This message is entitled Vanity and Striving After
Wind and is given by Steve Odom, formerly
of the Green Bay Packers.
Thank you, Larry.
Oh, boy.
I haven't felt this anxiety since I was
playing football.
In fact, I was thinking just the other
day, just a few seconds ago, about the
last time I spoke and when that was
and where it was.
It was during the time I was playing
football.
And while I was playing football with Green
Bay, I was the chapel leader.
Every team in the NFL has a chapel
leader, a guy who, when we go on
the roads or when we're at home, who
introduces the chapel speakers.
And his responsibility is to see to it
that the chapel speaker on the road gets
a ticket to the game and that, you
know, things are taken care of in regards
to the chapel speaker.
Well, in the middle of the season, this
was the 79th season, right in the middle
of it, we were playing in Miami against
Miami Dolphins and our chapel speaker didn't show.
And that's one of the things that makes
a chapel leader very nervous.
Because at 8.30 in the morning, before
we play a game on Sunday, that's the
time we have our chapel service.
And usually the head coach is in the
front row with his wife and then you
have half the team there and visitors and
everyone's expecting to hear a word from the
Lord.
Well, our speaker didn't show up.
And so that left me with the responsibility
of doing something with this group.
And so I whipped out my Bible and
opened it up to Ecclesiastes and I began
to speak with him about some of the
things I'm going to speak with you about
today.
But I went a little further than I
normally do.
I substituted various things for fellowship with God.
And this morning, during the chapel service, I
decided to go a little further and I
said to the group, including the head coach
of the Green Bay Packers, who at that
time was Bart Stark, I said that as
far as I'm concerned, there are many things
that men substitute for fellowship with God.
And one of those things, for many guys
that play in the NFL, is football.
And that as far as I was concerned,
if I broke my leg or got a
serious injury in that game that day, to
such an extent that it prevented me from
further playing football, that it would mean very
little to me because I do not substitute
football for fellowship with God.
Well, that was part of my message and
that day we lost the game.
I fumbled about three times, misjudged the punt,
and Monday morning I found myself a free
agent and on my way to New York
on Tuesday.
And so the Lord really tested me very
quickly in that incident.
And so in some respects I'm very nervous
about this morning because I don't know what's
going to happen tomorrow.
But I'd like to thank Larry and his
wife and Roy Freeman and Beverly and Jackie
for this opportunity.
They all kind of had a little bit
to do with my being up here.
And I tell you, Roy Freeman had a
lot to do with the anxiety I'm feeling
right now, too.
He knows what I'm talking about, don't you?
Well, you know, when I was going to
school, college, I attended the University of Utah.
One of the things I would always do
is I'd run to the papers, especially on
Sunday mornings, and I'd look at the comic
strips.
I'd check out the sports section, too, but
I was more into comic strips, I think,
at that time.
And one particular strip that I always looked
at was the Peanuts comic strip.
And I can recall on New Year's Day
of 1974 that Charles M.
Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip,
was featured as the grand marshal of the
Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, California.
And on that day in his strip, Linus
finds Lucy watching the parade on television and
asks, has the grand marshal gone by yet?
And Lucy replies, yeah, you missed him, but
he wasn't anyone you ever heard of.
The obvious point is that Schultz's own created
characters were unaware of their creator.
And then there's another strip where Schultz has
Snoopy on his doghouse in his characteristic sighing
posture, and he's sighing and he's looking up
in the sky and he's saying, I searched
the sky and I can find no meaning,
no meaning.
Then suddenly Charlie Brown appears with a dish
of dog food and Snoopy leaps up and
yells, ah, meaning.
The universal experience of man, however, is that
he is not so easily satisfied in his
search for meaning and reality.
He has an insatiable desire for something that
goes beyond what satisfies his physical hunger.
And without this meaning, he feels estranged from
himself.
He feels anchorless, detached, directionless.
He begins to think that his planet, his
world is a cosmic orphanage and a crazy
mixed up universe that offers no real pattern
for living and no direction for meaningful destiny.
So he begins a searching process for something
that will bring significance and meaning to his
life.
I'd like to share with you this morning
a bit of my searching process, my search
for happiness.
And it began, it began with athletics, with
sports.
As a kid growing up, football, baseball, sports
in general was everything to me.
I can recall collecting football cards and baseball
cards and trading them and inventing games with
these cards and doing all sorts of things
with those cards.
In fact, I can recall quite vividly the
time once I became a professional football player
when I was leaving the practice field in
Green Bay and going up to the stadium
and this kid comes up to me and
he has a card in his hand.
