Longing - Blandon PA

Well Good Morning Church!

I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord.

Well I know that there has already been an introduction, but just to introduce myself a little bit: My name is David Poland, I am the pastor of Grace Bible Church way way out in sunny and warm Las Cruces, NM. I am the stateside BFC Pastor that every year gets an award for travelling the furthest to make it to the BFC Annual conference. I have been married for almost 17 years now to my wonderful and beautiful wife named Desiree. So If I say that name, that is my wife and she is the absolute best. We also have two living sermon illustrations, or as most call them, kids. We have a 15 year old son named Jayden and a 5 year old daughter named Willow. In case it matters we also have three cats two dogs and a hamster...

I also have a bit of a problem. That Problems name is: I go far too slowly preaching through books of the Bible. If you have ever sat there and thought: Wow… we sure have been in this sermon series for a long time! Well then my church can relate. In the past four years I have finished two series. A 66 week trek through the book of Isaiah, and a 97 week stay in the book of Matthew, just looking at those verse by verse. And so when I took to the elders my suggestions for the next sermon series that we should do I said: lets do a short Series, and so we were selecting from Ecclesiastes or Ezra and Nehemiah. And blessedly my elders selected Ecclesiastes.

So you might be thinking, OK short series, how many is that? Well I just preached the 13th message last week and made it halfway through...

I bring that up because, I asked Desiree, and my elders and some of the members of our church which passage in Ecclesiastes I should preach out here for you guys, and this one was the overwhelming favorite. But I also bring this up because we have been slogging our way through a whole host of CONTEXT that really helps us understand how to read the passage that we read together earlier in this service.

So we have to start a little differently, Partly review, but also partly to get our our mind in the right place, I want to highlight a thought that comes in the passage RIGHT BEFORE the one that we will wrestle with today. The point that was made came from the second half of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3 verse 11. Where Solomon said

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

And so to help you out just a little bit, here is in 10 seconds what I devoted an entire sermon to in Las Cruces: this thought — that god has given us Eternity — is a gift, but a gift given in particular way. He's placed in our heart... This is how i would say it... He's placed in our hearts a longing, a desire, for eternity. And yet because we live here on this earth and because of the way we are made, we don't experience eternity right now. Instead, we experience this flow of time from point A to point B and we're stuck in the middle of it. We don't get to see the end and the beginning all at once. Though we long for that, our longing does not make it so.

Really, That same thought is what will take us through our passage for today. Though when speaking of eternity it was a sort of gift, here a similar longing is a cause for much consternation. Because it turns out that there are certain things in our hearts that we long for, that we desire. And yet as much as we want and as much as we desire and as much as we wish… longing for these things does not make them so.

There are certain things that God has made us such that we we have a deep-seated, earnest, and heartfelt desire for... But just because you want something doesn't mean you deserve it. Just because we want it really hard — what makes us think that we are going to get it.

But truly this is a problem that everyone struggles with. If you look around, you start to see over and over again, is this idea of entitlement and people think i deserve things. I i am worthy of these things and there's certain things because i want them, i deserve them so i will have them.

Solomon is quick to show us that just because you desire something or just because you want something, no matter how much you want it and how earnest your desire is, that doesn't mean it will be.

So again, our passage for today is Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 16. And we're actually going to read through Chapter 4. This is cheating a little bit, but that is because 4:1-3 are what I call a hinge passage, they belong both to the passage before and after, like a hinge is part of the door and the wall… so we are just going to include the whole thing to help us. And though we have already heard it, there is nothing better for us than to hear the word of the the Lord, so I would like to read it again, just so we can make sure that we are all on the same page, and also because there are season hard thoughts that we have to just land painfully for a second.

So Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 16 through chapter 4, verse 3 will be our text this morning This is what Solomon says:

Ecclesiastes 3:16–4:3 ESV

Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Let's open with a word of prayer.

Our holy Father in heaven, The just righteous judge of all the earth. The one who has placed eternity in our hearts, but yet has made us such that we do not always see the end or the beginning. We ask that you would show yourself to us, Though we cannot see or fully comprehend these things. Reveal to us who you are and what you've done, though we do acknowledge that we often ponder and speak of things that are far too great for us. WE ask that you would help us to see your truth, Your work, that you would help us to see the hope that you have given to us in your word. But importantly, in your son, jesus christ our lord. We thank you for the empowering work of the holy spirit, the one who indwells us and empowers us to live for you. I pray that you would speak to us, speak through your word and speak through your servant. May we draw closer to you. It's in jesus name that we pray. Amen.

