April 26, 2026 | Chasing the Horizon

Chasing the Horizon | Ecclesiastes 2:1-26

Ecclesiastes 2

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?” 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. I made great works. I built 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. 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. 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, the delight of the sons of man.

So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 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. 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.

So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will 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. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

There is nothing better for 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? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. (ESV)

In “Chasing the Horizon,” Jed Gillis walks through Ecclesiastes 2 to show how Solomon tested the common pursuits people use to build a meaningful life: knowledge, pleasure, achievement, wisdom, and success. Solomon had more opportunity than anyone to chase these things fully, yet he found that none of them could give lasting gain when life is viewed only “under the sun.” Pleasure fades. Work wears us down. Wisdom helps, but it cannot stop death or give us control. Achievement may bring temporary joy, but it cannot bear the weight of our hope. The sermon does not treat these gifts as bad. Instead, it shows that they become empty when we turn them into ways to replace God, control life, or create our own paradise. Ecclesiastes presses us into the darkness of life without God so we can see the better hope God gives. True joy comes when we receive knowledge, pleasure, work, and success as gifts from the hand of God. Rather than chasing the horizon, believers are called to trust the God who gives, find joy in Him, and honor Him in the good works He has placed before them.

Transcript of Chasing the Horizon | Ecclesiastes 2:1-26

Jed Gillis: This morning we'll be in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter two. As we do that, children, if you're headed out the back door to Children's Church, you're welcome to go ahead and make your way that direction. You're also welcome to stay in here with us. We're always glad to have you here.

Pointing Your Sail in the Right Direction

Jed Gillis: This morning, I want you to start by thinking of a mental image with me. I don't know if you've ever thought about what it would've been like if you were, say, a sailor who was about to explore with Christopher Columbus and you think I'm gonna get on this boat with nothing but some cloth that I hope can catch wind going the right direction to sail across an ocean nobody's ever really crossed before to hope that I get to what I think is over there in the right direction.

Might be a little nervous. I would be, I don't know the first thing about sailing, but I do know if you're going to sail, you need to, one, have a sail and two, have it angled the right direction and without that, you won't get anywhere near where you're going.

Really, this is the image I want you to use for the way Solomon is thinking about this book. He is saying, I know where I want to go. I have a destination. I want a good life. A lot of people have said, I'm looking for the good life. How do I pursue that? That's what he says. He says, I want a life that has meaning and purpose. Something that's not just fleeting and gone. I want something that gives gain. A life that isn't wasted.

That's what Solomon is looking for from the beginning of this book. That's what he starts out asking for. And as he does, he's going to pull out, if you will, several metaphorical sails and he's going to turn them different directions and say, if I angle it like this, does it get me where I want to go?

We saw last week he did that with the sail, if you will, of knowledge or wisdom, and he said, well, if I turn it this way, and I say, if I know enough stuff, can I fix the problems in the world? Can I make sure that at the end of the day, I have a life that's full of flourishing and good things, not frustration and sorrow? And he concluded that no, actually the sail of knowledge, the way he was trying to turn it wouldn't get him where he wanted to go.

And so in the beginning of chapter two, he's going to pull out other sails and turn them different directions and say, will this do it? Will this do it?

Solomon Testing the Sail of Seeking Pleasure

Jed Gillis: So he starts the beginning of chapter two with, we'll call it a careful hedonism. Hedonism being like the desire, the pursuit of pleasure. But I say it's careful 'cause Solomon doesn't really address the idea that you're gonna just go do whatever feels good, regardless of consequences. Sometimes that's the way people approach it. Solomon's like, we all know that's not gonna work out well. So he doesn't even really deal with that. That would be too easy of a question for what Solomon's actually doing.

So I want you to notice, read with me beginning of chapter two. Solomon says this, I said in my heart, come now. I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity or fleeting. I said, of laughter. It is mad and of pleasure. What use is it? I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine. My heart's 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. We'll pause right there. We'll come back to what Solomon says here in a minute.

Notice says several times. He says, I'm going to pursue pleasure, but I'm going to do so with wisdom. Like, I'm not gonna go crazy and think, just do whatever feels good. Who cares who it hurts? Who cares? What happens to me? Who cares about the consequences?

