Self-Indulgence is Vapor | Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 | 05/17/26

Many of us, myself included,

can be tempted towards certain

depictions of a good life. And there are

a lot of them, but I want to focus this

morning on two particular ones. What we

might call the happy life and what we

might call the resume life. And by happy

life, I mean something very specific.

There's an older way of using the word

happiness in a more objective sense.

It's not about how you feel, it's

whether or not you are flourishing. I I

I like that notion of happiness. I think

that's the happiness that we have in

mind when we read the Declaration of

Independence. But there's a seemingly

more common way of using the word

happiness in a much more subjective way

where it's about my feelings, about how

I feel. And I think for many of us,

sometimes myself included,

we make decisions based upon our picture

of what that happy life looks like. That

it looks like having certain amounts of

pleasure. That being able to travel and

have really good vacations is better

than not having them. Being able to

retire early with enough cash saved up

is better than making your way paycheck

by paycheck for the rest of your life.

We think of certain things as better

than others. And I think part of it is

because that's what we're inundated with

in terms of our information intake.

Whether it be from the news, if you're

old school, whether it's through social

media or whatever platforms, Tik Tok,

Instagram, whatever, we tend to have a

picture of a certain way of life is

better than not, especially if it

involves good feelings. In fact, we

might make judgments and decisions in

some of really important areas of our

life, including marriage.

Doing pastoral counseling is brutal when

you're talking to couples who are on the

verge of divorce.

And of

I hate that I have to give this caveat,

but I will. If your spouse is being

abusive, run, right? I hate that I I

have to give that caveat. But I' I've

heard some couples say, "Well, I'm

unhappy in my marriage."

as though that were a reason for ending

the marriage. I've heard people tell me

why they want to leave a church and and

sometimes there are good reasons to

leave a church, but some might be, well,

I'm unhappy here. Have people heard

things like this? We sometimes make our

decisions based upon how we feel, and

I'm not sure if that's the right way to

go. In fact, I'll I'll say it even more

strongly. I'm confident that's not the

way to go. That's what I mean by the

happy life. What about the career life?

There's a kind of depiction that if you

can stack your resume,

the better it seems. It It's a kind of

embarrassment. I I'm I'm helping some

young people right now uh look for

positions and they're embarrassed

because their resume is small. There's

somehow something better about your life

the longer that your resume is. Does

that resonate with some people in their

work area? Like you and so you start

doing things to stack your resume. I've

had to confess multiple times to Josh

that in the past I've done things simply

because it's going to make my resume

longer. Right? The idea is that it's

going to make me more prestigious. And

and there are different things that can

serve as a resume. For some of you, your

resumes might be a literal piece of

paper or sheets of paper. But for others

of you, it might be how nice your garden

is,

how nice your car is. I grew up in a

very small town. Most people weren't

very wealthy, and they typically had

junky cars. But my friends thought that

if you have really nice rims, you

display your status. You know what I'm

talking about? It's like the junky Okay,

that laughter. This is like It's like

the junkiest car that you could see, but

the rims were really nice and they spun

and somehow that was really cool. Okay,

so that's what I mean by the resume

life, whatever your resumes may be,

whether they're in terms of actual

career standing or your rims.

And I think that our own sin and even

Satan

want to distract us so that we stay

locked in in the experience

rather than stepping back and

reflecting.

Because when you step back and you

reflect, often times you realize the

thing that you seem to care so much

about doesn't really matter.

Uh some of you know I love Oklahoma

football. Go Sooners.

When I first talked with friends, if

they lost then the games are on

Saturday, then on Sunday, everyone would

be lamenting at church. I thought it's

the day after and we should be at church

worshiping, but it's the day after. I

get it. But then on Monday they were

still lamenting. And then on Tuesday

they were still lamenting. They would

lament until Friday and then until

Saturday of the next game. Because when

you're in it, it's hard to step out and

think, does this really matter? How many

of you who are married have had a fight

with your spouse and then you look back,

you thought, why in the world did we

fight about that? What a petty thing to

fight about crumbs on the counter. Th

this is biographical, by the way. Uh we

have had fights about crumbs on the

counter. And in the moment when we were

fighting, Alyssa's not she's helping out

in childcare. So, uh but but my in-laws

are are here to defend Alyssa.

