[MUSIC PLAYING] The Bible from 30,000 feet. Soaring through the scripture
from Genesis to Revelation. Father, thank you. Thank you you've
drawn us together as a group, an assembly. The very name of this book draws
from that word, an assembly or one who assembles. And Father, as we have
assembled together, we would be the first to
admit we have room to grow. We don't know all
there is to know, and even if we know
certain things, we need to be reminded of them. Like Peter said,
I will not neglect to remind you of these things
even though you already know them and are persuaded in them. So Father, we pray that we
would be awakened by this book into the reality of life in
the Son of God versus life under the sun in the normal
mundane behavior of life. Lord, I pray that you would
put a real joy and a spring in our step so that people
who know us and see us who have been raised
with us, work with us, would see that there is a
difference in us because of you. Instruct, inspire,
encourage your people, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So the book of Ecclesiastes. You probably know
it, you've read it, you just saying
some of the lyrics that derive right out of
this book in chapter 3 in that old birdsong
from the 1960s. Dissatisfaction is bred
in us from the time we were very young. I don't know at
what age it comes, but it comes pretty
young, where people get dissatisfied with who
they are and what they have. And advertisers are
very clever in making you feel dissatisfied. They have studied
human nature, they have gone to school for it,
and they capitalize on it. So you're a kid, you have
a toy but not that toy. That toy on the TV
commercial is what you need to complete your existence. You will be fulfilled
for the rest of your life if you buy that toy or if
somebody buys it for you. So you get the toy,
and you are indeed fulfilled until the afternoon. By the end of the day, it's
not as great as you thought. Oh, but that bicycle that your
friend has down the street. If you could only have
that kind of bicycle, then you would be satisfied. And then you grow up a little
more, and it's something else. It's a certain relationship. If I could only have a
boyfriend or a girlfriend, or if I could only have that
girlfriend, that boyfriend. Or if I could only
be in that career, then everything would
fall into place. If I lived in that city, et
cetera, et cetera, et cetera, so it goes, and so people
are searching the world over for the meaning of
life and for satisfaction. Something happens along the way. It happens to all of us. Those things don't produce
joy and satisfaction, but we, like the proverbial
rabbit, chase the carrot and we think that
something else will indeed give us satisfaction. And we get enough of
those experiences and life seems to sour. People become apathetic,
jaded, even angry. And so that sense of
happiness, that promise of joy is so elusive. We have even built into our
Declaration of Independence, you know it well. The promise of life,
liberty, and the-- Pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness. You are free, according to our
own document of our own nation, to pursue happiness
all you want. The thing is, I don't find very
many people who have found it. The guarantee is not you find,
just that you can pursue it. But I've discovered
that happiness is never found by direct pursuit. Happiness is a byproduct
of pursuing something else, actually someone else. We have, as part of
our church culture, we pursue the God
who is passionately pursuing the lost world. When you pursue that
God, happiness becomes the byproduct or the result.
When you pursue happiness, you will find neither
happiness nor God. When you pursue God,
you'll find him, you'll find he's been pursuing
you, and, as a byproduct, you will find that satisfaction. Every person throughout
life asks the big questions. What is the purpose of life? Why am I here? Where am I going? What is the meaning of the
years I call existence or life, and it's sometimes just put,
what's the point of it all? Philosophers have asked that,
professors ask that, students certainly ask
that, and even some of the writers of
scripture have asked that. One of them gives us the book
in front of us, Solomon, who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Anyone who thinks the
Bible is out of touch, has never read this book. If you think it's
irrelevant, read this book. You find echoes of it
in the daily paper, in conversations at Starbucks,
in the grocery store. It is the stuff of
life, real life. Now the book of Ecclesiastes
is one of five books-- I mentioned this last
week-- five books. This is the fourth of the
five books of wisdom or poetry in the Old Testament. Job, Psalms, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, number four, Song of Solomon. So it's one of those five books. That's in the English canon. In the Hebrew canon of
scripture or listing of books, in the Hebrew canon, the
book of Ecclesiastes one of the five scrolls or the five
books called the megilloth. The megilloth. If you have a Hebrew background,
I'm speaking your language. You know that already. Megilloth. M-E-G- if you're taking notes-- I-L-L-O-T-H. Megilloth. The five scrolls, or
the five books that are read at the
festivals of the Jews. The book of Ruth,
the book of Esther, the Song of Solomon,
Ecclesiastes, and Lamentations. Those are the five books. And this book, Ecclesiastes,
is read every fall for the Jewish feast
of Tabernacles. I've outlined the book
in three simple sections. Chapters 1 through 4
is Solomon's search. You are probably most
familiar with those chapters. Then, the second section
is Solomon's sayings. Chapters 5 through
10, and then the book concludes the last two chapters
with Solomon's solution. Solomon is the author, so we
have his search, his sayings, and his solution. Now, I think you
will agree, the name Ecclesiastes this is a
