Life is Absurd … Now What?

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. There are some of you who, because of the uncertainty in life, you never get going in life. You never become what you could be. Solomon is saying that at some point, you just have to put it out there because you can never move forward until you take a risk. And even in the midst of uncertainty, you can trust God, who promises to take care of you even in failure. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. You know, the Bible offers plenty of practical wisdom, like a generous person will prosper or train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. But what about when a generous person loses their job or when a child is raised in church and still walks away from God? Did the Bible lie?

Did God's promise fail? That's a challenging question for many of us, and Pastor J.D. Greer deals with it directly today on Summit Life. Today's teaching is titled, Life is Absurd, Now What? Sound like a question you've had before? Let's listen in for some important truth. Here's Pastor J.D.

Ecclesiastes chapter 12. As you're turning there, a few years ago, I heard a true report of an incident that occurred up around Lake Michigan. I heard it on a radio talk show that I was listening to, and the story went something like this. A man purchases a brand new Lincoln Navigator with monthly payments that exceeded $600 a month. He'd had it less than a week when he and a buddy decided they wanted to go duck hunting with it, take it out duck hunting in winter there in Michigan when all the lakes are frozen over. And so they loaded up this new Navigator with his guns, his shotguns, and his trusty black Labrador Retriever. So they drive out to the middle of one of these frozen over lakes, these huge lakes, and they want to create this natural landing area for the ducks to land on, you know, for like put decoys in and stuff.

So it's got to be a huge area, enough to attract, you know, a duck passing overhead. So it's going to take a little bit more than just an ice hole drill. So out of the back of the new Navigator, this genius pulls out his ingenious idea of a stick of dynamite is sure to do the trick, and one with a little kind of short 40-second fuse on it. He's afraid, however, to simply, you know, light it on the ground and run away from it because he's afraid that he might slip on the ice and might not get away from it sufficiently in time. So he lights the 40-second fuse and then just throws it as far as he can.

Now, do you recall what else I told you they had brought with them on this trip? A black Labrador Retriever who loves to chase things, especially things thrown by the owner. So the dog takes off and captures the stick of dynamite with a burning 40-second fuse right before or just as it hits the ice. The two men begin to yell and to scream and wave their arms to tell the dog to drop the dynamite. Well, of course, the dog doesn't have a mastery of the English language, and so he just thinks the men are cheering him on, so he starts to run even faster.

This is the sad part of the story. One of the guys panics, he doesn't know what to do, grabs the shotgun and shoots the dog. He didn't want to, but he didn't know what else to do. The shotgun, however, was loaded for duck hunting, which means it had a light scattershot that was designed to bring down a small flying bird. It's hardly big enough to stop a black Labrador Retriever, so the dog stops for a moment, stunned, slightly confused, but keeps on coming. So the guy shoots him a second time, and this time the dog, still standing, is now terrified, thinking his owner has literally gone insane.

So he does what any rational dog would do at the moment. He looks to find cover, and of course the only cover he can find out there in the middle of the lake is underneath this brand new Lincoln Navigator. Ten seconds later, all that is left is a gigantic hole in the middle of the lake, and these two idiots standing there holding a shotgun.

Maybe the only redemptive part of this terrible story is that the insurance company said that sinking a vehicle in a lake by an illegal use of explosives is not covered by their policy, and the man had not made the first of these $600 a month payments. The point, the reason I share that, is because a lot of people that we see in life live foolishly without giving much forethought to how their actions in the present are going to affect their future. Now, granted, most of you listening to me have not in your lives done something that stupid, but the authors of Ecclesiastes want you to stop and think about the decisions that you are making right now and should try to encourage you to view life from the perspective of where your decisions today are going to lead you tomorrow. Last week we saw that the majority of the book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon, a man with endless wealth, wisdom, women, power, and a list of accomplishments that any of us would be proud of, and how he explained at the end of his life that in spite of all those things that he accomplished, life felt like hevel. Hevel, a Hebrew word that literally means vapor or smoke. That's what most of life is like, Solomon said.

