Transcription of 13ID1370

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 “Is Life Worth Living?” January 13, 2013

All right, shall we open our to the book of 1:1?

This book is found in the Old Testament, amongst the books called the books of poetry and wisdom. They start at the book of Job; they finish at the Song of . But they’re important books. They presume – these books of wisdom – that the reader desires a relationship with God. Everything that is written in them is written in the present tense. So it doesn’t address your past or your future. It addresses your present walk. And each of these books of wisdom tackles difficult questions: Why do the righteous suffer? Where is God when I need Him? Or as this book - the book of Ecclesiastes – as Solomon writes, is this life really worth living at all?

Mark Twain wrote, years ago, he thought that life would be much better if you could start it at age eighty and gradually move backwards to a child. Well, that makes good sense. You have a lot of wisdom and experience that you could apply. You could probably save yourself some grief. But life’s not like that. We start young, and hopefully we gain wisdom by experience. And certainly we gain lots of understanding by asking questions. We ask questions of ourselves. We quiz others. We ultimately turn and ask God for answers. Why am I here? What’s the purpose for my life? And when everything is said and done, when I’m done living, what really will I have left? Where really will I be? Those are pretty deep issues. They’re hard issues of philosophy. Philosophers have tackled them for generations. Most college kids, if I remember my college years, sit around campus discussing them – sometimes over a few beers, but still….you’re looking for answers.

The problem is that if we don’t, somewhere along the line in our life, come with satisfactory answers to those questions, my life becomes very disillusioned, and I find, very much, a great dissatisfaction with the life that I live. So, at some point in my life, I have to come up with answers.

Solomon asked them honestly. He wrote down a journal that you have before you as the book of Ecclesiastes. He kept good notes. He wrote down the potential answers that he came up with. And then after subjecting them to the rigorous kind of scrutiny of life as he saw it, he would oftentimes find them dissatisfying,

1 unfulfilling. “These aren’t really the answers that I need.” And sometimes more disillusioned than ever before. But he was hunting for the meaning of life. You can certainly find a lot of disillusionment in our world. Just read any political column, listen to any contemporary song’s lyrics – doesn’t really matter if you’re young or old. At every level of society or of development, people have a hard time coming up with satisfactory answers for the important questions of life. And so what the world does is they try to cope with the instability that is caused by not being able to say what life means and trying to just get by. What is the point of it all? Is this life really worth living? That’s Solomon’s quest.

I think Thoreau, the philosopher, wrote that, “Men live lives of quiet desperation.” Well Solomon is the fellow that is going to go, with all of his resources, to try to help us to come to the right conclusions about how we should live our life.

We read the words in verse 1, “The words of the Preacher, the son of , king in Jerusalem.” Now, he introduces himself as the Preacher. The Hebrew word is kohaleth. Kohaleth is a word that doesn’t mean a guy standing in a pulpit preaching at you. In fact, in the Septuagint – which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament – this word is translated “ecclesiastes.” It comes from the Greek word “ecclesia,” which is the word that is normally used in the New Testament for “the church.” It means “called out ones” or, literally, “assembled ones.” So Solomon, who wrote the , and he became the wise teacher with God’s wisdom and who wrote the Song of Solomon (who became the royal lover to describe the love of God for man) - in this book, the book of Ecclesiastes, he gathers together the philosophies of life. He gets information from experience. He gathers information from participation. He takes quiet and careful observation, and he makes notes. “Life under the sun” – that’s what his goal is. What is “life under the sun” mean? He’s a searcher, he’s a seeker, he’s a gatherer. And these are his sermons, his reviews, his observations and his conclusions about life.

Now you might say, “Well, what do I care about what Solomon thinks?” Well, for one thing, God had him write the book. But if you look at his qualifications, he’s an interesting fellow. According to the , Solomon, in his generation, was the richest man on the planet. He could buy and pursue, without hesitation, anything and everything that caught his eye. He was able to, without any reservation, gather to himself. Not only was he the richest man upon the planet, he was the wisest man, spiritually, upon the earth. When the Lord had come to him there in 2 Chronicles 1, after his father David had died, and He said, “Solomon, what shall I

2 give you” as the king? Solomon said, “Well, You sure have been good to my father. And that he was able to rule all of the people all of those years, and You’ve established him. And there’s no people like the people of Israel. So, Lord, if You could just give me the wisdom to do as well as he did – I want to care for Your people.” And the Lord’s response was, “Because you didn’t ask for wealth for yourself or power or notoriety, but you’ve just asked for wisdom – I will give you all of those other things.” And Solomon became the richest and the most powerful and the wisest man upon the earth. Honor like no one had had, like none before and none after.

