ECCLESIASTES 1-12 ECCLESIASTES INTRODUCTION2007 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ecclesiastes 1-12 Ecclesiastes Introduction

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2007. Ecclesiastes chapter 1, let's read verses 1 through 3. It says, The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

What prophet has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? This book of Ecclesiastes is a very interesting book. In fact, it's one I enjoy to study.

Which you may not understand, and some people have trouble with this book. But I hope as we go through this evening, and as we continue in the next couple of weeks looking through Ecclesiastes, you'll have a better understanding of what this book is all about. What it means, and why it is a very valuable book. An important part of the Bible that we have. The author of Ecclesiastes is Solomon. Solomon.

He says that there in verse one, he's the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Solomon, David's son, ascended to the throne. David appointed him as king just before his death. And Solomon took over the kingdom and began to reign. He reigned for about 40 years, much longer.

like the time that David reigned in Israel. He expanded the kingdom. He was a very great king and did wonderful things for the nation of Israel. We've just been studying through the book of Proverbs and we saw that most of the book of Proverbs was written by Solomon and it's full of incredible wisdom, great insight into the truths of God, the principles of God. And we've learned so much about God

who God is and his ways from this man, Solomon. Proverbs is much of the wisdom of Solomon. But as we move into Ecclesiastes now, we learn not just about the wisdom of Solomon, which was in Proverbs, but we also learn about the foolishness of Solomon here in the book of Ecclesiastes. We find Solomon in this book to be very cynical about

pessimistic, really hating life and everything to do with it. And so in light of that and understanding Solomon's attitude, I thought it would be good to lighten things up by blowing some bubbles. And so if I could have a couple of volunteers, anybody like to volunteer? All right. You right here. And Roman. Yes. Come on up, Roman. We've got some.

Very special bubbles here. This is cotton candy scented. So if you could stand here. And Roman, if you could take the other side. Now, I need someone else. Someone who's like an expert in bubbles. Anybody an expert? Monique is an expert. Okay. You're going to be our judge, Monique.

Yes, you're going to be our judge. They're going to... You can stand right there, actually, because you want to see what these guys are doing. They're going to try to blow the biggest bubble they could possibly blow. Should have been bubble gum? All right.

So, you guys, I'll give you just a second to, you can have like one practice or two. But you're going to try to blow a bigger bubble than the other person. And there's a very great reward if you succeed in doing so. So, you want to try it one time just to test it out? Yeah, give you a quick test. That's not very big. All right, that's enough. So, you guys ready? You ready to judge Monique? Monique?

Okay, you guys. Not yet, not yet. Hang on. Okay, you're looking for one big bubble. Just one big bubble, okay? The biggest bubble that you can do, okay? You guys ready? Contestants, judge? All right, on the count of three, the biggest bubble you can blow. Go. Go.

Catch it, catch it, catch it. Okay, one more time, one more time, one more time. Boy, you guys, I think you need to go back to kindergarten and learn how to blow some bubbles. All right. Oh! Oh!

All right, and the winner is Mark. All right.

This very valuable certificate shows that, Mark, you earned the largest bubble award. Thank you very much for playing. Who's next? All right, Patty and Eli, come on up.

Come on, this is a different one. It's not the same one. You want grape or cotton candy? Grape. All right. You got the cotton candy. Would you mind, Monique, judging again? Okay. This time, we're not looking for the biggest bubble. We're looking... We're not looking for the biggest bubble. We're looking for the most bubbles. Okay.

The most bubbles. So you're going to have to have a keen eye on this one, okay? Okay, good peripheral vision. That'll work good. All right, so you guys want to try just one time to blow on it? Could it get a good feel for it? You guys good? She's pretty confident. It's hard to blow bubbles when the pressure's on, you know.

All right. You guys ready? You sure you're ready? Okay. You ready, Judge? I'm going to give you 15 seconds. And whoever blows the most in 15 seconds. Okay, on the count of three, two, one, go. Okay.

Three, two, one. And Patty Sedota. The most bubbles award goes to Miss Patty. It's invaluable. Hold on to that. Thank you for playing. All right. One last one. Who's my volunteers? All right. Nam, why don't you come up and segment? Come on up.

