Pastor
Steve Geiger Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
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2 “Meaningless!
Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
18 I hated all the things
I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes
after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?
Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort
and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart
began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a
man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave
all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a
great misfortune. 22 What does a man get for all the toil and
anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? 23 All his days
his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is
meaningless.
24 A man can do nothing
better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I
see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or
find enjoyment? 26 To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom,
knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and
storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is
meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Happiness
Is a Gift Ecclesiastes
1:2; 2:18-26
1.
Human efforts are a mist
2.
God alone gives joy
Weekend. Go to work, go to work, go to work, go to
work, go to work. Weekend. Go to work, go to work, go to work, go to
work, go to work. Weekend. Work.
Weekend. Work. Weekend.
Do you ever wonder what it would be like if you had only weekends?
Is
this what you imagine your retirement someday to be like? No more work. Surely that is guaranteed happiness.
1995. The owner of Benchmark Foam and Enercept
Building Materials in Watertown, SD, was thinking about retirement. He had made a lot of money. A beautiful lot on Lake Kampeska. It’s the most spectacular home there. No expense was spared. Money was no object. For his wife and himself, their retirement
home. For two years. After working for ten and twenty and more
and more years, he lived in the home of his dreams for only two years before
discovering that he had Parkinsons disease.
He needed hospital care. He and
his wife now live in Omaha to be close to their doctors. This past week they gave up their house to
an auction.
So
much work. For so many years. To achieve, finally, the life of one’s
dreams. Dashed. In a moment.
Perhaps
you know of other stories. One so
wise. So knowledgeable. So skillful. Yet so quickly all can be lost.
How
we long to hold on to happiness. It may
not be a house on a lake which for you would be the key. But you may have a dream. If only you could have this, then you would
be happy.
No. No.
Surely you know this, but today let there be
no doubt. We do not have the ability to
make ourselves truly happy. Lasting
happiness cannot come simply through the possession of physical things. But does that mean you can’t be happy?
No. No.
Happiness
is a gift.
But
when human effort tries to achieve it, happiness remains just a mist.
If
you go out on the golf course early in the morning for a run, at times in the
year you must strain to see far, far ahead.
A mist, a fog hanging low. For
moments it appears to be controlling.
In moments it can disappear, the memory of it fading as quickly.
Human
efforts to find happiness are a mist.
By your powers, you can’t win.
You will fail. Even if you get
the thing you think will bring happiness, you can’t win. You will fail. Because God cursed the ground.
God
cursed it. It’s so basic. It’s so simple. But life has never been the same. There was a time when people would wake up in the morning and be
happy. There was a day when people
would look at each other at noon and be filled with joy. There was a moment when people would look at
the world around them after a full day’s work and smile. Then God cursed the ground.
Humans
who had such happiness began to see themselves as having the power to bring
happiness. As soon as they did that,
they lost it. Happiness. As soon as they forgot that happiness was a
gift from God and instead imagined God to be an enemy and themselves as those
powerful to make themselves happy, they lost it. Happiness. They needed a
spanking. They needed a time out. They needed to go to corner. God cursed the ground.
Ever
after, the world was subjected to frustration.
Adam and Eve were subject to death.
Earthly life, of itself, was now a series of dashed hopes and dreams.
They
could work as hard as they could, but still there would be weeds. They could accomplish amazing achievements,
but one day they would die. The writer
of Ecclesiastes could live wisely, with knowledge and skill. He could pile up in the bank loads and loads
of money. He could have the woman of
his dreams. He could have success and
honor. But it was a mist. He couldn’t hold on.
He
was going to die, and who would get it?
How unfair is that, for a wise father to die and a foolish son to get
all this stuff that he could never have gained on his own, yet he gets it, and
he gets to live like he was the greatest and like he’s so wise, but he’s not.
How
unfair. What’s the point, asks the
writer of Ecclesiastes? Why even work? If you can succeed in life in every respect
and still come out a loser, why even work?
What do you get for all the toil and anxious striving with which you
labor under the sun?
Do
you understand?
You
know, I’d like to try to understand after I succeed . . . after I get the
spouse of my dreams, the job I’ve been waiting for, the house I’ve looked at,
and the retirement that would make others jealous.
We
don’t understand. Even if you get
everything that you dream of, it’s a mist.
You will lose it.
But,
but look at that person who has all the things I want. He is happy. I’m not happy. I will be
happy if I get what I want. No. Human effort is a mist. You will never be able to get by your own
efforts lasting happiness. The guy who
wrote this meaningless bit is not someone like you or me who can imagine that
we might be happy if we just get this.
This guy was Bill Gates. He had
the wife, the child, the business, the home, companions, boat, recreation, the
money, time, an island. Whatever he wants. This guy had whatever he wanted.
He
had it all, and it still was a mist.
It
made him despair. “My heart began to
despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.” His life. His things. Pointless.
