Sermon Transcript
Father, you are so good.
I pray that we could see you this morning in our hearts, and we would turn to you and live our lives for you, Lord. We pray those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Uh, they say if you are stranded on a desert island with no water Whatever you do, do not start drinking the ocean water. Now, of course, we know that, right? Our bodies can’t process water with that much salt in it. But also, the salt will actually make you more thirsty. So, so you will want to drink more, and you won’t be able to process that water either, but then you’ll get even more thirsty.
Causing you to drink even more until your kidneys shut down, and you’ll die quicker than you would have just from the simple dehydration in the first place. So I have never been tempted to drink salt water. When I’ve been playing in the ocean and you get turned upside down by a wave and I get a whole bunch of water in my mouth, that’s enough to let me know that I’m not really interested in drinking salt water. Plus, I’m kind of a germaphobe, and so I can’t get past all the diseases that are probably floating around in the water, and we’ll say animal byproducts that might be there as well. And I know people say saltwater disinfects everything, so it’s okay, but really, I mean, seriously, you believe that?
Because there’s like dead whales that float up onto shore, and their corpses have been floating around in the water before that. Oh, but it’s okay because saltwater disinfects everything, right? Okay, please, come on, wake up. That can’t be true at all. Plus, there’s all the little kids and some adults probably, right, that make the calculation that the ocean is a whole lot closer than the bathroom up at the top of the hill.
And so they go in the ocean so they don’t have to stop playing. So I’ve never really been tempted to drink seawater, but I’ve also never been dying of thirst on a desert island. And I imagine on about day 2 with nothing to drink and the hot sun cooking your internal organs like a poached egg, I imagine that ocean with the cool, glistening water, I imagine that starts to look pretty good. Even though it’s deadly, I bet it looks good. And I may start to think, ah, maybe just a little bit, maybe just a little taste, maybe just enough to kind of wet my mouth.
That’s all I need. For the past month and a half, if you haven’t been here, we as a church have been going through this ancient little book called Ecclesiastes that’s tucked into the middle of our Bibles. And this little book of wisdom, the author Solomon says there’s a lot of things like that in life. Things that look good. Things that may appear like they would give us satisfaction.
But in fact, they don’t. Like trying to quench our thirst with saltwater, pursuing these things in order to give us satisfaction is ultimately futile. He calls it meaningless, a chasing after the wind. The little word meaningless that he uses is what’s used to describe smoke or fog. You can’t grab smoke.
You’re not going to catch it. If you tried, it would be futile. It would be chasing after the wind. We’re not actually going to get satisfaction from these things. And yet we try to get satisfaction from these things because they look good, because it looks like they would give us satisfaction.
So throughout this little book of wisdom, he lists all kinds of ways that we attempt to find satisfaction but actually fail. This morning we’re just going to look at 3 of them because that’s what’s in our block of text in chapters 5 and 6 in Ecclesiastes, if you want to start turning there. Then luckily he tells us where we actually can find satisfaction. So, common way to attempt satisfaction but fail, number 1.
Frantic praying and promising to God.
This is Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verses 1 through 3, then verse 5, then verse 7, then drop— we’re dropping down to 6, verse 11. So I’ll just read all those for you, and they’ll be up on the screen as well. Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth.
Do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. A dream comes when there are many cares. Many words mark the speech of a fool. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.
Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore, fear God. The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone? Solomon notices what we have probably noticed in our own lives. We tend to pray most when we are worried or scared.
When we desperately want something to happen, uh, when, when we, as he states in verse 3, have many cares, that’s when it all just starts firing out of us in a hasty fashion. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please make this happen. God, if you could just give me something. God, I don’t want anything else except Something. God, if you would just change this one thing.
Even if you aren’t a Christian, you do the same thing. You just change the semantics a little bit and take God out of it. You say, I wish I could have. If only I could have. You probably still say the please, please, please, please, please.
You’re waiting on a phone call or a text message from someone, and every time you hear your phone do a little bing, you’re like, oh, please let it be that person. Have you ever stopped to think about who you’re talking to? Like, who are you asking please to? Maybe your heart is telling you that there is someone there, even if your mind is telling you there isn’t someone there. We all have this, like, groan for something else.
Anyway, that’s another sermon. Or we just find ourself hoping for one thing to change.
And Solomon says, a little surprisingly if we’re Christians, there’s no satisfaction there. Wait, are you telling me I shouldn’t pray about those things? Because I’ve been, because I’ve been talked— I’ve been told to talk to God about everything, and 1 Thessalonians says pray without ceasing. So which is it? Do I pray or do I not pray?
