Ecclesiastes 1 - The Truth Behind the See-Through Suit
Tom Shrader opens a series on Ecclesiastes by examining Solomon's sobering assessment of life 'under the sun.' Drawing from Solomon's unmatched wealth, wisdom, and experience, Shrader shows how the king who had everything declares it all meaningless and fleeting. He challenges listeners to learn from Solomon's perspective rather than chasing the same empty pursuits that ultimately lead to obscurity and disappointment.
“Whatever you're thinking is going to make you happy, I had it. It won't. It won't make you meaningless. It won't provide you satisfaction long term.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Reflections From the Top of the Heap (2002)
Recorded: September 26, 2002
Duration: 42 min
Themes: meaninglessness, vanity, wealth, wisdom, perspective, emptiness, purpose, disappointment, chasing success, feeling empty despite achievements, questioning life's purpose, mid-life crisis, wealthy but unfulfilled, successful but lost, searching for meaning, disillusioned with materialism
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, Ecclesiastes 1:4-8, Ecclesiastes 1:9-11, Ecclesiastes 1:12-14, 1 Kings 4:29, Matthew 16:26
Theological Themes: wisdom literature, solomon, ecclesiastes, old testament, biblical worldview, theodicy, existential questions, divine perspective
Full Transcript
If you're with us for the first time, I was going to say enjoy this. I don't know that enjoy is the right word, but I hope you'll appreciate what we're going to talk about today and throughout this series. The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of those books that gives you perspective. I think the reason that the last time we taught it I struggled with it a little bit is I know that you are used to the wisdom and the wit and the humor that we supply you every week. There's not a lot of yucks in this baby.
I made a note to myself here: I am the Alan Greenspan of theology on this series. This is pretty serious stuff. So fasten your seatbelt, as they say. We'll take eight weeks on this.
Learning from Others' Experiences
I watched the other day, and I do this for you and I can only do it on Monday, I watched Oprah. She wears me out, but I watched the season opener of Oprah, and she did something that I thought was pretty cool. She traded positions, job positions, with people. So she went to a kindergarten teacher, sent the teacher to the spa for the day, and she taught kindergarten. It was a little chaotic.
She then ended up at McDonald's, working the drive-thru window. They'd come up, just what you'd expect. Then finally this guy comes up, big silver Mercedes, he's in one of those suits, and she said, "McDonald's, can I help you, welcome to McDonald's." And he said, "I want you to know, this is the longest I've ever waited in this line, this is the worst service I've ever had, I've been sitting here this whole time." She said, "Well, I'm sorry you had to wait, sir, can I take your order?"
He gives the order, and she said, "That'll be $6.50." And he said, "It can't be $6.50, it can't be that much." She said, "Oops, I'm sorry, it's four and a quarter." Well, how can you not even... So he pulls up, and it's Oprah's attorney. It was a great moment. She had no idea, he had no idea. It was pretty cool to see.
In watching Oprah over the years, and when she gets into theology, you know it's going to be a little goofy. But there's something that I've noticed that is starting to be more and more of a dominant theme, and that is that life's not just about money. Now, let me do something here, because you could be cynical. I just got the Fortune 500, the top 500 wealthiest people in the country, and I think she's in there at 980 million or something. So I think you could say, well, if you have 980 million, life's certainly not just about the money, but I think you hurt yourself if you think that way. I think you damage yourself if you think that way.
We've said to you many times, there's three ways to learn. You can learn by taking in information: reading, videotapes, discussion classes. Or you can learn through experience. Mom says, "Don't touch the stove, it's hot," and you say, "Really?" Yep, it's hot. That's the second way to learn. There's a third way to learn, and that's how we're going to try to get you to learn here, and that is to listen to other people and try to glean wisdom from them. Try to learn from their experiences.
