Kaleo San Diego Church

¹ I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself." And behold, it too was futility. ² I said of laughter, "It is madness," and of pleasure, "What does it accomplish?" ³ I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives. ⁴  I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; ⁵  I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; ⁶  I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees. ⁷  I bought male and female slaves and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. ⁸  Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men--many concubines. ⁹  Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. ¹⁰ All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. ¹¹  Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

INTRODUCTION

This morning we will continue being studied by this great book of Ecclesiastes as we consider the conclusions of life apart from God through the eyes of Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, Hugh Heffner, and Brad Pitt all wrapped in one in Solomon the King.

Before we begin our study I want to start by asking some very simple questions. Now, truth be told, these are simple questions but with very difficult answers.

Here we go:

1- Are you happy?

2- What is it that will make you happy?

3- When will you finally be happy?

Every single one of us has something or someone that we anticipated would make us happy. We assumed once we achieved, once we experienced, once we accomplished, once we acquired this one thing we would then be a satisfied, joyous and finally a happy people.

Fill in the blank: I’ll be happy when _______.

My next question is this: Do you really think when you fill in that blank you’ll be a satisfied, joyous, and happy person? Do you really think that will happen?

If we look back at the course of our life- 5, 10, or for some of you, 20 years ago, at some point you thought; as soon as I achieve, experience, accomplish, and acquire _______ you would be happy and satisfied. And so you labored with that end in mind and upon achieving or attaining these things, you’re still not all that satisfied, and you’re still not all that happy.

So we chuck out our old list, and create a new one with more refined objectives. You put on your list of what would make you happy like travel. You assume going to a foreign land where they can’t stand Americans, the food is terrible, and Eiffel Tower really is just a big pointy metal thing. Or you assume going to an Opera where large Italian women yelling at you will be enjoyable. You think you’ll figure out what the salad fork is for and throw away all of the sporks you collected at Taco Bell. So you rearrange your list to reflect a more mature and distinguished you. And like a one armed wall paper hanger, we keep putting the paper up, only to find out when we grab the roller the paper’s fallen yet again.

Peter Kreeft says that this kind of living is like a “wild goose chase, without a goose.” We keep trying to make ourselves happy and satisfied by reorganizing our external lives. So we work harder to make more money. We work out so we don’t have to butter our hips to get out of our front door. We pursue more sex, more friends, more stuff, all the while not realizing our satisfaction, our joy, our pleasure, has much more to do with the reorganization of our internal life than it does with our external life.

What is the “good life?” and what will make man most happy? These are philosophical questions. It is a question of ethics.

The first week we talked about this overarching philosophical question that Solomon is driving home- “What is the meaning of life?” As I mentioned it is a metaphysical question, it is a question of “being.” Last week we looked at the topic of Epistemology, or in other words “how do we know what we know?” and “how can we know what is true?”

This week we are going to be looking at the third of the four main branches of philosophy- ethics.

Obviously I’m not going to give a philosophy lesson on the history of ethical contemplation, but I want us to understand that there is a history of inquirers that have pondered and wrestled with this question of man’s happiness for several thousand years. Our question this morning is not a recent one as we will see from this philosophical work which was written almost 3,000 years ago.

Thinkers from ages past have thought deeply, discussed widely, and wrote extensively on this subject of ethics. The subject really has two main components to it, though you will find sub-topics like bioethics, medical ethics, legal ethics, in a variety of professions. Those governing, or consulting bodies, attempt to answer moral questions by thinking through the implications of the question to find what is the best or right answer. We are concerned with the more weighty philosophical concept of ethics which deals with how we will act and apply our ethics in accordance to our underlying principles or assumptions of what the “good life” is, or “what will make man most happy?”

I hope you can see by now that metaphysics “posing the big questions of our being” is connected to epistemology “answering the questions of how we know truth” which is connected to ethics “how should we act” and “what will make me happy and joyous” and “is there anything wrong with pleasure?”

If we assume we are nothing more than time + chance = man (meaning/metaphysics), and we can’t really know anything for sure (truth/epistemology), then we should eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow we die (community/ethics). Obviously you can see how this would affect what we think about what is beautiful (beauty/aesthetics).

Let me give a couple of answers from the philosophers of old to deal with this question of happiness or ethics.

