3. The Limits of Labor [The Divine Disconnect/Ecclesiastes] Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

um tonight we're gonna continue on in our series we've been in in what book of the Bible so in Ecclesiastes and tonight this is the second to last message in that series the months and a half goes pretty quick okay so we're doing six weeks in Ecclesiastes and then after that we're going to begin a month-long series and tonight's message actually kind of stands on the border between those two so tonight we're going to focus on the theme of work of work and vocation in the book of Ecclesiastes but just in two weeks we're gonna start a four-week series called labor of love that is what we're gonna do a century is take a month to kind of build out a Christian perspective on work and and vocation and that's gonna be gonna play kind of like a positive role building a positive Christian biblical worldview of what work is what it's not what it should be for us and so on and but tonight in Ecclesiastes as was like most weeks in this series Ecclesiastes doesn't play a very positive role in the Bible does it it plays it plays the negative role remember Ecclesiastes it plays the role of a wise gardener who knows that before you can grow healthy fruits and vegetables you need to plant you need to dig out the weeds and hack away the brambles right which can be a painful difficult process you need to get rid of distorted views of work and vocation before we can truly hear the good news about the Christian redemptive view of work and vocation and so tonight's the bad news sorry-sorry but depending on how you feel about your job right now you might actually hear this good news I'm not I'm not sure turn to Ackley z a C's chapter one with me we're just gonna kind of dive then the first words of the book really get us into the core ideas and we'll just kind of reacquaint ourselves and then dive into this this theme of work which will actually see it in the first words Ecclesiastes one verse verse 1 the words of the teacher the son of David King in Jerusalem so it's this Solomon like figure whose voice were hearing in the book and the pronouncement of this teacher is meaningless meaningless says the teacher utterly meaningless everything is meaningless now I've said this many weeks but the point is repetition leads to memory and so on so what's the Hebrew word the author uses here the teacher Hevel does it mean the same thing as meaningless does in English for us no can't remember it does know so remember literally will throw this up here again on slides the word heavily means smoke or vapor I said that was an accent that I've never had them smoke why did I say just kind of came out sorry so smoke that's what I mean smoke smoke what is that smoke so anyway smoke smoke means smoke or vapor and as the metaphor that the teacher uses in two different ways right so I mean fleeting or temporary or I hear one moment gone the next but also something more concrete than that as if smoke when you look at it it seems like it's there and that you can touch it it seems like a thing but then the moment I try and grasp it or make sense of it it eludes me and that's how life is under the Sun here it seems like it makes sense but then when we try and make it make sense half the time or most of the time life falls apart on us or it doesn't go the way we thought it would we can't make it work the way we want it to it's like Hevel it's like heaven okay so everything is helpful everything's have a where where look at verse three what do people gain from all of their labors at which they toil where under the Sun where are you talking about work yeah this is the first sentence of the book we're talking about work and work we're under the Sun so remember this is the other key word in the book of Ecclesiastes Under the Sun refers to life in this world as we presently experience it a world of enigma and paradox a world that has been compromised by by human sin and folly and selfishness and because of that because of the fallenness of humanity it's wreak havoc in God's good world and so we the way we don't the way we experience life isn't fully as God intended us to experience life and so somehow we we all know that and we all experience how screwed up the world that is all the time right but somehow and what the teacher is concerned with is that we continue to work and live and operate as if ultimate like happiness and an ultimate lasting fulfillment really is possible here under the Sun we say we don't think it is but we live and work as if we think it is and the way that we know that is because when we don't find ultimate happiness and significance and fulfillment under the Sun here we get we get we other despair we get ticked off at God and blame it on him as if it's God's fault and the whole point of the story of the final is just the God's fault it's our fault for the reason why the world is the way that it is and so he's gonna take us down every possible dead end of where humans look for meaning and significance in fulfillment and so on and show us that it's a dead end and that apart from God it's a dead and and so tonight he's gonna take us down the dead end of work which might seem quite depressing because this is like what we do with most of our waking hours you know I'm saying sleeping and working that's like what we do with most of our lives right and so but we have to go here this is a major theme in the teachers in the teachers words and so here's this question verse 3 once you look down at it again he's gonna ask you he's gonna ask what do people gain