The Emptiness of Things | Myles Holmes

As you grab your seat, I want to take this moment to welcome the grade two to fives that are with us this morning.

Maybe we can just give them a little welcome this morning.

That's pretty awesome, eh?

That you get clapped for when you're in the service.

The grade two to fives are with us, experiencing the worship with us, experiencing the Lord with us.

And Miss Julie has given you a sheet that I think if you fill out, you get a prize.

Is that right?

You get a if it's not right, I've just thoroughly cursed Miss Julie right now.

But that is right.

And adults, doesn't work for you, okay?

There's a little height limit.

You can't fill out the sheet, but there's some questions on that sheet.

And I always liked when people gave me some of the answers, so I want to give you one of the answers right now to one to that sheet, okay?

At the top right corner it says who's speaking.

You might not know who this strange man is.

My name is Pastor Miles.

Like the distance, not kilometers.

Heard that joke before.

Miles with a Y instead of an I, and you can fill that out, but you've got to share some of whatever you get with me now, okay?

Does that sound good?

All right, well, welcome.

We're gonna begin God's Word this morning.

We are in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 2, verses 1 to 11 this morning.

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11

And if you don't have a Bible with you, our ushers are making their way down the aisle right now.

You can flag one of them down.

They would love to get a copy of God's word into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you.

We love God's word at this church, and we would love for you to take home a copy.

The less copies we have here, the greater for us.

We love God's word, and you're gonna see that this morning as we get into it.

I wonder if you've ever noticed something that's incredibly powerful in your life.

I don't think we think very often about it.

It's the power of things.

Things are powerful, aren't they?

I'm talking about material things, physical things, immaterial things, things.

I'm starting to sound like Dr.

Seuss this morning, and as we go on, I'll sound probably more like Dr.

Seuss because this morning we're talking about things, but isn't it amazing that things have an immense power over our life?

I wonder if you've ever had the privilege of buying a new car or a car that's new to you.

And you drive off that law, and it's a really simple thing, but it's got such immense power because inside of you things are different all of a sudden.

There's this feeling of joy.

And you drive that car and you think, well, I bet you everybody's looking at me right now in this beautiful car that I'm driving.

And you feel like you're on top of the world, and you feel good not just about this car.

The thing has more power than that.

It kind of persuasive in your life to make you feel good, not just about the car that you've bought, but about life itself.

Things are powerful in your life, they have a powerful grip on you.

And maybe your thing isn't cars, you know, maybe that doesn't happen for you, but all of us could think of something that when we have, we we have this sort of feeling uh like we feel settled, like everything's right in life.

And when we don't have, that thing also has a power over us because we we feel this restlessness.

Well, things aren't gonna be right in life until I get this thing.

Have you ever noticed that?

The power of things in your life.

It's not always material things.

Maybe it's a purchase, but maybe it's a relationship that is your thing.

Maybe it's a job.

Maybe it's a number on a scale, a title, a promotion, whatever it is.

We all, if we're honest this morning, we all have that thing that we can take a step back.

And I think, you know, if you're in, if you're right now saying, listen, nothing has a hold over me like this, I just want you to know you're being intellectually dishonest.

To embrace this with intellectual honesty is to say, listen, something has this power over me.

That when I have it, I I have this settled feeling.

When I don't, I have this restless feeling.

Now, this morning I'm not so curious about what that thing is as I am about if you've ever thought about the power of things.

And maybe to push this a layer deeper, do you have a theology of things?

I mean, things are so pervasive in your life.

You're wearing things right now.

Thank God, right?

This would be an interesting service if we, anyways, let's not go there with the great two to fives in the room.

You're sitting on things, you drove here in things, you you came out of things this morning, you got up out of things.

There are things everywhere, and I wonder if you have a theology of things.

In fact, our relationship with things perhaps is no better illustrated to us than by Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing themselves.

Have you ever heard of Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing?

I want to read a story to you right now about Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing.

It's gonna come up on the screen.

And that's big enough for you to read.

Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing are a very pleasant and successful couple.

At least that's the verdict of most people who tend to measure success with the thingometer.

When the thingometer is put to work in the life of Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing, the result is startling.

There is Mr.

Thing, sitting down on a luxurious and very expensive thing, almost hidden by a large number of other things, things to sit on, things to sit at, things to cook on, things to eat from, all shiny and new.

Things, things, things.

Things to clean with and things to wash with, things to clean and things to wash, and things to amuse and things to give pleasure and things to watch and things to play.

Things for the long hot summer and things for the short cold winter.

This is not Canadian, by the way.

Things for the big thing in which they live, and things for the garden, and things for the deck, and things for the kitchen, and things for the bedroom, and things on four wheels, and things on two wheels, and things to put on top of the four wheels, and things to pull behind the four wheels, and things to add to the interior of the thing on four wheels.