Oh, I'm sorry. I said nam. All right. You two, come on up. Come on up. Would you like apple or cotton candy? Apple. Okay. And you get cotton candy. Now, I need...

I need someone else. So, Segment, actually, why don't you come up? Segment. Segment. Why don't you come on up? Now, all you two need is the wand. So, go ahead and take the wand out of your bubbles. No. And, Segment, why don't you come and stand up here? No, no, no. Please do not drink it. I'm not trying to harm anybody. Let me move this out of the way.

All right, this is the most bubbles cut, okay? Segment is going to be blowing the bubbles, and you two contestants, you can put this down, are trying to catch...

Many bubbles as you can so you want to stand right here and you want to stand right here and segment is going to blow bubbles directly this way and You two will try to catch as many as you can in 15 seconds, okay, so Monique can you handle this one on your own or you jack in a separate? Okay, we're all good. Okay. Let's just try a dry run. Just blow some bubbles and try to catch the bubbles with your wand and

All right, all right. Okay, good. You guys got it? Okay, that's good. Now, pop all your bubbles. You know what to do. And we are going to start in three, two, one, go. I forgot to keep track of the time. Okay, three, two, one, and...

All right. And the winner is... Ma'am. He gets the most bubbles caught award. Great job, bro. Thank you for playing. There is napkins up here if you'd like to wipe your hands. Forgot to mention that for the other people. Yes, please put the caps on. Okay. That was fun, Jerry. Am I... All right. That's all. All right. Why don't you give everybody a good hand. Yes.

Now, of course, if you know me, it wasn't just a silly, fun thing to do. Yes, there is a point to the bubble contest. Again, here's Solomon. He's writing the book of Ecclesiastes and he's fed up with life. He's disgusted. He's tired. He can't find any happiness, any fulfillment, anything.

He's not satisfied. And so he says, we see here in verse two, he says, vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. This word vanity that Solomon is using, and it's really the key word of the book. It's used 30 times throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. And it's a word that means emptiness. Emptiness.

It's the idea of, and I like the way that Warren Wiersbe states it, he shares that one of his language professors defined the word that's translated vanity as whatever is left after you break a bubble. Whatever is left after you break a bubble, that's vanity. And you've just seen lots of bubbles and lots of breaking of bubbles, and you'll notice that there's

Nothing left. There's nothing here. There's barely any recognition or anything left that you would know that bubbles were blown in this place.

And that's what Solomon is saying. He says everything is vanity. All of life, it's just worthless. At the end of it all, the height of heights, the low of lows, the result is just, it's nothing. It's useless. It's pointless. And that is the conclusion that Solomon has come to. The best that you can get. The most pleasure that you can experience. The biggest accomplishments that you can have. All of it is vanity. It's empty.

And this book, he uses very different examples, many different examples and tests that he does to demonstrate the emptiness, the futility of life. Kind of a downer, maybe a little bit depressing for us. But it's important to consider and understand the context.

The book of Ecclesiastes is a book that really demonstrates the importance of us as we share scriptures, as we spend time looking at the word of God, the importance of us keeping those verses, keeping those passages in context to the book that we're reading and what is going on around. Because throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is on a journey. He's struggling with lots of things in his mind.

Maybe you've experienced something like that, where there's issues and difficulties, and it takes you a few days or weeks or perhaps months to really work through these issues in your mind and to really have them settled upon your heart. Things that have hit you, that have devastated you, or perhaps really altered your world and your life. And it takes sometimes great length of time to

to work through those things and to understand what is going on. Solomon is on that type of a journey. He's lost his bearing. He is searching for meaning. And this book, Ecclesiastes, is a detailed account of his search. And it's through a series of tests and experiments that he does and observations that he makes. The key word is vanity.

As he looks at these things, but there's also a key phrase in this book, which really gives us the understanding of why vanity is the key, the theme or the main point of Solomon in this book. The phrase that's used over and over again, in fact, 27 times in the book of Ecclesiastes is the phrase under the sun, under the sun.

Solomon, in his look at life, is considering all the things that are under the sun. And that is really the problem. He's searching for happiness, for purpose, for meaning. But it's limited to the things that are under the sun. In all of his tests and experiments, he's not considering the Lord. He's not considering eternity. He's not considering God forever.