weird name for a book, but you're familiar with it. Ecclesia. Some of you know
what that word means. It's a Greek word. It's the Greek word for
church, and in English, we have a word Ecclesiastic, and
Ecclesiastic is a clergyman, a priest, a pastor. Someone who works with
the assembly of believers, that's where the term
Ecclesiastes has come from. It means a preacher
or one who assembles or one who speaks or preaches to
an assembly, or perhaps better yet, the Speaker of the House. This is the speaker
of the house of life. He is speaking about
the meaning of life to anyone who will listen. Verse 1. "The words of the
preacher, The son of David, King in Jerusalem." So we know by verse 1,
the author is Solomon. He calls himself a preacher. The Hebrew term qoheleth. Qoheleth. And as I said, the Greek
equivalent is Ecclesiastic. Now literally, the term
in Hebrew, qoheleth, translated here preacher,
refers to someone who collects something. A collector. It refers to Solomon
here, because he is somebody who has been
collecting and examining a collection of the
philosophies of life. He collects them, he drills
down on them, he examines them, the different philosophies
that people live by. So it says the
preacher, but you may want to write in your
margin or in parentheses around that word, the searcher. That would be, I think,
a better idea here. He is searching. It describes a
period in his life where Solomon was searching
for the meaning of life, though rooted in
God by his father David, he seems to
abandon that, but I'm really glad it's in your
Bible because it's like you're reading his private journal. I don't know how you would
feel about your journal being published, especially
read by the entire world, generation after generation. But Solomon thought it
important to publish his journal because it's not
him abandoning God as much as he, at the end of his
life, saying, I was searching, but this is what I
have now discovered. This is what I found, this is
the solution to all my search. So that if you are tempted
to search through life by all of these different
means, it's better if you just read his solution,
and bypass all the trouble. I remember a kid who was
in an early Maranatha band that I was a part
of back in the day. He was a gifted young
musician, raised in a Christian home,
brilliant composer and keyboardist, brilliant. At the age of 16, he
could play like anything. But because he was raised
in a Christian home and he heard all of our
testimonies, the rest of the band, I was a drug
addict, I was a murderer, I was an astronaut,
whatever people say before they come to Christ. Then I found meaning in life. He would hear our
testimonies, and think that-- he said, I have a
boring testimony. My testimony is I was
raised in a Christian faith in a Christian home. I never strayed, and
how boring is that? So he thought he
needed to go taste some of the stupid
things we did, and we who saw that tendency
said Johnny, don't be stupid. It's emptiness,
it's vanity, man. We're giving you our testimony
so you don't have to do that. You can skip to this solution,
which you found way before we did, and skip the mess. Look at verse 2. "Vanity of vanities." Because it's mentioned
twice, it's like saying, this is super vain. This is the most vain
you could ever get. This is as empty as you could
ever possibly want to get to. Vanity of vanities says
the preacher says qoheleth. "Vanity of vanities,
all is vanity." It's empty. Its soap bubbles. They're iridescent, they
shine, they get your attention, ooh, and then pop. Nothing there, no substance. Verse 3, "What profit is
a man from all his labor in which he toils
under the sun." 37 times in this book is
the word vanity or vanities. Sometimes put together as we
read here, vanity of vanities. Now this little phrase
mentioned 37 times, sums up Solomon's
mode of thinking during this period of his life. Everything in life seems
tasteless, Solomon would say. This is a very pessimistic
part of the book. You who know the book, know how
pessimistic Solomon can get. I've tried that,
I've tried that, ah. This is the view
of the pessimist. You don't want this guy
counseling you and your wife. [LAUGHTER] You don't want this guy as the
guest speaker for the office Christmas party, just saying. Don't get Solomon, at
this period of his life, to say any words
of encouragement. He ain't got none. It's all vain. It's all empty. You may have heard about
the two pessimists who met each other at the party
and instead of shaking hands, they just shook heads. [LAUGHTER] It's like, yeah I know. [LAUGHTER] You know some probably, right? A pessimist is someone
who get seasick during the whole voyage of life. The whole thing is always-- you say something's good,
there's always something bad. But look at verse 3. There is a court of truth
here I want you to see. He says, what profit has
a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? He realizes that all of
the experiences of life, all the things life offers,
all the things you try in life to make yourself happy,
the pursuit of happiness never ends in satisfaction. Never delivers
what they promise. Try any experience. Suck life dry of all the
pleasure you can find, and in the end, you will
not find satisfaction. What will you get? He says, zip, zero, zilch,
nada, nicht, nothing at all. Now notice a phrase. I want you to notice
it because it's mentioned 29 times in the
book, look at the phrase, under the sun. Now if you put that phrase
together with vanity or vanity of vanities 37 times,
29 times under the sun, you have the book summed up. Everything under the
sun that you try, all the experiences are vanity,
empty, or vanity of vanities. It was CS Lewis who once
said, "If we find in ourselves a desire that nothing in
this world can satisfy, it must mean that we were
made for another world." Under the sun is this life. It's life on the
horizontal plane. If ever there was a book that