>> Yeah. In the middle of the fight, it

seems so important that it gets resolved

and resolved my way. And then days go by

and we're not loving one another and I'm

miserable and you stop and you reflect

and what do I see? I'm a selfish jerk.

I who cares? This is what I mean by

that. I I think if we don't pause, we

get sucked into the resume life and the

happy life that we become the author of

our own misery. And thanks be to God, we

do have a gift in God's word. And that

gift right now in Ecclesiastes

is imploring us, stop and reflect.

Stop and reflect. Stop just doing and

reflecting. Sometimes that you shouldn't

do that. I I I think if you're singing a

song and worshiping, you don't have to

go like, "Stop. Am I doing it correct?"

Have you ever had that in high school,

remember? They call them spirit rallies

or pep rallies and somebody's trying to

amp us up and they're like, "Are you

having a lot of fun?" I mean, if you had

to stop and think if you're having a lot

of fun, that's going to ruin the fun.

You're probably not having a lot of fun.

So, sometimes you you shouldn't reflect

when you're having a nice date on the

beach. You didn't realize we get all

this uh dating advice today. But when

you're having a nice date on the beach,

don't pause and go, I wonder what this

looks like. Right? Just enjoy the

experience. But there are occasions

where I think sometimes we are not

willing to undergo reflection by

stepping back and considering it. And

the book of Ecclesiastes is one big

stepping out and reflecting. And so far

what we've seen is that as your Bible

puts it, there's this individual, the

preacher, right? The preacher. It

literally means the assembly man. So

there's a guy either he's a part of the

assembly or he's the one who gathered

the assembly. And right now he wants to

talk to the assembly. I will refer to

him as the preacher because in the

translation that we use ESV, he's called

the preacher. whether he's not a true

preacher in the way that we think about

preacher today, but the idea is he's

trying to talk to a particular assembly,

most likely people who would have been

familiar with the Old Testament laws,

Moses's laws, and he's trying to tell

them something. And he seems to be

speaking from a voice of somebody who's

accomplished much. And as we've seen so

far, the primary thesis, at least of

now, seems to be that everything is he.

So, that's a Hebrew word that you've

been hearing the last several weeks. And

if you're new here, what that word

means, the way that's translated in our

translation is vanity. Everything is

vanity.

But we're going to for the time being

and for the rest of this as we go

through this book, we'll use the word he

I think it's it's good for you to

wrestle with the book and try to

interpret how how should you be

interpreting it. Does the author use the

word always in the same sense in every

usage? I I I'll just show my cards right

here. I don't think he does. I think he

uses it with different connotations in

different times. But here at the very

beginning of Ecclesiastes, he's asking

he's telling everything is he actually

think what he's doing is something like

this. He's not giving us answers. He's

asking, "What really matters?

What should I care about?" And and I

like putting it that way. What really

matters? Because it's it's horribly

vague. What really matters? Do you feel

the different questions when I ask this

what really matters versus what matters?

Do do you feel that difference? However

vague, does it matter to you that you

don't get fired or you get that

promotion or that your kids are healthy

and things like does that matter to you?

Yeah. But there's like a different sense

when we ask what really matters. Does it

really matter that you don't get fired?

Does it really matter that you get that

promotion? And I think here in

Ecclesiastes, the preacher is asking

what really matters. And if we confuse

these questions, we might think that the

preacher says, "Oh, something doesn't

really matter, therefore it doesn't

matter at all." I don't think you can

make that inference. He's going to say,

"Some things don't really matter, but

they must still matter." So last week,

Pastor Josh showed us from the book that

the preacher is considering wisdom,

and he asked, "Does it really matter?"

And I think his answer is, "It doesn't

really matter.

Now, does wisdom matter? Yeah, I I think

so. In fact, we'll see through the rest

of Ecclesiastes that he thinks that it

matters. But it doesn't really matter.

And part of this really matteringness

is he thinks, well, why doesn't it

really matter? Well,

none of it is new or novel. It doesn't

last forever and it won't be remembered.

That seems to be his criteria for what

really matters.

Everything just seems to be going in a

cycle. We've seen it all before again.

