Jesus is Good For Pleasure Seekers

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Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

I'm reading from Ecclesiastes, chapter 2, verses 1 to 11.

I said to myself, come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good. But that also proved to be meaningless. Laughter, I said, is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?

I tried sharing myself with wine and embracing folly. My mind was still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

I undertook great projects. I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.

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. I amassed silver and gold for myself and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers and a harem as well, the delights of a man's heart.

I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this, my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor and this was the reward for all my toil.

Yet, when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless. Chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun.

Jesus is Good News for Pleasure Seekers

Well, I don't know about you, but I feel full enough already. Those prayers and that Bible reading are my goodness. Can I possibly top that? Jesus is good news for pleasure seekers and that title is deliberately chosen because I think it reflects the direction, the priorities of our own culture. For surely pleasure is good.

If you've got a Bible near you, we're on page 1036 and if you haven't, they're just in the foyer and little cupboard. You can go up and get one. It's always good to have a Bible with you and if you see one on the seat, then please leave it there because I think we need to get them out, Ecclesiastes chapter 2.

Hands up if you've ever read the book of Ecclesiastes. I'm just interested to know what my contact point is. Okay, probably about a third. That's not bad. That's good.

It's in the proverb space and there's another book about wisdom, The Song of Songs, I think is the other wisdom book. It's a whole kind of literature that we probably don't engage with if your normal diet is what you see on your phone.

You're not getting any wisdom there at all, certainly not wisdom literature. It's a way of talking about truth.

Testing the Heart: A Quest for Meaning

So I want you to kind of shift gears with me this morning because this guy is, in my vision anyway, testing his heart. In the Bible reading, we had said, I'll test myself. I quite like the language, I thought I'd test my heart because the scriptures tell you that the heart is deceitful above all other things. If you're led by your heart, kind of look out because it's going to take you into some strange places.

So here's this guy who's got the opportunity to do a bit of a test to find out what is meaningful in life. You ready? Okay then.

Because we have such a great treasure before us today in the Word of God. You'll be aware that there are two ways of learning life's lessons. I think I always say this every sermon, but I'll say it again.

There's the easy way and the hard way. The easy way, of course, is to learn from the mistake of others. I've got a knot over here. Here's a wise man.

The hard way, of course, is to learn from your own mistakes. But in God's providence, we still learn.

Somebody said to me once, these sermons, they never get used. Someone said to me once, you can never fail a test from God.

You can never fail a test from God. He just keeps on giving you the same test until you pass it. So he's kind of got a growth program for you. It's different from mine.

But he's got things he wants you to learn. It's like a wall. You keep coming up against this thing, and are you going to learn that or not?

Again, he's nodding. He's a really wise guy.

The Illusion of Pleasure as the Greatest Good

So what we have before us today is the reflection, the wisdom, of someone who, as Rachel said, had it all, who had made it, who was the best, who was the wealthiest, who was the wisest person who had ever lived.

So that's some experience, right? We don't normally get access to that. So here's a bit of a view.

Some say, and I'll have my first slide, please, it was King Solomon who was famous because God gave him wisdom. Remember that conversation?

Solomon's the new king. God appears to him in a dream and says, you know, great, you're the new king. What can I do for you?

Oh, yeah. I mean, have you had that prayer? Have you had that dream? What can I do for you?

And Solomon goes, well, you know, I'm just a little kid, and I've inherited my father's great kingdom. I don't know how to rule. Give me wisdom.

And God says, you've got it, pal. You will be the wisest person who's ever lived.

And so if you see Solomon under this, the language used in Ecclesiastes is the teacher. But as we went through the reading today, he's kind of proposing to do things that only a king could do. And he's in a search for wisdom, and I'm putting those two things together, and I'm saying I think it's Solomon who's writing. The good news for us today is that he has used his God-given wisdom to explore the meaning of life, and has left us with these words as a guide. So again, you can kind of learn, come in under him, learn from the mistakes of others.

What is the meaning of life? Such a significant search. We all have to work that one out.

And so we've called today's talk, Jesus, Good News for Pleasure Seekers, because that is who we have become as a society. So once upon a time, it was kind of what is true and what is false, that was the most important. And I'm going to stand for truth, and that was admired and everything.

