Sometimes we change that last stanza to say instead of 10,000 years, 10 million or 10 trillion or 10 billion, and even after that many years, there's still no less days to sing God's praise than when we had first begun. So thank you for that good singing this evening. Ecclesiastes chapter number two. Ecclesiastes chapter number two. Need to grab the clicker here, and we will resume our study through the book of Ecclesiastes. Looking tonight at Ecclesiastes 2 and verses 1-11 this also is vanity. We know the word vanity occurs many times throughout the book of Ecclesiastes and so it will probably show up in sermon titles quite frequently. But we see once again Solomon really for 11 verses seeing life primarily from a human perspective, primarily looking at life from a secular or a humanistic perspective. That is the dominant view through this section. And so we keep that in mind as we work our way through this passage. I appreciate Derek reading verses four through 11, but let's go to verse number one of Ecclesiastes two. I said in mine heart, go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, Therefore, enjoy pleasure and behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, it is mad and of mirth, what do with it? I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom and to lay hold on folly till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. In order to understand this opening few verses of this paragraph in verses one through 11 of Ecclesiastes two, we have to do a little bit of a word study. First of all, this word mirth, it's a older English word, we don't use it a whole lot. But it's the Hebrew word simcha. Not sure I'm pronouncing that correct. I'm sure it's got more of a guttural sound if you've heard any of the Hebrew language. Recently I've heard a little bit through some of the speeches and messages back and forth regarding the ceasefire agreement, which apparently has been violated. But there's often a way in which these Hebrew words are pronounced that sounds a lot different than how I'm trying to say it tonight. But the word in the original language is the simcha, and it's referring to thoughtful pleasure. It's seeking pleasure, but it's at least seeking it in a more thoughtful, maybe a more moralistic, maybe a more productive type of pleasure. And again, it's not that it's entirely wrong to desire the joys of life and to do so in a thoughtful, productive, mannerly kind of way. So Solomon is saying, okay, there's mirth. There's a way in which we can enjoy life that is a little more thoughtful, a little bit more discerning, a little bit more moralistic, a little bit more productive. And it's used in Numbers 10.10 and Judges 16.23 to refer to the joy of religious festivals. So a good thing. Going to the feast days, going to the various religious events in the Jewish calendar, and there would be joy. There would be an actual time of enjoyment that was part of God's gift. to man. And there are joys in life that even the unsaved, we talk about the rain falling on the just as well as the unjust, the unsaved can see the beauty of God's creation. They can see a baby being born. And there's so many joys that are part of the general grace of God. And in one sense, that's what this word is referring to. It's a pleasure happiness that can come from something that is more productive, more positive, more contributing to the good or to the betterness of mankind. It also is used in Deuteronomy 28 in verse 47 to refer to gratitude in serving the Lord. Now there is a joy in serving the Lord. There was some exhaustion yesterday among several of us. But there was a joy in serving the Lord yesterday. There was a joy in serving the Lord today. Our music team, nursery, I know sometimes they may not experience quite the level of joy in the nursery, but we are thankful for our nursery workers, aren't we? I know sometimes it can be a thankless ministry, but we are very thankful for it. Children's ministries, tearing down, setting up. We joked coming out of college that we never took a class on tear down and set up in church, but it's something that is a vital part of ministry. And there's a lot of things that you don't learn in Bible college and seminary that are just part of ministry. You just learn, but there is joy in serving Jesus. So in one sense, there is in Deuteronomy 28 and verse 47, there is the meaning of this word that refers to the joy that comes from serving the Lord. So again, a thoughtful, a productive joy or happiness. Proclamation of a king. 1 Kings 1 and verse 40. So even in the proclamation of a king, there's usually what, festivities? I mean, even here in America, they make it a huge deal when a president is sworn into office. And there's various ballroom dances and parties and on and on it goes. And that's probably, small compared to some of the festivities that accompany the anointing of a king, the proclamation of a king, maybe returning from battle or from a particular travel, particular time of treaty or whatever, and the king is returning to declare that this particular treaty or whatever victory might have been accomplished. And there's the proclamation, again, of a new king or of a king being anointed. There's great joy in that. There's festivity. So there's a way in which this word mirth, and again, the King James translators used the word mirth because that would have probably been very common and understood by the people because mirth would be something that would relate to these kinds of events, often part