Things, things, things.

And there in the middle are Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing, smiling and pleased as punch with things, thinking of more things to add to things secure in their castle of things.

I wonder if you can resonate with the life of Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing.

Better have a theology of things.

That's what Solomon is doing in Ecclesiastes chapter 2.

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

It's an experiential theology of things.

There are two ways you can come to learn about God and about theology.

One is from his word.

There's another where you come and learn about him by studying his world that he created.

And this is what Solomon does this morning, and I want to read it together.

And so as we do and as we build a theology of things, would you stand with me as we honor God's word this morning?

Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verses 1 to 11.

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11

I said in my heart, Come now, I will test you with pleasure.

Enjoy yourself.

But behold, this also was vanity.

I said, Of laughter it is mad, and of pleasure, what use is it?

I searched my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart is still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

I made great works.

I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.

I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.

I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house.

I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces.

I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

And so I became great, and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem.

All my wisdom remained with me, and whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.

I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil.

And this was my reward for all my toil.

Then I considered all that my hands had done, and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

As for the word of the Lord, you can grab your seat.

Solomon is looking to find pleasure and satisfaction in life.

And as we do, we come to chapter two, and he's he's come to the in his search to things.

Notice in verse 1, he says, Come now, I will test you with pleasure.

And yet, at the beginning of our passage, and then at the end again, the conclusion is the same that this is vanity.

It is a Havel.

It is a mist.

Did you guys see the fog this morning?

I looked out this morning, my back deck, I couldn't even see to the back of my deck.

It was so foggy, and yet as I saw the sun come up, I saw all the fog disappear.

And this is what Solomon is calling the things of life.

Every time he comes to this conclusion, things are empty.

They cannot satisfy.

It is the emptiness of things that Solomon wants to insert into our theology and influence our life with, that things are empty.

They cannot satisfy.

This all is vanity, Solomon says.

It's vanity.

And so then what chapter two really is, is Solomon doing an experiment with more resources than anybody who has ever lived in the history of humanity.

I mean, if there is magazines at that time, Solomon would be on the front of people's magazine, the richest man alive, who's also the wisest.

And we would be looking at him and saying, why does Solomon get it all?

And yet this morning the blessing is ours because Solomon runs this experiment where almost like a conveyor belt is in front of him, and all the things of earth are passing him.

And do you know what he does?

He, with all the wisdom he could ever have that God had given him, all the skill, he picks up everything and like a sponge, he he wrings it out and he asks, How much joy can I get from this thing?

How much joy can I get from laughter?

How much joy can I get from wine?

Thing after thing passes by him and he and he keeps searching for pleasure in it, and he shows us exactly what he finds.

And the first thing I want you to notice is that as he goes on this pursuit, and as you and I go on this pursuit, the first thing we will find is the empty pleasures of play.

The empty pleasures of play.

Notice that Solomon's approach in these first three verses is threefold.

He tries laughter, he tries wine, and he tries entertainment.

Look down at your copy of God's word.

Notice in verse 2, he says, I said of laughter it is mad, and of pleasure, what use is it?

This idea of laughter being mad, it's this idea that though laughter is a good thing, in chapter three, the same preacher will say that there is a time to laugh, there is a time to mourn.

It's a gift of God.

It's mad in the sense that if you put all your chips on laughter, it will not deliver you.

We've experienced this before, haven't we?

We've put on the comedy special on Netflix and we've watched it for an hour, and maybe we've laughed, maybe we've even laughed really hard.

But but the problem is laughter, it can cause you to forget for a moment, but eventually the laughter fades.

You guys know this, right?

You've got the funniest pastor in all of Canada, right?

That wasn't supposed to be funny.

I don't know why there's laughing there, but you know that no matter how funny the joke, the funniest joke you could ever possibly hear, you laugh.

You might laugh till your stomach hurts.

All the darkness and emptiness of the world might fade away, but eventually the laughter fades away too, and you are left with the exact same thing.

Laughter, it cannot fill the void that is the emptiness of living in this world.

Not when you experience it, not when you lean on it.

And so we know people, maybe maybe we're that person ourselves, people who depend on laughter.

Everything becomes a joke.

You cannot have a serious conversation with them.

If they need to address anything, it will be through a passive, aggressive joke.

And they're trying to cover up the emptiness of life with humor, but it just does not work.

It is mad, Solomon says.

Solomon says of pleasure, what use is it?

The emptiness of laughter, the pleasures of play are empty, Solomon says.

Notice also then that Solomon turns to wine.

I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine.

Now, listen, if if some of you guys are real literalists with the text and you're saying, well, I don't like wine, but I do love beer.

