9-7-08 Why Am I Here?

Fifteen years ago this fall, Shannon and I found out that we were going to bring a new life into the world. One of the things that we did to prepare for that moment was to go together through Lamaze. I learned about how I should be a “Coach” for my wife. They gave us a lot of advice. For instance, at that time in Lamaze, they would never use the word pain, because they thought that would psych people out. They would use the word discomfort. “You may experience some discomfort.”

 

They helped me with the whole “coaching” deal, and then the day came when Shannon went into labor. It lasted 32 hours. Yes, it was a marathon. The worst part of it was that the baby was turned the wrong way, so that the hardest part of her head was pressing against Shannon’s spine. The worst moment was that at one point the doctor reached with his hand into my wife’s body and wrenched the baby around 180°…inside Shannon. She let out a scream that I will never forget as long as I live.

 

So I said to her, “Dear, are you experiencing some discomfort?” And she said things that I can’t say here. Then, the baby arrived, and it was the closest thing to a miracle I had ever seen. What makes the pain bearable-what allows people to go through the pain-is the purpose that lies on the other side. There is purpose to it. Athletes endure much pain because there is reason to the pain. They know that if they don’t have any pain then they don’t gain.

 

Several hours after Faith was born, I said to Shannon, “When you look at this little life, the pain wasn’t really so bad after all, was it?” And she said things to me that I can’t say here!

 

It’s a funny thing. If someone asks you, “When were you born?” Everybody knows the answer to that question. But the real question is, “Why were you born?” They don’t print that one on the birth certificate, which is too bad. An alarm clock will tell you when to get up every morning; but what is it that an alarm clock can’t tell you? Why? Why should you get up?

 

When people don’t know the answer to that question, they start dying. There’s always pain in life. Jesus said to His friends one day, In this world, you will experience some discomfort. (John 16:33) People, both Christians and others are sinful – they do things that God never intended them to do – things that aren’t good, and because of this, they bring pain on each other.

 

Only purpose redeems pain. The great tragedy is when somebody goes through life, and they never know why to get up in the morning. They get to the end of it, and they look back, and they don’t know why it happened.

 

The Bible says that you were made for a purpose.

 

A Texas businessman named Bob Buford had reached all of the goals that he had set for himself by the time he was in his early forties. He was the President and CEO of a tremendously successful cable TV company;

He had a happy marriage;

He had a beautiful home;

He had a lot of toys;

He was financially secure;

He was independently wealthy;

; And yet he found that although people said that his life was successful, he was not satisfied with his sense of purpose. There was something still missing.

 

So, he hired a consultant-a very bright business consultant-to meet with him and his wife Linda. Mike, the consultant, was not a Christian, but he had a fabulous mind, and he asked Bob and Linda a single question. He took a sheet of paper and sketched a box on it. Then he asked them: What’s in the box for you?

 

Bob asked Mike to explain, and Mike told him about a time that he had worked with Coca Cola, and they had decided that the main thing their company was about was great taste. That led them to develop a product called “New Coke.” Does anyone remember “New Coke?” It was a disaster!

 

Mike said to the Coke guys, “Your problem is that you put the wrong words in the box.” So what’s the main reason-the driving force-for which you exist? They went back to the drawing board, and the new phrase that they came up with was “American tradition,” We’re about “American tradition.” That led them to go back to “Classic Coke,” and that led them to recover.

 

Mike told this story to Bob and Linda and said to them, “You have to be real clear on the central purpose of your life…real clear on this.” I’ve talked with you long enough to know that it’s one of two things: It’s either money (he drew a dollar sign), or it’s Jesus Christ (he drew a cross). And then he asked them: What’s in the box?

 

Bob writes, “No one had ever put such a significant question to me so directly. I sat there stunned by the implications of this decision. Linda appeared no less stunned. I could see the stereotypical images of ministers, missionaries and monks passing through her mind. Would we have to give away all our money? Would we be required to dress like a minister and his spouse?”

 

Bob wrote a book called Halftime. It’s about wrestling with this question and helping other people to wrestle with this question, because every human being, ever person born in this world-has to answer the question: What are you going to put in the box?

 

I’ll run through a few names with you just as an exercise to get us thinking about this. You tell me what you think that person would say goes in the box.

 

• Hugh Hefner – a lot of you know Hugh Hefner, the longtime publisher of Playboy Magazine.  What do you think Hugh Hefner would say goes in the box? Sex.