The Timeless Nature of Scripture
I think there's just, I think Oprah has some platform to speak to this when she's got that money and says, "Listen, it's not just about the money." John Gray, he was kind of hot and then faded away. That was the "men are from Venus and women are Mars," or whatever it is, either way. But when I first heard him, I just laughed because he really said nothing that Larry Wright hadn't been saying in all of our studies for years. Oprah the other day said, "Listen, when we boil it all down, it comes down to this: family, friends, and God." Well, she's on our tape list. Faith, family, and friends is what we talk about all the time.
I guess what I want you to see is when we go to this book, the Scripture, we go to the Bible, this isn't some dreary old dead book that's irrelevant to today. This stuff is as fresh as this morning's headlines because a timeless God doesn't produce dated material, and because the human condition, though the environment and climate around us might change, and some of our civilization might change, and the arts and some of our sophistication may have changed, man doesn't change. That's what I want you to grasp.
Meet Solomon: The Man Who Had It All
We're going to look at today, and for these next seven weeks, we're going to look at the wisdom of a guy who God especially placed on the earth, and allowed Him to experience all the things that you say that would make you happy, whatever your thing is. If I said to you, "Finish the sentence, I'd be happy if..." Solomon experienced it. When you're talking about wealth, he had wealth beyond all measure. He is the author of this book. He was a king. He's the son of David. He prospered by David's unifying the kingdom. It allowed Solomon to reign during a time of prosperity.
He was a guy who was heavily into construction, the arts. Arts exploded under Him. Monarchs and rulers from all around the world came to seek out His guidance and His wisdom. He's the guy today that if he were roaming around, he'd be filling Bank One Ballpark at $199 a pop to come in and listen to Him speak. He's a prolific author. He has three books that he wrote that we still study today in the Scripture. He wrote 3,000 proverbs. He wrote over a thousand songs.
When it comes to sex, if sex is your deal, he had 700 wives. He had 300 concubines. We've tried to make that point to you before. Those are just His staff. He had women available to Him. For Solomon to have three women a day and go a year and never see the same woman twice, that's an
easy deal for him. So whatever you're sitting there saying, if I had that, I would be happy, Solomon has had that. And if you're smart, and that's always open for debate, but if you're smart, you'll listen to this guy. If you think that this is going to make you happy, then listen to him.
I think that's always helpful advice in life. You look at the guy, I don't know what you aspire to be or what you aspire to do, maybe it's to be a receiver in the NFL. So why don't you look at a good one, let's say Randy Moss, and say, is that what I want in my life? Is that what I'm looking for? I mean, I think that's really helpful.
Solomon: The One Who Assembled the Facts
The word Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew means literally, the one who assembled the facts. In other words, I think Solomon's writing, at the end of his life, he has lived all of this, and now he stops, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, through God's grace and mercy, he writes this down, so 3,000 years later, we can read it and maybe get a wake up call. Maybe this is an important time in your life, in your day, where you can stop and you would have enough wisdom and sense to listen to this guy.
Let me say this, and I'll make this point two or three times today, this isn't a loser. So often, when somebody says, well, that's not important, it's because they don't have it. Well, that's not important. Well, no, it's not. It's not important to shoot scratch golf. If you have it. If you don't have it, you just write it off. Solomon says, I got it. I got these things.
We titled this, the series Reflections from the Top of the Heap, not that you need to be on the top of the heap, but he was, and he's telling you what it looks like when you get there. The second thing that we did is today's title, The Truth Behind the See-Through Suit.
The Emperor's New Clothes
Remember the old Hans Christian Andersen story, The Emperor's New Clothes, and you know the elaborate story. But finally, he is walking around naked when finally a young boy said, the emperor's naked. The reason we picked that story is that in a real true sense of the word, Solomon stands up today and says, a lot of your life is empty and naked. That's the point he makes.
Let me make it again. This is not a lesser guy writing to greater people, humanly speaking, resource speaking. This is a greatest of the guys writing to the least of them. Solomon's going to set himself straight.
