WEBVTT 00:00:04.290 --> 00:00:05.932 I'm so thankful for the Word of God. 00:00:05.932 --> 00:00:10.669 The Bible says that every word of God is flawless. 00:00:10.669 --> 00:00:12.092 Think about that. 00:00:12.092 --> 00:00:19.291 Every word is flawless, so the Word of God talks about it in Psalm 119 as a hammer. 00:00:19.291 --> 00:00:24.007 It can break us down and it also has a capacity to build us up. 00:00:24.007 --> 00:00:25.385 You need building up this morning. 00:00:25.385 --> 00:00:26.745 Well, the Word of God can do that. 00:00:26.745 --> 00:00:30.550 I'll encourage you to pay attention to our scripture this morning. 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:40.884 A little bit of question mark about the book we're going through in the series, because it might be that you kind of have come through the last few weeks kind of feeling a little bit depressed. 00:00:40.884 --> 00:00:46.469 The series titled is Everything is Meaningless. 00:00:46.469 --> 00:01:05.683 So it's kind of like, well, I feel discouraged and this person called Solomon who wrote this we think seems to be a cynic and he comes away from his experience in life just very cynical and kind of what is life all about? 00:01:05.683 --> 00:01:10.968 And so we've been looking at that in this series and we're going to kind of turn a corner today. 00:01:10.968 --> 00:01:15.069 I want to go back and do a little deeper dive in chapter two. 00:01:15.069 --> 00:01:24.109 We covered that and Scott did such a great job last week, but a little deeper dive this week, still in chapter two, and we're going to look at verses 18 through 26. 00:01:24.109 --> 00:01:31.248 And so, if you want to get your Bible or it'll be on the screen here and the title of the message today is what are you working for? 00:01:31.248 --> 00:01:33.203 What are you working for? 00:01:33.203 --> 00:01:35.947 And this is a focus on that subject. 00:01:36.120 --> 00:01:40.131 Let's read it together, beginning in Ecclesiastes 2, verse 18. 00:01:40.131 --> 00:01:52.248 He says I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool. 00:01:52.248 --> 00:01:58.551 Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. 00:01:58.551 --> 00:02:01.025 This also is vanity. 00:02:01.025 --> 00:02:19.431 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave it, leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. 00:02:19.431 --> 00:02:22.948 This also is vanity and a great evil. 00:02:22.948 --> 00:02:29.651 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 00:02:29.651 --> 00:02:30.860 For all? 00:02:30.860 --> 00:02:36.162 His days are full of sorrow and his work is a vexation, even in the night. 00:02:36.162 --> 00:02:37.627 His heart does not rest. 00:02:37.627 --> 00:02:39.944 This also is vanity. 00:02:39.944 --> 00:02:47.082 There is nothing better for a person than he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. 00:02:47.082 --> 00:02:50.504 This also, I saw, is from the hand of God. 00:02:50.504 --> 00:02:56.122 For apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 00:02:56.122 --> 00:03:09.286 For to the one who pleases him, god is given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner, he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. 00:03:09.286 --> 00:03:14.790 This also is vanity and a striving after the wind. 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:16.764 This is the Word of God. 00:03:16.764 --> 00:03:18.640 Let's pray so, father. 00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:26.187 Today we're just so thankful, lord, that you give us life and the Word of God gives us sustaining power. 00:03:26.187 --> 00:03:27.504 Lord, it's found in your word. 00:03:27.504 --> 00:03:35.165 So, lord, we're reminded of your goodness toward us and the fact that you provide for us through labor and work. 00:03:35.165 --> 00:03:46.171 And so, lord, we ask today that our eyes would be open to the truths you have for this morning, that we don't just work to please ourselves but, lord, we work to please you. 00:03:46.171 --> 00:03:52.372 And, lord, we ask, as you do your work in us today, that, lord, you would change our hearts. 00:03:52.372 --> 00:03:56.088 We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. 00:03:57.522 --> 00:04:08.252 So, as I say, we've been going through this series, and it is a series called Everything is Meaningless, and that, of course, is the Riders with Frain all throughout the book. 00:04:08.252 --> 00:04:25.045 It's his theme and through a series of lifelong experiments you could call them experience, the preacher, as he's called or we think he's Solomon, has basically tried to find meaning through all these personal pursuits, and we've gone through several of them. 00:04:25.045 --> 00:04:30.350 A thorough study says I gave myself to these things and we looked at knowledge. 00:04:30.350 --> 00:04:37.809 He looked at knowledge, he looked at pleasure, he looked at wealth and possessions, he looked at wisdom and following. 00:04:37.809 --> 00:04:46.187 And now today he's going to look at what he gave himself to, which is the world of work, and he's seeking to find meaning in these things. 00:04:46.187 --> 00:04:50.831 And you know, these are the same things that we kind of put into our lives too. 00:04:50.831 --> 00:04:54.129 We think that they give us meaning and purpose and fulfillment. 00:04:54.129 --> 00:04:56.206 And so he's got a word for us. 00:04:56.206 --> 00:05:02.372 But the results of his experiment, his lifelong experiment, prove things are not as they appear. 