It’s All Gone to Hevel

Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer talks about how life is like a cloud. Skydiving is one of the three things in my life that is not disappointed. It's like the best part of skydiving is you hit one of these clouds and it looks so like thick and fluffy and you just blaze right through it like it's not even there. It looks so solid and substantive from the outside, but it isn't. It's full of nothing. It is heaven. Happy Monday, friends, and welcome to a new week of biblical teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Bitovitch. Okay, think with me. Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a crisis? Maybe a spouse left you or a loved one passed away or your business went under and you started to question if there's really any meaning to it all?

I mean, what could be the redeeming point of such circumstances, right? Well, we're diving into that question today as Pastor J.D. begins a new series called Full of Nothing. We're looking at what the wisest man to ever live had to say about the true meaning of life. Remember, you can always catch up on previous teaching at J.D.

Greer dot com. But for now, let's jump right into the book of Ecclesiastes. Open your Bibles to the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes.

I've been waiting for 15 years to say that phrase. I've been pastor here for 15 years and I've never preached to the book of Ecclesiastes. In fact, I have never preached a single message in 15 years from the book of Ecclesiastes. Why, you ask, why have you avoided Ecclesiastes?

Here is why. Because it has verses in it like these. For the fate of the children of Adam and animals is the same. All are going to the same place. All come from dust and all return to dust. Can anybody really prove that the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward into dust? In other words, animals and humans may live very different lives but they're exactly alike in death. Say you have living, laying side by side, the dead body of Albert Einstein and a cat. In life, one could play Mozart and figure out quantum physics. The other played with a yarn ball and fantasized about ripping innocent children's faces off. But in death now, they're both the same. They're just decomposing corpses.

Or how about this one? Ecclesiastes 9 2. Everything ends the same for everyone. The same fate awaits the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad. That's not the normal typical message that I preach in church, is it?

Plus there's some really strange advice in Ecclesiastes like Ecclesiastes 7 16. Do not be overly righteous. Do not make yourself too wise.

Why should you wear yourself out? What am I supposed to do with that? Like don't get into this God thing too much, all right? Just back it off there, super Christian, you know. Or just odd, random advice in the book like Ecclesiastes 9 8.

Wear fine clothes with a splash of cologne. Now granted, I know some single guys who really need to hear that, but is that really important enough to include in the Bible? And then there are verses you just don't know what to do with. Like Ecclesiastes 10 19.

Wine makes life happy and money is the answer for everything. I mean, can you see what I'm getting at? And then some really politically incorrect verses like this one, Ecclesiastes 7 28. I found one upright man among a thousand. Out of a thousand men, I only found one that was worth anything.

Not one upright woman among them all. There are verses in it where you're just not quite sure what point is being made. Like Ecclesiastes 11 3.

The tree falls to the south or to the north and the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. Thank you, Captain Obvious. You could have at least told me whether or not it makes a sound, then I would have understood why you put it in there. But I ask, what am I supposed to do with all of that? Y'all see how hard my job is?

Honestly, you see that? You're gonna find out that Ecclesiastes is one of the most confusing yet clarifying books in all of the Bible. This book, let me give you a little warning. This book is really gonna rattle some of you because it is going to shatter this neat and tidy view of the world that you have. Others of you are going to feel like this book really helps things make much more sense. And I included that a bunch of you who have heard hundreds of sermons in churches like this one, you're gonna get into this book and it's gonna say some things and you're gonna be like, at last, somebody is finally being honest. And at last, I get it.

Now, I know that's a very tall order that I just gave you and we've only got two weeks, so let's get started. Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse one opens like this. The words of the teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, absolute futility, says the teacher, absolute futility.

Everything is futile. What does a person gain for all of his efforts that he labors at under the sun? Now, there are three questions I wanna ask just about these first three verses here to begin with. The first question is, who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes? When you read that verse, you say, well, duh, Solomon. Solomon was the son of David. He was the king in Jerusalem. Furthermore, you're gonna find out in Ecclesiastes that this teacher obtained everything that he ever wanted in life, wisdom, women, riches, and power. But apart from God, they still left him empty, and that is Solomon's life in a nutshell.

So obviously, you say, it's gotta be Solomon. However, there are clearly two voices that speak throughout this book. One is the voice of this teacher who talks about the sense of futility he had with his accomplishments. The other voice is the voice of an editor who is going to make periodic comments on what the teacher says in this book, sometimes affirming what he says, and sometimes correcting. Now, is it possible that Solomon is both voices, as in Solomon is giving to us his perspective through the teacher as a man who forsook God in his final years, chasing pleasure and power, but then he corrects himself because he came back to God in his final, final hours, like maybe this is a deathbed type of book, maybe.