It's not really new. It all gets

forgotten and

it it's it's it's not going to stick

around long enough for it to really

matter. So, what really matters? This

morning, we're going to look at a couple

of other candidates that the preacher

considers for what really matters. Last

week, it was wisdom.

Today he's going to consider pleasure

and prestige and ask, "Do these really

matter?" So, if you have your Bibles,

turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 2, and

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

we're going to be reading verses 1- 11.

Ecclesiastes chapter 2:es 1-1.

A reading from the book of Ecclesiastes.

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

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 gather 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. 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 wind.

And there was nothing to be gained under

the sun. The word of the Lord.

As I've been meditating on this the last

couple of weeks, here's what I believe

God is teaching me and teaching us.

that pleasure and prestige are he.

So let's think through each one. Let's

think about how pleasure is he. Let's

think about how prestige is he. And then

let's do what God invites us to do in

the book of Ecclesiastes and step back

and reflect. So let's think about

pleasure. So notice what he says at the

very beginning. I said in my heart, come

now. I will test you with pleasure.

Enjoy yourself. So he's going to

experiment on this. I I actually don't

think of the preacher as a philosopher.

He doesn't, as far as I can tell, give

an argument or an explanation. He's just

a guy who's very wise with lots of

power, lots of possessions, and he wants

to try things out. He hears of

candidates of the good life. Perhaps

wisdom is the good life. Well, that

didn't work out. What about pleasure? Is

that the good life? Is that the truly

worthwhile thing that really matters?

And he tries it and what does he come to

discover? Behold, even that was vanity.

Now, I don't think he gives an

explanation. He's only reporting that

was he remember by he literally means a

mist. It's something that you can see,

but you try to hold on to it. You try to

keep it and you can't. There's something

about us that wants to when we see

something good, keep it. It's odd to me

that we go to museums and rather than

seeing something beautiful and just

going ah beauty, we want to own it. I I

think there's something defective about

that. And we we can't literally own that

thing. So, we'll go to the gift shop and

buy the cheap knockoff version of it,

which will stay in our house till it's

time to clean up our house because we're

hoarding too much and then we'll toss

it. But something about that feels good.

There's something about thinking

ownership kind of matters. I I I think

we do this even erotically so to speak.

Why can't we just acknowledge ah lots of

beauty but what do we do? Oh, it's

beauty. It should be mine. I should have

it. What a weird twisted thing in us to

want to experience it in terms of

ownership. And yet for the preacher it

is all he can't actually own those

things. You you try to grab onto it. You

try to keep a hold of it. You try to put

it in your pocket and you can't. Now

notice what he goes on to say. He says

in verse two, I said of laughter it is

mad and of pleasure what uses it. So I

don't think he's doing anything

systematic, but I want to talk about

laughter and pleasure. And and by

laughter, I I think he's being a little

bit poetic in a pros style. And and by

laughter, he's not saying, "Oh, laughter

is bad." I hope that's clear. And in

fact, later he seems to be, "Yay,

laughter. So it might matter. It doesn't

really matter. But I I think it's more

than just the physical act of

I think what he really has in mind is

the party life because in in the wisdom

literature it talks about people who are

engaging in laughter and it's mostly

they're having a good time. And so I I

want to tease out laughter and pleasure

here and think of laughter here in terms

of the party life or the eventbased

life. When I talk to people and I ask

them to share how things are going,

sometimes I get what I call the movie

report. In a movie report, you give the

highlight reels. So, in the movie Batman

Begins, Bruce Wayne is trying to become

Batman and five minutes later, he's now

a super ninja. In real life, as I'm

watching my kids do tag, I'm thinking,

yeah, it'll be about 20 years till they

get to that level. But in a film, you

can fast forward it, truncate it, bam,

you're ready to fight bad guys, 20 of

them in five minutes. No, no one ever

uses the bathroom in movies, right? Do

you ever notice in movies when parents

have kids, but the kids are

conspicuously absent? It's like, every

parent knows that's never true. You

can't you can't be away from your kids.

They take over everything. And yet, how

how convenient in movies that your kids

are all having a nice time in their

playroom as though that ever truly

existed, right?

But we tend to think of ourselves

looking at life event after event after

event. How do you see your life? Are you

organizing it by the events that you had

and the events that you're about to

have? Are you going, "Well, I had that

great vacation two months ago and I have

that great vacation five months from

now."