What ancient thinkers were trying to come to a consensus on was more an issue of “what is the good life, or a life of happiness, for all?” rather than “what is the right course of action for an individual?” In other words- What is the goal which all should strive towards? Is it the accumulation of pleasure? Is it happiness? Is it identical with doing one’s duty, or living out one’s calling?

Plato believed that being unhappy or acting evil was due to a lack of knowledge of “the good.” Plato thought if a person knew what the good life was, he would live the good life and be happy. So training yourself intellectually will help you discover what that “good life” is all about. He also believed that there is only one “good life” for all, that it isn’t relative. He thought that goodness isn’t dependent upon human opinion, it exists apart from our feelings towards it or understanding of it, but it needs to be discovered like math. Plato also believed that moral standards were superior even to God. So instead of God revealing to us what is “good” or “bad,” God is subject to what is good like you and I are subject. If God didn’t act according to this “good” He would no longer be God.

The problem with this view is that it contradicts Paul who tells us in Romans 7:19- For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

Aristotle on the other hand noticed that men regard some people as leading what they call “good lives” and others as leading what they call “bad lives.” He also notices that the various lives that people of common sense considered to be “good” all contain one common characteristic: happiness. And in the same way, the lives that ordinary people regard as being “bad” lives all have in common the characteristic of being unhappy. So, to answer the question “what is the good life for man?” Aristotle’s answer can be stated in one sentence: “It is a life of happiness.”

He also did not agree with Plato that there was one “good life” for all to discover, but that each individual should determine what the “good life” is for himself. This was called the doctrine of the mean. Meaning there are various ways of living for different people. What is good for one person may not be good for another. So, one can’t tell before actually experimenting or experiencing what it is. Reason alone won’t tell you what the “good life” is for you, you need to experiment to find out. You should eat, but not so you become a glutton or are famished. You should drink, but not so you’re a drunk, but not die of thirst. You should be proud because that is the “mean” between vanity and humility, etc. It means, in order to achieve happiness, people must act moderately, they must act so as to be striving for the mean between two extremes. If they do this, they will be happy.

Then we come to Epicurus, which Solomon seems like Epicurus on steroids. Epicurus must have only been able to get a copy of chapter 2 verses 3-10 of the book of Ecclesiastes to form his view!

Plato didn’t think the good life was connected to pleasure. Aristotle thought moderation of pleasure will make you happy. Epicurus held a view that is today called “hedonism” which is the doctrine that pleasure is the sole good. Pleasure and the pursuit of it will make you happy. The best way to live, according to Epicurus, was to live pleasantly without suffering from any of the undesirable effects of living for pleasure.

Now on this point, I don’t have much of a disagreement with how we think. Certainly I like kissing my wife over being beaten a cord. I like eating a steak over having a root canal. I would love to have a perpetual six-pack over not being able to tie my shoe laces. These things are no-brainers. And truth be told, I would much rather seek pleasure over pain, joy over suffering.

Solomon, the mad scientist who drinks his own chemical mixtures to experiment on himself came to the conclusion at the end of the last chapter that pursuing wisdom apart from God, under the sun, was as fruitful as running outside with your arms wide open trying to hug the wind. He said it was vanity!

This week, we are going to see his next great experiment as he does you and I the favor of trying out those things that we would most likely pursue to find happiness and the good life.

Solomon becomes a hedonist who pursues these things with unparalleled gusto and then reports his subsequent findings.

He is going to try to answer our question for us, and he is going to try out what we put in our “blank” when we asked the question “I’ll be happy when…”

Verse 1- I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself." And behold, it too was futility.

He starts out by telling us that he set himself to the pursuit of chasing pleasure.

How many of you like pleasure?

You like a comfortable bed, broken in shoes, pants that you don’t have to unbutton when you sit down.

Some of you like to get massages, or you like to go get your hair cut just so you can have the stylist wash your hair and massage your scalp. That’s my favorite part. I think they should set up a shop where all you do is come it, they wash your hair for 30 minutes, dry it and send you off. I’d by an annual membership. Grace and I lived in Del Mar when we first moved to San Diego and their was an Aveda Hair Salon at the shopping center right by where we lived. The first time I got hair cut, they put some minty smelling oil on my scalp and massaged it, then they massaged my ears and the back of my neck. Then they took me over to get my head washed and they massaged my scalp for a good 5 minutes. I think that is as close as you’re going to get to heavenly pleasure on this side. My wife and I both love to have our heads massaged. The odd thing about it was that they gave me the worst haircuts I have ever had, but I was there every 30 days with my $30 for my haircut.

