Out of Control

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter two. We’ll try to get in this next paragraph before sending you off to your small groups for this morning. I’m sure that over the next coming few weeks and perhaps even months, you all will get some of the feedback and perhaps some of the responses from those guys who went to the Shepherds Conference. That was, as it always is, an enjoyable time of fellowship.

Just being able to hang out with, at least that was something that many of us mentioned, just being able to hang out with some of the other staff guys. I think we had around 15 total people from Grace Bible Church Go. So that was quite a number and we had four of us guys from the 128 staff and then met up with Micah, who was down there and Chris Martin went to the conference as well, but great time, learned a lot, was encouraged, enjoyed the fellowship. Like I say, either if you’re in one of those guys’ small groups, undoubtedly you’ll probably hear something about what they learned or what they were encouraged by if you haven’t already.

And undoubtedly you’ll probably hear some things from me later on that might seep out from some of the things we covered there too. But for this morning we turn our attention back Ecclesiastes chapter 2 and specifically the paragraph in verses 18 through 23. Read that along with me. I hated all my toil in which I toil unto the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool. Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom unto the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it.

This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun, for all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest, this also is vanity. And we come again to another paragraph of Solomon’s description of trying to find life in something underneath the sun. And in this particular paragraph, he looks forward to the end of his life, and to his successor, to his posterity, to his follower, whether it would be a family member or to other people coming after him.

We don’t even bother thinking about who’s coming after us. We’re so stuck on ourselves right now, our life getting for us. But in the Jewish culture, and if you think back about your Old Testament knowledge at all, you know that it was a big deal what you passed on to your son, to your first born or to your family. It was a pretty big deal. what inheritance you left them. And so the righteous were those who left a good inheritance to their kids and the fools or the unrighteous were those who use it all for themselves and didn’t worry about what their family was gonna get when they were gone. All throughout the Old Testament, you see that being a pretty big deal.

When the father was getting ready to die, his kids would come in and he’d lay his hands on them and it was a big difference whether he got the right hand the left hand put on him. Sometimes even when the father would switch it over like that and you know somebody in the room would go, no! You know, switch your bag. No, I’m doing this for a reason or whatever. You know, somebody who was blind was still new how to switch their hands all in God’s providence, all that kind of thing. Anyway, the inheritance was a big deal. What you were to pass down to to your kids was a significant thing.

And some people probably looked for that to be providing meaning in their life. And I think that’s where Solomon comes to. He’s been trying to find life under the sun for himself. He looked in wisdom, wasn’t there. He looked in pleasure, wasn’t there. He looked again back to his labor and trying to figure out whether it would be better to be wise or whether it’d be better just to be a silly fool and just try to have fun. Concluded that wisdom is better, but it’s relative, it’s temporary. And so now maybe he comes to another thing that could provide meaning and satisfaction in life. Maybe I could leave a legacy. Maybe I could leave, you know, stuff for my family that would make me look good, that would provide me meaning or satisfaction in life.

Again, he’s trying to find it in the here and now. Can’t find it. he’s looking to the future of what he could leave. And you know what? Three times he repeats, it’s vanity, it’s empty, it’s meaningless. Look at the end of verse 19, this also is vanity. The end of verse 21, this also is vanity and a great evil. The end of verse 23, this also is vanity. Trying to find meaning and satisfaction in life and what you think you can collect and can a mass for your children. I mean, because you want your children to have better than you. Realize a lot of you in here don’t have children. I’m saying, you know, that’s the thing.

Parents want their kids to have better than they did. They want them to have, you know, it easier. They want them to have, you know, more happiness or joy or a better marriage or a better job or whatever else it is. You know, if you can get them started on the right foot or you can leave them a good inheritance, maybe that will help them out. But here Solomon says that doesn’t even provide meaning for me. Looking forward to how I can take care of my posterity, my future, vanity, meaninglessness, empty. There are really three reasons, I think. And I have titled this paragraph Out of Control. And I think you’ll see why I say that here in just a moment.

