ECCLESIASTES 1-12 THE SEARCH FOR A MEANINGFUL LIFE2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ecclesiastes 1-12 The Search For A Meaningful Life

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 2019. I would ask you to consider, as we get started in Ecclesiastes this morning, consider what would life be like for you if you had no restrictions and unlimited resources?

What if you were the king of the universe? What if you were the queen of, you know, all kingdoms and you had no restrictions? Nobody to tell you no, nobody to set boundaries or parameters for you. What if you got to call the shots across the board without exception? And what if you had unlimited resources to go along with that? What would your life be like?

How happy would you be? How happy and fulfilled would your life be? And it's an interesting thing to consider because as we jump into the book of Ecclesiastes, we're looking at King Solomon who basically was in that position.

He was king over all Israel, which was the reigning kingdom of the day. And so he had all power in that sense. He was at the top of the world in that way. No restrictions, no boundaries. He was king. What he said, well, that's what happened. And what he didn't want to happen, that wouldn't happen. There was nobody to set boundaries or parameters on King Solomon.

And he had unlimited resources. As you read about Solomon's life in the books of Kings and Chronicles, you see that he amassed a huge amount of wealth that could not be really spent in his lifetime. It was unlimited resources for whatever he wanted to do without restriction, full resources, and he got to pursue whatever kind of life he wanted to pursue.

And he did pursue several different types of life and try to find something that was fulfilling to him. I've titled the message this morning, The Search for a Meaningful Life. And the book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon's record of that search for himself. He wrote down for us, he kind of recorded and captured for us

what he went through in his pursuit in trying to find something meaningful in life, something worth living for, something worth living.

pursuing. And he is going to go through a variety of different things in trying to find fulfillment and meaning in various different ways and avenues of life. As I was reading through the book of Ecclesiastes this week, going through the Bible in three years as we are, I began to picture it like a maze.

And you know what it's like to, you know, work on a maze, I'm sure. I've never really got to experience a full, like, life-size maze. Remember, I don't know if you guys remember, but back in the day, I don't even know if I'm pointing in the right direction, but back in Norco, like where the sports fields are now, like the east side, the corn maze right there, I always wanted to do it, and then now I don't have the opportunity to do it. But maybe one day, there's life-size mazes around, and they look fun and interesting, and they'd be fun to explore, right? Right?

But you know what it's like. If you're on the ground in a maze, you're going through it, and you have to decide, okay, well, I'll take this route. But you can't tell exactly if that's going to be the correct route. You can kind of have some feelings about it. You know, you can kind of guess and maybe make some educated guesses. You can have some ideas. And so you take that route, and well, you find out, well, that's a dead end.

And so then you kind of trace your steps back, you go back, okay, well, let me try a different path, right? And, you know, the idea of a maze, if you're a successful maze creator, right, you get people to take as many of the false paths as you can before they find the real one, right? The one that gets them through to the end or through to the center, whatever the objective is.

And the only way to really beat a maze, to win at the maze, well, is if you have the top-down view. Like, that's when you can kind of evaluate and see, and you can see ahead and go, okay, that turn's going to go down that path, and that's going to end up as a dead end. And this turn isn't... But here's this route, and if you follow this route...

Well, looking top down at a maze, you can see that. And for us, as we consider life and the search for the meaning of life, we can follow Solomon's example and just be caught up in the life-size maze and not where we're going and try different paths and try different things and go different directions. Or we can consult the one who has the top-down view, which is God. The Lord sees the end from the beginning and he knows the correct path to

through. He has the right path and he is able to guide us to a life that is full and meaningful and fulfilling. And he knows what's best for us and desires what's best for us. The problem that Solomon experiences in this situation is, well, he removes God from the equation. He doesn't consult the Lord.

about what the Lord has for him and what the Lord desires for him. But instead, he tries to, on his own, find out what's the right way. How can I get a meaningful and valuable life? His conclusion, to kind of sum it up, is found in verse 2 here of chapter 1. Solomon says, "'Vanity of vanities,' says the preacher. "'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.'"

Solomon's conclusion as he tries to find meaning and fulfillment and purpose in his life is it's all vanity. The word vanity means worthless or meaningless. He comes to the conclusion in all his attempts that it's all just empty, meaningless. Life really has no value, really has no purpose, really has no meaning. And Solomon writes this after going down all the different paths of

Using his unlimited resources, using his full, complete control of his own life with no boundaries or someone to tell him something different, he goes down every road possible and he comes up empty every time. In verse 13, he says, I set my heart to seek and 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.

