Baccalaureate 2023

I believe this is the fourth (maybe 5th) baccalaureate I’ve preached here in Rich Hill. For several reasons, this is the most special.

I’ve lived here long enough to have known a number of you for your entire time in school here. When I came to Rich Hill 13 years ago, you guys were like 5-, 6-years-old (so cute).

It’s really something to have watched you grow. I’m proud of you and look forward to seeing what you do from here.

Today is also special for another reason. 5 years ago, I met my son for the first time. And I watched him join up with your class and make good friends—some really good friends. I’m so grateful to each of you; thanks for loving my kid.

Magal, it’s one of the great joys of my life to have watched you grow. I am exceptionally proud of you. I love you, pumpkin.

>I thought about going down the sappy route for the duration of this message, but thought better of it.

I considered showing all the pictures I have of Noah and Garren and Noelle from church camps and trips long ago, but decided not to (you’re welcome).

A far better idea than my vamping and improvising is to turn to God’s Word. I believe there’s something here for you, for each of us.

As you embark upon your next grand adventure, as you leave the confines of Rich Hill High and head out to do whatever you have planned, I want you to be thinking about what God’s Word has to say to you. I want you to see what wisdom God has for you right here.

So we turn to Ecclesiastes 2 and hear from Solomon, the wisest man in the OT. The wisest man to have ever lived, second only to Jesus.

This is what King Solomon discovered:

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11 NIV

1 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. 2 “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” 3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives. 4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. 9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. 10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

Solomon went on a search for meaning, for significance, in everything life had to offer. Here in chapter 2, we read about what Solomon found.

He’s asking the question—What will satisfy?—and examining different answers:

What will satisfy?Pleasure

“Pleasure” here has the idea of amusement and laughter. It’s not joy, as such, but a vapid, lighthearted approach to life.

Solomon asks himself, and begs us to consider along with him, the meaning and worth of pleasure. Solomon experiments, like a scientist or a philosopher, with all kinds of things to see what has lasting value or meaning.

Solomon, like so many people past and present, lives as a hedonist, seeking pleasure at all costs.

It’s not until Solomon already concluded that there are no answers in life (Ecclesiastes 1) that he turns to pleasure.

“If nothing I do matters, and the world is going to burn up in the end, then I need to lighten up. Live it up! Do what I want to do. No right, no wrong, no rules for me; I’m free.”

Most people—including us—make decisions based on what will maximize our pleasure, what will make us most happy. Our happiness is, generally, our primary goal.

The great theologian Jerry Seinfeld says we all look for “little islands of relief in what’s often a painful existence.”

Solomon shows his hand before he details all the pleasurable experiences he tried:

Ecclesiastes 2:1 NIV

1 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.

Pleasure also proved to be meaningless.

Solomon, an expert, has determined pleasure will not satisfy. He lived larger than any of us ever could, and he concludes it was futile, pointless; it’s hevel. Meaningless.

“Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?”

Neither laughter nor pleasure have any real profit.

I love a good laugh.

Some of my favorite movies and TV shows are comedies (The Office, Parks and Rec, The Good Place, Seinfeld, New Girl). I can quote movies as well as anyone, and I still get a chuckle.

“We’ve got no food! We got no jobs! Our pets heads are falling off!” “Here comes the meat-wagon; wee-oooh, wee-oooh, wee-oooh.”

“Laughter is the best medicine,” they say.

And, yet, this is true: laughter provides no lasting profit. It’s fleeting.

So Solomon turns to wine. Wine will cheer him up!

Per the Bible, there’s nothing wrong with wine; according to the Bible wine can be a joyous thing when used as God intended.

“Drink your wine with a cheerful heart…wine makes life happy,” so says God’s Holy Word. Wine is God’s gift to be enjoyed in moderation by people of-age. Paul tells Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach. Wine gladdens the heart.

Solomon sets out to cheer himself with wine (as do any number of people). The problem is, that drink wears off. That drink can lead to other issues. That drink can have long-term consequences and effects.

Zach Eswine writes that “there is no end to the commercials that show the “joy” alcohol can bring you, but you never see the commercial on Super Bowl Sunday with the party girl hugging the toilet at 3:00 a.m. or the dad pulling off his belt in a drunken rage.”

