What is the meaning of Life

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

This is probably one of the most eye-opening, life-changing truth that I think we could ever listen to.

Many people today are searching for the meaning and purpose of life.

And that's something that we all really inwardly long for.

What it why am I really here?

What is my purpose?

I mean, there's got to be more to life than me just going to work, going home, going to bed, getting up, going to work, hey, coming home, going to bed.

There's got to be something more than to this cycle.

Amen.

There has to be.

And the problem is, most of us are searching for the purpose and meaning of life in the wrong places.

And what I love about this book, Solomon, in his own great, not just wealth, but which he had all the resources to search, but toward the end of his life, he had gotten to the point, and we'll look at this as we go, where he really wanted to know what the meaning of life really was and the purpose of life really was.

And, you know, trying to find eternal meaning and eternal purpose in a temporal world is like taking a square block and putting it into a round hole.

It really is.

And that's what his actually his conclusion really comes up with.

Only his eternal presence in our life can satisfy the meaning and purpose in our life.

Because he tells us, and we'll see the key verse to the whole 12 chapters basically is found in chapter 3, verse 11, where he says that he places, God the Father places eternity in our hearts.

That we have a longing for eternity.

So with that said, I want us to look at this morning.

What is the meaning of life?

When social science was introduced at Johns Hopkins University, and they have a tremendous mental, should I say, degree program there for psychologists and psychiatrists?

They did a study of it from John Hopkins University, surveyed ready 8,000 students at 48 different colleges.

And here's the question.

The issue was, and here's what they ask, what's the most important thing you feel in your life that you need out of your college education?

Are you ready for this?

16% said they're going through school for the purpose of making money.

Now I thought that would be higher.

16%.

But what was amazing to me, that was their goal, they were getting a degree to make a lot of money.

But 75% said that their primary goal was to find meaning and purpose in life.

Wow.

75%.

That is why Pastor Rick Warren, Dr.

Rick Warren, who I've had the privilege of knowing for several years.

He used to come to Liberty a lot when I was the dean of the seminary there.

And I enjoyed spending time with Rick.

But that's why his purpose-driven life book sold over 11 million copies.

It was on the New York's best time, best selling list for many, many, many weeks.

Because people are looking, are you ready?

For purpose and meaning of life.

Listen to this research.

Dr.

Hugh Moorhead, in which he wrote to 250 leading educators, intellectuals, and scientists.

And here's what he asked them.

He was doing a paper, and he says, he asked him this question, and this is a question I want to ask each of us.

What is the meaning of life?

Out of 250 of the most educated, most intellectual, most brilliant minds, are you ready?

You know their answer?

Some made up answers.

They didn't have a clue.

Others said, hey, and a lot of them said, I don't have a clue.

And then the majority said to Dr.

Moorhead, if you find out your answer, or when you give, hey, find out your research, would you let us know what is the real meaning and purpose of life?

What is the meaning and purpose of life?

Now here's what's really sad as I was doing all this research.

There was a college student who wrote this note before taking his own life.

Listen to what he said.

To anyone in the world who cares, that's why our church will always care.

And I love you for caring.

The way we've reached out to this community, to our young people, to the youth home.

We care.

Can I get an amen church?

We love you.

God loves you and we love you.

And God's got a wonderful plan for your life.

Jeremiah 29, 11.

But here's what he wrote.

To anyone in the world who cares, who am I?

Then he said, Why am I living?

Life has become stupid and purposeless.

Nothing makes sense to me anymore.

The questions I had when I came to college are still unanswered, and now I am convinced there are no answers.

There can only be pain and guilt and despair here in this world.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Only pain and hurt and despair in this world.

My fear, now here's what broke my heart.

My fear of death and the unknown is far less terrifying than the prospect of the unbearable frustration, futility, and hopelessness of continual existence.

My, my, my.

Now, if that's the way our younger generation is feeling and thinking, no wonder we have an epidemic of what?

Drug abuse, immorality going on, and suicide going on in our world.

Why?

Because they really feel like there's no meaning and purpose in their life.

The search for meaning and purpose in life is the most profound study we'll ever do.

No doubt in my mind.

I am so excited about this study in Ecclesiastes because it is Solomon is chronologically, as we go through these 12 chapters, is listing all the things that he has sought out to prove what the meaning and purpose of life really is.

Now, if we don't understand this book, and we need to understand this book for two reasons.

Number one, a lot of people would think it shouldn't even be in the Bible.

Because, see, Solomon, the search for meaning and purpose in Solomon's life was profound because Solomon, let me give you a little history about Solomon, basically wrote three books in the Bible.

The first book in his young life was what we call the Song of Solomon.

It's called the Romance Book.

In fact, you are not allowed to read that book until you get married.

Hello, amen.

And now don't you run home and read it either if you're not married.

That's for the marriage retreat.

Can I get an amen?

Then in his midlife, he wrote the book of Proverbs.

We call it the book of rules.