I want you to know you're included in this as well.

The margaritas are here, okay?

It's the rest of the sermon.

I just start listing off drinks just to make sure that we're all included here.

Solomon tested everything.

He says, I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine.

Notice what he says.

My heart's still guiding me with wisdom.

So Solomon here isn't talking about the drunk who's in the alley on a Friday night puking their brains out, saying, Listen, I tried that and I couldn't find joy.

I think all of us are looking at that and saying, yeah, well, joy is obviously not found there.

Joy is not found on your knees hanging over a toilet, regretting the decisions you made last night.

The grade two to fives right now are like, wow, what the adults talk about is really interesting.

But that's not where joy is.

But that's not what Solomon does.

Solomon says that he tested his heart with complete wisdom.

His use of wine wasn't necessarily sinful.

Solomon found that turning to drink could not cover up the thing, the emptiness that was inside of him.

And I wonder, loved one, if at a moment like this there needs to be some really specific application to some of you who are turning too quickly to drink.

Who maybe right now you need to do a little bit of reflection on your life and ask if drink is something that you could give up easily.

Or if it's something that's become a crutch in your life.

It's something that you turn to to get away from a long, weary day to try to fill the void of tiredness that is in your soul.

It's something that you turn to to try to get away from the anxieties that are in your life of the burdens that you constantly wear.

Solomon is here to say it won't work.

I tested it in every single way.

It will not cover the emptiness.

He tries laughter, he tries wine, he turns even to entertainment.

Notice in verse 4, I may or sorry, verse 3, I searched my heart with how to cheer my body with wine.

My heart still guided me with wisdom and how to lay hold on to folly till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

He says, I did it all.

I mean, Solomon's telling us that he had the ancient Near Eastern version of Netflix.

You know that Netflix feeling you watch the show, and what happens immediately after the show?

You've got 4.2 seconds to get to the converter and turn it off before another show begins.

Thousands upon thousands of millions of billions of hours of content on Netflix alone.

And we're not even talking about the other subscriptions you have of Disney Plus.

And whatever else there is.

There's so much, it just keeps coming.

And sure, you can watch the show and you can be distracted, but but eventually you've got to turn it off.

And as soon as you turn it off, don't you notice what Solomon noticed?

That when I searched with my heart of all the things that the children of man do under the earth, none of it actually fills the void.

It puts a temporary band-aid on, but after I'm either left wanting more or I'm left embracing the reality of the emptiness of the world that we live in.

You can watch the show.

You can scroll on the phone.

You can play the video game.

Do you know how I know that we've bought into this idea that the things that we do, that the entertainment that we participate in can change our life for the better and actually deal with the emptiness?

I know it because of this.

You know what PlayStation's slogan is?

PlayStation's slogan is this greatness awaits.

Greatness awaits.

And they have sold a vision of life that says you can be great in your basement when you are pretending to be Spider-Man and you've beaten venom.

And we we hear that and we say, I mean, that's just so ridiculous.

That is not greatness, and yet the feeling of greatness must be there because there are many addicted to the power of the thing that is video games that makes them for a moment forget the emptiness of the world and feel like something great.

The problem with all of this entertainment is eventually the show ends, eventually the game ends, eventually the scrolling must stop, and you are left right where you began.

Solomon exposes it.

It's vanity.

It's Havil.

It's empty.

It's disappearing.

And what Solomon wants to do in us this morning is not just expose the habit.

And maybe you're listening to this and you realize, yeah, I mean, yeah, I got some of those habits, but Solomon wants to go even deeper, and the Holy Spirit wants to go deeper this morning to expose the heart behind the habit.

The heart behind the habit.

That empty things can't fill emptiness.

Loved ones, do you know that?

Empty things cannot fill emptiness.

It doesn't work.

I mean, we know that in the physical food realm, right?

I mean, have you ever wondered at the miracle that is Chinese food?

A few weeks ago, we ordered a bunch of Chinese food.

There's always way too much.

You order for two, and it's like it serves like 12.

You had this experience with me before?

And you and you eat it, and you eat as much as you can, and you can just keep going with Chinese food.

I don't know what it is, you can just keep going.

And then what you're you eat till you're stuffed, you cannot fit anymore, and it still doesn't look like you've even started to eat the Chinese food.

I don't know what the miracle is that's going on there.

And then what happens an hour later?

You're hungry again.

And you're thankful because there's leftovers and you eat more, and it never actually satisfies.

There's no nourishment there.

We understand it with food.

And that's not a huge deal for us.

It's good to enjoy some Chinese food every once in a while.

Go in the freedom of Christ and eat some Chinese food today, okay?

But man, it is really sad when we think about the spiritual equivalent of that.

