Introduction
Blaise Pascal- 17th Century French/Christian Philosopher (Disinherited Prince Syndrome): Someone who had it all, then lost it all, then spends rest of life trying to recover what he knows down deep he once possessed (Meaning and More).
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the only explanation is that I was made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis
Theme: Our unquenchable desires for meaning and more declare that we are made for meaning and more, namely God, and therefore we will only find meaning and more (satisfaction) in Him alone.
If earth is the natural habitat for human beings, then why are humans basically unhappy, unsatisfied, frustrated, never having enough time, and growing so easily bored, in the very environment we are made to live in, and some say that we evolved from, where all our basic needs are met and our lives are relatively easy?
H. L. Mencken (19th-20th century American writer/critic of Christianity): 'The basic fact about human experience is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not that it is predominantly painful, but that it is lacking in any sense.”
In fact, why, when a celebrity has everything, from musician Kurt Cobain, to celebrity Lindsay Lohan, to golfer Tiger Woods, to General Tom Petraeus—fame, fortune, fashion, friends—do they commit suicide, become addicts, or commit crimes, or adultery? Because this world and all the fame, fortune, fashion, pleasure, and relationships that can come with it are never enough to quench our deepest desires. They are never enough to give us the meaning our souls are screaming for. Those deep desires are infinite, and that cry for meaning is eternal. And nothing finite and created, can satisfy. Those deep unquenchable desires are rumors that we are made for another world.
The book of Ecclesiastes (King Solomon’s Blog?)
Ecclesiastes is a depressing book. Carl Sandburg (19th-20th Century American Poet): “Life is like an onion, you peel it back one layer at a time and weep as you do.” Encouraged?
Ecclesiastes removes our fig leaves and shines the spotlight on us. Doesn’t allow for shallow answers to universal questions and cries of the human soul. Makes us stop and consider the practical realities that we are living out. To whom or what are you looking to satisfy you? Why do you choose what you choose on a daily basis? What’s driving your mood? Your attitude? What gets you excited? What gets you out of bed? What makes you afraid? Why do you believe, what do you believe, and have you considered where either leads? Whether you have realized it or not, you are living in a way that answers these questions daily in your own life via your choices, your motivations, your inspirations, and your fears. And are you living those answers out in light of this world or another?
More than anything else what drove me to Jesus was emptiness and meaninglessness. More on that next week…. But what I began to slowly realize is that my emptiness and meaninglessness were rumors of another world. I was a disinherited prince!
King Solomon: Unparalleled Fame, Power, Pleasure, Wealth and Wisdom (1 Kings 10:23-34: “Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.”) Yet his conclusion to it all we find in Ecclesiastes.
Promptings that reveal that the rumor is REALITY….
Content
1. The Prompting of Desperation (Ecc. 1:1-2, 14, 17)
• Pedigree: “Son of King David, King in Jerusalem”
• “Preacher”- Meant one who spoke before an assembly- Philosophy Professor. But no ivory tower information. He taught from experience. Will often find him saying, “I perceived,” “I said in my heart,” “I gave my heart to consider.” And he experimented with study/observation, education, hard work, self-indulgence, irreverent humor, laughter, pleasure, luxury, self-gratifying excess. Conclusion?...
• Meaninglessness/Vapor. Superlative use like King of Kings. Man’s man. To make ultimate declaration: VANITY!
• “Most men lead quiet lives of desperation.” –Henry David Thoreau
• “Under the Sun”(29 times) The fall of man. Creation (God made us and everything good)/Fall (We broke everything and ourselves and it became bad, and we became dead)/Redemption (God personally came in Jesus Christ to redeem and restore everything we broke and resurrect us). But “under the sun” only speaks of Fallen Creation: [Picture of box with circle (world) in it]
2. The Prompting of Disillusion (Ecc 1:3-7)
What does man gain by all the toil (all of life’s pursuits and activities) at which he toils under the sun?" What is the gain or profit of it to him? Gain/profit (Hebrew) meaning, "that which is left over."
“After he has sucked dry all the immediate delight, joy or pleasure out of something, what is left over, what endures, what will remain to continually feed the hunger of his life for satisfaction?” - Ray Stedman
This is the question we all are asking. Is there anything that will continually to meet my need for meaning and more? Is there a key to continual pleasure, delight and joy in life? Many think it’s money, many think its sex, many think it’s fame, many think its marriage, many think it’s ending their marriage, and round and round we go.
The cycle meaninglessness (4-7). All of this impressive activity seems to accomplish nothing. Even more, we feel we ought to last endlessly and nature ought to be changing, but it is the other way around. When I’ve spent time in a graveyard, I look at the birth date and death date on the tombstone. That person was loved. He/she laughed and loved. Had a favorite food and song. And then I look at the grass and trees around the tombstones that have none of the above yet has been there for decades, centuries, perhaps. And my spirit protests against an “unfairness” about it all. We have all felt this to some degree.