I meant, oh, the wisdom of God is so prevalent seen in his life.

Oh, you can read a in fact, here's a little saying I have a proverb.

Hey, a proverb, a day keeps the devil away.

It's all the godly wisdom you need to live successfully.

If you did nothing more than read, hey, one, there's 31 chapters of Proverbs.

You went through the book of Proverbs every month and you took those verses and you put down his warnings, his promises, hey, his precepts, and do what he says and don't do what he says, hey, no, that wasn't right.

Do what he says and the warnings that he gives you, heed them.

You would be very successful in your life.

You would find meaning and purpose in your life.

But the tragedy of Solomon, the wisest man.

In fact, in fact, we're gonna see this in verse 16 in Ecclesiastes 1, that he was the wisest of the wisest.

He was the smartest man.

Look at it, throw up verse 16 for me.

Jeremy, he was the smartest man that ever lived, and probably ever has lived or ever will live.

He said, I commune with my own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom than hey, than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem.

Yea, my heart hath great experience of wisdom and knowledge.

In other words, he says, I have more wisdom than anyone's come before me, and I have more wisdom than anyone that will come after me.

He was, hey, his IQ was off the chart.

My wife's IQ's off the chart.

She graduated Summa Kum Laud.

You say, What does that mean?

That means she's smart.

Steve, I graduated, thank the Lord.

Amen.

Amen, Sylvester.

Thank the Lord.

That's okay.

I made it.

Amen.

God knew I needed help.

That's why he sent Susan.

Sometimes you'll start and say, honey, I didn't understand that.

Would you run it back by me again?

But really, here's what Solomon is saying.

Solomon has, and what breaks my heart, we see him at the latter days of his life.

He writes the book of Ecclesiastes, which we title the Book of Regrets.

Isn't that sad?

Started out on fire for God.

In his mid-years, on fire for God.

But toward the end, he dies really frustrated, discontented.

And there's a reason for that.

He turned away from all the truth that he had written.

And so in those latter days, he's trying to say, what's going on in my life?

Where is real meaning and purpose?

The word Ecclesiastes means gathering.

Look at verse 2.

Solomon calls himself in the Hebrew language.

Kohaleth is the word, the Hebrew word.

It means, look in verse 2, preacher.

It also means a collector of material, a collector of knowledge, a collector of research.

It means, in another word, is the quester.

It means a searcher for answers.

In other words, he was doing everything he could to find out the true meaning of purpose of life.

Now he had all the wealth.

He had all the time.

By the way, he spent 40 years ruling and reigning, and during that reign, there was no wars as peace.

So he had all the time, all the wealth, he had everything at his disposal to find and to search, research, and to gather the information that he needed to come to a conclusion.

And he did.

The word.

And by the way, how many of you have ever how many of you like to read?

Okay.

I actually at one time I didn't like to read, but I've had to read so much in my.

I read so much studying.

I love to read to prepare.

But pleasure reading, I don't like to read unless it's a motorcycle book or a car book.

Or a truck book.

Because I read so much.

I do.

I read, and you I hope you can tell through the messages how much I read and study.

So last thing I want to do is read for pleasure.

Man, let's go build a truck.

Let's go drive a car, ride a motorcycle, let's do something to get my mind not thinking.

Somebody said, Well, you better think when you're riding that motorcycle.

But but my wife loves, my wife can read a book.

I decided we were going to read a book together on the airplane.

So I'm sitting there with the book and I'm reading.

And she goes, and then starts looking at something else.

And I'm still on the first page.

She's already read both pages.

I said, there is no way you read those two pages that quick.

She told me everything was on both pages.

I just gave her the book.

I said, just tell me what it means when you get through reading the book.

But you know what?

I have a terrible habit of when I do want to read a book that I really want to read.

You know what I do?

I go to the last chapter and find out what happens.

Anybody else like that?

I love to do that.

And then you say, well, why do you want to read the book?

Because now I want to go see how he came to that conclusion.

I do.

Now I'm ready to learn how he got to where he was going.

It helps me learn better.

I know I'm weird.

I told you I'm weird.

But that's what I do.

Well, guess what?

Solomon does the same thing.

Solomon, right up front, gives you the whole purpose of his book.

And it's found in verse 3.

And look at what he says.

He says, here it is, used 38 times in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Boy, this is good.

Solomon says, hey, here it is.

He states the conclusion right up front.

Everything is vanity of vanities.

All is vanity.

Now, he's not talking about the vanity that you and our think about.

He's not talking about the vanity of beauty or of success.

Okay?

Reminds me of the one a lady went to her pastor and she said, Pastor, I'm sorry.

I gotta talk to you.

He said, Okay, what's the problem?

She says, I've got a bad sin problem.

I have a vanity problem.

He says, What do you mean?

She says, I get up every morning and I spend at least 30 or more minutes admiring myself every morning before I go to work.

He said, ma'am, dear lady, I don't think you have a vanity problem.

You have an imagination problem.

I thought you'd like that one, Melvin.

