The Vanity of Alcohol

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Well, you can take out your copy of God’s Word this morning as we return to the book of Ecclesiastes and in particular as we continue our Series on looking for life in all the wrong places We come to chapter 2 verse 3 in Ecclesiastes today, and I’ll admit to you I’ve said this a couple times along the way That this is the kind of verse I didn’t really think would have a whole lot to say to most of us at least. This is one of those bottom of the barrel kind of verses as most of us would consider it.

And yet it was really probably about a month ago or so now that I came across some things on the internet that kind of changed my mind, changed my perspective as I came across some things from high school students and these are not just MTV high school students these are Grace Academy or former Grace Academy or former even 128 or in some cases I don’t think we have anybody who is here this morning necessarily who would have anything like this on their Myspace or on their their web stuff but I came across what I probably shouldn’t have been too surprised at I guess based on my own history, my own testimony, which I’ll share in just a second. But I actually came across a decent number of high school students and those who are maybe a year or two out of high school, people that I know, people that if I said their names you would know, who on the internet proclaimed publicly for all to see, proclaimed their enjoyment of and love for alcohol, for a buzz, for drugs. And generally speaking, I mean I think in

my four plus years of being at Grace Bible Church, I don’t think I’ve ever preached a message on beer or on drugs. We have had some students in the past who were a part of 128 who are no longer a part of 128 who for various reasons, who got caught or got in trouble with those kinds of things. But for the most part, I don’t know a lot of personally, I don’t know personally a lot of students who are loving that kind of life. And even if you are here this morning and that is the kind of life that you are leading in private, I don’t know about it. Again, nobody here has put up that I know of things on the Internet anywhere to find for this kind of pursuit.

Now, when I was in high school, though, and this is why I say it shouldn’t be too surprising that I found that kind of stuff, stuff because when I was in high school, even though that was not my crowd, that was definitely available. And you know, I didn’t hang out with the druggies or the boozies or you know, whatever names, whatever names, you know, they had or gave to themselves. That was not my crowd. So I didn’t hang around with them. I did go to a public school. I do know that that was available and that every weekend that’s what a lot of my classmates went to pursue. In fact, that was so much so that our class song, our class song, my class song, we had to vote on this and enough people in my class voted on I’ve Got Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks.

I’ve Got Friends in Low Places where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases my blues away, I’ll be okay. That was my class song. Now even at a public school, I’m not exactly sure like how that could happen, how the administration even could think that that was acceptable. Cause like that was printed in our yearbook, you know, as our class song. Cause even at that point in time, Like, it is actually illegal for people under 21 to have alcohol. And most of the drugs out there that are available are illegal anyway, right? So here we are in high school. You know, college, maybe some public, you know, state colleges could have that for a class song.

But like seniors in high school, Like anybody who is drinking that’s against the law, just to start with. And yet, obviously enough of my class of 163 or 65, whatever it was, found that there was some kind of joy, some kind of satisfaction in pursuing that for life. Pursuing the pleasures of alcohol and whatever drugs it was that they might have been trying to secure for themselves. Despite laws in every state, like every state, despite laws in every state that make it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase or possess, you’re not supposed to be able to buy it, you’re not supposed to have it. To purchase or possess alcohol, young people continue to report that alcohol is actually easy for them to get a hold of.

whether that’s at their home or having somebody else that’s older who can buy it for them, apparently it’s not difficult to buy it as a young person. I didn’t, I never tried to purchase it, you know, when I was in high school, so I don’t know. But that’s what they say.

And most of them say, those who are honest enough to answer the anonymous surveys, Most of them say that they purchase or they try to get a hold of the alcohol for one purpose, and that is to get drunk. Now again, for me, that’s so outside of my box of experience even though it was around me. I don’t have one of those testimonies where that’s what I grew up pursuing. And yet, it seems like that is something that is available and that a lot of people, perhaps even people that you know, other high school students that you know, junior high students maybe even that you know pursue this kind of life.

Alcohol continues to be one of the most significant risk behaviors among teens, not only for the effects of the alcohol itself, but for the effects on the other things that they’re doing like driving, the effects of the alcohol on their system as then they get into the car. In a survey taken in 2002, and again, this is probably from most public school students, probably not a lot of Christian school students in this survey, probably not a lot of homeschool students in this survey, you know, but supposedly 63.5% of 10th graders and 73.3% of 12th graders reported drinking within the last 12 months. I was taken in 2002, so it could be more or less, but probably pretty close to the same today.