What about all the in between time?

That's what I think we have in mind with

laughter. When's the next party? When's

the next fun thing? First prom, then

graduation, then going off to college,

then meeting somebody, then graduating,

then starting the internship, then

starting the new job. What about all the

other activities? And it's easy for all

of that to fly away.

And the preacher says, "That's madness."

If you're letting life slip past you

because you're enjoying it and you will

become like the preacher one day an

older man and you go, "What did I do? I

wasted my time.

I' I've never done narcotics,

but the people who've destroyed their

lives based on it tell me, "What a

waste. I wish I never done it." And

still there are some people who said,

"Well, I want to try it out for myself.

That's madness.

Pursue the party life. Pursue the

vacation life. See the people who've

done that and now at older age they look

back and go, "Why did I waste my time?"

And yet still, if we stay away from this

and focus on what the message of the

world tells us, we might think, "Well,

that's what I want to live for." The

other is pleasure. And notice what the

preacher says about pleasure.

He says all sorts of things. I search

with my heart in verse three how to

cheer my body with wine. So drunkenness

that feels very very good. Notice what

he says at the end of verse 8. I got

singers both men and women and many

concubines the delight of the sons of

man. And in verse 10, and whatever my

eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

I kept my heart from no pleasure. He

tried to yum yum himself. What's a good

thing? Is it a bodily good thing? Is it

pleasurable? More wine? I'm not going to

prevent myself from having it. More

women? I'm not going to prevent myself

from having it. He has all the goods

that people around him would have said.

That's what really matters. He tries it

all. And now near the end of his life,

he looks back and says, "Who cares? Who

cares? I I don't think he gives us an

explanation,

but I think he is wise and we better

heed his warning. Does it really matter?

Now, some of us sometimes might think,

well, it's because I don't have enough

of it. I don't have a lot of money.

That's also biographical. But if I have

more of it, then I'll be happy.

I I I don't have good enough wine. But

if I have the better Napa Valley stuff,

then I'll be happy.

The preacher reminds us, no, you have

the best of the stuff. You feed yourself

all of that. You partake in all of that,

and all of it is still a mist. It

doesn't really matter. So, the amount

isn't what's relevant here. You might

also think, well, well, maybe it's

because he was living the party boy

life. because yeah, when we see those

frat parties, when we see the wild

parties, it's just foolishness. So yeah,

of course that's not going to be what

really matters. And so notice what he

even says. He says in verse three,

his heart was still guiding him with

wisdom. So he was pursuing pleasure

while still being wise.

I don't know that that just thinks of

like the sophisticated fine life, right?

The the Napa Valley fine life with

French dining, right? with just a few

bites and you can pair it with with your

wine and you can go on some fancy

vacation and enjoy the high life food.

You you can uh listen to Vagner but at

at some opera theater like oh if I do

that then truly that sophisticated

highbrow life is what really matters.

The preacher had it all. That too is he.

So it's not the amount, it's not the

quality of the goods, none of our bodily

pleasures, none of our events really

matters.

And I think that's what we need to just

sit with for a while. Again, I I don't

think he gives an argument or an

explanation here, but he's wise. And

it's worth asking yourself in what ways

have you been motivated by pleasure as a

picture of the good life. If you don't

retire early, if you don't get to go on

those vacations, if you don't get that

promotion, right? If you don't get to

have the fine wine, but the two

buckchuck, do they still have that

Trader Joe's? I don't know. Right? Do

they still have Right. Uh you don't get

French dining, do you get Panda Express,

right? Is there somehow your life worse

off by not experiencing it? And I think

you might think, well, we're Christians.

We're above all that.

I was about to say something. I I

literally feel the Holy Spirit telling

me not to say this.

There are advertisements for events

that interest Christians of our ilk and

churches of our ilk to participate

that that promise us certain goods

and it's really easy for us to be

tempted by that and I think scripture

invites us

step back reflect what really matters

does that really matter let's now move

on to prestige

Verse four, the preacher says, "I made

great works. I made great works. I

created

great things."

I I want to tease out two things that I

think the preacher is emphasizing here.

One is accomplishments

and the other is status.