But I want to give three reasons from the passage why Solomon is so bitter about it. And even though, like I said, hardly any of us in here are thinking about what we can leave for our kids, who’s going to follow us in our position. Hardly any of us are thinking about that because we’re just so consumed with ourselves right now. We’re not even thinking about anybody else, let alone even our own kids who would follow after us or the people who would follow us are successors. We’re not even to that point of thinking about it, but I do think that the root of our frustrations and our bitterness about life are the same as Solomon describes.

So let me give you three reasons why he’s bitter about life. Number one, because life is uncertain. It’s uncertain. Verses 18 and 19. I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun. seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool. Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and use my wisdom unto the sun.” That’s kind of irritating. You have worked hard, and you have specifically worked to get wisdom and skill. I mean, we talked about all the things that Solomon built, all of his agricultural, all of his architectural, all of his wealth, all that he labored and produced and did.

And he said, I worked hard, I labored hard. And you know what? I used my wisdom to do it. And somebody’s gonna get it. And they might be a fool. They might not even work hard.

That’ll be, I think, more his emphasis the second reason for bitterness. But there’s absolutely no guarantee of who is gonna follow me and so that’s kind of annoying. I hated my toil seeing that I must leave it to somebody else and who knows whether that person is gonna be a wise or fool. Whether they’re gonna be you know using their wisdom trying to get wisdom, live skillfully, or whether they’re just going to be an idiot. I might have gotten all this stuff, I’ve worked hard all my life, and I might have to leave it to some idiot who’s coming after me, who doesn’t even care, doesn’t even know anything. He’s going to benefit from all the work that I did. That just doesn’t seem right. That doesn’t seem fair. And you know what? As he admits here. He has no knowledge. In fact, this phrase, who knows, is actually a phrase he uses multiple times throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. And it’s kind of a cynical phrase. Who knows?

Who’s going to come after me? Who knows? Nobody knows. You know why? Because I’m not in control. And I’ll come back and mention that as kind of some application at the end. But Are you in control of who comes after you? Probably not any more than you’re in control of what happens to you in the next couple hours. We all act like, you know, we’re in control and we’re the captains of our own ship and we’re the masters of our own destinies. We act like we’re in control and we base our expectations on being in control. And here he kind of throws his hands up in the air and he says, who knows, I’m not in control of who’s coming after me.

That provides a substantial amount of frustration and discouragement, so much so that he repeats this idea of hating life. That’s where he left off with our last paragraph, verse 17. So I hated life. Because what is done under the sun was grievous to me for all his vanity and striving after a win picks up with the hating life again.

Because life is uncertain. He wasn’t in control and he couldn’t do anything about it. And as he looked to the end of his life and who would follow him, He saw, you know what, that person might just be a complete fool and they’re going to benefit from all my wisdom.

You know, some of you have group projects in school like this. You know, you know who you are and there’s two kinds of you. There’s the kinds of you that do all of the work in the group project for the group. And there’s the kind of you that lets everybody else in the group do all of the work in the group project except for you. In fact, I just started a group project in my freshman Bible class on Friday. And afterwards, somebody came up to me and said, hey, can I do this group project all by myself? I thought that was kind of a weird statement. And then the person explained why, because I was the only one who did anything the whole class.

Everybody else was talking about something else. And said, well, you know, part of the point of the group project is that you work together and that there’s the interpersonal dynamic. That’s one of the things about life is that sometimes you work with slackers and sometimes you work with people who are really smart and they can help you out a lot, but the point is to be able to work together.

And those people who do a lot of work generally are kind of irritated that they have done all that work and provided all of the brain power and then other people just ride their coattails and ride along, right? We think that that’s unfair. That’s not right. And you’re right. And here as Solomon looks forward to, I’ve gotten all this wisdom, I’ve done all these things, and somebody’s coming after me in this group project, they’re going to ride my coattails, and who knows whether they’re going to deserve it or not. That’s kind of frustrating. Life is uncertain. He was not in control of who was going to come after him.

Number two, a second reason for his bitterness is life is unfair, and I’ve already mentioned it, but I think more specifically in verses 20 and 21 that’s his point. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. And at the end instead of just saying this is vanity, right, I mentioned earlier He says this is vanity at the end of verse 19. He says this is also vanity at the end of verse 23. Here he says at the end of verse 21, not only this is also vanity, but he has, this is a great evil.