He presents it to me and he says,
Sir, sort of like the Joe Green commercial,
you know, he says, Sir, would you please
sign this card for me?
And this was my second year in the
season and I reached down to sign what
this kid had for me and I looked
at it and it was a football card
and it was a picture of me.
And I just flashed back that it seemed
like it was only yesterday that I was
collecting these things myself and playing games with
them and here I was being asked to
sign on my face.
But when I was a kid I collected
those things and football for me, before I
got into sixth grade, was not an organized
game.
I'm from Berkeley, California and they didn't have
Pop Warner football over there.
So the way we played football was in
the streets.
You know, we'd get a little side street
where there wasn't very much traffic and occasionally
there would be cars parked there, but we'd
play our games on the streets and usually
you'd have four guys and you'd have two
on each team and it would amount to
a lot of faking, a lot of lateral
movement from side to side.
One play might last 15 minutes with a
guy just trying to avoid a guy and
it wasn't a realistic sort of game, but
that was the best we could do.
And thinking back on my athletic development, I
can really, I'm really thankful that I had
that opportunity because there were times on the
football field, because of my stature, that I
had to do more faking than running over.
And so it got to the point where
you were even inventing moves.
You'd run out of things to do and
you'd look and you'd see a guy that
did a certain move on TV and so
you'd try it out on the streets.
But that's the sort of thing I did.
When I got into the sixth grade I
had a teacher who was really encouraging to
me.
He was a guy who took one look
at me and decided that I wasn't going
to be a big fella, so I ought
to be fast.
And so he would challenge me to races.
During our recess I can recall going out
on the playground and we'd run little 50
-yard dashes and he'd always push me to
try to catch him, kind of that coaxing.
He'd run just fast enough to win and
keep me right in his hip pocket sort
of thing.
By the time I got out of sixth
grade I was the fastest kid in the
school.
I couldn't beat him, I was the fastest
kid in the school.
During those days you were either, if you
wanted to be something, you were the best
fighter or the fastest runner.
Because of my size I chose to be
the fastest runner.
And that too paid off later in life.
But junior high school was the time when
I, all during this time baseball was organized.
I could play baseball and I was playing
baseball in summer leagues.
And junior high school was really when my
baseball talents were beginning to develop.
And again I had a coach in junior
high school who was encouraging to me.
This guy thought that I was going to
be in the 1972 Olympics.
And so he would take me to track
meets and all sorts of sporting events and
really kind of became another father figure to
me.
But my baseball talents were really beginning to
develop and I was becoming more interested actually
in baseball than I was in football.
The eighth grade was also a time where
I was going to begin to experience a
series of injuries that were going to prevent
me from playing football.
And the first injury occurred in the eighth
grade in a baseball game.
This was the summer before the first organized
football would be available for me.
And I was in a baseball game and
I had laid down a drag bunt and
the second baseman was covering first base because
the first baseman went to catch the ball
to throw it to the second baseman.
The second baseman was the only guy I
think in the world who was smaller than
I was at the time.
And he was on a collision course with
me.
And to avoid hitting him I crossed over
my left leg and I hit the first
base in such a way that it fractured
my left ankle.
I didn't know it at the time.
I stayed in and stole second and third
base and came in on a single.
And the coach, you know, he noticed that
I was kind of hopping and he came
over in the dugout and looked at the
ankle and decided that it was fractured and
took me to the doctor.
And sure enough the x-rays showed a
fractured left ankle.
Then in the ninth grade it was my
opportunity to play football in an organized way.
So with pads and everything I was all
excited.
And in the very first game I fractured
my right ankle.
So I didn't get to play.
But it healed in time for me to
play baseball.
So I played baseball.
The tenth grade, the first game of the
football season, we had less than two minutes
to go in the game and I was
running a sweep around left side and I
turned it inside toward the end zone and
crunch, fractured my left ankle again.
That was the first game.
So I didn't play football again, but it
healed in time for me to play baseball
in the summer.
So I played baseball.
So the eleventh grade came along and we
were playing our first game in South San
Francisco.
And I was playing defensive back this time
and I backpedaled to cover this guy who
had to be 7'9".
He was an end on the other side.
And I backpedaled and I noticed a running
play inside so I came up to support
on a run.
And this big fella just got right in
my chest.
And he lifted me up about a thousand
feet.
And I came down, I came down on
my wrist like this behind me and I
fractured my left wrist.
That was the very first game so I
didn't play football.
But it healed in time for me to
play baseball.
So I played baseball.
So it's twelfth grade now in high school.
It's my last chance.
And we're in the first game.
And by this time I was really kind
of cautious and scared and concerned.