Do I go up yammering away to God or not? So here’s what Solomon seems to be getting at. If we go to God with a list of demands, if we go to God with a list of circumstances that need to change in order for us to have happiness, if we go to God to get something from God, other than God, that’s not going to lead to satisfaction for us. More, more on this at the end of the sermon. But, but if we instead would go to God to listen, as it says, to sit quietly at his feet, to kind of be overwhelmed with just his presence, which would be part of what it means to fear God, verse 7, If we would just go there and be blown away by him, just him, not what he can give us, that kind of prayer could lead to satisfaction.
Or try this. The next time you have the many cares, frantic, gotta have it, so worried that I don’t have it, please, please, please, please, please kind of prayer, Instead of saying that, which doesn’t lead to satisfaction, try saying, God, I have this desire. You know that I have this desire. You know everything about me.
But what do you think about it? You’re in heaven. I’m on earth. You know what’s best. Instead of me telling you what to do and trying to get you to do something by kind of twisting your arm through a vow or a promise, maybe, maybe how about I just listen?
See if that gives you peace. Because look, as long as we have this desperate begging that never stops, the same desire on repeat, always, constant yearning, dreaming, hoping, it’s not going to lead us to satisfaction.
Looking for satisfaction down that path is chasing after the wind, is trying to grab smoke. It isn’t down there. We need something else to make us content. So failed attempt at satisfaction number 2, oppressing others.
Here’s what Solomon notices, Ecclesiastes 5:8, if you see the poor oppressed in a district and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things, for one official is eyed by a higher one. And over them both are others higher still. He sees oppression at all levels of government and among all people. He says no one is really innocent of this crime. Everyone eyes someone else.
Everyone has power over someone else, and we all can exploit it. At times. So important side note, he’s not saying oppression is okay. Of course, there’s plenty places in scripture condemning oppression, saying God judges or fights against the oppressor, instructing us to take up the cause of those who are being oppressed. Psalm 103, Deuteronomy 10, Isaiah 1, on and on and on.
We need to give a voice to those without a voice because their voice is being squashed. That’s all over the Bible. It’s not okay to oppress. That’s not what Solomon is saying. He just notices, hey, it happens everywhere.
The high-level management exploits the low-level management. Low-level management exploits the hourly workers. Hourly workers go home, take it out on somebody there. Big brother takes it out on little brother. Little brother takes it out on the rest of us when he spits up all over his outfits and makes us late just to get back at us for giving him the piece.
And before we say, well, that’s not us, I don’t oppress anyone, let’s just think about what oppression really is. It’s anytime we use our power or influence to hurt someone else, to diminish someone else, to disadvantage someone else. So simple, small example, right? When you’re in traffic, when you have the power to block someone from getting into your lane, and you say, mm-mm, not today, I’m not gonna let you in, I’m gonna keep you over in that slower lane just because I can. And I’m gonna get a little bit of satisfaction from knowing that I made your commute longer.
It’s oppression.
When you have a really juicy piece of information on someone and you wanna make them look bad, and you realize you hold the power over that person’s reputation, you say, if I share this story, I’m going to lessen this person in other people’s eyes.
I’m really gonna enjoy that I can hurt them a little. I’m gonna share it. That’s a fair percentage of our political posts on social media, right? We want to share something just to make the other side look bad. Use the tiny bit of leverage that we have on our tiny social media platform in order to hurt our political enemy.
You might say, oh, but people need to know what’s really going on. I have a responsibility to share the truth so the world can see the light. Okay, sure, fine, right? I mean, public service announcements are beneficial, and you can use that justification for regular gossip as well. And if you have a motivation to really tell people what’s going on for their honest benefit, okay, okay.
But just be honest. Isn’t there some part of you that just enjoys making your enemy look a little bit bad? You’d probably never admit this to anybody, but isn’t it a tiny bit sweet that you can tarnish their image a little? And to whatever extent that was your motivation, that’s oppression. Okay, anytime we’re trying to get somebody back, Anytime we’re trying to make life a little uncomfortable for someone, hurt their reputation or ego, that’s participating in oppression.
Or what might be on all of our minds when we hear the word oppression or injustice, we could imagine hypothetical situation, there was some group in our country that said, hey, we’re oppressed by the rest of society. And let’s just say they have legitimate claims that the rest of society has used things to keep them down and elevate themselves. Let’s say that’s true. And let’s say we as Christians need to give a voice to the voiceless and help lift them up out of how they have been pushed down by everybody else. Let’s say that’s true too.
But then let’s say this group has an opportunity to riot or smash windows or steal or burn things or overturn cars or whatever, and you see what happened there? It’s this group that could— that has legitimate claims for being oppressed in some ways has turned and is now using power and influence over another group, and it’s, I have the opportunity to use my power to now hurt or disadvantage you, so I’m going to Take it. That’s oppression as well.
And even though it looks like it’s gonna be sweet, right? Even though it sparkles and it appears like it’ll satisfy, it doesn’t.
You know this already, right? You cut someone off in traffic, Is your road rage just cured?
