Self-Indulgence

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 44:17-26

Psalm 44:17–26 ESV

All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way; yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground. Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

Scripture Reading: Matthew 16:24-26

Matthew 16:24–26 ESV

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Sermon:

Well, once again and as always good morning church.

As always, I was glad when they said to me, let us go and worship in the house of the lord.

Well, if we think back and we remember back to last week, We started there Solomon's journey. His quest to try to find meaning and purpose in life as we open the book of Ecclesiastes.. Anad that will continue today the The topic, the thought that's at the center of What we're reading. It is truly. "what meaning is there in life? and more to the point, what is the purpose that I can find here.”

Last week we wrestled through and we spent time.... maybe, Solomon thought, maybe it's wisdom. And so he applied himself to find wisdom to gain wisdom, to be the most wise. And in the end, he found out that this also Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 17: Is but a striving after the wind. The quest for knowledge in and of itself knowledge as the end of human existence for Solomon and for all of us It left him wanting. It wasn't good enough.

But now Solomon's going to turn his attention. To a place that if we're being honest, Many of us turn to, from time to time. And surely the world tries to find most of its meaning and most of its worth and value where Solomon will turn next.

I titled this sermon “self-indulgence”. And that's part of it. It's pleasure. It's Seeking to fulfill oneself with what feels good in the moment. With those things that the world can offer, that they promises to us will bring joy and hope and peace and comfort. And here. Spoiler alert, Solomon will find that there is still nothing but vanity.

Ecclesiastes chapter 2 starting in verse 1. We will be looking through verse 11 this morning.

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11 ESV

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 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. 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.

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Let's open with the word of prayer.

Dear Lord, We thank you for today. And we thank you for all of the wonderful, good gifts that you give us. For love and life, and joy, and peace. We thank you for the privilege of being your people, of truly being known by you. We pray that you would speak to us this morning. Give us wisdom. Grant us to see you clearly through your word. Help us to be a people changed by what we hear and know. I pray this morning that you would speak through your servant, may you use this time to conform us all into the image of your son. For it is in his name that we pray. Amen.

Solomon. In some ways is very plain, and is not seeking to hide what he's going to do here. I'm going to set my heart to pleasure. The catalog of things we read, it's In many ways: “sex, drugs and rock and roll.” It's that, which feels good, that those things As we've seen and heard that, the world promises will bring you fulfillment. He's going to endeavor to live out the the phrase that we've all heard: whoever dies with the most toys wins. And we have to start here: It is all. Vanity.

It’s all Vanity

It's difficult to read passages like this, it's difficult to read sometimes when Solomon says, he's doing all of this stuff and not in our heart… For just a moment... feel a little bit of jealousy. He had everything, he had everything he wanted and more, there is nothing that he was left wanting. Verse 10: “I Kept my heart from NO pleasure.” And yet. He is careful to tell us here at the beginning. It's all vanity. I said to my heart, i will test you with pleasure verse 1, enjoy yourself, but behold this also was vanity. Before he even dives in to telling us all the details, all the sordid details in some ways, of all that he's going to seek pleasure from the verdict, here comes before even the trial, and there is no avoiding this truth.

And by placing this end result at the beginning. He leaves no room for us to think. Well, maybe this will work for us. It's a warning but also a teaching that we should not follow after his folly after this path. In laying out the case the way that he does he is confronting us with what we might think we want by showing us that truly this is not what we want.

And what's more... To steal from one of my commentaries. What he will show us is that the advertising agency is much more is much better than the manufacturing department when it comes to what they are promising here.

The advertising agency of the world promises, joy and peace, Right? This afternoon is the super bowl. And, For many, the draw of the Super Bowl is the ads. That promise us laughter and joy. Peace. Maybe they'll be that one. There's always that one super bowl commercial that tugs at the heart strings. Making us long for the comforts of family or reminiscing of good old times. And the pleasures of the world in a very real way, this afternoon will take center stage. And Solomon's warning is It cannot and it will not provide what it promises. It can't give you happiness. It can't give you fulfillment in the end this too, He proclaims, Is vanity.

But i'd like to this morning sort of look at three different ways, we can dive into the self-indulgence that that Solomon lays out for us that show the vanity of what's going on here. And the first is the most basic in some ways. It's pleasure.

PLEASURE

We start with the pleasures of laughter joy. And wine. But note, these are still a fleeting, striving after the wind.

We all want to laugh. We enjoy going to see funny movies and funny things, and funny shows, and telling jokes. But as Solomon sits here, he thinks of all the laughter, all of the things he's thought funny over the course of his life.

And it’s mad. It's madness.

The picture here is like the mad hatter of Alice in wonderland, a person who's just laughing in the face of all of the trials and troubles and pains of this world. It's like... so there's a Mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland, maybe you're like me, if the joker of batman. Who finds laughter in the morbid in the... In some sense... the obscene pain of life. It's madness. To laugh is to not look at the world the way the world truly is.

