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,...

Released on 28 Feb 2021