Solomon's Summary on Striving After Pleasure

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sometime in the afternoon yesterday, and was spending the evening doing some other things, namely reading some from Ian Murray’s biography of Jonathan Edwards. And while I was doing that for the last couple hours, leading up until the clock struck midnight for the celebratory party that I was having all by myself in the living room while I was reading, I began to hear these various things outside that were irritating my cat. I was sort of afraid we were going to wake up either of my children and many of you I heard talking about these things as well, keeping you up, those of you, or waking you up, maybe those who had already gone to bed, or maybe some of you were even in here lighting them off yourself.

Shame on you. And that’s fireworks. Anybody light off fireworks? I’m not really mad at you. Okay, a couple people lit off fireworks. Can you even buy fireworks in December or do you have to save them from like July 4th? You can. Great. Okay. Okay. Well, I was actually really trying to read. In fact, I had set a goal for myself, a certain number of chapters that I was trying to finish before being able to go to bed. And I was actually kind of irritated and annoyed with the fireworks because I don’t do very well when I’m interrupted. Like once I get going, you know, with my thinking, I need to keep going. And that makes me really cranky.

I know when other people are, you know, come and knock on my office door and I’ve been like studying for a while, like that’s really the last thing I want to do is get up and go open the door and talk to somebody. Not because I don’t like the person, but because, you know, I’m trying to get work done. Spurgeon called those cold buckets of water poured all over our hearts. You know, those not incessant knocks at our doors are like cold buckets of water poured on our hearts. And I kind of feel like that. So anyway, the fireworks were annoying me a little bit because, you know, it’s not like they’re consistent. That’s part of the point is that they’re, they’re random.

They’re all over the place and, you know, coming from different parts of the neighborhood and all that kind of stuff. And it was like 11 o’clock, 10 30, 11 o’clock when I heard the first ones, I was like, stink, this is going to go on obviously until after midnight. So I’m stuck with these fireworks going off. And so I was trying to get a happy heart about it and embracing that frowning providence. That was something I heard in another message recently. Fireworks is not really a frowning providence. That really is not a temptation or a trial for me or suffering. But it was kind of irritating. So I thought, why not embrace them?

embrace the fireworks. And it was about a minute after that that I came up with this just killer introduction to my sermon this morning. And I’m not going to try to get too cheesy about it.

But since most of you heard the fireworks last night and you’ve at least experienced fireworks before even if you through it. I thought maybe and I kind of came up with some bullet points along the way and they just kept flowing you know I was in the zone and so so maybe you’ll see maybe this will even be beneficial for you as we come this morning to Solomon’s summary on his pursuit of pleasure and I want to submit to you that fireworks actually provide a great analogy or illustration for the pleasures that can be found under the Sun and you think how might that be well let me tell you fireworks or perhaps even let me start out this way pleasure the pleasure that we get under the Sun is very much like fireworks. Fireworks provide temporary light, but they don’t actually provide any lasting light at all, do they? And that’s part of the point, is that they’re there for just a little bit and then they’re gone. Not only that, you can burn yourself with fireworks, but they don’t actually provide any lasting beneficial

heat whatsoever. In fact they fizzle out. They’re ridiculously hot for a short period of time. Like I said you can burn yourself playing with them getting too close to them or playing with them in the wrong way. But that heat is short lived. It doesn’t actually last very long or provide any kind of benefit for you. You never see you know people out on the reservation hovering over the fireworks trying to get warm on New Year’s Eve. That’s not helpful, not useful. They are loud, and most of the time they’re quick. And the commotion that fireworks provide gives the appearance that maybe something significant is happening.

I mean, you look at fireworks and you think, wow. And in reality, I mean, what is fire? What are fireworks? What is that? That’s not actually accomplishing anything. But it has the appearance of accomplishing a whole lot, whether it’s because of the volume or the brightness or whatever it is. They undoubtedly are a diversion with pretty colors and cool shapes. They have the greatest impact when a bunch of them are put all together. Their greatest diversioning power, I don’t know if that’s really a word, their greatest force or impact is when a whole bunch of them come all together. You get what you pay for. some of you on your multi-million dollar budget, buy some of those ones that you throw down and pop, or maybe the bottle rockets.

