When The Newness Wears Off

Introduction

There’s within my heart a melody Jesus whisper, sway and loar not I am with thee, face till Jesus, sweetest name I know, feels my every keep facing as I do, feasting on the riches of his grace, resting at his sheltering wings, always looking on his smiling face that his wife and sing Jesus, sweetness, I know fills my every keeps facing as I go. Soon he’s coming back to welcome me, or beyond the story.

Every keeps missing as I go. We’ve all experienced it, but what should it teach us? The excitement, the rush, the zing, the enthusiasm over something fresh, new, and beautiful. Eventually, some of that excitement dwindles. The zing fizzles, the enthusiasm fades, and what was once fresh, new and shiny is now growing stale, old, and dull. We may look for something new to take its place.

Listen to some ancient yet timeless wisdom. In Ecclesiastes chapter one and verse eight, if you’ll turn in your old testaments to the book of Ecclesiastes, listen to the wisest man, with the exception of the sinless perfect Son of God. Listen to the wisdom of the wisest man that ever walked the face of the earth when he says in Ecclesiastes 1 and verse eight, all things are wearisome. Man is not able to tell it. Look at this. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. Upon a rather elaborate experiment in chapter 2, where he tested himself with pleasure and beautiful things and wonderful pursuits, he says in verse 10, all that my eyes desired, I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased, because of all my labor, and this was my reward for all my labor.

Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done, and the labor which I had exerted, and behold, all was vanity, and striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun. And in chapter 5 and verse 10, he says, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity. Oh, I know, that’s easy. His annual income was 666 talents of gold. More than we can even begin to fathom in terms of material wealth. But here is one who had that kind of wealth and says, it will not ultimately satisfy. And that leads us to a verse a little bit earlier in the text in Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 11, that is admittedly difficult, where he says that God has made everything appropriate in its time.

He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

One commentator interprets this. The eternity in man’s heart must be connected with the eternity or forever of verse 14. Eternity was important in Israel’s heritage. An eternal life had been lost in the garden. An eternal covenant inaugurated by an eternal God. An eternal priesthood and an eternal kingdom were bestowed by God, who is eternally merciful, giving his people eternal joy. The eternity of God’s dealings with mankind corresponds to something inside us, he says.

Want to understand from the beginning to the end and have a sense of something that transcends the immediate nature? I don’t know if that is saying what I’m about to say or not, but I believe it’s true, there exists a vacuum in your soul that only God can fill. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 6. In Luke chapter 12, when the fellow came to Jesus asking for help with his father’s inheritance, Jesus says, Beware and be on your guard against every form of greed. For not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. And we are admonished, love not the world in 1 John 2 and verse 15, because all of those things, John says, are passing away, the world and also its lust.

But he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. What are we going to do? When the world, no matter what we pursue, what we accumulate, the world will leave you wanting, unfulfilled, and empty. And in regard to all of the things that can be pursued and accumulated in this world, what are you going to do when continually the newness wears off? Let me tell you something has happened here with my slides. That font is not supposed to look like that. And I know why that is, but I was not anticipating this particular problem, so I’m going to have a problem the rest of the way through, as you can see. So forget that. The wears off is supposed to be on the top line.

What are you going to do when the newness wears off? Let me suggest that we learn it’s not about some things, but it is about something else. Point number one.

1. Not About the Seen, but the Unseen

You know, it’s really silly and foolish when you think about it. Some people spend their whole lives in avid, unrelenting, all-consuming pursuit of material things. Maybe you’re still in the book of Ecclesiastes. There’s another passage in that context that I want you to consider in Ecclesiastes 2 and verse 18. Listen to this one gets overlooked sometimes. Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor, for which I had labored under the sun. For I must leave it to the man who will come after me. Solomon is already fully aware of all the wealth that he had amassed, that he can’t take it with him. That he’s going to have to leave it behind and leave it to someone else. And furthermore, as wisdom would indicate a few chapters earlier in the book of Proverbs and chapter 23, verses 4 and 5, Solomon says, do not weary yourself to gain wealth.

Cease from your consideration of it. Because when you have set your eyes on it’s gone. For wealth certainly makes wings, makes itself wings like an eagle that flies towards the heaven. This passage is not telling us not to be industrious and not to work hard or to be diligent, but against consuming oneself for the pursuit of money and recommending wise restraint in the pursuit. As one Bible commentator said, this is needed, especially in the present day, when materialism drives people to excessive workloads in order to accumulate more money. The reason for this advice is that riches are temporary and unstable. When I was growing up in southern Indiana, about the time that I hit high school, my mom and dad decided to get a second job.

