Would you listen if I told you the secret to a life of joy?
It's actually an open secret, but I can take you to a man who has done extensive research
! That has been widely reviewed and weighed.
It's been around for a long time. In fact, the study has been about for quite a long time. It's been published. It's been republished.
And you can actually get it for free on the internet. So it is very much an open secret.
But this man has an answer to the question of where we can find joy.
It seems so that people aren't listening. When we look around, do you think, looking inside at your own heart,
that there's really enough joy in there? When you look around, people you work with,
people you brush up against each day, do you think, do you know, we are absolutely swimming in joy?
People aren't listening. Let me take you to that man. Turn to page 553.
The man is called Solomon. And we saw last week, chapter 1, that part of his research was into an earlier study of generations and the natural world around him.
Our world. And our researcher concluded that it was all vanity.
It was vanity of vanities. Chapter 1, verse 2.
All is vanity.
We said that word is vapor.
Foggy vapor.
Mist.
And his research last time showed us that generations, they come and they go,
and the world keeps turning as it always had,
and yet all he sees is vapor.
But he wasn't content to stop his research at that point.
He has seen, yes, that we can't control the world around us,
but really, is there no gain?
Is there no profit in the world in learning,
or building wealth,
or creating jobs,
or enjoying laughter and culture and things like that?
Is there no profit or joy in these things?
Because these are the things that we're told will actually give us the good life.
These are the things that our culture tells us that if we can get a grip on them,
if we can get enough of them into our lives,
then that's where joy is.
And yet our experience tells us something else.
So Solomon, verse 13 of chapter 1, if you can look down,
applied his heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven.
He wants to be sure that his initial conclusion,
that as the world keeps turning,
as generations come and go,
we have no control over them,
as we grasp after gain there,
his conclusion that that is all vapor,
he wants to be sure.
So he checks out all that is done under heaven.
Is there no gain to be had?
And we see as well that this is an arm's length project.
He went all in, chapter 1, verse 16.
He said in his heart, chapter 2, verse 1,
he said in his heart, chapter 2, verse 20,
he gave up his heart.
If there was gain to be had in these things,
he was going to find them.
He went all in.
If these things could deliver the joy that he's looking for,
he would find out.
And this evening, I want to take us through his research,
and I want to highlight what it revealed.
So that's our first point, his research.
Let's look at that.
Solomon's research.
He starts with the pursuit of wisdom.
Chapter 1, 16 and 17,
I said in my heart,
I have acquired great wisdom,
surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me,
and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge,
and I applied my heart to know wisdom
and to know madness and folly.
I'm going to acknowledge that I'm already wise,
but I need to give myself further to wisdom and to knowledge.
So Solomon gives himself to great works of literature and science.
He scars the corridors of learning for answers.
He wrestles with the great ideas of philosophy,
and he studies the opposite of sanity and wisdom.
There they are, madness and folly.
We need to understand sanity and wisdom.
If we're going to do that, well, we need to understand the opposite,
madness and folly,
in order to understand the human psyche,
the whole human being more deeply.
He is a forerunner of 90s new labor,
education, education, education.
He thinks,
if I can get more wisdom, more knowledge,
let's see what's there.
But look at 1 verse 18,
the more he learned,
the less he knew.
He says it was a striving after the wind.
It was like trying to go and direct the wind
in a particular course or direction.
It was like grasping handfuls of fresh air.
There was nothing there.
And he says it's not simply vexing.
It's not simply frustrating.
It actually made him sad.
Do you see?
In much wisdom is much vexation,
and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
All of this wisdom actually has just made me sad.
All the effort,
it has felt like a complete waste of time
because I'm no further on.
And that's true, isn't it?
Learning, like everything else,
if it is motivated by a desire for you to be clever,
if it is motivated by a desire for you to be wise
for your sake,
so you can demonstrate to other people
how smart you are,
well, it's like this.
You find the more you know,
the more you know how little you actually know.
The search for wisdom is like vapor.
It eludes your grasp.
Solomon then changes tack.
Do you see?
He leaves the library and heads into town.
Chapter 2, verse 1.
I said in my heart,
Come now, I will test you with pleasure.
Enjoy yourself.