Obviously, you know, the more expensive fireworks displays are more impressive. And really, you know what fireworks do, and I mentioned this one first, they do briefly light up the dark. I mean, in fact, fireworks, the light that a lot of them provide actually do enable you to see, but just for a little bit of time, eventually the show ends and the last sparkler fizzles out. And you know what I think in fact, in a lot of ways, pleasure or at least the pleasures that are found under the sun are very much like that. There are real pleasures, real ways to entertain yourself under the sun. There are real ways to get yourself happy, to give yourself some joy.

There are real ways to do that under the sun. You don’t need God to make yourself happy, at least temporarily. You can go to a party. You can buy the biggest or coolest toy. You can do all kinds of things. You can have that relationship. You can search for different kinds of physical pleasure or stimulation or whatever it is. But I’ll tell you what, while those things might provide very truly some happiness, that happiness is at best going to be temporary. is at best not going to be really beneficial for your heart, for your soul, for your life. I mean, the world has spent itself the last couple weeks, has it not?

Trying to pleasure itself. The world spent itself last night with fireworks and alcohol non-alcoholic beverages, you know, the good apple martinellis for Christians so we can at least, you know, have something fizzy in a bottle, you know, so that we can act like, you know, something special. We just don’t have, you know, the wine or champagne or whatever it is. And some people are continuing that throughout today, you know, and will continue that as long as they possibly can. But a couple things about it. Number one, it is gonna be January 2nd really soon. And all the parties are gonna be over and people are gonna have to go back to school and go back to work and go back to their normal lives.

And not only that, all the partying that you did the last couple of weeks, has that actually really prepared you for meeting God? I thought about that last night. Has all the partying that you’ve gone to and you’ve participated in the last couple weeks, has that prepared you to meet God? Probably not. I mean, most of the time that’s not what our parties are for, is preparing us to deal with suffering or difficulties.

Has your fun and your pleasing of yourself, did anything you got for Christmas outside of a Bible, did anything you get for Christmas prepare you to deal with your parents dying this week? I mean that could happen. And the answer is probably nothing. No gift, no toy, no party, no fun.

None of that is actually of any real, eternal benefit and really I think if you were honest you would say even in your own heart the happiness was very short lived. Well, that was the case for me. I mean, I went to parties when I was in junior high and high school and after high school and still go to, you know, occasional parties and things like that today. And you know what? I was always disappointed. Isn’t that why so many people kill themselves during the holidays? Because they hoped that they would find some kind of satisfaction, some kind of meaning in all of this commotion and when they don’t find it, their hope is gone.

Nothing left to live for. This was the biggest party week of the year. If that didn’t do it, then I mean, what is the hope for the other 51 weeks? Some people take their lives. Anyway, just thinking about those fireworks. It’s a lot like Pleasures Under the Sun. They definitely can burn you if you play with them wrongly or play with the wrong ones. They do provide a temporary bit of reprieve or entertainment or diversion, but ultimately, they’re not providing you light to see in the darkness. They’re not providing you warmth in the cold. They’re not really helping you. They just make you think something significant is happening when in fact it isn’t.

And so much of our life, especially now in 2006 as, you know, people living in the United States of America, our life is spent pursuing pleasure and thinking that we’re going to get meaning and satisfaction out of whatever the next new big thing is, you know, a vehicle or, you know, a boat or an iPod or a party or a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever it is. And you know what, guys? My burden is that so many of you, and again, it’s all around us, don’t get it. And you’re still stuck under the sun. Solomon was looking for life under the sun. In chapter 2, verses 1 through 8, which we spent more than, and hopefully enough time covering.

