The Vanity of Pleasure (Pt 1)

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

can take out your copy of God’s Word this morning and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 2. We have made it already to chapter 2. We’re booking through it. Booking through this book. That’s right. One of the major themes, in fact the major subject topic of the entire book of Ecclesiastes is the subject, The theme, the thread of vanity. Hebel, Hebelim, Hakol, Hebel. Vanity of vanities all is vanity. It is meaningless. It is empty. It is futile. It is passing. It is temporary. It is ultimately not satisfying. Life under the sun. Life here on this planet. without reference to God, without thinking about things above, setting our minds on things above.

Life stuck here on this planet, everything you pursue is vanity. In Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verses 1 through 11, we saw in this opening section, this introduction of Solomon, that everything unto the Son is vanity, meaningless, empty. Then two weeks ago, we began talking about the potential that maybe there were some escape routes, maybe there were some doors that we could find, that we could walk through, that would lead us to some satisfaction, some real meaning.

The very first thing that Solomon moves into his autobiographical section in the Book of Ecclesiastes talking about his own pursuits and his own adventure to try to find meaning and satisfaction in life, he first applied himself to try to find meaning and satisfaction in what? In what? Wisdom. Chapter 1 starting in verse 12, I the preacher have been king over Israel and Jerusalem and I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done unto the Son and behold, all is habel, vanity, and striving after wind.

What is crooked cannot be made straight. What is lacking cannot be counted. And that, by the way, no matter how much wisdom you have, no matter how much brains and smart discernment you have, you can’t make your life better, guaranteed, to bring satisfaction just because you’re a smarty britches. You can’t do that. No amount of training, no amount of education, no amount of letters after your name is guaranteed to make the crooked things straight in your life or to help you count what is just not there. Not going to happen. Verse 16, I said in my heart, I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.

That is, there was no one with more wisdom, no one with more education and training than King Solomon, no one with more access to books and literature and again, knowledge than Solomon himself. He had the most great experience of wisdom and knowledge.

He says, verse 17, I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly I perceive that this also is but striving after wind for in much wisdom is much vexation. And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. And we talked about the fact that that is so true in really every area of life. The more you know, the more you know you don’t know, and that can be discouraging. The more you know, the more likely you are to be responsible for what you know and the more people are going to want you to do because of that. And that can bring some sorrow and vexation with it itself. The more you know, the more you realize that other people don’t know. And that can make you sad. The more you know, the more you know that other people probably they’re not giving you the full story.

And that there are probably some under-bellied kind of things going on that aren’t so pretty. And all that comes from wisdom. Solomon says in chapter one, verses 12 through 18, wisdom is vanity. And so perhaps not only do we know then now that wisdom is empty, ultimately, no matter how wise you are, no matter how much understanding and knowledge you have, that that’s not gonna really make your life any better Well, maybe there’s another door that we could go through. Maybe there’s another pathway to satisfaction that is not wisdom. In fact, if wisdom brings with it pain, then maybe the life that’s opposite of wisdom would bring some happiness, some satisfaction.

And that’s where we come in chapter two, verses one through 11. Here are some of the other doors that Solomon tried to go through. Here are some of the opposites really of wisdom, life of education and training and all those kinds of things. This is the opposite of that kind of life. It is a life seeking pleasure. It is a life seeking fun. It is a life seeking things to make yourself happy. That’s what we’re going to spend our time over the next few weeks looking at these verses, chapter two, verses one through 11. And originally when I began preparing, reading through Ecclesiastes and even thinking about this autobiographical section here in chapter 2. Originally, I was thinking that a lot of this was going to be preventative medicine. That’s, again, what I originally had in my mind, preventative medicine. I really kind of thought that a lot of these things, especially starting in verse 3, down through verse 8, I mean, those are some of the most bottom of the barrel of the trash can of life kind of things.