So for some, their picture of what

really matters doesn't have to be

external recognition.

It could just feel like you've done

something. You've made a difference.

Look at what my hands have built. I do

that all sort of theoretically. John

Wood actually does it with his hands

when he shows me what cool car thing

he's he's he's building. Right? So we

tend to think that's what really

matters, what I can accomplish. And and

notice what the preacher says in verse

10 at the last half of verse 10. For my

heart found pleasure in all my toil and

this was the reward for all my toil.

Some people really like working

not even for the retirement for the

future for the pleasure and the yum yum.

For some people the pleasure is in the

work. And you think once I've attained

and accomplished something great, then

I've done something worthwhile.

That too is he

what are some of the greatest

accomplishments that people have made

and where are they now? It's it's

humbling studying history and thinking

how great certain cultures used to be.

And then you go to Ephesus now and you

go to Rome now and it's all in ruins.

It's easy to go, "Yeah, America.

A day will come if Christ has not

returned years from now where all of

this will be in ruins. We don't have as

many cool buildings as they did in Rome

and Europe and other places, but all of

this will be in ruins. This does not

last forever. Yet, it's so easy for us

to prioritize

what we think really matters now and the

accomplishments of our hands.

What's the other thing if not

accomplishments? Status. Notice

I think the preacher is flawed. God's

holy word inspired and yet he uses

flawed people and he starts giving a

list of his accomplishments. It almost

sounds like he likes it. Have you ever

heard a testimony from somebody talking

about their old life and you start

thinking sounds like you miss it a

little bit, right? All those drugs and

women like you need to keep having being

regenerated. It takes time. It's a

process. It's okay. It could take

decades, scores of years. That's that's

fine. It's a long process. Let the Holy

Spirit work. It almost feels as though

the preacher misses it a little bit. I

if you read from verses 3 to8, it's it's

it's quite daunting all the things that

he thinks really matters in terms of

status. Houses, vineyards, gardens,

parks, pools, fruit trees, servants,

slaves, herds, flocks, silver, gold,

royal treasure, singers, concubines.

Now, of course, some of these things

brings him physical pleasure, but most

of what he's doing here is status.

Having these things shows he's made it

to the top.

And then he steps back and reflects and

goes, "So what?

What's the analog here? To have a really

good retirement that everybody

acknowledges and says, "Wow, you're

amazing. Thanks for your contribution."

To be recognized in your field. To

become a social media influencer. That

seems to be something that young people

want. I want people to acknowledge me

and get a thous a million likes and a

million subscribers to notice me

whatever it might be. And of course some

social media influencers do it in a

foolish way to get attention. Here the

preacher says I'm doing it still

retaining wisdom. If you look in verse

9, he says, "Also my wisdom remained in

me."

And yet that too was he

pleasure, prestige,

he

yet they might motivate us without

realizing it

even in small

small domains.

It was it was interesting for me to

serve with my with one of my um ministry

partners in Skid Row in LA. And one

thing he told me is yeah, even the

unhoused can demonstrate greed because

greed isn't a rich condition. It is a

human condition. We all deal with it. I

feel

I don't have enough money that you'd

think I couldn't be greedy. Oh, I've

seen my heart and how greedy it can be.

And so, it's easy for us to be tempted

by the picture of life that seems so

good if you could just have the

pleasurable life or the prestigious

life. What I think God wants us to do as

we read Ecclesiastes is to step back,

reflect, and go, what really matters?

Now, the preacher, I'll just lay out my

cards in the way that I interpret it. I

don't think he's an exemplar. Are you I

I've been using that word exemplar, an

admirable, morally upright person that

we should imitate. I don't think that

the preacher is presented in that kind

of way. However, he is presented in a

way that it that he is wise and I think

we should take that seriously. Despite

all of his mistakes and the conflation

with confu uh folly, he's still wise.

And I want to take seriously what he

says at the end of verse 11 because you

can interpret this in all sorts of ways.

And I encourage you study this book on

your own. Try to wrestle with it and

think, what is God teaching you? But I

think there's some insight we can glean

from what he says in verse 11. 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.

