Have you ever noticed how just living life, drains the life out of you? A bit of a paradox, but you know what I mean. We all want to live a life that’s worth living, but how can we do that, with all the “stuff” we have going on?

The Vanity of Life

My hunch is that we all want to have a life that’s worth living. I mean, you don’t have to think too much about all that do you? If we weigh up our lives, each one of us, there are things that are worthwhile and enjoyable and then there are things that we would rather not have there but I guess we can live with and then there are things that are downright awful that we just wish would go away forever. And depending on the mix between those three – the good, the mediocre and the bad – we either feel as though our lives are worth living or they’re not.

The problem is – and this is a universal problem; it’s a problem that each one of us faces – as time goes by, the mix, the balance between the good, the mediocre and the bad changes; our circumstances change, our emotions change, our health goes up and down. And sooner or later, the old body will give out. And so if we live our lives based on our circumstances; if we judge the value of our life based on what is going on and how we are reacting to it, well, we are pretty much at the mercy of the elements.

And so if I were to ask you right at this moment, do you have a life that’s worth living, what would your answer be? And not only that, what are you basing that answer on – how you feel, what’s going on in your life, or something else?

That’s what we are going to be tackling the next few weeks on the programme – the value of the life that you are living – but in quite an unusual way. I say unusual because we are going to go to what I think frankly, is simply one of the most extraordinary Books of the Bible. It’s the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes. It was written by King Solomon, we believe – one of the wisest men who ever, ever walked the planet. In fact, when Solomon was a young man, God gave him the opportunity to ask Him for anything that he wanted. This is how it happened. I’m reading from Second Chronicles chapter 1, verse 7:

God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, “Ask what I should give you.” Solomon said to God, “You have shown great and steadfast love to my father David, and have made me succeed him as king. O Lord God, let your promise to my father David now be fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come to in before this people, for who can rule this great people of yours?”

God answered Solomon, “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honour, or the life of those who hate you, and you have not even asked for long life, but you have asked me for wisdom and knowledge for yourself so that you might rule my people over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge will be granted to you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and honour, such as none of the kings had before you, and none after you shall ever have the like.”

So the wisdom of Solomon was actually the wisdom of God. He spends a lifetime serving God as king – diligently working as the King of Israel. But later on in life … later in life things go a bit awry. He starts to worship idols, he gets carried away with his wealth and all his possessions and all his wives and he becomes something of a confused, bitter and twisted old man.

This Book, Ecclesiastes is extraordinary because it’s written is this later state of Solomon and you can see his wisdom interwoven with disillusionment. What makes this Book totally extraordinary is the fact that it is in the Bible at all. But it’s there for you and for me to show us what happens when we take our eyes off God and go chasing after other things. It is a powerful Book and it’s one that at different times in our lives, I think we all relate to.

So, this is how Solomon kicks it off, the opening narrative, if you will, of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Have a listen. I wonder how much of this resonates with you – Ecclesiastes chapter 1, beginning at verse 1:

The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises again.
The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north;
round and round goes the wind and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run into the sea, but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow, they will continue to flow.
All things are wearisome; more than one can express;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it can be said, “See, this in new?”
It has already been, in the ages before us.
The people of long ago are not remembered,
nor will be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.”

Do you see where Solomon is coming from? He has spent a life time doing his best; exercising his wisdom and ruling over Israel and he is coming to the end of it all, asking himself, “So, what’s the point? Why did I work so hard?” We are really just on some great big cosmic treadmill – the wind blows around in circles, the rivers run into the ocean but the ocean never fills up, the sun goes up, comes down; goes up, comes down; goes up, comes down and … “Is there anything new under the sun? No!” he concludes. “And when we die, no one is going to remember us.” Great! Brilliant! So what was the point of all that, huh?

I love … I absolutely love the fact that God has this particular Book in the Bible, especially, since, as we will see later, Solomon never really comes up with an answer to his dilemma. He has a few suggestions along the way – but really, he never nails it.

And I think … I think a lot of people are living their lives just like Solomon. You look at your life and it goes round and round and round and round the same mulberry bush and really, nothing ever changes. Our hair goes grey, our skin gets old and wrinkly but fundamentally, nothing ever changes. Some days are good; some days are okay; some days are rotten but at the end of it all, as life heads into its last stages – as was the case with Solomon here – what was the whole point to it? Was it really a life worth living? I mean, come on, really?

On the one hand, being at that point is pretty tragic. On the other that point of futility, of vanity, is exactly where many, many people are right now in their lives. Oh, we kind of try to sweep it under the carpet and ignore it, but it’s there and if we were truly honest with ourselves, many people would be saying right now, just like Solomon:

Vanity of vanities! Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?

And let me say this from the bottom of my heart: if you are in that place at the moment, then that’s the very question … the very question that should be asking yourself. It’s time to bring this to a head; it time to stop ignoring that sense of futility; that sense of, “My life has no value; is of no consequence. Like a thin vapour; here today, just and gone tomorrow,” and to do something about it.

That’s why over these next few weeks, in this series of messages that I’ve called, “From Vanity to Victory”, we are going to be looking at just this, because God’s plan … God’s plan is for you and for me, that we should have a life that is worth living and it’s time to lay hold of that life – a life of victory – irrespective of what the circumstances are that we happen to be facing.

I for one would hate to get to the end of my life and be in the place that Solomon was at, looking at all my efforts and thinking, “What a waste!” How about you? Now please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not preaching some happy-classy gospel here. I’m not suggesting for one minute that we won’t have trials and sufferings, you and I, because we will. Jesus promised us that.

But what I want to know is how, you and I, given who we are, where God has put us, what He has given us and hasn’t given us – given all that, how can you and I have a rich, full life in the middle of all that? That’s what we are going to be talking about next and for the next few weeks in this series of messages called, “From Vanity to Victory”.

A Season for Every Purpose

Can I ask you something? What’s your favourite season of the year – spring, summer, autumn or winter? Do you have one particular time that’s your favourite? I have two that are pretty close together, but if I had to call it between one and the other, I’d have to name spring as my absolute favourite, followed very closely by autumn or fall as you might happen to call it if you live in the U.S.

Why is spring my favourite? Because coming out of a long, cold winter – mind you, it doesn’t get very cold where I live but it feels that way – spring is about new life and new hope. The days are getting longer, the trees shoot young, fresh, new leaves, it starts to warm up and the smell of those spring flowers is in the air. I absolutely love spring because it’s the season of promise.

But you know something, I love autumn too because after a long, hot, humid summer, the days start to cool down and the mornings freshen up and become crisp. And the beautiful autumn colours take over and I start to think about stews and pasta, rather than BBQs and salads.

I love the fact that God gave us those different seasons to enjoy – I like summer and winter too, by the way. But it’s the seasons of transition that I love the most. You know the funny thing, in the seasons of life, though – and life absolutely does have its seasons – change is often the season we like the least. So, will you join me today as we discover why that is?

Over about twenty years of being in management and I.T. consultant, I guess I have worked in somewhere around, I don’t know, three hundred-ish different organisations, large, small, government, private sector – mostly in Australia, but around the world as well. And so you see a lot of different organisational cultures. Some are healthy, some are terrible. And you see even more people working under pressure in the different environments. And across all those organisations and people, the number of people who I have met who absolutely relish change, I could probably count on my ten fingers.

