Heart Matters: Eternal Goals

Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:7; Luke 12:11-21; 1^st Corinthians 9:16-25

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

25 July 2004

We talk about heaven and eternity, but we don’t really give much thought to it as we live our lives, make plans, and establish our goals. We know that heaven is about being with God for ever. Are we truly preparing for eternity? Do we set our life goals with eternity in mind? Is the character of our dreams and plans worthy of an eternity with God?

In our normal way of defining success, Solomon was the most successful of the kings of Israel. Having inherited David’s kingdom, Solomon inherited peace on every border and was able to enlarge Israelite territory without war, building a majestic temple to Yahweh in Jerusalem. Under Solomon’s rule, Israel’s wealth and power grew to its zenith. Solomon’s wisdom became know around the known world. The majesty of the temple in Jerusalem brought more recognition and honor to Solomon’s legacy. The temple consolidated worship in the capital city, brining more prominence to Jerusalem and building a national identity that claimed the allegiance of the tribes. By most standards, he was the most successful of all the kings of Israel.

Ecclesiastes takes a hard look at Solomon’s life. It evaluates Solomon from a different standard or perspective. Solomon had sought meaning and fulfillment for his own life in various ways. With each attempt to find personal meaning and a sense of fulfillment, he had been dogged by a sense of vanity. So begins the book of Ecclesiastes: “All is vanity, like trying to herd the wind.”¹ Life had turned out to be empty and futile. Nothing seemed to satisfy, for meaning and purpose were missing.

There just seemed to be no sense in living. Solomon sought many ways to find fulfillment in life: pleasure, wisdom, work, and comfort all ended up as futile pursuits. Their rewards just did not last. The pleasure granted by these pursuits was only momentary. Popularity and social acceptance depend overly much on the attitudes of a fickle crowd. Yesterday’s achievements do no matter much to a new generation’s problems and concerns. Since one solution leads to a new difficulty, life’s purpose comes again into question. So goes the refrain, “All is vanity.” Life is an attempt to herd the wind—an impossible task that can never be fulfilled or fulfilling.

Is there nothing in life that is truly worthwhile? Is there nothing worth setting forth as a goal for which to strive? Is there nothing in life that is of true, unalterable, and lasting worth? Is life nothing more than a purposeless exercise in futility? Death looms large at the end of Ecclesiastes. Its existence calls our goals, actions, choices, and motives to question. Death begs us to consider again the meaning of our lives. Ecclesiastes closes with one more point worthy of our consideration. “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth…. Fear God and keep His commandments, for that is our whole duty.” If our lives ultimately end in death, our focus should be on that which survives beyond. If our lives are to have meaning and purpose, we must live by the standards of eternal goals—only they can ultimately survive.

Jesus addressed at least one scenario of First Century Jewish life that was worthy of being classed as futile. He told a parable of one we refer to as the rich fool. We might be tempted to brush off the parable as a critique of wealth. That would be too hot a topic for our society. By brushing in off, however, we would miss Jesus’ point. Jesus’ critique was not so much of wealth, but of greed. Jesus’ critique was on the man’s limited focus—his lack of eternal perspective. The problem in the parable was not the fact that the man was rich. The problem was not that his bumper crop of grain. The problem was not the decision to store the grain in bigger barns. The problem was that he was forgetting his dependence upon God.

This man was a fool, not for being rich, but for depending on wealth to give him meaning. He was a fool to evaluate his life goals without taking eternity into account. Jesus began the parable with a warning about greed. The function of greed is to grant financial security for the individual. While this man had gained the means for financial security, he had not given thought to eternal security. He was living as though life was about this side of eternity. He made decisions as though eternity did not exist. His goals were shortsighted. He was trying to herd the wind—to control things over which he had no authority or power.

Jesus reminded the people that life was about more than possessions. Possessions, wealth, pleasure, power, popularity, and the like are temporary. Jesus wanted us to focus our lives on that which is eternal. Death disrupts all definitions of purpose and meaning that do not look beyond our life on earth. If our lives are to be more than “herding the wind,” our goals need to look to eternal issues.

Paul’s words in 1st Corinthians point us toward establishing an eternal perspective on life. He reminds us of the athletes who prepare their bodies for competition to receive a perishable prize. Our Olympic medals are no longer the withered celery² greens of Paul’s day, but are they truly more eternal in nature? Paul sets the athletes as examples for us. They work exceedingly hard to achieve their goals, and those are passing triumphs. Is not serving to God worth at least as much effort and determination as that required to receive a garland of celery?

Paul categorized his main goal in life as preaching the gospel in service to God. His focus was not on himself or the temporal aims of this world. He was focused on something beyond the issues of this life. He called on the Corinthians to join him in working for an imperishable goal. He wanted them to live for eternal goals.

Are our goals worthy of the effort and energy we invest in them? Are they worth giving our resources, time, and energy? Will our aims in life stand the test of time and eternity? Solomon had many things to look back upon, but not much of eternal significance. The rich fool of Jesus’ parable had less. The athletes of Paul’s day worked for momentary fame and withering celery. Will our own lives count for more? It is up to us to determine whether we will settle for goals that matter nothing for eternity or whether we will allow God to make more of us than we would settle for. Which will it be?

—©2004 Christopher B. Harbin

This sermon in pdf

¹ Ecclesiastes 2:17.

² Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians. Interpretation, a Bible commentary for teaching and preaching. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1997, p. 156.