from all of their labors at which they toil here under the Sun what do we gain from all of this work that we spend most of our waking hours doing or maybe you're not spending most of your waking hours working and there might be many reasons behind that you might be trying to find work and you're frustrated because you can't or maybe you're intentionally trying not to find work and that's the joke about young people in Portland or whatever but it's more of a stereotype than reality maybe I don't maybe I just don't know the right people anyhow so we're aware of the fact we aren't working if we are and he's asking what do we gain what do we gain would we get from all of this work that we did this person of work and some of us might think of kiss words already this is too like abstract and philosophical because dude what what do we work we work to get a paycheck to survive you know I think like that's what we're doing that's what that's what we gain I get a paycheck I survive I provide for myself and for those who depend on me if I have people depending on me that's what we work for and the teacher says yes of course alright that's a given but that's not what he's asking here he's not asking that's compensation you work to receive constant compensation what he is asking is what what over and above mere survival do we get for all of the work he's asking what's the gain not the compensation what's the game and he's working with this idea that we know kind of in the modern world through this famous little little pyramid there was a educator psychologist and he was Abraham Novus Maslow yeah I made this the famous called Maslow's hierarchy of needs and his basic point is that human beings aren't just like ants but things that make ants happy do also make us happy but we need also much more to make us happy right so we need food shelter clothing to get our physiology physiological needs taken care of but humans above and beyond ants we need also safety and security we need also community and loving relationships and also we just have this nagging sense that to become more of a fully healthy human we need to find significance we need to do something that seems to have meaning and fits into some larger story or some larger significance or something like that and so that's what he's getting at here we work yes to provide for your needs and to survive but what he's asking is but do we actually get to the upper parts of the pyramid of self-actualization or significance or fulfillment from all of the labor that we do and he's essentially going to come to the conclusion that kind of a little bit not really so now that's that's where he's gonna lead us mister he's gonna lead us and and to do that I want to kind of paint get a mental image in our heads I think that'll help us as we kind of sort through and chapters two and four to see where he talks about work work more so yesterday was yesterday a glorious day or what you know what I'm saying I had forgot that these days happen and for this is my first winter back in Portland after many many years this yesterday was amazing so Jessica and I we did the only sensible thing you do on a sunny warm February day in Portland we went to the beach because what do you did anybody go to the beach yesterday I'm curious oh I'm sorry well it was nice here yeah it was nice here wasn't it sunny and warm here yeah it's great it was sunny and warm at the beach and I just said I could wear a t-shirt and it was sunny and I was actually sweating in the Sun in February on the beach it was wonderful Sonya so we went on a hike one of our favorite hikes and so on and we ended the day with sunset at at Cannon Beach because it can be in a place it's wonderful my speech and so on lots of people and so we are kind of walking and and and talking as as the Sun was setting is beautiful stunning and all of a sudden I I had all these memories of Cannon Beach as a kid so one one day year usually in the first week or so of June every year at Cannon Beach what awesome event happens i canta beach do you know sandcastle day yes Hank Castle day it's the like national sandcastle day at Cannon Beach did you know this how many have I been to sandcastle day I can't have each before it's always in the first week of June so this year's like June 10th or something like that and the hundreds and hundreds of sculptors come from the region from the world to sandcastle day and Cannon Beach is not big and it's it fills up with about 10,000 extra people for the weekend of sandcastle day and world-class sculptors and so 8 a.m. people register and you go out the tide has gone out and people go to the wet sand they all like have kind of marked out where the different wats are and so on that people register for and you got seven hours because you you start at 8 a.m. you got till 3 p.m. to finish your project and it is epic with these people accomplished you know have you seen pictures before I have to show you pictures because I that's irresistible right so so these are just two just I mean unless there's one of smokey Smokey the Bear right so it's not the corny 70s cartoon it's like this one here and then this is this wonderful castle scene and it's actually Rapunzel can you see a guy trying to climb out the lady's hair in the window just climbing a walk of hair right there thank you okay makes Erika that's awesome right there yeah and like these trees unbelievable okay so some are amazing and breathtaking like this some are creepy like like this next one here you'll see this totally creepy what is that you know they're saying like somebody was like yeah