ECCLESIATES 2 HOW TO HAVE A MISERABLE LIFE2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ecclesiates 2 How To Have A Miserable Life

Well, this morning as we look at the book of Ecclesiastes, we're here because this is where we're at in going through the Bible in three years. And we're going to talk about the Bible in three years.

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because of the journey that Solomon is on. And he goes through a process. He goes through a journey to discover what is the meaning of life, what is life,

purpose of life? How do we find real value and fulfillment in this life? But he goes about it trying all the wrong ways first until he finally comes around to the right way at the end of the book. And so to talk about the book of Ecclesiastes today, I've titled the message, How to Have a Miserable Life. Because

Because really, that's what Solomon discovered. He tried all kinds of things and found out, I'm still miserable. And then he tried something else. I'm still miserable. And tried something else. I'm still miserable. And as he walks through all of these different things, it's good for us to consider because we also have a tendency and desire to chase after many of the things that Solomon chased after. And so,

And we also are deceived and think, this will satisfy me. If I live this way, if I get that thing, if I am able to reach that point, then I will be fulfilled and my life will be great. And that's what Solomon thought. And he pursued these different things in order to try to fulfill himself.

But he ended up bringing himself more misery in life. And so we learn from Solomon how to have a miserable life so that we can learn from his example what not to do and how to have a fulfilled and joyful life that God has apportioned for us. We begin by looking at verse 12 as a little bit of an introduction to the book. Solomon says, "'I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.'"

So Solomon introduces himself here and he calls himself the preacher. That is, I'm addressing an assembly. And so he's gathering people together and he's going to kind of

It's not exactly like this, but he's going to read from his diary to the congregation. Let me tell you guys about what I went through. And he's going to talk about this journey that he was on, the process that he was on. And that's really important to understand because as you look at the book of Ecclesiastes, you need to consider the context. That's really important in the passages of scripture that we study to understand what's the overall picture of what I'm reading.

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because it's a record of Job's friends who were, you know, speaking all kinds of nonsense. God rebuked them at the end for the things that they said. And so we have to take into consideration the context and understand who's speaking and what are they saying? And is this approved of God or is this just a record of what they said? And similarly, as we look at the book of Ecclesiastes, we're

We're looking at Solomon's record of his journey, of his trials and tests, of trying to find something meaningful in life. And he comes to the conclusion at the end. And that's, you know, in line with what God says. But up until that point, he is just on his own, doing his own foolishness and figuring out that life cannot be meaningful apart from a real relationship with God.

Now, what happened to Solomon? Because we know Solomon, you know, we spent time in Proverbs, and the Proverbs were written by Solomon. He was the wisest man who ever lived, and yet we get to the book of Ecclesiastes, and there's a little bit of a contradiction, it seems, that, you know, he was the wisest man, and then all of a sudden he becomes a great fool. And how did that happen, and what is going on here?

Well, we get some insight from 1 Kings 11, verse 4, where it's talking about the end of Solomon's life. And it says,

And so we learn what happened to Solomon and how he became so foolish later on in his life. That is that he turned his heart away from following God. He allowed compromise in his life. He disregarded the word of God. And as a result, he wandered from the things of God and became a fool.

Now, this is one of the reasons why I really like the book of Ecclesiastes. Even though there's a lot of cynicism, even though there's a lot of nonsense and foolishness, I really like this because it's an important reminder to me that I need to continue to draw near to God and make sure that I stay close to him in my relationship with him because Solomon, what happened to him was he stopped being obedient to God.

And as he chose to not be obedient, his heart wandered and he became a fool. And it's a reminder to me that it can happen to any one of us. Even those who have walked with the Lord for many years, you and I, we have the potential to start disregarding God's word, to stop drawing near to God. And when we do that, we begin on this same path that Solomon was on and our hearts are turned from the Lord.

It tells us in a couple of verses down from 1 Kings 11, 4, in verse 9, it tells us that the Lord was very angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord God of Israel who had appeared to him twice. So it's not just that Solomon departed from God, but God said, I revealed myself to you twice. You had great opportunity to know me.

And then later on, Solomon finished building the temple and he dedicated the temple to the Lord. And he said,

And the presence of the Lord filled the temple. And then God appeared to Solomon again after Solomon prayed in a prayer of dedication of the temple. He appeared to Solomon twice.

But that was no guarantee that the rest of his life would be lived in obedience to God. And again, these are important reminders for us to consider because sometimes we think ourselves invulnerable to walking away from God or embarking into foolishness once again. But the reality is we need to remember that Solomon had great opportunity. He had great wisdom. He had great revelation from God. And yet he failed.

wandered away from God and went on this journey of misery and foolishness and nonsense. And he was bitter and cynical because of it. And that can be any one of us if we allow our hearts to be turned from the Lord. Well, Solomon here is going on this journey now. And what he's wanting to do is he's wanting to find something valuable, something meaningful, some reason or purpose or joy in life.

