INTRO.- Sometimes life gets old. Does it not? If not, then you’re not human!
What has been will be again. Doesn’t life sometimes seem to be just a revolving door of sorts? Every day it’s the same old routine. Every month. Every year. Year in, year out.
ILL.- Marriage counselor to mother: "Do you feel that your role as a mother and homemaker is beneath you?" She replied, "No, I feel it’s beyond me!"
I am sure that some mothers feel that motherhood is beyond them…an endless cycle of doing laundry, cleaning house and cooking meals.
ILL- That’s like the Jim Bob Duggar family of Springdale, AR. Jim Bob (former state representative) and his wife Michelle have 16 kids. And she is only 39 years old. And they do laundry every day. No wonder!
For a long time they lived in a home was about 2400 square feet. It had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 washers and 3 dryers. They did 10 loads of laundry per day! And mama was getting up in the middle of the night to change loads from the washer to the drier.
Now in their new 7,000 sq ft. home they have four washers and four dryers. But I’m sure they still do laundry every day!
Wouldn’t that get old? Of course, everybody in that family has a job or a responsibility to fulfill.
What has been will be again.
ILL.- Employer to job seeker: How long did you work at your last job? Job seeker: Fifty-five years. Employer: How old are you? Job seeker: Forty-five years old. Employer: How could you work 55 years when you’re only 45 years old? Job seeker: OVERTIME.
I’m sure that some jobs seem like you worked there forever or put in a lot of overtime when it wasn’t even overtime! If you didn’t like your job then it probably seemed like overtime every day.
What has been will be again. Our text in Eccl. reads in V. 5-7
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. What has been will be again.
6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. What has been will be again.
7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. What has been will be again.
I don’t understand how the sun, the wind and streams repeat their cycles, but I believe it. We’ve seen it over and over, time and time again. It’s the way God made them to work.
But just because much of life repeats itself it doesn’t mean that it is meaningless. Some of it is but some isn’t. Life doesn’t have to be meaningless or worthless. This is where the Lord comes in. Life is somewhat meaningless to the person who doesn’t know the Lord or His will for their lives. Knowing God can make all the difference in the world in the way you view life and live out your life!
This is why Rick Warren’s book, THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE, has been a best seller. Rick shows us how getting connected with God and Christ through the church makes for a more meaningful life. And it’s the truth! Still, in our daily routines some things seem to be an endless cycle of boredom.
PROP.- Let’s think about some of these things with the idea of learning how to overcome boredom.
I. LEARNING IS WEARISOME, BUT DON’T STOP LEARNING
1:8 “All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.”
ALL THINGS ARE WEARISOME. At least, it seems that most things can become wearisome. They can become “old hat,” so to speak.
ILL.- Here are the farewell statements of a few former presidents, upon leaving the White House.
- George Washington: “I’d rather be in the grave than in the presidency again.”
- Thomas Jefferson: “Never did a prisoner released from his chains feel such relief as I shall in shaking off the shackles of power.”
- James Buchanan (to Lincoln): “If you are as happy, dear Sir, on entering this house as I am on leaving it, you are the happiest man in the country.”
- Lincoln, after having been in the White House a while: “I feel like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.”
- James K. Polk: “I shall be a happier man in my retirement.”
If these presidents thought the presidency was bad back then, they most certainly wouldn’t want the job now! Being the President of United States could become very wearisome!
But most things can become wearisome if we allow it to happen.
We all need to learn how to add life to our lives. Again, seeking the Lord and serving the Lord makes the difference.
Eph. 5:15-20 “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I think this scripture helps us to avoid some of the weariness of life. Any time we seek to understand the Lord’s will and do His will, life will be better and more exciting. IT IS EXCITING TO KNOW GOD AND SERVE HIM. Not everybody gets to rub shoulders with the upper crust of life!
Whenever we give thanks and sing praise to the Lord every day….to our great Creator, something miraculous happens to us. We were made to praise Him and when we do this on a regular basis life takes on a new and better meaning. Sparkle is added to our lives in ways we never thought possible!
When your life is centered on someone greater than you then life just has to be better!
ILL.- I was reading the biography of Albert Einstein (1879-1955) last week. And in all of his brilliance he still didn’t seem to understand the meaning of life. He knew math, geometry, calculus, physics, etc, but he apparently didn’t know God! He studied everything except what was really important!
Einstein said, “I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
It’s so very sad that Einstein was so brilliant and yet not so brilliant. And I suspect that if the truth were known, his life was very wearisome. No one is bright who does not know God.