The cycle of boredom (4-7): Life is a perpetual Nascar race (don’t hate me!)… with no winner! Round and round! Our response? Numb ourselves to the boredom of reality and seek escape in the world of entertainment and sports, celebrity gossip, the world of education and Philosophy, the world of career success and achievements, the world of materialism and possessions, the world of sex and sensual pleasures, etc?
Note this however. These are not “bad!” These are gifts from God! So let’s be careful that we don’t make God the big grouch of heaven. The point is that we don’t think HE is enough. So we take entertainment, sports, celebrity, success, achievements, trinkets, money, sexual pleasure, and make them GODS! We worship them. Look at your schedule (time), your bank account, and you will find the trail that leads to the throne of what you worship. And you don’t find Jesus there. And you wonder why emptiness, though it may lessen over the weekend, during the game, or when you get the new trinket, haunts you all over again within hours and days.
[Picture of cycling world in box]
3. The Prompting of Frustration (Ecc. 1:8-18)
"All things are full of weariness.” He has observed that there is an inherent weariness in everything. He has two proofs of this. 1) Human desire is never satisfied. 2) Nothing new. (Whatever experience is of “new” quickly becomes obsolete—from the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World to the 5 versions of Iphone, and counting).
Vs. 12-13: The Fall of Mankind. Disinherited Princes/Princesses. It is impossible for us to be indifferent to or detached from the meaninglessness and unfulfilled desires that plague us. As one commentator put it, this is an “inescapable fact of one’s humanity.” This is the burden which, by God’s decree, every man bears; the problem of life is not an option. God has personally seen to it that you will NEVER be satisfied by anything and anyone… but HIM.
You can drown out the haunting sense of it all though with “under the sun” pursuits of self-help, positive thinking gurus, fame, achievement, music, and media. But there is no escape from the burden. By God’s grace, there is no escape. You were made for another world. As 19th-20th century English philosopher, G.K. Chesterton says, “You can free a tiger from its bars, but you can’t free him from his stripes.”
So too, “under the sun” you can try to numb yourself to your stripes w/anything from Jack and coke to milk and cookies, but again there is no escape. You’re like a camel trying to get rid of its hump. It’s the hump that makes the camel a camel! It’s your unquenchable desires, your cry for meaning and more, that reveals you’re created by a Creator—human, and not only human, but a disinherited prince/princess. Your desires for meaning and more are always whispering or screaming to you this Truth: You were made for another world. You were made for God.
Vs. 14-15, 18: We were made for “straight.” We were made for “more.” And any increase in wisdom and knowledge about reality only serves to prove it, and that brings increased grief and sorrow. The “crookedness” of our experience and the “lack that cannot be counted” should megaphone to us that the more we search “under the sun” for satisfaction, pleasure, fulfilled desires, meaning, in the closed box, in this life, we will only dig a deeper hole of meaninglessness.
Self-help best-sellers, positive thinkers, prosperity preachers, declare to you that “under the sun” there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, there is something beautiful at the end of the yellow-brick road. Just don’t give up trying and searching. And try this formula or that. That within you is the “champion”, and that the world is “good” and makes sense. Fairy tales. And deep down you know it’s a FAIRY TALE! You KNOW from news reports, broken hearts, cruelty of people, emptiness, and the pursuit of meaning and more, that everything at its core “under the sun” is crooked! Off! Wrong! Broken! How would you know that unless you were made for another world? And unless heaven breaks through, we’re left with only our dug holes.
4. The Reality of Deliverance (John 1)
• King Solomon brings hope to the despair 11 chapters later in Ecclesiastes. We’ll get there in a few weeks. But for now, let’s let the Bible itself bring THE answer. John 1:1-4, 14.
• Jesus was “Logos” = meaning (Tullian Tjividjian). Jesus is the answer to all the questions raised in Ecclesiastes, and in your heart. Jesus is the open window to the world you’re made for. Jesus is living WATER, BREAD of life, LIGHT in darkness. In other words, He is your answer to meaning. He is your answer to more. He alone satisfies.
• In him even minor things take on cosmic meaning: Eating, working, washing dishes, waiting in traffic, shoveling snow, mowing the lawn, changing diapers, a dead end job….
• If you keep seeking meaning and more “under the sun” apart from Him, you’re doomed to exhaustion, desperation, frustration, depression, and emptiness. You’re left w/ the empty holes you’ve dug for meaning and more. Without him you’re destined for meaninglessness, and death.
Conclusion
Picture: Closed System vs. God’s Hope
Are you empty, unsatisfied, bored, lacking purpose in this life “under the sun”? You are a disinherited prince/princess. Those are whispers, rumors, of another world. And the nailed scarred hands of Jesus have flung open the windows to that world. And through it He has reached for you. Will you reach out for Him?
