In Search Of Satisfaction (April 28th, 2019) - Myles Holmes

Thank you, church.

It is a privilege to be here.

You can open up your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 2.

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

You don't often hear a sermon from Ecclesiastes, so if you're having that fear that I often have where someone says a book that's kind of obscure, if you flip open to Psalms, it's like halfway in the Bible, and then flip a bit to the uh back of the Bible, you'll hit Proverbs, and then you hit Ecclesiastes.

As you're turning there, I want to let you know that we've got a problem.

And our problem is the result of kind of this cultural experiment that we've all taken a part of, really.

And the problem is uh this the experiment that we're taking a part of is this.

We are uh asking the question: can you find satisfaction in the things of earth?

Lights out.

That would have been a lot cooler at probably a different part of the sermon.

We should have like co-ordinate that.

That would have been cool.

The question is this can you find satisfaction in the things of this earth?

And so this is the experiment that we're all a part of.

What we're doing is we're doing this.

We're accumulating as many things as possible to see if we can find pleasure in them.

And the search for satisfaction that we are looking for in the things of earth is well summarized by the story of Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing.

I wonder if you've heard of this story before.

I want to read it to you.

It goes like this Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing are a very pleasant and successful couple.

At least that's the verdict of most people who tend to measure thing with a Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing with a thingometer.

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

and Mrs.

Thing, the result is startling.

There's Mr.

Thing sitting down on a luxurious and very expensive thing, also 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.

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 with four wheels.

Things, things, things.

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.

Now we can be very much like Mr.

and Mrs.

Thing, and we can be tempted to believe that we could have satisfaction if we could only have more.

And so we search for meaning in life, we search for pleasure in life by accumulating for ourselves all the things that we could possibly accumulate, and we wonder if satisfaction will come when we finally just have one more thing.

Answer this question for me this morning.

If I only had blank, then I would be satisfied.

Now, what Solomon wants to do for us this morning as we look at Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verses 1 to 11, is he wants to demolish this idea that we can find satisfaction in the things of earth.

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11

And he wants to explode the idea that if we just had one more thing, then we would truly be satisfied.

And so let's read Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verses 1 to 11 together.

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11

Solomon writes this: He says, 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 with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart 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 forests 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, and more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now this morning we're going to learn this from Solomon, that if I believe I would be satisfied, and I if I only had more things, then these are the things that we will experience.

And the first thing I want you to see that Solomon teaches us about the pursuit of pleasure and the things of earth is this that when we pursue those pleasures and the things of earth, we will experience the empty pleasures of play.

Solomon shows us then that when we believe we can just have satisfaction with one more thing, then we'll experience the empty pleasures of play.

Now, if someone's gonna lead us on this pursuit, on this experiment, to see if you can truly find satisfaction in the things of earth, then there's nobody better fit than Solomon.

Solomon was the one man, maybe in the history of the universe, that could put uh all things into his own possession that he wanted.

Whatever Solomon wanted, he could have.

And the reason for this is because he was one of the richest men that ever lived.

Year after year, Solomon would be on Times magazine on the front cover, richest man ever.

And so he had at his disposal the resources to accumulate anything that he wanted.

And so this makes him fit to answer the question can you find satisfaction in all the things of the earth?

Because he truly could get all the things of the earth.

He was the man qualified to do this.

Now it's fitting that he was the man qualified to do this because he's also the man who did it.

He carried out this experiment to the fullest so that in verse 2 he says this I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with every pleasure.

Enjoy yourself.

See, Solomon says this, I am going to get everything possible.

I'm going to experience everything possible to see if I can get pleasure from it.

And it works for Solomon like this.

It's very scientific.

It's almost as though he's got a conveyor belt, and on this conveyor belt, uh, it just keeps moving, and all the things of earth keep stopping in front of him, and he picks it up and he squeezes out as much pleasure from that thing as possible, and he asks himself, can I get satisfaction from this?

Can I get pleasure from this?

And so he picks up one thing, and the answer is no, I can't.

This would be a vain pursuit.

And so it moves on to the next thing, and thing after thing keep coming down this conveyor belt.

