Finding Purpose When All Is Meaningless
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Introduction/Illustration:
In the cult classic comedy Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays weatherman Phil Connors, the main character, who relives February second, Groundhog Day, over and over again in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where the festival takes place. It has been speculated by some critics that Phil might have relived the same day for three decades, given his acquired talents during his stay. But how does Phil cope with his monotonous prison—what does he do to try to find meaning when it seems like nothing he does really matters from one day to the next? He searches for some semblance of meaning through an attempt to find happiness in experiences, turning to hedonistic pleasures and denying himself nothing. If it feels good, he does it!
There’s a scene where he gorges himself full of food at the diner, drinking coffee straight from the pot and smoking a cigarette. He abandons any sort of self-control or sense of discipline, at one point punching out a guy who really annoys him, he seduces women, and when that fails to satisfy him, he turns to greed. He robs an armored car, using the money to buy the things he’s always wanted, trying to live out the life he couldn’t beforehand. When Phil turns to despair, faced with the reality that he cannot escape his prison, he takes his life multiple times, only to wake up each time right back in Punxsutawney. Finally, Phil turns to knowledge. He tries to learn and better himself by taking up piano, ice sculpting, French poetry, and much more to become an educated, well-rounded man.
Transition:
That’s kind of the point of the book of Ecclesiastes. We are stuck in a monotonous prison where nothing we do really changes anything, and the only way to live a meaningful life in this meaningless existence is to find satisfaction and contentment in what God has given us. In a very similar way to last week’s message, the close of Habakkuk, this series will explore the reasons we each have to contend with—to overcome our justified grief; nevertheless, the things for our: ‘even though,’ ‘yet,’ ‘nevertheless,’ or ‘still,’ I will serve the Lord.
The experience shared by Phil and the author of Ecclesiastes is similar to the lesson learned by Habakkuk in that if you haven’t found joy, changing your situation won’t give it to you. Again, there will always be reasons to be discontent, but this week, instead of looking at our reasons for gratefulness, Ecclesiastes illustrates why joy is completely independent of circumstance.
Scripture:
As we direct our attention to our Scripture today, starting in verse two:
v2:“Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,” meaningless if you’re using the NIV, other translations use futility; “utterly meaningless!” The author repeats, “everything is meaningless.”
He is saying literally and figuratively, in that he repeats it 4 times in a single sentence, that what he is about to address is the least significant thing out of all the things that are insignificant.
He goes on to describe life as he sees it in verse three:
3What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
4Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
5The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
6The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
7All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from there they return again.
8All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9What has been will be again what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
10Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new?” It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
11No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.
And he isn’t wrong, verses 3-11 are not refutable, but in verse 13, he lets slip, “under the heavens.” Conceptually, he knows that God exists, but he doesn’t experience His joy and has no share in His peace. He is weary and restless without gratefulness.
So, what can we learn from the young prince? He was wise amongst his predecessors but also seemed to have missed the point. Have you ever known anyone like that? Kind of like, if it needs to be explained, it can’t be explained.
Transition/Illustration:
The first thing I think we can take away from this passage is that we shouldn’t only listen to what’s being said; what’s not being said can be just as important.
During World War II, fighter planes were returning from battle ridden with bullet holes. Allied leaders initially thought they should strengthen the most commonly damaged parts of the fighters to increase survivability. A mathematician, however, named Abraham Wald pointed out that perhaps the reason certain areas of the aircraft weren’t covered in bullet holes was that the planes that were shot in certain critical areas didn’t return. His insight led to the armor being reinforced on the parts of returning planes where there were no bullet holes. This illustrates that the reasons we may be missing certain details may be more meaningful than the data we do have.
Point 1:
[for] What the faithless declare meaningless, the Gospel provides purpose.
The Kingdom of God is paradoxical, antithetical to logic or reasoning, recall:
1 Corinthians 1:27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 2 Cor 12:19, [our] strength is made perfect in weakness. Matthew 19:30 “he who is first will be last,” 23:11 “the greatest among you will be your servant.” Luke 6:38“give, and it shall be given to you.”
Hutz Hertzberg calls [Ecclesiastes] “the most staggering messianic prophecy to appear in the Old Testament.” Think about that. The author refers to life as that which occurs “under the sun.” He is thinking only about what we can see now, the physical world, and not the heavenly realms that are vastly more important. From this limited perspective, he makes observations like “there’s nothing new” or “there’s nothing to be gained” and that “it’s all meaningless.” That’s really bleak. That’s also the prophecy! Without God, this is what we’re left with—that’s our reality. That’s the darkness of the world we step into 2,000 years ago. A lost, hopeless world with little more than the author’s conclusion from v18: for with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
We read, however, in Philippians 2:10, “that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”
We don’t live in a world independent of the heavenly realms. How often do we behave as if God is inconsequential, acknowledging him conceptually, but going on about our toil? Throughout this series, as you’ll see, the book of Ecclesiastes is filled with attempts to find meaning in life through something the author makes more important than God. The list is exhausting: Pleasure, work, education, tradition, entertainment, money, possessions, a balanced life, religious duty, power, fashion and good looks, youth, and health. Mind you, none of these are independently bad; if nothing else, this book emphasizes that our days under the sun are limited and that these things, too, are a gift from God.
