Everything is Futile

Good Morning Compass Church Family!

—Add My Welcome…

—The Word of God reminds us that OUR GOD is the KING of KINGS… The LORD of LORDS. The GREAT, MIGHTY and AWE-INSPIRING GOD! And what a PRIVILEGE, it is to be welcomed into His presence…

To SING His Praises…

To Offer our PRAYERS and REQUESTS…

And to SIT under the AUTHORITY of HIS HOLY WORD… His revelation of Himself to Us…

Would you please Pray with me as we prepare to open God’s Word Together…

Let’s Pray

Our Heavenly Father, we do give you praise this morning, for your Awesome Deeds. And we Thank you, for your amazing Revelation of yourself through your holy Word.

Father as we open your Word together this morning. I pray that you would Speak powerfully to our hearts through your Holy Spirit.

Instruct us, in how we need to be instructed.

Reprove us where we need reproof.

Encourage us, where we need encouragement.

Conform us, we pray, into the image of Your Son Jesus Christ.

It’s in His name we pray.. Amen..

Amen…

Well conventional wisdom would probably say it’s not best to ask you to think about what you are going to do after church at the beginning of Sermon…

But this morning I am going to ask it anyways…

When you leave here today, how are you going to spend your afternoon…?

Or your week…?

Or even, your life?

And I don’t simply mean what are you going to DO…

or EAT…

or SAY…

I mean, HOW are you going to do those things…

What GUIDING PRINCIPLES are going shape your CHOICES and your ACTIONS?

What DRIVES your Decisions?

The World around us is FULL of Advice Telling us HOW we should make Decisions…

There are slogans from Big Brands such as Nike which tell us to:

Just Do IT..

---Don’t think about it…

Just do it! JUMP IN! Have FUN!

Our World often follows this advice and offers there own…

Follow your heart.

Do what FEELS good.

You Do YOU…

Be True to Yourself…

Others take a more pessimistic, or cynical approach to life, saying…

What will be, will be…

C’est La Vie..

-And in all of these mantras there is a certain fatalism present…

The implicit belief in them is that LIFE simply is…

There is no ORDER to it…

There is no PURPOSE outside of ourselves… So just ENJOY IT… Or ACCEPT it, and live your life…

And you know what? There is a certain element of Truth to that!

The Truth of the matter is this:

We live… and one day all of us will die…

We can’t Change that!

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So what is the Purpose of life!?

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Well Popular Culture has largely decided that the PURPOSE of life is simply to accumulate as many EXPERIENCES and POSSESSIONS and PLEASURES as we possibly can…

It is this Ideology which is packed into the HIGHLY Intelligent PHILOSOPHY, Academically known as:

YOLO

—I was kidding about the academic part…

YOLO, if you are older than… well, me… is an acronym meaning “You Only Live Once”… So:

Do what Feels Good!

Take Risks!

You don’t get another chance!

And so we have a generation of people ADDICTED to EXPERIENCES… TO ENTERTAINMENT… and to PLEASURE…

We’re always Waiting for the NEXT BIG THING!

The Next VACATION. The next JOB OPPORTUNITY. The next PARTY. The next LONG WEEKEND… The Next MOVIE PREMIERE.. The Next VIDEO GAME RELEASE… The next.... (Add your own..)

We’re constantly WAITING… and NEVER really Satisfied…

It’s been said:

People wait all week for Friday, all year for Summer and all of life for happiness.

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Is this the meaning of life!?