Moving on, It's not just laughter, maybe it's pleasure. He says. But to this in verse 2, he proclaims “what good is it?”

What good is it to feel a little bit of pleasure when all around us is nothing but pain? What good is it to feel a little bit of pleasure when the end result of that is more brokenness and hurts? What use is it? It's at best a temporary anesthetic for whatever it is that we're going through.

Mirth, joy -- These are not of lasting value, says Solomon. Because it is much easier to lose your joy than it is to gain it. It's much easier to lose the feelings of euphoria and happiness than it is to gain them. When you are feeling down in the depths of despair.

And so, then he turns, okay. If the natural world in laughter and just pleasure, can't provide it. Maybe i will force myself to have some pleasure. What if i look to wine?

Verse 3 is a little bit of a weird verse and it takes a little bit of careful thought and what's being said, there's really two options. The verse reads: "I searched with my heart How to cheer my body with wine. My heart still guiding me with wisdom” The options are either. He's saying: “I experimented in the land of drunken revelry. My heart told me to go there, because maybe, That's a place I should experiment that i should try to find a little bit of pleasure.”

The other way to read this goes like this: I searched how to find joy and pleasure, how to, how to find cheer in wine, but i didn't give myself over to full drunkenness... My wisdom still guided me.

Either way The end result. Is fruitless vanity And added sorrow. Either way. It's still pointless. This is the word he uses: It's folly. To try to seek escape from the world to try to numb yourself with alcohol. And we should note here, culturally and contextually in that this is the context WE find OURSELVES in, as we drive around town and see, a dispensary on every corner of every street. THAT is the same thought that Solomon is wresting with here. I'll seek out some way to numb my senses to deaden myself to the world around me and maybe that is how i will find Meaning and purpose in life. Solomon's answer here that this is pure vanity. You won't find it there. You won't find fulfillment at the bottom of a bottle. You won't find joy in a joint. It's vanity. Stop looking for hope and meaning and value and goodness and fulfillment in pleasure. “you will not find It” says Solomon.

But what if we don't, just look at it sort of Base pleasures: Laughter joy. Drunkenness. What if we take the next step?In riches? Or, as i said here, possessions

POSSESSIONS

Solomon begins to recount for us. The life of possession. That no one shy of like, Bezos and Elon can compare to nowadays. He made great works. What were these Great works? houses.. plural. Vineyards... not one, but multiple. Gardens, parks, planting in these gardens and parks all kinds of trees, pools in the gardens of parks to water the trees that he's planting there. He had slaves, and slaves born of slaves. He had everything money could buy. All of the gold, all of the silver, all of the treasure of all of the kings, and all of the provinces.

In modern language: The biggest 401k the, the best RV, the most fantastic boat, the biggest mansion. He had all of these possessions. And in the end. He was just as empty As when he started. There's many things we could look at here, this sort of illustrate this, but i think one of them is, is most telling.

All of these possessions Don't Fill the most basic need That man has.

When god in genesis 1. And i think that that there's a sense where Solomon is trying to hearken back to god in genesis 1, creating the garden of eden and he's trying to mimic god's creation of the garden, as he plants trees, and gardens and parks, and he does all of this stuff trying to get back to man in his most blessed place and time.

If we just take a bigger picture here, if we think back then to genesis, when god is making everything he looks, he makes the sun, the stars, the moon, he separates one expanse from the other, he creates all of his stuff and everything. and then, if we think back to Genesis 1 We find that the The rhythm of genesis 1 is this: “It was good”. And “it was good” and he made this and “it was good” and he made this and “it was good”. And then he creates, man, And man was created good, but In Genesis 2:18, we hear this phrase for the first time, “it's not good. For man to be alone.”

It's not good for us to be alone and yet Solomon in seeking out these possessions Finds himself Alone. Note this: I made great works. I built houses for my self. I made myself gardens i made myself pools, i bought male and female slaves, who were born in my house. I had great possessions, i gathered for myself. In grabbing these possessions, it's me me. I And he has all of them.

There's none left for anyone to gather, he's king of the hill. He's king in jerusalem, he has all the possessions. All of the things that he could ever want. And at the end of the day, That means nothing. If we skip ahead to verse 10,

Whatever my eyes desired, i did not keep from them. And he gives this little sort of explanation. I found pleasure in all my toil and this was my reward for my toil, Solomon said to himself. You know what? I work hard. I deserve this new car. I deserve this house. I deserve this garden. I work hard. I deserve all of this. It is all mine. And what is he gain? Absolutely Nothing.

But, what if its not just pleasure and possessions. What if we look to people?

PEOPLE

And then there's two ways we can look through this. Both of them, we will find, spoiler alert: Its all vanity!

First, if we look at verse 8 there's this idea he's gathering for himself, silver and gold in the treasure of king's. Maybe the meaning in the pleasure of self-indulgence is having other people see How great you are. It's all the accolades of all the men around you. All the people who say that's who we want to be like that's who we should want to imitate. That iss who is worthy of all our praise. He had all of these accolades. It's still vain. Nothing.