 

• How about Bobby Knight – Bob Knight was a really intense coach at Indiana for many years. He threw a chair when things didn’t go his way. What do you think Bobby Knight would a say goes in the box? Winning.

 

• Howard Hughes – You may remember that Howard Hughes ended up a recluse. What do you think Howard Hughes would say goes in the box? Money. Lots of Money.

 

• Imelda Marcos – What do you think Imelda Marcos would say? You’re right!

It’s a Shoe Box! Imelda Marcos is known to own 1066 pairs of shoes.

 

But every child that is born, and every adult that grows up must decide “What goes in the box.”

 

In the history of the human race, there was one man, who said one day that he would devote his life to an experiment-to figure out what ought to go in the box in order for a life to be lived well. And thousands of years later, people still read the book that this man wrote. It’s called The Book of Ecclesiastes, and it is found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

 

Ecclesiastes begins by saying that these are the words of “The Questor,” because this man is on a quest to find out what belongs in the box. The Questors name is Solomon.

 

The Questor was in a unique position to carry out this kind of an experiment, because he had wealth and power and time and the abilities that exceeded those of anyone else on the planet.

 

You should know this about the Questor: He was not a dabbler. The phrase keeps coming up as you read this book, I set my heart on it. I devoted myself to it. Once I decided I was going to try something in the box, I didn’t play games. I walked as far down that road as is humanly possible to walk.

 

Then his writing is an account of the various quests. He tried putting human wisdom in the box. He says, I devoted myself (there’s that phrase again) to study and to explore by wisdom all that is under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 1:13) He became really smart. We are told that Solomon’s Wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt, which was renowned for being a place of wisdom. He was wiser than anyone else . . .  (1 Kings 4:29)

 

The Questor said, I’ll walk down this road as far as it can be walked. Education is not a bad thing, but, he says, it didn’t satisfy this ache inside me, and it didn’t tell me why I ought to get up in the morning.

 

So, he tried another option. He writes, I thought in my heart, “come now. I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” (Ecclesiastes 2:1)

 

The Questor was a man of fierce appetites. So he said to himself, All right. I’ll indulge every desire that I have and see how that works. Any food he wanted, he ate. The descriptions in Scripture of the lavishness of the parties that he threw every day will boggle your mind if you ever read them. Any object he desired, he bought it. He loved beauty, so he surrounded himself with parks and gardens and vineyards. He wanted a nice house, so he constructed a palace so magnificent it defied description.

 

The Questor liked music, so he surrounded himself with all the greatest musicians, and singers of his day. Whose a musician or group that you like to listen to? Solomon didn’t just buy the CD or download his latest song, he put them on staff for him, so that whenever he wanted great music, he would invite them into play for him. But this still didn’t fill the void in Soloman’s life, so he tried something else.

 

He said, maybe sexual pleasure is the key to my satisfaction. So he devotes himself to that. The Bible says he had one thousand wives and concubines. He’s supposed to be the smartest guy in the world, and he had a thousand wives! Can you imagine the size of his honey-do list? He tries all this, And then he sums up this whole journey this way.

 

This is a fabulous summation: I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart no pleasure. (Ecclesiastes 2:10)

 

I looked at it; I wanted it; I had it. He indulged every appetite; he experienced every thrill; he scratched every itch; he bought every toy.

 

He was not held back by the lack of resources, by the worry of what anybody else might think about him, or by moral scruples. He walked down that road-a road that a lot of people in our day say belongs in the box. A lot of really smart folks stay up at night trying to convince you that they can give you what you ought to devote your life to-what you ought to spend it on. He walked down that road as far as it could be walked and, at the end, when he turns around and looks back, he says, All a man’s efforts are for his appetite, yet his appetite is never satisfied.

 

Some of you are thinking that there’s some pleasure, some thrill, some experience, some relationship, some gratification that- If I just had that…if I just had that…More money, my business a little more successful, more vacations, the next promotion . . . If I just had that . . . The Questor says, Go ahead and try it, if you want. But that’s not it.

 

So he tried another option-one that a lot of people in our day try. He says,

I undertook great projects. I devoted myself to my success. (Ecclesiastes 2: 4-8)

 

This is the ladder of success. Again, he climbed this ladder higher than anybody in this room will ever climb. He became the most successful king in the history of Israel. He extended his country’s borders farther than they had ever been extended before and farther than they would ever be again; he single-handedly made Israel into a shipping empire; he seized and nationalized the two major trade routes of his day.

