Meaningless pt 1

My first sermon here in the youth group I read 2 chapters and then read another chapter that those chapters reminded me of and looking back my point had nothing to do with the passage

Needless to say I was so good I preached my way from 30 students down to 8 real quick

But anyways….

I have no idea why I told you that

Turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 1

Intro

Studying Ecclesiastes is daunting. You can no more jump right in to Ecclesiastes than someone who has never swam can jump off a high cliff into a raging river and assume they will simply figure out how to swim when they land.

For starters, the book is very old – written around 1000 years before Jesus was even born. This very ancient Eastern wisdom predates the great Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Those guys were late to the philosophical party of human history compared to the Hebrews and Ecclesiastes.

Categorically, Ecclesiastes is Wisdom Literature. That means it’s about the practical, earthy, nitty gritty stuff of life like pots, pans, pants, pain, pleasure, and purpose. The Old Testament Wisdom Literature includes Job, which studies the problem evil and human suffering; Song of Songs discusses the beauty of love and pleasure; Proverbs teaches how to worship God with everything from our finances to our friends and family; and Ecclesiastes explores the meaning of our meaningless life.

Stylistically, Ecclesiastes rambles, wanders, and is very difficult to grasp and understand. Life is not a math equation. It is hard to categorize and figure out, and so is this book about life. Ecclesiastes is also the only book of the Bible (that I am aware of) in which God is totally silent. It is the long monologue of one man, not a dialogue between a man and his God, as is common in the rest of the Scriptures.

The author of Ecclesiastes is simply referred to as “the Teacher.” Some Bible translations will say Koheleth, which is a title meaning “the teacher/preacher,” or “one who addresses a gathering of people” (1:1, 1:2, 1:12, 7:27, 12:8-10). That teacher is King Solomon.

The Scriptures have a great deal to say about the life of Solomon (I Kings 1-11; II Chronicles 1-9; and 2 Samuel 7, 11-12). His biography reads like the makings of some scandalous epic blockbuster movie. His father was the great King David. His mother, Bathsheba, was married to another man whom David had killed to cover up their illicit adultery. God granted Solomon one wish for anything he desired, and Solomon chose wisdom, which pleased God. Next to Jesus he was the wisest man who ever lived, was a master of innumerable subjects, and wrote 3000 proverbs, 1005 songs, and three books of the Bible. His power was unparalleled as he reigned as king over Israel for roughly 40 years during a season of peace and prosperity in which leaders from all over the earth visited his kingdom to inquire of him. He also oversaw the construction of God’s temple and his own palace that took 7 and 13 years respectively. His complicated family life included his 700 wives and 300 concubines – he could have literally eaten three meals a day, each with a different wife or concubine, for roughly an entire year.

Gifted with unparalleled wisdom as history’s salutatorian second only to Jesus Christ, Solomon devoted his life to answer that great question of every brooding teenage punk band member and their midlife crisis parent – what is the meaning of life? Solomon took the old adage “don’t knock it ‘til you try it” to the absurd by throwing himself into everything life has to offer with reckless abandon, serving as his own subject in the lab of life. If Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, and Hugh Hefner somehow morphed into one man who was also simultaneously Pope and President that person might be named Solomon.

Solomon’s is the story of a prodigal son. Born into the affluence of his father David, Solomon departed the ways of his God to indulge his own pointless passions. The fact that he wrote Ecclesiastes indicates that he recognized the folly of his wayward ways, returned to the Lord, and wrote an honest autobiography of the empty and shallow life that he discovered apart from God. Solomon sought the best that life had to offer, and then realized that nothing rivals life simply lived in obedience to God.