And so he's going to try a bunch of things. In verse 13, it says, and I set my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven, this burdensome task God has given to the sons of men by which they may be exercised. So you can see here, Solomon is a little bit bitter and cynical, this burdensome task called life. You know, it's like such a burden. Life is miserable. And so I sought to find purpose in

And notice what he says, for the things that are done under heaven. So as he is looking for reason, as he's looking for purpose and meaning and joy, he is setting the parameters for his search. And that is, he's only going to consider things under heaven. Or in the next verse, he uses the phrase under the sun, which is repeated 27 times throughout the book of Ecclesiastes.

So as he's looking for value, as he's looking for meaning in life, he's only considering this life, what he can see, what he can hear, what he can touch. He's only considering this life. He's not considering God and what God has said.

Now, he does refer to God throughout the book, but it's not based on God's revelation of himself. It's not based on God's word. It's just based on kind of vague concepts of God that can be attained from just looking and living life on this earth. And so again, he's limited himself and he's in this area of foolishness now, not knowing God and limiting his search for meaning and value to

excluding the things of God and what God has said, which is a very foolish thing to do. But as he goes on this journey, he comes to the conclusion, it's all pointless. Verse 14, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and indeed all is vanity and grasping for the wind. So after he considers everything, he's looked at everything that he can figure out under this, under the sun in this life, and he's

And he decides it's all vanity. Now, when he uses the word vanity, he's not talking about being real happy with what he sees in the mirror. That's not, it's a different kind of vanity. This word vanity, it means it's meaningless. It means it has no value, has no point. I've often used the illustration of bubbles when I deal with the book of Ecclesiastes because Warren Wiersbe shares about his professor sharing that vanity

vanity is the residue that's left after a bubble pops. And so if you think about, you know, blowing bubbles, right? You got the bubbles and they're floating around and then they pop and there's just like a little bit of a vapor. There's just like a little bit of moisture that's left and that's it. There's really no substance there. There's nothing there. And that's what the conclusion that Solomon is coming to. As he's searching out everything, he's trying to find something purposeful, something meaningful, something valuable, something that really brings joy in life.

He's looked at everything. He's done a thorough analysis and he finds out it's just meaningless. There's no point. There's no value to it. But the reason he comes to that conclusion is because he's limited his search to the things under the sun. He's not including the things that God has revealed. This is really important for us.

Because we're all tempted to follow the path of Solomon. We all have that same desire many times. We're wanting to find something meaningful, something of substance, something of value. One way to talk about that is we all have a thirst. And if you try to quench that thirst with things under the sun...

you're going to end up like Solomon, absolutely miserable. But there's a better way to quench that thirst. Jesus said it himself in John 7, verse 37. On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And as you read through the book of Ecclesiastes, I would encourage you to keep this verse in mind. It's not really wrong that we have the thirst to

It's not really wrong that you desire for meaning and purpose and value in life. That's not wrong. But the problem comes in when we try to meet that thirst with things that do not satisfy. It leaves us miserable. It leaves us unfulfilled and unsatisfied. And even those who have known God for many years can fall into the trap of pursuing things that leave us unfulfilled and miserable.

Because we're trying to quench that thirst with something besides Jesus. And so I want to encourage you as we look at these passages this morning, what we need is Jesus. He's the only one who can satisfy us. And when you have the thirst, recognize it's not necessarily wrong to have the thirst, but just remember how to quench that thirst. It's by drawing near to Jesus.

And so how to have a miserable life apart from Jesus. There's five ways that Solomon will pursue in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. And so we're going to spend our time this morning in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 and look at some of the things that Solomon tried to find fulfillment and satisfaction.

So the first way to have a miserable life is found in verses 1 through 3, and that is to pursue pleasure. If you really want to be miserable, if you want to just be unfulfilled and bitter and sour, then here's what you need to do. Consume your life with the pursuit of pleasure. Let's look at verses 1 through 3. It says, "'I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with mirth. Therefore, enjoy pleasure.'"

So the beginning of his search begins.

the first thing he begins to look for, to try to find something fulfilling and to really bring joy to his life. He decides, let me search out pleasure. I said, I'll test you to my heart. He says, I'll test you with mirth. That word mirth, it means joy or gladness or pleasure. I'm just going to test my heart. I'm going to try and see what kind of joy can I bring by seeking out pleasure. And he concludes,

I tried all kinds of things that bring pleasure, but I found out it's vanity. Now, it seems rational for us to think about, well, I want to enjoy life more, so let me fill my life with more enjoyable things. That seems like a good equation, right? If you write that equation down on paper, that makes sense. I want more joy in my life, so let me add more things to my life that are enjoyable. That plus that equals more enjoyable life.