Key Terms to Understand
Let me give you a couple of words you need to know. Number one, here's the first phrase, the word gain, and it means exactly what you would think. Here's what we might call it, the bottom line. When we talk about gain, we're talking about that that's left over when a transaction's completed. So Solomon's talking about life. He's saying when life is lived and the expenses are taken out, here's what's left. So that's a phrase you're going to hear today and throughout the series, gain.
The other one is the term under the sun. Under the sun means an earthbound perspective, that which is temporal, that which is not eternal. So what Solomon's going to do is look around at this life. He wants to try to establish what's the gain, what's left over after the expenses are taken out from an earthbound perspective. What's my conclusion about life?
And I will just tell you, we're now going to spend the next 30 minutes and it's just like a slap in the face. It's the same point. I walked out yesterday and I forgot how dark this introduction is. I really did. I mean, this is not one of those things where you're going to go skipping out like you're coming out of a Tony Robbins seminar here. This isn't going to do that for you. What this is going to do is to say, listen to the truth.
The Search for Significance
So you've got your outlines in front of you, four points and then a concluding statement and they're pretty similar. Here's the first one, that there is a search for significance. Solomon writes this in Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse two and three, "meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher." He never identifies himself as Solomon, he refers himself as the teacher. "Meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless. It is what a man does gain from all his labor under the sun for which he toils." That's how he begins. That's the opening salvo, meaningless, meaningless.
Some of your translations may say vanity, vanity. When Solomon uses that word vanity, it's used in three ways and they all have kind of similar twists to them. He speaks of something that's fleeting or he speaks of something that's futile or he speaks of this idea here, it's mysterious. It's beyond my comprehension.
Life's Ultimate Meaninglessness
So here's what Solomon is saying. At the end of his life, after acquiring and achieving all of the things that you're busting your pick for, perhaps sacrificing your family for, your friends for, maybe giving your health up for this, Solomon says, at the end of the life, when I got all those things, here's what I can tell you. It's meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless.
Want to be philosophical? He would say the existentialist is right, that life makes no sense, and the only great question is whether we should climb in that boat with Ernest Hemingway and blow our brains out. That's what he's saying. Remember I said it's a pretty somber beginning? And yet, I think some of this rings true.
I used this illustration, oh gosh, a couple of months ago, because it was so fresh in my mind. I drive, when I drive over Lincoln, I drive the speed limit, not because I'm a naturally law-abiding citizen, I've just been over there enough to know that's just a very treacherous place to speed. In fact, it brings a smile to my face when I watch some jerk in a pickup truck, not to offend you pickup truck people, but I'm by one today, and the pickup truck's three times the size of my car, when I see that guy go blowing by Lincoln, and I know that he's up, I just want to say, smile and look to the right, my friend. Well the other day, as I'm driving here, there is a police officer down there
with a radar gun, and he's hitting the gun, and it tells him how fast he's going. I don't know why I thought it, but at the moment I thought, wouldn't it be great if we could invent something where you could point it at a guy, push it, and it would tell you what he was thinking?
Wouldn't it be great if you could sit down in the superstition, and as they're driving to work and from work all day, you could push it, and I think you'd just see printed out, "meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless." I hear that all the time, and sometimes we do better than others, but I think Solomon nails it cold.
We're Just Transient Players
Here's the second point. This could hurt your little ego, but we're just transient. We're kind of not big players when you look horizontally. He writes this in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verses 4 through 8: "Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north, and round and round it goes, ever returning to its course. All the streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place that the streams come from, they return again. All things are worrisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear is full of hearing."
He says, look at this - people come and people go. I mean, you can't stop this. That's the way it is. People come, people go, and if you want to just see how insignificant you are, compare yourself to nature that just comes in a cycle every year.
Every year when we go on vacation in August, I can't wait to get to the beach. I love to go to the beach. Every time I go to the beach, we'll be up in Oregon at the beach two weeks from tomorrow for just a weekend, and I know exactly what I'll think. I will look at that beach, and it's the first thought I have every time. That beach and that ocean doesn't care if it's Christmas Day, the 4th of July, my birthday, or any old day - it's going to roll in and roll out.