anticipated the New Testament, it is the book of Ecclesiastes. Life under the sun
is boring life. Under the Son. S-O-N, capital S-O-N, the
Son of God, the Son of man, Jesus Christ is delightful. [APPLAUSE] It anticipates
the New Testament. So Solomon's search,
chapters 1 through 4. Now to see what a
happy life is, he first tells you what a
happy life is not. And you can hear it when you
read it a sense of cynicism in his voice. Fatalism running through the
whole set of these chapters. He's speaking about the
tediousness of life, the predictability of life. Verse 4, "One generation passes
away, another generation comes. But the earth abides forever." Solomon is observing the
cycle of life and death. Birth, life, death, birth,
life, death, birth, life, death, on and on. Today, just this day, last
24 hours, 360,000 people were born. Today, on this day, last 24
hours 151,000 people died. Tomorrow, 360,000
people will be born and tomorrow 151,000
people will die, and the next day
I won't repeat it. But I should just-- I get it, I get it. It's just tedious. It's predictable. Verse 5, "The sun also
rises, the sun goes down, and hastens to the
place where it rose." There is a
predictability in life. We even know tomorrow
morning that sunrise will be at 6:02 AM, and
sunset will be at 8:03 PM. You can Google it. Though, I would say
don't do it now. I did it before the service,
those are accurate numbers. 6:02, 8:03, that's
when the sun rises. That's how predictably
it happens. Every day. "And it 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 to its circuit." So Solomon is
observing something that we, as
believers, would offer as an argument for
the existence of God. Something known as the
teleological argument. That there is an ordered
universe in which we live, a design, it appears to
be designed by a designer, and you can see that in looking
at all the different cycles of life around you. There is a consistency to it. "All the rivers."-- verse
7-- "run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place from
which the rivers come, there they return again." Solomon rightly observed
the hydrological cycle. That clouds form out at
sea as moisture rises, and then winds blow it on
shore and then it rains and the rain falls on
land into the rivers and the rivers go
back into the sea, and it happens all over again. That cycle just goes on
and on and on and on. Verse 8, "All things
are full of labor. Man cannot express it. The eye is not
satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing." Boy isn't that true? We're glued to
those little phones. Look at that post. What? You've seen something like
that before, that's not new. I know, but it's new right now. Yeah, but you've
already seen that. Yeah, but I want to see more. The eye is never filled with
seeing or the ear with hearing. You've heard that song
how many times-- oh, but I'd love to hear it again. One of my favorite songs. Even though you can sing it, you
don't even need the song-- oh, but I want to hear it. Ears in full of hearing the
eyes in filled with seeing. "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." He's picturing
the utter monotony of life and predictability
of various life cycles. Now understand this. Solomon is correct
in his observation, but he is faulty
in his conclusion. He's right about what he sees. He writes down that life is,
in many cases, predictable, but there's something missing. And what is missing-- the gap is filled in and
answered actually by Paul the Apostle in Romans chapter
8, verse 20, when he says, all of creation has been
made subject to futility. Not because it wants
to, not on its own, but by reason of him who
subjected the same in hope. Paul is noting
what Solomon noted, but there's a
different twist to it. Solomon said, life is empty. Paul is saying, life is
empty and God designed it to be empty on purpose. Let me loosely translate it. God put a hole in
your soul on purpose. It can't be filled with anything
on the horizontal level. Anything you put there, any
experience under the sun won't fill it. It has to be filled
with something on the horizontal plane, not
the vertical plane or not the horizontal plane
the vertical plane. Sorry, mixed that
up a little bit. It has to be
something spiritual. If I find a desire that nothing
in this world can satisfy, it must mean I was
made for another world. So he gives us Romans chapter 8,
verse 20, the missing element. Verse 12, "I the preacher was
King over Israel in Jerusalem." Boy, was he. 40 years of peace
and prosperity. 40 years of great prosperity
economically for the nation and personally for Solomon. He had a lot of money,
he had a lot of items, and he had time on his
hands for the search. To be the searcher, the
preacher, the qoheleth. And I set my heart to seek
and search out by wisdom, concerning all that
is done under heaven. This burdensome task that God
has given to the sons of man. Boy, this guy's burnt out. He calls life a burdensome task. He didn't get up every morning
and go, it's a new day! He goes, it's another
day-- he's like the Eeyore of the Old Testament. [LAUGHTER] Burdensome tasks God has
given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised. Now what Solomon
does is he takes off the scientific observers hat and
puts on the philosopher's hat. He's going to
philosophize for a while. Socrates is one of the world's
most famous philosophers. He said to his students,
by all means, marry. Get married, he said. If you find a good wife,
you'll be very happy. If you find a bad one,
you'll become a philosopher. [LAUGHTER] How many wives did Solomon have? 700 wives. He was quite a philosopher,
and 300 porcupines-- concubines. [LAUGHTER] "I have seen all the
works--" verse 14-- "that are done under
the sun, and indeed, all is vanity and
grasping for the wind. What is crooked cannot
be made straight, what is lacking cannot
be numbered or counted. I commune with my
heart saying, look, I have attained greatness,
