Introduction – When “More” Is Never Enough
It was the six-year-old boy’s first day of school. He had only one goal in life—to have as much fun as possible. Excited but nervous, he marched through the gate determined to squeeze every drop of joy from the day.
At noon there was a knock at the door. It was the boy, backpack dangling, eyes wide with indignation.
“Why are you home?” his mother asked.
“I quit,” he declared. “It’s too hard, too long, and too boring.”
His mother smiled with the wisdom of years. “Well, son, you’re going back to school—because you’ve just described life.”
Another story.
A lonely man longed for companionship without heavy responsibility. He went to a pet shop and asked for something simple—something to welcome him home at night.
“I have just the thing,” the shop owner said. He sold him a canary, guaranteed to sing.
The next evening the man rushed home, greeted by the sweetest music he’d ever heard. But when he opened the cage to feed the bird, he saw that the canary had only one leg. Angry, he marched back to the store.
“You sold me a defective bird,” he complained.
The owner calmly replied, “Sir, what did you want—a singer or a dancer?”
We smile, but those vignettes expose something in all of us: we are rarely satisfied.
God gives us a singer and we wish for a dancer. He gives us a child with a unique personality, and we try to remold her into someone else. He gives us a healthy body, and we push it beyond its limits or dull it with indulgence. He gives us a beautiful world, and we scar it with greed. He gives us gifts tailored for us, and we covet the gifts of others.
Underneath it all lies the cry of the human heart: There must be more. I can’t get no satisfaction.
That phrase isn’t new. In 1965 Keith Richards awoke with a hangover and a riff running through his mind. Mick Jagger added words, and soon the Rolling Stones were thundering across the airwaves:
“I can’t get no satisfaction, ’Cause I try and I try and I try and I try…”
The world called it rock-and-roll rebellion. But long before Jagger and Richards, another man had already sung that tune— King Solomon, the wisest and wealthiest ruler of his age. Three thousand years ago he penned a journal called Ecclesiastes, and its refrain could be summarized in the same words: “I can’t get no satisfaction.”
Solomon’s Testimony
Solomon wasn’t speculating. He had lived the experiment. He had power, palaces, vineyards, music, wealth beyond imagination, and a reputation that drew queens from distant lands. Yet as he looked back he wrote words that echo with ache:
“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” (Eccl. 1:2)
In chapters 1 and 2 he invites us into his search. He chronicles the pursuit of satisfaction on three main roads: wisdom, work, and wealth.
Let’s walk with him down the first of those roads.
I. The Pursuit of Satisfaction
A. Satisfaction Pursued in Wisdom
Solomon begins with the life of the mind.
>“I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven… I communed with my own heart, saying, Lo, I have gotten great wisdom more than all they that have been before me… And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 1:12-17)
Here was the man who wrote thousands of proverbs, who could speak with insight about plants and animals, commerce and government. His intellect was legendary; foreign dignitaries traveled weeks just to hear his counsel.
If anyone could find satisfaction in study, exploration, and knowledge, surely it was Solomon.
Yet his conclusion lands like a hammer:
>“For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:18)
Think about our own day. Human knowledge now doubles every few months. We send probes to the edge of the solar system, splice genes, and carry supercomputers in our pockets.
But has all this learning delivered contentment? We are better informed and more anxious, more connected and more lonely.
We fly higher, travel faster, and communicate instantly, but terrorism, famine, war, and despair still stalk the earth. Suicide rates rise. Depression surges.
The heart remains empty.
Solomon shakes his head across the centuries and says,
“I’ve been there. I mastered wisdom. And it did not satisfy.”
B. Satisfaction Pursued in Work
When wisdom left him empty, Solomon turned to accomplishment.
>“I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’ But behold, this also was vanity. I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine… 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.” (Ecclesiastes 2:1–6)
The scale was staggering. He designed palaces and public buildings. He laid out orchards and reservoirs. He built the magnificent temple in Jerusalem—one of the wonders of the ancient world.