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Over the course of the Summer we are going to be looking at the book of Ecclesiastes to help us to answer that question…

Please Turn there in your Bible’s if you would… If you need help finding it.. you can open your Bible nearly right in the middle, and you’ll likely be in Job or psalms or proverbs… And right after Proverbs is the Book called ECCLESIASTES…

ECCLESIASTES is part of what we call the “WISDOM LITERATURE” of the Old Testament. Books like JOB, and PROVERBS are found in the same GENRE of WRITING…

These are a group of writings in the Old Testament, which Teach very practically how we as INDIVIDUALS ought to live life in REVERENCE for GOD, or in the “FEAR of the LORD”…

The Emphases of these books, are markedly on the INDIVIDUAL, rather than the CORPORATE people of Israel…

And it may be a little shocking to us after spending a number of months in the book of Exodus, that the Covenant name of God, His Special Relationship with His people Israel, and His COVENANT with them, are SCARCELY mentioned…

In that sense, Ecclesiastes, reads, not so much like an Instruction unto God’s people… Calling them to Worship HIM because of his SPECIAL COVENANT with them… But rather it is more of an APOLOGETIC, calling ALL PEOPLE to WORSHIP GOD, simply because HE IS GOD…

The Author of Ecclesiastes is going to EXPLORE the QUESTION: What is the meaning of LIFE?

And I promise you, Ecclesiastes has some Amazing, and sometimes SURPRISING, answers to that question…

Alright…

So Are You ready to See what Life is all about?

Let’s Read our Text Together, The book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, vs. 1…

Ecclesiastes 1:1 (CSB)

1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem.

And Actaully, If we’ll pause there for just a moment, and look down, In Vs. 12, He’ll go a little bit further in his introduction of Himself… He says:

Ecclesiastes 1:12–13 (CSB)

12 I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

13 I applied my mind to examine and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven...

Now many people look at this, and conclude that the TEACHER in Question here, is SOLOMON the Son of David, King of Jerusalem…

And that may very well be… Although, we are never told the name of the Author exactly, but it certainly fits, that the Author would be Solomon or Certainly someone of His Experience…

The Teacher says in vs. 16:

Ecclesiastes 1:16 (CSB)

16 I said to myself, “See, I have amassed wisdom far beyond all those who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has thoroughly grasped wisdom and knowledge.”

Certainly this fits Solomon. Remember, when He was King, God came to him and told him He could Ask for ANYTHING… ANYTHING, and he would give it to Him..... WOW! Can you imagine!? What would you ask for!?

But what did Solomon Ask for?

Wisdom!

And the Bible says:

1 Kings 4:29 (CSB)

29 God gave Solomon wisdom, very great insight, and understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore.

The Teacher here, has VAST WISDOM…

And What Else…

Well as we will see more clearly next week in chapter 2, THE TEACHER is also man of LAVISH WEALTH, and knew what it was like be filled with ALL the WORLD calls PLEASURABLE…

WISDOM, WEALTH, PLEASURE… In ABUNDANCE!

This guy HAS IT ALL!

His Experiences are UNSURPASSED!

There is NO ONE LIKE HIM!

And we’re told in vs. 13; that the Teacher applied all these Experiences to EXPLORE through WISDOM, all that is done under heaven… Here on Earth…

He’s asking the Question: What is the MEANING of LIFE?…

That Question, of course, has been asked for as long as the World EXISTED!

And now the Wisest man… Who had all the Riches… And all the Earthly Pleasures one could imagine is going to APPLY His Experience and Knowledge to answer the Question…

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And this is His Conclusion about life on Earth…

Are you Ready? You’re not gonna wanna miss this, Vs. 2:

Ecclesiastes 1:2 (CSB)

2 “Absolute futility,” says the Teacher. “Absolute futility. Everything is futile.”

Wait… What did He just say!?

Hear it again…:

Ecclesiastes 1:2 (CSB)

2 “Absolute futility,”...“Absolute futility. Everything is futile.”

Well What does He Mean?

Here’s what He means:

Everything is Futile!

It’s Vanity, Meaningless, it’s TRANSIENT, FADING,

Meaning in life is like a mist, or a breath, or the wind…

You can Chase it… but you’ll never catch it… when you GRASP IT, it’s GONE!

LIFE, The Teacher says, IS FUTILE! Absolutely Futile…

Are you Glad you Came to Church Today?

