You’ve no doubt seen the t-shirts or the billboards, or watched the commercials, where the theme was nothing more than…”if it feels good …do it!”
It even makes its way into boutique shops, handcrafted on little plaques, and the bookstores line their shelves with self help books like “looking out for #1” or “Pulling your own strings.”
Even the restaurant business picked up on the theme by announcing “You deserve a break today” or “Have it your way”
Society has boldly embraced the idea of thinking less about others while giving more attention to ourselves.
We are programmed to buy into the concept that somehow…we deserve it! And while the slogans may be new, the concept of self-ism has been around since the fall of Adam.
We see it in our nurseries, as one child hoards the toy that another wants, and the sad part is it doesn’t stop until it reaches the highest offices of both the corporate world as well as governmental.
Last Sunday we began a new series from the book of Ecclesiastes, and you may recall we were introduced to a king who had it all…peace, prosperity, brains, good looks…he was the poster child of success…except there was just one problem…he was living his life horizontally…living as he put it, “under the sun”…
We might say in today’s language quite simply he was living it like a lot of people today….without God.
And despite all his efforts to gain happiness we discovered last Sunday what we already knew, a life without God is a life that is empty, void and without purpose….this morning as we get into chapter two we discover that king Solomon is still searching, still trying in his humanness to find the answers…let’s begin our study together this morning…
1 I thought in my heart, stop right there for a second…isn’t it interesting that after all he has written in chapter one we find him talking to himself…he didn’t get an appointment with a counselor, he didn’t go visit his pastor, nor did he even go check out his fathers history…and even worse he still is yet to involve God in on this search…
Rather this intelligent guy who has it all, determines to do it his way….lets go on… I thought in my heart "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless.
Long before the days of Hugh Hefner we find king soloman allowing his fantasies to become reality, and like a rushing river he plunges head first into a lifestyle of erotic pleasure… listen to these words from 1 Kings 11… “Solomon loved many women besides Pharaoh’s daughter. They were from other lands. They were Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 The Lord had warned Israel about women from other nations. He had said, "You must not get married to them. If you do, you can be sure they will turn your hearts toward their gods." But Solomon continued to love them anyway. He wouldn’t give them up. 3 He had 700 wives who came from royal families. And he had 300 concubines. His wives led him down the wrong path.
4 As Solomon grew older, his wives turned his heart toward other gods. He didn’t follow the Lord his God with all his heart. So he wasn’t like his father David.”
It was Dr. Sorokin a professor at Harvard University who wrote a book copy write 1956 titled “The American Sex Revolution”…just listen….
“The sex drive is considered to be the most vital mainspring of human behavior. The traditional “Child of God” created in Gods own image is now nothing more than a sexual apparatus powered by a sexual instinct, preoccupied with sexual matters, aspiring for and dreaming, and thinking mainly about sexual relations. He goes on to say;” Our civilization has become so preoccupied with sex that now it oozes from all pores of American life”
Solomon takes the same route and when he sums it up…listen to what he says… But that also proved to be meaningless.
Oh that this morning some of you would hear what Solomon is saying…teenager listen….young person listen….dad, tucked away with your computer…listen this morning, mother thinking this new on line chat room affair is nothing more than a fantasy….listen….here is the truth….all the rest is a lie….its an empty futile trip….and the only souvenir is going to be your broken heart, your marriage split, your virginity lost forever, and God forbid some unplanned pregnancy that I promise you girls 9 times out of ten you will go through it all by yourself, because Mr. He man is really nothing more than a wimp, and he will run on you….leaving you there to fend for yourself….why not listen this morning…before you go to far….why not listen this morning before you log on to that site…listen to me please!!!!!
In the end it will all prove meaningless, and you will still be empty and unfulfilled!
Solomon decides to leave the sensual and he decides he will just laugh his way thru life…verse2…
2 "Laughter," I said, "is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?" 3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.