It turns out that most people absolutely hate change. Change is threatening, whereas the status quo; even if the status quo isn’t everything we would like it to be, the status quo at least we know; at least we’re comfortable in it. But the moment someone talks about change – and as a consultant I was mostly working in client organisations to bring about change – people start feeling threatened.

What does that mean to me? Will I still have a job? Will I have more power or less power? Will my roll change? Am I going to be having to use different systems? Will I like the new environment? They are all the questions that people would have. And quite often, when change was forced on people by a competitive market situation or new government regulations or a drive for efficiency and improvement or whatever it was, people would become incredibly threatened and defensive and often quite aggressive. The number of people, as I said, who embrace change – even good change – was by far in the minority. That’s the work environment.

It turns out that things are almost the same in our personal lives. Moving house is one of the most stressful things we can do. Even a great change like getting married can be an incredibly difficult one for people to cope with, as they adjust from their life of singleness – and the freedoms that brings – to the constraints and the blessings of marriage.

So why am I harping on about change? Because most of us live in a world that is changing rapidly! The job market is in huge turmoil – as manufacturing moves from the West to the developing world; as technology displaces more and more workers. And so many people are wandering through life, not just drained by the apparent mundaneness and futility of the same old, same old, same old grind of life, but tense about the change that is going on around them.

Surely if God is God, He would protect us from all this change, right? Have a listen to this great bit of wisdom from one of the wisest men who ever walked the planet – we met him earlier – King Solomon. It comes from something he wrote towards the end of his life when he had gone a bit off the rails, but it’s still an important piece of wisdom. Have a listen to this with me. It’s from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in the Old Testament, beginning with verse 1:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to pluck up what has been planted;
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to break down and a time to build up;
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones and a time to gather the stones together;
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek and a time to lose;
A time to keep and a time to throw away;
A time to tear and a time to sew;
A time to keep silent and a time to speak;
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace;
What gain have workers from their toil?

Now, that is quite a list there. And there are some times in there that we would rather leave than take – thank you very much! Let’s stand back … and really, isn’t that a pretty comprehensive list of how our circumstances and situations sway from one season to another – from winter to summer, from summer to winter – with plenty of autumns and springs in between.

See, so many people look at their lives and weigh their lives on the basis of their circumstances. When it’s time to laugh – huh, my life is going great! When it’s time to weep, huh, my life isn’t worth living! Am I right – isn’t that how we react?

I want to tell you quickly about Russell – not his real name but it will have to do. He is well into his nineties this guy, his wife passed away years ago, he is blind, he is incontinent, he lives alone in an empty house. He gets around by feeling his way along the corridor walls. It takes him a while to answer the phone because it just takes him a while to get there. If anyone had a reason to complain and to grumble, it would be Russell. If anyone had a reason to think that his life wasn’t worth living, it would be Russell.

And yet, every time I speak with him – whether it happens to be when I’m passing through the city where he lives or by phone – I’m so powerfully encouraged by this man. You see, Russell has a fire that burns in his heart for Jesus; he has a fire that burns in his heart for the lost; he is constantly praying for me and the ministry of Christianityworks and the many other ministries that he supports. He is not backward in telling me there is something I can do better on the programme – he listens to every one of them.

Russell is in the end season of his life here on earth. He is alone most of the time; he is physically infirm but he is living a life that counts. Do you see that? He is living a life, not of vanity; he is living out a life of victory. And the man inspires me so greatly on those days when the going gets tough in ministry – in the seasons that I would rather leave than take. I swear I will never, ever lose the vision of this frail, elderly giant, sitting on his couch in the lounge room, sharing with me his passion for Jesus and his passion for having the Word of God proclaimed across the globe.

There is indeed a season for everything; a time for every purpose under heaven. And my prayer is that, having heard Russell’s story, you will be as inspired as I am to accept the seasons as they come and go. To accept the change and to journey through that change with a powerful sense that God … God plans for you to live out a life of victory in that place. Not a life of vanity; a life on consequence and impact. Not a life of self-absorption and self-pity. God’s plan for you is to live out a life … a life that is truly worth living; a life like Russell’s but in your very own way.

Living in the God Dimension

Life has a habit of draining the life out of us. Have you noticed that? I know it sounds a bit odd, but you know what I mean, right? It’s like our zest for life, our energy, our sense of wonder and anticipation and joy and delight are all drained by the sheer grind of living out our lives and putting food on the table … and to be honest, serving the many idols and gods that we have set up for ourselves. Huh, don’t believe me?

How many people are labouring under huge debt for no other reason than they just had to have the new dress or the new car or the new house and now they are working long, long hours just to make ends meet – just to pay the interest on the debt that comes from serving those idols? A bit grim when you look at that way, isn’t it?

Every now and then I like to remind people – you in particular – of the thing that the wise, old Apostle Paul reminded his young protégé Timothy of, when Tim was going through a bit of a rough patch in ministry; when life was squeezing the life out of this young man, Paul wrote to him this – you can read it in Second Timothy chapter 1, verse 6:

For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.

You see, deep down inside, you and I have a gift, an ability, a dream, a passion – something we love doing; something we have always wanted to do; something that gets us excited and fired up and … are you getting this? Are you feeling this? Is this simple Scripture sparking something in your heart that God put there long ago? Something that perhaps you had forgotten about; something that’s been lying dormant and every time it tried to raise its head, it was drowned out by all the other things clamouring for your attention and your priorities.

Maybe, just maybe, God put us in this place together today, just to remind you of the gift, the dream, the passion that He handcrafted into your DNA all those years ago. Maybe, just maybe, God wants to wake us up to the life that He planned for us; the life that is truly worth living.

Oh, that gift, that dream, that passion will always require sacrifice – they always do; they always drag us out of our comfort zones. Jesus ached for His people; Jesus wept for His friend Lazarus; Jesus lamented over His people in Jerusalem; Jesus suffered for you and for me, so that by His sacrifice, we might be set free from the power of sin and death over our lives. Always involves sacrifice. And somewhere deep inside, as we meet this Jesus, as we walk in His love; somewhere deep inside, there is a little of that in each one of us.

Life isn’t meant to be full of vanity; life isn’t meant to be just some meaningless existence that’s here today and gone tomorrow. Life is meant to be lived to the full, using all that we are and all that we have and all that we hope for, to glorify God; to love Him and to bless those around us for His glory. That’s what life is about.

And when we start discovering that life – right in the middle of the realities that we face – then life starts getting some meaning and direction back. And just in case … I mean, just in case, you should come back to me and say, “Yea, Berni, great for you, but you want to see my life! You want to see the pile of dirty nappies I have to contend with. You want to see the accounting reconciliations piling up in my in-tray at the office – all those boring emails that are sitting on my email in-tray or …”

Next week on the programme, we will be chatting about discovering meaning in the midst of the mundane things of life because almost always, God’s plan is for us to bloom right where He has planted us. However unfavourable conditions might be; however boring or mundane things might be, God is a God that has an amazing plan for life – for your life and for my life. It is not a plan for you and me to drift through each day wondering what’s going on; wondering what the meaning of life is; wondering as we wake up, “Is this all there is? Isn’t there supposed to be something more to life than just this?” The answer is, “YES, there is!”

God has created you and created me to do the good works that He prepared beforehand for us to walk into. God has a plan for meaning and purpose and fulfilment in our lives. I come back to it – it almost always involves sacrifice; it almost always involves a tough choice.