We looked at the various places he went. This is not necessarily an exhaustive list, but it should help us enough. He recounted his experience or his pursuit of pleasure. He searched for happiness in a bottle. He worked to find meaning from his work. He tried to get joy by getting more stuff. He chased pleasure in women. ultimately his conclusion for each one of those things. And as we come to verses nine through 11 this morning, his summary of it all, pleasure, the pleasures provided under the sun are vanity, they are empty, they are striving after wind. They’re like grasping oil. Doesn’t use that phrase in verse 11, but that’s another kind of phrase that we would use to describe something. I mean, trying to catch and hold on to the wind, grasping oil and holding it in your hand.

It’s vain, it’s empty, it’s meaningless. It’s not satisfying. Well, as I mentioned, this is Solomon’s summary on striving after pleasure, chapter two, verses nine through 11. Let’s read those, give you the outline. He says, so I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me and whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure. My heart found pleasure in all my toil and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it and behold, all was vanity and striving after wind and there was nothing to be gained.

There was no profit under the sun. Three things, one for each verse. Solomon’s renown, Solomon’s pleasure, and Solomon’s summary. His renown, we sang, let’s see if I can remember it. It’s rising up all around the anthem of the Lord’s renown from holy is the Lord. What is renown? That’s fame. It’s preeminence. It’s standing. In our kind of terms today, we talk about this person being famous. We talk about most of the people we think of as famous are celebrities. And you probably heard somebody give the definition for celebrity. Celebrity is somebody who’s famous for being famous. Celebrity is not generally somebody who’s famous for accomplishing something.

But there are famous people, preeminent people, who have maybe achieved something or done something. status, their position, got them renowned. That is, people talked about them, people knew about them, and in verse 9 we see Solomon’s renown. In fact, King Solomon stands out from any other person in various ways. I mean, Jesus obviously has renown, God has renown, but as just a human, and especially in Solomon’s pursuit of pleasure, Solomon has great renown. Jesus himself acknowledges Solomon’s splendor, Solomon’s majesty and glory, how much stuff he had in Matthew 6, remember, when he said, I tell you not even Solomon in all of his splendor was clothed as one of these, and he’s using that as a motivator or an encouragement for us to believe and trust in God that he can provide for us. He provides even for the lilies of the field and not even Solomon and all his splendor and all of what he had is as beautiful as the lilies that God takes care of.

So anyway, even Jesus uses Solomon’s renown in Matthew chapter 6. Two things here, he was prominent in his position and prominent in his wisdom. Prominent in position the first half of the verse, prominent in wisdom.

second half. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. He was better than anyone. He had more than anyone. He is unlike anyone at least who went before him in Jerusalem. And I’ve tried to make this point throughout the series so far. You cannot, you will not ever attain to the level of getting and the level of power and the level of being able to please yourself like Solomon. None of us in here will ever get close to having that position and that kind of power and those kind of resources to be able to do the pursuit of pleasure like we can imagine. And this should be an argument from the greater to the lesser. If the greater couldn’t get meaning and satisfaction in his pursuit of pleasure, then the lesser, lesser pursuits, lesser resources, lesser abilities to get pleasure, I mean, we’re not gonna find it either. Solomon was known for his greatness, became great, surpassed all who were before him in Jerusalem. In chapter one, He uses the same kind of phrase, verse 16,

but he limits it to wisdom. He says, I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me. Here, he doesn’t limit it to just wisdom. He says, it’s unlimited in his position, in his prominence. He just had more. He was more well known. He was renowned for his greatness. The two verbs there at the beginning, I became great and surpassed all, those kind of function as a superlative, that is, it’s the highest degree. There’s nobody better. In fact, the NIV translates it, I became greater by far. There was just nobody higher than him, nobody who had more than he did. In fact, his high statuses confirmed for us in the historical books, you don’t need to turn there, I’ll read it for you, but 1 Chronicles 29 verse 25, and the Lord made Solomon very great in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel.

