Video Transcript: Under the Sun

I'm going to be preaching through the book of Ecclesiastes, in upcoming weeks and starting  today with Ecclesiastes one. Over the years I've preached now and again on Ecclesiastes. In  this series, we're just going to try to get a look at that whole book, and what its meaning is for practical living today and living with our Lord Jesus Christ. Ecclesiastes contains the  reflections of a realist of a really hard nosed realist, who looks at life, with all of its ugliness  and difficulty and boredom, and drudgery and tells it like it is, from his point of view, and tries to help us see things not through just rosy colored glasses, but to look at them very honestly  and bluntly, and then see what it all adds up to. So it's not always fun to read through  Ecclesiastes or to think along with this person, but it is very profitable. And so we're going to  go through this book Beginning with Ecclesiastes, chapter one. The words of the Teacher, son  of David, King in Jerusalem, mean Meaningless, meaningless as the teacher, utterly  meaningless, everything is meaningless. What does man gain from all his labor at which he  toils under the sun, generations calm and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The  sunrises and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises, the wind blows to the south and  turns to the north, round and round it goes, ever returning on its course, all streams flow into  the sea, yet the sea is never full, to the place, the streams come from there they return again. All things are wearisome more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing nor the  ear, it's filled with hearing, what has been will be again, what has been done will be done  again. There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, Look, this  is something new. It was here already long ago, it was here before our time. There is no  remembrance of men of old and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by  those who follow. I, the teacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem, I devoted myself to study  and to explore by wisdom, all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has  laid on men. I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, all of them are  meaningless, a chasing after the wind, what is twisted cannot be straightened. What is  lacking, cannot be counted. I thought to myself, look, I have grown and increased in wisdom  more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me, I have experienced much of  wisdom and knowledge. Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of  madness and folly. But I learned that this too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much  wisdom comes much sorrow, the more knowledge, the more grief. This ends the reading God's word and God always blesses His Word to those who listen. Have you ever had the Sisyphus  syndrome? Some of you wonder, well, what in the world is the Sisyphus syndrome? Well, in  the old Greek legends, there was a king named Sisyphus, he was king of what is now called  Corinth and Sisyphus was a very smart and sneaky guy who sometimes murdered his  enemies and would fool and trick them, and even thought he was as clever and as sneaky as  the gods themselves. Well, the Gods got upset about that. And finally, they decided to show  Sisyphus that they were even more sneaky and deceptive. And so they sentenced Sisyphus to an eternity of pushing a big round stone up the mountain. And this enchanted stone when it  reached the top of the mountain, would immediately roll right back down to the bottom. And  then Sisyphus had the pleasure of pushing it back up the mountain again. And when he got  into the top, down, it rolled, and then he got to start again. And he pushed it back all the way  up to the top of the mountain. And when he got it, there down at roll again. Always working  and never accomplishing anything. Have you ever had that syndrome? Yes, you've been in  school. You do the classes for that day and you labor way out those pages of homework, and  what is your reward, more classes tomorrow, and more homework tomorrow. And so you do  the classes for that day, and the whole work for that day. And what is your reward, more  classes, more homework, have a happy day Sisyphus. If you're the mom in that home, if  you're a homemaker, you change a diaper. And now you're done. No, you change that one,  and then comes the next one. And then you get to change the next one. And after that, the  next one. And after that, oh, there will be another dirty diaper or another wet diaper. So you'll  get to change that one to over and over and over, you get to cook meals. And about that time that the meal is eaten and digested, you get to plan the menu for the next meal. And then  that one is eaten and digested, and you get to plan the menu for the next meal. And then  there is the laundry, you do one load of laundry and your reward is that there will be another  load of laundry waiting for you. And then you get to do that one. And then comes the next 