So I would say that it is interesting that many people thought I should share this passage with youi all. because Ecclesiastes has been in depressing book. And of all the the verses in all of Ecclesiastes that my church has covered so far -- we closed what we read this morning -- chapter 4 verse 3 is probably the MOST depressing of all of the depressing thoughts that Solomon will have. And when confronted with this sort of thing we have really two options.

One: We could just shrug them off and say like “well that's just being rather depressed” or something like: Solomon's just going through his emo phase. He's he doesn't really mean that.

Or Two: we can take these words and realize Solomon is just being honest with the way he feels.

Ecclesiastes 4:2–3 ESV

And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

“I thought” verse 2. The dead who are already dead. Are more fortunate than the living who are still alive.” What is he saying here? That it's better to be dead than it is to be alive. But the best of all says, Solomon in verse 3, It's the one who has not been born yet.

Because the living, well we have to live with the broken world. And the dead they HAD to live in, for at least sometime, the broken world. The best bet you have is to not be born yet. Because then, at least there, you don't have to see and deal and cope with the brokenness of this world.

And maybe we feel that way sometimes. And one of, i would say, the fundamental reasons that we feel the way Solomon is lamenting in this passage is because of these deep-seated longings that we have. These things that we have that we feel are not satisfied. And so, what are they? what has he described for us in this passage? The first i was say is our longing for justice.

The longing for JUSTICE

We all desire to see that the bad guy gets punished and the good guy gets rewarded. It's what we want. We all desire to see justice take place. We rightly rejoice when the innocent are proven innocent against all of the accusations levied against them. And we rejoice when "the right thing happens" at the times when we see justice being doled out, such that right punishment and consequences happen for people's injustices.

We all, and here truly WE ALL -- the whole world — longs for justice. Even those who in the world have some warped sense of justice, they still want justice. You see people out there who who take what god has said and god's justice, which is true justice, and they warp it. They still want justice. Even if they're warped, sinful fallen thinking, they don't understand what it truly is. You ask them? Do you want justice? Of course.

When you see some crime, some tragedy, what do people cry out for justice for this person justice for that person?

We all have a deep seated longing for justice. Here's the problem: The world's not always just.

This is how we opened up in verse 16. Under the sun in the place of justice. Even there was wickedness.

We've all seen this. It's the corrupt judge, or the corrupt court, or the corrupt court system. It's people who are judges, not because they have earned it or they're good at it, but because they have the right political connections. It's the judges who are taking bribes under the table. Or allowing their personal thoughts and histories to warp the decisions that they make.

It's when we look and it's even worse than just crooked judges. It's when the entire justice system is broken and warped. Such that the poor and often get the book thrown at them and receive all sorts of unjust and inappropriate consequences for their actions and the rich can get away with murder because that's the way the system works.

We've seen this Here under the sun, that Even in the place of justice, there is wickedness. But it gets worse! Even In the place of righteousness. It's not just the courts, and it's not just the court system that we bemoan this lack of justice. But even the places that are supposed to be the most righteous, the most upright, the most holy set apart places. Why is there wickedness abounding there?

The Las Cruces Diocese of the Catholic Church is, in many ways, the center of the Catholic priest sexual abuse scnadal that rocked the Catholic Church. So much so that if you drive around town you we see multiple billboards for a website that the adress tells you all you need to know about the content: www.nmpriestabuse.com ? At the heart is that they are trying to grapple with and help teach how you can find healing from these people who are abused by the church? But wait… Look at... if we don't go to the catholic church... we want to say. “Well, that's their problem” (note, you don’t get to say that, these injustices affect us and we have a duty to stand up for the abused.. but maybe we want to bury our heads in the sand for a second) Then look to the largest denomination, the largest protestant denomination, the southern baptist convention. Because recently they have been dealing with the exact same thing. Because what Solomon says is undeniably true: that even in the places of righteousness, there is wickedness abounding.

Because here is the rub: We all have a deep-seated longing for justice, but when we look at the world, we don't see it.

