The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E33 - Satisfaction in Jesus

Episode Date: May 26, 2020

Hey, church family, it is time for Devo. If you've got your Bibles, we're going to be in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Comes right here for Proverbs, which comes right after Psalms. If you open to the middle of your Bible and go write two books, you should be pretty close. Ecclesiastes is written by King Solomon, known as the wisest man to ever live, other than Jesus. And it starts out this way. Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and 2. of the preacher, Koheleth is the Hebrew word and it means like preacher or teacher, the words of the preacher,

the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Here's his thesis statement. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities. All is vanity. Some translations will translate it meaningless and basically what he's saying is what is the point and purpose of this life. Verse three, he says, what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun. The most important words there are under the sun. Essentially, if I could give me just a little hermeneutic license here, essentially what Solomon is doing, he says, is the American dream real? What does this earth have to offer me?

If I were to squeeze joy and happiness and blessing and life and luxury out of, all that this world has to offer, what does this world have to offer me? What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? Do you get the question here? He's saying, if I leave out what's over the sun, like God himself, what on earth am I here for? Now, he is going to set out in the next two chapters, I'm not exactly sure how long this takes in his life, but I imagine decades, he is going to set out to see if I chase after the things that the commercials tell me to chase after, will they bring to me the promised happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction that they said I would receive if I chase after those things. Now, maybe you thought about doing

those things too. Actually, all of us, to some degree, have done that in some arena of our life. But let me tell you why we can learn from Solomon. He was the richest guy ever. He was the wisest guy ever. And at the point of his life, he was the most influential person on the planet. And so if anybody, if anybody could soak some meaning out of this world under the sun apart from God,

then it would be him. And so then, it makes a general observation about the condition of the world. He says, a generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises, the wind blows to the south,

and it goes around to the north, and around goes the wind. On its circuits, the wind returns. All the streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full to the place where the streams flow. There they flow again. All things are full of weariness.

A man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Here's what he's saying. Every single day, we wake up, and we are a part of this machine.

Sun rises, sunsets. Go to work, you come home. It's the week, it's the weekend, it's the week again. You go to bed, you get up, you eat something, you drive something, you sell something, you come home, you watch something, you go to sleep, and you just do it again. This world that we live in, this natural world, world is just a locomotive man it's just rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling day

after day after day after day and if you think what we are into is new then you're too dumb to talk to because he says there is no new thing under the sun is there a thing of which it has said see this is new it has been already in the ages before us there is no remembrance of former things nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. And so with this is the situation, the Kohelet, the teacher, the preacher, Solomon, looks at this world and says, all right, so if that's the situation, that we're just this thing is a big old rat race, right, big hamster wheel, and we're all running on it, what if I pursue wisdom? Because surely wisdom and education, and if I could just get the right degree, maybe then

I will be fully and finally satisfied. Verse 12, I, the preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem, and I applied my heart to seek in the search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to children of man to be busy with. And to all of us who have been doing homeschool lately, I would say amen to that. I have seen everything that is done under the sun and behold. All is vanity, a striving after the wind. In other words, Solomon is saying, look, man, when I started my college degree, I thought as a freshman, man, if I could just get my bachelor's, then I'd be fully and finally satisfied. But then when I got my bachelor's, I said, well, I can't just stop at a bachelor's.

I better get my master's. And when I get a graduate degree, then I will know things that others don't know. And then when I finally got my graduate degree, I thought, well, this can't be enough. I'll go get my Ph.D. And while all of those things in and of themselves are okay, if you were looking for hope in those things and how degrade and wise you are, then what you will find is behold, all is vanity and a striving after the wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. And so I said in my heart, I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me. and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge,

and I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly, and I perceived that this also is but a striving after the wind, for in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Now, I'm pro-education, okay? I am educated beyond my own intelligence, for sure, and I want my kids to be educated. But what he's saying is, is if you are looking for ultimate meaning in life with how much you know, then that is a vexation.

If you've ever been on a mission trip, have you ever been strangely jealous of the uneducated farmer in East Africa and the joy that he finds and the simple things in life? And yet you come home to your overeducated situation and it's hard for you to turn happy. beyond. That's Ecclesiastes chapter one. Vanity of vanities. It's all vanities. So, so what Solomon says is like, all right, I could not find my ultimate meaning just in wisdom and educations. Let me shift gears. I'm going to go for self-indulgence. And so he says, I said to my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, it is mad and of pleasure. What use is it? I searched with my heart. how to cheer my body with wine.

Now he's talking about, maybe I'll just party. This is like I studied real hard, my freshman and sophomore year, and that didn't bring me the happiness I was going to look for. So now I'm going to join a fraternity, and I'm just going to drink it up. He says, how, he says, I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine.

My heart's still guiding me with wisdom, and how to laid hole on folly till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven, during the few days of their life. And so he says, look, thank God it's Friday. You only live once. That's what he's saying.

You might as well party like a rock star because one day you're going to be dead. Verse four, I made great works. I built houses. I planted vineyards for myself. So not only with his education, could he afford to party, but he also began these huge building campaigns.