But although that might make sense in our head, that might sound rational, that's not the way that God has designed us. We don't work that way. You don't become more joyful in life by filling your life with pleasure. You don't find more enjoyment in life by searching out and seeking out and finding more and more things that are enjoyable. Solomon tried that. Now, let me also point out, as we talk about these different things that Solomon tries, Solomon attempted these things...

with unlimited resources. It's kind of hard for us to imagine, but Solomon had unlimited resources. Seriously, he had unlimited resources. He was incredibly wealthy. He was absolutely powerful. He was the king of Israel at the height of the glory of Israel.

He had no limits, no boundaries. He could do whatever he wanted to do. And so when he tries to fill his life with pleasure, he has the power to do that. He has the resources to do that. But he finds, even with all of his resources, filling his life with pleasure doesn't make his life more enjoyable. It still makes him miserable. You could think about it this way. You could go to Disneyland today,

and have a great day, lots of joy. So you might think, well, if I could move in and live at Disneyland, then every day will have the same amount of joy. But I'm sure you would understand that's not actually true. If you lived at Disneyland, you wouldn't have that ecstatic, joyful, all the time life. It wouldn't work that, it doesn't work that way. That's not the way that God has designed us. It seems to make sense in our head,

I want more joy, so let me add more joyful things. But Solomon goes through that, and he comes to the end, and he says, it's vanity. It's worthless. He says, I said of laughter, it's madness. And mirth, what does it accomplish? It didn't actually give me any substance to my life. It didn't actually give me any meaning or value. I didn't actually enjoy life more because I pursued pleasure. Again, in verse 3, he says, I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine.

So I searched out pleasure. I searched out laughter and that really didn't satisfy me. So I tried to like take it up to the next level. Let me introduce some alcohol. Maybe if I get intoxicated, then life will be better. But we all know you can destroy your life with alcohol, with those kinds of substances. And so Solomon thinks, well, but I'm the wisest man who ever lived. So let me try to hold on to wisdom and to also hold on to foolishness. I know it's foolish to pursue foolishness,

those kinds of things. But I'm wise. So he says in verse 3, he says, I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom and how to lay hold of folly to find out what's good for the sons of men under heaven. I can figure this out. I think I got it. I got it under control. I'm wise. I can hold on to my wisdom and kind of dabble in foolishness a bit. Maybe there's a good balance.

Maybe I can find the right, you know, the right formula to be able to enjoy these kinds of substances with my wisdom, controlling myself, having some discipline and making sure that, you know, I keep things in balance and then my life will be meaningful and fulfilled. But again, he comes to the conclusion, he recognizes I'm miserable. It's vanity. If you want to have a miserable life,

Pursue pleasure. Party it up. Fill your life with all the fun things that you could think of. Fill your life. Let your life be consumed with everything that you think is going to bring you joy, and you will make yourself miserable. What would this look like in your life? If you were going to pursue pleasure, I'm not asking for anything audible, okay? Don't shout it out, but

Think about it in your mind. What would you pursue? What is it that you think, man, if I could just, you know, I would just live on a cruise, you know, for my whole life, I would just, you know, be served and have the best foods and the best entertainment. And maybe that's what you would say. Oh, yeah, that would. Or maybe you would say, oh, man, yeah, to go just live in one big party. That would be the great ultimate, you know, pleasure that my life would be just fulfilled and that would be great and wonderful.

What would that look like in your life? And what if you had unlimited resources to be able to accomplish it? Now, I know how we are because I know how I am. I could easily buy into the idea, yeah, if I had unlimited resources, boy, yeah, I could have all kinds of pleasure in my life. I would hire Harvey full time to be my chef and just all day, just cook anything I want all day long. My life would be filled with pleasure. It'd be easy for me to buy into that and believe that. But again, that's why this book is valuable.

Because Solomon had that. And he found out it's vanity. It doesn't fulfill me. It can provide maybe a temporary distraction, but I'm still permanently unsatisfied. Now, here's the point. We all have that kind of thirst. We all want joyful moments in life. We all want enjoyable lives and things that are wonderful and good. And we all desire that. And it's not wrong to have that kind of thirst.

But when you find yourself thirsting for pleasure, recognize what that thirst represents. When you're thirsting for pleasure and thinking, oh man, that's going to be so fun. That's going to really fulfill my life. When you're thirsting for pleasure, it's not actually a lack of pleasure in your life. It's a lack in your relationship with Jesus.