this would be meaningful thank you so anyhow so there goes the sand castle they hundreds of entries right and then they line the beach hundreds of world-class sculptors this is epic and I actually can't remember how many times I went as a kid just an hour having this conversation did I go for it different summers growing up did it go to but it's so awesome it felt like four in my memory I'm not sure but so so by 3 p.m. everybody has to stop because then the judges come and they take pictures and they begin to evaluate and so on because what happens at 5:00 about 5 o'clock what's gonna happen what makes the sand wet because the tide went out and it's all the wet sand what's gonna happen at 5:00 and it's the most it's utterly tragic it's totally tragic to watch because the tide begins to come in and it kind of slowly slowly erodes right and those first waves began to take over the sculptures and then 8:00 a.m. the next morning you would never even know that sandcastle they took place is the ultimate tragedy you know it was all this planning going up to sandcastle day hey the actual event itself the judging the awards and then the next morning was gone you'd never know this is the teachers view of human work and accomplishment there I said the first week clean a sneeze like a wet blanket thrown your life right and not to needlessly depress us but to wake us up to the reality of life here in a fallen world under the Sun go to chapter 2 with me and keep this mental image of building sandcastles chapter 2 verse 17 chapter 2 verse 17 he says so so I hated life a great start to a new paragraph I hated life because of the work that's done here under the Sun it's like it was Grievous to me I mean all of it is Hevel it's here it's here it's gone it's over it's gone it's like it's like chasing the wind it's a lot of activity but it never seems to actually amount to anything and so I hated all of the things that I was toiling for here Under the Sun because here's the reality I'm gonna have to leave them to someone who comes after me and and who knows whether that person is wise or going to be foolish but yet they're going to have control over all of the fruit of my toil into which I poured all of this effort and skill here under the Sun this is this is heaven is heaven so my heart began to despair over all of this toil some labor here under the Sun because listen you can labor with wisdom and knowledge and skill you might like rock making your sandcastle maybe the best sandcastle ever or maybe you'll make creepy sandcastles you know whatever right but you're gonna have to leave it you have to leave it to somebody or something at some point you will have to stop whatever it is that you're doing at some point it's guaranteed it's the uncertain certainty you're gonna have to stop whatever it is you put your hand to in life and leave it to another who hasn't put in what you have put in who hasn't worked for it this is heaven he says it's a great it's a great misfortune so so nobody what he's getting at is he says we on this this hierarchy of need yes we work to survive and get it get a paycheck but there is something inside all of us that is hoping that we can do more than merely survive and many human beings not all but many human beings actually get to climb a little higher on the pyramid with their work and with their accomplishment and one of the major motivators he believes is this desire to leave a legacy to make an impact to leave behind something of significance in the world is this a good desire yeah we're gonna take four weeks to explore that desire and how good it is and how god-given it as part of the image of God inside of us is to do something and contribute something of value and beauty and goodness to the world that's a good thing it's a good thing but here under the Sun in a fallen world am i guaranteed that what I put my hand to will have that kind of contribution that lasting contribution to the world do I have any guarantee and his answer is oh you have no guarantee because it might not be the ruthless tide that comes away and take your sandcastle it might actually be like your kids who squander like what you give them after you retire or something you know it might be whatever like you you build a business or you build a corpus of work or something of art or creative workers something whatever it is and you hand that off to the world to someone you have no guarantee you've no guarantee and for the teacher he says this Heppell that's helpful because you're saying that's what's gonna make all of these years of work meaningful to you but yet they will become hepl they will at some point the tide will come and wash it away no guarantee whatsoever that's a happy notion that's the happy notion and so some of us may have recognized that we may have come to a healthy recognition like okay yeah I recognize there is a degree to which I'm making castles in the sand and my goal is not to leave my mark on the world and to gain significance by that means but at least I want to enjoy what I'm doing while I have to do it yeah I get some satisfaction if I can't get this this long-lasting payoff of leaving a mark on the world maybe I can get some psychological payoff you know that of just satisfaction or enjoyment of our work which he also deconstructs look at verse 22 because he says he was what first way to what what is it that people get for all of this toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the Sun all of their days their work is grief and pain and even at night their minds don't rest this too is heavy it's so he's saying not