Calvary Chapel Spring Valley | Sunday Evening | September 23, 2012 | Pastor Derek Neider
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I have written on the Book of Ecclesiastes and the subject of the meaning of our lives on several occasions on this blog. In this series on Ecclesiastes I hope to show how secular humanist man can not hope to find a lasting meaning to his life in a closed system without bringing God back into the picture. This is the same exact case with Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Three thousand years ago, Solomon took a look at life “under the sun” in his book of Ecclesiastes. Christian scholar Ravi Zacharias has noted, “The key to understanding the Book of Ecclesiastes is the term ‘under the sun.’ What that literally means is you lock God out of a closed system, and you are left with only this world of time plus chance plus matter.”
Let me show you some inescapable conclusions if you choose to live without God in the picture. Solomon came to these same conclusions when he looked at life “under the sun.”
Death is the great equalizer (Eccl 3:20, “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.”)
Chance and time have determined the past, and they will determine the future. (Ecclesiastes 9:11-13)
Power reigns in this life, and the scales are not balanced(Eccl 4:1)
Nothing in life gives true satisfaction without God including knowledge (1:16-18), ladies and liquor (2:1-3, 8, 10, 11), and great building projects (2:4-6, 18-20).
You can only find a lasting meaning to your life by looking above the sun and bring God back into the picture.
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women
He had seven hundred wives of royal birth
and three hundred concubines,
and his wives led him astray
Types of Pleasure
1. Comedy (Ecclesiastes 2:2)
2. Wining & Dining (Ecclesiastes 2:3)
3. Pet Projects (Ecclesiastes 2:4-6)
4. Accumulation (Ecclesiastes 2:7-8a)
5. Entertainment (Ecclesiastes 2:8b)
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. 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.
Solomon’s Teaching on Pleasure
1. Pleasure can be found in wickedness (Proverbs 10:23a)
2. Maturity level determines our amusements (Proverbs 10:23b, 18:2)
3. Pleasure must be kept in moderation (Proverbs 21:17)
4. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing (Proverbs 21:17)
5. A fool makes pleasure his purpose (Ecclesiastes 7:4)
New Testament Teaching on Pleasure
1. Pleasures can choke our maturity (Luke 8:14)
2. Living for pleasure isn’t living at all (1 Tim. 5:6)
3. Last days will be marked by love for pleasure (2 Tim. 3:4)
4. Pleasures can enslave you (Titus 3:3)
5. The pleasures of sin last only a moment (Hebrews 11:25)
6. If pleasure is the primary goal, prayer won’t work (James 4:3)
*the following is from Ravi Zacharias
1. Anything that refreshes you w/o distracting you from your final goal is a legitimate pleasure
2. Any pleasure that jeopardizes the sacred life of another is an illegitimate pleasure
3. Any pleasure, however good, if not kept in balance will distort reality or destroy appetite
This from the American Humanist website: This week we’re pleased to publish a new poem “Ecclesiastes” by Frank S. Robinson. Frank S. Robinson is a retired New York State administrative law judge, a rare coin dealer, and author of five books, most recently The Case for Rational Optimism. He is married to the poet Therese […]
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