That's not what he's doing. Instead, he's saying, I'm going to take this pursuit of joy, of pleasure to say the highest good, the best goal for my life is to try to seek pleasure and avoid pain. I'm gonna take that sail and I'm gonna put it up. I'm gonna see, does that get where I want it to go? He gives you kind of a pre-answer, if you will. He says in the end of verse one, he says, this also was vanity. So he gives you the the spoiler alert. Actually, no, it won't get you where you want to go. But he also takes this and presses it even further to say, how is he going to pursue joy and pleasure? If he's going to do it with wisdom, how does he actually do it?

Pursuing the Sail of Achievement

Jed Gillis: And here's his answer and then we'll read it. His answer is, I'm going to pursue success or productivity or achievement. I'm going to accomplish all kinds of good things so that I can have joy in what I have accomplished.

So let's read his description in verse four. I made great works. I built 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. 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 you had been before me In Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines. The delight of the sons of man. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. We'll pause right there again.

So the flow here is Solomon says, I'm gonna try pleasure, but I need to do it in a wise way. So instead of ignoring consequences, I say, I'm gonna achieve more than anybody else. I'm gonna be richer, I'm gonna be more successful, I'm gonna be more productive. I'm gonna do all of that better than anyone else does. Because he thinks that's what will make me happy. That will gimme pleasure, that will give me joy.

So he takes this, this sail of pleasure, but maybe we could be a little more specific, this sail of achievement. And he turns it a certain way and says, all right, will this get me where I want to go?

And if we think about what he describes here, it's it's remarkable. He says, I built houses, which represents shelter, represents luxury, and he didn't just have one. He had houses that he built. He says he made planted vineyards. Now, especially in a context where you don't run down to Aldi or Food City vineyards meant you had ready access to fruit. To wine, so to provision, to food, to enjoyment, to all of these things. He says, well, I want more of that in my life. I'm going to plant vineyards so I get more of it. And he did.

He says he would plant fruit trees. Now, especially in the ancient world, like this was dessert. This was delicacy. He says, I'm going to plant enough fruit trees that anytime I want to go eat dessert I can.

And then he thinks, wait, no, but I've got a water, fruit trees and we can't just grab the water hose. So instead, how does he describe that? He says, I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. He's thinking he's making irrigation systems. He's saying, I'm gonna be more productive and better. I'm going to make sure my fruit trees produce better than anyone else's. I'm going to achieve and accomplish everything you can imagine.

In many ways, this probably isn't that far from the way we as Americans often describe the American dream of retirement. I'm gonna work really hard, accomplish all the things so that I can enjoy more than anybody else at the end of my life. It's essentially what he does.

Using Achievement to Replace God

Jed Gillis: There's also this implication. Maybe he picked up on it, it's it's subtle and it's there that in some ways, he is trying to maybe reflect God or quite possibly replace God in what he's doing.

And the reason I would say this, notice what he builds. He builds gardens. We've heard that before. God built a garden, didn't he? God planted fruit trees. God did all of those things. Even the language when he says, I made great works. We might say something like, I performed superhuman tasks. There's this sense of he's doing something bigger than just human even.

Interestingly, the word when he says, I made gardens and parks. The word for parks is the word we get paradise from. It's like he's making or trying to make his own Eden. He buys male and female slaves. 'cause his own Eden is going to be filled with his own people.

So Solomon is saying, I'm going to pursue achievement. But the way he's doing it is to try to essentially take the place of God.

You can create things, you can plant gardens in order to reflect that God is a creator, you can also create things in rebellion against him to replace him. You can be productive in order to reflect that your God's a God who works. You can also try to be productive in a way that tries to take his place in your life. I'm going to make sure everything in my life works out my way.

The Sails Aren't Bad, But Which Way Are You Turning Them?

Jed Gillis: Because in our picture of sailing the ocean, the point isn't that the sails that Solomon is using are wrong. The point is, which way do you turn them? And we're gonna see that more as we go through this, this passage. The difference is small, but it's the difference between dying out in the doldrums and not making it where you want to go. And actually getting to the good life that Solomon says you can actually have.

The problem isn't knowledge. God's word says all kinds of great things about knowledge. The problem isn't joy. God says all kinds of great things about joy. The problem isn't achievement. The problem is when you take those things in your life, how are they turned? Are they turned in a way? That actually gets you where you want to go or in a way that gets to the conclusion. Solomon says, they're vanity. They're fleeting. They're like chasing the wind, trying to grab it, but finding frustration.

Is It Worth It?