00:05:02.372 --> 00:05:05.148 Things are not always as they appear. 00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:07.708 The word meaningless has that kind of that idea. 00:05:07.708 --> 00:05:23.949 I was out last week and we were in California, kind of the days I think that was last week, right, it's the days that kind of run together, but as always we were going back, I was looking out the window in the airplane and I was looking down. 00:05:23.949 --> 00:05:32.867 You know, if you've ever been on an airplane ride, you look down and as we were coming in the clouds were just thick and it just almost looked like you could step out. 00:05:32.867 --> 00:05:35.786 I mean, if you really could, I mean that would be stupid. 00:05:35.786 --> 00:05:41.189 Obviously there were something more to the clouds and just missed. 00:05:41.189 --> 00:05:50.894 They looked to be solid, but of course that's just something you can't really set down on, even though you'd like to. 00:05:50.894 --> 00:05:53.528 And this is kind of the way the word meaningless is. 00:05:53.528 --> 00:05:54.442 It's like a vapor. 00:05:54.442 --> 00:05:57.367 It has different ideas in it. 00:05:57.367 --> 00:05:59.706 One of those ideas is that it's an enigma. 00:05:59.706 --> 00:06:03.389 It doesn't make any sense, it's just kind of like that. 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:08.129 And Paul I mean Solomon basically says this is the way life looks to me. 00:06:08.129 --> 00:06:23.252 It doesn't make sense, it's smoke and mirrors, and so what might have first appear to be a solution to us about the things we pursue in life, the things we give our heart to, often don't pan out that way, to be that way at all. 00:06:23.252 --> 00:06:39.228 And Solomon kind of comes to the end of his life and he kind of comes to these conclusions and we could almost kind of summarize, because he's really looking at his life as in, and he's looking at death and we could almost summarize his life in a way by a headstone. 00:06:39.228 --> 00:06:47.372 I've seen on gravesites this goes like this life is hard and then you die. 00:06:47.372 --> 00:06:49.665 And that's kind of his perspective. 00:06:49.665 --> 00:06:51.786 Life is hard and then you die. 00:06:51.786 --> 00:06:58.146 There's truth to the fact that life is hard and then you die, and that could make us all be depressed. 00:06:58.146 --> 00:07:00.944 Right, that's all life was all about. 00:07:00.944 --> 00:07:12.827 But Solomon comes to another conclusion and we kind of get, as I say, a turning point in this book that and here's the other thing you found that life is hard but God is good. 00:07:12.827 --> 00:07:17.966 Life is hard but God is good, and that makes all the difference. 00:07:17.966 --> 00:07:20.487 Solomon realizes these two important truths. 00:07:20.487 --> 00:07:24.505 They have to kind of be held in tension, because both of the things are true. 00:07:24.505 --> 00:07:28.723 We know that and we want to look at these in our passage today. 00:07:29.035 --> 00:07:34.884 The first has to do with what I just kind of in short call the illusion of work, and the other the gift of work. 00:07:34.884 --> 00:07:41.322 The illusion of work and the gift of work you have that word in your text called it's deemed, it's written toil. 00:07:41.322 --> 00:07:45.879 Toil is kind of a general term for anything that you put your hand to. 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:47.237 It might be. 00:07:47.237 --> 00:07:48.221 You know your job. 00:07:48.221 --> 00:07:51.497 It might be a project that you're undertaking that's difficult. 00:07:51.497 --> 00:07:53.841 It might be school. 00:07:53.841 --> 00:08:00.223 It might be just keeping kids, grandkids, something that you find not easy all the time. 00:08:00.223 --> 00:08:11.723 This word actually has a meaning of kind of a heavy, wear-asome labor Gets old really fast and in fact it's also translated trouble in some verses in the Bible. 00:08:11.723 --> 00:08:21.380 Same word trouble, wearing, effort, travail, and by that hence worry of mind and body and a weirdness of body. 00:08:22.035 --> 00:08:34.865 So here's the thing built into any kind of work, you think about this as an effort which can what Wear on you and just make it difficult, bringing trouble and worry to your mind and soul, right? 00:08:34.865 --> 00:08:42.339 So Solomon now didn't have to deal I don't think with the things sometimes we think about that we have to deal with. 00:08:42.339 --> 00:08:47.080 We'll go to a job and you have to go through the traffic and deal with all the traffic. 00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:53.583 You get to your job and maybe he didn't have to deal with the fact he had to fill a sales quota of some kind. 00:08:53.583 --> 00:09:02.482 Maybe you think about he didn't have to cover for somebody who, the two or three people left, and you have to fill in and you've got all their jobs. 00:09:02.482 --> 00:09:21.359 But he still had to deal with the trouble of work and that's because work in Genesis was deemed it wasn't a curse of itself, but there was a curse in it Says we have to deal with it because we have to work by the sweat of our brow. 00:09:21.359 --> 00:09:23.578 That means it's not easy. 00:09:23.578 --> 00:09:28.863 It's not easy and we hear the term or the phrase no pain, no gain. 00:09:29.384 --> 00:09:31.038 You've heard that no pain, no gain. 00:09:31.038 --> 00:09:36.139 It's suggested if you invest a little bit of pain, guess what It'll pay off in the end. 00:09:36.139 --> 00:09:45.586 And for all the pain, solomon is basically saying any gain that I might have had, it was just temporary. 