Filling in the Blanks | Carlos Velez | Calvary Church

So, if you have a Bible, you can turn to

Ecclesiastes chapter 2. If you don't

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

have a Bible and you want to use the one

here uh in the seat racks, uh if you

don't own one, take it home. We believe

that the Bible is filled with

life-changing truth, so we want you to

have access to that truth. If you're

using the Bibles here, it's on page 456.

All right. Ecclesiastes chapter 2,

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

verse one.

I said to myself,

"Come now, I will test you with pleasure

to find out what is good."

But that also proved to be meaningless.

Laughter, I said, is madness.

And what does pleasure accomplish?

I tried cheering myself with wine and

embracing folly, my mind still guiding

me with wisdom.

I wanted to see what was good for people

to do under the heavens during the few

days of their lives.

I undertook great projects.

I built houses for myself and planted

vineyards. I made gardens and parks and

planted all kinds of fruit trees in

them. I made reservoirs to water groves

of flourishing trees.

I bought male and female slaves and had

other slaves who were born in my house.

I also owned more herds and flocks than

anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed

silver and gold for myself and the

treasure of kings and provinces. I

acquired male and female singers and a

haram as well. The delights of a man's

heart.

I became greater by far than anyone in

Jerusalem before me. In all this, my

wisdom stayed with me. I d I denied

myself nothing my eyes desired. I

refused my heart no pleasure. My heart

took delight in all my labor. And this

was the reward for all my toil.

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands

had done and what I had toiled to

achieve,

everything was meaningless.

a chasing after the wind. Nothing was

gained under the sun.

We've said as we've looked at this book

yesterday we start last week we started

looking at this book. We've said that

the author calls himself the teacher or

the professor if you want.

And what the teacher does here is he

does an experiment. Right? He says it

right at the beginning. Come now,

I will test. He doesn't experiment.

He doesn't just theorize. He

experiments. And he pursues three

categories of things, the three Ps. He

pursues pleasure, possessions, and

projects. He pursues pleasure. He he he

live fills his life up with laughter.

He turns to wine.

He fills his life up with entertainment.

Did Did you catch what he what it said

in there? He has male and female sing.

He doesn't singers. You did you catch

that?

He doesn't have Spotify. He has the

band. Play me a song.

The guy

pursues every pleasure. Then what does

he have? He pursues possessions. He is

wealthy. Has silver, gold, flocks. He is

wealthy. He has houses. He has status.

And then not only that, he's successful.

He has projects. He builds gardens and

he builds parks. There's there's

achievements that he has done.

Now, as he's doing this experiment, he

lives out this experiment according to

this motto found in verse 10. What is

the motto?

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired.

I refused my heart no pleasure.

If he saw it and he liked it, he was

getting it. If he wanted it, it was his.

This feels more like a TMZ episode than

something from the Bible if we were

honest with ourselves, right?

He had everything. He denied himself

nothing.

There's a little there's a little

interesting thing that exposes a little

bit of a deeper issue as we look at that

passage.

There's a word that kept getting

repeated

over and over again. Did you notice the

word? The word was I.

I. I. I I

for

this teacher life has become radically

selfc centered.

It's about him. It's controlled by him.

You see this is not

just indulgence.

It's autonomy.

It's him saying, "I will control my life

and allow myself to do whatever I

please." It's autonomy.

And that's where we get at the real

issue there.

Because as we're looking at this

chapter, there's some interesting things

in there that remind us of other parts

of the Bible.

Verse five, it says this. I made gardens

and parks and planted all kinds of fruit

trees.

So he made gardens with all kinds of

fruit trees.

I've heard that description before.

Actually

heard of garden with all kinds of fruit

trees in it.

It's found in Genesis chapter 1 and two

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

when God created everything.

It says that he created everything and

he created the garden with all kinds of

fruit trees.

What is he doing the teacher here as he

pursues and builds up everything in his

life to find pleasure? He's actually

doing what a lot of us doing trying to

recapture

something of Eden.

trying to recreate the abundance, the

beauty, the pleasure

of the beginning of the story,

trying to capture the wonder of the

garden.