But God has a plan … He has a plan for you and me to live a life that’s worth living!

Let’s face it – 90 per cent of life is about the mundane. The day to day realities of putting food on the table, raising a family, all that stuff. And one day we wake up and ask ourselves, “So this is it? This is all there is?” Where’s the meaning, where’s the sense of direction and purpose in life?

Wealth Doesn’t Work

Man, I wish I was a singer. If you heard me sing you may not wish the same thing. But the reason I wish I was a singer is that singers who sing songs we like, when they get on the radio and they sing a song we’ve heard before we go, “Great, I’m really looking forward to hearing this song again.” When a guy like me who talks rather than sings gets on, and talks about something you’ve heard him talk about before, we screw up our faces and say, “Hasn’t that guy talked about that before?” And so that’s my prelude to telling you I’m going to be talking about something you may have heard me talk about before. Not because I feel the need to repeat myself, but because it’s important and it fits in to what we’re talking about in this series called, “From Vanity to Victory”.

What we’ve been chatting about so far in this series is this sense that so many people have that their life has no real purpose. The sun comes up every day and sets every night – same old, same old, same old. And you work hard and you do your best and you go through the good times and then some bad times. And you get toward the end of your life, and as King Solomon did, you say to yourself:

Vanity of vanities, says the teacher. Vanity of vanities – all this is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?

And right now we’re going to take a look at one of the places we go looking for meaning, only to discover after a lifetime of looking there that there’s no meaning there at all. So where is that place? Let me begin by sharing with you the circumstances in which Solomon wrote this piece of wisdom. When he was a young man, just been appointed as king of Israel, he had an encounter with God. 2 Chronicles Chapter 1, verse 7:

That night God appears to Solomon and says to him, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ And Solomon said to God, ‘You showed steadfast love to my father David and have made me succeed him as king. Oh Lord God, let your promise to my father, David now be fulfilled for you have made me King over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go our and come in before this people, for who can rule these great people of yours.’

God answers Solomon, ‘Because this was in your heart and you haven’t asked for possessions, wealth, honour or the life of those who hate you. You’ve not even asked for long life, but you’ve asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may rule my people over whom I have made you king. Wisdom and knowledge are granted to you. I will also give you riches, possessions and honour, such as none of the kings had who were before you and none after you shall have the like.”

So God gives Solomon not only what he asks for but what he didn’t ask for, which was riches and possessions and honour. And that promise came to pass. Solomon truly was the richest man on earth. Sadly though, those riches became a snare to him and he began worshipping idols and getting caught up in the things of this world. So towards the end of his life, as he looks back on things, this is his reflection on the meaning of wealth and possessions and all the pleasures that those things can buy. Ecclesiastes Chapter 2 beginning at verse 1:

I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But again, this also was vanity I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and delights of the flesh, and many concubines.

“So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”

So Solomon, more wealthy than probably you or I would ever be in a hundred lifetimes, there was nothing he couldn’t have. No pleasure in which he couldn’t indulge. He gave it such a good try. And yet he comes to the conclusion that it was totally meaningless. It took him a lifetime to figure it out. It took me at least half a lifetime to figure it out.

So many people are looking for meaning in their lives, so many. Perhaps you’re in that place right at the moment. And yet we can spend a lifetime looking for that meaning as Solomon did, in completely the wrong place. What a salutary lesson. Is there anything wrong with enjoying the things that God’s given us? Not at all. In fact, that’s something we’re going to be looking at after the break as we take a look at the whole God dimension in our lives. But trying to find our meaning and our satisfaction and wealth and possessions and pleasure is completely and utterly hollow.

It’s a dead end road. And what a pity it would be to discover that when we’re close to death, close to the end having spent our whole lives trying. Again, further on in the book of Ecclesiastes, this is what Solomon concludes out of his wisdom and years of experience leading Israel and her King. Ecclesiastes Chapter 5 beginning at verse 10:

The lover of money will not be satisfied with money, nor the lover of wealth with gain. This also is vanity. When goods increase those who eat them increase and what gain has their owner but to see them with these eyes?

In others words, it just doesn’t work. There is no real satisfaction, no real joy, no real meaning in chasing after possessions and wealth and all that stuff. There’s no life worth living to be discovered in the ownership of things. But things are a part of our life. Our circumstances are parts of our lives. How do we discover meaning in the midst of these mundane things of life? How do we discover a life worth living amidst the mundane, ordinary, day-to-day realities of our lives, my life, your life.

Well, that’s what we’re going to be talking about after this break as we discover how to live our lives in the God dimension. Because not only do I believe that God wants us to truly enjoy where we’re at and what we have right at this moment, whatever that may look like, good or bad, I believe He wants us to discover real meaning and real purpose as we live out our lives first and foremost for Him.

The God Dimension

It seems that we can all find ourselves on something of that merry-go-round in life. Same thing day after day, after day punctuated by the odd happy event and the odd crisis. And lots of people will sit on the bus on the way home, or the train or the car or whatever, after a hard day at the “office”, whatever that may look like in the life that they’re living, asking themselves, “What’s it all for? Why am I doing this? What’s the point of it all?”

Have you found yourself wondering that? When I get to the end of this life, what will it mean? What difference will my life have made? Well you’re not the only one. Sadly, the vast majority of people don’t have a sense of the meaning or the purpose or the direction for their lives. Instead, like King Solomon, they look at their lives and they say:

Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities … everything is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?

That’s what King Solomon, the richest and wisest man that ever lived, concluded. You know what I think? I think it’s tragic because God never meant for it to be like that. God meant for you and me, when we put our trust in Jesus, His Son, to be set free from that kind of hang-dog mentality. That sense of purposelessness and worthlessness. God means for you and me to experience a sense of meaning and direction and anticipation and contentment for our lives beyond just the daily grind of putting food on our table.

So is that true? Is that really what God wants for us, or is it just Berni saying that? Absolutely, it’s true! It’s not just me, but God says it through His Word. Romans 14 verse 17:

The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Matthew Chapter 13, verse 44:

The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone found and hid and then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has to buy that field.

Isaiah 55:12:

You shall go out with joy and be led back in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

See, I could go on and on with those Scriptures. I’m not saying that living our lives with God is a 24/7 happy-clappy experience with not a care in the world. But as we walk through the day-to-day mundane realities of our lives, working, bringing up children, managing a household, perhaps enjoying some retirement, whatever it is that you do, it’s meant to have meaning … a depth a satisfaction.

And so today we’re going to take a look at how to discover that because this is so important. Let’s continue on and see what Solomon with all his wisdom and years of experience has to say on this subject. We’re going Ecclesiastes Chapter 2 in the Old Testament beginning at verse 12:

So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly, for what can the one do who comes after the king, only what has already been done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. The wise have eyes in their head but fools walk in darkness. Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls them all. Then I said to myself, what happens to the fool happens to me also. Why then have I been so very wise. And I said to myself, that this also was vanity, for there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or the fools seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How can the wise die just like the fools?

So I hated life because what is done under the sun was so grievous to me for all is vanity and chasing after the wind. I hated all my toil in which I toiled under the sun, seeing I must leave it to those who come after me and who knows whether they’ll be wise or foolish, yet they will be master for all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun.This is also vanity.

