"People are just about as happy as they’re willing to be." -- Abraham Lincoln
"Don’t mistake pleasures for happiness. They’re a different breed of dog." -- Josh Billings
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." -- Eleanor Roosevelt
"The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat." -- Lily Tomlin
"Think about what you want people to say about you after you die and live backward." -- Unknown
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
"When you are in a hole, stop digging." -- Unknown
The emptiness of feeling good
Eccl. 2:17-19, 24-26
“If it Feels good do it” is what we see in advertisements, commercials, in music we hear, in the clothes that people wear, many movies and it has even crept into churches in which many are there just to feel better with out having to change life because of what they hear from the Word of God. 31% of adults say that their most common basis for moral decision making is doing whatever feels right in a given situation. Bana reports that there are Christians who believe that activities such as abortion, gay sex, sexual fantasies, cohabitation, drunkenness and pornography are morally acceptable. They have a philosophy “If it feels good, do it,” “everybody else is doing it,” “as long as it does not hurt any one else, it permissible.” In one word “Whatever.” I want you to notice right here at the start of this message what Solomon did “I said to myself.” He did not seek the counsel of any one else. He did not ask for the counsel of wise men. He did not look into the history that his father David had left. He did not look up to God in prayer for divine help.
In Chap. 1 We saw a search for meaning in life in the everyday things of life. He had great wisdom from God. His conclusion was “a chasing after the wind" and much grief and sorrow. In chapter two we begin a search elsewhere.
I. Now he searches in the pleasures of life.
A. This is what he found; Laughter and pleasure is meaningless, it is madness, fun accomplishes little if anything
He tried to bring in all the fun and games he could fine to live it up. If it feels good and don’t we feel good when we are laughing? I am not putting down laughing for it one of the most healthy things you can do for your mental health. I have seen people who just laugh or try doing and seeing things to make them laugh so they never have to get serious with life. How many comedians are there around? In my day there was Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, Joan Rivers, Don Rickles, Don Newhart, Phyllis Diller and others which some I laughed with and others I could not watch. How many of them were really satisfied with life? One other name Jerry Lewis had this in his dressing room, “There are three things that are real: God, human folly and laughter. Since the first two are beyond our comprehension we must do what we can with the third.” The last time I saw him he was not funny but was very serious trying to raise money for kids with a disease that has no cure. There is the story about the man who sought help from a mind doctor. He awoke every morning down in the dumps and when he went to bed at night he was deeply depressed. Darkness and clouds followed him through his day. He could find no relief from his hopeless condition. He went to the doctor and talked with him for an hour. The doctor said to him, “There is local show at the theater with a clown that came to our town and he is making all who see him really laugh. He could be the one to bring you back to happiness. I suggest you go see him and let him cause you to laugh to help you.” The man looked at the doctor with a hurt expression and said, “I am that clown.”
B. HE tells us WHAT HE DID to have pleasure.
1. He experimented with wine and folly. Next he turned to wine not in access to where he was bombed out. In a survey in our own school here in Harlowton of 7th and 8th in 2000-01 which would be the JR class this year 58.4% use alcohol, 30% reported using alcohol in the last 30 days and 84% believe that they will not be caught by the police. High school students today reports that 58% of them have had alcohol in the last 30 days and 48.2% report of having 5 or more drinks in a row in the last thirty days. 64% of them think it is cool thing to do. He had his wits about him as he did this. He wanted to just drink enough to make him happy. He would drink enough to enable him to get to the highest possible enjoyment with careful use of it. So he was in control of what he was drinking and aware of what was happening. He was seeking happiness but his did not work. Notice it says he used the wisdom he had, for he was seeking to find what was truly good for people to do "under heaven all the days of their lives" There were some athletes talking on the radio about drug abuse and the struggle they have with it. One said, “What kept me going back to it was that warm feeling down the back of my neck that helped me get to sleep every night.” “With the pressure I’m under and the money I’m making and the public that’s after me and the job I’ve got to keep up. I got to have few drugs. It helps me get going. It helps slow me down. It’ll put me in the right frame of mind so I can do my thing, ‘because I’m great.” If you are great why do they need drugs?
2. He made many things. He went to trying projects that would require him working to build the finest. You might notice in this section of scripture 4-10 the words “I” or “my” occur around 24 times as he seeks happiness. He built a palace that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. He took to building houses. These brought him a place to hang his hat and a place to sit and sleep but not happiness. He planted vineyards, gardens and parks to make the places he went beautiful. He made ponds to keep things well watered. He still was lonely, restless and never fulfilled. Listen to what he did.