Some of you may be thinking… Is this really even in the Bible!?

Yes, it is, and we’ll come to see more clearly why, in just a little bit…

But first, the Teacher’s Message Get’s a little Harder… He’s about to make the message of Futility a little bit more PERSONAL…

Ready for it? this is what the Teacher is going to say:

Your Life is Futile

Not just life in general… But MY LIFE… and YOUR Life… He says, are futile..!

Look at Verse 3:

Ecclesiastes 1:3–4 (CSB)

3 What does a person gain for all his efforts that he labors at under the sun?

4 A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

Your Life is Futile

We LIVE OUR LIVES, we busy ourselves with WORK and PLAY… And try to people others will Call GOOD… Leaving a Mark on the world…

And What is the result?

Every Time…

No matter HOW Lavish...

No matter how Moral...

No matter how “healthy”...

No matter how Busy…

No matter how intentional...

No matter how Careful...

The Human Life still has a 100% Mortality Rate…

Generations Come… And Generations Go…

I like how the how the 19th Century Scottish Pastor Alexander MaClaren put it, He says:

[The Teacher in Ecclesiastes] looks out upon humanity, and sees that in one aspect the world is full of births, and in another full of deaths. Coffins and cradles seem the main furniture, and he hears the tramp, tramp, tramp of the generations passing over a soil honeycombed with tombs, and therefore ringing hollow to their tread.

Cradles and Coffins! That is Life! the teacher is saying…

We are BORN and then WE DIE… It’s Futile!

There is a story of a Mafia leader who had an elaborate funeral, including a gold casket. And when his casket was taken out of the funeral home at the end of the service, someone said, “Man, that’s the way to live.”

What!?

You see, Death Doesn’t discriminate! It don't matter if you lived lavishly in the palace or suffered daily on the street. And it certainly doesn’t matter what coffin we are buried in… All of us , Still Die!

The TEACHER imparts His Wisdom about life, by making sure we are VERY AWARE of our coming death…

And What’s more…?

When we Die, The Earth, will bear WITNESS to our DEATH… There is almost a Mocking tone here in the text…

Remember, We were created to RULE OVER the Created Order… To Represent GOD to Creation…

But because of Sin… This picture has become completely broken…

The creation, which we were meant to rule over, will look on as we die… It will still be here! We will not…

Our LIVES are futile…

Yet, Lest we think that NATURE is the meaning of life… Look at Vv. 5-8…

Even Nature is Futile

Ecclesiastes 1:5–8 (CSB)

5 The sun rises and the sun sets; panting, it hurries back to the place where it rises.

6 Gusting to the south, turning to the north, turning, turning, goes the wind, and the wind returns in its cycles.

7 All the streams flow to the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.

8 All things are wearisome, more than anyone can say. The eye is not satisfied by seeing or the ear filled with hearing.

Nature is Futile

Nature is a never-ending cycle of repetition…

It’s a Giant HAMSTER WHEEL, that is MOVING QUICKLY but getting NOWHERE!

And our lives are no different…

We are ALWAYS BUSY… But Accomplishing Very little…

Think about it..

How many of you did Laundry this past week?

Good, Did you Complete it!? Is it all done forever?

No… WE clean clothes, just to make them dirty again…

How about your lawn, Did anyone Cut their Grass this weekend?

Well I sure hope you didn’t pack the mower away too well… --With the rain we are having, you’ll be needing it again soon!

Of Course we could also talk about

Eating

Shaving

Cleaning

Or any other number of Repetitive tasks…

But here’s the Bottom Line…

Life is a REPETITIVE CYCLE…

It’s A HAMSTER WHEEL,

or a TREADMILL,

we RUN and RUN, but GET nowhere…

We often try to break the monotony of life with something new… We use Wisdom and Innovation to try to CHANGE the FUTILITY of Life…

But...

Look at Vv. 9 & 10:

It turns out, Our Innovation is Futile Too…

Ecclesiastes 1:9–10 (CSB)

9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Can one say about anything, “Look, this is new”? It has already existed in the ages before us.