But maybe it's not just people piling up accolades and piling up Praise, what If it's also people around you who can entertain you and lift you up? So he got singers.

Both men and women singers. Do you like the deep bass voice or all the way up to some sort of soprano. It doesn't matter. He heard them all. Back in the days before radio and Spotify, he could still listen to whatever music he wanted, because he had all the singers people to entertain him to try to bring him pleasure. It's all vanity and a striving after the wind. Ultimately, You can listen to all the songs in the world. Still grow tired of them. The best song you've ever heard played on repeat over and over and over and over again will someday fail to bring pleasure and will instead drive you insane. He's tried this.

But it's not just accolades. It's not just those who could bring him pleasure. He also got many concubines. To say it in a sort of crass way: He slept around. And this is pre Sort of the sexual revolution that we've experienced in this century. He was still thinking, well i'll just have sex with whomever. I want free sex all the time, and that will make me feel fulfilled. Nope. Still empty. It is still vain.

The tragedy here in some sense is if we know the story of Solomon's life, He thought this would bring him fulfillment instead, this brought him nothing but pain and destruction. It's not just that it promised joy and fulfillment and it didn't bring that.

It promised joy and fulfillment. And instead it cost him his kingdom — a civil war — and Sorrow and heartache for his entire kingdom for years to come after him. There's no fulfillment here. You cannot find your meaning in other people. Their accolades, what they can do for you, or even in their bodies. It is all vain striving after the wind. There's nothing to be gained here.

And so, we end up in the same place. This is the same place we ended last week. Well, let's look for wisdom and find meaning there. What we don't have it. What do we have left? Nothing

Well, what about pleasure? Let's find meaning, and purpose in pleasure. Well, what do we have left? When we find no meaning and purpose there? Nothing.

The pile up here Conveys, one commentary says, bitter disillusionment. He's tried it all. He's thrown off in many ways the the moral Confines He should have been living under and even in doing that, he still can find no purpose.

By way of personal testimony. When i was in high school, I fell in with the wrong crowd. And the life, they were living, And the life i were living, They ended up not being that different.

And so i thought to myself, With not much wisdom. Well, if the only difference between my life and their life is, i feel bad after i do these things, what if i just don't feel bad then i will find meaning and happiness in life. Instead, i found myself alone. Burning most of the bridges with most of the friends i ever had. Filled with sorrow. And regret. The world cannot give you pleasure. The world cannot bring you fulfillment. The pleasures of the world cannot bring you meaning or anything else.

One of my commentators says it this way.. I like the way he talks about it, he said: “Solomon sought fulfillment in the pub, the garden, the boardroom, and the bedroom, and all he found in all of these Was vanity.”

There's no meaning. There's no purpose here under the sun. What's the point? The point is, There is nothing to be gained from what the world promises, so do not listen to its lies. Pleasure is not what man was made for. This hedonistic mindset of will do what feels good, as long as no one gets hurt.. It's okay. Will not give you purpose and fulfillment in life.

Trust me, I've read all the philosophers. They are just as miserable as the person. They're trying to go find Happiness with. There is no Meaning, there's no purpose. There's no goodness. There's nothing to be gained in the wilderness of pleasure and the sinful Swamp of all of the things Solomon's going to engage with here.

So what's the point? Don't look for these things Under the sun.

We're here at the same point we ended last week. With spoiler alert: you're going to get the same application point next week as well. Quit looking for these things under the sun, instead lift your eyes to the heavens. Set your focus on your god and savior.

Jesus came to this earth. Paul teaches us in Philippians, And he humbled himself even to the point of death, even death on the cross. He came to this earth and when our savior came to this earth, his ultimate goal and end was not pleasure and possessions. His ultimate goal on this earth was to redeem a people. And to do the will of the father. And you will find more pleasure. In in serving the lord then you will anywhere else.

Often as a pastor. I get the question. Well, how did you know That you were called to be a pastor? And i think that's a good question. And there's a long answer that we could talk about sort of gifts and what gifting, and what other people have seen and what you feel in your heart. That's that's one thing.

But here's ultimately for me the answer. In days of trial and trouble and struggle How i know?

You will never Find fulfillment. Trying to do life your way. And when you are doing, what the lord has called you to do. No matter how hard and difficult often discouraging, it is You will find more, joy, more pleasure. In these things then you will ever in anything the world can offer.

There is no amount of money that i could be offered that would get me to stop doing this job. There's no amount of possessions i could ever gain that would make me, not want to be a pastor and stand up here and preach god's word to you. Because this, i have found to be much more fulfilling than any striving after the wind that i could seek in the world around. “Seek, ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you.” This is how we get through and understand that, it's not about the pleasures and possessions that you can gain for yourself rather. We must serve the lord with gladness.

Let's pray.