I think that honestly is the most natural reading of the book. However, 1 Kings, which contains the full story of Solomon's life, 1 Kings never says that Solomon repented in his final days, and that seems like something the writer would have included had it happened. So the other option is that a later editor took some of Solomon's final musings, put them down in a book, and then offered his divinely inspired interpretation of them. So in that scenario, you have two different people writing this book, Solomon, who in his later years lived like a fool, and then this editor who compiled his writings and corrected him. So which is it? You ready for this?

I haven't the foggiest idea. The good news is that neither approach changes how you interpret Ecclesiastes. The essential thing to remember is that there are indeed two voices that are speaking throughout the book because only then will you be able to interpret this book correctly and to make sense of some of the madness therein. The second thing to notice in this opening kind of verse here is a word that he introduces that he is going to repeat throughout the book. The word is translated in English futility.

He's going to repeat that 38 different times throughout the book, absolute futility. Now it is futility in the translation that I'm using, but scholars say it's a really tough word to translate from Hebrew. The Hebrew word is hevel, hevel, and it literally means vapor or smoke. Sometimes in English it gets translated as meaningless or emptiness or if you grew up in the King James version the way that I did, vanity, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

And scholars say it means a little bit of all of those words, but it's not fully captured in any of them. Probably they say the best way to grasp the meaning is to consider the word picture itself, hevel, smoke, or vapor like a cloud. You know how when you were a kid, the clouds looked like this big, gigantic, comfy pillow that you could just lounge around in and bounce around in and wouldn't it be fun to play in a cloud? I can remember as a kid, the first airplane ride I took, when we passed through that first cloud, how disappointed I was to see that it looks so big and awesome from the outside, but you pass through it like it's not even there. If you were falling, even the fullest, thickest looking cloud, it's just nothing. It's just hevel. I mean, in fact, how many of you have skydived before?

Raise your hand. Skydiving is one of the three things in my life that is not disappointed. Getting saved, getting married to Veronica, and skydiving.

Those are the only three things. Everything else is not lived up to expectations. It's like the best part of skydiving is you hit one of these clouds and it looks so thick and fluffy and you just blaze right through it like it's not even there. It looks so solid and substantive from the outside, but it isn't. It's full of nothing.

It is hevel. That's what life is like, Solomon says. It looks one way from the outside, but when you really press into it, you're going to find out that it's full of nothing.

It's empty. One scholar says the best translation is absurd. Life has a quality to it that doesn't make sense. Even when, listen, you're walking with God. There are parts of your life that just are not going to make sense.

They seem absurd. This book comes right after the book of Proverbs in your Bible, which is intentional. They're both part of what we call the wisdom literature of the Bible. Proverbs often reads like a book of guarantees.

If you do this, then this over here will happen. For example, Proverbs 3 10, honor the Lord with your first fruits. Work hard, be honest, and God will bless you with wealth and honor and riches. Proverbs 6 6, work hard like the aunt.

Save money like the beaver, and you'll have lifelong riches that you'll be able to leave to your children and your children's children. Proverbs 22 6, raise up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. And those are great pieces of wisdom. And following that wisdom will often lead you to success and to honor and to good kids and even riches, much more so than if you don't follow that wisdom. But here is the thing, that counsel is not foolproof.

It is not designed to be. The book is called Proverbs, Not Promises, and Proverbs is more about general wisdom and principles. Again, it is wise to live by them, and you'll be much better off living by them than if you don't. But many of us, right, many of us have had the experience of doing exactly what Proverbs said about a situation and having the opposite thing to what Proverbs said would happen, happen. You worked hard like the ant, and you saved, and you tithed, and you honored God with all your firstfruits, and then the stock market crashed, and you lost your retirement. You led your business with integrity, putting others first, and you went out of business. You pursued marriage God's way, and your spouse cheated on you and left you.

You did your dead level best to raise up your child in the way that they should go, but when they were old, they did depart from it. Haven't you had the experience of doing something the right way, the Proverbs way, and then everything falling apart? I had a lot of bad jobs when I was in college, but the worst one that I ever had was one that was gotten from me by a guy named Bruce. He got a job for me with him, essentially pimping credit cards outside of one of the big department stores in Crabtree Valley Mall.

You get people to sign up for a credit card, you give them a free gift. Yes, I was that guy, just so we're all clear there. I was that guy, and it won't surprise some of you, but I was actually kind of good at it. By the end of that first week, Bruce and I were leading the whole team in terms of sales, and so our boss pulled us in. He gave us a little bonus that you guys are doing a great job. He said, now, here's the thing. There's a little place here on the forum where they can sign up for this insurance that basically charges them a monthly fee. He said, that's really where we make our commission.

It's where you're going to make a lot of money. He said, the thing is, if you explain it to them what it is, they're not going to sign up for it, so just tell them when they're signing up for the credit card that they need to initial here, here, and here, and they'll approve the insurance thing. Bruce and I were like, I just don't feel right about that. He said, you just got to do that. We tried it our way, the Daniel way. We're just going to be honest.