There are a variety of opinions ranging from “Solomon the sommelier/ wine connoisseur” to “Solomon the frat boy” wasting away in Margaritaville.

I think the safe bet is that Solomon did both. I think Solomon enjoyed wine and paired it with his favorite foods and he also got knock-down stupid drunk.

He tried wisdom and folly (v. 3). He tried every angle.

He wanted to find out if drinking and parties were the best solution to the emptiness of life in the face of death. But drinking doesn’t take away the pain.

The author of Ecclesiastes did this for the purpose of discovering what was good for Adam’s sons to do under heaven.

What’s man’s purpose? What’s is our purpose here on earth in the short number of years we have before we die?

There’s a long list of stuff that Solomon tried. So many of the items on his list would, we think, make our lives happy and fulfilling:

he undertook projects (building houses, the Lord’s house and his own house, which incidentally was bigger than the temple),

he planted vineyards and gardens and orchards, constructed parks and reservoirs;

he had slaves, more livestock than anyone, Scrooge McDuck amounts of money and treasure;

he had singers for himself and a harem (to accompany his burgeoning collection of concubines).

Solomon had acquired all the delights of a man’s heart. He had everything he could have wanted.

Solomon even admits: I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.

Our boy, Solomon, had it all. And yet, when he surveyed all his hands had done and everything he had achieved, do you know what he determined?

Everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

Some of it might sound nice—some of what Solomon had. Not just a house, but houses. Parks and vineyards, piles of money you could swim around in, more livestock than you know what to do with...

But it’s empty. It’s hevel.

So Solomon turns to wisdom:

Ecclesiastes 2:12–16 NIV

12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done? 13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. 14 The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. 15 Then I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.” 16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die!

What will satisfy? Pleasure, Wisdom

In that first verse, Solomon is basically saying, “Son, don’t try to outdo me because you can’t.”

Solomon lived wisely and foolishly, and did both LARGE, and none of it worked.

Here’s a truth that’s going to shock: wisdom is better than folly. It’s better to be wise than to be foolish. I know, groundbreaking stuff...

But there’s a caveat: the difference between wisdom and foolishness is marginal, the value is relative, and it doesn’t last.

There’s a fine line between wisdom and foolishness. In fact, Solomon determines that there is no difference between the wise and the foolish, not ultimately.

The fate of the fool is the fate of the wise; “the wise like the fool...” die the same and neither is remembered.

It’s a pretty clear indictment of wisdom, when Solomon, the smartest person in the OT says the following: “What do I gain by being wise? For the wise, like the fool…like the fool, the wise too...”

Pleasure and wisdom are dead-end roads on the search for meaning.

Ecclesiastes 2:17–23 NIV

17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? 23 All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

What will satisfy? Pleasure, Wisdom, Work

Solomon hates life here under the sun.

This present evil age, and life within, is deeply disappointing. Life, for Solomon, has lost much of its sweetness.

Even the work, the toil Solomon does is grievous, meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

One could say Solomon hates his job.

Solomon asks what there is to gain from labor and toil? What do we get for all this work and labor?

“I’ll tell you what you get,” says Solomon. “Grief and pain. You’ll even stay awake at night thinking about all that needs doing.

You will exert all sorts of effort to amass possessions you never really get to enjoying because all you do is work. And then you’ll leave your hard-earned possessions to someone else who might just and probably will squander them.

You work so hard, and you can’t take it with you. Someone should write a really awful country song about how you never see a hearse with a trailer hitch.”

Solomon wouldn’t live to see what happened to all of his wealth and accumulations. But we know from studying 1 Kings that a foreign army came into Jerusalem an took Solomon’s treasure away from Solomon’s son Rehoboam.

One generation! All that work, toil, labor, effort; everything Solomon had accumulated for himself, gone. Gone, in one generation.

>I’m thankful that Solomon exposes us to the failure of all his experiments, his search to find meaning in pleasure, wisdom, and work. None of it satisfies!

What Solomon misses out on in all his efforts was the simple joys God held out to him.

All of his experiments failed, so now he finally turns to God. God graciously shows the failure of everything else to satisfy.

