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00:03 Oh Jesus, we pray that as we go through the valley of the shadow of death, we pray, oh God, that we will fear no evil
00:11 and remind us, oh God, even for a moment that as we think about our life without you.
00:18 We remember again by hope that you are with us, Emmanuel.
00:25 be with us we pray as you go through these words your words and we say this
00:30 in Jesus name. Amen. As you open your eyes and you see on the screen you will
00:36 see a very peculiar title. Now there are youth inside here. So I just want to
00:42 make it very clear for the sake of the parents. You are not allowed to further use this word.
00:48 I am not giving permission. This is recorded. I'm not giving you permission to say this sucks, that sucks, whatever
00:54 sucks because you need to understand where I am coming from when I say life sucks.
01:01 But at the same time, I will also want to emulate with the parents as well that actually in our heart of hearts with
01:07 some life experiences. If we come, if we sit down on a bad day without any hope
01:13 beyond what we can see, if we look at our country today, if we look at the
01:19 economy today, if we look at the variety of entertainment that is becoming more and more worldly, more and more trying
01:27 to find satisfaction of the self, and yet you come home empty and tired and weary, you would agree. You would agree
01:35 and say, "Life sucks. I've been blessed and honored to start
01:40 this uh series of Ecclesiastes in this church. I'm also given the responsibility to remain in the first 11
01:48 verses which is the most depressing 11 verses that I have had to contemplate
01:54 upon for the past few weeks. Even when I thought of borrowing or even
01:59 taking some of my dad's stash of wine or whiskey as I think of pouring a glass and trying to re trying to calm down my
02:06 soul, I then ask the qu same question that is in Ecclesiastes. What's the point? I'll just get a hangover the next
02:13 day. It's just going to life's going to continue to be sucky. But
02:19 these 11 verses is a challenge because these 11 verses are the everyday
02:27 reality of those without hope. These 11 verses and these two words is
02:34 the mantra of people who cannot see life beyond the sun.
02:41 And so bear with me as we go through 11 verses. There are some very significant
02:47 words that we need to remember before we carry on with the rest of Ecclesiastes. I'll take some time into that and then
02:53 we're going to elaborate as to why life sucks and then we're going to we're
02:59 going to try to find a way to find some sort of significance once again in this
03:06 text. A very peculiar teacher.
03:14 the words of the teacher or in ESV the words of the preacher. Now, who is this preacher? It says that he is either the
03:21 he is the son of King David. He is a king. But he doesn't specifically tell himself that he is Solomon because if it
03:28 was if because if it was really Solomon, he would just put his name on top of it. It is a very respectful name. But he
03:34 leaves that inviguity. He leaves that vague. The word teacher or preacher is actually
03:41 cohel in Hebrew. And what that basically means that he is the gatherer. He gathers people together to a gathering
03:49 to teach. The Cohelith therefore could therefore just be a personification
03:55 of wisdom. But from a very pessimistic point of view, he is older. He is more
04:01 experienced. He is therefore more realistic. He is therefore less um optimistic than uh the voice that you
04:08 normally hear in Proverbs. But the real teacher behind it is not the words of
04:14 the teacher or the preacher. The teacher of the preacher is actually used as a cat, a catalyst to help us journey
04:21 through the book of Ecclesiastes. The real teacher behind this book is the
04:26 author of Ecclesiastes and he will have his last say in verses in chapter 12:9
04:32 onwards. So just bear this in mind. So we are actually going on a journey with this pessimistic old guy. Kind of like
04:40 sitting with grandpa and hearing his stories. But unlike hearing the same
04:45 stories again and again and again like my grandfather last time I will always hear the fact he used to help out in Lee
04:50 rubber. He will go he will go onto onto a boat to help with the uh transferring
04:57 of liquid rubber from Pinang Island all the way into the boats and so on so forth. And I will hear this story again
05:02 and again and again. newcomers. If you want to hear that story, I'd be more than happy to share with you verbatim of
05:07 what he tells me. But this grandfather, this teacher, I believe, teaches very profoundly of
05:16 what is about or what life is all about. And from that we come with the first few
05:25 words of a grumpy grumpy grandfather. Meaningless. Meaningless says the
05:30 teacher. Everything is meaningless. utterly meaningless. Or in the ESV, vanity. Vanity.
05:37 That's a very rude awakening, isn't it? Hey, grandpa, how are you? Meaningless. Are you meaningless? Huh? What do I do?
05:44 But he's actually But what the teacher is doing is that he's actually bringing out two nuances. Number one is he's
05:51 saying straight in your face that life living for itself is not worth it. And
05:59 the word that he used is actually the word havl.
06:05 Havl. Havl. Utterly havl. Everything is havl. What is havl? Havl is actually a
06:12 word for vapor. And is the first Hebraism on talking about the about the
06:17 quickness of life. How life quickly comes and how life quickly goes. How
06:22 life sucks just because it just flies by very fast.
