Anticipation

Most recent talk I gave at the athlete's Bible study:

Last week Wes touched on anticipation. He talked about things we anticipate: relationships, success, vacation, being done with school, etc. These things aren’t bad in themselves, but we elevate them to a place in our hearts they were never meant to be. So tonight I want to continue on that same thread and hopefully point us to the one thing we can anticipate that won’t let us down. But first, a story. 

Guys might not be able to relate to this at least directly, but hopefully you get the point of my story. When I was younger I really wanted an American Girl doll. For you guys that don’t know, these dolls are pretty much every little girls' dream doll. I really, really wanted the Kirsten doll. She was a American pioneer and I seriously thought she was the coolest thing ever. I asked for a Kirsten doll for Christmas that year and my Grandma was coming to spend the holiday with us. So I thought, "I’m set. I’m totally getting this doll." And like every other kid I inspected the presents under the tree. There was a package from my Grandma and it was the perfect size! And how did I know that? Because American Girl sent catalogs to my house with an “actual size” picture and you better believe I snuck out to the tree and measured the package against the catalog.  The package was even heavy enough to be this doll. I was pretty certain I was getting what I asked for. Finally, Christmas day rolls around and I finally get to open Grandma’s present. What’s inside? Well it wasn’t a doll. Not going to lie, I was pretty disappointed. It was actually this beautiful wooden chest engraved with my name. Absolutely gorgeous! And me, being the brat that I was, was bummed I didn’t get a stupid doll.

I had anticipated one thing and because my hopes weren’t met I was sad. We’ve all experienced that haven’t we?  We put all our hope into something and when it doesn’t happen we’re disappointed. We hope for a doll and get something else. We want to date a certain person who we think is perfect and they end up letting us down. We look forward to winning the big game and it we don’t (or we do win the big game and the excitement or high wears off too soon.) We anticipate the perfect job and it doesn’t satisfy us quite like we thought. Why do we feel this way? I have some thoughts on that that we’ll get into now.

Turn with me to Ecclesiastes 2. While you do I’ll tell you the funny part about that stupid doll. I still have that wooden chest my Grandma gave me and I have no idea where that doll is. The chest ended up being something I still love, cherish, and use. The doll ended up being something I grew out of and put in a box somewhere. It's kind of funny actually. Okay, Ecclesiastes 2. Solomon is the author of this book and is probably the wealthiest, wisest, and most powerful man humanity has ever seen. This will seem kind of depressing but stay with me for a second.

“I said to myself, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives. I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done? I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. Then I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.” For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die! So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless. A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

You’re probably thinking, “Wow, thanks Melissa. That really sucks.” And you’re right it does, but there is good news and that’s why I need you to stick with me. There are so many good gifts under the sun, but where we run into problems is when we elevate them to a place in our heart they don’t belong. We anticipate and look forward to and hold out for a variety of things. Often the hoping for tomorrow gets us through today. Those things aren’t bad. They’re really not, but we just misdirect our anticipation and hope. Solomon tried it all. He had wealth, power, relationships, all the food and drink he could ask for, basically anything he ever wanted and he called it meaningless. He called it a chasing after the wind. How is that possible? It really does seem crazy that we could have it all and not be satisfied  I’ll be honest with you guys, I have a hard time believing that, but it makes sense because we were made for something better than this world. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” He has planted eternity in our hearts. We weren’t made to just be satisfied by material possessions, or people, or human wisdom. We were meant to be satisfied by someone eternal.

Ecclesiastes make seem like  a downer, but Solomon wasn’t trying to destroy all hope. Instead, he was trying to direct our hopes to the only one who can truly fulfill them and give our life meaning. Solomon spends the rest of Ecclesiastes affirming the value of knowledge, relationships, work, and pleasure, but ONLY in their proper place. Everything temporal must be seen in light of the eternal. Temporal things just won’t fulfill what your heart aches to find. Many of you are saying, "logically I get that. I know the right answer in my head, but I don’t know how to change my thinking. I don’t why I keep coming back to material possessions or people or pleasures to try to fulfill me. I know I shouldn’t, but what should I look to and how do I do that?"