By any standard he was the ultimate achiever. But at the end of his labor he wrote:
>“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:11)
It wasn’t that the work was bad; it simply could not fill the emptiness of the heart.
Derek Kidner put it well: “What spoils the pleasures of life for us is our hunger to get out of them more than they can ever deliver.”
All work and no play may make Jack a dull boy, but all work and great achievement can still leave Jack an empty man.
Many today know the feeling. They hide in their careers, hoping to drown the ache with busyness. They build empires and call it purpose, but inside there is a quiet question: Is this all there is?
C. Satisfaction Pursued in Wealth
Finally Solomon chased wealth itself.
>“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. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem… And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.” (Ecclesiastes 2:7–10)
His annual intake of gold—recorded in 1 Kings 10:14—was enormous. Historians estimate his personal fortune in today’s values at over two trillion dollars. He possessed art, music, entertainment, power, and pleasure in limitless supply.
And yet:
>“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.” (Ecclesiastes 2:11)
John D. Rockefeller, the richest man of his age, once lived on a diet so restricted “a pauper would have hated it.” He could buy anything—but not joy.
Solomon would nod knowingly. Wisdom had not satisfied. Work had not satisfied. Wealth, pleasure, and possessions had not satisfied. Every road he traveled ended at the same dead end: vanity and vexation of spirit.
Transition to Point II – The Pretense of Satisfaction
Wisdom can inform but cannot transform.
Work can occupy but cannot fulfill.
Wealth can entertain but cannot satisfy.
These pursuits promise life, but deliver only the pretense of satisfaction.
That realization sets the stage for Solomon’s next insight—and our next section:
II. The Pretense of Satisfaction
After exhausting wisdom, work, and wealth, Solomon drew a sobering conclusion: many things in life only pretend to satisfy. They glitter for a moment but cannot bear the weight of the human heart.
A. That Which Does Not Fulfill Us
Solomon writes:
>“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:11)
Despite achievements as politician, philosopher, builder, and patron of the arts, he felt empty.
Modern voices echo him. A U.S. News & World Report survey found that work dominates Americans’ lives as never before, yet many feel insecure, unfulfilled, and under-appreciated. Smartphones and email have blurred the lines between work and home. Home is no longer refuge but an extension of the office. We know more, own more, and travel faster than any generation in history— yet anxiety and depression rates soar.
Solomon foresaw this:
>“The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walks in darkness: and I perceived also that one event happens to them all… As it happens to the fool, so it happens even to me… this also is vanity.”
(Eccl. 2:14-15)
Whether you learn a lot, earn a lot, or achieve a lot, death levels the field.
Dr. H. A. Ironside said, “Death is the great leveler of all men. Whether rich or poor, wise or foolish, powerful or weak, renowned or obscure; no one can rise above it, cheat it, or escape its eventual claim.”
B. That Which Will Not Follow Us
Solomon continues:
>“I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun, because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knows whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?” (Ecclesiastes 2:18-19)
You can build an empire, but when you breathe your last you loosen your grip on everything.
Dennis Barnhart, founder of Eagle Computer, illustrates this. The day his company went public he became a multimillionaire. That same afternoon, driving his Ferrari, he left the road and died. His stock, his company, his millions—all stayed on top of the hill.
Solomon isn’t condemning careful planning or providing for children and grandchildren. He’s warning us that money and monuments cannot travel beyond the grave. “They do not fulfill us in the here and now, and they will not follow us in the bye and bye.”
This is the hard truth behind Solomon’s refrain “vanity and vexation of spirit.” Every earthly pursuit—knowledge, labor, luxury—may entertain for a moment, but in the end it is like chasing the wind.
So if satisfaction isn’t found in what we can learn, do, or own, where can it be found?
That question leads to Solomon’s final discovery, the heart of Ecclesiastes 2 and of this message:
III. The Presence of Satisfaction
(The only place the heart can truly rest)
Having tried wisdom, work, and wealth—and unmasked their emptiness—Solomon finally lifts his eyes above the sun.