of the way in which these events were celebrated, or part of the way in which it was understood that they brought joy and that they brought happiness. So mirth, thoughtful pleasure. But then he also uses another word. And we see there in verse number one, therefore enjoy pleasure, pleasure. This is again, in the Hebrew language, a word I probably am not pronouncing correctly, but tolb or tab, tolb. combined with the word enjoy, rah, which we see there in verse one, it simply refers to that which is perceived to be good. So now Solomon is saying, okay, I made a point to seek after pleasure, mirth, to go about life and enjoy some of the thoughtful pleasures, the more positive, the more contributing to the betterment of society or to just being able to enjoy some of the good things in life that God gives us, whether it be a religious festival or serving the Lord or proclamation of a king. Those are just a few examples that are directly from scripture. But then he goes on to say, there are things that appear to be making us happy, that appear to make us happy, at least on the surface, right? There's a lot of things in life. We are inundated with this today. There is a thousand, 10,000, a million ways in which we are bombarded with advertisements and temptations and all kinds of different ways in which you can be happy. And all you have to do is watch a 30 second commercial. And you know that if you buy that particular product, you're going to be happy for the rest of your life. And depending on what the product is, they sell it with various kinds. Sadly, more and more, we're seeing the products being sold with sensuality and sinful temptations, and you have to be very discerning, even more so, it seems, with commercials than even 10, 15, 20 years ago. And one of the reasons we pay for some subscriptions without ads is because I don't like some of the ways in which the advertisements tempt for a product that has nothing to do with anything sensual or immoral, and yet they use that to try to sell. And so this is something that we're bombarded with, tempted with. We face it all the time. We have screens. Screens galore. And pop-ups and advertisements and junk. There are so many different ways in which there are teases and temptations to just feel and be happy in the slightest or greatest or in the most sensual way that is available for instant gratification many times. So there's this perception of what is good, what would make me happy. He says, I even pursued that. Anything that even could, I could imagine. I don't know what kind of advertisements that he had, but member Solomon was extremely wealthy, so he had a lot available to him at his fingertips. that would not be available to the average person. So it was Solomon saying, pretty much what I perceived that could make me happy, I was going to pursue it. I was going to have opportunity to at least dabble in it a little bit, enjoy it a little bit, see how happy it made me for how long. And then he uses a third word. He goes down in verse number two, and this is, again, some Hebrew poetry and some parallelism, but he actually uses a different word, the word laughter in verse two, sahab in the Hebrew. This is a shallow, superficial happiness. Proverbs 10 in verse 23, it's translated in the King James as it is sports. It is sports for a fool. to commit sin. Sin is a sport. It is a laughter. It is a ha, ha, ha, no big deal. Sin's not that big a deal. It's fun. Let's all enjoy it. There's no consequences. As a matter of fact, that's part of the advertising world today and the temptation today. You can sin and never have any consequences. Sitcoms, movies, not all of them, of course, but many, many, many sitcoms, movies, much of the entertainment industry is built on being able to sell a message that you can sin openly, willingly, and there's no consequences. And so you have, it is sport for a fool to commit sin. Translated laughter here. Ecclesiastes 10 and verse number 19, laughter is basically used to refer to a party, feast, the idea of just having a good time, going out and jamming and drinking and just enjoying all the carousing and all that goes on with the nightclub and the party scene and just living it up, doing the binge drinking, whatever it is that might make one superficially happy to drown out the troubles of the day, to wear off some of the pain and the soreness and the difficulties and to try to ignore it, try to just not even be bothered with the reality of it. It's referred to in Jeremiah 20 in verse number seven as derision. derision of Jeremiah part of his persecution this word is used to refer to the persecution the derision mocking a prophet of God preaching the gospel and he's mocked that's the word here laughed at mocked scorned scoffed at Solomon is saying all three of these this is what I had at my fingertips at my disposal that God in his permissive will, to use that phrase, with the riches and all the access that Solomon had, he decided to live it up. Again, if this was written toward the end of his life, as he had experimented, as we'll get into some of the lists of things that he experimented with, we think of maybe Solomon near the end of his life reflecting back too late for making up the difference because now there is sin in his kingdom that eventually will result in the splitting of the kingdom. His wives had tempted him and he had turned his heart to idols and immorality. And now he's looking at these three areas and he's saying, I sought them all. I sought thoughtful