That's what we need to catch. We need to kind of retrain our brains and catch ourselves and recognize when I'm thirsting and I'm thinking that's going to satisfy me, that's going to make my life complete, that's not actually going to accomplish that. It's going to make me miserable. But when I have that thirst, when I recognize that I have that thirst, I need to recognize what I need is more in my relationship with Jesus. That's where the lack is.

And that's why I'm craving these other things so much. Jesus said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Well, Solomon wasn't satisfied by pleasure. So he continues his search in verses 4 through 7. And here's the second way to have a miserable life. Pursue your dream home. If you really want to be miserable, move in to the home of your absolute dreams. Check out what he says in verses 4 through 7.

I made my works great. I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me.

Here, Solomon pursues his dream home, or another way you could think about it, he pursues great possessions. And in his pursuit of possessions, he thinks, this will satisfy me. This will bring fulfillment to my life. If only I had everything that I want now,

If only I could own all the homes I want to own. If only I could have the, you know, awesome tile that I want for my house. If only I could have my dream home and everything that I want, then I would be satisfied and fulfilled. And with that mindset, he says in verse four, I made my works great and I built myself houses. That's what I need. I need some good houses and that's going to satisfy me. If only I had a summer home.

You know, then I would be really happy. Now, it's interesting to think again about Solomon because he's approaching this with unlimited resources. We remember that Solomon built the temple. And we look at the temple that Solomon built and it was glorious. As you read through it in 1 Kings, you see all the detail, all the luxuries that went into it, all the resources that went into it. And for seven years, they were building the temple.

But then it also goes on to tell us that for 13 years, Solomon was building his house. So he worked for seven years on the temple, but for 13 years, he's working on his house with the same level of luxuries and resources, just pouring everything into this home. But he found that home didn't really satisfy. And so, well, maybe if I have a home at the beach.

If I was on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, because you know sometimes it gets hot here in Jerusalem. I don't want to live here all the time. It's going to be kind of hot. So what if in the summer I move to the beach and then I can go swim in the water. I could do some surfing and enjoy myself there at the beach. And so, okay, that'll do it. So he builds the house on the beach. Still, life's not that fulfilling. I'm kind of miserable. You know why? I don't have a house in the mountains. If only I had a cabin.

then things will be great because then I could go up there, I could enjoy the snow and things. So let me build a cabin. Let me build a house in the mountains. And on and on and on it went. I built myself great houses, he says, and planted myself vineyards. So here's the problem. I have all these homes, but it doesn't really have good curb appeal. They kind of look kind of gnarly from the front, you know, from the street. So if only I had a nice yard.

maybe some fruit trees in the backyard, you know, then I would be fulfilled. Then my life would be meaningful. And so I planted vineyards. In verse 5, I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. Then I'll be satisfied. That's really what my life is missing. But he's still not satisfied. He even made pools to water the growing trees. But

I would imagine Solomon, you know, enjoyed swimming in the pools too. So maybe if I have a swimming pool, you know, to my house, that's what I need. A swimming pool and then life's going to be great. I mean, we're going to be able to just kick back on the deck, you know, and the kids will be swimming and it's really going to be really awesome. Life will be meaningful and valuable and so enjoyable once we have that pool installed in the backyard.

Now, if I was Solomon and I had unlimited resources, I think I wouldn't like do a little pool. I'd probably build raging waters and magic mountain right next to each other in my backyard. You know, that'd be the ultimate as far as I'm concerned. But you know, even if I did that, I would be miserable. That's not what would fulfill my life. Trying to build my dream home or pursue these kinds of possessions, that's not going to satisfy my soul.

And that's what Solomon is discovering time after time after time. In verse 7, he goes on to say, So here's the next problem. I have all these homes. I'm exhausted just trying to keep them clean. Maybe if I had some servants.

They'll keep the house clean. They'll do the yard. They'll do the... Okay, I need a gardener and a butler and a housekeeper. Well, not just one of those. I need someone to be on staff at all times. I need room service all times too. So I've got to have a chef. And he had so many servants that he said servants were born into his house. So he has male servants and female servants and they're, you know, getting together. And then they're just kind of producing more servants for Solomon all the time. But even with that abundance of servants...

It doesn't satisfy him. It's not meeting that need that he has. It's not quenching that thirst. Again, I would ask you to consider what would this look like in your life? What if you had unlimited resources?

Have you been caught up? Are you deceived in thinking, yeah, if only I could, you know, get this in my house, or if only I could get that home, or only if I could get a home, then I would be satisfied, and then I would be fulfilled. But if you're looking for joy and fulfillment in what you own,

You're going to find out it doesn't satisfy. You'll end up miserable. Solomon tried to do that on our behalf. Let him represent you and say, okay, that's already been attempted. That's not going to bring me the fulfillment I'm looking for. So you don't have to learn that lesson the hard way. It may provide you a temporary distraction. You might like kicking your feet up in the hammock for a bit. You're like, hey, this is pretty nice. But it's still a permanent, unfulfilling, miserable life.