Bored and burned out at the end of his life, Solomon summed up his great life experiment with one word that appears 37 or 38 times in the 12 chapters of Ecclesiastes depending upon which English translation you read. The book opens and closes with the Hebrew word “hebel.” The word is nearly impossible to nail down in its essential meaning. Different Bible scholars translate the word in a variety of ways from meaningless (NLT,NIV), to vanity (ESV, KJV, NASB, NKJV, RSV, NRSV), to emptiness (NEB). Elsewhere in the Scriptures, “hebel” refers to a vapor that is wispy, fleeting, elusive, and quickly passing. This reveals that life must be pursued with great urgency, because the days between birth and death pass like the mist of a breath on a cold morning (Psalm 144:4; Job 7:7, 16). If we layer the various translations it makes sense that our fleeting life is complex, so a complex word best describes it.

I cannot prove it, but I believe that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes at the end of his life. I believe he wrote Song of Songs when he was young and in love, gathered Proverbs throughout his life, and after trashing his fleeting life and losing his first wife he sat down as an old man to write Ecclesiastes just before picking out his casket. Looking back in the rear view mirror of life, he writes arguably the most brutal, painful, and helpful book ever written to young people fresh out of the starting blocks of life.

And I know right now some of you are rolling your eyes thinking “Ty you can make even the best party a bummer.” While i do think the more food and fewer the people the better the party I do believe this passage has a lot to say to all of us, so here we go, let’s jump in

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”

says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless.”

3 What do people gain from all their labors

at which they toil under the sun?

4 Generations come and generations go,

but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun sets,

and hurries back to where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south

and turns to the north;

round and round it goes,

ever returning on its course.

7 All streams flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from,

there they return again.

8 All things are wearisome,

more than one can say.

The eye never has enough of seeing,

nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9 What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which one can say,

“Look! This is something new”?

It was here already, long ago;

it was here before our time.

11 No one remembers the former generations,

and even those yet to come

will not be remembered

by those who follow them.

Pray

Your glory not mine

Soften our hearts and ears to your message

You would speak and we would hear

Those of us that are your friends would become more like you

And those of us that aren’t your friends would make that commitment today

That each of us would take one step closer to you today

Context

If you had one word to describe the meaning of life what would it be?

Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes describes it as “meaningless”

He was emo before it was even a thing

He had everything, wealth, power, influence, knowledge, relationships, substances, but still found nothing that satisfies

Story

When I was a kid in public school, we took a field trip up into the mountains to learn about nature. They told us about survival skills and the essentials for survival: food, air, water, clothing, and shelter. To that list, I would add hope. To survive, you need hope that things could get better, even if it’s a ways off in the Kingdom of God. You need to know that life is not a meaningless fool’s parade that ends with one final step off a cliff.

Application 1

Everything is meaningless

What's the point?

You can’t complete work

You don’t get to just mow the lawn once, wash your dishes once, fold the laundry once, pay your bills once

Work never ends

My grandpa retired early and still was one of the busiest people

Knowledge brings sorrow

Some of the smartest people in the world are the saddest

We all feel this, but hoped smarter people would have an answer, but solomon the wisest and most knowledge comes to this conclusion

Nothing truly changes

The earth is an endless cycle

Compare to water cycle

There is nothing new

Ecclesiastes hits the bull’s eye of the convoluted mood of our meaningless age. Don’t be fooled into thinking that new is improved.

Ecclesiastes is not some old book. Ecclesiastes is an eternal book. There is a vast difference between the two.

An old book gets old.

An eternal book never gets old.

An old book is timely.

An eternal book is timeless.

An old book is for yesterday.

An eternal book is for every day.

Every generation thinks they'll be the one to fix things

If we look back honestly we all thought every other person before us had it wrong, but we have it figured out

Every generation thinks little of the past

Youth students find me irrelevant at times

At Youth Conference last week Aryana asked my fashion advice -

the kids thought I dressed "Unique" and they'd say it just like that with the quote marks -

but they began to notice all the youth pastors dress like me - flannel, skinny jeans, vans, Jean jackets, snap backs, long shirts

They asked why we all dress the same and I told them it's one of the first classes they teach at bible college "youth pastor fashion"

You will never be satisfied with more

Solomon had everything and never filled the hole

There’s always more money, nicer clothes, faster cars, bigger houses

My constant need for more guitars

Are you bummed yet?

