_
Francis Schaeffer noted:
let us think of the sex relationship. What is man’s attitude towards the girl? It is possible, and common in the modern setting, to have a “playboy” attitude, or rather a “plaything” attitude, where the “play- mate” becomes the “plaything.” Here, the girl is no more than a sex object.
But what is the Christian view? Somebody may offer at this point the rather romantic no- tion, “You shouldn’t look for any pleasure for yourself; you should just look for the other per- son’s pleasure.” But that is not what the Bible says. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. We have a right to pleasure, too. But what we do not have a right to do is to forget that the girl is a person and not an animal, or a plant, or a machine. We have the right to have our plea- sure in a sexual relationship, but we have no right whatsoever to exploit a partner as a sex object.
There should be a conscious limitation upon our pleasure. We impose a limit—a self-imposed limit—in order to treat the wife fairly as a per- son. So although a husband could do more, he does not do everything he could do, because he must treat her also as a person and not just as a thing with no value. And if he does so treat her, eventually he loses, because love is gone, and all that is left is just a mechanical, chemical sexuality; humanity is lost as he treats her as less than human. Eventually not only her humanity is diminished, but his as well. In con- trast, if he does less than he could do, even- tually he has more, for he has a human rela- tionship; he has love and not just a physical act. It is like the principle of the boomerang—it can come full circle and destroy the destroyer.
Over and over I have read that Hugh Hefner was a modern day King Solomonand Hefner’s search for satisfaction was attempted by adding to the number of his sexual experiences.
A Quest For Meaning Series
Contributed by Jonathan Mcleod on Aug 16, 2010
[If you would like to receive a free sermon each week by email, please contact jonrmcleod@yahoo.com.]
LIFE UNDER THE SUN
I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind (1:14).
The Hebrew word for “vanity” is hebel. It literally means “vapor,” “breath,” or “wind.” In Ecclesiastes, hebel is used in a figurative sense.
Life “under the sun” (without God) is:
• FUTILE
Life is a treadmill.
• FRUSTRATING
Life is a chasing after wind.
• FLEETING
Life is a vapor.
What is crooked cannot be made straight (1:15).
We can’t fix life. We can’t change it.
SOLOMON’S QUEST FOR MEANING
How would you fill in the blank? “I’ll be happy when _________.”
Solomon was like Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, and Hugh Hefner all rolled into one. If anyone could find fulfillment from life under the sun, it would be Solomon. His search for meaning could be called “The Royal Experiment.”
King Solomon searched for meaning in the things we often put in that blank:
1. POWER
I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem (1:12).
2. PLEASURE
I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” (2:1-2).
3. ALCOHOL
I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life (2:3).
4. WORK
I made great works. I build houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees (2:4-6).
5. COMFORT
I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house (2:7a).
6. WEALTH
I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces (2:7b-8a).
7. MUSIC
I got singers, both men and women (2:8b).
8. SEX
And many concubines, the delight of the children of man (2:8c).
Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:1-3).
9. FAME (2:9)
So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem (2:9).
What was Solomon’s conclusion at the end of his quest for meaning?
Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun (2:11).
Two quotes from The Simpsons (not an endorsement of the show) demonstrate the vanity of life under the sun: (1) “The road to the Super Bowl is long … and pointless—I mean, when you really think about it.” (2) Homer Simpson says to Mr. Burns: “You’re the richest man I know.” Mr. Burns replies, “Yes, but I’d trade it all for more.”
_______________
Many of the sermons that I heard or read that inspired me to write Hugh Hefner were from this list of gentlemen: Daniel Akin, Brandon Barnard, Alistair Begg,Matt Chandler, George Critchley, Darryl Dash, Steve DeWitt, Steve Gaines, Norman L. Geisler, Greg Gillbert, Billy Graham, Mark Henry, Dan Jarrell, Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., R. G. Lee, C.S. Lewis Chris Lewis, Kerry Livgren, Robert Lewis, Bill Parkinson, Ben Parkinson,Vance Pitman, Nelson Price, Ethan Renoe, Adrian Rogers, Philip Graham Ryken, Francis Schaeffer, Lee Strobel, Bill Wellons, Kirk Wetsell, Ken Whitten, Ed Young , Ravi Zacharias, Tom Zobrist, and Richard Zowie.