So, Solomon had a lot going for him when he, as a young man, began to walk with God. He had tremendous wisdom – wiser than everyone. In fact, in 1 Kings 4, it says, “Of all of the men of the world, none wiser than Solomon.” Not only was he extremely wealthy and extremely wise, spiritually, he had a relationship with God, early on, that was second to none. He was a man of prayer. If you’ve ever read the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple in 1 Kings 8 - phenomenal insights into the heart and into the person of God. Psalm 72 was written by him as well – credited to him as a prayer. So, wisdom and wealth and a greater relationship with God, early on in life, that set him on the path of life - Solomon was extremely qualified.

However, at some point in life, the things that shined in his life, early on, began to lose their luster. Doubts set in, questions engendered by the dilemmas that he faced and the enigmas that he saw in life, and rather than applying the wisdom of God that God had given him, to those questions, he drifted away from God entirely. He began to go back to the world.

Back in Deuteronomy 17, God gave to the children of Israel some information. He said, “You know, there’s going to come a time when you, as a nation, are going to have a king like the world – except your king will not be like the world. In fact, your king will be distinct by these things: you shall not gather wives to yourself, not be a foreigner, don’t gather any gold or silver to yourself, don’t gather horses for yourself, don’t allow the people to return to Egypt to gather those things. And as the king, you will take your pen and write a copy of the Law for yourself that you can read in it day and night and know the heart of God and not be lifted up with pride.” Those were the qualifications for the king. Solomon ignored God’s wisdom and later on in life, literally broke every one of them except for being a foreigner. He married seven hundred women – not smart. (Laughing) Had three hundred

3 concubines. He owned enough horses to fill all of the massive stables at Megiddo that you can still see in Israel today. He made gold and silver, in his generation, absolutely useless because of the gold that he owned. And his disobedience to God led to disillusionment. But rather than taking the wisdom of God that he was given revelation-wise, and applying it to his life, he became the kohaleth - the searcher, the assembler of information, the philosopher of life seeking to make sense of it by human wisdom but apart from God. What does life look like apart from God?

I think it was Socrates who once wrote, “By all means get married. If you find a good wife, you will find a good life. But if you find a bad wife, you’ll become a philosopher.” (Laughing) And I’m pretty sure that’s what Solomon became – a philosopher. He was in trouble, and the hearts of those women turned his heart from God. That’s when Solomon wrote this book.

Now, you should know going in that his analysis of life comes only with observable data. Theologians call it natural revelation, but it literally means that you base your perceptions and your philosophies only upon what you can see and understand, evaluate and deal with. Because of that, most of the agnostics and atheists who write and quote Bible verses will use this book because they can relate to it. It is life without God. Now, the inspiration of Scripture will assure you that everything that is written in here was Solomon’s thoughts and his conclusions. But the preponderance of the Scriptures will also help you to understand that many of his conclusions were absolutely wrong because they were based in and founded upon observable data without God or His Word being factored in. If you view life without the spiritual component of God’s Word and His Spirit, you will open a Pandora’s box of psychological and social frustration.

G. Campbell Morgan, in writing his introduction to the book of Ecclesiastes, wrote this about Solomon, “This man had been living through all of these experiences under the sun concerned with nothing above the sun – until there came a moment when, having seen his whole life, he found that there was something over the sun. It is only as man takes account of that which is over the sun, that these things under the sun are seen in their true light.” So Solomon is left, because of his disobedience, with a view of life on a horizontal plane. He has a mind smarter than anyone. He has a body that longs for experience. But he has no spiritual relationship with God to instruct him. So he’s blind, and it’s hopeless.

