THE WHOLE OF MAN…EVERYTHING ELSE IS MEANINGLESS Sept 8,2002
AIM: To help the congregation understand the nature of God through our fear for Him.
OPEN:
1. Good Morning and Welcome
2. Wedding In Winnipeg.
3. I remember asking my brother, when we were just little kids…What’s the meaning of life? We were in the basement of my grandparents house, playing ping pong. And For some reason I was thinking past the ordinary kids thoughts. I said…why are we here? He said. We’re visiting grandma and Grandpa…No, Why are people here on earth? What’s the point? He said, to work, and get married, and…um…I don’t know let’s play ping pong!
4. So we went on playing ping pong, and the thought escaped from me. Years passed before I began to even wonder again.
5. I often wonder if we don’t sometimes forget to wonder today what is the point of all of this? Why are we here?
6. Today we are going to address this very topic, and for a very good reason. Over the next several weeks I am going to be leading us in a series of lessons on the Nature of God, and It is important that we understand Him through us.
OUTLINE:
1. MEANINGLESS…UTTERLY MEANINGLESS
2. THE WHOLE OF MAN
3. THE NATURE OF GOD
1. MEANINGLESS…UTTERLY MEANINGLESS
a) So what is the point? Why are we here? What is the meaning of Life?
b) To make money? To marry, and be given in marriage? To have children? To sleep? To learn? To…well, you get the point.
c) Why would money be the meaning of life? No one takes any of it with them?
d) Who knows? This is an age old question.
e) Some believe that we exist here by chance, that it was fluke that brought the earth into being. That we evolved from single celled organisms.
f) I knew someone who claimed that the earth was populated by aliens, that we are not an original species, but that we were made as test tube babies, and the aliens wanted to populate the earth.
g) That still doesn’t answer the questions? It still doesn’t make it clear. Why did the aliens make us, and who made them? and why?
h) Now we believe that we were created by God in His image. That we were made in His likeness. We believe that He made Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
i) But have you ever wondered why? Have you ever questioned the wisdom of God in putting us here on earth?
j) I know of one in the Bible who asked these same questions. WHY GOD?
SCRIPTURES:
a) Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."
3 What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
b) Everything that happens on earth is pointless… There is no meaning to any of it.
c) Work…Pointless, yet it is so much of everyone’s life.
d) Money…vanity, but look at it’s impact.
e) Solomon goes on to write some more about the things in life that are completely meaningless. Wisdom, the pursuit of gaining wisdom and knowledge in life is meaningless.
f) Pleasures… Whoa…yep, you heard me, pleasures. The one thing that the world is constantly after. Physical pleasure.
g) Hugh Hefner, the founder of playboy, lives by a motto, If it feels good, do it!
h) Unfortunately this is the motto of the world, Indulge yourself in physical pleasure. But why? What’s the point? It’s all meaningless.
i) Toil is meaningless…Work Solomon calls a chasing after the wind. You can only chase so long before you realize that you aren’t ever going to catch it.
j) Yet work is the majority of peoples lives. When you meet someone for the first time, one of the things that often is asked is, Where do you work?
k) Why is that important? Why does that matter?
l) He also says Riches are meaningless in Chapter 5:8… The one thing that moves the world. And Solomon should know He was the richest man in the world. Vs 10 is awesome…
10 Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.
m) Yet the whole world is chasing after it… they’ll be happy if they just get more. But why? What’s the point?
n) Everything that we do or pursue, or achieve on earth has no point, no purpose, no meaning.
o) WOW… Let me see if I can think of anything else that could possibly discourage the congregation.
p) Solomon must have been on a real down time…the wisest man on earth suddenly realizes that all of existence is futile.
EXAMPLE:
The Thief
One night a thief broke into the single-room apartment of French novelist Honore de Balzac. Trying to avoid waking Balzac, the intruder quietly picked the lock on the writer’s desk. Suddenly the silence was broken by a sardonic laugh from the bed, where Balzac lay watching the thief.
“Why do you laugh?” asked the thief.
“I am laughing to think what risks you take to try to find money in a desk by night where the legal owner can never find any by day.”
* * * *
I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest, to make money they don’t want, to buy things they don’t need, to impress people they dislike. - Emile Henry Gauvreau
* * * *
Meaningless Of Life
Mark Twain expressed similar thoughts about the meaningless of life in view of man’s inevitable death. Shortly before his death, he wrote, “A myriad of men are born; they labor and sweat and struggle;...they squabble and scold and fight; they scramble for little mean advantages over each other; age creeps upon them; infirmities follow; ...those they love are taken from them, and the joy of life is turned to aching grief. It (the release) comes at last—the only unpoisoned gift earth ever had for them—and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence,...a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever.”
APPLICATION:
So what then is the point of all of this…everything that we chase after is as a chasing after the wind. It’s like climbing a hill, only to get to the top and wonder why you climbed in the first place. It’s like building a perfect sand castle, to have the tide come in and wash it away. Life is empty, and meaningless, works, money, pleasures. All pointless, without purpose. All things are meaningless.