And I was really kind of thinking, you know, we’d talk about them on Sunday morning, you may talk about them somewhat in your small group, but that most of you in here would not be pursuing that kind of life. Even when it comes to seeking pleasure, you know, hedonism, how many have heard that word before? Hedonism, that’s just a life devoted to pleasure, making yourself happy by whatever it takes. Really, I kind of thought, like I said originally, that this is going to be hopefully more preventative medicine. Like, this will be the kind of stuff to encourage you to just not head down that road at all. But over the past few weeks, some of the things I have read written by some of you and published publicly out on the internet about the things that make you happy and the things that you’re pursuing in your life, I’ve come to realize that at least for some of you, this is not preventative.

Hopefully this is gonna just shake you out of that kind of pursuit. Unbelievable kind of interests, things that are making you happy. Right here Solomon is even going to describe some of them in these verses here in chapter two. Even the things that aren’t at the bottom of the trash can of life, some of the lowest forms of pleasure seeking that we can do, even some of the more just mundane kind of silly things that are still, as we’re gonna talk about this morning, seeking pleasure more and more. And it really, it is ripping out or ripping apart certain things in my heart to see you guys going after them and devoted to them.

Like giving your life in the pursuit of your own happiness and your own pleasure and you’re doing it in the trash can of life. You may not be down to the very bottom of the barrel yet, but some of you at least, your head is no longer visible. You know? And hopefully this is the Holy Spirit and Solomon kind of grabbing you by the back of your shirt and yanking you out.

I really pray that God’s spirit is gonna do that for some of you. Some of you obviously, you are loving Christ, you are loving God, you are loving his word, you are loving other, you’re loving fellowship and worship and all those kinds of things. And hopefully this then will just continue to give you a distaste for life under the sun. But there are still so many it seems. As I listen to you talk with one another, as I read what you write on the internet, as I evaluate and just kind of examine where you’re spending your time. Seems like, again, so many are in the trash can of life.

Look at chapter two, verse one. This is Solomon again. He’s now kind of leaving wisdom, or better yet, he’s taking his wisdom and he’s applying his understanding, his knowledge, to see if he can find satisfaction and pleasure. Verse one, I said to my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure, enjoy yourself.

He’s having a little conversation with himself saying, okay, if in wisdom there is pain, then let’s go see if we can’t get rid of that pain and let’s see if we can’t go find some pleasure, some happiness, come now, I will test you with pleasure, enjoy yourself.

And he can’t get more than one sentence in before he gives us his conclusion, which is, but behold, this also was Hebel.” Vanity. Look at verse two. “‘I said of laughter, it is mad, and of pleasure, what use is it? 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 do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines the delight of the children of man. And verses one through eight are at least a partial description of the various pleasures, the various things under the sun that he pursued to make him happy. He turned the great gift of wisdom that God had given him to rule the nation, and he had turned it for use for himself to try to make himself happy.

This morning, all we’re gonna do is get through verses one and two. Verses one and two is kind of the general description of his pleasure pursuits. Then verses three through eight kind of get more specific and we’ll cover some of those in the following weeks. Verses one and two, I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. I said of laughter and of pleasure. Those were the things that he was pursuing in verses one and two in a general way. Being happy.

Having some fun, you know? Just hanging out. Being cool. Laying low. You know, having some fun. Making himself happy. And you know, obviously just looking at verses one and two We see his pursuit and we see his conclusion. He tells us about his pursuit and then he tells us what the result of that pursuit is. That’s a pretty basic outline for just verses one and two. His pursuit. I said to my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. He’s like commanding himself. Go be happy. Maybe he would have said, don’t worry, be happy. All I want to do is have some fun before I die. You know, kind of thing.

Thank you, Cheryl Crow. That was his pursuit. His conclusion very simply is that it was vanity, empty, meaningless, not truly satisfying. In fact, he says of laughter, it was mad, lunacy, a pleasure. What profit is there? I mean, what actually does it accomplish? What is actually satisfying? What is bringing out any kind of true lasting consequences from being happy, having pleasure?

