Pleasures in Christ

If you’ll open up your Bibles our passage today is in Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verses 1-11. Again that is Ecclesiastes chapter 2 verses 1-11. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen we have finally made it out of chapter 1. It is good to be back here with y’all. If you didn’t know this last week I was in Texas visiting a pastor out there. I had the pleasure of worshipping with Wednesday night and Sunday morning. I got to take a good friend with me who was recently looking for a new church to call home. The church we visited was a good sized. About 500 hundred people, and you would think that with that size it would be so easy to go unnoticed. That was not the case. My friend in fact, was rather worried that we would draw attention. You see my friend wasn’t always who he is today. He is covered in tattoos. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with that, but he wasn’t lost to the fact that he was very different than the people who usually go to church and even in that church. He was scared because when he looked around he saw a bunch of people who seemed to have it all figured out, and he felt so clueless. He was nothing like these people. At least he thought. Yet person after person after person came up and greeted us, talked to us. They showed genuine interest and care in him just as much as me. My friend and I talked about it after and he seemed surprised at how inviting and welcoming they were. My brothers and sisters I say all this for reason. The true body, the true bride of Christ, is focused on one thing alone, and that is God’s glory. It doesn’t matter where we go, we have brothers and sisters who genuinely love strangers like family because they love Christ more than anything. Let our church be the same. That whoever walks through those doors, no matter the past, we would say WELCOME WELCOME! For if they are saved they belong to Him, and they are apart of of His family. How could we not hug and love such a person who has been saved? Who was given the same grace we were. And if they’re nonbelievers let us also run and say, “Welcome Welcome! We are so glad you’re here. Let me tell you about our Saviour.” In a world that is obsessed with the surface, what’s on the outside, let us be different. Our Western cultures and customs are not the Gospel. That we would do as Jesus did and look past the surface, so that no matter who walks through those doors we would with open arms welcome them in. Let’s pray

Well hopefully you all held your place. If you didn’t the passage we are going to be reading is. Let’s read.

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11 “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. 8 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. 10 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. 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.”