Now, again, it's not wrong to have this kind of thirst, but we need to teach ourselves and to train ourselves to recognize. When I start getting into this pattern of thinking, yes, once I get that new roof, then I'm set. My life's going to be fulfilled. I got the roof that I want. I got the house that I want. I got the floors that I want. I got the curtains that I want. I got the summer home I want.

When I get that, then I'll be fulfilled. When I get caught up in that pattern, and listen, we all have that tendency. We all look to those things. We all have that kind of thirst. Here's what we need to do. It's not wrong to have the thirst, but recognize what that thirst represents. It's not a lack of your possessions. It's a lack in your relationship with Jesus. That's where the lack is, and that's where you will find fulfillment in your life. Jesus said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

That's not just salvation, but that's life. Life is found in relationship with Jesus.

And because Solomon excluded God in his search, he's not fulfilled. He's miserable, even though he has every pleasure that he could think of. And even though he has the awesome, most best dream home he could ever imagine, he's still miserable. And so he keeps on trying different things. And so we go into verses 8 through 11. Here's the third way to have a miserable life. Pursue wealth. If you really want to be miserable...

Chase after riches and money. Verse 8 says, I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers and the delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. Or so he thought, right? Here Solomon decides...

Pleasure's not doing it. My possessions aren't doing it. I need more money. And so he gathered together, he says, silver and gold and all the special treasures of kings and provinces. So all the regions around him, he's buying up everything. He's getting all the valuables, all the special treasures and amassing gold and silver for himself.

Now, it's recorded in 1 Kings 10, verse 27, that Solomon made silver so common in Jerusalem that it was as common as the stones in Jerusalem. Now, if you're not familiar with Jerusalem, there's a lot of rocks in Jerusalem. And so the idea here is that there is just silver everywhere. You know, sometimes you drop a penny, and it's like, eh, I don't know if it's worth bending over to pick it up. That's how silver was in Solomon's day.

Drop some silver. It's as common as the stones. I'll just grab another rock later. It was incredible wealth that was filling Jerusalem and filling Solomon's estate at that time. He was incredibly wealthy. That's again why I say he had unlimited resources. Now you and I, man, I know how it is, if you're anything like me anyways. It's so easy to think, yeah, unlimited resources is

drop in silver and not even care. It's like, eh, no big deal. Not worth picking it up. We can have this fantasy in our mind that that is just going to be amazing. If only we had that kind of money, things would be so great. If only we had, I mean, even, hey, I don't want to be all greedy and stuff. I mean, I don't need, you know, billions, just maybe a couple hundred thousand. I'd be set. Be perfect. Everything would be so great. I'd be set.

Be fulfilled and joyful and meaningful. And yes, life would be awesome if only I had some more money. It's so easy to think that way, to get caught up in that. But Solomon learned that that's not the case. And that continues to today. I was checking out this article. It was written about five years ago, but it was in the Wall Street Journal. The title is, Don't Envy the Super Rich. They're Miserable.

Don't envy the super rich. They're miserable. And this was based on a study that was done by the Gates Foundation. Now, maybe you've heard of a man named Bill Gates. I'm not sure if you've heard of him, but, you know, very wealthy man, founder of Microsoft, and wealthiest man alive for many, many years. So they have this foundation. They did a study. Let's find out if rich people are really fulfilled and happy. And so they...

got 120 people to participate in this study. All of them have a net worth of $25 million or more. So they're wealthy. Their net worth after, you know, everything is said and done, they've got $25 million to their name or more.

And so they do this study. They have this, you know, these interviews. They do this study with these different people. And here's the conclusion that they came to. It says, So where we would think...

those of us who are lesser than $25 million in net assets, we would think, wow, that's really got to be an amazing life. And instead, they have deep anxieties about their love life, about their relationships, about their workplace, about their family, and they're dissatisfied. They're miserable. They're not happy. That's not the way that it works. Those things don't fulfill. It's so hard for us to imagine that that couldn't be fulfilling.

but it's not fulfilling. We don't have to learn the hard way. Solomon will say later on in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 10, he who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with increase. This also is vanity, he says. If you love silver, again, in our minds, the math seems to work. If I love silver and I get silver, then I'll be happy.

But if you love silver and you get silver, you're still unhappy. That's the reality. That's the way that real life works. If you love abundance, you're never satisfied with increase. That's what Solomon says. He's observed this under the sun. He's looked at all kinds of walks of life and all kinds of different things in his own heart. And he's recognized, if this is my pursuit, even if I achieve it, I'll still be miserable.