And the answer is none. It’s a rhetorical question, answer none. There are no ultimate profits. There are no ultimate lasting consequences or satisfaction that come from pleasure. They come from making yourself happy and just playing and having fun. And I still got 30 minutes left to talk about verses one and two. And I’m going to do that because, again, I think so many of you are at least at this level in the trash can. And you are holding out hope that going to the right party or the right number of parties, They’re having the right toys. They’re having the right schedule where you don’t have to work all the time and you can just play.

You think that there is meaning and satisfaction in those things and I just want to spend some time hopefully looking at some other passages as well to remind you that that’s not the case. So we’re going to take kind of a brainstorming look, a systematic look through scripture at what the Bible has to say about pleasure and seeking pleasure, some of the dangers of pleasure, some of the consequences of a life pursuing pleasure all the time. First what I want to talk about are six kinds of pleasure seekers. I’m not necessarily going to give you a verse for each one of these, but this is kind of my little brainstorm as I was kind of thinking through, you know, the different characters out there, I kind of personify these pleasure seekers by giving them a title, giving them a name, and it will become obvious as we go through what I’m trying to do here.

Number one, six kinds of pleasure seekers out there. There might be more. There’s obviously some overlap between these guys or these gals. Six kinds of pleasure seekers. Number one, the high class pleasure seeker. And I’ve abbreviated pleasure seeker in all of my online PS. Not like postscript, but pleasure seeker. The high class pleasure seeker. This is the pleasure seeker who is looking for satisfaction and meaning in life in the finer things in life. You know, the finer things. Whether it is in food, or it’s in drink, or it’s in their clothes, or perhaps some of their other possessions, the finer things. Maybe we could even include art.

This is not the pop art kind of people. These are the people who love the museums, and they put on their smoking jackets and and they’re fancy loafers and they go with their pipe and they’re walking around the museum going, hmm, lovely kind of idea. These are the coffee drinking snobs. These are the ones who, I’m not saying that all coffee drinkers are snobs, I’m saying that these are the ones who say, oh, Starbucks, they burned their beans, you can’t handle drinking Starbucks. know, we must have this very special kind of being produced by, you know, migration migrant workers in some remote part of Ethiopia and that and you must, you know, roast it for a certain period of time. That’s just an example of the, you know, you see these people on TV probably don’t have a lot of the finer wine drinkers in here. But again, seeking life in the finer things. You know what Solomon did this. Look back at First Kings chapter 4. Obviously one of the requirements for this kind of high class pleasure seeker is what? Money.

Generally speaking you need some money to make the finer things come about. The finer things are called finer things partly because not everybody gets to have them. I would suggest though that even in our culture, most of us have enough money to get some finer things that a lot of people throughout history and a lot of people in the world, not in the United States, don’t get to have either. I mean, I don’t know that we’d qualify spaghettios maybe as finer things, but just the ability to have some of the food and drink and clothes that we have. I mean, some of you, even though you might not have a lot money still are more interested in this kind of life or pleasure.

Look at 1 Kings 4 verse 22. Solomon’s provision for one day was 30 cores of fine flour, 220 liters was a core. 220 liters is a pretty significant measurement of fine flour and 60 cores of meal, 10 fat oxen and 20 pasture fed cattle, a hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks and fat and fowl. Now let me point out to here that vegetables is not on the list of the finer things in Solomon’s daily provisions. Now I’m not saying he didn’t have vegetables, but I can definitely tell you what, vegetables were not the main course for the king here. We’re talking about meat, you know? Yeah. A stakeout kind of every day is Daniel’s broiler kind of day kind of thing, but more. But more.