00:09:45.586 --> 00:09:48.562 It was just temporary. 00:09:48.562 --> 00:09:50.759 So let's look at these truths. 00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:52.441 I want you to see the first one. 00:09:52.441 --> 00:09:54.804 We said seeking fulfillment from work. 00:09:54.804 --> 00:09:58.259 The first point seeking fulfillment from work is an illusion. 00:09:59.855 --> 00:10:06.244 Solomon stops his experiment that he's been spending years on and this is probably the later part of his life. 00:10:06.244 --> 00:10:17.985 He spent years on all these things and he considers the outcome of it all and he admits three problems which really bother him and they kind of hang like a shadow over his labors. 00:10:17.985 --> 00:10:21.465 And some have called these even confessions of a workaholic. 00:10:21.465 --> 00:10:23.581 We're gonna eat workaholics here this morning. 00:10:23.581 --> 00:10:25.460 Nobody's gonna admit it. 00:10:25.460 --> 00:10:29.405 So well, here's the first thing that bothered him. 00:10:29.514 --> 00:10:35.302 First of all, there was a dissatisfaction with his work, and this is in verses 18 and 19. 00:10:35.302 --> 00:10:41.666 Notice what he says in verse 18, I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun. 00:10:41.666 --> 00:10:46.485 Now, a few verses earlier, he says I hated my life. 00:10:46.485 --> 00:10:49.979 This is a question Neil sometimes asked do you hate your life? 00:10:49.979 --> 00:10:54.044 And Solomon says, yeah, I do, I really do. 00:10:54.044 --> 00:11:01.982 But now he's gone to saying I hate all my toil in life under the sun and I kind of thought, well, it really is that right. 00:11:02.554 --> 00:11:03.740 Do people hate their jobs? 00:11:03.740 --> 00:11:08.019 And I got on the internet and you know what it's about 50-50. 00:11:08.019 --> 00:11:10.321 Studies are about 50-50. 00:11:10.321 --> 00:11:18.081 And I think probably part of those people are not being honest and some people are making more of their pain than maybe is warranted. 00:11:18.081 --> 00:11:28.681 But it's not necessarily the work itself, I don't think, but the stuff that people have to deal with in their work, and I think that's maybe part of it. 00:11:28.681 --> 00:11:41.282 But people are looking for a reward at the end and so, given the opportunity, I just thought this I think people, given the opportunity, would choose to quit their jobs if they had a choice. 00:11:41.282 --> 00:11:43.177 I heard an amen. 00:11:43.177 --> 00:11:54.004 Yeah, I mean, you kind of see that that's the case, because we just went through a period of time called COVID, and how many people left their jobs. 00:11:54.004 --> 00:11:58.282 So that was an experiment in and of itself. 00:11:58.282 --> 00:12:09.158 And then you think about the people who, if you said to tomorrow you get to retire, how many of us would say I'm all in, I'd love that? 00:12:10.355 --> 00:12:18.946 And so notice why he says he hated his work, though it's because he saw what could happen to all of it that he'd invested. 00:12:18.946 --> 00:12:21.003 He did find delight in his work. 00:12:21.003 --> 00:12:22.942 We saw that in chapter two, verse 10. 00:12:22.942 --> 00:12:30.884 But the outcome of it all his labor, many, many years, 40 years of investing himself in things, projects. 00:12:30.884 --> 00:12:34.139 He built cities, he built the temple. 00:12:34.139 --> 00:12:39.062 You know, when I was over in Israel, I had an opportunity to go see Solomon's stables. 00:12:39.062 --> 00:12:40.119 It was amazing. 00:12:40.119 --> 00:12:45.679 He built so many things, projects, parks, and he said I found delight in it. 00:12:46.815 --> 00:13:03.145 And all of his work, though, comes to this point in his life and he says it sort of comes to nothing because he says there that he must leave it to the man who will come after him and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool. 00:13:03.145 --> 00:13:08.541 So kind of the question of how long before the family fortune is spent. 00:13:08.541 --> 00:13:13.898 Who's gonna get my inheritance For Solomon? 00:13:13.898 --> 00:13:15.162 How long? 00:13:15.162 --> 00:13:26.405 Well, pretty quickly, because his son, rehoboam, basically was a fool and you can read in 1 Kings, chapter 12, all about his story. 00:13:26.405 --> 00:13:31.860 How, about how he divided the kingdom and he didn't pursue the things of his father, solomon. 00:13:31.860 --> 00:13:38.116 And then he says yet this person, whoever it will be, yet he will be master. 00:13:38.116 --> 00:13:42.894 That is the manager of all which I've toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. 00:13:42.894 --> 00:13:44.557 You know what I think? 00:13:45.144 --> 00:13:46.892 A lot of times people try to mitigate this. 00:13:46.892 --> 00:13:58.009 We think of what we're going to pass on after we die, and so a lot of people, if they're Christian people, you tend to want to give it to a charity or a Christian institution. 00:13:58.009 --> 00:14:01.650 There's a great example of this. 00:14:01.650 --> 00:14:14.655 You just look at all the Ivy League schools that have put in place in the history of our nation Yale, princeton, harvard and the foundation of these schools was to pass on the Christian faith. 00:14:14.655 --> 00:14:22.971 In fact, I looked one of these Harvard up and Mr John Harvard, who specifically was the founder of Harvard University. 00:14:22.971 --> 00:14:29.475 He was a true Christian and he left all his money so that the university could pass on his Christian faith. 