63 and a half of 10th graders and almost 75% of 12th graders reported drinking in the last year with 39 and 49% respectively reporting alcohol use in the past 30 days from when they took that survey. So it wasn’t just a one time in a year kind of thing. A third to a half of them, that was something that they would do, you know, within a month kind of range.

Having been drunk in the past 30 days, drunk in the past 30 days was reported by 22% of the 10th graders and 33% of the 12th graders. Not just having a drink, but actually going to the extent of getting drunk. In another survey from earlier this year, and you might not necessarily think that these numbers are that high, but they’re high enough, in a survey from this year approximately 8% of 7th graders and 17% of 8th graders reported engaging in binge drinking in the last year.

Binge drinking, not just having a drink or taking a sip of it, but actually drinking enough to get drunk. In the last year, wherever they, I think this was in New York state, where they took this survey, 8% of seventh graders and 12% of eighth graders reported drinking so much that they would get drunk. Even though it’s illegal in every state, even though it has pretty drastic consequences, even though most parents don’t think it’s even a good idea, even if they would drink, they probably still wouldn’t have their young people drinking. Alcohol undoubtedly is a major part of our society and of our culture. I was watching the World Series last night and of course Major League Baseball has an official beer sponsor.

You know I forget who it is. It’s one of them that’s out there Budweiser or Miller whatever and of course you can’t really watch much TV at all without there being those kind of alcohol commercials, whether it’s for beer or for wine or wine cooler. There’s less and less of the hard liquor kind of things out there, but occasionally you still see something for Jack Daniels or, you know, Bacardi or whatever. And of course, all of those commercials show you that by drinking alcohol, you can have a good life. I mean, you never see, well, let me take that back. Except for the commercials that are clearly aimed at the guys, you know, the couch potato guys sitting on their couch watching sports.

You don’t see ugly people drinking alcohol. I mean, apparently, it’s only the pretty people who drink, the pretty cool people who drink, the people who are out partying and just living it up kind of life. Those are the only people you see drinking. And they don’t put the alcoholics in the hospital trying to recover from alcoholism. They don’t show them on TV in a commercial to sell you their product. They show the cool people and the pretty people, the ones who are enjoying life. I mean Miller’s tag is the high life. They’ve recently in the commercials that I’ve seen been pushing that again. If you want to enjoy the high life, and then there’s that lady in the moon sitting up there watching you enjoying your life, you need to drink Miller.

All of the beer people have some kind of tagline about how great it is for you and your life to drink alcohol. This is not something that has gone away since Solomon’s Day. In fact, we’re better at pushing it and better at marketing it and making it more available for everybody today. And like I said, even junior high and high school students, they drink. Again, I’m not hanging out with them on parties when it’s happening at parties. I’m not seeing a lot of it, but based on the things that they say, and again, based on my own experience when I was in junior high and high school, I did know people then who were trying to enjoy life by getting a buzz, by having some kind of stimulation to their body with some kind of drug and thinking that that’s what life was all about.

I mean, you can’t go anywhere in public without it being an issue. I mean, you get it on an airplane and they got the little bottles for sale. You stay in a hotel. I mean, they have maybe a can of Pepsi there, but then they got a bunch of the little bottles of whatever that will make you happy. Solomon pursued this way of life as well to try to find pleasure and happiness.

This is one of the places Solomon looked to find life, to find satisfaction. You remember in Ecclesiastes chapter one, verses one through 11, he introduced this idea of vanity. Vanity is all is vanity. And then beginning in chapter one, verse 12, he moved into this kind of autobiographical section. Chapter one verse 12 all the way through the end of chapter two, which is describing this pursuit, this looking for life in places under the sun where he hoped maybe he could get satisfaction. He could find some meaning.