Chapter 4, verse 1, begins to speak of oppression. So maybe it's not just the systems.

Yeah, we might want to say, Sometimes there's people working in the systems that don't work. WE understand, that… in the just places there's wickedness, and in the righteous places There's wickedness. But… we want to still say, but but at least there's not full-fledged oppression. but that's not true either. there is oppression and it is often all around us.

Solomon looks out in chapter 4 verse 1. And he sees all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And he sees and he witnesses, the tears of the oppressed, the tears of the broken, the tears of the disadvantaged, the tears of the ones who have been used and abused and trod all over. And we want to hear -- because we have this longing for justice— We want to hear “And then some hero stands up to defend them.” And we want to hear, “but it won't always be that way.”

Solemn beholds, the tears of the oppressed first chapter 4 verse 1, and there is no one To comfort them.

The oppressors have all the power verse 1 of chapter 4, “on the side of the oppressors. There was power.” And so, what happens to the oppressed? No one can comfort them. There's no justice. There's no righteousness. There's no standing up for the oppressed. The world is broken and painful.

Heres the hard truth of life: Solomon looks at the world. And he notes the same things that we do. Sure, We long for justice, we long for goodness, we long to see the oppressed be NOT oppressed, we long for this.... But you don't see it. And you don't see it. Because of… this is why i wanted to start in. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 11… We don't have the view to see everything.

Solomon started chapter 3 with what would become a radio hit and is the most famous portion of Ecclesiastes: what I called the “time” poem. And there he beautifully illustrated that, god is sovereign over all things that there's a time for everything and every purpose. To be born and a time to die, for laughing and for mourning… and really while we look around and think: there is obviously a time where we see wickedness and oppression, the truth is that there will come a time where justice will happen. Maybe it feels like there is in the times of laughing and crying and planting and plucking up that there is only a time for wickedness, and Justice will never prevail... but we think that and see that because we don’t have the full view.

We ask: Is there really a time for all of these things? What's going to happen? Well, i look out, i long for justice, i don't always see it. But chapter 3 verse 17, “i said in my heart, god will judge. The righteous and the wicked for there is a time. For every matter. And for every work.”

The answer that we sometimes don't want to hear. But that we need to hear from time to time is this: You may have a longing for justice. And on the eternal scale. On god's cosmic scale the one who knows the end from the beginning and knows all things... on his scale, there will be justice. For god is just. But you're not promised that you're going to get to see it. You may live in a time where it feels like in the place of justice there's wickedness, and that in the place of righteousness there's wickedness. We look around and see the time where all the oppression is happening. There's more wickedness and that's all i see. And that may be all you ever see. But we must say in our heart god will judge. God -- The righteous judge of all time -- it is for him to decide these times.

So now we're back to where it all started. You may have a deep-seated longing for justice. And it's good and right to to fight to see justice happen. It's good and right for us to stand against wickedness in the halls of justice and wickedness in the place of righteousness, it's good and right for us to endeavor to fight against the oppressor and to fight for the oppressed. We should do that because truly those fights are good and right.

But where in scripture Are we promised-- this side of the sun... That has been Solomon’s call to help us see that what we see on earthy and what God is doing in heaven are not always the same. He calls us to see under the sun which means this life, this earthly life in a fallen world -- here in this life, where is it promised that we'll see the world operating perfectly? I help you out: Nowhere.

And so this life is hard. Because you feel this longing. And you might not see it come to fulfillment, but that's not the only longing. We also in this passage, see a deep-seated longing for purpose.

The longing for PURPOSE

I just bring it up... I say that word purpose. and it is one that has infiltrated our lives as Christians in the year 2024. Here's a question for you. What is The highest selling christian book outside of the bible this century? It is the highest ranked on the New York times bestseller list.

I'll give you a hint, what word was on your blank: Purpose.

It's “the purpose driven life” by rick warren. And I would say that it is the most selling book because We all want purpose and we just.. you hear the title. I won't get into rick warren and A lot of the things he's done recently... Let's not go there… But we hear the title, “a purpose driven life” and we say “I want that.” its a best seller because it appeals to this fundamental longing we all have: We long for purpose, we long that our life has meaning and purpose and that we have a goal and aim and the purpose of our life that drives us and motivates us. And in that we want and we desire and we long for something higher. Some purpose, that's greater and bigger. it sounds like a dream that is too good to be true, to have a purpose driven life, because we long for purpose.