_
You will notice a quote below from Matt Chandler, and I also quoted Ravi Zacharias when I wrote, “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.”
In the next few weeks I will be posting some letters that I sent to Hugh Hefner that were based primarily on the sermon series BETTER THAN which is a study in the BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES done by our pastors at FELLOWSHIP BIBLE CHURCH in Little Rock in 2016. Our teaching pastors here are Mark Henry,
Ben Parkinson
and Brandon Barnard.
Today’s letter is based on a sermon by Brandon Barnard.
February 14, 2016
Hugh Hefner
Playboy Mansion
10236 Charing Cross Road
Los Angeles, CA 90024-1815
Dear Mr. Hefner,
Today is Valentine’s Day and I am writing you about the sermon we heard today at church because it was on a subject that you know so much about. In an interview with the Guardian there was this question about your guiltiest pleasure and you responded that it basically was your whole life. Q&A: Hugh Hefner
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
My life, probably!It may be ironic but today our teaching pastor at FELLOWSHIP BIBLE CHURCH Brandon Barnard named his sermon IS THERE VANITY IN PLEASURE? (2-15-16, Valentine’s Day!!!!).If there was one word to describe your life the word PLEASURE is probably that word. As you know I have written you every week since October of 2015 in the hope that you will be willing to reflect back on your life of pleasure UNDER THE SUN like King Solomon did and see what proper reflections your life has rendered. Francis Schaeffer has rightly noted concerning you that your goal with the “playboy mentality is just to smash the puritanical ethnic.” In fact, in your own personal life you definitely have gone the opposite direction of Puritanism.I have made the comparison throughout this series of letters between you and King Solomon (the author of the BOOK of ECCLESIASTES). I have noticed that many preachers who have delivered sermons on Ecclesiastes have also mentioned you as a modern day example of King Solomon especially because you both tried to find sexual satisfaction through the volume of women you could slept with in a lifetime.
862 × 609Images may be subject to copyright. Learn More
Ecclesiastes 2:8-10 The Message (MSG)
I piled up silver and gold,
loot from kings and kingdoms.
I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song,
and—most exquisite of all pleasures—
voluptuous maidens for my bed.
9-10 Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors in Jerusalem far behind, left them behind in the dust. What’s more, I kept a clear head through it all. Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day’s work!
1 Kings 11:1-3 English Standard Version (ESV)
11 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
Francis Schaeffer observed concerning Solomon, “You can not know woman by knowing 1000 women.”
Here are just a few points from Brandon’s sermon today from Ecclesiastes chapter 2:
The path of pleasure can be better than not having pleasure but if it doesn’t find its end in Jesus then it is meaningless and another dead end.
ECCLESIASTES 2:1-11:
2 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.[a] 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines,[b] the delight of the sons of man.
9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all wasvanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Solomon also wrote in Proverbs 14:13
Even in laughter the heart may ache,
and the end of joy may be grief.
In other words, if it doesn’t find it’s end in God then it will not ultimately satisfy. The WESTMINSTER CATECHISM states, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
Most believers spend their time trying to curb their desires. C.S.Lewis points out that desire for pleasure is not too strong but rather too weak. This is what Solomon comes to realize at the end of his life and that is the vanity of pleasure is the vanity of pleasure if it ends in the pleasure itself, if it doesn’t make itself to God. But if the pleasure makes itself to God then it is everything to us. What is your desire for Christ right now because only He can truly satisfy. We need to pray for God to intensify the desire in our heart for pleasure and joy because real joy is found in Christ.
THE QUESTION BECOMES: DO OUR PLEASURES TERMINATE IN THEMSELVES OR LEAD US TO PRAISE AND GLORIFY GOD?
For the unbeliever, he eats his fillet. He drinks his Cab, not out of a box, and then he makes love to his wife. He enjoyed all of that. For the believer, they eat that steak, and they’re like, “Man, God is amazing!” and it rolls past the steak. He drinks the Cab responsibly, and it rolls past the Cab. He enjoys his wife. She enjoys her husband, and it rolls past to the Giver of those gifts. It doesn’t terminate on the gift. It rolls past them.