4 So why do we read the book at all? What benefit is there for us in studying this book? Well a couple of things. Number one, it should re-sensitize you, as a Christian, to how the world has to struggle to find the meaning of life. That’s not you any longer, but that’s everyone in the world. They, like Solomon, will take all of these things at one point or another and try to come up with some answers. But so often Christians, once they get saved, they cloister themselves in the church, they talk “Christianese,” they hang around in their prayer groups, and they lose sight of the world. But Solomon wants to be sure that we don’t lose sight of the world, that this is the struggle that man has outside the walls of the church. You don’t want to be out of touch, you want to be in touch. Second of all, we should learn from this book that Solomon, with all of his assets, fell. Smart, wealthy, powerful, held in honor, nothing restrained. And yet, he fell. He turned from God, and he spiraled down to this low abyss, and at the end of life – before he turned himself back to the Lord – he found himself in this quagmire of frustration and uncertainty. Which means this – it is not what you know or how much you know that will help you live correctly, but how much you will incorporate into your life. If your head is filled with the knowledge of God, the truths of God, and your life is not, you just have a head full of wisdom, but you’re the fool. And Solomon played the fool.

It is interesting that, though he was the head of the wisdom department, if there was ever anyone that this should not happen to, it was him. Yet, he ends up on this path of the fool. Which is why, by the way, a very clear biblical principle – that which is your greatest asset can become your greatest problem, can become the place of greatest stumbling. And it’s usually because you take advantage of it, and you rest in the fact that you think you know, and then you’re a sitting duck.

• For example, while the rest of the world partied like rock stars, Noah walked uprightly with God. Where was Noah’s sin? He went and got drunk, laid down naked in his tent, embarrassed his family, brought shame to himself – but a man who was holy in a world that was unholy fell to the very thing that the world around him practiced daily. • Abraham – the father of the faithful, the father of those who believe – but all of his lapses in the Bible were lapses of faith. He didn’t wait long enough upon the Lord for a child – he took Hagar, had Ishmael and brought destruction and difficulty upon the world that we still live with today. When the famine came, he headed for Egypt. He lied about his wife. He tried to

5 protect himself through deception. He was told off by an unbelieving Pharaoh. And the man of faith falters in the area of faith. • Moses was the meekest man upon the face of the earth – according to God’s own definition of Moses’ life. He was a man that was right with God, and yet it was his anger, lashed out at God’s people when God was not mad, that he struck the rock and violated the type – disobeyed the Lord, cost him plenty. And the meek man was overcome with anger. • Peter was loyal to a fault. He said to the Lord at the last supper, “I don’t care if these guys bail on you, all of them. I will die for You!” He meant it. Three hours later, he didn’t mean it. And with cursing, he again and again denied the Lord because he was afraid of a servant girl and of a soldier on a break. • Paul was a stubborn man – you can come up with that fairly quickly, I think, in the Bible. He was a fellow who was determined and fearless. He’s the only guy I know that could have a town of people drag him outside to kill him, and then when he woke up not dead, he went back into town looking for a hotel. Not down the road. “Let’s just go back there. I think I saw a place.” That’s a fearless guy. But that very lack of fear, that dogged determination, was also what hampered Paul on his second missionary journey. He spent months going into the wrong places and God having to stop him at every place until he had to run out of room and ran into the ocean.

Sometimes our greatest assets become our places of stumbling. Peter, a man of courage, became a coward. And Moses, a meek man pushed to the limit, loses his temper. And Noah, a man of purity, falls in drunkenness. And Abraham, a man of great faith, falters. And Paul, a man of extreme courage, has trouble determining God’s will because he’s pushing too hard.

That’s Solomon. The wisest man upon the planet walks away from God – has a head filled with knowledge, ignores it all and goes on a quest to find what life might be like apart from God. When we’re weak, we’ll seek the Lord. But when we think we’re strong, we soon trust in our abilities and become vulnerable. That was Solomon’s plight as well. Now, the end of the book Solomon will get back on line. What he learned as a kid – he’ll come back, he’ll be fine. But this is a journey of a fellow – it’s an inspired work, but it is a troubled road. And I would hope, if nothing else, that reading this book should set you straight and not have you chasing the proverbial shadow of the worldly promises that will never satisfy you. Solomon tried everything and ended up with nothing. Here’s what you do – let his problem

6 be your correction. Study his journey map so God’s Word might keep you on the only path that leads to life.