And Solomon is searching out the question: Is it possible for me to find satisfaction?

But in the end, once everything has all the pleasure could possibly be squeezed out of it, this is his declaration.

Look at what he says.

He says, But behold, this also was vanity.

See, he tried the test, and the outcome was this: that experiencing the pleasure of the things of earth is an empty pursuit.

Now, the first pleasure that he tried to experience was the pleasures of play, and so at the end of verse 3, he says that on the search for satisfaction, that he would do this, and look at what it says in verse 3, he said, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

And so Solomon would almost sit in front of the things of the earth, and he would allow the things of the earth to entertain him, to see if he could get any entertainment from these things, and he would see what pleasure would come if he gave himself with reckless abandon to the things that people do for pleasure.

He would find if there's any value in entertainment, but look what he writes in verse 2.

He says this.

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

And so the first form of entertainment that Solomon took up to see if he could find pleasure in was the pleasure of laughter.

It's the pleasure that's associated with comedy.

And he said, Maybe if I just have more experiences of laughter, maybe if I'm just always laughing, you know, like that kind of laughter where you have, where you're just your cheeks hurt, where you you just the whole night you're with a group of people that you just find so funny and it's so great.

And so he uh pursues this kind of laughter, but his declaration in the end is this he says, It was mad.

Now, when Solomon uses that word mad, it's kind of a different meaning than we often use.

It's not like the slang meaning that you hear young people use, or maybe we used when we were younger, where there where Solomon's like, oh man, laughter is mad sick.

You gotta try out laughter.

It's not even like the kind of type the definition of mad that we often use that's like insane.

Like, oh, that would be insane if you think you can find pleasure in laughter.

That's mad.

Well, no, the the use of the word mad in this context actually means morally perverse.

That it's morally perverse to pursue pleasure in laughter in this way.

And laughter is mad, Solomon says, because it often reveals our acceptance of the things that are actually an abomination to God.

We will often find funny the things that God finds disgusting.

And we will laugh at things, that the things at things that should be our shame.

Another reason why laughter might be mad is because it can cover up a passive aggression that we have at the world.

And so maybe we make sarcastic remarks to get a laugh when really behind that uh comment, behind that sar sarcasm is this kind of passive aggression that we have towards people or things in this world.

And Solomon says of this pleasure, he says, What use is it?

He says it's useless.

And so, even though in chapter three of Ecclesiastes, Solomon's gonna say that uh there is a time for laughter, he recognizes that laughter won't remain.

He recognizes that at some point even the funniest joke gets old.

He recognizes that at some point even the funniest person gets old.

And so he says laughter in search for pleasure in it is a useless pursuit.

See, laughter distracts our minds for a moment, but when it fades, we remember that the world we live in is broken and cursed.

And Solomon says, you can put on your Netflix comedy special for an hour and you can laugh at the oddities of the world, but as soon as that Netflix comedy special ends, you will be languishing under the oddities of this world.

And so he says of laughter, it is meaningless.

Now, he also searches for pleasure in wine.

And so Solomon writes, I searched my heart how to cheer my body with wine.

My heart's still guiding me in wisdom.

And so in the search for pleasure, Solomon turns to wine to see if maybe that'll satisfy.

Maybe he can find pleasure in alcohol and in drink.

Now, by saying that alcohol is an empty pleasure, uh, Solomon's not talking about the kind of drinking that that is like like leads you to the edge of your toilet puking all night.

We can all mutually agree that nobody is looking to that person and saying, hey buddy, have you found out the meaning of life?

Nobody goes to that person.

Likewise, when you're looking for wisdom, when you're looking for counsel, you don't go to downtown Newmarket on a Friday night, late in the night, and look for the person who's like stumbling down the alleyway who's drank too much.

We can all mutually agree that that person doesn't have any good wisdom for you, that that person hasn't found the path to satisfaction.

This isn't the way that Solomon tested his heart with alcohol.

If it were, he wouldn't be able to say, like he does in Ecclesiastes 2, that all along he was guiding his heart with wisdom.