For he had dominion and then it describes how much he owned. Now some people will say that that’s about enough food to feed a thousand people. And how many people do you think it took to get this ready every day? And I think about that. Ten fat oxen, 20 pasture fed cattle, a hundred sheep, deer, gazelles, roebucks, fat and fowl. I mean how many, just the number of cooks and the number of servants and the number of farmers and the number of, you know, shepherds out there to watch over these, you know, be producing that level of thing. It’s just one example. One of the reasons this was possible, look down at the end of verse 24, one of the things that made this possible, this pursuit of pleasure through the finer things, through the food and the drink and all this kind of stuff, wouldn’t have been possible if if it weren’t for the truth at the end of verse 24.

And he had peace on all his sides around him. The country didn’t have wars to be fighting. And so, hey, if you don’t got any serious responsibilities, why not have a party? Why not have a party every single day? I mean, let’s get in the meat and let’s just, let’s put it on fire. No broiling. You know, they didn’t have broilers probably, and definitely no boiling. No boil meat and then try to eat it. You know, you fling kiss it kind of thing. You know, that’s the finer things that we’re talking about here. Solomon had this kind of life where there was nothing that he didn’t spare for himself, the finest kind of things.

Back in Ecclesiastes chapter two, near the end of this section in like verses seven and eight, where he talks about getting for himself the gold and the treasures of kings and provinces. He got for himself the very finest kind of things, not just in the food and in the drink, but in all the kinds of possessions. There’s a danger in this high class kind of pleasure seeking though. Look over at Proverbs 21, Most everybody who might even think about pursuing the finer things for pleasure in life, most people who do that are not the king. And in fact, some people who think that this is what the high life is really about, don’t actually have the funds to make it happen.

Proverbs chapter 21 verse 17, whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil will not be rich. That’s not necessarily everybody who’s pursuing the finer pleasures, but some of the people who are pursuing it obviously are going into debt to get it. They’re going into debt with money they don’t have to try to enjoy these kind of finer things. Now that might not be most of you in this room. Some of you might think that you’d like to have that kind of life sometime in the future. Most of you probably right now are not doing that, probably because you don’t have the money to make it happen. Though if you did have the money to make it happen, how would you use it?

Well, first kind of pleasure seeker is the high class pleasure seeker. Number two, I call this person the weekend warrior pleasure seeker. the weekend warrior pleasure seeker. This is a person who doesn’t have necessarily the funds to make their life a continual party. And they realize that they’ve got to do some work in order to get a paycheck in order to have the party. And so they at least will work during the week, but this is the kind of person who is working during the week, always aimed at what? Friday night. Some of you, in fact, are like this person. You do your work during the week, but all you can talk about is getting to the weekend.

And all you can talk about is how great it’s going to be when, you know, there’s no school on Friday and the weekend the party starts Thursday night. Or maybe there’s no school on Monday. I mean, the world is filled with these kinds of people. Everything is aimed at, even in the work that you do, everything is aimed at getting to play.

Everything you do is aimed at vacation. Whether it’s the weekend that’s vacation or sometime during the summer that’s vacation. The weekend warrior kind of pleasure seeker realizes they can’t devote all of their day to just playing around. But they work so that they can get to play around as quickly as possible. The high class pleasure seeker, the weekend warrior pleasure seeker.

Number three, the big boy toys pleasure seeker. The big boy toys pleasure seeker. Now obviously there’s some overlap here, some potential overlap with number one or two. The high class pleasure seeker, you know, might get the high class big boy toys. The more blue collar, you know, weekend warrior pleasure seeker, you know, still can look for the big boy toys, but, you know, in his boat he doesn’t get the, you know, the leather seats. He doesn’t get the fake wood grain trim out on all the instruments. The big boy toy pleasure seeker, whether that’s, you know, the nice car or the bling, bling kind of, you know, rims on the car, you know, on your 1980, you know, Volkswagen Jetta, you try to get the cool rims, you know.

Some of you have to do as much as you can, you know, you can’t shoot maybe for the stars when it comes to these toys, but, you know, you shoot for as high as you can. A boat. I mean, the last couple of times I’ve taken a walk around my neighborhood, it has astounded me how rundown some of the houses are with sitting in the front yard is, you know, this huge boat and maybe in some of the cases, a huge RV sitting right next to the boat.