Some interpreters think he's wrong about

that. The way that I'm seeing this text,

I think he's right. I think he has an

incomplete picture. Very incomplete. But

I think he's right. There's nothing to

be gained. What what do I think about

that? I think what he means is what

advantage do I have in life if I

experience more pleasure or gain more

prestige or how much worse is my life if

I don't have those pleasures or I don't

have those uh that prestige. And I think

the answer is pleasure and prestige do

not make your life more significant. And

the absence of those things does not

make your life worse off. Just think

about it for a moment.

Think about people whose lives you think

are significant but filled not with

pleasure but filled with pain. One of my

favorite exemplars is Mother Teresa of

Kolkata. And you read her memoirs.

Just go read them for yourself. It's

agony.

that life or the life of sipping fancy

wine, eating fancy French food.

I don't want to say those things are

bad. Nothing in Ecclesiastes, as I

interpret it, tells us that French food

and fine wines are bad or that they

don't matter.

The idea is that they don't really

matter and that there's nothing to be

gained from them.

Think also of prestige.

Think of prestige. You don't know my

grandma.

She's the least prestigious person I

know. She learned how to read at the age

of 60

because she never had an education

because you didn't in pre-industrial

Korea. Uh she was married off in her

teens, had nine children, only seven

survived, worked in factories. Nobody

knows her. When she dies, only her

family members will know her. She never

drove, didn't really work very much, and

is now known just by family.

No prestige.

I think her life is much more

significant than most of the celebrities

and social media influencers I can think

of.

You know, you know why she learned how

to read? Why my mom taught her how to

read? Because she became a Christian in

her 60s. And so she wanted to read the

Bible. So my mom taught her how to read.

The only book my grandmother has ever

read is the Bible. Uh

she never got to read Spencer

or Shakespeare.

She never got to read the Aniid. She

never got to read the Iliad or the

Odyssey.

Is her life worse off? I think the

answer is so very clear. No, it's not.

She's never been on any tropical

vacation. She will not be remembered for

much longer.

And yet her life, I think, is much more

worthwhile than the life filled with

prestige

and the life filled with pleasure. And

we can use human merely human examples,

but the ultimate example is our Lord

Jesus Christ.

Think about his life. Do you

characterize it as a life of pleasure,

a life of partying and event after

event? A life of filling himself with

bodily goods, sexual delights,

or do we characterize his life as filled

with pain voluntarily at times taken up?

He is after all described as the man of

sorrows.

And yet his life is the most perfect

life. Jesus's life is the most

worthwhile. The best possible life you

could live on this earth is to do

exactly what he did. And yet no

pleasure,

mostly pain.

What about prestige? I mean, we all know

Jesus's name. At the time though, his

strategy, you might think, was the worst

strategy. It's why his disciples were

losing their mind. There was a political

power strategy that you're supposed to

follow. And if you follow it, you'll

have a better chance of making a name

for yourself. And that, after all, was

the aim both in the Jewish context and

in the Greco Roman context. Make a name

for yourself. But you got to go to big

cities. You got to hang out with the

players. And you've got to engage in

building a military. What does Jesus do?

He goes to towns.

He goes to Fresno. Right.

Sorry. Sorry, Rebecca. We're lo We're

losing you. I just get like one more dig

before you go back. Right. I'm sorry.

There's a lot of people here from

Fresno. Oh, I should have listened to

the Holy Spirit and not said that.

Right.

Let me pick on my own. It's like Jesus

going to Loi. That's where I'm from,

right? Loi. Who would go to Lodi?

We We won't the You know, you know what

the uh the most important political

thing that ever happened to Loi? Dan

Quail visited once, right? If you're old

enough to remember who D. That's it. No

president's going to visit Loi, but Dan

Quail did. It was like such a big deal.

That's what Jesus did. He went to the

equivalent of Lodi. He hung out with

people that don't matter politically

speaking. He hangs out with the lowest,

the dregs of society. He even hangs out

with the enemies of God's people so that

everyone is scandalized. This is the

worst strategy ever. He doesn't raise up

an army and his apostles are losing

their minds.

His road was the way of loneliness and a

lack of prestige.

