One of the things that we want to happen during this time, by the way, before I get to that, we're excited at the crowd that's here. We're excited that you're here. We're glad that you're here. We appreciate you coming and we hope that the Lord will bless your time here. We know that you're going to have fun and we want you to have fun. A lot of times we can get carried away and make it sound like we don't want you to smile or do anything that you enjoy as long as you listen and hear what we say. But we want you to have a good time, but we want you to have more than that. We want you to learn and to be able to use the information that you learn in your life. And so as we just start out this thing, one thing that I thought about this morning, for myself and for you, as you listen to anything, as you do anything, as you think about anything, is that one of the most important questions you can ever ask yourself about anything at all is why. Why? Why do I do this? Why do I do that? Why should I accept this view over this view? Why do I do the things that I do? Why do I like the things that I like? I just got finished last year with a a program in counseling. And whenever you're kind of trained to be a counselor, they teach you about all these different questions that you should and you should not ask. And I thought it was kind of curious that one question you never ask, or at least one word that you never use as far as a secular counselor goes, is you never ask anybody why, because it makes them defensive. And the reason it makes folks defensive is because sometimes the truth hurts. All right. That's one reason we avoid that question. We don't want to ask why, because we don't really want to face reality. And so I just want to encourage you not to be that way. As you hear some of these things, some of them you're going to you know, some is not going to be difficult for you to embrace. Some of them may be. And if they are, just ask yourself why. Two things I want to say other than that, and then we're going to let Brother Isaac come. But the first one is that everything that we talk about every subject that we approach is going to be based on what the Bible says about that, because we believe that the Bible is God's word and it's not just. a book that we use to get up and preach a good message on Sunday and take off. But it's a book that we live by. And so we're hoping that as you are here and as really as you've lived under the sound of the gospel and in your churches, that you're learning to use the Bible in your everyday life. And then the second thing we want you to know is that nothing that we tell you or teach you here will do you any good unless you're committed to obeying God and obeying God's word. So a lot of people have a difficult time believing that Christianity actually works because they've never seen it work in their own life. And usually the reason is because they've never actually tried it. So we want you to learn it and then we want you to go home and try it and obey God. So here's Brother Isaac. He wanted me to do a fancy intro for him. So he's the author of various articles, been published by Ripley Cronin Baptist Church. And here he is. Yes, let me pray. Father, we thank you for For just being God, Lord, for revealing yourself to us, for blessing us with truth, blessing us with the ability to ask ourselves why, and then realign our thoughts with your wisdom. We do pray for those who are here today, pray for ourselves, Lord, everyone here, that we would grow in our obedience to you, our love to you. that we would continue to buy in more and more to the truth of your gospel, the truth of your word as you reveal yourself to us and that we would willfully and joyfully submit in in understanding and in our lives. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, it's great to be with you today. I'm a little bit nervous. I don't picture this big a group all the time. It's great to see you guys. And you may notice in your schedule that I'm taking the first two topics. The first one is, is life vain? The answer is yes. The second one is, is life vain? And the answer is no. And so I'm not going to change clothes and come back in a different way. We're going to try to answer those questions and see what we're talking about. I want to encourage you to take notes. That's why we have the notebook paper. We have plenty of paper available for you when you have filled up your notebook. Please don't just use it for drawing and notes to each other. Please use it to jot down things that we say, that you may go home and think about these things and consider them. and apply them to your lives. I'm going to ask you to write down certain specific things as we move forward. Now, this whole two days, this retreat, is kind of loosely based on the book of Ecclesiastes, a book written by King Solomon later in his life. But before we start, I want you to take your notebook paper out, and I want you just to dream for a moment, OK? Just dream. This is not a test. You won't be asked to stand up and read these things. I just wanted you to dream, and if you could have anything or do anything, what do you want out of life? Answer that question, OK? If there were no limits, or maybe the limits are just fine with you, but just answer that question. What do you want out of life? What would you like to be? Or what would you like to do? Or what do you think would give you a very satisfying life, OK? Just take a minute and write that down. Since Louis loves awkward silence, I'm going to try to be quiet for a minute. And secondly, write down this, what will it take? What do you think it will take to get what you want? OK, what will it take to get what you want? What will it