He could find some lasting happiness. In chapter one, verses 12 through 18, we looked at the fact that wisdom is vanity. You cannot ultimately find satisfaction to life through your education. There are good things about education, but ultimately it’s not going to provide lasting satisfaction and happiness. Then for the last couple weeks we looked at chapter two, verses one and two. Look at those with me. I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, It is mad and of pleasure. What use is it? This was kind of the general description of his pursuit of pleasure We talked about the various ways that a person could pursue pleasure today Some of those probably were things that Solomon had tried you kind of get the impression that there was a party going on in the palace every day, I Mean with all the food that he was getting for himself and entertaining people with this idea about laughter in the verses following. We talk about seven and eight, and we’ll see some

of the servants that he got for himself and the entertainers that he got for himself. I get the idea that there was just one continual party, one continual search for pleasure and happiness going on in the palace. The king was in control of. And here in verse three we see the vanity even of alcohol. I really thought strongly about titling it the vanity of a buzz, but uh that didn’t look quite as good on the page. So, went with alcohol. Look at verse three. I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. This is Solomon turning to drugs, Solomon turning to the buzz, to the bodily stimulation that he could find with wine, trying to find meaning and satisfaction in life, again from alcohol, it’s vanity. Dumpster diving.

The teacher turned to sensual pleasures, such as the enjoyment of drink here, which for so many people becomes an overindulgence kind of thing, leading even to drunkenness, leading to alcoholism. We’ll talk about that as we go through these verses. It seems like Solomon didn’t necessarily say here that he was doing whatever he could to get drunk. It doesn’t seem like that’s really what he’s saying, that he was binge drinking and just getting out of control. Doesn’t seem like that’s what he’s talking about. Seems like he’s talking about doing everything to get right up to that point. Now he may in fact have gone over that line sometimes. We don’t really know, But there’s a couple clues here in verse 3 that suggest to us that he was still under control.

For example, my mind or my heart still guiding me with wisdom. I mean, one of the impacts of being drunk is that you are overwhelmed with and controlled by, you know, the alcohol, the drug in your system. And so you’re not in control anymore. You lose all your inhibitions. You lose the capacity to guide yourself at all. It’s the drug that is in control and not you. Solomon says even during this process he was careful to watch what was happening so that he could still be in control, guiding himself with wisdom. So again, I’m not sure that this is talking about binge drinking and getting drunk, but yet he was still trying to stimulate his body and have a good time. He was trying to find happiness in a bottle, trying to get life, looking for life in a bottle.

He says, it’s empty. There is vanity in alcohol, vanity in drugs, vanity in a buzz. Of course, almost everybody knows that. This is not really a big surprise. It doesn’t take too much to look around and see the devastating consequences of alcohol and specifically alcoholism and drunkenness in our society. I mean, we have a word for people who go too far with this, don’t we? In fact, we have lots of words. I tried to think of a grocery list of words that we use to describe people who have gone too far in their pursuit of this kind of life. We call them intoxicated, we call them blitzed, bombed, gassed, hammered, liquored up, plastered, plowed, plowed, sloshed, smashed, tanked, trashed, and wasted.

Those are all real encouraging kind of adjectives. I mean, you don’t go up to somebody and, you know, conclude that they’re wasted and be like, man, that’s what I wanna be when I grow up, right? I mean, if you haven’t seen a real life person who has gone too far, I mean, You’ve heard about it. Most people have somebody or many people even in your families, in your extended families. You have relatives that you go to some family reunion. You got the side of the family that that’s what they do. They wake up in the morning and time to get started. you know, their only change is just what they drink throughout the day. You know, it’s most of us know these kinds of people, and we see the emptiness in it, and yet people continue to try to find life by stimulating their body with drugs, by drinking, even going so far as to then get drunk. There are four things I think that Solomon tells us here in verse 3. I think he tells us his pursuit, his proviso, that always makes me think of Aladdin.

Some quid pro quo, some provisos. His proviso, his purpose, and his pessimism. Four quick things we’ll look at before we send you off into your small groups this morning. First of all, his pursuit. His pursuit. Verse 3, I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine. And then at least in the ESV there’s a dash and a phrase and then a dash again. I think that’s the proviso. That’s kind of this parenthesis that describes something. So we’ll skip over that because then gives us a second thing included in this pursuit. He says, I search with my heart how to cheer my body with wine and how to lay hold on folly. In fact, grammatically speaking, those are two infinitives. There’s the major verb, I searched, and then you got two secondary verbs which describe the search. First of all, how to cheer my body, and secondly, how to lay hold on folly. So those are really the two things that he was pursuing. We’ll get to those in a second. He says, I searched. It’s a word that means to explore or to spy out, to search and make discovery.

