Good morning. Given the hard-hitting nature of the beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes, I'm very thankful to see you back for more. I'm very thankful for that, really. The preacher of the book of Ecclesiastes began right away with his main point. Everything under the sun is a passing shadow. Everything under the sun is a fleeting vapor. It's a single breath on a cold day. The here and now life under the sun is here and then it is quickly gone. That's what he means by saying it's all vanity. This includes all of our stuff, this includes us, and it includes all of the enjoyment that our stuff can give to us. Humanity toils and humanity chases, but for what? The children of Adam work their fingers to the bone trying to gain some kind of lasting contentment, some kind of lasting happiness, some kind of lasting peace of mind, some kind of lasting rest. But all of this labor and all of this chasing is really just a constant but losing battle against the evaporation of our stuff and the evaporation of ourselves. Under the sun, there's no profit. to be gained and saved by our labor that has any more power to last than a single wisp of smoke on a windy day. There's one generation after another. It has come, it has gone, yes, with much activity, but producing no lasting remedy for the brevity of life, for the brevity of any contentment. the brevity of any happiness or peace of mind or rest that any of our own toiling can produce. The preacher of this book is not saying that all under the sun is meaningless. He's not saying that everything here has no purpose or that there's no point to anything. He is saying that all under the sun is here and then it is quickly gone. The earth sees our generation And the earth listens to all of our boasting, observes all of our ingenuity, all of our cleverness, and it just shrugs its shoulders and says, I've heard and seen all of it before, and I will hear and see it all after you're gone. There's nothing new under the sun in and of this fallen world that has ever escaped the dust-to-toil-to-dust reality. Everything under the sun is here and it's gone. Everything in this here and now life, everything in and of this fallen world, it emerges in one way or another from the dust and soon enough it is dust again. The toiling and the anxious chasing and the brevity of its results, it's all been done before us and it will be the same after we are gone. So why does the preacher of the book of Ecclesiastes hit us with these things? Well, it's to make us think about our priorities. It's to make us think about what is really most important. He's only telling us the reality that he himself was hit with. He embarked on a journey. This is what he has recorded and is relaying to us. He's only telling us what he himself learned, what he was hit with when he determined that he was going to examine how the world really is. And last week we listened as he described his attempt to increase his knowledge of this life of toil outside of Eden, this life that God assigned to Adam and to all of Adam's children. And did the preacher discover that the increase of his understanding of the world that that was the way? Was that the secret to have lasting happiness? To just simply increase his knowledge and his wisdom of life outside of Eden? Was that the secret to having a lasting peace of mind, just understanding everything better? No, he told us. No, it wasn't. He told us that with the increase of His understanding came the increase of His understanding that the crooked and broken and perverse things of this world, of the things under the sun, they're not going to be made straight by any of the things under the sun, by any of the things that we devise. That's what He learned more of. The increase of His knowledge of a broken world increased His sorrow. And His discoveries only revealed all the more. the frustrating and the perplexing gaps and deficiencies in this world. So the more he increased his understanding of the way things are, the more clearly he could see so many things that just can't be understood. So he attempted knowledge. He attempted understanding of the things under the sun. He attempted that as a pathway to try and grasp onto something solid, onto something lasting. That attempt itself was ultimately, he told us, even that was ultimately just a grasping for the wind. And so now today, the preacher at the beginning of chapter 2, he will report to us the results of his next step in exploring the world for any lasting profit. for any lasting gain, for any lasting advantage that could break humanity out of this dust-to-toil-to-dust reality. Well, let's listen to what he has to tell us today. Chapter 2, beginning here at verses 1 and 2, he said, I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with mirth. Therefore, enjoy pleasure. But surely this also was vanity. I said of laughter, madness. And of mirth, what does it accomplish? Well, we see here now the preacher conducts a second test. He will explore the pleasures of this world and he is going to test himself with them. Mirth, an older word, you probably haven't used it recently, but it's an older word that simply means joy or gladness. Mirth is the good feeling of feeling happy. That's what mirth is. Could this be the secret? What do you think? Could mirth, pleasure, could this be the secret to finding satisfaction for an aching soul in a broken world? Could this satisfy all