You know, devoted to, and this is why I say the weekend warrior, I mean, these are people who probably have to then work throughout the week to get to the weekend so that they go use their toys, their boats or their RVs or whatever else it might be. These are the people with the, you know, thinking life is in their vacation house. You know, their cabin by the water. I like cabins by the water. Think being on a boat is cool, but I’m not devoting my life to getting that or to being able to use it once I have it.

Whatever the big boy toys are, These are more in the things. You can be a weekend warrior and not necessarily be trying to amass for yourself material kind of stuff, big or little. And by the way, it can be in small things. In junior high and high school, most of you are not right now trying to buy a boat or trying to buy an RV. So you’re looking less at the big boy toys and more at the Toys R Us kind of toys. Whatever you think you can get your hands on that’s going to provide you some happiness, some pleasure. Good MP3 player. There’s some pleasure there. The right bike, or the right computer, or the right whatever.

Doesn’t just have to be big boy toys in the sense of a boat or a car. Can be smaller things. But you realize that is a pursuit of pleasure in stuff, regardless of what level or how big the price tag is. Number four, the delayed gratification pleasure seeker. The problem with this person is that they think they’re doing it right. They’re doing it right. This is the person who is working hard now so that they can play in the future. The goal is actually still the same. They’re just realizing they need to do some work now so that they can play and have fun in the future. Some of you are like this.

Some of you are working very hard in school, and that’s a good thing for you to work hard and try to get good grades. But can I ask you your motivation for that? If your motivation for getting good grades is to get into a good college And in college then you want to get good grades so that you can get a what? Good job. What are you meaning by good job?

Almost all the time good job is defined as one that pays you a lot of money. Why do you want a lot of money? So that you can play. So that you can have fun. so that you can have a good job that you don’t have to work at very many hours and still get a good paycheck so that you can go play. And if that is why you are trying to get good grades right now, I applaud you know the fact that you’re at least delaying you know your ultimate goal. But if the goal is just a future hope of playing then your education is just for pragmatic reasons. It’s not noble. It’s not worthy of anything great because you’re seeking to apply yourself and be disciplined and get good grades if the ultimate motivation that you have for that is just to get the stuff later. The delayed gratification pleasure seeker thinks that they’re doing what is noble when in fact they’re just as much pragmatist as anybody else doing what works. Number five, the every Every spare moment pleasure seeker.

The every spare moment pleasure seeker. Again this is a person who could have overlap with any of the previous ones. It could be the finer things, it could be including the weekends, it could definitely be with toys, big or small. It could be delayed gratification, perhaps less overlap with this one. I think a lot of you probably fall into this category. You are not necessarily obsessed with toys. Your every waking moment is not spent talking about what the next purchase you’re going to make is, you know, clothes or, you know, eating. Some of you guys are probably more obsessed with that one, but not necessarily the finer things, you know, your finer things are more like Taco Bell.

So we’re not going to count that one in the high class pleasure seeking, okay? But you’re not necessarily obsessed with the next thing to get, the next toy. Maybe you’re not obsessed with getting to the weekend. Maybe you’re not always talking about seeking your own pleasure, and yet it still shows itself in how you spend your time that you have. Maybe it’s not an obvious visible idol to play, but if in all of your spare time that’s what you end up doing, you are still seeking pleasure for yourself. You are still seeking gratification in fun. This one shows itself when the pressure isn’t on. When the pressure isn’t on, when the responsibilities aren’t heavy, how do you spend your time?

Most of you, junior high and high schoolers, most of you, when the pressure isn’t on, and there isn’t a test the next day or a paper that you have to do, you are spending your time trying to make yourself happy. By watching a movie or by watching multiple movies all Saturday.