It’s used in chapter one, verse 13. We looked at that before where Solomon says he gave his heart to seek and to search out. This was a conscious, purposeful effort on his part to try to find life in the buzz. And really that’s the first thing that I think he pursued was euphoria. Two things he pursued here euphoria and escape. Euphoria and escape. Euphoria to cheer my body with wine. To cheer my body with wine euphoria by the way is just a feeling of happiness, a feeling of joy, a feeling of delight. And so he says, I searched how to cheer my body with wine.

The NAS I think says how to stimulate, how to provoke, how to excite my body with wine. The New King James actually goes a little bit further and says how to gratify, how to bring some satisfaction. And what he’s talking about is that feeling of euphoria, that feeling of, you know, just relaxed kind of yeah it’s cool you know where everything is good all the planets of your life are in alignment you know that feeling of euphoria the Hebrew word typically means when it says to cheer or to stimulate or to gratify typically that’s a word that’s translated to draw or to drag or to lead along. Only very rarely is it translated cheer or stimulate. The NAS and the ESV typically translated in the other passages that’s used as this idea of to draw or to drag or to lead along. In fact in Deuteronomy chapter 21 verse 3 it’s the word used of a cow dragging a yoke or pulling a yoke. And in Isaiah chapter 5 verse 18 it’s used to describe a cart pulled with ropes, drug along with ropes. In fact, from that idea one commentator even said Solomon’s pursuit of pleasure through alcohol was something

like this. Wine is compared to a pulling animal or like a draft horse. Wine is compared to a pulling animal such as a horse and he places wisdom as the driver that the horse may not throw him into a ditch. So the carriage is his body, the wine is the horse, and the driver is wisdom. And so what he’s doing here is he’s trying to see if he can get wine to take his body to a happy place, you know, to find his happy place. And wisdom he’s got is the driver. We’ll talk about that again in a second, but that’s how this one commentator described even this word picture of Solomon searching out how to cheer his body or stimulate or gratify his flesh with wine. Now, I’m not sure that that’s the precise image that Solomon had in mind when he wrote this. And again, there is some question in determining exactly to what extent his drinking went. I mean, when he He says that wisdom was still kind of in the driver’s seat, and yet it was the wine that was pulling his body along to some kind of happiness.

There’s no doubt that he was talking bare minimum about abuzz, about some kind of physical feeling of happiness or euphoria that comes from stimulating his body with the drug. Now whether he went all the way to the extent of being drunk, being completely intoxicated, we’re not exactly sure. But no doubt he was at least referring to some kind of buzz. And you know what? Alcohol is a drug. I know that might be kind of one of those duh statements, but alcohol is a drug. And I did a little bit of research on this last night. Small amounts of ethanol, which is the drug in alcohol, small amounts of ethanol cause a mild euphoria. That’s actually the word in the dictionary given for what ethanol does.

Ethanol again causes a mild euphoria and starts to remove inhibitions. Ethanol is the, again the compound quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, reaches the brain pretty fast. Because it’s a small molecule it’s able to cross certain barriers in the system pretty easy. And And so the euphoric effects of the ethanol are probably due to the endorphins that are released, the physical response of the body to this ethanol molecule or molecules, depending on how much you’re having. And it creates this sense of relaxation. It creates this sense of happiness in small amounts. Now, once you get to larger amounts, Then things start happening like brain cells start being killed off.

And basically you lose the ability to be in control of what you’re doing and hence those people who are drunk are people who are controlled by the drug. That’s the contrast in Ephesians 5, 18, right? Don’t be drunk with wine, but rather do what? Be filled with the Spirit or be controlled by the Spirit. A person who is filled with alcohol is a person who is controlled by that. A person who is filled with the Spirit is controlled by the Spirit, but nevertheless in small amounts, alcohol through ethanol provides this kind of happy feeling. And Solomon gave at least part of his life to trying to find meaning and satisfaction in that euphoric feeling.

He wanted to see if he could stimulate his body, cheer his body, make his heart marry. That’s one of the ways that alcohol is described with its effect in the Old Testament, to make his heart marry with wine, make his body happy. But secondly, it wasn’t just this euphoria that he was trying to find. I really think it was also escape.

Escape, and that comes from that second infinitive phrase and how to lay hold on folly. I don’t think he’s returning back to just a general description here. I think verse three is all about what he was doing with alcohol with wine to try to make himself happy. In verses one and two, he talked about folly, he talked about laughter, and I think he talked about that in a general way. I don’t think he then said, you know, here I’m pursuing wine with my wisdom still in control and how to, Again, there are parallel statements here, so I think he’s being a little bit more specific. And I think what he’s describing is then how to lay hold on folly, how to just have life be one big party.

