Friends, we all want fulfillment in life. I wanted fulfillment in life.
----- At age 15, I decided that when I turned 21, I would have my own business. I thought that for me, that would give me fulfillment.
As an apprentice refrigeration mechanic, I’d drive to jobs with a tradesman. I’d look out of the ute window at all of the factories and businesses, and think to myself, “I’m going to have a business when I turn 21.”
On my 21st birthday, I finished working for a boss and the very next day, Delphine and I started our own business. We had two little kids, three weeks holiday pay (that was about $180 total), and an old 1956 VW Kombi Van.
My birthday was on the 3rd of July. The next day we started into business, the 4th of July. Do you know what the 4th of July is? ----- Independence Day!
On the 4th of July Americans celebrate the day of American independence. The writers and signers of the Declaration of Independence declared for the whole world to hear, that Americans are endowed by our Creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. ----- Well, like Americans, we Australians also have life and we have liberty, but the pursuit of happiness isn’t going so well.
We struggle to achieve in business, in relationships, in life and in happiness, and we finish up saying, “There’s got to be more to life than this!” We can’t seem to find fulfillment in life. ----
Huge numbers of sociological surveys have been done over the past 20 years or so, asking newly married people what they think their greatest joy in life will be, and by an overwhelming margin they reply “raising our kids.” But then they survey them five years later with one or two kids running around and they report pretty low levels of happiness. How often have we heard that, and maybe even lived that?
We were told that if we worked more and got that next raise we’d be satisfied. But we weren’t. We’re told every day that if we just buy that new product we will find fulfillment, so we buy it and then discover that the excitement wears off and we’re still unfulfilled. We think that if we just change jobs or move to another place in the country we’ll find happiness. We disrupt our families and make those changes only to realize a year or two later that the new life is much like the old life.
PP Why is that so?
Because the same old Ray Archer, and the same old you, with the same attitude, has gone to the new job and the new place.
In the Book of Ecclesiastes, the preacher, and teacher, who was probably Solomon, argued that, at least on the surface, life is much like a cul-de-sac that we drive into and find ourselves just driving around and around and around. The reality that life is like a cul-de-sac didn’t stop him from trying to find fulfillment along the way because there was something innate within him—just like it’s within each of us—that pushes us to find meaning and purpose and fulfillment in life.
We all need a reason to live, a reason to get up in the mornings and a reason to keep going, and that was true of this writer as well. So he picked three of the most common ways that people use to find fulfillment and then he ran after them as hard as he could.
Those three things were, …
PP1 1. INTELLECTUALISM
PP2 2. HEDONISM (which is a fancy name for pleasure, and)
PP3 3. MATERIALISM
This King Solomon was the wisest, richest, most influential king in the whole of Israel’s history.
Let’s turn to his search for fulfillment in the book of …
PP1 Ecclesiastes 1:16-18 GNB
We’re going to read from the simple Good News Bible where he
talks about …
PP2 1. INTELLECTUALISM (verse 16)
v16 “I told myself, I have become a great man, far wiser than anyone who ruled Jerusalem before me. I know what wisdom and knowledge really are.
v17 I was determined to learn the difference between knowledge and foolishness, wisdom and madness. But I found out that I might as well be chasing the wind.
v18 The wiser you are, the more worries you have; the more you know, the more it hurts.”
---- Solomon argues that he gave himself over to the development of his mind. Wisdom means foundational knowledge about life and how it all works and fits together. Certainly, in his own context he thought he would find fulfillment there, but no, it too was ‘chasing after the wind’. You can’t do it! This relates directly to we Australians and everyone today. -----
We’re one of the most educated nations in human history; every year we graduate thousands of master’s degrees, medical degrees, law degrees, and PhDs. As a society we pride ourselves on being smart and getting smarter all the time and we probably all know some really bright people. Being educated and becoming intellectually competent are not bad things at all. But, if you think gaining more and more knowledge is going to give you a lasting sense of fulfillment, think again.
Our minds are the gift of God but they are limited. Relying too much on our intellect alone is not only fleeting and a chasing after the wind, but sometimes it’s downright dangerous. ------
I read about an article that was titled ‘178 Seconds to Live.’ It was about a test that was given to 20 of the smartest pilots in the world, all of whom had exceptionally high IQs and a great deal of aviation experience. Each pilot was put in a flight simulator—without the use of any instruments — and then told to do whatever he could to keep the airplane under control as he flew into some very dark clouds and really stormy weather. ----- The article stated that all 20 of these incredibly bright people who had long and successful flying careers, ‘crashed and killed themselves’ within an average of 178 seconds. It took these highly intelligent, seasoned pilots less than three minutes to destroy themselves once they lost their visual reference points.