00:14:29.475 --> 00:14:35.395 But you wouldn't identify any of these schools today as having a passion for the gospel. 00:14:35.395 --> 00:14:45.688 In fact, they even have a statue, a monument of Mr John Harvard at the school, but it doesn't mean anything. 00:14:46.846 --> 00:14:54.615 And this is what Solomon is afraid of all of his labor, all the things, all of his dreams and ambitions and goals, he's got to leave it to somebody. 00:14:54.615 --> 00:14:56.910 He doesn't know what in the world they're going to do with it. 00:14:56.910 --> 00:15:06.995 And so, at the end of it all, solomon faces the prospect of his own death and he wants what he's done to matter after he's gone. 00:15:06.995 --> 00:15:10.315 You want what you've done to matter after you've gone. 00:15:10.315 --> 00:15:11.327 Of course we do. 00:15:11.327 --> 00:15:15.092 In short, he wants to do something. 00:15:15.092 --> 00:15:16.831 All I want to do is just sort of leave a legacy. 00:15:16.831 --> 00:15:17.730 You know what a legacy is. 00:15:17.730 --> 00:15:24.634 Legacy is the enduring impact that you and I make on those who come behind us. 00:15:24.634 --> 00:15:30.775 So it's more than about money or about material possessions. 00:15:30.775 --> 00:15:33.513 It's about something that will outlive us. 00:15:33.513 --> 00:15:39.015 Someone said that leaving a legacy is like tossing a rock into a pond. 00:15:39.015 --> 00:15:47.177 There's an initial splash followed by ripple effects that continue once the rock has disappeared. 00:15:47.177 --> 00:15:54.511 You might have a small rock to throw or a big boulder, but each one of us will leave something behind us. 00:15:54.511 --> 00:15:56.710 Where are you going to leave behind you. 00:15:58.264 --> 00:16:02.215 So, as I say, this is not merely about the state he's worried about. 00:16:02.215 --> 00:16:11.594 He's wanting to document his existence on the planet and, in some way, I think, live forever. 00:16:11.594 --> 00:16:15.072 It's kind of like the Tower of Babel. 00:16:15.072 --> 00:16:17.633 Those people who built that tower wanted to do what? 00:16:17.633 --> 00:16:19.490 Make a name for themselves. 00:16:19.490 --> 00:16:22.932 So some of it may be pride, other things. 00:16:22.932 --> 00:16:45.196 I think he's putting his finger on those something that's much deeper, and it's a fact that we have a divinely implanted awareness that there's more to this life than just the here and now, and that's why in Ecclesiastes, in chapter 3, we'll come to it soon he says he has planted eternity in the human heart. 00:16:45.196 --> 00:16:57.895 See, whether it's in our busyness or our business, we want something to matter that outlives us, and it's really something about God has already put into us. 00:16:57.895 --> 00:16:59.089 It's about eternity. 00:16:59.089 --> 00:17:02.312 So you're not just here for the here and now, folks. 00:17:02.312 --> 00:17:10.334 You're made for him, you're made for God, and so he's completely dissatisfied with his work because of this. 00:17:10.394 --> 00:17:16.615 This first thing, and now it moves him to admit a second thing, and that is a despair over his work. 00:17:16.615 --> 00:17:18.990 Look at verses 20 and 21. 00:17:18.990 --> 00:17:34.655 He says so I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. 00:17:34.655 --> 00:17:37.232 This is also a vanity and a great evil. 00:17:37.232 --> 00:17:44.872 So his dissatisfaction now turns into despair as he realizes that someone else is going to profit from all his hard work. 00:17:44.872 --> 00:17:59.051 It's almost like you know, if you worked for two weeks and somebody else got your paycheck, or you worked for all year and you waited to go take that two week vacation and somebody else got to do that, we got to go to Florida instead of you. 00:17:59.051 --> 00:18:00.651 It's a small thing. 00:18:00.651 --> 00:18:04.046 He's looking at 40 years, right? 00:18:04.046 --> 00:18:08.356 So he sees what he sees, how utterly unfair this is. 00:18:08.356 --> 00:18:23.573 That he's labored all this time only to have someone else inherit the fruit of everything he's done, and so to him it's a deep injustice and I think there's probably any with this makes me angry. 00:18:23.573 --> 00:18:27.790 I've invested all this and I have to give it away. 00:18:27.790 --> 00:18:37.076 Vanity when he doesn't just say it's vanity, he says it is evil that this happens. 00:18:38.204 --> 00:18:39.269 And so he wrote a song. 00:18:39.269 --> 00:18:42.289 You're all familiar with it Take this job and shove it. 00:18:42.289 --> 00:18:43.208 No, he didn't write that. 00:18:43.208 --> 00:18:46.954 Oh, he may not have written that, but you know what? 00:18:46.954 --> 00:18:54.174 He was probably the first person to put words to it in his heart, and for us that's a lot of the same effect. 00:18:54.174 --> 00:19:03.618 I was going to bring my phone and quote you a little bit of the song, but you do, don't you? 00:19:03.618 --> 00:19:06.391 Yeah, because it hits home to where we are. 00:19:06.391 --> 00:19:09.632 But I want you to notice the depth of despair. 00:19:09.632 --> 00:19:10.595 What's it related to? 00:19:10.595 --> 00:19:23.296 It's how much it's in proportion to what he's given his heart to Say that, again, the depth of his despair is in proportion to what he's given his heart to. 00:19:25.384 --> 00:19:36.156 So many people expect work to give them a sense of purpose and meaning in life, and so our identity is all too often tied up in the fact of here's what you do. 00:19:36.156 --> 00:19:38.612 And sometimes we say, well, what do you do? 00:19:38.612 --> 00:19:42.875 Well, ask people, introduce yourself and say what do you do for a living? 