2: How to Find Peace

How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA 1. INTRODUCTION - Peace is a hard thing to define: o Merriam-Webster: “free from agitation in mind or spirit” o This is true, but stale (e.g. love as “strong affection”) - Peace is a tricky thing to talk about, because we’re good at lying to ourselves o Marriage: you have someone else to speak truth to you! o Peace: you only have yourself, and we’re very good at lying to ourselves - Solomon is asking you to do two things: o (1) What’s your passion, your drive, your enthusiasm, your controlling “thing” in life? o (2) Realize that, if it isn’t your relationship with Jesus, then you’re at a dead-end - God: “the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever” (Isa 32:17) o made right with God = peace = quietness = trust o peace in your heart o peace in your soul o contentment in mind and spirit - There’s something wrong with our world and with us o (1) We think bad things o (2) We do bad things o (3) We do bad things to each other o (4) We neglect each other - There are lots of solutions out there o (1) The world is a Walmart Superstore, o (2) and the “Peace” aisle has lots of options o (3) some brand-name o (4) some generic o (5) all of them with big talk and promises on the box - Solomon: you’ll only find peace in a relationship with God o (1) He’s tried the different options in that aisle o (2) and he knows they’re all bad o (3) There’s only one that’ll do the trick; o (4) that’ll fix what’s wrong with you and with our world o (5) and that solution is the Gospel of Jesus Christ 1 Pastor Tyler Robbins How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA - This sermon is Solomon’s story of why that’s true 2. TEXT a. Hope in politics (5:8-9)? If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields. - Higher official: maze of bureaucracy, each susceptible to corruption - Do not be amazed: why not? o (1) Why is there corruption? o (2) Why are the poor oppressed? o (3) Why is justice not done? o (4) Why are things “not right” so often? o (5) Why are there inspectors general in State and Federal agencies? o (6) Why does Solomon seem to take it as an inevitable thing? - Broken: Because we’re broken people: o (1) Who will always produce broken leaders, o (2) to rule over a broken system (all different flavors of “broken”) o (3) We’re trying to make the best of a ruined world o (4) and things won’t always be right o (5) and corruption is eternal - But this is gain: the very best you can hope for is a semi-decent leader atop the whole rotten pyramid o In Jesus, you can have a King that’s the opposite of all that o In this life, you make do with jazzed up garbage ▪ (1) eternal promises of “let’s change Washington!” ▪ (2) hope and optimism give way to cynicism ▪ (3) the idealism of the “new leader” fades in the face of reality ▪ (4) promises broken, limits of human achievement revealed, ▪ (5) impotence of any society to solve systemic problems about poverty, crime and justice ▪ (6) the cycle repeats every four years 2 Pastor Tyler Robbins How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA ▪ (7) you resonate with Solomon = proof! - Real hope: In Jesus, you have real hope and change o (1) Father, Son and Spirit invite you to become one with them o (2) To join their family o (3) To be liberated from your slavery to Satan o (4) to join the Son’s Kingdom, so you can be a son or daughter of the King, o (5) who’s a good King, whose kingdom will never end, and whose rule and reign is good, just and fair o (6) who’s got a place for you, and wants you to come in from the cold b. Money and stuff = a dead end (5:10-12) - Forget politics, what about money and “stuff?” He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. - Fooling yourself: nobody would admit to being obsessed with money o But people are o We’re good at lying to ourselves o Are you? - Emptiness: love of money or “stuff” is a dead-end o Supply and demand metaphors = more begets more, etc. o It’ll never be enough o It’s an all-consuming passion; the driving force, the object of your desire o Not just for the rich, but to those who want to be rich, too! o Micro-application: your salary is never “enough,” is it!? - Laborer: why can he sleep? o Because his love isn’t bound up in money o His love is bound up in Jesus of Nazareth o He’s content with what God has given him o He has peace 3 Pastor Tyler Robbins How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA o Context, then Lk 12:15: And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” - Summing you up: what encapsulates you? o If it’s anything but your relationship with God, o you’re at a dead-end c. Leave your children something that matters (5:13-17) - This might be the saddest picture Solomon paints in the entire book: There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger. - Grievous evil: sick, sad, terrible event o Listen carefully – if this describes you, then the word of God for you today is to stop it, think, take stock of your life, figure out what your children and family are worth to you! - Riches kept … lost: Everything is gone o This