load. And then you get to fold it and stack it and put it in the drawers. And somehow it makes  its way back into the dirty laundry bin and you get to do the laundry again to Lucky you. It is  not that different from old Sisyphus sometimes to be the homemaker, the one who is doing all of that. And of course, there is also the picking up of the floor which resembles somewhat  shoveling snow in a blizzard, you get to pick everything up, you have the whole house neat  and tidy. And you turn around and it is in exactly the same state as when you started picking  up Sisyphus says the housewife. And then there is our work, you go to the office, there's a  stack of paper, you try to work your way down that stack of paper. And when it hits the  bottom you go home. And then the next day that stack of paper awaits you again and about  the same level or a bit higher than it was the previous day, or your email inbox that you went  through, has filled up again, somehow, miraculously, or if you work in a factory, you have the  delight of standing at one spot on the line. And as soon as you finish doing your job on that  thing, the next one pops into place and you get to do the same thing all over again. You and  Sisyphus have more than one thing in common. If you're a truck driver, you get to drive the  same route, go to the same place as haul the same stuff. And when that's all done to get to  load up another truck and do the same thing. If you're a farmer, you plant your harvest, the  cycle goes and you do it again. So much of life is doing the same old, same old. And this is  true for kids doing schoolwork. It's true for moms trying to organize around the house. It's  true. And we go off to work and do our various tasks, which are very often quite repetitive.  And if you think oh, but if only I could have one of those occupations that's not so boring and  repetitive. Man, if I could just be a star. Well, if you were an NBA star, for instance, you would  get to go to the gym and pump weights every day during the offseason, and then run several  miles, and then get up the next day and pump the same weights and run the same treadmill  or the same course all over again, then you would get into that exciting part of the season,  where you hop on an airplane, you play another game, you go to another anonymous hotel,  then you hop another airplane, you get on another basketball court, you play another game  you do that 82 times, not counting the exhibition games, there's a reason why the players  say, Oh, they don't say this is so fantastic and exciting. This is that regular season is a grind.  We're just trying to get to the playoffs. That's what you get. If you're a star, if you're a rock  star, you get to do another concert where the spotlight is on you and you can't even see the  crowd. And then you've got to go do the same set of songs again the next night somewhere  else. So no matter who you are, no matter how successful you are, no matter how glamorous  it looks from the outside, you have a lot in common with Sisyphus, you could be the most  powerful, the smartest, the most accomplished person in the world and feel like your life was  one round of stuff after another and you really haven't accomplished anything. Take the words of the teachers Son of David King in Jerusalem. He's the teacher. He's not frustrated because  he has no imagination, or because he doesn't have any mind or ability. He's a genius. And  he's not just some nobody. He is the son of David, the greatest king in the history of Israel  until he came along and surpassed him. He's king in Jerusalem. You don't get a whole lot  higher than that. When you're a genius, and you're the son of a great king, and you're  probably the only king who may have been greater, you're in a pretty good position. And you  say, your whole summary of life is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda yadda  meaningless, or as it's translated in the King James and other versions ESV. And so on the  vanity of vanities, all is vanity, koheleth hebel hebel. That's how you say it in Hebrew. And the,  you know, the word actually, this is not just random stuff in Ecclesiastes, by the way, the  numerical value of Hevel is 37. And the word appears 37 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. If  you were to take the numerical value of Hubble, Hubble, Lila, Cole Hubble, and add that all  together, it would add up to the exact number of verses that appear in the book of  Ecclesiastes. So this is not just some random Yeah, I was having a bad day, threw off a few  random thoughts. There are some you know, there were some liberal scholars for a while, who said, Well, this book starts so gloomy. And by the end, it gets to say, hey, if your God and  keep His commandments, because that's all there is to being human. They're saying, oh,  there was just some, some guy, you know, went on his atheistic and grumpy rant and then at  the end, some pious scribes, threw a few verses on at the end? Well, that's actually not how it works out. Because that just that whole numerical thing that I told you about shows that the 

whole thing put together was a very careful composition. And But enough about that, right  now we're at the beginning, where he's just say, Hubble Hubble in a hole Hubble, you know,  it's it's fog. It's vanity. It's vapor. And that's what that word hevel means. It is. It is. Just, it's  translated meaningless. It's not quite it. Or translated vanity that's maybe closer. But literally, it's just a mist. It's a fog, it's a vapor. And what's fog? Well, fog is something that's there. And  then it's not there. It just blows away or melts away, and it's gone. It's futile, and it's very frail. And it's kind of false. In a fog, you really can't see very well. And this teacher is saying that's  what life is like it's there, and then it's gone. It's hard to see what in the world is going on and  just figure it out. And it doesn't seem to mount too much