You think a rioter goes home jolly?
Or does your viciousness actually increase? After you intentionally take the guy’s parking spot at work who you don’t like, does that just do it for you? Are you filled with contentment? I mean, I know you laughed when you first did it and you pulled in there and you’re like, haha, sucker. But after that, don’t you actually feel more empty?
And then in an attempt to fill that emptiness, you might turn to more and more oppression just to get back to some kind of internal equilibrium. It’s like drinking saltwater to quench a thirst. You’re gonna need more and more and more of it, but you’re never really gonna be satisfied. Solomon says we all do it sometimes, and it doesn’t get us what we actually want. Satisfaction is somewhere else.
So failed attempt at satisfaction number 3, wanting more.
Solomon writes, just chapter 5, verses 10 and 11, 15 and 16, then chapter 6, Ecclesiastes 11:7-9. Whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them.
Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. This too is a grievous evil. As everyone comes, so they depart. And what do they gain, since they toil for the wind?
Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied. Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
We could have a desire for more money, but it may just be stuff. He says, as goods increase, we just consume them, verse 11. They don’t satisfy. We get one thing, we just want the next thing. Any appetite, he says, is never satisfied.
That’s verse 9. If only I could get a little bit more money, then I could take this kind of vacation instead of that kind of vacation. And I would be satisfied. If I could send my kids to this kind of school instead of that kind of school. If I could just get about 100 more square feet in my house.
That’s all I need, just 100 more square feet. If I could get one more level up in the company, or maybe 2 more levels up, but if I could just get there. If I could just get a little bit better grade. If I could just date her or him or anyone. But we know what happens, right?
We get the vacation, we get the promotion, we get the relationship, the grade, the whatever, and we’re just quickly on to the next thing. This constant, let me try to get to the horizon, and then when I accomplish whatever that is, I’m just off to the next horizon. Looking for satisfaction through more stuff is an endless race. It’s a chasing after the wind. It’s trying to grab smoke.
It’s futile.
So what’s the answer? How can we get our souls to rest if it’s not through frantic hoping and praying, if it’s not through squashing others, If it’s not through getting more, where is it? How can we be truly satisfied? This is what Solomon sees. Ecclesiastes 5:19-20.
When God gives someone wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil, this is a gift of God. They seldom reflect on the days of their life because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart. He says God gives it. God gives rest to our souls. It’s a gift.
But he also notices God doesn’t give it to everyone. 6:1, I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind. God gives some people wealth, possessions, and honor so they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is a meaningless, grievous evil. So is it just people who die young?
Is that what he means by not enjoy them? So no, because he continues, verse 3, a man may have 100 children and live many years. So here’s someone who’s lived a long time and has had prosperity and wealth for a long time. Yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. So Solomon sees 2 guys.
They have the same stuff, all the wealth, possessions, and honor they can imagine. This guy is happy, this guy is not. This guy is content. This guy is not. Solomon’s conclusions: 1, God grants satisfaction to some and not others.
And conclusion 2, satisfaction doesn’t have anything to do with stuff. You have 2 people with the same stuff, and one is satisfied and one isn’t. Well, a clear conclusion is satisfaction must not come from stuff. If it did, they would both be satisfied because they have the same stuff. Further, he sees people without anything who are perfectly fine.
This is 5:12, the sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much. So now here’s a 3rd guy with nothing, and he’s doing great. And then here’s a guy with everything, and he’s doing terrible. And then here’s another guy with everything and he’s doing great just like the guy with nothing. What do you make of that?
You’ve probably met people in all those categories. People with very little, maybe even with a lot of tragedy in their lives, and they are content. And then we know people who have very much, not very many problems at all, but they always seem to be tense. Restless, frustrated, have a negative view of the world, always wanting more. And then there are other people who have a lot and they are content and settled.
Conclusion: satisfaction has nothing to do with what you have. Satisfaction and stuff are not related. Whether it’s material wealth, political power, how many letters you have after your name, how many kids you have, how your kids behave, how many friends you have in real life or on social media, wherever, if you are able to go on vacation, where you are able to go on vacation, broadest possible definition of stuff, not related to satisfaction.
Satisfaction, Solomon observes, is granted by God.
About 1,000 years after this was written, another writer, another guy who we collected his writings and put it together in the Bible, he experiences the same thing. Paul writes in the New Testament, Philippians 12 and 13, most of you have heard this verse before, I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all things through him, he’s talking about Christ, who gives me strength. So he has experienced stuff, Or no stuff.
Either way, content through Christ who gives me strength. Not related to stuff. Doesn’t have to do with stuff. Has to do with Christ who gives me strength. Gives strength.
It’s granted. It’s a gift. It’s not produced by us. It’s received by us. Okay, you’d say, if I can’t chase after satisfaction to actually have satisfaction, then how do I receive it?