He's looking at life on this earth, only looking at the things here and now. And as hard as he tried in looking at all of these things and he had all the resources imaginable, he could not find happiness or fulfillment. It's something that we need to know. It's something that we should know. And Solomon should have known that, too. There is no real fulfillment apart from God.

There's no real fulfillment apart from Jesus Christ. There's no real meaning or purpose in life apart from a relationship with God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We can search for it. We can try. And many do. And many still are. It's like that song, you know, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. And that's how most people go through life. It's something Solomon should have known. There's no fulfillment.

If you're just focused on this life, there's no real joy. If you're just focused on this life, there's no peace. If you're just focused on this life here and now, sometimes it's hard for us to comprehend this idea, though, about Solomon, because he's known for the Proverbs. He's known for some of the things we'll look at tonight. In fact, would you please turn their first Kings chapter three, verse

The book of 1 Kings, it's a few books to the left. 1 Kings chapter 3. Solomon is known for his wisdom, his great understanding, more than anyone else. His father David was known as a man after God's own heart. He had great example and relationship with God. He had great wisdom given to him by God.

And so in looking at Ecclesiastes, we can ask the question, how could this man get to this point in his life? How could he really reduce himself to this level? How could he be so foolish? How could he have done all these things that we'll go on to study in the coming weeks in the book?

Solomon, again, was the wisest man that ever lived besides Jesus Christ. How could he not know the meaning and purpose of life? And the answer simply is this. Solomon was the wisest fool that there ever was. He was the wisest fool. Yes, he had all wisdom, but at the same time, he played the fool. He became a fool because he turned away from God.

And that's why it's important as we look at the book of Ecclesiastes to consider the context. As he's on this journey, he comes to the conclusion at the very end, which is correct. That's the solid part of the book in the last couple of verses.

But the rest is really his thoughts, his contemplation, his observations on the things under the sun. It's man's best attempt that Solomon is demonstrating for us.

And so as we get into this book, I want to take a moment and consider the context of Solomon, who he was and what had taken place in his life. And as we look at Solomon, we learn, we will learn or look at five lessons from his life this evening. Five lessons from Solomon, beginning with the first one found in 1 Kings chapter 3. And I want to read to you verses 1 through 14. It says this.

Now Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh's daughter. Then he brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall all around Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the people sacrificed at the high places because there was no house built for the name of the Lord.

Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. Verse 5.

At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask, what shall I give you? And Solomon said, You have shown great mercy to your servant David, my father, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have continued this great kindness for him, and you have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day.

Verse 8.

And your servant is in the midst of your people, whom you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore, give to your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours? The speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

Then God said to him, because you have asked this thing and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice. Behold, I have done according to your words.

Verse 13. Verse 13.

So if you walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. Here in 1 Kings chapter 3, Solomon is new in his kingdom. He's not had much experience on the throne yet. And he's there in Gibeon offering to the Lord a thousand burnt offerings, quite substantial, giving himself to the Lord.

And the Lord appears to him and the Lord, as he appears to him, asks him, hey, tell me, ask whatever you want and I will give it to you. And Solomon made a request for wisdom. He made a request for an understanding heart to be able to govern the people, really to do the thing that God had called him to do.

To fulfill the role that God had given to him. He asked for the wisdom, the understanding necessary to do that. And God responded to that prayer. He said, yes, I will give you that. But not only that, I'll give you riches and honor. I'll make you like no king that is alive. And I'll give you wisdom like no one has ever had before. And nobody will ever have afterwards the wisdom like you have.

And so here in the beginning of Solomon's reign, we see that he starts out very well. Again, verse nine, he says, give to your servant an understanding heart to judge your people that I may discern between good and evil for who is able to judge this great people of yours. In essence, he's telling the Lord, God, I don't have what it takes. I'm not capable of this task that you've given to me.

And this is a wonderful attitude for Solomon to have. For him to be telling the Lord, I'm relying completely upon you. I cannot do this on my own. And that is lesson number one that we learned from Solomon this evening. Rely upon the Lord in all you do. Have this attitude. Rely upon the Lord in all you do. Ask the Lord for the wisdom, the understanding, everything that you need today.