And I had a girlfriend and she was
kind of cautious and concerned and afraid.
And she gave me a pair of socks.
And she said, these are going to be
called good luck socks.
And our colors were red and white.
And she gave me a bright blue pair
of socks for good luck.
And they weren't really good luck, but I
made it through that game, that very first
game.
In fact, I made it through the whole
season without an injury and was blessed with
just a tremendous year.
All kind of honors, a high school All
-American and was selected to play in different
high school bowl games.
And just a tremendous year, all kind of
honors.
Scholarships also.
And scholarship offers to most major universities.
But at the end of that season, there
was still a fractured feeling in my life.
There was still a feeling.
And it wasn't a physical feeling because I
had healed and the physical injuries were gone.
But I was feeling fractured psychologically, emotionally, and
spiritually.
And I was searching.
I was searching.
I could recall looking at other guys on
campus who had all the medals from track
on their sweaters and they'd give their sweaters
to the girls and the girls would wear
their sweaters and walk down the halls and
all these medals would be jingling and stuff.
And they had all these things and honors.
And I was president of a social club,
which was a big deal.
Berkeley is kind of the place if you
want to know anything about philosophy or any
sort of lifestyle, that's sort of the place.
And I was searching.
Fortunately, at the time, I was also in
a Sunday school.
I was in a church.
But I attended Sunday school.
I didn't really go to church.
And I had a teacher in the church
who loved the Lord and shared that love
with me.
And I began to understand that in her
teaching from the scriptures that all had sinned
and that I was a sinner.
And that meant that I was separated from
God.
And the result, the penalty of that sin,
was death.
And the sin was a barrier that was
keeping me from God and that Christ had
removed that barrier by dying on the cross
for my sins.
So the issue for me, as she explained
it, was belief, belief on Christ.
And I believed that he said who he
was, that he rose, and that he's living.
And I became a believer.
I put my faith in Christ.
That happened in the 12th grade.
And I went on.
I went to college.
And I didn't concern myself with injuries.
And I didn't have any injuries.
And it was sort of every year, the
four years I was at the University of
Utah, were like my senior year in terms
of success.
I had it all the way along.
And ended up graduating an All-American and
being asked to play in several post-season
games and then eventually being drafted by Green
Bay.
And I used that faith in everything I
did, particularly in my sports, particularly in my
football.
And I could spend a long time talking
about that with you, but that's not really
what I want to share with you.
I realize in my counseling, in life in
general, that everybody wants to be happy.
Don't you try to be happy?
Maybe you come to a golf course like
this, thinking that it will bring you happiness.
You go out on the green and you
putter around and you drive.
Eventually you become upset.
You get angry.
You get mad.
So you try something else and something else
and something else.
Perhaps it's bowling or tennis or television or
running or the theater, women, bars, alcohol.
Seeking something.
Seeking happiness.
But you don't find happiness.
When you reach the end of a day
off or a long vacation, there's no happiness.
When you go to bed at night, you're
determined to find happiness.
And when you wake up in the morning,
you go out and you set out a
new day trying to find happiness.
But no happiness.
The story of Solomon is really what I
want to share with you this morning.
And it's quite a contemporary story.
The book of Ecclesiastes itself is one of
my favorite books because of it being contemporary.
Also because of, here's a man who had
everything.
Absolutely everything.
In fact, the story is a story of
entertainment.
It's a story of living it up.
It's a story of a person who had
everything he ever wanted within his grasp.
Everything he dreamed of within his grasp.
Yet having these things, he didn't find happiness.
He tried everything.
Everything.
And the story is recorded in the Word
in order to save you the time, the
trouble, and if you have it, the money.
Like I said, because Solomon tried everything.
Everything, that is, except the grace solution.
If you have your Bibles, I'd like you
to turn to 2 Chronicles, beginning with the
13th chapter.
I'll read it.
I just want to point out some of
the magnificence of Solomon, his wealth.
2 Chronicles 9, verse 13.
It's kind of interesting to write practically in
the middle of the Bible is there's an
income tax return.
It's not very long, but it's rather impressive.
Sources of income are shown, and then some
entertainment items here apparently to be deducted.
But in verse 13 it says, Now the
weight of gold which came to Solomon in
one year was 666 talents of gold.
666 talents of gold.
In our monetary standards, that's $20,479,500.
That's a lot of money.
Besides that which the traders and merchants brought,
he also had people working for him in
addition to that income.
And the kings of Arabia and the governors
of the country brought gold and silver to
Solomon.
And King Solomon made 200 large shields of
beaten gold using 600 shekels of beaten gold
on each large shield.