I mean, here in Ecclesiastes chapter two, Solomon talks about this being his pursuit. In 2 Chronicles though, who’s responsible for giving him all this majesty? I mean, the Lord. I mean, you wanna talk about somebody, you know, working in the background to get you some status. Nobody’s gonna give you a higher status or more renowned than the Lord could.

The Lord is the one who gave it to him, confirms that he was prominent in position. And then secondly, prominent in wisdom. Also, my wisdom remained with me. This tells us two things. Number one, that even in all this pursuit of pleasure, he was never out of control. This was not an out of body experience for him. He was very aware of what was happening and he was planning it. This was like a scientific experiment. You know, make a hypothesis, make an experiment, and come to some conclusions. His wisdom was with him the whole time. More than that, it tells us that he was prominent in that wisdom. First Kings chapter 10 verse 23, “‘Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.

And again, the Lord promised him that no one would ever be as wise as him, no one before or no one after. We remember that from the introduction stuff to Ecclesiastes when the Lord came to him and said, what do you want? And Solomon said, I want wisdom. The Lord said, because you ask for wisdom, I’m not only gonna give you more of that than anybody will ever have, but I’m gonna give you everything else. He was prominent. The queen of Sheba came to visit him in 1 Kings chapter 10, and she said, Solomon, everything that I see here actually not only confirms the reports that I’ve heard, but you have even more than the reports that are out there about you.

So far as his riches and so far as his wisdom. She asked him questions and he was able to answer her. guy had renowned. He was higher in position, had more wisdom. That brings us then to verse 10, Solomon’s pleasure. Gratification in indulgence in the first part of the verse, and even gratification in his toil, the second part of the verse. Gratification in indulging himself for self-gratification. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them, I kept my heart from no pleasure. I mean can you really imagine that? Some of you, you know maybe over the last week because we’ve all been at home with our families right? We’ve been at home with our families for the last couple weeks. Some of us are ready to go back to school or whatever you know to get a break from those that we love the most. And some of you perhaps think that what would be pleasing to you is maybe Maybe just if, you know, your sister wouldn’t bug you anymore.

And what you desire more than anything else is, you know, maybe for your sister to be quiet and go to her room and, you know, shut up. Stop bugging you. I mean, maybe that’s one of your desires. Maybe that’s one of the things you think would bring you pleasure. I don’t know what it is. I mean, everybody is built different, but we all kind of have that built-in thing that we want to be pleased. There are very few people who prefer displeasure over pleasure. And probably we would say that those people who prefer displeasure, that’s how they’re actually being pleased. You can write your own blog on that one later on.

We had this built-in desire to be pleased and Solomon said, I didn’t hold myself back from any of it. That’s virtually impossible for us to imagine. I mean, he was absolutely spoiled. He spoiled himself. Not only was he in a position to get himself anything he wanted, he actually went ahead and did it. I mean, that’s an amazing testimony there to say, not only could I have gotten everything that I wanted, I did. There was nothing that I thought about that I wanted that I didn’t get for myself. Again, none of us will even get close to that. no self-restraint, no self-denial in the pursuit of his pleasure. He tells us about some of that in verses one through eight.

Wine, women, music, entertainment, stuff, money. You know what’s interesting though, is that this kind of lifestyle is explicitly prohibited for God’s people. Look over at Numbers, chapter 15. Numbers chapter 15. This is not just a command to the king, this is a command to all of God’s people. Some of the same words are used here that I wanna show you the connection.

Numbers chapter 15, look in verse 37, the Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations. Do people in Israel still have tassels on the ends of the garments? There you go, from a guy who was there and saw it.

Through all their generations and to put a court of blue on the tassel of each corner. You know, some of the ladies were like, but that’s so ugly. Anyway, it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them. Here it is, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes. That’s exactly what Solomon said he did. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them and I kept my heart from no pleasure. The heart and the eyes.

Desires that we have on the inside and then things that we see that, you know, advertising, whether it’s actually commercial or not, the heart and the eyes. Solomon said, whatever my heart wanted, whatever my eyes saw, I went and got. Moses commanded the people of God that they were specifically not to follow after their own heart and their own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. That is a pretty significant condemnation right there to say that when you go after your eyes what they want, or be careful of lies what you see, and go after the desires of your heart, you are actually committing the worst kind of unfaithfulness to God.

