"Testing the Heart"

Introduction: A Genie and his three wishes for those who rub the lamp tells the common story of what our desires reveal about our hearts. The Preacher doesn’t have a lamp, but has everything in front of him, and he will test his heart.

CTS: Test the desires of your heart to see where it is rooted; in yourself or in your Creator.

I. A Heart for Self-Indulgence (1-11)

A. Personal happiness as the chief end (1)

The Preacher now turns to a new aspect of his experiment. With wisdom as the base, and yet he found that everything was crooked and could not be made straight, maybe he can look to the things of life, and try to make sense of it. And he will apply his heart to this end. Enjoyment. Personal happiness. Maybe I’ll be happy if I have pleasure.

B. The seven-fold experiment (2-8) (Adapted from Zack Eswine)

Laughter (Comedy, jokes)

Alcohol

Art/Architecture

Nature

Money and Possessions

Music

Sex (1 Kings 11:3) “He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.”

In essence, Qohelet made himself own “secular garden of Eden, “full of civilized and agreeably uncivilized delights, with no forbidden fruits” (Derek Kidner). He was trying bring back paradise, to regain meaning in that which was lost in Genesis 3. He had his own incredible lamp with limitless worldly possibilities.

C. The results of the experiment (9-11)

The pleasures he found, though many good, still left him empty. He had everything his heart desired. He did not withhold it. He did this purposely. Maybe the jokes would endure. Maybe the alcohol would bring him joy. Maybe the art of his own garden would fulfill. Maybe his possession and upkeep of this created paradise for his pleasures would give him purpose. Maybe having music sooth his soul would finally give him what he searched for. Maybe sexual relationships and pleasure from it, never-ending and changing with each woman, will give him shalom. But none of it did. The same conclusion as everything else came about. Everything he expended toward his self-pleasure was vanity, striving after the wind, nothing to be gained from it. It was empty.

Transition: So if this didn’t satisfy him, maybe he could leverage worldly wisdom and seek an advantage over the folly and madness of it all. Maybe life would make sense if he lived differently than the fool...

II. A Heart for Gaining Advantage (12-17)

A. Living the wise life

The Preacher turns to wise living. Maybe if he looks at what is foolish and lives opposite of that, he will find meaning. Testing wisdom in the real world. And the results are positive at first. He gains more than a foolish life. We can have worldly wisdom and gain much in this life. The shrewd and even the smart can gain the upper hand. Listen to the likes of Oprah, Dr. Phil, and the self-help gurus of our day and you can gain.

B. Living the foolish life

The foolish life is folly. Not being careful, frivilous, walking in ways that won’t gain you anything will leave you in darkness. Not abiding my common sense wisdom will often put you in a bad spot. So the Preacher is right. The wise is walking with sight, but the fool walks in darkness, with nothing to guide his way.

C. Death, the great equalizer

But it doesn’t matter. The same event happens to all people, regardless of whether you lived wisely or foolishly. Death comes for all. And the Preacher gives us a view of death that doesn’t take into account the afterlife. Again, remember, he is only viewing these experiments under the sun. It doesn’t matter. No one will remember you and your wisdom. You’ll be forgotten, just like the fool. So, everything becomes grievous. Psalm 49:10 “

“For he sees that even the wise die;

the fool and the stupid alike must perish

and leave their wealth to others.”

Death in the end makes life utterly pointless. No wonder he says “I hated life.” Job 14:1 affirms this fact, as Job says “Man who is born of a woman, is few of days and full of trouble.”

III. A Heart for Building Our Kingdoms (18-23)

And the last experiment of this chapter begins and reaffirms the fact of the vanity of toil. This is much like a continuation of what has come before, but here is what we see.

Work Hard / Live Wisely/ Die Empty-Handed

Toil and toil. Work to build our kingdoms. Build our possessions. Seek pleasure and meaning in it all. Work ourselves to the bone, working 60-70 hours a week, just to get that promotion, get more stuff, and have a nice retirement. Live wisely and shrewdly, not life a fool. And then die. READ Luke 12:13-21. Build and build, and yet what happens? You die. You leave it to someone else who didn’t work for it. Sure, they could live wisely, but then they die. Eventually, it will be poorly handled, or in the end, destroyed. What was the point. And this puts the Preacher into a state of unrest. He can’t sleep because of it. None of these experiments brought meaning or purpose.

IV. A Heart for God (24-26)

And for the first time, the Preacher begins to bring us something positive, something not full of despair. And you see why this is the case. He begins to look above the sun. He recognizes something. He recognizes that his own kingdom-building and seeking for self-pleasure and medication is vanity. But recognizing pleasures, wisdom, and toil in light of God, that the life for God and in God brings about gifts from His hand brings great enjoyment. So then, work and toil brings on a whole new meaning.

1 Timothy 4:4-5 says “4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. “

Life as a gift from God. That life of God is made possible because of Christ. Ezekiel 36:26 tells us “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

Unlike the Preacher, Jesus was tempted, yet did not sin. He didn’t find value in the pleasures of life, or having to prove himself to the world. He knew who He was and that He was the Son of God. His work was meaningful, for even though it was the most difficult work in history, it was completed at the cross and stamped as approved by His own resurrection. He delivered us from living life to find meaning, and instead finding meaning in God and enjoying our lives in Him. To have a heart for God means I can then take these things and use them for its proper end. The glory of God. God isn’t wanting you to be miserable. Enjoy the good things of life. The Preacher says this. Eat and drink and enjoy it as a gift from God, not for meaning in this life

Conclusion:

Yes, this seems to contradict the experimental life. You can enjoy those things. But God has to be in the picture. And the only way God could be in the picture is that God came into our broken world to give us the restoration, to recover Eden as it was intended. Death no longer will make everything meaningless. Jesus defeated death for us and makes us all equal before him, rich and poor, able to enjoy his good gifts, wherever we are, however much money we make, what kind of car we drive. Satisfaction in our own skin, our own work, our own possessions used for His glory. Music played for His glory, not for meaning. Enjoying art as a reflection of our Creator. Sex in the confines of the marriage relationship, being more fulfilling than multiple partners, for that is what we were created for and brings Him glory.

So, the question is, where are your hearts desires? In self-indulgence? Living wisely? Building your own kingdom? Or it is in God, enjoying His pleasures and gifts, living by His wisdom, and living for His kingdom rather than our own? All through the power of God, made possible through Christ on the cross and His resurrection and His indwelling Spirit who regenerates us and sanctifies us towards true life and meaning.