If I love silver, silver won't satisfy me. And this study by the Gates Foundation found that out as well. It goes on to say, most of them, that is these 120 people, $25 million or $25 million or more, most of them still do not consider themselves financially secure. For that, they say, would require an average one quarter more wealth than they currently possess. So here I am, I'm sitting on $100 million. I'm not really financially secure.

I might go bankrupt. I'm not sure. If only I had 25% more, just a little bit more, and then I would be secure. Then I could really rest and enjoy life if only I had 25% more. But you know what happens, right? You get 25% more and you're like, if only I had 25% more. So you get that 25% more. If only I had 25% more. It's just an endless pursuit. Again, we're perpetually unsatisfied and miserable. And now again,

Making some general assumptions here. Probably none of us are sitting on $25 million in the bank. If you are, you're pretty quiet about it, and I would encourage you to share a little bit more. But here we are. We're with less, and I think each of us could look at our bank accounts and think, man, if only I had 25% more, right? So easy for us to get caught up and think that that would be...

Really, the cause for great joy and security and peace. I wouldn't be so anxious. I wouldn't worry half as much if I had 25% more in the bank. And it's just not the reality. It's not the way that life works. Well, going on in verse 10 and 11, Solomon says, whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and the labor in which I had toiled, and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. Notice at the beginning of verse 10, whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. He had unlimited resources.

And anything that just came to his mind that he thought, this will bring me pleasure, he would go do it. Now, again, I'm sure for us, that's not the normal life, right? You probably see things at the store and you think, hmm, that would be nice to have. But you don't actually buy it. Why don't you buy it? Well, because you don't have unlimited resources. You might see things online. Oh, that'd be really awesome. Man, my life would be great if I had that. But you don't buy it because you can't afford it. We have that. That's a good practice to have.

But Solomon, he didn't have to worry about that. Unlimited resources. Anything he wanted, he could get it. He sees something at the store. He sees something online, even those crazy flight catalogs. And it's like, hey, it's only $100,000 for a sandwich. You know, oh, sounds great. I'll have that. He could just do anything he wanted. He said, whatever my eyes desired. Can you imagine that? I mean, what would that look like in your life if whatever you wanted, you got? But the end result would be misery.

Again, we think, surely if I got everything I wanted, life would be great. Solomon had his dream home, his dream chariot, his dream job, his dream sandals, his dream vacation home. He had all his dreams coming true. And yet, he says at the end in verse 11, I looked on everything and it was vanity and grasping for the wind and there's no profit under the sun. I'm still empty. There's still no point to life. It's still meaningless. There's still no value. And yet,

If you want to have a miserable life, pursue wealth. It might temporarily distract you, but you'll still be permanently unsatisfied. If you're looking for joy and fulfillment, you're not going to find it in wealth. Solomon tried this already so that you don't have to. Don't get caught up in that chase, in that pursuit. Learn from his mistakes. You don't have to go down that path on your own, even though it's tempting and even though our minds can easily be convinced that man will be so much better off.

Learn these lessons. This is not what brings fulfillment and joy in life. Now, if you find yourself having this kind of thirst, all this talk about money or drooling a little bit, hey, it's okay to have that thirst. That's not necessarily wrong, but just recognize what the thirst represents. When you start craving more money, recognize that it represents a lack in your relationship with the Lord. That's where you're lacking. Your lack is not money.

We can easily convince ourselves, oh, that's going to solve our problems. All our bills will be covered, everything. It's not what you're lacking. It's your relationship with the Lord. Jesus said, if anyone thirsts, recognize your thirst and run to Jesus. He's the only one who can satisfy you. Well, he's still not satisfied with all that wealth. And so verses 12 through 17, the fourth way to have a miserable life, pursue intelligence. Verse 12 says,

Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who succeeds the king? Only what he has already done. Verse 13. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels wisdom. So let me think about this life and how to live it. And let me consider wisdom and foolishness and madness and folly.

Maybe I can find a balance. Maybe I can find what's best, you know, between wisdom or foolishness. And he looks and he says, yeah, as I look at this, I think wisdom, it's way better. It's way better to be wise than to be foolish. As you know, the difference between light and darkness. I mean, it's way, way better. It's a huge difference to have wisdom, to be smart and

to make smart decisions and smart moves, and it's way better than to be foolish. But, verse 14, the wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all. So the wise man is, they've got eyes looking out. They're thinking ahead. They're preparing. They're making smart decisions because they're paying attention. Their eyes are wide open. They've got wisdom.

While the fool just kind of fumbles around in darkness. But here, notice the frustration in Solomon's writing here. I could just see like this aggravation. He says, I perceive that the same event happens to them all.