By, you know, planning to go out with your friends, not to not, not to like go serve somebody or to go have a prayer meeting, but to go to Dairy Queen and get some ice cream. Not saying that that’s bad all the time, I’m just saying if that’s what you default to in your spare time, doing things that are fun and that make you happy, thinking that that’s life, that’s an empty life. Some of you guys, it continues to astonish me. I mean, I like talk about this virtually, once a month at least, the amount of time some of you guys spend playing video games. I would have thought that at least like there would be some amount of just temporal shame from the silliness and superficiality of that kind of time pursuit.

And that doesn’t even phase some of you. Obviously, what I’m more interested in is that you would sacrifice some of that for the loves, the true loves that you have in your heart for like God and wanting to be in his word. But generally speaking, at least there should be some kind of temporal shame when you have to answer to your parents why your grades are so low because all you’re doing is playing video games, computer games, surfing the internet, chatting with one another in the instant messenger clients kind of stuff.

If that is what your time defaults to pursuing, then you are just the every spare moment pleasure seeker. It’s not really any better than the other ones. Well, this leads to number six, the last one. This is perhaps my favorite character, probably my favorite character because this was me in high school. Ready? The total goof off pleasure seeker. The total goof off pleasure seeker.

This is the one, this is the person who just makes a joke out of everything, out of everything. You go to class, but class is a joke. I mean, you are just waiting for the moment when you can share your hilarity with a neighbor sitting beside you. You know, you just mock the teacher, other people in your class, the thing that you’re reading in your book. I mean these are the guys who can goof off finding a way to make a joke out of the multiplication table. Now obviously there can be some overlap with previous ones. A total goof off obviously is probably goofing off on the weekends. Total goof off can still goof off over finer or higher class kind of things.

Total goof off can goof off over their toys. Generally speaking the total goof off though doesn’t have as many toys because that person is not even doing very much work at any time to have the resources to get the toys. So the total goof-off is generally also associated with the moocher. And the moocher is mooching off of other people who are doing some work, at least during the week, and so that the total goof-off can just hang out with the one who is the least responsible during some of the time and enjoy their toys or they’re paying for your goof-off time. Is a person who fills up their life with play and jokes and superficial things.

You know sometimes these guys have noble pursuits like sports. Again I was this kind of person in high school. All of my life you know wasn’t just about doing nothing. It was about how cool sports were. They were cool. I mean if I wasn’t playing something I was watching it. You know, whether live or on TV. Yeah. Or, you know, you can goof off pretty well listening to music. You know, but no, you don’t understand. I’m passionate about music. I’m a music lover. Well, I mean, that can be just as much goofing off, silly, superficial kind of stuff as anything else. That’s exactly what I lived like in high school especially.

Everything was a joke to me. I mean, occasionally I got serious, but I didn’t have a whole lot of responsibility. There weren’t a lot of bad things happening in my life. And so just like Solomon, the nation wasn’t at war. Hey, let’s have a party. Let’s just have a party. Life isn’t like that as much now for me. There are various responsibilities that I have. I think I’m at least less of a goof off than I was then, though some people have still nicknamed me Fun as well as Mr. Weinberg, Fun 1 and Fun 2. The time we have left, let me give you four problems with pleasure seeking. Again, there might be more characters than the six that I mentioned.

Those are just kind of ones that I thought of. Four problems though with pleasure seeking. Number one, pleasure seeking chokes out the gospel. Look at Luke chapter eight. In the parable of the sower and the seeds, by this point, the purpose of the parables after he told the parable Luke chapter eight, he starts explaining it to his disciples what it meant. He comes to verse 14, as for what fell among the thorns. You know, the sower goes out, throws the seed, falls on four different kinds of soil. In three of the soils, there is not ultimate lasting growth, only in the good soil was there growth and then fruit. But in two of them, there was at least a partial growth, a what looked like some kind of growth taking place.

And one of the places, the third place was among the thorns. Jesus in his explanation of the parable says, as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear it, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and their fruit does not mature.

