Introduction:
A. The story is told of a man who was out golfing with a few friends.
1. As they stood on the tee box looking toward the next green, the man said, “Sure seems like a long way off.” No one responded.
a. As he teed up his ball, the man said, “Sure is a narrow fairway.” Again, no response.
b. He continued, “How do they expect us to hit over those trees?” Still no answer.
2. The silence didn’t disturb the man.
a. Years of ruthless competition against his friends had taught him to be wary of their tricks.
b. They were trying to psych him out.
3. He stepped up to the ball and took a swing and hit a great drive – a high arching fade over the crop of trees to his left.
a. He could hear the other guys groan, and he assumed they were jealous.
b. After watching their drives, he knew they were jealous.
c. None of them made it close to the trees.
d. Rather than hit left, they each hit it right and ended up miles from the green.
4. They walked down their side of the fairway, and the man walked down his.
a. But rather than finding his ball sitting up on thick fairway grass, he discovered it hidden in the weeds, surrounded by trees.
b. “This is a tough hole,” he muttered to himself.
c. Nevertheless, he was up for the challenge. He studied the shot, selected a strategy, took out a club and hit a great shot.
d. You would have thought his ball was radar controlled – it narrowly missed one branch, swept around another and hopped toward the green like a jackrabbit.
e. If it hadn’t been for the steep hill, it would have rolled onto the green.
5. The man was sad that no one had been there to photograph his great shot.
a. None of his buddies were watching, they were on the other side of the fairway, looking in another direction.
b. So he shouldered his clubs and started walking to the green.
6. Only when he neared the green did he notice something unusual.
a. There were some players on the green who were already putting, and they were players he didn’t recognize.
b. The man thought to himself, either these guys are horribly slow or they are very lost.
7. As he looked around for his buddies, he finally spotted them. They were on a different green.
a. That’s when it hit the man – he had played the wrong hole!
b. He had picked out the wrong target.
8. All of the sudden everything made sense.
a. The groan he had heard after his drive was one of pity, not jealousy.
b. His buddies had hit to the right because they were supposed to.
c. No wonder the hole seemed hard – he was playing the wrong hole.
9. Golf is tough enough as it is, and it is even tougher when you’re headed in the wrong direction.
B. The same can be said about life.
1. Life is tough enough as it is.
2. It’s even tougher when you’re headed in the wrong direction.
I. Jesus Had a Rightly Focused Heart
A. One of the incredible abilities of Jesus was his ability to stay on target.
1. His life never got off track.
2. Not once did we see him walking down the wrong side of the fairway or hitting toward the wrong hole.
3. Jesus had no money, no computers, no jets, no administrative assistants or staff; yet Jesus did what many of us fail to do – He kept his life on course.
B. As Jesus looked across the horizon of His future, He could see many targets.
1. Many flags were flapping in the wind, each of which He could have pursued.
2. Jesus could have been a political revolutionary.
3. Jesus could have been a national leader.
4. He could have been content to be a teacher and to educate minds or be a doctor and heal bodies.
5. But in the end, He stayed the course and is a Savior who saves souls.
C. Anyone who was near Jesus for any length of time heard him talk about His mission.
1. John 4:34, “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
2. John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”
3. Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
4. Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
D. The heart of Jesus was relentlessly focused on one task.
1. The day He left the carpentry shop in Nazareth, He had one ultimate aim – the cross of Calvary.
2. He was so focused that his final words were, “It is finished” (Jn. 19:30).
3. How could Jesus say it was finished when there were still hungry to feed, sick to heal, and untaught people to teach?
4. He could say that it was finished because He had completed His designated task.
5. His commission and purpose were completed.
6. His job was done and His Father was pleased.
E. Now let me ask you – wouldn’t you love to be able to say what Jesus said?
1. Wouldn’t you like to know that as you are living your life that you are driving toward the right green?
2. Wouldn’t you like to be able to look back on your life as it comes to an end and know that you have done what you were called to do – that you have hit the target?
F. Unfortunately, our lives tend to be so scattered.
1. We hit from one side of the fairway to the other.
2. We end up in the rough, on the wrong fairways, in the sand traps, and in the water.
3. We are suckers for the latest craze or the quick fix.
4. We are easily distracted by the small things and forget the big things.
G. God wants us to be just like Jesus and have hearts focused on the right things.
1. How do we select the right flag and stay on target?
2. Well a good place to start is to consult the course map.
3. The One who designed the course of life has left us course directions and they are found in the Bible.
4. Let’s spend a few minutes looking at the biblical story of someone who struggled to find the right thing to focus on. Let’s learn from his mistakes.