It looks so substantive, but it's vapor, it's hevel. Solomon identifies three things in particular in the book of Ecclesiastes that disappointed him. Number one was the pursuit of pleasure and power. Number two was wisdom, at least wisdom as a way of ensuring success in life.

And number three was worldly justice. Now, there is a second voice in Ecclesiastes I told you about, an editor who's going to break into Solomon's monologue from time to time, sometimes affirming and sometimes correcting what Solomon is saying. And this editor is going to make clear that pleasure and power are good things. Pleasure and power were created by God for our enjoyment, but if you depend on them for happiness, you're going to be disappointed.

You'll find out that they're hevel. Wisdom is good, he says. In fact, God gives us a whole book of Proverbs that's full of wisdom. But even wise living is not going to guarantee smooth sailing or a prosperous life. Worldly justice structures are good. They're gifts of God to us, and we should always fight for worldly justice.

But as many of you know, firsthand, personally, worldly justice will often let you down. Solomon admits that his perspective in this book only takes into account how things look under the sun, which means, that's a phrase he's going to repeat all throughout the book, under the sun means how things look without bringing in the perspective of God. And so the editor throughout the book is going to bring back in heaven's perspective.

He's going to interject it. What I'm going to do in our last message here is walk you through a number, a handful of those conclusions, and then consider how the book of Ecclesiastes is advising us to live in light of those conclusions. Here is number one. We are to seek the God who is above the hevel. Ecclesiastes 12, last chapter in the book. Now all has been heard. We're at the end.

Here is the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the duty of all mankind for God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. At the very end of the book, the editor is going to take us back over the sun. He's going to say that while it is indeed true that you might not be able to tell just by looking around that there is a sovereign righteous judge who will reward good and punish evil. While you may not be able to see that by observation in the world under the sun, the rest of the Bible assures you that there is. Ecclesiastes, I told you, is not the only book in the Bible. And the coming of Jesus in particular proves to us that there is a God over the sun who has not forgotten the world and will one day settle all accounts. Ecclesiastes point, I explained last week, is not to turn you into an atheist. It's not supposed, you're not supposed to read this book and be like, yeah, that's right. None of life makes sense.

It's all hevel. There is no God. Rather his aim is to turn you into a humbler theist, somebody who believes in God, but somebody who's more humble in how you look at the world. And what he's saying to you is you got to put up your simplistic theories about God, you know, namely the one that's like, well, if I do this over here, then God automatically will bless me here.

And if I do A, then God will bless here with B. And instead you need to look to a God who is bigger than the hevel, a God who has promised to redeem us from the hevel and who even loved us enough to enter into the hevel that we had created for ourselves through our sin and absorb the penalty of our hevel when he died on a cross for us in our place and who now pursues his perfectly good plan for us with unrelenting faithfulness, even if, even if, as was the case with Job, what he's doing at a particular moment in your life may elude you. You see, that's why I told you you have to read Ecclesiastes with the book of Job. The book of Job shows you that God is always doing something in your life. You just might not have the perspective to be able to see what it is at the moment. It's like John Piper says at any given moment in your life, God is pursuing about 10,000 different things in you.

You're usually aware of at most three of them. The other 9,997 things that God is doing just eludes you. So number one, he says, fear God, seek the God who is above the hevel. Number two, he's going to tell us you should devote yourself, devote yourself to pursuing wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 10, chapters 10 and 11, by the way, is where Ecclesiastes really starts to get practical, and so we're going to spend a little bit of time there. A wise person's heart, he says, goes to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. Now let me be very clear here. This is not a political statement, although I know some of you just jotted that reference down and you plan to immediately go post it to your Facebook wall.

Don't do that. That's not what this is about. Right, in the ancient world, you meant right hand and it meant skillful. Left, always connoted in epness or clumsiness.