is why people commit suicide when circumstances rip the security blanket from their grasp o Not just for “rich” people o Family business destroyed o Livelihoods ruined o Farms ruined o Lives changed, turned upside down - Father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand: o Despair, depression, sometimes suicide o People undone by the reality that they’ve lost everything - Naked: Even if you don’t lose everything, you exit the world the same way you came into it! 4 Pastor Tyler Robbins How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA o So, what’s the point of your life if its bound and wrapped up in something you can’t take with you? o Trying to empty Puget Sound with a teaspoon o A life of distress, sickness (mental), anger (frustration) - A better way: God has a better way, and He wants you to know about it! o (1) Leave your family something that matters o (2) Leave them something permanent o (3) Leave them something that has eternal value o (4) Leave them something that can’t be wiped out by a bank, by a bad loan, by the stock market, or by a big-box superstore that runs your business into the ground o (5) Teach them the old, old story of Jesus and His love o (6) Casting Crowns “Only Jesus” ▪ All the kingdoms built, all the trophies won ▪ Will crumble into dust when it's said and done ▪ 'Cause all that really mattered ▪ Did I live the truth to the ones I love? ▪ Was my life the proof that there is only One ▪ Whose name will last forever? - Choose Jesus: o (1) For the sake of your soul, o (2) and your family’s souls, o (3) put your relationship with Jesus at the center of your life o (4) If you don’t have a relationship, you can have one today o (5) If you do, re-center yourself this morning d. God gives peace (5:18-20) Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. - How can you have peace? 5 Pastor Tyler Robbins How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA o By joining God’s family, then delighting in the life He’s given you o Christian life isn’t slavery = it’s freedom to delight in the life He gives you, because you’re anchored to Him o Gift of God = to accept your lot and rejoice in your life o You won’t remember your days because the things here aren’t what matters o God gives you joy in your heart because you aren’t anchored here - Peace with God: a perspective shift in your heart and mind: o Mt 6:25: Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ▪ (1) Life is something more than material things ▪ (2) You were made for a relationship with the triune God ▪ (3) We try to replace that with “stuff” here ▪ (4) Solomon is ripping the veil off this charade ▪ (5) Jesus is, too – because we anchor ourselves to the things of this world, and that means we invert our priorities o Mt 6:26: Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ▪ (1) Christian life = we rejoice in the life God gives us ▪ (2) We’re anchored to the celestial city; to the better world to come ▪ (3) Your hopes and dreams aren’t meant to be tethered here ▪ (4) God protects His children, so focus on Him o Mt 6:27-30: And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ▪ (1) It’s not that Christians sit on the couch and wait for Benjamins to rain down from heaven ▪ (2) It means Christians know it isn’t up to them 6 Pastor Tyler Robbins How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA ▪ (3) The perspective is different • My life (whatever that looks life) = from God! • My job (whatever it is) = gift from God! • My home (whatever it looks like) = gift from God! • My car (however old it is) = gift from God! • My money (however little it is) = gift from God! ▪ (4) Everything is a token of our Father’s love for us, • so instead of fixing our hopes and dreams in the blessings, • we look upward with gratitude • and love Him even more, • trusting Him to give us what’s best • while we serve Him and spread the Gospel where He’s planted us! o Mt 6:31-32: Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ▪ It’s the unbeliever who anchors his energies here ▪ There is no divine help; it’s all on you! o Mt 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ▪ (1) Do you belong to the Kingdom of God? • Jesus as King or Ruler • Jesus as Prophet or Revealer • Jesus as Priest or Reconciler ▪ (2) God stands with arms wide open to every people, race and nation on this earth, • offering forgiveness and compassion to everyone who repents • offering a kingdom of compassion, not slavery - This is why Solomon says a person who has God has joy in his heart, no matter what his circumstances are! - It’s the saddest thing to have blessings from God, but not the ability to enjoy them = to not have peace e. No rest (6:1-6) 7 Pastor Tyler Robbins How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. - Vanity: it’s emptiness to have blessings but not be able to enjoy them o Solomon isn’t a stupid man o He knows you do enjoy these things; he enjoyed them, too! o He means they don’t have any lasting value o Those things fade away o They dissolve into nothingness o They’re without value, empty, futile, meaningless - Grievous evil: terrible, sick o It’s twisted