The word for pleasure here is joy or happiness,
so we're really getting to the heart of things now.
We're getting to the heart of this research project.
I'm going to go in pursuit of this.
I'm going to test myself
that everything that I've been told
will deliver the joy that I'm looking for.
Now, I don't necessarily think here
that we should see that Solomon
is just letting the bricks off completely.
He mentions several times, like in verse 3,
how his heart still guides him with wisdom
in this pursuit.
I don't think he's describing here
complete unchecked hedonism
in the way some people have interpreted this section,
but he is pressing in.
He's pressing in hard to see what he can gain,
to see how he can profit in his search for joy.
First place to start, laughter.
Verse 2.
Maybe this stand-up scene
or giving myself into comedy box sets
or something like that,
maybe that will bring the sort of pleasure
that I'm looking for.
Verse 3.
He then opens a bottle to gladden his heart,
and then he tries to lay hold on folly
to see if, unlike wisdom,
it can bring the kind of gain
that he's looking for
because he is,
verse 3,
looking for the good for mankind.
Laughter,
a glad heart with wine,
maybe folly,
not taking life so seriously,
maybe just being a bit more carefree.
Next he gives himself,
verse 4,
to achievement.
I made great works.
I built houses.
I planted vineyards for myself.
I made myself gardens and parks
and planted them,
all kinds of fruit trees.
Hard work.
That's going to deliver.
Making stuff happen.
Getting things done.
Being productive.
If I can be productive,
I'll feel like I've achieved something,
and there'll be a sense of joy.
He grows his staff.
He grows his wealth.
He grows his cultural CV
and his women,
verse 8.
Singers will play music for him on demand,
and his concubines will give him
other things on demand as well.
He has at his disposal,
at the very tips of his fingers,
whenever he wants it,
the things that we are told
everyone wants.
Money,
sex,
and power.
These are the things
that promise to deliver
what we desire,
and these are the things
that we give ourselves to.
And then,
he tops even that.
Look at verse 9.
He tops that
with the intoxicating thrill
of the recognition
of his peers.
He was a great one.
There were plaques
all over Jerusalem
with his name on them.
Anything there
in what he's talking about
that you haven't thought
at some point
that if you had it,
then you'd be happy.
If you had more of it,
then you would find the joy
that you long for.
More pleasure,
more possessions,
more productivity,
more power,
more prestige,
then you'd be happy.
Then you would remain,
then joy would remain
in your grasp.
It wouldn't slip
through your fingers
like it always seems to do.
That's what we want,
isn't it?
That's what we've been
trained to believe.
That's what our culture
is telling us we need.
More pleasure,
more possessions,
more productivity,
more power,
more prestige.
Then you'll have
the good life.
Look at 2 verse 10.
Whatever my eyes desired,
I did not keep from them.
I kept my heart
from no pleasure.
Now, if I was to say that to you,
there would be a limit
to what I could actually
get hold of.
Not the king,
with all his royal privilege.
When he said,
I kept my heart
from no pleasure,
you can't think of a pleasure
that he didn't try.
And look at his conclusion.
Chapter 2 verse 11.
Here's where his research project
got him.
Then I considered
all that my hands had done
and the toil I had expended
in doing it.
And behold,
all was vanity,
a striving after wind.
And there was nothing
to be gained
under the sun.
All the learning
and all the laughter,
all the work,
all the wealth,
all the silver,
all the servants,
and what's he left with?
Vapor.
Handfuls of vapor.
Bagfuls of vapor.
Bin bagfuls of vapor.
It's all a striving
after the wind.
That phrase,
striving after the wind,
means literally
shepherding the wind.
In this research project,
Solomon has given his heart
to a search for joy
and he reports back.
He says,
looking for gain
in these things,
looking for meaning,
in laughter,
work,
possessions,
power,
is the same kind
of madness
as standing on a headland
on a windy day
and trying to direct the wind.
That's his research.
But Solomon doesn't simply
share this discovery with us
from his own bitter experience.
He explains that he's made
another discovery in the process.
His research actually leads
secondly to his realization.
His realization.
Go back up to 113 again.
He says,
He realizes
that the misty nature of things,
the vaporous nature of reality,
flows from a world
that is broken.