Now I know that is offensive to you southpaw's out there, but that's just how it was in the ancient world. That's how they describe things, and his point here is that, yes, life is not foolproof, but wisdom will still more often lead you to skill and success than foolishness will. Pursuing wisdom, therefore, should not be an afterthought that you add to your life, like a garnish on a finished meal or a religious perfume that you spray onto your life. It ought to be the very foundation of your life. It ought to be the core of all that you do.

This is a recurring theme here at the Summit Church. Know the Bible. Know what the Bible teaches until it becomes a very fabric of your life, until your blood is the Bible, until life cuts you, you bleed God's word, until it is the dominant shaping force in your relationships, in your career, in your self-image.

It ought not to be that how you see marriage and relationships in your career and your self-image is shaped by the world and the entertainment structures, and then you just add a little of God's ideas on on the weekend as a way of getting blessing. It ought to be the foundation of your life, and you've got to ruthlessly root out areas of inconsistency in your life with the Bible. Look at what else Solomon says in this verse. Um, dead flies make a perfumer's oil stink so that a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. What you've got here is you've got this beautiful perfume that it smells so good and it's just so so aromatic, but it's got a bunch of dead flies in it. And at that point it becomes disgusting, not attractive. Or to update the analogy, finding a few singed hairs and a delicious creme brulee is going to ruin the whole thing.

Or if you see a woman with perfect makeup and she's got a cockroach that somehow got in there and it's on her face, it's like she's not beautiful anymore. In the same way, in the same way, a few ignored areas of sin and foolishness can ruin an otherwise fantastic life. We saw that in Solomon's life, didn't we? Solomon never dealt with some of those areas of inconsistency and compromise at the beginning of his life. And at the beginning of his life they weren't hurting him.

But over the years they matured and they became something that ultimately destroyed him. You've got to root out those areas of inconsistency in your life with the Bible. It's why we tell you, listen, to get into a small group here at the Summit Church.

We don't tell you that because it's good for us. We don't take up offerings in small groups. It's because we know the best discipleship happens, we say, not when you sit in rows, but when you sit in circles. And what we mean by that is when I stand up here and you're in a rows and I yell at you, that's an important part of discipleship, but it's never going to be complete. When you sit in circles is when other people who know you can help you apply the scriptures to the place in your life that you need them. They can see blind spots in your life.

They can see places where you need to believe a promise of scripture. We've compared it here often to the difference between air war and ground war. Military strategists will tell you that if you're going to take over an area, air war can be an important part of the strategy, but it's not complete in itself. You can't just go in and carpet bomb and then say that that land belongs to us because the enemy will just go down into caves and they'll hide. And the moment your air campaign is done, they'll come back out.

So after the air war is there, you got to send in the ground troops to root out the enemy from wherever they are. We'll see in our strategy here at the Summit Church, when you come in on the weekend, my job is I stand up here and I carpet bomb you with the gospel. I just dropped gospel bombs all over you. And that's great. It's important, but you need to have people involved in your life who can look into your life and help you apply the gospel in the places that you need to apply it. You have blind spots. You are made incomplete without the body of Christ.

And that's why we're always saying, get into a small group. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. We hope you've been enjoying today's teaching and that it's been an encouragement in your daily walk with God. Before we continue, I wanted to remind you about a daily resource that can also help you stay connected to God's Word throughout the week. Our daily email devotionals, written by Pastor J.D., offer insightful reflections on the Bible and practical applications for your life. Each day's devotional corresponds to our current teaching series here on the program, so you can stay plugged into the themes and ideas we explore here, even if you miss a day.

And best of all, it's completely free. To sign up, simply visit jdgreer.com slash resources and enter your email address. Thank you for your financial support that makes this resource and the rest of Summit Life possible. It's because of friends like you that we are able to proclaim the gospel each day to a dying world. Now let's get back to today's teaching with Pastor J.D.