So he’s the Preacher, the kohaleth. And he starts off with this, verse 2, “ ‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher; ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’ ” Now, this word vanity sums up his entire thinking during this period of his life. He uses it thirty- seven times in this book; it’s here five times in one verse. Now when you hear the word vanity, you immediately think of someone looking in a mirror and then applauding. Right? “Oh, that is good looking right there!” (Laughing) Right? Someone with tremendous self-congratulation. But that’s not really what this word means. The word vanity in Hebrew means “futile” or “empty” or “meaningless.” In Hebrew poetry, whenever something is repeated, it is repeated for emphasis. It is like you putting an exclamation point behind a sentence. We might say that he thought life is empty “to the max.” He was the extreme pessimist.

I read a story the other day about an optimist living next to a pessimist. And every time the optimist would say, “Oh look how sunny it is, God is so good,” the pessimist would say, “Yeah, but the crops are going to burn.” And then one day, the optimist took the pessimist duck hunting. And he shot a duck, and he said to his dog, “Go get it,” and the optimist’s dog walked on the water and went and got the duck. And the pessimist said, “Oh, the dog can’t swim.” (Laughing)

That’s Solomon. In sin, apart from God, everything to him is useless and unsatisfying and vain and empty. Now here’re three things that Solomon will say in chapter 1. We’ll cover the first two here in a minute. We’ll leave the third one for next week. But in verses 3-7, nothing changes will be his first conclusion. Second of all, there is nothing new. And third of all, you really can’t understand everything (which we will look at next week).

But he begins in verse 3 by saying, as he lays out for us his journey through life, “What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?” What profit is there? Now the word “profit” means “gain,” but it speaks of surplus. In other words, when you’ve done all of the work and paid out all of the money or invested all of your time and effort – when all is said and done, what do you have left? What profit is there, what advantage is there – in light of the difficulty of life and the toil that it brings – if you’re looking for satisfaction at the other end of life, what do you have when everything is said and done? What’s left over? And

7 to Solomon, from this point of view, there was nothing. He will conclude there is no profit for all of his labors – notice in verse 3 – “under the sun.”

If his great word is “vanity,” his little phrase “under the sun” is second. It is used twenty-nine times in the book. It speaks only of a life that is to be lived without God – horizontal plane – under the sun, if you will. Right? This is a life that is lived with an earthly view not a heavenly one - devoid of God’s wisdom, devoid of His Word, devoid of revelation, just a life that’s lived based only on what you can see and you can understand. And once in a while, Solomon will get a flash of greatness from God, and you’ll see him peek up above the clouds and go, “Ooohhh,” but then he’ll fall right back down. Life under the sun. So, that’s Solomon’s perspective. What benefit is there to living life under the sun – without God?

Now Solomon will use the name “God” forty times in this book. But every one of those forty times, he’ll use the word “Elohim” – which is a word that God uses to introduce Himself to man as the God over creation, the sovereign control. It speaks of the bigness of God, the powerfulness of God. He never uses the word “Jehovah,” which is God’s revelation of Himself to man as a personal God who makes deals and covenants, and who redeems us, to whom we can turn individually and to know. Solomon doesn’t have that relationship. If there’s a God out there, He’s big and untouchable and far removed from his life. So what benefit is there – in life under the sun – for all of the work that you do? Nothing satisfies him. Why? Because he lives this horizontal life.

