Series Subject: How to combat the spiritual drag of idolatry, temptation, and trial

Series Purpose: To enable believers to find and follow God in the spiritual downturns of life

Series Big Idea: God is present in every spiritual downturn, but we rarely experience him there because we don't know how. To find him there, we need to see the vacuity of the alternatives, look for his fingerprints in our circumstances, and allow him to shape us by our experiences.

Title: Life "under the Sun": May Your Darkness Become Unbearable

Subtitle: Ecclesiastes takes us through different alternatives to God—pleasure, wealth, achievement—and shows them for the meaningless darkness that they truly are.

Subject: The hopelessness of alternatives to God

Text: Ecclesiastes 1–12

Big Idea: Ecclesiastes takes us through different alternatives to God—pleasure, wealth, achievement—and shows them for the meaningless darkness that they truly are.

Purpose: To gain understanding of how meaningless a life without God is

Relevance: Ecclesiastes hammers away at the utter meaninglessness of alternatives to life with God at the center, leaving us more convinced than ever that we must have the Light.

Introduction
• Ecclesiastes was written to show what life looks like in a world in which God is there, but very distant—the phrase "under the sun" clues us in to this.
• The Hebrew perspective of where God dwelt was in the heavens—literally in the skies or over the sun—so the Teacher is looking at life down here while God is somewhere else far away.

Living under the Sun
• Life under the sun, the Teacher decides, is meaningless.
• He says so at the beginning.
     -   Ecclesiastes 1:1
•  He says so at the end.
     -   Ecclesiastes 12:8
Transition: Through the middle of the book, the Teacher examines some alternatives, looking hard for meaning—only to find more darkness.

The Meaninglessness of Alternatives
• The Teacher examines a life of wisdom.
     -   Ecclesiastes 1:17–18
• The Teacher examines a life of pleasure.
     -   Ecclesiastes 2:1
• The Teacher examines a life of achievement.
     -   Ecclesiastes 1:4–5; 1:11
• The Teacher examines a life of wealth.
     -   Ecclesiastes 5:10
• Illustration: Jim Carrey: Money and Fame Are Not the Answer [see Illustrations and Quotations below]
• Life under the sun—with God "up there somewhere", but not being connected intimately with God—can be lived pleasurably, wisely, successfully, and wealthily, but it cannot be lived meaningfully.

Even More Meaningless in Life
• The Teacher goes on to show how life under the sun is plagued by even more meaninglessness.
• He looks at the pervasiveness of evil.
     -   Ecclesiastes 4:1–3
• He looks at how bad things happen to good people.
     -   Ecclesiastes 8:14
• He looks at the universality of death and the capriciousness of life.
     -   Ecclesiastes 9:2–3
• He finally throws up his hands in sarcastic cynicism.
     -   Ecclesiastes 9:9
• Illustration: "Macbeth": Life Signifies Nothing [see Illustrations and Quotations below]

The Teacher's Conclusion
• The Teacher sums up how he really feels: "so I hated life."
     -   Ecclesiastes 2:17
• We use this phrase today when everything feels heavy, unbearable, and dark.
Transition: The rest of the Bible commends the light directly; Ecclesiastes simply makes the darkness intolerable.

An Invitation To The Light
• Illustration: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism [see Illustrations and Quotations below]
• The Teacher asked many hard questions, but he never asked for help, mercy, or grace.
• The Teacher tried many things, but he never tried obedience, worship, or love.
• The apostle Paul, like the Teacher, considered the different things he could gain in this world to bring him light and hope; after trying many of those things, he decided they were rubbish.
• Philippians 3:7-9

Conclusion
• Paul wanted to stop living down here, under the sun, so he gave up everything else and followed after Jesus—the Light of the World.
• Do you want to keep living under the sun?
• I hope your darkness has become unbearable today.

"Macbeth": Life Signifies Nothing
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Jim Carrey: Money and Fame Are Not the Answer
I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
Sociologists at UNC Chapel Hill wrote a book based on a massive study of the religious beliefs of thousands of Americans. These authors, who come from a secular perspective, said that most Americans—even those who are actively involved in church—do not adhere to Christianity.

These researchers defined the dominant religion in America as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. It's moralistic because the primary teaching is to "be nice." It's therapeutic because, by focusing on pop psychology and self-help, the goal is to bring us comfort. It's deism because the core belief is, there is a God who made the world, but he doesn't require much of us; he's generally nice but not too involved

The belief that sums up this religion is that God helps those who help themselves.