Jed Gillis: See, that's his conclusion. He gets to verse nine. He says he's great and surpassed everyone else. Notice verse 10. We think if we could say this honestly, that it would solve our problems. Solomon says it won't. 10, 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 my toil.

In other words, he gets done having accomplished it, so he made it. If we parallel this to retirement, this would be like the guy who gets done and says, I have accomplished it all. My name's on all the plaques at the work at the office for all the good things I did and my retirement secure and settled. He says, I've made it.

But then he thinks, because Solomon won't live an unexamined life, so he starts thinking about it, says, if I think about all the work I put in. For 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years. He says, yes, there's joy in it, but was it really worth it?

He says, I put in all of this work. Did I actually get enough out of it to make that worthwhile in the grand scheme of things? I achieved, I accomplished. I had this productivity and there was joy in it. There was reward for it.

In other words, Solomon is not downplaying productivity. He's saying productivity can't do certain things. Or if we use our picture, he says, I put the sail up and it seemed to fill up, and it carried me a little ways, but I never got to the horizon I was looking for.

So he says in verse 11, I considered all that my hands had done all of this work 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.

We've probably all been there. You work really hard on a project and it takes more work than you ever thought, and you finally finish. You might think, was it really worth it? I mean, I could have just not done the project, and I would've had a lot of joy that way too. We've all been there. We've all wondered that that's what Solomon is doing.

It's almost like Solomon is speaking directly to our anxious burnout culture, by the way. As it turns out, the questions we have in our modern world aren't that different from the question Solomon saw in the ancient world.

Conclusions to Pursuing Knowledge, Pleasure, and Achievement

Jed Gillis: So he makes this statement that I just read, which is really a summary of the way he's turned all of his sails and he gets three conclusions. When you think about three different types of pursuit in life, three different sails you can try to get through to the good life, to a life that's meaningful, he says, no. There's three conclusions.

First, we find vanity or hevel. Was the word we talked about a few weeks ago. Something that's fleeting, it's like breath. It doesn't last.

Whether you pursue knowledge or joy or productivity, all of those we know there's a place where they don't last. You can have all the knowledge in the world and the world keeps moving past you. You could be the best typewriter repairman who ever lived, but there's not a whole lot of demand for that.

And we see it over and over. We see it as artificial intelligence comes into our world. We see knowledge is fleeting. We see joy that you go, this is the best thing ever. We, we even have almost a stereotype of it, of the child who opens their present on Christmas morning, and it's the best thing they've ever seen for about two hours. And our gifts get more expensive, but they kind of work the same way, don't they? It might last two months or two years, but we know it doesn't really last.

You can have the most productive life. You can accomplish all the things, but who really remembers it 200 years later? The building you work so hard to build gets torn down for something else.

That's what Solomon is doing. He's saying as I turn these sails trying to get to a meaningful lasting life, I keep finding that the horizon is always just a little further away and I can't get there. So it's vanity. It's frustrating, it's chasing wind. Trying to control something that you can't control. Trying to be satisfied on something that can't satisfy.

And so his final conclusion in this section is there was nothing to be gained under the sun. There's no return on investment. You put in work and you get joy out. Sure, but not enough to live on and keep going forever.

Does that mean wisdom, joy, and productivity are bad? That's our natural question, right? And that's exactly where Solomon goes.

Is there Gain in Wisdom?

Jed Gillis: So in his next section, he takes wisdom and says, I, I went back to say I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. The idea of turned there is he, he was going down a road. He said, here's wisdom, here's joy, here's productivity. And he says, oh, I'm gonna turn. I'm gonna turn back. I've already thought about wisdom. I'm gonna think about it again. Is it really bad or is it good? So he asked this question, is there gain in wisdom? And verse 13 says, there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes and his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I perceived the same event happens to all of them. Then I said, in my heart, what happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise? And I said, in my heart, this also is vanity. For of the wise, as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance. Seeing that in the days to come, all will have been long forgotten how the wise dies, just like the fool.

So he takes wisdom and says, is wisdom good? Is it bad? Well, in one way it's good, and in one way it's bad. In other words, to use our picture, he says, here's your sail. When you turn it a certain way, it accomplishes something really good in your life. When you turn it another way, you run into the rocks. Wisdom as a sense of perception of what is going on in the world. It's good. That's what he says. You have your eyes in your head. If you take the wise person and the fool, it's better that you know what's really there, that you understand the way God works in his world, that you understand hard work leads to blessing, that you understand laziness leads to difficulties, those kinds of things. It's like it's better. There's a sense in which there is gain of wisdom.