But in so doing, what does he do

in his efforts to try to capture Genesis

1 and 2? He repeats Genesis 3.

In Genesis 3, what happens? Those who

were in the garden, Adam and Eve,

reject God and sin.

And all sin is basically rehashing the

heart of that first sin in Genesis 3.

What do we do? We embrace the creation

and reject the creator.

We open up our eye arms wide for the

creation and we push away the creator in

rejection.

That's the tragedy

of Ecclesiastes 2.

He's trying to recreate Eden

without God.

He's trying to recreate all the beauty

and pleasures without God.

Without God.

He's not just enjoying creation.

He's trying to replace the creator.

And that's the essence of idolatry.

Taking good things and turning them into

ultimate things.

And so he's doing this in Ecclesiastes

2. And because of that, there's a

problem.

There's a problem that happens

because he's doing all this without God

and rejecting God. There's a problem

that happens. And the problem is found

in verse 11.

Verse 11 says, "Yet when I surveyed all

that my hands had done and what I had

toiled to achieve, everything was

meaningless.

A chasing after the wind. Nothing was

gained under the sun."

We need to unpack that word meaningless

for a second. It doesn't mean that it

wasn't real.

It doesn't mean that it doesn't matter.

It it means it was fleeting.

Uh it was elusive.

It was impossible to grasp and

ultimately unable to bear the ultimate

weight.

Let me let me give you an example of

what that might look like. How many of

you are beach people? Anyone beach?

Quick quick to w raise your hands. Okay,

someone's shaking their head. No.

Well, the second question, how many of

you are mountain people?

Oh, see you guys. First service they

were like, no, I can't admit that I'm a

mountain person. Mountain people here

were like, yes,

put me down for that.

My wife loves the beach.

So, I'm a beach person because of that.

I would prefer the mountain, but we're

beach people because my wife is a beach

person. Let's say you go to the beach.

Okay. Actually, you know what I

realized? The reason why I don't really

like the beach is because I grew up in

New York City. And so I went to the

beaches around New York City.

Don't do that.

Let's say you go to a a a real beach,

okay? You go down to the shore, right?

You have a great time and you you want

to kind of like keep that great time. So

you go out into the water and you

decide, you know what? I'm going to keep

some of this water, right? and you just

plunge your hand into the water and you

grab a whole fistful of it. You're going

to take it home.

That going to work out for you.

That's not going to work out for you.

You're going to grab Grab that fistful

of water. Grab that fistful of the ocean

water. What's going to happen? It's

going to It's gonna It's going to leak

out.

>> Exactly.

It's going to leak out.

It's going to just be fleeting. It's

It's going to go away. No matter how

many times you grab at that water, it's

just going to leak out. It will be

fleeting.

And what this person, what this teacher

is doing in Ecclesiastes 2 is he's

grabbing at all these things. He's

grabbing at wine. He's grabbing at

money. He's grabbing at projects. He's

grabbing at all good things. He's

grabbing at all of these good things.

But they're just fleeting.

They're elusive. He can't hold on to it.

You see, the pleasures are real. The

success was real. The achievement was

real.

But they couldn't satisfy the deepest

longing of the human soul

because they never were meant to.

They never were meant to.

You see, when we try to satisfy our

deepest longing with these things,

we are misplacing them and making them

something that they should not be. We

are taking good things. These are money

is a good thing.

Gardens are a good thing. Success is a

good thing. We're taking good things.

But we're taking those good things and

we're placing them in a place they

shouldn't be. We're taking good things

and we're asking them to be God.

We're asking them to be God.

And when we take good things and put

them where they're not supposed to be,

when we take good things and replace God

with these good things,

they ultimately will always collapse

under the weight.

They will always collapse

because they weren't meant to be there.

So, we have a teacher who does an

experiment. He's like, I'm going to deny

myself nothing.

