Welcome to the MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my seventh episode. Tonight I want to present you with a sermon. It is an expository sermon on the book of Ecclesiastes. The idea I chose to develop is purpose. More specifically, the importance of making God’s purpose your purpose.
Now, before I begin this message, I’d like to read to you the words of the famous Welsh writer Dylan Thomas. Thomas described himself as a roistering, drunken and doomed poet. He wrote these words at the bedside of his dying father.
Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning they do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, and learn, too late, they grieve it on its way, do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight, blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height, curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Thomas’s father was a self-described atheist and a lifelong opponent of religion. He was always, and I quote, “railing against God.” Thomas himself died two years after this poem was published, he was 39 years old. Why is this poem important to the message today? Because in it, Thomas shows us four different types of people: wise, good, wild, and grave. Each type chose different approaches to life and walked different paths, but each type came together at death and futility. Impending death robbed them of their purpose and rendered their final moments meaningless.
Why is purpose important? Because purpose results in meaning. Meaning exists when you know you are in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to fulfill the purpose. I want you to think of the most depressed person you can imagine. This person doesn’t even want to get out of bed because life is pointless. So he lays there staring at the ceiling as the hours pass by. Then, he starts to feel the need to use the restroom. Now don’t let him get up. You tell him he has to stay laying there because his life is pointless. So he stays laying there and the need to use the restroom grows worse and worse until it commands his entire existence and he can think of nothing else. You let him up, and the same person who couldn’t bring himself to do anything springs out of bed and dashes to the restroom. Purpose is a direct antidote to apathy.
One of the problems we face today is being able to sustain purpose in our lives. Notice I said sustain purpose. It’s easy to find purpose, but sustaining purpose is a bit more challenging. Consider this example: you go all morning and well into the day without eating anything. By 3:00 in the afternoon you are ravenous. All you can think about is how hungry you are and where you want to go and what you want to eat. Finding food begins to dominate all of the other purposes in your life. And then you eat. Maybe the meal took hours to prepare, and just like that, the food is gone and you are full. You now have one less purpose in your life.
That illustration is meant to show you the truth that wherever (or in whomever) you invest your purpose, that person or thing will have power over you. Furthermore, if you invest your purpose in the world, then the world will have the power to strip the meaning from your life and there will be nothing you can do to stop it. Think about this with me. Your purpose is to climb the ladder at work and then you get laid off. Your purpose is to build a retirement nest egg and then the market destroys your savings. Your purpose is to marry the person you love and then that person betrays you. Your purpose is to spend as much time with your loved ones as you can, and then one by one your loved ones are ripped away from you by death. You’ve all heard someone lash out against the world. Usually they say something like this world is messed up, or this world is unfair, or the whole world seems to be against me. In a world without God, to have anything good is to face the anxiety of losing it.
Ladies and gentlemen, there exists only one arrangement where your purpose can be sustained forever and can never be taken away from you. If you start with God, if you make His purpose central to your purpose, then you will be set free to live life to its fullest. You can love those around you without fear of it being the last time you see them. You can embrace hard work and success without fear of the hammer dropping. You can have a good life without fear of it turning into a bad life, because what’s good is rooted in meaning and your meaning is rooted in God and nothing can take Him away from you.
I’m telling you that the only way to sustain purpose forever is through God. But how do we know that that’s true? The most logical avenue for us to take is to find someone who has unlimited worldly resources. We need to find a person who can explore any path in life on a whim. 2,900 years ago that person was King Solomon. He documented his observations for us in the book of Ecclesiastes. This is the book we will be working with today. If you have your Bibles you may turn to Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem. (Remember the Teacher in Ecclesiastes is King Solomon.) “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
Solomon is off to a depressing start. He has made observations about the natural world and has seen that most of it operates in a seemingly unending revolution. To Solomon, our own lives appear to be a meaningless cycle. He says it doesn’t matter what we see or what we hear, we will never feel content. He says that history repeats itself and nothing in this life is new: just as we’ve forgotten the past, so future generations will forget us.
Next he speaks on the futility of wisdom. Verses 12-14:
I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race. I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless – like chasing the wind.