You know what? September 11th, and we know how tragic it was. But did you notice the next day, the sun comes up and the sun goes down? That's what he's saying. Nature goes on, and when you compare yourself to nature, you get a sense of how piddly you are and how temporary you are.
The Reality of Our Temporary Impact
I used to work for Coldwell Banker. It's a great job, great company, just terrific. I was in an office down in Central, and then I was out in Mesa at an office. We were out at Mesa, and I worked with another guy, and we decided we were going to leave and do our thing. We did that.
About two weeks later, I went into that office. I like the feel, and I don't know that it's an exaggerated view, and I hope it's not self-serving, but I like to feel like I was a contributor there. I played a role there. Walked in, been gone two weeks, there's a receptionist, and I said, "I'd like to see so-and-so." She said, "Who are you?" Everything in me wanted to say, "Well, you see that plaque right over there? You see that picture?" But all I did was laugh. Two weeks.
I have a friend who tells the story of going to His father's retirement party. His father had worked for this company for 45 years. It was over on the coast, so they went over, and they were having this big party, and His dad was all excited because the company had just built this new office tower next door.
They're there for this 45-year retirement party, and they're having this great time, and he says to His son, "Let me take you over, I want to show you the tower. I want to take you in and show you the new tower." So they walk over to the new tower. He takes out His card, His data card. He inserts it, and it says, "Deactivated." 45 years. Deactivated.
I'm not making any statement here. It's a security issue. You've got to do that. I've got all that figured out. All I'm saying is, don't think you're the exception. This is the way it is. That's the point he's making.
The Guarantee of Obscurity
Here's the third point. Because in this life, we have a tendency to say, "You know what? There's no guarantee." Solomon says, "Oh yes, there is. There is a guarantee. I will guarantee you obscurity."
Can I go back to my opening remarks? The Alan Greenspan of theology. This is serious stuff, and I know that. Solomon writes this in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verses 9, 10, and 11: "What is done will be done again, and there's nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look, there's something new'? It was already here long ago. It was here before our time. Listen to this sentence. This is very, very, very discouraging. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them."
He said, we don't have any sense of men of old. I was talking to somebody a while ago, and I don't know why, but I was talking about my grandmother, my dad's mom, and I was making some comments about it. The person said to me, "What about your great-grandparents?" I said, "I don't know a thing about them, and if I don't know about them, I'm sure you don't know about them." That's what he says.
He says, "Hey, first of all, you think you're the first one that's ever had this thought. It's been thought a billion times. Secondly, there are people that have come before us, and we have no sense of them."
Even Great Achievements Are Forgotten
There was a guy, when I was a young boy, there was a guy who literally sent every child in this country racing to schools to get a little sugar cube, to eat that sugar cube, to eradicate a disease that we thought was epidemic, and it was. Jonas Salk wipes out polio, and the latest survey I saw, it was a few years ago, said less than a third of the people in this country can even identify him.
Now, I don't know what you're going to do today, but I'm sensing eradicate polio isn't on the list, and yet you think they're going to remember you? And then he goes on. It's as if to say, if I haven't beaten
Here's what he's saying: let me close this deal. And even those that are yet to come, they're not going to be remembered by the ones that follow them. He's saying, listen, this just isn't an education problem, although Lord knows we have that. Do you know the literacy rate in the state of Massachusetts was higher at the time of John Adams than it is today? That's an interesting thought. And their vote counts as much as yours.
What he's saying is, it's not just a matter of history, it's just human nature. We're so absorbed in who we are and what we're doing, and we think everything that came before us was stupid, and we don't give a rip about what comes after us, and that's the way it's always going to be.
The Vice Presidents Nobody Remembers
I'm going to read you a list of names. Don't say anything out loud, because many of you will know this list of names. But I will tell you that these are all men, and they have something in common. Don't say anything, you just listen quietly. William Wheeler, Henry Wilson, David Tompkins, Richard Johnson, George Clinton, Tom Hendricks, James Sherman, Thomas Marshall, Charles Curtis.
