John 10:10b – “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”
When I was a senior in High School I remember being fascinated with the Greek Mythology unit in my English class because it was full of very entertaining stories. Our text was Edith Hamilton’s book, Mythology and it was almost like a comic book minus the pictures. I read it cover to cover. Anyone else remember reading Hamilton’s classic book in school?
One of the stories I remember best in her book is about a wicked king named SISYPHUS. To make a long mythological story short Sisyphus was a king that Zeus punished for chronic deceitfulness. When he died, as payment for a lifetime full of lies and deceptions, Sisyphus was forced to roll a huge boulder to the top of a steep hill—which wouldn’t be that bad as punishments go. You know, roll the stone up the hill and then sit back and enjoy the view for the rest of eternity. But Zeus fixed it so that every time Sisyphus would get to the point of completing his task, every time Sisyphus would get right to the top of the hill—the massive stone would roll back down and he’d have to start all over again. King Sisyphus was sentenced to repeat this frustratingly fruitless task over and over and over and over again—for all eternity. This ancient fable has led us to refer to any pointless or interminable activity as Sisyphean.
Now—even if you aren’t familiar with this story or the term that came from it I think we’re all familiar with the frustration that comes from finding ourselves doing things that FEEL Sisyphean. I’m thinking of when we have to spend hours each day in rush-hour traffic or sitting in a meeting where nothing productive is being done as you watch the clock on the wall slowly tick off the hours. Sometimes household tasks like laundry and dishes—things that have to be repeated over and over again—can feel Sisyphean. But, whatever Sisyphean thing comes to mind I’m sure you’ll agree that we do indeed consider that kind of thing as a punishment because we don’t want to waste our lives. No—we all want to do productive things with our limited time on this earth. We want to do things that matter—things that bring us a feeling of accomplishment.
During the Second World War there were prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp in Hungary, who were given the job of working in a factory that processed human sewage. On day Allied bombers destroyed the factory. The morning after the bombing the Nazi soldiers had the prisoners take all the rubble of that factory and move it to another field. The next day, they had them take that same rubble and move it back to where the factory once stood. The day after that, they had to take that stuff and move it back to the field again. In the weeks to come this is all those poor people did—move the same rubble back and forth—back and forth—back and forth.
After a while the prisoners started to go crazy. They began to lose their will to live because there was no meaning—no purpose—in their miserable existence. Many of them began to throw themselves in front of the guards trying to get shot. In their minds a life filled with endless days of SISYPHEAN labor was not a life worth living. Well, we can all relate—because we all want to live lives that mean something—lives that are filled with a sense of PURPOSE. In fact, a national survey was conducted a few years back in which people were asked, “If you could ask God only one question and you knew He would give you an answer, what would you ask?” Of the top five responses four were various forms of this question: “What is the PURPOSE or meaning of life?”
By the way, did you know that there is actually a web site devoted to this quest for purpose? Its opening screen says, “Click HERE to discover the meaning of life.” If you click on the word “here” another screen pops up that says, “Meaning of life.” When you click on that, it recycles again and says, “Follow this link to the meaning of life.” So you click THAT sentence, and it recycles once more and says, “This will link to the meaning of life.” Click THERE and you end up back to the ORIGINAL screen which says, “Click HERE to discover the meaning of life.” I guess you could call it a Sisyphean cyber-circle! Try to say that three times fast! Well, to some people that is what life is like—a meaningless and endless cycle that seems to take them nowhere.
Of course people TRY to find purpose. In fact there are several different “links” people tend to follow in life in an effort to find meaning or fulfillment. For example some try to find purpose by PURSUING the kind of HAPPINESS that is found in worldly pleasures. Unfortunately, that kind of pleasure tends to be expensive—in more than a monetary sense—and it never lasts. Others try to find purpose in life through EXCITEMENT, so they become adrenaline junkies always looking for the next high—but sadly, thanks to the law of diminishing returns, these people are never really satisfied.