II. Solomon Had a Wrongly Focused Heart
A. Solomon was the third king of the nation of Israel.
1. Early in his reign, God appeared to Solomon, and offered him a blank check: God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” (1 Kings 3:5)
2. Solomon wisely asked for wisdom to lead God’s people, and God was very pleased.
3. So pleased was God that He decided to also give Solomon everything he had not asked for: Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” (1 Kings 3:13-14)
B. Unfortunately, for someone so wise, you wonder how he could be so dumb.
1. Solomon wasted so much of his life in pursuit of the wrong goal.
2. Solomon was a man of great means. He had more money than he could spend.
a. He had more power than he could exercise.
b. He had more material possessions than he could enjoy.
c. He had more accomplishments than any of his predecessors.
d. He had more wisdom and knowledge than any before or after him.
e. He had more wives and concubines than he could please.
3. He had everything a person could want and plenty of it and yet he said it all was vanity, meaningless, worthless, futile, and empty.
C. Let’s consider each of the wrong things that Solomon focused his heart on and then listen to his assessment of them.
1. First, He wrongly focused his heart on knowledge and wisdom.
a. Eccl. 1:12-18, 12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven…16 I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and 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.
18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
b. Solomon learned that wisdom, education, learning, being brilliant, being first in your class, being voted most likely to succeed, is not the meaning of life.
1. Solomon gave himself fully to seek out and search for wisdom, and found that this pursuit was vexing.
2. Knowing a lot didn’t fulfill his life.
3. I have always thought winning on Jeopardy might be able to fulfill you in some way, but according to Solomon, no matter how brilliant you are, your brilliance will not give you the meaning of life.
4. If you knew everything there is to know about everything, your knowledge still would not fulfill you.
5. There would still be emptiness with your P.H. D. or your 180 I.Q.
c. Let me point out that even though one cannot find the true meaning of life in education, an education is still essential in life.
1. We live in a highly educated society.
2. Without at least a high school education a person will find it extremely difficult to find a satisfying job of any kind.
3. There is no denying that education is very important, but the point that Solomon was making when he wrote these words is that education can’t give ultimate meaning to life.
4. Education can improve the quality of life, but it can’t make life worth living.
2. Second, Solomon wrongly focused his heart on pleasure.
a. Eccl. 2:1-3,10, 1 I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. 2 “Laughter,” I said, “is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?” 3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives…10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.
b. Solomon basically said, “let’s party. I will get drunk, I will give myself to every kind of physical pleasure this world has to offer. I won’t keep myself from any pleasurable experience.”
1. But at the end of the road of pleasure the answer to the meaning of life was still missing.
2. Solomon’s assessment to all this pleasure was: it is meaningless, it is empty, it is vanity, it is like chasing the wind.
3. At the end of the party, you may be full of pleasure, but the emptiness you feel is even greater than when the party started.
c. Solomon would’ve been at home in our society with our pursuit of pleasure.
1. Today we have many extra drugs to try than even he had.
2. Think of the countless lives that are controlled and ruined by alcohol and drugs.
3. So many people are desperately trying to find solutions to the problems and they turn to pleasure for solutions, but that only leads to bigger problems.
4. Pleasure is not a worthy target to focus our lives on.
3. Third, Solomon wrongly focused his heart on riches.
a. Eccl. 2:7-9: 7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. 9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
b. What was Solomon’s assessment? Eccl. 5:10-15: 10 Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.
11 As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?
12 The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep.
13 I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner, 14 or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when he has a son there is nothing left for him.
15 Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.
c. Solomon was loaded, he really was someone who had more money than he could spend.
1. If he wanted anything, he paid cash.
2. He had the Midas touch, anything he touched turned to gold and surely this would fulfill anyone, right? Wrong.
3. Most people believe just a little more money would make them happy.
4. So if you had as much as Solomon, surely you would be giddy.
5. Solomon realized what we all should – you can’t take it with you.
d. How many of us like King Solomon are grabbing for things that are impossible to hold onto and are worthless in the end?
e. The mere accumulation of things will not and cannot provide meaning and purpose in life. They are not a worthy focus for our hearts.