And the problem is

that it's meaningless. It's meaningless

because they're fleeting. Because they

weren't meant to be placed in that spot.

But then as we go further on in

Ecclesiastes 2,

we come to an interesting verse. Because

oftent times when we read Ecclesiastes,

we kind of look at him like, "Wow, this

is like this is a downer.

I don't want to hang out with that guy.

He's always complaining. Oh,

meaningless, meaningless."

What? But as we go on in chapter two, we

actually come to a breakthrough.

We actually come to a breakthrough.

Verse 24 of chapter 2.

A person can do nothing better than to

eat and drink and find satisfaction in

their own toil.

This too I see is from the hand of God.

For without him, who can eat or find

enjoyment?

Did you notice the shift?

Did you notice the shift? At first

glance, it just sounds like more of what

he was doing. Eat and drink and be

merry.

Live it up.

That's not what's happening.

There's actually a theological

breakthrough that happens there.

What changed? Something changed. What

changed?

The activities didn't change.

What changed was the source of the

activities.

Before verse 24, we read, "I built, I

undertook, I made, I amassed."

What happens in this verse?

God gave it.

Joy is not achieved,

it's received.

Joy is not achieved, it's received.

And so work becomes a gift, pleasures

become a gift, life becomes a gift, a

gift from God.

That's the first lesson.

And if you stop there, you're going to

miss out because we need to learn the

second lesson. You see, the first lesson

is good. Understand that everything is a

gift from God. It's a good lesson. It's

incomplete though.

What we need to understand is that

without God, even his gifts cannot be

enjoyed as they were intended. Without

God, even his gifts cannot be enjoyed as

they were intended.

He says to eat and drink and be merry.

There's another part in the Bible that

actually has that phrase.

There's another part in the Bible that

actually that phrase is is said. It's

actually said by Jesus in the book of

Luke.

Jesus is telling a story.

He's telling a story of a very

successful person,

very wealthy guy. He's a farmer.

He has a ton of crops. The harvest is

abundant. There is profits galore.

And usually what he does with his

harvest, he's he takes it to these

silos, these buildings that he has, and

he just stores up all his grain in

there.

Not this year. It's too much. Too much

profit.

He can't store in the the silos are too

small. So what does he decide to do? He

says, "You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to tear those silos down. I'm

going to build bigger ones and I'm going

to store all my grain into there. That's

what I'll do.

Then I'll kick my feet up and relax and

I'll eat and drink and be merry.

Let me tell you how the story ends. Luke

Luke 12:19

12

verse 19. Jesus is telling the story.

And as he's telling the story, he's

speaking on he's telling what the rich

man said. And he says, "And I'll say to

myself, you have plenty of grain laid up

for many years. Take life easy. Eat,

drink, and be merry.

But God said to him, "You fool,

this very night your life will be

demanded from you. Then who will get

what you have prepared for yourself?"

Next week, uh, we're going to continue

on a little bit from chapter 2. And

actually in chapter two, that very

question is asked

that that who will get what you and so

we're going to talk about it next week.

Okay? That's called the teaser.

So come back and and listen to that.

This story that Jesus tells is is

Ecclesiastes

2 in a story form.

And then that truth that we got in

Ecclesiastes 2 where he says that God

gave it. If we continue to read on in

Luke chapter 12,

Luke 12 · chapter mention

actually that truth is played out as

well. Jesus begins to say, "Don't worry,

everything comes from God." In fact, he

even mentions Solomon. He talks about

the fields and the flowers and say, "Not

even Solomon in all his splendor was

dressed like these fields."

So Jesus provides comfort and gets us to

see like, hey, everything comes from

God. It's all a gift from God.

But then Jesus takes it even further.

Jesus takes it even further.

Verse 34

of Luke 12, Jesus says this,

"For where your treasure is, there your

heart will be also."

For where your treasure is, there your

heart will be also.

what you value, the treasure you put

when you fill out the blank of if only I

had blank,

I'd be happy.

