The Mysteries of Life Ecclesiastes 6:1-12 (NKJV)

Transcription

1 Message for THE LORD'S DAY MORNING, September 6, 2015 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister MESSAGE 9 in Ecclesiastes Sermon Series ( Finding Meaning In A Meaningless World ) The Mysteries of Life Ecclesiastes 6:1-12 (NKJV) As we continue with our series of message from the Book of Ecclesiastes, please turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter six. And for now, let's just read verses 1-6. ECCLESIASTES 6:1-6 (NKJV) 1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: 2 A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction. 3 If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he 4 for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. 5 Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man, 6 even if he lives a thousand years twice but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one place? P R A Y E R

2 I N T R O D U C T I O N Life is full of mysteries. The dictionary defines the word mystery as anything that is unexplained or unknown. For many years we have been intrigued with the mysteries of Big Foot...the Lochness monster...the disappearance of Amelia Earhart...the Bermuda Triangle... the shroud of Turin...the Lost City of Atlantis...and the identity of the Zodiac killer. These are just a few of the unexplained mysteries in life, mysteries that may never be answered in our lifetime. **************************************** In this sixth chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon presents us with three great mysteries in life. Let's take a look at them. First, let's consider... I. The Mystery of MONEY Without MEANING (vs. 1-6) 1. Look at verses 1, 2 again... 1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: 2 A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction.

3 2. What Solomon is talking about here is the seeming tragedy of having all the financial and material resources to live a satisfying life and yet not being able to enjoy them for one reason or another. 3. Solomon is not talking about some hypothetical situation here. He is talking about a situation you and I have seen played out in real life a number of times. 4. Think of people you worked with or people you have known who died shortly after they retired. They had worked hard their whole lives to accumulate a nice little nest egg to retire on, so they could do some traveling or spend time enjoying their grandchildren, then all the sudden their life was cut short by a heart-attack or a tragic accident, and they never got to enjoy the fruits of their labor. ILLUSTRATION As I was preparing this message I couldn't help but think of that police officer who was tragically gunned down this week in FOX LAKE, ILLINOIS. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz was on the brink of retiring after a 30-year career in lawenforcement. He was looking forward to spending more time with his four sons. But it was not to be. Gliniewicz was gunned down by three armed assailants this past Tuesday.

4 I L L U S T R A T I O N Carl D. Atwood of Elwood, Indiana, appeared on the Indianapolis TV show called The Hoosier Millionaire. On the show that day they gave him the good news that he had just won a million dollars. When asked what he was going to do with his money, Atwood said, I am humbly thankful to have won this money. I guess I will purchase a new car to replace my old one. Just hours later, Atwood struck and killed by a truck on his way to the grocery store. I L L U S T R A T I O N For most of her Court Reporting career here in eastern North Carolina, Linda worked for Judge William Griffin from Williamston. (NC) Shortly before he retired Judge Griffin told Linda about some of his plans for retirement, which included lots of traveling and spending more time with his grand kids. But about a year after his retirement, Judge Griffin was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer that ended his life less than a year later. 5. Why does this happen? Why do people work hard to earn money their whole lives, then before they ever get to enjoy it, their life comes to an end?

5 6. It is a mystery. Solomon describes it as an evil which he had seen under the sun. It is like the cruelest unfairness of all. 7. In verses 3-6 Solomon deals with a hypothetical situation. We know it is hypothetical, because for one thing, nobody lives 2,000 years as he mentions in verse 6. And no monogamous marriage is likely to produce 100 children. (Solomon's son,rehoboam had eighty-eight children but he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines who bore those children. 8. The man Solomon is describing in this hypothetical situation is a pitiful character indeed. He is a man with abundant financial resources and a huge family, both of which were marks of God's favor in the Jewish culture. But this man's family didn't love him. In fact, when he died his family didn't even mourn his death or give him a decent funeral. When he died, the only thing his family cared about was how much he had left them in his will.