But if you view wisdom as a way to manipulate and control things, I know all the right way, wise ways to do it so that my circumstances turn out exactly like I want them in 30 years. Solomon says, if you're trying to do that to create lasting, enduring remembrance, enduring good. He's like, it won't work. And if we wanted to, we could probably just pause here and have people all across this room talk about times they thought they had their life all figured out and they knew the circumstances and exactly how it was gonna work out and how it was frustrating because it didn't work that way. Every one of us. Even the youngest people in this room have felt that because wisdom when used like that is only frustrating. Striving after wind, nothing to be gained under the sun in just this life considered by itself. You don't get control by wisdom.

To use a different picture it's a little bit like building a sandcastle. You know how you build sandcastles and, and you might, as a child, you have this real simple way of building a little sandcastle, and then you can go, you go online and look at people who build these like competition level sandcastles, and they're incredible.

Until the tide comes in.

And no matter what you do, that tide's coming in and then it's all washed away. Solomon is saying, look, the tide, the conclusion in verse 16 is if nothing else, the tide of death comes in. You can build the biggest sandcastle you want for 70 years or 90 years, or 120 years or 30 years. You can build that and wisdom may help you make, make a better, bigger sandcastle, but it won't last if you only consider what's under the sun because the tide always comes in.

Despair

Jed Gillis: Then we get to some of the most depressing verses in Ecclesiastes. I know some of you think, I thought we already were there. Hold on. Solomon says in verse 17. So I hated life because what is done under the sun in this life was grievous or burdensome to me for all his vanity and a striving after wind. I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool.

He will be master of all, for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. He looks at wisdom, joy, productivity says none of them. Give me something that lasts. If I'm trying to take control of my circumstances with wisdom or pleasure or productivity, what do you find? It's interesting, the word he uses, he says, the fool who comes after him will be master. He'll have control. In other words, he's saying, I'm trying to get control, and as it turns out, this loser after me is gonna have control over everything I do.

That's what Solomon's saying. It's like this is not only frustrating, but at this point it's like he's just given his heart over to despair. You'll notice here he doesn't say he kept wisdom with him, by the way.

But he continues in verse 20. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who is toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is fleeting, frustrating, is vanity and a great evil.

What as a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun for all his days are full of sorrow and his work is a vation. Even in the night, his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

Don't Hide from the Dark Message of Ecclesiastes

Jed Gillis: Now. I know it seems really dark. It is. It seems really depressing and it is.

I want to encourage you, don't hide from that in Ecclesiastes, we spend a lot of our lives with a lot of things that would be discouraging if we stopped and looked at them and we distract ourselves with shiny colors and flashy toys. That's not better. It might feel better, but it's not better.

Solomon isn't saying that this is the right way for a follower of God to view life. He's saying this is what life under the sun, without considering anything beyond this life, this is what life actually is. It's that bleak and that depressing. Most of us don't ever really get that dark in the way we view this life, so we never get past pursuing the pleasures of this life.

Don't be afraid to go to the darkness of what he's saying. He's saying, look, the pursuits of a meaningful, good life under the sun without considering anything past this life, that pursuit is so empty that I hated it. Don't be the person I would do this reflexively. Don't be the person who comes along and says, well, sure, but I mean, if I get rich enough, it'll be good enough. Solomon didn't really understand it. I mean, he was only the king of a nation with absolute power and wisdom given to him by God. I'll probably get better than that, right?

Don't run from the truth that life, if this life in this earth, this physical life, if that's all there is, it's meaningless, pointless, and you should hate it. Don't run from that.

Secular philosophers actually have already gotten this. I read this quote I think last week, but I'm gonna read it again. French philosopher said this, if we believe in nothing, so if there's nothing beyond this life, if nothing has any meaning, and if we can affirm no values whatsoever, then everything is possible and nothing is important. It's pointless.

He's right. If this life is all there is, that's exactly what Solomon is pointing you to do. Because if you pursue God's gifts in a grasping, controlling sort of way, you'll find it's frustrating, it's fleeting, it goes straight past you, and you will get a darker view of life than you want to have.

