February 2022 - Fruit Cove Baptist Church

02 Meaning(Less)

Written by TimMaynard on February 28, 2022. Posted in Sermon Notes. No Comments on 02 Meaning(Less)

NOTES FOR WEEK OF FEB 27

Meaning (less)

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4:16

“The Human Dilemma”

A few weeks ago, I challenged us using a simple two-story house diagram created by Will Mancini. Using that illustration I asked the question, “Are you a first floor or a second-floor church member?” Second floor members are those who have embraced the mission of the church, the Great Commission of Jesus to take the Gospel to the world and make disciples.

The purpose of this study we are in is to give you a different way to look at what we do here on Sundays…we want to equip you, to resource you to make disciples where you live, and work and play. So, as you listen today, you need to listen not just to “get” a message, but ask, “How can I take the truth of the Bible into my world?” There are some additional resources online at fruitcove.com to help you do that.

So, we are in a series called “Meaningless.” Now that doesn’t mean the series is meaningless. It is a way of presenting the message of Ecclesiastes to our world today, a world that denies that God exists. A world that sees life as devoid of meaning. Solomon is taking us on a journey into that world. It’s not an easy study, but it’s an important one.

I wonder who in here today would say, “I’ve got plenty of time to do all the things I need to do. I’m never stressed about time. There’s always just enough.” Anybody? I doubted it. You know we’re not always honest with each other or ourselves about time. How many times have you said, “I’m sorry, I just didn’t have time to do that,” when the more honest answer is, “I’m sorry I chose not to call you back because I chose to spend my time differently.” So at least you know if someone says, “I didn’t have time,” they had just as much time as the president. Just as much time as a surgeon. Just as much time as a composer or author. Same 24 for everybody. They just didn’t invest their time wisely or chose not to invest it with you!

One of the places that most people express frustration or dissatisfaction with life is knowing our time is limited. We have expiration dates. The Bible tells us “three score and ten” a total of 70 years. On average, that’s about right. My father-in-law lived to be well over 90 but he would remind us often that we were never promised more than “threescore and ten.”

Time flies. Whether you’re a king or a truck driver, a young person starting out in life (think about how fast spring and summer break used to feel) …unless you’re the parent. Then it feels like eternity unfolding.

But time is something that is in God’s control, not ours. That’s the first reality we encounter in Ecclesiastes Chapter 3. The ticking of the clock. The passing of the seconds and the days and months and years. In a Psalm written by Moses, we read “…teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” But eternity doesn’t run on a clock.

Wisdom takes time seriously. Wisdom requires us to understand that we live life on loan. We ultimately can’t control how many minutes or days our lives will be. We just know that, at a day set by God, we’ll spend our last second on earth. “Teach us to number…” Or as Solomon puts it in our text, “There’s a time to be born, and a time to die.” We had no control over our entrance into the world. We will have no control over our exit.

But right here is where we encounter:

The Source of Our Dissatisfaction: God is eternal

He has placed eternity in our hearts. What that means, simply put, is that God is in control of that most precious commodity in our lives: Time. The one thing we all share in common is that an hour is an hour. It’s not 36 minutes to one person and 60 to another. A day is 24 hours. And the other thing we get is we have a choice how to spend that time…or waste it.

At this stage of my life, I would really like to have some of those wasted hours and days back for a do-over. But while with hard work or just being smart we can make up money we’ve wasted, we can’t make up time with our families…or time we could have spent walking with the Lord instead of wandering in the world. No do overs exist.

But here’s some good news this morning. “God has set eternity in our hearts.” We were made to yearn for something that transcends the clock and the calendar. We were made to enjoy eternal things. Our dissatisfaction comes because of this. You see, if we only live “under the sun,” we try to make the pleasures and joys of a fallen, temporary world have eternal significance. They can’t. I know I have an eternity of time awaiting. It takes the sting out of not having enough time now.

Every pleasure you enjoy, every joyful moment with your spouse, or your children, or looking at a beautiful landscape or work of art…all of it is destined to lead to dissatisfaction unless you know that, with those things God is just hinting at what’s waiting for us in eternity. When we focus on the things of this earth as our ultimate reality and our ultimate enjoyment, we make our ultimate meaning about that relationship or that possession or that experience.

God goes to great lengths to remind us that our time here is limited. How we use our time will be something we’ll be called to account for. “…God will call the past to account.” If we invest it with a view toward eternity, it’s something for which we will be rewarded!

Our dissatisfaction comes when we forget that it is God Who gives us the time we enjoy. We need to invest it wisely. “God makes everything beautiful in its time,” if we can see God’s hand in it.

The Reasons for Our Frustration: God is just

We struggle with the same issues Solomon did. He lists them for us in Chapter 3 and 4, and they were the source of his frustration, and the source of ours as well.