Your treasure reveals your heart.

You see, Jesus isn't just giving good

advice.

He's changing the equation.

Yes, there's comfort in the command to

not worry because God will provide all

that.

But what we need to understand is what

Jesus is trying to tell us is yes, God

will provide what you need. But guess

what? What you need is me.

What we need is Jesus. And God has

provided him.

Jesus enters into our fleeting, broken

world. He enters into our mess.

He enters into our meaningless.

And then what does he do?

He exposes our false treasures.

And he reveals himself as the true

treasure that we need.

And then he creates a way for us to have

access to him, the ultimate treasure.

Jesus steps into our meaningless. He

steps into our mess and he exposes all

the false treasures we've built our life

around and then he reveals no he is the

ultimate treasure that we need and he

provided the way that we can have access

to him through his life, death and

resurrection.

You see where Ecclesiastes reveals the

emptiness of life without God,

Jesus offers the fullness of life with

him.

You see that where Ecclesiastes reveals

the emptiness of life without God, Jesus

offers the fullness of life with him.

So, I guess my question is,

what are we trying to fill in the blanks

with?

What are you trying to fill in the

blanks with?

If I only had blank, if I only had more

of blank, I'd be happy.

What do you put there?

Is it your career?

Is it your comfort?

Is it your recognition? Is it a

relationship? If I only had this

relationship,

what is it? What are you putting there?

Whatever we're putting there,

if it's not Jesus, what Ecclesiastes

teaches us is that it won't hold up.

It won't hold up. Remember

at the beginning of the message I was

talking about uh you can't fill in the

blanks especially with cantaloupe. You

can't fill in the blanks because you

didn't create the handout. The creator

is the one who gets to say what goes in

the blank.

What our creator determined

was what we needed to put in that blank

was himself.

Here's the deal. You don't need to fill

in the blank.

We don't need to fill in the blank.

We need to be filled by Jesus.

Again, the big idea for today

is what we put in God's place won't

satisfy because life only works with

him.

Stop filling in the blanks

and allow yourself to be filled by

Jesus. How do we do that? Well, I'm

going to give you homework because I

like doing that.

You see, when we try to fill in the

blanks,

we try to find our joy, our happiness,

our fulfillment by whatever it is we

fill in the blank with,

whether it's our bank account, whether

it's our success, our recognition, our

relationship, whatever it is we fill in

the blank, often times they're just like

the water we grasp at in the ocean.

They're fleeting. They they they

disappear.

They tend to evade us.

they just kind of melt away. And when

those things start to be fleeting, what

happens?

We get upset, right? We we get anxious.

We get angry. We we try to control it.

We try to grasp them back

because these are the things that we're

relying on. We keep trying to grasp them

back. There's an emotional response that

happens when they start to flee. When

they we start to lose control of them,

right? There's an emotional response.

Here's our homework for all of us,

including me this week.

When those things start to be fleeting

and we start to have that emotional

response,

we're going to take that emotional

response

and make it a prayer prompter.

Okay? So, when you feel that emotional

response, we're going to make it a

prayer prompter.

I see that hand question. What are we

praying? Here's what we're not praying.

We're not praying,

"God, please give me that money back.

God, please give me that relationship

back."

That's not what I'm asking you to do.

You can pray for those things, but

that's not what the prayer prompter is.

The prayer prompter is this.

God,

make me aware of your love and your

presence.

That's it. That's the prayer. God, make

me aware of your love and your presence.

Because if those are there, nothing else

is needed.

Nothing else is needed.

In fact,

let's pray for that right now.

Lord, we thank you

that you have made a way for us to be

with you, to live life with you.

God, we apologize for the times when we

try to grasp at other things and put

them in the place where you belong.

Give us the peace and the courage

and the strength to find our joy in you

above everything else.

Lord, I ask you

for exactly that prayer that we talked

about

this week. Make us all

aware of your love and aware of your

presence.

and let us be filled with the joy that

that awareness brings.

Pray this in Jesus name. Amen.