So you shall remember and do all my commandments and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God. Did you get that? Who is the Lord their God? Not to be themselves. And not to be pleasure. It is to be God himself. I mean, I just kinda made a quick note. This is an issue of faithfulness. This is an issue of idolatry. This is an issue of remembrance or lack of it. This is an issue of obedience or lack of it. An issue of holiness, an issue of worship, an issue of love.

When you run away with the desires for pleasure, things that your eyes see or your heart wants, that is lack of faithfulness, lack of obedience, that is lack of love, lack of worship, that’s wrong. Solomon says that’s exactly what I went after. Not only that did he get gratification in indulgence, but gratification in his toil. For my heart, end of verse 10, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. He got some benefit out of the work that he did. I mean, I was just reading some more of 1st Kings. It took 20 years to finished building the temple and his house. Yeah, I mean, there’s some satisfaction in that, some reward.

I mean, there’s gonna be some reward like when our house gets finished. We’ve got like 95% of our closet, our walk-in closet finished. That’s like the only thing just for Mona’s bedroom, our closet, and we put all the cabinets in there and now we even got our stuff in there. And there’s like great satisfaction. You can’t really look at the rest of all the uncompleted stuff around the house, But there are some, you know, it’s nice having all of your clothes in one place and, you know, being able to get your socks and your shoes, you know, within arm’s length, not going to multiple different places throughout the house to make that happen and to put together your ensemble.

There is a certain level of pleasure that you get from finishing a project, from doing your work. That’s appropriate. There is some reward from Toil. He got some gratification in his Toil. got some profit. End of verse 10 again, reward for all his toil. But you know what? That was like the reward of fireworks. There was some enjoyment, but it didn’t last. There was some amount of satisfaction, but it really wasn’t filling up the greatest longings of his heart. That leads us to verse 11, Solomon’s summary. He gives us a reflection on pleasure and his final conclusion on pleasure. His reflection verse 11, then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it. This is kind of like the morning after. There’s a lot of people right that like that around our earth right now. The morning after. And in this case it was just, you know, many years after, but it’s like, man, what did I do? He’s facing the facts. He is He’s turning his attention to consider all of that pursuit.

What his hands had done. I mean his personal involvement. Now it gives us his conclusion. Behold. I mean, I’ve been doing this more recently because Maggie loves to look other places when you’re getting serious. And so you know I kind of take her face and kind of make her look right into my eyes. He says, behold, pay attention to what I’m going to tell you right now. Behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. And there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

He didn’t, doesn’t give any reasons why that is. He just makes the conclusion. You know what? I don’t even think he needs to give us too many reasons because we all have experienced it in our less ways, our lesser abilities and lesser resources we have all sought to get meaning and satisfaction in life from a party or a toy or whatever it is. And we know that in the end it’s really empty. Solomon lived better and celebrated life harder than anybody else. And he says it’s empty. You know what? There is nothing you can be under the sun to be satisfied.

No amount of fame, no amount of renown, no amount of splendor, nothing you can be under the sun to be satisfied. There is nothing you can do under the sun to be satisfied. There is nothing you can get. to be satisfied. Be, do, or get. None of them under the sun can really make you genuinely happy.

And that ought to depress you. That ought to be like, man, wow. I know what you’re saying. I still was kind of hoping that maybe there was another door out there that I hadn’t gone through where I really find it. A secret door out there that a few people know about. It’s not out there. but this distaste for life under the Sun is meant to get us beyond the Sun to God himself. That’s why we’re spending such a long time going through this. Number one, because I think a lot of people today are pursuing life in pleasure, whatever way it might be. And I’m just trying to show you from Solomon’s own testimony that you’re not going to find it there and get you beyond the Sun and get you to God. That’s why, or one of the reasons why I even included that quote from Edwards in your bulletin. This isn’t a Bible verse, but I mean that’s great. The happiness of the creature consists, I mean fill in the blank there for all the different things that we try to get happiness in.