only do we not get what we are looking for out of a life of work and accomplishment because it doesn't make a lasting impact but what we do get is something that we don't want which is stress and anxiety and like physical pain and and grief so another we might some of you had this experience if you've ever tried like starting your own business or something like that or let's say you you say I'm gonna try and move in the direction of my passions or my strengths and gift and my skill set ok so then you start into a career or a job where it's not just like mindless work and you just whatever you just check the hours or something like that but really I'm gonna give myself to work that is meaningful that's tied to my passions and giftings and so on is that a recipe for a stress-free life that kind of job no it's actually a recipe for a much more stressful life because you carry work everywhere you go because it's tied to who you are and your passions you know I'm saying so people you know who likes start small businesses out of their passions and dreams are these like relaxed people who have long weekends at the beach everybody you know what I'm saying now these are the hardest-working people you have ever met and you're and they're totally stressed because there are we gonna make overhead this week are we gonna make it this month of things meet and we don't is stressful it's hard and while there's joy in it because it's connected to my passions the teacher is going to force you to ask say listen listen is it really put it in the scales of a balance yes you're finally getting to do something that you enjoy but you're also constantly losing sleep you just not only is it stressful when you're awake he says you can't even sleep you can't even sleep cuz at night you're sitting there staring at the ceiling wondering what's tomorrow I'm gonna bring grief anxiety pain I don't know you know was this not worth it is it really worth it this is really depressing but it's also brutally honest at the same time right because we get this sense about as we go about our work maybe you can't find work and it's really frustrating to you and it's true because humans go cuckoo when we don't have anything to do we're meant to do this the image of God stuff in us but yet at the same time here under the Sun when we pursue it with all of our might and our passions and dreams that ends up like ruling us and making us stressed out all the time or it ends up totally just making us disillusion because we realize I'm building castles in the sand for someone else who I don't even know I've just seemed like their name in a magazine or something like that this is in terms of like corporate culture and and the alienation that many of us feel from our work because we fit one piece or one part of a larger business or corporation and I don't know that people I've actually working for and maybe you don't even see the people that the thing that you're working for benefits or serves yeah it's just weird as weird as weird castles in the sand the stress us out so what's the point what's the point turn to chapter 4 with me he has one more dead end to explore and you're like twos enough yeah to Dennett that ends is enough but actually this this is the most the most insidious and I think the deepest dead end of all because I could I could come to convince myself that what I'm working for won't last and what I'm looking for won't be able to to provide for me a sense of a sense of significance or leaving a legacy or an impact in the world okay I've dealt with that dealt with it and I can get myself to a place of just of just dealing with the pain and the grief oh yeah I forgot a quote but I have to read this quote sorry um there was a there was a Pulitzer Prize winning book wrote in the early 1970s by a guy named Studs Terkel is this not the best name that you've ever heard Studs Terkel and won a Pulitzer and what he did was he I was a journalist and he went around the country and he conducting hundreds and hundreds of interviews with mostly blue-collar America and he called the the book the book was excerpts of the interviews and quotes and so on drawing together themes the book is called work people talking about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do the name of the book and here's the first the first paragraph of the book he says this is a book about work and therefore by its very nature is about violence violence to the spirit as well as to the body it's about ulcers as well as accidents it's about nervous breakdowns as well as kicking the dog around it's above all about the daily humiliations to survive the day is triumph enough for the willing walking working wounded among the great many of us that apparently is the expression of what work does to us 40 years ago how are we doing any better today I'll leave that to your to your judgment and so some of us might say okay I can't necessarily make a world lasting impact I may not be able to to find a life free of stress but maybe somehow maybe what work can help me do is find myself maybe maybe I can find a career or a job that will give me a sense of who I am and an identity to figure out what I'm about in the world and the teacher says that's was the deepest delusion of all that can give you an idea of who you are look at chapter 4 verse 4 he says and I saw that all toil and all achievement no stop there he's using two words for work here and there significant so the first one is just the general word work or labor right all work but the second word he uses is some of you might have in your translations like