In fact, 75% of Americans are convinced that quote comes from the Bible. It was actually Ben Franklin who said that, and he publicly acknowledged that he was a Deist.

It's kind of nice being a Deist, because it doesn't require much of you—God is there, but distant—and certainly doesn't require any special attention, devotion, or love. Deism is just a milder form of Christianity. Over 90% of Americans say they believe in God. It's just that we're Deists.

Title: The Downward Spiral: Cain and Abel at the Guggenheim

Subtitle: For Cain (and for us) there is an exit on every level of temptation, and we need to see the exit and take it.

Subject: Escaping temptation

Text: Genesis 4:1–10

Big Idea: For Cain (and for us) there is an exit on every level of temptation, and we need to see the exit and take it.

Purpose: To shed light on the nature of temptation and God's grace when we give in to it

Relevance: Like Cain, as we give into one temptation, the next step brings us to a greater temptation. It's the grace of God that provides both an exit and an invitation to leave the downward spiral.

Introduction
• In New York City there is a huge, spiral-shaped museum called the Guggenheim; you take the elevator to the top and then you slowly walk around and around and around on a gently sloping floor through all the galleries until you get to the bottom.
• You don't have to go down a single staircase the whole time because the floor gradually leads you lower and lower.
• There's one thing you should remember from the Guggenheim—there's an exit on every floor

Level 1: Cain gives in to apathy.
• Genesis 4:2b–4
• Abel offers his best portion to God (prime rib as opposed to hotdogs), and he does it before he's got a guarantee of the future (giving his firstborn), showing his trust in God.
• Cain just gives "some" and just gives "fruits," as opposed to the best or the firstfruits.
• God doesn't curse Cain—he just smiles on Abel—but Cain misses the blessing because of his lackluster effort towards God.
• There is an exit on this floor—God says that there is still a blessing available to Cain.
     -   Genesis 4:7

Level 2: Cain gives in to anger.
• Instead of getting a blessing, Cain gets angry.
     -   Genesis 4:5b
• Cain gets angry, not because God hurt him, but because his brother got something special that he wanted, which is envy.
• Illustration: Basil the Great (330 A.D.) defined envy this way: "Envy is pain at our neighbor's prosperity."
• God doesn't come and strike Cain down because of his anger—God comes and reaches out to Cain.
• There's an exit on this floor—God sees where the spiral is leading and tries to head Cain off at the pass.
     -   Genesis 4:7
• The exit on this floor is realizing you're a sinner—and knowing that God is warning you so you can escape.
     -   1 Corinthians 10:13

Level 3: Cain gives in to murder.
• Genesis 4:8
• Cain sets himself up to sin—he invites Abel to "come out to the field with me," out of sight of others where he can perpetrate his sin.
• Cain wants to give himself over to sin—just like us when we go on the Internet late at night or take that road home by the bar, wanting to put ourselves in position to give in to sin.
• Illustration: Patti Davis' Struggle with Sin [see Illustrations and Quotations below]
• There is still an exit on this floor—God gives Cain the opportunity to confess, to unload his guilt.
     -   Genesis 4:9
• God is so gracious, he always invites us to own up to our sin on our own; he beckons us out of the spiritual wasteland and through the exit to true freedom.
     -   2 Peter 3:9

Level 4: Cain gives in to deceit and denial.
• The spiral continues downward as what started as mere apathy and then anger has turned into manipulation, murder, deceit, and denial.
• Genesis 4:9
• Cain lies to God and then gives up his remaining dignity, asking, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
• Illustration: Pascal: Only Two Types of Men [see Illustrations and Quotations below]
• There is an exit on this floor—God intervenes and promises to protect Cain wherever he goes.
     -   Genesis 4:11–15
• There are consequences to every sin, and for his Cain is banished, but God is still caring for him.

Conclusion
• Can you see an exit from where you stand on that downward spiral?
• Can you see that exit saying that blessing is always available?
• Can you see the flashing sign that warns you that sin is crouching at your door—but that you can master it?
• Can you see the exit that says you're invited to confess—before you're exposed?
• Can you see the exit that says he still loves you even when you've sinned?