The unbeliever can’t do that. An unbeliever will never cut into that fillet and go, “Man, God is good!” They’re not. They’re just going to be, “Hey, I love steak. I can pay for it. Awesome.” Right? The believer enjoys the gifts of God in a different way than an unbeliever, because we’re acknowledging where it came from. The pleasure rolls past the experience and into the giver. It doesn’t terminate on the experience itself. Worship is wrung out of the heart of a believer at a meal.
HUGH, I HAVE QUOTED FROM MATT CHANDLER’S SERMONS BEFORE TO YOU. TAKE A MOMENT AND LOOK AT THIS QUOTE FROM HIM AGAIN. Don’t you see that Solomon was right when he observed life UNDER THE SUN without God in the picture and he then concluded in Ecclesiastes 2:11
Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained UNDER THE SUN.
Notice this phrase UNDER THE SUN since it appears about 30 times in Ecclesiastes. Francis Schaeffer noted that Solomon took a look at the meaning of life on the basis of human life standing alone between birth and death “under the sun.” This phrase UNDER THE SUN appears over and over in Ecclesiastes. The Christian Scholar Ravi Zacharias 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.”
The answer to find meaning in life is found in putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The Bible is true from cover to cover and can be trusted.
Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Everette Hatcher, everettehatcher@gmail.com, http://www.thedailyhatch.org, cell ph 501-920-5733, Box 23416, LittleRock, AR 72221
PS: This is the 18th letter I have written to you and again I have taken an aspect of your life and responded with what the Bible has to say on that subject. Today we looked at your quote that indicated that your whole life had been about the issue of PLEASURE and then we looked at the VANITY OF PLEASURE without God in the picture.
C.S.Lewis
FELLOWSHIP BIBLE CHURCH LITTLE ROCK teaching pastor Brandon Barnard and his wife Julie
_
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Four Spiritual laws and the Roman Road
The Four Spiritual Laws
If you’ve gone through a discussion with someone and you want to present the gospel message in a simple and systematic way, the well-known, “Four Spiritual Laws,” can be of help. They are simple, to the point, and use Scripture to convict, convince, and convert. They are:
- God loves you:
- “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:16).
- Man is sinful and separated from God.
- “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Rom. 3:23). “For the wages of sin is death,” (Rom. 6:23). “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,” (Isaiah 59:2).
- Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin.
- We must individually receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
- “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,” (John 1:12). “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved,” (Rom. 10:9). “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,” (Eph. 2:8).
The Roman Road
Another list of verses usable in the same way as the Four Spiritual Laws is the “Roman Road.” The advantage to these seven verses is that they are all in the Book of Romans. Sometimes this is an advantage when you don’t want to flip through a lot of pages.
- Rom. 3:10, “As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one . . . “
- Rom. 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
- Rom. 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
- Rom. 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- Rom. 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
- Rom. 10:9-10, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
- Rom. 10:13, “For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
I recommend you put the Roman Road in your Bible. Go to Romans 3:10, underline it, and write Romans 3:23 next to it. Then go to Romans 3:28, underline it, and write Romans 5:12next to it, and so on. That way all you need to do is memorize where you start: Romans 3:10.
The Featured artists are The Propeller Group
The Propeller Group consists of Phunam, Matt Lucero, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen, was formed in 2006 and is based in Ho Chi Minh City. The collective creates large-scale productions that combine fine art and media practices, often collaborating with international artists and cultural producers.
Interested in history, the internet, image making, graffiti, and constructs of national identity, the collective deploys advertising strategies to interrupt the messages of historical archives. Its projects have included Television Commercial for Communism, for which the members hired an advertising agency to rebrand communism for American audiences, and Viet Nam: The World Tour, which the group describes as a “rogue anti-nation-branding campaign” aiming at Vietnam’s image to the world. Combining the members’ backgrounds in graffiti and street art, filmmaking, and fine art, the Propeller Group is both a production company and an art practice.