That when it comes to the satisfaction of our souls, not not the satisfaction of our stomachs, but the satisfaction of our souls.

That as human beings, you and I keep reaching to things that just cannot satisfy, that do it for a moment, but a few minutes later we gotta reach back because we're empty again.

We're empty again.

And the empty thing will never actually deal with the emptiness.

That's what Solomon wants to keep driving here.

If you want to be filled, you you have to stop turning to empty things, to things you are know you know that are empty.

Empty things cannot fill emptiness.

It's the empty pleasure of play.

Now, the second thing I want you to see that Solomon points out to us by his experiment this morning is this the empty pursuit of property, the empty pursuit.

Of property.

Notice here in verse 4, I made great works.

I built for myself houses and planted vineyards for myself.

I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.

I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

I want you to notice the scale to which Solomon went to find joy and satisfaction and happiness in the pursuit of property.

Did you notice the plural there?

Solomon did not build for himself a house.

He built for himself houses.

He built vineyards, gardens, parks, pools.

All in the plural.

I'm convinced that Solomon had a house that was filled with people.

And he lived in it with all the people in it.

And he said, Man, the problem with this house is the people.

Anyone have that same thing?

Let me get an amen.

Raise your hand in the hair.

Problem might maybe don't do that.

That might not be wise.

Maybe, but maybe you think that the problem with this house is the people.

And so Solomon, though, he tried something else.

I'm gonna build a house with no people in it.

And he went into that house, and you know what he said, well, the problem with this house, there's no people in this house.

So let's build a house with some people, just my favorite people.

And he built house after house after house.

He had houses with pools, houses without pools, houses with lawn maintenance, houses without lawn maintenance, houses with gardens, houses with fruit trees, every kind of house, every kind of pool, every kind of garden.

Man, this is so relevant on May Long weekend, right, gardeners, where we're getting all the plants in.

Every kind of garden.

He goes to everything.

And not only that, notice, notice how many times in verses four to six Solomon reminds us why he was doing this.

Verse four, for myself.

Verse five, I made myself.

Verse six, I made myself pools, myself, myself, myself.

This was all for me.

This was to serve me, this was to satisfy the navel-gazing me monster that every one of us is.

We're told in 1 Kings that on the palace alone, Solomon took 10 years to build it.

With all the resources in the world, all the labor, ten years to build an extravagant palace.

Solomon knew how to design a house.

He keeps coming back to the same reality.

It's vanity.

It's vanity.

Empty things cannot fill emptiness.

They will not, they cannot.

They cannot.

You get the sense here in verse 7, as sorry, verse 6, as Solomon talks about fruit trees, that he is bringing our mind back to the Garden of Eden.

You remember in the Garden of Eden, it was this amazing temple that God had created.

And in this house of God, there were all kinds of fruit trees.

And what did God say to Adam and Eve?

You can eat of every tree.

I have made it for your good.

But, but you cannot eat of one tree.

If you eat of that tree, you will die.

I think that's incredibly gracious of God to tell us about the tree that if we eat of, we will die.

And Adam and Eve thought the same thing.

God is so gracious that He not only invites us to eat of all the trees in the garden, he tells us what pizza has olives on it to stay away from.

He tells us what to stay away from, he tells us what will lead to our harm and what will lead to our death.

And here, you know what Solomon is doing is he's reconstructing the Garden of Eden.

Come, eat till you are full, till you're full, eat until you're filled with pleasure.

Eat whatever you want.

You know what the key difference is, is that Solomon's garden doesn't have the forbidden tree in it.

Everything in Solomon's houses and gardens was built for his pleasure.

And still the outcome, Solomon says, is van it is vanity.

Empty things cannot fill emptiness.

And you know, I gotta say, as old of a book as Ecclesiastes is, doesn't it speak so relevantly to current cultural issues?

There is a reason why, politically, right now, what is called the housing crisis is one of the biggest political talking points.

Because we believe, like Solomon experimented, we believe that our joy can just be found in the next house.

So there is a ladder of property and houses that all of us are climbing on right now.

It started when you didn't have a house and you were looking for a house to rent.

And you said, I just gotta find the right house to rent.

If I get the right house to rent in the right place, I mean this is gonna be great.

And you rent the house and you get in and you say, Well, this is you know, the problem with this is it's not mine.

I just need a house to own.

And you take a step up the ladder, I mean, up as soon as I get a house to own, then I'm gonna be happy.

And you get that starter home and you buy it, but it is breaking down.

I mean, you can tell I'm talking a little personally, right, about my life right now.

I mean, it's breaking down, and it's in the wrong neighborhood, and it's just too small, and your family's growing, and here you are again, you've taken a step up the ladder, but you're looking up the ladder some more.