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and indeed all is vanity and grasping for the wind. As Solomon began his search, he had a particular set of parameters that he used, and his search was limited to everything under heaven. He also describes it as under the sun, which is repeated throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, because that's Solomon's perspective.

He's excluding God and eternity from the picture. And he's looking just at under this life, under this sun. And he's trying to find meaning and purpose and value with that focus, with that perspective. And the result is mostly nonsense. He comes to the conclusion, vanity of vanities, because, well, that limited perspective subtracts the most valuable parts of life.

And so reading through the book of Ecclesiastes, it's important to keep in mind the context. It's a journey that Solomon is going through. He kind of comes to his senses at the end, and we'll get there as we see the conclusion in chapter 12. But on the way, he's just trying his best with his own resources, with his own intellect, with his own wisdom, to try to find something of value and meaningful under the sun. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says,

said Solomon's big mistake was to leave God out of the picture and forget that God has broken into creation and done new things. In these verses we read here in chapter one, he talks about this cycle, this circle. You might describe it as the circle of life. And although, you know, in Lion King, they sing about that and celebrate that and it sounds wonderful, right? But Solomon approaches it. He kind of shares about it, but it's kind of in a different light. It's more like

There's no real lasting change. Everything just keeps on going. We have the same family issues that we've always had. And society faces the same social issues that societies have always faced. And people make the same promises that people have always made, and they break those promises just like they've always broken them. And the same mistakes are being made. The same lies are being told. The same...

The same temptations are being faced. The same sins are being committed. The same ideas are being exchanged. The same excuses are being shared. The same victories, the same defeats. And it's just this circle, circle, circle. Everything is just repeating and nothing of value. Nothing is really changing as far as Solomon could tell. But it's because he's removed God from his perspective. And how could Solomon be so foolish to do that?

Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived and therefore he became the wisest fool who ever lived. Because even though you may be wise, you can be a fool if you choose to disregard what God says. You have to continue to choose obedience to God in order to continue to be wise. And no matter how far we go in life and how far we go in wisdom and how far we go in the Christian walk, we need to keep moving forward or else we're

we become fools and we can find ourselves in the same situation as Solomon did. We find out in 1 Kings 11, when Solomon was old, he multiplied wives. We also know that he had many concubines and these ladies in his life were instrumental in helping him, causing him, you know, being part of his journey away from the Lord and

But the issue wasn't with the ladies as much as, you know, he might want to blame the women. It tells us in 1 Kings 11, 4, his heart was not loyal to the Lord, his God. Here was the issue for Solomon. Here's what brought him to the place of foolishness where we find him at the beginning of Ecclesiastes. His heart was not loyal to the Lord. And as a result, his perspective was just on this life. And he finds himself cynical, bitter, depressed,

feeling empty no matter which way he turns. Even those who have known God for many years can lay those things aside and start pursuing things that leave us unfulfilled and miserable. And so it's important for us to consider this example from Solomon so that we can learn from it, so that we don't have to follow that pattern and to be reminded that

Because even, you know, now, even today, you and I are going to be tempted. There's going to be an offshoot of the path and we're going to be like, ooh, that one is going to bring fulfillment. That one's going to satisfy. And we can be tempted to deviate from where God has called us in pursuit of that meaning, in pursuit of that fulfillment, in pursuit of that happiness. But if it's apart from what God has called us to, it will be a dead end. And we'll discover that just like Solomon did. But we don't have to learn everything the hard way.

And so here is Solomon's searches for a meaningful life. Let's kind of follow along with him and learn some lessons so that we can be warned ourselves and not go down those same paths with that same mindset and fall into the same traps. And so we're going to turn now to Ecclesiastes chapter 2.

And here Solomon's going to go through a variety of things and try out a variety of things to try to find meaning. Here's point number one for Ecclesiastes chapter two. Meaning is not found in life's pleasures and treasures. In a variety of ways, he's going to test this out. Starting in verse one, Solomon says, I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with mirth. Therefore enjoy pleasure.

But surely this also was vanity. The first thing that Solomon records for us that he tried, he said, you know, my life is kind of lacking. I'm not really fulfilled. Internally, there's not peace. I'm unsettled. There's an ache within and I need something more in my life. And so let me try to resolve that with mirth. The word mirth, it means joy or gladness or pleasure.