Look, ask yourself this question: when you turn out the lights of your life, when you come back and wash your hands, and you wash the dirt off your hands of burying everyone that you love, when you’ve lived all that you can do – what’s left? What do you have left if God doesn’t exist? If God’s not involved? If God isn’t real? If His ways aren’t true? And the answer is – you have nothing…….except to wait to die. And Solomon, like folks today with great financial wherewithal that can chase their dreams and still find themselves drug addicts and taking their own life and miserable in their life – it’s because there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – without God’s involvement. Under the sun is frustrating. Alexander the Great was thirty-one years old when he began to weep that there were no other kingdoms to conquer. Einstein wrote, at the end of his life, “It is a strange thing to me to be known universally and yet be so lonely.” No satisfaction. So Solomon sits on his throne – universally known, powerful, sought out in wisdom by the rich and the powerful – and yet he saw life, at this time, without God – as

8 empty and vain. I think it was Carl Sandburg, the American poet, who wrote, “Life’s like an onion. You peel it every day, one layer at a time, and most of the time, you weep.” That’s his perception of life apart from God. Solomon didn’t see a benefit in life under the sun, with all of the work that it entailed. Life was futile, it was short, it’s unpredictable, it’s difficult, it’s out of balance; and at best, you become pessimistic and depressed.

Good thing we don’t have that life. We have life in the sun, not under it. We serve a God that says, “I’ve come to give life and that much more abundant,” who said to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Your work that abounds in the Lord and your labor in the Lord is never in vain in the Lord.” That’s different. Life for us isn’t empty and without substance because when you live according to the will of God, you find real purpose for your life. Solomon will conclude that, but he’s not there yet. And a lot of us are not there yet, either, and we should be. And the world outside is not there at all.

“What profit is there for all of his labor?” Now there’re eleven different Hebrew words for “labor” in the Bible. This is the Hebrew word “amah,” which literally means “to labor until I drop from exhaustion.” In other words, I’ve given it my all. I’ve got nothing left to give. What profit is there? Moses used it in Deuteronomy 26:7, when he said to the people, “The LORD, the God of our fathers, heard our voice, looked upon our affliction, saw our labor.” That was the word that he used. In Psalm 90:10, the psalmist writes, “The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow.” That’s the word that he used. What profit is there? Life’s not easy. What am I getting out of it? And is it enough to justify living it?

Verse 4, he begins to make his arguments. There is nothing that changes. Verse 4, “One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.” There is no satisfaction here. Everything is not new. There is nothing that changes. There’s a vicious circle, a monotony of life. You’ve heard “come full circle” or the “circle of life.” Solomon saw it as a real bummer. Lookit, there’s no sense in going like this. And notice, he looks at the cycles of nature, and he becomes more cynical and fatalistic. You know, today 490,000 babies will be

9 born in the earth, and 455,000 people will die. So, in nearly one million homes today, there will be great rejoicing and great weeping; great joy and great sadness. And as Solomon perceived life under the sun, on his own, apart from God, he was struck by the idea that people come and go, and the earth stays the same. People are born, people are dying, but there’s the same weather patterns – summer, fall, winter, spring; summer again. One generation falls to the next. The world doesn’t seem to change a bit with their coming and their going. That was his perception, his understanding. Look, the redwoods up in the northern California area were here long before you got here, and they’re going to be here long after you leave – if the Lord tarries. The olive trees that sit in the Garden of Gethsemane - which you can see in Israel – some of those trees were there when Jesus was in agony in the Garden; and it’s been two thousand years. And Solomon looked at that – the mountains that were here. We drop in, we drop off, and the earth continues unabated, and Solomon went, “There’s no good here. There’s no benefit here. This life can’t be worth living.”

You know, Hallmark comes up with a new card for a new event every year. Maybe we could have “Cemetery Day” where we all wander around the cemetery and go, “That’s gonna be me pretty soon.” (Laughing) Because that will be you pretty soon. And it doesn’t matter if you’re rich and smart and powerful and wield yourself well in the world – you’re gonna die. Or you’re poor and you’re foolish and you have nothing to show and you’re weak. The earth and its seasons continue. You will not. Solomon’s perception of life under the sun.

Looking at the universe (verses 5-7), he sees monotony. Look, the world is ordered, and it’s organized, but it’s so predictable. The sun rises in the east and then it runs to the west to try to catch its own tail. He even uses the word “hastens” which means “to pant along.” It’s like he can’t get enough energy to catch himself. It’s like a dog chasing his tail. Solomon went, “Oh, there it goes again.” Life under the sun. What does it accomplish? Nothing changes. The wind moves here, it moves there; and when it finally gets done moving, it’s right back where it was. It’s going nowhere fast. He even speaks about hydrology (in verse 7) – years before anyone was speaking about it; about the water – evaporation and condensation and the gathering of the water; salt water becoming fresh water and being dropped into the rivers and into the lakes and providing water for man; and yet it all ends up back in that salt water pool. And the pool doesn’t grow. And Solomon says to himself, “Nothing changes. We’re not making progress. That’s motion, that’s not promotion. It’s a monotony of life under the sun.”