The happiness of the creature consists in whatever you got for Christmas. consistent having the right friends, consistent looking good, consistent whatever it might be.

No, the happiness of the creature consistent rejoicing in God by which also God is magnified and exalted. You realize when you get your happiness from God, that is the ultimate way that you’re worshipping Him because you’re saying God is best. God is the best pleasure and therefore He then gets the renown. When your iPod is what gives you the pleasure then you turn your attention and talk about and give your praise to and your adoration and love to your iPod or your Game Boy or your new fur coat or you know whatever else it is but when your happiness your satisfaction your pleasure comes in God that shows him off to be the best and so you get eternal and truly satisfying pleasure and at the same time God gets to the glory we’re gonna be talking about that a good amount at the snow retreat. The point is there’s nothing you can be, nothing that you can get, nothing that you can do to have that lasting happiness. There is, however, someone you can know. And really it’s entirely feasible or reasonable to suspect that

some of you are really still looking for life under the sun and all this kind of stuff because you don’t know God. You just you don’t know Him. And so you don’t know that He’s better. You don’t know that He is an infinitely satisfying fountain to drink from. You don’t know that He is the infinitely brilliant light that can get rid of the darkness in your life. You You don’t know that He is the eternal flame that can provide the warmth and heat that you need for life. He is the opposite of fireworks. There’s nothing short or temporary about God, the exact opposite. Well, I have four resolutions and they really, at least in my own mind, and lots of things are better in my own mind than when they come out.

But I kind of have four commitments or four things that I’ve been thinking about that I need to work on, I think, not just in this next coming year, but just in my Christian life. And for the most part, I think they even relate to some of the stuff we’ve been studying in Ecclesiastes. So I’m gonna share them with you. Hopefully you find some benefit in them. Number one, I still need, and I’ve talked about this before, I still need to learn to enjoy the process better. I need to learn to enjoy the process better.

There is some legitimate joy that God gives us in the work that we do. He mentioned that in verse 10, my heart found pleasure in all my toil and this was my reward for all my toil. I mean, we’re supposed to get benefit or pleasure from the work that we do. Just recognizing that that’s not gonna be the eternally satisfying reward. Look over at Ecclesiastes chapter 11. Here he actually commands us to enjoy the process, to enjoy life. Rejoice, oh young man, chapter 11, verse nine. Rejoice, oh young man, in your youth and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes.

Enjoy what you’re doing. Just be careful because know that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment. So you better choose the right things, the right process, the right work. but there is a reasonable amount of joy and satisfaction that God gives to us who work for him. In fact, this is gonna be a theme about work and labor and toil throughout the rest of Ecclesiastes, even at the end of chapter two. It’s a gift of God. It’s the gift of God to men to enable them to enjoy what they do. I need to learn to enjoy life better. I need to embrace the chaos a little better. A little better, I need to try to stop avoiding or being irritated by all of the interruptions and problems.

I want to see all of those things as a way to work and be satisfied. You know what, I have realized over the last couple years that we don’t actually ever get to the point on this earth where there aren’t any more issues to deal with or things to make better or problems to fix.

You know, I for a while thought that like even in my job, I could do enough, we could get to a certain point where nobody would have any more problems. And then I realized, well, that doesn’t even happen in my own sanctification, let alone then, like an entire ministry worth of things to do. I need to learn, I think, to enjoy God’s gifts a little bit better, not replacing him, but enjoying them as being from him. Number two, I think I need to learn, holy cow, I need to learn to be less self-centered and more servant-oriented. And I’m hoping that for some of you, you will get some benefit from hearing that, because most people don’t criticize me for being selfish.