These guys were all vice president of the United States. Second most powerful man in this country, until maybe now. Second most powerful man in the country, and we don't even know who they are. All I'm trying to do is help you get perspective on you. You think they're going to remember you? You're the assistant manager at Safeway. They're thinking about you, my friend.
A Cruise Ship Perspective
This summer, part of our vacation is we took a cruise, we took an Alaskan cruise. By the way, we're thinking about—don't know, should know in another three or four weeks—we're thinking about maybe doing our own cruise, inviting you all to join us, if you'd like. For next August, so if you're thinking about something, vacation for next August, you might hold off for two or three weeks, and if we can get it together, real small, no more than 50 rooms, something like that.
We're on this cruise, John MacArthur's teaching. We walk into this room. This wall is filled with John MacArthur books, just books that John wrote. There's John, there's the MacArthur study Bible, and I just laughed, because every once in a while, you get maybe a sense that maybe there's something you're doing, and I look around and I say, this is unbelievable. And yet, if I go to Fashion Square today, which sounds like a good day, and I ask a hundred people who's John MacArthur, 95 of them have no clue who John MacArthur is.
You've watched it. Leno does it. They go out in the street and show people a picture of Al Gore, but they show guys a picture of Dick Cheney, they have no clue who these guys are. That's the point, and I belabor it, and I beat it around, and I try to kill it, because I want you to understand, don't you think you're something? You may be Moby Dick in a waiting pool in your business, but you're nothing overall. And unless you do something really famous, or really stupid, you may be a little wedge in a trivial pursuit game, but that's it.
The End of the Statue Era
I was thinking about this the last time we were back east. We used to do a lot of statues. We don't even do statues anymore. It would be presumptuous to say we're going to do a statue of somebody, and the guys they did statues of, people are gathering around, trying to read to figure out who it is, and then the poor schlep comes out and has to clean it, saying, why do we build these things anyway with taxpayer money? I mean, it's just this giant cycle, and the point is, it doesn't matter, you're not the exception.
When I did summer camp this year, one of the points I tried to make to these little minds of mush, junior high and high school students, is, I know how you think, and I know exactly how you think, because I thought that way, and you think you're the exception, and you're not. I said, there is no way you'll ever catch me with a wife and kids in a station wagon. And I was right. It was a minivan. You aren't the exception. It isn't going to change. That's what Solomon's saying.
Solomon's Closing Thought
Then he has one last point. He says, well, let's put a bow on this thought. See if I can cheer you up with a closing thought. So here's how he ends, chapter 1, verses 12, 13, and 14: "I the teacher"—again he never gives you his name, he identifies himself as David's son—"I the teacher was king over Israel and Jerusalem. I devoted myself to study, to explore by wisdom all that was done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on man"—he's talking about just the burden of life—"I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind."
Now Solomon is not puffing his resume here. In 1 Kings chapter 4, verse 29, it says this: "God gave Solomon great wisdom and understanding and knowledge too vast to be measured. In fact, his wisdom exceeded all that of all the wise men of the east and the wise men of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else." He composed some 3,000 proverbs, 1,005 songs. He could speak with authority about all kinds of plants from the great cedar of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that grows from the cracks in the wall. He could also speak about animals and birds and reptiles and fish, and kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.
The Greatest Mind's Conclusion
Here's what I'm pleading with you to do. Here are the greatest minds in the world saying, you gotta go listen to Solomon, and I'm saying to you exactly the same thing. This guy knows about biology, he knows about construction, he has a sense of astronomy, he understands the human heart, he understands success, he understands pleasure, he understands all of this, and when he stops, here's what he says: it's meaningless. It won't measure up. It's like chasing after the wind. You can't catch it.
If you do, it doesn't matter. No one cares, most of us. You may look at this and think it's something we identify with kids. The kids are really susceptible to peer pressure. Kids are really vulnerable to peer pressure.