This is unfair. This is unjust, not right. I have provided all of the work and all of the labor and collected all of this stuff, and somebody’s gonna come after me who hasn’t worked for it. That’s not right. This is an anecdote that kind of illustrates the point of it being unfair. He doesn’t really say, you know, because sometimes or because I know that the person who’s going to follow me is not going to have worked for it. But it kind of makes it a little bit more general statement. And yet it applies to him in his life. He’s uncertain of who’s going to follow him. The person who follows him might not only be a fool, they might not be willing to work and have work then to get what they deserve.

And he says this is a great evil. And this is kind of his bitter complaint that sometimes people get stuff that they don’t work for. Well, that doesn’t seem right. So I have spent all of my days trying to be wise in my choices, getting up early, going to bed late so that I can work and provide and collect this stuff and somebody might come after me who’s just a lazy idiot. And that’s the two kinds of people here, a fool and somebody who hasn’t worked and they’re going to get the benefit off of me. I think that would make you bitter as well.

And that leads us quickly then to the third reason why he’s so bitter in verses 22 and 23 because life is unbearable. Not only is it uncertain and unfair, but it’s unbearable. Verse 22, what has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? I mean, here he’s adding in the internal struggles and work, not just the external, not just the lack of sleep or the use of his physical muscles, but his heart. I mean, the inside of him is a part of this labor and work as well. Verse 23, for all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. I mean, it’s burdensome. It’s grievous. It’s heavy. It’s depressing. It’s sad. It makes you tired. Even in the night, his heart does not rest. The actual Hebrew phrase there is, even at night, his heart doesn’t lay down in bed. You know, I can’t imagine the little kids saying, I’m sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the out on the inside.

Here you have the person who’s laying down in their bed, but it’s like their heart is standing up. Actively busy trying to figure out what’s the next thing. I mean, all of us have had some night like that. Some of you probably have more nights like that than others, but you know, your body is physically laying there, but your heart and your mind is somewhere else planning, scheming, trying to organize, thinking of all the things you have to do on your task list. And of course, you know, the more that you get, the more that you have to work. And that was certainly the case for Solomon, right? The more stuff you get, the more stuff you have to take care of.

The more stuff you have to keep clean and keep in working condition. The more stuff you got to find a place to store. The more stuff you got to find out how to display so other people can see it. The more stuff you got to figure out how to keep safe so that other people don’t steal it. I mean the more money you get, the more you got to figure out how to invest it and what to do with it. You know the more cars you have, you have to change the oil that much more often or have somebody else do it or spend the money to get somebody else to do it and keep them clean. You know, on and on and on. The more you get, and Solomon had more than any of us can even imagine, your heart can’t even take a breather, can’t even relax.

And if your heart’s not taking a breather, that’s a bad thing. But if you’re, even at night when you’re supposed to be resting and relaxing, you know, rejuvenating, your heart is up about running around, panicked, trying to figure out what to do. not very fun. And so he says that’s why all his days, I mean that’s a pretty comprehensive term here for work and toil. Week in, week out, day after day, all of his days are full of work and toil and wearisomeness and being tired. And even at night when he’s supposed to be resting his heart is up. Can’t even sleep. Maybe the best word to summarize what Solomon is referring to here is restlessness.

Right? Not just a restlessness of your body, but a restlessness of your mind and of your heart. And you’d probably be pretty bitter about life too if that’s how you thought about it as it’s being uncertain and it’s unfair and really then it’s unbearable. I want to give you three more things that I think are behind the scene here that caused Solomon to see life in this way.

To see life as being uncertain, to see life as being unfair, and to see life as being unbearable, three reasons or motivations of Solomon’s heart that I think are here, like I say, behind the scenes under the surface that caused him to respond this way. Number one, his presumptions. Part of the reason why Solomon sees life as uncertain and unfair and unbearable is because of his presumptions. Probably the word we would use more than any other is the word expectations. Solomon’s expectations for what he could get out of this life under the sun were wrong and that is why he saw life as so unfair and unbearable. I mean, what’s going on there when he says, You know, a man works hard and has all this wisdom and skill, and then somebody else comes who hasn’t worked and who doesn’t have the wisdom and they get to enjoy it.

What’s going on there? It’s the expectation that the person who works hard should get to enjoy it. It’s the presumption that the person who has wisdom will be rewarded for that wisdom. And that’s just not always the case. if it depends on the person rather than depending on God. Yes, God blesses those people who work hard. Oftentimes, sometimes he frustrates their efforts. Yes, God often blesses people who are wise and make skillful choices. And sometimes he causes even the most wise choices as far as we can figure out to fail.

Solomon’s presumption was that if he worked hard, He would get to enjoy what he worked hard to get. If he just got enough wisdom, he could get enough stuff or make himself happy in some way. And you know what? That’s because he was stuck looking at life underneath the sun. His expectations were wrong. His expectations were to find life here. And then he starts thinking about death and he’s like, oh, man, all those expectations, those presumptions that I had, they were wrong. No good. Closely connected to his presumptions was his powerlessness. I mean, I think as well what we see here is that he was frustrated and bitter as he realized he wasn’t the one in control.

Now just going with those two so far, his expectations and his powerlessness, I mean, We never struggle with those kinds of things, right? Yeah, I mean, we never expect to get something that we don’t get. We never get frustrated because of not being in control. In fact, we love not being in control. We love it. We embrace it. We write it to Disneyland being out of control. He was frustrated and bitter and upset about life because his expectations were wrong, his presumptions were wrong, and his own opinion of himself was wrong.

Like anybody anywhere at any time told him he was in control. I mean, did he just figure this out? Wow, guess I’m not in control. And that leads to the third thing, which is his pride. That’s really probably the basis of the rest of them. It was not just his presumptions and his powerlessness, it was his pride. I mean, this is an ugly focus on himself. All of chapter two really has been an ugly focus on himself, this is no different. I mean, he’s irritated about himself or about how his own glory is not going to be continued on. That’s what he’s frustrated about here. It’s like I worked hard. I deserve to have somebody who worked hard enjoy what I worked hard for.

I had all this wisdom and skill. I made all these great decisions and did all this great stuff. And somebody coming after me, some idiot, some fool, some lazy person might get to enjoy it. That is ultimately pride on his part. I mean, yeah, there is something wrong. There is something unfair on one level, on a temporal level at least, about working hard and then somebody enjoying that who didn’t work hard for you. Yeah, I mean, there’s an element of that being true and being unrighteous to do that.

But ultimately it’s pride that leads into wrong expectations, that leads into that feeling of powerlessness when we want to be the boss, and we want all of our glory to be shown off now and when we’re dead. This is just, like I say, an ugly focus on himself. And so even though we may not be bitter when we think about our successors, the people who are coming after us, it’s the same exact root issue When we get upset at things that don’t go our way now, when we get upset at what seems to be unjust and unfair to us now, at the things that are uncertain in our life. You know, when you get frustrated about something that you’re not sure about, why is that?

Well, more than that, you’re not sure of it, it’s that you want to be in control of it. And something that you don’t know is something that you can’t be in control of. And why are you afraid that you can’t be in control of it? Because if you’re not in control of it, how are you going to guarantee that it’s going to serve you and make you happy? That’s all focus on self.

When we get upset about things that are unfair, why? It’s generally because our rights have been trampled on. As Pastor Zimmer talked about this morning, you know, generally we get very quickly upset when somebody does something that’s not right to us, but we’re not really upset when somebody does something that’s not right in God’s eyes. It’s because we’re focused on ourselves. We want to be in control. We want to know what’s happening so that we can be in control of it, so that we can make sure that we like it. And so if we don’t know what’s coming, we can’t be in control of it, and therefore we might not like it. And whoa, So, red flags, let’s take a step back here until I can be in control.

And it’s ultimately to get pleasure for ourselves, happiness for ourselves, or glory for ourselves, and that is pride. Same root issue here.

