
• [47:43] - Ecclesiastes at the Harvest Festival
• [49:23] - Jesus and Living Water
• [54:32] - Fear God and Keep His Commandments
• [57:29] - Come to Me and Drink
• [60:18] - The Urgency of Coming Now
• [62:35] - God Is the Goal of Life

Bible Reading

Ecclesiastes 12:1–7
“Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low— they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” [38:58] [41:02] [44:10]

Luke 12:16–20
“And he told them a parable, saying, ‘The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” And he said, “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”’” [32:41] [33:22]

John 7:37–38
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’” [49:23] [50:52]

Ecclesiastes 12:13
“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” [54:32] [55:12]

Observation questions

1. What details did the rich man carefully calculate in Luke 12, and what important reality did he fail to calculate? [33:22]
2. In Ecclesiastes 12:1–7, what pictures are used to describe the weakening of the body and the approach of death?
3. Why does Ecclesiastes tell people to remember their Creator, rather than simply telling them to remember God? [40:20]
4. What happens at the Feast of Tabernacles when Jesus stands and calls thirsty people to come to Him and drink? [50:52]

Interpretation questions

1. The rich man’s problem was not that he had a plentiful harvest, but that he treated his future years as guaranteed. How can good planning, saving, and preparing become a false source of security for a person? [45:45]
2. Ecclesiastes calls life a vapor, yet also calls life sweet and good. How do these two truths fit together: life is brief, and life is a gift to be enjoyed with gratitude? [35:24]
3. What does “remember your Creator” mean beyond occasionally thinking about God? How would remembering that people are created, finite, and accountable to God reshape the way a person uses strength, work, and time? [40:20]
4. Jesus offers living water to thirsty people. What deeper thirst does He address that possessions, success, health, and longer life cannot satisfy? [52:41]

Application questions

1. Where is it easiest to assume there will always be more time—following Christ, repairing a relationship, serving someone, sharing faith, or addressing a pattern of sin? What would it look like to respond to that area this week rather than delaying? [01:00:55]
2. What temporary gifts of God are present in this season—health, food, work, family, friendship, sunlight, or strength? How can gratitude help receive those gifts without treating them as things that must last forever? [35:33]
3. Are there “bigger barns” being built in life right now—more savings, more status, more comfort, more accomplishments, or more control? Which of these may be quietly carrying more trust than it should? [33:28]
4. “Fear God and keep his commandments” is the whole purpose of humanity. What is one clear command of God that needs more attention or obedience in daily life right now? [55:01]
5. Jesus says, “Come to me and drink.” What does coming to Christ look like in a practical way this week: honest prayer, repentance, time in Scripture, worship, receiving help from other believers, or turning away from something that has been competing for the heart? [01:01:15]
6. Aging is not the tragedy; wasting life on what cannot be kept is the tragedy. Looking at the current season of life, what would make these years count for what matters most? [43:35]
7. God Himself, not wealth, fame, likes, or security, is the goal of life. What habits or pressures most often pull the heart away from close fellowship with God, and what small change could help move closer to Him? [01:02:55]