INTRO.- Some things in life just don’t make good sense, do they?
ILL.- An orator in Hyde Park of London was speaking out against religion. He said, "My hatred of religion is something I came by honestly. My grandfather was an atheist; my father was an atheist; and, thank God, I’m an atheist, too."
Atheism doesn’t make sense to me.
Rom. 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made..."
Atheism doesn’t make sense when you consider creation: the starry universe, plant and animal life, the wonder of the human baby and the human body.
ILL.- Charles Houser said, "Atheism never composed a symphony. Never painted a masterpiece. Never dispelled a fear. Never healed a disease. Never gave peace of mind. Never dried a tear. Never gave an intelligent answer to the vast mystery of the universe. Never gave meaning to man’s life on earth. Never built a just and peaceful world. Never built a great and enduring civilization."
Atheism doesn’t make sense. So with many other things.
ILL.- A grouchy husband came to breakfast one morning. His wife had cooked his breakfast. She had prepared two eggs: one fried and one scrambled, just like he always wanted. But the sour husband said, "Yes, just as I thought, you’ve done it again."
"Now what’s wrong?" asked his wife. He shouted, "As usual, you fried the wrong egg!"
Grouchiness in the home doesn’t make good sense to me. Especially, not when someone is trying to do their part to make the home what it should be, to make home a happy place.
Phil. 2:3 "Do nothing out of selfishness...but in humility consider others better than yourselves."
Some people are very selfish in life. They want everything their own way and when they don’t get it, they like to let everyone know about it. But it shouldn’t be this way!
There are many things in this world that don’t make sense to us: drinking and drug abuse, war, crime, greed, insensitivity, hatred, violence, 9/11, child abuse, pedofilia, and many other things.
Yes, many things that don’t make sense to us in life, and if we don’t have a Biblical sense about us, nothing will make much sense to us!
ILL.- Someone said the Bible contains:
- The mind of God
- the state of man
- The way of salvation
- The doom of sinners
- The happiness of believers
- Light to direct you
- Food to support you
- Comfort to cheer you
And I might add: sense to direct you!
ILL.- Horace Greeley said, "It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people."
We must view things from a Biblical perspective! It’s the only way to make sense out of life! Reading God’s Word will help you to understand what is going on in this crazy world of ours!
The more you read and glean from Scripture, the better understanding you’ll have about all of life.
Eph. 5:17 "Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is." Don’t be foolish. Don’t be senseless. Understand what is going on by seeking the Lord’s will in His Word.
PROP.- There are three words from our text in Eccl. 3 that can help us to make sense out of life.
1- Balance
2- Beauty
3- Burial
I. BALANCE
V. 1 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."
ILL.- A golfer came home from a hard 18-hole golf match with some of his buddies. His wife greeted him and said, "Well, honey, did you win the game today?" "Well," he said, "Let’s put it this way. I GOT TO HIT THE BALL MORE TIMES THAN ANYONE ELSE."
ILL.- Someone said "A fishing enthusiast thinks that fish should bite on a fancy lure just because he did."
To each his own activity. What’s your thing? What’s your bag of tricks? What turns your crank? What’s excites you about life? Golf? Fishing? Hunting? ? Running? Lifting weights? Wood-working? Gardening? Shopping? Traveling? Sight-seeing?
None of these activities are bad, but they must be kept in a proper balance in order for a person to have a better life.
ILL.- After my father passed away twenty years ago my mother dated or ran around with a man named Ralph Lee. Ralph and mom went to breakfast together nearly every day. They went to the community center and played cards and occasionally, some other functions. Going out to eat was their favorite function.
Ralph was a millionaire. He worked all his life to make money and often, he’d work seven days a week. Ralph knew how to make money, but Ralph didn’t know how to live! Ralph didn’t have a proper balance in his life. He put money before the Lord and before almost everything and everyone else. How sad!
Matt. 6:24 "No one can serve two masters...You cannot serve both God and money."
Ralph’s life was out of balance. It was titled more toward money than anything else. People do similarly with other things.
ILL.- I love to fish, but haven’t done much for several years now. One time I read a story about a certain bass fisherman in Arkansas who discovered night fishing in the summertime. He found out that night fishing could be fantastic. He was catching bass by the hundreds a night. It wasn’t uncommon to catch from a 100 to 200 bass a night. He got so excited about it that he went something like 30 nights straight. He worked during the daytime and fished at night. He slept very little.
He caught a ton of bass, but it nearly broke his health. That fellow got his life out of balance and it cost him dearly.
There is nothing wrong with playing golf, fishing, or a hundred other things. The problem comes when we get out of balance and these things take priority over more important matters.
Matt. 6:33 Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..."