No, no, no, joy is up there.

When I have the two-car garage, that's where joy is.

And you get that house and you're there, but man, it's far away from work, and the mortgage is a lot bigger here, and the neighbors are renovating their kitchen, and this kitchen is kind of old, and no matter how far you keep climbing up the house property ladder of pleasure, you keep finding what Solomon found.

Oh, this doesn't do it.

You know what the problem is?

The problem is that you and I believe the next thing will.

And we don't have the resources right now.

Maybe we will soon have the resources to act on that belief.

Solomon had the resources and he climbed the ladder to the very top.

And from the top, he is yelling down right now.

It will not do it.

It will not do it.

The pursuit of property is an empty pursuit, he says.

Now, again, Solomon is not pointing to the habit here.

He is pointing to the heart beneath the habit.

Whether your thing is laughter, whether your thing is wine, whether your thing is entertainment, whether your thing is a home, whether it's a property, a garden, a pool, whatever it is, Solomon, having tried it all, is yelling down.

It's vanity.

Empty things cannot fill emptiness.

Buying the house you have dreamed of will not satisfy the feeling that you believe that house will produce.

It will not, it cannot.

It's the empty pleasures of play, it's the empty pleasures of property.

Now it's fascinating that Solomon has experienced the empty pleasure of play, he's experienced the empty pursuit of property, and he does what every human heart does when he finds that it's empty and vanity.

He he goes to the next thing.

He does exactly what you and I do.

He says, Well, if you know, listen, if this bucket, filling this bucket didn't satisfy me, let me try a whole new bucket.

And it's the third thing I want you to see is that when we run after things and satisfaction in them, we will experience the empty promise of possessions.

The empty promise of possessions.

Notice in verse 7.

Verse 7, he says, I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house.

Solomon had total autonomy.

And and very likely what's happening here is not what you and I think of when we think of Western slavery.

It's probably very much closer to a staff employer relationship.

And Solomon says, I had complete control, I had complete freedom over my time, I had complete autonomy.

I mean, who was building these houses and these gardens and these vineyards?

It was my servants, it was my slaves.

It was the people who were working under me, doing whatever I wanted them to do.

It was all the control in the world.

In fact, in the 1970s, two psychologists set out to do a major study on what makes us happy in life, and they came to this determination.

It was a major study that really, out of this study, many conferences and books were launched.

It has affected many thousands of millions of lives.

They came to conclude that what a person needs to be happy is complete control and freedom over their time and money.

It's what we dream of, isn't it?

Freedom from the enslavement of the nine to five job.

Freedom to vacation when we want to vacation.

To do the things we want to do when we want to do them.

And Solomon is saying this, listen, I had all the resources, I had all the control.

Empty things cannot fill emptiness.

It will not do it.

That control that you are dreaming of, it will not satisfy you, Solomon says.

And he goes even further here.

He says in verse 7, I had great possessions of herds and flocks, again in the plural.

And if that's not enough for you to believe, how amazing Solomon is.

I mean, this really is the currency of the day, herds and flocks.

Solomon's saying, I got money on money.

I will show you my bank account right now.

I've got more than anybody else has ever had the possession of.

A lot of commas in my bank account, Solomon says.

Verse 8, I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of what?

Of kings and of prom provinces.

I mean, we are talking about astronomical wealth here.

It's not just the wealth of your wealthy next-door neighbor, it is the wealth of nations.

It is the wealth of kings.

Solomon collected it all, and he was just like Rockefeller, who you've likely heard this famous quote when he was asked, How much will be enough?

He said, just a little bit more.

Solomon found the exact same thing.

He always wanted one more thing, no matter how much he had.

And loved one, that I mean, the the Holy Spirit this morning, like a doctor, is coming and giving us a diagnosis.

Saying, listen, this way that you have been living, this belief that you have inherited, that just one more thing will satisfy you, it is so there is no foundation to it.

I mean, I just I I cannot get my mind off of Psalm 16, what Adam read and prayed this morning.

The sorrows of those who run after other gods shall what?

Multiply.

Shall multiply.

It's not only that it's empty, it's that living with this belief that just one more thing will satisfy.

And running after that thing by by working crazy hours at work and trying to get the promotion and waiting for the vacation and doing this and doing that, the pursuit of the one more thing, it all it does is open the door in your life to the floodgates of sorrow to be led in.

And the question we are confronted with this morning is do we believe the word of God when it says that the sorrows of those who run after other gods will multiply?

Not may multiply, not could multiply, not that won't multiply as long as you found the right God to run after.

The sorrow of those who run after any other thing or any other God other than God and Jesus Christ Himself will multiply.

The scriptures say, Do you believe it, loved one?

You believe it.