Innovation is Futile

You might say, Hey, SURE, there are LOTS of New things…

And you would be right…

But do any of our NEW things, really change anything fundamental about life!?

Do they rescue us from our Futility!?

Do you remember when Computers were supposed to “make life easier?”

Or when more fuel efficient cars were supposed to make gas more affordable?

There are lots of new things… But Nothing Really Changes!

I remember last Summer, I was watering some flowers around the house, and I had my phone in my hand… When filling the watering can, I accidently sprayed some water into the charge port on my phone....

Nothing Truly Changes! And Nothing Truly Satisfies!

We think The Next New thing is what we really NEED… that it will be the thing that changes Everything… But once we have it… It is not new anymore… and we want something more!

It’s FUTILITY!!

The Teacher has one more example of Futility for us for now…

Vs. 11: And this one Hurts a little bit…

Guess, what… Even Your Legacy is Futile

Ecclesiastes 1:11 (CSB)

11 There is no remembrance of those who came before; and of those who will come after there will also be no remembrance by those who follow them.

Your Legacy is Futile

Pause And think about this for a moment… After you die… Which is the natural end for all people…

Do You think people will Remember you?

For How Long?

Let’s do a little Exercise… How many of you… Put your hands up if you know the answer to this question… How many of you know the first name of your GREAT GRANDFATHER… (Ok, How about your Great-Great Grandmother?)

(That’s 3 or 4 Generations)

And your own FAMILY!

Friends our lives our FLEETING! HERE one day.. GONE tomorrow… Forgotten then next…!

Cradles and Coffins… That is Life!

So the Teacher has seen it all.. He has sought the meaning of life…

What is the conclusion?

Ecclesiastes 1:14 (CSB)

14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

Everything is Futile! Everything is Transient! Nothing can be Grasped! Life is Fleeting!

Like a BREATH… It’s Gone…

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IT’s HOPELESS!

In Fact, in vs. 18 The Teacher says:

Ecclesiastes 1:18 (CSB)

18 For with much wisdom is much sorrow; as knowledge increases, grief increases.

He’s saying, the MORE I KNEW, the WORSE IT GOT!…

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Where is the Good news in this…?

Is there good news?

Friends, The Book of Ecclesiastes is FILLED with Hope!

Yes, The TEACHER, in this book, will speak MUCH abut the FUTILITY of Life…

And through the course of the Summer we will dig deeper into this book and see the futility of knowledge and of Riches and of Pleasure, in this life…

But we need to notice A VERY CLEAR BOUNDARY The teacher sets on this futility, right here in chapter 1…

We see it in Vv…3, 9, 13 and 14..

Look for the little phrase “Under the SUN”.... Vs. 3:

Ecclesiastes 1:3 (CSB)

3 What does a person gain for all his efforts that he labors at under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 1:9 (CSB)

9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:13 (CSB)

13 I applied my mind to examine and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven. God has given people this miserable task to keep them occupied.

Ecclesiastes 1:14 (CSB)

14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

UNDER the SUN isn’t a metaphor for LIFE on the BEACH… Or LIFE in the SUMMER… Or life Only on SUNNY DAYS…

It’s a METAPHOR for ALL OF LIFE on EARTH…

And Listen: The Teacher of Ecclesiastes is Describing VERY WELL for us, the GRIM REALITIES of a GENESIS 3 World…

Remember, In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve tried to USURP the Place of God by rebelling and doing the 1 THING God had told them not to do…

And as a result… The EARTH itself was CURSED… The Apostle Paul would later say, it was SUBJECTED to FUTILITY…

The World “Under the Sun” is BROKEN!

It is Broken… And there is no fix!!