pleasure. I thought I could get at least what I thought was good. and live it up, and then I even went so far as to dive into the most base, shallow, and superficial pleasures and happiness that I could find, described as sport to a fool, a feast, or a sinful party, to just have all the pleasures and the excitement of that which was lustful and sinful, and indulging the flesh, to even the mocking and the scoffing of the things of God. And we see that in our culture. We see people calling entertainment what is blasphemous, giving each other awards on platforms as they blaspheme God, as they mock God, as they mock truth, Christian values, traditional biblical marriage, biblical design, God's creative design for male and female, for gender, mocked and ridiculed. We see this. Solomon says, I tried it all. And he admits in verse number one, I said in my heart, go to now, I will prove thee. That's why the first point on the slide there is test. Solomon was testing his heart. He was allowed by God here as he indulged in all of these areas, he was proving his heart, he was testing his heart. I'm gonna try all these things to see if it brings me satisfaction, if it brings me happiness, if it brings me true joy and fulfillment, I'm gonna try them all and it's gonna test my heart. So then we see the results of this test, the results of this test. We see that he refers to in verse number two, this word laughter is mad, laughter, shallow, superficial happiness. He refers to it as mad. It is mad. The word mad there is from a root, the root word. to that word, mad, means lack of judgment, used in Job 12, verse 17, Ecclesiastes 7, in verse number 7. Over in Ecclesiastes 7, in verse 7, probably just a couple pages away, surely oppression maketh a wise man mad. We see it translated mad again there. It's a lack of judgment. He's saying this superficial, gluttonous desire for happiness in a shallow, superficial, sensual, immoral kind of way often. He says, it is a lack of judgment. It is, can I use the word stupid? It is ridiculous, silly, just totally off the mark. No judgment and no discernment. And he's going to talk about some of the experiments. He is speaking to how people will try to bury the hard realities of life and entertainment, diversions, distractions, and amusements. He had tried to do that. He had made every effort to his disposal with his money and his access and his fame to experiment in all these areas. And we see people, they don't wanna face the realities of life. Life is too hard. There's too many difficulties, and I don't wanna deal with reality. And we live in a virtual world more and more. Dan had a lesson on artificial intelligence. Good lesson, appreciate the lesson this morning and how he kept bringing us back to the foundation of the word of God. It's a tool, but we see how people are abusing this new tool. And one of the ways in which it is being abused is this trying to come up with an alternate reality. Zuckerberg, at one time, I haven't heard much about it lately, but Meta, one of his desires was to turn us all into avatars, where we could come home from reality. And not only is there the alcohol and the drugs and the entertainment and all the other options, but you can turn yourself into an avatar and live in a virtual world. And at one point, I even read an article about a virtual church. You don't have to even step foot out of your home. You can work remotely and then you can get on your virtual worlds and you can become an avatar and you can do any number of things that are only of the imaginations of the thoughts of man's heart. And then you can even attend church virtually. Don't have to deal with any people. You can solve all your problems with A few clicks on a keyboard, the clicks of a mouse, or joystick, or some sort of console, right? Or controller. Escape from reality. He's speaking to this thought that we can somehow avoid the realities of life. where we can just escape into entertainment, diversions, distractions, and amusements. We can live for these, and hopefully it will make life not seem so bad. It might even cause us somehow, some way, at least temporarily to forget the pain, and eventually what does it lead to? Everything from abortion to euthanasia. to mental health crises, which I know there are other contributing factors, but I again believe that much of the mental health crisis is a direct result of sinful activities, sinful thought patterns. Again, not completely, but I begin to wonder, what are we gonna be like? What's our health insurance, our medical insurance gonna look like in 10, 15, 20 years with so many people burning out their bodies with various drugs and alcohol and marijuana and on and on it goes. What's going to be in the medical industry, the lungs, the hearing issues with people living with earbuds in their ears almost 24-7? and the loudness, and I mean, what are we looking at in 15, 20, 30 years? All this gotta have it and pleasure and instant gratification and me and mine and personal autonomy. What's that gonna do even to our physical and mental health? We're already struggling with some mental health crises. People going into the dark world of the web, the worldwide web, the internet, and networking with radical people. to the point that they're willing to assassinate a conservative Christian, openly debating about truth and politics and relevant issues. And we can just point to a few of those, a handful of those obvious headlines, but there's a dark underbelly. as people try to escape from