Many look for purpose in life by pursuing SUCCESS in some arena. They pour themselves into their careers and get all kinds of positive re-enforcement and that sparks a cycle of working harder and harder for more kudos. But REAL fulfillment—LASTING fulfillment—always seems just beyond their grasp. If you doubt that then listen to the following titles of many best-selling books—books that have to do with the DOWN side of success. Ambitious Men: Their Drives, Their Dreams, and Their Delusions; Quiet Desperation: The Truth about Successful Men; If I’m So Successful, Why Do I feel Like a Fake?; The Success Trap: Rethinking Your Ambitions The writers of these books have found out that success doesn’t really satisfy. It too is a dead end for those who are trying to find genuine, lasting fulfillment.
Several years ago Life magazine published an entire book on how individuals have coped with this quest for purpose. The publication is a cross-section of words and pictures and it includes comments from all kinds of people—everything from philosophers to drug addicts—from painters to plumbers. Here’s an example of the kinds of things the book quotes people as saying. It’s from a taxi driver in New York City named Jose Martinez. Jose wrote: “We’re here to die…just live and die. I live driving a cab. I do some fishing, take my girl out, pay taxes, do a little reading, then [a few decades later] get ready to drop dead. Life is a big fake! You’re rich or you’re poor. You’re here, you’re gone. You’re like the wind. Life is nothing!” Many people feel like Jose. For them life seems like a wild goose chase with no goose. They discover that even their best experiences rarely leave anything of lasting value, and often the anticipation is more fulfilling than the experience they were anticipating.
Well, the Bible contains the record of a man who lived thousands of years ago and struggled with this same problem. He had pleasure and excitement, success and wealth, power and prestige—but he found that in spite of all this life still lacked something. He chronicled his search for this SOMETHING in a book. You’ve probably realized that I’m referring to Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba. Solomon ruled the nation of Israel during 40 years of peace and prosperity.
- In his early life, he wrote the Song of Solomon, a passionate love story a man and his wife.
- In his middle years, he wrote Proverbs—a collection of profound sayings written by one who had obviously paid attention in life and had taken notes.
- In his later years, he wrote this brutally honest little book entitled, Ecclesiastes.
By then the passion of Solomon’s youth was gone. The practicality of middle age was past and he had become cynical. Listen as I read to you a familiar portion of this book:
Ecclesiastes 1:2 – “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!”
Ecclesiastes 2:3 – I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under Heaven during the few days of their lives.
4 – I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.
5 – I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
6 – I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
7b – I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
8 – I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man.
9 – I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
10 – I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
11 – Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
Don’t Solomon’s comments sound similar to those of that taxi driver? Solomon asked the same purpose-seeking question we all do at times when he said, “What does a man GAIN from all his labor under the sun?” In other words what is left over when all is said and done? When you turn the light out at the end of the day, are you satisfied? As you climb higher and higher on the ladder of corporate or business life, do you find that it’s leaning against the right wall? If your life ended today would you be able to say that you have made a meaningful difference? Would you be happy with what you have gained? By the way, success and fulfillment are different things. Success is GETTING what you want. But fulfillment is WANTING what you get. Well, Solomon wondered, “Do I WANT what I GOT?” And the answer was, “NO!” His eventual conclusion was that the things he had pursued were meaningless—purposeless. Even though he had all that this life could provide, he still came up wanting more. He was still hungry for something else. The Bible teaches that Solomon’s problem was that he was LOOKING for purpose and meaning in the WRONG place. We see this in the last verse of our text where Solomon says there is nothing to be gained UNDER the sun—and that was his problem because fulfillment in this life is not found UNDER the sun but ABOVE it. People who get to the end of life and look back on a life of abundant joy will say the reason there was little or nothing Sisyphean in their lives was because they lived for things of eternal significance. They learned that as C. S. Lewis put it, “That which is not eternal is eternally obsolete.”