I’ll bet most of you enjoy pleasure over pain. But I’d also bet that some of you were told by well meaning parents or friends, or youth leaders, that if it felt good, you should repent because it’s probably sin.

Solomon tells us that he made a good hard pass at pleasure, he decided to go after it with tremendous zeal, and he pursued in a variety of ways.

I’ll be happy when…

Comedy

Verse 2– I said of laughter, "It is madness," and of pleasure, "What does it accomplish?"

…I can laugh all time.

How many of you like comedy? I love comedy. I would love to have Chris Farley as my next door neighbor so that any time I was feeling down I could have him come over and quote me verses from Tommy Boy. I would have Adam Sandler sing his Chanukah song whenever I was sick.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could have the financial means and the power to have guys like that at our disposal to make us laugh all the time?

They didn’t have cable T.V. or Blockbuster to rent movies from, so any laughter that came from performers came from spending having enough power and money to employ comedians to tell us knock, knock jokes.

Can you imagine coming to a place when what was once funny to you no longer makes you laugh and you look at it and say “this is crazy!”

Solomon says that his laughter that it was madness. He said of his pleasure “what does it accomplish?”

Have you ever been around someone that thought that didn’t get your favorite funny movie? Aren’t those people fun? This is what Solomon was starting to look like; a guy that simply resigned to “what’s the point?”

O.K., maybe comedy will have its limitations, but what about getting hammered and partying all the time?

How about drinking like a rich frat guy on a fort year spring break? That would make me happy and the comedians are always more funny when you’re tipsy.

I’ll be happy when…

Partying

Verse 3– I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.

…I can drink all the time.

If I could be rich and drunk, I’d be happy or unconscious, which is close to being happy!

How many of you like a good wine or a good micro brew? Some of you like dark beer. I’m not talking about getting drunk, I’m talking about enjoying your favorite drink over a great meal.

Some of you have a mini wine collection. Some of you know individuals that are so wealthy they have their own wine cellar with wine that’s not named after a bird. Good wine.

If I could just enjoy my short existence with more alcohol without the hangover, then I’d be happy. Solomon gave it a go.

Let’s continue.

I’ll be happy when…

Real Estate

Verse 4a– I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself,

…I can buy my first home. For some of you it’s moving out of your parents house. They’d be happy to. 30 years old, one class per semester for the last 10 years?

Some of you want to move from your parents home into an apartment, then you’d be happy. Then you move to an apartment and find out that you can’t paint the walls whatever color you want, you can’t buy nicer appliances or have your own washer and dryer, your own trash compactor, your own double sided fridge with the ice and water dispenser. So you think, I’ll be happy when I can finally buy my own home so that I can put in my own things and do with my house whatever I want. Then you find out about association dues, and color swatches you have to choose from. You also find out that now you have all of your appliances you have to pay for every single thing that breaks on those appliances.

For some of you, you think; I’ll be happy when I can get a bigger house, in a nicer neighborhood, without my neighbors blaring Kid Rock at three a.m. and racing up and down the street in their primered 69 nova. Then I’d be happy…and safer!

Solomon’s house took 13 years to build. The Temple took 7 years and 153,000 workers. Those crews went to work and built his house. Imagine what you could build with unlimited resources and 100,000 plus workers.

How many of you like to go to restoration hardware, or Z Gallery? How many of you like to buy nice things and decorate your place? Don’t be shy men, I love having input on what kind of theme my wife is going for. I like trying to figure out how to place the furniture. The problem is that my plan usually doesn’t come out looking all that great, but it’s functional.

Wouldn’t be great if I could have a house in the mountains, a place at the beach, one in the city, and I could gave as much square footage and as much land as I wanted. I’d be happy if MTV called me so they could put my house on Cribs.

What else would you do with that kind of money?

How about building your own gardens and parks?

I’ll be happy when…

Gardening

Verses 4b-6–…I planted vineyards for myself; ⁵  I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; ⁶  I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees.