See, what Solomon was doing is he was trying to use wine and alcohol in a variety of different ways to see if it could help him in his search for satisfaction.

And so maybe after a long day where his hundreds of concubines were constantly nagging him, Solomon would walk into his kitchen and he'd be pouring himself a cup of coffee, and maybe the cup of coffee would say this.

Coffee keeps me going until it's acceptable to drink wine.

Maybe he would have a sweater after a long day ruling the kingdom.

He puts on his sweater, it's wine o'clock somewhere.

Maybe you look in his kitchen, he'd have this clock.

No wine before nine.

Let me just explain it.

Every number's nine.

You get it?

Wow.

Okay, great.

Alright, that's good.

See, he tried every kind of alcohol, every kind of way, at every kind of time, to see if alcohol could make life satisfying.

In fact, this is the very reason we might run to drink, to try to find a frame of mind where life finally feels good.

And really what you're trying to do is you're trying to numb yourself to the emptiness and to the pain of living in a broken and sinful and cursed world.

And I wonder if God has a word of warning for some in this room.

Maybe after a long day where the kids have done everything they could possibly do to get on your nerves, maybe you're turning to wine and to drink to kind of soothe your feelings, to take the edge off.

Maybe after a long day of work, what you look forward to when you get home is not rest in Christ.

What you actually look forward to is opening a beer.

And I'm not saying that this is bad in every context, but I'm saying when you depend on those things because you feel like it's only when you drink that you can escape the pain of the world, then you are pursuing an empty pleasure.

See, maybe you turn to drink because you want to forget the reality of something you're afraid of.

Maybe it's crushing debt, maybe it's poor performance reviews at work.

Or maybe turning to alcohol, it reveals a bigger identity issue in your life.

You just don't feel like you are a person that is fun to be around unless you've drank a little bit.

And so you don't feel like you can go on a date with your wife or pursue romance with your wife unless you drink, and you don't feel like you can be around other people in a social context unless you've uh drank.

Solomon says these are all ways that we buy into the empty pleasures of pursuing satisfaction and alcohol.

Now, laughter and alcohol, they're not the only ways we ex experience the empty pleasures of play.

Many of us search for satisfaction in all sorts of different kinds of entertainment, and entertainment industries are actually catching on to this.

So if you if you uh turn on Netflix, what you'll find is you you turn on Netflix and you might have good intentions when you turn that on, but after you finish, the episode finishes, and the whole uh episode kind of goes in this little box, and you have like four seconds to decide I'm gonna stop watching an episode.

And Netflix has caught on to that that if they just keep uh streaming content in front of you, then you will continue to believe the lie that if maybe I just watch one more episode, then that'll be enough.

And so you finish that episode, and then again the screen pops in that tiny little corner, and you have four seconds to make the mad dash to your computer to stop it before the next episode starts.

And so many they binge watch, and even at the end of binge watching these shows, they find it's just an empty pleasure.

And so maybe you finish watching Netflix and you turn on Facebook and you go onto Facebook and you start scrolling, and it's just gonna be a few seconds to see what my friends are up to and to see the pictures of the cats that they own on their Facebook page, and so you start scrolling, and you're scrolling, and there's more content and more content and more content, and the content never ends.

All saying, if you just do it one more time, then maybe you will find satisfaction.

TV and social media leave you empty, and so maybe you turn to YouTube.

And I have to confess to you that I have been down one too many, far too many YouTube vortexes.

Has anyone ever been down a YouTube vortex?

You click on something, you're just gonna watch one video, but then there's that related search bar.

And you're like, oh, well, that's kind of interesting too.

So you click that video, and then you click that video, and like in 30 minutes, you're on this part of YouTube that you didn't know existed, and after you leave it, you wish didn't exist.

That's a YouTube vortex, and it's just promising if you just watch one more video, and so you put down YouTube and you pick up maybe video games.

Video games promise you pleasure if you just beat one more level, if you just play one more game.

They promise to finally itch that desire you have to be satisfied.

So much so that the video game creators are catching on.

Do you know what the slogan for PlayStation is?

The slogan for PlayStation is greatness awaits.