A. God’s Gift of Enjoyment
>“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 who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (Ecclesiastes 2:24–25)
Notice the shift. Pleasure itself isn’t condemned. Food, drink, labor—these are good gifts. But their sweetness is from the hand of God.
James 1:17 affirms it: >“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
The key is not the gift but the Giver. We are meant to enjoy our blessings as love-tokens from a Father, not as substitutes for Him.
Solomon’s testimony stands: The more we delight in the Giver, the more deeply we can enjoy the gifts. When God is in the center of our bank book, date book, and check book, ordinary things—meals, work, relationships—become occasions of worship.
B. God’s Gift of Enlightenment
>“For to the one who pleases Him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God.” (Ecclesiastes 2:26)
Satisfaction is not only delight but discernment. God gives His children wisdom to see through life’s illusions, to treasure eternal things, and to live with joyful perspective.
I’ve been in homes that outwardly glittered— marble floors, designer kitchens— but inwardly felt cold and hollow. God inhabited none of the rooms.
I’ve also stepped into simple dwellings where the presence of Christ was palpable. The difference wasn’t architecture, but Presence.
As Solomon discovered, when the Giver fills the house, even a modest dwelling becomes a temple of joy.
Illustration – Clara Tear Williams
Years ago Clara Tear Williams lived in a tiny shack with a dirt floor and only a day’s supply of food. Yet she penned these enduring lines:
All my life I had a longing
For a drink from some clear spring,
That I hoped would quench the burning
Of the thirst I felt within.
Hallelujah! I have found Him
Whom my soul so long has craved!
Jesus satisfies my longings,
Through His blood I now am saved.
Solomon would nod in agreement. He had tasted every earthly pleasure, but only in the presence of God did he find lasting joy.
This is the Presence of Satisfaction: not in gold but in God, not in creation but in the Creator, not in gifts but in the Giver.
Everything else—wisdom, work, wealth— can give temporary pleasure but cannot quench the soul’s thirst.
Conclusion – From Emptiness to Fulfillment
Solomon’s quest reads like a modern biography:
He mastered wisdom but found only “much grief” and sorrow.
He threw himself into work—palaces, gardens, reservoirs—yet sighed, vanity.
He amassed staggering wealth, enough to make modern billionaires blush, yet still lamented, all is chasing the wind.
In the end he recognized the futility of life lived “under the sun” — life without God.
1. The Timeless Lesson
Outside of a living relationship with the Creator, nothing truly satisfies. Not wisdom, not work, not wealth. Not success, not fame, not pleasure.
Jesus asked,
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
You can gain everything yet miss the only treasure that endures.
2. The Only Place of Satisfaction
But Solomon did not leave us in despair. He closed this section with hope:
>“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 to the one who pleases Him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy.” (Ecclesiastes 2:24–26)
Lasting satisfaction is not found in what we own but in Whose we are. It flows from relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
The hymn writer captured it:
Hallelujah! I have found Him Whom my soul so long has craved!
Jesus satisfies my longings, Through His blood I now am saved.
3. The Call Today
The Holy Spirit still calls restless hearts:
Are you chasing knowledge hoping it will give meaning?
Are you burying yourself in work to quiet the ache?
Are you pursuing wealth, only to find it slipping through your fingers?
Jesus’ invitation is simple and sure:
>“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” (John 7:37)
He alone satisfies the mind’s quest for truth, the heart’s hunger for love, and the spirit’s thirst for eternity.
Final Appeal
You don’t have to live the refrain of the Rolling Stones:
“I can’t get no satisfaction.”
You can leave today singing Clara Tear Williams’s hymn instead:
“Jesus satisfies my longings, Through His blood I now am saved.”
Come to Him—
bring your wisdom, your work, your wealth, your weariness—
and lay them at His feet.
Because only Christ, the true Giver, turns life’s vanity into victory and fills the human soul with everlasting joy.