4. Fourth, Solomon wrongly focused his heart on work.
a. Eccl. 2:4-6, 11: 4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees…Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
b. He thought the real meaning of life must be working hard, being successful, building things, great works, and great houses.
1. So he gave himself to hard work, and building, and at the end of it all - He said, “I hate all this work I have done, I hate all this labor, I am going to leave it all anyway.”
2. So Solomon says that building, hard work, being a great success doesn’t fill your life with joy.
3. He says that you are just as empty when you finish the project as when you started.
D. What is it that you don’t have that you think would make you happy if you had it?
1. More money, more power, more sex, a bigger house, a nicer car, recognition, fame or fortune?
2. Here was a man who had it all and said it was empty!
III. Our Rightly Focused Heart
A. In the end, Solomon discovered the right heart focus – what is it? It is knowing God.
1. Eccl. 3:11-14: 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
2. God has set eternity in our hearts.
a. That means that God has placed in every person’s soul a big question mark; a longing; a void.
b. Nothing other than God Himself can fill that void and answer that longing.
c. God does everything He does in order to draw us to Himself that we might revere Him; that we might believe in Him and obey Him.
3. Solomon concluded his book with these words: 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. (Eccl. 12:13-14)
a. The ultimate focus and purpose of life is a personal relationship with God!
B. Through our relationship with God we can come to understand where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going.
1. Through our relationship with God we can learn to value the right things, and have the right pursuits, and have the right character and morals.
2. These things will all result in the abundant life and the eternal life that God has promised.
C. Think for a moment about some famous people who focused their lives on all the wrong things and who ended up so empty.
1. So many of these famous individuals have either committed suicide or died of accidental overdoses.
2. The list includes: people such as Ernest Hemingway, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Chris Farley, John Belushi, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, River Phoenix, and Freddi Prinze, just to name a few.
3. These are people who had everything that money, power, and fame could bring, but they were empty.
D. We can also think of other famous people who are still alive, but they focused on the wrong kinds of things and their lives are forever devastated by their choices.
1. Tiger Woods was the greatest golfer in the world and had a beautiful family, but his pursuit of pleasure has caused him to lose so much.
2. Bernie Madoff was one of the richest and most successful men in the world. He had a loving wife of 52 years and two successful sons.
a. But his love of money drove him to become a criminal and now he has lost everything.
b. Because of the shame, one son has committed suicide.
c. His other son and his wife have broken all ties with him.
d. And he will be spending the rest of his life in prison.
E. Years ago, a railroad tycoon was dying.
1. Addressing his son who stood by his bedside, the dying man said, “Son, take hold of my hand,” which he did.
2. Then the man said, “My son you are holding the hand of the man who has made the greatest failure of any man that ever lived.”
3. “But,” said the son, “Father, why would you say that? You are worth a million dollars. You are president of a railroad. You number your friends by the thousands. Your word is as good as your bond. So why would you speak that way?”
4. The dying man looked up and said, “It is like this. I have lived for time and not for eternity. I have made no preparation for the next world. I must leave all here. It is all dark.”
5. Thus he passed to the unknown world.
Conclusion:
A. Jesus lived with a heart focused on the right things, and He calls us to do the same.
1. Jesus was so right when he said, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Mt. 16:26)
B. As I end this sermon, let me encourage you to take a few minutes and evaluate your direction.
1. Is your life and heart focused on the right things?
2. Or have you been aiming in the wrong direction?
C. In the game of golf, a person can get so many strokes behind that they can never catch up.
1. The good news is that that is not the case with our spiritual lives.
2. God allows us to start anew at any point in life.
3. God will give us a fresh scorecard.
4. Look again at the scripture reading we began with: “From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God’s will and not by human desires” (1 Peter 4:2 TEV).
5. Notice the words “from now on.”
6. Regardless of what has occupied our attention or controlled us in the past, it’s never too late to get our lives on course.
7. God will help us get our lives out of the rough and out of the sin-traps, so that we can live a life focused on Him and on eternity.
8. May God help each one of us to have a rightly focused heart.
Resources:
“Just Like Jesus: Learning to Have a Heart Like His,” by Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2008
How to Stay Focused in Life, Sermon by Christian Cheong, SermonCentral.com
Finding Meaning in Life, Sermon by Howard Parnell, SermonCentral.com
Then Meaning of Life, Sermon by Stephen Funderburk, SermonCentral.com
