Bursting The Bubble - Ecclesiastes 1-2

Why do we build sand castles when we go to the beach? Why do we build snowmen that we know won’t last? For that matter - why do we do laundry in a never ending cycle and why do I bother cleaning my house while my children still live in it? These are the real questions that keep me up at night. I fell down a rabbit hole on the internet last week because I knew that sand castle, and sand sculpture competitions exist and I got curious - what do they do at the end? When my kids make sand castles - they don’t even last until we leave the beach. I make the sand castle equivalent of a stick figure. Bucket, pack the sand, turn it upside-down - tadah, there’s a tower. Maybe put a twig in it for a flag. And every single one of my sand castles ends the same way - at some point a big brother comes stomping through and ruins the whole thing. Tears, meltdowns, my wife makes me go wait in the car. [snicker, no, I’m just kidding] But did you know that there are actual competitions - sandsculpting competitions. There’s one in virginia beach, called the Neptune Festival, where you can win a massive art prize, like a cash prize - and artists from all over the world come to compete. First place winner last year came from Russia - cuz I’m pretty sure they don’t have any sand in Russia and so they come over here, and the second place sculptor came from Belarus. These are world renowned artists. Look at these sculptures. [show pictures]. In Texas there’s a competition called the Texas Sandfest - which is the largest sand sculpting festival in America. It’s insane - look at these, [post pictures]. And there’s two levels - Master and Advanced Amateurs. The Master sculptures take on average 36 hours spread out over five days. The advanced amateurs only take 18 hours, psh - they’re barely trying. And then my two year old daughter and I - we build ours in about 15 minutes before she gets bored and wanders off. People fly in from all over the world, travel thousands of miles, spend hundreds and thousands of dollars and just SO MANY hours on these sculptures - but what happens when the competition is over? I got curious so I looked it up. Did you know this? They bulldoze it. These sculptures take up the whole beach - and if they leave them up, it’ll disturb the local wildlife. Messes up the baby turtles - so two days after the competition is over, they wipe the entire thing out with bulldozers. Just level the entire beach, make the sand flat once again. Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust, sand to sand. And it looks cool, don’t get me wrong - but it all just seems… so… pointless.

Have you ever sat pondering the mysteries of the universe - amazed at the futility of life? Of course you haven’t! We’re far too busy for that! We don’t have time to wonder if something is meaningless because before we can even get our bearings the moment has come, grabbed our attention for half a second and then moved on as if it was never there! Life moves so fast we never really have time to figure out if it’s worth living. The motto of the modern world is that it doesn’t matter which direction you go as long as you’re sprinting to get there. But there are moments… moments where we wonder if it’s all futile and pointless. Like sand castles and bulldozers. Like cleaning a house with small children in it - every now I’ll look up from the legos that I just finished putting away and watch my four year old son dump the bin back out on the floor and I’m struck with the question - what is the point? Or laundry -  anybody else have a spot on your couch that you never get to sit on because that’s the “needs to be folded” pile? Don’t get me started on dishes. Like building sand castles as the tide comes in. OR maybe it’s something more serious - have you ever had a relationship, and you have poured so much into it, and seen so little progress? Or something at work - you give 110% 60 hours a week and you just can’t seem to move the needle. Or if you’re a student, practicing an instrument or a sport, and you’re putting in the hours, you’re studying, working hard as you can - but you just don’t feel like you’re getting any better. Pointless. Meaningless. And normally we are moving too fast to even notice the questions…but for just a moment today - I want us to slow down and ask the question we never ask - what IS the point of this life? And why does it feel like life is full of so many meaningless moments?

Today we are getting into a brand new sermon series called Living With The End In Mind - and I know you’ve never heard me say this before, but I’m really excited to get into this series. In this season, as we prepare for Easter next month, we’re going to spend some time in the book of Ecclesiastes. Now, I’m not going to lie to you - if books of the bible were children, Ecclesiastes would be the moody teenager. You know what I’m talking about - the one with their hair in their eyes, black t-shirt, stud belt, fingernail polish - they all look the same because that is the look that says, “I am unique and nobody understands me.” It’s okay, I’m allowed to make fun of them, I used to be one of these. Ecclesiastes can be kind of moody and dark, depressing and heavy - and yet, the reason I am so excited to get into it is because if you can unlock the mystery and truth that God has for us in this book - it will literally, and I’m not exaggerating, flood your life with meaning and purpose.