Just a thought.

But here we see he's saying that life, and by the way, the word for vanity, and I think I have it on your outline there, the word vanity is the Hebrew word havel.

And it literally means basically three meanings, but the first meaning is it's like a vapor, it's like a breath.

In fact, Job, if you see in Job 7, 16, Job literally said, hey, that my life, he says, for my days are that the King James says they're a vanity, but he also says that it's like a breath.

The word vanity means breath, that my life is like a breath.

In other words, it's here gone.

Another word is vapor, they use synonym.

Vapor, is that not what James 4.14 says?

Whereas you know not what shall be on tomorrow.

What is your life?

But like a what?

Vapor that appears for a little time, then it what?

Vanishes away.

And then we see other verses that I gave you.

Psalms 39, 5.

He says, our life is like a handbreath.

And then he goes on, and he says in Psalms 89, verse 47, that we just have a short time here.

Psalms 89:47

And then I wanted you to see these, Psalms 90, verses 9, 10, and 12.

Psalms 90:9

Watch this.

For all our days are passed away in thy wrath.

We spend our years as a tale that is told.

And boy, that gripped me.

And I thought to myself, when I was studying that exergetically, taking that verse apart, I thought to myself, what will be the tale told of my life?

What would be the tale told of your life when you're gone?

When it's over.

Verse 10.

The days of our years are three score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be four score.

In other words, you're only gonna live in your 70s, maybe your eighties.

I just turned 60.

I know I don't look it.

Thank you very much.

I'm getting close.

I kind of have a guarantee.

Really, it's not a guarantee, but it's the average.

70 and you're living again in your 70s to your 80s.

And then look at that's why he says, verse 11 says, Who knoweth the power of thy anger, even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

Well, uh, go to verse 12, not 11.

I wanted verse 12.

I'm sorry.

So teach us.

Hey, what's the tell of our life?

What is it gonna be?

You're only gonna be here for 70 to 80 years.

So teach us, Lord, to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, godly wisdom.

Do I hear an amen?

That we may fulfill the purpose and meaning that God has called us to do.

Powerful truth.

Powerful truth.

Psalms 102, verse 11 says, We're here, our life is like a shadow.

Psalms 102:11

You ever seen a shadow when I was growing up?

We could see our shadow on the wall.

We used to play with our own shadows.

You ever done that, or am I the only weird one?

David, you never did that from sock?

Being from the cock?

Hey, I'm I'm for the cock.

Let me tell you.

I tried to find last night after my brother says, uh, you need to get these little phone things to go over your spigots because it's gonna be so cold.

I thought to myself, well, you should have bought me some, but didn't.

So we go over, we went to Walmart's, we went to Lowe's, we went to everywhere we could think of, right?

Everybody sold out.

Anybody else have that problem?

Well, guess what?

David said, well, we ought to call the cock.

I called Home Depot in Silicon, and they had a they had all the you needed.

So I went to the Silicon and bought me some of those uh foam covers.

I paid$3 a piece and I'll sell them today for$10.

You say, why?

You can't get them.

The demand just went up.

That's a joke.

I'll put it in the offering plate, though, I promise.

So we see the uh the uh Patter Gene Patterson puts it this way.

In fact, in the message, if you read the message, um it's a It's a paraphrase, but uh but it's a great uh when I was reading all my different Bible versions that I read a lot of times just to see what they're saying, here's what he said.

What what's there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bottom?

That's verse three in Ecclesiastics.

Verse three says here in the King James, listen to what it says.

What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?

Now, you say this is getting a little depressing.

Very important.

Look at verse three under the sun.

Under the sun is a phrase that is used, I think, 29 times.

And what under the sun means, it is an expression, a life lived without God.

Okay?

Because if you remember in Psalms 84, 11, the Lord God is a son and sheol.

He gives power and honor to those that follow him.

So usually when you see the word son in the Bible, it's talking about God and his cover and his power and his direction.

So, under the sun is no leadership of God, no direction by God, not even having God in your life or in your presence.

So the conclusion, a vanity of vanities, Solomon has come up and he's given us the conclusion up front in the first chapter that, hey, if you live a life under the sun, without God, without his relationship, without his direction, without his purpose, meaning in your life, you will live a void, frustrated, futility life.

You will be miserable.

You will be miserable, which brings me to the first point.

Look at verses four through seven.

We see Solomon says, He says, trying to find meaning in life without God is so empty.

The first thing is the emptiness of life.

Look at it.

He uses verse 4.

Look at what he says.

He says, first of all, he says, let's look at the course of life.

How is life?

In fact, when I read verse 4, it literally says, one generation passes and another generation comes.

Solomon might have been reading my Sylvester local newspaper, the little town that I came from.

Hey, in the back, or second or third page, they always had the obituaries and they had the births in our little town.

So you always had babies being born and people dying.

So that's what he's saying.

He says, we have births, we have death.

He goes on and he says, a baby is born, an elder person dies, one generation comes, another generation passes.