I need some entertainment, in other words. I need something that just will bring a smile to my face, something that will make me laugh. In the end, in verse two, he says, I said of laughter, madness, and of mirth, what does it accomplish? He tried it out for a little bit. Now again, just, I know it's kind of hard for us to fathom, and maybe we fantasize about it a little bit, but if you had unlimited resources, how much could you laugh? How much entertainment could you have?

You know, Solomon says, hey, I don't want to just go to Disneyland for a day. You know, I don't want just an annual pass. I want a lifetime full access, you know, no restrictions. I get to do whatever I want, run the rides myself, you know, have the park to myself. I get Disneyland all to myself. It's the happiest place on earth, right? And he finds out it's not actually fulfilling. It doesn't actually fulfill me and isn't meaningful in the way that I thought it could be.

Whatever version of, you know, that for Solomon, it was the best he could do with all the resources. He didn't just try to like, you know, put $5 together and throw a little party. Like he went down this path. He went through the twists and turns and invested his time, invested his resources and threw great parties and probably smiled a lot and laughed a lot and joked a lot and had a great time. But at the same time, it didn't resolve the ache, the emptiness, the

the thirst that he had within. He tried laughter, but he found it to be a dead end. So he said, well, let me try a different path. Moving on to verse three here in Ecclesiastes 2, Solomon says, "'I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.'"

Solomon says, you know, I laughed a lot, had a good time, but it just didn't quite meet that need that I have. And so I need to step it up a bit. So let me add alcohol to the mix. You know, if I could just have a little bit of, you know, relaxing and the intoxication, if I could just have that kind of impact, but recognizing, hey, alcohol can cause people to be self-destructive.

And so he describes here this kind of picture of like, I'm trying to hold on to both. I'm holding on to wisdom because I don't want to go to the place of self-destruction, but I want to get as much intoxication as I can get without going over to the place of self-destruction. So I'm going to try to get the balance of both.

And there's a lot of people who try to do that, right? That, you know, I know this could lead down a really, but I need a little, I need as much as I can get without going crazy. And so he's trying to do both. And again, he finds it's a dead end. As much wine as he could take. Again, he has unlimited resources. He doesn't have to get the cheap stuff, right? He can get the good stuff. And it doesn't satisfy. It doesn't give meaning to his life.

It doesn't take away the pain and the ache that he experiences within. Like a maze, he comes to another dead end. And so he shifts gears again, now puts himself to work. In verse 4, he says, I made my works great again.

You can kind of look at this as like,

a teenager growing up, right? You know, a teenager growing up, like primary concern, mirth. Like give me joy, give me entertainment, give me something to laugh about. And you know, that's the pursuit. And then maybe, you know, kind of graduate into the harder stuff. And then I need some alcohol, I need some drugs, I need to, you know, trying to find fulfillment, trying to find meaning. And

Then hopefully, teenager grows kind of out of that, you know, early 20s, maybe starts to be interested in someone in long-term relationship and gets stability. And you know what I really need in my life is, you know, a home and a family and a steady job and, you know, to get myself set up for a good long life ahead of me. And it's kind of the process of life for many people. Solomon went through this as well. And he said, you know, the mirth, that didn't satisfy him.

Adding drugs and alcohol to the mix, that didn't satisfy either. Now, what if I really just have an awesome home?

with gardens and pools and vineyards. And, you know, I have servants, so I don't even have to do any of the housework, you know. I can have a huge house and no penalties for it, you know, because I have to vacuum all day. No, no. Servants, they'll take care of that. And Solomon says, I have more flocks, more herds, more goods, more house than anybody else before me. But at the end of that path, he finds it's another dead end.

And so he's trying path. He's trying path. He's trying path. He's trying path. He's hitting dead end, dead end. It's all not fulfilling me. It's not meeting that need. It's not satisfying that thirst, that ache within. Check out verse 10 here of chapter 2. He 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. Like, just think about that for a moment. Solomon rejoiced.

No boundaries, no one to tell him, no, he's king. What he says goes. He has unlimited resources and he says, whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I can tell you right now, honestly, there are things my eyes desire that I don't get to have.