All their knowledge, combined with their intellect could not save them. As the Teacher said in verse 18: “More wisdom and more knowledge brings more grief.” --- Many people are really bright people and that’s a good thing. But Solomon would warn you about relying too much on your intelligence; he’d say don’t use it to find your fulfillment; don’t place too much of your identity there because if you do, at some point you will be bitterly disappointed.
He’s trying to tell us that …
PP If we take the good gift of our minds, our intellect, and make its use our ultimate goal, in the end we’ll only find frustration.
---- Now come to the next chapter. We’re coming to the second point in his search for fulfillment.
We call this point in our search for fulfillment, Hedonism.
PP1 2. HEDONISM (which is an old English word for pleasure)
Since intellectualism couldn’t deliver fulfillment, the Teacher tried something we’re really into in our culture: Hedonism, the fancy word for pleasure. And Solomon gave himself to it. In …
PP2 Ecclesiastes 2:1-3 GNB (he says)
v1 I decided to enjoy myself and find out what happiness is. But I found this is useless too.”
It was useless. ---- It didn’t work for Solomon --- and it doesn’t work for us. ….
PP3 (Now verse 2)
v2 “I discovered that laughter is foolish, that pleasure does you
no good. (and verse 3)
v3 Driven on by my desire for wisdom, I decided to cheer myself
up with wine and have a good time. I thought that this might
be the best way people can spend their short lives on earth.”
----- Now we’ll skip down to the second half of verse 8. Solomon was certainly into pleasure. There are three things mentioned here in the last half of verse 8. …
PP4
v8 1. “Men and women sang to entertain me,”
PP5 2. “and I had all the women a man could want.”
The Modern Language Bible says, “the delights of men – mistresses galore.”
Then in the New King James version of the Bible, it adds a bit more to complete the rest of verse 8, the third thing. …
PP6 3. “and musical instruments of all kinds.
--- Well King Solomon thought he had it made. He says in verse 10 ..
PP7 v10 “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure.”
The context here indicates that he’s talking about sexual pleasure. In 1st Kings chapter 11, we’re told that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines and being the king, they were at his beck and call at all times. All those women did not satisfy him, nor did the singing, nor did the music. As he says time and time again in these 12 chapters, “In my search for fulfillment, none of these things worked. It was just like chasing after the wind.” ----------
PP His experience here is extremely relevant to Australian culture today.
We live in a society that is sexually stimulated 24-7-365 on TV, internet, movies, newspapers, magazines.
We face that because lots of people are looking for their ultimate fulfillment in sexual pleasure.
But the unending pursuit of sexual pleasure actually leads to loss, not fulfillment.
---- Former playmate Susie Scott became a Christian and spoke with the 700 Club. She spoke about her life in the Playboy Mansion, the orgies she was involved in, and all the various and sundry sexual escapades she observed. She said, “When you go down that road, sex becomes less and less satisfying and more and more perverse and then it finally becomes utterly worthless. It doesn’t mean anything to anyone.” -----
Friends, her observation may seem either shocking or trivial or even untrue to you, but she went down that road, she lived out that life, and she speaks from vast experience. --- She’s telling us—just like the Teacher did — that the unending pursuit of sexual fulfillment kills the development of intimate human relationships. It reduces sexual desire to an ever-increasing unnatural mechanical process. --- A mechanical process that hollows out sex to the point where we can’t get any thrills at all out of what was once one of the greatest pleasures of our lives. Sex is a wonderful gift but if you make it your god, over time, it will become a demon in your life. Solomon discovered that, and so he wrote it down for us to think about. ----
---- So, …
PP1 1. INTELLECTUALISM (couldn’t deliver, and)
PP2 2. HEDONISM
… or pleasure, couldn’t provide any lasting satisfaction. So the Teacher decided to pursue some good ol’ fashioned …..
PP3 3. MATERIALISM
Let’s read what he says in ….
PP Ecclesiastes 2:4-8
v4 “I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards.”
v5 “I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.”
v6 “I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove.”
v7 “I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me.”
v8 “I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of the kings and of the provinces.”
Solomon was saying, “I built more stuff and bought more stuff than anyone else around me. I had more homes and cars and computers and employees than anyone else around me. He had it all—and even more—but it wasn’t enough to satisfy his heart.
As he concludes in …
PP1 Ecclesiastes 2:11
v11 “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labour on which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and chasing after the wind. There was no profit (nothing was gained) under the sun.”
PP2 Some of you hear that, and you’re thinking, “Hey, wait a minute! That’s just not true. When I got my iPod, my iPad and my iPhone and I could download my iTunes, I got a lot of satisfaction and fulfillment from those.”