Greer here on Summit Life. Number three, Solomon tells us, is you've got to live by wisdom and take a risk. Live by wisdom and take a risk. Chapter 11 now, one who watches the wind will not sow and the one who looks at the clouds will not reap. Here you've got a farmer who never sows his seed because he is so scared that the weather's not going to cooperate. What if it doesn't rain? What if there's a sandstorm? What if there's a famine? What if there's an earthquake?

What if there's a meteor shower? Throughout Ecclesiastes, the writer is going to acknowledge, yes, you cannot control things and there is nothing in life that guarantees success. Great skill doesn't guarantee it. Careful planning doesn't guarantee it. Not even righteous living guarantees success. But you've got to embrace that and he says, in the morning, sow your seed and at evening do not let your hand rest. In other words, sow some more of it because you don't know which of the seeds you planted is actually going to succeed. In other words, don't let the possibility of failure, don't let the uncertainty of life paralyze you.

Now let me acknowledge this. There's probably about half of you listening to me right now who really need to hear this because you struggle with a paralyzing fear from the uncertainty of life. The other half of you struggle with impulse control and you need to go back and meditate on what I said in the previous point that you need friends in your life who are honest enough to say that's impulsive and stupid.

Right? And that's the part of the message you need to hear. But for the half of you that need to hear this, listen, okay? There are some of you who because of the uncertainty in life you never get going in life. You never become what you could be. Solomon is saying that at some point you just have to put it out there because you can never move forward until you take a risk and even in the midst of uncertainty you can trust God who promises to take care of you even in failure. I know of people in our church who have made an investment, a large financial investment and they did the due diligence and they asked all the questions and they got lots of counsel and they prayed about it and they told God they were going to tithe on anything they made up.

They did everything right and it looked like a wise investment and then it all went belly up and they lost a ton of money on it. That did not mean that they did something wrong. It did not mean that God forgot about them. It did not mean that God was not blessing them.

It just means that in this hevel of a world that's how things work out sometimes. But you can trust that as long as you're seeking to obey then God's promises will take care of you and God's promises will overshadow your life and even in failure when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death and failure his goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life. So what Solomon says is live by wisdom that's all you can do and take appropriate risks and trust that God will take care of you in success and in failure but you got to get moving.

Which leads to probably the most confusing verse in all of Ecclesiastes my personal favorite. Number four don't be overly religious don't be excessively righteous Ecclesiastes 7 16 says and don't be overly wise why should you wear yourself out. I love that verse for the one who fears God still ends up with a little bit of both wisdom and foolishness. Now is he telling you that you need to deliberately balance your life with a little bit of wisdom and a little bit of foolishness a little bit of righteousness a little bit of sin no and you see how he talks here about the one who fears God the one who fears God would never deliberately do something that dishonored God who would never tolerate sin in their lives what he means listen is that we should not obsess about getting ourselves into a state of spiritual perfection because we think that then and only then can we guarantee God's blessing and success on our lives. That is foolish for at least two reasons first you could be perfect and still have things go wrong that was the case with Job it's even more so the case with Jesus.

Second nobody on earth could actually be sinless and the wise person recognizes thankfully that God did not condition his acceptance of us or blessing of us on our perfection and all the people who are wise would say thank God for that. You see there's a lot of people who every time something bad happens in their lives they're like what did I do wrong what was God punishing me for what was God trying to pay me back for that is being overly righteous. I saw this and there was one of my suitemates in college his mother would definitely be in this category after we'd been at school a few weeks his car got stolen he had a pickup truck and they ended up getting it back and the next time I saw this guy's mother she said I'm at fault I'm the reason the car got stolen I said why she said well when I dropped from her off at school I anointed it with my holy oil I got in Jerusalem and I anointed the the right side the left side and the front windshield but I forgot the back windshield that was the place they broke in.