And not even necessarily, I'm not just talking about sinful things. Like there's a lot of things like, hey, I would like that. I see a car drive by. Oh, that's a nice car. I would desire that. Solomon, it's mine. You know, he buys it. It's his. See a phone, maybe an Apple Watch, you know, just kind of go with my phone. Like, oh, that's nice. Yeah, I like that. My eyes desire that. But you see, empty wrists, right? Wife said, no, I have boundaries. Solomon didn't have boundaries. He got an Apple Watch right there. But it didn't satisfy. It didn't fulfill.

anything i wanted solomon said i just if i desired it if i craved it even for an instant i just got it i wanted to try this kind of alcohol i want to try that kind of party i want to try that kind of entertainment i want to try this i want to try i just whatever it was whatever i desired i didn't hold back anything from myself i just gratified myself now on one side of it you know from our perspective we could look at oh man that's like the dream right you know what solomon says vanity vanity

I tried that with all the resources in the world without restriction. I did everything I could and it was a dead end. I was miserable, depressed, empty. So now he turns to wisdom. You know what I really need? If I could just get an education. Let me get that bachelor's degree. Let me get that master's degree. Let me get that certificate or whatever. In verse 12, he 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. So I said in my heart, as it happens to the fool, jumping to verse 15, it also happens to me. And why was I not then more wise? I'm sorry, why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, this also is vanity. So he heads down the education path. He tries to learn as much as he can, but he gets to the end of that path and through winding through the maze and he finds another dead end. And he says, look, I'm wise. I'm wise.

But I experienced the same, you know, the cold goes through the town, right? The virus goes through and I get sick just like the fool down around the corner gets sick. And the windstorm comes through and I get all the dust, you know, and damage and everything. I get all that just like the fool around the corner.

Everything that happens to me happens to the fool. Everything that happens to the fool happens to me. What was the point of all this education? It didn't satisfy. It didn't resolve things. It didn't make life more meaningful. And it brings him to the point in verse 17. He says, therefore, I hated life. I hated life. I'm depressed. I'm miserable because I've tried everything with all my might, with all my resources, and I haven't found meaning. I haven't found purpose. I haven't found purpose.

It's not found in life's pleasures. It's not found in treasures. What if you had no restrictions and unlimited resources? You could go down these paths too, just like Solomon. And maybe you've tried one or two. Maybe you've tried three or four. Maybe you've tried five or six. We've all tried different paths. We've all experienced thirst, aches, emptiness, and sought to try to meet that need and fulfill that need with some pursuit, right?

Now, it's not that any of these pursuits are necessarily evil. You know, seeking out an education, hey, that might be something that God wants you to do. But remember Solomon's perspective. He's not seeking out the Lord. He's not walking with the Lord in these pursuits. He is looking for these pursuits themselves to satisfy him.

If the Lord sends you to school, well, then you go to school. That's the path for you, right? If the Lord sends you to build houses or have a career or whatever, then that's the path for you. And that's important. But in and of themselves, none of these pursuits will bring meaning or value or fulfillment to your life. You'll find them to be a dead end, just like Solomon did.

Well, we're going to continue on to explore some other aspects of this as well. There's much more here in the book of Ecclesiastes than we can get into this morning. But just hitting some highlights, we're going to turn now to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 for point number 2. Point number 2 is, meaning in this life is frustrated by injustice. Meaning in this life is frustrated by injustice. Solomon personally, you know, tries to find fulfillment and so he takes his own life and

Down all these different paths and finds dead ends every time. And he begins to widen his perspective a little bit and look at the society around him. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe I need to learn from, you know, society and the people around me. And as he begins to look around, he doesn't find answers. He finds, well, frustration. In verse 16 here of Ecclesiastes chapter 3, it says, Moreover, I saw under the sun in the place of judgment wickedness was there.

And in the place of righteousness, iniquity was there. I began to look at society. I began to look at the justice system. And Solomon says, what I found was surprising, disturbing. Now again, consider the context in which Solomon is writing. He's, remember David was his father, right? King David, the greatest king that Israel ever knew. And then now here's Solomon who,

comes in his father's footsteps, someone who loved the Lord and led the nation in seeking the Lord, Solomon experiences a time of great peace and expands the borders of Israel to the furthest extent that it ever achieved. If there was ever a time where there was going to be the perfect, like, ideal society, it was going to be Israel under the reigns of David and Solomon. But as Solomon looks around, he says, look, there's no justice. There are so many occasions where

There should have been judgment. Now, again, thinking about Israel in those days, there were judges. They were to be influenced by the word and the commands that God had established in the scriptures. And the ultimate judge, you know, it would kind of rise through the ranks. If a case was difficult, it would go to the next higher. And ultimately it would go before the priests and then the high priest.