His language here
takes us right back.
The children of man here
is literally
the sons of Adam.
And the painful business
and the crooked things
that cannot be straightened,
they are the fruit of the curse
that God has laid on the world
in Genesis chapter 3
after Adam's fall.
This is why
Solomon's search
for gain
gleaned nothing.
And this is why
all our works
that are done under the sun,
verse 14,
our vapor
and an exercise
in directing the wind.
God has subjected
our world
to futility.
We can't
straighten out
the things that are crooked
because God has made them
that way.
We can't count
the things that are lacking
because God has made it
that way.
That is just
how it is
in this world
in which we live.
When you choose
to live life
on your terms
in God's world,
that's what Adam did
in the garden.
He grasped
after gain
in a garden
of gift.
Now that's important
that we know that.
People think that God
was being mean
when He told Adam
not to touch the tree
of the knowledge
of good and evil.
But there was
a whole garden
of gift.
There were lots
of other trees
that he could have had.
There was one
that he was not
allowed to touch yet
because the knowledge
of good and evil,
he wasn't yet ready
to handle that.
He wasn't yet mature
enough to discern
good and evil.
That belonged
to God alone.
But Adam
grasped.
He grasped
for profit
for himself.
And in disobeying God,
he plunged
the whole world
into sin.
He drug us
with Him.
That's the reason
why we do the things
that we don't want
to do in life.
That's why
those things
that we wish
were true
of our character
more and more
seem to elude us.
That's why we sin.
And that is why
God has judged
the world in this way.
Solomon has come
to recognize
that the world
is like this
because it's broken.
But it is also
the fruit
of our rebellion.
It is the fruit
of this sin
that Solomon's research
has led him to realize.
The fruit
of that rebellion
is this.
Death steals
everything.
And Solomon says,
look,
if you've got to choose,
wisdom is better
than folly,
2 verse 14.
Better to make
good decisions
in life
than bad ones.
Basic common sense.
But,
whether you're
the wisest man
in the world,
2 verse 14,
or you're
the biggest idiot
that has ever
walked the face
of the earth,
the end is the same
for both.
The professor
of wisdom
and the guy
who makes
dumb decision
after dumb decision
will,
in the end,
both find themselves
in the grave.
One out of one
dies.
That's the bottom line.
But there are,
do you notice,
two implications
of this
that Solomon
finds particularly
galling.
The first is
in verse 16.
It's this.
It's not just
that you're going
to die,
but you're going
to be forgotten.
Verse 16,
four of the wise,
as of the fool,
there is no
enduring remembrance.
Seeing,
as to come,
all will have
been long forgotten.
How the wise
dies just like
the fool.
He's saying,
death doesn't
discriminate
from the top
of society
to the bottom.
No one can
outsmart,
no one can
anti-aging
protocol
their way
out of it.
And while
there may be
a funeral
with a few
warm words
offered in
your memory,
there is a
good chance
that your
children's
children won't
know your
name.
And if they
do,
their children
probably won't
know your
name.
I remember
a few years
ago,
my uncle,
my dad's
brother,
he was in
his 80s,
and he was
coming to the
end of his
life,
and I asked
him about
his grandparents,
so my
great-grandparents.
What was
your
grandfather's
name?
This was
his grandfather,
he's towards
the end of
his life,
he's not in
great health,
but it took
him a long
time to
remember.
Do you
remember the
first name of
your great-grandparents?
Do you remember
what they did
for a living?
Do you know
that?
There was a
time when
they thought
that the
world revolved
around them
the way we
think that it
revolves around
us.
There was a
time when
they thought
they were
the
generation,
and yet
you don't
know their
names.
It's
vapor.
We'll all
be forgotten.
But you
won't just
be forgotten,
verse 18.
Whatever
you've
managed to
store up,
you'll
leave it
all to
someone else.
I hated
all my
toil in
which I
toil under
the sun.
This
research
project made
him really
cross.
Why,
seeing that I
must leave it
to the man
who will
come after
me,
and who
knows
whether
he'll
be wise
or a
fool,
yet he
will be
master of
all for
which I
toiled and
used my
wisdom under
the sun.
This
also is
vanity.