My dad worked at the electric company in southern Indiana. He worked in a coal plant, and it was called Public Service Indiana. And they would bring in the coal on barges, and that would fuel the energy for our part of the world. And my mom was a school teacher, but they decided when I reached my high school years that they needed a second job. And so they bought an ice cream establishment. And it was on a busy street, Highway 150, that headed out from where I lived out to some other towns, and it was in Galena, Indiana, and there was a lot of traffic that went by this ice cream place, and we had stopped there many times while we were playing baseball in a nearby town.

And so we thought, you know, this might be a very good investment. The name of the ice cream establishment was the Gala Dairy Bar. Now let that sink in. The Gala Dairy Bar. My friends at school teased me endlessly that I worked at the gay bar. They just conveniently dropped off the LA and called it the Gay Bar. And I was the only guy that worked there because mostly girls worked there, which I didn’t mind that actually. And we sold ice cream. And my mom and dad would work at their regular jobs, and then at night, half the time they would be at the dairy bar, working, closing up, and they put in a lot of hours. But you know what was interesting about that? Our lifestyle at home didn’t change.

We didn’t buy a fancier car than we had always had. We didn’t have more clothes than we customarily had. Where did all the money go? You know, I never really thought of that at the time. What are they doing with the extra income? But I figured it out. They saved to send us to college with the extra job. That’s what paid the large tuition for me and my two sisters to go to Florida College. And attendance at that particular institution helped all three of us spiritually, and was a large reason why I decided to become a preacher. My parents didn’t work the extra job so that they could get a bigger slice of the pie. They were concerned about their kids and sending their kids to college.

I think that’s the idea of Luke chapter 16 when Jesus says, make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness. Use it properly for good purposes, not just merely the amassing of material things. How foolish it is, according to Psalm 39. Psalm 39 verses 4 through 6. Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days. Let me know how transient I am. Psalm 39, verse 5, Thou hast made my days as hand breads and my lifetime as nothing in thy sight, and surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Surely every man walks about as a phantom. Surely they make an uproar for nothing, he says. He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them. These are the words of David in Psalm 39.

And he says, Help me to see my limits as a person. Help me to know my end and how short lived I really am. Well, David said this 3,000 years ago. He’s been gone for a very long time, hasn’t he? And he says, a person amasses riches and does not know who will have them when he’s gone. And he described why for a lot of people when he says, it’s an uproar for nothing. It’s a big old exciting thing that people pursue to what end? What’s the end of the pursuit? If it’s all about the scene, we’re not going to be around in the scene forever. Do not look to the things which are seen, but to the things which are unseen. The things that are unseen are eternal.

The wisdom of the New Testament from Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 18. I like Derek Kidner’s statement about Psalm 39 and the words of David. He says, it is David’s purpose to expose the fatal insufficiency of all that is earthbound. That’s a short statement, but powerful. Young people, I want you to remember that.

2. Marriage: Not About a Feeling, but a Family

It is about the unseen. But what about when the newness wears off of other things? What about when the newness wears off in a marriage? This is when the realities of married life sets in, when you realize that marriage is not so much about a feeling as it is a family. Reading a statistic that said the average in love experience lasts about two years. Now, what the author was saying is not that romance and dating concludes after two years of marriage, and there’s never any more of that. That there’s no more feelings of affection. But it also argues the realities and difficulties of married life. And no wonder when love is described true biblical love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, Paul would go on to say in chapter 14 and verse 1 that love has to be pursued.

Pursue love.

And to enjoy the fulfillment of sexual union in a marriage. And yes, marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled, but that is still really in the best of unions. Only a small part of married life together. Yes, an important part. Yes, an essential part. But a lot of life goes beyond that part of married life. And so what we need to discover then is that marriage is more than a honeymoon. It is the building of a home. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it, Psalm 127 and verse 1. A good marriage and a rewarding marriage requires that often undesirable four-letter word.

The relationship has to be nurtured. Selflessness, as we talked about this morning, has to be pursued. And so when the newness wears off, we need to understand this truth.

3. Not About a Building, but a Body

And that is when the newness wears off, it’s not about a building, but a body.

To build the building. We were moving to a more visible location in Baytown. I knew we were going to grow just because of where we were moving. And it was exciting. We were going from this small auditorium where we were packed in like sardines to this large, spacious auditorium with a better projector, better visual aids, and a pulpit that I designed. And I could roam from side to side. I even moved the pulpit back. I made it smaller, I moved it back, and I would stand on one corner and preach, and I could walk all the way across in front of it to the other corner. I loved preaching there. But you know what I noticed? Is that over time you start taking the building for granted?