And so if you want to grab your bible - we are going to be in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 1. If you’re not sure where it is - check out the table of contents at the beginning - it’s in the Old Testament, so the front half of the bible and it’s just as hard to spell as it is to pronounce: E-c-c-l-e-s-i-a-i’m sure you see it, it’s like one of the longest names for a book in the bible. [read v1]. Now, they don’t come right out and say who the author is - and scholars will argue back and forth about this - but they’re dropping some pretty big hints, and we figure it’s probably David’s son King Solomon. But actually they just use the title “Qo’heleth” which translates as Teacher. These are the words of the teacher and he says, [read v.2-8]. Cheerful dude, am I right? Everything is meaningless. This guy is just standing around, looking at the world - the sun, the wind, the rivers - and he’s wondering - what is the point? And here’s the thing, if you don’t know - King Solomon is the most successful king in the history of Israel. His dad, King David, was this warrior king who conquered a bunch of enemies and established an incredible peace - and his son Solomon was said to be the wisest king of Israel and he oversaw a period of immense peace and prosperity. By every metric - wisdom, money, land, servants - Solomon lived at the top of the top of the top. Chapter 1, verse 16 he says, [read 16-17]. Now, that’s a little arrogant, but at the same time he’s not wrong. The teacher has a unique vantage point. Most of us can only dream of having it all - but this guy actually DID have it all. He says, “I’ve got all the stuff, and I’m smarter than everyone else - so I really should be able to figure out the meaning of life.” And then chapter 2 is where he tries every single thing the world has to offer in order to have a fulfilling life. And what he is going to discover, and what I want you to hold on to this week is that there is nothing in this world than can ever fully satisfy you.  Full stop. Follow this with me. 

Verse 1, [read v.1-2]. So he starts with comedy. And he says, “that’s not good enough” - and at first I read that and I thought, that’s crazy. I love comedy. Watching sitcoms or comedians - always makes me feel better in a busted up broken world. But then I thought about Robin Williams, famous comedian, famously struggled with depression. How could he be depressed when he spent so much of his life bringing joy to other people? And then I started thinking about how many comedians have spoken about their struggles - Gary Gulman, Sarah Silverman, Conan O’Brien, Taylor Tomlinson, Wayne Brady, Jim Carrey, Patton Oswalt, Zoltan Kaszas, Mike Birbiglia. In fact, studies have indicated that comedians are in the group of people who experience depression at a rate 3 to 10 times higher than the general population. So comedy’s not the answer - what else you got? Verse 3, [read v.3]. This is one of those verses where you sort of give the teacher a little bit of side eye. Bro, you good? He says, “I tried to experience the only happiness most people find” in the bottom of a bottle. Let’s be honest - that is BLEAK. It’s not wrong, that IS how and why some people use those substances - but it is BLEAK. But he’s not done - [read v.4-6]. Well - I guess it’s not all substance abuse - he does build SOME stuff. That’s kind of nice. 

He keeps going in verse 7, [read v.7-8]. Now we have to be careful a little bit, because the modern world is so different from back then. He lists a bunch of stuff that WE would consider immoral and gross - like slaves and concubines, but they didn’t have rules against that. It’s actually, for this time period, it’s a status symbol of wealth. And so to translate that for us in the modern world - it’s sort of like him saying, “I pay someone to do my laundry, every meal I eat is catered, we always go out to eat, I have someone else to clean my house, take care of my kids. Whatever it is - I’ve got a guy for that. It says that he “hires singers” and that’s the ancient equivalent of “we go to all the shows, we’ve got season tickets, front row seats.” Sex, drugs and rock and roll - he’s got every pleasure this earth can offer. He finishes up, [read v.9-11]. So he tried comedy, and then he tried alcohol, and then he tried stuff and work and women - and it’s still not enough, so we shift gears. 

