Incoming Calls: When Strivings Cease - Greg Heasley

Welcome to the Common Ground Seapoint Podcast. We're a community in the hearts of that Atlantic Seaboard, learning what it means to be apprentices of Jesus in the modern world. We believe the best way to live is to be with Him, become like Him and do what He would do. Let's dive into our latest teaching together. Greg and Wendy, these guys have been coming to be part of us as Common Ground for many years. They lead a church in Quebec. I'll give you lessons afterwards, guys. They have just very excitedly been through renovations, which we're about to embark on ourselves. They've got an evening and a morning meeting like us. There's just been so many ways in which we've been able to learn from a church that's further ahead than us. They've been with us as a leadership team in Kormikey, teaching through the Book of Titus, showing us how to play pedal on a whole other level. These guys, you know when they arrive with their own records and their own t-shirts, they're new in trouble. Just really guys not only receiving from you in those ways, but receiving the gift of God's Word. So Greg, come on up. We're so delighted. Let's put our hands together. Welcome, Greg. Thank you, Paul. And your team, it's been a great joy to be back. We flew in on Friday morning and it was lovely to see blue skies in Arbecha. We've had rain like you cannot believe. It's been unprecedented rain. So thanks for passing that on to us. And yeah, it was lovely to fly in and come in at a decent level. Like Erlenk, Erlenk, no surprises and we landed safely. It was a great joy to arrive here. And then to be whisked off into Kormikey, it felt like we were up the west coast, but we weren't and it was beautiful and just a rich time to spend with your elders and wives. And just to say that you're in safe hands, you're in hands of people who love the Lord and love the church. And so the future is looking bright for you guys. And as you embark on this new journey with renovating, it's going to be a wonderful season of growth. You're going to see new people being added. And it's an opportunity for you to go wider and deeper all at the same time. And so really excited for you guys. I want to speak to us this evening from the book of Ecclesiastes. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to read through Ecclesiastes. It can be a little trickier times, but the author is King Solomon or some debate because he uses a third person. He speaks about the preacher. The preacher is giving the sermon and it's kind of like he's a little hesitant to say it's himself. And so he speaks in the third person as being the preacher. And so I want us to give a kind of a high level view of what the big idea is of Solomon's wisdom. I think most people, if you ask people on the street about the sky king Solomon, they will immediately recall that he was one of those wise cats who knew some stuff. And as you dig deeper into the book, we realize very quickly that he is an expert on almost all subjects. And so let's have a look at the introduction in Ecclesiastes 1 versus 1 and 2. We read the following. In the ESV, it reads like this, the words of the preacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem, vanity of vanities says the preacher. Vanity of vanities all is vanity. In the NRV, it reads like this, the words of the teacher, son of David, King in Jerusalem, meaningless. Meaningless says the teacher utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless. Aren't you glad you came to church tonight? Well, what is he on about? What we discover here is that Solomon is actually at the end of his life, not on the front end, but at the back end. And he's looking at life in the rear view mirror. He's looking back over his reign, over his time as king, where really he could do whatever he likes. He has everything at his fingertips. He's the king in Jerusalem. And Israel has had its high point in history. And he's looking back over his life. He's looking over all of his wealth, over all of his riches, over all of his achievements, over all of his wisdom, over all of his treasures, over all of his wives, 300 of them, right? And 1,000, what kids would say, porcupines, not just concubines. Kids get that muddled up sometimes and it's not too far from the truth. But as he looks back over his life, what Solomon wants to share with us is that, hey, I have been down every avenue. I've been right to the very end of the avenue and I've realized it's a dead end. Or we could say he's drunk the cup of every kind of pleasure, to the bitter end and realized it doesn't satisfy. And so this word that he uses, vanity, or could be translated in meaningless, is actually a really interesting word in the Hebrew, it's the word hevel. Like we used the word heaven, but hevel, H-E-V-E-L, and the translation from the Hebrew is vapor. Life is like hevel. Life is like a vapor. It's like smoke. And he uses this word 38 times throughout the book to describe life. Life is like an enigma. It's like a paradox. It's like hevel. You try and grasp it life and it just slips through your fingers. In other words, he's saying life is like smoke. It appears solid because you want to reach out. You want to reach out and take hold of life. But somehow it's hard to grasp. All of life, he says, is like hevel, vanity. He's not saying that it's worthless. That would be a real bummer, right? It's not that it's worthless. It's just that it's hard to grasp. It's hard to figure out. And so when we study this book, we realized that Solomon is bringing us wisdom at the end of his life. He's