Solomon's taking you to the right conclusion of thinking that way, not so that you'll go away going, yes, the message from church today, hate life. No. But he's pointing you there so that you'll feel the weight and the darkness so that you'll go through it to something better.

Swim with Solomon through the Dark Waters

Jed Gillis: I was reminded of a movie, it's called 13 Lives. It's a story of this group of, it's a, a soccer team in Thailand. Maybe you remember this story happened a few years back. They were exploring the rain started coming in. They kind of went back in the caves. They got chased in by the waters rising in the caves. So they keep going back further and further and further and further in the cave. They end up two and a half miles from the entrance while the water's still rising. Back in, you know, pitch black. They're not ready for that. They don't even have, I don't know how you could have enough equipment to be ready, honestly, but they didn't have any equipment. They're all the way back in this deep cave.

And then they had to get people like, how can we get these kids out? So they call in these underwater rescue divers, which sounds like the worst job in the world to me. They get these underwater rescue divers who come in and they go in, it's, I think it's six or seven hours through the water to get to the back into the cave where they finally find these kids. That alone is incredible. And then they have to come six hours back out. So a 12 hour dive in to get someone and then bringing them back out with you.

Now if you, if I'm the kid sitting in that cave, I'm in a really terrible position, but going under that water for six hours feels like a worse position. Solomon is like a rescue diver. He's come to us in God's word to say, here's the way life really is, and you don't realize how frustrating and empty life really is without something beyond this life until Solomon comes and points it out and he wants to take you back through the dark waters.

We're like, no, Solomon. That's really depressing. I don't wanna think about that. Don't remind me that everybody dies Solomon. But it's like he's a rescue diver saying, yes, this feels dark and difficult, but the other side is better.

That's what Solomon's doing in Ecclesiastes. So don't shrink back and say, no, I'll just stay here in my dark little cave. Instead, swim with Solomon.

Ecclesiastes is Depressing if Your Sail is Pointed the Wrong Way

Jed Gillis: Say, what does that look like? Well, first thing is to see the dark conclusion, that life really is that empty if this life is all there is. See that as actually the correct one. If you approach life saying, I'm going to grab control, a world that's centered around me controlling my life, that's centered around me grabbing it and making sure that it's meaningful and my circumstances turn out like I want them to, it really is empty and you should hate life if that's the way you approach it. That's Solomon's message.

But instead, practice catching yourself when you set the sails of your life the wrong way. In other words. If you say, I'm going to learn all this knowledge so that I can control my life, I see these videos that pop up all the time on Facebook or YouTube. You'll see a video and it's, here's the three, the three tricks. The three secrets. If you just learn these, then uh, you can invest in the stock market and be a millionaire by three years from now. And you like, man, that seems pretty good. And I'm sure some people do. And I'm also sure others lose everything they put into it.

Not that I'm saying investment is a bad thing, but I am saying if you look at it like, here's the three tips where I can control my life. I've got it figured out. You're likely to find out that doesn't work.

So when you set your sails and you say, oh, I'm gonna know enough to control what happens in my life, catch yourself. That's empty, that's fleeting instead. Say, okay, God knows enough to provide for me and he's good. So I want to know what does he have for me to know? How can I walk wisely now? And you say, I don't know what's gonna come in 10 years. No, you don't. So instead of setting your sail where that's your hope, you go but God knows. Knowledge isn't bad. How it's turned matters.

Or when you say, I'm going to have enough fun in life, I'm gonna find enough joy to make life lastingly meaningful. We see this all the time, by the way, this is the whole idea of you go out as a young adult and you go, you know, sow your wild oats, you go, I'm gonna go have enough joy and enough fun. And I think most of the time we don't finish that sentence. So that I can just not worry about it the rest of life so that I have enough joy that I don't need to have any other joy. That's not gonna work. We know it if we stop, but we don't tend to stop. So practice catching yourself. Where am I looking to joy to say, yeah, my life has value because I get this joy versus saying, I may not have the joy I want in this life, but God promises joy at his right hand forevermore. Psalm 16.

When you think my productivity and my achievement, that's what's gonna make my life really valuable. Catch yourself. I'm setting the sail the wrong way. Come back and say, no, actually I will never be productive enough to give my life that kind of meaning. Instead, Ephesians two says, God has prepared good works for you to walk in them. See those good works don't seem big enough to give my life lasting meaning. Good thing they don't have to, but they're good 'cause your God has given them to you. Practice catching yourself.