Can we just stop to say this?

We've experienced it for long enough.

The last house didn't do it.

This house isn't doing it.

The last paycheck didn't do it.

This pay raise won't do it.

The last relationship didn't do it.

This relationship won't do it.

The next thing, loved ones, can we just, with all wisdom and and reading the experiment that Solomon has gone on, can we just say, one more thing won't cut it?

One more thing won't cut it.

The heart does not stop wanting.

Here's how we know.

Look what Solomon turned next to in verse 8.

He says, I got singers, both men and women.

Solomon got to the point on his pursuit of pleasure where he had tried so many things.

He thought, maybe I'll just have some people follow me around and sing all day.

That's how you know you're pretty far in the pursuit of pleasure.

In fact, just to experience the text, I asked Joel if he would follow me this week and sing.

He wouldn't do it.

So I don't know.

Maybe there is pleasure there, and maybe you need to try it.

I actually have four girls who love singing, and I can tell you, as beautiful as their voices are, sometimes it's too much.

One of them's in here, so I feel really bad saying that, but here we go.

His singers follow him, and yet, you know, we can we, I hope, can laugh about that idea of having a choir follow you and sing.

I mean, you gotta say, Solomon didn't have Spotify at the time, so this was like Spotify Apple music, okay?

And he tried it.

But we do know what it's like to rely on people for satisfaction, don't we?

I mean, maybe your thing is people.

Maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's your family, maybe it's your employer, maybe it's a friend.

Maybe the thing, the one more thing you think will satisfy it is that relationship you've got your eyes on.

And you're saying, I'm, I mean, life will be good once I have that.

And hear a Solomon to say, it's vanity, it's vanity, it's vanity.

It won't.

It won't.

Just take a step back and think about the pursuit that you're on, loved one.

It won't, it won't happen.

People cannot satisfy you.

You know, Amber and I, before we got married, we read a book.

It's an amazing book.

I highly recommend it.

One of the best books on marriage I think there is that I've ever read.

It's called When Sinners Say I Do.

It's by Dave Harvey.

And I love it, if nothing else, for the title.

Because the title of that book really gives you the expectation of what marriage is gonna be.

What do you think is gonna happen when one sinner and a second sinner decide to do life together in the closest possible relationship in the whole world?

What do you think is gonna happen?

I mean, probably a lot of sin.

And what's gonna happen when those two sinners have little ankle biting sinners?

More sin is gonna be introduced into the house.

I mean, people just will not satisfy.

One sinner plus one sinner creates sin, creates confusion, it creates hurt.

That's why, you know, one of the things I would love to do in this church, and I probably could do it, except for that it's a really bad idea, and I have people around who, you know, love me enough to tell me about my bad ideas, I would love to make the slogan of this church, redemption church, you'll probably get hurt here too.

Because I have conversations with new people that come into our church, and I understand there is a lot of church hurt that happens, there's a lot of ridiculous things that have happened in the past, and I'm not here to sugarcoat any of that, but but I find myself often having to say, listen, if you spend enough time here, I promise you, I will hurt you.

That person will hurt you.

You're gonna get hurt here.

And it's probably the strangest introduction to a church that these newcomers have ever gotten.

But I just feel the need to be to be honest with them and and like Solomon, pull the rug out from under their feet and say, listen, people are gonna let you down.

And I'm not, I'm not trying to be, you know, pessimistic here.

I'm just uh showing you the the the pursuit that Solomon's on to find something, even someone to satisfy under the earth, it is an impossible pursuit.

It is vanity.

Solomon turned even to concubines, and we're told in the book of Kings that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines.

He he ran the experiment to every degree.

And today, with the rectangle that is in each of our pockets, we can run the exact same experiment, and there are many, many men who are doing that this morning.

And Solomon is here to say, it will not satisfy.

It cannot.

And he is telling us the condition of the human heart is this that we always believe the next thing will satisfy.

You know, I used to live in the suburbs.

I never thought I would be a rural guy.

That's a hard word to say.

I'm never gonna say that preaching again because I feel like I said that wrong.

I never thought I'd be a guy who lived out in the country, but now I do and I love it.

And on our little country spot, we have half an acre.

And I never dreamed of having half an acre, but I can tell you, as soon as I had half an acre, I can tell you every reason why half an acre is not enough land.

You know what the problem is with half an acre?

You can't have a goat.

Now I want a goat.

I don't even know what I want a goat for, except for that my heart wants a goat.

And someone can tell me what you do with a goat after this, but I can tell you right now that I want one.

And I find myself, man, I wish we just had another half acre.

I wish you could just like double the length of this property.

Then we could get a goat.

You know what that reveals to me?

It's the condition of the human heart.