I have gained more wisdom than all who were
before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood
great wisdom and knowledge." So he's talking to himself. My dad used to say he loved
to talk to himself because he loved to hear a wise man talk. [LAUGHTER] Solomon was wise and here he
is communing with his heart. But notice something
in verse 13. He said, "I set my heart." Notice that phrase in verse 13. "I set my heart." Then you'll notice in chapter 2
verse 1, "I said in my heart." Why is that important? It shows you where he's looking. He's not looking upward,
he's looking inward. He's not searching outwardly
or upward toward the Lord, he is searching, at this
point, philosophically, inward, based on
what he has learned. He is communing with himself. "I set my heart--" verse 17-- "to know wisdom and to
know madness and folly. I perceived this also as
grasping for the wind. For in much wisdom
is much grief, and he who increases
knowledge increases sorrow." Man, Eeyore, give it a rest. Somebody noted
that philosophy is the study that enables people to
be unhappy more intelligently. [LAUGHTER] There's a reason I'm so
unhappy, cause I know so much, and they come up with all
these philosophical postulates and most of it boring. I think it was Corrie ten
boom who said, "Look around and be distressed, look
within and be depressed, look to Jesus, be at rest." You need to look-- you need to consider
the horizontal, but then end up by
looking at the vertical. If you look around,
you will be distressed. If you look within,
oh my goodness, the paralysis of self-analysis. You just get stuck
because you're playing that tape over and
over and over and over again. You cannot take natural
man alienated from God, educate him, and have him
solve the meaning of life. It won't work. Jesus put it this way, "That
which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of
the spirit is spirit." Now Solomon goes on,
chapter 2, starts looking for the meaning
of life through pleasure. He didn't just have
time on his hands, he has money in his pocket, and
he has friends to party with. Of course when you have
money in your pocket, you can buy your
friends quite easily. Chapter 2, verse 1,
I said in my heart, "Come now, I will
test you with mirth. Therefore, enjoy pleasure, but
surely, this also was vanity. I said of laughter,
madness, and of mirth that is humor, what
does it accomplish? I search in my heart how to
gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my
heart with wisdom." Usually wine and
wisdom don't mix. They don't mix well. You'll be wise for
about 10 minutes. After that, you just get dumb. "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 life." Nobody says I
tested it with wine. Don't picture a dude with
Boone's Farm in a paper bag. You have to picture
a sophisticate, an elite with the
best champagne, the private bar in his chariot. This guy is the Richard
Branson of 1000 years BC. Verse 8, "I also gathered
for myself silver and gold and the special treasures
of kings and of provinces." He has unlimited resources,
undiminished curiosity, and absolutely no
accountability. He can do whatever he wants. "I acquired male and female
singers, the delights of the sons of men--" and notice
this-- "and musical instruments of all kinds. The term musical instruments
is probably a poor translation. It's an unknown Hebrew word, and
the NIV and other translations, I think, correctly
render it a harem. A harem of women. So we know Solomon
had 700 wines-- wives and 300 concubines, which
were women for sexual pleasure. So he did have a harem. So this dude had it all. Tried it all. Wine, women, and song. Let's see how it fulfilled him. Verse 17, "Therefore,
I hated life." [LAUGHTER] Mark this. If you think, oh, I just
need wine, women, and song. I hated life. "Because the work that
was done under the sun was distressing to me, for
all is vanity and grasping for the wind." What Solomon is disclosing
is that after all this personal experimentation,
the hole in the soul just got bigger and
bigger and bigger. It didn't fix it. It did temporarily,
but then when I woke up the next morning
after the experience, after the relationship,
after the fling, bigger hole. And the emptiness is more
profound than ever before. Then verse 18, "I
hated all my labor in which I had
toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the
man who will come after me." We know who that was. It was Rehoboam, who
took a hard stand with the people and
taxation, and the kingdom split between Rehoboam
in the south and Jeroboam in the north. The kingdom split from 12 tribes
to 10 and 2, divided kingdom. "And who knows whether he
will be wise or a fool. Yet he will rule over all
my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown
myself wise under the sun. This also is
vanity, therefore, I turn my heart and despaired
of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun." you get his drift? Life on the horizontal
is flat, tasteless. It's the insipidity
of life without God. Boring, without meaning. Now chapter 3, verse 1, "To
everything there is a season. A time for every
purpose under heaven." These are familiar words. They're not familiar
because it's in the Bible, they're familiar because it
was in that song we sang. To our generation and the
generations that have followed, The Birds popularized
this text, to everything [SINGING] We know that
because of the song. It was for the birds, I
mean, the band The Birds. They sang that song. It's also found
in greeting cards. What's interesting is it though
it's found in greeting cards and is quoted often, what
Solomon is writing about is a sense of boredom, that's
what he's trying to convey. The monotony of life
and the cycles of life. He lists in this chapter,
28 different activities. Often opposites. Time to live, time to die,
time to be born, et cetera. Time to mourn,
time to laugh, time to dance, time to not dance,