reality and try to drown out life and not deal with sin and the real issues of the heart and the guilt of the soul and have to actually have real authentic relationships, shake people's hands, hug people, talk to people, confront people, make apologies from me to you and you to me, and work things out, and maybe even have to walk away and agree to disagree, but do so with the right agreeable disposition. On and on we can go, but people are trying to escape away from all that and live in some virtual world where it's constant, instant pleasure and gratification all the time. And this whole libertarian idea of freedom, I can do what I want whenever I want with whoever I want, And on and on it goes. I remember what my dad used to say, your freedom ends where my nose begins. We can't live in this molecular atomized culture where we just are in a virtual world and we never have to face realities and relate to one another. We can't function that way. Life doesn't function, it's not the way we were made. So he goes on to say, mirth, even thoughtful pleasure. that which was even productive and positive and to contribute to the betterment of society, or were part of the positive joys of life. He says, again, he's looking at life from a secular, materialistic, humanistic perspective. He says, what do with it? He says, even those things, ultimately, without God, without Christ, without eternal purpose, are vanity. Because Israel began to go to those feasts, those festivals, they would offer the sacrifices, and God would say in the prophets, that I don't want any more of your sacrifices. I don't want any more of your lambs and burnt offerings. He says, I want your heart. It had even gotten to the point where it was just going through the motions, just acting it out with no heart. And we can be guilty of that. going through the Christian life, and just going through the motions. I used to talk about, and I say it sometimes, even going to Bible college and seminary, God would bring me under conviction. Don't live by the props. You have chapel, you have Bible classes, you're preparing sermons, you're writing research papers on biblical topics. You are blessed with all of this Bible training, but God still wanted my heart. much conviction through the years of living by the props, the things that support us, Christian kids living and growing up in Christian homes. Don't ever take that for granted. Be so thankful to God that you get to grow up in a Christian home where mom and dad give you the gospel, they love each other, but you can't live off of mom and dad's graces. Yes, God gives you the overflow of the grace in their lives and praise God for it, but don't despise it. You are not going to be able to live off of mom and dad's blessings and grace. You have to take ownership. You have to make a point to live for God and be thankful, yes, for mom and dad and for church and Bible preaching church and for people who have contributed to your life in a godly way. But you still have to take ownership. You still have to live by biblical conviction, biblical principles from the heart. We all do. And we all are faced with the temptation to try to get away from it all. Have it your way. And to, yes, enjoy even the thoughtful pleasures, but to try to do so without God and to live a practical atheism. Mirth can achieve maybe a little better life, maybe a little more prosperity, maybe a little less heartache and trouble, but in the end, neither the thoughtless or the thoughtful pleasures. Or the giddy happiness that we use to describe that word pleasure. None of those are satisfying without God, without Christ, without eternal purpose. So that brings us to the list. Solomon actually kind of goes through a list and he begins to talk about all the things he tried, all the experiments. Derek read verses four through 11. I won't reread those for sake of time, but we'll kind of hop, skip and jump our way through. He talks about wine. He, Tried alcohol, he tried drunkenness and inebriation. We see where that goes, even people who would not be considered alcoholics. They often will, when you really get down to it and you get them to admit to it, they've had a night or two or three or four or five or several times in their lives where they've become inebriated and they've cussed out a wife, they've thrown something across the room, they've committed an act of immorality and a lack of judgment. Because of the inebriation, it's very, very, very common for alcohol to be involved in acts of immorality. The world knows it. They admit it. You don't have to go very far. You can read articles. You can pick up a book, a biography, and people will come out, and they'll admit, yeah, we got this far, and then the alcohol took over. Well, the alcohol was affecting your judgment from the very first drink. I remember a couple that she got pregnant out of wedlock and we were counseling, Pastor Arrowood was working with them, and the dad of the girl went after the guy, took him to court, paternity testing, sued him, all the things he could do, and one of the things that they were trying to get him on was rape. And you know what they brought up? In the courtroom. Can you imagine having to talk about this in front of everybody? How many beers did you have? How much alcohol did you participate in? Because what was the dad trying to do? He was trying to get the guy, and if there was alcohol involved, then she couldn't consent. So now he is guilty of rape, and then he's going to prison. Now, they couldn't