Everything
that you
worked for
will be
left to
those who
follow.
Every
single
penny
that accrues
to your
name will
go to
someone else.
As of
this
afternoon,
Elon Musk
is the
richest man
in the
world.
Do you
know how
much he
will leave?
All of
it.
That old
adage,
you can't
take it
with you,
is true.
And Solomon
says that
even with
whatever clever
stuff you're
able to do
with wills,
you don't
know whether
you're leaving
it to a
fool or a
wise man.
Whatever
control you
want to have
over your
wealth,
you lose
all of
that when
you die.
It's a
stark
realization
for
Solomon.
And I
wonder if
this research
actually became
an attempt to
chase this
basic reality
from his
mind.
That's what
we do,
isn't it?
When we
experience some
of the
vapor of
life,
when we
feel this
sense of
vanity
about
everything,
we know
that laughter
doesn't fix
the problems
of the
world.
Just
listen to
a single
interview
with a
comedian.
Their
lives are
completely
surrounded
with
laughter,
and yet
there's
rarely any
joy when
you get
behind the
mask.
We know
that wine
doesn't work,
and we know
that any
achievements
that we've
made didn't
deliver the
lasting joy
that we'd
hoped for,
plus we
know that
anything that
accrues to
our account
now will
be wiped
out by
death.
This is the
world we
live in.
So what
can we do
but distract
ourselves with
anything that
we can find?
The
alternative to
distracting
ourselves is
there in
verse 20.
And gave
my heart
up to
despair.
Very
honest.
But let's
be honest
ourselves.
What else
is there?
There are
lots of
addicts that
live on the
streets around
where we
live, and
you see
them in
various
states, and
my heart
goes out
to them.
But there's
an honesty
about the
way that
they live.
All they
want is to
shut out the
despair.
All they
want is to
be taken
for a few
moments out
of their
days that
are full
of sorrow.
And that's
what that
hit will
do for a
few minutes
and they'll
do anything
to get
it.
It is an
escape from
the pain.
It is a
release from
the despair.
We have
our own
ways of
doing the
same thing.
Some are
more respectable
than others,
some not so
respectable.
Solomon gathered
singers to
play for him
at his
request to
keep him
from silence
and his
inner thoughts.
We do the
same thing
with earbuds.
We don't
need to hire
singers to
follow us
around and
be a little
bit anti-social
I suppose in
some ways.
But we do
exactly the
same thing.
We just plug
our earbuds in
and put the
music on.
Or the talk
show or the
radio or
something.
Just some
noise or
other to
shut out
the despair.
Screens,
social media,
any digitized
diversion from
the reality of
this sorrowful,
vaporous world.
Well, is
despair the
only option?
Happily not.
Solomon has
actually discovered
that there's
another way to
think about
death and
that it is
not to
close our
eyes and
shut it
out.
But actually,
to stare at
it and to
stare at the
reality of
that and to
allow it to
reshape the
way we think
about the
present.
To allow the
future,
whenever that
will be,
and our
death to
teach us
how to
live now
in the
present in
God's world.
All is not
lost.
When we
accept that
this life is
vapor,
when we stop
trying to
resist it
and try to
store things up
for ourselves,
to try and
make some
gain in
this world,
when we
accept that
this life is
vapor, we're
actually liberated
from trying to
control it for
our gain.
We're set free
to enjoy
actually receiving
what we have
as a gift.
Solomon identifies
this then as our
third point,
his resolution.
He's given us
his research,
he's told us
about his
realization,
and thirdly,
here's his
resolution.
There is nothing
better for a
person than that
he should eat and
drink and find
enjoyment.
That's what we're
looking for,
enjoyment in
his toil.
This also I saw
is from the
hand of God,
for apart from
him who can
eat or who
can have
enjoyment?
For to the
one who pleases
him God has
given wisdom
and knowledge
and joy.
Enjoyment.
Joy.
A life marked
by joy is
available in a
world of vapor.
How is this
so?
Well, did you
notice?
Given from
the hand of
God.
The theologian
Ian Proven
summarizes the
point, which is
the point of
the whole book,
saying this,
life in God's
world is gift,
not gain.
And that is
the open secret.
That is the
open secret.
Life in God's
world is gift,
not gain.