The newness of and all the excitement of the first Sunday where there were 250 people present. Of course, there was a little bit of a downer there two days later, after our first Sunday in the new building was September 11th. And so that sort of changed the beginning of it. Also, one of the elders’ wives fell off the side of a curb and broke her arm before services began the first Sunday morning. So there was already some negatives to begin with. But still there was this excitement about the new building. And, you know, if you go over to East Side now, I don’t think when people walk into that building, there’s the same excitement as there was in 2001. It’s been 10 years. They’re used to meeting in that building.

Oh, I’m sure there was an excitement over this auditorium at some time in the past when it was new. And when we got the padded pews, you know there was excitement that Sunday, right? But you took the padded pews for granted. You didn’t walk in here tonight thinking, whoo, Tony’s preaching. I don’t know if that sermon’s going to be good, but at least I get a sit on those padded pews. Do some of you even remember pews without pads? Yeah, all those of us who are older do. I grew up in some of those heart. They were not ergonomic either. My back hurt if the preacher preached too long. You can imagine what it would be like now. But we take things for granted. The newness wears off.

4. More About the Message Than the Man

And what you discover is that it’s not about a building, it’s it’s about a body. It’s not about brick and mortar, it never has been. And it’s not about metal, it’s about a mission that God has given us. It’s not about a place, it’s about people. Let me tell you something else, another honeymoon that ends. And I’ve talked about this before. And this is the honeymoon of the preacher. And what you discover when the newness wears off of a preacher. Yes, I’ve been here two years now. And if it is not worn off by now, it’s close. You have to discover that it’s more about the message than the man. And I keep preparing you for this if you’re not already thinking along these lines. If people had problems with the Apostle Paul, then you’re gonna have problems with me.

I am not perfect. And the Apostle Paul is about as close to perfect other than Jesus than I think you could get. And yet people had all kinds of problems with him. They even looked at his appearance, and maybe that’s gonna be a part of it with me. But they looked at his appearance and they found him contemptible. Some did. It’s and even his speech, and he would have to say it’s not about excellency of speech. It’s not about the way I speak, it is about the message that I’m presenting. And so the newness wears off, and you have to look past the foyables and the failures, and perhaps the fact that the preacher has disappointed you in some way. I’ll tell you, if I’m going to be here long enough, I’m going to disappoint you somehow in some way.

5. Not About the Dash, but the Distance

Hopefully it’s not anything big and major, but I won’t live up to your expectations. I mean, really, can anybody live up to the expectations of an entire group of people? I never have. So you have to look beyond those things. We have this treasure in earthen vessel, in earthen vessels, Paul says, speaking of those who preach the message and live the message, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not of us. I’ll tell you, number five, when the newness wears off, it’s not about the dash, but the distance. And this is when the newness wears off for the new convert. Jesus warned about this in the parable of the sower. In fact, in two of the soils that he mentions, he mentions in Luke chapter 8 the seed being sown among the rocky soil.

In Luke 8 and verse 13, when they hear, they receive the word with joy, and they have no firm root. They believe for a while, and in time of temptation, they fall away. And the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, but as they go on their way, they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to maturity.

There is an excitement that comes with the discovery of life’s most important answers. Jesus described the kingdom as a man, a merchant finding one pearl of great price and selling all that he has to purchase it, or a treasure hidden in a field. And he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. We have all seen that kind of excitement. Hopefully, our initial obedience to the gospel led to that kind of excitement and zeal and enthusiasm over what we have discovered. The fact that we have come into a right relationship with God and our sins have been forgiven. But I want to tell you, it’s an especially exciting discovery for those who came from without, perhaps not knowing truth at all. And they were introduced by some loving soul, a boyfriend or a girlfriend, a neighbor, a co-worker, a relative.

They were introduced to the gospel, the truth, the good news. And there is a special excitement that goes with the discovery. This is what’s right. This is what’s true. This is what pleases the creator, and I know it. And yet the excitement and the enthusiasm of the discovery often does not last. Over time, sometimes even a short time, the enthusiasm is lost and vanishes. Sometimes it’s over a good deal of time, like the thorny soil, that ultimately the cares of this world leads the person away. Oh, you mean this isn’t the hundred-yard dash? No, it more resembles a marathon. If somebody asks me to go outside and start running right now, I can give you the dash. But I’m not going to be able to give you the distance.