But everybody's vulnerable to peer pressure. The stakes are just bigger with you. For them it's having the right tennis shoes; for you it's having the right car. For them it's having the right shirt; for you it's having the right house in the right neighborhood, joining the right club, doing the right things. Most of it is done because you give a rip what other people think. And Solomon says nobody cares.
I remember one day - and this is the only time it ever happened - my girls are great girls, and you all know that, and they never get into this petty stuff. But we're driving one day to school during high school, and they're in the back going, "Oh my hair looks terrible," and the other says, "My hair looks worse," and "My hair looks terrible," and "I'm having a bad hair day." I said, "Girls, stop, stop, I can't handle this. Grab your hair, put it in a scrunchie, pull it up, and just tie it and leave it there. Here's the key: no one else there cares."
All the girls care how they look. The only people who are going to notice are going to be happy that you look bad, because it makes them look better. No one cares. That's the truth.
Living for Others' Opinions
Yet our lives - and you don't even have to shake your head, you don't even have to say it out loud - in your heart, you know it's true. You're living a life driven by all this stuff about what other people think. Some of them are saying it isn't going to matter, nobody remembers.
I did this today, and I know some of you will remember it, but you're big golf fans. You probably can't tell me who won the Masters or the Open or the British Open or the PGA this year. Maybe you can, but it went real fast. If you get it this year, we can go back - well you can't go back to last year because you've got Tiger in there - but you go back before that, you don't know. It doesn't matter. They're at the top of the game. That's them with the trophy. And you don't know.
Solomon's Conclusions
So here's his conclusion, and I think it's on your outline. Four points.
Number one: the earth-bound life, life under the sun, is an empty existence. It can be, in and of itself, very meaningless. A few years ago - not this summer, the summer before - when I was home visiting my parents, my mom and dad said, "We want you to come see our tombstone." They have their tombstone purchased, they have their grave site. I've got to tell you, as a child, I'm very happy that they have the wisdom to take care of this stuff. But I've got to tell you, it was different to walk up to this tombstone, freshly polished, that said "Schrainer" on it. It's got names down there. It's got the opening date, and a dash, and the only thing that the little engraver's waiting for is death.
That's the deal, my friend. Now somebody far more clever than I said when you look at that - and it's got this date and this date with a dash in the middle - all that we need to focus on is what do we do with the dash. But Solomon's saying from an earthly perspective, you just need to understand it's an empty existence.
The Brevity of Life
The second thing is this: viewing nature drives home the brevity of life. I can look at it in the ocean, I can look at it in the stars. I'll tell you what - and this is not, I don't think, what Solomon had in mind - but I'll tell you a great way, that little chronological benchmark that God gave many of you: kids.
I'm talking to Sarah last night, and she walked away when we're done, and I just laughed. We're talking about - this blows me away - Sarah buying a condo. I remember when she didn't have a buck to buy a Coke. Three months ago - three months ago this weekend - Haley's getting married. I remember the day she was born, and I'm telling you, it was three or four months ago.
See, that's what He's saying. Life is brief. No matter what you accomplish, you're destined to be forgotten. So the intelligent conclusion is that human life, in and of itself, earthbound, is futile.
Two Historical Examples
Let me close - we've got about five minutes. Let me give you two guys here. There's a guy who provides us great insight as we look at him, because again, like Solomon, he was very successful. His name was Alexander the Great. He conquered the world. Legend goes that when Alexander the Great fought and won his last battle, he sat down and wept because there was nothing left to conquer. Alexander the Great conquered the world. He died at age 33, an alcoholic, in his own vomit.
He had a buddy by the name of Diogenes. Diogenes is one of these clever little guys that hung around, and they would dialogue to give Him perspective. One day, as the emperor of the world, Alexander the Great said to Diogenes, "I'll give you anything you want." Diogenes said, "I want to make sure I understand the ground rules here. You will give me anything I want?" Alexander the Great said, "I will give you anything you want." Diogenes said, "I want to be immortal."