Good then we are halfway there

Story 2

Tell my story about looking for meaning in everything and finding nothing

Supporting scripture

Mark 8:36-37

36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?

Application 2

Without God nothing has true meaning

We spend our entire lives working for things we never take the time to enjoy

We save up money and fill our houses’ with things and then die leaving it to people who are just going to give it to goodwill

Rich, poor, old, young, educated, ignorant, famous, unknown, liked or disliked we all have a major thing in common we’re all going to die and be buried in a box

“My biggest fear in life isn’t failure, but succeeding in the things that don't matter”

So what do we do with this life?

What matters?

Where is God?

Thus far, Solomon has gotten our souls hungry for even a morsel of hopeful good news.

However, if it’s not to be found here under the sun, we have to start looking elsewhere.

Perhaps above the sun, beyond the world in which we live, there is another world in which God lives. Maybe he could come down and bring hope and meaning with him, possibly even inviting us to join him one day in his home above the sun. Perhaps there he could reward us for all our vain efforts under the sun so that they were not meaningless.

That would make our meaningless lives meaningful.

Monopoly analogy

My family and me are super competitive at monopoly

Like cut throat

The board is flipped almost every time

But here’s the issue win or lose it doesn’t matter

Because the purpose is family fun which isn’t happening

That’s life without Jesus

Successful or not isn’t important compared to motive and purpose

While the book’s emphasis on life as meaningless is dark, there’s also a clue not to be missed. This is the perspective of life “under the sun.” This phrase appears roughly 29 times in Ecclesiastes depending upon which translation you read. It means life viewed solely without a connection to God or revelation from God. It’s literally a godless life lived solely by our limited insights gleaned solely by our experience without any word from God on the matter. To use a word from conservative grandmas who read their Bible, this is a “worldly” view of life. Life as the world sees it, not as God sees it.

In this way, throughout Ecclesiastes, Jesus is revealed not through his presence, but rather through his absence, as some have suggested. In this way, Jesus can be seen not so much in a portrait, but rather a silhouette as is the case in the opening section of the book.

Finish my story

With Jesus all we do has purpose

We realize a meaningful life has less to do with our accomplishments and everything to do with our relationship with God

In leaving a legacy that truly matters and makes a difference

To live and die for The Kingdom and King not the stuff and self

There’s nothing wrong with great stuff and amazing achievements, but if that’s all we have we aren’t even spiritually poor we are bankrupt

Instead let’s use every moment as a chance to bring God glory in all that we do

People think of religion as a way to add a little God to your life, but Jesus says throw your life away and He will give you a new one

I didn’t plan to say this and I honestly probably shouldn’t, but I have the mic, so oh well

Do you know how stoked I think Satan is with the majority of Church services

We sit here and “feel convicted” and never truly change

We give our tithe, if we are crazy serve once a month - thinking “Jesus you’re welcome”

And we raise our hands in worship and maybe vocally “affirm” the sermon

But then we go home and nothing changes….!

That’s the foolishness!

Satan is like “awesome! They’re fooling themselves and I don’t even have to do anything.

Let’s plant more churches so more people can hear God’s word and do nothing about it!”

We need to stop playing games and get serious about God

Let’s not have a causal relationship with Jesus

Jesus isn’t our side chick

“If we like it we better put a ring on it”

Let’s commit, let’s live it out tomorrow, and the next day and the next

As the worship team comes up

I want to leave you with a few questions

Conclusion

Can you honestly say Jesus is your greatest treasure?

Have you ever had a season of your life where it felt like everything was dark and meaningless? What did you learn about yourself and God during that experience?

If you are a Christian, how does your view of the meaning of life differ from non-Christians you know?

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