In other words, he's saying, man is so transistent that it's it's it's he says, why?

We're just here for a little time.

We're here, we're gone.

What is life all about?

Then he goes on.

So, by the way, you know what I got from this?

He was thinking about death.

He's in his latter years, he's thinking about death.

And he's saying, What uh even though he had already written the book of Song of Solomon, he had written the greatest book on wisdom that could be written, the book of Proverbs.

But now because of his lack of continuing to seek God and keep God in his life, and because of the foreign wives and all that he had allowed to what?

Take his eyes off God, hey, and for him to come what?

Out of God's light into darkness.

Now he is totally saying, What is life all about?

Oh, how many people have I discussed on airplanes with and talked about that have these same questions?

Even Christians.

Even Christians.

A Jewish author, Rabbi Harold Kushner.

You may have read his book.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Great book.

Even though his conclusions I didn't agree with.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

A life under the sun, hey, it's not okay.

A life lived without God is not okay.

Can I get an Amen church?

No.

But he had a one of his members come to him.

In fact, several of his books were written because of his members, you know, dealing with problems of his members.

Why bad things happen to good people was one of them.

But another book that he wrote on the understanding of the will of God, which still I've read it, and it's it's okay, but it's not the best book.

But here's the illustration I got from that book I want you to listen to.

He had a parishioner come in and he's he had been working with this guy for like 10 or 15 years, right next to him, and his and he and his friend, his workman, had just died.

And so several of them in the workplace went to his funeral.

Okay?

And listen to what he told the rabbi.

He said, I have not been able to sleep for two weeks.

And here's what he said.

He said, Rabbi, two weeks ago, for the first time in my life, went to the funeral of a man my own age.

I didn't know him well, but we worked together, talked to each other from time to time, had kids about the same age, talked about our kids, and then all of a sudden, Rabbi, he died suddenly over the weekend.

A bunch of us went to the funeral, each of us thinking, this could just have as easily as happened to me as it did him.

I hear his wife, and then he went on, he says, It could just as easily have happened to us.

That was two weeks ago.

Then here's when he really got nervous.

They've already replaced him at the office.

I hear his wife has already moved out of state and live with the parents.

Two weeks ago I was working 50 feet away from him.

Now it's as if he never existed.

It's like taking a rock and throwing it in the water, and you see the splash, and then a second later the rock's gone, and the water's as calm as like nothing ever even happened.

He says, Why are we here?

I'm trying to give you the sense of Solomon.

Why are we here?

Isn't there more to life?

Solomon is saying that from the perspective life seems futile, meaningless, hopeless, hopeless.

Because the word, again, as we go back, the word vanity of vanity there literally means, I told you it means like a vapor and breath, but it also means right here, it means empty, it means hopeless, it means uselessness, it means meaninglessness.

Then he verse five, he uses the circle of the sun.

Solomon says the cycle of meaninglessness is illustrated by the sun.

In verse 5, the sun also rises, the sun goes down, it hastens to the place where it rose.

He said, Hey, it rises in the east and it sets in the west.

It rises in the east and it sets in the west.

It's just a continual monotony circle.

Sun goes down, sun comes up.

What are we doing?

Why are we here?

Now remember, this is the wisest, wealthiest man that's ever lived.

He had everything he ever wanted.

And he had more women than he needed.

Hello.

Ladies, is not against y'all.

Don't take that wrong.

One's enough.

Amen.

We can't handle the one, guys.

Hello, amen.

Lady said, Hallelujah.

And then look, he goes, verse 6.

The wind seems to follow endless paths also.

He says the wind whirls about continually.

It comes down in the cyclone.

This is before we had the media.

This is before we had our our our, what do you call them that do the weather?

The weathermen, meteorologists.

Oh, for where we saw the pictures where the wind comes down from the south, goes back to the north, and it just makes a continual circle.

Solomon's pretty smart, wasn't he?

He said, I see this circle going on and on.

What's the purpose?

And then, hey, he goes on to the water.

Look at what he says in verse 7.

Water is a, hey, we've got the circle of the sun, the circuit of the winds, we got the course of life, then the cycle of water.

He says, the rivers run into the sea, which never get full.

How does this happen?

Solomon didn't know about the evaporation process that we know of today.

That clouds that create evaporation creates clouds.

Clouds create rain, and rain fills the rivers, and the rivers fill the sea.

So he's, I want you to get this guy's mind.

He's going through nature, he's going through everything that God has created saying there's a cycle that's endless.

There's no meaning, there's no purpose without God.

Amen.

Is that not true?

And then he comes to the second thing.

He says, not only, man, this is so good, not only is life empty, the emptiness of this life, the meaninglessness of this life, the uselessness of this life.

Now, without God.

That's the key.

Then he goes on and he says, but not only do I see the emptiness of this life, I see the disappointment of this life.

Has life ever disappointed you?

Has life ever disappointed you?

Well, if you haven't been disappointed, I've got bad news.

