The Meaning of Life
Pastor Paddick Van Zyl
06-05-2018
Sermon Outline
Introduction:
What is life really all about? What is the meaning of life? Why are we living this life everyday? I hope that in this message we will find the answer to all these questions.
A Typical Average Life Span
What does the average lifespan* look like?
Someone calculated it as follows:
Sleep 23 years (.32.9%)
Work 16 years (22.8%)
TV 8 years (11.4%)
Eating 6 years (8.6%)
Travel 6 years (8.6%)
Leisure 4.5 years (6.5%)
Illness 4 years (5.7%)
Dressing 2 years (2.8%)
Religion 0.5 years (0.7%)
TOTAL 70 years (100%)
‘I am a Complete Failure’
‘In 1966, about a year before he died, the brilliant physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer said, "I am a complete failure!" This man had been the director of the Los Alamos Project, a research team that produced the atomic bomb, and he had also served as the head of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Yet, in looking back, he saw his achievements as meaningless. When asked about them, he replied, "They leave on the tongue only the taste of ashes.”
The number of people who commit suicide after experiencing the fame and fortune of worldly success is astonishing: Multimillionaire George Vanderbilt killed himself by jumping from a hotel window. Lester Hunt, twice governor of Wyoming before being elected to the U.S. Senate, ended his own life. Actress Marilyn Monroe, writer Ernest Hemingway, and athlete Tony Lazzeri represent a host of highly influential and popular people who became so disenchanted with earthly success that they took their own lives.’**
Some interesting observations about life…. Let’s have a look at what the Bible says life.
Scripture Reference:
Ecclesiastes Chapters 1 to 2 and 12NKJV
Theme:
The book of Ecclesiastes
Sermon message:
The Bible is clear on the subject of life:
God created life and is the sustainer of life (Gen 1:29; 2:7; 9:3; Ps 145:16-17; Ps 146:6; Is 42:5; Acts 14:17)
Often, people ask the question: ‘What is the meaning of life?’
Here are the facts: There are some things in life we will not know this side of eternity and there are certain things in life and about life that we will not be in control of or be able to control, this side of eternity. This is the short and the long of it!
A careful study of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, in fact the entire Bible, will answer this question and many other questions about life. Many get depressed when they read Ecclesiastes, they see it as gloomy and dark and would rather skip over it to another book yet, Ecclesiastes shows us the reality and the result of the curse.
Many try to cover up the effect of the curse with pleasure and work and by rewarding themselves in order to feel better and ‘create’ a superficial and non-enduring joy that can only come though Jesus.
The preacher in Ecclesiastes, tried everything to satisfy his longing soul. He withheld nothing from himself and yet at the end of his life he found that this was a vanity (a warm breath on a cold mirror which lasts but a few seconds before it disappears). This is the central theme of this book – without Christ we can never have lasting, fulfilled joy and peace and rest. We will work and work and work and toil and will show nothing of what we accomplished aside from Jesus Christ in our lives.
The words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 6 is a warning to all of us: 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:19-20 NKJV
The preacher had everything he wished for at his disposal, only to find that nothing truly satisfies the longing souls, the vacuum that God has placed within each individual, and which only God can fill.
Why did God place you and me in a broken world? As Ryan Kelly notes: “It was kind of God to place you in a broken world so you will feel its brokenness. Do you know it was kind of God to not let us get infinite and lasting satisfaction from that which is not infinite or lasting. Only He is infinite and ultimate and lasting and in Him there is satisfaction.”***
God placed His own Son, Jesus, in a broken world so He could identify with what we are going through (Hebrews 4:14-16)
“You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11 NKJV
Jesus came so we may enjoy life, have a good life:
“10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” John 10:10-12 NKJV
At the end of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, the preacher utters these words:
“12 And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
14 For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 NKJV
Fear God and keep His commandments. That is the key to life!
Understanding what sin is – is important. Understanding what the fear of the Lord is – is important!
Jesus took our place on the cross. Jesus died for us – so we may have meaning in life and from life.
Closing:
What is the meaning of life? Jesus Christ crucified for you and for me! God created us for fellowship with Him. Nothing else will satisfy. Nothing else is meant to satisfy but giving glory to God and worship and fellowship with God our Father. If we put God first in everything we do and bring glory to Him in everything we do, we will find enjoyment in life, even though temporary, and His blessing and favour upon our lives will bring us joy and fulfilment, in Him and glory to Him.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 NKJV
It is God who rewards us. He is a good and loving and kind and compassionate Father, better than an earthly father.
Amen
End Notes:
New King James Version (NKJV) Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
* Typical Lifespan – Sermon Search - https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-illustrations/3873/typical-lifespan/
** I Am a Complete Failure – Sermon Search - https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-illustrations/6321/i-am-a-complete-failure/
***Ryan Kelly, Dr. – Futility & Fulfilment - Desert Spring Church - https://www.desertspringschurch.org/messages/