 

We’re told in I Kings that Solomon had a salary that included twenty-five tons of gold every year. We are told that King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all of the other kings of the earth. (1 Kings 10:23)

 

He was so successful that not only did everyone in Israel look up to him because he had all the power-military, financial, political, religious, educational-but that the whole world sought audience with Solomon. (v. 24)

Bill Gates, Donald Trump, George Bush,-all come and sit at his feet, because nobody ever climbed the ladder of success the way that this man did. And when he climbed it to the top, and when he took a look at all that he had done, this is what he wrote:

 

I turned my head and saw yet another wisp of smoke on its way to nothingness-a solitary person working obsessively late into the night compulsively greedy for more and more, never bothering to ask, “Why?” (Ecclesiastes 4: 7-8 MSG)

 

“Why?” The smartest guy who ever lived surveyed all that he had done, all the knowledge he had accumulated, all the appetites that he had gratified, all the scratches he had itched, all the ladders he had climbed, all the toys he had collected, and he said, That’s not it. It won’t fill the box.

 

He realized that for something to be worthy of being put in the box, it would have to pass what might be called The Eternity Test.

 

At the end of his book, the Questor uses some very colorful metaphors to describe what happens to every human being, no matter who they are-rich or poor, big or small. It happens to everybody. And this series of metaphors is what he writes. See if you can figure out what he means:

 

Remember, the Questor writes, your Creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come. (v. 12:1) The “days of trouble” are the days toward the end of your life when everything starts to fall apart. Then he uses these colorful images:

 

When the grinders cease because they are few (v. 12:3) What do you think the “grinders” stand for? Your teeth. The teeth start going…and those looking through the windows grow dim. Your eyes stop seeing. When men rise at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint. (v. 12:4) When your hearing starts to go. When the grasshopper drags himself along…(v. 12:5)

 

My grandpa was at this stage a few months back. He just didn’t have  anything left. …And desire is no longer stirred. (v. 12:5)

 

Maybe you’re young now, the Questor writes, But your day is going to come and you will know that your time is growing short and you will look back on everything that you have put in the box and all those things that didn’t satisfy – all those things that didn’t fulfill and what do you think on that day you will wish that you put in the box.

 

So you have to answer the question: What are you going to put in the box? I’ll tell you one thing, the Questor says.

 

It better be something stronger than aging. It better be something stronger than loss of health. It better be something stronger than death, because that’s coming your way. Better be something that will outlast all of those things. You can try to put getting richer, smarter, happier, stronger, more secure, more successful…you can walk down that road as far as you want to. Just know that the smartest guy who ever lived went farther down that road than you ever will, and he found out it’s a dead end. You were made for more than just this life.

 

God, the Questor says, God has set eternity in the hearts of men and women. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

 

What goes in your box?

 

Let me help you with a couple of questions that might help you to focus. Where do you spend the majority of your money? We spend our money in the places that we value most. Usually where we are spending the majority of our money is what we have in the box. Another question: How do you spend the majority of your time. Work is obviously one of the places where we spend most of our time, but if you factor out a normal 40 hour work week, where do you spend the majority of your extra time? If you still are working 20 hours past that, then you can either put money, or power, or success in your box.

 

Don’t let the evil one deceive you. You might think that God goes in your box – that God is the most important one in your life, but it’s not about some decision you’ve made in your mind, it’s about your heart.

 

Jesus says, that where your money is, and I might add that where your time is, that is where your heart is.

 

Jesus calls us to Seek first his kingdom; to seek first the kingdom of God; to seek first heaven on earth; to seek first God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

What is your purpose? What are you seeking?

You might think as a pastor that this is easy for me to put God and his kingdom in my box, but it’s not. Any job can become just a job unless we intentionally focus in a definite direction.

If making money is in my box, then I will leave this church as soon as I get a better offer. If being well liked and having lots of friends is in my box, then I will twist the word of God to say that which I think you want to hear. If pleasure and pain avoidance is in my box, then I won’t last the year out – I’ll quit and move on to another less difficult occupation. But if God and his kingdom is what goes in my box, then I am willing to charge hell with a bucket of water and not shrink from the job. I would rather die than give up on the purpose that God has given us.  Up there coming down here is enough to get me out of bed every morning even during very difficult times. Up there coming down here is enough to get me out of bed even if nobody else has that in their box.

 

What’s in your box? What’s your purpose in life? Will it pass the eternity test?