God Secret of Satisfaction
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
November 6, 2005
Good News Christian Fellowship
INTRODUCTION
A. There is nothing like the joy and satisfaction of a job well done (ex. Fixing furniture, etc.) There a sense of joy of having producing something beautiful.
B. Life, however, is not always a success story.
1. The furniture you fix may break up.
2. You mistakenly misconnected the wire of your television.
3. You got sick and bed ridden. Maybe you have a cancer.
• What can you do?
• Can you exchange your life for a new one?
C.However, you can do one thing.
1. Tell your children and grandchildren about the mistakes you made to warn them early in life.
2. Or, even better, you can write a book about your frustrating life-experience so people can read it and learn a lesson, perhaps many years after you have gone from this world.
D.This is exactly what the wise man of old did when he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. This is an inspired instruction of Elderly man who had it all, who tried to end it all and repented of it all.
1. This book is a record of repentance for pursuing life without God as his focus.
2. A Cultural Apologetics – It is a defense of a certain worldview of a certain culture.
3. Solomon had distinguished himself as one of the wise men of his day. Travel in different countries to trade with them and argue with them. He is the most gifted man.
D.He disseminates the wisdom to the philosophers for a challenge. That is exactly Chapter 12:12 is talking about, that the making of this book in the exchange of worldview, there is no end of it, it will boil down in the next verse that the real matter of all this, is to fear God, for it is the duty of men.
E.Particular gentile is address in chapter 11&12.
F.This book is instructive to us. It teaches how to deal with other people of different worldview and to present God to them. It follows the same format Paul did in Acts 17.
G. I believe Ecclesiastes connect to gentile world to one issue of despair. I believe we have to understand the theme so well.
I believe the key to the book is found verse 11 of chapter 12.
THE KEY
Read Chapter 12:11. Solomon says his words have two purposes: Some serve as goads, some serve as nails.
1. Goads
• Literally, means a sharp pointed stick that Palestinian farmers used prick their oxen to move, when it did not moving past enough and the oxen will get the point. When he gets the point, it will motivate to do something.
• Figuratively speaking, Solomon is awakening man to the truth of his sayings. Solomon brings a lot of question in your mind about your life to get the Point. And when you get the point, you will do something about it.
• Solomon challenges us with the enigmas of life.
1. Goads are disturbing reflection of life
2. Young people don’t run to the disturbing reflection of life. Face it.
3. A lot of mysteries; unsolved enigmas of life.
4. A lot of people don’t to think about them because they are painful.
5. You need to think because it will move you into an action.
2. Nail
• Use by tentmaker as stabilizer in fixing the tent in the desert. The assemblers tie the rope to the nail to keep the tent blow by wind.
• Nail are stabilizing truth; that divine revelation that anchor our soul in the midst of this disturbing reflection of life ( note: house built into the rock)
Are you under Goads and Nail? If you did, you should understand what Solomon is saying. For Example:
1. Chapter 1:6 –
• The water go up, the rain go down;
• The sun go up, the sun go down.
• The cycle goes on and on as your life goes around and around and you try to satisfy it.
• The worse of it, if you are done in your life, no one even remember that you are here.
So what is the POINT? That without something to transcends, the pointlessness all of life is pointless.
2. Chapter 2: 18
• What is the POINT of your labor if you just leave it to somebody who will just going to destroy himself into it?
• What is the POINT? That without GOD in the picture, there is no point to that.
3. Chapter 3:19
• You die, and your dog dies. You and your dog both go into dust. What is the difference?
• What is the advantage you have over the dog?
• What is the POINT? That without God in the picture there is no difference and there is no point.
Think brethren, there is no POINT of what you are doing unless GOD is in the picture.
In chapter 3 we come of another presentation of goads and nails.
LIMITATIONS OF MEN – verses 1-13
1. All of us detest limitations
• You don’t like to drive slow as you need to do.
• You don’t like to stop as much as should do.
• The limitation of our finances, ability, power and freedom.
Illustration (Unlimited text)
3. None of us like to be limited
• The fact that we are finite people, therefore we have inherent limitations.
• And beside we are fallen people and therefore we must be limited or we’re self-destruct.
• A person who is saying I don’t want limitations is living out of touch of the reality.
4. Now Solomon is going to post several limitations here for us. Understand this:
• If we never learn the proper respond to limitations, we can’t never have genuine satisfaction in life.
• You must, I must, we all must learn the proper godly respond to limitations, or we have no satisfaction
Now here are the limitations: The Goads
A. God limit men control of life (vv. 1-11a)
1. Now it goes here; 14 good times, 14 bad times
2. 14 good times minus 14 bad times equals zero. What’s the POINT?
3. That is what verse 9 is saying, “what gain has the men from his toil”? What is the POINT?
4. In verse 11 he says, “God has made everything beautiful in His time…” What does it mean?
• How much do you have in control when you are born?
• How much do you have in control when you gonna die?
• How much do you have in control when you go to war?
• How much do you have in control over the seasons?
The POINT is: We don’t have control over them.
Illustration: The cat at night
5. God impose limitations, is that we don’t have control of our life at all.
• We don’t have control of the stock market
• We don’t have control of our health; over weather; over accident.
Illustration: A student from high school to college (finding himself a lot of requirements. Trying to control, but life seems out of control)
Now the normal way to respond to that is to:
• Get busy; bring it under control
• Muscle it into action, manipulate, connive
Because I’m really satisfied when they are under control.
However, God will bring things continuously in your life to show you don’t control life. “I CONTROL LIFE”, says the Lord
6. You know, if we in that situation, we are really been GOADED by God.
7. God is bringing in our senses. God Is saying, “Look there is another way, don’t do what you doing, move a different direction.