Greatness awaits.

This is the promise that PlayStation is pitching.

The promise is this that if you uh play this game, you can achieve greatness.

That greatness awaits for you once you start playing a video game.

Now, when we hear that, that should make us scratch our heads and yell, are you serious?

Do you really mean to tell me that greatness in life is achieved when I put everything else in life on the back burner and sit in my basement and pretend to be Spider-Man for a few hours?

Is that what it means to be satisfied?

Now, some of us were more sophisticated than all that, and so we can laugh at that, but if we were to search our heart, we would find that we do believe that entertainment could satisfy us, but we're just busier people.

And so we don't have time for TV, we don't have time for Facebook, we don't have time for video games, but really what our hearts long for is a weak vacation, uninterrupted by distractions, uninterrupted by other people where we could just sit back and relax and be entertained.

We believe that maybe if we could just experience that pleasure, we could have satisfaction.

See, deep down we believe that we can find satisfaction in the pleasures of play, but Solomon wants to show us they are empty pleasures.

Now, the next thing that Solomon shows us, if we are believing that we can have satisfaction in one more thing, is that when we pursue that, we'll experience the empty pursuit of property.

And so in verses four to six, Solomon kind of shifts his experiment.

Next, he's going to test the pursuit of satisfaction in property to see if he might find any pleasure in it.

And so look what he says in verses four to six.

He says, 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.

Now I want you to notice first that the things which Solomon built for himself were the best things.

And so he says, I made great works.

Solomon sought to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous.

He built the best homes.

The homes he would have built would have had the same architectural beauty of the royal palace he built that in 1 Kings 7 tells us it took him ten years to finish.

See, he was meticulous about every detail.

Everything was perfectly built to satisfy.

And so he masterfully planted the most lavish gardens.

They would have displayed the most beautiful flowers, they would have had the most ripe fruits.

And what Solomon wants us to see is that even if we have the best things, we still can't find satisfaction in them.

And so, isn't it true that each time you've bought a phone, you buy the phone and you open it up and you're so pumped and you turn it on, you go onto the internet, what you find is that there's a newer phone coming out.

That you no longer have the newest phone.

Isn't it depressing how quickly the kitchen that you updated gets outdated?

So you finish it, you've done this grand renovation, you look at it, you're like, oh man, I'm waiting for the knock on the door.

Homes and Gardens is coming to take pictures of this kitchen I designed.

This is beautiful.

But then in like two years, you're looking at the kitchen and you're worried because you might hear a knock on the door and it's the show hoarders, and they're coming to film their next episode on you.

And we place our hope for satisfaction in our property.

We can laugh at it, but it's all too common for us to place our happiness and hope for better things.

And so maybe the most joy that some of us have felt in a long time is when we got the newest phone or the newest device or the newest thing.

Maybe the most hope we've felt in a long time is the hope we feel when we watch HTTV and wonder of what our house could be.

Or maybe you feel some contentment now, but the contentment is only really there because you think that maybe in a few years you'll be in a different position.

And you'll be able to buy that better house and get or get that better car.

And you're content with what you have now, but your contentment is based on the fact that you believe in the future you will be richer and be able to get more.

And so you're fine to wait now, but you're only doing okay because you believe that more is coming.

Answer me this question.

Why aren't the rich universally happy?

How come it's not the case that every rich person we see is just the happiest person in the world?

In fact, the opposite is the is true, isn't it?

Often the people we meet that are rich, they have more stress, they have more anxiety, and they have more depression.

And the answer is this because the things of this earth can't satisfy.

The magnitude of Solomon's creation is emphasized in that everything is in the plural.

So he didn't just create a great home.

The text says he had houses, he had vineyards, he had gardens, he had parks, and he had all kinds of fruit trees and pools.

He had great homes everywhere.

So I know what some of you are thinking right now.

You're saying, okay, I know you're saying that Solomon couldn't have a great home, but that's because of the location.

See, the most important thing about a location is a great home.

So, Solomon, you know, you can actually find satisfaction in your property if you get a house in Stonehaven.