And you can imagine if, hey, if there was ever going to be justice in any legal system, it would be in this context, right? Solomon looks around and says, you know, there's corruption. And where there should be an execution of judgment, that wrong was done. Instead, there's wickedness in its place. And justice is not being done. Where there should be righteousness and the doing of right and correcting of wrongs, there's iniquity there. And there's

The taking of bribes and corruption, there's injustice going on and people are not being paid back for the wrongs that they've committed and people are not being made whole when they've been robbed or taken from. In verse 18, Solomon says,

For what happens to the sons of men also happens to the animals. One thing befalls them. As one dies, so dies the other. Surely they all have one breath. Man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from dust, and all return to the dust. And looking at society and looking at the injustice that is there, it brings Solomon to this frustration where he says, look, we're no better than animals.

We're just, we all die just like the dogs. And we return to the dust just like those animals. And we try to like pretend like there's, you know, reason and rhyme in our society, but there's so much injustice. We might as well be animals. There's no difference. He blames this on God. He said, God test them that they may see that they're like animals. But

But again, his perspective is distorted. It's perverted. He goes on in verse 21 to say, who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to earth. Who can tell? You look at life and you see, well, this person dies and their body returns to the dust and this animal dies and its body returns to the dust. And how can you tell that one's better off than the other? You can't. There's no discernible difference to your eyes. Solomon says, we like to say the spirit of the person goes up, but do you see that?

You see any proof of that? You see any evidence of that? So he says, verse 22, so I perceive that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage, for who can bring him to see what will happen after him? You don't get to see what happens next. So Solomon's conclusion is, just rejoice in your own works. Just enjoy your life while you have it, because there's probably nothing later.

Solomon's perspective, distorted perspective, depressed, cynical perspective, because he's taken God out of the picture, taken eternity out of the picture. It always happens. You see the injustice of life? You see the injustice of this world? It's going to bring depression. It's going to bring animal-like behavior. We forget about what God has said.

Continuing on into chapter 4, verse 1, he says, Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun. And look, the tears of the oppressed, but they have no comforter. On the other side of their oppressors, there is power, but they have no comforter. As he's thinking about injustice, he also begins to consider the oppressed. Those people receiving the injustices.

Those people being taken advantage of. The people who are being pressed down. The people who are having crimes committed against them. And he's thinking about their tears. It's painful to think about, but this kind of oppression continues to go on. This is not something unique for Solomon's day. We have oppression happening in the world all around us. And there are the tears of the oppressed. And they don't have anybody on their side. There's no comforter.

The oppressors, they have power on their side and they have authority and might and force and they take advantage and they hurt people and they wrong people. Here are the oppressed and they have no comfort. It brings Solomon as he considers this to a bitter conclusion. Verse two, therefore, I praise the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still alive. Yet better than both is he who never existed. He has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

Thinking about all of these things brings Solomon to this place of just bitter depression. It's better to never have existed than to have life because you get to see the injustice, the oppression, the meaninglessness, the ache within, the unfulfilled life. This is Solomon.

Raised by David who loved the Lord and sought after the Lord, who started out well asking God for wisdom at the beginning of his reign, knowing the Lord and hearing from the Lord and walking with the Lord, but his heart was not loyal to the Lord. He's turned from the Lord and it's brought him to this place of gross, dark bitterness. He had no restrictions. He had unlimited resources to work through these things, to throw at these problems, to deal with these situations, but

but it could not resolve the emptiness, the bitterness, the ache within. He goes on to consider a variety of other things. We're going to jump now to Ecclesiastes chapter 8 for point number 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 8, here's point number 3. Meaning is not evident in life's experiences. Kind of along the same line of thought with the injustices and oppression is he's looking around at the things that we experience in life and

He's not seeing much evidence of meaning or value or purpose. In verse 14, he says, Solomon, as he's looking around at what's happening in people's lives, he says, look, there's a just man that is a righteous person.