Now, if I decided to leave my sermon here, I’d be sending you home without any kind of hopeful message. Depressed, Discouraged. But you know That I would not do that. In fact I want to do exactly the opposite. I want to tell you that there is purpose, and meaning to life. That there is a hope and a reason to exist for the short time that we do.
Today I want to tell you about the WHOLE OF MAN
2. THE WHOLE OF MAN
a) So then, if there is purpose in life, what is it, what is the point of all of this futile existence?
b) Why on earth are we on earth? Did God have something to prove by creating us? Did He have a purpose? Was there A point to this.
c) Some would call us mortal beings, we will die. But I would venture to challenge that thinking.
d) God didn’t just create the physical, but He made us Spiritual. Eternal beings. He made us in His image.
e) That means we are immortal. Not that our bodies won’t die, but that our soul’s won’t die.
f) When all we are is mortal, than all there is, is nothing
g) But as immortal spiritual beings, there is everything. Our existence has purpose.
h) So what is our purpose, What is the point of Life.
SCRIPTURES:
a) Solomon doesn’t only talk about the futility of life, He also answers his own questions.
b) ECCLESIASTES 5:9
Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.
c) He says leading up to this point that everything in life is meaningless. That there is no point to any of it. Then He says THEREFORE… This conjunction means, “In light of all that I have just said. Pertaining to my last discourse. STAND IN AWE OF GOD.
d) What a fantastic little verse. It summarizes everything into one phrase. Though all of life is meaningless, Stand in awe of God.
e) Why? Because God is;
• The provider of purpose
• The master of meaning
• The Father in futility
• The Vibrancy in Vanity
He gives hope and identity to all who seek it in Him.
He is everything where there is nothing. He is the creator who created us in His image, as mortal beings with an immortal soul. He gives us reason to work, and earn money, and have children, and marry, and live day to day. He is everything to me, and to all of you today.
f) THEREFORE STAND IN AWE OF GOD.
g) Without Him there would be nothing. But because of Him we have everything.
h) You want a simple straight forward answer to the purpose of mankind. You need to understand then what it means to stand in awe of God.
i) I’ll let Solomon explain.
j) Ecclesiastes 12:13
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
k) Fear God and Keep His commands. You want to stand in awe of God, then understand that this requires we fear Him.
EXAMPLE: I used to have a principle named Mr. Duchovich. He was a monster of a man. Not in Character, but in stature. When in trouble in Jr. High school, the students feared for their lives. I remember one day having another student at the school bet me that I couldn’t kick a clock that was 7.5 feet off of the ground and sticking out of the wall. Being the intelligent kid that I was I took the challenge, jumped and kicked with all of my might. I connected, and pieces of the clock, unintentionally, went flying through the air. One face landed in the doorway of Mr. Anderson’s Math class, and he immediately came to the door to see what all the commotion was about. My first inclination was to run, but realizing that there was no escape from this one I decided to stick it out. When Mr. Anderson reached for the office intercom, my second inclination was to run, but again common sense, what little there was of it, restrained me. Not moments later, Mr. Duchovich immerged from the far end of the hall. It felt like forever was passing by, and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, like it wanted to get out and run away. Then my third inclination was to run, but it was too late, I was busted. I watched as Mr. D lurched his way down the hallway, within moments he was standing over me. Let me take this moment to describe him to you. He was close to 7 feet tall, and you could have fit 4 of me (a little jr. High Student) into a pair of His pants. He had deep brown eyes, and dark black curly hair. His hands were the size of my head. When I say that he was standing over me, it was no word of a lie. I could see the hair in his nostrils as I strained to look up at him. He assessed the situation with his eyes, saw the face of the clock on the ground, then he reached down, and I almost had a mild coronary, but then he passed me, and picked up the clock by the face with one hand, like he was palming a basketball. I must have been white as a ghost, and he put the face of the clock back on. Without saying a word, but merely peering right through me, He had accomplished his punishment. He turned around, thanked Mr. Anderson, then chuckled an amused chuckle and disappeared down the hall. My life was spared, I didn’t know what to say. The monster of a man that I feared with all of my being was really a gentle giant. I had a new respect for Him, I stood in awe of him, I feared him.
l) So what does it mean to fear the Lord…Exactly that. Stand in awe of him, respect Him for His unmatchable power, love Him, and Place Him above everything else in life.
m) But not only that, It’s one thing to Fear Him, but it’s another thing to act out of that fear.
n) Solomon not only says fear the Lord, but also keep His commands.
o) Mark 7:6
6 And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, These people honor me with their lips, But their hearts are far from me.