And yet, what do we think about the

value and worth of his life? his is the

best life you could lead. And all of

that lowly activity that meant nothing,

you might say, in terms of the earthly

criteria of what matters as he's trying

to build his resume. While it builds his

resume to nothing because he should have

been forgotten at his death, what we now

see in the aftermath is his lowly

activities

brought about our redemption. His lowly

activities demonstrated the love of God

that he would call us to be his friends.

His lowly life built the kingdom of God

here. His lowly life sacrificed so that

our sins could be atoned for and that we

can be reconciled to the father and

adopted so that by his lowly nothing

peasant worth life dying in the most

shameful way. What a silly, shameful,

humiliating way to die. Mocked and

scorned was the instrument by which we

are brought into God's family and

inherit everything that he earned.

Things are not as they appear

in the world's rubric. He's lowly. He

was a failure.

But we who can see things because God

has revealed them objectively can

recognize what a worthwhile, valuable

life that was. Let Jesus be our example

and our guide. I want to finish then by

talking about what this means for us as

we reflect.

And here's what I would recommend.

There's all sorts of ways of praying.

I think many of us when we pray, we tend

to do petitioning. We ask God for things

either intercessory. We pray for others

or sort of for ourselves. Sometimes we

pray and we thank God. But another way

of praying both in scripture and

throughout the history of Christian

practice is through meditation.

Invite God into the things that you're

undertaking, the things that you're

caring about, the things that you're

strategizing for, and then ask him and

dialogue with God, does this really

matter?

Does getting married when you want to be

married really matter? Does going to

that school, finishing with that degree

really matter? Does getting that

promotion, getting that car, getting

those rims, buying that house, retiring

at this age, making sure that you enough

assets at this age, the things that

really matter.

There might be things where we have to

radically change our thinking, our

feeling, and our actual behavior. maybe

some of our habits, maybe some of our

spending habits.

Then ask ask as you meditate, what are

the things that really matter that I'm

not caring about right now?

And I think Ecclesiastes gives you a

glimpse and I don't I don't want to

steal the, you know, Josh's thunder in

the future or you spoiler alert though,

the glimpse of it is being rightly

oriented to God and following in God's

way of life. that that's how I would

paraphrase fear God and keep his

commandments. Orient yourself in a

certain way towards God as he has

oriented himself towards you and follow

in his way of life. Now that we have

deeper understanding of that as

postresurrection New Testament

Christians, we orient ourselves by the

power of the spirit around the person of

Jesus Christ following in his way. So I

implore you as you're wrestling with

what really matters, you've got to be

reading scripture. You've got to be

building a habit of reading scripture

and especially I would encourage you the

New Testament as we're going through

Ecclesiastes. Read it on your own. Study

it. Interpret it in the best way that

you can. Read the New Testament along

with it. And then pause and ask, am I

living in a way where I'm prioritizing

things that don't really matter, but I

got sucked into the lie of happiness and

resume building?

And am I failing to not consider things

that do really matter because I got

sucked up into this political fight, to

this economic concern, to my own

financial plans, to my own feeling good

and experiencing yum yum. I I hope you

spend some time reflecting on this and

then thinking about the person of Jesus.

I I I I think this pushes away from

thinking about it in terms of the party

life that you're not thinking about that

future vacation couple months from now.

You're thinking about today.

Can that time where you're getting a

drink at Starbucks be an integral moment

where you are an ambassador for Christ

and you demonstrate love to somebody

who's in need? If you're a mature

Christian, I bet all the mature

Christians in this room can attest to

this where you do something open to the

Holy Spirit's guidance and then

afterwards they said, "I really needed

that and I prayed about it." Have you

Can I just see a show of hands? Have you

experienced something like that? Yeah.

There's enough of you mature Christians

where it's I didn't plan that. There's

been so many times where I prayed and

then I got a call from Josh because my

heart was hurting or I was deeply

tempted and then he just calls like,

"Hey buddy, I just want to check up on

you." I regard that as the Holy Spirit

guiding and prompting him to keep me

from falling into temptation or to lift

up my spirit when I'm down.

So, let's be open to what God wants you

to do today. It might seem small. It

might seem minuscule, but that might be

the way of Jesus. It might lead to less

prestige. It might lead to pain and a

lack of pleasure, but that might be the

way of life that Jesus wants you to

follow. And if you follow Jesus, it will

be a worthwhile life. Let us pray.