But as is often the case in the book of Ecclesiastes, I have some bad news.

Ecclesiastes 3:18 ESV

I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.

We long for purpose. But one of the tests that we are given, one of the things that we have here on this life under the sun, is this test that shows us We're just beasts. What's the difference between myself? And my dogs. I mentioned earlier we have a lot of pets, Three cats two Dogs and a hamster… So Here is the question again: what is the diffrence between Me and my pets?

Well, i want to be careful how i answer it... but just follow me here for a second…

I can tell you what is not a difference. We all have The same fate. In particular that We all die.

Ecclesiastes 3:19 (ESV)

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other.

So it's not one of us lives in the other dies, we we both die. So what separates me from the beast? It's not the breath. We have the same breath.

Ecclesiastes 3:19 (ESV)

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath

They all have the same breath.

So in this line of thinking, what advantage do i have, and really what separates me from the beast?

Ecclesiastes 3:19 (ESV)

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.

Why do we have no advantage? We can begin to stack up all the reasons. same fate, same breath, and ultimatly, Here's why verse 20: we all Go to one place.

Ecclesiastes 3:20 ESV

All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.

The fundamental stuff that makes me up. Is the same fundamental stuff that makes up all the beasts. Right, we could get scientific. We're all carbon-based life forms. In chemistry: you look down the periodic table of the elements. I made up of stuff on the periodic table of the elements. So are the beasts. We could get biological, I am made up of cells and DNA and the beasts are made up of cells and DNA.

And so, although i long for purpose, i long for something “more than” Ultimately, Says Solomon You're not guaranteed it. Because you're a beast. We read the story beauty and the beast but in reality it was beast and beast because We are all tested just to show us that we are all but beasts!

And that maybe not what you thought you'd be hearing today, You are thinking, who does this guy from New Mexico think that he is, coming out here and callig us beasts? But I am sorry, it is not just me, but this is what Solomon says. What happens to the children of man and What happened to beast is the same. They both die. They both breathe the same air. They both end up dying. “And who really knows” he asked... Spoiler alert, Here's your clue to the answer of how we're going to get past this... but let's dwell in this muck for a little bit.... You both die. And who really knows.

Ecclesiastes 3:21 ESV

Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?

Who really knows? Whether your soul gets to ascend to heaven and the beast, just goes to the earth... In fact, we make movies called all dogs go to heaven... hoping that in fact, our souls end up in the same place. As if the dogs even have souls the same way humans.. We long for these things. But what promise do we have?

Lets be honest for just a second… If all we're looking at is here under the sun, if life is only here under the sun, note this caveat if all we have is life under this sun. What promise, what hope do we have that our longing for purpose and meaning will ever be fulfilled? We have none.

If all we have is under the sun, if all we have is life here, if all we have is this stuff... There's no hope. This longing for purpose, that we all have this longing for meaning and worth and value this longing… It'll leave you fruitless. And empty. It's vanity!

So Solomon throws up his hands. And this is why we get to this point: The dead who are already dead. They're more fortunate living, but still better off than even them are the ones who have not been born yet… because at least they haven't dealt with this unjust purposeless existence. That's what Solomon feels life under the sun is like.

But instead of just living here, lets push back. How do we find meaning? How can we, how can we scrape together something In this longing for purpose. Well, here's the start of your answer. Truly here this is a rhetorical question Solomon Asks... it's not intended to be answered. But let's answer it.

Ecclesiastes 3:21 ESV

Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?

who knows?

Here's a hint. As to who knows: there is one who placed eternity in the hearts of, man. And yet though, we are made, so that we cannot see the beginning or the end. There is one who is eternal and sovereign. There is one who rules and reigns. He knows.

Who knows Whether the spirit of man goes upward? God does. Who knows what happens to the spirit of the beasts? god does! Who knows What our purpose may be? God does. We long for purpose where we can sit down and map out. Here's my purpose. God called me on this earth to do x, y or z. And maybe that's the case. But maybe. God has called me to live this earth and I will spend a lot of my time kicking against the goads and running head first into brick walls.