take to get what you want? You've written down something that you would like to have in life. You would like to do in life. What will it take to get that? OK. You can keep writing while I'm talking. But let me just say this. I'm very confident that although I don't know what you wrote down individually, I'm very confident that each answer, each answer from each person had something to do with the idea of happiness. OK, I don't think that anybody wrote anything down. I want to do this because it would make me unhappy or it will be a wasteful life somewhere, probably very prominently. In fact, probably the main idea behind what you wrote down had something to do with happiness. And that's that's natural. That's good. I hope that's what you wrote down. If you didn't, we have counselors available. OK. Now, I want to tell you three things we want to do. Right along with what Bill Lewis said a minute ago. Three things I want out of this session today, OK? First of all, we want you to think. Write that down. We want you to think. OK? Secondly, we're going to be real honest about this. We want to shape your philosophies about life. You've written something down about what you want out of life, and we're hoping to reshape what you want out of life. And if we had a theme verse, I'll write this down. It's Psalm 119. Please don't make fun of this in my writing. I'll write it neatly. Psalm 119, verse 133. Psalm 119, verse 133. And that verse says this, Order my steps in thy word. Let's say that together. Order my steps in thy word. Let's say it slower. Order my steps in thy word. And the next phrase is, And let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. So we want to be up front about this. We want to shape your philosophy. We want to help you order your steps according to the word of God. OK, the third thing that we want to say is this. We're praying for. We want you. We want you to understand what is happening to you with you right now. OK, we want you to understand what is happening with you right now. And I'm just going to tell you right now. You are shaping your philosophies about life. Right now, you are forming your belief system, OK? And everything you do for the rest of your life will arise out of that belief system that you're shaping right now. You're forming right now. And that's why we want to have this team retreat. Let me say it again. Right now, you're shaping your philosophies on life. You're forming your belief system. And everything you do for the rest of your life will arise out of that belief system. Now, one more point about this, this is something that we don't always realize. Everything that you take in. Everything you take in. Has a role in forming this belief system, OK? I was with a group of guys, I don't want to embarrass one of the group of guys, recently. We were traveling, we were seeing some different things and it seemed like the word awesome was used a whole lot. And I remember using the word awesome a whole lot in my younger days. My mother is rolling her eyes right now because many times she said, stop saying awesome. But everybody was saying, this is awesome, man, that's awesome, this is awesome, this is awesome. And here's what I want to say about that. Everything that you say awesome about is a part of forming your belief system. OK. So let's go over that again. Right now, you're forming your belief system about life. Everything you do for the rest of your life will come out of this belief system you're forming right now. And everything you take in has a role as a part in forming that system. Now, why is this so important? Why do we ask you all to come and gather here for these two days and put out a lot of time and expense, candy and labor and probably sleepless nights tonight? Why is this? Why is it so important? The truth of the matter is this, if you form the wrong conclusions as you're building your belief system right now, if you form the wrong conclusions about what life is about, about what's important in life, what matters in life, if you form the wrong conclusions. Well, we could say at least a lot of things, but let's just say it real plainly. At the end of your life, you will realize that you have lived a wasted life. OK, you see, the truth is we don't get a bunch of chances at this. We heard the phrase the cats have nine lives and that's not true, but it's certainly not true of humans. OK, we have one life, one life. It's a gift from God. It's his gift to us, but we only have one life. So we don't have a lot of chances to do do overs. It just doesn't happen. It happens in the movies, but it doesn't happen in real life. And if you form the wrong conclusions about what matters in life, what do I want to get out of life, what is important in life, and what will it take to get that out of life, if you form the wrong conclusions, you get to the end of your life and you realize, I have lived a wasted life. And so my topic today is from Ecclesiastes 1 and 2, and it is the question, is life vain? And the qualified answer is yes. OK, now we're qualifying that answer because we're going to spend the next 45 minutes saying, no, life is not vain. But in a very real sense, it's very true that life is vain. There's no purpose. There's no meaning. There's no satisfaction. There's no happiness. In other words, whatever you wrote down, What do I want out of life? And you get the idea of happiness somewhere rooted probably in there. In a very real sense, if you get whatever you wrote down, it won't bring you happiness. OK, so it's vain. What's the point? Right. So. I want to tell you, first of all, whose. Whose opinion we're listening to today or whose writings we're looking at today, We're looking at Solomon, OK? And