It's coming.

It's coming, yeah, in a big way.

In a big way.

It's coming.

And if you don't have God when it comes, guess what?

You will fall totally apart.

That's right, Robert.

But notice what he says.

Verse 8.

Verse 8, he says, Life is disappointing.

He says two things about it here.

Number one, life, he says, apart from God.

And again, now remember, under the sun means without God.

Don't forget that 29 times, okay?

So everything he's saying is without God.

Does that make sense to you?

Are you with me?

So he says right here in verse 8, look at it.

All things are full of labor, man cannot utter it, the eye is not satisfied with seeing it, nor ear filled with hearing it, nor you could put and tongue taste in it.

In other words, what he's saying right here, everything that life has to give us is disappointing apart from God.

Wow.

Does that not fit our entertainment, place, and society?

I mean, think about it.

There is restlessness in the human heart apart from God.

And you know why this restlessness is there?

It is there because we have not found the fulfillment.

Hey, we have not found the fulfillment and the purpose and the meaning for our life.

And we can, hey, why do you think don't people watch that?

What if what is that?

Where they try to interview, they don't interview them, try to get all the the garbage on the stars.

What do they call that on the TV show?

What?

TMZ.

That's a new one, but there's another one.

No, no, it's uh where they have the stars, they interview them and they talk.

Not the inquirer, that's the paper.

Anyway, where they're always talking about who's going with who and who's divorcing who, who's married, who, who's having whose baby.

I say who cares?

Who cares?

That's good.

There's a man that has understanding of why hey, the purpose is God.

But people that don't have God, they're always interested in somebody else and the big boys and the rich and the famous and and entertainment going rapidly, and all the shows that we have now.

That's why we have all these dumb, stupid shows.

Because we're trying to find meaning, they're trying to find meaning and purpose of life and everything, and some of the things are so stupid it makes you cringe.

In fact, some of the shows that are on today, if they were shows back when I was growing up, you'd be in trouble.

Whoever thought that Jerry Springer's show would become reality shows?

Hello.

God help us.

But why is that?

People are seeking for meaning and purpose apart from God.

That's it.

Amen, church?

That is it.

Acts 17, you gotta see this.

Acts 17, verse 21.

Acts 17:21

We have the record that the Apostle Paul encountered with the Athesians who spent their time talking about what's new, novelty, the latest and the greatest.

That's what they were all about.

That's what they were talking about.

Nothing else.

Hey, hey, they wanted what's what's the newest iPhone?

What's the newest computer?

What's the newest, the newest kind of car, the newest and bigger television, everything, the the gadgets, the newest and the latest and the biggest and the best and the better.

I can't even, by the time I get to understand my, I'm on iPhone 4, and I still don't know half of what it does.

And the other day it upgraded upgraded my something, and I turned my phone on and I didn't even know where it was.

But it's supposed to be better.

No, just leave my phone alone.

I just started learning how to work that one.

My wife said, You need a new, my computer's five years old, my laptop.

She says, You gotta get a new computer here.

Slow.

I said, Don't touch it.

I can work it.

Sorta.

And what I can, I'll call her.

That's why she says, I need a new one.

Because she's so fast.

Mine takes about, you know, it's not that slow, but the day, I mean, you touch it, it's done.

I can't even see how quick it goes.

How can I learn what I'm studying?

I like my slower computer.

Thank you.

Amen.

Now, my phone, I don't mind it being faster because I'm texting you.

Let's get it going, guys.

But here we see it.

Here's the answer.

There's no contentment.

There's no contentment.

I want you to turn to 1 Timothy 6.

Because I want you to see.

I've laid the foundation.

Basically, Solomon is saying that apart from God, there's no purpose, there's no meaning.

And you know why there's no purpose and there's no meaning?

Because there's no contentment.

We're living in a country that's not content.

We're living with families that are not content.

Well, my wife and I are not gonna, we're just not getting along.

Well, you know, I just divorce her and go marry somebody else.

We're always looking for the greener pastures.

Can I tell you something?

The grass grows in the greener pastures just like it does where you are.

And they all take manure to grow.

Hello.

Did you get that point?

In other words, there's a little stinking every time you go somewhere.

Amen?

It's not there.

That's why we have people hop in churches.

They're looking for something that's, you know, I don't know what they're looking for.

They're not content.

Well, let me tell you the secret to contentment.

This is this is worth you being here.

Are you ready?

I I led you up to this, but now I'm gonna give you the answer.

And we'll be doing that in each of these situations.

I always take you to the answer.

Even though reading in Ecclesiastes, you have to get to Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 13, to really get his whole answer.

Ecclesiastes 12:13

And his whole answer is let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, the whole that we're gonna start us.

Let us fear God and keep his commandments.

For this is the whole duty of man.

So he did get it.

Amen.

He did get it on his dying bed.

He got it.

And he realized it because he already had it.

And he realized he had turned from it.

And I have seen that so much in the last 32 years of my Christian life and my pastorate, it has broken my heart my heart.

