THE OUTER LIMITS: ECCLESIASTES-Solomon & THE NFL

THE OUTER LIMITS: ECCLESIASTES Solomon & The NFL Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 In 1964 IBM created an airline ticket reservation system. On the 20th of July 1969 Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong with Apollo 11 walked on the moon - or a Hollywood basement studio rocked the world, go with that wherever you will. In 1974 the first grocery store purchase was made using a barcoded item. In 1976 the apple 1 computer was made. The Walkman was released in the 80s. The CD was invented in 83 and it took a while to get to the ultimate highest of that technology, the 10 second anti skip Sony Walkman, CD player! In 1997 Wi-Fi became a wireless Internet standard and I joined the Army. 2002 robot made the highest form of useful robot technology and sealed robot tech as my lifetime’s greatest disappointment with the Roomba vacuum however, Tye was born so 2002 year is redeemed from the robot. In 2005 YouTube opened up shop. In 2007 June the great change of our generation came to be, the iPhone was invented - life changed. And guess what, we can fly to space - build a space station, we can consume portable music, work on a computer, read about almost anything on the web without a wire. You can watch videos telling you how to clean your car, learn to skateboard, or build a house - but we’re just as depressed as ever we’re born, we live, we die - this is still the cycle of life despite our every attempt. Suicide rates are high - depression and medication for dissatisfaction is huge business even all this advent, all this technology, all these forward movements - leave us just where we were, depressed and dissatisfied. Nothing is fixed by it all - nothing changes - more are born, we grope and work to be happy in this life, we fail, more are born, more try - and more failure This is here, we all with Solomon, meaningless, meaningless vanity But is that the point, did Solomon sit to write a book that ends with everything is without meaning? Did God inspire that book - or is there more here for us? What gives me purpose in my work, in my day-to-day existence? Is there any point in tomorrow? That is what we’ll see today: Ecclesiastes 1:1–11 (ESV): All Is Vanity 1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2  Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3  What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4  A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5  The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6  The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. 7  All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8  All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9  What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10  Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. 11  There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. This book is wisdom literature - J.I. Packer would say that Job teaches us to suffer, Psalms teaches us to worship, Proverbs teaches us to behave, Song of Solomon teaches us to love, and Ecclesiastes teach us to live. Lets see how these words talk to us about living, instructively and not simply descriptively. Ecclesiastes is written by the now wise Solomon. I watched a docuseries this week called Last Chance U it’s on a junior college in Mississippi that dominates and specializes in taking lost cause DI players and rehabilitating their eligibility and building their recruit ability with game film - it’s interesting to see them deal with issues. They’re kids, largely. Many times who’ve not been raised to have goals and structure and they self-destruct so quickly. However, their adviser has lived some life and tries to keep them on track, their coaches as few of which are former NFL players or coaches give them good advice to keep them concentrated on the goal - that’s how I see Solomon and the book of Ecclesiastes. This is a book of scripture that was ultimately inspired by God that in light of the NT sheds light on Jesus entire life and lets us live through Solomon, the ultimate life coach with NFL style life experience. He made rich NFL football players look like peasants. He was the King - living for total pleasure and joy and he comes full circle, and Ecclesiastes chronicles his feelings about his lavishness. Meaningless meaninglessness, the embodiment of all that it means to have no meaning is found in earthly pleasure, he says, the highest form of meaninglessness is what he found in life it’s all hollow - and maybe we’re like the Last Chance U guys, I hope not, we shrug off the advice of one who has been there thinking, I’ll be different - no you wont. That’s why we have addition, because you never arrive - you always need more. Nothing satisfies, promises for happiness under the sun, are things meaningless meaninglessness. Maybe you change happiness and meaning in vacation, sexual experimentation, buying a house, buying a car, changing jobs, trying to get a better job or a higher degree - like Last Chance U players desperately trying to be happier with their D1 school, like professionals desiring to be more highly respected in their field, like blue collar workers desiring a higher wage and more union breaks - we’ll look back after a life of working for 50 years and will say with Solomon, it was all meaningless in light of the end of my life - the work is all about work. Ecclesiastes 1:3–11 (ESV): 3  What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? The answer is assumed, nothing. That’s the look back over 50 years of work - it’s all meaningless. For Solomon not heeding the word of God for the king in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 