…I could walk through my own private parks and sit in my own private garden. I’d be happy if I had a huge Koi pond.

How many of you like gardening? How many of don’t like gardening but you like gardens?

One of my favorite memories as a child is when my parents took me to Victoria B.C. and we went to visit Butchart Gardens. It’s this 55 acre garden that a woman named Jennie Butchart began in 1904 and spent her entire life taking this old rock quarry and making it into a place of beauty.

The smells, the colors, the different types of flowers and plants, the ponds, the rolling lawn, the trees, are all God’s creation and show His glory.

Wouldn’t it be great if that was our back yard?

I believe one of the reasons we love gardens is because man was first made in one. It was the only place on earth that was completed, then Adam and mankind was given the task of cultivating the rest. We love gardens because it’s an echo of home.

Then he moves on to his posse.

I’ll be happy when…

Leisure

Verse 7a– I bought male and female slaves and I had homeborn slaves

….I have my own posse.

In 1 Kings 4:22-23, we’re told that he prepared an enormous amount of food that would feed around 35,000 people each day. This was his posse.

These were full time professionals who were best in their field and were employed by the King to cater to his every whim.

Can you imagine this? A hairstylist could trim your hair throughout the month so you would always look good. You had a chief, you had a masseuse, you had a fashion consultant, you had a manicurist, you had all kinds of servants who spent their entire career working to make you happy.

Every thing you wanted to do but didn’t like the details, you had personal assistants that would immediately take care of whatever your heart and mind came up with.

Have you ever noticed in rap videos that they are going for the life of Solomon? Big cars, big houses, girls running around half naked massaging and feeding them. Apparently, these me are Old Testaments scholars who have read the book of Ecclesiasts.

How about pets?

I’ll be happy when…

Animals

Verse 7b– Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.

…I can finally buy that pony that mommy wouldn’t get me…and every other kind of animal that I like looking at.

How many of you are dog people? How many of you are cat people? How many of you have seen Meet The Parents? That great scene with Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro, where Deniro is telling Ben Stiller how shallow dogs are and that you have to work for a cats affection so cats are superior.

If you had unlimited resources with tremendous acreage you could have your own zoo. You could have horses, you could have lions and tigers and bears, yeah you know the rest. Any animal that existed and could be captured, you could own.

Some of you like exotic pets like snakes and lizards or even spiders. Some of you feed squirrels. My dad said they were just rats with fluffy tails that trick us into thinking their cute so that we’ll feed them. Ever notice that they flick their tails? It’s to distract you from the rest of the rat.

Now were getting into the big four of pleasures.

I’ll be happy when…

Wealth

Verse 8a– Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces.

…I’m loaded. Some of you would be happy to just attain the level of being broke.

You think you’d be happy if you had a debit card with unlimited funds and you never had to balance your account because it didn’t matter. You could buy whatever you wanted whenever you wanted.

Some of you play or have played the lotto thinking that Jesus was speaking about a winning ticket when He said “whatever you for in my name…” Dear Jesus, please let me win. Some of you never pray more fervently until you’re watching the little white balls with then numbers tumbling to hopefully fulfill your destiny!

Then you would be happy. Then you would be satisfied and joyous. Then you could do whatever you wanted with your wealth and amend all the wrongs of your life. Right?

From taxes alone, Solomon earned twenty-five tons of gold in addition to the gold and exotic treasures brought by fleets of ships, accompanied his innumerable other investments and income streams. Solomon had real wealth which was unparalleled in human history.

What about music?

I’ll be happy when…

Music

Verse 8b– I provided for myself male and female singers…

…I finally complete my music collection.

How many of you like music? Me too.

Now, back in these days, you didn’t have mp3 players and cd’s. You didn’t have radios. So, if you wanted to hear a particular band or singer, you hired them. Can you imagine hiring U2, or Coldplay to live in your house so that you can wake them up at all hours in the morning and have them play you a song?

Who would you hire? Some of you would hire a country western singer…we’ll pray for you. Some of you would hire a boy band…I don’t think you’re the elect of God! I’d hire the boy band, but it wouldn’t be to sing, it would be for target practice, or for my animals to feed.

How about sex?

I’ll be happy when…

Sex

Verse 8c– and the pleasures of men--many concubines.

…I can have as much sex as my prescription to Viagra will allow.