[read v.12-13]. Having a ton of stuff wasn’t enough for him, so he turns to intellectual pursuits. I’m going to go after wisdom and have deep philosophical conversations and unravel the mysteries of the universe and become a super genius and everyone will love me because of my big brain - because I know THAT will fulfill me. But then in verse 14, [read v.14-16]. Stupid people and smart people both die - so what’s the point, who cares if you’re smarter than everyone else - and then this is the most important verse right here - verse 17. [read v.17]. So I came to hate life because I’ve tried everything and none of it is enough. When you have tried to find fulfillment in the world, and been disappointed - maybe you can convince yourself that “oh, alcohol wasn’t right - but if I had money.” OR “okay, so money wasn’t enough, but if I had more women.” We convince ourselves, we fool ourselves into thinking - well, that thing didn’t satisfy me, but I’m sure this next thing will. And we jump from distraction to distraction getting more and more desperate, hating life just a little bit more each time. And then here we have this guy, who literally has it ALL and it just isn’t enough. And eventually if you spend enough time desperately trying to fill the void inside with basically everything you can think of - eventually you start hating life itself. 

I remember there’s an old comedy TV show called Parks and Recreation, and in the final season there’s this character Tom Haverford - and throughout the whole series he’s always coming up with ideas trying to make it big, trying to get rich quick, trying to be successful. In the final season tho, he IS successful, but he’s still not happy and he can’t figure it out. He has this great quote where he says, “I must be the only person to have it all and still be depressed.” And it’s a funny line - because we have seen it over and over. People reach the top, look around and realize it’s not fully satisfying and then they tumble. How many singers, actors, politicians, mega church pastors - so many of us are like a dog chasing cars, people chasing this world - but for those rare few who actually catch it, they discover the lie. They, like the Teacher from Ecclesiastes, they discover that the stuff that the world offers cannot fully satisfy - and that’s really depressing. I found a CDC report from April of last year - prevalence of depression in adolescents and adults has increased 60% in the last decade. The National Health Interview Survey (from the National Library of Medicine) did a study between 2019 and 2023 - showing that use of antidepressants increased, and the most notable increases were for women, individuals 45-64 and those with higher social vulnerability. Then they noticed there’s racial disparities too - with white people showing the highest use of antidepressants. Think about what I just said - 45-64 years old, those are supposed to be the best years of work. It’s pretty normal to be broke in your 20’s and 30’s, but the stereotype is that a lot of people start taking off in their 40’s and 50’s Getting excited about retirement, finally getting that raise or promotion, maybe the kids are getting out of the house. But their study shows - that is the group that’s most likely to be on antidepressants. And white people? My social media has been screaming at me for years that white people are the most privileged, have the most advantages, we have it all. (And there’s some truth to that - I’ve got a lot of social advantages because of my skin color) And yet, studies show the most common use comes from white people, women, individuals 45-6 and the socially vulnerable. The teacher in Ecclesiastes tells us, “I came to hate this life, because I reached the top and it was not enough.” The hard truth in there is that this world, even the best it has to offer, this world is disappointing.

[sit down] And right here I want to name something. In this moment, I so badly want to make a joke. It is taking all of my self control not to do something goofy to lighten the mood, and make you all feel better. Because, if you’ve been around Center for a while, you probably know this - I’m a chronically cheerful person. I might be the happiest person you’ve ever met. It’s actually really annoying to the people I love. I have a lot of wonderful people in my life who struggle with mental health, and I’m over here all sunshine and rainbows, “isn’t life amazing, lalalalala.” In fact, it’s so bad - I have accidentally hurt relationships. Because my friend will be depressed and going through something and I turn them into a distraction project. I am so good at putting a positive spin on things, I am so good at distracting myself from despair. And really - that’s what self-help IS in the modern world. So much of life is people trying to help you get better at distractions. One time, I had a friend who was going through a hard time, and there were a bunch of us having lunch together talking about it - and I’m sitting there, just being this fountain of positivity and it was really starting to bother her. She looks at me and says, “it’s like you’re a cartoon character.” And I remember laughing at the time, thinking it was a compliment - yeah! I’m the happy guy! But what I realized later was that I was actually being a bad friend. There are times in life when the distractions just simply are not enough. And the solution is not, try more distractions. Sometimes we don’t want Mr. Sunshine-and-roses coming in. And so I’m trying so hard not to make a joke right now [pause] Because, what if we didn’t distract ourselves. What if, just for a moment, we did NOT cheer ourselves up with some feel good platitude? What if we just sat in the darkness and let the realization wash over us - this world, even the best parts, this world is a disappointment. [pause as long as you physically can]