Well, how exactly do you flesh that kind of thinking out? How to you live a life of meaning and purpose, a life of eternal significance?
(1) It begins by knowing GOD.
Solomon was wise enough to eventually realize this. In the last chapter of Ecclesiastes he laid aside his cynicism and advised his readers to, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them.’ Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments—for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1-2, 13) Solomon discovered that real life—meaningful life—fulfilling life—is found in a partnership with God—a friendship that grows over the years. This relationship is the “whole duty of man.” Solomon would say THIS is the answer to people who ask, “WHY WAS I BORN?” We were born to know God and relate to Him. Solomon would say this is how we are designed to live our days.
And this is the WISEST thing the TEACHER ever taught. You see, ever since the fall every single human being on earth has had a yearning to “remember” our Creator—a yearning to KNOW Him to get back the intimate personal relationship with God that Adam and Eve had before the fall. We were wired—programed—designed—to fellowship with God so we all need this relationship in order to feel complete in life. There is indeed a “God-shaped hole in every life.” In fact people’s lack of meaning and direction in life is really a loneliness—an emptiness.
You see, you and I—every human—is an immortal being dwelling in a mortal body and we long for fellowship with our immortal, eternal Creator. As Augustine put it, “Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their all in Thee.” This inner yearning is what inspired the Psalmist to write, “As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Psalm 42:1) “My soul thirsts for You God…in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1) J. I. Packer put it this way, “We are cruel to ourselves when we try to live in this world, without knowing about the God Whose world it is and Who runs it.” Without a relationship with God, “…we sentence ourselves to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds us.”
Well, as I said last week, one of the wonderful implications of Christmas is that Jesus came to make this relationship with God that we all long for POSSIBLE. On the cross He paid for our sin and in so doing removed the barrier that blocked us from knowing our Holy Creator. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, “You were once without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He has destroyed the barrier—the dividing wall of hostility. In His body He reconciled us to God through the cross. Through Him we have access to the Father.”
Well, let me ask you fellow Christian, as you stand on the verge of a new year, how is your relationship with God? Is it growing? Is it a vital part of your life? As I just said, God created us for closeness and friendship—we were designed to walk through life with Him. Are you experiencing something like that? Are you experiencing intimacy with God? If the answer is no—resolve to change things. Decide to get to know God better. Start a daily quiet time. Invite God into your work, your marriage, your parenting, your finances. Learn to walk through your days with God by praying without ceasing—keeping a non-stop conversation going. Learn to listen and recognize His still, small voice. Talk out loud to God as you go through your day. If people look at you like you’re odd, tell them you have a blue tooth in your ear or something. Remember, as I said last week, God stands at the door of our lives and knocks. All that we need to do to enjoy His presence is to invite Him in. But, Life is not really life without God in it. Quoting C. S. Lewis once said, “God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself because there is no such thing.” And do you remember what Paul told the Philippians? He said, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness—or FULFILLMENT—of KNOWING Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:8) When we give our hearts and lives to Jesus and enter in to a growing love relationship with God life is different. It’s better—fuller—more meaningful. It’s truly ABUNDANT! I mean, it’s like the difference between day and night. As we read in last week’s text from John 1: “In Him was LIFE and that life was the light of all mankind.”
Have you ever heard the old song that goes,
“There were bells on the hill, but I never heard them ringing.
No, I never heard them at all, till there was you.
There were stars in the sky but I never saw them shining.
No, I never saw them at all, till there was you.”
That song is from The Music Man and if you’ve ever seen that popular musical then you know this song is sung by Professor Harold Hill, a cynical con artist who goes from town to town swindling people out of their money. But then, he goes to Iowa and meets a lovely young woman who causes him to develop a whole new appreciation for life. Suddenly he sees beauty in the world that he had never noticed before.