6 9. What is Solomon getting at here? His point is, no matter how much money you make, no matter how much family you have, and no matter how many years you live, if you can't enjoy your blessings while you are living, you might just as well have never been born. 10. What Solomon is admonishing us to do is to live in the moment...enjoy the life GOD has blessed us with now. Enjoy your mate now...enjoy your children and your grandchildren now...because you and I have no promise that we will live long enough to enjoy our blessings later. II. The Mystery of EMPLOYMENT Without ENJOYMENT (vs. 7-9) ECCLESIASTES 6:7-9 (NKJV) 7 All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the soul is not satisfied. 8 For what more has the wise man than the fool? What does the poor man have, Who knows how to walk before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

7 1. In the first six verses Solomon talked about the rich man who has everything he could possibly want, and yet he can't enjoy it. Now in verses 7-9 Solomon talks about the poor man who works and works and works just to put food on his table, and yet its never enough, because every day he and his family get hungry, and need to eat. In other words, there no end to it. You work today to put food on the table tomorrow. Tomorrow you go back to work to put food on the table the next day. 2. Here's the point: Your job can't satisfy your soul. Employment cannot bring true, lasting enjoyment. You may like your job. You may even love your job. But no matter how much enjoyment you get from your job, it can never satisfy the deepest needs of your soul. I mean stop and think about it. The rewards for our work in this life are the material things of life. Our work puts food in our bellies, money in our pockets, and a roof over our heads. Our work satisfies the physical needs of our life, but it can never satisfy the needs of our soul.

8 3. Talk to the man who is a workaholic and he will tell you he is buried up to his eyeballs in his work. Talk to that same man five years later, and you will find he is five years older, and five years wearier, but he still isn't satisfied or happy. Five more years go by, then five more, then five more, and the man has just grown older, and more cynical, and possibly even angry that he has little to show for all his years of hard labor. 4. In verse 8 Solomon goes on to say, For what more has the wise man than the fool? What does the poor man have, who knows how to walk before the living. What Solomon is saying is that when this life is over, the wise, educated man has no ultimate advantage over the poor, uneducated fool, if he has left GOD out of his life. 5. When the wise, educated man stands before GOD, GOD isn't going to ask him what college or university he went to. He isn't going to ask to see the man's diplomas or ask about his degrees. GOD won't care one bit about the man's I.Q. or how high he scored on the S.A.T. test. The only thing that will matter to GOD is the condition of the man's soul.

9 8. In verse 9 Solomon says, Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind. What does Solomon mean by that? He means if your work or your career is the most important thing in your life, you are constantly waiting on your next raise, your next title, or your next bonus. In other words, your targets keep moving. No sooner than you achieve one goal than you set your sights on the next. And before you know it, you have gone from a young man to an old man, and your life is almost over. 9. Solomon is not telling us we shouldn't set goals or have dreams, but rather he is telling us don't forget to stop and smell the roses along the way. Well, Solomon has told us that life is a dead-end street for two kinds of people: One, for those who have MONEY but no MEANING to their lives. And two, for those who have EMPLOYMENT but no ENJOYMENT in life. Thirdly, let's consider...

10 III. The Mystery of QUESTIONS Without ANSWERS (vs ) ECCLESIASTES 6:10-12 (NKJV) 10 Whatever one is, he has been named already, for it is known that he is man; and he cannot contend with Him who is mightier than he. 11 Since there are many things that increase vanity, how is man the better? 12 For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun? 1. In these verses Solomon is telling us that life is a deadend street for a third kind of person---and that is the person who wants answers to all of life's questions. Those who demand answers from GOD about everything tend to become SKEPTICS, AGNOSTICS or ATHEIST. 2. Solomon is not discouraging honest inquiry into life's unanswered questions, but he is telling us we must accept the truth that there are many questions in life for which we will never know the answers, at least while we are in this world.

11 3. If we are unhappy with the way things are in this life, there is no need in arguing with GOD about it. This is what Solomon means in verse 10 when he says, And he cannot contend with Him who is mightier than he. 4. We need to know our limits, and one of our limits is that we do not have the wisdom to out-talk or out-think GOD. 5. GOD does not owe you or me ANSWERS to all our QUESTIONS or EXPLANATIONS for why He does things the way He does. 6. Solomon tells us in that twelfth verse that GOD and GOD alone knows the future, and that is precisely why we should put all our faith and trust in Him. **********************************************************************

12 C O N C L U S I O N Professional golfer, Paul Azinger was diagnosed with cancer at the age of thirty three. He had just won the PGA championship and had ten tournament wins to his credit. He wrote in his auto-biography, A A genuine fear came over me. I could die from cancer. Then another reality hit me even harder. I am going to die eventually anyway, whether from cancer or something else. It's just a question of when? All the sudden everything I had accomplished in golf became meaningless to me. All I wanted to do was live. It was then he remembered something that Larry Moody, who teaches Bible studies on the PGA tour, had said to him. He said, Zinger, we are not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We are in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living. That is a great truth that all of us needs to remember. We are in the land of the dying headed to the land of the living. The only way to find meaning in this meaningless world is live by FAITH in GOD and be content with His blessings, until we reach our home in eternal glory.