10 Scientists tell us that 97 percent of the water in the earth is in the ocean, but only 1/1000th of 1 percent is ever found in the atmosphere – ready to become water that is useful to us and to plant life. And yet it works, doesn’t it? Wind and sun and moon and the tides and the evaporation – God uses it. But to Solomon, this was just monotony. Now, you should understand Jeremiah will later see this exact same thing, observe the exact same thing, and he will come away with a conclusion, “Man, isn’t God faithful! I can count on the sun tomorrow. God will provide drinking water for me.” He’s a faithful guy. Two guys from different perspectives – one life under the sun, one life over the sun. Knowing God. To him it was exciting. Not to Solomon. Life without a vertical component is painfully routine.

Forget hydrological cycles. Just think about the laundry cycle. Debbie and I came home from vacation yesterday. We had five or six loads of laundry to do, and there’re just two of us. And it never stops. That stupid laundry thing’s going all the time. Clean, dirty, separated, washed, fold, hung up, ironed, pressed, dry cleaned; and then you start over. And after all, you go, “These pants are wearing out.” “Yeah, you’ve washed them too much.” Now you’ve gotta get new ones to put in the routine so it can ruin itself as well. “Can I get a different color this time?” “Oh, you can.” “Okay!” (Laughing) Life under the sun. Or the business guy – he’s up at 6:00 every morning, he works eight or ten hours a day, he clocks in, he’s up, he’s off, he comes home, he eats, he watches some TV, he takes a shower – fifty weeks a year. Two weeks a year, he’s off to not do what he normally does – only to come back and do it again. And he does it for forty years, he retires, “Here’s your watch,” and then he waits to die. And he hopes he has enough money until he dies. (Laughing) Ahh, life under the sun. Yikes! But that’s only if you’re like Solomon, man, no relationship with God. Nothing changes. It is so monotonous – life. He’s right. Without God, it’s horrible!

Then he writes that there’s nothing new, verse 9. “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, ‘See, this is new?’ It has already been in ancient times before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after.” Look, man always wants something new, and part of life without God is you have to look for new stuff. But because there isn’t really any new stuff, you just have to forget that it’s old stuff. And Solomon is smart enough to go, “I’m not forgettin’ – that’s not new stuff, that’s old stuff.” Everything in this life wearies in the long run, so we need new things to distract us, to deliver us. When Paul went to the

11 Athenians in Acts 17:24, it says, “They do nothing but to sit around and to hear and to tell something that’s new.” It’s what life is like apart from God. I’ve got to look for new things. And I’m sure that our entertainment industry and the clothing industry and the auto industry owe their very existence to the dissatisfied heart of man. You don’t get rid of your car, usually, because it can’t run anymore; it’s usually because there’s a newer model. “I want the newer one!” “Look at that one!” “Look at mine.” “I gotta have that one.” Look at the way we’ve gone. “8 track?” “No!” “Cassette?” “No!!” “CD?” “No.” “Mini disc?” “No.” “Blue tooth?” “No!” It’ll never stop.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that “God has placed eternity in our hearts” so that without that eternity being involved, there’ll be no satisfaction for our life. God is the only One who can satisfy and make this life purposeful.

Moody wrote, years ago, “If it’s new, not true. And if it’s true, it’s not new.” We can move things around. Only God makes things new. In fact, Edison himself wrote that his inventions were simply discovering the secrets of nature and applying them for the good of mankind. God made us new creatures. God gives us a new song, placed in a new heart, waiting for a new heaven and a new earth. God can make things new. Man cannot. If all you see is this world, life is as usual, and it drones along headed for death.