made him find his identity in the riches and seek to find joy there - here he laments that this is the message the preacher has to the gathered people - you’ve heard of my 1,000 wives and concubines - meaningless, and maybe you’re like the junior college player trying to get to a D1 school, you hear the previous NFL player and think he just washed out or just played briefly he doesn’t know what he's saying, I’m telling you - he’s arrived where you may never go - and he’s come back with a word for you, listen. That’s Solomon by way of quick picture of his wealth - the highest paid NFL player; Andrew Luck will make 140/m over 6 years. Solomon was paid 66 talents of gold, yearly in addition to the 15 in taxes through merchant (1 Kings 10) it says in 1 Kings 10:21 that he had all his cups made of gold and silver/gold were common in Jerusalem as stones (1 Chronicles 1:15 1 Kings 27) - the talents were close to 75lbs of gold at 1,500 per ounce that’s about 1,092,906,000 annually, step aside Andrew Luck. The Philly Eagles total salary cap is 151,102,265 - the entire salary cap for the 4,801,733,809 - they’re beating Solomon, but that’s before adjustment for the 1,000-year inflation adjustment. And so Solomon, as rich as the entire NFL franchise 4  A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. NIV flips the order seeking to be easier to read, ESV never being fearful of confusion leaves the word order, and preserves the poetry and meaning. Solomon gave the weight to the generations coming of one as another has left - like the sea not rising despite the stream running into it - it’s no net gain, all the wealth just leaves you wanting more - it’s meaningless. Verses 5/8 pile up like those scan lines establishing the pattern from nature that says, things come, things go - there is no net change 5  The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6  The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. 7  All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8  All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Verse 4 was split in two: Ecclesiastes 1:4 (ESV): a) A generation goes, and a generation comes, Things come and go, there is no net change - then the author stacks examples onto each other wind, water, life, etc. … then part b is waiting to be explained: b) But the earth remains forever. There is all this turn over and all this change in all of nature but there is no change and no purpose. The ear and the eye will never be full here we are a thousand years later - soaking up hours and hours of YouTube - We add one hour a second to YouTube 60 hours of video a minute, 4 billion views a day 800 million visitors a month - to vide more and more the eye is never full, the ear never full - we’re never satisfied, it’s all meaningless, Carl. 9  What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10  Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. It’s not that there is literally nothing new, no new discoveries no new ideas, but the point is that this is poetry; you don’t ready poetry like that. Poetry is read to draw the ideas through an artful form - there he is showing that life is cyclical, there may be space travel, and computers and wireless Internet and, but we can add nothing through our work and our ideas. We’re still depressed and powerless - we still live and die and cannot add days to our lives, and so there is no meaning to it all if all we seek is advancement and purpose in this life. 11  There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. Here is the deal, Solomon wrote this book for our good. He’d lived this life - he was like the coaches at the junior college with NFL experience giving advice to guys going to the NFL - except he would have told them guys the NFL or the D1 school wont give you the joy you need - find joy in the path and the day-to-day, Solomon would one up that advice, and declare that God the one who is OVER the sun, is the fulfillment of all that's under it - the one that created it all, that sustains those cycling systems of streams into the ocean and of wind that swirls and people that come and die and more are born - we have the blessing of knowing Jesus, who came sent of God to gather people and give us purpose in the kingdom of God. If this book teaches us to live, and teaches us to live in a time that even Solomon didn’t have, a time where the Christ they were looking for has come - and so it teaches us to live, and live richly because we have purpose and meaning - above the sun in God. Maybe you’ve never thought of life in that way - maybe you've tied purpose and hope and joy to things in this life - this book will free you when you come to the preacher to Qoheleth, to Solomon who has something to say - he spends time, showing you that all of this life is meaningless, everything here is cyclical - he forces your eyes to something greater, something with more purpose. Imagine when you can be free of looking for joy to stem from the things in this world and under the sun - then you can be freed to see the great value of Jesus, the God man, who builds this everlasting Kingdom above the sun - outside of this life, and the purpose’s in the things you do are to be a magnet to that - then you can have joy as you move through this life cycles, it’s outcomes don’t have to determine your joy, rather you know your outcome is to enjoy God’s great goodness forever, and now you’re freed from the meaninglessness of meaningless life and free to riches now realized in Christ as you go after God. Ecclesiastes & Jesus As Meaning THE OUTER LIMITS: ECCLESIATES – Solomon & THE NFL Pastor John Weathersby Transcend Church 7 of 7 Sunday 10/2/2016