So wisdom is way better. And the smart person is thinking ahead and planning ahead and making smart moves. And the fool is just bumbling around. But then they experience the same things. Verse 15, so I said in my heart, as it happens to the fool, it also happens to me. And why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, this is also vanity. Surely wisdom is better, but the same thing happens to all of us.

We both eat, we both sleep, we both experience joy, we both experience pain, we both get rained upon, we both experience the sun, we both have victories, we both have defeats, and we both die the same way. You can hear Solomon's frustration in verse 16. For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool. The wise man dies the same way the fool dies.

It's vanity, he says. It's useless. What's the point of a great education when I'm going to die the same way that someone who never graduates from high school dies? I'm going to experience the same things in life, and they might get lucky and experience better things than I experience, even with all my education. And 100 years from now, he says, there's no more remembrance of the wise rather than the fool. 100 years from now, nobody's going to care if Carlos was wise or fool. Who cares? Nobody's going to be telling their children, hey,

You know, a hundred years ago, there was a man named Carlos Jacobo, and he was really wise. The kids are going to be like, so? Who cares? A hundred years from now, there's no remembrance of the wise or the fool, and we all die the same way. So what's the value? What's the benefit of wisdom? Verse 17, therefore, I hated life because of the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me for all his vanity and grasping for the wind.

Now, we talked about wisdom in the book of Proverbs, and the way that God defines wisdom is a little bit different than how Solomon is talking about wisdom here, because God defines wisdom as fearing the Lord, and again, it's receiving instruction from him, and Solomon is excluding God in this equation. So he's talking about intelligence. He's talking about, you know, street smarts or book smarts. He's talking about IQ. He's talking about that kind of intelligence, and

And he's coming to the conclusion it doesn't satisfy. It doesn't provide meaning and joy to life that I thought it would provide. The author, Ernest Hemingway, he was an author, Nobel Prize winner, Pulitzer Prize winner. He says this, happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. So here's this smart guy, award-winning smart guy, hanging out with a bunch of other smart people. And he looks around and he says, it's really rare for any of us to be happy.

for us to really be fulfilled or joyful. It's rare. It doesn't satisfy. If you want to have a miserable life, pursue intelligence. Pursue it. Fill your life with being the smartest person on, you know, any subject or a particular subject. Fill your life with it. And you might think it will satisfy you, but you'll end up miserable. If you're looking for joy and fulfillment,

You're not going to find it by pursuing intelligence. Now, I'm not saying you're going to find it by being stupid either. How do you find it? You find it by pursuing Jesus. It represents a lack. When you have that thirst, it's not the lack of intelligence. It's not the lack of smarts. It's not the lack of education. It's a lack in your relationship with Jesus.

And he stood up and said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Well, Solomon is still not satisfied. And so we'll continue in verse 18 through 23 to consider the last point, and that is to pursue success. If you want to have a miserable life, be consumed with

Success in your life. Verse 18 says,

Solomon looks at all of his hard work and he's thinking, man, I worked hard. I accomplished much. Very successful in all my building endeavors. Very successful in ruling the kingdom and expanding the borders. I'm successful in all kinds of ways, but I'm discovering I really don't get to keep it. More vanity now. More frustration. You can have the most awesome career imaginable.

And you rise to the top. You become the CEO of some great corporation. But you don't get to keep that position forever. Even if you reach the top of the top, you're going to hand that off to another CEO. And that guy could ruin all your hard work. I mean, you built an amazing company. And that guy just runs it into the ground. Or even if he doesn't, the next guy probably will. I mean, if you kind of follow the chain...

It's kind of guaranteed there's going to be a fool to take your position at some point. Even if the next guy is wise, probably the next one after that will be a fool. It's kind of a given. At some point, there's going to be a fool who destroys everything that you worked so hard for. Maybe you build great buildings. Someone else is going to come along, not take care of them, let them fall apart. Your awesome home that you've just been so proud of, someone else is going to own it. It's going to fall into disrepair. There's going to be tumbleweeds inside of it. It's not yours forever.

Maybe you come up with awesome inventions and you invent, you know, the next amazing technology, but you don't get to keep it and someone else is going to mess it up. You don't know if they're going to be a wise or a fool or if they're going to be wise or a fool. There was a huge sigh of relief this last December. The new Star Wars came out. We were very nervous. I mean, this whole thing is being handed off to someone. And is this guy going to be wise or a fool with Star Wars? So grateful.

It was a wise man who had it. But eventually there's going to be a fool at the helm. It's going to ruin Star Wars forever. If you pursue success, you're not going to be satisfied. Solomon looks at all he's accomplished and realizes, I don't get to keep it. I got to pass it on. And it's guaranteed at some point a fool's going to get. And they're going to ruin it. They're going to destroy it.