the confusion you have? Mirth, pleasure, the happy feelings that we can have. The increase of knowledge brought the increase of sorrow, but what about this? Maybe it's the increase of happiness through the collection of good and pleasurable things. Maybe this is the key to lasting gain and lasting profit. What do you think? Maybe it's good feelings. Maybe it's the sense of pleasure. Maybe that is the real and lasting profit to be gained and to be enjoyed in this world. Maybe it's in the pleasure and enjoyment of pleasurable and enjoyable possessions and circumstances under the sun where we can finally find something that's more than just a fleeting vapor or a passing shadow. Well here in his opening statement you'll notice he tells us right away, in a very short summary, he tells us his conclusion. He discovered that the happiness and good feelings that we can have from the good things under the sun, notice that he tells us that they too are only brief vapors that do not have any power to lift us up and deliver us from the burdensome task that God gave to the children of Adam. What can he say of laughter? What can he say of this outbreak of the feelings of happiness and pleasure? He says it's madness. It's not that all laughter is necessarily sinful, but the outbreak of laughter in a person who has given him or herself over to the feelings of happiness, who has made pleasure their priority, For the person who has made pleasure the master that they serve, the preacher is telling us that that kind of laughter from that kind of hope is madness. Or in other words, it's just simply ignoring the truth. That kind of laughter. It's just ignoring the truth, he says. And why is it that this is madness? Why is it that this is foolishness? People may give themselves over to the pursuit of pleasure. They may have their days completely filled with nothing but laughter and nothing but good feelings from the enjoyment of good things. But he asked the question, what has it really accomplished? Here in verse two, he's asking that question because he discovered the answer. What does it really accomplish for us? He discovered the answer by conducting an experiment with himself and he wants you to discover the same true answer. Let's listen to how he describes this experiment. It's in verses 3 through 9. I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made my works great. I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem, and also my wisdom remained with me." Well, this was a very careful experiment. It was a very careful exploration. He tells us twice that he retained his use of wisdom. He did not simply lose himself in various pleasures, but rather he continued to carefully think about all the different parts of this. The beginning of a thing and the end of a thing. Cause and effect. He's looking at things very carefully. And remember in verse 1 he said he wanted to test his own heart. So he's not simply testing this pleasure or that pleasure. It's more than that. He's testing their effects upon him. He's testing what they do to him. He's testing what they can give to him. He wants to look at all of this very carefully. This is the kind of experiment where he placed himself under the microscope in order to see what pleasure can give to him. So he isn't simply asking if that thing over there is pleasurable or if that thing over there is pleasurable. It's more than that. He isn't simply saying, well, does that make me feel good or does that make me feel better? It's more than that. He wants to discover how that good feeling affects him. He wants to discover how this sensation of pleasure, how it works on his thinking and how it affects the way he understands himself and how it affects the way he understands the world. That's the kind of experiment. He wants to look very carefully at all of these things. He wants to discover what's good for men to do in their brief lives. He wants to discover what's the real beneficial thing for us. What would be worthy for men to make as their chief occupation? Could it be pleasure? That's his experiment. That's his exploration. So he'll put pleasure to the test in order to test his own heart's reaction to it. to see if all of this gives him anything worth being completely devoted to. And so first of all, there's the pleasure of good food and drink. So then this preacher who describes himself as having full access to royal wealth and royal privileges, he sets a table worthy of a king. He wants to explore how an overflowing banquet table affects him. He attempts to discover if he can find a lasting cheerfulness there. What do you think? Now in particular, he thinks about wine. And I think what he's telling us here is that he's going to look at wine and perhaps everything on the table, he's going to look at it from a perspective of wisdom and then he's going to look at it from a perspective of folly. Can a wise understanding of wine uncover some secret power that wine has to give us something lasting? Is that how to do it? Or can a folly perspective uncover some secret to the power of wine to give us lasting happiness, some kind of lasting profit that we can hold on to? Is it from a wise perspective or is it from a folly perspective? He'll look at it from both ways. The wise perspective holds on to the truth. The folly perspective is deliberately trying to ignore the truth. Maybe you can identify with this. Have you ever tried to use something, maybe