and grab at a fog and what what are your hands full of nothing? Well, who's the author, the author in Hebrew which is qohelet. In  Greek, the word same word is Ecclesiastes, it means the one who people gather around the  one who convenes and assembly. So it gets translated, sometimes the teacher or the  preacher is the one people listen to. Well, why does he listen to it? Well, because he's smart,  and he's king. And he knows what he's talking about. And from the text, it would appear that  this would be none other than the great King Solomon himself, son of David King in Jerusalem  wiser than all others. So when he's talking, and when he's got some pretty grim observations,  it's not because he's some down and out, nobody who's life is kind of a mess, in some  respects its kind of a mess. But not because he doesn't have the smarts or the position, or the pedigree. He's a genius. But he's a genius in a fog. And he's going through some of these  experiences of life. And whatever else we say about him, it's pretty clear from the beginning  that he's kind of got the Sisyphus syndrome. He's got a sense that things are going around  and around that even he a great king, a brilliant King, who built a great kingdom feels like he  hasn't accomplished much of anything or made much of a difference in the world. What does  man gain from all his labor, which he toils under the sun? That's kind of the basic question of  the book. What's the use? What's the payoff? Why am I doing all this? Why does anybody else do what they do? What's it all about? And he says, well, generations come and generations  go, but the earth remains forever. Climate change. Newsflash, climate has always changed.  And what people do well, it changes, okay. And generations have come and generations have  gone and you just kind of disappear from the earth and the wind keeps going. The sun, it  keeps going. The wind, it keeps blowing the water, it keeps flowing, and you didn't make  much difference. Okay. Generations come they go, the earth remains forever. The sun rises,  the sun sets hurries back to where it rises, you know, the, every morning it goes again. And  the wind Well, it kind of goes in circles, it goes in circles. Water has really an exciting life, it  falls down from the clouds, then it flows into the river and down to the sea, and it evaporates,  goes into the clouds, then it falls down, ends up in a river and flows to the sea. And then  excitement of excitement, it goes back into the clouds, and falls back onto the ground and  flows into the river and into the sea, and then back up into the clouds, and everything's  always flowing into the sea, and the sea is never full, not much changes. So he's looking at  life, as this cycle of repetition, and repetition, and repetition. And as you see the cycles of  nature, whether it's the rotation of the Earth, the rising of the sun, the movements of the air,  the flowing or the cycle of evaporation and condensation. You know, he's studied all this he,  he's a person who people came to hear his observations on plants and animal life, he's  observed the cycles of nature, probably the greatest scientific mind of his day. And he's his  summary as well. I've learned all this. And I've just notice that stuff keeps going round and  round and round. And people seem pretty insignificant in the whole deal. Kind of the big  picture or the view from looking down on things from a bit of a distance I've ever been on top  of a skyscraper, you look down. And what do you see? Well, one thing you don't see very  clearly is people, their cars look tiny. And the people, if you see them at all, are like ants. And  when an ant strides onto the scene, nobody else notices much. And when the ant gets  squished, and is gone, nobody notices much. Things go on, the wind keeps blowing, the sun  keeps going, the water keeps flowing, and the ant has vanished. And if you're not looking  from the skyscraper, and you're little further away, maybe looking out of an airplane, you  can't even see the people. So when you're 30,000 feet up, things really look small. And, and  Ecclesiastes is giving us kind of that view from 30,000 feet up, you're, you're under the sun,  but you're away is above what all is going on. And people just look so tiny, and so 

insignificant, and their lives look so short. And in light of all that. What do we amount to?  That's the hard question that he's asking. He's feeling like Sisyphus, he's feeling tiny, and  unimportant. Even though he's the most important thing in the world. All things are wary,  

some more than one can say, the ear never has enough of seeing or the ear its fill of hearing.  Maybe what Sisyphus needs, maybe the cure would be a set of headphones, and a tablet. You know, life is a little boring. But hey, if you can fill your eyes with something to look at, and  your ears with something to listen to, then you never have to think about it. You just watch  and listen and make your way through life until you drop. But at least you didn't get bored.  