Maybe some people think about that. Hopefully that’s not a dominant thing that you see in my life. But what I’m kind of hoping, even in saying that, is to maybe spark some of you to think maybe that’s something you need to work on some as well. I myself know that I need to be less selfish and more servant oriented. Maybe that doesn’t even change how I spend a lot of my time, but I think it should change some of my attitude. You know what? I kind of got sick reading verses 9 through 11 in chapter 2. I became great. I surpassed all who were before me. My wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

I kept my heart from no pleasure. My heart found pleasure in all my toil. This was reward for all my toil and so on and so forth. I mean, this is nauseatingly selfish on his part. And the standard is not that I am, for me, for application’s sake, the standard is not that I am then less selfish than you. The standard is that I am not selfish like Christ. And that’s like an infinite chasm and gap between my selflessness and his selfless serving and sacrifice. That’s like, that’s ridiculous how far away I am from that. That’s kind of discouraging to me. I need to do better with that. Number two, I’m sorry, number three.

I really want to be less banal. I’ll come back to that word in a second. Less banal in my thoughts, my conversations, and my pursuits. My ever increasing friend, Jonathan Edwards, has been kind of challenging me with this. Banal is a word that means common, ordinary, overused, so much to the point of being boring, trite, silly, superficial. And that just drives me crazy because we live, our society is a banal society. Piper talks about it in Don’t Waste Your Life, specifically as it refers to TV. He says, the greater problem is banality, a mind fed daily on TV diminishes. Your mind was made to know and love God.

This facility for this great calling is ruined by excessive TV. The content is so trivial and so shallow, and the capacity of the mind to think worthy thoughts withers, and the capacity of the heart to feel deep emotions shrivels. That is when we are so satisfied with junk food, we have no pleasure or appreciation for the good food. And I just want in my own conversations with you, I want for my own thinking, my own pursuits to be less empty, less superficial, less banal. Regarding the Great Awakening, the first Great Awakening in 1735, this just sounds so great to me. Jonathan Edwards was kind of giving a description about what happened in the town.

He said this, a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world became universal in all parts of the town and among persons of all degrees and ages. All other talk but about spiritual and eternal things was soon thrown by. All the conversation in all companies and upon all occasions was upon these things only unless so much as was necessary for people carrying on their ordinary secular business. The minds of people were wonderfully taken off from the world. It was treated amongst us as a thing of very little consequence. Just want to be so less satisfied with life under the sun.

Final one, number four. I really want to be more disciplined to feed my soul with otherworldly beauty. And this really is the opposite of the last one. To be less satisfied with under the sun stuff, I need to know more and feed myself more on otherworldly beauty, and namely that’s going to be God Himself. Psalm 16.8, I have set the Lord always before me. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. I want to know those pleasures. I want to know that otherworldly beauty.

For me I think that means I’m going to have to get up a little bit earlier every day. I think I need to sleep less than I do. My commitment is to watch a little less TV, spend a lot less time on the internet. I have some Bible study or Bible intake plans that I’m hoping to put into practice even today because I am tired of life under the sun. For me, I am. And going through Ecclesiastes has definitely continued to show how unsatisfying it is. studying some of the stuff from Edwards and the religious affections and just scripture and God, the end for which God created the world. I mean, we are meant for so much more than we find on this planet.

And if some of those things are helpful to you, maybe to spark you to think about what you need to do, not just for 2006, but what you need to do in following God, being faithful to him, Abounding in love. I mean, now is a great time as any to turn away from that junk and start feasting on God himself. And Father Solomon is doing his best shot to show us how distasteful and nauseating the food under the sun is. And I do ask that as you have promised to send your word out, that it would not return to you void work in our lives even as we understand Solomon’s testimony, his summary on his striving after pleasure.

And as it is the beginning of this new year, challenge us, all of us, The families that are represented here, our ministry, our church, our schools, that we would just stop being so banal and commonplace and trivial and our lives so shallow, our hearts so small, our minds so weak, satisfy us, give us that happiness and rejoicing in you. And that is what’s going to show you off and magnify and exalt you as well. We pray all this in Christ’s name. Amen.