------- Friends, I used to like buying stuff. ----
But the reality is that consuming material stuff is like drinking a cup of coffee; it gives you a jolt of joy, but after a few hours, it all wears off. That’s why advertisers are so successful at getting us to buy something new. They know that we want the kick that comes from consuming, but that thrill wears off pretty quickly and leads to nowhere good.----
In a book entitled Affluenza, the authors noted that in 1986 there were more high schools than shopping centres. Today it’s the opposite way around. Today, there are many more than twice as many shopping centres as there are high schools. We now spend more on just shoes, jewelry, and watches than we do on higher education. When you think about how much a four year degree at a college costs these days, that’s a lot of shoes, jewelry, and watches; Australians have millions of credit cards and we’re carrying a huge debt in credit cards alone without including our mortgages on homes, cars and all sorts of things because we can’t get enough. …
PP We’re trying to fill our lives with stuff and even though it’s not doing the trick we just keep trying it over and over and over again and it only leads to more debt and greater frustration and emptiness.
What the Teacher learned in the Book of Ecclesiastes, is that when we take the good gifts of God—like education and sex and cars and clothes and computers—and we make them the goal of life—in the end we don’t find fulfillment but a whole lot of frustration and emptiness.
During the last 30 years, we’ve acquired more stuff than we know what to do with, and we have more information than we can keep up with. We have more seminars, books, and magazine articles on sexual satisfaction than Solomon could have dreamed of and we have more recreational opportunities than we can ever engage in in a whole lifetime.
But, in that same 30 years, the divorce rate has tripled, teen suicide has tripled, and we invented reality TV because we’re so incredibly bored. …
PP We have a great depression in our culture,
but it’s a depression of the soul,
because all of our education, affluence, sexual expression and
recreation,
can’t meet the deepest desires of our hearts.
As we continue to run after all that stuff we’re finding what Solomon found and that’s a great deal of frustration and emptiness. ----
---- How does Solomon wrap up this whole frustration? The same way that we can too. Let’s go to the last page of Ecclesiastes. …
PP1 Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear (that old English word means respect or revere in today’s language). (Respect) God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
So we’ll put that up on the screen,
PP2 We need to place God and Jesus at the centre of our lives.
Having run so hard after all these other things, Solomon comes home to God. As he learned, without God there is no enjoyment of the good things of life because God is the one who gives us real happiness. The solution is to put God at the centre because what we put at the centre of the wheel of our lives determines how all the spokes work. If Jesus is at the centre, He’ll give us his grace and as we receive his grace, we can enjoy all the good gifts He’s provided without putting so much emphasis on them and so much pressure on ourselves. That’s the point of the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes. …
PP You can be rich, you can be smart, you can even be a gold-medal winning romantic athlete.
But unless Jesus is at the centre of your life, more money, more education, and more sex are never going to satisfy you. They may stimulate you but in the end you’ll only find frustration because they can’t give you fulfillment! But if you do as Jesus says, you will find fulfillment. He puts it this way in …
PP Matthew 6:33
“But seek first the kingdom of God (His rule and His reign in your life) and His righteousness, and then all these things shall be added to you.”
Friends, if the first priority in our lives is this – to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness in our lives, then all the other things that we need will be added to us – guaranteed!
You don’t need to get straight A’s, you don’t need to earn a PhD, or invent a new form of software to be significant; you just need to know God’s graciousness and then share it with your family and friends. You don’t need another woman or a different man to satisfy you. You just need Jesus and the eyes he gives you for your spouse. You don’t need more money or more stuff; you just need to know that Jesus will meet your needs day in and day out and give you enough to share with others.
PP What we all need is a closer walk with Jesus and our heavenly Father, because :
They love us,
They have redeemed us on the cross, and
They want to give us more of Themselves. ----
As great as Solomon was, Jesus and our heavenly Father are far greater, and they beckon you and me to put Them at the centre of our lives. So, for your sake, your family’s sake, for God’s sake, put Them first. ------ Again, as we just read in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the other things that we need will be added to us.”
So …
PP Ecclesiastes 12:13 (again,)
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Give God reverence and keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.”
And then you can go on and enjoy all the other gifts that God has given you because in Jesus and in our heavenly Father alone, lie real fulfillment and real life. Try it, prove it! It works! -----------
----------- Please stand with me as we pray.
Father, this last verse in Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 13 is my prayer for each one of us here today, where Your Word says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.” Give YOU reverence, and keep YOUR commandments, for this is the whole duty for us Lord, if we want real fulfillment in our lives.
Thank You Father, in the name of Jesus, Amen.
PP
Friends, if you have been blessed and challenged by this message,
then please take time now to send it on to your friends.
To God be the Glory!
Thank You,
Ray Archer
The words of this little book guarantee a reduction in stress and depression, and an increase in happiness and good attitude in life, whether you are an atheist, agnostic, Christian, or someone searching for meaning in life.
Best wishes for ‘A Better Life’ – guaranteed!