To do the things that God has called you to do. It's not limited to spiritual things, but in your workplace, in your home, the way that you drive. Ask God. Rely upon the Lord in all that you do. But also in the spiritual things, of course, we need to rely upon the Lord. John Corson says,

Often shares this, and I love to remember it and share it with you. You've probably heard it several times. He says that every Christian should be involved in something that will fail unless God is involved.

Every Christian should be involved in something that will fail, he says, unless God is involved. In other words, the only reason it works, the only reason it succeeds is because God is in the midst. It's miracles that are taking place. It's relying upon the Lord. And he says every Christian should be involved in something that God must intervene or it will fail.

Because we need to be relying upon the Lord. God answers the prayer of Solomon here. He gives them wisdom and understanding more than anyone else. The only person who has exceeded him in wisdom is Jesus Christ. Because, of course, he is God. So Solomon begins to reign in the wisdom that God gave him.

And as he does, the kingdom prospered. There was great prosperity, even to the point that 1 Kings 10.21 tells us that silver was accounted as nothing in his reign. Gold was so abundant in his kingdom. All his utensils, all his china, wasn't china, but it was all gold. Everything that he used to eat, the decorations, everything in his kingdom was of gold.

The streets weren't paved with gold. That's for later. But pretty much everything else was gold. And so that silver was really it was not really having any value at that time. Also, at that time, Solomon expanded the borders of Israel far beyond what David did.

He built the temple. He built many other wonderful, enormous buildings. He had a fleet of ships that would trade all over and on and on and on we could go. He had a very, very impressive kingdom in his wisdom. Solomon was walking with God.

He had wisdom greater than anyone else. He was extremely successful in everything he did. And it was at this time that he wrote many of the Proverbs. In fact, if you turn just to the next chapter, chapter 4 of 1 Kings...

Look at verse 29 with me. It says,

And his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He spoke 3,000 proverbs and his songs were 1,005. Also, he spoke of trees from the cedar tree of Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. He spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things and of fish. And men of all nations from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom came to hear the wisdom of Solomon."

Solomon became wiser than anyone else. He became more educated than anyone else. He knew about all the things of nature. He knew about the things of God as he wrote the Proverbs. It says 3,000 Proverbs that he wrote. And we have spent a good portion of the last few months studying many of those Proverbs that he wrote. He was very prosperous, very successful, very

Everything seemed to be wonderful. Everything seemed to be incredible as this man walked with God in the wisdom of God and doing what God had called him to do. But there began to be a change in Solomon's life. The Solomon that we know from the Proverbs began to be corrupted. And if you'll turn with me a few more chapters, 1 Kings 11. 1 Kings 11.

And I want to read to you verses 1 through 13 here in 1 Kings 11. 1 Kings 11 verse 1 says, But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, from the nations of

Verse 1.

Verse 2.

Verse 1.

And for Molech, the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. So the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appeared to him twice.

and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done this, and have not kept my covenant and my statutes,

which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away the whole kingdom. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.

Here we see really the dramatic and drastic change of Solomon's life. It begins there in verse 1, but King Solomon loved many foreign women. The beginning here in verse 1, this word of contrast is really a contrast to all of Solomon's life up to this point. He walked with God. He had wisdom more than any other man. His kingdom prospered.

He had great success, but at this point, his heart begins to turn away from the Lord. But then it says that he loved many foreign women. What happened? What happened to this man, Solomon, who showed such a great relationship with God? In fact, the Lord personally appeared to him twice. I don't know if the Lord's personally appeared to you in the way that he appeared to Solomon twice.

He had a fantastic, fabulous, really supernatural relationship with God, experience with God. He had wisdom from God more than anyone else who ever existed. He was known everywhere for his wisdom that he knew was from God. His kingdom prospered as a result. He had all these wonderful things, and yet his heart begins to turn away from God. What happened? It began...

As he was disobedient to the Lord. Look again at verses 1 and 2. He loved many foreign women as well as the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Sidonians, and the Hittites.

So what? Well, verse 2 tells us, God says, don't marry these particular nations.

Not because God's a racist, but because they will turn you to their gods. It's the issue of being unequally yoked that Paul deals with in 2 Corinthians 6. Don't be involved with people who don't worship your God because they will turn you towards their God. That was the command. Solomon became disobedient to the Lord. The wisest man that ever lived became disobedient to God.