Now we've kind of dissed that, and we're going for pleasure and pain. So pleasure is good, and pain is bad. And really in our relationships, in our business dealings, the whole thing, that's just the way our culture functions now.

The Trap of Chasing Experiences

So when we're talking about Jesus is good news for pleasure seekers, it's talking to all of us, actually. Because our culture is always impressing itself upon us.

And so, next slide, our advertisers promise us all kinds of pleasures. You'd be very familiar with this, I've just chosen a few of my favourites.

The kind of the dining option, the fine food thing, the holiday house, I've just come from a week at Point Lonsdale, you can talk to me about that afterwards. The kind of dramatic holiday with the palm trees, I'm sure that's where you're going for your honeymoon.

And the toys, okay, the jets and the planes, I used to work for an airline, I'm over jets. But you know, that's all there, isn't it, and wouldn't you like some of that, hands up if you'd like some of that.

They're all asleep. I said, I said, hands up, okay then, all right.

So this is kind of, you know, this is, people pay money to put this stuff in front of you. And there are billboards and, you know, it's published and it's on your screens and right, because well, we're just ready to hear it.

And there's a deal on Lamborghinis today, did you know that? We're all sucked in, all right, all kinds of pleasures.

Our superannuation system, which seems to be working quite well in Australia, offers us the dream of a life of leisure. You've seen the ads on TV, I can't even think of who it is.

And you know, it's got a couple of oldies, you know, people my age with surfboards, they're having a great time. Oh man, it's too cold.

And it's always good to, you know, come down on hard on young people. You know, young people today, grumble, grumble, they're so slow to commit, aren't they, because they don't want to keep their options open, have you noticed that?

Yeah, no one actually says yes to anything anymore. They just turn up and expect to be fed.

So we just need to be careful, all right, that pleasure does not become our greatest good. Because that's what it wants. It wants you. It wants to consume you.

Sin is crouching at the door. Okay, Genesis 4, sin is crouching at the door, its desire is to have you.

If you get sucked into the world story that pleasure is the greatest good, God help you. It's a good servant. We're designed for pleasure. Talk to me about oxytocin, it's a neuropeptide, but it's a bad master.

Finding True Meaning in God

So never before in human history have so many in the West been so wealthy that we've had the opportunity to pursue pleasure.

So the kind of superannuation story is you're just going to have a great time. And it offers you almost limitless dining options. You can be pampered and massaged. There are scents and fragrances, all the senses are involved, music and events, adventure and holiday, career and success, sports and entertainment.

There's so many ways for you to enjoy your well-earned retirement. And we're just all loving that, okay? That's going to be good.

And while we're on the way through, we kind of get through with a small coffee hit or something because I'm going for that.

A goal, work hard now, enjoy it all later, or something. This kind of story that our society spins for us.

But it doesn't, the kind of advertisers seem to me are at odds with the news. Because you turn on Channel 9 News, please don't watch that. It's so depressing.

And what you get is drugs, and violence, and the sex industry, and crime, and corruption, and a plague of mental illness, and family, and societal breakdown. And it's just all, pfft.

That's a good word, don't you like that one, pfft? I bet you that came across well on the live stream.

OK, so what is going on here?

Because there's this kind of romanticized Disneyland for adults thing going on called retirement. And then there's the news. And it's kind of beaming up, get me out of here.

So where's reality there? Or are they both fairy tales? Just songs we sing to ourselves so we can sleep at night.

So I want you to hear that, because now we're going to hear from Solomon, who's kind of done the research and brought the t-shirt. Ecclesiastes calls him the teacher.

He has an opportunity to do what few people ever have the chance to do, to test pleasure until the end. I'm going to soak in this stuff. I'm going to drink it all day. I'm going to rub it on my skin. I'm going to go to town. I'm going to be completely cut loose. I'm going to see how far this thing can take me.

And, pfft, did you hear what this guy got up to? I mean, he did pretty well. Some of us have a common thinking, as I hear it read. He's planting vineyards and so on.

I'm thinking, my wife likes box hedges. I'm the guy who trims them. OK, so I'm thinking, on a smaller scale, I'm not that different. I'm going to make my three square meters into a Garden of Eden. You know what I mean? We all kind of think this.

He just scales it up. He's going to test pleasure until the end. Here's what he says, verse 1. To test his heart, or in this version, he says to himself, he's not going to deny himself any pleasure. Fancy that.