In my opening I talked about how the world looks at the surface or only skin deep and Solomon gives us a perfect POV or Point of view of what that looks like for someone who seeks to fill the hole, a hole that can only be filled by God, with worldly things. Chapter 1 was a general overview of all of life without Christ, we saw how everything is vanity, however Solomon not satisfied with such a vague statement, dives deeper into, work, labor, anything that might give us a brief sense of purpose, is labeled as vanity, wisdom and knowledge and philosphy are also labeled as such. Now continuing this thought process turns to pleasure. There is a quote that I quite like by Viktor Frankl. It says, “A man who lacks purpose, distracts himself with pleasure.” Now in the world this rings true because it is Biblical. However, as Solomon says, purpose, is vanity. That is, purpose that is not Christ centered is vanity. I said in I believe was my last sermon that sometimes ignorance is bliss. To the man who is completely satisfied with the “purpose” this life offers has no reason not to take it upon himself to see it through to the end. However, many people can’t do that. In fact I believe we live in a time where pleasures are sought above all else unprecedented. These are the people who don’t work, hate any government, they do every drug, sleep around and do not withhold anything that they desire. Look at our passage again. Isn’t that word for word what Solomon is saying? I want to make one thing clear, both people groups are in desperate need of Christ. It is easy to look at the well put together man and then the lazy no good doer and praise one and scoff the other, and in some sense that is right. We appreciate the good that God does even through unbelievers. But what we must not do is reject one and accept the other. Both despretely need the Gospel, and I just want to say how blessed I am to be in a church that reconizes that wether a good contributing member to society or not, they both need Christ. How blessed it is to walk in a church where you are greeted and welcomed. What a beautiful picture of Christ! How Christ took us in despite all of our short comings, all of our failings. The perfect Christ would want us, evil men. That our hearts would also desire for the lost to be saved regardless of what their circumstances look like. So Solomon knowing that there is no true purpose in material work or that purpose of the mind, then turns to pleasure. again as the quote goes, “A man who lacks purpose, distracts himself with pleasure.” So Solomon seeks out all kinds of pleasures but his wisdom hasn’t left him. See the thing about ignorance is it cannot work if you’re not ignorant to the issue. So Solomon is trying to distract himself, but he cannot escape the truth of the issue, that without Christ pleasure is vanity. As he says in verses 1-3 saying “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.” One thing that even the world is willing to admit is that life is extremely short. There was a saying that arose out of this and it became to the anthem for people who are about to do something that will probably be most regrettable later on. I am of course talking about the phrase you only live once, which became popularized with the acronym Y.O.L.O. Again we see the explicit through the implicit. That is, though Solomon hasn’t directly or explicitly said that the key is to turn to Christ, it is the implicit answer. Think if nothing else satisfies, if nothing has worth on its own, then what is the answer? I think you know this one. But we continue in verse 4-9.  “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.” I don’t think the point in this passage is Solomon bragging over all of us who hasn’t done half of what he’s done, or owned what he did, or was as rich as he was. I believe Solomon is trying to draw attention to what we’ve been talking about. That is that though he has great wealth and done many things and was blessed with great wisdom, none of that brings any real and lasting relief to the problem that is existence without God. He would further this thought in the next two passage. Before we continue, I want to say that if you’re finding these sermons boring because they seem to be repetitive, 1. (In a joking manner) stop it. God’s Word is never boring. but 2. It is repetitive. My sermons are making the same points over and over because Ecclesiastes is making the same point over and over. You see when the Hebrew writers wanted to emphasize something they wouldn’t use an exclamation point like we do, they don’t use all capital letters, no instead they repeat it. Often three times. Repitition is the author trying to get our attention and say THIS IS IMPORTANT! Look at the past verses and chapters say. All is vanity. Work is vanity. purpose whether material work or mindful, without Christ is vanity. Pleasures are vanity without Christ. Do you think Solomon is trying to tell us something? He is trying to beat us over the head with it because then and especially now, we are surrounded by people who offer solutions to fill that hole but there is only one who can. The world outside of Christ is nothing but vanity but no so to the Christian. I love this quote by R.C. Sproul, “The goal of the Christian life is not spirituality, and the goal of the Christian life is not piety. The goal of the Christian life's not morality, but the goal of the Christian life is righteousness. We seek spiritual power, spiritual gifts, spiritual disciplines, not so that we can be spiritual, but so what? So that we can be righteous. Spirituality is a means to the end of righteousness. Morality can be practiced without a view to the glory of God. Piety can be practiced just in terms of external religious observation. What we want is authentic righteousness.” We don’t have to worry about being purposeless. This purpose may sound like a chore, but for the Christian, growing in righteous ought to be their greatest delight. It should not be something forced upon us, but something we look forward to. Don’t we confess that man’s chief end is what? To know God and what? Enjoy Him forever. Enjoy Him. You see the problem in Ecclesiastes isn’t that work is bad, or wealth, or pleasures. God created them all and for a purpose. They were created for us and to help us know, glorify and enjoy Him more. The problem is when we try to take the created and try to use that as a substituion for the Creator. This is where it all becomes vanity. Let’s continue to verses 10-11 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. I mentioned earlier in the sermon about the people who won’t withhold anything from themselves and Solomon would seem to be in the same boat. Not his eyes, his heart or his hands. Solomon found that hard work had pleasure too. As said before, the Lord made pleasures, he made work so that we might enjoy Him more, but they cannot replace God. this is why he goes from saying he found pleasure in verse 10 to then turn around and say this 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. The more you analyze the text the more abundantly clear it is. There is no hope or purpose found in the world apart from Christ. I wish I could say that this isn’t something we Christians have to worry about, but we do. How often do we so often seek hope and comfort in things other than Christ, how often do we trust our own understandings. My friends we are under attack every signal day. From the outside, From Satan, and From our own flesh. We must be so very careful. I want us all to ask ourselves, “Have i been seeking to find purpose, hope outside of Christ? If you have, come and ask for forgiveness and be reminded of the satisfaction, hope, purpose and yes pleasure that can only be found in Christ. Let’s pray