The Search for Peace and Purpose

Intro: Welcome to Fellowship Espanol! We are glad you are here and decided to spend this Christmas Season with us! Last week we started our Christmas Series The Missing Peace, Pastor Bryan pointed us to Christ as our Prince of Peace, he explained how many people think that peace is the absence of conflict, but that is not the peace the Bible speaks of , the peace the Bible speaks is of a peace of trusting in a God who has all things under control and gives peace through the conflict.

Today we are going to the Old Testament to the book of Ecclesiastes. We will see how many of us search for peace and purpose in this life and Solomon provides an interesting conclusion.

I love to read, and throughout my reading there are nuggets of truths and quotes that alter your life. Augustine, a fourth century philospher and theologian, said this in his book Confessions;

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee”

Restless could be described as the absence of peace. The God of the universe created you to find satisfaction, purpose, rest and peace in him.

Our lives are restless and on the search for peace and purpose in this life and we look for peace and purpose in everything. Paul tells us,

Acts 17:26–27 ESV

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

What does this passage tell us?

This passage tells that God created every person on the earth.

God determined the times and place of where people should live. Really? Why?

So that they would seek God, feel their way toward him and find him

What is Paul saying here?

God placed you at this exact place in history so that you would hear his voice calling out to you and you would listen to his call and surrender your life to him.

The problem is in our search for peace and purpose there are competing ideas, philosophies and ideologies which bring pleasure to the sinful heart. Which brings us to our passage today. King Solomon says in chapter 1:12 - 18 he has purposed to search out wisdom and to do “all that is done under heaven” in other words Solomon wants to pursue all that this world has to offer. In his pursuit he has realized that it is an unhappy pursuit and all our worldly pursuits are worthless and it is like trying to catch the wind. Then he gives us a proverb;

Ecclesiastes 1:15 ESV

What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

In Chapter 2 Solomon explains how he searched for peace and purpose with Pleasure, Prudent and Prodigal Living, Possessions. His life’s pursuit was discover how he can experience peace and purpose in selfish living

I. Searching For Peace through Pleasure.

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.

A. King Solomon Decided to Pursue peace and purpose through pleasure.

Solomon’s pursuit of pleasure lead him down many roads.

1. Wine/Alcohol (2:3) -

2. Various possessions he could enjoy (2:4 - 2:8a)

3. Arts/Entertainment (2:8b)

4. Sex (2:8c)

Where is your pursuit of pleasure leading you to pursue?

B. Results of His Pursuit

1. I became Great - 2:9

2. my heart found pleasure 2:10

3. I found no peace or purpose 2:2,11

II. The Search For Peace & Purpose Through Prudent & Prodigal Living

Ecclesiastes 2:12–17 ESV

So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Prudent means wise living and prodigal means wasteful or foolish living.

A. Pursue Peace and Purpose through Prudent and Prodigal living.

1. King Solomon decides to test Prudent and Prodigal (wasteful/foolish) living.

King Solomon puts on display for us the parable of the prodigal sons in Luke 15. Jesus tells us one son asked for his inheritance from the Father and went and wasted it on foolish living. The other son stayed home and lived wisely, one son near the other far, yet both of the sons were distanced from the heart of God.

Solomon lived the fools life, he lived the prudent life.

2. He discovers Prudent living excels over prodigal 2:14

B. King Solomon encounters a problem

1. The same fate comes to the prudent and the prodigal. 2:14c - 15

2. No enduring legacy. 2:16

C. The Result of his pursuit

1. I hate life 2:17a

2. All is vanity

III. The Search for Peace and Purpose in Possessions

Ecclesiastes 2:18–23 ESV

I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

A. I Hated The Acquiring of Possessions 2:18a

B. Reasons:

1. Can’t Take My Possessions With Me 2:18b

2. I don’t know who I will leave them to will be wise or foolish with them 2:19a

a) this causes despair because his eyes are fixed only in this world 2:20

b) causes despair because he leaves all possessions for someone else to enjoy 2:21

C. The Result of His Pursuit

1. humans gain nothing acquiring possessions 2:22

2. days are full of sorrow

3. At night their minds do not rest

4. This also vanity

IV. SO WHAT?

King Solomon is displaying for us what Augustine wrote hundreds of years ago;

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee”

King Solomon has tried everything this world can give and found it all useless in providing peace and purpose. His self indulgence and selfish living lead him into a depressed despair for life to the point he looked back and hated life.

So what was his conclusions, his final advice in chapter 2?

A. Find enjoyment in your work

1. Solomon says eat, drink and find enjoyment in your life.

B. But how?

We see this did not please King Solomon, did King Solomon find the key to peace and purpose? Yes, King Solomon found peace and purpose in God.

1. This is also from the hand of God. 2:24b

2. King Solomon discovered we are restless and we can’t find joy, peace, purpose apart from God 2:25

C. Discovering Peace and Purpose in God Comes From Having A Relationship With Jesus the Prince of Peace.

Do you remember what Solomon said about what is crooked ?

Ecclesiastes 1:15 ESV

What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

What we discover is that Jesus can take the crooked and make them straight, Jesus provides for us what is lacking. Jesus makes straight lines with crooked sticks.

In order to have peace in this life and the life to come we must have peace with God through Jesus Christ, everything else is worthless.

Romans 5:1–2 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

When we listen to the call of God and turn from our sin and pursuit of peace and purpose in other things and we trust in Jesus who provides and restores peace with God and purpose in life, then we can find satisfaction in this life because we are satisfied in Christ, he is our peace, he gives us our purpose.

Jesus says;

Luke 9:23–25 ESV

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?