And then we find verse 24, [read v.24-26a]. The teacher has this realization. The things that bring him the MOST satisfaction - are the things that come from the hand of God. God is the source of true and lasting satisfaction. CS Lewis put it like this, “if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” The deepest desire of our hearts can only be fulfilled by God. Think about the checklist the teacher tries. He worked hard, built homes, planted gardens, he tried comedy, wine, sex, money - and please understand that I’m not here to criticize those things. All that stuff can be part of a wonderful life - I’m not up here to say “this world is so terrible” - because the truth is that stuff WILL distract you, that stuff WILL satisfy you - for a little while. But as long as you try to put your ultimate hope in anything other than God - you will eventually be let down. [pause] But if you let the good things of this world point you TO God - you can find lasting fulfillment. The things that bring the most fulfillment come from the hand of God. Comedy is not fulfillment or distraction - but a testimony to a God who created our funny bone, a Spirit whose fruit is joy. Food and wine are not just to satisfy our hungry tummies for a couple of hours, but to point us to a God who delights in creating our taste buds, and giving us the creativity to put the food together in crazy combinations. Sex - even the best sex in the world, doesn’t last forever. [pause] I’m not going to make a joke. I’m not going to make a joke.  It is not enough to be the ultimate thing, but it can point us to a God who created our bodies - male and female to fit together, to express love in physical intimacy. This world is a disappointment, unless you use it to point to the hand of God.

The good news I have for you today is that if you are feeling disappointed, burnt out and frustrated with this world - you are now ready for God’s truth. The first step to solving a problem is to acknowledge that one exists. Disappointment with this world is NECESSARY. There are so many people in this world who are still living a life of steady distraction. They’re still chasing, they’re still desperately grabbing at every glittery diversion - and I think the reason anxiety is so high for a lot of people, especially the most privileged, the people who have the most in life - the reason their anxiety is so high is that they KNOW it’s not enough. Secretly, they KNOW it’s all for nothing, they just can’t admit it yet. For most of us, it is only when we hit the bottom do we ever bother to look up. When we are feeling overwhelmed, or anxious or depressed - if that’s where you are this morning: God has not abandoned you. If anything he is making your heart ready to find the one thing that can ACTUALLY fulfill you. Disappointment with this world is the seed that sprouts kingdom fulfillment. Another way to say that is - This world is a HUGE bummer, and that would lead us to despair IF we thought this world was all we can have. The teacher says, “so I came to hate this life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling” but then he realizes, down in verse 24, “Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God.” The temporary can only satisfy if it points us to the eternal. If you’re disappointed with this life - you’re halfway there - and that is good news.

Romans 8, my favorite chapter in the whole word of God, puts it like this, verse 18 [read v.18-25]. All creation is groaning. When we look at brokenness in this life, and our heart breaks - we are witnessing creation groan. When you watch the news and your anxiety spikes - creation is groaning. When your job feels pointless, and your marriage feels stuck in a rut - creation is groaning. When you go on this amazing vacation, get back and the kids take all of ten seconds before they go right back to bickering - creation is groaning. When your co-worker or boss does that one frustrating thing that they always do, over and over, predictable as the sunrise - creation is groaning. When you give your friend another chance, and they let you down AGAIN - creation is groaning. Maybe you start dating, and you put your heart out there - or maybe you’re on the job hunt, and you’re putting yourself out there - and again and again, you’re getting shot down, and it’s not that big of a deal, but the rejection really wears on you - creation is groaning. Every time we are disappointed with this world - we are experiencing the groaning of creation. And in that moment you have a choice. You can believe that this life is all there is, in which case, disappointment leads to despair. We learn to hate this life that lets us down over and over. OR you can embrace the truth of this world - that it was never meant to hold up your hope. You can choose to put your hope in Jesus, and let all these temporary things point to Him. When you burst the bubble of this world - when death is no longer your enemy, then life is no longer your idol. I’m going to say that again, but I can’t take credit for it - I got it from a friend: when death is no longer your enemy, then life is no longer your idol.  