Well, until you get bored of looking at all those sights maybe and, and those sounds. But  yeah, if you wire up Sisyphus, if he could just have some headphones, a little screen in front  of his face, then it can keep pushing that rock and having to go down, it wouldn't be so  troublesome. And we have got our technology just in my lifetime. Some of you are almost as  ancient as I am. I remember how the the things made for the year have progressed, we had  the little vinyl records that played on the phonograph. And then you moved on to those eight  track tapes. Remember those some of you, and then really moving up to cassette tapes, and  then into the land of CDs, and then into the land of mp3 and iPods and the sound got more  mobile all the time, and you could carry it with you wherever you go. You'll never have to live  in silence anymore. And the screens kept changing and getting sharper and bigger. Hey, back  before I was born, they had black and white moving pictures with no sound. And then they got sound where you could actually hear voices from those movies. And then the movies moved  to color. And then they moved to higher and higher definition color and the sound got better  and better. And now if you can really focus you can have the sharpest, clearest, most  beautiful things to fill your eyes with and the most fantastic music to your ears with and you'll never think of the fact that you're pushing a stone up the mountain every day, man that's  good. What has been Will be again, what has been done will be done again, there's nothing  new under the sun. Yeah, the music players get a little better. But let's say, hey, Solomon  already had all the live entertainment he ever wanted. He had the money to bring it all down  to right into his court live. So he still had it better than you with your latest gadgets wasn't  enough? Is there anything of which one can say, Look, this is something new. It was here long  ago, it was here before our time, there's no remembrance of men of old, even those who are  yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow. Who was President 30 years ago.  Some of you think about it Well, now. Others of you, if you think about it, say don't have a  clue. Here's a hint. I remember. Somebody from this congregation, actually, a number of  years ago was out with a group of young people. And they had just heard that the guy had  just heard that President Reagan had died. And he told the young people President Reagan  died today. And they said, who he was only a Hollywood actor for 30 years, seen by countless  people on countless movie screens. Then won election as President of the United States and  30 years ago, this year, won one of the biggest Wipeout elections carried 49 states strove to  top the world helped bring down the Berlin Wall. Who, that's how well people are remembered if they only happen to be the most powerful man in the world who had a lifelong career as an  actor before their career as president and Governor. That's how important, the most  important people are. Who. How many of you knows the names of your own great  grandparents? Maybe some do. But there is no remembrance of men of old. We fly forgotten  as a dream as an old song says. So the Sisyphus syndrome, isn't just an old Greek legend.  Ecclesiastes, one isn't just an old grumpy king who lived 3000 years ago. This is the human  condition, to go through the same cycles to make very little difference in the creation around  us. And then to be forgotten. I'm a cheery guy today. As I say, just keep in mind, this is not  your average pessimist who's had a bad day. This is the wisest and greatest king in the world. I, the teacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem, I devoted myself to study and to explore by  wisdom, all that is done under heaven. So he studies that he uses his book learning, he uses  his study of things, and he explores it, he goes through a lot of experimentation, even through personal activities, we'll see more of that in chapter two, to just find out how he can grab  something of life and make the most of it. And he wants to explore by wisdom, all that's done  under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men. I've seen all the things that are  done under the sun, all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What's going on 

here? Well, he's, he's trying to explore by his own wisdom, and through his own efforts, what  life is all about. And that's what under the sun kind of perspective means he's not looking  beyond the sun. He's not looking to God, or to the perspective of eternity, he's trying to use  his own skill, to find out what is worth doing in life. He's trying to use his own genius, to figure out and to understand what life is all about. And he says, If you approach things from under  the sun, then what you end up with is chasing the wind. Those are two phrases that come up  again and again and again under the sun, about 30 times and Ecclesiastes of chasing the  wind is a refrain that you hear again and again. And again, if you're going to live life under the sun, just realize that you're chasing the wind under the sun, does not deny that God exists. A  good many people today live under the sun, and they believe God is there. There's some sort  of power somewhere that got things going. That probably still runs the show. But God is a  factor in an equation. He's not a Lord to be worshipped and adored. He's not a friend to be  trusted. He's not a father to be loved. He's something that's kind of like gravity. or the other  forces, he's the force that keeps it all going? Well, when God has seen that way, then the  world in which we live is a very heavy burden. And when you approach it that way, God's  there, but you approach your work in your own steam, its work without grace. And you  approach you're under the things of understanding without God's revelation. And so you have  wisdom without revelation. And when you have that, then your work is chasing the wind. And  