“The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.” Seeing and hearing may indicate learning. And learning can become tiring. Reading and study are tiring. So what? Don’t stop reading and studying.
ILL.- Some guy went to the library to get a book. A few days later, he returned and said to librarian at the counter, "This book was very boring. It had too many characters and too many numbers, so I would like to return it." The librarian said to the other librarian, "So here is the person who took our phone book!"
Reading a phone would get boring really quick. But reading is important in life and reading the right stuff is really important.
ILL.- Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether this happens at twenty or at eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young but becomes constantly more valuable, regardless of physical capacity.”
Learning can become wearisome, but never stop learning! Especially, when it comes to learning about God! We will never exhaust God. We will never learn too much about God, our creator and heavenly Father!
Please read! Read His Word. Read good books. Read what Max Lucado has written. In my opinion, he is one great Christian writer. Why? Because he is a thinker and he makes me think. He has also made me think more highly of God than any other writer I know. And if there is one thing we need to learn to do, it is to think more highly of God! Learning is wearisome but never, never stop learning about God!
II. WORK IS TIRING, BUT DON’T STOP WORKING
Eccl. 1:2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Many things in life seem meaningless or worthless. Sometimes we may think, “This is getting old. Why do I keep doing this? What purpose is there in this?
ILL.- A father said to his son: “Why don’t you get yourself a job?” Son: “Why?” Father: “So you could put some money in the bank and earn some interest.” Son: “Why?” Father: “So that when you’re old you can use that money in the bank and you would never have to work again.” Son: “I’m not working now.”
To some people, work is meaningless. Perhaps that is because they have never found the true meaning of life in the first place. When you find the meaning of life, it puts meaning and purpose into your life. And even into your work life.
ILL.- In the days of Thomas Jefferson there was great agitation because someone in Philadelphia was suggesting that they have sixty-hour work weeks, ten hours a day.
This was to replace a seventy-two hour week, which had been common in Philadelphia for all carpenters and manual laborers of that time.
During the Revolutionary War, everyone who had a job—carpenters, masons, bricklayers, and the people who kept the streets clean—worked twelve hours a day.
People in Philadelphia thought it was terrible that the common man should be trying for a ten-hour-a-day job. What was civilization coming to that men were so lazy as to want to work only ten hours a day, six days a week!
Times have sure changed, have they not? Some people complain today because they have to work 40 hours a week.
Work is tiring, but don’t stop working. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 40 or 60 hours a week!
Eccl. 1:3 “What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?”
What does a person gain from their work? Money. It may not be enough but it’s what you get for your work. You should also get some satisfaction from doing a good job.
ILL.- "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go." For a vast portion of the workforce, that’s the main reason they go to work every day. According to one poll, only 43 percent of American office workers are satisfied with their jobs. In Japan, the figure dips to 17 percent.
Martin Luther understood this when he wrote, "The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays -- not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."
When we recognize that we’re here to please and honor God in our work it will make a difference in our work and our lives.
ILL.- When Roger Tessman goes bowling, he can’t see the strikes, but he can hear them. He’ll turn 79 next month. Tessman’s vision started failing 15 years ago, but he’s not giving up his favorite sport. Tessman’s son, Bill, is his bowling partner and pin spotter. He tells his father which pins are still standing.
This Florida senior citizen and his son recently competed in their 15th national tournament together, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Roger Tessman tells people that he’ll find a way to keep bowling, until they put him in a casket.
Brothers and sisters, Never stop working at something. It is the idea of: don’t stop until you die. Keep doing something until you die. Don’t die until you die!
God made us to be doers, not sitters. Keep working and keep serving the Lord until you die. You’ll never regret the prayers you offered, the calls you made, the kind deeds you did, the acts of love you performed, BUT YOU WILL REGRET DOING NOTHING OR LITTLE.
ILL.- It’s my understanding that John Relyea’s last words were: Don’t stop praying! And he prayed and worked until he went home to be with the Lord.
Don’t die until it’s your time to die. Don’t stop doing.
CONCLUSION--------------------------------
What has been will be again. Yes, this is true for most things in life. But instead of allowing things to get boring we should work at them so they’ll get better!
ILL.- I have discovered that the more you work at something, for the most part, you get better at it. I’ve found this to be true for fishing, running and PREACHING!
When you work hard at something you just have to get better! Therefore, let’s commit ourselves to do more, to work harder, etc. in order to get better at living for Christ!
Instead of easing off, let’s step up the pace! Don’t die until you die!