I think he’s talking then about the kind of party that you go to, the kind of fun you can have when you drown out your sorrows through drink. I mean, if you got that euphoric feeling, You feeling good and everything’s great. And you get a bunch of people together, then you just start having fun.

Now, generally speaking, that leads people to drink more, which then can get to a point of people being out of control and then it can start to get dangerous. And then I don’t really think it’s fun anymore. But again, Solomon, as he’s trying to be in control of this process, this is what he’s describing. Getting some buddies together and pounding down some beer. He probably didn’t have Miller, or Budweiser, or Budweiser Select, or whatever else it was. But he had alcohol of some kind trying to escape from the realities, the problems, the difficulties in life, to lay hold on folly, to have it be just one big party.

I suppose drinking alcohol helps some people forget about their problems temporarily. I suppose if you have this euphoric feeling or even go so far as to be controlled by it, you know, you forget about all the pain and problems that you’re having at least until you got to get up and go to work in the morning, you know, and you got this hangover thing that they describe which is no longer avoiding the pain. That’s bringing the right to your door. Anyway, I think his pursuit was that euphoric feeling and even an escape of reality laying hold on folly. Now his proviso, I’ve kind of already said number two, his proviso.

A proviso is just a condition or a clause. It’s a restriction or a limitation on, you know, whatever it is. If you have a proviso in a legal contract that you make with somebody, you know, This is a clause that’s going to restrict something or define something a little bit more narrowly. And here he’s describing his pursuit with a proviso. That’s that little parenthetical clause. He says, my heart’s still guiding me with wisdom. And so somehow, in this process, this is one of the things that leads me to think he probably didn’t get drunk, but probably got as close to that as he possibly could.

Probably got as much of the alcohol into his system as he possibly could before getting out of control. And you can, again, from this picture, it’s like he was a scientist and he was trying to test it. You know, ooh, two drinks could go a little further. Five drinks, mm, started to get too much. Whatever it was for him, whatever it was that he was drinking, get that impression that he was purposeful using even his gift of wisdom to try to figure out what could stimulate and make him the happiest, give him this euphoric feeling, help him to escape. Now thirdly is his purpose. In one sense, the euphoric feeling in the escape was his purpose or were his purposes, but I really think it’s the next phrase that really describes for us his goal or his aim in this till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven.

And as he’s kind of sitting back and considering life, I think he’s saying to us that, man, life is tough. He’s already said that in chapter 1. Life is tough. And so let’s see if alcohol can make it a little bit better. As he was trying to figure out what people were supposed to do. I mean, you work hard and then you die. Isn’t there supposed to be some kind of enjoyment in life, some kind of satisfaction in the midst of all this? Maybe wine or beer or drugs can get you a feeling that will be satisfying. He was trying to figure out what was good for the children of man to do under heaven. Again, I don’t think that’s such a broad general phrase.

I think that’s included in this context of trying to figure that out and seeing how even alcohol could help make life better. Better living through beer kind of thing. Better living through drugs, but not the kind of drugs like Advil and Tylenol, the kind of drugs like wine and beer and so on and so forth. His ultimate purpose here was to try to find out what was good for the children of man to do under heaven. How can we live our life and be happy? at his pessimism though, number four, during the few days of their life. He still can’t get too far before that good old pessimism comes back in. He says we’re only here for a few years, so we should eat, drink, and be merry. Because tomorrow you might die. And And when he says eat, drink, and be merry, he’s not talking about, you know, have some water.

You know, eat, drink, and be merry. There’s a connection there between the good food and some good drink and being happy. Again, perhaps even the alcohol bringing that euphoric kind of feeling for a while. You’re only around for a while, you know. You only live once. I mean, these are the kinds of things that our culture tells us as well. So you know, live it up. You know, when you get older then you can get serious, you know, be real, whatever. But now’s the time to live that high life. Now’s the time to enjoy yourself. And if it feels good, do it. You’re only around for a little bit. You’re only here for a few days.