Inequity (vv 16-17)

Life isn’t fair. And it isn’t perfect. If it was, the driver who ran you off the road speeding by you would be pulled over at the next mile marker. The person who gossips about you would have her teeth fall out that same night. But the Christian NFL player doesn’t always win the Super Bowl, and the guy living it up as a partying pagan doesn’t always fumble at the goal line. Bad things happen to good people, and equally frustrating good things happen to bad people! But we really don’t want to live in that kind of world either. We just want other people to be punished for evil, but we want to be allowed to get away with it.

Death

Death, we are told, is the great equalizer. One out of one people die. And one out of one animal die. While it looks like man and animal experience the same fate, that is not the case. “Who knows,” Solomon asks, “if the breath of man ascends upward…” Life isn’t fair. We work like a dog, and then die just like a dog, or so Solomon concluded “under the sun.” But we know, as Christians, that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

Oppression/When it seems the wicked are always winning

Ecc 4:1-3

In Psalm 73, the Psalmist said, “But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps nearly slipped…when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” But then, an important thing happens. “When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me, until I went to the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their end.”

A pastor had a golf buddy who was not a Christian who was always challenging him. As they put their clubs away, he said, “See pastor, in my world, the good guy always finishes last.” The pastor replied, “Yeah, but the bad guy goes to hell.”

Rivalry/Envy

Ecc 4:4-6

A survey on PersonnelToday.com reported than nine out of ten office workers suffer from “professional envy” of colleagues they picture to have more glamorous or higher paying jobs…a third envy a partner or spouse’s jobs, while a fifth feel jealous of a colleague further up the work “ladder.” We compensate for those feelings by underperforming or over competing.

Materialism… riches over relationship…things more important than people

Ecc 4:7-8…This is directed to those who blow up their relationships and never take time for friendships to accumulate money and things. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but often we let our ambition for things and status and money to push out the important things. You find yourself, at the end of the day, rich. But alone.

The Root of Our Isolation: God is love

Ecc 4:9-12

We were made for relationships. “It is not good for the man to be alone,” God said. We need to keep reminding ourselves that God revealed Himself to us as a God in relationship with Himself. The Trinity is an eternal relationship in which God is one-yet-three. I don’t have time to go into all the explanations of that, but the Bible proclaims it’s true. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And this relationship is open-ended. God invites us to join Him in this joyful dance. He didn’t create us because He was lonely. He created us because He wanted us to enjoy what He had!

Earthly relationships are a reflection of that eternal and invisible reality. We are made to relate, not isolate. We are wired to know and be known, because the God Who made us is like that. He knows that the most painful reality of Hell is not the flames but the eternal aloneness. And those who are lonely can testify to how difficult it is.

2 are better than 1. For working, for walking, for warmth, and for weaving. You know, when we get married, we are to leave, cleave, and weave a life together. I will sometimes use the three-stranded cord as an illustration in a wedding ceremony.

Rope makers know that you can take two cords and wrap them together…into eternity… and they will eventually come apart. But they learned if you put a third cord in the center and wrap the other two around that cord and around each other, it will never come apart!

We have changed marriage into a relationship where it’s just the two of us against the world. We wrap ourselves around each other and then we wonder why it comes apart. But the marriages that understand the need for that third strand in the middle…don’t come apart easily at all.

When a marriage is done right, with Christ as the center strand, you create something that is greater than just two people clinging to each other. There’s a synergy that is created…and those marriages will seldom pull apart.

Popularity (4:13-16)

This ends with a particularly telling thought. We live in a day when people long for popularity and recognition from others. People will do silly, funny, dangerous and even deadly things in an effort to get more likes on their social media accounts. It is a very enticing sin in our day, and the church is not immune. Neither is politics. Here’s the story of a popular king that got old, was replaced by a popular upstart young king (who was, ironically from the same background as the old king) and we see the rise and fall and fickleness of popular applause. It’s frustrating to those who hang their self-worth on this.

Solomon is no doubt reflecting back to his own father, David’s, history. The popularity of a young king named Saul was replaced by the rising star of King David. David’s popularity was eventually eclipsed by the new young king named Solomon. Solomon, once the rock star of Israel, is now the old king who sees his once soaring popularity poll sliding south.

If we are seeking an earthly crown of glory, it will perish quickly. But if the crown we hope to wear is an eternal reward that we can “cast down” at the feet of Jesus, we will find our star never sets as we live in the glory of making Jesus famous!

Paul said, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Galatians 6:14). May our pursuit be that kind of glory…the glory of the cross.