Here he gives us two clues about himself and his work. First clue: as King of Israel, Solomon spends much of his time trying to understand life through human wisdom. What he is showing us is a worldview. A worldview is a system of accepted beliefs about life and reality. What can we know about Solomon’s worldview? The second clue is that he continually uses the phrase under the sun or under heaven. He’s showing us his perspective. Right away we can tell he is not focused on God, but on the world around him. Verses 15-18:
What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered.
I said to myself, “Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them.” So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind.
The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.
With his perspective aimed at the world it’s easy for him to see that there is no justice in it. He is focused on the world and he is not seeking God so the more he learns and the more he understands the more the walls begin to close in on him. So what does he do? He does what many of us do when we fail to sustain purpose by our own devices: he doubles down on the world and decides that he just hasn’t found the right answer yet. The first place Solomon looks for purpose is pleasure, 2:1-3:
I said to myself, “Come on, let’s try pleasure. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.” But I found that this too, was meaningless. So I said “Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?” After much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world.
When pleasure fails him, he turns to work, 2:18-20:
I came to hate all my hard work here on earth, for I must leave to others everything I have earned. And who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish? Yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work under the sun. How meaningless! So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world.
When he can’t find purpose in work he examines his own political power to see what lessons he can learn there, 4:13-16:
It is better to be a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who refuses all advice. Such a youth could rise from poverty and succeed. He might even become king, though he has been in prison. But then everyone rushes to the side of yet another youth who replaces him. Endless crowds stand around him but then another generation grows up and rejects him, too. So it is all meaningless – like chasing the wind.
Insistent on finding a lasting purpose, Solomon decides to unleash the might of his innumerable wealth, 5:10-11
Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth – except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers.
Pleasure; work; power; and wealth. King Solomon had all of these to a greater extent than any of us ever will. He could not escape the emptiness in his life because his own perspective was fueling it.
Depression among Americans has risen dramatically in the last 50 years. Dr. Carole Lieberman is a psychiatrist and member of the clinical faculty at the University of California at Los Angeles Semel Institute for neuroscience and human behavior. Dr. Lieberman tells us:
People who have stressors in their lives that make them feel hopeless and helpless are more likely to become depressed…Depression is anger turned inward toward the self…This anger is self-destructive and therefore harmful to the body…Elderly men may feel especially hopeless when their bodies break down with illness because it can destroy their sense of masculinity.
Factors that influence the risk of depression include: divorce; separation; where you live; your employment; the seasons and weather patterns. All of these are external circumstances: they are the world influencing your state of mind. The average age for a person to be diagnosed with depression is 32. Could it be that at this age you are most likely to be exposed to death, to suffering, to the realization that your circumstances and your status cannot provide your life with lasting purpose.
What is your perspective? Never, ever underestimate the importance of your thoughts. Thoughts give rise to words, words carry meaning, meaning forms perspective and perspective changes the world. The building you are sitting in right now was once a thought in the builder’s mind. The universe we live in now was once a thought in the mind of God:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
God spoke and created order from chaos. And the one who built this building, a human being made in the image of God, took a thought from his mind and created a structure out of raw material. Your thoughts determine your life and your thoughts shape your existence.
Solomon discovers the error of his ways and he leaves us with a word of warning, 12:1-7
Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.” Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky. Remember him before your legs – the guards of your house – start to tremble; and before your shoulders – the strong men – stoop. Remember him before your teeth – your few remaining servants – stop grinding; and before your eyes – the women looking through the windows – see dimly.
Remember him before the door to life’s opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades. Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint.
Remember him before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets; before your hair turns white like an almond tree in bloom, and you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper, and the caperberry no longer inspires sexual desire. Remember him before you near the grave, your everlasting home, when the mourners will weep at your funeral.
Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. For then the dust will return to earth and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
If you start with God, if you make His purpose central to your purpose, then you will be set free to live life to its fullest. And now the most important question we must ask ourselves today: what is God’s purpose and how do we make it our own? Romans 8:28-30:
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
God’s purpose is for you to know him by knowing Jesus Christ. For you to come to Christ and build your relationship with Him. For you to grow in both your understanding of Jesus and your similarity to Him. Christ the Creator has revealed himself to his most precious creations, so that they might choose to love Him and be with Him. You are eternal and your Creator is calling you home. When you accept that, your life will take on a purpose that will give you a meaning that death itself cannot take from you.
Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Thank you.
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