it's a set of opposites. It's the stuff that
everyday life is made of, but he's just simply trying
to convey the boredom of life, the monotony of it. But look at verse 14. After all that list. I won't go through it, we
already did in the song. Verse 14, "I know that whatever
God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be
added to it, nothing can be taken away
from it, God does it that man should fear before him. That which has already been and
what is to be has already been and God requires an
account of what is passed." What Solomon is stating here
is the immutability of God. It's an attribute that God
doesn't change his mind or change his ways. There is no abrogation
of God from what he did before and said before,
he didn't change his mind. This is the immutability of God. His character doesn't change. Also the accountability
of man before God, that is also stated. Verse 17. "I said in my heart,
God shall judge the righteous and the wicked,
for there is a time there for every purpose
and every work." Now we notice something here. He's talking about
life, he's talking about the cycles of
life, he's talking about the predictability of
life, but now he mentions God. Now he is starting
to look upward. He's starting to consider God. It's a glimmer of
light because he's adding God to the equation. Now when you add God to
the equation of your life, the scales begin to tip
in the other direction. Over here, it's flat,
boring, insipid, predictable, what a drag. There's no really point to
life, then all of a sudden, God, you look upward,
and the scales begin to tip the other direction. You move from
cynicism to optimism. Your outlook is different
because it's an uplook. Your uplook changes the outlook. By placing God into his
philosophy, life on Earth begins to make much
more sense than just looking at life apart from God. Apart from God,
life is a bad joke. Makes no sense whatsoever. With God, it makes a
great deal of sense. This is why human
philosophy or science, medical research all by itself
cannot account for the meaning of life. Medical science can
add years to your life, only Jesus Christ can
add life to your years. Jesus said, "I have come
that they may have life and have it more abundantly." that's life under the S-O-N,
not just the S-U-N. Life under the S-U-N, boring. Life under the S-O-N, awesome. Much better that way. Now chapter 4, he continues. The vanity of oppression,
the vanity of domination, of competition, the
vanity of political power. It's all written
about in poetic form, but there's a gem
tucked in this chapter. In verse 9, he begins to
show the value of friendship, partnership. He's echoing what it says in
the book of Genesis, that is not good that man should be alone. Verse 9, "Two are
better than one. Because they have a good
reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will
lift up his companion, but woe to him who is
alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up." Fellowship with people
is a basic human need. You are hardwired for that. You are hardwired
for interdependence not independence. "Isolation is not good." Proverbs 18, we saw last time. You are meant by God to be
in community and fellowship with other people,
meaningful community. It's something that adds
spice and spunk and vigor and completes one's life. Again, verse 11, "If
two lie down together, they will keep warm, but
how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by
another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord
is not quickly broken." Solomon is making an
observation but he is making now a relational one. But he is doing it in
mathematical terms, one, two, and three. One, is a bummer. Not good the man
should be alone. Two is better, but even
better than that, three, the more friends you
have, the better life is. The more people you
have in your network holding you up bearing
the burdens of life, dividing the stress and
the pain, the better it is. Now, I always like to
bring this scripture up. I do quite frequently. I take it slightly out
of context but not much. Oh no, let me rephrase that. I don't take it out of
context, because in a marriage, a husband and wife are
to be best friends. It is a ode to friendship, and
almost every husband and wife, at least in the beginning
of their marriage, they were the best of friends. This is my best-- I'm marrying my best friend. Would to God that would
continue throughout their life. It too often doesn't. But I always like
to bring this up. Two are better than one, but
three is better than two, and I look at the husband
and wife, and I said, Solomon is saying that it's not
good that they should be alone. It's better to have
two to divide sorrows and complete joy. And so you have this groom
and you have this bride, and they both are agreeing
that it's not good that they should be alone. That's why they're here. They're getting married because
they believe it's not good that I should be alone. I want to be together. So they're saying,
two's better than one, but I'm here to tell you,
three is better than two. People always give
me a weird look like, what are you insinuating,
three is better than two? I said, this bride
and groom, they're going to wrap their
life together, their life experiences together
like a rope, like a cord. They're going to weave
together a whole set of choices and experiences from here on
out, but just like one strand can only hold so much weight,
you add too much weight, it'll break. It's better to be
with somebody else. Even two together can
only take so much weight before the rope breaks
and too many marriages, there's so much weight, so
much stress, so much anxiety that that rope breaks. But a three-fold cord, or
a cord of three strands is much stronger. So in a Christian marriage, you
have this groom, this bride, and the Lord Jesus
Christ all committed to weaving their lives together