00:19:42.875 --> 00:19:44.169 Like that's who they are. 00:19:44.169 --> 00:19:47.451 Your job is not your identity, folks. 00:19:47.451 --> 00:19:50.451 Your identity is found in Jesus Christ. 00:19:50.451 --> 00:19:54.152 What you do doesn't define who you are. 00:19:54.152 --> 00:20:02.628 So, in a practical sense, what happens when you do give your heart to something and then it goes away? 00:20:02.628 --> 00:20:12.411 And if your identity is based on what you do, then you're going to be really depressed, you're going to be in despair when it goes away. 00:20:12.411 --> 00:20:25.890 And I think that's proven out by the fact that when you so a lot of people when they retire, unfortunately they die sooner than they would have because they have no purpose in life. 00:20:25.890 --> 00:20:29.412 Their whole purpose has been defined by their job. 00:20:29.412 --> 00:20:32.895 Your purpose in life is not your job. 00:20:32.895 --> 00:20:39.171 So Solomon is in despair because he's given his heart to his work. 00:20:41.362 --> 00:20:48.951 Ever seen somebody who breaks down or respond in rage when they get the message we're going to have to let you go? 00:20:48.951 --> 00:20:53.008 I've seen that and you would be surprised. 00:20:53.008 --> 00:20:53.710 Maybe you wouldn't. 00:20:53.710 --> 00:21:10.709 Maybe you sit on the other side of that desk and people cry and they weep and they rage, they pitch a fit because their emotions are so tied up that they've given themselves, given their heart to their job. 00:21:10.709 --> 00:21:19.769 It matters more than anything, and so here's what Jesus said about it when your treasure is there your heart will be also. 00:21:19.769 --> 00:21:26.651 So what that means is that where you put your treasure, that's where your heart is going to follow. 00:21:26.651 --> 00:21:30.286 So where should you put your treasure? 00:21:30.286 --> 00:21:35.509 Not in the earthly things, but in heavenly things. 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:41.729 See, we exert all this effort, someone says, to amass possessions. 00:21:41.729 --> 00:21:52.111 We never really get to enjoy because we were working all the time, and then we leave them to someone else and he may just be a fool who squanders all we work to earn. 00:21:52.111 --> 00:21:55.808 You know what, if you lay up your treasures for heaven, nobody can take those away. 00:21:55.808 --> 00:21:57.784 Jesus said that. 00:21:57.784 --> 00:22:06.426 Well, the third thing that bothers him so now comes in the form of what I would call a rhetorical question, and I want you to see it. 00:22:06.426 --> 00:22:11.720 It's a disillusionment from his work, and this is in verses 22 and 23. 00:22:12.101 --> 00:22:19.534 Verse 22 says what, as a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 00:22:19.534 --> 00:22:27.154 In other words, what's the point in working so hard to accumulate so much when you can't take it with you? 00:22:27.154 --> 00:22:29.720 You can't take it with you. 00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:38.671 It's like the person who asked about the wealthy philanthropist who recently died in town and then somebody said, oh, how much did he leave behind? 00:22:38.671 --> 00:22:41.848 And the answer was all of it. 00:22:41.848 --> 00:22:44.265 All of it. 00:22:46.821 --> 00:23:00.988 And so, even though we know that we don't stop from being workaholics sometimes who want more and more and more, they say well, sometimes I'm just surviving, but is your heart tied into what you do? 00:23:00.988 --> 00:23:04.989 So he naturally asked this question what do you get for it all? 00:23:04.989 --> 00:23:07.527 What do you get for this investment of your life? 00:23:07.527 --> 00:23:10.650 And someone says, well, you know, I do get some things. 00:23:10.650 --> 00:23:17.186 I get a new car, I get a nice retirement, I get a bigger house or a million other things. 00:23:17.186 --> 00:23:24.720 And I think all those things are fine, they're good, there's nothing wrong with those things. 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:35.527 But you know, and I know, much of the work the world pursues is beyond all that's necessary for life, and I think we have to come to that as believers. 00:23:35.527 --> 00:23:41.653 We have to come to the fact of being satisfied, being content with what you have. 00:23:41.653 --> 00:23:47.513 This is what Paul brought us to and is teaching, and I don't say that to promote laziness. 00:23:47.554 --> 00:23:48.720 This is not about not working. 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:50.085 Work is a good thing. 00:23:50.085 --> 00:23:53.594 In fact, the writer of Proverbs says I observed and took it to heart. 00:23:53.594 --> 00:23:54.720 I looked and received instruction. 00:23:54.720 --> 00:24:02.471 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and need like a bandit. 00:24:02.471 --> 00:24:04.886 If you don't work, you'll be in need. 00:24:04.886 --> 00:24:07.183 That's also true, right. 00:24:07.183 --> 00:24:21.750 But I've seen people, and some of you, that have made it their business and it's all about making money, gaining more wealth, and they failed to lay it for themselves, treasure in heaven. 00:24:21.750 --> 00:24:28.720 And so listen, if all you're living for is your next paycheck, it reveals something about you spiritually. 