Once you have a house in Stonehaven, that's the place you gotta be, then you'll find satisfaction.

Or some of you are like, no, it's not Stonehaven.

You gotta get a house in Muskoka on the lake.

That's where satisfaction is found.

All the people in Muskoka in the wintertime are like, you gotta get out of Muskoka.

There's no pleasure here.

But Solomon would have had homes everywhere, and his declaration is this if you place your hope for pleasure in a home, you will be sorely disappointed by the pursuit, no matter where it is.

Now we get a sense in the text that Solomon's rebuilding the paradise that Adam and Eve lived in.

So he had it says he had all kinds of fruit trees.

And he built the garden, but with one distinct difference.

In this garden there was no tree that he couldn't eat of.

Everything was designed for his pleasure.

These weren't public parks, these weren't public gardens, these were a private garden paradise.

It was built with an attempt to keep the world out.

Everything served the purpose of pleasing Solomon.

So notice the language.

Let me read this again and let me emphasize the selfish language of this pursuit.

He says, I built for I built 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.

See, Solomon, he built a paradise of great houses that were great in number, and they each perfectly served him.

And still, at the end, his declaration is this it was meaningless.

It was all useless.

It did not provide an ounce of pleasure.

See, Solomon shows us that if even if you could have all you dream of like he did, you would still not be satisfied.

Now there's a third pursuit that when we believe we could just have satisfaction if we had one more thing, there's a third thing that we'll experience, and the third thing we experience is this the empty promise of possessions.

Solomon shows us how he experienced the empty promise of possessions when he took up this experiment.

In verse 7, he writes this He says, I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house.

Now, as he talks about slavery, you need to know that the Bible doesn't condone the type of slavery that our minds often go to when we think about slavery.

This wasn't the type of slavery that's been exhibited in North America in the past several hundred years.

This type of slavery actually had much more of an employee-employer distinction to it.

And Solomon is saying that he had countless servants who would wait on him hand in foot.

If he had a task he didn't want to do, he had someone to do it.

Now I know what most of you are thinking.

You're saying, okay, now we've found satisfaction.

You're telling me that you can't find satisfaction if you have a servant who you're like, I don't want to clean the bathroom today, you do it.

The servant's like, okay, I'll go do it.

Most of us are like, okay, that's pleasure.

That's satisfaction.

You mean I don't have to take the garbage out anymore?

You mean my wife tells me to do something, I just say, hey, servant, go do that thing my wife said.

Servant goes and does it, you get all the credit.

This is a great setup.

This has got to be the setup that brings pleasure.

Solomon says it's not.

Solomon saying, even if we had countless servants who waited on us hand in foot, if there was not a single task that we didn't want to do that we had to do, even then we wouldn't find pleasure.

In the 1970s, there were two psychologists, their name were names were Edward L.

DC and Richard M.

Ryan, and they set out to answer this question how can you find happiness in life?

And part of the answer that they came to was you will be happy once you've gained control over your life.

And this is kind of the message that's uh pitched to us even today.

The the message is this: that if you gain freedom from having to work a nine to five job, if you can take a vacation whenever you want, if you can golf whenever you want, if you have freedom in life and complete control, you don't have a boss telling you what to do, then you can have pleasure.

That's where happiness is found.

You can do whatever you want.

And in our hearts, a lot of us can agree with this conclusion.

We believe that maybe if we could just get away from work, maybe we can just get away from the things that are controlling our schedule, then we could have happiness.

See, we know we don't have satisfaction, but we think we would have more satisfaction if we only had more money, had more possessions to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.

Well, Solomon's here to test the claim that those two psychologists made.

And this is the result.

It's an empty promise.

Even if you could do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted to do it, you would still not find satisfaction.

Now, next we see Solomon had all the possessions that show would show the world that he's rich.

He says this I also had great possessions of herds and flocks more than any before me in Jerusalem.

And if his possessions of great herds and flocks were not enough, he also had enough money in the world to buy whatever he needed.

So it says, I also gathered for myself silver and gold, the treasures of kings and provinces.

Solomon committed to acquire as much money and possessions as possible.

He was like John D.