Patti Davis' Struggle with Sin
Ronald Reagan's daughter Patti Davis struggled with the sin of drug addiction. As she describes it, it's not much different than our struggles with other sins.

"You will never understand drug addiction unless you understand that it's a love story. Because, even though I was in love, my lover was cold and cruel, and hardly faithful. I followed the white lines of coke laid out on mirror after mirror. In the end, there was only one mirror left. I had to look at myself."

Pascal: Only Two Types of Men
"There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous."

Title: Embracing the Grinder: Letting the Wilderness Shape You

Subtitle: We think of trials as situations that we want to be rid of as quickly as possible, but God often uses them as seasons to refine our character.

Subject: Letting trials shape our character

Text: Exodus 17:1–7

Big Idea: We think of trials as situations that we want to be rid of as quickly as possible, but God often uses them as seasons to refine our character. 

Purpose: To enable us to escape spiritual wastelands by allowing God to use those circumstances to grow our character

Relevance: Everyone struggles to make sense out of difficult circumstances.  Like the Israelites in the desert, we need to learn how to turn towards God in trials instead of grumbling.

Introduction
• Don't think God will never lead you into the wilderness … because he will. 

God leads us into the wilderness.
• It is God who is leading the Israelites into the wilderness; it is God who brought them to Rephidim, and he knew that it had no water. 
     -      Exodus 17:1
• God leads you into the wilderness because he wants to work on your character.
• The people had obeyed up to this point, but that doesn't mean they don't have to obey again—obedience simply brings us new opportunities to be obedient.
• Jesus was sent into the wilderness right after receiving the Father's blessing.
     -      Mark 1:12
• God wants to grind down the rough spots; he wants to shape your soul to look its very best.

God is not in a rush.
• God is in no hurry to get you through character school.
• Deuteronomy 1:2
• It was only an 11-day journey from Sinai to the Promised Land, but it took forty years for God to do the character work. 
• How long will it take for you to learn?
• God does not simply want to get us to the right place; he wants to make sure that when we get there we are the right people. 

Will you grumble?
• The Israelites respond to their trial just as we do to ours: they grumble. 
• Exodus 17:2–3
• Like them, we often become namby-pamby navel-gazers—it's all about me; it's all about my comfort.
• Ultimately, we don't want to trust God—we are stuck between a past act of deliverance and the promise of a future good, and trust is what covers the relationship in between. 
• Promise is not fulfillment; we still have to walk the path.
• We want faith to be sight; God wants our sights set on faith.

Will you turn to God?
• Moses is the one who gets it right, but that doesn't mean he refrains from stating how harsh the reality is.
• Exodus 17:4
• But in the midst of trouble, Moses leans on God because he trusts him.
• Moses asks God for help rather than demanding or complaining, so God answers him.
• Illustration: Embracing Change [see Illustrations and Quotations below]

Will you choose luxury, or the Lord?
• Finally, the Israelites ask the key question: is the Lord among us or not?
     -      Exodus 17:7
• Their question in and of itself is not bad, but their attitude is pretty poor.
• Illustration: In Quest of Convenience [see Illustrations and Quotations below]
• Exodus 33:15
• Moses tells God, "I'd rather stay in the wilderness with you than live in the luxury of the Promised Land without you." 
• Moses is clearly a man whose character has been transformed by the wilderness. 

Conclusion
• What's your attitude—do you want luxury or the Lord?

Embracing Change
"Too often we try to use God to change our circumstances while he is using our circumstances to change us."

In Quest of Convenience
The following are actual responses from comment cards given to the staff members at Bridger Wilderness Area in 1996:

Trails need to be wider so people can walk while holding hands.

Trails need to be reconstructed. Please avoid building trails that go uphill.

Too many bugs and leeches and spiders and spider webs. Please spray the wilderness to rid the areas of these pests.

Please pave the trails so they can be snow-plowed during the winter.

Chair lifts need to be in some places so that we can get to wonderful views without having to hike to them.

The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please eradicate these annoying animals.

A small deer came into my camp and stole my jar of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed? Please call….

Reflectors need to be placed on trees every 50 feet so people can hike at night with flashlights.

Escalators would help on steep uphill sections.

A MacDonald's would be nice at the trailhead.

The places where trails do not exist are not well marked.

Too many rocks in the mountains.

Bill White is pastor of outreach at Emmanuel Reformed Church in Paramount, California.