00:24:28.720 --> 00:24:31.788 It reveals there's a measure of spiritual poverty in your life. 00:24:31.788 --> 00:24:34.723 That's just the truth. 00:24:34.723 --> 00:24:39.069 And Jesus warns us of this type of focus. 00:24:40.260 --> 00:24:45.532 Remember that parable is called the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12. 00:24:45.532 --> 00:24:55.045 And he's talking about this parable and he talks about a man who's all his life, all he's doing, is building bigger and better barns and he's filling up the barns. 00:24:55.045 --> 00:24:57.627 He gets a new barn, he fills it up. 00:24:57.627 --> 00:24:59.627 That's all his life is. 00:24:59.627 --> 00:25:03.686 And in the parable, jesus says God, come to the man. 00:25:03.686 --> 00:25:14.770 Because he says God said to him Fool this night, your soul is required of you and the things you've prepared, whose will they be? 00:25:14.770 --> 00:25:22.211 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich, toward God. 00:25:23.941 --> 00:25:26.720 And I think, in a practical sense, how should we think of this? 00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:30.971 Well, the way Paul talked about it in 1 Timothy 6,. 00:25:30.971 --> 00:25:50.892 He says and those who are rich in this world's goods, not to be haughty or to set their hope on riches which are uncertain, but on God, who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment, tell them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous givers, sharing with others. 00:25:50.892 --> 00:26:01.769 In this way they will save up a treasure for themselves, as a firm foundation for the future, and so they hold of life that is truly life. 00:26:01.769 --> 00:26:04.967 So your life is not about the here and now. 00:26:04.967 --> 00:26:10.951 It's about our time and eternity with the Lord Christ. 00:26:10.951 --> 00:26:14.688 So Psalm 11 says this what do you get for it all? 00:26:14.688 --> 00:26:17.125 And he answers it right here. 00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:21.250 He says in verse 23, all his days are full of sorrow and his work is a vexation. 00:26:21.250 --> 00:26:24.449 Even in the night his heart does not rest. 00:26:24.449 --> 00:26:27.230 This also is vanity. 00:26:27.230 --> 00:26:29.700 That little word vexation may throw us a little bit. 00:26:29.700 --> 00:26:33.248 It's a word that means his work is a job. 00:26:33.248 --> 00:26:37.065 There's sorrow to it. 00:26:37.065 --> 00:26:39.203 There are things that you do not want to do. 00:26:39.203 --> 00:26:44.855 When you go to work on Monday, in fact, that little saying Monday is coming. 00:26:44.855 --> 00:26:45.720 Well, why did we say that? 00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:52.688 Because some sorrow is mixed in with the work, but there's also vexation. 00:26:52.688 --> 00:26:57.727 When I go to work, it's a job, not all the time, but it is a job. 00:26:59.561 --> 00:27:11.309 And so often what we do and I think what this reveals is it never ends, because he says it keeps him up at night we bring our work home and we think about it. 00:27:11.309 --> 00:27:12.876 What are we going to do next? 00:27:12.876 --> 00:27:13.720 How are we going to prepare for it? 00:27:13.720 --> 00:27:14.824 What's the plan? 00:27:14.824 --> 00:27:29.326 And so he doesn't sleep well, he's restless, and I think, you see, in these verses there's something a little bit about drivenness here, revealed in this verse, and it's kind of this drivenness. 00:27:29.326 --> 00:27:32.705 For us it's often a cover for emptiness. 00:27:32.705 --> 00:27:40.590 So sometimes we're unable to stop and put down our to-do list. 00:27:40.590 --> 00:27:42.145 You got a to-do list. 00:27:42.145 --> 00:27:44.585 Do you live by your to-do list? 00:27:44.585 --> 00:27:56.827 It was Augustin who said you have made us for yourself, o Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. 00:27:56.827 --> 00:28:01.720 And well, these are problems that affect all of us. 00:28:02.321 --> 00:28:07.720 This is not just for Solomon, this speaks to us, and Solomon did the experiment, so we wouldn't have to. 00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:13.127 You know, who's really smart and wise is to look at somebody else's life and learn the lessons that they learned. 00:28:13.127 --> 00:28:18.720 So we won't have to repeat what Solomon has done here and spend our whole life to learn it. 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:28.663 We can learn from this man's mistakes, and what we learn from Solomon is that seeking fulfillment from your work is an illusion. 00:28:28.663 --> 00:28:36.238 Well, now, at the end of his experiment, here's a thing that sort of comes to chain. 00:28:36.238 --> 00:28:44.499 A light sort of turns on for Solomon as he realizes not everything is meaningless. 00:28:44.499 --> 00:28:48.224 Not everything is meaningless. 00:28:48.224 --> 00:28:51.714 In fact, this is a real turning point in the book. 00:28:52.224 --> 00:29:04.494 And there is then the second truth that we need to see, and that is that finding God's pleasure through work is a gift, and he tells us about that in verses 24 through 26. 00:29:04.494 --> 00:29:07.792 And there's three realities here that he presents. 00:29:07.792 --> 00:29:21.726 It sort of balance out and hold intention the enigmas of our life, our work life, and the first one is this one is that we should learn to enjoy the simple gifts of God. 00:29:21.726 --> 00:29:27.275 We should learn to enjoy the simple gifts of God. 00:29:27.275 --> 00:29:34.008 He says there's nothing better for a person than he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. 