Even though he hadn’t lost them yet.
Isn’t
that strange? We just know that in the
end we will lose everything. In the
end, everything. But it affects us
already today. It bugs us that we are
working so hard today for nothing. It’s
pointless.
Because
humans rebelled, God cursed the ground.
Brought the consequence of death to sinners. Making everything earthly of itself meaningless. Yet part of us is angry at God about
this. God, why do you make life so
frustrating? God, why do you make life
so pain-filled? God, I hate . . . do
thoughts of anger every leave your lips aimed at the only one who hasn’t done
wrong?
As
if it’s his fault. Something Adam and
Eve blamed him of.
What’s
worse is that we get to the point where we are tempted to give up on God. You know, you’re not going to give me any
happiness. I’m going to get what I can
on my own. So we try, by disobeying all
God’s rules. Whatever it takes for a
moment of pleasure, but it never stays.
Not to mention the load of guilt, that does stay.
Let
us try to find happiness our way, through things physical. Spiritual suicide. This is the danger.
Loving physical things, thinking that happiness will come if I just work
more hours, or just have a nicer car, or just remodel this, or just have this
spouse, or go on this vacation, or . . . it’s playing with fire. We sin when we make our priority trying to
find physical happiness on this earth.
That is not what God has told us to do.
We are told to seek first his kingdom, and when we do not . . . when we
look past his kingdom to the other things to be added as well, we rebel.
Not
a good situation when death comes, which it will. When every earthly happiness will be taken away. Have we made inevitable the loss of eternal
happiness as well?
And
just because we wanted to be happy.
Human efforts are a mist. But
God can give you joy.
Ecclesiastes
can be a really depressing book.
Everything is meaningless. Oh,
great. Thanks. But sometimes you need to say the harsh
truth again and again because our sinful flesh is whispering the attractive lie
again and again.
Everything
earthly of itself is meaningless.
Everything. No possible lasting
joy.
But
does that mean there can be no joy?
Here we have to listen. “A man
can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his
work. This too, I see, is from the hand
of God.” It’s not that you can’t ever
find satisfaction. In verse 26, “God
gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness.”
It’s not that you can never be happy.
Meaningless. But at the end of Ecclesiastes, after calling
the physical world what it is of itself—meaningless—the writer says this, “Here
is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments.”
Fear
God and keep his commandments. That’s
it.
Fear
God and keep his commandments. He’s
serious. That’s it. That is all you need to know.
Fear
God. Psalm 130:3. “If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O
Lord, who could stand? But with you
there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.” A meaning-filled life has at its heart an awe for God, who still
loves me. After all I, you, have done,
the fact is that he sent his Son to take all the times I made it my first
priority to seek my own happiness, all the times I got upset with God when I
saw that I was standing in the corner of a frustrating world again . . . all
the times this little human dared to doubt the great God . . . the fact is that
God sent his Son to be my substitute to experience the ultimate in
meaninglessness. Where he did totally
right, and experienced the very worst that life could throw at him, the justice
that God owed me and you. And he didn’t
long first for physical happiness. He
just took the suffering. By taking it,
he was seeking first the kingdom of God, the will of God, and he won. He was raised to life, we declared innocent. With God there is forgiveness. No doubt.
For the world. No doubt. “Therefore you are to be feared.” Respected.
Loved.
Fear,
including standing in awe of your loving God.
Then,
keep his commandments. That’s it. My job is not to look for joy. My job is to keep his commandments. To love.
To share. To treat my neighbor
as myself. To read the word. To give of my life, my money, my time. To protect the reputations of others. To tell the truth. To use my gifts. To visit
the sick. To pray.
That’s
it. Fear God. Keep his commandments.
And know—a promise—that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
But
what about the happiness? Remember,
it’s a gift. Happiness is not connected
with having money. You can have money
and be sad. A Christian can have no
money and be happy. Happiness is not
connected with having friends. You can
have friends and be sad. A Christian
can have no friends and be happy.
That’s
impossible. No, it’s not. Remember?
Any happiness connected with something physical won’t last. Happiness is not connected to things. Happiness is not connected to people. Lasting happiness is not connected to anything
that is temporary. Happiness comes from
the hand of God. It’s a separate gift.
“To
the one who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness.” The one who pleases him . . . literally,
“the one who is good before him.” Good
not of themselves. Those who are good
are those God has declared good.
Innocent. By faith in
Jesus. You. Christians. To you God
gives happiness. Completely separate
from your physical situation.
Happiness
that expects to lose everything.
Happiness that realizes many earthly gifts may never be given. Happiness that can’t be hidden because in
the Lord there is forgiveness, so that when I die all that matters will not be
lost, but won.
Life—meaningless? A retirement, only to get sick and miss out
on a beautiful house? Remember, human
efforts to get lasting happiness are a mist.
God alone gives joy. Happiness
is a separate gift, one only God can give.