skillful work or skillful labor you saying let's say you like really rock it making sandcastles you're like the best you win like sandcastle day every single year right so you might just work whatever or you might have great achievement and success at what you do you can say it's all all of this Springs from or comes from one person's envy of another person this is Hefele this is Hefele this is like chasing chasing after the wind and envy so we think of envy and we think okay so all toil and all the cheese that comes from me wanting what you have I'm envious like you have the awesome vintage bike or something you have the cool car and so I want that so I'm gonna work harder to get that and that that's a part of what he's saying but that's not the the deepest part of what he's saying it's not envy of your stuff it's not envy of what you're working for this is about the core motivation for why we work he's talking about this deep sense of of jealousy rooted in insecurity as a motivation for why why we work that's what he's getting at here this this envy that's a result of comparing myself to you so for example we have a great many baristas here at door fo did you know that the Northwest Regional Barista Championships took place today did you know this February 3rd up in Seattle maybe you didn't know this but you may have friends up there and I know for a fact there's door of hope people up at the Northwest Regional Barista Championships where so let's it's that feeling your barista and you get up to the championships and you're good I mean you can make the cool heart shape so whatever on the top of your you know lattes or whatever and like you're good you're good but you get up to the championships and you realize you all these other baristas and you have to face the facts like these people are way better than me you know I mean like I may be a big fish in a small pond but you get to the regional championships I'm outgunned so it's that feeling right where you get around people who do what you do or do what you want to do they do the same thing and you just realize holy cow like they're better than me and I can't do a darn thing about it you know saying have you been in this position before muted musician or your whatever you're you're a parent you're a mom and like that other moms kids never like slobber and drool or whatever and Johnnie was potty-trained at two-and-a-half or something you know and you're just all you just realize oh my gosh they're better than me and I can't do a thing about it and there's a whole bunch of us there's a whole bunch of us for whom that is that is such a great threat that we may not even realize that but we internalize that so deep the the symptom of that insecurity results itself in in in competition in excelling and working even harder maybe working to a degree that isn't healthy for us or working in ways that we treat the people around us in ways that we wouldn't normally ever treat people because we've got our eye on the prize I have the tiger or whatever you know because I'm gonna succeed I'm gonna do can't be better than me you know it's this is what he's getting at here envy of another and so and so what he's convinced of is that even though we might say that I'm working to provide a service well he really believes is that we're working to provide ourselves with an identity and a sense of Worth and value that's what he say so we might say I'm working to get a paycheck I'm working to get compensation and he's saying actually what you're working for is to get alive you're trying to prove that you're someone and justify your existence in the universe and justify that you're worth taking up space in the unit I'm just trying to say what he's saying in a different words that's what he's getting at he believes this is this is one of the heart core motivations for human work and he says as Hevel is heavily why is it Hevel he says because work cannot provide you with the sense of who you are a sense of your self-worth and your identity and value isn't something that you can create you can't make or manufacture that it has to be something given to you if something you receive and that truth is contained in this little riddle that he tells in verses 5 and do you guys like riddles so what's great is that the punchline of this whole thing comes in a riddle it's a lot like Jesus's teaching all right verses 5 & 6 he tells this little riddle the three dead ends work can make an impact well actually it can't really work can bring me joy and satisfaction well really put that into scales actually not really it might be a little bit high in the scales work gives me an identity in a sense of who I am actually it's heavily because it's rooted in insecurity and so he tells us this little riddle in verses five and six brilliant brilliant he says fools fold their hands and they ruin themselves better is one handful with tranquility or some of your translations have rest but there's one handful with tranquility I've been to handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind mmm it's a riddle hmm supposed to have a cup of tea and just think about it yeah that's what you do with riddles right you pause you ponder you get it do you get what he's saying well riddle you can count you can get the basic idea right so we might there might be a whole bunch of us who were ready to go quit our jobs right now you know like what's the point you know what's the point and he would say this foolish it's foolish because he says fools fold their hands getting out and also look in English we have three words for hands here we have