8. I am GOADING you to THINK (later we will see what is that to think of)
Illustration: As I prepare this message, we have some arguments in our family. God is GOADING us to THINK.
B. God limits man comprehension of life (v.11b)
1. God put the desire to understand the beginning from the end and the eternity of all things.
2. He put all the questions in life
3. However, we don’t have the absolute ability to understand it.
4. He put on questions, but he didn,t give the answers. Always there is why’s in our questions. There is a reason for that.
5. God limit our comprehension in life. He doesn’t let us see the whole picture.
6. The problem is some of us try to screw the unscrewsable
7. We cannot do it, they are eternal things we cannot comprehend.
Illustration: We are like, who are not satisfy of viewing the Mayon Valcano by telescope. We don’t like one-square view at a time.
8. However, if God want us see only one-square foot at a time, then we can’t do anything about it. We are limited. He limits our comprehension. But we react the same way as children do.
Illustration: (Student with his Math subject). What we have to do? Run away from it or attack the teacher or attack the subject?
9. If God gives us problems, brethren, we need it today. Read Philippians 4:19.
• It means He gives us everything we need.
• It also mean what we have is what we need.
• We have that problems because God promises He will supply with all our needs.
10. Running away from problems/responsibilities, is missing the POINT of that GOAD from God.
11. Some of us would to run away from problems. We are like children playing sick. You can avoid the problems for few days, however it will still be there. That’s not the solution either.
12. If We you don’t understand the problems, raise your hand. God want us to do that. Don’t be reluctant to ask for help in the problems.
• “Mysteries begets dependency in a Christian life”
• If you refuse to dependent you will live with a lot of GOADS.
• God want you to get the POINT and do something else other than what you have been doing.
C. God limits men enjoyment of life (v.12-13)
• God want us to enjoy life. This is the theme of this book.
• God is not against that. He want us to enjoy the toil of our labor.
• These are the gift of God. He want to give you the gift of enjoyment.
1. Read Chapter 5:19
2. Who gave the riches? Who gave the ability to eat what He has given you?
3. God gave us the power to enjoy the gifts He has given.
• Now Solomon says, God gives a lot of riches to people but He didn’t give the gift of enjoyment ( This is actually what he had experience)
Illustration: Man with battery driven toys without the batteries.
• NOW, there are people who are not rich, who God did not give gift of riches, but God give them gift of enjoyment and they are absolutely contented and enjoying life as it is.
• How do we get the gift of enjoyment? Read Chapter 2:26
1. God gave wisdom, knowledge and joy.
BRETHREN, we try to find satisfaction in all the components of life. And the SATISFACTION is found only in the loving FELLOWSHIP with the creator of life not in its components.
• But we try desperately to get all the components that we want.
1. If just this relationship got straight
2. If I get somebody to care about me
3. If I have these things in life, then I am SATISFIED.
• All of these are chasing after winds.
• That’s not where the SATISFACTION is found
• It is found in the loving relationship with the God of life. Not in anything He gives. Not in any part of creation.
• You can pursue all these things and you can even have them. But if He doesn’t give you the gift of enjoyment, you have no enjoyment with them.
LESSONS FOR MEN: The Nails (vv. 14-15)
Read Verse 14
A. God limits us, to teach us eternity
• You and I are doped into thinking that the answers is something temporal.
• This is the NAIL. God limits us to teach us eternity
• The answers is not in the PRESENT
Illustration: About a man who died 99 and a man who died with cancer at age 40 (The girl is reflecting about this)
• Folks, the answers to this enigmas of life is in ETERNITY its not NOW.
• All of us want to answer the questions NOW; we got to get everything NOW and for us to understand NOW
• Folk, the answer is not NOW, its THEN.
• The answer is NOT in the PRESENT. God is GOADING us to teach us ETERNITY.
• Without GOADS we will be obsess with the PRESENT
B. He limits us to teach us humility. Read verse 14
• Why He is doing this? Why He limits us?
1. So that we will bow, as we ought.
• He teach us HUMILITY.
1. The answer is not in ME, the answer is in GOD.
• He limits to put us in place, to rude out our pride; to unravel our self-confidence.
• With these limitations we have, when God show us our inadequacy, we bow; we depend and trust.
• He is trustworthy. If we don’t trust Him, we don’t know who He is.
Read Verse 15. What he is saying?
1. There comes a time you will bow, He will require everything in your part.
2. He will require accounting of our part.
Questions:
1. Are you looking for a satisfaction in an empty Mart?
2. Are you trying to control life? And say, If I have just SAY in life, I will be SATIFIED.
3. If you might says, “If I understand life, If I just understand all these things I will be SATISFIED.
NO, you won’t!
• God limits our understanding.
• God Limits our control
• God limits our enjoyment, to teach us ETERNITY
Brethren, there are those who gone through
1. They understand the answer is in eternity and bow before the creator God and accept what He has doing for them.
2. They accept the deliverance and look up to the FUTURE for their HOPE.
If we think we got to have it now, we got to happen it now and want to do it now you’re WRONG. It won’t happen down here.
There is a blessed HOPE. All of these will come together and its not NOW.
Turn your face in faith into the God of heaven and say, “Oh Lord you understand and you are under control and I repent in trying to be in control and I trust your judgment and your ways, I bow before you, King of Heaven. I want your joy and your peace.”
That is the SECRET OF SATIFACTION. The answer is not in us.
The answer is not in the PRESENT.
The answer is ETERNITY.
And it takes HUMILITY to have SATISFACTION from God.
CONCLUSION
Read Isaiah 55
God has filled our soul.
God is our joy.
God is our peace.
Our SATISFACTION: The Living God
Prayer