So I turned and gave up my heart to despair concerning all the toil of my labours under the sun because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who didn’t toil for it. This is vanity and it’s a great evil.

What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun, for all their days are full of pain and their work is a vexation, even at night their minds don’t rest. This is also vanity. There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in their toil. This also I saw is from the hand of God, for apart from Him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment. For to the one who pleases Him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and heaping only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after the wind.

See, he begins by bemoaning the meaninglessness, the futility, the apparent vanity of working hard all his life. Until he finally comes to his senses, until he finally realises, “You know what? I’ve been missing something here. As I’ve been looking at this whole life of mine, I’ve been missing the God dimension. What a dill I am.”

That’s what Solomon is saying here. It all comes from God. What better than to enjoy what is given us. In fact who can enjoy anything apart from him. Maybe my life should be more about pleasing God than myself. Maybe that’s where it’s all at. Verse 26:

For to the one who pleases Him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping only to give to the one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after the wind.

And can I tell you, that absolutely hits the nail right on the head. Before I became a Christian I had so much more physically money-wise, income earning potential wise than I have today in God’s service. Much more. But I could never enjoy it. Somehow I could never enter into the joy of what I had and the joy of my circumstances in life. But now, even though physically I have less, I have a joy and a contentment because principally, to the best of my imperfect abilities, my priority’s about honouring God and pleasing Him.

And without realising what was happening, the joy and the sense of purpose just kind of filled my life to the point where, even though in the physical I have less I’m actually so rich in God. I have so much more because now I look at my life and I love living. I love who I am and what He’s given me and the purpose and the plans and the tasks that He’s set before me. Absolutely. Yes, there are challenges, yes, there are some tough days along the way. But this one bit of wisdom from Solomon is just worth bottling it’s so true.

But to the one who pleases Him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy. But to the sinner He gives the work gathering and heaping only to give to the one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after the wind.

Living in the God Dimension

So let me ask you, what does it mean to live in the God dimension. How exactly do we come to the same conclusion that Solomon came to, that to the one who pleases Him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy. It’s an awesome thing to be able to enjoy what God’s given us. Our job, our family, our home … or not. Or whatever our lot is in life. But how? How do we actually do that? How can we have that sense of contentment and peace and joy and fulfilment that so many people are hungering for.

I mean, the Apostle Paul had it. He had it in buckets full. And not because he was driving around in a BMW7 series or because he had a six bedroom house with swimming pool and triple-car garage and jacuzzi in some fashionable suburb. Not because he was living on his healthy superannuation fund in a wonderfully relaxed and safe and secure retirement. When he wrote this passage we’re about to look at, he was in a stinking dungeon chained to some Roman guard wondering when he was going to be executed. Philippians Chapter 4 beginning at verse 11. He says:

Look, I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well fed and going hungry; of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

I mean, since life has the ability to throw just about anything at us – good, bad, happy, sad – it would be kind of an awesome thing to have what Paul has: this contentment in our hearts, irrespective of whether our circumstances are for us or against us. Well I want to take a look at where that begins, where the rubber hits the road in actually living out our lives, not just here in the physical dimension, but in the God dimension. Have a listen to this. Colossians Chapter 3 beginning at verse 16. He writes:

Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you. Teach and admonish one another in all wisdom and with gratitude in your hearts with psalms. Hymns and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

But wives, be subject to your husbands that is fitting in the Lord; husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children obey your parents in everything for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. Fathers, don’t provoke your children or they may lose heart. Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched in order to please them, but wholeheartedly fearing the Lord.

Whatever your task, put yourselves into it as done for the Lord and not for your masters since you know that from the Lord will receive an inheritance as your reward. You serve the Lord Christ.”

Right there in that passage the Apostle Paul writes to his friends at the church at Colossi. It’s this key to living out our life of contentment, a life that doesn’t feel meaningless but one with a sense of purpose. Three things Paul’s telling us to lead a contented life.

The first is letting the Word of Christ dwell richly in us. Being taught and admonished in wisdom. I can’t tell you how many so-called Christians I know who don’t take that seriously. They just kind of wander into church some Sundays, half-listen to the odd sermon, wander home and wonder why life feels meaningless. One of my favourites scriptures that. It’s so powerful, it’s so full, it’s so unmistakable. “Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you.”

Be deliberate, learn, grow in Christ because it’s not the truth that will set you free, it’s knowing the truth that will set us free.

The second is to worship God with gratitude in your hearts singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God, because worshipping God lifts our gaze off the mundane into the reality, the awesome reality of who God is and what He’s done for us through His Son, Jesus Christ. A bit earlier in the chapter, Paul puts it this way. Colossians Chapter 3 verse 2:

Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.

In other words, focus on God. There’s this awesome God who is just as real as the physical stuff you can see. So let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you, lift your gaze and focus on God.

And finally, whatever you do, throw yourself into it, doing it for God and not for your earthly masters. See this last bit is absolutely the place where our faith hits the road. This last bit is absolutely where our life finds direction and meaning and purpose. When we do the boring mundane things of life, the filing at the office, the difficult committee meeting at the kids football club where all the parents are arguing, the shopping the cleaning, do it well, do it with excellence, do it in a way that blesses other people with all your gifts and abilities and hard work.

Do it as if you’re doing it for God, not for the people on this earth, because you’re actually are. Do it for Jesus just as He walked the dusty roads of Israel all that way to Cross for you. Do you get it? When we serve other people for God, when we’re doing it for Him, when we’re praying and asking Him to use our humble efforts to bless others, that’s when it all starts to make sense.

That’s when we find satisfaction, whether it’s being a wife to a husband, a husband to a wife, children to your parents, parents to your children, workers to the boss, the boss to his or her workers. Whatever situation you find yourself in is what Paul’s saying, whatever your circumstances, no matter how ordinary or mundane or menial, do it for God, do it for God, whatever your task. Put yourselves into it as done for the Lord and not for your earthly masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive and inheritance as your reward. You serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ain’t that just something. And can I tell as I’ve applied this powerful God wisdom, letting the Word of Christ dwell richly in me, worshipping God in all that I do, and I’ve got to tell you, I have a lot of mundane things to do, just like you do, serving Him in everything I do, all be it imperfectly, you know what I’ve discovered? This actually works. This is where the meaning is in life. God’s given us a task to do and we do it well and we do it for Him and we do it in love and we do it in sacrifice just as Jesus did. This actually gives us that sense of meaning and purpose and contentment that we’ve been looking for. Like that should be a surprise to us, right?

When it comes to the way in which we’re drawn away from God, the way in which we’re tempted to chase after the things this world has to offer, the way our enemy the devil robs us of life itself, the 800 pound gorilla in the room, is the great, big fat lie that “it’s all about me”.

It’s All About Me

We are continuing our journey from vanity to victory. What do I mean by that? Well, over the last couple of weeks – if you were able to join me – we kind of discovered a condition; a season that we can all find ourselves travelling through at some stage in our lives. It’s this thing that happens when, one day we wake up and we look at our lives and our lot in life and the way we labour away at whatever we labour away at and like the old King Solomon, we ask ourselves, “What’s this all about? Why am I doing this stuff?”

And sadly, very sadly, Solomon one of the wisest and wealthiest men on the planet, concluded:

‘Vanity of vanities’, says the teacher, ‘vanity of vanities, everything is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?