Well, a relationship with God through Jesus has the same effect on us, though to an infinitely GREATER extent. As you get closer to the Lord you discover a level of joy that you never knew before. Even the common things of life become filled with meaning. A beautiful landscape is more than just nature; it is God’s creation for you to enjoy as His child. Your relationships with other people are more than social interaction; you see them as chances to impact lives for eternity. Your work becomes much more than a paycheck. You see it is God’s calling on your life. Your carpool becomes a mission field. Even trials and tribulations take on meaning as you see them as other chances for God to provide and draw even closer to you. KNOWING GOD personally gives us greater appreciation for ALL areas of life.
Lee Strobel writes, “I think if we were to ask Jesus what life is all about He would say, ‘If you put Me first, I can write an adventure story with your life, starring you and directed by Me. Your life will have drama and meaning and significance and comedy and laughter and tears, and directly and indirectly it will influence more people than you would ever imagine and it will play out its climactic scene in Heaven, with Me, forever. But before then, I will not waste your life. I will use you to be the answer to someone’s prayer; I’ll use you to shape the future of a child; I’ll use you to challenge a wayward person; I’ll use you to bring My message of hope to someone who’s drowning in despair; I’ll use you to soother someone’s pain and ease someone’s loneliness and feed someone who’s hungry and deepen someone’s faith and cheer someone on and in the process of giving yourself away, I will fill you back up to overflowing. It will be the adventure of a lifetime.”
And this leads to the other thing that brings our life meaning. REAL life—MEANINGFUL life—is begins by KNOWING GOD…
(2) …but it also involves living a life in which you focus on MAKING Him KNOWN to others.
A recent survey asked people 95 and older what they would do differently if they had their lives to live over again. Some said they would REFLECT more. Others said they would RISK more. But the thing that most of them said was that they would do more things that would OUTLIVE them. In other words they would spend their hours and days living for things of ETERNAL significance. And nothing has more eternal significance than making God known finding ways to go and tell it on the mountain over the hills and everywhere what really happened that first Christmas night when God expressed His love for all mankind by sending His only Son into the world. Nothing brings us lasting joy like helping people “open” God’s indescribable Christmas gift by putting their faith in Jesus.
Bill Hybels writes and says that when we understand this, “…our values will change forever. We’ll be seized by the realization that every other earthly activity pales in comparison with helping an individual man, woman, boy, or girl come into a saving, liberating, life-changing relationship with the God of the universe.”
In this book, The Seasons of God, Richard Blackaby tells the story of Nell Kerley. For the first 66 years of her life, Nell regularly attended church and was a typical North American Christian. Then one day she and her husband were involved in a horrific car accident. Nell suffered multiple broken bones and experienced unbearable pain. In her agony Nell cried out to God, “Take me home!” In answer she sensed God telling her, “I am not done with you yet.” She and her husband endured a lengthy recuperation in the hospital. As a result of her extensive injuries, Nell underwent seventeen surgeries. Today she suffers from diabetes, arthritis, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She has no kneecaps and has screws holding her ankles in place. In 1998 at age 66 shortly after she was released from the hospital, Nell heard of a class at her church that taught people how to share their faith with others. Though she was easily the oldest person taking the course, Nell sensed that God wanted her to share the Gospel with as many people as she could in the remaining time He granted her. At the close of the class, Nell’s instructor gave her the opportunity to share her faith with someone who was not a Christian. To Nell’s amazement, that person prayed with her to accept Christ into her life. Nell was hooked! That was fourteen years ago. She was recently asked how many people she had led to faith in Jesus since that first time. She said she was up to 3,142 and still going strong at age 80. Understand—Nell had been a typical church attendee for the first six decades of her life. Today she’s a fireball. She’s a regular guest speaker in evangelism classes at Liberty University. She’s having an enormous impact on others and her life is filled with joy. Nell would say there is no greater sense of fulfillment than helping people to understand and respond to the Gospel.