There’s some training involved. Just like there’s some spiritual training involved in making it the distance. It seems to go on forever. Service after service, week after week. It just seems to be unending. We’ve been at this, some of us a long time. And we have to keep reminding ourselves that we’re nearer to our salvation than when we believe. We are rapidly being hurled through time. As I posted on Facebook this week, James Arnest died this week. Marshal Matt Dillon. He was such a big part of my childhood and Daniel Boone. How could it be that Matt Dillon was eighty-eight years old? We are rapidly moving through time. But what happens to people? The Hebrew writer talks about this. When he warns about neglecting so great a salvation, he warns lest we drift away from it.

I want to tell you what happens over time. Because it’s a long distance run. We just sort of drift away. He goes on to talk in chapter 3 and verse 13 about the deceitfulness of sin. That works on us. Sin is promising. It has always promised what it cannot deliver, but the appeals are always there. And if we do not recognize them for the deceit that they are. Or if we recognize it at one time in the past, but stop recognizing that what Satan is offering is so short-lived and temporary and unfulfilling, as we said in the beginning. Though it seems to offer the moon. Or we quit growing. For by this time you ought to be teachers, the Hebrew writer said. But you’re in need again of the elementary principles.

They had stopped maturing as Christians. They’d stopped working at their devotion to God. I’ve often said about 2 Peter chapter 1 and those qualities there that we’re to add to our faith that the one that we might tend to overlook is to add to your faith godliness. How do you add godliness to faith and increase in that quality? That simply means that you have to stay God focused in your life. And you can lose that. You can become more this world focused, and you stop growing. And oh, the Hebrew writer talked about it when he said, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us. You see, what happens is when we stop growing, we start getting entangled by the deceitfulness of sin, and we get more and more entangled by the world and its charms, and we stop caring so much about our souls and spiritual things.

Do you realize how many people that happens to? There’s no interest anymore in feeding the soul. There’s more interest in television programming and movies and all sorts of entertainment options that are available today. And feeding the soul, just what’s that really gonna pay off? Do I really need that? Yes.

6. Not About the Here, but Heaven and How We Hear

But it’s about the distance. And that leads me to this point. It’s not about the here, but about heaven. This is also temporary. Heaven will be eternal. And we will have gained nothing if we profit the whole world and forfeit our souls. Again, in Proverbs 27 and verse 24. For riches are not forever. Well, we know that intellectually. For riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations. The crown would be a reference to a king’s crown, sitting on the throne. Look at all the kings we read about in the Bible who are no longer kings. They had a crown, it was theirs perhaps for a number of years. King Manasseh was a king for 55 years. That’s a long time. But he’s not been a king for a lot longer than that.

Substitute another word for crown. For riches are not forever, nor does a diploma endure to all generations, nor does a job title, nor does an automobile, nor does a house. Ultimately everything here. What did I say before? The fatal insufficiency of all that is earthbound. I like saying that. I think I’m going to say that again. The fatal insufficiency of all that is earthbound. And the glowing full sufficiency of all that is in the presence of God. And finally, it’s not about the here necessarily, but it’s about the hear. It’s more than just coming in and sitting on a pew and saying, I’m here. It’s about taking the message. To whom shall we go? Peter said, Thou hast the words of eternal life. It is taking the message and living it in our lives.

Conclusion

Hopefully I’ve given you something to think about this week. I want to conclude tonight in Psalm 119. It’s not about the dash, but the distance.

It’s not about the here necessarily, but how we hear.

Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may observe thy law and keep it with all my heart. Make me walk in the path of thy commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to thy testimonies and not to dishonest gain. Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity and revive me in thy ways. Establish thy word to thy servant as that which produces reverence for thee. Turn away my reproach, which I dread, for thine ordinances are good. Behold, I long for thy precepts. Revive me through thy righteousness. May thy loving kindnesses also come to me, O Lord, thy salvation according to thy word. So I shall have an answer for him who reproaches me.

For I trust in thy word, and do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I wait for thine ordinances, so I will keep thy law continually forever and ever. And may that be the sentiment of your heart. And if there’s somebody in our audience tonight who needs the salvation according to his word, may you come and receive the loving kindnesses of the Lord while we stand and sing.

I will abide with thee lonely without his stay lonely within while I am still the lay I am condemned to the sway the tones are calling the door for me if thou wilt heed my call I will abide with thee door of my heart I said thee will I open thou he review and chase he shall with me abide sway at tones are falling open the door for me if thou will heed my calling I will abide with thee see the seed, please.