We all need to seek the Lord first in life through our personal worship and our Lord’s Day worship. We all should have a personal devotional life where we read the Word and pray. And we should put the Lord first always, always, always on the Lord’s Day and gather to worship Him! To do otherwise, is to be out of balance in life in God’s eyes and can be costly.
ILL.- When I lived and preached in Iberia, MO, which is near the Lake of Ozarks, it was customary for a preacher to read an obituary at a person’s funeral. The funeral director at that time also had a practice of going to the home of the deceased family and leading them to the funeral home prior to the funeral.
That funeral director always wanted me to go with him to the home and have prayer with the family before leaving. That was a very good thing to do. It’s always good to pray with someone.
One day I met the funeral director at the funeral home, jumped in the car with him to go to the home of deceased. Immediately, he handed me the obituary and I started to read it as he drove away. BAD MOVE! I got car sick. Wow, did I get sick?! I didn’t vomit, but I sure felt like I could have.
I barely made it at the home of the deceased. I prayed with the family, but all I really wanted to do was get out of there. I kept praying silently all the way back to the funeral home, "Lord, please help me to get through this funeral without getting any sicker..."
That was probably the worst funeral I’d ever preached, because I felt horrible, miserable, nauseated. But the Lord did get me through it.
Have you ever been there? That is, have you ever experienced the nausea of motion sickness? How awful it can be.
Brothers and sisters, this is something like what can happen to us when our lives get our balance, when we don’t allow the Lord into the picture of our lives the way we should. WE WILL GET SICK! WE WILL BE SICK! Oh, not a physical sickness, but a sick, nauseating feeling about our lives, knowing that something isn’t right, knowing down deep that something is out of kilter!
What happens when we are sick from being out of balance? Generally, God will use people or circumstances to bring us back into proper balance.
ILL.- I enjoyed running and racing for about 8 years and then suddenly discovered that my hip was nearly wore out. My doctor said, "Steve, you have to stop running." And I did. And I limped for three years after that and finally had a complete hip replacement. When I told one preacher friend my story, he laughed and said, "God humbled you, didn’t He?" Perhaps He did and maybe He didn’t.
It may be that it was just inevitable that my hip was going to wear out because I had osteoarthritis.
But the point is this: If your life gets out of balance, be assured that God has the right medicine for you and HE WILL SEE THAT YOU GET YOUR DOSAGE!
I do know this for sure:
Heb. 12:5-6 "My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves..."
When our lives get out of balance God will work very hard to get us on track and it’s all because He loves us very much. More than we will ever know in this life. Don’t balk when God is trying to get you evenly balanced. Bend. Bend your will.
II. BEAUTY
V. 11 "He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time..."
ILL.- A husband was overheard at a party murmuring to his wife, "What did I say to offend you, dear? I would like to know because I might want to use those words again sometime."
Now that’s an ugly thing to say, isn’t it? All of us know that some people can say some pretty ugly words at times and do some ugly deeds.
We know that many imperfect and ugly things have happened and do happen in our world: 9/11, children being abducted, raped and murdered, violence, all kinds of crime, etc.
ILL.- Last Wednesday evening as I was getting gas at the BP station on Charleston Avenue, a couple of young girls (probably in their mid-20’s) walked out of that station. I noticed they were walking sort of strange. I knew something wasn’t right about them. They looked my way and walked toward me with big smiles on their faces. One of them said to me, "Can I show you something?" The other girl had a look of surprise on her face, like, "What is she going to show him?" I said, "I believe you girls have been drinking quite a bit." The one who seemed to be in more control said, "Yes, we have been drinking quite a lot."
The other girl lifted her knee and said, "See my sore. I fell off my bike and hurt it." I said something like "Oh..." Then she fumbled around with a package of hostess donuts and said, "Would you give me $5 for a donut?"
As she opened them, they feel on the ground. She laughed and then picked them up and walked off.
Brothers and sisters, those girls were ugly. They were not exactly what I’d call ugly, but they were being ugly. Their drunkenness had caused them to be ugly. And no telling what other ugly things they did in their drunkenness. I’m sure a whole lot more than just offer me a donut for $5.
Drunkenness often causes people to do ugly things. Of course, many people do ugly things and they are not evening drinking.
Brothers and sisters, what can we do or should we do when we see ugliness in our world? WE NEED TO LET GOD WORK IN US AND THROUGH US TO MAKE THINGS BEAUTIFUL!
Eccl. 3:11 "He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time."
Everything in our world is not beautiful because of sin, the devil, etc. But we can help to make things beautiful. God wants to make beautiful things out of ugly things! And we need to let Him use us to do it!
ILL.- Do you remember those two drunken girls I told you about? I really wish I’d had the presence of mind and the spiritual nature to have said to them, "Hey, don’t leave just yet. Let me talk to you." And then I should have talked to them about the Lord who loves them very much.