to make something inseparable, a threefold cord. Now that Solomon's search. Solomon's sayings
begin in chapter 5. He moves from the philosophical
to the proverbial. He gives Proverbs like
we noted last week. Chapters 5 through
10, he's basically going to give Proverbs
of, guess what? Vanity, emptiness, and in
several different areas of life. False worship, chapter
5, hoarding wealth, chapters 5 and 6, living
foolishly, chapter 7 and 8. I'm only going to
show you a couple. Chapter 5, verse 10. "He who loves silver will not
be satisfied with silver." I've never met a person who has
a stated goal is after making money, whoever says, I'm done. I'm satisfied with this. A guy who has 1,000 wants
2,000, a guy who has 10,000 wants 20,000, somebody
who reaches a million wants 2 and 5 and 10, and
they're never satisfied. He who loves silver will not
be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves
abundance with increase. This is also vanity. You need to know something. Wealth is not evil. Money is not evil. I've heard that so often
suggested by Christians, well, money is evil, and
rich people are bad. No, those are dumb people
in society who think that. People who have a
lot of wealth can employ a lot of people like us. Wealth isn't wrong,
riches aren't evil, it's the love of it that is. It says in 1 Timothy chapter
6, "The love of money is a root, not the root, a
root of all kinds of evil. Notice what it says here,
Solomon says, "He who loves silver, not he who has silver." I was once in Las
Vegas and a taxi driver said, of the people that come
to Las Vegas, only 2% win. 98% of the people who
come here are all losers. What he meant was, they
put money into the machine, 98% of it ends back
in the machine. Only 2% walk away
with any winnings. Solomon says, "I've
noticed this, it's empty." Now, money for an
unbeliever, is much like what Jesus Christ is for a believer. Unbelievers trust in
money for their security. They look to money as
refuge during their storm. Believers, look to Jesus
as refuge for their storm. He is their security. Jesus said, "A
man's life does not consist in the abundance of
the things that he possesses." Now in chapter 6, I'm going
to have you look at one verse, because the soul is
brought into the discussion of this man of Proverbs. This philosopher turned
proverbial observer would say, the horizontal can
only satisfy the flesh, but if you want
your soul satisfied, your spirit satisfied, you
have to look to the vertical. Look at chapter 6, verse
7, "All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet
the soul is not satisfied." Now if you live only for
fleshly satisfaction, if that's your life, your life
is all about feeding yourself, the right menu, you're a
foodie, you're a fashionista, it's all about how you
look and what you taste, it's all about
life on that level. You're no different
than an animal. An animal lives simply
for satisfaction. Now, granted it takes
much less to make an animal temporarily
satisfied, but that is an animal's existence. Life on that
horizontal plane only. Now, I'm going to
take you to chapter 7 because there's some
strange advice in it, and let me summarize by saying
here's what he's going advise. If you're invited to a
wedding, and on the same day you're invited to a
funeral, go to the funeral. You'll be better off for it. Chapter 7, verse 2, "Better
to go to the House of mourning than to the house of feasting,
for that is the end of all men and the living will
take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by a sad countenance, the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is
in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is
in the house of mirth." Taking a stroll
through a cemetery will sometimes pay
off greater dividends than taking a weekend
away at a resort. Because you'll
consider your end. You'll consider what choices
you're making in your soul. You'll consider the
meaning of life. Yesterday, I had an
interesting meeting with a couple of the
directors at French Mortuary. I met with funeral planners, and
I called them because I said, I want to plan my funeral. Now, I'm not expecting
that anytime soon, but you never know. You never know. And it's good to
think in advance, what do you want it to be like,
what songs you want to be sung, what you want said,
who you want invited, and then to pay
for it in advance, so it's not a burden
on the family. That was the reason
I wanted to meet. I wanted to talk about
how do I prepare, so that when we die,
Lenya and I die, that my son doesn't have
to bear the burden of all those decisions,
it's taken care of. So we had about a
two-hour meeting. Fascinating discussions about
death and caskets and cemetery plots. Some of you looking at me
like, dude, that's weird. Let me say back at
you, no, that's wise. Better to go to the
House of mourning than the house of feasting. Death reminds us of
what is important, of what is inevitable,
and notice verse 3 again. Take that to heart. "Sorrow is better
than laughter." Let me put it to
you another way, the trouble-free life
is a shallow life. Somebody who is just
idealistic and has not suffered to any depth
at all doesn't really have much there for you. A trouble-free life
is a shallow life. The Arabs put it this way,
all sunshine makes the desert. Solomon would just say, "Sorrow
is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance,
the heart is made better." It's during those
times that you learn, you grow, your roots go down,
you become deeper, better, more valuable. Robert Browning
had a little poem. "I walked a mile with pleasure,
she chattered all the way but made me none the wiser
for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow
and ne'er a word is said she, but oh the things I learned from
her as sorrow walked with me." The people that I really want
to spend time with and listen to to get good advice
and counsel in life are people who have
gone through life, they've weathered the storms,