And as a result, it destroyed and ruined his life. If you remember the definition of wisdom that we've been working with in the book of Proverbs, it's not how smart you are. It's not how great your IQ is or how grand your education is, but it's how well you receive instruction, really how well you obey God's word. That's true wisdom, being obedient to God, receiving his instruction and putting it into practice.

And so as soon as Solomon begins to disobey God's word, he becomes a fool, even though he's wise and knows about nature and science and all the things of life. He's incredibly intelligent, more than we can really understand, more than anyone today. You think of the highest degrees and the doctors and all the intelligent people that have been. Think about Einstein.

Today is the anniversary of the date when he revealed his theory of relativity, which people are still trying to figure out today. Yet Solomon had wisdom beyond all of these men. He's incredibly intelligent, but he becomes a fool because he disobeys God. When you disobey God, you become a fool. And when we become fools...

We become capable of all the things that Solomon did. We can look at Ecclesiastes and think, man, what a fool. I would never do those things. But understand that when we begin to be disobedient to the Lord, even if it's only in one area, this is the specific area that the scriptures mentioned for Solomon. He began to love these wives. He began to be disobedient to the Lord. And in the end, it turned his heart away from God. And he was capable of

of complete abandonment of his relationship with the Lord. That's lesson number two that we learned from Solomon this evening. Do not disobey the Lord, even in little areas. Do not disobey the Lord because it will mess with you. It will mess with your bearings. It will ruin your focus, your ability to see and understand what God desires.

It just started by a little disobedience. I'm sure that Solomon was not thinking, well, you know, I've had enough with God and I'm just going to turn away from him. No, he was making political alignments and he was making choices that I'm sure he figured that he could handle. He was strong enough. After all, he was the wisest man who ever lived.

He could deal with it. He could cope with it. He could handle the situations. And you have to be the wisest man to have 700 wives and 300 concubines. It takes a lot of wisdom and understanding. Probably a lot of patience as well. But that thing that he thought he had control of grew into an outright rebellion against God. He loved these women. And as Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters. So since you can't serve two masters...

He loves these women, which means that he begins to turn away from God and to serve these other gods instead. Because you cannot. You can't live in sin. You can't continue on in disobedience and have a heart towards God. No, if you continue on in disobedience, your heart is turning away from the Lord.

Look at verse four. For it was so when Solomon was old that his wives turned his heart after other gods and his heart was not loyal to the Lord, his God, as was the heart of his father, David. See, this is what happened. Solomon in his youth coming into the kingdom. Lord, I need you. Give me wisdom. God gives him wisdom. He writes the Proverbs. Many wonderful, fabulous things happen. But it says here when Solomon was old.

When Solomon was, when he was established, when everything seemed to be going okay, then he began to be disobedient to the Lord. His heart was not loyal to the Lord. And he began to follow and worship other gods in his old age. And it seems that this is the time.

That Solomon goes through the things that he describes in the book of Ecclesiastes. It's the time when he turned away from God, trying to find fulfillment and happiness in the things of this life because he'd lost his bearings. He's forgotten the fulfillment, the satisfaction of relationship with God. And so he's searching desperately, trying to find fulfillment.

Something that satisfies in this life. Something that satisfies under the sun. And from this, I also want to look at one other lesson. Lesson number three. Lesson number one. I forget. It's on a previous page. There you go. Rely upon the Lord in all you do. Thank you. Good note takers. Lesson number two. Do not disobey the Lord, even in little areas. Lesson number three. Take heed in your strength, lest you fall.

Take heed in your strengths, lest you fall. See, Solomon was wise. He was wiser than anyone else. Yet, that also became his weakness. He blew it big time. He failed miserably. He became a fool. And the problem is, many times in our lives, is that our strengths can become our biggest weakness. Often, our biggest failure will be in the area that, through our life, has been our strength.

Think about Peter. Boldness. He was very bold. Quick to speak his mind. It didn't matter what other people thought. He didn't care. Quick to say, hey, we'll go. We'll die with the Lord. No problem. Let's go. He was quick to speak. But what did he fail in? He denied the Lord. His boldness in a moment became his weakness. As he failed in that area that was a strong part of his character. How about Abraham? He's known as the father of faith.