Let me just tell you, this is what this is the equivalent of, is when you begin to feel, this thing in you that thinks if I could just get a pool, I would be satisfied. If I could just add a half bath and get some new appliances in here, if I could just redo my kitchen, then maybe that would do something for my soul. And so Solomon says, I tried that. I made great works. I built houses. I planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of the growing

trees. I bought male and female slaves. I had slaves who were born. in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. So, bro, you want to talk about sex drugs and rock and roll. Solomon says, I had it all. I had cash. I had cars. I had girls. I had parties. I had a house. I had beach houses. I had mountain houses, and what we would do is we would party down in all of these things. I sought after pleasure with all that this world could offer.

So, in verse 9, I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me, and whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. and then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it and behold all was vanity and a striving after the wind and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. He's like no matter how nice the wine was that I drank I just woke up with the same hangover. No matter how beautiful the woman I was that I messed around with, I just woke up feeling empty.

matter how big the house was that I built for myself, I would wake up every day and realize I can only be in one room at a time. Vanity of vanities. So, I turn to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king only what has already been done? In other words, if these outer pleasures won't work for me, maybe I'll just seek mental pleasure.

Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, that there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness, and yet I perceive that the same event happens to all of them. In other words, if given the choice, okay, it is better, like right is better than wrong. Saving is better than spending too much.

Not getting drunk is better than getting drunk. This is what he's saying. There is just sort of a, a normal wisdom to this world. Verse 15. And then I said in my heart, what happens to the fool will happen to me also.

Why then have I been so very wise? And I said to my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise, as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten.

How the wise dies just like the fool. So I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me for all his vanity and a striving after the wind. Here's what he says. You can make all the right decisions in your life. You could study hard and get a good job and buy a good house at a low interest rate and paid off in 15 years and you could work really hard and retire and get a company watch and you could go on great vacations and take pictures and have a little church activity. But the reality is what he's saying

here is every single one of us, no matter how smart you are or dumb you are, rich you are, poor you are, wise you are or foolish you are, every single one of us is floating around on this rock in space and there's a trap door under us and one day the trap door opens and you all fall off. No matter what. Vanity of vanities, it's all vanity, at least under the sun. Then he says, verse 18, I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun seeing that I must leave it to a man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or fool yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This is also a vanity. Do you know what this means? Everything you have one day will be the

possession of somebody else. And what if your kid's an idiot? You work so hard to build this nest egg to take care of it. And what if your kid is an idiot, the golf clubs that you just had to have that you thought were going to make you hold? now some guy that you don't even know is going to be playing with your golf clubs. Everything you have one day will be sold in a garage sale. And so I turned about and I gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. In other words, trailers are never found behind hurses.

You've never seen somebody taking the U-Haul to the cemetery. Why? Because you know how much you leave? All of it. Every time. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun, for all his days are full of sorrow,

and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not. rest is also a vanity. So his thesis was vanity of vanities. It's all vanity. His attempt to prove this was, I'm going to go out and seek what does a man gain for all his hard work under the sun. In other words, if I leave God out of the equation and I spend my whole life pursuing the things of this earth, what do I have to show for it? And then here is his conclusion. There is nothing better for a person than he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also I saw is from the hand of God.

For apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment. For to the one who pleases him, God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the center he has given the busyness of gathering and collecting only to give it to the one who pleases God. This also is a vanity and a striving after the wind. In other words, very simply put, The way Jesus would say it in the New Testament after this man has an incredible harvest, and he says, what am I going to do with all this stuff?

I know. I'll tear down my barns and I'll build bigger barns so I can put more of my stuff and these bigger barns for me. And God Almighty says to that man, you fool. You fool. For tonight your life will be taken from you. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? What Ecclesiastes is teaching us here in one and two is this, says if you try to live this life apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ,

then by definition you are a fool. And the best you can hope for is some good weather and a few good times, but eventually you fall off of this planet into an everlasting death. However, for the believer, the adopted sons and daughters into the kingdom of God, when you include the Lord in all the things that you do, then your toil has meaning and your enjoyment has meaning, and the food you eat has meaning, and your relationships have meaning.

And when we rip open the heavens and say, and I am not living this life just under the sun, I am living this life with Jesus Christ who stepped out of heaven and stepped into my very own life, then nothing that we do is meaningless, and none of it is just. vanity of vanity and all of it is purposeful and the purpose is that God is glorified and that in him you and I are ultimately satisfied. Church of 1122 may you find your ultimate satisfaction

in the presence of a God who does not stay above the sun but step down on this earth, died on a cross resurrected on the third day, ascended the right hand of God the Father, and and sent the Spirit of God to live in here so that we would have meaning and purpose for his glory. And in him we would find our satisfaction. Let's pray. Our good and grace is Heavenly Father, God, we thank you for your gifts to us in this time and this place.

And God, would you protect us from following in love with the gifts at the expense of the giver of the gifts? God, would you stir in our hearts, worship when we enjoy good food and good drink and good friends? And may we always, always, always give you the thanks that you deserve. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.