it was wine or maybe it was something else, and you deliberately ignored what you know to be true while still hoping to discover lasting happiness with it? That would be the folly perspective. So the writer, the preacher here, looks at the wine in particular. Perhaps he is considering the entire extravagant feast. He's looking at it as a wise man would look at it, and then he's going to look at it as a foolish man would look at it, just to make sure that his examination is complete. Next, he tells us that he tested the pleasure of his work. Maybe you can identify with that. When I've been saying the word pleasure, have you only been thinking about the fun and the enjoyment of relaxing? He's going to test the pleasure of work. Notice he expanded and improved his property. He built houses and he built vineyards. He had the pleasure of his own palaces. He had the pleasure and the profits of his own wine production. He planted exquisite gardens and he planted orchards so he could walk through a wonderful variety of flowers and fruits and vegetables. You notice that he's not going to be dragging garden hoses around in his orchard. No, no. He planned and constructed an elaborate irrigation system that would not only be functional but would be beautiful. water pools that would flow out in some way and be directed into the grove. I think that most of you can identify with this in one way or another. You know something of that good feeling of finishing a project. You know something of that sensation of pleasure. You finish something, you build something, and then you step back and you look at it and you have a sense of contentment and satisfaction and pleasure from what you've done. He tells us that he gathered to himself a royal level of possessions. He had servants and herds and flocks more than anybody else. He collected wealth. He had hard currency. He had silver and gold and other special, extremely valuable treasures. It was wealth worthy of kings. And he had the best entertainment system that wealth could purchase. He had male and female singers. He had musical instruments of all kinds. There they are, you can see them providing personal concerts for him and his guests in his palaces. There was no lack of any sensual pleasure or delight. And so he increased his pleasurable circumstances, he increased his enjoyable accomplishments more than any before him. His table overflowed, his properties were expanded and filled with production and with beauty. His orchards and his pastures were extensive and they were filled with the kinds of things that would provide for his table as well as his treasury for many years to come. He had more money in the bank than anybody else. He could pay for the kinds of vacations and the kind of entertainment and the kind of relaxing that only kings could afford. And the entire time, he says, that his wisdom remained with them. The entire time, he was examining all of these enjoyments. But again, not just to look at them, but to examine them in terms of their effects upon him. He had many opportunities and he used them to see what kind of a prophet a man can have from all of his labor in which he toils under the sun. He tested himself with the feelings of happiness. He tested himself with the outbreak of laughter by indulging all of his senses. He filled his tasting and his smelling and his touching and his seeing and his hearing. He filled all of it with a royal and wealthy banquet of the best of the good things that can be enjoyed under the sun. He saturated his senses with good things. But what did they give him? That's what he wants to know. What did they really give him? Back in chapter 2, you remember, he poses this question. What does gladness accomplish? What do these feelings of happiness and these feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction from enjoying good and pleasurable things accomplish for us? He tested himself. So now listen to his detailed summary of his findings. It's verses 10 and 11. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure. For my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done, and on the labor in which I had toiled, and indeed all was vanity. And grasping for the wind, there was no profit under the sun." This was an experiment or an exploration, he tells us here, where his eyes as well as his heart were devoted to pleasure That is to say, his outward senses as well as his inward thinking were indulged with things that produced this sensation of pleasure. Both his outward body and his mind were indulged. And he had the money and he had the time to explore the limits of what is humanly possible. for physical and mental pleasure and satisfaction. And then he stood back and he surveyed all that he had done and he surveyed all that he had and he surveyed his own response to it. He looked upon all of his labor to produce and to achieve pleasure and gladness. So, dear saints, take note of his two main findings. First, he says that his heart did rejoice in all of his labor, but we already knew that. He continues to say, he then says that this experience of gladness was his reward for his labor. He worked very hard. He toiled with great intention, with great planning and purpose and expense, and he tells us that pleasure was his portion or his reward for all of his labor. Our labor can produce a real reward. Were you expecting to hear that today? This is his first main finding. He