hands handful and Foles because in English that's we have basically have one word to refer to this thing it's hand in the in the riddle in Hebrew he uses three different words Hebrew has three different words for hand all with the different nuances meaning do you want to learn the three words for hymns right now okay you need to it understand the riddle I think so he says fools hold their yacht fold their yacht their yacht the yacht is from your fingertips to your elbow so we call this like your hand and then what do we call this thank you for I'm so in in Hebrew Yad is a way to referring to the whole thing so even the way they divide up Physiology isn't interesting alright so yeah here's your job so what does it mean to fold your yard what's this is an image it's a metaphor of what's he getting at with this image naptime ha ha ha nap time laziness laziness so in other words to whether it's intentionally or to intentionally give up to to neglect the abilities or the skills or the opportunities that I could have if I were to put myself to it to neglect that to reject it is foolish he says laziness is foolish and we might think we'll wait a minute like you're totally like motivating me to become lazy because what is the point of work and he's like we're not there yet you got to get to the bottom of the riddle right so but but laziness the folding of my Yod intentionally to fold your yachts foolish foolish your squandering will God has put in you you're squandering the fact that you've been given life and breath and a chance to do something in the world and discover what that is is foolish and it's a way to ruin yourself humans go cuckoo when we don't have anything to do you realize this or we like turn to PlayStation 3 or Xbox or something and that really makes you cuckoo and a whole other way though because you think you're fine but actually you're being programmed to live in some other world right so you fold your yard right that's foolish you ruin yourself you ruin your humanity by not having anything to do so that's some people's response to Hevel under the Sun they fold there you as one extreme the other extreme is the last one that he mentions which is to hand handfuls of toil and chasing after the wind and what's the you want take a crack at the last one there it's the KH as the is the clearing your throat letter in Hebrew I so - coffin what you say it with me coffin coffin so he says fools fold their yard that's not wise but equally it on the other extreme if not being wise is to live life with - - which is these grabbing fistfuls like this is this is an equally unhealthy Hevel like way to live and can you just do you get what he means just by the metaphor this right here what is this right this is this is this is an approach to life or I'm trying to milk out of this job or this career or this life goal I'm trying to get out of it all kinds of things that the teacher thinks you will never get out of it and you you work tirelessly right because it's this grabbing posture to life you're trying to get something out of these things that can never actually give you what you're looking for which is this deep sense of worth or value of joy or satisfaction that you're contributing to something meaningful right and I mean we have a word for this in English it's that it's the one addictive behaviour that we actually praise in modern America call it workaholism right and and of course because this person is so successful how hard they're like they're making sacrifices and they're working and so on and they're in the New York Times there's a survey that not long ago about what if one of these kind of fun questions to figure out people's personalities if there is an extra hour to the day a 25 hour day what would you do with that extra hour what would you do I'm hearing two people say sleep anyone else vote for sleep totally exactly and that's always the majority answer right the majority answer why is that because we're exhausted we're exhausted we're the most were the most overworked culture at least for upper class jobs in America most overworked people in the world what's going on here somehow this is like an admirable trait to live life grasping with - - - in Portland I'm not sure right which I kind of appreciate about the culture at least of this city but for some people you know I'm saying it and it says us foolish it's helpful because it won't give you what you're looking for because it's rooted and it's rooted in insecurity and envy he says and sometimes some of us are honest about it but that's where this is all rooted in is in my deep insecurity and that's why I'm grabbing at live right some of us are honest sometimes people like Madonna or sometimes honest and just listen to her words this is very powerful you've heard of Madonna she said she says I have an iron will and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy I push past one spell of it and then discover myself as a special human being and then I get to another stage and think that I'm mediocre and uninteresting again and again my drive in life it's from this horrible fear of being mediocre and that's always pushing me because even though I've become somebody I still have to prove that I am somebody my struggle has never ended and it probably never will so that sounds like a great career you know that sounds like success and living with too close and has really pushed her to a healthy place at least she's honest about it and what's funny is that this is the kind of honesty that you wonder if it's really honest because clearly she hasn't trained changed her my career