Not in the sense of perfection, but just, hey, that's a good person. They have good morals. They work hard to do what's right, to treat people fairly, to do their best. But what they experience in life doesn't match what you would expect from that kind of life. You would think, hey, a person is doing good and working hard to do good and be fair and be kind to people and have good morals. And you would expect that kind of person to experience great rewards, right?

for those efforts that they've put in and for the life that they live. But instead, things that are happening to them are things that should happen to wicked people. And then on the other side of the coin, maybe even more disturbing, is there you have people who are just living in absolute wickedness, just doing whatever they want. They don't care about anybody. They can just whatever they want to get for themselves what they want. And you would expect for them to have a life then that, well, is rewarded by correction and judgment and harshness and

But instead, the rewards that they receive, it's like as if they were righteous. How could this be okay, right? The righteous person gets treated like a wicked person. They experience horrible things in life. And then the wicked person experiences great things. How could this be? Oh, it's vanity. Solomon's conclusion, verse 15. So I commended enjoyment because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry.

for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life at God, which God gives him under the sun. Look, you can't tell what kind of life you're going to have, even if you work hard to be righteous, even if you throw off righteousness and be wicked, you might end up with a reward that looks like righteousness, and you might end up with a reward that looks like wickedness either way. So Solomon's conclusion, just try to have a good time. Just try to enjoy yourself along the way, because you can't really tell what's going to happen in

in your life. It's not a good conclusion, but it's Solomon's conclusion because of his limited perspective. Now, we can observe all these things as well, and we see this happen continually still today. People who are seeking after God and walking with the Lord and seeking out, you know, what's best and wanting to do what's best still experience the things that should be happening to wicked people. Why is it happening to them? And we see wicked people who are rewarded with good things, and we can wrestle with that greatly, of course.

And we can come up with all kinds of, and people do, they come up with all kinds of philosophies, different perspectives, trying to reconcile these truths and trying to figure these things out. And while that's understandable, I would encourage you in this, that you need to make sure that you use Jesus as the example, as the test case for whatever philosophy, you know, you're playing around with in your mind, whatever method or system that you're thinking about, because Jesus was the perfect man, right?

He was God who became flesh, lived a perfect life. And what you would expect from a life like that is not what Jesus experienced, right? He came in absolute humility, born in a barn, you know, outside of the inn, grew up in obscurity, possibly even a single parent, a single mom home. It seems that Joseph died early in his life, although that was his stepdad. It was his dad. And

Had to help. He was the firstborn. Had to help provide for the family. Was a carpenter, you know, like worked hard to make ends meet. He went into the ministry and had followers, but also had great opposition. Ultimately, he's put to death as a criminal. He's executed as a criminal. Here he is, the perfect man, the son of God. Now, whatever philosophy, whatever system you want to think of, and if you put Jesus in there and it doesn't fit, well, you have a problem with your philosophy.

You can apply that to, you know, there is the continuing false doctrine of, well, it's referred to as the wellness doctrine, prosperity gospel, variety of different terms. But the idea is, hey, God wants you to be healthy. He wants you to have money.

He wants you to know exactly what to do in all situations. And so if you just keep your heart right with God and have enough faith, then you're never going to be sick. You're going to be healed of every disease that you ever face. You're going to have all problems and situations resolved. You're going to know things in advance. You're never going to experience those things. If you tie the right amount to the right person and follow this pattern, then all this will be resolved. But you put Jesus in the context of that. Hey, Jesus was the perfect man, sinless, and he experienced not what you would expect.

Those false doctrines fall apart. The truth, well, is much bigger than these little doctrines that we can come up with. Solomon tried to figure it out without God's help, without God's perspective. Jumping to verse 1 now of chapter 9, he says, for I considered all this in my heart so that I could declare it all that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. People know neither love nor hatred by anything they see before them.

Think about that last line. People know neither love nor hatred by anything they see before them. This is something interesting to think about because we get caught up in the experiences, in the circumstances, and we try to evaluate how much God loves us by what we're experiencing, right? But Solomon here is recognizing you can't tell if God loves you or hates you by the life that you're experiencing. You don't have to go far to look at that, right? We went through Job not too long ago. God loves Job.

But Job goes through horrendous things. And you could think God hates you. And some of his friends told him that, right? But no, God loves him. Meaning, value, purpose, it's not evident in life's experiences. Because there's more to life than this life. And if like Solomon, you limit your life, you limit your perspective to this life, you're going to be perplexed, depressed, confused, cynical. He goes on in verse 2 to say, all things come to

Good things, bad things, ups and downs.

You would think, you would expect, I do good, I receive good. I do bad, I receive bad. But that's not how life works. Meaning is not evident in life's experiences. And you can try to work it out in your mind. You can try to come up with philosophies. You can try to come up with theories and ideas. And apart from God, you're going to end up in a dead end in the maze of life. Even if you have no restrictions and unlimited resources. But there is hope. I mean, all of this is, you know, pretty...