probably all of y'all have some understanding of who Solomon was. Let me just tell you three things about Solomon. First of all, Solomon, he was a king of Israel. The first thing you need to know about Solomon was that he was known for wisdom, OK? So in other words, he didn't get to the end of his life and say, if only I had known If only I had had the foundation of knowledge to make certain decisions. He was known for his wisdom. God gave him an extraordinary measure of wisdom early in his life. Number two, his reign was marked by the peace that he enjoyed. So there wasn't a lot of conflict. There weren't a lot of circumstances that were invading his life to cause him to not be able to reach happiness or reach fulfillment, OK? His reign was marked by peace. And thirdly, Solomon is known for his great prosperity. Solomon had great wealth. So he had a peaceful life. He had great wealth. He had great wisdom. Now Solomon writes this book towards the end of his life. And I want you to write down three things about Solomon's perspective in writing this book, because you'll never you'll never understand what he's getting at unless you understand where he's coming from. Write these down. First of all, Solomon's an old man now, OK? He's already lived life. He's an old man. He's looking back on life. And the truth of the matter is Solomon in this writing is driven by disillusioned minds. OK, he's disillusioned. Somebody spell that for us. Any volunteers? JJ? Nope. Somebody else? D-I-S-I-L-L-U-S-I-O-N-E-D. That was close, right? Y'all wouldn't know if it was close or not. Solomon was driven by disillusioned minds. He had gotten to the end of his life, and he says, I've lived a wasted life, OK? Secondly, Solomon had deep sympathy for those who were in the same path. Right? He's lived a wasted life. He's got great sympathy for those who are in the same path. And thirdly, he had a great desire to help young people have clear understanding about life. That's clear from Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Solomon wants you to have a clear understanding about the realities of life. OK? In Solomon's conclusion in chapter 1 and chapter 2 and really throughout the book. I'm going to look at chapter 1 and chapter 2 for a few minutes. Solomon's conclusion about life is that life is vain. And what he does in chapters 1 and 2 is he begins to list a series of things that he had pursued in life. Perhaps some of these things are things that are on your list that you wrote down today. And I want you to see, first of all, that not all these things are bad. These are not just bad, evil things that Solomon pursued. Let's read a few of these things that he writes down. First of all, in verse 2, he starts off in a pretty depressing way. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Vanity just means it's unsatisfying. It's meaningless. It's like vapor. There's no worth. There's no meaning. And then he says in verse 3, What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun? What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under his sun? So what's the first thing he says? It's vain. He says a life that's lived just for, well, let's put it this way, careers. career work. Now, maybe that's far removed from some of your minds. Maybe you hate work, OK? But as you grow older, some of you right now are in college, starting college, and you're driven by the career path that you would choose, that seems interesting to you, that seems like something that would be valuable to you. And I'm going to tell you that many, many men, especially, After they get through with college or get through with whatever they're doing to prepare for a career, they invest all of their life into their career. They invest their life, they invest their thoughts, they may have families, but their minds are tied up, their minds are consumed with their career. There's different reasons for this. They think they can find fulfillment, satisfaction in work or in what work can provide. They look at, perhaps I can elevate myself and start off low and rise to some prominent position in the company or there's some goal they set. And in their minds, they believe that if I can reach the goal I set in career, that I will find fulfillment. This is not only true of men, it's also true of women. Years ago, I don't know when this exactly first started, but the idea began to be promoted that God's way of a wife being a cheaper home and and being to help me for a husband was was not very advantageous or very desirable. And so the big push was made that that fulfillment, satisfaction can be found if we can go out and find a career that will bring us satisfaction, fulfillment. Well, a few years of that having occurred show something far different. You can read the studies and see that there is not fulfillment. There's a great degree of stress in people who are trying to juggle family and home and people who thought they would find their fulfillment or success in career or work. It just didn't happen. Now, listen, you haven't started this path yet. And so you're saying, well, maybe, maybe not. Well, the point of Solomon's writing to you is that you would not have to wait till you're 60 years old and be completely dissatisfied with life after you have lived your life in pursuit of whatever you thought a career would bring you. Solomon writes to teach you right now, you will not find, you will not find satisfaction just out of a career. And a career is a good thing. You have to provide for your family, right? But you won't find satisfaction out of it if you give your whole life for it, if you live your life for it. Let's skip on down. Verse 10. Here's another thing. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see, this is new. It hath been already of old time which was before us. What's the thing here? I'm going to put it down right here. I can spell this. Can you pronounce this? Unique. Unique, right? Is there anything new? Is there anything new? Some people are driven by the desire to be unique. I just want to be different than everybody else, right? I saw some of you guys earlier. Hey, let me see your shoes. No, probably Kyle. Let me see your shoes, Kyle. No, you're wearing regular. But I saw them recently, and they were wearing their high tops. And I'm not making fun. Their high tops were unlaced, right? That's kind of one of the things going on right now. And that seems to be unique, right? But guess what? It's not. That's how I wore my high tops. That's kind of sad to learn, isn't it? You're just like the preacher. You see, we see this in style, right? People desire, want to be just different, want to be different than everybody else, want to be unique. There's a driving, there's a growing number of people who want to be counterculture. Well, eventually, eventually, if you have enough people that are counterculture, you're no longer counterculture, you're part of the culture, right? So there's a driving force to be, I just want to be unique. I want to be different. I don't want to be my life to be different. He says, what does he say? He says there is nothing new. It has already been of old time, which is before us. And so if you're driven by desire to be unique, I hate to burst your bubble, but you're not unique. OK. Verse 11, there is no remembrance of former things, neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. What is this? I just want to be memorable. I want to stand out. I want to stand out. I want to be a star. This was one of my driving goals in life. I would never admit it to anybody, but I wanted to stand out. I remember as a child during the different sports seasons, playing out in my backyard. And if it was football season, I'd be out there by myself. And I was always in another world. And in the world that I was in, in my mind, it was hard for me to decide whether I wanted to be the quarterback throwing the touchdown pass or the receiver catching the touchdown pass. And so I would always be both. I would throw it up in the air. I would run under it. And I would transform in my mind in different times. Some days, it would be more memorable to be the quarterback. And some days, to be able to dive in the end zone and the crowd cheering you, the people hitting you on the helmet. In basketball season, I was always hitting the last hit shot to win the national championship for the Memphis Tigers. But the driving idea behind my mind, I want to stand out. I want to be a star. I want people to know me. We have some athletes here today. And the idea, if I could ever make it and stand out, I would succeed. Then I would be fulfilled. The truth of the matter, number one, is very few, what are the percentages of athletes who give their lives to athletics, who actually end up making a career out of it. It's minuscule. Number two, though, those athletes who do make the career out of it, the number of people who are stable amongst them is also minuscule, minuscule. And the third truth is, is that none of them find their fulfillment or joy and satisfaction, happiness out of standing out. I remember as I grew older, I knew I wouldn't be a quarterback or a wide receiver or a point guard or whatever else. And so I just wanted to stand out in some way. I was desperate for attention. I remember, Jerry probably remembers this, I remember at Camp Moriah on Friday night, I wasn't getting enough attention. All the attention was going to Dustin Huffman. And so I decided that it would be a good idea to get into a contest with Joseph Latimer. And we were going to stand in front of all the girls. We were really cool and really awesome. What we were going to do was, we were going to see if we could chill. You know what a killing is, right? to drink the whole thing without breathing, we were going to kill a two liter of Dr. Pepper. And so we killed it and then we threw up all over the ground and all the girls were running down the other direction. Found on that night there really is no permanent or even temporary joy that's really lasting out of standing out. OK, so that won't happen. Now, verse 12 says Solomon, if anybody, Solomon had the advantage over us, if anybody would or could find this satisfaction, if anybody would or could find this joy, if anybody could find fulfillment out of this. It would be Solomon, because not only was he the wise one, he was also king. There was nothing that he could not attain, that he could not get, that he desired, OK? He was the preacher who was also the king over Israel and Jerusalem. It says in verse 13, I gave my heart to seek and search out my wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. The sword to avail hath God given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit." You're going to see this phrase repeated a lot in this book. All is vanity and vexation of spirit. And you know what that phrase, vexation of spirit, means? We've only looked at three things and Solomon said, I could go ahead and list everything under the sun. And everything under the sun you're going to find, no matter what you wrote down on your list, if it was not God-centered, everything under the sun you're going to find vanity and vexation of spirit. And you know what vexation of spirit means? It literally means, it means to strive or to grasp after wind. Y'all want to try that for a recreation? Let's spend our recreation period grasping after wind. Who's up for that? Who thinks she'll be successful? You would, Mark. Think