your wisdom is more of a frustration than it is a blessing. And in that kind of world, how much  really changes we had political campaigns run on Hope and Change have actually about every campaign for the last couple 100 years has been run on the basis of hope and change of GK  Chesterton 90 years ago have this to say I came across this quote from Chesterton the other  day again, the whole modern world has divided itself into conservatives and progressives, the business of progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of conservatives is to  prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of  his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus, we have  two great types, the advanced person who rushes us into ruin, and the retrospective person  who admires the ruins well, that I think Chesterton and Solomon would have gotten along  rather famously. Solomon says what is twisted cannot be straightened, what is lacking cannot  be counted. You can talk Hope and Change all you want. A president from Chicago is probably  not going to fix a political system and make it clean and pristine and sweet. You know, that  we, Chicago politics is Chicago politics, American politics is American politics, you can try to  straighten it out, probably ain't happening anytime soon. These, by the way are girders from  the World Trade Center. Some things get twisted, and you can't undo the damage. And that's  what death is, ultimately, it just can't be undone by us. There are so many things in life,  where what is twisted, cannot be straightened. And we just can't fix it. These things are  embedded and we can talk about changing them. But we can't get it done. Because we don't  know what the missing ingredient is. When something is missing. You don't know what you  don't know. It's just missing. You can't count it and say, Well, this is the thing that we might  need unless we're told or it's revealed to us, we're not going to get it figured out on our own.  That's what Solomon is saying here. There's some things that you just can't change. They're  part of the way human life is. And there always going to be part of human life here under the  sun, you better face that fact. And there's always going to be a lot that you can't figure out.  Education of course, in our age has been thought to have great magical properties. Again, a  grumpy old Brit sounded a note kind of like Solomon education, the great mumbo jumbo and  fraud of the ages, purports to equip us to live and is prescribed as a universal remedy for  everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility. For the most part, it serves to  enlarge stupidity, inflate conceit, enhanced fragility, and put those subjected to it at the  mercy of brainwashes with printing presses, radio and television at their disposal. Now, he  may have been overstating it a bit, and this isn't exactly your favorite quote, to launch the  new year of education. But there is more than a little truth in it. That a great deal of education does consist more of programming and brainwashing than it does have actually enlivening  our thinking and helping us to see life as it really is, and to understand what life is all about.  Well, I thought to myself, look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone  who's ruled over Jerusalem before me, I've experienced much of wisdom and knowledge. 

Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom and also of madness and folly. But I  learned that this too is chasing after the wind for with much wisdom comes much sorrow, the  more knowledge the more grief. the more you know, the more it hurts. So he's trying to figure it all out. He looks at wisdom even looks at madness and folly. You know, we've been looking  at this if work doesn't accomplish a whole lot. And if wisdom doesn't get it all figured out,  maybe we should just be lazy bones and dummies. Instead of working. Let's be couch  potatoes. Instead of thinking hard let's, vegetate slap on the earphones, look at another  screenplay in another video. Again, call it good. But if you are hard working and why is an  empty? That's one possibility? Is it a really great improvement to be lazy and stupid and  empty? Either way, you're still empty. The more you know, the more hurt you can look  through the distractions you'll be I never has enough of seeing the ear enough of hearing.  Some of you are looking forward to the football playoffs. Someone has defined NFL football as 22 million guys badly in need of exercise watching 22 Guys badly in need of rest. And that's  what our entertainment world does for us. We we keep chasing this and that as a distraction.  But when we really think about it, with more wisdom comes more sorrow. Even the people we  look up to, man, sometimes when you find out who they really are, and what they've really  done. So much comes crashing down and you're just horrified that someone you admired so  much is such a disaster. And things have been so horrible in their life, or there's something  you really enjoy a food that you find delightful, and then you do a little more reading, and you find out that it could cause a heart attack and if a heart attack doesn't get you the cancer  Well, the more you know, the more I hurt you can't even eat anymore. If you study all the  nutritional facts about everything you put in your mouth. That's what he's saying. The more  you know, the more it hurts as much wisdom comes much sorrow, the more knowledge the  more grief he sounds a little bit like John