So, in other words, many a person comes to the conclusion that it just ain’t worth it. There is no real purpose in life, so let’s just get out there and enjoy it, for tomorrow perhaps, we die. I wonder as you examine your life, what conclusion do you come to? Is it one of vanity like Solomon – just kind of drifting along there, without a purpose, a life of vanity? Or is it a life of direction and purpose and fulfilment?

Well, this week again, as I said, whatever our starting point may be as we assess our lives, we are going to continue on our journey from vanity to victory.

My generation – the baby-boomer generation – had a name coined for it back in the 1960s. We were called the “me” generation because in the post-war, economic boom times, we kind of convinced ourselves we could have it all. In fact, in the middle of the cold war, with the threat of nuclear annihilation ever present, we decided the only thing to do was to live for today, because there may be no tomorrow. And so, what proliferated to fit that psyche was a ton of consumer technologies. The electric razor, the electric hair rollers, the mix master, the toaster and all those other gadgets – and the car, I mean, let’s not forget the car! And the television – they all happened to fit with the “have it all now, have it all today” psyche of the “me” generation.

Now, our kids, “Generation X”, kind of reacted a bit against that. They saw their parents indulging their senses and they saw their parents getting divorced and losing everything and the pain that that caused and so the pendulum kind of swung a bit back in the other direction for a while, as they reacted against this gosh materialism which had apparently failed their parents generation.

But then along came “Generation Y”, whom we so pampered with everything and every experience and every music lesson and every sporting event … we pampered so much that the pendulum swung even more profoundly, back in the direction of “me, me, me”!

I was listening to one expert whose name is Michael McQueen of the NexGen group, speaking about his generation, Generation Y. And He said something along these lines – he said, “Look, it’s not that we are selfish, it’s just that we genuinely believe that we are the centre of the universe. We genuinely believe that we are the most important thing because in the way you, our parents, have pampered us, it’s kind of what you have taught us.” That was kind of the gist of what he said.

And I guess that’s where we are at. And now consumer electronics – first the laptop, then more profoundly, the ipod, the iphone, the ipad and their various equivalents, have focused the world even more keenly on the “I, I, I”, or the “me, me, me”, thing. See, what these technologies tells us is that, in fact, not only can you have the whole world in your hand, you should have the whole world in your hand. That’s what is normal these days.

The world comes to you; the world serves you. Now, that’s the contemporary reality but there ain’t nothing new in that. All along people have worried about being first; about being on top; about being the winner; about being the best; about being the most recognised – the numero uno; having the most, even when it came to good things.

Have a listen to this fascinating exchange between Jesus and His disciples. Mark chapter 9, beginning at verse 33:

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you guys arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had been arguing with one another which one of them was the greatest. Jesus sat down, called the twelve of them and said to them, “Look, whoever wants to be first has to be last of all and the servant of all.” Then he took a child and put it among them; and taking in his arms, the child, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not just me but the one who sent me.

I love that … I mean, I absolutely love that! These guys, the disciples, they weren’t the baby boomers or they weren’t generation Y but they had all the characteristics of the “me” generation, didn’t they? They are wandering around with the Son of God and all they can think about is themselves – who’s the greatest, who’s the best, who was Jesus’ favourite, who was numero uno in the pecking order after Jesus. I mean, seriously! They were chasing after vanity; they were chasing after number one. And as we heard last week on the programme, from Solomon, who had all the power and all the wealth, that left him feeling empty and hollow.

Can I ask you something? What are you chasing after in your life, right now? What are your priorities? What is important to you? What are you working hard for and working hard on? Perhaps it’s to buy a better house for your family or to pay the mortgage down or to get a promotion at work … whatever. And of course, none of those things are in and of themselves, bad things. But if they are our priority in life; if that’s what life is about for you and for me, we can go along for a while like that, but one day we are going to wake up and we are going to ask ourselves, “What is this really all about? Why am I doing this stuff? What does it mean? Where is it going? Why am I not satisfied? Why am I not fulfilled? Surely there has got to be more to life than this!”

Well, as it turns out, there is! And that’s why the ‘me, me, me’ focus simply doesn’t satisfy. One writer, many years ago, S.D. Gordon, describes it this way – by commenting on whether the flow of ‘stuff’ is inwards, into our lives – or outwards, out to others. Have a listen, he says:

‘Into’ is the world’s preposition. Every stream turns in; and that means a dead sea. Many a man’s life is simply the coast line of a dead sea. ‘Out of’ is the Master’s word. His thought is of others. The stream must flow in, and must flow through, if it is to flow out, but it is judged by its direction and Jesus would turn it outward.”

And that’s the very point that Jesus is making to His disciples. The whole “me, me, me” thing is a vanity – it’s meaningless; it’s empty; it doesn’t satisfy if we follow the world’s lead of having everything flowing inwards to us. Our lives becoming the “coast line” as S.D. Gordon wrote, of a dead sea. There is no life in that place. Do you get it?

Jesus is saying, “If you want to be first, is that what you want?” Well, the only way that works; the only way you get satisfaction out of life; the only way you really have an impact in this world is by being last; by being the servant of all; by welcoming this child. That’s where it’s at – that’s where victory is at!

Poured Out

Now, if you have managed to catch the programme previously and spent any time at all journeying with me, then one thing that you may have noticed, well, I’m a pretty passionate kind of guy. I love living life; I love living my life to the full. They tell me that’s in part due to my personality type. Okay, I’m happy with that; if that’s how God has made me, fine.

And maybe part of that sense of optimism is cultural; I mean, we Australians tend to be an optimistic bunch. That’s what comes, I guess, from living in a country that blesses us in so many ways, I guess. And that’s fine too. And yet, you knew, didn’t you that I was setting myself up for this. It’s easy amidst all that optimism and that sense of anticipation, that sense of wanting to get out there and live life to its full, it’s easy to find yourself a bit on the empty side; a bit on the unfulfilled side. And so my response to that emptiness used to be to try and fill myself up with more – to get out there and do more of life; to experience more of life – to have more, to chase after more, to be more, to do more, to be recognised by more people.

And yet, the crazy thing, perhaps in one of the greatest paradoxes of life: the more you try and fill yourself up, frankly, the emptier you end up feeling. So I wonder, is the opposite true? If the more we try to fill ourselves up, the emptier we feel, could it be that the more we empty ourselves; the more we pour ourselves out for other people, the fuller and more satisfied we will feel?

Let’s have a look. I guess where this series of messages kicked off a couple of weeks ago was with the sad realisation that one of the wisest, wealthiest men who ever walked the planet, King Solomon of Israel, came towards the end of his life as he concluded that despite all his wealth; despite all his power; despite the fact that he had indulged in every pleasure that he could imagine; despite his position of huge privilege and power, he concludes:

Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities! Everything is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?

Don’t you think that’s tragic? And that’s why we on this journey, “From Vanity to Victory” through God’s Word. Because I believe – no, “believe” is the wrong word – I know that God didn’t send Jesus to this earth to suffer and die and rise again for you and me, so that we could wake up one day and conclude, “There’s no real meaning or purpose or point to my life.”

You see as positively and as optimistically as God’s wired me on the inside, I’ve been in that place and let me tell you, it’s not a place I ever, ever, ever want to go back to. And the exciting thing is that it’s not a place that I ever, ever, ever have to go back to:

… because in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

It doesn’t matter what life throws at us. If we believe in Jesus, then we are meant to live a life of victory, not vanity. Let me say that again: whatever life throws at us, if we believe in Jesus, then we are meant to live a life of victory and not vanity.