I'm not doing anything, I promise.

Okay?

I'm all right, let's try it again.

Satan's not liking what I'm saying.

But now look in 1 Timothy chapter 6.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

This is powerful.

Paul is talking to Timothy, and he's saying, now this is written to a pastor.

Let's bring it in context.

It's written to men of God that are called to the ministry.

Timothy is one of the pastoral epistles.

But the principles apply to all of us.

Amen.

All of us, not just pastors.

But he says in verse 6.

But godliness with contentments great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is for sure a certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and raiment, let us be there with content.

But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and unto many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is the root of all evil, which, while some covet after, they have erred from the faith and pissed themselves through with many sorrows.

But thou, and verse 11 is the key one of the key verses in this paragraph, but thou, O man of God, now watch, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, and fight the good fight.

Oh, of faith.

Fight the fight.

Right, Sylvester?

Fight it.

The faith.

Lay hole of eternal life, whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Now, two words here.

Two words.

First of all, the word contentment.

Autarchia.

That's the word.

It means to be completely satisfied and sufficient.

Wait a minute.

Let's say that again.

It means to be completely satisfied.

Now watch.

More than just satisfied and sufficient.

I've always seen the word satisfied, but I've never put it in the context sufficient too.

But then I thought to myself, how can you not be satisfied if you're not sufficient?

Is that not good?

You with me, church?

That's exactly what it means.

It means fulfilled, satisfied, complete, and sufficient.

Wow.

Now that will produce the peace of God that passes all understanding, that keeps our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Amen, Philippians 4.

So that's what he said.

Godliness alone can and will give man the sense that he lacks absolutely nothing.

Now let me ask you don't raise your hand.

How many of us are there that we're in the place of our life where we We really are, we mean nothing, want nothing.

We are complete, we're satisfied, we're sufficient, and we are fulfilled.

Wow.

Wow.

Can we say oh me together?

So a lot of us aren't content, are we?

We're still doing what's, we're still in that cycle Solomon talked about.

Now I want you to notice two things in this one.

Verse, go to verse 11 and look at it.

Two things we gotta do in order to have this contentment.

Number one, we gotta flee.

Notice what he said.

Huh?

11 says, but thou, O man of God, flee these things.

Now watch.

Flee these things.

Which things?

Three things.

Send your outline.

And I go back to Solomon.

What were the three things that Solomon had that he struggled with as he was seeking the meaning of life?

First of all, worldly, I think an outline is worldly wisdom.

In other words, he had godly wisdom at the beginning.

He's the one that wrote Proverbs, for with God is wisdom, truth, and understanding and contentment.

For with God, God has wisdom and understanding.

Proverbs 2, 6.

He wrote that.

So now, though, under the sun, when he gets to Ecclesiastes in his latter days, when he's writing the book of regrets, he's hey, he is reverting to what?

Worldly wisdom.

He's seeking out all the worldly advice and doing time, all of the research of the world.

Taking out all the foreign gods of his wives, trying to seek truth.

1 Corinthians 3 19 says, For worldly wisdom is foolishness with God.

They take their wisdom in their own craftiness.

You know what it means?

That they basically do what they want and they really put themselves over God.

Actually, they are their own worst enemy.

They are their own idol.

Hello.

Amen.

For they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8.8.

They're fleshly, they're carnal.

No, the second thing.

Not only would it flee this worldly women, by the way, that's why, let me let me go on record here.

I need this before I go to the next one.

That's why it is so important.

Listen to me, listen to me, listen to me.

If you have your children in public school systems, whether it's university systems or public school systems, it is so important that you have them involved in a dynamic church and at home, home devotions, that you are teaching them the word of God.

You are pouring the word of God into them.

Because all they are getting is worldly wisdom.

And the Southern Baptist Research has proven dynamic young men and women that graduate from high school and go to secular universities.

Don't believe the Bible or that there's a God.

That they believe God's only a good man.

I mean Jesus was only a good teacher.

Hello! Worldly wisdom.

What do you get eight or nine hours a day on TV?

The only good, the only thing that's worth watching.

The only thing.

Are you ready?

Andy Griffin.

He teaches Opie good godly principles.

Am I not joking?

I'm not joking.

I wasn't meant to be funny.

Amen.

Is that not true?

That's why you gotta be in church.

You gotta have them in a good children's church, a good one program as we get on Wednesday night programs.

That's where we're going.

You've got to fill them with the word of God.

The word of God in is God's wisdom in and the wisdom out.

No, no, no.

I'm all right.

Must be my take my coat off.

I'm hot anyway.

Are you hearing me?

Notice the second thing we've got to flee.

Worldly wealth.

Now, wait.

Let me.

I was waiting for an eye to pick up here.

The love of worldly wealth.

Look at verse 10, 1 Timothy 6.

The love of money is the root of all evil.

He didn't say money was.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

In fact, thank God for many of you.

God has blessed you financially.

