I'm going to start with a note of apology and what is what I'm apologizing for. I'm going to make you open some scriptures. So, make sure you have your Bible with you or your Bible on your tab or your Bible on the screen which we read. If you don't read through the scripture, you might be lost in what I want to say to you this open the scriptures so that you'll not be lost and so that we'll be able to follow our stories sequentially. Our text for today and our message for today is taken from the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 6. I'm going to read again for emphasis and so that we can get our highlights. Ecclesiastes chapter 6 Verse one to nine. There is an evil that I have seen under the sun and it lies heavy on mankind. A man to whom God gives wealth, possession, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires. Yet God does not give him power to enjoy them. but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity. It is a grievous evil. If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he, for it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he, even though it should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good. Do not all go to the one place? All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite. This also is vanity and is striving after the wind. Amen. The very first thing we shall see in the scripture we read in Ecclesiastes chapter six is a depressing thought. We live in a fallen world. We live in a world that is flooded with deceptions and temptations. All you see around you are adverts. Adverts push down your throat, telling you things that those products may not even be able to do just to get your money. You see consumerism at its height. You hear politicians tell you stories and reveal their manifestos. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. but they will never tell you how they will do them. And oftentimes when you weigh what they said they would do at the end of their tunnel to what they've done, oftentimes they don't match. So the deceiver is always trying to sell you used cars that will never match what he tells you. So they don't give you a full disclosure. So all around the world is a falling world. We see temptations all around us. We see deceptions all around us. And people tell you, there's a popular slogan online. They'll tell you, it is what it is. And of course, it's all deceptions. It's all wrongdoings. And oftentimes, as humans, we are not able to see through these deceptions. We are not able to critique these lies. We are not able to separate the shaft from the main drain. And that's what the preacher this morning in the book of Ecclesiastes is trying to do. We could call the preacher a critic. Look at the sovereign and The sorrowful things he wrote in Ecclesiastes chapter 6. The book of Ecclesiastes is about the truth. It's about the life of man under the sun. We all know it was written by Solomon and scripture and history says that he wrote it at his old age. The book of Ecclesiastes is about our inconsistent, our unpredictable, unfair, our temporary life under this earth. And this unpredictable, unfair, temporary nature of our life is actually to draw us close to God. I know here in this assembly, we have many students and we are mostly in the academia. If the Bible will be a thesis, I will classify the book of Ecclesiastes as a literature review. It's a review of our life on the heads. Our life is so unpredictable. We all sit here. You don't know what's going to happen in the next one minute. You don't have in your glass what the next five minutes is going to do. You only plan and dream about tomorrow, but how tomorrow you go will go. You don't know it. So that's the way our life is. It's unpredictable. And who is this critic? We all said it's about Solomon. Solomon is the critic here, is the preacher. Who is he? What is he all about him? So maybe we'll be able to look at him a little bit to give us some highlights. So we'll not say maybe he's one old philosopher somewhere who never knows God or someone who is angry with life and decide to pour his opinion about life on us. The preacher was a rich man. The preacher saw it all. His gold assets, only if we will compare to today's world, was $64 million. If you would compare one gold earned at $2,000. His final worth, I went to Google and I tried to check. I was like, what is the final worth of Solomon if he lives in this present day? His final worth was to be said to be about $2.1 trillion. from his palaces, his cedars, his slaves, his horses, his animals, his vineyard, his alliances, was about $2.1 trillion. In recent time, I don't know in history, but in recent time, no one has come close to that. That's almost the worth of the GDP of the UK, and far from the GDP of so many African countries. So the man talking here is a man of means and worth. He's not a man that maybe is speaking out of anger of life. The preacher here had wives. He had concubines. He had them to the fullest. He said that all that my eyes desire I didn't withhold from myself. He enjoyed life. So my topic this morning is enjoying life. So the person that is giving this sober thought, it's someone, in quotes, who enjoyed life. And if there's no GPS, if there's no Google map, if there's no direction, and you want to go somewhere, The right thing is to ask for those who have been there. Yes or yes? There's no no, that I said yes or yes. You ask those who have been there. So the preacher has been there. So it's the one giving this sobering report about life. Make no mistake, and I will make this an emphasis this morning. that there's a good life to be enjoyed. There's a good life out there to be enjoyed. But what the preacher is saying is that you will not find it by listening to this world. You will not find that good life by listening to this world. Because all things that lies in this world, it's lies. and the power of the evil one. So we've seen the depressing thoughts. We've seen the preacher. And if you look into the scripture, if you look into the book of Ecclesiastes, while the preacher is writing, it says it is striving after the wind. So a rich man has