Rockefeller, who was once asked by a reporter, he said, How much money is enough?

To which Rockefeller replied, Just a little bit more.

See, as each of us commit to this search for satisfaction in the things of the earth, we start to experience the empty pleasures.

See, the end of this pursuit is this that the more you have, the more you want.

When we search for satisfaction in this way, it actually just multiplies our desires.

So instead of being satisfied, we just want more.

That's why Benjamin Benjamin Franklin would say this: Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it.

There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness.

The more a man has, the more he wants.

Instead of it filling a vacuum, it makes one.

If it satisfies one want, it doubles and triples that want another way.

See, each of us know this to be true, but the possessions that we currently have.

We know that the possessions we have now aren't providing us enough happiness.

Our problem is that we believe that the possessions we'll have in the future will provide us happiness.

That they will provide us pleasure.

I remember a time in our family, the history of our family, that we had one car and we couldn't wait to have two cars.

And having one car was really difficult because we were both working and we both had to get to work, but we only had one car to get us there, and so it was difficult, and I was having to do public transit, and it's it was just thinking, man, it would be so much better if I could just get another car, and then Amber could have her car to go to work, and I could have my car to go to work.

And so we were just hoping, placing all of our hope in this car.

And then finally that car came, and it was a 2004 Honda Civic.

And ever since that day, I have been slowly realizing as that car breaks down piece by piece, that you cannot find pleasure in the things that you once placed your hope in.

In fact, this is a true story.

This happened on the same day.

One day I was driving home in the morning, it was raining, and so my wipers were on, and I'm driving, and my wiper just flies off.

In fact, you can go and look at my car right now.

There's a bread tie, like a little twist tie, that's holding my wiper on.

On the very same day, I was driving to work and my friend was coming with me.

And so, anytime you have the chance to drive a 2004 Honda Civic, you take that chance.

And so my friend said, Hey, can I drive?

And I said, Of course, man, you can try out this ride.

I slid him the keys, and so he goes to the driver's side, I go to the passenger side, I go to open the door, and the handle rips out in my hand.

On the very same day, I was like, This day is cursed.

Now you can drive past my church office, and more often than not, you will see me in the parking lot with the hood up.

I'm getting a boost because my car is dead.

See, what Solomon wants to teach me is that money can't buy me a possession that I will be totally satisfied in.

That that possession that I place my hope in, that possession that I think will solve my problems, what I find discover is that it doesn't.

Not only that, if I place my hope in other people, Solomon wants to show me that that also is a vain promise.

So Solomon says this I also gathered for myself singers, both male and female.

Now I know what you're saying.

When Solomon says I gather for myself singers, both male and female, you are saying that would not be pleasing to me at all.

In fact, having a bunch of men and women constantly follow me and sing a song would be like kind of creepy.

I wouldn't like that in the least bit.

But maybe that's not how we're searching for satisfaction in people.

Maybe there's a different way that we search for satisfaction in other people.

See, I do know this that singers might not satisfy us, but the tendency of the human heart is to believe that other people can please us.

I just wonder if you maybe have placed your hope for satisfaction in another person.

And you need to hear that other people will always let you down.

This is why I'm concerned when I hear people talk about an offense that another person has caused them, maybe at another church or maybe in their family, because I know that believing you can be satisfied by another person is dangerous territory.

This is why when we renamed our church to Redemption Church, I thought about suggesting that we add the slogan or like maybe the subtitle of the name of our church, it could be like this Redemption Church, you'll probably get hurt here too.

Because the idea is this when you get like 200 people into a church, and those 200 people are sinners, then you can be sure of one thing that sin is going to happen.

That relationships are going to be frayed.

In fact, if you just get two sinners to stand at the altar and to say, I do, what's gonna happen?

A lot of sin.

This is always the part in the message that my wife says.

Amen.

And then those two sinners, what they do is they breed these little ankle biting sinners.

And it's just a family of sinfulness.

And in our churches and in our family, if there's not a stream of constant forgiveness, there's no way that relationships can function.

See, you can't place all your hope for satisfaction in another person because that person is a sinner, and that person is sure to let you down.