saying, guys, I've drunk every pleasure known to man. I've been down every road of power and pleasure, of popularity, of success. And here's his discovery. All of those things are meaningless without God. There's no purpose. Without God, going down all of those roads, having everything that you can have, having been there and done at really living life to the full without God at the end of the day is hevel, meaningless. And we don't have to really dig far to confirm that conclusion, right? I mean, just look at social media. We have celebrity culture to bear witness to this conclusion. So let's read on from verse 3 to 11. What else does he have to say? Well, here we go. Have a look at this. He says, what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north, around and around goes the wind and on its circuits, the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full. To the place where the streams flow, they flow again. All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be and what has been done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, see, this is new. It has already, it has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. In other words, one day you hear and the next you are gone. As I got you earlier, I was walking around reading some of these plaques. Don't have any of you remember Reverend Richards? Anybody? Remember Reverend Richards? Case in point. He was one of the founders of this congregation. There is his plaque over there. Here today, gone tomorrow. So two big points that we are going to look at. Firstly, life under the son and second be. Life is gift, not gain. So firstly, life under the sun. Did you notice in verse three, he says this, what does man gain by all the toil, all the labor at which he toils under the sun? This is our existence, we have no other existence. Everyone lives under the sun, the same sun. What is the common human experience? Life under the sun, here's what he says, verse four, it's monotony, a generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. There will be families, and there will be succession, there will be a generation, and then another generation, and then you will be forgotten. Families come and go, soon you and your relatives will be gone and forgotten. But the earth carries on, he says, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter whether it's good or bad, eventually everyone will be gone and forgotten. Death comes to the wise, death comes to the foolish, death comes to the weak, and death comes to the strong, death comes to the rich, and death comes to the poor. Look at what he says in verse five, he says, the sun rises and sets again. In verse six, the wind blows round and round. The streams flow in and out to the sea. In other words, it outlasts us. Over and over again, times and seasons never stand still. You think your life is important? Go clamber mountain and see if it cares. That thing was there long before us, and will be there long after us. The ocean will still be breaking on the same beach, and the sun will still be rising and setting. In other words, Solomon is concerned that time will outlast even the greatest of kings. And this was a dilemma for Solomon. This was a problem because he has the world in his hands. Or so he thinks. Look what he says in Ecclesiastes three, verses one and two, he says this, for everything, there is a season. A time for every matter under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted. And he goes on and on. And we have a great famous song about this, right? Think our baby boomers know it. If you were around in the 80s, the wonder years was a series on TV. And the theme song was to everything. Turn, turn, turn, turn. To every season, turn, turn, turn. Hands up anybody who knows that. We got three. But here's the problem, right? Here's the problem. These times and these seasons are completely out of our control. And the problem here is that we have no control over that. We have no control of when we arrive, right? And no control over when we depart. This is a nuisance for us, especially those of us who are control freaks. In other words, everyone. And if you think, okay, I'm gonna break the monotony. Like he's just going on about the monotonous rhythms of life and how that outlasts us all. And you might think to yourself, okay, I'm gonna break that monotony. I'm gonna do it my way. I'm gonna do something new. He says this in verse nine. So however important you think your work is, your career, your hobbies, your family, the march of time, the steady, consistent march of time will reduce all that you've given yourself to, to heaven. If you live for pleasure, for power, if you live for work in career or for family or for fame, and that's all you live for time will reduce it to heaven. A vapor. Now the author is not saying that life has no meaning, but rather he is saying that the meaning of life is not that simple. There's a complexity here. Life is both beautiful and brutal. We know this in our context. You're in South Africa. It doesn't take us long to figure out that there is beauty right here as we look at the mountains, but also on the streets we see brokenness. Life is mysterious. It takes one shape and then it takes on another shape. And just when you think you figured it out, you realize there's pieces missing in the puzzle. The puzzle of life is not that easy to figure out, right? And so Solomon looks at the life that we live. He looks at all of life under the sun, and he's saying, is this all there is? 