What’s the solution to our dissatisfaction, our frustration, our isolation? Knowing the God Who invites you to come into a relationship with Him through Jesus! It brings satisfaction and fulfillment and fellowship to us. Without God, life is without meaning…without purpose. With God, you get meaning now…and heaven later! And it comes by grace, through faith in Jesus. Won’t you trust Him today?

Resources and References:

Nelson, The Problem of Life With God
Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge
Stedman, Is This All There is to Life?
Jeremiah, Heaven on Earth
Kidner, Ecclesiastes

Meaning(less)

Written by TimMaynard on February 21, 2022. Posted in Sermon Notes, Uncategorized. No Comments on Meaning(less)

A Study in Ecclesiastes

Click to download: MEANING(LESS)

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 (Chapters 1 and 2)

I do feel some connection and affinity with Solomon. I’m now looking back through the same tunnel of time that he was staring through. And he didn’t have it all figured out either. I believe this book we call Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon, although he never directly says so. He refers to himself as “the preacher,” or “the quester” or we might even say, “the pundit.”

Solomon was one of the most powerful monarchs of his day. He led Israel over 40 years in peace. He was also the smartest guy in the room. Any room. He could talk politics, religion, finance, agriculture, horticulture, or architecture. People would literally travel from around the world just to get a seat at one of his lectures. He had more money than Jeff Bezos and was smarter than Elon Musk. He was literally sitting on top of the world…and found it empty. Vain. Boring.

Jan Krakauer was a journalist who scaled the summit of Mt Everest. Twelve of his fellow climbers died in the incident. He wrote in his book Into Thin Air about standing “with one foot in China and the other in Nepal.” He continued, “I cleared away the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared down at the vast wasteland of Tibet. I had fantasized about this moment for months, the emotional release that would come. But now that it was finally here, I couldn’t muster the energy to care. I snapped four quick photos…then turned to begin my descent. All told, I spent less than five minutes standing on the roof of the world.” (Krakauer, Into Thin Air)

Solomon could identify with the climber’s disappointment. While he had scaled no mountain peak, he stared into the extent of his accomplishments and said, “It’s empty.”

He’s taking us on a journey through the paths of life he has taken. It is, mostly, one dead end after another. It’s not an easy book to read and study, although there are a couple of high points we hit along the way. His words have become lyrics to popular songs, “Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrd’s. Google it. His thoughts make this book the most-quoted Biblical book by atheists. Most of us wouldn’t buy a coffee mug with the inscription “a time to be born and a time to die” on it.

But I think, of any study you can do, this book takes you into the mind of those around us trying to live life without reference to God. We read the phrase “under the sun” thirty times in twelve chapters. I heard a line from a very popular new TV show that said, “We are now in heaven. And in hell. They happen simultaneously. And the land is God.” Life under the sun.

That is where the majority of our post-Christian culture lives today. “Under the sun” means “assuming there is nothing but what we can see and experience with our senses.” That’s where the dominant philosophy of our day takes us. As Ephesians has it, they are “without hope and without God in the world.”

We have become a people who believe the extent of existence today is set by the limits of a universe that we can see, study empirically, and explore. Nothing of consequence exists beyond the visible, material world. Nothing eternal. No God Who created all things. As Carl Sagan, a proponent of today’s philosophical naturalism put it, “The Universe is all there is.” (In Sagan’s last book, Contact, he did conclude that there is a majestic artistry to the universe. There must be an artist behind it). For many who live in such a system there is no room made for invisible, all-knowing, all-powerful God.

If that’s true, then the words of Qoholoth are exactly right. At the end of the day, there is no meaning to it all. There is no reason for existence, except to exist. Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant cosmologists who ever lived, concluded that we have pretty much understood and can explain most things scientifically or mathematically, except why there is existence!

Solomon’s conclusion in the opening soliloquy of Ecclesiastes is “everything is boring. Everything is the same. Nothing makes sense.” “The wind blows on the same circuits, the streams run to the same ultimate end into an ocean that’s never full. Every day is the same. The sun rises, and sets. We punch in, we punch out. The course of life, the circle of the sun, the circuit of the winds, the cycle of the water. What’s the point? “There’s nothing new under the sun.”

SOLOMON’S QUEST FOR MEANING

Now lest we think that the insight of these words really has no bearing on our lives, let me remind us of something. You see, I believe this is THE most important question we can answer for ourselves today. Without reference to God, does anything make sense?

That’s exactly where “the preacher” found himself at the end of his life. Looking back over it all, he concluded, “It’s empty. Vanity. Smoke and mirrors.” I read a copy of an anonymous suicide note written by a bright young college student. Partly it said:

To anyone in the world who cares. Who am I? Why am I alive? Life has become stupid and purposeless. Nothing makes sense anymore. The questions I had when I came to college are still unanswered and now, I am convinced there are no answers.