to live like this o A supernatural sedative stops us from seeing the reality of our situation o What if you put down your phone tonight and took stock of your life – do you enjoy the blessings God gives you? ▪ He gives them to you whether you love Him or not o What encapsulates you? What sums you up? Who are you? ▪ Nobody admits their purpose in life is summed up by sex, money or their job – or combinations of all three ▪ But, without a relationship with God, what else do you have? If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place? - Stillborn child: why this analogy? o (1) Because the baby at least has peace o (2) The baby didn’t grow up to have 100 children o (3) The baby didn’t live to be 80 years old 8 Pastor Tyler Robbins How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA o o o o (4) The baby never had wealth (5) The baby never knew love through marriage or as a child (6) The baby never had any possessions at all (7) The baby never had any honor and reputation in society ▪ But, that baby does have peace ▪ The guy with all the kids has no peace - Rest rather than he: the baby has found rest in the arms of the Savior o Death is the great chokepoint – all routes in life end right there o Do you have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 5:1)? f. What is peace? (6:7-10) All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind. Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. - Peace: be content with what God has given you, instead of always pining for what He hasn’t! - Better is the sight of the eyes: o Phil 4:11: I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ▪ Because He has a relationship through Christ ▪ Everything else pales into its proper focus; the way a carrot pales in comparison to Buffalo Wild Wings – but better! o 1 Tim 6:6-7: But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. ▪ Where is truth, where is comfort, where is peace? ▪ Rom 5:1: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. EXHORTATION (6:11-12) 9 Pastor Tyler Robbins How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? - Words: the more dead-ends o (1) The more you look for transcendent meaning under the sun ▪ the more emptiness you’ll find o (2) The more you anchor yourself to this world for purpose ▪ the more lonely you’ll be o (3) The more you dead-end cul-de-sacs you turn down ▪ the more brick walls you’ll run into - Advantage: Solomon says there isn’t any! o You need to know this = there are no advantages to these other routes - Who knows: everybody has their own ideas, but everybody’s wrong! - Life … passes like a shadow: Shadow leaves no imprint; it’s a reflection of something else o (1) Your life without Christ is a shadow of what it could be o (2) It’s the dimmest reflection of something better, o (3) something permanent, o (4) something God created you to have, o (5) a relationship He made you to want - Who can tell man what will be after: Nobody can, except Jesus - Heidelberg Catechism: what is the only comfort in life and death?1 o How would you answer that question right now? o That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ, ▪ Can you say that? ▪ Can you mean that? ▪ Do you find your comfort in something else? ▪ God wants you to know that there is nothing else, and so does Solomon o who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; 2 1 This is Q1 and A1 from the Heidelberg Catechism (1563). The Gospel framework that follows is adapted from J.B. Phillips, Plain Christianity (New York: MacMillan, 1960), 54-55. 2 10 Pastor Tyler Robbins How to Find Peace (Ecclesiastes 5-6) Sunday Morning • 26 April 2020 Sleater Kinney Road Baptist • Olympia, WA there’s something wrong with the world there’s something wrong with us God left heaven, became a real man, and then and let all that’s wrong and cruel in the world close in and kill Him ▪ and He did it because it was the only way out of the hole His creation had dug for itself, that you’ve dug for yourself ▪ He took the rap for you by way of a crucifixion, but in another age it could have easily been a gas chamber, a firing squad or an electric chair ▪ He did it to reconcile you to Him, ▪ So that you have a solution when you feel that uneasiness inside, when you think of eternity in light of your own heart and mind ▪ The gap has been bridged, and the fear of God as an outsider and stranger can turn to the gratitude and love of an insider o and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live unto him. ▪ If you have Christ, you can live for him ▪ Not for sex, not for money, not for the perfect political solution to unsolvable problems, not for a legacy that will turn to dust one day ▪ You can live for Him ▪ If you have Christ, you’re just a shadow living a shell of the life God created to live ▪ And you’ll die alienated from Him, and alone - Or, whoever you are and whatever you’ve done, you can have peace with God through Jesus Christ your Lord! o Take Solomon’s advice, o and choose that path, o and live a life that’s more than a dim reflection of something better ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ 11 Pastor Tyler Robbins