'Cause if this is all there is, then it's just heaven, meaningless. And so his conclusion for us is that life under the sun is a sign that there is more. That there is more to life than just drinking every pleasure towards bitter end. And so here's the second point. And he asks this question in verse three. What do we gain from all of our sunseeking pleasures? What do we gain from all of our labor and efforts from all of our endeavors, from everything we give ourselves to? He says it in chapter three, verse nine this way. He says, what gain has the worker from his toil? Now he's not talking about financial gain. He's talking about what's the point? What's the meaning of this life? What's the purpose of this life? What's the point of all that we get to do? Why am I doing this? He says it this way in Ecclesiastes three, verses nine to eleven. What gain has the worker from his toil? Then he says this, I have seen the busyness that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. That's really interesting. Solomon is saying that God has given to man a work, a task, a toil to be busy with. And then he says this, he has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart yet, yet, so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Here's what he's saying. He's saying I have laid on humanity a burden. In fact, the NIV translates, verse 10 this way, it says I have seen the burden that God has laid on man. In other words, the frustration of the experience of life is actually the result of a God-given burden. Not only has God put eternity this longing for something more in the heart of man, but he's placed on man a burden. And this burden is meant to push us towards God. That's the point of life under the sun. This is what all of your non-Christian friends are experiencing, whether they acknowledge it or not, they are living under a God-given burden. Toil, under the sun. And God's design here is that we would experience homesickness, that we were made for so much more. You see, if we are only creatures of time, if we are only to live out our existence under the sun, and then that's it, then his conclusion in chapter eight, Solomon says these famous words, you may have lived by them before you became a believer, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. Do you remember those words? Solomon penned those. Solomon is saying, if this existence under the sun is all there is, then you may as well drink yourself into a stupid, eat yourself into oblivion. Get happy however you want to get happy 'cause tomorrow you may die. But his conclusion is no, there's more to life. Why do we feel like there is a clock, that we want to stop the clock? When we enjoy moments, when we were family or friends, or we enjoy life at its sweetest place, moments. We want to almost turn back the clock, right? And we want to enjoy this moment and just hit pause on this moment and go, can we not just enjoy this a little bit more? Because God has laid on us this burden. The great early church Theologian Augustine says this, he says about God, he says, you have made us for yourself, O Lord. And our hearts are restless until they rest in you. We've been designed to find meaning and purpose not in life under the sun, but in life above the sun. It's no surprise then that our lives would be marked by frustration if we try and live life without God. Only God who is the burden maker can be the burden taker because he made our hearts and they are restless until they rest in him. Does this mean that life is not important? Absolutely not. Of course life is important, but here's what he's saying, you cannot extract from life what it was never designed to give you. They are gifts at best. Family, work, pleasure, mountains, seas, friendships, church, worship, music. Those are gifts. They are not gain. They cannot give you ultimate satisfaction. They are designed to point you. Life under the sun is designed to point you to life above the sun. Look at how he frames this in Ecclesiastes 312. He says, I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful. See, he's not a joy killer. Solomon knows that real joy is found with a different perspective. That for them to be joyful to do good as long as they live. Also, that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in his toil. Look at this. This is God's gift to man. He's been talking about what's the gain? What's the gain? What's the meaning? What's the purpose? He frames it and he says, life under the sun is gift, not gain. If you mix those up, if you think that life is all about gain, you're going to be sorry and sad, because this life and all of its pleasures and all of its wonderful gifts will never satisfy. Life under the sun is not gain. Life above the sun is gain and eternity with God. All of these pleasures, all of these treats, all of these gifts, all of the foods and friends and family and the winding rivers and the breaking of waves and all of the beautiful sunsets and all of the sandy seas and all of the surprising wisdom in the world is there to push us to realize that gain is only found when we lift our gaze above the sun. And we see God for He made us and He placed eternity in our hearts and we're only satisfied when we understand that the gifts point us to the giver. Life without eternal perspective is meaningless. If all you're living for is yourself, if all you're living for is popularity and pleasures and power, you're chasing the wind, you're chasing the wind, ask Solomon, people sometimes say, why did Solomon have 300 wives and 1,000 concubines? Because someone was going to say, well, if I have three wives, then maybe I'll be happy. Or if I have 13 and someone was always