00:29:34.008 --> 00:29:38.694 This also, I saw, is from the hand of God. 00:29:38.694 --> 00:29:50.876 And that phrase there is nothing better for a person than it occurs three other times in the book in chapter 3, verse 12, verse 22 and chapter 8, verse 18. 00:29:51.305 --> 00:29:54.816 It's been called often called the Carpe Diem passages. 00:29:54.816 --> 00:29:56.488 Remember Carpe Diem? 00:29:56.488 --> 00:29:59.894 There's an old movie with Robin Williams called Carpe Diem. 00:29:59.894 --> 00:30:01.097 What does it mean? 00:30:01.097 --> 00:30:03.180 It's a Latin phrase that means seize the day. 00:30:03.180 --> 00:30:12.096 Seize the day, and I think sometimes, when people have approached this part of the text and said this is really pessimistic. 00:30:12.096 --> 00:30:19.111 This is a pessimistic statement kind of like 1 Corinthians 15, where it says let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 00:30:19.111 --> 00:30:21.711 We might as well just live it up, because this is all there is. 00:30:21.711 --> 00:30:27.973 Grab for all the gusto that you can, because there's no more after this. 00:30:27.973 --> 00:30:30.730 Well, that's not true. 00:30:30.730 --> 00:30:37.996 This is actually truly the verse positive statement we run across in the whole book. 00:30:38.865 --> 00:30:49.051 Right here, a preacher now points to the God who occupies the heavenly realm and to the life of faith in him, says Michael Eaton. 00:30:49.051 --> 00:30:57.672 So instead of despairing, he is beginning to see the difference it makes to include God in all your pursuits. 00:30:57.672 --> 00:31:01.673 And that book could be anything that you put your time and attention to. 00:31:01.673 --> 00:31:17.172 Solomon's telling us this one thing we should live in the moment, live in the now, because it's in the mundane and ordinary things in life, because these are where the gifts of God are found. 00:31:17.172 --> 00:31:23.886 So we're sometimes so busy we miss those things and the gifts of God. 00:31:23.886 --> 00:31:26.973 We don't even see them. 00:31:28.345 --> 00:31:41.189 And I was yesterday delivering some coffee beans over to one of the local shops here and on the way over, after fighting through all the traffic and getting to the shop and carrying the stuff in. 00:31:41.189 --> 00:31:45.695 As I was walking out there was a young couple walking in. 00:31:45.695 --> 00:31:53.434 They had a little puppy on a leash walking in and it was kind of entered. 00:31:53.434 --> 00:32:03.015 The puppy kind of just walked over toward me and just looked up like that and I stooped down and put his face in my hands just to pat him. 00:32:03.015 --> 00:32:06.990 I thought that's a gift. 00:32:09.625 --> 00:32:13.295 And you see, the thing is that we can miss the things because we're so busy. 00:32:13.295 --> 00:32:23.309 Those little things that maybe, just maybe, god has put in our path so that we can enjoy life, don't miss those. 00:32:23.309 --> 00:32:31.309 Walk slowly through your day and you can see those things. 00:32:31.309 --> 00:32:33.369 God says He'll give them to us. 00:32:33.369 --> 00:32:44.867 And so Solomon's telling us live in the moment, because it's there, even in the mundane things, that we find the gift of God, often the unnoticed gifts of God. 00:32:44.867 --> 00:33:03.991 So here's the thing when we're working and slaving away and we're busy and we don't give our time and tension to the things but our job, we let other things go and we endure the trouble of the day, we can miss those simple things that God gives us. 00:33:03.991 --> 00:33:24.433 In that time and most of the time here's the thing I think of Most of the time we're looking at how do we fix the things that happened in the past, or we're planning for tomorrow, and what he's teaching us here is to live in the day. 00:33:24.433 --> 00:33:35.232 Seize the day, because if you live for yesterday, try to fix it and you live for tomorrow, which you can't control, it's just a pipe dream. 00:33:35.232 --> 00:33:37.377 You're only fooling yourself. 00:33:37.377 --> 00:33:40.657 You can't change your past and you cannot know the future. 00:33:40.657 --> 00:33:43.728 Live in the moment. 00:33:43.728 --> 00:33:45.673 Discover God's gift of the now. 00:33:45.673 --> 00:33:46.535 Seize the day. 00:33:49.307 --> 00:33:55.898 Blaise Pascal was a French mathematical genius who lived and was born back in 1623. 00:33:55.898 --> 00:34:06.951 And after running from God for 31 years, he gave his heart and a life on November 23 at 1030, to God and he came to know Jesus Christ personally. 00:34:06.951 --> 00:34:19.173 Un-unshakable, he converted to Jesus, and what he would do later, he would write down his thoughts in a book that's pretty famous now it's called Pinsies and he put this thought down. 00:34:19.173 --> 00:34:23.864 I thought fit well with this idea of living for the moment. 00:34:23.864 --> 00:34:25.869 He says we never keep to the present. 00:34:26.809 --> 00:34:34.768 We recall the past, we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and we're trying to hurry it up. 00:34:34.768 --> 00:34:40.659 Oh, we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. 00:34:40.659 --> 00:34:55.757 We are so unwise that we wonder about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. 00:34:55.757 --> 00:35:00.596 The fact is that the present usually hurts. 00:35:00.596 --> 00:35:09.518 We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us, and if we find it enjoyable, we are sorry to see it slip away. 00:35:09.518 --> 00:35:21.280 We try to give it the support of the future and think how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching. 