When we use the
world for our
own ends,
our gain,
we're just left
with handfuls of
vapor.
We're just left
directing the
breeze.
But while the
vapor remains,
and it does
remain,
understanding that
life is a gift
from God doesn't
automatically make
it easy.
We're going to
see that again
and again and
again.
You know it
from your own
experience.
But there is
real joy in the
receipt of the
gift.
I said last
week, God
gives two gifts.
One is the food
and the drink,
and the other is
the ability to
enjoy them.
And that is
clear with a
more literal
translation,
actually, of
verse 24.
Have a look at
verse 24.
More literal
translation would
be this.
There is no
good in a
person than
that he should
eat and drink
and find
enjoyment in
his toil.
This also I
saw is from
the hand of
God, for
apart from
him who
can eat or
who can
have enjoyment.
There is no
inherent good
in a person
that they
should be able
to find
enjoyment in
their work.
He is
saying the
only way that
we can enjoy
the things that
are given to
us by God
is from
God, and
recognizing that
he is the
one who gives
the gift.
Just with
food, think
about it, just
with food, there
are loads of
reasons why we
aren't able to
enjoy it.
We think, oh,
there is better
quality elsewhere,
and we think, oh,
this maybe isn't
the best thing I
could be eating.
Oh, there is a
different restaurant
that is better.
You can't enjoy
the seven-pound
bottle of wine
because you know
that there is a
seventy-pound bottle
of wine that is
better.
And the seventy-pound
one was okay,
but it is not as
good as the
seven-hundred-pound
one or the
seven-thousand-pound
one.
That never stops.
That is the
treadmill of
never being
satisfied.
That is why
all of these
things are
vapor.
If even
eating and
drinking needs
to be about
gain rather
than receiving
what God has
provided and
saying thank
you and
enjoying it,
then it will
never satisfy.
The same is
true of all
things that
Solomon tried.
Wisdom,
knowledge,
money,
sex,
power.
There is no
inherent joy in
any of these
things if we
don't acknowledge
the divine
giver.
You don't need
me to provide
you with examples
of people for
whom these
things have
become a
source of
misery despite
having them
in abundance.
But I
can't get
old Matthew
Perry out
of my
head.
Chandler
Bing from
Friends,
he had
superstardom
and he
pursued gain
in laughter
and wealth
and wine
and sex
and fame.
And a
couple of
months ago
he wound
up addicted
to pain
medication
and a
couple of
months ago
we discovered
that he had
a live-in
servant
whose job
was to
inject him
with ketamine
every day.
When we
pursue gain
in those
things,
rather than
receiving them
as gifts
to be enjoyed,
they don't
just leave
us empty
vapor,
but they
can consume
us.
Solomon has
discovered
that God
is the
source of
joy.
In verse
26,
he has
given wisdom
and knowledge
and joy
to those
who please
him.
When you
grasp for
joy on your
own terms,
it always
eludes you
but when
you trust
God,
he gives
joy and
like all
his gifts,
he passes
it out,
not with
a teaspoon
but with
a shovel.
If we
can let
go of
grasping
for these
things,
if we
can let
go of
thinking
that if
we get
that,
then we'll
have some
gain in
God's
world and
if we
just receive
what he
gives us
and we
say thank
you and
we enjoy
it in
the moment,
we're set
free.
That is
joy.
And that is
the offer
that Jesus
makes to
his disciples.
You remember
in John
chapter 16,
they have
been with
Jesus,
he has
told them
that he'll
be going
to the
cross for
their sin
and then
returning
to the
father and
they're
anxious.
They want
to hold
on to
him for
themselves.
But he
says he'll
send his
spirit and
he will
give them
joy.
He says,
ask and
you will
receive that
your joy
may be
half full.
Your joy
might just
be enough
to get
you to
the end
of the
day.
That's
not what
he says,
is it?
Ask and
you will
receive that
your joy
may be
full.
The
fullness
of joy.
That is
the offer
of the
gospel.
That is
the openness
of all
open secrets
that in
the Lord
Jesus,
the one
who holds
you fast
even in
the vapor
of real
life.
while she
may not
be able
to master
life,
you can
enjoy it.
Let's pray
together.