So you know what? Make yourself happy. This is just a specific way of seeking pleasure.

in 1 and 2 he described his pursuit of pleasure in general. It’s just a specific way. Now before we finish this morning, I just want to remind you of a couple things. Number one, drinking alcohol in scripture, drinking wine in scripture, is never called a sin. I mean we definitely see sin and the effects of alcohol bringing sin, and we see people using alcohol in sinful ways all around us, okay, but specifically drinking alcohol in Scripture is never called a sin. Just like pleasure, depending on what it is in Scripture, is not necessarily called a sin. Just like laughter in Scripture is not necessarily called a sin. It is, however, when those things are in control of you or when that is where you are looking for meaning in life. When those things become what you seek rather than God, they become an idol. And an idol can be food, an idol can be joking around, an idol can certainly be drugs, alcohol, so on and so forth. Now obviously there are some more physical effects to alcohol. But sometimes in Scripture, alcohol is actually used as a sign of

God’s blessing on a people. There are a few times when God actually commands his people to drink wine and celebrating his goodness. Obviously, Paul commands Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach, Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding. And of course, I’m not gonna go into the whole thing about, you know, well, that wine was different and the alcoholic content was different. You do realize that they had other words for more like juice things than wine. And when Jesus created the wine, he created wine, not grape juice. Okay, one of the reasons that we know that is because the master of the ceremony said, you know, most of the time they bring out the bad stuff first, or the good stuff first.

What did he mean by good stuff? Mmm, that’s really sweet grape juice. That was not what he was talking about. Okay, so again, in scripture, just understand that scripture doesn’t call drinking alcohol sin. It certainly calls being drunk sin. And no matter what else, Solomon is saying here, even if he wasn’t getting drunk, it was sin here for Solomon because he was looking for life in that buzz. He was hoping to make himself happy and to give himself pleasure in a way other than getting it from God and God alone. He was trying to find meaning and satisfaction in life from alcohol, and that is vanity. He doesn’t necessarily say vanity here in verse 3, but it’s all through this paragraph, Chapter 2, verses 1-8, and even his conclusion there in verses 9-11.

all vanity, it’s all empty, it’s all meaningless. There was nothing that could make him satisfyingly satisfied. Nothing that could content him, nothing that could last. It was empty. The bottom line here is that alcohol is not really the high life. Alcohol is not the high life. Drugs are not the high life and even if you get happy from drugs and I’m not saying that you should go pursue drugs I’m just saying even if you do that you reject God and you say you know what Solomon he doesn’t know what he’s talking about Pastor Sean you’re up the creek you don’t know I’m telling you you go out and you try to pursue that kind of lifestyle and it will lead you nowhere.

You will not be happier. You will not be satisfied. You cannot find anything in life under the Sun that will bring that to you. It is only found true, long-lasting. In fact, eternal pleasure is only found where? From God. His presence in his presence are pleasures forevermore. Right? Psalm 16 verse 11. You can’t find it in alcohol. Solomon didn’t find it here in even trying to cheer himself, trying to escape from the difficulties or the problems, getting that euphoric feeling. There was nothing there that would provide him ultimate meaning in life. And so again, I know most of you who are in here this morning, This is not the kind of lifestyle that you’re leading.

Again, you might not be pursuing that right now, but this is hopefully then good preventative medicine for you. Okay? Pointing you back to God as the only one who can truly satisfy and give meaning to your life. And Father help us to understand that. Perhaps it does seem weird for us to talk about stimulating and seeking that kind of lifestyle, cheering our bodies, trying to escape from reality with alcohol or drugs seems weird for us in our context to do that because so few in here are even around that at all and yet it’s enough that you included it in your word for us to know and to understand. Solomon certainly describes for us the emptiness of it and so burn it into our hearts and minds and more than anything use it as another push, another refocusing of our eyes back on you. We pray this all in Christ’s name. Amen.

Again, you might not be pursuing that right now, but this is hopefully then good preventative medicine for you. Okay? Pointing you back to God as the only one who can truly satisfy and give meaning to your life. And Father help us to understand that. Perhaps it does seem weird for us to talk about stimulating and seeking that kind of lifestyle, cheering our bodies, trying to escape from reality with alcohol or drugs seems weird for us in our context to do that because so few in here are even around that at all and yet it’s enough that you included it in your word for us to know and to understand. Solomon certainly describes for us the emptiness of it and so burn it into our hearts and minds and more than anything use it as another push, another refocusing of our eyes back on you.