And so to send us out I have two challenges for you this morning. First - some of you are still desperately chasing distraction, and you need to turn them off. This week I want you to ask yourself the question, “where am I pretending that some part of my life is more eternal than it really is?” Where are you setting yourself up for disappointment? What app or tv show or shopping habit or distracting hobby are you using to avoid facing the reality that this world is not enough? A lot of you are familiar - we’re in this season of preparing our hearts for Easter. And I want to encourage you - if you find something in your life that you are using just to fill the silence, maybe you need to fast from that thing. Set a period of time - give it up. If it’s sinful - give it up forever! But if it’s not sinful and you’re just using it as a distraction - give it up for a season. Let there be silence in your life. Fasting is not about “hey, let me challenge myself and see if I can go 40 days without something” - the point of fasting is to give something up so that the voice of God gets louder in your life. Turn off the distractions. Sit in the silence with God, let the uncomfortable thoughts rise up. Acknowledge where you are disappointed with the limitations of this life. It is okay to say, “this world is not enough.” I’m not going to lie to you - it’s a bummer of an activity, it’s hard to do, but it is the first step of your growth. You will find more enjoyment and more fulfillment in this life if you stop running from the hard things and start facing them head on. The gift of the Ecclesiastes is that living with an awareness of how fleeting and temporary life is, that is what keeps the good stuff in this life from becoming an idol, AND it’s what keeps the bad stuff from causing despair. 

Imagine you are sitting alone in a dark room, but by fumbling in the dark you find a box of matches. It’s an absolutely huge box, with thousands of matches, but they’re kind of short. And you strike the match, and light flares into existence and you’re so relieved. Oh - relief! Momentary relief from the pressure of darkness. But it burns down so quickly, and so you light another, and another. And it’s frustrating because you have to keep lighting matches, and it never feels like enough. And then you’re lighting as many as you can, but it’s still not enough - you want more and more light. Maybe you need to stop lighting matches. Stop chasing temporary solutions. Get up and find the actual source of light. That’s my first challenge - if you are filling your life with distraction, stop it. Take away the temporary distraction, go search for the eternal truth. 

Now I know some of you are already there. One way or another this life has disappointed you, the distractions aren’t enough and you’re feeling the darkness and it is heavy. Some of you may even have spent so long in the darkness, you’re even wondering about your faith. Is this whole Jesus thing just another distraction that’s going to end up disappointing me? Maybe you’re looking back at the days of distraction, wishing you were still there - because at least then you had the matches. For you the challenge I have is surrender. You have to give the darkness to God, stop trying to distract yourself, stop trying to carry it all by yourself - surrender to God. Trust him. Cling to him in the darkness, and he will carry you into the light. 

And so to help you do that this morning, we have one final song - but this song is very special to me. This song is called It Is Well, but it might be a little different version than the one you’re familiar with. But here’s the thing about what’s going to happen. For most of us in this room - you will start this song as a liar. We’re going to sing, “through it all, through it all - my eyes are on you” - but the truth is that for most of us, no it’s not. My eyes are on all kinds of distractions. Like Peter walking on the water, trying to keep his eyes on Jesus - but the waves are crashing around us and it’s hard to keep our eyes up. We’re going to sing the line, “It is Well with my soul.” And for some of you - that’s a lie. It is NOT well with your soul. But we’re going to sing that line again and again. We were joking about it at practice on Wednesday, it’s six words and we say them over and over. And that’s all they are - it’s a pretty boring song. But I want to challenge you to surrender. During this last song, whether you need to spread out, sit down, raise your palms up, kneel - whatever posture you need to surrender to God. If you are living in distraction or living in despair - I want you to let those six words wash over your broken spirit. If those six words start out as a lie for you, I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to transform them into a war cry. And then we rage against the brokenness of this world, crying out “it is well with my soul” in absolute defiance of the darkness. And then I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to transform your war cry into a song of victory. Let’s pray.