And you have given to this church unbelievably.

This little startup church took in almost$440,000 last year.

Can we give God a clap offering?

Thank God that He's blessed you as an entrepreneur, as a businessman.

But that I can remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that gives me power to get wealth.

Deuteronomy 8 8.

And you know it and you give back.

Let me tell you how to not get the love of money.

Hey, allow the love of money to corrupt you.

Just be a giver.

Just give it.

Be a conduit.

I've been that all my life.

God has blessed me.

I'm telling you, God has been blessed, but there's one a reason for it.

It's not mine.

I'm just a steward.

When he gives it, I give it.

Amen.

And even the things we have, it's God's.

Anybody can use it.

Most times people use my stuff more than I do.

I look at the Wilsons.

They've had people living in their house ever since I can remember.

My house is not, my house is his.

Amen.

You with me, church?

I'm teaching now.

Hear me.

Be a giver.

Give, and it shall be given unto you.

Good measures.

Press down.

Shaking gather.

Running over shall men give back unto you.

Did you hear me?

Men give back unto you.

We are instruments of God.

I pray for God to bless you.

Just don't forget God.

Amen.

And that's why those offering plates are passed every Sunday.

It's a time for you to honor God for how He's blessed you.

Amen, church.

Amen.

Get in on His blessings.

And then we're to flee.

Fornication.

Now I could have illustrated it.

I taught homiletics for years and said Solomon needed to flee worldly wisdom, worldly wealth, the love of worldly wealth, and women.

Trouble is, today we need to flee men.

Men need to flee men, and women need to flee women.

We're living in a society now where anything and everything goes, and it's worldly wisdom, and it's worldly lust, and it's ungodly, and it's abomination unto God.

And most preachers won't say that.

1 Corinthians 6.18, flee fornication.

Poronina, poronia, excuse me.

It means all sexual perversion.

Not just the sexual relations between a man and a woman.

All sexual perversion outside.

Hey, all sex outside of marriage is wrong.

Now I know that's not popular, and some of you are gonna get mad at me, but I still love you, and I wouldn't be your pastor if I didn't tell you the truth.

We had a couple in our house recently.

They're living together.

And Susan made the statement.

She said, they felt comfortable coming into the preacher's house and the preacher knowing they're living together.

I said, Well, guess who's well, praise God they did.

I'm glad they did.

Because I was there telling them when am I gonna marry you?

You leave, hey, hey, when are you gonna make I didn't say it, but the person sitting next to me said, when you gonna make your girlfriend legal?

Honest woman.

Honest woman's what he said.

And I'm sitting there and I'm not saying a word, and they're just and I'm just saying, Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

You can't, listen, listen, listen to me.

Please get it.

God's way is the only way.

You can't do it your way and expect the blessings of God.

Can I get an amen church?

Do it God's way.

Do it God's way.

Amen.

Hey, we can get you married and within a day.

Do it God's way.

Do it right.

And then he says, we gotta flee.

Fornication.

A love of worldly money.

Well, and we gotta flee.

All right, real quick, I'm through.

Told you this is gonna be good.

Told you it's gonna be good.

You ain't seen anything yet.

I'm just giving you an introduction.

Now watch this.

Now he says, going back to verse 11, we gotta follow.

We gotta follow.

We flee three things.

Now we gotta follow after the things of God.

Dioco is the uh word for follow the Greek word.

It means to press, to pursue, to run swiftly, to reach the goal.

Here's the illustration.

God gave me this when I was working on this word.

Remember when you used to play tag?

And if I touched you, Christy's it, I got to get back to base before she touches me.

Remember that?

Man, I touch you, I'm giving it everything I got.

And sometimes you fall or get hurt, but you were giving, you gave it everything you got to get back to base.

That's what that word means.

That's exactly what that word means.

I press, I pursue with the object of reaching the goal.

And when's the last time you've pursued God like that?

When's the last time I've pursued God like that?

My goal in 2014 is to find the real thing and to be the real thing.

Amen.

Amen, church.

Amen, church.

That's it.

And that's what he means.

Follow after, well, look, here it is.

Follow after number one, righteousness.

What does that word mean?

Righteousness means being right with God.

Can I get an amen?

You said, what does that mean?

It is having the heart that is right with God, that has approached God exactly like he says.

How does he say?

Romans 10:10, with the heart, man believes unto righteousness, and with his mouth, confessions made unto salvation.

Romans 10:10

You've given your heart to Jesus.

And then he says, and by the way, once you give your heart to Jesus, there'll be a hunger.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after God, for they shall be filled.

1 Corinthians 5, 17, therefore, if any man be in Jesus Christ, he's a new creation.

Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things become new.

And righteousness is being right with God, and secondly, it's doing right.

Can I get an amen?

That's righteousness.

Being like Christ and living like Christ.

That's what it means.

That's what it means.

Living right.

Then the second thing, the man of God, or we as Christians are to follow after godliness.

Now the word godliness there is an unbelievable word.