Now, there's a time here for another sermon, and the sermon is this that there is one person that you can place your hope in.

But that's another sermon, so I'll let Pastor Mike preach that one.

Now, Solomon shows us the last place that he tests pleasure, and see at the end of verse 8.

He says this, that he got many concubines, the delight of the sons of men.

Now, Solomon he had more sexual partners than any person could imagine.

1 Kings 11:3 gives us the raw data: 700 wives and princesses, and more than 300 concubines.

1 Kings 11:3

Solomon knew more than anybody that sexual pleasure could not satisfy.

This is when when why when Solomon, when he wrote Proverbs, which is really like a the first nine chapters, kind of function as like a parenting manual.

And there's nine chapters, three of those chapters that Solomon writes are about sexual immorality and how to avoid it.

See, Solomon knows how dangerous it is to believe that you can find pleasure in sexual immorality.

And so when he writes his parenting book, a third of it, a third of it, is written to warn his children about the dangers of believing that you can find pleasure in sex.

Now he wrote this in a time when you would have to actually leave your room and leave your house and go searching for a concubine or go searching for someone to experience sexual pleasure with.

But now the person who holds this tiny glowing rectangle in their hand has access to more sexual partners than Solomon could have ever imagined.

And the promise is this that if you just engage in one more sexual experience, then you will find pleasure.

And Solomon is here to say this to the billion-dollar porn industry: that there is no pleasure to be found in these sexual experiences.

That it is vanity to believe that true satisfaction can be found with just one more sexual partner.

See, Solomon says it's vain.

Now, Solomon's done his tests and he's ready to conclude his findings.

And so in verses 9 to 11, he says this He says, I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem.

Also, my wisdom remained with me.

And whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

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

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

See, after the test is completed, after the search for satisfaction is over, the declaration is the same.

It's vanity.

The search for the satisfaction in the things of earth is meaningless.

You can't accomplish it.

The search for the satisfaction in the things of earth is an exhausting search.

And someday, if we are on that search for satisfaction in the things of earth, we too will realize that at the end of the day, we just too become a thing of the earth.

We die and our body decomposes into dust, and what was once living just becomes a thing of the earth.

What this passage teaches us really is that the worldview of materialism is empty.

You can't find satisfaction by just acquiring all the things that you could possibly imagine, but it does leave us with this question: how can I find satisfaction in the things of earth?

Or maybe more importantly, why do I find satisfaction in the things of earth?

See, some people see what Solomon teaches, and their application of it is to embrace, instead of materialism, they embrace this worldview of escapism.

And the idea is that if you just get rid of all the things of the earth, if you just push yourself, the things of the earth away from you, then you can find satisfaction.

And this is actually maybe the more predominant worldview in our society today.

It's a worldview of minimalism.

That the less you have, things are inerrantly evil, and the less you have, the more joy you will have.

But that can't be right because Paul's able to write to Timothy these words.

He says, For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.

See, Paul says to Timothy that all the things of the earth that we've been talking about this whole message are actually created by a good God.

And so our question is then how do we find satisfaction in the things that God has given us?

And Solomon he gets to the answer once he reaches verse 24.

Look what he says in verse 24.

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

This also I saw is from the hand of God.

For apart from him, hear that church, apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

For to the one who pleases him, God has given wisdom and knowledge, and listen to this word, joy.

God gives joy to the one who pleases him.

See what Solomon ultimately wants to teach us this morning is this that we can enjoy the things of this earth when we're able to look through them to the goodness of the God who gave them.

Solomon says that the path to enjoying the gifts that God gives is from knowing the giver.

That you can't actually find satisfaction until you know the creator of all things.

This is why Augustine writes these words.

He says, This is how our souls climb out of their weariness towards you and cease to lean on the things you created.

We pass through them to you, Lord God, who created them in a marvelous way.

See, once you know the giver of all good things, you're free to enjoy the good thing itself.

Because through it you see the one who can ultimately satisfy.

Through it, you see the one who created good gifts.

And no longer are you worshiping the gift, now you're worshiping the giver of good gifts.