Verse 21, for there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. I worked hard for it and I accomplished these things, but I have to give it to someone who didn't do anything for it.

It's vanity. It's not fulfilling. Verse 22, for what has man for all his labor and for the striving of his heart with which he's toiled under the sun, for all his days are sorrowful and his work is burdensome. Even in the night, his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity. To achieve all this success, I've had to work so hard. I've had sleepless nights. I've been sorrowful and burdened in order to accomplish these great things. And in the end, it's vanity. It's vanity.

There's something fulfilling, right, about a hard day's work. You get to the end of a job, you get to the end of an accomplishment, it's like, all right, that's pretty fulfilling. So you might think, well, if I do that, if I work hard, accomplish something great, it's going to cost me some sleepless nights, but yeah, it'll be great. But in the end, you'll come to the same conclusion. It's vanity. If you want to have a miserable life, pursue success. There might be a temporary distraction of celebration,

But like Solomon, you'll find it's permanently unsatisfying. If you're looking for joy and fulfillment, you're not going to find it in the pursuit of success. Solomon tried it on your behalf so that you don't have to go that way, get to the end of that road and spend 40 years working on this to find out it doesn't satisfy. Oh man, I forget who the author of this quote was, but he describes success as spending your whole life working hard to climb to the top of the ladder and you get to the top and you realize the ladder's against the wrong building.

That's what people who reach the top describe. That's how they describe success. It's like I get there and it's the wrong building. It's not where I wanted to end up. It's not where I wanted to be. It's not satisfying. You don't have to learn that your own self the hard way. Now again, it's not wrong to have this kind of thirst. You're desiring success. You want to be great. You want to have success. Recognize what that thirst represents. It's not a lack of success. It's not a lack of accomplishment. It's

It's a lack in your relationship with Jesus. You can pursue any one of these things, or you can pursue a combination of these things. Well, I know pleasure by itself. That's not going to satisfy me. But if I had pleasure and wealth, then I'd be set. Or pleasure and wealth and success, or and wisdom, or and my dream house, you know, then I'll be really satisfied. No, no, no. Solomon had not just one of these things. He had all of these things.

And at the end, he says, it's vanity. It's worthless. It's meaningless. It has no value. I'm thirsting. I'm craving. I'm miserable. And I'm not fulfilled because he limited his search to under the sun. I just want to encourage you, learn these lessons from Solomon so you don't have to learn them the hard way yourself. Don't invest decades, even months or weeks of your life pursuing things that will not satisfy you.

It really comes back to your relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ. If you're thirsty, that's where you're lacking. Now, I do want to make sure I point out here as we close. If the Lord tells you to pursue an education, then you pursue an education. It's not that pursuing any of these things is necessarily wrong, but it really comes back to where's your heart? And are you looking to that to be the fulfillment and purpose and meaning of your life?

If he tells you to build a successful company, then build a successful company. He knows what's best. He knows what he, you know, desires for you. He knows what your life needs. He knows what your heart needs. And so it's not that any one of these things by itself is necessarily wrong. It's not necessarily wrong for you to have your dream house. But if you're looking to that to be the fulfillment for your life, you're going to be miserable.

But if you're looking to Jesus to fulfill your life, and then just listen to him. And if it says build a house, then you build a house. If he says go to school, then you go to school. If he says stay here, then you just stay there. And trust him to know what's going to be the best for you. So that's what it comes down to. It's a submission to the will of God in your relationship with Jesus Christ. And so again, Jesus said on the last day, that great day of the feast, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

And I would encourage you, whenever you thirst, recognize whatever it is that you think you're thirsting for, that's really not the answer. Recognize that any thirst in your life represents a lack in your relationship with the Lord. And that's where you need to start. And then do what he tells you to do. And you will find joy and fulfillment, overflowing, abundant life. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for each one of us as we are considering these things. I pray that you would help us to recognize that

Lord, if there is any pursuit in our life, in our heart, of things that are going to leave us miserable, I pray, Lord, that you would highlight those things for us to see. Help us, Lord, to recognize when we're on these paths, chasing after things that are not really going to satisfy us. I pray, Lord, that you would show us when we're lacking in our relationship with you. Help us to catch those pursuits early, those thirsts early, Lord, and to recognize the real solution.

for the unsettled heart, our lack in our relationship with you. And Lord, sometimes that means more than just attending church once a week. Lord, you want a real relationship with us. And it might be different this season than it was last season. And so Lord, help us to really submit ourselves to you, to be surrendered to your will and your plans. And Lord, to live the relationship with you

that you call us to live, not that other people tell us we should have or not that we think should be good enough, but Lord, help us to put you first. Help us to seek you first and to love you with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. And thank you, God, that you promise abundant life to those who follow you in this way. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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