trajectory you know what I'm saying she's still at it she's still at it and so are so are many of us and so the teacher with his little riddle he says listen it's foolish to fold your yard and to just check out of the game because you're gonna ruin yourself but at the same time it's it's futile to live life with this kind of grabbing and so what does he commend what does he commend he commends this this middle hand here the second hand and he commends he says best is is one handful with rest or with tranquility and the word that he uses here is the word cough that just simply refers to the inside of your hand the open palm right here this is what he has in mind right here an open palm because the moment you do this it's coughing but this is cough it's cough so he says one hand so it's not folding area is one hand you're working you're committed to something to being productive it's important for humans and we'll explore this in the next teaching series with for four weeks it's vitally important for identity and worth and for community to contribute and to be working in some way but he says this is the posture one hand the other hands down because you're resting you're working and you're in the game and you're engaged but somehow it's with an open hand this is such a beautiful image what you working from a place of rest is this a paradox you're in a place of rest that that's what allows you to work it's as beautiful it's beautiful so somehow he thinks it's possible to have a posture and life where I'm working I'm committed to something and it's something more than just survival that I'm actually looking to become the kind of human being God wants me to be but I might begin from a place of rest and that's what allows me to commit myself but with an open-handed approach all right because the moment you did this then I'm trying to control the outcomes and we did a whole message about that a couple weeks ago right and he says that's heaven its open-handed approach and so this is this is the riddle that he tells it's a little Hebrew riddle this is what he commends and it leaves us just on the brink cuz we're just like okay and how do you get here how do you get here this is this is it apparently this is the wait list right here yeah so I'm resting from a place of deep rest hand in the game but it's an open hand how do you get there and you've read the book of ecclesiastes and right because what's the role of this book in the Bible positive or negative its negative he's exposing the brokenness of the human heart he's exposing the reality of life here under the Sun he doesn't provide any ultimate solutions that's not the point of the book not the point of the book it's one book in the Bible that's hacking away at the brambles and digging up the weeds to prepare us for something that can bring us wrath and it's here I think that some words of Jesus that may be familiar to you but but familiarity breeds contempt or at least boredom and so here these words in light of the incisive critique and the cakung of the teacher here are these words of Jesus again for the first time Matthew 11 Jesus says come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you what I'll give you rest take my yoke upon you learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy my burden is light there's a paradox at the heart of what he's saying here do you see it somehow following Jesus is a burden it's hard it's difficult life is hard and life is difficult can I get naman but but somehow somehow coming under the burden I can i if I want the teacher says if you want shoulder the heavy burden of work and toil on your own you're welcome to it it's gonna destroy you or at least give you officers or at least make you really depressed but go for it if you want or I can I can take on myself the burden the burden of what Jesus has to give me and somehow it's a burden that brings rest its work that brings rest it's a yoke so he uses this image of like what oxen or or cows or donkeys would wear this heavy wooden u-shaped or au shaped thing that gets connected to like a cart that I pull along or something like that so it's an image of something heavy over me but this heavy thing that Jesus wants to put on us is actually going to bring us rest and freedom in life so it's active it's kind of another riddle isn't it right so what's the get again and I think what Jesus is always getting at it's the heart of the human condition and it's the heart of what he came to address Ecclesiastes exposes the problem Jesus comes to give the remedy in the answer and the answer is is ultimately this you can shoulder this burden of finding meaning and significance and making an impact and finding joy you can shoulder that on your own the teacher says it's not gonna go well but you allow Jesus's burden to fall on and what did what is that it's the word it's the word of his teaching it's the word of the gospel and the good news about Jesus and what he did for us on the cross and in the resurrection it's this paradox because it's the the cross and the gospel says the worst possible thing about you and me that we could possibly imagine and that's a heavy burden to bear at the same moment it says the best possible thing about us that you could ever hope for or imagine which is what gives freedom and so the teachers convinced that there's something broken inside you've made is so deep right we're the walking wounded as Doug's Studs Terkel I can't even say his name right don't name your kids studs whatever you do right so studs terkel right the the working walking wounded he says it comes from