Maybe vanity, meaninglessness, purposelessness is the disease more of the affluent West; maybe it’s because on any global scale, the people who live in the developed economies have so much, they don’t realise how privileged they are. But you know something, I have looked into the eyes and seen into the hearts of people all round the world and whilst vanity may well be more acute amongst affluence, the problem of purposelessness in life is universal. Rich, poor, black, white … you name it, you take me to any people group and I will show you a sense of emptiness in some people’s lives; vanity, as Solomon calls it, in a good percentage of the population.

And it comes from trying to be the centre of the universe and have everything flowing into us rather than having an impact outwards. One of the things we’ve heard Solomon say about his wealth and power and privileges and pleasure is this. Ecclesiastes Chapter 2, beginning at verse 1:

Solomon said to himself, ‘Come now and I’ll will make a test of pleasure. Enjoy yourself.’ But again that was vanity too. I said of laughter, ‘It’s mad’. And of pleasure, ‘What use is it?’ I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine. My mind still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forests of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my household. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of provinces. I get the singers, both men and women, and delights of the flesh and many concubines.

So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired (listen to this) whatever my eyes desired I didn’t keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure. My heart found pleasure in all my toil and this was my rewards for my toil. But then … then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil that I had spent in doing it and again all was vanity and a chasing after the wind. And there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Just what I was saying before. The more we try to fill ourselves up the emptier we feel. Solomon filled himself up more than perhaps any person in history. At the end of it all …

… it was a vanity. It was the chasing after wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.

So right now I want to test my hypothesis, that the opposite of that may be true. That perhaps the way, paradoxically, to fill ourselves up is to empty ourselves out; to pour ourselves out for other people.

Let’s have a listen to the apostle Paul who lived a bit over 1000 years after Solomon. He’s on death row, towards the end of his ministry, somewhere in a Roman dungeon, chained to a guard, wondering when he’s going to executed. And it seems the last thing on his mind is what people think of him, what people say of him, what people do to him. Paul is the last thing on Paul’s mind. Isn’t that cool. Paul is the last thing on Paul’s mind. Have a listen. Philippians Chapter 2 beginning at verse 16. The total opposite of Solomon in his circumstances, but look at the reaction to those circumstances:

It is by holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labour in vain. But even if I’m being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you and in the same way also, you should be glad and rejoice with me.

So, what does that word “libation” mean, because it’s not a word we use day by day. The picture is of your blood being poured out in a violent death for the cause of God. And that’s more than just figurative since Paul, as we discover in this letter to the Philippians is literally sitting on death row waiting to die. The people of the church in Philippi were his dear friends, this is one of the … no, it’s probably the most affectionate of all Paul’s letters in the New Testament. And what Paul is talking about here is his life being poured out.

And that’s what he’s done over the last umpteen years. He’s been pouring himself out to the point of death and he does it with such gladness and rejoicing because he’s discovered through many, many years of hard, difficult, confronting, dangerous ministry in Jesus Christ’s name right across the known world. He’s discovered real purpose, real satisfaction, real contentment that just don’t come by filling yourself up. They come by pouring yourself out. They come when give all that we are for God and for other people. Everything. Holding nothing back, not even our lives.

And in that place, in that dungeon on death row, in that place of worldly defeat, Paul is able to write about the gladness and rejoicing in his heart even though his life is being poured out. So it’s true. Solomon shows us that filling up ourselves makes us empty. Paul shows us that pouring ourselves for God and for others fills us with gladness and rejoicing even in the darkest places of life. Now, that’s worth hanging onto, don’t you think.

The Challenge

So, what’s the challenge. Well, here it is. During the course of my life, I’ve met many a person who doesn’t want to have victory in their lives. The question I have for you, and my hunch is that maybe, just maybe, it’s a question that God would have each one of us ask ourselves: do we really, really want victory in our lives or would we prefer to just continue with the status quo, because even though it’s not the best life, it gives us something to complain about. It gives us something to be dependent on other people. Does this sound harsh?

I was with a man recently who was going through a particularly difficult time in his life – let’s call him Derek. It really wasn’t very pleasant for him. It had been building up over many years and now he was in a lot of pain and distress and what he needed most was something practical. Some practical help and advice to start dealing with key issues that were assailing him. As it turns out it was an area of life in which I had experience so I really wanted to help this guy.

I can listen and empathise, that’s really important. I was able to sort through some of the issues and above all, I was able to connect him with some people who really had some particular expertise in this are, which is something he really, really needed at that point in his life. So I did all those things, but do you think I could get him to take up the offer of help from experts? He wallowed around in his painful dilemma for months, which not only made his situation worse, but made him feel much worse.

So sometimes, as it turns out, we don’t want help. We don’t want victory. We don’t want someone pulling alongside next to us. We’re wedded to the pain and the mess because that’s what we know. And of course, it gives us something to complain about. We can be a victim. I’m just being honest here.

Once when Jesus was wondering through a crowd, he heard someone shouting in the distance:

They came to Jericho. As He and His disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, he shouted, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me.’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man saying, ‘Take heart, get up. He’s calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do?’ The blind man said to Him, ‘Teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go, your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed Him on the way.

You see the sharp contrast between Derek, my friend, and Bartimaeus. See Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus, he sought Jesus, he sprang up, he came to Jesus. And when Jesus asked him what he wanted Him to do, he answered, “Teacher, let me see again”. He could have just sat there. He could have just wallowed in self-pity. He could have continued his begging and cycle of dependency … but instead he cried out, sprang up, ran to Jesus! Unlike Derek. Derek believes in Jesus, but when Jesus brought someone to help him, he decided that really he didn’t want it. Really he wasn’t ready for victory after all.

When it comes to victory, the sort that the apostle Paul spoke of, as we saw before the break; the sort that will let us sacrifice our lives for God’s purposes and for His glory; the sort of victory that has us with all that we are, with all the strength and determination we can muster, taking up our cross and following this Jesus; when it comes to that sort of victory, do you really want it? Or do you want to wallow in your fallenness and your self-pity. Do you want to be dependent, do you want to just continue complaining about your situation or are you going to be a Bartimaeus?

Are you going to hear that Jesus has come to you and cry out to Him and spring up and run to Him and tell Him what healing you need? I can’t answer that question for you. My job is to confront you with it so that you will answer it yourself.

Victory as it turns out, is something entirely different to winning. When we talk about winning, we think about what we can win. What’s in if for us. When Jesus talks about victory, He’s talking about something entirely different. And it’s a victory that He would have us live out … for an eternity.

A Life that Really Counts

“From Vanity to Victory” – that’s what we have been talking about these last few weeks on the programme and that’s what we are going to be talking about again today. Because I know that so many people … people even who believe in Jesus, many of them are living real lives of vanity rather than lives of victory. Lives that feel more or less, on the empty side. Lives that feel as though they lack meaning and purpose and direction; lives that leave us asking, “Is this all there is? Is this really what life is about? There’s not more to life than … this?” Or as Solomon put it:

Vanity of vanities; vanity of vanities! Everything is a vanity. What do people gain from the toil at which they toil under the sun?