How do I get this granted from God? It’s a great question. I think there’s 2 practical steps we can take to receive satisfaction from what we see in in this text. So what can we do? First, stop looking for it in the wrong places.
That’s why he tells us satisfaction isn’t found in these 3 things. He doesn’t want us to look for satisfaction in these 3 things. So anytime the thought pops into your head, if only I had, I would be happy, You sound the alarm and you fight that thing. Don’t give in. It’s not true.
It’s a chasing after the wind. It’s trying to grab smoke. It’s trying to run to the horizon.
If only I had a child, I would be happy. If only I had a boyfriend. If only I had a promotion. If only I had respect at work. Then I would be happy.
Come on, you know those things aren’t true. You know that won’t satisfy you. Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it to you. Is everyone with a kid happy?
Nope. Not even close, right? Everyone with a boyfriend or girlfriend, are they all happy? Nope. I mean, if boyfriends and girlfriends made people happy, then everyone with a boyfriend or girlfriend would be happy, right?
Are they all happy? No. Everyone with a promotion or respect?
Of course not. Satisfaction isn’t over there, so stop trying to find it there. As soon as it pops into your head, if only I had, you go code red on that thing. You beat it to death. It is a flat-out lie.
And as soon as you start to believe it, as soon as you say, well, you know, actually, if I had, I think I really would be happier, as soon as you say that, you’ve taken a step away from satisfaction.
You’re inching yourself further from what you’re actually trying to get.
Now, if we were Buddhists, we would just stop there. That’s the goal of enlightenment, have no desires. If you desire nothing, well, you’ll never be disappointed, right? You’ll never be sad because you didn’t want anything to start with. That’s not Christianity.
Christianity says there is a treasure big enough and bright enough that if you have it, you will be satisfied always.
All these things that we chase under the sun— that’s a common phrase in Ecclesiastes, under the sun— they don’t give us lasting satisfaction. They all teach us that satisfaction isn’t under the sun. It can’t be found in created things. They all point to outside of under the sun. All these things say, look beyond the sun and you’ll find it there.
Which brings us to practical step number 2: listen to God for real satisfaction.
You want the treasure that is big enough and bright enough to always give you joy?
Go near to listen for God’s word.
Verse 1. Or back to what Paul said in Philippians 4, he’s content because Christ is with him. He’s listening to the message of Christ instead of frantically searching for satisfaction in all these things under the sun. So when you have that anxious desire for something, when you find yourself starting to tell God, oh, I’m so desperate for— when the thought pops in your head that says, if only I had boyfriend, job, reputation, popularity. What I need is comfort, security, kids that love me, a wife who respects me, whatever.
And if I don’t have that, then I can’t be happy. First, again, you wrestle that to the ground and beat it to death.
Second, you tell God, I don’t need that.
If you grant me that, fine. If you don’t, also fine. I know satisfaction isn’t found there. I’m not asking for satisfaction through those things. I know it isn’t there.
What I need is you.
What I need is to hear from you. I need to hear how you love me. I need to feel your grace. I need to experience your presence in my heart. I need to hear, not just with my ears, but in the deepest crevices of my soul.
You gave up everything to make me yours on the cross. You went through crucifixion to get me. You approve of me. I need to hear that. I need to hear I have your approval because you bought my approval.
I’m coming near to listen And if I have nothing else besides you, I’ll be satisfied with that. I’ll be content because I have the true treasure, because Christ will be strengthening me.
If you’re here and you’re a Christian, but you don’t find yourself content in your soul, Frankly, it’s because you’ve looked outside of Christ for satisfaction and something has let you down. Outside of, of course, some kind of medical diagnosis that you need to get taken care of, right? Just for general discontent in our souls, it’s because we’ve looked somewhere else for satisfaction and it has let us down.
If you’re here and you’re not a Christian and you’re starting to agree, you know, you might be right, satisfaction can’t be found in the things of this world, but I don’t know if it can be found in Christ either. If you’re skeptical that it can be found in Christ because you’re looking at your Christian friends And they don’t seem to be very satisfied with life.
Fair critique on us, by the way. That doesn’t mean Christ isn’t true. It means your friends have tried to find satisfaction in something other than Christ, and it has let them down. It means, it means they really aren’t making use of the resources that are available to them.
C.S. Lewis says, there’s no use asking for God to give you peace or happiness apart from Him because there is no such thing.
It is not there.
If we look for satisfaction outside of Christ, we’re just trying to grab smoke or chase the wind.
Let’s look for it in him alone.
Let’s pray.
Father, you are what is good.
By enjoying you, we can enjoy other things, Lord.
By enjoying you, you make everything else in this world brighter. I pray that we do not chase satisfaction in things that will not grant them.
Father, help us to chase after you. Help us to long for you. Help us to listen for you and your voice. We pray those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