Obviously Alexander the Great said, "Okay, almost anything you want." Diogenes said to Alexander the Great, "Why do you take such great pains to conquer the world when you cannot assure yourself of one moment to enjoy it?"
I am really into - I discovered this website on C-SPAN - American Presidents. On there now they have excerpts from the Johnson tapes and the Nixon tapes. You can literally click on these things and listen. It's like this historic voyeurism where you get to listen - I mean you're listening to a phone call. I was listening to a phone call yesterday between Lyndon Johnson and Bobby Kennedy. Very interesting stuff. The tapes that aren't on there yet record Johnson right after he won election in 1964. He just
He won by the biggest landslide in the history of this country. He's passing legislation like selling burgers. He's got everything going and yet this tape, he talks about being the most miserable man on earth because he's got Vietnam looming over him. He's where he always wanted to be.
Forget Diogenes, how about this? Here's what Jesus said: what good is it for a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? What's the point of that? What's the point? And do you hear what He's saying? He's not saying maybe, He said what's the point? Here's the guy, the dog has caught the car, this is the guy, he's at the top of the game. What's the point of it? If indeed he's forfeiting his soul.
Two Categories of People
So now we're looking at this from two ways. If you're not a Christian and your life is consumed with accumulation, acquisition and retention of stuff and you've got all that and you're forfeiting your soul, God says you're a fool. If you're here, you can apply that to your own life, that's self-evident. You need to race and ask the person who invited you what it means to know Jesus.
I want to talk to those of you who say you're Christians. And yet you're living like this is all there is.
The Illusion of Happiness
I believe, I did a wedding Saturday and here's this couple and I've watched this obviously a thousand times. They're looking at each other, they're laughing, they're looking at each other's eyes. Here they are, they're as happy as can be. They're getting ready to go to this beautiful reception. I don't think it even enters their minds that this won't work. And that probably represents almost every couple that stands at an altar or on a platform or on a putting green or wherever you do this thing.
I don't think anybody says, well, I'll tell you what I'll do, Mary. I'll give it a shot, but I don't think it's going to work. I don't think anybody approaches it that way. I think I mean it. And yet we know what is it. Some say 50, but 30, 40 percent of these things never work. What happens?
Or you see it. When I'm in the hospital, you see this dad and he's holding this baby and nothing's more important than this baby. And this mom with her baby. And yet within a matter of weeks, we're right back into the same old grind. And there's this 13, 14, 15, 8 year old who doesn't know their dad, doesn't know their mom, and can't flag him down long enough to have a conversation with him because mom and dad are too busy.
Solomon's Testimony
Jesus says, what are you doing? What are you thinking about here? Solomon says, and I think he speaks with credentials that are impeccable. He says, I'll tell you what, whatever you're thinking is going to make you happy, I had it. It won't. It won't make you meaningless. It won't provide you satisfaction long term. It may give you a little respite. It may give you a little break.
There is a little bit of charge. I talk business. There is a little bit of charge in the hunt for the deal, isn't there? I love it. Isn't there a little charge in the hunt for the deal? I love the negotiation. I love that part. Now we're sitting down. Now there's a battle of wits. I love that. Let's put it together. Let's create it. That's that. There's a little rush.
But I've also had that experience where when the check comes in and you open it, it's kind of anti-climactic too because it's the check. Oh, this isn't me saying this. Oh, if I could be the homecoming queen. Oh, if my friends would just excuse me. And you're the homecoming queen. And you know what? You're walking around in Phoenix now and unless you put on your little crown, nobody knows. That's Solomon's point.
Let's pray. Father, we hear it. Just give us the wisdom and the sensitivity to listen to this and understand we aren't the exception to this, that stuff, people, places, things are never going to provide for us. That yearning that we have to have a relationship with a Creator God, Father, help us understand that's going to come from Jesus and nowhere else. God, we pray that to you in Jesus' name, amen. Have a great week. We'll see you next week.