Finding True Joy

Jed Gillis: Solomon has really described two ways of living. He says, you can set your sails. Such that you think, I am the center of my world and I control what happens and I guarantee my meaning.

Or you can have a view of the world centered on God as the one who gives. Let's read the rest of this. I thought about pausing right here, by the way, and stopping until next week, and I decided that would be mean. So we have to get to the part about joy.

Verse 24. I don't think he's being cynical. Solomon says, there's nothing better. This is the best thing. There's nothing better for 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, it's given by 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, but to the sinner, he has given the business of gathering and collecting only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Now Solomon doesn't give you the whole description yet. He gives you a hint. This is kind of like if you are, uh, in the rescue dive. He comes into the cave and he says, you gotta come with me into this, you know, dark, wet, scary place. And you go and you go with him. And then it's like you get partway through and he gives you, uh, a chance to pop your head up in a little air pocket.

He says there's something better coming. We're not all the way there yet. We gotta go a little further in Ecclesiastes before we get there. But he gives you this gasp of air so that you don't get totally stuck in a hated life and says, look, this is what God wants for you. God is good. And he gives. So he says, eat and drink and enjoy what God gives.

This isn't, by the way, the same thing as a secular version of seize the day or carpe diem, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow, we die. That's not what he's saying because his point isn't, we don't know what comes after life and death so get all the joy you can now. His point instead is God gives the joys you can have now.

So instead of eat, drinking and be married for tomorrow, we die. He's saying, you can't control tomorrow. So enjoy the good gifts of a God who loves you. He's saying, this is a worshipful response to the God who created you and gave you these things, not a despairing kind of, well, who knows what happens. So get what I can now. It's not greedy. It's God has given this. So enjoy it. Because God as the one who gives, not only gives circumstances, but he gives enjoyment or satisfaction.

It's like, uh, one author said this. He said, you can collect all the toys you want, but God gives the batteries. It's a good way to put it. And this difference between centering my life around how can I grab and control and guarantee what I want versus how can I sit as a loved child of God who gives me good things.

That fundamental difference. That's the difference between verse 26, the one who pleases him literally as the the one who is good in his sight. The same kind of good Solomon's been searching for. He wants the good life. And here he says, well, the one who has good is the one who recognizes God gifts. That's the fundamental difference in this orientation. The one who is good.

Notice what he says, the one who pleases him, God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy. You're like, wait a minute, Solomon. I thought wisdom and joy weren't supposed to help me, but that's not what he's been saying. What he's been saying is wisdom and joy used the wrong way don't help you. Wisdom and joy that says, I am going to control my life. That doesn't help you at all. It's frustrating. But God gives wisdom and joy.

So we come to God. It's like turning the sails. When I look at knowledge, when I look at joy, what am I hoping for? I'm hoping that the God who loves me has given them to me. That's what I rest in. And the opposite describes as to the sinner. Literally the one who misses, the one who misses the mark or maybe misses the point. In this text as well to the one who misses God has given something else, not knowledge and wisdom and joy to be enjoyed. Right? But instead this business of gathering and collecting.

You know, we do this in our world too often. We describe our world as a consumer society, but we're actually worse than that. I think we're a collector society. Like we gather, we don't really consume it. We say, oh, I need, I need a new shirt. So we go buy a new shirt and we enjoy it two or three times, but most of the time you don't really wear it all the way out before you think I kind of need another one. We don't really consume, we actually just kind of gather and collect often as a society.

And that's what he's pointing you to. He's saying, look for the person who's oriented correctly to God, you have a million good gifts to enjoy. You say, well, that doesn't give me control of my life. No, it doesn't, but you can enjoy them. And for the one who's not oriented towards God, but trying to control life themselves and grasp that it's this frustrating business of collecting more and collecting more and collecting more, and finding out that it never does what you wanted it to do. That's Solomon's conclusion.

We Are Part Way Through the Rescue Dive

Jed Gillis: Now there's more to come. We're part way through the rescue dive. But realize that actually if you read through, if you look at the words in Ecclesiastes, Solomon talks more about joy than he does vanity. That's because he is leading you to say, here's a bunch of frustrating things, but here's the real joy. He's leading you through darkness. Through despair to something better.

Grow in Knowledge and Trust

Jed Gillis: So I wanted to ask you this morning, think about the ways you take knowledge and joy and productivity and the way you, you turn your sail to try and reach the horizon of the good life.