Links:
Artists’s website
_
Related posts:
MY 4 POSTCARDS IN 2017 FROM NEW ORLEANS TO HUGH HEFNER (PART 4)
I started this series on my letters and postcards to Hugh Hefner back in September when I read of the passing of Mr. Hefner. There are many more to come. It is my view that he may have taken time to look at glance at one or two of them since these postcards were short and from one of Hef’s favorite […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Atheists Confronted | Edit | Comments (0)
MY 8 POSTCARDS IN 2017 FROM NEW ORLEANS TO HUGH HEFNER (PART 3)
I started this series on my letters and postcards to Hugh Hefner back in September when I read of the passing of Mr. Hefner. There are many more to come. It is my view that he may have taken time to look at glance at one or two of them since these postcards were short and from one of Hef’s favorite […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Atheists Confronted | Edit | Comments (0)
MY 8 POSTCARDS IN 2017 FROM NEW ORLEANS TO HUGH HEFNER (PART 2)
I started this series on my letters and postcards to Hugh Hefner back in September when I read of the passing of Mr. Hefner. There are many more to come. It is my view that he may have taken time to look at glance at one or two of them since these postcards were short and from one of Hef’s favorite […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Atheists Confronted | Edit | Comments (0)
MY 8 POSTCARDS IN 2017 FROM NEW ORLEANS TO HUGH HEFNER (PART 1)
I started this series on my letters and postcards to Hugh Hefner back in September when I read of the passing of Mr. Hefner. There are many more to come. It is my view that he may have taken time to look at glance at one or two of them since these postcards were short and from one of Hef’s […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Francis Schaeffer | Edit | Comments (0)
MY 4 POSTCARDS IN 2016 FROM VEGAS TO HUGH HEFNER (PART 4)
_ I started this series on my letters and postcards to Hugh Hefner back in September when I read of the passing of Mr. Hefner. There are many more to come. It is my view that he may have taken time to look at glance at one or two of them since these postcards were short and from one of […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Atheists Confronted | Edit | Comments (0)
MY 4 POSTCARDS IN 2016 FROM VEGAS TO HUGH HEFNER (PART 3)
_____ I started this series on my letters and postcards to Hugh Hefner back in September when I read of the passing of Mr. Hefner. There are many more to come. It is my view that he may have taken time to look at glance at one or two of them since these postcards were short and from one of Hef’s […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Atheists Confronted | Edit | Comments (0)
MY 4 POSTCARDS IN 2016 FROM VEGAS TO HUGH HEFNER (PART 2)
_____ I started this series on my letters and postcards to Hugh Hefner back in September when I read of the passing of Mr. Hefner. There are many more to come. It is my view that he may have taken time to look at glance at one or two of them since these postcards were […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Atheists Confronted | Edit | Comments (0)
MY 4 POSTCARDS IN 2016 FROM VEGAS TO HUGH HEFNER (PART 1)
_____ I started this series on my letters and postcards to Hugh Hefner back in September when I read of the passing of Mr. Hefner. There are many more to come. It is my view that he may have taken time to look at glance at one or two of them since these postcards were […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Adrian Rogers, Atheists Confronted | Edit | Comments (0)
The last 3 letters I wrote to Hugh Hefner compared him to King Solomon in Ecclesiastes and his search for the meaning of it all!!! (Part 3)
|I saw this on the internet on June 20, 2017 _ Playboy’s Hugh Hefner on board a boat with Barbi Benton and friends sporting a striped navy shirt and a pipe in mouth and a real catch in hand during the 70s. ____________________________________ Below is the last letter I ever wrote to Hugh Hefner. […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Adrian Rogers, Atheists Confronted, Francis Schaeffer | Edit |Comments (0)
The last 3 letters I wrote to Hugh Hefner compared him to King Solomon in Ecclesiastes and his search for the meaning of it all!!! (Part 2)
I learned yesterday that Hugh Hefner had passed away. Just last year I visited Chicago and drove by his Chicago Playboy Mansion pictured below. ___ Playboy after dark filmed in Chicago Playboy Mansion During the 1990′s I actually made it a practice to write famous atheists and scientists that were mentioned by Adrian […]
_
The Daily Hatch 