A selfish pride caused Solomon to be irritated and to see life as uncertain and unfair and unbearable. And I tell you what, if you are focused on yourself, life is going to, for you, not give you any greater certainty. Solomon had all the wisdom that, you know, more wisdom than anybody else in the history of the world other than Jesus had. And he says it was uncertain to him. Life is unfair. I mean, as the king, don’t you think he could have done things to set him place who was going to come after him. You can actually read in 1 Kings chapters 12 through 14 about who came after Solomon and who did by the way. Rehoboam and if you know anything about Rehoboam you know that he was a bastion of wisdom and good choices. I mean come on if Solomon can’t get it figured out. You think we’re gonna get it figured out? He was stuck on himself and guys that that led down a road to nothing but frustration and bitterness and disappointment and so we need to get the focus off of ourselves as well. One more passage just couldn’t avoid having you look at it in 1st Peter

chapter 1. I think I actually introduced the last paragraph in Ecclesiastes with a verse from 1st Peter chapter 1, in particular verse 1, which talked about us as being elect exiles or sojourners or strangers. And I had to translate some more of 1st Peter chapter 1 for my Greek class yesterday and came across this verse down in verse 18. In fact, start back in verse 17. And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves in fear or with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” And I couldn’t resist bringing us to this verse number one because in the ESV as it translates verse 18, feudal ways… oh how does the NAS translate that? Feudal ways. You know another definition for that word is vanity.

knowing that you were ransomed from the vanity, or the pursuit of vanity, or the meaninglessness and empty ways. I mean, hello, if that doesn’t connect with the…connect with Ecclesiastes, I don’t know what does. And then inherited from your forefathers. You know what we have passed down to us? What our forefathers have passed down to us, pursuit of vanity. You know what Solomon ultimately gives us as our inheritance? Pursuit of vanity. That is what we generally learn from those who have gone before us is pursuit of futile ways, meaninglessness, emptiness, and vanity. But Peter says as Christians you are actually redeemed out of that. You were ransomed out of that. You don’t have to live that kind of life anymore. Now you are in exile. You’re a sojourner on your way to something better. You have been given the opportunity for a much better and bigger life beyond the Son in Jesus Christ. Admittedly, reading through the book of Ecclesiastes is pretty depressing. Next week’s passage that we look at

at the end of chapter two, he’ll put his head back up above the water and get a breath for at least a little bit. I mean, it’ll have some encouraging things in it. But for the most part, as he chronicles looking for life under the sun, it’s just sad, depressing, you know, producing dismality. And it’s because it’s empty. And we learn how to pursue the empty from those who have gone before us. We learn how to pursue the wind, how to chase after the wind from our parents, our grandparents, you know, people in our communities who are lifted up as the leaders. I mean, commercials show us, intend, or try to convince us what real life is about.

You know what? we don’t have to live like that. We don’t have to live stuck under the sun. We’re redeemed out of that to a bigger and better life, to a bigger and better cause. And that’s the cause of Christ. We have been ransomed. We have been bought. We have been purchased out of that at the cost of Jesus’s pure and spotless life. You realize Jesus died on the cross to redeem us from pursuing vanity? Not just to cover our sins, yes, but to cover the sin of looking for life outside of him. Jesus died on the cross. He paid the penalty for us and then secured the power for us through His Spirit, through His Word, to enable us to live a bigger, better life.

Another kind of bigger, better life, like the preachers on television tell you about where you get more money. Know where your life is found, your joy and treasure is found beyond the sun. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Solomon is describing for us how he pursued treasure under the sun. It didn’t bring him any joy. And how are you? How is your toil? What are you toiling for? How are your expectations? I mean what do you expect out of life this week, five years from now? Is it expectations of how you’ll be able to serve God more and give him more glory or expectations about how God is going to serve you and give you glory.

Examine your heart, your motives, your expectations, your pride. And again, I think that that picture of being sojourners on a on a journey to another place is a great mindset that we too often forget and make this home. And if this is home, if this is it, that’s sad for you. Father, I ask that by your word and by your spirit, that you would be transposing our desires to something higher, to an entirely different key, to a whole new place. That you would be lifting our faces, our chins, and our focus to something bigger and beyond just what we see and that we would be growing and abounding in love for treasure that is not here.

Give us that sojourning mindset looking forward to our home with you, being with you. Give us taste of that even now we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.