When we find one thing, it always expands so that we believe true happiness and satisfaction will be in that next thing.

And you know, God is here this morning not to shame us about that condition, but to make us aware of the diagnosis.

That the problem is not the goat, the problem is not the half acre, the problem was not the concubine, the problem was not the property, it was not the possessions, it was not the play.

The problem is with us.

The problem is with the condition of our heart that is tuned to always believe that the next thing will satisfy.

And here in verse 9, Solomon lays the thesis over it all to say, listen, please be so aware.

This isn't to heap sh guilt and shame on you.

I want you to be so aware of the condition of your heart.

I became great and surpassed all who went before me in Jerusalem.

Also, my wisdom remained with me, and whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity.

All was a striving after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

And Solomon comes here to say this, loved one stop trusting the things, stop believing that the empty things can fill the emptiness of your life.

They will not, they cannot.

And we take a step back to see that the condition of our heart is to always believe that one more thing will satisfy.

And to hear Solomon's word that it cannot.

And you know, I owe something to you.

I shared with you the story of Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing, but I did not share the ending.

And I want to read that to you now.

The story goes on like this.

Well, I just want you to know that your things can't last.

They're going to pass, but there's going to be an end to them.

Oh, maybe an error in judgment, maybe a temporary loss of concentration, or maybe you'll just pass them off to the secondhand thing dealer.

Or maybe they'll wind up a mass of mangled metal being towed off to the thing yard.

What about the things in your house?

Well, it's time for bed.

Put out the cat, make sure you lock the door so some thing taker doesn't come and take your things.

And that's the way life goes, isn't it?

And someday, when you die, they only put one thing in the box.

You.

Isn't that life?

As we view our life from the end, don't we see the value of things?

That it is like they say, you cannot take a you-haul to the grave, that at the end of the day there is only one thing that remains with you, and that is protect yourself.

As you are buried in the grave.

And love when my prayer right now is that God is releasing your heart from the grip of things, as with wisdom you see the vanity, the emptiness of pursuing pleasure in the things of earth.

It's for this reason that Jesus came.

It's fascinating that when Jesus comes in the letter of Hebrews, the writer says that he is the heir of all things, through whom the world was created.

A few weeks ago, Adam preached to us from Colossians 1, 15 to 20, which says that Christ is supreme over all things, that all things were created by him and for him and through him.

All things, Paul keeps coming back to in Colossians, things, things, things.

That is what Christ is supreme over, and it is Christ who came and lived the perfect life.

Christ was perfectly satisfied in God.

He did what you and I have been unable to do because of the sinful condition of our heart.

He placed his satisfaction not in something that was under the sun, but something above it in the Father Himself.

And living the perfect life, being satisfied in the right things, denying the false pursuit and promise and pleasure of the things of earth.

Jesus then went to the cross, and you know what he did?

I mean, it's such good news.

He died for a people like you and me, who spend our days, who maybe have spent this past week, who maybe even this weekend are looking forward to the hope we have in things.

Jesus died to make payment for a people who love things more than God.

And he rose, offering what no thing on earth has ever been able to offer.

An end to the search.

Satisfaction himself.

Loved one, look down to verse 24 of chapter 2 with me.

Notice the conclusion that Solomon comes to.

He says that there is nothing better for a person that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.

This also I saw is from the hand of God.

Solomon came to realize this that when you are looking for pleasure in the things of earth, you will never find it, because empty things cannot fill emptiness.

But when you look to the hand of the giver of every good gift, you can find satisfaction.

You can find what Solomon says, there is nothing better for a person that he not sees the gift, not grabs the gift and tries to extract as much joy from it as he can.

He looks to the hand that gives the gift and loved one.

It is Jesus who came to make a relationship with the giver of good gifts possible.

It is through faith that for some of you, that is the invitation this morning, that by faith you you need to cast yourself at the feet of Jesus and said, I have run after other gods and multiplied my own sorrow.

And Jesus, I am here to declare that you are the one God, that there is joy found in no other place other than right here at the foot of the cross.

Maybe that's the invitation you need to embrace this morning, but for those of you who have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, Solomon does something incredibly practical for us.

He shows us how to live with things to the glory of God.

Because the application here is not to just throw away all your things.

Although, if you are, there's a white Kia Sedona out there, just toss them in there, okay?

We need things.

We need things.

And Solomon here is showing us how to live with things to the glory of God.

I think it's best illustrated by a piece that C.S.

Lewis wrote.

It's called Meditations from a Tool Shed.

Now, when C.

S.

Lewis writes meditations from his shed, we all lean in and want to hear.

If I write meditations from my shed, if you ever, if that ever happens, I want you to just ignore it, okay?

But this is C.S.

Lewis.

C.S.