I would try to explain real quickly what it was and see if they wanted it. At the end of the week, we were still leading everybody in sales, but we didn't have hardly any of these insurance things tied up, so he didn't give us a bonus that week and said, I need you guys to start pushing this insurance thing. Two days later of the third week, he called us both in the office at the end of the day, still number one in the sales chart, and says, you guys don't need to come back into work tomorrow.

You're done. So I got essentially fired from that job. And I know what Proverbs says, and I'm like, uh, I honored God with my first. I did all this the right way. I was with integrity. His supervisor was supposed to discover all this, kind of exalt me, promote me.

He's supposed to get fired. I'm supposed to be the one that, that is blessed because I did it God's way, but that didn't happen. Now that's a very small example, but life is full of those, isn't it?

Where life just doesn't feel fair. Thanks for joining us today here on Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. We'll get back to the book of Ecclesiastes in just a second. But first, did you know that along with our monthly premium resources, we also offer a monthly free resource on our website?

That's right. Each month, we'll send you a free copy of a brand new free resource at your request. This month, we're sending you a digital copy of a discussion guide based on Pastor JD's sermon series through Psalm 23 called Goodness in the Middle.

This discussion guide makes it easy for you to take someone that you're discipling through the 23rd Psalm, or it would be a fantastic discussion guide for your small group to use. All you have to do to get your copy is head to jdgreer.com and you'll see a space to type in your email so we can send this Goodness in the Middle discussion guide right to you. And once again, it is free. And if you've been with us this month, you'll quickly realize it goes right alongside our featured resource that we send to our faithful donors.

So go and grab this freebie today. Now let's get back to today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD. In chapter nine, Solomon's going to tell us the story of a poor man who through his wisdom figures out a plot against the city. He acts heroically and saves the city, but then the rich people in the city, well, they figured out a way to manipulate the system and steal the credit for themselves. They got honored and his role, the poor man's role in this whole thing gets ignored. Haven't many of you had the exact same experience? Somebody else at work gets the credit for a job because they knew how to play office politics better than you did?

You got passed over for a promotion you deserved or even got robbed of justice because you were the wrong color or the wrong gender or because you wouldn't sleep with the boss? Sometimes life feels absurd. It's heaven. That's what the writer is saying. He's saying, yes, wisdom is good, but it's like he's found a glitch in the system. He's not saying that life is meaningless.

It's just problematic. It's unsolid, like a cloud, sometimes absurd. It's heaven. Which leads me to the final phrase to notice in this opening verse and that is the phrase under the sun.

He's going to repeat that phrase 29 times throughout the book. The teacher indicates that his perspective only takes into view how things look under the sun. What is over the sun? Heaven is over the sun. Solomon deliberately leaves out heaven's perspective or how the reality of God, his plan and his presence and his promises change everything.

And that's what the editor, the other voice brings in throughout the book. He's going to remind you that there is more to life than what you see under the sun. Ecclesiastes describes for you what life looks like under the sun after the fall of man.

Scholars point out that his repeated use of the word futility and toil throughout the book harken back to Genesis 3 where God had cursed man after he sinned to live on the earth under the sun in futility and toil. Solomon in Ecclesiastes is unpacking for you what that feels like. Again, this book is going to help some of you so, so much. It's going to show you how to trust in God when it's all going to heaven. For some of you however, this book is really going to rattle you like I said because you've got this really neat and tidy view of God that if you do a good thing then God is going to automatically do b this blessing thing and so long as you are a good person and you do what's right God's going to make everything smooth sailing in the end. That perspective is going to get shattered in this book and while uncomfortable for you this is going to be a really good thing for some of you because at some point the heaven of life is going to smash you in the face. Or like the ancient rabbis used to say the heaven's really going to hit the fan and if you're not ready for that you're going to be mad at God and you're going to be like but God I didn't think I thought you were supposed to and God why didn't you do this I did this over here and God do you even exist? I hate you.

I hate you. So the first thing we got to look at get our minds around are the three primary ways that Solomon experienced. Solomon experienced life as heaven. There are three of them. Here's number one. First he says is the absurdity of pursuing pleasure and power.

The absurdity of pursuing pleasure and power. I said in my heart chapter two come now I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. Treat yourself.

That's what I said to my heart. I explore with my mind a pool of wine on my body my mind still guiding me with wisdom. In other words Solomon is like the sophomore who wakes up from a hangover with a missing tooth and a facial tattoo and he has no idea how he got there but then he finds a detailed notebook that he kept while in his drunken state.