00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:25.371 Let us each of us examine his thoughts. 00:35:25.371 --> 00:35:29.958 He will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. 00:35:30.905 --> 00:35:38.099 We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. 00:35:38.099 --> 00:35:41.009 The present is never our end. 00:35:41.009 --> 00:35:46.219 The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. 00:35:46.219 --> 00:35:57.898 Thus, we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we're always planning on how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so. 00:35:57.898 --> 00:36:04.235 Living in the present, enjoy God's simple gifts. 00:36:04.235 --> 00:36:05.257 That's what he is saying. 00:36:05.257 --> 00:36:12.398 He is making a second thing here as he comes to the end of his life and it makes it turn a corner. 00:36:12.465 --> 00:36:16.396 He said God alone gives us the ability to enjoy what we do. 00:36:16.396 --> 00:36:18.909 You like what you do? 00:36:18.909 --> 00:36:24.139 He says from apart, for apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 00:36:24.139 --> 00:36:29.878 So you know, always, when I see things like this, who can do this, apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 00:36:29.878 --> 00:36:32.608 I would play the devil's advocate and say well, why? 00:36:32.608 --> 00:36:33.992 Why is that true? 00:36:33.992 --> 00:36:36.896 Because there are people who would disagree with that. 00:36:36.896 --> 00:36:43.213 I mean you, that you really, you can enjoy life without God and Jesus Christ. 00:36:43.213 --> 00:36:46.668 And so there's this pushback. 00:36:46.668 --> 00:36:49.432 Well, watch me, I'll show you how much I enjoy life. 00:36:49.432 --> 00:36:51.217 I enjoy life to the hilt. 00:36:51.217 --> 00:36:54.047 I have a great time, apart from God. 00:36:54.047 --> 00:36:57.335 Well, that's the problem, isn't it? 00:36:57.335 --> 00:37:05.077 How would you even know, unless you tried it, if you're sitting here this morning, you've never met Jesus Christ? 00:37:05.077 --> 00:37:14.650 How would you know that your life couldn't be better by having the person of Jesus within you, having a personal relationship with you? 00:37:14.650 --> 00:37:17.016 That's why the Bible always encourages us. 00:37:17.016 --> 00:37:23.916 He says, for example, in 1 Corinthians whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. 00:37:26.605 --> 00:37:29.755 And I was just thinking, you know, jesus kind of modeled this, didn't he? 00:37:29.755 --> 00:37:35.297 And I think we kind of have a distorted view, really, of what Jesus was like. 00:37:35.297 --> 00:37:47.829 Sometimes we think of him as this starchy, self-restrained, joyless person who kind of just walked and did his thing while he was on the earth here, and I think that's just wrong. 00:37:47.829 --> 00:37:50.454 I really do. 00:37:50.454 --> 00:37:57.416 Jesus enjoyed life for 33 years that he walked this earth. 00:37:57.416 --> 00:38:02.291 He did everything to the glory of God, including the things he did not want to do. 00:38:02.291 --> 00:38:03.833 Go to the cross for our sin. 00:38:03.833 --> 00:38:10.730 On our behalf, I'll tell you what do you mean? 00:38:10.730 --> 00:38:19.054 Well, the people that wanted to bring him down, his enemies, his detractors, you know they came to him and they accused him of something based on what they thought they saw. 00:38:19.054 --> 00:38:20.766 And it's in. 00:38:20.806 --> 00:38:32.614 Matthew 11 says in Jesus says this he says the Son of man came eating and drinking and they say look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. 00:38:32.614 --> 00:38:39.688 Jesus was not a drunkard or a or a glutton, but you know what he enjoyed the good things of life. 00:38:39.688 --> 00:38:42.675 I really think he did. 00:38:42.675 --> 00:38:59.057 I mean, if you had spent time with Jesus, you would have had a fun day, you would have enjoyed it with him, and so Jesus was often criticized for his excesses and his celebration, his exuberance for life. 00:38:59.057 --> 00:39:03.494 And he went to parties and when he was invited, he was invited by who? 00:39:03.494 --> 00:39:06.527 Whom Would be correct Whom? 00:39:06.527 --> 00:39:17.713 He was invited by tax collectors and sinners, the most unlikely people, because he they knew they'd had fun with this man called Jesus. 00:39:20.724 --> 00:39:27.356 But he was also a man, isaiah says, who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 00:39:27.356 --> 00:39:32.713 Those things, those two things, can be held together, can't they? 00:39:32.713 --> 00:39:40.126 The toil of life and the joy of the Lord, the sorrow and joy. 00:39:40.126 --> 00:39:44.034 And I think this is what Solomon comes to. 00:39:44.034 --> 00:39:48.150 And you know, the fact is that God alone gives you that ability. 00:39:48.150 --> 00:39:56.496 In the midst of the hard life, we can no joy because of Jesus. 00:39:58.106 --> 00:40:04.329 Well, there's a third reality that I want you to see, and he says it there, in verses 20 or verse 26. 00:40:04.329 --> 00:40:08.436 He says our hearts focus will determine what we receive. 00:40:08.436 --> 00:40:27.076 Essentially, our hearts focus will determine what we receive, he says, for to the one who pleases him, god has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner, he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. 00:40:27.076 --> 00:40:31.755