this place of deep self-centeredness of insecurity right of wanting to make for myself a life for myself don't tell me what to do that's the form it takes for some of us for others of us it comes it addresses us and the gospel and what the teacher points out is our deep insecurity and and selfishness and when that issues itself in a life of work it creates seven billion human beings who make the world exactly what it is today that's the bad news of the gospel this it's the burden that we need to take upon ourselves this word of Jesus that says you and I are so deeply screwed up we don't even realize how screwed up we are and it results in these lives of work that make the world what it is today under the Sun fallen and broken but at the same moment that the teacher and and Jesus exposes this deep brokenness inside of us it's also taking the burden of the gospel upon myself that gives me rest and freedom because the gospel says that here we are a bunch of broken people like just royally screwing up the world out of our deep insecurity and envy right and what is God's response to us and we think oh yeah exactly he's ticked at us and he's gonna destroy us all and so you can have that view of God if you want but please don't associate that God with Jesus please don't please don't that's not the gospel the good news of the gospel is that here we are doing this to God's world and to other people made in God's image and doing all this to ourselves and what is God's response is God his response is to come be with us in Jesus to shoulder our burden upon himself right so in and in his life and and on the cross this becomes the symbolic moment it's like a magnifying glass where the Hevel world that we create because of our Envy insecurity and our ego it's like it all gets magnified on to Jesus and he lives this this kind of loving life of rest and self giving that you and I could only dream of living we could only dream I can't sir I cannot live like Jesus I can't and to be honest with you most of the time I don't want to let's just be real you know I'm saying that's the heavy burden is being honest with myself about that but right at that moment that I recognize that and I take that burden of Jesus upon upon myself he meets me right there and he says I have lived this life for you somehow somehow the senators Paul said the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me so that somehow I am actually dying with all of this Envy all of this insecurity it's being put to death with Jesus on the cross and the life that I now live and the life that I now go into my work and career and accomplishment it's not me it's Jesus living in means what Paul says in Galatians chapter 2 Jesus living in me somehow through Jesus I can become the kind of person that I could never become for myself because as Jesus doing and so this is this is the remedy that the teacher didn't have on hand right he exposes the problem he tills the ground and Jesus provides this great saving remedy for the working wounded here in the world and the moment I can I internalize that truth that God's love for me is so deep that he would do what Jesus did for me in his life his death his resurrection he gives me his life we if you internalize that truth it will completely transform your view of what you do eight to ten hours a day because all of the sudden I'm not looking I'm not doing this with my career and my job and you know what like Jimmy can be the best barista in the world I don't care I'll be 14th in the regional championships you know what I mean whatever Jesus died for me Jesus died for me and I I'm freed from now from a place of rest because my identity is not something I'm getting my identity is something I receive from Jesus and his love for me I'm freed to enter my work and to honor God and do the best of my oh my God given abilities that I can was the opportunities that I have in front of me and when I shoulder that with the gospel the bad thing the gospel says about me I find the freedom into God's love for me and I'm afraid I'm freed from the tyranny of work that's the answer to the riddle that Jesus gives I guess done tomorrow's Monday yeah I'd say so like this is an abstract this is like real is real you're doing you're doing something with your life whether you're folding your yard or whether you're grabbing with your - you do we're doing something we're looking for something and Jesus says it's it's only when you take my burden on you that you will find rest to work from a place of rest and so some of us we need to do that in a new way tonight because because Monday it's like this dark cloud over your life and yeah and what we're doing with our 8 to 10 hours a day it may be extremely difficult it may be very difficult but even the most difficult thing can be transformed when you know that the most important person in the universe is just head over heels about you and gave us life for you and is present with you in that frustrating situation it completely transforms your view of what you do with with your days and so some of us we need to come to the cross tonight and we need to hear this this critique and this hacking of the teacher and let him expose what's inside of us and then we need to take that and lay it at the cross and receive with an open hand the love of Jesus for you and for me that's what our gatherings are for that's what we're here to do tonight amen let me close us with a word of Prayer

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Id: -X1MxFLqnjg

Length: 50min 20sec (3020 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 10 2018