worked very hard and he had a very real reward for it. It gave him the reward of pleasure. It was his reward or his portion, he says. Our labor can produce a reward that we can enjoy and the reward is enjoyment itself. There's pleasure in play and there's pleasure in work and that pleasure is a reward for that play or that work. And we should note that this is stated without any accusation of it being sinful. The reward of his labor was the enjoyment or the pleasure that he had either in the work itself or in the fruits that the work gave to him. Is pleasure automatically and always sinful? No. Are the feelings of gladness and the sensations of pleasure from relaxing or from working, are they automatically and always sinful? No. Can we count the feelings of gladness and the sensations of pleasure whether they're physical or mental from our work or our play, can we count them as a legitimate reward? Yes. He rejoiced, he tells us. He rejoiced in his labor and that was fine for him to do. And it was fine for him to receive that gladness as a reward. That's the first thing he found. But I can't finish my sermon there because you'll notice that the preacher isn't finished yet. His toil did give him something, but you'll notice that he has more to say. He does have a second main conclusion. He found something else when he examined all the works his hands had done and when he examined all the labor in which he had toiled. He discovered also that all of his wine and all of his home improvement projects and all of his possessions and all of his wealth and all of his entertainment, he also discovered it was all vapor. Every last scrap of it was vapor, all of it. like a single breath on a cold day, like a small wisp of smoke on a windy day. All of the results of his labor, along with all of its very real pleasurable rewards," he says, they're all temporary. They're all temporary. all of his laboring and toiling and chasing for the pleasure of the work and the pleasure of its fruits. It was all, he says here, ultimately a chasing after and a grasping for the wind." So, in other words, this is his conclusion from his experiment in pleasure, from his exploration of pleasure. It's that our play or our labor, it's not meaningless. It's not purposeless, it's not pointless, but it is limited in what it can give. One commentator says that the preacher could value his work for its own sake. He could do that. But he couldn't value it any more than that. He could enjoy his reward, but he had to admit everything he had collected was ultimately going to be handed over to the moth and to the rust. There wasn't anything necessarily sinful for him to have the sensations of pleasure from play or from work. But in the final analysis, he had to admit that all of the pleasure that it gave him and that he could touch with his senses that all of that had no more power to last than any wisp of smoke that he could try to grab with his hand. Well, this might feel like a very hot, bright, searing light. I understand that, but let's endure with this and let's place ourselves under the light. The preacher tested himself with the happiness and the gladness that this world can give. He chased after the physical and the mental and the emotional sensations of pleasure. He explored play and he explored work for the profit they can give and he discovered even the most that the world can afford to give is here and then it's gone. Now I would guess that you already knew that. And I would guess that most everybody here would be willing to admit that you've not arrived at a point of complete satisfaction yet. You would be willing to admit that. You'd be willing to admit that you've not reached such a pinnacle of pleasure and happiness that you couldn't go beyond that. You're probably willing to admit that, but the temptation we face is to say to ourselves, if only I had a little bit more, then I would be at the pinnacle. I think that's the temptation we face. If only I had just a little more and then, then the pleasure of it would last. I think that's our temptation. If only I finished this project, or if only I had that possession, or if only I had that kind of a circumstance, then I wouldn't feel like I needed to chase anymore after that pleasure or that happiness that seems so fleeting. I think that's our temptation. But notice what we've just heard. Here we see a man who had more possessions than any of us will ever have, and he still could not find permanent happiness. He still could not find permanent contentment, permanent satisfaction, permanent fulfillment, permanent peace of mind in those things. Your happiness can last only as long as the reason for it. Your sensation of pleasure and happiness and its outbreak into open laughter can last only as long as the good things you have under the sun. He told us that he had the reward of a joyful heart from his labor. Was he lying? No, he wasn't lying. Was his reward fake? No, it's just here and gone. He looked on all of his play, and he looked on all of his labor, and he looked on all of the pleasure, the very real pleasure that it gave him, and he had to admit it was all a shadow. He had to admit it was all a passing image, really and truly here, but really and truly soon gone. All the wine in the world and all the houses and all the gardens and all the orchards and all the entertainments and all of the good things under the sun in this here and now life that