Finding Fulfillment

Intro:

Good morning! I am excited as always to be with you this morning.

Before we get started this morning, I wanted to take a minute to pray with me for a good friend of mine, Bethany, Miki, and Aaron’s.

Jason McFerren has been diagnosed with type A&B flu, pneumonia, and now COVID-19.

He was admitted to Cabrini Friday night and is on the COVID floor.

Please pray for healing and for peace for his family.

We will pray in a moment as we begin, but would you please add him and his family to your prayer list?

I also want to ask our life group leaders to take time this week and reflect on the message today and then write some questions with your group in mind.

I know that as I am working through the material each week, I am thinking of my life group and it is really helpful for me in preparing for our discussion if I am prayerfully asking God for the right questions.

Would you join me in leading your group by asking God to lead your discussion through your questions?

It has been a unique experience these last three weeks to not be physically with you, but to be able to feel the community none-the-less.

I know that churches all over the world are doing church in a similar manner that we are and I don’t know what their experience is like, but I have been blessed by this time.

I miss all of you, but for me, it has been proof that our relationship isn’t dependent on stuff or a particular setting.

All of us seeking God together is what makes us who we are and I wanted to thank you all for that.

The Lord has been speaking and revealing Himself this week and a lot of it has come through the members of our body.

Thank you for sharing what He is speaking into your life.

I wanted to start today with something that I read in Blackaby yesterday morning.

Those around you desperately need to be encouraged by your latest encounter with Christ.

Some have lost hope that they can experience the reality of God’s presence in their lives.

They don’t need your philosophies or theological speculations.

They don’t need to hear your opinions on what they should do.

They need to hear from someone who has just come from a personal, life-changing encounter with the living Christ.

When you have had such an experience you will be like the apostle John, hardly able to contain yourself as you rush out to tell others of your amazing encounter with God.

Your responsibility will not be to convince others of the reality of God, but simply to bear witness to what your Lord has said and done for you.

The change in your life will be your greatest testimony of your relationship to Christ.

There is nothing more appealing or convincing to a watching world than to hear the testimony of someone who has just been with Jesus.

This relationship that we have with God and with one another is what the watching world needs.

There has never been a better time to speak life into the lives of those we love and do life with than now.

It doesn’t matter that we aren’t sitting across the table from one another.

As you talk with others, whether that be Zoom, Facetime, Skype, text, or voice, you have the opportunity to share with others what God is doing in your life.

I don’t know what your experience has been over the last week, but for me, I have found that people aren’t just willing to talk about God, but are seeking opportunities to talk.

They, like everyone, are looking for some sort of understanding about what is going on around us.

The experts and leadership are doing their very best, but still don’t have solid, concrete, answers to how long this will last or how to cure the virus.

As a result, the people that I have been talking to, are looking to God for answers.

Just to be clear, I don’t have any, but I am able to share the ways that God has been speaking to me about the questions I’m asking.

God hasn’t told me the why, when, or how.

However, He has been speaking, daily, to pursue Him and find my comfort in Him.

Today’s passage, I believe, speaks directly to the heart of this idea of sharing with others what we have in Jesus.

Let’s begin this morning with prayer, reading of the word, and then allow the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to us.

Prayer: Father, we come to you this morning, completely void of answers for a world that desperately needs them. We have friends and family that are either directly or indirectly afflicted by this virus. Jesus, we ask first for healing for those that are sick. I want to mention specifically, Jason McFerren. Father, we ask that you would break up the congestion in his lungs, allowing him to be able to breath. We ask that you would stop the fever and migraines that he has had for the last week. We ask that you would comfort his family. Give them the assurance father that you are aware of his suffering, that you are working, and that you love them. As we read your word this morning we ask that you would open our hearts and minds to understand and apply the truth that you are speaking today. God show us who you are through your word today. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11 ESV

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

The last two weeks we have talked about wisdom.

We looked at the importance that wisdom plays in our lives and where we need to go to find that wisdom.

When we studied the end of this book, we saw that at the end of his life, the teacher came to the conclusion that all is temporary and in the end, the whole of man is to love and obey God.

We need to continually keep that in mind as we read this book.

We see the teacher moving in a pattern that we too move in throughout our lives.

Think about the last week of your life.

Most are obviously going stir crazy.

They’ve resorted to playing hide and seek on Facebook.

Think about when these memories pop up in ten years. lol

My point is that we are looking for something that will fulfill us.

It’s not just a symptom of being quarantined.

It is something that we have always struggled with, it is just compounded when we are stuck at home.

In our text, we see that the teacher has searched, all over the known world, for wisdom.

He has found it, studied it, applied it and yet, was unfulfilled.

We see in our passage today, that the teacher decides to search in the pleasures that the world has to offer for what will bring him joy and a sense of satisfaction.

Ecclesiastes 2:1–3 ESV

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

We need to hear and apply the words of the teacher.

I think that one of the things we need to see as we study this book is that the things that we are searching and striving after are the same kind of things that the teacher is after.

The danger here is that we will look at these words, hear them, and then never apply them to our lives.

We are following the same pattern, but if we don’t head the advice of the teacher, if we don’t learn from his words, we are going to get to the end of our lives having wasted them searching for what has already been made available to us.

Let me paint the picture of what could happen by making fun of myself for a moment.

When Bethany and I were dating it came time for her to move out of the dorms for the summer.