7 But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.
8 Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.
p) We need to love God and Praise Him, and Stand in awe of Him in keeping with His commands.
q) That means we are devoting ourselves to the word.
r) A lot of people feel the void of life. That there is no point, but the truth of the matter is, when we read the message of the gospel of Christ, we are filled with faith, Hope, and love.
s) We need to stick to the commands of God.
t) If we fear Him and Hold to His word, we will find fulfillment. Because this is the whole of Man.
u) The NIV says whole duty of man, but you’ll find that the word Duty is in parentheses
v) It is like this because that is an added in word. It’s not in the original text.
w) To be honest, I don’t really like it there. It takes so much power out of the phrase.
x) It’s not just our duty to fear God and keep His commands, it is our everything.
y) Without this, there is no point or purpose to life. Meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless says the teacher.
z) Unless we fear God and keep His commands
APPLICATION:
Solomon says that life is utterly meaningless, unless we stand in awe of God, unless we fear Him and keep His commands. It is essential that we do this. Without God as our father, life is futile. Unless we have a relationship with Him, a respect for Him and His word, then we have no hope. Then our lives are void of meaning. God is the giver of all grace, and grace is the granter of purpose. We need God’s grace. It is the whole of man.
So what does this tell us of …
3. THE NATURE OF GOD
a) Over the next several weeks we are going to be studying a series of lessons on the nature of God.
b) We are going to look at His character and His being so that we can better understand why we ought to fear Him, and keep his commands.
c) In this passage we can see the nature of God at work. We can see that God has created us to have a void unless we have Him to fill it.
d) He has created us with a need, a dependency, if you will, on Him.
e) Like I said earlier, we are spiritual beings, and as spiritual beings God has designed us to have a connection with Him.
f) He has made us so much more than just mortal flesh. He has made us Spiritual, and He wants us to live up to that nature.
g) So the nature of God is shown here. And the question we have, is what is this passage telling us of the nature of God?
SCRIPTURES:
a) Ecclesiastes 12:1-14
Ecclesiastes12:1-14
1 Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
"I find no pleasure in them" --
2 before the sun and the light
and the moon and the stars grow dark,
and the clouds return after the rain;
3 when the keepers of the house tremble,
and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
and those looking through the windows grow dim;
4 when the doors to the street are closed
and the sound of grinding fades;
when men rise up at the sound of birds,
but all their songs grow faint;
5 when men are afraid of heights
and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
and the grasshopper drags himself along
and desire no longer is stirred.
Then man goes to his eternal home
and mourners go about the streets.
6 Remember him -- before the silver cord is severed,
or the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
or the wheel broken at the well,
7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
8 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher.
"Everything is meaningless!"
9 Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. 10 The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.
11 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails -- given by one Shepherd. 12 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil. (NIV)
b) Solomon in verse 1 says to remember your creator, then he goes on to say, when everything is said and done, and your life draws to a close, then you will go to your eternal home, and your time will have passed.
c) Remember Him…dust will return to the ground from where it came, and spirit will return to God who gave it in the first place.
d) Then He repeats that everything is meaningless.
e) But I love the conclusion… fear God and keep his commands for this is the whole of man.
f) We need to stand in fear of Him, we need to revere Him, and hold him as highest in all of our lives because God is the ultimate judge.
g) He will bring every deed, not just the bad ones, but also the good ones, into judgement before Him.
h) The nature of God, as Solomon saw it, was that God is the giver of life, the creator, the holder of eternity, the savior of our souls. But that he is also the Judge.
i) A Judge demands respect, they deserve to be honored. God is our judge.
j) We are spiritual beings, and will return to the spirit one day, and all of our deeds will stand clear before the Lord.
k) Let’s not be deceived, God is God, and we are his creation, in Him we have purpose, but we need to be in Him.
l) We will stand in Judgement before him when our lives come to a close.
EXAMPLE:
Grandfather in Heaven
We want, in fact, not so much a father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven: a senile benevolence who, as they say, “liked to see young people enjoying themselves” and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all.”
CS Lewis in The Problem of Pain
APPLICATION:
The nature of God is clear, He is a purposeful God. He has made us to be with Him. And we will be. God is our judge, and all of our actions will be laid bare before Him, Good and Bad. God is loving, no doubt, but Just and swift. And we need to stand in awe of Him.
CONCLUSION:
So here is the conclusion of the matter, fear God and keep His commands, for this is the whole of man. We live in a world that is chasing after the wind. A place that is walking blindly into vanity. A world in which money and careers reign, and physical pleasures take precedence to morality. But life is meaningless, in all that we seek after on earth, in all that we strive for, there is no point. Unless God is there with you. Unless you have a relationship with the creator of the world. Without Him there is nothing. He is the Whole of man. We were created in His image, as spiritual immortal beings. Designed with purpose, living with meaning, in an otherwise meaningless world. The question is this then, When your life draws to a close, can you look back and say that you lived a life with meaning? Or is God going to stand in judgement of you, and say, I’m sorry, but do you even know why I created you? Fear God, and keep His commands, He is our father, the giver of eternal paradise, and worthy of our reverence. And we need to Hold to Him as though our life depended on it, because it does.
MEANINGLESS, MEANINGLESS SAYS THE TEACHER, UTTERLY MEANINGLESS…UNLESS YOU STAND IN AWE OF GOD, UNLESS YOU FEAR HIM AND HOLD TO HIS COMMANDS.