richness. A man who has enjoyed the good life says that there are so many things we do under the sun that is actually striving after the wind. Nine times in the scripture before Ecclesiastes chapter six, it says striving after the wind. And what is actually striving after the wind? Striving after the wind is like meat and stories that are not through. There are faulty promises. There are promises that look good, that look nice, but are temporal and not eternal. And what led the preacher to this chapter six? He was striving for fulfillment. He was striving for satisfaction. He was striving for the good life. This is summer. Summer is here. People have summer plans. But what is the good life? What led him to is that while searching for a good life, he listened to the world's advice. Regardless on how to obtain that good life, but it didn't work. He listened to the world's advice, but it didn't work. So he started writing all these things. In this book, when we go through the book of Ecclesiastes, you will find out that all the world will offer you about the good life, it's a bad advice. It is a bad advice, because there are advices that are not eternal. Number one, of what he calls striving for the wind, after the wind, or what he calls a faulty promise, is the faulty promise of wisdom. If you are a student of the Bible, if you've read through the book of Proverbs, if you've read through the book of Ecclesiastes, you can but agree that Solomon is a wise man. He is a man of wisdom. So, but before he got to Ecclesiastes chapter six, he gave an emphasis in Ecclesiastes chapter one. So, let's go back to Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse twelve to eighteen. You know, I promise you, we're going to open the scriptures. So, Ecclesiastes chapter six, chapter one, verse twelve to I, the preacher, I have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun and behold, all is vanity and a striving be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. I said in my heart, I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceive that these also but a striving afterward. For a much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases song. There's a faulty promise of wisdom. He promised that if simply you would get wisdom, if you would get knowledge, you would know the secret of prosperity and fulfillment, and you'd be satisfied in life. But it didn't work. He obtained knowledge and didn't fix anything. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. In other words, all the knowledge in this world could not fill up his depravity. It couldn't satisfy his deficiency. Knowledge would never make a man perfect. If we even look into the life of Apostle Paul, he says that he learned the law, but the more he was learning the law, the law shows how much a sinner he was. Even Bible knowledge will not make you better. It will only show you a sinner which you are. It is the Holy Spirit of God that makes you a better person. It is the Holy Spirit of God that simply shows you the way of salvation. So, one of the faulty promise and striving under the wind that Solomon was trying to emphasize here is a faulty promise of wisdom. Go at it. Get wisdom. Get it by all means. It will satisfy you. It will make you live and enjoy a good life. Solomon says at last, in chapter one, he says, it is striving after the will. He says that in much wisdom, there is much grief. In increasing knowledge, it results in increasing pain. If you know, the more you know, you find out that there's still much more to know. Even if you're in the academics, you find out that there's no limits to knowledge. You just find out that there's, even if you specialize in one thing, there's another thing to specialize on again. So to pursue knowledge as a means of satisfaction for human being is striving after the wind. It is an unrealizable dream. It is an unobtainable promise. It doesn't satisfy. There is a faulty, the second promise, which is striving after the wind, is a faulty promise of pleasure. Let's check that in Ecclesiastes chapter two. I'm going to read from verse nine to 11. 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." Solomon said that he tried pleasure. He tried wine. He tried walks. He tried wealth. He tried women. He gave himself to sensual pleasures of men, yet there was no satisfaction in them. He only found frustration. He only found boredom. At the end of the day, he went back again to call it striving after the win. There was another promise again. Still on pleasure. Ecclesiastes 2, chapter 17. Still on pleasure. So, I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and striving after the wind. After he had spoken about wisdom in chapter one, in chapter two, he spoke about pleasure that he couldn't find satisfaction in it. Then in chapter three, he took a pause and he reviewed himself. He spoke about time in chapter three. He said to young men, He said, don't respond inappropriately to this life, because death is coming and judgment will follow. And he said, we have a small allotted time on hand. That was what he was trying to say in chapter 3. And all he was trying to say is, use it appropriately. Do not strive. Then in chapter four, he went ahead again to speak about the faulty promise of accomplishments. The faulty promise of accomplishments. The chapter showed us that a man who had worked all his life, who has accomplished something, and in the end, he says that he doesn't want it. We'll see that in Ecclesiastes chapter four, Verse four to six. Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. The fool folds his hand and eats his own flesh. Better is a handful of quietness than two handful of toil and a striving after the wind. He says that even our toil is most out of competition, is most out of you want to outdo your neighbor. And let's be real to ourselves. Does the game end? Does outdoing your neighbor end? Does competition end? I remember the very first phone without an antenna was a Nokia phone. Having a Nokia phone then was a wow. Some of you are smiling now. It was a big deal. I remember my father buying one and he give one to me. The world was at my feet. I took it to campus. And I was like, I could talk to everyone. And I looked at my friend using Sargent with antenna. And I said, you guys are not correct. I have a phone that has no antenna. It's a phone that you throw up from up, and when it lands, I can pack it together again. This is a Nokia for you. But if anyone gives you a Nokia now, would you appreciate one? Our accomplishment has no end. Our accomplishment is a strife. I remember even teaching business in class, and we always said that the business is a rapid moving waters. Before you finish one thing, someone else has come for over you. This competition and this striving has no end. If you are not careful, your competitors will put you out of business. And you know, we push ourselves into exhaustion. It's a rat race for accomplishments. It's a rat race for trophy. If I ask this assembly today, where we have many young people, How many of you know LB Presley? Or how many of you can sing his songs? He's gone. His times has gone. How many of you know Michael Jackson? You know. A time would come, I would ask my daughter about Michael Jackson. And she would say, who is that? Some of you love Mercy to the Bones today. But you don't know who a man called Marco Van Basten. You're asking, who is he? But the older folks will know who he is. That's to tell you that this world cares not about your accomplishments. You are only seen on the stage when the stage is set for you. Once you pass, we're looking for the next person. Your statue is torn down, and your accomplishment is forgotten. And the preacher looks at it and says that, look, we kill ourselves for all this. We kill ourselves for this accomplishment. People lose their health, drive themselves into exhaustion for it. In fact, oftentimes, I speak with these and I pray that we understand. We live the main things of life and it's all about our accomplishments on this side. And this accomplishment has no end. If you sit there today in this assembly, you have a prayer point. When that prayer point is answered, you have another one. When that one is answered, you have another one. The needs of man are insatiable. Sorry, the wants of man, not the needs. The wants of man, they're insatiable. You want this, you want the next one. You want this, you want the next one. If only I can just add this as an accomplishment, and it will be a trophy for me. You find out how you finish it, you're looking for the next one. So, the man calls it, the preacher calls it, striving. I found a way, and that's in chapter four. Oftentimes, you work hard and accomplish things. Then you find satisfaction. The little time you found out that, you're looking for something else again. The world doesn't care about your accomplishment. And if they care, like I said, it's only for a time. Give them enough time, they'll tear down your statues and they'll look for who is the next man, let him come. Today in the world of football is Messi and Ronaldo. In the next 20 years, we forget about them. Who is the next person? Let him come and exhaust himself and go. That's in chapter four. Then in chapter five, he went on again. He spoke about the faulty promise of acquiring treasures. The faulty promise of owning all things and thinking all things is about you. money. Here, let me make some emphasis. He wasn't talking about a man who wanted money. This man we're talking about was a rich man. He was talking about a man who had money. He was talking about all the problems that comes with having money. If you don't have money, you don't know the Let me highlight some little problems that come with it. Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse eight. It's a problem of corruption. Verse eight says, if you see oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight, for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them. It speaks about endemic corruption in the system. And these are the things the rich face. They face a lot of dissatisfaction. Verse 10, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with income. These two is vanity. Have you not seen millionaires jump from ice to rebuilding and kill themselves? If you feel that money could satisfy, Have you not seen the rich commit suicide? It also comes with another thing called worry. The sleep of a working man in verse 12, chapter five, verse 12. The sleep of a working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep. Oftentimes, the rich don't sleep. They have their own worries. When you collect your salary, you sleep. They are thinking about how to pay salary to unread people. They are thinking about unread families. It comes with its own worries. And oftentimes we feel like if we grab all these treasures, if I grab this, grab this, if I can own this, if I can own that, I will be satisfied. And the preacher is saying that, look, even with treasures, they are striving after the wind. It comes with uncertainty. verse thirteen to fourteen. There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun. Riches being ordered by their owners to his own earth. When those riches were lost through a bad investment, he has fathered a son and there was nothing to support him. What is it saying? You are scared of You are scared of if your business fails, what happens? You are scared of the people greeting you today and bowing down to you, knowing that you know that once that wealth goes, they all leave you also. You are scared of even your friends. You don't know who are the true friends which you have, because you know that the wealth you are holding and the wealth you have is what is gathering all these people around. The preacher looks at it and said, look, this is also striving our father. One of the another 40 promise of having treasures and having money and all those things is you are scared of loss. Ecclesiastes 5, 15. As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so will he return as he came. It would take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. So he's saying that the fact that obtaining treasure does not really bring satisfaction. Instead, it has lots of problems. If you think that treasure will give fulfillment, think about what this person is saying. Think about what this preacher is saying. He's actually making us to critique life. Like we said, the book of Ecclesiastes is to tell us about our unpredictable life under the sun. Let's critique it. Let's think through it. And let's ask ourselves questions. So we've been able to go through chapter one of Ecclesiastes to chapter five. So let's go back to chapter six, where he was writing his sobering notes. Ecclesiastes chapter six. Verse one to two. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun. What is that evil that I have seen under the sun? It comes with an evil. It comes with a threat. It is there because God has given us riches. He was able to acquire the treasure because he pursued it. He obtained riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that it desires. He made it. He got that salary, he pursued. He was able to build the house he wanted. He was able to drive the car he desired. He was able to get his retirement set and everything in good place. But he's still scared of so many things. He's scared of the government trying to take it in terms of taxes. He's scared of his friends who will come and try and borrow it and never return. He's scared of inflation that will happen and devalue it and will cause him to worry. He's scared of tragedy and disaster that may well claim it. Eventually, he knows, like the way of all men, he will die. And he have to leave everything here on hands. So those are the questions and those are the evil is asking. So it is the tragedy of unenjoyed treasure. And the preacher said in chapter six, it is prevalent among men. It is what we see around. It is the life we see people live. It is a life that it passes from generation to generation. And he said, this is vanity and it's severe affliction. And that is why he wrote chapter six, because we see it. We live it. We strive after it. Our consciences and God tells us, no, this is not it. But a man just goes that way and live all that, all through his years. Even when I had to say, if a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many there may be, his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper barrier that I say better is he if he was a miscarriage. It is a man who get it who got all he wanted. It's a man who obtained his goal. He found that there is no satisfaction in this life. It is all mystery and the man says the preacher says that he leads the whole of this world. He had the treasure, he had the wisdom, he had it all, but he was never satisfied. The word says, get knowledge and you will be fulfilled. The word says, get and experience pleasure and you will be fulfilled. The word says, accomplish great things and you will be fulfilled. The word says, acquire treasure and you will be fulfilled. But the preacher this morning is saying to us, it is all wrong. All these things are striving after the wind. They are to seek you a way and make you face unobtainable goal. Make you take your eyes away from the good and that good thing is what is called the good life. John 10, 10, he said, the thief had come to kill, to steal, and to destroy, but I had come to give you life that you may have it more abundantly. So we need to listen. We need to listen and ask ourselves certain question. There is a reason why this word does not satisfy. There is a reason. I know some of you will ask, maybe it's about the devil. It's not the devil. The devil is not in charge of this earth. God is in charge. And if the devil is doing anything, he's just a messenger. Even though he's a liar. One thing spans out in all of our view. Satan lies to us and whatever he offers is not true. There is another reason why everything does not satisfy, and it's a critical point for us to understand. There's someone behind the scene who makes sure all these things doesn't satisfy. It is God himself. Let's open our scriptures, if you've not opened since, to Ecclesiastes chapter two. If you're not open, since open this last one and if you've opened before, let's open. Ecclesiastes chapter two. I'm sorry, chapter six, verse two. A man to whom God gives wealth, possession, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power. to enjoy them. It's about God. He knows that nothing would satisfy us. Because you will not find ultimate satisfaction in the things on this world. Because if you find satisfaction in all the things of this world, you will never have the desire to pursue God. The objective is to drive you towards God. Every frustration, every grief, every sorrow, every pain, It's all for one purpose. It is to let you forsake this world and run to god. Because god alone has a plan for you. I know we like that scripture. Jeremiah twenty-nine eleven. For I know the thought that I have towards you. A thought of good and not of evil. To give you a at the next verse, it's pointing you to God. It's not about you. It's not about the things you see in this world. None of them will satisfy. It is only God that satisfies. As we close this morning and we tie up our message, Matthew 11, 28 to 30. Come to me all you are weary and Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I am gentle. I am humble in heart. You will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. There you have it. There you will find a good life. But the Lord doesn't offer it. There you would find satisfaction, but the world doesn't know it. Only in Christ can we find the fulfillment that God asked for us. All the frustration of this life are merely tools to drive us to God. Every human seated, born of a woman, asks strife, asks struggles, as griefs, have issues peculiar to them, sicknesses. One idea or the other, one trouble or the other, is to point you to the Savior, is to point you to God. When you look for satisfaction in any of those things, it will only be temporary. That is what the preacher is telling you this morning. The one that gives eternal satisfaction, And if you go to the extreme of using sin to encourage yourself, or being far away from God, and thinking it will satisfy, he says, come to me. You are weary. You are heavy laden. I'm the only one that can give you rest. I'm the only one that can satisfy. Amen.