As a good boyfriend and the proud owner of a pickup truck, I helped her move.

While we were packing the truck up, she brought down these “yafa” blocks.

They are these really light wight, stack-able, blocks that she stored things in. Think of the a milk crate, but way less sturdy.

I took these light-weight blocks, and just set them in the back of the truck on top of some other stuff.

Bethany, looked at me and said, you need to tie those down right?

I said, Nah, they’ll ride.

Well, as we were driving down the interstate, one of the blocks flew out of the back of the truck and was completely obliterated when it hit the road.

Now, she told me that would happen, but in my arrogance and frankly, laziness, I ignored her wise words in favor of learning the hard way what she already knew.

As a result, she lost a yafa block, but more tragically, every time I load something, she reminds me about that priceless piece of furniture I destroyed.

We have an opportunity here to learn the easy way.

Don’t be like Will.

Don’t ignore sound advice out of arrogance or laziness.

As your read verse one through three, your initial reaction might be to think that the teacher is talking specifically about laughter and pleasure, but these are general terms that he is using to explain an idea.

Keep in mind that we aren’t going with him through these experiences, we are getting his final thoughts.

These aren’t his knee jerk reactions to what he is experiencing.

This is him looking back over his life and forming these conclusions.

The teacher tried to find what would bring himself lasting joy in what the world has to offer.

The teacher found, at the end of it all, that living for pleasure was also hevel, just like wisdom.

For years we used a phrase to talk about the same kind of thing that the teacher is describing.

When we as a church were really discovering Grace, we used the phrase, “getting to the end of ourselves” to describe exactly what the teacher is describing.

All of us go through this process before we discover God’s grace.

We search the world for what will make us happy and bring us satisfaction.

What we eventually discover is that nothing is lasting.

We may find momentary happiness, but it too leaves us after a while and we are back on the search for something new.

At some point, we come to the end of ourselves by realizing that the things that we want will not give us what we need.

As good little boys and girls we may also think something like, well, he was trying to find happiness in things.

If the teacher would just focus on things that really matter, he would find fulfillment.

Our work, hobbies, and passions will leave us empty.

Our tendency, our default, is to go back to a works-based mentality.

We think that if we just work really hard on “things that matter” we will be happy.

The teacher went down the same rabbit hole.

Look again at his words.

Ecclesiastes 2:4–8 ESV

I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

If we are really honest with ourselves, I think this is where we often struggle more than with the first.

Not because we don’t enjoy those things, but because our universal church culture places such an emphasis on working hard to please God.

In conversation, we would all agree that this is bad theology.

We can’t earn God’s approval.

But how often do you find yourself defaulting to this way of thinking when we feel that our spiritual lives are subpar?

We also fall into the trap of comparison.

Our temptation is to look at those that are trying to find their fulfillment in the enjoyment of things, then compare them with your work.

Obviously, working hard is better than playing hard. Right?

Is it though?

The teacher devoted himself to wisdom and pleasure and found himself empty.

You may be tempted to say that at least those who worked hard had something to show for it, but the teacher would respond that it is all temporary and therefore doesn’t matter.

Ecclesiastes 2:9–11 ESV

So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

We find fulfillment by enjoying these things with God.

Both wisdom and pleasure are gifts from God and if we experiencing them as God leads, they are not hevel.

If you will remember, we talked a few weeks ago about focusing on things that are eternal.

I defined that concept by saying that something is eternal if God has instructed us to do it.

As we see and will continue to see as we study this book, the things of this world, all of them, are hevel.

But, if we are partaking of those things under God’s leadership, they gain an eternal quality that they cannot get anywhere else.

The things that we are given in this world, our family, food, work, are all given by God as good gifts.

However, they are only good if they are partaken of with God.

The moment we exclude God from our lives, we are changing what God gave us for our good and enjoyment and making that thing a god itself.

I started today by sharing the fear that we would allow these things to just pass through our minds today and never make an application.

If you were unaware, today is Palm Sunday.

I want to end today with reading from Luke.

Luke 19:30–40 ESV

saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ” So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

If you grew up in church, you probably have heard and read this passage many many times.

Growing up in a very liturgical denomination, we celebrated this every year by having the children come into the sanctuary at the beginning of the service waving palm branches.

This passage became for me a fixture of this time of year.

There is an image that is plastered in my mind of what it means and why it important.

I want you to think for a moment though, how important it is that we allow God to work these truths into our lives.

In this recount of this incredible moment of the people who were eyewitnesses to who He was and the miracles that he performed, we see ourselves.

We get so excited about what God is saying and doing, but then, in just a short time we have forgotten.

In just a week, those following Jesus will have seemingly forgotten all that He was and had done and would be either calling for his crucifixion or standing by watching it happen and doing nothing.

I don’t want us to be a people who are yelling the greatness of Jesus on Sunday and during the week forgetting all that He has done for us.

We have an incredible hope to share with the broken world we are living in.

There has never been a greater time to be able to tell the world that if they are seeking peace, hope, satisfaction, or meaning, that all of that can be found in the person of Jesus.

Church, let us pray for one another.

Pray that we will see that our fulfillment is to be found in Jesus.

Pray that we will apply this truth to our lives and be an encouragement to the world.

Pray that we will be God’s love in this broken world.

My people, I love you and I am praying for you and with you.

See you next week.