prove it. They couldn't get to the point where he could be prosecuted for it, and charges eventually were dropped. But I thought, you know, and I tried to give some warning to some young men through that time and explain, you see? You think, oh, it's just a couple of beers, just a couple of drinks, no big deal. And then all of a sudden, she's pregnant, or she's coming to your house, or the lawyers are coming after you with charges of rape. Well, how can she consent when she was under the influence? I'm sorry to talk about this. I'm trying to be discreet. I know we have young people here. But Solomon tried the wine, the alcohol. He said, nope, didn't work. I was listening to a podcast and a man from a rescue mission, a director of a rescue mission, he said, I deal with these people all the time. He said, I can't think of one good thing that comes from alcohol. He says, I just see the carnage of lives. Then you add in the drugs and everything else. He talked about practical wisdom. He said, yeah, I had knowledge. I had facts. I had, I had good access to lots of knowledge, probably the best books and libraries. And of course he had the word of God, but he was trying to manipulate and do things in life without really taking too much from the word of God, but trying to stay maybe a little bit out of trouble, whatever. And he was still a King, he had responsibilities. And then his wives began to tempt his heart and he was, trying all these different experiments, and yes, he said I had some knowledge, some practical knowledge, but even that didn't satisfy, even that didn't get me everything I thought I wanted and thought would make me happy. He says I just went right into foolishness, he talks about here in verses four through 11. He said I just tried plain old folly, just, I don't know, he didn't have TikTok back then, but some of the TikTok challenges, eating laundry detergent pods, Whoops, I forget what the one was for a while there, where they were like lying down on the top of cars. There was another one just recently that came out where people were riding on – they were like surfing on trailers behind – being pulled behind vehicles. So you're surfing on a trailer being pulled by a vehicle at high rates of speed, and people were getting thrown off and dying and getting severely injured. But it was cool. It was fun. It was rad. You know, all the things they say, right? Okay. Really? Foolishness. Just silly, just playing again. I'm sorry, I know we have young people here, you don't like to use the word stupid, but just stupid, right? Just dumb things. For the kids here, don't call people stupid, okay? Pastor Floyd's trying to use that word in an appropriate way tonight, okay? But he said, I tried following, he even said, I built things, great works. This is a example of one of the pillars of the second temple. And of course, Solomon would be involved in building the temple, right? And that would be eventually something that we believe is referenced to in chapter five, verses one through seven. Houses, building, I mean, he had the ability and the money and the resources to build great buildings, and we see this today. Build buildings. Edifices with people's names on it, and on and on. We see this in lots of different wealthy people who love to build buildings and put their names on it. And this is a sign of my greatness and my achievements. He talks about vineyards. And if you've ever been out to California I mean, there's some beautiful in wine country. I know much of that is used for the wrong purposes, but there's some beautiful vineyards. We have a little bit around, isn't there a, again, I'm sorry to bring this up. I'm not in any way in advertising, but isn't there a winery or a vineyard or something nearby here? I don't know exactly how that works, but I've driven by a few, but those out in California, just what seems like hundreds if not thousands of acres of, you know, miles and beautiful. Of course, the vineyards, the grapes were a very important part of society and with the lack of clean water and all of that that goes with it and not having the access to all the beverages that we have today, Solomon would have had much more access, much more of the better, cleaner, safer beverages, but he built vineyards. Song of Solomon even uses references to vineyards to describe the joys of marital love and of biblical love. So Solomon continues in his experiment. Think about all the things that he just kept going to and trying. Gardens, orchards, fruit trees, pools of water, servants and maidens, cattle, silver and gold. I'm not sure if we can even read this very well, but there's in 2019, there's the estimate in that picture there. It's kind of hard to read, but it's like $256 million in gold. First Kings 10 talks about how Solomon received what would be by modern values. Solomon received 25 tons of gold a year. 200 shields of 15 pounds each 300 shields of four pounds each. I believe that was even yearly. First Kings chapter number 11. We add singers and then this is a term that Bible scholars will sometimes debates because there are four or five different ways in which you can translate the word musical instruments. Rightly so, good translators trying to be faithful to the text, to the word of God, to the original language, because the Hebrew has literally just a jot or a tittle that can change the word. And so the King James translators used the word or the phrase musical instruments, which was a legitimate way to translate because of the Hebrew