bring pleasure are in the final analysis, it's all just fancy do. D-E-W. It's all just fancy do. Like the wet stuff that's on your yard or the wet stuff that's on your car when you go out in the morning. It's real and it can give the reward of enjoyment, but it's here and then it's gone along with whatever pleasure it gave to you. Don't covet and set your heart on more stuff as your hope for lasting happiness. You know why? It's just more due. It's just more due. As soon as you have collected it, the very moment you have finished building it, it is already evaporating. It's already evaporating. The preacher admits that ultimately all he had acquired for all of his labor was more evaporating dew than anybody before him. More evaporating dew. Once upon a time, there was a man who had a single peach tree in his yard. And it was the only tree he had, and he enjoyed the pleasure of its shade and the sweetness of its fruit. There was another man who owned an orchard of a thousand peach trees. Which man is to be considered more blessed? Which man is to be considered more ultimately happy with lasting pleasure? I didn't give you enough information, did I? You can't judge it. You can't judge it by what I told you. You can't judge blessedness. You can't judge lasting happiness by the peach trees or by any profits from them. One man simply has more passing shadows than the other man. The point here is not that we're supposed to only be miserable under the sun. That's not at all the point. It's just that the reward of gladness from our toil must be held very lightly because it just doesn't last. Your happiness and the pleasure in the work itself or the fruits it gives, it should be enjoyed. It should be enjoyed. You just can't make that pleasure the end-all, be-all master that you bow down and serve with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Well, why not serve that master? It's because that master can no more deliver you out of the dust to toil to dust reality than the morning dew. We're tempted to try and convince ourselves that there is a level of achievement or that there is a level of wealth where the eye will finally be satisfied or where the ear will finally be filled. But you remember what the preacher told us back in chapter 1, it's not possible. with the things under the sun, the eye will never be satisfied and the ear will never be satisfied. And why is that true? It's because indeed all is a breath and all of our grasping for it is just a grasping for the wind. He eats like a king but he still has a gnawing hunger for something more than just a passing shadow that won't leave him hungry. He drinks like a rich man, but he still thirsts in his soul. He had a life of extravagance. He had a life where he was able to enjoy many real rewards of pleasure, but he admits it was all shadow chasing, and that ultimately it did not give him any lasting profit, gain, or advantage. Did he work hard enough? And did he get rich enough? And did he have enough pleasure as a legitimate reward for his labor so that he could say, ah, I have finally arrived? He couldn't say it. For all of our toiling in the dust, where does it lead us to ultimately? For all of the legitimate enjoyment that we can have from play and from work, it is capable of bringing us no further than back to right where we started. You remember the illustration from chapter 1, the sun and the wind and the waters, some of the most magnificent laborers in all of creation and for all of their toil and for all of their labor, where do they end up? Right back to where they started. Now, we apply that to us, and we remember that it's from dust that we came, and it's to dust that we're headed. And that's the point here of the preacher. For all of his collections, everything that he had amassed and brought to himself, and for all of the pleasure, it could only take him right back to where he started. Therefore, I'm saying to you, consider your path. Consider your path whether it is a path of lasting safety. Consider your path whether it is a path of lasting happiness and lasting well-being. I don't think I have heard the word safe as much as I have heard it this year. I caught a little bit of some college football yesterday and the sports commentators are telling me how to be safe. I don't think I have heard the word safe as much as I have heard it this year. Okay then, when you think of your safety, are your thoughts confined and restricted to just the here and now? When you think of your own wellness, What is the basis for you saying that you are well or you are not well? What's the real basis for your judgment? We're tempted all of the time, aren't we, to judge our security or to judge our safety by the amount of pleasure that we have. I'm happy, therefore I'm safe. I'm happy, therefore I'm well. But what is the real basis for your security? Proverbs 14.12 says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. And the way that can seem so right and it can feel so smooth and so straight to us is the path of happy feelings through earthly treasure. But what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but he loses his own soul? the experience of pleasure through the use of good things in creation. You know what this is? This is a gift from God to us. But we must not give in to the delusion that pleasure's profits are any more than dust. or that anxiously chasing after and grasping the pleasures of