Dark and depressing. That's where Solomon was at. It's this journey that he's going on, trying to sort out life with his own resources and his own means. But he comes to the conclusion. It's a conclusion that we need to come to. And so let's turn there to Ecclesiastes chapter 12 now. Verse 13 and 14 give us point number four. Meaning comes from fearing and obeying God. In Solomon's search for a meaningful life, he tried everything under the sun.

He tried a great career, awesome occupation, amazing homes. He tried great gardens. He tried parties and living it up. He tried everything possible. He didn't withhold anything from himself, but he turned up empty every time. He looked around at society and he saw injustice. It frustrated him. He couldn't find meaning and value and purpose there. He looked at the experiences of life and

Oh, it's depressing. It's dark. It doesn't demonstrate what I would expect, what I would think. Finally, in the end, he comes back to where he began, an understanding of the Lord. Verse 13 and 14 says 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

Finally, at the end, Solomon changes his perspective. He's not just looking at under the sun, but now he's factoring in eternity. And in considering eternity once again, he says, here's the conclusion of the whole matter. Here's the conclusion of this whole thing. Here's the way to find meaning and fulfillment in this life. Fear God and keep his commandments. This is man's all, he says.

This is really what we need. This is what we need the most. This is what will minister to us and satisfy us and have value in this life, but ultimately in the life that is to come. Because he considers now, God will bring into judgment every work, all the secret things, all the public things, whether good or evil. We're all going to stand before God and there's going to be an evaluation. There's going to be a judgment on the life that we lived.

So what we need to be focused on is that. We need to be focused on eternity because we're going to stand before God. So here's what we need to do. He says we need to fear God. Fear the Lord. Are we really supposed to fear the Lord? To fear the Lord is not a fear of in the sense of I'm afraid of God and so I stay away from God. That's not the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is to recognize that He is God.

It's to recognize that he is the one who sets the rules. He is the one who has the power to give eternal life. He is the one that we will give an account to. He is our creator. To fear God is to recognize his position and his place and to respect and honor that place in our lives. Jesus put it this way in Matthew 10, verse 28. He said, "'Do not fear those who kill the body "'but cannot kill the soul.'"

but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. You see, when we evaluate life, when we think about life, we need to think about more than just the temporary. This life and our time here on earth, the time in this physical body, this is all temporary. But there is something after this life. There is eternity. And that, well, that's going to last forever. Forever.

And so that is the highest priority. That's the most important. And so Jesus says, look, you spend so much time fearing people that the worst thing that they could do to you is affect your body. You're worried about their opinions. You're worried about what they think. You're worried about what they might do to you. And you're not giving near enough time and attention to what God says. And what he says, well, that's what really matters.

And you've kind of misplaced your priorities. And so you're caving to, paying attention to what people say and what you think yourself. And you're not paying enough attention to what the Lord says, what he values, what he says is important, the direction that he says. Here's the conclusion of the whole matter, Solomon says. You need to fear God and put God in his rightful place in your life that what he says is what matters to you.

And that supersedes, that overrides anything I think or feel. That overrides anything what society says or desires or wants of me. That what God says is what really matters. Fear God and keep his commandments, Solomon says. Are we really supposed to keep his commandments? Is that something that God still wants of us today? Is that a way to find meaning and value and purpose in life? Jesus puts it this way in John 14, 21.

He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Jesus says walking in obedience is an inseparable part of loving him. There's a lot of people who say, I love God, but then they disregard what God says. And Jesus says, no, no, no. When you keep my commandments, you

You listen to what I say. You make it a priority. You do what I say. That's the one who loves me. Not the person who just says it, but the person who seeks to obey, seeks to do what I've asked them to do. This is what the Lord desires of us. This is what we need most. If you want to find meaning and fulfillment, if you want to resolve that thirst, that ache, that emptiness within, here's where you start. Fear God and keep his commandments.