Lewis writes this piece, Meditations from a Shed, and he's in the shed and he notices that his shed is, the roof is broken.

And it's a sunny day, and uh a beam of sunlight is shining through the roof of the shed.

You ever seen that before?

And he can see in the beam, I mean it's nothing special.

They're just like kind of dust floating down in the beam.

And it's in and of itself, it is nothing special.

But then he does something, he he steps into that beam and he looks along it, out the roof.

And you know what he sees?

Looking through the beam, using the beam, he sees the brightness and brilliance and glory of the sun shining through the shed.

And loved one, what if the things of earth were not the things that actually satisfy?

What if the things of earth were just beams that are shining into the darkness of this world, whose purpose is not for you to worship and to look at the dust and say, maybe I can find satisfaction in this beam, but to but whose purpose is for you to look through, to look through the beam and to see something infinitely brighter, infinitely more glorious, infinitely more beautiful, to see the hand of God Himself.

John Piper comments on this illustration, and he says this that when we embrace this belief that the things of earth were not created to satisfy, but to created to point to the one who satisfies, he says this all of God's creation becomes a beam to be looked upon or along, or a sound to be heard, or a fragrance to be smelled along, or a flavor to be tasted along, or a touch to be felt along.

All our senses become partners with the eyes of the heart in perceiving the glory of God through the physical world.

You know, this makes it incredibly practical for us, not only on a Sunday morning, but on a Monday night.

That when you sit down at that table with people and enjoy food that hopefully smells good and tastes good, you don't need to hold on to these things and squeeze them for every ounce of joy.

That you can look through it.

To the God who is the giver of good gifts, to the God who gave Adam and Eve the things of earth, the trees in the garden, so that they may eat to their delight, not worshiping the gift, but through the gift, worshiping the giver.

Things of earth were never at the end themselves.

They were the means to the end.

God has created us for his glory, so that we might be satisfied in him.

And loved one, as we approach the communion table this morning, I'm reminded that when Jesus came from heaven to earth, he gave us some incredibly important things of the body and the blood of himself.

And as you came in this morning, you likely received a cup.

And if you didn't, the ushers are making their way down to the front of the worship center, and you can flag one of them down, and they will get a cup into your hand.

And I'm gonna ask that they actually come all the way up here and uh bring me one because I don't know where mine went, which is concerning because it's grape juice, but here we are.

Jesus came and he offered us a thing that was not under the sun, it was a thing of heaven, it was the body and blood of the Son of God of Jesus Christ Himself.

It was the very thing we needed.

Apart from that, we found ourselves trapped in this cage that we call earth, unable to find satisfaction, because the source of satisfaction was outside of it, separated by our sin and shame and guilt.

And Jesus came to offering us a physical thing, his body and his blood, so that the gap in separation between man and God could be wiped away.

And so as we celebrate, we celebrate the reality that Jesus Christ came bearing the greatest gift of all, the gift of redemption, the gift of restoration to Jesus Christ through his blood and through his body.

One is that you're not a believer, and you have not yet embraced that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

You do not yet know the giver, and you're unwilling in this moment to bow the knee to him and embrace that.

We would ask that you let this pass.

The other is that you have unrepentant sin in your life, that you have sin that the Holy Spirit has convicted you of, not that you're battling, but that you are completely unwilling to turn from.

Paul says it would be better to drink judgment onto your head than to take the cup in that condition.

And so we would just ask that you deal with the Lord and repent and take the cup with us, or that you let it pass.

As we turn to communion now, I want to turn to the Lord in prayer and thank him for this gift.

Father, we praise you that you are the giver of every good gift.

And we confess, Lord, that we have sought satisfaction not in the giver of every good gift, but in the things of earth.

God, we pray for your forgiveness.

And we thank you for your mercy and for your grace.

God, that you are a God who is patient and kind.

That when we live on this endless pursuit, Lord, a pursuit that in all honesty we, as sinners with a this broken condition of our heart, will likely go on again.

God, you meet us with grace and mercy, and we come to this table to be reminded of the grace and mercy with which you meet us.

Worshiping you now because of what you've done for us in Jesus Christ.

And we pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, which loved one, you can take now yourself.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's eat the bread together.

In the same way, also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Let's drink the cup together.

And now let's turn to the Lord in prayer again.

Father, we thank you for everything that is symbolized as we take the bread and the cup together.

God, the complete forgiveness of sins and the restoration we need to leave this place.

Lord, asking that we would be no longer deceived by the empty promise of property or the pleasures of possessions.

God, knowing that there is joy to be found in one place and one place alone.

In the giver of every good gift who has given us not only every good gift, but ultimately Jesus Christ Himself, we thank you, Lord, and we pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Could you stand with me as we worship?