And you can actually find satisfaction.

But the only way that you can know God is if he reveals himself to you.

And this is why this truth is so amazing that God has shown himself to us.

The giver of all good gifts has revealed himself to us, the creator of all the things of earth has revealed himself to you.

So that the writer of Hebrews says this long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world.

See, Jesus came so that we could find, we could know the Father, and we could find ultimate joy in him.

Jesus lived to provide you the righteousness that you needed to stand before a holy God.

Jesus died, we celebrated this last weekend, he died so that the penalty could be paid for you that was keeping you from being in relationship with God.

And so listen, you can't find satisfaction in this earth unless you know the Son of God who points you to the Father.

And unless your faith is placed in Him.

And you may be here and you're on the search for satisfaction.

You've lived your life with the hope that you might find satisfaction in the things of earth.

And so you keep accumulating more, you keep working more, but up until this point, you haven't found it.

And the promise that God gives you today is that you will not find it ever.

But here's the good news.

Here is the good news that the Son of God, Jesus Christ Himself, He calls you today to place your faith in Him.

And once you place your faith in Him, you are immediately united with Him and in relationship with the Father.

Look what Jesus says to you in Isaiah 55.

He says, Come, everyone who thirsts.

Come to the waters.

And he who has no money, come by and eat.

Come by wine and milk without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me and eat what is good.

Good, delight yourself in rich food.

See, there is the promise.

You need to bring nothing to Jesus but your own sin.

And he takes your sin, he pays the penalty, he rewards you his righteousness, and you walk away with full satisfaction and joy in life.

Now, once you know God, you walk with God, and the things of earth they actually become vehicles of his glory.

They point you to the goodness of God.

The things of earth, they declare the greatness of the one who created them.

And so you can actually enjoy them because you're not enjoying them in and of themselves, you're enjoying them because you're realizing they're given to you by a good father.

So the psalmist in Psalm 19, verse 1, he writes this the heavens declare the glory of God.

Psalms 19:1

The sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Love what Jonathan Edwards writes regarding this.

He says, This the enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.

To go to heaven fully to enjoy God is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here.

Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, and we could add here all the other things of earth to this list.

He says, are but shadows, but God is the substance.

These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun.

These are but streams, but God is the ocean.

See, once you know God, you look through the things of earth to the glory of God.

You're actually able to experience the things God gives, and you're able to get pleasure out of them.

So John Piper, he helpfully writes this to apply this to our lives.

He says, All of God's creation becomes a beam to be looked along, or a sound to be heard along, or a fragrance to be smelled along, or a flavor to be tasted along, or a touch to be felt along.

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

Now, listen, I want you to be freed this morning.

I want you to be freed from this feeling that we often have of Christians of having guilt and enjoying the things of this world.

Do you know that God is a good God who created all of those things that we often make an idol of?

He created them to point to his goodness.

The problem is that we look at those things and we search for satisfaction in them.

But once we come to Christ, we can actually start to feel guilty about the good gifts that God has given us when we find joy in them.

And I want you to hear that God has given you those good gifts, not so that they could be worshipped, but so that he could be worshipped.

I want you to delight even more in that time that you get to play with your kids.

Oh, this message, it opened my eyes that when I'm I have so much delight in playing with my daughter.

And in that moment, I'm not teaching the Bible to her, in that moment I'm not praying, in that moment I'm not evangelizing, I'm simply fully focused in playing.

You know the delight that fills my heart when I get to play with my daughter like that?

And you know the delight that fills God's heart when I find pleasure in the thing that He created to point to His glory?

And I finish that and I say, What a good God to give me this good gift that I enjoy so much.

See what Solomon does for us is he actually unleashes our potential to experience the joy in the things of earth.

He frees us from the guilt of materialism, he frees us from the folly of escapism, he unlocks the pleasures that can come from our play.

He shows us how to find true joy in our property, and he shows us how to be satisfied and content with our possessions.

He shows us that it's okay to enjoy the things of the earth.

In fact, it is a great thing to enjoy the things of the earth when we recognize the glory of the God who created it.