The Game of LIFE: Trivial Pursuit

The words of the teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

Meaningless! Meaningless! Says the teacher.
Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!

Ecclesiastes 1:1-2

My favorite games are the ones that get people interacting. The more people involved, the better. It might be a sporting game, or a big group game. I just learned a great new game last month- Bunco. If you haven’t played this, look it up online, buy yourself some dice, and get 12 friends together. IF you don’t have 12 friends, make more friends. And if you don’t mind losing, invite me. Because I rocked at Bunco. Now I’m not saying that to brag, it's just that I’m the best Bunco player I’ve ever played with!

Actually, I say this because Bunco, and most games, are a great window into our soul. Play a game with someone, and you will quickly learn so much about that person. How they play, how they handle stress and competition, how they win, how they lose. How they interact with their team, how they treat the other team. I've often said that you can actually learn more about a person’s qualities and characteristics in an hour of playing a game than you could in having some intense conversation. I say that because I’ve had the experience of people leading me to believe a whole host of things about themselves through conversation. But when we play a game together, wow, they show a whole different side.

This month we are going to look at how we play certain games, and in looking at how we play these games I think we are going to learn more about ourselves than countless hours of conversation. I think that as we examine how we play certain areas of life, we are going to uncover a lot of stuff inside of us. A lot of stuff that we might not be aware of. A lot of stuff that has gone unexamined in our lives, but stuff that is impacting the way we play in some very significant ways. Stuff that impacts what we think about ourselves, about life, about how we play out our lives. We are going to look into some very specific games that will reveal some very specific things in us.

But the things we are talking about are not ultimate just a bunch of "games." These are real parts of our lives, and unlike a game, in these areas of life losing is really going to cost you. In fact, in the things we are going to talk about, losing is really not a good option. Losing will cost you a great deal. Losing can even cost you your life. SO we are going to look at how the game is play, what are the rules, what's at stake, what losing means, and what winning will look like. We want you to win in every one of these areas of life!

We are going to look at Twister: Playing with Sex. How are we playing with sex? How we play out sex is going to tell us a whole lot about what we think of ourselves, others, relationships and life. PLEASE TAKE NOTE- this will be rated PG-13. We will be offering an extra classroom next week in one of our theatres for your children.

We are looking at Monopoly- Playing with Money. How we play with our finances is going to reveal so much.

We are looking at SORRY- the game of sweet revenge. WOW, this is going to shed light on our view of relationships and forgiveness.

Finally we are looking at one of my favorites- RISK- the game of world domination. In this message I’m going to reveal my personal plan for world domination- just kidding. I’m not revealing that plan just yet. Today we start by taking a more birds eye view, looking at a classic game- Trivial Pursuit.

This morning as we talk I want you to consider two game boxes- one is titled Trivial Pursuit, just like the game. The other here is called Meaningful Pursuit. Obviously, I want you to see this as an analogy of your life. And as we talk this morning, I want you to consider which box better represents the way you are playing the game of life. Which game are you really working at- is the sum total of your life a game of Trivial Pursuit?
Or is the sum total of your life a Meaningful Pursuit?

The reality of our lives is that at the end our days, where they be many or few,our lives will be the sum total of a lot of trivial pursuits, or a lot of meaningful pursuit. One of these boxes is going to weigh more than the other. One of these games will be mastered, the other perhaps entirely missed. The things we do, the things we say, the goals we set, the hopes and dreams we hold, what we do with our gifts, what we do with our talents, and playing into one box, or the other. We are pursuing trivial things, or meaningful things.

Now here’s the tricky part- in the midst of playing, we are all going to be dealt, for the most part, the same hand in life. Really, when you strip life down to it’s basic essentials, we are dealt very similar hands. We’re born, we die. We eat, sleep and play. We find some kind of work. We seek relationships, perhaps marriage, perhaps a family. We live somewhere, in some place, at some time. We have some freedoms, and we have some limitations. There is a tremendous amount of variety with the game of life, but we are all playing the game of LIFE.

And what I want you to see is that playing to trivial pursuits or to meaningful pursuits is very much a matter of our intended outcome. We’ll all work- will we try to make it meaningful, or trivial? We’ll all have relationships- will they be trivial, or meaningful. We’ll all make and spend money- will we do so in trivial ways, or in ways that we hope bring meaning. The different between playing to one of these boxes is very often a matter of our heart, and our hopes. And that’s why this takes some work, and reflection, and introspection on our lives. It’s also going to take some brutal honesty. We are going to have to ask ourselves, if we don’t want life to simple be a trivial pursuit, which game, really, which box, and I really playing towards?