Seeking pleasure, seeking fun, seeking riches, all those things under the sun may in fact choke out the gospel in your life. And you guys are here listening to me, to Solomon, to ultimately God for the last few weeks and for every message in Ecclesiastes at least telling you that life is not profitable under the sun. You are hearing that Jesus, that God is the only way to have true pleasure and meaning and satisfaction in life beyond life under the sun. You’re hearing that. You know the truth and yet I’m telling you even if it looks like there is some life and you right now, if you keep giving yourself to the pleasures of this life, it may eventually just choke the gospel right out. Dangerous. Pleasure seeking chokes out the gospel. Number two, pleasure seeking is self-centered. Look over at Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 47. Isaiah 47 verse 8. Now therefore, this is actually Isaiah the prophet giving an address to Babylon.

He says in verse 8, now therefore hear this you lover of pleasures who sit securely, who say in your heart I am and there is no one besides me. Look at the attitude of those pleasure seekers. They think life is all about them. They’re not worried about anybody else. They’re worried about how they can get happiness themselves. pleasures, what parties, what stuff they can accumulate for themselves, they’re not worried about anybody else. They think life is great because life is a party. In the following verses, the oracle to them is actually that God is actually able to make your life so miserable to take away every kind of ease and security you think you have and show you that your pleasure-seeking is ultimately nothing. By the way, if pleasure seeking is self-centered, it is the opposite of the Christian life, which is to be God seeking, then others seeking, and then feeding yourself.

It’s the opposite of the Christian life, the opposite priorities when you are all about yourself. That was the story in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. All of this autobiographical description is about Solomon seeking things for himself. Not how to better the nation. Not how to take care of them better. Not how to increase the nation’s worship.

All making himself happy. Pleasure seeking is self-centered. Third, pleasure seeking is actually idolatrous. Look over at it for next Sunday. We’ll finish this one out. Pleasure seeking is idolatrous. Number four, Pleasure seeking is empty. Habel, vanity, laughter is madness. A set of pleasure, what profit is there? We’ll come back and finish these out. Pleasure seeking is ultimately idolatrous and it is empty. I’ll finish that out next Sunday morning before small groups, okay? As we close them for this morning, how do you respond to to something like this, in light of the fact that, here is the one who had the ability and the resources to pursue pleasure like you will never have.

As Solomon is the greatest, the one with the greatest amount of wisdom ever, so you’ll never attain his amount of wisdom. He says wisdom is vanity. Ultimately can’t bring meaning and satisfaction to your life. You know, have we learned from that? But now as the one who had the most ability to pursue for himself happiness through stuff, and through the finer things, and through parties, no one else, definitely not us, will ever get to that level. Do you believe what he says that it is empty? The fact of the matter is I’m relatively certain that all of you have already tried and tested this in your own life. Whether you’re 12 or 20 or 40 or 50, we have all been there where we’ve gotten to Sunday night and been so disappointed that the weekend we thought that was just going to provide so much happiness didn’t even do it. We went to parties, we played around, we watched movies, and at the end of Sunday night we feel more sick and empty than we did at the beginning.

Most of us have had that experience, like I say, ourselves, let alone listening to Solomon, let alone then listening to God explain to us that those things, pleasure, fun, parties, finer things, stuff, materials, they are not going to fill the hole in your heart. No matter how much you have, no matter how much you give to pursuing it, it is vanity. There is a place where you can get true lasting satisfaction and pleasure, but it’s only one place. And I’ll bring that to you next week as well. Father, again, through Solomon’s example, his testimony, through considering that, considering even some other passages that talk about the dangers of what pleasure seeking can do, choking out the gospel, showing us that it is ultimately self-centered.

Some of the other things we’ll finish looking at next week. God working our hearts a distaste, a sour taste, a bitter taste for time-wasting, pleasure-seeking, material accumulating kind of life. And if we find ourselves in any of those categories of pleasure seekers, searching for the toys, using every spare moment, looking for the higher class things, even delaying our gratification of it, let alone just total goof-offs. God get us more serious. Only you can work that in our hearts. I pray this in Christ’s name, amen.