work or play or possessions or entertainments is anything more than chasing after the wind. We have to till the dirt and we have to manage the here and now stuff but we also have to be honest about how long it lasts. And your happiness and your safety and your well-being can last only as long as the reason for them." Can anybody in this room tell me where King David's palace is? Can anybody tell me with certainty even where he's buried? Can you point me to King Solomon's gardens and vineyards? Archaeologists argue over these questions. And they'll say, no, no, it's over here. And they'll say, no, it's over here. And all they're arguing over are piles of rubble. The preacher tells us that he had everything that a man could want. He tells us that he did not withhold his heart from any pleasure. And he tells us that he looked over all that he had in his houses and his gardens and he said, it's all just brief passing shadows. The stuff as well as the pleasure that it gave Jesus said, woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation. Isn't that a sad statement to think about? That there are people who enjoy the pleasures of this life and that's the only reward that they'll ever have. That's a statement of condemnation. Jesus says, woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. And woe to you who laugh now. Woe to you who have given yourselves to the pleasures of this world. Woe to you who have this outbreak of laughter, because you have devoted yourselves only to the pleasures of this life. You will mourn, you will weep. It's passing. this pleasure you have, this reward you have, these sensations of happiness and pleasure and gladness. The possession of wealth and pleasure and success and the outbreak of laughter because of it is not an indication of the safety of your soul. Jesus speaks condemnation upon those who have made the dust of this earth their God, their Savior, their Master. They pour out their lives for what? For a handful of dust. They chase after a wisp of smoke. What is your hope for salvation? An honest look at our possessions and our pursuits must lead us to consider what treasures we are storing up. And by storing up, Jesus means relying upon for lasting provision and relying upon for lasting safety. What is it that you are storing up and gathering to yourself for that? This year 2020 is a great year for you to explore this question with yourself. What have I made in my life as my priority, as my chief pursuit to gather and to build and to rely upon for lasting profit, for lasting gain, for lasting happiness, for lasting safety? What is it that I've made my chief pursuit? So that all of the things are sacrificed that I may have this chief pursuit because I believe it'll make me safe, that it'll make me happy, that it will give me well-being. Worldlings can only promote to you the things that are under the sun. The preacher is not telling us that we should ignore the things under the sun. He's just telling us there are higher priorities. There's a real and lasting safety that we can end up deprioritizing because we have become so enamored with some temporary safety. If you have ears to hear what I'm saying, I hope that you'll hear what I'm saying. What kind of safety are you storing up and relying upon as if it lasts forever? For what safety are you willing to sacrifice everything else in order to have it? Is it the safety of the gospel? Is it the safety that can be brought to you by the means of grace? All other safety is ultimately a grasping for the wind. And all other safety can deliver you no further than the inevitable grave. Yes, we have to manage our stuff. And yes, we have to manage our projects. And we manage our work and our play and our diet and our health. But what are the treasures that we are storing up? So that when we have them, then we say, ah, soul, you have found Sabbath. Ah, soul, now you have found your resting place." The preacher would encourage us to stop trading away our gold for pebbles. Well, how do we know what our priorities are? How do we know what our priorities are? I think one way may be to look at how you spend your time and your money. Or, in what ways or for what are you willing to sacrifice your time and your money? I think that's a practical way of beginning to look at what you believe is most important. For what are you willing to sacrifice something else in order to have it? That it is probably pretty high on your priority list. What is it for you? What is the pearl of great price for you? So that you come into the marketplace and you easily let go of everything else in order to have it. That's probably very important to you. It's probably near the top of the priority list. What is it? We need to think about what our priorities are. We need to think about what's most important to us. And we need to think about this because we can only serve one Master. Is your Master who has your devotion able to deliver you from the power of death and from the power of the grave? The preacher tells us that he discovered that all of his stuff, although very pleasurable, that all of it was a very unworthy master. He would have us to honestly look at our pursuits. He would have us to honestly look at our priorities. He would have us to honestly look at our sacrifices in light of what is a shadow and in light of what lasts forever. I think that one of the main struggles that I can observe among believers is that we