So, today we are going to kick off our look at what constitutes a life of victory. What does a life of meaning and purpose and victory actually look like? Because if we can find such a life; if we can discover how to live such a life amidst all the pressures; all the realities going on in my life, all the pressures and realities going on in your life, it strikes me that will be a really, really worthwhile thing to do. Do you think?

And there’s one life; one life above all other lives that brings this whole question of victory into sharper focus than any other. That’s the life that we are going to be looking at right now. It’s a life that began so well. Jesus born to Mary and Joseph in Nazareth in their ancestral home of Bethlehem. And then His awesome launch into public ministry – the baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Let’s read about it. Luke chapter 3, verse 21 and onwards:

Now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.

What an awesome start to His public ministry! Some people are blessed with an awesome start. The question is not so much how we start though, it’s how we finish that really counts all the more. And Jesus, right from the word go, had so much … I mean, so much to contend with – straight after His baptism, He is led out into the wilderness to starve for forty days and forty nights; to be tempted by the devil. And straight after that, He returns home to Nazareth to begin His public ministry as the Son of God and the people were so delighted that:

… all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, they drove Him out of town, they drove Him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they might hurl Him off the cliff

Zippidy doodah! Welcome home Jesus! By now perhaps, you and I would be wondering, “Why am I doing this?” Perhaps you and I would have retreated to the relative safety of the carpenter’s shop where He grew up and consigned ourselves to living a life of meaninglessness, albeit a safe life. You know, there’s a thought, maybe that’s why so many people don’t have victory in their lives because they are not prepared to go into the dangerous places where we actually win victories. No battles, no victories, right?

Maybe in the face of attacks and opposition and setbacks and a lack of approval from other people as Jesus had, we would have withdrawn to a life that it wasn’t our calling to live; a life that God had never planned; a life of comfort and safety; a life of pursuing our own pleasures, rather than God’s plan. Life that would lead us, like Solomon, to conclude:

Vanity of Vanities … everything is a vanity. Everything is meaningless and empty.’ What benefit do I get from all this toil that I toil at under the sun?

What do you think? Am I being a bit harsh? I don’t know. I think sometimes we think that serving God is all about winning; serving God is about having success; maybe serving God for Jesus should have been having a successful carpenter’s business that prospered? Is serving God more about meeting our needs? But the more I see of Jesus’ life, the more I see that victory; His brand of victory had very, very little to do with any of those things.

The religious leaders came after Him with a meat cleaver; He was upsetting the status quo; He was preaching what they considered to be blasphemies; He was eating and drinking with tax collectors and prostitutes; He was healing people – can you believe this, on the Sabbath? I mean, how dare He? And then to top it all off, He declares Himself to be Lord of the Sabbath! “Something … something had to be done about this dangerous heretic,” they murmured. “I know,” says one of them, “Let’s have Him killed; let’s play the system with the Romans and get Him crucified. That will do it. Jesus loses, we win.”

That’s an all too simplistic; all too common view of victory. The world’s view; the view that we often carry around in our heads – victory is when I win – right? Again, listen to Jesus on the subject of being crucified. John chapter 10, beginning at verse 17:

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one is taking it away from me; I am laying it down of my own accord. I actually have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.

And what ensues – you can read it for yourself in the tenth Chapter of John’s Gospel – is how people hurl abuse at Him. They try to hurl stones at Him and then they try to have Him arrested! All because He claims to be the Messiah, the Son of God. All because He claims to be God. But when it comes to living a life of victory, the thing I want us to notice here is that victory for Jesus, was not about avoiding the Cross. Victory for Jesus was not about winning in the sense that you and I might think about winning. I mean, if we were in His shoes would we be trying pretty much save our own skin?

Victory for Jesus was doing what He came to do. Victory for Jesus was doing His Father’s bidding, laying down His life voluntarily, and then taking it up again. Victory, as it turns out, has little or nothing to do with winning. Victory has everything to do with living out the call of God on our lives. Can I say that again? This is so important.

Victory has nothing to do with winning. Victory has nothing to do with having a successful, prospering carpenter’s business in Nazareth – Victory has everything to do with living out the call of God on our lives.

In pursuing victory, Jesus puts no premium on His life whatsoever. On His needs, on His comforts. And even when, as any man or woman would have done, He prays to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me”. Obviously it concludes victoriously, yet, not I want, but yet your will be done. Victory was not to be found for Jesus huddled over His tools in the safety of Dad’s carpenter shop in Nazareth. That would have been pure vanity.

No, victory to be found on the Cross as He laid down His life for you and me, so that our sins could be forgiven. Victory was to be found in the empty tomb as God’s power raised His Son to bring you and me a new life. Victory for Jesus was all about – completely about – what He did for His Father in heaven and what He did for you and for me. It had nothing to do with what He did for Himself. That is an astounding insight from God’s Word, isn’t it? That’s the key to leaving behind a life of vanity in order to live a life of victory.

A Higher Purpose

What’s the calling on your life? What do you feel called to do? I believe passionately that this God who sent Jesus to die for you and for me on that Cross has a call – let’s call it a higher calling – for our lives. And it’s that higher calling that we’re going to chat about some more on the program. Because it’s living out that higher calling or a higher purpose in our own experience that’s the victory that Jesus came to give us in life.

Not the vanity, not the emptiness that so many people are about, but the victory that Jesus won for us on that Cross and through the empty tomb. As we saw before the break, winning, what we think winning is, and victory, the sort of victory that Jesus came to give us, are two entirely different things. Winning, nine times out of ten, is about us, saving our skin, getting what we want. Victory at least the victory that Jesus lived out, the sort of victory that Jesus taught us about, has nothing to do with self. It has everything to do with living out the calling, the purpose, that God has for our lives.

Okay, so back to my question: What’s the call on your life?

Now it doesn’t have to be anything big or grand. Higher calling doesn’t mean something impressive. Higher calling means the calling that God has on our lives. Higher calling doesn’t mean we all have to be Billy Graham’s and fill stadiums with millions of people over 50 years. Perhaps you’re a young mother sitting at home with a baby who’s teething and crying and keeping you awake at night, and you think, “Calling? Calling! I just want to make it through today and into tomorrow!” But a bringing up your child is an amazing calling. And have you noticed how much sacrifice is involved in that. There’s always sacrifice involved in following after our calling.

If we decide to follow Jesus and deal with some of the sin in our lives, the stuff we know is wrong, we know is robbing us of life, there’s going to be sacrifice involved. If we follow God’s calling to love other people and to serve them, you know what, there’s going to be sacrifice involved. Jesus’ calling was to reveal who God is and then to be crucified on a Cross. Do you reckon that involves sacrifice? Huge sacrifice! But that was His calling. As he put it, “To do the will of My Father who sent Me.| And that right there, in a nutshell, is what calling is all about. Doing the will of God.

And right here let me say, that that doesn’t mean that we’ll all end up in full-time ministry. I remember a few years ago interviewing a man on this program, who with his business partner started some coffee franchises here in Australia. Eventually they did a reverse take-over and bought the company out globally. Now to be frank, I don’t think either of these guys needed the extra money and doing something that big – they’ve been at it now for a good many years, is seriously hard work. For what? For coffee?

So I asked him in the interview, so why did you guys buy this global operation? Why are you doing this? And what he said was this, “So that we can generate funds to support God’s ministry around the world.” And the things that that business through the heart of those two men and their wives are funding in God’s kingdom around the world, I have to tell you, is just mind-boggling. Are they following their calling? Absolutely they are.