language. Because again, of the Hebrew language, because it's combining two Hebrew words, not trying to bog you down with translation and Hebrew terminology, but again, just one jot or tittle and understanding. There's translations of this word that are translated goblets, cupbearer, chest, like a wooden chest or a metal chest to put things in. It's also translated musical instrument and also translated concubines. Now that would fit, okay? Now, singers would also be in the context of musical instruments could accompany singers. My point isn't to get into some big debate or translation debate, my point is just to say this, whether it's musical instruments or concubines, concubines would fit. 700 wives, 300 concubines, musical instruments would go with singers. The point is that he was experimenting with anything and everything, including women, and the immorality, Wives and the concubines, concubines we understand are mistresses, okay, without getting into any more detail there, trying to be discreet. He had access, he experimented with all of these things. He goes on and he lists them. And then in verse 10, he summarizes them. Whatsoever mine 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 all my labor. You can see in verse 10, he's even saying kind of an aside, making excuse in some sense. I work for this. I earned this. I labored for this. God blessed me with wealth. He blessed me with access. He blessed me with all these resources. It's as almost as if he is saying from a human perspective, I deserve this. And don't we hear people make excuses like that? Oh, I can blow money on this. I can commit this kind of sin. I can indulge myself in this way because I deserve it. I've worked hard for this. And we hear people, I hear husbands sometimes say that. I don't care what my wife says. I deserve this. I'm the one who's put in all these hours and all these years. So your wife hasn't worked? Your wife hasn't put in toil and labor at home? Part of what she's had to do was put up with you. In the back of my mind sometimes when I hear men say that, I'm like, you don't have any concern or care for her opinion, what she thinks, and having had to put up with you? What does she deserve? Anyway, it's almost that attitude here you read in verse number 10, Solomon says. 10 plus times from verse three all the way down to verse eight. Mine hearts, he says. Let's go down to verse four. Made me, planted me, made me, verse five. Verse six, made me. Verse seven, got me. My house. Verse eight, gathered me, gat me. Verse nine, I was great. Before me, verse nine, my wisdom, verse nine. Verse 10, whatsoever mine eyes, I withheld not my heart for my heart, my portion. Did we pick up on a pattern there? What's the pattern? Me, me, me, me, me, me. Reminds me of, Old Patch the Pirate that I used to love to listen to. Kidnapped on Island. And there's the characters in there that sing the song Me First. What a great principle in that. Listened to that probably dozens if not hundreds of times growing up. So thankful for that truth. Impressed upon my heart in that little Patch the Pirate audio. And they would sing to King Me First. It was all about me, myself, and I. You see the pride. Think that contributed to Solomon's downfall? So some conclusions, and then we'll finish up here. I know we want to enjoy some refreshments. Byproduct of the experiment is fame. 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 in spirit. There was no profit under the sun. Verse 10 speaks to, I'm sorry, verse 9 speaks to his fame, his greatness. His increasing, his wisdom, he had still knowledge, perspective, he had some insight, God gave him insight, perspective. Obviously, by the inspiration of God, he's writing, even from a human, secular perspective, again, going back and forth, as we've talked about, and what was his conclusion? Seeking all these things, indulging in them as much as he possibly could, with his money and his wealth, his access, his resources, what's he say? Vanity and vexation of spirit. They don't satisfy. They don't bring fulfillment. It doesn't fill that portion that needs to be filled by God, by Christ, by His Word, that can only be filled and satisfied by Christ and Christ alone. Again, Proverbs 27 and verse 20, hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied. Some final slides here, Proverbs 21 and verse 17. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man. He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. He's not saying that wine and oil in the sense of the proper definitions of those, proper definition of pleasure. Of course, there's joys in life, but we love, we make idols out of them. And they bring emptiness. vanity betters a little with righteousness than great revenues without right Proverbs 15 and verse 16 better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith Psalm 37 and verse 16 a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked first Timothy 6 and verse number 6 will get to Lord willing maybe even next week and the morning message but godliness with contentment is great gain 1 Timothy 6 and verse number 10, for the love of money, the love of money is the root of all evil, or all sorts of evil, which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. I love Psalm 84 and verse 10, for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. We don't have time to go to Proverbs 23, 1 through 5, Reference there to the same principles. Proverbs 25 and verse 16, hast thou found honey, eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest I'll be filled therewith and vomit it. Pretty plain words there, right? From Solomon, by the inspiration of God. We fall in love with the pleasures and they become idols. And he says, we will vomit them out. because we don't find satisfaction in those things. We can only find that satisfaction in God, in Christ, in his word. We seek after selfish pleasures, make idols out of them, it makes us sick, spiritually sick, and even physically, there's often consequences in a physical and mental and social sense. If you've ever read Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, it's well worth a read. I close with this because I wanna make a final application because we see this creeping into the church. We see this creeping into ministry. This idea that ministry, that the gospel, that God's word needs help. It needs to be more entertaining. Because entertaining is what appeals to us. And so we need, in order for the unsaved to be more reachable, they need to be more entertained. In Neil Postman, he addresses this. This is only a couple of quotes. He says, I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. I have no idea where Neil Postman is at. I think he's passed on. I have no idea where he's at in his spirituality, where he was when he wrote this, if he was even a believer, I'm not sure. But he says, I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. I think he even goes to 1 Timothy 3, pastor is to be a serious man, a sober-minded man. This is not frivolous, what I'm doing up here. I'm not a horse and pony show. This is not a circus, and I'm certainly not a clown, though some people might think I'm a clown sometimes for doing what I'm doing, because they would see it as foolishness. But this is not a joke. I'm not up here to be a stand-up comedian. I'm not up here, this church is not a circus with a big tent and multi-colors. I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion when it is delivered as easy and amusing. It is another kind of religion altogether. What an insightful statement. He goes on to say in another page in his book, there is no doubt, in other words, that religion can be made entertaining. He says, yeah, we can turn just about anything into entertainment. The question is, by doing so, do we destroy it as an authentic object of culture? You'd have to understand the quote that went before it. I know I had to pull it out of its immediate context. I hope I'm not too confusing here. And does the popularity of a religion that employs the full resources of vaudeville drive more traditional religious conceptions into manic and trivial displays? He's basically saying, you turn the gospel, you turn the seriousness of the Christian religion We know Christianity is more than a religion, it is a relationship, but you turn into a vaudeville act. Do we know what vaudeville is? Some of the younger people have no clue. It's the idea of a circus, entertainment, the entertainment scene, that kind of thing. If we just turn it into a bunch of entertainment, we turn it into a different religion. It's now manic, and the serious aspects of the gospel, the hard truths of the gospel are left out and are made to look like maniac or trivial. Can you imagine that? By turning the church into a place of entertainment, the gospel is turned into that which is manic and trivial. Shame on us if we ever turn the church, if I as a pastor ever turn the word of God into simply entertainment that is flighty and superficial, that is manic and trivial. That's what happens. And as we see a culture more and more focused on entertainment and pleasure, sadly it creeps into the church, doesn't it? In the church and ministries. turned the gospel into triviality, into superficial, shallow entertainment. Sad, it's so sad that the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of God, becomes vanity and vexation of spirit, when it should be the other way around. We should see the empty, selfish, Lustful immoral indulgences of the flesh that is vanity and vexation of spirit idolizing even the good pleasures of life he says Solomon says even that is What would do it that he says in verse number two what good is it the thoughtful as well as the thoughtless pleasures They often are sinful and And even as the good things become idolized and are twisted and taken beyond biblical boundaries, he says, even those leave us empty. And what is good, what is right, what is serious, what is truth becomes trivial, becomes foolishness. And as Postman says, it's considered manic, futile, worthless. Why bother with that? How sad. May we, by the grace of God, here at Berean Baptist Church, with God's help, keep the gospel serious, sober, because it's the eternal destiny of souls that is at stake. It's the glory of God that is at stake. It is the truth that is at stake. May we hold high God's word. and may we seek after him in his will and find our true satisfaction and joy in Jesus Christ, in his word, in a personal right relationship with him. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for these truths. Thank you for Ecclesiastes too that speaks so well to these principles and promises. Lord, thank you for giving us insight. Though Solomon suffered great consequences, Lord, it gives us example and insight that, Lord, we can learn from, that we might live for you. Pray you'll bless your word in our hearts, and as we close the service and enjoy some fellowship afterward, we pray for your blessings there as well. In Jesus' name, amen.