about that picture. Sometimes we torture Asher. Asher's a little six-month-old baby. Not torture, literally, but it's just kind of funny to watch Asher. You put some object on the ground, like a water bottle on the ground, and he can't quite crawl yet. He can do the little bear crawl. And you put it on the ground, and we have a little rug in one of our rooms. You put it on the rug, and you watch him go around the rug again and again and again, trying to grasp the water bottle. And he never can get it. And he gets more and more frustrated. And eventually he just starts bawling and angry. And he tries and he tries and he tries. And he'll never stop trying, crying, miserable, going crazy. But he won't stop trying, going after the water bottle. And he can never grasp it. So finally we feel bad about ourselves. We stop laughing. We go pick him up. And we console him. And we put the water bottle in his hand. It's kind of the same picture. He says it's vexation spirit. You're grasping after wind. You never will catch wind. And the longer you go after wind, the more and the more and the more frustrating it will be. And you'll get to the very end of your life and you'll have spent your whole life, even all your energy grasping after wind. And you look at your life and there's nothing in your hands. That's what he's saying. OK. Grasping after wind. Why? Because that which is crooked cannot be made straight. If you have an incomplete recipe or an imperfect recipe, you will not be able to make the cake you want to make. That which is crooked cannot be made straight, no matter how much you try. If you don't have eggs, it's not going to make a good cake. All right. And that which is wanting cannot be numbered. So he said, I commune with my heart. What time did I start, Louis, do you know? OK, I commune with my heart. Saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had a great experience of wisdom and knowledge, and I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceive that this is also vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow. Isn't that kind of shocking? Someone said, I also gave my life after wisdom. And after knowledge and in the pursuit of wisdom and the pursuit of knowledge, that seems as good as anything on this list, as virtuous as anything we might see on this list. I'm going to live my life to pursue knowledge. I want to know as much as I can. I'm going to learn as much as I can. And he says, even in knowledge. I found vexation of spirit. I did not find happiness simply in knowledge. I did not find happiness simply in understanding how life works and being wise about life. I did not find happiness there. All I found was I was still grasping after winds. OK, let's keep reading. Then he says in chapter two, verse one, I said in my heart, go to now. I will prove thee with mirth. and therefore enjoy pleasure. Behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, it is mad and of mirth, what doeth it?" What's he saying here? He's saying, I gave my life to pursue pleasure. Life has got so many hard things. I can just pursue pleasure, just pursue laughter. Silliness. I can just put off, put away the hard things of life and just lose myself in having fun. Have you ever said that? Perhaps that's something on your paper today or in your heart today. What do you want out of life? Well, really, I just want to have fun. OK. Many, many, many, many people live their lives for that purpose. Really, there is no purpose there. I just want to have fun. So whatever comes by, if it's fun, we'll do it. If it seems fun, we'll try it. Whatever that may be. If it seems like fun, why not? And Solomon says, I live my life for fun. I live my life for pleasure. I'm not going to try to put any definition on that. What do you think is fun? Don't answer that question. What do you think is fun? What's fun to you? What seems fun to you? As you grow older, do more things that aren't accessible to you right now seem like fun? You say, as soon as I get out of my parents' house, as soon as I get out of this situation, as soon as I get to college, I'm going to pursue fun. That's one big deal when people go to college. The idea is, yeah, I'm going to school, but what I'm really going to pursue, I'm going to pursue fun. Let's just have fun. So they move away from serious thoughts. He says maybe they can move away from all these serious thoughts about life. And in life, in finding pleasure, I'll have fun and then I'll have joy. I'll have happiness. It won't be vain. Verse 3, he says this, I salt my heart to give myself into wine. Now, the truth of the matter is, You go to the Internet and you look up how many young people your ages are either already experimenting with substances like alcohol or drugs or are regularly imbibing alcohol and drugs. And the numbers are staggering. There's really two reasons why this happens. One, is because it seems like fun. Right? I want to feel good. I want to feel more powerful. I want to feel more funny. I want to feel more outgoing. It's fun. What people do is fun. The second reason is because there's pain in life. I just want to bury my pain. Solomon says, I salten my heart to give myself to wine. It didn't work. It was vanity. I ended up with a wasted life. Verse 4 kind of changes the subject now or changes the pursuit. Listen to verse 4. I made me great works. I built in me houses. I planted vineyards. I made gardens and orchards. I planted trees of all kinds of fruits. I made pools of water to water there with the wood that brings forth trees. I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house. Also, I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me. I gathered silver and gold and peculiar treasures of kings