Ambition Versus Companionship

I. Introduction A. Ecclesiastes: Precious words from the mouth of
someone who has lived a lot of life, who has learned a lot of things the
hard way and who has some things to say to us which can save us from some
serious trouble.

II. The first half of our passage (Eccl.4:7-8) is a tragic
description of the relationless workaholic, the person who lives as though
work and income are everything, even though he is poverty-stricken when it
comes to relationships.

A. Ecclesiastes 4:7-8 Again, I saw vanity under
the sun: 8 one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is
no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so
that he never asks, "For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of
pleasure?" This also is vanity and an unhappy business.

1. He has no relations.

2. And yet he works himself
endlessly.

3. He's never satisfied with what
he has or with what he's accomplished.

4. He never rests. He never
enjoys himself.

5. He never even stops to ask
what all his hard work is for!

6. What a sham ! What a
waste! What an empty life! What a tragedy when a man is very successful for
his whole life and then find out at the end that it was all for nothing!

B. The Bible does not condemn working hard and
even making lots of money. But the Bible does condemn raw ambition.

1. It knows the futility of an
ambition that drives a person to rise up early and go to bed late. (Psalm
127:2 "It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the
bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.")

2. It knows the futility of a
person whose longs to be rich. (1Timothy 6:9-10 "Those who desire to be rich
fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires
that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a
root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have
wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.")

3. It knows the futility of being
preoccupied with the gathering and storing of possessions. (The parable of
the rich fool in Luke 12:15-21)

III. God created man to work hard, but God did not create man to
work hard as an end in itself. He did not create man to work hard for
himself.

A. He created man to work hard for Him - and for
his family and his neighbor.

1. God created Adam and Eve and
called them to work the garden. And there in the garden they dwelt in love
with one another and walked with God.

B. But one of the primary effects of sin is
alienation.

1. After the fall of Adam and Eve
into sin we find them hiding from God, and we find God ejecting them from
the garden. And soon after we find Cain killing his brother Abel.

2. Because of sin there is in us
an impulse of alienation, a pressure away from God and one another.

a. "Prone to
wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love." (Robert Robinson,
"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing")

b. Like a boat
that drifts away from the dock if it is not tied, so we drift away from God.

C. And on top of this, ours is a very
individualistic society. America is the most productive country in the
world. And very ambitious. But not very relational. We know how to work; we
know how to be productive. But we don't do as well at relating. And so our
society is full of lonely people.

D. (My experience with African societies is very
different: they have very little ambition but a deep commitment to
companionship.)

E. I think this may be why in the American
Christian community there is such a trap of seeing the Christian life as
something you do. "God, tell me what to do and I'll do it." And not thinking
we need relationships.

F. People are so complicated and relationships so
messy. We think it's not worth the bother. We think we can do better on our
own.

G. Or we think we are too messed up to be close to
others. We're afraid of relationships: afraid of being hurt, of being
rejected, of being found out.

H. But God did not create us to be alone.

I. A lawyer once asked Jesus this question:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" And Jesus answered
him with this: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first
commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as
yourself. These two commandments sum up all of the law and the prophets."
(Matthew 22:35-40)

1. Here Jesus summarizes the
question of what God requires of us. And both great commands are relational.


2. God's greatest commandments
are commands to have loving relationships.

3. He didn't make us to live
alone. He put us in families. He put us in communities.

4. And most important, He put us
in relationship with Himself.

5. He is a Person. That means He
is someone to be known, to have a relationship with.

6. He doesn't just give us
assignments and ask us to go off and do them.

7. Tim Keller in The King's
Cross: Love did not first come into the heart of God when He made man. The
three persons of the Trinity have been loving one another for all eternity.
And when they made man, and when Christ came to redeem mankind, they were
inviting us into the dance of love which had been going on between them all
along.