Now there was a custom during that time
of converting gold, if you had enough of
it, into various paraphernalia.
So in keeping with this custom, Solomon made
300 shields of beaten gold using 300 shekels
of gold on each shield.
And the king put them in the house
of the forest of Lebanon.
The house of the forest of Lebanon was
like Solomon's summer retreat, his little cabin up
at Big Bear.
Moreover, the king made a great throne of
ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.
And there were six steps to the throne
and a footstool in gold attached to the
throne, and arms on each side of the
seat, and two lions standing beside the arm.
And 12 lions were standing there on the
six steps on one side and on the
other.
Nothing like it was made for any other
kingdom.
And all of King Solomon's drinking vessels were
of gold, and all the vessels of the
house of the forest of Lebanon were of
pure gold.
Silver was not considered valuable in the days
of Solomon.
For the king had ships which went to
Tarshish with the servants of Huram.
Once every three years, the ships of Tarshish
came bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes
and peacocks.
Now, apes and peacocks, that's kind of amusing.
You can just kind of picture a ship
undocking, and you can see the unloading of
all these precious ornaments made of silver and
ivory and gold and turquoise and just everything
you could.
All the riches you can just imagine coming
off this ship, and then all of a
sudden at the end of this line you
see apes and peacocks.
It seems a little out of context, but
that's where Solomon had gotten.
He had gotten to the point where he
had gone beyond riches to the point where
he was finding and seeking pleasure in unusual
ways.
So King Solomon, verse 22, became greater than
all the kings of the earth in riches
and wisdom.
And all the kings of the earth were
seeking the presence of Solomon to hear his
wisdom which God had put in his heart.
I'm going to read that verse again.
And all the kings of the earth were
seeking the presence of Solomon to hear his
wisdom which God had put in his heart.
I'm not going to read the rest, but
it goes through 28 and it's talking about
his wealth.
And from that reading you not only get
the idea that he was a rich man,
which he was, the richest in his time,
but that he was getting richer every minute.
Now, if you could turn to Ecclesiastes, this
is where I want to go, beginning with
the first verse.
The words of the preacher, the son of
David, king in Jerusalem.
Vanity of vanities, says the preacher.
Vanity of vanities.
All is vanity.
What advantage does a man have in all
his work which he does under the sun?
The reason that Solomon makes, in verse 2,
vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities, it's the
Hebrew superlative of the word vanity, really emphasizing
how vain things are.
And the reason Solomon makes such an issue
of the vanity of all things becomes clear
if you understand the day, the time in
which the book was written.
It was a season when the fortunes of
Israel stood at a low ebb.
Men in Israel were discouraged and disappointed.
Faith burned with a dim light.
And one reason for this disappointment was that
men had expected too much from purely earthly
values.
And if a man properly assesses the worth
of earthly things rightly, he won't expect too
much from them.
Consequently, when they do fail him, he won't
be unduly disappointed.
And the people during this time were really
investing a lot of themselves in the earthly
values.
There are two things in understanding the rest
of the book that we need to concentrate
on.
And the first is vanity.
What does the word vanity mean?
The word itself is used 31 times in
the book of Ecclesiastes.
And the word vanity in Hebrew really means
vapor or breath.
Something like the breath that condenses when you
breathe, when you exhale into cold winter air.
It condenses and then it disappears all at
once.
So it's translated transitory or vanity.
This is kind of confession time here now
in terms of relating to this word vanity.
I love to take baths.
And I don't take them as much as
I used to.
I take showers though, don't worry about that.
But I don't take baths as much as
I used to because of jacuzzis now.
But I do like baths.
And when I take a bath, whenever I
do take a bath, I use Mr. Bubble.
If you've ever taken a bath, and I
hope some of you have, you use Mr.
Bubble or any kind of bubble bath that
kicks up the bubbles.
When you run the bath water, you pour
in the Mr. Bubble or whatever you use,
and it kicks up all those nice bubbles
and stuff.
And then you get into the water and
you kind of kick back and do whatever
you do in the bathtub.
But if you sit there long enough, you
begin to realize and you're looking around, about
that time when the fingers start to wrinkle,
you notice also that the bubbles are going
away.
And if you sit there long enough, you're
sitting there in a tub of dirty water.
And the word vanity is like soap bubbles.
It kind of kicks up and it's really
exciting and you can really get into it
at first, but after a while it goes
away.
It evaporates.
It's just gone.
And so that gives you an indication of
what he's meaning by vanity.
And also keep that in mind because it's
used 31 times and it's used after he
tries and substitutes for fellowship with God.
The other phrase that we need to understand
is in verse 3.
What advantage does a man have in all
his work which he does under the sun?
Under the sun is the phrase.
The correct appreciation of this phrase is important.
It's an important safeguard because of the message
of the entire book.
It's used 25 times in the book of
Ecclesiastes.
It must always be borne in mind that
the use of this phrase, Solomon is saying
that he's going to rule out higher values
and spiritual realities and employ solely earthly values
and gifts.
The use of the phrase is the equivalent
of drawing a horizontal line between earthly and
heavenly realities and leaving out of consideration the
higher realities or the higher values, the spiritual
realities.
It's been my experience that there's very little
objection to that because it seems to me
that people who are in and out of
trouble behave as if the heavenly realities were
entirely inaccessible to them.
So it's like when Solomon uses the phrase
under the sun it's as if he's saying
let us for the sake of argument momentarily
rule out the higher values.
So the presence of the little phrase under
the sun means what I claim is true
if one deals purely with earthly values.
So he begins in verse 4 by saying
and by showing verse 4 through 7 by
showing how concentration on the things under the
sun are like cycles in life.
A generation goes and a generation comes, verse
4.
But the earth remains forever.
It's like one generation is dying off and
another one is coming on and it just
keeps going around and around.
The only thing that's stable is the earth
for which this drama takes place.
The sun rises and the sun sets.
And hastening to its place it rises there
again.
And the word for hastening means panting.
It's as if we see the sun rise
and we see the sun set and the
activity that occurs between the setting and the
rising is a panting, a hastening activity.
And it's another cycle.
Blowing toward the south then turning toward the
north The wind continues swirling along on its
circular courses.
The wind returns.
Pointing out that the only thing that's constant
about wind is that it's going to change.
The rivers flow into the sea, yet the
sea is not full.
To the place where the rivers flow, there
they will flow again.
The picture is one of the sun beats
on the water, evaporates it, forms a cloud,
moves over the land, precipitates, the water runs
down into the river or the ocean again
and that whole process starts over again.
Just a continual cycle, round and around and
around.
So Solomon, who had everything, was looking for
something different, something new, something unusual, some fountain
of youth, something that would be a constant
source of stimulation, something whereby he could be
happy without God.
So he tried substitutes for fellowship with God.
The things he tried, which I'm going to
touch on briefly, are these.
He tried education, pleasure, possessions, heritage, philosophy, money,
reputation and sex.
The first education is found in the 13th
verse, first chapter.
He says, and I set my mind to
seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that
has been done under heaven.
It is a grievous task which God has
given the sons of men to be afflicted
with.
The first thing he tried was education.
He had access and Alexandria of his time,
of all the works that were ever done
in the libraries.
And he studied them.
If you were to study the rest of
that passage, you'd see that he studied several
things that are common today, agnosticism, empiricism, most
of the philosophy.
But if you look at that verse again,
you'd see, he says, I set my mind
to seek and explore.
But then, that same verse a little later,
he says, it is a grievous task which
God has given the sons of men to
be afflicted with.
So it's kind of a, you know, if
he decided to do it, why is God
afflicting those who decided to do it?
Well, what he's saying here is that, and
he's using it in this way because he's
trying to say that even men who do
not know God have a desire to discover
truth because God has put that in their
heart.
So he tried education.
And his conclusion, well, this is verse 14.
I have seen all the works which have
been done under the sun, and behold, all
is vanity and striving after wind.
His conclusion was, and maybe you have concluded
some of the same things about education, is
that it is futile.
In fact, if you flip over to the
12th chapter, verse 12, he says, But beyond
this, my son, be warned, the writing of
many books is endless, and excessive devotion to
books is wearying to the body.
I know that.
I spent over four years in graduate school
in addition to the four years of undergraduate
work at Utah studying.
And the conclusion, my conclusion, concurs with his
conclusion in that it is vanity and striving
after wind.
He says a lot about that, but I'm
going to go on to the next thing
he tried, which was pleasure.
Now, probably what happened at this point is
that Solomon said to himself, You know, you're
too serious of a guy.
You need to go out and kind of
live it up.
You've been studying for all these years, and
now you need a break.
So go out and have a good time.
So in verse 1 of chapter 2 he
says, I said to myself, Come now, I
will test you with pleasure.
So enjoy yourself.
And behold, it, too, was futility.
So he got into just having a good
time, partying.
Going to this party, going to that party,
going to this club, going to that club,
laughing, having a good time.
And the conclusion to that is in verse
2.
Part of it is in verse 2.
He concluded in verse 1 by saying that
it, too, was vanity.
But he said, I said of laughter, it
is madness.
And of pleasure, what does it accomplish?
In verse 3, he went to a second
type of pleasure, and that was alcohol.
He says, I explored with my mind how
to stimulate my body with wine while my
mind was guiding me wisely.
He conducted an experiment is what he did.
He conducted it in such a way that
he wasn't overly intoxicated.
Intoxicated but not overly intoxicated because he wanted
to be able to discern whether or not
this would bring happiness to his life.
But he wasn't alcoholic for a time because
he was seeking that.
Perhaps he got into his chariot and went
out and ran over a couple of kids
or something.
Or maybe he was the kind of alcoholic
that went to the local pub and beat
up a few guys.
Or maybe he was the domesticated kind of
alcoholic who goes home and beats up his
wife.
But an alcoholic he was, and an alcoholic
he tried as a substitute for fellowship with
God.
So then, verse 4, he goes on.
I enlarged my works, I built houses for
myself, I planted vineyards for myself, I made
gardens and parks for myself, and I planted
in them all kinds of fruit trees.
I made ponds of water for myself from
which to irrigate a forest of growing trees.
Then he moves from what he did outside
to what he does inside.
He bought, verse 7, I bought male and
female slaves, and I had home-born slaves,
and I possessed flocks and herds larger than
all who preceded me.
I collected for myself silver and gold and
treasures of kings and provinces.
I provided for myself male and female singers
and the pleasures of men, many concubines.
The male and female singers, he goes into
how he decorated the inside of his house,
and the male and female singers were his
equivalent of a stereo system.
He'd just have 500 bass over here, and
he had the tenors over there, and the
altos, the sopranos, and he'd say, sing, and
they'd sing in stereo for him.
That's the kind of person he was.
He tried, okay, from, we've already talked about
the education, the pleasure, and the possessions.
He tried those next.
He went to heritage.
He said, okay, now I'll try to find
happiness by having a family.
Verse 18 of the second chapter.
Thus I hated all the fruit of my
labor for which I had labored under the
sun, for I must leave it to a
man who will come after me.
He was afraid that his son would be
a fool, and he was right.
His son was Rehoboam, and he was a
fool.
He was so foolish that he split the
kingdom, and that split still exists.
Solomon went on to say, and who knows
whether he will be a wise man or
a fool, yet he will have control over
all the fruit of my labor for which
I have labored by acting wisely under the
sun.
This, too, is vanity.
He next went on to philosophy.
And chapter three is Solomon's philosophy.
There is an appointed time for everything, and
there is a time for every event under
heaven.
This is that chapter I'm sure all of
you are familiar with.
A time to give birth, a time to
die, a time to plant, a time to
uproot what is planted.
And he goes on to the contrast, listing
the contrast in life.
I hope as I'm going through what Solomon
has gone through, that you're going through what,
that you're evaluating your own lives in terms
of these same things, because I did.
I can recall quite vividly the time when
I had to discover the meaning to life
for myself, and I went, before I came
to know Christ, I went via the route
of philosophy.
And I can recall being at a party
in high school one night, I think my
junior year in high school, just really discouraged
and not getting into the party thing, and
so I went outside.
And it was a really beautiful night with
all the stars in the sky, and it
was very clear, and I went to this
place where I could be alone and really
think about life.
And I decided that I needed to come
up with some sort of philosophy, some sort
of philosophy of life that would make myself
significant, bring meaning to my life.
So I devised this philosophy, it went kind
of like this.
It was, well, I'm going to just suppose
that the earth is a cell, and that
people are parasites or something like that on
this cell, and the cells within a body
like mine are yours.
And earthquakes are the result of the body
belching or something like that.
And I went on and on and on.
I don't know if anyone's heard anything like
that before, but I went on and on
and on.
And the whole idea was I was trying
to make myself feel significant in a world
that just seemed too big for me, and
I was lost.
And Solomon also came to this kind of
place, and so he came up with a
philosophy that recognized contrast in life but didn't
quite know how to integrate the contrast, didn't
know how to put it all together.
Solomon studied every philosophy that was available at
that time, and like I said, that's in
that chapter.
He studied evolution, and he studied empiricism, agnosticism,
and all major religions, because he wanted to
find meaning and purpose to his life.
And the result was that it, too, was
vanity and striving after win.
He next tried money.
Money is found in the 5th chapter, verse
10 of Ecclesiastes.
He says, He who loves money will not
be satisfied with money, nor he who loves
abundance with its income.
This, too, is vanity.
One night, I suppose what Solomon did was
he had, you've heard some of what he
had, but one night, I suppose, he went
out, and he was at one of his
construction sites, and he hired at least 50
,000 men to work on some of the
projects he had going.
He'd walk out by the barracks where these
men were staying, and he'd hear them just
snoring away, just sleeping peacefully, heartily, with a
lot of gusto, sleeping very, very well.
And he'd walk down there, and he'd notice
this, and these were men that had very
little.
They had just enough clothing for what, they
just had the only clothing they had was
that which they had on their back, and
maybe an extra pair of shoes, but they
were very, very poor, yet they slept very
well.
And this inspired the verses 12 through 15,
where he says, The sleep of the working
man is pleasure, is pleasant, rather, whether he
eats little or much, but the full stomach
of the rich man does not allow him
to sleep.
What happened to Solomon is that in acquiring
all these riches, he developed insomnia, concern about
income taxes, concern about what he had to
do in terms of his investments, and all
the plans that he had to make around
all the money he had robbed him of
life, just the simple thing of being able
to sleep.
13.
There is a grievous evil which I have
seen under the sun, riches being hoarded by
their owner to his heart.
When those riches were lost through bad investment,
and he had fathered a son, then there
was nothing to support him.
As he had come naked from his mother's
womb, so will he return as he came.
He will take nothing from the fruit of
his labor that he can carry in his
hand.
Next, he tried reputation.
The seventh chapter, the first verse, A good
name is better than a good ointment.
Now, the reputation thing in my own life
came when, like I mentioned in high school,
one of the main motivating forces prior to
knowing Christ personally was to get that letter
sweater, to get those medals, to get those
awards that were there for me.
And the thing you wanted to do, of
course, is when you got it, to impress
some girl by giving her what you won,
that sort of thing.
And there was a whole status sort of
thing that was associated with that.
And Solomon got into that, that reputation.
And he had a very good reputation, but
again, the conclusion was that it, too, was
vanity and striving after win.
And the last thing he tried was sex.
And that's found in the seventh chapter of
the 26th verse, where he says, And I
discovered more bitter than death the woman whose
heart is snares and nets, whose hands are
chains.
One who is pleasing to God will escape
from her, but the sinner will be captured
by her.
In Proverbs 5.4, Solomon, speaking there, says
that he compares relationship, his sexual relationship as
being like wormwood.
And wormwood was a sort of a stimulant.
It was poison, actually.
But when you put it in your mouth
and you were tasting it and eating it,
it was very, very pleasant.
It was very, very pleasant.
It tasted really good.
But the result was death because it was
a poison.
And it sort of highlights the transitoriness of
all the other things that Solomon tried.
The 12th chapter is a description of Solomon
in old age.
He's gotten to the point where he's tried
all these things for substitutes for fellowship with
God.
We have the conclusion, actually, in the 13th
verse.
But before he gives the conclusion, he describes
himself as an old man, as an old
person.
And he does it in such a way,
I'd like to share that with you, that
the metaphors used there are just quite vivid.
And I find that they cause people to
think because when you get to be old
is a time when you begin to reevaluate
your life.
And Solomon is saying here, evaluate your life
right now before you get old.
The first verse he says, Remember also your
Creator in the days of your youth, before
the evil days come and the years draw
near, when you will say, I have no
delight in them, before the sun and the
light and the moon and the stars are
darkened and the clouds return after the rain.
In the day that the watchmen of the
house tremble.
The watchmen of the house are the hands.
You know you're old.
And you can be 70 or you can
be 25, but you know you're old when
you hold out your hand and it shakes.
That's when you know you're hand, when you
know you're old.
You know your hand too, you get to
see it.
And the mighty men stoop.
The legs, mighty men is a metaphor for
legs.
They get weak.
No longer can carry the weight, no longer
can walk as long and as hard as
they once did.
The digestive system beginning to give way.
And one will arise at the sound of
a bird, insomnia.
And all the daughters of song will sing
softly.
The hearing begins to decrease.
Furthermore, men are afraid of high places and
the terrors on the road.
The high places, of course, begin to feel
afraid of height.
No longer can fly on airplanes, no longer
can climb high mountains, those sort of things.
Become fearful.
And then just the natural fears begin to
annoy you or bother you more.
Furthermore, the almond tree blossoms, you begin to
get gray hair.
And the grasshopper drags himself along.
No longer has a physical strength.
Grasshopper dragging himself along is an idiom for
the way you carry yourself, your gait becomes
less.
And the caperberry is ineffective.
The caperberry, that was a berry that was
used as a stimulant for appetite.
What this is saying is that you begin
to lose desire, all desire.
It goes on and down to verse 13,
he ends his description of old age there,
but down in verse 13 is the conclusion.
When all has been heard, fear God and
keep his commandments, because this applies to every
person.
I'd like to go back to verse 1
of chapter 12.
Remember also your Creator in the days of
your youth.
Remember also your Creator.
How do you remember your Creator?
Well, if you're a believer, you remember your
Creator, you remember Christ.
By daily being in fellowship with him, using
1 John 1.9 as often as possible
to keep yourself in fellowship.
If you are an unbeliever, it means to
trust in Christ for salvation.
If you have your Bibles, turn to Acts,
the book of Acts, chapter 4, verse 12.
And there is salvation in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven
that has been given among men by which
we must be saved.
Christ loves you.
He died on the cross, as I said,
he died on the cross for your sins.
By dying on the cross for your sins,
he removed that barrier, that obstacle, which separates
you from God.
By believing on him, you can have eternal
life.
Like I said, the issue is not what
you do or what you don't do.
It's not sin, because Christ has taken care
of that.
The issue is belief in him.
He that believeth on the Son hath eternal
life.
I'm going to close now, in prayer, and
I'm going to pray a prayer of invitation.
If it's your desire today to put your
faith in Christ, I'm going to have a
suggested prayer.
You can pray that prayer right here today
in your seat.
God knows your heart and he's not so
concerned with what you say, your words, as
he is with your attitude.
This is just a suggested prayer.
You can use your own words.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, I need you.
Thank you for dying on the cross for
my sins.
I open the door of my life and
receive you as my Savior and Lord.
Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving
me eternal life.
Take control of my life, Lord, and make
me the kind of person you want me
to be.
Amen.
Also, in closing, I'd like to read a
poem to you.
Two cripples entered a church one day, crippled,
but each in a different way.
One had a body strong and whole, but
it sheltered a warped and twisted soul.
The other walked with a halting gait, but
his soul was tall and fair and straight.
They shared a pew, they shared a book,
but on each face was a different look.
One was a light with hope and joy
and faith that nothing could destroy.
The other joined not in prayer or hymn.
No smile relaxed his features grim.
His neighbor had wronged him, his heart was
sore.
He thought of himself and nothing more.
The words that were read from the holy
book struck deafened ears and forlorn look.
To one came comfort, his soul was fed.
The other gained nothing from what was said.
Two cripples left the church that day, crippled,
but each in a different way.
A twisted boot did one body mar, but
a twisted soul was sadder far.
One other thing, if you did pray that
prayer at the end, I would appreciate it
if you would let Larry or Roy or
Beverly or myself know.
Because growth in our spiritual life is important
and being put in touch with those that
can help you is part of that growth
process.
The help comes by the word of God,
knowing where to look, how to get it,
how to fellowship.
So if you did pray that prayer, I
would appreciate it if you would let one
of us know.
Thank you.
While listening to this tape, perhaps God's spirit
has been talking to your heart.
If you felt the need to draw closer
to your creator, why not start today?
God has provided a way for man to
enter into relationship with him forever through his
son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life.
No man comes to the Father but by
me.
The Bible says that as many as receive
him, to them give he power to become
the children of God.
You too can receive him right now by
asking him to forgive you of your sins
and asking him to come into your life
and to be Lord and Savior of your
life.
If you'd like to receive Jesus Christ into
your life today, you can do so through
a simple little prayer.
Just open up your heart and repeat this
prayer with me.
Lord Jesus, I admit to you that I
am a sinner.
I believe that you died on a cross
for my sins.
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
I put them into my heart and into
my life.
Please make my life acceptable unto you.
Thank you, Lord, for your gift of eternal
life.
And I receive you this day.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Now if you prayed that prayer with me
right now, you are a new person.
All your past sins and faults have been
forgiven by God.
And in his eyes, you are a brand
new creature.
The Bible says that if any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things have passed away and behold, all
things become new.
Now as a newborn spiritual infant, you should
seek the sincere milk of God's word so
that you may grow by it.
So read your Bible and pray to the
Lord often and seek out other Christians and
enter into fellowship with them.
We'd love to hear of your decision for
Christ.
We'd love to give you a free study
of the book of John on cassette by
Pastor Chuck Smith.
Jesus never turned a spiritual or hungry or
thirsty soul away, but filled everyone who asked.
So we'd like to do the same for
you in his name.
So please write to us at the address
on this tape.
Tell us of your needs and what the
Lord has done for you today.
May the Lord bless you now and keep
you in everything you do and everything you
say.
Welcome to the family.
Open up.
We want to.
Reach out.
We love.
We want to.
Reach in.