Ecc. 1.15, the most depressing verse in this entirely disheartening chapter says this:

Ecclesiastes 1:15 (CSB)

15 What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

The Teacher says: LIFE BENEATH THE SUN, is BROKEN… It’s CROOKED… And there is nothing under the Sun which can fix it…

We can’t Conquer Sin… We can’t Beat Death!

We ourselves are CROOKED and BROKEN…

We need Someone BEYOND OURSELVES… We need SOMEONE from NOT UNDER THE SUN, to come and REDEEM our BROKENNESS and END our FUTILITY…

And that is the purpose of Ecclesiastes… The Teacher in Ecclesiastes, under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paints for us a very REAL and SOBERING picture of ourselves and the world we live in…

He says we are CROOKED PEOPLE in a CROOKED PLACE…

And there is NOTHING we can do to fix it…

And So he makes our hearts LONG, for someone who can…

Someone who can break the cycle of futility…

Someone who can Make the Crooked Straight…

Someone who can SAVE US, from our brokenness…

Friends, In Genesis 3… The Earth was SUBJECTED to FUTILITY… But in Romans 8, we read:

Romans 8:20–21 (CSB)

20 For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope

21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

And How does that Freedom Come?

It comes through What this table represents.

It comes through Jesus Christ…

Luke chapter 3, quoting the Great prophet Isaiah, and applying that prophecy to Jesus says this about Jesus Coming:

Luke 3:5–6 (CSB)

5 Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low; the crooked will become straight, the rough ways smooth,

6 and everyone will see the salvation of God.

And what an amazing Salvation it is!

A COSTLY Salvation too…

2 Corinthians 5:21 (CSB)

21 [God] made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus took our Brokenness, He took our Crookedness upon Himself… And gives to us His perfection!

We couldn’t do this on our Own… Friends, we needed a RESCUE!

And praise God, that is EXACTLY what HE PROVIDES!

Colossians 1:13–14 (CSB)

13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

14 In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:21–23 (CSB)

21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions.

22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—

23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven...

Yes, The World beneath the Sun has heard the good news!

And We SEE the good news this morning in this table.

The Futility of earth, was carried completely by Jesus Christ…

Friends this Table this morning, BECKONS… Whether you have NOT YET trusted in Jesus Christ for your Salvation; or whether you have been His Child for many many years… This table Beckons YOU and ME, to look Beyond ourselves for a SAVIOUR… BEYOND THIS WORLD, for PURPOSE… and MEANING… AND HOPE!

It Causes us to look to the only One, who can BREAK the FUTILITY of LIFE, and GIVE US HOPE…! Our Lord, Jesus Christ…

He, the king of Heaven, GAVE up his GRASP of HEAVEN… To become like one of us…

To Live, Under the Sun…

He made himself nothing…

He was Born, as A man…

He Died… Like all men…

Like a Cradle and Coffin…

Jesus had a manger and a grave…

He KNEW our Futility...

He LIVED IT!

—But His life was not FUTILE!

3 days after His death, In that Cold Dark Grave… The Curse of Futility was Broken!

LIFE returned to that Lifeless Body!

The Sting of Death, which is sin, was Forever CONQUERED!

The GRAVE was Defeated!

His Body, Died, not in FUTILITY… --But rather through His Life, Death and Resurrection, He brought LIFE, --ABUNDANT and ETERNAL LIFE,-- from HEAVEN, DOWN, to the world under the Sun…

So that one day, we might GRASP, with Him, the Eternity He has prepared for us… to the Eternal Glory and Praise of God!

Friends the Book of Ecclesiastes is going to Call us… Over and Over again in the coming weaks…

To Relinquish our GRASP on things which don’t matter…

MONEY… POWER… SEX… STATUS…ALL ARROGANCE and PRIDE…

And it will BECKON us to Find a life MORE PLEASURABLE, more SIGNIFICANT, more PURPOSEFUL, then we could have ever imagined, In Jesus Christ our Lord…!

I’m going to invite the Worship team to come, and lead us in a song, before we remember and celebrate the Salvation of our Lord around this table together this morning.