This is what God wants from you. And this is what you will give account for. When you stand before God one day, and you will for sure, you will not give account to God for how popular you were. You won't give account to God for how many toys you had, right? Remember that old bumper sticker? I don't know if it's still around, but the one who dies with the most toys wins. Well, yeah, maybe here in this life in the temporary, but you stand before God, he's not going to care about how many toys you had, how big your house was, how well you did in your career, how, you know, how much money you had in the bank or, you know,

None of that. None of that matters. What matters? Did you fear God? And did you keep his commands? Did you seek him? Did you walk with him? How big we are, how famous we are, how rich we were. None of that matters when we stand before God. And none of that will bring fulfillment and satisfaction to our hearts and lives. But God is our creator.

And as our creator, he knows what is best for us. He knows what we need the most. He knows what will satisfy us. He knows what brings meaning and value to us. He knows what is best for us and he wants what is best for us. And you know what? That's why he tells us, here are my commands. Because he wants what's best for us. He doesn't give us commands to torture us and like make us jump through hoops and just, you know, he thinks it's fun to watch us run over the hurdles. He doesn't give us commands to

He gives us commands because he knows what's best for us. He loves us and he wants what's best for us. So here's what's best for you. Do this. Walk in this way. Fear God and keep his commandments. As those who know God and walk with God, we're headed through this maze. And the Lord may lead us down the path of education, career. He's going to lead us down different paths. But the key is to continue to walk with him always.

And to follow him, to fear him and keep his commands along the way. But along the way, there's going to be, just like a maze, there's going to be turns, offshoots. And we're going to have opportunity. We're going to be tempted. Whoa, if I go this direction, boy, then that's really going to resolve all my problems. And the working person says, boy, when I retire, oh, that's just going to be so much meaning and purpose and value in life. It's going to be amazing.

Oh, when I get to this place or if I get this gadget or if I get that promotion or this career or get that thing or go that way or whatever, right? There's always going to be those temptations. And we have to learn from the example of Solomon. Those things, they won't fulfill us unless it's something that God is calling us into. And so the most important thing is not figuring out that path or the end result. The most important thing is fearing God and keeping his commandments.

We need to walk with him. We need to hear from him. We need to put him first in our life. Jesus summed up all of the commandments into two things. He said, number one, love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. With everything that you have, to the best of your ability, with all your might, all your attention, love God. Seek after God. And then secondly, love your neighbor as yourself. This is what's best for us. This is the way.

to find meaning and value and purpose in this life and in the life to come. I want to finish up with one last verse from the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. He says, In contrast to Solomon, you can expend all of your resources and

and find emptiness, emptiness, emptiness. Or you can be steadfast and immovable. Be faithful in seeking the Lord and walking with the Lord. Make sure that your life is filled with the things of the Lord and abounding in the work of the Lord. Because here's what you know, your labor is not in vain in the Lord. You could spend 70 years laboring on something that is in vain and empty and will not satisfy your life. Or you could spend 70 years

laboring for the Lord. And the promise, the guarantee is it's not in vain. Solomon came to the conclusion, vanity of vanities, it's all vanity because he chose to forsake the Lord. But if you put the Lord first, fear God and keep his commandments, do what he calls you to, walk in his ways, your labor will not be in vain. There will be great reward and great value. And maybe we'll see some of it in this life, but for sure,

We'll see that reward in eternity. Jesus said, don't lay up for yourselves treasures here on this earth. The rust eats it, destroys it, fades away. No, no. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Those last for eternity. It's worth it. Fear God and keep his commands. Let's pray. God, I pray for each one of us. Lord, we all face different kinds of temptations, different paths, Lord, that are appealing to us, that are attractive to us. And

It might involve a variety of different things depending on where we're at and the context and the things that we're considering and facing. But Lord, I pray that you would give us great clarity between those deceptive ways and your ways. Give us great clarity, Lord, when we're being tempted and pursuing things and consuming our lives and filling our lives and our minds and our hearts with things that are not of you. Lord, I pray that you would bring us back to this place of putting you first, loving you with all of our hearts.

Caring more about what you say than anything else, Lord, that we would seek after you. Trusting, Lord, even if we don't see the results that we might expect. Trusting, Lord, that you will work things out. You will make things right. In eternity, all justice will be brought forth. The righteous will be rewarded. Lord, there will be great joy and meaning and value and purpose.

as we seek you and put you first in our lives. And so, Lord, help us. Lead us by your spirit, we pray. Fill us with your spirit that we would have strength to obey you, to hear your voice, and to follow you. Help us not to get trapped in the maze like Solomon, seeking this and pursuing that and chasing this and chasing that. Lord, would you bring us back to the right path, the narrow way, Lord, where we are focused on you and what you desire. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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