WHEN ALL YOU HAVE EVER WANTED IS NOT ENOUGH.

SERIES: UNDER THE SUN.

TEXT: ECCLESIASTES 2:1-17.

In your pursuit of meaning in life, look beyond your own hands, look beyond your own head and look beyond your own heart, look beyond the sun to the Lord who died for you and rose again. Dealing with people who live under the false hope of “I will be happy when…….?” is difficult. In the light of the title of our message today, “When all you have ever wanted is not enough” let me ask you a few questions.

1. Are you happy?
2. What is it that will finally make you happy?
3. When will you finally be happy?

Everyone of us has something or some set of circumstances in the back of our minds that we anticipate will make us happy.

We actually assume that once we have achieved this, experienced this, once we have this, then we will be satisfied and finally happy!!

This kind of living is called “wild goose chase without the goose.”

So you keep working harder and harder and harder to make more money, climb the corporate ladder, pursue new relationships, with hope that then we will find satisfaction and be happy.

All the while missing out on the blessings of what we already have.

In the first chapter revealed King Solomon as he looked for the meaning of life in wisdom (gaining more and more knowledge) and having found no satisfaction there he turns to a new pursuit of meaning of life pleasure (mirth-Hebrew-Simkhah). The modern word for the pursuit of pleasure is hedonism.

Hedonism is the principle that pleasure is the sole or chief good in life and the pursuit of it is the ideal aim of conduct.

In His search for pleasure (hedonism) Solomon investigated alcohol, comedy, building projects, entertainment, servants, music and sex.

Solomon had all the resources necessary to carry out his grand experiment, he had money and time.

Solomon begins by saying “I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure-Vs. 1.

“I said in my heart”-He never looked for divine counsel.

• Notice how many times Solomon used “I”, “me”, “myself.”
• There are many people in history who lived for pleasure, (Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix, Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jim Hendrex, Mike Jackson).
• They all died young, they all sought for pleasure.
• Let us examine the various ways that Solomon used in the pursuit of the meaning of life:-

FIRST, THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE-Eccl. 2:1-3.

1. The pleasure of laughter.

• Concerning laughter he said it is “madness.”
• This laughter is laughter caused by comedy in our day.
• Comedy is always morally perverse. A lot of comedy is jokes, profanity, cynicism, it is cruel.
• The “madness” of our comedy on the internet in Kenya.
• The “kasongo.” “Kasongo” defamation of our president William Ruto is not acceptable.
• Proverbs 31:25, there is laughter that is joyful though.

2. Alcohol

• Solomon is not saying that he wanted to get plastered. He means that his consummation of alcohol was a controlled experiment.
• Solomon is saying that he drunk in moderation and thoughtfully.
• Solomon found out that “wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler and whoever is led astray by it is not wise”-Prov. 20:1.

3. Music-8b.

• Down in the second part of Vs. 8, Solomon says “provided for myself male and female singers.”
• Music was rare pleasure in those days, but Solomon could afford to bring into his own home. Performing for the king would be only the very best.
• The false promises of pleasure.

The law of unfulfilled expectations.

• Enjoyment will decrease unless the intensity of the pleasure increases.
• There is always the thought that getting the next thing would do it.
• You thought that getting more would do it and then it did not do it.
• Where do you go? Solomon is saying “Don’t think that the next thing will do it, because it will not do it.”
• Solomon is telling us that “he had the next thing and I had more and it did not do it.”

The law of diminishing returns.

• There are some people, they got it and they liked it and then they got bored with it.
• It kind of didn’t do the same thing for them three years later, it was boring.
• The thing that you once craved and delighted in become boring.
• With more you get less or nothing-it is boring!!

The law of unintended consequences.

• As you are pursuing pleasure and ignoring the restraints instituted by God for our good, you discover that along with that pleasure came something that you thought never ever would happen.
• “I did not realize that pursuit of pleasure would cost me my family, my children, my church, my job, my community.”
• I did not realize that the pursuit of pleasure would cost my health, respect and my very life.
• From the pursuit of pleasure he moved on to-

SECOND-THE PURSUIT OF PROJECTS-2:4-7.

• There is satisfaction in designing and building things.
• But then what happens when the project is finished?
• The Winchester mansion in San Jose, California which was a personal mansion of Sarah Winchester the widow of the gun magnate William Wirt. Winchester was built (1884-1922) 24/7 for 38 years, 160 bedrooms-it is not complete to date.
• Solomon built the temple for 7 years, his own house for 14 years-1^st Kings 7:1.
• The temple was built to the glory of God.
• His own mansion was build to his own glory.
• From the pursuit of building and land scaping projects he moved on to-

THIRD-THE PURSUIT OF POSSESSIONS-Eccl. 2:8.

• We read about Solomon’s incredible wealth in 1^st Kings 10:14-29. It was gold everywhere in Solomon’s residence.
• King Solomon received 666 talents of gold every year. Twenty five tons of gold annually.
• The bedroom (sex) the “delights of the sons of men,” “concubines” or “haven.”
• The concubines were for personal pleasure only.
• 700 wives and 300 concubines. You cannot mean business for God and live for the flesh at the same time-Matt. 6:24.
• From the pursuit of possessions he moved on to-

FOURTH-THE PURSUIT OF PROMINENCE-2:9-11.

• Despite all the pleasure and hard work, Solomon says his wisdom remained with him-Vs. 9.
• This wisdom is not the kind that begins with the fear of God, but raw intelligence or smartness.
• In verse 11, Solomon says, “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and the labor in which I had toiled.”
• It was “all vanity and grasping for the wind.”
• Solomon found out life was transitory and meaningless. He found no lasting satisfaction.
• There is not lasting satisfaction in the things of this world.
• The great physist and philosopher, Pascal said that in every person’s life there is a “God shaped vacuum, which cannot be filled by anything else, but God only.”

CONCLUSION

• The lesson that Solomon wants us to learn is the Biblical solution to hedonism and the pursuit of pleasure is not to renounce pleasure but to seek pleasure in God-Above the sun!!
• Prophet Jeremiah told us the pleasures of this world are like “broken cisterns that cannot hold any water” But God is the fountain of living water-Jeremiah 2:23.
• Jesus Christ is the spring of water that quenches our thirst forever, a spring welling up to eternal life-John 4:13-14.
• “When All You Have Ever Wanted is Not Enough”-Eccl. 2:1-11.
• Give your heart to Jesus Christ alone-Today.