I’m reminded of an elderly couple that Sue and I met at The Cove during my sabbatical this fall. They must be in their mid to late 70’s. The husband is in a wheel-chair and looks quite feeble. The wife is in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease and has difficulty speaking. We sat with them at one of our first meals and learned that they team up to lead a ministry of working with migrants. Ironically energy flowed out of this feeble elderly couple as they excitedly shared the adventures that have come from taking the Gospel to those people who are trapped in what I consider a modern form of slavery. The husband sat up straight in his wheel chair as he told of a time a foreman threatened his life because the workers were coming to Christ and leaving the bondage of that line of work. I tried to get a mental picture of a huge healthy muscular foreman threatening this old guy in a wheel chair! Well, as I listened to them share their stories it became obvious to me that these two feeble senior citizens were LOVING life! Like Nell they were living for things of eternal significance by making GOD KNOWN. They were “going and telling it on the mountain and over the hills and everywhere!”
But that’s not the only way to make God known. Some time we do this by going and SHOWING. I mean, we don’t just make God known by what we say—we also make Him known by what we do. When we invest our lives in helping others in the same sacrificial way Jesus would—those good works point to God. Those good works make Him known. They make others want to know the God we know! As Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)
This past week, as Bobby led us in the last session of our study of THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL, we learned about a man named Leon McLaughlin who is making God known in this way. Leon’s life story might make a script for a feel-good kids’ movie. The plot goes like this: A humble shoeshine man operates from a stand in an important city building. As he shines the shoes of top city officials and business people, he shares his passion for bringing clean water to children around the world. Although there is skepticism at first, it turns out that the shoeshine man has done his homework. He has traveled to poor countries and discovered that thousands of children die of preventable diseases such as diarrhea, because they are forced to drink dirty water. Deeply shaken, this shoeshine man spends his evenings studying water filtration systems on the Internet. He comes up with a method of employing such systems in the developing world without the need for an army of specialist technicians. The shoeshine man shares all of this with the city bigwigs as he shines their shoes every day. They are inspired and help him with connections to set up his own non-profit, get technical help, raise money, and partner with a major humanitarian organization. In the closing scenes of the film, hundreds of thirsty children, who otherwise might die from waterborne disease, are able to gulp down pure, clean water. But this is not just a movie plot. It’s a true story because that is precisely what Leon McLaughlin has done. Leon’s non-profit is the CLEAN WATER FOUNDATION; his shoeshine stand is located in the Columbia Center in downtown Seattle; and so far Leon has partnered with World Vision to install nine water filtration systems in poor communities in Bolivia and Peru. The incidence of diarrhea among children in some of those communities has dropped by as much as 75 percent. And Leon is just getting started. He’s working on similar projects in Haiti and Nicaragua. Next month, Leon will fly to Dallas to receive the American Water Works Association’s Award of Merit—a sort of Oscar for people who dedicate their lives so that others can enjoy clean water. Leon is shining his light. He is making God known to people who are thirsty for more than water. They too long to know God—the God that inspires people like Leon to do what they do. Pardon the pun but Leon is a shining example to us all.
As we come to the end of this morning’s service I wonder—and I’m speaking to Christians here—could it be that your walk with God lacks meaning because you are not making God known—you’re not letting YOUR light shine? I mean if your Christian life has lost some of the “zip” it once had, could it be due to the fact that you are not focusing on things of eternal significance—things like going and telling and showing and serving others as Jesus would?
And, if you are not a Christian, then I know there is something missing in your life. In fact, I know you aren’t really living. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the LIFE…” This means a person can’t experience truly abundant life apart from Jesus Christ. You can begin that kind of life today by simply praying and asking Jesus to be your Lord and Savior.
As we sing our closing hymn we invite you to respond publically or privately to God’s leading. You may want to simply pray, “God, I want to live the adventure You intended for me. I want to know You more and to do all I can to make You known by others.” You may want to come forward and ask to join our church. As God leads, I invite you to come.