they've suffered deeply, but they've come out
better, not bitter. Those are the people that
have something to share. Chapters 8 through 10. Solomon voices what David
voiced in the psalms as he looked at
life and he noticed that righteous people suffer,
and ungodly people sometimes don't suffer. He saw that as an injustice. He basically said,
life is not fair. And though life is
predictable, in one sense, there are certain patterns
of life in the physical world that you can observe that are
predictable, sunrise, sunset, hydrological cycle,
et cetera, there's much of life that
is unpredictable. Things can happen,
come out of the blue. You might be a righteous
person then sudden calamity. And he says, this is--
guess what word he uses? Vanity. Vanity, empty,
vexation of spirit. Now I think, at this point, if
you were to interview Solomon and you said, Solomon,
tell me about suffering. What would you say suffering is? He would say, vanity,
useless, purposeless. That's where he is wrong. He's wrong. This is his journal,
it's honest, but he is wrong in saying
that suffering has no meaning or has no purpose because
we know from the New Testament, and even parts
of the Old Testament, that suffering in the
hands of an all powerful, all mighty, all loving
God is very, very useful. You grow deep, you grow
strong, and Solomon looks at the world of
enigmas and puzzles and doesn't make sense of it. Only when he looks up
does he make sense of it. Solomon, you need to know,
is using only observable data found in the material universe,
which means on a human level, human reason is insufficient. No matter how smart
you are, human reason is insufficient to discover
the meaning, the purpose, the point, and the
satisfaction in life. Why? Simply because that
which is finite can never totally grasp
that which is infinite. You want to discover what? Why does God do
this, why does God do that, you are finite asking
why infinite God allows things to happen. That's just ludicrous. The finite can never
totally understand or grasp that which is infinite. And at some point, you're going
to have to just let it go. And rest that, because God
is infinite and I am not, because God is God
and I'm now, I'm OK with him understanding
certain things and me not understanding it. Now we come to the last part
of the book, chapter 11 and 12, Solomon's solution. He goes from birth to youth to
old age very, very creatively, by the way. Chapter 11, verse 5. "As you do not know what
is the way of the wind or how the bones grow in the
womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works
of God who makes everything." Go down to verse 9,
"Rejoice--" I like this verse-- "Rejoice, o young
man, in your youth." He goes from birth to youth. "Rejoice, o young man, in your
youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of
your heart and then in the side of your eyes, but--" But. In other words,
have fun, but "Know that for all these things, God
will bring you into judgment." Now, you know that
Solomon was really good at speaking to youth. That's what Proverbs is about. Writing to his
son, his children. My son, my son, my son. Young folks need to
learn from old folks. We know that. Life is made up of that. You go to school, your teachers
are much older than you. They know the subject,
they've lived life, they're apt to teach you,
they're your instructors. But adults need to tell
them the right stuff. Oftentimes, they tell
them the wrong stuff. And sometimes older
folks, parent folks, say to their kids who
are in their teens and '20s, when are you going
to get serious about life? And they say it with
anger and a frown. And I got to just
tell you, when you say that, your kids are looking
back at you and are going, what, and end up like you? Not going to happen,
not a good plan. Solomon would say,
hey, if you're young and you've got the energy
of life, enjoy your life. Have some fun, but make the kind
of choices that, in the end, you will not regret
nor be sorry for. Proverbs 17, Solomon
said, "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed
spirit dries up the bones." Enjoy the energetic years
of your youth, especially if you can make others
happy in the process, and share with them
the joy of the Lord. But verse 9 is the balance. "Rejoice, o man in your
youth, let your heart cheer you all the days of your
youth--" The end of it says-- "But know that
for all these, God will bring you into judgment." Have fun, but don't
forget what's ahead, so make good choices. Chapter 12, verse
1, "Remember--" Now, here's the conclusion
to the book. He's narrowing it down. Here's my journal,
this is what I found. Here's my search. This is how bummed out I was. This is now my conclusion. After all the years
of experimentation, after trying wine,
women, and song, this is what I've discovered. "Remember now your creator
in the days of your youth. Make the right kind of spiritual
decisions while you're young." I came to faith in Christ
around my 18th birthday. Most decisions for Jesus
Christ are made by the young, not that you can't come
to Christ at any age. We see it every week. People make decisions for
Jesus Christ even in older age, but I'm telling you
now, if you're younger and you haven't received
Christ, do it now. Well, I want to
live a little bit. No, don't waste your life,
and then enjoy abundant life when you're going to croak. Live abundant life now. Make a spiritual decision
now while you're young. [APPLAUSE] "Remember now you're creator
in the days of your youth, before the difficult days
come and the years draw near when you say, I have
no pleasure in them." Solomon said that
about everything. I don't want
pleasure in nothing, but most people, when
they get older, well, we have pains and
aches and sorrows after years of experiences. Now, in the next
few verses, there is a vivid description
of old age. You'll see it, verse 2. "While the sun and the light,