8. And so God's first concern is
to reconcile us to Himself, to form a close relationship with us.

9. And His second concern is to
reconcile us to one another, and to have us dwell in love with one another.

10. He has given us Himself, and He
has given us each other.

11. And the Lord knows we need
both! We can't live the way we're supposed to live by ourselves.

IV. And so, after the description of the relationless workaholic in
Eccl.4:7-8, the author of Ecclesiastes goes on to reflect on the importance
and value of relationships: "Two are better than one, because they have a
good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him
up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm
alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will
withstand him-a threefold cord is not quickly broken." (Eccl.4:9-12)

A. Four advantages of friendship can be seen in
these verses:

1. Increased productivity: "Two
are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil."

2. Assistance in getting back on
one's feet after a failure or loss: "For if they fall, one will lift up his
fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to
lift him up!"

3. Encouragement and comfort:
"Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm
alone?"

4. Help in standing up under
pressure and being successful in the face of opposition: "And though a man
might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him-a threefold
cord is not quickly broken."

B. But in order for these things to happen:

1. We need to be WITH people. We
need to have people who are close enough to know we just fell.

2. We need to be close enough to
people for them to warm us with their warmth.

3. We need to have friends who
know what we're facing, close enough to know we need their help.

C. So let's ask ourselves some questions: Who
knows me like this? Who is praying for me every day? Who is rooting for me
and checking on me? Who do I talk about my fears with?

1. In this context I love the
story of Peter when he was delivered from prison by an angel in Acts 12. He
was sprung from the prison in the middle of the night. And yet when he was
delivered, he did not go home. He went to a house where the believers were
gathered to pray for him, since he was to be executed the next morning. He
had a place to go to report God's answer.

2. Do we have a team praying for
us and a place to go to report when God answers prayer in a big way?

D. And then secondly we need to ask ourselves:
Who do I know like this? Who am I praying for every day? Who am I rooting
for and checking in on? Who talks to me about their fears?

1. For there are two potential
errors here:

a. Being ready to
get help but not give help.

b. Being willing
to help but not be helped.

2. But the idea here is to be
able to help each other.

E. Strange as it may seem, being close to Jesus
is not enough.

1. Jesus Himself calls us over
and over again to love one another, to be close to one another.

2. And when Jesus was asked about
the greatest commandment, He wouldn't just answer the question. He insisted
on adding a second: "There is a second like it: love your neighbor as
yourself." (Matt.22:39)

3. John tells us that you can say
you love God, but if you don't love your brother you show that it's a lie.
(1John 4:20)

4. Hebrews 3:13 talks about the
important ministry we are to have in each other's lives: "Encourage one
another daily that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

F. Of course, it's even worse to think that all
you need is people, and that being close to people is enough.

V. Conclusion

A. The fact is, we need others. We are not
self-sufficient. We need God. We need people.

1. A marriage takes constant
attention and effort to keep alive and growing.

a. The same is
true in our relationship with God and with each other.

b. We want it the
easy way. But it is not easy.

B. For some there is a profound stubbornness that
resists closeness and rebuffs others.

1. If we live life without
drawing near to God, if we live life without close fellowship with God's
people, maybe we are arrogant and don't think we need God's help and God's
helpers.

C. God wants us to walk in relationship with Him,
praising Him, enjoying Him, adoring Him, crying out to Him, resting in Him,
trusting Him. If you have strayed from Him, He wants you back.

1. "I held out my arms to a
stiff-necked and obstinate people." (Romans 10:21)

2. "How often I have longed to
gather you to Myself but you would not have it." (Matt.23:37)

3. The father's welcome of the
prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)

4. Rejoicing in heaven when a
sinner returns (Luke 15:1-7)

D. He also wants us to draw near to His beloved
people. He wants us to know that we need them.

1. And He wants us to be more
focused on loving the people He loves than on being loved by them.

E. Evangelism: There are many lonely people in
our society. This opens up a marvelous opportunity to minister, to reach
out. Many are starved for the love and support of a fellowship such as ours.
And perhaps through our showing love, they will come to know the fountain of
all love, the Lord Jesus Christ.