and provinces. I got men singers and women singers and the likes of the sons of men as musical instruments and that of all sorts. So I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion of my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labor that I labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." So there are several things that he mentions here, but they're all under the category of wealth. Wealth. OK? Many, many people have the idea, adults, that if I could just have enough wealth, if I could just have enough money, but you just can't have it. None of us will ever, I don't think, will ever achieve the wealth that Solomon had. How many people here have live-in servants? And your sisters don't count, but boys. How many? None, right? Can you really imagine having that? I have men servants and maid servants. In fact, I had anything my mind wanted. I had vineyards, I had orchards. Can you see this progression, y'all? Solomon is in a desperate pursuit of happiness. He's in a desperate pursuit. Listen to what he's on. Career. Be unique. Be memorable. Be wealthy. Be wise. Have knowledge. Pleasure in life. I mean, there's not very many things left on the list, are there, in life? These all could be subdivided into smaller categories, but it's just about everything right there, right? Is there anything else in life? He didn't mention prison. That's probably not going to give him his goal, is it? He said, in wealth, if I have enough money, enough things, then I'll find happiness. And the truth of the matter is that some of you believe that. It's just true. I had a little bigger allowance. I could buy that. I could have that car. You ever thought that? We had the game on the way to Georgia. What car is your favorite car? Man, they had some wild ones. Some of them were pretty cool. Some of them were pretty reasonable. You might get it. But what if you did get it? What would that bring you? Ultimately, would it bring you happiness by itself? The answer, of course, is no. Let's look at a few more things he mentions here in this section I just read. Verse 8. I gather me silver and gold and the peculiar treasures of kings and prince provinces. I get me men singers and women singers and the delights of the sons of men as musical instruments and that of all sorts." What is this? Solomon said, you know what? I'm just going to pursue entertainment. I'm going to entertain myself. If I can entertain myself, maybe I can push away the sad thoughts, push away the depressing thoughts, and then I'll find happiness. Listen, this is one of the biggest, the biggest. Listen right now. I can almost guarantee you that almost every one of you has a wrong idea about what entertainment will bring you. How many hours do you pursue playing video games? OK? How many hours do you listen to music on whatever device you have? OK? Why? Because it's fun. Because it passes the time. Because it makes life meaningful. Remember what we said before, the very beginning? Right now you're forming your belief system. Here's where this comes in. Everything you take in. Everything you take in is part of Even if you don't realize it, everything you take in is a part of forming your belief system. Does this matter? It only matters if you form the wrong conclusions. And if you form the wrong conclusions, you get to the end of the life and you say, I have lived a wasted life. Verse 10 talks about him not keeping anything from his eyes that he desired. I'll just put it this way. We'll call this relationships. Solomon was known for pursuing relationships. If he could have just enough companionship, just enough relationships, He thought he would find happiness. I'm not like that. Listen, kids. We live in a culture and our culture is infiltrating your thoughts and minds. Where with a modern ability to communicate through texting, through instant messaging, through Facebook messaging and all the things I don't even know about. But you are pursuing Ungodly without even realizing it, you're forming ungodly belief systems regarding what relationships can do for you. OK. Now, I'm not the authority here, but I'm telling you the idea that girls and guys should have constant, even occasional texting relationships is going to form a belief system in your heart that will have ungodly consequences for sure. Okay? The idea that girls and guys should be best friends is a crazy idea. It won't bring you happiness. It won't bring you joyfulness. And by the way, that's not even the main goal. The main goal is to glorify God, right? Okay? That's where we're going to get to. Well, let's get to the conclusion. Here's the conclusion. Career, wisdom, knowledge, being unique, being memorable, being pleasure, wealth, wine, relationships, entertainment. Is there anything else you want to add to this list? Anybody want to add anything to this list? Plus friends. Friends? Yeah? OK. Anything else? Anybody disagree with anything on this list? Maybe I've termed it wrong. Here's how Solomon concludes. I conclude this message. Verse 17. Therefore, I hated life. Solomon was a wacko. He had a lot of stuff. Why did he hate life? Because life is vain. Life is just grasping at wind. If it's only lived with the idea of how can I be fulfilled? How can I be happy? How can I find satisfaction? And then we pursue those things, pursue that, pursue that goal. With things of this earth. Now, the good news is the next session is life is not vain. But friends, I want to tell you, it is everything we say. It is completely vague. It's useless. It's meaningless. It's the only grasp after wind. This is the kind of life that you envision. What can I have? What can I get? I hated life. Now, let's take a break. We'll come back in a few minutes.