the moon, and the stars are not darkened and the clouds do
not return after the rain." That is, while you have
your mental faculties. As you age, you start waning
a little bit in mental powers. One of the marks of
age is memory fades. Don't I know it. I love looking at pictures, oh,
yeah, I forgot all about that. Or there's just whole blocks of
things I've totally forgotten. Memory fades. "In the day when the
keepers of the house tremble--" That's
your arms, your hands. You protect the body
with those elements. Says the keepers of the
house tremble, your body, your hands start shaking. "And the strong men
bow down--" your legs that have been like
supporting pillars, start to bow and
weaken over time. You hobble instead of run
with a sprint in your step. "When the grinders cease
because they are few." What would that be? Teeth. Your teeth, right? Now, especially in
those days before there was great dental care, life
ended like it began, toothless. [LAUGHTER] Or dentures, right? Your teeth are like stars,
they come out at night. [LAUGHTER] "The grinder cease
because they are few, and those that look through
the windows grow dim." That's your eyesight. Thank God for glasses
and contacts, right? And as we age, I just went to
the optometrist, and he said, well, got to change
the prescription. I go, change the prescription? You just change
the prescription. I know. Pretty soon the glasses
are going to get so thick they could burn ants. [LAUGHTER] You notice, around 40,
something starts to happen. [LAUGHTER] Well, now I can read it. You start losing the
ability to focus up close. Verse 4, "When the doors are
shut in the street--" that is, in the ancient days, the
homes face the courtyard and there were gates that
allowed people in and out of that and protected the home. So this is the gate
to the streets. He says, "When the doors
are shut in the streets, I think it speaks of
the face drawing in and the lips drawing down, and
the sound of grinding is low--" takes longer to eat. Mastication, the
chewing process, becomes more difficult. "When one rises at
the sound of a bird--" easily awakened because of loss
of melatonin in the brain-- "and all the daughters
of music are brought low, that's the increasing deafness. Everybody starts to sound
like they're mumbling. [LAUGHTER] What? What? That's a very
descriptive, right? A very, very unique description
of age, but I like it. I'm starting to feel it. [LAUGHTER] And they are also
afraid of height and of terrors in the way. Older people, afraid of
falling, and they should be. You don't want to break
a hip at an old age. It could be your life. And so because of that
fear, when you're older, you tend to stay inside. My mother, in her 80s,
I caught her one day as I came to visit her. I saw her on the roof working
on the air conditioner. [LAUGHTER] I said, mom, you're a nurse. You know better. You could break a hip, it
could be the end of things. I thought, whatever happened
to I am afraid of heights and I got to stay inside,
it's in the Bible. I know that part skipped her. Verse 5 also says, "When
the almond tree blossoms--" You know what that means? Your hair turns white. [LAUGHTER] "The grasshopper is a burden--"
this Bible is so heavy-- "and desire fails, for a
man goes to his eternal home and the mourners go
about the streets." Verse 9, "And moreover,
because the preacher was wise, he still taught the
people knowledge, yes, he pondered and sought
out and said in order, many Proverbs the preacher
sought to find acceptable words and what was written was
upright words of truth. The words of the
wise are like goads, the words of scholars like
well-driven nails given by one's shepherd,
and further, my son, be admonished by these, of
the making of many books there is no end and much study
is worrisome to the flesh." Too many teenagers quote that to
their parents about schoolwork. Verse 13, "Let us
hear the conclusion of the whole matter." What's his summary statement? Here it is. "Fear God, and keep
His commandments." That's his conclusion in the
book, not vanity of vanities, all is vanity, what a bummer. His conclusion is,
that's how I saw things, but now, my conclusion
is this, fear God, keep His commandments,
for that is man's all, or that is the summary statement
of the purpose of life. Verse 14, "For God will bring
every work into judgment, including every secret
thing, whether good or evil." So his conclusion is fear God,
obey God, and number three, prepare to give an account
of your life to God. So life is an opportunity. Life without God is empty. Death without God is a calamity. That sums up the book. Life is an opportunity,
life without God is empty, death without God is a calamity. Whenever I do the
funeral of an unbeliever, I got nothing good to say. I'm not going to lie. I'm going to preach to the
living of why they need to end up differently than
that loved one ended up, because that's the truth. Baby Ruth. [LAUGHTER] Father, thank you for the honest
journal of a searching man. Qoheleth, a
preacher, a searcher, the Speaker of the
House, speaking to any who have
the wisdom to hear what the true meaning
of life really is. It is not wine, women,
and song, it is not science and
observation and reason, it is fear God and
keep His commandments, for that is man's all. I pray for anyone who
may happen to be here who has never made
a decision to make Jesus Christ the
center of their life. I'm glad they're here,
we're glad they've come, but they're missing that step. They've looked outward,
they've looked inward, but they've never
truly looked upward in any meaningful way,
so as to by faith, establish a relationship
with you, the living God. I pray that would
change right now. Would you do a work in the heart
to draw men and women to you? [MUSIC PLAYING] We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. For more resources,
visit Calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from the Bible from 30,000 feet.