Lennon, some of you already saying who because  John Lennon was merely the greatest rock star in the world. If you take all the contestants on  The Voice and all your favorites from American Idol and add them all up. They haven't sold  half as many records as John Lennon did. He's a real nowhere man sitting in his Nowhere Land making all his nowhere plans for nobody doesn't have a point of view knows not where he's  going to. Isn't the a bit like you and me. Lennon wrote that song after another night out  partying. And it remains a very good question. He doesn't have a point of view. That's one of  the struggles here in Ecclesiastes, he doesn't have that perspective that's given by God's  revelation. And he's not sure where he's going to he just sees everything in circles going  around and around and around up the mountain back down up the mountain back down. He  doesn't have a point of view, he knows not where he's going to. Isn't the a bit like you and  me. You say, Well, you know, I'm a Christian. So thank God, the sermon is wasted on me. Well, if so I praise God. Be thankful for what you've been rescued from. But is it really so that none  of us has any of this characterizing our lives anymore? I remember a woman who was part of  a congregation where I was an intern pastor when I was young. And she learned that she had  cancer. And the senior pastor of that church went to visit her and she said to him, Pastor,  what to do? You just don't have anything to live for. And he being a very sensitive soul said,  Yeah, you're right. You don't have anything to live for. You've been living for the wrong thing  your whole life. Well, no, I don't advise saying that to every suffering person. But in this case,  it turned out to be exactly what she needed to hear. And she said, I guess so. Her husband  had been a very successful businessman. She always had the finest dresses, the flashiest  jewelry, lived in upright live. I think she was a Christian. I know she went to church twice,  every Sunday. I think she was a real Christian before that already. But she had spent an awful  lot of her life on Vanity of vanities. And that last year and a half of her life was more filled with the joy of the Lord and with really understanding what life was about. Then all of the years  leading up to that day, when she found out that she had cancer. So sometimes, you know, it's  not just the far out unbeliever but it might even be a church going respectable believer whose life is being lived largely for the wrong things and one of the things that Ecclesiastes does it  just kind of clear the ground gets a lot of junk out of the ways so we can really face the Lord  and face our own life the way it is work without grace well Unless the Lord builds the house.  Its builders labor in vain In vain you rise early and stay up late toiling for food to eat free  grant sleep to those he loves. You Just get off that you don't have to be Sisyphus. You don't 

have to just work yourself to death and think that your work and your effort are the only thing that life is about. But work without Grace, God has designed it so that work without grace will  be frustrating. He will not let us find happiness and fulfillment, just working, working, working. If you're a workaholic pack it in wisdom without revelation, what's God's say, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligence I will frustrate Has not God made  

foolish the wisdom of the world. Jesus Himself said, I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and  earth, that you've hid these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little  children. So God does not withhold all answers from us, but they are going to come as a result of his revelation. And not just if our investigation, we're not going to find what life is about  just by our own explorations. And the Bible teaches that God's fullness is in Jesus Christ. We're talking here in Ecclesiastes throughout this book, about a crisis a little different than the crisis of sin. In Christian churches, especially and rightly so sin is identified as a major problem. And what Jesus has done to pay for sin and bring forgiveness is identified as a great thing that the  gospel does. And so we should speak of such things. But there is another crisis, not just a  crisis of sin and guilt, but a crisis of emptiness, and the frustration. And many people in our  world long after they have forgotten to feel guilty, still have this empty ache at the core of  their being this emptiness. But it is in Christ, that all the fullness of deity lives and we're given fullness, and fulfillment in Christ and nowhere else. So what is work? Well, work depends not  just on pushing the stone up the mountain, but on working for the Lord. The Bible says,  Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. You're working for him. And it's not how much you accomplish. It's what he makes of it in the end. And all of that is in light of the resurrection.  First Corinthians 16, is the great resurrection chapter of the Bible. And it says Christ has  indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who fallen asleep. That same  chapter, Paul says, if there is no resurrection, well just eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow  we die have a blast, while you last. You know, that's that's the only philosophy that even holds up at all, if there is no eternity. But that's not the way it is. He says, As in Adam all die. so in  Christ all will be made alive. There's more to it, than the little amp getting stepped on, and  vanishing from the scene never to be heard of again, we are eternal beings. We live forever.  