Right? Great man of faith. So much so that twice, not just once, but twice, he said, Sarah, hey, tell them you're my sister. And don't tell them that we're married because they'll kill me and then they'll just take you away from me. Lapse of faith. This great man of faith. Hey, yeah, I think that's a good idea. Give me Hagar and I'll have a son through him, even though God already promised a son through you. It was a lapse of faith.

But that's what he's known for. That was his strong characteristic. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness is what the scripture says. It was his faith that he was known for. Yet it was also the area of his biggest fall. Moses. Scriptures tell us that he was the meekest man on the face of the earth. Yet what was his biggest failure? He goes out frustrated the people of Israel. Supposed to speak to the rock that water would gush forth. And in his anger he smites the rock.

Strikes it if you don't speak King James. His strength, meekness, well, became a weakness. He lost it, struck the rock. And we could look at example after example. It's very often in our strengths that we have the biggest fall. The area that we think we're the strongest.

And as we look at Solomon's life, we need to learn these lessons. Take heed in your strengths, lest you fall. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 11 and 12. He says, now all these things, he's talking about all the things of the Old Testament, including the life of Solomon that we're looking at. He says, all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. He says, look, we have all these examples of the Old Testament. Therefore, if you think you stand and in the area that you think you're strong, you better take heed lest you fall. What are your strengths? Spiritually speaking, what are the strengths and the characteristics of your life that are that are really strong in your life? You need to take heed.

And rely upon the Lord again. And even in those areas, lest they become your failure as well. Because it's often in our strengths that we're not relying upon the Lord. In our weaknesses, the areas where we know we're weak. Oh man, we're crying out to the Lord. Lord, help me in this area. Keep me strong. Lord, keep me away from sin. Keep me away from temptation. Give me boldness. Give me strength. But in our strengths. Lord, I'm good in this area. Thanks.

Can you focus on this one? This is where I really need help. And as a result, very often, our strong points are where we stumble. Solomon fell. He turned away from God. He destroyed his life. He lost all his bearings. He could not find happiness or fulfillment.

We will see the journey as we go through the book of Ecclesiastes. He looked for it in all of life, in education, in wisdom and knowledge. He looked for it in pleasure. He looked for it in great accomplishments. He looked for it in hard work, in popularity, in prosperity, in justice. He searched and searched. He had unlimited resources. And he could not find happiness or fulfillment no matter where he looked under the sun.

We go around thinking, man, if only I had just a little bit more, you know, that that next raise or that next job that that gives me just a little bit more. And once I get those bills paid off, then finally I'll be sad. I'll be satisfied. I'll be happy. No, Solomon proves that's not true. Happiness and fulfillment isn't there. Some go around, you know, if I just get with that girl or just get with that guy or just have this relationship or that relationship, then I'll be happy. Then I'll be satisfied. Then I'll be fulfilled. Solomon proves no, no.

You can have a thousand relationships. It's not enough. It won't satisfy. Well, I just, you know, I just want to party and have a good time and enjoy life, eat, drink and be merry. Solomon proved that's not enough. Well, if I was successful, you know, if I could just have some some success in business. Solomon proved that, too. If I could just get this house or accomplish this thing. No, Solomon proved that, too.

If I could just have this or that or the other thing or once I have that, then... And that is vanity of vanity. It's chasing after bubbles. Like the guy in Finding Nemo. Bubbles! You know? You can't hold on to them. You can't cling to them. They don't satisfy. They just vanish and are no more. And that's life under this sun, on this earth.

Solomon proves to us over and over again. And it made him depressed, cynical, pessimistic. He hated life. It was worthless and meaningless. After all the labor and learning, after all the sweat and the tears, after all that was attained, the only thing that remained was the same thing that's left when a bubble is popped. Just nothing. It's vanity. Lesson number four. Do not search for happiness or fulfillment in this life.