First the what: here’s the Sunday school answer: Jesus. We’ve been getting it right our entire lives and somehow we still forget. We were made for eternity and we are meant to worship the eternal one. Heaven is going to be awesome (like really, really awesome.) Sometimes we have this view that we die, go to heaven, get our harp and our little wings, then we spend the rest of eternity floating on a cloud playing boring harp music. But that’s not the case at all.

• The Bible says its going to feel like home. Don’t you love that feeling when you haven’t been home in awhile. Maybe after a long semester or a long road trip and you get back and you’re like, “Aaaaaah! Home.” You feel comfortable and at peace.  
• Heaven is also going to be breathtaking. Some of you guys are thinking, "I can’t relate to the home example because I live in a crappy apartment." Heaven isn’t going to be a crappy apartment in the sky. Its an amazing city and Jesus told us he was going to prepare a place for us! Jesus was a carpenter after all. Seriously though, it's going to be beautiful. 
• Also we’re not just going to float around like ghosts. If you remember the garden of Eden which was perfect you’ll remember that Adam and Eve ate fruit. Christ ate food in his resurrected body. We’re going to feast and its going to be really, really good. 
• There is going to be so much joy in heaven! There won't be any sin, or pain, or sadness, or sickness, or fear. 
• We’re going to work (not work we hate). We’re going to have refreshing work that brings us life. 
• We will never be bored. God is infinite and inexhaustible so there’s why to stop learning about him and we can’t even imagine the type of things he prepared for us for eternity.  
• We also get crowns, mansions, and treasure! 
• All things we enjoy here on earth will be redeemed. 

It isn’t this boring place in a fluffy cloud in the sky. Heaven is a real place and it goes beyond even our wildest imagination  And the BEST part? We get to see Jesus face to face. The one who bought you with a price; who took every bad thing you’ve ever done, every nasty thought that has ran through your mind, every evil that has been in your heart and made you righteous. We get to spend eternity with him.

But here’s the cool thing about that. You have access to him right now. The same one who is going to give you all those things when you get to heaven is the same one who lives inside you right now. We look to all these outside sources to fulfill a place in our hearts that isn’t empty. If you know Jesus, if you’ve surrendered your life to him you don’t need anything else. You’re complete. You don’t need more money, or a better a job, or the starting position in your sport to be happy. You have access to all joy, all peace, and all good gifts through the one who took your place on the cross. Everything else is just a cherry on top.  But somehow we still manage to look to other things to satisfy so I’ll offer and few suggestions of how I attempt to find ultimate joy in Jesus. After you guys can talk more about this in your small groups.

1)      I praise him: I find that it's hard to be unsatisfied when I'm thanking God for all the good gifts in my life. It's hard to want more when I'm thanking him for the ultimate good gift of salvation. I realize how undeserved all the good things in my life really are when I'm praising him for forgiving my sins. I praise him. Because when I really look at my life, I'm certain that I am more loved and blessed than I deserve or could dare hope.  

2)      I tell others about him: when I'm communicating eternal hope to others I start believing it more myself. When you hear the Gospel preached you listen. It starts to sink in even deeper when I'm sharing it with others. When I hear: I am more jacked up, messed up, and sinful that I would care to admit. But Jesus in an act of complete love and grace sacrificed himself for my sin by dying a gruesome death on a cross and defeated death by rising from the dead after three days, making me completely righteous in the eyes of God. And now because of that truth I am more loved, accepted, and valued than I could ever dare hope. When I communicate that with others, I hear it for myself and that leads me to look to Jesus to satisfy me rather than temporal things. 

3)      I preach the gospel to myself as often as I can: it's like I said in #2: I hear the Gospel and I believe it more fully. Even when I don't communicate it to others, I need to hear it daily. Because it's really GOOD NEWS! 

Those are a few suggestions to lift our eyes to what we already have. There is no magic action step I can tell you to fix this. All I know is that if you’re a Christian you already have all you need. Enjoy the good gifts of life, but ANTICIPATE Jesus coming back, because really that’s the only worthwhile thing to look forward to: the only thing that isn’t going to disappoint you.