And what we do matters, because it matters to God. And because God is the one who  establishes us, thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm, let nothing move, you always abound in the work of  the Lord, because you know that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain. Your work is not Vanity  of vanities, because it's done in the Lord and in partnership with him. And for purposes, you  don't have to change the whole world. That's God's job. He'll take care of that. But you are  called to live and walk with Jesus Christ now, and to live for the Lord with him as your boss,  and then your work is going to matter. The things you do for little babies, it may seem that it's just one diaper after another after another or one load of laundry after another after another,  but you are attending and eternal soul. When you go to work day after day, you're not just  shuffling paper, you are dealing with helping other people and dealing with eternal souls and  you are working for the one who is beyond the sun. And we need to understand these things  in our work and in our thinking. And we have not only meaning in our work, but also in our  thoughts. Now again, God says I'm going to frustrate the wisdom of the wise but he doesn't  stop there and say therefore, all be a bunch of dummies says there is a kind of wisdom that  comes from God of Wisdom in Christ we do speak a message of wisdom among the mature  but not the wisdom of this age are the rulers of this age are coming to nothing. That's what  under the sun is the wisdom of this age. And of the rulers of this age, they're coming to  nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden, but that God  destined for our glory before time began. No eye has seen no ear has heard no mind has  conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed it to us by  His The earth, Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light to the gospel. Just by looking  at the world around us, you would never guessed that people live forever. You would never  guessed that people are so important that they are going to be exalted higher than angels.  But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit, and He revealed in the coming of our Lord Jesus  Christ, that's why we celebrate Christmas is that a world that is empty without him has  become full of grace, and truth. And so, instead of just living under the sun, enter every new 

day of life, every new year of life, looking beyond the sun, if you've been raised with Christ,  set your mind on things above, beyond the sun, where Christ is seated at the right hand of  God. Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on the earth, for you have died,  

and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ who is your life appears, you also  will appear with Him in glory. See, the Bible does not teach that we are stuck in the round and round and round and round. The Bible teaches that we have a direction and a destiny. And it's  not one that we would have guessed or figured out on our own. It's not one that we can earn  on our own, but it's real. And it is not lived under the sun s u n, but under the sun, s o n. And  then you can sing a little different song. You can have this picture of the pilgrim on a road that leads to glory. And by the way, John Bunyan, the author of that great Pilgrims Progress, that  story of the journey and of the road. It was said of him by Rudyard Kipling the crafts that we  call modern the crimes that we call new John Bunyan have them typed and filed in 1682. You  know, there's nothing new under the sun, Bunyan knew all the recesses of the human heart.  And he pointed it all out the Bunyan knew that we're on a journey that ends at the celestial  city. And when we know that we're headed for that heavenly city, then we can say he's a real  Christian then headed for the Promised Land, living life within God's plan. He's somebody,  God gives him a point of view, shows him where he's going to go, I pray that's true of you and me. Your Lord, we pray that you will help us to be realistic about the many vain and empty  things on which we expend so much of our time and intelligence. Help us to make the most of every opportunity, knowing that we belong to you. Help us to labor for you, knowing that in  the Lord, our labor is not in vain. Help us Lord, to have the mind of Christ, to be filled with the  Spirit of Christ, that we will not pursue the vain education and intelligence of knowledge  under the sun only, but to have that very mind that you have given us in Christ Jesus, and  pray, Lord that where our lives still have these pockets of emptiness where we've been  pursuing things on our own, that more and more the fullness of Christ may fill up those empty spaces. And that we may rejoice in you we pray, Lord, for some whose lives may be  completely empty because you're absent from their thinking from their daily life from their  very hearts. Turn them Lord to you. Help them Lord, to see the emptiness of the ways they've  been pursuing and draw them to see and those of us Lord who have been walking with you  and yet have so much that we've kept under our own control and have come up empty so  often. Help us learn to find in you the fullness of life. We thank you Lord Jesus, that you came,  that we might have joy, and that our joy might be full. We pray in Your name, amen.