06:28 A teacher, another teacher of Ecclesiastes says this very well that life therefore is like vapor.
06:35 Okay. Now we suddenly had become more familiar with vapor because there's this
06:40 new technology called vaping. And so with that idea of the vapor in mind, the
06:47 teacher is saying that life is like vapor. It looks solid. It looks something that you can trust. But try
06:55 and grasp on it and it will suddenly disappear. Life life also can be like vapor where
07:02 you can try and shape it and manipulate it. But when you dive so deep into
07:08 trying to figure out what is your best life now, you will be you will be caught
07:14 in all the vapor and you'll be end up being lost
07:20 in trying to figure out what is the meaning of life in life in itself. So havl
07:26 everything has everything is hav life is only by a vapor. Life is like a mist
07:31 that you try and grasp to find some sort of solid foundation only for it to slip out of your hands. Life is like trying
07:38 to life you try and dive into it and trying to maneuver to what exactly you
07:43 want. You end up being lost. Life is hav life in that sense therefore sucks.
07:53 First point I want to say is this self significance sucks. There are three
07:60 object there are three points that the teacher is teaching this morning in
08:05 these 11 verses and he points directly to three things that we try and find
08:11 meaning and find comfort in life and the first one he slaps us in the face and
08:16 it's called selfsignificance. Yeah, my dear friends I'll tell you now
08:21 self significance sucks. How does the teacher put it? The teacher put it this way. The text says this. What do people
08:28 gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? Generations come and
08:34 generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises. Now,
08:40 let's pause for a minute. What does it mean to be? What is it? What is this word here? What is this phrase here
08:46 under the sun? Under the sun, you will also hear a number of times in Ecclesiastes. And what it is is that it
08:52 is a Hebraism of if you have of living life only in what you can see from
08:59 sunrise to sunset and the next day all over again. Life under the sun is
09:05 basically therefore asking us to reflect what there where there what therefore do
09:11 we find comfort in when we if life is all about just living from 9:00 in the
09:18 morning to 5:00. Some of us wake up earlier. So 600 7:00 soon of sunrise go
09:23 about our day and then as the sun sets we get ready to go to bed only the next day to do it all over again. What do you
09:31 find comfort in being able to wake up the next day and say I got to do it over again?
09:37 For some of us Monday blues is more than just Monday.
09:43 And from what Dr. Peter mentioned earlier about the sex culture we fall on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's
09:49 not just going to be blue Monday. It's going to be blue Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. It's just
09:55 insignificant, not worth anything. What is the point? Okay, there was a
10:02 movie uh sorry, and as we go on into the text, you will see the bottom half there where
10:08 it reads, "The wind blows to the south and turns to the north." Round and round it goes,
10:14 ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams
10:19 come from, and then they turn again. If you think your life could even add a cup
10:24 of water into the sea in hope that it will increase in volume, no.
10:31 Your significance on this world, our significance on this world dies out the
10:37 moment we breathe our life. We breathe our last. And for some of us it dies even earlier. The moment when we realize
10:42 that everything that we build up for either it's going to fail or even if you succeed it actually means nothing.
10:51 There is uh so this question that we have at hand is what is therefore the
10:57 meaning of our short life? What's the point of living? There was a movie that came out in 2003
11:04 uh that actually took from the Hebraism under the sun but for but for the director he's interpreting what is life
11:11 under the Tuscan sun and this is a movie that was released in 2003. It's a movie
11:17 about a lady who had lived the right life. He she married, stable job, wanting to have kids, live a 9-to-f5.
11:24 Everything was worthwhile. Everything looks like it was like according to the book only to find out later that the
11:30 husband is having an affair, falls in love with a falls in love with a hippie woman, wants to go away without wants to
11:37 go away and continue life without her. So Francis therefore retreats from that
11:42 everyday 9 to5 and asking herself what therefore is the meaning of life. So, in
11:47 the spur of the moment while she was touring around Tuskanyany uh Italy and Tuskanyany, she found a nice little
11:54 house. It's dilapidated. It's going to pieces, but it has a certain um certain
11:59 flare about that home. And so, she decided to buy it and stay there.
12:04 In there, she therefore challenges what is there for to live life. And so, like the like the teacher, like the Cohelith,
12:12 she she also attempts to try different things under the sun. She went from
12:17 extreme left to extreme right. She tried live she tried living uh tried having a
12:23 wantturn freefor-all relationship with an Italian man who later in the movie
12:28 you will find out that actually he's actually engaged to another woman. She also tried to do charity by helping
12:35 out by helping a young couple to meet up with one another and date and to finally eventually marry. And she even took some
12:42 time to to took the effort to go beyond her means and ways to help her friend
12:48 who was pregnant. But her partner broke up with her before she get given birth totally lost. And so
12:56 Francis's friend came right at the door without even any making any phone call or announcement and says I'm here. I
13:02 need help. And she says yeah sure. So she is trying to find significance under the sun in three ways. Number one, uh,
13:09 Rambunious Debotch lifestyle, helping out a total stranger and helping out a dear friend. By the end of the show, by
13:17 the way, I'm spoiling this movie for two reasons. For those who are 18 years old
13:22 and below, you're not supposed to watch this show. And parents, if you like to watch this show, I promise you this. I'm
13:28 I'm living out a lot of juicy bits. There's a lot of nuggets that you can go back and watch and take a look at this show. At the end of the show, the scene
13:35 ends with three things. with four things. Number one, the Italian man disappears because he and with no guilt
13:43 because why? She herself said that she wanted a non-committed relationship and so he continued with a non-committed
13:50 relationship with that woman while at the same time balancing a committed relationship with another woman. So he feels not guilty at all.
13:58 So he goes off happy. the young couple who she had helped to to to find spaces
14:04 and opportunity to date. They then got married. They actually got married in her little home. And so they're happy
14:10 and they're going to leave. And her friend who was pregnant gave birth to a
14:16 to a little baby girl and she is happily dancing among the vineyards of her
14:22 house. She's going to fly back soon. She too goes off happy. What happens to
14:29 Francis? Francis is then left sitting down on a chair in front of house
14:35 totally emptied. Nothing sucked away disappeared.
14:45 Now the director tried to add a bit of hope by bringing in suddenly a lost but
14:51 handsome American tourists come knocking at her door and say can I find some
14:57 help? to which then she stood up and smiled and said, "Sure, come on in." And then it goes on again.
15:04 You know, when I first watched that movie, I was actually quite, you know, yeah, it looks like fun, quite happy.
15:09 She's in Italy. She's having fun at the same time doing good. But now, as I read these 11 verses and even by the first
15:15 six, I look I watched I had the opportunity of watching this movie again two weeks ago and I suddenly realize her
15:21 life is empty because she tried to find significance under the sun. by herself
15:28 only to find that actually it fleets away even before she could even enjoy
15:34 it.
15:39 So friends, where does your significance lie and does it stand the test of time?
15:49 Where is your where does your significance lie? Can it last longer than creation?
15:57 Pastor Rama just in the prayer uh uh in in the prayer before before coming to before almighty God in prayer he said
16:04 this passage which is significant because you know why he talks about the heavens it talks
16:11 about the earth and how it proclaims the goodness of God day and night for pours
16:16 out pours out speech night after night they reveal knowledge there's no speech no you they have no speech they use no
16:23 words and no sound is heard from them and Yet when you just take a look at the
16:28 mountains in Sabah or the villages in the suburbs of Malaysia, you realize
16:34 that there is God. The one thing missing though is the
16:40 being that was meant to represent his image. Where's humanity?
16:47 Humanity fleeting in life trying to find God in
16:53 their in theirelves has no right in this place. Sure
16:59 you try and find significance by any architect would like to sign off on a building that will hopefully last beyond
17:06 his lifetime and then it crumbles to pieces.
17:12 Some pe some engineers and some doctors and some scholars and some businessmen would like to be able to make great
17:18 significance in life but then they are quickly forgotten. Reminds me of a story about how fleeting
17:26 you know we we tend to mix up information. a man was invited to preach at to speak at Princeton and the
17:33 Princeton uh lecturer stood up to introduce this speaker and he said before I come up I just want to say
17:39 something to you that will impress you and you'll definitely want to hear him throughout the entire lecture. This man
17:45 made $10 million US profit from the New York Stock Exchange
17:52 last week just last week. And so the man came up and says, I just
17:58 want to make some clarification before I carry on. It wasn't 10 million, it was
18:04 20. It wasn't US dollars, it was in pounds.
18:10 It wasn't in New York, it was in London. It wasn't
18:15 last week, it was yesterday. It wasn't me, it was my brother.
18:21 And it wasn't a profit, it was a loss. We try and find significance in the
18:29 things that we do from the little bit to the great but all we have to do is go to
18:35 bed and the next morning we got to do it all over again. No difference. So you
18:42 can try and make certain significances on the bu into this world like trying to
18:48 build a beautiful skyline in Hong Kong, but climb up a mountain
18:55 and look down from the mountain and see if and see if it cares about your building.
19:03 That mountain that has been there from nearly the beginning of time will look at your building and say h I
19:11 give it a I give it a wink of my eye. Close open falls to pieces.
19:16 Self-significance sucks because it doesn't last.
19:22 Self-significance sucks because it just will be fleeting.
19:28 Let me end with some poetry before we go be before we before we go to the next point. Percus Shelley was an English uh
19:34 poet and he penned this very famous poem and it talks very accurately about how
19:41 fleeting and how how the sense of time will just take anything that you find
19:47 self-significant and just put it back down to dust. Here's what the poem says. I met a traveler from an antique land
19:54 who said two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand them stand in the desert. Near them on the sand half sunk a visage
20:02 lies a face lies whose frown and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command. Tell that its sculptor well those
20:08 passions read which yet survive stamped on these lifeless things. The hand that
20:13 mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear. My
20:19 name is Ozymandius, king of kings. Look upon my works ye mighty and despair.
20:26 Nothing besides remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sand stretch
20:34 far away. My name is Aussie Mandas, king of kings. Look upon my
20:41 self-significance, people, and despair. Nothing besides that colossal wreck
20:47 stands in the middle of the desert of sand which represents time.
20:54 Self significance. If you try and find life's purpose and meaning in self-significance alone, it's going to
21:01 suck because it will just disappear. Self significance sucks. Secondly,
21:08 legacy sucks. I'm so glad I get to do this on family Sunday because you get to see your
21:15 legacy is right in front of you. And some of you says, "Nah, pastor, my my children's not that bad." And some
21:22 fathers will come out to me say I know exactly what you mean. Legacy sucks. Why
21:28 does legacy suck? Let's look at the text again. Verse 9, it says, "What has been will be
21:34 again. What has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun." Is there anything with which one
21:42 can say look this is something new? It was here already long ago. It was here before our time. No one remembers the
21:49 former generations and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them. You see the uselessness of
21:57 trying to think too far into the future.
22:02 Nothing is new under the sun. Discoveries of all sorts have always been there. When scientist says we found
22:10 something, he's not he is the founder. He found something that has been there long long ago and finally prove it
22:16 right. He is not the inventor. There's a difference.
22:22 What you discovered might possibly be there long, long time ago.
22:29 When someone invented the plane, he didn't manipulate and change the laws of gravity. He manipulated the laws of
22:36 gravity and the and using technology in his hands to be able to you go around
22:43 the laws of gravity. But he cannot say that he made new things about gravity.
22:51 Why can't we remember sometimes some great great scholars there were I watched a little Facebook video recently
22:58 about how someone how with technology today and the use of satellites we know that the circumference of this world is
23:04 40,300 km the circumference of the world
23:10 which is quite an interesting feat to be able to measure the circumference of the world but apparently a mathematician had
23:16 already done that already with a stick and observing the shadows By observing the stick, by observing the
23:22 stick and its shadow and measuring one space and another space and just doing us and then using basic fractions, he
23:30 found out in the year 320 something BC that the world is about 40,000
23:35 kilometers in circumference. Who is he? I can't remember his name. Go
23:41 ahead and type out all that detail. You'll find his name just like that. Anybody here got Google? Check him out. We forgot about him.
23:49 I forgot about him and I just watched it watched a video about him last week and the legacy that he leaves behind in
23:56 mathematics is like clean water in the sea. It just disappears.
24:04 The fashion world also reminds us that legacy sucks because in the end of the
24:10 day we repeat itself. Now teenagers, this is your hipster fashion.
24:16 And you might think that, yeah, you know, isn't this a new design, a new way of wearing clothes, a new way of wearing
24:23 things, you know, jeans that would hug around the hips, you know, and tightly
24:29 down to the legs. You know, men, you want you may not the boys, you may not
24:34 really work hard, but you want to look like you work hard. So, you pay 20 bucks extra for ripped jeans
24:39 and think, "Yeah, it looks cool. No one's ever thought of this before. Please la in the 50s they have thought
24:45 about this. In the 70s they have brought this out already. Go to your uncle's
24:52 wardrobe. I bet you they are there.
24:57 And moms if you ever notice your kids wearing jeans like that and realize you know I want to say no but they look so
25:03 familiar. Of course they look familiar. They were in your closet.
25:09 The similarities are profound. Why? Because we're repeating again
25:17 in 30 years. No difference. Legacy sucks. Why? There will be no difference.
25:25 And the second thing about life under the sun. And the big big theme for
25:31 throughout all of this guys is this. Legacy sucks because life is out of our
25:38 control. Legacy sucks because life and the lives of others is out of our control.
25:46 There's a Japanese proverb that we like to tell our children and he says this. When parents work hard and their kids
25:52 enjoy life, their grandchildren become beggars.
25:58 And so parents will take this pro and throw it to their kid. Nah, if you don't work hard like me, your ch grandchild,
26:05 your children will be like beggars. So, you better work hard with me. Okay, you
26:10 try, but life is unfair. How many of How many you guys here know that when
26:16 sometimes when you work hard, you don't get the reward? Is that scumbag that actually was able to kiss the backside
26:22 of your boss was able to get the promotion before you.
26:28 Legacy sucks because life is not fair. Life is not in our control.
26:34 And talking about death recently, you know, I had the privilege of being able to see is I cannot even call it
26:40 privilege. It's such a burden. Not only was I able to see people of middle age to suddenly go off and they were my
26:45 brothers in the service of the boys brigade 50some years old. It's not fair. They did so much in their lives.
26:53 They helped children. They helped children when their fathers were missing in action because they were busy working or they don't know Christ. They became
26:60 the spiritual father of children who until today are serving the Lord Jesus Christ with all their hearts and yet
27:05 they go off so quickly. I've also had the opportunity to know in my family that there was a man who
27:11 smoked, who drink, who ate cheese, who loves cheeseburgers and lived on until 95 years old. It's my grandfather.
27:19 Life's not fair. Life's further not fair when a
27:25 10-month-old is even even before getting the opportunity to walk or cry or enjoy
27:32 what ice cream tastes like, she's already having bone cancer. It's
27:37 affecting the blood. Fighting for dear life. What did she do
27:44 to deserve all of that? Legacy sucks
27:51 because life is unfair. I wish this Japanese proverb was true.
27:57 But unfortunately, life tells us that there are other nuances in life that makes life so complicated we cannot
28:05 control. Jesus says this very clearly.
28:12 The fight was about again about inheritance, legacy, right? Two men came up to Jesus and says and the younger
28:19 brothers said oh Jesus oh master please tell your that man there won't even dare
28:24 say older brother please tell that man there to divide to divide the wealth of our fathers accordingly
28:31 to which Jesus says why do you bother me in such with things such as these let me tell you a story was a man
28:39 whose harvest yielded 10 20fold bigger now when uh when When a Jew when a
28:46 Jewish person were to say that he's saying that God had blessed abundantly in the background because we plant the
28:52 seed we may water the ground but the Lord provides the harvest. So Jesus is
28:58 saying very subtly God had given this man some goodness in life.
29:04 He had so much to spare that he couldn't even fill up anymore in the storehouses.
29:12 And instead of thinking about the poor, instead of thinking about helping other people, which normally in Jewish culture
29:18 you're supposed to, if your storehouses cannot fit, your crops will not last long. So just give it to the poor so
29:24 that they may have temporary satisfaction or temporary comfort so they can try again in the next day of
29:30 life. But he says, "No, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to build a bigger
29:35 storehouse. I'm going to put all the things inside there. I'm going to sit back and shake legs and say, "Well done,
29:41 you farmer." Actually, he wasn't a farmer. He was the land owner. He didn't
29:46 till the ground. He didn't water it. He didn't care for the fertilizer. He He just kept stock and pay wages. But he
29:53 looks at himself and says, "Yes, you know, well done. I'm going to enjoy the next few years in life."
29:60 Jesus then said, God came up to him in the night and says, "You fool. This very night I shall take your life." And the
30:06 very and a very interesting statement that he said to whom then does your stuff go to? Are
30:12 you sure that they will uphold it as much as you would?
30:19 It's interesting because not only did Jesus question the person's um choices
30:26 and thinking that it may he could not he might not be thinking for himself, he might be thinking for his kids. you know, I'll store a little extra. You
30:32 know, I'll put it up in the trust fund so that I put it on the trundance so my kids won't have to suffer so greatly in the for a start.
30:40 But then you realize, are you sure that the that the people that your children will benefit from it? Because actually
30:47 Jesus is saying that as quickly as your life may go, so does the so does the life of your children and grandchildren.
30:56 For the youth, you will appreciate this illustration. In Lord of the Rings the two towers which I think is the best
31:02 movie ever made of all the three. You may disagree but don't talk to me right now. Okay. In Lord of the Rings the two
31:08 towers it was an epic fight. I mean the graphics the scenes was so beautiful.
31:14 One significant scene came up and I'm so and I'm so happy that they followed exactly
31:19 according to the book. Theoden, king of Rohan, was under a
31:25 spell from a bad wizard. And so, a good wizard was able to pull him out and he
31:30 was therefore taken away from the spell. Now, when he was under the spell, he could not tell time. But he just lived
31:36 everyday life under the sun, getting worse and worse because he's being poisoned by that by that spell. But he
31:42 was still able to live and be able to laugh and make a mockery and so on and so forth. When he was lifted up from
31:49 that from that spell, he rose up and he saw the people whom he loved and then he smiled with great joy until he realized,
31:57 "Where's my son?" What he didn't know is that his son went
32:03 into battle and got killed and is now buried next to the next to his grandfather, King Theodin's father.
32:11 King Theodin's father went up to the grave. He's he's ignorant. He didn't know
32:18 because he was under that spell. He looked at that grave.
32:23 He cannot help but weep. This great king of war. And as much as the good wizard
32:28 was able to speak encouragement into his life, something profound came out his
32:33 lips and he says this, "No parent should ever deserve to bury
32:38 their children." And there he wept.
32:43 JR Token the author of this book my dear friends is a Christian and his son actually commentated on their part there
32:50 he said this there are plenty of people who had continued to live life either with post-traumatic stress disorder
32:56 after the war or they have been living in their own lives in material world thinking that they're trying to to to to
33:03 make things better for the for their children's future only to realize that they have forgotten the real the person
33:09 of the reason why they did all that in the first place. The children in a relational way and sometimes in a
33:16 physical way died. What's the point?
33:21 Self-significance sucks because it fl because it disappears so quickly. Legacy
33:27 sucks because it's not in our control. And finally, the crux of it,
33:34 satisfaction sucks. If you hadn't noticed or you weren't paying too close attention, you realized
33:40 that I actually skipped a verse. It was from verse 1 to verse 7 and from verse 9 to verse 11. This poem in the
33:48 first 11 vers is called a kayastic uh kayastic ver uh poem. And this poem therefore what it means is that in the
33:54 very middle is the reason why this all all of life sucks. So if you forget these two the two previous points look
34:00 at this verse in the middle and everything else will follow will remind you self-significance sucks legacy sucks
34:07 now finally sat our own satisfaction satisfaction sucks and the key is in verse eight all
34:14 things are wearism more one can more than one can say the eye never has
34:20 enough of seeing nor the ear its fill of hearing what the cohelth or what the
34:25 teacher is saying is that life and all of its intricacies is hard.
34:32 Everything is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it,
34:37 guys. A levels is hard. Those were in college. Secondary school
34:43 is hard. But when you go to A levels, you're going to look back at secondary school say that was nothing.
34:48 But at that very moment, life and all of its intricacies in balancing 11 subjects and trying to
34:55 meet the meet the satisfaction of yourself and of your parents is hard.
35:02 Marriage is hard. I will never forget the sermon that my dad gave for me on my wedding on my on my wedding day. He
35:09 pointed straight at me and he says, "Mark, love is hard." He told me that
35:14 before and then when he came on the pulpit he looked at me in the eye while holding on to a piece of paper and say love is hard because why it's so
35:21 intricate. It's so difficult how to balance because sometimes love you don't just love for the sake of your
35:28 own satisfaction. You love to satisfy the other person.
35:33 It's so hard. And yet the very reason why we will do all these things in the first place
35:39 without God to find our own self-satisfaction it never ends but we will never be
35:45 satisfied in this life. Look at the verse the eye has never enough seeing the all the ears of hear no the ear has
35:52 it fill of hearing. You can go from one orchestra to another orchestra. You can visit one country to another. You know,
35:58 I I I understand that some of us around here over here has gone around the world tours before or around Europe. I got a
36:05 bunch of young adults that's now that's now checking out, you know, Europe. Why? Because they want to see and they want
36:11 to find satisfaction in being able to see the great things in history. But you know what? By the time they come
36:17 back, they probably will be thinking about their next vacation. They probably be thinking about their
36:23 next trip. They probably be thinking about their next meal.
36:28 Why I had haggus in Scotland, Sunday roast in England, I'll kill to come back
36:34 to Malaysia and eat one tani. I'm not sure there's one time being sold
36:40 later. So I hope I'm not destining you for dissatisfaction.
36:46 Look at us. We will never ever be satisfied. So what's the point of going through all
36:52 this hard life only to never ever really be satisfied?
36:58 In the Old Testament, it talks about this story about how King David was having a civil war and he was far away
37:03 from his hometown Bethlehem. He's been on the road for a long period of time and some and one day out of his his
37:10 homesickness, he suddenly said this, "Oh, how I would love to just get a cup of water from my father's well in
37:17 Bethlehem." That's all he said. Because water tastes differently from place to place. And so really when you drink
37:23 water from one well and from the other well because the mineral content is different. The water would taste different.
37:30 I remember tasting water in Oklahoma for the first time. It tastes like chalk
37:36 because around the area was salt mines, sulfur, sand. So a chalky flavor will come out.
37:47 So when King David just said it, you know, oh, I would like to get a cup of water, a cup of something to remind me
37:54 of the good old days, and it's just in the world over in Bethlehem, but there's so many soldiers
37:60 there because they're trying to assassinate me. Three of the best soldiers under David's
38:07 rule out of love for King David went into the night kind of like a James
38:14 Bond setup, Mission Impossible setup, killed enemies quietly along the way,
38:20 snuck in to the to that well, drew water from that well, put it in a
38:25 jar, and carried that jar of water. By the way, there was no twist Tupperwares
38:31 thermos. Water containers are usually made out of clay. If I was the guy there
38:36 holding the water, it probably be broken to pieces. So with great skill, they will carry
38:42 that water and bring it all the way back to King David. And by the next morning, when David woke up, the soldiers were
38:47 there kneeling and says, "Here you are, my dear King David. Water from your well."
38:53 King David took it with great joy and said, "But before he drunk, he said, 'What did you do? How did you get it? We
38:59 love you, King David. We went into the night at a sacri at a at a near and
39:04 nearly dying for the sake of your satisfaction. We give you this water."
39:09 King David thought of honoring them by drinking it, but then he realized
39:15 something's not right. He took the jar and pour it onto the ground. Pour the
39:20 water down to the ground. And he says that I will never let my satisfaction
39:28 cause the waste the potential waste of life of another. I would never let my
39:34 satisfaction be abusive to the people down the road. Friends, how many times have we buy stuff in the shopping mall
39:41 without really caring about the sweat shops of the pe and the people that that is making the clothes that we wear, the
39:46 food that we eat, the iPhones that you buy. I can say the
39:52 iPhones that you buy cuz I can never afford an iPhone so I don't have one. But then again, my phone is Huawei. Can
39:57 you imagine how how much bigger that sweatshot would be?
40:03 We try and find satisfaction in our lives. the next phone model, the next this, the next that without even caring
40:10 about the lies behind. And let's say even if you try your very best to give life and be satisfied with your life in
40:17 the nicest and the best way, the most morally good way possible, I have a question for you. And this is what Jesus
40:23 asked. What is what good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?
40:30 What's the point of trying to find satisfaction in your own life, but then realizing eternity
40:37 without God is an illusion for you? But when you suddenly realize that you need God, but you had spent so much time
40:43 trying to find satisfaction in your own life, you forgot about honoring God.
40:49 You therefore lose your own eternity. What's the use of having gained the whole world and yet forfeit your own
40:55 soul? And even the secular world felt it. They
41:00 feel it even until today. This person is called Duncan Riatch. Duncan Riyach is an is a Android and iOS apps maker.
41:09 Genius. Utterly genius. He makes specialized applications. He's a multi-millionaire by 27 years old. And
41:16 he already not a not a Christian. Not a Christian. A practicing
41:21 homosexual. And yet he himself also realized this. I've learned three things in life at 27 years old and a
41:27 multi-millionaire. Number one, money doesn't make you happy. He can go to Louis Vuitton every day and
41:33 buy one item of every of everything in the store and take it out. If they take it out and the next day buy it over
41:39 again, he'll never be satisfied. Money will never buy you happiness. There will always be someone richer than you.
41:46 Duncan Re is a multi-millionaire, but there's always people richer than him. It's almost impossible to try and over
41:51 to take over Bill Gates nowadays. Especially now with the new Microsoft Surface Laptop. Oh, beautiful piece of
41:58 technology. He's going to be much, much richer soon. There will always be someone richer than you. And finally,
42:03 luxury is a very addictive drug. When I first bought my Huawei Honor 5X, I was
42:09 quite happy with it. It can put a micro SIM card. I It can put two SIM cards. It can put an SD drive. I have 32 GB of
42:16 memory on my phone. I have a two 2 GB DDR RAM. I was able to keep movies and
42:21 sermons inside and listen. And the battery is fantastic. 12 hours without even needing a charge.
42:28 I was very, very happy until Samsung 8, the Galaxy S8 came out
42:37 and I started looking at advertisements and I started looking at at other people's reviews about Samsung.
42:46 Now, I know in my heart of hearts, I will break that phone in three weeks.
42:53 But yet I feel slightly unsatisfied with my phone now.
43:03 Yes, luxury is an addictive drug. You just want to upgrade and upgrade and upgrade. What's the point of getting the whole world yet forfeiting your own
43:09 soul? This is Crystal Bet. Recently became more and more popular in on the
43:15 on social media. Christopher Bet is now a pastor, a wife of a pastor in a small
43:21 church in UK. Sorry, not UK, in the US. Before that,
43:27 you might know Crystal Basset by this name. If you Google her, you will see pastor, but also before that you also
43:33 see porn star. Crystal Basset was one of the top 10
43:38 adult video winners in various genres of pornography,
43:43 earning $300,000 US a year
43:48 just by doing pornography. She goes to the clubs drinking and clubbing every
43:54 night. And yet when she wakes up the next morning, she feels empty.
44:01 Now she had a radical change. She came to know Christ walking into a church. She found out that she was
44:07 pregnant with a second child and don't not know what sort of environment will be suitable for her
44:13 children. Legacy sucks but then it's still important for us to be responsible for it.
44:21 She said my life has has had to turn around. I was looking for satisfaction in a pl in areas where I get nothing but
44:28 disappointment. So she turned to Christ and follow and married a turn to Christ, married the
44:33 pastor. And now she is helping little teenagers who are considering that sort
44:38 of lifestyle because it looks satisfying. It looks like fun. It looks
44:45 secure. And so a lot of them are actually also quite desperate. They're broke, come
44:52 from poor family background. So she goes and speaks to them before they even attempt to go into that business to say
44:58 no. That's a death trap.
45:04 Satisfaction sucks because it never gets contented.
45:09 So self-significance sucks because it it's fleeting. It just disappears.
45:16 Legacy sucks because it's not in our control. Satisfaction sucks because we will never
45:22 be able to fulfill it. What then therefore is what what then
45:28 therefore go is worth living for? Where can we find a direction to be able
45:35 to overcome all these things? In my journey in looking out for meaning
45:42 in life, I looked at various religions. I came back to Jesus because in the end,
45:47 he was the only God that faced the wind
45:52 of meaninglessness. the eternal life to only live 33 years.
46:03 When Jesus was teaching his disciples, he was giving encouragement.
46:11 It was very close to him also going to be arrested, tried and crucified. He is
46:18 going to experience the grunt of he the suckiness of life.
46:26 He did not do it for his own self-satisfaction because how can you be satisfied knowing that you're going to
46:31 be flogged by a whip that will take that has a potential of pulling out the kidney from your body?
46:38 Legacy. Look at his disciples not even six hours and the and his first one denied him three times.
46:46 satisfaction. Was he satisfied? I don't think so.
46:53 Because he was a sacrifice and wanting to sat needing to satisfy the wrath of God.
46:59 And yet when facing all that, he took a very interesting turn in life.
47:05 He then prays this. Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son may
47:11 glorify you. for you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have
47:18 given him. Now this is eternal life. This is life that does not fly away.
47:23 This is the life that does not suck. This is the life that does not that does not disappear as soon as you grasp it.
47:29 This is the life that will last longer than any longer than any Rolex or any
47:38 vintages that you can ever think of. This is the one that will last forever. that they may know you, the only true
47:45 God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent
47:56 with Jesus Christ proving to us that life is beyond just living under the sun
48:03 and that is not fleeting under him. Suddenly, suddenly
48:09 everything turns around. Our self-satisfaction goes to become his glory.
48:17 Our legacy is no longer our responsibility but our inheritance
48:22 through Christ. Our satisfaction
48:27 will never be our satisfaction is no longer guided by our own never contented
48:34 life. Satisfaction then comes through Jesus Christ who looks upon you and says, "I
48:40 no longer call you servants. I call you friends.
48:50 Self-satisfaction sucks. Legacy sucks.
48:56 Self-significance sucks. Legacy sucks. Satisfaction sucks. The only thing that changes all this is through the person
49:04 that is Jesus Christ that says I I now can give you eternal life that you may know God and know him who can turn your
49:12 self-significance to inheritance as children of God who can
49:18 turn your legacy instead of being the respons instead of being responsible for
49:23 your legacy you become the inheritor the one who inherits the legacy of being called children of God.
49:30 From your satisfaction, you can then turn it away and know that Christ finds satisfaction in you when you know him
49:38 and know the God who has sent him.
49:44 Let's pray.
49:53 I sense that among us brothers and sisters
49:59 who actually had built a plat who built their life on the platform of trying to
50:05 make your name live longer than you. There's some among us here who depends
50:11 so much on their children to take over your legacy.
50:17 It could be in the form of a business. It could be in the form of you know my dad was a PhD holder. He hoped that one
50:23 day I will be a PhD holder.
50:30 Maybe some of you are still grasppling that or maybe some of you are just trying to
50:35 live life and say, "Mark, I'm trying to live a comfortable life, but every time I the moment I try and put my feet up
50:41 and enjoy the moment, the moment just disappears."
50:48 I want to ask you this, friends. Would you bring Christ into your life again? Would you therefore trust in him
50:56 once again? And for those who never made that decision, would you make that decision today
51:04 that you put your trust in the hands that will last beyond time and beyond the sun because you're looking to the
51:10 son of God. Oh father, I pray that you minister to
51:15 our hearts even this morning. Oh God, life sucks without you.
51:23 Life fleets and flies away without you.
51:32 Nothing tastes sweet in life no matter how much cake we eat.
51:38 Nothing can keep us on the high because in the end we will end up having to face the reality of life and go back down low again.
51:46 Nothing that we buy that will try and say after I buy this I'll be satisfied for I'll be satisfied for life. Nothing
51:52 can ever do that. Oh God, it's only your love.
51:59 It's only us trusting in you that will be able to do so.
52:06 So pray that God so I pray that God that you will pour your spirit into our hearts
52:12 and explode in us eternal life. That is the yearning and
52:19 desire to know you and Jesus whom you have sent.
52:24 And from that, oh God, from that journey with you, we will then find satisfaction
52:30 in the Savior, legacy in our Lord, and significance in being called your
52:36 son and daughter. Guide us this morning and teach us this
52:42 and teach us this. We pray in Jesus name.