Verse 10 whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from then I kept my heart from no pleasure. Do you all remember all that Solomon had? Everything in the man's house was made out of gold. He was multi-talented well-read. His kingdom was at peace and his power was unchallenged. He ate great food and had a thousand different sexual options every night. In addition to all of this he wrote New York Times best-selling books on every subject. He was one of the most popular songwriters of his day.

He built the most impressive temple the world had ever seen and he led Israel in a national spiritual revival. That's not a bad list of life accomplishments. Verse 11 then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I'd expended in doing it behold it was all heaven. It was useless. It was like striving after the wind and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. Three ways that Solomon says the pursuit of worldly pleasure and security are absurd.

First of all he says they are if you're taking notes letter A they're unfulfilling. He said you know I thought I would feel complete when I had an excess of pleasure and power but I didn't. Here's the thing listen multiple listen multiple times throughout this book Solomon is going to say correctly money is good love and sex are good health is good these are gifts of God to enjoy but if they become the primary place that you seek happiness you will find them empty you will find them heaven. I read a stat for example recently that showed that people who have their basic needs met financially and have a little bit of money in savings are indeed happier than those who live below the poverty line. The study showed however that after your basic needs are met and after you have a small amount of savings I think the number that they used was a combined household income of seventy five thousand dollars a year after that there is literally no correlation between increased net worth and happiness. In fact it actually reverses and you start to become less happy the more you make. We also know that suicide rates and depression are highest among the rich proving that increases in money doesn't lead to increased happiness. That's exactly what Solomon is saying it is good to have your needs met.

Money and family are good but if they are your primary source of life they're going to leave you empty. You see here's the truth that most people don't understand that the editor of Ecclesiastes explains right here's the truth there are two different gifts that God gives. One is money and marriage and family the other is the ability to enjoy those things and those are two different gifts and they have to be sought in two different ways. Ecclesiastes 6.1 here's a tragedy to have observed under the sun it weighs heavily on humanity. God gives up one person riches wealth and honor so that he lacks nothing of all he desires for himself but God doesn't give the second gift of that person. He doesn't give them the ability to enjoy them for a happy life see you need to not only have money and family and love you need the ability to enjoy the things God gives you and that is a separate gift of God that you got to seek in a different way. I was reminded here of what the the great theologian Drake said in an interview he said there was a point where I felt like I needed to keep the company of a different woman every night I was trying to fill a void but in those moments after sex I'd know it wasn't working. These quiet moments are the realest moments a man will ever have in his life. The next day I convinced myself to do it again but during that time I knew it was not working. That's the same thing the teacher in the book of Ecclesiastes is saying pleasure and power is sought as the primary source of happiness or unfulfilling by themselves and so he says they're absurd they're also absurd because they are letter b they're fleeting fleeting for a number of reasons first of all when you die you're dead nothing you've accomplished benefits you anymore here's how Solomon rather starkly and aptly says that as a man came from his mother's womb so will he go again naked he came out naked he goes away he'll take nothing for his efforts that he can carry in his hands this too is a sickening tragedy exactly as he comes so will he go in other words you came into the world naked you do a lot of stuff in between your last time of nakedness which is when you die and in between that all the ways that you live that were different don't really benefit you that much in terms of how you leave because you go out just like you came in at the same level like the old joke goes he who dies with the most toys still dies but the good news of the gospel is that life doesn't end in the grave there's more to come in this study tomorrow from pastor jd greer and summit life in the meantime you can hear this message again free of charge at jdgrier.com jd continuing our theme in september of teaching through the wisdom books of the bible here on summit life we are spending the rest of this week in the book of ecclesiastes right yeah this is a very short teaching series called full of nothing and when i say that i think of the the theme of seinfeld you know it's a show about nothing because supposedly life means nothing and believe it or not thousands of years before seinfeld came up with that um the author of the book of ecclesiastes solomon was saying that life without god feels like it's full of nothing solomon's perspective on on sex wealth power wisdom it can seem grim even depressing but it's honest and if we're listening you actually hear in that honesty a refreshing word of life that is is probably more relevant to our current culture than than ever before and this also is your final opportunity to to order that copy of our bible study that works verse by verse through one of the most beloved sections of scripture the opposite of of the grimness of the book of ecclesiastes and that is psalm 23 and that eight-part study is called goodness in the middle it's a great way to dive into the way that god's richness and his fullness can bless you in a time whether it's a time of trial a time of confusion or a time of abundance don't wait this thursday is the last day that you can get a copy of that and you can do that at jdgrier.com so head on over there and grab yourself a copy we'd love to send you a copy of goodness in the middle a short study through psalm 23 when you support summit life with a gift of 35 or more to give just call us at 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can always donate online at jdgrier.com and while you're online we'd love to connect with you send us an email and let us know how god's working in your life and in your community i'm molly vidovich be sure to join us tomorrow as we continue our study of ecclesiastes that's tuesday on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries