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The Vanity of Striving After Pleasure

Sermon Title: The Vanity of Striving After Pleasure
Sermon Text: Ecclesiastes 2:1-3

Sermon Purpose: To call the hearer to realize that one will never find satisfaction by seeking purely earthly pleasure.

Sermon Proposition: There are 3 conclusions that result from trying to draw satisfaction purely from earthly pleasure.

 

Introduction: We sometimes forget the hardship that Joseph and Mary endured to deliver the King of kings: a stable delivery room, exile into Egypt, poverty, and scandal. Yet they endured everything willingly out of love for God.

 
Dumitre Bacu Author:
Jesus appeared in my cell last night;
He was tall; he was sad, but oh he was light.
The moonbeams I treasured grew suddenly dim
As, startled and happy, I looked upon him.
He came and he stood by the mat where I tossed
And silently showed what his sufferings cost.
The scars were all there, in his hands and his feet,
And a wound in his side where his heart did beat.
He smiled, and was gone. And I fell on the stone
And cried out, “Dear Jesus, don’t leave me alone.”
Clutching the bars, I was pierced through the palms:
Blessed gift, blessed scars.
(“The Voice of the Martyrs: Extreme Devotions; pp.178)
 

I.          The result of the experiment of seeking pleasure under the sun. v.1

            A.        The experiment of mirth results in vanity. V.1a (1 Tim. 6:6-10)

            B.        The experiment of enjoying pleasure results in vanity. V.1b

1.         Pleasure by definition means the enjoyable sensation that comes from the gratification of personal desires.

2.         The big lie promulgated by the movies, TV, false religion, and the advertising media is that man can make his own heaven down here without God.

3.         God wants His people to have a good life, but He wants us to realize that this world cannot provide true pleasure. (Phil. 4:10-13)

Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

 
II.        The result of the experiment of seeking laughter under the sun. v.2

            A.        The 1st result is the madness of it all. V.2a

            B.        The 2nd result is the realization that nothing is really accomplished. V.2b

                        “Billy Graham tells in The Secret of Happiness of the disturbed patient who consulted a psychiatrist for help. He was suffering from deep depression. Nothing he had tried could help. He woke up discouraged and blue, and the condition worsened as the day progressed. Now he was desperate; he couldn’t go on this way. Before he left the office, the psychiatrist told him about a show in one of the local theaters. It featured an Italian clown who had the audience convulsed with laughter night after night. The doctor recommended that his patient attend the show, that it would be excellent therapy to laugh for a couple of hours and forget his troubles. Just go and see the Italian clown!” (William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, pp.884)

                        “But E. A. Robinson shatters the illusion in his poem, ‘Richard Cory’:

                        Whenever Richard Cory went down town,

                        We people on the pavement looked at him:

                        He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

“Good morning,” and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich – yes, richer than a king –

And admirably schooled in every grace;

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head.”

(William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, pp.885)

 
 

III.       The result of the experiment of seeking folly under the sun. v.3

A.        The result is an overemphasis on human satisfaction at the expense of God’s glory and others pain. V.3a

            B.        The result is an overemphasis of searching for what can be found above the sun. v.3b

(Col. 1:10-14; 3:1-4)

                        Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!