1 Kings 7:1-12 Solomon took 13 years to finish building his palace. He built a hall, the Forest of Lebanon. It was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. It had four rows of cedar pillars supporting cedar beams. The hall was covered with cedar above the side rooms, which were supported by 45 pillars (15 per row). The windows were in three rows facing each other on opposite sides {of the palace}. All the doors and doorframes were square. There were three doors facing each other on opposite sides {of the palace}. Solomon made the Hall of Pillars 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. In front of the hall was an entrance hall with pillars. He made the Hall of Justice, where he sat on his throne and served as judge. The hall was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling. His own private quarters were in a different location than the Hall of Justice, but they were similar in design. Solomon also built private quarters like this for his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter. From the foundation to the roof, all these buildings, including the large courtyard, were built with high-grade stone blocks. The stone blocks were cut to size and trimmed with saws on their inner and outer faces. The foundation was made with large, high-grade stones. Above were cedar beams and high-grade stone blocks, which had been cut to size. The large courtyard had three layers of cut stone blocks and a layer of cedar beams, like the inner courtyard of the Lord’s temple and the entrance hall.”
1 Kings 9:15-19 “This is the record of the forced laborers whom King Solomon drafted to build the Lord’s house, his own house, the Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth Horon, Baalath, Tadmor in the desert (inside the country), and all the storage cities that he owned. He also built cities for his chariots, cities for his war horses, and whatever else he wanted to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or the entire territory that he governed.”
I have known people and you probably do to who try to keep busy with projects so they never have to think about their spiritual lives. They hope by all their projects to find satisfaction.
3. He also acquired whatever he desired. It was all too quiet. He bought slaves to fill his houses. He bought many animals to herd and show his wealth. We brought in great sums of silver and gold from the people in his kingdom. He hired singers to bring the best music could offer. He states, “I had everything a man could desire!” “There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.” “They got 31,500 pounds of gold, and brought it to King Solomon.”
“Then she gave the king a gift of nine thousand pounds of gold, and great quantities of spices and precious jewels the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon.” “Each year Solomon received about twenty-five tons of gold.” “All of King Solomon’s drinking cups were solid gold, as were all the utensils in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. They were not made of silver because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s day!” “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.” He had money and all the female comfort he could want in his search.
4. He became great and sought to be happy. Greater than any before him, while he maintained his wisdom. He had all his eyes and heart desired in his search.
C. WHAT was HIS CONCLUSION FROM WHAT HE DID? Eccl. 2:11 “But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. It was like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.”
There is a story from E Stanley Jones about fictional character that lives a life of fantasy. All he had to do was think of it, and poof it happened. He first thinks of being in a 15 bedroom mansion with servants waiting on his every need. He thought about the fine cars that should line his driveway and poof his cars were of the finest one could buy. He could drive them himself or have a chauffer drive wherever he wants to go. He travels to all that he can and comes home hungry for a good meal. He thinks and there is the most delicious meal he has ever enjoyed. Now he finds himself bored and makes the statement I’d rather be in hell than here.” The servant next to him says, “Where do you think you are?” This is the story of those who live for a dream of just a little more. Solomon says do not go to the trouble.
The problem lies in this; you have to live with yourself. Many miss the things that count the most, close friends, family relationships, good health, a right mind and a heart right with God.
Solomon’s advice to all this is to eat and drink and enjoy one’s labor. Who can eat or enjoy anything apart from God? It is God who gives wisdom, knowledge and joy to those who please Him. One might become wealthy but when God is not included, God takes it away.
II. He found that pleasures of life made him hate life.
A. He reflected on wisdom, madness and folly.
1. He saw that wisdom was better than folly. That light is better than darkness. For at least the wise man can see where he is going.
2. There is no real advantage in human wisdom. For both the wise man and the fool die.
After death, there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool.
3. So he says he hated life, because all the work done was appalling to him and a chasing after the wind.
B. He reflected on his wealth and came to hate his labor because he must leave it to one after him and who knows whether those who inherit will be wise or foolish? Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. Someone else will rule over all the results of our labor!
2. He came to despair of all his for a man with wisdom, knowledge and skill must leave his heritage to one who has not labored for it. This does not seem right to him and to us. What will he have gained for all his efforts? Sorrowful days, restless nights, grievous work and who will appreciate what he has done when he is gone? When you think of Bible characters does his name come across as one you want to pattern your life after? When your life is over who will be looking at what you were as a pattern for godly living?
With wisdom he shares for the first time what one should do in life.
III. What he found in what we should accept in life
A. One should seek to enjoy what he labors for.
1. There is nothing better than to enjoy life, a conclusion he draws six times in this book.
2. Note carefully: He is NOT promoting the fatalist view of "Let’s eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." He is saying to enjoy what you do and what God has given you.
B. To enjoy one’s labor is a gift from God. For no one can truly enjoy life without God. To those good in his sight, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy. To the sinner, God gives the work of gathering and collecting.
CONCLUSION
1. For the first time, he introduces God into the picture.
2. Up to now, he has looked at life "under the sun" without God.
a. He has sought for meaning through wisdom, folly, madness, pleasure and wealth
b. Even when successful, the realities of life and death can cause one to hate life
3. But now, with God giving wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man. One can enjoy the good in his labor. A purpose and meaning for life is now possible
Have you considered what is essential to please Him? One begins with faith.