How many wives did Solomon have? 700. How many stripper girlfriends called “concubine?” 300. This would be like you and I traveling around the world, or better yet, having someone work for us that knew our taste, and they would travel the world to find 1,000 of the most beautiful women in existence so that you could live out whatever you sick little mind thought up.

Tall women, short women, blonde, brunette, redhead? 1, 2, 10? Their job was to make you sexually happy. They sat around and primped themselves all day long just so they could look beautiful for you.

Some of you through pornography have tried to acquire your own harem. Solomon didn’t have “virtual” women, he had the real thing. Think about this…once every 3 years you would be with the same woman.

If you had any energy left, maybe you’d try work.

I’ll be happy when…

Work

Verses 9-10– Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. ¹⁰ All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor.

…I can get a job that I like. Then, I’ll truly be happy. Better yet, how about I become my own boss! Then I’d get great performance reviews, I’d love my boss and all of his decisions would be right. I’d get to take as much vacation as I want. I wouldn’t have to be at work at a specific time, just whenever I get to it…kinda like the movie Office Space.

How about having a junk drawer to throw the rest of your desires into?

I’ll be happy when…

Etc.

Verse 10– All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure…

…I can do whatever my eyes and heart want. I will come up with new ways to find pleasure and throw them in that drawer.

Gambling, sports, painting, learning to play an instrument, learning to fight, whatever. It’s your choice.

Here is going to be the toughest part of this message. You have to come to the same conclusion and believe Solomon when he gives us his final analysis.

Conclusion

Verse 11– Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

Solomon arranged every aspect of his external world so as to afford him maximum pleasure, but he never experienced enduring happiness and satisfaction because his internal condition remained sinful, and the highs of life experience eventually fade. He basically worshipped himself, doing everything for himself (i.e. 2:4, 2:8).

He learned that happiness is a gift that God gives to those reconciled to Him and their neighbor by grace that comes only by being and never by having.

Those of us at varying levels below Solomon on the economic food chain cling to the myth that if they could trade places with him they would be happy, satisfied, and joyful. However, the parade of history from Jim Morrison to Hendrix, Elvis, and Cobain sings the same song as Solomon. Hence, those on top of the food chain try to get happy by chasing the wind of simplicity and reducing their stuff and experiences, while those at the bottom of the food chain try to get happy by complicating their life, chasing the wind of more pleasurable stuff and experiences. A few of us, like Michael Jordan, strive to succeed and do… only to get bored and quit to strive for a different success… only to get bored again, and return to the first thing that bored them.

What everyone shares in common is what our nation’s Founding Fathers called “the pursuit of happiness.” Basically, we all want to be happy and so we live solely for the pursuit of pleasure. The philosophers call this hedonism, and though many Christians denounce it, we were in fact created by God for pleasure and should live as Christian hedonists.

Our problem is not that we are hedonists, but rather that we are too easily pleased, and rather than getting pure pleasure from God’s right hand (Psalm 16:11) we settle for cheap imitations that never satisfy.

Consequently, we have sex but not love, music but not worship, and wealth but not stewardship. We long for the infinite and perfect, yet settle for the finite, imperfect and fleeting pleasures on the earth, which is a sin we need to repent of, turn from, and have forgiven and cleansed by Jesus. It was He, our great God, who was tempted as we are, yet did not settle for sin and instead died for our many sins. He then rose to make us new people with appetites for the pleasures of God instead of the god of pleasure.

"All men seek happiness," says Blaise Pascal. "This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves." We believe Pascal is right. And, with Pascal, we believe God purposefully designed us to pursue happiness.

Does seeking your own happiness sound self-centered? Aren't Christians supposed to seek God, not their own pleasure? To answer this question we need to understand a crucial truth about pleasure-seeking (hedonism): we value most what we delight in most. Pleasure is not God's competitor, idols are. Pleasure is simply a gauge that measures how valuable someone or something is to us. Pleasure is the measure of our treasure.

By grace, we are then able to:

1. embrace our desire for happiness as good and not sinful

2. nourish our desire for happiness and not deny it

3. direct all of our desires to God who is our joy

4. share our happiness with others

5. gather together, needy and empty, in worship to be filled with Him

I’ll be happy and satisfied when…I find my satisfaction in God.

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