going to push the bar and it's like, it's absolutely ludicrous that he has 300. And then 1,000 concubines, I mean, clearly he was disobedient. That's not even an upward debate. He was clearly disobedient. God's design from the beginning was one man, one woman, but he wanted to drink the cup to the bitter end, right? And so he pushes the bar when it comes to power and pleasure and all sorts of thing, he goes all the way so that the end of life he can turn around and he has what he has to say. At the end of the book in chapter 12, Solomon says this, verse 13, the end of the matter, all has been heard. In other words, it's kind of like a court case. He's like, I am both judge and I am in the stand to be judged. The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing whether good or evil. In other words, there are two perspectives. There's life under the sun and God sees it all. And there is life above the sun. And how do you live life under the sun? Successfully. What does success look like for us living under the sun? He says, fear God. Return to God. Prioritize your life around God. Fear God and obey his commandments. There will, there will forever be a longing and an aching and a dissatisfaction if we live life under the sun without knowing Jesus. Who is God? How do we know God? Well, God has revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus. And get this. Jesus came to live under the same sun. Our Son. He came to live our lives. He came to live in the flesh. He took on flesh. God Himself came to us so that we can go to Him. God took the initiative. God took on flesh. God came to live under the same sun to experience greater toil than you and I will ever experience. He took on Himself a greater burden than you and I will ever experience the burden not only of life under the sun, but all of our sin was laid on Him. So that's through simple faith. We can know Him and have peace with God. I'll close with this. The Apostle Paul lived an exciting life. He gave up much to be a missionary and he traveled the known Middle East and he planted churches and towards the end of his life, he finds himself in a Roman prison in the book of Philippians. He writes from prison and the whole book of Philippians is a letter about joy. You certainly wouldn't think that if you're in a Roman dungeon. The great overarching theme of Philippians is joy in the Lord. Not so sure. That would be our experience if we were laid in a Roman prison. But here's what he says. At the heart of the book, he says this. He says to live his Christ and to die is gain the same language that Solomon used. Paul's not dreaming this language up. He's using the language of Solomon. He reaches back to the king in Israel and he says, I know what he was talking about. Because when you live for Christ, death is gain. But if you live for anything else, if you live for the gifts, if you live for popularity, if you live for pleasure, if you live for family, if your whole identity is wrapped up in being a dad or a mom or a bus or whatever it might be, if to live is whatever you put in that gap, then to die, if it's not Christ, is a loss. Do the math, he's saying. If you live your life for anything under the sun and not for what's above the sun, then to die is a loss. Because you lose it all. If you live for lion's head, if you live for the pleasures of sea point, if you live for anything else, when you die, you lose it all, right? I mean, this isn't rocket science. You lose it. You become a clock on a wall. But if you live for what's It's above the sun, to live is Christ. think to die is gain, I get what I lived for. I live for the glory of God to please him. And when I die, I get him in all of his glory. Amen. Let's heed the wisdom of Solomon. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for reminding us tonight that we are your people, that our hearts were made for you. And we so easily forget far too often we look at things around us. And we wanna try and extract from gifts what gifts can never give us. And so Lord tonight we are reminded to look to you. And to hope in you, Lord, to trust in you. And to find out joy in you, because if Paul wanted to be happy, certainly not a prison would make him happy. But his joy was in the Lord, not in his circumstances. And so I pray for us, Lord, I pray for everyone in this room, that the burden that you've laid upon us, as we go to work, and as we do life, and as we do family, and as we do our hobbies and our favorite things that we get to do, may we put them in the right place, may we see them with the right perspective, that these are simply gifts that will never provide gain. They will never truly satisfy. Only you can satisfy our Lord. And so I pray Holy Spirit that you would work in our hearts, give us this eternal perspective, help us to fear God, to live for your glory, to know you God. Jesus, we thank you that you've made this possible, that we might know you, and enjoy you. The true joy and true satisfaction is found in knowing our Creator and living for his glory. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. - Thanks for listening to the Common Ground C point podcast. Our hope is that these words follow you home, into your streets, your workplaces, and the rhythms of your life. Let's take a moment to listen to what God might be saying to you today. (gentle music) As you go, may you be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what he would do, right where you are. Let's go and be the church in our neighborhoods this week. If you want to connect, reach out to us at info at cgcpoints.co.c [BLANK_AUDIO]