Now bless her heart that is being excessively righteous that is not how God relates to us thank God. I realized this week that I have been excessively religious in the attitude a lot of times I have in prayer every time I pray I obsess about the motives in my heart and I'm like oh if I don't pray with all the right motives then God's not going to hear me. I'm rereading a book right now that I would commend to you called A Praying Life by Paul Miller and the author points out in that book that when Jesus taught us about prayer he told us to come to our heavenly father like children come to their parents in fact all of the stories that Jesus tells about adults praying are when adults act like children like the widow who just you know won't leave the judge alone. Well when my children want something for me I can promise you they do not obsess about the why of their motives or analyze their hearts when they come to me. My kids do not come up and say dad I don't really want to ask you for this but I just I can't get my heart into a pure state in order to ask with the right motives. Oh no my kids tell me what they want they tell me what they want immediately they tell me repeatedly no for them no for them is simply a piece of useless information that means come back in 10 minutes and ask me again. The author says often when we try to pray we're immediately confronted with how unspiritual we are by contrast children never get frozen by their selfishness they just come in as they are totally self-absorbed. How do little children ask?

They just say what's in their minds they have no awareness of what is appropriate or inappropriate. When Jesus tells us to pray like this this isn't just a random observation about how parents respond to little children this is the heart of the gospel. We come to God just like we are and we're saying God you saved me in this state and God you're going to listen to me and I'm not having to worry about getting myself into a place where you'll hear me. This is what Solomon is hinting at see what he says in the next verse there is certainly no one righteous on the earth who never sins.

In other words God knows that you're sinful and good news he chose to save you in that state and in that state he told you to approach him with all your junk and all you messed up dysfunctional heart and you could approach him with the confidence that a child approaches a parent. So what he's saying is quit trying to become something you're not and just trust in God's fatherly grace over your life amen. Related to this number five number five lay down your Messiah complex this is good chapter five says for a man eat well and enjoy his work whatever his job may be for however long the Lord may let him live. In other words listen the Lord has a job for you and the Lord designs you in a certain way to fulfill a certain role he gave you spiritual gifts and a vocation and he intends for you to do those things and do them well and then he wants you to enjoy your life along the way as you do it. Now what I'm about to say is also one of those things that is not going to apply to all of you in fact there are exactly 17 percent of you listening to me right now who need to hear this only 17 percent okay and you should have 84.2 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot okay so 17 percent of you need to hear this because 17 percent of us live with the Messiah complex and we feel like how can I ever relax how can I enjoy life how could I take a vacation when there's so much to do.

Not everything that comes from heaven has your name on it. We all need to rest so that we can have laser focus on what we know God has given us to do. You're listening to Summit Life with pastor author and theologian J.D. Greer. Recently pastor J.D. and I got to sit down and talk about some exciting news for Summit Life. We've expanded to some new areas this year to further the reach of our daily biblical teaching.

We had a goal for this year of expanding into places like Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, San Antonio. To be honest with you when these opportunities were put in front of us we did not have the resources to obtain them but we we just sensed in our spirit that this is what God wanted us to do and to go through that door and so we stepped out in faith and you know the good news is is that we have a listening audience you many people from other cities around the country who responded with generosity and they believe in the kind of things they hear here and they want other people to hear them and they were so generous in how they they donated to Summit Life so that we could go into these new cities and we're already hearing great stories great reports of how God is at work there. We want to invite you to continue partnering with us by by sharing this program sharing our free daily devotionals and our podcast or or by giving financially so that we can keep offering everything that we do free of charge so go to jdgreer.com and find out how you can be a part of the ministry here at Summit Life. Our gospel partners are so vital to the health of this ministry their regular monthly gifts allow us to strategize on decisions just like we've highlighted today you can become a gospel partner today by giving us a call at 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can always visit us online at jdgreer.com I'm Molly Vidovitch. Thank you for being with us today and be sure to join us Thursday for the conclusion of today's message right here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.