That’s what Jesus would have done. Jesus would have tried to demonstrate love to those two girls in order to turn their ugliness into beauty. AND JESUS CAN DO THAT WITH PEOPLE! He’s done it with most of us!
We need to let God use us as instruments of beauty.
ILL.- On Tuesday before my mother passed away, 82 year-old Jeanne came to the nursing home and played the piano. Mom loved Jeanne’s playing. And mom would get up and dance as best she could. That Tuesday as I watched mother dance around it suddenly dawned on me that I needed to dance with her. I thought, "That might make mom happy." AND SO I DID. And I really think my dancing with her did make her happy. It put a smile on her face and it was beautiful. I HAD DONE A GOOD THING.
God put us here to bring beauty into this world. And when we love people in various ways...dancing, singing, hugging, doing, serving, giving, or whatever, we will change some ugliness into beauty.
II Cor. 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come..."
The Lord can make things right when things go wrong. He can also change ugliness into beauty. And He often uses us to do it.
III. BURIAL
V. 20 "All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return."
The inspired writer is saying that we human beings are just like animals in that respect. Our bodies return to the dust of the earth.
ILL.- Interviewer: "I see your birthday is May 5, Ms. Beale. May I ask what year?" Ms. Beale: "Every year."
ILL.- Old timer said to his neighbor: "I’ve reached the age where the happy hour is a nap."
ILL.- One mother said, "Several weeks ago, I turned 37. Sure, it was ‘just another year,’ and normally I have no problem with birthdays. But that evening, when I peeked in the mirror before my celebration dinner, I spotted a new streak of gray-smack in the middle of my bangs. Even my skin seemed to have wrinkled more overnight!"
ILL.- Another lady said, "Every day I look in the mirror I see a new wrinkle that I didn’t have yesterday."
Brothers and sisters, we can either laugh about it or cry about it. Take your choice. The truth is: the Christian can laugh about it!
Prov. 31:25 In speaking about the virtuous woman who believes in the Lord, "She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come."
How can anyone who is aging rapidly laugh at the days to come?
Prov. 31:30 "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."
When we fear the Lord, believe in the Lord, trust the Lord, we can laugh at the days to come because we know something better is coming!
ILL.- When my mother passed away just a month ago I made all her funeral arrangements by myself. My older brother and twin sister were not there yet. They trusted me to do this.
Randy Wilson, the funeral director, is a college friend. He also attended Ozark Christian College. Randy said that my mother had already purchased her funeral package, if you want to call it that. She had the casket picked out and paid for the funeral service. I don’t know how many years ago she did it, but she had paid out $3,800. Randy said that if we had to pay for it that day it would have cost over $8,000.
Mom was smart in that way. She had prepared for her eventual death.
WHAT ABOUT YOU? Preparing for your funeral is one thing, but preparing for your meeting with God may be an entirely different matter!
Your death is coming. Your burial is coming. Have you prepared? Are you in the process of preparation? I’m only 57 years old, but it’s getting closer all the time. I am fully aware of it. I may be next in line.
No one is prepared to die until they come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and put their faith and trust in Him!
John 14:6
John 3:16
Rom. 6:23
Heaven is real! Eternal life is a reality! And way to eternal life is through the Lord Jesus Christ!
Do you believe in Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God? Do you trust Him to save you? Or are you trusting you to save you? Are you trusting in yourself, your own goodness?
ILL.- Several weeks ago I wrote in our church paper: "I trust in my mother’s salvation because I trust in God’s Word and in His grace. No one goes to their grave in the state of perfection or perfectness. No one.
"I trust in the Lord’s salvation, not because of who my mother was or what she did, but because of Christ. Because of who He is and what He did."
This is true for us all. We must believe in the Lord Jesus and put our trust in Him, in His mercy and grace, in what He did for us and respond to Him in faith.
I can remember my mother being baptized when I was just a small child. What a wonderful memory that is! But even more important is my memory of what happened in her dying hours.
Jill Smith is the Activity Director of the National Healthcare in Joplin, Mo, where mom spent her last days from September 11, 2001 until June 30, 2002.
Jill was with mom when she left this world. What blesses me most are these memories: Jill said that even though mom knew she was dying she thought of that other lady in the room who was crying out for help. Mom asked Jill to go help her. That’s called unselfishness. That’s called love. And that’s what God called us to do.
Jill and mom quoted the Lord’s prayer together and the 23rd Psalm. Jill said that even though mom’s voice was weak, her voice was strongest when she came to that part, "yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me..."
I think mom was prepared for her death and burial. Are you?
CONCLUSION-----------------------------------------
Balance, beauty and burial. The Lord is the only One who can bring balance and beauty into our lives. And He is the only One who can prepare us for death. He is the Only who can make sense out of life.
I encourage you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! To trust Him! To follow Him!