It means consciousness of God's presence.

Whoa! Let me repeat that.

Godliness means consciousness of God's presence.

Wow.

Are you conscious this morning of God's presence?

What's over, Brother Danny?

I'm in church.

You can be sitting right there and still be as far away from God as you are if you were in a bar.

Amen?

It's your heart.

They did great works.

They did a lot of things in the name of Jesus, but Jesus said, depart from me, because your heart is not with me.

1 Samuel 16, 17, the Lord sees not as man sees.

Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

1 Samuel 16, 7.

Wow.

Godliness is his character, his nature, his behavior.

But we all with open face, 2 Corinthians 3.18, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, or changing the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Why do you think we want you to read this Bible chronologically through?

And it's back there on our visitors' uh table.

Listen to me.

Because as you get into this book, when you look into this book, it's like a mirror, and it reflects how much you are not like Jesus, and it reflects how much you are like Jesus.

And the purpose is to get in the book to be like Jesus.

Amen.

Study.

To show thyself to prove to unto God a wormen that need not be ashamed.

Rightly dividing the word of truth.

As you don't born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

1 Peter 2, 2.

That's what it means.

That's what it means.

Well, let me end it up.

Third thing.

The man of God follows after faith.

After faith.

Man, is this not awesome?

Is this not awesome?

We follow after righteousness, we follow after godliness, and we follow after faith.

Faith means two things.

It means to believe and to be faithful.

That's a simple definition as I can give.

It means to believe and to be faithful to what you believe.

Is that not good?

Now watch this.

A lot of you believe.

A lot of us believe.

But we're not faithful to what we believe.

Somebody say, preacher, that's good.

Preacher, that hurts.

That's convicting, preacher.

It is to me.

We believe we ought to go to church.

We believe we ought to tithe and give back to God.

We believe we ought to witness.

We believe we ought to be, hey, lovers of our wives like Christ loves the church.

We believe.

Have you got it?

Do you want me to keep going?

We believe we ought to be faithful stewards at work as if we're working not under SERPRO, but under God.

That we're teaching at our school, not for the principal and the board of the school board, but under God.

We believe that when you go to the cashier and they give you too much money back, that you ought to give it back to them.

Let me ask something.

If they don't give you enough, what do you do?

I don't know.

I never check it, so they can rob me blind.

Actually, I did the other day.

Because I knew I'd only bought five boxes of shells and they charged me for six.

I just went back and said, I'm sorry.

Let me tell you what I did the other day.

God is my witness.

I was in Walmart and they got this one special donut I love.

I went over there, they're 59 cents, cheapest place in town.

I ate a donut while Susan and I shopping.

And we shopped for another hour and I walked out of there and didn't pay for that donut.

I got home and said, I didn't pay for my, I went back.

It's praise the Lord, it's only three miles.

And I went up there and I gave the lady a dollar and then I gave her another 50 cents.

I gave her a dollar and fifty cent.

I doubled it.

She said, What's this for?

I said, I ate a donut and forgot to pay you.

She looked at me.

You thought she had seen a ghost.

She said, You mean tell me you came back here to pay me for a donut?

Yeah, and I said, I gave you an additional 50 cents.

And another, in case I do that again, I don't have to drive back.

Amen! She laughed and laughed and laughed.

Because I said, I like that donut.

She said, I don't know how to ring that up.

I said, Well, you figure that out, and I laughed.

Amen.

All right.

Moreover, it is required in a steward that a man be found faithful.

And I close.

I know what you teachers are saying.

What about that last point?

Not only is there nothing, this is so good.

Fulfilling.

There's nothing fresh.

Verse 9.

Ecclesiastes 1.

Verse 9.

There's nothing new under the sun.

All these things that we're seeking after in the worldly allurements.

Solomon said, you know, God's created it all.

And hey, it doesn't matter.

You know, all these inventions we come up with, thank God for the intelligence.

But who gave us the intelligence?

God did.

But let me remind you, Colossians 1:17 and 18, I think, he created all things.

Colossians 1:17

All things are for him.

Okay.

But you know what?

You know what?

Who was it?

Benjamin Franklin said, all the things that were created that we men have invented was from the superior maker.

God.

That was back in the founding of our country.

Are you ready for this?

God has wonderfully and marvelously created you and me.

Psalms 139, verse 14.

Psalms 139:14

We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are his works.

Now listen to me.

According to Proverb uh Ecclesiastes 3.11, God has placed in our heart eternity.

Eternity.

Now listen to me.

I can't fill that void for you.

The world can't fill that void for you.

Your wife can't fill that void for you.

Your husband can't fill that void for you.

Your parents, teenagers, can't fill that void for you as much as we would if we could.

We can't.

So only one person can fill that void and give you meaning and purpose to life.

And it's Jesus Christ.

Do you know him?

Do you really know him?

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

If you would like to find out more about us, visit us on our webpage at thechurch at cw.com.

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Send us an email at Office at the Church at CW dot com.

We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.