That's Life

Rise Above  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  41:27
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Introduction

The Big Question

Ecclesiastes 1:3 NASB95
What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun?
Camera focused “under the sun.”

No Progress in Earth’s Nature

Solomon begins by giving us a look at how the natural world educates us in how things are. This is the reality we live in, not the one we imagine or wish we lived in.
Solomon takes instruction from four processes that he observes - and they all teach the same thing.

The Cycle of Generations

Ecclesiastes 1:4 NASB95
A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth remains forever.
[Nations Video]
We all want to change the world, but the world doesn’t seem to care. It keeps spinning around and around and takes no notice of the nations/generations that rise and fall.
If America ceased to exist tomorrow, how many continents would fall into the sea? How much of the earth would disintegrate?
The flow of humanity doesn’t seem to be making a lasting impression.

The Cycle of the Sun

Ecclesiastes 1:5 NASB95
Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again.
[Rotating Earth Timelapse]
The word for “hastening” here means “to pant.” The sun is pictured as someone who has to run around and around in circles every day without a break.
Have you ever had to run sprints in sports over and over? Remember how it feels to be tired and panting, and have your coach call you back to the line to do it again? That’s the picture.
Day isn’t making any progress over night. Night isn’t making any progress over day. Our whole world is tied to a concept of time that is measured by the alternating pattern of day and night, and the orbit of the moon, and the orbit of the earth around the sun. Everything you will ever do will be measured and recorded according to a cosmic cycle that never accomplishes anything.

The Cycle of Wind

Ecclesiastes 1:6 NASB95
Blowing toward the south, Then turning toward the north, The wind continues swirling along; And on its circular courses the wind returns.
[Wind Currents]
The sun goes left to right, or right to left, across the E/W axis of earth. The wind, as Solomon describes it, has an up and down, or N/S cycle. Where is the wind going? What is it going to do when it gets there? The majestic clouds sailing through the heavens - what glorious goal does that global force of wind have? Nothing. It just ends up swirling back around the same way it came. In this, the wind pictures many of the forces in our world - political, social, moral, technological. They blow powerfully, but somehow everything seems to end up back where it began.

The Cycle of Water

Ecclesiastes 1:7 NASB95
All the rivers flow into the sea, Yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, There they flow again.
[Water Cycle]
Finally, Solomon describes how the water cycle works. (Not bad for a guy living before the invention of electricity.) Surely the rivers demonstrate the idea of getting somewhere in life. You start atop some mountain, say, Mount Hebron, and begin to trickle with other droplets into a small creek that broadens into a stream and finally turns into a river rushing downhill until it arrives, at last, in the vast expanse of the sea. Beginning, middle, end. Nice.
Except, while celebrating your aquatic accomplishments, you begin to notice that it’s getting a little warm. You are feeling light-headed - no completely light-bodied! Your little droplet is turning into a vaporous mist and rising from the sea itself. Ascension! Glory! What new world am I off to now!. You are surrounded by your little misty brethren, and puff out into a billowy cloud. Now you float serenely over the lands through which you once flowed. Look, ahead, there stands Mount Hebron itself, where you were born.
Your cloud is driven straight towards the peaks of that tall edifice, and as you are just about to crest the tallest spire, you suddenly have a sinking feeling in your stomach. Wait, no, you are actually sinking. Your misty grandeur is turning back into a boring drop. And drop is exactly what happens next. Falling through the skies you land unceremoniously on the slant of a granite slope, and the next thing you know, you are trickling back down into a creek again...
Creation is currently trapped in a cycle of futility. It is constantly rushing through these hectic, powerful cycles, but it isn’t getting anywhere. It isn’t accomplishing anything. In fact, if anything, the only sign of any progression is entropy.
Solomon turns from creation to look at Man’s nature.

No Progress in Man’s Nature

Nothing Satisfying

Ecclesiastes 1:8 NASB95
All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing.
The first line of this verse is actually the concluding thought of verses 3-7. And it should say, “All things are weary.” Verse numbers aren’t inspired, and it appears that those who added our current verses numbers in the Old Testament, the Maseretes, made a mistake here.
Solomon’s conclusion about the natural world is that everything is tired from working so hard and getting nowhere. This leads to his next thought, which is that we, as mankind, living in this world, don’t have a good response to the weariness of everything.
The best translation for the next line is:
“Man is unable to speak.”
This is what happens when you take “why” questions seriously.
What’s the point of _____? Why? Why? Why? Why? Solomon skips ahead to the end and admits that there is a point where you run out of things to say. You are silent. This book is all about understanding how to describe difficult and complex realities, but there are some things that simply defy explanation.
This is backed up by his next two observations.
In this world of weary cycles, we are ultimately unsatisfied.
We never see that final thing that makes us content to never see again.
We never hear that final sound that makes us content never to hear again.
We aren’t content with how things are, and things aren’t moving forward towards something more satisfying!
“As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death. ” ― George Bernard Shaw, Overruled
People often live in this deception - always striving for more, when there isn’t more to have.
Our world is giving us all it has, and, as the James Bond movie declared, The World is Not Enough.
Well, let’s just make some cool stuff up then?

Nothing New

Ecclesiastes 1:9–10 NASB95
That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, “See this, it is new”? Already it has existed for ages Which were before us.
Solomon’s observation here is that there is nothing we can do that fundamentally changes human reality.
The internet didn’t change the fact that we need to communicate to people to express ourselves, it just made it faster.
Electricity didn’t change that we need light to see or heat to cook, it just gave us bulbs and microwaves to make it easier.
The refrigerator didn’t change that we need food to survive, it just let’s us buy out fish a week in advance instead of having to cook it the same day.
All the pieces of our reality remain the same, we just innovate ways of dealing with it. We haven’t actually moved our existence forward. Your smartphone can’t save you, make you enlightened, or satisfy your physical needs.
All of our human cleverness does nothing to change the basic limits and fundamental vanity of living in this world.

Nothing Permanent

Ecclesiastes 1:11 NASB95
There is no remembrance of earlier things; And also of the later things which will occur, There will be for them no remembrance Among those who will come later still.
Finally, Solomon concludes with the real killer blow. Even if you did manage to make a difference - nobody would really care for long about you or what you did.
Who invented the wheel? Who figured out how to make bread from wheat? Who wrote the first poem? What was your great-great-Grandma’s name?
Time swallows our feeble accomplishments up. There will be a few names that endure, but they are the exception, and not the rule.
We have largely forgotten all who came before us, and those that come after us will largely forget us.
That’s life.
Trapped, in a prison, going in circles.
That’s life.

Conclusion

Sounds pretty miserable so far, doesn’t it?
I’m going to cheat ahead a bit though. What we talked about tonight doesn’t contradict the gospel, it demands the Gospel.
Do you begin to see how Jesus is the only possible answer to the weariness and vanity of this world? Nothing in this world can overcome the cyclical nature of things. That’s life.
But Jesus isn’t from this world. He is able to introduce an element into our world that only God can - the eternal. He alone possesses the ability to bring a higher purpose and ultimate point to our broken, going-in-circles, unhappy merry-go-round existence.
In Him is life, and that life is the light of men (Jn 1:4).
Questions for Small Group:
What parts of your life seem most meaningless and cyclical?
What do you see in the world around you that people seem obsessed with, but which don’t seem to matter?
Is it possible to enjoy this world? Is that possible even though it never satisfies?
If you know Jesus, how does your relationship with Him change the way you view life? How are you different because you know Him?
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