Ecclesiastes 2:24–26 NIV

24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

What will satisfy? Only God

After his exploration of pleasure, wisdom, and work, Solomon concludes that there is nothing better than to eat, drink, and find enjoyment in toil. Solomon is calling his readers to be content and satisfied with God and the gifts from His hand.

In the beginning, God created and ordered the world so that we would enjoy what He had given us and then worship God for His goodness.

But sin distorts. Sin clouds our sight. We now look to the created things for the satisfaction only God can give.

This is our story:

Romans 1:25 NIV

25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

This is rebellion against God. And this action—worshiping created things—means that we will never be able to truly enjoy these gifts.

We will expect them to give us what they cannot. We will want more and more and more and more. And we’ll never be happy.

More will not satisfy; only God can.

Without God, Solomon says, there’s no enjoyment. Apart from Him there’s no satisfaction.

Everything is meaningless without Jesus, but with Jesus we can enjoy everything.

Verse 26 concludes Solomon’s argument. To the one who pleases God, God gives these gifts: wisdom, knowledge, and joy.

But sinners (those who go against God’s design) are tasked with collecting and collecting in order to give over all they collect to the one who pleases God.

There’s no peace for sinners.

The end of Ecclesiastes tells us the one who pleases God is the one who perfectly obeys God’s commandments.

This is a problem for each and every one of us. We are sinners. We displease God.

Only one person in all history has perfectly followed God’s design, only one person in history has perfectly obeyed God’s commands: Jesus.

But, by virtue of the gospel, if we will recognize our sin, repent of our sin, and believe in Jesus, then we are united in Christ by faith so that God no longer sees us in our sin but sees us in union with Christ as His beloved child in whom He is well-pleased.

In Christ, God gives you great gifts and the ability to enjoy them as we are satisfied in Christ!

I grew up with some friends who attended a very strict Baptist church. My friends couldn’t play card games, they couldn’t come to school dances, they weren’t allowed to do much by way of extracurricular activities.

The impression some people have is God as a cosmic killjoy. The impression is that God doesn’t want you to enjoy anything, rather get rid of anything enjoyable because that’s what God wants. If it feels good, it’s probably a sin. That’s the impression of Christianity a lot of people have.

That’s not the message and that’s not Christianity!

Not one of the things Solomon mentioned is necessarily evil. Music, laughter, wine, gardening, gaining wisdom, sex with your spouse, and all the rest are good and holy IF used as God intended.

It’s when sin comes and distorts and breaks God’s ideal.

But in Christ, we are redeemed. We get to walk in God’s design for our lives. This includes enjoying what He has given to us.

You know the story of the lost son—the one who takes what is his and leaves his father’s house to go enjoy life? The lost son goes off and squanders his inheritance in wild living. He enjoys it all. He’s living it up. He parties like it’s 1999.

Before long, the lost son spends everything he had. The fun he had came to an end and he’s stuck looking at the food in a pig trough thinking, “Hmm, that looks pretty good...”

Eventually, the son comes to his senses and returns home, returns to his father. And there, he finds love and forgiveness AND a party!

The father throws the bash of the century. A feast! “Let’s celebrate!” There is music and dancing, loud enough to hear outside the house! It’s an epic party, for all to enjoy!

The issue isn’t the partying. The truth isn’t “party = bad.”

The truth is: enjoy and be content with the the love and blessing of the father, and then, let’s party!

Satisfied in Christ and in His love, we can now enjoy life, marriage, children, work, laughter, gardening, building, and on and on and on.

Our purpose isn’t to squeeze into this life all the pleasurable experiences we can, acquire all the wisdom possible, or work until we’ve amassed enough money to do whatever we want.

We have a much greater purpose. YOU have a much greater purpose.

The Westminster Catechism asks: “What is the chief end of man?” Answer: the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Kids, listen. I’m gonna call you “kids” because I’m old enough to be your dad. Listen, please.

Whatever you do in the years ahead—school, trade, workforce—don’t chase after money and fame, pleasure and prestige. All of those are fleeting/temporary; they’re meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Find your satisfaction in God alone! Put your faith and trust in Jesus.

Enjoy the LORD God and enjoy what He has given to you!