Don't do it. It's not there. You won't find it. And if you think you will, read ahead. Read the book of Ecclesiastes. Consider what he goes through. Consider what he says. There's so many people today in the church and outside of the church looking for happiness, looking for fulfillment, and all of these things, just like Solomon did. But the things of this life cannot satisfy. If you're thirsty, you must go to Jesus.

and drink deeply of the water of life. If anyone thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. You're thirsty, you're not satisfied. You don't need that thing that you think you need. You need a deeper relationship with God. You need to be closer to him. Now the good news is that Solomon did not end his life this way. At the end of his life, he came back to his senses. At the end of this journey, this struggle that we'll be reading through in Ecclesiastes,

He comes back to his senses and he records it for us at the end of Ecclesiastes. And so would you please turn there with me? Ecclesiastes chapter 12, the last chapter of Ecclesiastes. Just as I every week reminded you of the definition of wisdom as we went through Proverbs, as we go through Ecclesiastes, this will be something that I will be reminding you of

Over and over again. Because this is the point of all that Solomon shares and all that Solomon goes through. Here in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verses 13 and 14 say this. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment including every secret thing whether good or evil.

Here's the conclusion that Solomon comes to at the end of this great or horrible journey, this wrestling in his mind and heart over the things of life. He comes to this conclusion. He says this is the conclusion of the whole matter from chapter one all the way here. Here's the conclusion of the whole thing. Here's the whole point. Here it is. What is it?

He says, fear God and keep his commandments. For this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. In essence, he's saying you're going to stand before God. So serve him. You're going to stand before him to give an account for your life. He is the one who judges. He is the one that you will have to give an account to for your life. So fear him.

And keep his commandments. The fear of man, that's a snare. Trying to please yourself, that's going in the wrong direction. No, fear God. Seek to please God. Keep his commandments because he's the one you'll give an account to. He's the one you'll stand before. He is the one that will judge everything, including every secret thing he says, whether good or evil. That's lesson number five. Fear God and keep his commands.

Fear God and keep his commands. And if you can notice for just a moment, this is the definition of wisdom. This is what Solomon arrives at. At the end of his life, he comes back to what he already knew in the beginning. This is wisdom. We learn in Proverbs chapter 1, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and understanding. In chapter 9, he says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

This is wisdom. This is where it starts. And at the end of this search, at the end of this great struggle, he comes back to the beginning and he says, hey, you know what? I found out God was right after all. I learned to fear God and keep his commands. The definition of wisdom that we've learned over and over and over again as we went through the book of Proverbs.

Five lessons from Solomon. Number one, rely upon the Lord in all that you do. Number two, do not disobey the Lord even in little areas. Number three, take heed in your strengths lest you fall. Number four, do not search for happiness or fulfillment in this life. And then number five, fear God and keep his commands. Important lessons for us to learn because like Solomon,

We have this great revelation. We have the background of Proverbs. We have the word of God in front of us. And yet, our hearts can be turned away if we begin to disobey, if we don't take heed, if we don't keep his commandments, if we don't continue in wisdom, we can quickly and easily destroy our lives by turning away from the Lord. And it starts with disobedience.

So I want to encourage you this evening to learn the lessons of Solomon. And as we begin the study next week, as we start in chapter one, looking through the book of Ecclesiastes, there's much more I'm sure that the Lord has to show us. But it all boils down to this. Nothing in this life can satisfy. Here's man's all. Here's what will satisfy you. Here's what will fulfill you. Here's what you need to be living for.

to fear God and keep his commands. That needs to be the primary focus of our life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for these examples that you've given to us of Solomon and so many others in the scriptures. And God, we ask that you would help us to take the advice of the Apostle Paul and to learn from these examples, Lord, that we might take heed lest we fall. And so, Lord, help us to learn these lessons.

If we're chasing other things, Lord, forgive us. Help us to turn our hearts back towards you. Lord, help us to start putting our focus on the things of you. Lord, that we wouldn't be investing in this life, but that we'd be investing in eternity and investing in our relationship with you. Lord, that we would make you our treasure, that our heart would follow. Lord, that our heart would not be turned away, but drawn closer to you. God, help us to learn these lessons.

And not to have to learn them the hard way like Solomon did. And God, I pray for any that might be turning away from you, that their hearts might be straying from you. Lord, bring them back. Lord, save them from the destruction of the things of the flesh, the hurt and the pain and the agony of going that direction. And Lord, I pray for all of us, that we would rely upon you in all things. Lord, that we would fear you and keep your commands.

that you would draw us close to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.