But did you hear what he said….laughter is foolish…now understand that he isn’t saying a healthy portion of laughter is bad, but what he is referring to is a lifetime of folly, bringing out the comedy acts, wining & dining…you know… just living it up…the problem Solomon discovers is that lifestyle isn’t fulfilling either…..they tell me that hanging in jerry Lewis dressing room is a sign that reads; “there are only three things in life that are real; God, human folly and laughter…Since the first two are beyond human comprehension, we must do what we can with the third.”
Still empty and not being satisfied he decides to pour his life into his career…listen to verse 4…
4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. 9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
There is not a doubt in my mind this morning that either right here in this building or listening by radio I am speaking to someone today whose lifestyle has always been to live that dream that is just beyond attainable…every waking moment you are driven by the thought…if I could just make “x” amount of dollars, I could by that house and we could take that vacation, and get that one more thing…but your hunger for more is never satisfied…and maybe you have even got the corner office, the carpet is plush, your house is on the right side of the tracks…but still today your not satisfied…as I said last week, your life is empty…and slowly but surely your losing your grip on all that you thought you had in your possession….your close friends are distancing themselves….your marriage is crumbling while you work the late hours, your kids are making their own choices without your involvement, all the while you are pushing…shoving…trying to get more, yet one by one, little by little, your losing more than your gaining…if that s you this morning…STOP….and listen to Solomon…
he’s been down your road, he has been there, he has done that….listen to what he says, Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
All this week I have prayed for this service this morning….I have worked and reworked this message…you see many of you have conversed with me throughout the week how you too felt a unusual heaviness at the conclusion of last weeks service, and I admit to you it has bothered me all week…
And I have asked God how can the efforts of valley mission cause someone, or some family to wake up and realize that this is for real….that this lifestyle of if it feels good do it, is nothing more than the devils ploy to bring you down, to destroy your life, to waste your God given potential…
Can I tell you this morning hell is full of people who thought they were successful… hell is full of people who said “parties on….”
Somehow I wish you could just listen for one moment to that single mom…who
bought into his lie, and just because he said he loved her, she gave in….just that one time….and now she is working two jobs trying to make ends meet, with a little snotty nosed toddler running around…all her dreams have been shattered…her high school friends are away at college…its all gone….just because she fulfilled her selfish pleasure. Oh sure the pleasure came, but it didn’t last!
Somehow I wish you could just listen for one moment to that all alone dad….who kept visiting that website, who kept staying late at the office…who thought maybe just a cup of coffee with her wouldn’t be all that big of a deal…who never thought he was going to get caught, its harmless….but one visit, one conversation…led to another and then another and tonight he will be all alone, gone are his kids, gone is his wife…. Oh sure the pleasure came, but it didn’t last!
Somehow I wish you could just listen for one moment to that dying man whose liver is eaten away from a life lived on the bottle….he never meant for it to get this far….listen as he tells you about the party nights, when it was one beer after another…he knew when to stop, or so he thought…but this morning he is dying a horrible death….his family has long since left him, and today there he lies all alone…hopeless… Oh sure the pleasure came, but it didn’t last!
Dear hearts this morning I am deeply concerned that some of you under the sound of my voice, you are hell bent on writing your own Ecclesiastes chapter two….its all about you…your invincible…your living the high life…but if you just stop and listen….its crumbling under your feet and the sad part of it is you don’t even care….you don’t even have a clue….satan has convinced you that your exempt from all this bad stuff, that church is irrelevant to your life, that going Gods way makes no sense….that you’ve got all the time in the world…nothing bad is going to happen to you…
And you’re buying into it….it sounds so appealing…so tantalizing.
Yet in reality when the fun and games are over…it’s the pits…I know…I’ve met to many of those folks after the parties over…I’ve counseled until the wee hours of the morning, I’ve ran to the hospital in all hours of the night….but its been to late….the gavel has fallen, the divorce is final….the funerals have been planned….the kids are in trouble, the baby has been born…
Why God has allowed this type of message to be so heavy on my heart this week only heaven will reveal….but I sincerely think that some of you had better listen up to your pastor this morning…some of you had better count the cost…some of you need to put God back in the number #1 spot in your life…
Listen again to the kings words… Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Why not this morning discover Gods plan for your life…our altar is open…