Fancy if tomorrow was the day you didn't deny yourself any pleasure. How are you going to go with that? Like, it's your birthday. We had chocolates. That was pretty good. Just imagine what you would do if you denied yourself no pleasure.

Verse 4, he's going to achieve by undertaking great projects. And there's a list of them. You know, he's building buildings and planting vineyards, and there's reservoirs, and fruit trees, and servants, and so on.

And verse 10, to deny himself nothing his eyes desired. Golly. To deny himself nothing his eyes desired. How many times a day do your eyes land on something and think, I wouldn't mind a bit of that?

I think I'm probably a bit of a sucker for almond croissants. So if we get to know one another, it involves cake and odds on, or you can score me at the end if you like. How many almond croissants does that guy eat?

I'm trying to catch a rat at the moment, and I've got some cheese on a big trap in the backyard. If you denied yourself nothing your eyes desired, how long do you think it would take before you got slammed in a trap? What do you reckon? Three minutes? Four?

See, what Solomon is trying to do is to find out how best to live life. To know what is good and what is bad. To know what is wisdom and what is folly.

In my version, it says, under the sun. Here we head under the heavens. He's talking about this life we live on this earth. What is the best thing to do?

I've only got, what have you got these days, about 80 years? I've got 80 years. I'm going to pump as much fun into the 80 years as I possibly can. Is that what it's about? Is that what you think?

It's a long weekend. You know, how much fun can I have? We should talk about that before it's too late.

He wants to know if this life can give us meaning and purpose, we need to survive and thrive. Or if those things can only be found from God. That's his question.

Can we do this thing on our own? It's so helpful for us because we live in a world that is constantly telling us things can make you happy and experiences can give you meaning.

Have you heard that? Things can make you happy. Have you heard that message? Have you heard it? It's pretty loud. And experiences can give you meaning.

And Solomon's simply asking, can they? He just wants to know. And I wonder what you think. Not in church, not because the preacher's asking you the question. I really want to know what you think.

Living with God at the Center

And I wonder what test are you going to do to find out the answer to my question? Because you're all good Christian people. I can see that from here. And you're all thinking, oh no, that's not right.

So I want you to go home and open up your diary. And I want you to look back at the way you spent your time in the last month. Would you do that for me? Because there's your priorities.

And after you've done that, I want you to go to your bank account. And I want you to look at what you spent your money on in the last month, because there's your priorities.

And I want you to think about who you're cultivating relationally in your life, because there's your priorities. I want you to do some work on this. Solomon did.

And don't for a minute think that the stories we tell ourselves are not the most powerful influence in our life. I'm always telling myself stories about how good I am, how competent I am, how capable I am.

Old men and ladders, you know the problem? I can get up there. I'm good at stories. That's why I'm married, I think. My wife brings me down to earth pretty frequently.

But we're gone, all right? Because we just think we're bigger and more capable and smarter and everything.

So when I ask you the question, what do you think? Can experiences give you meaning? And can things make you happy? Just do some research. Test this.

I prepared a chart. Let's have a look at the chart. Here we are.

So we're talking about pleasure today and experience and meaning. And you're kind of familiar with the experience. We've got coffee, food, alcohol. OK, thrill, excitement. Some people use drugs.

Promotion, like at work or recognition in some way. Perhaps you're a volunteer or something. Sex, that's a popular one. Support, sport, sorry, and success at sport. Australia didn't win. Keep going, Australia.

Achieving a goal, that's always a good feeling. Maybe paying something off or finishing a project or travel and leisure. These are a whole raft of experiences. Just the list goes on forever.

These are things that advertisers try and sell us. These are the things that we kind of hanker for. I feel I need a coffee. You know, it's that. We know that space. It's sensual. That's often to do with our needs or wants. The word here is pleasures.

On the other side, there's a different list, though. Do you notice that?

So, you know, fulfilment, purpose, freedom, peace, love, joy, hope, just goes on and on. Another long list. Do you see the difference between those two?

They're both important and they're both real and, in fact, given by God. But it seems to me that there's a proper use and an abuse, you know, kind of tendency. And it's divided in some way. I'm trying to just help you see something.