are all too easily entranced and that we are all too easily enticed by the things of this world and that we are all too much attached to them and that we're all too much clinging to them as if somehow these things will deliver us out of the dust-to-toil-to-dust reality. I believe that this clinging to temporary things or to temporary circumstances or this clinging to temporary safety, I believe that that is the main reason we can find so much anxiety and so much fear among believers today. And it's no accident in Luke 12 that Jesus speaks of anxiety over life and immediately then speaks about what it is you are seeking and searching after and devoted to and serving. Whatever it is that you think is real treasure, that's where we'll find your heart. That's where we'll find your devotion. Whatever it is that you think is the pearl of great price, it's for that that you'll give up everything else to have. And if your pearl of great price is shaky, well, no wonder you're so anxious, and no wonder you're so worried, and no wonder you find yourself so gripped with fear Whatever that treasure is for you, that is what you will be willing to sacrifice everything else in order to have it. And remember that your heart will be no more stable than its resting place. The preacher here, he's experimenting with pleasure. gathering every good thing that he could imagine to himself and gathering to himself the pleasurable sensations of all of that. And in the end, he's essentially telling us his heart found no resting place in it. Would you like an example, a positive example of what we've been thinking about today? Think about Abraham. Think about our unison reading that we had earlier. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." And why would he do a thing like that? Why would Abraham leave the magnificent house that he must have had? Why did he leave the magnificent wealth that he must have had? Houses with foundations. What would move him? Why would he leave behind his orchards and his groves and his gardens to go to a place that he didn't even know yet? What would move him to do that? The text tells us that it is because he waited, that is to say, he had put his hope elsewhere. He had placed his expectations for happiness and his expectations for safety and his expectations for wellness on something other than the stuff and the pleasures that he had left behind. He was willing to leave it all behind because the text tells us that instead he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. Abraham sacrificed treasure that he could see and treasure that he could touch for treasure that could not be seen or touched but was promised by God. The text there in Hebrews 11 goes on to tell us that these all died in faith. It tells us they did not receive the promise. That means they didn't live long enough to see the Savior come into the world. They knew He was promised. They had put their faith in Him who was to come. They didn't live long enough to see the fulfillment of that, but having seen those promises afar off, they were assured of them. And they did embrace them and then they confessed something. They agreed with God that they were only strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things, that is for those who say we're only strangers here, we're only pilgrims, we're only traveling through, we're only passing through this here and now life. Those who say such things declare plainly that they are seeking a homeland." So the preacher here, he's building his own home in the here and now, but in the end he has to conclude it really can't be his lasting home. He amassed a great portion of wealth, but in the end, he has to say it really isn't the lasting wealth that he has. At any point, Abraham could have gone back. At any point, Abraham could have gone back to all of the things that he left behind in his homeland. There was nothing keeping him from going back. He could have laid it all down and he could have walked back and he could have had everything again, but he didn't. He could have gone back and he could have put his hands in the treasures that he left behind, but he endured as a pilgrim. He endured as one traveling through this world because his vision was filled with something and because his devotion or his heart was devoted to lasting treasure. through the promised Savior, whose work and whose promises cannot and will never fail or fall to the moth or to the rust. Is that not one of the greatest things that could be said? That we have a Savior promised to us whose work is not subject to the moth and it's not subject to the rust, who has purchased for us an inheritance that lasts forever." Well, the preacher would have us to think about these things. He would have us to think about the things that we enjoy in this life. He would certainly have us to enjoy them in a way that's appropriate, but he would also have us to think beyond them He would have us to hold on to these things lightly as we confess we're just travelers. We're just passing through. I will enjoy the things. Do I have them? As long as I have them, I will enjoy them as a good gift from God to me, but my vision is set forward. My devotion is not upon the good gifts that God has given me. My devotion is set upon greater and lasting things. There is a pearl of great price. Christ has purchased it for me. He has given it to me. Everything else I'm going to hold on to very, very lightly.