The bible deals with this issue of the trivial pursuits of life. There was once a man named Solomon, the son of David, the greatest king Israel ever had. But what is so interesting is that Solomon was positioned to be the greatest king Israel ever had. In fact, there’s a story in the Old Testament where God spoke to Solomon and told him that he would give him anything he asked for. Solomon asked for wisdom to govern and lead the people of Israel. It would appear that Solomon’s wisdom was going to come through a life of trivial pursuits. The details of which are written down for us in a little book called Ecclesiastes. This is the final lesson he teaches to the people. This is the sum total of wisdom. He wrote this:

Ecc. 1:1-2 The words of the teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
Meaningless! Meaningless! Says the teacher.
Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!

Amen, thanks everyone have a great week and we’ll see you next Sunday.
He makes this very poetic introduction and sets the stage for a deep exploration of all the things which men and women have ever pursued to find meaning and purpose in life. He leaves no stone unturned in his teaching, and more importantly, in his life. For what he is about to reveal comes out of the experience of his life and his pursuit for meaning, and all the trivial things that have consumed his life. He writes

1:12-14,17-18 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind….I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom and also of madness and folly, but I learned this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

Is Solomon against learning and wisdom and knowledge? Is the bible anti-intellectual? Of course not. Christianity has always cherished learning, literary, teaching and education. But many of you have come to experience yourselves the truth of that statement- with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief. Information, intellect, intelligence in and of itself can not and will not bring you meaning and purpose in life. Education, even the most noble of educational endeavors, can amount to nothing more than a pursuit of more trivia and trivial information that can have the sum total sorrow and grief in life. This is why the suicide rate is actually highest among educated people. And higher yet among university students. People hear that and they are like that’s incredible, that’s unbelievable. No, it’s not. It’s a testimony to what the bible teaches and what we see all the time- the pursuit of wisdom itself can be a trivial pursuit that breeds misery.

So Solomon goes on...

2:1 I thought in my heart, “Come now I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.

Now if I have a temptation to go down one of Solomon’s paths, it’s definitely this one. This is very tempting to me. Solomon writes that he denied himself no pleasure in life. Solomon created a lifestyle for himself that makes Hugh Hefner look like a man who lived in abject poverty. I mean the playbody mansion, the playboy bunnies, the parties, the drinking, the drugs, the food, the sensual pleasures- Solomon had all of this in spades. He created for himself the playboy mansion times ten. Solomon’s kingdom reached further than any Israelite king before or after him. His house took 13 years to build. It was bigger than a football field, more than four stories in height. He amassed a mansion greater than anyone else in the world. 1400 chariots and 12 thousand horses, an army of hundreds of thousands. Hugh has like a butler and a cook and a few other house workers. Solomon had 700 hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Hugh has what, his three blonde girl friends.

What did he write then:

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.

Take a moment and think about what you would give yourself, what you would do if you found yourself in a position where no pleasure you desired would be refused. What are you thinking about?

You should be ashamed of yourself! Honestly, if we could have collectively projected your thoughts on screen, I don’t think many of us would be very proud right now.

He didn’t stop there. Solomon amassed riches like the world had never known. What did he say-

5:10 whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves money is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.

I want to tell you today that the worst thing that can happen to you is to reach your misdirected goal in life. Because when you reach that misdirected goal the whole house of cards is going to come falling down. Because some of the most miserable people you will meet are the people who have reached their goals in life. And it wasn’t until they reached their goals in life that they finally learned, the finally realized, that it was all meaningless, just a trivial pursuit.

I read the story of Tony Dungy, Quiet Strength, coach of the Indianapolis Colts. Tony had the experience of winning the Superbowl two years ago. In the book he talks about this stuff. He wrote how for nearly his whole life had this dream of wining the Superbowl. He said you know how some people have this goal, like winning the super bowl, and when they achieve it, it’s profoundly disappointing.

He said that wasn’t his experience at all! In fact, he said, it was better than he ever imagined it. Even better! But he said, you want to know why? It was because winning the Superbowl had never been, and would never be, the purpose and the meaning for his life. It was just a goal. It was just a game.