Advertisers love to sell you, you know, sex, success, you know, food, thrills, because you can go for that stuff directly. You can pay somebody a stack of money and they'll take you up in a balloon to see the sunrise. You can just do that. You know, get your phone out, bang, book it in. Done.

And that's the marketing economy, right? That's how the world works.

Except for the other stuff. Ever been to Woolworths and tried to buy three kilograms of joy? Ever tried that?

And I've been up and down those shelves. I can't find it. That's just typical for a bloke in a supermarket, I suppose. Can't find anything. But it isn't there.

So, you can have all the sex you like, but how about doing that without love? How's that going to go? Bit of a dead end, I reckon. Solomon thought it was.

So, you know, something's missing. Have you heard that? My life's empty.

So, you can go for the things in the experience column directly. I can sell you one after the service, if you like. It'll be cheap.

But all the things in the second column, the things that are essential for life and wellbeing, you can't buy.

So, I think for our culture, that's a big problem, actually. And we try and freight the experiences with the meaning. Like, we try and package that up together. Like, hoping that's going to work.

This is Solomon's adventure, isn't it? Let's try more vineyards. See if it makes a difference.

Now, we're stuck because the things in the meaning column are a byproduct. You can't get them directly. You can't buy them. They're not on a shelf. They're not online.

And I think Solomon's question about what is the best thing to do under the sun, what is the best thing to do under the heavens? To live this life well is a question about the second column. Because you don't have that stuff, you're toast. And it's hard to find.

And I think, frankly, in our culture these days, people don't know where to look.

Pleasure is God's good gift to us. It's his design that we come to him for the things that give us meaning, and so find ourselves rightly placed to enjoy all life's experience, including possessions. So this next slide says, we've got God up the top on the next slide. And pleasure is his design. He's given you fingers that feel things, and taste buds, and a sense of smell. And he wants you to enjoy life.

Life. He made it beautiful, it's colourful, it's the best. It's his good gift.

So God comes first, he gives the pleasure and the pleasure actually comes through meaning in his design. So if we love him, we learn the meaning of love, we're loved by him, we learn the meaning of love, then we're able to love others and sex finds its place in that context.

It's the perfect place to enjoy sexual intimacy. It will do you good and not harm. Do you see the difference?

If you just go for the sex, it's going to harm you. It will leave you empty. And you will think that something is missing because the meaning isn't there.

And the lie of the advertising industry is that you just need one more coffee. Like it's just over the hill, okay, whatever it is you're looking for.

So notice that the traffic between meaning and experiences only goes one way. You cannot come to meaning through experiences. You have all the hot air balloon rides you like, it's not going to give you meaning. And that's the desperate cry of our culture because it's been evacuated of meaning. And there's your mission field, folks. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you are such a powerful force in your community because no one else has got a clue where to go.

In the Apostle Paul's words, he sees Solomon sowing to the flesh. I'm going to have more slaves, I'm going to have more vineyards, I'm going to build more reservoirs, I'm going to get more gold.

And you know what Paul says about sowing to the flesh? You reap destruction. It will destroy you. Why not sow to the spirit and reap life?

These words are from Galatians. Let me find it. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. You reap what you sow.

The one who sows to please their sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction. The one who sows to please the spirit, from the spirit will reap eternal life.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don't give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

You see the chart, it's God's chart and he's designed it to be used in a certain way. But if you go straight for the pleasure, you insult God and you will destroy yourself and your relationships.

There's a clue to this, as I said in Solomon's work, he talks about, you know, what is good to do under heaven? What is good to do in this life? What is the right way to live?

And he compares that then with God and the way he has ordered things, if you like, God's kingdom. Paul says you can focus on, invest in and give all your energy and attention to the things of this life, but it will end up destroying you, it will leave you empty and broken.

Or, you can focus on God, the giver of every good gift and find that once you are in him, you'll be able to find true enjoyment in all the things that the world has to offer. I mean, they're his good gift to us, but we must come to them through him to receive them as a gift.

Because if we try to find our meaning, value and purpose in things and experiences, the law of diminishing returns will guarantee that we end up addicted and exhausted.

Have you worked that one out yet? I mean, how many hot air balloon rides will it take to satisfy you? Probably one. And then what?

That's Solomon's great dilemma, now what? An alternative title for this talk that I was toying with was the phrase, distracted until we die.