Our young people today, bright, educated, talented…are walking into the abyss of suicide because it’s preferable to living the life they know… a life of guilt, and frustration, and despair, and futility. This isn’t a theoretical, abstract question. It’s life and death.

And it’s not just the young affected. Ernest Hemingway, the famous writer who lived a Solomonic-like life…traveling, fishing for Tarpon in Florida, hunting wild game around the world… turned a rifle on himself. After all the words he had written, his suicide note was chillingly simple: “Life is just one d*** thing after another.”

Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life reports on a survey conducted by Dr Hugh Moorland, a philosophy professor from Northeastern Illinois University, in which he polled 250 intellectuals, philosophers, scientists, and writers and asked them, “What is the meaning of life?” Most wrote back with answers which many admitted later they just made up. Some were honest enough to write him back and ask if HE had discovered the purpose of life!

THE LONG AND WINDING ROADS

If Solomon had a theme song, I would think it might be something like the Rolling Stones “Can’t Get No Satisfaction. And I tried, and I tried, and I tried, and I tried…I can’t get no…” Mick Jagger is now 78, in his fifth marriage and the father of 8, but he’s still singing it. He’s the most prominent rock musician in the world, maybe in history. He has more money than he’ll ever find time to spend (well, except on alimony). But it hasn’t brought satisfaction.

Unrivaled education (1:12-18)

Solomon sat on top of the world. One of the most, if not the most educated man of his day. His intention was to figure this problem out. (Ecclesiastes 1:12-18). But he found accumulating knowledge…education… to be a dead end. Listen, if you think your college degree or your high school diploma is going to be the answer to all your problems, you need to pay attention here. It won’t be. Some of the world’s greatest evil has been committed by brilliantly educated people. There’s no guarantee education will make you a better person. TS Elliot said, “All of knowledge just brings us nearer to our ignorance.” That was Solomon’s conclusion.

Unbridled pleasure. (2:1-3, 24-25).

I drove past a bar called “The Muse” in Mandarin on Friday and Saturday nights this week. Both nights, the parking lot was full to overflowing, with cars lined up to find parking. If you follow any one of those cars home, ask the person “Are you happy now? Does life make sense now?” I have a strong suspicion their answer will be a resounding “no.”

If you had virtually limitless resources, could I ask you a question? What would YOU do to make yourself happy? Your answer speaks volumes about your soul.

Unlimited accumulation. (2:7-11). In a survey called the World Values Survey, the poorest countries in the world consistently score highest on the happiness index. As boxer Joe Lewis used to say, “I don’t like money actually. But it calms my nerves.” Maybe. But it won’t make you happy. And it’s the people who have it who say so.

Unending work. (2:4-6, 17-23). That did not satisfy him. It keeps you busy. It won’t satisfy you. So many people lose themselves in their daily work, thinking that the next level, the next step, the next raise will make it feel it makes sense. Solomon testifies that it never does.

AN UNSATISFACTORY CONCLUSION

So, are you thoroughly depressed yet? Some of you aren’t because you’re on the right path. You know this is your Father’s world, and it’s not the final stopping point. But so many don’t know that.

If you are living just for what you can see and feel and taste and touch and put in your pocket, believing these things will make you ultimately satisfied, you are headed for a great disappointment.

In other words, without God it’s all meaningless. What’s the point? But if God is in the center of your career, your relationships, your finances, your joy then suddenly the lights come on.

Most of the things Solomon was doing are things we couldn’t criticize. But anything we try to do…leaving God out in the process…will lead to emptiness. And anything we do for His glory and for His honor, will fill us with meaning and satisfaction beyond belief.

So how do you want to live? Do you really want the epitaph of your life to be, “I Never Got Any Satisfaction?” Or do you want it to be, “All That Satisfies My Soul is Jesus?”

I have wondered through the years why Ecclesiastes attracts me so much. But I think I’ve figured it out. When I made my decision for Jesus as a 20-year-old, I was coming out of a season of deep searching in my life. I was searching for meaning in all the wrong places, too.

I thought fulfilling my dream as a professional musician would do that. It didn’t. I followed all the dead ends associated with our culture in the early and mid-70’s. Nothing did it for me. At the end of the day, I came to a point of true despair in my life. Life had no meaning.

Then I met Jesus. I mean, met Him for real. I was hollow as a chocolate Easter bunny, and I had everything I thought I wanted. It wasn’t what I wanted after all. The partying, the popularity, easy money. All of it meant nothing.

But when I walked out of the house after praying, repenting, and receiving Christ, things suddenly began to make sense! Jesus is better. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” the Bible says.

Your heart…and your life…will be full if you know Him.

Month: February 2022

02 Meaning(Less)

Meaning(less)