You can hear Solomon just cry there in verse 8, “Just everything’s just a bunch of work! Wears me out. What a hassle. What a drag. And there’s no satisfaction to my ear. There’s no satisfaction to my eye.” Which is why, I am sure, that the TV and music industry will always sell – because we want the latest and the greatest and the best. We used to have TV; and then we had a 25” TV; and then we had a big screen. That’s not good enough. Now, we want a wide screen. “Do you want stereo?” “No. Surround sound 5.1.” “No, 7.1.” “I want a wide screen 7.1.” “I want 3D.” (Laughing) “I want a boom box with noise cancelling headphones.” It’s this restlessness that builds up out of dissatisfaction. And Solomon looked at life, and he went, “Life under the sun, all the labor – it’s useless! I’m never satisfied. I can never have enough. My ear isn’t happy. My eyes aren’t done. I’ve gotta have more. Not only does life never change – you live, you die, and the sun comes up, and the winds blow, and the moon’s out, and the clouds blow, and it rains – it’s just horrible! It takes everything I have.”

12 He says pretty astute things in verses 9 and 10. And even though his conclusions are oftentimes wrong because they do not include God, they are correct when it comes to a vision of life purely from man’s point of view. Romans 8:20-21, Paul said this, “The creation of God was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” In other words, God made you so that you couldn’t be satisfied with what you see around you. Right? You have this hole in your heart that cannot be satisfied with the junk you try to cram in there. Buying things. Having things. Being someone. It will never fully satisfy. We’re not created to be filled with this life. God fashioned you for eternity, which is why the temporal stuff leaves you feeling like Solomon here – dissatisfied.

Finally he argues, in verse 11, that we simply think things are new because we refuse to read the minutes to the last meeting. Right? There’s no memory of things before and things past. We just somehow don’t see that this is new. Look, look. Let me ask this of you sports fans. And by the way, what he’s saying is, “The ancients stole all of our best ideas. Nothing new.” Who won the Heisman trophy eight years ago? Quickly. (No one answered) Exactly. Who was a President eight- one years ago today? (No one answered) Actually, I had a guy at first service come and tell me. (Laughing) May have to change that analogy. What did you have for dinner two weeks ago, Tuesday? We don’t know. Because we forget. And in 100 years from now, if the Lord tarries, you and everyone else will have been virtually forgotten. That’s Solomon’s perception. Life is not just worth living. That’s his approach, and that’s what we’re going to do with Solomon for the next several months. We’re going to run down every hallway, looking at everything possible with a guy that can get it all and hear what he has to say about what he finds.

Maybe you’re struggling this morning with the purposes of life. I would hope that you’ll be with us to follow through the book and come, hopefully, to the same conclusion Solomon did. Despite the fact that Mark Twain wished life started at eighty, it doesn’t. Life starts clueless. And then you continue that way until you come to the realization you need God, and the hole in your heart will be filled.

Let me leave you with this story that I heard a couple of months ago. There was an ensign down in San Diego who wanted very much to command his own naval ship. And finally, as part of his training and test, he was told by the captain the next

13 morning that he would be taking the ship out to the harbor. He’d have the helm. And so he determined he was going to do a couple of things. Number one, he was going to do it better than anyone else had. And second of all, he was going to do it quicker than anyone else did. And so the next morning, he showed up; he got on the helm. He was told over the phone, “Get started.” And so he began to bark orders, and he watched over it all, and he got out of the place perfectly clean. And the phone rings, and it’s the captain. And the captain says, “I want to congratulate you. You did it.” He said, “Thank you very much.” He says, “Not only did you do it, you did it better than anyone else has ever done.” He said, “Thank you very much.” “And,” he said, “two minutes off the record.” “Thank you very much.” He said, “The only problem, young man, is, though you have done it in record time and so well, you’ve broken the ship’s only rule.” He said, “Sir, what is that?” He said, “You should never leave the dock until you’re sure the captain is on board.” (Laughing) “Please return to the docks!”

A lot of folks living like that. Full speed ahead. Lord’s not with them. And they won’t be satisfied. Some never wise up, some others will. But you’re going to have to find that life under the sun is no life at all - until you live life in the sun. And then everything, even the most mundane things, becomes very enjoyable because God has plans that you know not of.

That’ll be our plan here the next several months. So we hope you’ll be with us.

Submitted by Maureen Dickson June 2, 2013

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