Too many people reach their goals in life and it’s the worst thing that ever happened to them because it wasn’t until then that they realized it was all just a trivial pursuit, a chasing after the wind, meaningless. They may have even been pursuing great things, but because their motives, their reasons were trivial or misdirected, it amounted to nothing but misery.

You can everything the world has to offer, but without meaning, you'll only suffer. But if you have meaning for your life, then you can suffer anything the world throw at you. Solomon learned first hand that it's better to have meaning than anything else in the world.

Solomon finally, after sharing his wisdom which was learned the hard way. He finally relents at the end. He has to drawn his learning, his experience, to a conclusion. Is there any meaning to life? Is there any purpose to all of this? Are we just some grand cosmic accident? Is the very fact that we long for purpose and meaning and a reason to live all part of the cruelest trick that random chance has ever played? He writes:

12;13-14Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Is it all just a trivial pursuit to find meaning and purpose and passion in this life? Absolutely not! We begin to find our purpose in life when we fear God, or to tease that word out, when we revere God. We view God with reverence, with respect, with worship.

We will begin to discover our purpose in life when we make the decision to revere and worship God. This means we put God before all things. We dedicate our life not to sex, money, power, power, prestige, or anything else- we dedicate our lives to God. Now this morning I want to ask all of you, even if you are not totally sold out on this Jesus stuff, to at least make this step of faith- acknowledge God. Revere God. Just this simple step of saying God, I may still have questions, I still don’t have it all figured out, and I know I won’t ever get it all figured out, but I’ve got this figured out- you are God, and I am not. You are the creator, and I am a creature. And I just want to revere you right now. I may not even be totally sure that you’re a personal God who wants a personal relationship with me, but at least I can move a step in that direction and say at the least, the relationship is that you are God, I’m not.

Now I also think the great news is that you can acknowledge a whole lot more- because our God is relational and wants a relationship with you the first step in flooding our lives with meaning and purpose is to get this right. Revere God. Then what we discover is that there is pleasure and meaning in the matters of life. In fact, we don’t really begin to enjoy life and life it to its full into we get this straight. You will not reap all the joys of sex from sex until you stop making sex your God. You will not enjoy money until you stop worshipping money and worship God. You will not enjoy relationships until you start living out relationships the way God desires. You will not enjoy success until you start to view success through God’s standard of success.

Fear God, and keep his commandments. What does God command- what is it that we do that will matter most in this life, and will in fact matter throughout eternity- love God, love your neighbor. The most meaningful pursuit of our lives is the pursuit of God, and loving him. We say this all the time here. Love God. Do that right, and everything else in you life will start to fall into place. There is nothing above or beyond or better than loving God.

This actually gives us a very profound insight into God. If God’s first command, if God’s hearts desire is that we love him, that means that God desires you. God wants you, he wants your love, He thinks your love is pretty special, He thinks a relationship, a loving relationship with you, is the best thing in this world!

God thinks being in a loving relationship with you is the best thing, the best investment, the best and least trivial thing we can do- and all of God’s actions toward us demonstrate this. God bothered to make the world. He made a garden and made us and sought to spend time with us in a loving relationship. Even after the fall God still desires to be with us. So he called people to himself. He wanted to be our God, and we to be his people. In Jesus he came to be with us and show us his love. In sending us the Holy Spirit God is saying I want to be with you and to love you.

What does loving God look like- being with Him. How do I live out my love for my wife and kids- I spend time with them. I am with them. It is not a trivial pursuit for me to take time to be with Robin, and to be with my kids, and in fact, it is the greatest thing I can offer them and it is how we love each other and how we grow in love for each other. And it is what God desires. Love him, spend time with Him. Invite him into your life. Start your week with worship. Start your day reading the bible and saying a prayer. Take breaks all throughout the day to say God, I want to love you, I want to be with you, I invite you to be with me. This is how we begin to live a life of loving God.

What game are you going to play in this life? What box are your going to fill? Trivial pursuits, or meaningful pursuits? This is the box of life. This is the one that matters. Don’t wait until the end of your life to play this game right. Play it now. Pursue meaning, pursue purpose, pursue God. Revere God, and love God. And your life will find meaning, purpose, direction.