And I wonder if that wasn't a good banner to put over Australia in the 21st century. There's never been such a need for the gospel, folks. There's never been such a need for good news for pleasure seekers.

Now, we know, but let me tell you again, we have to come to God for the things we need. Otherwise, they'll destroy us.

Read Ecclesiastes, it's a great little book. Learn from the experience of the author and listen to Jesus and understand his words. I think we've heard them already today.

Seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. What does it say? Seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness, okay? That's the meaning column.

And all these things, all those pleasures, all the stuff you need will be given to you as well. Reverse that and there's big problems.

So two things that will test your heart on this. After the talk, I'm going to encourage you to give to God's work in this place. So I'm going to ask you, how's your tithing going?

This church has got a pretty good demonstrated ability to tithe. Tithe is like first fruits. It's giving to God first. So you get something, in this case a salary, giving to God first. But it could be in your diary time, time, talents, treasures.

But the idea is that as a grateful recipient, we give. How are you going with that? I'm not interested in your money. I'm interested in you. Because that's the right response. Gratitude is the right response to the good gifts of God.

SBS runs a little show called Insight. Two weeks ago they had one called Coming Into Money. I watched it in preparation for this.

It's really worth going onto SBS on demand, finding insight and just watching it. Just people like you who'd come into money and the interviewer kind of runs them through what happened and how did that go. Fascinating. Fascinating.

Because if you did, if you did come into money, if there was a sticker under your seat today, quick look now, and the lucky contestant got a million dollars, like that happens, what would that do to you? Solomon's question.

The surest way to check whether you have control of your money or if it has control of you is to give some away. Do it. Learn. Coming into money.

Did you read my story about my friend Aldrich in the preamble to today? Did you read that?

Guy used to own the petrol stations on the road to Gippsland or somewhere. Found $87,000 in the good old days. What did I say? It was about $300,000 today sitting in a wallet.

If you're Aldrich and you feel like you've been slaving your guts out running these bloody service stations for the last three years and never getting ahead and you find a wallet sitting on a fence post with $300,000 in it, what are you going to think?

At last things are going my way. It's been so hard. Now I can get ahead. Then you put it in your pocket. Is that what you're going to think?

Talk about a test. Talk about a test.

Last slide. So how about you win $60 million this Thursday? How about that? Somebody did.

You see the discipleship question is is it going to make you or break you? Because if you're functioning in the experiences column, look at world. At last like Solomon I can test my pleasures to the limit. How's that going to go?

This is not some theory folks. This is the world we live in. You set your heart, another wise thing somebody said to me. You should say something wise to me. I'll repeat it forever.

You move towards the things you love. You move towards the things you love. You have a direction for your life. You might not be able to articulate it but you do and it informs everything you do and how you spend and what happens in your diary and the whole shebang.

And you win $60 million it's going to be like throwing that up on the screen. We're going to see it big time. Is it going to be pretty or ugly? Good for you and the world or bad for you and the world?

So like a good parent God gives us little opportunities, little responsibilities, small things, ways we can practice loving him, honoring him, serving him, putting him first. We had a lot of that on the screen already today.

That's who he wants you to be because he's looking for somebody he wants to give $60 million to. He is. Somebody who will use that in a way that will benefit the world and give him glory. Could that be you?

He's training you now. It could be a secret. Someone's secret. It could be like a trust. Someone gives you something precious.

It could be a sack load of money or it could be a responsibility perhaps in employment or some other kind of context, it could be a church. He wants people he can trust.

He needs stuff done but he's training us now in the small things, insignificant things like your pleasures.

Here's how the chapter ends. You can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in your work. This too I see is from the hand of God. For without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the one who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness. But to the sinner, he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God.

This, too, is meaningless, a chasing after wind. I hope I've whet your appetite for Ecclesiastes, that you're all going to go home and interrogate this book.

Let me give thanks for the offering. Father, that we have to share, this is your gift to us. And that you would use our handling of what you give us to grow us into people who can bear greater responsibility for your glory. We thank you.

Lord, today is a new beginning. You're offering us a fresh start. What does it mean for us to live in a way that pleases you today? In terms of our pleasures, that we might have meaning-filled lives and be a source of hope to others. What does that mean?

Lord, please show us. In Jesus' name, amen.