Go read. Almost any biography of any missionary that's been out there. “I'm called to go here to this country to this place. That's never heard the gospel, and i'll preach the gospel, and I'll plant churches, and i'll do this. And i'll do that, and they go there, and it's failure after failure after roadblock after heartbreak, after trial, after trouble after stumble, after stumble, and then they die. So from their limited view they served no purpose, they did (they feel) nothing.

But God uses that to change the world. 10, 15, 20 30, 100 years later. The trials and the struggles that these missionaries endured planted the seeds for missions work to grow. So was there purpose? Maybe they thought it was to go plant churches and do this, but maybe their purpose was To lay the foundation on the back of their struggles. Maybe the soil would be made soft not by their labor but by their tears. They thought that they had one purpose, and they were driven by that, but God had other plans. They were there to bang their head against the wall so that maybe a tiny crack will develop on the door that someone else can come kick the door down.

We don't know, we have longing for deep meaningful purpose and we never know we have no way of ever knowing what that end result will be. So trust in the one who knows. Because we're going to here get to some application. In truth this is the application for the whole second main portion of Ecclesiastes, You get to hear it from me once, My church has had to hear it over and over and over again...

So if There are sort of chunks that we've been looking at Ecclesiastes, the first chunk was “There's no purpose in these things so quit trying to find it. Just find your purpose in god.” (for those who want to dive into Ecclesiastes that was chapters 1 and 2)

Well, this section second section that we're in right now. It started with There's a time for everything… Moved to toil and fruitless labor and that we are ashes to ashes and dust to dust… and now here there is one thought that you must remember: you're not Sovereign so remember your place.

You have a task given to you by god, do what god gave to you, remember your place. What's the solution to our deep-seated longing? It's to find rest in our place.

rest in OUR PLACE

I live in a place where i may not see justice. Though My deep longing is for justice. There's no promise or guarantee that i will ever see justice here under the sun. But if my entire hope and longing and everything in me is hinging upon me seeing justice here and now… There will be no rest.

There will be strife and trials and troubles and struggles and i'll push and I'll strain and i'll die unhappy. But if instead i see my place is to long for justice to in to seek justice right?!? “seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with god” and i will seek it and i will do everything in my power to seek to find justice. To root out, the wickedness in the place of justice to root out, wickedness in the place of righteousness to stand for the oppressed and stand against the oppressor. But know that i may find myself crushed. While i stand there.... and That's my place. well once I know that, and submit to God’s plan for that, i'll find rest there.

While I think that there is no formula that we can find to have 40 days and magically find my whole purpose for what God has called me to, this part of that equation is true: God has given me a purpose and he's given me dreams and things that i long for. But what i long for… above all else, is his glory! and so i will sacrifice all of me, all of my hopes and dreams, my self-proclaimed my-self desired purpose. I will lay that at the foot of the cross. There, i will find god's purpose for me.

If i want MY purpose and what I want, then i will seek after that in very selfish ways. But if instead i humble myself bow at the cross, humble all of me and give it to jesus, then god will… Ephesians teaches us… “Prepare good works that i may walk in them.”

And so, my purpose isn't what i want. My purpose is what god has called me to. That's my place. There I will find rest. Our longing.... This is how i will phrase this.... We don't find rest from our longing, or more rightly we don’t find rest IN the things that we are longing for.... We find rest In the sovereign god of heaven.

The end result is this: if you are longing for anything other than god in his glory you will find yourself disappointed.

If you are longing for justice, Even when you see some justice, you still won't be fulfilled. Because there was always more injustice. And if you long for purpose, And you, you get there. You will find that you climb this ladder, that was leaning against the wrong building, the whole time and you was still find no purpose. All the money in the world will not fill that longing. All of the family... All of the anything we think is our purpose, if it's anything other than god it will leave us empty.

So instead we rest in the completed work of our savior, we rest in the grace and the kindness of the sovereign god who created us. Who knows us. What advantage... to go back to this question… Do i have over the beasts? I am made in the image of god.

So, i'll rest in that. They don't have that. We may be made of the same stuff, but God breathed into man, giving him the breath of life. We are made in his image. That's where we find our purpose. In God and his work and what he is doing, That's where we'll find justice. That's where we'll find hope. That's where we'll find peace. That's where we'll find everything. That's the difference. That's our place. And that's our Joy. That is where we find fulfillment for ALL our Longing!

Let's pray.