When you try to learn something. Maybe formally through education or or job training, maybe through reading or self-improvement tips or business tips or YouTube videos, wherever you find it. When you say, I want to learn something, why do you want to learn it? Do you want to learn it so that you're guaranteed a certain outcome? If so, you need to recognize that and say, I'm not God. I don't know that outcome.

Sometimes we're actually well informed about a decision and we still feel really anxious. So ask yourself this question. Am I using knowledge to trust God or to replace him? 'Cause most of the time I'm anxious 'cause I'm trying to replace God. I don't want God to be in control of what happens. I want to know. I'm using knowledge turned the wrong way. I will find frustration over and over and over again.

So instead of saying, how do I grasp control, go to God and say, God, you know far more than I'll ever know. No matter how much education you ever get, God knows vastly more than you do. So as the New Testament says, don't approach life as if you know exactly what will happen. Instead, say, if the Lord wills, I'm gonna go do this and make a profit. I'm gonna pursue this because this is the right way to receive knowledge as a gift from God, not the way to control my outcomes through what I know.

Life isn't about knowing all the outcomes. It's about knowing the God who gives true knowledge. So know what he loves, and know what he hates, and live that way.

Find Joy in God

Jed Gillis: Think about how you use joy. Think about the things you pursue for pleasure in your life. How many of them genuinely refresh you and how many of them are just numbing? We live in a world where there's plenty of things you can go look for. The internet gives us the illusion that I can consume and consume and consume and consume and never run out. But do we actually find refreshment and joy and pleasure, or do we just get more numb?

I want to encourage you, God wants you if you are a follower of Jesus. If you're one of his people, he wants you to have joy. Now. Later, yes, but now. God's a giver. He likes to give joy to his people. Pursue joy in the things you know God loves. Pursue joy in his word.

When you read the Bible. Don't just read the Bible to say, okay, what do I need to make sure that I don't do? Read the Bible to go find joy in the God who gave it to you. Spend time with him in prayer to say, I'm pursuing joy with the God who loves me, the God who gives. I'm pursuing joy with other believers when we fellowship. We don't do that just to go, well, I guess I have to. No, God's a giver who loves to give you joy, so find joy in the things that he says you should find joy in.

Pursue joy in the creation that declares his glory. When you walk out and you see a sunrise. The Christian ought not just think, oh, that feels good. I like the way it looks. The Christian ought think, look at that signpost to the glory of my God. And somebody comes along like, really? Yeah. 'cause God gives things and he gave me this smile at this moment because the sunrise is beautiful. Take knowledge and joy and use them to pursue the God who loves you.

God wants you to enjoy his gifts. It's not a badge of honor to not enjoy the gifts from your creator. In fact, I'd actually say it's dishonoring to your creator to not enjoy his good gifts. Now, we could abuse his gifts and we could go through all that, right? But to use the gifts that God has given the joy there, and to find joy in it is exactly what he made you to do.

Honor God in Your Success

Jed Gillis: Last. Think about your productivity or your achievement or your success.

Are you trying to enjoy what God gives you or are you trying to create your own paradise? Are you trying to control these things? When you have a major accomplishment, does it fade faster than you thought it would? Swim with Solomon and say, yes, it's always going to be fleeting. It can't bear that kind of weight.

So instead, think about in all the things that you do, whatever you do, do it heartily not unto men, as unto the Lord God, you've given me this task. It's set right before me and I wanna pursue it. God, you've given me good works that you've prepared for me. I might not accomplish the job promotion I wanted. I might not get the house I wanted. I might not have the vacation home. I might not have the car. I might not have all of these different like status symbols. But every one of us, if you are a believer in Jesus, God has prepared good works for you today. So walk in them. Those don't feel big enough. That's okay. God's big enough. And this life isn't all there is.

Solomon drives us to find joy in the God who gives us good things. And when we feel despair, many times the answer really is found in, in Colossians three, set your mind on things above. This life Isn't everything.

A secular way of saying seize the day, says, eat, drink, be merry, because you don't know if anything else will come. But God looks at Christians and says, eat and drink and enjoy because there's more to come. So I'll invite you to pursue joy in your God who loves to give.

Let's bow our heads. Let's ask God for his help. I'll invite you just to pray and respond to God for a few moments, and then we'll pray and sing together.