The whole company functions under God and for God. Board meetings start with an hour or so of prayer. They have a full-time chaplain on board. And even though their financial turnover is now huge – the bigger the turnover in many respects, the more zeros on the end of their financial challenges. They look successful, they work so hard with their team, all to follow after God’s higher calling on their lives. All to use who they are and what God’s given them and their skills and their abilities and their resources and their hopes and their dreams and their time and their lives to do what? To do the will of the Father who sent them.

It’s in that place and only in that place, following after God’s specific calling for our lives, that in fact, for me for my life, that I’ve begun to discover what victory is. Vanity was something I lived out for the first 36 years of my life. It was about my needs, my career, my wants, my future, my reputation. And I came to the same conclusion, even though I would have used different words back then, to King Solomon. “This is a waste of time. Vanity of vanities, its all vanities. What do I gain from all the toil which I toil at under the sun.”

Victory is something I have been discovering in trying to live my life for Jesus. Stumbling often, being picked up by Him, being forgiven by Him, being provided for by Him, but seeing breakthroughs because of Him. I’ve been doing what I’m doing now in this ministry of Christianityworks for just over 10 years. It’s been the toughest 10 years of my life. There’s a dimension of spiritual opposition that happens when we follow after God’s calling for our lives.

They’re without a doubt the toughest 10 years of my life but also without a shadow of any doubt, the most rewarding. Because as the oppositions come I have seen God’s victories – victories in me as He stretches me and makes me more like Jesus which is a very much a work in progress and victories in His calling as we see more and more people come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through these very radio programs.

Ask me whether I’d swap my life of calling for a nice and safe and profitable but largely empty existence, back doing what I was doing in the IT industry and my answer would be an unequivocal “no!” Because victory is so much more than that. The only real place to find victory is out there on the battlefield following after God, doing what He wants us to do. Giving our lives to Him lock, stock and barrel to live out His higher calling for our lives. John Chapter 10 verses 17 & 18:

Jesus said, ‘For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down My life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down, I have the power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.

And that’s the same calling on our lives, to lay our lives down for God’s calling for God’s purpose, to discover that victory is so much better than vanity. To discover that victory has nothing to do with saving our own skin. It has nothing to do with our comfort and our desires and everything to do with seeing God’s will and God’s purposes for our lives lived out and realised. However imperfectly, however painfully, for His glory nor for ours.

From This Day Forward

I saw an advert on the back of a taxi the other day for an investment company. It had the brand name with the by-line “Own the Future”. The idea being I guess, that if you invested for your retirement with this particular company, that you’d end up owning your future. It’s a seductive concept, isn’t it. There’s nothing wrong with making sure you have the funds to support yourself when it comes to retiring, although retirement isn’t necessarily something I find so attractive. But the reality is that nobody can ever own their future because no one knows what tomorrow brings. Jesus taught us that through this parable. Luke Chapter 12 beginning at verse 16:

Then He told them a parable. The land of a rich man produced abundantly and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do for I have no place to store my crops’. Then he said,’ I’ll do this. I’ll pull down my barns and I’ll build larger ones and there I will store my grain and my goods and I will say to my soul, ‘Soul you have ample goods laid up for may years, relax, eat, drink, be merry.’

But God said to him, ‘You fool, this very night your life will be demanded of you, and the things that you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is for those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.

So owning tomorrow with any degree of certainty may well be out of the question. But let me ask you this, what are you going to do with tomorrow? That’s more of the point. Now these last few weeks we’ve been chatting about living in vanity or victory. Whether we live our lives for ourselves, serving ourselves, meeting our every desire, feathering our own nests, only to discover that there’s an emptiness in that place that nothing can fill. Or whether we’re going to live our lives out following God’s call and doing His will, pouring ourselves out for Him. To be filled a victory and a contentment that words can’t describe. That’s the choice that each one of us has. Jesus had that choice too, as we saw before the break, and it’s that choice that He lays before you and me, here and now.

Jesus said, ‘Look, not everyone who calls me “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven’.

And so as our time together in this series of messages draws to a close, I believe that that’s the question that each one of us needs to ask and to answer. How are we spending our lives, and is the way we are spending our lives, our limited time here on this earth, in fact doing the will of our Father in heaven, or are we going our own way and wasting our lives? Well …? Do you have an answer to those questions, and if you do, are those answers pleasing to God or not?

Kind of makes you squirm in your seat a bit, doesn’t it? Now, I’m not here to make any of us feel guilty, it’s not about that. What this is about is asking ourselves whether we are in fact living out the lives that God has called has called us to live out or not. Whether we’ve figured out what God’s high calling for our lives looks like or not. Because Jesus made it clear again through a parable that when the end of our time here on this earth comes, how we spent that time is very important to Him. Luke Chapter 12 verse 37:

Blessed are those slaves who the master finds alert when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down and eat and he will come and serve them.

And in 1 Corinthians Chapter 7 verse 29 we are told that our time has grown short. And in Colossians Chapter 4 verse 5 that we should make the most of our time. In other words, the reason that God has left you and me here on this planet is to live out His plans and His purposes and the time for us to do that is limited and growing shorter and shorter by the minute. If we happen to have wasted until this point, then there’s nothing we can do about that, except to ask God’s forgiveness through Jesus. What we can do however, is to choose what to do with the rest of our lives.

Earlier on we took a look at Jesus’ life and observed that with all the trials and the opposition and the sacrifice and everything that went on in His life, everything He faced, everything He was put on earth to be, the easiest options would surely have been to stay safe and sound in the His Dad’s carpenter shop in Nazareth rather than to confront the forces of evil, and to make a spectacle of them by defeating their power in our lives on that brutal Cross.

He made His choice. He made His choice to set His sights on Jerusalem, on the Passover, on that Cross, to do His Father’s bidding. I believe that there are some people listening today who have yet to make a similar choice. Matthew Chapter 7 verse 13:

Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who will take it. But the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life and there are few that find it.

The whole point of our discussion today is simply to put that before each one of us, me as much as you, and for us to honestly examine our hearts and our ways and if needs be, to go God and to choose the narrow gate. To go to God and to choose His calling. To go to God and say to Him, “Lord, whatever it takes, whatever the cost, I want to live out your victory in my life.” In fact, we’re going to pray about that right now:

Father God,

as we just come to you in prayer, we think of Jesus, who when confronted with the huge cup of suffering there in the Garden of Gethsemane, said that if you couldn’t make that cup pass away from Him, then let Your will be done, not His. And so it was that He went to the Cross at the cost of His life to win a victory for us who didn’t deserve it. To win a victory that gives us eternal life.

And as we lay hold of that victory right now, by faith in Jesus, we are so awestruck by His choice. The choice or the dusty roads of Israel over His bed at home in Nazareth. The choice of the scorn and ridicule and criticism of so many instead of the love and the encouragement of His mother and father. The brutal nails of the Cross instead of the nails of the carpenters shop. And Lord we hear your call on our lives to come and to follow you.

So this day we choose the narrow gate, this day we choose to live the rest of our lives doing the will of our Father in heaven, this day we choose to live out of victory not our comfort. Forgive us for the time that we’ve wasted to this point.

Fill us with your Spirit. Empower us to live out Your higher calling on our lives whatever that may cost. We lay our lives down for you. In Jesus mighty name.

Amen