What we see here from the introduction, in all the prince’s pleasures, is that he found no satisfaction. Our souls are created for a purpose. We are created for more than just these things. We are created for the purpose of bearing our creator’s image; it is a commission. So, not only does the Gospel provide purpose, but our second takeaway is that:
Point 2:
The final point we can take from our Scripture reading is that: while the faithless seek out blessings, God’s people count their blessings.
v16says, “I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge. 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.” His conclusion again in v18, “for with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.”
Paul reminds us in Acts 20:35 that “it is better to give than to receive.”
Psalm 32:1–2says, “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered. 2 Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit, there is no deceit.”
We’re reminded in Deuteronomy 33:29, “happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord.”
Psalm 144:15“happy are the people who are in such a state; Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!”
Matthew 9:2 “take heart, your sins are forgiven.”
Dennis Prager offers this observation, that gratitude is the most important trait one can possess and the key to unlocking happiness. He also contends that it is impossible for ungrateful people to be happy. He believes this lack of gratitude creates a victim mentality, a mindset framed around blame. That they are, in fact, entitled to that which they do not have. The more an individual feels that life or others owe them, the angrier they will get, the more they will lash out, and the less happy they are. Conversely, the less we feel entitled to, the more gratitude we will feel for whatever we get, and the happier we become.
God’s people find their happiness in being sons and daughters in Christ, being God’s redeemed people. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is the prerequisite for obtaining the objects of hope.
In the same way that Hertzberg points out that this divinely-inspired existential crisis highlights our need for the Gospel, that good news of which we have received in Christ Jesus, it also provides a contrast—a differentiation, through which God’s people derive their purpose and count their blessings.
Point 3:
While both the faithless and the faithful long, the longing of the faithful produces hope.
While sorrow and grief are cultivated within the heart of the author, calling it, in v13, “an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with,”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 instructs us to “rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Well, that’s great, Paul, but how? I have no doubt the prince wanted to be happy. Marry Shelly once said that “no man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness.”
If we’re honest with ourselves, we might realize, too, that I do a lot of toiling, and I don’t often get to see the fruit of my labors. How often do we lose hope? Maybe we don’t lose all hope, but perhaps we feel entitled to something and allow ourselves to become embittered.
We can know that we live in a world that includes that which is beyond the sun, those heavenly realms. And we can know that God himself entered creation, becoming flesh and dwelling among us, receiving unto himself the sin of the world, paying a debt we could not, ourselves pay, and for that is worthy of worship.
Make no mistake, our hope is not that our labors equate to something but that our faith produces fruit in keeping with salvation. Not that we earn anything at all, but that we love enough to forgive as we have been freely forgiven, preach the Gospel as we received it. Our hope—is that our deeds are indeed returned to dust and, in turn, receive the inheritance of the one who was nailed to the cross!
Are you willing to lay aside all the fleeting glory of this world so that we can share in His glory? The hope of His church, the object of our longing, is that he will come again and make all things new.
Transition:
The Gospel provides purpose. God’s people count their blessings. And the longing of the faithful produces hope.
After I got out of the Army to use my GI bill, I remember joining the workforce and being surrounded by others in their 40s and 50s who had worked the same job in the same warehouse for decades, standing on the floor doing the same thing hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, telling the same jokes, even blowing off steam in the same way. Everyone would talk all week about how they could not wait to punch out on Friday so they could go to the bar, get smashed, stay drunk all weekend, sober up by Monday morning, and get back to work. The only way they knew to cope with the redundancy and boredom of their lives was to distract themselves for a short while, so they lived week to week for their escape. Some people look to substances; others look to pleasurable experiences; others pour themselves into their jobs, hoping success will make their lives meaningful; others turn to romantic relationships or accumulating possessions. Some even look to religion, hoping these rituals will give their life a semblance of meaning or transcendent purpose.
Over the next 12 weeks, throughout this sermon series, we’re going to explore the life and lessons of a guy faced with the monotony of life, the wisest man in the ancient world who became a greedy, lustful, power-hungry, idolatrous fool. He accumulated possessions, wisdom, and women for himself but gave nothing. He was without the peace and joy of God. I propose to you that peace is like a good wall between neighbors. It must be shared, or it doesn’t exist; if one neighbor has peace and the other is without, he will encroach on the others taking what’s his until he has his fill—but then the other will try and take it back and so on and so forth. Joy is the same. The work of God’s Kingdom on earth is likewise; we serve others, not ourselves. When others have peace, we will have it also.
In Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, Phil does not wake up on February third until he finally reaches contentment. It was only then that his curse lifted. At the end of his last time reliving February second, he looked into the eyes of a woman he fell in love with, Rita, and said, “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow; all I know is I’m happy right now.” He had learned to serve.
Invitation/Application:
I mentioned that the kingdom of God is paradoxical; recall Jesus used the illustration of gates, instructing the faithful in Matthew 7:13-14 to v13 “enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Our instincts say easy must be better; hard must be bad. Our intuition tells us difficulty and suffering are painful and to be avoided. Paul tells us in Romans 5:2-4 that God’s perspective, however, finds “glory in our sufferings,” telling us “that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.”
Close:
As I close, brothers, whatever it is in our life we are more thankful for than God—that is an idol, the result of which is always despair. Later in Romans, Paul points this out. In chapter 8, he says, v24“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?” I implore you to invest in that which is not fleeting. Three things are eternal—God, the Word of God, and the Souls of men.